USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 26
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called Cahokia, where a few bold pioneers had built their huts, probably for the purpose of trading with the Indians for furs. Here the governor organized the county of St. Clair. It embraced the whole vast territory between the Wabash on the east, the Ohio on the south, and the Mississippi on the west.
Two years had now elapsed since the Mayflower, floating down the Ohio, had landed its energetic party of emigrants at the mouth of the Muskingum. The settlements in that region, and the population had so rapidly increased that the militia rolls of the county comprised four hundred and forty-seven men, fit for mili- tary duty. Of these, one hundred and three were heads of fami- lies. The whole population amounted to twenty-five hundred souls. During the two years quite a number of individuals had been cut off by the lurking savages.
Eighteen months had passed since the settlement in the Miami country. The increase there had been fully as rapid as in Wash- ington County. They already counted a population of two thou- sand souls. They had also the advantage of quite a large detach- ment of regular troops stationed at Fort Washington. In both regions the annoyance and danger from the Indians had been continually increasing. The settlers were compelled to protect themselves with great care within their fortified stations, and in their block-houses. It was no longer deemed safe to extend their settlements farther into the country. Concentration rather than dispersion became essential. The Indians loitered around the settlements, and it was observed that they were carefully study- ing the nature of the defenses. It became unsafe to venture from their inclosures. Many had been waylaid, robbed and murdered in their advance from one settlement to another. The foe lurked under every bush and covert. Many negro slaves, preferring . freedom with the Indian to slavery under the white man, had fled from their masters in Kentucky, and found refuge and a cordial welcome in the wigwam of the savage. These negroes were often not unwilling to avenge the intolerable wrongs which they had received from their oppressors.
The danger had become so great that " a reign of terror " may be said to have commenced in all these hamlets. The executive council issued a decree, ordaining it to be a penal offense for any one to harbor an Indian or a negro, without first reporting him to the military commandant. All male settlers were commanded to
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go armed on every occasion. When at work in the fields senti- nels were always to be posted in some position which would ena- ble them to give warning on the approach of danger. Several of the Shawanese tribes had repudiated the treaty of peace, and the Wabash tribes had not been parties to it. It is not known that any of the tribes who had signed the treaty had proved false to their pledges. The foe assailing the settlements was invisible and unpronounced.
On the seventh of August, 1789, a surveying party was out in the Miami country. It consisted of Mr. Mathews, a surveyor, with four assistants and a guard of seven soldiers. One morn- ing, just before leaving the camp, they were all gathered around their fire, taking breakfast, when two guns were fired upon them, from Indians in ambush. One man fell, instantly killed. The other bullet passed through the bosom of Mr. Mathews' shirt, just grazing the skin. As the men sprang to their feet, the forest seem to resound with the war-whoop of the savages, and another more deadly volley was poured in upon them. Six of the soldiers fell dead. Of the whole party of twelve, five only remained. This was the work of an instant. The survivors fled in various directions, and, after enduring great suffering, reached places of safety.
The settlements in the vicinity of Cincinnati, were perhaps more exposed than those on the Muskingum. They were in what is called the old war-path of the savages. Nearly all the Indian trails from Lake Erie, led down the Valleys of the Miamis to the Ohio. Thence the savage warriors crossing the river in their canoes, ascended the Valley of the Licking, spreading desolation and death among the settlements in Kentucky. The tribes on the upper waters of the Great and Little Miami, and in the Valleys of the Sandusky and the Maumee, had been almost entirely under the influence of the British, and through the influence of the British traders, as we have mentioned, they still continued hostile in their feelings.
In September, 1790, General Josiah Harmar collected quite a large force where Covington now is, on the Kentucky side of the river, opposite Cincinnati. An expedition was then arranged to sweep through the whole Miami Valleys, with a resistless force which should punish the guilty and overawe, by the exhibition of power, all the Indian tribes. General Harmar was appointed
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commander, with three hundred Federal troops and eleven hun- dred and thirty-three volunteer militia, from Pennsylvania, West- ern Virginia and Kentucky. This gave him an army of more than fourteen hundred men-a large force for those days and that region. Colonel John Hardin was in command of the Kentucky volunteers, and Major John Paul led the battalion of Pennsylva- nia and Virginia volunteers.
