Spafford Farm Massacre - Aftermath

Aftermath

Word of the attack at Spafford's farm spread quickly to Fort Defiance, about five miles southeast of Mineral Point. A small volunteer force of 13 men was assembled at Fort Defiance and they set off to hunt down the band of Native Americans responsible for the massacre. The group reached Fort Hamilton at around midnight on June 15. On the morning of June 15 survivor, Bennett Million guided the militia volunteers back to the site of the massacre; one of the volunteers was Alexander Higgenbotham, a survivor of the St. Vrain massacre. The bodies of the dead were badly mutilated and Spafford's corpse was headless; his head was found scalped and tossed into the grass along the river bank. The volunteers buried the mangled bodies of the fallen and searched in vain for Spencer, whom they also assumed dead.

Colonel Henry Dodge was at Gratiot's Grove when the war descended upon Spafford Farm, having just sent his volunteers to their forts to resupply and recuperate. Shortly after he arrived back at his home fort, he received word of the Aubrey murder at Fort Blue Mounds and the incident at Spafford Farm. Dodge ordered militia detachments from Fort Defiance, Fort Jackson, and Fort Hamilton to the scene of the massacre.

After the massacre, General Henry Atkinson was informed that Dodge was to take over General Alexander Posey's brigade at Fort Hamilton. While Dodge was on his way to visit the brigade, he heard a rifle shot from a group of Native Americans. Dodge quickly returned to his command post and gathered as many men as he could to pursue the enemy. With Dodge in quick pursuit, a group of approximately 25 Native warriors criss-crossed the Pecatonica River until, finding flight hopeless, they prepared to make a stand at the Battle of Pecatonica.