USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 14
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The encampment was made about the middle of October and the army remained there for two months. As the camp was in an unsettled part of the country, with poor transportation facilities, it was difficult to obtain quartermaster and commissary supplies, and the troops had to do without proper clothing for the cold weather, which set in early that autumn, and were also put on short rations, which caused a spirit of mutiny to develop among the men, a number of whom quietly made preparations to return to their homes. But ere such plans could be carried out, the commander-in- chief, General William Henry Harrison, who, learning of the threatened desertion, came and adressed the troops while on parade, appealing to their patriotism, to their manhood and to their honor, to stand by the old flag and to defend American homes against the murderous incursions of the Red Skins, and the threatened invasion of the Red Coats. He assured the sol- diers that the camp would be provisioned as soon as possible and stated that, although they had been insufficiently provided for, their privations were light compared with those suffered by our forefathers in the war of the Revolution, who often left bloody footprints upon the frozen earth. The speech had the desired effect and not a man deserted.
At that time the troops under General Beall had not been mustered into the service of the Federal government. General Wadsworth, to whose division General Beall's brigade belonged, ordered General Beall's command to Cleveland, which order General Beall refused to comply with, claiming that the exigencies of the situation justified him in remaining at Camp Council to protect the frontier, and that his duty to his country would not permit him to leave the settlers in an exposed condition to the enemy, even to gratify the whim of a militia general. The result was that Beall was placed under arrest, his command taken from him, the camp evacuated, and the troops marched to Cleveland.
A court martial followed, resulting in General Beall's acquittal and his restoration to his command, with orders to reinforce General Winchester in the northwest. After marching his army as far as Freemont, received orders to return to Camp Avery, at Cleveland, where his men were mustered out of the service, their term of enlistment having expired.
General Beall was a brave soldier. He had previously served in Har- mar's campaign against the Indians, and was in action under General
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Hardin. when that officer engaged "Little Turtle." And later he served as ensign under "Mad Anthony" Wayne, where he became acquainted with General Harrison, who was then on Wayne's staff, and the friendship then formed lasted for life.
At the close of the war, General Beall returned to his home at New Lisbon ; was elected to Congress, where he served four years, and in 1840 was a presidential elector and had the pleasure of casting his vote for his old friend and comrade, General William Henry Harrison, for president of the United States. General Beall was afterward appointed register of the land office at Wooster, and died in that city, February 20, 1843.
GENERAL CROOKS" CAMPAIGN.
While General Beall's army was at Camp Council, ten miles north of Mansfield, in the autumn of 1812, the governor of Pennsylvania sent a brigade of two thousand troops, under command of General Robert Crooks. to the assistance of General William Henry Harrison, in Ohio. From New Lisbon, General Crooks followed the Beall trail through Canton and Wooster to Jeromeville, where there was a block-house at that time. From Jerome- ville the army crossed over from the Jeromefork to the Blackfork of the Mohi- can at Greentown, where it encamped for the night. Nearly all the Indian huts had been burned prior to this and the village was deserted. From Green- town the brigade came over the route Colonel Crawford had taken thirty years before, up the Rockyfork to Mansfield, where it went into camp on the east side of the village near the Big Spring. The date of General Crooks' arrival in Mansfield is not definitely known, but it was perhaps about the 18th or 20th of October, 1812.
The army remained in Mansfield about six weeks awaiting the arrival of quartermaster and commissary stores, under Colonel Anderson. During the encampment here of General Crooks' army the troops assisted the settlers in clearing off about fifty acres of land. On account of the ground getting wet and muddy, the camp was changed from the east to the west part of the village. About the 10th of December, General Crooks was ordered to pro- ceed to Upper Sandusky to assist in fortifying that place. Two days later Colonel Anderson reached Mansfield with his quartermaster, commissary and ordnance trains. Upon his arrival here, Colonel Anderson reported that, "On the 12th (December) we reached the village of Mansfield, where we found two block-houses, a tavern and two stores."
