Lafayette County WI Archives History - Books .....The Winnebago War 1881
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Book Title: History Of La Fayette County

THE WINNEBAGO WAR.

The most important event of this year was the Winnebago war, in which the
unfriendly disposition of the savages culminated during the month of June. At
that time old citizens state there was a considerable population in the county,
and mining operations were being carried on with profit to all concerned. During
this year, De Yee and Hawthorne, with other prospectors and miners, crossed the
Ridge, which was regarded as the dividing line between civilization and
barbarism, and trespassed upon the Indian mineral deposits. This Ridge is two
miles north of the village of Shullsburg. All the territory north of the
ordinance line of 1787 was in the undisputed possession of the Indians except
the reservations at the mouth of the Wisconsin and Fever Rivers, and the mining
district in Jo Daviess County and Michigan Territory. Many rich leads were
discovered on Indian lands, and miners persisted in digging there in direct
disobedience to orders against such intrusion issued by the Superintendent of
the lead mines.

In treating of this episode in the history of the contest for supremacy in La
Fayette County, it must necessarily be referred to generally the part taken in
the struggle by the early settlers of that county forming incidents simply.

In exceptional instances the right to mine, as already stated, had been
purchased of the Indians; but in a majority of cases the search for wealth in La
Fayette County, as elsewhere in the lead region, had been prosecuted with an
entire disregard of Indian rights or immunities. The crossing of this dividing
line was, consequently, the occasion for disputes without number, and occasional
bloodshed. Jesse W. Shull, who had discovered a rich lead over the Ridge, was
driven off, and his cabin and preliminary works destroyed by the Winnebagoes.
But these, it is claimed by authorities presumably correct, were not the
immediate causes of the war. Had the contrary been the case, they might have
been adjusted without open hostilities. But while these disputes were pending,
two keel boats, owned by the contractor, engaged in furnishing supplies to the
troops at Fort Snelling, while en route to that post, halted in the vicinity of
Prairie du Chien, where a large number of Winnebago Indians were encamped. The
crews of these transports, it seems, visited the Indian camp, when they rendered
the savages helplessly drunk, and kidnaping a number of squaws fled to their
boats and pursued the trip to Fort Snelling with these Indian wives as enforced
companions. Another version is that the squaws were detained for one night only.
There is no dispute about the fact of outrage. When the Winnebagoes realized
with returning consciousness the part that had been taken by these disreputable
types of human animals in the scandalous drama cited, they very naturally became
exasperated, and determined to wash out the stain upon their honor with blood.
Runners were sent out in all directions summoning warriors to the scene of
action at once, and recruits assembled at Galena with the avowed purpose of
avenging the insult which had been thrust upon their race. When preparations
were completed for an advance, a division of the revenging army marched north in
the direction of Prairie du Chien, while another division was distributed about
the adjoining settlements, which were occupied by miners and others who had
become a part of the population at that time. While the danger was impending
four Winnebago chiefs visited Gratiot's Grove and informed the settlers there
that on account of the action of the whites they were unable to restrain their
young men, and that as they did not desire to harm those with whom they had
lived upon amicable terms, it would be necessary for them to move elsewhere to
avoid the consequences. As a natural result this intelligence produced feelings
of the most serious apprehension, and excited the inhabitants throughout La
Fayette County to take immediate action for defense. It was impossible to fly,
the country being occupied by the wily savage thirsting for blood as a panacea
for the wrongs which had been done to him and his wife, and naught was left but
to take immediate counsel as to the most available and effectual means of defense.

Meetings were accordingly convened and efforts inaugurated to prevent a
surprise, as also to repulse an attack. In July a fort was built on the prairie,
to the north of Gratiot's Grove, and, though not tested, would have proved a
formidable obstacle to attack. The "fort" was really a block-house, it is said,
with defenses at each corner, and was for the times as formidable as skill could
render it. Though not deemed necessary to be built until the war was well under
way, its completion was hastened by the workmen, and reached before any
imperative demand was made upon its resources.

In the meantime, the settlers had enrolled themselves for self-protection
throughout the county, and become perfect in the knowledge of their duties
anterior to the necessity for their employment. A company of eighty, under the
command of Capt. Hollingsworth, was assigned to the defense of this portion of
the territory, and quartered at the fort, but beyond an occasional scout in
pursuit of adventure rather than the enemy, the occasion for their services did
not arise.

A second fort or block-house was constructed in the immediate vicinity, by Capt.
Jesse W. Shull. It occupied the site of old Shullsburg, on land now owned by
Augustus Estey, about 200 yards from the furnace, and was garrisoned by a
company of thirty men who anticipated the accomplishment of heroic deeds, which,
however, the absence of opportunity failed to realize.

