Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 61

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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three hundred Indian warriors that had col- lected at the town, with the view of surpris- ing and attacking us the next morning. At this place a stockade fort had been reared near the village on the side we were approach- ing it, but the Indians feared to enter it and took post in their houses.

The village was situated on a low prairie bottom of Mad river, between the second bank and a bushy swamp piece of ground on the margin of the river ; it could be approached only from three points-the one our troops occupied, and from up and down the river. Gen. Clark detached two divisions to se- cure the two last named points, while he extended his line to cover the first. By this arrangement the whole body of Indians would have been surrounded and captured, but Col. Logan, who had charge of the lower di- vision, became entangled in the swamp, and did not reach his assigned position before the attack commenced. The party I had joined was about entering the town with great impetuosity, when Gen. Clark sent orders for us to stop, as the Indians were making port holes in their cabins and we should be in great danger, but added he would soon make port holes for us both ; on that he brought his six-pounder to bear on the village, and a discharge of grape shot scattered the materials of their frail dwellings in every direction. The Indians poured out of their cabins in great consternation, while our party, and those on the bank, rushed into

the village, took possession of all the squaws and pappooses, and killed a great many war- riors, but most of them at the lower part of the bottom. In this skirmish, a nephew of Gen. Clark, who had some time before run away from the Monongahela settlements, and joined the Indians, was severely wounded. He was a great reprobate, and, as said, was to have led the Indians in the next morning's attack ; before he expired he asked forgive- ness of his uncle and countrymen. During the day the village was burned, the growing corn cut down; and the next morning we took up the line of march for the Ohio. This was a bloodless victory to our expedition, and the return march was attended with no unpleasant occurrence, save a great scarcity of provisions. On reaching the fort, on the Ohio, a party of us immediately crossed the river for our homes, for which we felt an ex- treme anxiety. We depended chiefly on our rifles for sustenance ; but game not being within reach, without giving to it more time than our anxiety and rapid progress per- mitted, we tried every expedient to hasten our journey without hunting, even to boiling green plums and nettles. These at first, under sharp appetites, were quite palatable, but soon became bitter and offensive. At last, in traversing the head waters of Lick- ing, we espied several buffaloes directly in our track. We killed one, which supplied us bountifully with meat until we reached our homes.

The view given was taken near the residence of Mr. John Keifer. The hill, shown on the left of the engraving, was the one upon which stood the fort, pre-

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846. VIEW A .. PIQUA, THE BIRTH-PLACE OF TECUMSEH.

viously mentioned. Abo . the year 1820, when the hill was first cleared and cultivated by Mr. Keifer, harred stumps were found around its edge, indicating the line of the stockade, " hich included a space of about two acres ; the plow of Mr. Keifer brought up vatous relics, as skeletons, beads, gun-barrels, tomahawks, camp-kettles, etc. Other relies led to the supposition that there was a store of a French trader destroyed at the time of the action at the southwestern base of the hill. When the country was first settled there were two white oak trees in the village of Boston, which had been shot off some fifteen or twenty feet from the ground by the cannon balls of Clark ; their tops show plainly the curved lines of the balls, around which they had sprouted bush-like; these trees were felled

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CLARK COUNTY.

many years since by the Bostonians for fuel. There is a tradition here, that dur- ing the action the Indians secreted their squaws and children in " the cliffs " about a mile up the stream from the fort. The village of Boston, we will observe in digression, was once the competitor with Springfield for the county-seat ; it never had but a few houses, and now has three or four only : one of them is shown on the right of the view, beyond which, a few rods only, is Mad river.

We subjoin a sketch of the life of Tecumseh, derived from Drake's memoir of this celebrated chief. (The name Tecumseh signifies " Shooting Star.")

