At this time, the troops moving on the line of operations which passed from Franklinton (head-quarters) and Delaware, by Upper to Lower Sandusky, composed of the brigades from Virginia and Pennsylvania, and one of Ohio, under General Simon Perkins, 1 were designated in general orders, and known as the right wing of the army; Tupper’s brigade, that was to move on Hull’s road, by Fort M‘Arthur, was called the centre; and the Kentuckians under Winchester were styled the left wing. The Virginia and Pennsylvania troops were employed in escorting the artillery and military stores toward Upper Sandusky; the Ohio troops conveyed provisions from Manary’s Block-house, near the head of the Great Miami, twenty miles north of Urbana, to Forts M‘Arthur and Findlay, on Hull’s road; while the Kentuckians were traversing the swamps of the St. Mary and the Au Glaize, and descending those rivers in small craft, to carry provisions to Fort Winchester (Defiance) on the left wing. 2

Northwestern Ohio, particularly the settlements on the Western Reserve, 3 had been alive with excitement and patriotic zeal during all the autumn, and General Wadsworth, commander of the 4th Division of the Ohio Militia (the boundaries of which comprised the counties of Jefferson and Turnbull, thus embracing at least one third of the state) was continually, vigilantly, and efficiently employed in the promotion of measures for the defense of the frontier from the Maumee to Erie, and for the recovery of Michigan. In politics General Wadsworth was a Democrat of the Jefferson school. He had watched with interest and indignation the course of Great Britain for many years, and when the Congress of the nation declared war against her, he rejoiced in the act as a righteous and necessary one. He had been an active soldier of the Revolution, 4 and now, when his country needed his services, he cheerfully offered them. Although he was sixty-five years of age, he entered upon active military duties with energy with the late venerable Elisha Whittlesey, of Canfield, 5 and the late Honorable Benjamin Tappen, of Steubenville, Ohio, as his aid-de-camp. The former accompanied him to Cleveland from Canfield, 6 and the latter soon joined him there.

General Wadsworth was at his house in Canfield when intelligence of the surrender of Hull reached him. 7 The alarming rumors that prevailed concerning the imminence of an invasion called for immediate and energetic action. Wadsworth at once issued orders to the several brigadier generals of his division to muster the militia for the protection of the frontier from the immediate incursions of the British and their savage allies. Already citizens of the region adjacent to Canfield had formed a corps of dragoons, under Captain James Dowd. This company was ordered into the service; and so promptly did it respond to the call, that by noon the following day (Sunday, August 23d, 1812), it was on its march toward Cleveland as an honorary escort for the commanding general. They marched by the way of Hudson, 8 twenty-five miles from Cleveland, and breakfasted there, at Oviatt’s, on the morning of the 24th [August, 1812.]. Soon after resuming their march they met some of Hull’s paroled army, who had been landed from British boats at Cleveland. Their stories increased the panic caused by startling rumors, and many of the inhabitants along the lake were fleeing from their homes eastward or toward the Ohio, to avoid the apprehended oncoming evils. Wadsworth tried to allay the excitement, but it was rolling over the frontier in an almost resistless flood. When the cavalcade entered Cleveland that afternoon at four o’clock, it created great joy among the few inhabitants there. Two or three hours later Colonel Cass arrived at Cleveland from Detroit on his way to Washington City, and at the request of General Wadsworth he was accompanied to the seat of government by ex-governor Samuel Huntington, then at Cleveland, 9 as bearer of an important letter to the Secretary of War. In that letter Wadsworth informed the secretary that he had called out about three thousand of the militia of his division, to rendezvous at Cleveland, but was compelled to acknowledge them destitute of arms, ammunition, and proper equipments for a campaign, as well as the difficulty of feeding them. Properly estimating the value of the great Northwest to the Union, and the importance of these troops for its protection, as well as in the efforts to be made for the recovery of Michigan, "so dishonorably given up to the enemy," he urged the government to extend its immediate and unceasing aid in supplying the wants of this little army then hastening to the field. "The fate of the Western country," he said, "is suspended on the decision the government shall make to this application." 10

