USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 11
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Thirty-seven brave men fell dead here, and one hundred and fifty-one wounded, averaging about one out of every five killed or wounded. One grand soldier who was shot through the body and mortally wounded went to
OFFICERS KILLED
COLONEL
ABRAM OWEN.
MAJOR
JOSEPH H. DAVIESS.
CAPTAIN
JACOB WARRICK.
CAPTAIN
LIEUTENANT
SPIER SPENCER. RICHARD MCMAHAN. THOMAS BERRY.
LIEUTENANT
CORPORAL
CORPORAL
JAMES MITCHELL. STEPHEN MARS.
CAPTAIN
WM. C. BAEN
HONORABLE JOHN TIPTON WHO FOUGHT IN THIS BATTLE DONATED THESE GROUNDS TO THE STATE OF INDIANA NOVEMBER 7, 1836
WEST TABLET MONUMENT
AMERICAN FORCES. MEN ENGAGED, 910. GENERAL WM. HENRY HARRISON COMMANDING ATTACKED AT 4,00 O'CLOCK A.M. INDIAN FORCES LED BY PROPHET. NUMBER ENGAGED ABOUT THE SAME AS AMERICANS.
LOSS: AMERICANS, KILLED 37. WOUNDED 151. INDIAN LOSS UNKNOWN.
NORTH TABLET MONUMENT
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the surgeon and the surgeon said to him, "Your wound is mortal." Ile bound himself up, went back to the front and was shot through the brain, and fell upon the firing line.
Such deeds of valor should be expounded in every school in this country. Instead of devoting one hundred and fifty pages to heathen mythology, and scarcely any space to the battle of Tippecanoe, the reverse should be true. 1 believe this will not be so in the future. I believe the erection of this monu- ment will awaken an interest in the young men of this country. Let me say that patriotism is the life blood of the people, and when these boys take charge of this government with all her greatness and grandeur and glory they will be filled with gratitude and patriotism toward the men who made the government, and for each man who defended the government.
Let us cultivate this spirit of patriotism. Let us do this and then we shall be able to look upon no land more free, more noble, more grand, more glorious than this, our own country. ( Applause. )
ADDRESS OF CAPT. ALFRED PIRTLE.
For three years I wore the blue, and there I learned, first, to obey. Yesterday morning at my desk there was a call for a long distance tilk. and as such things as that are not unusual to us business men, I hastened to call up long distance and found it was from Governor Wilson at Frankfort, Kentucky, directing me to come here today and represent him on this im- portant occasion. I said, "Governor, I will go, but what must 1 do? I cannot fill your place." "Yes, you go, and tell the people of Indiana some of the history of the battle of Tippecanoe." I prepared myself and I am here with a little condensed statement made up for this purpose, and it is as follows :
By the summer of 1811, the Territory of Indiana was ten years old. The Governor of the Territory, William Henry Harrison. lived at Vincennes. The leading Indians of the day were Tecumseh and the Prophet. Tecumseh was by far the more intelligent of the two, and his career showed that he was a born general and diplomat.
The Indians had for many years been using the point on the right bank of the Wabash river below the Tippecanoe as a camping ground, and here the Prophet made his home, where several hundred Indians were gath- ered and lived in comparative ease. Tecumseh had a scheme for uniting all the Indians of the North and South in a great confederation, with the power of which he hoped to stem the tide of white men seeking to drive
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the Indians from their lands. He used the Prophet to keep up the spirit of war among the young men in the valley of the Wabash. The Ist of August, in furtherance of his plans for uniting the Indians, he left their town and floated down the Wabash to the Ohio and thence into the Mississippi, con- tinuing his journey until he reached the Southern Indians.
There were many incursions made by the young Indian warriors upon the thinly scattered white inhabitants of the southern portion of Indiana, which, of course, created sentiments of hatred between the whites and In- dians.
In August General Harrison issued a call for a rendezvous of troops to assemble on the Wabash river with a view of an expedition to punish the Indians for these raids. About six hundred Indiana militia assembled at Fort Harrison, which stood where now is the city of Terre Haute. These were joined by a detachment of United States dragoons, and a large portion of the Fourth Regiment of the United States Infantry. Col. John P. Boyd.
