On a rainy Sunday morning, June 24, 1832, about 45 men, women, and children from the Apple River Settlement gathered inside Apple River Fort after hearing that Black Hawk was nearby. Shortly before noon, four messengers—Fred Dixon, George Herclerode, Edmund Welsch, and Mr. Kirkpatrick—stopped there while traveling from Galena to Dixon's Ferry, then rode on and encountered Black Hawk's band on a ridge about 300 yards from the fort. The Sauk opened fire, wounding Welsch in the thigh and knocking him from his horse, but the others lifted him up and hurried back to the fort. Moments later, about 200 warriors attacked. The men rushed to their guns, firing benches, and blockhouse portholes while the women and children huddled near the back cabins. Elizabeth Armstrong then rallied the women, who loaded guns and molded musket balls so the men could maintain steady fire. After about 45 minutes of fighting, Black Hawk, believing the fort to be heavily armed, broke off the attack and raided nearby cabins for supplies as he and his warriors withdrew. Casualties were light despite the ferocity of the battle: Welsch and another man were wounded, George Herclerode was killed, and the number of Sauk casualties was undetermined. Apple River Fort, hastily built in May, survived its first and only attack that Sunday in June before being torn down about 15 years later in 1847, when its lumber was used to build a dam.