USA > Ohio > A history of the state of Ohio, natural and civil > Part 17
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from Winchester, ordered Charles S. Tod, a judge advocate in the army, to reach Winchester, ascertain his position, and what he was doing, to deliver, also, the orders of Harrison to him. Tod, our late minister to Colombia, taking along with him, two or three gentlemen of Michigan, and as many Wyan- dot Indians, proceeded directly across the country, through " the black swamp," with secrecy and despatch, eluding all the scouts of the enemy, and reached Winchester in safety. He then delivered his orders from General Harrison to Win- chester : " that as soon as he had twenty day's provisions, to move forward to the rapids; to erect block houses, as if he in- tended to winter there; to build sleds as if to bring on provi- sions from the interior, for the support of his army, during the winter."
On the 10th of January, 1813, General Winchester, with his little army arrived at the rapids, having previously sent for- ward a detachment of six hundred and seventy men under General Payne, to attack a body of troops belonging to the enemy, which he understood were posted where Toledo now stands on Swan creek.
Having descended the Maumee below the old British garri- son, at the foot of the rapids, General Payne ordered some spies forward to reconnoiter the ground where he understood the enemy was posted, but finding no enemy there, these spies returned to the detachment, to which they belonged. The whole command under Payne now returned to Winchester, at a place, opposite the middle of the rapids. On the northern bank of the Maumee, Winchester, posted himself. His position was just above Wayne's battle ground, and precisely opposite, the spot where Hull's road struck the rapids. On an eminence surrounded by woods, and beyond them, prairies, the encamp- ment was of an oval form, and well chosen. A few Indians were discovered by our army, routed and driven off, on the tenth. On the 11th of January, Winchester sent a despatch, to General Harrison, informing him, of all he had done, but, being sent, by some men who were taking back some of Tup- per's worn out horses, the message, went to Fort McArthur,
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where Tupper lay, and finally, reached Harrison, at the rapids, from whence it had been forwarded, several weeks before its reception. Winchester erected a large store house, in his en- campment, and, filled it with corn, from the fields around him.
He also contrived the means of shelling and pounding it, whereby he supplied his troops with good wholesome bread, such as they were used to, and were fond of eating at home. On the 13th of January, Winchester received information, through two Frenchmen, that the Indians, threatened to burn Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, twenty-six miles from Detroit.
These people claimed the protection of the Americans. On the 14th the citizens of Frenchtown, repeated their urgent request. On the 16th the two messengers, repeated the pit- eous request, urging the necessity of protecting them, other- wise, as our army advanced towards them, their town would be burnt, and themselves all massacred. These messengers stated the enemy's force to be, two companies of Canadians, and two hundred Indians, but they feared more would soon be there. These different messengers created a great ferment in the minds of our troops. They could without a murmur, bear great sufferings for their country, but such appeals from these Canadians, who possessed so much friendship for us, these Ken- tuckians could not longer bear. So a council of war was call- ed, to deliberate on the matter. This council of war decided by an overwhelming majority, that a strong detachment should forthwith, be sent forward to protect these Canadians. In ac- cordance with this decision, Winchester, ordered Colonel Lew- is, with five hundred and fifty men, to march to the river Raisin. This march was commenced on the morning of the 17th of January 1813.
Within a few hours after Lewis had marched out of the camp, he was followed by Colonel Allen, with one hundred and ten more troops. The latter came up with Lewis, late that evening; at Presque Isle, where he had encamped for the night, twenty miles from Winchester's head quarters. Here Lewis was informed, by an express from the river Raisin, that four hundred Indians were there, and that Elliot was moment-
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ly expected there with a force, with which, he intended to at- tack Winchester on the Maumee. Despatching a messenger with this news, to the head quarters at the rapids, he early next morning, marched for Frenchtown, intending to reach that place before Elliot's arrival. The village which he was marching to defend, was located precisely half way between Presque Isle and Malden, eighteen miles, from each place. Lewis's march was either on the ice of Maumee bay, or on that of lake Erie. Six miles from Frenchtown he was discovered by a few Indians who gave the alarm to the main body of the enemy. Our army now halted and prepared to leave the lake and march to the town. They took some refreshments, then forming three lines, they passed through a piece of woods and moved forward through an open prairie, in order of battle. Colonel Allen commanded the right line composed of the com- panies under captains McCracken, Bledsoe and Matson. The left line, composed of the companies under captains Ham- ilton, Williams and Kelly was commanded by major Graves. The centre consisted of the companies of captains Hightower, Collier and Sebree, commanded by major Madison, nephew of the then President of the United States. In front of these three lines, as a guard, marched the companies of Hickman, Graves and James, commanded by Captain Ballard, acting as major. Thus marching forward, they reached Frenchtown. When within eighty rods of the town they saw the enemy in motion among the houses, and behind the fences around the gardens. Him they drove thence, from all his coverts and hiding places, into a wood. Here he made a stand with his howitzer and small arms, but all in vain. Our troops drove him out of the woods, a distance of two miles, every step un- der a charge, for the last hour. It was now dark. The ac- tion had commenced at three o'clock in the afternoon. Return- ing to the village, of which they took peaceable possession, and occupied it unmolested, until morning. In this warmly. contested action, every officer, and every soldier did his duty. Our loss was twelve killed and fifty-five wounded. Among the latter, were captains Hickman, Matson and Ballard.
