Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 42

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

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officers. The men being thus left with few officers, became fearful, despaired of success, gave up the fight, and to save themselves for the moment, abandoned entirely their duty and ground, and crowded in toward the centre of the field, and no exertions could put them in any order even for defense; perfectly ungovernable. The enemy at length got possession of the ar- tillery, though not until the officers were all killed but one, and he badly wounded, and the men almost all cut off, and not until the pieces were spiked. As our lines were deserted the Indians contracted theirs until their shot centred from all points, and now meeting with little op- position, took more deliberate aim and did great execution. Exposed to a cross fire, men and offi- cers were seen falling in every direction; the distress too of the wounded made the scene such as can scarcely be conceived; a few min- utes longer, and a retreat would have been im- . practicable. The only hope left was, that per- haps the savages would be so taken up with the camp as not to follow. Delay was death; no preparation could be made; numbers of brave men must be left a sacrifice, there was no al- ternative. It was past nine o'clock, when re- peated orders were given to charge toward the road. The action had continued between two and three hours. Both officers and men seemed confounded, incapable of doing anything, they could not move until it was told that a retreat was intended. A few officers put themselves in front, the men followed, the enemy gave way, and perhaps not being aware of the design, we were for a few minutes left undisturbed. The stoutest and most active now took the lead, and those who were foremost in breaking the enemy's line, were soon left behind. At the moment of the retreat, one of the few horses saved had been procured for the General; he was on foot until then; I kept by him, and he delayed to see the rear. The enemy soon discovered the move- ment and pursued, though not more than four or five miles, and but few so far; they turned to share the spoil. Soon after the firing ceased, I was directed to endeavor to gain the front, and if possible, to cause a short halt that the rear might get up. I had been on horseback from the first alarm, and well mounted ; pushed forward, but met with so many difficulties and interruptions from the people, that I was two hours at least laboring to reach the front. With the assistance of two or three officers I caused a short halt, but the men grew impatient and

would move on. I got Lieutenants Sedam and Morgan, with half a dozen stout men, to fill up the road and to move slowly, I halted myself until the General came up. By this time the re- mains of the army had got somewhat compact, but in the most miserable and defenseless state. The wounded who came off left their arms in the field, and one-half of the others threw theirs away on the retreat. The road for miles was covered with firelocks, cartridge boxes and regi- mentals. How fortunate that the pursuit was discontinued ; a single Indian might have followed with safety upon either flank. Such a panic had seized the men, that I believe it would not have been possible to have brought any of them to engage again. In the afternoon Lieutenant Kearsey, with a detachment of the first regiment, met us. This regiment, the only complete and best disciplined portion of the army, had been ordered back upon the road on the 31st of Oc- tober. They were thirty miles from the battle ground when they heard distinctly the firing of the cannon, were hastening forward and had inarched about nine miles when met by some of the militia, who informed Major Hamtramck, the commanding officer, that the army was total- ly destroyed. The Major judged it best to send on a subaltern to obtain some knowledge of things, and to return himself with the regiment to Fort Jefferson, eight miles back, and to se- cure at all events that post. He had made some arrangements, and as we arrived in the evening, found him preparing again to meet us. Strag- glers continued to come in for hours after we reached the fort.

"The remnant of the army, with the first regi- ment, were now at Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles from the field of action, without provisions, and the former without having eaten anything for twenty-four hours. A convoy was known to be upon the road, and within a day's march. The General determined to move with the first regi- ment and all the levies able to march. Those of the wounded and others unable to go on, were lodged as comfortably as possible within the fort. Accordingly we set out a little after ten and continued our route until within an hour of day- light, then halted and waited for day and until the rear came up. Moved on again about nine o'clock; the morning of the 5th we met the convoy. Stopped a sufficiency to subsist us to Fort Hamilton; sent the remainder on to Fort Jefferson under an additional escort of a captain and sixty inen ; procceded, and at the first water

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halted, partly cooked and eat for the first time since the 'night preceding the action. At one o'clock moved on, and continued our route until nine at night, when we halted and made fires within fifteen miles of Fort Hamilton. Marched again just before day, the General soon after rode on to the fort. Troops reached in the after- noon."

