USA > Ohio > Picturesque northwestern Ohio and battle grounds of the Maumee Valley, an art and historical work of the worthwest section of the Buckeye State > Part 2
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Up to the completion of the Miami and Erie canal Toledo was little more than a dead town. It was im- poverished, depressed and had acquired a widespread notoriety as a malaria-breed- ing, disease-destroying, in- fected cess-pool most scru- pulously avoided by those seeking homes in the West.
It was not until after the war of the Rebellion, that the miasmatic city of early days began to take on the signs of progress. Out
THE BLANCHARD RIVER, Near Findlay, Hancock County
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BATTLE GROUNDS OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY
from the depths of humiliation, out from the strug- gle and strife, out from the turmoil and blood, out from pioneer gloom and despair she stands to-day the third city in the state-the Lady of the Lakes- one of the leading railroad centers of the continent. The great Black Swamp, as if under the magic wand of a sorcerer, has become the fruitful garden spot of the Buckeye State. Toledo is the outlet and emporium of this great wealth of forest, field and derrick. Its magnificent harbor with twenty-five miles of frontage is surpassed by no city on the inland seas. Its lake traffic reaches into the mil- lions. Its propellers and sail craft connect with every lake port from Duluth to Buffalo. Its excur- sion steamers and summer resorts are unrivalled by any city in the country.
THE SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS. The con- struction of Fort Meigs by General Wm. Henry Harrison in spring 1813, and its siege by the British general, Proctor, and the renowned chief Tecumseh in May of that year, was one of the important incidents in the war of 1812. But few of those who now look at the ruins of Fort Meigs, slumbering upon the high, grassy plateau opposite the village of Maumee, can realize the fearful struggle that took place amid those peaceful surround ings from May first to May fifth, 1813. The incessant roar of heavy artillery, the ceaseless rattle of musketry, the shock of
BURNING OF COL. CRAWFORD By Indians in 1782, in Wyandot County.
arms in the onset of contending soldiers, British and American, mingled with the piercing yells of Tecum- seh's infuriated savages, for five days and nights, during the frightful siege, broke the quiet of the valley, now dotted with its peaceful homes and prosperous villages. To understand aright the his- toric importance of Fort Meigs' struggle in the war of 1812 it will be necessary to review the events leading up to the construction of that important stronghold, recount the main events of its success- ful resistance to armed invasion, and then point out the beneficient result that ensued from the valorous defense by Harrison and his beleaguered heroes.
The War of 1812, or "Madison's War," as it was called by unfriendly critics of the administra- tion, was declared June eighteenth, 1812 There was great opposition to the war in the sea-board states, especially among the bankers, merchants and manufacturers. A war with England was greatly dreaded, as our weak country was then just
OLD JAIL AT PERRYSBURG.
beginning to reap some of the fruits of peace and prosperity. Many believed that we had nothing to gain and much to lose by a war with England, as she had great armies in the field and
BATTLE ISLAND FARM, WYANDOT COUNTY, Where Col. Crawford was defeated by British and Indians.
SITE OF FORT FINDLAY. Built at the Crossing of Blanchard River on Hull's Trail to Detroit, in the war of 1812, on Main Street, Findlay.
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PICTURESQUE NORTHWESTERN OHIO
SIMON GIRTY'S ISLAND, IN MAUMEE RIVER At Napoleon. Once the Rendezvous of the Noted Outlaw. [See Descriptive Note.]
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BATTLE GROUNDS OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY.
practically ruled the seas. But the provocation to war was great, and the national pride and indignation of the Americans was roused to the highest pitch by the insolent aggressions of England toward our commerce and our sailors. England's "Orders in Council" in reprisal for Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees, excluded our merchant ships from almost every port of the world, unless the permission of England to trade was first obtained. In defiance of England's paper blockade of the world our ships went forth to trade with distant nations. Hundreds of them were captured, their contents confiscated and the vessels carried as prizes into English ports. But this was not all. The United States recognized the right of an alien to be "natural- ized" and become a citizen of this country, but England held to the doctrine, "once an Englishman always an Englishman." In consequence of this our ships were insolently hailed and boarded by the war sloops and frigates of England and six thousand
MARGARET SOLOMON. Last Wyandot Indian in Ohio.
