USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > History of Fort Wayne, from the earliest known accounts of this point, to the present period. Embracing an extended view of the aboriginal tribes of the Northwest, including, more especially, the Miamies with a sketch of the life of General Anthony Wyane; including also a lengthy biography of pioneer settlers of Fort Wayne. Also an account of the manufacturing, mercantile, and railroad interests of Fort Wayne and vicinity > Part 25
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" On the following day, Governor Harrison visited Tecumseh in his camp, attended only by the interpreter, and was politely re- ceived. A'long conversation ensued, in which Tecumseh again de- clared that his intentions were really such as he had avowed them to be in the council; that the policy which the United States pur- sued, of purchasing land from the Indians, he viewed as mighty water, ready to overflow his people ; and that the confederacy which he was forming among the tribes to prevent any individual tribe from selling without the consent of the others, was the dam he was erecting to resist this mighty water. He stated further, that he should be reluctantly drawn into war with the United States; and that if he, the Governor, would induce the President to give up the lands lately purchased, and agree never to make another treaty without the consent of all the tribes, he would be their faithful ally, and assist them in the war, which he knew was about to take place with England ; that he preferred being the ally of the Seventeen Fires, but if they did not comply with his request, he would be com- pelled to unite with the British. The Governor replied, that he would make known his views to the President, but that there was no probability of its being agreed 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 give up this land ; it is true, he is so far off, he will not be injured by the war ; he may sit still in his town and drink his wine, while you and I will have to fight it out.' This prophecy, it will be seen, was literally fulfilled ; and the great chieftain who uttered it, attested that fulfill- ment with his blood. The governor, in conclusion, proposed to Te- cumseh, that in the event of hostilities between the Indians and the United States, he should use his influence to put an end to the cruel mode of warfare which the Indians were accustomed to wage upon
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
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women and children, or upon prisoners. To this he cheerfully as- sented; and it is due to the memory of Tecumseh to add, that he faithfully kept his promise down to the period of his death."
- Not long subsequent to the termination of this council, a Winne- bago chief, who had been employed by Governor Harrison to watch the proceedings of Tecumseh, brought word to Gov. Harrison that the former was sending to each of the tribes a large wampum belt, with a view of uniting them in one great confederation; and that, upon a return of the belt, he saw a British agent fairly dance with joy-adding, with tears in his eyes, that he and all the village chiefs had been deprived of their power, and that the control of every- thing was in the hands of the warriors, who were greatly opposed to the United States.
Speaking of the Prophet, in his address to the legislature of this year, Gov. Harrison said : " His character as a Prophet would not, however, have given him any very dangerous influence, if he had not been assisted by the intrigues and advice of foreign agents, and other disaffected persons, who have for many years omitted no op- portunity of counteracting the measures of the government with regard to the Indians, and filling their naturally jealous minds with suspicions of the justice and integrity of our views against them."
During the autumn of 1810, a Kickapoo chief visited Governor Harrison, and assured him that the peaceful assurances of the Prophet and Tecumseh were merely to cover up their real inten- tions against the United States ; and about the same period, the Governor of Missouri sent word that the Sac Indians had allied themselves to the Teenmseh confederacy; that Tecumseh himself was then doing all in his power to induce the tribes west of the Mississippi to join him ; to which were added the reports of differ- ent Indian agents, who were generally of opinion that the period for a war with the Indians would soon arrive. And thus passed the - year 1810.
Early in 1811, as a part of the annuity to the Indians, Governor Harrison sent a boat load of salt up the Wabash, a portion of which was to be given to the Prophet for the Shawanoes and Kickapoos ; but, upon the arrival of the boat at the point where the Prophet had his lodges, he made bold to seize the entire cargo, alleging for so doing that he had two thousand men to feed, who had been with- out that commodity for two years. Upon the receipt of this pro- ceedure, Governor Harrison felt fully justified in demanding imme- diate aid from the government, and accordingly made application to the Secretary of War to have Colonel Boyd's regiment, then at Pittsburg, sent immediately to him, for the better safety of Vin- cennes, requesting, at the same time, to receive anthority to act on the offensive as soon as it was known that the Indians were arrayed in actual hostility against the United States. The Governor's ap- prehensions were well founded, and it soon became an acknwol- edged fact, that Vincennes was to be the first point of attack. The
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SECOND COUNCIL WITH TECUMSEH AT VINCENNES.
