In the present town of Arrowsmith, McLean county, Illinois, almost exactly at the center of section 24, about one mile and a half west of the western extremity of Cheney's Grove, is a small tract of timber or woodland, formerly known as Little, now called Smith's Grove. It was owned over fifty years ago by Mr. James Smith, who is still living, and whose son, J. P. Smith, resides within a very short distance northwest of the grove.

Originally there were about fifteen acres covered with trees, nearly one-half of which is still in this condition, mostly small trees, or of the second growth, though one very large old burr oak is still standing. The first settlers of this county noticed that an acre of this space, centrally situated on a rounding knoll, about twenty-five feet in height above the surrounding low ground near the Sangamon, contained ridges and depressions of rather peculiar appearance, which were said by the Indians or other early settlers to be the remains of pits or caches where the Indians had at different times buried their corn or other valuables. The first appearance of these ridges and depressions as near as I have been able to ascertain, seemed to be circular, irregularly shaped and irregularly placed, with edges or sides which were sloping, inclined to be steep in some places, but generally very sloping at the sides, and in depth, not over from one and a half to two and a half feet from the tops of the ridges to the lowest parts of the depressions. The land where these were first found has [unreadable line]…… long been a portion of a hog and cattle feed lot, its present appearance is very nearly the same as if it had always been under cultivation.

About fifty rods toward the northeast on the prairie, just where the same commences to decline or to roll off to the lower ground, our first settlers noticed some military appearing earthworks, or zig-zag rifle pits. They extended about ten rods from the north to south, and there were about ten or a dozen of them, after the fashion of a rail fence. They were not dug very deeply into the earth, were evidently hastily thrown up, and while plainly to be seen before the prairie sod had been broken, they have now so entirely disappeared that their actual location may never again be traced, although it is to be hoped that careful observation at plowing time may again be the means of their identification.

While we cannot help regretting that these markings have not been more carefully noticed, we must bear in mind the fact that until all the prairie around this locality has been broken, no one supposed any of the traces I have tried to describe had any relation to an ancient battle-field. But about forty years ago it began to be noticed, after the land had been cultivated, that great numbers of bullets were found, mostly outside of the peculiar location in the center of the grove, and generally at a distance of about a gun-shot therefrom.

Nor was this all, for a great variety of articles were picked up some of which I will enumerate hereafter, and taking all of the evidence together, it began to be believed n the neighborhood that an Indian battle , or a battle between whites and Indians, had at some time taken place at this locality.

One beautiful day in May 1897, it was visited by several members of our society, accompanied by quite a number of other persons. We are greatly indebted to Mr. Douglas Dement of Arrowsmith for the inspiration, invitation and courtesies of the occasion. Those of our society who formed the party were Messr. E. M. Prince, George P. Davis, Judge T. F. Tipton, Peter Folsom, J. B. Orendorff and myself. We were given valuable assistance by Mr. George P. Ela and others and were met at the spot by Mr. Mark Hanks of Arrowsmith, one of the earliest settlers of the neighborhood, and also by several of the early settlers of Cheney's Grove, or descendants of those settlers. Mr. J. P. Smith, the owner of the land, with his sons, also assisted, more especially by donations of bullets and various other articles found at the site.

I have lately visited the place again, and there met Mr. Jacob Smith, the pioneer, now living in Kansas, who was the first owner or occupier of the tract in question, and the information I have obtained from all of these individuals, from others, and from printed sources, is here compiled in the hope that this paper may be the starting point for the future investigation of this most interesting battle ground, and that I [sic] will ye [sic] be possible to wrest from the buried and almost past a trustworthy record of one of McLean county's important historical localities.

