USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 35
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Oh! ye men and boys of ink and long primer! how our spirits were stirred to phrensy and swelled with burnings and longings after fame !- while, like trumpeters calling to battle, we scattered forth our papers that woke up the souls of men! Then I heard of Harrison and Tippecanoe; and dreamed even by day of a majestic soldier seated on his charger, and his drawn sword flashing its lightnings, and his voice swelling over the din of bat- tle like the blast of the clarion !- and of painted warriors, like demons, rushing with the knife and tomahawk upon the white tents away, away off somewhere in the unknown wilds,-of "shout, and groan, and sabre-stroke, and death-shots falling thick
4 This would indicate that Hall's visit to Tippecanoe was in 1823 or 1824. The date of the battle was Nov. 7, 1811.
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and fast as lightning from the mountain cloud !"-And do I stand, and without a dream look on-Tippecanoe?
Even so !- for see, here mouldering are trunks of trees that formed the hasty rampart !- here the scars and seams in the trees torn by balls !- ay! here in this narrow circle are skele- tons of, let me count again, yes, of fourteen war-horses! But where the riders? Here, under this beech-see, the record in the bark !- we stand on the earth over the dead-"rider and horse- friend-foe-in one red burial blent !"
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What is this ?- the iron band of a musket! See! I have found a rusty bayonet! Was it ever wet with blood? Perhaps it be- longed to the brave soul about whom the squatter gave us the following anecdote:
"A party of United States regulars were stationed there, and with strict orders for none to leave ranks. An Indian crawled behind this large log-it's pretty rotten now you see-and here loading and firing he killed four or five of us; while we daresn't quit ranks and kill him. But one of our chaps said to the nearest officer-'Leftenint! for Heaven's sake-gimme leaf to kill that red devil ahind the log-I'll be in ranks agin in a minute!' 'My brave fellow'-said the officer, 'I daren't give you leave-I musn't see you go.' And with that he walked off akeepin his back to- wards us; and, when he turned and got back, our soldier was in ranks; but, gentlemen, his bagnit was bloody, and a deep groan from behind this here old log, told the officer that the bagnit had silenced the rifle and avenged the fall of our mess- mates and comrades."
If the reader imagine a strip of woodland, triangular in form, its point or apex jutting a kind of promontory into the prairie whose long grass undulates like the waving of an inland sea; if on one side of this woody isle, he imagines a streamlet about fifteen feet below and stealing along through the grass ; and on the other side, here, a mile, and there, two miles across the prairie, other woodlands hiding in their darkness the Wabash; and if he imagines that river, at intervals gleaming in the meadow, like il- luminated parts merely of the grass-lake, he may picture for himself something like Tippecanoe in the simplicity of "un- curled"" nature, and before it was marred and desecrated by man's transformations !
5 Hemans.
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The first intimation of the coming battle, as our squatter who was in it, said, was from the waving grass. A sentinel hid that night in the darkness of the wood, was gazing in a kind of dreamy watchfulness over the prairie, admiring, as many times before, the beauteous waving of its hazy bosom. But never had it seemed so strangely agitated ;- a narrow and strong current was setting rapidly towards his post; and yet no violent wind to give the stream that direction! He became first, curious-soon, suspicious. Still nothing like danger appeared-no voice,-no sound of fotsteps,-no whisper! Yet rapidly and steadily onward sets the current-its first ripples are breaking at his feet! He awakes all his senses ;- but discovers nothing-he strains his eye over the top of the bending grass-and then, happy thought! he kneels on the earth and looks intently below that grass! Then, indeed, he saw, not a wind moved current-but Indian warriors in a stooping posture and stealing noiseless towards his post-a fatal and treacherous under current in that waving grass!
The sentinel springing to his feet cried out, "Who comes there ?"
"Pottawatamie!"-the answer, as an Indian leaped with a yell from the grass, and almost in contact with the soldier-and then, fell back with a death scream as the ball of the sentinel's piece entered the warrior's heart, and gave thus the signal for combat !