place was most accessible, and Tecumseh was fully aware of its situation. He could have made a descent upon it in a very short space of time, and then retreated into the unexplored country be- hind it, " where it would have been next to impossible for any cav- alry to have penetrated " at that period. And so earnest was Gov- ernor Harrison upon the subject, that he notified the Secretary of War, that, should troops not be immediately sent to his relief, he would at once take the matter in his own hands.
Accompanied by three hundred warriors, " on the 27th of July of this year, Tecumseh again visited Vincennes; and on the 30th of this month, in an arbor near, attended by about two hundred of his warriors, another council was held. Opening the occasion by pre- senting the fact of several murders having been committed by In- dians in Illinois, Governor Harrison expressed a desire that Tecum- seh should pay a visit to the President with a view of laying before him what complaints he had to offer, assuring him that he should receive the fullest justice at the chief magistrate's hands ; and con- cluded by demanding an explanation of the conduct of the Prophet in the seizure of the salt sent up the Wabash sometime before, to be devided among the tribes. Replying to the latter, Tecumseh remarked that he was not at home at the time of the seizure of the salt, and said nothing further than, that Governor Harrison seemed very hard to please, he having complained sometime before that they refused to take the salt, and that now he was not pleased be- cause they had taken it. With but little further business of import- ance, the council adjourned to meet again on the following day.
Reassembling, says the account,t on the afternoon of the next day, the council was continued far into the night. There being a full moon and a clear sky, the members were distinctly revealed to each other. It must have been a picturesque scene-those one hundred and seventy warriors seated in grim silence, listening, spell-bound, to the eloquence of the wonderful Tecumseh, occasion- ally signifying their approbation by their odd grunts ; or, taking in the words of the noble Harrison, as he strove by every means at his command to convince them that what he urged was for their own welfare and interest.
Still manifesting his well known self-will and independence, Te- cumseh cooly admitted that he was still endeavoring to establish a union of the different tribes. And " why do you complain ?" he enquired ; " hav'nt you formed a confederacy of your different fires ? We have raised no voice against that, and what right have you to prevent us doing the same ? So soon as the council ends, I shall go south and seek to bring the Creeks and Choctaws into our con- federacy ;" repeating that his designs were peaceful, and that the whites were causelessly alarmed ; while his reply regarding the Illi- nois murders is said to have been not only "justified by facts," but
* Ellis' Life of Tecumseh, page 48.
t As principally presented by Benjamin Drake.
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
was " cutting and pointed." Governor Harrison had previously stated, in a letter to the war department, " that it was impossible, in many instances, for the Indians to receive justice. Were one of their number murdered by a white man, no jury of settlers would conviet him, and, many of the latter seemed to think the savage fit for nothing but insults and kicks." "As to the murderers, they are not in my town," was substantially Tecumseh's response; " and if they were, I would not give them up. We have set the whites an example of forgiving injuries, which they should follow ;" and added that he wished no settlers to come upon the new purchase, near Tippecanoe before his return from the south, as the Indians would require it as a hunting ground, and that if they found cattle or hogs there, they would be apt to treat them as lawful game .*
In a brief but earnest response, Governor Harrison said "the moon above them should fall to the earth before the President would allow his people to be massacred with impunity; and that no land would be yielded which had been honorably and fairly bought of the Indians." And here the council terminated, from whence, as he had stated, with great pomp, accompanied by some twenty of his warriors, Tecumseh was soon rowing his canoe south- ward down the Ohio to arouse the Creeks for the overthrow of the whites.
Of his efforts and the result of his mission among the Creeks, the following graphie accountt will be read with no little degree of in- terest. The Shawanoe chieftain and his followers had meet their friends, the Creeks of the south, and a council was at once proposed.
