Official American And British Accounts Of The Battle Of Credit Island

 

Major Zachary Taylor

I’ve included several accounts of the Battle of Credit Island on this site. The following accounts were written by—Major Zachary Taylor and Lieutenant Duncan Graham (British Army).

 

The info is reprinted from Mersey, William A.. “Credit Island, 1814-1914.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. January 1915. P. 359-368.

 

American Expedition to Wipe Out Saukenuk

 

There was nothing to hinder Indian depredations in the Upper Mississippi Valley. St. Louis was the farthest northern and western point where an American Army was located. It was decided that the Indian Village at Rock River (The Sac near its mouth and the Fox on the west side of the Mississippi opposite the lower end of Rock Island) should be destroyed. Major Zachary Taylor, with a detachment of three hundred and thirty-four men in eight large fortified keel boats, left Cap Au Gris on the 23rd of August, and on the evening of September 5th, reached Rock River. On his arrival, Indians in large number made their appearance. After they had passed the mouth of Rock River, the wind began to blow a hurricane, and Taylor’s boats were blown toward the small island above Credit Island, where about four o’clock a landing was made.

Zachary Taylor’s Worst Day? The Chaotic Battle of Credit Island

 

Zachary Taylor

The upper Mississippi River was a dangerous place to be wearing an American uniform in the fall of 1814.

The British controlled Prairie du Chien. Sauk and Fox warriors controlled the area around the Rock River. American settlements farther south lived with constant rumors of raids, ambushes, and attacks. St. Louis was about as far north as American power reached. Beyond that, things got shaky fast.

So, the American Army hit back.

Major Zachary Taylor loaded 334 men into eight fortified keelboats and pushed north up the Mississippi in late August 1814. The mission was simple enough on paper: move toward Rock River, destroy the Sauk and Fox villages, burn corn supplies, and remind everybody who controlled the river.

The farther north Taylor went, the more warriors appeared along the shoreline. Canoes slipped back and forth across the river, and men watched from the trees.

Taylor noticed horses near the shore and smelled trouble, saying they were “doubtless placed” there to lure American troops into landing parties. He wasn’t wrong. The Sauk and Fox knew where boats could land, where sandbars sat hidden under the water, and where a man could disappear into the willows, never to be seen again.

Battle of Credit Island War of 1812

Major Zachary Taylor

Black Hawk met with Lieutenant John Campbell of the 1st US Regiment of Infantry on July 18, 1814. Campbell reported that the Indians were friendly.  

Campbell said he met a party of Sac warriors carrying a white flag just below the Rock River Rapids. They invited him to Saukenuk for a council, so he traveled about four miles upstream to their village to meet with them.  

 There were maybe 150 warriors, plus their women and children. The chief (most likely Black Hawk) asked if he had presents for them. Campbell replied that he did if they went to war against the Peaus as promised. The chief said he’d made no such promise to his white father. “His father was drunk if he said so.” However, the chief agreed to attack the Peaus if Campbell supplied them with the necessary weapons. 

 Campbell stayed at Rock River for three days from July 28 to 31, then set off for Prairie du Chien. The soldiers didn’t travel more than six miles before hurricane-force winds grounded their boats. 

 The area they stopped at was covered in high grass, and hazel and willow bushes lined the shore for some distance. They weren’t there for more than a half-hour before the Indians attacked. Both sentinels Campbell posted died in the first fire. 

 The soldiers tried to get the boats off the shore, but the wind was too strong. Campbell ordered the men to defend themselves to the “last extremity,” and they did. The fighting lasted nearly two and a half hours.