Puckesbinwa, the father of Tecumseh, was a member of the Kiscopoke, and Methoa- taske, the mother, of the Turtle tribe of the Shawanoe nation ; they removed from Florida to Ohio about the middle of last century. The father rose to the rank of a chief, and fell at the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774. After his death his wife returned to the south, where she died at an advanced age. Tecumseh was born at Piqua about the year 1768, and like Napoleon, in his boyish pas- times, showed a passion for war; he was the acknowledged leader among his companions, by whom he was loved and respected, and over whom he exercised an unbounded influ-

ence ; it is stated that the first battle in which he was occurred on the site of Dayton, be- tween a party of Kentuckians under Col. Ben- jamin Logan and some Shawanoes. When about seventeen years of age Le manifested signal prowess, in an attack on some boats on the Ohio near Limestone, Ky. The boats were all captured, and all in them killed, ex- cept one person, who was burnt alive. Te- cumseh was a silent spectator, never having before witnessed the burning of a prisoner ; after it was over he expressed his strong abhorrence of the act, and by his eloquence persuaded his party never to burn any more prisoners.

From this time his reputation as a brave, and his influence over other minds, increased, and he rose rapidly in popularity among his tribe ; he was in several actions with the whites prior to Wayne's treaty, among which was the attack on Fort Recovery and the battle of the Fallen Timbers. In the summer of 1795 Tecumseh became a chief; from the spring of this year until that of 1796 he re- sided on Deer creek, near the site of Urbana, and from whence he removed to the vicinity of Piqua on the Great Miami. In 1798 he accepted the invitation of the Delawares, then residing in part on White river, Indiana, to remove to that neigh- borhood with his followers. He continued in that vicinity a number of years, and gradually extended his influence among the Indians.

In 1805, through the influence of Laulewasikaw, the brother of Tecumseh, a large number of Shawnees established themselves at Greenville. Very soon after Laulewasikaw assumed the office of a prophet; and forthwith commenced that career of cunning and pretended sorcery, which enabled him to sway the Indian mind in a wonderful degree.

Throughout the year 1806 the brothers re- mained at Greenville, and were visited by many Indians from different tribes, not a few of whom became their followers. The prophet dreamed many wonderful dreams, and claimed to have had many supernatural revelations made to him ; the great eclipse of the sun which occurred in the summer of this year, a knowledge of which by some means he attained, enabled him to carry conviction to the minds of many of his ignorant followers, that he was really the earthly agent of the Great Spirit. He boldly announced to the unbelievers that on a certain day he would

give them proof of his supernatural power by bringing darkness over the sun ; when the day and hour of the eclipse arrived, and the earth, even at mid-day, was shrouded in the gloom of twilight, the prophet, stand- ing in the midst of his party, significantly pointed to the heavens and cried ont, "Did I not prophecy truly ? Behold ! darkness has shrouded the sun !" It may readily be sup- posed that this striking phenomenon, thus adroitly used, produced a strong impression on the Indians, and greatly increased their belief in the sacred character of their prophet.

The alarm caused by the assembling of the Indians still continuing, Governor Harrison, in the autumn of 1807, sent to the head chiefs of the Shawanoe tribe an address, in which he exhorted them to send away the people at Greenville, whose conduct was foreshadowing evil to the whites. To the appeal of the governor the prophet made a cunning and evasive answer; it made no change in the measures

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of this artful man, nor did it arrest the spread of fanaticism among the Indians, which his incantations had produced.

In the spring of 1808 Tecumseh and the prophet removed to a tract of land on the Tippecanoe, a tributary of the Wabash, where the latter continued his efforts to induce the Indians to forsake their vicious habits, while Tecumseh was visiting the neighboring tribes and quietly strengthening his own and the prophet's influence over them. The events of the early part of the year 1810 were such as to leave but little doubt of the hostile intentions of the brothers; the prophet was appa- rently the most prominent actor, while Tecumseh was in reality the main spring of all the movements, backed, it is supposed, by the insidious influence of British agents, who supplied the Indians gratis with powder and ball, in anticipation, per- haps, of hostilities between the two countries, in which event a union of all the tribes against the Americans was desirable. By various acts the feelings of Tecumseh became more and more evident ; in August, he having visited Vincennes to see the governor, a council was held, at which, and a subsequent interview. the real position of affairs was ascertained.

