Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 40

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020

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der them if they did not surrender without re- sistance. The boat party attempted to escape down the river but were fired upon by the In- dians and pursued. The Americans were obliged to abandon one of their boats containing many horses and much valuable property and crowd into the other boats. Although pursued some six or eight miles they escaped from their pursuers and arrived at Limestone. They lost 28 horses and merchandise valued at £1,500. This was the Buckner Thurston party referred to by Harmar in his letter of March, 1790, quoted in Chapter XIV. The boat with which the In- dians pursued was the one captured just before and belonged to John May.

In January, 1790, a number of men were killed at various stations throughout Kentucky. About the same time a hunting party was fired upon six miles below Limestone and one of the members killed. Major Doughty, who was then passing down the river with a detachment of troops pursued the enemy but failed to over- take them. In the same month another boat containing about a dozen persons including a woman was captured fifteen miles above Lime- stone and the boat was afterwards found con- taining nine dead bodies; the others including the woman had been taken prisoner. A boy who had been hunting up the Licking with two men was captured while the two men were killed; the boy subsequently made his escape. In May Ensign Hartshorn, who was descending the river with a body of United States troops, was attacked about nine miles above Lime- stone where he had landed for the night. The attack was a furious one and resulted in the loss of one of the boats. The party escaped to Limestone and returned the next day to punish the savages. The red men had gone but they found the bodies of one man, one woman and three children, all of whom had been scalped. During this attack thirteen were killed and missing. On the 13th of May, 1790, the In- dians killed two white men, two girls and two negroes in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and about the same time scalped one woman and made prisoner of another. A little later in the same county, at one point two young men and a negro woman had been captured and at an- other two men at work in the field and at a third point two boys had been taken. In still another case a man and young woman returning from a meeting were taken by the Indians; the man was killed instantly and the young woman was carried about ten miles then tomahawked and

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scalped. The house of Miles Hart in Nelson County was attacked, Hart himself killed and his wife and two children carried off. The tak- ing of young Tanner has already been de- scribed. These are but few of the instances which were being constantly reported by let- ters, affidavits and depositions. Horses were stolen in all directions and women and children carried off into captivity and many tortured to death in the most horrible manner. Men were usually killed and the women frequently re- served for a worse fate.

"The pioneers, who descended the Ohio on their way westward, will remember while they live the lofty rock standing a short distance above the mouth of the Scioto, on the Virginia shore, which was occupied for years by the savages as a favorite watch tower, from which boats ascending and descending could be dis- covered at a great distance. From that memor- able spot, hundreds of human beings, men, women and children while unconscious of im- mediate danger, had been seen in the distance and marked for destruction. The murders and depredations committed in that vicinity at all periods of the war, were so shocking as to at- tract universal notice; letters were written to General Harmar from various quarters calling his attention to the subject and praying that measures might be taken without delay to check the evil. They informed him that scarcely a boat passed the rock without being attacked and in most instances captured; and that unless something were done without delay the naviga- tion of the river would necessarily be aban- doned." (Burnet's Notes, p. 94.)

HARMAR'S EXPEDITION.

In a letter of September 3, 1790, to Major Hamtramck, General Harmar referred to the unsettled condition of affairs among the In- dians and on the next day in writing to General Mifflin he announces that he is preparing for an expedition against the savages to go forward the first of the next month. "Our regular force is but small. There is a prospect of being joined by a considerable body of militia who I hope will stick to the text and not leave me in the lurch." This expedition was, of course, the so-called Harmar campaign which resulted so disastrously for the whites.

General Harmar had sent out an expedition against the Indians on April 20th. He took with him about three hundred regulars and volunteers and marched for Paint creek to at-

tack the Shawanee villages where it was thought that the Indians who had been on the Ohio would be found with their plunder. Gen- cral Harmar left the expedition at the mouth of the Scioto and proceeded to Marietta, return- ing to Fort Washington the latter part of May or the carly part of June. The troops under command of Captain Ferguson were not able to do much in this expedition, as the Indians were warned concerning their movements and aban- doned their villages before the party arrived.

