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It was during that period of over one month at Dixon’s Ferry that Mr. Dixon became so well acquainted with Lieutenant Davis and his companions that error was impossible. He with others were guests at Mr. Dixon’s house. They traded with him, buying his merchandise and paying for it or “having it charged.” They hunted the wild duck, the grouse, the squirrel, the deer and the wild bee trees, and they fished and trapped and enjoyed life with a zest allowed no man of the present day of dirty pavements, crowded streets and dusty roads.

For weeks they were present, conversing, dining, playing, romping the prairies like so many schoolboys just dismissed from the termination of a long and arduous term of school. And thus were the images of those army officers impressed upon the memory of John Dixon, who, by the by, continued with them clear through the campaign, as army guide and contractor, till the battle of the Bad Axe ended the campaign.

After wearisome efforts around the Koshkonong country to dislodge the enemy, Henry and Dodge found his trail leading to the west, in a final effort to escape destruction, which was so surely coming upon him.

Taylor’s division, including Lieutenant Davis, who was Taylor’s adjutant, marched immediately for the Wisconsin River and the Blue Mounds, and thence on to the Bax Axe. After this engagement, the troops marched to Fort Crawford, their headquarters, and there, freed from the dangers and fatigue of the campaign, Lieutenant Davis formally wrote out a letter notifying the department of his return to duty. From that point the Illinois troops were marched back to Dixon’s Ferry and mustered out by Capt. Zalmon C. Palmer.

During this period of five weeks, while Taylor remained at Dixon’s Ferry, he was constantly on the alert, intercepting marauding bands of Indians, assisting the volunteers who had temporarily offered their services while the new levy was forming at Hennepin and Fort Wilbourn, and generally protecting the frontiers, and in this connection it may be said that the bloodiest and most destructive skirmishes were made between the Ferry and Galena during this period.

It may also be recorded that while the little account book was at all times open to the service of the officers there stationed, Mr. Dixon always laughingly spoke of the fact that, while he often sold them bills of goods, yet Lieutenant Davis and Lieutenant Anderson were always cash customers. In the fullness of time, Mr. Dixon, who had never taken thought for the morrow, particularly when his fellow man was in need or distress, came to an age when he felt constrained to marshal all of his resources and call in his few overlooked accounts. Among them was a large one against the United States Government, which of right should have been paid years before, but being in no immediate need, it had slipped along without attention. He finally applied for a land warrant for a quarter section of land to recompense him in a measure for the many and valuable services he had rendered his country during the Black Hawk War. A bill was introduced in Congress, passed by the Lower House, and in the Senate was referred to the usual committee for consideration. This committee reported adversely on the bill, and when it was reported to the Senate for final action, Senator Trumbull, who well knew the merit of the case and greatly desired the passage of the measure, dispatched a message at once to Dixon to inquire if Mr. Dixon did not know of some friend in the Senate, as he did in the House, who would assist in its passage. On a moment’s thought he replied to a friend, “Why, yes, there is Lieutenant Davis,” whereupon the attention of Senator Jefferson Davis was called to the bill, and here is the record of what transpired:

From the Congressional Globe, First Session. 36th Congress.–June 8th, 1860, page 2751:

“JOHN DIXON.

“The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, next proceeded to consider the bill (H.R. No. 236) for the relief of John Dixon, which had been reported adversely from the Committee on Public Lands. It directs the Secretary of the Interior to issue a bounty land warrant for one hundred and sixty acres to John Dixon, of Dixon’s Ferry, in the State of Illinois, for services rendered in the Black Hawk war.

“Mr. Trumbull: I ask that the bill may be put upon its passage. I will remark that the Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, with whom I had a conversation on the subject, stated that he reported adversely on this bill to grant a land warrant to Mr. Dixon, for the reason that the testimony before the Committee did not seem to be sufficient of his having rendered any service. He was not enlisted in the service, but he performed valuable service in the Black Hawk war–furnished supplies and acted as a guide and interpreter. He is an old man, over eighty years of age, and is now in very reduced circumstances. Some of his friends have made this application to get the old man a land warrant, and comes, I think, within the spirit of the law. The Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Davis), who served in the war, knows him personally, and perhaps he would make a statement to the Senate of his knowledge of the services for which it is proposed to grant a land warrant to this poor old man.’

