days old. An express was immediately started to go to General ATKINSON, which, after proceeding a few miles down the river, found a fresh trail, evidently bearing towards the Wisconsin river, and immediately returned and reported their discovery. Early the next morning the pursuit of the Sauks and Foxes was commenced on this trail; the express was again sent to General ATKINSON, but this time it did not return. The pursuit was rapid and persevering until it reached the Catfish, near its entrance into the Third Lake, where the force encamped the second night from Rock river. Many Indians were now discovered by the scouts, and the main body of them were on the peninsula between the Third and Fourth Lake, at the time their pursuers were encamped on the Catfish.

In the morning of the 21st, the pursuit was continued over the ground where the city of Madison is now located, with occasional glimpses of straggling Indians-one of whom was shot near the present Capitol, and left dead-until about five o'clock in the afternoon of that day, when the bluffs of the Wisconsin were reached, together with BLACK HAWK and his retreating band, preparing to cross the river with their women and children.

When the army arrived, the Sauks and Foxes were in the low grounds which skirt the river. The immediate commands of Col. DODGE and Col. WILLIAM L. D. EWING were in advance of the main army, and on their arrival at the bluffs they were met by Capt. DIXON'S spy company, which had preceded them, with information that the Indians were in sight. These two commands having dismounted, formed the line and advanced to the edge of the bluffs, where they were met by the Indians, who were in pursuit of the spy company. The battle began, and the Sauks and Foxes were repulsed. The position of the advanced commands was maintained under a heavy fire for about an hour, when Col. HENRY'S brigade arrived, which, deploying to the right and left, formed the line of battle, leaving Col. DODGE'S command in the center. A general charge was now made upon the Indians, in which many of them were killed, and the balance driven into the bottoms of the Wisconsin, where the tall grass was reached, which was wet, and concealed the Indians, and it being nearly dark, the pursuit was continued no further.

The battle began about five o'clock in the afternoon, and

about sundown the firing on both sides had mainly ceased. The American loss was one killed and eight wounded. The loss of the Indians was sixty-eight killed in the battle, and a great many were afterward found dead, on the north side of the Wisconsin river, on the route to the Bad Axe. The number of wounded is unknown. This engagement has ever since been known as the Battle of the Wisconsin Heights.

The morning of the morrow disclosed that the Indians had all crossed the Wisconsin river, and disappeared. The army marched to the Blue Mounds, where Col. DODGE'S command, being all near their homes, with worn out horses, were temporarily dismissed to their respective posts, until again called to active duty.

Expresses were sent to Gen. ATKINSON and to Prairie du Chien, and it was a few days before the army could again be brought together to continue the pursuit. Gen. ATKINSON with his army marched by way of the Blue Mounds to Helena. Here the volunteers under Col. DODGE were again assembled, and the whole army crossed the Wisconsin, and soon discovered the trail of the retreating Indians. On the 2d of August-the twelfth day after the battle of the Wisconsin Heights-the army came up with the entire body of the Indians, near the mouth of the Bad Axe, about forty miles above Prairie du Chien. A steamboat, the Warrior, had also been sent up the river, armed with a six-pounder, to prevent their escape across the Mississippi. Thus surrounded, the Indians fell easy victims, and the battle soon terminated in the total destruction of a very large portion of BLACK HAWK's followers, men, women, and children, and the capture and dispersion of the remainder.

Gen. ATKINSON's official report states the loss of the regulars at five killed and four wounded: of the Illinois volunteers at nine killed and wounded, and in HENRY'S brigade seven killed and wounded; and this, the final engagement of the Black Hawk war, is known as the battle of the Bad Axe.

Most of the Sauks and Foxes who got safely across the Mississippi, including women and children, were pursued and killed by their implacable enemies, the Sioux. For the proud and haughty BLACK SPARROW HAWK, as he called himself, it was too degrading and humiliating to submit as a prisoner, therefore instant flight became his last and only

alternative. He hastily retreated to a neighboring height, accompanied by his faithful adjunct, the Prophet; and giving vent to a loud yell of revenge, he hastily fled to seek a temporary refuge among his pseudo friends, the Winnebagoes, in the valley of the Lemon weir-over the bluffs and cliffs of which he had in former days roamed in security and hunted with success.

A large reward had been offered for the capture of BLACK HAWK, and he found now, when he most needed their friendship, that the Winnebagoes were in no way disposed to sympathize with him in his adversity. The fugitives pursued their lonely retreat to the Dalles of the Wisconsin river, and were there captured about two miles above Kilbourn City, by CHA-E-TAR and the ONE-EYED DE-COR-RA, who afterwards brought them to Prairie du Chien, on the 27th of August, and delivered them as prisoners to General STREET, the Indian Agent.

