John Wakefield was one of the first militiamen called to the colors to fight Chief Blackhawk's incursion into Illinois. Instead of returning home when his first term expired, Wakefield stayed on as a volunteer scout and surgeon's mate for the length of the war. His account, reproduced here, is one of the few primary accounts that covers the entire war. Unlike other memoirists of the war, Wakefield wrote his account almost immediately after he returned home.

Wakefield's story is more than an eyewitness view of the war. His work provides a unique insight into the racial hatred at the core of this war. His acocunt also highlights how just how tenuous state and federal governmental control was during this part of American history. This primary work provides a useful tool for examining the social structure of the Illinois frontier. Because of the uniques insights provided, Wakefield's work should be seen as something more than a simple military history.

The edition used for the online version is the second one, reprinted in 1907. Since most of the copies of the first edition were destroyed and only a handful (200) of the second were made, Wakefield's account is exceedingly difficult to find. Hopefully this online version, with its page by page transcription, will expand access to this valuable resource.
Full citation for the work is: Wakefield's History of the Blackhawk War: A Reprint of the First Edition By John A. Wakefield, Esquire, From the Press of Calvin Goudy, Jacksonville, Illinois, 1834, Frank Everett Stevens, Chicago: Caxton Club, 1908.

Wakefield Biography
Table of Contents