At 9 o’clock of the 7th Atkinson crossed a deep, boggy creek, one mile above the encampment, and reached a branch of the White Water at noon, but as no ford could be found it was decided to march nine miles up and cross a creek said to be there. After four miles’ march Atkinson halted and camped, Posey and Alexander joining later and camping in the same place.
Captain Dunn, who was officer of the day on the 7th, was accidentally wounded by a sentinel, as was then thought, fatally.
On the 8th the one-eyed Winnebago chief, Decori,[203] came into camp and informed Atkinson that Black Hawk was camped lower down the river,[204] whereupon a council of war was called to consider further movements.
A moment’s reflection should have exploded this ridiculous statement, because Fry, Jones, Early and other independent companies had explored every foot of debatable country in the vicinity named.
At this council Governor Reynolds urged Atkinson to move on up without delay, before Black Hawk could evacuate his present position and flee to the west, but to none of his appeals would the commanding general listen. He averred that his artillery had not then reached him, and without it he could do nothing, therefore did he not only decline to push forward, but he ordered the army to fall back to the Burnt Village at the mouth of the White Water for a base.[205] There Early returned from another scout and reported the main trail of the Indians, not two hours old, to be three miles beyond. Early next morning detachments marched for the trail, only to find, after fifteen miles’ march, that Early had been wrong. Reynolds insisted that another day would bring them to Black Hawk’s camp, and, as subsequent events demonstrated, the Governor was correct. As a matter of fact, Atkinson was upon the wrong side of the river to successfully reach Black Hawk.
Further reconnoisances made by Early’s company and other detachments demonstrated conclusively, and with no delay, that the Indian Decori had deliberately fabricated the story, to allow Black Hawk a respite for retreat to the Mississippi. The 8th and most of the 9th were spent in these fruitless scouting expeditions through impassable underbrush and bogs, morasses and over “trembling lands,” until the men were not only exhausted, but thoroughly discouraged. A party of Indians under Colonel Hamilton covered nine or ten miles of country with equal disappointment. Provisions had now run exceedingly low; intense dissatisfaction prevailed; a second campaign, planned with great pomp and expense, was coming to naught, and even the sanguine Governor Reynolds, who was energetic, though impractical and moved to many acts by consideration of policy for his future, lost heart and left camp, with his staff, Colonel Breese and others, for his home in Illinois, by way of Galena.