History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 15

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their fire from their howitzer and three sixpounders, which they had landed in the night, and planted in a point of woods about two hundred and fifty yards from the fort. In the evening, about 4 o'clock, they concentrated the fire of all their guns on the northwest angle, which convinced Major Croghan that they would endeavor to make a breach and storm the works at that point; he therefore immediately had that place strengthened as much as possible with bags of flour and sand, which were so effectual that the picketing in that place sustained no material injury. Sergeant Weaver, with five or six gentlemen of the Petersburg volunteers and Pittsburgh Blues, who happened to be in the fort, was entrusted with the management of the sixpounder.

Late in the evening, when the smoke of the firing had completely enveloped the fort, the enemy proceeded to make the assault. Two feints were made toward the southern angle, where Captain Hunter's lines were formed; and at the same time a column of three hundred and fifty men was discovered advancing through the smoke, within twenty paces of the northwestern angle. A heavy, galling fire of musketry was now opened upon them from the fort, which threw them into some confusion. Colonel Short, who headed the principal column, soon rallied his men, and led them with great bravery to the brink of the ditch. After a momentary pause he leaped into the ditch, calling to his men to follow him, and in a few minutes it was full. The masked porthole was now opened, and the sixpounder, at the distance of thirty feet, poured such destruction among them that but few who had entered the ditch were fortunate enough to escape. A precipitate and confused retreat was the immediate consequence, although some of the officers attempted to rally their men. The other

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column, which was led by Colonel Warburton and Major Chambers, was also routed in confusion by a destructive fire from the line commanded by Captain Hunter. The whole of them fled into the adjoining wood, beyond the reach of our firearms. During the assault, which lasted half an hour, the enemy kept up an incessant fire from their howitzer and five sixpounders. They left Colonel Short,* a lieutenant and twenty-five privates dead in the ditch; and the total number of prisoners taken was twenty-six, most of them badly wounded. Major Muir was knocked down in the ditch, and lay among the dead till the darkness of the night enabled him to escape in safety. The loss of the garrison was one killed and seven slightly wounded. The total loss of the enemy could not have been less than one hundred and sixty killed and wounded.

When night came on, which was soon after the assault, the wounded in the ditch were in a desperate situation. Complete relief could not be brought to them by either side with any degree of safety. Major Croghan, however, relieved them as much as possible he contrived to convey them water over the picketing in buckets, and a ditch was opened under the pickets, through which those who were able and willing, were encouraged to crawl into the fort. All who were able preferred, of course, to follow their defeated comrades, and many others were carried from the vicinity of the fort by the Indians, particularly their own killed and wounded; and in the night, about three

*Colonel Short, who commanded the regulars composing the forlorn hope, was ordering his men to leap the ditch, cut down the pickets and give the Americans no quarter, when he fell mortally wounded into the ditch, hoisted his white handkerchief on the end of his sword, and begged for that mercy which he had a moment before ordered to be denied to his enemy.

o'clock, the whole British and Indian force commenced a disorderly retreat. So great was their precipitation that they left a sailboat containing some clothing and a considerable quantity of military stores; and on the next day, seventy stand of arms and some braces of pistols were picked up about the fort. Their hurry and confusion was caused by the apprehension of an attack from General Harrison, of whose position and force they had probably received an exaggerated account.

It was the intention of General Harrison, should the enemy succeed against Fort Stephenson, or should they endeavor to turn his left and fall on Upper Sandusky, to leave his camp at Seneca and fall back for the protection of that place. But he discovered by the firing on the evening of the 1st, that the enemy had nothing but light artillery, which could make no impression on the fort; and he knew that an attempt to storm it without making a breach, could be successfully repelled by the garrison; he therefore determined to wait for the arrival of two hundred and fifty mounted volunteers under Colonel Rennick, being the advance of seven hundred who were approaching by the way of Upper Sandusky, and then to march against the enemy and raise the siege, if their force was not still too great for his. On the 2nd he sent several scouts to ascertain their situation and force; but the woods were so infested with Indians that none of them could proceed sufficiently near the fort to make the necessary discoveries. In the night the messenger arrived at headquarters with the intelligence that the enemy were preparing to retreat. About nine o'clock Major Croghan had ascertained, from their collecting about their boats, that they were preparing to embark, and had immediately sent an express to the commander-in-chief with this information. The General now

