Battle of Stillman's Run - Aftermath

Aftermath

Following the first confrontation at Stillman Valley, the exaggerated claim that 2,000 "bloodthirsty warriors were sweeping all Northern Illinois with the bosom of destruction" sent shock waves of terror through the region. Past midnight on May 15 soldiers from Stillman's ill-fated detachment began streaming back into Dixon's Ferry, wide-eyed and panic-stricken, telling tales of a horrible slaughter that had ensued during the battle. In the immediate aftermath of the battle 53 militia men were missing, though it was later determined that the majority of those had simply passed Dixon's Ferry by on their way home.

After this initial skirmish, Black Hawk led many of the civilians in his band to the Michigan Territory. On May 19, the militia traveled up the Rock River trailing and searching for Black Hawk and his band. Several small skirmishes and massacres ensued over the next month in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin before the militia was able to regain public confidence in battles at Bloody Lake and Waddams Grove.

The debacle at Stillman' Run added fuel to the fire for critics of the Illinois Militia, mostly members of the Regular Army. Critics began, almost immediately, to refer to the battle at Old Man's Creek as the Battle of Stillman's Run, because Stillman had apparently fled with the panicked militia.

Armed hostilities during the Black Hawk War began at Stillman's Run and the victory was unexpected for Black Hawk and his British Band. Black Hawk feared that the white militia and its allies would seek revenge through his total and utter defeat. Leading his starving band, Black Hawk fled from Atkinson's pursuing army. The chase would take them as far as present day Madison, Wisconsin, and end at the Battle of Bad Axe, where the militia and its allies would massacre a weakened foe, by then made up of mostly women and children.

The remains of the soldiers were originally buried in a common grave, but who buried them remains an open question. A memorial, erected in 1901, stands near their marked graves today. The monument and battle site are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and located along Illinois Route 72 a block west of present-day Stillman Creek.