A reign of terror followed Stillman’s defeat. Scalping parties organized by Black Hawk covered the frontier, making raids on the exposed northern settlements. Many on both sides lost their lives, for small parties of American settlers made gallant defences in their scattered villages and held the Indians back. Three weeks from the time of the first attack a new army of volunteers, four thousand strong, took the field. They marched to Dixon’s Ferry and then plunged into the wilderness, taking every precaution as they proceeded into the enemy’s country to guard against surprise. On the 30th of June they crossed the Illinois border near the present city of Beloit, Wisconsin, and came upon abandoned camps and other signs of the retreating Indians. The progress through the wilderness of Wisconsin was slow and difficult. Day after day the troops pushed on, wading up to their armpits in mud and water, or hewing away the trees and underbrush that barred their course. After three weeks they came up with the last of the fugitives. Passing through a forest where stands to-day the city of Madison, they came to the shores of the Wisconsin River, and there they fought the battle of Wisconsin Heights. The loss of life among the Indians was heavy; among the Americans, light. During the night after the battle, the startled soldiers sitting in their camp heard from the direction of the Indian encampment a loud, clear voice speaking in an unknown tongue. They feared that some chief was directing his men to descend upon the camp and make a night attack. After a time, however, the voice ceased and nothing more was thought of the incident. It proved afterwards that this was the voice of an orator sent by Black Hawk to beg for peace. He had used the Winnebago tongue, and as the members of that tribe had left the camp that very day, no one understood him. Thus the second attempt of Black Hawk to make peace failed. From this time on the story of the campaign is a tale of relentless pursuit and slaughter of the fugitives. Black Hawk and his starving war-party reached the banks of the Mississippi, but an American steamer prevented their crossing in safety. The troops came upon them at a point called Bad Axe, and for three hours the bloody conflict raged. The white men lost only seventeen men killed, and twelve wounded. At least one hundred and fifty Indians were killed in the battle and as many more men, women, and children were drowned or shot down in their attempts to escape. Nearly a thousand Indians had crossed the Mississippi at Rock River, two hundred miles below. Barely one hundred and fifty regained the western bank at Bad Axe.