Battle Hollow

September 9, 2004, continued.

After two miles of gravel, I came to the end of Battle Hollow Road. I met only one car, apparently some high school kids on their way to school. At the end there were a couple of residences. I took this photo facing northwest.

According to one diary, this hollow was the route taken to the river by a large number of Black Hawk’s people, and was also the route taken by the left wing of the forces under Gen. Atkinson:

Our order of battle was promptly arranged under the personal supervision of Gen. Atkinson, the center composed of the regular troops, about three hundred and eighty in number, and Dodge’s corps, perhaps about one hundred and fifty. The right, of the remains of Posey’s and Alexander’s militia brigades, probably in all two hundred and fifty men; the left, of Henry’s brigade, in numbers not far from four hundred men–which brigade was, throughout the campaign, a most excellent body of militia and well commanded. The army advanced by heads of companies over two or three miles.

I got this quotation from “Massacre at Bad Axe : An eye-witness account of the Black Hawk War of 1832,” compiled and edited by Crawford Beecher Thayer (1984) page 172. Thayer cites what he refers to as the Smith diary: “Smith, Henry, “Diary” extracts from newspaper article [Milwaukee Sentinel? nodate] in Notebook 501b in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, Historical Society, Howard Museum.

So from this and other material in Thayer’s book, it appears that the army and militia were advancing over a front of two or three miles, and that much of the fighting took place in this hollow until the Sauk people had retreated to the river and go no further, at which point many more were killed. A map from the Office of the Adjudant General, from the National Archives is reproduced in Thayer’s book, and suggests that the main path taken by Black Hawk’s people and Henry’s men was at the foot of the hills in the distance. Black Hawk’s people were retreating from right to left in the photo (east to west).

It had been a place of terrible killing on August 2, 1832 — quite a contrast to my peaceful ride up the hollow. But it wasn’t all peaceful while I was taking my photos there. This dog was behind me, barking its head off the entire time I was there.