USA > Ohio > Ohio's progressive sons; a history of the state; sketches of those who have helped to build up the commonwealth > Part 16
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Of the six Presidents, one, William Henry Harrison, was a Virginian by birth and an Ohioan by adoption. Northern Ohio furnished two Presidents, James Abram Garfield and William Mckinley ; one President, Rutherford B. Hayes, came from Central Ohio, while Southern Ohio had the honor of being the birthplace of Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Harrison. It is a remarkable fact that of the Presidents of the United States, elected by the people, two belonged to the same family, being grandfather and grandson. With the exception of William Henry Harrison and Ulysses S. Grant, the Pres- idents from Ohio were lawyers of recognized ability and the highest standing in the legal profession. Except Grant, they all had served their country previous to their ascension to the Presidency in the halls of the National Congress, both Harrisons in the United States Senate, and Hayes and Mckinley in the House of Representatives, while Garfield, who had also served in Congress, was elected to the United States Senate, but did not take his seat by reason of his election to the Presidency-and all had drawn their swords in the defense of their country. William Henry Harrison distinguished himself during the early Indian wars and the War of 1812 against England; Ulysses S. Grant, unquestionably the greatest soldier America ever produced, more than any one else led the Union arms to victory and brought the Civil War to a successful conclusion; Hayes, Garfield and Benjamin Harrison occupied responsible military positions during the War of the Rebellion, while Mckinley rose from the ranks to the position of Major. They all were brave and courageous men and born leaders. In political belief, William Henry Harrison was a Whig, and Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and Mckinley Republicans. They sprung from the common people, and, in reaching the highest office in the gift of the American citizens, owed their exalted position principally to themselves and their faithful services and untiring efforts in the interest of the common cause and the American people.
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WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, the victor of Tippecanoe, was the ninth President of the United States. He was born on the 9th of February, 1873. at Barkeley, Va., and obtained his early education in the schools of his native district and at Ilamden Sidney College, Virginia, where he studied medicine. Prior to his graduation he concluded to enter the army to take part in the campaign against the Indians, who at that time were a menace to the entire Western frontier. This purpose was opposed by his guardian, Jacob Morris, in whose care young Harrison was placed by his father prior to his death. General George Washington, a friend of the family, however, induced his guardian to withdraw his opposition, and on the 16th of August. 1791. young Harrison was commissioned ensign in the First Infantry Regiment. He joined his regiment at Fort Washington and was appointed Lieutenant of the first sub-legion. Later, joining the new army under Gen- eneral Anthony Wayne, he became aide-de- camp to the commanding officer and took part, in 1793. in the expedition that erected Fort Re- covery, on the site of the defeat of St. Clair's forces two years previous. For his services he was, with others, mentioned by name in general orders. He subsequently partici- pated in the Indian engagements which com- menced on the 30th of June. 1794, and on the 19th of August, in a council of war, sub- mitted a plan of march which was adopted and led to the victory on the Maumee on the following day. Lieutenant Harrison was espe- cially complimented by General Wayne in his dispatch to the Secretary of War "for gal- lantry." In May, 1797, he was made Captain and given command of Ft. Washington. While in command he formed an attachment for Anna, daughter of John Cleves Symmes. The father opposed the match, but the young couple WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON were married, nevertheless, during the absence of the parent. Symmes later became recon- ciled to his son-in-law. After peace was concluded with the Indians, Captain Harrison resigned his commission, and was immediately appointed, by President Adams, Secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799 he resigned his post to take his seat as Territorial Delegate in Congress, to which he was elected shortly previous. He then was appointed Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the territory of Indiana, which then embraced the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. To