Buffalo Grove ambush

On May 19, 1832, a small group of couriers fell victim to a surprise attack near Buffalo Grove, an episode that unfolded within the larger Black Hawk War. Six men had been sent out carrying messages from Colonel James M. Strode, stationed at Galena, Illinois, bound for General Henry Atkinson at Dixon's Ferry, when Native Americans struck them along the way. William Durley lost his life in the encounter and was laid to rest close to where the assault took place. The men who first buried him would later themselves perish in the St. Vrain massacre. Among the survivors, two others found bullet holes torn through their clothing, yet neither man suffered any actual wound. Decades later, in 1910, the Polo Historical Society relocated Durley's remains, placing them in a plot beneath a memorial the society built just west of Polo, Illinois.

Ambush

This encounter unfolded close to Buffalo Grove, Illinois, an unincorporated place that today lies within Ogle County. Approaching the grove's fringe, one rider grew wary of how exposed they were to a possible strike and urged the group to swing wide on a longer path instead of following their normal trail. The others pushed back against this idea, and Durley, ignoring the warning, spurred his horse forward into the timbered section. Within just a few bounds of entering the woods, gunfire erupted from the very spot the cautious rider had pointed to, and Durley fell.

The following day, May 20, 1832, Sergeant Stahl made it back to Dixon's Ferry alongside the four other men who had lived through the assault. He explained that Native Americans had struck their party the previous evening at the grove's edge. According to his account, Durley died on the spot, was scalped, and his body was abandoned there. Both Stahl and James Smith had felt bullets tear holes through their clothing, yet neither man suffered any wound, and Durley remained the only fatality from the encounter.

Aftermath

The Buffalo Grove ambush cannot be separated from what happened at St. Vrain, since the two incidents unfolded as parts of a single chain of circumstance. Four men, among them Aaron Hawley and John Fowler, both of whom had survived the St. Vrain killings, were making their way toward Galena when they came across Durley's body at Buffalo Grove. They turned back toward Dixon's Ferry, informed others of what they had found, and spent the night there before continuing on.

By the time Atkinson arrived back in Dixon on May 23, he carried dispatches bound for Fort Armstrong. He instructed Indian Agent Felix St. Vrain to accompany the men who had come upon Durley and continue with them toward Galena. Setting out from Dixon, the party pushed northward, located the body once more, and buried Durley at the site where he had died in Buffalo Grove.

Nearly eight decades later, on May 19, 1910, the anniversary marking seventy-eight years since the assault, the Polo Historical Society dedicated a memorial in Durley's honor. His remains were taken from the original grave, the spot near where St. Vrain's group had laid him to rest close to where he fell, and reburied beneath this new monument. Today, both the historical marker commemorating the ambush and Durley's memorial stand west of Polo, Illinois, along Eagle Point Road.