History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan, Part 6

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan > Part 6

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In September, 1791, St. Clair moved from Fort Washington with about 2,000 men, and November 3, the main army, consisting of about 1,400 effective troops, moved forward to the head-waters of the Wabash, where Fort Recovery was after- ward erected, and here the army encamped. About 1,200 Indians were secreted a few miles distant, awaiting a favorable opportunity to begin an attack, which they improved on the morning of Nov. 4, about half an hour before sunrise. The attack was first made upon the militia, which immediately gave way. St. Clair was defeated and he returned to Fort Washington with a broken and dispirited army, having lost 39 officers killed, and 539 men killed and missing ; 22 officers and 232 men were wounded. Several pieces of artillery and all the baggage, ammunition baggage and provisions were left on the field of battle and fell into the hands of the victorious Indians .. The stores and other public property lost in the action were valued at $32,800. There were also 100 or more American women with the army of the whites, very few of whom escaped the cruel carnage of the savage Indians. The latter, characteristic of their brutal nature, proceeded in the rush of victory to perpetrate the most horrible acts of cruelty and barbarity upon the bodies of the living and the dead Americans who fell into their hands. Believ- ing that the whites had made war for many years merely to acquire land, the Indians crammed clay and sand into the eyes and down the throats of the dying and the dead !

GEN. WAYNE'S GREAT VICTORY.

Although no particular blame was attached to Gov. St. Clair for the loss in this expedition, yet he resigned the office of major-general, and was succeeded by Anthony Wayne, a distinguished officer of the Revolutionary war. Early in 1792, preparations were made by the General Government for re-organizing the army, so that it should consist of an efficient degree of strength. Wayne arrived at Pitts- burgh in June, where the army was to rendezvous. Here he continued actively engaged in organizing and training his forces until October, 1793, when with an army of about 3,600 men, he moved westward to Fort Washington.

While Wayne was preparing for an offensive campaign, every possible means was employed to induce the hostile tribes of the Northwest to enter into a general treaty of peace with the American Government; speeches were sent among them, and agents to make treaties were also sent, but little was accomplished. Major

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Hamtramck, who still remained at Vincennes, succeeded in concluding a general peace with the Wabash and Illinois Indians; but the tribes more immediately under the influence of the British, refused to hear the sentiments of friendship that were sent among them, and tomahawked several of the messengers. Their courage had been aroused by St. Clair's defeat, as well as by the unsuccessful expedition which had preceded it, and they now felt quite prepared to meet a superior force under Gen. Wayne. The Indians insisted on the Ohio River as the boundary line between their lands and the lands of the United States, and felt certain that they could maintain that boundary. Maj. Gen. Scott, with about 1,600 mounted volunteers from Kentucky, joined the regular troops under Gen. Wayne, July 26, 1794, and on the 28th, the united forces began their march on the Indian towns of the Maumee River. Arriving at the mouth of the Auglaize, they erected Fort Defiance, and on August 15, the army advanced toward the British fort at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee, where on the 20th, almost within reach of the British, the American army obtained a decisive victory over the combined forces of the hostile Indians and a considerable number of the Detroit Br. militia. The number of the enemy was estimated at 2,000, against about 900 American troops actually engaged. This horde of savages, as soon as the action began, abandoned themselves to flight and dispersed with terror and dismay, leaving Wayne's victorious army in full and quiet possession of the field. The Americans lost thirty-three killed and one hundred wounded ; while the loss of the enemy was more than double this number.

The army remained three days and nights on the banks of the Maumee, in front of the field of battle, during which time all the houses and corn- fields were consumed and destroyed for a considerable distance both above and be- low Fort Miami, as well as within pistol shot of the British garrison, who were compelled to remain idle spectators to this general devastation and conflagration, among which were the houses, stores and property of Col. McKee, the British Indian agent and "principal instigator of the war then existing between the United States and savages." On the return march to Fort Defiance the villages and cornfields for about fifty miles on each side of the Maumee were destroyed, as well as those for a considerable distance around that post.