Major George Croghan Hero of Fort Stephenson 2 Aug 1843

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determined to wait no longer for the rein- forcements, and immediately set out with the dragoons, with which he reached the fort early in the morning, having ordered Generals McArthur and Cass, who had arrived at Seneca several days before, to follow him with all the disposable infantry at that place, and which at this time was about seven hundred men, after the numerous sick, and the force necessary to maintain the position, were left behind. Finding that the enemy had fled entirely from the fort, so as not to be reached by him, and learning that Tecumseh was somewhere in the direction of Fort Meigs, with two thousand warriors, he immediately ordered the infantry to fall back to Seneca, lest Tecumseh should make an attack on that place, or intercept they small reinforcements advancing from Ohio ..

In his official report of this affair, General Harrison observes that: "It will not be among the least of General Proctor's mortifications, that he has been baffled by a youth, who has just passed his twenty-first year. He is, however, a hero worthy of his gallant uncle, General George R. Clarke."

Captain Hunter, of the Seventeenth regiment, the second in command, conducted himself with great propriety; and never was there a set of finer young fellows than the subalterns, viz:, Lieutenants Johnson and Baylor of the Seventeenth, Meeks of the Seventh, and Ensigns Shipp and Duncan, of the Seventeenth.

Lieutenant Anderson, of the Twenty- fourth, was also noticed for his good conduct. Being without a command, he solicited Major Croghan for a musket and a post to fight at, which he did with the greatest bravery.

"Too much praise," says Major Croghan, "can not be bestowed on the officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates

under my command, for their gallantry and good conduct during the siege."

The brevet rank of Lieutenant Colonel was immediately conferred on Major Croghan, by the President of the United States, for his gallant conduct on this occasion. The ladies of Chillicothe also presented him an elegant sword, accompanied by a suitable address.

The following sketches of Colonel George Croghan are taken from the Portfolio, published in 1815:

FRANKFORT, July 22, 1814. To the Editor of the Port-folio:

SIR: Upon receiving the letter which you did me the honor to address to me by Mrs. B., I immediate took such measures as were necessary to procure tie information you requested. I now transmit to you the result of my inquiries, regretting that it was not in my power to do it sooner.

At the time when Colonel Croghan and myself were inmates of the same house, he was in his fourteenth year. No incident occurred during that early period sufficiently interesting to find a place in his history; yet, even then, his conduct exhibited a happy combination of those talents and principles which have already procured him the admiration and gratitude of his country.

Though ingenuous in his disposition and unassuming and, conciliating in his manners, he was remarkable for discretion and steadiness. His opinions, when once formed, were maintained with modest but persevering firmness; and the propriety of his decisions generally satisfied the spirit with which they were defended. et, though rigid to his adherence to principle, and in his estimate of what was right or improper, in cases of minor importance he was all compliance. I never met with a youth who would so cheerfully sacrifice every personal gratification to the wishes or accommodation of his friends. In sickness or disappointment he evinced a degree of patience and fortitude which could not have been exceeded by any veteran in the school of misfortune or philosophy. Were I asked, what were the most prominent features of his character? (or rather, what were the prevailing dispositions of his mind?) at the period of which I am speaking, I would answer, decision and urbanity; the former, resulting from the uncommon and estimable qualities of his understanding the latter, from the concentration of all the sweet "charities of life," in his heart. Thus far from my own observation. I have seldom seen Colonel Croghan for the last eight years; but subjoin the testimony of those to whose observation he has been exposed during the whole of that period.

