USA > Ohio > Portage County > History of Portage County, Ohio > Part 30
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The following "roll of volunteers " and list of officers elected is copied from Regimental Records, page 30, the record found in the hand-writing of the late Frederick Wadsworth, Esq. I add only their respective residences:
15
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
OFFICERS.
John Campbell, Captain, Campbellsport.
Alva Day, Lieutenant, Deerfield.
John Caris, Second Lieutenant, Rootstown. Aaron Weston, Ensign, Ravenna.
Lewis Day, Jr., First Sergeant, Deerfield. John Wright, Second Sergeant, Rootstown. Ralph Buckland, Third Sergeant, Ravenna. Lewis Ely, Jr., Fourth Sergeant, Deerfield. Charles Chittenden, First Corporal, Atwater. John Harmon, Second Corporal, Mantua. Daniel Burroughs, Jr., Third Corporal, Shalersville.
John Turner, Fourth Corporal, Rootstown. David Jones, Drummer, Randolph.
James Magill, Fifer, Palmyra.
PRIVATES.
William Tappan, Ravenna; Samuel Redfield, Randolph; David Moore, Ravenna; Samuel C. Thompson, Ravenna; Benjamin Bradley, Shalersville; William Thornton, Randolph; John McManus, Ravenna; William Ward, Ravenna; Harry O. Pettibone, Mantua; Enos Harmon, Mantua; Chauncey Newberry, Rootstown; Robert Campbell, Ravenna; John Sabin, Randolph; Samuel Bartlett, Rootstown; Samuel Tuthill, Rootstown; John Shaler, Charles- town; Ebenezer Tibballs, Deerfield; John Smith, Mantua; Peter Tyrrel, Ravenna; Philip Willyard, Rootstown; Zacheas Harmon, Mantua; Ebenezer Buckley, Palmyra; Abiram Amidon, Rootstown; James Ray, Jr., Mantua; Mark Moore, Mantua; George G. Redden, Hiram; Job Thompson, Jr., Shalers- ville; William Coolman, Jr., Shalersville; Henry Root, Rootstown; Samuel Hartle, Rootstown; Oliver Newberry, Rootstown; Joseph Fisher, Palmyra; Charles Carter, Ravenna; Enoch Judson, Mantua; Nathan Chapman, Roots- town; Joel Underwood, Palmyra; Charles Reed, Deerfield; Seth Day, Deer- field.
Seth Day did not at first volunteer, but joined us at the rendezvous, and acted as Clerk for the officers until taken sick.
Of the foregoing roll, Charles Reed, William Tappan, John Sabin, John Shaler, Nathan Chapman, Enoch Judson, Joseph Fisher, Oliver Newberry, Benjamin Bradley and Samuel Bartlett, and I think also Ebenezer Tibballs, failed to march to the frontier, but several furnished substitutes, to-wit: Miles Allen took the place of John Sabin; William Maxfield took the place of Nathan Chapman; Nathan Cross that of Joseph Fisher; John Jacobs that of Enoch Judson; John Williams that of Charles Reed; Richard Redden that of Ben- jamin Bradley. Thomas Rowley substituted for some one, and several shirked the service. Joseph DeWolf and David Thompson, of Ravenna, I believe, both volunteered, but their names do not appear on the record. It was said that De Wolf, being the only physician in Ravenna, could not be spared from the place, and Thompson was detained by the condition of his family. Our company being thus organized, we were permitted to return to our homes, with the injunction to meet again on short notice and to bring with us arms and equipments for a war campaign; and we were urged to provide ourselves with rifles if possible.
