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Title: The Land of the Miamis
An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the
North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812
Author: Elmore Barce
Release Date: October 13, 2009 [EBook #30244]
Language: English
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[Illustration: The house of General Harrison at Vincennes, Ind., as it
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THE LAND OF THE MIAMIS
By Elmore Barce
Member of the State and National Bar Associations
Member Indiana State Historical Society
Author "Land of the Potawatomi"
[Illustration]
An Account of the Struggle to
Secure Possession of the North-West
from the End of the Revolution
until 1812.
Fowler, Indiana
THE BENTON REVIEW SHOP
1922
Copyrighted, 1922, by the
Benton Review Shop, Fowler, Ind.
Photos and Maps by
Lieut. Don Heaton
Dedicated to
CARRIE MAY BARCE
My Wife.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A BRIEF RETROSPECT--_A general view of the
Indian Wars of the Early Northwest_ 1
WHAT THE VIRGINIANS GAVE US--_A topographical
description of the country north of the
Ohio at the close of Revolutionary War_ 6
THE BEAVER TRADE--_A description of the
wealth in furs of this section at the close of the
Revolutionary War and the reasons underlying
the struggle for its control_ 12
THE PRAIRIE AND THE BUFFALO--_The buffalo
as the main food supply of the Indians_ 20
THE WABASH AND THE MAUMEE--_Chief line
of communication with the tribes of the Early
Northwest. The heart of the Miami country_ 34
THE TRIBES OF THE NORTHWEST--_A description
of the seven tribes of savages who opposed
the advance of settlement in the Northwest. Their
location. Kekionga, the seat of Miami power_ 44
REAL SAVAGES--_The Savage painted in his true
colors from the standpoint of the frontiersman_ 68
OUR INDIAN POLICY--_The Indian right of occupancy
recognized through the liberal policy of
Washington and Jefferson_ 80
THE KENTUCKIANS--_The first men to break
through the mountain barriers to face the British
and the Indians_ 112
THE BRITISH POLICIES--_The British reluctant
to surrender the control of the Northwest--Their
tampering with the Indian tribes_ 126
JOSIAH HARMAR--_The first military invasion of
the Northwest by the Federal Government after
the Revolution_ 145
SCOTT AND WILKINSON--_The Kentucky raids on
the Miami country along the Wabash in 1791_ 173
ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT--_The first great disaster to
the Federal armies brought about by the Miamis_ 195
WAYNE AND FALLEN TIMBERS--_Final triumph
of the Government over Indians and British_ 207
THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE--_The surrender
of the Ohio lands of the Miamis and their final
submission to the government_ 238
GOVERNOR HARRISON AND THE TREATY--_Purchase
of the Miami lands known as the New Purchase
which led to the strengthening of Tecumseh's
Confederacy--the final struggle at Tippecanoe_ 245
RESULTS OF THE TREATY--_Harrison's political
enemies at Vincennes rally against him in the
open, and are defeated in the courts_ 271
THE SHAWNEE BROTHERS--_The Prophet as an
Indian priest and Tecumseh as a political organizer
--The episode of the eclipse of 1806--Tecumseh's
personal appearance described_ 280
PROPHET'S TOWN--_The capital of the Shawnee
Confederacy in the heart of the Miami Country_ 295
HARRISON'S VIGILANCE--_His political courage
and activities save the frontier capital_ 305
THE COUNCIL AT VINCENNES--_The dramatic
meeting between Harrison and Tecumseh--
Tecumseh announces his doctrine of the common
ownership of the Indian lands_ 316
THE SECOND AND LAST COUNCIL--_The last
meeting between the two leaders before
Harrison marched into the Indian country_ 332
THE MUSTER AND THE MARCH--_The rally of
the Kentuckians and their clansmen in southern
Indiana to Harrison's support--The coming of the
Fourth United States Regiment--The march to
the Tippecanoe battlefield_ 352
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE--_The night attack
on Harrison's forces--The destruction of
Tecumseh's Confederacy_ 371
NAYLOR'S NARRATIVE--_A description of the
battle by one of the volunteers_ 381
LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
1. The Home of General William Henry Harrison,
at Vincennes, as it now appears Frontispiece
2. A Section of the Grand Prairie in Benton County,
Indiana, which extends West to Peoria, Illinois 25
3. A Typical Buffalo Wallow on the Donaldson
Farm, in Benton County, Indiana 33
4. The Wabash River at Merom Bluff, Sullivan
County, Indiana--LaMotte Prairie beyond 41
5. Location of the Indian Tribes of the Northwest 57
6. Shaubena, the best of the Potawatomi Chiefs,
and a follower of Tecumseh 73
7. Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the
United States 97
8. Map of the Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne Campaigns 161
9. Map showing the Wea Plains, and the Line of
Scott's March. Tippecanoe County, Indiana 185
10. Indian Hills on the Wabash River, just below
the old site of Fort Ouiatenon 193
11. General Anthony Wayne and Little Turtle, at
Greenville. From an old painting by one of
Wayne's staff 241
12. Governor William Henry Harrison 257
13. Another View of the Wabash. A land of great
beauty 291
14. Raccoon Creek, Parke County, Indiana. The
North Line of the New Purchase 323
15. The Line of Harrison's March to Tippecanoe
and the New Purchase of 1809 363
16. Pine Creek, in Warren County, Indiana, near
the place where Harrison crossed 371
17. Judge Isaac Naylor. From an old portrait in
the Court Room at Williamsport, Indiana 387
PREFACE
In presenting this book to the general public, it is the intention of
the author to present a connected story of the winning of the Northwest,
including the Indian wars during the presidency of General Washington,
following this with an account of the Harrison-Tecumseh conflict in the
early part of the nineteenth century, ending with the Battle of
Tippecanoe.
The story embraces all of the early efforts of the Republic of the
United States to take possession of the Northwest Territory, acquired
from Great Britain by the Treaty of 1783 closing the Revolutionary War.
The whole western country was a wilderness filled with savage tribes of
great ferocity, and they resisted every effort of the government to
advance its outposts. Back of them stood the agents of England who had
retained the western posts of Detroit, Niagara, Oswego, Michillimacinac
and other places in order to command the lucrative fur trade, and who
looked upon the advance of the American traders and settlers with
jealousy and alarm. They encouraged the savages in their resistance,
furnished them with arms and ammunition, and at times covertly aided
them with troops and armed forces. In other words, this is a part of
that great tale of the winning of the west.
We are well aware that there is a very respectable school of historians
who insist that the British took no part in opposing the American
advance, but the cold and indisputable facts of history, the words of
Washington himself, contradict this view. England never gave up the idea
of retrieving her lost possessions in the western country until the
close of the War of 1812.
An attempt has also been made in this work to present some of the great
natural advantages of the Northwest; its wealth of furs and peltries,
and its easy means of communication with the British posts. The leading
tribes inhabiting its vast domain, the Indian leaders controlling the
movements of the warriors, and the respective schemes of Brant and
Tecumseh to form an Indian confederacy to drive the white man back
across the Ohio, are all dwelt upon.
The writer is confessedly partial to the western frontiersmen. The part
that the Kentuckians played in the conquest of the Northwest is set
forth at some length. The foresight of Washington and Jefferson, the
heroism of Logan, Kenton, Boone and Scott and their followers, play a
conspicuous part. The people of the eastern states looked with some
disdain upon the struggles of the western world. They gave but scanty
support to the government in its attempts to subdue the Indian tribes,
voted arms and supplies with great reluctance, and condemned the
borderers as savages and barbarians. There is no attempt to condemn the
eastern people for their shortsightedness in this regard, but after all,
that is the term exactly applicable. The West was won despite their
discouragement, and the empire beyond the mountains was conquered
notwithstanding their opposition.
William Henry Harrison has been condemned without mercy. Much of this
hostile criticism has proceeded from his political enemies. They have
distorted the plain facts of history in order to present the arguments
of faction. Harrison was the greatest man in the western world after
George Rogers Clark. The revelations of history justify his suspicion of
the British. The people of the West were alone undeceived. The General
was always popular west of the Alleghenies and justly so. Tecumseh and
the Prophet were, after all is said, the paid agents of the English
government, and received their inspiration from Detroit. Jefferson knew
all these facts well, and so wrote to John Adams. Jefferson's heart beat
for the western people, and throughout the whole conflict he stood
stoutly on the side of Harrison.
We recognize the fact that we have done but poorly. Out of the great
mass of broken and disconnected material, however, we have attempted to
arrange a connected whole. We submit the volume with many misgivings and
pray the indulgence of the reading public. We have endeavored at all
times to quote nothing that we did not deem authentic, and have
presented no fact that is not based on written records.
We desire to express our appreciation of the valuable help afforded by
the State Library people at Indianapolis, by Prof. Logan Esarey of
Indiana University, who kindly loaned us the original Harrison letters,
and by Ray Jones and Don Heaton of Fowler, Indiana, who were untiring in
their efforts to give us all the assistance within their power.
E. B.
CHAPTER I
A BRIEF RETROSPECT
--_A general view of the Indian Wars of the Early Northwest._
The memories of the early prairies, filled with vast stretches of waving
grasses, made beautiful by an endless profusion of wild flowers, and
dotted here and there with pleasant groves, are ineffaceable. For the
boy who, barefooted and care-free, ranged over these plains, in search
of adventure, they always possessed an inexpressible charm and
attraction. These grassy savannas have now passed away forever. Glorious
as they were, a greater marvel has been wrought by the untiring hand of
man. Where the wild flowers bloomed, great fields of grain ripen, and
vast gardens of wheat and corn, interspersed with beautiful towns and
villages, greet the eye of the traveler. "The prairies of Illinois and
Indiana were born of water, and preserved by fire for the children of
civilized men, who have come and taken possession of them."
In the last half of the eighteenth century, great herds of buffalo
grazed here, attracting thither the wandering bands of the Potawatomi,
who came from the lakes of the north. Gradually these hardy warriors and
horse tribes drove back the Miamis to the shores of the Wabash, and took
possession of all that vast plain, extending east of the Illinois river,
and north of the Wabash into the present confines of the state of
Michigan. Their squaws cultivated corn, peas, beans, squashes and
pumpkins, but the savage bands lived mostly on the fruits of the chase.
Their hunting trails extended from grove to grove, and from lake to
river.
Reliable Indian tradition informs us that about the year 1790, the herds
of bison disappeared from the plains east of the Mississippi. The deer
and the raccoon remained for some years later, but from the time of the
disappearance of the buffalo, the power of the tribes was on the wane.
The advance of the paleface and the curtailment of the supply of game,
marked the beginning of the savage decline. The constant complaint of
the tribes to General William Henry Harrison, the first military
governor of Indiana, was the lack of both game and peltries.
From the first the Indians of the Northwest were pro-British. Following
the revolutionary war they accepted the overtures of England's agents
and traders, and the end of the long trail was always at Detroit. The
motives of these agents were purely mercenary. They were trespassers on
the American side of the line, for England had agreed to surrender all
the posts within the new territory by the treaty of 1783. The thing
coveted was the trade in beaver, deer and raccoon skins. In order that
this might be done, the Americans must be kept south of the Ohio. The
tribes were taught to regard the crossing of the Alleghenies as a direct
attempt to dispossess them of their native soil. To excite their savage
hatred and jealousy it was pointed out that a constant stream of
keel-boats, loaded with men, women, children and cattle, were
descending the Ohio; that Kentucky's population was multiplying by
thousands, and that the restless swarm of settlers and land hunters, if
not driven back, would soon fill the whole earth. Driven as they were by
rage and fear, all attempts at treaty with these savages were in vain.
The Miamis, the Potawatomi and the Shawnees lifted the hatchet, and
rushed to the attack of both keel-boats and settlements.
The wars that followed in the administration of George Washington are
well known. Back of them all stood the sinister figure of the English
trader. Harmar was defeated at Miamitown, now Fort Wayne; St. Clair's
army was annihilated on the head waters of the Wabash. For a time the
government seemed prostrate, and all attempts to conquer the savages in
their native woods, futile. But finally General Anthony Wayne, the hero
of Stony Point, was sent to the west. He was a fine disciplinarian and a
fearless fighter. At the battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794, he broke the
power of the northwestern Indian confederacy, and in the following year
forced the tribes into the Treaty of Greenville.
On July 11th, 1796, the British, under the terms of Jay's Treaty,
evacuated the post of Detroit, and it passed into the hands of its
rightful owners, the American people. Well had it been for the red men,
if, with this passing of the British, all further communication with the
agents of Great Britain had ceased. Already had the tribes acquired a
rich legacy of hate. Their long intercourse and alliance with the
English; their terrible inroads with fire and tomahawk, on the
settlements of Kentucky; their shocking barbarities along the Ohio, had
enraged the hearts of all fighting men south of that river. But the
British in retiring from American soil had passed over to Malden, near
the mouth of the Detroit river. Communication with the tribes of the
northwest was still kept up, and strenuous efforts made to monopolize
their trade. At last came Tecumseh and the Prophet, preaching a
regeneration of the tribes, and a renewal of the contest for the
possession of the lands northwest of the Ohio. All past treaties were to
be disregarded as impositions and frauds, and the advance of the
paleface permanently checked. The joy of the British agents knew no
bounds. Disregarding all the dictates of conscience and even the welfare
of the tribes themselves, they whispered in the ears of the Wyandots of
Sandusky and began to furnish ammunition and rifles. As a result of this
fatal policy the breach between the United States and the Indian
confederates was measurably widened. The end was Tippecanoe, and the
eternal enmity of the hunters and riflemen of southern Indiana and
Kentucky who followed General Harrison on that day. One of the ghastly
sights of that sanguinary struggle, was the scalping by the white men of
the Indian slain, and the division of their scalps among the soldiers
after they had been cut into strips. These bloody trophies were carried
back to the settlements along the Ohio and Wabash to satisfy the hatred
of all those who had lost women and children in the many savage forays
of the past.
With the death of Tecumseh at the battle of the Thames and the
termination of British influence in the west, the tribes soon
surrendered up their ancient demesne, and most of them were removed
beyond the Mississippi. The most populous of all the tribes north of the
Wabash were the roving Potawatomi, and their final expulsion from the
old hunting grounds occurred under the direction of Colonel Abel C.
Pepper and General John Tipton, the latter a hero of the Battle of
Tippecanoe, and later appointed as Indian commissioner. At that time the
remnants of the scattered bands from north of the Wabash amounted to
only one thousand souls of all ages and sexes. The party under military
escort passed eight or nine miles west of the city of Lafayette,
probably over the level land east of the present site of Otterbein,
Indiana.
Thus vanished the red men. In their day, however, they had been the
undoubted lords of the plain, following their long trails in single file
over the great prairies, and camping with their dogs, women and children
in the pleasant groves and along the many streams. They were savages,
and have left no enduring temple or lofty fane behind them, but their
names still cling to many streams, groves and towns, and a few facts
gleaned from their history cannot fail to be of interest to us, who
inherit their ancient patrimony.
CHAPTER II
WHAT THE VIRGINIANS GAVE US
--_A topographical description of the country north of the Ohio at the
close of the Revolutionary War._
In the early councils of the Republic the stalwart sons of Virginia
exercised a preponderating influence. As men of broad national
conceptions, who were unafraid to strike a decisive blow in the
interests of freedom, they were unexcelled. Saratoga had already been
won, but at the back door of the newborn states was a line of British
posts in the valleys of the Wabash and Mississippi and at Detroit, that
stood ready to pour forth a horde of naked savages on the frontier
settlements of the west and bring murder and destruction to the aid of
England's cause. In December, 1777, George Rogers Clark came from
Kentucky. He laid before Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, a bold
plan for the reduction of these posts and the removal of the red menace.
Into his councils the governor called George Wythe, George Mason and
Thomas Jefferson. An expedition was then and there set on foot that gave
the nation its first federal domain for the erection of new republican
states. With a lot of worthless paper money in his pocket, and about one
hundred and seventy-five hunting shirt men from Virginia and Kentucky,
Clark marched across the prairies of southern Illinois, and captured
Kaskaskia. Later he took Vincennes. Thus by the cool enterprise and
daring of this brave man, he laid the foundation for the subsequent
negotiations of 1783, that gave the northwest territory to the United
States of America.
The country thus conquered covered more than two hundred and forty-four
thousand square miles of the earth's surface, and comprised what are now
the states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. Within
its confines were boundless plains and prairies filled with grass;
immense forests of oak, hickory, walnut, pine, beech and fir; enormous
hidden treasures of coal, iron and copper. Add to all these natural
resources, a fertile soil, a temperate climate, and unlimited facilities
for commerce and trade, and no field was ever presented to the hand and
genius of man, better adapted to form the homes and habitations of a
free and enterprising people. This was known and appreciated by the
noble minds of Washington and Jefferson, even at that day, and they
above all other men of their times, saw most clearly the great vision of
the future.
At the close of the revolution, however, only a few scattered posts,
separated by hundreds of miles, were to be found. Detroit,
Michillimacinac, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and a few minor trading points,
told the whole tale. Kentucky could boast of a few thousands,
maintaining themselves by dauntless courage and nerves of steel against
British and Indians, but all north of the Ohio was practically an
unbroken wilderness, inhabited by the fiercest bands of savages then in
existence, with the possible exception of the Iroquois.
Over this territory, and to gain control of these tribes, England and
France had waged a long and bitter conflict, and the gage of battle had
been the monopoly of the fur trade. The welfare of the savages was
regarded but little; they were the pawns in the game. The great end to
be acquired was the disposal of their rich peltries. No country was more
easily accessible to the early voyageurs and French fur traders. It was
bounded on the north and northeast by the chain of the Great Lakes, on
the south by the Ohio, and on the west by the Mississippi. The heads of
the rivers and streams that flowed into these great watercourses and
lakes were connected by short portages, so that the Indian trapper or
hunter could carry his canoe for a few miles and pass from the waters
that led to Lake Michigan or Lake Erie, into the streams that fed the
Mississippi or the Ohio. The headwaters of the Muskingum and its
tributaries interlocked with those of the Cuyahoga; the headwaters of
the Scioto with those of the Sandusky; the headwaters of the Great Miami
with those of the Wabash and the St. Marys. In northern Indiana another
remarkable system of portages appeared. The canoes of the traders were
carried some eight or ten miles from the little Wabash to the Maumee,
placing the command of the whole Wabash country in the hands of the
Detroit merchants. The sources of the Tippecanoe were connected by
portages with the waters of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, and a like
connection existed between the waters of the Tippecanoe and the waters
of the Kankakee. These portages were, as General Harrison observes,
"much used by the Indians and sometimes by traders." LaSalle passed from
Lake Michigan to the waters of the St. Joseph, thence up that river to a
portage of three miles in what is now St. Joseph county, Indiana, thence
by said portage to the headwaters of the Kankakee, and down that river
to the Illinois. At the post of Chicago the traders crossed from Lake
Michigan by a very short portage into the headwaters of the Illinois,
and General Harrison says that in the spring, the boats with their
loading "passed freely from one to the other." In Michigan the heads of
the streams that flowed into Lake Huron interlocked with the heads of
those that went down to Lake Michigan. In Wisconsin, the voyageurs
passed from Green bay up the Fox river to Lake Winnebago, thence by the
Fox again to the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin, thence down the
Wisconsin river to the Mississippi. Through this important channel of
trade passed nine-tenths of the goods that supplied the Indians above
the Illinois river and those in upper Louisiana.
This great network of lakes, rivers and portages was in turn connected
by the waterways of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, with the great head
and center of all the fur trade of the western world, the city of
Montreal.
The only practicable means of communication was by the canoe. Most of
the territory of the northwest, being, as General Harrison observes,
"remarkably flat, the roads were necessarily bad in winter, and in the
summer the immense prairies to the west and north of this, produced
such a multitude of flies as to render it impossible to make use of pack
horses." Bogs, marshes and sloughs in endless number added to the
difficulties of travel. Hence it was, that the power that commanded the
lakes and water courses of the northwest, commanded at the same time all
the fur trade and the Indian tribes in the interior. France forever lost
this control to Great Britain at the peace of 1763, closing the French
and Indian war, and at the close of the revolution it passed to us by
the definitive treaty of 1783.
The importance of the posts of Detroit and Michillimacinac, forming the
chief connecting links between the northwest and the city of Montreal,
now fully appears. First in importance was Detroit. It commanded all the
valuable beaver country of northern Ohio and Indiana, southern Michigan,
and of the rivers entering Lakes Erie and Huron. The trade coming from
the Cuyahoga, the Sandusky, the tributaries of the Miami and Scioto, the
Wabash and the Maumee, all centered here. The French traders, and after
them the British, did a vast and flourishing business with the savages,
trading them brandy, guns, ammunition, blankets, vermilion and worthless
trinkets for furs of the highest value. The significance of the old
trading posts at Miamitown (Fort Wayne), Petit Piconne (Tippecanoe),
Ouiatenon, and Vincennes, as feeders for this Detroit market by way of
the Wabash and Maumee valleys, is also made plain. A glimpse of the
activities at Miamitown (Fort Wayne), in the winter of 1789-1790, while
it was still under the domination of the British, shows the Miamis,
Shawnees and Potawatomi coming in with otter, beaver, bear skins and
other peltry, the presence of a lot of unscrupulous, cheating French
traders, who were generally drunk when assembled together, and who took
every advantage of each other, and of the destitute savages with whom
they were trading. At that time the French half-breeds (and traders) of
the names of Jean Cannehous, Jacque Dumay, Jean Coustan and others were
trading with the Indians at Petit Piconne, or Tippecanoe, and all this
trade was routed through by way of the Wabash, the portage at Miamitown,
and the Maumee, to Detroit. The traders at Ouiatenon, who undoubtedly
enjoyed the advantage of the Beaver lake trade in northwestern Indiana,
by way of the Potawatomi trail from the Wabash to Lake Michigan, were
also in direct communication with the merchants of Detroit, and depended
upon them. It is interesting to observe in passing, that the rendezvous
of the French traders at the Petit Piconne (termed by General Charles
Scott, as Keth-tip-e-ca-nunk), was broken up by a detachment of Kentucky
mounted volunteers under General James Wilkinson, in the summer of 1791,
and utterly destroyed. One who accompanied the expedition stated that
there were then one hundred and twenty houses at this place, eighty of
which were shingled; that the best houses belonged to French traders;
and that the gardens and improvements around the place were delightful;
that there was a tavern located there, with cellars, a bar, and public
and private rooms. Thus far had the fur trade advanced in the old days.
CHAPTER III
THE BEAVER TRADE
--_A description of the wealth in furs of this section at the close of
the Revolutionary War and the reasons of the struggle for its control._
Perhaps no country ever held forth greater allurement to savage huntsmen
and French voyageurs than the territory acquired by Clark's conquest.
Its rivers and lakes teemed with edible fish; its great forests abounded
with deer, elk, bears and raccoons; its vast plains and prairies were
filled with herds of buffalo that existed up almost to the close of the
eighteenth century; every swamp and morass was filled with countless
thousands of geese, ducks, swan and cranes, and rodents like the beaver
and other animals furnished the red man with the warmest of raiment in
the coldest winter.
To give some idea of the vast wealth of this domain in fur bearing
animals alone, it may be taken into account that in the year 1818 the
American Fur Company, under the control of John Jacob Astor, with
headquarters at Mackinaw, had in its employ about four hundred clerks
and traders, together with about two thousand French voyageurs, who
roamed all the rivers and lakes of the Indian country from the British
dominions on the north, to as far west as the Missouri river. Astor had
established a great fur business in direct competition with the British
Northwest Company and commanded attention in both London and China. The
"outfits" of this company had trading posts on the Illinois, and all its
tributaries; on the Muskegon, Grand, Kalamazoo and other rivers in
Michigan; on the line of the old Potawatomi trail from the Wabash
country to post Chicago, and in the neighborhood of the Beaver lake
region in northern Indiana, and at many other points. The furs handled
by them consisted of the marten (sable), mink, musk-rat, raccoon, lynx,
wildcat, fox, wolverine, badger, otter, beaver, bears and deer, of which
the most valuable were those of the silver-gray fox and the marten. The
value of these furs mounted into the hundreds of thousands of dollars
and they were originally all consigned to New York. For these
interesting observations history lovers are indebted to the
autobiography of the late Gurdon S. Hubbard of Chicago, who was, in his
youth, in the employ of Astor, and who later in his lifetime conducted a
trading post at Bunkum, now Iroquois, in Iroquois County, Illinois. It
has been estimated that in the days of England's control of Canada and
of all the northwest territory, that more than half in value of all the
furs exported "came from countries within the new boundaries of the
United States," that is, from the district north and west of the Ohio
river.
Of all the fur-bearers, the most interesting were the beavers. How much
these industrious gnawers had to do with the French and Indian wars and
the rivalry between England and France for the control of their domain
north of the Ohio, is not generally appreciated. An animal that could be
instrumental in part, in bringing about an armed conflict between the
two greatest powers of that day, should not be entirely eliminated from
history.
At the time of Braddock's defeat, Colonel James Smith, then a boy, was
captured by what seems to have been a party of the Caughnawaga Indians,
some of whom lived along the rivers and streams in northern Ohio. He
lived among the savages for some years and was adopted into one of their
families. Later in life, he left a written account of many of his
experiences, and among other things he tells us some interesting things
concerning the beavers. "Beavers," says Caleb Atwater, an Ohio
historian, "were once here in large numbers on the high lands at the
heads of the rivers, but with those who caught them, they have long
since disappeared from among us." Before the Revolution, and for some
years afterward, they were caught by the Indians in great numbers. Smith
had a valuable friend among the Indians by the name of Tecaughretanego.
He was quite a philosopher in his way, but he was rather inclined to
believe, like most of his fellows, that geese turned to beavers and
snakes to raccoons. He told Smith of a certain pond where he knew all
the beavers were frequently killed during a hunting season, but they
were just as thick again on the following winter. There was seemingly no
water communication with this pond, and beavers did not travel by land.
Therefore it must be that the geese that alighted here in great numbers
during the fall, turned to beavers, and for proof of this assertion the
Indian called Smith's attention to their palmated hind feet. The boy
suggested that there might be subterranean passages leading to this
pond, whereby the beavers could gain access to it, but Tecaughretanego
was not entirely convinced.
In conversation with his Indian friend Smith happened to say that
beavers caught fish. The Indian laughed at him, and told him that
beavers ate flesh of no kind, but lived on the bark of trees, roots, and
other growing things. "I asked him," said Smith, "if the beaver was an
amphibious animal, or if it could live under water? He said that the
beaver was a kind of subterraneous water animal, that lives in or near
the water, but they were no more amphibious than the ducks and geese
were--which was constantly proven to be the case, as all the beavers
that are caught in steel traps are drowned, provided the trap be heavy
enough to keep them under water. As the beaver does not eat fish, I
inquired of Tecaughretanego why the beavers made such large dams? He
said they were of use to them in various respects, both for their safety
and food. For their safety, as by raising the water over the mouths of
their holes, or subterraneous lodging places, they could not be easily
found; and as the beaver feeds chiefly on the barks of trees, by raising
the water over the banks, they can cut down saplings for bark to feed
upon, without going out much upon the land; and when they are obliged to
go out upon land for this food they frequently are caught by the wolves.
As the beaver can run upon land but little faster than a water tortoise,
and is no fighting animal, if they are any distance from the water they
become an easy prey to their enemies."
The Indians caught great numbers of beavers by hunting and trapping. In
the winter time when they found the beavers in their houses, they first
broke up all the thin ice around about, and then by breaking into the
houses, drove the beavers into the water. Being soon forced to come to
the surface to take the air, the Indians commonly reached in and caught
them by the hind legs, dragged them out on the ice and tomahawked them.
Not only were the furs and skins utilized, but the flesh as well. Smith
describes the meat as being a "delicious fare." In the days before the
savages were corrupted by the French and English traders, they possessed
a wonderful skill in dressing the skins of the buffalo, the bear and the
beaver. Beaver and raccoon skin blankets were made "pliant, warm and
durable." Says Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, "They sew together
as many of these skins as are necessary, carefully setting the hair or
fur all the same way, so that the blanket or covering be smooth, and the
rain do not penetrate, but run off."
In the later days, however, the beaver proved to be more of a curse than
a blessing. The Indian then wore the European blanket, and bartered his
valuable furs away for whiskey and brandy. The riotous scenes of
drunkenness, debauchery and murder became unspeakable. To Detroit the
Indians swarmed from the shores of Erie and all the rivers in the
interior. Hunting for weeks and months and enduring privation, suffering
and toil, they came in at last with their women and children to buy
rifles, ammunition and clothing. Here mingled the Miami, the Potawatomi,
the Ottawa and the Wyandot; a motley gathering of all the tribes. In the
end the result was always the same, and always pitiful. The traders came
with the lure of fire water, and when they departed the Indians were
left drunken and destitute and often with death, disease and wounds in
their midst.
Smith gives a vivid description of one of their orgies at Detroit as
follows: "At length a trader came to town (the Indian camp) with French
brandy. We purchased a keg of it, and held a council about who was to
get drunk, and who was to keep sober. I was invited to get drunk, but I
refused the proposal. Then they told me I must be one of those who were
to take care of the drunken people. I did not like this, but of the two
evils I chose that which I thought was the least, and fell in with those
who were to conceal the arms, and keep every dangerous weapon we could
out of their way, and endeavor, if possible, to keep the drinking club
from killing each other, which was a very hard task. Several times we
hazarded our lives, and got ourselves hurt, in preventing them from
slaying each other. Before they had finished the keg, near one-third of
the town was introduced to this drinking club; they could not pay their
part, as they had already disposed of all their skins; but they made no
odds, all were welcome to drink."
"When they were done with the keg, they applied to the traders, and
procured a kettle full of brandy at a time, which they divided out with
a large wooden spoon--and so they went on and on and never quit whilst
they had a single beaver skin. When the trader had got all our beaver,
he moved off to the Ottawa town, about a mile above the Wyandot town."
"When the brandy was gone, and the drinking club sober, they appeared
much dejected. Some of them were crippled, others badly wounded. A
number of the fine new shirts were torn, and several blankets burned. A
number of squaws were also in this club, and neglected their corn
planting."
"We could now hear the effects of the brandy in the Ottawa town. They
were singing and yelling in the most hideous manner, both night and day;
but their frolic ended worse than ours; five Ottawas were killed, and a
great many wounded."
The marshes, lakes, rivers and small streams of northern Ohio and
Indiana, and of the whole of Michigan and Wisconsin, abounded with the
homes and habitations of the beavers. Behind them, as a memorial of
their old days, they have left the names of creeks, towns, townships and
even counties. The beaver lake region of northern Indiana has a Beaver
"lake," a Beaver "township," a Beaver "creek," a Beaver "city," and a
Beaverville to its credit. The history of Vigo and Parke counties,
Indiana, by Beckwith, Chapter Twenty, at page 208, recites that beavers
existed along all the small lakes and lesser river courses in northern
Indiana, They were plentiful in Dekalb, Marshall, Elkhart, Cass. White
and Steuben. It is well known that their dams existed in large numbers
in Newton and Jasper, and in practically all the Indiana counties north
of the Wabash river.
The above regions, with their wealth of peltries, England meant to hold
as long as possible against the American advance, and she succeeded in
doing so for twelve long years after the Revolution had closed.
CHAPTER IV
THE PRAIRIE AND THE BUFFALO
--_The buffalo as the main food supply of the Indians._
To describe all the wonders in the interior of the northwest would be a
serious, if not an impossible task. The Grand Prairie, however, stands
alone. It was one of the marvels of creation, resembling the ocean as
nothing else did, making men who saw, never forget.
On Sunday, the third day of November, 1811, General Harrison's army,
with scouts in front, and wagons lumbering along between the flanks,
crossed the Big Vermilion river, in Vermilion County, Indiana, traversed
Sand Prairie and the woods to the north of it, and in the afternoon of
the same day caught their first glimpse of the Grand Prairie, in Warren
County, then wet with the cold November rains. That night they camped in
Round Grove, near the present town of Sloan, marched eighteen miles
across the prairie the next day, and camped on the east bank of Pine
creek, just north of the old site of Brier's Mills. To the most of them,
the sight must have been both novel and grand; if they could have known
then that the vast undulating plain before them stretched westward in
unbroken grandeur, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles to the
Mississippi river at Quincy; that these vast possessions in a few short
years would pass from the control of the savage tribes that roamed over
them, and would become the future great granaries of the world,
producing enough cereals to feed an empire, what must have been their
thoughts?
The magnitude of this great plain, now teeming with thousands of homes
and farms, is seldom realized. Draw a straight line west from old Fort
Vincennes to the Mississippi, and practically all north of it, to the
Wisconsin line, is the Grand Prairie. "Westward of the Wabash, except
occasional tracts of timbered lands in northern Indiana and fringes of
forest growth along the intervening water courses, the prairies stretch
westward continuously across Indiana, and the whole of Illinois to the
Mississippi. Taking the line of the Wabash railway, which crosses
Illinois in its greatest breadth, and beginning in Indiana, where the
railway leaves the timber, west of the Wabash near Marshfield (in Warren
County), the prairie extends to Quincy, a distance of more than two
hundred and fifty miles, and its continuity the entire way is only
broken by four strips of timber along four streams running at right
angles with the route of the railway, namely, the timber on the
Vermilion river between Danville and the Indiana state line; the
Sangamon, seventy miles west of Danville, near Decatur; the Sangamon
again a few miles east of Springfield, and the Illinois river at
Meredosia, and all the timber at the crossing of these several streams,
if put together, would not aggregate fifteen miles, against the two
hundred and fifty miles of prairie. Taking a north and south direction
and parallel with the drainage of the rivers, one could start near
Ashley, on the Illinois Central railway, in Washington county, and going
northward, nearly on an air line, keeping on the divide between
Kaskaskia and Little Wabash, the Sangamon and the Vermilion, the
Iroquois and the Vermilion of the Illinois, crossing the latter stream
between the mouths of the Fox and DuPage, and travel through to the
state of Wisconsin, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, without
encountering five miles of timber during the whole journey."
All that portion of Indiana lying north and west of the Wabash, is
essentially a part of the Grand Prairie. "Of the twenty-seven counties
in Indiana, lying wholly or partially west and north of the Wabash,
twelve are prairie, seven are mixed prairies, barrens and timber, the
barrens and prairie predominating. In five, the barrens, with the
prairies, are nearly equal to the timber, while only three of the
counties can be characterized as heavily timbered. And wherever timber
does occur in these twenty-seven counties, it is found in localities
favorable to its protection against the ravages of fire, by the
proximity of intervening lakes, marshes or watercourses." On the Indiana
side, the most pronounced of the tracts of prairie occur in western
Warren, Benton, southern and central Newton, southern Jasper, and
western White and Tippecanoe. Benton was originally covered with a great
pampas of blue-stem, high as a horse's head, interspersed here and there
with swamps of willows and bull grass, while only narrow fringes of
timber along the creeks, and some five or six groves of timber and
woodland, widely scattered, served as land marks to the early traveler.
Those who early observed and explored the grassy savannas of Indiana and
Illinois, always maintained that they were kept denuded of trees and
forests by the action of the great prairie fires. Among those who have
supported this theory are the Hon. James Hall, author of "The West,"
published in Cincinnati in 1848; the Hon. John Reynolds, former governor
of the state of Illinois, and the Hon. John D. Caton, a late judge of
the Supreme Court of Illinois. Caton's observations on this subject are
so interesting and ingenious that we cannot refrain from making the
following quotation:
"The cause of the absence of trees on the upland prairies is the problem
most important to the agricultural interests of our state, and it is the
inquiry which alone I propose to consider, but cannot resist the remark
that wherever we do find timber throughout the broad field of prairie,
it is always in or near the humid portions of it, as along the margins
of streams, or upon or near the springy uplands. Many most luxurious
growths are found in the highest portions of the uplands, but always in
the neighborhood of water. For a remarkable example, I may refer to the
great chain of groves extending from and including the Au Sable grove on
the east and Holderman's grove on the west, in Kendall county, occupying
the high divide between the waters of the Illinois and the Fox rivers.
In and around all the groves flowing springs abound, and some of them
are separated by marshes, to the borders of which the great trees
approach, as if the forests were ready to seize upon each yard of ground
as soon as it is elevated above the swamps. Indeed, all our groves seem
to be located where the water is so disposed as to protect them, to a
greater or less extent, from the prairie fire, although not so situated
as to irrigate them. If the head waters of the streams on the prairies
are most frequently without timber, as soon as they have attained
sufficient volume to impede the progress of fires, with very few
exceptions, we find forests on their borders, becoming broader and more
vigorous as the magnitude of the streams increase. It is manifest that
the lands located on the borders of streams which the fire cannot pass,
are only exposed to one-half the fires to which they would be exposed,
but for such protection. This tends to show, at least, that if but
one-half the fires that have occurred had been kindled, the arboraceous
growth could have withstood their destructive influences, and the whole
surface of what is now prairie would be forest. Another confirmatory
fact, patent to all observers, is, that the prevailing winds upon the
prairies, especially in the autumn, are from the west, and these give
direction to the fires. Consequently, the lands on the westerly sides of
the streams are the most exposed to the fires, and, as might be
expected, we find much the most timber on the easterly sides of the
streams."
[Illustration: A Section of the Grand Prairie in Benton County, Indiana,
which extends west to Peoria, Illinois.]
Local observation in Benton County, Indiana, which is purely prairie
throughout, would seem to confirm the judge's view. Parish grove, on the
old Chicago road, was filled with springs, and a rather large spring on
the west side of the grove, supplied water for the horses of the
emigrants and travelers who took this route to the northwest in the
early 40's. Besides this, the grove was situated on rather high uplands,
where the growth of grass would be much shorter than on the adjoining
plain. It is probable that this spring on the west side, and the springy
nature of the highlands back of it, kept the ground moist and the
vegetation green, and these facts, coupled with the fact that the grass
as it approached the uplands, would grow shorter, probably retarded and
checked the prairie fires from the southwest, and gave rise to the
wonderfully diversified and luxuriant growth of trees that was the
wonder of the early settler. Sugar grove, seven miles to the northwest
of Parish grove, and a stopping place on the old Chicago road, lay
mostly within the point or headland caused by the juncture of Sugar
Creek from the northeast, and Mud Creek from the southeast. Scarcely a
tree is on the southwestern bank of Mud creek, but where it widens on
the south side of the grove, it protected the growth of the forest on
the northern side. Turkey Foot grove, east and south of Earl Park,
formerly had a lake and depression both on the south and west sides of
it. Hickory Grove, just west of Fowler, in the early days, had a lake or
pond on the south and west. The timber that skirted the banks of Pine
creek, was heaviest on the eastern side. The headwaters of Sugar, Pine
and Mud creeks, being small and narrow, were entirely devoid of trees on
their banks, but as they flowed on and acquired strength and volume, a
skirt of forest appeared.
The Grand Prairie, the home of the ancient Illinois tribe, the Sacs and
Foxes, the Kickapoos, and the prairie Potawatomi, was also the home of
the buffalo, or wild cow of America. No story either of the northwest or
its Indian tribes would be complete without mention of the bison. Think
of the sight that Brigadier General Harmar saw on the early prairies of
Illinois, when marching from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, in November 1787!
With him the Miami chief, Pachan (Pecan) and a comrade, killing wild
game for the soldiers; before him stretching the vastness of the
prairie, "like the ocean, as far as the eye can see, the view terminated
by the horizon;" here and there the herds of deer and buffalo far in the
distance.
For centuries before the advent of the white man the buffalo herds
roamed the plain. The savage, with no weapon in his hands, save rudely
chipped pieces of stone, was unable to reduce their numbers. With the
coming of firearms and the rifle the buffalo passed rapidly away.
In the seventeenth and the early part of the eighteenth centuries the
buffalo ranged as far east as western New York and Pennsylvania, and as
far south as Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Father Marquette, in
his explorations, declared that the prairies along the Illinois river
were "covered with buffalos." Father Hennepin, in writing of northern
Illinois, between Chicago and the Illinois river, asserted that "There
must be an innumerable quantity of wild bulls in this country, since the
earth is covered with their horns. * * * They follow one another, so
that you may see a drove of them for about a league together. Their
ways are beaten, as are our great roads, and no herb grows therein."
Of the presence of large numbers of buffalo, that resorted to the salty
licks of Kentucky, we have frequent mention by both Humphrey Marshall
and Mann Butler, the early historians of that state. In the year 1755,
Colonel James Smith mentions the killing of several buffalo by the
Indians at a lick in Ohio, somewhere between the Muskingum, the Ohio and
the Scioto. At this lick the Indians made about a half bushel of salt in
their brass kettles. He asserts that about this lick there were clear,
open woods, and that there were great roads leading to the same, made by
the buffalo, that appeared like wagon roads. The wild cattle had
evidently been attracted thither by the mineral salts in the water. In
the early morning of June 13, 1765, George Croghan, an Indian agent sent
out by William Johnson, of New York, to report to the English government
conditions in the west, coming into view of one of the fine large
meadows bordering on the western banks of the Wabash, saw in the
distance herds of buffalo eating the grass, and describes the land as
filled with buffalo, deer and bears in "great plenty." On the 18th and
19th of the same month, he traveled through what he terms as a
"prodigious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaw's Hunting Ground," and
describes it as well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and all
kinds of wild game. He was still in the lower Wabash region. On the 20th
and 21st of June he was traveling north along the Wabash in the vicinity
of the Vermilion river in Vermilion county, and states that game
existed plentifully, and that one could kill in a half hour as much as
was needed. He spoke, evidently, of the large variety of game before
mentioned. The whole of the prairie of Illinois, filled with an abundant
growth of the richest grasses, and all the savannas north of the Wabash
in Indiana, that really constituted an extension of the Grand Prairie,
were particularly suited to the range of the wild herds, and were the
last grounds deserted by them previous to their withdrawal west, and
across the Mississippi.
The economical value of the herds of buffalo to the Indian tribes of the
northwest may be gathered from the uses to which they were afterwards
put by the tribes of the western plains. "The body of the buffalo
yielded fresh meat, of which thousands of tons were consumed; dried
meat, prepared in summer for winter use; pemmican (also prepared in
summer) of meat, fat and berries; tallow, made up into large balls or
sacks, and kept in store; marrow, preserved in bladders; and tongues,
dried and smoked, and eaten as a delicacy. The skin of the buffalo
yielded a robe, dressed with the hair on, for clothing and bedding; a
hide, dressed without the hair, which made a tepee cover, when a number
were sewn together; boats, when sewn together in a green state, over a
wooden frame work; shields, from the thickest portions, as rawhide;
clothing of many kinds; bags for use in traveling; coffins, or winding
sheets for the dead, etc. Other portions utilized were sinews, which
furnished fibre for ropes, thread, bowstrings, snow shoe webs, etc.;
hair, which was sometimes made into belts and ornaments; "buffalo
chips," which formed a valuable and highly prized fuel; bones, from
which many articles of use and ornament were made; horns, which were
made into spoons, drinking vessels, etc." The Rev. John Heckewelder, in
speaking of the skill of the Delawares of Ohio, in dressing and curing
buffalo hides, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, says that
they cured them so that they became quite soft and supple, and so that
they would last for many years without wearing out.
All at once, and near the beginning of the last decade of the eighteenth
century, the buffalo herds east of the Mississippi, suddenly
disappeared. George Wilson, in his history of Dubois County, Indiana,
says that, "toward the close of the eighteenth century a very cold
winter, continuing several months, froze all vegetable growth, starved
the noble animals, and the herds never regained their loss." This
statement is borne out by the testimony of the famous Potawatomi
chieftain Shaubena, of northern Illinois, who says that the trade in
buffalo robes east of the Mississippi ceased in about the year 1790;
that when a youth he joined in the chase of buffalos on the prairies,
but while he was still young, they all disappeared from the country. "A
big snow, about five feet deep, fell, and froze so hard on the top that
people walked on it, causing the buffalo to perish by starvation. Next
spring a few buffalo, poor and haggard in appearance, were seen going
westward, and as they approached the carcasses of dead ones, lying here
and there on the prairies, they would stop, commence pawing and lowing,
then start off again in a lope for the west." It is true that
Brigadier-General Josiah Harmar, in marching from Vincennes to
Kaskaskia, in 1787, gives a striking account of the early prairies,
"like the ocean, as far as the eye can see, the view terminated by the
horizon," and describes the country as excellent for grazing, and
abounding with deer and buffalo. Pachan, or Pecan, a famous Miami
chieftain from Miamitown, and an Indian comrade, supplied the military
party with buffalo and deer meat on the march out, and on the return.
Notwithstanding these facts, the story of the terrible winter and the
deep snow as told by Shaubena seems authentic, and while scattered
remnants of the great herds may still have existed for some time
afterward, the great droves stretching "for above a league together,"
were seen no more.
The great snowfall was the culminating tragedy. In order to secure
whiskey and brandy the horse tribes of the prairies had slaughtered
thousands, and bartered away their robes and hides. What distinguishes
the savage from civilized man is, that the savage takes no heed of the
morrow. To satisfy his present passions and appetites he will sacrifice
every hope of the future. He no longer cures the skins and clothes his
nakedness. He thinks no longer of husbanding his supply of meat and
game. He robs the plain, and despoils every stream and river, and then
becomes a drunken beggar in the frontier towns, crying for alms. The
same thing that happened on the plains of Illinois at the close of
eighteenth, took place on the plains west of the Mississippi in the last
half of the nineteenth century. The giant herds melted away before the
remorseless killings of the still hunters and savages, who threw away a
meat supply worth millions of dollars in a mad chase for gain and
plunder, and no one took a more prominent part in that killing than the
Indian himself.
"When the snow fall was unusually heavy," says William T. Hornaday, "and
lay for a long time on the ground, the buffalos fast for days together,
and sometimes even weeks. If a warm day came, and thawed the upper
surface of the snow, sufficiently for succeeding cold to freeze it into
a crust, the outlook for the bison began to be serious. A man can travel
over a crust through which the hoofs of a ponderous bison cut like
chisels and leave him floundering belly-deep. It was at such times that
the Indians hunted him on snow-shoes, and drove their spears into his
vitals as he wallowed helplessly in the drifts. Then the wolves grew fat
upon the victims which they, also, slaughtered without effort." This is
probably an accurate description of what took place east of the
Mississippi river about the year 1790, and left the bones of the herds
to bleach on the prairies.
However the facts may be, it is certain that at the opening of the
nineteenth century the buffalo were practically extinguished in the
territory of the northwest. A few scattered animals may have remained
here and there upon the prairies, but the old herds, whose progenitors
were seen by Croghan were forever gone. In the month of December, 1799,
Judge Jacob Burnet was traveling overland on horseback from Cincinnati
to Vincennes on professional business, and while at some point north and
west of the falls of the Ohio, he and his companions surprised a small
herd of eight or ten buffalos, that were seeking shelter behind the top
of a fallen beech tree on the line of an old "trace," during a snow
storm. This is one of the last accounts given of any buffalos in
Indiana. On August 18th and August 27th, 1804, Governor William Henry
Harrison, as Indian agent for the United States government, bought a
large tract of land in southern Indiana, between the Wabash and the Ohio
rivers, from the Delaware and Piankeshaw tribes. The right to make this
purchase was disputed by Captain William Wells, the Indian agent at Fort
Wayne, and by the Little Turtle, claiming to represent the Miamis, and
it was claimed among other things, that the lands bought were frequented
as a hunting ground by both the Miamis and Potawatomi, and that they
went there to hunt buffalo. The truth of this statement was denied by
Governor Harrison, who said that not an animal of that kind "had been
seen within that tract for several years."
Traces of the old buffalo wallows are occasionally met with, even to
this day. The great animals "rolled successively in the same hole, and
each carried away a coat of mud," which, baking in the sun, served to
protect them against the great swarm of flies, gnats and insects that
infested the marshes and prairies of that early time. One of these
wallows, in a perfect state of preservation, exists in the northwest
quarter of section thirty, in township twenty-five north, range six
west, in Benton County, Indiana. It is several yards in diameter,
hollowed out to a depth of four or five feet, and its periphery is
almost an exact circle. It is situated on a rather high, springy
knoll, commanding a view of the surrounding plain for several miles.
A great number of Indian arrow heads have been picked up in the
immediate vicinity, showing that the Indiana had previously resorted
thither in search of game.
[Illustration: A typical buffalo wallow on the Donaldson farm in
Benton County, Indiana. Photo by Heaton.]
CHAPTER V
THE WABASH AND THE MAUMEE
--_Chief line of communication with the tribes of the Early Northwest.
The heart of the Miami Country._
To give a detailed description of the many beautiful rivers, valleys and
forests of the northwest at the opening of the last century, would be
difficult. It was, as before mentioned, a vast domain, well watered and
fertile, and containing some of the best lands in the possession of the
federal government. Two rivers, however, assume such historical
importance, as to merit a more particular mention. Along their courses
two Indian confederacies were organized under the spur of British
influence, to oppose the advance of the infant republic of the United
States. These two rivers were the Wabash and the Maumee, both leading to
the principal center of the fur trade of the northwest, the town of
Detroit.
The valley of the Wabash, famed in song and story, and rich in Indian
legend, is now filled with fields of corn and prosperous cities. At the
close of the Revolution, the great stream swept through an unbroken
wilderness of oak, maple and sycamore from its source to the old French
settlement of Vincennes. Its bluffs, now adorned with the habitations of
a peaceful people, then presented the wild and rugged beauty of
pristine days; its terraces, stretching back to the prairies of the
north and west, were crowned with forests primaeval; while naked Miamis,
Weas and Potawatomi in canoes of bark, rounded its graceful courses to
the waters of the Ohio.
For one who has ridden over the hills to the west and south of Purdue
University, and viewed the gorgeous panorama of the Wea plain, or who
has glimpsed in the perspective the wooded hills of Warren and Vermilion
from the bluffs on the eastern side of the river, it is not hard to
understand why the red man loved the Wabash. An observer who saw it in
the early part of the last century pens this picture: "Its green banks
were lined with the richest verdure. Wild flowers intermingled with the
tall grass that nodded in the passing breeze. Nature seemed clothed in
her bridal robe. Blossoms of the wild plum, hawthorn and red-bud, made
the air redolent." Speaking of the summer, he says: "The wide, fertile
bottom lands of the Wabash, in many places presented one continuous
orchard of wild plum and crab-apple bushes, over-spread with arbors of
the different varieties of the woods grape, wild hops and honeysuckle,
fantastically wreathed together. One bush, or cluster of bushes, often
presenting the crimson plum, the yellow crab-apple, the blue luscious
grape, festoons of matured wild hops, mingled with the red berries of
the clambering sweet-briar, that bound them all lovingly together."
Through all this wild and luxurious wilderness of vines, grasses and
flowers flitted the honey bee, called by the Indians, "the white man's
fly," storing his golden burden in the hollow trunks of the trees.
While on the march from Vincennes, in the last days of September, 1811,
Captain Spier Spencer's Yellow Jackets found three bee trees in an hour
and spent the evening in cutting them down. They were rewarded by a find
of ten gallons of rich honey.
The great river itself now passed between high precipitous bluffs,
crowned with oak, sugar, walnut and hickory, or swept out with long
graceful curves into the lowlands and bottoms, receiving at frequent
intervals the waters of clear, sparkling springs and brooks that leaped
down from rocky gorges and hillsides, or being joined by the currents of
some creek or inlet that in its turn swept back through forest, glade
and glen to sun-lit groves and meadows of blue grass.
Everywhere the waters of the great stream were clear and pellucid. The
plow-share of civilization had not as yet turned up the earth, nor the
filth and sewerage of cities been discharged into the current. In places
the gravelly bottom could be seen at a great depth and the forms of
fishes of great size reposing at ease. "Schools of fishes--salmon, bass,
red-horse and pike--swam close along the shore, catching at the bottoms
of the red-bud and plum that floated on the surface of the water, which
was so clear that myriads of the finny tribe could be seen darting
hither and thither amidst the limpid element, turning up their silvery
sides as they sped out into deeper water."
The whole valley of the Wabash abounded with deer, and their tiny hoofs
wrought foot paths through every hollow and glen. The small prairies
bordered with shady groves, the patches of blue-grass, and the sweet
waters of the springs, were great attractions. The banks of the
Mississinewa, Wild Cat, Pine Creek, Vermilion, and other tributaries,
were formerly noted hunting grounds. George Croghan, who described the
Wabash as running through "one of the finest countries in the world,"
mentions the deer as existing in great numbers. On the march of General
Harrison's men to Tippecanoe, the killing of deer was an every day
occurrence, and at times the frightened animals passed directly in front
of the line of march. Raccoons were also very plentiful. On a fur
trading expedition conducted by a French trader named La Fountaine, from
the old Miamitown (Fort Wayne), in the winter of 1789-90, he succeeded
in picking up about eighty deer skins and about five hundred raccoon
skins in less than thirty days. He descended the Wabash and "turned into
the woods" toward the White River, there bartering with the Indians for
their peltries.
As to wild game, the whole valley was abundantly supplied. In the spring
time, great numbers of wild ducks, geese and brant were found in all the
ponds and marshes; in the woody ground the wild turkey, the pheasant and
the quail. At times, the sun was actually darkened by the flight of wild
pigeons, while the prairie chicken was found in all the open tracts and
grass lands.
The bottom lands of this river, were noted for their fertility. The
annual inundations always left a rich deposit of silt. This silt
produced excellent maize, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers
and melons. These, according to Heckewelder, were important items of
the Indian food supply.
To the Indian we are indebted for ash-cake, hoecake, succotash, samp,
hominy and many other productions made from the Indian maize. The Miamis
of the Wabash, with a favorable climate and a superior soil, produced a
famous corn with a finer skin and "a meal much whiter" than that raised
by other tribes. How far the cultivation of this cereal had progressed
is not now fully appreciated. In the expedition of General James
Wilkinson against the Wabash Indians in 1791, he is said to have
destroyed over two hundred acres of corn in the milk at Kenapacomaqua,
or the Eel river towns, alone, and to have cut down a total of four
hundred and thirty acres of corn in the whole campaign. In General
Harmar's campaign against Miamitown in the year 1790, nearly twenty
thousand bushels of corn in the ear were destroyed. On the next day
after the battle of Tippecanoe the dragoons of Harrison's army set fire
to the Prophets Town, and burned it to the ground. Judge Isaac Naylor
says that they found there large quantities of corn, beans and peas, and
General John Tipton relates that the commissary loaded six wagons with
corn and "Burnt what was estimated at two thousand bushel."
Of the many other natural advantages of this great valley, much might be
written. Wheat and tobacco, the latter of a fine grade, were growing at
Vincennes in 1765, when Croghan passed through there. Wild hemp was
abundant in the lowlands. The delicious pecan flourished, and walnuts,
hazelnuts and hickory nuts were found in great plenty. The sugar maple
existed everywhere, and the Indians, who were the original sugar makers
of the world, made large quantities of this toothsome article. In
addition to this the whole valley was filled with wild fruits and
berries, such as blackberries, dewberries, raspberries, gooseberries,
and the luscious wild strawberry, that grew everywhere in the open
spaces and far out on the bordering prairies.
This sketch of the Wabash and its wonderful possibilities may not be
more aptly closed, than by appending hereto the description of Thomas
Hutchins, the first geographer of the United States. It appears in his
"Topographical Description," and mention is made of the connection of
the Wabash by a portage with the waters of Lake Erie; the value of the
fur trade at Ouiatenon and Vincennes, and many other points of vital
interest.
[Illustration: The Wabash River at Merom Bluff, Sullivan County,
Indiana, La Motte Prairie beyond.]
"Ouiatenon (Author's note: Just below Lafayette), is a small stockaded
fort on the western side of the Wabash, in which about a dozen families
reside. The neighboring Indians are the Kickapoos, Musquitons,
Pyankeshaws, and a principal part of the Ouiatenons. The whole of these
tribes consists, it is supposed, of about one thousand warriors. The
fertility of soil, and the diversity of timber in this country, are the
same as in the vicinity of Post Vincent. The annual amount of skins and
furs obtained at Ouiatenon is about 8,000 pounds. By the river Wabash,
the inhabitants of Detroit move to the southern parts of Ohio, and the
Illinois country. Their route is by the Miami river (Maumee) to a
carrying place (Author's note: Miamitown or Fort Wayne), which, as
before stated, is nine miles to the Wabash, when this river is raised
with freshies; but at other seasons, the distance is from eighteen to
thirty miles, including the portage. The whole of the latter is through
a level country. Carts are usually employed in transporting boats and
merchandise, from the Miami to the Wabash river."
No less wonderful was the valley of the Maumee, directly on the great
trade route between the Wabash and the post of Detroit. Croghan, who was
a good judge of land, and made careful observations, found the Ottawas
and Wyandots here in 1765, the land of great richness, and game very
plentiful. It was a region greatly beloved by the Indian tribes, and the
scene after the revolution, of many grand councils of the northwestern
confederacy. In a letter of General Anthony Wayne, written in 1794, he
asserts that: "The margins of these beautiful rivers, the Miamis of the
Lake (Maumee), and the Au Glaize (A southern tributary), appear like one
continued village for a number of miles, both above and below this
place, Grand Glaize, nor have I ever before beheld such immense fields
of corn in any part of America, from Canada to Florida."
After General Wayne's army had defeated the Indians at the battle of
Fallen Timbers on this river in 1794, they spent many days after that
conflict in destroying the fields of grain. One who marched with the
army, in August of the above year, describes Indian corn fields
extending for four or five miles along the Au Glaize, and estimated
that there were one thousand acres of growing corn. The whole valley of
the Maumee from its mouth to Fort Wayne, is described as being full of
immense corn fields, large vegetable patches, and old apple trees, and
it is related that Wayne's army, while constructing Fort Defiance for a
period of eight days, "obtained their bread and vegetables from the corn
fields and potato patches surrounding the fort."
Is it any wonder that along these wonderful basins should be located the
seats of power of the Miami Indians, the leaders of the western
confederacy that opposed the claims of the United States to the lands
north of the Ohio; that from the close of the Revolutionary war until
Wayne's victory in 1794, the principal contest was over the possession
of the Miami village, now Fort Wayne, which controlled the trade in both
the Wabash and the Maumee Valleys, and that President George Washington,
consummate strategist that he was, foresaw at once in 1789, the first
year of his presidency, that the possession of the great carrying place
at Miamitown would probably command the whole northwest and put an end
to the Indian wars?
CHAPTER VI
THE TRIBES OF THE NORTHWEST
--_A description of the seven tribes of savages who opposed the advance
of settlement in the Northwest. Their location. Kekionga, the seat of
Miami power._
We have now to consider those Indian tribes and confederacies, which at
the close of the Revolutionary war, inhabited the northwest territory.
Chief among them were the Wyandots, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares,
Ottawas, Chippewas and Potawatomi. These were the seven tribes known in
after years as the "western confederacy," who fought so long and
bitterly against the government of the United States, and who were at
last conquered by the arms and genius of General Anthony Wayne in the
year 1794.
The Ottawas, Chippewas and Potawatomi formed a sort of loose confederacy
known as the Three Fires, and Massas, a Chippewa chief, so referred to
them at the Treaty of Greenville.
The Miamis, the most powerful of the confederates, were subdivided into
the Eel Rivers, the Weas, and the Piankeshaws. The Kickapoos, a small
tribe which lived on the Sangamon, and the Vermilion of the Wabash, were
associated generally with the Potawatomi, and were always the allies of
the English. The Winnebagoes of Wisconsin were of the linguistic family
of the Sioux; were generally associated with the confederates against
the Americans, and many of their distinguished warriors fought against
General Harrison at Tippecanoe. The decadent tribes known in early times
as the Illinois, did not play a conspicuous part in the history of the
northwest.
While the limits of the various tribes may not be fixed with precision,
and the boundary lines were often confused, still there were well
recognized portions of the northwest that were under the exclusive
control of certain nations, and these nations were extremely jealous of
their rights, as shown by the anger and resentment of the Miamis at what
they termed as the encroachment of the Potawatomi at the Treaty of Fort
Wayne, in 1809.
The Wyandots, for instance, were the incontestable owners of the country
between the Cuyahoga and the Au Glaize, in the present state of Ohio,
their dominion extending as far south as the divide between the waters
of the Sandusky river and the Scioto, and embracing the southern shore
of Lake Erie from Maumee Bay, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Large
numbers of them were also along the northern shores of Lake Erie, in
Canada. Their territory at one time probably extended much farther south
toward the Ohio, touching the lands of the Miamis on the west, but
certainly embracing parts of the Muskingum country, to which they had
invited the ancient Delawares, respectfully addressed by them as
"grandfathers." Intermingled with the Wyandots south and west of Lake
Erie were scattered bands of Ottawas, but they were tenants of the soil
by sufferance, and not as of right.
The Miamis have been described by General William Henry Harrison as the
most extensive landowners in the northwest. He stands on record as
saying that: "Their territory embraced all of Ohio, west of the Scioto;
all of Indiana, and that part of Illinois, south of the Fox river and
Wisconsin, on which frontier they were intermingled with the Kickapoos
and some other small tribes." Harrison may have been right as to the
ancient and original bounds of this tribe, but Little Turtle, their most
famous chieftain, said at the Treaty of Greenville, in 1795: "It is well
known by all my brothers present, that my fore-father kindled the first
fire at Detroit; from thence, he extended his lines to the head-water of
Scioto; from thence, to its mouth; from thence, down the Ohio, to the
mouth of the Wabash, and from thence to Chicago, on Lake Michigan." The
truth is, that the ancient demesne of the Miamis was much curtailed by
the irruption of three tribes from the north in about the year 1765, the
Sacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos and the Potawatomi, who conquered the old
remnants of the Illinois tribes in the buffalo prairies and divided the
country among themselves.
Says Hiram Beckwith, in speaking of the Potawatomi: "Always on friendly
terms with the Kickapoos, with whom they lived in mixed villages, they
joined the latter and the Sacs and Foxes in the exterminating war upon
the Illinois tribes, and afterwards obtained their allotment of the
despoiled domain." The Potawatomi advancing by sheer force of numbers,
rather than by conquest, finally appropriated a large part of the lands
in the present state of Indiana, north of the Wabash, commingling with
the Kickapoos at the south and west, and advancing their camps as far
down as Pine creek. The Miamis were loud in their remonstrances against
this trespassing, and denounced the Potawatomi as squatters, "never
having had any lands of their own, and being mere intruders upon the
prior estate of others," but the Potawatomi were not dispossessed and
were afterwards parties to all treaties with the United States
government for the sale and disposal of said lands. The Miamis also lost
a part of their lands on the lower west side of the Wabash to the
Kickapoos. Pressing eastward from the neighborhood of Peoria, the
Kickapoos established themselves on the Vermilion, where they had a
village on both sides of that river at its confluence with the main
stream. They were, says Beckwith, "Greatly attached to the Vermilion and
its tributaries, and Governor Harrison found it a difficult task to
reconcile them to ceding it away."
To the last, however, the Miamis remained the undisputed lords and
masters of most of the territory watered by the two Miamis of the Ohio,
and by the Wabash and its tributaries down to the Ohio. The great head
and center of their power was at Kekionga (now Fort Wayne), always
referred to by President Washington as "the Miami Village." It was a
pleasant situation in the heart of the great northwest, at the junction
where the swift flowing St. Joseph and the more gentle stream of the
Saint Marys, formed the headwaters of the Maumee. On the eastern side
of the St. Joseph was the town of Pecan, a head chief of the Miami, and
the same savage who had supplied deer and buffalo meat for Brigadier
General Harmar on his mission to Kaskaskia in 1787. Pecan was an uncle
of the famous chief, Peshewah, or Jean Baptiste Richardville, who after
the death of Little Turtle in 1812, became the head chief of the Miami
tribe, and was reputed to be the richest Indian in North America. The
southern end of this town was near the point of juncture of the St.
Marys and St. Joseph, and the village extended north along what is now
known as Lakeside, in the present city of Fort Wayne, a pleasant drive
revealing at times the rippling waters of the river to the west. To the
south of this village lay the Indian gardens, and east of the gardens
the extensive corn fields and meadows. On the northern side of the town
more corn fields were found, and north and west of it extended the
forests. The banks of the Maumee just below the junction, and south of
this old village, are quite high and steep, and along the northern side
now runs the beautiful avenue known as Edgewater. Traveling down
Edgewater to the eastward one comes to a great boulder with a brass
tablet on it. You are at Harmar's Ford, and at the exact point where the
regulars crossed the river just after sunrise of October 22nd, 1790, to
attack the Indians. Here it was that Major John Wyllys fell leading the
charge. Along the southern bank of the Maumee the ground is elevated and
crowning these elevations were the forests again. It was through these
forests that Hardin's forces approached the fatal battlefield.
On the western bank of the St. Joseph was a mixed village of French and
Indians known as LeGris' Town, and it in turn was surrounded by more
corn fields. LeGris was also an important chief of the Miamis, and named
in Henry Hay's journal as a brother-in-law of the Little Turtle. He
signed the treaty of Greenville under the Indian name of
Na-goh-quan-gogh. Directly south of this village ran the St. Marys, and
to the west of it was a small wooded creek known as Spy Run.
To these villages in August, 1765, came George Croghan on his way to
Detroit. He describes the carrying-place between the Wabash and the
Maumee systems to be about nine miles in length, "but not above half
that length in freshes." He reported navigation for bateaux and canoes
between the carrying place and Ouiatenon as very difficult during the
dry season of the year on account of many rapids and rifts; but during
the high-water time the journey could be easily made in three days. He
says the distance by water was two hundred forty miles and by land about
two hundred ten. Within a mile of Miamitown he was met by a delegation
of the Miami chiefs and immediately after his entrance into the village
the British flag was raised. He describes the villages as consisting of
about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine or ten French houses. He
entertained no very high opinion of the French and describes them as
refugees from Detroit, spiriting up the Indians against the English. He
describes the surrounding country as pleasant, well watered, and having
a rich soil.
Recently another account of these villages has been given to the world
by the publication of the diary of one Henry Hay, who, as a
representative of certain merchants and traders of Detroit, visited
these villages in the winter of 1789-1790, while they were still under
the influence of the British agents at Detroit, although the soil was
within the jurisdiction of the United States government. It was then one
of the most important trading places for the Indian tribes in the
northwest, and in close proximity to the great council grounds of the
northwestern Indian confederacy in the valley of the Maumee. Le Gris,
was there, and Jean Baptiste Richardville, then a youth; also the Little
Turtle himself, about to become the most famous and wily strategist of
his day and time.
Let there be no mistaken glamour cast about this scene. Already the
disintegration of the Indian power was setting in. The traders among
them, both English and French, seem to have been a depraved, drunken
crew, trying to get all they could "by foul play or otherwise," and
traducing each other's goods by the circulation of evil reports. Hay
says, "I cannot term it in a better manner than calling it a rascally
scrambling trade." Winter came on and the leading chiefs and their
followers went into the woods to kill game. They had nothing in reserve
to live upon, and in a hard season their women and children would have
suffered. The French residents here seem to have been a gay, rollicking
set, playing flutes and fiddles, dancing and playing cards, and
generally going home drunk from every social gathering. The few English
among them were no better, and we have the edifying spectacle of one
giving away his daughter to another over a bottle of rum. The mightiest
chieftains, including Le Gris, did not scruple to beg for whiskey, and
parties of warriors were arriving from the Ohio river and Kentucky, with
the scalps of white men dangling at their belts.
There was still a considerable activity at this place, however, in the
fur trade, and the English thought it well worth holding. Raccoon, deer,
bear, beaver, and otter skins were being brought in, although the season
was not favorable during which Hay sojourned there on account of it
being an open winter. Constant communication was kept up with Detroit on
the one hand and the Petit Piconne (Tippecanoe) and Ouiatenon on the
other. La Fountaine, Antoine LaSalle, and other famous French traders of
that day were doing a thriving business in the lower Indian country.
That these Miami villages were also of great strategical value from the
military standpoint, and that this fact was well known to President
Washington, has already been mentioned. The French early established
themselves there, and later the English, and when the Americans after
the Revolution took dominion over the northwest and found it necessary
to conquer the tribes of the Wabash and their allies, one of the first
moves of the United States government was to attack the villages at this
place, break up the line of their communication with the British at
Detroit, and overawe the Miamis by the establishment of a strong
military post.
