Presidents and War: Jackson, Lincoln and the Black Hawk War
The people of the Sauk and Meskwaki first nations lived along the Mississippi River in what is now Illinois and Iowa. The two groups had become closely connected after having been displaced from the Great Lakes region in conflicts with the French in Quebec and other first nations in the 1730s. A century later, the population of these groups was about 6,000 people. As the United States colonized westward in the early 19th century, government officials sought to buy as much land from the First Nations. In 1804, Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison negotiated a treaty in St. Louis in which representatives of the Sauk and Meskwaki nations purported to sell their lands east of the Mississippi for more than $2,200, in goods and annual payments of $1,000 in goods. These representatives had not been authorized by their tribal councils to sell these lands and some trickery was likely involved in the deal. The tribal councils of the Sauks and Maskwacis did not learn the details of the treaty until years later.
The 1804 treaty allowed the nations to continue using the ceded land until it was sold to American colonists by the U.S. government. For the next two decades, Sauks continued to live at Saukenuk, their primary village, which was located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers. In 1828, the U.S. government began to survey the ceded land for prospective settlers. American Indian agent Thomas Forsyth informed the Sauks that they should vacate Saukenuk and their other settlements east of the Mississippi. The Sauks were divided on the question of whether or not to resist US efforts to enforce the disputed 1804 treaty. Most of the Sauks decided to relocate west of the Mississippi rather than become involved in a confrontation with the United States. The leader of this group was Keokuk. He was not a chief, but was seen as a leader in his community and he often spoke on behalf of the Sauk civil chiefs in negotiations with the Americans. Keokuk considered the 1804 treaty to be obtained by fraud, but was realistic about his nation's chances of winning a confrontation with the Americans and he did not think the Sauks could successfully oppose the United States. The majority of the Sauks decided to follow Keokuk's lead.
About 800 of the Sauks decided to resist American expansion. They were led by Black Hawk, a warrior who had fought against the United States in the War of 1812, but who was now in his 60s, Like Keokuk, Black Hawk was not a civil chief, but he held significant influence within the community. Black Hawk especially wanted to protect Saukenuk, a village at the confluence of the Rock River with the Mississippi. It had been where he was born and had lived for his entire life. When the Sauks returned to the village in 1829 after their annual winter hunt, they found that it had been occupied by squatters who were expecting to buy the land. After a series of clashes with the squatters, the Sauks left Saukenuk in September 1829 for the next winter hunt.
Black Hawk and his group returned to Saukenuk in the spring of 1830. They were joined by over 200 members of the Kickapoo nation. Black Hawk and his followers flew a British flag in the hope that this would gain the support of the British at Fort Malden in Canada. They returned to Saukenuk in 1831, and the group had grown to about 1,500. They were joined by some members of the Potawatomi nation.
President Andrew Jackson instructed General Edmund P. Gaines, commander of the Western Department of the United States Army, to assemble troops in order to convince Black Hawk into leaving the region. The army had no cavalry, but on June 5 Gaines requested that the Illinois state militia provide a mounted battalion, which Illinois governor John Reynolds provided. Keokuk worked to convince many of Black Hawk's followers to leave Illinois. On June 25, 1831, Gaines sent troops to Vandruff Island across from Saukenuk. When the militia arrived, Black Hawk and his followers had abandoned the village and recrossed the Mississippi. On June 30, Black Hawk and other Sauk leaders met with Gaines and signed an agreement in which the Sauks promised to remain west of the Mississippi and to cease further contact with the British in Canada.
