Henry Dodge was an American soldier, governor and one of the first senators of Wisconsin. He took part in the War of 1812, commanded a force of mounted volunteers in the Winnebago War, took part in the Black Hawk War in 1832.
Background
Henry Dodge was born on October 12, 1782 at Post Vincennes (now Vincennes), Indiana, United States. His father, Israel Dodge, a Revolutionary soldier, had moved west and married Nancy Ann Hunter, a girl of the Kentucky frontier. After a number of years in the Illinois country and Kentucky, the Dodges crossed the Mississippi and settled in the Ste. Genevieve district of Spanish Louisiana.
In 1805 he succeeded his father as sheriff of the Ste. Genevieve district, and held this office for sixteen years.
Education
In the Ste. Genevieve district of Spanish Louisiana Henry Dodge reached maturity, receiving little formal education but assisting his father in the various frontier occupations of lead mining, farming, brewing and distilling.
Career
From 1813 Dodge served as marshal of the Territory of Missouri, and in the Missouri militia he rose to the grade of major-general.
After the War of 1812, in which he led troops to the relief of the Boone Lick settlement on the Missouri, he returned to lead mining, but the fame of the mineral fields of the Upper Mississippi River caused him to migrate in 1827, settling finally in the region of the present Dodgeville, Wisconsin, then a part of the Territory of Michigan.
He commanded a force of mounted volunteers in the Winnebago War of 1827, and took a distinguished part in the Black Hawk War in 1832.
His military success led to his appointment by President Jackson as major of a battalion of mounted rangers, recruited to patrol the frontier in the Upper Mississippi Valley. In 1833 this body was replaced by the first regiment of United States dragoons with Dodge as its colonel.
Its range of activity is indicated by the march to the Pawnee villages on the upper waters of the Red River in 1834, and the expedition in 1835 to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
In 1838 the land west of the Mississippi was separately organized as the Territory of Iowa. Dodge continued as governor of the diminished Territory of Wisconsin until 1841 when he was replaced by a Whig. The people, however, at once elected him as their delegate in Congress and in this capacity he served until a Democratic president in 1845 restored him to the office of governor.
Three years later Wisconsin was admitted to statehood and Dodge became one of its first United States senators.
In 1857 he retired from the Senate and from public life.
As delegate to Congress and senator his record is merely that of a conscientious servant of his constituents, whose instructions he sought faithfully to carry out.
Achievements
Personality
Over six feet in height, erect, aggressive, and courageous, Dodge commanded the respect of his soldiers and of the Indians with whom he waged war and negotiated treaties.
His varied experiences on the border prepared him for the duties pertaining to the government of settlers and for the associated duties of superintendent of Indian affairs.
Connections
In 1800 Dodge married Christina McDonald. He had a son Augustus Ceasar Dodge.