Post by Cliff Krainik on Jul 1, 2004 0:09:04 GMT -5
BLACK HAWK WAR RECRUITING CIRCULAR
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Extremely Rare. Black Hawk War recruiting circular with primitive woodcut illustration.
The following single page circular and the accompanying print were included as back matter in the pamphlet entitled –
NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTURE AND PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE OF MISSES FRANCES AND ALMIRA HALL. [1] Two respcctable (sic) young women (sisters) of the ages of 16 and 18, [2] who were taken prisoners by the SAVAGES, at a frontier settlement, near the Indian Creek, in May, 1832, when fifteen of the inhabitants fell victims to the bloody Tomahawk and scalping Knife ...
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images.andale.com/f2/116/104/7566189/1074265395998_CIRCULARbwkIC.jpg [/img]
The text for the circular reads as follows -
WAR ! WAR ! WAR !
WOMAN AND CHILDREN
BUTCHERED.
_
TWO YOUNG LADIES TAKEN BY THE SAVAGES.
Authentic information has been received from the Illinois frontier informing of the murder of fifteen defenseless inhabitants of the frontier, most inhumanly butchered, the women in a most shocking manner mangled and exposed. Two highly respectable young women of sixteen and eighteen years of age, are in the hands of the Indians and if not already murdered, are perhaps reserved for a more cruel and savage fate. Whole families are driven from their homes, actually starving, and without a day’s provision before them.
Shall we, fellow citizens, quietly look upon these transactions? Can we look upon them without feelings of revenge; without knowing that our assistance is necessary? How soon may it be our frontiers are in the same way invaded, and our brothers and sisters scalped? Shall we allow these brutes to dull their tomahawks on the bones of our friends in order that they may only re-sharpen them on our relatives? Allow these murders further success; and they will be joined by bands from every quarter, and their “border warfare” will be terrible. Rise, fellow-citizens of this city and county --- let us no longer delay --- talk no more, but act. To arms --- unloose the spirit of revenge --- each one raise a horse, gun, and a few days rations, and put himself under the guidance of some respectable member of the community, (one of experience, and well acquainted with the Indian character, and their mode of warfare) resolve to revenge or die in defence (sic) of his relatives and friends. Let us convince our brethren of our neighboring State, that we are willing and able to assist them; and in assisting them to protect ourselves. Let us, as has been already suggested, meet at five o’clock this afternoon; form ourselves on the spot, in companies of fifty men each; and the St. Louis Corps will march to the seat of war.”
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images.andale.com/f2/116/104/7566189/1087597864503_1087492378050_CIRCULARbwkIC.jpg [/img]
The recruiting circular measures 10 by 6 inches.
1-2 The correct names of the Hall sisters were Sylvia and Rachel.
“The ages of the Hall girls at the time are generally given as seventeen for Sylvia Hall and fifteen for Rachel. However, as Sylvia Hall was born in February, 1813, she was thus slightly over nineteen at the time of the massacre, while Rachel was two years younger, or seventeen. Sylvia Hall Horn’s tombstone records that she died January 11, 1899, aged eighty-five years, ten months, and sixteen days.” Albert O. Barton, “Echoes of the Black Hawk War,” The Wisconsin Magazine of History (1933): 405-406
Circular and print from the Black Hawk War Collection, Cliff and Michele Krainik, Warrenton, Virginia.
images.andale.com/f2/116/104/7566189/1072384844973_PRINTbhwIC.jpg
[/img]
Extremely Rare. Black Hawk War recruiting circular with primitive woodcut illustration.
The following single page circular and the accompanying print were included as back matter in the pamphlet entitled –
NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTURE AND PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE OF MISSES FRANCES AND ALMIRA HALL. [1] Two respcctable (sic) young women (sisters) of the ages of 16 and 18, [2] who were taken prisoners by the SAVAGES, at a frontier settlement, near the Indian Creek, in May, 1832, when fifteen of the inhabitants fell victims to the bloody Tomahawk and scalping Knife ...
The text for the circular reads as follows -
WAR ! WAR ! WAR !
WOMAN AND CHILDREN
BUTCHERED.
_
TWO YOUNG LADIES TAKEN BY THE SAVAGES.
Authentic information has been received from the Illinois frontier informing of the murder of fifteen defenseless inhabitants of the frontier, most inhumanly butchered, the women in a most shocking manner mangled and exposed. Two highly respectable young women of sixteen and eighteen years of age, are in the hands of the Indians and if not already murdered, are perhaps reserved for a more cruel and savage fate. Whole families are driven from their homes, actually starving, and without a day’s provision before them.
Shall we, fellow citizens, quietly look upon these transactions? Can we look upon them without feelings of revenge; without knowing that our assistance is necessary? How soon may it be our frontiers are in the same way invaded, and our brothers and sisters scalped? Shall we allow these brutes to dull their tomahawks on the bones of our friends in order that they may only re-sharpen them on our relatives? Allow these murders further success; and they will be joined by bands from every quarter, and their “border warfare” will be terrible. Rise, fellow-citizens of this city and county --- let us no longer delay --- talk no more, but act. To arms --- unloose the spirit of revenge --- each one raise a horse, gun, and a few days rations, and put himself under the guidance of some respectable member of the community, (one of experience, and well acquainted with the Indian character, and their mode of warfare) resolve to revenge or die in defence (sic) of his relatives and friends. Let us convince our brethren of our neighboring State, that we are willing and able to assist them; and in assisting them to protect ourselves. Let us, as has been already suggested, meet at five o’clock this afternoon; form ourselves on the spot, in companies of fifty men each; and the St. Louis Corps will march to the seat of war.”
The recruiting circular measures 10 by 6 inches.
1-2 The correct names of the Hall sisters were Sylvia and Rachel.
“The ages of the Hall girls at the time are generally given as seventeen for Sylvia Hall and fifteen for Rachel. However, as Sylvia Hall was born in February, 1813, she was thus slightly over nineteen at the time of the massacre, while Rachel was two years younger, or seventeen. Sylvia Hall Horn’s tombstone records that she died January 11, 1899, aged eighty-five years, ten months, and sixteen days.” Albert O. Barton, “Echoes of the Black Hawk War,” The Wisconsin Magazine of History (1933): 405-406
Circular and print from the Black Hawk War Collection, Cliff and Michele Krainik, Warrenton, Virginia.
for gratitude for the girls' rescue. 
