USA > Ohio > Allen County > History of Allen County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part One > Part 4
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ground. As was anticipated, this advance soon met the enemy, and being fired on fell back and was warmly pursued toward the main body. The morning was rainy, and the drums. could not communicate the concerted signals with sufficient distinctness. A plan of turning the right flank of the Indians was not, therefore, fulfilled. But the victory was complete, the whole Indian line, after a severe contest, giv- ing way and flying in disorder. About one hundred savages were killed."
This decisive victory gave undisputed pos-
session of the country of the Miamis, and com- pletely broke their power.
Before leaving this valley, so gloriously gained, General Wayne erected a fort where Swan Creek joins the Maumee, which was held until Jay's treaty, 1793, when Great Britain surrendered its Northern posts.
"On the 27th the troops took up their march, devastating every village and field on the line to Fort Defiance, which they proceeded to render more substantial. September 14th the legion moved on to the Miami villages, where the long contemplated fort was con- structed, and October 22, 1794, placed under, command of Lieutenant Colonel Hamtramck, who, after firing fifteen rounds of cannon, gave the name, which the city now bears, of Fort Wayne."
SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS, MAY, 1813.
Of all the military operations along the Great Lakes during the War of 1812, none is more interesting than the siege of Fort Meigs, near the present site of Toledo. The fort stood upon high ground, about 60 feet above the Maumee, on the margin of the bank. The surface is quite level. The site is well preserved, and a station called "Fort Meigs" is now seen along the line of the electric rail- way. One may yet see the well-defined outline of the old fort-the grand traverse yet arises six or eight feet above the ground. The place is famous, and many people visit it each year.
The following accounts of Fort Meigs and her battles are taken from Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley."
"In an excursion of the veterans of the War of 1812, made to Fort Meigs in June, 1870, Mayor Tyler, in his address of welcome to the soldiers, remarked, with regard to the present condition of this consecrated ground :
'On to-morrow you will be escorted to the old fortifications of Fort Meigs. There you will find its earthworks faithfully pre- served, safe, only as far as the hand of time has marred its former war-frowning front. No instrument of agriculture has torn down or plowed up any part of the old fort. Two
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of the original pickets, placed there in 1812, are there yet. There you will find, marked by stones long since placed over them, the graves . of your fallen comrades, there thie trenches, there the magazine, there all the outlines of the ancient warfare. Mr. Michael Hayes and his brothers, who own the soil of the old fort, have faithfully performed their duty in guard- ing this landmark of history from destruction or desolation. They have preserved many of the relics of the battle-field-grape shot, can- ister, bayonets, and many other evidences of the conflict.'
"So far the military operations of the Northwest had certainly been sufficiently dis- couraging ; the capture of Mackinac, the sur- render of Hull, the massacre at Chicago, and the overwhelming defeat at Frenchtown, are the leading events. Nothing had been gained, and of what had been lost, nothing had been retaken. The slight successes over the Indians by Hopkins, Edwards and Campbell had not shaken the power or confidence of Tecumseh and his allies ; while the fruitless efforts of Har- rison through five months, to gather troops enough at the mouth of the Maumee to attempt the reconquest of Michigan, which had been taken in a week, depressed the spirits of the Americans, and gave new life and hopes to their foes.
"About the time that Harrison's unsuccess- ful campaign drew to a close, a change took place in the War Department, and General Armstrong succeeded his incapable friend, Dr. Eustis. Armstrong's views were those of an able soldier. In October, 1812, he had again addressed the government, through Mr. Gal- latin, on the necessity of obtaining command of the Lakes, and when raised to power deter- mined to make naval operations the basis of the military movements in the Northwest. His views in relation to the coming campaign in the West were based on two points, viz: The use of regular troops alone, and the command of the Lakes, which he was led to think could be obtained by the 20th of June.
