USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 5
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Only one of these was especially connected with the history of the tribe of which we are writing. This was Fort St. Joseph, near the mouth of St. Joseph River, where La Salle had established a trading-post over eighty years before. It had in time become a French military post and the seat of a small but thriving colony of Cana- dian fur-traders and voyageurs. After the surrender to the English the latter also maintained a post there de- signed to curb to some extent the neighboring Pottawatta- mies, and to furnish a convenient nucleus for the fur-trade. In the spring of 1763 it was garrisoned by Ensign Schlos- ser, with fourteen men, who seem to have had no appre- hension of danger.
On the 25th of May the ensign was told by some of the Indians that a party of Pottawattamies had come from Detroit on a visit. Soon after, a few braves, headed by a chief named Washaste, came in, apparently for friendly
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
purposes. Then a Canadian informed Schlosser that the savages, who were thronging around and into the post, were manifesting every indication of hostility. The unwary offi- cer left his apartment, and found both the parade and bar- racks thronged with insolent savages and doubtful Cana- dians. While he was endeavoring to get both English and Canadians into some kind of order, a yell was raised, the sentinel was tomahawked, the Pottawattamies on the out- side rushed in, and in less than two minutes, as the officer afterwards declared, all the soldiers were butchered and scalped save himself and three others, who were seized and bound hand and foot.
As in numerous other cases, the French were unharmed, showing that the rage of the savage was not directed indiscriminately against the whites, but was only aroused against the haughty English. Two or three English traders who were present were sheltered by French friends till the first fury was over, but could not avoid being taken prison- ers by the Indians. A band of Pottawattamies then went to join their brethren at Detroit, taking with them the un- lucky ensign and his three comrades. Fortunately for them, several Pottawattamies had been imprisoned in the fort before the outbreak for some offense, and were still held. For these the Indians exchanged the prisoners they had brought from St. Joseph,-one of the very few instances with which we have met of the red men exchanging pris- oners. Generally they are too anxious to burn them to suffer any sympathy for their own friends to interfere.
To return to the siege of Detroit. About the 20th of June one of the schooners before mentioned, which had gone up Lake Erie to obtain aid, returned with about sixty men and a supply of ammunition and provision. She also brought the news of peace and the cession of Canada to England. This, however, was discredited not only by Pon- tiac, but by many of the Canadians, who could not bear the idea of passing permanently under English rule, and who told the Indians that even then two great French armies were coming up the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi.
The siege progressed with a constant succession of excit- ing incidents, though the Indians avoided an attack, and of course knew nothing of making approaches by intrenchments and parallels. They made many efforts to destroy the garri- son by surprise or to fire the schooners on which Gladwyn depended for communication with the outer world, but without success.
About the middle of July the Wyandots and Pottawatta- mies sent deputations to Maj. Gladwyn begging for peace, either from lack of zeal or, as is quite likely, from motives of treachery. The major acceded to the proposal of the Wyandots, but when the Pottawattamies came they insisted that some of their people imprisoned in the fort should first be given up. Gladwyn, on the other hand, demanded the English captives in possession of that tribe.
The Pottawattamies brought three prisoners, but were peremptorily sent back for more whom they were known to have; then they brought six. The treaty was about to be concluded when one of the six told Gladwyn that there were still others detained in the camp of the Pottawatta- mies, and the deputation was again turned away. They were furious with rage, and hastily consulting together in
their own tongue, determined to kill the commander and then make their escape if possible. But at that instant Gladwyn discovered an Ottawa among them, and called some of the guard into the council-house to arrest him. The Pottawattamies then sullenly withdrew. Yet in a day or two they returned with the other captives, when their own friends were freed and a treaty of peace was made.
It is evident that either Pontiac's power was waning, or that the whole proceeding was a ruse, which from subse- quent events seems quite probable.