In August Harrison had made a call upon Governor Scott, of Kentucky, for volunteers to assist the Indianians, and two companies of mounted in- fantry, one under Capt. l'eter Funk and the other under Capt. Frederick Geiger, were raised and marched to the encampment at Fort Harrison. There were in addition to the militia of Indiana, already mentioned, one hundred and three from Kentucky and about four hundred in the United States troops. They left the camp at Fort Harrison and marched slowly up the left bank of the Wabash until they came to Big Raccoon creek, near where now stands Montezuma, where they crossed to the right bank, and marched up that two miles, where they erected a block house to protect the reserve of their provisions that had been brought to that point by flatboats. The rest of the march the provisions were carried in wagons. They were then about fifty miles below the Prophet's Town. The route to the Prophet's Town across the country on the left side of the Wabash would have been shorter than the route the expedition took, but spies had given Harrison information that it was dangerous for them to proceed by that route. The army marched slowly up the right bank of the river until November 5th, they first saw signs of Indian scouts, within a short day's march of the Prophet's Town. The next morning, the 6th of November, the Indians were seen in front and on both sides, but the little command of about eight hundred, having been weakened by detachments left on the road, halted within a mile and a half of the town, where Harrison said he was going into camp. The Indians came out in numbers and through interpreters insisted on their not going any nearer the camp, where the women and children were. Harrison listened to their re-
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quest and under the guidance of Indians came to the spot now known as the Battle Field.
About 4 o'clock in the afternoon they went into eamp. The lines of the camp were intended by Harrison for the formation of the troops in case they were attacked, and the troops bivouacked in the following order: On the north side of the camp, that part of the battlefield where we now are, nearest to the town of Battle Ground, were the companies of Kentucky under Captain Geiger and Captain Funk, and a company of Indiana militia on the right of that line. Captain Parke's company of Indiana cavalry were right behind the Kentuckians, supported by Daviess of Kentucky. Now facing to where the railroad is, with your left to the town, the right end of the line on that side was held by Colonel Bartholomew with Indiana militia, the left of that line with regulars under Floyd. Down toward the south end, where the line was short, Spencer's Indiana militia stretched across the little neck of woods. That brings us back to Burnett's creek, that still flows at the foot of the battlefield slopes, and facing the creek, the left of the line was held by Indiana militia under Lieutenant-Colonel Decker, and the right of the line connecting with the Kentuckians under Geiger, was held by the United States regulars under Captain Barton. The wagons, horses and cattle were herded in the center of this space, formed by the troops. Harrison's headquarters were half way between the two detachments of regulars. The troops built great log piles and made huge fires to keep themselves warm, because the night was very cold. Harrison gave strict orders about what was to be done in case of alarm, and all men who were not on duty laid down in their ap- propriate lines with arms in their hands. He was expecting to be attacked, although the enemy was very friendly during the afternoon.
About 4 o'clock Harrison arose among the sleeping men, pulling on his boots before arousing his men for parade at their different posts, when a single shot was fired near the northwestern angle of the camp on the bank of Burnett's creek. The man who thus opened this famous little battle was a Kentuckian named Stephen Mars, a corporal on the roll of Captain Geiger's company, raised in Louisville and Jefferson county, Kentucky. After deliver- ing his fire, he ran toward the camp, but was shot before he reached it. The horrid yells of the savages awakened the camp and were followed by a rapid fire upon the ranks of the companies of Baen and Geiger that formed that angle of the camp. Their assault was furious and several of them penetrated between the lines, but never returned.
The whole camp was alarmed at once.
