Major Campbell's Expedition
When General Howard, commandant of the American forces in the west,
learned of the return of the troops from
Prairie du Chien, he immediately organized another expedition to
be sent up the river to reinforce Fort Shelby.
On July 4, 1814, the second expedition left Cap au Gris. It consisted of
three fortified barges, or keel boats, each with a cabin and all having
sails. There were thirty-three regular soldiers and sixty-five rangers
(militia), some of the latter being Frenchmen from Cahokia. The expedition
including the sutlers' establishment, boatmen, and women and children,
making one hundred and thirty-three persons. This expedition was commanded
by Lieutenant (acting Brigade Major) John Campbell of the First Regulars
(infantry), who with the regulars, contractors, sutlers, women and
children, occupied one boat. The two other boats being occupied by the
rangers and were commanded by Lieutenant Stephen Rector and Lieutenant
Jonathan Riggs. The number of regulars in this expedition has been
repeatedly given as forty-two; Major Campbell, however, reports that he
had but thirty-three.
On the thirteenth of the month, about eighty miles below the mouth of Rock
River they met a party of Indians from
Prairie du Chien. with a packet directed to Governor Clark. These
Indians informed Campbell that everything was quiet, and that the garrison
at the Prairie (Prairie du Chien) had been completed. The same day
Lieutenant Rector, of the rangers found a canoe which had a considerable
quantity of Indian property in it, and which had just been abandoned.
On the 18th of July, about twenty miles below the mouth of Rock River, the
expedition was met by a party of nine Indians in canoes, bearing a white
flag, who informed Major Campbell that they had heard of the American's
approach and had come to conduct them to their own town, and to inform
them that the Sacs and Foxes were friendly disposed. The Indians left the
keel boats a few miles below the mouth of Rock River, at the mouth of
which the boats were met by five other Indians in canoes, who informed the
commander that the Indians at the village on Rock River, about a mile
above its mouth, wished to hold a council with him. The keel boats
proceeded up the river and landed on the Illinois shore opposite the lower
end of the Island of Rock Island. In a short time, about one hundred and
fifty warriors, besides women and children of the Sac and Fox nation
appeared. Black Hawk was at the head of the party. He approached Major
Campbell and asked if he had brought any presents for him from his father.
Major Campbell told Black Hawk he had, provided he fulfilled the promises
he had made his father in the spring, which was to go to war with the
Peaus (Winnebagoes.) Black Hawk replied that he had made his father no
such promises, and that his "father was drunk when he said so," but that
he was ready to go to war with the Peaus if the government would furnish
him with the means. He further said: "The Mississippi is a broad and
straight road and the people of the United States shall meet with no
obstructions in traveling." During the evening the Indians were very
friendly, recognizing many old friends among the Frenchmen from Cahokia.
Early Settlements of Rock County
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908