To the last, the Miamis clung to their old carrying place. Wayne
insisted at the peace with the Miamis and their allies, at Greenville,
Ohio, in 1795, that a tract six miles square around the newly
established post at Fort Wayne should be ceded to the United States,
together with "one piece two miles square on the Wabash river, at the
end of the portage from the Miami of the Lake (Maumee), and about eight
miles westward from Fort Wayne." This proposal was stoutly resisted by
the Little Turtle, who among other things said: "The next place you
pointed to, was the Little River, and you said you wanted two miles
square at that place. This is a request that our fathers, the French or
British, never made of us; it was always ours. This carrying place has
heretofore proved, in a great degree, the subsistence of your younger
brothers. That place has brought to us in the course of one day, the
amount of one hundred dollars. Let us both own this place and enjoy in
common the advantage it affords." Despite this argument, however, Wayne
prevailed, and the control of Kekionga and the portage passed to the
Federal government; that ancient Kekionga described by Little Turtle as
"the Miami village, that glorious gate, which your younger brothers had
the happiness to own, and through which all the good words of our chiefs
had to pass from the north to the south, and from the east to the west."
Returning to the Potawatomi, it will be seen that this tribe, which
originally came from the neighborhood of Green Bay, was probably from
about the middle of the eighteenth century, in possession of most of the
country from the Milwaukee river in Wisconsin, around the south shore of
Lake Michigan, to Grand River, "extending southward over a large part
of northern Illinois, east across Michigan to Lake Erie, and south in
Indiana to the Wabash." The Sun, or Keesass, a Potawatomi of the Wabash,
said at the treaty of Greenville, that his tribe was composed of three
divisions; that of the river Huron, in Michigan, that of the St. Joseph
of Lake Michigan, and the bands of the Wabash. In the year 1765, George
Croghan, Indian agent of the British government, found the Potawatomi in
villages on the north side of the Wabash at Ouiatenon, with a Kickapoo
village in close proximity, while the Weas had a village on the south
side of the river. This would indicate that the Potawatomi had already
pushed the Miami tribe south of the Wabash at this place and had taken
possession of the country.
Far away to the north and on both shores of Lake Superior, dwelt the
Chippewas or Ojibways, famed for their physical strength and prowess and
living in their conical wigwams, with poles stuck in the ground in a
circle and covered over with birch bark and grass mats. The Jesuit
Fathers early found them in possession of the Sault Ste. Marie, and when
General Wayne at the treaty of Greenville, reserved the post of
Michillimacinac, and certain lands on the main between Lake Michigan and
Lake Huron, Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, one of the principal Chippewa
chieftains, voluntarily made the United States a present of the Island
De Bois Blanc, at the eastern entrance of the straits of Mackinac, for
their use and accommodation, and was highly complimented by the general
for his generous gift. A reference to the maps of Thomas G. Bradford, of
1838, shows the whole upper peninsular of Michigan in the possession of
the Chippewas, as well as the whole southern and western shores of Lake
Superior, and a large portion of northern Wisconsin. One of their
principal sources of food supply was wild rice, and the presence of this
cereal, together with the plentiful supply of fish, probably accounts
for their numbers and strength. In the beginning of the eighteenth
century, they expelled the Foxes from northern Wisconsin, and later
drove the fierce fighting Sioux beyond the Mississippi. They were the
undisputed masters of a very extensive domain and held it with a strong
and powerful hand. One of their chiefs proudly said to Wayne: "Your
brothers' present, of the three fires, are gratified in seeing and
hearing you; those who are at home will not experience that pleasure,
until you come and live among us; you will then learn our title to that
land." Though far removed from the theatre of the wars of the northwest,
they, together with the Ottawas, early came under the British influence,
and resisted the efforts of the United States to subdue the Miamis and
their confederate tribes, fighting with the allies against General
Harmar at the Miami towns, against St. Clair on the headwaters of the
Wabash and against Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers on the 20th of
August, 1794.
The rudest of all the tribes of the northwest were the Ottawas, those
expert canoemen of the Great Lakes, known to the French as the
"traders," because they carried on a large trade and commerce between
the other tribes. They seem to have had their original home on Mantoulin
Island, in Lake Huron, and on the north and south shores of the
Georgian Bay. Driven by terror of the Iroquois to the region west of
Lake Michigan, they later returned to the vicinity of L'Arbe Croche,
near the lower end of Lake Michigan, and from thence spread out in all
directions. Consulting Bradford's map of 1838 again, the Ottawas are
found in the whole northern end of the lower Michigan peninsula. Ottawa
county, at the mouth of Grand river, would seem to indicate that at one
time, their towns must have existed in that vicinity, and in fact their
possessions are said to have extended as far down the eastern shore of
Lake Michigan as the St. Joseph. To the south and east of these points
"their villages alternated with those of their old allies, the Hurons,
now called Wyandots, along the shore of Lake Erie from Detroit to the
vicinity of Beaver creek, in Pennsylvania." They were parties with the
Wyandots and Delawares and other tribes to the treaty of Fort Harmar,
Ohio, at the mouth of Muskingum, in 1789, whereby the Wyandots ceded
large tracts of land in the southern part of that state to the United
States government, and were granted in turn the possession and occupancy
of certain lands to the south of Lake Erie. The Ottawa title to any land
in southern Ohio, however, is exceedingly doubtful, and they were
probably admitted as parties to the above treaty in deference to their
acknowledged overlords, the Wyandots. Their long intercourse with the
latter tribe, in the present state of Ohio, who were probably the most
chivalrous, brave and intelligent of all the tribes, seems to have
softened their manners and rendered them less ferocious than formerly.
Like the Chippewas, their warriors were of fine physical mould, and
Colonel William Stanley Hatch, an early historian of Ohio, in writing of
the Shawnees, embraces the following reference to the Ottawas: "As I
knew them, (i. e., the Shawnees), they were truly noble specimens of
their race, universally of fine athletic forms, and light complexioned,
none more so, and none appeared their equal, unless it was their tribal
relatives, the Ottawas, who adjoined them. The warriors of these tribes
were the finest looking Indians I ever saw, and were truly noble
specimens of the human family." The leading warriors and chieftains of
their tribe, however, were great lovers of strong liquor, and Pontiac,
the greatest of all the Ottawas, was assassinated shortly after a
drunken carousal, and while he was singing the grand medicine songs of
his race.
But the wandering Ishmaelites of all the northwest tribes were the
Shawnees. Cruel, crafty and treacherous, and allied always with the
English, they took a leading part in all the ravages and depredations on
the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia during the revolution and led
expedition after expedition against the infant settlements of Kentucky,
from the period of the first pioneers in 1775, until Wayne's victory in
1794. These were the Indians who kept Boone in captivity, made Simon
Kenton run the gauntlet, stole thousands of horses in Kentucky, and who
for years attacked the flatboats and keel boats that floated down the
Ohio, torturing their captives by burning at the stake.
General William Henry Harrison, in speaking of the migrations of this
tribe, says: "No fact, in relation to the Indian tribes, who have
resided on the northwest frontier for a century past, is better known,
than that the Shawnees came from Florida and Georgia about the middle of
the eighteenth century. They passed through Kentucky (along the
Cumberland river) on their way to the Ohio. But that their passage was
rather a rapid one, is proved by these circumstances. Black Hoof, their
late principal chief (With whom I had been acquainted since the treaty
of Greenville), was born in Florida, before the removal of his tribe. He
died at Wapocconata, in this state, only three or four years ago. As I
do not know his age, at the time of his leaving Florida, nor at his
death, I am not able to fix with precision the date of emigration. But
it is well known that they were at the town which still bears their name
on the Ohio (Shawneetown, Ill.), a few miles below the mouth of the
Wabash, some time before the commencement of the Revolutionary war; that
they remained there some years before they removed to the Scioto, where
they were found by Governor Dunmore, in the year 1774. That their
removal from Florida was a matter of necessity, and their progress from
thence, a flight, rather than a deliberate march, is evident from their
appearance, when they presented themselves upon the Ohio, and claimed
the protection of the Miamis. They are represented by the chiefs of the
latter, as well as those of the Delawares, as supplicants for
protection, not against the Iroquois, but against the Creeks and
Seminoles, or some other southern tribes, who had driven them from
Florida, and they are said to have been literally sans provat et sans
culottes."
[Illustration: Location of the Indian Tribes of the Northwest. Drawing
by Frank Morris]
Later writers have mentioned that while they originally dwelt in the
south, that one division of the tribe lived in South Carolina, while
another and more numerous division lived along the Cumberland river, and
had a large village near the present site of Nashville. The Cumberland
river was known on the early maps preceding the Revolution as the
Shawnee river, while the Tennessee was called the Cherokee river. This
Cumberland division is said to have become engaged in war with both the
Cherokees and Chickasaws, and to have fled to the north to receive the
protection of the powerful nations of the Wabash.
Notwithstanding the magnanimous conduct of the Miamis, however, they,
together with the Wyandots of Ohio, always regarded the Shawnees with
suspicion and as trouble makers. The great chief of the Miamis told
Antoine Gamelin at Kekionga, in April, 1790, when Gamelin was sent by
the government to pacify the Wabash Indians, that the Miamis had
incurred a bad name on account of mischief done along the Ohio, but that
this was the work of the Shawnees, who, he said, had "a bad heart," and
were the "perturbators of all the nations." To the articles of the
treaty at Fort Harmar, in 1789, the following is appended: "That the
Wyandots have laid claim to the lands that were granted to the Shawnees,
(these lands were along the Miami, in Ohio), at the treaty held at the
Miami, and have declared, that as the Shawnees have been so restless,
and caused so much trouble, both to them and to the United States, if
they will not now be at peace, they will dispossess them, and take the
country into their own hands; for that country is theirs of right, and
the Shawnees are only living upon it by their permission."
From the recital of the above facts, it is evident that the Shawnees
could never justly claim the ownership of any of the lands north of the
Ohio. That, far from being the rightful sovereigns of the soil, they
came to the valleys of the Miamis and Wyandots as refugees from a
devastating war, and as supplicants for mercy and protection. This is
recognized by the Quaker, Henry Harvey, who was partial to them, and for
many years dwelt among them as a missionary. Harvey says that from the
accounts of the various treaties to which they were parties, "they had
been disinherited altogether, as far as related to the ownership of land
anywhere." Yet from the lips of the most famous of all the Shawnees,
came the false but specious reasoning that none of the tribes of the
northwest, not even the Miamis who had received and sheltered them, had
a right to alienate any of their lands without the common consent of
all. "That no single tribe had the right to sell; that the power to sell
was not vested in their chiefs, but must be the act of the warriors in
council assembled of all the tribes, as the land belonged to all--no
portion of it to any single tribe." This doctrine of communistic
ownership was advocated by Tecumseh in the face of all the conquests of
the Iroquois, in the face of the claim of the Wyandots to much of the
domain of the present state of Ohio, and in the face of all of Little
Turtle's claims to the Maumee and the Wabash valleys, founded on long
and undisputed occupancy and possession. It never had any authority,
either in fact or in history, and moreover, lacked the great and saving
grace of originality. For if any Indian was the author of the doctrine
that no single tribe of Indians had the power to alienate their soil,
without the consent of all the other tribes, the first Indian to clearly
state that proposition was Joseph Brant of the Mohawk nation, and Brant
was clearly inspired by the British, at the hands of whom he was a
pensioner.
The savage warriors of the northwest were not formidable in numbers, but
they were terrible in their ferocity, their knowledge of woodcraft, and
their cunning strategy. General Harrison says that for a decade prior to
the treaty of Greenville, the allied tribes could not at any time have
brought into the field over three thousand warriors. This statement is
corroborated by Colonel James Smith, who had an intimate knowledge of
the Wyandots and other tribes, and who says: "I am of the opinion that
from Braddock's war, until the present time (1799), there never was more
than three thousand Indians at any time, in arms against us, west of
Fort Pitt, and frequently not half that number."
Constant warfare with the colonies and the Kentucky and Virginia hunting
shirt men had greatly reduced their numbers, but above all the terrible
ravages of smallpox, the insidious effects flowing from the use of
intoxicants, and the spread of venereal disorders among them, which
latter diseases they had no means of combating, had carried away
thousands and reduced the ranks of their valiant armies.
Woe to the general, however, who lightly estimated their fighting
qualities, or thought that these "rude and undisciplined" savages, as
they were sometimes called, could be met and overpowered by the tactics
of the armies of Europe or America! They were, says Harrison, "a body of
the finest light troops in the world," and this opinion is corroborated
by Theodore Roosevelt, who had some first hand knowledge of Indian
fighters. The Wyandots and Miamis, especially, as well as other western
bands, taught the males of their tribes the arts of war from their
earliest youth. When old enough to bear arms, they were disciplined to
act in concert, to obey punctually all commands of their war chiefs, and
cheerfully unite to put them into immediate execution. Each warrior was
taught to observe carefully the motion of his right hand companion, so
as to communicate any sudden movement or command from the right to the
left, Thus advancing in perfect accord, they could march stealthily and
abreast through the thick woods and underbrush, in scattered order,
without losing the conformation of their ranks or creating disorder.
These maneuvers could be executed slowly or as fast as the warriors
could run. They were also disciplined to form a circle, a semi-circle or
a hollow square. They used the circle to surround their enemies, the
semi-circle if the enemy had a stream on one side or in the rear, and
the hollow square in case of sudden attack, when they were in danger of
being surrounded. By forming a square and taking to trees, they put
their faces to the enemy in every direction and lessened the danger of
being shot from behind objects on either side.
The principal sachem of the village was seldom the war chief in charge
of an expedition. War chiefs were selected with an eye solely to their
skill and ability; to entrust the care and direction of an army to an
inexperienced leader was unheard of. One man, however, was never trusted
with the absolute command of an army. A general council of the principal
officers was held, and a plan concerted for an attack. Such a council
was held before the battle of Fallen Timbers, in which Blue Jacket, of
the Shawnees, Little Turtle of the Miamis, and other celebrated leaders
participated. The plan thus concerted in the council was scrupulously
carried out. It was the duty of the war chief to animate his warriors by
speeches and orations before the battle. During the battle he directed
their movements by pre-arranged signals or a shout or yell, and thus
ordered the advance or retreat. The warriors who crept through the long
grass of the swamp lands at Tippecanoe to attack the army of Harrison,
were directed by the rattling of dried deer hoofs.
It was a part of the tactics practiced by the war chiefs to inflict the
greatest possible damage upon the enemy, with the loss of as few of
their own men as possible. They were never to bring on an attack without
some considerable advantage, "or without what appeared to them the sure
prospect of victory," If, after commencing an engagement, it became
apparent that they could not win the conflict without a great sacrifice
of men, they generally abandoned it, and waited for a more favorable
opportunity. This was not the result of cowardice, for Harrison says
that their bravery and valor were unquestioned. It may have been
largely the result of a savage superstition not to force the decrees of
Fate. Says Harrison: "It may be fairly considered as having its source
in that particular temperament of mind, which they often manifested, of
not pressing fortune under any sinister circumstances, but patiently
waiting until the chances of a successful issue appeared to be
favorable." When the Great Spirit was not angry, he would again favor
his children. One tribe among the warriors of the Northwest, however,
were taught from their earliest youth never to retreat; to regard
"submission to an enemy as the lowest degradation," and to "consider
anything that had the appearance of an acknowledgment of the superiority
of an enemy as disgraceful." These were the Wyandots, the acknowledged
superiors in the northwestern confederacy. "In the battle of the Miami
Rapids of thirteen chiefs of that tribe, who were present, only one
survived, and he badly wounded."
The well known policy of the savages to ambush or outflank their enemies
was well known to Washington. He warned St. Clair of this terrible
danger in the Indian country, but his advice went unheeded. A
pre-concerted attack might occur on the front ranks of an advancing
column, and almost immediately spread to the flanks. This occurred at
Braddock's defeat. The glittering army of redcoats, so much admired by
Washington, with drums beating and flags flying, forded the Monongahela
and ascended the banks of the river between two hidden ravines. Suddenly
they were greeted by a terrible fire on the front ranks, which almost
immediately spread to the right flank, and then followed a horrible
massacre of huddled troops, who fired volleys of musketry at an
invisible foe, and then miserably perished. When St. Clair started his
ill-fated march upon the Miami towns in 1791, his movements were
observed every instant of time by the silent scouts and runners of the
Miamis. Camping on the banks of the upper Wabash, and foolishly posting
his militia far in the front, he suddenly saw them driven back in
confusion upon his regulars, his lines broken by attacks on both flanks,
and his artillery silenced to the last gun. The attack was so well
planned, so sudden and so furious, that nothing remained but precipitate
and disastrous retreat. Out of an army consisting of fourteen hundred
men and eighty-six officers, eight hundred and ninety men and sixteen
officers were killed and wounded. St. Clair believed that he had been
"overpowered by numbers," and so reported to the government. "It was
alleged by the officers," says Judge Burnet, "that the Indians far
outnumbered the American troops. That conclusion was drawn, in part,
from the fact that they outflanked and attacked the American lines with
great force, and at the same time on every side." The truth is, that St.
Clair was completely outwitted by the admirable cunning and strategy of
Little Turtle, the Miami, who concerted the plan of attack, and directed
its operation. Nor is it at all likely that the Indians had a superior
force. They often attacked superior numbers, if they enjoyed the better
fighting position, or could take advantage of an ambush or surprise. A
very respectable authority, who has the endorsement of historians,
says: "There was an army of Indians composed of Miamis, Potawatomis,
Ottowas, Chippewas, Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, and a few Mingoes and
Cherokees, amounting in all to eleven hundred and thirty-three, that
attacked and defeated General St. Clair on the 4th of November, 1791.
Each nation was commanded by their own chiefs, all of whom were governed
by the Little Turtle, who made the arrangements for the action, and
commenced the attack with the Miamis, who were under his immediate
command. The Indians had thirty killed and died with their wounds the
day of the action and fifty wounded."
Of such formidable mould, were the redmen of the northwest, who went
into battle stripped to the skin, and with bodies painted with horrible
stripes of vermilion. So disastrous had been the result of their
victories over the armies of Harmar and St. Clair, and so illy equipped
with men, money and supplies was the infant government of the United
States, that immediately prior to the campaign of General Anthony Wayne,
a military conference was held between President Washington, General
Knox, Secretary of War, and General Wayne, to devise a system of
military tactics that should thereafter control in the conduct of all
wars against the Indians of the northwest.
The development of this system of tactics has been outlined by General
William Henry Harrison, who was an aide to Wayne, in a personal letter
to Mann Butler, one of the historians of Kentucky.
It was determined that in all future contests with the tribes, that the
troops employed should, when in the Indian country, be marched in such
manner as that the order of march could be immediately converted, by
simple evolution, into an order of battle. In other words, that the
troops while actually in the line of march, could be almost instantly
formed in lines of battle. This was to prevent any sudden or unexpected
attack, and this was always liable to occur in the thickly wooded
country. The troops were also taught to march in open formation, each
file to be more than an arm's length from those on the right and left.
The old European system of fighting men shoulder to shoulder was
entirely impracticable in a wilderness of woods, for it invited too
great a slaughter, interfered with the movement of the troops, and
shortened the lines. The great object of the Indian tactics was always
to flank their enemy, therefore an extension of the lines was highly
desirable when entering into action. "In fighting Indians, there was no
shock to be given or received, and a very open order was therefore
attended with two very great advantages; it more than doubled the length
of the lines, and in charging, which was an essential part of the
system, it gave more facility to get through the obstacles which an
action in the woods presented."
A system was also developed whereby, in case the Indians attempted to
flank the enemy, they were met by a succession of fresh troops coming
from the rear to extend the lines. When encamped, the troops were to
assume the form of a hollow square, with the baggage and cavalry, and
sometimes the light infantry and riflemen, in the center. A rampart of
logs was to be placed around the camp, to prevent a sudden night
attack, and to give the troops time to get under arms, but this rampart
was not intended as a means of defense in daylight. "To defeat Indians
by regular troops, the charge must be relied upon; the fatality of a
contest at long shot, with their accurate aim and facility of covering
themselves, was mournfully exhibited in the defeats of Braddock and St.
Clair. General Wayne used no patrols, no picket guards. In Indian
warfare they would always be cut off; and if that were not the case,
they would afford no additional security to the army, as Indians do not
require roads to enable them to advance upon an enemy. For the same
reason (that they would be killed or taken), patrols were rejected, and
reliance for safety was entirely placed upon keeping the army always
ready for action. In connection with this system for constant
preparation, there was only a chain of sentinels around the camps,
furnished by the camp guards, who were placed within supporting
distance."
The outline and adoption of this system of tactics shows that both
Washington and Anthony Wayne were fully aware of the dangerous nature of
their savage adversaries; that they had a wholesome respect for both
their woodcraft and military discipline, and that they regarded the
conquest of the western wilderness as a task requiring great
circumspection and military genius.
CHAPTER VII
REAL SAVAGES
--_The savage painted in his true colors from the standpoint of the
frontiersman._
The poets and philosophers who dwelt in security far from the frontier
posts of danger, have been much disposed in the past to extol the
virtues of the savage and bewail his misfortunes, at the expense of the
rugged pioneer who had to face his tomahawk and furnish victims for his
mad vengeance. They went into rhapsodies when speaking of the "poor
Indian," assuming that in his primitive state, before he was corrupted
by contact with the manners and customs of the white man, he represented
all that was pure, good and simple, and that only after the European
came, did this child of nature take on that ferocity and savagery that
made his name the terror of the wilderness. They said that he was
cruelly and unjustly despoiled of his lands and possessions; driven like
a wild beast before the face of the settlements, and by fraud and force
deprived of every right that he had enjoyed. These philosophers, while
thus impeaching civilization, were always ready to condemn what they
termed as the "rude frontiersmen," the men who originally made it
possible that the land might be inhabited, the soil brought to a state
of cultivation, and the arts and sciences brought to bear upon the wild
forces of nature. They were especially severe in their animadversions
upon the Kentuckians. They denounced their raids upon the Indian towns
and villages along the Scioto and the Wabash as barbarous and uncalled
for. They pointed to the fact that the Kentuckians pursued the Indians
with a fierce and relentless hatred, using the scalping knife, and
burning down their cabins and corn fields, forgetting at the same time
the thousands of Kentuckians cruelly slain, the carrying away into
captivity of pregnant women and innocent children, and the horrible
tortures ofttimes inflicted on the aged and the helpless.
It must never be forgotten that despite his stoicism in facing danger,
his skill in battle, his power to endure privation, and his undoubted
valor and bravery, that the Indian was a savage, and entertained the
thoughts of a savage. Toward those who, like the French, pampered his
appetites and indulged his passions to secure his trade, he entertained
no malice. The lazy, fiddling Canadians who dwelt in Kaskaskia and
Vincennes, had no ambition to absorb the soil or build up a great
commonwealth. The little land they required to raise their corn, their
vines and their onions on, aroused no savage jealousies. But from the
first moment that the Americans came through the gaps and passes of the
Blue Ridge, and swept down the waters of the Ohio, with their women and
children, their horses and cattle, the savage scented danger. These men
were not traders; they came to set up their cabins and to build homes.
The wild dwellers in the wilderness must be tamed or swept back.
Conflict was inevitable; war certain. On the one hand was a grim
determination to advance civilization; on the other, just as grim a
determination to resist it. The savage, employing the same arts in his
wars with the white man as he did in his wars with his fellow savage,
used stealth and cunning, the ambuscade, the scalping knife, and the
tomahawk, and tortured his victims at the stake. A terrible hatred was
engendered, that meant death and extermination. In the sanguinary
struggles that followed, many outrages were no doubt perpetrated by
lawless white men upon the Indians. Such men as Lewis Wetzel are no
credit to a race. But there is no sufficient ground either for the
exaltation of the savage, or the condemnation of men like Boone, Kenton,
Hardin and Scott, who stoutly fought in the vanguard of civilization. It
was a war for supremacy between white man and red, and the fittest
survived. The wild hunters of the forest and river, gave way to farmers
and woodsmen, who made the clearings, built their cabins, and laid the
foundation for the future greatness of the west. The passing of the
tribes was a tragedy, but it would have been a deeper tragedy still, had
savagery prevailed.
Among the Indians of the northwest there was one tribe that attained a
considerable fame. In all their forays into Kentucky and Virginia the
Wyandots fought with the most fearless bravery and the most disciplined
skill. Their conduct at the battle of Estel's Station met with many
words of praise from Mann Butler, the Kentucky historian. It was well
known among the settlements that the Wyandots treated their captives
with consideration, and that they seldom resorted to torture by fire.
Though few in numbers, they acquired the acknowledged supremacy in the
confederation of the northwest, were intrusted by Wayne at the treaty of
Greenville with the custody of the great belt, the symbol of peace and
union, and were given the principal copy of the treaty of peace. Between
the Wyandot and the Ottawa, however, and the Wyandot and the Potawatomi,
there was a striking divergence. If the Wyandot represented the highest
order of intelligence among the savages of the northwest, the Potawatomi
represented one of the lowest. He was dark, cruel, treacherous and
unattractive, and proved a willing tool for murder and assassination in
the hands of the English. There was no place on earth for the chivalrous
Kentuckian and the treacherous Potawatomi to dwell in peace together,
and the imparting of some idea of the true nature of this Indian will
now engage our attention.
When the Dutchman put flint-locks and powder into the hands of the
Iroquois, one of the tribes that he drove around the head of the great
lakes was the Potawatomi. Where did they come from? The Jesuit Relation
says, from the western shores of Lake Huron, and the Jesuit Fathers knew
more about the Algonquin tribes of Canada and the west than all others.
All accounts confirm that they were of the same family as the Chippewas
and Ottawas. From the head of Lakes Huron and Michigan they were forced
to the west and then driven to the south. In 1670 it is known that a
portion of them were on the islands in the mouth of Green bay. They were
then moving southward, probably impelled by the fierce fighting Sioux,
whom Colonel Roosevelt so appropriately named the "horse Indians," of
the west. At the close of the seventeenth century they were on the
Milwaukee river, in the vicinity of Chicago, and on the St. Joseph river
in southern Michigan. They had gone entirely around the northern,
western and southern sides of Lake Michigan, and were now headed in the
direction of their original habitations.
According to Hiram W. Beckwith, the Potawatomi were the most populous
tribe between the lakes and the Ohio, the Wabash and the Mississippi.
Their debouch upon the plains of the Illinois has already been
mentioned. This was about the year 1765. The confederacy among them, the
Kickapoos and the Sacs and Foxes, resulted in the extermination of the
old Illinois tribes, and after that extermination, the Kickapoos took
possession of the country around Peoria and along the Vermilion river,
the Potawatomi of eastern and northern Illinois, while the Sacs and
Foxes went farther to the west. After the treaty of Greenville in 1795,
the Potawatomi rapidly absorbed the ancient domain of the Miamis in
northern Indiana, swiftly pressing them back to the Wabash, and usurping
the major portion of the small lake region in the north end of the
state. They had now become so haughty and insolent in their conduct as
to refer to the Miamis as "their younger brothers," and the Miamis, by
reason of their long wars, their commingling with the traders, and their
acquisition of degenerate habits, were unable to drive them back. In
1810 and 1811, Tecumseh and the one-eyed Prophet were eagerly seeking an
alliance with their treacherous chiefs. A demand was made upon
Tecumseh for the surrender of certain Potawatomi murderers and horse
thieves who had invaded the Missouri region and committed depredations,
but Tecumseh replied that he was unable to apprehend them, and that they
had escaped to the Illinois country. The Potawatomi were now living in
mixed villages west of the present sites of Logansport and Lafayette,
and the southern limits of their domain extended as far down the Wabash
as the outlet of Pine creek across the river from the present city of
Attica.
[Illustration: Shaubena, the best of the Potawatomi Chiefs, and a
follower of Tecumseh. By Courtesy The Chicago Historical Society]
The Potawatomi loved the remoteness and seclusion of the great prairie,
and many of their divisions have been known as the "prairie" tribes.
They seem to have lived for the most part in separate, roving bands,
which divided "according to the abundance or scarcity of game, or the
emergencies of war." Encouraged by the English, they joined in the
terrible expeditions of the Shawnees and Miamis against the keel-boats
on the Ohio, and against the settlements of Kentucky. They were
inveterate horse-thieves. Riding for long distances across plain and
prairie, through forests and across rivers, they suddenly swooped down
on some isolated frontier cabin, perhaps murdering its helpless and
defenseless inmates, taking away a child or a young girl, killing cattle
or riding away the horses and disappearing in the wilderness as suddenly
as they emerged from it. In the later days of Tecumseh's time, these
parties of marauders generally consisted of from four or five, to
twenty. They were still striking the white settlements of Kentucky, and
even penetrated as far west as the outposts on the Missouri river.
Their retreat after attack was made with the swiftness of the wind.
Pursuit, if not made immediately, was futile. Traveling day and night,
the murderous riders were lost in the great prairies and wildernesses of
the north, and the Prophet was a sure protector. The savage chief,
Turkey Foot, for whom two groves were named, in Benton and Newton
Counties, Indiana, stealing horses in far away Missouri, murdered three
or four of his pursuers and made good his escape to the great plains and
swamps between the Wabash and Lake Michigan.
There was nothing romantic about the Potawatomi. They were real savages,
and known to the French-Canadians as "Les Poux," or those who have lice,
from which it may be inferred that they were not generally of cleanly
habits. In general appearance they did not compare favorably with the
Kickapoos of the Vermilion river. The Kickapoo warriors were generally
tall and sinewy, while the Potawatomi were shorter and more thickly set,
very dark and squalid. Numbers of the women of the Kickapoos were
described as being lithe, "and many of them by no means lacking in
beauty." The Potawatomi women were inclined to greasiness and obesity.
The Potawatomi had little regard for their women. Polygamy was common
among them when visited by the early missionaries. The warriors were
always gamblers, playing heavily at their moccasin games and lacrosse.
Nothing, however, revealed their savage nature so well as their rapid
decline under the influence of whiskey. As we shall see hereafter, one
of the great motives that impelled their attacks on the flat boats of
the Ohio river, was their desire not only for plunder, but for rum. The
boats generally contained a liberal supply. Nothing was more common than
drunkenness after the greedy and avaricious traders of the Wabash got
into their midst and bartered them brandy for their most valuable
peltries. Potawatomi were found camping about Vincennes in great numbers
and trading everything of value for liquor. In General Harrison's day,
he endeavored time and time again to stop this nefarious traffic. On all
occasions when treaties were to be made, or council fires kindled, he
issued proclamations prohibiting the sale of liquor to the Indians.
These proclamations were inserted in the Western Sun, at Vincennes, on
more than one occasion, but they were unavailing. The temptation of a
huge profit was too strong. Carousals and orgies took place when the
Indians were under the influence of "fire-water." Fights and murders
were frequent. At the last, whiskey destroyed the last vestige of virtue
in their women, and valor in their warriors.
After the crushing of the Prophet in 1811, and the destruction of
British influence in the northwest, consequent upon the war of 1812, the
decline of the Potawatomi was swift and appalling. The terrible ravages
of "fire-water" played no inconsiderable part. Many of their principal
chieftains became notorious drunkards reeling along the streets of
frontier posts and towns and boasting of their former prowess. Even the
renowned Topenebee, the last principal chief of the tribe of the river
St. Joseph was no exception. Reproached by General Lewis Cass, because
he did not remain sober and care for his people, he answered: "Father,
we do not care for the land, nor the money, nor the goods; what we want
is whiskey! Give us whiskey!" The example set by the chiefs was not
neglected by their followers.
Nothing can better illustrate the shocking savagery and depravity of
some of their last chieftains, after the tribe had been contaminated by
the effect of strong liquors, than the story of Wabunsee, principal war
chief of the prairie band of Potawatomi residing on the Kankakee river
in Illinois, and in his early days one of the renowned and daring
warriors of his tribe. When General Harrison marched with his regulars
and Indiana and Kentucky militia, on the way to the battlefield of
Tippecanoe, he ascended the Wabash river, erecting Fort Harrison, near
the present site of Terre Haute, and christening it on Sunday, the 27th
day of October, 1811. From here, the army marched up the east bank of
the river, crossing the deep water near the present site of Montezuma,
Indiana, and erecting a block house on the west bank, about three miles
below the mouth of the Vermilion river, for a base of supplies. Corn and
provisions for the army were taken in boats and pirogues from Fort
Harrison up the river, and unloaded at this block house. On Saturday,
the 2nd day of November, John Tipton recorded in his diary that, "this
evening a man came from the Garrison (Fort Harrison) said last night his
boat was fired on--one man that was asleep killed dead." Beckwith
records that the dare-devil "Wabunsee, the Looking-Glass, principal war
chief of the prairie bands of Potawatomis, residing on the Kankakee
river, in Illinois, distinguished himself, the last of October, 1811,
by leaping aboard of one of Governor Harrison's supply boats, loaded
with corn, as it was ascending the Wabash, five miles above Terre Haute,
and killing a man, and making his escape ashore without injury."
Allowing a slight discrepancy in dates, this was probably the same
incident referred to by John Tipton, and taking into consideration that
the boats were probably guarded by armed men, this was certainly a
daring and adventurous feat.
Yet it is recorded of this chief, that he always carried about with him
two scalps in a buckskin pouch, "taken from the heads of soldiers in the
war of 1812, and when under the influence of liquor he would exhibit
them, going through the motions of obtaining those trophies."
Schoolcraft, whose attention was especially drawn towards this chieftain
on account of his drunken ferocity, and who paints him as one of the
worst of many bad savages of his day, says: "He often freely indulged in
liquor; and when excited, exhibited the flushed visage of a demon. On
one occasion, two of his wives, or rather female slaves, had a dispute.
One of them went, in her excited state of feeling, to Wabunsee, and told
him that the other ill-treated his children. He ordered the accused to
come before him. He told her to lie down on her back on the ground. He
then directed the other (her accuser) to take a tomahawk and dispatch
her. She instantly split open her skull. "There," said the savage, "let
the crows eat her." He left her unburied, but was afterwards persuaded
to direct the murderess to bury her. She dug the grave so shallow, that
the wolves pulled out her body that night, and partly devoured it."
The cold, cruel treachery of this tribe is without a parallel, save in
the single instance of the Shawnees. It has been admitted by Shaubena,
one of their best chiefs, that most of the depredations on the frontier
settlements in Illinois during the Black Hawk war, were committed by the
Potawatomi. The cowardly and brutal massacre at Chicago, August 15,
1812, was the work principally of the Potawatomi, "and their several
bands from the Illinois and Kankakee rivers; those from the St. Joseph
of the lake, and the St. Joseph of the Maumee, and those of the Wabash
and its tributaries were all represented in the despicable act." In that
massacre, Captain William Wells, the brother-in-law of Little Turtle,
was killed when he was trying to protect the soldiers and refugees. He
was discovered afterwards, terribly mutilated. His body lay in one
place, his head in another, while his arms and legs were scattered about
over the prairie. The warriors of this tribe, stripped to the skin,
except breech-cloth and moccasins, and with bodies painted with red
stripes, went into battle with the rage of mad-men and demons and
committed every excess known to human cruelty.
Looking at the Potawatomi in the true light, and stripped of all that
false coloring with which he has been painted, and the facts remains
that he was every inch a wild and untamed barbarian. And while we must
admire him for his native strength, his wonderful endurance through the
famine and cold of the northern winters, and his agility and ingenuity
in the chase or on the warpath, it is not any wonder that the children
of that time, as Judge James Hall relates, "learned to hate the Indian
and to speak of him as an enemy. From the cradle they listened
continually to horrid tales of savage violence, and became familiar with
narratives of aboriginal cunning and ferocity." Nor is it any wonder
that when General Harrison crossed the Wabash at Montezuma and gave an
order to the advance guard to shoot every Indian at sight, that the
rough frontiersman, John Tipton, entered in his diary, "Fine News!"
CHAPTER VIII
OUR INDIAN POLICY
_--The Indian right of occupancy recognized through the liberal policy
of Washington and Jefferson._
By the terms of the definitive treaty of 1783, concluding the war of the
revolution the territory northwest of the river Ohio passed forever from
the jurisdiction of the British government, over to the new born states
of the United States. By the first article of that treaty, the thirteen
former colonies were acknowledged to be free, sovereign and independent
powers, and Great Britain not only relinquished all her rights to the
government, but to the "proprietary and territorial rights of the same,
and every part thereof." At the time of that treaty, the northwest
territory was occupied by a number of powerful and warlike tribes of
savages, yet no reservation of any kind was made in their favor by the
English negotiators. The Iroquois confederacy of New York, and more
particularly the Mohawks, had stood out stoutly on the side of the king,
but they were wholly forgotten in the articles of peace. Of this action,
Joseph Brant, the Mohawk leader, in his communications with Lord Sidney,
in 1786, most bitterly complained, expressing his astonishment "that
such firm friends and allies could be so neglected by a nation
remarkable for its honor and glory." Yet if Brant had been better
acquainted with the policy and usage of European nations, he would have
known that England had granted away not only the sovereignty, but the
very soil of the territory itself, subject only to the Indian rights of
occupancy. In all the ancient grants of the crown to the duke of York,
Lord Clarendon and others, there passed "the soil as well as the right
of dominion to the grantee." France, while adopting a liberal policy
toward the savages of the new world, claimed the absolute right of
ownership to the land, based on first discovery. Spain maintained a like
claim. The war for supremacy in the Saint Lawrence, the Mississippi and
the Ohio valleys between Great Britain and France, terminating in the
peace of 1763, was a war waged for the control of lands and territory,
notwithstanding the occupancy of the Indian tribes. If a country
acquired either by conquest or prior discovery, is filled with a people
attached to the soil, and having fixed pursuits and habitations, the
opinion of mankind would seem to require that the lands and possessions
of the occupants should not be disturbed, but if the domain discovered
or conquered is filled with a race of savages who make no use of the
land, save for the purpose of hunting over it, a different solution must
of necessity result. There can be no admixture of races where the one is
civilized and the other barbarous. The barbarian must either lose his
savagery and be assimilated, or he must recede. The North American
Indian was not only brave, but fierce. In the wilds and fastnesses of
his native land, he refused to become either a subject or a slave. No
law of the European could be formulated for his control; he obeyed only
the laws of nature under which he roamed in freedom. He knew nothing of
fee or seisin, or the laws of conveyancing, as his white brother knew
it. He knew only that the rivers and the forests were there, and that he
gained his subsistence from them. With him, the strongest and the
fiercest had the right to rule; the right to hunt the buffalo and elk.
The European put fire arms into the hands of the Iroquois warrior, and
that warrior at once made himself master of all north of the Ohio and
east of the Mississippi, without regard to the prior claims of other
tribes. To expect that a savage of this nature could be dealt with under
the ordinary forms and conventions of organized society, was to expect
the impossible. To him, the appearance of a surveyor or a log cabin was
an immediate challenge to his possession. Today he might be brought to
make a treaty, but on the morrow he was filled with a jealous hate
again, and was ready to burn and destroy. On the other hand, to leave
him in the full possession of his country was, as Chief Justice Marshall
said: "To leave the country a wilderness." To stop on the borderland of
savagery and advance no further, meant the retrogression of
civilization. The European idea of ownership was founded on user. The
inevitable consequence was, that the conqueror or discoverer in the new
world claimed the ultimate fee in the soil, and the tribes receding, as
they inevitably did, this fee ripened into present enjoyment. When Great
Britain, therefore, owing to the conquests of George Rogers Clark,
surrendered up to the United States her jurisdiction and control over
the territory north and west of the Ohio river, she did, according to
the precedent and usage established by all the civilized nations of that
day, pass to her grantee or grantees, the ultimate absolute title to the
land itself, notwithstanding its savage occupants, and the right to deal
with these occupants thenceforward became a part of the domestic policy
of the new republic, with which England and her agents had nothing to
do. "It has never been doubted," says Chief Justice Marshall, "that
either the United States, or the several states, had a clear title to
all the lands within the boundary lines described in the treaty, subject
only, to the Indian right of occupancy, and that the exclusive power to
extinguish that right was vested in that government which might
constitutionally exercise it." These facts should be kept in mind when
one comes to consider the equivocal course that England afterwards
pursued.
But how were the savage wards occupying these lands, and thus suddenly
coming under the guardianship of the republic, to be dealt with? Were
they to be evicted by force and arms, and their possessory rights
entirely disregarded, or were their claims as occupants to be gradually
and legitimately extinguished by treaty and purchase, as the frontiers
of the white man advanced? In other words, was the seisin in fee on the
part of the states, or the United States, to be at once asserted and
enforced, to the absolute and immediate exclusion of the tribes from the
lands they occupied, or was a policy of justice and equity to prevail,
and the ultimate right to the soil set up, only after the most diligent
effort to ameliorate the condition of the dependent red man had been
employed? The answer to this question had soon to be formulated, for on
March 1st, 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James
Monroe, delegates in the Continental Congress on the part of the State
of Virginia, in pursuance of the magnanimous policy of her statesmen,
executed a deed of cession to the United States, of all her claim and
right to the territory northwest of the Ohio, the same to be used as a
common fund "for the use and benefit of such of the United States as
have become, or shall become, members of the confederation or federal
alliance of the states." The only reservations made were of a tract of
land not to exceed one hundred and fifty thousand acres to be allowed
and granted to General George Rogers Clark, his officers and soldiers,
who had conquered Kaskaskia, Vincennes, and the western British posts
under the authority of Virginia, said tract being afterwards located on
the Indiana side of the Ohio, adjacent to the falls of that river, and
known as the "Illinois Grant," and a further tract to be laid off
between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami, in case certain lands
reserved to the continental troops of Virginia upon the waters of the
Cumberland, "should, from the North Carolina line, bearing in further
upon the Cumberland lands than was expected," prove to be deficient for
that purpose. The cession of Virginia was preceded by that of New York
on the first day of March, 1781, and followed by that of Massachusetts,
on the 19th day of April, 1785, and that of Connecticut on the 14th of
September, 1786, and thus the immense domain now comprising the states
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with the exception
of the reservations of Virginia, and a small reservation of the state of
Connecticut in northeastern Ohio, passed over to the general government,
before the adoption of the federal constitution, and before George
Washington, the first president of the United States, was sworn into
office, on the 30th day of April, 1789.
But the wisdom and the broad national views of the leading Virginia
law-makers and statesmen, had already, in great measure, pointed the way
to the Indian policy to be pursued by Washington and his successors. No
state, either under the old confederation or the new constitution,
presented such a formidable array of talent and statecraft as Virginia.
Washington, Jefferson, John Marshall, and Madison, stood pre-eminent,
but there was also Edmund Randolph, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, George
Mason, William Grayson and Richard Henry Lee.
Washington had always taken a deep and abiding interest in the western
country. In 1770 he had made a trip down the Ohio in company with his
friends, Doctor Craik and William Crawford. The distance from Pittsburgh
to the mouth of the Great Kanawha was two hundred and sixty-five miles.
The trip was made by canoes and was rather hazardous, as none of
Washington's party were acquainted with the navigation of the river. The
party made frequent examinations of the land along the way and
Washington was wonderfully impressed with the future prospects of the
country. Arriving at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, he ascended that
river for a distance of fourteen miles, hunting by the way, as the land
was plentifully stocked with buffalo, deer, turkeys and other wild game.
He also made critical observations of the soil here, with a view to
future acquisitions. The whole country below Pittsburgh at that time,
was wild and uninhabited, save by the Indian tribes.
At the close of the revolution the minds of Washington, Jefferson and
other leading Virginians were filled with the grand project of
developing and colonizing the west, and binding it to the union by the
indissoluble ties of a common interest. There was nothing of the narrow
spirit of provincialism about these men. Their thoughts went beyond the
limited confines of a single state or section, and embraced the nation.
They entertained none of those jealousies which distinguish the small
from the great. On the contrary, they looked upon the mighty
trans-montane domain with its many watercourses, its rich soil, and its
temperate climate, as a rich field for experimentation in the erection
of new and free republics. The deed of cession of Virginia had provided:
"That the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into new
states, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than one
hundred, nor more than one hundred fifty miles square, or as near
thereto as circumstances will admit: and that the states so formed
should be distinct republican states, and admitted members of the
federal union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and
independence, as the other states." If this great public domain, thus
dedicated to the whole nation, and under the control of its supreme
legislative body, the continental congress, could be filled up with a
conglomerate population from all the states, factions and sectional
jealousies would disappear, and at the same time the original states
would be more closely knit together by the bonds of their common
interest in the new federal territory.
But there was one great obstacle to the realization of these hopes, and
that was the difficulty of opening up any means of communication with
this western empire. The mountain ranges stood as barriers in the way,
unless the headwaters of such rivers as the Potomac and the James, could
be connected by canals and portages with the headwaters of the Ohio and
its tributaries. If this could be accomplished, and if the headwaters of
the Miami, Scioto and Muskingum, could be connected in turn with those
of the Cuyahoga, the Maumee and the Wabash, then all was well, for this
would furnish an outlet for the commerce of the west through the ports
and cities of the Atlantic seaboard. There were other and highly
important political questions that engaged Washington's attention at
this time, and they were as follows: The English dominion of Canada
bordered this northwest territory on the north. The British, contrary to
the stipulations of the treaty of peace of 1783, had retained the posts
of Detroit, Niagara and Oswego, to command the valuable fur trade of the
northwest, and the Indian tribes engaged therein, and in addition they
also enjoyed a complete monopoly of all trading vessels on the Great
Lakes. To the south and west of this northwest territory lay the
Spanish possessions, and the Spanish were attempting to bar the settlers
of Kentucky from the use of the Mississippi for the purposes of trade.
In other words, they were closing the market of New Orleans against the
Kentuckians. But suppose that either or both of these powers, who were
then extremely jealous of the growth and expansion of the new republic,
should hold forth commercial advantages and inducements to the western
people? What then would be the result? What then the prospect of binding
any new states to be formed out of this western territory in the
interest of the federal union?
With all these great questions revolving in his mind, we see the father
of his country again on horseback in the year 1784, traversing six
hundred and eighty miles of mountain wilderness in Pennsylvania and
Virginia and examining the headwaters of the inland streams. He made
every inquiry possible, touching the western country, examined every
traveler and explorer who claimed to have any knowledge of its
watercourses and routes of travel, and after spending thirty-three days
of fatiguing travel in the saddle, he returned to his home and made a
report of his observations to Governor Harrison of Virginia. His remarks
on the western country are so highly interesting and important, and
manifest such a deep and profound interest in the future welfare of the
western world, as to call for the following quotations:
"I need not remark to you that the flanks and rear of the United States
are possessed by great powers, and formidable ones, too; nor how
necessary it is to apply the cement of interest to bind all parts of
the Union together by indissoluble bonds, especially that part of it,
which lies immediately west of us, with the middle states. For what
ties, let me ask, should we have upon these people? How entirely
unconnected with them shall we be, and what troubles may we not
apprehend, if the Spaniards on their right, and Great Britain on their
left, instead of throwing stumbling-blocks in their way, as they now do,
should hold out lures for their trade and alliance? What, when they get
strength, which will be sooner than most people conceive (from the
emigration of foreigners, who will have no particular predilection
towards us, as well as from the removal of our own citizens), will be
the consequence of their having formed close connections with both or
either of those powers, in a commercial way? It needs not, in my
opinion, the gift of prophecy to foretell."
"The western states (I speak now from my own observation) stand as it
were upon a pivot. The touch of a feather will turn them any way. They
have looked down the Mississippi, until the Spaniards, very
impolitically, I think, for themselves, threw difficulties in their way;
and they look that way for no other reason, than because they could
glide gently down the stream; without considering, perhaps, the
difficulties of the voyage back again, and the time necessary to perform
it in; and because they have no other means of coming to us, but by long
land transportations and unimproved roads. These causes have hitherto
checked the industry of the present settlers; for except the demand for
provisions, occasioned by the increase of population, and a little
flour, which the necessities of the Spaniards compel them to buy, they
have no incitements to labor. But smooth the road, and make easy the way
for them, and then see what an influx of articles will be poured upon
us; how amazingly our exports will be increased by them, and how amply
we shall be compensated for any trouble and expense we may encounter to
effect it."
"A combination of circumstances makes the present conjuncture more
favorable for Virginia, than for any other state in the union, to fix
these matters. The jealous and untoward disposition of the Spaniards on
the one hand, and the private views of some individuals, coinciding with
the general policy of the court of Great Britain, on the other, to
retain as long as possible the posts of Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego
(which though done under the letter of the treaty, is certainly an
infraction of the spirit of it, and injurious to the Union) may be
improved to the greatest advantage by this state, if she would open the
avenues to the trade of that country, and embrace the present moment to
establish it. It only wants a beginning. The western inhabitants would
do their part towards its execution. Weak as they are, they would meet
us at least half-way, rather than be driven into the arms of foreigners,
or be made dependent upon them; which would eventually either bring on a
separation of them from us, or a war between the United States and one
or other of those powers, most probably the Spaniards."
These remarks coming from the pen of Washington aroused intense
interest in Virginia. He did not stop there. On the fourteenth of
December, 1784, we see him calling the attention of the president of the
old continental congress to these affairs. He urged, "that congress
should have the western waters well explored, their capacities for
navigation ascertained as far as the communications between Lake Erie
and the Wabash, and between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, and a
complete and perfect map made of the country at least as far west as the
Miamis, which run into the Ohio and Lake Erie," and he pointed out the
Miami village as the place for a very important post for the Union. The
expense attending such an undertaking could not be great; the advantages
would be unbounded. "Nature," he said, "has made such a display of her
bounty in these regions that the more the country is explored the more
it will rise in estimation. The spirit of emigration is great; people
have got impatient; and, though you cannot stop the road, it is yet in
your power to mark the way. A little while and you will not be able to
do either." Such were the enlightened and fatherly hopes that Washington
thus early entertained of the great west and its struggling pioneers,
who were trying to carve out their destinies in a remote wilderness.
No less enlightened were the views of Jefferson. He may be said in truth
to be the father of the northwest. When a member of the legislature of
Virginia, he had promoted the expedition under George Rogers Clark,
which resulted in the conquest of the northwest, and its subsequent
cession to the United States under the treaty of 1783. As governor of
Virginia he had taken part in its cession to the general government on
March first, 1784. "On that same day," says Bancroft, "before the deed
could be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States,
Jefferson, as chairman of a committee, presented a plan for the
temporary government of the western territory from the southern boundary
of the United States in the latitude of thirty-one degrees to the Lake
of the Woods. It is still preserved in the national archives in his own
handwriting, and is as completely his own work as the Declaration of
Independence." As the profoundest advocate of human rights of his day or
time, freeing himself from the narrow spirit of sectionalism, and
despising human slavery and its contamination of the institutions of a
free people, he proposed the ultimate establishment of ten new states in
the territory northwest of the Ohio, a republican form of government for
each of them, and no property qualification for either the electors or
the elected. "Following an impulse of his own mind," he proposed the
everlasting dedication of the northwest to free men and free labor, by
providing that after the year 1800 there should be neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude in any of them. While Jefferson's plan for the
exclusion of slavery was stricken from the ordinance, his noble ideas of
freedom were afterwards fully and completely incorporated in the final
Ordinance of 1787, whereby "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime,
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," should ever be
permitted. This ordinance, through the predominating influence of
Virginia and her statesmen, was passed by the vote of Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and
Massachusetts, and afterwards ratified by the legislature of Virginia
who had to consent thereto to give it full force.
It is at once apparent that these statesmen and patriots who looked
forward to the establishment of free republics in the western domain,
based on free labor and equal rights, would never consent that the
foundation of these new republics should be laid in blood. The outrages
perpetrated on the frontiers of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and
on the infant settlements of Kentucky, during the revolution, and all at
the instigation of the British, had left behind them a loud cry for
vengeance. In fact similar outrages were still taking place daily. The
claim was made that under the treaty of peace with Great Britain, that
no reservation had been made in favor of any of the Indian tribes, or in
favor of their claims to any of the lands they occupied; that under the
treaty the absolute fee in all the Indian lands within the limits of the
United States had passed to the several states such as Virginia, who had
a legitimate claim to them, and later by cession of these states to the
general government, and that congress "had the right to assign, or
retain such portions as they should judge proper;" that the Indian
tribes, having aided Great Britain in her attempt to subjugate her
former colonies, and having committed innumerable murders, arsons and
scalpings on the exposed frontiers, should now be required to pay the
penalty for their crimes; that their lands and hunting grounds should
stand forfeit to the government, and they be expelled therefrom. In
other words, it was asserted that the government should turn a harsh and
stern countenance towards all these savage marauders and drive them by
force, if need be, from the public lands.
Towards all these arguments in favor of a hard and uncompromising
attitude toward the savage tribes, both Washington and Jefferson turned
a deaf ear. They assumed a high plane of mercy and forgiveness towards
the red man that must ever redound to their glory. On August 7th, 1789,
in a message to the senate of the United States, Washington said: "While
the measures of government ought to be calculated to protect its
citizens from all injury and violence, a due regard should be extended
to those Indian tribes whose happiness, in the course of events, so
materially depends upon the national justice and humanity of the United
States." These sentiments were reflected in his course of action from
the first day of peace with Great Britain. He, together with General
Philip Schuyler, said, "that with regard to these children of the
forest, a veil should be drawn over the past, and that they should be
taught that their true interest and safety must henceforth depend upon
the cultivation of amicable relations with the United States." He took
the high ground that peace should be at once granted to the several
tribes, and treaties entered into with them, assigning them certain
lands and possessions, within the limits of which they should not be
molested. To avoid national dishonor, he advocated the purchase of all
lands occupied by the various Indian tribes as the advance of the
settlements should seem to require, thus fully recognizing the Indian
right of occupancy. He utterly rejected all ideas of conquest, and as he
commanded a powerful influence over all the better minds of that day,
his counsels prevailed.
To those who have read Jefferson's speeches to the Little Turtle, the
Miamis, Potawatomi and Delawares in the year 1808, near the close of his
second administration, the broad humanitarianism and fatherly
benevolence of the third president is at once apparent. In those
addresses he laments the "destructive use of spirituous liquors," the
wasting away of the tribes as a consequence thereof, and directs the
attention of their chieftains to "temperance, peace and agriculture," as
a means of restoring their former numbers, and establishing them firmly
in the ways of peace. "Tell this, therefore, to your people on your
return home. Assure them that no change will ever take place in our
dispositions toward them. Deliver to them my adieux, and my prayers to
the Great Spirit for their happiness. Tell them that during my
administration I have held their hand fast in mine; that I will put it
into the hand of their new father, who will hold it as I have done."
Jefferson demanded always that the strictest justice should be done
toward the tribes, and carrying forward his ideas in his first ordinance
of 1784, for the government of the northwest territory, he inserted a
provision that no land was to be taken up until it had been first
purchased from the Indian tribes and offered for sale through the
regular agencies of the government.
The tree of justice thus planted by Washington and Jefferson, flourished
and grew until it produced the magnificent fruit of the Ordinance of
1787, wherein it is stipulated that: "The utmost good faith shall always
be observed toward the Indians; their lands and property shall never be
taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights and
liberty, they never shall be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and
lawful wars authorized by congress; but laws founded in justice and
humanity shall, from time to time be made, for preventing wrongs being
done them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them."
[Illustration: Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States.]
In order that we may trace the development of the principles of equity
thus incorporated in the Ordnance of 1787, and which thenceforward
distinguished the domestic policy of the federal government towards the
tribes, a brief review of the treaties had and negotiated with the
Indian tribes prior to that year now becomes germane. The first treaty
after the revolution was that of Fort Stanwix (Rome) New York, concluded
on the 22nd day of October, 1784, by and between Oliver Wolcott, Richard
Butler and Arthur Lee, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United
States, on the one part, and the sachems and warriors of the Six Nations
of the Iroquois confederacy, on the other part. This treaty was opposed
by Joseph Brant, chief of the Mohawks, and a firm friend and ally of the
British, but supported by the Cornplanter, his rival, who was a friend
of the United States. By its terms the United States gave peace to the
Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas and Cayugas on their delivery of hostages to
secure the return of prisoners taken during the Revolution; secured the
Oneidas and Tuscaroras, who had fought on the side of the United States,
in the possession of the lands they occupied, and took all the tribes
under the protection of the federal government. On the other hand, the
Iroquois tribes yielded to the United States any and all claims to the
territory west of the western line of Pennsylvania, thus surrendering up
any further pretensions on their part to any of the lands in the
northwest territory. The treaty seems to have been openly conducted, and
really exhibited no small degree of leniency on the part of the
government, as the Mohawks especially had taken part in many horrible
massacres on the American frontier during the Revolution and were the
objects of almost universal execration. Then again, the Iroquois had
really sacrificed but little in surrendering their claims to the lands
west of the Pennsylvania line, for while they had at one time
undoubtedly conquered all of the tribes east of the Mississippi, these
days of glory had long since departed, and the Wyandots, Delawares and
Miamis were the rightful owners of a large part of the Ohio country. The
treaty of Fort Stanwix was followed about ninety days later by the
treaty of Fort McIntosh, concluded on the 21st day of January, 1785, at
the mouth of Beaver creek, in Pennsylvania. The commissioners on the
part of the United States were George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and
Arthur Lee, while the Indian negotiators were the "Half-King of the
Wyandots, Captain Pipe, and other chiefs, on behalf of the Wyandot,
Delaware, Ottawa and Chippewa nations." By the articles of this treaty
the outside boundaries of the Wyandots and Delawares were fixed as
follows: Beginning at the mouth of the River Cuyahoga, where the city of
Cleveland now stands, and running thence up said river to the portage
between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence running
down said branch to the forks of the crossing place above old Fort
Laurens; thence extending westerly to the portages between the branches
of the Miami of the Ohio and the St. Marys; thence along the St. Marys
to the Miami village; thence down the Maumee to Lake Erie; thence along
the south shore of Lake Erie to the place of beginning. The Wyandot and
Delaware nations, together with some Ottawa tribesmen dwelling among the
Wyandots, were given the right and privilege of living and hunting upon
the lands embraced within the above limits, but the United States
reserved tracts of six miles square each, at the mouth of the Maumee, at
Sandusky, and at the portage of the St. Marys and Great Miami, as well
as some further small tracts at the rapids of the Sandusky river, for
the establishment of trading posts. All land east, south and west of the
above boundaries was acknowledged to be the property of the government,
and none of the above tribes were to settle upon it. Further
reservations for trading posts were made at Detroit and Michillimacinac.
The Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas and Chippewas were granted peace, and
at the same time were made to acknowledge the absolute sovereignty of
the United States. Any Indian committing a murder or robbery upon any
citizen of the United States was to be delivered to the nearest post for
punishment according to the laws of the nation. The third and last
treaty before the Ordinance, affecting the northwest, was held at the
mouth of the Great Miami, on January 31st, 1786, between George Rogers
Clark, Richard Butler and Samuel H. Parsons, commissioners, and the
murderous and horse-stealing Shawnees, and but for the cool daring and
intrepidity of Clark, there probably would have been a massacre. Some
restraint was sought to be imposed on the Shawnee raiders who constantly
kept the frontiers of Kentucky and Virginia in a turmoil. Owing to their
absolute hostility, however, and the influence of the British agents at
Miamitown and Detroit, only a few of the younger chiefs attended the
conference. The Shawnees were made to acknowledge the United States as
the "sole and absolute sovereigns of all the territory ceded to them by
a treaty of peace, made between them and the king of Great Britain, the
fourteenth day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four,"
and in turn were granted peace and protection. They were allotted
certain lands to live and hunt upon, on the headwaters of the Great
Miami and the Wabash rivers.
But a fundamental error had crept into all these negotiations, and that
was, that the Indians' ancient right of occupancy was not recognized.
That right of present enjoyment and possession, although claimed by
savages who had waged war without mercy, against women and children,
was still a right. In the years to come, and after the new constitution
of the Union came into force and effect, the Supreme court of the United
States, sitting in solemn judgment upon this very question, would have
to pronounce that the Indian tribes had an unquestioned right to the
lands they occupied, "until that right was extinguished by a voluntary
cession to the government," notwithstanding the fact that the ultimate
fee in the soil rested in the government. To declare that the Iroquois,
the Wyandots and the Delawares, suddenly became divested of every
species of property in their lands, on the ground that they had
forfeited them by waging war against the United States, was to declare
that which could never be defended in a court of conscience and equity.
But in the first hot moments succeeding the Revolution, and before men's
minds had time to cool, that was practically the principle upon which
the continental congress had proceeded.
By consulting the records of the old congress of date October 15th,
1783, it is found that a committee composed of Mr. Duane, Mr. Peters,
Mr. Carroll, Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Arthur Lee, to whom had been referred
the whole question of Indian affairs, had reported in substance as
follows: That while the Indian tribes were "disposed to a pacification,"
that they were not in "a temper to relinquish their territorial claims
without further struggles;" that if the tribes were expelled from their
lands, they would probably retreat to Canada, where they would meet with
"a welcome reception from the British government;" that this accession
of power on the part of Canada would make her a formidable rival in
case of future trouble, and secure to her people the profits of the fur
trade; "that although motives of policy as well as clemency ought to
incline Congress to listen to the prayers of the hostile Indians for
peace, yet in the opinion of the committee it is just and necessary that
lines of property should be ascertained and established between the
United States and them, which will be convenient to the respective
tribes, and commensurate to the public wants, because the faith of the
United States stands pledged to grant portions of the uncultivated lands
as a bounty to their army, and in reward of their courage and fidelity,
and the public finances do not admit of any considerable expenditure to
extinguish the Indian claims upon such lands;" that owing to the rapid
increase in population it was necessary to provide for the settlement of
the territories of the United States; that the public creditors were
looking to the public lands as the basis for a fund to discharge the
public debt. The committee went further. They reported with some
particularity that the Indians had been the aggressors in the late war,
"without even a pretense of provocation;" that they had violated the
convention of neutrality made with Congress at Albany in 1775, had
brought utter ruin to thousands of families, and had wantonly desolated
"our villages and settlements, and destroyed our citizens;" that they
should make atonement for the enormities they had perpetrated, and due
compensation to the republic for their wanton barbarity, and that they
had nothing wherewith to satisfy these demands except by consenting to
the fixing of boundaries. Wherefore, it was resolved that a convention
be held with the tribes; that they be received into the favor and
protection of the United States, and that boundaries be set "separating
and dividing the settlements of the citizens from the Indian villages
and hunting grounds."
It will be seen that in all this report there is nothing said of vested
rights, or the just and lawful claims of the Indian occupants. If
clemency was granted, it was a matter of grace. The government claimed
the absolute jus disponendi, without any word of argument on the part of
the savages. On the same day that the above resolution for holding a
convention with the Indian tribes was agreed upon, preliminary
instructions to the commissioners were decided upon by congress. It was
determined first, that all prisoners of whatever age or sex must be
delivered up; second, that the Indians were to be informed that after a
long contest of eight years for the sovereignty of the country, that
Great Britain had relinquished all her claims to the soil within the
limits described in the treaty of peace; third, that they be further
informed that a less generous people than the Americans might, in the
face of their "acts of hostility and wanton devastation," compel them to
retire beyond the lakes, but as the government was disposed to be kind
to them, "to supply their wants, and to partake of their trade," that
from "motives of compassion" a veil should be drawn over what had
passed, and boundaries fixed beyond which the Indians should not come,
"but for the purpose of trading, treating, or other business equally
unexceptionable." There were other instructions, but is not essential
to this inquiry that they be enumerated.
It is at once apparent that the commissioners on behalf of the
government who went into the treaties of Fort Stanwix, Fort McIntosh,
and that at the mouth of the Great Miami, if they obeyed the
instructions of congress, gave the Indian tribes to understand that the
United States absolutely owned every foot of the soil of the northwest,
were entitled to the immediate possession of it, and if they allowed the
savages to remain upon it, and did not drive them beyond the lakes, it
was purely from "motives of compassion," and not because these savages
enjoyed any right of occupancy that was bound to be respected by the
government. That these statements are true is proven by the report of
Henry Knox, secretary of war, to President Washington, on June 15th,
1789, in a review of past conditions relative to the northwestern
Indians. The representations of Knox correctly reflected the views of
Washington himself. The Secretary says: "It is presumable, that a nation
solicitous of establishing its character on the broad basis of justice,
would not only hesitate at, but reject every proposition to benefit
itself, by the injury of any neighboring community, however contemptible
or weak it might be, either with respect to its manners or power * * *
The Indians being the prior occupants, possess the right of the soil. It
cannot be taken from them unless by their free consent, or by the right
of conquest in case of a just war. To dispossess them on any other
principle, would be a gross violation of the fundamental law of nations,
and of that distributive justice which is the glory of a nation." He
then says the following: "The time has arrived, when it is highly
expedient that a liberal system of justice should be adopted for the
various Indian tribes within the limits of the United States. By having
recourse to the several Indian treaties, made by the authority of
congress, since the conclusion of the war with Great Britain, except
those made in January, 1789, at Fort Harmar, it would appear, that
congress were of the opinion, that the treaty of peace, of 1783,
absolutely invested them with the fee of all the Indian lands within the
limits of the United States; that they had the right to assign, or
retain such portions as they should judge proper." Again, and during the
negotiations of Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph and Timothy
Pickering, with the northwestern Indians in 1793, this candid admission
is made of the former errors in the negotiations at Fort Stanwix: "The
commissioners of the United States have formerly set up a claim to your
whole country, southward of the Great Lakes, as the property of the
United States, grounding this claim on the treaty of peace with your
father, the king of Great Britain, who declared, as we have before
mentioned the middle of those lakes and the waters which unite them to
be the boundaries of the United States. We are determined that our whole
conduct shall be marked with openness and sincerity. We therefore
frankly tell you, that we think those commissioners put an erroneous
construction on that part of our treaty with the king. As he had not
purchased the country of you, of course he could not give it away. He
only relinquished to the United States his claims to it. That claim was
founded on a right acquired by treaty with other white nations, to
exclude them from purchasing or settling in any part of your country;
and it is this right which the king granted to the United States. Before
that grant, the king alone had a right to purchase of the Indian
nations, any of the lands between the Great Lakes, the Ohio and the
Mississippi, excepting the part within the charter boundary of
Pennsylvania; and the king, by the treaty of peace, having granted this
right to the United States, they alone have now the right of
purchasing." Thus with perfect candor and justice did we afterwards
admit that our first treaties with the tribes, were founded on a
mistaken and arbitrary notion of our rights in the premises, and without
a due regard to the right of occupancy of the Indian nations. A
government thus frank enough to declare its error, should have been
implicitly trusted by the Indian chieftains, and no doubt would have
been, but for the constant representations of the British agents who for
mercenary gain appealed to their fear and prejudice.
These first errors in our Indian negotiations, however, were extremely
costly to us, and proved to be so many thorns in the side of the
republic. On the 20th of May, 1785, an ordinance was passed by the
continental congress "for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in
the western territory," recently acquired under the treaties of Forts
Stanwix and McIntosh. Beginning at the western line of Pennsylvania,
ranges of townships six miles square were to be laid off, extending from
the river Ohio to Lake Erie. These ranges were to be surveyed under the
superintendence of the chief geographer of the United States, assisted
by surveyors appointed from each state, and these surveyors were in turn
placed over the different companies of chain carriers and axemen.
Congress was making strenuous efforts to open up the western country to
purchase and settlement.
But at the first attempts of the government surveyors to enter the Ohio
country, they met with a most determined resistance from the savages.
Brigadier-General Tupper, of Massachusetts, who went to Pittsburgh to
run some lines, was enabled to proceed no farther west than that
station. Captain John Doughty, writing to the secretary of war from Fort
McIntosh, on the 21st of October, 1785, says "They (the Indians) are
told by the British, and they are full in the persuasion, that the
territory in question was never ceded to us by Britain, further than
respects the jurisdiction or putting the Indians under the protection of
the United States. From this reasoning they draw a conclusion that our
claim in consequence of that cession ought not to deprive them of their
lands without purchase. I believe you may depend upon it that this is
the reasoning of their chiefs. I am so informed by several persons who
have been among them. Our acting upon the late treaty made at this place
last winter, in beginning to survey their country, is certainly one
great cause of their present uneasiness." Everywhere the British
partizans of Miamitown and Detroit, in order to keep the tribes in firm
alliance with England, and thus preserve the valuable fur trade, were
pointing to the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh and telling
the Indians that the Americans were laying claim to their whole country,
and would drive them beyond the lakes. The British agents went further.
