A Revolutionary Battle at the Sac Village
In the spring of 1780 Captain Hesse, a former British soldier, then
Indian trader, assembled at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, a
body of Menominees, Winnebagoes and Sacs and Foxes, in all about six
hundred and fifty Indians, and with fifty white traders came down the
Wisconsin River in canoes and thence down the Mississippi River to St.
Louis, and attacked that then Spanish post. The British and their Indian
allies on May 26th, made their attack, but were repulsed by the
inhabitants and the small Spanish garrison. They then crossed the
Mississippi River and attacked the American post at Cahokia. Colonel John
Montgomery was American commandant of the Illinois, and he having heard of
the enemy's movements, was prepared. General George Rogers Clark had while
at the Falls of the Ohio learned of the threatened British-Indian
invasion, and hurried to the Illinois, arriving on the night of the 25th,
and assisted in the defense. The British and Indians were repulsed
although one American was killed.
General Clark now ordered Colonel Montgomery to pursue the enemy, and
Montgomery at the head of an army of three hundred and fifty soldiers,
mostly Virginians, including a company of Illinois French Militia and some
Spanish, marched to where Peoria now is and destroyed the Indian village
on the Illinois. He then took up his march across the prairies to the Sac
village near the mouth of Rock River. It was in the first part of June,
early accounts do not mention the day of the month, but it was during the
season that the Sacs and Foxes were always at their village cultivating
their fields of corn. Black Hawk does not mention this American visit, due
probably to the fact that an Indian seldom if ever mentions defeat.
Colonel Montgomery himself makes scant mention of his journey, save in a
letter written in 1783 to the Board of Commissioners for the Settlement of
Western Ac-counts in which he defends his actions while in the Illinois.
He speaks of desiring a leave of absence and says, "It was then he
(General George Rogers Clark) informed me of his resolution; and that the
Public Interest would not permit of my request being granted, that I must
take command of the expedition to Rock River." He then says: "After giving
me instructions, he (Clark) left Kohos (Cahokia) the 4th of June with a
small escort for the mouth of the Ohio on his route to Kentucky. I
immediately proceeded to the Business I was ordered and marched three
hundred and fifty men to the lake open on the Illinois River, and from
thence to the Rock River, Destroying the Toles and Crops proposed. The
Enemy not Daring to fight me as they had so lately Been Disbanded and they
could not raise a sufficient force "
James Aird, an early British trader, speaking of this matter in 1805, said
that the Sac village was burnt, "by about three hundred Americans,
although the Indians had assembled 700 warriors to give them battle." Aird
from 1778 on was engaged in trade with the Sacs and Foxes made annual
visits to their village and for weeks maintained on Credit (now Suburban)
Island a trading post or station.
The French Militia who accompanied Montgomery undoubtedly expected to
capture rich booty from the Indians and were greatly disappointed. In a
lengthy declaration to M. Mottin de la Balm, pensioner of the King of
France and French Colonel, etc., the inhabitants of Cahokia complain
grievously of the Virginians. They say in speaking of the Rock River
Expedition: "Oh; Colonel Clark, affecting always to desire our public
welfare and under pretext of avenging us, soon formed with us and
conjointly with the Spaniards a party of more than three hundred then to
go and attack in their own village the savages who had come to our homes
to harass us, and after substituting Colonel Montgomery to command in his
place, he soon left us.
"It is, then, well to explain to you, sir, that the Virginians, who never
employed any principle of economy, have been the cause by their lack of
management and bad conduct, of the non-success of the expedition and that
our glorious projects have failed through their fault; for the savages
abandoned their nearest villages, where we have been, and we were forced
to stop and not push on further, since we had almost no more provisions,
powder and balls, which the Virginians had under-taken to furnish us."
Thus at the Sac village at the mouth of Rock River was fought a battle
during the War of the Revolution. How long it lasted, were there any
killed or wounded, or if British soldiers took part, our early records do
not state, but in this farthest west of the Revolutionary engagements,
American soldiers like their brothers in the east, triumphed.
The Sac and Fox Indians of Illinois
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908