Encumbered with baggage, they were compelled to cut a road along the narrow war trail of the Indian. Thus, it was seventeen days before they could reach the Indian towns on the Maumee. The savages consequently had ample notice of their approach. They fled, and carried off with them everything which was trans- portable, and set fire to their huts. It was the fifteenth of Octo- ber when General Harmar reached what was called the Great Village of the Miamis. For sometime he was quite embarrassed to know what course to follow. To pursue the Indians would indeed be like giving chase to a flea upon the mountains. To return from so expensive and imposing a campaign, to which the whole country had been directed, having accomplished nothing, would indeed be humiliating.
After the tarry of a few days, General Harmar sent out detach- ments to small neighboring villages, which they also found deser- ted. Five of these they burned, besides destroying large quantities of corn and other vegetables. In one of these excursions the fresh trail of a large party of Indians was discovered. The com- mander immediately sent a party of two hundred and thirty men in pursuit. Eighty of these were regular troops. The remaining one hundred and fifty were Kentucky volunteers. They were all under the command of Colonel Hardin, of Kentucky.
After a march of six miles, without meeting with any signs of a foe, they were crossing a narrow plain, bordered by thickets, when suddenly they were attacked by a large number of Indians, completely encircling them, in ambuscade. Strange as it appears, the Kentucky volunteers, terrified probably by the remembrance of the massacre of Blue Licks, broke and fled, to a man, without returning a single shot. The regular troops were left alone to combat an unseen foe, of whose numbers they were entirely igno- rant. The conflict was short and bloody. The largely outnum- bering savages fired with unerring aim upon their clearly defined foes, and, in a few moments, every man had fallen, except two or
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three privates and two or three officers. The escape of some of these seemed almost miraculous.
In the confusion of the rout and carnage, as Ensign Hartshorn was frantically running, he stumbled over a decaying log beneath which there chanced to be a small cavity. Unseen he crept into it and drew the withered leaves around him. Thus he remained in the most dreadful agonies of suspense, till the savages had retired. There chanced to be a marshy pond overgrown with tall grass and reeds, within six hundred feet of the battle ground. Captain Armstrong plunged into the pond so burying himself in the water and mire as merely to be able to breathe. Here he remained during the long hours of the afternoon and the night.
The exultant savages rushed from their coverts upon the plain. They built their triumphant fires. They yelled, they danced, they clashed their weapons in the exuberance of their demoniac joy. They scalped and mangled the bodies of the slain. They scalped the wounded while still living, and then like incarnate fiends tortured them to death, the shrieks of the victims blending with the war cries of their tormentors. In the morning the sav- ages retired and Captain Armstrong succeeded in reaching his friends in safety.
Two days after this disaster, General Harmar, being satisfied that nothing more could be accomplished, commenced his return. Colonel Hardin was intensely chagrined by the disastrous and disgraceful result of his expedition. He was very anxious to retrieve his reputation before he should return to meet his fellow citizens in Kentucky. After the army had advanced about ten miles on their homeward route, he represented to Gen. Harmar that the savages, whose scouts were known to be extremely vigi- lant, would undoubtedly have been apprised of the retirement of the troops, and would by that time have returned in large num- bers to their old homes. He, therefore, urged that he should be allowed to take five hundred militia, and sixty regulars, to march back rapidly upon the town, and attacking the savages by sur- prise, inflict upon them signal vengeance. The expedition was immediately organized and sent forward on its march.
The wary Indians, who seemed often on these occasions to manifest more military sagacity than the white men, kept them- selves informed of every movement. They stationed a small body of warriors at a carefully selected spot, who, after a short
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conflict, fled in a direction not towards the town. The whole body of the militia pursued them pell-mell, while the regulars slowly continued their march along the trail. The savages having thus adroitly separated their foes, fell with their whole force upon the little party of regulars. The bravery and impetuosity of this attack were extraordinary in the highest degree. The savages actually threw down their rifles and rushed with the tomahawk two or three to one, upon the bayonets of the soldiers. All except nine were speedily killed.
