USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 38
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We need not enter into a statement of the general operations and final results of the War of 1812. It was a national war, and its scope and effects cannot be compressed within the scope of a local history.
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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.
The history of that war is written and its results are the inheritance of the nation to-day. The long contemplated attack against Malden and the contemplated naval armament were both realized by the land and naval forces of the northwest army, for General Harrison found Malden sitting in lonely ruins, after Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry had sent from the bosom of Lake Erie, under date of September 10, 1813, at 4 o'clock P. M., the memorable message : " Dear General, we have met the enemy and they are ours-two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and a sloop." It is also needless to more than refer to the closing battle of the Thames, in which the American forces won as lasting fame as any army ever earned, and which was signalized by the death of the humane but savage chief, Tecumseh, and the ignoble flight of the inhuman yet civilized monster, General Proctor.
GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON
was born February 9, 1773, at Berkley, on the banks of James River, twenty-five miles from Richmond, Virginia. Benjamin Harrison, his father, was one of the distinguished patriots of the American Revolu- tion. In 1774, 1775, and 1776 he represented the State of Virginia in Congress, and was chairman of the Committee of the whole House when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. In the year 1777 he was chosen Speaker of the House of Delegates of Virginia, which posi- tion he filled until 1782, when he became Governor of the State. The character of the father was effective in moulding that of the son, as the history of Gen. Harrison will amply show.
Passing over the youthful life of William Henry Harrison, we first ยท find him entering public life as aid-de-camp to General Anthony Wayne. He was next appointed by Gen. Wayne as Secretary of the Northwestern Territory in the year 1797, he being then in his twenty-fourth year. The Northwestern Territory at that time was under the government of Gen. St. Clair and comprised the whole of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois, and the Territory of Michigan.
In 1799 he was elected delegate to represent the North western Terri- tory in Congress, and served one year. In 1801 he was appointed by President Adams as Governor of that part of the Northwest Territory called the Indian Territory. It consisted of three settlements: 1. Clarke's Grant of one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land at the falls of the Ohio, which had been granted to Gen. Clarke's regiment of Virginia troops as compensation for services during the Revolutionary war. 2. The old Friends' settlement at Vincennes and its vicinity on the Wabash. 3. A tract lying on the Mississippi and known as the French settlement, extending from Kaskaskia to Cahokia, about sixty- one miles.
All the immense region beyond these settlements was in the posses- sion of the Indians, so that the duties of the Governor were more than nominal; they were arduous. The hostility of the Indians, as well as the intrigues of the British agents, must be met and opposed. British agents had established posts and factories within the bounds prescribed by the treaty of 1783, and resorted to every measure of intrigue and falsehood to induce the Indian nations to believe that the Americans were their enemies, and that on the other hand they were indebted to King George for everything they obtained.
General Harrison therefore took the ground that the Indians were the mere tools of British and foreign intrigue, and both in peace and war were troublesome neighbors. As a civil governor he was eminently qualified by education and talent as well as by experience in the art of Indian warfare. This fact is clearly established by reference to the numerous treaties with the Indians, by which seventy millions of acres of land were from time to time ceded to the United States, the condition of the savages themselves ameliorated, and the American citizens pro- tected in the enjoyment of their property and rights.
General Harrison, to secure the confidence of the Indian nations, in 1801 had communicated with chiefs of all the tribes inhabiting the ter- ritory over which he presided-he having visited all the tribes west of the Mississippi and about Lakes Superior, Huron, and Erie repeatedly before the year 1801. The greatest difficulty he had to encounter arose from the ideas which were inculcated among the tribes by the British agents and traders. The idea prevailed that the United States had resolved to destroy the Indians, take possession of their lands-which,
however, was not to be accomplished by war, but by the introduction of smallpox, which would be communicated to them through the goods they would receive.
To counteract this belief Gen. Harrison resolved to have a public con- ference, at which he would explain the principles of the American Gov- ernment and its wishes in regard to the Indian tribes. Accordingly on September 12, 1802, the Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, Eel River, Miamis, Weas, Piankishaws, and Kaskaskias assembled, but the Miamis and Del- awares would not attend.
On September 17, 1802, an agreement was entered into between the General and these Indian nations, by their chiefs, whereby all difficulties were finally adjusted.
