Black Hawk War Research Paper

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MAIN EVENT Black Hawk War was caused when Black Hawk and his tribe lost their lands to the white settlers who were coming over from the eastern part of the country. Black Hawk and his tribe were forced to cross the Mississippi river. However soon Black Hawk crossed the river again to reclaim his ancestral lands back and this action sparked a war as he terrorized nearby forts and villages. The U.S. militia led by General Atkinson and a young Abraham Lincoln were tasked to chase down Black Hawk and so-called British Band, who were making their way to take back what was theirs. “Despite warnings from Keokuk that the tribal council would not support them, Black Hawk and other Sauk and Fox warriors and families returned from their winter quarters …show more content…

In that year, Potawatomi ceded the last of their lands in northeastern Illinois, promoting the first development of the Chicago area.To take responsibility for what happened after the war, Black Hawk and the other native tribes were with him lost their lands. Land of the natives began to be taken away, eventually the land of the Potawatomi who resided in present day, Chicago. With these new lands, began the development of other settlements and the city of Chicago. “The Black Hawk War involved a number of men who would go on to important national political and military careers, not least three future presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Zachary Taylor, and Jefferson Davis. One important figure who did not benefit from his role in the Black Hawk War was Atkinson, whose subordinates in the field and superiors in Washington believed that he had badly mishandled the conflict—first by allowing it to turn bloody and then by failing to crush it immediately once it did. Following the war, the official report to Congress papered over Atkinson’s shortcomings, but Taylor later argued that Black Hawk’s band could have been “removed back to the West side of the Mississippi, without there being a gun fired,” if the regular army troops under Atkinson, rather than the militia, had met them first.” "Lincoln wrote that of all his accomplishments, he was most proud of his service in the Black Hawk War" 1. "Black Hawk War (1832)," Encyclopedia.com, last modified 1999, accessed October 28, 2015,

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