Dedication
Ellen M. Whitney
Gracious Lady and Meticulous Scholar
Whose Editing of the Black Hawk War Letters and Papers of the Illinois State Historical Library has Provided the Public with Easy Access to an Invaluable Treasure of Primary Source Material.
Her Four-Volume Edition [i] Brings to Light a Missing Segment of Our Heritage After Its Being Buried in the Original Handwriting for Nearly 150 Years.

PREFACE
"The difficulty had been simply in never knowing where to find them, either to attack or guard against them." [1]
-Juliette Kinzie
Hunting A Shadow: The Search for Black Hawk is a day-by-day, eye-witness account of the Black Hawk war as it moved through today's Rock and Jefferson Counties, Wisconsin (Michigan Territory), in that hot, wet summer of 1832.

It reports events experienced both by the mounted volunteers of the Illinois militia (including Abraham Lincoln) and by the regular U. S. Army Infantry troops (under Colonel Zachary Taylor).

These troops were with Brigadier General Henry Atkinson to search for the 65-year-old Sauk Indian warrior Black Sparrow Hawk (Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak). He and his "British Band"[2] of about 1,200 Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo Indian men, women, children, and warriors (about 500 in number) had crossed the Mississippi river back into Illinois in violation of an 1831 agreement.


[p. XXIV]
This book starts in the middle of things. It opens as General Atkinson (Commander of the Right Wing of the Western Department of the United States Army) and about one third of his volunteer civilian army cross from the State of Illinois into Michigan Territory on July 1,1832, at Turtle Village (the site of present-day Beloit, Wisconsin) and as Black Hawk flees up Rock river with his starving people after their unsuccessful attempt to surrender and go home in peace.

This book comes to a close on July 24, 1832, at the Blue Mounds as Atkinson's scattered troops come together again for their forced march to the Mississippi river, where the massacre at Bad Axe river will end the Black Hawk war on August 2, 1832, nearly four months after it started.

Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi river back into Illinois on April 5,1832, to plant corn with Wabokeshiek, the Winnebago Prophet, at today's Prophetstown, Illinois. You can see, therefore, that other volumes are needed (both before and after this one) to complete the historical continuity of this day-by-day series.

My intention is to publish such volumes annually, perhaps as follows: Hunting A Shadow (1981), Battle of Wisconsin Heights (1982), Massacre at Bad Axe (1983), Menominees in the Black Hawk War (1984), and so forth until the series is completed or my career is, whichever comes first.

Jig Saw Puzzle
Creating these books is like locating and fitting together the scattered pieces of a giant jig-saw puzzle. Although some pieces of this historical event are still missing (perhaps in Illinois attics?) and others may be destroyed and lost forever, enough pieces have been found and do fit together to give us a glimpse into our past and to help us recapture a part of our lost heritage.

Material long since buried continues to come to light. More will appear in the future, especially as this book is read
[p. XXV]
by those who have Black Hawk war letters and papers in their possession. Indeed, if you have pertinent information about any detail of the Black Hawk war, please send a photocopy of it to the Fort Atkinson Historical Society, 407 Merchants Avenue, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538, for inclusion in any subsequent revision of this Sesquicentennial Edition.

Point of View
This book is written from the point of view of the white man rather than of the Indians primarily because the white man left behind written records and the Indians did not.

In the absence of a written language, the Indians used human recorders, Indians who memorized messages and then "played back" those "recorded" messages at a later time. This procedure was explained to Atkinson by Joseph M. Street, U. S. Indian Agent, in his April 25,1832, letter, as follows:

"Thirteen Menominee warriors came down to this Agency Saturday.... They said they were sent to see me, and hear the news from their Great Father.... I delivered the inclosed Talk, to be carried to their Chiefs and braves. (A copy I cover herewith) They said they could not answer, they were only messengers, and would deliver what came out of my mouth; to their Chiefs and braves, and they would answer for themselves. A white-man descending [the Mississippi] met them returning 45 or 50 miles above this place."

