Public-domain ebook
The Black Hawk War Including a Review of Black Hawk's Life
Language: en8,094 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Biographies·History - American
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #49402.
About this book
Frank E. Stevens’s work is a comprehensive historical study of the Black Hawk War and a biographical sketch of its eponymous leader. The author explains that he began gathering source material in the autumn of 1871, drawing on a wide range of original documents, letters, muster rolls, journals, and personal interviews with surviving participants. He acknowledges the assistance of numerous individuals and institutions, from Mrs. Catherine Buckmaster Curran’s complete paper set to the journal of Lieutenant Albert Sidney Johnston, underscoring the book’s reliance on primary evidence. The text opens with a detailed table of contents that maps the narrative from Black Hawk’s early life and early conflicts through treaties, frontier skirmishes, and the final campaigns, concluding with his imprisonment, release, and death. This structure signals a meticulous, chapter‑by‑chapter chronicle rather than a single‑volume narrative.
The prose reflects a late‑19th‑century scholarly voice, marked by formal diction, exhaustive footnoting, and a focus on documentary detail. Stevens’s style is dense and factual, appealing to readers who appreciate thorough research, such as historians, students of early American frontier and Native American history, and genealogists tracing the many military and civilian figures listed. Those seeking a richly sourced, period‑appropriate account of the 1832 conflict and its principal actors will find this volume a valuable reference.
Who appears in The Black Hawk War Including a Review of Black Hawk's Life
- Black HawkNative American chief, mid‑30s, long black hair, war paint, feathered headdress, traditional buckskin clothing
- Albert Sidney JohnstonYoung army officer, early 30s, dark hair, crisp US Army uniform with epaulettes, sword at side
- Mrs. Catherine Buckmaster CurranMiddle‑aged Victorian woman, dark hair in bun, high‑collared dress, modest jewelry, seated with a ledger
The opening · free to read
In the autumn of 1871, I began the collection of materials for the book which is just completed; at a time when many original sources existed from which to draw. Since that time, no opportunity wherein I might see and talk with persons who were in the Black Hawk campaigns has been lost, and from those interviews I have been able to gather information, old letters, commissions, muster rolls and papers obtainable by no possible system of correspondence.
I have endeavored to be thorough, and to be thorough has required space. I deplore the necessity which forbids an expression of thanks to each individual by name who has contributed documents, valuable portraits and information from which this work has been constructed. I thank them all as generously as I have borrowed, which has been much. Especially must I thank Mrs. Catherine Buckmaster Curran, of Alton, Illinois, who furnished me with a complete set of papers, without which I could never have finished my work as it should be finished.
Mrs. Colonel William Preston Johnston, of New Orleans, who, at great inconvenience and sacrifice of time, secured a copy of the journal kept by Lieut. Albert Sidney Johnston during his service in those campaigns.
Dr. J.F. Snyder, Virginia, Illinois, President State Historical Society. Prof. B.F. Shambaugh, Iowa City, Iowa. Mr. R.G. Thwaites, Madison, Wisconsin. Charles Aldrich, Des Moines, Iowa. Miss Caroline M. McIlvaine, Librarian Chicago Historical Society, Chicago.
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