On the 18th of June following, Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Great Britain, and soon thereafter we were severally summoned to meet on the 1st day of July, at the residence of Capt. Campbell. The com-
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pany accordingly met at the time and place appointed, established some tem- porary camps on the bottom lands of the Mahoning (west branch) and Barrel Run, near to Capt. Campbell's residence, in a pleasant natural bower. All, I believe, came provided with arms and equipments, and most of us brought rifles. We there found, besides our officers, a committee appointed to appraise our equipments, as by law provided, that if lost we could claim and obtain their value from the Government. On July 2 our arms were appraised; and I find on record a detailed statement of each article furnished by each person, set to their respective names, and signed by the appraisers, Charles Curtis, Erastus Carter and Stephen Mason. The details I omit-the whole amount of the appraisement as stated is $912.66. We had to wait some days for supplies to be collected by our Captain, who had been anthorized, as he said, by the Governor for that purpose. On July 4 our Captain gave the company an Independence dinner, which was well relished and appreciated; and in the evening we enjoyed ourselves at our camps, and some patriotic songs were * * sung. * * * * * *
On July 5, which was Sunday, there was something of an assemblage of people, from the neighboring townships, at our rendezvous in the bower, and the two old Congregational pioneer preachers, Rev. John Seward (then of Aurora, now a venerable resident of Tallmadge), and Rev. Harvey Coe, of Trumbull County -- I believe Hartford-and I believe since deceased, addressed us and the people in the grove very appropriately, and prayed with us. On the next day, July 6, in the afternoon, the company commenced their march for the frontier; camped the first night at Roundy's Inn, near the southwest corner of Ravenna, on the old State Road from Youngstown to the Portage. That road is said to be the first road laid out on the Western Reserve. The
second day's march was only to Hudson, and camped near the residence of David Hudson, Esq. At the end of the third day's march they encamped at the crossing of Tinker's Creek near the west line of Bedford. The tavern there was, I believe, kept by Noble. On the fourth day from our rendez- vous, July 9, the company arrived at "the City," as the site of the present city of Cleveland was then called to distinguish it from "the settlement" part of Cleveland township, which then included what is now Newburg. Those of us whose homes were in Mantua had by permission passed that way to Cleveland, and were there in waiting when the company arrived, having made quicker time, not being impeded by the slow progress of the baggage wagons. Cleveland was then but a small place. I had been somewhat famil- iar there and can recollect of scarce a dozen families resident there at that time. There were two taverns, Carter's and Wallace's, and I believe three stores, Perry's, Murray's, and Hanchett's, which last mentioned, Hanchett's, was nearly sold out. The company encamped on the north side of Superior Street, among the bushes, east of Perry's store.
The next day, July 10, afternoon, we embarked on board of two boats for Lower Sandusky, as the stockade was then called, where is now the flourish- ing little city of Fremont. One of our boats was known as Babcock's, the other as Smith's. The first day we made only seven miles, to the mouth of Rocky River. From our encampment on the beach, east side of the mouth of Rocky River, we embarked early the following morning and arrived at the mouth of Black River about noon, and the lake being rough, we encamped with our boats in a safe harbor on the west side, in the month of Black River, near the residence of John S. Reid, whom I had known, when a few years pre- vious he had resided some three or four miles from Cleveland on the Newburg road. Embarked early, July 12, and arrived about the middle of the day at
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Sandusky Bay, and stopped at a block-house on the north side of the bay, on the Peninsula of Danbury. I understood it was called Maj. Parson's block- house, and I think it was nearly opposite to where I have since found San- dusky City. We saw no settlement here, and saw no settler that I remember but one, Capt. Charles Parker, who came from the south side of the bay, where I understood he resided. He was the same who was a pioneer in Geauga (now Lake County), at Mentor. I had known him there when he was acting Sheriff of Geauga County in 1806 and after. We had met and passed a sail boat at a distance, just before entering the bay, which was I think the only craft we had seen on our way. Those of us on Babcock's boat spent the night in the block-house; Smith's boat anchored out in the bay.
On the 13th of July both boats proceeded up the bay, and up the Sandusky River, slowly, passing some prairies but no white settlement, and moving so slowly that some of us walked along shore part of the way. While walking we passed over the stubble of Indian corn patches of the previous years, and on the way fell in with a venerable and good-looking old Indian, known to some of our comrades as Sagaman, an old chief who had in previous years had his camps in Portage County, and had been a good kind neighbor to the first settlers of Mantua, in the winter of 1799-1800, and helped them to meat, at fair rates of exchange, for pumpkins and other small articles. He was still friendly, while Wilson and other Indians had left us and gone to the British. We arrived at Widow Whittaker's, on the west side, where we found an improved farm, surrounded by timber land. This was said to be three miles by water from our destination, the fort or stockade of Lower Sandusky, as it was called.
On July 14 we proceeded up the river, and landed on the west side below the rapids, about half a mile from the fort, marched up, and were admitted into the garrisou, where we found Capt. Norton, with his company of about fifty volunteer riflemen from Delaware County, Ohio. The fort was a stockade of log pickets, cut about twelve feet, and set upright, with a shallow ditch enclosing about an acre. Within were one or two small houses, in one of which was kept the United States store and Indian agency. The Indian Agent, Mr. Varnum, was said to be a son of Hon. Joseph B. Varnum, of Massachusetts, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1807 to 1811. We found him a very pleasant, gentlemanly young man. The fort was some thirty rods west of the river, at the rapids, and on the nearest high land was an open country with a few scattering oak trees about it on the north, and oak woods at the west, a large cornfield on the east side of the river on the bottom land, and a log-house on the first rise of land east of the cornfield. That was all the farming or farm houses I saw in that region.
