USA > Pennsylvania > Early history of western Pennsylvania, and of the West, and of western expeditions and campaigns, from MDCCLIV to MDCCCXXXIII > Part 37
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Towards the beginning of April, intelligence was received at Cincin- nati, that the enemy were collecting in considerable numbers, for the purpose of laying seige to Fort Meigs. At this critical movement, Gen. Leftwitch, with the Virginian volunteers, left the fort,(2) but the Penn-
(1) Atwater's history of Ohio, p. 209.
(2) Mr. Atwater, in his History of Ohio, page 215, says that Leftwitch, in- stead of obeying the orders of Gen. Harrison, to assist Wood, the engineer, with all his power, had done nothing except to tell the men that " they were not obliged to labor !" He even burnt for fire wood, the timber intended for the pickets.
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sylvania Brigade, although its term of service had expired, generously volunteered for its defence.(2) Ger. Harrison immediately hastened to the Maumee, being preceded by Maj. Ball's Dragoons, and some mount- ed Kentuckians, and arrived on the eleventh of April, with a reinforce- ment at Fort Meigs, to the relief of the two hundred and fifty Pennsyl- vanians, who then composed the garrison. Immediately on his arrival, he commenced preparations for the approaching seige. There was now twelve hundred men, and under the direction of Capt. Wood and Capt. Gratiot, the principal Engineers, they labored night and day on the defences.
On the twenty-eighth of April, the British army appeared in Maumee Bay, and a few British and Indians appeared on the opposite side of the river ; but a shot from an eighteen pounder compelled the latter to retire with precipitation. A dispatch was now sent to hasten the approach of Gen. Green Clay, who was advancing with twelve hundred Kentucky volunteers. Immediately the enemy's gun boats were seen disgorging their troops, guns and munitions of war on the site of the old British Fort Miami. Having performed this service, they took in and con- veyed over the Maumee river, to its southeastern shore their savage allies, who forthwith invested Fort Meigs, yelling hideously around it.
Gen. Harrison, then ordered one-third of the whole garrison into the trenches to work night and day, to be relieved every three hours. All was now animation. The enemy were constructing their batteries ; the Americans were laboring on their defences. The Indians not venturing into the open space around the fort, went beyond it and climbing up the trees, shot over the trenches, and killed and wounded several of the gar- rison. Sorties to shoot down these ærial combatants were frequent, and the Indian yell, and the blaze of their rifles, inspired every soldier in camp to do his duty. On the morning of the first of May, it was dis- covered that the enemy's batteries were completed and mounted with guns. At ten o'clock in the forenoon, the British were seen loading their cannon, and preparing for an attack. By this time the Americans had completed their grand traverse twelve feet high, on a twenty feet base, and three hundred yards long, running along on elevated ground through the middle of the encampment. 'T'he tents in front of this traverse had previously hidden this defence from the enemy's view. They were now ordered to be struck and in fifteen minutes the canvass was removed and nothing was to be seen but a long breast work of
(2) Breckenridge's History of the late War, p. 95.
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earth, behind which the army was encamped. The British then opened a fire with one twenty-four pounder, one twelve, one six, and one howitzer. It was returned from the fort, but no material injury was done on either side. A ball struck a bench on which Gen. Harrison was sitting, and some days before, a man was mortally wounded by his side. On the third of May, an additional battery on the southeast side of the river was opened, at the distance of one hundred and fifty yards from the fort, mounted with three pieces of cannon and a mortar by which a number of bombs were thrown. This was several times si- lenced. On the fourth of May it rained all day very hard, and a new battery was discovered on the east side of the Maumee, in a position to injure the fort. A traverse was immediately made, as a defence against its artillery and, during the time, several were killed on both sides. About midnight Capt. Oliver arrived and announced that Gen. Clay, was at the head of the Rapids, with an army of twelve or fifteen hundred men, moving down in open boats, and would arrive at the fort between three and four o'clock in the morning.
Gen. Harrison immediately determined to raise the seige by attacking the enemy on both sides of the river and taking their batteries. He dis- patched Capt. Hamilton to Gen. Clay, ordering him to land from six to eight hundred men, on the northwest bank of the river, attack the Brit- ish batteries, spike their cannon, cut their carriages in pieces, destroy their property, and then immediately retreat to their boats, cross over the Maumee, and enter the fort. The residue of the brigade was order- ed to land on the southeast side of the river, and enter the fort. He at the same time, determined to attack the enemy's batteries on the south- east side of the river by a sortie from the fort, at the instant of General Clay's attack on the other.