In late 1831, Neapope, a Sauk civil chief met with Black Hawk to tell him that the British and the some of the other Illinois nations were prepared to support the Sauks against the United States. This was untrue, but Black Hawk relied on this and spent the winter in an unsuccessful attempt to recruit additional allies, Wabokieshiek, also known as White Cloud, was a shaman known to Americans as the "Winnebago Prophet." He had also claimed that other tribes were ready to support Black Hawk. All of this emboldened Black Hawk and on April 5, 1832, his group entered Illinois once again. The group was composed of about 500 warriors and 600 non-combatants. They crossed near the mouth of the Iowa River over to Yellow Banks (present-day Oquawka, Illinois), and then headed north. Black Hawk's group moved into Illinois and American officials urged Wabokieshiek to tell Black Hawk to turn back. Instead of telling Black Hawk to turn back, Wabokieshiek told him that, as long as the British Band remained peaceful, the Americans would let them settle at Prophetstown. Black Hawk was likely hoping to avoid a war when he reentered Illinois, as suggested by the fact that he travelled with women, children, and the elderly.
At the same time as Black Hawk was entering Illinois, Lewis Cass, Jackson's Secretary of War, had ordered the U.S. Army to arrest members of another nation. the Meskwakis who massacred members of the Menominee nation. General Gaines was ill, and so his subordinate, Brigadier General Henry Atkinson, received the assignment. On April 8, Atkinson set out from Jefferson Barracks in Missouri, moving up the Mississippi River by steamboat with about 220 soldiers. By chance, Black Hawk and his followers had just crossed into Illinois. When Atkinson arrived at Fort Armstrong on Rock Island on April 12, he learned that Black Hawk was in Illinois, and that most of the Meskwakis he wanted to arrest were now with that group. Atkinson believed that Black Hawk intended to start a war. Because he had few troops at his disposal, Atkinson hoped to get support from the Illinois state militia. He wrote to Governor Reynolds on April 13, exaggerating the threat that Black Hawk posed. Reynolds was eager to drive Black Hawk and other indigenous persons out of the state. He called for militia volunteers to assemble at Beardstown by April 22. 2,100 men volunteered and were organized into a brigade of five
After Atkinson's arrival at Rock Island on April 12, 1832, he, Keokuk, and Meskwaki chief Wapello sent emissaries to Black Hawk, which was now travelling on the Rock River. Black Hawk rejected the messages advising him to turn back. Another future President, Colonel Zachary Taylor,was serving under Atkinson at the time. Without British supplies or adequate provisions, Black Hawk realized that his group was in serious trouble.
On May 10, the militia marching up the Rock River in pursuit of Black Hawk reached Prophetstown. Rather than wait per Atkinson's plan, they burned White Cloud's empty village, and proceeded about 40 miles upriver to Dixon's Ferry, where they waited for Atkinson and his troops. On May 12, learning that Black Hawk's band was only twenty-five miles away, militiamen led by Major Isaiah Stillman made camp on a tributary of the Rock River later named Stillman Valley. Seeing a small party of indigenous people with a red flag, Major Samuel Hackelton and some men pursued without waiting for orders. Hackelton killed a member of this group. Black Hawk and others were nearby, and near dusk on May 14 he attacked Stillman's party in what became known as the Battle of Stillman's Run. Black Hawk later claimed that he sent three men under a white flag , but the Americans imprisoned them and opened fire on a second group who followed. Some militiamen claimed they never saw a white flag; others believed that the flag was a ruse. Black Hawk's warriors attacked the militia camp at dusk, and his forty warriors killed twelve Illinois militiamen, and suffered only three fatalities themselves.
Before this battle, Black Hawk had not committed to war. But he was determined to avenge the killing of his warriors under a flag of truce. President Jackson and Secretary of War Lewis Cass refused to consider a diplomatic solution. They wanted victory over Black Hawk to serve as an example to other Native Americans who might consider similar uprisings.
With hostilities now underway, Black Hawk and his group traveled further upriver to Lake Koshkonong in the Michigan Territory and camped in an isolated place known as the "Island". Once the non-combatants were secure, members of the group with a number of allies from the Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi nation, began raiding settlers.The first attack came on May 19, 1832, when Ho-Chunks ambushed six men near Buffalo Grove, Illinois, killing one man. Several days later, at Kellog's Grove, the Indian agent was killed and mutilated, along with three other men. On May 21, about fifty Potawatomis and three Sauks from Black Hawk's group attacked Davis's settlement, killing and mutilating fifteen men, women, and children. Two teenage girls from the settlement were kidnapped and taken to Black Hawk's camp. A Ho-Chunk chief named White Crow negotiated their release two weeks later.
