USA > Ohio > History of Ohio, covering the periods of Indian, French and British dominion, the territory Northwest, and the hundred years of statehood > Part 24
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Proctor was not slow, as soon as there was navigation in the lake. to accept the challenge of Fort Meigs, and in the latter part of April brought up the Maumee about three thousand men, including C'anadian militia and Tecumseh and his Indians and artillery for a siege, with a sufficient naval equipment. Establishing batteries across the river and later on the same side that Harrison held, the garrison was actively bombarded for four days, May 1st to 4th. Harrison, though he gave a plucky answer to a demand for surren- der, might have been forced to yield had not his expected reinforce- ments, a large body of Kentuckians, arrived under Gen. Green Clay. When news of their near approach was brought through the Indian lines by Peter Navarre, Leslie Combs and Capt. William Oliver, a gallant scout who had been distinguished in a similar way at the siege of Fort Wayne, Harrison sent out directions for the mode of joining him. As Clay could not land his boats under the fire of the enemy's guns, Harrison devised a plan for temporarily silencing the batteries. Part of Clay's men were to land on the north side, march through the woods and take the two batteries there and spike the guns, after which they should return to their boats and eross over to the fort. At the same time the remainder of the Kentnekians should out their way through the Indians on the south side, aided by
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sorties from the fort, by which it was hoped to silence the battery on that side.
However wise the plan of battle may have been, the result was disastrous, which General Harrison aseribed to rashness and laek of discipline in the Kentuckians. But he had asked them to advance into the heart of a hostile army and then fall baek under the galling fire of the Indians. General Clay and Colonel Dudley found it easy to surprise and carry the two British redoubts, but were soon attacked from all directions, and becoming confused, fell an easy prey to Proetor and Tecumseh. A heavy rain was falling that added to the gloom of the terrible day. Driven here and there or entieed into ambush, the men were shot down and tomahawked with- out merey. Many were killed and more wounded, and the greater part, in despair, laid down their arms as prisoners. Dudley was among the victims of the Indians, but Clay managed to escape across the river with about one hundred and fifty out of his eight hundred men who made the attack on the north bank. There was no glory on the south side to alleviate this frightful disaster, except that the remainder of the Kentnekians succeeded in getting into the fort, and Colonel Miller and Major Trimble, with part of the garri- son, made a gallant charge upon the British battery, losing many of their men, but temporarily taking the guns and capturing a few British. General Harrison was also able to seeure the ammunition brought down by the Kentuckians, of which he stood in great need, but the boats containing the baggage and stores of the expedition fell into the hands of the Indians.
Both Harrison and Proctor ealled this battle of May 5, 1513, a victory. The investment of the fort continued unehanged, and over half the force that was to relieve it, with the supplies, was lost. More memorable even than the battle was the massaere of prisoners. As they were sent back to the old British fort for safe keeping, a body of Indians formed in line and inflicted upon the men the tor- tures of running the gauntlet, whipping them with ramrods, toma- hawking some and shooting others, and when the prisoners reached the fort threats were made of general massaere. One Indian painted blaek killed three men here, causing an indescribable panic. "But the British officers and soldiers seemed to interpose," said an eye witness," and quiet was restored by the arrival of Colonel Elliott of Revolutionary fame, and Chief Tecumseh, who rode into the fort, Elliott looking more like a savage than Teeumsch, who impressed the prisoners as "a noble, dignified personage." Elliott made eva- sive answer to an appeal for merey, but Teeumsch looked over the seene with unmoved composure. Perhaps in another place occurred that romantie ineident related by other witnesses, in which Teeum-
* Lieut. J. R. Underwood, whose account is printed in Howe's Collections.
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seh rode up to a scene of massaere, commanded his braves to desist and tomahawked one or two who refused, at the same time reproach- ing Proctor for weakly permitting such horrors. At any rate the killing ceased, but afterward the prisoners were ranged in lines, and young men were picked out by the Indians to be taken to their vil- lages. "I saw Corporal Smith, of our company, bidding farewell to his friends, and pointing to the Indian with whom he was to go," Underwood writes, and adds, "I never heard of his return." Ser- eral hundred prisoners survived, were taken to the British shipping, and after a few days were paroled.