“Mr. Davis: ‘As stated by the Senator from Illinois, I do know this individual personally and believe him to be a very honest man, and I should have great confidence in his statement. He was one of the first pioneers in the country near what is now the town of Dixon, formerly known as Dixon’s Ferry. He lived there in an isolated position when I first knew him. His house was reached by crossing a wide prairie country inhabited only by Indians. He was of great service in the first settlement of the country. He was of service to the troops when they ascended the Rock River in the Black Hawk campaign. For some time a post was established at or near his house. He was of service at that time in furnishing supplies and giving information in regard to the country, and afterwards in taking care of the sick. In a liberal spirit toward camp followers, we have since that time provided for packmen, for teamsters and for clerks, giving them bounty land warrants equally with the soldiers who were serving in the same campaign. I think the only objection in this case is the want of testimony, but I have such confidence in the individual, together with my recollection of the circumstances, that I would say that he was within the spirit of the law, and I should be glad, because of his many services in the first settlement of that country, to see him thus rewarded.’”

After a few exchanges of explanations, the bill passed the Senate, and the recollections of Senator Jefferson Davis of the days he spent at and about Mr. Dixon’s log cabin saved the day for the bill.

It is not to be considered by any intelligent person that Mr. Davis would state on the floor of the United States Senate those facts, “from my recollection of the circumstances,” if he had not been present in that campaign and witnessed them with the pleasantest of memories. The little old log tavern-store-house of the 1832 campaign came back to him with all its memories and Senator Davis saved the bill, as the record of the proceedings show.

The days when a man of years was young and his associations are never forgotten, and if any association under Heaven will evoke assistance from one to another it is an appeal to those early associations. And so it was with Senator Davis and Mr. Dixon.

Among others of subsequent prominence in the history of the State of Illinois, who formed the acquaintance of Mr. Davis during that campaign, and particularly while Taylor was stationed at Dixon’s Ferry, was Col. John Dement, later a resident of the city of Dixon, where he died. For fifty years Colonel Dement was one of the foremost men of Illinois, and whenever he made a statement it carried conviction. He it was who fought the battle of Kellogg’s Grove in that campaign, one of the fiercest of the many which occurred between Dixon’s Ferry and Galena, retiring only after his clothing had been pierced with bullets and the Indians thoroughly checked from further molestation of the northwestern frontier.

Colonel Dement many times told me of his acquaintance with Lieutenant Davis and how it ripened into a strong friendship as the campaign progressed, and which continued for all time thereafter. He many times in his lifetime spoke of Lieutenant Davis during that campaign, in public; and in the form of historical narrative he reduced the same statements to writing, one of which I have.

At the breaking out of hostilities, Colonel Dement was State Treasurer, which station naturally carried with it considerable prestige in more ways than one, as proved to be the case a little later when he won for his bride the daughter of Gen. Henry Dodge, later Governor of Wisconsin and United States Senator, and, by the by, one of the most famous Indian fighters that ever lived.

Lieutenant Davis knew them both, bride and groom, from the early day, all through life, and at the death of the Colonel wrote to Mrs. Dement the following touching letter, in which the friendship of that famous old campaign is alluded to:

“My Dear Friend: Of the many who will offer you condolence in your recent bereavement, there is not one who sympathizes more deeply with you than he who long years ago claimed the privilege of the sacred name of friend.

“Widely and long we have been separated, but your image has not been dimmed by time and distance.

“The gallantry and noble bearing of your deceased husband was known to all who, like myself, were on the frontier of Illinois during the campaign against Black Hawk, and from your brother, Augustus, and your friend, General Jones, I heard of him in after years.

“As your husband, he was to me the object of special interest, and it was a great gratification to me to learn that he was so worthy to be your life companion.

“If you have preserved enough of the pleasant memories of one springtime to care for one who flitted with you over the flowers of youth’s happy garden, it will give me sincere gratification to hear from you and to learn of the welfare of yourself and children.