Governor Harrison had made arrange- ments for holding the council on the portico of his own house, which had been fitted up with seats for the occasion. Here, on the morning of the fifteenth, he awaited the ar- rival of the chief, being attended by the Judges of the Supreme Court, some officers of the army, a sergeant and twelve men from Fort Knox, and a large number of citizens. At the appointed hour Tecumseh, supported by forty of his principal warriors, made his appearance, the remainder of his followers being encamped in the village and its en- virons. When the chief had approached within thirty or forty yards of the house he suddenly stopped, as if awaiting some ad- vances from the governor. An interpreter was sent, requesting him and his followers to take seats on the portico. To this Tecum- seh objected-he did not think the place a suitable one for holding the conference, but preferred that it should take place in a grove of trees, to which he pointed, standing a short distance from the house. The gover- nor said he had no objection to the grove, ex- cept that there were no seats in it for their accommodation. Tecumseh replied that con- stituted no objection to the grove, the earth being the most suitable place for the In- dians, who loved to repose upon the bosom of their mother. The governor yielded the point, and the benches and chairs having been removed to the spot, the conference was begun, the Indians being seated on the grass.

Tecumseh opened the meeting by stating at length his objections to the treaty of Fort Wayne, made by Governor Harrison in the previous year, and in the course of his speech boldly avowed the principle of his party to be that of resistance to every cession of land, unless made by all the tribes, who, he con- tended, formed but one nation. He ad- mitted that he had threatened to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty of Fort Wayne, and that it was his fixed determination not to permit the village chiefs in future to manage their affairs, but to place the power with which they had been heretofore in-

vested in the hands of the war chiefs. The Americans, he said, had driven the Indians from the seacoast, and would soon push them into the lakes ; and, while he disclaimed all intention of making war upon the United States, he declared it to be his unalterable resolution to take a stand and resolutely op- pose the further intrusion of the whites upon the Indian lands. He concluded by making a brief but impassioned recital of the various wrongs and aggressions inflicted by the white men upon the Indians, from the commence- ment of the Revolutionary war down to the period of that council, all of which was cal- culated to arouse and inflame the minds of such of his followers as were present.

The governor rose in reply, and in examin- ing the right of Tecumseh and his party to make objections to the treaty of Fort Wayne, took occasion to say that the Indians were not one nation, having a common property in the lands. The Miamis, he contended, were . the real owners of the tract on the Wabash, ceded by the late treaty, and the Shawanoes had no right to interfere in the case; that upon the arrival of the whites on this conti- nent they had found the Miamis in possession of this land, the Shawanoes being then resi- dents of Georgia, from which they had been driven by the Creeks, and that it was ridicu- lous to assert that the red men constituted but one nation; for, if such had been the in- tention of the Great Spirit, he would not have put different tongues in their heads, but have taught them all to speak the same lan- guage.

The governor having taken his seat, the interpreter commenced explaining the speech to Tecumseh, who, after listening to a por- tion of it, sprung to his feet and began to speak with great vehemence of manner.

The governor was surprised at his violent gestures, but as he did not understand him, thought he was making some explanation and suffered his attention to be drawn to- wards Winnemac, a friendly Indian lying on the grass before him, who was renewing the priming of his pistol, which he had kept con- cealed from the other Indians, but in full

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view of the governor. His attention, however, was again directed towards Tecumseh by hear- ing General Gibson, who was intimately acquainted with the Shawanoe language, say to Lieutenant Jennings : "Those fellows intend mischief; you had better bring up the guard." At that moment the followers of Tecumseh seized their tomahawks and war clubs and sprang upon their feet, their eyes turned upon the governor. As soon as he could disengage himself from the arm- chair in which he sat, he rose, drew a small sword which he had by his side and stood on the defensive. Captain G. R. Floyd. of the army, who stood near him, drew a dirk, and the chief Winnemac cocked his pistol. The citizens present were more numerous than the Indians, but were unarmed. Some of them procured clubs and brickbats and also stood on the defensive. The Rev. Mr.