Our men may have slumbered; for it was time of treaty and truce-but it was in armour they lay, and with ready weapons in their hands; and it was to this precaution of their general, we owed the speedy defeat of the Indians; although not before they had killed about seventy of our little army. No one can properly describe the horrors of that night attack-at least, I shall not at- tempt it. It required the coolness and deliberation, and at the same time, the almost reckless daring and chivalric behaviour of the commander and his noble officers and associates, to foil such a foe, and at such a time; even with the loss of so many brave men of their small number. That the foe was defeated and driven off is proof enough to Western men-(if not to Eastern politicians who do battles on paper plains)-that all was anti- cipated and done by Harrison that was necessary. It would not become a work like this, which inexperienced folks may not think is quite as true as other histories, to meddle with the his-
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tory of an honest President; but the writer knows, and on the best authority, that General Harrison did that night all that a wise, brave, and benevolent soldier ought to do or could do; and among other things, that his person was exposed in the fiercest and bloodiest fights where balls repeatedly passed through his clothes and his cap.6
There was, however, one in the battle so generous, so chivalric, so kind, and yet so eccentric, that his life would make a volume of truth more exciting than fiction-the celebrated Joseph Hamil- ton Davies, familiarly and kindly called in the West, Joe Davies. A lawyer by profession, he was eminent in all pertaining to his science and art; but pre-eminent in the adjustment of land claims. An anecdote about him on this point appeared in the newspapers some years since; it deserves a more imperishable record in a work destined to be read and preserved in so many families-maybe !
A person, served with an ejectment, and fearing from the length of his adversary's purse, that he must be unjustly deprived of his lands, came from a great distance to solicit the aid of Davies. He succeeded in his application, and was dismissed with an as- surance that, in due season, the lawyer would appear for his client and prevent his being dispossessed.
The arena of contest was, as has been intimated, distant ; and hence Davies was in person a stranger to the members of that court, or so imperfectly known that an uncanonical dress would be an effectual concealment. His client's case being duly called, matters by the opposite party were set in such a light that a verdict from the jury, and a decision from the bench, in favour of the plaintiff seemed inevitable; yet, for form's sake, the de- fendant must be heard.
The poor client had relied so entirely on Davies, and had felt so sure of being secured in his possessions, as to have neglected to
6 The author seems here to speak in defense of General Harrison against charges of carelessness, cowardice, or incompetency,-such as were brought forward by Harrison's political opponents in the famous campaign of 1840. The charges proved to be a boomerang, since Harrison's career as , an Indian fighter" on the frontier, while not equal to that of Jackson, had been a very worthy one and the nickname of "Tippecanoe" proved to be in his candidacy for the Presidency a powerful political asset.
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obtain any other legal aid-and still, at this 'critical moment when he was to be summoned for his defence-Davies had not arrived! Nay !- while earnestly straining his eyes, the client was even rudely jostled by a rough chap in hunting shirt and leather breeches, who carrying a heavy rifle in his hand and with a racoon-skin cap slouched over his face, kept squeezing very im- pudently even among the laughing and good natured lawyers inside the bar; where, to everybody's diversion, he appropriated to himself a seat with the most simple and awkward naivete possible; but what diversion was all this to our client looking round in despair for his lawyer! Anr then when the judge asked who appeared for the defendant, what amazement must have mingled with the client's despair when at the call up rose that rude hunter and replied :
"I do, please your honour!"
"You!"-replied his honour -- "who are you, sir?"
"Joseph Hamilton Davies, please your honor !"
And now, after that heavy rifle was slowly placed in a snug corner of the bar, and that skin cap was removed from the head, plain enough was it that the noble face, no longer concealed, was his; the talented, the philanthropic, the eccentric Joe Davies. Never before had so much law been cased in a hunting shirt and buckskins ; and never before nor since, was, or has been a diffi- cult cause in such a guise pleaded so triumphantly : for the entire superstructure of the opposite argument was completely sub- verted, and a verdict and decision, in proper time, rendered for the defendant, when to all appearance it had been virtually made, if not formally declared. for his antagonist.
.Alas! noble heart! and here is thy very grave! Yes, "J. H. D." is here in the bark-my finger is in the rude graving !- and now at the root of the tree I am seated making my notes! The last the squatter ever saw of Joe Davies alive, was when his grey horse was plunging in the furious charge down this hill-when the sentinel, already named, had fired and called "to arms !" And the next day our guide helped to lay Davies in this grave; and saw his name transferred to the living monument here sheltering and fanning his sepulchre!"