On the morning of the 29th of July, twenty-two barges bearing two hundred and sixty regulars, twenty independ- ent rangers, several small cannon, and fresh supplies of provisions and ammunition, came up the river. These were under Capt. Dalzell, an officer of the British army, but one who had had considerable experience in Indian fighting, having been present with Rogers and Putnam in some of their most desperate conflicts. The rangers were commanded by the redoubtable Major Rogers himself, whose eagerness for battle and glory had sent him to the front with his little squad of followers. As the convoy came opposite to the villages of Wyandots and Pottawatta- mies, lying respectively on the east and west banks of the river, these treacherous enemies, in spite of their recent treaty of peace, opened fire on the barges from both shores at once. The soldiers replied with their swivels and mus- kets, but ere they gained the shelter of the fort fifteen of their number were killed and wounded.
We are afraid, in view of such facts as these, it will be impossible to say anything in favor of the chivalry or honor of our Pottawattamies, who, in fact, like nearly all the rest of the " noble red men" of whom we have any account, never hesitated at the blackest treachery when necessary to accomplish their object. Not but what they could be true to those they considered their friends, as they were to the French during nearly a century of varied fortunes. But when they had once made up their minds that any people were their enemies, they hesitated at no deception and no cruelty in order to accomplish their ruin. Treaties and pledges were but as straw before the fire of their hatred.
Immediately after his arrival Dalzell requested permis- sion to attack Pontiac in his camp, which Gladwyn reluc- tantly granted. It was a presumptuous request, as Dalzell knew nothing of the ground, and his commander was greatly to blame for granting it, for that reason. Neverthe- less, at two o'clock on the morning of the 1st of August, Dalzell and two hundred and fifty men marched up the river-road toward Pontiac's camp, then situated several miles up the stream. But some of the Canadians had got an inkling of the plan, and through them the chief was fully apprised of the approach of the English column, and had left his camp with all his Ojibwa and Ottawa warriors to attack it.
At Parent's Creek (since called Bloody Run), a mile and a half above the fort, the vanguard was assailed by a ter- rific fire from hundreds of Indians ambushed behind piles of firewood, fences, houses, apple-trees, etc., belonging to the Canadians, and some rude intrenchments previously thrown up by Pontiac when his camp was situated there. From the facts in this case, in that of Braddock's defeat,
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and in numerous others of the same class and period, it would seem that the system of covering an advancing column with a line of skirmishers several paces apart was unknown to, or at least unpracticed by, the strategists of that day. It is true a vanguard marched ahead of the main body, but it formed a small column of itself, and was an easy mark for the guns of ambushed foemen.
In the present instance half of the advance-guard were killed or wounded by the first volley ; the rest ran back, throwing the main body into confusion. Dalzell rallied his men, who made charge after charge upon the fences and other structures which sheltered the foe, only to find in each case that the Indians had fled back a little farther into the darkness, whence their bullets still flew with fearful effect into the crowded ranks of the soldiers. Dalzell was compelled to order a retreat.
Up to this time the bloody work had been carried on by Ojibwas and Ottawas, either because the Wyandots and Pottawattamies had shaken off the influence of Pontiac, or because he had planned for them to fall on the English rear. Whichever supposition is correct, no sooner was the noise of battle wafted to their ears than the warriors has- tened to take part in the fray. The Wyandots rowed across the river in canoes, the Pottawattamies hastened through the woods west of the fort. Scarcely had the column begun its retrograde movement when all the bands from below occupied the houses, fences, and orchards by the roadside, pouring volley after volley into the ranks of the wearied and discouraged soldiery.
At one point, half a mile below Bloody Run, the savages occupied a cluster of out-houses and a newly-dug cellar close to the road, and, strange as it may seem, they were again able to ambush the column, allowing the vanguard to pass unharmed, but firing with deadly effect upon the centre and rear. The retreat came near degenerating into a perfect rout, but Dalzell, though twice severely wounded, rallied his men, and did all that valor could inspire to compensate for his lack of skill. Maj. Rogers, with his American rangers, broke into a house and drove out the savages. Capt. Gray, while charging the enemy, was mortally wounded, but the foe was temporarily repulsed.