Winans, of the Methodist Church, ran to the governor's house, got a gun, and posted himself at the door to defend the family. During this singular scene no one spoke, until the guard came running up, and. appearing to be in the act of firing, the governor or- dered them not to do so. He then demanded of the interpreter an explanation of what had happened, who replied that Tecumseh had interrupted him, declaring that all the governor had said was false, and that he and the Seventeen Fires had cheated and im- posed on the Indians. The governor then told Tecumseh that he was a bad man and that he would hold no further communica- tion with him ; that as he had come to Vin- cennes under the protection of a council-fire, he might return in safety, but that he must immediately leave the village. Here the council terminated.

The undoubted purpose of the brothers now being known, Gov. Harrison pro- ceeded to prepare for the contest he knew must ensue. In June of the year fol- lowing (1811) he sent a message to the Shawanocs, bidding them beware of hos- tilities, to which Tecumseh gave a brief reply, promising to visit the governor. This visit he paid in July, accompanied by 300 followers, but as the Americans were prepared and determined, nothing resulted, and Tecumseh proceeded to the south, as it was supposed, to enlist the Creeks in the cause.

In the meanwhile Harrison took measures to increase his regular force. His plan was to again warn the Indians to obey the treaty of Greenville, but at the same time to prepare to break up the prophet's establishment if necessary. On the 5th of October, having received his reinforcements, he was on the Wabash, about sixty miles above Vincennes, where he built Fort Harrison. On the 7th of November following he was attacked by the Indians at Tippecanoe and de- feated them. Peace on the frontiers was one of the happy results of this severe and brilliant action.

With the battle of Tippecanoe the prophet lost his popularity and power among the Indians, he having previously to the battle promised them certain victory.

On the first commencement of the war of 1812 Tecumseh was in the field pre- pared for the conflict. In July there was an assemblage at Brownstown of those Indians who were inclined to neutrality. A deputation was sent to Malden to Tecumseh to attend this council. "No," said he, indignantly, "I have taken sides with the king, my father, and I will suffer my bones to bleach upon this shore before I will recross that stream to join in any council of neutrality." He participated in the battle of Brownstown and commanded the Indians in the action near Maguaga. In the last he was wounded, and it is supposed that his bravery and good conduct led to his being shortly after appointed brigadier-general in the service of the British king. In the siege of Fort Meigs Tecumseh behaved with great bravery and humanity. (See Wood County.)

Immediately after the signal defeat of Proctor, at Fort Stephenson, he returned with the British troops to Malden by water, while Tecumseh with his followers passed over by land, round the head of Lake Erie, and joined him at that point. Discouraged by the want of success, and having lost all confidence in General Proctor, Tecumseh seriously meditated a withdrawal from the contest, but was induced to remain.

When Perry's battle was fought it was witnessed by the Indians from the distant shore. On the day succeeding the engage- ment General Proctor said to Tecumseh : "My fleet has whipped the Americans, hut

the vessels being much injured, have gone into Put-in-Bay to refit and will be here in a few days." This deception, however, upon the Indians was not of long duration. The sagacious eye of Tecumseh soon perceived

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indications of a retreat from Malden, and he promptly inquired into the matter. General Proctor informed him that he was only going to send their valuable property up the Thames, where it would meet a reinforcement and be safe. Tecumseh, however, was not to be deceived by this shallow device and remonstrated most urgently against a retreat. He finally demanded, in the name of all the Indians under his command, to be heard by the general, and on the 18th of September delivered to him, as the representative of their great father, the king, the following speech :

" Father, listen to your children ! you have them now all before you.

"The war before this our British father gave the hatchet to his red children, when our old chiefs were alive. They are now dead. In that war our father was thrown upon his back by the Americans, and our father took them by the hand without our knowledge, and we are afraid that our father will do so again at this time.

"Summer before last, when I came for- ward with my red brethren and was ready to take up the hatchet in favor of our British father, we were told not to be in a hurry, that he had not yet determined to fight the Americans.