Governor St. Clair had arrived at Fort Wash- ington from the Illinois country on July 11th. He had spent the winter and spring in organ- izing the counties in that quarter of the Terri- tory and establishing a system of government. He remained but three days at the fort, during which time it was decided that General Harmar should conduct an expedition against the Maumee town, the residence of the renegade Indians from which issued the parties who in- fested the frontiers. One thousand militia were ordered from Kentucky and the Governor on his way from New York was to order five hun- dred more from the back counties of Pennsyl- vania. The day selected for the militia to as- semble at Fort Washington was September 15th.

As early as the 15th of July, Lieutenant Denny in his journal refers to the preparations for this expedition which were making at the fort, stating that every day was employed in the most industrious manner. "Calculations of provisions, horses, stores, etc., were imme- diately made out and ordered accordingly. * * Captain Ferguson with his company engaged in getting in complete order the artil- lery and military stores. Indeed every officer was busily employed in something or other necessary for the expedition but particularly the quartermaster Pratt. No time was lost."

The militia evidently did not arrive on time. Lieutenant Denny records the arrival of the Kentucky militia at Fort Washington on Sep- tember 18th. Speaking of them, he says that they were "not such as we had been accus- tomed to see on the frontiers. They appeared to be raw and unused to the gun or the woods; indeed many are without guns, and many of those they have want repairing. Our artificers employed in putting to right the militia arms. General much disheartened at the kind of peo- ple from Kentucky. One-half certainly serve no other purpose than to swell their number.

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If the leading patriots of Kentucky don't turn out rascals then some of the men that I know are greatly mistaken."

On the 19th the battalion of Pennsylvania militia arrived. On the 22nd Governor St. Clair returned from New York. On the 25tlı Major Doughty with two companions of the First Regi- ment commanded by Captains Ziegler and Heart arrived from Fort Harmar. They were accom- panied by the rest of the Pennsylvania militia whom Denny thought were similar to the Ken- tuckians, too many substitutes. There seems to have been much difficulty in regulating and or- ganizing the militia, whose colonels disputed about the command. This dispute was settled by General Harmar, after considerable trouble, with a compromise and reconciliation. The three battalions of Kentuckians were com- manded by Majors Hall, McMillan and Ray, and Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant Trotter, while the Pennsylvania militia were organized in one battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel Truby and Major Paul. The whole was com- manded by Col. John Hardin of Kentucky, sub- ject of course to the orders of General Harmar.

Colonel Hardin was an old Continental of- ficer and a Virginian by birth. He had served as ensign in Lord Dunmore's War and during the Revolution was with General Morgan's rifle corps. At the close of the war he removed to Kentucky (then part of Augusta County, Vir- ginia), where he became lieutenant-colonel of the militia. He served under Clark in his ex- peditions against the Wabash Indians and was known as an old Indian fighter. He was killed as described later while bearing a letter to the Indians.

On September 26, 1790, the whole of the mili- tia, amounting to 1,133, took the field under Colonel Hardin and marched on the direct route to the Indian towns. They were followed and joined on the 29th by General Harmar with the Federal troops. These, divided into two bat- talions, under the command of Majors Wyllys and Doughty, together with Captain Ferguson's company of artillery carrying three light brass pieces, numbered 320, inkaing a total number in the expedition of 1,453.

The route taken by General Harmar known for a long time as "Harmar's Trace" has been pretty well identified through the greater part