American sailors in all were dragged from our decks and im- pressed into the British service. In addition,to these insults and aggressions it was well known to the United States that English agents in the Northwest were secretly aiding and encouraging the wild Indian tribes of the Wabash and Lake Superior regions to commit savage depredations upon our frontier settlements. About this time an Indian chieftain of the Shawanese tribe, Tecumseh by name, like King Philip and Pontiac before him, conceived the idea of rallying all the Indian tribes together and driving the white men out of the country.
Tecumseh was a noble and majestic presence, was possessed of a lofty and magnanimous character and was endowed with a gift of irresistible eloquence. Tecumseh had a brother called
THE OLD INDIAN JAIL At Upper Sandusky, [See Descriptive Note ]
BIG SYCAMORE AT UPPER SANDUSKY Which perhaps, while standing was biggest Sycamore in Ohio.
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PICTURESQUE NORTHWESTERN OHIO
FORT McARTHUR BURYING GROUND
Near Kenton, Hardin County. The Boulders seen upon the ground are the headstones of the soldiers' graves,
the Prophet, who claimed to be able to foretell future events and secure victories and effect mar- velous cures by his charms and incantations. Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, was active in securing Indian lands by purchase and treaty for supplying the oncoming tide of white men who pressed hard upon the Indian boundary lines. Tecumseh and the Prophet sent their cmissarics abroad and organized a great confederacy which refused to cede the title to the lands of the Wabash Valley, as had been agreed upon by separate tribes They even came down into the valley and built a town where Tip- pecanoe Creek flows into the Wabash. Harrison, alarmed at these signs of resistance, called the plotters to account. The Prophet, all of whose machinations were based upon fraud and decep- tion, denicd everything. But Tecumseh marched proudly down to Vincennes with four hundred braves behind him and in the council, in a speech
of great eloquence and power set forth the burning wrongs of his people and asked for justice and redress.
When Tecumseh had finished, an officer of the governor pointed to a vacant chair and said, "Your father asks you to take a seat by his side." Tecumseh drew his mantle around him and proudly exclaimed, "My father ! The sun is my father, and the earth my mother, in her bosom I will re- pose." He then calmly seated himself upon the bare ground.
But the plotting and the in- triguing among the hostile Indians continued, Tecumseh traveling everywhere and inciting a spirit of war and defiance. Harrison became alarmed at the formidable preparation of the savages and marched from Vincennes with nine hundred soldiers to disperse the hostile camp at Prophet's town on the Wabash at Tippe- canoe. The chiefs came out to
SITE OF FORT McARTHUR Near Kenton, Hardin County. Was built in 1812 on the road that ran to Detroit.
SITE OF OLENTANGY BATTLE FIELD, CRAWFORD COUNTY.
meet him and with professions of friendship promised on the next day to grant all that he desired. Harrison was deceived by this reception and encamped upon the spot which the chiefs pointed out. In the dark hours of the early morn- ing the treacherous Prophet and his inflamed fol- lowers crept silently upon the sleeping soldiers of Harrison, shot the sentinels with arrows and with frightful yells burst into the circle of the camp. At the first fire the well trained soldiers rolled from their blankets and tents and with fixed bayonets rushed upon their red foes. For two hours a bloody struggle ensued, but the valor and discipline of the whites prevailed. The Indians were scattered and their town was burned. Tecumseh was not present at the battle of Tippecanoe but the Prophet, at a safe distance upon a wooded height, inspired his
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BATTLE GROUNDS OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY
braves by wild hallooings and weird incantations. His pretenses were so discredited by the result of the battle that he was driven out of the country and sank into obscurity. But not so with Tecumseh. His heart was filled with rage and hatred against Harrison and the American soldiers. He knew that war was just trembling in the balance between Eng- land and the United States. He immediately re- paired to Malden at the mouth of the Detroit River and proffered the aid of himself and his confederacy against the United States. This famous battle of Tippecanoe, fought in the dark, November seventh, 1811, was really the first blow struck in the war which was openly declared in the following June. The Indians now fondly hoped that the English would deliver their country from the grasp of the Americans. And the English on their part were profuse in their promises of speedy deliverance and in their gifts of arms and supplies of all kinds. The war in the West was indeed but another struggle for the possession of the lands between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. And had England won in the contest, not Tecumseh and his confederacy would have had the hunting grounds of their forefathers restored, but Canada would have been enlarged by the
-
SITE OF FORT RECOVERY, MERCER COUNTY.
addition of the Old Northwest to her own domain. It was far easier for the United States to declare war than to prosecute it to a successful issue. Our country was without an army and without a navy, and had but scanty means for creating either. England had armies of experienced veterans and a vast navy. Ohio had less than 250, 000 inhabitants, and her line of civilized settlements did not extend more than fifty miles north of the Ohio River. Whatever part Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky should play in the contest must be done by conveying troops and munitions of war over a road two hundred miles long through the wilderness.
