Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 65

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1654

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His career as a legislator, was scarcely less brilliant and useful, than that in which he distinguished himself as a warrior. His speeches and reports, are mon- uments of his wisdom and liberality as a statesman. The whole nation will bear evidence to his zeal and industry in support of all measures calculated to promote the end of free government-the happiness of the people. No man labored more indefatigably, in behalf of private claimants, than did Colonel Johnson; and so scrupulously faithful was he in the discharge of his duty towards all who applied for his services, that he never failed while in congress to attend to a single appli- cation that was made to him. The old soldiers of the revolution, the invalids of the last war, and thousands of other persons, all over the Union, who had claims to urge upon the government, had no truer or surer friend in Congress than Col. Johnson, as many of them now enjoying the bounty of the government through his instrumentality, can bear most grateful testimony.

In 1836 he was made Vice President of the United States, and presided over the senate with great dignity for the term of four years, at the expiration of which, he retired to his farm, in Scott county, Kentucky. The remainder of his life, with the exception of two terms in the State Legislature, was assiduously de- voted to improving his private fortunes, somewhat impaired by a too liberal hospitality and constant attention to public affairs. He was a member of the Legislature at the time of his death, which occurred in Frankfort, in 1850.

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JOHNSON COUNTY.

Who Killed Tecumseh ?- The most interesting feature of the battle of the river Thames, and the one of greatest moment to the people of the frontiers- because of the death of the great Tecumseh, or Tecumthe, the only chief who could always rouse and concentrate against the whites the deadliest hate and revenge of the red men-was the fight in the Indian quarter. The scene of the battle was a beech forest, over two miles long, without any clearing, and near to the bank of the river. At from 200 to 300 yards from the river, and par- allel to it, a swamp extends throughout the whole distance. The ground between the river and the swamp was dry, and in many places clear of under- brush, although the trees were tolerably thick. The British troops, over 840 strong, were drawn up across this strip, their left resting on the river and supported by artillery in the wagon road, their right in the swamp, covered by the whole force of over 1,500 Indians. A small swamp, and back of it a narrow piece of dry land, extended in front of the Indians, and at right angles to the main strip of land above. Gen. Harrison, after learning from Col. Richard M. Johnson and his brother and lieutenant colonel James Johnson, that in drilling their corps of Kentuckians they had occasionally on their march practiced charging on horseback, determined to take advantage of a singular position of the British Gen. Proctor, and thus attack him. The first battalion, under Lieut. Col. James Johnson, was placed in front of the British lines ; and when the order was given, moved steadily forward, supported by several brigades of infantry. They had gone but a short distance, when the British opened fire along their whole line, followed quickly by another fire. The horses recoiled at first, but under the order to charge, the column soon got in motion, and went dashing forward with irresistible force upon an as- tounded and bewildered enemy, broke through their ranks, and wheeled and poured in upon it a destructive fire. The British officers saw no hope for their disordered ranks, and immediately surrendered over 600 troops; their com- mander, Gen. Proctor-who feared to trust himself in the hands of soldiers against whose people he had incited the refined cruelties of Indian warfare- with 204 of his troops, effected his escape. Thus, in this quarter the victory was complete-won, in a few minutes, by, to them, a new kind of battle tac- tics, a charge of mounted infantry, who reserved their fire for the moment of closest contact as they returned through the broken ranks.

On the left, the scene was different. Col. R. M. Johnson, after reconnoi- tering, was determined upon a prompt hand-to-hand fight with the Indians, and marched his second battalion through the first or small swamp, right in their face-forming in two columns on horseback, with a company on foot in front, himself leading the right column, and Maj. Thompson the left. Here is his own account of this part of the battle, and of the death of the chief he afterwards supposed to be Tecumseh-given in a speech in Indiana :

" Col. Johnson said that at his age it was wrong to put on any false modesty ; and as he had been called upon to relate that portion of the fight which took place with the Indians, he would endeavor to do so. The Indians were 1,400 strong, commanded by Tecumseh, one of the bravest warriors that ever drew breath. He was a sort of Washington among the Indians-that is, they looked upon him as we look upon Washington. The Indians were in ambush, on the other side of what we were informed was an impassable swamp; but just before the battle came on, a narrow passage across the swamp was discovered.