News of these actions triggered panic among the settlers. Many fled to Chicago, which was then a small town. After Stillman's defeat on May 14, the regulars and militia continued up the Rock River to search for Black Hawk, but became discouraged when they were not able to find him or is group. Many of these men deserted so that they could return home to defend their families. Morale plummeted, Most of Whiteside's brigade disbanded at Ottawa, Illinois, on May 28.
About 300 men, including Abraham Lincoln, agreed to remain in the field for twenty more days until a new militia force could be organized. Atkinson organized a new force in June 1832 that he dubbed the "Army of the Frontier." Iy consisted of 629 regular army infantrymen and 3,196 mounted militia volunteers. Abraham Lincoln, for example, reenlisted as a private.
Atkinson also began to recruit Native American allies. In June 1832, after hearing that Atkinson was forming a new army, Black Hawk began sending out raiding parties. The first major attack occurred on June 14 near present-day South Wayne, Wisconsin, when a band of about 30 warriors attacked a group of farmers, killing and scalping four. Responding to this attack, militia Colonel Henry Dodge gathered a force of twenty-nine mounted volunteers and set out in pursuit of the attackers. On June 16, Dodge and his men confronted about eleven of the raiders at a bend in the Pecatonica River. In a brief battle, the Americans killed all eleven. The Battle of Horseshoe Bend (or Battle of Pecatonica) was the first real American victory in the war,and helped restore public confidence in the volunteer militia force.
On the same day of Dodge's victory, another skirmish took place at Kellogg's Grove in present-day Stephenson County, Illinois. American forces had occupied Kellogg's Grove in an effort to intercept war parties raiding to the west. In the First Battle of Kellogg's Grove, militia commanded by Adam W. Snyder pursued a raiding party of about thirty warriors. Three Illinois militiamen and six Native warriors died in the fighting. Two days later, on June 18, militia under James W. Stephenson encountered what was probably the same war party near Yellow Creek at the Battle of Waddams Grove. Three militiamen and five or six Indians were killed in the action.
On June 24, 1832, Black Hawk and about 200 warriors attacked at the hastily constructed Apple River Fort, near present-day Elizabeth, Illinois. Local settlers had taken refuge in the fort, which was defended by less than 35 militiamen. The Battle of Apple River Fort lasted about forty-five minutes. After losing several men, Black Hawk broke off the siege, looted the nearby homes, and headed back towards his camp. The next day, June 25, Black Hawk's party encountered a militia battalion commanded by Major John Dement. In the Second Battle of Kellogg's Grove, Black Hawk's warriors drove the militiamen inside their fort and commenced a two-hour siege. After losing nine warriors and killing five militiamen, Black Hawk broke off the siege and returned to his main camp at Lake Koshkonong.
On June 15, 1832, President Andrew Jackson appointed General Winfield Scott to take command. Scott gathered about 950 troops from eastern army posts just as a cholera pandemic had begin in eastern North America. As Scott's troops traveled by steamboat from Buffalo, New York, across the Great Lakes towards Chicago, his men started getting sick from cholera, with many of them dying. By the time the last steamboat landed in Chicago, Scott had only about 350 battle-ready soldiers left. On July 29, Scott began a hurried journey west, ahead of his troops, but he would be too late to see any combat.
General Atkinson hoped to bring the war to a successful conclusion before Scott's arrival. Many of the Native Americans in the area had sought to remain neutral in the war, and they decided to cooperate with the Americansin the hope that a highly visible show of support for the Americans would dissuade U.S. officials from punishing their nations after the conflictt was over. They wore white headbands to distinguish themselves from hostile party and served as guides for Atkinson's army. But while Atkinson's men were trudging through the swamps of Lake Koshkonong, running low on provisions, Black Hawk and his group had in fact relocated miles to the north.
