St . Vrain massacre The St . Vrain massacre was an incident in the Black Hawk War . It occurred near present - day Pearl City , Illinois in Kellogg ' s Grove on May 24 , 1832 . The massacre was most likely committed by Ho - Chunk warriors who were unaffiliated with Black Hawk ' s band of warriors . It is also unlikely that the group of Ho - Chunk had the sanction of their nation . Killed in the massacre were United States Indian Agent Felix St . Vrain and three of his companions . Some accounts reported that St . Vrain ' s body was mutilated . St . Vrain and his party were attacked while en route from Dixon ' s Ferry , Illinois ( now Dixon ) to Galena , Illinois . St . Vrain had been ordered by General Henry Atkinson to deliver dispatches to Fort Armstrong . Colonel Henry Dodge ' s men interred the remains of St . Vrain and his companions after the massacre . Prelude . United States Indian Agent Felix St . Vrain was traveling with several companions which included , John Fowler , William Hale , and Aaron Hawley . Those men , along with St . Vrain , were all reportedly killed in the attack ; also traveling with St . Vrain was Thomas Kenney , Aquilla Floyd , and Alexander Higginbotham . The Native Americans that attacked the group were not part of Black Hawk ' s band of warriors but they were en route to join that group when the massacre occurred . Older histories described the group as a band of Sac warriors while modern sources indicate that the band were associated with the Ho - Chunk nation . Black Hawk asserted that the group was Ho - Chunk and unaffiliated with his band in his autobiography . In fact , most Ho - Chunk sided with the United States during the Black Hawk War . The warriors that attacked St . Vrain ' s party acted with no authority or oversight from the Ho - Chunk nation . As the war began to be defined along racial terms most white settlers in the region did not notice the distinction . This led to unwarranted fear of all Native Americans in the area , even those friendly to the settlers ' cause . One example of this appeared in an article published in the " New Galenian " on May 30 , 1832 . While the article described the events of the massacre it also went on to associate the murders of St . Vrain and his companions with the Sauk and Fox of Keokuk ' s band . Keokuk and his band were not near the scene when the murders occurred and had actually volunteered to assist white settlers against Black Hawk and his band of warriors . Massacre . The St . Vrain massacre occurred near present - day Pearl City , Illinois , in an area known as Kellogg ' s Grove . Felix St . Vrain , a U . S . Indian Agent to the Sauk and Fox tribes , was in Dixon ' s Ferry , Illinois , under the command of General Henry Atkinson prior to the massacre . A group composed of Aaron Hawley , John Fowler , Thomas Kenney and Alexander Higginbotham had been purchasing cattle in Sangamon County , Illinois when news of trouble with Black Hawk ' s band reached them . They immediately decided to return to northern Illinois to protect their homes . On May 22 , 1832 the men left Dixon ' s Ferry for Galena , Illinois . At Buffalo Grove they discovered the body of William Durley , who had been killed in the Buffalo Grove massacre . The men immediately returned to Dixon ' s Ferry to report their find and remained in the town overnight . The following day General Atkinson returned to Dixon ' s Ferry on with dispatches destined for Fort Armstrong . Atkinson ordered St . Vrain to travel with the Hawley party and deliver the dispatches to the fort . The men traveled north from Dixon ' s Ferry and back to Buffalo Grove , where they interred the remains of Durley . They then traveled another ten miles toward Fort Hamilton before camping for the night . The next morning , May 24 , they set out again , but stopped for breakfast after about three miles . As they finished eating , about 30 warriors approached . The men retreated , but four were shot and killed . Slain with St . Vrain were John Fowler , William Hale , and Aaron Hawley . An account of the massacre from Gen . George W . Jones , who was St . Vrain ' s brother - in - law and the man who identified his body , said the warriors had scalped the dead men , but also cut off the hands , head , and feet of St . Vrain and removed his heart . They reportedly passed around pieces of the heart for the braves to eat . At least one source indicated that the mutilation began before St . Vrain was dead . Three men , Thomas Kenney , Aquilla Floyd , and Alexander Higginbotham , managed to escape . They eluded the warriors and arrived safely in Galena , Illinois three days later . It is said that Aaron Hawley was initially able to retreat from the scene , but apparently was later killed as he fled . ' The Little Bear ' incident . Frank Stevens in his 1903 history of the war , " The Black Hawk War " stated the attacker were Sauk and led by The Little Bear , a chief who had purportedly adopted Felix St . Vrain as a " blood brother . " Noting The Little Bear ' s presence , St . Vrain allegedly had assured his companions that there was nothing to fear . The same claims were included in an 1887 book by Nehemiah Matson , " Memories of Shaubena " . Matson ' s narrative described St . Vrain ' s allegedly pleading for his life with The Little Bear . Perry A . Armstrong ' s 1887 history dismissed the idea that The Little Bear had adopted Felix St . Vrain . Armstrong wrote that The Little Bear had never existed as a Sauk or Fox chief and said it was preposterous to think that a Sauk chief would have adopted St . Vrain as a brother . Matson , Stevens and John H . Kinzie , whom Armstrong ' s information was in part based on , all identified St . Vrain ' s assailants as Sac . They were more likely Ho - Chunk . Aftermath . According to the " New Galenian " the three men who evaded the band that attacked the St . Vrain party , Floyd , Higgenbotham and Kenney , arrived in Galena at 7 a . m . on May 26 , 1832 . They provided their own description of events which the newspaper account detailed . However , at least one source indicated that Floyd was a victim of the massacre and his remains are interred in the cemetery with the other victims of the massacre at a public park within Kellogg ' s Grove near present - day Kent , Illinois . Following the massacre a detachment led by Colonel Henry Dodge buried the bodies of St . Vrain and some of the other victims . Though Dodge and his men recovered the remains of St . Vrain , Hale and Fowler , the body of Aaron Hawley was never recovered .