Colonel Anderson's outfit consisted of twenty-five cannon, mostly four and six-pounders. These were drawn by six horses, each. The cannon car- riages, twenty-five in number, were drawn by four-horse teams. The ammu- nition was in large covered wagons. There were fifty covered road wagons in the train, drawn by six horses each, and loaded with army stores. One of them carried money for paying the troops; the money was in coin and put up in small iron-hooped kegs. The teamsters were each furnished with a gun, for use in case of an attack by the Indians. This army train was an imposing spectacle as it came up the Rockyfork valley to Mansfield. After remaining
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here a few days for the horses to rest. the march to Upper Sandusky was resumed. The train was hardly out of sight of Mansfield, when it encoun- tered a snowstorm, and the storm continued until the snow was two feet in depth. The ground was unfrozen and the heavy wagons cut into the soft earth, making the journey a difficult one. At night the soldiers had to work several hours shoveling snow to get a suitable place to pitch their tents and build fires to cook their food and to keep them from freezing. After being two weeks on the road, the brigade reached Upper Sandusky on New Years day, 1813.
Previous to the war of 1812 the Indians, instigated by British emissaries. frequently attacked the frontier settlements of the Northwest, under the leadership of Tecumseh. These attacks caused General Harrison to organize a force of militia to defend the frontier. A battle occurred between General Harrison's army and the Indians, on the 7th of November, 1811, and resulted in great loss to the Indians. It occurred on the banks of the Wabash river, and was called the battle of Tippecanoe. Though the Indians were defeated in this battle Tecumseh was not conquered, but continued hostilities against the settlers. Tecumseh's brother, called the "Prophet," was an orator who could sway the feelings of the Indians, it has been stated, "as the gale tossed the tree-tops beneath which they dwelt."
On the 18th of June, 1812, war was declared against Great Britain by the United States. During that year General Harrison successfully met the British and the Indians in a number of battles. On the 5th of October, 1813. General Harrison attacked the British under Proctor and the Indians under Tecumseh and defeated them in the battle of the Thames. Tecumseh was killed and Proctor saved himself only by the speed of his horse.
The triumph of American arms over those of Great Britain and her savage allies has been of far-reaching results. Had victory been on the other side, the destiny of the great West would have been marred forever.
Jacob Newman, one of the first settlers in Richland county, acted as guide for General Crooks from Mansfield to Upper Sandusky. Mr. Newman contracted a severe cold on this trip, from the effects of which he died the June following. During General Crooks' encampment in Mansfield, there was a severe wind storm which blew down several trees in the public square. killing two soldiers. General Crooks' campaign materially aided General Harrison in his warfare against the red skins, thus fulfilling the mission for which it was sent.
Richland county has had many bloody tragedies within its borders, making its history one of much importance not only to this generation. but to those of the future.
COLONEL CRAWFORD'S CAMPAIGN AND AWFUL DEATH.
The Rev. Joshua Crawford, a kinsman of Colonel William Crawford, furnishes the following sketch of the colonel's campaign and awful death :
"Some friend kindly sent me a copy of your excellent paper, in which I found a marked article from the Upper Sandusky Chief concerning the
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exact spot where stood the stake at which Colonel William Crawford was burned by the Indians in 1782. I can throw no new light on the subject, and only know it was by the Big Tymochtee, near a grove. I have never visited the place, but presume the grove has long since disappeared, and every other mark save the lay of the land and the stream. It is reasonable, how- ever, that those who from long residence nearby have kept a tab on the spot should make a much better guess than those unfamiliar with it. I am not a descendant of Colonel Crawford, but belong to his kindred, the family lines coming together in his grandfather five generations back of myself. His tragic death has been much talked of in the numerous Crawford circles. There are a few legendary tales of the battle which are somewhat different from written history, especially from 'Dodridge's Notes' as transcribed in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio. There were several members of the Dye and Leet families among the troops who intermarried with the McIn- tires and Bradens, ancestors of my mother, and some of whose descendants yet live southeast of Galion; and also with the Hiskeys, who once resided south of Lexington, in Richland county. It is said that Major Leet differed with the other officers of the council of war held the night the retreat com- menced. He proposed that instead of returning over the same route they had come they should cut through the enemy's lines, go southward to a point somewhere in the present Marion county, then turn eastward and strike the Owl Creek trail, and take that to the forks of the Muskingum, now Coshoc- ton, and thence over the route of Bouquet's army to Mingo Bottom. The council decided against him. Leet was self-willed unto stubbornness, and when the retreat was ordered, his command being a part of the rear, he with ninety men broke away from the main body, carried out his project and reached the place of rendezvous before the others. Young John Crawford the son for whom the colonel went back to search, was with this ninety and got home safely.
