{"nrhp_refnum":"83003587","name":"Stillman's Run Battle Site","other_names":["Battle Ground Memorial Park"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Roosevelt and Spruce Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Stillman Valley","county":"Ogle County","state":"IL","lat":42.106717821000075,"lon":-89.17611344899996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-12-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A public memorial park in Stillman Valley, Ogle County, Illinois, on a high knoll above the common grave of twelve militiamen killed at Stillman's Run in 1832. It is topped by a 50-foot granite monument dedicated in 1902.","why_significant":"The site is argued to be an important scene of the Black Hawk War, which opened northwestern Illinois to permanent white settlement. Stillman's Run was the war's first engagement. The memorial is also significant for its commemorative value, reflecting early efforts to honor frontier militiamen.","narrative":"Battle Ground Memorial Park occupies a grassy, tree-lined knoll in Stillman Valley, Illinois, where twelve militiamen killed on May 14, 1832, lie in a common grave. Their deaths came during Stillman's Run, the first engagement of the Black Hawk War, when Illinois militia under Major Isiah Stillman fled and Captain John G. Adams's small unit stayed behind to cover the retreat. A fifty-foot Vermont granite monument, topped by an eight-foot militiaman figure, marks the spot. Four tablets name the dead and record the state funding of 1901. A veteran association formed in 1899 persuaded the Illinois legislature to appropriate $5,000, and the monument was dedicated June 11, 1902. The park is considered significant because the war cleared Native Americans from northwestern Illinois and opened it to permanent white settlement, and because the memorial shows how early commemorators viewed the militiamen. Abraham Lincoln is recorded as helping bury the dead. The village took over the site in 1919.","period_of_significance":"1832 and 1901 (specific dates given)","architect_builder":"J.H. Anderson (monument designer); Creo and Creo (sculptors of the militiaman figure)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair, altered, original site; owned by the Village of Stillman Valley and used as a park.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.669043-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/13/8938/28893813/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/83003587.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003587/5f2995ebd9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003587/5f2995ebd9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"Andy McMurray","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ogle_County_Stillman%27s_Run_Site_stillman_Valley_IL.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Andy McMurray</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ogle_County_Stillman%27s_Run_Site_stillman_Valley_IL.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893813","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stillman%27s_Run_Battle_Site","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7617248"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/ogle-county/stillmans-run-battle-site-83003587/"}