Denny records the following comments on the campaign in his entry of November 7th :

"The prediction of General Harmar, before the army set out on the campaign, was founded upon his experience and particular knowledge of things. He saw with what material the bulk of the army was composed; men collected from the streets and prisons of the cities, hurried out into the enemy's country, and with the officers com- manding them, totally unacquainted with the business in which they were engaged, it was ut- terly impossible they could be otherwise. Be- sides, not any onc department was sufficiently prepared; both quartermaster and contractors extremely deficient. It was a matter of aston- ishment to him that the commanding general, who was acknowledged to be perfectly compe- tent, should think of hazarding, with such people, and under such circumstances, his repu- tation and life, and the lives of so many others, knowing, too, as both did, the enemy with whom he was going to contend; an enemy brought up from infancy to war, and perhaps superior to an equal number of the best men that could be taken against them. It is a truth, I had hopes that the noise and show which the army made on their march might possibly deter the enemy from attempting a serious and general attack. It was unfortunate that both the general officers were, and had been disabled by sickness; in such situation it is possible that some essential mat- ters might be overlooked. The adjutant-general, Colonel Sargent, an old Revolutionary officer, was, however, constantly on the alert; he took upon himself the burden of everything, and a very serious and troublesome task he had. But one most important object was wanting, can't say neglected, but more might have been done toward obtaining it; this was, a knowledge of the collected force und situation of the enemy; of this we were perfectly ignorant. Some few scouts out, but to no great distance. The one which left camp on the 29th of October, under direction of Captain Sparks, and composed chiefly of the friendly Indians, had missed the enemy altogether, and on their return to join the army, the morning after the defeat, met an In-

dian runner who had been in the engagement, of him they got the news which enabled them to escape. When the army advanced from Fort Jefferson, it did not exceed two thousand men; discharges, desertions and the absence of the First Regiment, reduced the effective strength on the day of action to about fourteen hundred. The Second Regiment had but one battalion with the army-it was well appointed, but young in service. The officers and men, however, did their duty; they, with the battalion of artillery, were nearly all cut off. The whole loss, as now ascertained by the different returns, is thirty- seven officers and five hundred and ninety-three privates killed and missing; thirty-one officers and two hundred and fifty-two privates wounded."

CARRYING THIE NEWS TO WASHINGTON.

Denny, who was mentioned in St. Clair's re- port, was selected to carry the dispatches to the Secretary of War. He left Fort Washington on the 19th, embarked on a 14-oared barge. He reached Wheeling on December 9th, after an ex- tremely hard and tedious passage of twenty days, a journey usually of fifteen days. Here he hired a boy and horses and reached Pittsburg on the IIth and Philadelphia on the 19th, at which time he records the proceedings as follows :

"Waited immediately upon the Secretary of War. Since I left Fort Washington, have en- deavored to banish from my mind, as much as possible, every idea of the slaughter and defeat of the army ; to talk at all on the subject is an unpleasant task to me, but there are certain persons to whom I must make a full communi- cation. My friends at Pittsburgh, and on to this place, seem to vicw me as escaped from the dcad-astonishment takes place of pleasure; and having in some degree got over those feelings myself, am considered as little better than one of the savages-but all this will soon be forgotten.

"The morning after my arrival here, General Knox, the Secretary of War, called at my quar- ters and took me to the President's, where we breakfasted with the family, and afterward had much talk on the subject of the campaign and defeat."

The interview with the President has been the occasion of considerable discussion among writ- ers of history. Tobias Lear, Washington's pri- vate secretary, gives a version which many have attempted to discredit without any apparent good reason, however. Mr. Roosevelt comments upon Lear's version as the report of an eye

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witness and says that Lear could not have been mistaken about Washington's speech. The story is given in Richard Rush's "Washington in Do- mestic Life," and is worth reprinting :

