A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river, Part 19

Author: Lowry, Robert, 1830-1910; McCardle, William H
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Jackson, Miss. : R.H. Henry & Co.
Number of Pages: 674


USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 19


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"After the projected invasion in Mexico had failed, and Blannerhassett had broken up at his island, he returned to New Orleans, where he left the woman who had been his companion, and he embarked for the Island of New Prov- idence, one of the Bahamas, in the West Indies, and set- tled at Nassau, its capital, and recommenced the practice of law. In a short time he obtained a lucrative practice, and married a lady of one of the most respectable fami- lies in that place, and was soon disturbed by a visit from his Blannerhassett companion, who gave him much trouble before he could get her to retire in peace, which she did, and soon after returned to the United States, and is now believed to be a resident of one of the Southern States.


"When he settled in Nassau, he resumed his true name of Lewis Carr, and soon acquired a handsome living; but his restless spirit and intriguing disposition kept him con- 14


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stantly involved in difficulties, and his treatment of his wife was cruel in the extreme ; yet, by taking sides with the government, he was elected to the Assembly of the Bahamas, and was chosen its Speaker about 1829. This was his last elevation to notice ; his treatment of his wife and his continual debaucheries and seditions, as no money which he could command ever stopped his progress, dur- ing the years 1831 and 1832, he became so embarrassed that he was obliged to leave the island, and once more re- turned to Kingston, in Jamaica, from which place in 1833 he once more returned to the United States, and landed at Philadelphia under his true name, Lewis Carr, when, it is believed, that he, for the last time, visited Col. Burr, and soon after was taken sick and died in obscurity in the city of Philadelphia. At least, this is the belief of his wife and his friends at Nassau.


"Thus ended the life of this bold and restless spirit, which, from his entrance on public life until his death, was one continual scene of adventures. The years he lived at Nassau'were filled up with intrigues of a personal charac- ter, but from the time he left the United States in 1807, un- til 1833, he never resided at any other place than the Island of Providence.


"Our informant was the vice-consul of the United States, who lives on one of the Salt-Key, Bahama Islands, who read law with Blannerhassett, and was afterwards his partner for near twenty years, where he passed under his true name of Lewis Carr, and often told him this history of his life and connection with Col. Burr. So that the writer of this article, who was in Kingston, Jamaica, and at Salt-Key Island, last summer, for nearly a week, has no doubt of the truth of the foregoing narrative. The facts and circumstances of his connection with Col. Burr were fully detailed, and there was no room to doubt that Mr. Blannerhassett was really and truly Lewis Carr. He is not now in France, neither did he ever live in Montreal. M."


The foregoing letter was written and published in 1840, a full half century ago, and it bears internal evidence of the truth of the statements it makes. The reader of these pages will agree with us that this letter strips from the


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beautiful speech of Mr. Wirt his exaggerated and exu- berant description of Blannerhassett and his wife, which, lacking in the essential element of truth, is lacking in everything.


Before taking leave of Blannerhassett finally, we should observe that he arrived at Natchez either in January or February, 1807, when the Territory was so much excited by the Burr episode. He was ultimately sent to Rich- mond and was there discharged, after which he returned to Mississippi, and purchased a plantation in Claiborne county, near the town of Port Gibson, which he called La Cache, which was once owned by the brothers, Samuel and John Cobun, and their heirs probably still own it.


General Cowles Mead, as he was subsequently called, considered ยท the capture of Aaron Burr as the crowning glory of his life, and never wearied of rehearsing the story. He had not only organized five regiments of infan- try and cavalry in order to repel the invasion of Burr, but General Wilkinson had sufficient influence with Commo- dore Shaw, in command of the naval forces in the vicinity of New Orleans to induce that officer to concentrate eight war vessels, carrying in all fifty guns, at Natchez to inter- cept, capture or destroy the formidable flotilla of flat boats, assumed to be coming down the river under the orders of Colonel Burr. General Mead, whom this writer knew in the latter years of his life, was a man of intelligence and edu- cation, of great amiability and courtesy, of manly, frank and generous nature, but he suffered from a chronic attack of vanity in its most aggravated form. This weakness he shared in common with many men of more powerful in- tellects than he possessed, and if vanity is a fault, in man or woman, it certainly is a most harmless one. It makes the possessor happy, and injures no other human being. General Mead has been dead for more than forty years, and his mortal remains lie mouldering in the soil of Mississippi where he spent the best portion of a long and honorable life.


