brigadier-general of the United States Army commanding the western district of Upper Canada. Before winter, however, Cass left Detroit with a number of other officers and the command of the post fell to Col. Anthony Butler, with Col. George Croghan as second officer. The fort had been renamed Fort Shelby in honor of the intrepid Kentucky governor who had so valiantly assisted Harrison.

CONCLUDING EVENTS OF THE WAR

Conditions in Detroit at this time were described by one of Harrison's soldiers as follows:

"To prepare for winter we had a heavy job before us. The British had burned the fort, leaving nothing but the heavy earthworks. They left nothing combustible, not a board or stick of timber, and we were compelled to go to the woods, from one to three miles distant, or to the islands, still further, to get logs and poles with which to build huts to winter in. Until these could be got ready we occupied tents and vacant houses in the city."

Dr. Alfred Brunson, a surgeon in Harrison's army, in a work entitled "The Western Pioneer," gives the following rather amusing account of an event which happened in the spring of 1814:

"As the spring of 1814 opened, the British were gathered in force at the head of the Thames, threatening to descend upon Detroit. A flag-officer was sent to our headquarters on some business, real or pretended, and while there a regiment of Pennsylvania militia, whose term of six months service had expired, demanded their discharge. No arguments or patriotic persuasions could induce them to remain till another regiment that was to relieve them should arrive. Their time was out and they must go, and go they would, and go they did. Means were taken to have them leave the place by the back way and not to pass by the window where the flag-officer was quartered-being headquarters; but no, they were free men now and they would go where they pleased, and the whole regiment went by in sight of the officer, in an unarmed and helter-skelter manner. This must be counteracted, or the officer might make such a report to his chief as would induce an immediate attack upon us.

"To do this, the Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry, whose quarters were outside and east of the fort, just about sundown shouldered their guns and knapsacks and moved stealthily round back of the fort and down towards Springwells, and then marched up the road by the headquarters, straggling along as if greatly fatigued from a long and hard march. It was beginning to be dark, so that they could not be seen distinctly from the window of the officer, to enable him to form an opinion of their number; but the line stretched along for half a mile or more. As the head of the column came up by the gate at headquarters, Colonel Croghan, by order of Colonel Butler, who was in command went out to and conversed with the officer in command of the newcomers, to receive his report. After talking some time, while the column was straggling by, the new officer leaned against the fence, as if greatly fatigued from the long march.

"In the meantime the door of the flag-officer's room was purposely left ajar, so that he could hear what was said in the hall between the two colonels. When Colonel Croghan came in, he reported to Colonel Butler that the troops just passing were under command of Major -; that they were the advance of General -'s brigade of regulars, who would reach there the next

day; that this advance had made a forced march of thirty-six miles that day, on account of the militia's leaving, of which they had learned by the express sent them, thinking possibly they might be needed, etc.

"All this reached the flag-officer's ear at nightfall. The next morning he was hoodwinked, put across the river and led some distance, too far off to see anything of the force or fortifications of the place, when he was let loose with a flea in his ear. It had its desired and designed effect, for the enemy kept at a respectful distance and made no attack."

During the early part of the year 1814 there were a number of Indian forays which caused the Americans some fear. In February a force under Captain Holmes, under orders of Colonel Butler, started an expedition to attack Fort Talbot, but after a skirmish with the enemy at Longwoods, returned to Detroit. Colonel Butler returned to Kentucky shortly after this and the command of Detroit fell to Lieutenant-Colonel Croghan. The Americans evacuated Malden on March 21st.

Detroit endured a winter of hardship and peril in 1813-14. The army itself was attacked by an epidemic, the nature of which was at first doubtful, but was finally determined to be a mild form of cholera. Hundreds of the soldiers died during the winter months and many were buried in common graves. The wood supply was difficult to obtain, owing to the presence of hostile Indians, consequently portions of the stockade were used and, as late as 1830, Congress paid claims for fences burned during this period. The Indians became bold and were constantly committing depredations against the whites. In order to stop these incursions, Governor Cass organized a volunteer company to patrol the river and roads. The personnel of this company was as follows: Judge Charles Moran, Judge Shubael Conant, Capt. Francis Cicotte, James Cicotte, George Cicotte, Col. Henry J. Hunt, General Charles Larned, William Meldrum, John Meldrum, James Meldrum, James Riley, Peter Riley, John Riley, Lambert Beaubien, John M. Beaubien, Joseph Andre dit Clark, Louis Moran, Louis Dequindre, Lambert La Foy, Joseph Riopelle, Joseph Visger, Jack Smith, Ben Lucas, and John Ruland. This company, which was mounted, easily dispersed the savages in the neighborhood of the fort.