* * 7 Tippecanoe was won at a heavy cost. "Col. Owen was shot as he
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We lingered at Tippecanoe till the latest possible moment !- there was, in the wildness of the battle-field-in my intimate ac- quaintance with some of its actors-in the living trees, scarred and hacked with bullet and hatchet, and marked with names of the dead-in the wind so sad and melancholy-something so like embodied trances, that I wandered the field all over, here stand- ing on a grave, there resting on a decaying bulwark; now counting the scars of trees, now the skeleton heads of horses; finding in one spot a remnant of some iron weapon, in another, the bones of a slain soldier dragged, perhaps, by wild beasts from his shal- low grave !- till my young comrades insisted on our return if we expected to reach our friend's house before the darkness of night.
Having, accordingly, deposited in my valise a few relics and mementos, we rode down the hill into the prairie, at the spot poor Davies was seen descending and leading a charge; and over the very ground where the grassy current had betrayed the danger- ous under-tide of painted foes. Hence we crossed over to the town whence the Indians issued for the attack, 8 and where the
rode with the commander toward the point of the first attack; Captain Spencer (of the "Yellow Jackets") his first and second lieutenants, and Captain Warrick, all fell in this first onslaught; Joe Davies was killed in an attempt to raise the Indians by a cavalry charge; Capt. W. G. Bean, Lieut. Richard McMahon, Thomas Berry, Thomas Randolph and Col. Isaac White also fell. Thirty-seven men lay dead in 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 Godding. The numbers of the Indians en- gaged were never learned. Thirty-eight dead warriors were left on the field." Esarey's History of Indiana, Vol. I, p. 189. Of these Tippecanoe soldiers Owen, Spencer, Warrick, Daviess, Randolph, Bartholomew, White, and Harrison are memorialized by having counties in Indiana named for them. Jo Daviess, the eloquent Kentucky lawyer dedicated by an address and gave its name to Ft. Harrison, the rectangled fort of block houses near Terre Haute, as Harrison's troops were marching up the Wabash valley from Vincennes to the scene of the battle. "Gen. John Tipton, who was an ensign in one of the companies engaged in the battle, afterwards purchased the battle ground from the Government and gave it to the State for a park. It is now so held." Smith, Wm. H. History of Indiana, Vol. I, p. III.
8 Prophetstown, near LaFayette. The Indian Prophet was a brother of Tecumseh. "Tradition has it that the Prophet called his warriors to council, brought out the Magic Bowl, the Medean Fire, and the String of
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wily prophet himself remained in safety, concocting charms against the white man's weapons! After this, we turned down the Wabash, keeping our eyes ever directed towards the mourn- ful island of wood till at last we doubled its cape, and lost sight of Tippecanoe for ever !
That field, however, and its hero of North Bend are immortal.
BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.
Within the shelter of the primal wood, An isle amid the prairie's flow'ry sea, Upon his midnight watch, our sentry stood, Guarding the slumbers of the brave and free; And o'er the swellings of a seeming tide, Dim sparkling in the moonlight's silv'ry haze,
The soldier oft, distrusted, far and wide, Sent searching looks, or fixed his steadfast gaze.
Long had he watch'd; and still each grassy wave Brought nought save perfumes to the tented isle; Nor sign of foe the fragrant breezes gave; Till thoughts of cabin-home his sense beguile, Far from the wilds: for yet, though fix'd intent, As if his eyes discerned a coming host, Those moisten'd eyes are on his lov'd ones bent- He sleeps not; but he dreams upon his post. 1
Soldier ! what current like a hast'ning stream, Outstrips the flowing of yon lagging waves? . Shake off the fetters of thy dream! Quick ! save thy comrades from their bloody graves ! He starts !- he marks the prairie's bosom shake ! He sees that current to the woodland near ! He kneels-upleaps and cries-"Comrades, awake! To arms ! to arms !- the treach'rous foe is here !"
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 pale face. 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." Esarey, History of Indiana, Vol. I, p. 188. Tecumseh was not in the fight, but was in the South engaged in the task of organizing a.strong Indian confederacy. It is said that upon his return to the North- west he reproved his brother for permitting an immature attack on General Harrison.
