Reference Entry
BATTLE OF BAD AXE
On a wooded bluff above the Mississippi River in what is now Wisconsin, the Black Hawk War came to a bloody end. A small band of Sauk and Meskwaki people led by Black Hawk was trying to recross the river after months of pursuit by United States regulars and militia. At Bad Axe, soldiers, volunteers, and a river steamboat opened fire on warriors, women, and children crowded along the shore and in canoes.
Dated Historical Context
A RECORDED MOMENT IN HISTORY
Battle of Bad Axe
On a wooded bluff above the Mississippi River in what is now Wisconsin, the Black Hawk War came to a bloody end. A small band of Sauk and Meskwaki people led by Black Hawk was trying to recross the river after months of pursuit by United States regulars and militia. At Bad Axe, soldiers, volunteers, and a river steamboat opened fire on warriors, women, and children crowded along the shore and in canoes. Accounts from the time describe a chaotic action in which attempts to surrender were often ignored and many noncombatants died. The battle effectively crushed organized Native resistance in that part of the upper Mississippi valley and cleared the way for rapid American settlement. For the Army, it was a hard lesson in irregular warfare on the frontier, and for Native communities it marked yet another tragic step in a long cycle of dispossession.
Read the complete weekly DispatchTrackpads Source Register
