Black Hawk and Abe Lincoln's First War

By Daniel Weinberg, Past President Civil War Round Table of Chicago*


e had had "a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitos," said Abraham Lincoln of his military experience in the Black Hawk War, the only military experience he had prior to becoming commander-in-chief during our nation's bloodiest conflict. Yet this war provided Lincoln with his first political success, a success which, in Lincoln's own words, "gave me more pleasure than any I have had since." Lincoln was working in a store in New Salem in 1832 when he went to Beardstown to enlist in the Illinois Militia. It was during that first 30-day enlistment that he was elected captain of his company.

Years ago I purchased a document in which Lincoln listed and receipted the arms his company received, signing what became his first signature in any elective capacity. And it was this physical evidence of his accomplishment that propelled me into a study of the Black Hawk War, the penul­timate Indian conflict east of the Mississippi River.

The direct origins of this spring and summer war of 1832 (which, in truth, was little more than an ill-timed charge, a prolonged flight and chase, and a massacre) go back to a treaty in 1804. In the early 18th century, the Iroquois and the French drove the Sac and Fox tribes from their homes on the Canadian border into the northern Illinois forests in the Rock River area, producing a closely knit confederate alliance. The largest village, Saukenuk, lay in the fertile Mississippi Valley. And although these Indians were fine hunters, they relied just as much on the planting of corn and squash for their sustenance, as well as on commerce with French, Spanish, English, and American traders.

But a great change occurred in October 1800 when Spain ceded Louisiana to the French, who promptly turned around and sold the lot to the United States. Thus began the clash of two cultures, for the Sac and Fox found their relations with the Ameri­cans to be different from those they had had with the European whites. The first American of power they encountered was the governor of the Indiana Territory, the upcoming president, for 30 days, William Henry Harrison, who wished to negotiate a treaty with the Sac and the Fox so they would be included in the Indian agreement covered by the 1789 Treaty of Greenville. The problem of their inclusion had become acute, since their hunting grounds were within the Louisiana Territory.

The Sauk Chief Keokuk was one of the men responsible for starting the Black Hawk War. On July 10, 1830 he sold 26,500,000 acres for 3 cents on the acre to the United States Government.

In 1804 Harrison met in St. Louis with a deputation of three chiefs of the Sac tribe. They had come to the American fort with instructions to pay compensation for set­tlers who had been killed in Indian attacks, to "wipe away the tears," an acceptable Indian practice. But these Sac chiefs went far beyond their directions, for after being given gifts of clothing and finery and plied with copious drink, they signed a treaty ceding a huge amount of land -- all the Sac land east of the Mississippi, which contained valuable lead and mineral mines. In return an inadequate annual monetary com­pensation was forthcoming, plus the promise that they could use their hunting and planting grounds, until the land was opened up for settlement.

The Sac chief Black Hawk was incensed, and spoke angrily against both the treaty and the Americans. He brought up the charge of treaty by intoxication. He also leveled a more fundamental charge: As he later wrote in his autobiography (published in Cincinnati in 1833), "My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold." Certainly not all his tribesmen thought this way, for most would eventually leave peacefully for Iowa. Black Hawk went with them, but would not stay.

This 1804 treaty became an obsession with Black Hawk, and when the War of 1812 commenced, it was no wonder that he sided with the British. Actually, the Sac and Fox tribes had long-established trading habits with the British, and had aided them during the Revolution. And the Americans had made many promises but kept few, whereas the British made few but never failed one. So in 1812 Black Hawk and what was there­after called the "British Band" of Sac and Fox (Keokuk, Black Hawk's chief rival for tribal leadership, would lead the "American Band") joined the visionary Tecumseh, an ally of the British.

Rock River
With American victory Keokuk emerged as a chief of influence, settling his American-oriented followers -- a majority of the tribe -- in their new lands across the Mississippi. Meanwhile, Black Hawk traveled through the Old Northwest, trying to form an Indian confederacy (as Pontiac and Tecumseh had tried before) with British backing. In the meantime the Americans crept closer to the Sac and Fox heartland on the Rock River, building forts and bring­ing in miners to work the lead mines, taking revenue that previously had gone to the Indians. Friction between the old and new populations became increasingly common, especially as food became more scarce on the Illinois side of the Mississippi and hunting on the west side only brought the Sac and Fox into conflict with the nomadic Sioux on their hunting grounds.

Location map of the major events of the Black Hawk War.

