USA > Indiana > The history of Indiana > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
In 1803 Indiana had 1,710 men enrolled in the militia, in 1806 there were 1,846, in 1811 there were 4,160, in 1814 there were 5,010. During most of this period there were two companies of United States regu- lars in the State, one at Fort Knox near Vincennes, the other at Fort Wayne.
Hundreds of boats loaded with immigrants floated down the Ohio every year. Most of these stopped in Ohio and Kentucky, but a fair proportion made their way to Indiana.19
19 See the United States Census Report, 1810, for this data.
CHAPTER VIII
INDIANA AND THE WAR OF 1812
§ 34 AFTER THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE
THE Indians who gathered with General Wayne at Greenville were a thoroughly beaten, humiliated band, defeated in the field by their enemies, the Americans, and deceived by their supposed friends, the English. The generation of Little Turtle had had enough of war, and were ready to bury the hatchet for good. For fifteen years thereafter they had lived quietly in their rude homes, at peace among themselves and with the white man. By 1811 a generation had grown up that had forgotten the miseries of the long war and that knew only of the steady encroachments of the whites.
The chief causes of the growing dissatisfaction of the Indians were the steady progress of white settle- ments into their hunting grounds, the enormous amount of whiskey furnished them at high prices- Harrison estimated that 6,000 gallons were distributed annually to the 600 warriors on the Wabash-and the continual meddling of the English. The fur trade was almost ruined by Napoleon's Continental Policy. All these factors combining, kept the Indians irritable, while the English emissaries fanned the growing anger until it burst into blaze.1
In this crisis of Indian affairs the power of the
1 In the American State Papers, Indian Affairs I, 799, 801- 804; II, 84; III, 453, 462, are printed enough letters to show the sinister influence of the English; see also Dawson's Life of Harrison; Drake's Life of Tecumseh; James Hall, Sketches of History, Life and Manners of the West, II, ch. ix .; Harding and Esarey, Messages of the Governors of Indiana (Index).
206
HISTORY OF INDIANA
peaceful Little Turtle gradually declined. His place of influence was taken by the war chief, Tecumseh. Tecumseh had taken an honorable part in the war against Wayne. He was known among the tribes as a fearless, upright, generous man, an opposer of the white man, especially of the white man's vices. It was his ambition to unite all the northwestern tribes into a grand confederacy, and drive the settlers across the Ohio river. It was the same fatal ambition which had misled Philip, and Pontiac, and later was to mis- lead Black Hawk.
Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, were born on Mad river, near Springfield, Ohio. Their mother was a Creek, their father a Shawnee, perhaps a war chief. Tecumseh in 1811 had long been a war chief ; he learned from Little Turtle the patience, the cunning, and the strategy necessary to win in the game of war. The Prophet is said to have been a drunkard in his early life; but later he quit drinking whiskey and be- came a prophet, a spiritual leader of the tribesmen. He preached against drunkenness, witches, and the civilization borrowed from the white man. Both he and Tecumseh pleaded with their people to return to the customs of their ancestors, and renounce the vices of civilization.
The Shawnees had some years before migrated westward from their home in Ohio and, mingling with the Delawares, had settled on the headwaters of White river where Anderson now stands. From there the fame of the Prophet spread over the entire northwest. Hundreds of Indians left their homes on the Great Lakes and came on pilgrimages to see this savior of the people, this oracle. His visions and his sermons held the red men spellbound, and, in form and substance his teachings compare favorably with those of other men who have won large portions of mankind for their
207
TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET
followers. Even President Jefferson was interested in the teachings of the Prophet.
Tecumseh took full advantage of the popularity of his brother. He talked with the visiting tribesmen, winning many of their chiefs to his own views. He taught that the Indians all belonged to one family, and should have one common government. Especially did he insist on their common ownership of the land, the common hunting grounds. No tribe, nor men, he per- suaded his followers, had a legal right to sell an acre of their hunting ground to the white men. It had been left to them by their ancestors as a common in- heritance. The chiefs had no right to barter it away for a pewter ringlet or a keg of liquor. September 30, 1809, the chiefs concluded a treaty with Harrison at Fort Wayne, by which they deeded 3,000,000 acres of land, a tract almost seventy miles square, for the petty trifle of $10,000-one-third of a cent per acre. The Shawnees and the Wyandots, both refugee tribes, hav- ing no claims to the ceded lands, joined in a bitter protest, threatening to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty, and to murder the first white men who came on the purchased land.
