USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of Dayton, Ohio. With portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneer and prominent citizens Vol. 1 > Part 13
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R. J. MEIGS, "Governor of Ohio.
" Headquarters, Dayton, May 7, 1812."
There were two thousand Indians in Ohio in 1812, one thousand, nine hundred and seventy of them being in the northwest corner of the State. The latter were divided into five tribes: Shawnees, seven hun- dred; Ottawas, five hundred and fifty; Wyandots, three hundred; Senecas, two hundred and twenty; Delawares and Muncies, two hundred.
It became necessary, on account of the hostile attitude of the Indians, to build two or three block houses in Montgomery County, west from the Miami River to Preble County, as rallying places, for the settlers of Preble, Dark, and Miami counties were in special danger, and as many as a hundred settlers and their families from that locality fled from their homes. The flight of these families increased the alarm in other localities. Scouting parties of Miami County militia were con- stantly out on duty to the north and west of Piqua.
Soon after Governor Meigs arrived in Dayton, he ordered General Munger and a small number of the Dayton troops to make "a tour to Greenville, to inquire into the situation of the frontier settlements." The General returned on Sunday, the 10th of May, and reported that an Indian trader, by the name of Conner, who resided at Fort Defiance, had been advised by friendly Indians to move in from the frontier, and also that the Prophet was seventy miles from Greenville, and that an attack would be made in about six weeks. He also learned that the Prophet was said to be rebuilding his town, and that his party was as strong as ever. The governor immediately ordered a completely equipped company of riflemen from General MeArthur's command, to march at once to Greenville and another to Piqua for the protection of the frontier inhabit- ants, who were flying in every direction.
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On the 8th Colonel Johnston, by order of the governor, held a council of the Shawnee chiefs from Wapakoneta at Piqua. Great anxiety was felt to know whether the Indians would declare for peace or war. The report of the capture of six Indians and a squaw by the militia near Troy came on the 14th. On the 15th a party of five or six whites, who were planting corn, was attacked near Greenville by Indians, and one of them wounded. The Indians assembled at Piqua decided for peace, but though Colonel Johnston believed their professions of friendship, the inhabitants generally distrusted them. All through the war, by' mean's of appeals through the newspapers and various regulations and procla- mations, Colonel Johnston endeavored to keep faith with the friendly Shawnees, and at the same time to defend Indians and whites from each other. The frontiersman could not believe an Indian less treacherous or more worthy of consideration than the wild beasts which he shot whenever they showed themselves within range of his gun. Even the more intelligent and humane inhabitants of Ohio largely shared this distrust and contempt of all Indians; and Indians, professedly friendly, did many things which confirmed the evil opinion the whites had. of them. Soon after one of Colonel Johnston's appeals for a just and humane treatment of the Indians was printed, an article unjustly inveigh- ing against him and his Indian friends appeared in the Centinal. Among other statements, it was said that at the time he was assuring the people that the Indians would not annoy the whites in any way, he ordered them to bring him the ears of all the hogs that they killed, that he might pay the owners for the loss of their swine.
On Sunday, the 14th of May, Governor Meigs left Dayton for Cin- cinnati, where he expected to meet General Hull and return to town in his company, but arrived on the 15th without the general. On Wednes- day, the 13th, General Gano and General Cass arrived in Dayton with between six hundred and seven hundred men. There were now about fourteen hundred troops here, a large proportion of whom were volun- teers. The Centinal announces that Captain Mansfield's and Captain Sloan's companies of volunteers, and three companies from the castward, were expected in a few days. Governor Meigs was making a great effort to supply the troops with blankets, provisions, and all necessaries.
Captain Mansfield arrived from Cincinnati May 20th with his com- pany of light infantry. On the 21st three regiments of infantry-the First, Second, and Third-were formed. These troops, numbering fifteen hundred, were the first organized by the authorities of the State of Ohio. Duncan McArthur was elected colonel of the First, James Denny and William A. Trimble majors; James Findlay colonel of the Second,
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Thomas Moore and Thomas B. Van Horne majors; Lenis Cass colonel of the Third, Robert Morrison and Jeremiah R. Munson majors. The First regiment was encamped south of town, and the other two on the com- mons. After the assignment of companies and election of officers, a better state of military discipline was maintained than had previously been possible.
