Twilight of Empire (Winning of America Series) [Hardcover]

Allan W. Eckert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2004 | Series: Winning of America Series

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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 587 pages
• Publisher: Jesse Stuart Foundation (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193167230X
• ISBN-13: 978-1931672306
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,198,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Allan W. Eckert, seven-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, has written 39 books, including his award-winning Incident at Hawk's Hill and The Frontiersman, plus numerous other historical narratives, novels and non-fiction works, as well as books for young adults and children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tale of the Black Hawk War of 1832, January 31, 2003

By 

Matthew S. Schweitzer "zohoe" (Columbus, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Twilight of Empire (Paperback)

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.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT HISTORY LESSON, November 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Twilight of Empire (Paperback)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No Heroes on Either Side, December 20, 2008

By 

Michael E. Fitzgerald (Kingwood, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Twilight of Empire (Winning of America Series) (Hardcover)

Born and raised in Chicago it is difficult to think of Illinois as a frontier: Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, yes; but Illinois, no. To me there were too few Native American names to associate with specific places and until this work by Alan W. Eckert I was completely unaware that actual battles were fought in Illinois and the Native Americans sometimes won.

This is the story of the Black Hawk Indian War that was fought in today's northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin in 1832. Little remembered today, it resulted in a major mobilization of US troops from as far away as New York City, Fort Monroe at Point Comfort, Virginia and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. With the advent of steam power, it also resulted in the longest amphibious and most rapid deployment of men and material in our Nation's then current history. Troops embarked from New York's Sackets Harbor, sailed past Detroit, through Lake St. Clair to the Straits of Mackinaw and down the entire length of Lake Michigan to Chicago.

But on arrival at Chicago, cholera prevented further movement and the troops were quarantined north of the city at Evanston on the land that became the campus of today's Northwestern University. Heading west (on today's Army Trail Road) Federal troops finally rendezvous with local militias and begin an arduous chase of the Sac and Fox tribes under Black Hawk up into Wisconsin and across the southern portion of the State. Intercepted by a Federal gunboat at the Mississippi River, the Indians are literally slaughtered. Trapped on the Mississippi's eastern shore over 300 Native Americans are killed as opposed to just a few soldiers.

This is quite a detailed look at what led up to this war, its prosecution and ultimate conclusion. It was the last major engagement fought against the woodland Indians and oddly enough includes the worst single defeat ever experienced by the US Army. The cast of characters is literally a who's who of the times: General Winfield Scott, Lewis Cass, General Henry Atkinson, David Twiggs, William Clark, Philip St. George Cooke, Keokuk, Albert Sidney Johnson, 2 future US Presidents, Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, future President of the Confederate States of America.

As usual Allan W. Eckert's research is flawless. But his amazing attention to detail sometimes gets in the way of his story. I found this work somewhat laborious compared to his prior works; the writing is clear but not as concise as it has been, so the story line becomes muddled. But make no mistake Eckert's writing is effective: When was the last time anyone thought of Illinois as the wild frontier?