Meanwhile the Prophet, or as he was sometimes called, the Oracle, was carrying things with a high hand at his village of Andersontown. Some of the lead- ing men of the tribe, including the old chief were put to death for witchcraft. Fearing an outbreak if this Indian Mecca was not destroyed, Governor Harrison notified the Shawnees to stop the agitation. He de- nounced the Prophet as a fool, as an agent working for the British at Malden, and demanded that the northern Indians be sent back to their homes.
The Shawnees followed the advice of the governor and drove out the Prophet and his followers. The lat- ter went west and settled on the north side of the Wabash above Lafayette, near the mouth of the Tippe-
208
HISTORY OF INDIANA
canoe. The governor's letter had shown Tecumseh that his own hold on the Indians was not yet very firm. He, accordingly, became more cautious, but continued his work of organization by visiting the different tribes, and cementing his alliances as best he could. The Prophet, on the contrary, continued his work more boldly than before in the new village. In August, 1808, he visited Harrison at Vincennes, and succeeded in smoothing over all their difficulties, the two parting with friendly assurances.
The village on the Wabash, then known as the Prophetstown, soon became a worse nuisance than Andersontown had been. The connection with the British became more apparent and was finally acknowledged by the Prophet on one of his visits to Vincennes. It was while these negotiations were going on that the land cession at Fort Wayne was completed, September 30, 1809. This cession amounted to a dec- laration of war between Tecumseh and Harrison.
The warlike Wyandots were backing the Shawnee chiefs in the contest. Unmistakable signs of war ap- peared on the Upper Wabash. Messenger after mes- senger, Joseph Barron, Michael Brouillette, Touissant Dubois, Francis Vigo, Pierre La Plante, John Connor, William Prince, was dispatched to the tribes. All re- ported the same restlessness and signs of war among the red men. Warriors were breaking away from their chiefs, leaving their tribes, and joining Tecumseh and the Prophet.2
During the summer of 1810, Governor Harrison determined to summon Tecumseh to Vincennes for a conference. Joseph Barron was sent with an invita-
2 In addition to references cited above see Jacob Piatt Dunn, True Indian Stories; James R. Albach, Western Annals; Charles E. Slocum, The Ohio Country. The letters of Harrison are given in Messages of the Governors of Indiana.
209
TECUMSEH AT VINCENNES
tion to the Shawnee brothers to visit Vincennes and lay their grievances before the governor. The Prophet received the messenger coldly, denouncing him in coun- cil as a traitor and a spy. Tecumseh, more politic than his brother, rescued Barron from his dangerous position and, after listening respectfully to his mes- sage, promised to come to Vincennes immediately.
The villagers of Vincennes were surprised August 12, 1810, by the appearance among them of Tecumseh with 400 armed warriors. The Indians showed no signs of hostility as they went quietly into camp in the grove at the north end of the village, near the Har- rison home. The people who had flocked to the gov- ernor's home to hear the eloquent Indian orator, were in a panic until the dignified conduct of Tecumseh as- sured them of safety. Tecumseh refused to come into the house to hold council, and the meeting was there- fore held under the trees in front of the governor's mansion.
In fearless, straightforward language Tecumseh set forth his plan of an Indian confederacy, his belief in the common ownership of the hunting grounds, and his determination to kill all the chiefs who had signed the late treaty at Fort Wayne. There could be no peace between the Indians and the whites, he declared, until the land was ceded back. When he had finished his speech he sat down on the ground, declining a seat be- side the governor.
Governor Harrison, in his turn, pointed out to the Indian that if it had been the intention of the Great Spirit that the Indians should form one nation he would have given them one language instead of a score. He told Tecumseh that the Shawnees had no claims whatever on the ceded lands, and that they were interesting themselves where they had no busi- ness. The lands had been purchased from the Miamis,
210
HISTORY OF INDIANA
who owned it. The chief's eyes gleamed with anger as he denied these statements, and charged the gov- ernor and the President of the United States with sharp practice toward the ignorant tribesmen. The interpreter, Barron, thinking, perhaps mistakenly, that one of the chief's gestures was a signal to his Indian companions to do violence, gave the alarm. Only the calmness of the leaders prevented bloodshed. The council was broken up and the Indians withdrew to their camp.
Next day Tecumseh assured the governor that no violence had been intended by the Indians. The coun- cil was renewed, but no progress was made in the set- tlement of the trouble. Tecumseh and the other chiefs present stated their determination to go on in the course they had planned. Harrison informed them that their demands for the return of the land could not be considered.