"Although the views of the Secretary in regard to the non-employment of militia were not, and could not be, adhered to, the general
plan of merely standing on the defensive until the command of the Lakes was secured, was persisted in, although it was the end of Aug- ust, instead of the Ist of June, before the ves- sels on Lake Erie could leave the harbor in which they had been built. Among these de- fensive operations in the spring and summer of 1813, that of Fort Meigs, the new post taken by Harrison at the foot of the rapids, and that at Lower Sandusky, deserve to be especially noticed, as they form historical wealth which the whole country, and especially the inhabi- tants of the Maumee Valley, will ever regard with feelings of pride and interest. It had been anticipated that, with the opening of spring, the British would attempt the conquest of the position upon the Maumee, and measures had been taken by the General to forward re- inforcements, which were detained, however, as usual, by the spring freshets and the bottom- less roads. It was no surprise, therefore, to General Harrison, that on the breaking up of the ice in Lake Erie, General Proctor, with all his disposable force, consisting of regulars and Canadian militia from Malden, and a large body of Indians under Tecumseh, amounting in the whole to 2,000 men, made him a hostile visit, and laid siege to Fort Meigs. To en- courage the Indians, he had promised them an easy conquest, and assured them that General Harrison should be delivered up to Tecumseh. On the 26th of April the British columns ap- peared on the other bank of the river and estab- lished their principal batteries on a commanding eminence opposite Fort Meigs. On the 27th the Indians crossed the river and established them- selves in the rear of the American lines. The garrison, not having completed their wells, had no water except what they obtained from the river, under a constant firing from the enemy."
Below is an extract from an article on the siege of Fort Meigs, by Rev. A. M. Lorraine, originally published in the "Ladies' Reposi- tory" for, March, 1845 .-
"One afternoon, as numbers were gathered together on the 'parade,' two strangers, finely mounted, appeared on the western bank of the river, and seemed to be taking a very calm and deliberate survey of our works. It was a
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strange thing to see travelers in that wild coun- try, and we commonly held such to be enemies, until they proved themselves to be friends. So one of our batteries was cleared forthwith, and the gentlemen were saluted with a shot that tore up the earth about them and put them to a hasty flight. If that ball had struck its mark, much bloodshed might have been prevented, for we learned subsequently that our illustrious visitors were Proctor and Tecumseh. The gar- rison was immediately employed in cutting deep traverses through the fort, taking down the tents and preparing for a siege. The work ac- complished in a few hours, under the excite- ment of the occasion, was prodigious. The
on both sides. It was, however, more constant on the British side, because they had a more extensive mark to batter. We had nothing to fire at but their batteries, but they were coolly and deliberately attended to; and it was be- lieved that more than one of their guns were dismounted during the siege. One of our mil- itiamen took his station on the embankment, and gratuitously forewarned us of every shot. In this he became so skillful that he could, in almost every case, predict the destination of the ball. As soon as the smoke issued from the muzzle of the gun, he would cry out 'shot' or 'bomb,' as the case might be. Sometimes he would exclaim 'Block-house No. 1,' or, 'Look
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PLAN ILLUSTRATING THE BATTLES OF THE MAUMEE.
Explanations .- The map above shows about eight miles of the country along each side of the Maumee, including the towns of Perrysburg, Maumee City and Waterville.
Fort Meigs, memorable from having sustained two sieges in the year 1813, is shown on the east side of the Maumee, with the British batteries on both sides of the river, and above the British fort, the position of Proctor's encampment.
From Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley."