September 14, 1794, the army under Gen. Wayne commenced its march toward the deserted Miami villages at the confluence of St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers, arriving October 17, and on the following day the site of Fort Wayne was selected. The fort was completed November 22, and garrisoned by a strong detachment of infantry and artillery, under the command of Col. John F. Hamtramck, who gave to the new fort the name of Fort Wayne. In 1814, a new fort was built on the site of this structure. The Kentucky volunteers returned to Fort Washington and were mustered out of service. Gen. Wayne, with the Federal troops, marched to

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Greenville and took up his headquarters during the Winter. Here in August, 1795, after several months of active negotiation, this gallant officer succeeded in conclud- ing a general treaty of peace with all the hostile tribes of the Northwestern Ter- ritory. This treaty opened the way for the flood of immigration for many years, and ultimately made the States and Territories now constituting the mighty Northwest.

Up to the organization of the Indiana Territory there is but little history to record apart from those events connected with military affairs. In July 1796, as before stated, after a treaty was concluded between the United States and Spain, the British garrisons, with their arms, artillery and stores were withdrawn from the posts within the boundaries of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, and a detachment of American troops, consisting of sixty-five men, under the com- mand of Capt. Moses Porter, took possession of the evacuated post of Detroit in the same month.

In the latter part of 1796 Winthrop Sargent went to Detroit and organized the county of Wayne, forming a part of the Indiana Territory until its division in 1805, when the Territory of Michigan was organized.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

By this important struggle the territory of the present State of Michigan was but little affected, the posts of Detroit and Mackinaw being the principal points whence the British operated among the Indians to prejudice them against the " Americans," going so far as to pay a reward for scalps, which the savages, of course, hesitated not to take from defenseless inhabitants. The expeditions made by the Indians for this purpose were even supported sometimes by the regular troops and local militia. One of these joint expeditions, commanded by Capt. Byrd, set out from Detroit to attack Louisville, Ky. It proceeded in boats as far as it could ascend the Maumee, and thence crossed to the Ohio River, on which stream Ruddle's Station was situated, which surrendered at once, without fighting, under the promise of being protected from the Indians; but this promise was broken and all the prisoners massacred.

Another expedition under Gov. Hamilton, the commandant at Detroit, started out in 1778, and appeared at Vincennes, Ind., with a force of thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers and about 400 Indians. At this fort the garrison consisted of only Capt. Helm and one soldier named Henry. Seeing the troops at a distance, they loaded a cannon, which they placed in the open gateway, and Capt. Helm stood by the cannon with a lighted match. When Hamilton with his army approached within hailing distance, Helm called out with a loud voice, " Halt !" This show of resistance made Hamilton stop and demand a surrender of the garri- son. "No man," exclaimed Helm, with an oath, " enters here until I know the

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terms." Hamilton replied, " You shall have the honor of war." Helm thereupon surrendered the fort, and the whole garrison, consisting of the two already named, marched out and received the customary marks of respect for their brave defense. Hamilton was soon after made to surrender this place to Gen. George Rogers Clark, the ablest American defender in the West. The British soldiers were allowed to return to Detroit ; but their commander, who was known to have been active in instigating Indian barbarities, was put in irons and sent to Virginia as a prisoner of war.

The events just related are specimens of what occurred at and in connection with Detroit from the close of Pontiac's war until a number of years after the establishment of American Independence. When the treaty of peace was signed in Versailles in 1783, the British on the frontier reduced their aggressive policy somewhat, but they continued to occupy the lake posts until 1796, on the claim that the lake region was not designed to be included in the treaty by the commissioners, probably on account of their ignorance of the geography of the region. Mean- while the Indians extensively organized for depredation upon the Americans, and continued to harass them at every point. During this period Alexander McKenzie, an agent of the British Government, visited Detroit, painted like an Indian, and said that he was just from the upper lakes, and that the tribes in that region were all in arms against any further immigration of Americans, and were ready to attack the infant settlements in Ohio. His statement had the desired effect, and encour- aged also by an agent from the Spanish settlements on the Mississippi, the Indians organized a great confederacy against the United States. To put this down Gen. Harmar was first sent out by the Government with 1,400 men ; but he imprudently divided his army, and he was taken by surprise and defeated by a body of Indians under " Little Turtle." Gen. Arthur St. Clair was next sent out, with 2,000 men, and he suffered a like fate. Then Gen. Anthony Wayne was sent West with a still larger army, and on the Maumee he gained an easy victory over the Indians, within a few miles of a British post. He finally concluded a treaty with the Indians at Green- ville, which broke up the whole confederacy. The British soon afterwards gave up Detroit and Mackinaw.

