USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 6
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But new provocations occurred. England was the leading of the allied powers of Europe, in the convulsive wars of France, during the period of her revolution. Such had been our rapid progress in wealth and population,
465
DECLARATION OF WAR WITH ENGLAND.
that the United States was now second only to England of all the maritime powers of the world. Many English seamen sought service in American ships, mainly on account of higher wages. The contest upon the seas be- tween England and France was very bitter, and the former had continued need to recruit her navy. Under color of seizing her own citizens, she enforced the claim to stop and search American ships upon the high seas. Going even farther than this, she repeatedly seized American citizens, on the plea that they were English, Scotch, or Irish. These outrages were the frequent occasions of complaint on the part of our Government, and of negotiations for redress, often unavailing or of long and tedious delay. Against remonstrance, protracted and bitter, the British Government re- fused to abandon the practice.
By orders in council and decrees on the part of Great Britain and France, respectively, the ports of both these kingdoms and all their dependencies were declared in a state of blockade. Any vessel bound to or sailing from a French port, therefore, without first visiting an English port and obtaining a license for the voyage, was made a lawful prize and subject to seizure and confiscation. The same was true of any vessel sailing to or from any Eng- lish port under the French decree; but this did not so practically affect American rights, as France was not so great a rival on the seas, and from the friendly spirit of her people.
Both were mere paper blockades, as neither power could enforce them. and hence, contrary to the law of nations. Under her high-handed and haughty orders, one thousand American vessels and their cargoes were seized and confiscated. The irritations became intolerable, while the losses to Americans were almost equaling the cost of war. The result was a declara- tion of war against England in June, 1812, by the United States Govern- ment.
At last, circumstances forced a compliance on the part of our Government, with the stipulation of the former treaty, that it should go to war with Eng- land again whenever France did. America was now indirectly the ally of Napoleon, whose iron rule and desolating wars were the scourge of Europe. The French revolution. with all its excesses and atrocities, was held in aversion by the Federal party, the main strength and numbers of which were in the New England States. Here the religious spirit of the old Puri- tan element was yet conservative, and they regarded, with plausibility, the Jacobinism of France as opposed to religion, civil order, and morality. Thus the intelligence and wealth of a large portion of our own countrymen, as a choice of evils, were willing to further endure the insults and spolia- tions of the British, rather than acquiesce in a war that forced them to appear as the associates and allies of the monster, Napoleon. Against this formi- dable resistance at home, the second war with England was undertaken. The Democratic party, remembering only the friendly aid of France in the war of independence, with ardent gratitude and affection, and incredulous
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466
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
of the reports of misdeeds and misrule with which all Europe rang, urged upon the Government the necessity of a declaration of war, and, when it was proclaimed, hailed it with an ecstacy of joy which thrilled the country from the Hudson river to the Ocmulgee, and westward to the Mississippi. James Madison was President of the United States, and James Monroe, sec- retary of state.
Especially in Kentucky was the war sentiment strong. The Western people, with plausible justification, looked upon the continued hostilities of the savages, which had so harassed them for years, as but a treacherous and clandestine method of warring upon us by England, while she feigned peace under the treaty of 1783.
Congress had authorized the president to call out one hundred thousand of the militia, besides taking steps to increase the forces of the regular army. The portion required of Kentucky was fifty-five hundred men. The call was promptly and more than met. Seven thousand volunteers offered their ser- vices, and the Kentucky troops were organized into ten regiments. Those raised on the north side of the river, including the company of Captain William Kerley from the south side, four regiments under the command of Colonels Scott, Lewis, Allen, and Wells, were ordered to rendezvous at Georgetown, with General John Payne in chief command, which they did, two thousand in number.