Both parties retired from the council to prepare for war. The governor called on the United States for troops and instructions. Regulars from the forts on the Ohio were sent to Vincennes, and the militia were prepared for a campaign. The Indians began to visit Canada to secure arms. Small companies harassed the frontier, stealing horses and destroying property. These raids brought a threat from the gov- ernor, June 24, 1811, that unless they were promptly stopped he would attack the Indian towns.
One month later, July 27, Tecumseh with 300 men suddenly appeared again at Vincennes, when he again asserted his friendly intentions. The governor, think- ing it the plan of Tecumseh to overawe him, paraded 750 militia. After this conference in which he once more demanded the return of the lands, Tecumseh sent his warriors home, and, with twenty companions, set out down the Wabash on a long mission to the south-
211
HARRISON'S ARMY
ern Indians, not to return to Indiana till war had been begun and his league broken.3
§ 35 TIPPECANOE
GOVERNOR HARRISON received orders from the President, early in 1811, to break up the rendezvous of the Indians on the Wabash, if he deemed it best. Col. John P. Boyd4 was ordered to transfer the Fourth Regiment of United States troops from Pittsburg to Louisville and report to Harrison for orders. The governor issued a proclamation calling for volunteers. Among the latter were many famous Indian fighters from Kentucky-Gen. Samuel Wells, Col. Abraham Owens, Joseph H. Daviess, Col. Frederick Geiger, Capt. Peter Funk, and Maj. George Croghan. Captain Funk brought a company of cavalry from Louisville.
Governor Harrison gathered up a small army of less than 1,000 men at Vincennes, with whom he in- tended to establish a post higher up on the Wabash. Leaving Fort Knox, September 26, he reached the highlands at Terre Haute, October 3. Here he began the construction of a small fort with blockhouses at three of its angles. The fort was completed by October 28, and properly dedicated by the eloquent Kentucky lawyer, Jo. Daviess, who named it Fort Harrison. This fort, which covered about an acre of ground, stood on a bluff two miles up the river from the old Wea village, and thirty or forty feet above the water's edge.
Here signs of Indian hostility appeared; a sentinel was shot, the frightened Delawares and Miamis came
3 Albach, Annals of the West, 819, seq; American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 760, et passim; Rufus Blanchard, The Discovery and Conquest of the Northwest, 242; J. B. Finley, Life Among the Indians, 188; Dawson, Life of Harrison; Executive Journal of Indiana Territory, in Publications of Indiana Historical Society, II.
4 Percy Cross, Guerrilla Leaders of the World, has a biography of Col. Boyd.
212
HISTORY OF INDIANA
to assure Harrison of their own friendship, and to re- port the war-like preparations of the Prophet. A deputation of friendly Indians was sent with a letter to the Prophet, but no one ever returned. · Col. James Miller, the hero later at Lundy's Lane, was left in charge of the fort.
The main army left Fort Harrison, October 29, and directed its march toward the Prophetstown. It consisted of 910 men, 250 of whom were regulars under Boyd, sixty volunteers from Kentucky, and 600 Indi- ana militia. The mounted men, dragoons and riflemen, numbering 270, were under command of Wells and Daviess. In order to take advantage of the more open country on the western bank, the army crossed to the west side of the Wabash near the present town of Montezuma.5 The deep gorge of Pine creek was ap- proached with care for here Clark had found the In- dians in 1780, as had Hamtramck in 1790. No Indians were seen, however, and the army marched on un- molested till it came within six miles of the Prophets- town. Indians then began to hover on the flanks of the army, so that the commander deemed it necessary to march in line of battle with front, flanks, and rear protected by scouts. The interpreters tried in vain to engage the Indians in conversation. Dubois undertook to carry a message to the town but the threatening attitude of the savages drove him back. The army was within a mile of the town, marching directly upon it, when the Indians came out and begged for a confer- ence. After friendly greetings were interchanged, Harrison assured them of his readiness to go into coun- cil, if a suitable place for a camp could be found. A high point of ground on the banks of Burnett creek, one mile northwest of the Indian village, was pointed
5 J. Wesley Whicker, in the Attica Ledger-Press, August 14, 1914; Elmore Barce. "Tecumseh's Conspiracy" in Indiana Maga- zine of History, 1915,
213
BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE
out. There, after exchanging promises with the chiefs that no fighting should be engaged in till the morrow, Harrison led his army into camp. The site selected was an admirable place for a permanent camp, but not easily guarded against an Indian surprise. Low ground, covered with tall grass, willows, and vines, surrounded it. It was, doubtless, the best camp site in the whole neighborhood. Harrison was not put off his guard by the promises of the Indians. He disposed his little army in a hollow square, conforming his lines to the sides of the highland, with pickets far out in all directions. All necessary orders were given in anticipation of a night attack. The men took their positions in line and slept on their arms. The night was dark, and a drizzly rain fell at intervals.
