USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 32
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The announcement of this cowardly capitulation contained in the Freeman's Chronicle of September 5, 1812, caused great consternation in Franklinton. "Such an unlooked-for and astounding blow almost paralyzed the country and created great alarm, for many of the Indian tribes, encouraged by this untoward event, and urged by the British agents, now openly took sides against us. Months of apprehension supervened, and a feverish anxiety infected the whole community, for Franklinton was really a frontier settlement and the inhabitants were in con- stant dread lest by some sudden attack, their houses should be given to the flames, and their wives and little ones fall a prey to the tomahawk and scalping-knife. Indian alarms were frequent, and on such occasions the terrified settlers from up Darby Creek, Sells's settlement on the Scioto, from Delaware and Worth- ington and the adjacent regions came flocking into Franklinton, and at one time a ditch and stockade was commenced around the Courthouse, to convert it into a citadel." To guard against surprise, Mr. Lucas Sullivant kept two experienced scouts on duty as far north as the present village of Zanesfield, in Logan County, to give warning of any hostile approach.
Governor Meigs exerted himself with great energy in forwarding volunteers to meet the new emergency. A number of the Urbana Watch Tower, issued early in September, says : " Troops are daily arriving here, at Piqua and Delaware and continually pressing on to the frontiers, right and left. Great exertions are mak - ing to meet the savages. . Captain MeNamara's company of mounted rifle- men started this day for Fort Wayne, to reinforce that post. Governor Meigs is here, and will make this headquarters."
Governor Charles Scott, of Kentucky, was equally active in pushing to the front the militia of that State. To lead the Kentucky regiments ordered to Michi- gan, Governor Scott selected the victor of Tippecanoe, General William II. Harri- son, who overtook the troops assigned to his command while on their north ward march, south of Dayton, which place they reached September 1. On the third of that month Harrison arrived at Piqua, from whence he issned the following stirring appeal, dated " September 5, 1812, Four o'clock A. M."
Mounted Volunteers ! - I requested yon in my late address [September 2] to rendezvous at Dayton on the fifteenth instant. I have now a more pressing call for your services ! The
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
British and Indians have invaded our country, and are now besieging (perhaps have taken) Fort Wayne. Every friend of his country who is able so to do, will join me as soon as possi- ble, well mounted with a good rifle, and twenty or thirty days provision. Ammunition will be furnished at Cincinnati or Dayton, and the volunteers will draw provisions (to save their salted meat) at all the public deposits. The Quarter-Masters and Commissaries will see that this ordered is executed.
General Harrison delivered Fort Wayne from siege on the twelfth of September, and on the twentyfourth received a dispatch of the seventeenth appointing him to the chief command of the Northwestern Army. On assuming that command, he found the troops in summer dress, unprovided with socks or mittens, and very meagerly supplied with blankets. He therefore appealed to the patriotie people of Ohio and Kentucky to contribute the articles of clothing necessary to protect their defenders from the inclemency of winter. "Can any patriot sleep easy in his bed of down," he pleaded, " when he reflects upon the situtation of a centinel exposed to the cold of a winter night in Canada, in a linen hunting shirt? Will the amiable fair sex suffer their brave defenders to be mutilated by the frost for the want of mittens and socks which they can with little exertion procure for them ?"
To collect supplies and organize troops more effectively for the expected winter campaign, General Harrison transferred to General James Winchester the com- mand at Fort Defiance, to which point he had pushed his advance, and proceeded thence, ria Wooster to Franklinton. There we find him addressing a communi- cation to the War Department, on the thirteenth of October. At Chillicothe, which he visited on the sixteenth, he declined a public dinner tendered him, saying the soldiers of his command, " already far advanced into the wilderness," were suf- fering for necessary supplies, and that "it would not be very agreeable to those brave fellows to learn that their general was feasting in the rear at the time when they were confined to a bare sufficiency of the coarsest food."