In mid-July, Colonel Dodge learned from métis trader Pierre Paquette that Black Hawk was camped near the Rock River rapids, at present Hustisford, Wisconsin. Dodge and James D. Henry set out in pursuit from Fort Winnebago on July 15. Black Hawk's group was now reduced to fewer than 600 people due to death and desertion. They, headed for the Mississippi River as the militia approached. The Americans pursued them, killing and scalping several stragglers along the way. On July 21, 1832, the militiamen caught up with the British Band near present-day Sauk City, Wisconsin. To buy time for the non-combatants to cross the Wisconsin River, Black Hawk and Neapope confronted the Americans in a rear guard action that became known as the Battle of Wisconsin Heights. Black Hawk was desperately outnumbered, leading a fouce of about 120 against 750 militiamen. The militiamen, who lost only one man while killing as many as 68 of Black Hawk's warriors.
The battle allowed much of the British Band, including many women and children, to escape across the river. Black Hawk had managed to allow most of his people to escape. Atkinson and the regulars joined up with the volunteers several days after the battle. With a force of about 400 regulars and 900 militiamen, the Americans crossed the Wisconsin River on July 27 and resumed the pursuit of Black Hawk, whose group was moving slow, encumbered with wounded warriors and people dying of starvation. The Americans followed the trail of dead bodies, cast off equipment, and the remains of horses that Black Hawk's group had eaten.A messenger from Black Hawk had told the militiamen that the starving group was going back across the Mississippi and would not fight any more. But no one in the American camp understood the message. In any event, The Americans had no intentions of letting Black Hawk escape.
The Warrior, a steamboat outfitted with an artillery piece, patrolled the Mississippi River, and on August 1, the Warrior arrived at the mouth of the Bad Axe River, where the Dakotas told the Americans that they would find Black Hawk's people. Black Hawk raised a white flag in an attempt to surrender, the Americans were in no mood to accept a surrender, mindful of the prevoious time they believed that a white flag was used to set an ambush. They opened fire. Twenty-three of Black Hawk's men were killed in the exchange of gunfire, while just one soldier on the Warrior was injured.
After the Warrior left, Black Hawk decided to seek refuge in the north with the Ojibwes. Only about 50 people, including Wabokieshiek, agreed to go with him. The others remained, determined to cross the Mississippi and return to Sauk territory. The next morning, on August 2, Black Hawk was heading north when he learned that the American army had closed in on the members of the British Band who were trying to cross the Mississippi. He tried to rejoin the main body, but after a skirmish with American troops near present-day Victory, Wisconsin, he abandoned this plan. At the Battle of Bad Ax at about 9:00 am on August 2, the Americans caught up with the remnants of Black Hawk's group a few miles downstream from the mouth of the Bad Axe River. The group was reduced to roughly 500 people by this time, including about 150 warriors. The warriors fought with the Americans while the Native noncombatants frantically tried to cross the river. Many made it to one of the two nearby islands, but were dislodged after the steamboat Warrior returned at noon. The battle was a lopsided victory for the Americans, who lost just 14 men. At least 260 members of Black Hawk's group were killed, including about 110 who drowned while trying to cross the river.
Members of the Menominee nation from Green Bay, who had mobilized a battalion of nearly 300 men to support the Americabns, arrived too late for the battle. They were upset at having missed the fight, so on August 10, General Scott sent 100 of them after some of Black Hawk's group that had escaped.The group tracked down about ten Sauks, only two of whom were warriors. The Menominees killed and scalped the warriors, but spared the women and children.. The Dakotas, who had volunteered 150 warriors to fight against the Sauks and Meskwakis, also arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Bad Axe, but they pursued the members of the group who made it across the Mississippi into Iowa. On about August 9, in the final engagement of the war, they attacked the remnants of Black Hawk;s group along the Cedar River, killing 68 and taking 22 prisoners.
