USA > Ohio > Auglaize County > History of western Ohio and Auglaize County, with illustrations and biographical sketches of pioneers and prominent public men > Part 8
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A light fall of snow lay upon the ground - so light that it appeared like hoar frost. On a piece of rising ground, timbered with oak, ash and hickory, the encampment was spread, with a fordable stream in front. The army lay in two lines, seventy yards apart, with four pieces of cannon in the center of each. Across the stream, and beyond a rich bottom land three hundred yards in width, was an elevated plain, covered with an open front of stately trees. There the militia, three hundred and fifty inde- pendent, half-insubordinate men, under Lieutenant Colonel Old- ham, of Kentucky, were encamped.
The troops had paraded on the morning of the 4th of Novem- ber, 1791, at the usual time. They had been dismissed from the lines but a few minutes, and the sun had hardly risen, when the woods in front resounded with the fire and yells of the savages. The volunteers, who were but three hundred yards in front, had scarcely time to return a shot before they fled into the camp. The troops were under arms in an instant, and a brisk fire from the front line met the enemy. The Indians from the front filed off to the right and left and completely surrounded the camp, and, as a result, cut off nearly all the guards and approaches close to the lines. The savages advanced from one tree, log or stump, to another, under cover of the smoke of the guns of the advancing army. The artillery and musketry made a tremendous noise, but did but little execution. The Indians braved every thing, and when the army of St. Clair was encompassed they kept up a con- stant fire, which told with fatal effect, although scarcely heard. The left flank, probably from the nature of the ground, gave way first. The enemy got possession of that part of the encampment, but were soon repulsed, because the ground was very open and exposed.
General St. Clair was engaged at the time toward the right. He led in person the party that drove the enemy and regained the ground on the left.
The battalions in the rear charged several times and forced the enemy from the shelter, but the Indians always turned and fired upon their backs. The savages feared nothing from the Federal troops. They disappeared from the reach of the bayonet
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and then appeared as they pleased. They were visible only when raised by a charge. The ground was literally covered with the dead and dying. The wounded were taken to the center, where it was thought most safe and where a great many had crowded together after they had quitted the posts. The General, with other officers, endeavored to rally these men, and twice they were taken out to the lines. The officers seemed to be singled out, and a great proportion fell or retired from wounds early in the action.
The men, being thus left with few officers, became fearful, and, despairing of success, gave up the battle. To save them- selves they abandoned their ground, and crowded in toward the center of the field. They seemed perfectly ungovernable, and no effort could again place them in order for an attack.
The Indians at length secured the artillery, but not until the officers were all killed, save one, and that officer badly wounded. The men were almost all cut off and the pieces spiked. As the lines of St. Clair's army were gradually deserted, the lines of the Indians were contracted. The shots then centered, and with deliberate aim the execution was fearful. There was, too, a cross-fire, and officers and men fell in every direction.
The distress and cries of the wounded were fearful. A few minutes later, and a retreat would have been impossible. The only hope was that the savages would be so taken up with the camp as not to follow the retreating army. Delay was death. There was no opportunity for preparation. Numbers of brave men must be left on the field as a sacrifice. There was no alter- native but retreat. It was after nine o'clock when repeated orders had been given to retreat. The action had continued between two and three hours. Both officers and men were inca- pable of doing any thing. No one was aroused to action until a retreat was ordered. Then a few officers advanced to the front, and the men followed. The enemy then temporarily gave way, because there was no suspicion of the retreat. The stoutest and most active now took the lead, and those who were foremost in . breaking the lines of the enemy were soon left in the rear.
When the day was lost one of the pack-horses was procured for General St. Clair. The General delayed to see the rear. This movement was soon discovered by the enemy, and the Indians followed, though for not more than four or five miles. They soon
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returned to share the spoils of the battle-field. Soon after the firing ceased an order was given to an officer to gain the front, and, if possible, to cause a halt, that the rear might reach the army. A short halt was caused, but the men grew impatient and would move forward. By this time the remainder of the army was somewhat compact, but in the most miserable and defense- less state. The wounded left their arms on the field, and one- half of the others threw them away on the retreat. The road for miles was covered with firelocks, cartridge boxes and regi- mentals. It was most fortunate that the pursuit was discontinued, for a single Indian might have followed with safety on either flank. Such a panic had seized the men that they were ungovernable.