As the campaign was planned against Canada these supplies for the raw recruits of the West had to be transported northward over roads cut toward Lake Erie and Detroit through the swamps and tangled morasses of the unbroken forest. The line of contests between the two nations was over five hundred miles long, extending from Lake Champlain to Detroit. The Americans held three important points of vantage, Plattsburg, Niagara and Detroit. The British held three on the Canada side of the
SITE OF FORT GREENVILLE.
In Darke County. Built in 1793 This residence of A. N. Wilson's is located upon the center of where the old Fort stood.
line, Kingston, Toronto and Malden. At the latter place (now Amherstberg) the British had a fort, a dockyard and a fleet of war vessels, thus controlling Lake Erie. The Americans soou had three armies in the field eager to invade and capture Canada. One under Hull, then governor of Michigan Territory, with two thousand men was to cross the river at Detroit, take Malden and march eastward through Canada. Another army under Van Rensaeler was to cross the Niagara River, capture Queenstowu, effect a junction with Hull and then capture Toronto and march eastward on Montreal. The third army under Dearborn at Plattsburg was to cross the St. Lawrence, join Hull and Van Rensaeler before Montreal and capture that city. The combined forces were then to March on Quebec, take that city and thus complete the invasion and conquest of Canada. This fine program was not carried out. It would have taken the combined
CITEY ISTET HAL
WAYNE
CELEBRATION AUG. 3RD. 1895, C.L. MCKEON. W.I.SWARTZ. MAYOR C.E.WRIGHT. FRANK GASKILL J.H. SWARTZ.
HARKRADER PHOTO,
CITY HALL, GREENVILLE.
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PICTURESQUE NORTHWESTERN OHIO
1
THE MAUMEE RIVER AT GRAND RAPIDS, WOOD COUNTY. The Village on the right and the old dam in the distance looking up.
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BATTLE GROUNDS OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY.
MONUMENT ON SITE OF FORT BALL, TIFFIN.
genius of a Napoleon and a Cæsar to have executed such a plan of battle over such immense distances.
The plain truth is the Americans had in the field at this time only raw, ill-disciplined troops and absolutely no generals with abilities which fitted them to command such expeditions. Hull, according to orders, crossed the Detroit River to Sandwich and there in vacillating indicision dawdled away the time for several weeks without advane- ing upon Malden only a few miles away. When he heard that Mackinac Island had fallen into British hands he began to quake in his boots, and thought of retreating. Soon he received news that an Ohio convoy destined for Detroit had been attacked and was in danger of capture. This settled it. Hull quickly retreated across the river to Detroit with all his forces with no thought but for protecting his own line of communi - cation, for he had reached Detroit originally from Urbana by a road which he had cut through the wilderness by way of Kenton and Findlay. Brock, the brave and skillful British general commanding at Malden, immediately followed Hull across the river and demanded the surrender of Detroit with threats of a massacre by his Indian allies if Hull did not comply. To his credit be it said, Hull refused, and the Americans pre- pared for battle. Brock marched up to within five hundred yards. The Americans were ready and eager for the fray and the
artillerymen stood at their guns with lighted matches, when to the dismay and shame of all, the stars and stripes was lowered from the flag staff of the fort and the white flag of surrender was run up. Hull had weakened at the last moment and had given up the whole of Michigan Territory, and also Detroit with all its troops, guns and stores, and
RIVER SCENE Near Bucyrus, Crawford County
even surrendered detachments of troops twenty-five miles distant. The officers and soldiers of Hull were overwhelmed with rage and humiliation at this cowardly surrender. The officers broke their swords across their knees and tore the epaulets from their uniforms. Poor old Hull, it is said, had done good service in
SPRING AT OLD FORT, UPPER SANDUSKY, WYANDOT COUNTY.
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PICTURESQUE NORTHWESTERN OHIO
OLD LUCAS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MAUMEE, Near Site of Dudley Massacre.
RELICS Found at and near Fort Recovery, Mercer County.
the Revolutionary War, but he . had reached his dotage and his nerve had departed, and moreover he had a daughter in Detroit whom he dearly loved and on whose account he dreaded an Indian massacre.
