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

              LC/CATION OF THE TRAIL 21
The route the Indians took after their hurried departure from their camp near the head of Lake Koshkonong cannot be determined conclusively, but the one indicated on the accompanying maps is based on good evidence. A number of trails led from the encampment, indicating that the Indians had dispersed in small groups, Atkinson halted for two days below the lake trying to discover which route the main body had taken. Becoming apprehensive, he sent detachments
up both banks of the Rock. All scouting parties reported that the British Band
28 had left the area,  but an old Indian who had been captured stated under duress
29
that the fleeing band was still on the left bank of the river.  This informa¬ tion, and the fact that lurking Indians had fired upon the camp, convinced
Atkinson that the Sauk and Foxes were concealed in the swamps between the right
30 bank of the Bark and the Rock, and he so reported to the secretary of war.
Basing his operations on this assumption, Atkinson wasted several days trying to bypass the head of the Bark River, since it was not practical to ford it with his entire force and equipment. The terrain, principally swamp inter¬ spersed with occasional patches of woods, was extremely difficult to traverse, and the troops were being tortured by the swarms of mosquitoes that infested the swamps. On the advice of Indian guides Atkinson abandoned the attempt to turn the river and marched the army back to the Rock, His early air of optimism had now completely vanished and he wrote to Winfield Scott: "the country is so cut up with prairie wood and swamp, that it is extremely difficult to approach
Journal of Albert Sidney Johnston, July 3-5^ 1832, in the Illinois His¬ torical Society. 29
Wakefield, History, UU, 30
Atkinson to the Secretary of War, July 6, 1832, in the Adjutant Generc?l*s Files.