Because the Indians communicated in this manner (i. e. by talking rather than by writing), there are no Indian archives of Indian activities during the Black Hawk war. Wampum may have underscored messages being delivered, and pictographic representations of significant tribal events may have been artistically drawn on tanned buffalo hides to
[p. XXVI]
keep the memory vivid, but written language as we know it did not exist among the Indians.

What Indian references we do have come from material written down by white men, who either kept minutes of their councils with the Indians, or who reported Indian news as they learned it to their superiors, either in the military, in the fur trade, or in the Indian Affairs department. Such reports generally lagged behind the actual Indian event by days or weeks, and were often (especially with reference to Black Hawk's specific location) vague and/or contradictory.

Interviews of prisoners written down by whites at the end of the Black Hawk war also provide insights into the plight of the Indians during their encounter with the whites.

A major and dramatic exception to the above is Black Hawk's autobiography, published in book form in 1833 after his release from prison and after his tour of major Eastern cities. Black Hawk asked for permission to explain his side of the story, and dictated his "life" to Antoine LeClair, U. S. Interpreter for the Sacs and Foxes. His remarks have been included in this eye-witness series at the proper chronological points.

Black Hawk dedicated his book to Henry Atkinson. Black Hawk said, "The story of my life is told in the following pages; it is intimately connected, and in some measure, identified with a part of the history of your own: I have, therefore dedicated it to you".

In his dedication, Black Hawk also observed with some degree of understatement, "The path to glory is rough, and many gloomy hours obscure it".

Modified Myths
Intensive research has provided many answers about the Black Hawk war, but it has also raised some questions.

For instance, what was Jonathan Pugh doing with the troops at Lake Koshkonong on July 3 when he had already
[p. XXVII]
completed his tour of duty and was apparently not enrolled in any military company at that time?

And, how could Meriwether Lewis Clark, Atkinson's Aide de Camp, have drawn such an accurately detailed map (as the one he sent to his father on July 25) of the lakes around today's Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, an uncharted area he had not seen?

Research for this book has also modified many myths about the Black Hawk war.

For example, myth has it that there was an island in Lake Koshkonong on which Black Hawk was hiding. Early references to such an island (by people who were never there) incorrectly identified as Black Hawk Island the strip of land West of Rock river just before the river flows into Lake Koshkonong. Even today this myth is perpetuated by a road sign attesting to this misplacement of Black Hawk Island. There was such an "island", but its placement in Lake Koshkonong is the error. The overwhelming momentum of details in this book shows that Black Hawk was on land surrounded by swamps in the fork of the Rock and Bark rivers near today's Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

Myth has it that two armies camped at the same time near today's Beloit, Wisconsin. The facts show that General Atkinson's troops camped on the site of Beloit (at "Turtle Village") on July 1, 1832, and that a detachment of General Winfield Scott's cholera-infected troops under the command of Abraham Eustis camped at Beloit on the nights of August 11 and 12 while they were en route to Rock Island, Illinois, for treaty negotiations with Black Hawk's people and with the Winnebagoes.

Myth has it that the army camped on high lands at Janesville, Wisconsin, which allowed the soldiers to look across to Rock river, but that Black Hawk was, nonetheless, still able to sneak past them through a gully. The facts, however, show that (1) the army did not camp at Janesville, and (2) Black Hawk had headed for the Oconomowoc swamps before the army arrived.

Research has not even left unchallenged information which is carved in stone!


[p. XXVIII]
The marker placed at the campsite of the army (and of Abraham Lincoln) in Beloit has "June 30" carved into it...an error by one day. Somewhere along the line during the war, John Wakefield (the source of the information) had lost track of what day it was.

Wakefield's incorrect dating also helps to play havoc with the historical marker at Storrs Lake in Milton, Wisconsin.

Other carved monuments fare little better: The Old Lead Road marker two miles south of New Glarus, Wisconsin, has the wrong date on it, and the war memorial in the Fort Atkinson Evergreen Cemetery even has the wrong name carved into it![3] Sic transit gloria mundi.

The Stereoptican View
In Hunting A Shadow: The Search for Black Hawk, the story of the Black Hawk war of 1832 is told only in the exact words of actual participants. That is why this book is printed almost entirely in quotation marks.