The barracks or soldiers' quarters, we found not very commodious, but sufficient for summer quarters. They consisted of bark or puncheon, laid up with two sides seven or eight feet long and five or six feet wide, backed against the pickets and open in front where we built our cooking fires, having to go in the woods and pack the little fuel we used. We had only the ground to lie on till we peeled some oak bark for a floor, and for our beds we stripped foliage from the hazel bushes, as straw was not to be had.
We saw very few persons here, whites or Indians, except soldiers. Our business was, besides our daily parade, to dig a well and build block-houses. We had got a well dug about twenty feet deep, when an Indian was brought there charged with horse stealing, I believe, from Mrs. Whittaker. He was confined some days in our dry well, until a council was held with the Indians of Seneca Town, an Indian village several miles up the river, at which they
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
agreed to furnish a good dressed beef for the garrison, and our prisoner was released, and a fine, fat, well-dressed heifer was furnished for the garrison, and the horse was restored. The fresh beef was well relished indeed, after we had been kept on salt pork and bread so long, but so many of the garrison were soon taken sick, that we suspected the Indians of poisoning the beef.
We had not yet finished our well or our block-house, when on July 21, orders were received from Gen. Hull, at Detroit, by our Captain, to march there with his and Rowland's companies to join the main army. With these orders, sent by a Capt. Curtis, came also some money to our Captain to pay for the supplies he had obtained for us; but no money came to pay soldiers. On July 22 Capt. Campbell started for Portage County, to pay those from whom he had obtained our supplies, leaving orders to make all ready while he should be absent. On July 29 Capt. Campbell returned, accompanied by Capt. Rowland, of the Columbiana County Volunteers, who came in advance of his company. About the same time nearly all the garrison were taken sick with diarrhea and fever. Some were entirely disabled, others were just able to walk about. Capt. Rowland's company arrived at the fort by water, August 2, and on the 4th both companies started by water down the river, halted at Mrs. Whittaker's, stayed over night, and remained next day to attend to the sick, of whom Capt. Campbell and Seth Day were very low.
On the 6th Rowland's company started by land up the lake toward Detroit, and with them Lieut. Caris, who was detailed with a squad of eleven men to guard the post and stores at Maumee. Of that squad I only remem- ยท ber the names of Sergt. Ely, Samuel Hartle, Henry Root and John Jacobs. The last mentioned died there some time after. The same day Capt. Camp- bell, with the remainder of our company, went by boat down the river and bay from Mrs. Whittaker's to the Parson's Block-house, on Danbury Peninsula. Next day, August 7, Capt. Campbell and Seth Day, being much worse than others of the company, were aided on board John Wallace's boat, and started down the lake for Cleveland, with one attendant, Philip Willyard; and Lient. Day and the balance of the company started west for the River Raisin, on Babcock's boat, the same boat we came up the lake on near a month before.
From Sandusky Bay we sailed day and night till we arrived near the mouth of the River Raisin on the forenoon of August 7, where we were hindered some hours among the bulrushes and flags, hunting the channel, which we finally found, and proceeded up the river a mile or two, and arrived at the settlement of Frenchtown about noon, stopping at Godfrey's unfinished frame house on our right bank, about noon. There we stayed over night, and next day on an alarm of "Indians coming" we moved on to the garrison, about a half mile up the river, on same side. Next day, August 10, we moved to other quarters, some of the sick to a vacant log-house on the south side of the river, others to Capt. Downing's, a kind, good family, nearly a mile above the gar- rison. There Lieut. Day. Sergt. Day, Sergt. Wright and John McManus, who were our sickest, with Ensign Weston and John Smith to attend them, were located with that kind family. The log-house where the most of us were located stood alone, had a good spring and timber near, and not far from the river, and I think it was there, some forty years after, I found the flourishing city of Monroe, Mich. We remained at those places nearly all sick, but most of us able to walk about, until an alarm of Indians coming to attack us, on August 14, when, though the alarm proved a false one, all who occupied the log-house went to the garrison, where we stayed till Monday, the 17th, wheu Capt. Elliott, a British officer, and a few attend- ants, white and red, with a flag of truce, came to the garrison, demanding its
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surrender, bringing also the articles of capitulation of Detroit and the army under Gen Hull, including also all who were on the way to join his army, which included our garrison. This, so unexpected, was indeed a damper on us all, as the last we had heard of Hull's army was by a hand-bill announcing his successful invasion of Canada. The flag party was placed under guard, and a council of officers met in a marquee of the Chillicothe Cavalry Company, a company just arrived, escorting a drove of beef cattle for Detroit, said to be about one hundred head, for the army. The marquee was outside the front gate of the garrison, and I was enabled to observe the discussions of the officers, of whom Capt. Brush, of the Chillicothe Cavalry, was or assumed to be the senior officer, and of the others I only knew Lieut. Creighton, of the same company. Maj. Anderson, of the local militia of the Territory, was near by on horseback, a good-looking officer, but I understood was not admitted in council because of suspicions that the local militia were not loyal to our side.