So in the spring of 1830, the Sac and Fox were to encounter the full force of the Treaty of 1804, when the British Band returned to Illinois to plant corn near Saukenuk, where squatters had already moved in and begun planting for themselves. A clash occurred, but negotiations kept events from coming to a head. But Black Hawk vowed to return the following spring, and this he did. Keokuk used his oratorical skills to persuade the British Band to remain in Iowa, but the winter had been hard on them, and they needed to till the fertile lands around their old homes. Here they encountered even more settlers, and violent arguments ensued, forcing a calling-out of the Illinois militia. Finally a so-called Corn Treaty was signed, and with the Indians receiving a corn crop equivalent to what was in their fields (it actually turned out to be less), they withdrew across the Mississippi.

The British Band suffered another hard winter, and then the fateful spring of 1832 arrived. Unfortunately, the unrealistic plans of Black Hawk for driving out the whites from his homeland resurfaced, fueled by his chief lieutenant, a young warrior named Neapope. This brave brought news that turned out to be half-truths and downright lies -- words that led directly to the war. Neapope related that the Winnebago Prophet, a man who controlled a small band of half-breed Sac and Winnebago Indians above the Rock River area, had sent words of encouragement and promise of aid, if Black Hawk would try to take back his land.

As well, Neapope said the British sent promise of aid, when actually they had told Neapope to advise Black Hawk to remain peacefully at home. Also, the Prophet's erstwhile support never materialized.

On April 5, 1832, Black Hawk and his party crossed the Mississippi on a trek to regain Saukenuk. It was not until then, when events showed Black Hawk that the promised support would not be forthcoming, that he realized the hopelessness of his situation. Still, he would not admit defeat or submit to the accompanying humiliation, so he persevered.

With the frontier now in terror, Illinois governor John Reynolds called for both militia and regular army support. Some 1,800 militia eventually came forward, and about 400 of these joined the force of 400 regulars under the able but overcautious and slow Brigadier General Henry Atkinson, with Colonel Zachary Taylor second in command. As the hostile forces approached each other, Black Hawk perhaps had a change of heart, for on May 16 he sent forward three envoys under a flag of truce, with five or more warriors following closely to observe developments.

While the three were being questioned, the five were spotted. Atkinson lost control of the undisciplined militia. A substantial number of Major Isaiah Stillman's men mounted their horses in pursuit of the yonder five, opening fire and killing two, while the others fled to Black Hawk with the news. Stillman and his 300 troops followed headlong into an ambush hastily set up by Black Hawk with 40 braves.

The Indians charged, firing as they ran, fully expecting to be killed by the superior numbered militia. But to their amazement, the militia turned and fled the field in utter disarray, leaving the killed and wounded behind and returning to camp with tales of being overpowered by thousands of Indians. It was dubbed "Stillman's Run."

So this war, which might never have been started had Stillman been able to control his command and allow the envoys to bring their message of peaceful intent, was on.

Black Hawk, who had approximately 500 warriors (plus a few Winnebago allies encouraged by Stillman's defeat), was encumbered by more than 700 women and children and other noncombatants. Some of the aformentioned Winnebago offered to guide the British Band into the safety of present day Dane County, in southern Wisconsin, where more of their tribe lived (although they had no intention of lending a hand).

Black Hawk, to cover his retreat, sent out war parties on the nearby settlements. The most famous raid was the grisly attack in which two young girls, sisters named Hall, were taken as captives. They were released unharmed after nine days, although they had to witness a dance that featured their parents' scalps. (Their captivity was vividly described in a contemporary pamphlet that became one of the earliest printings on the war.) Meanwhile, a force of 4,000 American regulars and militia were converging in pursuit.

Black Hawk continued north, providing some depredation along the way. But his most powerful ally was a cholera epidemic among the Americans, which killed hundreds. Still, Black Hawk knew he would have to turn and fight somewhere. On July 21 the army first caught and pinned him against the Wisconsin River near the present city of Madison. At the Battle of Wisconsin Heights, an indecisive affair, Black Hawk adroitly succeeded in getting most of the warriors, along with the women and children, across the river to safety.

But the end loomed as they approached the Mississippi at the confluence of the Bad Axe River, which gave its name to the final battle. Trapped between the armed river steamer Warrior, which cut his route to safety, and Atkinson's army force behind, and seeing his weary and starving band around him, Black Hawk sent a flag of truce to the riverbank. Believing this to be a ruse to gain time for tactical advantage, the commanders of the Warrior opened fire. The battle, which lasted over August 1 and 2, finally turned into a massacre at the riverbank. The Americans lost 27 men, but the Indians lost more than 200, many of them women and children trying to escape but cut down as at a turkey shoot.