In the afternoon a detachment of the First Regiment met the retreating army. This regiment, the only complete and best dis- ciplined portion of the army, had been ordered back upon the road the 3Ist of October. They were thirty miles from the battle ground when they heard distinctly the firing of cannon, were hast- ening forward, and had marched about nine miles when met by some of the militia, who informed Major Hamtramck, the com- manding officer, that the army was totally destroyed. The Major judged it best to send a subaltern to obtain some knowledge of the situation, and to return himself with the regiment to Fort Jefferson, eight miles back, and to secure at all events that post. Stragglers continued to come in for hours after the main army had reached the fort.
The remnant of the army, with the First Regiment, was now at Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles from the field of action, with- out provisions, and the former without having eaten any thing for twenty-four hours. A convoy was known to be upon the road, and within a day's march. The General determined to move with the First Regiment and all the levies able to march. Those of the wounded and others unable to go on were lodged as- comfortably as possible within the fort. The army set out a little after ten o'clock that night and reached Fort Hamilton on the afternoon of the sixth, the General having reached there in the morning. On the afternoon of the eighth the army reached Fort Washington.
St. Clair behaved gallantly during the dreadful scene. He was so tortured with gout that he could not mount a horse with-
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out assistance. He was not in uniform. His chief covering was a coarse crappo coat, and a three-cocked hat, from under which his white hair was seen streaming as he and Butler rode (walked) up and down the line during the battle. He had three horses killed under him. Eight balls passed through his clothes. He finally mounted a pack-horse, and upon this animal, which could with difficulty be spurred into a trot, he followed the retreat.
That evening Adjutant-General Sargeant wrote in his diary : "The troops have all been defeated, and though it is impossible at this time to ascertain our loss yet there can be no manner of doubt that more than one-half of the army are either killed or wounded."
Atwater, in his history of Ohio, says that there were in the army at the commencement of the action about two hundred and fifty women, of whom fifty-six were killed in the battle, and the remainder were made prisoners by the enemy except a small num- ber who reached Fort Washington.
The true causes of the disaster have been the subject of much controversy. The Committee of the House of Representatives, as stated in the American State Papers (Vol. XII, 38) exonerated St. Clair from all blame in relation to everything before and during the action.
The real reasons were doubtless the surprise of the army and the consequent confusion and plight of the militia, who were first attacked. The militia, as St. Clair says, were a quarter of a mile in advance of the main army, and beyond the creek; still further in advance was Captain Slough, who, with volunteer party of regulars sent to reconnoitre; and orders had been given to Colonel Oldham, who commanded the militia, to have the woods thoroughly examined by the scouts and patrols, as Indians were discovered hanging about the outskirts of the army. The want of discipline and inexperience of the troops, doubtless, contrib- uted to the result. The battle began at six o'clock in the morn- ing and lasted until about half-past nine. They were not over- whelmed, as St. Clair supposed, by superior numbers. The Indians, according to the best accounts, did not exceed one thou- sand warriors. They fought, however, with desperate valor, and at a great advantage from the nature of the ground and from the facilities the forest afforded for their favorite mode of attack. They were led, too, by the greatest chieftain of that age. It has
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been the received opinion that the leader of the confederated tribes on that fatal day was Little Turtle, the Chief of the Miamis; but from the family of that celebrated warrior and statesman it is ascertained that Joseph Brandt (Stone's Brandt, II, p. 313) with one hundred and fifty Mohawk braves were pres- ent and commanded the warriors of the Wilderness. Colonel John Johnston, long the Indian Agent, thinks that the number of the Indians could not have been less than two thousand men, but this estimate is not accepted as accurate. General Harmar not only refused to join the expedition, but the relations between St. Clair and Butler were not of the most cordial character. It is evident from the events connected with the campaign, as well as from his subsequent career as Governor of the North Western Territory, that St. Clair was dictatorial in manner and spirit.