In addition to the regular forces under General ATKINSON, General SCOTT with nine companies of artillery was ordered from the seaboard to the scene of hostilities. These troops left Fortress Monroe on the 20th of June, and arrived at Fort Dearborn on the 8th of July. But the conflict was over before they reached the scene of action. They, however, encountered a more fatal foe. The Asiatic cholera, which for the first time visited America, coming by way of Montreal, seized the troops at Detroit on their way to Chicago. The camp became a hospital, and more than four hundred of these soldiers fell victims of this terrible pestilence.

The loss on the part of the Americans in the Black Hawk war, independent of the ravages of the cholera, and the murders of the settlers, is believed to have been about fifty. The loss of the Sauks was not less than two hundred and thirty killed in battle, and probably a greater number who died of their wounds, and of disease and starvation; while the deaths of the women and children who accompanied the warriors, in the battles, and from their wounds, and by disease, starvation and drowning, cannot be approximately estimated.

The companies of volunteers under the immediate command of Colonel DODGE, at the battle of the Wisconsin Heights, were Captain STEPHENSON'S, from Galena; Captain CLARKE'S, from White Oak Springs; Captain GENTRY'S, from

Mineral Point; Captain PARKINSON'S, from Fort Defiance; Captain JONES', from Blue River; and Captain DICKSON'S, from Platteville. Lieutenant CHARLES BRACKEN was Adjutant to the battalion and aid to Colonel DODGE.

BLACK HAWK knew and feared Colonel DODGE, and said: "If it had not been for that chief, DODGE, 'the hairy face,' I could easily have whipped the whites; I could have gone anywhere my people pleased in the mining country."

BLACK HAWK was sent as a prisoner from Prairie du Chien to Jefferson Barracks, under charge of Lieut. JEFFERSON DAVIS-then in the United States Army at Prairie du Chien, and thirty years later, President of the Confederate States. BLACK HAWK was kept a close prisoner until April, 1833, when he was taken to Washington, together with some of his family, and the Prophet. After an interview with President JACKSON, and being emphatically told by him that the Government would compel the red men to be at peace, they were sent as prisoners to Fortress Monroe, for "levying war," as DAVIS was, thirty-two years later, for the same offense. On June 4th, 1833, by order of the President, BLACK HAWK and his fellow prisoners were liberated and sent home under officers appointed to conduct them through the principal cities of the Union, in order to impress them with a proper sense of the power of the whites, and of the hopelessness of any conflict, on the part of the Indians, with the Government of the United States. BLACK HAWK ever after remained quiet. He died October 3, 1838, and was buried on the banks of the Mississippi, in the State of Iowa, near the head of the Des Moines Rapids, where the village of Montrose is located.

This was the last of Indian wars upon the soil of the presept State of Wisconsin.

CHAPTER XIII.

CIVIL GOVERNMENT-1512 TO 1834.

The domain which constitutes the State of Wisconsin has been successively claimed as within the dominion of Spain, of France, of England, of Virginia, and finally of the United States, until, on the 29th of May, 1848, it was "admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever."

This claim of dominion carried with it the uncontested right of civil jurisdiction.

In the earlier periods, the military and civil jurisdiction exercised by the governors and others, upon whom power was conferred, were so blended together, that if the government was not that of martial law, civil rights were recognized only through the channels of military authority; and it was not until the ordinance of 1787 "for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio," that the distinct civil rights of the inhabitants were recognized, and civil remedies for their enforcement provided.

Florida was claimed by Spain to extend as far as Newfoundland on the sea coast, and westerly and northwesterly indefinitely, by virtue of the discovery of PONCE DE LEON in 1512, who was appointed governor of the country, and so continued until 1521.

In 1537 CHARLES V. conceded to FERDINAND DE SOTO the government of the Isle of Cuba, with absolute power over the immense territory to which the name of Florida was still vaguely applied. DE SOTO died on the 21st of May, 1542, and wrapped in a mantle was buried in the Mississippi, which he had been the first to discover.

On the 20th of March, 1563, a compact was framed and confirmed between King PHILIP II. and PEDRO MELENDEZ DE AVILES, by which, in consideration of the promise of MELENDEZ to invade Florida, complete its conquest, and establish a colony, he was constituted its governor for life, with the right of naming his son-in-law as his successor.

The history of civil government in Florida, previous to the seventeenth century, possesses no interest so far as applicable to Wisconsin, whose soil was probably never