According to Captain Doughty, certain emissaries of the British, who
were acquainted with the Indian language and manners, were constantly
circulating among the Indian towns in the Miami and Wyandot country,
making presents to the savages, and appealing to their fears. From the
information of one Alexander McCormick, communicated to Captain Doughty,
it appears that some time during the season of 1785, a grand council of
the tribes was held at Coshocton, on the Muskingum. Tribes were present
from a considerable distance beyond the Mississippi. The object of this
council seems to have been to unite all the tribes and oppose the
American advance. "Two large belts of wampum were sent from the council
to the different nations, holding that they should unite and be at peace
with each other." This looked like a threat of war. Matthew Elliott, an
Indian agent of the British, said in the Shawnee town in the presence of
forty warriors, "that the Indians had better fight like men than give up
their lands and starve like dogs." Simon Girty and Caldwell were among
the Delawares and Wyandots advising them to keep away from the
contemplated treaty at the mouth of the Great Miami.
In the face of all these portentous happenings the adoption of the great
Ordinance of 1787, came as a happy relief. It was apparent now, to the
minds of all right thinking men, that an unfortunate interpretation had
been made of the treaty of peace; that nothing could justify an
unlawful seizure of the Indian possessions. It might be humiliating to
reverse the policy of the government, and give the British agents a
chance to say that the United States had been wrong from the beginning,
but the leading men in the federal councils had determined to adhere to
the advice of Washington, and purchase every foot of the Indian lands.
The potent words of the ordinance that "The utmost good faith shall
always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and property shall
never be taken from them without their consent," were in every sense
truly American and placed the nation four-square to all the world.
As a direct consequence of the new policy toward the tribes, as
evidenced by the Ordinance of 1787, two separate treaties of peace were
entered into at Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum river, on
January 9th, 1789, and in the first year of George Washington's
administration. The first treaty was concluded with the Wyandot,
Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi and Sac nations; the second with
the sachems and warriors of the Six Nations. About the time of the
adoption of the Ordinance for the government of the northwest territory,
the Ohio Company composed of revolutionary officers and soldiers, had
negotiated with congress for the purchase of a large tract of land in
the Muskingum valley, and on the 7th day of April, 1788, the town of
Marietta, Ohio, had been established at the mouth of that river,
opposite Fort Harmar. The purchase by the Ohio Company was succeeded by
that of John Cleves Symmes, of a large tract of land between the Great
and the Little Miami rivers, and about the first of January, 1789, the
foundations were laid of the present city of Cincinnati. On October 5th,
1787, Arthur St. Clair, of Revolutionary fame, was appointed as the
first governor of the northwest territory, and on July 9th, 1788, he
arrived at Marietta to assume his duties, to organize the government,
and adopt laws for the protection of the people.
The sale of these lands in the Indian country, the planting of these new
settlements, and the increasing tide of men, women and children sweeping
down the Ohio, to settle in Kentucky, seemed to verify all that the
British agents had told the Indians respecting the American intentions.
The depredations on the Ohio river, the plundering of boats, and murder
of immigrants and settlers, were on the increase. Governor St. Clair had
been given instructions by congress on the 26th day of October, 1787, to
negotiate if possible an effectual peace. He was to feel out the tribes,
ascertain if possible their leading head men and warriors and attach
them to the interests of the United States. The primary object of the
treaty was declared to be the removing of all causes of controversy, and
the establishment of peace and harmony between the United States and the
Indian tribes. On July 2nd, 1788, he was given additional instructions
and informed that the sum of twenty thousand dollars had been
appropriated, in addition to six thousand dollars theretofore set aside,
for the specific purpose of obtaining a boundary advantageous to the
United States, "and for further extinguishing by purchase, Indian
titles, in case it can be done on terms beneficial to the Union."
Congress was evidently seeking to carry out the letter and spirit of the
Ordinance, and to extinguish the Indian right of occupancy, by fair
negotiation and purchase.
Time will not be taken here to enumerate the many difficulties
encountered by General St. Clair in the negotiation of the treaty at
Fort Harmar. The violent opposition of Joseph Brant and the Indian
department of the British government will be treated under another head.
Suffice it to say that President Washington always considered this as a
fair treaty. In the instructions given by the government to General
Rufus Putnam in 1792, this language occurs: "You may say that we
conceive the treaty of Fort Harmar to have been formed by the tribes
having a just right to make the same, and that it was done with their
full understanding and free consent."
Tarhe, a prominent chief of the Wyandots, said at the treaty of
Greenville, in 1795, to General Wayne: "Brother, you have proposed to us
to build our good work on the treaty of Muskingum (Fort Harmar); that
treaty I have always considered as founded upon the fairest principles *
* * I have always looked upon that treaty to be binding upon the United
States and us Indians." The same boundaries were fixed between the
United States and the Wyandots and Delawares, as were fixed in the
treaty of Fort McIntosh, and the Six Nations ceded to the government all
lands west of the Pennsylvania line, but this time a valuable
consideration was given for the land, and the United States
"relinquished and quit claimed" to the tribes all claims to the
territory embraced within the Indian boundaries "to live and hunt upon,
and otherwise to occupy as they shall see fit." In other words, and as
Secretary of War Knox says, congress had appropriated a sum of money
solely for the purpose of extinguishing the Indian title, and for
obtaining regular conveyances from the Indians, and this was accordingly
accomplished. One who reads of this great triumph of right and justice,
and this humane and merciful treatment of a race of savages, is
certainly justified in feeling a profound respect and admiration for the
fathers of the republic.
CHAPTER IX
THE KENTUCKIANS
--_The first men to break through the mountain barriers to face the
British and the Indians._
While the government of the United States was thus shaping its policy
toward the Indian tribes, a new empire was building on the western
waters, that was to wield a more powerful influence in the development
of the western country, than all other forces combined. That empire was
Kentucky.
The waters of the Ohio "moving majestically along, noiseless as the foot
of time, and as resistless," sweep from the junction of the Monongahela
and Allegheny to the waters of the Mississippi, a distance of nine
hundred miles, enclosing in their upper courses the island of
Blannerhassett, below the mouth of the Little Kanawha, the island of
Zane, near Wheeling, and leaping in a descent of twenty-two feet in a
distance of two miles the Falls opposite the present city of Louisville.
The lofty eminences which crowned its banks, the giant forests of oak
and maple which everywhere approached its waters, the vines of the
frost-grape that wound their sinuous arms around the topmost branches of
its tallest trees, presented a spectacle that filled the soul of the
traveler with awe and wonder at every graceful turn of the river. In the
spring a wonderful transformation took place in the brown woods. There
suddenly appeared on every hand the opening flowers of the red-bud,
whose whole top appeared as one mass of red blossoms, interspersed with
the white and pale-yellow blossoms of the dog-wood, or cornus florida.
Thus there extended "in every direction, at the same time, red, white
and yellow flowers; at a distance each tree resembling in aspect so many
large bunches of flowers every where dispersed in the woods." This was
the Belle Riviere, or the beautiful river of the French, which they long
and valiantly sought to hold against the advancing tides of English
traders and land hunters. This was that glorious gate to the west,
through which floated the rafts and keel-boats of the American settlers
who took possession of the great northwest.
But notwithstanding the beauty and grandeur of this stream, there was
not, at the close of the French and Indian War, on the tenth of
February, 1763, a single habitation of either white man or savage on
either the Ohio-Indiana side, or on the Kentucky side of this river.
Says General William Henry Harrison: "The beautiful Ohio rolled its
'amber tide' until it paid its tribute to the Father of Waters, through
an unbroken solitude. Its banks were without a town or village, or even
a single cottage, the curling smoke of whose chimney would give the
promise of comfort and refreshment to a weary traveler."
The reason for this solitude is apparent. To the south of the Ohio lay
the "Dark and Bloody Ground" of Kentucky; "Dark," because of its vast
and almost impenetrable forests; "Bloody," because of the constant
savage warfare waged within its limits by roving bands of Miamis,
Shawnees, Cherokees, and other tribes who resorted thither in pursuit of
game. Says Humphrey Marshall, the early historian of Kentucky: "The
proud face of creation here presented itself, without the disguise of
art. No wood had been felled; no field cleared; no human habitation
raised; even the redman of the forest, had not put up his wigwam of
poles and bark for habitation. But that mysterious Being, whose
productive power, we call Nature, ever bountiful, and ever great, had
not spread out this replete and luxurious pasture, without stocking it
with numerous flocks and herds; nor were their ferocious attendants, who
prey upon them, wanting, to fill up the circle of created beings. Here
was seen the timid deer; the towering elk; the fleet stag; the surly
bear; the crafty fox; the ravenous wolf; the devouring panther; the
insidious wildcat; the haughty buffalo, besides innumerable other
creatures, winged, four-footed, or creeping."
This was the common hunting ground of the wild men of the forest. None
took exclusive possession, because none dared. The Ohio was the common
highway of the Indian tribes, and while their war paths crossed it at
frequent intervals, none were so bold as to attempt exclusive dominion
over it.
As was once said in the senate of the United States, "You might as well
inhibit the fish from swimming down the western rivers to the sea, as to
prohibit the people from settling on the new lands." While the great
revolution was opening, that should wrest our independence from Great
Britain, the stream of "long rifles" and hunting shirt men of Virginia
and Pennsylvania, who followed the valleys of the Allegheny and the Blue
Ridge from north to south, suddenly broke through the western mountain
barriers and flowed in diminutive rivulets into the basins of the
Tennessee, the Ohio and the Cumberland; afterwards forming, as Theodore
Roosevelt most strikingly says, "a shield of sinewy men thrust in
between the people of the seaboard and the red warriors of the
wilderness." In 1774, James Harrod built the first log cabin in
Kentucky. On the 14th of June, 1775, the first fort of the white man was
erected at Boonesborough.
The situation of the first pioneers of Kentucky was indeed precarious.
"They were posted," says Mann Butler, "in the heart of the most favorite
hunting ground of numerous and hostile tribes of Indians, on the north
and on the south; a ground endeared to these tribes by its profusion of
the finest game, subsisting on the luxuriant vegetation of this great
natural park. * * * * It was emphatically the Eden of the red man." On
the waters of the Wabash, the Miamis and the Scioto, dwelt powerful
confederacies of savages who regarded their intrusion as a menace and a
threat. Behind these savages stood the minions of Great Britain, urging
war on non-combatants and offering bounties for scalps. It was three or
four hundred miles to the nearest fort at Pittsburgh, and a wilderness
of forest and mountain fully six hundred miles in extent, separated them
from the capital of Virginia.
But it is to the everlasting glory of these men that they knew no fear,
and valiantly held their ground. Standing as they were, on the very
outskirts of civilization, they looked on the perils of the wilderness
with unquailing eye, and with stout hearts and brawny arms they carried
forward the standards of the republic. The thin line of skirmishers thus
thrown far out beyond the western ranges, was all that stood between the
grasping power of Great Britain, and the realization of her desire for
absolute dominion over the western country. The ambitious projects of
her rebel children must be defeated, and they must be driven back beyond
the great watershed which they had crossed. The western waters were to
be preserved for the red allies of England, who supplied her merchants
with furs and peltries. The great "game preserve," as Roosevelt called
it, must not be invaded. Years before, a royal governor of Georgia had
written: "This matter, my Lords, of granting large bodies of land in the
back part of any of his majesty's northern colonies, appears to me in a
very serious and alarming light; and I humbly conceive, may be attended
with the greatest and worst of consequences; for, my Lords, if a vast
territory be granted to any set of gentlemen, who really mean to people
it, and actually do so, it must draw and carry out a great number of
people from Great Britain, and I apprehend they will soon become a kind
of separate and independent people, who will set up for themselves; that
they will soon have manufactures of their own; and in process of time
they will become formidable enough to oppose his majesty's authority."
This, "kind of separate and independent people," had now in fact and in
reality appeared, and were evincing a most decided inclination to "set
up for themselves" on the king's domain.
The task of faithfully portraying the heroic valour of this handful of
men who defended their stockades and cabins, their wives and children,
against British hate and savage inroad, is better left to those who have
received the account from actual survivors. In 1777, the entire army of
Kentucky amounted to one hundred and two men; there were twenty-two at
Boonesborough, sixty-five at Harrodsburgh, and fifteen at St. Asaphs, or
Logan's fort. Around these frontier stations skulked the Shawnees,
hiding behind stumps of trees and in the weeds and cornfields. They
waylaid the men and boys working in the fields, beset every pathway,
watched every watering place, and shot down the cattle. "In the night,"
says Humphrey Marshall, "they will place themselves near the fort gate,
ready to sacrifice the first person who shall appear in the morning; in
the day, if there be any cover, such as grass, a bush, a large clod of
earth, or a stone as big as a bushel, they will avail themselves of it,
to approach the fort, by slipping forward on their bellies, within
gun-shot, and then, whosoever appears first, gets the fire, while the
assailant makes his retreat behind the smoke from the gun. At other
times they approach the walls, or palisades, with the utmost audacity,
and attempt to fire them, or beat down the gate. They often make feints,
to draw out the garrison, on one side of the fort, and if practicable,
enter it by surprise on the other. And when their stock of provisions
is exhausted, this being an individual affair, they supply themselves by
hunting; and again, frequently return to the siege, if by any means they
hope to get a scalp." In this same year of 1777, St. Asaphs, or Logan's
fort, was besieged by the savages from the twentieth of May until the
month of September. "The Indians made their attack upon Logan's fort
with more than their usual secrecy. While the women, guarded by a part
of the men, were milking the cows outside of the fort, they were
suddenly fired upon by a large body of Indians, till then concealed in
the thick cane which stood about the cabin. By this fire, one man was
killed and two others wounded, one mortally; the residue, with the
women, got into the fort. When, having reached the protection of its
walls, one of the wounded men was discovered, left alive on the ground.
Captain Logan, distressed for his situation, and keenly alive to the
anguish of his family, who could see him from the fort, weltering in his
blood, exposed every instant to be scalped by the savages, endeavored in
vain for some time to raise a party for his rescue. The garrison was,
however, so small, and the danger so appalling, that he met only
objection and refusal; until John Martin, stimulated by his captain,
proceeded with him to the front gate. At this instant, Harrison, the
wounded man, appeared to raise himself on his hands and knees, as if
able to help himself, and Martin withdrew, deterred by the obvious
hazard; Logan, incapable of abandoning a man under his command, was only
nerved to newer and more vigorous exertions to relieve the wounded man,
who, by that time, exhausted by his previous efforts, after crawling a
few paces, had fallen to the ground; the generous and gallant captain
took him in his arms, amidst a shower of bullets, many of which struck
the palisades about his head, and brought him into the fort to his
despairing family."
Let another tale be related of this same Benjamin Logan and this same
siege. "Another danger now assailed this little garrison. 'There was but
little powder or ball in the fort; nor any prospect of supply from the
neighboring stations, could it even have been sent for, without the most
imminent danger.' The enemy continued before the fort; there was no
ammunition nearer than the settlements at Holston, distant about two
hundred miles; and the garrison must surrender to horrors worse than
death, unless a supply of this indispensable article could be obtained.
Nor was it an easy task to pass through so wily an enemy or the danger
and difficulty much lessened, when even beyond the besiegers; owing to
the obscure and mountainous way, it was necessary to pass, through a foe
scattered in almost every direction. But Captain Logan was not a man to
falter where duty called, because encompassed with danger. With two
companions he left the fort in the night and with the sagacity of a
hunter, and the hardihood of a soldier, avoided the trodden way of
Cumberland Gap, which was most likely to be waylaid by the Indians, and
explored his passage over the Cumberland Mountain, where no man had ever
traveled before, through brush and cane, over rocks and precipices,
sufficient to have daunted the most hardy and fearless. In less than
ten days from his departure, Captain Logan, having obtained the desired
supply, and leaving it with directions to his men, how to conduct their
march, arrived alone and safe at his 'diminutive station,' which had
been almost reduced to despair. The escort with the ammunition,
observing the directions given it, arrived in safety, and the garrison
once more felt itself able to defend the fort and master its own
fortune." The siege was at last raised, but on the body of one of the
detachment were found the proclamations of the British governor of
Canada, offering protection to those who should embrace the cause of the
king, but threatening vengeance on all who refused their allegiance.
Thus it was brought home to the struggling pioneers of Kentucky, that
the British and the Indians were in league against them.
Men like Daniel Boone, James Harrod and Benjamin Logan, fighting,
bleeding, hunting game for the beleaguered garrisons, were the
precursors of George Rogers Clark. Clark possessed prescience. He knew
the British had determined on the extermination of the Kentucky
settlements, because these settlements thwarted the British plan of
preserving the west as a red man's wilderness. He had been in the fights
at Harrodstown, in 1777, and doubtless knew that the British partisans
at Detroit were paying money for scalps. Knowing that all the irruptions
of savages into Kentucky were encouraged and set on foot from Kaskaskia,
Vincennes and Detroit, he suddenly resolved upon the bold project of
capturing these strongholds. This would put the British upon the
defensive, relieve the frontiers of Kentucky, Virginia and
Pennsylvania, and in the end add a vast territory to the domain of the
republic. In the accomplishment of all these designs the soil of
Kentucky was to be used as a base of operations.
It is not the purpose of this work to give a history of the Clark
campaigns, nor of the daring stratagems of that great leader in
effecting his purposes. Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes, each in turn
fell into his hands, and when Henry Hamilton, the British
lieutenant-governor at Detroit, received the astounding news that the
French on the Mississippi and the Wabash had sworn allegiance to the
Americans, he abandoned his enterprise of capturing Fort Pitt and at
once entered upon a campaign to retrieve the lost possessions and
"sweep" the Kentuckians out of the country. His scheme was formidable.
With a thousand men, and with artillery to demolish the stockades and
destroy the frontier posts, he proposed to drive the settlers back
across the mountains. "Undoubtedly," says Roosevelt, "he would have
carried out his plan, and have destroyed all the settlements west of the
Alleghenies, had he been allowed to wait until the mild weather brought
him his host of Indian allies and his reinforcements of regulars and
militia from Detroit." How Clark with his Virginians and Kentuckians,
and a few French allies from the western posts, anticipated his attack,
swam the drowned lands of the Wabash, and surprised him at Vincennes,
has been well told. Instead of "sweeping" Kentucky, the "hair-buyer"
general was taken a prisoner to the dungeons of Virginia, and the
newborn possessions were erected into the county of Illinois.
For a number of years following the revolution, there were those in the
east, and especially in New England, who suffered from myopia. They
utterly failed to see the future of the republic, or the importance of
holding the western country. To them, such men as Harrod and Kenton,
Logan and Boone, were "lawless borderers" and willful aggressors on the
rights of the red man. And yet, back of the crowning diplomacy of John
Jay, that placed our western frontiers on the banks of the Mississippi,
and extended our northern lines to the thread of the lakes, lay the
stern resolution of the men of Kentucky and the supreme audacity of the
mind of Clark.
From this crucible of fire and blood a great people emerged, hardy,
brave, chivalrous, quick to respond to the cries and sufferings of
others, but with an iron hate of all things Indian and British stamped
eternally in their hearts. Others might be craven, but they were not.
Every savage incursion was answered by a counterstroke. The last red man
had not retreated across the Ohio, before the mounted riflemen of
Kentucky, leaving old men and boys behind to supply the settlements,
and with a little corn meal and jerked venison for their provision,
sallied forth to take their vengeance and demolish the Indian towns.
Federal commanders, secretaries of war, even Presidents might
remonstrate, but all in vain. They had come forth into the wilderness to
form their homes and clear the land, and make way for civilization, and
they would not go back. In every family there was the story of a
midnight massacre, or of a wife or child struck down by the tomahawk, or
of a loving father burned at the stake. To plead with men whose souls
had been seared by outrage and horror was unavailing. All savages
appeared the same to them. They shot without discrimination, and shot to
kill. They marched with Clark, they rode with Harmar, and they fought
with Wayne and Harrison. In the war of 1812, more than seven thousand
Kentuckians took the field. It was, as Butler has aptly termed it, "a
state in arms." You may call them "barbarians," "rude frontiersmen," or
what you will, but it took men such as these to advance the outposts of
the nation and to conquer the west. Strongly, irresistibly, is the soul
of the patriot moved by the story of their deeds.
With all its bloody toil and suffering, Kentucky grew. After the spring
of 1779, when Clark had captured Vincennes, the danger of extermination
was over. Following the revolution a strong and ever increasing stream
of boats passed down the Ohio. The rich lands, the luxuriant pastures,
the bounteous harvests of corn and wheat, were great attractions. Josiah
Harmar, writing from the mouth of the Muskingum in May, 1787, reports
one hundred and seventy-seven boats, two thousand six hundred and
eighty-nine men, women and children, one thousand three hundred and
thirty-three horses, seven hundred and sixty-six cattle, and one hundred
and two wagons, as passing that point, bound for Limestone and the
rapids at Louisville. On the ninth of December of the same year, he
reports one hundred and forty-six boats, three thousand one hundred and
ninety-six souls, one thousand three hundred and eighty-one horses, one
hundred and sixty-five wagons, one hundred and seventy-one cattle, and
two hundred and forty-five sheep as on the way to Kentucky, between the
first of June and the date of his communication. In 1790, the first
census of the United States showed a population of seventy-three
thousand six hundred and seventy-seven. On June 1st, 1792, Kentucky
became the fifteenth commonwealth in the federal union; the first of the
great states west of the Alleghenies that were to add so much wealth,
resource and vital strength to the government of the United States.
CHAPTER X
THE BRITISH POLICIES
_--The British reluctant to surrender the control of the
Northwest--their tampering with the Indian tribes._
The seventh article of the definitive treaty of peace between the United
States and Great Britain in 1783, provided that "His Britannic Majesty,"
should, with all convenient speed, "withdraw all his armies, garrisons,
and fleets from the said United States, and from every port, place and
harbour within the same," but when demand was made upon General
Frederick Haldimand, the British governor of Canada, for the important
posts of Niagara, Oswego, Michillimacinac and Detroit, he refused to
surrender them up, alleging that he had no explicit orders so to do, and
that until he had received such commands, he conceived it to be his duty
as a soldier to take no step in that direction. This action of Haldimand
was cool and deliberate and received the full and entire approbation of
the British cabinet. Tories, and apologists for Great Britain, have
written much about a justification for this action, but there is no real
justification. Lord Carmarthen, the British secretary of state,
afterwards said to John Adams that English creditors had met with
unlawful impediments in the collection of their debts, but the real
reason why England violated her treaty he did not state. She retained
the posts to control the tribes. She looked with covetous eye on the
lucrative fur-trade of the northwest territory upon which the commerce
of Canada was in great measure dependent, and sooner than resist the
entreaties of her merchants and traders, she was willing to embroil a
people of her own race and blood, in a series of long and merciless wars
with murderous savages. For the fact remains, that if England had
promptly surrendered up the posts; had not interfered with our
negotiations for peace with the Indian tribes; had refused to encourage
any confederacy, and had instructed her commanders to keep their spies
and agents out of American territory, the murders on the Ohio, the
slaughter of innocents, and the long, costly and bloody campaigns in the
Indian country might have been avoided.
Nothing can ever extenuate the conduct of England in keeping in her
employ and service such men as Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott and
Simon Girty. The chief rendezvous of the tribes after the revolution was
at Detroit. Here were located a British garrison and a British Indian
agency. This agency, while guarding the trade in peltries, also kept its
eye on the fleets that descended the Ohio, on the growing settlements of
Kentucky, and warned the Indians against American encroachment. In 1778,
and while the revolution was in progress, the missionary John
Heckewelder, noted the arrival at Goschochking on the Muskingum, of
three renegades and fugitives from Pittsburg. They were McKee, Elliott
and Girty. McKee and Elliott had both been traders among the Indians
and understood their language. All three had deserted the American cause
and were flying into the arms of the British. They told the Delawares
and Wyandots, "That it was the determination of the American people to
kill and destroy the whole Indian race, be they friends or foes, and
possess themselves of their country; and that, at this time, while they
were embodying themselves for the purpose, they were preparing fine
sounding speeches to deceive them, that they might with more safety fall
upon and murder them. That now was the time, and the only time, for all
nations to rise, and turn out to a man against these intruders, and not
even suffer them to cross the Ohio, but fall upon them where they should
find them; which if not done without delay, their country would be lost
to them forever." The same men were now inculcating the same doctrines
at Detroit. They pointed out to the Indians that the Americans were bent
on extinguishing all their council fires with the best blood of the
nations; that despite all their fair promises and pretensions, the
Americans cared nothing for the tribes, but only for their lands. That
England by her treaty had not ceded a foot of the Indian territory to
the United States. That all the treaties thus far concluded with the
tribes by the Americans, were one-sided and unfair, made at the American
forts, and at the cannon's mouth.
A powerful figure now arose among the savages of the north. Joseph Brant
was a principal chief of the Mohawk tribe of the Six Nations of New
York. His sister Molly was the acknowledged wife of the famous British
Indian superintendent, Sir William Johnson. In his youth he had been
sent by Johnson to Doctor Wheelock's charity school at Lebanon,
Connecticut, where he learned to speak and write English and acquired
some knowledge of history and literature. In the war of the revolution
the Mohawks sided with England, and Brant was given a colonel's
commission. He remained after the war a pensioner of the British
government, and General Arthur St. Clair is authority for the statement
that he received an annual stipend of four hundred pounds sterling.
The Mohawks had been terribly shattered and broken by the revolution,
but they still retained that ascendency among the tribes that resulted
from their former bravery and prowess. In the mind of Brant there now
dawned the grand scheme of forming a confederacy of all the northwestern
tribes to oppose the advance of the American settlements. The first
arbitrary assumptions of the continental congress gave him a great
leverage. They had assumed to exercise an unlimited power of disposal
over the Indian lands. The surveyors of the government were advancing
west of the Pennsylvania line and staking off the first ranges. Now was
the opportune time to fan the flame of savage jealousy, and stand with
united front against the foe.
It is probable that Brant took part in the grand council held at
Coshocton in 1785, and reported to Captain John Doughty by Alexander
McCormick. The account of McCormick relates that there "were present the
chiefs of many nations," and that "the object of this council was to
unite themselves against the white people." There was an excited
activity on the part of McKee, Elliott, Caldwell and Girty and they were
endeavoring to keep the tribes away from the American treaties. The
newspapers of London in speaking of Brant's arrival in England in the
latter part of the same year, gave accounts of his lately having
presided over a "grand congress of confederate chiefs of the Indian
nations in America," and said that Brant had been appointed to the chief
command in the war which the Indians meditated against the United
States.
In the month of December, 1785, the distinguished warrior arrived at the
British capital. In an age of less duplicity his coming might have
excited some feeling of compassion. He had journeyed three thousand
miles across the seas, to see what the great English king could do to
restore the broken fortunes of his people. The beautiful valley of the
Mohawk was theirs no longer. Their ancient castles and villages had been
destroyed, or were in the hands of strangers. All had been lost in the
service of the great "father" across the waters. What would that
"father" now do for his ruined and sorrowing children? He reminded Lord
Sidney of the colonial department, that in every war of England with her
enemies the Iroquois had fought on her side; that they were struck with
astonishment at hearing that they had been entirely forgotten in the
treaty of peace, and that they could not believe it possible that they
could be so neglected by a nation whom they had served with so much zeal
and fidelity. The Americans were surveying the lands north of the Ohio,
and Brant now desired to know whether the tribes were still to be
regarded as "His Majesty's faithful allies" and whether they were to
have that support and countenance such as old and true friends might
expect. In other words, the blunt savage wanted to know whether England
would now support the Indian tribes in beginning hostilities against the
United States.
The conduct of the British was characteristic. The lands in controversy
had just been ceded by solemn treaty to the new republic. To openly
espouse the cause of Brant was to declare war. A little finesse must be
resorted to in order to evade the leading question, and at the same time
hold the tribes. They therefore wined and dined the American chief, and
presented him to the king and queen, but promised him nothing. Lord
Sidney rained platitudes. He said the king was always ready to attend to
the future welfare of the tribes, and upon every occasion wherein their
happiness might be concerned he was ready to give further testimony of
his royal favor. He hoped that they might remain united and that their
measures might be conducted with temper and moderation. In the meantime,
the arts of diplomacy must be employed. The barbarian chief must be
bribed with a pension, and covertly used as a tool and instrument of
British design.
The great chief then and afterwards entertained misgivings, but he
proceeded to play the dupe. In November and December, 1786, he was back
in America, and a great council of the northwestern tribes was convened
at the Huron village, near the mouth of the Detroit river. Present were
the Five Nations, the Hurons or Wyandots, the Delawares, Shawnees,
Ottawas, Potawatomi, Miamis, and some scattering bands of the Cherokees.
A letter was here formulated and addressed to the congress of the United
States, which at once marks Joseph Brant and the British agents back of
him as the originators of the idea that all the Indian lands were held
in common by all the tribes, and that no single tribe had the right to
alienate. In answer to the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort McIntosh,
they alleged that congress had hitherto managed everything in their own
way, and had kindled council fires where they thought proper; that they
had insisted on holding separate treaties with distinct tribes, and had
entirely neglected the Indian plan of a general conference. They held it
to be "indispensably necessary" that any cession of Indian lands should
be made in the most public manner, "and by the united voice of the
confederacy;" all partial treaties were void and of no effect. They
urged a full meeting and treaty with all the tribes; warned the United
States to keep their surveyors and other people from crossing the Ohio,
and closed with these words: "Brothers: It shall not be our fault if the
plans which we have suggested to you should not be carried into
execution. In that case the event will be very precarious, and if
farther ruptures ensue, we hope to be able to exculpate ourselves and
shall most assuredly, with our united force, be obliged to defend those
rights and privileges which have been transmitted to us by our
ancestors; and if we should be thereby reduced to misfortune, the world
will pity us when they think of the amicable proposals which we now make
to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood. These are our thoughts
and firm resolves, and we earnestly desire that you transmit to us, as
soon as possible, your answer, be it what it may."
Brant's whole scheme of a confederacy among savage tribes was, of
course, wild and chimerical. The same savage hate and jealousy which was
now directed toward the Americans, would, at the first favorable moment,
break out in fiery strifes and dissensions in the Indian camp, and
consume any alliance that might be formed. To imagine that the Miami and
the Cherokee, the Shawnee and the Delaware, the Iroquois and Wyandot,
after centuries of war and bloodshed, could be suddenly brought together
in any efficient league or combination, that would withstand the test of
time, was vain and foolish. The history of the Indian tribes in America
from the days of the Jesuit fathers down to the day of Brant, had shown
first one tribe and then another in the ascendency. Never at any time
had there been peace and concord. Even within the councils of the same
tribe, contentions frequently arose between sachems and chiefs. It is
well known that in his later days the Little Turtle was almost
universally despised by the other Miami chieftains. A deadly hatred
existed between the Cornplanter and Joseph Brant. Tecumseh and Winamac
were enemies. Governor Arthur St. Clair, writing to the President of the
United States, on May 2, 1789, reported that a jealousy subsisted
between the tribes that attended the treaty at Fort Harmar; that they
did not consider themselves as one people and that it would not be
difficult, if circumstances required it, "to set them at deadly
variance."
Equally pretentious was Brant's claim of a common ownership of the
Indian lands. The Iroquois themselves had never recognized any such
doctrine. In October, 1768, at the English treaty of Fort Stanwix, they
had sold to the British government by bargain and sale, a great strip of
country south of the Ohio river, and had fixed the line of that stream
as the boundary between themselves and the English. At that time they
claimed to be the absolute owners of the lands ceded, to the exclusion
of all other tribes. At the treaty of Fort Wayne, in 1809, between the
United States and the northwestern tribes, the Miamis claimed the
absolute fee in all the lands along the Wabash, and refused to cede any
territory until a concession to that effect was made by William Henry
Harrison. In the instructions of Congress, of date October 26th, 1787,
to General Arthur St. Clair, relative to the negotiation of a treaty in
the northern department, which were the same instructions governing the
negotiations at Fort Harmar in January 1789, specific directions were
given to defeat all confederations and combinations among the tribes,
for congress clearly saw the British hand behind Brant's proposed
league, and knew how futile it was to recognize any such savage
alliance.
The British officials were well aware of the shortcomings of Brant's
league, but they hailed its advent with delight. If the tribes could be
collected together under the shadow of the British forts, and freely
plied by the British agents, they could be kept hostile to the American
vanguard. If the government of the United States could not acquire a
foothold north of the Ohio, the British forts were safe, and the trade
in peltries secure. The result of this policy was of course foreseen. It
meant war between the United States and the Indian tribes. But in the
meantime England would hold the fur-trade. Thus in cold blood and with
deliberation did the British rulers pave the way to the coming
hostilities.
In November, 1786, Sir Guy Carleton, now Lord Dorchester, arrived at
Quebec. Like most of the royal officers of that day he looked with
disdain upon the new republic of the United States. It was evident that
the old confederation could not be held together much longer. There was
constant strife and jealousy between the states. In Massachusetts Shays'
rebellion was in progress, which seemed at times to threaten the
existence of the commonwealth itself. The courts were occluded, and the
administration of justice held in contempt. In the west, the people of
Kentucky were embittered toward the states of the Atlantic seaboard.
Their prosperity in great measure depended upon the open navigation of
the Mississippi, and a free market at New Orleans. Spain had denied them
both, and in the eyes of the Kentuckians congress seemed disposed to let
Spain have her own way.
Under all these circumstances, which appeared to be so inauspicious for
the American government, Dorchester determined to keep a most diligent
eye on the situation. Spain had the nominal control, at least, of the
lands west of the Mississippi. She had designs on the western territory
of the United States, and was about to open up an intrigue with James
Wilkinson and other treasonable conspirators in Kentucky, who had in
mind a separation from the eastern states. To hold the posts within the
American territory, was to be on the ground and ready to act, either in
the event of a dissolution of the old confederation, or in case of an
attempt on the part of Spain to seize any portion of the western
country. Added to all this was the imperative necessity, as Dorchester
looked at it, of maintaining a "game preserve" for the western tribes.
If the Americans advanced, the Indian hunting grounds were endangered,
and this would result in lessening the profits of the English merchants.
Brant was impatient, but Dorchester, like Lord Sidney, proceeded
cautiously. On March 22, 1787, Sir John Johnson, the British Indian
superintendent wrote to Brant, expressing his happiness that things had
turned out prosperously in the Indian country, and saying that he hoped
that the chief's measures might have the effect of preventing the
Americans from encroaching on the Indian lands. "I hope," he writes, "in
all your decisions you will conduct yourselves with prudence and
moderation, having always an eye to the friendship that has so long
subsisted between you and the King's subjects, upon whom you alone can
and ought to depend. You have no reason to fear any breach of promise on
the part of the King. Is he not every year giving you fresh proofs of
his friendship? What greater could you expect than is now about to be
performed, by giving an ample compensation for your losses, which is yet
withheld from us, his subjects? Do not suffer bad men or evil advisors
to lead you astray; everything that is reasonable and consistent with
the friendship that ought to be preserved between us, will be done for
you all. Do not suffer an idea to hold a place in your mind, that it
will be for your interests to sit still and see the Americans attempt
the posts. It is for your sakes chiefly, if not entirely that we hold
them. If you become indifferent about them, they may perhaps be given
up; what security would you then have? You would be left at the mercy of
a people whose blood calls aloud for revenge." On May 29th of the same
year, Major Matthews of the English army, who had been assigned to the
command of the king's forces at Detroit, communicated with Brant from
Fort Niagara, expressing the views of Dorchester as follows: "In the
future his Lordship wishes them (the Indians) to act as is best for
their interests; he cannot begin a war with the Americans, because some
of their people encroach and make depredations upon parts of the Indian
country; but they must see it is his Lordship's intention to defend the
posts; and while these are preserved, the Indians must find great
security therefrom, and consequently the Americans greater difficulty in
taking possession of their lands; but should they once become masters of
the posts, they will surround the Indians, and accomplish their purposes
with little trouble. From a consideration of all which, it therefore
remains with the Indians to decide what is most for their own interests,
and to let his Lordship know their determination, that he may take
measures accordingly; but, whatever their resolution is, it should be
taken as by one and the same people, by which means they will be
respected and become strong; but if they divide, and act one part
against the other, they will become weak, and help to destroy each
other. This, my dear Joseph, is the substance of what his Lordship
desired me to tell you, and I request that you will give his sentiments
that mature consideration which their justice, generosity, and desire to
promote the welfare and happiness of the Indians, must appear to all the
world to merit." Thus did this noble lord, while refraining from making
an open and a manly declaration of war, secretly and clandestinely set
on these savages; appealing on the one hand to their fear of American
encroachment, and urging on the other the security the tribes must feel
from the British retention of the frontier posts. In the meantime, he
bided that moment, when the weakness of the states or their mutual
dissensions would enable him to come out in the open and seize that
territory which the king had lately lost. One is reminded of the remarks
that Tecumseh made to Governor William Henry Harrison in 1810. "He said
he knew the latter (i. e., the English) were always urging the Indians
to war for their advantage, and not to benefit his countrymen; and here
he clapped his hands, and imitated a person who halloos at a dog, to set
him to fight with another."
Pursuant to the instructions of the continental congress heretofore
referred to, Governor Arthur St. Clair, in the year 1788, opened up a
correspondence with the tribes of the northwest in order to bring them
to a treaty. The government, though suffering from a paucity of funds,
had determined to enter into engagements looking to the fair and
equitable purchase of the Indian lands. It was plainly to be seen that
unless an accommodation could be arrived at with the tribes that the
government either had to abandon the territory north of the Ohio, or
levy war. This they were reluctant to do. The treasury was practically
empty and the people poor. The country had practically no standing army,
nor was there the means to raise one. In fact, the new constitution had
not as yet been ratified by an adequate number of states, and the first
president of the United States had not been elected. Again, something
must be done, if possible, to relieve the sufferings of the western
people. They were loudly complaining of the inattention and neglect of
the government, and if they were left entirely without support in
fighting their way to the Spanish markets at New Orleans, and in
repelling the constant attacks of the Indian raiders urged on by British
agents, grave doubts might justly be entertained of their continued
loyalty. In fact, during the month of November, in this same year of
1788, the infamous Dr. John Connolly, arrived at Louisville. He came as
a direct agent of Lord Dorchester, seeking to undermine the allegiance
of the Kentuckians to their government, and offering them arms and
ammunition with which to attack the Spaniards. This inglorious mission
ended in Connolly's disgraceful and cowardly flight.
In their efforts to negotiate a fair compact, the United States had some
reason to anticipate a friendly disposition on the part of the Delawares
and Wyandots. Large numbers of the latter tribe had been won over to the
principles of Christianity and were inclined towards peace, but the
Miamis of the Wabash, the Shawnees and the Kickapoos were hostile. At
Miamitown were the Little Turtle and Le Gris; close by, were the
Shawnees under Blue Jacket; all were under the influence of the Girtys,
George and Simon, and all had been engaged in the Indian raids. The
Miami confederates at Eel River, Ouiatenon and Tippecanoe all looked to
the head men at Miamitown for inspiration. Miamitown was in turn
connected with the British agency at Detroit. The confederates of the
Three Fires, the Ottawas or Tawas, the Chippewas and Potawatomi,
otherwise known as the "Lake Tribes," were also under the influence of
the British. On July 5th, 1788, General Arthur St. Clair, writing to the
Secretary of War from Pittsburg, said that the western tribes, meaning
those under the influence of the Miami chiefs, had been so successful in
their depredations on the Ohio river, their settlements were so distant
and "their country so difficult," that they imagined themselves to be
perfectly safe, and that as they were able by these incursions "to
gratify at once their passions of avarice and revenge, and their desire
for spirituous liquors, every boat carrying more or less of that
commodity, few of them may be expected to attend; nor are they much to
be depended on should they attend generally." He further remarked: "Our
settlements are extending themselves so fast on every quarter where they
can be extended; our pretensions to the country they inhabit have been
made known to them in so unequivocal a manner, and the consequences are
so certain and so dreadful to them, that there is little probability of
there ever being any cordiality between us. The idea of being ultimately
obliged to abandon their country rankles in their minds, and our
British neighbors, at the same time that they deny the cession of the
country made by them, suffer them not to forget for a moment the claim
that is founded upon it."
The first attempt of the government in 1788, to form a treaty ended in
disaster. In order to mollify the tribes, it was proposed to hold the
negotiations at the falls of the Muskingum river, in what the Indians
were pleased to term "their own country" and "beyond the guns of any
fort." General Josiah Harrnar was instructed to erect a council house
there, and appropriate buildings in which to house the goods to be
distributed among the Indians. On the night of July 12th, some Ottawas
and Chippewas attacked the sentries and attempted to steal the goods
they were guarding. Two soldiers were killed and two wounded. Friendly
Delawares who arrived identified an Indian who was slain in the fight,
as an Ottawa. It was learned that both the Chippewas and Ottawas were
opposed to a treaty, "and in favor of war, unless the whites would agree
to the Ohio as a boundary line." Who set on these wild tribes from the
north may well be imagined. General St. Clair now determined to hold the
treaty at Fort Harmar at the mouth of the Muskingum, and sent a message
to the tribes now collecting on the Detroit river, to that effect.
The machinations of the British agents at Detroit in the summer and
autumn of 1788, while involved in some degree of mystery, seem to have
been about as follows: Lord Dorchester was apprehensive that the
Americans contemplated the taking of the posts and thereby uprooting
the British influence. In order to avoid such action, it might be the
safer policy to make certain concessions and advise the Indians to give
up a small portion of the territory north of the Ohio, rather than to
bring on an armed conflict. But all the tribes must be kept together, if
possible, and under the direction of the authorities at Detroit. No
single tribe must be allowed to negotiate a separate treaty, for that
might result in the cultivation of friendly relations with the United
States, and if one tribe could be brought under the American influence,
this might ultimately lead to the disintegration of the British power
over all. Therefore it was resolved that before any negotiations were
entered into with General St. Clair, that another grand council of the
northwestern tribes should be held in the valley of the Miami of the
Lake, or Maumee, and that to that council should be summoned the
principal sachems and warriors of all the tribes. Alexander McKee, the
British Indian agent, was to be there, and Joseph Brant, and all action
taken was to be under their supervision and control.
On July 14th, General Richard Butler wrote to General St. Clair that
about eighty chiefs were present at the Detroit river, awaiting the
arrival of Brant. On August the 10th that chieftain reached Detroit, but
instead of meeting with unanimity of counsel, he found that the Wyandots
were for "a private and separate meeting with the Americans to settle
matters for themselves," while the warlike Miamis were against any peace
at all and in favor of open hostilities. After five weeks of waiting and
cajolery, Brant got them all together in the Miami valley, and the
council started to deliberate. The Hurons, Chippewas, Ottawas,
Potawatomi and Delawares stood with Brant, and in favor of surrendering
up a small portion of their country, rather than of entering headlong
into a destructive war. The Potawatomi, Ottawas and Chippewas were far
to the north and were probably indifferent; the Wyandots and Delawares
were sincerely for peace. But insuperable objections were now offered by
the Miamis, Kickapoos and the Shawnees. Horse stealing was their "best
harvest," and the plundering of the boats they would not forego. In vain
did the Wyandots urge a treaty. They presented the Miamis with a large
string of wampum, but this was refused. They then laid it on the
shoulder of a principal Miami chieftain, but he turned to one side and
let it fall on the ground without making any answer. In the end the
Wyandots withdrew and the council broke up in confusion. It was plain
that if any agreement was entered into with the American government that
it would not be through any concerted action on the part of the tribes.
Tribal jealousy and savage hate rendered that impossible.
It has been related that when Brant perceived that his confederacy was a
failure, and that he could not secure united action, that he said "that
if five of the Six Nations had sold themselves to the devil, otherwise
the Yankees, that he did not intend that the fierce Miamis, Shawnees and
Kickapoos should do so." However this may be, it is evident that from
the time of the breaking up of the Indian council on the Miami, that
Brant and the British agents did all that lay within their power to
frustrate the American negotiations with the Wyandots and Delawares at
Fort Harmar. According to reports reaching the ears of General St.
Clair, stories were placed in circulation among the tribes that in case
they attended the treaty, that the Americans would kill them all, either
by putting poison in the spirits, or by inoculating the blankets that
would be presented to them, with the dreaded smallpox. Brant, after
coming within sixty miles of the fort, turned back to Detroit, taking
all the Mohawks with him, and urging back the oncoming tribes of the
Shawnees and Miamis. "It is notorious," says President Washington, in a
letter to governor Clinton, of New York on December 1st, 1790, "that he
(Brant) used all the art and influence of which he was possessed to
prevent any treaty being held; and that, except in a small degree,
General St. Clair aimed at no more land by the treaty of Muskingum than
had been ceded by the preceding treaties."
Thus did the British government, through its duly authorized agents, its
governor and army officers, retain the posts belonging to the new
republic, encourage the tribes in their depredations, and defeat the
pacific intentions of the American people, and all from the sordid
motives of gain. On April 30th, 1789, when George Washington was
inaugurated as the first President, every savage chieftain along the
Wabash, or dwelling at the forks of the Maumee, was engaged in active
warfare against the people of the United States, largely through the
instrumentality of the British officials.
CHAPTER XI
JOSIAH HARMAR
--_The first military invasion of the Northwest by the Federal
Government after the Revolution._
The treaty of Fort Harmar, on January 9th, 1789, so far as the Wabash
tribes were concerned, was unavailing. The raids of the Miamis and the
Shawnees continued. Murders south of the Ohio were of almost daily
occurrence. For six or seven hundred miles along that river the
inhabitants were kept in a perpetual state of alarm. In Kentucky,
killings and depredations took place in almost every direction; at Crab
Orchard, Floyd's Fork and numerous other places. Boats were constantly
attacked on the Ohio and whole families slaughtered, and their goods and
cattle destroyed.
One hundred and forty-five miles northwest of the mouth of the Kentucky
river were the Indian villages at Ouiatenon, on the Wabash river. On the
south side of that stream and near the outlet of Wea creek, were the
towns of the Weas; across the river from these towns was a Kickapoo
village. About eighteen miles above Ouiatenon was the important trading
post of Kethtipecanunck (Petit Piconne or Tippecanoe) near the mouth of
the Tippecanoe river, commanded by the chieftain Little Face. About six
miles above the present city of Logansport, and on the Eel river, was
the Miami village of Kenapacomaqua or L'Anguille, commanded by "The
Soldier." At the junction of the St. Marys and the St. Joseph, one
hundred and sixty miles north of the Kentucky river, was the principal
Indian village of Kekionga or Miamitown, commanded by Pecan and LeGris.
All these towns were visited by the French and English traders who
communicated with Detroit and all were under the domination and control
of the British. The savages in these various Indian villages were so far
away from the Kentucky settlements that they considered themselves
immune from any attacks; they were taught by the English to look with
contempt upon the American government, and were given to understand that
as long as the British held the upper posts they would be fully
protected. In war parties of from five to twenty they suddenly appeared
upon the banks of the Ohio to pillage the boats of the immigrants and
murder their crews, or crossing that stream they penetrated the
settlements of the interior, to kill, burn and destroy, and lead away
horses and captives to the Indian towns. Pursued, they were often lost
in the almost impenetrable forests of the north, or the savage bands
scattered far and wide in thicket and swamp.
In the winter of 1789-1790 strange things were happening in the Miami
villages on the St. Joseph and the Maumee. Henry Hay was there, the
British agent of a Detroit merchant. Here are some of the facts that he
has recorded in his diary. LeGris, the Little Turtle, Richardville, and
Blue Jacket, the Shawnee chief, were all in that vicinity. George Girty
lived close by in a Delaware town. He had married an Indian woman and
was really a savage. On the twenty-sixth of December 1789, Girty came
to Miamitown to report to Hay. He said that the Delawares were
constantly being told by the Miamis that the ground they occupied was
not theirs; that the Delawares had answered that they were great fools
to fight for others' lands, and that they would war no longer against
the Americans, but would remove to the Spanish territory beyond the
Mississippi. These facts Hay must report in writing to Alexander McKee,
the British Indian agent. On the second of January, 1790, it was
reported that Antoine Laselle, a French trader who had resided at
Miamitown for nineteen years, was a prisoner in the hands of the Weas.
The crime charged against him was that he had written a letter to the
Americans at Vincennes apprising them of an Indian attack, and that as a
consequence of that letter the attacking party had been captured. One of
them was the son of a Wea who had burned an American prisoner at
Ouiatenon the preceding summer, and the Weas now charged that this son
would be burned by his American captors. Laselle was supposed to be in
imminent peril, and all the French and English traders at Miamitown
called on LeGris. LeGris said that he had always warned the traders
about penetrating the lower Indian country, but that numbers of the
French had gone to trade there without his knowledge. He had cautioned
Laselle, but Laselle had gone without letting him know. If Laselle had
told him of his intended trip, he would have sent along one of his
chiefs with him, or given him a belt as a passport. LeGris said that no
time must be lost, and that he would at once send forward three of his
faithful warriors to put a stop to the business. On the fifth day of
January, one Tramblai arrived from Ouiatenon, and said that all the
reports concerning Laselle were false and that he was having a good
trade. On the thirteenth, Laselle himself arrived with Blue Jacket and a
Frenchman. He bore a letter from the Indians and the French-Canadians at
Tippecanoe to LeGris, certifying that "the bearer Antoine Laselle is a
good loyalist and is always for supporting the King," That was a
satisfactory certificate of character along the Wabash in 1790.
On the thirteenth of February, 1790, the Shawnees who live near
Miamitown, arrive at that village with the prisoner McMullen. His face
is painted black, as one who approaches death. In his hands he holds the
"Shishequia" made of deer hoofs. He constantly rattles this device, and
sings, "Oh Kentuck!" He thinks that the day of doom is at hand and that
he will be burned at the stake. Some Indian chief, however, has lost a
son. The paint will be washed off and the feathers fastened in his
scalplock, and he will be adopted to take the place of the slain, but he
does not know that now. The story of his capture is typical of the
times. He was born in Virginia and came to Kentucky to collect a debt.
With two companions he crosses the Ohio at the mouth of the Kentucky to
hunt wild turkeys. They separate in the woods, and the Shawnees surround
him, and cut off all means of escape to the canoe. He tries to break
through the encircling ring but is hit on the head with a war billet,
and now he is here. The Shawnee band who captured him were out for
revenge. Last spring they had gone out to hunt. A party of Miamis who
were on the warpath returned by another route. The Kentuckians who
followed them, fell in with the Shawnees, and slew some of their women
and children. Thus runs the tale of blood and reprisal of those savage
days.
On the twelfth day of December, 1789, and shortly after his arrival at
Miamitown, Hay relates that he saw the heart of a white prisoner, "dried
like a piece of dried venison," and with a small stick "run from one end
of it to the other." The heart "was fastened behind the fellows bundle
that killed him, with also his scalp." On Sunday, the twenty-first day
of March, 1790, and shortly before Hay's departure from Detroit, a party
of bloody Shawnees arrived with four prisoners, one of them a negro.
Terrible havoc had been done on the Ohio. One boat had been attacked on
which were one officer and twenty-one men. All had been killed, the boat
sunk, and its contents hid in the woods. Nineteen persons had been taken
near Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky. All were prisoners, save two or
three. John Witherington's family had been separated from him. He had a
wife "7 months gone with child" and seven children. In addition to all
the above outrages, information was gathered from time to time of all
affairs along the Ohio. The garrisons were numbered, the officers named,
and every motion of governor St. Clair closely scrutinized.
Thus in the very heart of the American country did British officers and
agents control the Indian trade; heartlessly wink at or encourage the
scalping parties of the savages, and keep a close and jealous watch on
the numbers and movements of the American forces. The diary of the
Englishman reveals the whole story.
The spring of 1790 was one of horror. Says Judge Burnet: "The pioneers
who descended the Ohio, on their way westward, will remember while they
live, the lofty rock standing a short distance above the mouth of the
Scioto, on the Virginia shore, which was occupied for years by the
savages, as a favorite watch-tower, from which boats, ascending or
descending, could be discovered at a great distance. From that memorable
spot, hundreds of human beings, men, women and children, while
unconscious of immediate danger, have been seen in the distance and
marked for destruction." On the fourth of April, William W. Dowell
writing to the honorable John Brown of Kentucky, relates that about
fifty Indians were encamped near the mouth of the Scioto. To decoy the
passing boats to the shore they made use of a white prisoner, who ran
along the bank uttering cries of distress and begging to be taken on
board. Three boats and a pirogue were captured, and several persons
brutally murdered. A boat belonging to Colonel Edwards of Bourbon,
Thomas Marshall and others, was hailed by the same white prisoner who
pleaded to be taken on board and brought to Limestone. The stratagem
failing to work the savages at once exposed themselves and began to fire
on the boats, but without effect. They then pushed off from the shore
with a boat load of about thirty warriors and gave chase, and as they
were better supplied with oars than the white men, they would have soon
overtaken them. The cool resolution and presence of mind of one Colonel
George Thompson now saved the day. He threw out all the horses in the
boat he commanded, received Colonel Edward's crew into his own, and
after a frantic chase of fifteen miles, effected an escape. Seventeen
horses were lost, fifteen hundred pounds worth of dry goods, and a
considerable quantity of household goods.
The leading spirits in all these attacks at the mouth of the Scioto were
the Shawnees. The attacks became so frequent, that it was now determined
to organize a punitive expedition against them. Two hundred and thirty
Kentucky volunteers under General Charles Scott crossed the river at
Limestone and were joined by one hundred regulars under General Harmar.
They struck the Scioto several miles up from its mouth and marched down
that stream, but the savages scattered in front of them and only four
Indians were slain. Harmar reported to the government that he might as
well have tried to pursue a pack of wolves.
The movements of the federal government in 1789 and 1790 were extremely
slow. In the first place, a great many of the people of the eastern
seaboard regarded the Kentuckians and all ultra-montane dwellers with
positive distrust. This feeling crept into the counsels of the
government itself. On June 15th, 1789, in a report of Henry Knox,
secretary of war, to President Washington, on the Wabash Indians, the
secretary says that since the conclusion of the war with Great Britain,
"hostilities have almost constantly existed between the people of
Kentucky and the said Indians. The injuries and murders have been so
reciprocal, that it would be a point of critical investigation to know
on which side they have been the greatest." It was probably just such
sentiments as these that led to the orders of July, 1789, withdrawing
the Virginia scouts and rangers who had helped to protect the frontiers,
thus leaving the western people entirely dependent upon the limited
garrisons stationed at the few and widely separated frontier posts. In
the second place, the government neither had the men nor the money at
command wherewith to undertake a successful expedition against the
savages. The number of warriors on the Wabash and its communications
were placed by Secretary Knox at from fifteen hundred to two thousand.
This was probably an over-estimate, but the Indians were formidable. The
regular troops stationed at the frontier posts were less than six
hundred. To organize and equip an army sufficient to extirpate the
Indians and destroy their towns, would require the raising of nineteen
hundred additional men, and an expenditure of two hundred thousand
dollars. This was a sum of money, says the secretary, "far exceeding the
ability of the United States to advance, consistently with a due regard
to other indispensable objects." In the third place, the government
vainly imagined that it was possible to effect a peace with the Wabash
tribes. The views of Secretary of War Knox were very emphatic on this
subject. "It would be found, on examination, that both policy and
justice unite in dictating the attempt of treaty with the Wabash
Indians; for it would be unjust, in the present confused state of
injuries, to make war on those tribes without having previously invited
them to a treaty, in order amicably to adjust all differences." With
these views, Washington himself concurred, observing, "that a war with
the Wabash Indians ought to be avoided by all means consistently with
the security of the frontier inhabitants, the security of the troops,
and the national dignity."
Accordingly, about the first of January, 1790, Governor Arthur St.
Clair, descended the river Ohio from Marietta, opposite Fort Harmar, to
Losantiville, opposite the mouth of the Licking river. Here was located
Fort Washington. He changed the name of Losantiville to Cincinnati,
organized the county of Hamilton, and proceeded to Fort Steuben or
Clarksville, at the Falls of the Ohio. There he dispatched a messenger
to Major John Hamtramck, the commandant at Vincennes, with friendly
speeches to be forwarded by him to the Indians of the Wabash. A sincere
and honest effort was to be made to bring about peace, although St.
Clair himself had but little faith in an amicable adjustment and
expressed the opinion that the Miamis and the renegade Shawnees,
Delawares and Cherokees, lying near them, were "irreclaimable by gentle
means." The heart "dried like a piece of dried venison" was ample proof
that St. Clair was right.
The first peace messenger sent by Hamtramck was Fred Gamelin, a
Frenchman. He proceeded no farther than the Vermilion river, where he
was informed by an Indian that if he went any farther his life would be
taken, and he returned to Vincennes. On the first of April, Hamtramck
sent forward Antoine Gamelin, an intelligent French merchant. The first
village he arrived at was close to Vincennes, and was named Kikapouguoi.
The Indians at this place were friendly, and he proceeded up the Wabash.
He next arrived at a town of the Vermilion Piankeshaws. The first chief
of the village and all the warriors seemed to be pleased with the words
of peace from the Americans, but said that they could not give a proper
answer before consulting their "eldest brethren," the Miamis. They
desired that Gamelin should go forward to Kekionga or Miamitown, and
bring back a report of what the head chiefs should say. Gamelin had now
fairly entered the sphere of British influence. He was told that the
nations of the lake had a bad heart and were ill disposed toward the
Americans; that the Shawnees of Miamitown would never receive his
speech.
Gamelin now advanced to the large Indian village of the Kickapoos,
situated on the Big Vermilion river, in what is now Vermilion County,
Indiana. Their principal town was on the site of what is now known as
"The Army Ford Stock Farm," a few miles from the present village of
Cayuga. This farm has been in the possession of the old Shelby family
for years. The house contains two or three old fireplaces and has been
built for about a century. It stands on a high bluff facing the
Vermilion river, and the view is very picturesque. In making recent
excavations for gravel along the roadway to the west of the buildings,
an Indian skeleton was unearthed. It was in a fair state of preservation
and the teeth in the skull were still perfect. There were also several
Indian arrowheads, remains of a leathern pouch with a draw-string, and
parts of a grass-woven blanket. By the side of the skeleton of the
savage were the bones of a dog, and also a small copper bell, which was
probably worn about the dog's neck. The Kickapoos held the dog in
especial veneration and at the time of the burial of the warrior, fully
equipped with arms and tobacco for the happy hunting ground, the dog was
probably slain to accompany his master.
No tribe of savages along the Wabash was more irreconcilable than the
Kickapoos. "They were," says Beckwith, "pre-eminent in predatory
warfare. Small parties, consisting of from five to twenty or more, were
the usual number comprising their war parties. These would push out
hundreds of miles from their villages, and swoop down upon a feeble
settlement, or an isolated pioneer cabin, and burn the property, kill
the cattle, steal the horses, capture the women and children and be off
again before the alarm could be given." They were always strongly on the
British side, and numbers of them fought against the Americans at
Tippecanoe.
Gamelin at once encountered opposition. The Kickapoos first found fault
with his speech and said that it contained a threat of war. Upon his
eliminating the objectionable words, they said he could go farther up
the river, but that they could not give a definite answer because some
of their warriors were absent, and they had first to consult the Weas,
who were the owners of their lands. They next found fault with Gamelin
for coming among them empty-handed. They said that they expected "a
draught of milk from the great chief, and the commanding officer of the
post, for to put the old people in good humor; also some powder and ball
for the young men for hunting, and to get some good broth for their
women and children." They promised to keep their young men from
stealing, and to send speeches to their nations in the prairies to
prevent them from making expeditions.
On the fourteenth of April, Gamelin held a council with the Weas and
Kickapoos at Ouiatenon. He found everything hostile. As a Frenchman he
was welcome, but was plainly told that nothing could be done without the
consent of the Miamis; that it was useless to ask them (the Indians) to
restrain their young men, for they were "being constantly encouraged by
the British." One of the chiefs said: "Know ye that the village of
Ouiatenon is the sepulcher of all our ancestors. The chief of America
invites us to go to him, if we are at peace. He has not his leg broke,
having been able to go as far as the Illinois. He might come here
himself; and we should be glad to see him at our village. We confess
that we accepted the axe, but it is by the reproach we continually
receive from the English and other nations, which received the axe
first, calling us women; at the present time they invite our young men
to war."
On the eighteenth of April, Gamelin arrived at Kenapacomaqua or
L'Anguille. The head chief was absent, and the tribesmen would give no
answer. However, they sent some of their men along to hear what the
Miamis at Kekionga would say. On the twenty-third of April, Gamelin
arrived at the head of the Maumee. The next day he got the Miamis, the
Shawnees and a few Delawares in council. He presented each tribe with
two branches of wampum, and began his friendly speeches before the
French and English traders who had been invited to be present. After his
speeches were delivered he displayed the treaty of Fort Harmar. This
greatly displeased them.
Nothing can better display the treachery of the Miamis on this occasion
than the statements of the principal chieftain, LeGris, made to Gamelin
in a private conversation. After telling the Frenchman not to pay any
attention to the Shawnees, as they were the "perturbators of all the
nations," he said that he knew that the Miamis had a bad name on account
of mischief done on the Ohio, but that this mischief was not occasioned
by his young men, but by the Shawnees; that his young men had only gone
out to hunt. This glaring falsehood was told in the face of the fact
that the Little Turtle himself had been out on the warpath only the
winter before, returning with captives and plunder.
On the twenty-fifth of April, Gamelin held a conference with the famous
Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket. The chief was implacable. He informed
Gamelin that no answer could be given to the American peace messenger
without hearing from the British at Detroit. That the Shawnees had
determined to give the two branches of wampum back, and to send Gamelin
to Detroit, or detain him twenty days until an answer could be received
from the British. The chief also stated that he believed that the
Americans were guilty of deception. The next day after this conference
five Potawatomi arrived at Miamitown with two captured negro slaves,
which they openly sold to the British traders.
A day or two after the interview with Blue Jacket, Gamelin was told by
LeGris to call at a French trader's house and receive his answer. He was
there told that he might go back to Vincennes when he pleased, and that
no definite answer could be given to his speeches "Without consulting
the commandant at Detroit." LeGris professed to be pleased with
Gamelin's address, and said that it should be communicated to all the
confederates, but declared that the nations had resolved not to do
anything without the unanimous consent of the tribes.
"The same day, Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawnees, invited me to his
house for supper; and, before the other chiefs, told me that, after
another deliberation, they thought necessary that I should go myself to
Detroit, for to see the commandant, who would get all his children
assembled for to hear my speech. I told them I could not answer them in
the night; that I was not ashamed to speak before the sun."
"The twenty-ninth of April, I got them all assembled. I told them that I
was not to go to Detroit; that the speeches were directed to the nations
of the river Wabash and the Miami; and that, for to prove the sincerity
of the speech, and the heart of Governor St. Clair, I have willingly
given a copy of the speeches, to be shown to the commandant at Detroit;
and, according to a letter wrote by the commandant of Detroit to the
Miamis, Shawnees, and Delawares, mentioning to you to be peaceable with
the Americans, I would go to him very willingly, if it was in my
directions, being sensible of his sentiments. I told them I had nothing
to say to the commandant; neither him to me. You must immediately
resolve, if you intend to take me to Detroit, or else I am to go back as
soon as possible."
"Blue Jacket got up and told me, 'My friend, we are well pleased with
what you say. Our intention is not to force you to go to Detroit: It is
only a proposal, thinking it for the best. Our answer is the same as the
Miamis. We will send, in thirty nights, a full and positive answer, by a
young man of each nation, by writing to Post Vincennes.' In the evening,
Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawnees, having taken me to supper with him,
told me, in a private manner, that the Shawnee nation was in doubt of
the sincerity of the Big Knives (Americans), so called, having been
already deceived by them. That they had first destroyed their lands, put
out their fire, and sent away their young men, being a hunting, without
a mouthful of meat; also, had taken away their women; wherefore, many of
them would, with great deal of pain, forget the affronts. Moreover, that
some other nations were apprehending that offers of peace would, maybe,
tend to take away, by degrees, their lands; and would serve them as they
did before; a certain proof that they intend to encroach on our lands,
is their new settlement on the Ohio. If they don't keep this side (of
the Ohio) clear, it will never be a proper reconcilement with the
nations Shawnees, Iroquois, Wyandots, and perhaps many others."
On the journey back to Vincennes, every indication along the way was
threatening. At L'Anguille, Gamelin was told that one of the Eel river
chieftains had gone to war with the Americans; that a few days before
his arrival a band of seventy Indians, Chippewas and Ottawas from
Michillimacinac, and some Potawatomi, had passed through the village on
the way to the American frontier. At Ouiatenon, the Weas said that the
English commandant was their father, and that they could do nothing
without his approbation. "On the eighth day of May, Gamelin returned to
Fort Knox, and on the eleventh, some traders arrived from the upper
Wabash, bringing the intelligence that war parties from the north had
joined the Wabash Indians; that the whole force of the savages had gone
to make an attack on the settlements, and that three days after Gamelin
left the Miamis, an American captive had been burned in their village."
[Illustration: Map of the Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne Campaigns.
Drawing by Heaton]
Reluctant as was the government of the United States to engage in war
with the Wabash Indians, no doubt now remained of their warlike
intentions. Every savage town from the Vermilion Piankeshaws to ancient
Kekionga, was under British control. On the first of May, 1790, Governor
Arthur St. Clair transmitted to the war department a part of the report
of Antoine Gamelin, written from Tippecanoe, and observed as follows:
"By this letter, you will perceive that everything seems to be referred
to the Miamis, which does not promise a peaceable issue. The confidence
they have in their situation, the vicinity of many other nations not
very well disposed, and the pernicious counsels of the English traders,
joined to the immense booty obtained by the depredations upon the
Ohio, will most probably prevent them from listening to any reasonable
terms of accommodation, so that it is to be feared the United States
must prepare effectually to chastise them." Shortly afterwards, St.
Clair hastened to Fort Washington at Cincinnati, and there held a
military conference with General Josiah Harmar. Being empowered to call
upon Virginia, then including Kentucky, for one thousand militia, and
upon the State of Pennsylvania for five hundred more, it was resolved to
concentrate three hundred of the Kentucky troops at Fort Steuben
(Clarksville), to march from that place to Post Vincennes. From thence
an expedition under Major John F. Hamtramck was to be directed against
the villages on the lower Wabash, so as to prevent them from aiding the
Miamis higher up. The remaining twelve hundred militiamen were to join
the regulars at Fort Washington and strike directly across the country
to the principal Miami village at Kekionga. No permanent military post
was to be established, however, at the forks of the Maumee. Secretary of
War Knox was fearful of results. While admitting that the Miami village
presented itself "as superior to any other position," for the purpose of
fixing a garrison to overawe the Indians at the west end of Lake Erie,
on the Wabash and the Illinois, still, he was apprehensive that the
establishment of a post at this place would be so opposed to the
inclinations of the Indians generally as to bring on a war of some
duration, and at the same time render the British garrisons "so uneasy
with such a force impending over them, as not only to occasion a
considerable reinforcement of their upper posts, but to occasion their
fomenting, secretly, at least, the opposition of the Indians." How any
official of the government with the report of Antoine Gamelin in his
hands, could hope to soften the animosity of the tribes by the taking of
half measures, or to propitiate the British by a display of timidity, is
hard to conceive. Four months later the hesitating secretary changed his
course.
The army with which General Harmar marched out of Fort Washington in the
latter days of September, 1790, to strike the Indian towns, was a motley
array. Pennsylvania had only partly filled her quota. She had sent forth
substitutes, old and infirm men, and boys. The troops from Kentucky had
seemingly brought into camp every old musket and rifle in the district
to be repaired. There was a scarcity of camp kettles and axes. The
commissariat was miserably deficient. To add to the confusion, the
Kentucky militia were divided in their allegiance between a certain
Colonel William Trotter and Colonel John Hardin. Hardin was fearless,
but extremely rash; Trotter was wholly incompetent. In two or three days
the Kentuckians were formed into three battalions, under Majors Hall,
McMullen, and Ray, with Trotter at their head. Harmar, an old army
officer of the revolution, who felt a contempt for all militia, was in
sore dismay, for the hasty muster was totally lacking in discipline, and
impatient of restraint.