Wayne's Battle Ground
grand traverse being completed, each man was ordered to excavate, under the embankment, suitable lodgings, as substitutes for our tents. Those rooms were shot-proof and bomb-proof, except in the event of a shell falling in the traverse and at the mouth of a cave. The above works were scarcely completed before it was discovered that the enemy, under cover of night, had constructed batteries on a command- ing hill north of the river. There their, artil- lerymen were posted; but the principal part of their army occupied the old English fort below. Their Indian allies appeared to have a roving commission, for they beset us on every side. The cannonading commenced in good earnest
out, main battery'; 'Now for the meat house'; 'Good-bye, if you will pass.' In spite of all the expostulations of his friends, he maintained his post. One day there came a shot that seemed to defy all his calculations. He stood silent, motionless, perplexed. In the same instant he was swept into eternity. Poor man! he should have considered, that when there is no obliquity in the issue of the smoke, either to the right or left, above or below, the fatal messenger would travel in the direct line of his vision. He re- minded me of the peasant in the siege of Jeru- salem who cried out, 'Woe to the city! Woe to myself!' On the most active day of the in- vestment, there were as many as 500 cannon
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balls and bombs thrown at our fort. Mean- time the Indians, climbing up into the trees, fired incessantly upon us. Such was their dis- tance, that many of the balls barely reached us, and fell harmless to the ground. Occas- sionally they inflicted dangerous and even fa- tal wounds. The number killed in the fort was small, considering the profusion of powder and ball expended on us. About 80 were slain, many wounded, and several had to suffer the amputation of limbs. The most dangerous duty which we performed within the precincts of the fort, was in covering the magazine. Previous to this, the powder, had been depos- ited in wagons, and these stationed in the tra- verse. Here there was no security against bombs; it was therefore thought to be prudent to remove the powder into a small block-house and cover it with earth. The enemy, judg- ing our designs from our movements, now di- rected all their shot to this point. Many of their balls were red-hot. Wherever they struck they raised a cloud of smoke, and made a frightful hissing. An officer, passing our quarters, said: 'Boys, who will volunteer to cover the magazine?' Fool-like, away several of us went. As soon as we reached the spot, there came a ball and took off one man's head. The spades and dirt flew faster than any of us had before witnessed. In the midst of our job, a bombshell fell on the roof, and lodging on one of the braces it spun around for a moment. Every soldier fell flat on his face, and with breathless horror awaited the vast explosion, which we expected would crown all our earthly sufferings. Only one of the gang presumed to reason on the case. He silently argued that, as the shell had not burst as quickly as usual, there might be something wrong in its arrange- ment. If it burst where it was, and the maga- zine exploded, there could be no escape; it was death anyhow; so he sprang to his feet, seized a boat hook, and pulling the hissing mis- sile to the ground, and jerking the smoking match from its socket, discovered that the shell was filled with inflammable matter, which if once ignited would have wrapped the whole building in a sheet of flame. This circumstance added wings to our shovels and we were right
glad when the officer said: 'That will do; go to your lines.'"
Defeated in his attempts to capture Fort Meigs, Proctor next moved to Lower San- dusky, into the neighborhood of General Har- rison's stores and his headquarters, and be- sieged Fort Stephenson.
Herewith is given a brief account of the attack upon this fort, and its heroic defense by the youthful Colonel Croghan.
COL. GEORGE CROGHAN AND THE DEFENSE OF FORT STEPHENSON.
George Croghan was born near Louisville, Kentucky, November 15, 1791. He was a boy of manly appearance, and at a very early age developed a strong desire for military life. He was graduated at the College of William and Mary, Virginia, July 4, 1810. In 1811 he served in the battle of Tippecanoe, exhibiting great courage, activity and military skill. He was made captain the following year, and major, March, 1813. On May 5, 1813, he dis- tinguished himself as aide-de-camp of General Harrison in the defense of Fort Meigs.
Early in 1813, Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), was constructed
COL. GEORGE CROGHAN. Courtesy of the Croghan Bank, Fremont, O.
by and named after Colonel Stephenson, then in command of United States troops. During the month of July, 1813, Major Croghan was placed in command of this fort, upon which an attack by the British was anticipated. Previous
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to the battle, General Harrison had dispatched messengers to Croghan, advising him that if the enemy appeared in force he should retreat. But the young major wrote back that he had deter- mined to hold the fort at all hazards. General Harrison treated his reply as disobedience of orders, and relieved him of his command. Croghan at once explained to the General's satisfaction, and was returned to his post.
