A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III, Part 15

Author: Louis Houck
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: R. R. Donnelley & sons company
Number of Pages: 405


USA > Missouri > A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the state into the union, Volume III > Part 15


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


Another sad event of this war was the killing of James Callaway, son of Flanders Callaway, and grandson of Daniel Boone. Early in the year 1814 the Saukees, Reynards and Pottowatomies stole some horses in the neighborhood of Loutre island. Fifteen or twenty rangers, commanded by Captain Callaway, being out on a scouting tour, accidentally fell on their trail and followed it. They came on the Indians in their camp near the head of Loutre creek, found the horses, but the Indians seemingly had fled. They took the horses and proceeded towards the settlement until they reached Prairie Fork, and here the Captain, being desirous of relieving the men who had charge of the horses in the rear, gave the command to Lieutenant Riggs and went on with the main body. In a short time Captain Callaway and the men who had charge of the horses were fired on by a large party of Indians concealed in ambush, and he was severely wounded. He broke through the line of the Indians who had apparently surrounded him, while the men on horses followed and rode rapidly toward the main Loutre creek, but here he was again intercepted by the savage enemy and mortally wounded, fell from his horse as he attempted to swim the stream and expired. Major Long, who shortly after this time passed up the Missouri, describes the attack and death of Callaway as follows: "The assault commenced as the rangers entered a narrow defile near the confluence of the Prairie Forks of the Loutre creek. Sev- eral men were killed at the first fire, and Captain Callaway received in his body a ball that had passed through his watch. So furious was the onset that there was no time for reloading their pieces after they had discharged them. Captain Callaway threw his gun into the creek, that it might not add to the booty of the Indians, and though mortally wounded, drew his knife and killed two or three of his assailants; but seeing no prospect of success, ordered a retreat, hoping thereby to save the lives of some of his men. He was the last to leave the ground, and when springing into the creek he received a shot in the head and expired immediately."" Four rangers, named McDermott, Park Hutchinson, McMillan and Gilmore, were killed. The county of Callaway was named in honor of James Callaway.“


" Long's Expedition, vol. I, p. 76.


" Life of John Mason Peck, p. 139. Draper in his Notes, vol. 23, pp. 65-81, has this account: "James Gleason and John Atkinson were both wounded and escaped. James McDermott, James McMullin, and one Gil- more were among the killed. Lieutenant Griggs was among those who escaped


125


ATTACK ON CÔTE SANS DESSEIN


During this year also occurred the attack on Roy's Fort, or block- house, at Côte sans Dessein, so named from an isolated limestone hill six hundred yards long and very narrow, standing in the Mis- souri bottom, and which it is thought some convulsion of nature separated from the Osage bluffs on the opposite side of the river. Côte sans Dessein was once a village of considerable importance, and but for a Spanish land claim the capital of Missouri undoubt- edly would have been located at the mouth of the Osage not far from this place, but on the opposite side of the Missouri river. A number of French families among whom Baptiste, François and Louis Roy settled here in 1810. Several blockhouses were erected; one called Tibeau's (Tebo's) fort, and the other Roy's fort. These forts were about three hundred yards apart. Tibeau's fort was the upper one, and Louis Roy's blockhouse and the log house that served as a powder magazine, was between the two forts. On the day of the attack Baptiste Roy went out on his pony to kill some venison, but when he had gone about a mile he discovered many Indians hid in the bushes, grass and weeds, turned his horse and has- tened back, yelling as he neared Tibeau's fort, "Indians! Indians!" All the men at Tibeau's who had arms at once went out to fight the enemy, leaving only two or three old men and half a dozen unarmed and partially "grown negroes in the fort. Louis Roy was at his blockhouse, which was some two or three rods from Roy's fort, and vacant at that time. When the others went out to fight the Indians Louis Roy excused himself by saying that he was fixing his ramrod, and kept busily at work whittling and scrap- ing it. In the meantime the fight began in the woods below Côte sans Dessein and continued nearly all day, all fighting from behind trees, and finally apparently the Indians were driven away. In and thinks several others escaped. Gleason was shot in the leg, the ball lodging against the shin bone; Atkinson across the breast; Gleason's horse was shot from under him, and Gleason got McDermott's horse; Callaway was shot through the hip; Gleason invited him to mount behind him; he said he could not and bid Gleason to make his escape. Callaway resolved that the Indians should never have his scalp, hobbled to the creek, plunged in, throwing in his gun, and while in the water was shot in the back of the head, the ball lodging under the skin at the top of his nose. Saw his gun after it was recovered; a part of the breech was shot away. Callaway was in pre- vious fights, but can't tell about them. Capt. Wm. Ramsay had been an old Indian fighter in Kentucky; was pilot, and seeing some saddles the Indians had hung up, and some few beaver traps, advised against pursuit; and not long before the fight, in recrossing Loutre, Ramsay was on the shore where the Indians had just crossed, and would go no farther, seeing the Indians were tolling them on into a trap; and Callaway was headstrong and said he felt sure the Indians had got too much the start and could not overtake them."


