USA > Ohio > The picturesque Ohio : a historical monograph > Part 13
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"On the night of the 6th of November, the troops went to rest, as usual, with their clothes and accouterments on, and their arms by their sides. The officers were ordered to sleep in the same manner, and it was the governor's invariable practice to be ready to mount a horse at a mo- ment's warning. On the following morning he arose at a quarter to four, and sat by the fire conversing with the gentlemen of his family. At this moment the attack commenced.
" The treacherous Indians had crept up so near the sentries as to hear them challenge when relieved. They intended to rush upon the sentries and kill them before they could fire ; but one discovered an Indian creep- ing in the grass, and fired. This was immediately followed by an Indian yell, and a desperate charge upon the left flank. Captain Barton's com- pany of regulars and Captain Guiger's company of mounted riflemen re- ceived the first onset. But the troops, who had lain on their arms, were immediately prepared to receive, and gallantly to resist, the furious sav- age assailants. The manner of the attack was calculated to terrify the men, but they maintained their ground with desperate valor.
" Upon the first alarm the governor mounted his horse, and proceeded towards the point of attack, and finding the line much weakened there, he ordered two companies from the center of the rear line to march up and forni across the angle in the rear of Barton's and Guiger's companies. In passing through the camp towards the left of the front line, he was informed by Major Davies that the Indians, concealed behind the trees near the line, were annoying the troops very severely in that quarter, and requested per- mission to dislodge them. In attempting this charge, Davies fell, mor- tally wounded, as also did Colonel Isaac White, of Indiana.
"In the meantime the attack on the companies on the right became very severe. Captain Spencer was killed, with his lieutenants, and Cap- tain Warwick mortally wounded. The governor, in passing towards that flank, led Captain Robb's company to the aid of Captain Spencer, where they fought bravely, having seventeen men killed during the battle. While the governor was leading this company into action, Colonel Owen, his aid, was killed at his side. He was shot by one of the Indians who broke through the lines, and who doubtless mistook him for the governor, as he was mounted on a gray horse, the color of Harrison's, but in the sudden surprise, Harrison had mounted the first horse he could get, which was not his old gray.
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"Soon after Davies was wounded, Captain Snelling, by order of the governor, charged upon the same Indians, and dislodged them with con- siderable loss. The battle was now maintained on all sides with deter- mined courage. When the day dawned, the troops drove the enemy into a swamp, through which the cavalry could not pursue them. At the same time Cook's and Lieutenant Larrabee's companies, with the aid of the rifle- men and militia, charged the Indians, and put them to flight in that quar- ter, which terminated the battle.
"During the time of the contest, the Prophet kept himself secure on an adjacent eminence, singing a war-song.
"Tecumseh was not present at this engagement, not having yet re- turned from his trip to Georgia and Florida."
The victory of Tippecanoe was the most decisive battle that had yet been fought between the Indians and the Western troops. The Indians were completely routed, and their losses were un- usually great, both in killed and wounded. The importance of this success is outlined in a message to Congress from President Madison :
"While it is deeply to be lamented that so many valuable lives have been lost in the action which took place on the 9th ult., Congress will see with satisfaction the dauntless spirit and fortitude victoriously displayed by every description of troops engaged, as well as the collected firmness which distinguished their commander on an occasion requiring the utmost exertion of valor and discipline."
The Legislatures of Indiana and Kentucky also passed like resolutions, declaring that "Governor William Henry Harrison behaved like a hero, a patriot, and a general, and for his cool, deliberate, skillful, and gallant conduct in the late battle of Tip- pecanoe, deserves the warmest thanks of the nation." One of the early writers of Ohio says :
" The news from the army was received with joy and gratitude. Every town, village, and hamlet in the Valley of the Ohio joined in the universal demonstration of thanks to the troops and their commander. The country
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was wild with delight; and women met the returning soldiers with the heart-felt welcome of mothers who believed that their children were now safe from the tomahawk and the scalping-knife. This victory restored confidence to the timid and composure to the fearful. The frontiersmen knew how different would have been the scene had the Prophet been the conqueror. Through the light of these fears it is easy to understand how, and why, Harrison was ever afterwards firmly placed in the hearts of the people of the North-west."
