USA > Ohio > Auglaize County > History of western Ohio and Auglaize County, with illustrations and biographical sketches of pioneers and prominent public men > Part 19
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"In the war before this, with the Americans, you gave the hatchet to the Indians when our old chiefs were alive. They are now dead. In that war the British were thrown flat upon their backs by the Americans. You took them by the hand and made peace without consulting us. We fear you will do so again. When this war was declared our British father gave us the toma- hawk and told us that he wanted our assistance, and that he would certainly get back for us our lands, which the Americans had taken from us.
"You told us to bring our families here, and promised to take care of them, and that while our men went out to fight the Amer- icans our women and children should want for nothing. Your fleet had gone out ; we know that they have fought ; we have heard the great guns. But we know not what has happened to the chief with one arm. Your ships have gone one way, and we are much
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surprised to see our father tying up everything and preparing to run in the other direction. You always told us to remain here, and declared that you would never take your foot from British ground. Now we see that you are drawing back, without waiting to get sight of the enemy. We must compare our father to a fat dog, who, when affrighted, drops his tail between his legs and runs away.
"The Americans have not yet defeated us by land. We are not sure that they have by water. We therefore wish to remain here and fight our enemy, should they make their appearance. If they defeat us we will then retreat.
"At the battles of the Rapids, in the last war, the Americans certainly defeated us. And when we fled to the British fort the gates were shut against us. We are afraid that it might be so again ; but instead of that we see our British friends preparing themselves to flee from their garrison. You have the arms and ammunition which our British father sent for his red children. If you intend to go away give them to us, and then you may go and welcome. Our lines are in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be His will we wish to be buried beneath them."
The news of the great naval victory spread with great rapid- ity, and as it reached the various detachments, pressing forward to the shore of the lake, it quickened their speed, and awakened a desire to achieve a victory equally brilliant over the enemy under Proctor.
In the mean time Commodore Perry had moved his sixteen vessels and eighty small boats from Put-in-Bay to the mouth of Portage river, where they were held in readiness for the embar- kation of the American Army. On the evening of the 16th of September, General McArthur received orders at Fort Meigs to embark the artillery, military stores and provisions at that place, in vessels which were sent from headquarters to receive them ; and to march the regulars of the garrison across the country to the rendezvous at the mouth of Portage river, preparatory to their embarkation with the remainder of the army. He had already reduced For Meigs to a small post, in the upper part of the old works, and quickly executed the orders for his removal. The remaining Kentuckians at that place under General Clay, had determined to accompany General Harrison, though their term
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of service had nearly expired; and the General himself had par- ticularly solicited the governor for leave to accompany him, in case his men were not permitted to go. He now embarked with his suite, and a number of his men, in the transport vessels which had come for the stores.
The mounted regiment under Colonel Richard M. Johnson, which was then at Fort Meigs, received orders from General Har- rison to encamp under the guns of the fort and wait for further orders.
In concentrating the forces for the invasion of Canada, Gen- eral Harrison had notified the Wyandots, Shawnee, and Seneca Indians near Upper Sandusky, that they would be received into his service ; and about two hundred and sixty had, in consequence, joined him at Fort Seneca and accompanied him to the point of embarkation, under their chiefs, Lewis, Blackhoof, and Snake.
On the 20th of September General Harrison embarked with the regular troops, Generals McArthur and Case, and arrived the same day at Middle Bass Island about ten miles from Portage Bay. On the two days following all the militia were transported to the island, where they remained until the 24th, in waiting for the arrival of the necessary stores and provisions for the forward movement.
On the 25th the whole army was moved to Middle Sister Island, a small island containing an area of about five or six acres.
On the 28th, eighteen days after Perry's victory, General Harrison disembarked with a force of nearly three thousand men at a short distance south of Malden, and made an immediate advance upon the works, but Proctor, brave, when defenseless prisoners were to be slain, robbed or ill treated, had fled without firing a gun. Before deserting the place, however, he burned the fortress, and public store houses. About sundown, of the same day, the army entered Malden in triumph, heralded by the national air of "Yankee Doodle." On the 29th, the army reached Sand- wich, in pursuit of the retiring army.