Capt. Peter Audrain's company of spies, which served for a few weeks after the 1st of July, 1814, performed meritorious service. There were only sufficient funds available to pay these men for two weeks' work, but their captain held the organization intact for a time after this in the face of the peril of attack. Detroit citizens were very apprehensive of an attack at this time, as shown by letters of Solomon Sibley and others, and they were dubious of their ability to hold out against an organized assault by the British and Indians.

In July, 1814, a land force commanded by Croghan and a naval force under Capt. Arthur Sinclair, attempted the capture of Michilimackinac, but found the British too strong at that point. This force suffered an ambush by Indians and lost in killed Major Holmes, Captain Van Horne and Lieutenant Jackson. The expedition returned to Detroit August 23d. Michilimackinac did not come into American hands until after the Treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, which ended the war.

On October 9th, General McArthur arrived with a reinforcement of 700 mounted riflemen. McArthur soon after proceeded to the relief of General Brown at Fort Erie, had several successful engagements with the enemy, but returned without completing his original purpose, as Erie was abandoned.

As late as July, 1815, a number of American ships passing Malden on the river were searched by the British, who were ostensibly looking for deserters. Governor Cass resented this act with strong argument, but nothing came of it. The Indians persisted in coming over to the American side, to Grosse Ile, and committing depredations. In one instance, when D. R. Macomb found a band encamped on his land at Grosse Ile, having killed and devoured some of his cattle, the resulting quarrel ended by the death of one of the savages-shot by one of Macomb's men. The Canadians offered a reward for the arrest of the murderer, but as the act was committed on American soil, Cass ordered all citizens to resist the apprehension of the man while under the American flag. Famine, also, threatened the inhabitants of this region during the last days of the war and afterward. A letter from Judge Woodward to Secretary of State Monroe, dated March 5, 1815, stated:

"The desolation of this territory is beyond all conception. No kind of flour or meal to be procured, and nothing for the subsistence of the cattle. No animals for slaughter, and more than half of the population destitute of any for domestic or agricultural purposes.

"The fencing of their farms entirely destroyed by the incursions of the enemy, and for fuel for the military. Their houses left without glass, and in many instances even the flooring burnt. Their clothing plundered from them by the Indians. It is a literal fact, and it will scarcely be deemed permissible to shock the feelings of human nature so much as to state it, that the inhabitants of the river Raisin have been obliged to resort to chopped hay boiled for subsistence. Many, possessing neither firmness of mind or body sufficient to sustain the calamities with which they have been assailed, have sunk into the asylum where the wicked cease to trouble and the weary are at rest.”

Response was made to this plea and on May 25th Governor Cass was authorized by the Secretary of War to spend $1,500 for the people at the Raisin. This sum was expended for flour and great care was exercised that only the actual needy were assisted.

CHAPTER XL

THE BLACK HAWK WAR

SKETCH OF CHIEF BLACK HAWK- TREATY OF 1804-IN THE WAR OF 1812BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS- CHOLERA EPIDEMIC

AT DETROIT END OF THE WAR-CAPTURE OF BLACK HAWK HIS DEATH -COST OF THE WAR.

