USA > Ohio > Butler County > Hamilton in Butler County > The centennial anniversary of the city of Hamilton, Ohio, September 17-19, 1891 > Part 9
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And now began in earnest the settling of the state. Forty eight officers ind soldiers of the Revolutionary war who had served with honor during the
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war, marched over the mountains, took flatboats on the Ohio River and on the 7th of April 1788, landed at Marietta and proceeded to build fortifica- tions for their protection, and homes in which to live, and adopted rules for their goverment until suitable officers should arrive.
As Governor of the new territory President Washington appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, a man in every way qualified for the position. Born at Thurso, in Carthness, Scotland in the year 1734, educated at the University at Edinburgh, studying the science of medicine under the famous physician Dr. William Hunter of London, his tastes yet lead him to that of arms. He became an ensign in the British army and in 1788 arrived at Amherst before Louisburg. There with Wolfe Moncton, Murray and Laurens he found his youthful ardor stirred to deeds of heroism, and for his part in the affair at Louisburg, a lieutenant's commission was issued to him and he assigned to the command of Gen. Wolfe who had been selected to reduce Quebec. On · the 13th of September 1759, on the Plains of Abraham was decided the fate of the French nation in America and the thrilling history of that battle has embalmed in history, among the bravest of the brave, both the opposing leaders Wolfe and Montcton. In the fatal struggle on the Plain, Lieut. St. Clair seized the colors which had fallen from the hands of a dying soldier and bore them until the field was won by the British. St. Clair was in all the struggles and privations of the war until the French capitulated Sept. 8, 1760.
He then obtained a furlough, came to Boston, married Miss Phœbe Bayard an accomplished lady who brought as her marriage portion $70,000 and this with his own savings made him a wealthy man. Resigning his com- mission in the army, he moved to the Lagonia Valley in western Pennsyl- vania where he had a large tract of land, erected a fine residence and a grist mill, the first one in the valley, and entered actively into the duties of civil life in opening up and improving that most beautiful valley. He was appoint- ed surveyor for the district of Cumberland, Justice of the Court of Quarter Sessions, and Common Pleas member of the Governors Council.
When the differences arose between Great Britain and the Colonists, he at once espoused the side of the latter. Congress issue to him the commission of Colonel, and President Hancock addressed him a letter pressing him to come at once to Philadelphia and take his command. Although surrounded as he was with affluence, a rising and happy family, he at once bade them adieu and obeyed the summons, saying : "I hold that no man has a right to withhold his services when his country needs them. Be the sacrifice ever so great it must be yielded up on the altar of his country."
It would be interesting, had I time to follow in detail the various events in the life of St. Clair. He was in nearly all the battles of the Revolution side by side with Washington, rose rapidly to the post of Major General for meritorious services, honored by the warm friendship of Washington which
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he never lost; a friend and assistant of Lafayette, President of the Continental Congress. Handsome in form, dignified in bearing, he was a national leader winning all hearts. He was brave in battle and fertile in resources. His character is well illustrated by an incident. When our army was in the dead of winter at night pressing on the attack of Princeton, one of the officers rode up and informed him that the guns of his command could not be fired because their powder was all wet, and inquired of the General what he should do, "Push on and charge bayonets" was the ready response.
By accepting the Governorship of the Northwestern territory he sacri- ficed his fortune, the comforts of his home and brilliant political prospects there. He arrived at Marietta on the 9th of July 1788 and organized the new territory in September.
Judge John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, who had been a delegate in Congress and was now Chief Justice of that state made application to the Government in August 1787 for the purchase of a large body of lands lying at the mouth of the Big Miami, thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Little Miami so as to include a million of acres, and after repeated negotia- tions supposing his contrast closed, he started for the new purchase in July 1788, with a train of fourteen four-horse wagons and sixty persons to seek locations. He came over the Allegheny mountains and by way of Pittsburgh and Wheeling in flatboats, stopping a brief time at Marietta to confer with the inhabitants there and then came down the river to the mouth of the Little Miami River and exploring the interior of the country afterwards settled at North Bend sixteen miles below Cincinnati.
