CHAPTER XXI.

ATKINSON’S MOVEMENT UP ROCK RIVER–INDIAN CREEK MASSACRE–NARRATIVES. On the 18th, after ten days’ rations had been issued, Atkinson, by order No. 17, directed Whiteside to be in readiness to move up the river the following morning, while Col. Johnson was to remain with his battalion at Dixon’s as a corps of reserve until the return of the main army, which contemplated a movement after the Indians the following morning, or until further orders. Later in the day rumors of possible attacks caused Atkinson, for better security of the post, to order the company of Capt. James White to be in readiness to move to Fort Armstrong at any moment. The necessity for departure that day was not, however, apparent, but early the following morning the alarm along the frontier had grown to such proportions that not only was Capt. White ordered to proceed at once, but Capt. Seth Pratt’s company was added to the detail, under orders of Capt. White, to proceed at once down the river in the “large” keel boat with the sick and wounded, to report to Major Thomas J. Beall, then in command of Fort Armstrong, Major John Bliss being left at Dixon’s in charge of that post. While many wild rumors were constantly afloat, no positive danger of attack was apprehended up to this time, but when a delegation of influential and reputable men from the settlements on the Fox and Du Page rivers met the army the following day, some distance up the river, and reported actual attacks and more in prospect, another order, No. 20, directed Col. Johnson, with Major Bailey and the four companies of Captains Covell, McClure, Pugh and Adams (then commanded by First Lieutenant Benjamin Briggs, who succeeded to the command), to proceed at once to those scenes, after first securing from Col. Taylor, while marching, two kegs of rifle powder and one hundred pounds of lead. This disposition left the three companies of Captains Eads, Barnes and Ball, under Lieut-Col. Stillman at Dixon’s Ferry. To ascertain the route pursued by the Indians after Stillman’s defeat, a party composed of Elijah Iles and four others was ordered out. These men passed around the late camp a distance of eight or ten miles. A trail was found going in the direction of the Illinois River, which was followed some distance without results. The second night out they were alarmed by evidence which clearly proved the presence of Indians; pony tracks, leaves turned up by the feet of the ponies and other indisputable indications, which were followed by the sight of three Indians, evidently searching for them. These were eluded and the second night passed without event. Continuing the next morning a course down Rock River, Black Hawk’s late camp on that river was found about noon, deserted, with many canoes and other articles of Indian property left behind. Again striking out for the army, the little party reached it about night, when news of the murders at Indian Creek was received. This scouting party learned that the trail toward the south was a ruse to divert the army from intercepting their march to the north, which the Indians covered with remarkable cleverness, a few of them going on to Indian Creek to participate in the murders, while the others returned north.[132] On the 19th the army, ostensibly to pursue the Indians, moved twelve miles up the river from Dixon’s Ferry and there camped for the night. The following morning the march was resumed with more vigor, and by dark Stillman’s battlefield was reached almost simultaneously with an express bearing tidings of the murder of fifteen persons at the Davis settlement, twelve miles above Ottawa, on Indian Creek, which empties into the Fox about ten miles above its mouth. The effect of this staggering news was immediately to place the army in the best possible state of defense against attack, which might be made by the confederated tribes of Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes and Pottowatomies at any moment, as was then feared. Accordingly general order No. 21 was fulminated, and detachments were sent to Dixon’s Ferry and other points, as will be noticed hereafter: “The order of encampment and the order of march observed by the mounted volunteers will be continued. Should the brigade be attacked in front on its march, the advance guard will, as far as practicable, maintain its ground until the line can be formed and come up to its assistance. Col. DeWitt and Col. Fry’s regiments will move up and form line to the front, 100 paces in rear of the advance guard and dismount; the regiments having been previously told off in squads of seven, the fourth man of each squad will take charge of the horses. The two regiments will then be formed on foot and advance to the attack. In an attack on the right flank, Col. DeWitt’s and Col. Fry’s regiments will form line on the right flank, with the battalion of spies on their right. In case of an attack in the rear, Col. Fry’s regiment, Col. James’ odd battalion, and Col. Thomas’ regiment will form line, facing to the rear. “In the several formations directed, those regiments not named will remain in position, and be held in readiness to support the point of attack when ordered. Brig.