History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 31

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164

USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 31

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In the spring of 1808 the Prophet and his adherents moved from Greenville and took up their abode on the Wabash, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe, on a tract of land claimed to have been granted them by the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos, + without the consent of the Miamis, who were the rightful owners.

The Prophet was merely a screen, behind which his brother, Tecumseh, a man of much more ability, was perfecting a confedera- tion of all the tribes in a grand scheme of hostility against the people of the United States, and involving no less than a bold attempt to cheek the westward advance of white emigration and the recovery of all previously-ceded lands north and westward of the Ohio. In this movement was but too plainly visible the hands of English traders and the baneful influence emanating from Quebec, Montreal, Sand- wich and Malden. After the surrender of the several military posts by the British authorities, medals bearing the head of the English king on the obverse, and the British coat-of-arins on the reverse, continued persistently to be distributed among the principal Indian chiefs, the same as they had been bestowed before, and the Indians were still taught, in this most pernicious and effectual manner, to regard the English sovereign as their father. $

To preserve harmony, as far as practicable, in a chronological order of treating events, Tecumseh's movements will be dropped, to note the fact of a subdivision of the Indiana territory. On the 3d of February, 1809, congress passed an "Act," whereby "all that part of the Indiana territory which lies west of the Wabash River,

* Memoirs of General Harrison, p. 81.

t McAffee, p. 11. Drake's Tecumseh, p. 105.

# Situated a few miles below Detroit, on the Canadian side of the river.

$ Samuel K. Brown's History of the Second War for Independence.

284

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and a line drawn from that river and Post Vincennes due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, should, for the purposes of a territorial government, constitute a separate territory, and be called Illinois."* Ninnian Edwards, then chief justice of Kentucky, was appointed governor, and Nathaniel Pope, an eminent member of the Kaskaskia bar, secretary of the Illinois Territory, which was thus started on the way of the first grade of its existence. Kaskaskia, with the romance of a century and the mists of more remote tradition clinging about its venerable precinets, was selected as the seat of government.

Tecumseh had an able assistant in the person of Blue Jacket, the great Shawnee warrior. The two held similar views, the leading principles of which were to combine all the tribes to prevent the sale of land by a single tribe, to join the British in the event of war, with the hope of recovering the lands previously ceded. They held that in the treaty of Greenville the United States had admitted the right to the lands to be jointly in all the tribes, and, therefore, had no right to purchase territory of a single tribe without the consent of all the others.+

" The various tribes in the habit of visiting Detroit and Sandwich were annually subsidized by the British. Where the American agent at Detroit gave one dollar by way of an annuity, the British agent on the other side of the river would give the Indians ten. This course of iniquity had the intended effect; the Indians were impressed with a great aversion for the Americans, and desired to recover the lands ceded at Greenville, and for which they were yearly receiving the stipulated annuity. They wished again to try their strength with the Big Knife, in order to wipe away the dis- grace of their defeat by Gen. Wayne. They were still promised aid by the British in the advent of a war between the latter and the United States. "#

The teachings of the Prophet and the schemes of Tecumseh could have only one result. Gen. Harrison saw the storm that was too surely approaching, and exerted himself, with great address, to pro- tect the inhabitants committed to his care, scattered, as they were, at great distances over an extensive territory. By an admirable sys- tem he had spies, in the guise of traders, and Indians, whom he had by his winning manners drawn about him, in the villages of all of the disaffected tribes, by means of whom he was kept fully informed

* Second U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 114.

+ McAfee's History of the Late War, p. 9.

# McAfee, p. 9.

285

PLANS OF TECUMSEH.

of the purposes of Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet. While Tecumseh was traveling, visiting the various tribes in the northwest, and perfecting his schemes, the governor was preparing for what he knew would surely come - war.