The officers with all possible speed put their different companies in line of battle as they had been directed the night before. The fires were now
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extinguished, as they were more useful to the enemy than to the troops. The great rush which the enemy made was to have been a surprise, but it failed, and after that the battle was a trial of skill, endurance and courage. It had to be fought out when the first dash had not been successful. Some of the enemy penetrated so far into the camp that Captain Geiger, going to his tent for a gun for one of his soldiers, found the Indians ransacking its contents, when a brief struggle took place, which ended in the Indians' rapid retreat. The plan of battle on their part was to attack three sides of the camp at once, but the alarm was given before those on the right flank of the whites were fully ready, though the entire line was finally assaulted. The Indians were now commanded by the Prophet. The battle lasted two hours. Tradition says the Prophet stood on a large rock on the west side of the valley beyond the creek, encouraging the Indians by songs and promises of victory. At the spot where the attack began when Governor Harrison reached there, he found that it had been somewhat broken up, and he re- inforced it from the portion of the line not then engaged by the enemy. The attack shifted then to the northeast corner in the rear of which Maj. Jos. H. Daviess, of Kentucky, was forming his dragoons. The enemy was to the right on the slopes of the hill, which lead down to the fine level ground yonder to the east. Major Daviess sent several messages to General Har- rison asking for permission to charge the enemy on foot. After the third request Harrison said: "Tell Major Daviess he has heard my opinion twice, that he shall have an honorable position before the battle is over. He may now use his discretion." The gallant Major, with only twenty picked men, instantly charged beyond the line on foot and was mortally wounded. He was a conspicuous mark in the gloom of the coming day, as he wore a white blanket coat. His party was driven back. The charge ended. Daviess made his way back to the line and "laid under the shade of a giant sycamore tree, his life ebbing slowly away, and he awaiting his last enemy. Death, with unquailing eye. His spirit passed out with the setting sun, and by the star- light his soldiers laid him in his rude grave, wrapped only in his soldier's blanket. and as the thud of the falling earth fell on their ears. they wept like children."
The enemy swept around to the rear and fell with great severity on Spencer's mounted riflemen and on Warrick at the angle. Captain Warrick was mortally wounded; Spencer and his lieutenants were killed, and yet his men and Warrick's held their ground gallantly. They were reinforced at various times and held the line unbroken until daylight.
Spier Spencer, the captain of the line mentioned above, was the most heroic in the manner of his death of all the victims of this battle. Harrison
PRIVATES KILLED IN ACTION
JAMES ASBERRY, EDWARD BUTNER, JONATHAN CREWELL. THOMAS CLENDENNAN. WILLIAM DAVIS, PETER HANKS, HENRY JONES, WILLIAM KING, DANIEL LEE, WILLIAM MEEHAN, JACK OBAH, KADER POWELL, JOHN SANDBORN, JOSEPH SMITH, WILLIAM TISSLER, IRA T. TROWBRIDGE, JOSEPH WARNOCK, ABRAHAM WOOD,
FRANCIS BONAH, JOSEPH BURDITT, LEVI CARY, MARSHALL DUNKEN, DEXTER EARLL, HENRY HICKEY, DAVID KEARNS, ABRAHAM KELLY, DANIEL MCMICKLE, ISAAC M. NUTE, JOHN OWSLEY, AMOS ROYCE, SAMUEL SAND, JAMES SUMMERVILLE, LEWIS TAYLOR, JOSEPH TIBBETTS, LEMAN E. WELCH, ISAAC WHITE, JOHN YEOMANS.
SOUTH TABLET MONUMENT
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said officially : "Spencer was wounded in the head; he exhorted his men to fight valiantly. He was shot through both thighs and fell: still continuing to encourage them, he was raised up and received a ball through his body, which put an immediate end to his existence." Could anything have dis- played truer courage and manhood in a higher degree? The force of his example imbued his men so fully with his spirit that they not only stub- boruly held their ground for two hours, but drove the enemy backward, de- fending the right flank of the fiekl until the fight was ended.
Spencer is said to have come from Kentucky to Vincennes, and this seems very likely, as a brother who was seriously wounded in the battle died on his way home, bequeathing in his will on the way property to certain friends in Kentucky. Spencer's company being mounted, had yellow trim- mings on the uniform, which gave them the campaign name of "Spencer's yellow jackets," and they favored this pugnacious insect by the way they stung the enemy.
The battle was ended about daybreak by a charge made upon the In- dians in the direction of where now stands the town of Battle Ground, and the Indians disappeared.
One hundred and fifty-four privates were returned among the casualties. and fifty-two of them were killed or died of their wounds. The total loss was one hundred and eighty-eight men killed and wounded-no prisoners. The losses of the Indians were serious, but are variously reported. According to one report they left thirty-eight dead on the field: six more dead were found in graves in their town. As was their almost invariable custom, they carried off all of their wounded. Major Wells, of Kentucky. said to a friend that after the battle he counted forty-nine new graves, and fifty-four Indians lying on the ground. An Indian woman who was captured said one hundred and ninety-seven Indians were missing.
The 7th day of November was spent in burying the dead, caring for the wounded and throwing up log breastworks to defend the camp. Rumors were circulated that Tecumseh was on the march to rescue his brother at the head of a thousand warriors.