By an act of Congress, "approved January 9, 1808," the people of the Territory of Mississippi were authorized to elect their delegate to Congress, a function that heretofore


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had been devolved upon the Territorial Legislature. This change was gladly welcomed by the people generally, and more especially by aspiring and ambitious gentlemen who longed to serve their country, and who saw a more ex- tended and inviting field spread out before them.


The people of the Territory were greatly disturbed for several years by the various and conflicting titles to land, emanating from English and Spanish grants. Many of these latter, it was alleged, had been issued after the ces- sion of Spain to the United States, and antedated to give them the appearance of verity.


Two parties had arisen in the Territory, one in favor of dividing it into two, and the other bitterly opposing the division. The first party was composed almost exclusively of gentlemen residing east of Pearl river, in the settle- ments on the Tombigbee, and in that portion of the Terri- tory now comprised within the State of Alabama. These gentlemen thought they had good cause to be jealous of the western portion of the Territory, for the reason that the men of the west, living on or near the Mississippi, had thus far monopolized the Territorial offices and dignities, but Mr. Lattimore, who was then the delegate in Congress from the Territory, opposed the scheme for division, and it failed, as it should have done.


The Territory during the past four years was constantly improving in prosperity, and the population was steadily increasing, but there was no increase in the popularity of Governor Williams. On the contrary, he was becoming daily more unpopular. Claiborne tells us : "He was a man of peculiar temper, not of conciliatory address, very ob- stinate in his prejudices and never knew when to yield."


In the month of March, 1809, President Madison ap- pointed David Holmes Governor of the Mississippi Terri- tory, in lieu of Robert Williams, removed.


CHAPTER X.


MISSISSIPPI AS A TERRITORY, FROM 1809 TO 1817.


D AVID HOLMES was appointed Governor of the Mis- sissippi Territory, vice Robert Williams, removed. by President Madison, in March, 1809, and reached his post of duty in the early summer of that year. The newly appointed Governor was a native of Virginia, and had had twelve years experience in public life, as a representative in Congress from his native district in that State. His ap- pointment as Governor of this distant Territory induced many of his Virginia friends to remove to Mississippi, and take up their residence in this fertile region. The emi- grants from the old dominion, "included," as Col. Clai- borne declares, "the Thrustons, the Dangerfields, the Gil- darts, the Conrads, the Starks, the Nortons," and many others of high character.


Col. Claiborne pays the following just tribute to Gov - ernor Holmes :


"He discharged his executive duties with ability, firmness and tact. He assuaged the violence of party by the sua- vity of his manners, the blandness of his temper, and his inflexible official and personal integrity. He had no enemies. The Indian war and the British war occurred during his administration, and, of course, greatly aug- mented his responsibilities. Immense amounts of public money passed through his hands, but his early business training enabled him to keep everything straight."


The administration of Governor Holmes, extending over more than eight years, was a most eventful one. During the period of his rule in the Territory, a great war between the United States and England, then as now, one of the most powerful and warlike nations on earth, was


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raging. England was the unchallenged mistress of the ocean. Her wooden walls, flaunting the all-conquering red cross of St. George, plowed the waters of every sea, and her proud ensign was displayed in every clime. The country was not only engaged in a great war, but the peo- ple over whom he was called to rule, few in numbers, feeble, and but for their own stout hearts and strong arms, well nigh defenceless, were surrounded on every hand by blood- thirsty and implacable Indian foes.


Tecumseh, the most renowned warrior of the Shawnee Indians, living north of the Ohio, and brother of the celebrated "Prophet" of the same tribe, had recently visited the Choctaws, the Creeks and the Seminoles, and by his fiery and impassioned oratory had aroused those tribes to the highest pitch of excitement and resentment. The Spaniards still retained possession of Mobile and Pensacola, and were more than willing to furnish the Indians with arms and ammunition, and ever ready by the wiles they perfectly understood, to increase the discontent of the red men, and to inflame their hearts with animosity against their American neighbors.


