USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I > Part 12
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THE MASSACRE OF HARDIN'S TROOPS.
(HELLER'S
CORNERS)
13
1
5
1
7-
1
1
1
(SHADED POR-)
TION INDI- 1
CATES THE
AREA OF THE
PRESENT CITY
OF FORT WAYNE)
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AG
-
VIL
RIVER
MAUMEE
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--
W-KE
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10
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1
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1
1
1
ST. MARY'S
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HARMAR'S OPERATIONS ABOUT THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE.
The map shows (1) the route of Har- mar's army and its arrival at Kekion- ga; (2) site of Fort Wayne, where the deserted Indian villages were destroyed by the troops; (3) the route taken by Colonel Hardin's troops to the site of Heller's Corners, (4) where the sav- ages in ambush, under command of Lit- tle Turtle, slaughtered the regulars, un- der Hardin and drove the remnant back to the camp of the main army at the Maumee village of Chillicothe (6), Sick a heart, General Harmar led his army toward Fort Washington (Cincin- nati), but when it halted for camp sev- en miles southwest of the site of Fort Wayne (7), Colonel Hardin, smarting under the chargin of the defeat of his men, was granted the privilege of going back to Kekionga to rout the sav- ages. Returning, then, by the route (8), the detachment suffered defeat at the junction of the rivers (9); the fleeing survivors (10) rejoined the main army and the retreat to Fort Washington was ordered.
The men under Hardin9 moved off reluctantly, accord- ing to Denny. Five miles from the village, they came upon an abandoned Indian camp. From this point all of the companies except that of Captain Faulk- ner, were ordered forward, Colonel Hardin having neglected to give Captain Faulkner the order to march. The troops advanced
SCA
ILLICOTHE
1
EKE-KI-ON-GA
1
1 ST.
JOSEPH
RIVER
1
1
1
L
105
"HARMAR'S DEFEAT"
1790
about three miles, when they discovered two Indians on foot, who threw off their packs, and made their escape in the thick under- brush. About this time, Colonel Hardin despatched Major Fontaine with part of the cavalry in search of Captain Faulkner, supposing him to be lost, and soon afterward, Captain Armstrong, who com- manded the regulars, informed Colonel Hardin that a gun had been fired in front which might be considered as an alarm gun, and that he had seen tracks of a horse that had come down the road and returned. The colonel, however, moved forward, without giving any orders or making any arrangements for an attack; and even when Captain Armstrong discovered the camp fires of the Indians in the distance, and informed Hardin of the circumstance, that officer, declaring the Indians would not dare to fight, rode in front of the advanced columns until suddenly the detachment was at- tacked fiercely from behind the fires. The fusillade of musketry threw the troops into the wildest confusion.
The attack of Little Turtle who led his braves in this fierce but brief encounter proved to be one of the bloodiest ambuscades of the annals of the west.
With the first fire of the savages, the militiamen, with the ex- ception of nine who remained with the regulars and were shot down, fled without firing a gun. This gave the Indians the freedom to center their deadly fire upon the regulars who stood their ground and made a brave resistance with the bayonet until twenty-two of the thirty were killed. In the midst of the melee, Captain Arm- strong, Ensign Hartshorn and five privates managed to escape. The ensign was saved by falling behind a protecting log. Armstrong plunged into a swamp, where he sank up to his chin and there remained for several hours of the night within a short distance of the scene of the wild war dance of the victorious savages. Arm- strong and Hartshorn remained hidden until such time as they could emerge from their places of concealment and make their way back to camp.10
Details of the ambush, preserved in the letters of Thomas Irwin, one of the soldiers who were left behind through the neglect of Hardin to order the advance of Faulkner's detachment, throw new light on the affair and give a clear conception of the minuteness of Little Turtle's plan of the ambuscade. Says Irwin :
"The trail Led through a Small or narrow prairie heavy tim- ber on Both Sides. On the right of the timber and [omission] was within 20 Step of Sd trace The Indians had Kindled a fire at the far End of Sd prairie and Left some Trinkets at it which Called a halt when the front arrived at it the Indians that moment gave them a deadly fire from the right the men Sallied toward the Left and [omission] another from there out of the woods at that Side. The
10
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
ambuscade was planned as neatly as one sets a trap for a rat. * *
* If there had been flankers out as Should have Been the Indians Could not have got so great an advantage."