this posi- tion he was reappointed successively by Presidents Jefferson and Madison. In 1805 he organized the Legislature of Vincennes. His solicitude for the welfare of the Indians was unceasing, and he made a strenuous effort to eradicate the scourge of smallpox among them by inoculation. On the 30th of September, 1809, he concluded a treaty with several tribes by which they sold to the United States about three million acres of land on the Wabash and White Rivers. This sale of lands was condemned by some of the leading Indians, who were secret allies of the British, emissaries of whom had carefully prepared the minds of the red men against the Americans, anticipating the outbreak of the war that was soon
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to follow. In the spring of 1810 General Harrison invited a council to take place at Vin- cennes in August. At it Tecumseh appeared with four hundred armed followers. As the result of this council General Harrison believed it necessary to take suitable precautions for war. In the following spring the hostile savages began to roam over the Wabash coun- try in small parties, plundering the white settlers and the friendly Indians. Harrison sent word to Tecumseh, the principal chief of the hostile Indians, and his brother, called the "Prophet," that these depredations must cease, and that he was determined and prepared by force of arms to stop them. Tecumseh went to Vincennes, the seat of the Indian terri- torial government, and there found several hundred well-armed militia. After making sol- emn assurances of friendship, he went to the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws and other Southern Indian tribes and tried to induce them to join him in an aggressive campaign, but without success. In the meantime, with a much increased force at Vincennes, obtained from Kentucky and Ohio, General Harrison, late in September, 1811, marched up the Wabash Valley toward the town of the "Prophet," near the junction of Tippecanoe Creek and the Wabash River ; on the way he built a fort near the present city of Terre Haute, Ind., calling it Fort Harrison. There the troops encamped in a healthy elevation among oak trees and without underbrush to hinder their operations, and the General was visited by the "Prophet," his brother Tecumseh being absent. Suspecting treachery, the General, on the 5th of November, arranged his camp to resist any sudden attacks. Two Captains' guards of fifty men each were detailed to defend the camp. Thus prepared, the whole camp except guards and sentinels went to sleep. The "Prophet," on his part and that of his fol- lowers, arranged when the whites were asleep they should rush in and murder them. To excite his followers he indulged in various incantations, until he had every Indian worked up to a frenzy, when he gave the word to attack. At 4 o'clock in the morning of the 7th of November, General Harrison being in the act of pulling on his boots, the crack of a sentinel's gun caused him to order the whole camp to be aroused. A sharp battle ensued, which lasted until daylight, when the Indians were driven at the point of the bayonet into the wet prairie that surrounded the camp. In that battle there were killed and wounded of the whites one hundred and eight. The loss to the Indians crippled them from any other attempt to attack Harrison's forces. Here is where Harrison derived his appellation of "Tippecanoe," a word which became afterwards a household word during Harrison's cam- paign for the Presidency. In that battle Harrison had led the troops in person and was highly complimented by President Madison in his message of December 18, 1811, as well as being thanked by the Legislatures of Kentucky and Indiana. On the 18th of June, 1812, war was declared between the United States and England, and Governor Harrison was given command of a detachment that was sent to reinforce General Hull, with the rank of Major General of the State Militia. On the 2nd of September he received a Brigadier General's commission in the regular army. After relieving Fort Wayne, which had been invested by the Indians, he turned over his force to General Winchester and was returning home to Indiana when he was intercepted by a messenger from the Secretary of War, with papers appointing him Commander-in-Chief of the Northwest. "You will exercise," said the letter, "your own discretion and act in all cases according to your own judgment." No latitude as great as this has ever been given to any commander since Washington's time. Harrison was actively preparing for the struggle against the British and the Indian allies, erecting forts at different points and forwarding supplies. Though constantly harassed by the Indians, no important engagements occurred until the early part of the following year. On the 18th of January, General Winchester captured Frenchtown, now Monroe, Michigan, but three days later met with a bloody defeat on the river Raisin, from the force of Colonel
