Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
A Wisconsin soldier looks back on his role in the hostilities of 1832.
Personal narrative of the Black Hawk War, 1855.
Joseph Dickson was a young man of 22 when in 1827 he joined other Illinois "adventurers" moving to the lead region near Plateeville. With the outbreak of the Black Hawk War 1832, he enlisted in the local militia and was put in command of an advance team sent in front of the main body of U.S. forces. Reconnoitering the location and strength of the retreating Sauk Indians, Dickson was among the first on the scene at the battles of Wisconsin Heights and Bad Ax. In this short memoir written about 1855, he gives his memories of those events as well as of homesteading and mining on the Wisconsin frontier. To see a typed transcript, click "Page & Text" while viewing any handwritten page.
| Related Topics: |
Territory to Statehood The Black Hawk War |
| Creator: | Dickson, Joseph, 1805- . |
| Pub Data: | Original manuscript in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (SC 1816). A slightly revised version was published in Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. 5 (Madison, 1868): 315-317. |
| Citation: | Dickson, Joseph. "Personal narrative of the Black Hawk War, 1855." Original manuscript in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (SC 1816). Online facsimile at: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=37; Visited on: 1/18/2021 |
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