of its course. The natural course for the set- tlers to take when following up the Indians after their raids was along the trails which the Indian himself had made. These trails event- ually became well known and developed into highways when they constituted the first roads of the settlers. The route of the main body ran out Main street and up the hill now known as Mount Auburn about where Sycamore street now runs and then probably along Auburn and East Auburn avenues and the old Lebanon road now Reading road near Oak street ( Mad River road) in Avondale. From this point the line ran probably in the direction now taken by Reading road, turning off into the little valley running from Mill creek to the Little Miami. At nightfall a camp was made near Ross Run. A western wing of the army went up the Mill creek valley going seven miles northeastwardly on the first day through a rich hilly land termi- nating on the second day near the present town of Sharonville. Major Denny records that on October 3rd, they encamped on the waters of the Little Miami, 31 miles and on the 4th on the branch of the Little Miami, 42 miles from Fort Washington. On the 5th they had reached Glade creek a branch of the Little Miami, 52 miles from Fort Washington and on the 6th after passing through a beautiful open country encamped three miles north of Old Chillicothe, 62 miles from the fort. On the following day they encamped at Mad River on the Pickaway fork of the Great Miami, 71 miles from the fort. Next day they gained nine miles and encamped on the Great Miami. This river they followed for the next few days, reaching the so-called French Store, 112 miles from Fort Washington on the IIth. Next day they passed New Chil-' licothe on Grave creek, the branch of the Maumee, 125 miles from the fort where a half pound of powder and a pound of lead were served out to each rifleman and- 24 rounds of cartridges to the musketry. A Shawance Indian was captured the next day, from whom they learned that the Indians were clearing out as fast as possible, and that the towns would be evacuated before their arrival. As it was im- possible for the entire army to hasten its march, Harmar detached Colonel Hardin with six lum- dred light troops to push for the Miami vil- lage. The army itself pushed ahead through the flat country keeping itself in readiness to start early cach morning. The marching over the

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beech roots and brush was very difficult and although' the horses were tied at night and grass cut and brought to them so that they would not be delayed on their march by grazing the horses, they found it very difficult to keep them together and many horses were lost. Re- ports came back from Colonel Hardin that every place was abandoned by the enemy before his arrival and when the main body of the army arrived at the Miami village or Maumee towns, one hundred and seventy miles from Fort Wash- ington at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary, they were found to be unoccupied. They found here several good log houses belong- ing to British traders, some good gardens with some fruit trees and vast fields of corn in almost every direction.

THE BATTLES OF THE INDIAN TOWNS.

Colonel Trotter was ordered to make a recon- naissance with three hundred men, but after marching a few miles and overtaking and kill- ing two of the savages he turned back and marched to camp. Colonel Hardin was dis- gusted with this and asked the command. On the following day he started out but it was ap- parent that the militia were dissatisfied and many of them dropped out of the ranks and re- turned to camp. At a point about ten miles from the camp he was surprised by a party of about one hundred Indians. Owing to the bad order of his men and their cowardly conduct, he was entirely defeated. The Indians made the first discovery and commenced to fire at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards and then advanced. A great number of the militia fled without firing a shot. Some few with thirty regulars that were of the detachment stood .and were cut to pieces. Of the militia forty were missing but it was well known that very few of them were in the fight, most of them running back and pushing for the Ohio. Twenty-five of the regulars were missing. The next day the army moved from the Miami vil- lage to Chillicothe (a Shawance town two miles cast) for the purpose of destroying the houses and corn. During the night two of the cap- tains took a notion to trap some of the Indians who were lurking about and carrying off some of the straggling horses. They put a horse out- side the sentries with a bell on as a decoy and in a short time an Indian stalked up and seized the horse. The captains rushed upon him and

cut off his head and brought it into the camp claiming at least the price of a wolf's scalp. The next day after burning everything that . could be of use, such as corn, beans, pumpkins, stacks of hay, fencing, cabins, etc., and five vil- lages including the capital town and destroying twenty thousand bushels of corn in cars the army took up its line of march back to Fort Washington. During the night Harmar sent back four hundred choice men, militia and reg- ulars under the. command of Major Wyllys, to surprise any Indian parties that might have re- turned to their towns. A part of the force were decoyed by small bodies of the Indians who then attacked Major Wyllys in force. After sus- taining a very unequal fight for some time he was obliged to give way. One of the wounded escaping to the camp of General Harmar gave an imperfect account of the business, as a re- sult of which a battalion was sent forward to aid the scattered troops. He met Colonel Har- din, who with a view of retrieving his affair of the 19th had volunteered to serve under Wyllys in command of the militia, returning with the wounded. In this affair two officers, Major Wyllys and Lieutenant Frothingham, were killed and 48 of the regulars. The whole of the killed and missing in the army was stated by Denny to be 183. It is believed, however, that a number of the militia who were missing had deserted and were on their way to Ken- tucky. Denny comments upon the matter to the effect that the design of sending back Wyllys would have been successful had the militia been able to control themselves. The army imme- diately returned to Fort Washington, arriving there November 3rd, and on the following day tlie militia were mustered out on the south side of the Ohio.