Smith's Grove, as it now is, contains nearly half a dozen acres of trees. About one acre of this, on top of a slight knoll or elevation, contains the interesting ridges and depressions. There does not appear to have ever been a fort or wall of earth surrounding these depressions, but we must not forget that a stockade of timber may possibly have been around them when the great and thrilling event occurred. Just in front, to the southeast, and south, and a little to the southwest, forming almost a half circle on that side, and at a distance of not more than ten rods from the base of the little elevation, is a level tract of land, the headwaters of the Sangamon river. The old channel of this stream may eb [sic] plainly seen, quite close to the base of the little knoll, though its present channel is a few rods further off, and now averages perhaps eighteen or twenty rods from the base of the little knoll. This level tract of land is what may perhaps be called the bottom lands or valley of the Sangamon, and at a distance of less than a quarter of a mile, this level land rises into higher and more rolling prairie. Before the settlement of this region, this tract was generally wet, nearly the whole season, or was at any rate, in the ordinary condition of our prairie sloughs, covered in tall grass, and in a wet time was often merely a morass, through which the Sangamon made its way, not as now, with its channel from twenty to forty feet wide, but with a narrow and very shallow water course. It will therefore be readily seen by those who are familiar with former conditions, that in ordinary seasons this little knoll was surrounded on this side, which, as I have said, was about a half circle of its extent, by a wide and marshy swamp, which was of itself quite a good defense.

On the west and northwest, at a distance less than a gun-shot, the land was all high, rolling prairies, somewhat higher than the knoll in question, and from this direction is [sic] would appear as if an attack might be made more readily than from any other. Towards the northeast in the direction of the rifle pits, or military approaches, the land is nearly or quite level on an average, till we reach these works, or the place where they are said to have been found. We find these were on the edge of land descending towards the northeast, and situated just about where an enemy could safely approach under protection of the roll in the prairie, till within fifty rods or an easy gun-shot of the fortification for such it was, at the center of the little knoll in the grove, and over here the attacking party could have thrown up earth in comparative safety.

While it is my intention to combine this paper in its earlier portions entirely to present approaches, I find it almost im-[unreadable line]…. Out a plan or diagram of the place, which plan we shall hope to secure at some future time unless I introduce some of these supposition circumstance, but I trust they will may [sic] my efforts at accurate description.

Our party made a very interesting exploration of the central attraction of the grove, and we shall never forget our intense interest as we made our discoveries. We dug at first into the ridges surrounding the depressions, and were greatly disappointed to find them destitute of any remains, relics, or vestiges of any description. The earth thrown up in these ridges was mostly clay or the deeper sub-soil. But when we changed our tactics and dug into the hollows or depressions, we were richly rewarded. We dug into four or five out of the dozen or fifteen of these pits or depressions which are scattered irregularly over the acre of land at the top of the little knoll and found the apparent bottoms of these pits at depths not exceeding three feet and mostly two feet from the apparent average natural level of the ground. The largest was about fifteen feet in diameter at the top and eight or ten feet in diameter at the bottom. Bones were found in nearly all of them, but they nearly all appeared to be the bones of animals, though as most of them perished rapidly on exposure to air, we would advise future explorers to give careful medical examination to this class of remains. We found no bullets and learned that but few bullets or arrow heads have ever been found at this point, most of them having been picked up east and south of the knoll; many of them on level ground, and many even across the present channel of the Sangamon, on the level ground beyond. Very few balls have found west, north, or northeast of the knoll, which circumstance seems to indicate the main attack was made from the direction of high ground [???], and Mr. Jacob Smith has always believed that most of the bullets found were shot from this direction, and passed entirely over or through the fortification at the knoll. On this theory it would appear as if the attacking party did most of the shooting, although there is another theory that most of the balls were shot out from the fortification, and towards an enemy approaching from the south and southwest across and through the swamp or level land on that side.

It does not appear at first sight quite plain why I call this a fortification, but I think a little reflection, taken in connection with the finding of the bullets and our explanation of the situation, will show that these pits and ridges surrounding the, formed a real fortification. It will eb [sic] seen that if holes or pits were dug about two feet deep and from ten to fifteen feet in diameter, that the dirt thrown up would surround these pits or holes with walls which could easily be three or four feet in height, counting from the bottom of the holes to the top of the ridges. Within these pits, thus surrounded, quite a large number of men, by keeping themselves close to the bottoms, would be entirely safe from musket balls.