The Indians then, as if satisfied with their accomplishments, retired into their fastnesses. General Harmar, with the remainder of his force, returned from his inglorious campaign to Fort Wash- ington. His loss amounted to one hundred and eighty - three in killed and thirty-one wounded.
The effect of this campaign exasperated and encouraged the Indians. The war whoop resounded through all their tribes. Those Indians who were disposed to friendly relations were over- powered by the impetuous flood of savage enthusiasm. All the settlements in the Great Valley, in Western Pennsylvania, West- ern Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, were alike menaced. The emigrants had much more to lose and much more cause to dread war than had the Indians. The farm-houses of the settlers were widely scattered. The burning of a frontier village, with the scalping and torturing of men, women and children, was a horror which no language can exaggerate. To burn the wigwam of a savage was comparatively a light catastrophe. He had no house- hold furniture. A few hours' labor would replace his hut. He was in no danger, either himself, his wife or his children of being scalped and tortured.
The perils to which the frontiers were exposed were terrible. In view of them the stoutest heart might quail. In view of them the most earnest petitions were sent to President Washington to authorize the raising of a force sufficiently powerful effectually to protect the frontiers. President Washington had in person wit- nessed all the horrors of savage warfare. He knew well how to sym- pathize with these suffering pioneers. Promptly he persuaded Congress, in the session which terminated on the third of March, 1791, to authorize him to raise a regiment of regulars and two thousand volunteers, to serve for six months. Immediate and vigorous measures were adopted for a new campaign.
CHAPTER XVII.
GOVERNOR ARTHUR ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT.
GOVERNOR ST. CLAIR, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF - DISSATISFACTION ARISING -KENTUCKY TROOPS DESERT- GENERAL ST. CLAIR'S ENCAMPMENT - INDIAN SAGACITY - TERRIBLE ATTACK ON THE MILITIA - COLONEL DRAKE'S CHARGE - GENERAL ST. CLAIR'S REPORT OF THE BATTLE - LOSS OF THE AMERICANS- ACCOUNT OF MAJOR JACOBS - THRILLING INCIDENTS - CAP- TAIN LITTELL'S ESCAPES - INDIAN TORTURES - REASONS FOR INDIAN SUCCESS - LITTLE TURTLE AND VOLNEY - BUCKON- GAHELAS - BLUE JACKET.
BY AN Act of Congress of 1781, Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Northwestern Territory, was also appointed Major General "and Commander-in-Chief of the military forces. An army of two thousand men, including artillery and cavalry, assembled at Fort Washington. After many vexatious delays and disappointments the march was commenced, up what was called the Maumee Valley. The obstructions to the advance of such an army were so great that its progress was very slow. Crossing over the eastern branch of the Great Miami, they erected a strong block-house about twenty miles north from Cincinnati. Leaving a small gar- rison at this post, which they named Fort Hamilton, they advanced some twenty miles further, where they erected and garrisoned an- other fort, to which they gave the name of St. Clair. Still continuing their uninterrupted journey, they erected and garrisoned a third fortress, to which they gave the name of Fort Jefferson. But five or six weeks had been employed in these enterprises.
For some unexplained reason there was great dissatisfaction in the camp. There had been very great mismanagement in the supply of provisions, and the providing of stores. When they reached a point about ninety miles from Fort Washington, sixty of the Kentuckians, disgusted with short rations, slow progress,
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and approaching snow storms, in a body shouldered their muskets, and bidding defiance to all authority commenced their march homewards. General St. Clair was daily expecting the arrival of provisions, in a caravan of wagons. Apprehensive that the de- serters might seize these wagons, he hastily detached quite a large force to pursue the deserters, attack them if necessary, and rescue and protect the wagons. These various operations so diminished his forces, that his main army now consisted of but fourteen hund- red men. His march became toilsome and difficult. The dreary month of November had come, with its storms of wind and rain. The route in a northwest direction, led through a flat, marshy, inhospitable region, covered with a dense forest. There was no road through these gloomy wilds. The ax had to be incessantly in use, in felling the trees, often of gigantic size, and in removing the stumps to open a passage for the baggage wagons and artillery. The heavily laden wheels often sank to their hubs.
