USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections > Part 12
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Gen. Harrison and his army arrived in September, 1811, com- ing from Post Vincennes up the east side of the Wabash. His in- structions were to select some point within the old "Indian Line " and there build a fort and drill his army, with a view to marching against Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet. When he reached the Highlands-Terre Haute-on the east side of the Wabash, the beauty and advantages of the spot decided him at once as to the lo- cation he would select. Just south of the chosen site was the scat- tered Wea village. On the ground was standing the timber needed, and during the months of September and October the trees were
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felled and hewed and the walls of the fort were put up. The inclos- ure was 150 feet square-a stockade of heavy timbers. The two corners to the west were the block-houses, forming the outer walls, and the eastern corners were bastions, two-story, and projecting from the second story. These were pierced on each face with em- brasures above and below, to fire upon the enemy and guard against the approach to fire the building. The western line, toward the river, was formed by the soldiers' barracks. These were merely strongly-built log huts. The entrance or gate was on the last. On the north side was the guard-house, and on the south side was the well and the magazine. The stables, shed, etc., for the stock, were along the north side.
After the fort was completed and Gen. Harrison had been in- formed by his messengers and spies, he marched out and hunted up the Prophet's army and fought the battle of Tippecanoe. After that successful campaign he returned to Fort Harrison, and in a short time to his headquarters at Vincennes.
In 1812, the next year, the fort was in command of Capt. Zachary Taylor, of the Seventh Infantry. His company consti- tuted the garrison. The fall of this year was signally marked by a general sickness throughout the entire Wabash valley. The disease was described as epidemical fever. From this sickness the garrison suffered severely, and at one time there were hardly well men enough to mount guard. Capt. Taylor had a severe attack, and many of the men were wholly incapacitated for any service. It was supposed that this condition of the garrison had become known to the Prophet, who had now slightly recovered from his dis- aster at Tippecanoe, and stimulated and aided by the British, he planned an expedition to capture Fort Harrison.
Thursday September 3, 1812, immediately after retreat-beating, the discharge of four guns was heard by the inmates of the fort in the direction where two young men were known to be engaged in making hay, about 400 yards distant. The commander in a mo- ment mistrusted the meaning of the firing, and when the men failed to return to the fort at night he was convinced they had been killed, but owing to the darkness he did not send out to see until the next morning. About 8 o'clock a corporal with a few men were dis- patched to look for them, but to be watchful for an ambush by the savages. The squad soon returned with the bodies that had been scalped and shockingly mutilated.
The commander had arisen from a sick bed, and during the most of the night he was looking after every preparation and seeing that every defense possible was arranged. He realized the weakness of his force and understood the nature of the enemy that was about to swoop down upon him.
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Late on the evening of the 4th, an old chief, named Lenar, with a force of about forty men, mostly chiefs of various tribes that had been collected by the Prophet, came in sight of the fort, bear- ing a white flag, and a Shawnee Indian, who spoke good English, called out that Lenar wished to speak with Capt. Taylor in friend- ship, and that they would come the next morning to get provis- ions. This stratagem was for the purpose of allaying all suspicion of an attack, but did not deceive Capt. Taylor. At retreat-beating that evening he had out every man able to be out of bed and per- sonally inspected each one to see that all was in good order; dis- tributing cartridges so as to supply every one with sixteen rounds. The guard which, owing to sickness, had been but six men and two non-commissioned officers, was now increased. Capt. Taylor, in his dispatch to Gen. Harrison, after the attack, said: "From the un- healthiness of my company I had not conceived my force adequate to the defense of this post, should it be vigorously attacked, for some time past." During the night he was on his feet every mo- ment he had strength to do so, but was compelled to take his bed at an early hour. Before retiring he again visited his men and cautioned them to the greatest vigilance, and ordered one of the non- commissioned officers to walk around on the inside the whole night and examine everything, as there were places the sentinels could not see from their position. He warned all that they might expect an attack before morning. He had not been deceived.