R
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The enemy left fifteen dead in the open field, but as the principal fighting took place in the woods, about dark-and from appearances, next day, on that portion of the battle ground, from which the enemy had carried off his killed and wounded, his loss must have been very severe. The enemy was commanded by major Reynolds of the regular British army. He had one thousand regulars and four hundred Indi- ans under him, in this contest.
Our troops were now located in a village where they had all the necessaries of life, and many of its comforts. The wounded were well accommodated and faithfully nursed.
Lewis informed Winchester of his success on the night af- ter the battle, the express reaching the rapids before daylight next morning. This news inflamed the minds of our troops at the rapids, with a determination to march forward and sus- tain the advanced corps, now though victorious, evidently in peril, from its vicinity to the British head quarters, only eigh- teen miles distant from Frenchtown. General Winchester, with two hundred and fifty men, which were all that could be spared from the rapids, on the evening of the 19th of January, marched directly towards Frenchtown where he arrived on the evening of the 20th. On the right of Lewis's encamp- ment, in an open lot of ground, Winchester on his arrival posted his two hundred and fifty men. Lewis had encamped where he was protected from small arms by garden pickets.
On the south side of the river, three hundred yards distant from his army, lying on the north side of the river, Winches- ter took up his quarters for the night. That same evening, the 20th, a Frenchman came from Malden to Winchester, and informed him that a large force amounting to three thou- sand men was on the point of leaving the enemy's head quar- ters, for Frenchtown. To this news, Winchester paid no at- tention. A most fatal security prevailed in our army ; many of the soldiers wandered about the town, until a late hour at night. On the next night, guards were stationed as usual, but no guard was placed on the road leading to Malden. On this road, unmolested and unobserved by our troops, the ene-
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my approached that night, within three hundred yards of our army, and posted himself with his artillery, bchind a ravine, which run across the plain on the right of our troops. A few minutes after the reveille was beat next morning, our army heard three guns, in quick succession, after cach othier, which were fired by our sentinels. Instantly afterwards, the cnomy opened a fire upon our troops, three hundred yards distant from them. Their artillery discharged balls, bombs and grape shot .. As soon as the enemy approached Lewis' command near enough, he opened, from behind his pickets, a well directed fire of musketry upon him. The Indians of the enemy, opened their yells on the right and left flanks of the British army. Lewis soon repulsed all that approached him. Win- chester's force encamped in an open field, unprotected, soon gave way, and being surrounded by Indians, that portion of our troops were panic stricken, and so fled in dismay and confusion over the river. Even a reinforcement which Lew- is, from behind his pickets, had sent to assist them, was car- ried along with it. Attempts were now made by Winchester and two colonels, to rally thesc flying troops on the south side of tlic river, but in vain. The Indians liad gained their left flank and taken possession of the woods in their rear. This detachment in their terror and confusion attempted to pass through a long narrow road, which led out of the town. The savages posting themselves on both sides of this lane behind its fences, shot down not a few of our troops in this road. More than one hundred of our men, gained the woods on their right where they were instantly surrounded by Indians, shot down, scalped and tomahawkcd. Horrible destruction over- whelmed the fugitives on all sides. Captain Simpson was shot and tomahawked at the entrance into the lanc. Colonel Allen, though severely wounded in the thigh, attempted sev- eral times to rally his men. Wounded as he was, he had es -. caped two miles, where exhausted with the loss of blood, and worn down with fatiguc, he seated himself on a log. An In- dian warrior approached, and ordered a surrender. An- other Indian approached with a hostile appearance, whom
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the Colonel instantly killed. A third Indian then came near him and shot him dead. Captain Mead was killed at the com . mencement of the action. A party under lieutenant Gar- rett consisting of fifteen or twenty men, retreated a mile and a half, where they surrendered and were massacred, all but the lieutenant himself.