In numbers, as Colonel Roosevelt observes, this army was amply
sufficient to do its work. It consisted of three battalions of Kentucky
militia, one battalion of Pennsylvania militia, one battalion of light
troops, mounted, and two battalions of the regular army under Major John
Plasgrave Wyllys, and Major John Doughty; in all, fourteen hundred and
fifty-three men. There was also a small company of artillery, with three
small brass field pieces, under Captain William Ferguson. But to fight
the hardy and experienced warriors of the wilderness in their native
woods, required something more than hasty levies, loose discipline, and
inexperienced Indian fighters. Harmar was not a Wayne. The expedition
was doomed to failure from the very beginning.
The details of the march along Harmar's trace to the site of the present
city of Fort Wayne it is not necessary to give. The army moved slowly,
and gave the British agents under Alexander McKee plenty of time to
furnish the redskins with arms and ammunition. The star of the Little
Turtle was in the ascendant. He was now thirty-eight years of age, and
while not a hereditary chieftain of the Miamis, his prowess and cunning
had given him fame. The Indians never made a mistake in choosing a
military leader. He watched the Americans from the very time of their
leaving Fort Washington and purposed to destroy them at the Indian town.
On the fourteenth of October the army reached the River St. Marys,
described by Captain John Armstrong as a pretty stream, and Hardin was
sent forward with a company of regulars and six hundred militia to
occupy Miamitown. He found the villages on both banks of the St. Joseph
deserted by the foe. The English and French traders had fled from the
main Indian town on what is now known as the Lakeside shore of the St.
Joseph, and had carried away most of their valuables. John Kinzie and
Antoine Laselle were among the refugees. The savages had burned the
houses in their main village to prevent their occupation by the
Americans, and had buried vast quantities of corn and vegetables in
Indian caches. One hundred and eighty-five houses of the Delawares,
Shawnees and Miamis, were still left standing in the neighboring
villages. All of these were destroyed by the torch after Harmar's
arrival.
On Sunday the seventeenth, the main army crossed the Maumee river from
the south and encamped on the point of land formed by the junction of
the St. Joseph and the Maumee. It was a beautiful spot covered by the
Indian corn fields and gardens. The Kentucky militia in parties of
thirty and forty, throwing aside all discipline, wandered about in
search of plunder. The Indians were wary. They lurked in the woods and
thickets, biding the time when they might destroy the army in detail.
Major McMullen now discovered the tracks of women and children in a
pathway leading to the northwest. Harmar resolved to locate the Indian
encampment and bring the savages to battle. On the morning of the
eighteenth, Colonel Trotter was given the command of three hundred men,
equipped with three days' provisions, and ordered to scour the country.
The detachment after pursuing and killing two Indian horsemen, marched
in various directions until nightfall, and returned to camp. Colonel
Hardin was now given command of the expedition for the two remaining
days.
An event now took place that at once exhibited both the wily strategy of
the Little Turtle as a military leader, and the blundering bravado of
Colonel John Hardin. On the morning of the nineteenth, Hardin moved
forward over the Indian trail leading to the northwest. At a distance of
some five or six miles from the main army, the detachment came upon an
abandoned Indian camp. Here a halt was made, probably to examine the
ground, when Hardin hurriedly ordered another advance, thinking he was
close on the heels of fleeing red men. In the confusion attending this
second movement, Captain Faulkner's company was left in the rear. Hardin
now proceeded about three miles, and had routed two Indians out of the
thicket, when he suddenly discovered that he had left Faulkner behind.
He now dispatched Major James Fontaine with a part of the cavalry to
locate that officer. About this time Captain John Armstrong, who was in
command of a little company of thirty regulars marching with the
militia, informed Hardin that a gun had been fired in front of them
which he thought was an alarm gun, and that he had discovered the tracks
of a horse that had come down the trail and had returned. Hardin with a
dare-devil indifference paid no attention. He moved rapidly on without
scouts and without flankers. Armstrong now warned Hardin a second time.
He said that he had located the camp fires of the Indians and that they
must be close at hand. Hardin rode on, swearing that the Indians would
not fight.
All at once the army marched into the entrance of a narrow prairie,
flanked on each side by heavy timber. At the far end of the prairie a
fire had been kindled and some trinkets placed in the trail. The front
columns came up to these baubles and halted--the whole detachment, save
Faulkner's company, was in the defile. To the right and left of them,
concealed in the underbrush, were three hundred Miamis, led by the
Little Turtle. The Indians had divided and "back-tracked" the trail, and
were now watching the Americans enter the trap. At the moment the army
halted, a furious fire was opened, and all but nine of the militia at
once fled, carrying Hardin along with them. The company of Faulkner,
coming up in the rear, suddenly saw two horsemen approaching. Each of
them had a wounded man behind him covered with blood. The fugitives were
yelling: "For God's sake retreat! You will all be killed! There are
Indians enough to eat you all up!" The regulars, however, true to
tradition, stood their ground. All were stricken down in their tracks
except five or six privates, and their captain and ensign. Captain
Armstrong sank to his neck in a morass, and the savages did not find
him. "The Indians remained on the field; and the ensuing night, held the
dance of victory, over the dead and dying bodies of their enemies,
exulting with frantic gestures, and savage yells, during the ceremony."
The captain was a witness of it all. The scene of this conflict was at
what is now known as Heller's Corners, eleven miles northwest of Fort
Wayne, at the point where the Goshen road crosses the Eel river.
On the day of Hardin's defeat the main body of the army had moved down
the north bank of the Maumee about two miles and had occupied the
Shawnee village of Chillicothe. On the twentieth, Harmar ordered the
burning and destruction of every house and wigwam in the town, and
censured the "shameful cowardly conduct of the militia who ran away, and
threw down their arms without firing scarcely a single gun." He was in a
fury, and was now determined to march back to Fort Washington, and on
the twenty-first of October the whole army moved back for a distance of
seven miles and encamped at a point south and east of the present site
of Fort Wayne.
Hardin was chagrined. He determined if possible to retrieve his own
credit and that of the Kentucky militia. In the night he approached
Harmar. He told the general that the Indians had probably returned to
their towns as soon as the army had left them. Now was the time for a
grand surprise. Harmar, after much importunity, gave his consent to a
second expedition. Late in the night, three hundred and forty picked
militiamen and sixty regulars started back for Kekionga. The detachment
marched in three columns, the federal troops in the center with Captain
Joseph Asheton, a brave officer and a good fighter at their head; the
militia were on both flanks. Major John P. Wyllys and Colonel Hardin
rode at the front.
The sun has risen, and the advance guards of the small army now ascend
the wooded heights overlooking the Maumee. Beyond lie the brown woods,
the meadows, and the Indian corn fields. A few savages appear, digging
here and there for hidden treasures of corn. All are seemingly unaware
of hostile approach. Wyllys now halts the regulars, with the militia in
the advance, and forms his plan of battle. Major Hall with his battalion
is to swing around the bend of the Maumee, cross the St. Marys and come
in on the western side of the Indian towns. There he is to wait for the
main attack. Major McMullen's battalion, Major Fontaine's cavalry and
Wyllys with his regulars are to cross the ford in front, encompass the
savages on the south, east and north, and drive them into the St.
Joseph. Hemmed in on all sides, exposed to a murderous crossfire, their
escape will be impossible. Strict orders are given that the troops are
on no account to separate, but the battalions are to support each other
as the circumstances may require.
What a terrible fate awaits the regulars. The Little Turtle had observed
that in Trotter's expedition on the morning of the eighteenth, the four
field officers of the militia had left their commands to pursue a lone
Indian on horseback. As the militia emerge on the northern bank of the
Maumee a few warriors expose themselves, and the Kentuckians
disregarding all orders, instantly give chase. The Indians fly in all
directions, the militia after them, and the regulars are left alone.
This is the opportune moment. As the regulars cross the ford and climb
the opposite bank, the painted and terrible warriors of the Miami chief
arise from their hiding places and fire at close range. Wyllys falls,
his officers fall, all but a handful are remorselessly mowed down,
scalped and mutilated, and the day is won. Thus for the second time has
the cunning Little Turtle completely outwitted his paleface antagonists.
The remaining details of this disordered conflict are soon told. The
parties of militia under McMullen and Fontaine, sweeping up the east
side of the St. Joseph, drove a party of Indians into the river near the
point of the old French fort. Fontaine was hit by a dozen bullets and
fell forward in his saddle. The Indians were now caught between Hall's
battalion on the west and McMullen's riflemen and Fontaine's cavalry on
the east. A brief massacre ensued, and Captain Asheton and two soldiers
killed a number of the savages in the water with their bayonets. The red
men finally charged on Hall's battalion--it gave way--and they made
their escape.
Captain Joseph Asheton in commenting on this last battle at the Maumee,
makes the following observation: "If Colonel (Major) Hall, who had
gained his ground undiscovered, had not wantonly disobeyed his orders,
by firing on a single Indian, the surprise must have been complete." The
question of whether there was any surprise at all or not, remains in
doubt. The Fort Wayne Manuscript, which possesses some historical value
at least, says that about eight hundred Indians were present; three
hundred Miamis under the Little Turtle, and a body of five hundred more
savages, consisting of Shawnees, Delawares, Potawatomi, Chippewas and
Ottawas. That the Shawnees were commanded by Blue Jacket, and the
Ottawas and Chippewas by an Ottawa chief named Agaskawak. The battle
itself, was skillfully planned on the part of the savages. They must
have known that the militiamen were in the vanguard and would cross the
Maumee first. They rightly calculated that the impetuosity of the
Kentuckians and their lack of discipline, would lead them at once into a
headlong charge. This would make the destruction of the regulars
comparatively easy and lead to the demoralization of the whole
detachment. A plan so well designed as this, and so skillfully executed,
is not formed on the instant. Besides, it is not probable that the
Little Turtle remained out of touch with the American army while it was
in the immediate vicinity of the Indian towns.
On November sixth, Governor St. Clair wrote to the secretary of war that
the savages had received "a most terrible stroke." It is true that they
had suffered a considerable damage in the burning of their cabins and
the destruction of their corn, but the total loss of warriors was only
about fifteen or twenty. The American army, on the other hand, had lost
one hundred and eighty-three in killed, and thirty-one wounded. Among
the slain were Major Wyllys and Lieutenant Ebenezer Frothingham, of the
regular troops, and Major Fontaine, Captains Thorp, McMurtrey and Scott,
Lieutenants Clark and Rogers, and Ensigns Bridges, Sweet, Higgins and
Thielkeld, of the militia.
"The outcome of the campaign," says B. J. Griswold, the Fort Wayne
historian, "considered from the most favorable angle, gave naught to the
American government to increase its hopes of the pacification of the
west." On the other hand, the savages, their spirit of revenge aroused
to the white heat of the fiercest hatred, assembled at the site of
their ruined villages, and there, led to renewed defiance of the
Americans through the fiery speech of Simon Girty, set about the work of
preparation to meet the next American force which might be sent against
them. In a body, these savages, led by Little Turtle, LeGris and Blue
Jacket, proceeded to Detroit, where they "paraded the streets, uttering
their demoniac scalp yelps while bearing long poles strung with the
scalps of many American soldiers."
Governor St. Clair expressed regret that a post had not been
established; it would be the surest means of obliging the Indians to be
at peace with the United States. On December second, 1790, Major John
Hamtramck, writing from Vincennes, gave it as his opinion that "nothing
can establish peace with the Indians as long as the British keep
possession of the upper posts, for they are daily sowing the seed of
discord betwixt the measures of our government and the Indians." He
further summed up the situation as follows: "The Indians never can be
subdued by just going to their towns and burning their houses and corn,
and returning the next day, for it is no hardship for the Indians to
live without; they make themselves perfectly comfortable on meat alone;
and as for houses, they can build with as much facility as a bird does
his nest." Speaking of this campaign and of its effects on the Miamis,
Roosevelt says that "the blow was only severe enough to anger and unite
them, not to cripple or crush them. All the other western tribes made
common cause with them. They banded together and warred openly; and
their vengeful forays on the frontier increased in number, so that the
suffering of the settlers was great. Along the Ohio people lived in
dread of tomahawk and scalping knife; the attacks fell unceasingly on
all the settlements from Marietta to Louisville."
The expedition of Hamtramck against the Kickapoo towns on the Vermilion
river was a failure. He destroyed the Indian village at the site of the
old Shelby farm, near Eugene, but the warriors being absent, he returned
to Vincennes. Some local historian has written a bloodcurdling
description of the merciless massacre of old men, women and children by
Hamtramck's army, but this tale is an injustice both to the worthy Major
and the soldiers under him. The only truthful part of this sketch is
that "the adjoining terrace lands were filled with thousands of the
greatest varieties of plum bushes and grape vines and it was known as
the great plum patch." Since General Harrison's march to Tippecanoe the
crossing at this river has been known as "the Army Ford."
CHAPTER XII
SCOTT AND WILKINSON
--_The Kentucky raids on the Miami country along the Wabash in 1791._
The effects of Harmar's campaign were soon apparent. In the closing
months of 1790, the citizens of Ohio, Monongahela, Harrison, Randolph,
Kanawha, Green-Briar, Montgomery, and Russel counties, in western
Virginia, sent an appeal for immediate aid to the governor of that
state, stating that their frontier on a line of nearly four hundred
miles along the Ohio, was continually exposed to Indian attack; that the
efforts of the government had hitherto been ineffectual; that the
federal garrisons along the Ohio could afford them no protection; that
they had every reason to believe that the late defeat of the army at the
hands of the Indians, would lead to an increase of the savage invasions;
that it was better for the government to support them where they were,
no matter what the expense might be, than to compel them to quit the
country after the expenditure of so much blood and treasure, when all
were aware that a frontier must be supported somewhere. On the second of
January, 1791, between "sunset and daylight-in," the Indians surprised
the new settlements on the Muskingum, called the Big Bottom, forty miles
above Marietta, killing eleven men, one woman, and two children. General
Rufus Putnam, writing to President Washington, on the eighth of the
same month, said that the little garrison at Fort Harmar, consisting of
a little over twenty men, could afford no protection to the settlements.
That the whole number of effective men in the Muskingum country would
not exceed two hundred and eighty-seven, and that many of them were
badly armed, and that unless the government speedily sent a body of
troops for their protection, they were "a ruined people." Virginia,
Pennsylvania and Kentucky, were all being sorely pressed by savage
incursions.
It was a fortunate circumstance for the future welfare of the great
west, that George Washington was president of the United States. Great
numbers of the people in the Atlantic states, according to Secretary of
War Knox, were opposed to the further prosecution of the Indian war.
They considered that the sacrifice of blood and treasure in such a
conflict would far exceed any advantages that might possibly be reaped
by it. The result of Harmar's campaign had been very disheartening, and
the government was in straitened circumstances, both as to men and
means. But by strenuous efforts, President Washington induced Congress
to pass an act, on the second day of March, 1791, for raising and adding
another regiment to the military establishment of the United States,
"and for making further provision for the protection of the frontiers."
Governor Arthur St. Clair was appointed as the new commander-in-chief of
the army of the northwest, and Colonel Richard Butler, of Pennsylvania,
was promoted and placed second in command. St. Clair was authorized to
raise an army of three thousand men, but as there were only "two small
regiments of regular infantry," the remainder of the force was to be
raised by special levies of six months' men, and by requisitions of
militia. In the meantime, the government, owing to the pressing demands
of the western people, had authorized the establishment of a local Board
of War for the district of Kentucky. This Board was composed of
Brigadier-General Charles Scott, leader of the Kentucky militia, Harry
Innes, John Brown, Benjamin Logan and Isaac Shelby, and they were vested
with discretionary powers "to provide for the defense of the settlements
and the prosecution of the war." The government had now fully determined
on a definite plan of action. First, a messenger was to be dispatched to
the Wabash Indians with an offer of peace. This messenger was to be
accompanied by the Cornplanter, of the Seneca Nation, and such other
Iroquois chiefs as might be friendly to the United States. Second, in
case this mission of peace should fail, expeditions were to be organized
to strike the Wea, the Eel river and the Kickapoo towns, in order to
prevent them from giving aid to the main Miami and Shawnee villages at
the head of the Maumee. Third, a grand expedition under the command of
St. Clair himself, was to capture Kekionga, establish a military post
there, and check the activities of both the Indians and British in the
valleys of the Wabash and the Maumee. The instructions of the secretary
of war to General St. Clair with reference to Kekionga were specific.
"You will commence your march for the Miami village, in order to
establish a strong and permanent military post at that place. In your
advance, you will establish such posts of communication with Fort
Washington, on the Ohio, as you may judge proper. The post at the Miami
village is intended for the purpose of awing and curbing the Indians in
that quarter, and as the only preventive of future hostilities. It
ought, therefore, to be rendered secure against all attempts and insults
by the Indians. The garrison which should be stationed there ought not
only to be sufficient for the defense of the place, but always to afford
a detachment of five or six hundred men, either to chastise any of the
Wabash, or other hostile Indians, or to secure any convoy of provisions.
The establishment of such a post is considered as an important object of
the campaign, and is to take place in all events."
First as to the mission of peace. In December, 1790, the Cornplanter and
other chiefs of the Seneca tribe, being in Philadelphia, "measures were
taken to impress them with the moderation of the United States, as it
respected the war with the western Indians; that the coercive measures
against them had been the consequence of their refusal to listen to the
invitations of peace, and a continuance of their depredations on the
frontiers." The Cornplanter seemed to be favorably impressed. On the
twelfth of March, Colonel Thomas Proctor, as the agent and
representative of the United States government, was sent forward to the
Seneca towns. His instructions from the secretary of war were, to induce
the Cornplanter and as many of the other chiefs of the Senecas as
possible, to go with him as messengers of peace to the Miami and Wabash
Indians. They were first to repair to Sandusky on Lake Erie, and there
hold a conference with the Delaware and Wyandot tribes who were inclined
to be friendly. Later they were to go directly to the Miami village at
Kekionga, there to assemble the Miami confederates, and induce them to
go to Fort Washington at Cincinnati, and enter into a treaty of peace
with General St. Clair.
On the twenty-seventh of April, Proctor arrived at Buffalo Creek, six
miles from Fort Erie, situated on the north side of the lake, and
twenty-five miles distant from Fort Niagara on the south shore of Lake
Ontario. Both posts were held by the British. Here he found the Farmer's
Brother, Red Jacket, and practically all of the Iroquois chieftains
under the influence of the British officers. The Farmer's Brother, "was
fully regimented as a colonel, red faced with blue, as belonging to some
royal regiment, and equipped with a pair of the best epaulets." The
Indians had practically given up hunting and were being directly fed and
supported out of the English store-houses. From the very beginning, Red
Jacket and the Farmer's Brother questioned his credentials. Proctor
learned from a French trader, that about seven days prior to his
arrival, Colonel Butler of the British Indian department and Joseph
Brant had been in the village. They had told the Senecas to pay no
attention to Proctor's talk, and to give him no aid in going to the
Miamis, for they would all be killed.
In two or three days Proctor succeeded in getting the Indians into a
council. He argued that it was the duty of all men, red or white, to
warn the Miamis to discontinue their thefts and murders, before a
decisive blow should be "levelled at them" by the United States. The
lives of hundreds of their fellow men might thus be saved. He invited
them to bring forward any gentleman of veracity to examine his papers,
or to hear his speeches. In answer to this, Red Jacket proposed that the
council fire be removed to Fort Niagara, so that all proceedings might
take place under the eyes of the British counsellors. Proctor would not
assent to this course, but indicated that he had no objection to the
British officers being present. They were accordingly sent for, but in
the meantime the Farmer's Brother and other British adherents were
telling the Indians that Proctor proposed taking them to the "verge of
the ocean" and that the treaty grounds were twelve months' journey away.
Shortly afterwards Colonel Butler with a staff of British army officers
came into camp. Butler was bold, and told the Indians in Proctor's
presence that Colonel Joseph Brant, of Grand River, and Alexander McKee,
the British agent of Indian affairs at Detroit, were now preparing to go
among the Indians at war with the Americans, "to know what their
intentions were, whether for war or for peace;" that nothing must be
done until their return, for should any embassy be undertaken, this
would certainly bring down the wrath of war upon themselves, and result
in the death of all, for the Miamis were angry with them already.
A strange event now happened. The Iroquois women suddenly appeared in
the Indian councils and seconded the pleas of the American peace
commissioner. Seated with the Indian chiefs, they easily swung the
scales, and carried the day. Red Jacket and other chiefs and warriors
were appointed to accompany Proctor to the west. But the English now
played their final trump card. On the fifth of May, Proctor had written
to Colonel Gordon, the British commandant at Niagara, to obtain
permission to freight one of the schooners on Lake Erie, to transport
the American envoy and such Indian chiefs as might accompany him, to
Sandusky. He now received a cold and insolent answer that at once
blasted all his hopes. Gordon refused to regard Proctor "in any other
light than a private agent," and peremptorily refused to let him charter
any of the craft upon the lake. This made the contemplated mission
impossible.
Let us now see what Alexander McKee and Joseph Brant were doing in the
west. Shortly before Proctor's arrival at Buffalo Creek, Brant had
received private instructions from British headquarters to set out for
the Grand River, and to go from thence to Detroit. It appears that
shortly after Harmar's defeat, the confederated nations of the
Chippewas, Potawatomi, Hurons, Shawnees, Delawares, Ottawas, and Miamis,
together with the Mohawks, had sent a deputation of their chiefs to the
headquarters of Lord Dorchester at Quebec, to sound him on the
proposition as to what aid or assistance they might expect in the event
of a continuance of the war. They also demanded to know whether the
British had, by the treaty of peace, given away any of their lands to
the Americans. Dorchester, while hostile to the new republic, and
firmly resolved to hold the posts, was not ready as yet to come out in
the open. He informed the tribes that the line marked out in the treaty
of peace, "implied no more than that beyond that line the King, their
father, would not extend his interference;" that the king only retained
possession of the posts until such time as all the differences between
him and the United States should be settled; that in making peace, the
king had not given away any of their lands, "inasmuch as the King never
had any right to their lands, other than to such as had been fairly
ceded by themselves, with their own free consent, by public convention
and sale. * * * * In conclusion, he assured the deputation, that
although the Indians had their friendship and good will, the Provincial
Government, had no power to embark in a war with the United States, and
could only defend themselves if attacked."
In strange contradiction to the Canadian governor's words, Alexander
McKee came to the Rapids of the Miami in the month of April to hold a
council with the Wabash confederates. Thither came Brant, summoned from
Buffalo Creek. McKee waited three months for the gathering of the
tribes, but about July first they were all assembled. "Not only the
Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Potawatomis and others," says
Roosevelt, "who had openly taken the hatchet against the Americans, but
also representatives of the Six Nations, and tribes of savages from
lands so remote that they carried no guns; but warred with bows, spears,
and tomahawks, and were clad in buffalo-robes instead of blankets. McKee
in his speech to them did not incite them to war. On the contrary, he
advised them, in guarded language, to make peace with the United States;
but only upon terms consistent with their "honor and interest." He
assured them that, whatever they did, he wished to know what they
desired; and that the sole purpose of the British was to promote the
welfare of the confederated Indians. Such very cautious advice was not
of a kind to promote peace; and the goods furnished the savages at the
council included not only cattle, corn and tobacco, but also quantities
of powder and balls." England was determined that the Miami chieftains
should command the valleys of the Wabash and the Maumee, and while
breathing forth accents to deceive the credulous, were arming the red
men with the instruments of war.
On the sixteenth of May, the American prisoner, Thomas Rhea, captured by
a party of Delawares and "Munsees" arrives at Sandusky. An Indian
captain is there with one hundred and fifty warriors. Parties are coming
in daily with prisoners and scalps. Alarm comes in on the twenty-fourth
of May that a large body of American troops in three columns are moving
towards the Miami towns. The Indians burn their houses and move to Roche
de Bout, on the Maumee. Here are Colonels Joseph Brant and Alexander
McKee, with Captains Bunbury and Silvie, of the British troops. They are
living in clever cabins built by the Potawatomi and other Indians,
eighteen miles above Lake Erie. They have great stores of corn, pork,
peas and other provisions, which, together with arms and ammunition,
they are daily issuing to the Indians. Savages are coming in in parties
of one, two, three, four and five hundred at a time, and receiving
supplies from McKee, and going up the Maumee to the Miami villages.
Pirogues, loaded with the munitions of war are being rowed up the same
stream by French-Canadians. They are preparing for an American attack.
Rhea hears some things. While he is on the Maumee he tells Colonel McKee
and other British officers that he has seen Colonel Thomas Proctor on
his way to the Senecas and has talked with him. That Proctor told him he
was on his way to Sandusky and the Miami villages, and that he expected
the Cornplanter to accompany him and bring about peace; that he
(Proctor), expected to get shipping at Fort Erie, The British officers
who hear these things, say that if they were at Lake Erie, Proctor would
get no shipping. The Mohawks and other Indians declare that if Proctor,
or any other Yankee messenger, arrives, he will not carry back any
message. Simon Girty and one Pat Hill assert, that Proctor should never
return, even if he had a hundred Senecas with him.
On the ninth of March, 1791, the secretary of war issued orders to
General Charles Scott of Kentucky, to lead an expedition against the Wea
or Ouiatenon towns on the Wabash. The expedition was not to proceed
until the tenth day of May, as hopes were entertained that Proctor might
negotiate a peace. The force to be employed was to consist of seven
hundred and fifty mounted volunteers, including officers. All Indians
who ceased to resist were to be spared. Women and children, and as many
warriors as possible, were to be taken prisoners, but treated with
humanity.
The tenth day of May arrived, but Proctor was not heard from. The
hostility of the savages was daily increasing. Scott was delayed a few
days longer in the hope that intelligence might arrive, but on the
twenty-third of May he crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Kentucky and
plunged into the wilderness. Before him lay one hundred and fifty-five
miles of forest, swamp and stream. The rain fell in torrents and every
river was beyond its banks. His horses were soon worn down and his
provisions spoiled, but he pressed on. On the morning of the first of
June, he was entering the prairies south of the Wea plain and
approaching the hills of High Gap. He now saw a lone Indian horseman to
his right and tried to intercept him, but failed. He pushed on rapidly
to the Indian towns.
On the morning of June first, 1791, the landscape of the Wea is a thing
of beauty. To the north lies the long range of the Indian Hills, crowned
with forest trees, and scarped with many a sharp ravine. At the southern
edge of these hills flows the Wabash, winding in and out with graceful
curves, and marked in its courses by a narrow fringe of woodland. To the
east lies Wea creek, jutting out into the plain with a sharp turn, and
then gliding on again to the river. Within this enclosure of wood and
stream lie the meadows of the Ouiatenons, dotted here and there with
pleasant groves, and filled with the aroma of countless blossoms.
"Awake from dreams! The scene changes. The morning breath of the first
day of summer has kissed the grass and flowers, but it brings no evil
omen to the Kickapoo villages on this shore, nor to the five Wea towns
on the adjacent plain. High noon has come, but still birds and grass and
flowers bask in the meridian splendor of a June sunshine, unconscious of
danger or the trampling of hostile feet. One o'clock! And over High Gap
hostile horsemen are galloping. They separate; one division wheels to
the left led by the relentless Colonel Hardin, still smarting from the
defeat of the last year by the great Miami, Little Turtle. But the main
division, led by the noble Colonel Scott, afterward the distinguished
soldier and governor of Kentucky, moves straight forward on to
Ouiatenon."
Scott's advance since the morning has been swift and steady. He fears
that the Indian horseman will give the alarm. At one o'clock he comes
over High Gap, a high pass through the hills to the southwest of the
present town of Shadeland. To the left he perceives two Indian villages.
One is at a distance of two miles and the other at four. They were
probably situated in the prairie groves. He now detaches Colonel John
Hardin with sixty mounted infantry and a troop of light horse under
Captain McCoy, and they swing to the left. Scott moves briskly forward
with the main body for the villages of the Weas, at the mouth of Wea
creek. The smoke of the camp fires is plainly discernible.
[Illustration: Showing the Wea Plains and the Line of Scott's March,
Tippecanoe County, Indiana. Drawing by Heaton Map]
As he turns the point of timber fringing the Wea, and in the vicinity of
what is now the Shadeland Farm, he sees a cabin to the right. Captain
Price is ordered to assault it with forty men. Two warriors are killed.
Scott now gains the summit of the eminence crowning the south bank of
the Wabash. The Wea villages are below him and scattered along the
river. All is in confusion and the Indians are trying to escape. On the
opposite shore is a town of the Kickapoos. He instantly orders his
lieutenant-commandant, James Wilkinson, to charge the Weas with the
first battalion, and the eager Kentuckians rush to the river's edge,
just as the last of five canoes loaded with warriors, has pushed from
the shore. With deadly and terrible aim the riflemen empty the boats to
the last man.
In the meantime, a brisk fire has been kept up from the Kickapoo camp.
Scott now determines to cross the river and capture the town, but the
recent rains have swelled the stream and he cannot ford it. He orders
Wilkinson to cross at a ford two miles above, and detaches King's and
Logsdon's companies, under conduct of Major Barbee, to cross the river
below. Wilkinson fails, for the river is swift and very high. Barbee is
more successful. Many of the hardy frontiersmen breast the stream, and
others pass in a small canoe. But the instant the Kentuckians foot the
opposite shore, the Indians discover them and flee.
About this time Scott hears from Colonel Hardin. The redoubtable old
Indian fighter who was saved to die in the service of his country, has
pushed on and captured the two villages observed from High Gap, and is
encumbered with many prisoners. He now discovers a stronger village
farther to the left, and proceeds to attack. This latter village is
probably in the neighborhood of the present site of Granville, and
opposite the point where the Riviere De Bois Rouge, or Indian creek,
enters the Wabash. Scott at once detaches Captain Brown and his company
to support the Colonel, but nothing can stop the impetuous Kentuckian,
and before Brown arrives, "the business is done," and Hardin joins the
main body before sunset, having killed six warriors and taken fifty-two
prisoners. "Captain Bull," says Scott, "the warrior who discovered me in
the morning, had gained the main town, and given the alarm a short time
before me; but the villages to my left were uninformed of my approach,
and had no retreat."
The first day of fighting had been very encouraging. The next morning
Scott determined to destroy Kethtipecanunck, or Tippecanoe, eighteen
miles up the river. His knowledge of geography was poor, for he talks
about Kethtipecanunck being at the mouth of the Eel river, but his
fighting qualities were perfect. On examination, however, he discovers
that his men and horses are greatly worn down and crippled by the long
march and the fighting of the day before. Three hundred and sixty men
are at last selected to make the march on foot. At half after five in
the evening they start out under the command of lieutenant-commandant
Wilkinson and at one o'clock the next day they have returned, having
completely burned and destroyed what Scott denominated as "the most
important settlement of the enemy in that quarter of the federal
territory." Wilkinson's detachment had reached the village near
daybreak. The advance columns of the Kentuckians charged impetuously
into the town just as the Indians were crossing the Wabash, and a brief
skirmish ensued from the opposite shores, during which several Indian
warriors were killed and two Americans wounded. Many of the inhabitants
of Kethtipecanunck were French traders and lived in a state of
semi-civilization. "By the books, letters, and other documents found
there," says Scott, "it is evident that place was in close connection
with, and dependent upon, Detroit; a large quantity of corn, a variety
of household goods, peltry, and other articles, were burned with this
village, which consisted of about seventy houses, many of them well
furnished." Scott lamented that the condition of his troops prevented
him from sweeping to the head of the Wabash. He says he had the kind of
men to do it, but he lacked fresh horses and provisions and was forced
to return to Kentucky. On the fourth of June, he released sixteen of the
weakest and most infirm of his prisoners and gave them a written address
of peace to the Wabash tribes. It was written in a firm, manly tone, but
without grandiloquence. He now destroyed the villages at Ouiatenon, the
growing corn and pulse, and on the same day of the fourth, set out for
Kentucky. The grand old man, who was to fight with Wayne at Fallen
Timbers, had done well. Without the loss of a single man, and having
only five wounded, he had killed thirty-two warriors "of size and
figure," and taken fifty-eight prisoners. He took a receipt from Captain
Joseph Asheton of the First United States Regiment at Fort Steuben, for
forty-one prisoners.
On the twenty-fifth of June, governor St. Clair wrote to the Kentucky
Board of War to send a second expedition against the Wabash towns. On
the fifth day of July the Board appointed James Wilkinson as the
commander. The troops were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Washington, by
the twentieth of July, "well mounted on horseback, well armed, and
provided with thirty days' provisions." In certain instructions from
Governor St. Clair to General Wilkinson, of date July thirty-first,
Wilkinson's attention is called to a Kickapoo town "in the prairie,
northward and westward of L'Anguille," about sixty miles. This town will
be mentioned later. Wilkinson was directed also to restrain his command
from "scalping the dead." With a Kentuckian, the only good Indian was a
dead one.
On the first day of August, Wilkinson rode out of Cincinnati with five
hundred and twenty-five men. His destined point of attack was the Eel
river towns, about six miles above the present city of Logansport. The
country he had to pass through was mostly unknown, full of quagmires and
marshes, and extremely hard on his horses. He made a feint for the Miami
village at Kekionga, but on the morning of the fourth, he turned
directly northwest and headed for Kenapacomaqua, or L'Anguille, as the
Eel river towns were known. After some brief skirmishes, with small
parties of warriors and much plunging and sinking in the bogs, he
crossed the Wabash about four and one half miles above the mouth of the
Eel river, and striking an Indian path, was soon in front of the Indian
towns. He now dismounted and planned an attack. The second battalion was
to cross the river, detour, and come in on the rear of the villages.
The first battalion was to lie perdue until the maneuver was executed,
when a simultaneous charge was to be made on all quarters of the town.
Before the plan could be executed, however, the troops were discovered,
whereupon an instant charge was made by plunging into the river and
attacking the town on the front. Six warriors were killed, "and in the
hurry and confusion of the charge, two squaws and a child."
Wilkinson found the towns of the Eel river tribes scattered along Eel
river for a distance of three miles. These villages were separated by
almost impassable bogs, and "impervious thickets of plum, hazel and
black-jack." The head chief of the tribe, with his prisoners and a
number of families were out digging a root, which the Indians
substituted for the potato. A short time before Wilkinson arrived, most
of the warriors had gone up the river to a French store to purchase
ammunition. This ammunition had come from Kekionga on the same day.
Several acres of green corn with the ears in the milk were about the
town. All of this was destroyed. Thirty-four prisoners were taken and a
captive released.
After encamping in the town for the night, Wilkinson started the next
morning for the Kickapoo town "in the prairie." He considered his
position as one of danger, for he says he was in the "bosom of the
Ouiatenon country," one hundred and eighty miles from succor, and not
more than one and a half days' forced march from the Potawatomi,
Shawnees and Delawares. This was, of course, largely matter of
conjecture.
The Kickapoo town that Wilkinson was headed for was in fact about sixty
miles from Kenapacomaqua and in the prairie. But it was south and west
of the Eel river villages instead of north and west. The imperfect
geographical knowledge of the times led Wilkinson to believe it was on
the Illinois river, but it was in fact on Big Pine creek, near the
present town of Oxford, in Benton County, Indiana. Wilkinson was right
in one regard, however, for he knew that the village he sought was on
the great Potawatomi trail leading south from Lake Michigan. This trail
passed down from the neighborhood of what is now Blue Island, in
Chicago, south through Momence and Iroquois, Illinois, south and east
again through Parish Grove, in Benton County, across Big Pine Creek and
on to Ouiatenon and Kethtipecanunck, or Tippecanoe. It was a great fur
trading route and of great commercial importance in that day. This
Kickapoo village "in the prairie," was about twenty miles west of the
present city of Lafayette, and about two and one-half miles from the
present site of Oxford, at a place known in later years as "Indian
Hill." It was well known to Gurdon S. Hubbard, who visited it in the
early part of the last century and had an interesting talk with the
Kickapoos there about the battle of Tippecanoe. Jesse S. Birch, of
Oxford, an accurate local historian, has preserved an interesting
account of this village as seen by the early settlers in the years from
1830 to 1840. The Kickapoos had, at that time, moved on to other places,
but bands of the Potawatomi were still on the ground. "Pits," says
Birch, "in which the Indians stored their corn, were to be seen until a
few years ago. The burying grounds were about half a mile northwest of
the village and only a short distance west of the Stembel gravel pit.
The Potawatomi were peaceful, John Wattles, who describes their winter
habitations, visited them often in his boyhood days. Pits, the sides of
which were lined with furs, were dug four or five feet deep, and their
tents, with holes at the top to permit the escape of smoke, were put
over them. By keeping a fire on the ground in the center of the pit,
they lived in comparative comfort, so far as heat and Indian luxuries
were concerned, during the coldest weather. There are evidences of white
men having camped near this village. Isaac W. Lewis found an English
sovereign while at play on his father's farm, but a short distance from
the site of the village. In the early 30's, his father and eldest
brother, while plowing, found several pieces of English money." The
glittering coins of "the great father," had easily found their way into
savage hands.
But Wilkinson was not destined to strike this main Kickapoo town. He
encamped the first night six miles from Kenapacomaqua, and the next day
he marched west and then northwest passing between what are now the
points of Royal Center and Logansport, and "launched into the boundless
prairies of the west with the intention to pursue that course until I
could strike a road which leads from the Potawatomi of Lake Michigan
immediately to the town I sought." Here for eight hours he floundered
about in an endless succession of sloughs and swamps, wearing out his
horses and exhausting his men. "A chain of thin groves extending in the
direction of the Wabash at this time presented to my left." Wilkinson
now extricated himself from the swamps and gained the Tippecanoe trail,
and camped at seven o'clock in the evening. He had marched a distance of
about thirty miles, and several of his horses were completely broken
down.
At four o'clock the next morning this little army was in motion again.
At eight o'clock signs were discovered of the proximity of an Indian
town. At twelve o'clock noon, he entered Kethtipecanunck, but the
savages had fled at his approach. They had returned since the expedition
of June and cultivated their corn and pulse. These were in a flourishing
condition. Having refreshed his horses and cut down the corn, he resumed
his march for the Kickapoo town "in the prairie, by the road which leads
from Ouiatenon to that place." After proceeding some distance he
discovered some "murmurings" among the Kentuckians, and found on
examination that two hundred and seventy of his horses were lame, and
that only five days' provisions were left for his men. Under these
circumstances, he abandoned the contemplated assault on the main
Kickapoo town, and "marched forward to a town of the same nation,
situated about three leagues west of Ouiatenon." He destroyed the town
of thirty houses and "a considerable quantity of corn in the hills," and
the same day moved on to Ouiatenon, forded the Wabash, and encamped on
the margin of the Wea plains. At all the villages destroyed by Scott he
found the corn re-planted and in a state of high cultivation. He
destroyed it all, and on the twelfth of August he fell in with
General Scott's return trace and marched to the Ohio, where he
arrived on the twenty-first day of the month. He had traveled a distance
of four hundred and fifty-one miles in twenty-one days; a feat of
horsemanship, considering the wild and difficult nature of the country,
of no small degree of merit.
[Illustration: Indian Hills on the Wabash River just below the old
site of Fort Ouiatenon. Photo by Heaton]
The expedition had in all things been a success. He had captured a
number of prisoners, cut down four hundred and thirty acres of corn in
the milk, and destroyed at least two Indian towns.
Some of the historians who have commented on these campaigns of Scott
and Wilkinson and the Kentucky militia, have sought to minimize and even
to discredit these expeditions. Says Albach: "The expeditions of Harmar,
Scott and Wilkinson were directed against the Miamis and Shawnees, and
served only to exasperate them. The burning of their towns, the
destruction of their corn, and the captivity of their women and
children, only aroused them to more desperate efforts to defend their
country, and to harass their invaders." The review of Secretary of War
Knox, communicated to President Washington on the twenty-sixth of
December, 1791, however, contains the following: "The effect of such
desultory operations upon the Indians, will, by occupying them for their
own safety and that of their families, prevent them spreading terror and
destruction along the frontiers. These sort of expeditions had that
precise effect during the last season, and Kentucky enjoyed more repose
and sustained less injury, than for any year since the war with Great
Britain. This single effect, independent of the injury done to the
force of the Indians, is worth greatly more than the actual expense of
such expeditions."
Other effects produced were equally important. The brave Kentuckians,
for the first time, were acting in conjunction with, and under the
direction and control of the federal authorities. The cement of a common
interest, as Washington would say, was binding state and nation
together. Not only were the soil and the long suffering people of
Kentucky rendered more secure against Indian attack, but the hardy
descendants of the pioneers were being trained for the eventful conflict
of 1812, when seven thousand of the valorous sons of that commonwealth
should take the field in the defense of their country.
CHAPTER XIII
ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT
_--The first great disaster to the Federal armies brought about by the
Miamis._
The objectives of General St. Clair have already been mentioned. He was
now to take the village of Kekionga, establish a garrison there, and
erect a chain of posts stretching from the new establishment to Fort
Washington at Cincinnati.
The army with which St. Clair was expected to accomplish this task
consisted of "two small regiments of regulars, two of six months'
levies, a number of Kentucky militia, a few cavalry, and a couple of
small batteries of light guns." In all there were fourteen hundred men
and eighty-six officers. The Kentucky militia were under the command of
Colonel Oldham, a brave officer who afterwards fell on the field of
battle. The levies were "men collected from the streets and prisons of
the city, hurried out into the enemy's country and with the officers
commanding them, totally unacquainted with the business in which they
were engaged." Their pay was miserable. Each private received two
dollars and ten cents a month; the sergeants three dollars and sixty
cents. Being recruited at various times and places, their terms of
enlistment were expiring daily, and they wanted to go home. As they were
reckless and intemperate, St. Clair, in order to preserve some
semblance of order, removed them to Ludlow's Station, about six miles
from Fort Washington. Major Ebenezer Denny, aide to St. Clair, says that
they were "far inferior to the militia." On the morning of October
twenty-ninth, when St. Clair's army was penetrating the heart of the
Indian country, this disorderly element was keeping up a constant firing
about the camp, contrary to the positive orders of the day.
In the quartermaster's department everything "went on slowly and badly;
tents, pack-saddles, kettles, knapsacks and cartridge boxes, were all
'deficient in quantity and quality.'" The army contractors were
positively dishonest, and the war department seems to have been
fearfully negligent in all of its work. Judge Jacob Burnet records that
"it is a well authenticated fact, that boxes and packages were so
carelessly put up and marked, that during the action a box was opened
marked 'flints,' which was found to contain gun-locks. Several mistakes
of the same character were discovered, as for example, a keg of powder
marked 'for the infantry,' was found to contain damaged cannon-powder,
that could scarcely be ignited."
St. Clair was sick, and so afflicted with the gout that he was unable to
mount or dismount a horse without assistance. On the night before his
great disaster he was confined to his camp bed and unable to get up.
Born in Edinburgh, in Scotland, in 1734, he was now fifty-seven years of
age, and too old and infirm to take command of an army in a hazardous
Indian campaign. Besides, he had had no experience in such a contest. He
was, however, a man of sterling courage. He had been a lieutenant in
the army of General Wolfe at Quebec. He espoused the cause of the
colonies, and had fought with distinguished valor at Trenton and
Princeton. Under him, and second in command, was General Richard Butler,
of Pennsylvania. Butler was a man of jealous and irritable temperament
and had had a bitter controversy with Harmar over the campaign of the
year before. A coolness now sprang up between him and St. Clair, which,
as we shall see, led to lamentable results. The mind of General Harmar
was filled with gloomy forebodings. Taking into consideration the
material of which the army was composed and the total inefficiency of
the quartermaster and the contractors, "it was a matter of astonishment
to him," says Denny, "that the commanding general * * * * should think
of hazarding, with such people, and under such circumstances, his
reputation and life, and the lives of so many others, knowing, too, as
both did, the enemy with whom he was going to contend; an enemy brought
up from infancy to war, and perhaps superior to an equal number of the
best men that could be taken against them."
Owing to delays the army which was to rendezvous at Fort Washington not
later than July tenth, did not actually start into the wilderness until
the fourth day of October. On the seventeenth of September, a halt had
been made on the Great Miami, and Fort Hamilton erected. Twenty miles
north of this place, a light fortification known as Fort St. Clair, was
built. About six miles south of the present town of Greenville, in Darke
county, Ohio, the army threw up the works of Fort Jefferson, and then
moved forward at a snail's pace into the forests and prairies. Every
foot of the road through the heavy timber had to be cleared. Rains were
constant. The troops were on half rations and terribly impatient.
Parties of militia were daily deserting. On the twenty-seventh of
October, Major Denny entered in his diary the following: "The season so
far advanced it will be impracticable to continue the campaign. Forage
entirely destroyed; horses failing and cannot be kept up; provisions
from hand to mouth." The Little Turtle was again on the watch. A hostile
army was entering the sacred domain of the Miamis. Indian scouts and
runners were constantly lurking on the skirts of the army. In after
years, a woman heard the great chief say of a fallen enemy: "We met; I
cut him down; and his shade as it passes on the wind, shuns my walk!"
This terrible foe, like a tiger in his jungle, was waiting for the
moment to spring on his prey. It soon came. On the thirty-first of
October, a party of militia, sixty or seventy in number, deserted the
camp and swore that they would stop the packhorses in the rear, laden
with provisions. St. Clair sent back after them the First United States
Regiment under Major John Hamtramck, the most experienced Indian
fighters in the whole army. These were the men the Indians most feared.
The savage chieftain determined to strike.
Later than usual, and on the evening of November third, the tired and
hungry army of St. Clair emerged on the headwaters of the river Wabash.
"There was a small, elevated meadow on the east banks of this stream,
while a dense forest spread gloomily all around." A light snow was on
the ground, and the pools of water were covered with a thin coat of
ice. The Wabash at this point was twenty yards wide. The militia were
thrown across the stream about three hundred yards in advance of the
main army. As they took their positions, a few Indians were routed out
of the underbrush and fled precipitately into the woods. The main body
of troops was cooped up in close quarters. The right wing was composed
of Butler's, Clark's, and Patterson's battalions, commanded by Major
General Butler. These battalions formed the first line of the
encampment. The left wing, consisting of Bedinger's and Gaither's
battalions, and the Second United States Regiment of regulars, under the
command of Colonel William Darke, formed the second line. An interval
between these lines of about seventy yards "was all the ground would
allow." St. Clair thought that his right flank was fairly well secured
by a creek, "while a steep bank, and Faulkner's corps, some of the
cavalry, and their picquets, covered the left flank." No works whatever
were thrown up to protect the army, but the great camp-fires of the
soldiers illumined the whole host. In the circumjacent forests, and a
little in advance of the position occupied by the militia, was a camp of
over eleven hundred Indians, composed of Miamis, Shawnees, Potawatomi,
Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas and Wyandots, with a number of British
adherents from Detroit, waiting for the first hours of dawn of the
coming day.
What strange sense of security lulled the vigilance of the American
leaders will never be known. During the night the frequent firing of the
sentinels disturbed the whole camp, and the outlying guards reported
bands of savages skulking about in considerable numbers. "About ten
o'clock at night," says Major Denny, "General Butler, who commanded the
right wing, was desired to send out an intelligent officer and party to
make discoveries. Captain Slough, with two subalterns and thirty men, I
saw parade at General Butler's tent for this purpose, and heard the
general give Captain Slough very particular verbal orders how to
proceed." Slough afterwards testified before a committee of Congress,
that he was sent out during the night with a party of observation and
that he saw a force of Indians approaching the American camp, with a
view to reconnoitering it, whereupon, he hastened to the camp of the
militia and reported to their leader. "I halted my party," says Slough,
"near Colonel Oldham's tent, went into it, and awakened him, I believe
about twelve o'clock. I told him that I was of his opinion, that the
camp would be attacked in the morning, for I had seen a number of
Indians. I proceeded to the camp, and as soon as I had passed the camp
guards, dismissed the party, and went to General Butler's tent. As I
approached it, I saw him come out of the tent, and stand by the fire. I
went up to him, and took him some distance from it, not thinking it
prudent that the sentry should hear what I had seen. I also told him
what Colonel Oldham had said, and that, if he thought proper, I would go
and make a report to General St. Clair. He stood some time, and after a
pause, thanked me for my attention and vigilance, and said, as I must be
fatigued, I had better go and lie down." Fatuous and unexplainable
conduct in the face of certain peril!
At a half hour before sunrise on the morning of November fourth, 1791,
the army of St. Clair is at parade. The soldiers have just been
dismissed and are returning to their tents, when the woods in front ring
with the shots and yells of a thousand savages. On the instant the
bugles sound the call to arms, but the front battalions are scarce in
line, when the remnants of the militia, torn and bleeding, burst through
them. The levies, firing, check the first mad rush of the oncoming
warriors, but the Indians scattering to right and left, encircle the
camp. The guards are down, the army in confusion, and under the pall of
smoke which now settles down to within three feet of the ground, the
murderous red men approach the lines. The yelling has now ceased, but
from behind every tree, log and stump a pitiless fire rains on the
troops. The officers shout, the men discharge their guns, but they see
nothing. The artillery thunders with tremendous sound, but soldiers are
falling on every hand.
St. Clair is valorous, but what can valor do in a tempest of death? He
tries to mount a horse, but the horse is shot through the head, and the
lad that holds him is wounded in the arm. He tries to mount a second,
but horse and servant are both mowed down. The third horse is brought,
but fearing disaster, St. Clair hobbles to the front lines to cheer his
troops. He wears no uniform, and out from under his great three cornered
hat flows his long gray hair. A ball grazes the side of his face and
cuts away a lock. The weight of the savage fire is now falling on the
artillery in the center. The gunners sink beneath their guns. The
herculean lieutenant-colonel, William Darke, who has fought at
Yorktown, is ordered to charge on the right front. The troops rush
forward with levelled bayonets, the savages are routed from their
coverts, are visible a moment, and then disappear. As the levies advance
the savages close in behind. Darke is surrounded on all sides--his three
hundred men become thirty, and he falls back.
In the absence of Darke, the left flank of the army is now pressed in.
Guns and artillery fall into the hands of the foe. Every artillery-man
is killed but one, and he is badly wounded. The gunners are being
scalped. St. Clair leads another charge on foot. The savages skip before
the steel, disappear in the smoke and underbrush, and fire on the
soldiers from every point as they make retreat. Charge after charge is
made, but all are fruitless. The regulars and the levies, out in the
open, unable to see the enemy, die by scores. The carnage is fearful.
The troops have fought for about three hours, and the remnants of the
army are huddled in the center. The officers are about all down, for the
savages have made it a point to single them out. Butler is fatally
wounded and leaning against a tree. The men are stupefied and give up in
despair. Shouts of command are given, officers' pistols are drawn, but
the men refuse to fight. The wounded are lying in heaps, and the
crossfire of the Indians, now centering from all points, threatens utter
extermination. There is only one hope left--a desperate dash through the
savage lines, and escape. "It was past nine o'clock," says Denny, "when
repeated orders were given to charge towards the road. * * * Both
officers and men seemed confounded, incapable of doing anything; they
could not move until it was told that a retreat was intended. A few
officers put themselves in front, the men followed, the enemy gave way,
and perhaps not being aware of the design, we were for a few moments
left undisturbed."
[Illustration: Another view of the Wabash, a land of great beauty.
Photo by Heaton]
In after years it was learned that Captain William Wells was in charge
of a party of about three hundred young Indian warriors, who were posted
behind logs and trees, immediately under the knoll on which the
artillery stood. They picked off the artillery-men one by one, until a
huge pile of corpses lay about the gun wheels. As the Indians swarmed
into the camp in the intervals between the futile charges of the
regulars, the artillery-men were all scalped. Wells belonged to a
Kentucky family and had been captured by the Miamis when a child twelve
years of age, and is said to have become the adopted son of Little
Turtle. He had acquired the tongue and habits of a savage, but after the
battle with St. Clair he seems to have been greatly troubled with the
thought that he might have slain some of his own kindred. Afterwards
when Wayne's army advanced into the Indian country he bade the Little
Turtle goodbye, and became one of Wayne's most trusty and valuable
scouts. After Fallen Timbers he returned to his Indian wife and
children, but remained the friend of the United States. In General
Harrison's day he was United States Indian agent at Fort Wayne, but was
killed in the massacre of Fort Dearborn, in 1812, by the faithless bands
of Potawatomi under the chief Blackbird.
The retreat of St. Clair's army was very precipitate. "It was, in fact,
a flight." The fugitives threw away their arms and accouterments and
made a mad race for the walls of Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles away,
arriving there a little after sunset. The loss of the Americans was
appalling, and recalled the disaster of Braddock's defeat on the
Monongahela. Out of an army of twelve hundred men and eighty-six
officers, Braddock lost seven hundred and twenty-seven in killed and
wounded. St. Clair's army consisted of fourteen hundred men and
eighty-six officers, of whom eight hundred and ninety men and sixteen
officers were killed or wounded. The slaughter of officers of the line
had been so disastrous, that in the spring of the next year, Anthony
Wayne, the new commander, found it extremely difficult to train the new
troops. He had first to impart the military tactics to a group of young
officers. "Several pieces of artillery, and all the baggage, ammunition,
and provisions, were left on the field of battle, and fell into the
hands of the Indians. The stores and other public property, lost in the
action, were valued at thirty-two thousand eight hundred and ten dollars
and seventy-five cents." The loss of the Indians was trifling. As near
as may be ascertained, they had about thirty killed and fifty wounded.
The field of action was visited by General James Wilkinson about the
first of February, 1792. An officer who was present relates the
following: "The scene was truly melancholy. In my opinion those
unfortunate men who fell into the enemy's hands, with life, were used
with the greatest torture--having their limbs torn off; and the women
had been treated with the most indecent cruelty, having stakes, as thick
as a person's arm, drove through their bodies." In December, 1793,
General Wayne, having arrived at Greenville, Ohio, sent forward a
detachment to the spot of the great defeat. "They arrived on the ground,
on Christmas day, and pitched their tents at night; they had to scrape
the bones together and carry them out to make their beds. The next day
holes were dug, and the bones remaining above ground were buried; six
hundred skulls being found among them."
The whole nation was terribly shocked by the news of the defeat. The
bordermen of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky were immediately
exposed to a renewal of Indian attacks and the government seemed
powerless. St. Clair came in for severe censure, more severe in fact,
than was justly warranted. The sending back of Hamtramck's regiment, the
unfortified condition of the camp on the night before the attack, the
posting of the militia in advance of the main army, and the utter lack
of scouts and runners, were all bad enough, but on the other hand, the
delay and confusion in the quartermaster's department, the dereliction
of the contractors, and the want of discipline among the militia and the
levies, were all matters of extenuation. To win was hopeless. To
unjustly denounce an old and worthy veteran of the Revolution, who acted
with so much manly courage on the field of battle, ill becomes an
American. A committee of Congress completely exonerated him.
The administration itself and the department of war, were sharply
criticized. But the representatives of the people themselves were more
to blame than the government. Thousands had deprecated the attempt of
the President to protect the frontiers and to sustain the arm of the
western generals. The mean and niggardly support accorded the
commander-in-chief, was largely instrumental in bringing about the
lamentable result. The jealous and parsimonious states of the east, had
regarded only their own selfish ends, to the utter exclusion of the
national interest.
CHAPTER XIV
WAYNE AND FALLEN TIMBERS
--_Final triumph of the Government over Indians and British._
The great soul of Washington was sorely tried, but he did not falter.
The first thing to do was to raise an efficient army, and that was done.
Early in the year 1792, the forces of the United States were put on a
new footing. The military establishment was now to consist of "five
thousand one hundred and sixty-eight non-commissioned officers, privates
and musicians." Enlistments were to be made for a period of three years,
and the pay of the soldiers increased. General Anthony Wayne was
appointed commander and instructed by Washington to spare neither powder
nor ball, 'so that his men be made marksmen.'
Wayne was a fighter of fearless courage and daring brilliancy. He was
now forty-seven years of age and had entered the revolution as a Colonel
in the Continental Army. He had fought with Washington at Brandywine and
Germantown, and had driven the Hessians at the point of the bayonet. "At
Monmouth he turned the fortunes of the day by his stubborn and
successful resistance to the repeated bayonet charges of the Guards and
Grenadiers." The storming of Stony Point is ranked by Lossing as one of
the most brilliant achievements of the Revolutionary war. He fought at
Yorktown and later drove the English out of Georgia. His favorite weapon
of offense was the bayonet. General William Henry Harrison, who was aide
to Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers, said to him: "General Wayne, I
am afraid you will get into the fight yourself, and forget to give me
the necessary field orders." "Perhaps I may," replied Wayne, "and if I
do, recollect the standing order of the day is, 'Charge the damned
rascals with the bayonets!'"
In the month of June, 1792, Wayne arrived at Pittsburgh to take charge
of his new command. Most of the new army were ignorant of military
tactics, and without discipline, but the General at once entered
vigorously upon his great task. On the twenty-eighth of November, the
army left Pittsburgh and encamped at Legionville, twenty-two miles to
the south. Here the great work of training the raw recruits proceeded.
"By the salutary measures adopted to introduce order and discipline, the
army soon began to assume its proper character. The troops were daily
exercised in all the evolutions necessary to render them efficient
soldiers, and more especially in those maneuvers proper in a campaign
against savages. Firing at a mark was constantly practiced, and rewards
given to the best marksmen. To inspire emulation, the riflemen and the
infantry strove to excel, and the men soon attained to an accuracy that
gave them confidence in their own prowess. On the artillery the General
impressed the importance of that arm of the service. The dragoons he
taught to rely on the broadsword, as all important to victory. The
riflemen were made to see how much success must depend on their
coolness, quickness and accuracy; while the infantry were led to place
entire confidence in the bayonet, as the certain and irresistible weapon
before which the savages could not stand. The men were instructed to
charge in open order; each to rely on himself, and to prepare for a
personal contest with the enemy." The orders and admonitions of Wayne
fell not on deaf ears. The Legion of the United States became a thing of
life. In the battle at the Miami Rapids a soldier of the Legion met a
single warrior in the woods and they attacked each other, "the soldier
with his bayonet, the Indian with his tomahawk. Two days after, they
were found dead; the soldier with his bayonet in the body of the
Indian--the Indian with his tomahawk in the head of the soldier."
About the first of May, 1793, the army moved down the Ohio in boats and
encamped near Fort Washington, Cincinnati, at a place which was named
"Hobson's Choice." At this place the main body of the troops was halted
until about the seventh of October, to await the outcome of the repeated
attempts of the government to make peace with the Indian tribes.
The difficulties that beset the pathway of President Washington at the
opening of the year 1792, seemed insurmountable. On the one hand, the
people of the east regarded the westerners as the real aggressors in the
border conflicts, and were extremely loath to grant aid to the
government. The debates in Congress reflected their attitude. On the
other hand, the people of Kentucky regarded the efforts of the
government to secure to them the navigation of the Mississippi, as
procrastinating and futile. They even suspected the good faith of
Washington himself, but in this they erred, for negotiations were on
foot that finally secured to them the desired end. Moreover the failure
of Harmar and the disaster of St. Clair had filled the backwoodsmen with
misgivings and they had no faith in the regular army or its generals.
The extreme poverty of the government, the utter lack of support from
all sections, would have brought dismay to the heart of any man but
Washington. He, however, remained firm. Forced by what Roosevelt has
termed as the "supine indifference of the people at large," he
determined to make one more effort to secure peace, but failing in that,
the army of Anthony Wayne should be made ready for the final appeal to
arms.
On the seventh of April, 1792, Freeman and Gerrard, two messengers of
peace, were sent forward to the Maumee, but both were killed. About the
twentieth of May, Major Alexander Trueman, of the First United States
Regiment, and Colonel John Hardin, of Kentucky, left Fort Washington
with copies of a speech from President Washington to the Indians. The
President expressed his desire to impart to the tribes all the blessings
of civilized life; to teach them to cultivate the earth and to raise
corn and domestic animals; to build comfortable houses and to educate
their children. He expressly disaffirmed any intention to seize any
additional lands, and promised that compensation should be made to all
tribes who had not received full satisfaction. The threat of Simon
Girty against Proctor, was now made good as against both Hardin and
Trueman. Hardin was to go among the Wyandots at Sandusky, while Trueman
proceeded to the Rapids of the Maumee. Months after they had departed,
one William May, who had been captured by the Indians, testified that he
saw the scalp of Trueman dangling on a stick, and that Trueman's papers
fell into the hands of Alexander McKee, who forwarded them to Detroit.
Later he saw another scalp said to be the brave Colonel Hardin's, and
Hardin's papers fell into the hands of Matthew Elliott. This was the
answer of the savage allies to the flag of truce.
In May, 1792, General Rufus Putnam, of Ohio, and the Reverend John
Heckewelder, of the Moravian missions, were sent to the Wabash tribes to
make a treaty. The instructions to Putman were of the most pacific
nature. He was told to renounce on the part of the United States, "all
claim to any Indian land which shall not have been ceded by fair
treaties, made with the Indian nations." "You will make it clearly
understood, that we want not a foot of their land, and that it is
theirs, and theirs only; that they have the right to sell, and the right
to refuse to sell, and the United States will guarantee to them the said
just right." Putnam carried forward with him about one hundred women and
children captured by Scott and Wilkinson, and a number of presents for
the Wea and other chiefs. A treaty was finally made with a small number
of Weas, Kickapoos, and other Wabash and Illinois tribes at Vincennes on
the twenty-seventh of September, but all attempts to induce the Miamis
to join in the negotiations were unavailing. Pricked on by Elliott, the
Girtys and McKee, the chiefs at Kekionga were threatening the Potawatomi
and the tribes of the lower Wabash with the destruction of their
villages, if they failed to oppose the advances of the Americans. The
treaty at Vincennes had little, if any, effect, upon the posture of
affairs.
Still other efforts were made by the government. Joseph Brant, the
Mohawk chieftain, was induced to come to Philadelphia in June, 1792, and
he received the most "marked attention," at the hands of the government
officials. He remained at the capital some ten or twelve days, and it
was sincerely hoped that he could be persuaded to undertake the office
of a messenger of peace, but he was a pensioner of the British and
thoroughly under their control. The next summer we find him urging the
northwestern tribes to arms, and offering the aid of his tomahawk to
Alexander McKee. The government next turned to Cornplanter and the
chiefs of the more friendly Iroquois. In March, 1792, about fifty
headmen of these tribes visited the city of Philadelphia and communed on
terms of amity with the American officers. The Cornplanter, with
forty-eight chiefs of the Six Nations, were now deputed to a grand
council of the Miami confederates held at Au Glaize on the Maumee in the
fall of 1792. "There were so many nations," says the Cornplanter, "that
we cannot tell the names of them. There were three men from the Gora
Nations; it took them a whole season to come, and twenty-seven nations
from beyond Canada." Joseph Brant, who detested the Cornplanter, was not
present, but Blue Jacket and the Shawnees were there filled with hate.
They accused the Iroquois with speaking 'from the outside of their
lips,' and told their chiefs that they came with the 'voice of the
United States folded under their arm.' Every word was haughty, proud and
defiant, but in the end the Iroquois wrung a promise from them to
suspend hostilities until the ensuing spring, when a council of peace
should be held with the Americans. This promise was not kept. War
parties of Shawnees constantly prowled along the Ohio stealing horses
and cattle, burning cabins, and leading away captives to the Indian
towns. On the morning of the sixth of November, an army of three hundred
Indians composed of Miamis, Delawares, Shawnees and Potawatomi,
commanded by the Little Turtle, attacked a party of about one hundred
Kentucky militia under the walls of Fort St. Clair, situated on the line
of march from Fort Washington to the Miami villages. They were under the
command of Major John Adair, afterwards governor of the State of
Kentucky. Little Turtle's object was to wipe out a white settlement at
the mouth of the Little Miami, but capturing two men near Fort Hamilton,
he learned that the Kentuckians were escorting a brigade of packhorses
on their way to Fort Jefferson, and he determined to waylay them. The
attack occurred just before daybreak and was opened by a hideous chorus
of Indian yells, but the Kentuckians bravely stood their ground and
repelled the assault. Six men were killed, including Lieutenant Job
Hale, and five men wounded. The camp equipment and about one hundred
and forty horses were lost. The Indians had two killed.
The spring of 1793 came, the time for the proposed council. The British
had promised to give their aid and co-operation in the forming of a
friendly compact. Full credence seems to have been given to their
statements. The President appointed Benjamin Lincoln, of Massachusetts,
Beverly Randolph, of Virginia, and Timothy Pickering, of Pennsylvania,
as commissioners. The basis of their negotiations was to be the treaty
of Fort Harmar, of 1789, which the government considered "as having been
formed on solid grounds--the principle being that of a fair purchase and
sale." They were to ascertain definitely the Indian proprietors
northward of the Ohio and south of the Lakes; to secure a confirmation
of the boundary established at Fort Harmar, and to guarantee to the
tribes the right of the soil in all their remaining lands. Liberal
payment was to be made for all concessions, and annuities granted. The
commissioners were to be accompanied by the Reverend John Heckewelder,
who had gone with Putnam to Vincennes, and who was thoroughly conversant
with the Delaware language. Some Quakers were also in the party.
The commissioners left Philadelphia in April, and arrived at Fort
Niagara on the southern shore of Lake Ontario in the month of May.
Niagara was then in command of Colonel Simcoe, of the British army, who
invited them to take up quarters at Navy Hall. This invitation was
accepted, and the commissioners now awaited the termination of the
preliminaries of a grand council of the northwestern tribes which was
being held at the Rapids on the Maumee. On the seventh of June, the
commissioners addressed a note to Simcoe, suggesting the importance of
the coming conference, their wish to counteract the deep-rooted
prejudices of the tribes, and their desire for a full co-operation on
the part of the English officers. Among other things, they called the
Colonel's attention to a report circulated by a Mohawk Indian to the
effect that "Governor Simcoe advised the Indians to make peace, but not
to give up any lands." The Colonel promptly replied, tendering his
services in the coming negotiations, appointing certain officers to
attend the treaty, and particularly denying the declaration of the
Mohawk. But in his reply he used these words: "But, as it has been, ever
since the conquest of Canada, the principle of the British government,
to unite the American Indians, that, all petty jealousies being
extinguished, the real wishes of the tribes may be fully expressed, and
in consequence all the treaties made with them, may have the most
complete ratification and universal concurrence, so, he feels it proper
to state to the commissioners, that a jealousy of a contrary conduct in
the agents of the United States, appears to him to have been deeply
impressed upon the minds of the confederacy." In view of the subsequent
results, the story of the Mohawk may not have been wholly without
foundation.
On the fifth day of July, Colonel John Butler, of the British Indian
department, Joseph Brant, and about fifty Indians from the council of
the tribes on the Maumee, arrived at Niagara. On the seventh, the
commissioners, and a number of the civil and military officers of the
crown being present, Brant addressed the American envoys and said in
substance that he was representing the Indian nations who owned all the
lands north of the Ohio "as their common property;" that the treaty had
been delayed on account of the presence of the American army north of
the Ohio; that the tribes wanted an explanation of these warlike
appearances, and desired to know whether the commissioners were
authorized "to run and establish a new boundary line between the lands
of the United States, and of the Indian nations." On the next day, the
commissioners gave full answer. They informed the Indian deputation that
the purposes of the United States were wholly peaceful; that the Great
Chief, General Washington, had strictly forbidden all hostilities, and
that the governors of the states adjoining the Ohio had issued orders to
the same effect. However, to satisfy the tribes, they would immediately
dispatch a messenger on horseback to the seat of the government, with a
request that the "head warrior," General Wayne, be instructed to remain
quietly at the posts until the event of the treaty could be known. This
was faithfully done. With reference to the running of a new boundary
line, the commissioners expressly stated that they were vested with full
authority to that end, but that mutual concessions were necessary to a
reconcilement, and that this should be plainly understood by both sides.
On the ninth of July, Brant gave assurance that the answer of the
commissioners had been satisfactory, "Brothers: We think, from your
speech, that there is a prospect of our coming together. We, who are the
nations at the westward are of one mind; and, if we agree with you, as
there is a prospect that we shall, it will be binding and lasting.
Brothers; Our prospects are the fairer, because all our minds are one.