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An intelligent young gentleman, who was his asso- ciate in study and in alms, has given me a brief sketch of his military career, which I herewith transmit, together with such corroborative and additional circumstances as I have collected from other sources, and which in substance amount to this:

Lieutenant-Colonel George Croghan was born at Locust Grove, near the falls of Ohio, on the 15th of November, 1791. His father, Major William Croghan, left Ireland at an early period of life ; was appointed an officer in our Revolutionary army, and discharged his duties as such, to the satisfaction of the commander-in- chief. His mother is the daughter of John Clarke, esq., of Virginia, a gentleman of worth and respectability, who exerted himself greatly, and contributed largely towards the support of our just and glorious contest. He had five sons, four of whom were officers in the Revolutionary army. General William Clarke, who, together with Captain Lewis, explored, and is at present the Governor of Louisiana, was too young to participate with his brothers in the achievement of our liberties; but his conduct since is a sufficient demonstration of the part he would have taken, had he been riper in years. The military talents of General George R. Clarke have obtained for him the flattering appellation of "the father of the western country."

Colonel Croghan has always been esteemed generous and humane; and, when a boy, his manly appearance and independence of sentiment and action commanded the attention and admiration of all who knew him.

The selection of his speeches for scholastic exercises tended in some measure to mark his peculiar talent. They were of a nature entirely military. He read with delight whatever appertained to military affairs, and would listen for hours to conversations respecting battles. His principal amusements were gunning and foxhunting. He would frequently rise at in o'clock at night, and repair to the woods alone (or with no attendant but his little servant), either to give chase to the fox, or battle to the wild cat and raccoon.

Nothing offended him more than for any one, even in jest, to say a word disrespectful of General Washington.

While in the State of Kentucky his time was principally occupied by the study of his native tongue, geography, the elements of geometry, and the Latin and Greek languages. In these different branches of literature he made a respectable progress.

In the year 1808 he left Locust Grove for the purpose of prosecuting his studies in the University of William and Mary. In this institution he graduated as A. B. on the 4th of July, 1820; and delivered, on the day of his graduation, an oration on the subject of expatriation. This oration was deemed by the audience, concise, ingenious, and argumentative, and was pronounced in a manner which did great credit

to his oratorical powers. The ensuing autumn he attended a course of lectures on law, and upon the termination of the course returned to his father's where he prosecuted the study of the same profession, and occasionally indulged himself in miscellaneous reading. Biography and history have always occupied much of his attention. He is an enthusiastic admirer of the writings of Shakespeare, and can recite most of the noted passages of that great poet and philosopher. He admires tragedy but not comedy. He is (as his countenance indicates) rather of a serious cast of mind; yet no one admires more a pleasant anecdote, or an unaffected sally of wit. With his friends he is affable and free from reserve; his manners are prepossessing; he dislikes ostentation, and was never heard to utter a word in praise of himself.

In the autumn of 1811 was fought the battle of Tippecanoe. This was the first opportunity which offered for the display of his military talents. He embraced it with avidity - left his father's house in the character of a volunteer, and was appointed aid to General Harrison. On the 7th of November an attack was made on the troops under the command of that officer; the enemy were repulsed with valor; and during the engagement young Croghan evinced the greatest courage, activity, and military skill. His services were acknowledged by all; and he exhibited such proofs of a genius for war that many of his companions in arms remarked that "he was born a soldier." A cant saying among the troops at Tippecanoe was "to do a main business;" and during the battle he would ride from post to post, exciting the courage of the men by exclaiming, "Now, my brave fellows, now is the time to do a main business." Upon the return of the troops from Tippecanoe, they were frequently met by persons coming to ascertain the fate of their children or friends. Among the number of these was a very poor and aged man, whose son was slain in the battle. Colonel Croghan, having ascertained the situation of the old man, and observing his inability to perform much bodily labor, regularly made his fires every morning, and supplied him with provisions, clothes, and money. Many acts of this kind are related of him by the soldiers and officers of Tippecanoe.