The Black Hawk War resulted in the deaths of 77 settlers, militiamen, and regular soldiers, not including deaths from cholera suffered by the relief force under General Winfield Scott. Estimates of how many members of the British Band died during the conflict range from about 450 to 600, or about half of the 1,100 people who entered Illinois with Black Hawk in 1832. Black Hawk himself lived on, settling in present day Iowa. He died on October 3, 1838 at the age of 70 or 71.
The 1804 treaty allowed the nations to continue using the ceded land until it was sold to American colonists by the U.S. government. For the next two decades, Sauks continued to live at Saukenuk, their primary village, which was located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers. In 1828, the U.S. government began to survey the ceded land for prospective settlers. American Indian agent Thomas Forsyth informed the Sauks that they should vacate Saukenuk and their other settlements east of the Mississippi. The Sauks were divided on the question of whether or not to resist US efforts to enforce the disputed 1804 treaty. Most of the Sauks decided to relocate west of the Mississippi rather than become involved in a confrontation with the United States. The leader of this group was Keokuk. He was not a chief, but was seen as a leader in his community and he often spoke on behalf of the Sauk civil chiefs in negotiations with the Americans. Keokuk considered the 1804 treaty to be obtained by fraud, but was realistic about his nation's chances of winning a confrontation with the Americans and he did not think the Sauks could successfully oppose the United States. The majority of the Sauks decided to follow Keokuk's lead.
About 800 of the Sauks decided to resist American expansion. They were led by Black Hawk, a warrior who had fought against the United States in the War of 1812, but who was now in his 60s, Like Keokuk, Black Hawk was not a civil chief, but he held significant influence within the community. Black Hawk especially wanted to protect Saukenuk, a village at the confluence of the Rock River with the Mississippi. It had been where he was born and had lived for his entire life. When the Sauks returned to the village in 1829 after their annual winter hunt, they found that it had been occupied by squatters who were expecting to buy the land. After a series of clashes with the squatters, the Sauks left Saukenuk in September 1829 for the next winter hunt.
Black Hawk and his group returned to Saukenuk in the spring of 1830. They were joined by over 200 members of the Kickapoo nation. Black Hawk and his followers flew a British flag in the hope that this would gain the support of the British at Fort Malden in Canada. They returned to Saukenuk in 1831, and the group had grown to about 1,500. They were joined by some members of the Potawatomi nation.
President Andrew Jackson instructed General Edmund P. Gaines, commander of the Western Department of the United States Army, to assemble troops in order to convince Black Hawk into leaving the region. The army had no cavalry, but on June 5 Gaines requested that the Illinois state militia provide a mounted battalion, which Illinois governor John Reynolds provided. Keokuk worked to convince many of Black Hawk's followers to leave Illinois. On June 25, 1831, Gaines sent troops to Vandruff Island across from Saukenuk. When the militia arrived, Black Hawk and his followers had abandoned the village and recrossed the Mississippi. On June 30, Black Hawk and other Sauk leaders met with Gaines and signed an agreement in which the Sauks promised to remain west of the Mississippi and to cease further contact with the British in Canada.
In late 1831, Neapope, a Sauk civil chief met with Black Hawk to tell him that the British and the some of the other Illinois nations were prepared to support the Sauks against the United States. This was untrue, but Black Hawk relied on this and spent the winter in an unsuccessful attempt to recruit additional allies, Wabokieshiek, also known as White Cloud, was a shaman known to Americans as the "Winnebago Prophet." He had also claimed that other tribes were ready to support Black Hawk. All of this emboldened Black Hawk and on April 5, 1832, his group entered Illinois once again. The group was composed of about 500 warriors and 600 non-combatants. They crossed near the mouth of the Iowa River over to Yellow Banks (present-day Oquawka, Illinois), and then headed north. Black Hawk's group moved into Illinois and American officials urged Wabokieshiek to tell Black Hawk to turn back. Instead of telling Black Hawk to turn back, Wabokieshiek told him that, as long as the British Band remained peaceful, the Americans would let them settle at Prophetstown. Black Hawk was likely hoping to avoid a war when he reentered Illinois, as suggested by the fact that he travelled with women, children, and the elderly.