The siege lasted four days longer, during which the bombardment of the fort continued, without serious effect, the garrison taking refuge, when not on duty, in eaves and tunnels. Harrison refused to comply with a second demand for surrender. The Indians began to scatter, though Tecumseh remained constant with a few hundred braves he could control, and the British themselves became wearied and sick from exposure. Furthermore, Governor Meigs was approaching with Ohio militia. Consequently Proctor prepared to raise the siege, and left on the 9th without molestation, embarking his artillery and sailing away to Malden. He had at least effectu- ally defeated the third campaign against western Canada. Heavy 'loss was inflicted upon Harrison's forces, for in addition to the cas- ualties of May 5th on the north bank of the river, >1 were killed and 189 wounded. The brave men of the garrison, when they were able again to go outside the fort and walk about, looked like "so many scarecrows."
General Harrison now repaired to Franklinton to organize a new command to participate in a general campaign all along the Can- ada line, his special duty being the capture of Malden and the reeor- ery of Detroit. MeArthur and Cass, on the expiration of their paroles, had been made major-generals of the Ohio militia, and when the president ordered two regiments of United States troops organ- ized in Ohio, Cass was commissioned as one of the colonels to raise and command them. Soon afterward Cass and MeArthur were promoted to brigadier-generals in the regular army, giving the com- manding general in the west able and enterprising lieutenants. A great outpouring of the Ohio and Kentucky militia was also arranged for, a proceeding which drew upon Harrison's head the complaint of extravagance from the war department. To further strengthen the hope of success General Harrison held a council with the friendly Indians at Franklinton, June 21st, in which Chief ('rane ( Tarhe) of the Wyandots, led that tribe and the Delawares and Shawanees in arrangements for promoting the American cause. Many of the Indians of Ohio were collected in concentration camps, and they generally behaved well. It was the whites whom Harrison
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was compelled to implore to keep peace with the red men at Piqua in September.
But with all the preparations made it is not likely that the fourth campaign would have been more successful against Canada than those before, if there had not been, at last, an abandonment of the plan of invasion that had so uselessly sacrificed the young men of the west. Navies were building on Erie and Ontario and Cham- plain, which should give American heroism an opportunity to accom- plish results. With the events on the eastern lakes we have not to do, but it was very important in affecting the history of Ohio that there was in the spring of 1813 a little fleet of war ships in construc- tion at Presque Isle ( Erie), anxiously watched by the British squad- ron, which was unable to cross the bar. At Cleveland also, a great many small boats were in construction.
To counteract this danger, the British fleet sailed to Presque Isle and Proctor determined to make a demonstration on the Maumee, in the hope of drawing the attention of Harrison's army in that direc- tion, and exposing to attack the Sandusky region, Cleveland and Presque Isle. General Harrison's headquarters were by this time advanced to Fort Seneca (a few miles north of the site of Tiffin), while a well-built little fort at Lower Sandusky (Fremont), was held by Major George Croghan, of Kentucky, a son of Maj. Will- iam Croghan, and nephew of George Rogers Clark.
Proetor's army of British, Canadians and Indians, about four thousand strong, was discovered ascending the Maumee in boats July 20th, but Harrison cantiously refused to move until Clay should be seriously besieged, and being informed of this, Clay was not deceived by the sham battle that Proctor arranged in the hope of entieing him from the fort to co-operate with an imaginary reliev- ing party. So Proetor withdrew without any serious hostilities, and with part of his foree, turned toward Fort Stephenson, sending many of his Indians to annoy Harrison's eamp. In anticipation of danger Harrison had instructed Croghan to hold the fort against Indians, because a retreat from them would be impossible, but if menaced by artillery and British to burn the fort and fall back to Fort Seneca. Later an order was sent to Croghan to retreat imme- diately, to which he replied that it was too late. "We have deter- mined to maintain this place, and by heavens we can." Thereupon Harrison sent a letter of reprimand, relieving Croghan and putting Colonel Wells in his place, but after an interview with the general the young officer was permitted next day to resume command, with the same instructions as originally given. On the following even- ing the enemy appeared, with gunboats on the river, and July 1st the Indians displayed themselves all about the little fort, while the British artillery opened fire, and troops and howitzers were landed. After a demand for surrender, to which Croghan replied that they
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would hold the post until death, a bombardment was kept up during the night of the 1st and through the next day, at the elose of which two columns of British stormed the northwestern angle of the fort. ('roghan had prepared for this, and the opportune discharge of a six-pounder, double-loaded with grape and slugs, filled thie ditch with the assailants, among the killed being Colonel Short of the red-coats. Thus the assault failed and Croghan won immortal fame."