The apparent calm which succeeded the battle of Tippecanoe was not altogether a presage of peace, but rather the heavy silence which foretells a coming storm. The Indians were de- feated, but they were not conciliated; a crisis in the already strained relations existing between Great Britain and the United States was imminent.
Tecumseh, apprised of the situation, renewed his efforts to bring about the confederation of the Nations, which had seemed almost hopeless immediately after the defeat of the Prophet at Tippecanoe. That disaster would have been impossible if the Great Chief had not been absent, for his sagacity equaled his courage. But in each of these long, forced expeditions his brother, when left in command, either through the rash persist- ence of some young, imprudent follower, or led by his over- weening vanity to believe himself a strategist superior to Tecumseh, never failed to precipitate the outbreak which Te- cumseh had strenuously labored to avoid until his allies were ready and a sure occasion presented itself to retake all the lands the tribes had lost, and regain the one boundary which they had never relinquished, the OHIO RIVER.
The United States declared war against Great Britain, June 18, 1812. The people of the North-west naturally looked to Harrison as their leader. It was an obvious fact that the first
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blow would be struck in the West. And so public expectation was, in a measure, prepared for the losses that came through Hull's surrender; and, just as naturally, the people believed that Harrison could and would retrieve those losses, and prevent the wide-spread savage onslaught that was again threatened. They had not forgotten that he was a prudent as well as a gal- lant soldier. The common danger swept away all regard for forms and precedents. Governor Scott, of Kentucky, gave Har- rison a commission as major-general in the Kentucky militia, and at the head of seven thousand Kentuckians he marched northward to regain what Hull had lost.
For ten days Fort Wayne had been besieged by the Indians. At Harrison's approach they retired without waiting to hazard a battle. The Kentucky militia were hardly encamped when a United States officer arrived to take command of the army. He outranked the militia general Kentucky had created, and the camp was in a ferment of discontent, refusing to fight under any leader but the one their governor had appointed, and whom they had fought with and under from the time of Wayne's victory to the temporary truce given to the Indian question at Tippecanoe. Harrison himself persuaded them into acceptance of the new order of things, and they consented to serve under Winchester until their remonstrance could be sent in, and the War Depart- ment heard from. They had not long to wait before President Madison relieved General Winchester of the command, and ap- pointed Harrison as general-in-chief of the North-western army.
The wisdom of this new appointment was soon seen in the improved disposition of the troops; and it was still more conclu- sively proven by Winchester's ill-success in a separate command, and the terrible massacre of his men at the river Raisin. After
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sustaining a furious assault against overpowering numbers of the British and their Indian allies, Winchester's line was broken and scattered, and the Indians began a horrible butchery. One hundred and twenty prisoners were slaughtered in one spot. Graves's division surrendered to Proctor on a pledge of security, and the larger number were killed within sight of Proctor's head-quarters.
General Harrison, hearing at the Rapids of the attack upon Winchester's camp, hastened to his relief with all the available force that was within his reach. They were met by the fugi- tives that had escaped, who told them of Winchester's total de- feat. Leaving a strong scouting party to bring in the fugitives, the troops returned to the Rapids.
The force at the Rapids now amounted to less than nine hun- dred effective men. The commander fell back to Portage River, eighteen miles distant, and threw up intrenchments; but being re-enforced by General Leftwich with the Virginia brigade and a battery, they again retook their former position at the Rapids, which was strongly fortified and called Camp Meigs.