"Night." says Captain Funk. "found every man mounting guard with- out food. fire or light and in a drizzling rain. The Indian dogs during the dark hours produced frequent alarms by prowling in search of carrion about the sentinels."
They were evidently a good deal worked up and entirely on the de- fensive. By Harrison's own account he had with him on entering the battle only about eight hundred men. Of these about one-fourth had been the vic-
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tims of death or wounds. He had very little flour and no meat, for the few beeves brought along by the column were either driven off by the Indians or stampeded by the noises of the battle, and Vincennes was over one hun- dred and fifty miles away.
The mounted men had lost several of their horses in the stampede. Many of the cattle and most of the horses were recovered on the 8th and 9th. The adventures in this battle furnished fireside talks for many years in Indiana and Kentucky.
On the 8th the dragoons and other mounted men took possession of the town. After getting all the copper kettles forsaken by their owners and as much beans and corn as they could transport. the army applied the torch. destroying all the huts and a considerable supply of corn, which the Indians had stored for the winter. Preparations were at once made for a rapid re- turn march. The wounded were placed in the wagons, and with a train of twenty-two wagons, each having a load of the wounded, left camp and by night of the 9th passed the dangerous ground where a small force of Indians might have inflicted serious injury. Six days of uneventful marching brought them to Fort Harrison, from which point the wounded floated to Vincennes in boats. Captain Snelling and his company, from the Fourth United States Infantry, were left as a garrison there. The remainder of the command arrived at Vincennes on the 18th. By the end of the month the militia were mostly mustered out and sent to their homes. The people of Indiana spent a quiet winter. The hope of the confederacy among the Indians being entirely broken up, Tecumseh spent some months in the South. but returned during the winter and went over to the British to become the most prominent Indian character in the war of 1812. We must remember that the following counties in Indiana perpetuate the names of participants in this battle: Harrison. Spencer, Tipton. Bartholomew, Daviess, Floyd. Parke. Randolph. Warrick. Dubois and White.
The result to Kentucky of this battle was the protection to the homes of the whole of the state, and during the war of 1812 Indiana territory proved to be a shield against the Indians for the people of Kentucky. Kentucky furnished the settlers of many of the southern counties of Indiana, making the bonds of kinship strong between the two states.
General Harrison lies upon the top of a commanding hill at what is called North Bend, in the state of Ohio, viewing the landscape of Kentucky and the magnificent sweep of the Ohio river.
Captain Geiger, of Kentucky, sleeps in a modestly marked grave in Louisville, but most of the victims of the battle of Tippecanoe sleep within
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the bounds of this enclosure. The night of the 8th of November, 18II, Harrison had great piles of logs placed above the graves of his dead and they were fired during the night and the next morning, but the Indians re- turned to the camp immediately after the departure of the column on the gth. scattered the fires and opened the graves for the purpose of plunder.
The next year General Hopkins visited the scene and replaced the scat- tered remains. In 1830 General Harrison, with other distinguished persons, attended a great gathering of the survivors on the field. The bones of the dead on November 7, 1836, were placed in one grave in a tract deeded to the state on the above date, but who can tell where lie the remains of the gallant Joe Daviess ?
The Daughters of the American Revolution ( General De Lafayette Chapter) caused to be erected a monument to mark the site of this old fort. It is a Bedford stone, of Indiana production, weighing 6,000 pounds. is five feet high and two feet square, bearing the following inscription :
-1719- FORT OUIATENON Stood 200 Feet From This Spot : Erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter, 1907.
There is no question as to the site of old Fort Ouiatenon, or that this marking stone tells the true location. Two hundred feet south toward the river on the highest point of land was undoubtedly the center of the fort. The stockade enclosure was probably two or three acres of land.
GOVERNOR HANLY'S SPEECH.
Governor J. Frank Hanly accepted the monument on behalf of the state of Indiana, in the following well-chosen words :
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Tippecanoe Battlefield Monument Commission-Out of the patriotic impulse of a grateful people-the endeavor and zeal of the members of the Tippecanoe Battlefield Memorial Association -- the efforts of the senator from Tippecanoe and of one of the state's dis- tinguished members of congress-the action of state assembly and national congress-the intelligence, courage and faithfulness with which you have discharged your duties in the selection of design and material-the genius
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of the architect who planned and of the artist who fashioned its accompanying statue-and the skill and patience of the mechanics who constructed it, there arises this day this splendid shaft, beautiful in design, magnificent in pro- portions and enduring in character.
