see the British agent, at Malden to receive presents, most of which could be used against the Americans in unprotected localities, the Indians passing Chicago July 1st. A friendly Miami who was present when those Sacs received their presents, afterwards informed the Americans that the agent told him as he had the Sacs these words: "My son, keep your eyes fixed on me; my tomahawk is now up; be you ready, but do not strike until I give the signal." For Indians of a peaceful frame of mind, the following inventory may be said to reflect many hypothetical interlineations:

*

"FORT WAYNE, Aug. 7, 1810.

"Since writing you on the 26th ultimo, about 100 men of the Saukies have returned from the British agent, who supplied them liberally with everything they stood in need of. The parties received 47 rifles and a numer of fusils, with plenty of powder and lead. This is sending firebrands into the Mississippi country, inasmuch as it will draw numbers of our Indians to the British side, in the hope of being treated with the same liberality.

(Annals of the West, page 577.)

"JOHN JOHNSON,

"Indian Agent.”

On May 13, 1811, the government was notified from Chicago that an assemblage of Indians was to take place on a branch of the Illinois, inspired by the Prophet of the Wabash and from which, hostilities might be expected to spring in the event of trouble with the English. On June 2, 1811, a party of savages fell upon a family named Cox, near the forks of Shoal creek. There were present at the time but two members of it, a young man, who was instantly killed, his body was mutilated in a shocking manner, and a young woman, who was made a prisoner. With the prisoner and all the live stock stolen, the Indians followed a northward course for home. When the Coxes returned and found the desolation left by the murderers, a party commanded by one Preuitt, with Henry Cox, Benjamin Cox and others to the number of eight or ten, started in pursuit, northwesterly, and continuing to a point seven miles from their home and 50 miles north of the present site of the city of Springfield, where the Indians were overtaken and an engagement followed. No lives were lost, but the property was recovered, and during the excitement of the engagement, the girl escaped, receiving a cruel tomahawk wound in the hip while she ran. On the 20th of the same month, a man named Price was killed near the spring in the lower end of what was later the city of Alton.† Price, a relative of the Whiteside family, and another man named Ellis were plowing corn when they saw the Indians approaching them at the spring, where a small cabin was located. As the Indians approached, the whites asked if they were for peace or war. One of their number, a large

*The same referred to in the paragraph above.

†Davison and Stuve, 249, Reynolds' Pioneer Hist.. 404.

and powerful fellow, replied by laying his gun upon the ground and extending his hand to Price, who innocently grasped it. But the Indian held him as in a vice while the other Indians murdered him in cold blood. During the fight, the man Ellis escaped after receiving a wound in the thigh, by flying to his horse and making for home.

Murders became so numerous and the unfortunate victims were mutilated so frightfully, that a mass meeting of St. Clair county citizens was held to consider the state of the country, demand protection by the government and in the mean time, protect themselves as well as their numbers and means would permit. At that meeting, "Col. William Whiteside was conducted to the chair and Samuel D. Davidson, Esq., appointed secretary:

"Resolved unanimously, That the following memorial be presented to Ninian Edwards, governor of the territory aforesaid, as the joint sense of the meeting, to be signed by the chairman; which humbly sheweth, that we are highly gratified with the prompt, speedy and prudential manner in which your Excellency has issued your orders for the defense of the exposed frontiers of said country, to oppose the repetition of Indian hostilities and that we have the utmost and incontrovertible confidence in your abilities and patriotism for our safety in the present alarming times, as the constitutional channel between the general government and us:

"WHEREFORE, we confidently request of your Excellency to forward the annexed memorial to the President of the United States, with such statements as may appear reasonable and just to gain the object prayed for, as we are confident your Excellency must feel and see with us, that one or more garrisons, established and defended by the regular veterans of the United States, would be of the utmost safety to the extensive and exposed frontiers of both the Louisiana and Illinois territories in a more particular manner as the great and numerous tribes of Indians, who had the hardihood and insolence to make war against the United States, (and in some instances with effect) a few years since, that by the treaty of Greenville and other subsequent treaties, have relinquished their title to their former hunting ground, which is now transformed into substantial plantations and are changing their habitations fast from the lakes and waters of the Ohio down the Illinois river to the Mississippi, where undoubtedly it would be necessary to establish a fort, in order to set reasonable bounds to their savage fury and unprovoked disturbance; we beg leave to refer your Excellency to a view of the great and manifest benefits lately obtained by the garrisons established far up on the two great rivers, several hundred miles above their junction, when, before the establishing of these strengths, there did not a season pass by but some innocent person fell a victim to savage barbarity on both sides of the river and we confidently believe it would have the same salutary effect, in establishing one fort or block house on the first eminence above either the mouths of the Missouri or the Illinois rivers and another in the seditious village of Peoria, the great nur. sery of hostile Indians and traitorous British Indian traders.

We

hope it will not be thought superfluous to mention, that the above request is not to gratify our pride or avarice in obtaining military pomp to decorate our streets, or the expenditure of public money to buy our produce, but it is to keep the improving citizen in peace in a remote region from the United States, who is now working to convert the fertile and extensive plains of the Mississippi into the fairest portion of the Union.

"From different circumstances the inhabitants of this country are not in possession of a sufficiency of arms to repel any attack that may be offered; owing to the present alarm, it is not in our power to buy any, and a considerable portion of the militia are not circumstanced to buy. If your Excellency will be pleased to make use of your good offices to obtain from the general government the use of what rifles and muskets may be thought in your wisdom needful, it certainly would be of great service to this frontier country.

WILLIAM WHITESIDE,
SAMUEL D. DAVIDSON."

"At a numerous meeting of the militia officers, and other inhabitants of St. Clair county, Illinois territory, at the court house, the ...day of....1811, to take into consideration the alarming situation of the frontiers of this county, from the numerous and horrid depredations lately committed by the Indians; Col. William Whiteside was conducted to the chair, and Samuel D. Davidson appointed secretary.

"Resolved, That there be a memorial immediately signed by the chairman of this meeting and countersigned by the secretary, stating to the President of the United States the necessity of his ordering what number of regular troops he, in his wisdom, may think requisite, to be stationed for the defence of said county.

"Resolved, That the said memorial be sent to the Governor of said territory, requesting him to forward the same to the President of the United States and make such statement (to accompany said mem orial) as the urgency of the subject does require.

"To James Madison, President of the United States, Greeting—

"The memorial of the inhabitants of the aforesaid county, humbly sheweth: That the inhabitants residing on the frontiers aforesaid have sustained frequent and repeated damages from the differen and numerous tribes of Indians on and in the neighborhood of th Illinois river, these five or six years past, by stealing their horse and other property, as well as the cruel murder of some few of th citizens. In lieu of retaliating, the said citizens curbed their pas sions and restrained their resentment, lest they should be so unfor tunate as to draw a stigma on the government by punishing the in nocent for the transgressions of the guilty; and in one instanc restrained the vindictive spirit, by taking two Indians prisoner who were in possession of stolen property, after a chase of 100 mile and gave them up to the law.

"We are become the victims of savage cruelty in a more hasty and general manner than what has lately been experienced in the United States. Last spring, there were numbers of horses stolen. On the second of June, a house of Mr. Cox was robbed of valuable effects, five horses stolen, a young man massacred and his sister taken prisoner; sad and conclusive presages of war. There was likewise a man severely wounded, when following the aforesaid Indians.

"On the 20th of the same month (June) a man was killed and scalped and another mortally wounded, which can be more fully stated by the executive of said territory. Those who have suffered are not intruders, but are living on their own farms, on the northwestern frontier of said county. From our knowledge of the danger we are in, and our long suffering, we think we ask nothing but what is reasonable and what will be advantageous to the United States when we implore you to station what number of soldiers you may think sufficient to establish a garrison at the village of Peoria, commonly called Opea, on the Illinois river; and one other on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, at or near the place once viewed and adopted by Captains Stoddart and Bissel, six or eight miles below the mouth of said Illinois river, both sites being covered by treaty. We beg to refer you to the governor of said territory concerning the urgency and necessity of the case, not doubting but that you will grant our request if you think it will be for the welfare of the Union.