The men of Mississippi, inured to danger and hardship almost from the cradle, sprung to arms on the instant, for the defence of their homes, their wives, their children and their sweethearts. No nobler example of a free, proud and heroic race, was ever presented than the alacrity with which these resolute men rallied to the defence of all they held dear. Every county in the Territory responded to the call of duty. Every neighborhood furnished its quota. Gray-haired sires and their stripling sons rushed to the front, armed with their unerring rifles. The poetic idea of Sir Walter Scott in reference to the the Highland Chief, Roderick Duh, and his faithful and hardy followers, was fully realized in that hour of danger and of dread. Sir Walter tells us that when the shrill whistle of Roderick Dhu was heard,


"Instant from copse and heath arose Bonnets and spears and bended bows !"


The first sound of the trumpet called the men of Missis- sippi to arms, prepared to die if need be, in defence of


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their homes and their loved ones. Claiborne in his volume furnishes the roster of the officers commanding the troops of the Territory, and it is gladly transferred to these pages :


On the 16th of July, 1812, Governor Holmes, on a requi- sition from General Wilkinson, ordered a draft of the mili- tia, a certain quota from each regiment, to rendezvous at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to be organized into a brigade. Col. Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne was commissioned Briga- dier-General to command them.


On the 18th of August, less than thirty days after the order had been generally known, General Claiborne re- ported to the Governor that the entire quota from the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 10th, 11th, and 13th regiments had been en- rolled from volunteers.


, This brigade of Mississippi volunteers was held in a state of inaction at Baton Rouge, until June 28th, 1813. On that date General Claiborne moved with his command, and the following is the roster of the officers :


Brigadier-General F. L. Claiborne, with Captain Joseph P. Kennedy and Lieutenant Alexander Calvit, as staff officers. Joseph Carson, Colonel; George T. Ross, Lieu- tenant Colonel ; Daniel Beasley, Major ; Wm. R. Deloach, Lieutenant and Adjutant ; Benjamin F. Savage, Lieutenant and Quartermaster ; John Ker, Surgeon, and B. F. Harney and Wm. R. Cox, Assistant Surgeons.


The following were the company commanders : Captains John Nelson, Joseph P. Kennedy, Louis Pambeuf, Phillip A. Engle, Archilaus Wells, Randal Jones, William Jack, Gerard C. Brandon, Abram M. Scott, (each of these two gen- tlemen became Governor after Mississippi was admitted into the Union,) Wm. C. Mead, Benjamin Dent, Hatton Mid- dleton, James Foster; L. V. Foelkil, Charles G. Johnson and Hans Morrison.


Lieutenants, James Bailey, Richardson Bowman, Audly L. Osborne, Wm. Morgan, George P. Lilly, John D. Rod- gers, Theron Kellogg, Andrew Montgomery, John Camp, John Allen, Robert Layson, Charles Moore, Charles Bar- ron, Spruce M. Osborne, Nicholas Lockridge, Robert C. Anderson, Benjamin Bridges and Kean Caldwell.


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ENSIGNS-James M. Arthur, George Doughtery, Wm. R. Chambliss, John Files, Thomas C. Vaughn, Robert Swan, Stephen Mayes. James Luckett, George H. Gibbs, Elbert Burton, David M. Callihan, Young R. McDonald, Benjamin Blanton, Benjamin Stowell, Wm. S. Britt, Isaac W. Davis, and John Cohn, cornet of the dragoons.


The following is the roster of the company commanders of a Mississippi Battalion under the command of Major George H. Nixon, who were stationed at the Mount Ver- non cantonment, near Fort Stoddart, in what is now Ala- bama, in December, 1813 :


CAPTAINS-Robert Twilley, John Lowry, Parmenas Briscoe, Samuel Batchelor and G. Y. Glassburn. These troops were mostly from Claiborne and Amite counties.


Meantime, in the preceding April, Commodore Shaw, commanding the naval forces of the United States in the Southern waters, surprised and captured Mobile without firing a shot, a Spanish force still being in possession of that place.


During the summer the battle of "Burnt Corn" was fought, and by bad management on the part of somebody, the Indians remained masters of the field. There was great alarm'felt for the safety of the settlements on the east- ern frontier, when with the suddenness of a peal of thun- der from a cloudless sky, the people of the entire Territory were astounded with the intelligence of the surprise and massacre of the garrison at Fort Mims. This event was entirely unexpected even by the nearest military com- manders. On the morning of the 30th of August, 1813, Major Beasley, who was in command of Fort Mims, wrote to General Claiborne enclosing his morning reports. He informed that officer that he had "improved the fort, and made it much stronger than when you were here," and two hours later, having detained his messenger for some pur- pose, he again wrote, expressing his "ability to maintain the post against any number of Indians!"