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"Like mountain torrent, furious gushing, The warrior tribe is on us rushing,- With weapons in their red hands gleaming, And charmed banners from them streaming ! To arms! to arms! ye slumb'ring brave! To arms !- your lives and honor save !"
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Arm'd, from the earth, our host is springing ; Their sabres forth from sheaths are ringing ; Their chargers mounted, fierce are prancing ; Their serried bay'nets swift advancing :- "Quick, to your posts !" the general's cry, Answered, "We're there, to do or die !"
Hand to hand, within that solemn wood, For life, fought warriors true and good ! The hatchet through the brain went crushing ! The bay'net brought the heart blood gushing ! On arrows' feather'd wings death went, Or swift, at the rifle flash, was sent , Till victor shouts the air was rending, And groans the wounded forth were sending ! "Charge! soldiers, charge !" brave Davies shouted; They charg'd; the yelling foe was routed :- Yet long before that foe was flying, That hero, on the plain, was dying!
That prairie lake rolls peaceful waves no more; Its bosom rages 'neath a tempest pow'r- See ! driven midst it, from the woodland shore, Fierce bands rush vanquish'd from a deadly show'r! And gleaming steel, and lead and iron hail Pour vengeful out of war's dark sky, 'Mid shriek, and fright, and groan, and dying wail, And triumph's voice, "Charge home! they fly "
Solemn the pomp where mourning heroes tread With arms revers'd, and measur'd step, and slow! Sadly, yet proud, is borne their comrade dead, Their warlike ensigns bound with badge of woe! Sublime, though plaintive, pours the clarion's tone ! The heart, while bow'd, is stirred by muffled drum ! But stand within that far-off wild wood lone, Where prairie scented winds, with drugs, come, Where the rough bark, rude grav'd with hunter's knife, Points to the spot where Davies rests below, And relics scatter'd, tell of bloodiest strife- Heart gushing tears from dimming eyes must flow!
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And round thy mournful bier, our warrier sage! Who rushing reckless to each fiercest fight, Didst fall a victim to no foeman's rage Amid the carnage of that fearful night, A nation, yet in tears, has smitten stood Grieving o'er thee with loud and bitter cry! Rest thee, our hero of that island wood! Worthy in thine own ransom'd West to lie! When floating down Ohio's grand old wave, Our eyes shall turn to where his forests stand,
Stretching dark branches o'er our chieftain's grave-
Father and saviour of the Western's land !
CHAPTER XLVII.
"For now I stand as one upon a rock Environed with a wilderness of sea."
LATE at night we arrived safe at Dr. Charille's. The next day we set out for Woodville, choosing on the return other paths, to avoid former difficulties and dangers ; by which prudence, how- ever, we only reversed matters; for instance, instead of water before a swamp, we got the swamp before the water. And, also, we thus often set out before day-light in the dark, instead of travelling in the dark after day-light-travelling occasionally to reach a settlement in the dark at both ends of the day. Besides our new route threw us away up Nut Creek, where, contrary to all expectation, it was found necessary either to swim below a mill- dam, or be canoed across above the dam. The latter was our choice; and as it afforded a pleasant variety in the horse and log navigation, we shall give the adventure and then skip all the way to Woodville.
The whole plain 1 of water to be crossed was about one hundred and twenty yards wide. But it consisted of three divisions, the Creek Proper, twenty yards wide and now eighteen feet deep; and two lagoons, each full, on opposite sides of the creek, and averaging each fifty yards in width, although in most places, the banks being low, the lagoons could not be distinguished from the creek, but the three divisions seemed one water, lake, or sea. Our transit spot was a place, where, from the edge of the hither lagoon 1 Aequor is classic and poetic authority.
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could be discerned by a careful observer, a modest little grassy mound in the water, a kind of frog-island, which the miller said was the nearest bank of the creek; and that from this mound another on the opposite bank could be discovered, or nearly so. And nothing, he said, would be easier for us than first to ford over the lagoon to the nearest mound, where he would meet us in a canoe : that here we could strip our horses, and thence by turns every thing could be transported to the farther mound, whence, all matters re-arranged, we could ford the distant lagoon, and so come finally to the dry land on the opposite hill beyond the bottom.