When the army reached Sandwich, on the 29th, General Mc- Arthur was detached with his brigade to retake possession of Detroit, which for thirteen months had been in possession of the British and Indians. The latter did not leave it until startled by a few rounds from one of the vessels. On the same day, the General, seizing the first moment to abrogate the martial law in
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force by Proctor, re-established the civil government of Michi- gan, to the great joy and relief of the inhabitants.
On the first of October, Colonel Johnson, with his mounted regiment crossed the strait and rejoined the army. On the 2d, the pursuit was renewed. On a fork of the Thames, near Cha- tham, a large body of Indians were found prepared to dispute the passage of the stream. A few shot from Wood's artillery dis- persed them. This was the place appointed by Proctor, in his con- ference with Tecumseh, to make a stand. "Here," said the former, "they would either defeat General Harrison, or there lay their bones." Tecumseh approved of the position, and said, "when he should look at the two streams, they would remind him of the Wabash and Tippecanoe."
On the 5th, the American army overtook the retreating enemy. General Proctor had posted himself very strongly with the river Thames protecting one flank, and an almost impassible marsh on the other. The Indians occupied a very dense forest just beyond the swamp. The position of the enemy, was well calculated to exercise the best military talent in the opposing general, and valor in his troops. As the wings could not be turned, General Harrison made his arrangements to concentrate his forces against the British line. The first division, under Major General Henry, was formed in three lines at one hundred yards from each other-the front line consisting of Freter's brigade, the second line of Chile's brigade, and the reserve of King's brigade. These lines were in front of the British troops and parallel to them. The second division, under Major General Desha, composed of Allen's and Caldwell's brigades was formed at right angles to the first division. Governor Shelby, as senior Major General of the Kentucky troops, was posted at the angle, formed between the first and second divisions. Colonel Sim- rall's regiment of light infantry was formed in reserve, obliquely to the left division and covering the rear of the front division; and after much reflection as to the disposition to be made of Colonel Johnson's mounted troops, they were directed as soon as the front line advanced, to take ground to the left, and, forming upon that flank, to endeavor to turn the right of the Indians. A detachment of regular troops of the 26th United States infantry, under Colonel Paul, occupied the space between the road and river for the purpose of seizing the enemy's ar-
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tillery; and simultaneously with this movement, forty friendly Indians were to pass under the bank to the rear of the British line, and by their fire induce the enemy to suppose their own Indians had turned against them. At the same time, General Wood had been instructed to make preparations for using the ·enemy's artillery, and rake their own line by a flank fire. By delaying the attack by the second division, the Indians were held in a state of expectancy, in a position in which they were use- less. It is readily seen, as the general anticipated, they awaited in their position for the advance of the second division, whilst the British left was contending with the American right. The Indians afterwards inquired why this division did not charge their line. This disposition of the troops was a combination of the modern tactics of Europe, with that prescribed by Washington and adopted by General Wayne. Johnson's corps consisted of nine hundred men, and the five brigades under Governor Shelby amounted to between fifteen and eighteen hundred, in all not exceeding two thousand seven hundred.
In the midst of these arrangements, and just as the order was about to be given to the front line to advance, at the head of which General Harrison had placed himself with his staff, Major Wood approached him with the intelligence, that having reconnoitered the enemy he had ascertained the remarkable fact, the British lines, instead of the usual close order, had been drawn up at open order. This departure from ordinary military prin- ciples in the formation of the British troops, at once induced General Harrison to adopt the novel expedient of charging the British lines with Johnson's mounted troops. This determina- tion was communicated to Colonel Johnson, who was directed to draw up his regiment "in close column, with its right fifty yards from the road, (that it might be, in some measure, pro- tected from the artillery,) its left upon the swamp, and to charge at full speed upon the enemy."