Governor St. Clair was aged, infirm, and was suffering severely from the gout. It certainly indicated a want of judgment in him under those circumstances to have undertaken the leadership in so arduous a campaign. And it cannot be denied that he was en- tirely outgeneraled by the Indian chiefs. On the third of November the army reached a point about a hundred and twenty-five miles north from Fort Washington. They were still fifty miles from the Indian towns of the Maumee, which they were on the march to destroy. It was a dismal day, with chill winds, and the ground covered with snow. The soldiers were weary, and their feet were soaked with water. Cutting their way through the almost pathless forest, they approached a creek, about forty feet wide, which proved to be one of the tributaries of the Wabash. There was a small meadow on the banks of this stream, while the dense forest spread gloomily all around. Here General St. Clair took up his encamp- ment for the night. He sent the militia across the creek by a ford, as the advanced guards of the army. They bivouacked in two parallel lines, with the space of about two hundred feet between them.
Skilled in the use of the ax, they speedily cut down the trees, and roaring fires blazed in the intervening space, illuminating the forest far and wide, and enabling both parties to cook their suppers, and enjoy the genial warmth. No scouts were sent out, for all were nearly perishing with cold and weariness, and there were no
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indications whatever that any foe was at hand. But the cunning savages, in large numbers, were in the forest, watching every movement, and selecting their positions, every man behind a tree, from which, unseen and protected, the bullet could be thrown with unerring aim upon their foe, grouped together without any shelter.
Upon the other side of the creek, the regulars were stationed in the same way, drawn up in two lines, and their camp-fires between. They also cut down trees, and gathered around the fires which revealed every movement to their savage foe. It would seem that if the chief had directed General St. Clair how to post his troops, so as to secure their destruction, the work could not have been more effectually done.
The night passed away in quietude. But through the long hours of the night the savages, unseen and unheard, as with the silent tread of the panther, were making their preparations for the slaughter. It afterwards was made known that they were actually making themselves merry over the folly of the white men who were thus exposing themselves to certain destruction.
The day had just began to dawn, and the militia on the farther side of the creek, in thoughtless confusion, were preparing their breakfast, when the yell of a thousand savages fell upon their ears, followed by the report of musketry, and a deadly discharge of bullets. Scarcely one missed its aim. The slaughter was so dread- ful, that the panic-stricken militia fled instantly, and with the utmost precipitation. Many of them did not stop to pick up their guns. They plunged pell-mell through the creek, broke resistlessly through the first line, and stopped a tumultuous, helpless mass, at the second. All this was the work of but fifteen minutes. And now the little army of less than a thousand men, huddled together in terror-stricken confusion, were exposed to a deadly fire from every direction. No foe to be seen, except when here and there a warrior darted from the protection of one gigantic tree to another. There was no room for courage, for bravery, save to meet death without a tremor. There was no room for. heroism, save to fire or to charge upon an invisible foe.
Colonel Drake was in command of the second line of regulars when the flight of the militia had been arrested. He succeeded in forming his line, and charged into the forest. The wary In- dians in that portion of the circumference, retired before him. while a storm of bullets from all around was rapidly striking down
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his men. As Drake again drew back to his position, the Indians followed like the closing in of the waves of the sea. It seems as if a large party of Indian sharp-shooters had been specially des- ignated to attack the artillerymen. In a short time, every man at the guns was shot down. Not an hour elapsed from the com- mencement of the conflict, before one-half of the men of St. Clair's army were either killed or wounded, and nearly every horse was shot.
In the Governor's official account of this awful disaster, he writes :
"Our artillery being now silenced, and all the officers killed, except Captain Ford, who was badly wounded, more than half of the army fallen, being cut off from the road, it became necessary to attempt the regaining it, and to make a retreat if possible. To this purpose the remains of the army were formed, as well as cir- cumstances would admit, towards the right of the encampment; from which, by the way of the second line, another charge was made upon the enemy, as if with the design to turn their right. flank, but it was, in fact, to gain the road. This was effected, and as soon as it was open the militia entered it, followed by the troops, Major Clarke, with his battalion, covering the rear. The retreat in these circumstances was, you may be sure, a precipitate one. It was in fact a flight. The camp and artillery were aban- doned. But that was unavoidable, as not a horse was left alive to have drawn it off, had it otherwise been practicable.