On the 19th of August, they marched for Cincinnati, on their way to join the army of General Hull, who, from his base at Detroit, had recently in- vaded Canada, and was expected soon to be in possession of Malden. On crossing the Ohio river. the first advices reached the army there of the hu- miliating and disgraceful surrender of General Hull and the United States army under his command, with the fort at Detroit and all the munitions of war which were in that portion of the North-west, to General Brock, with a force of British, Canadians, and Indians not much more than one-half his own. News of this event struck the country with the force of a thunderbolt from an unclouded sky. After a campaign of some months, and a demon- stration on Fort Malden, which lay almost at his mercy. General Hull ex- hibited such a succession of blunderings and such incompetency as to forfeit the confidence of his officers and soldiers, and to lead them even to suspect treachery against the Government on his part. In the face of an inferior foe. he retreated to his base at Detroit, and on the British general, who seemed now to hold him in contempt, pursuing and assaulting him in his intrench- ments, against the counsels of his subordinates, and without an organized defense, he basely surrendered all within his command, on the summons of General Brock, to the British authority. Colonels McArthur and Cass, Major Jessup, and General James Taylor, of Kentucky, indignantly refused to assist in drawing up the stipulations, or in arranging the terms of surren- der. Officers and soldiers execrated the author of this humiliation upon them and their countrymen.
467
GENERAL TAYLOR'S PARENTS.
1 General James Taylor, the most prominent Kentuckian in this disas- trous affair, was born April 19. 1769, at Midway, Caroline county. Vir- ginia, the fifth of ten children. His father was Colonel James Taylor, an officer of the army of the Revolution, and his mother, Ann Hubbard. He visited Kentucky in 1793, and, pleased with the country and pioneer life, he settled at the village of Newport, where he at once engaged in laying out the town which his brother, Captain Hubbard Taylor, had before located. In 1795, he was married to the widow of Major David Leitch, at Lexington. Colonel Tay- lor was the first clerk of the Campbell county courts. He had a fondness for military life, and was commissioned a brigadier-general of the State militia by Governor Scott, in 1812. During the war just begun, he was made quartermaster and GENERAL JAMES TAYLOR. paymaster-general in the regular service, and served through the campaign with distinction. He was a man of marked energy and activity, and in politics an ardent Whig, and a warm personal and political friend of Henry Clay. He died at the age of seventy-nine years, in 1848, loved and hon- ored. Four children survived him-Colonel James Taylor, Mrs. Horatio T. Harris, and Mrs. John W. Tibbatts, of Newport, and Mrs. George T. Williamson, of Cincinnati.
Mrs. Keturah Leitch Taylor, the wife of General Taylor, was a typical pioneer woman. Her maiden name was Moss. The sisters, Keturah, Sally, and Ann, aged respectively eleven. fourteen, and ten years, bade farewell to family and home in Virginia and, under the escort of their uncle, Rev. Augustus Eastin, and party, made the long and perilous journey through the wilderness to Kentucky, in 1784. We have before mentioned the massacre of another party of immigrants within a short distance of their camp, to many of the horrors of which the girls were eyewitnesses. They saw the slain and mangled bodies, and the scalps dangling on the bushes, after the savages were driven off. These im- pressions Mrs. Taylor very vividly re- membered through life, and especially a MPS KETURAN LEITCH TAYLOR scalp of beautiful golden ringlets of some
1 McAfee, pp. 82-93.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
maiden murdered. She passed the intervening years at Bryan's station and Leitch's station, in Campbell county, through every experience of pio- neer life, until her marriage with General Taylor, in 1795. She had at times to find refuge from Indian barbarities in Fort Washington, on the site of Cincinnati, and under command of General Wilkinson. These early trials and hardships developed in Mrs. Taylor a character of energy, resolution, and strength which distinguished her life. In 1866, at the advanced age of ninety-three years, she died, in the midst of and lamented by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
The effects of the ill-omened disaster were directly to be felt by Ken- tucky and the North-west. The fall of Detroit broke down the main bar- riers between the Indian tribes of the Wabash, the Miamis, and the lake shore, and the aggressive British land and naval forces.
General Hull returned, under parole, to his old residence in Massachu- setts, and requested an investigation, before a court-martial, of the charges of treason and of cowardice. . The verdict was that the charge of treason was not proven, but that the court found him guilty of cowardice, and sen- tenced him to be shot to death, but recommended him to the mercy of the president. The following order was then issued, "The rolls of the army are to be no longer disgraced by having upon them the name of General William Hull."