You have not spoken before to us unitedly. Formerly, because you did not
speak to us unitedly, what was done was not binding. Now you have an
opportunity of speaking to us together; and we now take you by the hand,
to lead you to the place appointed for the meeting." In explanation of
this peaceful language and his subsequent conduct, Brant afterwards
wrote that, "for several years (after the peace of 1783), we were
engaged in getting a confederacy formed, and the unanimity occasioned by
these endeavors among our western brethren, enabled them to defeat two
American armies. The war continued without our brothers, the English,
giving any assistance, excepting a little ammunition; and they seeming
to desire that a peace might be concluded, we tried to bring it about at
a time when the United States desired it very much, so that they sent
commissioners from among their first people, to endeavor to make peace
with the hostile Indians. We assembled also, for that purpose, at the
Miami River, in the summer of 1793, intending to act as mediators in
bringing about an honorable peace; and if that could not be obtained, we
resolved to join with our western brethren in trying the fortunes of
war. But to our surprise, when on the point of entering on a treaty with
the Commissioners, we found that it was opposed by those acting under
the British government, and hopes of further assistance were given to
our western brethren, to encourage them to insist on the Ohio as a
boundary between them and the United States." Whatever the truth may be
as to Brant's peaceful intentions on the ninth of July, his attitude was
certain on the fourth of the succeeding August. On that date, according
to Roosevelt, the treacherous pensioner wrote to Alexander McKee that
"we came here not only to assist with our advice, but other ways, * * *
we came here with arms in our hands." Following the advice of his
British counsellors, he advised the northwestern Indians not to yield an
inch, and to stand on the Ohio as their southern boundary.
The Commissioners of the United States were doomed to meet with a sudden
and unexpected interruption of their proceedings. On the twenty-first of
July they arrived at the mouth of the Detroit river. They immediately
addressed a note to McKee informing him of their arrival, and expressing
a desire to meet with the confederated tribes. On the twenty-ninth of
July a deputation of over twenty Indians, among whom was the Delaware
chief, Buck-ong-a-he-las, arrived with Captain Matthew Elliott. On the
next day, and in the presence of the British officers, the Wyandot
chief, Sa-wagh-da-wunk, after a brief salutation, presented to the
Commissioners a paper writing. It contained this ultimatum, dictated
beyond doubt by the British agents: "Brothers: You are sent here by the
United States, in order to make peace with us, the confederate Indians.
Brothers: You very well know that the boundary line, which was run
between the white people and us, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, was the
river Ohio. Brothers: If you seriously design to make a firm and
lasting peace, you will immediately remove all your people from our side
of that river. Brothers: We therefore ask you, are you fully authorized
by the United States to continue, and firmly fix on the Ohio river, as
the boundary between your people and ours?" This document was signed by
the confederated nations of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis,
Mingoes, Potawatomi, Ottawas, Connoys, Chippewas and Munsees, at the
Maumee Rapids on the twenty-seventh of July, 1793.
The remaining passages between the Commissioners and the Indian allies
are briefly told. In vain did the Commissioners urge that settlements
and valuable improvements had been made on the faith of past treaties;
that it was not only impracticable but wholly impossible to consider the
Ohio as the boundary; that the treaty of Fort Harmar had been made in
good faith and with the very tribes who professed to own the lands
ceded. In vain did they admit the former mistakes of the government in
setting up a claim to the whole country south of the Great Lakes. The
jealous and apprehensive chieftains, spurred on and encouraged by
British promise of support, refused to listen to all appeals,
contemptuously rejected all offers of money or compensation, and
insisted to the last on the Ohio as the boundary.
That the full responsibility for this action on the part of the tribes
must be laid at the door of the British, goes without successful
challenge. If at the beginning they had only furnished a little
ammunition, as Brant says, they were now fast becoming openly hostile.
The French Revolution had opened, and England and France were battling
for supremacy. In order to cut off supplies of food from the French
people, England had seized all cargoes of corn, flour and meal bound for
French ports, and had purchased them for the benefit of his majesty's
service. This action had greatly irritated the American merchants and
had led to serious remonstrance on the part of the government. England
had also asserted the right to board neutral vessels and impress British
seamen whenever found. Many an American ship had been hailed on the high
seas, and forced to submit to a humiliating search. It was claimed that
many American sailors had been seized and forced to enter the British
service. Added to all this, the Citizen Genet had, in the early part of
the year 1793, arrived in America. As the representative of the French
Republic he was armed with numerous blank commissions for privateers, to
be delivered "to such French and American owners as should apply for the
same." An attack was to be launched on British commerce. Before he
arrived at Philadelphia the British minister had laid before the
President a list of complaints "founded principally on the proceedings
of Mr. Genet, who, at Charleston, undertook to authorize the fitting and
arming of vessels, enlisting men, and giving commissions to cruise and
commit hostilities on nations with whom the United States were at
peace." Washington did everything in his power to preserve neutrality.
On the twenty-second of April, 1793, and twenty-three days before Genet
arrived at Philadelphia, the President issued a proclamation, declaring
that "the duty and interest of the United States required that they
should, with sincerity and good faith, adopt and pursue a conduct
friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers." But the vast
majority of the people of the United States, including many high in
public life, were in open sympathy with the French and utterly detested
England. These sentiments were particularly marked in the western
countries, for there the people had suffered from all the cruelty and
savagery of the Indian warfare, and they fiercely denounced the British
agents.
Under all these circumstances the relations between Great Britain and
the United States had become tense and strained. The provincial officers
at Quebec and the Indian partisans at Detroit quickly echoed the mood of
the home government. In the event of a new war, England could again
command the savage allies and ravage the frontiers as she had done
during the revolution. The Indians would not only prove to be a useful
barrier in the event of an American invasion of Canada, but they might
help England to regain in part the territory she had lost. "Hence,
instead of promoting a pacification, the efforts of the Canadian
government were obviously exerted to prevent it." This, no doubt,
accounts for what Brant has noted concerning the exchanges with the
American commissioners at the mouth of the Detroit river. The western
tribes were suddenly given assurance by the British that England would
come to their aid, and were told to insist on the Ohio as the limit of
concession. This put an effectual stop to all further measures for
peace.
Wayne was now free to go forward with his campaign again, but so much
time had been consumed by the commissioners, and the militia were so
slow in arriving from Kentucky that the army did not take up its march
from Hobson's Choice until the seventh of October. The general now had
about twenty-six hundred effective men, including officers, thirty-six
guides and spies, and about three hundred and sixty mounted volunteers.
With these he determined to push forward to a position about six miles
in advance of Fort Jefferson, and about eighty miles north of
Cincinnati. He would thus excite a fear on the part of the savages for
the safety of their women and children, and at the same time protect the
frontiers. He expected resistance, for the Indians were "desperate and
determined," but he was prepared to meet it. The savages constantly hung
on his flanks, making attacks on his convoys of provisions, and picking
off the packhorses. On the morning of the seventeenth of October, a
force of ninety non-commissioned officers and men under Lowry and Boyd,
who were escorting twenty wagons loaded with grain, were suddenly
assaulted about seven miles north of Fort St. Clair. Fifteen officers
and men were killed, seventy horses killed or carried away, and the
wagons left standing in the road. Nothing daunted, Wayne pushed on. On
the twenty-third of October, he wrote to the Secretary of War that, "the
safety of the western frontiers, the reputation of the Legion, the
dignity and interests of the nation, all forbid a retrograde maneuver,
or giving up one inch of ground we now possess, until the enemy are
compelled to sue for peace."
In the meantime General Charles Scott had arrived from Kentucky with
about one thousand mounted infantry and had camped in the vicinity of
Fort Jefferson, but the season was so far advanced, that Wayne now
determined to send the Kentuckians home, enter into winter quarters, and
prepare for an effectual drive in the spring. Unlike his predecessors,
Wayne entertained no distrust of the frontiersmen, but determined to
utilize them with telling force. The hardy riflemen were quick to
respond to a real leader of men. They looked on the wonderful bayonet
practice, the expert marksmanship of the Legion, and the astonishing
maneuvers of the cavalrymen with great admiration. When they went to
their homes for the winter they were filled with a new confidence in the
government, and in its ability to protect their firesides. The
vigilance, the daring, and the unflinching discipline of the continental
general, gave them assurance. Fort Greenville was now erected on a
branch of the Big Miami, and here Wayne established his headquarters. In
December, eight companies of infantry and a detachment of artillery
erected Fort Recovery, on the spot made memorable by St. Clair's defeat.
At the opening of the year 1794, "the relations between Great Britain
and the United States had become so strained," says Roosevelt, "that
open war was threatened." On the tenth of February, Lord Dorchester
addressed a deputation of prominent chiefs of the northwestern tribes as
follows: "Children: I was in the expectation of hearing from the people
of the United States what was required by them: I hoped that I should be
able to bring you all together, and make you friends. Children: I have
waited long, and listened with great attention, but I have not heard
one word from them. Children: I flattered myself with the hope that the
line proposed in the year eighty-three, to separate us from the United
States, which was immediately broken by themselves as soon as the peace
was signed, would have been mended, or a new one drawn, in an amicable
manner. Here, also, I have been disappointed. Children: Since my return,
I find that no appearance of a line remains; and from the manner in
which the people of the United States rush on, and act and talk, on this
side; and from what I learn of their conduct toward the sea, I shall not
be surprised, if we are at war with them in the course of the present
year; and if so, a line must then be drawn by the warriors." Copies of
this speech were circulated everywhere among the tribes. Alexander
McKee, Lieutenant-Colonel John Butler, of the British army, and Joseph
Brant were active. Large presents were sent up from Quebec, ammunition
and arms were distributed, and the Ottawas and Chippewas summoned from
the far north. In April, 1794, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, of Canada,
openly advanced into the American territory, built a fort at the Miami
Rapids, and garrisoned it with British redcoats. Massive parapets were
constructed on which were mounted heavy artillery. The outer walls were
surrounded by a deep fosse and "frasing" which rendered it secure from
escalade. The Indians, thus buttressed, as they supposed, by British
support, were openly defiant and refused to make peace.
The indignation of the American people may well be imagined. To a long
train of secret machinations the British now added open insult.
Washington, justly aroused by England's long course of treachery and
double-dealing, wrote to Jay concerning Simcoe's action as follows: "Can
that government, or will it attempt, after this official act of one of
their governors, to hold out ideas of friendly intentions toward the
United States, and suffer such conduct to pass with impunity? This may
be considered the most open and daring act of the British agents in
America, though it is not the most hostile or cruel; for there does not
remain a doubt in the mind of any well-informed person in this country,
not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we encounter with
the Indians--their hostilities, the murder of helpless women and
innocent children along our frontiers--result from the conduct of the
agents of Great Britain in this country. In vain is it, then, for its
administration in Britain to disavow having given orders which will
warrant such conduct, whilst their agents go unpunished; whilst we have
a thousand corroborating circumstances, and indeed almost as many
evidences, some of which cannot be brought forward, to know that they
are seducing from our alliance, and endeavoring to move over the line,
tribes that have hitherto been kept in peace and friendship with us at
heavy expense, and who have no causes of complaint, except pretended
ones of their creating; whilst they keep in a state of irritation the
tribes who are hostile to us, and are instigating those who know little
of us or we of them, to unite in the war against us; and whilst it is an
undeniable fact that they are furnishing the whole with arms,
ammunition, clothing, and even provisions to carry on the war; I might
go farther, and if they are not much belied, add men also in disguise."
The President also called on the British minister, Mr. Hammond, for an
explanation. Hammond, while admitting the authenticity of Dorchester's
speech and the construction of the British fort on the Maumee, pointed
to pretended acts of hostility on the part of the United States. This
was the insolent tone assumed toward a government considered to be too
weak to defend its lawful rights.
The British were now busy in assembling a savage army to oppose Wayne's
advance. Two Potawatomi captured on the fifth of June, said that a
message had been sent to their tribe to join in the war against the
United States; that the British were at Roche de Bout on the Maumee with
about four hundred troops and two pieces of artillery, exclusive of the
Detroit militia, and that they "had made a fortification around Colonel
McKee's house and store at that place, in which they had deposited all
their stores and ammunition, arms, clothing and provisions with which
they promised to supply all the hostile Indians in abundance, provided
they would join and go with them to war; that about two thousand
warriors had been assembled, and that Governor Simcoe had promised that
fifteen hundred British troops and militia would join them in the attack
on the Americans." They further related that this same Governor Simcoe
had sent them four different invitations to join in the war, promising
them arms, ammunition, provisions and clothing, and everything that they
wanted. "All the speeches," said these Potawatomi, "that we received
from him, were as red as blood; all the wampum and feathers were
painted red; the war pipes and hatchets were red; and even the tobacco
was red." The evidence furnished by two Shawnees, captured on the
twenty-second of June, corroborated the Potawatomi. They testified that
the British were always setting the Indians on, like dogs after game,
pressing them to go to war, and kill the Americans, "but did not help
them; that unless the British would turn out and help them, they were
determined to make peace; that they would not be any longer amused by
promises only." Asked about the number of warriors collected along the
Maumee, they put the number of the Shawnees at three hundred eighty, the
Delawares at four hundred and eighty, the Miamis at one hundred, and the
Wyandots at about one hundred and fifty. The Chippewas, however, would
furnish the greatest number of fighting men, and they were on the way to
the council. That the question of whether there would be a fight or not
depended upon the British; "that the British were at the foot of the
rapids, and had fortified at Roche de Bout; that there was a great
number of British soldiers at that place; that they told the Indians
they were now come to help them to fight; and if the Indians would
generally turn out and join them, they would advance and fight the
American army; that Blue Jacket had been sent by the British to the
Chippewas and northern Indians, a considerable time since, to invite
them, and bring them to Roche de Bout, there to join the British and
other hostile Indians in order to go to war."
On the last day of June, 1794, the premeditated blow fell on Fort
Recovery, the scene of St. Clair's disaster in 1791. The garrison was
under the command of Captain Alexander Gibson, of the Fourth Sub-Legion.
Under the walls of the fort were a detachment of ninety riflemen and
fifty dragoons under the command of Major McMahon, who had escorted a
train of packhorses from Fort Greenville on the day before, and who were
now about to return. The Indians were, according to some authorities,
under the command of the Bear chief, an Ottawa; others assign their
leadership to the Little Turtle. That they had planned a coup de main
and a sudden re-capture of the position is certain. Their army consisted
of about fifteen hundred men; they had advanced in seventeen columns,
with a wide and extended front, and their encampments were perfectly
square and regular. They were attended by "a captain of the British
army, a sergeant, and six matrosses, provided with fixed ammunition,
suited to the calibre of two field pieces, which had been taken from
General St. Clair, and deposited in a creek near the scene of his defeat
in 1791." They expected to find this artillery, which had been hidden by
the Indians, and turn it on the fort, but the guns had been recovered by
their legitimate owners and were now used for defense. A considerable
number of white men accompanied the savages, disguised as Indians and
with blackened faces, and three British officers, dressed in scarlet,
were posted in the rear and encouraged the Indians in their repeated
assaults.
The first attack on Major McMahon was successful. Nineteen officers and
privates and two packhorsemen were killed and about thirty men wounded.
Packhorses to the number of two hundred were quickly taken. But the
Indians now made a fatal mistake. In a spirit of rashness, they rushed
on the fort. The determined legionaries, aided by McMahon's men, poured
in a murderous fire, and they fell back. Again they attacked, and again
were they repulsed. All day long they kept up a constant and vigorous
fire but it availed nothing. During the succeeding night, which was dark
and foggy, they carried off their dead.
On the next morning the attack was renewed, but great numbers of the
savages were now becoming disheartened. The loss inflicted by the
American garrison had been severe, and was mourned for months by the
Indian tribes. Forty or fifty red men had bit the dust and over a
hundred had been wounded. Disgraced and crestfallen the savage horde
retired to the Maumee. The first encounter with Wayne's army had proved
disastrous.
On the twenty-sixth of July, Wayne was joined by sixteen hundred mounted
volunteers from Kentucky under the command of Major-General Charles
Scott. Scott was a man of intrepid spirit and his men knew it. Moreover,
the Kentuckians now looked forward to certain victory, for they trusted
Wayne. On the twenty-eighth of July, the whole army moved forward to the
Indian towns on the Maumee. No finer body of men ever went forth into
the wilderness to meet a savage foe. Iron drill and constant practice at
marksmanship had done their work. Officers and men, regulars and
volunteers, were ready for the work at hand. Unlike Harmar and St.
Clair, Wayne had in his service some of the most renowned scouts and
Indian fighters of the day. Ephraim Kibby, William Wells, Robert
McClellan, Henry and Christopher Miller, and a party of Chickasaw and
Choctaw warriors, constantly kept him posted concerning the number and
whereabouts of the enemy, and the nature of the ground which he was to
traverse. "The Indians who watched his march brought word to the British
that his army went twice as far in a day as St. Clair's, that he kept
his scouts well out and his troops always in open order and ready for
battle; that he exercised the greatest precaution to avoid an ambush or
surprise, and that every night the camps of the different regiments were
surrounded by breastworks of fallen trees so as to render a sudden
assault hopeless." "We have beaten the enemy twice," said Little Turtle,
"under separate commanders. We cannot expect the same good fortune
always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never
sleeps. The night and the day are alike to him; and, during all the time
that he has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding the
watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him.
Think well of it. There is something whispers me, it would be prudent to
listen to his offers of peace."
On the eighth of August Wayne reached the junction of the Au Glaize and
the Maumee, and began the erection of Fort Defiance. The whole country
was filled with the Indian gardens and corn fields which extended up the
Maumee to the British fort. On the thirteenth of August, the General
dispatched the scout, Christopher Miller, with the last and final
overture of peace. In the event of a refusal, there must be a final
appeal to arms. "America," said Wayne, "shall no longer be insulted with
impunity. To the all-powerful and just God I therefore commit myself and
gallant army." Impatient of a reply, Wayne moved forward again on the
fifteenth, and met Miller returning. The Indians requested a delay of
ten days to debate peace or war. Wayne gave orders to march on. At eight
o'clock on the morning of the twentieth of August, 1794, the army
advanced in columns and in open order to meet the enemy. The Indian
forces consisted of Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Miamis,
Potawatomi, Chippewas and Mohawks, numbering from fifteen hundred to two
thousand warriors. Added to these were two companies of Canadian militia
from Amherstburg and Detroit, commanded by Captain Caldwell. Alexander
McKee was present, and Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty, but they kept
well in the rear and near the river. The whole mixed force of Indians
and Canadians were encamped on the north bank of the Maumee, "at and
around a hill called 'Presque Isle,' about two miles south of the site
of Maumee City, and four south of the British Fort Miami."
The order of march was as follows: The Legion was on the right, its
flank covered by the Maumee. On the left hovered a brigade of mounted
Kentucky volunteers under Brigadier-General Todd. In the rear was
another brigade of the same kind of troops under Brigadier-General
Barbee. In advance of the Legion rode a select battalion of mounted
Kentuckians under Major Price. These were to be on the lookout and to
give timely notice to the regulars in case of attack. The army had
advanced about five miles and were entering an area covered with fallen
timber and high grass, when the advance corps under Price received such
a sudden and terrible fire from the hidden enemy that they were
compelled to retreat. "The savages were formed in three lines, within
supporting distance of each other, and extending for two miles, at right
angles with the river." The fallen trunks of the trees, blown down by a
tornado, made a fine covert for the red men and prevented any favorable
action by the cavalry. Wayne was instantly alert. He formed the Legion
into two lines, one a short distance behind the other, and began the
fight. He soon perceived from the weight of the savage fire and the
extent of their lines that they were trying to turn his left flank and
drive him into the river. He now ordered the second line to advance and
support the first; directed Major-General Scott to take all the mounted
volunteers and turn the right flank of the enemy, while he issued orders
to Mis Campbell who commanded the legionary cavalry, to gallop in at the
right and next to the river and turn the Indian left. The front line was
ordered to charge with trailed arms and rouse the Indians from their
coverts at the point of the bayonet, "and when up, to deliver a close
and well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as
not to give them time to load again." The mounted volunteers under
Scott, Todd and Barbee, and the second line of the Legion, had only
gained their positions in part, when the battle was over. The first line
of the federal infantry, charging with that impetuosity imparted to
them by their gallant commander, drove savages and Canadians in headlong
rout for a distance of two miles and strewed the ground with many
corpses. The legionary cavalry, blowing their trumpets and dashing in
upon the terrified Indians, slew a part of them with broadswords, and
put the remainder to instant retreat. "This horde of savages," says
Wayne, "with their allies, abandoned themselves to flight and dispersed
with terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in full and quiet
possession of the field of battle." The British, with their usual
treachery, closed the gates of the fort in the face of the fleeing red
men and refused them refuge. Lured and encouraged into a hopeless
contest, they found themselves abandoned by that very power that had
urged them to reject all offers of peace. The Americans lost
thirty-three in killed, and had one hundred wounded. The savage loss was
much heavier.
Immediately after the battle of Fallen Timbers the American army moved
down the river and encamped within view of the British garrison. Fort
Miami occupied a well fortified position on the north bank of the Maumee
near the present Maumee City. There were four nine-pounders, two large
howitzers, and six six-pounders, mounted in the fort, and two swivels.
The entire fortification was surrounded by a wide, deep ditch about
twenty feet deep from the top of the parapet. The forces within
consisted of about two hundred and fifty regulars and two hundred
militia. All were under command of Major William Campbell, of the
Twenty-fourth Regiment. The rout of the Indian allies had been
humiliating enough, but at sight of the victorious ranks of the
American army Campbell became furious. On the next day after the battle
he could contain himself no longer. He addressed a note to Wayne
complaining that the army of the United States had taken post on the
banks of the Maumee and within range of his majesty's fort, for upwards
of twenty-four hours, and he desired to inform himself as speedily as
possible, in what light he was to view so near an approach to the
garrison. Wayne made immediate reply. He said that without questioning
the authority or the propriety of the major's question, he thought that
he might without breach of decorum observe, that if the major was
entitled to an answer, that a most full and satisfactory one had been
announced to him from the muzzles of his (Wayne's) small arms on the
previous day, in an action against a horde of savages in the vicinity of
the British post, which had terminated gloriously to the American arms.
He further declared that if said action had continued until the Indians
were driven under the influence of the British guns, that these guns
would not have much impeded the progress of the victorious army under
his command, "as no such post was established at the commencement of the
present war between the Indians and the United States." On the next day
the incensed major wrote another note, threatening Wayne with war if he
continued to approach within pistol shot of the fort with arms in his
hands. To this Wayne replied by inviting the major to return with his
men, artillery and stores to the nearest post "occupied by his Britannic
Majesty's troops at the peace of 1783." Campbell wrote another reply
refusing to vacate the fort and warning Wayne not to approach within
reach of his cannon. "The only notice taken of this letter," says Wayne,
"was by immediately setting fire to and destroying everything within
view of the fort, and even under the muzzles of the guns." For three
days and nights the American troops continued to destroy the houses and
corn fields of the enemy both above and below the British post, while
the garrison looked on and dared not sally forth. One of the severest
sufferers from this devastation was the notorious renegade, Alexander
McKee, who had done so much to inflame the war between the tribes and
the United States. His houses, stores and property were utterly
consumed.
The army now retired by easy marches to Fort Defiance, laying waste the
villages and corn fields for about fifty miles on each side of the
Maumee. On the fourteenth of September the march was taken up for the
Miami villages at the junction of the St. Joseph and the St. Marys, and
the troops arrived there on the seventeenth. On the eighteenth, Wayne
selected a site for a fort. On the twenty-second of October the new
fortification was completed, and a force of infantry and artillery
stationed there under command of Colonel John F. Hamtramck. The new post
was named Fort Wayne. On the twenty-eighth of October, the main body of
the troops started back on the trace to Fort Greenville, and here, on
the second day of November, 1794, General Wayne re-established his
headquarters.
The victory of Wayne was complete and final. It brought peace to the
frontiers, and paved the way for the advance of civilization. In 1802,
Ohio became a state of the Union. His triumph did more. It made the
name and the power of the United States respected as they never were
before, and gave authority and dignity to the federal arms. The Indian
tribes were sorely dispirited. Not only had the British abandoned them
in their final hour of defeat, but their fields and cabins had been laid
waste and their supplies of food destroyed. There was much suffering
among them, during the ensuing winter. The establishment of the post at
Fort Wayne put a new obstacle in the path of the British in the valleys
of the Wabash and the Maumee, and led the way to the final abandonment
of the northwest by their troops and garrisons.
The administration of Washington was also vindicated. In the face of two
disheartening defeats, a lack of confidence in the west, and almost open
opposition in the east, a fighting general had at last been found, an
army trained, and led forth to splendid victory. The great northwest
owes a debt of eternal gratitude to the first president of the republic,
George Washington.
The administration was further successful. While General Wayne was
preparing for his campaign, the Chief Justice of the United States, John
Jay, had been sent to England to effect a treaty of peace. Feeling was
high in both countries and the danger of war was imminent, but the
prudence and moderation of Washington led him to see that what the
nation needed most was peace and repose and a chance for development. On
the nineteenth of November, 1794, Mr. Jay and Lord Grenville "concluded
a treaty of amity, commerce and navigation between the United States
and Great Britain," by the terms of which the latter country, among
other things, agreed to surrender the western posts. On the eleventh day
of July, 1796, at the hour of noon, the Stars and Stripes floated over
the ramparts of the British fort at Detroit.
CHAPTER XV
THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE
--_The surrender of the Ohio lands of the Miamis and their final
submission to the Government._
Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, Joseph Brant and Alexander McKee did all
that lay within their power to stem the tide of savage defection. Simcoe
advised the tribes not to listen to any American overtures of peace, but
to simply propose a truce and make ready for further hostilities. He
tried to secure a deed of trust for the Indian lands from each nation,
promising them that England would guarantee the land thus ceded. A
general attack was to be made on all the frontiers in the spring. Brant
told them "to keep a good heart and be strong; to do as their father
advised." In the spring he would return with a large party of warriors
to fight, kill and pursue the Americans. He had always been successful
and victory was assured. McKee was active distributing clothing and
provisions. He made an especial appeal to the Shawnees who were known to
be the most hostile of all the tribes. In a private conference
afterwards held with Wayne, the Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket, told the
general that McKee had invited him to his house and had strongly urged
him to keep away from the council with the Americans. Seeing that his
entreaties were of no avail, he said: "The commission you received from
Johnson was not given you to carry to the Americans. I am grieved to
find that you have taken it to them. It was with much regret I learned
that you have deserted your friends, who have always caressed you, and
treated you as a great man. You have deranged, by your imprudent
conduct, all our plans for protecting the Indians, and keeping them with
us. They have always looked up to you for advice and direction in the
war, and you have now broke the strong ties which held them all
together, under your and our direction. You must now be viewed as the
enemy of your people, and the other Indians whom you are seducing into
the snares of the Americans have formed for their ruin, and the massacre
and destruction of their people by the Americans must be laid to your
charge." Massas, a Chippewa chieftain, told Wayne that when he returned
from the treaty of Muskingum (Fort Harmar), that McKee threatened to
kill him. "I have not now less cause to fear him, as he endeavored to
prevent my coming hither."
The importunities of the British agents, however, failed of their
object. The Indians had lost all confidence in British promises and
Wayne had filled them with a wholesome respect for the American arms.
Numbers of their leading chieftains, including Tarhe, of the Wyandots,
and Little Turtle of the Miamis, thought all further resistance useless.
No doubt many of them entertained the views that Brant long afterwards
openly expressed to Sir John Johnson. "In the first place," said the
great Mohawk, "the Indians were engaged in a war to assist the
English--then left in the lurch at the peace, to fight alone until they
could make peace for themselves. After repeatedly defeating the armies
of the United States, so that they sent Commissioners to endeavor to get
peace, the Indians were so advised as prevented them from listening to
any terms, and hopes were given them of assistance. A fort was even
built in their country, under pretense of giving refuge in case of
necessity; but when that time came, the gates were shut against them as
enemies. They were doubly injured by this, because they relied on it for
support, and were deceived. Was it not for this reliance of mutual
support, their conduct would have been different."
The first to come to Greenville to consult with Wayne, were the Wyandots
of Sandusky. "He told them he pitied them for their folly in listening
to the British, who were very glad to urge them to fight and to give
them ammunition, but who had neither the power nor the inclination to
help them when the time of trial came; that hitherto the Indians had
felt only the weight of his little finger, but that he would surely
destroy all the tribes in the near future if they did not make peace."
During the winter of 1794-1795 parties of Wyandots, Ottawas, Chippewas,
Potawatomi, Sacs, Miamis, Delawares and Shawnees came in, and on
February 11th, 1795, the preliminaries of a treaty were agreed upon
between the Shawnees, Delawares and Miamis, and the Americans.
Arrangements were also made for a grand council with all the Indian
nations at Fort Greenville, on or about the fifteenth of the ensuing
June.
[Illustration: General Anthony Wayne and Little Turtle at Greenville.
From an old painting by one of Wayne's staff. By Courtesy The Chicago
Historical Society]
The assemblage of Indian warriors and headmen that met with Anthony
Wayne on the sixteenth of June, and continued in session until the
tenth day of August, 1795, was the most noted ever held in America.
Present, were one hundred and eighty Wyandots, three hundred and
eighty-one Delawares, one hundred and forty-three Shawnees, forty-five
Ottawas, forty-six Chippewas, two hundred and forty Potawatomi,
seventy-three Miamis and Eel Rivers, twelve Weas and Piankeshaws, and
ten Kickapoos and Kaskaskias, in all eleven hundred and thirty savages.
Among the renowned fighting men and chiefs present, was Tarhe, of the
Wyandots, known as "The Crane," who had fought under the Cornstalk at
Point Pleasant, and who had been badly wounded at the battle of Fallen
Timbers. He now exercised a mighty influence for peace and remained the
firm friend of the United States. Of the Miamis, the foremost was the
Little Turtle, who was probably the greatest warrior and Indian diplomat
of his day or time. He had defeated Harmar and destroyed St. Clair, but
he now stood for an amicable adjustment. Next to Little Turtle was
LeGris. Of the Shawnees, there were Blue Jacket and Catahecassa, or the
Black Hoof. The latter chieftain had been present at Braddock's defeat
in 1775, had fought against General Andrew Lewis at Point Pleasant in
1774, and was an active leader of the Shawnees at the battles with
Harmar and St. Clair. Blue Jacket had been the principal commander of
the Indian forces at Fallen Timbers. Buckongahelas, of the Delawares,
Au-goosh-away, of the Ottawas, Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, of the Chippewas,
Keesass and Topenebee, of the Potawatomi, Little Beaver, of the Weas,
and many other distinguished Indian leaders were among the hosts. The
chief interpreters were William Wells, Jacques Laselle, M. Morins, Sans
Crainte, Christopher Miller, Abraham Williams and Isaac Zane.
The basis of the negotiations, steadfastly maintained by Wayne, was the
treaty of Fort Harmar of 1789. The general boundary established was to
begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, run thence up the same to the
portage between the Cuyahoga and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum,
thence down that branch to the crossing place above old Fort Laurens,
thence westwardly to a fork of that branch of the great Miami river
running into the Ohio, where commenced the portage between the St. Marys
of the Maumee and the Miami of the Ohio, thence westwardly to Fort
Recovery, thence southwesterly, in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to
intersect that river opposite the mouth of the Kentucky. The land west
of the Miami, and within the present limits of western Ohio and eastern
Indiana, was cut off of the domain of the Miamis, and included the line
of posts extending from Fort Washington to Fort Wayne. It was highly
prized by the Indians as a hunting ground, and its cession caused a loud
remonstrance from the Little Turtle. "You pointed out to us the boundary
line," said the great Miami leader, "which crossed a little below
Loramie's store, and struck Fort Recovery, and run from thence to the
Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river. Elder Brother; You have
told us to speak our minds freely, and we now do it. This line takes in
the greater and best part of your brothers' hunting ground; therefore,
your younger brothers are of opinion, you take too much of their lands
away, and confine the hunting of our young men within limits too
contracted. Your brothers, the Miamis, the proprietors of these lands,
and all your younger brothers present, wish you to run the line as you
mentioned, to Fort Recovery, and to continue it along the road from
thence to Fort Hamilton, on the Great Miami river." This, however, Wayne
refused to do. The ground had been hardly won, and the United States,
although willing to pay a fair remuneration, was determined to protect
the outposts and inhabitants of the Ohio country.
Another controversy arose with the Little Turtle concerning the portage
at Fort Wayne. The government insisted on reservations of from two to
six miles square at Fort Wayne, Fort Defiance, Ouiatenon, Chicago, and
other important trading places. A large tract was reserved near Detroit,
and another near the Post of Michillimacinac. Clark's Grant was also
specially reserved by the United States. But when Wayne insisted on a
tract two miles square on the Wabash river, "at the end of the portage
from the Miami of the Lake (Maumee), and about eight miles westward from
Fort Wayne," the Little Turtle claimed that this was a request that
neither the English nor the French had ever made of them; that this
portage had in the past yielded them an important revenue, and had
proved, "in a great degree, the subsistence of your younger brothers."
The valiant old warrior made a stout defense of his claims, and fought
to the last for all that was dear to him about Fort Wayne, but was
forced to bow to the superior genius and commanding influence of the
American general.
Wayne had on his side two powerful factors. The first, was the
treachery of the English, which he dilated upon with telling effect. The
second, was the commanding influence of Tarhe and the Wyandots of
Sandusky, who were addressed with deference by the other tribes, and who
threw all their influence on the side of the treaty. At last the several
articles were agreed upon, and General Wayne, calling upon the separate
tribes in open council for a confirmation of the pact, met with a full
and unanimous response of approval. One of the originals of the treaty
was deposited with the Wyandots as the custodians of all the nations. At
the last arose Tarhe to make this touching and final appeal: "Father:
Listen to your children, here assembled; be strong, now, and take care
of all your little ones. See what a number you have suddenly acquired.
Be careful of them, and do not suffer them to be imposed upon. Don't
show favor to one, to the injury of any. An impartial father equally
regards all his children, as well those who are ordinary, as those who
may be more handsome; therefore, should any of your children come to you
crying, and in distress, have pity on them, and relieve their wants."
The tribes were satisfied. A fair price had been paid to them for their
lands, and satisfactory annuities had been granted. Practically all of
the leading chiefs remained loyal to the government, and true to the
peace. Wayne had proved himself not only successful at war, but
proficient in diplomacy.
CHAPTER XVI
GOVERNOR HARRISON AND THE TREATY
--_Purchase of the Miami lands known as the New Purchase which led to
the strengthening of Tecumseh's Confederacy,--the final struggle at
Tippecanoe._
In the year 1800, William Henry Harrison was appointed by President John
Adams as Governor of Indiana Territory, and he arrived at Vincennes on
the tenth day of January, 1801, and immediately entered upon the
discharge of his duties. At that time he was twenty-eight years of age,
but notwithstanding his youth he had seen hard duty as a soldier and
officer on the frontier and as we have seen, had served as aide-de-camp
to General Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers. In that struggle he
had distinguished himself for gallant conduct. At a time when a
detachment of the troops were wavering under the murderous fire of the
savages, and hesitating as to whether they would advance or retreat, he
had galloped to the front of the line, and with inspiring words had
cheered the soldiers on to victory. The report of General Wayne says
that he "rendered the most essential services by communicating his
orders in every direction, and by his bravery in exciting the troops to
press for victory."
In personal appearance, Harrison "was commanding, and his manners
prepossessing. He was about six feet high, of rather slender form,
straight, and of a firm, elastic gait, even at the time of his election
to the presidency, though then closely bordering on seventy. He had a
keen, penetrating eye, denoting quickness of apprehension, promptness
and energy."
Though descended from an old and aristocratic family of Virginia, and
having been reared amid surroundings of luxury and elegance, the
youthful soldier never shrank from the most arduous duty and the
severest hardships of camp or field. At the time of his first arrival at
Fort Washington (Cincinnati), after the defeat of St. Clair's army, he
had been placed in command of a company of men who were escorting
packhorses to Fort Hamilton. The forest was full of hostile savages, and
the winter season was setting in with cold rains and snow. The company
was ill provided with tents and Harrison had nothing to shelter him from
the weather but his uniform and army blanket. He not only eluded the
attacks of the Indians and convoyed his charge through in safety, but
made no complaint whatever to his commanding general, and received St.
Clair's "public thanks for the fidelity and good conduct he displayed."
"During the campaign on the Wabash, the troops were put upon a half
pound of bread a day. This quantity only was allowed to officers of
every rank, and rigidly conformed to in the general's own family. The
allowance for dinner was uniformly divided between the company, and not
an atom more was permitted. In the severe winter campaign of 1812-13, he
slept under a thinner tent than any other person, whether officer or
soldier; and it was the general observation of the officers, that his
accommodations might generally be known by their being the worst in the
army. Upon the expedition up the Thames all his baggage was contained in
a valise, while his bedding consisted of a single blanket, over his
saddle, and even this he gave to Colonel Evans, a British officer, who
was wounded. His subsistence was exactly that of a common soldier. On
the night after the action upon the Thames, thirty-five British officers
supped with him upon fresh beef roasted before the fire, without either
salt or bread, and without ardent spirits of any kind. Whether upon the
march, or in the camp, the whole army was regularly under arms at
daybreak. Upon no occasion did he fail to be out himself, however severe
the weather, and was generally the first officer on horseback of the
whole army. Indeed, he made it a point on every occasion, to set an
example of fortitude and patience to the men, and share with them every
hardship, difficulty and danger."
Of his personal courage in the presence of great danger and peril, there
can be no question. Judge Law says: "William Henry Harrison was as brave
a man as ever lived." At Tippecanoe, after the first savage yell, he
mounted on horseback and rode from line to line encouraging his men,
although he knew that he was at all times a conspicuous mark for Indian
bullets. One leaden missile came so close as to pass through the rim of
his hat, and Colonel Abraham Owen, Thomas Randolph and others were
killed at his side. "Upon one occasion, as he was approaching an angle
of the line, against which the Indians were advancing with horrible
yells. Lieutenant Emmerson of the dragoons seized the bridle of his
horse and earnestly entreated that he would not go there; but the
Governor, putting spurs to his horse, pushed on to the point of attack,
where the enemy was received with firmness and driven back."
To these traits, his fearless courage and willingness to share in the
burdens and hardships of the common soldier, may be attributed his great
and lasting hold on the affections of the old Kentucky and southern
Indiana Indian fighters. To them he was not only a hero, but something
almost approaching a demi-god. It is pleasing to remember that when the
expedition against the Prophet was noised abroad, that Colonel Joseph H.
Daviess, then one of the most eloquent and powerful advocates at the
Kentucky bar, offered in a personal letter to the General, to join the
expedition as a private in the ranks; that Colonel Abraham Owen, one of
the most renowned Indian fighters of that day, joined the army
voluntarily as an aide to its leader, and that Governor Scott, of
Kentucky, sent two companies of mounted volunteer infantry under
Captains Funk and Geiger, to participate in the campaign. It is also
pleasing to remember that the warm affection of the pioneers of that
early day was transmitted to another and younger generation who grew up
long after the Indian wars were over, and who gave a rousing support to
the old general that made him the ninth president of the United States.
On his arrival at Vincennes in 1801, the population of that town was
about seven hundred and fourteen persons. The surrounding country
contained about eight hundred and nineteen more, while fifty-five
fur-traders were scattered along the Wabash, who carried on a traffic
more or less illicit with the Indians. A large part of the inhabitants
of Vincennes belonged to that class of French-Canadians, who produced
the La Plantes, the Barrens, and the Brouillettes of that time, some of
them renowned Indian interpreters and river guides, who figured
prominently in the scenes and contests that followed. The remaining part
of the population consisted of settlers from the states, the more
conspicuous being the Virginians, who were afterwards denominated as the
"aristocrats," but who in reality contributed more to the growth and
prosperity of the frontier posts than any other element. From this class
of Virginians, some of them men of learning and attainment, Harrison
selected his retainers and henchmen. Chief among them was Benjamin
Parke, one of the commanders at Tippecanoe, and the founder of the State
law library in after years; and also Waller Taylor and Thomas Randolph,
two of his aides in the Wabash campaign and of his immediate military
family. These men, together with Harrison, comprised the "inner circle,"
who administered the affairs of Knox County and Vincennes, and at that
time Knox County held the lead and control in public transactions
throughout the Territory. That they favored the suspension of the sixth
article of the Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the Northwest
Territory, is now established history. But they also organized the
courts and the representative assemblies of that day; enacted and
enforced the public laws, and set about to establish institutions of
learning. Harrison in particular was a friend of the schools. Besides
that, these men and their followers organized the militia, gave the
woodsmen a training in the manual of arms, and exercised a wide-awake
and eternal vigilance for the safety of the frontier. The military
instinct of the early Virginian was one of the great factors that
determined the conquest and established the permanent peace of the new
land.
Probably no magistrate was ever invested with greater powers in a new
country than was General Harrison in the first years of his
governorship. "Amongst the powers conferred upon him, were those,
jointly with the judges, of the legislative functions of the Territory;
the appointment of all the civil officers within the territory, and all
the military officers of a grade inferior in rank to that of general,
commander in chief of the militia--the absolute and uncontrolled power
of pardoning all offenses--sole commissioner of treaties with the
Indians, with unlimited powers, and the power of confirming, at his
option, all grants of land." That he was left in control of these powers
both under the administrations of President Jefferson and President
Madison is sufficient confirmation of the trust and confidence they
reposed in him. In the years to follow, he was to conduct a great number
of difficult negotiations with the chiefs and head warriors of the
Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Potawatomi, Kickapoos and other tribes, but
in all these treaties he was pre-eminently fair with the savages, never
resorting to force or treachery, or stooping to low intrigue or fraud.
We have a statement from his own pen as to his manner of conducting an
Indian treaty. In a letter from Vincennes on the third day of March,
1803, to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, we have the following: "I
should have passed over without an observation, if he had not hinted at
the use of unfair means in procuring the consent of the Indians to the
treaties I have made with them, and as I have never before, that I
recollect, informed you of my mode of proceeding on these occasions I
have thought it proper to do so at the present moment. Whenever the
Indians have assembled for any public purpose the use of ardent spirits
has been strictly interdicted until the object for which they were
convened was accomplished, and if in spite of my vigilance it had been
procured, a stop was immediately put to all business until it was
consumed and its effects completely over. Every conference with the
Indians has been in public. All persons who chose to attend were
admitted, and the most intelligent and respectable characters in the
neighborhood specially invited to witness the fairness of the
transaction. No treaty has ever been signed until each article was
particularly and repeatedly explained by the most capable and
confidential interpreters. Sketches of the tract of country about to be
ceded have always been submitted to the Indians, and their own rough
delineations made on the floor with a bit of charcoal have proved their
perfect comprehension of its situation and extent." Copies of the old
Western Sun, amply testify to the fact that prior to the important
treaties of 1809, at Fort Wayne and Vincennes, he issued a public
proclamation at the latter place, prohibiting any traffic in liquor with
the Indians, so that their judgment might not be perverted; that he
constantly inveighed against this illegal commerce with the tribes, and
that he at various times attempted to restrain the violence of the
squatters and settlers who sought to appropriate the lands of their red
neighbors. The language of his first message to the territorial
legislature reads thus: "The humane and benevolent intentions of the
government, however, will forever be defeated, unless effectual measures
be devised to prevent the sale of ardent spirits to those unfortunate
people. The law which has been passed by Congress for that purpose has
been found entirely ineffectual, because its operation has been
construed to relate to the Indian country exclusively. In calling your
attention to this subject, gentlemen, I am persuaded that it is
unnecessary to remind you that the article of compact makes it your duty
to attend to it. The interests of your constituents, the interests of
the miserable Indians, and your own feelings, will urge you to take it
into your most serious consideration and provide the remedy which is to
save thousands of our fellow creatures. So destructive has been the
progress of intemperance, that whole villages have been swept away. A
miserable remnant is all that remains to mark the homes and situation of
many numerous and warlike tribes."
Again, at Fort Wayne, on the seventeenth of September, 1809, preliminary
to the famous treaty of that year, this entry appears in the journal of
the official proceedings: "The Potawatomis waited on the Governor and
requested a little liquor, which was refused. The Governor observed that
he was determined to shut up the liquor casks until all the business
was finished." This is the conduct throughout of a wise and humane man
dealing with an inferior race, but determined to take no advantage of
their folly.
It was the steady and uniform policy of the United States government to
extinguish the Indian titles to the lands along the Wabash and
elsewhere, so that they might be opened up to the increasing tide of
white settlers. Contrary to the practices of most governments, however,
in their dealings with aborigines, the United States had established the
precedent of recognizing the right of the red men to the occupancy of
the soil and of entering into treaties of purchase with the various
tribes, paying them in goods and money for their land, while allowing
them the privilege of taking wild game in the territory ceded. President
Jefferson had always insisted on the payment of annuities in these
purchases, instead of a lump sum, so that a fund might be created for
the continual support of the tribes from year to year, and so that they
might be enabled to purchase horses, cattle, hogs and the instruments of
husbandry and thus gradually enter upon the ways of civilization. That
the dream of Jefferson was never realized; that the North American
savages never adopted the manners and pursuits of their white brethren,
does not bespeak any the less for the humane instincts of his heart.
In the negotiation of these treaties in the northwest, Governor Harrison
acted as the minister plenipotentiary of the government, and the
numerous Indian treaties of that day were conducted under express
authority and command from the City of Washington. The series of
negotiations finally terminated in the Treaty of Fort Wayne on September
30, 1809, by which the United States acquired the title to about
2,900,000 acres, the greater part of which lay above the old Vincennes
tract ceded by the Treaty of Grouseland, and below the mouth of Big
Raccoon Creek in Parke County. "At that period, 1809," says Dillon, "the
total quantity of land ceded to the United States, under treaties which
were concluded between Governor Harrison and various Indian tribes,
amounted to about 29,719,530 acres."
As the consummation of that treaty was the principal and immediate cause
which led up to the great controversy with Tecumseh, and the stirring
events that followed, including the Battle of Tippecanoe, and as the
charge was subsequently made by Tecumseh that it was brought about
through the threats of Winamac, the Potawatomi chief, it may rightfully
be said to be the most important Indian treaty ever negotiated in the
west, outside of General Wayne's Treaty of Greenville, in 1795. We will
now enter into the details of that transaction.
That part of the lands acquired by the United States Government by the
Treaty of Fort Wayne, and being situated in the valley of the Wabash and
its tributaries may be thus described: It lay south of a line drawn from
the mouth of the Big Raccoon Creek, in what is now Parke county, and
extending southeast to a point on the east fork of White River above
Brownstown. This line was commonly called The Ten O'clock Line, because
the direction was explained to the Indians as toward the point where
the sun was at ten o'clock. The whole territory acquired in the Wabash
valley and elsewhere embraced about 2,900,000 acres and in the Wabash
region was to be not less than thirty miles in width at its narrowest
point. It will thus be seen that the tract lay directly north of, and
adjoining the white settlements in and about Vincennes. It was
afterwards known as the New Purchase.
There had been frequent and bitter clashes between the settlers and the
Wea and Potawatomi Indians of this part of the territory for years.
Justice and right was not always on the side of the white man. An
accurate commentator, speaking of the early frontiersmen, says: "They
eagerly craved the Indian lands; they would not be denied entrance to
the thinly-peopled territory wherein they intended to make homes for
themselves and their children. Rough, masterful, lawless, they were
neither daunted by the powers of the red warriors whose wrath they
braved, nor awed by the displeasure of the government whose solemn
engagements they violated."
The Treaty of Greenville had given the undisputed possession and
occupancy of all the lands above Vincennes and vicinity, and embraced
within the limits of the territory ceded by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, to
the Indians. They were given the authority by that pact to drive off a
squatter or "punish him in such manner as they might think fit,"
indulging, however, in no act of "private revenge or retaliation." No
trader was even allowed to enter this domain unless he was licensed by
the government.
It is needless to say that no fine sense of right and justice existed
either in the mind of the white land-grabber or in that of his red
antagonist. Many unlawful invasions of the Indian lands were made.
Moreover, many of the fur traders along the Wabash were of the lowest
type of humanity. They employed any and all means to cheat and defraud
the Indians by the barter and sale of cheap trinkets and bad whiskey and
often violated every principle of honesty and fair-dealing. This kind of
conduct on the part of settlers and traders furnished ample
justification in the minds of the ignorant savages for the making of
reprisals. Many horses were stolen by them, and often foul murders were
committed by the more lawless element. This horse-stealing and
assassination led in turn to counter-attacks on the part of the whites.
In time, these acts of violence on the part of the vicious element in
both races spread hate and enmity in every direction. This kind of
history was made. "A Muskoe Indian was killed in Vincennes by an Italian
inn-keeper without any just cause. The governor ordered that the
murderer should be apprehended, but so great was the antagonism to the
Indians among all classes, that on his trial the jury acquitted the
homicide almost without any deliberation. About the same time, two Wea
Indians were badly wounded near Vincennes by some whites without the
slightest provocation. Such facts exasperated the Indians, and led to
their refusal to deliver up Indians who had committed like offenses
against the white man." These things occurred shortly prior to the
Tippecanoe campaign, but a condition similar to this had existed for
some time before the Treaty of Fort Wayne. The Governor was not
insensible to the true state of affairs. He once said: "I wish I
could say the Indians were treated with justice and propriety on all
occasions by our citizens, but it is far otherwise. They are often
abused and maltreated, and it is rare that they obtain any satisfaction
for the most unprovoked wrongs." But he also recognized the fact, that
the two races, so incompatible in habits, manners, customs and tastes,
could not dwell in peace together; that the progress of the white
settlements ought not to and could not on that account be stayed; that
it was up to him as the chief magistrate of the western country and as
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to solve if he could, the troublous
problem before him, and he accordingly instructed Mr. John Johnston, the
Agent of Indian Affairs, to assemble the tribes at Fort Wayne for the
purpose of making a new treaty.
[Illustration: Governor William Henry Harrison]
There were many false sentimentalists of that day, who not unlike their
modern brethren, wept many crocodile tears over the fate of the "poor
Indian." They charged that the Governor, in the ensuing negotiations,
resorted to trickery, and that he availed himself of the threats and
violence of Winamac, the Potawatomi chief, in order to bring the
hesitating tribes to the terms of the purchase. In the face of the
revealed and undisputed facts of history, these facts were and are
entirely false, and were evidently put in motion by the disgruntled
office seekers at Vincennes as food for the foolish.
The position of Governor Harrison during the whole course of his
administration seems to have been this: he sought to ameliorate the
miserable condition of the savages at all times; sought by all means
within his power to bring to punishment those who committed outrages
against them; constantly demanded that the illegal traffic in liquor be
stopped. However, neither Governor Harrison nor any other man, however
powerful, could stop the hand of fate, or abrogate the eternal law of
the survival of the fittest. After every endeavor to put a stop to
abuses, and to quiet the impending storm on the frontier, he resorted to
the next, and seemingly only available means of putting an end to the
difficulty. That is, he provided for the separation of the two races as
far as possible so as to prevent the conflicts between them; he provided
for the payment of annuities for their support and so that they might
purchase horses and cattle and implements of husbandry, and thus enter
gradually upon the pursuits of peace. That the plan was not feasible
does not detract from the fairness and benevolence of the proposer. He
was but following the uniform custom which the government had at that
time adopted and which the best minds of that age endorsed. He could not
foresee, in the light of that day, that the red men of the forest would
not accept the ways of civilization, and that all attempts of the
government, however charitable, would be wasted and in vain.
The Governor set out for the council house at old Fort Wayne on the
first day of September, 1809, on horseback, and accompanied only by
Peter Jones, his secretary; a personal servant; Joseph Barron, a famous
Indian interpreter; a Frenchman for a guide, and two Indians, probably
Delawares of the friendly White River tribes. He travelled eastwardly
toward the western borders of Dearborn county, and thence north to the
Post. Joseph Barron, the interpreter, is thus spoken of by Judge Law:
"He knew the Indian character well; he had lived among them many years;
spoke fluently the language of every tribe which dwelt on the upper
Wabash, understood their customs, habits, manners and charlatanry well,
and although but imperfectly educated, was one of the most remarkable
men I ever knew."
The Governor arrived at the Post on the fifteenth of the month, at the
same time with the Delawares and their interpreter, John Conner.
To appreciate properly the hazard of this journey of two weeks through
an untamed wilderness, across rivers and through dense forests, camping
at night in the solitude of the woods, and exposed at all time to the
attacks of the savages, one must take into consideration that already
Tecumseh and the Prophet were forming their confederacy and preaching a
new crusade at Tippecanoe; that they were fast filling the minds of
their savage hearers with that fierce malice and hatred which was to
break forth in the flame of revolt in a little over two years hence;
that the British agents at Maiden were loading the Indians with presents
and filling their ears with falsification as to the intentions of
Harrison; that they were already arming them with guns, bullets, knives
and tomahawks, and that there were those among them who would not
hesitate at assassination, if they might hope to reap a British reward.
Notwithstanding these facts, Harrison did not hesitate.
The scene about to be enacted was a memorable one. On the one hand were
arrayed the Governor, with his servant and secretary, four Indian
interpreters and a few officers of the Post; on the other, the painted
and feather-bedecked warriors and sachems of the Miamis, the Potawatomi,
the Delawares and the Weas. On the third day of the council, eight
hundred and ninety-two warriors were present; on the day of the actual
signing of the treaty, thirteen hundred and ninety. No such body of red
men had been assembled to meet a commissioner of the United States since
the treaty with Anthony Wayne in 1795. Even at that assemblage there
were present only eleven hundred and thirty.
There were chiefs of the Mississinewa, loud and defiant, who openly
declared their connection with the British. There was Winamac, the
Potawatomi, who afterwards slaughtered the surrendered garrison at Fort
Dearborn, and boasted of his murder. There were Silver Heels and Pecan,
Five Medals and The Owl. But above them all stood Little Turtle, the
Miami. He had been present at the defeat of Harmar and the slaughter of
St. Clair's army. He had fought against Wayne at Fallen Timbers. In 1797
he had visited the great white father at Philadelphia, President
Washington, and had been presented with a brace of elegantly mounted
pistols by the Baron Kosciusko. There were braves present whose hands
had been besmeared with the blood of innocent women and children--who
had raised the savage yell of terror while setting firebrands to the
cabin and tomahawking its inmates.
During the days that were to follow there were many loud and violent
harangues; parties of warriors arrived with presents of the British
emissaries in their hands, and saying that they had been advised never
to yield another foot of territory; at one time, on September
twenty-sixth, the Potawatomi, in open assembly, raised a shout of
defiance against the Miamis, poured out torrents of abuse on the heads
of their chieftains and withdrew from the council declaring that the
tomahawk was raised. Amid all this loud jangling and savage quarreling
the Governor remained unperturbed and steady to his purpose.
Notwithstanding frequent demands, he constantly refused to deal out any
liquor except in the most meager quantities--he restrained the
Potawatomi and made them smoke the pipe of peace with their offended
allies--he met and answered all the arguments suggested by the British
agents--and after fifteen days of constant and unremitting effort won
over the chiefs of the Mississinewa and gained the day.
The official account of the proceedings as made by Peter Jones,
secretary to the Governor, and now reposing in the archives of the
United States government, shows that instead of attempting to make any
purchase of Indian lands when only a small number of representatives of
the tribes were present, that the Governor on the eighteenth of
September, dispatched messengers to Detroit to summon certain Delawares
and Potawatomi who were absent; that on the same day he also directed
Joseph Barron to go to the Miami villages along the Wabash to call in
Richardville, one of the principal chiefs of that tribe. The records
also show that while the Governor had some private conferences with some
of the principal chiefs for the purpose of urging their support to his
plans, that he addressed all his principal remarks to the tribes in open
council of all the warriors, and at a time when four interpreters were
present, to-wit: William Wells, Joseph Barron, John Conner and Abraham
Ash, to translate his observations.
The first of these great councils was on September 22. The arguments of
the Governor, so interesting at this day, are set forth: "He urged the
vast benefit which they (the Indians) derived from their annuities,
without which they would not be able to clothe their women and children.
The great advance in the price of goods and the depression in the value
of their peltries from the trouble in Europe, to which there was no
probability of a speedy determination. The little game which remained in
their country, particularly that part of it which he proposed to
purchase. The usurpation of it by a banditti of Muscoes and other
tribes; that the sale of it would not prevent their hunting upon it as
long as any game remained. But that it was absolutely necessary that
they should adopt some other plan for their support. That the raising of
cattle and hogs required little labor, and would be the surest resources
as a substitute for the wild animals which they had so unfortunately
destroyed for the sake of their skins. Their fondness for hunting might
still be gratified if they would prevent their young men from hunting at
improper seasons of the year. But to do this effectually, it would be
necessary that they should find a certain support in their villages in
the summer season. That the proposed addition to their annuities would
enable them to purchase the domestic animals necessary to commence
raising them on a large scale. He observed also that they were too apt
to impute their poverty and the scarcity of game to the encroachments of
the white settlers. But this is not the true cause. It is owing to their
own improvidence and to the advice of the British traders by whom they
were stimulated to kill the wild animals for their skins alone, when the
flesh was not wanted. That this was the cause of their scarcity is
evident from their being found in much greater quantity on the south
than on the north shore of the Wabash, where no white men but traders
were ever seen. The remnant of the Weas who inhabit the tract of country
which was wanted, were from their vicinity to the whites, poor and
miserable; all the proceeds of their hunts and the great part of their
annuities expended in whiskey. The Miami Nation would be more
respectable and formidable if its scattered members were assembled in
the center of their country."
The reasoning of the Governor was cogent. The motive that had prompted
the British to hold the frontier posts for so many years after the
revolution, was to secure a monopoly of the fur trade. Their traders
constantly urged the tribes to bring in peltries, and this led to a
merciless slaughter of animals for their hides alone. These measures
involved the ultimate destruction of the food supply of the tribes. It
was also true that the tribes along the Wabash were exhausting the
supply of wild game. The plan of inducing them to accept annuities and
to purchase cattle, hogs and other domestic animals for the purpose of
replenishing their food supply, seemed highly plausible to the minds of
that day. That the Weas on the lower Wabash would be better off if
removed from the immediate neighborhood of the white settlements where
they could purchase fire-water and indulge their vices, did not admit of
doubt. It was possibly the only plan of bringing relief from the
troubles which were daily augmenting between the two races of men.
From the first, however, the appeal of the Governor met with a cold
reception at the hands of the Mississinewa chiefs. That their feelings
in the matter were prompted by their jealousy of the other tribes
present, and their claim to the sole disposal of any of the lands along
the Wabash, there can be no doubt. Little Turtle was soon won over, but
the younger and more aggressive chiefs of the Miami villages were
hostile to him and openly expressed their disapproval of his conduct.
The Mississinewa chiefs were also violently opposed to the pretensions
of Winamac and the Potawatomi. They claimed that the Potawatomi were new
comers and usurpers and had no right to a voice in the sale of lands in
the Wabash valley. The Mississinewa chiefs prevailed. On the
twenty-fourth the Miamis, "declared their determination not to sell a
foot of land, observing that it was time to put a stop to the
encroachments of the whites who were eternally purchasing their lands
for less than the real value of them. That they had also heard that the
governor had no instructions to make any purchase, but was making it
upon his own authority to please the white people whom he governed." On
the twenty-fifth, the Governor, to overcome their opposition, made
another long appeal in open council, declaring that the British alone
were responsible for the feeling between the races. On that occasion he
gave expression to certain ideas that Tecumseh afterwards eagerly seized
upon as an argument in favor of the communistic ownership of all the
Indian lands, and as an argument against the sale of 1809. The governor
said: "Potawatomis and Miamis, look upon each other as brothers, and at
the same time look upon your grandfathers, the Delawares. I love to see
you all united. I wish to hear you speak with one voice the dictates of
one heart. All must go together. The consent of all is necessary.
Delawares and Potawatomis, I told you that I could do nothing with the
Miamis without your consent. Miamis, I now tell you that nothing can be
done without your consent. The consent of the whole is necessary."
This second appeal met with the same reception as the first. On the
twenty-sixth, the Miamis, again declared that they would never consent
to the sale of any more of their lands. "That they had been advised by
their Father, the British, never to sell another foot." At this moment
it was that the Potawatomi started a violent altercation, setting up a
shout of open defiance in the council house and threatening to resort to
force. On repairing to the Governor's headquarters, however, and
reporting their conduct, Harrison, "blamed them for their rashness and
made them promise not to offer the Miamis any further insults."
On the evening of the same day, the Governor held another extended
conference with the Miami chiefs, and explained to them that the British
were to blame for all their troubles. His remarks were prophetic. He
said: "In case of a war with the latter (the Americans), the English
knew that they were unable to defend Canada with their own force; they
were therefore desirous of interposing the Indians between them and
danger." The death of Tecumseh in the British ranks was part of the
fulfillment of this prediction.
All the conferences proved in vain. On the twenty-seventh, Silver Heels,
a Miami chief, was won over and spoke in favor of the treaty, and
Harrison succeeded on the twenty-eighth in reconciling the Miamis and
Potawatomi, but in full council on the twenty-ninth, The Owl, a Miami
chief, flatly refused to sell an acre; made a bitter and sarcastic
speech, and among other things said; "You remember the time when we
first took each other by the hand at Greenville. You there told us where
the line would be between us. You told us to love our women and children
and to take care of our lands. You told us that the Spanish had a great
deal of money, the English, and some of your people likewise, but that
we should not sell our lands to any of them. In consequence of which
last fall we put our hands upon our hearts and determined not to sell
our lands." Harrison answered in a speech of two hours length, and ended
by saying, "that he was tired of waiting and that on the next day he
would submit to them the form of a treaty which he wished them to sign
and if they would not agree to it he would extinguish the council
fire."
We now come to a circumstance which refutes much that Tecumseh
afterwards claimed. In his famous meeting with the Governor at Vincennes
in August, 1810, and speaking of the treaty of 1809, he said: "Brother,
this land that was sold, and the goods that were given for it were only
done by a few. The treaty was afterwards brought here, and the Weas were
induced to give their consent because of their small numbers. The treaty
at Fort Wayne was made through the threats of Winnemac; but in the
future we are prepared to punish those chiefs who may come forward to
propose to sell the land." The record of the official proceedings, made
at the time, show, however, that immediately upon the close of
Harrison's last speech of September twenty-ninth, that Winamac arose to
reply, but upon noting that fact all the Mississinewa Miamis left the
council house in contempt. Not only was the treaty of 1809 concluded by
a larger number of Indians than were present at Greenville, Ohio, in
1795, but the influence of Winamac with the Miamis seems to have been of
a very negligible quantity.
The truth is that the final consummation of the pact of 1809 was brought
about by the ready tact and hard common sense of Harrison himself. On
the morning of the thirtieth of September, the very day the treaty was
signed, it was thought by all the officers and gentlemen present that
the mission of the Governor was fruitless. No solution of the obstinacy
of the Mississinewa chiefs had been discovered. Nothing daunted,
Harrison resolved to make one more attempt. He took with him his
interpreter, Joseph Barron, a man in whom he had the utmost confidence,
and visited the camps of the Miamis. He was received well and told them
that he came, not as a representative of the President, but as an old
friend with whom they had been many years acquainted. "That he plainly
saw that there was something in their hearts which was not consistent
with the attachment they ought to bear to their great father, and that
he was afraid that they had listened to bad birds. That he had come to
them for the purpose of hearing every cause of complaint against the
United States, and that he would not leave them until they laid open
everything that oppressed their hearts. He knew that they could have no
solid objection to the proposed treaty, for they were all men of sense
and reflection, and all knew that they would be greatly benefited by
it." Calling then, upon the principal chief of the Eel River tribe, who
had served under him in General Wayne's army, he demanded to know what
his objections to the treaty were. In reply, the chief drew forth a copy
of the Treaty of Grouseland and said: "Father, here are your own words.
In this paper you have promised that you would consider the Miamis as
the owners of the land on the Wabash. Why then, are you about to
purchase it from others?"
"The Governor assured them that it was not his intention to purchase the
land from the other tribes. That he had always said, and was ready now
to confess that the land belonged to the Miamis and to no other tribe.
That if the other tribes had been invited to the treaty, it was at their
particular request (the Miamis). The Potawatomi had indeed taken higher
ground than either the Governor or the Miamis expected. They claimed an
equal right to the land in question with the Miamis, but what of this?
Their claiming it gave them no right, and it was not the intention of
the Governor to put anything in the treaty which would in the least
alter their claim to their lands on the Wabash, as established by the
Treaty of Grouseland, unless they chose to satisfy the Delawares with
respect to their claim to the country watered by the White river. That
even the whole compensation proposed to be given for the lands would be
given to the Miamis if they insisted upon it, but that they knew the
offense which this would give to the other tribes, and that it was
always the Governor's intention so to draw the treaty that the
Potawatomi and Delawares would be considered as participating in the
advantages of the treaty as allies of the Miamis; not as having any
rights to the land."
The Governor's resourcefulness saved the day. There was an instant
change of sentiment and a brightening of the dark faces. The claim of
the Miamis acknowledged; their savage pride appeased, and their title to
the land verified, they were ready for the treaty. Pecan, the chief,
informed the Governor that he might retire to the fort and that they
would shortly wait upon him with good news. The treaty was immediately
drafted, and on the same day signed and sealed by the headmen and chiefs
without further dissent.
Thus was concluded the Treaty of Fort Wayne of September 30, 1809. The
articles were fully considered and signed only after due deliberation of
at least a fortnight. The terms were threshed out in open council,
before the largest assembly of red men ever engaged in a treaty in the
western country up to that time. No undue influence, fraud or coercion
were brought to bear--every attempt at violence was promptly checked by
the Governor--no resort was had to the evil influence of bribes or
intoxicants. When agreed upon, it was executed without question.
CHAPTER XVII
RESULTS OF THE TREATY
_--Harrison's political enemies at Vincennes rally against him in the
open, and are defeated in the courts._
The Treaty of Fort Wayne having been consummated and certain disputes
relative to horse-stealing and other depredations having been arranged
between the two races, the Governor, on the fourth of October, 1809, set
out on his return to Vincennes. He travelled on horseback, accompanied
by his secretary and interpreter, passing through the Indian villages at
the forks of the Wabash and striking the towns of the Miamis at the
mouth of the Mississinewa. Here dwelt John B. Richardville, or Peshewah,
a celebrated chief of that tribe, who was later chosen as principal
sachem on the death of Little Turtle. Richardville had not been
personally present at Fort Wayne, but he now received the Governor
cordially, and gave his unqualified approval to the previous
proceedings.
The day before his arrival at Peshewah's town, the Governor met with a
singular experience, which not only served to illustrate the advancing
ravages of liquor among the tribes but Harrison's intimate knowledge of
Indian laws, customs and usages. On coming into the camp of Pecan, a
Mississinewa chieftain, he discovered that one of the warriors had
received a mortal wound in a "drunken frolic" of the preceding evening.
The chiefs informed him that the slayer had not been apprehended,
whereupon the Governor recommended that if the act "should appear to
have proceeded from previous malice," that the offender should be
punished, "but if it should appear to be altogether accident, to let him
know it, and he would assist to make up the matter with the friends of
the deceased." The payment of wergild or "blood-money" among the Indian
tribes in compensation of the loss of life or limb, is strongly in
accord with the ancient Saxon law, yet it seems to have prevailed as far
back at least as the time of William Penn, for in one of his letters
describing the aborigines of America, he says: "The justice they (the
Indians) have is pecuniary; in case of any wrong or evil fact, be it
murder itself, they atone by feasts and presents of their wampum, which
is proportioned to the offense, or person injured, or of the sex they
are of; for, in case they kill a woman, they pay double, and the reason
they render, is that she can raise children, which men cannot do." Later
on, at Vincennes, the Governor had another and similar experience which
affords additional proof that the custom above mentioned was still
prevalent. A Potawatomi chieftain from the prairies came in attended by
some young men. He found there about one hundred and fifty of the
Kickapoos, who were receiving their annuity, and he immediately made
complaint to the Governor as follows: "My Father," said he, "it is now
twelve moons since these people, the Kickapoos, killed my brother; I
have never revenged it, but they have promised to cover up his blood,
but they have not done it. I wish you to tell them, my father, to pay
me for my brother, or some of them will lose their hair before they go
from this." The Governor accordingly advised the chief of the Kickapoos
to satisfy the Potawatomi. On the following day the latter again called
upon the Governor, and said: "See there, my father," showing three
blankets and some other articles, "see what these people have offered me
for my brother, but my brother was not a hog that I should take three
blankets for him," and he declared his intention of killing some of them
unless they would satisfy him in the way he proposed. The Governor, upon
inquiry, finding that the goods of the Kickapoos were all distributed,
directed, on account of the United States, that a small addition be made
to what he had received.