The snow was deep, our men were completely exhausted in the latter part of the action, and so fell an easy prey to a merciless enemy. General Winchester and colonel Lewis were taken prisoners at a bridge about three-fourths of a mile from the town. Stripping them of their coats, they were carried to colonel Proctor by their captors.
All this time, amidst all this desolation and death, Madison and Graves maintained their position behind their pickets, with more than Spartan valor. Proctor finding it useless lon- ger to assail this little band of heroes, withdrew his forces from before it, and posted himself in some woods, beyond the reach of our rifles. As soon as Proctor ascertained that Win- chester was taken prisoner, he determined to get possession of Madison, Graves and their men behind the pickets, without further contest. Winchester instantly agreed to surrender these brave men. Major Overton, his aid, accompanied by Proctor himself, and several British officers, carried a flag of truce and an order from Winchester, directed to Madison and Graves to surrender themselves and men to the enemy. Af- ter some threats from Proctor, and some little altercation be- tween them, the British commander agreed to receive a sur- render on the following terms: "that private property should be respected-that sleds should be provided next morning to- convey the wounded to Amherstburgh near Malden-that in the meantime they should be protected by a guard-and final- ly, that the side arms of the officers should be restored to them at Malden." Reduced to half a keg of cartridges, surround -. ed by three times their own number of enemies, without any hope of being reinforced from any quarter, it would have- been madness in them to refuse such terms, and Madison and Graves did surrender on these terms, and relied on British hon-
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or to see them observed. Proctor and the army under him, at noon, marched off to Malden, leaving only Reynolds, and two or three other officers, as a guard to protect the sick and the wounded!
Next morning about daylight, instead of sleds, two hundred Indians arrived from Malden. They soon deter- mined to murder all the wounded. Raising their frantic yells, painted black, they began to plunder the houses of the inhab- itants. They next broke into the houses where the wounded were, plundered, tomahawked and scalped them without mercy. Soon afterwards, the houses of Jean B. Jerome and Gabriel Godfroy, which contained nearly all the wounded, were set on fire. In these houses were consumed most of the wounded prisoners. Several who were able to crawl, endeavored to es- cape at the windows, but they were tomahawked and pushed back into the houses and consumed in the flames. Others were killed in the streets and thrown into the burning houses and there consumed in the fire. Many were killed in the streets, horridly mangled and there left by the savages. We might fill several pages with these horrid details, all going to prove, beyond all doubt, that Proctor, Elliot and the British officers ordered these horrid murders of the wounded prisoners. But what is more sickening still to the human heart, is the fact, that the British government, as soon as well informed of these butcheries in cold blood, of our countrymen, promoted colonel Proctor, on their account, to be a major general, in their regular army. What shall we say of such a government? Language cannot express our horror, our scorn, and indignation, on this occasion.
In this action we lost in killed, massacred and missing, two hundred and ninety men. The British captured five hundred and forty-seven prisoners; the Indians, forty-five, and thirty- three escaped to the rapids. When the action commenced, we had eight hundred and fifty effective men, the enemy had two thousand. He lost, as near as we could learn, between three and four hundred men. R*
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These Kentuckians thus slaughtered, belonged to the best families in Kentucky, and the news of their untimely fate clothed all the people of that state, in mourning. Mrs. Hen- ry Clay, lost a brother, who was taken prisoner, wounded, kill- ed, tomahawked and scalped by the savages-Nathaniel G. S. Hart, inspector general of the army.