“With cordial regard for you and yours, and renewed assurance of my deep sympathy, I am ever,

The term “garden” is appropriately applied to the spring of the year 1832 and its successor, 1833. The summer of 1831 had been dry, and crops and vegetation had failed; the prairies had been left parched and brown, and but for the open-handed manner of the pioneer in helping his distressed brother, there had indeed been great suffering. But in 1832, barring the scare of the Indian campaign then carried on, the people were permitted to revel in a luxury of vegetation. Rains descended and the foliage of the trees was beautiful beyond description. The wild grape and cherry and plum, and the bee tree, laden with honey, were all free to him who cared to gather. Wild deer, turkeys, ducks, geese, grouse and squirrels were everywhere present in abundance for the huntsman, while the streams were plentifully stocked with fish. The wild rose spread out its blossoms over the prairies, and if man, though never so weary, could not revel in his surroundings he was sordid enough. The pathway of the pioneer was hard and coarse, but a thoughtful God seasoned his toil with many a blessing denied to us of the crowded city.

General Harney, in the latter years of his life, was very fond of speaking of those same beautiful days of springtime and the famous men he soldiered with at Dixon’s Ferry and on through the campaign, and in all those reminiscences failed never to allude to Lieut. Jefferson Davis, beginning with him at the mouth of Rock River, when they began their march up to Dixon’s Ferry. Reavis, in his biography, makes frequent quotations from those days and events in which both Harney and Davis took such active and conspicuous parts. In a recent correspondence with Mrs. John M. Harney of St. Louis I am told that full reliance can be placed upon the statements made by Mr. Reavis in that biography, and, furthermore, all statements contained in the same as emanating from General Harney were made in the presence of herself and Mr. Harney, and, independently of the book, Mrs. Harney confirms the presence of Lieutenant Davis in that campaign from General Harney himself, who in his lifetime so asserted many times.

Gen. John A. McClernand, the last living member of that famous band which gathered at Dixon’s Ferry, wrote me, a very short time before his death, which but recently occurred, that he well knew it to be true that Lieutenant Davis was present and participated in the campaign to its close.

Later on, when Lieutenant Davis became Secretary of War, Colonel Strode, who had then removed to Woodstock, Illinois, and traveled the circuit from that point, was exceedingly fond of alluding to Jefferson Davis as his companion in arms during the Black Hawk War, and upon that point I have the correspondence, confirming the making of those claims at all times and upon all occasions, from so eminent an authority as Hon. H.W. Blodgett, for so many years United States Judge of this District.

Gen. George W. Jones, the first Senator in Congress from the State of Iowa, was a classmate of Jefferson Davis in their days of young manhood at Transylvania, and at his death was one of Mr. Davis’ pallbearers. The college days, so dear to every man who has a soul, brought them together as only college days can bring men together, and if subsequent events should ever bring them together again, after separating to start out in life, it can scarcely be said that either could be mistaken in any material point concerning the history of the occasion. Certainly General Jones could not, and here is what he has written above his signature about the presence of Lieut. Jefferson Davis, his classmate, in the Black Hawk campaign:

Mr. F.R. Dixon.

My Dear Sir: Your letter of the 14th was received yesterday and I answer with pleasure.

My acquaintance with Mr. Jefferson Davis was formed at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, from 1821 to 1824; renewed in 1828 after he was graduated at West Point and commissioned Second Lieutenant of Infantry, U.S.A, when he served under Col. Zachary Taylor, at Fort Crawford, Wisconsin.

I, as Gen. Henry Dodge’s aid-de-camp, served with Lieutenant Davis throughout the Black Hawk war, from its inception to its close. Later, we were brother United States Senators, and an intimate friendship existed between us throughout his life.

I knew your grandfather intimately, as also Colonel Dement, and esteemed them both highly. * * * Trusting that the foregoing is a satisfactory reply to your inquiry, I am,

And here is what Gen. A.C. Dodge of Iowa, Senator in Congress with Jefferson Davis, has written on the subject:

“In 1832 we became associated in the famous Black Hawk war, he (Lieutenant Davis) as lieutenant of infantry, and I as aid-de-camp to Gen. Henry Dodge, commanding the militia of Michigan Territory. I often accepted his invitation to partake of his hospitality, as well as that of Gen. (then Captain) William S. Harney and Col. Zachary Taylor, who often divided their rations with me, as we volunteers were frequently in want of suitable food.