At the villages on Eel river the Governor met with certain of the Weas
of the lower region, and dispatched them to summon their chiefs to meet
with him at Vincennes and ratify the treaty. He arrived at the latter
place on the twelfth of October, having been absent for a period of
about six weeks, and found that the complete success of his mission had
restored in a large measure that popularity which he had beforetime lost
on account of his advocacy of slavery. The acquisition was heralded far
and wide as a measure calculated in all respects to forward the
interests of the Territory. Not only was the total domain acquired, vast
in acreage, (being computed at about 2,900,000 acres), but it was
considered extremely fertile, well watered, and as containing salt
springs and valuable mines. Once the Weas and other tribes were removed
from close proximity to the settlements, it was confidently expected
that the old clashes would cease and that the new territory would be
speedily surveyed and opened up for entry and purchase to within twelve
miles of the mouth of the Vermilion. The Indians also, seemed well
satisfied. The Potawatomi had been urgent; Richardville, Little Turtle
and all the Miamis had given their consent; the Weas and Kickapoos were
about to ratify.
Nothing was then heard of the pretensions of the Shawnee Prophet or his
abler brother. In a message to the territorial legislature in 1810,
reviewing the events of this period, Harrison said: "It was not until
eight months after the conclusion of the treaty, and after his design of
forming a combination against the United States had been discovered and
defeated, that the pretensions of the Prophet, in regard to the land in
question, were made known. A furious clamor was then raised by the
foreign agents among us, and other disaffected persons, against the
policy which had excluded from the treaty this great and influential
character, as he is termed, and the doing so expressly attributed to the
personal ill-will on the part of the negotiator. No such ill-will did in
fact exist. I accuse myself, indeed, of an error in the patronage and
support which I afforded him on his arrival on the Wabash, before his
hostility to the United States had been developed. But on no principle
of propriety or policy could he have been made a party to the treaty.
The personage, called the Prophet, is not a chief of the tribe to which
he belongs, but an outcast from it, rejected and hated by the real
chiefs, the principal of whom was present at the treaty, and not only
disclaimed on the part of his tribe any title to the land ceded, but
used his personal influence with the chiefs of the other tribes to
effect the cession."
The "principal chief" of the Shawnees above alluded to was undoubtedly
Black Hoof, or Catahecassa, who at this time lived in the first town of
that tribe, at Wapakoneta, Ohio. Being near to Fort Wayne he had no
doubt attended the great council at that place. He had been a renowned
warrior, as already shown, and had been present at Braddock's Defeat, at
Point Pleasant, and at St. Clair's disaster, but when Anthony Wayne
conquered the Indians at Fallen Timbers, Black Hoof had given up, and he
had afterwards remained steadfast in his allegiance to the United States
government. When Tecumseh afterwards attempted to form his confederacy,
he met with a firm and steady resistance from Black Hoof, and his
influence was such that no considerable body of the Shawnees ever joined
the Prophet's camp. Black Hoof died in 1831 at the advanced age of one
hundred and ten years, and tradition says that like Moses, "his eye was
not dim; nor his natural force abated." The fact that Black Hoof, who
was of great fame among his tribe, as both orator and statesman, made no
claim to any of the lands sold below the Vermilion, is strong cumulative
proof of the assertion afterwards made by Harrison to Tecumseh, that any
claims of his tribe to the lands on the Wabash were without foundation.
The personal admirers and intimate associates of Harrison, were, of
course, overjoyed. They were no doubt influenced to some extent by the
fact that another long lease of power was in sight. Their leader's
victory would inure to their own benefit. Still, there were no cravens
among them. A banquet followed, participated in by a number of the
leading citizens of the town and adjacent country. Judge Henry
Vanderburgh, of the Territorial Court, presided, and toasts were drank
to the treaty, Governor Harrison, his secretary, Peter Jones, and the
"honest interpreter" Joseph Barron. Of those present on that occasion,
some were afterwards officers at Tippecanoe, and one, Thomas Randolph,
fell at the side of his chief.
There were those, however, who were not to be silenced by the Governor's
triumph. The political battles of that time were extremely vitriolic,
and the fights over territorial politics had been filled with hate.
Certain foes of the Governor not only appeared in Knox county, but
eventually in the halls of the national congress, and there were those
who did not hesitate to question the Governor's integrity. Among those
who bitterly opposed Harrison was one William McIntosh, "a Scotchman of
large property at Vincennes, who had been for many years hostile to the
Governor, and who was not believed to be very partial to the government
of the United States." Harrison terms him as a "Scotch Tory." One John
Small made an affidavit before Judge Benjamin Parke that prior to the
year 1805, McIntosh had been on good terms with Harrison, but that
Harrison's advocacy of a representative government for the territory, or
its advancement to the second grade, had turned him into an enemy.
However this may be, Harrison and his friends, in order to vindicate
his fame at home and abroad, now resolved to bring an action for
damages in the territorial courts against McIntosh, "for having asserted
that he had cheated the Indians, in the last treaty which had been made
with them at Fort Wayne." The suit being brought to issue, it was found
that of the territorial judges then on the bench, one, probably Judge
Parke, was a personal friend of the Governor, and one a personal friend
of McIntosh. These gentlemen, therefore, both retired, and the Honorable
Waller Taylor, who had recently come into the territory assumed the
ermine. A jury was selected by the court naming two elisors, who in turn
selected a panel of forty-eight persons, from which the plaintiff and
defendant each struck twelve, and from the remaining twenty-four the
jury was drawn by lot. With this "struck jury," the cause proceeded to a
hearing. The following account, given in _Dawson's Harrison_, will prove
of interest: "Before a crowded audience, this interesting trial was
continued from ten A. M., till one o'clock at night. Every person
concerned in the Indian Department, or who could know anything of the
circumstances of the late treaty at Fort Wayne, was examined, and every
latitude that was asked for, or attempted by the defendant, in the
examination, permitted. Finding that the testimony of all the witnesses
went to prove the justice and integrity of the Governor's conduct in
relation to everything connected with the Indian Department, the
defendant began to ask questions relating to some points of his civil
administration. To this the jury as well as the court objected, the
latter observing that it was necessary that the examination should be
confined to the matter at issue. But at the earnest request of the
Governor the defendant was permitted to pursue his own course and
examine the witnesses upon every point which he might think proper. The
defendant's counsel, abandoning all idea of justification, pleaded only
for a mitigation of damages. After a retirement of one hour the jury
returned a verdict of $4,000 damages. To pay this sum, a large amount of
the defendant's lands were exposed for sale, and in the Governor's
absence in the command of the army the ensuing year, was bought in by
his agent. Two-thirds of his property has since been returned to
McIntosh and the remaining part given to some of the orphan children of
those distinguished citizens who fell a sacrifice to their patriotism in
the last war."
The head chief of the Weas at this time was Lapoussier, whose name would
indicate that he was of French extraction. He arrived at Vincennes on
the fifteenth day of October, with fifteen warriors and was later
followed by Negro Legs, Little Eyes and Shawanoe, who came in with other
companies of the tribe. On the twenty-fourth, the Governor assembled
them for the purpose, as he stated, of ascertaining whether they "were
in a situation to understand the important business he had to lay before
them." He said that he had shut up the liquor casks, but that he found
that his proclamation prohibiting the sale of liquor had been disobeyed.
He was glad to find however, that they were sober, and expressed a wish
that they would not drink any more while the deliberations were in
progress. On the twenty-fifth he explained fully all the provisions of
the Treaty of Fort Wayne, the benefit the Weas would derive from an
increase in their annuity, and the removal from the vicinity of the
settlements to the neighborhood of their brothers, the Miamis, who lived
farther up the river. He also told them that they would be granted the
same amount of goods in hand received by the larger tribes, on account
of the inconvenience they would suffer by moving from their present
habitations. The Governor's conduct in refusing to negotiate while any
evidences of liquor were manifest was in strict keeping with his
attitude at Fort Wayne, and his generous treatment of a smaller and
weaker tribe certainly redounds to his credit. The Treaty of Fort Wayne
was duly ratified and approved on the twenty-sixth day of October, 1809,
and the convention was signed by Lapoussier and all the Wea chieftains
without a single dissent.
Only one tribe now remained who had any manner of claim to any of the
lands in the Wabash valley. This tribe was the Kickapoos, who lived at
the mouth of the Vermilion river and in that part of Indiana now
comprising practically all of Vermilion county and parts of Warren and
Parke. Accordingly a treaty was concluded with them at Vincennes on the
ninth of December, 1809, whereby they fully ratified all the proceedings
at Fort Wayne, and further ceded to the United States "all that tract of
land which lies above the tract above ceded (the north line of which was
Raccoon creek), the Wabash, the Vermilion river, and a line to be drawn
from the north corner of said ceded tract, so as to strike the Vermilion
river at a distance of twenty miles in a direct line from its mouth."
Among the interesting names attached as witnesses to the articles is
that of Hyacinthe Laselle.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE SHAWNEE BROTHERS
--_The Prophet as an Indian Priest and Tecumseh as a political
organizer--The episode of the eclipse of 1806--Tecumseh's personal
appearance described._
The confederacy of Tecumseh was established upon a priesthood. Let us
regard the priest. He was a character remarkable enough to invite the
attention of all the leading men of that day, including Jefferson. He
was subtle and crafty enough to delude Harrison into the belief that he
might be a friend instead of a foe.
The account related by Simon Kenton, and vouched for by John Johnston
and Anthony Shane, is that Tecumseh, Laulewasikaw, the Prophet, and a
third brother, Kumskaukau, were triplets; that Tecumseh was the youngest
or last born of the three; that "this event so extraordinary among the
Indian tribes, with whom a double birth is quite uncommon, struck the
mind of the people as supernatural, and marked him and his brothers with
the prestige of future greatness--that the Great Spirit would direct
them to the achievement of something great." The date of this
extraordinary event is given by most authors as 1768, making Tecumseh
and the Prophet some five years the seniors of General Harrison. "They
were born in a cabin or hut, constructed of round saplings chinked with
sticks and clay, near the mouth of Stillwater, on the upper part of its
junction with the Great Miami, then a pleasant plateau of land, with a
field of corn not subject to overflow."
Of the early life of the Prophet not much is known. "According to one
account he was noted in his earlier years for stupidity and
intoxication; but one day, while lighting his pipe in his cabin, he fell
back apparently lifeless and remained in that condition until his
friends had assembled for the funeral, when he revived from his trance,
quieted their alarm, and announced that he had been conducted to the
spirit world." As an orator, he is said to have been even more powerful
than Tecumseh himself, and his great influence in after years among the
various tribes would seem to bear that statement out. However, he was
boastful, arrogant, at times cruel, and never enjoyed the reputation for
honesty and integrity that his more distinguished brother did. In
personal appearance he was not prepossessing. He had lost one eye,
"which defect he concealed by wearing a dark veil or handkerchief over
the disfigured organ." It has been related that he was dominated to some
extent by his wife, who was regarded by the squaws at the Prophet's Town
as a queen.
Whole nations are at times moved with a sort of religious fervor or
frenzy which extends to all ranks and stations. During these periods
strange mental phenomena are at times apparent, great social and
political movements are inaugurated, and the whole complexion of affairs
seems to undergo a rapid and sometimes radical change. Such a movement
occurred among the Indian tribes of Ohio and those along the Wabash
about the beginning of the year 1806. At this time a part of the
scattered and broken remnants of the Shawnee tribe had been gathered
together under the Prophet and Tecumseh at Greenville, Ohio. In November
of the year before the Prophet had "assembled a considerable number of
Shawnees, Wyandots, Ottawas and Senecas, at Wapakoneta, on the Auglaize
river, when he unfolded to them the new character with which he was
clothed, and made his first public effort in that career of religious
imposition, which in a few years was felt by the remote tribes of the
upper lakes, and on the broad plains which stretched beyond the
Mississippi." The appearance of the Prophet was not only highly dramatic
but extremely well-timed. The savage mind was filled with gloomy
forebodings. The ravages of "fire-water," the intermixture of the races,
the trespassing of the white settlers on the Indian domain, and the
rapid disappearance of many of the old hunting grounds, all betokened a
sad destiny for the red man. Naturally superstitious, he was prepared
for the advent of some divine agency to help him in his distress. No one
understood this better than the Prophet. He may have been the dupe of
his own imposture, but impostors are generally formidable. He was no
longer Laulewasikaw, but Tenskwatawa, "The Open Door." "He affected
great sanctity; did not engage in the secular duties of war or hunting;
was seldom in public; devoted most of his time to fasting, the
interpretation of dreams, and offering sacrifices to spiritual powers;
pretended to see into futurity and to foretell events, and announced
himself to be the mouth-piece of God."
The first assemblage at Wapakoneta, was later followed by a series of
pilgrimages to Greenville, which shortly spread alarm among the white
settlers. Hundreds of savages flocked around the new seer from the
rivers and lakes of the northwest and even from beyond the Mississippi.
In May of 1807 great numbers passed and re-passed through Fort Wayne. In
a letter of date August 20th, 1807, from William Wells, the United
States Indian agent at the last named place, to Governor Harrison at
Vincennes, Wells relates that the lake Indians from the vicinity of
Mackinac are flocking to Greenville; that the Prophet is instilling the
doctrine that in a few years the Great Spirit will destroy every white
man in America, and that the inhabitants of Detroit are fortifying
themselves against attack. To all these savage gatherings the Prophet
preached the new propaganda. He denounced drunkenness, and said that he
had gone up into the clouds and had seen the abode of the Devil; that
there he saw all the drunkards and that flames of fire continually
issued from their mouths, and that all who used liquor in this world
would suffer eternal torment in the next; he advocated a return to
pristine habits and customs, counseling the tribes "to throw away their
flints and steels, and resort to their original mode of obtaining fire
by percussion. He denounced the woolen stuffs as not equal to skins for
clothing; he commended the use of the bow and arrow. As to
inter-marriage between the races, all this was prohibited. The two races
were distinct and must remain so. Neither could there be any separate or
individual ownership of any of the Indian lands; these were the common
heritage of all. The weak, aged and infirm were to be cherished and
protected; parental authority was to be obeyed. In conclusion, he never
failed to proclaim that the Great Spirit had gifted him with the divine
power to 'cure all diseases and to arrest the hand of death, in
sickness, or on the battlefield'."
The happening of these events soon attracted the attention of the
British agents at Malden, just below Detroit, and on the Canadian side.
McKee was there and Matthew Elliott. The old hatred of all things
American still burned in their bosoms. "England and France," says
Ridpath, "were now engaged in deadly war. The British authorities struck
blow after blow against the trade between France and foreign nations;
and Napoleon retaliated. The plan adopted by the two powers was, as
already narrated, to blockade each others' ports, either with paper
proclamations or with men-of-war. By such means the commerce of the
United States was greatly injured. Great Britain next set up her
peculiar claim of citizenship, that whosoever is born in England remains
through life the subject of England. English cruisers were authorized to
search American vessels for persons suspected of being British subjects,
and those who were taken were impressed as seamen in the English navy.
On the twenty-second of June, 1807, the frigate Chesapeake was hailed
near Fortress Monroe by a British man-of-war called the Leopard. British
officers came on board and demanded to search the vessel for deserters.
The demand was refused and the ship cleared for action. But before the
guns could be charged the Leopard poured in a destructive fire, and
compelled a surrender. Four men were taken from the captured ship, three
of whom proved to be American citizens. Great Britain disavowed this
outrage and promised reparation; but the promise was never fulfilled."
In the event of a renewal of hostilities between the United States and
Great Britain, it would evidently be the mission of McKee and Elliott to
brighten the bond of friendship between the Indian tribes and the king;
re-establish, so far as possible, the old savage confederacy, and use it
both as a barrier against any attempted invasion of Canada, and as a
weapon of offense against the western states and settlements. The
Shawnees were wholly in the interest of the British. The Potawatomi,
Ottawas and Chippewas who resided in the neighborhood of Detroit were,
as Harrison says, "the most perfidious of their race," and Wells
reported to Harrison, that in case of war, the Indian tribes would be
against the United States. In a letter of July eleventh, 1807, Harrison
wrote to the Department of War that a respectable trader from Detroit
had informed him "that McKee, the British Indian agent, was lately seen
to pass up the Miami of the Lake to Greenville where the Prophet
resided, and where there has been a considerable collection of Indians
for many weeks." The frontiers were generally alarmed, and in September
the Governor dispatched the interpreter, John Conner, with a talk to the
Shawnees requiring the immediate removal of the "impostor" from the
territory, and the dispersion of the warriors he had collected about
him. "The British," he writes, "could not have adopted a better plan to
effect their purpose of alienating from our government the affections of
the Indians than employing this vile instrument. It manifests at once
their inveterate rancour against us and their perfect acquaintance with
the Indian character."
But to return to the Prophet. His fame, bruited far and wide, soon
aroused the jealousy of many of the neighboring chiefs and medicine men.
They saw their power dwindling away and their authority diminishing.
They took steps to check the advancing tide of fanaticism, but were at
once adroitly met by the introduction of an inquisition into witchcraft,
which had been almost universally believed in by the tribes, but against
which the Prophet now hurled the most direful anathemas. He declared
that anyone who dealt in magic or "medicine juggleries" should never
taste of future happiness, and must be instantly put to death. His
deluded and awe-struck followers promptly began a systematic searching
out and persecution of "witches," and all under his personal direction.
The finger of the seer often pointed at a prominent warrior or
chieftain, or some member of their household. The Prophet's mere
denunciation was proof enough. The victim went to the torture of death
by fire, or some other fate equally revolting. Among the Delawares,
especially, the most shocking cruelty ensued, and finally these things
came to the ears of the Governor at Vincennes. He immediately sent a
"speech" by special messenger to the headmen and chiefs of the Delaware
tribe beseeching them to cast aside all fallacious doctrines, to
denounce the Prophet and to drive him out of their midst. In the course
of this "speech" he said: "Demand of him some proof at least, of his
being the messenger of the Deity. If God has really employed him, He has
doubtless authorized him to perform miracles that he may be known and
received as a prophet. If he is really a prophet, ask of him to cause
the sun to stand still, the moon to alter its course, the rivers to
cease to flow, or the dead to rise from their graves."
The language of the Governor proved to be unfortunate. On June sixteen,
1806, there was a total eclipse of the sun in northern latitudes for a
period of about five minutes, at about a half an hour before midday, and
this event had long been heralded by the astronomers of that time, and
had come to the ears of the Prophet through intercourse with some white
friends. The crafty savage was not slow to act. He told his followers
that on a certain fixed day, and at a time when the sun was at the
height of its power, he would place the same under his feet, and cause
darkness to come over the face of the earth. On the day announced, the
Prophet stood among his fearful band, awaiting the hour. The day was
wholly clear and without clouds, but at the appointed time the terrified
savages saw a disc of blackness gradually pass over the face of the sun;
the birds became agitated and flew to cover; the skulking dogs drew near
their masters; almost absolute darkness fell on all about; the stars of
heaven appeared in the zenith, and in the midst of it all, the Prophet
exclaimed: "Did I not testify truly? Behold! Darkness has shrouded the
sun!" The account of that day, faithfully set forth by J. Fennimore
Cooper, then a youth, is filled with strange relations of the unnatural
appearance of all earthly things; of the sudden awe and fear that came
into the minds of all; how women stood near their husbands in silence
and children clung to their mothers in terror, and if these were the
emotions experienced in a civilized community, made fully aware of the
coming event, what must have been the impression produced on the
superstitious mind of the savage, wholly unenlightened in the ways of
science? From that day, the power of the savage Prophet was secure until
the spell of his magic was forever broken by Harrison's soldiers at
Tippecanoe.
It is not certain at what precise period in his career, whether in 1806
or 1807, or later, the Prophet was tempted by British gold and British
overtures. President Jefferson once wrote to John Adams as follows: "I
thought there was little danger in his making proselytes from the habits
and comforts they had learned from the whites, to the hardships and
privations of savagism, and no great harm if he did. But his followers
increased until the British thought him worth corrupting, and found him
corruptible." Neither is it certain at what precise period Tecumseh put
his brother-priest behind him and assumed the lead. That he had
cunningly pretended to have great respect and reverence while the
Prophet was practicing on the superstition of the tribes; that he took
no steps to stop the inquisitions which were destroying the influence of
the chiefs and medicine men; that he stood ready at the opportune moment
to push the brother-priest into the back-ground and form a confederacy
with himself as the recognized head, will not now admit of controversy.
In 1806 Tecumseh was about thirty-eight years of age, a finished
athlete, a renowned hunter, and of great reputation as a bold and
fearless orator. Probably no red man ever born had a better knowledge of
the various treaties that had been consummated between the races. "For
all those qualities which elevate man far above his race; for talent,
tact, skill, bravery as a warrior; for high-minded, honorable and
chivalrous bearing as a man; in fine, for all those elements of
greatness which place him a long way above his fellows in savage life,
the name and fame of Tecumseh will go down to posterity in the west, as
one of the most celebrated of the aborigines of this continent." This is
the estimate of Judge Law, of Vincennes.
In his youth he had been under the tutelage of his elder brother,
Cheeseekau, who taught him "a love for the truth, a contempt of
everything mean and sordid, and the practice of those cardinal Indian
virtues, courage in battle and fortitude in suffering." In one of the
early Shawnee raids along the Ohio he had witnessed the burning of a
white man at the stake; the scene was so horrifying to him that he made
his associates promise never to torture another person. The spoils of
the hunt he divided with the aged and unfortunate. At the time of the
Prophet's rise he had already matched his prowess in battle against such
men as Simon Kenton and his associates and had proven both his skill as
a tactician and his courage as a fighter.
An illustration of Tecumseh's chivalry toward his foes, is pleasingly
set forth in Smith's _Historical Sketches of Old Vincennes_; "Early in
the year 1811, Governor Harrison, with a view to ascertaining the cause
of the dissatisfaction of the Prophet, and, if possible, pacify him,
deputed one of his most sagacious and trusty advisers with a competent
interpreter to hold a council with him and his chiefs, including his
brother warrior chief, Tecumseh. It is learned from history that these
gentlemen arrived at the village one evening and were received in an
apparently friendly manner by the Prophet and assigned a tent for the
night with an appointment for a council the next morning. It is said the
Prophet's wife was considered a queen among the Indian women, as well as
by her husband. Before retiring for the night the interpreter observed
an unusual stir among the squaws, and motions made toward their tent,
and caught menacing glances and gestures toward them, and so told the
ambassador, but he made light of the matter and the interpreter's
suspicions that treachery was intended, and when night came on he was
soon asleep in peace and quiet. But not so with the vigilant
interpreter, who kept awake and had his guns near at hand. About
midnight a tap was heard at the door and his name, in the Shawnee
language, was called. He found Tecumseh at the door. He had called to
warn him of impending assassination by the queen and squaws, who had
held a council and determined on their death in spite of the protests of
himself and others who told them it would be base treachery to kill
messengers of peace who were their visitors. He told the visitors to
rise and go with him. They went silently through the village and down
into a wooded ravine near the river, where a noise was made as if to
call wild turkeys, sounds well recognized by all hunters in early days;
an answer was returned, and soon two men appeared with the ambassador's
horses, which they speedily mounted and rode swiftly away, accompanied
by two guides furnished by Tecumseh, and were soon well on their return
trip to Vincennes."
No true portrait of this celebrated Indian is in existence. The
following graphic description of him, however, is given by Stanley
Hatch, who had a personal acquaintance with him in times of peace: "The
general appearance of this remarkable man was uncommonly fine. His
height was about five feet nine inches, judging him by my own height
when standing close to him, and corroborated by the late Col. John
Johnston, for many years Indian agent at Piqua. His face oval rather
than angular; his nose handsome and straight; his mouth beautifully
formed, like that of Napoleon I, as represented in his portraits; his
eyes clear, transparent hazel, with a mild, pleasant expression when in
repose, or in conversation; but when excited in his orations or by the
enthusiasm of a conflict, or when in anger, they appeared like balls of
fire; his teeth beautifully white, and his complexion more of a light
brown or tan than red; his whole tribe as well as their kindred the
Ottawas, had light complexions; his arms and hands were finely formed;
his limbs straight; he always stood very erect and walked with a brisk,
elastic, vigorous step; invariably dressed in Indian tanned buckskin; a
perfectly well fitting hunting frock descending to the knee, and over
his under clothes of the same material; the usual cape and finish of
yellow fringe about the neck; cape, edges of the front opening and
bottom of the frock; a belt of the same material in which were his side
arms (an elegant silver-mounted tomahawk and a knife in a strong leather
case); short pantaloons connected with neatly fitting leggings and
moccasins, with a mantle of the same material thrown over his left
shoulder, used as a blanket in camp and as a protection in storms. Such
was his dress when I last saw him, on the seventeenth of August, 1812,
on the streets of Detroit; mutually exchanging tokens of recognition
with former acquaintances in years of peace, and passing on, he, to see
that his Indians had all crossed to Malden, as commanded, and to counsel
with his white allies in regard to the next movement of the now really
commenced War of 1812. He was then in the prime of life, and presented
in his appearance and noble bearing one of the finest looking men I have
ever seen."
The striking circumstances of his birth, the ascendency of his brother,
the Prophet, his burning hatred of the white race; his skill as a hunter
and valor as a warrior; above all his wonderful eloquence and thorough
knowledge of all the Indian treaties of the past, gave Tecumseh an
influence and authority among the tribes far beyond that of any of the
braves or sachems of that day. If at the first his imagination had not
dared to scale the heights of power, he later boldly threw aside all
disguise, and by his powerful advocacy of a communistic ownership of all
the Indian lands by the tribes in common, he aimed both a blow at the
ancient authority claimed by the Indian chieftains, and at the validity
of every treaty ever negotiated between the two races of men. The sum
and substance of Tecumseh's doctrine is thus succinctly stated by Judge
Law: "That the Great Spirit had given the Indians all their lands in
common to be held by them as such and not by the various tribes who had
settled on portions of it--claiming it as their own. That they were
squatters having no 'pre-emption right,' but holding even that on which
they lived as mere 'tenants in common' with all the other tribes. That
this mere possession gave them no title to convey the land without the
consent of all. That no single tribe had the right to sell, that the
power to sell was not vested in their chiefs, but must be the act of the
warriors in council assembled of all the tribes, as the land belonged to
all--no portion of it to any single tribe."
If these tenets were to hold, it was clear that any authority claimed by
the chiefs to represent their respective tribes in the sale or barter of
any of the Indian domain was without foundation; that any treaty not
negotiated and ratified by a common council of all the warriors of all
the tribes, was null and void; that Wayne's Treaty of 1795 was nullum
pactum; that the claim of the white settlers to any of the lands north
of the Ohio was without force, and that they were trespassers and mere
licensees from the beginning. The doctrine thus enunciated was not
entirely new. Joseph Brant had claimed that the land was the common
property of the tribes, but he had never declared that the sanction of
all the warriors was necessary to a conveyance. But the plausible
eloquence of Tecumseh, coming at a time when the star of the red man was
setting; when every passing day witnessed the encroachment of the white
settlers, gave a new ray of hope to the fainting tribes. The warriors,
carried away by the dreams and incantations of the Prophet, and
sustained by the burning words of a new leader, who promised them a
restoration of their former glory, cast aside with contempt all the
articles and solemn agreements of the past, and were ready to take up
the tomahawk in patriotic defense of their lands and homes. Thus did
Tecumseh look forward to the establishment of "a great and permanent
confederation--an empire of red men, of which he should be the leader
and emperor."
CHAPTER XIX
PROPHET'S TOWN
--_The capital of the Shawnee Confederacy in the heart of the Miami
country._
Before entering upon the final details of the struggle between Harrison
and Tecumseh, it may not be uninteresting to recur to a point of time
just before the Treaty of Fort Wayne, when the two Indian leaders
removed from the neighborhood of the white settlements at Greenville,
Ohio, and established the Prophet's Town on the Wabash river in the
month of June, 1808. This was to be the spot from whence should emanate
all those brilliant schemes of the brothers to merge the broken tribes
into a confederacy; to oppose the further advance of the white settlers,
and with the aid of the British power in Canada, to drive them back
beyond the waters of the Ohio. It was, as General Richard P. DeHart has
aptly remarked, "the seat of Indian diplomacy and strategy for many
years."
In leading their followers to this new field, the brothers were guided
by certain lines of policy which were both remarkable in their
conception, and signal for their farsightedness. The rendezvous at
Greenville had been marked by intense enthusiasm, hundreds of red men
flocking thither to imbibe the new faith and to commune with the
Prophet; so many in fact, that Governor Harrison had ordered them to be
supplied from the public stores at Fort Wayne in order to avert trouble.
But it was evident to the new leaders that all this congregating did not
turn aside starvation; that warriors could not be held together who were
hungry and who lacked corn; that the proximity of white traders was
conducive to drunkenness; that if back of outward appearances any
warlike exercises were to be indulged, or the emissaries and arms of the
British were to be received, that these things would require secrecy and
seclusion until the plot was ripe; that some strategic position must be
secured on one of the great waterways of the interior, within quick
striking distance of the settlements and easily accessible to the
British posts.
Such a spot was the site of the old French and Indian trading post on
the right bank of the Wabash and about ten miles above the present city
of Lafayette. To the west about one and one-quarter miles is the marble
shaft of the Battleground, and going from thence east across the fields
and open woodlands you come to the fringe of woods that still lines the
river. You have walked over the old Indian corn fields and are now
standing on the exact location of the old Prophets's Town. The scene is
one of great beauty even at this day, when the forest has been despoiled
and nature ravished of her choicest charms. Here, the river extends in
an almost unbroken line for three or four miles, bordered by sycamores
and maples, and with a wealth of clinging vines, crab-apple blossoms and
blooming flowers on either bank. The old trading post of Petit Piconne
was located on a series of high cliffs, crowned with huge forest trees,
and commanding the river through vistas of foliage. The face of these
cliffs is frequently broken by sharp ravines, that extend on back among
the hills with many devious windings. At the foot of the steep slopes,
extends a long, narrow tableland of forest bordering directly upon the
river; this is interspersed with springs of fresh water that burst from
the hillsides. On the cliffs stood the camps and cabins of the warriors
and their followers; below, and on the tableland and next to the water,
the horses were tethered, and canoes were drawn up out of the river.
Thither the Prophet and his brother now turned their eyes. The whole
upper valley, including the basins of the Tippecanoe and the Wildcat,
was the rightful possession of the Miamis and the Weas, but the brothers
now secured a pretended right or license from the Kickapoos and the
Potawatomi to establish a camp. The Miamis of the north, and the
Delawares of the south, were alike alarmed. The Delawares in particular
had been the friends of the white people and adherents of the Governor.
They divined, and divined truly, that the Prophet's plans ultimately
involved mischief. To avoid a possible war they sent a deputation of
chiefs to the Prophet, who refused to see them, but deputed Tecumseh to
answer their remonstrances. On this mission he was entirely successful.
By threats and persuasion he turned them back, although they had
received strict instructions from their tribe to oppose a new
settlement. On a visit shortly afterwards by John Conner, interpreter
for the Delawares, on a search for stolen horses, he found the Prophet
safely ensconced in his chosen position, with a following of thirty or
forty Shawnees, and about ninety others, consisting of Potawatomi,
Chippewas, Ottawas and Winnebagoes.
The location selected was certainly ideal. "By a short portage the
Indians could go by canoe to Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, or by the
Wabash reach all the vast system of watercourses to the north and west.
It was only twenty-four hours' journey by canoe, at a favorable stage of
water, down stream to Vincennes, the capital of the white man's
territory;" the British post at Malden was only a few days distant. As
to the Indian tribes, the Prophet's Town was almost centrally located in
the Miami confederacy; to the north as far as the post of Chicago and
Lake Michigan extended the realm of the Potawatomi; on the Vermilion
below, and to the west of the main stream, lay the villages of the
Kickapoos, whose hardy warriors, second only to the Wyandots, had
accepted the new faith; the Sacs and Foxes, the Winnebagoes, Ottawas,
Chippewas and Wyandots, were all within easy reach, and secret embassies
and negotiations might be carried on without much fear of detection.
The brothers now resolved to pursue the following course--to wean their
followers entirely away from the use of whiskey, which was fast
destroying their military efficiency; to teach them, if possible, the
ways of labor, so that they might raise corn and other products of the
earth, and thus supply their magazines against a time of war; to dupe
the Governor into the belief that their mission was one of peace, and
undertaken solely for the moral uplift and betterment of the tribes--in
the meantime, by the constant practice of religious ceremonies and
rites, to work on the superstition of the warriors; win them, if need
be, from the chieftains who might counsel peace, and by a series of
warlike sports and exercises, hold together the young bucks and train
them for the inevitable conflict between the races.
What strange mysticism did the Prophet practice to make the Indians of
the Wabash "abandon whiskey, discard textile clothing, return to skins,
throw away their witch-bags, kill their dogs, and abandon the white
man's ways, even to giving up flint and steel for making fires?" That he
had gained fame and ascendency among the neighboring tribes since the
episode of the eclipse in 1806, is testified to by the fact that when
Richard McNemar, the Shaker, visited him in 1807, at Greenville, Ohio,
he found a temple of worship one hundred fifty feet in length,
surrounded by wigwams and cottages, and the Indians then told McNemar
that they all believed implicitly in the Prophet and that he could
"dream to God." The Prophet had at that time also gone so far as to
institute the confessional, and all sinful disclosures were made to
himself and four accompanying chiefs. The question was asked: "Do they
confess all the bad things they ever did?" Answer: "All from seven years
old. And cry and tremble when they come to confess." A sort of nature or
sun worship had already been introduced. McNemar thus describes a
salutation to the lord of the day: "Next morning, as soon as it was day,
one of their speakers mounted a log, near the southeast corner of the
village, and began the morning service with a loud voice, in
thanksgiving to the Great Spirit. He continued his address for near an
hour. The people were all in their tents, some at the distance of
fifteen or twenty rods; yet they could all distinctly hear, and gave a
solemn and loud assent, which sounded from tent to tent, at every pause.
While we stood in his view, at the end of the meeting house, on rising
ground, from which we had a prospect of the surrounding wigwams, and the
vast open plain or prairie, to the south and east, and which looked over
the big fort, toward the north, for the distance of two miles, we felt
as if we were among the tribes of Israel, on their march to Canaan."
By weird incantations, symbolic ceremonies, and practice of the black
art, the Prophet had gone far. He was now regarded as invulnerable, and
his person sacred. But that which gave point to his oracles, and
authority to his imposture, was his Shawnee hatred of the pale face. To
incite their growing jealousy and malice, he told his dupes, that the
white man had poisoned all their land, and prevented it from producing
such things as they found necessary to their subsistence. The growing
scarcity of game, the disappearance of the deer and buffalo before the
white settlements, were indisputable proofs of his assertions. Says
Harrison: "The game which was formerly so abundant, is now so scarce as
barely to afford subsistence to the most active hunters. The greater
part of each tribe are half the year in a state of starvation, and
astonishing as it may seem, these remote savages have felt their full
share of the misfortunes which the troubles in Europe have brought upon
the greater part of the world. The exclusion of the English from the
continent of Europe, where they were accustomed to dispose of the
greater part of the peltries imported from Canada, has reduced the price
of those articles almost to nothing; the Indians can scarcely procure
for them the necessary ammunition, and they are often induced to forego
the purchase of this necessary article to gratify their passion for
whiskey." All these evils were attributed by the Prophet to the
extension of the American settlements. To drive back these invaders who
polluted the soil and desecrated the graves of their fathers--what more
was needed to incite the savage warriors to a crusade of blood and
extermination? About this time it was noticed that the Potawatomi of the
prairies, who were under the influence of the Prophet, were frequently
holding religious exercises, but that these exercises were always
concluded with "warlike sports, shooting with bows, throwing the
tomahawk, and wielding the war-club."
In the meantime, the relation of these religious ceremonies at the
Prophet's Town and their seemingly good effect upon the red man,
completely disarmed the Governor for the time being. He now entertained
the idea that the great Indian leader might be "made a useful instrument
in effecting a radical and salutary change in the manners and habits of
the Indians." To stop the use of ardent spirits and to encourage the
cultivation of corn, were two important steps, as the Governor thought.
Events which succeeded but added to Harrison's deception. In June, 1808,
messengers appeared at Vincennes, and one of them stated that he had
listened to the Prophet for upwards of three years, and had never heard
anything but good advice. "He tells us we must pray to the Great Spirit
who made the world and everything in it for our use. He tells us that no
man could make the plants, the trees, and the animals, but they must be
made by the Great Spirit, to whom we ought to pray, and obey in all
things. He tells us not to lie, to steal, or to drink whiskey; and not
to go to war, but to live in peace with all mankind. He tells us also to
work and to make corn."
In August of the same year, the crafty Prophet himself appeared and
remained at Vincennes for more than two weeks. The Governor was
surprised at the great address and ease with which he handled his
followers, and had the pleasure of listening to a speech, in which the
Prophet professed the most pacific intentions, constantly haranguing his
retinue upon the evils of war and liquor, and holding out to them the
advantages of temperance and peace. It seems that the Governor even made
a few personal experiments to determine whether the Indians were in
earnest about their pretensions, but could induce none of them to touch
fire-water. The interview closed to the entire satisfaction of the
Governor, the Prophet promising to keep him fully informed as to
anything that might be inimical to the settlements, and receiving in
return many presents from the Governor in the way of implements of
husbandry, arms, powder and other things which the Indians claimed that
they were in sore need of. On the first of September, 1808, in a
communication to Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, the Governor wrote as
follows: "The celebrated Shawnee Prophet has just left me after a visit
of more than two weeks. He is rather possessed of considerable talents,
and the art and address with which he manages the Indians is really
astonishing. I was not able to ascertain whether he is as I at first
supposed, a tool of the British or not. His denial of being under any
such influence was strong and apparently candid. He says that his sole
purpose is to reclaim the Indians from the bad habits they have
contracted, and to cause them to live in peace and friendship with all
mankind, and declares that he is particularly instructed to that effect
by the Great Spirit. He frequently harangued his followers in my
presence, and the evils attendant upon war and the use of ardent spirits
was his constant theme. I cannot say how successful he may be in
persuading them to lay aside their passion for war, but the experiment
made to determine whether their refusal to drink whiskey proceeded from
principle, or was only empty profession, established the former beyond
all doubt. Upon the whole, Sir, I am inclined to think the influence
which the Prophet has acquired will prove rather advantageous than
otherwise to the United States."
How vain this trust! Scarcely had the Prophet returned to his town,
before he was entertaining an emissary and spy of the British
government, who urged war on the United States. In the following spring
of 1809, the Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatomi were being urged by the
Prophet to take up arms against the inhabitants of Vincennes, and to
destroy the settlers along the Ohio, as far up as Cincinnati. Reports of
these proceedings were confirmed by Michael Brouillette, an Indian
trader, and by Touissant Dubois, a confidential agent of the Governor.
Harrison probably averted an Indian attack, by promptly organizing two
additional companies of militia and throwing them into the vicinity of
Fort Knox, to guard the approaches to the capital by land and water. The
Indians, however, seeing this prompt action, deserted the Prophet and
returned to their homes. The Governor was not fooled a second time. The
Prophet again visited him in the summer of 1809, and made the same old
pretensions of peace. But the Governor forced him to admit that he had
entertained the British the fall before, and that he had been invited,
as he said, to join a league of the Sacs and Foxes against the whites in
the early spring, and he could make no satisfactory explanation as to
why he had not imparted these facts to the government, when he had been
solemnly enjoined so to do. From this time on, the Prophet was regarded
with a just suspicion, and Harrison diligently regarded every movement
of the new faith.
CHAPTER XX
HARRISON'S VIGILANCE
--_His personal courage and activities save the frontier capital._
The spring of 1810 opened with peril to Vincennes. The eternal vigilance
of Harrison alone saved the day. The fall before had witnessed the
making of the Treaty of Fort Wayne and the acquisition of the New
Purchase; this had strengthened the claims of the Prophet and Tecumseh
for a closer union of the tribes, and had given added force to their
argument in favor of a communistic ownership of all the land. What right
had the old village chiefs to dispose of the common domain without the
consent of the warriors who had fought to maintain it? The Great Spirit
gave the soil in common to all the tribes; what single tribe could
alienate any particular portion of it?
Reliable word came to the Governor in April that the Prophet had
assembled one thousand souls at the Prophet's Town, with probably three
hundred fifty or four hundred men among them, consisting principally of
Kickapoos and Winnebagoes, "but with a considerable number of
Potawatomis and Shawnees and a few Chippewas and Ottawas;" that the
French traders along the Wabash had been warned by the Prophet's
followers to separate themselves from the Americans at Vincennes for
trouble was brewing; that the Indians at Tippecanoe had refused to buy
ammunition of the traders, saying that they had a plenty, and could get
plenty more without paying for it; that Matthew Elliott, the British
agent at Malden, was busy with plot and intrigue against the United
States. But Harrison was surrounded by some of the best scouts and
confidential agents that a frontier official ever commanded--among them
Touissant Dubois, Joseph Barron and Michael Brouillette. He kept awake
and on the alert.
Tecumseh now assumed a more active leadership. The day had arrived for
the statesman and warrior to sound the alarm, form an active league and
confederacy of all the tribes, and with tomahawk in hand, resist any
further advancement on the part of the whites. As Harrison afterwards
remarked, he appeared today on the Wabash, a short time later on the
shores of Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, and then upon the Mississippi.
Everywhere he was masterful, eloquent, convincing, and "made an
impression favorable to his purpose." At one time during the early
summer it is known that he was at Detroit, and he was probably in close
communication with his British allies, although he professed to hate
them.
About May, 1810, a council of all the tribes of the Wabash and those to
the north was called at the river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. The whole
situation was fraught with danger, for Harrison had reason to believe
that many of the tribes had already received the tomahawk and were
meditating a combined attack on the settlements. Subsequent events
proved that his fears were well founded. He immediately dispatched John
Conner to the Delawares and "pointed out to them the unavoidable
destruction which awaited all the tribes which should dare to take up
the hatchet against their fathers, and the great danger that the
friendly tribes would incur, if war should be kindled, from the
difficulty of discriminating friend from foe."
A messenger was dispatched in haste after the deputies of the tribes
deputed to the council, with full instructions dictated by the Governor,
to urge these facts upon the assembled tribes. In addition, the Governor
in response to the demand of a company of officers, merchants, and
others at Vincennes, at once called two companies of militia into active
service, established alarm posts upon the frontier, and used all
available means at hand to put himself in readiness for war.
Fortunately, the Delawares remained faithful. If Winamac is to be
believed, the Prophet in person urged upon the council an immediate
surprise of Detroit, Fort Wayne, the post at Chicago, St. Louis and
Vincennes, and a junction with the tribes of the Mississippi, but the
"forcible representations" of the Delaware deputies, who were looked
upon as "grandfathers," prevented the adoption of his plans. It seems
that the younger men and some of the war lords of the smaller bands were
ready to go to war, but the sachems and older village chieftains who had
participated in the treaty of the year before held aloof. The Chippewas,
Ottawas and Potawatomi refused to take up arms, the council broke up
without any concerted action, and Winamac and the Potawatomi were sent
to the Governor to make report of the proceedings. When Winamac arrived
at Vincennes in the latter part of June, he reported that as he passed
through the Prophet's Town an attempt was made to assassinate him--so
enraged was the Prophet at his failure on the St. Joseph. Winamac
further told the Governor that about the time of the council the Prophet
had proposed to the younger warriors that the principal chiefs of all
the tribes should be murdered; that they were the ones who had brought
about a sale of the Indian lands, and that their, the warriors' hands,
would never be untied until they were rid of them. The brothers were
baffled in another mission. Tecumseh urged the Shawnees at Wapakoneta,
Ohio, to join the league. A letter of John Johnston, Indian agent at
Fort Wayne, informed the Governor that, the Shawnees refused even to
enter into council with him.
The ugly temper into which the Indians had now worked themselves is well
illustrated by the episode of the salt. Shortly prior to the fifteenth
of June, a boat came up the Wabash to the Prophet's Town laden with salt
for the use of the tribes, according to the terms of a former treaty.
The men in charge of the boat reported that the Prophet, and some
Kickapoos with him at the time, refused to receive it, and he was
directed to leave the salt on the bank of the river until Tecumseh
should return; Tecumseh being reported as at Detroit. On his return trip
home the master of the boat was directed to re-load the salt; that the
Indians would have nothing to do with it. "Whilst the hands were rolling
in the barrels, the brother of the Prophet seized the master and several
others by the hair, and shaking them violently, asked them if they were
Americans. They, however, were all young Frenchmen. They also insulted
Mr. Brouillette, and called him an American dog, and a young Potawatomi
chief directed his men to plunder his house, which was immediately done,
depriving him of all his provisions, tobacco, etc." Michael Brouillette
was the French trader heretofore referred to, and was the personal agent
and scout of General Harrison. He kept on hand a few Articles of trade
to disguise his real character.
On one of their embassies, however, the brothers were successful. One of
the most influential of the tribes in council was the Wyandots or
Hurons, now greatly reduced in numbers, but still of great prestige and
power among the red men. Harrison always ranked their warriors among the
best, and General Wayne at Greenville had delivered to them the original
duplicate of the treaty. In a speech by Massas, a Chippewa chief, to
General Wayne, he referred to this tribe as "our uncles, the Wyandots,"
and this was the designation generally employed by all the tribes. It
was plain that if the Wyandots could be won over to the new cause, a
great diplomatic victory would be gained and the influence of the new
movement greatly augmented. The Prophet accordingly sent a deputation to
the Wyandots, "expressing his surprise that the Wyandots, who had
directed the councils of the other tribes, as well as the treaty with
the white people, should sit still, and see the property of the Indians
usurped by a part," and he expressly desired to see the treaties and
know what they contained. The Wyandots were greatly flattered by these
attentions, and answered "that they had nothing nearer their hearts,
than to see all the various tribes united again as one man--that they
looked upon everything that had been done since the treaty of
Greenville as good for nothing--and that they would unite their
exertions with those of the Prophet, to bring together all the tribes,
and get them to unite to put a stop to the encroachments of the white
people." It seems that the Wyandots were also the keepers of the great
belt, which had formerly been a symbol of the union of the tribes at the
time of the war with Anthony Wayne. They now came in deputation to the
Prophet's Town, carrying this great belt with them, and producing it
among the clans of the Miami at the villages of the Mississinewa,
accused them of deserting their Indian friends and allies. The tribes at
Mississinewa sent for the Weas and accompanied the deputation to
Tippecanoe.
Though thwarted on the St. Joseph and among the Shawnees, it was plain
that a strict espionage would have to be maintained over the proceedings
at the Prophet's Town, and especially over the Prophet himself. The
heart of this priest was filled with plots of assassination and murder.
Grosble, an old Indian friend of the Governor, informed him that the
Prophet had at one time planned a wholesale slaughter at Vincennes, and
that it had been arranged that the Prophet should enter the Governor's
house with ten or twelve of his followers and slay him. To the Prophet
may be attributed most of the horse-stealing expeditions, the insults to
messengers and agents, and the plans for the murder of the older Indian
chiefs. While Tecumseh either countenanced these transactions, or else
was unable to control them, he seems, with strange sagacity for a
savage, to have at all times realized that the assassination of
Harrison, the stealing of a few horses, or the slaughter of a few white
men on the border, would really never accomplish anything save to
intensify the feeling between the races. While never comprehending the
great forces of civilization and of the government which he was
resisting, he seems to have steadily kept in mind that a handful of
naked savages at the Prophet's Town would avail him nothing; that in
order to effectively strike he must have back of him a substantial body
of warriors recruited from all the confederated tribes, well victualled,
armed and equipped, and equal in number to the armies of his adversary.
He knew the Indian character well enough to know that they would never
long resist a superior force. If he could keep his rash and impulsive
brother in leash long enough to form a permanent and powerful league,
then he had hopes of ultimate success. But there was the great danger,
in fact, the very peril that finally engulfed him. The Prophet with that
fatal egotism of the fanatic, vainly imagined that he was more than a
match for the Governor, and in the absence of his brother, let his
vindictive hate and malice destroy the last dream of empire.
In the latter part of the month of June, Harrison sent Dubois and
Brouillette to the Prophet's Town to take note of what was going on.
They reported that while the tribes of the Mississinewa, the Weas and
Kickapoos were living in expectation of trouble, that there was no
immediate danger, as the defection of the tribes at the St. Joseph had
upset the plans of the brothers. Dubois requested the Prophet to state
the grounds of his complaint, if he had any, against the United States.
The Prophet answered in the language of Brant, that the Indians had been
cheated of their lands and that no sale was good unless made by all the
tribes. On the fourth of July, four canoes, filled with the Prophet's
followers, passed the Wea village at Terre Haute, and Harrison sent out
the militia to discover what had become of them. One of these canoes
came down the river to a Shaker settlement sixteen miles above
Vincennes. The Indians there attended meeting on Sunday, the Prophet
professing to believe in the Shaker creed, (without, however, practicing
celibacy), and then finished the day's proceedings by stealing five
horses. They made no attempt to cover their tracks, but the Governor
stopped any pursuit, as he "had been informed some time before, that one
of their plans to bring on the war, was to send out parties to steal
horses, and, if they were pursued, to kill their pursuers." This was
plainly the work of the Prophet. More alarming stories came in. It was
said that the Sacs and Foxes were awaiting the signal from the Prophet
to take up arms; that a party of them had visited the British
superintendent, and that Elliott had said to a Miami at Maiden "My son,
keep your eyes fixed on me--my tomahawk is now up--be you ready, but do
not strike till I give the signal." Harrison in the light of all these
events, determined to send Barron, his trusted interpreter, to the
Prophet's Town. The reception of Barron is thus dramatically related;
"He was first conducted ceremoniously to the place where the Prophet,
surrounded by a number of Indians, was seated. Here he was left standing
at a distance of about ten feet from the Indian prophet. 'He looked at
me,' said Barron, 'for several minutes, without speaking or making any
sign of recognition, although he knew me well. At last he spoke,
apparently in anger. 'For what purpose do you come here?' said he,
'Brouillette was here; he was a spy. Dubois was here; he was a spy.
There is your grave; look on it!' The Prophet then pointed to the ground
near the spot where I stood."
No harm was done him, however. Tecumseh interceded and the Governor's
messenger was finally received with respect. Barron delivered a speech
of Harrison's to the Prophet in the presence of Tecumseh. The purport of
this address was, that while the Governor said he believed that there
had been an attempt to raise the tomahawk, that the old chain of
friendship between the Indians and whites might still be renewed; that
there were two roads open, one leading to peace, and the other to misery
and ruin; that it was useless to make war against the Seventeen Fires,
as their blue-coats were more numerous than the sands of the Wabash;
that if complaint was made as to the purchase of the Indian lands, that
the Governor was willing to send the principal chiefs to Washington to
make this complaint to the President in person; that everything
necessary for the journey should be prepared and a safe return
guaranteed.
On this visit Barron held much personal converse with Tecumseh and
lodged with him in a cabin. He professed to be much pleased with
Harrison's speech, observing that he had not seen him since he was a
young man seated at the side of General Wayne. He disclaimed any
intention of trying to make war, but said that it would be impossible to
remain on friendly terms with the United States unless they abandoned
the idea of trying to make settlements farther to the north and west,
and unless they acknowledged the principle that all the lands were held
by the tribes in common. Said he: "The Great Spirit gave this great
island to his red children; he placed the whites on the other side of
the big water; they were not contented with their own, but came to take
ours from us. They have driven us from the sea to the lakes, we can go
no further. They have taken upon themselves to say this tract belongs to
the Miamis, this to the Delawares, and so on, but the Great Spirit
intended it as the common property of all the tribes, nor can it be sold
without the consent of all. Our father tells us, that we have no
business upon the Wabash, the land belongs to other tribes, but the
Great Spirit ordered us to come here and here we shall stay."
Tecumseh now resolved on that famous meeting with the Governor at
Vincennes. Harrison had long known that there were those in his midst
who were inimical to his plans and who had opposed his purpose of the
fall before, but he did not learn until afterwards the full extent of
their treachery. It seems that Tecumseh had been given to understand
that about half of the population of Vincennes were friendly to his
cause. An American had visited him during the winter of 1809-10 who
informed him that Harrison had no authority whatever from the government
to make the purchase; that the Governor had only two years more to
remain in office, and that if Tecumseh could prevail upon the Indians to
refuse their annuities under the treaty until the Governor "was
displaced, as he would be, and a good man appointed as his successor, he
would restore to the Indians all the lands purchased from them." How far
these representations may have deceived Tecumseh into the belief that he
was dealing with a man who was tottering to the fall, is not certainly
known. He determined at any rate, to make a show of force. If the
Governor was a weakling who sat insecurely in his seat, and was fearful
of public clamor, here was an opportunity to display that fact. As he
remarked to Barron, he had not seen the Governor since he was "a very
young man," sitting at the side of General Wayne. The Governor was
younger in years than Tecumseh, and no doubt the Shawnee was disposed to
regard him with contempt. To appear suddenly at the capital of the white
man with a band of armed warriors; to openly and haughtily declare his
purpose of resisting the pretensions of the Governor and to pour out his
insolence upon the heads of the chieftains who had dared to sell the
lands--what a grand culmination of all his plans this would be, if it
had the desired effect! There was nothing to lose, everything to gain.
He resolved to try it. Accordingly, on the 12th day of August, there
swept down the river to Fort Knox, eighty canoes, filled with naked
savages painted in the most terrific manner. All of them were armed and
ready for attack. At their head was the great war chief, described by
Major George R. Floyd, commandant at the fort, as "about six feet high,
straight, with large, fine features, and altogether a daring, bold
looking fellow." The conference with the Governor was appointed for the
morrow.
CHAPTER XXI
THE COUNCIL AT VINCENNES
--_The dramatic meeting between Harrison and Tecumseh.--Tecumseh
announces his doctrine of the common ownership of the Indian lands._
The great house of the Governor at Vincennes is situated inland from the
Wabash river about six hundred feet, and there formerly stood in front
of this house and next to the river a grove of walnut trees which
afforded a gracious shade. It was here, that on a bright, sunshiny day
in August, the dramatic meeting occurred between the Shawnee chief and
Governor Harrison. Local tradition has preserved a tale that the
Governor had secreted in the great parlor of his house a company of one
hundred well-armed soldiers to provide against any treachery on the part
of the red men, and computations, have been made to show that the room
would accommodate that number of infantry, but this story must be
regarded with suspicion.
Tecumseh and his party seem to have arrived at the place of rendezvous
in canoes and by way of the river. He appeared on the scene with a
retinue of forty warriors accoutered in the elaborate costume of the
ceremonial, with painted bodies and feathered headdress, and fully armed
with war clubs and tomahawks. The chief himself, invariably wore a
simple dress of Indian tanned buckskin, with a mantle of the same
material thrown over the left shoulder. In his belt he carried an
elegant silver mounted tomahawk and a hunting knife in a leathern case.
"Tall, athletic and manly, dignified, but graceful," he stood as the
chosen exponent of his people's wrongs, ready to voice their plaints in
the "musical and euphonious" accents of the Shawnee tongue.
A close observer of the savages of that day has stated that, "those who
have been familiar with the Indians of the northwest, when they were
Indians, and took sufficient interest in them as a race to study with
care their customs, laws and usages, are aware that when attending
councils with other nations or tribes, or with our agents, that they
were always acting a part, a kind of diplomatic drama." To Tecumseh the
moment appeared propitious. The time had arrived to put the youthful
Governor of thirty-seven years to the test. Harrison was attended by the
judges of the supreme court; General Gibson, the secretary; Major G. R.
Floyd, and other officers of the regular army, and a guard of twelve men
from the garrison under the command of Lieutenant Jennings; there was
also a large assemblage of citizens present, who had been invited
thither to hear what Tecumseh had to present. The stage was well set,
and the bold and insolent heart of the savage rose high. "As he came in
front of the dais, an elevated portion of the place upon which the
Governor and the officers of the territory were seated, the Governor
invited him, through his interpreter, to come forward and take a seat
with him and his counsellors, premising the invitation by saying 'That
it was the wish of the Great Father, the President of the United States,
that he should do so'. The chief paused for a moment, as the words were
uttered and the sentence finished, and raising his tall form to its
greatest height, surveyed the troops and the crowd around him. Then with
his keen eyes fixed on the Governor for a single moment, and turning
them to the sky above, with his sinewy arms pointed toward the heavens,
and with a tone and manner indicative of supreme contempt, for the
paternity assigned him, said in a voice whose clarion tones were heard
throughout the whole assembly: 'My Father?--The sun is my father--the
earth is my mother--and on her bosom I will recline!"
Thus the council opened. The Governor, with a short sword at his side,
seated on the platform with his officers and advisers; the Indians in
front of him seated on the grass; to the left, the Potawatomi chief,
Winamac, with one of his young men, extended on the green, and all about
the eager and curious faces of the crowd, now wrought up to a high state
of tension by the sarcastic retort of the Indian chieftain. The speech
that followed, "was full of hostility from beginning to end." Tecumseh
began in a low voice and spoke for about an hour. "As he warmed with his
subject his clear tones might be heard, as if 'trumpet-tongued' to the
utmost limits of the assembled crowd who gathered around him." The
interpreter Barron, was an illiterate man and the beauty and eloquence
of the chief's oration was in great part lost. He denounced with passion
and bitterness the cruel murder of the Moravian Indians during the
Revolutionary War, the assassination of friendly chieftains and other
outrages, and said that he did not know how he could ever be a friend of
the white man again; that the tribes had been driven by the Americans
"toward the setting sun, like a galloping horse," and that they would
shortly push them into the lakes where they could neither stand nor
walk; that the white people had allotted each separate tribe a certain
tract of land so as to create strife between them, and so that they
might be destroyed; that he and his brother had purposed from the
beginning to form a confederation of all the tribes to resist any
further encroachment of the whites; that the Great Spirit had given all
the land in common to the Indians, and that no single tribe had a right
to alienate any particular portion of it. He declared that the Treaty of
Fort Wayne had been made with the consent of only a few; that it was
largely brought about by the threats of Winamac, and that a reluctant
consent had been wrung from the Weas because they were few in number. So
fierce and vitriolic became his abuse of Winamac that that chieftain
primed his pistols and seemed ready at any moment to take Tecumseh's
life. The speaker went on to declare: "that if the government would not
give up the lands that were purchased from the Miamis, Delawares,
Potawatomis, etc., that those who were united with him, were determined
to fall upon those tribes and destroy them. That they were determined to
have no more chiefs, but in the future to have everything under the
direction of the warriors;" that the Governor would see what would be
done to the village chiefs who had sold the land, and unless he restored
it he would be a party to the killing of them.
The bold and defiant attitude of the speaker, and the tone of insolence
that pervaded all his words, astonished even the Governor. A weak or
corrupt man would have trembled in his place and been at a loss how to
answer. Not so with Harrison. All who knew him, says John Law, were
willing to acknowledge his courage, both moral and physical. He knew
that the treaty of Fort Wayne had been concluded under the instructions
of government; that his dealings with the tribes had been open-handed
and fair, even with the insignificant Weas of the lower waters; that the
"unwarranted and unwarrantable" pretensions of Tecumseh were made
largely for their effect upon the audience, and after Tecumseh's remarks
had been openly interpreted by Barron, he arose without tremor or
hesitation to deny the chief's assertions. He spoke no doubt with some
degree of force, for he undoubtedly understood by now that Tecumseh
would never have given utterance to many of his charges, without
entertaining a belief that they would meet the approval of some
traitorous faction of the assembly. He answered: "That the charges of
bad faith against our government, and the assertion that injustice had
been done the Indians in any treaty ever made, or any council ever held
with them by the United States, had no foundation in fact. That in all
their dealings with the red men, they had ever been governed by the
strictest rules of right and justice. That while other civilized nations
had treated them with contumely and contempt, ours had always acted in
good faith with them. That so far as he individually was concerned, he
could say in the presence of the "Great Spirit" who was watching over
their deliberations, that his conduct, even with the most insignificant
tribe, had been marked with kindness, and all his acts governed by
honor, integrity and fair dealing. That he had uniformly been the friend
of the red men, and that it was the first time in his life that his
motives had been questioned, or his actions impeached. It was the first
time in his life that he had ever heard such unfounded claims put forth,
as Tecumseh set up, by any chief, or any Indian, having the least regard
for truth or the slightest knowledge of the intercourse between the
Indians and the white men, from the time this continent was first
discovered. That as to the claim of Tecumseh that all the Indians were
but one nation, and owned the lands in common, that this could not be
maintained; that at the time the white men arrived on the continent they
had found the Miamis in possession of the Wabash; that the Shawnees were
then residents of Georgia, from which they had been driven by the
Creeks; that the lands in question had been purchased from the Miamis
who were the original owners of it; that if the Great Spirit had
intended that the tribes should constitute but one nation, he would not
have put different tongues in their heads, but taught them all to speak
a language that all could understand; that the Miamis had been benefited
by the annuities of the government and that the Seventeen Fires had
always been punctual in the payment of them; that the Shawnees had no
right to come from a distant country and control the Miamis in the
disposal of their own property."
An event now took place, that but for the quick presence of mind and
decisive action of the Governor, might have terminated in bloodshed.
Harrison had taken his seat and Barron had interpreted his reply to the
Shawnees, and was turning to the Miamis and Potawatomi, when Tecumseh
excitedly sprang to his feet and told Barron to tell the Governor that
he lied. Barron, who as a subordinate in the Indian department, had
great respect for his superiors, was seeking to mollify the harshness of
this language, when he was again interrupted by Tecumseh, who said: "No!
No! Tell him he lies!" The Governor noticed Tecumseh's angry manner, but
thought he was seeking to make some explanation, when his attention was
directed to Winamac, who was cocking his pistol, and a moment later,
General Gibson, who understood the Shawnee language, said to Lieutenant
Jennings: "Those fellows intend mischief; you had better bring up the
guard." In an instant all was confusion. The warriors on the grass
sprang to their feet brandishing their war clubs and tomahawks; Harrison
extricated himself from his chair and drew his sword to defend himself;
Major Floyd drew a dirk, and the Methodist minister Winans ran to the
Governor's house, got a gun, and stood by the door to protect the
family. Such of the citizens as could, armed themselves with brickbats.
In the midst of this turmoil the guard came running up and were about to
fire on the Indians, when Harrison quickly interposed and commanded them
not to do so. He now demanded a full explanation, and when the
intemperate words of Tecumseh were explained, told him he was a bad man
and that he would hold no further communication with him; that as he had
come there under the protection of the council fire, he might go in
safety, but that he must immediately leave the neighborhood. The firm
stand and commanding attitude of the Governor at once quieted the storm,
and Tecumseh and his followers leisurely withdrew and retired to their
camp. That night two companies of militia were brought in from the
country, but no trouble occurred, and the time passed quietly until
morning.
[Illustration: Raccoon Creek, Parke County, Indiana. The north line of
the New Purchase. Photo by Heaton]
It was a part of the local tradition of later years, that when Tecumseh
called the Governor a liar, that quick as a flash he arose to his feet,
drew his sword and was about to resent the insult, when his friends
interfered and prevented the blow. This story seems improbable, from the
fact that the Governor was aware that many unarmed citizens were
present, and that any rash or inconsiderate action on his part would
precipitate a conflict that could only end in blood and carnage. He
knew, moreover, that Tecumseh, by all the rules of civilized
intercourse, even among open belligerents, was entitled to protection
while engaged in council, and it is not probable that as brave a man as
Harrison would violate these rules by becoming the aggressor. Instead,
by quick word of command, he recalled the excited chief to his senses,
dismissed him at once, and averted a catastrophe.
In the solitude of his camp that evening Tecumseh was forced to
acknowledge defeat. The young Governor instead of quailing had remained
firm--it was plain that he was the chosen plenipotentiary of his
government in all the treaties that had been effected. Moreover, in his
reply, the Governor had not only emphatically repudiated all
insinuations of unfairness toward the red man, but he had put the chief
himself on the defensive by showing that he was an interloper who sought
to control the rightful possessions of others. At last, it was the
stolid savage who lost his self control, and the Governor, who by his
respect for the laws of the council fire had brought the flush of shame
to the chieftain's cheek. That night, as he afterwards admitted at Fort
Meigs, he felt a rising respect in his breast for the first magistrate
of the territory. He was doomed in after years to associate with the
cowardly and contemptible Proctor, whom he called a "miserable old
squaw," but from the day of this council he paid the involuntary tribute
to Harrison that one brave man always pays to another, though ranged on
a hostile side.
Thoroughly convinced that his conduct of the day previous had been
highly impolitic, the chieftain, at the dawn of day, sent for Barron,
and said that he desired a further interview, declaring that he had no
intention of attacking the Governor on the day before, and that he had
been advised to pursue the course he did on the counsel of certain white
men; disclosing to Barron the circumstances heretofore related as to the
visit of certain persons at the Prophet's Town, who had said that the
Governor had no right to make the purchase of the lands on the Wabash;
that he was unpopular and would be removed from office, and that then
the lands would be restored. The Governor would not receive Tecumseh,
however, until due apology had been made through the interpreter, and
ample provision had been made for the protection of the citizens by
ordering the local company of Captain Jones to parade morning and
evening, and hold themselves ready for instant action. The Governor also
took the precaution to be well armed, as did several of his friends.
At this second council, Tecumseh's whole demeanor was changed. While
remaining "firm and intrepid, he said nothing that was in the least
insolent." He now disclosed in open council what he had theretofore told
Barron as to the visits of the white men, and again declared that he had
no intention of harming the Governor. Harrison now informed the chief
that he was about to cause a survey to be made of the New Purchase, and
he desired to know whether this process would be attended with any
danger. Tecumseh at once replied that he and those affiliated with him
were determined "that the old boundary line should continue, and that
the crossing it would be attended with bad consequences." His words were
severally confirmed by a Wyandot, a Kickapoo, a Potawatomi, an Ottawa,
and a Winnebago, who each openly avowed that their tribes had entered
into the Shawnee confederacy, and that Tecumseh had been chosen as their
leader and chief.
This second council does not seem to have been of great length. In it,
Tecumseh entirely abandoned any attempt at bluster, but firmly and
positively stated to the Governor that he would not consent to the sale
of the Indian lands, and that any attempt to survey them would be met
with resistance. This frank and open statement, elicited a response
equally frank from the Governor. He told Tecumseh that his claims would
be transmitted in full to the President of the United States, and the
reply of the President at once communicated to him when received, but
that he was convinced that the President would never admit "that the
lands on the Wabash, were the property of any other tribes, than those
who had occupied and lived upon them," and as these lands had been
fairly and openly purchased at Fort Wayne, that the right of the United
States would be "supported by the sword." With these words the interview
terminated.
That night the Governor reflected. If the words of Tecumseh as uttered
in council, were sincere and genuine, they amounted to an open
declaration of war--the government must either entirely recede from the
ground it had taken, and restore the lands, or prepare for the coming
conflict. Concerning this issue there must be no doubt. The Governor
therefore resolved to repair to the headquarters of Tecumseh in person,
and there, removed from the atmosphere of a council, hold private
intercourse with the chieftain and read his intentions. He had hit upon
this expedient once before in the proceedings at Fort Wayne, and the
experiment had proven successful. Accordingly, the following morning,
throwing aside all considerations of personal danger, he suddenly
appeared at the tent of Tecumseh, accompanied only by the interpreter
Barron. He was most politely received. Proceeding at once to the main
point, he asked the chief if the declarations he had made in his two
public interviews were his real sentiments. Tecumseh answered that they
certainly were; that he had no grievance against the United States
except the matter as to the purchase of the Indian lands, and that he
would go to war with very great reluctance; that if Harrison would
prevail upon the President to give back the lands, and promise never to
consummate any more purchases, without the consent of all the tribes,
that he would be the faithful ally of the Americans and assist them in
all their wars with the British. "He said he knew the latter were always
urging the Indians to war for their own advantage, and not to benefit
his countrymen; and here he clapped his hands, and imitated a person who
halloos at a dog, to set him to fight with another, thereby insinuating
that the British thus endeavored to set the Indians on the Americans."
He said further that he had rather be a friend of the Seventeen Fires,
but if they would not accede to his demands that he would be forced to
join the English. The memory of Wayne, the commanding figure and
dauntless courage of the present Governor, had had their effect;
compared to the vile and sneaking agents of the British government, who,
in the security of their forts, had formerly offered bounties for
American scalps, and urged the Indians to a predatory warfare, the
American leaders stood out in bold relief as both men and warriors.