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Henry Proctor. Harrison hastened to his aid, but arrived too late. After establishing a fortified camp, which he named Fort Meigs, after the Governor of Ohio, he visited Cin- cinnati to obtain supplies, and while there urged the advisability of maintaining a fleet on Lake Erie. On the end of March, 1813, he was given a Major-General's commission. Shortly after, learning that the British were to attack Fort Meigs, he hastened thither and arrived on the 12th of April. On the 28th it was ascertained that the enemy was advancing in force. and on the ist of May siege was laid to the fort, Colonel Proctor commanding. For five days a heavy fire was kept up on both sides, but re-enforcements, under General Green Clay, arriving, the enemy was put to flight three days later. The attack was renewed, however, in July, with five thousand men, but the enemy was compelled to again withdraw after a few days. On the 10th of September. Commodore Perry gained his splendid vic- tory on Lake Erie, and on the 16th of September Harrison embarked his artillery and sup- plies for a descent on Canada, to meet the enemy in its own stronghold. On the 27th the army landed and Proctor burned the navy yard and fort at Malden and retreated, Har- rison following the next day. Proctor was overtaken on the 5th of October, and his army destroyed, he escaping to the woods. This victory, together with that of Perry's, was of the greatest importance, as it gave to the United States undisputed sway of the Great Lakes and control of all the territory contiguous. Celebrations were held all over the country in honor of Harrison's victory, his praises were read in the President's message to Congress and in the halls of Legislature. In 1814 Har ison resigned from the army and ended his military career. In that year and in 1815 he was appointed on commissions that concluded satisfactory treaties with the Indians, and in 1816 he was chosen to Congress to fill an un- expired term, serving until 1819. On the 24th of March, 1818, Harrison received a gold medal, struck off by the Government in his honor. In 1819 General Harrison was chosen to the Senate of Ohio, and. in 1822, was a -- candidate for Congress, but was defeated by reason of his vote against the admission of - Missouri into the Union with the restriction that slavery was to be prohibited there. In 1824 he was a Presidential elector, voting for llenry Clay, and in the same year he was sent to the United States Senate, where he be- came an advocate for the rights of the com- TOMB OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON NORTH BEND, OHIO mon soldier. In 1828 he resigned from the Senate and accepted the appointment of U. S. Minister to the United States of Colum- bia. Ile was recalled, it is claimed. by the demand of General Bolivar, and returned to his farm at North Bend. Ohio, where he accepted positions of local trust. In 1835 he was nominated for the Presidency, but received only seventy-three electoral votes to Van Buren's one hundred and seventy. Four years later he was again nominated for Presi- dent by the National Whig Convention, and Van Buren was renominated by the Demo- crats. The result of the contest was a choice of Harrison, who received two hundred and thirty-four electoral votes to Van Buren's sixty. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1841. On the 27th of March, the same year, President Harrison was prostrated by a chill, following several days of indisposition, and bilious pneumonia ensued. He died on the 4th
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of April. His end was so sudden and unexpected that his wife was not at his bedside dur- ing his last hours, as she remained at the family seat suffering from a slight sickness. The President's body was interred in the Congressional Cemetery at Washington, but was later removed to North Bend, Ohio, where it was placed in a tomb on a hill overlooking the Ohio. This tomb and the surrounding land was later deeded to the State of Ohio by his son, John Scott Harrison, with the condition that the State keep it in repair, but the State for many years allowed his burial place to become desecrated by vandals and fall into ruins, until, in the fall of 1904, a solid stone structure, simple in design and not at all in keeping with the hallowed memory of the great Harrison, was erected. General Harrison was the author of a "Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio." His wife, Anna Symmes, died in 1864, and rests with her distinguished husband in the tomb at North Bend.