On August 13, 1803, Gen. Harrison entered into a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe by which the whole of that extreme country formerly possessed by all the tribes of the Illinois Indians, with the exception of the Peorias, was ceded to the United States in consideration of an an- nuity of three hundred and ninety-six dollars and sixty-six cents, and an additional five hundred dollars for the cession of eight millions of acres of excellent land.
On the 19th and 27th of August, 1804, he concluded treaties with the Delawares and Piankishaws, by which the United States acquired all the country which lies between the Ohio and Wabash rivers, as far up as the road leading from Vincennes to Louisville. It has a front of three hun- dred miles on the Ohio and about one hundred and forty on the Wabash River. The Piankishaws, in addition to their five hundred dollar an- nuity granted them by the treaty of Greenville, received seven hundred dollars in goods and two hundred dollars per annum for ten years, and the Delawares an additional annuity of three hundred dollars for the same length of time.
About July, 1804, the Sac and Fox Indians ceded to the United States upwards of fifty-one millions of acres, the largest tract of land ever ceded in one treaty by the Indians since the settlement of North America. It commenced at the mouth of the Illinois River, and extended to the mouth of the Ouisconsing on the one side, and from the mouth of the Illinois to near the head of the Fox River on the other side; thence from the head of the latter a line is drawn to a point thirty-six miles above the mouth of the Ouisconsing, which forms the northern boundary.
The terms were two thousand two hundred and eighty-four dollars in goods ; an annuity of one thousand dollars, and also in goods six hun- dred dollars to the Sacs, and four hundred to the Foxes.
On April 30, 1803, France ceded to the United States for sixty mil- lions of francs the whole colony or province of Louisiana, with its islands and dependencies. It was annexed to the territory of Indiana, and placed under the government of General Harrison, who presided over the most extensive territory ever before committed to the charge of any officer in the United States.
In the middle of August, 1805, a convention of chiefs for the Indian tribes assembled at Vincennes, and a treaty was concluded which settled the dispute made by the Delawares in 1804, but a further cession to the United States made of the land which lies to the south of the line drawn from the northeast corner of the tract ceded by the treaty of Fort Wayne, and striking the general boundary line running from the mouth of the Kentucky River to Fort Recovery, at the distance of fifty miles from its commencement, for which the Miamis received an annuity of six hundred dollars. The Eel River tribe an annuity of two hundred and fifty dollars. The Weas an annuity of two hundred and fifty dollars. The Pottawatomies an additional annuity of five hundred dollars for one year, and no longer, together with four thousand dollars paid them in gold.
September 30, 1809, Gen. Harrison contracted a treaty at Fort Wayne with the Miamis, Eel Rivers, Delawares, and Pottawatomie tribes for all that tract of country which shall be inclosed in the boundary lines established by the treaty of Fort Wayne. With the Kickapoos he made a separate treaty, and the number of acres in these cessions were two million nine hundred thousand acres, by giving annuities to each tribe.
Gen. Harrison fought the famous battle of Tippecanoe on the Wabash (the Indians being under the control of the Prophet), during the absence of Tecumseh, who was then in the South.
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November 7, 1811, Gen. Harrison marched from Fort Harrison on the Wabash, to the Prophet's town, on October 28, with an army of nine hundred men, composed of the Kentucky and Indiana militia, and the 4th United States Regiment, and encamped within nine miles of the Prophet's town, on November 5. He approached the town the next day, and the chief asserted that he desired peace. Harrison assented to a cessation of hostilities until the next day, but that night the sentinels discovered some Indians stealthily creeping upon them as they paced their solemn rounds. One of the sentinels fired, the shot was answered by the wild Indian shout of defiant war, and the battle was opened. The Prophet commanded from five hundred to one thousand men, who were placed under three chiefs, White Soon, Stone Eater, and a treach- erous Pottawatomie chief named Winnemac. The Indians were routed and dispersed, and abandoned their town, which the army proceeded to destroy, tearing down the fortifications and burning the buildings. This battle was fought out on the general plan of Gen. Wayne's rules of In- dian warfare, and was a most decisive victory, for which Gen. Harrison justly received great praise and commendation.