“The regulars were much better provided for than we volunteers were at the time. They were not only furnished with better rations and more of them, but they had tents, while we had none; and I shall never forget the generous hospitality of Lieutenant Davis, Col. Zachary Taylor, Capt. W.S. Harney and others of my brave and generous comrades of those days.”^[297]

There was no point in the material or political growth of that part of the then Michigan Territory (now Wisconsin), where Lieutenant Davis was stationed, that Generals Jones and Dodge were not identified with and thoroughly familiar. They were on the staff of General Dodge during the campaign, by reason of which and the exalted position of General Dodge they were upon terms of intimacy with the army officers of the war, beginning with Gen. Winfield Scott, who was chief in command after his arrival at Prairie du Chien.

In 1866, after the conclusion of the Civil War, and when the prominent men on both sides were in the minds of everyone, Rev. W.W. Harsha, then of Dixon, but later President of the Presbyterian Theological College at Omaha, Nebraska, was about to take a journey to New York City, at which point Gen. Robert Anderson was to be found, recovering from a very severe illness.

Commenting on the proposed trip to Mr. Dixon, the latter expressed a desire to have Mr. Harsha call upon the General, and, if remembered by him, to convey to him the very best wishes of Mr. Dixon for his speedy recovery, and, in view of the prominence of Lieutenant Anderson, Lieutenant Davis and others who served in the Black Hawk campaign, recall the incidents of that early day and inquire if General Anderson remembered them. Mr. Harsha, upon his arrival, true to his promise, made the call, and the following letter, written at the time, gives the substance of the interview:

My Dear Friend: Being recently in New York City on business, and finding myself one day in the neighborhood of General Anderson’s residence, it occurred to me to call, and, partly on your account and partly on my own, make his acquaintance. I did so, and as soon as I told the General that I had lived eight years in Dixon, and I mentioned your name, he expressed himself greatly pleased to see me. He entered immediatly upon a minute and interesting detail of his experiences in Illinois and confirmed the statement which I had heard from you of his meeting Davis and Lincoln at your house at “Dixon’s Ferry.” He was very glad to hear that you were living and inquired affectionately after your health and the condition of your family. He seemed distressed to learn of your bereavements, and showed himself a man of true feeling.

He is, as you know, very much broken down in health. * * *

On parting from him the General says: “Tell my old friend, Mr. Dixon, that I shall probably not see him in this life again, but I hope to meet him in Heaven.” * * *

To John Dixon, Dixon, Illinois.

Isaac N. Arnold, Lincoln’s friend and biographer, specifically recalls a conversation with Lincoln, wherein the latter remembers and mentions the presence of Mr. Davis in that campaign.

Ben Perley Poore frequently heard Lincoln tell of Davis’ presence in that campaign, and he has particularly told us so on page 218 of “Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln.”

After leaving Dixon’s Ferry to march up the left bank of Rock River, the route became one of privation and hardship, particularly after reaching the bogs and swamps about Lake Koshkonong, where men fell ill by the score, and where others became so exhausted that they were sent back to the Ferry, to be later discharged. In many cases, detachments sent out among the swamps to chase the phantom Indian or guard some particular settlement against apprehended attack had nothing but pickled pork and a course dough for subsistence. The rains made the streams impassable, and many times, as at the Wisconsin, just before the battle of that name, the entire army, after making wearisome forced marches without sleep, were compelled to remain standing all night long before the battle, in a drenching rain, awaiting the hour in the morning when the attack might be made. Thus, day after day, the troops marched in clothing soaked with water, many falling by the wayside, to be carried to the rude hospitals improvised for the occasion, and even so rugged and powerful a man as General Henry, who won both the battle of the Wisconsin and the Bad Axe, sickened and died from the exposures of that campaign.^[298]

Through all these vicissitudes Davis and Anderson and Johnston and Eaton were cheerful and buoyed up the men with encouraging words until back once more at Fort Crawford, where a more fearful enemy than exposure was met–the Asiatic cholera. Anderson and Johnston were stricken and suffered a long time the frightful agonies of that dread disease. There at his old and familiar quarters, Lieutenant Davis performed the duty demanded of him, of formally reporting himself back with his regiment for duty, August 16th, 1832.

Later, Black Hawk, Neapope, the Prophet and the other Indian leaders were captured and handed over to Lieut.-Col. Zachary Taylor as prisoners of war. Robert Anderson, in a letter to Hon. E.B. Washburne, has stated that he was designated as their custodian to take them to Jefferson Barracks, but that the fateful cholera prevented. In that he was mistaken; he took the second installment of prisoners.