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


this fight, which occurred one or two miles below the fort in the woods, Captain Coursault, the leader, and four or five others were killed, the two LaCroixs and Ricard being remembered, but how many Indians were killed is not known. While this fight was pro- gressing another party of Indians came up to Roy's, burned the barn and then attacked Louis Roy's blockhouse, in which were at the time Roy, his wife, and François Roy's wife, and several others. Roy had two guns which the women loaded and which he used so effectually that, it is claimed, he killed fourteen Indians. When the Indians in the woods below disappeared, they crept up under the river bank and suddenly emerged between the two forts and made for the magazine near the Roy blockhouse, took dry cedar which they found there, split it up with their knives and tomahawks and piled it around the blockhouse magazine and set fire to it. There were some forty or fifty Indians, mostly armed with only bows and arrows, and they yelled and capered around the building, but when the fire reached the powder a tremendous explosion occurred, which sent timbers and rafters, fire and Indians in every direction, killing, according to one account, some twenty of them, including some who ran and jumped into the river and were drowned. The survivors then quickly disappeared, as the whites from below came in sight." This account of this Côte sans Dessein affair is substantially confirmed by Jesse Farmer, who came to Missouri in 1810, five years of age, and whose family settled at Côte sans Dessein shortly after this event. He says that he learned from the Roys and others that when they discovered that the Indians were near, most of the men went out to meet them, and had some fighting, but that when they found that the Indians were getting between them and the forts they scattered, that some fled to St. Charles, and that "Joe" Roy swam across the Missouri but returned and reached the fort to assist in the defense, that he was a large man and brave. Describing the loca. tion he further says that the main fort was thirty or forty yards from the river and enclosed several houses with picketing, and that some 400 yards below, and about the same distance from the river, was Roy's blockhouse, but that if there was another fort near it that it must have been small compared to the main fort, and that the picketing was gone when he knew it, that the maga-


"? See account of Barney Farmer (Negro), who was in Tibeau's fort at the time, 16 years old. Draper's Notes, vol. 6, pp. 313, et seq.


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BLACK HAWK


zine was located about midway between the fort and the Roy blockhouse, and much nearer the river, and so located doubtless as to supply both the fort and blockhouse as might be needed with powder, and to be at the same time beyond the reach of burn- ing the fort in case it should be set on fire or explode. He, too, says that the Indians set fire to the magazine, and that when it exploded many Indians were killed and crippled, and that after this they decamped quickly with their wounded, leaving fourteen dead bodies to be buried." It seems that when the Indians ap- proached Roy's blockhouse the door was open, and that a relative of one of the Mrs. Roys ran and hid under a bench, but the first ball of an Indian musket passed through his head and killed him. His wife and several women were in the blockhouse with Roy, in all seven persons, and he had several guns which the women loaded for him and which he fired so rapidly that the Indians naturally thought the number of defenders much greater than it really was. The incident is related that an Indian ball struck near Roy and made the bark fly, and that he then watched closely in the direction the ball came from, and discovering the tassel or hair-bunch of an Indian to slowly rise from behind the river bank, he fired and killed him. Of course the Indians were always anxious to secure horses. In a log stable, not far off, with the door fronting the blockhouse, Roy, so it is said, had a fine horse, very likely only a pony, and that an Indian in his efforts to get the horse, and yet not expose his person in doing so, reached his hand around the corner of the stable to open the door, and that Roy shot off three of his fingers. But this was of no avail, because after the fight, when Roy looked for his horse he found that the Indians had secured the animal by cutting through the logs in the rear of the stable with their toma- hawks." But Jesse Farmer makes no mention of the attempt of the Indians to set fire to the blockhouse by sending burning arrows upon the roof, and that the fire was extinguished by the use of the water in the chambre-de-nuit, as related by Peck, but this perhaps, too, was an incident of this heroic defense.