"Tecumseh led, the warriors followed, one in the footsteps of the other. The Creeks, in dense masses, stood on one side of the path, but the Shawanoes noticed no one ; they marched into the center of the square, and then turned to the left. At each angle of the square, Tecumseh took from his pouch some tobacco and sumaeli, and dropped on the ground ; his warriors performed the same cere- mony. This they repeated three times as they marched around the square. Then they approached the flag-pole in the center, circled around it three times, and facing the north, threw tobacco and su- mach on a small fire, burning, as usual, near the base of the pole. On this they emptied their pouches. They then marched in the same order to the council, or king's house, (as it was termed in an- cient times,) and drew up before it. The Big Warrior and leading men were sitting there. The Shawnee chief sounded his war-whoop -- a most diabolical yell-and each of his followers responded. Te- cumseh then presented to the Big Warrior a wampum-belt of five different colored strands, which the Creek chief handed to his war- riors, and it passed down the line. The Shawnee's pipe was then produced : it was large, long, and profusely decorated with shells, beads, and painted eagle and porcupine-quills. It was lighted from
* Ellis' Life of Tecumseh, pages 49 and 50.
+ From " Claiborne's Life and Times of General Sam Dale."
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TECUMSEH AMONG THE CREEK INDIANS OF THE SOUTH.
the fire in the center, and slowly passed from the Big Warrior along the line.
" All this time not a word had been uttered, every thing was as still as death ; even the winds slept, and there was only the gentle-falling leaves. At length Tecumseh spoke, at first slowly and in sonorous tones, but he grew impassioned and the words fell in avalanches from his lips, his eye burned with supernatural luster, and his whole frame trembled with emotion ; his voice resounded over the multitude-now sinking in low and musical whispers, now rising to its highest key, hurling out his words like a succession of thunderbolts. His countenance varied with his speech ; its prevalent expression was a sneer of hatred and defiance ; sometimes a murderous smile ; for a brief interval a sen- timent of profound sorrow pervaded it, at the close of a look of con- centrated vengeance, such, I suppose, as distinguishes the arch-enemy of mankind.
" I have heard many great orators, but I never saw one with the vocal powers of Tecumseh, or the same command of the face. Had I been deaf, the play of his countenance would have told me what he said. Its effect on that wild, superstitious, untutored, and war-like as- semblage, may be conceived ; not a word was said, but stern warriors, ' the stoics of the woods,' shook with emotion, and a thousand toma- hawks were brandished in the air. Even Big Warrior, who had been true to the whites, and remained faithful during the war, was, for the moment, visibly affected, and more than once I saw his huge hand clutch spasmodically the handle of his knife. And this was the effect of his delivery- for, though the mother of Tecumseh was a Creek, and he was familiar with the language, he spoke in the northern dialect, and it was afterward interpreted by an Indian linguist to the assembly. His speech has been reported ; but no one has done, or can do it jus- tice. I think I can repeat the substance of what he said, and, indeed, his very words :
"'In defiance of the white men of Ohio and Kentucky, I have trav- eled through their settlements-once our favorite hunting-grounds. No war-whoop was sounded, but there is blood upon our knives. The pale-faces felt the blow, but knew not from whence it came. Ac- cursed be the race that has seized on our country, and made women of our warriors. Our fathers, from their tombs, reproach us as slaves and cowards. I hear them now in the wailing winds. The Muscogee were once a mighty people. The Georgians trembled at our war- whoop ; and the maidens of my tribe, in the distant lakes, sung the prowess of your warriors, and sighed for their embraces. Now, your very blood is white, your tomahawks have no edges, your bows and arrows were buried with your fathers. O Muscogees, brethren of my mother ! brush from your eyelids the sleep of slavery ; once more strike for vengeance-once more for your country. The spirits of the mighty dead complain. The tears drop from the skies. Let the white race perish ! They seize your land, they corrupt your women,
(13) ,
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
they trample on your dead ! Back ! whence they came, upon a trail of blood, they must be driven! Back ! back-ay, into the great water whose accursed waves brought them to our shores ! Burn their dwellings ! Destroy their stock ! Slay their wives and children! The red-man owns the country, and the pale-face must never enjoy it! War now ! War forever ! War upon the living ! . War upon the dead ! Dig their very corpses from the graves ! Our country must give no rest to a white man's bones. All the tribes of the North are dancing the war-dance. Two mighty warriors across the seas will send us arms.
