Captain Stephenson’s Fight.

By Greg Carter.

Introduction.

On June 18th, 1832, Captain James W. Stephenson’s militia company was involved a battle with a party of Sauk Indians who had taken horses from near Apple River Fort. The battle was short; resulting in three dead militiamen, one dead Indian, and Captain Stephenson himself was severely wounded. The battlefield was located somewhere in northern Stephenson County, Illinois (then Jo Daviess County), but little else was known. A year ago I undertook a mission to locate the battlefield. This article is a revision of a previous article I wrote concerning the battlefield's location.

Captain Stephenson’s Fight.

Before dawn on June 18th, 1832, Captain Stephenson and 12 men from his company of mounted militia and several additional men from Apple River Fort took to the trail of a party of Sauk Indians. These Indians had stolen horses from the vicinity of Apple River Fort a day or so before. The militia travelling across present-day Stephenson County through a driving rain, eventually sighting the Indians approximately 12 miles northeast of Kellogg’s Grove. From this point they observed the Sauks entering a dense thicket in the valley under the northeast side of the hill. Stephenson and his men were quite likely standing upon the rise of West Point Hill, one of the highest points of elevation in Stephenson County.

Stephenson’s men dismounted and crawled down the hill as close as they could come to the thicket, then rose up and fired a volley into it. The Sauks did not return fire. Stephenson’s men then fixed bayonets and attempted a charge into the thicket. The Sauks then returned fire, killing one of Stephenson’s men, Stephen P. Howard. Charges were made two more times. During the second charge, Private Thomas Sublette stabbed a Sauk in the neck with his bayonet and killed him. A second man, George Eames, was killed. During the third charge, Captain Stephenson was shot in the chest, and Private Michael Lovell was killed. Stephenson would later report that his men killed five Indians. The June 20th edition of The Galenian reported that Stephenson’s men rode into town bearing two scalps. On June 20th, Colonel James Strode led a party of militia to the field and buried the dead. Strode and his force returned to Galena two days later.

The Battlefield Today.

All contemporary accounts of the battle describe the location as a dense thicket near the Pecatonica River. Beginning after 1900, written histories of the battle call it “Waddam’s Grove”. Armed with these two facts, one is presented with a perplexing problem: do the histories refer to the village of Waddam’s Grove, or the township of Waddam’s Grove, both located in Stephenson County, and both near the Pecatonica River? Willaim Stark’s Along the Black Hawk Trail, a photographic tour guide to the war published in 1984, provided no answer whatever.

Waddam’s Grove is unfortunately an incorrect name for the battle. William Waddams made his claim near the 1826 "Boles Trail" in September, 1832, after the Sauk War was officially over. "Waddam’s Grove" does however, provide a clue to the location of the battlefield. According to The McConnell Sesquicentennial History Album, Waddams established his claim north of the present town of Waddam’s Grove, not mentioning the township at all. This is supported by several county and local area histories. Today a small stone marker notes the location of his cabin. Northwest of the cabin location still remains a thicket of timber and underbrush, on the “Waddams Branch” of Yellow Creek, approximately two miles west of the Pecatonica River. It was here that the battle was fought, not in the township of Waddam’s Grove. Today the thicket can be viewed by driving across Crossroads Road on Pin Hook Road in Stephenson County, almost immediately west of Lake Le-Aqua-Na State Park. After crossing the road you can look to the northwest and still see the thicket where the battle took place.

Sources:

Barrett, Mary X. The Indians of Stephenson County Illinois.

Burchard, Edward L. Early Trails & Tides of Travel in the Lead Mine and Blackhawk Country. Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1925.

Fulwider, Addison I. History of Stephenson County Illinois. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1910.

The History of Stephenson County, Illinois. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1880.

History of Stephenson County, 1970. Freeport: County of Stephenson, 1970.

Illinois Atlas and Gazetteer, 4th Ed. Yarmouth: DeLorme Publishing, 2003.

Keister, Phillip I. Stephenson County Roads. Freeport: Stephenson County Historical Society, 1970.

McConnell Sesquicentennial History Album. McConnell: 1988.

Stephens, Frank E. Wakefield’s History of the Black Hawk War. Madison: Roger Hunt, 1976.

Whitney, Ellen. The Black Hawk War 1831-1832, Volume I: Illinois Volunteers. Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970.

Whitney, Ellen. The Black Hawk War 1831-1832, Volume II, Part 1: Letters and Papers. Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1973.