The genuineness of the articles of capitulation brought by Elliott were questioned, and, as I understood, declared to be a forgery and a trick to trap us. Finally Elliott and attendants were imprisoned in the block house, near the front gate of the garrison, where we left them when we retired for the night. That night we slept at Lacelle's Mill, just above the garrison, and the next morning we found that the Chillicothe Cavalry and their drove of beeves were gone, and a number of our company also had gone homeward. I had left my rifle standing in the corner of the mill that night, but in the morning it was gone also, and some of my comrades suggested that it was taken by one who would carry it back to Portage County and keep it from the British. The same night Sergt. John Wright died at Captain Downing's, and was buried by his friends before morning. Our company was thus reduced to twenty-six men. The policy of leaving for home that night had been dis- cussed, and those who felt able and were so disposed, had gone; but some were not able to go, and some who went were scarcely able to endure such a journey. For my part, I thought there was more danger in running away than in quietly submitting to be prisoners of war. Besides I was feeble, and had two older brothers along not as able as myself-one of them very feeble. We therefore submitted to the yoke, and stayed where we were, till August 25. Meantime the Indians circulated freely among us, but offered no violence to any that I heard of. One, however, meeting our comrade, John Smith, on the road, demanded his watch, which he was obliged to give up. The watch belonged to Lieut. Day, whom Smith was attending in his sickness, at Capt. Downing's. One Indian also stopped at Downing's, where our sickest friends were, and demanded of Lieut. Day his nice castor hat, and took it, leaving one that had been a poorer fur hat, but now, being wet with rain, was slouched down like a rag.
August 25 a British officer, whom we understood to be Capt. Elliott, and a squad of soldiers, came and took twenty one of us in a small open row boat to Malden, and, at the same time, gave permission and a pass to five others, who had made arrangements to go by boat to Cleveland. Those five were Job Thompson, Jr., Daniel Burroughs, Jr., William Coolman, Jr., William Maxfield and Ebenezer Buckley, who, with a Mr. Lewis, and another man and their families, had prepared a boat, and all started down the river and lake the same day we went to Fort Malden. Of their journey down the lake to Cleveland, friend William Coolman, not long before his death, gave me a brief narrative, which will be referred to hereafter. Since his death, which occurred December 15, 1869, there are, as I believe, but two of our company left-Samuel Redfield and the writer of this article.
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Our small company of twenty-one, under our British conductors, arrived at Malden, from Raisin, the same day, August 25, and were quartered at a large and long building, on a beautiful open plain and lawn, just above and near the fort and town. This was the Indian Council House, and there appeared to be thousands of Indians swarming in the open plain back of the town and fort, and in plain sight of the Council House; and with us were quar- tered fifty-one other prisoners, mostly sick and wounded of Hull's army. There our beloved Orderly Sergeant, Lewis Day, Jr., breathed his last, on the morn- ing after our arrival, August 26. August 27 our little company, now reduced to twenty, were permitted to remove from the crowded Council House and occupy a small house in town, back of the fort, where we spent the few remaining days of our captivity in Canada. While there we were guarded by a British sentinel at the door, as we had been also at the Council House, but one day the sentinel permitted an Indian to enter among us, who drew his knife and dashed about, apparently to frighten us, jabbering his Indian in a threatening tone, striking some, but not extremely hard. Zacheas Harmon, who was so feeble as to be hardly able to walk, Mr. Indian struck in the breast, and knocked down with his right hand, in which he held bis knife, but with the hilt of the knife. Hewas soon induced by the sentinel to leave. We saw there several Indians well known in Portage County. I saw two in town I had known in Mantua. One of them was well known throughout that country -George Vincent, alias Wilson.