Captain William Van Cleve's company of riflemen, of this county, volunteered their services to the governor, and they and a number of others, as more than the State's quota of troops had already been mus- tered into the service, were formed into battalions and regiments, and employed in guarding supply trains and keeping open a line of communi- cation with the army.
The Centinal reported that on May 21st five or six men, who were . covering corn near Greenville, were fired upon by five Indians; one of the men was wounded. They immediately pursued the savages, killed one and wounded another.
General Hull and his staff, having arrived in town, made McCullum's tavern headquarters. The usually quiet village was now all animation and noise, as officers, quartermasters, and commissaries were preparing for the departure of the regiments for Detroit. The broad and generally almost deserted streets were alive with bustling citizens and country people, gazing with curiosity at the uniforms and equipments of the . passing soldiers, and the stores were full of customers; companies were drilling; mounted officers and couriers galloping in different directions; lines of wagons and pack horses laden with provisions, ammunition, and camp equipage, coming in from Cincinnati or the neighborhood, and Montgomery County farmers and business men, even when they were enrolled among the volunteers, were many of them reaping a golden harvest.
On the 25th Governor Meigs surrendered the command, the duties of which he had faithfully discharged, to General IIull. In the morning Governor Meigs and General Hull and their staff's rode out to the camp south of town and reviewed the First Ohio. The review was followed by addresses, and then the general and governor returned to MeCullum's for dinner. In the afternoon they rode to the camp at what is now Library Park, and after making an inspection of arms, accoutrements, and equip- ments, reviewed the two regiments. After the review the soldiers formed in close column and listened to addresses by the governor and general, which were reported in full in the next number of the Ohio Centinal.
Early on the morning of the 26th the three regiments, with General Hull and his staff at their head, crossed Mad River at the ford, nearly
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opposite the head of the present Webster Street, and marched to a prairie three miles from town, on the west bank of Mad River. They named their camp for Governor Meigs. The American flag was run up, the troops forming a hollow square around it, and greeting it with cheers, and expressing their determination not to surrender it but with their lives. The troops, supplied with tents and equipage by the government, were more comfortable at Camp Meigs, and also better drilled and disciplined, than they had been at their other encampments.
On the 26th, Governor Meigs ordered Captain William Van Cleve's company of riflemen, then in camp at Adams' Prairie, on Hole's Creek, to march to the frontier of the State west of the Miami, under the direction and charge of Colonel Jerome Holt. Colonel Holt was ordered to assist the inhabitants of the frontier in erecting block houses in suitable places and to adopt any mode he might think best for the protection of the settlements. The roads from Camp Meigs to Piqua were kept free from Indians by patrols of militia. Captain Sloan's troop from Cincinnati arrived at Camp Meigs on the 27th.
On Monday, the 1st of June, the' troops which were designated by . the government, the Northwestern army, left Camp Meigs on their march for Detroit. The troops were in high spirits. A crowd of people from this vicinity, the governor and his staff, and many strangers from Cin- cinnati and Kentucky, were assembled to witness the departure of the first army of Ohio for the seat of war. They were not encumbered with artillery, which was to be supplied on their arrival at Detroit. The column was formed as follows: Cavalry on the right; next in line, the Second regiment; then the Third Ohio, and on the extreme left the First regiment, followed by the wagon train and brigades of pack mules.
A crowd of people followed the troops the first day, some of them sleeping in camp the first night and not returning home for a day or two. The regiments marched out what is now the old Troy pike, but was then known as the Staunton road. They camped the first evening at Staunton, a mile east of Troy. It had been the intention of General Hull to march up the Miami to Laramie, thence over to the Auglaize and then down to the rapids of the Maumee. Bateaux and keel-boats had been loaded here with corn-meal, flour, corn, and pork, which the troops were to escort up the Miami, but the river was so low that the boats stranded on the shoals the day they started. The plans were accordingly changed. The men were paid off and remained in camp till the 6th, when they marched to Urbana, arriving on the 7th and camping in the eastern part of the town.