In the battle of Tippecanoe, the loss of Gen. Harrison was probably greater than that of the Indians. Thirty-eight Indians were left dead upon the field, while of the Americans fifty were killed and nearly one hundred wounded.
On May 15, 1812, General Harrison held a grand council with the Indians, the following tribes being represented-the Wyandots, Chippe- was, Ottawas, Delawares, Eel River, Miamis, Weas, Piankishaws, Shaw- nese, Kickapoos, and others who made strong professions of friendship for the United States.
On June 18, 1812, Congress declared war against Great Britain, when General Harrison, foreseeing the necessity of having the Indian tribes under his control, immediately commenced organizing the military for any emergency, he having received intelligence that a combination more formidable than any previous one existed among the Indian tribes.
On Aug. 22, 1812, Gen. Harrison was commissioned a Brigadier-Gen- eral and assigned the command of all the forces in Indiana and Illinois countries, with instructions to cooperate with Gen. Hull and Governor Howe of the Missouri country.
On Aug. 25, 1812, Gen. Harrison received his commission as Major- General from Governor Scott of Kentucky, and was authorized to take command of a detachment now marching to Detroit to be reinforced with another regiment which he had called into service, and an addi- tional body of mounted riflemen.
On Aug. 29, 1812, he left Cincinnati and marched to the relief of Fort Wayne, taking the route by Dayton and Piqua, arriving at the latter place September 3d. He detached Col. Allen's regiment with two com- panies of Col. Scott's to make forced marches for its relief, and a regi- ment of seven hundred mounted men under the command of Col. Adams advanced as far as Shane's crossing on the St. Marys. At Girty's town or St. Marys Gen. Harrison ordered block-houses to be built, and a corps of mounted volunteers under Major R. M. Johnson arrived, which made the army consist of twenty-two hundred men.
On September 12 Gen. Harrison reached the fort and the enemy fied at his approach and abandoned all their positions, which they had kept closely blockaded for many days. Fort Wayne being relieved, General Harrison destroyed the Indian towns on the Wabash, and at Elk Harbor on the waters of Lake Michigan, fifty miles distant.
September 17. The President then appointed Gen. Harrison to the command of the Northwest Army and the volunteers and militia of Kentucky and Ohio, numbering three thousand, making the whole army to consist of about ten thousand soldiers.
On September 19 General Harrison assumed command and gave the command of the Kentucky troops to Gen. Winchester. He then set out for St. Marys, where he arrived on the 20th and directed a large convoy to meet the detachment of Gen. Winchester at the site of old Fort Defiance, at the mouth of Auglaize River.
On September 24 it became necessary to open a road from St. Marys to Fort Defiance by way of Tawa town and build a block-house between the two stations-the block-house to be of the largest size of such buildings, and not less than twenty-five feet on the lower story.
The troops were in winter quarters at several posts, and nothing of
great interest occurred until the 22d January, 1813, when the massacre at the River Raisin occurred. Let us glance at the facts. Gen. Har- rison ordered Gen. Winchester to fall back to Fort Jennings, as Tecum- seh was in his vicinity with a large force of British and Indians, supposed to be near three thousand, and to be on the alert. Instead of obeying this order Gen. Winchester sent Col. Lewis with six hundred men to protect the farms. Col. Lewis exceeded his orders and pushed forward to Frenchtown, eighteen miles from Malden. He there attacked and routed the British and Indian forces, and drove them two miles at the point of the bayonet.
The British hearing of this, sent large reinforcements from Malden and commenced a furious assault, by which Gen. Winchester's line was broken and scattered. McAfee states, in speaking of the Indians, "that their chiefs held a council in which they soon determined to kill all the wounded who were unable to march, in revenge for the warriors they had lost in the battle at Frenchtown. Soon afterwards they began to yell, and to exhibit in their frantic rage the most diabolical dispositions. They began first to plunder the houses of the inhabitants, and then broke into those where the wounded prisoners were lying, some of whom they abused and stripped of their clothes and blankets, and then toma- hawked them without mercy. Some who were not in houses were killed and thrown into the flames, while others were tomahawked, inhumanly mangled, and left in the streets and highways.