On the 31st of July the British made their appearance, landing about a mile below the fort. General Proctor, the British commander, at once sent a messenger to the fort with a flag, and a summons for an immediate surrender. To this went back the reply : "The fort will be defended to the last extremity; no force, however great, can induce us to surrender, as we are resolved to maintain this post or bury ourselves in its ruins." Again was the flag of truce sent to Croghan, advising him to submit, and thereby avoid the terrible massacre that would surely follow. But to this, the cool and defiant answer went out: "When this fort is taken, there shall be none to massacre; it will not be given up while a man is able to resist." Firing immediately commenced by the British gunboats and a howitzer on shore. Croghan had but one piece of artillery, but by shifting its position from place to place, induced the belief that he had several. The British, hav- ing made no satisfactory progress, determined to storm the fort, and on the 2nd of August advanced with about 500 regulars, 800 Indians, a howitzer and three six-pounders. They were under command to "give the Yankees no quar- ter." Croghan, with only 169 men, reserved fire until the "red coats" had approached within easy reach, when he fired with such fatal pre- cision that the British faltered; he then turned his battery, a single gun, a six-pounder loaded with grape and canister, upon them, and the ravine through which they were approaching was shortly filled with the dead and dying en- emy. This British loss of dead and wounded was about 120, while Croghan's was only eight.
Thus, on the 2nd day of August, 1813, at the age of 21 years, the heroic Croghan, against a vastly superior force, had won this brilliant
victory. For this exploit he was brevetted lieu- tenant colonel by the President of the United States; Congress awarded him a gold medal, and the ladies of Chillicothe, then the capital of Ohio, presented him with a beautiful sword.
Just previous to the battle, Major Croghan wrote the following impressive letter to a friend :
"The enemy are not far distant. I expect an attack. I will defend this post till the last extremity. I have just sent away women and children, with the sick of the garrison, that I may be able to act without incumbrance. Be satisfied. I shall, I hope, do my duty. The example set me by my Revolutionary kindred is before me. Let me die rather than prove unworthy of their name."
He was made inspector general in 1825, with rank of colonel, and served as such with General Taylor in Mexico in 1846-47.
Col. George Croghan died in New Orleans, January 8, 1849. And to keep his memory, Fremont, through these passing years, has con- tinued to celebrate the second day of August.
Fort Stephenson, a spot precious to the citizens of Fremont, is now owned and cared for by the city. The old cannon, familiarly known as "Old Betsy," which did such fearful execution in the fight, to-day stands silently upon the fort, a fitting companion of that noble shaft, erected in memory of Colonel Croghan, and of the brave soldiers in the late Rebellion.
Tecumseh's death at the battle of the Thames in Canada, and Perry's victory on Lake Erie, with Jackson's at New Orleans, following the successes of Fort Meigs and Fort Steph- enson, closed the War of 1812, or the "Second War of Independence."
EARLY STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION. -
Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, of the University of Michigan, in his "Old Northwest," writes thus : "Save New England alone, there is no section of the United States embracing several States, that is so distinct an historical unit, and that so readily yields to historical treatment as the 'Old Northwest.' It was the occasion of the final struggle for dominion between France
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and England in North America. It was the theatre of one of the most brilliant and far- reaching military exploits of the Revolution. The disposition to be made of it at the close of the Revolution is the most important ter- ritorial question treated in the history of Amer- ican diplomacy. After the war, the Northwest began to assume increasing importance in the national history. It is the original public do- main and the part of the West first colonized under the authority of the national government. It was the first and most important territory ever organized by Congress. It is the only part of. the Unitetl States ever, under a second- ary constitution like the Ordinance of 1787. No other equal part of the Union has made, in one hundred years, such progress along the characteristic lines of American development."
From the Old Northwest were formed the States of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, In- diana, Ohio, and part of Minnesota, and it forms one of the richest and most enterprising regions of America.
Long before the English appeared upon this scene, the French had explored and threaded the great wilderness. They pushed their way into the great regions beyond the source of the Mississippi to the "Land of the Dakotas" and in the opposite direction to the mouth of the Mississippi and to the foot of the Alleghanies. They spread themselves out over half a continent, visiting lakes, forests and riv- ers, bent on discovery, trade or the reclaiming of souls. The tale of the heroic expeditions of the French voyageurs, priests and soldiers amid the sublimity and grandeur of the virgin scenes which unfolded to their vision, forms a brilliant and enchanting chapter in American history.