The battle which took place here on that eventful day in November, 1791, seems to pale before the mighty achievements of the late civil war when great armies were picked up on the banks of the Potomac and dropped on the banks of the Cumber- land and the Tennessee, and when the shouts of more than a million of men, mingled with the roar of the Atlantic and Pacific as they passed onward in the ranks of war. The defeat of St. Clair was the most terrible reverse the American arms ever suffered from the Indians. Even the defeat of Braddock's army was less disastrous. Braddock's army consisted of twelve hun- dred men and eighty-six officers, of whom seven hundred and fourteen men and sixty-three officers were killed and wounded. St. Clair's army consisted of fourteen hundred men and eighty- six officers, of whom thirty-seven officers and five hundred and ninety-three privates were killed and missing, and thirty-one offi- cers and two hundred and fifty-two privates wounded. It is true that when the army advanced from Fort Jefferson it numbered about two thousand men, but discharges and desertions reduced the effective strength on the day of action to only about fourteen hundred men. The Second Regiment had but one battalion with the army. It was well appointed, but inexperienced. The officers and men, however, did their whole duty; they, with the battalion of artillery, were nearly all cut off.
Bancroft, in speaking of Braddock's defeat, says that the forest field of battle was left thickly strewn with the wounded and
6 HAC
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the dead. Never had there been such a harvest of scalps. As evening approached the woods around Fort Du Quesne rung with the halloos of the red men, the constant firing of small arms, mingled with the peal of cannon from the fort. The next day the British artillery was brought in, and the Indian warriors, painting their skins a shining vermillion, with patches of black and brown and blue, gloried in the laced hats and bright apparel of the English officers. This language, but for the English artillery and the English officers, would be descriptive of the field.
The people of the western counties of Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia memorialized their Governors for protection. "In conse- quence of the late intelligence of the fate of the campaign to the westward," says a committee of the citizens of Pittsburg, "the inhabitants of the town of Pittsburg have convened and appointed us a committee for the purpose of addressing Your Excellency. The late disaster to the army must greatly affect the safety of this place. There can be no doubt but that the enemy will now come forward, and with more spirit and greater confidence than ever before, for success will give confidence and secure allies."
"The alarming intelligence lately received," said the people of the western portion of Virginia, "of the defeat of the army of the Western country fills our minds with dreadful fear and appre- hension concerning the safety of our fellow citizens in the country we represent, and we confidently hope will be an excuse for Your Excellency, whose zeal has been so frequently evinced in behalf of the distressed frontier counties, for the request we are compelled to make.
But the comparative losses of the two engagements, says a writer in the "Western Annals," represents very inadequately the crushing effect of the defeat of St. Clair. An unprotected fron- tier of one thousand miles, from the Alleghanies to the Missis- sippi, was at once thrown open to the attack of the infuriated and victorious.savages. The peace enjoyed for the several preceding years had wrought a great change in the western settlements. The Indian hunters of the Revolutionary War had laid aside their arms and their habits and devoted themselves to the cultivation of the soil; the block-houses and forts, around which the first set- tlers had gathered, were abandoned, and cabins, clearings and hamlets instead were scattered in exposed situations all along the border. Everywhere the settlers. unprotected and unprepared,
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were expecting in terror the approach of the savages, and every- where abandoning their homes or awaiting in helpless despair the burnings, massacres and cruelties of Indian wars.
General Harmar was at Fort Washington in September, 1791, to solicit a court of inquiry to examine into misconduct in the last campaign. The court was ordered-with General Rich- ard Butler as President-and a report was made highly honor- able to General Harmar. He was then determined to quit the service and positively refused to take any command in the cam- paign of St. Clair. He conversed frequently and freely with a few: of his friends on the probable results of the campaign and pre- dicted defeat. He suspected a dispositon in Major Denny to resign but discouraged the idea. "You must," said he, "go in the campaign ; some will escape, and you may be among the number." It was a matter of astonishment to General Harmar, who had experience in fighting the Indians, that General St. Clair, who had an excellent military reputation, should think of hazarding that reputation and even his life, and the lives of so many others, with an army so completely undisciplined, and with the officers so totally unacquainted with Indian warfare, and with not a depart- ment sufficiently prepared. There, too, was an absolute ignor- ance of the collected force and situation of the enemy. Indeed the scouts who left camp on the 29th of October under com- mand of Captain Sparks, and composed chiefly of friendly Indians, missed the enemy altogether and knew nothing of the battle, and but for an Indian runner whom they met after the engagement would probably have all been captured. It was unfortunate, too, that both the general officers had been disabled by sickness.
