the
Wabash--always keeping their line of march never less than one and
sometimes three days' journey outside of all the settlements"(258)--which
incidentally shows what great unoccupied regions still existed even in the
southern part of Illinois. As the rangers furnished their own supplies,
the two companies went out alternately for periods of fifteen days.
Sometimes the company on duty divided, one part marching in one direction
and the other in the opposite, in order to produce the greatest possible
effect upon the Indians. Settlers on the frontier--and that comprised a
large proportion of the population--"forted themselves," as it was then
expressed. Where a few families lived near each other, one of the most
substantial houses was fortified, and here the community staid at night,
and in case of imminent danger in the daytime as well. Isolated outlying
families left their homes and retired to the nearest fort. Such places of
refuge were numerous and many were the attacks which they successfully
withstood.

Rangers and frontier forts were used with much effect, but the great
dispersion of settlement and the large numbers of Indians combined to make
it wholly impossible to make such means of defence entirely adequate. In
August, 1812, the Governor wrote to the Secretary of War: "The principal
settlements of this Territory being on the Mississippi, are at least one
hundred and fifty miles from those of Indiana, and immense prairies
intervene between them. There can, therefore, be no concert of operations
for the protection of their frontiers and ours.... No troops of any kind
have yet arrived in this Territory, and I think you may count on hearing
of a bloody stroke upon us very soon. I have been extremely reluctant to
send my family away, but, unless I hear shortly of more assistance than a
few rangers, I shall bury my papers in the ground, send my family off, and
stand my ground as long as possible."(259) The "bloody stroke" predicted
by the Governor fell on the garrison at Fort Dearborn, where Chicago now
stands. Some regular troops were subsequently sent to the territory, but
the war did not lose its frontier character. One of the most
characteristic features was that troops sometimes set out on a campaign of
considerable length, in an uninhabited region, without any baggage train
and practically without pack horses, the men carrying their provisions on
their horses, and the horses living on wild grass.(260) Unflagg