In the execution of his plans for retaking Detroit, General Harrison proposed to establish a depot of supplies at Sandusky, concentrate his forces by different routes at the Maumee Rapids, and advance with this united column to the River Raisin. Three different lines of concentration and supply were adopted, the most westerly passing around the Black Swamp by the valleys of the Auglaize and Maumee, and the others leading through it. The Virginia troops, forming, with the Pennsylvanians, the right wing, crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, marched across the country to Chillicothe, and thence passed np the valley of the Scioto via Franklinton and Delaware to Upper Sandusky. In con- sequence of this arrangement, Franklinton became an important rendezvous and depot of supplies. On the twentyfifth of October General Harrsion held a con- ference there with brigadier-generals Perkins and Beall, of whom the first had been assigned to the command of a brigade of Ohio militia encamped on the Huron. A brigade of Virginians under General Leftwich arrived at Delaware November 6, and was met there by Harrison who had meanwhile personally reconnoitered the Black Swamp, and ordered Perkins to build through its oozy and dismal confines a practicable road. A brigade of Pennsylvanians had arrived at Mansfield.
Franklinton had by this time become a bustling center of war preparations. The Freeman's Chronicle of October 31 says: " Our town begins to assume quite a
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military appearance. Six or seven hundred troops are already here. Two com- panies of Pennsylvania troops are expected in a few days, and we look daily for the arrival of one hundred U. S. Dragoons from Kentucky. The force to be col- lected at this place will be nearly three thousand. How long they will remain has not been ascertained."
The same issue of the Chronicle contains the following items of minor military mention :
General Harrison left this place on Tuesday morning for Mansfield, accompanied by Generals Beall and Perkins.
Captain Garrard's troop of horse arrived here on Monday.
Colonel Simrall's regiment arrived on Wednesday.
Major Ball, of the U. S. Army, arrived the same day.
A company of U. S. troops under Captain Elliott arrived yesterday.
About one hundred regulars, from Piqua, with three pieces of artillery, arrived today, and fired a salute.
The Virginia troops arrived some days ago at Chillicothe. They are expected here on Wednesday next.
The same paper of November 7 says :
The Virginia troops under General Leftwich arrived here on Monday evening, and marched on Wednesday for Delaware, where they still remain. Two companies of Pennsyl- vania volunteers under Captains Butler and Alexander arrived in town on Friday.
The Chronicle of November 17 contains these items :
General Harrison arrived in town on Thursday evening from Delaware, and was received with the military honors due to his rank.
On Friday afternoon his excellency the Governor arrived here from Marietta, and was saluted by Captain Cushing's company of artillery.
Major Benson, of the Virginia line, passed through here a few days ago, to take com- mand of a battalion now at Delaware.
Several hundred stand of arms for the Kentucky cavalry were received here on Friday.
All the troops at this place paraded on the public square yesterday, and were reviewed by his excellency Governor Meigs, accompanied by General Harrison and his staff.
To intimidate the Indians, who had been emboldened by various minor sue- cesses, and to clear his left flank, General Harrison dispatched an expedition against the Miami villages on the Massassiniway, one of the tributaries of the Wabash. The expeditionary detachment comprised Colonel Simrall's Kentucky regiment of six months volunteer dragoons, Major James V. Ball's squadron of United States dragoons, Captain Elliott's company of the Nineteenth United States Infantry, a small company of volunteer riffemen from the neighborhood of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, under Captain Alexander, a company of Pittsburgh vol- unteer light infantry under Captain James Butler, Captain Markley's troop of horse, from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania; Lieutenant Lee's detachment of Michigan militia, and Captain Garrard's troop of horse from Lexington, Ken- tucky. This combined force, in all six hundred strong, was mostly mounted. and was led by Lieutenant-Colonel John B. Campbell, of the Nineteenth United States Infantry. The expedition was organized at Franklinton, and marched thence ria Xenia to Dayton, where it was detained several days in procuring horses. The Freeman's Chronicle of December 5, 1812, thus notes its departure : " On the eigh- teenth ult., between six and seven hundred troops, under the command of Colonel Campbell, of the United States Army, left this place on a secret expedition."
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
By forced marches in severely cold weather, Colonel Campbell succeeded in surprising the Indians in their villages near the present site of Muncie, Indiana. The savages made a counter attack the following day, December 18, but were again routed. The Freeman's Chronicle, of December 30, 1812, gives the following account of these battles, derived from Captain Hite, who had " just arrived, express from Colonel Campbell's detachment " :
On the seventeenth, after marching all night, Colonel Campbell, with his command, arrived at one of the Massassineway towns, and instantly charged upon the town, drove the savages across the Massassineway River, killed seven of them, and took thirtyseven prisoners. Only two of our men were killed in this skirmish.