The Prophet, becoming bolder every day, at last, in the month of April, 1809, required his followers "to take up the hatchet against the white people, to destroy the inhabitants of Vincennes and those on the Ohio, who lived as low down as its mouth and as high up as Cincinnati, telling them that the Great Spirit had ordered them to do this, and that their refusal would result in their own de- struction." A number of Chippeways, Ottawas and Pottawatomies were so alarmed at this bold avowal that they hurried away from the Prophet .* The estimated force of the Prophet at this time was from six to eight hundred men; and if, as it was reported, the defection had extended to all the tribes between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan, that number might be doubled.+

The governor dispatched another one of his interpreters, Joseph Barron, to the Prophet's town, in the hope that, when informed of the strength and resources of the United States, the Indians would be prevented from commencing hostilities. This speech was deliv- ered to the Prophet by Barron, in the presence of Tecumseh. No answer was made, but one was promised to be sent back by the interpreter. The latter lodged for the night with Tecumseh, when a general conversation ensued, in which Tecumseh denied " an in- tention to make war, but declared that it was not possible to be friends with the United States, unless the latter would abandon the idea of extending settlements further to the north and west, and explicitly acknowledge the principle that all the lands in the west- ern country were the common property of all the tribes. The Great Spirit," said Tecumseh, "gave this island to his red chil- dren. He placed the whites on the other side of the big water. They were not contented with their own, but came to take ours from ns. They have driven us from the sea to the lakes - we can go no farther. They have taken upon them to say this tract is the Mi- ami's, this is the Delaware's, and so on; but the Great Spirit intended it as the common property of all. Our father tells us that we have no business upon the Wabash -that the land belongs

* Memoirs of Gen. Harrison, pp. 126, 127.

+ Idem, 138. About this time an old Piankashaw, named Grosble, or Big-Corn, a particular friend to Gen. Harrison and the United States, asked the former for permis- sion to move beyond the Mississippi, alleging that he heard nothing among the Indians but news of war, and as he intended to take no part in it he wished to be out of danger.

286

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

to other tribes. The Great Spirit ordered us to come here, and here we will stay."

Tecumseh told the interpreter that he would come to Vincennes and visit Gen. Harrison, and bring with him about thirty of the principal men. Accordingly, on the 12th of August. 1810, Tecnm- seh arrived at Vincennes, where a council was held, at which mu- tual explanations were made in the presence of a large concourse of Indians, militia and the citizens of the town. Tecumseh. in his speech. took the grounds of a common ownership by all the Indians of all the lands, and of the inability of one tribe to dispose of any part of it without the consent of all the others. He grew very vio- lent as the interpreter was rendering Gen. Harrison's reply. The Indians sprang to their feet. seizing their tomahawks and war clubs, bending their eyes fiercely upon the governor. The militia were quickly marched up to the scene of the difficulty, and order was re- stored. The next morning Tecnmseh, greatly mortified at his dis- play of anger and bad manners, met the governor with an apology. The latter assured him that he would submit his propositions to the president, adding. at the same time, that there was little probability of their being acceded to. "Well." said Tecumseh, " as the great chief is to determine the matter. I hope the Great Spirit will put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct you to give up this land. It is true he is so far off' that he will not be injured by the war. He may still sit in his town and drink his wine whilst you and I will have to fight it out."# And fight it out they did. as we will now proceed to show.

Events transpiring subsequent to the conference at Vincennes clearly demonstrated that there was no other alternative; either the Prophet's town had to be destroyed. and the purposes of Tecumseh thwarted. or else the advancing line of white population would be driven back from whence it came.

The boldness and insolence of the assemblage at the Prophet's town increased daily ; hostile parties were continually leaving that. place for the white settlements, where they killed the inhabitants and stole their horses. Finally, Gov. Harrison received orders to proceed to the Prophet's town with a military force, which he was only to use after all efforts to effect a peaceable dispersion of its occupants had failed. The governor left Vincennes on the 26th of September, 1811, with a force of nine hundred effective men, con- posed of the 4th Reg. U. S. regulars, with a body of militia, and a

* Memoirs of Gen. Harrison, p. 159.