August 29, about sunset, we were embarked on board a small vessel, to be paroled and sent home, in company with about thirty other prisoners, the most of whom were sick. On the dock, as we were going on board, were some officers, apparently superintending our departure, among whom was one large and noble looking man, apparently fifty years old, whom we were told was Gen. Brock. Another, a short, thick-set fellow, of not a very pre- possessing appearance, and apparently past sixty, was said to be Simon Girty, noted in Indian war annals. We were rejoiced to be thus starting for home, and dropped down to the mouth of Detroit River the same night, about two and a half miles distant. The next day we sailed slowly with light wind, and after midnight, anchored just west of Put-in-Bay Islands. Next day, August 31, a light wind wafted us on to near the mouth of Black River before day on the 1st of September, and we landed in Cleveland about sunset of the same day.
The following are the names of those twenty paroled prisoners of our company, according to my recollection, who landed at Cleveland September 1, from the cartel sloop:
Lieut. Alva Day.
Harry O. Pettibone.
Ensign Aaron Weston.
Zacheas Harmon.
Sergt. Ralph Buckland.
Enos Harmon.
Corporal Charles Chittenden.
John Harmon.
Corporal John Turner.
Mark Moore.
John Smith.
Samuel C. Thompson.
Samuel Redfield.
Samuel Tuthill.
George G. Redden.
James Magill.
Richard Redden.
James Ray, Jr.
David Jones. John McManus.
Of the five comrades we parted with August 25, at Frenchtown, on River Raisin, as we started for Malden, friend Coolman informed me, the last con- versation I had with him, which was December 4, 1869, that they started the same day, in a boat provided by a Mr. Lewis and another man, whose name I forget, who were going down with their families to escape from the British
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and Indians; that Job Thompson, Jr., the only well one of the Shalers- ville boys, engaged a passage with them for himself and comrades, and helped to get the boat out of the mud, where it had been left abandoned, assisted to caulk and otherwise repair it; that as they were about to start, Eben- ezer Buckley and William Maxfield joined them; that they were much hindered by adverse winds on their passage down the lake; and finally, at some place near Black River, out of patience with waiting for weather, they left the boat and endeavored to walk, but made poor headway, when Mr. Mygatt, of Can- field, on horseback, overtook them, and carried a message to friends at Cleve. land, who, with wagons, met and helped them into Cleveland, where they ar- rived, he believed, September 2. Of the journey home of Lieut. Caris and his squad from Maumee, where they were stationed, and of those who left French- town on foot, I have but little information, except that in going through the Maumee Swamp, as that part of Wood and Sandusky Counties between Fort Meigs and Sandusky River was then called, they, at times, nearly gave out, and one, I think it was William Ward, sat down at one time and gave up, till a comrade came along and cheered him up and helped him along. Many of us then had chills or ague. We were from thirty to fifty-five miles from our homes, but on arriving in Cleveland we found friends, a very convenient circum- stance, as we discovered for those who had no money, as was the case with all or nearly all of us, except Lieut. Day, and I think he had not much. Landlord Carter entertained all free who called there. Cousin Hiram Hanchett and his kind wife-since Mrs. Andrew Johnson, of Boston-entertained the Harmons, W. W. Williams entertained the Reddens, and Samuel S. Baldwin fed some of us; but all got started home soon except Lieut. Alva Day, Seth Day and John McManus, who were very dangerously sick, and, I have understood, were kindly nursed and cared for at Judge Kingsbury's, till they were able to be conveyed home. John Turner, too, was very sick, and died on the way, per- haps at Judge Kingsbury's, but I believe I heard it said he died at Noble's, at the crossing of Tinker's Creek. Of the fifty or fifty-one who went out so cheerily together, eleven or twelve died within the year, among whom, besides those before mentioned, were, I believe, Ensign Weston, Sergt. Buckland, Cor- poral Chittenden, Mark Moore, Robert Campbell, David Jones, and Samuel Tuthill.
Of the rest, as far as I know, but one is left now, besides the writer of this. That one, Mr. Redfield, aids me with some information for this com- munication, and though about seventy-six years of age, appears likely to endure yet many years, though he has lately lost the partner of his youth, and of more than half a century. Although we were so unfortunate as to con- tract sickness, and did little toward the defense of the frontier, it was because we had no opportunity, having been captured before we saw the enemy. We at least showed a willingness to do our duty in defense of our homes. We had a very good and pleasant set of officers, and there formed friendships for each other which have been pleasant and enduring. For our services and our arms we were paid after years of waiting.
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