William S. Hamilton - Political and Militia Service

Political and Militia Service

Hamilton first held elected office in 1824 as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Sangamon County in 1824. While working in the legislature Hamilton sponsored a bill that imposed a state-wide tax intended to fund road repair and maintenance. The tax was proportional to property value, to be paid in labor or money, and replaced an older system which required every able-bodied man to work on the roads five days per year. The bill passed, and the new law was met with much opposition; it was repealed by the next legislature in 1826–27. Hamilton served as aide de camp to Governor Edward Coles, and while living in Illinois, first in Springfield and later in Peoria, Hamilton worked for the General Land Office as Deputy Surveyor of Public Lands. In that position he surveyed Springfield's township.

In late 1827 Hamilton served during the Winnebago War in the volunteer Illinois Militia as a captain. Hamilton commanded a company raised in Galena, Illinois known as the Galena Mounted Volunteers. Hamilton's company was under the command of Henry Dodge and was mustered into service on August 26, 1827 and released on September 10, 1827. Hamilton moved to Wisconsin and established Hamilton's Diggings in 1827.

During the April–August 1832 Black Hawk War, between white settlers in the lead mining regions and Sauk Chief Black Hawk's British Band, Hamilton again served in the volunteer militia. Accounts of the war indicated that Hamilton was often in charge of the militia's indigenous allies. At the war's onset it was known that many of the Sioux and Menominee were eager to join the conflict against the Sauk. Hamilton was sent to the Michigan Territory, north of Prairie du Chien, to recruit the assistance of indigenous allies. The result was successful and several parties of U.S. aligned Native Americans joined the war.

In June, Hamilton's return to Fort Hamilton with a large group of militia-aligned Native Americans coincided with the arrival of one of the survivors of the June 14 Spafford Farm massacre. The survivor, Francis Spencer, arrived at the fort around the same time as Hamilton did - accompanied by U.S. aligned Menominee. Afraid that the fort, like his party at the farm, had also been attacked, Spencer retreated back into the woods. He avoided the fort for between six and nine days, when hunger finally drove him into the open and he realized his mistake. On June 16, about an hour after the fight at Horseshoe Bend, Hamilton arrived on the battlefield with U.S. aligned Menominee, Sioux and Ho-Chunk warriors. According to Dodge, the warriors were given some of the scalps his men had taken, with which they were "delighted". Dodge also reported that the allied warriors then proceeded onto the battlefield and mutilated the corpses of the fallen Kickapoo.

In 1842 and 1843 Hamilton served as an elected member of the Wisconsin Territorial Assembly. Hamilton lost an 1843 election for the national-level office of Wisconsin Territory delegate to the United States Congress, and in 1848 he lost an election for delegate to the Wisconsin Constitutional Convention. Though well known as a smelter and miner in the lead region of southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, Hamilton was unable to achieve the political fame he desired.