When the British force had withdrawn, and Colonel Reniek had come up with 250 mounted men, Harrison advaneed to Fort Stephen- son, ordering Generals MeArthur and Cass, who had lately arrived, to follow with all the forces they could collect.
MeArthur, as soon as Proctor had begun this invasion, called out the entire Second division of militia, and Governor Meigs took the field as commander in chief. In a few days "the Sandusky plains were covered with nearly eight thousand men, mostly from the Scioto valley,"f forming "the grand eamp of Ohio militia." Among these volunteers were judges, lawyers, merchants, farmers and all sorts and conditions of men, as private soldiers or officers. "Indeed, the Scioto country was so stripped of its male population on this ocea- sion that the women were compelled to carry the grain to mill or let their children suffer for want." Upon the retreat of Proctor and Tecumseh from Fort Meigs, the militia force was reduced to two thousand men, who were directed to remain on the Sandusky under command of the governor. General MeArthur was detailed to con- mand the garrison at Fort Meigs. There was great wrath among the Ohioans, and Harrison was bitterly criticised also for his con- duet regarding Fort Stephenson. The disgust of the Ohioans at the prospect of having no part in the proposed offensive campaign was increased by the fact that a force of four thousand Kentuckians, "half horse, half alligator," as the envious called them, were approaching, under the command of Governor Shelby, who were likely to be honored with active service. But, after all, Harrison's popularity remained invincible.
Commodore Chauncey had assigned to command of the squadron, building at Erie, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, of Rhode Island, then thirty-eight years old, who was the son of a Revolu- tionary soldier, and from his boyhood had been a naval officer of the United States. Ile had made a good record in the Mediterranean expeditions, and was in command of a flotilla of Jefferson's coast gunboats from 1807. AAsking for service on the lakes in 1812, he ' had joined Chauncey at Sackett's Harbor, and in March, 113, began to supervise the construction and fitting out of a fleet at Erie. After aiding in the expedition against Fort George he returned to Erie
* By the ladies of Chillicothe, the seat of fashion and social brilliancy in the west, the major was presented a sword.
t McDonald's Sketches.
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with five vessels, evading the British fleet, and early in Angust had a squadron built and ready for service. Only two of his boats, the Lawrence and Niagara, carrying 20 guns each, could be ealled men- of-war, the others being small boats with one to four guns. Having only half enough sailors, he obtained a body of Pennsylvania militia and trained them as gunners.
With nine vessels, fifty-four guns, and 500 men, Perry managed to get his fleet over the bar, sailed August 5th, and on the 15th reached Put-in-bay, a beautiful harbor of South Bass island. On the 18th his signal guns ealled Harrison from Camp Seneca to a meeting in Sandusky harbor. Returning to Put-in-bay Perry made two reconnoissanees toward Malden, where the British were hur- riedly completing a new war ship, the Detroit.
The British squadron ineluded six vessels and carried 63 guns. Four were of good size, and two of these, the new Detroit and the Queen Charlotte, apparently matched Perry's only two large eraft, the Lawrence and Niagara. But in fighting power, Perry's squad- ron had much the advantage .* In command of the British fleet was Capt. Robert Ileriot Barelay, who had been with Lord Nelson at Trafalgar. Obtaining a goodly number of seamen and riflemen from Harrison, Perry, with his station at Put-in-bay, practically bloekaded the British stronghold. This the enemy could not long endure, and it became necessary for Barelay, with his men on half- allowance of food, to offer battle, though the British officer was doubtful of the result. Perry descried the approach of the enemy at sunrise September 10th and sailed out to meet him, the vessels coming into action about ten miles to the northwest, off North Bass island. It was a furious fight, in which every commissioned officer on the British side was killed or wounded. Barelay, who had lost one arm at Trafalgar, had the other shot off, and the second officer in command was killed. The deeks of the Lawrenee, Perry's flagship, ran with blood. Of her 103 offieers and men, 83 were shot down. Perry flew a flag inseribed with Lawrence's last order, "Don't Give Up the Ship," but he was compelled, when his flagship was almost put out of action, to take down his defiant banner for a few minutes and hoist it on the Niagara. But he kept up the fight, which a fav- oring wind enabled him to bring to a speedy finish, compelling the surrender of the entire British force. Tearing off the back of an old letter, and using his eap as a desk, he wrote to Harrison the fam- ons despatch : "We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop!" The British loss in this action, which is to be counted as one of the most famous of Obio battles, was 41 killed and 94 wounded, while Perry had 27 killed and 96 wounded.
