“They left behind them all the comforts of life. They brought but little furniture, but few farming implements, and no store of provisions. Until their lands were cleared and brought into culture, and their domestic animals became productive, they depended for subsistence chiefly upon the game of the forest. They ate their fresh meat without salt, without vegetables, and in many instances without bread; and they slept in cabins hastily erected, of green logs, and in which they were exposed to much of the inclemency of the weather. To their other sufferings that of sickness was often added; and they found themselves assailed, in situations where medical assistance could not be procured, by diseases of sudden development and fatal character. “While thus overburthened by toil and assailed by disaster, the settler found employment for all the energy of his character and all the inventive powers of his mind. The savage was watching, with malignant vigilance, to grasp every opportunity to harass the intruder into the hunting grounds of his fathers. Sometimes he contented himself with seizing the horses or driving away the cattle of the emigrant, depriving the wretched family of the means of support, and reserving the consummation of his vengeance to a future occasion; sometimes, with a subtle refinement of cruelty, the Indian warrior crept into a settlement by stealth, and created universal dismay by stealing away a child, or robbing a family of the wife and mother; sometimes a father was the victim, and the widow and orphans were thrown upon the protection of the friends who, on such occasions, were never deaf to the claims of the unfortunate, while as often the yelling band surrounded the peaceful cabin at the midnight hour, applied the firebrand to the slight fabric, and murdered the whole of its defenseless inmates.” Exhausted by such scenes, these men had come to Illinois with their children, whose tender memories had gathered material never to be effaced, to enjoy peaceful pursuits and erect homes for their families. When, therefore, Black Hawk sought to renew such tactics, he trod the mine which exploded and tore his power to shreds. The final conflict was inevitable, and though during the first portion of the campaign, for want of discipline, those spirited, independent and unrestrained young fellows brought no great honor to their arms, when the iron hand of Gen. James D. Henry brought them to reason, they marched with a grim determination to avenge the murders of their ancestors by hurling Black Hawk forever from the power to molest them more, and they did it in a manner sufficiently decisive.