On the 28th of December 1788, Isreal Ludlow, Matthias Denman, Rob- ert Patterson, Joel Williams and twenty-three others amid floating ice that covered the river from shore to shore landed at Cincinnati and proceeded to lay out and survey the town.
In the meantime the Indians became very restive under the now appa- rent determination of the whites to make large and permanent settlements in the territory.
So far as history records there had not at any time been in Ohio or Ken- tucky before that any large or permanent settlements of Indians below a line drawn from Erie, Pennsylvania through where Cleveland now is, throngh Sandusky, and below Fort Meigs on the Maumee River to Fort Wayne and then to Chicago. The country below was a hunting and fishing ground, claim- ed by several tribes as I have before said, but each fearing to risk the ven- gence of the others by taking exclusive possession. The small settlements on the Miamis, Scioto and Muskingum rivers and at Wapokonetta, Laramie and other points seemed more like sentinel posts, to watch the encoachments of other tribes or that of the whites.
The chief headquarters of the various tribes were along the lakes and especially so after the treaty of 1788 restricting them within their boundaries.
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At the junction of the Auglaize and St. Mary's now Defiance, they had a large village; seven large villages between that and the neighborhood of Fort Wayne the Capital, where was the Great Miami villages at the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph Rivers. Their lines of fortification were established at every important point, and these were their permanent habi- tations, drawing supplies of ammunition and other necessaries from the St. Lawrence River at Quebeck or Montreal, and from the French or English as each had control. Thence they sallied East, South and West down the various streams, and by portages across the land from one river to another down the various streams leading to the Ohio and Mississippi River, when going on the expeditions of war or the chase, and thither as to a citadel they returned bringing back the trophies of the war or the chase.
From these strong holds they sent out predatory bands to attack all the settlements in Ohio, and to prevent its permanent occupancy by the whites. To meet these attacks and keep the Indians in subjection, it was determined by the general Government to establish a fort at the best and most convenient point on the Ohio River, as a basis of supply of military aid. The site was selected in 1789 by Capt Strong, Lieut. Kingsbury, Ensign Hartshorn, Capt. Ferguson and Major Doughty, who came down from Fort Harmer with seventy men to clear the ground and erect the Fort. The site selected was opposite the mouth of the Licking at what now is the territory in Cincinnati bounded by Broadway and Ludlow Streets, and Third and Fourth Streets. Gen. St. Clair arrived Jan. 2, 1790, and named it Fort Washington, and thenceforth for a number of years it was the headquarters of the United. States Army in the West, and from it all military expeditions started. During this year, the Indians seemed bent on annihilating every settlement by torch, tomahawk and scalping knife. All efforts at peace or reconciliation appeared useless and the government determined to send a force into their stronghold at Fort Wayne to inflict severe chastisement on them, Gen. Harmer, a brave and meritorious officer was sent with 320 regular troops from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 1133 drafted militia from Pennsylvania and Kentucky. He proceeded on his toilsome journey and on the 30th of September, 1790, arrived at the Indian towns on the Maumee River, near Fort Wayne and destroyed a number of villages and laid waste their corn fields. On return- ing he was attacked by a large uumber of Indians firing from their ambush, and compelled to retreat to Fort Washington, after having lost a large num- ber of men. This has been called in history "Harmers Defeat," but General William H. Harrison, after fully examining the evidence, declares it was not a defeat, but that Harmer was a brave and patriotic officer and had complete- ly accomplished the purpose for which he went and that he made so brave a defense that the Indians had nothing to boast of, inasmuch as they made no effort to attack or even to harass the army in its return to Fort Washington.
Gen. Harmer had in the Revolutionary war acquired the confidence in
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a very high degree not only of Washington, but of Wayne and Mifflin and an exaggerated account of his defeat was the cause of his having been sus- pended from his command by Gen. St. Clair and leaving for Philadelphia. The account of this defeat as it was called, struck terror to all the terri- tory, it revived the old cry that "it had become a slaughter house."