In the meantime on the Mississippi, under the leadership of Black Hawk, the Saukees and Renards and allied Indian tribes continued a relentless war. In July, 1814, Lieutenant John Campbell of the First Infantry, acting as Brigade Major, was entrusted with the


" Life of John Mason Peck, pp. 130-131.


" Draper's Notes, vol. 6, pp. 313, et seq.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


command of an expedition up the Mississippi, consisting of forty regulars and sixty rangers. The detachment moved up the river in three keel-boats accompanied by the contractors, sutlers and boatmen, the whole party consisting of 133 people, including women. This force reached Rock river without any accident and when the boats arrived there they were visited by hundreds of the Saukees and Renards, and Campbell, unacquainted with Indian manners, supposed these visits to be friendly. However, after some of the boats had gone up the river, and thus the expedition divided, he was suddenly awakened out of his fatal dream of security by a mur- derous fire from the shore by the Indians. In this attack Campbell was severely wounded, so also Dr. Stewart, the surgeon, three regu- lars were killed and fourteen wounded One ranger was also killed and four wounded on Lieutenant Rector's barge, and two women and a child wounded. Ultimately the whole expedition with the exception of Campbell's barge, which was burned, escaped, prin- cipally owing to the timely arrival of the gunboat "Governor Clark," commanded by Capt. Yeizer, which happened on its return trip from Prairie du Chien to fortunately reach the scene of this disaster to render timely assistance. Subsequently Black Hawk repulsed.a force under Major Zachary Taylor on Rock river. This greatly em- boldened the Indians throughout the year and they continued their warfare along the Mississippi after the treaty of Ghent was signed December 24, 1814. In fact, it was evident that the Indians, although advised that peace had been declared, proposed independ- ently to continue the war.


Not long after Major Taylor had been repulsed, a man named Bernard was killed on the Dardenne, and so also William Linn, a ranger, within 30 rods of the fort opposite Cap au Gris. Linn had gone from the fort to the edge of the woods to visit a whiskey jug which he had concealed there, when the report of several guns was heard. Lieutenant Massey quickly went out, suspecting that the Indians were making an attack, and in this he was not mistaken, but they had crossed the.river below in their canoes and shortly appeared on Cap au Gris rock on the opposite side of the river, where a young Indian warrior only twelve years old flourished Linn's scalp, hallooed in the Saukee language, "Come here, you Americans, and we will serve you in the same way!" Linn's family at the time lived in Wood's fort. A few days after a young man, named Bowles, who went to a deer-lick at the foot of the bluff, about two and one-half


129


CAP AU GRIS


miles from Cap au Gris, was also killed and scalped." Another young man, residing at Portage des Sioux was vigorously pursued by four Indians and only escaped because he was well mounted."


Horses were constantly stolen by the Indians; the high water, usual in the spring, enabling the Indians to successfully baffle pursuit. Shaw, who has given a full and complete account of these Indian troubles in this neighborhood, in his narrative says that he too made a narrow escape one night before the Sink-hole fight, while riding from Cap au Gris to Fort Howard, that a party of Indians made an attempt to cut him off from the fort, but that by taking a by-path, while they were hid in ambush for him on the main trail, he escaped. In the spring of 1813 Rowell Durkee and Abraham Keitley went to look at their farms and crops, two or three miles from Cuivre fort. They met Black Hawk and one of his braves. Durkee was shot down and scalped; they also pursued Frederick Dickson who was with them; Dickson stubbed his foot and fell, and rising he seized a fence stake to strike Black Hawk, who backed out, and Dickson escaped. The other Indian chased Keitley perhaps half a mile, and just after he had crossed the Cuivre river, and was going up the bank Keitley, who alone was mounted, was shot dead. Two little boys of Durkees, who were with their father, fled to the woods when their father was killed, and were not pursued by the Indians.47


Black Hawk, in his autobiography, gives this account of this episode: "I landed some of our braves near Cap au Gris, the re- mainder of the party went to the mouth of Cuivre; I hurried across the trail that led from the mouth of the Cuivre to a fort and soon heard firing at the mouth of the creek. Myself and brave concealed ourselves by the side of the road. We had not remained here long when two men riding one horse came in full speed from the direction of the firing. When they came sufficiently near we fired; the horse jumped and both men fell. We rushed toward them; one rose and ran; I followed him and was gaining on him when he ran over a pile of rails that had lately been made, seized a stick and struck at me. I now had an opportunity to see his face; I knew him; he had been at Quashquama's village to learn his people how to plow. We looked upon him as a good man. I did not wish to kill him and pursued him no further. I returned and met my brave; he said


" Wisconsin Historical Collection, vol. 1, p. 215.


