History of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens.

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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
the navel. Not feeling his wound, he jumped up; but the murderer and gun were gone. Finding his companion dead, and that he himself was wounded, he covered up the corpse and started for the fort, which he reached about 8 o'clock in the morning, quite faint from the loss of blood.
Immediately after the arrival of the wounded man, I dispatched a party of volunteers for the murderer; but he had fled. Failing to find the guilty outlaw, they apprehended the chief of the village (Le Corbeau Francois), who was an uncle of the escaped culprit, brought him to Prairie du Chien, and he was locked up in the Black Hole of the fort. The next day, on being informed that if the murderer was not immediately produced, he would be shot instead, he sent off a message to his band, ex¬ plaining to his people the alternative. Search was made and the guilty fellow found in another tribe, a hundred miles away, and he was brought to the fort after only eight days absence. The chief was forthwith released from confinement, and his nephew put in his place, where he remained a couple of days. Capt. Bulger was ignorant of Indian character, and Col. Diajon, a nobody, wished to save the prisoner on the ground, that in case he should be executed, it would turn all the Indians against us; while I, on the contrary, insisted that it would produce a feeling of respect, and it so resulted. I believe fear, among Indians, to be a means of securing their friendship. The culprit was shot as he deserved.
The commandant ordered a court-martial to try the prisoner. The wounded interpreter identified the murderer. The old chief said, "kill him; he is a bad man, and has murdered two Indians of his own family." The prisoner confessed his crime, saying his object in shoot¬ ing them was to secure the gun. The court brought in the prisoner guilty, and sentenced him to be shot. Capt. Bulger approved the sentence, and ordered his execution the next ' day at 10 o'clock,  when   the   sentence    was
carried into effect—his death instantly followed the crack of the volley of rifles. Indians, whites, and all appeared satisfied at the result. The wounded interpreter died in my arms a few days after.
All was now quiet, until the latter end of May, 1815, when we received news of peace, and orders to evacuate the post, and return with all haste to Mackinaw. Capt. Bulger, who was heartily tired of the secluded situation, was off within two hours, leaving me to settle the ac¬ counts, and bring away the Volunteers. At 12 o'clock the next day, all was in readiness, and I was about getting on board, when a batteau full of Sauk Indians, with Black Hawk at their head, was seen coming up the river, and near at hand. After landing, and the usual formal smoke„I informed them of the conclu¬ sion of peace, and that they must now bury their war clubs, and be good friends with the Big Knives—Americans. The whole-hearted man and unflinching warrior. Black Hawk, cried like a child, saying our Great Mother, Great Britain, has thus concluded, and farther talk is useless. I gave them some ammunition, provisions, with a hearty shake of the hand, and we parted sorrowfully.
At Green Bay, I met dispatches from Col. McDouall, directing me to institute an inquiry to ascertain if any, and what, public accounts remained unpaid at that place. This detained me for some time; I, however, reached Macki¬ naw in July. Not many days after my arrival, I received orders to return to the Mississippi with three batteaux, loaded with Indian goods for distribution among the Indians, and to for¬ mally announce to them the conclusion ot .peace.
I did not return from this mission until Sep¬ tember, when I found Mackinaw had been given up to the Americans; and Col. McDouall had taken up a position on Drummond Island, with¬ in our own limits, and which was an entire bush —never a stick had been cut there. I arrived there on the 15th September, 1815.   In a few