Detailing the movements of his detachment before it came upon the scene of the ambuscade, Irwin says :
"The Col. in a hurry forgot to give orders to our Company They had marched over one mile Before they found out the mistake our Company had marched in front the 1st day and in the rear the 2d after waiting a Considerable time we move to the trace found they had been gone Some time pursued after went with Major Fountain he stated that he had Been in advance found the Indians was retreating as fast as Possible he thought could Be Soon overtaken Stated the Col had Entirely forgot to give orders to our Company When he Started we had gone over half a mile with the Major meet 2 mounted men on the Retreat Each had a wounded man Behind him appeared to Be very Bloody they Called out for gods Sake retreat you will be all Killed there is Indians enough to eat you all up we then Could hear the firing and yelling went over a small river there met the poor fellows retreating and the Indians after firing and yelling we formed a line across the Trace and took trees intending to give them a fire if they Came up Col Hardin Col Hall and Major Fountain and one or 2 more on horse- back halted with us the Indians came within 80 or 90 yards and halted I Expect they Seen the Men on horse Back Stop Then we stopped the pursuit and Covered the retreat tarried there untill Dark or until all the retreating party passed by us as none of them halted with us But the Sd officers it was after night Before we
arrived in Camp * there was no Detachment sent out next Day to ascertain how many was Killed or to Bury the Dead * * I was well acquainted with Col Hall Rode Behind him that night of Sd retreat across the river and was in his Camp next Morning."
The disaster tended to add to the demoralized condition of the troops and consequently to the burden of the commander-in-chief.
On the morning of October 19th, the main army of General Harmar moved from the present Lakeside down the north bank of the Maumee to the Shawnee village of Chillicothe,11 two miles dis- tant, where the commander issued orders for the utter destruction of the remaining Indian villages and the food supplies of the neigh- borhood. He added this sharp criticism of the conduct of his troops:
"The cause of the detachment being worsted yesterday was entirely owing to the shameful, cowardly conduct of the militia, who ran away and threw down their arms without scarcely firing a gun. In returning to Fort Washington, if any officer or man shall presume to quit the ranks, or not to march in the form that they are ordered, the general will most assuredly order the artil- lery to fire on them. He hopes the check they received yesterday will make them in future obedient to orders."
In utter despair, General Harmar determined upon an imme- diate retreat to Fort Washington (Cincinnati). Accordingly, on
1790
107
"HARMAR'S DEFEAT"
the morning of October 21, the army moved, and by evening had reached a point about seven miles southeast of Fort Wayne, where it went into camp.
Here, while the army was settling itself for the night, Colonel Hardin sought an interview with General Harmar. He informed the commander of his plan to bring victory out of defeat and ac- complish the object of the expedition, by returning to the village sites and giving the savages a severe and final punishment which would bring them into subjec- tion to the Americans and cause them to abandon their British alliance. The account of the result of this interview is quoted largely from the journal of Captain Armstrong :
Harmar was reluctant to send back a detachment of the army, but Hardin urged the matter, pleading that, as he had been unfortunate on the earlier occasion, he wished to have it in his power to pick the militia and restore the honor of the men and retrieve his own reputation. Harmar, thereupon, consented to the de- tachment of four hundred men to return to the villages, while the remainder of the army awaited the outcome.
U
B
Late in the night of the 21st, a corps of three hundred A CURIOUS RELIC OF HARMAR'S BATTLE. and forty picked militiamen Of the treasured war relics picked up on the battlefield of the site of Fort Wayne, the one here pictured is per- haps the most interesting, if not the most valuable. It is a bayonet, found by the late Carl Wolf, of New Haven, Indiana, which was later secured by L. W. Hills, of this city. When the bayo- net (A) became detached from the gun and fell to the ground it rested on the earth in such a position that the open- ing which fits over the muzzle of the firearm (AA) enclosed the tender shoot of a tree just issuing from the ground; the shoot grew up through the opening until it completely filled the space. Mr. Wolf cut off the shoot (C) and the root (B). and sixty regular troops under command of Maj. John P. Wyl- lys, were detached, that they might gain the vicinity of the Miami village before daybreak and surprise any of the Indians who might be found there. The detachment marched in three columns. The regular troops were in the center, at the head of which Captain Joseph Asheton was posted, with Major Wyllys and Colonel Hardin in his front.
108
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
The militia formed the columns to the right and left.
The detachment did not reach the high ground overlooking the Maumee (probably in the vicinity of the present East Washing- ton and Jefferson streets near Harmar) until some time after sun- rise. The savages, however, had not discovered their presence and were busily engaged in unearthing the buried property in their ruined village in Lakeside. The spies reported this condition to Major Wyllys, who halted the regular troops and moved the militia on some distance in front where he gave his orders and plan of attack to the several commanding officers of the corps. Wyllys reserved to himself the command of the regular troops.