We know from every man who served in that campaign and from every record that those prisoners were handed by Colonel Taylor to Lieut. Jefferson Davis to be taken to Jefferson Barracks. Following is from The Galenian of September 5th, 1832: “September 4th General Street, the Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, arrived to-day on board the steamboat Winnebago with about one hundred Sac prisoners, guarded by an escort of troops under command of Lieut. Jefferson Davis. Among the prisoners are the celebrated Black Hawk, the Prophet and La-ce-o-souck (The Thunder), son of Black Hawk; the latter was delivered on the night of the 3d. The prisoners were brought in by the Winnebagoes and the Sioux.

“The Winnebagoes came in, as we learn, so late on the night of the 3d with the prisoners, and the steamboat being there in waiting for them, General Street, instead of delivering them to Colonel Taylor, as heretofore, delivered them over to the charge of Colonel Anderson, who went on that commission, and who is now on his way to Rock Island with them.”^[299]

From the Galenian, a paper published in Galena, we find “locals” noting the presence of the noted prisoners and their guard, Jefferson Davis, at every point containing a newspaper, at which they stopped.

No reasonable person can believe that so honorable and responsible a post would have been given Lieutenant Davis had he not participated in the campaign with distinction.

With the most frightful epidemic of cholera at Fort Armstrong which they passed; with cholera about him in the boat, he reached Jefferson Barracks thoroughly exhausted, and feeling that he was entitled to the leave of absence which he had given up to enter this campaign, he applied for another and, receiving it, as he did in due time, he returned to Mississippi to enjoy it.

The experience gained in that campaign suggested his name for the command of a regiment of Mississippi troops in the war with Mexico, where he gained such fame as to bring forth the hearty thanks of Gen. Zachary Taylor on the field.

In conclusion, I wish to add a conversation which Mr. Aldrich, Curator of the Historical Department of Iowa, had with Mr. Davis about two years before the death of the latter.

Mr. Davis, in the course of this conversation, said much about Black Hawk and that campaign and his participation in it, and here is his narrative verbatim, of the Battle of the Wisconsin, in which he was engaged, taken down by Mr. Aldrich at the time: “We were one day pursuing the Indians, when we came close to the Wisconsin River. Reaching the river bank, the Indians made so determined a stand, and fought with such desperation, that they held us in check. During this time the squaws tore bark from the trees, with which they made little shallops, in which they floated their papooses and other impedimenta across to an island, also swimming over the ponies. As soon as this was accomplished, half of the warriors plunged in and swam across, each holding his gun in one hand over his head, and swimming with the other. As soon as they reached the opposite bank, they also opened fire upon us, under cover of which the other half slipped down the bank and swam over in like manner. This,” said Mr. Davis, “was the most brilliant exhibition of military tactics that I ever witnessed–a feat of most consummate management and bravery, in the face of an enemy of greatly superior numbers. I never read of anything that could be compared with it. Had it been performed by white men, it would have been immortalized as one of the most splendid achievements in military history.”

Black Hawk in his book, page 107, states the facts of that retreat pretty much as Mr. Davis did to Mr. Aldrich, excepting only to take no especial credit to himself or his braves for strategy.

As Black Hawk was taken down the Mississippi by Lieutenant Davis, the two were in frequent conversation, and naturally each studied the other more or less, and while Mr. Davis, in after years, always spoke of his prisoner in the very highest terms, it may be interesting to know what Black Hawk had to say about his captor when he came to write his autobiography the following year: “We remained here a short time, and then started for Jefferson Barracks in a steamboat, under charge of a young war chief (Jefferson Davis), who treated us with much kindness. He is a good and brave young chief, with whose conduct I was much pleased. On our way down we called at Galena and remained a short time. The people crowded to the boat to see us, but the war chief would not permit them to enter the apartment where we were, knowing from what his feelings would have been if he had been placed in a similar position, that we did not wish to have a gaping crowd around us.”

Little can be said for the negative of this question and less can be proven, and with such a unanimity of testimony in favor of his presence, from those who saw him and there formed his acquaintance and friendship, it cannot be perceived how an assumption, an “interpretation” can be allowed to rob him of that honor.