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The Blackhawk War BY HENRY LITTLE, 1875
With such hideous phantasms, as I have imperfectly sketched, to be continually before the mind, would be a pretty trying ordeal to be subjected to. We will now turn from the fanciful, ideal, or "false, to the real or true side of the picture.
A short time before the commencement of the war, and at the time the Saukies crossed to the east side of the Missippi, their whole force numbered just three hundred and sixty-eight men, and no more, nor no less.
The Saukies did not have any confederates or allies in, nor any assistance from, any Indian tribes. The Saukies all the while during those four months-of war, with only 368 men to begin with, and those numbers were constantly being diminished, they, those 368 men, that small handful of brave, resolute men, single-handed and alone, manfully contended for their rights, and heroically met on the battle-field and fought against those who outnumbered them many times over, and the bare mention of the name carried fear and consternation even hundreds of miles from the immediate scenes of their operations. The number of- the Saukies was not only thus limited, but they were encumbered with their wives and children, and entirely destitute of resources or supplies. When they landed on the east side of the Mississippi they had no thought or intention of making war upon the white settlers who occupied their lands (or lands the Saukies claimed as theirs). In the simplicity of their minds they supposed that they would peaceably regain possession of their lands and dear old homes and favorite hunting grounds. Their old homes were all the world to them; it was their paradise, and it was endeared to them by all the tender and delightful associations of a lifetime. Their attachment to their homes was as strong and lasting as are ours to our favorite homes.
Michigan
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