The Americans in this sad affair lost upwards of two hundred and ninety in killed, massacred, and missing-only thirty-three escaped to the Rapids. The British took five hundred and forty-seven prisoners, and the Indians about forty-five. The loss of the British and Indians was between three and four hundred. Their whole force in the battle was about two thousand, one-half regulars and Canadians, commanded by Cols. Proctor and St. George; the other composed of Indians, com- manded by Round Head and Walk-in-the-Water. Tecumseh was not present, being on the Wabash, collecting the warriors in that quarter.
February 1, 1813. Gen. Winchester's army being reinforced by Gen. Leftwich's brigade, increased the number to eighteen hundred, but Gen. Harrison deemed it advisable to go into winter quarters and selected a good position on the south side of the river Maumee and called it Fort Meigs.
Nothing of importance occurred until the 28th of April, when the British troops encamped at the old station on the Maumee, two miles below Fort Meigs. Gen. Proctor with his six hundred regulars, eight hundred Canadian militia, and eighteen hundred Indians, kept up a con- tinued fire for three days against General Harrison's important works. During the night of the third day Gen. Clay approached Gen. Harrison with twelve hundred Kentuckians. The whole force was then concen- trated, charged the enemy, driving them from their batteries, spiking their cannon, and capturing forty-one prisoners, including one officer. The fighting lasted but forty-five minutes, during which time one hun- dred and eighty men were killed and wounded.
In less than two months the British and Indians under Tecumseh to the number of five thousand, threatened a second attack on Fort Meigs, and on the 1st of August Proctor summoned the post to surrender, at the same time informing Croghan that if he did not yield, the fort would be stormed and the occupants be tomahawked and scalped. Ensign Shipp met officer Dickson, who bore the summons, and immediately replied "that when the fort was taken there would be none left to massacre."
Gen. Harrison, who was at Fort Stephenson, situated at Lower San- dusky, from which point he could protect either Upper Sandusky or Fort Meigs, being only nine miles distant, sent a message to Col. Croghan, who was in command of the fort, to evacuate at once; but the message did not arrive until after the fort was surrounded. Croghan, however, re- turned for answer, "We are determined to maintain the place, and by Heaven, we can!" The British made the attack on the first day, but one hundred and sixty of the soldiers were killed and Proctor and his allies retreated. For this noble act Congress made Col. Croghan a Brig- adier-General.
The second siege of Fort Meigs was abandoned by Proctor, who com- manded an army of two thousand British and five hundred Indians; Boon afterwards concentrated their forces at Malden, their principal
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stronghold in Upper Canada. After their retreat Gen. Harrison com- menced preparations for carrying the war into their own country, and formed the bold project of capturing Malden and the conquest of Upper Canada.
On July 20, 1813, Gen. Harrison was informed that the naval arma- ment, which had been built under Commodore Perry's supervision, was prepared to co-operate with him in the reduction of Malden. With a view to this he wrote to Governor Shelby of Kentucky, earnestly soliciting a body of militia, not less than four hundred nor more than two thousand, and requesting that he would accompany them in person. Kentucky immediately responded to the call, and Gov. Shelby took command of fifteen hundred men, among which was Col. R. M. Johnson's regiment of mounted men.
August 2. Com. Perry proceeded to Sandusky to receive orders from Harrison; who commanded him to advance at once to Malden and to bring the enemy to battle, while Gen. Harrison placed the army in a state for instant embarkation.
On the 10th of September, 1813, Com. Oliver Hazard Perry wrote the following letter to Gen. Harrison : "We have met the enemy and they are ours-two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and a sloop."
Gen. Harrison gave immediate orders to his soldiers to embark, and also the transportation of provisions, military stores, etc., to the margin of the lake, which was commenced, and from the 16th to the 24th of September, the troops and provisions were all transported to the place of rendezvous at Put in Bay, and on the 24th he issued his order for the embarkation of the army, and, in the language of a noble-hearted officer, said to his soldiers, " Remember the River Raisin ; but remember it only whilst victory is suspended. The revenge of a soldier cannot be gratified on a fallen soldier."
On the 27th the army embarked, and landed in Canada eager to en- counter the enemy, but no enemy could be found! Malden was in ruins! The fort and works were a mass of smouldering ashes !!!