On the eighteenth, before daybreak, the horrid savage yell was heard, the word was given to arms, and a most desperate conflict commenced. Captain Pierce, of the Zanesville troop, was killed at the first onset, while standing guard. He is represented to have behaved gallantly and died nobly. Lieutenant Waltz of Captain Markley's company, from Greens . burg, Pa., was shot through the arm and not being satisfied with that, he again endeavored to mount his horse, and in making the effort was shot through the head. His death was glorious. Captain Trotter, while charging with fury upon the enemy, was wounded in the hand. Lieutenants Basey and Hickman were slightly wounded. A great number of horses were killed. The action continned with unabated fury for one hour, when the savages were routed, and driven in all directions. ... On receipt of the above pleasing intelligence, several rounds were fired by Captain Cushing's Artillery company now at this place.5
Colonel Campbell's loss was eight killed and twentysix wounded. The Indian loss in killed was supposed to be thirty or forty. As Tecumseh was reported to be in the neighborhood with five or six hundred warriors, Campbell prudently with- drew to Greenville, and thence by slow marches to Franklinton, where he arrived early in January. Many of his horses were nearly starved, and one hundred and eighty of his men were frostbitten.
On the second of January, 1813, General Harrison announeed Colonel Camp- bell's suceess in congratulatory general orders issued from the Headquarters of the Northwestern Army at Franklinton. Until December 30, the headquarters had been at Upper Sandusky, or rather wherever the Commander-in-chief happened to halt for a brief interval between his rapid and frequent movements. The follow- ing contemporary items of military news are taken from the Freeman's Chronicle of the dates given :
December 5 - About one hundred cavalry of General Crook's Brigade of Pennsylvania militia arrived here from Mansfield on Tuesday last.
Four thousand six hundred and fortyeight large fat hogs have been driven from this neighborhood within a few days, destined for the Rapids, for the use of the Northwestern Army.
December 30- General Harrison's Headquarters are now at Upper Sandusky. A regi- ment and an odd battalion of the Virginia troops are encamped at that place. The remain- der of the Virginians are at Delaware; the Pennsylvanians were on their march from Mans- field to Upper Sandusky.
An elegant volunteer company from Petersburg, Virginia, have arrived at Chillicothe. They are expected in this town in a few days. They are commanded by Captain McRae, brother of the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia. . . . Since the above was put in type, General Harrison arrived here from Upper Sandusky, and proceeded to Chillicothe. He will return in a few days to Sandusky.
January 8, 1813-Captain Cushing's company of Artillery marched from this place on the first instant for Sandusky; but owing to the extreme inclemency of the weather they have yet progressed no further than Worthington, nine miles from here.
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The company of Petersburg, Va., Volunteers arrived here on Saturday last, in good health and spirits. . . . General Harrison is still at this place.
Colonel Campbell and - Alexander, with their companies, have returned here from Mississiniway.
A company of regulars, under Captain Bradford, arrived here a few days ago from Cincinnati.
January 15- A company of U. S. Infantry arrived here on Sunday from Chillicothe. There are now at this place four companies of regulars, and three companies of twelve months volunteers. It is said they will not remain here many days.
We are asked every day when the army will move for Detroit ? Omniscience alone can solve the question.
The public stores which are daily arriving at and forwarded from this place to the Head- quarters of the army are immense. Nevertheless it is said that there is but a small quantity of forage at Upper Sandusky.
The weather, for some days past, has been extremely cold, the ground very hard frozen, and transportation thereby rendered tolerably easy.
In pursuance of the plans for a winter campaign, on which General Harrison was still bent, General Winchester advanced from Fort Defiance to the Manmee Rapids where he arrived January 10, and established a fortified camp near the scene of Wayne's battle. Here Winchester was visited by messengers from French- town, on the River Raisin, twentysix miles south of Detroit, invoking his protee- tion against the Indians who threatened to ravage the settlement. In compliance with these requests, Colonel Lewis was dispatched on the morning of January 17 with five hundred and fifty Kentuckians, followed a few hours later by a detach- ment one hundred and ten strong, under Colonel Allen. With a loss of twelve killed and fiftyfive wounded, Lewis dislodged and routed the enemy at French- town, to which point Winchester immediately marched forward with an additional force of two hundred and fifty men. On the morning of January 22, Winchester and Lewis were surprised, outflanked and routed by a superior force of British and Indians from Malden under General Proctor. Five hundred and fifty of the Americans were captured, two hundred and ninety others were killed or missing. The wounded were left to the mercy of the Indians by Proctor, and were massacred. Among the victims were many representatives of the most prominent families in Kentucky. Winchester and Lewis were both taken eaptive.