The war spirit blazed with even greater intensity in Kentucky, on this unfortunate opening of the first campaign of the war. They well knew that this success of the British would array the wily and treacherous Indians in allied hostility to the Americans, and greatly magnify the work of resist- ance. Little Turtle, the old friend of the whites, had but recently died, and the sway of Tecumseh was almost unbroken, and he was pronounced for war.
For nearly thirty years the nation had been at peace with the outer world, and the uninterrupted growth of the country had made its people essentially pacific, commercial and agricultural. The sudden precipitancy of a state of war produced much of confusion, and of aimless effort and activity in many directions. Two thousand Kentucky volunteers assembled at Louis- ville, half provisioned and equipped, were marshaled under the command of General Hopkins against the Indian towns of Northern Illinois. His command fell into disorder, and returned home without accomplishing any- thing.
The residue of the State forces, excepting the command of General Rus sell, were placed under the orders of General Harrison, who had been for some time governor of Indiana Territory, and who had acquired distinction in the management of Indian affairs, and especially by the victory of Tippe- canoe. All the troops operating in Ohio and Indiana from other States were placed under his command, and large powers of military discretion given him. In the latter part of August he arrived in Cincinnati, and took charge
469
HARRISON HELD IN HIGH ESTEEM.
of the troops assembled there, issued orders for their practice in evolutions and drill, and got all in readiness for the northward march.
At Piqua, eighty miles north of Cincinnati, he learned of the investment of Fort Wayne by the Indians, and at once determined on the relief of the garrison. He sent forward as a spy a Shawanee half-blood, named Logan, who had been captured when a boy by General Logan, and reared to man- hood in his family. He was quite prominent in his tribe, a warrior of note, and a warm friend of the whites. He performed his work faithfully and successfully, and returned with valuable information. He met in the Indian camp some red spies, who had been sent to watch and report on the condi- tion of General Harrison's army, and who brought news that "Kentuc was coming as numerous as the trees."
The army was now pushed forward to the besieged fort, marching in order of battle, but only to find an empty camp. The enemy had disap- peared to safe retreats. to the infinite joy of the beleagured within. A vil- lage near the fort they had burned, as well as destroyed the crops in the fields adjacent. The fort was well prepared to resist a siege by Indians, as it had plenty of provisions and water, and about seventy men, with four small pieces of artillery, but would easily have surrendered to a re-enforce- ment of British with heavier ordnance, as was feared. The site was on the Maumee, just below the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's rivers.
One division of the army, under General Payne, was now sent to destroy the towns and crops of the Miamis upon the Wabash; and another, under Colonel Wells, to destroy those of the Potawatamies, on the Elkhart river, a branch of St. Joseph's. Both were successful, and without loss, for the Indians fled before them in every direction.
General Winchester, an officer of the Revolution, and advanced in years, now arrived to supersede General Harrison in chief command, much to the prejudice of the American cause. and much to the chagrin of the troops, whose partiality for Harrison was founded on his admirable merits. This was soon partially remedied, for on information of all the facts at the War Department, General Harrison was restored to the chief command, with discretionary powers.
Fort Harrison was in charge of Captain Zachary Taylor. In September, a body of neighboring Indians, men, women, and children, asked for ad- mission into the fort to hold a council, and for food. Food was sent to them, but entrance was refused, as Captain Taylor suspected treachery. They loitered near for some days, and finally set fire to one of the block- houses at night. At the same time, a large body of warriors who had been lying in ambush fired into the fort over the ruins. The garrison repulsed them, with severe losses. while Captain Taylor, with great presence of mind, pulled down a cabin, and, with the materials, barricaded the opening. The Indians returned to the assault, and endeavored to fire the fort at other
1 McAfec, p. 121.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
points, but were defeated with loss, until driven off. Captain Taylor was complimented for his gallantry, and soon after breveted major. He had but fifty men against several hundred Indians.