After the battle of Tippecanoe, his military ardor greatly increased, and, upon the prospect of a speedy declaration of war, he expressed a desire to join the army. Recommendatory letters of the most flattering kind were written by Generals Harrison and Boyd to the Secretary of War; and upon the commencement of hostilities against Great Britain, he was appointed captain in the Seventeenth regiment of infantry. He was stationed some time at Clark Cantonment, near the Falls of Ohio, but had not been long in command there before he was ordered to march, with what regulars he had, to the headquarters of the Northwestern Army, then at Detroit.

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His countenance beamed with delight upon receiving this order. There were large bodies of militia and volunteers on their march to Detroit, but before they had proceeded far they heard of Hull's surrender.

Shortly after this the command of the Northwestern Army was given to General Harrison. Colonel Croghan commanded a short time at Fort Defiance, on the Miami, but upon the defeat of General Winchester he was ordered to Fort Meigs. His conduct during that memorable siege is handsomely noticed in General Harrison's official report, and he was shortly afterwards promoted to a majority, and stationed with his battalion at Upper Sandusky. While there he received information, by express, of an attack upon Lower Sandusky. It was late in the afternoon when the intelligence reached him-the road between the two places was intolerably bad-the distance thirty-six miles, and the rain descending in torrents; yet he proceeded at the head of his battalion to its relief, and continued his march until 12 o'clock at night, by which time he had advanced twenty miles. It then became so dark that he and his men were obliged to lie down in the road, and wait the return of light rather than run the risk of losing their way.

He arrived at Fort Ball (twelve miles distant) before sunrise the next morning, having waded through mud and mire frequently waist deep, and having been exposed to a heavy rain during the whole night. He was there informed that the report of an attack upon Lower Sandusky was unfounded, but after remaining a few days at Fort Ball he proceeded thither, having received orders to take the command at that post. He arrived there about the 15th of July. A few days after this Fort Meigs was besieged by a large British and Indian force. No doubt was entertained that the enemy would visit Sandusky. Accordingly, Colonel Croghan labored day and night to place the fort (which had received no advantages from nature or art) in a state of defence. The necessity of cutting a ditch round the fort, immediately presented itself to him. This was done; but in order to render the enemy's plans abortive, should they even succeed in leaping the ditch (which was nine feet wide, and six deep), he had large logs placed on the top of the fort, and so adjusted that an inconsiderable weight would cause them to fall. from their position, and crush to death all who might be situated below. This im- provement in the art of fortification took place but a few days before the attack. It is novel, and originated with himself.

A short time before the action, he wrote the following concise and impressive letter to a friend:

The enemy are not far distant-I expect an attack-I will defend this post till the last extremity-I have just sent away the women and children, with

the sick of the garrison, that I may be able to act without incumbrance. Be satisfied. I shall, I hope, do my duty. The example set me by my Revolutionary kindred is before me-let me die rather than prove unworthy of their name.

The following extract of a letter, written by a fellow-student and fellow-soldier of Lieutenant-Colonel Croghan, is here introduced as throwing additional light on the military character of that distinguished young officer:

Lieutenant-Colonel George Croghan is a native of Kentucky, and the second son of Major William Croghan, near Louisville. He is the nephew of the gallant hero and accomplished general, George Rogers Clarke, the father of the western country, and of General William Clarke, the present enterprising Governor of Missouri. His father is a native of Ireland, and having early embarked his fortunes in America, was a distinguished officer in the war of the Revolution.

Lieutenant-Colonel Croghan was born on the 15th of November, 1791, and received all the advantages of education the best grammar schools in Kentucky could afford, until in his seventeenth year, when he commenced a scientific course in the ancient college of William and Mary, in Virginia. Both at school and at college be was remarked for an open manliness of character, and elevation of sentiment, and a strength of intellect, connected with a high and persevering ambition.

In July, 1810, he graduated at William and Mary college, and soon afterwards commenced the study of law. With this view, he continued to visit that university until the fall of 1811, when he volunteered his services as a private in the campaign up the Wabash. A short time before the action of Tippecanoe, he was appointed aid-decamp to General Boyd, the second in command: and, although from his situation, he was not enabled to evince that activity which has since so much distinguished him, he exhibited a soul undaunted in one of the most sanguinary conflicts of the present day, and accordingly received the thanks of the commanding general.