"Stephen's Life of Black Hawk, p. 561.


47 Draper's Notes, vol. 23, pp. 65-81.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


that he had killed the other man, and had his scalp in his hand. I had not proceeded far before we met the man, staggering like a drunk- en man, all covered with blood. This was the most terrible sight that I had ever seen. I told my comrade to kill him to put him out of his misery; I could not look at him; I passed on and heard a rustling in the bushes and distinctly saw two little boys concealing themselves. I thought of my own children and passed on without noticing them. My comrade here joined me and in a little while we met the balance of our party. I told them that we would be pur- sued and directed them to follow me." 48


Another incident of this war which at the time created great excitement was the atrocious butchery of the Ramsay family on the Femme Osage in St. Charles county, residing about six miles above Nathan Boone. Mrs. Ramsay had gone out to milk when the Indians fired on her and shot her through the body. Ramsay, who was a cripple, having but one leg, saw his wife fall, and managed to get her to the house, but as he reached the door received a wound in the thigh which prevented him from going to the relief of his three children who were chased by the Indians around the house, caught by them and scalped in the yard. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay both died from their wounds." When Nathan Boone and other settlers who had heard of this raid came to the place, one of the children, a boy about 5 years old, who had been scalped, still breathed, and as he opened his eyes and saw his father, he attempted to get up, and said, "Daddy, the Indians did scalp me," and died.50


The Sink-hole fight, in which Black Hawk was also engaged, occurred about the same time. Of this fight Colonel Shaw gives the following detailed account: "Of the Sink-hole battle fought on the 24th of May, 1815, near Fort Howard, I shall be able to give a full account, as I was present and participated in it. Captain Peter Craig who commanded at Fort Howard, was a resident of Cape Girar- deau county, and there resided with his father-in-law, Andrew Ramsay, and was not over thirty years of age. Drakeford Gray was Ist Lieutenant and Wilson Able the 2d, Edward Spears 3d Lieutenant.51 Craig enlisted this company in May and June, 1814,


48 Black Hawk's Autobiography, in "Pioneer Families of Missouri," p. 477.


" Niles' Register, vol. 8, p. 348, July 15, 1815.


" Duden's Bericht aus Nord Amerika, p. 117, (2d Ed.)


11 Drakeford Gray afterward resided in what is now Mississippi county, and thence removed to Kentucky. Wilson Able removed to Alexander county, Illinois, after the war; was the father of Capt. Barton Able and Daniel Able,


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for one year's service on the frontiers of Missouri and Illinois, and the company was attached to Col. William Russell's regiment and mustered into service July 2d."


Continuing Shaw says: "About noon five of the men went out of the fort to Byrne's deserted house on the bluff, about one- fourth of a mile below the fort, to bring in a grindstone. In conse- quence of backwater from the Mississippi they went in a canoe; and, on their return were fired on by a party, supposed to be fifty Indians, who were under shelter of some brush that grew along at the foot of the bluff near Byrne's house and about fifteen rods distance from the canoe at the time. Three of the whites were killed and one mortally wounded, and as the backwater where the canoe was was only about knee deep, the Indians ran out and tomahawked their victims. The people of the fort ran out as quick as possible and fired across the backwater at the Indians, but as they were nearly one-fourth of a mile off, it was of course without effect. Captain Craig, with some twenty-five men hastened in pursuit of the Indians and ran across a point of the backwater, a few inches deep, while another party, of whom I was one, of about twenty-five, ran to the right of the water with a view of intercepting the Indians, who seemed to be making towards the bluff or high plain west and north- west of the fort. The party with which I had started and Captain Craig's soon united. Immediately on the bluff was the cultivated field and deserted residence of Benjamin Allen, the field about forty rods across, beyond which was pretty thick timber. Here the


