HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
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Hawk and his band had been located, their camp was found deserted, the Winnebagoes insisting that they had gone to Cranberry (now Horicon) Lake, a half-day's march up the river. Messengers were immediately dispatched to Atkinson's headquarters, thirty-five miles distant, to apprise him of this fact. When they had proceeded about half the distance, they struck a broad, fresh trail, which proved to be that of Black Hawk's band headed westward toward the Mississippi. The guide having deserted them in order to warn his tribesmen that further dissembling to deceive the whites as to the whereabouts of the Sacs was useless, the messengers were compelled to follow him to General Henry's camp. The discovery produced the wildest enthusiasm among the volunteers, and from this time-events followed in rapid succession. Leaving as far as possible all incumbrances behind, the pursuit of the fugitives was begun without delay, the troops wading through swamps sometimes in water to their armpits. Soon evidence of the character of the flight the Indians were making, in the shape of exhausted horses, blankets, and camp equipage cast aside along the trail, began to appear, and straggling bands of Winnebagoes, who had now begun to desert Black Hawk, gave information that the Indians were only a few miles in advance. On the evening of the 20th of July Henry's forces encamped at "The Four Lakes," the present site of the city of Madison, Wis., Black Hawk's force lying in ambush the same night seven or eight miles distant. During the next afternoon the rear-guard of the Indians under Neapope was overtaken and skirmishing continued until the bluffs of the Wisconsin were reached. Black Hawk's avowed object was to protect the passage of the main body of his people across the stream. The loss of the Indians in these skirmishes has been estimated at 40 to 68, while Black Hawk claimed that it was only six killed, the loss of the whites being one killed and eight wounded. During the night Black Hawk succeeded in placing a considerable number of the women and children and old men on a raft and in canoes obtained from the Winnebagoes, and sent them down the river, believing that, as non-combatants, they would be permitted by the regulars to pass Fort Crawford, at the mouth of the Wisconsin, undisturbed. In this he was mistaken
