Note 117 — Front matter (continued 7)

(page page 354).—May 14, 1832, Black Hawk and fifty or sixty of his head men were encamped near the mouth of Sycamore Creek, a tributary of the Rock River. Toward sunset of that day, there appeared, three miles down the Rock, two battalions of Illinois volunteer troops, a total of 341 men, under Majors Isaiah Stillman and David Bailey. The whites had unlimbered for a night in camp, when three Indians appeared with a white flag, messengers from Black Hawk, who tells us in his autobiography that he wished at the time to offer to meet General Atkinson in council, with a view to peaceful withdrawal to the west of the Mississippi. The troopers, many of whom were in liquor, slew two of the messengers, the third running back to warn Black Hawk. That astute warrior drew up twenty-five securely mounted braves behind a fringe of bushes, and when the whites appeared in disorderly array fired one volley at them, and rushed forward with the war-whoop. The troopers turned and fled in consternation, galloping madly toward their homes, carrying the news that Black Hawk and two thousand blood-thirsty warriors were raiding northern Illinois. Sycamore Creek was thereafter known as Stillman’s Run.