About eight o'clock on the fifth of May, the boats containing Gen. Clay, and that part of his troops, ordered to enter the fort, were assailed by a host of savages on landing. Maj. Alexander, with the Pennsylvania and Petersburg Volunteers,(1) was ordered to protect them, by a sortie to cover their landing. The Indians increased in numbers, and Major Alexander and Col. Boswell, immediately charged them with effect, and Gen. Clay and his troops f ught their way to the fort, driving the In- dians before them half a mile at the point of the bayonet.
In the meantime, Col. Dudley, who had been ordered to land and at- tack the British encampment on the other side, marched furiously up to
(1) Capt. Butler's "Pittsburg Blues." See Appendix, p. 389.
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the enemy's cannon. The four batteries were carried in an instant, and the British regular troops and Indians compelled to take flight. They then spiked all the guns, cut their carriages in pieces, pulled down all the poles on which the red cross of St. George was flying, and then abandoned themselves to a real frolic. Col. Dudley ordered a retreat, according to orders, and if he had been obeyed, the affair would have been glorious. But his men flushed with victory, and animated with a desire to avenge the blood of their slaughtered countrymen at the river Raisin, pushed forward with irresistible impetuosity. The enemy had retreated beyond Col. Dudley's sight or hearing, and had there concen- trated their forces. While a few Indians drew the attention of the men, a large detachment, numbering three to one of the American force, ap- proached the batteries, and rushing on the exulting troops, and after a desperate battle, killed about fifty of the Kentuckians, wounded more than seventy and took five hundred and fifty prisoners. About one hun- dred and fifty escaped to the boats and reached Fort Meigs. Col. Dud- ley attempted to cut his way through to the river, but was killed, having himself slain an Indian after he was mortally wounded. The savages then commenced a massacre of the prisoners, unopposed by the British General Proctor. This horrid work of destruction was continued until the arrival of Tecumseh from the batteries, on the other side of the river, when he stopped the carnage, exclaiming it to be a shame to kill defenceless prisoners.(1)
At the moment Colonel Dudley began his attack on the enemy's bat- teries, Colonel John Miller, with a detachment of two hundred and fifty men, composed of United States troops, Pennsylvania,(2) Virginia, and Kentucky volunteers, left the fort and charged the batteries on the south- east side of the river. They were defended by five companies of British troops, aided by 'Tecumseh and his warriors. Before they reached the batteries, the enemy opened a tremendous fire upon them from their cannon and musketry. Assailed by four times their number, they were compelled, at the end of one hundred yards, to close up their lines. Then, with the fury of a tornado, they rushed upon the British batterie: and the savage host, and swept away all opposition. They spiked, an rendered the enemy's guns useless, drove off, killed, or took captive the whole hostile force, and triumphantly returned to the fort.
After this sortie, General Proctor sent a British officer with a flag (
(1) Judge Hall.
(2) "Pittsburgh Blues," under Captain Butler, and Petersburg Volunteer See Appendix, p. 389.
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truce, demanding a surrender. He was indignantly sent back to the other side of the river.
General Proctor now found himself in a very crippled condition. His guns and mortars were rendered useless, and he had lost more killed, wounded and prisoners, than the besieged. He therefore agreed to ex- change prisoners, and to account for the difference. Flags passed fre- quently between both armies, and Tecumseh agreed to release his claim to the prisoners, provided some Wyandotts, captured by the Americans, were given up. 'This was agreed to, and on the ninth, the enemy ap- peared to be making preparations for raising the siege. A schooner and some gun-boats had been brought up during the night, for the purpose of embarking the artillery, but a few shot from the fort compelled them to relinquish their design, and at ten o'clock on the ninth day of May, an- noyed by an incessant discharge of artillery from the American batteries, they moved off with their whole force.