Chief Black Hawk (Indian name Ma-ka-ta-wi-mesha-ka-ka) was born at the Sac Village on the Rock River in 1767. His father, Py-e-sa, was a direct descendant of Nan-a-ma-kee (Thunder), to whom the medicine bag of the Sac nation was intrusted by the Great Spirit. Black Hawk was trained in the arts of war by his father and established his prowess in battle before he was nineteen years of age. About that time his father was mortally wounded in a battle with the Cherokee Indians and upon his death the medicine bag passed to the custody of Black Hawk. This medicine bag represented the soul of the Sac nation and had never been disgraced. To prepare himself for preserving it unsullied, Black Hawk took no part in war for five years after the death of his father, praying to the Great Spirit for strength and wisdom to discharge his onerous duty. During that period he would frequently go to the promontory near his home on the Rock River, where he would spend hours in smoking and meditation. This headland is still known as "Black Hawk's Watch Tower."

After his five years of preparation, Black Hawk took his place as one of the leading chiefs of the Sac and Fox confederacy. At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century the white man was looking with longing eyes at the broad prairies of Illinois, and immediately after the Louisiana Purchase was made in 1803 a clamor arose for the removal of certain tribes, among whom were the Sac and Fox, to the new domain west of the Mississippi River. Accordingly, on November 3, 1804, Gen. William H. Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, negotiated a treaty with the Sac and Fox chiefs at St. Louis, by which the confederated tribes ceded their lands east of the Mississippi to the United States, retaining the privilege of dwelling on said lands until they were actually sold to white settlers, after which they were to remove to the west side of the river.

This treaty was subsequently the cause of a great deal of trouble with the Sac and Fox confederacy. It was then the custom of these tribes to instruct their chiefs or delegates to a treaty council as to what course to pursue, or, in the absence of such instructions, afterward confirm their action by a vote. It was claimed by some of the Indians that the delegates to the council at St. Louis had no definite instructions to cede any portion of the lands east of the Mississippi, and a considerable faction of the allied tribes, led by Black Hawk, refused to confirm their action.

IN THE WAR OF 1812

When the relations between the United States and Great Britain became strained in 1812, the British Government took advantage of Black Hawk's dissatisfaction over the treaty of 1804 to secure his co-operation. Colonel Dixon, who commanded the English post at Green Bay, sent two large pirogues loaded with presents to the Sac Village on the Rock River, and then went in person to superintend the distribution of the goods among the Indians. No better man could have been selected by the British authorities. Dixon was naturally crafty and thoroughly understood the Indian character. Upon meeting Black Hawk he took him by the hand and said: "You will now hold us fast by the hand. Your English father has found that the Americans want to take your lands from you and has sent me and my braves to drive them back to their own country."

Such a speech won Black Hawk, who joined the British and was with the Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, when the latter fell in the battle of the Thames. After this Black Hawk's band was called the "British Band of Rock River." In the summer of 1815 William Clark and Ninian Edwards were appointed commissioners to make treaties of peace and friendship with the tribes living along the Mississippi River, but it was not until the following spring that the chiefs and head men of the British Band could be persuaded to visit St. Louis for the purpose of holding a council. There on May 13, 1816, twenty-two leaders of the band entered into a treaty confirming that of November 3, 1804. One of those who signed, or "touched the goose quill," as the Indians expressed it, was Black Hawk himself, though he afterwards repudiated his action on that occasion.

BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES

During the decade following the treaty of May 13, 1816, the State of Illinois was rapidly settled and the Sac and Fox lands were demanded for actual settlers, according to the provisions of the treaty. In 1828 President Adams issued his proclamation declaring the lands opened to settlers and ordering the Indians to remove to the west side of the river. As a matter of fact, a large number of the allied tribes had removed to the west side of the river two years before the proclamation was issued. Black Hawk refused to vacate until the Government actually sold the section of land upon which his village was situated. He and his band finally crossed the river in 1830, but the removal was made "under protest," the old chief being far from reconciled to the situation.

In the spring of 1831, with a number of his braves and their families, Black Hawk recrossed the river and took possession of their old cabins and cornfields. The white settlers appealed to Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, who sent General Gaines to Rock Island with a military force large enough to compel the return of the Indians to the west side of the river.

The winter of 1831-32 was unusually severe and the Indians underwent many hardships in their new homes. Their houses were poorly built, provisions were scarce among them, and they suffered both from cold and hunger. Some writers assert that in this emergency Black Hawk fell under the influence of Wa-bo-kie-shiek, a "bad medicine man," who advised him to recross the