In less than two hours after the last note was penned, one thousand Indians who had been lying in ambush in a deep ravine, within a short distance of the fort, advanced rapidly from their hiding place, poured through the open


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outer gate, and the work of slaughter began. and was ended in a brief space of time. Major Beasley, who was a Mississippi soldier. rushed to the gate to close it on the first alarm and fell pierced with a dozen bullets. The gar- rison ready "for duty" on the morning of that fatal 30th of August, was one hundred and five, while the entire number in the stockade was two hundred and seventy-five, according to Claiborne, "of whom not more than fifteen escaped."


From all accounts, the commander of the fort, who was a brave soldier, with no taint of fear about him, held the Indians in great contempt, was irritated by numerous false alarms, and as "a taunt and in derision of the timid, had the main gateway thrown open." Pickett, in his history of Alabama, referring to the slaughter at Fort Mims, says : "Major Beasley rushed, sword in hand, and assayed in vain to shut it. The sand had washed against it and it could not be shut !" From this it appears that the gate had been open for several days before the attack.


The Indians, lying in ambush within a short distance of the open gate of the stockade which surrounded the fort, bided their time in assured confidence. At the hour of 12 M., when the drum was sounding the signal for dinner, these savages, led by McQueen, Weatherford and Francis, ran from their place of ambush and got within thirty yards of the open gate before they were discovered. It has already been recorded how Major Beasley rushed to the open gateway and assayed to close it. The effort was vain. Before he could shut the gate he fell, like the Greek Bozzaris, in the hour of victory, "bleeding at every vein." Claiborne, in describing the slaughter, says, "Captain Middleton and his company were posted at the inside eastern gate, and there nearly to a man they fell. Captain Jack, with his riflemen, was posted in the south bastion; Lieutenant Randon in the guard-house, and Captain Dixon Bailey behind the northern line of pickets. The Indians assailed all these positions simultaneously, and through the port holes poured a constant fire on the frantic women and children, whose wild shrieks rose above the yells of the savages and the clamor of battle. By this time the


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buildings were on fire, and every officer had fallen except the brave half-breed Captain Dixon Bailey, and all the soldiers were dead or wounded. As the Indians rushed in and commenced to massacre the wounded and the women and children, Dr. Holmes, Captain Bailey, Lieutenant Chambliss, (of Claiborne county), and two or three others, all wounded, made their escape. Captain Bailey soon died; the others finally reached Mount Vernon. Half a dozen other fugitives subsequently came in."


There can be no question of the courage of Major Beas- ley. This writer, in his earlier years, knew many persons who were intimately acquainted with this unfortunate officer, and they all spoke of him as a brave, chivalrous, frank and generous man. He was the soul of honor, but his confidence in his soldiers and his contempt for his foes led to his and their ruin and the slaughter of many inno- cent women and children. Grievous as was his error, he expiated that error with his life, and we would plant neither thorn nor thistle on his grave. Major Daniel Beasley was a genuine Mississippian, and resided in Clai- borne county. He was sent by General Claiborne, in whose brigade he was serving, to reinforce Fort Mims, and by right of his rank became the commanding officer there.


The trepidation and alarm caused by the fall of Fort Mims is well described by Claiborne. He says :


"This terrible tragedy spread consternation through the Territory. On the immediate frontier, the whole popula- tion fled to the stockades, leaving their abundant crops un- gathered. No one knew where the next blow would fall, and a coalition of the Creeks and the Choctaws was gen- erally apprehended. The citizens on the Chickasahay and Pearl Rivers erected stockades. The alarm penetrated to Baton Rouge and St. Francisville, in Louisiana, and to Natchez, Port Gibson, Winchester and Walnut Hills, (now Vicksburg), and strong committees of vigilance and safety were organized.


