USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West, and pioneer history and general and local statistics. Volume II > Part 65
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Į with a handful of irresponsible persons. And now, amidst all the contentions for the acquisi- tion of territory to the Union, already too large for its good, no voice is raised in Congress to se- cure to the natives a perpetual inheritance in the soil. They are still to be creatures of a tempo- rising policy, to be pushed back out of the way as our race approaches them, until, as the Black Hoof once remarked to myself in reference to this matter,-" We will go any where you please, if you will afterwards let us alone, but we know from past experience, you will keep driving us back until we reach the sea on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, and then we must jump off,"-meaning there would be no country or home left for the Indians at last: and does not our past and present policy towards this unhappy race but too clearly tend to confirm these apprehensions.
In 1817, I was charged by Governor Cass with the management of the Ohio and Indiana Indi- ans, in bringing them to the treaty of Miami rapids. I collected seven thousand, with which we moved to the treaty ground. Much rain had fallen on the way, and we were long on the journey. Provisions became scarce; the hunters were seldom successful in procuring game. Such of the Indians as were not encumbered with women and children, with myself and some of the interpretors, left the main body, stating that we would proceed on to a noted camping ground in the prairie called the Big Hill and there await the coming up of the main body; that when we got all together we could consult and deter- mine upon our future course of operations. In a few days the whole were assembled at our en- campment: a grand council held. The result was that they did not intend leaving that place until they mado a sacrifice to the Great Spirit. I urged in the council to omit this on the present occasion; that we were then behind our time sev- cral days; that we were suffering for want of pro- visions; that the commissioners of the United States were anxiously waiting for us, as no busi- ness could be done before our arrival; that plenty awaited us the moment we reached the treaty ground. The council decided that the Indians could not leave the spot until they sacrificed; and requested mo to write to the Gov'r. their determi- nation, and to ask for some things which they needed to complete their arrangements for the sacrifice: namely, tobacco, and some white mus- lin to dress the priests. We wanted flour, meat, and salt for provisioning our party, all of which I wrote for ;- distance to the treaty ground twen- ty miles ;- sent down runners, with horses suffi- cient to bring back what was wanted. The com- missioners, on the receipt of my communication. were indignant at the delay ; would send us noth -
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ing but the provisions-writing me positive or- ders to bring the Indians on immediately; that they could not wait the delay of their sacrifice. The chiefs were called together, the commission- ers' letter read and explained, to which they in- stantly replied, that they could not and would not go to the treaty ground until after they sac- rificed; that the Great Spirit would not aid them; and that if they were not indulged in doing what they had always been accustomed to do, on enter- ing on any important business, they would forth- with return home. The result was communica- ted to the commissioners, with an earnest re- quest, that the Indians should be indulged in what they believed to be a conscientious duty; that the articles wanted might be sent up; that I would hurry the arrangement. The commission- ers finally assented to my request, and forwarded the articles ordered. The Indians held their sacri- fice, after which we proceeded in a body to the treaty; remained on the ground six weeks; pro- cured a large cession of country, and all of us white men connected with the service, elated with our success. All Northwestern Ohio was at this time ceded to the United States. The greatest opposition was experienced from the Wyandotts, who by the cession were cut off from the lake shore, and placed sixty miles interior. They re- served a spot of one hundred and sixty acres on Sandusky Bay, for a camping place in their oc- casional journyes to visit their friends in Canada. The attachment of the Wyandotts was ardent for their native country. The night they agreed to give it up many of the chiefs shed tears.
