Black Hawk's Route through Wisconsin in 1832

Black Hawk's Route through Wisconsin: report of an investigation made by authority of the Legislature of Wisconsin.

This mimeographed pamphlet resulted from a request by the Wisconsin legislature in 1945 that the route of Black Hawk through the state during the summer of 1832 should be identified by a capable scholar. Its author, William T. Hagan, was working on his Ph.D. dissertation about the Sauk and Fox Indians at the time; he went on to distinguished careers as a historian of Indian-U.S. relations at North Texas State University (1950-65), the State Univ. College, Fredonia, New York (1965-88) and the University of Oklahoma (1989-95). This little monograph examines the firsthand evidence of Black Hawk's retreat from Beloit, across south-central Wisconsin, to the final massacre at Bad Axe, in Vernon Co. Although not a primary source itself, it excerpts and summarizes the most important eyewitness accounts of Black Hawk's movements in Wisconsin and its map (following page 16) provides a convenient overview of the geography of the war in Wisconsin.

View the Document

---