Black Hawk's War 1832

In early April 1832 Chief Black Hawk, who had been driven into Iowa the year before, led dissident Sauk and Fox Indians back across the Mississippi to the disputed Illinois area to plant crops and to resist further white encroachments. That the band of 1,000 included old men, women, and children shows that the move was not warlike. But Governor John Reynolds called out the Illinois militia, and the United States government dispatched troops.

Black Hawk's band first caught the Illinois militia unawares and inflicted a stinging defeat on them at Stillman's Run. But the Indians' strength soon waned. Expected aid from other tribes did not materialize; food supplies were quickly exhausted; and desertions, malnutrition, and illness took their toll. Black Hawk retreated northward through the Rock River valley. Militiamen caught up with the Indians as they were attempting to cross the Mississippi River, and at the Battle of Wisconsin Heights won a partial victory; Black Hawk and some of his band managed to escape across the river. Colonel Zachary Taylor, operating under Brigadier General Henry Atkinson (1782-1842), led 400 American regulars and 900 Illinois militia through swampland in pursuit of the Indians. On August 2, 1832, Colonel Taylor's force caught up with Black Hawk's band, attacked and massacred the Indians at the mouth of the Bad Axe River south of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Fewer than 150 of the more than 1000 Indians survived. Black Hawk escaped and sought refuge with the Winnebago Indians who turned him over American authorities. He was taken, first to Jefferson Barracks in Missouri, and then to Fortress Monroe in Virginia. In 1833 he was returned as a hostage to Keokuk's charge, a final blow to his pride from which he never recovered. His own story is told in Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak (1833).

As a condition of peace, the United States dispossessed the Sauk and Fox of their land in Illinois and eastern Iowa, and the Winnebago of theirs in southern Wisconsin. The ruthlessness of the Black Hawk War so affected the Indians that by 1837 all surrounding tribes had fled to the far West, leaving most of the Northwest Territory to the white settlers.

References

Dictionary of Wars, 58; Military History, 881; Black Hawk.

Category

TBD

Region

TBD

State(s)

TBD

Belligerents

TBD

Dispute

TBD

Initiation Date

TBD

Termination Date

TBD

Duration

TBD

Outcome

TBD

Fatalities

TBD

Magnitude

TBD