The Battle of the Sink Hole, sometimes known as "Forgotten War", was fought on May 24, 1815, after the official end of the War of 1812, between Missouri Rangers and Sauk people led by Black Hawk. According to Robert McDouall, the British commander in the area, the Sauk had not received official word from the British that the Treaty of Ghent had ended the war with the U.S.
The battle was fought in a low spot near the mouth of the Cuivre River in Missouri, site of the present-day city of Old Monroe in what is now Lincoln County near Fort Howard and Fort Cap au Gris.
A contingent of 50 Rangers and Regulars, led by Captain Peter Craig, confronted the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes roughly 300 meters south of Fort Howard. Captain David Musick, with 20 soldiers from Cape au Gris, joined the fray from the Cuivre River, located 3 kilometers south of the initial engagement. The Sauk and Meskwaki forces split, with some retreating north to Bob's Creek, while Black Hawk and about 20-35 warriors sought refuge in a sinkhole, about 12-15 feet wide and 60 feet long. American forces partially encircled the sinkhole, effectively trapping Black Hawk's group. The karst terrain of the sinkhole provided natural cover, allowing the Native American forces to hold their ground despite being outnumbered by the superior American forces. Both groups pulled back at nightfall, and the outcome of the battle was uncertain.
An ambush by the Sauk of a company of rangers led to a prolonged siege: seven Rangers (including their commander, Captain Peter Craig) and one Sauk were killed and an additional 3 Rangers were wounded. Conflicting accounts of the action were given by John Shaw and by Black Hawk.
The rangers spent almost an hour creating a moving wooden battery, with portholes they could shoot through. However, the warriors fired their own rounds through said portholes, killing one ranger, Lt. Edward Spears, and wounding several others before the battery was abandoned.
After the battle, in 1816, Black Hawk entered into negotiations with the US government, ultimately reaffirming the Treaty of St. Louis.
The context in which the battle occurred includes the increasing instabilities in the American frontier region in the early part of the nineteenth century, particularly in the War of 1812. While the war took place between the United States and the British Empire, Indigenous peoples also became participants as they sided with the British against the Americans in an attempt to impede American expansion westward into Native territories in the Old Northwest region. The people who became engaged in the battle included the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes, among others, including the eventual Sauk leader Black Hawk.
The early republic period saw the United States move from the weak Articles of Confederation to the federal Constitution ratified in 1788, with the Bill of Rights added in 1791. George Washington served two terms as president (1789–1797), establishing precedents for executive authority, and the federal capital moved permanently to Washington D.C. in 1800. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled the nation's territory for roughly $15 million, opening vast trans-Mississippi lands to American expansion. The War of 1812 against Britain ended inconclusively but produced a surge of American national identity and eliminated most British support for Indigenous resistance east of the Mississippi. The Northwest Indian Wars (1785–1795) and the Creek War (1813–1814) broke Indigenous confederacies that had resisted US expansion. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily balanced slave and free states as the nation expanded westward, but embedded the contradiction of slavery in every subsequent territorial debate.
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