Indian guides advise Gen. Atkinson that White Water cannot be turned. Council of war is held, deciding to return to mouth of river, near present Fort Atkinson. After two-day chase through swamps and sink holes, enemy is as far away as ever. "If we had pushed on up the river," wrote Gov. Reynolds later, "by forced marches, for a day or two, the Indians would have been reached and the war ended." John Reynolds, Reynolds' History of Illinois. My Own Times: Embracing also the History of My Life (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1879), 251. On reaching camp site of 6th, army halts. Atkinson Letter Book, Johnston Journal, Black Hawk War Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, IL; John H. Wakefield, Wakefield's History of the Black Hawk War (Chicago: Caxton Club, 1908), 83.