Every family in Kentucky suffered some loss at the massacre of the Raisin. The fighting temper of her people was never more severely tried and never showed firmer endurance. When the news reached Frankfort the Legislature was in session, and the governor signed a bill that day "to raise three thousand volunteers to replace those lost in the inhuman butchery at the river Raisin." The mothers, wives, and sisters of the dead made the clothing and tents for the new recruits, that were so needed at Fort Meigs, which Harrison was holding against a force of six hundred British regulars, eight hundred Canadian militia, and eighteen hundred Indians led by Tecumseh in person,
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It would be impossible, in such brief space, to tell the story of that heroic defense as it should be told. The British and Indians appeared before the fort on the 26th of April, and on the Ist of May their batteries were in place, and the bombardment began. It lasted for eight days, and during that time the American loss was small. The third day the besiegers appeared to work slowly, and the garrison mounted the earth-works and cheered them on. On the night of the 3d the British erected a gun and mortar battery on the left bank of the river, within two hundred and fifty yards of the American lines. The Indians climbed into trees near the fort and poured a steady fire into the garrison. In this situation Harrison received from Proctor a summons to surrender, which was answered promptly by this refusal:
"I believe I have a very correct idea of General Proctor's force; it is not such as to create the least apprehension for the result of the contest, whatever shape he may be hereafter pleased to give it. Assure the general that he will never have this post surrendered to him upon any terms. Should it fall into his hands, it will be in a manner calculated to do him more honor, and to give him larger claims upon the gratitude of his gov- ernment, than any capitulation could possibly do."
At twelve o'clock the following night General Green Clay, with twelve hundred Kentuckians, reached the Maumee Rapids, and sent Captain Leslie Combs to communicate with General Harrison. When within a mile of the fort, Captain Combs was attacked by the Indians and obliged to retreat, after the loss of nearly all his men. Young William Oliver managed to crawl through the Indians, and reached the fort before midnight, with the news of General Clay's speedy arrival.
Harrison now determined on a general attack, and sent or- ders to Clay to "land eight hundred men on the right bank, take the battery, and spike the guns." The remainder were ordered
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to "land on the left bank, and fight their way to the fort." General Clay descended the river as ordered, each officer taking position according to his rank. Colonel Dudley led the van, and landed on the right bank without difficulty. The violence of the current on the rapids prevented the orders being strictly obeyed. Clay landed on the left bank, with only fifty men, and fought his way into the fort. Two sorties were made from the garrison, one on the left, in aid of Colonel Boswell, by which the Canadian militia and Indians were defeated, and he enabled to reach the fort in safety; and one on the right, against the British batteries, which was also successful.
Dudley's detachment " drove the British from their batteries and spiked the cannon ;" but although repeatedly recalled by their officers, the men pursued the enemy and were drawn into an am- buscade, where they were surrounded by British regulars and In- dians, and their retreat prevented. They were " huddled together in an unresisting crowd, and obliged to surrender." Fortunately for them, Tecumseh commanded. The Indians, with five hun- dred prisoners at their mercy, began a massacre. Tecumseh ordered it stopped, and killed a chief who refused to obey the order. Of the eight hundred, only one hundred and fifty escaped.
On the 9th of May Proctor raised the siege, and hurried to Malden. After that, Tecumseh was repeatedly seen near the fort, grave, stern, and splendidly mounted. "He seemed to be taking a very calm and deliberate survey of our works." One of the captives saved by Tecumseh thus described the chief :
" This celebrated man was a noble, dignified personage. He wore an elegant broadsword, and was dressed as an Indian warrior. His face was finely proportioned, his nose inclined to the aquiline, and his eyes had none of the savage and ferocious triumph common to the other Indians. He
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regarded us with unmoved composure, and I thought a beam of mercy shone in his countenance. I never saw him again."
The history, as continued by the captive, shows so clearly the nearness of the tragic and the comic, that we insert it.
"On our march to the garrison the Indians began to strip us. One took my hat, another my hunting-shirt, a third my waistcoat, until I was left with only my undershirt and breeches. Having read, when a boy, Smith's narrative of his life among the Indians, my idea of their character was that they treated those best who appeared most fearless. Under that impression, as we marched into the garrison, I looked at the Indians we met with all the sternness of countenance I could command. I soon caught the eye of a stout warrior, painted a lively red. He gazed as fiercely at me as I did at him, until I came within reach, when, with a contemptuous grunt, he gave me a cut over the nose and cheek-bone with his wiping-stick, which made me abandon the notion acquired from Smith ; and I afterwards made as little display of hauteur and defiance as possible."
General Harrison repaired the fort, and then, leaving Gen- eral Clay in command, left for Lower Sandusky, to organize the new levies. He had not been long absent before the garri- son understood the meaning of Tecumseh's "calm and delib- erate " inspection. July the 20th the enemy were discovered ascending the river. A party of ten men, out on a scout, were surprised by Indians in the woods, and only three escaped.