General Harrison in his official report wrote: "I determined to break the British line at once, by a charge of the mounted infantry. I placed myself at the head of the front line of in- fantry to direct the movements of the cavalry and to give the necessary support. The army had moved on in this order but a short distance, when the mounted men received the fire of the British line, and were ordered to charge. The horses in front
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of the column recoiled from the fire. Our column, at length get- ting into motion, broke through the enemy with irresistible force. In one minute the contest in front was over.
The result of this charge decided the battle. It uncovered the Indian left, and necessarily compelled a retreat, although the battle continued to rage severely to the left along the Indian line. Colonel Richard M. Johnson, by the extension of his line, had come in contact with the Indians, who had made some im- pression upon him and the left of Trotter's brigade. As soon as the charge upon the right had taken effect, General Harrison dispatched an order to Governor Shelby to bring up Simrall's regiment to reinforce the point pressed by the Indians, and then the general passed to the left to superintend the operations in that quarter. The governor, however, had anticipated the wishes of the general, and bringing up Simrall's regiment, met the general near the angle, and soon after the battle ceased. The command- ing general then directed a portion of the right batallion, under Major Payne, to pursue General Proctor, who had fled under the escort of a troop of dragoons and some mounted Indians. The pursuit was so hot for six miles beyond the Moravian town, that the British general was compelled to abandon his sword, papers, and carriage, which, with sixty-three prisoners, several Indians killed, and an immense amount of stores, was the result of this daring enterprise by seven officers and three privates, who alone continued the pursuit after the first few miles. After the surrender of the English, General Harrison turned all his force upon the Indians. The savages fought persistently for a time from behind the trees. But at length, having lost their leader and a large number of their bravest warriors, they fled pre- cipitately with yells into the thick woods, where no mounted foe could follow them. The defeat of the British army was · entire. Proctor lost, of his regular troops, sixty-nine in killed and wounded. Six hundred of his soldiers and officers were taken prisoners. The Indians left one hundred and fifty on the field of battle. Among the slain was their renowned chieftain, Tecumseh. The artillery which was taken from the British with Burgoyne at Saratoga, and which General Hull had surrendered' at Detroit, was all captured.
The question is often asked, who killed Tecumseh? Caleb Atwater, in his brief history of Ohio, devotes two pages to the
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answer. His ultra political bias, however, disqualified him for writing an impartial history of Richard M. Johnson, for whom the honor was claimed. Atwater was an ardent admirer of Gen- eral Harrison, and published his book as a sort of campaign document, at the time that General Harrison was a candidate for the presidency. His opposition to Colonel Johnson arose from the fact that Colonel Johnson was a zealous supporter of President Madison, who had incurred the displeasure of the Whig party.
The following biographical sketch, from Dr. Thomas' Ameri- can Biographies, is probably as impartial, as any one that has ever been presented to the public :
"Richard Mentor Johnson, ninth Vice-President of the United States, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1780. He studied at Transylvania University, and practiced law with suc- cess. Elected a representative to Congress in 1807, he zealously supported the administration of President Madison, and he was regularly re-elected for a period of twelve years. On the break- ing out of the war of 1812, he raised and commanded a regiment of mounted riflemen on the Indian frontier. In 1813 he again took the field, and contributed greatly to Harrison's victory of the Thames, (October 5th, 1813). The Indian chief Tecumseh, who fell in this battle, is generally believed to have been killed by Colonel Johnson, who was dangerously wounded. In 1819 he was transferred to the United States Senate, of which he was a member for ten years. He was again returned to the House of Representatives in 1829, and was regularly re-elected till chosen Vice-President in 1837. He died in 1850.
In addition to the forgoing, we add the following from Gen- eral Robert B. McAfee's History of the Late War in the West- ern Country :
"Tecumseh was found among the dead, at the point where Colonel Johnson had charged upon the enemy in person; and it is generally believed, that this celebrated chief fell by the hand of the Colonel. It is certain that the latter killed the Indian with his pistol, who shot him through his hand, at the very spot where Tecumseh lay; but another dead body lay at the same place, and Mr. King, a soldier in Captain Davidson's company, had the honor of killing one of them."
