Product Description

Sixth in the successful "Narrative on America" series, this continues the tragic story of the taking of land from the Native Americans. Vividly recounting the battles of the Black Hawk War, two characters emerge--William Henry Harrison, and Chief Black Hawk himself. HC: Little, Brown.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #219844 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 587 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Reading Eckert is like listening to a master storyteller: he presents his material in vivid detail, using the novelist's technique to enhance dramatic events. Sixth in the author's Winning of America series, the book focuses on how the whites took North America from the Indians. Eckert chronicles the Black Hawk War of 1832, fought for possession of the rich farmland of the upper Mississippi Valley. Most of the action took place in Illinois and Wisconsin, where both the U.S. Army and local militias were involved in scattered skirmishes for four months. Gen. Winfield Scott was delayed because of an outbreak of cholera, but Col. Zachary Taylor and Lt. Jefferson Davis were present, as was Pvt. Abraham Lincoln of the Illinois militia. We meet the Sac leaders, Black Hawk and Keokuk (loyal to the U.S.), and the treacherous Winnebago chief, White Crow, who played both sides. Eckert has used primary sourcespersonal letters, military correspondence, tribal historiesfor a memorable excursion into a dark chapter of our history. In the final battle, at Bad Axe, 21 soldiers and 350 Indians were killed. Among previous volumes in this series are The Conqueror and The Wilderness War.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Reading Eckert is like listening to a master storyteller:  he presents his material in vivid detail, using the novelist's technique to enhance dramatic events."--Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher
One of the premier chroniclers of our nation's turbulent frontier history, Allan W. Ecker now presents another spellbinding chapter in the conquest of the American wilderness. Here is the powerful, compellingly human story of the white man's struggle to claim the rich land of the Northern Mississippi--ancestral home of the Fox and Sac tribes--from the legendary war chief Black Hawk. Having killed his first enemy at sixteen. This proud, brooding warrior extends a hand in friendship to the Spanish and the British, but harbors a lifelong hatred for the Americans, who once burned his home village. Now charged by the president himself, the ambitious governor of Illinois Territory leads a brave and illustrious group of settlers and soldiers to wrest the beautiful land from a nation of destiny and a noble chieftain fated to be betrayed by his own kind.

"Reading Eckert is like listening to a master storyteller: he presents his material in vivid detail, using the novelist's technique to enhance dramatic events."--Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

Tale of the Black Hawk War of 1832
This is the last book in Allan Eckert's Winning of America Series. "Twilight of Empire" chronicles the little-known but bloody Indian uprising in western Illinois in 1832 that became known as Black Hawk's War.

The war was named after the leader of the uprising, an old battle-hardened Sauk war chief named Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak...Black Hawk. In the years following the War of 1812, white settlers flooded into Sauk and Fox lands and the native tribes were forced into signing treaties that gave up their ancestral lands to the United States. In the spring of 1832, Black Hawk, in defiance of the United States and some of his own tribal leaders, led a large band of his starving people back across the Mississippi into northern Illinois to reclaim their stolen lands. This large movement of Indians was seen as hostile by the local white settlers and the militia was called out to subdue Black Hawk's band. The fatefull encounter at what would become the Battle of Stillman's Run would start off what would be the last major Indian war of the midwest. In the end, Black Hawk and his people would be decimated by pursuing American troops under General Atkinson at the Battle of Bad Axe, where hundreds of Indian women and children were shot or drowned while trying to escape back across the Mississippi River. This sad event marked the end of Indian wars east of the Mississippi and signaled the end of the way of life for the woodland Indians.

This story is deeply moving and involved and tells the history of a people and events not generally known today. Highly recommended.

GREAT HISTORY LESSON
ALLAN ECKERT GOT ME FOREVER HOOKED ON THE FASINATING HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK AND THE BLACK HAWK WAR. HIS STORY TELLING STYLE AND ACCURATE ACCOUNTS OF THIS IMPORTANT PART OF THIS AREAS HISTORY MAKES IT A MUST READ.

Best Story Ever Told
Not only is Twilight of Empire a great book, but the whole winning of america series are, without a doubt, the best stories ever told. I would recommend them to anyone, even those not very interested in history. You have got to read these!