For a disaster so dreadful, who is to be blamed? Not gen- eral Harrison, because he never ordered such a rash move- ment of Winchester's force, nor even authorized, or counte- Danced it. Indeed, Harrison had no knowledge of the move- ment until Winchester's express informed him of Lewis' move- ment at Lower Sandusky, sixty or seventy miles distant from the rapids. Harrison despatched three hundred men, however, and a piece of artillery, to the rapids. The roads were so bad that the cannon did not reach the rapids until after the fatal dis- aster. On the morning of the 19th, at four o'clock, another ex- press arrived from the rapids and confirmed the former report that Lewis had marched to the River Raisin. A regiment and a battalion lay at Lower Sandusky, and this regiment was in- stantly marched off to the rapids. The General immediately marched himself, thither across the Black Swamp. He travel- ed forty miles in a day, leading his horse frequently and jump- ing from bog to bog. He traveled thus all night, and reached the rapids on the morning of the twelfth. General Winchester with all his disposeable force, had left there in the night preceding Harrison's arrival. Nothing now could be done but wait for the arrival of the regiment, which was on its march from Lower Sandusky. Harrison now clearly foresaw Winchester's inevi- table fate. He had thrown himself into the very jaws of the enemy. beyond the reach of succor; but all that Harrison could do, was done by him.
On the evening of the 22nd, Perkins's regiment and a battal- ion of other militia arrived at the rapids. The news of Win- chester's defeat, also reached the rapids, late on the same even- ing. Harrison now called a council of his officers, to take into consideration what steps should then be taken? The unani- mous opinion of this council was in favor of falling back eigh-
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teen miles to Portage river. This advice was instantly car- ried into effect.
Being fully informed of the extent of Winchester's disaster, General Harrison immediately thereafter, despatched Doctor McKeehan, with medicines and gold, to Malden, to admin- ister relief to the wounded and sick prisoners, now con- fined, with the other captives, in an open, muddy, wood yard; without fire, at Malden. Harrison gave the Doctor an open letter, addressed to any British officer, with whom he should fall in with, on his route. Doctor McKeehan was accompanied, ยท in his cariole, by a Frenchman, as his guide. Bearing about kim, his commission of surgeon of our army, a quantity of me- dicines, a considerable sum of money, in gold, his open letter and a flag of truce, as an emblem, of the holy errand, upon which he was sent; he and his guide, proceeded on their way towards Malden. As he journeyed onwards, he was at- tacked by the enemy, his companion slain, and himself woun- ded, and made prisoner. In this condition he reached Malden. Proctor took from him, his gold, medicines, horse, cariole, and flag of truce! Loading his prisoner, with heavy irons, Proctor confined the doctor, in a dungeon. From Malden, Proctor sent him in irons to Niagara; from thence he was trans- ported in irons, from dungeon to dungeon, all the way to Que- bec !! Are we describing the conduct of the savages on the Niger? of the Upper Nile? or of some barbarous nation in the heart of central Africa? No reader, we are stating, without coloring, the treatment of Doctor McKeehan, sent on the holiest errand that any man could be sent, to a British army, belonging to a nation, who professes to be, " the bulwark of our religion!" A nation, professing more humanity and reli- gion, than any other, in the world! But at the same time, a nation, who for its numbers has shed more human blood than, any other; a nation more cruel, more wicked; and who has done less good in the world, than almost any other nation; who has enslaved more men, and now holds them in bondage, than any other nation, now or ever in existence.
The Christianity of the British government is shown, by
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supporting episcopacy in England, presbyterianism in Scot- land; the Roman catholics in Canada; and idolatry in India! The British government boasts of their efforts to send mission- aries to the heathen! For every sixpence which they have thus expended a thousand pounds have been spent by them, in shedding human blood, and in enslaving mankind. And, this nation, thus steeped in human gore, dyed deep in infamy of all sorts, now employs itself in reading moral lectures to us, on the impropriety of our holding slaves. [See the Appendix-III.]
Doctor McKeehan, was finally released from his imprison- ment in the succeeding May, but, his bodily constitution was entirely destroyed, by the treatment which he had received. He returned to his own country, but death, has long since re- leased, the sufferer from his pains.
The sufferings of this Northwestern army at this time, may be fairly estimated, from the contents of a letter of a Pittsburgh volunteer to his friend: "On the 2nd day of our march, a courier arrived from General Harrison, ordering the artillery to advance with all possible speed. This was impossible from the snow, it being a perfect swamp, all the way. On the same evening a messenger informed us, that the General had retreated eighteen miles in rear of the rapids, to Portage river. As many men as could be spared determined forthwith to rein- force him there.