General Wadsworth did not wait for a reply. Necessity demanded instant action. He took the responsibility of appointing commissioners of supplies, and giving receipts to those who furnished them in the name of the government. 11 The people, with equal faith in the wisdom of the general and the justice of the government, responded without hesitation to the call for provisions and forage. Nor was that faith disappointed. By a letter dated the 5th of September, Wadsworth’s course was sanctioned by the War Department, and he was invested with full power to take measures for supplying his troops and giving efficiency to their service.

Intelligence came to Wadsworth almost hourly of the distress of the inhabitants on the Raisin, and along the lake shore eastward as far as the Huron River, who, in violation of the agreements of the capitulations at Detroit, were being plundered by the Indians even of their boots and shoes. Their homes were broken up by the marauders, and many of the inhabitants were fleeing for their lives. The benevolent Wadsworth was exceedingly anxious to send them relief; and it was with real joy that he welcomed the arrival at Cleveland, on the 26th of August, of General Simon Perkins with a large body of troops. He resolved to send him forward to the Huron immediately with a thousand men, to erect block-houses and protect the inhabitants. General Reazin Beall 12 was also directed to go westward on a similar errand; and preparations for their departure were nearly completed, when Wadsworth received dispatches from the Secretary of War saying that the President intended to adopt the most vigorous measures "to repair the disasters at Detroit," and to prosecute with increased ardor the important objects of the campaign. Wadsworth was directed to forward fifteen hundred men to the frontier as quickly as possible, with directions to "report to General Winchester, or officer commanding" there, at the same time promising an adequate supply of arms and ammunition. Arrangements for the movement were speedily made, and Perkins and Beall, who had been employed by Governor Meigs in opening a road from Mansfield, in the interior of Ohio (now capital of Richland County), to Lower Sandusky, were ordered toward the latter place. Some clashing of authority between Wadsworth and Meigs, and some complaints concerning affairs in the region bordering on Lake Erie, caused Harrison, who (as we have seen) was made commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Army, to make a personal examination of matters there toward the close of October. He found General Wadsworth near the mouth of the Huron River, at the head of eight hundred men. Beall, with about five hundred, was at Mansfield. The two corps were consolidated and placed under General Perkins, with orders to proceed to Lower Sandusky, and open a road thence to the Rapids of the Maumee; a severe task, for it was necessary to causeway it about fifteen miles. This was accomplished. Harrison returned to his head-quarters at Franklinton early in November, and on the 15th of that month was compelled to inform the War Department that he doubted the propriety of attempting to penetrate Canada, or to proceed farther than the Rapids during the winter, owing to the insurmountable difficulties in the way of transporting forage and supplies. "I know it will be mortifying to Kentucky," Harrison wrote to Governor Shelby, "for this army to return without doing any thing; but it is better to do that than to attempt impossibilities. I wish to God the public mind were informed of our difficulties, and gradually prepared for this course. In my opinion, we should in this quarter disband all but those sufficient for a strong frontier guard, convoys, etc., and prepare for the next season."

Early the next morning Tupper sent to Winchester for re-enforcements and food; and some spies went down the river, showed themselves opposite the enemy’s camp, and tried to entice them across. They failed, when Tupper moved down with his whole body, and displayed the heads of his columns in the open space between the river and the woods. This frightened the enemy. "The squaws," said a contemporary writer, 13 "ran to the woods; the British ran to their boats, and escaped. The Indians, more brave than their allies, paraded, and fired across the river, but without effect." They used muskets and a four-pound cannon. Tupper then fell back, hoping the savages in a body would venture across the Maumee, but they did not. Some mounted Indians were seen to go up the stream, and at the same time some of Tupper’s men, contrary to orders, entered a field to pull corn, while others pursued a drove of hogs in the same direction. The latter were suddenly assailed by a party of mounted savages who had crossed unperceived, and four of Tupper’s men were killed. The Indians, excited by the shedding of blood, fell upon the left flank of the white army, but were repulsed. Almost at the same moment, a large body of the savages, under the notable chief Split-Log, who rode a fine white horse, crossed the river above the advance of Tupper’s column. They were driven back by Bentley’s battalion with some loss, and the Ohio troops were not again annoyed by them. Late in the evening Tupper and his men turned their faces toward Fort M‘Arthur, for their provisions were almost exhausted, and their nearest point of sure supply was forty miles distant.