All was different in the camp of the red men. Women and children made hasty preparations to flee for their lives if the Indian attack should fail. Tra- dition has it that the Prophet called his warriors to council, brought out the Magic Bowl, the Medean Fire, and the String of Sacred Beans. The touch of these talismans, he said, made the warrior invulnerable. After a trance and a vision, he told them the time for the destruction of the white men had come; the Great Spirit was ready to lead them; and he would protect the warrior from the bullet of the paleface. The war-song and the dance followed, till, in a fit of frenzy, the warriors seized their weapons and rushed out, a leaderless mob, to attack the Americans.
The American soldiers lay quietly on their guns, few of the militia slept, till about four o'clock in the morning when the sharp crack of a sentry's rifle awoke them. The plan of the Indians had been to creep on the sentinels, tomahawk them, and then rush from all sides on the camp. It was Harrison's habit, when in the Indian country, to call his troops to arms about four o'clock, and keep them in line till broad day-light.
214
HISTORY OF INDIANA
On the morning of November 7, he was just pulling on his boots, preparatory to having the army roused, when the attack was made. The Indian army, perhaps 700 strong, rose from the grass and with a yell rushed on the camp. Many of them broke through the con- fused lines only to be killed instantly by the roused soldiers. Most of the white men received the attack in line, but a few were not awakened in time. The campfires were put out and in the dim morning twi- light the two armies engaged in a deadly struggle, hand-to-hand in places, in places separated by ten or twenty yards. The general mounted a horse and rode to the spot where the attack was hottest, ordered the reserves to the points hardest pressed, and watched over the battle as best he could. The lines were main- tained until daylight showed where the Indians were. Then attacking parties were formed and a few well directed charges drove the Indians away. Their attack had failed ; partly for want of a leader, for had a man like Little Turtle commanded the Indians it would have gone hard with the white men; partly on account of the skill of General Harrison and the remarkable be- havior of his men, many of whom had never been under fire before.
The victory had been won at heavy cost; Colonel Owen was shot as he rode with the commander toward the point of the first attack; Captain Spencer, his first and second lieutenants, and Captain Warrick, all fell in this first onslaught; Jo. Daviess was killed in an attempt to raise the Indians by a cavalry charge; Capt. W. C. Baen, Lieut. Richard McMahan, Thomas Berry, Thomas Randolph, and Col. Isaac White also fell. Thirty-seven men lay dead on the field, and twenty .. five more died from their wounds within a short time. One hundred and twenty-six were wounded, including Colonels Bartholomew and Decker, and Lieutenants Peters and Gooding. The numbers of the Indians
215
THE INDIANS IN ARMS
engaged were never learned. Thirty-eight dead war- riors were left on the field.
The next day after the battle Harrison gathered up his battered army, and, after destroying the Prophetstown with all its supplies, made his way slow- ly back to Vincennes, reaching Fort Knox, Novem- ber 18.6
§ 36 INDIAN WAR ON THE FRONTIER
THE defeat of the Prophet broke up his town at the mouth of the Tippecanoe. Leaving the Wabash tribes, among whom he was thoroughly discredited, he started on a long tour among the Pottawattomies, Kickapoos, and Winnebagoes. As a result of his work, bands of these Indians appeared on the remote fron- tier. Murders were committed at Chicago, and along the west side of the Wabash. Nearly all the advanced settlements were abandoned, the settlers falling back on the more populous communities. Governor Harri- son gave orders, April 16, 1812, to the militia to hold themselves in readiness for immediate action.
Little Turtle, the aged chief of the Miamis, sent word from his home near Fort Wayne that the Mi- amis still stood by their treaty vow of friendship, though English agents were among them urging them on to war. The Delawares likewise renewed their pledge of friendship.
B. F. Stickney, the Indian agent at Fort Wayne, reported that a grand council of all tribes met on the Mississinewa, May 21, 1812. Twelve tribes were rep- resented. The council lasted two days. English agents
6 Harrison's official report is given in full in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 776; Albach, Annals of the West, 835; Niles Register, I, 238; Capt. Alfred Pirtle, The Batile of Tippe- canoe, Filson Club Publications, No. 15; Indiana Magazine of His- tory, II, contains the journals of John Tipton and Isaac Naylor, both present at the battle.