Governor Meigs had gone to Urbana from Dayton on the 3rd to hold
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a council with chiefs of the Shawnee and Wyandot nations. For the purpose of impressing the chiefs with the power of the United States government, the regiments at Urbana were paraded and reviewed on the afternoon of the 8th by the governor.
The First regiment was ordered on the 11th to cut a road through the woods to the Scioto. On the 16th they began to build two block houses on the south bank of the Scioto and a stockade, which were called Fort McArthur.
On the 15th the remainder of the army, which had been increased by the arrival of the Fourth regiment of the United States Infantry and several militia companies to two thousand, five hundred men, left Ur- bana. They arrived at Fort McArthur on the 19th. They marched with a strong rear guard and with companies of riffemen on the flanks of the army, as the woods were full of hostile Indians.
June 21st the Second regiment was ordered to continue the road to Blanchard's ford of the Auglaize River. A company was left as a garri- son at Fort McArthur, and the remainder of the army marched on the 22d. The way lay through the swamps and twelve miles from the fort they "got stuck in the mud." Here they built Fort Necessity. Block houses similar to this were erected all along the route to store provisions, to be forwarded as needed to the troops under the escort of the militia. Twenty miles further on they built Fort Findlay on the site of the town of that name. Here the Third regiment was ordered forward to clear the road for the army, now beginning its march through the Black Swamp, part of which is called at the present day Hull's Prairie. The road was in places knee-deep in mud, and badly cut up by cavalry and pack horses and the one hundred and six heavily loaded army wagons. Thirteen wagons stuck in the mud and were abandoned. The men plodded wearily along through the deep mire for thirty-five miles, yet reached and crossed the Maumee on the 30th in fine health and spirits, and continued their march to Detroit. General Hull had, for the protection of stores and public property, and to keep open his line of communication, left garri- sons of militia at Dayton, Piqua, Urbana, St. Mary's, Fort McArthur, Fort Findlay, and Fort Greenville. General Munger was ordered up with his command of militia from Hole's Creek to Camp Meigs after the departure of the army from Dayton. His duty was to keep the roads to Piqua and Urbana open and to guard the public stores here, a service of some importance, as quartermaster's ordinance, and commissary's supplies were forwarded to the front by way of Dayton.
Captain Perry's company of rangers were constantly out skirmishing with parties of Indians between St. Mary's and Fort Wayne. They
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killed all their captives. On the 8th of July they were ordered to go as far as Vincennes. The governor in order, if necessary, to organize a second army, kept bodies of Ohio militia in camp in the southern and western parts of the State, and at points along the line of communication with Detroit. A number were at Fort Meigs ready to report on short notice. On the 10th, Governor Meigs, who was then at Chillicothe, disbanded General Munger's brigade, supposing that their services would no longer be needed.
On the 1st of July, Lieutenant Gwynne, of the United States Army, opened a recruiting office in Dayton. A bounty of sixteen dollars was offered to men enlisting for five years, and three months additional pay and one hundred and sixty acres of land were promised to recruits, or their heirs, serving their time out, wounded, or killed in the service. Men enlisting for eighteen months were to receive the bounty, but no land. Boys, with the consent of parents or guardians, were enlisted as musicians.
Army contractors, during the summer; purchased grain and stock of the farmers at advanced prices. One of the contractors advertised for six hundred head of cattle, four hundred horses, and three thousand barrels of flour; and another for flour, whisky, beef, cattle, vinegar, and bacon, to be delivered at Dayton or any of the block houses that might be agreed upon.
At noon on Saturday, August 22d, the news of the surrender of Hull's army reached Dayton. The people of this neighborhood and on the frontier were much alarmed by this terrible disaster. It was supposed that he could not have been induced to surrender, unless compelled to do so by the overwhelming superiority of the enemy. The distress and indignation of the Western people may be imagined-it would be difficult to find words strong enough to express it -- when they learned that, while HIull had an army of two thousand, five hundred men well supplied with arms, artillery, ammunition, provisions, cattle, sheep, horses, and stores of all kinds, General Brock, of the British Army, was poorly supplied with artillery, and had but one thousand, three hundred and thirty men, three hundred and thirty regulars, four hundred militia, and six hundred Indians; yet Hull surrendered without firing a gun. Our soldiers were released on parole, landed at various points on the shore of Lake Erie, and gradually made their way home. The people throughout the State were panic-stricken. The British Army was known to consist principally of Indians, and it was feared that, instigated by British officers, roving bands of savages would soon begin a barbarous warfare upon the defenseless people of Kentucky and Ohio. The suspense was dreadful
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for a time. A large number of professedly neutral Indians were in attendance at the council called at Piqua by United States commissioners, and it was very uncertain how they would be affected by the extraor- dinary reverse at Detroit. Fortunately they remained friendly, and their presence, instead of endangering the people and the public stores, was a protection to the frontier.