McAfee in his history of the war states that Tecumseh addressed Proctor in this language: "Father, we see you are drawing back, and we are sorry to see our father doing so without seeing the enemy. We must compare our father's conduct to a fat dog, that carries its tail upon its back, but when affrighted drops it between its legs and runs away."
The next important event in the life of Gen. Harrison was the battle of the Thames at the Moravian towns on October 5, 1813, with the British and Indians under Proctor with his veterans, and Tecumseh with his two thousand warriors. Gen. Harrison gave them battle by attacking their front and rear, when the whole army was captured and the field won. The Americans lost thirty killed and wounded, while their foes lost six hundred and forty-five, including twenty-five officers; among the num- ber the celebrated Indian chief Tecumseh. Tecumseh fell respected by his enemies as a great and magnanimous chief. He had been in almost every engagement with the whites since Gen. Harmer's defeat in 1791, and at his death scarcely exceeded forty years of age. The stamp of greatness from the hand of nature he had received, and had his lot been cast in a different state of society, he would have ranked as one of the most distinguished individuals of his day.
This victory destroyed the force of the enemy in Upper Canada and put an end to the war in the Northwestern Territory, and on the 11th day of May, 1814, Gen. Harrison resigned his position as commander- in-chief of the Western forces. In the year 1816 he was triumphantly elected by the people of Ohio to fill a seat in Congress in place of Hon. John McLean, who had resigned. He was presented with a gold medal by Congress for his services. At the expiration of his services in Con- gress, in 1819, he was elected by the people of Ohio to the State Senate. In 1824 he was elected to the United States Senate by the Legislature of Ohio. In 1826 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Columbia. After his return he set- tled at North Bend on the Ohio River sixteen miles below the city of Cincinnati, O., and in November, 1840, he was called from his retirement to the Presidency of the United States, and was inaugurated March 4, 1841. He did not live to fulfil the high hopes centred upon him by the people, for on the 4th of April, 1841, one month after his inauguration, he laid down the burdens of the past and the responsibilities of the pres- ent, and, taking these for a couch, was embraced by the dreamless sleep of death.
DEATH OF COL. JOHN JOHNSTON.
Another of our early settlers and pioneer citizens has departed this life, a man who was one of the prominent landmarks of the past, and whose life shed lustre upon the noble name of the pioneer.
A telegraphic dispatch received from Washington yesterday announced the death of the venerable Col. John Johnston. He was found dead on his bed at the United States Hotel in that city yesterday morning. We are not as yet informed of the cause of his sudden demise. He had reached the remarkable age of 86 years.
Col. John Johnston was born in the year 1775, and was educated and passed his boyhood in the State of Pennsylvania .* He came to the West in 1793 as an attache to the quartermaster's department of Gen. Wayne's army. When he first landed upon the site of this city it con- sisted of a few log cabins near Fort Washington. The boundless west was an almost broken wilderness, inhabited by wild beasts and Indians, with a few scattering settlements of whites.
In the winter of 1794-5 he was made a Mason at Bourbon Court House, now Paris, Kentucky, in a lodge working under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, of which Washington was a member. Soon after he returned to Philadelphia, and was for some years in the employ of the government in the War Office. He frequently saw the Father of his country in the lodge-room and at other places, and heard " Washington's farewell address" to his countrymen.
As secretary of a lodge in Philadelphia he marched in procession and participated in the funeral ceremonies in honor of the memory of the departed Patriot in the winter of 1800. At his death Col. Johnston was a member of McMillan Lodge of this city.
In the year 1801 he was appointed United States Agent at Fort Wayne. He was afterwards appointed Indian agent, which post he held for the extraordinary period of twenty-eight years, a striking evidence of the confidence reposed in him by the various administrations, and which divested their action of any party considerations. His station was at Piqua. Millions of money passed through his hands, every dollar of which was strictly accounted for.
The ancestors of the deceased were of the Episcopal Church, and he, together with the Rev. Intrepid Morse, of Steubenville, and the Rev. Samuel Johnston, of Cincinnati, organized the diocese of that church in Ohio. He was one of the original trustees of Kenyon College. Leaving the Indian agency in 1828 he was afterwards appointed a Canal Com- missioner with Alfred Kelly, Gen. Bearsley, M. T. Williams and others.
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