About 11 o'clock at night the sentinels commenced firing. Capt. Taylor sprang up from his bed and ordered every man to his post. Soon it was discovered the Indians had fired the block-house on the southwest corner, which contained the property of the army con- tractor-the stores of provisions, etc. Now the discharge of fire- arms became quite brisk on both sides, and immediately the alarm of fire spread through the fort. This sent such consternation that for several minutes there was confusion, so much so that the com- mands of Taylor were unheard or unheeded. So intense was the darkness of the night that, although the upper portion of the block- house was occupied by the corporal's guard, yet they did not dis- cover the approach of the Indians or discover them setting fire to the building. They had started the fire in the holes that had been licked under the timbers by the cattle trying to reach the salt stored within. The flames soon communicated to some whisky in the lower part of the block-house, and thence quickly ascended to the roof and raged fiercely, and for a time it looked as though they could not be stopped, but would sweep the whole structure. Here were the fierce flames about them and outside in the darkness were the more savage and pitiless assailants. The stoutest hearts were ready to sink in hopeless despair-all was lost. The crackling
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flames, the rapid firing and the increasing hideous yells of the sav- ages thirsting for blood, the cries of the women and children who had taken refuge in the fort, all added to the horrors of the moment. All knew of the weakness of the garrison and the strength and ferocity of the foe.
But most fortunately they had a commander equal to the occa- sion. In the wildest of the confusion he was cool and collected. His commanding voice rang out in commanding tones. He ordered water brought, and ordered a squad to mount the roof and tear away that part next the burning barracks, while the remainder poured a heavy fire toward their assailants from the block-house and bastions. The light from the Indian's gun, when he would shoot, gave the mark to these splendid riflemen in the fort, and before the flash of the savage's gun had passed it was answered by a bullet from the bastion. This was the only protection that could be given the men on the roof who were fighting the fire, but it was effective. But one man was killed and two wounded while at this dangerous mark on the roof, and the fire was soon checked. This gave new hope to the men, quieted the screams of the women and children, and then the fire was so furious upon the Indians that they had to fall back out of range of the riflemen. Before daylight the strong breastworks were put up in the burned gap, but all night long the Indians continued firing both balls and barbed arrows into the fort.
Some evidence of the terror of the attack and the appearance of the fire in the dead of that very dark night is told, but is not authentic, that two of the best soldiers were so bewildered that they leaped over the pickets in despair and rushed out into the darkness. Of course, they were seen by the Indians; one was cut and hacked to pieces and was found scalped and nearly an unrecognizable mass. The other escaped immediate death, but had been shockingly wounded before he could hide from his pursuers in the darkness.
The Indians kept up the attack until 6 o'clock the next morn- ing, and as soon as daybreak enabled the soldiers to see them their fire from the embrasures was furious and effective.
The Indians drove together, keeping out of range of the fort, all the horses and hogs belonging to the garrison or citizens, and shot them in full view of the people in the fort. All the cattle, about seventy head, they collected and drove off with them as they went away.
Gen. Taylor reported two killed and one wounded. This was a heavy loss, unusually severe, when it is borne in mind that Capt. Taylor's report showed that there were but fifteen effective men in the company at the time of the attack, the remainder being sick or slightly convalescent. The Indian force was estimated at several hundred.
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Capt. Taylor in his report to Gen. Harrison said:
" At 11 o'clock at night I was called up by the firing of the senti- nel, and I ordered the men to their posts. My orderly, who had charge of the upper block-house, called my attention to the fact that the Indians had set fire to the lower block-house, in which were the stores of the contractor containing materials which were soon in flames on the roof. The alarm of fire, the yelling of the Indians, the cries of women and children and desponding of the men consisting of only about fifteen, produced a panic, but my presence of mind did not forsake me, and by throwing off the roof of the adjoining building and keeping it wet only about eighteen feet of an opening was made by the fire, and by pulling down the guard-house I had kept the vacancy filled with pickets so the enemy could not enter. Two men were killed and one wounded, all by their own carelessness."
