Alternate Stop: Soldiers Grove
(Soldiers Grove Park, at Mills and Main Sts., Soldiers
Grove)
Return to Hwy 14 from Hwy 171. Continue
west on Hwy 14 until you find a small gravel road called Parsonage
Road. (Parsonage is about a mile past the Vernon County Line into
Vernon County). Turn left onto Parsonage Road. Parsonage turns
into Trout Creek Road. Continue west on Trout Creek until you
reach Hwy 61. Turn left on Hwy 61 traveling south into Soldiers
Grove. Turn right on Main Street. Marker is in Soldiers
Grove Park. Historical Marker #406. Return to Hwy 61, turning
left onto 61 heading north. Continue on 61 to Hwy 14. Turn left
heading west on 14.
Morning August 1, 1832
Soldier Philip St. George Cooke writes:
[After resting the night of July 31], we emerged...from these gloomy forests into the gladsome light of the sun, in an open pine grove, on the bank of a fine little river, which we scarcely knew then to be the Kickapoo. No great change of circumstances ever had a pleasanter effect upon the spirits of an army; vast high prairies were before us; the sun shone brightly, and gleamed from the crystal waves of the pretty river; the refreshing prairie breeze whistled merrily through the leaves of the pines; there were indications in the enemy's deserted camps that we were close upon him...12
Atkinson's troops camped near the Kickapoo River at a placed known as 'The Pines' or Pine Grove. Because of this encampment, Pine Grove was renamed, and is still known as, Soldier's Grove.