It was a considerable time before the Territory of Michigan now in possession of the United States, was improved or altered by the increase of settlements. The Canadian French continued to form the principal part of its population. The interior of the country was but little known, except by the Indians and the fur traders. The Indian title not being fully extinguished, no lands were brought into market, and consequently the settlements increased but slowly. The State of Michigan at this time constituted simply the county of Wayne in Northwest Ter- ritory. It sent one representative to the legislature of that Territory, which was

...

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held at Chillicothe. A court of Common Pleas was organized for the county, and the General Court of the whole Territory sometimes met at Detroit. No roads had as yet been constructed through the interior, nor were there any settlements except on the frontiers. The habits of the people were essentially military, and but little attention was paid to agriculture except by the French peasantry. A representative was sent to the General Assembly of the Northwest Territory at Chillicothe until 1800, when Indiana was erected into a separate Territory. Two years later Mich- igan was annexed to Indiana Territory, but in 1805 Michigan separated and William Hull was appointed its first Governor.

The British revived the old prejudices that the Americans intended to drive the Indians out of the country, and the latter, under the lead of Tecumseh and his brother Elkswatawa, the " prophet," organized again on an extensive scale to make war upon the Americans. The great idea of Tecumseh's life was a universal con- federacy of all the Indian tribes North and South to resist the invasion of the whites ; and his plan was to surprise them at all their posts throughout the country and capture them by the first assault. At this time the entire white population of Michigan was about 4,800, four-fifths of whom were French and the remainder Americans. The settlements were situated on the rivers Miami and Raisin, on the Huron of Lake Erie, on the Ecorse Range, and Detroit Rivers, on the Huron of St. Clair, on the St. Clair River and Mackinaw Island. Besides, there were here and there a group of huts belonging to the French fur traders. The villages on the Maumee, the Raisin and the Huron of Lake Erie contained a population of about 1,300 ; the settlements at Detroit and northward had about 2,200 ; Mackinaw about 1,000. Detroit was garrisoned by ninety-four men, and Mackinaw by seventy-nine.

HULL'S SURRENDER.

Now we have to record an unexplained mystery, which no historian of Mich- igan can omit, namely, the surrender of Detroit to the British by Gen. Hull, when his forces were not in action and were far more powerful than the enemy. He was either a coward or a traitor, or both. The commander of the British forces, Gen. Brock, triumphantly took possession of the fort, left a small garrison under Col. Proctor, and returned to the seat of his government. In twelve days he had moved with a small army 250 miles against the enemy, effected the surrender of a strong fort and well-equipped army of 2,300 effective men, and one of the Territories of the United States. Hull and the regular troops were taken to Montreal, and the militia were sent to their homes.

In the capitulation, Gen. Hull also surrendered Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, commanding Captain Heald of that place to evacuate and retreat to Fort Wayne. In obedience to this order, the Captain started from the fort with his forces ; but

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no sooner were they outside the walls than they were attacked by a large force of Indians, who took them prisoners and then proceeded to massacre them, killing thirty-eight out of the sixty-six soldiers, even some of the women and children, two of the former and twelve of the latter. Captain Wells, a white man who had been brought up among the Indians, but espoused the white man's cause, was killed in the massacre.

January 3, 1814, Gen. Hull appeared before a court-martial at Albany, N. Y., where Gen. Dearborn was president. The accused made no objection to the con- stitution and jurisdiction of this court; its sessions were protracted and every facility was given the accused to make his defense. The three charges against him were treason, cowardice and neglect of duty. Hull was finally acquitted of the high crime of treason, but he was found guilty of the other charges, and sen- tenced to be shot ; but by reason of his services in the Revolution and his advanced age the court recommended him to the mercy of the President, who approved the sentence and dismissed Hull from the service. The accused wrote a long defense, in which he enumerates many things too tedious to relate here.