Tecumseh recognized this, but the die was cast and his purposes were
unchangeable. Stripped of all its savage propensities, the heart of the
Shawnee was really of heroic mould. Concerning that great principle of
the survival of the fittest, he knew nothing; of the onrushing forces of
civilization and progress he had no just comprehension; but as the
rising sun of the new republic appeared, he saw the light of his race
fading into obscurity, and patriotically resolved to stand on his lands
and resist to the last. Misinformed, misguided, he sought an alliance
with the British to stem the tide; instead of delaying, this but
accelerated the decline of the tribes. Tecumseh, when it was too late,
discovered that the promises of the British agents were false, and soon
after his death the feeling engendered against the tribes, on account of
their alliance with the English and the many atrocities they had
committed, drove them beyond the Mississippi. But he who fights for his
native land and from devotion to principle, however wrong, must always
be entitled to the respect of the brave.
If coolness and courage had had their effect on the one hand, the candor
and honesty of his adversary, when met face to face, had also moved the
Governor. In after years, in an address before the Historical Society of
Ohio, Harrison said: "I think it probable that Tecumseh possessed more
integrity than any other of the chiefs who attained to much
distinction." He now repeated again that he would forward to the
government all the propositions of the chief, but that there was little
probability that they would be accepted. "Well," said Tecumseh, "as the
great chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great Spirit will put
sense enough into his head, to induce him to direct you to give up this
land. It is true, he is so far off, he will not be injured by the war;
he may still sit in his town and drink his wine, whilst you and I will
have to fight it out." The conference ended with an appeal by Harrison,
that in the event of war, no outrages should be committed on women and
children and those who were unable to resist. This, the chief manfully
acceded to, and said he would adhere to his promise.
Thus ended this remarkable conference participated in by the two
greatest figures then in the western world. The one representing the
advancing tide of immigration that was to build the cities and plow the
fields of a new empire; the other representing the forlorn hope of a
fast decaying race that was soon to be removed from the pathways of
civilization.
Those who have vainly sought to make it appear that Harrison afterwards
wrongfully passed over the northern boundary line of the New Purchase to
provoke a fight and bring on a conflict, have certainly scanned the
records of this council at Vincennes with but little care. The truth is,
that the two principal figures in that affair parted each other's
company fully realizing that hostilities were at hand. To say that
Harrison was bound to sit helplessly in his capital while his enemies
gathered a force sufficient to overwhelm him, and all without a move on
his part to avert a calamity, but illustrates the foolishness of the
whole contention. Immediately on the breaking up of the council,
Tecumseh departed with a portion of his braves to organize and cement a
federation of the tribes; Harrison, in the meantime, ordering an
additional body of troops under Captain Cross at Newport, Kentucky, to
come to the relief of the settlements, and redoubling his vigilance to
avoid the surprise of a sudden attack. Without hesitation however, he
wrote the surveyor-general to make a survey; the lines to be run under
the protection of the militia.
The Governor was informed by the Weas, that during the progress of the
proceedings, they had been urged by four persons at Vincennes, whose
names they furnished, to join the Prophet and insist upon a return of
the lands. False representations were also made to the chiefs of this
tribe that the purchase at Fort Wayne was made without the consent or
knowledge of the President, and that a council of the Miamis had been
called on the Mississinewa, to make full inquiry. The treasonable
designs of this coterie came to naught. Whether British agencies were
actually at work within the town, or whether the actions of this clique
were prompted by the jealousy of the Governor's political enemies, will
probably never be fully known. Be that as it may, like all cravens of
their kind when the danger became imminent they slunk out of view, and
Harrison found himself surrounded by the brave and valorous of every
settlement, both in the vicinity of Vincennes and on the borders of
Kentucky.
Much conjecture had been indulged in, as to whether Tecumseh actually
meditated an attack at the time of the first council. That his impulsive
action might well have led to disastrous consequences, but for the cool,
quick command of the Governor, may well be conceded, but that he formed
any premeditated design before coming to the council, must admit of some
doubt. The reasoning of Drake possesses cogency. He states that
Tecumseh's probable purpose in attending the meeting with a considerable
force was to "make a strong impression upon the whites as to the extent
of his influence among the Indians, and the strength of his party. His
movement in the council may have been concerted for the purpose of
intimidating the Governor; but the more probable suggestion is that in
the excitement of the moment, produced by the speech of the Governor, he
lost his self-possession and involuntarily placed his hand upon his war
club, in which movement he was followed by the warriors around him,
without any previous intention of proceeding to extremities. Whatever
may have been the fact, the bold chieftain found in Governor Harrison a
firmness of purpose and an intrepidity of manner which must have
convinced him that nothing was to be gained by any effort at
intimidation, however daring."
CHAPTER XXII
THE SECOND AND LAST COUNCIL
--_The last meeting between the two leaders before Harrison marched into
the Indian country._
What strange fatality directed the minds of the Shawnee brothers to
repel all friendly advances on the part of the American government, and
to listen to the poisonous council of Matthew Elliott and the other
British agents who had so often deceived their race, may not easily be
divined. Brant had been bribed, Little Turtle and the Blue Jacket basely
deserted in the hour of defeat, and two English treaties negotiated
without a line in either to the advantage of the red man, but
notwithstanding all these facts, both Tecumseh and the Prophet were now
in full and constant communication with Malden, Canada.
Rapid strides were made by the brothers in the closing months of 1810.
Not only were the village chiefs and sachems shorn of all their old-time
authority, and the power of determination lodged in the hands of the
warriors, but the belt of union circulated by the Prophet among the
tribes "to confine the great water and prevent it from overflowing
them," brought many accessions both to the confederacy and to the
Shawnee influence. It was reported that when this belt was exhibited to
Elliott and he saw that so many tribes had united against the United
States that he danced with joy. About the first of November, Tecumseh
himself arrived at Malden on a visit to the British agency. He remained
there until some time after the twenty-fourth of December. The nature of
his conferences with Elliott may be inferentially arrived at from the
following. An Indian council had, during the preceding autumn, been
convened at Brownstown, near Detroit. A resolution had there been
entered into to prevent the sale of any more lands to the United States
and this step had been taken at the suggestion of Elliott. According to
the report of the Wea chiefs, the British agent had informed the tribes
that England and France had now made peace, and would soon unite their
arms "to dispossess the Americans of the lands they had taken from the
Indians." The Shawnee land doctrine had become popular. "The Indians,"
writes Harrison, "appear to be more uneasy and dissatisfied than I ever
before saw them, and I believe that the Prophet's principle, that their
land should be considered common property, is either openly avowed or
secretly favored by all the tribes west of the Wabash." The tribes of
the Lakes looked upon the Wabash as the land of promise. The Winnebagoes
were already present in considerable numbers at the Prophet's Town, and
the Wyandots had formed a camp in close proximity to that place. The Six
Nations were reported to be in motion and demanding the privilege of
settling in the Wabash valley. Could all these tribes be assembled in
the face of the advancing American settlements, they would serve the
double purpose of checking this advance and furnishing a protective
barrier to Canada in case of a war between Great Britain and the United
States. Tecumseh and Elliott were joined in the fellowship of a mutual
interest.
The Miami chiefs looked upon this presumptuous conduct of the Shawnee
leaders with high disapproval. Their tribes were the rightful
proprietors of the soil, and the establishment of the Prophet had been
effected without their consent. But much of their ancient authority had
passed away. Many of their young warriors were carried away by the mad
fanaticism of the Prophet and vainly imagined that they could drive the
white man back across the Ohio. Unless the hands of the Miami leaders
were upheld, they could not long resist the pressure of the surrounding
tribes and must give their sanction to the Prophet's scheme.
Harrison was fully convinced that the old village chiefs would willingly
place themselves under the protection of the government, and surrender
their claims for a suitable annuity, rather than submit to any
domination on the part of their neighbors. The Governor was plainly in
favor of forming an alliance with the Miamis, of dispersing the
followers of the Prophet, and paving the way for further extinguishment
of the Indian title. He urged that the narrow strip on the west side of
the Greenville cession, in the eastern part of the Indiana territory,
would soon be filled with new settlers; that the backwoodsmen were not
men "of a disposition to content themselves with land of an inferior
quality when they see in their immediate neighborhood the finest country
as to soil in the world occupied by a few wretched savages;" that the
Territory was fast advancing to statehood, and that the members of the
Territorial legislature were heartily in favor of smoothing the way to
further purchases.
The Governor also earnestly pressed the government to establish a strong
post on the Wabash in the upper portion of the New Purchase. The
citizens of Vincennes had been thoroughly alarmed by the presence of so
large a gathering of red men at the council in August. Murders were
frequent, and horse-stealing was an everyday occurrence. To adopt a
policy of vacillation with a savage was to confess weakness. The Prophet
was openly declaring to Brouillette, the Governor's agent, that no
survey of the new lands would be permitted. Immigration was ebbing, and
the selling and settling of the newly acquired territory was wholly out
of the question so long as the purchasers could not be assured of
protection. The display of a strong force of regulars and mounted
militia, the establishment of a strong position on the borders of the
Indian country, would not only dishearten the followers of the Prophet
and discourage further accessions to his banner, but strengthen the
hands of those Miami chieftains who still preserved their allegiance to
the United States. Any expeditionary force to be employed was to be
headed by the Governor himself, who had taken a very active part in the
training of the frontier militiamen, and who now offered his services
voluntarily and without compensation.
The Federal authorities moved slowly. It was evident that the old
indifference as to the welfare of the western world still prevailed.
Some strange hallucination led the Washington authorities to believe
that friendly relations might be sustained with a band of savages who
were carried away by a religious frenzy, and who were daily giving ear
to British whisperings. The consequences were that a party of mounted
dragoons organized by Judge Benjamin Parke to protect Vincennes and who
made a demand for pistols and swords, did not receive their equipment
until late in the following spring, and then the swords were found to be
of iron; that no orders were issued to form a friendly alliance with the
Miami chiefs, and hold them steadfast; that the small detachment of one
hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty regulars under Captain
Cross did not arrive until the third of October, and that no
instructions were received from the government, until all forage for the
horses had disappeared from the woods, and it was too late in the season
to undertake an expedition.
With the opening of the spring of 1811, the insolence and effrontery of
the Shawnee leaders measurably increased. About the first of April
twelve horses were stolen from the settlement of Busseron, about twenty
miles above Vincennes. The pillaging bands of the Potawatomi, directly
under the influence of the Prophet, were committing robberies and
murders on the Illinois and Missouri frontiers. In the issue of August
18th, 1810, of the _Western Sun_, of Vincennes, appeared this paragraph:
"Extract of a letter from a gentleman at St. Louis, to his friend in
this place, dated August 3rd, 1810. 'On my return from the garrison up
the Missouri, I stayed at Captain Cole's, who just returned from the
pursuit of some Indians that had stolen horses from the
settlement--they came in view of the Indians on the prairie, and pursued
on until night, and encamped, made fires, etc., in the woodland, and not
apprehending any danger from the Indians, lay down to sleep--some time
after midnight, they were fired upon by the Indians, and four men
killed."
What had happened was this: There is a grove about three or four miles
southwest of Morocco, in Newton County, Indiana, named Turkey Foot
grove, and another of the same name about forty miles south of it, and
two or three miles southeast of the town of Earl Park. In this region
dwelt Turkey Foot, at the head of a lawless band of the prairie
Potawatomi. They had kept the frontiers of Illinois in terror for months
and had caused considerable anxiety both to Governor Harrison and to
Governor Ninian Edwards of the Illinois Territory. In a spirit of
devilish mischief and led on by the hope of plunder, the chief and his
followers had ridden hundreds of miles across the grand prairies of
Indiana and Illinois, had forded the Mississippi, and pierced to the
outposts of Loutre island in the Missouri river, below the present town
of Hermann, and from fifty to seventy miles west of St. Louis, had
stolen a bunch of horses there, and made good their escape, after
committing one of the foulest murders recorded in the early history of
that territory.
As soon as the theft of the horses was discovered, great excitement
prevailed, as horses were very valuable to the early pioneer. A rescue
party was organized, composed of Samuel Cole, and William T. Cole,
Temple, Patton, Murdock and Gooch, and after pursuing the Indians all
day, they came in sight of them on a large prairie, but the horses of
Cole's party were so tired that Cole had to give up the chase, and an
encampment was made in a small woodland. After midnight, and when all
were in slumber, the stealthy savages returned, surrounded the camp, and
on the first attack killed Temple, Patton and Gooch. Murdock sought
shelter under the bank of a creek near by, but William T. Cole was
attacked by two savages, one in front and one in the rear. In the
rencounter Cole was stabbed in the shoulder, but wrenched a knife from
one of his assailants and killed him. The other Indian escaped in the
darkness.
This murder and larceny combined, was brought to the attention of
Governor Harrison by the then acting governor of the Louisiana
Territory. Later, documentary proof was furnished by Governor Howard.
Harrison sent William Wells and John Conner to Tippecanoe to demand
restitution of the stolen property. Four horses were delivered up, and a
promise made by the Shawnee leaders to procure the remainder, but this
was never done. Wells found out that the Potawatomi banditti who had
committed these murders were directly under the influence of Tecumseh
and the Prophet, but he was given to understand that the murderers had
fled to the Illinois river, and that no attempt would be made to
apprehend them. Tecumseh boldly attempted to excuse all these outrages
in a subsequent conference with the Governor.
Wells had much conversation at this time with Tecumseh, who "openly and
positively avowed his determination to resist the encroachments of the
white people." Wells told the Shawnee chief that he would never be able
to accomplish his designs, but Tecumseh replied that Wells would live to
see the contrary. About this time a friendly Kickapoo chief arrived at
Vincennes and told the Governor that he was determined to put him on his
guard against the Prophet and his brother. "He said that their pacific
professions were not to be relied upon; that he had heard them speaking
to the Indians for several years and in that time he had never heard
anything that they said but war and hatred against the United States.
That the delivering up of the horses which were occasionally stolen was
merely intended to lull our vigilance and to prevent us from discovering
their designs until they were ripe for execution. That they frequently
told their young men that they would defeat their plans by their
precipitancy. That in their harangues to the Indians they frequently
requested those who would not join their confederacy, to keep their
secret. That they always promised them a rich harvest of plunder and
scalps, declaring that the first stroke would put them in possession of
an ample supply of arms, ammunition and provisions."
On the second of May, General William Clark, of St. Louis, wrote to the
Governor informing him that the Prophet had sent the belt to the
Mississippi tribes, inviting them to join in a war against the United
States, and declaring that the war would be begun by an attack on
Vincennes. About the same time word was brought that the Sacs had
acceded to the hostile confederacy, and that the Potawatomi in the
region of Chicago were on the warpath. A party of surveyors employed by
the surveyor-general to divide the New Purchase into townships, were
seized and bound by a party of Weas, their arms taken from them, and the
engineers driven in terror to Cincinnati. In the fore part of June, a
pirogue sent up the Wabash with the annual supply of salt for the Indian
tribes was seized by the Prophet and every barrel taken. The excuse
given was, that the Prophet had two thousand warriors to feed, and that
he had taken none on the previous year. Pierre La Plante, Harrison's
agent at the Prophet's Town, reported that only about one hundred
warriors were present at the time, but that Tecumseh was shortly
expected to arrive with a considerable reinforcement from the lakes.
About the twentieth of June, five Shawnees and ten Winnebagoes of the
Prophet's party invaded Vincennes bringing a number of rifles and
tomahawks to be repaired. They were boldly accused by some Potawatomi of
Topenebee's faction to be meditating war against Harrison and to be
making observations on the situation of affairs within the town.
So threatening and warlike were the actions of the Shawnee leaders that
the Governor now addressed a communication to the Secretary of War,
demanding that the Fourth United States Regiment at Pittsburgh, under
the command of Colonel John Parke Boyd, be sent forward immediately for
the defense of the frontiers. The government was in part aroused from
its state of lethargy. Recent advices from Governor Edwards had
announced a series of murders and depredations on the Illinois frontier,
and the citizens of Vincennes were in constant dread and apprehension.
The Governor said that he could not much longer restrain his people, and
that there was danger of them falling on the Indians and slaying friend
and foe alike, from their inability to discriminate the various tribes.
By a letter of the seventeenth of July, the Governor received word that
the aforementioned regiment, with a company of riflemen, had been
ordered to descend the Ohio, and that Colonel Boyd was to act under the
advice and command of the Governor himself. If necessary, this force was
to be employed in an attack upon the Prophet, but the Governor was given
positive orders not to march them up the river or to begin hostilities,
until every other expedient had failed. Hedged about by timid
restrictions and foolish admonitions, the course of the Governor was
rendered extremely difficult. One thing, however, he had firmly resolved
to do. The Prophet's forces must soon be scattered.
In the meantime, Harrison had dispatched Captain Walter Wilson, of the
Territorial militia, with a speech to the Prophet's Town. The Captain
was well received by Tecumseh. Harrison's talk was plain and to the
point. He informed the Shawnee brothers that he was well aware of their
design to unite the tribes, murder the Governor, and commence a war upon
his people. That their seizure of the salt sent up the Wabash was ample
proof of their hostile intention. That they had no prospect of success,
for his hunting shirt men were as numerous as the mosquitoes on the
shores of the Wabash. That if they were discontented with the sale of
the lands at Fort Wayne, that he (the Governor) would furnish them the
means to visit the President of the United States, and they might then
state their claims in full and receive justice, but that they must not
come to Vincennes with a large retinue, as this would not be permitted.
If they came they must only be attended by a few of their young men.
This last proposition, Tecumseh promptly acquiesced in and sent word to
the Governor that he expected to be in Vincennes in about eighteen days,
and that all matters would then be settled in "peace and happiness."
Harrison was vigilant. He determined to watch the river with a party of
scouts, and in the meantime to muster the militia and make a show of
military force. He was convinced that if his wily antagonist found him
off his guard that he would not hesitate to "pick a quarrel," and launch
a general attack. The Governor's letter to the war department of July
10th, 1811, is interesting. "With them (i. e., the Indians) the surprise
of an enemy bestows more eclat upon a warrior than the most brilliant
success obtained by other means. Tecumseh has taken for his model the
celebrated Pontiac and I am persuaded that he will bear a favorable
comparison in every respect with that far famed warrior. If it is his
object to begin with the surprise of this place, it is impossible that a
more favorable situation could have been chosen than the one he
occupies. It is just so far off as to be removed from our immediate
observation, and yet so near as to enable him to strike us when the
water is high in twenty-four hours, and even when it is low their light
canoes will come fully as fast as the journey could be performed on
horseback. The situation is in other respects admirable for the purposes
for which he has chosen it. It is nearly central with regard to the
tribes which he wishes to unite. The water communication with Lake Erie
by means of the Wabash and Miami, with Lake Michigan and the Illinois
by the Tippecanoe, is a great convenience. It is immediately in the
center of the back line of that fine country which he wishes to prevent
us from settling, and above all, he has immediately in his rear a
country that has been but little explored, consisting principally of
barren thickets, interspersed with swamps and lakes, into which our
cavalry could not penetrate, and our infantry only by slow and laborious
marches."
Tecumseh did not keep his word. At the very time he was promising Wilson
to bring only a few men he was sending word in every direction to
collect his people. On the twenty-fourth of July he was within a few
miles' march of Vincennes with one hundred twenty or thirty warriors,
and the Weas under Lapoussier were coming on in the rear. The people
were greatly alarmed and irritated and there was danger of their firing
on the savage bands. Brouillette was kept in the saddle riding from camp
to camp. On the twenty-fifth, Harrison sent Captain Wilson twenty miles
up the river to demand of Tecumseh his reason for approaching the town
with so large a force, despite the Governor's injunction and his own
previous agreement. The savage after some equivocation, said that he was
only attended by twenty-four men and that the remainder had come "on
their own accord." Parties of savages were then lurking about the
settlements on every hand, and "upwards of one hundred were within two
miles of the town northwest of the Wabash." Some sinister design was
moving the chieftain's mind.
On the twenty-seventh the main body of savages arrived by canoe, and on
the next day came those who marched by land. Three hundred red men were
present, including twenty or thirty women and children. What was
Tecumseh's object? Harrison's spies reported to him that it was the
intention of the Shawnee to peremptorily demand a retrocession of the
late purchase, and if it was not obtained, to seize some of the chiefs
who were active in making the treaty, and in the presence of the
Governor put them to death. If the Governor interfered he was to share
the same fate. However this may be, the great chief abandoned any
hostile design he may have entertained on a view of Harrison's forces.
On the day of his arrival a review of the neighboring militia was held,
at which were present seven or eight hundred men under arms. "The two
infantry companies on duty were increased to three, and these being
relieved on different days by some management in marching and changing
quarters, it appeared to the Indians that four or five companies were on
constant duty. The elegant troop of dragoons commanded by Captain Parke
(who is also one of our supreme judges) were exhibited to the greatest
advantage, and nightly patrols both of horse and foot announced a
vigilance which defied surprise. The Indians were in astonishment and
terror and I believe most of them went off impressed with the belief
that Vincennes was not as easily to be taken as their chief would have
convinced them." The promptitude and foresight of the Governor probably
prevented a massacre.
Harrison sought an immediate interview, but was not able to bring
Tecumseh into council, until Tuesday the thirtieth of July. An arbor had
been erected in front of the executive mansion. An hour before the time
of the appointed meeting Tecumseh sent a messenger to learn whether the
Governor would be attended by an armed force. In that event he announced
that he would come armed also. The Governor gave him his choice, but
informed the chief that in case his warriors left their guns at their
camp, that he (Harrison) would only be attended by twenty-five or thirty
dismounted dragoons. Tecumseh preferred the latter arrangement, "and
came attended by about one hundred and seventy or one hundred and eighty
men without guns, but all of them having knives and tomahawks or war
clubs, and some with bows and arrows." The Governor opened the council
by mentioning the great alarm which had been occasioned by the late
murders in Illinois and the assembling of so large a body of savages,
and declared that he was ready to listen to anything that the chiefs
might have to say, but that he would enter into no negotiation
concerning the late purchase. That affair was in the hands of the
President who had not sent any answer to the claim that Tecumseh had
last year set up on behalf of all the tribes on the continent. He also
declared that Tecumseh might, if he so desired, make a visit to the
President and hear his determination from his own mouth. The Governor
concluded by demanding an explanation of the seizure of the salt.
Tecumseh in his short reply adverted to the matter of the salt first. He
said that he had not been at home on either occasion when the salt boats
had arrived, but that it was impossible to please the Governor, for last
year he was angry because the salt was refused, and now he was angry
because it was taken. After some further unimportant observations, a
violent storm came on and the council was adjourned.
At two o'clock the next day the council again convened, when Lapoussier,
the Wea chieftain, who was now the firm friend of Tecumseh, arose and
made a long speech on the treaties that had been entered into between
the Governor and the Indian tribes. He closed by stating that the Miamis
had been forced by the Potawatomi to make the late treaty of Fort Wayne,
and that it would be proper to make an inquiry as to the person who had
held the tomahawk over their heads, and punish him. This was, of course,
an allusion to Winamac. Harrison immediately called on the Miami chiefs
present for a contradiction of this statement, and then turning to
Tecumseh, told him that it lay within his power to manifest the truth of
his professions of friendship towards the United States and his desire
to preserve peace, by delivering up the two Potawatomi who had murdered
the four white men on the Missouri last fall, and who were then in his
camp.
The reply of Tecumseh is given in Harrison's own language. "He said that
after much trouble and difficulty he had at length brought all the
northern tribes to unite and place themselves under his direction. That
the white people were unnecessarily alarmed at his measures--that they
really meant nothing but peace--the United States had set him the
example of forming a strict union amongst all the fires that compose
their confederacy. That the Indians did not complain of it--nor should
his white brothers complain of him for doing the same thing with regard
to the Indian tribes. As soon as the council was over he was to set out
on a visit to the southern tribes to get them to unite with those of the
north. To my demand of the murderers, he observed that they were not in
his town, as I believed them--that it was not right to punish those
people--that they ought to be forgiven, as well as those who lately
murdered our people in the Illinois. That he had set us an example of
forgiveness of injuries which we ought to follow. The Ottawas had
murdered one of his women, and the Osages one of his relations, and yet
he had forborne to revenge them--that he had even taken the tomahawks
out of the hands of those who were ready to march against the Osages. To
my inquiry whether he was determined to prevent the settlement of the
New Purchase, he replied that he hoped no attempt would be made to
settle until his return next spring. That a great number of Indians were
coming to settle at his town this fall, and who must occupy that tract
as a hunting ground, and if they did no further injury, they might kill
the cattle and hogs of the white people, which would produce
disturbance. That he wished every thing to remain in its present
situation until his return--our settlements not to progress further--and
no revenge sought for any injury that had been or should be received by
the white people until his return--that he would then go and see the
President and settle everything with him. That the affairs of all the
tribes in this quarter were in his hands and that nothing could be done
without him--that he would dispatch messengers in every direction to
prevent them from doing any more mischief--that he had made full
atonement for the murders which had been committed by the wampum which
he delivered."
The reply of the Governor was short and pithy. It was now evening and
the moon was shining. He told the assembled tribesmen that the moon
which they beheld would sooner fall to the earth "than the President
would suffer his people to be murdered with impunity, and that he would
put his warriors in petticoats sooner than he would give up a country
which he had fairly acquired from the rightful owners." The meeting was
then broken up.
We have said that the promptitude and foresight of the Governor probably
averted a massacre. It was the opinion of all the neutral Indians on the
ground that Tecumseh meditated a stroke. His manner throughout the
council was embarrassed, and it was evident to all that the speech he
actually delivered was not the one he had prepared for the occasion. If
he had found the Governor unprepared and the town defenseless, his
fierce hatred of the paleface and his boundless ambition as a warrior,
would probably have prompted him to resort to violence, for it is a well
known fact, observed by all Indian writers, that a savage will always
act upon the advantage of the moment, regardless of future consequences.
Besides, it is probable that Tecumseh now felt himself powerful enough
to deal a telling blow. Many accessions had been made to his confederacy
and the daring depredations in the Illinois country had gone unpunished.
Like all savages, he had nothing but contempt for a government that did
not promptly revenge its wrongs. But when, on approaching the town, he
observed the great military array, and saw bodies of armed men and
mounted riflemen moving to and fro, his resolution was shaken and he
experienced a more wholesome respect for his adversary's strength.
"Heedless of futurity," says Harrison, "it is only by placing the danger
before his eyes, that a savage is to be controlled. Even the gallant
Tecumseh is not insensible to an argument of this kind. No courtier
could be more complaisant, than he was upon his last visit. To have
heard him, one would have supposed that he came here for the purpose of
complimenting me. This wonderful metamorphosis in manner was entirely
produced by the gleaming and clanging of arms; by the frowns of a
considerable body of hunting shirt men, who accidentally lined a road by
which he approached to the council house."
The body of savages again melted away, and the Miami chieftains who had
accompanied the expedition returned to their homes. On the fifth of
August, Tecumseh, with a retinue of twenty chiefs, including the famous
Potawatomi, Shaubena, passed down the Wabash to visit the nations of the
south and more firmly cement the bonds of his confederacy. The day
before he departed he called on the Governor and labored hard to
convince him that he had no object in view other than to unite the
tribes in a league of peace. After visiting the Creeks and Choctaws, he
was to pass through the land of the Osages and return by the Missouri
river. Before his return, the last hope of the red man was to be forever
crushed, and the old dream of Pontiac forever dispelled.
The Governor has paid a just and worthy tribute to his savage foe. In a
letter of August seventh, 1811, he writes to the department of war as
follows: "The implicit confidence and respect which the followers of
Tecumseh pay to him is really astonishing, and more than any other
circumstance bespeaks him one of those uncommon geniuses, which spring
up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the established
order of things. If it were not for the vicinity of the United States,
he would perhaps be the founder of an empire that would rival in glory
that of Mexico or Peru. No difficulties deter him. His activity and
industry supply the want of letters. For four years he has been in
constant motion. You see him today on the Wabash, and in a short time
you hear of him on the shores of Lake Erie or Michigan, or on the banks
of the Mississippi, and wherever he goes he makes an impression
favorable to his purposes."
While these stirring events were happening at the frontier capital, and
on the thirty-first of July, a considerable body of the citizens of
Vincennes, both English and French, met at the seminary building, and
after selecting Ephraim Jordan as president and one James Smith as
secretary, certain resolutions were "fallen into," which vividly portray
the emotions of the frontiersmen of that day and their dire apprehension
of impending danger. The resolutions stated in substance that the safety
of the persons and property of the inhabitants could never be
effectively secured, but by the breaking up of the combination formed on
the Wabash by the Shawnee Prophet; that the inhabitants regarded this
combination as a British scheme; that but for the prompt measures of
Governor Harrison, it was highly probable that the town would have been
destroyed and the inhabitants massacred. The Rev. Samuel T. Scott, the
Rev. Alexander Devin, Colonel Luke Decker, Francis Vigo and others, were
appointed as a committee to draft an address to the President of the
United States, setting forth their situation and praying for relief. On
the same day this address was duly formulated and signed by the
committee above mentioned, and forwarded to the chief executive of the
nation. In it, the citizens breathed forth their terrors and fear of the
Wabash banditti, and their alarm at the constant depredations committed
on the frontier. One passage is significant. "The people have become
irritated and alarmed, and if the government will not direct their
energies, we fear that the innocent will feel the effects of their
resentment, and a general war be the consequence." A temper of this kind
could not long be disregarded. Temporizing must cease.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE MUSTER AND THE MARCH
--_The rally of the Kentuckians and their clansmen in southern Indiana,
to Harrison's support--The coming of the support of the Fourth United
States Regiment--The march to the Tippecanoe battlefield._
In the summer and early autumn of the year 1811, the British were again
distributing arms and ammunition among the tribes of the northwest and
rallying them for that second and final struggle with the United States.
In August of that year a Potawatomi chief informed Harrison that he was
present when a message from the British agent was delivered to the
Prophet, "telling him that the time had arrived for taking up arms, and
inviting him to send a party to Malden to receive the necessary
supplies." A statement made by Captain Benjamin Parke of the light
dragoons of Vincennes, to the Governor on the thirteenth of September,
was to the effect that the Indians of the Wabash and the Illinois had
recently visited Elliott at Malden; "that they are now returning from
thence with a larger supply of goods than is known ever to have been
distributed to them before; that rifles or fusees are given to those who
are unarmed, and powder and lead to all." A similar communication made
by the Hon. Waller Taylor, a judge of the supreme court of the
Territory, stated that, "The spirit of hostility manifested by the
Prophet and his followers (who, it is said, are daily increasing); the
thefts and murders committed within a few months past, and the unusual
quantities of arms, ammunition, etc., which not only these, but the
Indians generally have received from the British agent at Fort Malden,
strongly evidence a disposition to commence war as soon as a fit
opportunity occurs."
In this same month of September, Touissant Dubois, a French-Canadian
agent of the Governor's, reported to him that all the Indians along the
Wabash had been, or were then, on a visit to the British agency. "He
(Dubois) has been in the Indian trade thirty years and has never known,
as he thinks, more than one-fourth as many goods given to the Indians as
they are now distributing. He examined the share of one man (not a
chief) and found that he had received an elegant rifle, 25 pounds of
powder, 50 of lead, 3 blankets, 3 strouds of cloth, 10 shirts, and
several other articles. He says that every Indian is furnished with a
gun (either rifle or fusil), and an abundance of ammunition. A trader of
this country was lately at the King's stores at Malden. He saw 150 kegs
of powder (supposed to contain about 60 pounds each), and he was told
that the quantity of goods for the Indian Department which had been sent
over this year exceeded that of common years by twenty thousand pounds
sterling. It is impossible to ascribe this profusion to any other motive
than that of instigating the Indians to take up the tomahawk. It cannot
be to secure their trade, for all the peltries collected on the waters
of the Wabash in one year, if sold in the London market, would not pay
the freight of the goods which have been given to the Indians." The
contagion of unrest, thus encouraged and cultivated, was, as Captain
Parke observed, rapidly spreading to all the tribes of the Wabash, the
lakes and the Mississippi, and the influence of the Prophet was daily
increasing. Unless the nest of banditti at Tippecanoe was broken up, the
axe would quickly fall on all the settlements.
The plans of the Governor were speedily formed and most energetically
carried forward. His purposes were, to call upon the tribes to
immediately deliver up any and all of their people who had been
concerned in the murders on the frontier; to require them to fulfill
"that article of the Treaty of Greenville which obliges them to give
information and to stop any parties passing through their districts with
hostile intentions;" to further require them to cause such of their
warriors as had joined the Prophet to immediately return to their
tribes, or be put out of their protection. Of the Miamis he would demand
an absolute disavowal of all further connection with the Prophet, and a
disapprobation of his continued occupancy of their lands. All the tribes
were to be reminded of the lenity, justice and continued consideration
of the United States, and the efforts of the government to civilize them
and promote their happiness, and warned that in case they took up the
tomahawk against their fathers, no further mercies might be expected. To
enforce these requirements, spread terror among the recalcitrant, and
give strength to the wavering, he proposed to move up to the upper line
of the New Purchase with two companies of regulars, fourteen or fifteen
companies of militia, and two troops of dragoons. He hoped thus to
dissolve the Prophet's bands without the effusion of blood, but in case
of a continued defiance he proposed to march into the Indian country and
enforce his demands with sword in hand.
Immediately after the conference with Tecumseh the Governor had sent a
message to the Miami chiefs who had accompanied the Shawnee leader,
requiring their return to Vincennes, that he might confer with them on
measures of peace. To this demand they returned an insolent reply and
refused to come. He then dispatched Touissant Dubois with a written
speech to the Miami, Eel river and Wea tribes.
"My children: My eyes are open and I am now looking toward the Wabash. I
see a dark cloud hanging over it. Those who have raised it intended it
for my destruction, but I will turn it upon their heads."
"My children: I hoped that you would not be injured by this cloud. You
have seen it gathering. You had timely notice to keep clear of it. The
thunder begins to roll; take care that it does not burst upon your
heads."
"My children: I now speak plainly to you. What is that great collection
of people at the mouth of the Tippecanoe intended for? I am not blind,
my children. I can easily see what their object is. Those people have
boasted that they will find me asleep, but they will be deceived."
"My children: Do not suppose that I will be foolish enough to suffer
them to go on with their preparations until they are ready to strike my
people. No. I have watched their motions. I know what they wish to do,
and you know it also. Listen, then, to what I say. I will not suffer
any more strange Indians to settle on the Wabash. Those that are there,
and do not belong there, shall disperse and go to their own tribes."
"My Children: When you made the treaty with General Wayne you promised
that if you knew of any parties of Indians passing through your country
with hostile intentions toward us, that you would give us notice of it
and endeavor to stop them. I now inform you that I consider all those
who join the Prophet and his party as hostile, and call upon you to
fulfill your engagements. I have also sent to the tribes who have any of
their warriors with the Prophet, to withdraw them immediately. Those who
do not comply, I shall consider to have let go the chain of friendship
which united us."
"My Children: Be wise and listen to my voice. I fear that you have got
on a road that will lead you to destruction. Have pity upon your women
and children. It is time that my friends should be known. I shall draw a
line. Those who keep me by the hand must keep on one side of it, and
those that adhere to the Prophet on the other."
"My children: Take your choice. My warriors are in arms but they shall
do you no hurt unless you force me to it. But I must have satisfaction
for the murder of my people and the war pole that has been raised on the
Wabash must be taken down."
When Dubois arrived at the Miami town with the above message, the
chieftains were all preparing to go to Malden. The words of the Governor
called them to a sudden halt. They must now determine whether they
would further listen to the counsel of the Prophet and accept presents
from the British, or remain on terms of friendship with the United
States. No further wavering or delay would be tolerated.
In the council which followed, Lapoussier was insolent and told Dubois
that the Miamis had received no notice whatever of any hostile intention
on the part of the Prophet; that they (the Miamis) would defend their
lands to the last man, and that the Governor was making himself
contemptible in the eyes of all. These bold declarations were approved
by Pecan, the Big Man, Negro Legs, Osage, and Sa-na-mah-hon-ga, or The
One That Eats Stones, commonly known as the Stone Eater. The words of
Little Turtle were of a different tone. He then and afterwards, affirmed
his allegiance to the United States. While he prayed the Governor to
avoid if possible the shedding of blood, he still proclaimed that the
lands on the Wabash were the property of the Miamis; that they had
endeavored to stop the Prophet from going there, and that his settlement
was made without their consent. "I told my people when they were going
to see the Governor not to say anything respecting the land; that the
treaty was made and it was a fair one. They had signed the paper which
bound the sale of the lands, and that nothing further should be said on
the subject. I also charged them whatever they did, to have nothing to
do with the Prophet; that the Prophet was an enemy of Governor
Harrison's and Governor Harrison's of his; that if they formed any kind
of connection with the Prophet it would make the Governor an enemy of
theirs."
While these events were going forward, the Governor was making
preparations for his expedition up the Wabash. The noise of the coming
storm soon reached the ears of the Kentuckians. On the twenty-fourth of
August, Joseph Hamilton Daviess wrote to the Governor offering himself
as a volunteer. He had been instrumental in checking the treasonable
designs of Aaron Burr, was Master of the Grand Lodge of Free Masons of
the state of Kentucky, and was one of the most eloquent advocates at the
bar of his state. His coming was hailed with eager joy by the rough
militiamen of the frontier. In the latter part of the month Harrison was
in Louisville asking for volunteers. His call, says Pirtle, "was met
with a prompt and ample response. He was very popular, his voice
stirring the people like a bugle call. Old Indian fighters like Major
General Samuel Wells and Colonel Abraham Owen, of the Kentucky militia,
instantly started for the field." Captain Frederick Geiger raised a
company, and Captain Peter Funk, who was in command of a company of
militia cavalry, at once hastened to Governor Charles Scott of Kentucky,
to obtain permission to raise a company of mounted riflemen. In a few
days his men were enrolled and early in September joined the forces of
Colonel Joseph Bartholomew on their march to Vincennes.
On the third of September, the regular troops of the Fourth United
States Regiment of infantry, under Colonel John Parke Boyd, arrived in
keel boats at the Falls of the Ohio. The Governor was there to meet
them. Boyd was a soldier of fortune and one of the most striking
military adventurers of that day. A short sketch of him as given by
Benson J. Lossing is as follows: "John Parke Boyd was born in
Newburyport, Massachusetts, December 21, 1764. His father was from
Scotland, and his mother was a descendant of Tristam Coffin, the first
of that family who emigrated to America. He entered the army in 1786, as
ensign in the Second Regiment. With a spirit of adventure, he went to
India in 1789, having first touched the Isle of France. In a letter to
his father from Madras, in June, 1790, he says: 'Having procured
recommendatory letters to the British consul residing at the court of
his highness, the Nizam, I proceeded to his capital, Hyberabad, 450
miles from Madras. On my arrival, I was presented to his highness in
form by the British consul. My reception was as favorable as my most
sanguine wishes had anticipated. After the usual ceremony was over, he
presented me with the command of two kansolars of infantry, each of
which consists of 500 men.' His commission and pay were in accordance
with his command. He describes the army of the Nizam, which had taken
the field against Tippoo Sultan. It consisted of 150,000 infantry,
60,000 cavalry, and 500 elephants, each elephant supporting a 'castle'
containing a nabob and servants. He remained in India several years in a
sort of guerrilla service, and obtained much favor. He was in Paris
early in 1808 and at home in the autumn of that year, when he was
appointed (October 2) Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of the U. S. Army."
This tall, handsome and courteous officer, who had fought with the
hordes of India on the other side of the world, was shortly to encounter
the eagle-feathered chiefs of the Winnebagoes on the banks of the
Wabash.
On the night of the 19th of September the regulars of the Fourth
Regiment arrived at Vincennes by way of the Wabash. They were under the
immediate command of Colonel James Miller, of "I'll try, Sir," fame in
the War of 1812. The Governor and Colonel Boyd had already traveled
overland on horseback from Louisville. The sight which greeted the eyes
of the old French residents on the morning of the twentieth, was a novel
one. The American infantry of that period wore a uniform consisting of
"blue, brass-buttoned tail-coats, skin-tight pantaloons, and 'stove-pipe
hats,' with red, white and blue cockades." One pictures them marching in
the brown October woods, their bayonets gleaming in the sunshine, and
their bugles awakening strange echoes from headland and bluff. The
regiment, though small, was made up of a formidable array of men. While
not disciplined in Indian warfare, the rank and file were composed of
brave, resolute soldiers, and such officers as Captains W. C. Baen,
Josiah Snelling, Robert C. Barton, Return B. Brown, George W. Prescott
and Joel Cook, were of the best of that time. The gallant Baen was on
his last march, and his bones were destined to repose in a savage
wilderness.
A military conference was now held, participated in by Governor
Harrison, Colonel Boyd, and two judges of the supreme court, Benjamin
Parke and Waller Taylor, both of whom were officers in the local
militia. It was determined to ascend the river with a respectable force,
which would not only defy attack, but impress the tribesmen, if
possible, with a due respect for the power and authority of the United
States. The Prophet, though not a warrior, was known, as Harrison says,
to be, "daring, presumptuous and rash." He was now reinforced by a
considerable body of Winnebago warriors, and the Potawatomi of the
prairies and the Illinois were coming to his support. A small expedition
would not only excite contempt, but might lead to a disaster.
Accordingly, on the morning of the twenty-sixth of September, an army of
about one thousand men, including one hundred and forty dragoons and
sixty mounted riflemen, commenced its march to the upper end of the New
Purchase. The cavalry had been sent forward two days before to the
settlement of Busseron, where forage for the horses could more easily be
procured. Just before the departure of the army, a deputation of
warriors arrived from the Prophet's Town, led by a war chief of the
hostile Kickapoos. He expressed his astonishment at seeing such warlike
preparations, said that his women and children were all in tears, and
falsely asserted that the hearts of all the Prophet's party were warm
towards the United States. The Governor peremptorily informed the
Kickapoo that the army was about to march, and that nothing but an
immediate surrender of the Indian murderers and horse-thieves would
satisfy the government. The mount of Captain William Piatt, chief
quartermaster of the expedition, and four horses from Busseron had just
been stolen, and all further dissimulation on the part of the savages
was without avail.
The account of the march, as recorded by Captain John Tipton, is
exceedingly interesting. The militiamen of southern Indiana and Kentucky
assembled from the frontier settlements, were men of simple habits,
rough, unlettered, hard to teach the intricacies of military evolutions,
but as General John C. Black has stated, they were also "insensible to
fatigue, watchful as a catamount, resolute as men, heroic as martyrs."
Some of their favorite sports were wrestling, shooting at a mark, and
horse-racing. All were inured to an active, outdoor life. Most of them
were without tents and few had blankets, but they did not complain. As
the army advanced through the wilderness, the cutting down of bee trees,
the shooting of squirrels, raccoon and deer were everyday occurrences;
horses strayed away and were recovered; the provision boats lodged on
the sand bars in the river and were launched again; stories of adventure
and midnight massacre were told about the great camp fires. All came
from families who had suffered from savage outrage; all hated both
British and Indians "with a holy hate," and all were determined that the
forces of civilization should not recede. They were eager for battle and
unafraid.
On the second of October the army arrived at Terre Haute or "high land,"
said to be the scene of a bloody battle between the ancient tribe of the
Illinois and the Iroquois. The place was designated by the old French
traders and settlers as "Bataille des Illinois." A few old apple and
peach trees still marked the site of an ancient Indian village. About
two miles from this location was a town of the Weas. Harrison
immediately began the erection of a quadrangular stockaded fort, with a
blockhouse at three of the angles. This fortification, amid much
celebrating, was, on Sunday, the twenty-seventh of October,
christened as Fort Harrison. An oration was delivered on the occasion by
Joseph Hamilton Davis.
[Illustration: The Line of Harrison's March to Tippecanoe and the New
Purchase of 1809. Drawing by Heaton]
All doubt of the Prophet's hostility was now dispelled. He had committed
open acts of war on the United States. While the army was on the march
to Terre Haute a party of the Prophet's raiders, in open daylight, took
eight horses from a settlement in the Illinois Territory about thirty
miles above Vincennes. At eight o'clock, on the evening of the tenth of
October, a sentinel belonging to the Fourth United States Regiment was
fired on and badly wounded by savages prowling about the camp. "The army
was immediately turned out," says Harrison, "and formed in excellent
order in a very few minutes. Patrols were dispatched in every direction,
but the darkness was such that pursuit was impracticable. Other alarms
took place in the course of the night, probably without good cause, but
the troops manifested an alertness in taking their positions which was
highly gratifying to me." On the evening of the eleventh, John Conner
and four of the Delaware chiefs came into camp. Before leaving
Vincennes, Harrison had sent a request that some of their chiefs might
meet him on the march, for the purpose of undertaking embassies of peace
to the different tribes. On the sixth of October, many of them had set
out from their towns, but were met on the way by a deputation from the
Prophet's Town. This deputation declared that the followers of the
Prophet had taken up the tomahawk against the United States, "and that
they would lay it down only with their lives." They were confident of
victory and required a categorical answer from the Delawares to the
question of whether they would or would not join them in the coming
war. Conner and the four chiefs were immediately sent to report to
Harrison, and another party ordered forward to Tippecanoe to remonstrate
with the Prophet. On the twenty-seventh the latter party reported to the
Governor at Fort Harrison. They had been insulted and badly treated by
the Prophet and were dismissed with contempt. During their stay with the
Shawnee leader, the warriors arrived who had fired on the sentinel at
Terre Haute. They were Shawnees and the Prophet's nearest friends.
Harrison now resolved to immediately march to Tippecanoe and demand
satisfaction. To return to Vincennes with his troops without effecting a
dispersion or humiliation of the Prophet's party would be attended with
the most fatal consequences. "If he is thus presumptuous upon our
advance," writes the Governor, "our return without chastising him, or
greatly alarming his fears and those of his followers, would give him an
eclat that would increase his followers, and we would have to wage
through the winter a defensive war which would greatly distress our
frontiers." The Governor's display of force on the Wabash had not had
the desired effect. While some of the Weas were returning to their
villages, and the Wyandots were reported to be urging the tribes to fall
away from the Prophet, still the spirit of treachery was abroad in the
whole Wabash country. The Miami chiefs arrived for an apparently
friendly council, but the Stone Eater was vacillating, and already under
the influence of the Prophet. Winamac, who had made so many professions
of friendliness towards the government, was now rallying his forces on
the side of the Shawnee. Reinforcements of savage Kickapoos and
Potawatomi from the Illinois river were beating down the great trails on
the way to Tippecanoe. The constant and continued influence of the
British, the "ridiculous and superstitious pranks" of the Shawnee
impostor, and the natural fear and jealousy of all the tribesmen, on
account of their lands, had at last cemented the savage union. The young
men and braves of all the clans were ranged in either open or secret
hostility against the United States.
The forces at the Prophet's Town were estimated at about six hundred. At
a council of the officers it was decided to send for a reinforcement of
four companies, but without waiting for their return, to at once take up
the march, as all forage for the horses would soon disappear. On the
twenty-ninth of October the army moved forward. It consisted of about
six hundred and forty foot and two hundred and seventy mounted men. Two
hundred and fifty of these were regulars, about sixty were Kentuckians,
and the remainder were Indiana militia, raised at Corydon, Vincennes,
and points along the Wabash and Ohio rivers. "The militia," says
Harrison, "are the best I ever saw, and Colonel Boyd's regiment is a
fine body of men." Along with the army rolled nineteen wagons and one
cart to transport the supplies, as the winding course of the river and
the nature of the ground near it, rendered their further transportation
by boats impracticable. The Governor at the last moment sent forward a
message to the Prophet's Town requiring the immediate disbandment of the
Winnebago, Potawatomi and Kickapoo followers of the Shawnee, the
surrender of all murderers, and the delivery up of all stolen horses.
"I am determined," wrote Harrison to Governor Scott of Kentucky, "to
disperse the Prophet's banditti before I return, or give him the chance
of acquiring as much fame as a warrior, as he now has as a saint."
On Thursday, the thirty-first, the army crossed the northern line of the
New Purchase at Raccoon Creek, and a few hours later forded the Wabash
at Montezuma. The water was very deep and the troops and wagons were
three hours in making the passage. The east bank of the river had been
reconnoitered for several miles up and a feint made as though to cut a
wagon road, but the country on the left bank afforded too many
opportunities for an ambuscade, and Harrison now resolved to strike the
open prairies toward the state line. On the first of November the army
encamped on the west side of the Wabash about two or three miles below
the mouth of the Big Vermilion, and as it had been determined to take
forward the provisions from this point in wagons, a small blockhouse,
twenty-five feet square was here erected, with a breastwork at each
corner next to the river, to receive supplies from the boats. Remnants
of the old landing were still to be seen in 1914. Logs and brush were
now employed to level down the great horse weeds that filled the
lowlands, and corduroy roads made for the passage of the wagons to the
uplands at the west. Major General Samuel Wells, Colonel Abraham Owen
and Captain Frederick Geiger had now arrived with some of the Kentucky
volunteers, and the army, after leaving a guard of eight men at the
blockhouse, at once crossed the Big Vermilion at the site of the old
Kickapoo village and entered upon Sand Prairie at the north.
Harrison was now in the heart of the hostile Kickapoo country. Like his
old commander Wayne, he maintained a most diligent lookout. The army was
moving forward with mounted men in advance, in the rear and on both
flanks. The infantry marched in two columns of files, one on either side
of the road. The heavy army wagons drawn by oxen, and the beeves and led
animals were in the center. A company of twelve scouts under the command
of Captain Touissant Dubois closely scanned every place of danger and
pointed out the army's way.
Late on the third of November, the frontiersmen saw for the first time
the great prairies of the west, stretching north to Chicago and west to
the Mississippi. They camped that night in Round Grove, near the present
town of Sloan. An abundance of blue grass carpeted the sheltered ground
and a fine spring of water supplied fresh drink. All the next day the
great wheels of the lumbering baggage wagons cut through the sod of the
Warren prairies, leaving a long trail over the plains that was plainly
traceable for a half century afterwards. Night found the army encamped
on the east bank of Pine creek, above the site of the old Brier milldam.
An old bayonet of the revolutionary type was long years afterward picked
up in an adjoining wheat field and is now lodged in the Babcock museum
at Goodland. The dangerous passes to the south had been avoided and
scouts were Posted far down the stream to avoid the danger of a night
attack.
Wednesday the sixth, it was very cold. Indian signs were now observed
for the first time, the scouts caught four Indian horses, and parties of
savages were constantly lurking on the skirts of the advancing forces.
Every effort to hold conversation with them, however, was in vain. At a
distance of about four miles from the Prophet's Town the army was formed
in order of battle, and moved forward with great caution. The scouts had
evidently picked out a poor path, for the army now found itself on
dangerous ground, and Harrison was obliged to change the position of the
several corps three times in the distance of a mile, to avoid the peril
of an ambuscade.
At half past two o'clock in the afternoon the troops crossed Burnet's
Creek at a distance of one and one-half miles from the town, and again
formed in order of battle. Captain Dubois, now offering to go to the
Indian camp with a flag, was sent forward with an interpreter to request
a conference. The savages knew Dubois well, but they now appeared on
either flank and attempted to cut him off from the army. Harrison
recalled him and determined to encamp for the night.
In the meantime, the impatient Major Daviess had advanced to the Indian
corn fields along the river with a party of dragoons. He now returned
and reported that the Indians were very hostile and had answered every
attempt to bring them to a parley with insolence and contempt. He,
together with all the officers, advised an immediate attack. Harrison
was mindful of the President's injunctions. He did not wish to bring on
a conflict until all efforts for peace had failed. He ordered the army
to advance, but placed the interpreters at the front, with directions
to invite a conference with any Indians that they might meet with.
After proceeding about four hundred yards, the advance guard was
approached by three Indians who expressed a wish to see the Governor.
One of them was a chief closely connected with the Prophet. He told
Harrison that they were surprised at his rapid advance upon them; that
they had been given to understand by a party of Delawares and Miamis
whom the Governor had sent forward, that he would not march on their
town until an answer had been made to his demands; that Winamac had been
detailed two days before to meet the Governor and arrange terms, but
that he had proceeded down the south side of the Wabash. These
statements were all false, but the General answered that he had no
intention of attacking them until he was convinced that they would not
comply with his demands, and that he would now go forward and encamp on
the river. In the morning, an interview would be held and he would
communicate to them the determination of the President. The march was
then resumed.
The Indian corn lands extended for a great distance along the river and
the ground was so broken and uneven, and the timber had been cleared
away to such an extent, that no suitable place could be found for a
camp. The troops were now almost upon the town, when fifty or sixty
savages sallied forth and with loud cries called upon the cavalry and
militia to halt. The Governor immediately pressed to the front, and
directed the interpreter to request some of the chiefs to come near.
Harrison now informed them that his only object for the present was to
secure a camp, where he might find wood and water. The chiefs informed
him that there was a creek to the northwest that would suit his purpose,
and after mutual promises of a suspension of hostilities until the
following day, the interview was brought to an end.
Majors Waller Taylor and Marston G. Clark, aides to the Governor, were
now detailed to select a site for an encampment. The ground chosen was
the destined battlefield of Tippecanoe. "It was a piece of dry oak land
rising about ten feet above the level of a marshy prairie in front,
(towards the Indian town), and nearly twice that height above a similar
prairie in the rear, through which, and near to this bank, ran a small
stream clothed with willows and brush wood. Towards the left flank this
bench of high land widened considerably, but became gradually narrower
in the opposite direction, and at the distance of one hundred and fifty
yards from the right flank, terminated in an abrupt point."
[Illustration: Smith Pine Creek in Warren County, Indiana, a few miles
below the place where Harrison crossed. Photo by Lawrence]
CHAPTER XXIV
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE
_--The night attack on Harrison's forces.--The destruction of Tecumseh's
Confederacy._
An inverted flatiron pointing to the east of south--that is the battle
ground of Tippecanoe. The western edge is the sheer bank of Burnet's
Creek. A savage would have some difficulty in climbing there. Back of
the creek is a low marsh, filled with cat-tails and long grass. The
surface of the flatiron is a sandy plain with scattering oaks, and
sloping towards the east. At the north the plain widens, but comes to an
abrupt point at the southern end. To the east and in the direction of
the Prophet's Town is a wet prairie. The Kickapoos said that Harrison's
choice of a camping place was excellent.
Late in the evening the army arrives and takes up its position. Axes are
scarce and there is no time to erect a breastwork of trees. Firewood
must be cut to warm the shivering troops. The militia have no tents and
blankets are scarce. Low scudding clouds betoken a cold November rain.
The regulars are split into two battalions of four companies each. One
is placed on the left front facing the east. This is under the command
of Major George Rogers Clark Floyd. Under him are the companies of Baen,
Snelling and Prescott, and a small company of United States riflemen
armed with muskets. On his right are two companies of Indiana militia
commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bartholomew. The second
battalion of regulars is placed in the left rear and is commanded by
Captain William C. Baen, acting as major. To the right of this battalion
are four companies of Indiana militia, commanded by Captains Josiah
Snelling, Jr., John Posey, Thomas Scott and Jacob Warrick, all of whom
are under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel Luke Decker. Warrick's
company is in the southwestern corner of the camp, and next to the
mounted riflemen under Spencer. The left flank is filled up by two
companies of mounted riflemen under the command of Major-General Samuel
Wells, of the Kentucky militia, acting as major. Back of these riflemen
are two troops of dragoons under Major Joseph Hamilton Daviess, and in
the rear of the front lines are the Light Dragoons of Vincennes, led by
Captain Benjamin Parke. The right flank is made up of the famous Yellow
Jackets of Harrison county, Indiana. They wear yellow flannel hunting
shirts with a red fringe and hats with red plumes. Their officers are
Captain Spier Spencer, sheriff of his county; First-Lieutenant Richard
McMahan, Second-Lieutenant Thomas Berry, and Ensign John Tipton. Spencer
is of a Kentucky family, his mother has been an Indian captive when a
girl, and his fourteen year old son accompanies him on the expedition,
bearing a rifle. The distance between the front and rear lines on the
left flank is about one hundred and fifty yards, and something more than
half that distance on the right flank. In the center of the camp are the
headquarters of the Governor, the wagons and baggage, and the beef
cattle.
Night is now coming on apace and the great camp fires of the army shed
a cheerful glow on men and horses, arms and accouterments. Harrison is
watchful. While neither he nor his officers expect a night attack, still
he bears in mind that he is in the heart of the Indian country and only
a mile and a quarter from the Prophet's village. A council of the
officers is held and all placed in readiness for instant action. The
camp, in form, is an irregular parallelogram, and troops may be rushed
to at once reinforce any point assailed. The troops are formed in single
rank and maneuver easily--extension of the lines is readily
accomplished. The order of encampment is the order of battle. Every man
must sleep opposite his post. In case of attack the soldiers are to
arise, step to the rear of the fires, and instantly form in line. The
line thus formed is to hold its ground until further relieved. The
dragoons are to parade dismounted, with their pistols in their belts,
and to act as a corps de reserve. The whole camp is surrounded by two
captains' guards, each consisting of four non-commissioned officers and
forty-two men, and two subalterns' guards, of twenty non-commissioned
officers and privates. The regulars retire with accouterments on, and
their arms by their sides. The tired militia, having no tents, sleep
with their arms under them to keep them dry. Captain Cook, of the Fourth
Regiment records that he slept with his boots and great coat on, and
with his trusty rifle clasped in his arms. The infantry bear cartridges
each loaded with twelve buckshot. These are intended for a rain of
death.
In the meantime, the fearful Prophet is filled with doubt. Now that the
hour of destiny is at hand, his heart fails him. He counsels caution
and a postponement of the fight. He urges that a treaty be entered into;
a compliance made with the demands of the Governor, and that the
Potawatomi murderers be surrendered up. The army must be thrown off its
guard and a treacherous attack made on its return home. But the young
men and warriors think otherwise. Has not the Prophet told them that the
white man's bullets are harmless, and that his powder will turn to sand?
Why hesitate? The army is now asleep and will never awake. Let the Magic
Bowl be produced, the sacred torch and the "Medean fire." Let there be
death to all!
At a quarter past four o'clock in the morning the Governor arises to
pull on his boots. The moon is now obscured, and a drizzly rain is
falling. The camp fires are still burning, but beyond the lines of
sleeping men, all is darkness and gloom. The sentinels out there in the
night are listening to strange sounds. Through the tall grass of the
swamp lands terrible forms are creeping, like snakes on their bellies,
towards the camp. The painted and feather-bedecked warriors of the
Prophet are surrounding the army.
In two minutes more an aide is to awake the drummer and have him ready
by the fire to beat the reveille, when all at once the attack begins. A
sentinel, standing on the bank of Burnet's Creek near the northwestern
angle of the camp, sees an object crawling on the ground. He fires and
runs toward the line--the next moment he is shot down. With demon yells
the savages burst upon the ranks of Captain Barton's company and
Geiger's riflemen.
In an instant the camp is alive and the men spring to arms, but there is
no disorder or confusion. In Barton's company a sergeant and two
privates are up renewing the fires, and immediately give the alarm. Two
savages penetrate the camps but are killed within twenty yards of the
line. A corporal in Barton's company is shot as he steps to the door of
his tent. Another corporal and a private are killed and a sergeant
wounded as the lines are forming, but immediately afterwards a heavy
fire is opened and the charging red skins are driven back. The attack on
the Kentuckians is particularly ferocious. A hand to hand fight ensues.
One of Geiger's men loses his gun and the captain runs to his tent to
get him another. He finds some savages there "ransacking its contents,
and prodding their knives into everything." One of them attempts to kill
the captain with a tomahawk, but is immediately slain.
At the first alarm the Governor calls for his white horse, but the shots
and yells terrify that animal and he breaks his tether. Harrison now
mounts a bay and rides to the first point of attack, Colonel Abraham
Owen at his side. Owen is killed, a lock of the Governor's hair is cut
away by a bullet, but he brings up Wentworth's company under Lieutenant
George P. Peters, and Captain Joel Cook's from the rear line, and forms
them across the angle in support of Barton and Geiger.
Nothing like this fury has ever been witnessed before. The rattling of
dried deer hoofs and the shrieks of the warriors resound on every hand.
In a few moments the fire extends along the whole front, both flanks,
and a part of the rear line. The fierce Winnebagoes, with tall eagle
feathers in their scalp locks, rush upon the bayonets, attempt to push
them aside, and cut down the men. It avails them nothing. The iron
discipline of the regulars holds them firm. On every hand the soldiers
kick out the fires, re-load their guns and settle down to the fight.
In the first mad rushes, the company of David Robb posted on the left
flank, gives way, or through some error in orders, retires to the center
of the camp. Harrison sees the mistake on the instant and orders
Snelling to cover the left flank. Snelling is alert, and at the first
gun seizes his sword and forms his company into line. The dangerous gap
is at once filled, and the companies close up. But a murderous fire now
assails them on the front from behind some fallen logs and trees.
Daviess with his dragoons is behind the lines, and impatient of
restraint. Twice he asks the Governor for orders to charge--the third
time a reluctant consent is given. The regulars open up, the brave Major
with eight of his men pass through the ranks, and the next moment he is
mortally wounded. Snelling's company with levelled bayonets clear the
field.
Prodigies of valor are being performed on the right flank. Spencer is
there and his famous Yellow Jackets. If the regulars have been valorous,
the mounted riflemen of Harrison County have been brilliant. Harrison
rides down and calls for the Captain. A slip of a boy answers: "He is
dead, sir." "Where is your lieutenant?" "He is dead." "Where is your
second lieutenant?" "He is dead." "Where is your ensign?" The answer
came, "I am he." The General compliments him and tells him to hold the
line. Spencer is wounded in the head, but exhorts his men to fight. He
is shot through both thighs and falls, but from the ground encourages
his men to stand. They raise him up, but a ball puts an immediate end to
his brave career. To the rear of Spencer is the giant Warrick. He is
shot through the body and taken to the surgery to be dressed. His wounds
bound up, he insists on going back to the head of his company, although
he has but a few hours to live. Thus fought and died these brave
militiamen of the southern hills. Harrison orders up the company of Robb
and the lines hold until the coming of the light.
Throughout the long and trying hours of darkness the Governor remains
cool. Mounted on his charger, he appears at every point along the line,
and his calm and confident tones of command give reassurance to all his
men. If the formation can be held intact until the coming of the dawn,
the bayonets of the regulars and the broadswords of the dragoons shall
be brought into play. He remembers the example of the illustrious Wayne.
As the morning approaches the fight narrows down to the two flanks. Here
the savages will make their last stand. Harrison now draws the companies
of Snelling, Posey and Scott from the front lines, and the company of
Captain Walter Wilson from the rear, and forms them on the left flank.
At the same time he orders Baen's company from the front and Cook's from
the rear, to form on the right. The infantry are to be supported by the
dragoons. But as soon as the companies form on the left, Major Samuel
Wells orders a charge, the Indians flee in front of the cold steel, and
are pursued into the swamps by the dragoons. At the same moment the
troops on the right dislodge the savages from behind the trees, and
drive them headlong into the wet prairie in front. The battle is over. A
long and deafening shout from, the troops proclaims the victory.
Thus ended the battle of Tippecanoe, justly famed in history. The
intrepidity of the officers, the firm resolution of the regulars, the
daring brilliancy of the militiamen, all brought about the desired end.
The conflict had been severe. One hundred and eighty-eight men and
officers were either killed or wounded. The officers slain were, Colonel
Abraham Owen, Major Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Captain Jacob Warrick,
Captain Spier Spencer, Captain William C. Baen, Lieutenant Richard
McMahan, Lieutenant Thomas Berry, Corporal James Mitchell and Corporal
Stephen Mars. The loss of the savages in killed alone was nearly forty.
The number of their wounded could never be ascertained. They were led in
battle by the perfidious Winamac, who had always professed to be the
friend of the Governor, and by White Loon and the Stone Eater.
In the weeks that followed the battle much censure of Harrison was
heard, and much of the credit for the victory was at first accorded to
the United States regulars and Colonel Boyd. This was so manifestly
unfair to General Harrison, that Captains Cook, Snelling and Barton,
Lieutenants Adams, Fuller, Hawkins and Gooding, Ensign Burchstead and
Surgeons Josiah D. Foster and Hosea Blood, all of the Fourth United
States Regiment, signed an open statement highly laudatory of the
Governor's talents, military science and patriotism. They declared that
throughout the whole campaign the Governor demeaned himself both as a
"soldier and a general," and that any attempt to undermine their
confidence in and respect for the commander-in-chief, would be regarded
by them as an "insult to their understandings and an injury to their
feelings." The legislatures of Indiana and Kentucky passed resolutions
highly commendatory of the Governor's military conduct and skill.
The Indian confederacy was crushed. Tecumseh returned about the first of
the year to find the forces at the Prophet's Town broken up and
scattered, and his ambitious dreams of empire forever dissipated.
Nothing now remained for him to do but openly espouse the British cause.
He became the intimate and associate of the infamous Proctor and died in
the battle at the River Thames.
The battle of Tippecanoe gave great impetus to the military spirit in
the western world and prepared the way for the War of 1812. Harrison
became the leader of the frontier forces and thousands of volunteers
flocked to his standard. The tales of valor and heroism, the stories of
the death of Daviess and Owen, Spencer and Warrick, and of the long,
terrible hours of contest with a savage foe, were recounted for years
afterward around every fireside in southern Indiana and Kentucky, and
brought a thrill of patriotic pride to the heart of every man, woman
and child who heard them. The menace of the red skin was removed. During
the following winter the frontier reposed in peace.
The battle did more. Many of those who followed Harrison saw for the
first time the wonderful valley of the upper Wabash and the boundless
prairies of the north. In the wake of the conflict followed the forces
of civilization, and in a few years afterward both valley and plain were
filling up with a virile and hardy race of frontiersmen who laid the
foundations of the new commonwealth. In 1816, Indiana became a member of
the federal union.
CHAPTER XXV
NAYLOR'S NARRATIVE
_--A description, of the battle by one of the volunteers._
An excellent portrait of Judge Isaac Naylor now hangs in the court room
at Williamsport, Indiana. He was one of the first judges of the
Montgomery circuit which formerly embraced both Warren and Benton.
Naylor was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1790, and removed to
Clark county, Indiana, in 1805. In 1810 he made a journey to New Orleans
on a flatboat. While preparing for college the Tippecanoe campaign came
on, and he joined Harrison's army at Vincennes. His account of the
battle is as follows:
"I became a volunteer member of a company of riflemen, and
on the 12th of September, 1811, we commenced our march
toward Vincennes, and arrived there in about six days,
marching about 120 miles. We remained there about a week and
took up the march to a point on the Wabash river, sixty
miles above, on the east bank of the river, where we erected
a stockade fort, which we named Fort Harrison. This was
three miles above where the city of Terre Haute now stands.
Col. Joseph H. Daviess, who commanded the dragoons, named
the fort. The glorious defense of this fort nine months
after by Captain Zachary Taylor was the first step in his
brilliant career that afterwards made him President of the
United States.
A few days later we took up the march again for the seat of Indian
warfare, where we arrived on the evening of November 6th, 1811.
"When the army arrived in view of the Prophet's Town, an
Indian was seen coming toward General Harrison with a white
flag suspended on a pole. Here the army halted, and a parley
was had between General Harrison and an Indian delegation,
who assured the General that they desired peace, and
solemnly promised to meet him next day in council, to settle
the terms of peace and friendship between them and the
United States.
"General Marston G. Clark, who was then brigade major, and
Waller Taylor, one of the judges of the General Court of the
Territory of Indiana, and afterwards a Senator of the United
States from Indiana (one of the General's aides), were
ordered to select a place for the encampment, which they
did. The army then marched to the ground selected about
sunset. A strong guard was placed around the encampment,
commanded by Captain James Bigger and three lieutenants. The
troops were ordered to sleep on their arms. The night being
cold, large fires were made along the lines of encampment
and each soldier retired to rest, sleeping on his arms.