"Listen ! when war was declared our father stood up and gave us the tomahawk and told us that he was then ready to strike the Americans ; that he wanted our assist- ance, and that we would certainly get our lands back which the Americans had taken from us.

"Listen ! you told us at that time to bring forward our families to this place, and we did so ; and you promised to take care of them, and they should want for nothing, while the men would go and fight the enemy ; that we need not trouble ourselves about the enemy's garrisons; that we knew nothing about them, and that our father would attend to that part of the business. You also told your red children that you would take good care of your garrison here, which made our hearts glad.

"Listen ! when we were last here in the Rapids it is true we gave you little assistance. It is hard to fight people who live like ground hogs.

"Father, listen ! our fleet has gone out ; we know they have fought ; we have heard the great guns ; but we know nothing of what has happened to our father with one arm. Our ships have gone one way, and we are much astonished to see our father tying up everything and preparing to run away the other without letting his red children know what his intentions are. You always told us to remain here and take care of our lands ; it made our hearts glad to hear that was your wish. Our great father, the king, is the head, and you represent him. You always told us you would never draw your foot off British ground; but now, father, we see that you are drawing back, and we are sorry to see our father doing so without see-

ing the enemy. We must compare our father's conduct to a fat dog, that carries his tail on its back, and, when affrighted, drops it between its legs and runs off.

"Father, listen ! the Americans have not yet defeated us by land ; neither are we sure that they have done so by water ; we, there- fore, wish to remain here and fight our enemy, should they make their appearance. If they defeat us, we will then retreat with our father.

" At the battle of the Rapids, last war, the Americans certainly defeated us, and when we returned to our father's fort at that place the gates were shut against us. We were afraid that it would now be the case ; but in- stead of that we now see our British father preparing to march out of his garrison.

"Father, you have got the arms and am- munition which our great father sent for his red children. If you have an idea of going away, give them to us, and you may go and welcome, for us. Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be his will we wish to leave our bones upon them."

Tecumseh entered the battle of the Thames with a strong conviction that he should not survive it. Further flight he deemed dis- graceful, while the hope of victory in the impending action was feeble and distant. He, however, heroically resolved to achieve the latter or die in the effort. With this de- termination he took his stand among his fol- lowers, raised the war cry and boldly met the enemy. From the commencement of, the attack on the Indian line his voice was distinctly heard by his followers, animating them to deeds worthy of the race to which they belonged. When that well-known voice was heard no longer above the din of arms the battle ceased. The British troops having already surrendered, and the gallant leader of the Indians having fallen, they gave up the contest and fled. A short distance from where Tecumseh fell the body of his friend and brother-in-law, Wasegoboah, was found. They had often fought side by side, and now, in front of their men, bravely battling the enemy, they side by side closed their mortal career.

" Thus fell the Indian warrior Tecumseh, in the forty-fourth year of his age. He was of the Shawanoe tribe, five feet ten inches high, and with more than the usual stoutness, possessed all the agility and perseverance of the Indian character. His carriage was dig- nified, his eye penetrating, his countenance, which even in death betrayed the indications of a lofty spirit, rather of the sterner cast. Had he not possessed a certain austerity of manners, he could never have controlled the wayward passions of those who followed him to battle. He was of a silent habit ; but when his eloquence became roused into action by the reiterated encroachments of the Amer- icans, his strong intellect could supply him with a flow of oratory that enabled him, as he governed in the field, so to prescribe in the council. Those who consider that in all terri-

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torial questions, the ablest diplomatists of the United States are sent to negotiate with the Indians, will readily appreciate the loss sus- tained by the latter in the death of their champion. . . . . Such a man was the unlet- tered savage, Tecumseh, and such a man have the Indians lost forever. He has left a son, who, when his father fell, was about seventeen

years old, and fought by his side. The prince regent, in 1814, out of respect to the memory of the old, sent out as a present to the young Tecumseh, a handsome sword. Unfortu- nately, however, for the Indian cause and country, faint are the prospects that Tecumseh the son will ever equal, in wisdom or prowess, Tecumseh the father."

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 61

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006