General Harmar's opinion with regard to the militia undoubtedly accords with that of Lieu- tenant Denny as is shown by his general order which he issued on October 20th, as follows :

"The party under the command of Captain Strong is ordered to burn and destroy every house and wigwam in this village, together with all the corn, etc., which he can collect. A party of one hundred men (militia), properly officered, under command of Colonel Hardin, is to burn and de- stroy effectually, this afternoon, the Pickaway town, with all the corn, etc., which he can find in it and its vicinity.

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"The cause of the detachment being worsted yesterday was entirely owing to the shameful, cowardly conduct of the militia, who ran away and threw down their arms without firing scarce- ly a single gun.

"In returning to Fort Washington, if any of- ficer or men shall presume to quit the ranks, or not to march in the form that they are ordered, the General will, most assuredly, order the ar- tillery to fire on them. He hopes the check they received yesterday will make them, in future, obedient to orders."

The conduct of the militia on the 22nd how- ever was such as to retrieve in part their un- fortunate behavior in the earlier conflict and called forth the following order on the afternoon of the day of the second battle :

"The General is exceedingly well pleased with the behavior of the militia in the action of this morning. They have laid very many of the enemy dead upon the spot. Although our loss is great, still it is inconsiderable in comparison to the slaughter among the savages. Every ac- count agrees that upward of one hundred war- riors fell in the battle; it is not more than man for man, and we can afford them two for one. The resolution and firm determined conduct of the militia this morning has effectually retrieved their character in the opinion of the General. He knows they can and will fight."

The heat of the action on the second day is indicated by a number of anecdotes told by sur- vivors. Capt. Jonathan Heart in a letter writ- ten December 3, 1790, speaks as follows: "A regular soldier on the retreat near the St. Joseph River, being surrounded and in the midst of the Indians, put his bayonet through six Indians, knocked down the seventh, and the soldier him- self made the eighth dead man in the heap."

Samuel L. Metcalf, of Lexington, Kentucky, writing in 1829, pays a tribute to the bravery of the Indians: "Nothing could exceed the in- trepidity of the savages on this occasion; the inilitia they appeared to despise, and with all the undauntedness conceivable, threw down their guns, and rushed upon the bayonets of the regu- lar soldiers ; a number of themi fell, but being so far superior in numbers, the regulars were soon overpowered, for while the poor soldier had his bayonet in one Indian, two more would sink their tomahawks in his head,"

Another incident is as follows: "A young In- dian, accompanied by his father and brother, were crossing the river when a ball from the rifle of a white man passed through his body. As he fell his father dropped his rifle and attempted to raise his stricken son so as to carry him be- yond the reach of the enemy when the other son fell mortally wounded at his side. He carried them both to the shore and then sat down with their bodies one on each side of him and with absolute composure awaited the attacking foe who soon caught up with him and stretched his body dead upon the ground between his sons."

Captain Armstrong himself broke through the Indians who were pursuing him and plunged into the morasses about the field of battle and remained concealed there all night, lying in water to his chin with his head concealed by a tuft of high grass. All night long he heard the dancing and yelling of the savages celebrating their success by committing all sorts of indigni- ties upon the dead bodies of his soldiers. In the morning although thoroughly chilled he was able . to slip out from the swamp undiscovered by the enemy who were resting from their orgies and finally reached a ravine where he was able to light a fire with his tinder box which he had pre- served. He recovered the use of his limbs which had been stiffened by the cold and at last reached the camp in safety. Major Fountain or Fon- taine who led the cavalry in the charge at the second battle was deserted by his men and fell pierced with 18 bullets. After his death he hung for some minutes to his saddle until taken off by some of his soldiers and buried beside a lake near by.