This certainly was plausible, if not captivating; especially should not the horses become entangled in the brush and vines, forming tolerable fish-nets under water, and should the lagoons be only four feet deep. They certainly looked, to judge from the surface water up the trunks of trees, somewhere about six feet deep; but then both the millerman and his son were "right down sartin, it wan't more nor four feet no place, nor it moughn't be that deep, except in them 'are blasted holes !"
Receiving ample direction for circumnavigating the holes afore- said, we took aim for the first isle-of-bank, and were soon so well in for it, that the difficulty and peril of going backward and forward were equal; and therefore, we worked onward, tacking incessantly every way to avoid logs, trees, and vines, and in awe all the while of "them 'are holes," till we began to rise once more in the world, and stood sublime in the very middle of Frog-land !
Believe me, reader ! it was not void of uneasiness, we thus sun- dered from the world, looked back on, the woods just left, and standing partly in and partly out of the water! while, at our feet, and separated by a strip of grass, swept along in the pride and fury of risen waters, the creek itself, curling amply over a few inches of the still visible dam, and shaking and tearing away with its yet rising tide our little territory ! And that canoe! a tiny log shell, to transport us to the other lagoon, where four feet water, logs, trees, vines and holes must be encountered again! How like the realms of Pluto! and we, how like terrified ghosts await- ing a passage across the Styx in the rickety bark of Charon!
All ready, I attempted, bridle in hand, to step into the canoe,
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but by some awkwardness, I stumbled into the far end, and thus so violently jerked the rein, that my creature soused in, and descended almost the length of the bridle; but by the time she gave her first snortings, on regaining the air, our log was over, and the creature (i. e. equa) was pawing up the isle-of-bank number 2. Here we remained till Mr. Frank and his horse arrived, and a third trip had brought our saddles and baggage; and then, duly prepared, we forded lagoon the second, and in proper season gained our wished for hill, and-
"What stuff !"
"What stuff?" gentle reader, what better, could you do with a mud and water subject ?"
"Yes-but what's the use of such things ?"
La! that's so like what Aunt Kitty said, when I got to Wood- ville, all dirty and tired-my new boots thick with exterior mud -my best coat altogether spoiled-my fur hat crushed into fancy shapes, and the seat of my corduroy inexpressibles abraded to the finest degree of tenuosity at all consistent with comfort and decorum !
CHAPTER XLVIII.
1
"And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them."
Vide an Ancient Record.
-Let me see wherein My tongue hath wrong'd him: if it do him right, Then he hath wrong'd himself :- if he be free, Why then, my taxing, like a wild goose flies, Unclaimed of any man."
ON the last day of the return to Woodville, we met at inter- vals during the final half-dozen miles, not less than one dozen wagons, large and small, and partially loaded, some with beds and bedding, and some with culinary utensils ; the interstices being filled with a wedging of human bodies-men, women, and children, some laughing and talking, others solemn and demure.
They seemed at first view settlers, who, having sold to advan- tage old farms, were flitting to where wood and game were more abundant, and neighbours not crowded offensively under other's
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noses, as near as one or two miles. But soon appeared people riding once, twice, and even thrice on a horse; and some kind- hearted horses, like the nameless one, were carrying on their backs whole families ; and then it was plain enough what was meant-a big meeting was to come off somewhere. And shortly all doubt was at an end, when familiar soprano and alto voices from under wagon covers, and out of scoop-shovelled bonnets came forth thus -"How'd do! Mr. Carlton-come, won't you go to camp meetin?" And then sounded, from extra devotional parties and individuals, snatches of favourite religious songs, fixed to trumpet melodies, such as "Glory ! glory, glory !"-"He's a coming, coming, coming !"-"Come, let us march on, march on, march on!" and the like; and the saintly voices were ever and anon oddly com- mingled with some very unsanctimonious laughing, not intended for irreverence, but not properly suppressed at some illtimed joke in another quarter, related perhaps, yet more probably practiced. For nothing excels the fun and frolic, where two or three dozen half-tamed young gentlemen and ladies, mounted on spirited and mischievous horses set out together to attend a Mormon, a Shak- ing-quaker, or a Millery or a Camp-meeting.
'At the very edge of Woodville, too, there met us a comfortable looking middle-aged woman, who was riding a horse, and was without any bonnet; her other apparel being in some disorder, and her hair illy done up and barely restrained by a horn comb. She thus addressed me :-
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