Morning

This chapter discusses the Illinois Territory, which was one of the frontier regions affected by war. Only recently split off from Indiana Territory in 1809, the new territory ran from the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers north to the U.S. border with Canada, embracing the current states of Illinois and Wisconsin, together with a part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Minnesota east of the Mississippi River. All those states, especially Illinois, would eventually owe their existence to the War of 1812. Mortality on the Illinois frontier was high, although not necessarily higher than in other frontier communities. The settlers who had located in the river bottoms were often racked by recurrent fevers and malaria, which they called “the ague.” Nevertheless, adversity had made the settlers hardy in spirit and there was no challenge they feared to take on.