We are told in a French Official report, that in 1712 at the siege of Detroit, the Foxes and Muscatines [sic] resisted "in a wooden fort for nineteen days, the attack of a much larger force of French and Indians. In order to avoid the fire of the French, they dug holes four or five feet deep in the bottom of their fort." Here we have a record of an occurrence where Fox Indians, who inhabited this very region in 1712, actually resorted to digging holes for protection, and it is entirely safe, from what we know, to assume this little knoll to have been used as a fortification in a similar manner, though we have as yet no right to assume that a real fort with wooden walls surrounded these excavations.

The list of articles which were found or presented, mostly at the time of our visit, is as follows: Arrow heads or points, bullets of two or three different calibers, some of which appear to have been hacked with knives, either to form them out of bar lead, or to cut down large bullets to a smaller calibre; charcoal and ashes from the bottom of the pits. Pieces of knife blades, which may have been scalping of [sic] dirk knives, or may have been applied to ordinary uses; pieces of copper ornaments; a piece of a pistol barrel; pieces of nearly straight deer horn prongs; a peculiar piece of iron, flattened at each end, looking as if it might have been used on deer skins as a scrapper. It is apparently of rude Indian workmanship or rude European blacksmithing. A section of a gun barrel a foot long, flattened at each end by blacksmithing, and each of these ends formed into a sort of a spoor or scraper. Another section of a gun barrel, open at one end and flattened at the other end as above described. A gun lock, of the kind known as a flint lock. Part of a steel blade, possibly the blade of a dirk knife, but more likely a razor blade on which the maker's name, Pierre Minan, can be read, while the other letters cannot yet be deciphered, but further examination may reveal the name of the city where it was manufactured.

In addition to these, most of which are here on exhibition, I have made inquiries and find that at different times in the past, various other articles have been found, either around the site of these excavations, or within the distance of a gun-shot, among which were several flint gunlock, pieces of brass or copper kettles, iron pothooks, used to hang kettles over the fire; a piece of lead ore, properly called Galena; a piece of bar lead, said to have weighed three pounds and a half; knife blades, which may have been scalping knives; iron hatchets, called tomahawks; several silver trinkets; a piece of sword blade; several pieces of gun barrels and a large number of bullets. At first I considered the estimate of five or six hundred as probably an exaggeration, but later inquires have convinced me that 1,000 is much more likely to be nearly the number. I have heard of seventy-five bullets being found at one time, and there is still plenty of evidence of the finding of a very large number. Between the time of my first visits, about twenty more had been found, with two or three arrow heads, all of which have been added [unreadable line]…..

The fact that some of the bullets have been cut or hacked has given the impression that they were cut out of bar lead with knives, but I consider much more probable that the calibers of the muskets varied and that some of the bullet moulds were so large that the balls had to be cut down to enter the rifle, as I find this was once a common practice.

It is quite remarkable if we consider this as an ancient Indian battle ground, that so few arrow heads have been discovered. It is true that in the aggregate, a large number of these have been picked up, but the proportion preserved does not indicate much over one-tenth as many of these as have been found of leaden bullets.

Enough bullets have been found to indicate that a very severe struggle must have taken place as we must infer that a very large number of the bullets used must still remain in the soil. We must bear in mind that at the time this event occurred, powder and balls and even arrows, were too valuable to be wasted after the style of modern battles, and we thus have good reason to believe that more than a mere skirmish took place, though this is again entering the region of conjecture, as after all, the skulking Indian was likely to keep himself so well concealed during an action that very few fatalities occurred until the combat took place at close quarters, when the carnage was usually peaceful [sic fearful].

We need not consider that it was beyond the ability of the Indians to dig these holes or pits and thro wup [sic] the dirt for protection during or before an attack, because the reference I have made to acts of similar Indians at Detroit in 1712 proves them to have been adepts in this kind of defense.

Neither are we surprised at evidences of regular rifle pits or approaches within gun-shot of the works to the northeast, because the Indian tribes after the introduction of firearms nearly always contained more or less French or English hunters, often called renegrade whites or half-breed Indians, who taught the Indians as much as they could of the modern or European methods of fighting, as has been repeatedly shown in the history of border warfare.