On the 6th the American troops continued to occupy the
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battle ground, and the Moravian town about two miles above it, being employed in burying the dead and collecting the public property of the enemy, of which a considerable quantity was found in different places. In addition to the artillery already mentioned, and a great variety of military stores, there were at least five thousand stand of small arms captured by our troops and destroyed by the enemy on this expedition. A large propor- tion of them had been captured by the enemy at the surrender of Detroit, the massacre of the river Raisin, and the defeat of Colonel Dudley. Early on the 7th, General Harrison left the army under the immediate command of Governor Shelby and returned to De- troit; and in the course of the same day the different corps com- menced their return home, having embarked the greater part of the property they had captured in boats on the Thames, and set fire to the Moravian town, which was a very inconsiderable vill- age, occupied chiefly by Delaware Indians, who professed to be of the Moravian sect of religion. On the Ioth all the troops ar- rived with their prisoners at Sandwich. Upon their arrival the weather became so extremely cold and stormy that they were unable to commence their homeward march until the 12th.
In the meantime an armistice was concluded by General Harrison with the Indians. Before he marched in pursuit of Proctor, a deputation of Ottawas and Chippewas had sued for peace, which he had promised them on condition that they would bring in their families, and raise the tomahawk against the Brit- ish. To these terms they readily acceded; and before his return the Miamis and Pottawatamies had solicited a cessation of hos- tilities from General McArthur on the same conditions. Even the ferocious and inveterate Maipock of the Potawatamies now tendered his submission, and an armistice was concluded with seven of the hostile tribes, which was to continue till the pleasure of the President was known. They agreed to deliver up all their prisoners at Fort Wayne, and to leave hostages as security for their good behavior. Separated from their allies, by the vic- tories on the lake and the Thames, from whom they had received subsistence and council, they were now glad to accept American friendship on any terms, which would save them from extermi- nation by famine and the sword.
On the 15th the foot troops arrived at the river Raisin, where they found the bones of their massacred countrymen still
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bleaching in the village of Frenchtown. Governor Shelby directed the regiment of Colonel Simrall to collect and bury them; but they were so numerous and widely scattered, that he found it necessary to employ the brigade of General King in the same sad duty. On the 19th they arrived at the mouth of Portage river, and on the 20th a general order was issued, directing the return of the troops to Kentucky in detachments, passing by Franklinton (Columbus) where they were to deposit their arms. The governor concluded this order by observing :
"Although in the course of this campaign, you necessarily encountered many difficulties and privations, yet they were met with that cheerfulness and sustained with that manly fortitude which the occasion required. The uninterrupted good fortune which attended us, is a source of the most pleasant reflection, and can not fail to excite the warmest feelings of gratitude to- ward the Divine Being, who has been pleased in a peculiar man- ner to favor us, and to crown with success the exertions we have made for our country.
"In the course of the very active operations which we have performed, it is possible that expressions may have dropped, tend- ing to irritate and wound the feelings of some who were engaged in them. The commanding general hopes, that with the campaign will end every unpleasant sensation, which may have arisen from that source, and that we shall return home united as a band of brothers, with the sweet solace of having served our country from the purest motives, and with the best of our abilities."
In pursuance of this order the troops returned to Kentucky, and were discharged by Major Trigg at Limestone on the 4th of November. The mounted regiment under Colonel Johnson was detained a few days at Detroit, till the Indians had dispersed after the armistice, and then returned home without any re- markable occurrence.
The battle of the Thames practically closed the war in the North-West. General Harrison proceeded to Niagara in Perry's fleet and repaired to Newark, where he assumed command of the troops at that point. Later, he resigned his commission in the army and returned to his farm at North Bend, fifteen miles below Cincinnati.