-Gen. Whiteside will cause these dispositions for battle to be practiced as often as he may deem necessary. The piece of artillery will be brought into action as circumstances may require. Should the camp be attacked, they will be formed in front of their tents and in rear of the fires. The regiments thus posted will remain in their respective positions until otherwise directed by the commanding officer. The Spy Battalion will occupy the center of the camp, and be held in reserve, to be directed upon any point that may require support. At night, the fires will be made 40 yards in front of the line of tents; the guard will consist of four companies, one to be posted on the center of each front, 150 to 200 yards in advance. The sentinels will be posted at a proper distance, which will be varied according to the nature of the ground. If the guard should be attacked, it will maintain its position as long as practicable, and if forced to retire, will do so in good order under the direction of the officer of the day, who will instruct the guard when mounted as to its disposition in this event. “By order of Brig-Gen. Atkinson. “A.S. JOHNSTON, A.-D.-C–A.A.A. Gen.” This massacre was instigated by three of Black Hawk’s braves and executed by them with the assistance of about seventy disaffected Pottowatomies and Winnebagoes.[133] In the spring of the year 1830 William Davis had made a claim on “Big Indian Creek,” erecting a cabin, blacksmith shop (being a blacksmith by trade), and later a mill. When Black Hawk invaded the state in 1832, Davis was finishing a dam for the purpose of furnishing power to run the mill, preventing thereby the running upstream of the fish, as was claimed by the Indians. A numerous band of Pottowatomies, under their chief, Meau-eus, lived in their village on this creek, six miles above the dam, subsisting largely on the fish caught in that little stream. Meau-eus, having been always a fine hater of the whites, grew excessively angry at this obstruction, and in an attempt to destroy it resistance followed, in which the Indians claimed one of the band was unmercifully flogged by Davis, a man of powerful physique. For final adjustment, the controversy was carried before Shabbona, who, in conjunction with Wau-ban-se, concluded an arrangement whereby the Indians were persuaded for the future to fish below the dam, which involved but little additional labor and which they did for a time with apparent good will, but beneath the surface a hatred lodged, only to be spent when, through the assistance of Black Hawk’s braves, the settlement perished. John and J.H. Henderson, Allen Howard, William Pettigrew, William Hall and others, with their families, had from time to time settled near the place, until the settlement had grown to be one of the most promising in northern Illinois. After Black Hawk passed Dixon’s Ferry, it was not long before his emissaries discovered the situation and made the best of it by recruiting to his ranks the entire band, the very thing the Governor attempted to prevent when he sent out his express from Dixon’s. The Indians at once ceased to fish, a circumstance which Davis and J.H. Henderson proceeded to investigate by visiting the village. They found it abandoned, as they had feared, as was that of Wau-ban-se, who, by the advice of Shabbona, had taken his men to the village of the latter after both had sent their women and children to Ottawa for protection. Stillman’s defeat followed, and then came Shabbona’s famous ride to warn the settlements of the dangers which he too well realized were in store for the Davis settlement. Never lived there a more devoted and upright Indian than Shabbona! From the day he left the fortunes of Tecumseh he neglected no opportunity to manifest his friendship for the whites, and never was a more perilous ride projected in a frontier country than the one he took with his son, Pype-gee, and his nephew, Pypes, that memorable day down the Fox River Valley, on to Holderman’s settlement, and, separating, thence on to Bureau Creek, passing through the Indian Creek settlement on the route, missing none in all that vast territory. Howard and the two Hendersons took their families to Ottawa and then returned to work their farms. Pettigrew likewise took his wife and two children to the same place, but finding no trouble in sight at the end of a few days, he brought them all back again, reaching Davis’ house at noon of the day of the massacre. Robert Norris and Henry George, young men from the neighboring settlements, were also at the Davis house, so on that particular day Davis naturally thought their numbers sufficient to resist any attack; in fact, he had urged against any member of the settlement removing to Ottawa for protection. Pypes, or Pipe, as he was sometimes called, carried his messages safely on down as far as Rochelle’s village, below the Illinois River, where he tarried, as we are told, to urge his suit with a maid of great beauty at that village. Returning home by way of the Indian Creek settlement, he discovered, toward dark of the 19th, a large band of Indians entering the timber, which fact he reported to Shabbona so soon as he reached the latter’s village, about midnight.