Even before he was sent to Detroit he was rather opposed to the policy of the Government toward the British of Canada; and, besides, he had been kindly treated by British officers, who helped him across the frontier. Again, the General Gov- ernment was unreasonably slow to inform the General of the declaration of war which had been made against Great Britain, and very slow to forward troops and supplies. Many things can be said on both sides ; but historians generally approve the judgment of the court in his case, as well as of the executive clemency of the President.

PERRY'S VICTORY.

The lake communication of Michigan with the East, having been in the hands of the British since Hull's surrender, was cut off by Com. Perry, who obtained a signal naval victory over the British on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813. The Commodore put his fleet at Erie, Pa., under great disadvantages. The bar at the mouth of the harbor would not permit the vessels to pass out with their armament on board. For some time after the fleet was ready to sail, the British commodore continued to hover off the harbor, well knowing it must either remain there inac- tive or venture out with almost a certainty of defeat. During this blockade, Com. Perry had no alternative, but to ride at anchor at Erie ; but early in September the enemy relaxed his vigilance and withdrew to the upper end of the lake. Perry then slipped out beyond the bar and fitted his vessels for action. The British fleet opposed to Com. Perry consisted of the ships " Detroit," carrying nineteen guns ; the " Queen Charlotte," seventeen guns ; the schooner " Lady Prevost," thirteen guns ; the brig " Hunter," ten guns ; the sloop "Little Belt," three guns, and the

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schooner " Chippewa," one gun and two swivels; and this fleet was commanded by a veteran officer of tried skill and valor.

At sunrise, September 10, while at anchor in Put-in-Bay, the Commodore espied the enemy toward the head of the lake, and he immediately sailed up and commenced action. His flag vessel, the Lawrence, was engaged with the full force of the enemy for nearly two hours before the wind permitted the other vessels to come in proper position to help. The crew of this vessel continued the fight until every one of them was either killed or wounded, all the rigging torn to pieces and every gun dismantled. Now comes the daring feat of the engagement which makes Perry a hero. He caused his boat to be lowered, in which he rowed to the Niagara amid the storm of shot and shell raging around him. This vessel he sailed through the enemy's fleet with swelling breeze, pouring in her broadsides upon their ships and forcing them to surrender in rapid succession, until all were taken. The smaller vessels of his fleet helped in this action, among which was one commanded by the brave and faithful Capt. Elliott. This victory was one of the most decisive in all the annals of American history. It opened the lake to Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, who had been operating in Indiana and Ohio, and who now crossed with his army to Canada, where he had a short campaign, terminated by the battle of the Morav- ian towns, by which the enemy were driven from the northwestern frontier. A detachment of his army occupied Detroit, September 20, 1813, and October 18, an armistice was concluded with the Indians, then restoring tranquility to the Terri- tory of Michigan. Soon afterward Gen. Harrison left Gen. Cass in command at Detroit and moved with the main body of his army down to the Niagara frontier.

Perry's brilliant success gave to the Americans the uncontrolled command of the lake, and September 23, their fleet landed 1,200 men near Malden. Col. Proc- tor, however, had previously evacuated that post, after setting fire to the fort and public storehouses. Commodore Perry in the meantime, passed up to Detroit with the " Ariel, " to assist in the occupation of that town, while Capt. Elliott, with the "Lady Prevost," the "Scorpion," and the " Tigress," advanced into Lake St. Clair to intercept the enemy's stores. Thus Gen. Harrison, on his arrival at Detroit and Malden, found both places abandoned by the enemy, and was met by the Canadians asking for his protection. Tecumseh proposed to the British commander that they should hazard an engagement at Malden ; but the latter foresaw that he should be exposed to the fire of the American fleet in that position, and therefore resolved to march to the Moravian towns upon the Thames, near St. Clair Lake, above Detroit, and there try the chance of a battle. His force at this time consisted of about 900 regular troops and 1,500 Indians, commanded by Tecumseh. The American army amounted to about 2,700 men, of whom 120 were regulars, a considerable number of militia, about thirty Indians, and the remainder Kentucky riflemen, well mount-

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ed, and mainly young men, full of ardor, and burning with a desire to revenge the massacre of their friends and relatives at the River Raisin. During the following Winter, there were no military movements, except an incursion into the interior of the upper province, by Major Holmes, who was attacked near Stony Creek, and maintained his ground with bravery.

CLOSE OF THE WAR.