At the same time as Black Hawk was entering Illinois, Lewis Cass, Jackson's Secretary of War, had ordered the U.S. Army to arrest members of another nation. the Meskwakis who massacred members of the Menominee nation. General Gaines was ill, and so his subordinate, Brigadier General Henry Atkinson, received the assignment. On April 8, Atkinson set out from Jefferson Barracks in Missouri, moving up the Mississippi River by steamboat with about 220 soldiers. By chance, Black Hawk and his followers had just crossed into Illinois. When Atkinson arrived at Fort Armstrong on Rock Island on April 12, he learned that Black Hawk was in Illinois, and that most of the Meskwakis he wanted to arrest were now with that group. Atkinson believed that Black Hawk intended to start a war. Because he had few troops at his disposal, Atkinson hoped to get support from the Illinois state militia. He wrote to Governor Reynolds on April 13, exaggerating the threat that Black Hawk posed. Reynolds was eager to drive Black Hawk and other indigenous persons out of the state. He called for militia volunteers to assemble at Beardstown by April 22. 2,100 men volunteered and were organized into a brigade of five
After Atkinson's arrival at Rock Island on April 12, 1832, he, Keokuk, and Meskwaki chief Wapello sent emissaries to Black Hawk, which was now travelling on the Rock River. Black Hawk rejected the messages advising him to turn back. Another future President, Colonel Zachary Taylor,was serving under Atkinson at the time. Without British supplies or adequate provisions, Black Hawk realized that his group was in serious trouble.
On May 10, the militia marching up the Rock River in pursuit of Black Hawk reached Prophetstown. Rather than wait per Atkinson's plan, they burned White Cloud's empty village, and proceeded about 40 miles upriver to Dixon's Ferry, where they waited for Atkinson and his troops. On May 12, learning that Black Hawk's band was only twenty-five miles away, militiamen led by Major Isaiah Stillman made camp on a tributary of the Rock River later named Stillman Valley. Seeing a small party of indigenous people with a red flag, Major Samuel Hackelton and some men pursued without waiting for orders. Hackelton killed a member of this group. Black Hawk and others were nearby, and near dusk on May 14 he attacked Stillman's party in what became known as the Battle of Stillman's Run. Black Hawk later claimed that he sent three men under a white flag , but the Americans imprisoned them and opened fire on a second group who followed. Some militiamen claimed they never saw a white flag; others believed that the flag was a ruse. Black Hawk's warriors attacked the militia camp at dusk, and his forty warriors killed twelve Illinois militiamen, and suffered only three fatalities themselves.
Before this battle, Black Hawk had not committed to war. But he was determined to avenge the killing of his warriors under a flag of truce. President Jackson and Secretary of War Lewis Cass refused to consider a diplomatic solution. They wanted victory over Black Hawk to serve as an example to other Native Americans who might consider similar uprisings.
With hostilities now underway, Black Hawk and his group traveled further upriver to Lake Koshkonong in the Michigan Territory and camped in an isolated place known as the "Island". Once the non-combatants were secure, members of the group with a number of allies from the Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi nation, began raiding settlers.The first attack came on May 19, 1832, when Ho-Chunks ambushed six men near Buffalo Grove, Illinois, killing one man. Several days later, at Kellog's Grove, the Indian agent was killed and mutilated, along with three other men. On May 21, about fifty Potawatomis and three Sauks from Black Hawk's group attacked Davis's settlement, killing and mutilating fifteen men, women, and children. Two teenage girls from the settlement were kidnapped and taken to Black Hawk's camp. A Ho-Chunk chief named White Crow negotiated their release two weeks later.