"Towards the close of a winter's day in 1791, an officer in uniform was seen to dismount in front of the President's in Philadelphia and, giving the bridle to his servant, knock at the door of his mansion. Learning from the porter that the President was at dinner, he said he was on public business and had dispatches for the President. A servant was sent into the dining-room to give the information to Mr. Lear, who left the table and went into the hall where the officer repeated what he had said. Mr. Lear replied that, as the President's Secretary, he would take charge of the dispatches and deliver them at the proper time. The officer made an- swer that he had just arrived from the Western army, and his orders were to deliver them with all promptitude, and to the President in person ; but that he would wait his directions. Mr. Lear returned, and in a whisper imparted to the Presi- dent what had passed. General Washington rose from the table, and went to the officer. He was back in a short time, made a word of apol- ogy- for his absence, but no allusion to the cause of it. He had company that day. Everything went on as usual. Dinner over, the gentlemen passed to the drawing-room of Mrs. Washing- ton, which was open in the evening. The Gen- eral spoke courteously to every lady in the room, as was his custom. His hours were early, and by ten o'clock all the company had gone. Mrs. Washington and Mr. Lear remained. Soon Mrs. Washington left the room.

"The General now walked backward and for- ward slowly for some minutes without speaking. Then he sat down on a sofa by the fire, telling Mr. Lear to sit down. To this moment there had been no change in his manner since his in- terruption at table. Mr. Lear now perceived emotion. This rising in him, he broke out sud- denly, 'It's all over-St. Clair's defeated- routed ;- the officers nearly all killed, the men by wholesale; the rout complete-too shocking to think of-and a surprise into the bargain!'

"He uttered all this with great vehemence. Then he paused, got up from the sofa and walked about the room several times, agitated but saying nothing. Near the door he stopped short and stood still a few seconds, when his wrath becante terrible.

"'Yes,' he burst forth, 'here on this very spot, I took leave of him; I wished his success and honor; "you have your instructions," I said, "from the Secretary of War, I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word-beware of a surprise. I repeat it, BEWARE OF A SURPRISE --- you know how the Indians fight us." He went off with that as my last solemn warning thrown into his ears. And yet !! to suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hack'd, butchered, tomahawk'd, by a surprise- the very thing I guarded him against! O God, O God, he's worse than a mur- derer! how can he answer it to his country !-- The blood of the stain is upon him-the curse of widows and orphans-the curse of Heaven!'

"This torrent came out in tones appalling. His very frame shook. 'It was awful,' said Mr. Lear. More than once he threw his hands up as he hurled imprecations upon St. Clair. Mr. Lear remained speechless; awed into breathless silence.

"The roused Chief sat down on the sofa once more. He seemed conscious of his passion, and uncomfortable. He was silent. His warmth be- ginning to subside, he at length said in an al- tered voice : "This must not go beyond this room.' Another pause followed-a longer one -- when he said in a tone quite low, 'General St. Clair shall have justice ; I looked hastily through the dispatches, saw the whole disaster but not all the particulars; I will receive him without dis- pleasure; I will hear him without prejudice ; he shall have full justice.'

"He was now, said Mr. Lear, perfectly calm. Half an hour had gone by. The storm was over ; and no sign of it was afterwards seen in his con- duct or heard in his conversation. The result is known. The whole case was investigated by Congress. St. Clair was exculpated and re- gained the confidence Washington had in him when appointing him to that command. He had put himself in the thickest of the fight and es- caped unhurt, though so ill as to be carried on a litter, and unable to mount his horse without help."

The anecdotes of the personal bravery of dif- ferent individuals throughout the fight as well as during the retreat are numberless. For one tinte, however, the Indians seemed to fight with even greater courage than the whites. After the battle the scene became a slaughter in which most of the wounded who were left on the field as well as a large number of women who accom- panied the army were slain and their bodies treated with the greatest indignities. There

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seems to be no record of torture but there was one instance of cannibalism engaged in by the Chippewas. (See Buntin's letter infra.)

St. Clair's own feeling with regard to the battle was of course very deep. He felt that he would be charged with what up to that time was regarded as the greatest disaster the colonists had ever suffered in the Western country. He felt also that he was not properly chargeable with that disaster. He had worked against great odds and harder than any one else to achieve a successful result and in the battle itself he had displayed the greatest courage. During the en- gagement, although so severely afflicted with gout as to be unable to mount or dismount a horse without assistance he kept continually going up and down the line and endeavored to encourage the troops by his voice and presence. The first horse that he succeeded in mounting, with the assistance of three or four other men, was shot through the head and the boy who held it was shot through the arms. The second horse and the servant who held it were killed. The third horse which was got ready for him was sent towards him with a man and both were killed, and the fourth horse was killed while being brought to him by one of his aides. Dur- ing the action eight balls passed through his clothes and hat, one of them grazing the side of his face and carrying off one of his large gray locks which flowed beneath his beaver. During the entire action he displayed courage and pres- ence of mind worthy of the best fortune and during the retreat he forced his soldiers to repel the enemy by drawing his pistols and threaten- ing them.