Again the retreat was resumed, and instantly the Pot- tawattamies and Wyandots gathered on the flank of the column and riddled it with their deadly volleys. Dalzell was killed and his body abandoned to the brutal rage of the foe by the fleeing soldiers. Rogers again took pos- session of a house to cover the retreat, and to some ex- tent succeeded in doing so; but when the column had passed, two hundred yelling savages surrounded the place, firing into every aperture they could see, and effectually preventing the escape of its defenders. Half a mile farther down, Capt. Grant, now in command of the demoralized troops, was able to seize some inclosures, which pretty effectually sheltered his men. Thence he sent squads to occupy the houses below, ahead of the Indians, and thus secured his retreat to the fort. He then sent the two armed bateaux, which had accompanied the expedition, to a point opposite the house of Campau, which was held by Rogers. The vessels swept the ground on both sides of the house with their swivels, the fire from which sent Potta-
wattamies, Ottawas, and all, yelling in dismay to the woods. But no sooner had Rogers marched down the road to join Grant than some of them rushed into the house and scalped the slain remaining there, an old squaw cutting open one of the dead bodies and drinking the blood with more than fiendish joy. Yet amid all this ferocity no damage was done to any of the family, nor to the frightened French pioneers of the neighborhood, who had crowded into the cellar for safety.
Grant and Rogers successfully consummated their retreat; but fifty-nine men killed and wounded, out of two hundred and fifty, in a two-hours' fight, attested the accuracy of aim of the Ottawa, Pottawattamie, and Wyandot braves.
Pontiac at once sent messengers, announcing his victory, to St. Joseph, Saginaw, and numerous other points, scat- tered far and wide through the forest, and bands of warriors soon came trooping in, anxious to join what seemed to them the successful side. Yet even with these reinforcements the chieftain dared make no attack on the fort, which was now well supplied with arms, ammunition, and provisions, and the garrison of which, notwithstanding the recent disaster, numbered over three hundred men.
On the 4th of September some three hundred Wyandots and Pottawattamies made an attack in birch canoes on the schooner " Gladwyn,' as it lay detained by contrary winds on its way up from Lake Erie. They clambered up the sides in spite of cannon and small arms, with their knives between their teeth, slew the master of the vessel, and disabled several of the men who formed the crew ; yet the remainder fought with such desperate valor that the assailants were finally repulsed. Contemporary letters assert that the mate ordered the vessel blown up, which some of the Indians understood, and on their telling their comrades they all fled to avoid the threatened explosion. This is very doubtful. A few of the Western Indians knew a little French, but not one in a thousand could have understood a word of English. Doubtless the Pottawattamie braves were very much " at sea" in attacking an armed ship, and were much more easily repulsed than they would have been by the same number of foes on land.
But by the end of September the patience of the Indians was pretty well exhausted. Notwithstanding the victory of Bloody Run, they saw no prospect of reducing the fort as long as they had free communication with the East by means of the river and lake, and they had already been en- gaged in the siege far longer than they had been in the habit of continuing in any enterprise. As the hunting season approached, too, they were obliged to seek for game or go without food the next year, and a large portion of them scattered to their respective hunting-grounds for that pur- pose.
Soon, all along the banks of the St. Joseph and far into the forest on either side, the Pottawattamie warriors were to be seen ambushing the deer as they visited their favorite drinking-places, or tracking the bear to his lonely den, or occasionally bringing down some stately moose which had wandered down from its northern home, while the patient squaws bore their lords' burdens from place to place and prepared for future use the game the latter had slain. Similar scenes were enacted on the hunting-grounds of the
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
other tribes, and the siege of Detroit necessarily languished for lack of besiegers. But after the terrible experience of Bloody Run, Major Gladwyn was naturally in no haste to try to drive them away by a sally. Those who remained were also anxious to begin hunting, and were willing to tell any number of falsehoods which would tend to shield them from annoyance through the winter.
On the 12th of October a chief of the Missisaugas, a branch of the Ojibwas, came to the fort with a pipe of peace. He informed Maj. Gladwyn that he was author- ized to represent the Ojibwas, Wyandots, and Pottawatta- mies, who were deeply repentant and desirous of peace. The commandant valued their repentance at what it was worth, but willingly offered a truce. While it lasted he succeeded in obtaining a good supply of provisions among the Canadians.