The movement which resulted in this terrible disaster seems to have been made without specific authority from General Harrison," who, as soon as he heard of Winchester's advance, rushed through the Black Swamp with a reinforcement from Upper Sandusky, but arrived too late. Fugitives from Winchester's army announced its complete destruction, leaving nothing further to be done but to bring forward the available troops, and concentrate them at the Rapids, which was accordingly done during the weeks next following. As the term of enlistment of the two Ohio brigades, and some of the Pennsylvania and Kentucky regiments, would expire in February, all further thought of a winter campaign against Detroit was abandoned. As the position at the Rapids was a key point and an ad- vantageous base for future operations Captain Wood, of the Engineers, was ordered to fortify it, and constructed a system of palisades and blockhouses which took the name of Fort Meigs. Wood's own name was afterwards given to the county in which the fort was located.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS,
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GENERAL HARRISON'S HEADQUARTERS, FRANKLINTON. ORIGINAL BUILDING WITH SOME CHANGES. Photograph by F. H. Howe, 1892.
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THE FIRST WAR EPISODE.
The news of Winchester's defeat, and the atrocious butchery of his wounded soldiers, produced widespread amazement and horror. All Kentucky was in mourning for its murdered sons, and all Ohio in apprehension of Indian raids and murders along the frontier. A draft was ordered, and a proclamation issued by Governor Meigs calling for three months' volunteers, the first division to rendezvous at Urbana. the second and third at Franklinton, and the fourth at Upper Sandusky. The Freeman's Chronicle of this period contains the following current military notes :
February 19 - Governor Meigs has arrived in town to organize and facilitate the move- ment of the drafted militia now assembling here. Three companies are now eneamped in this vicinity.
March 5 - About two hundred and fifty of the drafted militia, under Colonel Steven- son, left here last week for Upper Sandusky. Several more drafted men are yet here, and will march soon.
Captain Garrard's troop arrived here last week, and started soon afterwards for San- dusky, but have since been ordered to Lebanon where the whole of Major Ball's squadron will remain for some time.
March 19- We have heard of no persons arriving from the Rapids for some days. The road through the Black Swamp is said to be utterly impassable.
General Harrison left here on Monday last for Chillicothe, from whenee he will go Cin- cinnati, and perhaps to Kentucky .? He had previously received notice of his appointment as Major-General.
About one hundred drafted militia, under the command of Major Pitzer, marched from here on Monday for St. Mary's. General Wingate and suite left here on Sunday for St. Mary's.
March 26 - There are no troops now at this place. Owing to the late rise of the waters, and the consequent badness of the roads, no transportation of forage or militia stores can, for the present, be etlected.
April 9 - Cincinnati, April 3. On Tuesday last General Harrison left this place for the Rapids of the Miami of the Lakes.
April 23 - His excellency, Governor Meigs, arrived here on Tuesday, to organize and facilitate the march of some independent companies, which have been ordered to rendez- vons here immediately. Part of a company of riffemen arrived here the same day from Circleville.
April 30 - Within the last week the following companies of Ohio militia, recently ordered out by his excelleney the Governor, arrived at this place, viz: Captain McConnell's company from Zanesville, Captain Ewing's from Lancaster, Captain Brush's from Chilli- cothe, Captain Harper's from Paint Creek, and Captain MeElvaine's from Fayette County. These five companies will form one handsome battalion of upwards of two hundred, and will be commanded by Captain Brush, of the Chillicothe Guards, who is the senior captain. They will march this day for Upper Sandusky, where they will be stationed to protect the vast quantity of public stores deposited at that place. The Governor will conduct them as far as Delaware.