Harmar was much criticised for keeping the main body of his troops away from the battle and for the manoeuvre of sending Wyllys back with so small a body. The popular opinion is shown by Judge Symmes' letter quoted hereafter and by the comment of the historian, Mr. Cist, published considerably over a half a century afterwards :

"A general who encamps in the neighborhood of the enemy, with a force large enough to ex- terminate him, and contents himself with sending out detachments to be destroyed successively, where no adequate reason exists why the whole force should not have been brought into action, deserves not the name of a military man. Har- mar kept two-thirds or three-fourths of his

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troops eight miles from the battle-ground in- active, and of as little service as if he had left them at Fort Washington. He appeared to be fully consoled for the loss of the brave officers and soldiers, who fell by the savage tomahawk and rifle, by the reflection expressed in the gen- eral orders, that the American troops could af- ford to lose twice as many men as the Indians. My unfavorable judgment on this subject is sup- ported by that of the actors of that campaign who still survive."

The latest commentator upon the campaign, Robert Ralston Jones, calls attention to the fact that Harmar could exercise but little control over the two elements which were most prominent in defeating his plans : the undisciplined condition of the auxiliary troops and the wholly inade- quate nature of the commissary department. The circumstances were such that Mr. Roose- velt states that the keenest observers on the frontier foretold failure from the start. The Indians at these battles were commanded by the . celebrated Indian chief Little Turtle, Me-che- cun-na-qua.

The report of Governor St. Clair to the Sec- retary of War, written from Fort Washington on October 20, 1790, is rather remarkable :

"I have the pleasure to inform you of the en- tire success of General Harmar at the Indian towns on the Miami and St. Joseph rivers, of which he has destroyed five in number, and a very great quantity of corn and other vegetable pro- visions. It is supposed that about two hundred of the Indians likewise have fallen in the dif- ferent encounters that have happened between them and the detachment, for there has been no general action ; but it has not been without con- siderable loss on our part. The particulars I can not give you, as the officer (Ensign Britt) who has charge of the General's dispatches is not yet arrived, and there is some reason to fear he may be killed or taken, as the party, which consisted of six only, were fired upon by the Indians about one hundred and twenty miles from hence and dispersed. Three of them are come in, and from them I have this intelligence, which may, I believe, be depended upon so far as it goes.

"Of the Federal troops, Major Wyllys and Lieutenant Frothingham and seventy-seven men; of the militia, Major Fontaine, Captain McMurtry, and Captain Scott, a son of General

Scott, and seventy-three men, are among the slain. It is said that the Indians, though they could not be brought to a general action, fought by detachment in a very determined and desper- ate manner. The moment Mr. Britt arrives, or I can get an authentic account, it shall be for- warded." (St. Clair' Papers, Vol. II, p. 188.)

This letter was followed by one on November 6, 1790, written from the same place in which he says : "On the 29th of last month, I had the honor to inform you generally of the suc- cess that attended General Harmar. I could not then give you the particulars, as the General's letters had not reached me (the officer, how- ever, who had them in charge, got in a few days afterwards) ; it is not now necessary, because he writes himself. One thing, however, is cer- tain, that the savages have got a most terrible stroke, of which nothing can be a greater proof than that they have not attempted to harass the army on its return. They arrived at this place on the 3d instant, in good health and spirits." (Id., p. 190.)

Judge Burnet concludes that the expedition, although usually spoken of as a defeat, when correctly and impartially considered will be found worthy of a more honorable name and that the great object of the campaign, the de- struction of the Miami towns, had been accom- plished. The subsequent efforts to inflict further injury on the enemy proved disastrous as a re- sult of the bad conduct of the militia and their poor equipment, neither of which could be charged to the account of the general or the officers or soldiers of the Federal troops.

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 40

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020