THE PLAN OF BATTLE THAT FAILED.
According to the plan of Wyllys, Major Hall with his battalion was to have taken a circuitous route to the westward (throught the lands in the heart of the present city of Fort Wayne), cross the St. Mary's river at the ford (near the present Wells street bridge) and there, in the rear of the villages wait until the noise of the attack of Major McMullen's battalion, Major Fontaine's cavalry and the regulars under Major Wyllys should inform him that the engagement had opened on the south. The latter were waiting to cross the Maumee, en masse, and thus drive the surprised savages to the westward, where they would encounter Hall's battalion. This, it was reckoned, would give time for MeMullen and Fontaine to spread their troops along the east side of the Indian encampment and thus surround the savages, who would be mowed down by a crossfire from all sides.
The plan was splendid in theory, but the human element, which can never be weighed or measured, made of it a tragic failure.
Hall gained his ground unobserved. But one of his men disobeyed orders by firing upon a lone Indian before the commencement of the action. This gave the aroused savages in the village an oppor- tunity to scour the entire neighborhood before the troops under Wyllys, McMullen and Fontaine were prepared to advance. Little Turtle and his nimble-witted warriors gave little heed to Hall, but centered their attention upon their nearer foes. Small bands of savages were soon seen running to the northeastward (from the present Lakeside toward Forest Park) and the militia, under Mc- Mullen, and the cavalry, under Fontaine, pursued them in dis- obedience to orders.
This left Wyllys at the Maumee, unsupported. But the brave regulars, trained to face danger with the utmost courage, advanced boldly into the river and attempted to force their way up the Lake- side shore when a superior force of the Indians turned upon them
109
"HARMAR'S DEFEAT"
a deadly fire from the front. The brave Wyllys was one of the first to die. Few of the others escaped, and the writhing bodies of men and horses soon filled the river bed.
To the northward (near the present Tennessee avenue) Major Fontaine at the head of the mounted militia was engaged in a hot fight with a band of the savages. The leader fell with a mortal wound, and many of his men died there.12
In the meantime, Major Hall, who was about to cross from the west bank of the St. Joseph into the present Lakeside to support
N
NXE
S
E OF FRENCH
INDIANS
1.
FORT
FONTAINE
2
VERSIDE
AV.
MCMULLAN
1
HALL
TENNESSEE
HALL
1 PROSPECT AVE
SPY RUN
Pマ
KON
ST
(UNDER,LEGRIS)
ST. JOSEPH
. ST. JOE BLVD
TINDIANS
COMMANDED BY
LITTLE TURTLE).
STEMTARY
YS
WY
ST.
JAUMEE
RAISON
1
FONTAIN
(MILITIA)
HALL
(REGULARS)
(MILITIA)
(MILITIA)
THE BATTLE OF THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE, 1790.
The map, designed to show the movement of the troops of Harmar's de- tachment during the engagement with Little Turtle and the savages October 22, 1790, shows the present streets in dotted lines. 1-Location of the divisions of Majors Hall, Wyllys, McMullen and Fontaine before the attack. 2-Posi- tion of Hall's troops when the first shot was fired. 3-Harmar's Ford, where Major Wyllys and his men, deserted by the militia under McMullen and Font- aine, were shot down by the savages. 4-Location of the troops of MeMullan and Fontaine when they prevented a large body of Indians from escaping to the northward and drove them to a cross-fire position between Hall (5) and the combined troops of Fontaine and McMullen. The greatest number of fatalities occurred at the spots indicated by stars. General Harmar, in his official report makes special mention of the engagement near the French fort.
HARMAA ST
FONTAINE:
PERIOR
FRENCH - INDIAN VILLAGE.
FRENCH-
AINDIAN VILLAGE
GENERAL DIRECTION OF FLIGHT ..
(UNDER PECANNE) (INDIANS)
MC MULLA
HOGEWATER
WYLLYS
MCMULLAN
1790
110
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
Fontaine's and McMullen's troops, found the savages driven into the river and directly between the two portions of the army.13 That the fiercest fighting took place here is shown by the report of General Harmar, who states that "the action was fought near the old fort and up the St. Joseph river," referring to the French fort on the east bank of the St. Joseph at the junction of the present St. Joe boulevard and Delaware avenue.