May 7-By express from Fort Findlay, we understand that at that place, cannonading was distinctly heard, from the first instant, in the morning, to the third. For the first twentyfour hours it was incessant. ... Governor Meigs was at Delaware when the news was first received - who immediately gave orders for mounted men to proceed with all possible dispatch. . .. Captain Vance's company [the Franklin Dragoons] of Cavalry left this place yesterday morning under Lieutenant Grate, destined for Upper Sandusky. where, we understand, His Excellency Governor Meigs will concentrate all the forces now collecting from this part of the state. We understand his excellency will command in person ; if so, we have the greatest relyance on his courage and enterprise. We believe Gov- ernor Meigs will do his duty.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
The firing heard at Fort Findlay was that of the siege of Fort Meigs, begun on the twentyeighth of April by a force of British and Indians three or four thousand strong under Proctor and Tecumseh. Returning northward from Cin- cinnati, by way of the Auglaize Valley, General Harrison arrived at the Fort April 11, and assumed command of the garrison in person. Ball's Dragoons, from Lebanon, and a force of mounted Kentuckians had reached there before him. General Green Clay was approaching at the head of an additional Kentucky force when the enemy opened his batteries on the third of May. Aided by sorties from the fort, Clay cut his way into it on the fifth. Having lost several of his batteries and some hundreds of men killed, wounded or prisoners, Proctor abandoned the siege on the ninth, and disappeared down the Maumee. Satisfied that he would not soon return, General Harrison rode to Lower Sandusky, now Frémont, where he met Governor Meigs with a large force of Ohio militia pushing to the front. Passing on by way of Upper Sandusky and Delaware to Franklinton, the General found the entire route strewn with Ohio troops marching to the relief of the beleaguered fort.8 The services of these men not being immediately needed, their organizations were disbanded much to their chagrin, by an order issued by General Harrison at Franklinton, May 16.
A call for the enlistment of a troop of fifty mounted men for thirty days, to assist in the relief of Fort Meigs, was published in Franklinton on the seventh of May, signed by Joseph Foos, " Brigadier-General Fourth Brigade, Second Division," of the Ohio militia. During the preceding autumn General Foos had commanded a detachment from the Second Division, stationed at "the Plains of Sandusky." His call for dragoon recruits appealed especially to " the patriotism of the young men of Franklin County," but the troop could scarcely have been equipped or even organized prior to General Harrison's disbanding order of May 16.
Another Franklinton organization is thus referred to in the Chronicle of May 28:
A part of Captain Vance's company of Franklin Dragoons detached at Lower Sandusky, to accompany the Governor from that place to Cleveland, have returned. . . . Captain Vance is appointed to the command of the garrison at Lower Sandusky.
General Cass arrived at Franklinton on the twentyseventh, and Major Ball's squadron of cavalry on the twentyeighth of May.
Further attempts to retake Detroit being disallowed by the War Department until Commodore Perry's naval force, then being equipped at Presque Isle, now Erie, should be ready to sweep the lake, General Harrison made a hasty tour of inspection southward to Chillicothe and Cincinnati, but soon returned to Frank- linton, following the Twentyfourth United States Infantry, which he ordered thither from Newport. The Twentyfourth, Colonel Anderson, had been recruited in Tennessee.
Riding ahead of the Twentyfourth, which came in a day later, General Harrison arrived at Franklinton June 6, and immediately invited a conference there with deputations from the neutral Indian tribes whose services he was very anxious to enlist in the American cause. The conference was held June 21, 1813, on the grounds of Lucas Sullivant, and is thus described in the Sullivant Family Memorial :
The Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandot and Seneca tribes were represented by about fifty of the chiefs and warriors. General Harrison represented the Government, and with him were his staff and a brilliant array of officers in full uniform. Behind was a detachment of soldiers.
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In his front were the Indians. Around all were the inhabitants of the region far and near, with many a mother and maid, as interested spectators.
The General began to speak in calm and measured tones befitting the grave occasion, but an nndefined oppression seemed to hold all in suspense, as, with silent and almost breathless attention, they awaited the result of the General's words, which seemed to fall on dull ears, as the Indians sat with unmoved countenances and smoked on in stolid silence. At length the persuasive voice of the great commander struck a responsive chord, and, when Tarhe, or Crane, the great Wyandot chief, slowly rose to his feet, and, standing for a moment in a graceful and commanding attitude, made a brief reply, and then, with others, pressed forward to grasp the hand of Harrison, in token, not only of amity but in agreement to stand as a barrier on our exposed border, a terrible doubt and apprehension was lifted from the hearts of all. Jubilant shouts rent the air, women wept for joy, and stalwart men thrilled with pleasure as they now thought of the assured safety of their wives and children from a cruel and stealthy foe, and they prepared at once, with cheerful alacrity, to go forth to the impending battles.º
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