Exasperated with the failure and chastisement at Fort Harrison, a party of these Indians made an irruption into the settlements on the Roost Fork of White river, and cruelly massacred over twenty of the settlers, a number of them women and children. They dashed out the brains of infant children against the trees, and the body of one delicately-conditioned woman, yet alive, was cut open, and her unborn infant thus brained. .
In December, a body of six hundred dragoons, under Colonel Campbell, was sent by General Harrison against the Indians on the south of Lake Michigan, who were threatening to intercept and destroy supplies going by way of Fort Wayne, for the left wing of the army under General Winches- ter, and now at Maumee Rapids. At Mississiniway, they were attacked before day by a large force of Indians, and a severe battle of over an hour was fought. The Indians were defeated and dispersed with heavy loss, while the loss of the whites was fifty-six killed and wounded.
With the exception of these incidents, and of occasional skirmishing, de- ploying, and counter-marching, the campaign was carried on for months, almost barren of visible results. It had opened in the autumn, just preced- ing the almost invariable season of rainfall of November and December. Northern Ohio and Indiana were an unbroken succession of flat forest and plain, converted into swamps and mire in seasons, and made worse during winter by the alternate freezing and thawing. The levies from Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky had sent forward to Harrison's command ten thousand men, not more than six thousand of whom, how- ever, could be found in actual service at any time. The left wing of fifteen hundred troops was encamped at the Maumee Rapids, under General Win- chester, and the main body of twenty-five hundred was held by General Harrison at Upper Sandusky. The remainder were distributed widely at various points where most needed.
It was the intention of General Harrison to concentrate the various de- tachments, and, by a coup de main, to capture Malden, the base of operations of the British and their savage allies. But so impassable was the entire country to transportation of artillery, of food. and other indispensable sup- plies, that this aim of the campaign, with other important features, was broken up. 1
At this termination of original plans, the general addressed a letter to the secretary of war, showing that the construction of a naval armament on Lake Erie sufficient to cope with, and perhaps overcome, the English forces by land and water, would probably be a less expensive and more certain method of retrieving the losses of Hull than to attempt the same altogether by land.
1 Mc Afee, p. 183.
471
BATTLE OF FRENCHTOWN.
In January, 1813, intelligence was brought to General Winchester, at the Rapids, that a force of several hundred British and Indians were depredat- ing upon and threatening to destroy the settlements of Frenchtown and vicinity, on the Raisin, some forty miles from the Rapids, and eighteen from Malden. He detached Colonels Lewis and Allen, with nearly seven hundred men. to that point. Colonel Lewis, on the route, received in- formation that Colonel Elliott, in command of Malden, would largely re-en- force the Indians at the Raisin, with a view of attacking General Winchester in camp at the Rapids. Dispatching this news to his superior, Colonel Lewis pushed on to Frenchtown, in the hope of reaching there first. The town was approached in array for battle. Captain Bland Ballard led the advance guard. The right was commanded by Colonel Allen, and was composed of the companies of Captains McCracken, Bledsoe, and Matson ; the left, of the companies of Hamilton, Williams, and Kelly, was led by Major Graves; and the center, made up of the companies of Hightower, Collier, and Sebree, was commanded by Major Madison.
The enemy, posted among the houses of the French inhabitants and the - picketings of their gardens, were advanced upon gallantly by Majors Graves and Madison, and dislodged in the face of a heavy fire. Driven back on the right, they were received by Colonel Allen with a galling fire, and forced on the retreat for half a mile. Reforming behind some covering of brush and houses, they made a stand with small arms and a howitzer. The com- mands of Graves and Madison coming up on the enemy's left under shelter of the woods, the action became warm and general, the enemy retreating some two miles, until the darkness of night ended the contest. The Ameri- can forces were of the Kentucky troops, and their losses were twelve killed and fifty-five wounded. The enemy's were put down at three times this number. 1
The news of this engagement created a deep sensation in the camp at the Rapids. Within eighteen miles of Malden, it was not doubted that the British commander there would make a formidable effort to re-enforce the defeated detachment, and to capture or drive back the force of Colonel Lewis. At once, General Winchester marched himself at the head of a detachment of two hundred and fifty men, all that could be spared from the fort. On the day after arrival, the 21st. a place suitable for a camp was selected, and it was determined to fortify it the day following. Late in the evening, a Frenchman came from Malden through the lines, and informed General Winchester that a large force of British and Indians, apparently three thousand, was nearly ready to march to the Raisin when he left. A fated incredulity prevailed, and no heed was given to this warning. Only Colonel Lewis and Major Madison seemed on the alert, cautioning their men to keep within the lines, and under cover of some houses and picketing they had sought. The January night was exceedingly cold, and no picket-
1 McAfee, pp. 205-11.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
guard was placed even on the road by which the enemy must approach the camp.
