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

              Part III.  LOCATION OF THE TRAIL THROUGH ¥ISC(!NSIN
After the skirmish at Sycamore Creek, frequently referred to as Stillman's Run to commemorate the dispatch with which the militia retired from the field. Black Hawk retreated to the head of the Kishwaxikee River in northern Illinois, Here he encountered V/innebago Indians who volunteered to guide him to a place of
safety. Black Hawk accepted and, according to his own account, he and his
17 followers arrived at their refuge in the Rock River swamp six days later.  But
he does not describe the route he followed.
Some time during those six days the Indians ascending the left bank of the
Rock crossed into Wisconsin over the site of Beloit, That the left rather than
the right bank was followed can be fairly well substantiated. Nowhere in the
evidence available is there any indication that the Indians crossed to the right
bank, Rachel Hall, one of the two sisters to survive the Indian Creek massacre,
18 makes no mention of crossing the river in her memoirs.  Black Hawk said that
19 the girls were brought to his camp in the Rock River swamp.  The Winnebago who
ransomed the girls specifically locate this as being on the left bank.
More than five weeks after Black Hawk led his followers to their swampy retreat. General Atkinson and his troops arrived at the mouth of Turtle Creek at the site of Beloit, Confident of the adequacy of his force and of his abil¬ ity to locate the British Band, Atkinson exuded optimism. Little did he realize what humiliation was in store for him. On the same day on which he wrote the
17
Milo Milton Quaife,  ed,. Life of Black Hawk (Chicago, 1916), U6-U7. 18 	
Memoirs of Rachel Hall,  October 11,  l83lt,  in the Black Hawk War Papers, Illinois Historical Society, 19
Quaife,  Black Hawk,  152,