Thus terminated, after thirteen days, the memorable siege of Fort Miegs. 'The British reaped no laurels in this field, and had the detach- ment under Colonel Dudley obeyed orders, the events of the fifth of May would have been among the brightest in the annals of our country. And as it was, it resulted gloriously to the American arms. The loss of the Americans during the siege, was eighty-one killed, and one hundred and eighty-nine wounded. Sixty-four were killed in the sorties, and one hundred and twenty-four wounded-the remainder were killed and wounded in the fort. This does not include the killed and wounded under Colonel Dudley.
Among the troops which distinguished themselves, were three com- panies from Western Pennsylvania,-the Pittsburgh Blues(1) under Captain James Butler ; the Greensburg Volunteers, under Major John B. Alexander; and the Westmoreland troop of horse, under Captain Joseph Markle.
Fort Meigs was then left in charge of General Clay, and General Harrison repaired to Lower Sandusky, and from thence to Franklinton, for the purpose of making preparations to retake Detroit. About the last of June, General Clay informed General Harrison that the enemy was again preparing to invest the fort with great force, and he immediately repaired to the Rapids with a reinforcement, and afterwards went to Fort Stephenson, at the Lower Sandusky. Where this town now stands, there was an old picketing on a piece of land secured to us for a garrison
(1) See Appendix, p. 389.
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and Indian trading-house, by General Wayne's treaty in 1795. It was only large enough for two hundred men. This little stockade was called Fort Stephenson, and its defence was committed to Major George Cro- ghan, a youth of twenty-one years of age; and to Captain Hunter, Lieutenants Johnson, Baylor, and Meeks, Ensigns Duncan and Ship, and one hundred and sixty privates. Some of these were of the Pitts- burgh Blues and Petersburg Volunteers. General Harrison then left, as he had information that the British and Indians on the twentieth of July had ascended the Maumee, and landed near Fort Meigs. They continued there three days, and resorted to all sorts of stratagems to draw out the garrison. Not succeeding in any of these, and remember- ing their former discomfiture, the British embarked on board their ves- sels and sailed out of the Maumee for Sandusky Bay, while the Indians under Tecumseh, went across the swamp in the direction of Sandusky river. General Harrison was then at Seneca Old Town, and received intelligence the same evening, that the enemy had left Fort Meigs. A council of war was then called, and it was determined that Fort Ste- phenson was untenable, and General Harrison sent an order to Major Croghan to retire on the approach of the enemy, after destroying the works. By a dispatch, which was intended to fall into the hands of the enemy, Major Croghan declared his unwillingness to obey, as he was able to defend the fort.
On the first day of August, about three o'clock in the afternoon, Maj. Croghan saw the enemy with his gun-boats, cannon, and all his means of annoyance, approaching for the purpose of storming his little stockade. The fort was soon surrounded by five hundred British soldiers and eight hundred Indians, and Tecumseh was placed in an ambuscade, with a large Indian force to intercept reinforcements from Seneca Old Town, and Fort Meigs. After General Proctor had made such a disposition of his troops, as rendered the retreat of the garrison impracticable, he sent a flag by Colonel Elliot and Major Cham bers, demanding a surrender, accompanied with the usual threats of butchery and massacre, if the garrison should hold out. Major Croghan, who found that all his com- panions, young men like himself, would support him to the last, returned the spirited answer, that " when the fort should be taken, there would be none left to massacre ; as it would not be given up while a man was able to fight."
When the flag returned, a brisk fire was opened from the six poun- ders in the boats, and a howitzer, which was kept up during the night.(1)
(1) Breckenridge's History of the Late War, p. 147.