This partial description of our most remarkable relic should be followed by a more careful examination next spring by members of this society or others, when we may expect to add very materially to the information now at hand, and by future explorations on the ground and future historical research, we may reasonably hope to yet secure a reliable account of the military event which for want of a better title we now call the Indian battle.

We take today, from our happy, busy, civilized modern life, a few hours for the consideration not only of some of the prehistoric relics and remains of the past, but more especially to consider some of the most obscure traces of what are called historic times.

The uncivilized actors in the terrible tragedy which we are investigating, who but left a few traces of their proceedings, were the successors of countless generations , of savage residents of this region, who have left no records of their conflicts and long residence here, unless it be a few stones implements and some scattering of arrow heads, and our hearts fail use [sic] in any attempt to estimate the magnitude of the human slaughter [sic] of which we have no record, but which must have occurred before this fair land became the happy homes of ur present population. I am perfectly well aware that conjectures are not history, but I also believe that we may reasonably expect to bring out something of the real history of this battle-ground, by using traditions and conjectures in such a manner that they may assist in our researches. In the summer of 1880, an examination and exploration was made of the Indian remains of the old Indian town, and the remains of the Indian fort near by, which remains, it must be remembered, are separate and distinct from those now under consideration, being about seven miles to the southwest and within the limits of the town of West. In writing a paper on this subject at that time, I copied from "Historic Notes of the Northwest," by H. W. Beckwith of Danville, the greatest living authority on the Indian history of this region, a reference which I then stated I believed might apply to the Indian fort near Old Town.

I am now convinced that the reference is much more likely to be applicable to the present locality, more especially as it refers to excavations made in the ground, and as these remains are of that character, and are on the headwaters of the Sangamon rive, it appears much more probable that the long sought Stnataek [sic Etnataek] may be found at our Indian battle ground.

It is as follows, taken from Long's Expedition, published about fifty years ago, and republished in Mr. Beckwith's book:

With a view to collect as much information as possible on the subject of Indian antiquities, we inquired of Robinson (a Pottawotami half breed of superior intelligence), whether any tradition on this subject were current among the Indians. He observed that these fortifications were a frequent subject of conversation, and especially those in the nature of excavations made in the ground. He had heard of one made by the Kickapoo and fox Indians on the Sangamon river, a stream running into Illinois. The fortification is distinguished by the name Etnataek. It is known to have served as an intrenchment [sic] to Kickapoos and Foxes, who were met there and defeated by the Pottawotames, the Ottawas, and the Chippewas. No date is assigned to this transaction. We understood that the Etnateak [sic] was near the Kickapoo village on the Sangamon.

The half breed Robinson referred to living in northern Illinois and was a very intelligent and reliable man, but we must not allow ourselves to rely implicitly on any Indian traditions. We shall find, however, on examination that this tradition fits well in to all the circumstances of ne case in hand and as the best historical authorities have never been able to assign any other location to this traditional Indian battle between tribes.

[Unreadable line]…..Indian burying ground, and as my own conjecture seventeen years ago appears to have been greatly at fault in supposing it to be applicable to our Indian fort near Old Town, where the evidence of the fort were on the surface, with no excavations in the ground, while in this case we find the location is on the Sangamon, where the half breed says the tradition places it, and where we not only find the excavations were made in the ground by digging, but also have evidence that they served as intrenchments [sic] during a skirmish or battle and as he says he understood Etnateak was near the Kickapoo village on the Sangamon, it is probable tht [sic] thae [sic] Old Town being but seven miles away, might well be called the Kickapoo village on the Sangamon to which the tradition refers and it appears to me quite reasonable to conjecture this recently discovered battle ground may be the long looked for Etnateak.