" Knowing well the Indian character, I determined to push forward with about twenty men, in order to draw forth the Indian fire, so that the remain- der of the regiment might rush upon them, while their rifles were empty. Having promised the wives, mothers, and sisters of my men, before 1.left Kentucky, that I would place their husbands, sons, and brothers in no hazard which I was unwilling to share myself, I put myself at the head of these twenty men, and we advanced upon the covert in which I knew the Indians were concealed. The moment we came in view. we received the whole Indian fire. Nineteen of my twenty men dropped in the field. I felt that I was my- self severely wounded. The mare I rode staggered and fell to her knees; she had fifteen balls in her, as was afterwards ascertained; but the noble animal recovered her feet by a touch of the rein.

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" I waited but a few moments, when the remainder of the troops came up, and we pushed forward on the Indians, who instantly retreated. I noticed an Indian chief among them who succeeded in rallying them three different times. This I thought I would endeavor to prevent; because it was at this time known to the Indians that their allies, the British, had surrendered. I advanced singly upon him, keeping my right arm close by my side, and cov- ered by the swamp; he took a tree and from thence deliberately fired upon me. Although I previously had four balls in me, this last wound was more acutely painful than all of them. His ball struck me on the knuckle of the left hand, passed through my hand, and came out just above the wrist. I ran my left hand through my bridle rein, for my hand instantly swelled and be- came useless. The Indian supposed he had mortally wounded me; he came out from behind the tree and advanced upon me with uplifted tomahawk. When he had come within my mare's length of me, I drew my pistol and instantly fired, having a dead aim upon him. He fell, and the Indians shortly after either surrendered or fled. My pistol had one ball and three buck-shot in it; and the body of the Indian was found to have a ball through his body, and three buck-shot in different parts of his breast and head. [" Thus Te- cumseh fell," cried out some one of the audience.] Col. Johnson said he did not know that it was Tecumseh at the time."

Of the forlorn hope, after a few minutes, the only one left on horseback besides Col. Johnson was Dr. Samuel Theobald, of Lexington, Ky .; the others were either killed, wounded, or had their horses shot under them. The whole battalion, by order of the colonel, now dismounted, and fought on foot for nearly half an hour, until the Indians lost their leader, the great Tecumseh- whose voice was silent in death, and no longer urged them to the fight. Until then the contest was terrible. Of the small number concentrated upon a few square rods of ground, 7 mounted men were killed and 19 wounded, of whom 5 died. The Indians left 33 dead upon the battle-ground, removed several of their dead, and several were killed in the retreat. Much the largest part of the Indian force was not engaged. They extended for half a mile into the swamp, and there waited for the Americans, and wondered-so they after- wards said-why they did not come to fight them .*

But Col. Johnson was not alone in the belief that he had broken the Indian power by personally killing Tecumseh. Indeed, of all who confidently claimed for him the credit of it, he seemed among the least confident. For political purposes, in after years, a strong showing was made of his part in the matter -- the only thing incontestibly proved being that Col. Johnson killed an Indian chief, one of three who fell, and each conspicuous for his bravery. Mr. But- ler, one of the most patient and careful of historians, compiles the proof (pages 440-1)-that an Indian chief was killed; that an examination of his body showed that he was killed with a ball and three buck-shot; that Col. Johnson's remaining horse-pistol was, and the discharged pistol had been, thus loaded; that the shot ranged downward, and was evidently by one on horseback; that Anthony Shane, a half-breed Shawnee and interpreter, who said he had known Tecumseh from boyhood, recognized his body as the one pierced with the ball and buck-shot, and proved his identity by describing a scar upon his thigh from a fall in childhood, which scar was found upon the dead chief; that this Indian chief was found upon or near the spot where Col. Johnson had shot an Indian commander ; that Shane further said, that "the Indians who saw Tecumseh very soon after he was killed, described Col. Johnson as the man who killed him, and the horse on which he rode as white." Shane was said to be reliable and trusty.

Mr. Butler evidently was convinced that Col. Johnson killed Tecumseh, and so published in the first edition of his Ilistory of Kentucky, in 1834. But the doubts expressed and claims advanced by others induced him to correspond with the very persons from whom the above proof had emanated- with Richard W. Cummins, U. S. Indian agent at the Northern agency of the Western Territory, with Col. Garret Wall who was himself a soldier fight-

* Letter of Gen. Wmn. H. Harrison to Mann Butler, Butler's Ky., p. 437.