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During the same night, Maj. Croghan discovered that the enemy seemed to aim most of his shots at the northwest corner of the fort, and he supposed that when the British attempted to storm the place, the point of attack would be at that angle. So he ordered Captain Hunter to place their only cannon in such a position that it would rake the ditch, in case the enemy attempted to scale the works at that angle. In secrecy, and with uncommon industry and personal exertions, Captain Hunter obeyed the order. The morning of the memorable second of August dawned upon this heroic little band. The enemy kept up a continual firing from daylight, until four o'clock in the afternoon, when they con- centrated the fire of all their guns at the north-western angle of the Fort. Seeing this, Major Croghan ordered Sergeant Weaver, and six privates of the Pittsburgh Blues, to place there with all possible expedition, bags of sand and flour. This was done so effectually, that that angle received no material injury from the enemy's guns. The six pounder was en- trusted to the management of the same Sergeant, and his six men. Late in the evening, when all was enveloped in smoke, the enemy proceeded to make the assault. Two feints were made on Captain Hunter's lines, but in the mean time, three hundred and fifty British soldiers advanced in the smoke, to within sixty feet of the northwest angle. A severe fire of musketry from the fort, put them in confusion for a moment, when Lieutenant Colonel Short, who headed the column, urged forward his men to the edge of the ditch, calling upon them to follow him, and " give the yankees no quarters," and then leaped into the ditch. The masked port-hole was now opened, and the six pounder, within thirty feet of the assailants, was fired ! Lieutenant Colonel Short and fifty others were instantly killed or wounded. Death and desolation filled the ditch. At the same moment, the troops under Captain Hunter, opened a terrible discharge of rifles upon another portion of the assail- ants under Colonel Warburton and Major Chambers, and compelled them to retire. (2) It was now dark. The wounded in the ditch were in a desperate condition. They begged for water ! The enemy did not dare to relieve them, but Major Croghan and his men handed water to them over the pickets, and opened a hole underneath, and encour- aged as many as were able to crawl into the fort.
At three o'clock this night, Proctor and his men made a most shame- ful and disorderly retreat down the Bay. In their hurry, terror, and confusion, they left a boat full of the most valuable materials. They left around the fort seventy stand of arms, and several braces of pistols.
(1) Atwater's History of Ohio, pp. 227, 228.
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The American loss in this brilliant affair was one killed, and seven very slightly wounded. That of the enemy could not have been less than one hundred and fifty ; upwards of fifty were found in and about the ditch.
On the tenth of September was fought the naval battle on Lake Erie, in which Commodore Oliver H. Perry obtained a most signal and glo- rious victory over the British fleet on the Lake. In this contest, which lasted three hours, every British vessel was captured. The American loss in the action was twenty-seven killed, and ninety-six wounded .- The British loss was about two hundred killed and wounded.
The Americans having thus obtained the possession of the Lake, ac- tive preparations were immediately made for expelling Proctor from Malden, and the recovery of Detroit. General Harrison now called upon Governor Meigs, for the Ohio volunteers who were in readiness, and on the seventeenth of September, the venerable Isaac Shelby, the hero of King's Mountain, arrived at Fort Meigs with a large volunteer force from Mentucky ; among these was a regiment of mounted rifle- men under Colonel Richard M. Johnson. As soon as possible, Commo- dore Perry made preparations to convey the army under General Harri- son to the Canadian shore ; and on the twenty-eighth of September, General Harrison landed at a point below Malden, with all the infantry and artillery, the mounted men having been ordered to Detroit by the River Raisin. But Proctor and his Indian allies had fled, having burnt the fortress and the public store-house, at Malden. He had fled up the river Thames, and having reached the Moravian villages, had halted with his army. On the twenty-ninth, the army reached Detroit, when it was joined by Colonel Johnson's regiment. It was then resolved by General Harrison and Governor Shelby, to proceed immediately in pur- suit of Proctor, and on the second of October, they marched with about three thousand five hundred men, selected for the purpose. The heroic Commodore Perry and General Cass accompanied General Harrison, as volunteer aids. On the fifth of October they found the enemy en- camped about eighty miles from Malden, up the Thames, near the Mora- vian towns. The British were drawn up on a strip of land, narrow in front-their left resting on the river Thames, and their right resting on a morass, beyond which, in a thick forest of undergrowth, was posted Tecumseh and his savage warriors, more than two thousand strong .- On this narrow piece of land where the British were posted with their artillery, there were many beech trees. The ground was extremely well chosen by the enemy, and the armies were about equal in numbers.