"But the most disgraceful part of the business is, that the greatest part of the men threw away their arms and accouter- ments, even after the pursuit, which continued about four miles, had ceased. I found the road strewed with them for many miles, but was not able to remedy it; for having had all my horses killed, and being mounted on one that could not be pricked out of a walk, I could not get forward myself. The orders I sent forward, either to halt the front or prevent the men from parting with their arms, were unattended to. The rout continued quite to Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles, which was reached a little after sunset. The action began about half an hour before sun- rise, and the retreat was attempted at half-past nine o'clock.
"I have now, sir, finished my melancholy tale; a tale that will be felt, sensibly felt, by every one that has sympathy for private distress, or for public misfortune. I have nothing to lay to the
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charge of the troops, but their want of discipline, which from the short time they had been in service, it was impossible they should have acquired, and which rendered it difficult when they were thrown into confusion to reduce them again to order; and is one reason why the loss has fallen so heavily upon the officers, who did everything in their power to effect it. Neither were my own exertions wanting. But worn down with illness, and suffering under a painful disease, unable to mount or dismount without assistance, they were not so great as they otherwise would, or perhaps ought to have been."
In this dreadful disaster the Indians killed over nine hundred of St. Clair's army, took seven pieces of cannon, two hundred oxen, a great number of horses, but no prisoners. The wounded were immediately, upon the field, tomahawked and scalped. The Indians lost only sixty-six warriors.
The Governor was not wanting in bravery. Indeed the occa- sion was one in which there was no opportunity for a display of cowardice. There was no possible covert to be found. Like men upon a shelterless plain, exposed to a hail storm, there was little to be done but bide the tempest. Eight bullets passed through his clothes and hat. He had four horses for his use; the first, a spirited colt, was so nervous and terrified by the firing that it required three or four persons to help the invalid governor to mount. He was hardly seated in the saddle when a bullet passed through the animal's head, and an arm of the boy who was hold- ing him. Another horse was immediately brought, and while the attendants were removing the saddle from the dead steed to the living one, one bullet struck the horse in a vital part, and another the servant who held him, and they both dropped dead together. A person was dispatched for the third horse. He did not return. Both horse and man fell dead by the way. One of the general's aids, Count de Malatie, had mounted the fourth horse, having lost his own, and the animal was shot beneath him. The gov- ernor, thus deprived of all of his horses, though suffering intense pain, exerted himself on foot, with an energy and alacrity which surprised every one. After some time a miserable worn-out pack- horse was brought to him, just as he was so thoroughly exhausted that, but for that timely aid, he must have been left upon the field at the mercy of the Indians. Greatly would those savages have rejoiced to have kindled their fires and have passed the
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governor through that awful ordeal of torture and of death to which they had before doomed General Crawford.
Among the incidents of the battle-field, the following are worthy of record. Major Jacob Fowler, a veteran pioneer, nearly whose whole life was spent amid the wildest scenes of the forest, was present on this occasion. In a very graphic account which he has given of these scenes he writes :
"By this time there were about thirty men of Colonel Drake's command left standing, the rest being all shot down, and lying around us, either killed or wounded. I ran to the colonel, who was in the thickest of it, waving his sword to encourage his men, and told him we should all be down in five minutes more if we did not charge them. 'Charge, then,' said he, to the little line that then remained, and they did so. I had been partially shel- tered by a small tree. But a couple of Indians, who had taken a larger one, both fired at me at once. Feeling the steam of their guns, I supposed myself cut to pieces. But no harm had been done, and I brought my piece to my side and fired without aim- ing at the one who stood his ground, the fellow being so close to me that I could hardly miss him. I shot him through the hips, and while he was crawling away on all fours, Colonel Drake, who had been dismounted and stood close by me, made at him with his sword and struck his head off.
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