John Dickson and Jonathan Graham and families were in the fort at the time. Graham often told that the women drew the water and he carried it up and put out the fire and wet the adjoin- ing roof, and that when this was off his hands the women loaded the guns while he fired through one of the port holes.
In 1813 the Indians massacred some of the settlers living south of Honey creek. This was a band of Potawatomies. Of this raid John Dixon told that, in after years, in talking with one of the chiefs of this tribe, he told him that the next night after the mas- sacre the band approached Dixon's cabin with the intention of kill- ing the family, when they found all the few neighbors in the cabin holding a prayer-meeting, and becoming afraid of the "Great Spirit " they quietly left.
While there was no further attack on the fort after the Indians fell back out of range a little after daylight, yet they hovered about all day, and were seen moving in bands at every point. During the following night some time they stole away and retreated to White river, committing small depredations on their way, especially on a small settlement on that river.
The heroes in the fort were in a distressing condition. Their stock all gone and their provisions destroyed by fire; nothing to eat, and hardly a hope of relief if the enemy should be reinforced and again attack them.
Capt. Taylor immediately took steps to communicate affairs to Gen. Harrison at Vincennes. He despatched two men in a canoe down the river, but they were driven back by the enemy and had a narrow escape. He next selected his orderly sergeant and a private and ordered them to go to Vincennes, keeping in the deep woods on the way. They reached Vincennes, and immediately Harrison started a force of Kentucky volunteers under Gen. Hopkins to the relief of Taylor. This relief force had nearly 4,000 men. They
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came to Fort Harrison in haste, and after all was put in good order there they were to go in pursuit of the savages toward Peoria.
Gen. Harrison was so pleased with the conduct of Capt. Taylor that he at once recommended his promotion to brevet major upon the army register. This was the beginning of the rise of that young officer until he was finally made President of the United States in 1848.
It was nineteen years after this that we find the gallant Taylor across in Illinois engaged in fighting the Indians. This was the Black Hawk war, which in 1832 closed with the battle of Badaxe, which ended the wars and the existence of the Indians east of the Mississippi. When Taylor was here on the Wabash, fighting the red man, he was under and acting in concert with Gen. Harrison. When on the Illinois river, in 1831-32, he was acting in concert with Jeff Davis, Gen. Winfield Scott and Abraham Lincoln, and the noted "Old Ranger," Gov. John Reynolds, of Illinois, by virtue of his office was in command of the forces.
Capt. Spier Spencer and Lieut. McMahon (this lieutenant's name had been so quaintly written by Ensign Tipton) were killed, and their bones have returned to dust near where was once the shadow of the fort they died so bravely defending, sleeping on the banks of the river that was the gateway for civilized man that linked the north to the south, over which the canoes of the cou- rier des bois had piloted the way to the steamboat, the canal and the railroad freighted with the world's rich commerce. The names of the others killed and wounded are not found in the records of this day, and they may have to go into history, as so often happens to real heroes as " unknown."
The two men killed that were said to be making hay were named Doyle. They were buried about half a mile below the fort on the bank of the river. Those killed in the battle were buried nearly two miles east of the fort on the Durkee road, and in passing a hill as you travel this way you will notice a sudden bend or swerve in the road just at the brow of the hill. This sudden bend in the road has a history. It is a monument, a respect we are paying to the heroes who fell in the fort. The circumstance of the case was as follows: Drummer Davis was the man who beat the long-roll on that dark night of the attack on Fort Harrison. He was a stub- and-twist Englishman who had deserted the British army at Detroit and came and joined Harrison's forces, and was a kind of general drum-major, not only for Harrison's army, but for Vigo county as long as he lived. On July 4 he was always on hand; on election days he drummed merrily away while men voted and fought and then drank and fought again. He gave no more heed to fighting than voting, but beat the long roll, the long reveille, the long charge and
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the long retreat; it was all long beating, and pounding just a little harder when the noise and fighting grew more furious. He was a royal character. He lived and drummed his old days away, and when not drumming he would get the boys around him and fight over his battles, in startling reality, beat an imaginary drum with imaginary sticks, and "show how battles are won." The effective implement of war with the grim old soldier was the drum. With Zach Taylor to do the fighting and Davis the drumming, they could whip all creation. He had that bluff English manner that spoke and moved in all things in the positive and superlative mood. It admitted of no contradiction or doubting, and the stumpy old vet- eran bore his diploma from the battle of Fort Harrison that gave him an open leeway among all men to know whereof he spoke, and to bring from the gaping crowd of boys that fascination and awe that his oracular words always inspired.