The Government became alive to the real danger and determined to send Colonel Thomas Proctor as messenger to the western Indians with offers of peace and to be accompanied by some of the Iriquois chiefs favorable to America ; and also to organize an army in the west to strike the Wea, Miami and Shawnee towns, in case the peace message failed. His efforts did fail. He had obtained the consent of a number of Iroquois chiefs to go with him, provided a passage could be had by water; but the British commander at Niagara would not allow an English ves-el to be hired to convey the Ambas- sador up Lake Erie, and as no other could be obtained the matter failed. To show the feeling of Col. Gordon the British commander, he wrote a letter to Capt. Brant, the mohawk chief, saying the American states "wish to im- press the Indians with their own consequence and of the little influence they would willingly believe we possess. Had they requested the British gov- ernment to bring about| peace the measure would have been fully accom- plished long before this. Yes they would have had such a peace as the "Lion maketh with the Lamb."
On the 4th of March, 1791, under an act of Congress, President Wash- ington appointed Gen. Arthur St. Clair, Major General of all the troops to be employed on the frontiers, with directions from Gen. Knox, Secretary of War, to march to the frontiers Country, and endeavor to effect a just, liberal and lasting peace with all the tribes, but failing in this to use such coercive means as he saw proper and had the means of using, and he was authorized to establish such posts to communicate with Fort Washington, on the Ohio as he might judge proper. At the same time an expedition was ordered to be made by Gen. Charles Scott of Kentucky, against the Indians on the Wabash.
Gen. St. Clair began to organize his forces. All necessary material of men, horses and ammunition were being received at Pittsburgh with inten- tion to be ready to march by the Fourth of July. Gen. St. Clair arrived at Fort Washington on the 15th of May, and found that the entire troops of the United States in the West numbered only two hundred and sixty four privates and officers. This was doubled by the middle of July.
Gen. Richard Butler was appointed second in command, and was em- ployed in raising recruits, but there was no money to pay them, nor to pro- vide provisions. Everything in the Quarter-Masters department was de- ficient in quanity and quality, the powder poor or injured, the arms and accountrements out of repair, and no tools to repair them. The troops from Pittsburgh were detained upon the River and gathered slowly in detach·
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ments at Fort Washington, and to remove them from the temptation of intem- perance which abounded in the vicinity of the Fort, Gen. St. Clair ordered their removal to Ludlow Station, now the upper part of Cincinnati, near College Hill, junction on the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton R. R. Here the Army remained until the 17th of September.
As a precautionary measure, the point to which the Army was to march being at a great distance through a pathless wilderness, he determined to erect Forts at suitable points for furnishing supplies to the troops, for their shelter and also for the protection of the settlers, if any were in that neighbor- hood. His engineers had already marked out a site at the crossing of the Miami where Hamilton now stands. Capt. John Armstrong who afterwards commanded at this Fort was here on the 2nd and 3rd of August. On the 30th of August, Gen. St. Clair directed Major Hamktramc ' to move with the troops under his command as soon as the surveyors return from the Miami and report that the route from the Camp to the bank of that river is laid out, move by either of the two lines Mr. Gano has marked out; open a road for the passage of the artillery and two pieces will be sent to you ; Choose a defensible position such as may admit the troops of about three. hundred men now here under command of Colonel Darke." His directions for building the Fort are interesting and explicit. "Major Ferguson has orders to mark out the ground for a small fort to be enclosed with pickets. You will employ all the men that can possibly be spared for that purpose, in cutting down pickets, pointing them, and carrying to the place where they are to be put up, agreeable to such directions as Major Ferguson may give. The work will require about twelve hundred pickets. It is my idea that the best way to get it soon finished, is to give the men an easy task for the day and when they have performed it, that they should be dismissed. I suppose three men will very easily cut down, butt and point five pickets, and that seven more, (six of whom with handspikes) will carry them to the ground. If the working parties, then, are divided into squads of ten men, in every one of which there should be three good axe men, and furnished with poles the exact length the pickets are to be cut to, and a sufficient number of officers and non commisioned officers to over see them, the business would be very soon completed and I take the liberty to recommend this method."