During the war of 1812, Gen. Harrison had his head quarters part of the time at Piqua, and oc- casionally sojourned with his staff at my log cabin. There was but one fire place in the house, chimney of cat and clay-a phrase well known to backwoodsmen,-and in the cold weather the family and guests made quite a circle. The women, in cooking the supper, were often com- pelled to step over the feet of the General and his aids; and then at bed time such a backwoods scene! The floor would be covered with blan- kets, cloaks, buffalo robes, and such articles as travelers usually carry with them for the purpose of camping out. No one ever looked for a bed in those times. It was not unusual for twenty and thirty persons to lodge with us for a night. The Indians frequently were of the number. Missionaries of all denominations, Catholics and Protestants, were alike welcomed. We lived on the extreme verge of the frontier, where travelers could no where else find accommodations. We obeyed to the letter the injunction of the Apos- tle-given to hospitality I was some times cen- sured by my protestant friends for entertaining catholic priests. This proceeded from an un-
happy spirit, and chiefly the result of ignorance, and produced no difference with myself or that excellent woman who shared so largely in all my labours growing out of those troublesome times .. The Ministers of Jesus Christ of whatever name, always found the latch string of our cabin door -as the lamented Harrison said to the old soldier -" hanging out." My aged mother lived with me at the time. On the General taking leave of us, setting out for the north, he asked for garden seeds. The old woman immediately took him up by saying-what do you want with a garden; are you not going right on to retake Detroit, and drive the British out of Canada. The General knew full well he could do nothing effectual to- wards the reconquest of Michigan without the co-operation of Commodore Perry, and his fleet was not yet ready to go on the lake.
On several occasions during the war I was re- quested by the General to copy his confidential communications to the war department. I am not at liberty, even at this late day, to disclose any part of that correspondence; but I may nev- ertheless be permitted to say, in justice to my old and valued friend, that in the prosecution of the war, he was often thwarted in his designs by the secretary of the department; and that this was especially the case while Gen. Armstrong presi- ded over it-a functionary who did the greatest injustice to Gen. Harrison, and in the end was the occasion of his retiring from the command of the army. He could not serve in justice to his own honour under such a man. His slanderens history, put forth pending the contest for the Presidency in 1839, and for the purpose of effect- ing the prospects of Gen. Harrison, failed of its object, and only proved the malice and premedi- tated baseness and hatred of the author. And Mr. C. J. Ingersoll has lately thought it his duty to put forth another history of the war to traduce and vilify the illustrious dead. He has, however, received so many severe rebukes from distin- guished living witnesses, as to render the work totally harmless as a chronicler of the truth. It is not very extraordinary that a man who boasted that if he had lived in the days of the revolution he would have been a tory, should delight in slandering him in whose veins flowed some of the best blood of the patriots and sages of that mem- orable struggle.
Duelling.
The absurdity of duelling has been pointed out in a thousand ways. There is one feature of it, however, which is supremely ridiculous-the tri- vial and even ludicrous provocations which in many cases have instigated such meetings.
Col. Montgomery was shot in a duel which was owing to a dispute between the merits of two
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dogs. Capt. Ramsay lost his life because he | would not relinquish his servant to brother offi- cer. Lieut. Featherstone last his on a recruit. The father of Lawrence Stone was shot owing to a difficulty respecting a goose.
Col. D-, who was an Irishman, challenged a brother officer because he smiled incredulously, when D- told him he had seen an acre of an- chovies in a field near Smyrna. They met, twice exchanged shots without injury, and were about to fire a third time, when the Colonel, suddenly recollecting himself, exclaimed, was it anchovies I said? by - it was capers I meant. This, of course, settled the difficulty, which might have cost one or more lives.
Captain Smith was challenged for merely ask- ing his opponent to partake of a second goblet. General Barry, for declining to take a pinch of snuff; and Major McDermot for doing the same with a glass of wine, although he pleaded on the spot that it always made his head ache: and Lieu- tenant Crowther lost his life in a duel because he had been refused admittance into a club of pigeon shooters.
I do not recollect, however, anything which places the ridicule of its practice in a stronger light, than an incident which took place some years since in Cincinnati. I was acquainted with the parties and can vouch for the facts. The cir- cumstance occurred at a period when duelling, although rare, occasionally took place here.
Mr. L-, a young man of the finest honoura- ble feelings, was told that a certain young gen- tleman on Main street, was the author of a com- munication in a newspaper of that day, which Mr. L. considered an aspersion on his character. Fired with indignation, he repaired to the resi- dence of the reputed author, and finding him at the door, in spite of all explanation, remonstrance, and resistance of his victim, inflicted on him an unmerciful cowhiding.