The citizens who had collected in large numbers at the Centinal office, on August 22d, to hear the news, recommended the immediate issue of a handbill, containing a statement of the alarming information just received, and requesting every able-bodied man who could furnish a firelock to repair to Dayton the next day, for the purpose of marching immediately to the defense of the frontier; to guard the public stores at Piqua, and watch the movements of the Indians in that quarter. The response to this call justified the Centinal in heading its editorial, relating the occurrences of the following two or three days, "Prompt Patriotism," and in challenging "the annals of our country to produce an example of greater promptitude or patriotism."
The bad news came Saturday noon .. The consternation and aston- . ishment were followed by immediate action, and by seven o'clock Sunday morning a company of seventy men was raised, organized, and completely equipped. It was commanded by Captain James Steele, and marched in a few hours for Pigna. Men and women worked hard to get the, soldiers ready to march, and probably few of them went to bed Saturday night.
During Sunday five companies of volunteers and two of drafted militia from different parts of Montgomery County, and a troop of horse commanded by Captain Caldwell, and a rifle company commanded by Captain Johnson, from Warren County, arrived here. Captain Caldwell's troop of horse went to Piqua early Monday morning. The other six companies, numbering in all upwards of four hundred men, were organ- ized into a battalion. Major Adams, who had been chosen major of the battalion, marched in the afternoon with three hundred and forty-one completely equipped men, all volunteers, the two companies of drafted militia being left here at Camp Meigs, subject to the orders of Governor Meigs. Monday evening and Tuesday several other companies from adjoining counties passed through Dayton for "the frontier." As soon as the news of IIull's surrender reached Governor Meigs, he ordered forty thousand dollars worth of the public property to be removed from Piqua to Dayton, and part of it had arrived before the 26th. Tuesday afternoon three hundred and fifty men, under the command of Captain Jenks, who had volunteered before the news of the surrender of Detroit
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was received, arrived on their way to the front and camped at Camp Meigs. A brigade from Greene County, commanded by General Benja- min Whiteman, marched on this day.
General Munger, commander of the Fifth Brigade of the First Division of Ohio Militia, was ordered by Governor Meigs, who was now at Urbana, to organize troops and take immediate measures for the defense of the frontier within his command. He was to cause block houses to be erected at suitable places, and to "advise the inhabitants to associate and erect suitable stations of defense in such way as to accom- modate families." " The astonishing fate of General Hull's army," writes the governor, "has exposed the frontier to barbarians. I have written express to the secretary of war on the subject of defense. I hope soon to see the Kentucky army here, when a regular system of operations will be adopted. In the meantime you will direct and advise the most judicious course."
In obedience to this command, General Munger marched with his brigade to Piqua, where he superintended the removal of the public stores. Captain Steele's company, which was at Piqua, was ordered by General Munger to march to St. Mary's, which was the most advanced frontier post. Captain Steele was placed in command of the post, and Private Joseph H. Crane was sergeant-major. They built block houses for the defense of St. Mary's.