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The American troops were now disposed in order of battle. Gen. Trotter's Brigade constituted the front line ; Gen. King's Brigade formed a second line, in the rear of Gen. Trotter; and Gen. Chiles' Brigade was kept as a corps of reserve. These three brigades were under the command of Major General Henry. Desha's division, consisting of two brigades, was formed on the left of 'Trotter's brigade,-each brigade averaged five hundred men, and the whole commanded by Gov. Shelby, in person. The regular troops, formed in two columns, occupied a narrow space between the road and the river. Gen. Harrison, had at first ordered Col. Johnson's mounted Riflemen to form in two lines op- posite the Indians. At this moment Col. Wood reported to the Com- mander-in-Chief, that the Infantry of the enemy was formed in open order. 'Troops in open order, with three or four feet between the files can never resist a charge of cavalry. Proctor had committed a great
error. Gen. Harrison immediately determined that one battalion of the mounted men should charge under the command of Col. James Johnson, on the British regular troops, and the other battalion under Col. R. M. Johnson, should charge on the Indians. The orders being given to charge ! the army moved forward, when the enemy fired. This was the signal for the cavalry to charge. The mounted Riflemen under Col. James Johnson moved forward, and although, for a moment the horses faultered, yet, recovering from the momentary panic, they dashed forward, with irresistible fury, broke through the enemy's line, and then wheeling about, formed, and again impetuously charged, and deal death on all sides upon the enemy. In a moment all was over. The British offi- cers finding that all efforts to restore order were vain, immediately sur- rendered. Gen. Proctor, and about two hundred horse fled, leaving his carriage and official papers behind, and by the fleetness of his horses escaped in the direction of Niagara.
On the left the battle was begun with Tecumseh with great fury .- The galling fire of the Indians did not check the advance of the Ameri- can columns ; but the charge was not successful, from the miry charac- ter of the soil and the closeness of the thickets which covered it. Col. JJohnson, therefore, ordered his men to dismount, and leading them up a second time, succeeded, after a desperate contest, in breaking through the line of the Indians and gaining their rear.
The Indians now quickly collecting their principal strength on the right, attempted to penetrate the line of Infantry commanded by Gen. Desha. At first they made an impression upon it, but Gov. Shelby brought up a regiment of volunteers and they were signally repulsed.
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The combat now raged with increasing fury. The Indians determined to maintain their ground to the last. The terrible voice of Tecumseh, could be distinctly heard encouraging his warriors ; and although beset on every side, except the morass, they fought with more determined courage than they had ever before exhibited. The gallant Col. Johnson, having rushed towards the spot, where the Indians, clustering around their undaunted chief, resolved to perish by his side ; his uniform, and the white horse which he rode, rendered him a conspicuous object. In a moment his holsters, dress and accoutrements were pierced with bul- lets ; and he fell to the ground severely wounded. 'Tecumseh, at the same time fell.(1) After the rescue and removal of the wounded Colo- nel, the command devolved on Major Thompson. The Indians main- tained the fight for more than an hour, but no longer hearing the voice of their great captain, they at last gave way on all sides, and fled for more than five miles before they halted. Near the spot where Colonel Johnson was wounded and Tecumseh was killed, thirty Indians and six white men were found dead. (2)
In this engagement the British loss was nineteen killed, fifty wounded and about six hundred taken prisoners. The Indians left one hundred and twenty dead on the field. The American loss in killed and wound-
(1) " In this action Tecumseh was killed, which circumstance has given rise to innumerable fictions-why, we can hardly tell, but it is so. The wri- ter's opportunities for knowing the truth, are equal to any person's now living. He was personally, very well acquainted with that celebrated warrior. He accompanied Tecumseh, Elsquataway, Fourlegs and Caraymaunee, on their tour among the Six Nations of New York, in 1809, and acted as their inter- preter among those Indians. In 1829, at Praire Du Chien, the two latter In- dians, both then civil chiefs of the Winnebagoes, were with the writer, who was then acting as commissioner of Indian affairs in the United States service. From the statements of those constant companions of Tecumseh, during nearly twenty years of his life, I proceed to state, that Tecumseh lay with bis warriors, at the commencement of the battle, in a forest of thick under- brush, on the left of the American army. That those Indians were at no pe- riod of the battle, out of their thick underbrush ; that Nawcaw saw no officer between them and the American army; that Tecumseh fell the very first fire of the Kentucky dragoons, pierced by thirty bullets, and was carried four or five miles into the thick woods, and there buried by the warriors, who told the story of his fate. This account was repeated to me, three several times, word for word, and neither of the relators ever knew the fictions to which Tecum- seh's death had given rise. Some of these fictions originated in the mis- chievous design of ridiculing Col. Johnson, who is said to have killed this savage." * * * " I could easily write this warrior's whole history, as he * * * * * often requested me to do." *
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