ULYSSES S. GRANT, the second President from Ohio, and the eighteenth President of the United States, was born at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, on the 27th of April, 1822. He was of Scotch ancestry, but his family had been American in all its branches for eight generations. His father was Jesse R. Grant and his mother Hannah Simpson. Ulysses was the oldest of six children. When a little boy his parents removed to Georgetown, Ohio, where he spent his boyhood in assisting his father on the farm and also in a tan- nery. In the spring of 1839, when seventeen years of age, after having attended the village school, he was appointed to a cadetship in the United States Military Academy by Thomas L. Hamer, member of Congress. The name given him at birth was Hiram Ulysses, but he always was called by his middle name. Mr. Hamer, thinking that his first name and that his middle name was probably that of his mother's family, inserted in the official appointment the name of Ulysses S. The offi- cials at West Point were notified by Cadet Grant of the error, but they did not feel au- thorized to correct it, and it was acquiesced in and became the name by which he was al- ways known. As a student Grant showed the greatest proficiency in mathematics, and at cavalry drill he proved himself the best horse- man in his class, and afterwards was one of the best in the army. Graduating in 1843, he was commissioned as a Brevet Second Lieu- tenant and was attached to the Fourth In- fantry, and assigned to duty at Jefferson Bar- racks, near St. Louis. In September, 1845, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, and in the same month he went with his regiment to Corpus Christi, Mexico, now in Texas, to join the army of occupation under command of General Zachary Taylor. In the war with Mexico Grant served with great distinction, and for gallantry in the field he was breveted ULYSSES S. GRANT First Lieutenant and Captain, and commis- sioned First Lieutenant on the 14th of September, 1847, soon after the entry of the army into the City of Mexico. In the summer of 1848 he obtained a leave of absence and went to St. Louis, where, on the 22nd of August, he married Miss Julia B. Dent, sister of one of his
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classmates. On the 5th of August, 1853, he was promoted to a Captaincy, but on the 31st of July, 1854, he resigned his commission and settled on a small farm near St. Louis. He was engaged in farming and in the real estate business in St. Louis until May, 1860, when he removed to Galena, Illinois, and there became a clerk in the hardware and leather store of his father. When the Civil War broke out Grant raised a company of volunteers, which he drilled and accompanied to Springfield, Ill. Governor Yates, of that State, employed Captain Grant in the Adjutant General's Department and appointed him mustering officer. On the 17th of June he was appointed Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry, and on the 3rd of July he went with his regiment to Palmyra, Mo., thence to Salt River, where he guarded a portion of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, and thence to the town of Mexico, where General Pope was stationed as commander of the military district. On the 3Ist of July Grant was assigned to the command of a sub-district under General Pope, his troops consisting of three regiments of infantry and a section of artillery. He was appointed a Brigadier-General of Volunteers on the 7th of August, the commission being dated back to the 17th of May, and was ordered to Ironton, Mo., to take command of a district in that part of the State, where he arrived on the 8th of August. About three weeks later he was directed to report in person at St. Louis, and on reaching there found that he had been assigned to the command of the district of Southeastern Missouri, embracing all the territory in the State south of St. Louis and all Southern Illinois, with headquarters at Cairo. Arriving at Cairo on the 4th of September, he received informa- tion the day following that the enemy was about to seize Paducah, Ky., at the mouth of the Tennessee River, having already occupied Columbus and Hickman. Ile moved that night with two regiments of infantry and one battery of artillery, and occupied Paducah the next morning. Kentucky had declared an intention to remain neutral in the war, and this prompt occupation of Paducah prevented the Confederates from getting a foothold there and did much toward retaining the State within the Union lines. On the 25th of the same month he rendered important service by the seizure of Smithland, at the mouth of the Cum- berland River. His next move, a month later, was to check the advance of a large force under General Jeff Thompson, this being successfully accomplished by two battles, one at Fredericktown, Mo., and the other at Belmont. The district of Cairo was now enlarged, and General Grant was placed in command. In February, 1862, he moved from Paducah with 15.000 men, aided by Commodore A. H. Foote, with a fleet of gunboats, for the pur- pese of capturing Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumber- land River. The former surrendered on the 6th of February, its reduction, however, being due to the work of the gunboats. The latter was taken on the 6th, after a severe battle, in which the land forces were engaged. The capture of this fort was the first important and brilliant victory of the Federal arms, and it made a great impression upon the country. General Grant was at once made a Major-General of Volunteers, his com- mission being dated as of the day of the battle. The Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Land- ing. was next fought. The Federal troops at that point were attacked on the 6th of April by a large Confederate force under General A. S. Johnston, and suffered heavy loss. General Grant arrived on the field at the critical moment and reformed the broken lines, and, heavy re-enforcements. under General Buell, having arrived, the battle was renewed on the 7th, and the Confederates, now under the command of General Beauregard, Johnston having been killed, were driven back to Corinth. In this battle General Grant was slightly wounded. He was second in command in the movements against Corinth, which was occupied by the Federal troops on the 30th of May. When, in July. General Halleck was called to Wash- ington to take command of the armies of the United States, General Grant was assigned to