The war with Great Britain was now (November, 1813), practically closed, so far as the Northwest was concerned, the post at Mackinaw yet remained in the hands of the enemy, but active steps were taken to dispossess the English of this point and drive them wholly from the domain of the United States. The first effort to start an expedition failed ; but in the Summer of 1814, a well-equipped force of two sloops of war, several schooners, and 750 land militia, under the com- mand of Commodore St. Clair and Lieut. Colonel Croghan, started for the north. Contrary, however, to the advice of experienced men, the commanders concluded to visit St. Joseph first, and the British, of Mackinaw, heard of their coming, and prepared themselves. The consequence was a failure to take the place. Major Holmes was killed, and the Winnebago Indians, from Green Bay, allies of the British, actually cut out the hearts and liver from the American slain, and cooked and ate them ! Com. St. Clair afterward made some arrangements to starve out the post, but his vessels were captured, and the British then remained secure in the possession of the place until the treaty of peace the following Winter.

The war with England formally closed on December 24, 1814, when a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent. The ninth article of the treaty required the United States to put an end to hostilities with all tribes or nations of Indians with whom they had been at war; to restore to such tribes or nations respectively all the rights and possessions to which they were entitled in 1811, before the war, on con- dition that such Indians should agree to desist from all hostilities against the United States. But in February, just before the treaty was sanctioned by our Government there were signs of Indians accumulating arms and ammunition, and a cautionary order was therefore issued to have all the white forces in readiness for an attack by the Indians, but the attack was not made. During the ensuing Summer and Fall, the United States Government acquainted the Indians with the provisions of the treaty and entered into subordinate treaties of peace with the principal tribes. Just before the treaty of Spring Wells (near Detroit) was signed, the Sha- wanee Prophet retired to Canada, declaring his resolution to abide by any treaty which the chiefs might sign. Some time afterward he returned to the Sha- wanee settlement in Ohio, and lastly to the west of the Mississippi, where he died in 1834. The British Government allowed him a pension from 1813 until his death.

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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

THE TECUMSEH WAR.

If one should inquire who has been the greatest Indian, the most noted, the " principal Indian " in North America since its discovery by Columbus, we would be obliged to answer, Tecumseh. For all those qualities that elevate a man far above his race ; for talent, tact, skill and bravery as a warrior ; for high-minded, honorable and chivalrous bearing as a man ; in a word, for all those elements of greatness which place him along way above his fellows in savage life, the name and fame of Tecumseh will go down to posterity in the West as one of the most cele- brated of the aborigines of this continent,-as one who had no equal among the tribes that dwelt in the country drained by the Mississippi. Born to command him- self, he used all the appliances that would stimulate the courage and nerve the valor of his followers. Always in the front rank of battle, his followers blindly followed his lead, and as his war-cry rang clear above the din and noise of the battle-field, the Shawnee warriors, as they rushed on to victory or the grave, rallied around him, forever worthy of the steel of the most gallant commander that ever entered the list in the defense of his altar or his home.

The tribe to which Tecumseh, or Tecumtha, as some write it, belonged, was the Shawnee, or Shawanee. The tradition of the nation held that they originally came from the Gulf of Mexico; that they wended their way up the Mississippi and the Ohio, and settled at or near the present site of the Shawneetown, Ill., whence they removed to the upper Wabash. In the latter place, at any rate, they were found early in the 18th century, and were known as the " bravest of the brave." This tribe has uniformly been the bitter enemy of the white man, and in every contest with our people exhibited a degree of skill and strategy that should character- ize the most dangerous foe. Tecumseh's notoriety and that of his brother, the Prophet, mutually served to establish and strengthen each other. While the Prophet had unlimited power, spiritual and temporal, he distributed his greatness in all the departments of Indian life with a kind of fanaticism that magnetically aroused the religious and superstitious passions, not only of his own followers, but also of all the tribes in this part of the country ; but Tecumseh concentrated his greatness upon the more practical and business affairs of military conquest. It is doubted whether he was really a sincere believer in the pretensions of his fanatic brother; if he did not believe in the pretentious feature of them he had the shrewd- ness to keep his unbelief to himself, knowing that religious fanaticism was one of the strongest impulses to reckless bravery.

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History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan, Part 6

Author: Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co.
Number of Pages: 818