A few days after, the real offender came to light, and L-, feeling it his duty to make an apology for his mistake, called upon the young man he had chastised, and acknowledged his er- ror, said he was sorry for what had passed, that he bore no malice in the case; and if that expla- nation was not perfectly satisfactory, he should hold himself ready and willing to afford the usual and proper satisfaction on the Kentucky shore, if a call for that purpose was made.
I forget how the matter terminated. It was certainly not by the meeting in Kentucky, L.'s antagonist probably thinking a cowhiding past was less unpleasant than a bullet lodging in his carcase might prove. One thing I do remember, that I censured L. very freely for liis conduct, and was surprised to find most persons disposed to justify it. " What more could he do than
offer satisfaction?" said they. "It was but & mistake on his part at first."
The Masonic Hall.
This fine edifice stands at the northeast cor- mer of Walnut and Third streets, occupying & front of one hundred and fifteen feet on its south- ern, and sixty-six feet on its western expo- sure, and is eighty feet high: from the pave- went to the top of the angle buttress. It was erected at an expense of thirty thousand dollars, and its appropriate furniture and decorations will cost, when completed, five thousand more. It is in the castellated style of the Gothic architecture of the Elizabethan era. The lower story is parti- tioned into eight store rooms, three of which. adjacent to Walnut street, will be occupied by the Cincinnati post office.
The front is divided by buttresses two feet face, and eight inches projection. These buttresses run above the battlements, the tops of which are finished with openings in the ancient castle style. The windows to the principal hall are sixteen feet high, and are divided by a heavy centre mul- lion and cross rail, making four parts in each. Each window is surmounted by a hood of fine cut stone. The windows of the third story are nearly of the same size, order, and finish. At each end of the building on the south front, two of the buttresses are elevated a few feet above the centre, and returned on the west front the same distance. Each angle of the west front, is made to correspond with each angle of the south front. The centre of the west front is gabled; in the cen- tre of which is a shield, with an inscription bear- ing the name of the building and date of its erec- tion, together with the era of masonry. An iron balcony surrounds the building, on a level with the floor of the main hall in the second story. This is designed for public assemblies, and is one of the most spacious in Cincinnati, being fifty-one by one hundred and twelve feet fronting west, and twenty-three feet high, with an orchestra on the east end. The ceiling and cornice of this hall are finished in the richest style.
The third story is designed as a hall, for the use of the several lodges of the city, together with the chapter, council, and encampinent, and will be eighty by fifty-one feet on the floor, and twen- ty feet in height. There are various passages, antechambers, and committee rooms, which fill up the residue of this story. The chapter room proper: is fifty-one by twenty-eight feet. The finish of these rooms, especially the ceilings and cornices, are truly elaborate. The exterior of the edifice is to be rough cast, and the roof will be slate.
The furniture of the chapter room is of ma- hogany, with Gothic open panel work, on a rich
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crimson satin ground. That of the Masonic Hall | night the Marquis de la Fayette, with the Ameri- is of bronzed work of the same character, except- ing that the satin is of mazarine blue. The car- pets are of ingrain, of the best quality of Mosaic work pattern, with tessellated borders. Seven splendid Gothic chandeliers ornament the various halls-these will be lighted with gas.
The entrance to the public hall is from Third street-that to the Masonic Hall, on Walnut street.
There are various rooms for dressing, and re- freshment purposes, which communicate with the public hall, and render it the most convenient place in the city for holding public dinners, &c.
Narrative of John Hudson,
A Revolutionary Soldier, and now resident in Cincinnati .- No. 4.
Captain Matchem accordingly fired his field piece, which was a twelve pounder. The ball, however, had been directed too low, and struck the bottom of the embrasure. He then corrected his aim and threw the second shot, which struck the mouth of his enemy's cannon, in rather an oblique direction, commencing a breach about eighteen inches from the muzzle of the piece, and tore off its side for that distance. This I had the curiosity and opportunity to ascertain exactly, af- ter the surrender of the place. The fire thus opened from the battery, served as a signal to the French on the left, who commenced firing from their whole train of artillery. I was informed by competent persons at the time, that the com- bined forces were prepared to fire as much as sixty shot, or shells, at a volley, in less time than once every minute, and frequently did so. In- side the walls of Yorktown, and visible above those walls, were several frame buildings, which soon were battered to pieces under the allied fire, the shattered fragments flying in all directions, and killing and wounding by their fall, without doubt, numbers of the British troops.