But alas the very soon completion did not come. Gen. Knox Secre- tary of War was urging and pressing St. Clair to move and on the 24th of September wrote to the President that everything at Camp Ludlow was lovely, "that the horses for the Quarter Masters'department for transporting the provisions and for the Artillery were provided, and the artillery and ammunition for the infantry were in readiness and the troops which had assembled on the 15th of August, had on that day moved forward to the crossing of Miami and reached the first post of communication."
But alas, military matters and army contractors were as uncertain in
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those days as in late years. When the sanguine Secretary of War was con- templating, Gen. St. Clair and his hosts at Fort Hamilton, the General was at Fort Washington, and there for more than a month after until the 18th of September, and instead of the rosy color of the readiness of Camp, equipage for soldiers to march, the actual condition as testified to by Major Zeigler was "the pack saddles were too large," the tents infamous, ends being made of crocus" "many hundred dozens of cartridges destroyed," and "the troops not being kept dry were sick in great numbers," "that the clothing for the levees was infamous, as many who arrived at Fort Washington were almost naked" "the powder was tried and found very weak," "that it would carry a ball but a small distance compared with genuine powder," "the axes were too soft and when used would bend up like a dumpling," "the hospital stores were particularly bad."
"That Gen. St. Clair was the first up in the morning, going from shop to shop to inspect the preparations and was extremely uneasy at the delay and bad condition of affairs. He was really chief artisan and superitended the construction and repair of everything."
But on the 17th of September about three hundred men did start from Fort Ludlow to build Fort Hamilton and were occupied fifteen days in par- tially building it. Gen. St. Clair said of it, that early in September 1791 under the superintendency of Gen. Butler, Col. Drake and Gibson a fort was laid out on the ground previously reconnoitered to cover the passage of the Miami River, and to form the first link in the chain of communication be- tween Fort Washington and the ultimate object of the campaign. It was a stockade work about fifty yards square, with four bastions, and platforms for cannon on two of them.
On the 30th of September the fort being nearly completed two pieces of artillery were placed upon it and it was named "Fort Hamilton," in honor of Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury; At what exact date the ba'ance of the army left Camp Ludlow for Fort Hamilton the historians differ, and there is much confusion in their statements.
Their march evidently was a slow one, leaving Ludlow their course was across through what is now Spring Grove Cemetery thence up the Winton Road on to Hamilton, encamping first on the prairie south of the fort, and about where the church now stands,
Their march was through a heavily timbered country, the season was wet, and they were ordered to cut the road twenty feet wide for ninety miles, this, and the building of bridges, greatly delayed them. One day it is said, they marched but a mile and a half, and beside this there was a great scarcity of provisions, the men were frequently on half allowance, and they waited until the Quarter-Master went back and hurried it up.
When the army arrived here, it consisted of only two thousand men in. stead of three thousand effectives promised by the government. A general
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description of the fort I take from the history of Butler County. The site selected was immediately on the bank of the river. The upper end of the fort was nearly opposite to where the east end of the bridge from High St. on the Miami River is, and the lower part where the United Presbyterian Church now stands. The ground was then thickly covered with timber, the first thing done was to clear the ground of timber for two or three hundred yards all around. The fort was a stockade work, the whole circuit of which was about one thousand feet, throughout the whole extent of which a trench three feet deep was dug to set in the pickets. The fort was on the first bank of the river, the second bank where the Court House now stands being con_ siderably elevated and within point blank shot, rendered it necessary to have the pickets so high on the land side as to prevent the enemy from seeing in. Four good bastions were made of trunks of trees, one at the northeast angle in High Street, south of where the Post Office now is, north of First Street, on this was a high platform to scour the country and another was on the bastion toward the river to command the ford (which was then opposite the lower part of the town) and the river up and down. Barracks were erected inside for the accommodation of the officers and the one hundred men. Two store houses, a guard room and some other necessary buildings were erected. The magazine stood at the southeast of the fort near where the United Presbyterian Church now stands. It was built of large square timber, the sides coming close together, and covered with a hip roof. It was used for a jail for many years after the organization of Butler County.
