The War That Wasn't A War

 

The Black Hawk War of 1832 is often described as a brief frontier conflict.

 Many of the men who took part remembered it as something different.

 

When Black Hawk and several hundred followers—many of them women and children—crossed the Mississippi to return to their homes along the Rock River, American officials treated it as an invasion. Militia units were called up, and fear spread faster than facts.

 

What followed wasn’t a traditional war. U.S. troops and militia chased Black Hawk’s band across Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory. Skirmishes often involved hungry families searching for food. Villages were burned, and noncombatants were killed.

 

The last encounter at the Bad Axe River ended any doubt.

 

As Black Hawk’s people tried to cross the Mississippi, soldiers opened fire. Many were shot in the water. Others were killed on shore.

 

History called it a war. Soldiers on the ground called it a massacre.

 

Over five hundred women and children perished in a matter of months.