South of the town, and at the left wing of the French forces, the ground rose up into land of considerable height, where the enemy had several out posts, one of which, and the largest, annoyed the French excessively, destroying the lives of numbers in their lines. In consequence of this the commanders-in-chief decided to carry them at the point of the bayonet, which was accom- plished by the French grenadiers, who bore in this service the hand grenades, from which that species of troops derive their title, and which they only employ when about to storm an entrench- ment. These grenades are bombs in miniature They are about the size of a mock orange, and being carried to the ground in the haversacs of the grenadiers are hurled in showers into the works, as their assailants advance. On the same
can troops, stormed the walls of the town in front of Matchem's battery. The Marquis and his party obtained possession of the British guns, which were immediately turned upon their own defences, and kept in the hands of the storming force until daylight enabled the enemy to concen- tre their troops and drive the assailants off. The ordinary narrative of the siege of Yorktown con- denses the whole history of it into this bloody and eventful night, as though that period embraced every event of importance in that campaign; but this is not the fact, for from the opening of our works by the first fire from the battery of Capt. Matchem, on the 4th or 5th October, there was an incessant cannonading kept up on both sides, which lasted until the cvening of the 19th Octo- ber, when the surrender took place.
Such was the vivacity of both attack and de- fence of Yorktown, that between the flashes. from the guns and from the fuses of the shells, it was rendered light enough for us to attend to all necessary work during any portion of night, through the whole period of fifteen days which I have alluded to.
One night during the siege a major of the 43d regiment, sallied out on the besiegers with his command of several hundreds, and actually cap- tured one of the French batteries, spiking their guns. By this time the whole line had taken the alarm, and he met with so warm a reception, tha he was glad to regain the town, with such of his troops as he was not obliged to leave behind in dead and wounded upon the field.
After this, and as a consequence of this inci- dent, we had a piquet guard placed in advance of our batteries, and just under the muzzle of the enemy's guns. I was myself one of that guard one night. We had double centinels placed all along under the line of the British works, who were stationed each with one knee to the ground and the gun cocked lying on the other, our hail being to give three smart taps on our cartouch boxes. Our instructions were to fire instantly when the same signal was not repeated. Those taps resembled greatly the flapping of the wings of the turkey buzzard, which abounded from the number of the unburied dead lying in the neighbourhood, and would have been ascribed by the enemy to these birds, if the din of the cannon had permitted the signal, during any interval of their discharges, to be heard and noticed.
During the siege there had been remarked con- spicuously a large house, built of white marble, which Capt. Matchem had spared, knowing it to be the property of Gen. Hugh Nelson, whose es- tate lay in the neighbourhood. The General, on his arrival, which took place a few days after, in- quired why he did not fire ou that building.
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Matchem accordingly gave the reason. Never mind my property, replied the Gen .; rap away at it. Matchem then fired one ball, which made its way through the house. Where the ball entered, it made a small breach, but where it came out it forc- ed a very large opening. After the surrender, I learned that there were a number of the British officers had made it their quarters, but they aban- doned it as soon as this shot was fired, fearing more would follow. But this was the first and the last, as I distinctly rccollect.
Lord Cornwallis, finding that he had no pros- pect of obtaining relief from Sir Henry Clinton, determined finally to surrender, which he did on the evening of the 19th October. On the 20th, we marched into Yorktown, and relieved the British guard there. On the 21st, the enemy's troops marched out and laid down their arms. On the 22d, they were marched off with a heavy escort, for Lancaster, Pennsylvania. On the 23d, as I was informed, the Marquis de la Fayette em- barked for France, to carry tidings of the wel- come event which was then generally supposed the close of the revolutionary struggle.
Our army staid at Yorktown until cold weath- er set in, for the purpose of leveling the works. We found hundreds of shells which had not ex- ploded, from the circumstance of the fuse falling undermost,in which case they do not go off. These ve gathered up in wagons, and put them on board vessels to take to Gen. Greene, who was still carrying on the war in South Carolina. There was a party of French prisoners who had gathered up a four horse wagon load of these shells. By some mismangement, not easily ex- plained, an explosion took place, which tore the wagon to fragments; killed the horses, and twelve of the Frenchmen employed in the service. I saw these twelve men neatly laid out in a mar- quee all in a row with white linen burial clothes. This would not have been done for them, or any one else, during the progress of the sige.