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the command of the Department of the Tennessee, with headquarters at Corinth. In Sep- tember he defeated the Confederate General twice at Inka. He then removed his headquar- ters to Jackson, leaving Rosecrans with twenty thousand men to hold Corinth. In October General Grant's department was enlarged by a portion of Mississippi, including Vicksburg, the forces under his command being designated as the Thirteenth Army Corps. After sev- eral efforts by different plans to capture Vicksburg, he was finally enabled, as a result of his brilliant movements, to invest the city on the 18th of May, 1863, and on the 4th of July, General Pemberton surrendered with about thirty thousand men. General Grant was now appointed a Major-General in the regular army, and in October was placed in com- mand of the military division of the Tennessee, comprising the department commanded by Sherman, Thomas, Burnside and Hooker. General Grant next conducted the operation against the Confederate General Bragg, at Chattanooga. On the 24th of November the Federals stormed Lookout Mountain, and on the 25th they carried the heights of Missionary Ridge. Congress at its next session passed a vote of thanks to General Grant and his army and ordered a gold medal to be struck in his honor. The grade of Lieutenant-General was revived, General Grant was nominated by President Lincoln for the position, and the nomi- nation was promptly confirmed by the Senate. On the 17th of March, 1864, he issued his first order as Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States. His headquar- ters were with the army of the Potomac. The battles of the next campaign, which had for their object the capture of Richmond, in front of which the main army of the Confed- erates was concentrated for a last and desperate resistance, were among the bloodiest of the whole war. The first movements of General Grant, though unsuccessful as to his main design, resulted in crippling the enemy and so preparing the way for final victory, but they were attended with terrible loss of life. The great battle of the Wilderness was fought against General Lee on the 5th and 6th of May, followed by the bloody engagements at Spottsylvania Court House. On the 3rd of June Lee repulsed a tremendous assault of the Union forces at Cold Harbor. General Grant, having failed in his flanking movements, saw at last that his only hope of seizing Richmond depended upon his first taking Peters- burg, and to this object he now addressed himself with his usual pertinacity. Lee attempted to create a diversion by sending Early on a raid across the Potomac. Sherman soon after forced Hood to evacuate Atlanta and then started on his famous "march to the sea." Sheri- dan's victory at Five Forks, on the 3Ist or March and Ist of April, 1865, destroyed the last hope of a successful defense of Richmond. On the 2nd of April Petersburg was abandoned, and on the 3rd the Federal forces entered the Southern Capitol, the Confederates fleeing as they advanced. Grant pursued the flying army, overtook and surrounded it, and forced it to surrender on the 9th of April, at Appomattox Court House. The Confederacy was overthrown. The assassination of Lincoln and the accession of Andrew Johnson followed, and then came the excitement of the period of reconstruction, in which General Grant, for whom Congress had created the rank of General of the Army, bore a loyal and honorable part. On the removal of Secretary of War Stanton by President Johnson, Grant was asked to fill the vacancy ad interim, and he held it from August, 1867, to January, 1868. Having become prominent in National politics, he was soon recognized as an available candidate for the Presidency, his military services making it evident that whatever party nominated him would receive a large independent support. He was approached by members of both parties, but his views were more in accordance with those of the Republicans. In May, 1868, a convention of soldiers and sailors at Chicago indorsed his contemplated candi- dacy, and on the 20th of May the Republican Convention on the first ballot nominated him unanimously, amid the greatest enthusiasm.
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At the following election General Grant received two hundred and fourteen electoral votes out of two hundred and ninety-four. The new administration was marked by a studied independence of Congressional politicians; by the disregard of various political traditions of the National Government ; by persistent efforts in favor of the annexation of Santo Domingo, the treaty of which, however, was rejected by the Senate. A policy of supervision of the South American States was also followed, and much interest was mani- fested in the war of independence which was being waged in Cuba, and the danger of intervention seemed imminent, especially for a brief period during the excitement caused by the seizure of the Virginius. The political condition of the South continued to present serious problems, although most of the actual work of reorganization had been accom-
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