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ing bravely a few yards distant, and with Rev. O. B. Brown, of Washington city, a hearsay witness. Their letters in full occupy nearly four pages of the appendix to Mr. Butler's History, 2d edition, 1836; they, with other proof, stagger his former faith, and he "leaves the reader to draw his own conclu sion from the same materials with himself."

In the summer of 1859, died near Bloomfield, Indiana, Isaac Hamblin. sen., aged 86 years, a soldier of the battle of the Thames. His account of the closing scene at that battle differs very seriously from other accounts : "He says he was standing but a few feet from Col. Johnson when he fell, and in full view, and saw the whole of that part of the battle. He was well acquainted with Tecumseh, having seen him before the war, and having been a prisoner for 17 days and received many a cursing from him. He thinks that Tecumseh thought Col. Johnson was Gen. Harrison-as he often heard the chief swear that he would have Harrison's scalp, and seemed to liave a special hatred of him. Johnson's horse fell under him, he himself being also deeply wounded. In the fall, he lost his sword, his large pistols were empty, and he was entangled with his horse on the ground. Tecumseh had fired his rifle at him ; and when he saw him fall, he threw down his gun, and bounded forward like a tiger sure of his prey. Johnson had only a side pistol ready for use. He aimed at the chief over the head of his horse, and shot near the center of his forehead. When the ball struck, it seemed to him that the In- dian jumped-with his head full fifteen feet into air ; as soon as he struck the ground, a little Frenchman ran his bayonet into him, and pinned him fast to the ground."

In addition to this, is the testimony of Shabona (or Shawbeneh), a Potta- watomie chief, who was in the battle and near Tecumseh at the time. Sha- bona ; says he saw Tecumseh, and saw him fall; that he was shot by a man on a white horse, who carried a "short gun " (probably a pistol) ; and that simultaneously with the fall of Tecumseh, the man and the horse came down to the ground, and he thinks were killed. The moment it was discovered that Tecumseh was killed, he heard a man say to him " Puccaohee Shabona," and he ran. Shabona afterwards saw Col. R. M. Johnson in Congress, at Wash- ington city-who was pointed out as the man who killed Tecumseh; but Shabona says he was not the man who fired the " short gun"-from the dis- charge of which Tecumseh lost his life. He further states that Tecumseh's body was not mutilated by the American troops. Shabona was vouched for as a man of unquestionable veracity, by those who had known him long and well.

The testimony of another Pottawatomie chief, Chamblee, as furnished by the late Gen. Robert Anderson, of the U. S. army, is to this effect : " He saw Te- cumseh engaged in a personal rencounter with a soldier armed with a musket; that the latter made a thrust at the chief, who caught the bayonet under his arm-where he held it, and was in the act of striking his opponent with his tomahawk, when a horseman rode up and shot Tecumseh dead with a pistol. The horseman had a red feather (plume) in his hat, and was mounted on a spotted or red-roan horse. He further says that he saw the body of Tecum- seh a day or two after the battle, and that it was not mutilated. #

In a work entitled " History of the Indian Tribes of North America," there is the following note:

" A Pottawatomie chief was thus questioned : Were you at the battle of the Thames ? Yes. Did you know Tecumseh ? Yes. Were you near him in the fight ? Yes. Did you see him fall? Yes. Who shot him ? Don't know. Did you see the man that shot him ? Yes. What sort of looking inan was he ? Short, thick man. What color was the horse he rode ? Most white. How do you know this man shot Tecumseh ? I saw the man ride up-saw his horse get tangled in some bushes-when the horse was most still, I saw Tecumseh level his rifle at the man and shoot-the man shook on his horse- soon the horse got out of the bushes, and the man spurred him up-horse came slow-Tecumseh right before him-man's left hand hung down-just

* Obituary in Western Christian Advocate, Sept., 1869.

t Mendota ( Minnesota) Press, Dec., 1857. * Drake's Life of Tecumseh, p. 200

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as he got near, Tecumseh lifted his tomahawk and was going to throw it, when the man shot him with a short gun (pistol)-Tecumseh fell dead and we all ran."

Atwater, in his History of Ohio, remarks, that two Winnebago chiefs, Four-Legs and Carvmaunee, told him that Tecumseh, at the commencement of the battle of the Thames, lay with his warriors in a thicket of underbrush on the left of the American army, and that they were, at no period of the battle, out of their covert-that no officer was seen between them and the American troops-that Tecumseh fell the very first fire of the Kentucky dra- goons, pierced by thirty bullets, and was carried four or five miles into the thick woods and there buried by the warriors, who told the story of his fate.

