In the unsettled period before the War of 1812, Black Hawk had gathered about him a group of two hundred young warriors, who won for themselves in the war the name of the “British Band,” from their support of the British troops. He had fought at the battle of Frenchtown on the River Raisin, at the battle of the Thames under Tecumseh, and after the latter’s death he returned to Illinois and carried on there a border warfare which was only ended by his signing at St. Louis in 1816 a treaty of peace. Since that time he had made the Rock River village his headquarters, and when the white men began to take up his lands, his smouldering hatred of the Americans blazed out. Returning with a band of warriors from the winter hunting season of 1831, he was warned off his land. He refused to cross the Mississippi River, and appealed to the Indians to defend the graves of their ancestors. In spite of Keokuk’s remonstrances the best young men of the Sauk and Fox tribes flocked to his standard, and his threats excited such alarm among the settlers that Governor Reynolds of Illinois issued a call for volunteers to assist the regular troops in guarding the frontier. There was a prompt response, and when the troops reached Black Hawk’s village the Indians withdrew during the night to the west side of the river and signed a treaty never to return to their former homes without the express permission of the United States authorities. Black Hawk did not abide by this treaty. During the winter of 1832 he recruited a large force, and in the spring he crossed the Mississippi at a point just south of his former village, and began a march up the Rock River Valley. This invasion of the state by a hostile band of savages excited great alarm along the frontier. The settlers came in from their lonely farms and built about the larger villages stockades and defences. A call for volunteers was issued, and the enthusiastic response was a surprise, even to the governor who summoned them.