The force which began the second siege of Fort Meigs com- prised five thousand men, under Proctor and Tecumseh (who now wore the uniform of a British general) ; the number of In- dians was greater than any ever before assembled under these commanders. Toward evening the British regulars were posted in the ravine below the fort, and the cavalry in the woods above, while the Indians were on the Sandusky road. Just before dark a roar of musketry indicated a severe battle. It was
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so skillfully shammed that the garrison flew to arms, and even the officers of all grades insisted on marching to the assistance of the re-enforcement they believed to be on the road. It was not without great difficulty that General Clay convinced them it was only a stratagem of the enemy. Fortunately a very heavy storm and pouring rain put an end to the battle.
The next day the British regulars were gone, and the In- dians soon disappeared. A few days after, they attempted to carry Fort Stephenson by assault, and were most gallantly re- pulsed by Major George Croghan, of whom General Harrison says in his official report: "It will not be among the least of General Proctor's mortifications that he has been baffled by a youth who has just passed his twenty-first year. He is, however, a hero worthy of his gallant uncle, General George Rogers Clark."
From this time on, to the day of his brilliant victory of the " Thames," General Harrison scored a succession of triumphs. The British, soon after their second failure at Fort Meigs, con- centrated all their force at Malden. Many of the Indians, dis- pirited by numerous defeats, became discontented, and little parties were constantly leaving for the upper lakes, where "the hunting season had begun." All that remained were the tribes who were under the direct command of Tecumseh.
Thus far Harrison's campaign had been a purely defensive one; but the time had come to change this Fabian policy and assume the aggressive. He could not permit the enemy to rest in security after their return from a campaign of invasion. He too was ready to "carry the war into Africa." His purpose now was to capture Malden and conquer Upper Canada.
On the 20th of July, 1813, General Harrison was informed that
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the naval armament, built under Perry's superintendence, was ready for action. On the 2d of August Perry took his fleet over the bar at the mouth of the harbor, and sailed for Sandusky, to get his orders from the commanding general. Harrison directed him to proceed at once to Malden, and to bring the enemy to battle, as he (Harrison) believed the British commander was waiting to attack the fleet while it was engaged in the transpor- tation of the troops to Canada.
On the 12th, Harrison, writing to Governor Shelby, says :
"Our fleet has undoubtedly met that of the enemy. The day before yesterday a tremendous and incessant cannonade was heard in the direc- tion of Malden; it lasted two hours. I am all anxiety for the event."
Before the messenger was out of sight with the letter, came one from Perry :
"U. S. BRIG 'NIAGARA,' OFF THE WESTERN SISTERS, September 10, 1813-4 P. M.
"DEAR GENERAL,-We have met the enemy, and they are ours-two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and a sloop. Yours, with great respect and estee111, OLIVER HAZARD PERRY.
" General W. H. HARRISON."
On the 20th of September General Harrison embarked with the regular troops, under Generals McArthur and Cass, and the remainder of the army followed to Put-in-Bay. On the 26th he sailed with Commodore Perry, in the Ariel, to reconnoiter Mal- den. On the 27th the army embarked, and proceeded towards the Canada shore. They landed in high spirits ; but not an en- emy was to be seen. The inhabitants of Canada had fled from their houses, and hid their property. The enemy was over- taken on the 5th of October.
"His right flank was covered by a swamp supposed to be impassable ; his left, drawn up by the river Thames, was supported by artillery ; while
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the Indians, two thousand strong, were posted on the right of the British regulars, and commanded by Tecumseh.
"General Harrison drew up one division of his infantry in a double line, reaching from the river to the swamp, opposite Proctor's troops; and the other division at right angles to the first, with its front extending along the swamp. The mounted Kentuckians, under Colonel Johnson, were placed in front of the infantry, General Harrison himself at the head of the front line. When Perry, who served as his aid-de-camp, remon- strated with him on this imprudence as a general, he replied : 'It is neces- sary that a general should set the example.' Just then Colonel Wood reported that the infantry of the enemy was formed in open column. (A space of five feet between the ranks.) Harrison instantly changed his order of attack, and directed a charge of the mounted men, with orders to form in two charging columns, and on receiving the enemy's fire, to charge through their ranks, and act as circumstances seemed to require."