Winchester, in the mean time, having received Tupper’s first message, had sent a detachment, under Colonel Lewis, of four hundred and fifty men, to co-operate with the Ohio troops. Tupper’s appeal for men and food, which reached him later, was forwarded to Lewis as soon as it was received by Winchester, and the former pushed forward by a forced march to the relief of the imperiled ones. Finding Tupper’s camp deserted, apparently with haste, and in it two dead men scalped, Lewis supposed he had been defeated. Under this impression, he retreated to Winchester’s camp. Thus ended this bold attempt to take position at the Rapids. The intentions of the projector failed, but the expedition had the effect to frighten the British and Indians away before they had gathered up the corn; and averted, for the time, a contemplated blow by the savages upon the alarmed French settlements on the Raisin, at the instigation of their British allies. 14

At about this time the American service in the Northwest lost a valuable friend. It was the settled policy of the government not to employ the Indians in war, but there were occasions when exceptions to the rule became a necessity. It was so in Ohio. There was an active, intelligent, and influential chief; a nephew of Tecumtha (son of his sister), who, when a boy, having been captured by General John Logan, of Kentucky, received that gentleman’s name, and bore it through life. His wife had also been a captive to a Kentuckian (Colonel Hardin), and both felt a warm attachment to the white people. Major Hardin (then in the Army of the Northwest, and son of Colonel Hardin) and Logan were true friends, and highly esteemed each other. Logan had much influence with his tribe, and when the war broke out he asked for employment in the American service. It was granted, because he might have been made an enemy. He accompanied Hull to Detroit, and was exceedingly active as a scout. We have also seen that Harrison employed him on a mission to Fort Wayne.

Soon after the return of Tupper from the Rapids, Logan and his followers were sent toward that post to reconnoitre. They met a strong opposing party, and, to save themselves, scattered in every direction. Captain Logan, with two friends (Captains John and Bright Horn), made his way to Winchester’s camp, where he related their adventures. His fidelity was ungenerously suspected, and he was believed to be a spy. His pride and every sentiment of manhood were deeply wounded by the suspicion, and he resolved to vindicate his character by actions rather than by words. He started [November 22, 1812.] with his two friends for the Rapids, with the determination to bring in a prisoner or a scalp. They had not gone far when they were made prisoners themselves by a son of Colonel Elliott and some Indians, among whom was Win-ne-meg, or Win-ne-mac – the Pottawatomie chief who bore Hull’s dispatch from Fort Wayne to Chicago. 15 He was now an ally of the British. He knew Logan well, and rejoiced in being the captor of an old enemy. The latter resolved to make a desperate effort for liberty. His companions were made to understand significant signs, and at a concerted signal they attacked their captors. Logan shot Win-ne-meg dead. Elliott and a young Ottawa chief were also slain. Logan was badly wounded, so was Bright Horn; but they leaped upon the backs of horses of the enemy and escaped to Winchester’s camp. Captain John followed the next morning with the scalp of the Ottawa. Logan’s honor and fidelity were fully vindicated, but at the cost of his life – his wound was mortal. After he had suffered great agony for two days, his spirit returned to the Great Master of Life. Proctor had offered, it is said, one hundred and fifty dollars for his scalp. It was never taken from his head. His body was carried in mournful procession, by Major Hardin and others, to Wa-pagh-ko-netta, 16 where his family resided, and was buried there with mingled savage rites and military honors. The scalp of the slain Ottawa, raised upon a pole, was carried in the funeral procession and then taken to the council-house. Logan’s death was mourned as a public calamity, for he was one of the most intelligent, active, and trustworthy of Harrison’s scouts.