News of these actions triggered panic among the settlers. Many fled to Chicago, which was then a small town. After Stillman's defeat on May 14, the regulars and militia continued up the Rock River to search for Black Hawk, but became discouraged when they were not able to find him or is group. Many of these men deserted so that they could return home to defend their families. Morale plummeted, Most of Whiteside's brigade disbanded at Ottawa, Illinois, on May 28.
About 300 men, including Abraham Lincoln, agreed to remain in the field for twenty more days until a new militia force could be organized. Atkinson organized a new force in June 1832 that he dubbed the "Army of the Frontier." Iy consisted of 629 regular army infantrymen and 3,196 mounted militia volunteers. Abraham Lincoln, for example, reenlisted as a private.
Atkinson also began to recruit Native American allies. In June 1832, after hearing that Atkinson was forming a new army, Black Hawk began sending out raiding parties. The first major attack occurred on June 14 near present-day South Wayne, Wisconsin, when a band of about 30 warriors attacked a group of farmers, killing and scalping four. Responding to this attack, militia Colonel Henry Dodge gathered a force of twenty-nine mounted volunteers and set out in pursuit of the attackers. On June 16, Dodge and his men confronted about eleven of the raiders at a bend in the Pecatonica River. In a brief battle, the Americans killed all eleven. The Battle of Horseshoe Bend (or Battle of Pecatonica) was the first real American victory in the war,and helped restore public confidence in the volunteer militia force.
On the same day of Dodge's victory, another skirmish took place at Kellogg's Grove in present-day Stephenson County, Illinois. American forces had occupied Kellogg's Grove in an effort to intercept war parties raiding to the west. In the First Battle of Kellogg's Grove, militia commanded by Adam W. Snyder pursued a raiding party of about thirty warriors. Three Illinois militiamen and six Native warriors died in the fighting. Two days later, on June 18, militia under James W. Stephenson encountered what was probably the same war party near Yellow Creek at the Battle of Waddams Grove. Three militiamen and five or six Indians were killed in the action.
On June 24, 1832, Black Hawk and about 200 warriors attacked at the hastily constructed Apple River Fort, near present-day Elizabeth, Illinois. Local settlers had taken refuge in the fort, which was defended by less than 35 militiamen. The Battle of Apple River Fort lasted about forty-five minutes. After losing several men, Black Hawk broke off the siege, looted the nearby homes, and headed back towards his camp. The next day, June 25, Black Hawk's party encountered a militia battalion commanded by Major John Dement. In the Second Battle of Kellogg's Grove, Black Hawk's warriors drove the militiamen inside their fort and commenced a two-hour siege. After losing nine warriors and killing five militiamen, Black Hawk broke off the siege and returned to his main camp at Lake Koshkonong.
On June 15, 1832, President Andrew Jackson appointed General Winfield Scott to take command. Scott gathered about 950 troops from eastern army posts just as a cholera pandemic had begin in eastern North America. As Scott's troops traveled by steamboat from Buffalo, New York, across the Great Lakes towards Chicago, his men started getting sick from cholera, with many of them dying. By the time the last steamboat landed in Chicago, Scott had only about 350 battle-ready soldiers left. On July 29, Scott began a hurried journey west, ahead of his troops, but he would be too late to see any combat.
General Atkinson hoped to bring the war to a successful conclusion before Scott's arrival. Many of the Native Americans in the area had sought to remain neutral in the war, and they decided to cooperate with the Americansin the hope that a highly visible show of support for the Americans would dissuade U.S. officials from punishing their nations after the conflictt was over. They wore white headbands to distinguish themselves from hostile party and served as guides for Atkinson's army. But while Atkinson's men were trudging through the swamps of Lake Koshkonong, running low on provisions, Black Hawk and his group had in fact relocated miles to the north.