"If this be true it solves the mystery of how Crawford and Knight were so soon lost from the army, for he kept on expecting to meet other troops and thus went too far. It is not known where Crawford was captured but, it was not, as some conjecture, near the place where the battle of the Olentangy was fought. It would have been sure death for them to have followed in the wake of the army, hence after proceeding northward for a few hours they turned, going eastward in a straight line as nearly as possible. They may have been captured somewhere in Vernon township, Crawford county. It is probable one more day of travel would have brought them to the track of the returning troops. They would have struck the old trail leading from Mohi- can Johnstown to Mohican Johns Lake (Lake Odell), near which the main body encamped on the night of the 7th of June.
"For many years public opinion has done Crawford and his army great injustice, seeming to regard the expedition as a wild and reckless raid with- out other motive than revenge and bloodshedding. To say that these brave men 'hoped to murder the Moravian Indians before their belligerent friends could take up arms in their defense,' is false. To say that 'it was rash and undertaken and conducted without sufficient force to encounter with any
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prospect of success the Indians of the plains,' is a reflection on the wisdom of those who planned the campaign.
"It never should be forgotten by true Americans that British officers who had the management of the war against our Revolutionary Fathers saw fit to hire savages to annoy our frontier and even condescended to pay a stipulated price for AAmerican scalps. They made Detroit a center to supply the Indians with arms and all other munitions of war, and kept there a body of troops under Major De Peyster whose only purpose was to aid their savage allies. Under this inhuman stimulus the Indians made the whole frontier from Oswego, N. Y., to the mouth of the great Kanawha of Virginia red with the blaze of burning cabins and the blood of innocent and peaceable settlers. There was scarcely a mile in that long stretch that had not witnessed some horrid deed of massacre. The fagot and scalping knife were spreading ter- ror everywhere. Something had to be done to relieve this dreadful situation. An unauthorized foray had gone to Gnadenhutten and wreaked a bloody revenge on those Christian Indians. It was wrong, and I blush at the shame- ful cruelty of the affair, and yet I assert that these Indians were not half as innocent and lamblike as some prejudiced writers try to make them appear. The village was full of treacherous spies and even bloodstained garments of massacred people were hidden there, and some of them died defiantly sing- ing war songs instead of Christian hymns. The stronghold of Indians (paid allies of Great Britain) was the region of Upper Sandusky. It was a strate- getical point, because it was at the head of canoe navigation of both the Ohio river and the Great Lake regions. Supplies could be transported from Detroit through the lakes and up the Sandusky to a point when the portage was only two miles from thence over the Sciota to all the waters of the Ohio. The Crawford campaign was planned by General Irvine and submitted to Gen- eral George Washington and received his approval. The design was to sur- prise and destroy or force a treaty from the Indians of this region before Eng- lish help could reach them and thus put a check upon their cruel forays. That Gnadenhutten might not be repeated Colonel Crawford was chosen leader, with the understanding that the troops be permitted to vote for a leader, but if their vote had given it to Williamson the militia would have been sent home and the expedition temporarily abandoned. It was planned in secret, and here was the fatal mistake. There were Tory sympathizers on the fron- tier, and even before the troops gathered at Mingo Bottom British spies had carried the news to Indian runners posted along the border who hurried to every Indian village of the Northwest and to Detroit. General Irvine had not calculated on the swiftness of these Indian runners nor the promptness of England to send aid to her savage allies.
