the field. All were under his command, and he followed Black
Hawk, as the latter retired northward, with an army of four thousand,
all mounted, fully twelve times as great in number as the starving band
which he was pursuing. They camped near Beloit, camped at Milton, near
the south end of Storr's Lake, and followed on cautiously to Lake
Koshkonong, for Atkinson had a most wholesome regard for Black Hawk's
prowess. At the lake they found an old blind Sauk who had been left
behind. They gave him food, but a straggler coming along later shot him
as he was crawling to a spring for water. His bones lay on the ground
unburied for years after the country was settled, the skull having been
hung on a bush. At the junction of the Bark and Rock rivers Atkinson
went into utter bewilderment and uncertainty as to Black Hawk's
whereabouts, and he finally built the stockade at the point which bears
his name. He dispatched a considerable force under Colonels Alexander,
Dodge and Henry to Portage for supplies. There they learned where Black
Hawk's camp was; Henry and Dodge set out to attack it, while Alexander
returned to Atkinson. The latter had heard that Black Hawk was in full
force at Burnt Village on the Whitewater River, about four miles north
of the location now occupied by the city bearing that name. He sent off
messengers for the remainder of the army to join him for an attack.

But in going and coming, the trail of Black Hawk and his entire band was
discovered leading to the west. Henry and Dodge started in rapid
pursuit, sending word to Atkinson that the game had been flushed. That
doughty warrior had in the meantime learned that the Burnt Village story
was a myth; and those of his men whose time had expired, broke ranks and
returned to their homes, all believing that Black Hawk had finally
escaped. The fugitive's trail crossed the site of the present city of
Madison and also the University grounds, bearing thence northwest to the
Wisconsin River. Singularly enough, Black Hawk struck this stream
directly opposite the site of his people's ancient village of Prairie
du Sac. Soon after leaving Fourth Lake the Indians discovered their
pursuers and hastened their painful flight. All along the trail had been
marked by evidences of their extremity: in the skeletons of ponies
robbed of their flesh, in the trees stripped of bark for food, and the
ground dug over for roots. To these proofs were now added kettles and
blankets which the