Attacks at Fort Blue Mounds

Two distinct clashes struck Fort Blue Mounds on June 6 and June 20, 1832, both tied to the broader conflict of the Black Hawk War. During the first, locals blamed a band of Ho-Chunk warriors for the death of a miner, fueling suspicion that additional Ho-Chunk intended to throw in with Black Hawk against white settlers. The second unfolded to the fort's east, where a Sauk raiding party, numbering as many as 100 warriors according to those who witnessed it, fell upon two militiamen sent to check out noises heard the prior night. Both soldiers, stationed at Blue Mounds, died in the assault, their remains left severely mutilated.

Tension had already been building before these attacks, sparked by the release of the Hall sisters at Fort Blue Mounds on June 1. The girls had been seized during the Indian Creek massacre that same May and were escorted to Blue Mounds by a group of Ho-Chunk. Henry Dodge, leading the militia, grew wary of this group and held them captive, only freeing them later as friction between Ho-Chunk and settlers continued to mount. What happened next seemed to confirm fears that more Ho-Chunk would join Black Hawk's fight against settlers across Illinois and Michigan Territory. Additional assaults on the fort were anticipated but never materialized, and Fort Blue Mounds instead functioned as a supply hub for the war's remaining duration.

Background

A treaty struck in 1804 between Indiana Territory's governor and several Sauk and Fox leaders set the terms for surrendering tribal land, and by 1828 the Sauk and Fox had abandoned their holdings in Illinois, crossing to the far side of the Mississippi River. Not everyone accepted this outcome as legitimate, however: Black Hawk, a Sauk chief, along with others, argued that the agreement had never gone before the full tribal councils, and that those who signed away the land held no real authority to do so. Bitter over losing the ground where he had been born, Black Hawk pushed his people back across the river on several occasions starting in 1830, though each time he was talked down peacefully and turned back westward. Then, in April of 1832, buoyed by assurances of support from other tribes and from the British, he crossed once more into Illinois, this time leading his so-called "British Band," a group numbering roughly 1,000 that included both fighters and noncombatants. More clashes followed in the aftermath, prompting Wisconsin and Illinois to call up their militias in pursuit of Black Hawk's followers. What emerged from this pursuit became known to history as the Black Hawk War.

Prelude

When word spread that Black Hawk had come back, communities across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin scrambled to raise defensive stockades. At Ebeneezer Brigham's Moundville settlement, known today as Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, work on a fort got underway on May 10. During this building effort, Black Hawk discovered he had no allies willing to join his cause, prompting him to head back toward Iowa. Circumstances outpaced him, however, and set in motion what became known as the Battle of Stillman's Run. This clash appears to have spurred the workers at Fort Blue Mounds into finishing their stockade more quickly.

Seven days after Stillman's Run, violence struck again on May 21, 1832, this time far south of the fort near what is now Ottawa, Illinois, in what became known as the Indian Creek massacre. Amid the bloodshed, a band of Potawatomi raiders carried off two young girls. Sylvia and Rachel Hall, the captives in question, were handed back on June 1 at Fort Blue Mounds by a group of Ho-Chunk who had brokered their freedom, a delegation that counted several notable chiefs among its members. Henry Dodge, who commanded the Michigan Territory militia, showed up with a company to collect the sisters, but grew wary of the Ho-Chunk escort and had them detained, hoping this would guarantee the loyalty and peaceful conduct of other Ho-Chunk living near Blue Mounds. The chiefs did not remain captive for long, yet their brief imprisonment left settlers at Moundville and the local Ho-Chunk on increasingly hostile terms. Henry Gratiot, serving as Indian Agent, attempted to smooth things over by offering the Ho-Chunk gifts as a gesture of goodwill. Even so, his efforts failed to prevent the tension from erupting into open conflict just days afterward.

Attacks

Violence first touched Fort Blue Mounds on June 6, 1832, when Native American fighters killed William Griffith Aubrey. One account from a witness claimed that just before this assault, a quarrel broke out between Aubrey's wife and a Ho-Chunk man, during which the man vowed to kill her husband. Aubrey worked as a miner for Brigham, laboring about a mile and a half from the fort when the attackers found him. Along with Jefferson Smith, he had been sent to fetch water from a nearby spring, and it was there that a small band of warriors ambushed the pair. Aubrey took two bullets and a spear thrust through the neck, dying from his wounds. Smith, wounded three times himself, still managed to get away alive, though he abandoned his horse and weapon in his rush back to the fort. Those sheltering at the fort rightly suspected Ho-Chunk fighters rather than Black Hawk's British Band, which sat some 40 miles off near Lake Kegonsa.

Two weeks passed before the second strike came, on June 20. This time a sizable Sauk war party descended on Blue Mounds itself, and the fighting claimed the lives of two militiamen, Emerson Green and George Force. Witnesses later put the attacking force at somewhere between fifty and a hundred warriors. Odd sounds near the fort had disturbed the previous night, prompting Force and Green to ride out and check on the source of the disturbance. Several miles to the east they stumbled upon Black Hawk's band, which sympathetic Ho-Chunk guides had led toward the fort. Force fell at once, while Green spurred toward the fort and nearly reached safety, only to have his horse shot from beneath him within sight of those watching from inside. The warriors closed in and killed him there, and accounts from witnesses describe his body as having been severely mutilated afterward.

Aftermath

After Aubrey was killed, settlers nearby jumped to blame the Ho-Chunk, deepening worries that additional warriors from that nation would throw in with Chief Black Hawk against white settlements across Michigan Territory and Illinois. Since nobody could be sure where Ho-Chunk loyalties actually stood, the grim prospect of fighting on two fronts loomed. Once Green and Force had died, American interrogators pressed two captured Ho-Chunk warriors for answers. These two, belonging to the Prophet's Band, openly claimed responsibility for the killings and even bragged about what they had done.

Aubrey met his death in Michigan Territory close to what is now Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. Afterward, horsemen and troops from the fort followed the trail of the responsible band to a camp that had just been deserted, then onward to the Wisconsin River, where all trace of them disappeared. Aubrey's remains were laid to rest on elevated ground northeast of the fort, overlooking it.

Green was interred at the fort itself, but Force's body remained exposed on the prairie for four days, since those inside the fort were too afraid to travel far from its walls to retrieve him. On June 24, General Henry Dodge and Captain James H. Gentry showed up at Fort Blue Mounds bringing part of Gentry's company with them. They had come to scout the area, and in the course of this work they came upon Lieutenant Force's body lying under a tree roughly two miles east of the fort. According to early accounts, the body had been severely mutilated, with a "part" missing. He was buried near the fort along the principal trail, about two miles to its east.

Brigham had braced himself for a full assault on Fort Blue Mounds in the wake of these events, yet it never materialized. The only bloodshed the fort's people suffered fell upon those who ventured outside on June 6 and June 20. Dodge stationed a detachment there for some time afterward, but following the attack on June 20, the fort was never again singled out as a target during the Black Hawk War. For the remainder of the conflict, Fort Blue Mounds functioned mainly as a supply point for militia forces still tracking Black Hawk through Wisconsin.