General Butler had his arm broken quite early in the attack, but he quickly removed his coat and had the wounded limb put into a sling. He continued to pass to and fro along the line en- couraging the men as best he could until another bullet entered his side which inflicted a mortal wound. Ile was carried to the middle of the camp, where he sat propped up by knapsacks. Denny, who acted as aide to St. Clair, endeav- ored to help him, but he refused assistance. While they were speaking a young soldier near by was hit on the knee-cap by a spent ball which of course was harmless and shrieked aloud from terror and shock. In spite of Butler's terrible agony he regarded this as immensely amusing and laughed aloud so as to further injure the wound in his side. The exact circumstances of Butler's death are not known, but it is said that

in one of the sudden attacks an Indian jumped in and buried his tomahawk in his brain before he could be stopped. Winthrop Sargent, the Secretary of the Territory, acted also as an aide as well as a young Frenchman from Gallipolis, Malartie; both were wounded and were specially commended in the report of the action.

Dr. Allison, according to Dr. Drake, was much exposed, and was obliged to leave the wounded and mingle in the fight. His horse received a bullet in the head. It remained im- bedded in the skull, and afterwards when the Doctor would be riding his horse through the village it was the favorite joke of his to remark "that his horse had had more in his head than some doctors he had known."

The retreat was even more disastrous than the battle :

"The retreat in those circumstances was, you may be sure, a very precipitate one; it was, in fact, a flight. The camp and the artillery were abandoned, but that was unavoidable; for not a horse was left alive to have drawn them off had it otherwise been practicable. But the most dis- graceful part of the business is that the greatest part of the men threw away their arms and ac- couterments, even after the pursuit, which con- tinued about four miles, had ceased. I found the road strewed with them for many miles. but was not able to remedy it; for, having had all my ·horses killed, and being mounted upon one that could not be pricked out of a walk, I could not get forward myself, and the orders I sent forward, either to halt the front, or to pre- vent the men parting with their arms, were un- attended to." (St. Clair Papers, Vol. II, p. 264.) St. Clair's own comment is as follows :

"I have nothing, sir, to lay to the charge of the troops but their want of discipline, whichi, from the short time they had been in service, it was impossible they should have acquired, and which rendered it very difficult, when they were thrown into confusion, to reduce them again to order, which is one reason why the loss has fallen so heavy upon the officers, who did every- thing in their power to effect it. Neither were my own exertions wanting; but, worn down with illness, and suffering under a painful dis- ease, unable either to mount or dismount a horse without assistance, they were not so great as they . otherwise would, and, perhaps, ought to have been. We were overpowered by numbers ; but it is no more than justice to observe that, though composed of so many different species

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of troops, the utmost harmony prevailed through the whole army during the campaign." (Id., p. 265. )

General Knox in his letter to St. Clair of December 23, 1791, in regretting the misfortune of the defeat reassures him with the statement that "however great the defeat, that both your reputation and the reputation of the troops under your command, are unimpeached. The fact seems to be pretty well ascertained, by way of Detroit, through different channels of commu- nication, that you must have had opposed to you, 2,500 Indians. If this should prove true eventu- ally, a consolation would at least arise that you were beaten by superior numbers."

The statement is made in the life of Joseph Brant that although the Indians at this time were commanded by Little Turtle, he had the council and assistance of another and an older chief, who was no other than Thayendanegea.

