Post by Robert Braun on Apr 8, 2002 12:39:42 GMT -5
Captain John Giles Adams commands a company of Mounted Volunteers belonging to the Fifth Regiment, commanded by Colonel James Johnson, Adams raised his company in Pekin, Tazewell County, Illinois. At twilight, he threw together a hasty rear-guard action on a slight hill to the rear of the adbandoned militia camp.
According to Fank Steven's The Black Hawk War:
As the troops came headlong on, Captain Adams, than whom no braver man ever lived, attempted to make a stand with a handful of companions upon the brow of a hill which lies about a half mile to the south of the creek, to cover the retreat of [Stillman's] fugitives. Darkness was upon them, yet they stood their ground to sell their lives as dearly as possible to save those who by the delay might reach points of safety. The moonlight was only sufficient to confuse the panic-stricken troops still more, and in that heroic fight unto death which Captain Adams and his men made, he scarcely knew whether he was fighting friend or foe. In the gloaming the conflict went on, and in the darkness of the night. In the gloaming the conflict went on, and in the darkness of the night, while the scattered forces were safely fleeing on to Dixon's Ferry, Captain Adams and his little band fell one by one, until the last man bit the dust, and then a scene of malignant deviltry almost incredible was perpetrated.
The monument on the slight knoll at present-day Stillman's Valley, Illinois was erected on the very spot of Captain Adam's hopeless stand. Adams and his men who stayed behind to cover the shameful retreat of their comrades stands as the singular spot of gallantry on the part of the militia for the entire episode.
It is this monument the History Channel has pronounced a "farce."
r.
According to Fank Steven's The Black Hawk War:
As the troops came headlong on, Captain Adams, than whom no braver man ever lived, attempted to make a stand with a handful of companions upon the brow of a hill which lies about a half mile to the south of the creek, to cover the retreat of [Stillman's] fugitives. Darkness was upon them, yet they stood their ground to sell their lives as dearly as possible to save those who by the delay might reach points of safety. The moonlight was only sufficient to confuse the panic-stricken troops still more, and in that heroic fight unto death which Captain Adams and his men made, he scarcely knew whether he was fighting friend or foe. In the gloaming the conflict went on, and in the darkness of the night. In the gloaming the conflict went on, and in the darkness of the night, while the scattered forces were safely fleeing on to Dixon's Ferry, Captain Adams and his little band fell one by one, until the last man bit the dust, and then a scene of malignant deviltry almost incredible was perpetrated.
The monument on the slight knoll at present-day Stillman's Valley, Illinois was erected on the very spot of Captain Adam's hopeless stand. Adams and his men who stayed behind to cover the shameful retreat of their comrades stands as the singular spot of gallantry on the part of the militia for the entire episode.
It is this monument the History Channel has pronounced a "farce."
r.
