“Every account of the attack on Campbell’s detachment reflects highest encomium on the skill and undaunted bravery of Lieuts. Rector and Riggs of the rangers. The former, after a contest of two hours and twenty minutes, withdrew to a favorable position, which enabled him to save the few regular troops as well from the flames which surrounded them as the fury of the savages. The high wind which then prevailed, and the loss of his anchors, prevented his rendering a like assistance to Lieut. Riggs. The latter, though stranded and in a hopeless situation, kept up an incessant fire on the Indians, and by a rusé de guerre afforded his party an opportunity of making the savages feel some of the consequences of their perfidy. He ordered his men to cease firing for about ten minutes, and at the same time ordered howitzers to be well loaded with grape, and the small arms to be in readiness. The Indians, believing the rangers to be all killed, or that they had surrendered, rushed down the bank to extinguish the fire on board Lieut. Campbell’s barge and to board Riggs’. Our hero then opened upon them a well-directed fire, which drove them in all directions, leaving several of their dead behind.” When Campbell reached Rock River he called upon Black Hawk with a handful of men as an escort–so ridiculously small that Black Hawk repeatedly stated he could have captured and put them all to death with little or no effort. Campbell made the Indians presents, and in return received from Black Hawk a solemn promise that no effort to assist the British or disturb him in his ascent would be made by the Indians, but during the night some powder arrived from the British, who had in the meantime driven the Americans from Fort Selby, and sent it to Black Hawk with instructions to use the same in case any Americans attempted to pass his village to succor the garrison at Prairie du Chien. Black Hawk had a very facetious way of putting that request into his biography. He stated on page 56 that Campbell and his aids, after holding a council with him, remained all day, and then after receiving word during the night (along with the powder), that Prairie du Chien had fallen, and that the British wished him to join them again: “I immediately started with my party by land in pursuit, thinking that some of their boats might get aground, or that the Great Spirit would put them in our power if he wished them taken and their people killed.” It is astonishing to note how frequently he confused the behests of the British with those supposed to emanate from the Great Spirit!