The tiny superscript numbers throughout the text refer you to the notes at the end of the book, notes which indicate the source for each eye-witness quotation.

If there is no closing quotation mark at the end of a paragraph, it simply indicates that the quotation continues into subsequent paragraphs until the quotation is closed by quotation marks and the superscript is added to direct you to the source of the paragraphs.

This book, you see, was written by eye-witnesses to history. I have simply compiled all of their material (that I could find) and fit it together in chronological order, from July 1 to July 24, 1832, limiting the scope of this book to the activities of the troops with General Atkinson.

I have included in the text each and every reference I
[p. XXIX]
was able to find on each and every subject. That is why this book keeps repeating itself.


Steroptican Viewer
At first, the several highly similar (but actually different) statements about the same event may seem confusing or redundant, but just think of a steroptican viewer. That 19th century hand-held device lets you view two highly similar but actually different pictures of the same scene, one picture viewed by one eye and the other picture viewed by the other eye. When your eyes adjust their focus to the two different but similar pictures, the total impression to the brain is that of a three-dimensional scene in which the flatness of the two pictures is rounded out to provide a more life-like impact.

So, too, in this book. Because of several references to the same event, you get a richer picture of what actually happened than if I had given you only one flat statement about each event, or--worse--if I had told the story in my own words rather than (as I have) in the exact words of those who were actually there and participated in the action.

Weather Reports
A weather report, including three temperature readings, heads each chapter in this book.

These reports were kept daily by the United States Army Hospital Department at each fort. Reports used in this book were kept in a bound "Diary of the Weather" by the hospital staff at Fort Winnebago (Portage, Wisconsin).

The diary today is in the Manuscript Department of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison, filed as follows:
"Wis.
MSS
3 CL
Fort Winnebago".


[p. XXX]
In some instances, I have included additional weather information, taken from the body of the text itself. Because my remarks here explain the source of the weather reports, I have not given them superscript numbers (to refer to their source) in the text.

Because the distance is only 53 miles (as the crow flies) between Fort Winnebago and Fort Cos-co-nong (at today's Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin), these reports indicate the general weather conditions affecting Atkinson and his troops...with the exception, naturally, of localized showers.

For example, the "heavy showers of rain" at Fort Winnebago on July 5 apparently did not affect either Atkinson's troops at Lake Koshkonong or the troops of Alexander Posey and Henry Dodge who were coming cross country (through the locale of today's Stoughton, Wisconsin) to join up with Atkinson. The temperature drop at Fort Winnebago, however, was so dramatic that the daily weather report includes an unusual 12 noon reading to dramatize the 17? drop in temperature in two hours and the 27? drop in temperature in nine hours as the cold front moved through the area.

Weather was a factor in the Black Hawk war, both the nearly unbearable heat and the violent downbursts of rain.

Consider the heat. On July 2 at 2 P. M. as the mounted Illinois militia and the U. S. Army Infantry troops on foot were crossing the open prairies (Rock Prairie and Du Lac Prairie) between Janesville and Milton, Wisconsin, the temperature was 89? Fahrenheit. Little wonder, then, that Atkinson's primary Aide de Camp, Albert Sidney Johnson, wrote in his field journal of "a severe march & considerable suffering for want of water".

But far greater disruptions were caused by the violent rain storms.

For instance, when the storm of June 29 flooded the Pecatonica river, the troops were not only impeded in their crossing, but supply wagons, including the medical wagon, had to be turned back and the medications had to be carried on horseback.


[p. XXXI]
The flooded tamarack swamps along the Bark river prevented Atkinson for several days from crossing over onto the "island" where Black Hawk was hiding in a swamp...and heavy rains also forced the troops (including John Reynolds, the Governor of Illinois) to move, at times, through water up to their arm pits in their search for Black Hawk.

The most crucial impact of weather upon the Black Hawk war was this: It put an early end to the July 21 Battle of Wisconsin Heights. Rain dampened the high grass so much that, if the troops had followed the fleeing Indians into the brush, their flintlock guns would not have fired. Thus Black Hawk and his people escaped--for a while-- thanks to a rainy summer afternoon in 1832. But that's another story, told in The Battle of Wisconsin Heights, the next volume in this eye-witness series.