Zachary Taylor was to write of the war and this final struggle in a letter of August 15:

Black Hawk and his son. Black Hawk died in 1838 near Eldon, Iowa. He was buried in Sauk tradition. People broke into his grave after a few months, and was displayed in a side show at a museum in Burlington. The museum was burnt by a fire in 1855.

Black Hawk himself made his escape to the Prophet's village, where the two of them, along with Black Hawk's sons, decided to turn themselves in. They were turned over to the future president Zachary Taylor, who in turn entrusted them to the care of Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, his future son-in-law and the future president of the Confederacy, who took them down to Jefferson Barracks in Missouri.

There Black Hawk remained until a treaty was signed in which the Sac, Fox, and Winnebago all ceded vast tracts of land along the Mississippi with promises never again to hunt in those areas. But Black Hawk's greatest humiliation must have been to see his old rival Keokuk gain complete control of the tribe.

President Andrew Jackson decided, in the spring of 1833, to bring Black Hawk, now 66, out east -- to see and be seen. Crowds thronged him wherever he went, greeting him almost as a hero. Black Hawk enjoyed the trip immensely, and even changed his opinion of white men, though he never forgave.

An interesting sidelight to the trip was that after their meetings in Washington City (where the Indian chief was kept in Fortress Montore), Jackson sent him up through Baltimore and Philadelphia into New York --by chance paralleling his own political trip up the East Coast. But Black Hawk continually drew more attention than did the president, and Jackson abruptly cut short the Indian's journey and sent him home. Black Hawk died peacefully on an Iowa reservation in 1838.

Literature
There are a number of fine books and other sources on the Black Hawk War. The most detailed is William Hagan's The Sac and Fox Indians (1958). Part of the University of Oklahoma's Civilization of the American Indian Series, the book also boasts a fine bibliography.

The classic accounts by campaign participants are John Wakefield's A History of the War Between the United States and the Sac and Fox Nations of Indians . . . (1834) and Frank Stevens' The Black Hawk War Including a Review of' Black Hawk's Life (1903). Both are dependable.
Of course, for a firsthand account, one must encounter Black Hawk's own autobiography, Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak or Black Hawk (1833), dictated to the interpreter Antoine LeClaire. Fascinating as it is, one must use it with care. Also, P.S.G. Cooke's Scenes and Adventures in the Army (1857) and George McCall's Letters from the Frontier (1868) are useful.

The National Archives, Illinois State Historical Library, and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (and the printed transactions of the latter two) contain much information. Newspaper accounts of the day are mandatory, and still transport the fear of the day. The war just made a final chapter in Timothy Flint's Indian Wars of the West (1833) -- the first full sketch of the war. And if one wishes actually to tour the war's route and battlefields, William Starks' Along the Black Hawk Trail contains wonderful photographs, maps, and an informative text. Some of the area is much as it was then, and markers attest to the events of almost 160 years ago.

Of further interest is that both the regular army and the militia were dotted with the soon-to-be-famous. We have already mentioned Zachary Taylor and Jefferson Davis (and William Henry Harrison had his impact), and, of course, Abraham Lincoln, who served first as captain but, when his company was disbanded after one month, reenlisted twice as a private. Confederate generals Albert Sidney Johnston and Joseph E. Johnston both were present, as was Robert Anderson, who defended Fort Sumter at the beginning of the Civil War. General Winfield Scott was placed in actual command of the forces soon after Stillman's defeat, but he made it only to Chicago before the cholera epidemic slowed him down, and he was not able to be on the field before the concluding Battle of Bad Axe took place.

The sons of both Alexander Hamilton and Daniel Boone were also participants in the war. Most of these men saw negligible or only minor action, but, except for Jeff Davis (perhaps), there was one large encampment in which they were all together in one spot.

It is interesting to note that experience in the Black Hawk War became a necessary component of innumerable Midwestern political careers, from governor and senator on down. Black Hawk may have been a mosquito, but he bit giants. 
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* WebMaster Note: The article was first published in Bookman's Weekly, July 8-15, 1991. Mr. Weinberg is a co-owner of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop and is a past president of the Chicago Civil war Round Table. Pictures and map was added by the webmaster from student works website of the school for the Sac and Fox