The following is a copy of the pay-roll of Captain Steele's company while at St. Mary's. It contained but fifty-two names, though seventy were enrolled on August 23rd, so that part of the men were probably at this time engaged in scouting or other duty. Perhaps some did not go farther than Piqua:
Captain, James Steele; lieutenant, George Grove; ensign, James McClain; first sergeant, John Folkerth; second, Ralph Wilson; third, John Strain; fourth, James Henderson; first corporal, Matthew Patton; second, Alexander Grimes; third, George Harris; fourth, David IIender- son; privates, Joseph H. Crane, John Deaver, David Brier, John McCabe, John Rowan, Samuel Walton, Joshua Greer, George Newcom, John Newcom, Simpson McCarter, George Ward, William Bay, James Miller, John Lowe, Daniel Sunderland, William Vanosdarl, William Mont- gomery, James Petticrew, James McClain, John Holderman, Samuel King, James Brier, Ira Smith, Abraham Smith, George Wollaston, Lewis Gordon, Jeremiah Collins, Jonathan Mayhall, David Riflle, Robert Mc- Cleary, William Van Cogk, James Ray, John Enoch, Henry Jennings, William MeCorkle, Andrew Robeson, Moses Hatfield, Moses McNair, Alexander Guy, William Fryback, Caleb Worley.
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The accidental preservation and publication in the Dayton Journal of this pay-roll enabled a number of widows and children of the men to obtain land warrants from the government.
It is impossible for the present generation to realize the horrors and sufferings of the first year of the war. In King's "History of Ohio" it is stated that "an eye-witness described the country as depopulated of men, and the farmer women, weak and sickly as they often were, and sur- rounded by helpless little children, were obliged, for want of bread, to till their fields until frequently they fell exhausted and dying under the toil to which they were unequal." The people of Dayton and vicinity had their full share of their trials and labors.
Monday afternoon, August 31st, Colonel Wells arrived with between three and four hundred men of the Seventeenth United States Regiment, lately recruited in Kentucky, and also Captain Garrard, with a volunteer troop of horse, from Bourbon County, Kentucky. They left the next day.
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On Tuesday morning, September 1st, General W. H. Harrison, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Kentucky volunteers, arrived in town and remained a few hours, and as a mark of respect and approbation, the citizens announced his arrival by firing a salute of eighteen guns. While they were receiving General Harrison in front of the court house square, Brigadier-General Payne arrived, with three Kentucky regiments, making a force of eighteen hundred men, and marching up Main Street, halted near Second Street. They were also greeted with a discharge of cannon. A Mr. Wright, while engaged in firing the salute, had one hand shot off and the other badly injured.
The Centinal, in an editorial in its next issue, says that, "in the present hour of gloom and despondency, no event could have given more general satisfaction than the appointment of General Harrison." "We trust the gallant Kentuckians, under their accomplished leader, will retrieve the tarnished honor of our country." The people congratulated themselves a few months later that the army now had a man instead of an old woman to lead them. General Harrison left Dayton for Piqua Tuesday afternoon.
The following letter from the Kentucky volunteers, thanking the people of Dayton for the attentions they had received from them, was published in the Centinal on the 2d of September:
" STATE OF OHIO, " CAMP NEAR DAYTON, "September 1, 1812.
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" The commander of the Kentucky volunteers begs leave to return to the citizens of Dayton the thanks of himself and the army under his
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command for the tribute of respect paid to them in passing through town. They flatter themselves that, in the hour of trial, they will not be found unworthy of the confidence of their country. They feelingly commiserate with the citizen who, in paying them that tribute, was maimed by the accidental going off of the cannon; and they beg leave to present to him a small sum of money, a voluntary contribution of the officers towards defraying the expenses of his cure.
"By order of the general. " ASA PAYNE, Aid-de-camp. "THOMAS SMITH, Secretary."
At this time two regiments of Montgomery County militia were stationed at Piqua; Major Adams' battalion was ordered to St. Mary's, and Colonel Jerome Holt and his regiment to Greenville, where they were directed to build a block house and stockade. Reinforcements were sent to Laramie, and the defenses there strengthened. Fort McArthur was garrisoned with Ohio militia, and the works there and at Fort Manary and Urbana were enlarged. As the Indians were threatening Fort Wayne, it became necessary to obtain reinforcement for Major Adams' battalion, who were about to march from St. Mary's to the relief of that post. The following address and call for troops were therefore issued by Governor Meigs and General Harrison:
"PIQUA, September 2, 1812.
"Fellow-Citizens of Ohio:
" At a moment like this I appeal to your valor and patriotism. Major General Harrison will rendezvous a respectable force of Kentucky volunteers at Dayton, on the 15th instant, for a short expedition.
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