Reading and Writing
Hunting A Shadow: The Search for Black Hawk is not a style book on proper English grammar, punctuation, or spelling.

Early occupants of the old Northwest Territory were on the forward edge of the frontier--and they steadily pushed westward. Exposed as they were to nature and natives, they naturally had more important things to worry about (in most cases) than readin' and writing'.

It's only natural, therefore, that some of the participants in the Black Hawk war wrote by ear. The result was that "St. Vrain" (the Sac and Fox Indian Agent) sometimes came out on paper as "Savry" and "Prairie du Chien" sometimes came out "P. Ducha", and the reference to the "untied States" is perfectly understandable.

In fact, one of the more difficult tasks in editing this book was to make sure that I mispelled words correctly so they matched the spelling in the original source.


[p. XXXII]
I have taken two liberties with original source material. First, I separated much original material into individual action units so I could place each word, phrase, clause, sentence, or paragraph in the correct chronological position. For example, there's a whole day's worth of adventure between "we marched early in the morning" and "we camped late at night", which might very well have been just one sentence in an original source. In such cases, I have placed the activities of the day between the first clause and the second.

The second liberty I have taken with original material (for clarity and easier reading) was to create paragraphs now and then where they may not have existed in the original.

Availability
The books in this Black Hawk war eye-witness series are published privately as a labor of love and are not, therefore, readily available in most commercial outlets.

To obtain your copy of this or other volumes in this series, simply contact the Fort Atkinson Historical Society, 407 Merchants Avenue, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538

The Many Faces of Black Hawk
More than 25 contemporary likenesses of Black Hawk (oil paintings, water colors, lithographs, and line drawings) are randomly dispersed throughout the country, from Virginia to Oklahoma, from Massachusetts to California.

Three oil/canvas portraits of Black Hawk are reproduced here by permission of their owners, who were pleased to share their treasures with a wider viewing audience.


[p. XXXIII]
Other faces of Black Hawk can be seen in other volumes of this Black Hawk war series.

Nothing can match the impact of actual portraits. Museums and art galleries, however, often rotate exhibits or put particular pieces out on loan. A given portrait of Black Hawk may or may not be hung for viewing at any given time. To avoid disappointment, it is best to ask ahead of time.

Out of the Mouths of Babes
On an overcast winter afternoon several years ago now (when I was still director of the "Black Hawk" outdoor pageant), I was walking down Main Street in our town as the biting wind drove snow into my eyes. Suddenly I felt a tugging of my overcoat, and looked down into the face of one of my little "Indians", a member of the cast.

"Yes?"

She hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "Please, Mr. Thayer, next year could the Indians win?"

I hope so. I hope so.

Crawford Beecher Thayer
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
August 27,1981

INTRODUCTION
Official Account of the Black Hawk War from the Commanding General of the Army, Major General Alexander Macomb, to the Secretary of War, Lewis Cass, submitted in November, 1832
[4]
In the month of March last, intelligence was received that the Menomonees, exasperated by a wanton and unprovoked attack and murder committed by the Sacs and Foxes on an unarmed party of their tribe, near the Prairie du Chien, in the month of August previous, meditated a descent on those tribes, with the intention of taking revenge for that outrage.

Apprehending that this movement would lead to a general war among the Indians on the northwest frontiers, General Atkinson was directed to proceed to Rock Island with the effectual force at Jefferson barracks, and demand of the Sacs and Foxes the surrender of the persons concerned in the murder of the Menomonees; at the same time to station troops, to be drawn from the posts on the Upper Mississippi and from Fort Winnebago, at points on the Mississippi, from which they might intercept the Menomonees in their
[p. XXXVI]
contemplated descent, turn them back, and inform them that the government had determined to see that justice should be done.

While these measures were in progress a large party of Sacs and Foxes under Black Hawk, among whom were those concerned in the attack and murder of the Menomonees, crossed the Mississippi at the Yellow Banks, and, uniting with the Prophet's band of Winnebagoes, in all about 800 or 1,000 strong, took a position on Rock river, and assumed an attitude of defiance. Under these circumstances it was not in the power of the friendly Sac and Fox Indians to surrender the murderers as demanded, although they had expressed a willingness so to do.