The officers mess room stood near the rear end of the Universalist Church. It was a frame building, forty feet long and twenty feet wide and weatherboarded with rough plank and set on wooden blocks three feet high. The planks for platform, gates and other work and barracks were sawed by the men with a whip saw, often in the work of getting out timber they had only one axe for three men. General Richard Butler 2nd. in command and Capt. Denny, Aid-de camp to Gen. St. Clair joined the army here September 27th, and the army was inspected and mustered by Col. Mentgez, inspector of the army. While they lay here, fifty seven horses were stolen by the In- dians in one drove, and on the night of the 3d of October, the night before the army marched, twenty-one men deserted. The army marched on the 4th of October leaving a detachment of troops at the fort to garrison it, under command of Capt John Armstrong.
Gen. St Clair returned to Fort Washington to organize some militia from Kentucky. On the morning of October 4th at eight o'clock the army started under command of Gen. Richard Butler. They crossed the river opposite the lower end of Hamilton and marched a mile and a half to Two Mile Creek and camped on lands since owned by Mr. McClelland. The country was entered unknown to the army, no person with it had ever been through it.
The order of march as directed by Gen. St. Clair was "Ist. a small party
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of riflemen, with Surveyor John S Gano to mark the course of the road ; 2nd. the road cutters with soldiers to protect them ; 3d. the advanced guard ; 4th. the army in two columns, with one piece of artillery in front, one in the center, and one in the rear of each column. In the space between the two columns was to march the remaining artillery, designed for the forts to be erected, then the horses with the tents and provisions, then the cattle with their guards who were to remove them in case the enemy appeared. Be- yond the columns at the distance of about one hundred yards, was to march the cavalry in file, and beyond them at the same distance, a party of riflemen and scouts for escorts, and then other riflemen to follow the rear guard at a proper distance."
This was a most admirable order for watching an enemy and if neces- sary forming immediately into battle order.
But this order was changed by Gen. Butler so as to compel the troops to march in one line which required a road to be opened forty feet wide.
October 5th they marched over the hill to Four Mile Creek and encamp- ed where the Fearnot mill has since been built, thence to Seven Mile and en- camped on the east side in the southeast of Sec. 24 on lands of Robert Lytle, in Milfotd Township and gave the names to the streams corresponding with the distances from Fort Hamilton, they continued their march north near the east line of Milford Township.
Gen. St. Clair rejoined the army on the 8th and disapproved of the change of the order of march as made by Gen. Butler. Gen. Butler apolo- gized and gave his reasons for the change, which were not satisfaciory to Gen. St. Clair, who however permitted it to remain for some days as it might have a bad effect on the officers to see the Commanding Generals disagree, but directed as they advanced into the country where the enemy was likely to be, the original order of march should be resumed.
On the 12th of October they reached a point six miles south of Green- ville, Darke County, and began the erection of Fort Jefferson an earth work, (now a station on the Cincinnati, Jackson & MackinawR. R.) it was com- pleted, and on the 24th the toilsome march through the wilderness began with very hard rains every night. Gen. St. Clair whose duties through the summer had been very severe, was suffering from severe indispositions, provi. sions were scarce, the roads wet and heavy, the troops marching with mud and difficulty, seven miles a day ; the militia de serting sixty at a time ; thus toil- ing along, their numbers lessening by sickness, desertion; and troops sent to arrest deserters, they on the 3rd of November arrived at a branch of the Wabash River where the town of Fort Recovery now is, in Mercer County, 29 miles from Fort Jefferson and on the banks of the creek the army re- duced to about fourteen hundred men encamped in two lines.
The spies of the enemy were everywhere about them ; on the 11th fresh
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