"When Crawford reached the Upper Sandusky country there were not less than 500 Indians and 150 British troops ready to meet him and others pouring in every hour. Simon Girty, an ingrate white man, but an Indian commander of no mean ability, and Captain Caldwell of the Brit- ish army were on hand to plan the battle. A wooded knoll, since called Battle Island, was the key to the situation, which was captured by Crawford's
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men after a sharp conflict. The enemy made several strenuous attempts to retake it, but were sorely repulsed.
"I shall not describe the battle, for your readers are familiar with the details. It's Crawford's legends of which I wish to write. There are many tales of the losses on each side. Captain Caldwell, reporting to Major De Peyster, says: 'My losses were very inconsiderable, one ranger killed and myself and two others wounded, and four Indians killed and eight wounded." He estimated the American losses in killed and wounded at two hundred and fifty. Let me say right here that Crawford's army consisted of 480 men. the finest marksmen in America. Being militiamen, they may have lacked in military consistency, but they were not wanting in cool-headed bravery. knowledge of Indian warfare and perfect marksmanship. They were not defeated nor demoralized. The only time of confusion was during the first few hours after the retreat commenced, when Indians and British opened a rapid fire in both front and rear. The fact that they fell back in two bodies. one of ninety and the other of three hundred men, is evidence that they were not panie stricken, and the enemy did not capture any except isolated parties. and these isolations were probably due to Leet's disobedience of orders. The total loss of the Americans did not exceed seventy men, and members of the troops even contended that they inflicted a heavier loss on the enemy than their own.
"Leet, a scout (not the major), who afterward married a Dye. told his children many times that when Battle Island was first taken fifteen dead Indians were found; and he further said the next day he saw Girty riding back and forth among the Indians greatly excited while they were carrying away the dead and wounded. He also said that during the retreat when But- ler's rangers and some mounted Indians were making dashes to cut out stragglers he saw three white men fall from their saddles who did not rise again. When the last dash was made near the Olentangy when Lieutenants Rose and Gunsaulus had placed a body of Americans in ambush and had sent out a few men to act as stragglers and decoy the foe, when the enemy came dashing up, he said, in all his war experience he had never seen s+) many saddles emptied in so short a time. This last little fight so severely pun- ished the enemy that they did not fire another shot at the main body, but contented themselves with picking up stray parties.
"I do not know what per cent of the Dye, Leet and Braden tales are exaggeration, but I am sure that when the British and Indians undertook to retake the position they had lost that the unerring marksmen of the fron- tier did not send them back unpunished. Neither would they allow themselves to be hectored from daylight until 2 or 3 p. m. by an exulting foe and not ocasionally empty a saddle. Crawford's men never admitted that they were defeated in battle and boasted that they would have made short work of the thousand Indians, but it was the certainty of 400 English bayonets and the boom of coming artillery that convinced them of the necessity of retreat.
"Another story I have heard is that in 1806 when the surveyors were busy laying off the lands of Wayne and Richland counties, Mrs. Hannah Craw- ford, widow of the colonel, visited the spot where her husband was burned and
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at that time there was no grass growing upon it. Her guide was Billy Craw- ford, said to be a nephew of her husband. My informant says she stayed over night with his grandmother, Mrs. Allison in Harrison county, and a man by the name of McBride was her escort from there home.
"Another legend claims that relatives and friends of Colonel Crawford swore uncompromising revenge against every Indian who helped handle the fagots that tortured him, and that they carried out this oath to the letter. That they were with Harmer, St. Clair and Wayne marking these Indians and shooting them at every opportunity, and even made a hunt on the banks of the Sandusky for this bloody purpose. It is said the last one was shot in Holmes county in time of peace. Here is the story :
" 'An Indian once came to a tavern in Killbuck where under the influence of liquor he boasted that he was present at the burning of Colonel Crawford and said after the Big White Chief had fallen that he and several other Indians jumped on him and cut his heart out and he had eaten a piece of the raw heart and smacking his lips, said it tasted good. Billy Crawford heard this boast and when the Indian left he followed him. Billy afterward admitted that he killed him near Holmesville and buried the body and gun in a pile of stone. Years afterward the body was found, but such was the sympathy of the people for those who suffered from Indian outrages that nothing was ever done about it.