5
216
HISTORY OF INDIANA
again urged the tribes to united war, but all the In- dian speakers expressed opposition to a renewal of the struggle. These agents urged the Indians to visit Malden, where they would be presented with arms and ammunition. Stickney wrote that bands of Indians were passing Fort Wayne every day on the way to or from Malden. The Pottawattomie chief, Marpack, collected an army of hostile savages in the forest south of Detroit. This army seems to have been provisioned and armed by the English at Malden.
Meanwhile the frontier of Indiana was put in a state of defense. A row of blockhouses, or forts as they were called by the settlers, was constructed from Vincennes to Greenville. From May to August, always a time of great scarcity among the Indians, little dam- age was done on the border, but all were fearful of outbreaks as soon as the roasting-ear season opened.
In the meantime war was declared with England and Gen. William Hull, governor of Michigan, was sent to Detroit with a United States army.
The first blow of the Indian war was destined to fall on Fort Dearborn, where Chicago is now. On August 7, 1812, Capt. Nathan Heald received orders from General Hull to evacuate the fort and join the general at Detroit. Winnamac, a friendly Pottawat- tomie chief, the bearer of the dispatch, advised Captain Heald not to leave the fort. The Indians, as Winna- mac well knew, were on the warpath. Captain Heald, in defiance of the advice of everybody, distributed his goods to the Indians, destroyed his ammunition and guns, dismantled the fort, and set out on the march to Fort Wayne. Captain William Wells with a relief party of friendly Miamis came just in time to join in the retreat.
As all but the rash commander expected, the little garrison, and women and children accompanying it, were attacked as soon as they were well out of the
217
SIEGE OF FORT WAYNE
fort. Fifty-two men, women, and children were killed and twenty-eight captured.7 Captain' Heald showed in this affair about the same judgment and ability as his superior, General Hull, did in the surrender of Detroit the next day. These two disasters left Indiana exposed to the full brunt of the Indian attack. The storm broke along the whole frontier in early Sep- tember.8
The massacre of the garrison at Fort Dearborn was the signal for a general uprising among the north- western Indians. Only a few Miamis and Delawares, under the influence of Little Turtle, remained friendly to the whites. Blackbird, who had led in the massacre at Fort Dearborn, pushed on rapidly toward Fort Wayne with his Indian army. The fall of Macinac, Fort Dearborn, and Detroit destroyed all American authority among the Indians. Tecumseh hurried from tribe to tribe urging union in action. All were to join in one grand attack to sweep the invaders across the Ohio.
The British general, Henry Procter, assisted Te- cumseh in planning the attack. September 1 was the time set when the attack should be delivered at Forts Wayne and Harrison. Major Muir with a small force of British regulars was to march up the Maumee and assist at the capture of Fort Wayne.
The garrison at the latter fort numbered about seventy, under the command of Capt. James Rhea. The fort also contained four small cannon. As early as August 28, parties of savages were seen loafing around in the neighborhood. Their purpose no doubt was to take advantage of any opportunity that might be offered to kill any soldiers that might stray too
7 Milo Quaife, Chicago and the Old Northwest, index; a manu- script letter by W. J. Jordan, an officer under Heald, throws light on the massacre.
8 Historical Register, II, ch. I, No. 15.
218
HISTORY OF INDIANA
far from the fortifications. The Miamis in the neigh- borhood still professed friendship and tried several times to gain admission to the fort.
All tricks having failed, the Indians opened fire on the sentinels of Fort Wayne on the night of Sep- tember 5. An ambush cleverly planned on the morn- ing of September 6 resulted in the death of two sol- diers of the garrison. That night a direct assault was made on the fort in which, although about 600 strong, the red men were beaten back from the palisades with- out loss or damage to the garrison. The next scheme was to frighten the garrison by means of a Quaker battery which they constructed and placed in position during the night. An Indian flag the next morning an- nounced to the amused garrison that the British had sent a battery, and unless the fort was surrendered immediately it would be battered down and the gar- rison put to the torture. There was perfect quiet then for three days, at the end of which time the Indians again resumed firing, which they continued briskly for twelve hours. On the following day the soldiers were startled by a frightful war-whoop resounding from all parts of the surrounding forest. Another desperate but fruitless assault followed.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.