Black Hawk and his followers easily repulsed the Illinois militia in the war’s first encounter, the Battle Of Stillman’s Run, and the Indians fared well in a number of other early conflicts. As the weeks wore on, however, the strength of Black Hawk’s band began to lessen. Expected aid from other tribes and the British did not materialize, food supplies were quickly exhausted, and desertions, malnutrition, and illness took their toll. Black Hawk retreated northward through the Rock River valley, and in the final battle, or massacre, at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin, most of the Indians, who were trying to make their way back across the Mississippi, were slaughtered. Black Hawk escaped but surrendered shortly thereafter. As a condition of peace,