"Having seen a number of squaws and children at the town I
thought the Indians were not disposed to fight. About ten
o'clock at night Joseph Warnock and myself retired to rest,
he taking one side of the fire and I the other, the other
members of our company being all asleep. My friend Warnock
had dreamed, the night before, a bad dream which foreboded
something fatal to him or to some of his family, as he told
me. Having myself no confidence in dreams, I thought but
little about the matter, although I observed that he never
smiled afterwards.
"I awoke about four o'clock the next morning, after a sound
and refreshing sleep, having heard in a dream the firing of
guns and the whistling of bullets just before I awoke from
my slumber. A drizzling rain was falling and all things were
still and quiet throughout the camp. I was engaged in making
a calculation when I should arrive home.
"In a few moments I heard the crack of a rifle in the
direction of the point where now stands the Battle Ground
House, which is occupied by Captain DuTiel as a tavern. I
had just time to think that some sentinel was alarmed and
fired his rifle without a real cause, when I heard the crack
of another rifle, followed by an awful Indian yell all
around the encampment. In less than a minute I saw the
Indians charging our line most furiously and shooting a
great many rifle balls into our camp fires, throwing the
live coals into the air three or four feet high.
"At this moment my friend Warnock was shot by a rifle ball
through his body. He ran a few yards and fell dead on the
ground. Our lines were broken and a few Indians were found
on the inside of the encampment. In a few moments they were
all killed. Our lines closed up and our men in their proper
places. One Indian was killed in the back part of Captain
Geiger's tent, while he was attempting to tomahawk the
Captain.
"The sentinels, closely pursued by the Indians, came to the
lines of the encampment in haste and confusion. My brother,
William Naylor, was on guard. He was pursued so rapidly and
furiously that he ran to the nearest point on the left
flank, where he remained with a company of regular soldiers
until the battle was near its termination. A young man,
whose name was Daniel Pettit, was pursued so closely and
furiously by an Indian as he was running from the guard line
to our lines, that to save his life he cocked his rifle as
he ran and turning suddenly around, placed the muzzle of his
gun against the body of the Indian and shot an ounce ball
through him. The Indian fired his gun at the same instant,
but it being longer than Pettit's, the muzzle passed by him
and set fire to a handkerchief which he had tied around his
head. The Indians made four or five most fierce charges on
our lines, yelling and screaming as they advanced, shooting
balls and arrows into our ranks. At each charge they were
driven back in confusion, carrying off their dead and
wounded as they retreated.
"Colonel Owen, of Shelby County, Kentucky, one of General
Harrison's volunteer aides, fell early in action by the side
of the General. He was a member of the legislature at the
time of his death. Colonel Daviess was mortally wounded
early in the battle, gallantly charging the Indians on foot
with his sword and pistols, according to his own request. He
made this request three times of General Harrison, before he
was permitted to make the charge. The charge was made by
himself and eight dragoons on foot near the angle formed by
the left flank and front line of the encampment. Colonel
Daviess lived about thirty-six hours after he was wounded,
manifesting his ruling passions in life--ambition,
patriotism and an ardent love of military glory. During the
last hours of his life he said to his friends around him
that he had but one thing to regret--that he had military
talents; that he was about to be cut down in the meridian of
life without having an opportunity of displaying them for
his own honor, and the good of his country. He was buried
alone with the honors of war near the right flank of the
army, inside of the lines of the encampment, between two
trees. On one of these trees the letter 'D' is now visible.
Nothing but the stump of the other remains. His grave was
made here, to conceal it from the Indians. It was filled up
to the top with earth, and then covered with oak leaves. I
presume the Indians never found it. This precautionary act
was performed as a mark of peculiar respect for a
distinguished hero and patriot of Kentucky.
"Captain Spencer's company, of mounted riflemen composed the
right flank of the army. Captain Spencer and both his
lieutenants were killed. John Tipton was elected and
commissioned as captain of this company in one hour after
the battle, as a reward for his cool and deliberate heroism
displayed during the action. He died at Logansport in 1839,
having been twice elected Senator of the United States from
the State of Indiana.
"The clear, calm voice of General Harrison was heard in
words of heroism in every part of the encampment during the
action. Colonel Boyd behaved very bravely after repeating
these words: "Huzza! My sons of gold, a few more fires and
victory will be ours!"
"Just after daylight the Indiana retreated across the
prairie toward their town, carrying off their wounded. This
retreat was from the right flank of the encampment,
commanded by Captains Spencer and Robb, having retreated
from the other portions of the encampment a few minutes
before. As their retreat became visible, an almost deafening
and universal shout was raised by our men. 'Huzza! Huzza!
Huzza!' This shout was almost equal to that of the savages
at the commencement of the battle; ours was the shout of
victory, theirs was the shout of ferocious but disappointed
hope.
"The morning light disclosed the fact that the killed and
wounded of our army, numbering between eight and nine
hundred men, amounted to one hundred and eighty-eight.
Thirty-six Indians were found near our lines. Many of their
dead were carried off during the battle. This fact was
proved by the discovery of many Indian graves recently made
near their town. Ours was a bloody victory, theirs a bloody
defeat.
"Soon after breakfast an Indian chief was discovered on the
prairie, about eighty yards from our front line, wrapped in
a piece of white cloth. He was found by a soldier by the
name of Miller, a resident of Jeffersonville, Indiana. The
Indian was wounded in one of his legs, the ball having
penetrated his knee and passed down his leg, breaking the
bone as it passed. Miller put his foot against him and he
raised up his head and said: 'Don't kill me, don't kill me.'
At the same time five or six regular soldiers tried to shoot
him, but their muskets snapped and missed fire. Major Davis
Floyd came riding toward him with dragoon sword and
pistols and said he would show them how to kill Indians,
when a messenger came from General Harrison commanding that
he should be taken prisoner. He was taken into camp, where
the surgeons dressed his wounds. Here he refused to speak a
word of English or tell a word of truth. Through the medium
of an interpreter he said that he was a friend to the white
people and that the Indians shot him while he was coming to
the camp to tell General Harrison that they were about to
attack the army. He refused to have his leg amputated,
though he was told that amputation was the only means of
saving his life. One dogma of Indian superstition is that
all good and brave Indians, when they die, go to a
delightful region, abounding with deer and other game, and
to be a successful hunter he should have all his limbs, his
gun and his dog. He therefore preferred death with all his
limbs to life without them. In accordance with his request
he was left to die, in company with an old squaw, who was
found in the Indian town the next day after he was taken
prisoner. They were left in one of our tents.
[Illustration: Judge Isaac Naylor. From old portrait in Court Room at
Williamsport, Indiana.]
"At the time this Indian was taken prisoner, another Indian,
who was wounded in the body, rose to his feet in the middle
of the prairie and began to walk towards the woods on the
opposite side. A number of regular soldiers shot at him but
missed him. A man who was a member of the same company with
me, Henry Huckleberry, ran a few steps into the prairie and
shot an ounce ball through his body and he fell dead near
the margin of the woods. Some Kentucky volunteers went
across the prairie immediately, and scalped him, dividing
his scalp into four pieces, each one cutting a hole in each
piece, putting the ramrod through the hole, and placing his
part of the scalp just behind the first thimble of his gun,
near its muzzle. Such was the fate of nearly all of the
Indians found on the battle ground, and such was the
disposition of their scalps.
"The death of Owen, and the fact that Daviess was mortally
wounded, with the remembrance also that a large portion of
Kentucky's best blood had been shed by the Indians, must be
their apology for this barbarous conduct. Such conduct will
be excused by all who witnessed the treachery of the
Indians, and saw the bloody scenes of this battle.
"Tecumseh being absent at the time of the battle, a chief
called White Loon was the chief commander of the Indians. He
was seen in the morning after the battle, riding a large
white horse in the woods across the prairie, where he was
shot at by a volunteer named Montgomery, who is now living
in the southwest part of this state. At the crack of his
rifle the horse jumped as if the ball had hit him. The
Indian rode off toward the town and we saw him no more.
During the battle the Prophet was safely located on a hill,
beyond the reach of our balls, praying to the Great Spirit
to give victory to the Indians, having previously assured
them that the Great Spirit would change our powder into
ashes and sand.
"We had about forty head of beef cattle when we came to the
battle. They all ran off the night of the battle, or they
were driven off by the Indians, so that they were all lost.
We received rations for two days on the morning after the
action. We received no more rations until the next Tuesday
evening, being six days afterwards. The Indians having
retreated to their town, we performed the solemn duty of
consigning to their graves our dead soldiers, without
shrouds or coffins. They were placed in graves about two
feet deep, from five to ten in each grave.
"General Harrison having learned that Tecumseh was expected
to return from the south with a number of Indians whom he
had enlisted in his cause, called a council of his officers,
who advised him to remain on the battlefield and fortify his
camp by a breastwork of logs, about four feet high. This
work was completed during the day and all the troops were
placed immediately behind each line of the work, when they
were ordered to pass the watchword from right to left every
five minutes, so that no man was permitted to sleep during
the night. The watchword on the night before the battle was
'Wide-awake, wide-awake.' To me, it was a long, cold,
cheerless night.
"On the next day the dragoons went to Prophet's Town, which
they found deserted by all the Indians, except an old squaw,
whom they brought into the camp and left her with the
wounded chief before mentioned. The dragoons set fire to the
town and it was all consumed, casting up a brilliant light
amid the darkness of the ensuing night. I arrived at the
town when it was about half on fire. I found large
quantities of corn, beans and peas, I filled my knapsack
with these articles and carried them to the camp and divided
them with the members of our mess, consisting of six men.
Having these articles of food, we declined eating horse
flesh, which was eaten by a large portion of our men."
(THE END.)
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1805 to 1812. A valuable addition to history. Collected and annotated
by Prof. Logan Esarey, Indiana University, and furnished to writer. The
letters of Harrison quoted in this work are photographic reproductions
from the originals at Washington, D. C. (Indiana University.)
36. Harvey, Henry. Member of the Society of Friends. _History of the
Shawnee Indians._ Cincinnati, 1855. (Indiana State Library.)
37. Hatch, William Stanley. _A Chapter of the History of the War of
1812._ (Indiana State Library.)
38. _Hay's Journal. A Narrative of Life on the Old Frontier._ Edited by
M. M. Quaife. Wisconsin Historical Society, 1914. (Indiana State
Library.)
39. Heckewelder, Rev. John. _An Account of the History, Manners and
Customs of the Indian Nations._ Philadelphia, 1819. (Indiana State
Library.)
40. Heckewelder, Rev. John. _Narrative of the Mission of the United
Brethren._ Philadelphia, 1820. (Indiana State Library.)
41. _History of DeKalb County, Indiana._ B. F. Bowen. (Indiana State
Library.)
42. _History of Vigo and Parke Counties, Indiana._ Beckwith. (Indiana
State Library.)
43. Hornaday, William T. _The Extermination of the American Bison._ In
Annual Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1887.
44. Howe, Henry. _Historical Collections of Ohio._ 1856. (Indiana State
Library.)
45. Hubbard, Gurdon S. _Recollections and Autobiography._ A fine review
of the early fur trade under John Jacob Astor. (Indiana State Library.)
46. Hutchins, Thomas. _A Topographical Description of Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina._ 1778. Hutchins was
geographer to the King, and later geographer to the Continental
Congress. He possessed valuable information concerning the west, and
especially of the Wabash valley. (Indiana State Library.)
47. _Indiana Magazine of History._ Volumes 11, 12, 13 and 14.
48. _Jasper and Newton Counties, Indiana._ Edited by Louis H. Hamilton,
of Rensselaer, Indiana, and Judge William Darroch, of Kentland, Indiana.
1916.
49. _Journals of Old Continental Congress._ 1775 to 1788. These journals
contain the proceedings relative to early Indian affairs, and show the
early policy of the old Congress with reference to the Indian tribes,
in the years just prior to Washington's administration. (Indiana State
Library.)
50. _Journal of the Treaty of Fort Wayne, of 1809._ This is the official
account of the transaction written by Peter Jones, Secretary to Governor
Harrison. (Indiana State Library.)
51. Kent, James. _Commentaries on American Law_, Vol. I, Tenth Edition,
1860. Page 280, and note to page 281.
52. Law, John. _History of Vincennes._ Throws much light on events at
Vincennes during the Harrison and Tecumseh Period. (Indiana State
Library.)
53. Lindley, Harlow. _Indiana as Seen by Early Travelers._ 1916. A fine
reference book. (Indiana State Library.)
54. Lossing, Benson J. _Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812._ New
York, 1869. Illustrated, and an excellent work.
55. Marshall, Chief Justice John. _Opinion in Johnson and Graham's
Lessee, vs. William, McIntosh._ Eight Wheaton's Reports, 543. Found in
United States Statutes at Large. Indian Treaties. Pages 1 to 8, both
inclusive. 1856.
56. Marshall, Humphrey. _The History of Kentucky._ Frankfort, Ky.,
1824. (Indiana State Library.)
57. _Marshall County History_, Indiana. McDonald. (Indiana State
Library.)
58. Matson, N. _Memories of Shaubena._ Chicago, 1878. (Chicago Public
Library.)
59. _Michigan Pioneer and Historical Recollections._ XIV and XXX.
(Indiana State Library.)
60. McMaster, John Bach. _A History of the People of the United States._
New York, 1896.
61. McNemar, Richard. _The Kentucky Revival-Shakerism._ (Indiana State
Library.)
62. Moore, Charles. _The Northwest Under Three Flags._ New York, 1900.
(Indiana State Library.)
63. Montgomery, H. _The Life of Major-General William H. Harrison, Ninth
President of the United States._ 1852.
64. _Me-won-i-toc._ By Solon Robinson. A peculiar work published in
1867, but giving some faithful sketches of conditions on the early
prairies. The author shows some familiarity with the Battle of
Tippecanoe, and the machinations of the British. It could not be
counted, however, as a standard historical work, for the author has
interwoven a fantastic tale with his recitals of history.
65. Naylor, Judge Isaac. _Narrative of the Battle of Tippecanoe._ In
report of Tippecanoe Monument Commission of 1908, compiled by Alva O.
Reser.
66. Pirtle, Capt. Alfred. _Battle of Tippecanoe._ Louisville, 1900.
(Indiana State Library.)
67. Powell, Alexander E. _Gentlemen Rovers._ 1913.
68. Quaife, M. M. _Fort Wayne in 1790._ Indiana Historical Society
Publications, No. 7, Vol. 7. This valuable pamphlet contains Henry
Hay's Journal, first published by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
(Indiana State Library.)
69. _Report of Tippecanoe Monument Commission, 1908._ Compiled by Alva
O. Reser, Lafayette, Indiana.
70. Reynolds, Gov. John. _My Own Times._ 1855. (Chicago Public Library.)
71. Ridpath, John Clark. _History of the United States._
72. Roosevelt, Theodore. _The Winning of the West._ New York, 1889. A
splendid narrative of western history.
73. Schoolcraft, H. R. _Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge._ (Indiana
State Library.)
74. Schoolcraft, H. R. _History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian
Tribes of the United States._ 1847. Part V. (Indiana State Library.)
75. Smith, Col. James. _An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences, etc.,
During His Captivity With the Indians, etc._ Lexington, Ky., 1799.
(Indiana State Library.)
76. Smith's _Historical Sketches of Old Vincennes_.
77. Sparks, Jared. _The Life and Writings of George Washington._ 1838.
(Indiana State Library.)
78. _Standard History of Elkhart County, Indiana._ Abraham E. Weaver.
(Indiana State Library.)
79. _St. Clair Papers._ Edited by William Henry Smith. Cincinnati,
1882. St. Clair's correspondence very valuable. (Indiana State
Library.)
80. Stone, William L. _Life of Joseph Brant-Thayendanegea._ New York,
1838. (Indiana State Library.)
81. Switzler's _History of Missouri_. (Indiana State Library.)
82. United States Statutes at Large. Indian Treaties. 1856.
83. _Vincennes Western Sun._ A newspaper of the time of Harrison and
Tecumseh, and later. Its old files are now in the Indiana State Library.
A valuable source of information.
84. _Wan-Bun, the Early Day in the Northwest._ Mrs. J. H. Kinzie, 1855.
(Indiana State Library.)
85. Whicker, John Wesley. _Sketches of the Wabash Valley._ Attica,
Indiana, 1916.
86. _White County History_, Indiana. W. H. Hammelle. (Indiana State
Library.)
87. Wilson, Thomas J. _Address at Tippecanoe Battlefield._ In Report
of Tippecanoe Monument Commission of 1908.
88. Wilson's _History of Dubois County_, Indiana. (Indiana State
Library.)
89. Young, Calvin M. _Little Turtle._ Greenville, Ohio, 1917. This book
gives some local coloring to important historical events around
Greenville and Fort Wayne.
INDEX
(References are to pages.)
--A--
Adams, John, 126, 245, 288
Adams, Lieut., 378
Adair, Major John, 213
Agaskawak, Ottawa Chief, 169
Albach, James R., Historian, 193
American Fur Company, 12
Arrowheads, 33, 154
"Army Ford Stock Farm", 154
Armstrong, Capt. John, 163, 165, 166
"Army Ford," Eugene, Indiana, 172
"Aristocrats", 249
Ash, Abraham, Interpreter, 262
Asheton, Capt. Joseph, 167, 169, 187
Ash-cake, 38
Ashley, Ill., 22
Astor, John Jacob, 12, 13
Attica, Ind., 73
Atwater, Caleb, Historian, 14
Au Glaize, River of, 42, 45, 230, 282
An Glaize, Town of, 212
Au-goosh-away, Ottawa Chief, 241
Au Sable Grove, Ill., 23
--B--
Babcock's Museum, Goodland, Indiana, 367
Badger, 13
Baen, Capt. Wm. C., 360, 371, 372, 377, 378
Bancroft, George, Historian, 92
Barbee, Major, (Ky.), 185, 231, 232
Barron, Joseph, Interpreter, 249, 258, 259, 261, 262, 267, 276, 306, 312,
313, 314, 318, 320, 321, 322, 324, 325, 326
Barron's Interview with Tecumseh, 313, 314
Barton, Capt. Robert C., 360, 374, 375, 378
Bartholomew, Col. Joseph, 358, 372
"Bataille des Illinois", 362
Bateaux, 49
Beans, 37, 389
Bears, 12, 13, 16, 27, 51, 114
Bear Chief (Ottawa), 228
Beckwith, Hiram, Historian, 18, 46, 47, 72, 76, 155
Belle Riviere, Ohio River, 113
Benton County, Indiana, 22, 24, 32, 74, 190, 381
Berry, Second Lieutenant Thomas, 372, 378
Beaver, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 51
Beaver City, Indiana, 18
Beaver Creek, Indiana, Illinois, 18
Beaver Lake, Indiana, 11, 13, 18
Beaver Township, Newton County, Indiana, 18
Beaverville, Illinois, 18
Big Bottom, Ohio, Massacre at, 173
Bigger, Captain James, 382
Big Man, (Miami Chief), 357
Birch, Jesse S., 190
Black, General John C., 362
Blackbird, Potawatomi Chief, 203
Black Hawk War, 78
Black Hoof (Catahecassa), Shawnee Chief, 57, 275
Blood, Hosea, Surgeon, 379
Blue Grass, 37, 367
Blue Jacket, Shawnee Chief, 62, 140, 146, 148, 157, 158, 159, 169, 171,
213, 227, 238, 241, 332
Blue Stem, 22
"Board of War," (Ky.), 175, 188
Boone, Daniel, 56, 70, 120, 122
Boonesborough, Kentucky, 115, 117
Boyd, John Parke, Sketch by Lossing, 359
Boyd, John Parke, Colonel U. S. Army 340, 341, 358, 359, 360, 365, 378,
385
Boyd's Bravery at Tippecanoe, 385
Braddock's Defeat, 14, 60, 63, 67, 204, 241
Bradford, Thomas G., Maps of, 53, 55
Brant, Game Bird, 37
Brant, Joseph, Mohawk Chief, 60, 80, 81, 96, 110, 128, 129, 130 131, 132,
133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 142, 143, 144, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 212,
213, 215, 216, 217, 218, 221, 224, 238, 293, 332
Bridges, Ensign, Killed, 170
Brier's Mills, 20, 367
British Agents, 4, 50, 99, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 127, 132, 134, 139,
141, 143, 144, 149, 163, 221, 225, 239, 259, 261, 266, 274, 284, 296,
304, 327, 332, 352, 353, 365
British Northwest Company, 12
British Posts, 6, 84, 87, 90, 126, 127, 134, 135, 137, 138, 141, 144,
146, 171, 180, 237, 263
British Traders, 16, 50, 147, 157, 158, 160, 163
Brouillette, Michael, Trader and Scout, 249, 303, 306, 308, 309, 311,
313, 335, 343
Brown, Captain (Ky.), 186
Brown, John, (Ky.), 150, 175
Brown, Captain Return B., 360
Brownstown, Michigan, Council at, 333
Buckongahelas, Delaware Chief, 218, 241
Buffalo, 2, 12, 16, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 48, 82, 86, 114, 300
Buffalo Creek (N. Y.), 177, 179
Buffalo Robes, Trade Ceased in, 29
Buffalo Wallows, 32
Bull, Captain, Indian Warrior, 186
Bunkum, Town of, (Ill.), 13
Burchstead, Ensign, 379
Burnet, Jacob, Historian, 31, 64, 150, 196
Burnet's Creek, Indiana, 368, 371, 374
Busseron, Indiana, 336, 361
Butler, Col. John, British Indian Agent, 177, 178, 215, 224
Butler, Mann, Historian, 27, 65, 70, 115, 122, 124
Butler, General Richard, 96, 97, 99, 142, 174, 197, 199, 200, 202
--C--
Cahokia, Illinois, 121
Caldwell, Captain, British Agent, 107, 130, 231
Campbell, Mis, Legionary Cavalry, 232
Campbell, William, British Officer at Fort Miami, 233, 234
Cannehous, Jean, French Trader, 11
Capt. Pike, Delaware Chief, 98
Carleton, Sir Guy (Lord Dorchester), 135, 136, 137, 223
Carmarthen, Lord, British Secretary of State, 126
Cass, General Lewis, 75
Catahecassa, Black Hoof, Wyandot Chief, 57, 241, 275
Caton, John D., 23
Caughnawaga Indians, 14
Cayuga, Indiana, 154
Cession, Deed of, by Virginia, 84, 86, 92
Cheeseekau, Brother of Tecumseh, 289
Cherokees, Tribe of, 58, 65, 114, 132, 153
Cherokee, River of (Same as Tennessee), 58
Chesapeake and Leopard, 284, 285
Chickasaws, Tribe of, 58, 230
Chicago Road, 24, 25
Chicago, Post of, 9, 13, 46, 72, 78
Chillicothe, Shawnee Village, 167
Chippewas, Tribe of, 44, 53, 54, 55, 65, 71, 98, 108, 140, 141, 143, 160,
169, 179, 199, 219, 224, 227, 231, 240, 241, 285, 298, 303, 305, 307
Choctaws, Tribe of, 230, 349
Cincinnati, Ohio, 31, 109, 153, 161, 177, 188, 195, 209, 222, 246, 303,
340
Citizen Genet, 220
Clarendon, Lord, 81
Clark, Lieutenant, Killed, 170
Clark, George Rogers, 6, 12, 83, 84, 91, 97, 99, 120, 121, 122, 124
Clark, Major Marston G., 370, 382
Clark, General William, 339
Clark's Grant, 243
Cole, Captain, Theft of Horses From by Potawatomi, 336, 337, 338
Confessional, Introduced by Prophet, 299
Connecticut Cession to General Government, 84, 85
Conner, John, Delaware Interpreter, 259, 262, 285, 297, 306, 338, 363,
364
Connolly, Dr. John, British Agent, 139
Connoys, Tribe of, 219
Cook, Captain Joel, 360, 373, 375, 377, 378
Corn, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 48, 49, 69, 78, 124, 164, 167, 170, 181, 187,
189, 190, 192, 193, 230, 235, 298, 369, 389
Cornplanter, Seneca Chief, 96, 133, 175, 176, 182, 212, 213
Cornstalk, Shawnee Chief, 241
Corydon, Indiana, 365
Coshocton, Ohio, 107, 127, 129
Council at St. Joseph River in 1810, 306, 307, 308
Coustan, Jean, French Trader, 11
Crab Orchard, Kentucky, 145
Craik, Doctor, Friend of Washington, 85
Crainte, Sans, Interpreter at Treaty of Greenville, 242
Cranes, Game, 12
Crawford, William, Friend of Washington, 85
Creeks, Tribe of, 57
Croghan, George, British Agent, 27, 31, 37, 38, 42, 49, 53
Cucumbers, 37
Cuyahoga, River of, 8, 10, 45, 87, 98, 242
--D--
Danville, Illinois, 21
Darke, Colonel William, 199, 202
Darke County, Ohio, 197
"Dark and Bloody Ground", 113, 114
Daviess, Joseph Hamilton, 248, 358, 363, 368, 372, 376, 378, 379, 381,
384, 385, 388
Daviess, Major Joseph Hamilton, Death of, 376, 384, 385
Daviess, Charge With Dragoons, 384, 385
"Dawson's Harrison,", 277
Dearborn, Henry, Secretary of War, 251, 302
De Bois Blanc, Island of, 53
Decatur, Illinois, 21
Decker, Colonel Luke, 351, 372
Deer, 2, 12, 13, 27, 30, 37, 41, 48, 51, 86, 114, 300
Deer Hoofs, Dried, at Tippecanoe, 62, 375
De Hart, General Richard P., 295
Delawares, Tribe of 29, 32, 44, 45, 55, 57, 65, 95, 97, 98, 100, 107,
108, 110, 128, 132, 139, 141, 143, 147, 153, 156, 157, 158, 164, 169,
177, 179, 180, 181, 189, 199, 213, 219, 227, 231, 240, 241, 250, 258,
259, 260, 261, 265, 269, 286, 297, 307, 319, 363, 369
Denny, Major Ebenezer, 196, 197, 198, 200, 202
Detroit, Town of, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 16, 34, 41, 42, 46, 49, 50, 51, 55,
87, 90, 98, 99, 106, 120, 121, 122, 126, 127, 128, 137, 140, 141, 142,
144, 146, 149, 157, 158, 159, 171, 179, 187, 199, 211, 237, 243, 261,
263, 283, 284, 285, 292, 306, 307
Detroit, River of, 4, 218, 221
Devin, Rev. Alexander, 351
Dillon, John B., Historian, 254
Dorchester, Lord, (Sir Guy Carleton), 135, 136, 137, 139, 141, 179, 223,
226
Doughty, Captain John, 106, 107, 129, 163
Dowell, William W. (Ky.), 150
Dragoons, Light, of Vincennes, 38, 336, 344, 352, 372
Dramatic Effect, Indian Speeches, 317
"Dried Heart of Captive at Kekionga", 149
Drinking Club, of Indians, 17, 18
Dubois, Captain Touissant, Interpreter and Scout for Harrison 303, 306,
311, 353, 355, 356, 357, 367, 368
Ducks, Game, 12, 15, 37
Duke of York, 81
Dumay, Jacques, French Trader, 11
Dunmore, Governor of Province of Virginia, 57
Du Tiel Tavern, Tippecanoe, 383
--E--
Earl Park, Benton County, Indiana, 25, 337
Eclipse of Sun in 1806 and the Prophet, 287, 288
Edgewater, Avenue in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 48
Edwards, Colonel (Ky.), 150, 151
Edwards, Governor Ninian of Illinois, 337, 340
Eel River, Indiana, 38, 140, 145, 166, 188, 190, 273
Eel River Indians, 44, 140, 160, 175, 188, 189
Elk, Game, 12, 82, 114
Elliott, Matthew, British Agent, 107, 127, 128, 130, 211, 212, 218, 231,
284, 285, 306, 312, 332, 333, 334, 352
English Treaty of Fort Stanwix (N. Y.), 134, 218
English Traders, 2, 3, 10, 113
Estel's Station (Ky.), 70
Eugene, Vermilion County, Indiana, 172
--F--
Fallen Timbers, Description of Battle, 231, 232, 233
Fallen Timbers, Battle of References to, 3, 42, 54, 62, 63, 208, 231,
232, 233, 241, 245
Farmer's Brother, Iroquois Chief, in British Uniform, 177, 178
Father Hennepin, 26
Father Marquette, 26
Faulkner, Captain (Ky.), 165, 166
Ferguson, Captain William, 163
"Fire-water", 282
Five Medals, Potawatomi Chief, 260
Floyd, Major George Rogers Clark, 315, 317, 322, 371
Floyd, Major Davis, 386, 387
Floyd's Fork (Ky.), 145
Fontaine, Major James (Ky.), 165, 168, 169, 170
Ford, Harmar's, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, 48
Fort Dearborn, Illinois, 203, 260
Fort Defiance, Ohio, 43, 230, 235, 243
Fort Erie, 177, 182
Fort Greenville, Ohio, 223, 228, 235, 240
Fort Hamilton, Ohio, 197, 213, 243, 246
Fort Harmar, Treaty of, 55, 58, 104, 108, 109, 110, 133, 134, 138, 139,
140, 141, 144, 145, 157, 214, 219, 239, 242
Fort Harrison, Vigo County, Indiana, 76, 363, 364, 381
Fort Jefferson, Ohio, 197, 204, 213, 222, 223
Fort Knox (at Vincennes), 160, 304, 315
Fort Laurens, Ohio, 98, 242
Fort McIntosh, Treaty of, 97, 98, 99, 103, 105, 107, 110, 132
Fort Miami, Ohio (British Fort), 231, 233
Fort Niagara (N. Y.), 177, 178, 179, 214, 215
Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), 39, 60, 121, 140
Fort Recovery, Ohio, 223, 228, 242, 243
Fort Recovery, Battle of, Description, 228, 229
Fort Stanwix, Treaty of, 96, 97, 103, 104, 105, 107, 132
Fort Steuben (Clarksville) Indiana, 153, 161, 187
Fort St. Clair, Ohio, 197, 213, 222
Fort St. Clair, Battle of, Description, 213, 214
Fort Washington (Cincinnati), 153, 161, 162, 163, 167, 176, 177, 188,
195, 196, 197, 209, 210, 213, 242, 246
Fort Wayne, Indiana, Town of, 3, 10, 32, 37, 40, 43, 47, 48, 52, 163,
166, 167, 235, 236, 242, 243, 257, 258, 283, 296, 307, 308
"Fort Wayne Manuscript", 169
Fort Wayne, Treaty of, 45, 134, 251, 252, 254, 255, 256, 257, 260, 261,
262, 263, 267, 269, 271, 273, 277, 278, 279, 305, 319, 346, 357
Foster, Josiah D., Surgeon, 379
Fourth United States Regiment (of Tippecanoe Fame), 340, 341, 358, 359,
363, 378, 379
Fourth United States Regiment, Uniform of, 360
Fowler, Indiana, Town of, 25
Fox, Game, 13, 114
Fox, Silver Gray, 13
Freeman, Death of, 210
French Brandy, 17
French Revolution, Opening of, Effect on Indian Affairs, 219, 220, 221
French Traders, Indian Country, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 37, 49, 50, 51, 69,
75, 146, 147, 157, 158, 163, 177, 187, 249, 305
Frothingham, Lieutenant Ebenezer, Death of, 170
Fuller, Lieutenant, 378
Funk, Captain Peter (Ky.), 248, 358
Fur Trade With Indians, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 34, 37, 39, 41, 50, 51, 52,
87, 101, 106, 116, 127, 135, 149, 190, 249, 256, 263
--G--
Game, Scarcity of in Harrison's Time, 300, 301
Gamelin, Antoine, French Agent of U. S., 58, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157,
158, 159, 160, 162
Gamelin, Fred, 153
Gardens of Indiana at Kekionga, 48
Geese, Game, 12, 14, 15, 37
Geiger, Captain Frederick (Ky.), 248, 358, 366, 374, 375, 383
Georgian Bay, 55
Gerrard, U. S. Agent to Indians, Death of, 210
Gibson, Captain Alexander, 228
Gibson, John, Secretary of Territory, 317, 322
Girty, George, 140, 146, 147, 212
Girty, Simon, British Agent, 107, 127, 128, 130, 140, 171, 182, 211, 212,
231
Gooding, Lieutenant, 378
Gordon, Colonel (British Officer), 179
"Grandfathers," Term Applied to Delawares, 45, 307
Grand Glaize, Ohio, 42
Granville, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 186
Grand Prairie, Indiana, Illinois, 20, 21, 22, 26, 28
Grand, River of, 13, 52, 55
Grapes at Vincennes, 41
Grayson, Wm., Virginia Statesman, 85
"Great Plum Patch," Vermilion County, Indiana, 172
Great Miami, River of, 8
Green Bay, Wisconsin, 52, 71
Greenville, Ohio, 197, 205, 223, 228, 240, 267, 282, 283, 285, 295, 299
Greenville, Treaty of, account, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244
Greenville, Treaty of, Other References to, 3, 44, 46, 49, 52, 53, 57,
60, 71, 72, 110, 255, 267, 309, 354
Grenville, Lord, 236
Griswold, B. J., Historian, 170
--H--
Haldimand, Gen. Frederick, British Governor, 126
Hale, Lieut. Job, Death of, 213
Half-King of the Wyandots, 98
Hall, Major (Ky.), 162, 168, 169
Hall, James, Historian, 23, 79
Hamilton, Henry, British Lieutenant Governor, 121, 122
Hammond, British Minister, 226
Hamtramck, John F., U. S. Army, 153, 161, 171, 172, 198, 235
Hardin, Colonel John (Ky.), 48, 70, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 184,
185, 186, 210, 211
Hardy, Samuel, 84
Harmar, General Josiah, 3, 26, 30, 38, 48, 54, 65, 124, 141, 151, 161,
162, 163, 164, 167, 193, 197
Harmar's Ford, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 48
"Harmar's Trace,", 163
Harrison County, Indiana, 372, 376
Harrison, Gen. Wm. Henry, References to, 2, 4, 9, 20, 32, 37, 38, 45, 46,
47, 56, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 75, 76, 77, 79, 113, 124, 134, 138, 172,
203, 208, 245, 246, 247, 249, 250, 253, 254, 257, 258, 259, 261, 262,
263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278,
279, 280, 283, 285, 295, 296, 300, 301, 302, 304, 305, 306, 307, 309,
310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 316, 317, 320, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 329,
330, 334, 337, 338, 341, 342, 344, 345, 346, 348, 349, 350, 352, 355,
357, 358, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 373, 375,
376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 382, 385, 387, 389
Harrison's Answer to Tecumseh, 320, 321
Harrison's Courage, 320, 323, 324, 379, 385
Harrison Deceived by Prophet, 302, 303
Harrison's General Policies Toward Indian Tribes, 257, 258, 279
Harrison's House at Vincennes, 316
Harrison Inveighs Against Liquor Traffic, 252, 258
Harrison's Private Interview With Tecumseh, 326, 327, 328
Harrison's Speech to Wabash and Fort Wayne Miamis, 355, 356
Harrison's Tribute to Tecumseh, 350
Harrison vs. McIntosh, Suit for Slander, 276, 277, 278
Harrod, James (Ky.), 115, 120, 122
Harrodsburgh, Kentucky, 117, 120
Harvey, Henry (Quaker), 59
Hatch, Wm. Stanley, Historian, 56, 291
Hawkins, Lieutenant, 378
Hay, Henry, English Trader and Agent, 49, 50, 51, 146, 147, 149
"Hay's Journal", 49, 50
Heckewelder, John, 16, 29, 38, 127, 211, 214
Heller's Corners, Near Fort Wayne, Indiana, 166
Hemp at Vincennes, 41
Henry, Patrick, Governor of Virginia, 6, 85
Hickory Grove, Near Fowler, Indiana, 25
Higgins, Ensign, Killed, 170
High Gap, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 183, 184, 185
"Hobson's Choice", 209, 222
Hoecake, 38
Holderman's Grove, Illinois, 23
Honey-bee, 35, 36
Hops at Vincennes, 41
Hornaday, William T., 31
Horses at Vincennes, Breed of, 41
Horse Flesh, eating at Tippecanoe, 390
Horse Thieves, References to, 73, 74, 99, 122, 123, 143, 146, 256, 312,
335, 337
Huckleberry, Henry (Tippecanoe), 387
Hubbard, Gurdon S., 13, 190
Hunting Shirt Men, 6, 60, 115, 341
Hutchins, Thomas, Geographer, 39
Hutchins' Description of Wabash Valley, 39, 40, 41, 42
--I--
Illinois Central Railway, 22
"Illinois Grant", 84
Illinois, Tribe of, 26, 45, 46, 72, 211, 362
Illinois Tribes, Conquest of, 46
Impressment of American Seamen, 284
Indiana Becomes State, 380
Indian Creek (Reviere de Bois Rouge), 186
"Indian Hills," on Wabash, 183
Innes, Harry, (Ky.), 123, 175
Iroquois, Illinois, 13
Iroquois, County of, Illinois, 13
Iroquois, Tribe of, 8, 55, 57, 59, 71, 80, 82, 96, 97, 100, 108, 110,
130, 134, 159, 175, 178, 212, 213
--J--
Jasper County, Indiana, 22
Jay, John, 122, 225, 236
Jay's Treaty, 236, 237
Jefferson, Thomas, References to, 6, 7, 84, 85, 86, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96,
250, 253, 280, 288
Jefferson's Policy as to Payment of Annuities to Indians, 253
Jennings, Lieutenant, 317, 322
Jesuit Fathers, 53, 71, 133
Jesuit Relation, 71
Johnson, Sir John, British Agent, 136, 137, 239
Johnson, Wm., 27, 129
Johnston, John, U. S. Indian Agent, 257, 280, 291, 308
Jones, Peter, Secretary to Governor Harrison, 258, 261, 276
--K--
Kankakee, River of, 9, 76, 78
Kaskaskia, Illinois, 7, 22, 26, 30, 48, 69, 84, 120, 121
Kaskaskias, Tribe of, 241
Keel Boats, 3, 56, 73, 143, 145, 146, 149, 150
Keesass, the Sun, Potawatomi Chief, 53, 241
Kekionga (at Fort Wayne), 47, 52, 58, 146, 154, 156, 160, 161, 167, 175,
177, 188, 189, 195, 212
Kenapacomaqua, Eel River Town, L'Anguille, 38, 145, 146, 156, 188, 190,
191
Kendall County, Illinois, 23
Kenton, Simon, 56, 70, 122, 280, 289
Kentucky, References to, 3, 4, 7, 11, 27, 51, 56, 57, 60, 70, 73, 76, 93,
99, 109, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123,
124, 125, 127, 135, 148, 161, 162, 174, 175, 193, 194, 205, 210, 358,
388
Kentucky, River of, 146, 148, 183, 242
Kentuckians, References to, 69, 71, 76, 88, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117,
118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 135, 139, 149, 151, 162, 164,
167, 168, 170, 185, 187, 188, 192, 193, 194, 195, 205, 210, 213, 222,
223, 229, 231, 330, 358, 361, 362, 365, 366, 375, 387, 388
Keth-tip-e-ca-nunk, (Tippecanoe), 11, 145, 186, 187, 190, 192
Kibby, Ephraim, Wayne Scout, 230
Kikapouguoi, Indian Village, 154
Kickapoos, Tribe of, References to, 26, 41, 46, 47, 53, 72, 74, 140, 143,
145, 154, 155, 156, 172, 175, 184, 185, 188, 190, 211, 241, 250, 272,
273, 279, 297, 298, 305, 308, 311, 325, 361 365, 367, 371
"Kickapoo Town in Prairie", near Oxford, Ind., 188, 189, 190, 191, 192
Kinzie, John, trader among Indians, 164
Knox Co., Ind., 249, 276
Kosciusko, Baron and Little Turtle, 260
Kumskaukau, Brother of Prophet, 280
--L--
Lafayette, city of, 5, 73, 190, 296
LaFountaine, fur trader at Kekionga, 37, 51
Lakeside, Avenue at Ft. Wayne, Ind.,48, 164
L'Anguille, (Kenapacomaqua), 146, 156, 160, 188
La Plante, Pierre, Harrison agent, 249, 340
La Poussier, Wea chief, 278, 279, 343, 346, 357
L'Arbe Croche, 55
La Salle Comes UP St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, 9
Laselle, Antoine, French fur trader and British loyalist, 51, 147, 148,
164
Laselle, Hyacinthe, 279
Laselle, Jacques, interpreter, 242
Laulewasikaw, (The Prophet), 280, 282
Law, John, of Vincennes, 247, 259, 289, 293, 320
Lee, Arthur, of Virginia, 84, 96, 97, 100
Lee, Richard Henry, 85
Legion, The (of Wayne), 209, 222, 223, 231, 232
Legionville, 208
Le Gris, Miami chief, 49, 50, 51, 140, 146, 147, 148, 157, 158, 171, 241
Le Gris, town of, 49
"Lea Poux," (Potawatomi), 74
Lewis, General Andrew, 241
Lewis, Isaac W., of Oxford, Ind., 191
Licks, buffalo, etc., 27
Limestone, (Maysville, Ky.), 149, 150, 151
Lincoln, Benjamin, U. S. Commissioner, 104, 214
Little Beaver, Wea chief, 241
Little Eyes, Wea chief, 278
Little Face, chief at Petit Piconne, 145
Little Miami, river of, 84, 109
Little Turtle, reference to, 32, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 59, 62, 64, 65, 78,
133, 140, 146, 157, 163, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 198, 203, 213,
228, 230, 239, 241, 242, 243, 260, 264, 271, 274, 332, 357
Little Turtle's Views on Treaty of Fort Wayne, 357
Little Wabash, 22
Logan, Benjamin, 118, 119, 120, 122, 175
Logansport, Indiana, 73, 145, 188, 191, 385
Logan's Station (St. Asaphs) (Ky.), 117, 118, 119, 120, 123
"Looking Glass," the (Wabunsee), Potawatomi Chief, 76, 77, 78
Lord Sidney, 80
Lord Clarendon, 81
Losantiville (Cincinnati), 153
Lossing, Benson J., Historian, 208, 359
Louisville, Ky., 172
Loutre Island, (Missouri River), 337
Ludlow's Station, 196
Lynx, 13
--M--
Mackinaw, 12, 53
Madison, James, 85, 250
"Magic Bowl," of the Prophet, 374
Maize, or Indian Corn, References to, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 48, 49, 69,
164, 167, 170, 189, 190, 192, 193, 230, 235, 369, 389
Malden, Canada, 4, 259, 284, 292, 298, 306, 312, 332, 333, 352, 353, 356
Mantoulin, Island of, 54
Maple Sugar, 39
Marietta, Ohio, 108, 109, 153, 172, 173
Mars, Corporal Stephen, (Ky.), 378
Marshal, Humphrey, Historian of Kentucky, 27, 114, 117
Marshall, John, Chief Justice, 82, 83, 85
Marshal, Thomas, (Ky.), 150
Marshfield, Warren Co., Ind., 21
Marten (Sable), 13
Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, Chippewa Chief, 53, 241
Mason, George, of Virginia, 6, 85
Massachusetts Cession to General Government, 84
Massas, Chippewa Chief, 44, 239, 309
Matthews, Major, British Army, 137
Maumee Bay, 45
Maumee City, Ohio, 231, 233
Maumee, River of, References to, 8, 10, 34, 40, 42, 43, 48, 50, 52, 59,
87, 91, 98, 115, 142, 143, 144, 146, 156, 161, 164, 166, 167, 168,
169, 170, 175, 181, 182, 211, 212, 215, 226, 227, 229, 230, 231, 233,
234, 235, 236, 242
May, William, 211
Maysville (Limestone) (Ky.), 149, 150, 151
McClellan, Robert, Wayne Scout, 230
McCormick, Alexander, 107, 129
McCoy, Capt. (Ky.), 184
McIntosh, William, Tory at Vincennes, 276, 277, 278
McKee, Alexander, British agent, 127, 128, 130, 142, 147, 163, 178, 179,
180, 181, 182, 211, 212, 218, 224, 226, 231, 235, 238, 239, 284, 285
McMahan, Lieut. Richard, 372, 378
McMahon, Major, 228, 229
McMullen, Captive of Indians, 148
McMullen, Major (Ky.), 162, 164, 168, 169
McMurtrey, Capt., 170
McNemar, Richard (Shaker), 299
"Medean Fire", 374
Melons, 37, 41
Meredosia, Ill., 21
Miami Carrying Place or Portage, 39, 40, 42, 43, 49, 51, 52, 243
Miami, Fort (British), 231, 233
Miami of the Lake (Maumee), 40, 42, 52, 142, 158, 243, 285, 342
Miami Rapids, Battle of (Fallen Timbers), 209
Miami Rapids, Ohio, 224
Miami, River of, 10, 58, 87, 91, 98, 99, 109, 115, 197, 223, 242, 243,
281
Miamitown, 3, 10, 11, 30, 37, 38, 40, 43, 49, 54, 64, 99, 106, 140, 146,
147, 149, 154, 163
Miami, Treaty of, 99, 103
"Miami Village", 47, 91, 98, 161, 175, 176, 177, 181, 182
Miamis, Tribe of, References to, 1, 3, 11, 17, 32, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46,
47, 48, 49, 51, 54, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 64, 65, 72, 73, 95, 97, 107,
132, 134, 139, 140, 142, 144, 145, 147, 148, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158,
159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 166, 169, 171, 175, 177, 178, 179, 181, 193,
198, 199, 203, 212, 213, 219, 227, 231, 240, 241, 242, 243, 250, 260,
261, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 271, 274, 279, 297, 310, 319,
321, 329, 334, 346, 349, 354, 357, 364, 369
Michillimacinac, 7, 10, 53, 98, 126, 160, 243
Miller, Christopher, Wayne Scout, 230, 231, 242
Miller, Henry, Wayne Scout, 230
Miller, Col. James, 360
Mingoes, Tribe of, 65, 219
Mink, 13
Mississinewa, Indians, 260, 261, 264, 267, 310, 311
Mississinewa, River of, 37, 260
Mitchell, Corporal James (Tippecanoe), 378
Mohawks, Tribe of, 80, 96, 97, 128, 129, 130, 144, 179, 182, 231
Monongahela, River of, 63, 112
Monroe, James, 84, 85
Montezuma, Ind., 76, 79, 366
Montgomery Co., Ind., 381
Morins, M., Interpreter at Treaty of Greenville, 242
Morocco, Ind., 337
Mud Creek, Benton Co., Ind., 25
Mulberry Trees (white and Black), 40
"Munsees", Tribe of, 219
Muskegon, River of, 13
Muskingum, River of, 8, 27, 45, 55, 87, 98, 107, 108, 125, 127, 141, 173,
242
Musquitons, 41
Musk-rat, 13
--N--
Na-goh-quan-gogh, or Le Gris, Miami Chief, 49
Naylor, Judge Isaac, 38, 381
Naylor's Narrative of Battle of Tippecanoe, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 386,
387, 388, 389, 390
Naylor's Portrait at Williamsport, Ind., 381
Naylor, William, Brother of Isaac Naylor, 384
Negro-Legs, Wea Chief, 278, 357
New Orleans, Market of, 88
New Purchase, The, 255, 305, 325, 329, 335, 340, 347, 354 361, 366
Newton Co., Ind., 22, 74, 337
New York Cession to General Government, 84
Niagara, Post of, 87, 90, 126, 137, 177, 178, 179
--O--
Ohio Company, The, 108
Ojibways, (Chippewas), 53
Old Congress, Records of, 100, 101, 102
Oldham, Col. (Ky.), 195, 200
Onondagas, Iroquois Tribe, 97
Onoragas, Iroquois Tribe, 97
"Open Door," The (The Prophet), 282
Ordinance of 1787, 92, 96, 107, 108, 249
Osage, Miami Chief, 357
Osages, Tribe of, 347, 349
Oswego, Post of, 87, 90, 126
Ottawa County, Mich., 55
Ottawas, Tribe of, 17, 18, 42, 44, 45, 54, 55, 56, 65, 71, 98, 108, 132,
140, 141, 143, 160, 169, 179, 180, 199, 219, 224, 231, 240, 241, 282,
285, 291, 298, 303, 305, 307, 325, 347
Otter, 11, 51
Otterbein, Ind., 5
Ouiatenon, 10, 11, 39, 40, 41, 49, 51, 53, 140, 145, 147, 148, 156, 160,
182, 184, 187, 190, 192, 243
Ouiatenons, Indian Tribe (Weas), 41, 183
Owen, Col. Abraham (Ky.), 247, 248, 358, 366, 375, 378, 379, 384, 388
Owl, The, Miami Chief, 260, 266
Oxford, Ind., 190
--P--
Parish Grove, Benton Co., Ind., 24, 25
Parke, Judge Benjamin, 249, 276, 277, 336, 344, 353, 360, 372
Parke Co., Ind., 18, 254, 279
Parsons, Samuel H., 99
Peas, 389
Pecan, Miami Chief at Kekionga, 26, 30, 48, 146, 260, 269, 271, 357
Pecan, Nuts, 38
Peltries, 2, 8, 11, 19, 37, 75, 116, 127, 135, 187, 262, 301, 353
Pemmican, 28
Penn, Wm., 272
Peoria, Ill., 47, 72
Pepper, Abel C., 5
Peshewah (Jean Baptiste Richardville), 48, 50, 146, 261, 271
Peters, Lieut. George P., Officer at Tippecanoe, 375
Petit Piconne (Tippecanoe), 10, 11, 51, 140, 145, 296
Pettit, Daniel, Soldier at Tippecanoe, 384
Pheasant, 37
Piankeshaws' Hunting Ground, 27
Piankeshaws, Tribe of, 32, 41, 44, 154, 160, 241
Piatt, Capt. William, Quartermaster, 361
Pickering, Timothy, United States Commissioner, 104, 214
Pigeons, Wild, 37
Pine Creek, Benton and Warren Counties, Ind., 20, 25, 37, 47, 73, 190,
367
Pirogues, 76, 150, 182
Pirtle, Capt. Alfred, Historian, 358
Plum Patch, The Great, Vermilion Co. Ind., 172
Point Pleasant, Battle of, 241
Pontiac, Ottawa Chief, 56, 342, 349
Portages, 8, 9, 42, 52, 87, 98
Posey, Capt. John, Officer at Tippecanoe, 372, 377
Potatoes, 37, 43
Potawatomi, Tribe of, References to, 1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 17, 26, 32, 35, 44,
45, 46, 47, 52, 53, 65, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 95, 108, 132, 140,
143, 157, 160, 169, 179, 180, 181, 189, 190, 191, 199, 203, 212, 213,
219, 226, 231, 240, 241, 250, 255, 260, 261, 264, 265, 266, 267, 269,
272, 273, 274, 285, 297, 298, 301, 303, 305, 307, 319, 321, 325, 336,
338, 339, 346, 361, 365
Potawatomi Murders on Missouri, 336, 337, 338, 346, 347, 361, 374
Prairies, References to, 1, 7, 10, 12, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 35,
37, 73, 337, 367
Prairie Chicken, 37
Prairie Fires, 23, 24, 25
Prescott, Capt. George W., Officer at Tippecanoe, 360, 371
"Presque Isle," Ohio, 231
Price, Captain (Ky.), 185, 232
Proctor, Col. Thomas, U. S. Agent and Commissioner, 176, 177, 178, 179,
182, 183
Prophet, The, References to, 4, 72, 74, 75, 259, 274, 280, 281, 282, 283,
285, 286, 287, 288, 290, 292, 294, 295, 297, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303,
304, 305, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 329, 332, 334, 335, 338, 339,
340, 341, 350, 352, 354, 356, 357, 360, 363, 364, 365, 369, 373, 374,
388
Prophet's Incantations During Battle of Tippecanoe, 388
Prophet's Town, 38, 295, 296, 297, 298, 301, 305, 308, 310, 311, 312,
324, 333, 340, 341, 361, 363, 365, 368, 371, 373, 379, 382, 389
Prophet's Town, Burning of, 389
Prophet's Town, Favorable Position of, 342, 343
Pumpkins, 37
Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, 35
Putnam, General Rufus, 110, 173, 211
--Q--
Quail, 37
Queen, The, (Prophet's Wife), 290
Quincy, Illinois, 21
--R--
Raccoon, 2, 12, 13, 16, 37, 51
Raccoon Creek, Indiana, 254, 279, 366
Randolph, Beverly, of Virginia, 104, 214
Randolph, Thomas, of Vincennes, 247, 249, 276
Rapids of the Miami (Maumee), 180
Ray, Major, (Ky.), 162
Recovery, Fort, Ohio, 223, 228, 242, 243
Red Jacket, Iroquois Chief, 177, 178, 179
Reynolds, John, 23
Rhea, Thomas, Prisoner, 181, 182
Richardville, Jean Baptiste (Peshewah), Miami Chief, 48. 50, 146, 261,
271, 274
Richest Indian, 48
Riviere de Bois Rouge (Indian Creek), Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 186
Roche de Bout, 181, 226, 227
Robb, Captain David (Tippecanoe), 376, 377, 386
Rogers, Lieutenant, Killed, 170
Roosevelt, Theodore, References to, 61, 71, 115, 116, 121, 162, 171, 180,
210, 218
Round Grove, Warren County, Indiana, 20, 367
--S--
"Sacred Torch", 374
Sacs and Foxes, Tribe of, 26, 46, 54, 72, 108, 240, 298, 304, 312, 339
Saline, 40
Salt, Refusal of, by Prophet, 308, 309
Salt, Seizure of, by Prophet, 340, 341, 345
Sand Prairie, Vermilion County, Indiana, 20, 367
Sandusky, River of, 8, 10, 45, 98, 177, 179, 181, 182, 211
Sangamon, River of, 21, 22, 44
Sault St. Marie, 53
Sa-wagh-da-wunk, Wyandot Chief, 218
Schoolcraft, H. R., Historian, 77
Schuyler, General Philip, 94
Scioto, River of, 8, 10, 27, 45, 46, 57, 69, 84, 87, 115, 150, 151
Scott, Captain, Killed, 170
Scott, Charles, Governor of Kentucky, 11, 70, 151, 175, 182, 183, 184,
185, 187, 193, 211, 222, 229, 232, 248, 358, 366
Scott, Rev. Samuel T., 351
Scott, Captain Thomas, 372, 377
"Scott's Trace", 193
Seminoles, Tribe of, 57
Senecas, Iroquois Tribe, 97, 176, 177, 182, 282
Shadeland Farm, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 184
Shane, Anthony, 280
Shaubena, Potawatomi Chief, 29, 30, 78, 349
Shawanoe, Wea Chief, 278
Shawnees, Came From Florida and Georgia, 56, 57
Shawnees, Tribe of, References to, 3, 11, 44, 56, 57, 58, 59, 62, 65, 73,
78, 99, 107, 114, 117, 132, 140, 143, 144, 145, 148, 149, 151, 153,
154, 156, 157, 158, 159, 164, 169, 175, 179, 180, 189, 193, 199, 213,
219, 227, 231, 238, 240, 241, 250, 275, 282, 285, 289, 291, 298, 305,
308, 310, 321, 340, 364
Shawnee River, (Same as Cumberland), 58
Shawneetown, Illinois, 57
Shay's Rebellion, Massachusetts, 135
"Shishequia", 148
Shelby House, Near Cayuga, Indiana, 154, 172
Shelby, Isaac, 175
Sidney, Lord, 80, 130, 131, 136
Silver Heels, Miami Chief at Ft. Wayne Treaty, 260, 266
Simcoe, Lieut.-Governor, British Officer 214, 215, 224, 225, 226, 238
Sioux Indians, 44, 54, 71
Six Nations (Iroquois), Confederacy of, 96, 108, 110, 128, 143, 180, 212,
333
Sloan, Warren County, Indiana, 20, 367
Slough, Captain, 200
Small, John, Affidavit of, 276
Smallpox, Among Indians, 60, 144
Smith, Col. James, Indian Captive and Historian, 14, 15, 17, 27, 60
Snelling, Capt. Josiah (Tippecanoe), 360, 371, 376, 378
Snelling, Capt. Josiah, Jr. (Tippecanoe), 372
"Soldier, The," Miami Chief, 146
Spencer, Capt. Spier, Leader of Yellow Jackets, 36, 372, 376, 377, 378,
379, 385, 386
Springfield, Illinois, 21
Spy Run, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, 49
Squashes, 37
St. Asaphs (Logan's Station, Ky.), 117, 118, 119, 120
St. Clair, General Arthur, References to, 3, 54, 63, 64, 65, 67, 109,
110, 129, 133, 134, 138, 140, 141, 142, 144, 149, 153, 158, 160, 161,
170, 171, 174, 175, 177, 188, 195, 196, 197, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204,
205, 246
St. Clair's Defeat, Description of, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204,
205, 206
Still Hunters, of Buffalo, 30
St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, River of, 8, 9, 53, 72, 75, 78, 306, 308
St. Joseph of Maumee, River of, 47, 48, 49, 78, 146, 163, 164, 168, 169,
235
St. Marys, River of, Ohio, Indiana, 8, 47, 48, 49, 98, 146, 163, 168,
235, 242
Stone Eater, Sa-na-mah-hon-ga, Miami Chief, 357, 364, 378
Sugar Creek, Benton County, Indiana, 25
Sugar Grove, Benton County, Indiana, 25
"Sun, My Father; Earth, My Mother", 318
Sun, The, Potawatomi Chief, 53
Sun-worship, by Prophet, 299, 300
Surveyors Driven Out of New Purchase, 340
Swan, Game, 12
Sweet, Ensign, Killed, 170
Symmes, John Cleves, 108, 109
--T--
Tarhe, The Crane, Wyandot Chief, 110, 239, 241, 244
Tawas (Ottawas), 140
Taylor, Judge Waller, of Vincennes, 249, 277, 352, 360, 370, 382
Taylor, Captain Zachary, 381
Tecaughretanego, Friend of Col. James Smith, 14, 15
Tecumseh, References to, 4, 5, 59, 72, 73, 133, 138, 254, 259, 265, 266,
267, 275, 280, 281, 282, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 297, 305,
306, 308, 310, 311, 313, 314, 316, 317, 318, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326,
329, 330, 332, 333, 334, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346,
348, 349, 355, 379, 388, 389
Tecumseh's Chivalry, 289, 290, 291
Tecumseh, Description of Person, Appearance, 291, 292, 315
Tecumseh's Land Doctrine, 292, 293, 305, 319, 333
Tecumseh's Last Speech to Harrison, 346, 347, 348
Tecumseh's Speech at Vincennes in 1810, 318, 319
"Ten O'clock Line", 254, 255
Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), 282
Terre Haute, (High Land), Indiana, 76, 77, 362, 363, 364, 381
Thames, Battle of, 5, 379
Thielkeld, Ensign, Killed, 170
Thompson, George, Bravery of, 151
Thorp, Captain, 170
"Three Fires," Confederacy of, 44, 140
Tippecanoe Battle Ground, Description of, 370, 371
Tippecanoe, Battle of, Description, 371, 372, 373, 374, 375, 376, 377,
378, 379, 380
Tippecanoe, Battle of, References to, 38, 45, 62, 76, 155, 172, 247, 276
Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 22
Tippecanoe, Town of, 10, 11, 145, 148, 160, 186, 190, 192, 259, 305, 310,
354, 364, 365
Tipton, John, 5, 38, 76, 77, 79, 361, 372, 376, 377, 385
Tobacco at Vincennes, 38, 41
Todd, Brigadier-General, (Ky.), 231, 232
Topenebee, Potawatomi Chief, 75, 241, 340
Tramblai, French Trader, 148
Treaties, Harrison's Method of Holding With Indians, 251
Treaty of 1763, 10, 81, 113
Treaty of 1783, 10, 80, 91, 92, 93, 99, 104, 126
Treaty at Mouth of Big Miami in 1786, 99, 103
Treaty of Fort Harmar, Ohio, 55, 58, 104, 108, 109, 110, 133, 134, 138,
139, 140, 141, 144, 145, 157, 214, 219, 239, 242
Treaty of Fort McIntosh (Penn.), 97, 98, 99, 103, 105, 107, 110, 132
Treaty of Fort Stanwix (N. Y.), 96, 97, 103, 104, 105, 107, 132
Treaty of Fort Wayne by Harrison, 45, 134, 251, 252, 254, 255, 256, 257,
260, 261, 262, 263, 267, 269, 271, 273, 277, 278, 279, 305, 319, 346,
357
Treaty of Greenville, Ohio, 3, 44, 46, 49, 52, 53, 57, 60, 71, 72, 110,
238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 255, 267, 309, 354
Treaty of Grouseland, 254, 268, 269
Treaty With Kickapoos of 1809, 279
Treaty With Weas of 1809, 278, 279
Trotter, Colonel William (Ky.), 162, 164, 168
Trueman, Major Alexander, Death of, 210, 211
Tupper, Brigadier-General, 106
Turkey Foot, Potawatomi Chief, 74, 337
Turkey Foot Grove, Benton and Newton Counties, Indiana, 25, 74, 337
Turkeys, Wild, 37, 86, 290
Tuscaroras, Iroquois Tribe, 97
--U--
"Uncles," (The Wyandots), 309
Uniform of Fourth U. S. Regiment at Tippecanoe, 360
--V--
Vanderburgh, Judge Henry, 276
Venereal Disorders Among Indiana, 60
Vermilion, Big, River of, 20, 21, 27, 37, 44, 47, 72, 74, 76, 153, 154,
274, 279, 298, 366
Vermilion County Indiana, 20, 27, 35, 154, 279
Vermilion of the Illinois, 22
"Vermilion Piankeshaws", 154, 160
Vigo County, Indiana, 18
Vigo, Francis, 351
Vincennes, Town of, References to, 7, 10, 21, 30, 31, 34, 36, 38, 39, 69,
75, 84, 120, 121, 124, 147, 153, 154, 158, 159, 160, 161, 172, 211,
245, 248, 249, 255, 256, 267, 273, 276, 279, 291, 298, 301, 303, 305,
307, 310, 316, 336, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 350, 352, 360, 365, 381
Vincennes Treaty by General Rufus Putnam, 211, 212
Virginia Cession to General Government, 84, 86, 92
Virginians, References to, 6, 84, 85, 86, 93, 121, 249, 250
Voyageurs, 9, 12
--W--
Wabash, Description of, By Thomas Hutchins, Geographer 39, 40, 41, 42
Wabash Railway, Indiana, Illinois, 21
Wabash, River of, References to, 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 18, 21, 22, 27, 28,
32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 47, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 58,
59, 64, 69, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 87, 91, 99, 115, 121, 134,
144, 145, 148, 152, 154, 158, 160, 161, 175, 181, 182, 183, 185, 186,
187, 188, 192, 198, 199, 212, 236, 246, 249, 255, 256, 263, 264, 268,
269, 279, 281, 295, 296, 298, 306, 308, 313, 316, 321, 324, 333, 335,
340, 342, 349, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 364, 365, 366, 369, 380,
381
Wabunsee, "Looking Glass," Potawatomi Chief, 76, 77
Wallows, Buffalo, 32
Wampum, 157
Wapocconata (Wapakoneta), Ohio, 57, 275, 282, 308
Warnock, Joseph, Death at Tippecanoe, 382, 383
Warren County, Indiana, 20, 21, 22, 35, 279, 367, 381
Warrick, Captain Jacob, at Tippecanoe, 372, 377, 378, 379
Washington County, Illinois, 22
Washington, George, References to, 3, 7, 43, 47, 51, 63, 65, 67, 85, 86,
88, 91, 94, 96, 103, 108, 110, 144, 151, 153, 174, 193, 194, 207, 209,
210, 216, 220, 225, 226, 236
Wattles, John, Benton County, Indiana, 191
Wayne, General Anthony, References to, 3, 42, 43, 44, 52, 53, 54, 56, 65,
67, 71, 110, 124, 163, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208, 209, 210, 216, 221,
222, 223, 226, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 239, 240, 242,
243, 244, 245, 309, 310, 315, 356, 367, 377
Wea Creek, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 145, 183, 184
Wea Plains, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 35, 183, 184, 192
Wea Village at Terre Haute, 312
Weas, Tribe of, References to, 35, 44, 53, 145, 147, 155, 156, 160, 175,
182, 184, 185, 211, 241, 255, 256, 260, 263, 264, 267, 273, 278, 279,
297, 310, 311, 319, 320, 329, 333, 343, 362, 364
Wells, Major-General Samuel, (Ky.), 358, 366, 372, 378
Wells, William, of Fort Wayne, 32, 78, 203, 241, 262, 283, 285, 338, 339
Wergild, Among Indians, 272, 273
"Western Confederacy", 44
"Western Sun," of Vincennes, 75, 251, 336
Wetzel, Lewis, 70
Wheat at Vincennes, 38, 41
Whiskey, Among Indians, References to, 74, 75, 76, 77, 95, 140, 252, 256,
264, 271, 272, 278, 282, 298, 299, 301, 302, 303
White County, Indiana, 22
White Loon, Miami Chief, 378, 388
"White Man's Fly," Honey Bee, 35
White River, Indiana, 37
Wildcat, 13
Wildcat Creek, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 37, 297
Wild Rice, 54
Wilkinson, James, References to, 11, 38, 135, 185, 186, 188, 189, 190,
191, 192, 193, 204, 211
Williams, Abraham, Interpreter, 242
Williamsport, Warren County, Indiana, 381
Wilson, George, Historian, 29
Wilson, Capt. Walter, Tippecanoe Officer, 341, 343, 377
Winamac, Potawatomi Chief, 133, 254, 257, 260, 264, 267, 307, 308, 318,
319, 322, 346, 364, 365, 369, 378
Winnebagoes, Bravery at Tippecanoe, 376
Winnebagoes, Tribe of, 44, 298, 305, 325, 333, 340, 359, 361, 365, 376
Witchcraft Among Indians, 286
Witherington, John, Captive of Indians, 149
Wolcott, Oliver, U. S. Commissioner, 96
Wolverine, 13
Wolves Hunting Buffalo, 31
Wyandots, Leaders and Keepers of Great Belt, 310
Wyandots, Tribe of, References to, 4, 17, 18, 42, 44, 45, 55, 58, 59, 61,
63, 65, 70, 71, 97, 98, 100, 107, 108, 110, 128, 131, 139, 142, 159,
177, 180, 199, 211, 219, 227, 231, 240, 241, 244, 282, 309, 310, 325,
333, 364
Wyllys, Major John, 48, 163, 167, 168, 170
Wythe, George, of Virginia, 6
--X--
No References.
--Y--
Yellow Jackets of Harrison County, Indiana, 36, 372, 376
York, Duke of, 81
--Z--
Zane, Isaac, Interpreter, 242
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the |
| original document have been preserved. |
| |
| Typographical errors corrected in the text: |
| |
| Page 10 diffculties changed to difficulties |
| Page 32 situate changed to situated |
| Page 39 battoes changed to bateaux |
| Page 44 Wiscousin changed to Wisconsin |
| Page 48 crosssed changed to crossed |
| Page 56 speciments changed to specimens |
| Page 76 Pottawatomies changed to Potawatomis |
| Page 77 descrepancy changed to discrepancy |
| Page 78 commited changed to committed |
| Page 80 proprietory changed to proprietary |
| Page 82 conquerer changed to conqueror |
| Page 103 solicitious changed to solicitous |
| Page 110 pronciples changed to principles |
| Page 132 indispensibly changed to indispensably |
| Page 139 accomodation changed to accommodation |
| Page 141 monent changed to moment |
| Page 158 of changed to or |
| Page 163 Mary's changed to Marys |
| Page 173 Randlopb changed to Randolph |
| Page 201 valorus changed to valorous |
| Page 204 accoutrements changed to accouterments |
| Page 223 marksmenship changed to marksmanship |
| Page 252 Pottawattamies changed to Potawatomis |
| Page 265 Pottawattamies changed to Potawatomis |
| Page 275 Wapakonetta changed to Wapakoneta |
| Page 305 Potawatomies changed to Potawatomis |
| Page 309 Pottawattamie changed to Potawatomi |
| Page 316 accomodate changed to accommodate |
| Page 319 Pottawattamies changed to Potawatomis |
| Page 321 Phophet changed to Prophet |
| Page 355 defliance changed to defiance |
| Page 359 eleplants changed to elephants |
| Page 398 Added "of" between "History" and "Dubois" |
| Page 409 Ephriam changed to Ephraim |
| Page 413 Na-go-quan-gogh changed to Na-goh-quan-gogh |
| Page 415 Potowatomi changed to Potawatomi |
| Page 415 Vermillion changed to Vermilion |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
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