When he left the army he settled in Vigo county. He had fought all over creation, and therefore he knew the best spot on earth, most assuredly, when he had seen it and fought it out there. This brought him to Vigo. When he was quite old he lived with his son-in-law, Stewart, across the river from Terre Haute. When his comrades were buried he had drummed the most heartfelt "evening retreat" of his life at their funeral and over their graves. In his eyes no mortal ever deserved or had ever received so grand a funeral. His drum had spoken the deepest and tenderest thoughts, so eloquent, so pathetic, that had ever swelled the grim old soldier's heart, and over these unmarked graves was sacred and holy ground to him. It was the one link, rather the golden chain, that ever carried his thoughts from the divine music of his drum to that echoless shore to where the gnarled old stocky soldier has long since gone.
It came to the old drummer's knowledge that they were going to lay out the Durkee's road, and that it was intended to run it over the hill and exactly over the spot where he had buried his fallen comrades. He got down his old long black rifle and ordered his ·son-in-law to take him across the river. He sternly informed them that he did not know just when he would return, if ever. This was all the information he gave them as lie ascended the bank with his gun on his shoulder.
He repaired to the little knoll where were the graves, and seated himself with his gun across his lap. After a time the surveyors came along laying out the road. When they saw him of course they paused and inquired what was the matter. He quietly sat there until they told him what they were doing, and then he told them in return what he was doing:
"My comrades' bones are here. I helped bury them. When I
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heard what you intended doing I came over. The road will not be run over their graves while I live. I don't expect to live long, and I expect to die right here, but I should not be surprised if somebody else died before I do. That's all I have to say."
Respect for the dead and the living caused the surveyors to make the sudden curve that may now arrest the curious attention of the wayfarer who but seldom knows the history of it.
But there it is. Let it remain forever, not only the silent mon- ument to the fallen heroes of Fort Harrison, but equally so to Drummer Davis. There is a stronger link than life that binds the memory of these heroes. Drummer Davis died in 1847.
Fort Harrison was continued as a military post until about 1822, when it was abandoned and dismantled, and, piece-meal, disappeared, with little or nothing now to mark the spot where it stood. There were some posts of the main building there as late as 1848-a mere tumbled down ruin.
In 1815 it was commanded by Maj. John T. Chunn. By the kindness of Dr. Swofford I was shown the original of the following order:
FIFTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT,
HEADQUARTERS, DETROIT, 10th May, 1816. S
Sir: Having been informed by Maj. Morgan that he has marched out of the department by order of Gen. Jackson, and that in consequence Maj. Morgan thought it his duty to order vou to occupy with your command the fort he had left, you will continue to make Fort Harrison your station and consider yourself com- mandant thereof. Such of the public property that without great expense [can] be removed from Fort Knox to Fort Harrison, you will cause to be removed and placed in as much security from depredation and from the weather as your stores will admit. If the quantity of small arms is very great you will communicate with the officer of the ordnance department, to learn if any arrangement has been made by his department for the removal of the arms and surplus ordnance stores. Take care, however, to have your command as well furnished as possible with the means of defense, and always be on your guard against the Indians, never permitting them to take any undue liberties and punish promptly any insult they may offer. It is the best way to keep on good terms with them. You will at the same time prevent any person from abusing or maltreating the Indians, considering yourself as their protector in all that regards their just rights and privileges.
You will be pleased to send me a sketch of the fort and grounds in its vicinity; stating the number the barracks will contain; the nature of the soil about the fort; the general quality of the land near you, and also, whether the position is well chosen; whether it be healthy and the quality of the water.