But the stern Pontiac and his Ottawa warriors sullenly refused to ask for truce or peace, and continued the war to the best of their ability, neglecting no opportunity to fire upon a foraging-party or cut off a straggling soldier. But on the last day of October a messenger came from the com- mandant of Fort Chartres, the principal French post on the upper Mississippi, informing Pontiac that the French and English were now at peace, and that he could expect no help from the former in his warfare with the latter. The disgusted chieftain immediately sent word to Maj. Glad- wyn that he should advise all the Indians to bury the hatchet, and soon afterwards withdrew, with some of his prin- cipal henchmen, to the Maumee. The Pottawattamies and others who had taken part in the siege were already nearly all busy in their respective hunting-grounds, and the re- mainder soon departed after the guiding spirit of the con- spiracy abandoned his self-imposed task.
Thus ended the celebrated siege of Detroit, distinguished not only for the commanding character of the sullen chief of the assailants, and for the importance of the interests in- volved, but for the constancy, unrivaled in Indian warfare, with which the capricious warriors of the woods, under the influence of that powerful mind, devoted themselves through five weary months to the accomplishment of their object.
Although Pontiac probably intended to renew the siege in the spring of 1764, and though some of the warriors he had led returned to Detroit at that time for that purpose, yet so many difficulties had arisen that the great chief him- self did not appear on the scene of his exploits, and the at- tempted renewal of the conflict amounted to little or nothing except to annoy still longer the faithful garrison.
In the summer of 1764, Gen. John Bradstreet came up the lakes with an army of twelve or fifteen hundred men, and several hundred Iroquois allies, to enforce the submis- sion of the hostile tribes. He reached Detroit on the 26th of August, and on the 7th of September held a grand coun- cil with the Indians. A considerable delegation came fromn the country about Sandusky, but the Pottawattamies and other tribes of the Michigan peninsula were only repre- sented by the Ojibwa chief Wasson and six inferior chiefs. Bradstreet was very desirous that the Indians should ac- knowledge themselves subjects of the King of England. But their democratic minds could hardly understand what was meant by being " subjects" of any man, and if they had
understood it they would certainly never have sincerely assented to it. But they had been accustomed, as a matter of courtesy, to call the King of France their father, and this title they willingly agreed to transfer to the King of Eng- land. Bradstreet boasted that he had reduced the Indians to complete submission, but if there had been a good opening for an outbreak, he would doubtless have discovered that though he might have called the King of England his father, a Pottawattamie brave would not thereby have been pre- vented from tomahawking the King's subjects whenever he could catch one alone.
A treaty was made, signed, according to the historian Mante, with a deer and cross on behalf of the Hurons, with a turile by the Miami's, and with an eagle by the Missi- saugas, while the corporate seal of the Pottawattamies and Foxes was represented by the figures of a fox, an eel, and a bear.
Bradstreet sent troops to reestablish the posts at Michilli- macinac and Green Bay, and then returned East. Though the expedition was not very well managed, yet the presence of such a large English force-larger than any body the French had ever sent up the lakes-could not but impress the minds of the Indians with the idea that it would be well to keep on good terms with their new " father."
A much more skillful manager of Indians than Brad- street was the celebrated Sir William Johnson, who was appointed superintendent of all the Indians of the North. He personally visited Detroit and other posts, and kept three well-trained deputies traveling among the various tribes. By a shrewd mixture of dignity and flattery, by a frequent distribution of cheap but highly-prized presents, and by florid delineation of the immense power of the English king, Sir William and his deputies contrived to keep these numerous forest-clansmen in comparative quiet down nearly to the time of his death.