[134] Once more the grand old chief mounted his pony and rode out into the night, as he had before done so many times, to spread a warning. By sunrise, every person in the settlement had again been notified and given a chance to flee to Ottawa, but Davis, again protesting, prevented. As Shabbona subsequently told the story, these Indians camped near the head of the timber on the creek, while reconnoitering parties surveyed and learned the exact location and pursuit of each settler and determined on a propitious moment for the assault. These did their work thoroughly, leaving no possibility for escape by any number of the intended victims. About 4 o’clock of May 20th the scattered settlers were suddenly confronted by seventy Indians, led there by two Pottowatomies named To-qua-mee and Co-mee, all of whom had so adroitly covered their movements as to be able to reach the very dooryards before discovery. The barking of a dog attracted the attention of Mrs. Davis, who exclaimed, on looking out the door: “My God! Here they are now.” Mr. Pettigrew attempted to barricade the door, but was shot down amidst shrieks and whoops, signals for the slaughter which followed. The men at the blacksmith shop were so completely surprised that no opportunity for defense was offered. Hall was instantly dispatched. Norris attempted resistance, but his gun was seized and in another instant he, too, was dead. Davis, the strongest of the party, fought desperately by clubbing his rifle, but to no purpose against such frightful odds, for no sooner would he dispose of one antagonist than others would take his place with added ferocity, for Davis was the man they most of all hated and feared, and well he earned the distinction of being a fighter on that dreadful day. The ground about his dead body was torn and bloody, indicating a conflict second only to the hand-to-hand contest of gallant Captain Adams at Stillman’s defeat. The brains of children were dashed out against a stump; the women were butchered, and, after the most revolting mutilations, their bodies were hanged, heads downward, to neighboring trees.[135] Young William Davis and John W., a son of William Hall, made their escape after desperate chances. Henry George, in attempting to escape, jumped into the mill pond, but a bullet quickly disposed of him. Spears, knives, tomahawks and rifles performed their bloody and deadly offices, and the fiends afterward confessed they relished the sight because the women squawked like ducks as the steel penetrated their flesh. Mrs. Davis, in her fright, threw both arms about Rachel Hall, and when shot down the muzzle of the rifle had been so close as to burn the flesh to a blister. Aside from the few who escaped, but two, Sylvia and Rachel Hall, aged, respectively, seventeen and fifteen years, were spared, whether from a sentimental demand made by the two Indians, To-qua-mee and Co-mee, before consenting to act as guides, or for the purpose of ransom, cannot be definitely determined, but from subsequent developments it is probable that both reasons were factors in their preservation. These two Indians, who subsequently confessed their part in the affair to Louis Ouilmette, after their acquittal, insisted that it was agreed the two young ladies should be spared because of the infatuation of those young red men for them. They had been frequent visitors at the Hall home, and endeavored, after the fashion of the Indian, to purchase the girls from Mr. Hall. Following is the narrative of the captivity of the Hall girls, reduced to writing by them and John W. Hall, the manuscripts being now in possession of Hon. James H. Eckles of Chicago, and by him loaned to be used herein. Mrs. Eckles is a granddaughter of Mrs. Munson. “A short and concise account of the capture, treatment and rescue of the two Misses Hall. The capture occurred on the 20th of May, 1832, in the afternoon, by the Sacs and Foxes, and the rescue on the 1st of June following. The following is a statement of the two girls, made in the presence of William Munson and W.S. Horn, their husbands: “In the afternoon of the 20th day of May, 1832, we were alarmed by Indians rushing suddenly into the room where we were staying. The room or house was situated on the north bank of Indian Creek, in the county of LaSalle, State of Illinois, about 12 miles north of Ottawa. Here our father and family, consisting of father, mother, four sisters and three brothers, were stopping a few days. Father’s name was William Hall, about 45 years old. Mother’s name was Mary Jane Rebecca, aged