In the summer of 1814, General Harrison, Governor Shelby and General Cass, were appointed to treat with the Indians of
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the north-west. Governor Shelby declining on account of his official station, General Adair was selected to fill his place. A treaty was shortly afterwards concluded by them, with the Indians, at Greenville. After the peace in 1815, General Harri- son was placed at the head of another commission, to treat with the Indians in regard to the restoration of the territory possessed by them before the war. The council was held at Detroit, and a treaty made, which embraced nine important tribes.
CHAPTER X.
INDIAN TREATIES.
TREATY AT THE FOOT OF THE RAPIDS OF THE MAUMEE.
On the 29th of September, 1817, a treaty was made and concluded at the foot of the Rapids of the Maumee between Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnees, Pottawottomies, Ot- tawas, and Chippeway Tribes of Indians.
ARTICLE I. The Wyandot tribe of Indians, in considera- tion of the stipulations herein made on the part of the United States, do hereby forever cede to the United States the lands comprehended within the following lines and boundaries : Begin- ning at a point on the southern shore of Lake Erie, where the present Indian boundary line intersects the same, between the mouth of Sandusky Bay and the mouth of Portage River ; thence running south with said line, to the line established in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, by the treaty of Greenville, which runs from the crossing-place above Fort Law- rence to Loramie's store; thence with the lines of said reserve, north and west, to the north-western corner thereof; thence to the north-western corner of the reserve on the river St. Mary's, at the head of the navigable waters thereof; thence east, to the western bank of the St. Mary's River aforesaid; thence down on the western bank of the said river, to the reserve at Fort Wayne; thence with the lines of the last mentioned reserve, easterly and northerly, to the north bank of the river Miami of Lake Erie; thence down on the north bank of the said river, to the western line of the land ceded to the United States by the treaty of Detroit in the year one thousand eight hundred and seven; thence with the said line south, to the middle of said Miami River, opposite the mouth of the Great Auglaize River; thence down the middle of said Miami River, and easterly with the lines of the tract ceded to the United States by the treaty of
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Detroit aforesaid, so far that a south line will strike the place of beginning.
ARTICLE 2. The Pottawottomy, Ottawa, and Chippeway tribes of Indians in consideration of the stipulations herein made on the part of the United States, do hereby forever cede to the United States the land comprehended within the following lines and boundaries: beginning where the western line of the state of Ohio crosses the river Miami of Lake Erie, which is about twenty-one miles above the mouth of the Great Auglaize River ; thence down the middle of the said Miami River, to a point north of the mouth of the Great Auglaize River; thence with the western line of the land ceded to the United States by the treaty of Detroit, in one thousand eight hundred and seven, north forty-five miles; thence west, so far that a line south will strike the place of beginning; thence south to the place of beginning.
ARTICLE 3. The Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnees, Pottawottomy, Ottawas, and Chippeway tribes of Indians accede to the cessions mentioned in the two preceding articles.
ARTICLE 4. In consideration of the cessions and recogni- tions stipulated in the three preceding articles, the United States agree to pay to the Wyandot tribe, annually, forever the sum of four thousand dollars in specie, at Upper Sandusky. To the Seneca tribe, annually, forever, the sum of five hundred dollars, in specie, at Lower Sandusky. To the Shawnese tribe, annually, forever, the sum of two thousand dollars, in specie, at Wapagh- konetta. To the Pottawottomy tribe, annually, for the term of fifteen years, the sum of one thousand three hundred dollars, in specie, at Detroit. To the Ottawas tribe, annually, for the term of fifteen years, the sum of one thousand dollars, in specie, at Detroit. To the Chippewa tribe, annually, for the term of fifteen years, the sum of one thousand dollars, in specie, at De- troit. To the Delaware tribe, in the course of the year one thou- sand eight hundred and eighteen, the sum of five hundred dol- lars, in specie, at Wapaghkonetta, but no annuity. And the United States also agree that all annuities due by any former treaty to the Wyandot, Shawnese, and Delaware tribes, and the annuity due by the treaty of Greenville to the Ottawas and Chip- pewa tribes, shall be paid to the said tribes, respectively.
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