"' Tecumseh will soon return to his country. My prophets shall tarry with you. They will stand between you and your enemies. When the white man approaches you the carth shall swallow him up. Soon shall you see my arm of fire stretched athwart the sky. I will stamp my foot at Tippecanoe,* and the very earth shall shake.' "
"Incredible as it may seem," says Ellis, in his life of Tecumseh, " the threat of Tecumseh, embodied in the last sentence of the foregoing speech, was fulfilled to the very letter. It was uttered by the chief when he saw the great reluctance of the Big Warrior and the Creeks to join him ; and the confidence with which he made the threat had its effect upon them."
Moving northward again, Tecumseh and his followers, came by way of Missouri, rallied the tribes on the Des Moines, crossed the head- waters of the Illinois, and from thence to the Wabash and to Tip- pecanoe ; and it was about this time that a heavy earthquake occurred.
Before quitting the mouth of the Tippecanoe river, Tecumseh had charged his brother, the Prophet, to be most careful in the preserva- tion of peace with the whites during his absence, and especially until his arrangements were fully matured for the confederation of the tribes, north and south, as then advancing : to which the, prophet gave his assent, and Tecumseh left him with the full belief that he would be true to his word.
But a short time elapsed, however, before the whites of the territory began to feel an increased alarm. Tecumseh's movement southward had spread among them, and many murders by the Indians in the re- gion of the Prophet's town, at the mouth of the Tippecanoe, and other points, were now becoming more frequent, and it was evident that the Prophet was not wholly a stranger to these depredations, notwith- standing his promise to his brother, Tecumseh, to remain quiet and peacable with the whites during his absence.
In the meantime, the regiment under Col. Boyd, as desired by Gov. Harrison, had reached Vincennes, and the Governor was likewise or- dered to add to this body a corps of militia, and to take immediate measures for the defence of the citizens, and, as a last resort, to re- move the Prophet and his followers themselves. And the Governor
#Other writers say that Detroit was mentioned in place of Tippecanoe, and in giving the exclamations of the astonished Indians, we have put that word in their mouth, in accordance with the authority quoted .- Life of Teeumsoh. +M'Afee.
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THE PROPHET'S DETERMINATION.
was soon joined by a number of additional volunteers from Kentucky, many of whom were men of high standing as military, civil, and liter- ary gentlemen.
Governor Harrison now began to take active measures to bring matters to a crisis, and wrote to his neighboring governors of Missouri and Illinois, asking their aid in an effort still to persuade the Indians to evade a recourse to arms ; and also charged the Indian agents to do what they could in bringing the Indians to a sense of reason in the north ; at the same time sending special messages to the different tribes, demanding that all who had been concerned in the recent murders of settlers, be at once given up, and from the Miamies a full disavowal of all alliance or connection with the Prophet; and concluded, says Drake, by saying that the United States, having manifested, through a series of years, the utmost justice and generosity toward their Indian neighbors, and having not only fulfilled the engagements which they entered into with them, but had spent considerable sums to civilize them and promote their happiness-that if, under these circumstances, any tribe should dare to raise the tomahawk against their fathers, they need not expect the same lenity that had been shown them at the close of the former war ; but that they would either be exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississippi.
In reply to this, the Prophet assured Gov. Harrison that all his demands should be regarded, still insisting that his purposes were peaceable, though this response of the Prophet had hardly reached the hands of the governor, before he also received intelligence that a par- ty of whites had been fired upon when in pursuit of some horses stolen by the Indians.
Gov. Harrison was now the more determined in his course, and the Prophet had already sent, upon learning of the Governor's course of action, word to the Delaware chiefs, inquiring as to what part they intended to play in the coming struggle-as to himself, it was his pur- pose not to lay down the hatchet until he was either killed or the grievances he complained of were repaired. In response to this, the Delaware chiefs at once set out for the Prophet's town, whither, upon their arrival, they used strong efforts to dissuade him from opening any hostilities with the United States. But they received only rebukes. and insults for their efforts and advice ; and finding it useless to tarry longer in their council with the Prophet, the Delaware chiefs, whose tribes had long been most friendly to the United States, left the Prophet's town, and made their way to the camp of Gov. Harrison, and at once informod him of the treatment they had received at the hands of the Prophet.
