The Battle for Illinois

The Illinois Confederation, the Fox, the Sauk, the Shawnee, the Potawatomi, and others have settled in, hunted, and farmed various parts of Illinois at different times in history. What became of them after the coming of the Europeans in the mid-sixteenth century? In less than two hundred years after encountering Europeans, no native tribes occupied any land in the state. First, the French, then the British, and finally the Americans all interacted with them. They traded with them, lived amongst them, allied with them, ruled over them, and fought against them.

This book focuses on the major battles they fought with other Indians (including the legend of Starved Rock), the French, the British, and the Americans, both within and outside the state. Divided into four parts, the story of the significant battles from prehistoric times and the Colonial period, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Black Hawk War are all told in accounts of eyewitnesses or earlier historians. Three appendices (The 1804 Treaty with the Sauk), Abraham Lincoln and other famous people who served in the Black Hawk War, and Reconstructed Forts in Illinois are provided for further information.