Messengers from the scene of the battle hastened to General Harmar to advise him of the condition of affairs, and a battalion under Major Ray was ordered to the assistance of the retreating army. Major Ray met Hardin, who was hastening back to the camp of Harmar to urge him to send the entire army against the savages, but the commander, pointing out the poor condition of his troops, declined to grant the request.14
The dispirited troops, alarmed lest the savages attack them in their camp, took up their line of march to Cincinnati on the 23d of October and arrived there the 4th of November.15
The number of men lost in this campaign is given as 183 killed and 31 wounded, although it is very probable that some deserted and made their way back to Kentucky.16
During this period, Washington had been rusticating at his Mount Vernon home, in utter ignorance of the outcome of the Har- mar campaign. Washington Irving, describing the president's anxious state of mind at this time, says :
"Week after week elapsed without any tidings. * It was not until the last of November that he received a letter from Governor George Clinton, of New York, communicating particulars of the affair related to him by Brandt, the celebrated Indian chief. 'If the information of Captain Brandt be true,' wrote Washington, in reply, 'the issue of the expedition against the Indians will indeed prove unfortunate and disgraceful to the troops who suffered them- selves to be ambuscaded.' "17
The court of inquiry appointed to investigate the conduct of Harmar exonerated him and he was appointed adjutant-general of . the Pennsylvania troops, in which capacity he rendered good service in providing men for the succeeding campaigns of Generals St. Clair and Wayne.18
The outcome of the campaign, considered from the most favor- able angle, gave naught to the American government to increase its hopes of the pacification of the west. On the other hand, the savages, their spirit of revenge aroused to the white heat of the fiercest hatred, assembled at the site of their ruined villages and there, led to renewed defiance of the Americans through the fiery speech of Simon Girty, set about the work of preparation to meet the next American force which might be sent against them. In
111
"HARMAR'S DEFEAT"
1790
a body, these savages, led by Little Turtle, LeGris and Blue Jacket, proceeded to Detroit,19 where they "paraded the streets, uttering their demoniac scalp yelps while bearing long poles strung with the scalps of many American soldiers"20 slain at the battle of the site of Fort Wayne.
NOTES ON CHAPTER XI.
(1) Probably LeGris. It will be ob- served that Henry Hay, in his journal, gives precedence to the name of Le- Gris whenever that chief's name is mentioned in connection with Little Turtle.
(2) Antoine Gamelin's Journal, American State Papers, Indian Af- fairs, vol. i, page 93.
(3) Tales of cannibalism among the savages of the Maumee-Wabash val- leys are obtainable from various sources. E. F. Colerick, writing of early days in Fort Wayne, says: remember one Sabbath afternoon, in September, 1836, of taking a stroll with my aged friend, Jean Baptiste Bruno, an old Indian trader, who was then in his sixtieth year, hale and hearty. We had reached a beautiful spot-a small grove-when we were accosted by a shriveled old Indian woman, the only daughter of White Skin, the last head of the man-eating Indians. 'I knew her brother,' said Bruno, 'when I first came to this part of the country to trade with the In- dians. They were known as the man- eating family. They had no friends that I knew of, except Father Badin, a French missionary who frequently visited them and helped them when they were in want." John May, captured in 1790, was roasted alive and his flesh eaten.
During the course of his speech in Fort Wayne at the time of the open- ing of the Wabash and Erie canal in 1843, General Lewis Cass stated that the present Swinney park was the scene of cannibalistic feasts. Jesse L. Williams, in his "History of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne," points out as another scene of these dreadful ceremonies of the savages "the extreme point of land just below the mouth of the St. Joseph river [Lakeside]."
(4) The Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny (Fort Wayne Public Library) gives an intimate view of the expe- dition of Harmar from the "inside." Denny and Harmar were the warmest of friends, as is shown by a letter of Harmar to Thomas Mifflin, of Philadelphia, in 1789, in which the general said: "The bearer, Lieuten- ant Denny, is my adjutant; his long and faithful services claim my warm- est regard for him." Born in Car- lisle, Pennsylvania, in 1761, Denny be- came treasurer of Cumberland county, Carolina; entered the army; became an army contractor; was elected the first mayor of Pittsburgh; Interested him- self in banking enterprises, and was prominent in political affairs. He died at the age of sixty-one at Pittsburgh. (5) Major John Whistler, later to become a commandant of Fort Wayne and the builder of Fort Dear- born, served with Harmar and was
also with St. Clair in the succeeding campaign.