The Cincinnati College.
This is a modern edifice of the Grecian Doric or- der, with pilaster fronts, and facade of Dayton marble. It occupies the scite of the former col- lege, which building was destroyed some time since by fire; being on the east side of Walnut, between Fourth and Fifth streets. It is of three stories, exclusive of an attic, the whole front be- ing one hundred and forty fect front by one hun- dred in depth, and sixty in height. The cdifice was commenced in April last, and will be fin- ished in the course of April next; at a cost of $35,000.
The ground story in front is divided into cight spacious rooms for stores. In the rcar of these are three spacious halls, originally intended for
¡ the Temperance Societies, being respectively 40 by 19, 40 by 35, and 40 by 60. The front range on the second floor is designed for the accommo- dation of the Young Mens' Library Association and Merchants' Exchange and Reading Rooms. The exchange will be 45 by 59; the reading and library rooms each 45 by 29. There is also a room 14 by 16 for the use of the directors. In the rear of these will be the great hall of the build- ing for public meetings of the citizens, which will be one of the finest rooms in the city, being 136 long by 50 feet broad and 31 feet high.
The various study and recitation rooms appro- priate to the college itself are in the third story, and occupy a space of 45 by 136 feet, being the whole length of the building.
The attic is subdivided into a gallery for the academy of fine arts, 59 by 25, a room for chemi- cal and philosophical apparatus, and the lecture room of the law school connected with the col- lege. Fourteen spacious offices occupy the en- tire range in the rear.
The whole will be thoroughly lighted by gas, and is properly ventilated with suitable passages and openings, and an ample amount of daylight secured in the rear for the benefit of the rooms and offices which face in that direction.
The entire building is roofed in the most sub- stantial manner; is finished with projecting stone cornice, and will be surmounted with a cupola modeled on a design taken from the tower of the winds at Athens.
One million of brieks, besides a large quantity of building and ornamental stone, has been em- ployed in the construction of this edifice.
The Covington Bridge.
A bridge over the Ohio, to connect Covington with our city, is exciting great interest, and at the the same time no little controversy and prejudice. For myself I have no hesitation in expressing a favourable opinion of the project, if it shall prove that a suspension bridge without piers can be con- structed for the general convenience. But I should deem it unwise to risk the safety of our landings, and freedom from obstruction to the Ohio channel by the erection of piers in the river.
The following, which is copied from the " Union," of the 10th, is more to the point than any thing I can write. I must, however, cor- rect Mr. Roebling on the width of the Ohio, which has been ascertained to be over eight hun- dred yards-double the breadth he assigns it.
We have been shown a letter addressed to a highly respectable citizen herc-from John A. Roebling, Esq .- the architect of the new Monon- gahela suspension bridge-from which we make an extract, below. In the opinion of Mr. Roe- bling, the project of a bridge across the Ohio, at
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the point proposed, seems clearly feasible-and [ we give place to such portions of the letter, as will be interesting to our citizens-and those who feel an interest in the success of the undertaking. "The letter dates at-
PITTSBURGHI, Jan. 31, 1845.
A Wire Suspension Bridge can be constructed at Cincinnati, which would span the Ohio, in one single arch, leave the river entirely unob- structed, form a perfectly safe communication with the Kentucky side at all seasons of the year, prove the best paying stock, and the same time, a great ornament to the city, and one of the most remarkable works of modern engineer- ing. A span of 1200 feet, (which I believe is the width of the river at the contemplated site,) is perfectly practicable, and far within safe limits of the capacity of well constructed Wire Cables. The size of the cables, and other means applied, must of course be in proportion. The distance from the ends of the approaches to the centre of the river would be sufficient to admit of a gen- eral ascent of, say forty fect. Add to this the height of the abutments of, say from fifty to sixty feet, and you have a height of ninety to one hun- dred feet above the river, sufficient to clear steam- boats at a high stage of water.
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