287

TIPPECANOE CAMPAIGN.

hundred and thirty volunteer dragoons. The regulars had been organized for some time, and were well drilled and ably officered. James Miller, who subsequently immortalized himself at Lundy's Lane by replying, when asked if he could take the English battery on the hill, "I will try, sir," and in the heroism and success with which he made the effort, being the lieutenant-colonel .* The mili- tia, who were all volunteers, had been well trained by the governor in person in all those peculiar evolutions practiced by Gen. Wayne's army, and which had been found so efficient in operating against the Indians in a covered country. On the 3d of October the army, moving up on the east side of the Wabash, reached a place on the bank of the stream some two miles above the old Wea village of We-au-ta-no, " The Risen Sun," called by many the " Old Orchard Town," and time out of mind, by the early French traders, Terre Haute. Here the governor halted, according to his instructions, within the boundary of the country already ceded by the Indians, and occupied his time in erecting a fort, while waiting the return of messengers whom he had dispatched to the Prophet's town, demand- ing the surrender of murderers, and the return of stolen horses sheltered there, and requiring that the Shawnees, Winnebagoes, Pottawatomies and Kickapoos collected there should disperse and return to their own tribes. The messengers were treated with great insolence by the Prophet and his council, who, to put an end to all hopes of peace, sent out a small war party to precipitate hostilities. This war party, finding no stragglers about the governor's encamp- ment, shot at and wounded one of his sentinels. The Delaware chiefs who went with the messengers to the Prophet's town advised the governor, on their return, that it would be in vain to expect that anything short of force would obtain satisfaction for past injuries or security for the future. They also informed him that the strength of the Prophet was daily increasing by accessions of ardent and giddy young men from every tribe, and partienlarly from those along and beyond the Illinois River.

The new fort was finished on the 28th of October, and by the unanimous request of all the officers it was christened "Fort Har- rison."*

* This intrepid officer was so extremely ill of the fever when the regiment marched that he could scarcely walk. He did go, however, as far as Ft. Harrison, and on the completion of this work he could go no farther, and the fort, with a garrison con- sisting of invalids like himself, was assigned to his command.

+ The illustration is copied from a lithograph in possession of M M. Redford, Dan- ville, Illinois. It is one of a number of impressions printed by Modesit & Hager in 1848. It was drawn from descriptions given by old settlers who were well acquainted

288

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

On the 29th of October Gov. Harrison moved up the Wabash, crossing Raccoon Creek at Armysburg, and ferrying his army over the Wabash at the mouth of the former stream on boats sent up the river for that purpose. The army encamped on the 2d of November some two miles below the month of the Big Vermilion, and about a mile below the encampment a block-house, partly jutting over the river, twenty-five feet square, was erected on the edge of a small prairie sloping down to the water's edge. The block-house was gar-

FORT HARRISON IN 1812.

risoned with a sergeant and eight men. in whose charge were left the boats which up to this time had been used for the transportation of supplies. * On the 3d the army left the block-house, crossed the Ver- milion and entered the prairies, the route passing just east of State

with the fort and surroundings before its demolition, and was pronounced a faithful and good representation.

Samuel R. Brown, in his Western Gazetteer, p. 69, gives an account he received from the French traders at Fort Harrison, in 1816, of the traditional great battles fought between the Indians, many years ago, on the ground at Fort Harrison. On account of the rarity of the volume in which it is found, the veracity of its author, the time when and persons from whom he received it, and the interest attaching to the tradition, we insert it here:

"The French have a tradition that an exterminating battle was fought in the begin- ning of the last century, on the ground where Fort Harrison now stands, between the Indians living on the Mississippi and those of the Wabash. The bone of contention was the lands lying between those rivers, which both parties claimed. There were about a thousand warriors on each side. The condition of the fight was that the vic- tors should possess the lands in dispute. The grandeur of the prize was peculiarly calculated to inflame the ardor of savage minds. The contest commenced about sun- rise. Both parties fought desperately. The Wabash warriors came off conquerors, having seren men left alive at sunset, and their adversaries but fire. The mounds are still to be seen where it is said the slain were BURIED."

* Memoirs of General Harrison: Dillon's Indiana, p. 463.

289

HARRISON'S MARCH.

Line city ; from thence to Crow's Grove. where the army went into camp for the night.