The popular clamor against St. Clair was loud and deep. He had suffered a great reverse. and was, therefore, accused by the public voice of great incompetence. He asked from the Presi- dent the appointment of a Court of Inquiry, but the request was denied because there were not officers enough in the service of the proper rank to constitute such a court. He then offered to resign his commission on condition that his conduct should be investigated, but the exigencies of the service would not permit of the delay, and his request was again refused.
Governor St. Clair continued to exercise the office of Gov- ernor of the Territory until 1802, and to the last, says Marshall
.
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in his life of Washington, retained the undiminished esteem and good opinion of Washington.
In a letter to Jonathan Dayton from John Cleves Symmes, dated North Bend, August 15th, 1791, the writer says that noth- ing is known when the present army is to be put in motion. They are encamped at the Ludlow Station, five miles from Fort Washington, on account of better food for the cattle, of which they have near one thousand head from Kentucky. Many and important are the preparations to be made previous to their gen- eral movement. Not long since I made General St. Clair a tender of my services on the expedition. He replied : "I am very will- ing that you should go, sir, but, by God, you do not go as a Dutch deputy." I answered that I did not recollect the anecdote of the Dutch deputation to which he alluded. His Excellency replied : "The Dutch, in some of the wars, sent forth an army under the command of a general officer, but appointed a deputa- tion of burghers to attend the general to the war that they might advise him when to fight and when to decline." I inferred from this that I should be considered by him rather as a spy upon his conduct than otherwise, and therefore do not intend to go, though I should have been happy to have seen the country between this and Sandusky.
It is needless to add that had Judge Symmes accompanied the army his opportunity for observing the country in the neigh- borhood of Fort Recovery would have been too limited for any practical use.
"In May, 1815," says a writer, "four of us called on St. Clair on the top of Chestnut Ridge, eastwardly eight or ten miles from Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. 'We were traveling on horseback to Connecticut, and being in- formed that he kept tavern, we decided to call for entertainment for the night. We alighted at his residence late in the afternoon, and on entering the log house saw an elderly, neat gentleman, dressed in black broad cloth, with stockings and small clothes, shining shoes, whose straps were secured by large silver buckles, his hair clubbed and powdered. On closing his book he arose' and received us most kindly and gracefully, and pointing us to chairs he asked us to be seated. On being asked for enter- tainment, he said : "Gentlemen, I perceive you are travelling and though I should be gratified by your custom, it is my duty to
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inform you I have no hay or grain. I have good pasture, but if hay and grain are essential, I cannot furnish them.'"
"There stood before us a Major General of the Revolution - the friend and confident of Washington - late Governor of the territory northwest of the Ohio river, one of nature's noble- men, of high, dignified bearing, whom misfortune, nor the ingrat- itude of his country, nor poverty, could break down nor deprive of self-respect : keeping a tavern but could not furnish a bushel of oats nor a lock of hay. We were moved principally to call upon him to hear him converse about the men of the Revolution and of the Northwestern Territory, and our regret that he could not entertain us was greatly increased by hearing him converse about an hour. The large estate which he sacrificed for the cause of the Revolution was within a short distance of the top of Chestnut Ridge - if not in sight." He died on the thirty-first day of August, 1818, near Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. His best eulogist speaks of him as an enemy to the Indian tribes in war, but more frequently their friend and counselor in peace.