In consequence of his services on the Wabash ex- pedition, he was appointed a captain in the provisional army directed to be raised and organized in the spring of 1812. In August he marched with the detachment from Kentucky, under General Winchester, destined to relieve General Hull in Canada; and to those acquainted with the movements of that gallant but unfortunate little army, the caution, zeal, and military capacity of Captain Croghan was conspicuous. Upon visiting the various encampments of the army on its march along the Miami of the Lake, both before and after the attack on Fort Wayne, the ground occupied by Captain Croghan

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was easily designated by the judicious fortifications erected for the night. On the movement of the army towards the Rapids, he was entrusted with the command of Fort Winchester, at the junction of the Auglaize and Miami Rivers, where he manifested his usual military arrangement. After the defeat at the River Raisin he joined General Harrison at the Rapids, previous to the erection of Fort Meigs.

It is creditable to the discernment of General Harrison, that he relied with the utmost confidence on the judicious arrangements of Captain Croghan, in the trying, brilliant, and ever memorable siege of Fort Meigs. In the sortie under that gallant soldier, Colonel Miller, on the 5th of May, to the companies led by Captains Croghan, Langhan, and Bradford was confided the storming of the British batteries, defended by a regular force and a body of Indians, either of them superior in number to the assailants. Here Captain Croghan's gallantry was again noticed in general orders.

At a very critical period of the last campaign (that of 1853,) young Croghan, now promoted to a majority, was appointed to the command of Fort Sandusky, at Lower Sandusky. On his conduct in the defence of that post, the official documents of the time, and the applause of a grateful country, are the most honorable commentary. The character of the campaign was changed from defensive to offensive operations, and its issue very materially influenced by the achievement. For his valor and good conduct on this occasion, Major Croghan was made, by brevet, a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Colonel Croghan was made Inspector General of the army, with the rank of Colonel, December 21, 1825, and in that capacity served with General Taylor in Mexico.

Congress presented him with a gold medal February 13, 1835, as a recognition of his gallant services in the defence of Fort Stephenson.

I close this sketch with an incident which pithily illustrates the character of President Jackson and the esteem in which Colonel Croghan was held.

Colonel Miller, the gallant "I'll try, sir," of the War of 1812, was the first to make known to President Jackson that George Croghan, the splendid hero of the Fort Stephenson fight in 1813, who, with a handful of men, maintained against a thousand British and Indians a position that involved all the communication and

defences of the Northwest, that George Croghan, with this gallant record, was to be court-martialed on a charge of "intemperance in alcoholic drinks." The old General listened impatiently to the infor- mation, but heard it through, and then he laid down his paper, rose from his chair, smote the table with his clenched fist, and, with his proverbial energy, declared: "Those proceedings of the court-martial shall be stopped, sir! George Croghan shall get drunk every day of his life if he wants to, and by the Eternal, the United States shall pay for the whiskey."

PURCHASE OF THE GROUND BY THE CITY.

At an early day after the village of Lower Sandusky was chartered a few men suggested and desired that the village should purchase and preserve the fort. The purchase was talked of from time to time. While it was owned by Chester Edgerton, esq., he verbally agreed to sell it to the city for four thousand dollars. General R. P. Buckland, then representing this district in the Ohio Senate, about the year 1856 procured the passage of an act empowering the village to purchase at that price, on the majority vote of the inhabitants. The vote was taken and carried in favor of the purchase. But by this time Mr. Edgerton had changed his mind, and declined, for some reason, to sell to the city, but afterwards sold to Mr. Lewis Leppelman.

Among those who were always desirous the city should purchase, was Mr. Sardis Birchard, uncle of President Hayes. Fremont in the meantime became a city of the second class. Mr. Birchard, while alive, determined to found a public library in the city, where he had resided and accumulated considerable wealth. He accordingly donated property valued at fifty thousand dollars for the purpose, and appointed as trustees of the library and the fund : The Mayor of the city of Fremont,

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History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 15

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