Hull's troops had also been greatly diminished in numbers, the government had been negligent in reinforeing him and he was con- fronted by about one thousand British soldiers and fifteen hundred bloodthirsty Indians. These facts may have helped to lead him into this shameful and cowardly capitula- tion. Hull was afterwards eourt- martialed and tried on three charges of treason, eowardice and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was con- vieted on the latter two charges and was sentenced to be shot, but was subsequently pardoned on aeeount of former services.
Another disaster in the West accompanied Hull's surrender. When he heard Mackinac had fallen he at onee sent Winnimac, a friendly chief, to Chicago and advised Captain Heald, commanding Fort Dearborn,
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BATTLE GROUNDS OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY.
CANAL ALONG MAUMEE RIVER AT GRAND RAPIDS, WOOD COUNTY.
to evacuate the fort with his garrison and go to Fort Wayne.
Heald heeded this bad advice. He abandoned the fort with his garrison of about sixty soldiers, together with a number of women and children. He had no sooner left the precincts of the year 1812.
fort than his little company was at- tacked by a vast horde of treacherous Pottawatomies who had pretended to be friends but who had been inflamed by the speeches and warlike messages of Tecumseh. The little band of whites resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible and defended them- selves with the utmost bravery, even the women fighting valiantly beside their husbands. During the fray one savage fiend climbed into a baggage wagon and tomahawked twelve little . children who had been placed there for safety. In this unequal contest William Wells, the famous spy who had served Wayne so well, lost his life. Nearly all of the little Chicago garrison were thus massacred in the most atrocious manner. In the meantime Van Rens- saeler's army at Niagara had failed to take Queenstown and a part of it under Winfield Scott, after a brave resistance, had been captured. Dearborn's army
on Lake Champlain passed the summer in idleness and indecision and accomplished nothing.
Thus closed with failure and disaster the campaign of the
FIRST LUCAS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, AT TOLEDO.
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PICTURESQUE NORTHWESTERN OHIO
VIEW OF LAKE SHORE AT LAKE SIDE, OTTAWA COUNTY.
January, 1813, opened with still another tragedy of the direst character. General Winchester had been appointed to the chief command of the army of the West after the surrender of Hull ; but this appointment raised a storm of opposition among the troops who desired General Harrison to be in supreme command. Harrison was extremely popular among the soldiers.
His great energy and his remarkable military abilities were well known, and moreover, he was the hero of Tippecanoe. Accord- ingly, in obedience to the popular demand, Harrison, in Septem- ber of 1812, was appointed to the chief command of the army of the West. But Winchester still continued to retain an important command, and in January of 1813 he marched his troops from Fort Wayne and Defiance down the north bank of the Maumee over Wayne's old route, to the foot of the Rapids in the hope that he might be able to do something to repair the disaster of Hull's surrender. On his arriving at the Rapids, messengers from Frenchtown (now Monroe) informed him that a force of British and Indians were encamped at Frenchtown and were cansing the inhabitants great loss and annoyance. Winchester at once set out for Frenchtown and on January nineteenth attacked and completely routed the enemy at that place. Had he then returned to the Rapids he would have escaped the terrible disaster which followed. The full British force was at Malden only eighteen miles away. A force of fifteen hundred British and Indians immediately marched against Winchester
MARBLEHEAD LIGHT HOUSE ON LAKE ERIE.
RIVER SCENE NEAR BUCYRUS, CRAWFORD COUNTY.
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BATTLE GROUNDS OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY.
STONE'S COVE, PUT-IN-BAY, FROM HOTEL VICTORY.
and attacked him early on the morning of the twenty-second. The battle was fierce and stubborn. The Americans had no entrenchments or protection of any kind and were overwhelmed by superior numbers. Those who were still alive, after a bloody resistance, were compelled to surrender. Then followed such a scene of carnage as has seldom been witnessed. Proctor, the British commander, stood calmly by while his Indian allies muti- lated the dead and inflicted the most awful tortures upon the wounded. Even those who had surrendered upon condition that their lives should be spared were attacked by these savages with knife and tomahawk. The awful deeds that followed the sur- render have covered the name of Proctor with infamy and have made "The Massacre of the Raisin" a direful event in history. When the appalling news of the massacre reached the settlements the people of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio girded them-
selves for revenge. Ten thousand troops were raised for Har- rison and it was determined to wipe out the disgrace of Hull's surrender and avenge the awful death of comrades and friends so pitilessly and treacherously butchered on the Raisin. "Remem- ber the Raisin," was heard in every camp and issued from between the set teeth of soldiers who in long lines began con- verging toward the Rapids of the Maumee.