" 'Society in those days had been worked up to a fearful spirit of re- venge. Men had suffered under Indian outrages until their natures became fierce and drove out that high sense of human love taught by the Savior and they went forth with guns in their hands to hunt and shoot Indians as though they were wolves or bears.'"
CAPTURE OF THE INDIAN ASSASSINS.
To understand the condition of affairs prior to the Copus battle. we must consider the state of affairs and the menacing attitude of Great Britain which led up to and culminated in the war of 1812. For years previous to this, Great Britain had been impressing our seamen and trying to deprive American ves- sels of the rights of commerce upon the high seas, and British ships of war had even been stationed before the principal harbors of the American coast. to board and search our merchant ships departing from or returning to the United States, and a number of American vessels had been captured and sent as prizes to the British ports. From 1805 to 1811 over nine hundred American vessels ladened with rich and valuable cargoes, had been captured by British cruisers and hundreds of American citizens had been impressed into their service.
The contempt in which the British officers held the American navy led to an action prior to the war of 1812. The frigate "President," com- manded by Commodore Rogers, met a vessel one evening off the Virginia coast, which he hailed, but for an answer a shot was fired, which struck the main mast of the "President." The fire was instantly returned and was con- tinued until Commodore Rogers ascertained his antagonist was disabled, where-
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upon he desisted. The vessel proved to be the British sloop-of-war "Littlebelt," carrying eighteen guns. There was no loss on the American side, but thirty- three were killed or wounded on the British sloop.
Early in November, 1811, President Madison convened Congress and his message to that body indicated apprehension of hostilities with Great Britain, and Congress passed acts to increase the efficiency of both the army and navy.
Although continuing to prepare for war, the administration still cher- ished the hope that a change of policy on the part of Great Britain would make an appeal to arms unnecessary, but in May, 1812, the "Hornet" brought still more unfavorable news from across the waters, and on the 1st of June the President sent a message to Congress, recounting the wrongs received from Great Britain and submitting the question whether the United States should continue to endure them, or resort to war. The message was considered by Congress with closed doors, and on the 4th of June a bill declaring war to exist between the United States and Great Britain, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of seventy-nine to forty-nine, and on the 7th it passed the Senate by a vote of nineteen to thirteen, and on the same day it received the signature of the president, who two days later issued his war manifesto.
For a while the American army met with reverses, defeat being added to defeat and surrender following surrender. General Hull, the governor of the territory of Michigan, commanded the American troops at Detroit, then considered the most important point on the lakes. With a flourish of trumpets he crossed the river on the 12th of July to attack Malden, with Montreal as an ulterior point. But receiving information that Fort Macki- naw had surrendered to the British and that a large force of Red Coats and Red Skins were coming down to overwhelm the American troops, General Hull hastened to leave the Canadian shore, re-crossed the river and returned to Detroit.
General Brock, the commandant at Malden, pursued General Hull and placed batteries opposite Detroit bearing on the town. The next day, meeting with no opposition, General Brock marched directly forward as if to assault the fort. The American troops being confident of victory looked with complacency upon the approach of the enemy and calmly awaited the order to "fire." But to the dismay of the soldiers, Hull ran up the white flag and surrendered, the most disgraceful act in American history. Hull's surrender was made on the 16th of August (1812). By that cowardly and treasonable act the whole Michigan frontier was placed in the hands of the British. Hull, who was then governor of Michigan, had been an officer in the War of the Revolution, in which service he had acquitted himself with credit. William Hull was born in Derby, Conn., June 24, 1753. He died at Newton, Mass., in disgrace and dishonor, November 29, 1825.
Sometime after the surrender of Hull, General Van Rensselaer, with headquarters at Lewistown, led his troops across the Niagara river to attack a fort at Queenstown, but after a long and hard fought engagement, was forced to surrender. In that action General Brock was killed. While these reverses prolonged the war and emboldened the Indians to commit greater
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