COLONEL WILLIAM STEPHEN HAMILTON MEMORIAL

In late 1827, Hamilton served during the Winnebago War in the volunteer Illinois Militia as a captain. Hamilton commanded a company raised in Galena, Illinois known as the Galena Mounted Volunteers. Hamilton’s company was under the command of Henry Dodge and was mustered into service on August 26, 1827 and released on September 10, 1827.[10] Hamilton moved to Wisconsin and established Hamilton’s Diggings in 1827.

During the April–August 1832 Black Hawk War, between white settlers in the lead mining regions and Sauk Chief Black Hawk’s British Band, Hamilton again served in the volunteer militia. Accounts of the war indicated that Hamilton was often in charge of the militia’s indigenous allies. At the war’s onset it was known that many of the Sioux and Menominee were eager to join the conflict against the Sauk. Hamilton was sent to the Michigan Territory, north of Prairie du Chien, to recruit the assistance of indigenous allies. The result was successful and several parties of U.S. aligned Native Americans joined the war.

In June, Hamilton’s return to Fort Hamilton with a large group of militia-aligned Native Americans coincided with the arrival of one of the survivors of the June 14 Spafford Farm massacre. The survivor, Francis Spencer, arrived at the fort around the same time as Hamilton did – accompanied by U.S. aligned Menominee. Afraid that the fort, like his party at the farm, had also been attacked, Spencer retreated back into the woods. He avoided the fort for between six and nine days, when hunger finally drove him into the open and he realized his mistake. On June 16, about an hour after the fight at Horseshoe Bend, Hamilton arrived on the battlefield with U.S. aligned Menominee, Sioux and Ho-Chunk warriors. According to Dodge, the warriors were given some of the scalps his men had taken, with which they were “delighted”. Dodge also reported that the allied warriors then proceeded onto the battlefield and mutilated the corpses of the fallen Kickapoo.

SEE ALSO-COLONEL WILLIAM STEPHEN HAMILTON MEMORIAL PLAQUES A & B