"Our company determined to advance. Early next morn- ing at 2 o'clock A. M. our tents were struck, and in half an hour, we were on our way advancing. I will candidly confess that on that day, I regreted being a soldier. On that day, we marched thirty miles, in an incessant rain. And I fear that you will doubt my veracity, when I tell you, that for eight miles of that thirty, it took us over the knees, and often up to the middle. The black swamp, four miles from Portage river, and four miles in extent, would have been considered impassa- ble, by any men, not determined to surmount every obstacle. The water on the ice, was about six inches deep-the ice was very rotten, often breaking through four or five feet. That night we encamped, on the best ground we could find, but it
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was very wet. It was next to impossible, to raise fires. We had no tents, no axes, our clothes perfectly wetted through, and we had little to eat. From a brigade of packhorses, near us, we got some flour; we killed a hog, from a drove; our bread we baked in the ashes, and our meat was broiled on the coals. This was the sweetest meal, I ever ate. Two logs rolled close together, to keep us out of the water, was my bed."
From the Ohio river, to lake Erie, and from the Sandusky to the Maumee river, inclusive (the ice excepted) the Pittsburgh volunteer's description, is not a bad one of the roads, where troops, pack horses, wagons and artillery were in motion, that winter, except some few days, before and after new year's day.
Still determined on regaining Detroit, that winter if possible ; after urging forward to join him at the mouth of Portage river, all the troops at Upper and Lower Sandusky, and their bag- gage; about the first of February, 1813, Harrison was with all his force, again at the Maumee rapids. As it was the General's intention to make the ground at the rapids, his grand depot of troops, stores, artillery, &c., he ordered cap- tain Wood, of the Engineers to fortify that position. The county whose seat of justice is near these rapids now bears his name-Woon. The fort was afterwards named MEIGS, in honor of governor Meigs. About the 20th of February, the term for which two brigades of Ohio militia had enlisted ex- pired. They had behaved very well, and their officers ad- dressed a parting letter to general Harrison highly compli- mentary. Their names follow: EDWARD W. TUPPER, briga- dier general; SIMON PERKINS, brigadier general; CHARLES MIL- LER, colonel; JOHN ANDREWS, lieutenant colonel; WILLIAM RAYEN, colonel; ROBERT SAFFORD, lieutenant colonel; N. BEASLY, major; JAMES GALLOWAY, major; SOLOMON BENTLEY major; GEORGE DARROW, major: W. W. COTGREAVE, major; JACOB FREDERICK, major.
These officers and their troops, had guarded the northeast- ern frontier, from early in the summer of 1812, after Hull's defeat. They had cut all the roads, and transported all the
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artillery on them to Fort Meigs, through a swamp, in fact of one hundred and forty miles in width. They had been aided in the winter, by some few volunteers from Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia.
These troops left the rapids on the 20th February. Before this time the General saw the impossibility of reaching De- troit that winter, and abandoned the idea of so doing. Leav- ing the troops, in the garrison, he hastily departed into the in- terior, by way of the Sanduskys, Delaware, Franklinton and Chillicothe to Cincinnati. He everywhere as he moved along, urged forward to Fort Meigs, troops, provisions, and all the munition's of war. At Chillicothe, he found Colonel John Mil- ler, and one hundred and twenty regulars under him, of the 19th regiment. These, the General ordered to Fort Meigs by way of the Anglaize route. He found but one company of Kentuckians at Newport, but two or three other companies soon reaching that place, he mounted the whole of them on pack horses, and ordered them to Fort Meigs. Going forward himself, he ordered Major Ball, and his dragoons who had been cantoned at Lebanon ever since their return from the Missisin- eway expedition, to march to the same point, Harrison him- self, marched to Amanda on the Anglaize. Here he found colo- nel Miller and his regulars, just arrived from Chillicothe, and colonel Mills of the militia, with one hundred and fifty men who had been building and had completed a fleet of boats. Into these boats the General and these troops and boat builders en- tered, and in this way, reached Fort Meigs on the 11th of April, 1813, The waters were high, out of their banks, and the navigation difficult and dangerous. Our General arrived, however, in safety, Tarrying near the fort in the boats, over night, and ascertaining that the fort was not invested by the enemy, he and his detachment entered the fort early in the morning of the 12th of April, Ball's dragoons and the moun- ted Kentuckians, had reached the fort before the General. Colonel Leftwich and his Virginians had entirely gone off, and only two hundred and fifty of the Pennsylvanians remain- ed until the General should return, Leftwich, under whose
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