The night of the 21st passed quietly enough, and the reveille beat at daybreak ; but a few minutes atter, three guns fired in quick succession gave signal of the enemy's approach to the sentinels. The troops had barely time to form before a heavy fire was opened upon them from several pieces of artillery at the distance of three hundred yards. This was quickly fol- lowed by a charge from the British regulars, a general fire of small arms, and the Indian yell on the right and left. The surprise was complete, and all owing to the inexcusable negligence of the night before. As soon as the enemy came in range, a deadly fire from Colonel Lewis' camp repulsed them on the left and center; but on the right, the troops which had arrived with Winchester, entirely unprotected, were overpowered and driven back. General Winchester made strenuous efforts to rally them, but without suc- cess. While the British drove them in front, a large body of Indians flanked them on the right, and compelled a disordered retreat. Colonels Lewis and Allen came up, and endeavored to assist in rallying the men on the south side of the river, and behind some houses and garden pickets that offered shelter ; but by this time the Indians had gained their left flank also, and a woods in their rear.
In their confusion and dismay they were soon at the mercy of the sav- ages, who shot and tomahawked them in cold blood, regardless of all efforts to surrender. Over one hundred were butchered within a space one hun- dred yards square. Colonel Allen and Captain Simpson were of the slain, and so was Captain Mead, of the regular army. Scores of others on the retreat, worn down with the deep snow and intense cold, were overtaken, and tomahawked and scalped. General Winchester and Colonel Lewis, with some others, were captured at a bridge within less than a mile of the village, and carried to the British lines, where Proctor commanded. Majors Graves and Madison held their first ground with invincible firmness, baffling every attempt to dislodge them. Colonel Proctor, at ten o'clock, withdrew his men from under their deadly fire, to await the return of the Indians in pursuit of the other division of the army.
When General Winchester was brought to him as a prisoner, Colonel Proctor vehemently urged upon him to effect the immediate surrender of all his ariny, as this was the only way by which he could prevent an indis- criminate massacre of the men by the savages. Winchester did not know of the successful defense of Graves and Madison; and the approach of Major Overton with a flag of truce, accompanied by Colonel Proctor him- self, was the first intelligence that these brave men had of the disaster to, and capture of, Winchester. Most intense was their chagrin when, instead of a truce to return and bury their dead, Major Overton presented an order from General Winchester, directing them to surrender their men prisoners of war. Major Madison answered that "it was the custom of the Indians
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473
FIENDISH ATTACK ON THE WOUNDED.
to massacre their prisoners, and that he would not agree to any terms of capitulation unless the safety and protection of his men were guaranteed." Colonel Proctor insolently asked, "Do you mean to dictate to me, sir?" "No," replied Madison, "I mean to dictate for myself, and to sell our lives as dearly as possible, rather than be massacred in cold blood." Proctor then stipulated that all private property should be respected, that sleds should be sent next morning to remove the sick and wounded to a safe retreat near Malden, and that in the meantime they should be protected by a guard.
Major Madison consulted with other officers, and finding the ammunition nearly exhausted, and half the original force already lost, with no chance of retreat, the terms were accepted. Before they gave up their arms the Indians came among them and began to plunder. Major Madison ordered his men to shoot or bayonet any Indian who came within the lines, which restrained them and saved the unwounded prisoners, who were marched at once to Malden. Colonel Proctor informed the American officers that his own wounded must be taken to Malden first, but that early in the morning theirs should also be removed, and that in the meantime they should be left under the protection of a guard.
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