Preparations had been set on foot elsewhere to resist the advance of the foe,
and in the light of subsequent events proved to have been most timely. Gov.
Edwards, of Illinois, received information on which he relied, that the
Winnebagoes had attacked keel-boats, that the miners and settlers of Fever River
were in danger of attack, and that a general massacre of the inhabitants was to
follow. Acting upon such information, he issued a proclamation calling out the
Twentieth Regiment Illinois State Militia, which was to rendezvous at Peoria,
thence to march with all possible haste to the assistance of their
fellow-citizens at Galena. The brave soldiers accordingly assembled, and, with
ten days' rations, marched to Gratiot's Grove. About this time, Gen. Cass, who
had been appointed by the Government to hold a treaty with the Lake Michigan
Indians at Green Bay, arrived at that point, but finding few there, and hearing
that the Lake Indians had received war messages from the interior, he hastened
to communicate this startling intelligence to the military authorities at St.
Louis. He ascended Fox River from Green Bay, descended the Wisconsin and the
Mississippi, and in nine days reached St. Louis. It is said that among the
Winnebagoes he discovered warlike preparations, but his sudden and unexpected
appearance among them with a force of armed men, caused a panic, and dissipated
among the savages any disposition to war. En route to St. Louis, Gen. Cass
halted at Galena, where Gens. Dodge and Whiteside had massed a force to march
against the threatening foe. In the midst of the alarm then prevailing the
excited people heard singing, and concluded that the days of disaster had come
indeed. But their fears were allayed when they witnessed a large canoe filled
with troops gliding gracefully up the river, and halted opposite the village.
Their cries of alarm were changed to merry meetings, and their quakings of fear
to delightful measures. Immediately upon receipt of news from Gov. Cass, Gen.
Atkinson marched with a force of 600 men, and formed a junction with the Galena
volunteers. The Indians had by this time concluded that it was useless to longer
contend for supremacy, and surrendered their chiefs—Red Wing among the rest, who
was imprisoned at Prairie du Chien, where he was kept as a hostage for the good
behaviour of his nation; but his proud spirit, broken by the indignities to
which he was subjected, precipitated an illness which caused his death. The
tribe made peace at the treaty of the Portage and grim-visaged war smoothed his
wrinkled front and hung up his bruised arms for monuments, without having
inflicted upon the settlers serious loss of life.

Thus ended the Winnebago war, but its effects were experienced for years, it
might be said, after the dusky warrior resigned the contest, and ceded to the
whites possession of the territory for which he had so fruitlessly contended.
With the first alarm, miners, speculators, prospectors, and the host of
immigrants and adventurers who always make a new country of promise the base of
their operations, with one accord fled to places of security. The pick and gad
were left idle; the ax which had been laid at the root of the forest tree was
cast one side; the plow remained idle in the rich furrows of the prairie, and
desolation usurped that prominence which but a short time previous had been
accorded to industry and prospective prosperity. Very many, as already observed,
remained in the country, and became factors in the forces enlisted for the
common defense; a limited number essayed individual protection, and hunted the
lairs of the foe singly and solus. But while this was the case, a majority of
the body politic sought at military points elsewhere the safety they imagined
was denied them at home. And this was by no means the only discouraging effect
visible. The development of the mines, notwithstanding the flattering
inducements therein offered, was temporarily delayed; and it was not until the
summer sunshine again kissed the horizon, the flowers again decked the prairies,
and the summer birds once more caroled their refrains, that new life, activity,
industry and fortune combined to induce the results which long, long years ago
stamped La Fayette County as a point of irresistible attraction. Through the
succeeding winter but little was accomplished. The dreams of youth, the
chastened wish of manhood, the hope of one day resting from labors of so
diligently pursuing Fortune's smile, that an interval of reflection might be
interposed between old age and the tomb, lay dormant.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF LA FAYETTE COUNTY, WISCONSIN,

CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT OF ITS SETTLEMENT, GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES; AN EXTENSIVE
AND MINUTE SKETCH OF ITS CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES—THEIR IMPROVEMENTS,
INDUSTRIES, MANUFACTORIES, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND SOCIETIES; ITS WAR RECORD,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT MEN AND EARLY SETTLERS; THE WHOLE
PRECEDED BY A HISTORY OF WISCONSIN, STATISTICS OF THE STATE, AND AN ABSTRACT OF
ITS LAWS AND CONSTITUTION AND OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO: WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY.
MDCCCLXXXI. [1881]


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