The Governor had already begun his preparations for a march upon the Prophet's town ; and toward the latter part of the month of Octo- ber, with some eight hundred men, embracing the Fourth U. S. regi- ment, commanded by the gallant Miller, moved forward toward the mouth of the Tippecanoe river, to bring the Prophet and his followers
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
to terms or battle. Before quitting his camp, however, on the 29th, he sent twenty-four Miami chiefs forward to the Prophet, upon a simi- lar errand to that for which the Delawares had visited him ; but not having returned as he had expected, he concluded they had joined the Prophet's forces. Accordingly, on the 6th of November, at the head of about one thousand troops,. Gov. Harrison took up his line of march for Tippecanoe. Desirous still to know whether the Prophet would come to terms, the Governor, when within a short distance of the town, sent forward a captain and interpreter to learn what course the Proph- et would pursue. But the Indians, on seeing these, only endeavored to take them prisoners, and they found it difficult to make their es- cape; and one of the sentinels of the army had been shot by the In- dians. The Governor now determined to treat the Prophet and his followers as enemies, and again resumed his march upon them. But before he had gained the village, the army was met by a deputation from the Prophet, enquiring for what purpose they were thus advanc- ing upon the town ; insisting that they were anxious for peace, and that they had sent messages by the Miami and the Pottawattamie chiefs, stating to the Governor this desire .* At this a suspension of hostilities was agreed upon, and arrangements for a meeting submitted to take place the following day, the Governor telling them that he would move on with the army to the Wabash, and take up his encamp- ment for the night. Having found a suitable place for rendezvous, near a creek, about three-fourths of a mile to the north of the town, and made all necessary arrangement for action, should an attack be made, the army took up its quarters for the night.
In approaching the town, the Indians, not being aware of the pur- poses of the commanding officers of the army to find a suitable place for encampment, ran out and cried to the advanced corps to halt, but the governor riding up, assured the Indians that his purpose was not to attack them, and, in response to questions, as to a favorable place for encampment, told the officers of a suitable one upon the creek they had, but a little time before, crossed, which point was soon after chosen for the encampment of the army.
The night proved dark and cloudy. The moon rose late, and a drizzling rain fell. Many of the men had anticipated a battle, and were not much pleased that they had not been permitted to engage the Indians in a fight, and were fearful that they might have to return without a " brush" with them; and, accordingly, had but little antici- pation of an attack from them, although Colonel Daveiss had been heard to say that he had no doubt that an attack would be made be- fore morning .; And true enough,-according to his habit, Governor Harrison being astir, getting his men under arms,-about four o'clock in the morning, it was discovered and made known that the Indians had stealthily " crept so near the sentries as to hear them challenge
*The Miami chiefs, in returning to the Governor, from their mission to the Prophet, had started on their return by way of the south side of the Wabash, and had accordingly lost sight y] auc urmy. +M'Afee.
197
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.
when relieved ; " their aim being to rush upon the sentries before they could fire. But an Indian being observed by one of the guards, as the former crept through the grass, the latter fired upon the Indian, which was immediately followed by one of their fierce yells, and then a des- perate charge upon the left flank of the encampment, which caused the guards to give way. The army was now all alive with excitement, but the men generally stood their ground and fought most bravely, and " the battle was soon maintained on all sides with desperate valor. The Indians advanced and retreated by a rattling noise made with deer- hoofs," and who also fought with great energy, as if " determined on victory or death." The Prophet had told them the bullets of the white men could not hurt them ; that the Great Spirit would give them light, while the efforts of the army of the Americans would be "ren- dered unavailing," and "involved in thick darkness : " * and taking his position upon an eminence near, secure from the bullets whizzing in all directions, he employed his time in singing a war-song, and urg- ing his followers " to fight on," that all would soon be as he had told them-singing the louder with each assurance .;
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