* Perry was superior three to one in long gun metal and two to one in carronades, says Roosevelt in "The Naval War of 1812."
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The victory was of such great importance, that it deserves to be fully described here, in the words of the gallant Perry himself. Fol- lowing is his official report :
U. S. Schooner Ariel, Put-in-Bay, 13th September, 1813.
Sir :- In my last I informed you that we had captured the enemy's fleet on this lake. I have now the honor to give you the most impor- tant particulars of the action.
On the morning of the 10th instant, at sunrise, they were discov- ered from Put-in-Bay, where I lay at anchor with the squadron under my command. We got under weigh, the wind light at s. w., and stood for them. At 10 a. m. the wind hauled up to s. e. and brought us to windward; formed the line and bore up. At fifteen minutes before twelve the enemy commenced firing; at five minutes before twelve the action commenced on our part. Finding their fire very destructive, owing to their long guns, and its being mostly directed to the Lawrence, I made sail, and directed the other vessels to follow, for the purpose of closing with the enemy. Every brace and bowline being shot away, she became unmanageable, notwith- standing the great exertions of the sailing master. In this situation she sustained the action upwards of two hours, within canister shot distance, until every gun was rendered useless, and a greater part of the crew either killed or wounded. Finding she could no longer annoy the enemy, I left her in charge of Lieutenant Yarnall, who, I was convinced from the bravery already displayed by him, would do what would comport with the honor of the flag. At half past two the wind springing up, Captain Elliott was enabled to bring his ves- sel, the Niagara, gallantly into close action. I immediately went on board of her, when he anticipated my wishes by volunteering to bring in the schooners, which had been kept astern by the lightness of the wind, into closer action. It was with unspeakable pain that I saw, soon after I got on board the Niagara, the flag of the Lawrence come down, although I was perfectly sensible that she had been defended to the last, and that to have continued to make a show of resistance would have been a wanton sacrifice of the remains of her brave crew. But the enemy was not able to take possession of her, and eireum- stances soon permitted her flag again to be hoisted. At forty-five minutes past two, the signal was made for "closer action." The Niagara being very little injured, I determined to pass through the enemy's line ; bore up, and passed ahead of their two ships and a brig, giving a raking fire to them from the starboard guns, and to a large schooner and sloop from the larboard side, at half pistol shot distance. The smaller vessels at this time having got within grape and canister distance, under the direction of Captain Elliott, and keeping up a well-directed fire, the two ships, a brig, and schooner,
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surrendered, a schooner and sloop making a vain attempt to escape."
Perry's victory gave the United States undisputed command of Lake Erie, and the rest was easy. The army of invasion was rapidly concentrated toward the mouth of Portage river. MeArthur had arrived at Fort Meigs, Cass had reached Upper Sandusky, a Penn- sylvania regiment was marching from Erie, and on the 17th Gov- ernor Shelby brought four thousand mounted Kentuckians to the mouth of the Portage. There was such a superfluity of cavalry that five thousand horses were turned loose on the Port Clinton penin- sula, a three-mile log fence across a narrow place serving to confine them. MeArthur's brigade arrived at the mouth of the Portage three days later, marching through meadows where the grass grew above a man's head, and on the 21st and 22d Harrison's army was moved by boat to Put-in-Bay, where the soldiers gazed with vast satis- faction upon the battered British ships, whose men had been sent as prisoners to Chillicothe. Three days later the army, embarked on the fleet and a hundred small boats, reached Eastern Sister, about the last of the streteh of islands toward Canada, and after a reconnois- sance of the hostile coast, the final embarkment was made on the 27th, on the evening of which day the army landed three miles below Malden.