Thus situated, General Atkinson did not conceive that the force under his command was sufficient to justify him in attacking the hostile party, lest an unsuccessful attempt should add to their numbers the wavering and disaffected, and especially as they had not as yet committed any act of hostility, although they evinced a desire to make war upon the whites.

The people settled on the frontiers of Illinois, alarmed at the appearance of so large a band of Indians in their immediate vicinity, with indications of no friendly feelings, fled from their farms into the interior of the State.

The governor of the State ordered out in haste, and for no definite period, a brigade of militia, to assembly on Rock river. These troops, after a march across the country to Ottawa in quest of the Indians, became anxious for their discharge, which the governor granted, retaining of those who were discharged, and volunteered for a further term of twenty days, enough to form six companies.[5]

In the meantime, however, instructions were sent to General Atkinson, authorizing him to call on the governor of Illinois for such a militia force as would, with the regular troops under his command, enable him to act efficiently.


[p. XXXVII]
Brigadier General Henry Atkinson

[p. XXXVIII]
Accordingly, three thousand mounted volunteers were ordered into the field by the governor, on the requisition of General Atkinson, and assembled at Fort Deposit, near Ottawa, about the 18th of June, where they were organized. Towards the latter part of that month the campaign was opened with these troops and about four hundred regulars, then at Dixon's Ferry, on the Rock river.

Black Hawk, finding himself unable to cope with so large a force, retired into the swamps and fastnesses, sending out at the same time parties of active warriors to pick up stragglers, and to attack defenceless settlements. In this manner he annoyed the people residing in that part of Michigan [Territory] called the Mining District, and murdered a number of our citizens, men, women, and children.

The people, in different directions of the exposed country, fortified themselves, and by occasional sallies inflicted punishment on these ruthless savages.

With a view to cover the exposed settlements in the counties of Jo Daviess, in Illinois, and Iowa, in Michigan, [Territory] and to intercept the Indians, should they attempt to cross in that direction, General Atkinson detached one brigade into that country; and, with the remaining force under his command, consisting of four hundred and fifty regulars and about two thousand mounted volunteers, moved in the direction of the Four Lakes in pursuit of the main body of the Indians, which was then understood to be encamped in a strong position in the swamps, about ten miles above Lake Goosh-we-hawn [Koshkonong], General Atkinson halted his army on White Water creek [Bark river] for the purpose of ascertaining the exact position of the Indians.

After being frustrated in his attempts to discover them, he was obliged to disperse his mounted volunteers on account of the low state of the supplies intended for their subsistence. One portion, under General Henry [actually Posey], was sent to Hamilton's, a distance of forty-five miles; and another, under General Dodge, to Fort Winnebago, a distance of thirty-five miles --
[p. XXXIX]
two points where provisions were expected to be in deposit.

Having received the supply of provisions, Generals Henry and Dodge returned to the swamp, on the west side of Rock river, with a view of obtaining some information concerning the enemy. At the same time General Atkinson, with the regular troops, and General Alexander's brigade of mounted volunteers, moved up on the east side of the swamp with the same intention.

Black Hawk, finding himself likely to be pressed on all sides, and being no longer able to supply himself with the means of subsistence, broke up his camp and marched towards the Mississippi.

The volunteers under Generals Dodge and Henry, discovering the enemy's trail, pursued it, and came up with him on the 21st of July, on the left bank of the Wisconsin, about twenty miles below Fort Winnebago, where an engagement ensued, which lasted until 7 o'clock in the afternoon, during which the Indians found means to convey across the Wisconsin their non-combatants and baggage. The volunteers having marched forty miles on the day of the action, exposed to the rain for more than six hours, and their arms being wet and out of order, were not in a condition to continue the pursuit that night. The next morning they found that the Indians had crossed the river in bark canoes, which they had on the emergency of the occasion prepared. The loss on the part of the volunteers was one killed and seven wounded; that of the Indians, it was found afterwards, amounted