It was from this point that Capt. Prince was sent forward to find a crossing place at Pine Creek .* In passing through this prairie country. the army was frequently made to practice all those forma- tions which it was probable they would have to assume in action. On the 4th of November the army approached the very difficult pass of Pine Creek. This stream presents a curious spectacle in that country. For many miles before it discharges itself into the Wabash its course is through an immense mass of rock, the sides of which in some places are perpendicular. Few places can be found where the stream may be crossed with facility. The Indian path, upon which the army was then marching, led to a defile ex- tremely difficult of passage, and would have afforded the enemy an opportunity to make an attack very unfavorable to the troops.+ In the course of the night of the 4th of November, Gov. Harrison sent Capt. Prince with a small forcet to discover a passage higher up the stream. This officer returned at ten o'clock the following morning, with a report that " a few miles higher up he had found a good cross- ing place," since known as the " army ford " where the prairies on each side skirted the creek." On the evening of the 5th the army encamped within nine or ten miles of the Prophet's town. The 6th was consumed by the governor in working his army over difficult ground toward the Indian town, and in edeavoring to speak with the Indians who, in great numbers, now swarmed about his front and flanks, declining to communicate with his interpreters, and "continued to insult our people by their gestures." Every invi- tation to a parley by the interpreters, who were some distance in front for that purpose, "was answered by menace and insult." It was evident that the Indians intended to fight, and the troops, in high spirits. wanted to be led to the attack immediately. This the governor would not permit until every effort for a peaceable solu- tion of the difficulties were exhausted. The army being within a short distance of the town, the governor was determined not to jeopardize his men by advancing nearer that evening, nor until he

* Tipton's Journal. The track of Harrison's army remained for many years. The army encamped in the grove upon its return.

t The governor knew that it had been selected for an ambuscade by the Indians, once, in the year 1786, when Gen. George R. Clarke commanded an expedition against the Indians of the Wabash, which failed from a mutiny of the troops eight miles above Vincennes, and a second time, in 1790, when Col. Hamtramck marched up the Wabash to make a diversion in favor of Gen. Harmar. The governor, with a knowl- edge of this fact, had no notion of leading his army into this defile.

# Tipton's scouts. Vide his Narrative Journal.

290

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

knew precisely the situation of the village and the character of the intervening ground. Maj. Davis, who, with the other officers, desired, like the men. immediate action, replied that from the right of the position of the dragoons, in front, the openings made by low grounds of the Wabash could be seen; that in company with his adjutant, D. Floyd, he had advanced to the bank, which descends to the low grounds, and had a fair view of the cultivated fields and the houses of the town, to which the open woods where the army then was, continued without interruption. The governor said he would advance if he could get a suitable person to proceed to the town with a flag. Capt. T. Dubois, of Vincennes, offered his services, and proceeded, with an interpreter, to the Prophet, desiring to know whether he would now comply with the terms that had been so often proposed to him. The army, in order of battle, moved slowly toward the town. Directly a message came from ('apt. Dubois, with word that the Indians, who were near him in considerable numbers, would return no answer to the interpreter, although sufficiently near to hear what was said to them, and that, upon his advancing, the Indians endeavored to cut him off from the army. The governor could no longer hesitate in treating the In- dians as enemies. He recalled Capt. Dubois, and moved up with a determination to attack them. He had not proceeded far before he was met by three Indians, one of them a principal counsellor of the Prophet, who said they were sent to know why the army was ad- vancing ; that the Prophet wished to avoid hostilities ; that pacific messages had been returned to the governor by his messengers, the Miami and Pottawatomie chiefs, who, unfortunately, had proceeded back on the south side of the Wabash, thus missing the governor, who was marching up on the other. Hostilities were suspended accordingly, and a meeting was agreed upon to take place the next day, for the purpose of fixing upon terms of peace. The governor told the deputation that he would go on to the Wabash and encamp for the night.

Marching a short distance farther, he came in view of the town, which was seen at some distance up the river, upon a commanding eminence. Maj. Davis had mistaken some scattering houses in the fields below for the town itself. The ground below the town being unfavorable for an encampment, the army continued its march in the direction of the town. for the purpose of obtaining a better sit- uation beyond. The dragoons becoming entangled in a piece of ground covered with brush and the tops of fallen trees, a halt was ordered, and the position of the cavalry changed to some open fields

291

TIPPECANOE BATTLE-GROUND.

adjacent to the river. The Indians, seeing this manœuver as the army approached the town, supposed they intended to attack it, and immediately prepared for its defense. The governor rode forward and requested some of the Indians to come to him, assuring them that nothing was farther from his thoughts than of attacking them ; that the ground below the town was not fit for an encampment and that his movements were for no other purpose than to search for a

PLAN

of the

TIPPECANOE

COLLEGE

Camp and Battle.