WM. WHITESIDE,
SAM'L D. DAVIDSON."*

Which resolutions, with letters, were forwarded by Governor Edwards to the President, Feb. 15, 1812.

At once (July, 1811†) a company of mounted rangers was raised in the Goshen settlement for the protection of the locality. Another was raised in Missouri. An act of Congress followed, authorizing the enlistment of ten companies of mounted rangers, to be styled the 17th regiment, of which Col. William Russell, of Kentucky, was given command, and over each of which companies a captain was elected by the men. Four of those companies, recruited from Illinois, were assigned to the defense of Illinois, towit: The companies of Capt. William B. Whiteside, Capt. Samuel Whiteside, Capt James B. Moore and Capt. Jacob Short. Four of them were assigned to Indiana and two to Missouri.

Over toward the Wabash five companies of mounted rangers were organized, to-wit: The companies of Capt. Willis Hargrave,§ Capt. William McHenry,§ Capt. Nathaniel Journey, Capt. Thomas E. Craig (of Shawneetown) and Capt. William Boone of the Big Muddy.||

Forts, block houses and stockades were erected over the State wherever settlements were to be found, and, so far as known, are included in the following list: Journey's fort, a short distance above the site of the town of Aviston; one on the site of the present town

of Carlyle; two (in the present county of Bond) on the east side of Shoal creek, one known as Hill's fort and the other as Jones' fort; one a few miles southeast of the present site of Lebanon, in St. Clair county, on the west side of the Looking Glass prairie, known as Chambers' fort; one on the Kaskaskia river, called Middleton's fort, and another on the same stream called Going's fort; one on (Goshen) Doza creek, a few miles above its mouth, known as Nat Hill's; two in the Jourdan or Jordan settlement, built in 1811 by Thomas and Francis Jordan, with the assistance of the militia from the U. S. Saline, on the road to the salt works in the eastern part of Franklin county, eight or nine miles from old Frankfort; one at the mouth of the Illinois river; one, a small block house, on the west bank of the Illinois river (Prairie Marcot), 19 miles above its mouth, erected by Lieut. John Campbell, U. S. A; Fort Clark at Peoria; one on the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Missouri; one on Silver creek, northeast of Troy; one called Ft. Johnson, on the site of the present town of Warsaw; Ft. Edwards; one, and by far the most important, called Camp Russell, in honor of Colonel Russell, was established about a mile and a half northwest of Edwards ville; Ft. Massac was also used as a base of supplies. Also the following over in White county: One on the Tanguary land, the northeast quarter of section 16, in township No. 5 south, of range 10 east, built by Capt. William McHenry in the summer of 1812, and from which Captain McHenry's company ranged; one on the Starkey place, built by Hardy Council in 1813; one on the east side of Big Prairie, built by Aaron Williams in 1813; one on the ground a little south of George Hanna's house, built by John Hanna, upon which spot there now stands a Methodist church; one about 200 yards east of where Mathew Land now owns, built by Robert Land, who lived in it during the war, about half a mile south of the Hanna fort last above named; one east of Thomas Logan's farm, built by John Slocumb; and one in the northern part of the county, built by Daniel Boultinghouse near the prairie since named for him. He was killed by the Indians out on that prairie, near the house, in 1813.

On March 20, 1813, a gentleman, writing to the Missouri Gazette, referred, among other things, to the forts of Illinois in the following manner: "We have now nearly finished 22 family forts (stations), extending from the Mississippi, nearly opposite Bellefontaine (the mouth of the Missouri), to the Kaskaskia river, a distance of about 60 miles. Between each fort spies are to pass and repass daily and communicate throughout the whole line, which will be extended to the U. S. Saline and from thence to the mouth of the Ohio. Rangers and mounted militia, to the amount of 500 men, constantly scour the country from 20 to 50 miles in advance of our settlements, so that we feel perfectly easy as to an attack from our red brethren (?) as Mr. Jefferson very lovingly calls them."

In general, those forts were block houses, built of logs, a story and a half or two stories in height, with corners closely trimmed; the walls of the first being provided with port holes and doors, the last named being made of thick puncheons, strongly fastened together