"At a meeting held in Port Gibson, in Claiborne county, on September 18th, 1813, for the purpose of taking meas- ures for the public safety of said county, Col. Daniel Bur- nett was called to the chair, and Jefferson H. Moore was


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appointed secretary. On motion of Herman Blannerhas- sett, it was resolved that a committee of seven persons be appointed to inquire into the foundation of the late alarm, and also to report and recommend such means as they think best calculated for our defence, and the following gentlemen were appointed, to-wit : Major Clark, Herman Blannerhassett, H. Harmon, Col. Ralph Regan, Captain Parmenas Briscoe, William Briscoe and Thomas Barnes, who soon made the following report : 'That from the best information they can obtain, the late alarm of invasion on the frontiers of this county by a savage enemy, has been groundless and unfounded. But a crisis is at present arrived, at which it is no longer doubtful that such a ca- lamity ought to be expected and provided against by a system of defense the most speedy in its creation and ef- fective in itself. That for this purpose the committee recommend the erection of stockade forts at three points, to be viewed and determined on by a committee on the frontier ; also one strong fort to be erected in such central part of the county as shall be fixed upon by a committee. The committee think that other dangers to which the county is exposed, from a local source, as well as from a savage invasion, should cause the erection of all the forts at one and the same time.


""'Your committee further recommend to such planters as can conveniently, by their own force and that of neigh- bors, within convenient distance, the erection of local block houses on their plantations. They invite and recom- mend every voluntary aid their fellow-citizens can lend to the militia duty, of keeping up a regular and constant party of rangers and spies on the frontier.'"


The following gentlemen were appointed by the chair- man, (Col. Burnett,) Major Clarke, Captain Johnson, Cap- tain Parmenas Briscoe, David McCaleb, John Booth, Gib- son Clarke and Moses Shelby, as the Frontier Committee.


And the following composed the Central Committee : Thomas Barnes, William Tabor, Samuel Gibson, William Briscoe, Herman Blannerhassett, Col. Ralph Regan, James Watson, Daniel Burnett, Thomas Farrar, Judge Leake and Robert Cochran.


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These were the first men in the county-first in charac- ter, intelligence, courage and property interests, with the exception of Blannerhassett, and their descendants in large numbers are still to be found in Mississippi, Louis- iana and Texas.


Governor Holmes was not idle or indifferent in the mean- time. As early as September the 2d, he issued his proc- lamation for a draft of five hundred men from the militia and ordered the cavalry companies to hold themselves in readiness for marching orders. In three days the Jeffer- son troop, Captain Dougherty, with sixty men and horses, reported at the capital of the Territory, and immediately took up the line of march for the frontier. The commands of Captains Bullen and Grafton (two companies of infan- try), followed the next day, and on the following day Cap- tain Kemp, at the head of the Adams county troop, moved forward.


In a very brief space of time there was concentrated at Mount Vernon five companies of infantry and four strong companies of cavalry, the latter under the command of Major Thomas Hinds.


General Flournoy was then in command of the United States forces in the Southwest, General Wilkinson having been ordered north for service. General Flournoy was doubtless a brave and honorable gentleman, but he was utterly without experience as a soldier. He had been a prominent lawyer in Georgia, but his legal battles before the courts had never taught him how to conduct a cam- paign against the wily red men of the forest, and hence his operations against the Indians were conspicuous only by their failure. He became greatly displeased with the battalion of Mississippi dragoons, commanded by Major Hinds, and proposed to take from them the arms furnished by the Territorial government, and place them in the hands of men who were willing to fight. And yet these men, two years later, won from that splendid soldier. General Andrew Jackson, after the victory of New Orleans had been secured, a compliment that has never been sur- passed.


General F. L. Claiborne, commanding the Mississippi


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troops, was the brother of Wm. C. C. Claiborne, former Governor of the Mississippi Territory, and was at that period Governor of the State of Louisiana. He was also the father of the distinguished John F. H. Claiborne, emi- nent as an orator, a Representative in Congress, an author of celebrity, and distinguished for his scholarly attain- ments.


General Claiborne was exceedingly anxious to lead an expedition into the heart of the Creek Nation, and punish that tribe for their atrocities at Fort Mims, but General Flournoy seemed to prefer a defensive rather than an aggressive campaign.


After the terrible massacre at Fort Mims, by the advice of the Prophet, a fort and village had been built in a re- mote and secluded spot to which no path led, and was called Ecanachaha, or Holy Ground. The Prophets took up their abode here, and assured their followers that no pale faces could approach it. Speaking of this secret stronghold, Pickett, in his history of Alabama, has this to say : "It had been strongly fortified in the Indian manner. Some two hundred houses were erected, and it was the point to which those who had been on marauding expedi- tions, or in battle, retreated with their plunder and for safety. It stood upon a bluff on the eastern side of the Alabama river, just below Powell's ferry, in the county of Lowndes. Here many of the white persons had been burned to death."




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