It was under such circumstances as these, with two armies swept away and the country plunged in gloom, that General
OLD ELM AT FIVE POINTS ROAD, PUTNAM COUNTY.
A PIONEER COTTAGE,
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PICTURESQUE NORTHWESTERN OHIO
OLD FLAGSTAFF FROM FORT RECOVERY
Harrison began with redoubled energy to get together a third army. He at first thought of withdrawing all troops from Northwestern Ohio and retreating toward the interior of the state. But upon second thought
he resolved to build a strong fort- ress upon the southern bank of the Maumee at the foot of the Rapids which should be a grand depot of supplies and a base of operations against Detroit and Canada. Early in February of 1813, Harrison, with Captains Wood and Gratiot of the engineer corps, selected the high plateau of the Maumee's southern bank lying just opposite the present village of Maumee. As the British commanded Lake Erie this was a strategic point of great value and lay directly on the road to
Canada. Below it armies and heavy guns could not well be conveyed across the impassable marshes and estuaries of the bay. It was a most favorable position for either attack or defense, for advance or retreat, for concentrating the troops and supplies of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, or effectively repelling the invasion of the British and their horde of savage allies from the north. The construction of the fort was begun in February and originally covered a space of about ten acres. It was completed the last of April, and was named Fort Meigs in honor of Return Jonathan Meigs, then governor of Ohio. The fort was in the form of an irregular ellipse and was en- closed by sharpened palisades fifteen feet long and about twelve inches in diameter. cut from the adjoining forest. On bas- tions at convenient angles of the fort were erected nine strong blockhouses equipped with cannon, besides the regular gun and mortar batteries. In the western end of the fort were located the magazine, forges, repair shops, storehouses and the officers' quarters. Harrison knew that Proctor was preparing at
NORTHERN OHIO WHEAT HARVEST.
Malden for an attack on the fort and that he would appear as soon as the ice was out of Lake Erie. On April twenty-sixth Proctor arrived in the river off the present site of Toledo with four hundred regulars of the forty-first regiment and eight hundred Canadians, and with a train of heavy battering artillery on board his ships. A force of eighteen bun- dred Indians under Tecumseh swept across in straggling columns by land from Malden. The British landed at old Fort Miami, a mile below Fort Meigs on the opposite side of the river. Fort Miami was then in a somewhat ruined condition, as the British had abandoned it shortly after Wayne's victory eighteen years before. It was hastily repaired and occupied by the British, Tecumseh with his Indians encamp- ing close by. The British landed
UNITED STATES PRISON QUARTERS
On Johnson's Island, uear Sandusky, for Confederate Soldiers Captured During Civil War.
BATTLE GROUNDS OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY
33
GLACIAL EVIDENCES AT KELLEY'S ISLAND. Note the smooth grooves in the rock made by the Ice drift.
their heavy guns at the watergate of the old fort and laboriously dragged them up the long slope to the high bank above. All night long they toiled in erecting their siege bat- teries. With teams of oxen and squads of two hundred men to each gun they hauled the heavy ordnance through mud two feet deep from old Fort Miami to the high embankment just opposite Fort Meigs. There early on the morning of May 1st, the British had four strong batteries in position, despite the incessant fire which the Americans from Fort Meigs had directed upon them.
These four batteries were known as the King's Battery, the Queen's Battery, the Sailors' Battery and the Mortar Battery, the latter throwing destructive bombs of various sizes. Harrison was characterized by great foresight and penetration as a gen- eral. On the night the British were planting their batteries, realizing that he had an available force of less
than eight hundred men, he dis- patched a brave scout, Captain Wil- liam Oliver, to General Green Clay, whom he knew was on the way with a large force of Kentuckians, to bid him hurry forward with his rein- forcements. On the same night he set his men to work with spades and threw up the "grand traverse," an embankment of earth extending longitudinally through the middle of the fort, nine hundred feet long, twelve feet high and with a base width of twenty feet. The tents were taken down and the little army retired behind the great embankment and awaited the coming storm which broke in fury at dawn, on May 1st. The British batteries all opened at once with a perfect storm of red hot solid shot and screaming shells which
A LOGGING CAMP IN PAULDING COUNTY. Showing that Pioneering is not a Lost Art in Ohio.
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