(6) In his official report, General Harmar described the villages at the head of the Maumee, as follows: "The savages and traders (who were, perhaps, the worst savages of the two) had evacuated their towns and burnt the principal village called the Omee [Miami] together with all the traders' houses. This village lay on a pleasant point [Lakeside] formed by the junction of the rivers Omee [Miami, or Maumee] and the St. Joseph. It was situate on the east bank of the latter, opposite the mouth of the St, Mary's, and had for a long time, been the rendezvous of a set of Indian desper- adoes who Infested the settlements and stained the Ohio and parts ad- jacent with the blood of defenseless inhabitants. * On Sunday, the 17th [of October, 1790,] we entered the ruins of the Omee [Miami] town, or French village, as part of it is called. Appearances confirmed the accounts I had received of the con- sternation into which the savages and their allies were thrown by the approach of the army. Many valu- ables of the traders were destroyed in the confusion, and vast quantities of corn and other grain and vege- tables were secreted in holes dug in the earth and other places. * *
* Besides the Omee village, there were several other villages situated on the banks of the three rivers. One of them, belonging to the Omee [Miami] Indians, called Kekaiogue, was
standing and contained thirty houses on the bank opposite the principal village [it stood in Spy Run]. Two others, consisting together of about forty-five houses, lay a few miles up the St. Mary's [near the old county infirmary opposite Foster Park] and were inhabited by Delawares. Thirty- six houses occupied by other savages of this tribe formed another but scattered town on the east bank of the St. Joseph two or three miles north of the French village. About the same distance down the Omee [Maumee] lay the Shawnee town of Chillicothe, consisting of fifty-eight houses, opposite which, on the other bank of the river, were sixteen more habitations belonging to the savages of the same nation. All these I or- dered burnt during my stay there, together with great quantities of corn and vegetables, hidden as at the principal village, in the earth and other places, by the savages who had abandoned them. It is computed that there were no less than 20,000 bushels of corn, in the ear, which the army either consumed or de- stroyed."
(7) John Kinzie, George Sharp and Antoine Lasselle were at the Miami
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
Town when Harmar's army ap-
proached. Following is an extract
from a letter written by George Sharp to Colonel Alexander McKee from Glaize (site of Defiance) October 17, 1790, before he knew the fate which had befallen Harmar's troops: "I left the Miamies the 15th. The people in general had then saved a considerable part of their property, but the village was burned to ashes by the Indians, lest it offer shelter to their enemies. * * * Messrs. Kinzie and Lacelle were to remain in the environs of the Miamis four days at least after my departure, and promised to send me every intelli- gence of consequence to this place." Major John Smith, adding to the re- port, says in a letter to Captain Le- Mastre: "The traders have saved most of their movable goods; their corn has, for the most part, suffered in the fire."
(8) "When We arrived, found what the prisoner Stated was True. 2 In- dians happened to Be under the Bank of the river when the army came up. they tried to Escape. the troops Discovered them and about 100 guns were Discharged at them. One was found Dead the next Day in the Brush."-Thomas Irwin Notes, "His- toric Highways of America," vol. viii.
(9) "Colonel John Hardin was senior commander, but Colonel Trot- ter was a personal favorite of the men." (Logan Esarey, History of In- diana. )
(10) The scene of this unfortunate encounter was near the point in Allen county called Heller's Corners, in Eel River township, about eleven miles north of Fort Wayne. The present Goshen road passes the place.
(11) "From Judge Coleman, who settled on the farm now owned by Mrs. Phillips, in 1827, we learn that every evidence of former cultivation of the ground there [site of Chilli- cothe] was seen; there being no tim- ber growing, evidences of ancient building, of gardening, such as aspar- agus, etc., and also there were found many old bayonets, gun barrels, knives, pack saddle frames, etc."- Fort Wayne Times, September 25, 1858.
(12) "He [Major Fontaine] Charged right in among the Enemy, fired off his pistols and Drew his Sword Be- fore they Could recover the Shock. George Adams
* * * was near the Major at that time, that it hap- pened. When the Enemy got over their surprise, ten or twelve Indians Dis- charged their guns at him. The Ma- jor kind of fell or hung on his horse. They then Discharged Several Guns at said Adams. He received Several Flesh wounds But recovered. By this time, the Militia with the regu- lars came up. The Indians fought with Desperation. Was Drove from their Encampment by the Militia and regulars Down the Bank into the river [St. Joseph]. Colonel Hardin's men on the opposite Side which placed them Between two fires. The In- dians charged on Hardin's troops having no Chance to Escape. Har- din's troops gave way and retreated the same way they went out and was not in that Battle any more. Some of the troops informed me that
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