The Sinsinawa Mound raid occurred on June 29, 1832, near the Sinsinawa mining settlement in

Michigan Territory The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit ...

(present-day

Grant County, Wisconsin Grant County is the most southwestern county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,938. Its county seat is Lancaster and its largest city is Platteville. The county is named after the Grant River, in t ...

in the United States). This incident, part of the

Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans led by Black Hawk (Sauk leader), Black Hawk, a Sauk people, Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of ...

, resulted in the deaths of two men; a third man survived by seeking cover in a nearby blockhouse. In the aftermath of the raid, Captain James W. Stephenson set out to pursue the attackers—a straggling band of Sauk Native Americans—but lost their trail at the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. The attack occurred in the same week as other skirmishes and raids, and as a result helped contribute to the growing fear in the region. The raid caused the residents of nearby Platteville to consider fleeing their settlement.

Background

As a consequence of an 1804 treaty between the

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Indiana Territory The Indiana Territory, officially the Territory of Indiana, was created by an organic act that President of the United States, President John Adams signed into law on May 7, 1800, to form an Historic regions of the United States, organized incor ...

and a group of Sauk and

Meskwaki The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...

leaders regarding land settlement, the tribes vacated their lands in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

and moved west of the

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

in 1828. However, Sauk Chief Black Hawk and others disputed the treaty, claiming that the full tribal councils had not been consulted, nor did those representing the tribes have authorization to cede lands. Angered by the loss of his birthplace, between 1830–31 Black Hawk led a number of incursions across the Mississippi River into Illinois, but was persuaded each time to return west without bloodshed. In April 1832, encouraged by promises of alliance with other tribes and the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, he again moved his " British Band" of around 1,000 warriors and non-combatants into Illinois.Lewis, James.
Blackhawk War: Phase Three
. Lincoln / Net, ''Northern Illinois University''. Retrieved May 19, 2018. Finding no allies, he attempted to return across the Mississippi (to present-day

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

), but the undisciplined Illinois Militia's actions led to the Battle of Stillman's Run.May 14: Black Hawk's Victory at the Battle of Stillman's Run
," Historic Diaries: The Black Hawk War, ''Wisconsin State Historical Society''. Retrieved August 6, 2007. A number of other engagements followed, and the militia of Michigan Territory and the state of Illinois were mobilized to hunt down Black Hawk's band. The conflict became known as the

. The period between Stillman's Run and the raid at Sinsinawa Mound was filled with war-related activity. A series of attacks at Buffalo Grove, the Plum River settlement, Fort Blue Mounds and the war's most famous incident, the

Indian Creek massacre The Indian Creek Massacre occurred on May 21, 1832 with the attack by a party of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans on a group of United States settlers in LaSalle County, Illinois, LaSalle County, Illinois following a disput ...

, all took place between mid-May and late June 1832.May 21, Indian Creek, Ill.: Abduction of the Hall Sisters
," Historic Diaries: The Black Hawk War, ''Wisconsin State Historical Society''. Retrieved September 21, 2007. The week before the Battle of Apple River Fort (on June 24) was an important turning point for the settlers: between June 16 and 18 two key battles, one at Waddams Grove and the other at Horseshoe Bend, played a role in changing public perception about the militia after its defeat at Stillman's Run.James Stephenson Describes the Battle at Yellow Creek
, Historic Diaries: The Black Hawk War, ''Wisconsin Historical Society''. Retrieved September 21, 2007.June 16: Henry Dodge Describes The Battle of the Pecatonica
," Historic Diaries: The Black Hawk War, ''Wisconsin State Historical Society''. Retrieved September 21, 2007.June 16: Peter Parkinson Recalls the Battle of the Pecatonica
," Historic Diaries: The Black Hawk War, ''Wisconsin State Historical Society''. Retrieved September 21, 2007. The Battle of Apple River Fort occurred five days before the Sinsinawa Mound raid; the fight was a 45-minute gun battle between defenders garrisoned inside Apple River Fort and Sauk and Meskwaki warriors led by Chief Black Hawk himself.Harmet, A. Richard.
Apple River Fort Site
, (

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

), National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, March 31, 1997, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency''. Retrieved September 27, 2007.

Prelude

George Wallace Jones, who would later become a U.S. Senator from

, arrived in the Sinsinawa Mound area in 1827, and in 1828 established a mining settlement there. The first structure at the settlement was Jones's own

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

, built during the spring of 1828 in two days. The cabin measured 49

feet The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of ...