both afterwards distinguished citizens of St. Louis. The names of the members of Craig's company were as follows: James Atkinson, John Able, Stephen Byrd, Jonathan Brickey, John Brown, Touissant Bertheaume, James Brown, William B. Bush, Peter Barribeau, François Barribeau, Thomas Boyce, Burrel Castly, John Cameron, Charles Cardinal, William Crump, John Cooper, Jesse Cochran, Baptiste Cottu, Alexander Cottu, James Cowen, Hugh Dowlin, Elas Davis, Ludwell Davis, John Dotson, Samuel Foster, Able Galland, Alexander Giboney, Louis Guliah, Charles Hamilton, Louis Heneaux, Abijah Highsmith, John Houk, Benjamin Hall, John Holcomb, Frederick Hector, Thomas Hail, John Hodges, Stephen Jarbeau, Jehoida Jeffrey, Andrew Johnson, Baptiste Janneaux, Jr., Baptiste Janneaux, Sen., William King, Charles Lloyd, Francis Lemmey, (LeMoine), Joseph Lemmey (LeMoine), John Langston, Baptiste Le- Croix, Baptiste Labeaux, Stephen McKinzie, James Massey, Nathan McCarty, James Masterson, Mark Murphy, William Martin, Ben. Ogle, Samuel Parker, James Putney, Samuel Phillips, John Patterson, Antoine Pikey (Piquette), John Roach, Touissant Reeves, Robert Robertson, Joshua Simpson, John Sor- rels, John Sheppard, Alexander S. Scott, Joseph Seavers, Edward Stevenson, Solomon Thorn, Hubbard Tayon, John D. Upham, John Vance. Louis Vanure, Pascal Valle, George Wilt, William Wathen, Jenkins Williams, William Wells, Levi Wolverton, Michael Vigo, Frederick Webber, Isaac Gregory, George Van Leer.


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HISTORY OF MISSOURI


Indians made a stand and here the fight commenced. Both parties "treed," and as the firing waxed warm, the Indians slowly retired as the whites advanced. After this fight had been going on perhaps some ten minutes the whites were reinforced by Captain David Musick of Cap au Gris with about twenty men. Captain Musick had been on a scout towards the head of Cuivre river, and had returned, though this was unknown at Fort Howard, to the crossing of Cuivre river about a mile from the fort and about one and one-half mile from the scene of the conflict; he had stopped with his men to graze his horses, when, hearing the firing, they instantly remounted and dashed towards the place of battle, dismounted in the edge of the timber on the bluff and hitching their horses, they rushed through a part of the Indian line, and shortly after the enemy fled, a part bear- ing to the right of the Sink-hole towards Bob's creek, but the most of them taking refuge in the Sink-hole which was close by, where the main fighting had taken place. About the time the Indians were retreating Captain Craig exposed himself about four feet beyond his tree and was shot through the body and fell dead.52 James Putney was killed before Captain Craig, and perhaps one or two others.53 Before the Indians had retired to the Sink-hole the firing had become animated, loading was done quickly, shots rapidly exchanged, and when one of our party was killed or wounded it was announced aloud.


"This Sink-hole was about sixty feet in length, and about twelve to fifteen feet wide and ten to twelve feet deep. Near the bottom of the southeast side was a shelving rock, under which perhaps some fifty or sixty persons might have sheltered themselves. At the northeast end of the Sink-hole the descent was quite gradual, the other end much more abrupt, and the southeast side was nearly perpendicular, the other side about like the steep roof of a house. On the southeast side the Indians, as a further protection in case the whites should rush up, dug under the shelving rock with their knives; on the sides and in the bottom of the Sink-hole were some bushes which also served as something of a screen for the Indians.


" It is said that he ran up to the very edge of the Sink-hole to shoot an Indian, and was shot himself. Draper's Notes, vol. 23, pp. 63-81. He was scalped that night.


" Among the killed at this battle was Alexander Giboney, a nephew of Andrew Ramsay. History of Southeast Missouri, p. 274. Also James Putney, Antoine Pikey (or Piquette), H. Tayon and François Lemmey (Le- Moine); these were all buried near the fort, and a man was sent to St. Charles to secure aid for the wounded: John Patterson, Ben Hail (or Hale) and Abraham Letts. History of Southeast Missouri, p. 495.


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INDIANS DISAPPEAR


Captain Musick and his men took post on the northeast side of the Sink-hole and the others occupied other positions surrounding the enemy. As the trees approached close to the Sink-hole, these served in part to protect our party. Finding we could not get a good opportunity to dislodge the enemy, as they were best protected, those of our men who had families at the fort gradually went there, not knowing but a large body of Indians might seize the favorable occasion to take the fort while the men were mostly away, engaged in the exciting contest.




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