This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
Campbell's Island lies in the Mississippi just upstream from Rock Island. The Illinois legislature erected an historical marker here in 1905 to explain the island's name.
In July of 1814, as the War of 1812 dragged on, the governor of Missouri Territory, William Clark (the Clark of Lewis and Clark) sent three keelboats of troops and supplies from St. Louis upriver to reinforce the outpost of Prairie du Chien. Commanding the force of thirty-three soldiers and sixty-five volunteer rangers was Lieutenant John Campbell.
As the keelboats struggled to ascend the Rock Island Rapids on the morning of July 19th, they were unaware that they were being followed along shore by four hundred Sauk Indians under Black Hawk. These Sauk had always been allies of the British with whom they traded and who extended them credit, and they now remained loyal. They had little choice—attempts to trade with the Americans had been rebuffed.
Midway up the rapids, Campbell's boats were separated by current and high winds. The lieutenant's boat went aground on an island covered with underbrush. The Sauk now attacked. Black Hawk himself set Campbell's sail afire with a flaming arrow. By the time a second boat came to Campbell's rescue, he had been seriously wounded. All three boats retreated to St. Louis, leaving behind the dead and dying on the island that was eventually given Campbell's name. In the battle, ten regulars, four rangers, a woman and a child were killed. Another twenty were wounded. The Sauk lost one man and one woman.
The Battle of Campbell's Island, as the marker will tell you, was historically important because it was the westernmost battle in the War of 1812.
Had the British won that war, the historical marker on Campbell's Island might have noted something else. It might have quoted the British officer who, after the war, called the Battle of Campbell's Island "the most brilliant victory of the war won by Indians unassisted by whites."
Apparently, there was not enough money in the Illinois legislature for a marker large enough to tell the whole story.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