In 1838, a writer in the Baltimore American published Black Hawk's ac- count of the fall of Tecumseh, as follows : * * * "Shortly after this, the Indian spies came in and gave word of the near approach of the Americans. Tecumseh immediately posted his men in the edge of a swamp, which flanked the British line, placing himself at their head. I was a little to his right with a small party of Sauks. It was not long before the Americans made their appearance ; they did not perceive us at first, hid as we were by the undergrowth, but we soon let them know where we were, by pouring in one or two vollies as they were forming into line to oppose the British. They faltered a little; but very soon we perceived a large body of horse (Col. Johnson's regiment of mounted Kentuckians) preparing to charge upon us in the swamp. They came bravely on; yet we never stirred until they were so close that we could see the flints in their guns, when Tecumseh, springing to his feet, gave the Shawanoe war-cry, and discharged his rifle. This was the signal for us to commence the battle, but it did not last long; the Americans answered the shout, returning our fire, and at the first discharge of their guns, I saw Tecumseh stagger forwards over a fallen tree near which he was standing, letting his rifle drop at his feet. As soon as the Indians discovered that he was killed, a sudden fear came over them, and thinking the Great Spirit was angry, they fought no longer, and were quickly put to flight. That night we returned to bury our dead; and search for the body of Tecumseh. He was found lying where he had first fallen ; a bullet had struck him above the hip, and his skull had been broken by the butt-end of the gun of some soldier, who had found him, perhaps, when life was not yet quite gone. With the exception of these wounds, his body was un- touched; lying near him was a large fine-looking Pottawatomie, who had been killed, decked off in his plumes and war-paint, whom the Americans no doubt had taken for Tecumseh, for he was scalped and every particle of skin flayed from his body. Tecumseh himself had no ornaments about his person, save a British medal. During the night, we buried our dead, and brought off the body of Tecumseh, although we were in sight of the fires of the American camp."

James, a British historian,* after describing the battle of the Thames, re- marks :

" It seems extraordinary that Gen. Harrison should have omitted to men- tion in his letter, the death of a chief, whose fall contributed so largely to break down the Indian spirit, and to give peace and security to the whole north-western frontier of the United States. Tecumseh, although he had re- ceived a musket-ball in the left arm, was still seeking the hottest of the fire, when he encountered Col. Richard M. Johnson, member of congress from Kentucky. Just as the chief, having discharged his rifle, was rushing for- ward with his tomahawk, he received a ball in the head from the colonel's pistol. Thus fell the Indian warrior, Tecumseh, in the forty-fourth year of his age. * *

* The body of Tecumseh was recognized, not only by the British officers, who were prisoners, but by Commodore Perry, and several American officers." This writer adds, that Tecumseh was scalped and his body flayed by the Kentuckians.

Mr. Butler + publishes the statement (from a letter written at his request)

* " Military Occurrences of the Late War between Great Britain and the United States, by Wm. James, 2 vols. London, 1818."

t History of Ky., 2d ed., p. 546.

---

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of a wounded officer of the battle, claiming that David King, a soldier of Capt. James Davidson's (afterwards Treasurer of Kentucky ) company, killed Tecumseh. "Wounded as I was, at David King's request, I accompanied him to a place where there lay an Indian chief. afterwards ascertained to be Te- cumseh, whom King said he had killed. Before we came as near as 70 or 80 yards of the place where Tecumseh lay, King pointed out the tree particu- larly, and the manner in which the savage had been shot. When we ar- rived at the tree, we found every thing precisely as King had represented ; and then and there the tomahawk was taken by King."

Col. Daniel Garrard,* late of Clay county, Ky. (son of Gov. James Gar- rard), and who was in the battle, said that David King claimed to have killed a chief whom he supposed to be Tecumseh ; that he had loaded his gun with two balls, and aimed at a certain portion of the chief's body ; an examination was instituted, the death-wounds were found to be as indicated, and all present at the time were convinced that the double shot had done the work.

Capt. Wm. Robinson, f who was on the spot, says that the veteran Col. Wm. Whitley, then 66 years old, of Lincoln co., Ky., was shot by an In- dian chief; who, in turn, was immediately shot down by Col. Whitley's friend and neighbor, David King, a private soldier in Capt. Davidson's company. It was not known until afterwards that the chief was Tecumseh.

