John Hall holds the Ambrose-Hesseltine Chair in U.S. Military History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of “Uncommon Defense: Indian Allies in the Black Hawk War” and numerous essays on early American warfare. His current book project examines the contested place of American Indians in the Old South and its place in the republic during the Age of Jackson. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Prof. Hall formerly taught at West Point, where he also graduated in 1994.