In January, 1792, General James Wilkinson, who then com- manded at Fort Washington, made a call for volunteers to ac- company an expedition to the scenes of St. Clair's defeat for the purpose of burying the dead. Ensign William Henry Harrison - afterward President of the United States - was attached to one of the companies of the regular troops. The volunteers num- bered more than two hundred and fifty mounted men, and two hundred regular soldiers from Fort Washington. They began the march on the 25th of January, 1792, from Fort Washington and afterward completed the organization by electing Captain John S. Gano, Major. They crossed the Big Miami on the ice, with horses and baggage, at Fort Hamilton, on the 28th day of January. The general in command issued an order at Fort Jefferson abandoning one of the objects of the campaign, which was a demonstration against an Indian town on the Wabash, not far distant from the battle ground of St. Clair. The regular soldiers, all on foot, returned to Fort Washington. The expedi- tion reached the scene of disaster at II o'clock, but for a long distance along the road and in the woods the bodies of the slain could be seen scalped, in many instances, and mutilated by the wild beasts.
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It is said that the body of General Richard Butler was rec- ognized where the carnage had been the thickest and among a group of slain. The bodies were gathered together, and in the solitude of the forest, and amidst the gloom of winter, were given a last resting place.
In the year 1800 Latour d'Auvergne, a descendant of Tu- renne, fell in the field of battle. He had joined the French army in the place of his son, and so exemplary was his conduct that he was named "The First Grenadier" of France. Napoleon directed that the heart of Latour d'Auvergne, who fell at the battle of Neuburg, should be carried ostensibly by the Quarter- master Sergeant of the Grenadier Corps of the Forty-sixth Reg- iment, in which he served. His name was preserved on the roll, and when called the Corporal of the Guard to which he belonged answered, "Dead on the field of honor." The field of honor is measured by the cause and the self-consecration. It may mean the field of defeat as well as the field of victory. It is the self- sacrifice which determines the reward.
It is not possible to call the list of the slain in any engage- ment. Many must be left to catch the tears of mothers and wives and sisters shed in desolated homes and by vacated firesides. The officers who fell in the battle were Major General Butler, second in command; Major Ferguson, Captain Bradford, and Lieutenant Spear, of the artillery ; Major Hart, Captains Phelon, Newman and Kirkwood, Lieutenant Warren and Ensign Cobb, of the Second Regiment; Captains Van Swearingen, Tibton and Price, Lieutenants McMath and Boyd, Ensigns Wilson and Reaves, Brooks and Chase, Adjutant Burges and Doctor Gray- son, of the First Regiment of Levies. Lieutenant Colonel Gib- son, of the Bayonets, died of his wounds at Fort Jefferson ; Lieu- tenant Colonel Oldham, Captain Lemon, Lieutenant Briggs and Ensign Montgomery, of the Kentucky Militia. General Wil- liam Darke, for whom Darke county was named, was Lieutenant Colonel of the First Regiment of Levies, and was wounded in the engagement. He died on the 20th day of November, 1801.
The death roll shows five hundred and ninety-three privates killed and missing in the engagement. They are dead on the field of honor.
The National Government is gathering together the remains of those who fell under the flag and reinterring them in cem-
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eteries with appropriate memorials to commemorate their names and their deeds. A sacred duty to the dead of the battlefield will not have been discharged by the Federal Government until a stately shaft of magnificent proportions shall be erected to tell not only of that eventful day in November, but to teach the coming generations as well, by their example, when duty re- quires, to die for their country.
We turn from the ashes of the heroic dead to contemplate, with a supreme affection, the country for which they died. One hundred years have passed since that day of disaster for the whole Northwestern Territory. It has been a century crowned by the blessings of liberty and order and law. The gentle flow- ing Wabash traverses almost a continent where the English tongue is the language of freedom until its quiet waters mingle with the gulf. The harvests are peacefully gathered to their garners, and the songs of home are uninvaded by the cries and terrors of battle. The principle of civil and religious liberty. upon which five great Republics of the Northwest have erected their law and constitution, is strong in the hearts of a people who breathed the inspiration of freedom from the very air of heaven, and whose soil was never cursed by the unrequited toil of the bondsman. We may well have faith in the greatness and permanence of our political creations, and in unbroken unity, prophecy, and unconquerable strength.
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