(14.9 m) by 17 feet (5.2 m) and each room had one door and one window.Ira A. Williams.
Lost in an Iowa Blizzard
. ''The Palimpsest'', Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1921, pp. 1-15. When the Black Hawk War began four years later he also built a small fort at the site.Tri-State Old Settlers' Association. "Impromptu Speech of George W. Jones," ''Report of the Organization and First Reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers'',
Google Books
, Tri-State Printing Co.: 1884, pp. 43–44. Retrieved September 25, 2007. The remains of the fort, one of many constructed in the region to protect local residents, are said to still stand at the entrance to the Sinsinawa Dominican complex.Koch, Kevin. ''Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley'', Issue 6.1. Retrieved May 19, 2018. One of the men who assisted Jones in building the fort's blockhouse was Enoch Robinson, a soldier who later helped bury the victims of the Sinsinawa Mound raid.Enoch Robinson
" ''History of Grant County, Wisconsin'', 1881, p. 919, transcribe at rootsweb.com. Retrieved September 27, 2007. At the time of the attack Jones was with Henry Dodge's militia volunteers, on the way to meet overall commander General Henry Atkinson at Lake Koshkonong, then a marsh region.

Attack

On June 29, 1832, what was probably a small band of Sauk attacked three men working in a cornfield at the Jones mining settlement near Sinsinawa Mound.''Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin'',
Google Books
, State Historical Society of Wisconsin: 1908, p. 280. Retrieved August 13, 2007. The Sauk took up a position directly between the settlers and their weapons.Braun, Robert A.

" September 2001, ''Old Lead Historical Society'', p. 2. Retrieved August 13, 2007. Two of the men—James Boxley and John Thompson—were killed by the raiding party; their badly mutilated bodies were later recovered. Trask, Kerry A. ''Black Hawk: The Battle for the Heart of America'',
Google Books
, Henry Holt and Company, New York: 2006, p. 223, (). Retrieved August 13, 2007. The third, an unidentified man, made a run for Jones blockhouse and survived the attack. The raiders were most likely a group of stragglers from the main body of the British Band, which was moving toward the Rock River with Chief Black Hawk.Strong, Moses McCure. ''History of the Territory of Wisconsin, from 1836 to 1848'',
Google Books
, Democrat Printing Co.: 1885, p. 144. Retrieved September 27, 2007.

Aftermath

When news of the raid reached

Galena, Illinois Galena is the largest city in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. It had a population of 3,308 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A section of the city is listed on the National Register of Historic Plac ...

, Captain James W. Stephenson set out with thirty soldiers to pursue the raiding party. Arriving at Sinsinawa Mound, they buried the two "most shockingly mutilated" settlers there; both Thompson and Boxley had been scalped and Thompson's heart had been removed. Stephenson then followed the Sauk trail to the Mississippi River where it went cold, the raiders having apparently crossed the river. Stephenson's party returned to Galena empty handed.

Henry Dodge Moses Henry Dodge (October 12, 1782 – June 19, 1867) was an American politician and military officer who was Democratic member to the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Bla ...

ordered the various elements of the militia to rendezvous at

Fort Hamilton Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. It is one of several posts that are part of the region which ...

to eventually join General Henry Atkinson near present-day

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

. When word of the attack at Sinsinawa Mound reached George W. Jones he left the volunteers under the command of Dodge and returned to the settlement at the mound. The attack at Sinsinawa Mound, compounded by other incidents around the region, helped contribute to the fear gripping the settlers. The people of Platteville, in present-day

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, contemplated fleeing to Galena, about 25

mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a imperial unit, British imperial unit and United States customary unit of length; both are based on the older English unit of Unit of length, le ...

s (40 km) south, as a direct result of the Sinsinawa Mound raid.Wilgus, James A.
History of Old Platteville
. ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'', vol. 28, no. 1, (September 1944), p. 76. Retrieved May 19, 2018. Colonel Dodge dispatched one of his men, Frederick Hollman, to Platteville to reassure its nervous residents. However, by the time Hollman arrived the settlers had already been informed that the local Native American

Ho-Chunk The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hocąk, Hoocągra, or Winnebago are a Siouan languages, Siouan-speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois ...

tribesmen were friendly. This and the subsequent delivery of promised supplies from Galena further placated Platteville's residents, and the threatened exodus was called off.

Notes

{{good article Sinsinawa Mound 1832 in the United States Grant County, Wisconsin June 1832