As we stand in its silent. solemn presence we admit without dissent that you have planned wisely and have builded well. The quarries of Wisconsin and the granite hills of Vermont lay piled before us in lasting tribute upon soil we love-soil hallowed by heroic deeds and sanctified by sacrificial blood.
And now in the name and in behalf of the people of Indiana Territory, and in the name and in behalf of the people of this now proud and mighty state, of all who were, of all who are, and of all who shall be, I accept it from your hands with pride and gratitude, and do now dedicate it forever to the memory of those who here, ninety-seven years ago, beneath these trees, amid November's gray and lagging dawn, battled for and won an empire, richer now by far than any land the world then knew.
Here these trees-these sturdy, stately trees-oaks, surviving monarchs of a forest gigantic, now long since extinct-have watched with unfailing vigilance through the changing seasons of a hundred years, less only three, the unbroken slumber of our dead. Amid the storms and snows of winter they have stood, unwearied sentinels, waiting with perfect faith the coming of the hour when returning spring should clothe anew their naked boughs with foliage, and bring again the throb of life to every sleeping twig and tissue. Through the heat of summer, lifting high and ever higher their plumed and emerald-jeweled arms toward the blue beauty of the arched and vaulted sky, they have spread their shadows like a sun-flecked mantle above these mounds our loving hands have fashioned.
Amid the sad and transient glories of the autumn, dropping their leaves like mortal tributes laid upon the bier of one beloved, they have wrapped these graves about with robes of scarlet, of russet and of gold; and have sighed farewells and requiems amid moaning winds and chill November rains. From this vale-encircled, river-belted hill, thrown up by nature's giant hands, they have looked upon the miracles of morning and of night-the birth and death of day-five times ten thousand times, and have caught with unvoiced joy the gleam and lost with silent grief the glint of rising and of setting suns.
And now this monument-joint tribute of republic and of common- wealth-raises its form and summit far above these regal children of the primal past that the vigil of a century may not be broken when they, falling, shall cease to watch above our dead.
They have all but lived their day. Vigils for them soon will be no more. but this imposing shaft which you have builded will survive their fall
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and speak in silent eloquence through all the gathering, multiplying years of the valor and the courage of those who struggled here-who fought and fell.
It will become a shrine for freedom's devotees. AAbout it men will gather to recount the deeds it commemorates and in its presence renew with high resolve their vows of constancy to home and friend and country. The children of a later generation than we will know will play about the exedra where we now stand and pause to spell the names engraved upon these entablatures- names held in trust for them with granite grip-and spelling them grow still with awe.
Thenceforth the graves assembled yonder will hold for them a deeper meaning, and the spots where Daviess fell, where Spencer died, and where Owen yielded up his life will each grow rich with consecrated memories.
It is peculiarly fitting that the state and the nation should unite in erect- ing this monument, The battle fought here affected the destiny of both. Here Indiana's and Kentucky's sons, citizen-soldiers, frontiersmen, fresh from cabin homes builded in primeval forests-stood with the trained and disciplined infantry of the general government-stood and held this trembling hill against a horde of crafty, cruel, savage foes, and bore themselves as stal- wart, fearless men-stood amid the mystery and the darkness until the light of day crept in among the trees-stood and fought and would not yield. The field was held and the victory won, not by the regulars alone, but by the volunteers as well, by men in uniform and by men in woodsman's garb- by those whose trade was war and by those who fought only to protect their cabin homes and those they loved from the peril of torch and knife.
The present state of Indiana contains thirty-five thousand eight hundred and eighty-five square miles of territory, stretching from the Great Lakes to the Ohio river. Through the battle waged here this was opened to settle- ment and a pathway made to statehood. What changes the intervening years have wrought ! Then there were less than twenty-five thousand people living in the area named; now there are two million seven hundred seventy-five thousand seven hundred and eight. Then the accumulated wealth was nil ; now more than one billion seven hundred million dollars. Then, as a people, we were without schools, without culture, without literature ; now our schools are among the best in all the world, our people are cultured, and the fame of our literature nation-wide. Then we had no history; now our history is inspiring and is linked forever with that of a mighty nation.
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