Riddle Hill is a rural

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in Curran and Gardner townships,

Sangamon County Sangamon County is a county located near the center of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 196,343. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield, the state capital. Sangamon County is includ ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. It lies at a crossroads located adjacent to where Old Jacksonville Road crosses Little Spring Creek, 6.5 miles west of Springfield.

History

Old Jacksonville Road is one of the oldest roads in central Illinois; it is a traditional route between

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

and the state capital, Springfield. Starting as early as the 1830s, travelers used the place where this road forded the creek as a campground, and the community grew from there. On the night of September 28–29, 1838, participants in the 850-member

Potawatomi Trail of Death The Potawatomi Trail of Death was the forced Indian Removal, removal by militia in 1838 of about 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Indiana to reservation lands in what is now eastern Kansas. The march began at Twin Lakes, Indiana (Myers ...

encamped here on their forced march from Indiana to a portion of the unorganized western territory of the United States that would later be organized as

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

. A roadside historical marker has been erected on or near the site of their campground. The camping place is identified as 'McCoy's Mill', apparently recalling the name of a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

on Little Spring Creek at the ford. On July 4, 1861, the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, en route to service in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, camped here for its first night in the field since mustering into federal service in Springfield. The new regiment's fledgling colonel,

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

, issued his first written orders here. A historical marker in the yard of the New Salem Methodist Church commemorates the site of a now-vanished tree that marked the campsite.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Sangamon County, Illinois Springfield metropolitan area, Illinois Unincorporated communities in Illinois