The result was as might have been expected, and as it would have been twelve months before if Hull had been supported by a navy. There was no enemy at the famous stronghold, and a deputation of ladies came out from the village to implore protection for their homes. The buildings of the fort and navy yard had been burned, and Proctor and Teeumsch had retreated from an untenable posi- tion. General Harrison marched without opposition to Sandwich, while Col. Richard M. Johnson thundered into Detroit with his regi- ment of Kentucky cavalry, which had come up around the head of the lake. Me Arthur and his brigade were sent over to occupy Detroit, and on October 2d Harrison set out with Johnson's cavalry, part of Ball's legion and most of Governor Shelby's Kentnekians to pursue Proetor and Tecumseh. The latter had selected a battlefield eighty- four miles away, on the Thames river, where, by a continued fatal- ity, the Moravian mission, driven from Ohio during the Revolution, had sought a retreat from the alarms of war.
The enemy held a naturally strong position, but the keen observa- tion of Major Wood, Harrison's chief engineer, detected that the British line was drawn up in open order, and the general changed his plans accordingly, when arraved for battle October 5th. A des- perate charge was made by a battalion of cavalry, which rode through and broke the line of British troops, and the day was immediately won. Though the Indians fought with remarkable stubbornness, causing heavy loss among the Kentuckians under Colonel Johnson,
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who fell among the badly wounded, a panic was created and the allies fled, leaving the great chief, Tecumseh, among the slain."
A part of the army took possession of the Moravian town, from which the Moravian Indians fled in terror, some of the mothers throwing their babies in the river to save them from massacre. Before leaving this village, the American troops burned it, imitat- ing the atrocity of 17>1. Meanwhile, at Detroit, General MeArthur received a deputation from the previously hostile tribes, asking for peace, and a little later Walk-in-the-Water, Tecumseh's chief lieuten- ant, came in bearing a white flag. The war was over, so far as Ohio was directly concerned, within thirty days after Perry's victory. General Cass was made provisional governor of Michigan, and Har- rison sailed with his regular troops, including many Ohio soldiers, to Buffalo. Presently General Ilarrison resigned, on account of disagreement with the secretary of war, and General MeArthur was put in command of the northwestern army, with headquarters at Detroit. Garrisons were kept on the Ohio coast and frontier posts, i Croghan made an unsuccessful attempt to recover Fort Mackinac and McArthur went on a raid through western Canada; but Ohio remained in peace while the war raged in the east and south, with such incidents as the burning of Buffalo, Toronto and Washington, and generally much humiliation for the American nation. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that when overtures for settlement were made, England demanded that the United States make peace with Britain's Indian allies, create a permanent Indian country between Canada and the United States, abandon the forts, make the south shore of the lakes the boundary and agree never to maintain a navy on the lakes. Politieal events in Europe, attending the first abdica- tion of Napoleon, persuaded England to abandon these demands and the boundary in the middle of Lake Erie remained as before, but the Indians lost nothing by the war and were confirmed in the posses- sion of the lands they held in 1811. After peace was agreed upon in Europe, the self-respeet of the country was greatly helped by the splendid victory of General Jackson at New Orleans. On February Sth the legislature marched in processton to the Presbyterian meet- ing house at Chillicothe to give thanks.
On aeeount of this war Ohio put into the public service in various eapaeities 23,951 men, more than half of the men of the State sub- jeet to military duty and nearly one-sixth of the entire force in the
*Colonel Johnson's claim that he killed Tecumseh was the subject of dis- pute for many years, and something of a political issue, for Johnson became vice-president. It is also told that the Kentuckians skinned the body of the fallen chief, to obtain trophies.
#As stated in the message of Governor Meigs of December, 1813, Ohio had two thousand militia on duty in the service of the United States, sta- tioned at Forts St. Marys, Amanda. Jennings, Winchester, McArthur, Find- lay and Meigs, at Lower and Upper Sandusky, and at Detroit, Mich.
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military service of the United States. The State also contributed more than $300,000* in support of the war by payment of direct taxes, and the loss suffered from the bad financial system of the gov- ernment was nowhere felt more acutely.
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