FIRST ATT

TTACK

MAJOR

BARN

WELLS

PARKĘ

DAVICSS

FLOYD

WARRICK

ROBB .....

nın.

BPENCER

ROAD

RAILWAY

Ko the

PROPHETS T.

WET PRAIRIE

better one above. He then asked if there was any other water con- venient besides that in the Wabash, and an Indian with whom the governor was well acquainted referred him to the creek which the army had crossed two miles back, and that ran through the prairie to the north of the village. A halt was ordered, and three officers sent out, who, returning in half an hour, reported that they had found on the creek, since called Burnett's Creek, an elevated spot nearly sur- rounded by an open prairie and supplied with water and fuel. To this place (since famous as the Tippecanoe battle-ground, about eight

BURNETS

COL DECKER

PETERS

COOK

WACONS - TENTS

BARTHOLOMEW

PRAIRIE

COL

COMMON

CREEK

BARTON

292

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

miles north of La Fayette, Indiana, on the northwest side of the Wabash) the army repaired. and went into camp for the night .*

The illustration will assist the reader. while perusing an account of the engagement contained in the following extracts taken from Gov. Harrison's official report.

" I then took leave of the chief, and a mutual promise was again made for a suspension of hostilities until we could have an interview on the following day. I found the ground destined for the encamp- ment not altogether such as I could wish it. It was, indeed, admira- bly calculated for the encampment of regular troops that were opposed to regulars. but it afforded great facility for the approach of savages. It was a piece of dry oak land, rising about ten feet above the level of a marshy prairie in front (toward the Indian town), and nearly twice that height above a similar prairie in the rear. through which, and near to this bank, ran a small stream clothed with willows and brushwood. Toward the left flank this bench of high land widened considerably, but became gradually narrow in the opposite direction, at the distance of one hundred and fifty yards from the right flank terminated in an abrupt point. The two columns of infantry occupied the front and rear of this ground, at the distance of about one hundred and fifty yards from each other. on the left. and something more than half that distance on the right flank. These flanks were filled up. the first by two companies of mounted riflemen. amounting to one hundred and twenty men, under the command of Maj .- Gen. Wells, of the Kentucky militia, who served as major. the other by Spencer's company of mounted riflemen, which amounted to eighty men. The front line was composed of one battalion of United States infantry, under the command of Major Floyd. flanked on the right by two companies of militia, and on the left by one company. The rear line was composed of a battalion of United States troops under command of Capt. Bean. acting as major, and four companies of militia infantry under Lieut .- Col. Decker. The regular troops of this line joined the mounted riflemen under Gen. Wells on the left flank. and Col. Decker's battalion formed an angle with Spencer's company on the left.

" Two troops of dragoons, amounting to, in the aggregate. about sixty men. were encamped in the rear of the left flank, and Capt. Parke's troop, which was larger than the other two, in the rear of the front line. Our order of encampment varied little from that

* The illustration of the battle-ground was drawn by the historical writer, B. J. Lossing, who visited the locality in 1860, and appears in his Field Book of the War of 1812; and the positions of the several corps are located on the plan in conformity with the official account of the battle.

293

BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.

above described, excepting when some peculiarity of the ground made it necessary. For a night attack the order of encampment was the order of battle, and each man slept immediately opposite to his post in the line. In the formation of my troops I used a single rank, or what is called Indian file, because in Indian warfare. where there is no shock to resist, one rank is nearly as good as two, and in that kind of warfare the extension of line is of the first importance. Raw troops also manœuver with much more facility in single than in double ranks. It was my constant custom to assemble all the field officers at my tent every evening by signal, to give them the watchword and the instructions for the night ; those given for the night of the 6th were that each troop which formed a part of the exterior line of the encampment should hold its own ground until relieved. The dragoons were ordered to parade, in case of a night attack, with their pistols in their belts, and to act as a corps of reserve. The camp was defended by two captains' guards, consisting each of four non-commissioned officers and forty-two privates, and two subalterns' guards of twenty non-commissioned officers and privates, the whole under the com- mand of a field officer of the day. The troops were regularly called up an hour before day, and made to continue under arms until it was quite light.

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History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 31

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164