Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1920-11-18

| The exact scene of the battle OF
Wisconsin Heights on the Dane
county side of the Wisconsin rsel
some two miles below Sank City
jist off the Ma 81. s:.ie + ad, is
beautiful AMI romantic, - finely
wooded hilltop and a dale covered
with splendid trees through which
flows spring fed creek between
deep banks This stream meanders
away three quarters of a mile west
across q bottom to the river and is
formed by several springs on the
Frank Ballweg farm formerly own
ed by It. M. Warren, who died many
year ago the wealthiest citizen OF
Baraboo. His fortune, however
had it's foundation laid in this very
! region.
The particular site of the battle.
is on the farm of Martin and George
Hornung, sons of of Casper, long since
deceased. The Frank Hiney farm
is hard by The valley down which
Black Hawk and his band of Sac
and Fox Indians, perhaps number
ing 500 all told, took their flight
from the Madison lakes back in
1892, intersects the old military road
at the Ballweg farm. 1t is now called
Dunlop hollow, and is partly in Rox.
bury and partly in the town of Mazo-
mamie. The military road is the one
that extended across from Fort Winnie
bago at Portage to Fort Crawford at
Prairie du Chen. The battle site is
perhaps eighty rods back of the home
Of Alfred Taylor who was born and
has resided there all his life.
Mr.. Taylor remembers that in his
boyho6d shere came to the house a
man who had taken part in the bat
tie; and his father, this stranger
and the lad walked over the place
the visitor pointing out exactly
where on the hill the flight occurred
and also on lesser elevation down
near the creek yet little above it,
where was buried, John Short, the
only white man lost in the fray.
Mr. Taylor indicates within an area
Of two rods the resting place of this
soldier. Mr.. Taylor had an uncle,
George Richards, who, many, many
years ago, plowed up on his farm a
human skull, perhaps that of an
Indian, and it was used for some
time as a tobacco container. The
field where it was found is now in
Guided in the Hornung place. About
a mile away is the little yellowish
sandstone schoolhouse famil;a ar to all
autoists between Madison and Sank,
just where the road turns sharply to
the right; and there is where was
plated Superior City, a place that
never materialiZed except on paper.
Perhaps over this exact site hurried
the fleeing Indians in their frantic
effort to reach the Wisconsin river,
the broad Mississippi beyond, and
safety at last in what is now Iowa
where the abandoned reservation lay.
Mr. Taylor was born here 73 years
ago, his father, Richard Taylor, hav-
ing come from England ten years be-
fore in 1910, AS Taylor was born Is
years ago, the year of his birth was
1847 which is just fifteen years after
the memorable battle.
Persons desiring to visit the bat
tlefield should follow the river road
from Sank City down to the point
where it crosses a little creek mile
Or SO below, and, then alighting, fol-
low the creek up about a quarter of
mile until they come under the
shadow of a bill. There is the battle
site,-on the hill, or bluff.
The encounter, occurred July Fl,
1882. The fighting started about 5
o'clock in the evening on the hill
top, and the Indians were driven to
the low ground, or Wisconsin bot
toms, but really the dell by the
creek Colonel Henry Dodge's re-
port indicates a loss of only one
white man, with eight wounded.
while the Indians loss is put at 40 or
more killed. Some reports say 6S
reds were killed, many dead bodies
being found by troops beyond the
river.
There was tall grass in the bot
tom and in this the Indians hid and
were not pursued by the whites
and by morning not an Indian was
to be seen. All had crossed the riv-
er. In fact the purpose of the stand
by the Indians was for them to have
a chance to get across.
Twelve days later, on August q