Battle of the Sink Hole

Long after the guns of the War of 1812 had supposedly fallen silent, Missouri Rangers clashed with Sauk warriors under Black Hawk on May 24, 1815, in an engagement that would later earn the nickname "Forgotten War." Robert McDouall, commanding British forces in the region, later explained that the Sauk simply had not yet learned officially from the British that the Treaty of Ghent had brought the conflict with the United States to a close.

The clash unfolded in a depression near where the Cuivre River empties out in Missouri, ground that today lies within the city of Old Monroe in Lincoln County, close to Fort Howard and Fort Cap au Gris. Captain Peter Craig led a force of fifty Rangers and Regulars against Sauk and Meskwaki fighters some 300 meters south of Fort Howard. From the Cuivre River, three kilometers further south, Captain David Musick brought twenty additional soldiers from Cape au Gris into the fight. Facing this pressure, the Sauk and Meskwaki warriors divided their forces: some withdrew northward toward Bob's Creek, while Black Hawk and a group numbering between twenty and thirty-five warriors took cover in a sinkhole measuring roughly twelve to fifteen feet across and sixty feet long. American troops managed to surround the sinkhole on several sides, pinning Black Hawk's band inside. Thanks to the natural protection offered by the karst landscape, the Native warriors managed to hold firm even though badly outnumbered. As darkness fell, both sides withdrew, leaving the fight's result unresolved.

A Sauk ambush against a company of rangers touched off an extended siege that claimed seven Ranger lives, among them Captain Craig himself, along with one Sauk fighter killed and three more Rangers wounded. The events of that day were later recounted differently by John Shaw and by Black Hawk, whose versions do not fully agree.

Determined to gain better cover, the Rangers spent nearly an hour constructing a mobile wooden battery fitted with portholes for firing. The warriors, however, turned this to their disadvantage, shooting back through the very same openings. This exchange killed Lieutenant Edward Spears and left several others wounded, forcing the Rangers to abandon the battery altogether.

The following year, in 1816, Black Hawk took part in negotiations with the American government, negotiations that ended with his reaffirmation of the Treaty of St. Louis.

Background

The turbulence gripping the American frontier in the early nineteenth century set the stage for this clash, most notably through the disruptions caused by the War of 1812. Although the conflict pitted the United States against the British Empire, Native peoples found themselves drawn into the fighting, throwing their support behind the British in hopes of halting American westward expansion into their homelands in the Old Northwest. Among those swept into this struggle were the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes, along with others, including Black Hawk, who would later rise as a Sauk leader.

Frontier combat during such periods tended to be fiercer and less organized than fighting elsewhere. Whereas the more celebrated battles unfolded near the Canadian border and along the Eastern Seaboard, conflict in the Old Northwest typically took the form of raids, ambushes, assaults on forts, and clashes pitting militia against Indigenous fighters. Black Hawk fought alongside the British in numerous engagements and came to be closely linked with the group Americans labeled the "British Band". Many Native peoples held out hope that victory, or at least a negotiated peace, might yield a buffer state of their own, separating the United States from British Canada.

Everything shifted with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, which brought the War of 1812 to a close and reestablished the boundaries that had existed before the fighting began. Notably, Indigenous tribes had no seat at the negotiating table despite their substantial role in the conflict. The treaty delivered no Native buffer state and did nothing to slow the ongoing push of American settlement westward. Even once ratification came in February 1815, news traveled slowly across the western frontier, leaving many Native communities and frontier combatants unaware that peace had been declared.

Violence persisted along the western frontier in the months that followed. Sauk fighters and other Native groups launched raids across present-day Missouri and Illinois, driven by unresolved disputes over land and the expanding American military presence.

In response, communities on the Missouri frontier formed militia and ranger companies to defend settlements and military outposts. Settlers continued to view Native groups tied to the British with suspicion, particularly those warriors following Black Hawk. This atmosphere of tension and persistent bloodshed set the scene for the engagement near the Cuivre River in what is now Missouri, fought on May 24, 1815. There, a force of Missouri Rangers under Captain Peter Craig confronted Sauk and Meskwaki warriors led by Black Hawk. Following an opening skirmish, Black Hawk and his men withdrew into a natural sinkhole, holding their ground against repeated American efforts to root them out. Because it took place after the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed, this engagement is frequently counted among the last of the War of 1812.

Battle

On May 24, 1815, fighting erupted at a place known as the Sink Hole, situated near the Cuivre River in what is now Lincoln County, Missouri. There, Sauk and Meskwaki fighters commanded by Black Hawk found themselves pitted against Missouri Rangers under Captain Peter Craig. The Treaty of Ghent had formally closed out the War of 1812 back in December 1814, yet trouble lingered along the frontier, partly because word of peace had not reached every Indigenous group and partly because resistance to American encroachment on their lands had not subsided. According to historians Patrick Jung and John Sugden, bitter feelings toward the United States lingered among the Sauk well after the war's official end.

The clash began after Missouri Rangers spotted Sauk and Meskwaki warriors moving through the area around Fort Howard and Cap au Gris. Craig pushed forward with roughly fifty mounted men, and Captain David Musick brought additional forces up from Cap au Gris. Faced with the American advance, the Native fighters split into two groups. A portion fled north toward Bob's Creek, while Black Hawk and a band of twenty to thirty five warriors took refuge in a sizable natural sinkhole. Geologists who have studied the site describe this karst depression as roughly sixty feet in length, fifteen feet across, and ten to twelve feet deep, bordered by steep limestone walls that gave the defenders a naturally strong position.

The fight's early stages proved both confusing and costly. Craig, exposing himself in an effort to survey the Sauk position, was struck down and killed. His Rangers then encircled the sinkhole and tried firing down into it, but the landscape gave every advantage to those sheltered below. To get a usable line of fire, the Americans had to creep toward the sinkhole's edge, which left them vulnerable to shots coming up from the warriors inside. Historian Douglas Gifford has suggested that this terrain turned what might have been a swift skirmish into a drawn out standoff, since storming the Sauk position directly was nearly impossible.

As afternoon wore on, both sides apparently turned to tactics meant to unnerve the other. Accounts from the frontier tell of Sauk warriors chanting death songs and hurling taunts up at the Rangers surrounding them. For their part, the Rangers searched for some method of closing in without absorbing crippling losses. Lieutenant Edward Spears came up with the idea of building a crude protective screen out of wagon wheels and thick wooden planks. Nearly an hour went into assembling this mobile barrier, which was fitted with gaps meant to let soldiers fire while pushing toward the sinkhole in relative safety. The plan collapsed, though, once Sauk fighters spotted a gap underneath the contraption and fired through it, killing Spears and leaving several other Rangers wounded.

When the sun went down, neither side could claim a clear win. Black Hawk's warriors had eluded destruction or capture, yet they remained boxed in by the militia and could not force their way free while daylight lasted. Once night fell, Black Hawk guided his men out of the sinkhole and off the battlefield entirely, and the Americans made no attempt to chase them down. Sources disagree somewhat on the exact casualty numbers, but most concur that the Rangers bore the heavier toll, a toll that included the deaths of both Craig and Spears. Most historical treatments call the battle a tactical draw, though Black Hawk's success in holding off a larger force did much to build his standing as a war leader. Because it took place after the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed, this engagement is often counted among the last battles tied to the War of 1812.