St. Clair finally asked of the President that an inquiry into his conduct should be instituted, after which he desired to resign his commission as major-general, but Washington was com- pelled to decline such an inquiry because of the deficiency of officers of competent rank to form a legal court for that purpose. A special com- mittee of the House of Representatives however investigated the causes of the failure of the expedition, which they found to be the delays in furnishing materials and the gross mismanage- ments of the quartermaster's and contractors' de- partments and the want of discipline and ex- perience in the troops. They found with refer- ence to the commander-in-chief that "the failure of the late expedition can, in no respect, be im- puted to his conduct, either at any time before or during the action ; but that, as his conduct, in all the preparatory arrangements, was marked with peculiar ability and zeal, so his conduct, during the action, furnished strong testimonies of his coolness and intrepidity." In spite of this finding strangely enough the quartermaster, Hodgdon, continued at the head of his depart- ment for years.

St. Clair, however, we are told by Chief Jus- tice Marshall retained the undiminished esteem and good opinion of Washington, who accepted his resignation just prior to the report of the committee to Congress.

The quartermaster, Hodgdon, became in- volved of course in quarrels with many of the officers. Major Ziegler resigned because of this and Captain Ford, who had been wounded at St.

Clair's defeat and thereby felt that he had suf- fered from the quartermaster's inefficiency, pub- licly insulted him and threatened to horsewhip him. Wilkinson, who seemed to stand well in the estimation of General Knox, the Secretary of War, was in constant correspondence with him. He was very free in his criticisms. Sar- gent was about the only one of whom he speaks well,'although he seems to have desired the re- tention of St. Clair in command. He comments upon the acceptance of Ziegler's resignation in such a way as to leave the inference that the resignation had been requested. Even General Harmar does not escape his innuendos. He criticises him as addicted to drink and a bad dis- ciplinarian. Colonel Darke preferred charges against Major Hamtramck, who with his regi- ment of regulars was advancing towards the field, and when he heard of the defeat had re- turned to Fort Jefferson instead of continuing in his movement forward to protect the retreat. Mr. Roosevelt quotes from the "Knox Papers" a most extraordinarily mispelled letter by Darke with reference to this. Hamtramck was tried by court martial and acquitted.

The feeling along the banks of the Ohio after this horrible defeat was that of the deepest con- sternation. Mr. King in his history of Ohio quotes a ballad entitled "Sainclaire's Defeat," which shows how the popular mind was im- pressed :

At Bunker's Hill and Quebeck, there many a hero fell, Likewise at Long Island (it is I the truth can tell),

But such a dreadful carnage may I never see again As hap'ned near St. Mary's, upon the river plain. * *

Major Butler was wounded the very second fire; His manly bosom swell'd with rage when fore'd to re- tire ;

And as he lay in anguish, nor scarcely could he see, Exclaim'd, "Ye hounds of hell! Oh, revenged I will be."

We had not been long broken when General Butler found

Himself so badly wounded, was forced to quit the ground;

"My God!" says he, "what shall we do? we're wounded every man ;

Go charge them, valiant heroes, and beat them if you can."

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He leaned his back against a tree, and there resigned his breath,

And like a valiant soldier sunk in the arms of death ; When blessed angels did await his spirit to convey, And unto the celestial fields he quickly bent his way. * * * * *

* * Alas, the dying and wounded, how dreadful was the thought !

To the tomahawk and scalping-knife in mis'ry are brought.

Some had a thigh and some an arm broke on the field that day,

Who writhed in torments at the stake to close the dire affray.

BURYING THE DEAD.

In the month of January, 1792, General Wil- kinson was detailed to go to the St. Clair battle- ground and bury the dead and bring off the val- uable public property which was reported to be still on the spot. He issued a call for mounted volunteers and some one hundred and fifty men from various parts of the country responded. On January 24, 1792, the detachment consisting of two hundred regulars and the volunteers just mentioned left for the scene of the defeat. The weather was bitterly cold and there had been the heaviest fall of snow known within the memory of the whites, which covered the earth to the depth of two feet. The Ohio was frozen and the ice was so thick that above the mouth of the Miami the horses were brought across a road made on the surface. Among the officers ac- companying Wilkinson at this time was William Henry Harrison, then acting as ensign. Harrison had but recently arrived at the fort, whereas he tells us in his autobiography he was having a hard time of it socially, because of the jealousy of the other younger officers. It seems that the position to which he had been appointed was de- sired by the son of the senior captain, who of course was supported by the other officers of the post.

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 42

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