There are still other confirmatory indications. History informs us that before the visit of LaSalle in 1680, the Indians of northern and central Illinois, had been terribly decimated by incursions of the vigorous Iroquois Indians from the east, who were well supplied with firearms by the traders, and who were able to drive before them the poorly armed aborigines of this section. These incursions with those of the tribes from Wisconsin and elsewhere later, were so effective that about the year 1700 many of the Illinois Indians went down the Illinois river from LaSalle and from Peoria and made their homes near Kaskaskia, whither the French missionaries followed them from Peoria, and from the upper Illinois. This region of country was thenceforth inhabited by the Kickapoo and Fox and affiliated Indians, although we have notice [sic] that remnants of the Illinois Indians were at Peoria and near Starved Rock as late as 1722, when French troops were sent from Fort Chartres, near Kaskaskia, to their assistance. Forty of these French troops with four hundred friendly Indians marched by land to Peoria Lake to assist the Illinois Indians who were attacked by the Foxes, who resided, as believe, in the north part of the state, while their friends, the Kickapoos, lived at or near here. The record states that before this force arrived at Peoria Lake, the Foxes retreated with a loss of 120 of their men.

There is quite a possibility that their retreat may have been made to the place in question, where they may have been befriended by the Kickapoos and that they may have been attacked here by the French, but this is a rare supposition. It is also possible that the French and allied Indians may have chastised [sic] the same Indians at this same place in 1732, when French troops from Ft Chartres attacked the Foxes, who, when they had built a fort to secure their families, were to make an attack on the French. This fort alluded to as about to be built, may have been the Indian fort at Old Town, this is clear conjecture and speculation. From the reading of the whole allusion to this attack of the French on the Indians in 1732, I am of the opinion it is far more likely to refer to something which happened near the Indiana and Wabash country among Foxes of the northeast.

The history of the Indians of this region as given by the French authorities, seems to show that from about 1712 down to the settlement, it was inhabited by the Kickapoo Indians, who were on friendly terms with the Foxes of Northern Illinois, and also that the Pottowatomies, Ottawas and the Chippewas, who lived in Michigan and the adjacent country, were apt to be affiliated during wars, and were liable to fight against the Foxes combined with the Kickapoos, who held this region; then the great buffalo hunting grounds which were coveted by all of the eastern and northeastern Indian tribes.

I consider it, therefore, as very highly probable that the half breed Robinson's tradition, as quoted, referring to a battle between the Kickapoos and the Foxes on one side, who were defeated by a union of the Pottawatomies, Ottawas and Chippewas on the other side, at the site of these excavations, is the true solution of the problem under consideration.

It is well known that fire arms and knives were common with the Indians of this territory after 1712 and that iron began to be plenty at the same time, and as the evidences we have produced show very plainly the combatants were armed with muskets, and possessed many iron implements, it is pretty safe to assume the battle took place after 1712. As all the Indians of this region were then engaged at Detroit, it is far more likely this battle took place after than before that date. Had it occurred at any time after 1765, when this territory passed under the control of the British, we should be very likely to have historic accounts of it, and I believe we can almost safely assign the date as between 1712 and 1765 with a probability that it was most likely to have taken place between 1720 and 1750.

It is quite possible that New Orleans which was the French headquarters for this territory for many years or at Montreal or Quebec, or perhaps in Paris, may yet be discovered official or clerical reports which will prove that at the site in question a conflict took place between the French and the Indians. Careful researches should be made by historical students, as all has not yet been published concerning the French occupation of the northwest.

These records are as likely to throw light upon the recent Indian history of Illinois as upon the operations of the French. History teaches us hat tribe after tribe of the Indians who occupied this region were barbarously and murderously annihilated and destroyed, that these fair and fertile regions were again and again bathed and deluged in human blood. Could we posses [sic] a correct history of the horrible and terrible massacres witnessed here we should doubtless consider it a mercy that a kind Providence has drawn an impenetrable obscurity over the centuries of bloodshed these prairies have endured.

It is highly probable, judging from our knowledge of the Indian character and the ancient method of warfare, that the vanquished in the engagement, if vanquished in the place under consideration, were literally bathed in their own blood in the bottoms of these excavations, and that in spite of our irrepressible curiosity it is a mercy to us that we are not able to learn any or all if the particulars of the unknown events.