In mid-July, Colonel Dodge learned from métis trader Pierre Paquette that Black Hawk was camped near the Rock River rapids, at present Hustisford, Wisconsin. Dodge and James D. Henry set out in pursuit from Fort Winnebago on July 15. Black Hawk's group was now reduced to fewer than 600 people due to death and desertion. They, headed for the Mississippi River as the militia approached. The Americans pursued them, killing and scalping several stragglers along the way. On July 21, 1832, the militiamen caught up with the British Band near present-day Sauk City, Wisconsin. To buy time for the non-combatants to cross the Wisconsin River, Black Hawk and Neapope confronted the Americans in a rear guard action that became known as the Battle of Wisconsin Heights. Black Hawk was desperately outnumbered, leading a fouce of about 120 against 750 militiamen. The militiamen, who lost only one man while killing as many as 68 of Black Hawk's warriors.
The battle allowed much of the British Band, including many women and children, to escape across the river. Black Hawk had managed to allow most of his people to escape. Atkinson and the regulars joined up with the volunteers several days after the battle. With a force of about 400 regulars and 900 militiamen, the Americans crossed the Wisconsin River on July 27 and resumed the pursuit of Black Hawk, whose group was moving slow, encumbered with wounded warriors and people dying of starvation. The Americans followed the trail of dead bodies, cast off equipment, and the remains of horses that Black Hawk's group had eaten.A messenger from Black Hawk had told the militiamen that the starving group was going back across the Mississippi and would not fight any more. But no one in the American camp understood the message. In any event, The Americans had no intentions of letting Black Hawk escape.
The Warrior, a steamboat outfitted with an artillery piece, patrolled the Mississippi River, and on August 1, the Warrior arrived at the mouth of the Bad Axe River, where the Dakotas told the Americans that they would find Black Hawk's people. Black Hawk raised a white flag in an attempt to surrender, the Americans were in no mood to accept a surrender, mindful of the prevoious time they believed that a white flag was used to set an ambush. They opened fire. Twenty-three of Black Hawk's men were killed in the exchange of gunfire, while just one soldier on the Warrior was injured.
After the Warrior left, Black Hawk decided to seek refuge in the north with the Ojibwes. Only about 50 people, including Wabokieshiek, agreed to go with him. The others remained, determined to cross the Mississippi and return to Sauk territory. The next morning, on August 2, Black Hawk was heading north when he learned that the American army had closed in on the members of the British Band who were trying to cross the Mississippi. He tried to rejoin the main body, but after a skirmish with American troops near present-day Victory, Wisconsin, he abandoned this plan. At the Battle of Bad Ax at about 9:00 am on August 2, the Americans caught up with the remnants of Black Hawk's group a few miles downstream from the mouth of the Bad Axe River. The group was reduced to roughly 500 people by this time, including about 150 warriors. The warriors fought with the Americans while the Native noncombatants frantically tried to cross the river. Many made it to one of the two nearby islands, but were dislodged after the steamboat Warrior returned at noon. The battle was a lopsided victory for the Americans, who lost just 14 men. At least 260 members of Black Hawk's group were killed, including about 110 who drowned while trying to cross the river.
Members of the Menominee nation from Green Bay, who had mobilized a battalion of nearly 300 men to support the Americabns, arrived too late for the battle. They were upset at having missed the fight, so on August 10, General Scott sent 100 of them after some of Black Hawk's group that had escaped.The group tracked down about ten Sauks, only two of whom were warriors. The Menominees killed and scalped the warriors, but spared the women and children.. The Dakotas, who had volunteered 150 warriors to fight against the Sauks and Meskwakis, also arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Bad Axe, but they pursued the members of the group who made it across the Mississippi into Iowa. On about August 9, in the final engagement of the war, they attacked the remnants of Black Hawk;s group along the Cedar River, killing 68 and taking 22 prisoners.
The Black Hawk War resulted in the deaths of 77 settlers, militiamen, and regular soldiers, not including deaths from cholera suffered by the relief force under General Winfield Scott. Estimates of how many members of the British Band died during the conflict range from about 450 to 600, or about half of the 1,100 people who entered Illinois with Black Hawk in 1832. Black Hawk himself lived on, settling in present day Iowa. He died on October 3, 1838 at the age of 70 or 71.