Many soldiers of the 2d Ky. regiment (Col. Danaldson's) claimed in 1852 that David Gooding, a private soldier of Capt. Botts' company, of Fleming co., Ky., was the person who killed Tecumseh. Beyond a doubt, Gooding killed a chief, in that part of the fight where Tecumseh commanded in person ; and the regiment generally believed that chief was Tecumseh himself. ±

Gen. George Sanderson, of Lancaster, Ohio, who commanded a company in Col. Paul's regiment of regulars, 27th U. S. infantry, says : | " I remember Tecumseh. I saw him a number of times before the war. He was a man of huge frame, powerfully built, about 6 feet 2 inches in height. I saw his body before it was cold, on the Thames battle-field. Whether Col. Johnson killed him or not, I can not say. I never heard any one speak of Col. John- son's having killed him until years afterward. Johnson was a brave man, and was badly wounded in a very painful part of his knuckles, and also, I think, in the body ; he was carried past me on a litter. In the evening of the day of the battle, I was appointed by Gen. Harrison to guard the Indian pris- oners with my company. The location was near a swamp. As to the report of Kentuckians having skinned Tecumseh's body, I am personally cognizant that such was the fact. I saw Kentucky troops in the very act of cutting the skin from the body of the chief. They cut strips about half a foot in length. That it was Tecumseh's body that was skinned, I have no doubt. I knew him. Besides, the Indian prisoners under my charge continually pointed to his body, which lay close by, and uttered the most bewailing cries at his loss. By noon the day after the battle, the body could scarcely be recognized-so thoroughly had it been skinned. My men covered it with brush and logs, and it was probably eaten by wolves. Although many officers did not like this conduct of the Kentuckians, they dare not interfere. The troops from that state were infuriated at the massacre at the river Raisin, and their battle cry was-" Remember the River Raisin!" It was only with difficulty that the Indian prisoners could be guarded-so general was the disposition of the Kentuckians to massacre them. I remained in service until the summer of 1815, when the 27th regiment was disbanded."

But contradicting the story that Tecumseh's body was desecrated by skinning strips from it. is the statement of old Peter Nayarre or Navarre, 2 the French trader and interpreter, still living at Toledo, Ohio. He said " Tecumseh was stand- ing behind a large tree that had been blown down, encouraging his warriors, and was killed by a ball that passed diagonally through his chest. After death,

# Paris True Kentuckion, Aug. 25, 1869.

t The Pioneer, by John McGill, 50 years a resident of Ky., 1832, p. 68.

İ Letter in the Maysville Eagle, June 10, 1852.

| Taken down April 16, 1870, by A. J. Godman, of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

2 Toledo Blade, June 13, 1872.

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he was shot several times ; but otherwise his body was not mutilated in the least, being buried in his regimentals (as the chief desired) by myself and a companion, at the command of Gen. Harrison. All statements that he was scalped or skinned are absolutely false."

Dr. Samuel Theobald, of Ky., * who will be remembered (see ante, page 404) as the only one of the " forlorn hope" who was not unhorsed or wounded by the first concentrated fire of the Indians, says that on the "next morning, he took a half-brced Shawnee, named Anthony Shane, to see the body reputed to be that of Tecumseh. Strips of skin had been cut from the thighs; but Shane said it was not the body of Tecumseh."

Capt. Ben. Warfield, * who commanded a company in the battle, says he was searching the field, the next morning, and found a wounded British soldier named Clark, who lay near where Tecumseh was reported to have been killed. Clark said that Tecumseh's body was carried away by Indians.

The biography of Col. Richard M. Johnson, published in 1834, by Wm. Emmons, and without an author's name, but claiming to be "authentic," says, page 34, that the Indian chief whom Col. Johnson killed "was arrayed - in the habiliments of war, clad in the richest savage attire, and his face painted with alternate circular lines of black and red from the eve down- ward-which increased the natural ferocity of his savage countenance." When Col. Johnson "discharged the contents of his pistol into his breast and laid him dead upon the spot, the Indians near him, filled with consternation on seeing their commander fall, raised a horrid yell and instantly fled." This biographer says that Anthony Shane told him that this fallen chief was Tecumseh.

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 65

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn Publication date: 1874 Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co. Number of Pages: 1654

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1654