Be pleased also to give a statement of the different tribes of Indians in your neighborhood and the amount of Indian warriors in each tribe. Also, the state of the fort as to comfort and defense, and generally every information touching the command.
With respectful consideration, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, ALEXANDER MCCOMB,
Maj .- Gen. Commanding 5th Military Department. To MAJ. CHUNN, Third Regiment Infantry, Commanding at Fort Harrison.
Maj. Chunn was succeeded in command by Maj. R. Sturgis, and it is tradition that Sturgis was the last in command of Fort Harrison. In 1820 Chunn was in Detroit, and about that time he left the army, and remembering the beautiful country on the Wa-
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bash, he returned to Terre Haute and made this his home the re- mainder of his life-died in 1847. Some of his descendants bear- ing his name are still here.
These are the outlines of the historical old fort-the advance post so - long that stood on the outer bounds of civilization, looking toward the northwest; looking away in the dim future to the now. A watchful sentinel, under whose eye the savage quailed and moved backward, backward, backward, fighting slowly, fiercely, until beyond the Father of Waters, beyond the mountains and the descent of the slope of the Pacific, with the tread of the invincible white man pressing upon his sullen heels, the advancing column ever grow- ing and swelling into that ocean of restless humanity; the retreat- ing remants dwindling and fading away, leaving their bones whiten- ing their path, and as they finally appear upon the western shore, jaded, spiritless, hungry and forlorn, their once wild and fierce manhood gone, they turned, holding out to their pursuers the ex- tended hands that begged for bread.
To the first few people that came here under the shelter of the guns of the old fort, its memory was fresh and green to them dur- ing life. When Terre Haute was but little more than a neighbor- hood settlement, the fort was their metropolis. The officers and their families were called upon in every society movement. The band of the fort would furnish music for the first Virginia reels that were ever raced over the primitive puncheon floors. The ladies of the fort were the cream of society, where the pioneer girls learned the fashions and how to wear so gracefully those tortoise shell great combs that were to them as the apple of the eye. They joined in the celebrations, the pic-nics and the Fourth-of-Julys. They mingled with the people at births, weddings, sickness and funerals, and were most welcome guests on all occasions. They lived in the old fort, and this was the "head house" to all Vigo county during the years of its young life. Its lights are fled, but its garlands are not dead.
A blessing and a tear to its memory !
--
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CHAPTER X.
F. F. V.
FIRST FELLOW IN VIGO-FIRST FAMILY IN VIGO-FIRST FEW IN VIGO- FIRST FURROW IN VIGO-FIRST FIVE YEARS-1810-1815-UNCLE JO. LISTON-THIE SHANNON MASSACRE-ETC.
T HERE is not only a pardonable, but a commendable feeling in the old Virginia stock, indicating his pride of his people and admiringly applying to certain leading families the title of F. F. V. -the first families of Virginia. This smacks of an aristocracy, but it was one after all whose coat of arms came from mother nature and was her diploma of royal or superior qualities. This old Vir- ginia pride has been jeered at, and in some cases it was no doubt deserved, but there is a strain of nobility of nature that cherishes and respects true greatness for itself. It is the cultivation of that kind of honor and self-respect that is elevating and ennobling.
A few years ago, when the noted "Long John" Wentworth was mayor of the city of Chicago, some sprig of royalty from the old world visited this country and notified Chicago that he would reach there with his retinue on a certain day. This, of course, started up a great commotion. One of the wealthy men of the place in some excitement called on the mayor to consult with him about giving royalty a proper reception. His first suggestion was that the mayor should select one hundred of the " first families " of the city to take charge of the ceremonies. The mayor said: "Very well; besides your own family, of course, please write me out a list of the other ninety-nine." The gentleman was thoroughly nonplussed. He could not name another. After annoying him for some time, the mayor, who was a member of the "Old Settlers society " of Chi- cago, handed him a list of the first settlers in the county, with the dry remark, "These are the 'first families,' and there can be no mistake here. These are the names in our county's Blue Book, and in my opinion there is no bluer blood in the world than runs in their veins." And was he not right?
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