Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume VIII (1879)

              early times at fort winnebago st5 this of course occasioned another delay and it was not till the fifth day that they left the fort in pursuit of the indians the enemy in the meantime went to fche four lakes where as i learned later they were advised to cross the wisconsin and the mississippi as soon as possible a few reliable winnebagoes under peter pauquette and myself were secured for scouts we had no difficulty in following their trail and gained upon them rapidly overtaking them on the bank of the wisconsin about twenty-five miles below where the battle of wisconsin was fought that battle made many heroes and so it should about one hundred and twenty half-starved indians defended the pass against nearly three thousand whites while the remainder of the indians in plain sight were crossing the wisconsin with the women and children and as soon as these were safe the indians broke and ran then came the struggle for scalps every man who could run started down the hill at his top speed my indian scouts and myself far ahead of the militia and i was about thirty feet ahead of them all just as i commenced raising the hill on the other side of the valley pauquette passed me on horseback ; and as he went by i caught his horse by the tail and held on till we reached the top of the hill where we found four dead indians pauquette took one scalp i took one and the indians scouts took the other two the indians lost four killed all told and the whites one this ended the battle of the wisconsin about which so much has been written the indians traveled as rapidly as possible to the mississippi near the mouth of the bad axe river i went home shortly after capt alexander johnson was ordered to take command of the regular troops and endeavor to intercept the indians and prevent their crossing the mississippi a steamboat was sent up the river from fort crawford commanded by jeff davis he drove the indians back and they were all killed or taken prison ers except black hawk and the prophet and their families who crossed the river before the steam boat arrived * black hawk in his narrative dictated to j b patterson says he had six killed mrs kinzie in her " waubun says it was reported that fifty sauks and foxes lost their lives on this occasion while wakefield in his history of the black hawk war states the loss of the indians at sixty-eight and that twenty-five of their wounded subsequently died l c d