“When Mr. Jordan first saw the battleground in 1828, the graves of the slain still appeared fresh, as if they had not been made more than a year or two before. Black Hawk had often detailed to him the plan of the attack and the incidents of the engagement. Contrary to the usual Indian custom, this battle was brought on in the daytime. The battlefield is a level river bottom prairie, about four miles in length and two miles wide near the middle, narrowing to points at either end. The main area of the bottom rises about twenty feet above the river, with a narrow strip of lower land skirting the margin of the stream, covered with trees. The river bank was fringed with a dense growth of willows. Near the lower end of the prairie, and extending up to the bank of the river, was situated the Iowa village. Two miles above the town, near the middle of the prairie, was situated a small natural mound which was then covered with a growth of small trees and shrubs. In the rear of this mound lay a belt of wet prairie which was covered with a rank grass. Bordering this on the north, the land rises abruptly into broken bluffs covered with a heavy forest many miles in extent. It was through this forest that the Sac and Fox war party approached in the night before the attack, and secreted themselves in the tall grass mentioned, intending to remain in ambush through the day, and make observations to aid them in the attack which they contemplated making on the following night. From this position their spies could take a full survey of the situation of the village and watch the movements of the Iowas.