The cavalry were thrown into a momentary confusion when the British infantry fired; the horses were badly frightened, which gave the British time to reload ; but when the column was fairly in motion, they rode down the enemy. Forming'again in their rear, the cavalry charged through and through the flying troops, and the victory was virtually won. After the rout ยท of the regulars, there was skirmishing on the left wing, when Harrison ordered Colonel Richard M. Johnson to cross the swamp and attack the Indians. Here for a short time the con- flict was obstinate and the defense determined; but Tecumseh's death ended the battle, and, in fact, ended the war on the North- west frontier.
It was the death of the Indian Confederation, and the crown- ing victory of the man the North-west delighted to honor; the man "who never forgot a friend ;" the "general who never lost a battle"-that was the proud boast of the Whigs in 1840. At this date his best claim to remembrance and honor is, "that he
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was just to the Indian in peace, and a fair, honorable, and mer- ciful enemy in a war that was stained by cruelty and hate."
The region in which Tecumseh fought his last battles was also the scene of Pontiac's struggle. Both fought for admitted rights, which had been recognized in treaty after treaty ; fought for their lost lands and the RIVER BOUNDARY; fought the same foes-the grim fighters of Kentucky, and those steadfast Saxons, descendants of the old Colonial Vir- ginians, who had stood by the KING or Cromwell in the "brave days of old." Of all the martial figures that have gone down before this "fighting contingent," none showed greater prowess in the field, none were wiser in council, none more daringly rash in action, none more devoted to the union of a nation and the glory of a race than the great chieftain who fell beside the Thames-fighting for his people, and their right to the north shore of THE BRIGHT SHINING RIVER .*
* Appendix A, No. V.
C. M. C.
iburroughs
PART SECOND.
Afloat on the Deep, Shining River.
FROM PITTSBURG TO CAIRO ON
The Dhip.
Afloat on the Deep Shining River.
A
N OTWITHSTANDING the rapidly increasing threads of the immense railway systems which are constantly being woven into a chain-work of steel and iron, up and down and across the river-from Pittsburgh to Cairo- its waters still bear bravely a noble fleet of STEAMERS.
Each city on the Ohio has its system of regular "packets." And although the palmy days are gone, when one steamboat brought the rich gifts of fortune to owners and officers, there are very certain and comforting gains yet to be gathered by the happy holders of "stock in a Packet Company."
In the early days of steamboating ventures, a village on the Ohio, or sometimes a neighborhood landing-place, " owned a boat," which, from the "pilot-house " to the "lower deck," was officered and occasionally manned by the owners or their kins- men. Sturdy fellows and true were these " boatmen "-un- lettered, yet frequently the lucky owners of that more profitable learning which use doth breed. They were, in the main, un- taught of schools or books, and had but slight respect for a man who got all he knew from such uncertain sources. They were not gentlemen, in the circumscribed sense; yet they were not at all unmannered men, for they united to courage gentle- ness. Granted that they were sometimes compelled by stress
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of circumstance, to knock down a refractory "deck-hand," or quiet with harsh voice a roystering "roustabout ;" nevertheless, when that urgent duty was done, they were courteous, attentive, and gallant to every woman, young or old, who set foot upon the "gangway." Besides, they were the tenderest and most in- dulgent comrades of the small travelers, who, with that peculiar occult understanding of the child-mind, soon discovered that the vantage ground of baby-independence was found when a small autocrat set foot on the "hurricane deck," or outran the nurse in a race forward.
But "other times, other manners." The old-fashioned steamboatmen-may Heaven keep them from avarice or purse- pride !- have left the RIVER, to put government bonds in Safe-Deposits. Yet, in view of the changed conditions, we feel ready to wager our last shilling that those hapless and miserable millionares are walking sadly through the "marble halls" of an effete (or mushroom) aristocracy, sighing for the lost freedom of the "upper deck," and longing for the satisfying banquets of "Texas."
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