Of the galaxy of States formed from this Western region, the territory occupied by Ohio was the last to be discovered and claimed by the French. It lay in the path of the nearest route from Canada to the Mississippi Valley, but the explorers were long barred out by the hostile Iroquois, and not until the year 1680 do we find any important settlements. In that year one of the parties sent out by Frontenac, the Governor of Canada, built a small stockade
just below the site of Maumee City, which was an important trading post for many years. In 1694 it was abandoned for a more favorable location at the head of the Maumee, where Fort Wayne now stands. The next year wit- nessed the establishment of a trading post at the western end of Lake Erie, which was des-
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troyed by the Miamis two years later. The Wabash Valley was occupied about the year 1700, the first settlers entering it from the Kan- kakee. Later the Canadians found a nearer route to the Wabash Valley by way of the Maumee River and the short portage between the head-waters of the two rivers. About this time, also, the English first established them-
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selves in Ohio for permanent operations. As early as 1686-87 attempts were made by the Dutch and English traders from New York to penetrate this Western region. The coun- try between Lake Erie and Upper Michigan was one of the great beaver trapping grounds and was therefore a temptation to the traders. "The Hurons, the Chippewas, the Ottawas and even the Iroquois, from beyond Ontario, by turns sought this region in large parties for the capture of this game, from the earliest his- toric times. It is a region peculiarly adapted to the wants of this animal. To a great extent level, it is intersected by numerous water- courses, which have but moderate flow. At the headwaters and small inlets of these streams, the beaver established his colonies. Here he dammed the streams, setting back the water, over the flat lands, and creating ponds, in which were his habitations. Not one or two, but a series of such dams were constructed along each stream, so that very extensive sur- faces became thus covered permanently with the flood. The trees were killed and the land was converted into a chain of ponds and marshes, with intervening dry ridges. In time, by Nature's recuperative process, the annual growth and decay of grasses and aquatic plants, these filled with muck or peat, with occasional deposits of bog lime, and the ponds and swales became dry again.
"Illustrations of this beaver-made country are numerous enough in our immediate vicin- ity. In a semi-circle of 12 miles around Detroit, having the river for base, and embracing about 100,000 acres, fully one-fifth consists of marshy tracts or prairies, which had their origin in the work of the beaver. A little farther west nearly one whole township in Wayne County is of this country." ( Hubbard, "Memorials of a Half Century.")
Ohio was also invaded by settlers from Virginia, but it is not known who the English- men were who first crossed the Alleghanies to the valleys beyond. We have no authentic records of explorations in the region until the year 1714, when Governor Alexander Spots- wood of Virginia led an exploring party beyond the Alleghanies. In 1744 the Indians deeded
all this Western region to Virginia and this gave the English their first real treaty right to the West.
In 1748 the "Ohio Company," which was composed of 13 prominent Virginians and Marylanders and a London merchant, was formed for the purpose of speculating in lands and trading with the Indians in Ohio. Chris- topher Gist was sent out by the company to explore Southern Ohio, and from this time there is a growing interest in these western lands.
The French, however, were not inactive. Marquis de la Galissoniere, who was Gov- ernor of Canada, sent Celoron de Bienville, with 300 men into the Ohio Valley with the purpose of taking possession of the country, of propitiating the Indians and of warning the English traders out of the country. Bien- ville crossed the portage between Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua, which was the eastern- most crossing from the Great Lakes to the southern rivers used by the French, and made his way down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers to the Miami, returning to Montreal by way `of the Maumee and Lake Erie. At important points he buried leaden plates upon which were engraved the arms of France, and bear- ing an inscription that they had taken the land and buried the plates. Bienville found the valley swarming with English traders and the Indians generally well disposed toward them.
The Marquis Duquesne, in 1753, with a strong force seized and held the northeastern branches of the Ohio. This threw down the gauntlet to the English, and in 1756 war was formally declared between the two countries, which culminated on the Heights of Abraham in 1759. In the treaty of 1763 France sur- rendered her possessions to the English, and for several years Ohio was controlled by mil- itary commandants on the frontiers.
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