Battle of Stillman's Run

On May 14, 1832, in Illinois, a chaotic clash unfolded that would later carry three names: Stillman's Run, Sycamore Creek, and Old Man's Creek. It earned its most common title from the disorderly flight of Major Isaiah Stillman's 275 militiamen after Sauk fighters from Black Hawk's British Band struck their camp. Estimates of the attacking force vary widely, ranging from as few as fifty to as many as two hundred warriors. Whitney's Black Hawk War, a compilation of letters and documents gathered by the Illinois State Library, suggests that Native groups were moving in large numbers across the region at that time, hinting that a broader frontier conflict was already taking shape.

This clash marked the opening confrontation of the Black Hawk War of 1832, a conflict sparked when Black Hawk led his people, Sauk and Meskwaki warriors alongside women, children, and older members of the band, across the Mississippi from Iowa into Illinois in hopes of reestablishing themselves there. Before the fighting began, Black Hawk had sent representatives to seek a truce, but those efforts collapsed. The militia then tracked a handful of Sauk scouts all the way to the main encampment of the British Band, setting the stage for battle.

Twelve militiamen died making a final stand atop a small rise while the Native warriors closed in around them. The surviving militia broke and ran, retreating all the way back to Dixon's Ferry. Decades later, in 1901, residents of Stillman Valley, Illinois placed a monument on the site to mark the event. A piece published in 2006 confirms that Abraham Lincoln, then serving as a militia volunteer, was present when the dead were buried at the site, though accounts diverge on nearly every other detail. Scholars in the early twenty-first century continue examining the precise circumstances of the fight.

Background

Black Hawk, a chief among the Sauk, held the conviction that the 1804 Treaty of St. Louis carried no legal weight, since it handed over Sauk lands, including the very place where he was born, to the United States. Starting in 1830, he crossed the Mississippi more than once, moving between Iowa and Illinois, and on each occasion he agreed to withdraw westward peacefully. Then, in April 1832, buoyed by assurances of support from neighboring tribes and from British officials in British North America, he brought his "British Band" back into Illinois territory. When the promised alliances failed to materialize, he sought to head back toward Iowa, but the circumstances that followed set off the Battle of Stillman's Run. Additional clashes erupted afterward, prompting Wisconsin and Illinois to call out their militias in pursuit of his band. This entire episode came to be remembered as the Black Hawk War.

Black Hawk crossed back over the Mississippi on April 5, 1832, bringing with him roughly a thousand people, both warriors and civilians. Only about half of this group were fighters; the remainder consisted of women, children, and older members of the community. His followers included Sauk and Meskwaki people, along with some Potawatomi and Kickapoo, while a number of Ho-Chunk individuals sympathized with his cause even if not formally part of it. Historians disagree on what actually motivated Black Hawk's move into Illinois. The traditional interpretation holds that he sought to recover territory his people had lost and possibly unite various Native nations in resistance to white expansion. More recent scholarship casts doubt on this narrative, suggesting instead that he may have intended simply to settle among the Ho-Chunk, a theory supported by the striking proportion of non-fighters traveling with what was supposedly a war party. Additionally, other tribes within Illinois had pledged their support to the British Band, and Black Hawk himself trusted that he would receive aid from British forces stationed in Canada.

The group's journey into Illinois followed the course of the Rock River, with Black Hawk at its head. Governor John Reynolds of Illinois viewed this reentry as nothing short of an invasion and responded at once by mobilizing the state militia. Leading the military campaign against Black Hawk was General Henry Atkinson, a man Black Hawk referred to by the name "White Beaver."

Prelude

Governor Reynolds had ordered Major Isaiah Stillman's militia toward Old Man's Creek, yet no one thought to inform Atkinson of this move, even though he held overall command of the campaign. The instructions themselves came through General Samuel Whiteside, who relayed Reynolds' wishes to Stillman: locate Black Hawk and pressure him into surrender. Acting on this charge, Stillman advanced toward Old Mans Creek. Whiteside had earlier declined to place Stillman's battalion under his own authority, leaving the unit essentially without a commander apart from Reynolds himself. Meanwhile, the troops serving under Whiteside grew impatient waiting for Atkinson's regulars to arrive, and a good number of the volunteers were eager to abandon the campaign altogether and return home. Once talk of peace failed to convince Black Hawk to lead his people back across to Iowa, the battalions belonging to Stillman and Bailey set out along the Rock River.

By the time fighting broke out at what became known as Stillman's Run, Black Hawk's hopes for British backing and a broader alliance among Native American peoples had already fallen apart. He found himself without meaningful support from any quarter. Hunger began taking its toll on the British Band, and Black Hawk came to accept that crossing back over the Mississippi was the only remaining course of action. Spotting the militia's camp roughly eight miles (13 km) off, he dispatched envoys with instructions to signal peaceful intentions by waving a white flag, hoping to arrange a truce before violence erupted.

Battle

On the fourteenth of May in 1832, some 275 militiamen answered to Majors Isaiah Stillman and David Bailey, both acting on instructions from Governor Reynolds of Illinois. Their camp sat near Old Man's Creek, not far from where that stream meets the Rock River, roughly three miles east of the Rock River near what is now Stillman Valley, Illinois, and seven miles south of where the Sauk had settled. Neither the officers nor their men seem to have grasped how close they had come to Black Hawk's British Band.

Black Hawk, after speaking with nearby Potawatomi, learned that Stillman's force was in the vicinity. He dispatched three men bearing a flag of parley, hoping to open peace talks with the soldiers. The militia, already on edge, brought the trio into camp, but during this encounter they noticed several of Black Hawk's scouts observing from the hills nearby. Upon spotting these scouts, the soldiers opened fire on the emissaries, killing one outright. The remaining two ran for their lives back toward their people's camp near where the Rock and Kishwaukee rivers converge.

Disorganized militiamen gave chase to the scouts, cutting several of them down along the way. Those scouts who survived reached Black Hawk's camp before their pursuers and told him what had happened. In response, his warriors formed a skirmish line to meet the anticipated assault. The militia, still fixated on running down the scouts, unwittingly drove themselves toward this waiting line of warriors. Black Hawk's men had hidden themselves and sprang an ambush on the approaching soldiers. Convinced that a force of thousands of Sauk and Meskwaki warriors bore down on them, the militia broke and ran, retreating all the way to the main encampment at Dixon's Ferry. What became of Stillman during this chaos remains uncertain. A later account he gave to a newspaper left out any mention of his location, stating only that he had ordered a retreat. This version, printed in the Missouri Republican, has since been dismissed by some as embellished.

Twelve militiamen lost their lives in the chaos that followed. Captain John Giles Adams led a small band of volunteers to hold a hill south of the main encampment. Fighting continued under moonlight while the bulk of the militia streamed back toward Dixon. Every one of the twelve men in this detachment, Adams included, perished in the fighting. According to Dyer, it is possible that Adams was struck down by his own comrades while trying to rally them to fight. How many Sauk and Meskwaki fell during the engagement remains largely a mystery, since the militia party later sent out to find fifty three "missing" men discovered no Indian dead. Black Hawk himself is recorded as saying that at least three, and possibly as many as five, of his warriors lost their lives.