Local history of Detroit and Wayne County / edited by George B. Catlin.

DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY

83

the post was abandoned before his arrival there. He had come to
Detroit a short time before leaving on the expedition with a force
of 700 mounted riflemen. During all this time, the region was
threatened with famine, and the inhabitants of the River Raisin
country were the worst sufferers, Cass being authorized to spend
$1,500 for the relief of the destitute and starving inhabitants of that
section of the territory.
Black Hawk War. By the side of Tecumseh in the Battle of
the Thames was Black Hawk, medicine man of the Sac nation and
one of the foremost chiefs of the Sac-Fox confederacy that had
caused the French fifty years of war in the west. In 1804, William
Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana, concluded a treaty with the
confederacy by which the United States came into possession of the
Sac and Fox lands east of the Mississippi but which were to be
occupied by the Indians until they were actually sold to prospective
settlers. No inconsiderable part of the allied tribes, a part led by
Black Hawk, refused to sanction the treaty, and the dissatisfaction
thus aroused was capitalized by the British who obtained Black
Hawk's support in the War of 1812. On May 13, 1816, a council of
the tribal leaders of the confederacy was held at St. Louis where
the American commissioners persuaded the assembled chiefs to
sign another treaty confirming that of 1804. Black Hawk was one
of the signers of the latter treaty although he subsequently repudiated his actions in so doing.
The lands thus ceded to the United States were declared open
for settlement in 1828 by a proclamation of President Adams. Black
Hawk at first refused to remove beyond the Mississippi but did so
in 1830 under protest. Hardships attended the tribe in its new
home during the winter of 1831-32. On April 6, 1832, the tribe
recrossed the river declaring that they were going to visit the
Winnebagoes to help them raise a crop of corn. The actions of the
tribe were interpreted by the military authorities as a hostile
invasion. Though the settlers were not alarmed over the movements of the tribe, Governor Reynolds called out the Illinois militia
and sent two thousand men under General Whiteside to the aid of
the garrison at Fort Armstrong in driving out the Indians. Major
Stillman was sent with about 275 mounted men to turn back Black
Hawk and encountered the old chief and some forty of his warriors
at a distance from the main encampment of the tribe. Black Hawk
sent forward five messengers to ask for a parley but the troops
killed two of them at once. The other messengers then took up the
fight and managed to rout the mounted men who were at a considerable disadvantage.
With this opening of hostilities, volunteers were called for and
Michigan was asked to furnish three hundred men. General John
R. Williams was authorized by Mason to recruit that number of
men and issued his call on May 22, 1832. Captain Edward Brooks'
Detroit City Guards and Captain Jackson's Light Dragoons answered the call and were consolidated under the command of General Williams, with Brooks as Colonel, Jonathan Davis as lieu