On the 17th of August, 1765, George Croghan, the most expert of Sir William's deputies, held a grand council at Detroit with the Ottawas, Pottawattamies, and Ojibwas. They had been thoroughly humbled by their ill success, and moreover (having acquired numerous artificial wants since the first advent of the whites among them) they had suffered much from the long suspension of the fur-trade, and were truly desirous for peace, professing their repent- ance and submission in the most moving terms. A band of Pottawattamies from St. Joseph is particularly men- tioned as being present, whose orator, in the course of a speech of submission, said (" Conspiracy of Pontiac," vol. ii. p. 293):
" We are no more than wild creatures to you, fathers, in understanding ; therefore, we request you to forgive the past follies of our young people, and receive us for your children. Since you have thrown down our foriner father (the King of France) on his back, we have been wandering in the dark like blind people. Now you have dispersed all this darkness which hung over the heads of the several tribes, and have accepted them for your children, we hope you will let us partake with them the light, that our women and children may enjoy peace. We beg you to forget all that is past. By this belt we remove all evil thoughts from your hearts. Fathers, when we formerly came to
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HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
visit our fathers, the French, they always sent us home joyful; and we hope you, fathers, will have pity on our women and young men, who are in great want of neces- saries, and not let us go to our towns ashamed."
Pontiac was present at another council on the 27th of the same month, and also made his submission to the Eng- lish. In the autumn of that year, too, Fort Chartres, the last French post east of the Mississippi (except in the vicinity of New Orleans), was delivered up to a detachment of British soldiers. The humiliation of France was con- plete, and the West was at peace. Yet there was still a very bitter feeling existing on the part of the Western Indians toward the English, and traders of that nation frequently dealt in the name of their French employees, on account of the greater friendliness of the savages for that people.
Before proceeding with the history of the tribe we have taken under our especial charge, a few words may interest the reader regarding the great chieftain whose skill and eloquence, ferocity and valor had shaken the power of Britain throughout an immense domain, and startled half a continent from its propriety. In the spring of 1766, Pontiac met Sir William Johnson at Oswego, and renewed the compact of peace and friendship already made in the West. He then returned and fixed his home on the Maumee. When new disturbances arose between the set- tlers and Indians, Pontiac was suspected of inflaming the hostility of the latter. Early in 1769 he went to Illinois, where there was already much uneasiness, and again the suspicions of the English were aroused. According to the account adopted by Parkman, and which is in all proba- bility correct, Pontiac became intoxicated at an Indian feast at Cahokia, near St. Louis. An English trader, see- ing his condition, hired a Kaskaskia Indian to murder him, and when the chieftain wandered alone into the forest to cool his heated brain, the assassin stealthily followed and stabbed him to the heart.
His followers fled northward and told the tale among the warriors of the lakes, all of whom were eager to avenge the crime. They might endure the supremacy of the pow- erful English, but their fierce blood boiled at the thought that the scurvy Illinois Indians, whom they had always looked on as their inferiors, should dare to slay their re- nowned champion. By hundreds, perhaps by thousands, the northern warriors sprang to arms,-Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Pottawattamies, Delawares, Shawnees, and Miamis,- and ere the conflict was concluded the Illinois were almost entirely exterminated. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered, their villages were destroyed by fire, and only a few puny and frightened bands remained to tell the story of the great revenge.
Pontiac was essentially a representative Indian, with all the mingled virtues and vices of his race in the most marked degree. Brave, ferocious, patriotic, true to his friends, treacherous toward his foes, enduring the severest hardships of war with stoic fortitude, but succumbing at length to the baleful fire-water of the pale-faces, his charac- ter may well be studied on the pages of Parkman, as mani- festing in a single individual all the most prominent attri- butes of the Indians of North America.
CHAPTER V.
THE POTTAWATTAMIES-(Continued).
A Peaceful Era-The Quebec Act-Michigan called " Hesse"-The Revolution-Pottawattamies with Burgoyne-Outrage and Deser- tion-The Ordinance of 1787-The Treaty of 1789-Defeat of Har- mar and St. Clair-" Mad Anthony" on the War-Path-The Battle of the Maumee-Treaty of Greenville-Topenabee, the Head Chief -A "Ring" Scheme-Organization of Indiana and Michigan - Divers Treaties - Tecumseh and the Pottawattamies - Battle of Tippecanoe-The War of 1812-Defeat of Major Van Horn-Brit- ish and Indians Defeated by Colonel Miller-Hull's Surrender-Pot- tawattamies turn out en masse-Battle and Massacre of the Raisin- Proctor's Defeat at Lower Sandusky-Battle of Lake Erie-Indians at the Topmast-Battle of the Thames-Submission of the Potta- wattamies-Concluding Remarks.
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