At this time the Miamis, nearly all of whom had become wedded to the interests of the British, were assembled, with some Delawares from White River, in towns on the Mississiniwa, a tributary of the Wabash, fifteen or twenty miles from its confluence with the latter stream, near the boundary-line between the present Wabash and Grant Counties, Indiana. They were evidently there for hostile purposes, and General Harrison resolved to destroy or disperse them. He detached for the purpose Lieutenant Colonel John B. Campbell, of the Nineteenth Regiment of United States Infantry, 17 composed mainly of Colonel Simrall’s regiment of Kentucky dragoons; a squadron of United States volunteer dragoons, commanded by Major James V. Ball; and a corps of infantry, consisting of Captain Elliott’s company of the Nineteenth United States Regiment, Butler’s Pittsburg Blues, and Alexander’s Pennsylvania Riflemen. A small company of spies and guides were attached to the expedition.

At midnight the sentinels reported the presence of Indians, and a fire was seen down the river. The greatest vigilance was exercised, and the reveille was beaten at four o’clock in the morning. Adjutant Payne immediately summoned the field officers to a council at the fire of the commander to consult upon the propriety of going on twelve miles farther down the river, to attack one of the principal towns there. While the officers were in council, half an hour before dawn [December 18, 1812.], the camp was startled by terrific yells, followed immediately by a furious attack of a large body of savages who had crept stealthily along the margin of the river. Every officer flew to his post, and in a few moments the lines were formed, and the Indians were confronted with a heavy fire. The attack was made upon the angle of the camp, formed by the left of Captain Hopkins’s troops and the right of Captain Garrard’s dragoons of Simrall’s regiment. Captain Pierce, who commanded at the redoubt there, was shot and tomahawked, and his guard retreated to the lines. The conflict soon became general along the right flank and part of the rear. The Pittsburg Blues promptly re-enforced the point assailed, and gallantly kept the savages at bay. For an hour the battle raged furiously. It was finally terminated, between dawn and sunrise, by a well-directed fire from Butler’s Pittsburg corps, and desperate charges of cavalry under Captains Trotter, Markle, 18 and Johnson, when the Indians fled in dismay, leaving fifteen of their warriors dead on the field. Campbell had lost eight killed and forty-two wounded. Several of the latter afterward died of their wounds. 19 Campbell had one hundred and seven horses killed. What the whole loss of the Indians was could not be ascertained, but it is supposed that they carried away as many mortally wounded as they left dead on the field. Little Thunder, a nephew of Little Turtle, was in the engagement, and performed great service in inspiring his people with confidence by stirring words and gallant deeds. Although Silver Heels, a friend of the Americans (and who was with their army on the Niagara frontier the following year), was not present, nearly all of the prisoners were of his band. He did every thing in his power to persuade his young warriors to remain neutral, but in vain.

Rumors reached Campbell immediately after the battle that Tecumtha, with five or six hundred warriors, was on the Mississiniwa, only eighteen miles below. Without calling a council, the commander immediately ordered a retreat for Greenville. He sent a messenger (Captain Hite) thither for re-enforcements and supplies, for he expected to be attacked on the way. Fortunately the savages did not pursue. It was a dreadful journey, especially for the sick and wounded, in that keen winter air. They moved slowly, for seventeen men had to be conveyed on litters. Every night the camp was fortified by a breastwork. At length, wearied and with little food, they met provisions with an escort of ninety men under Major Adams. The relief was timely and most grateful. All moved forward together, and on the 25th, with three hundred men so frostbitten as to be unfit for duty, the expedition arrived at Greenville. More than one half the corps that a month before had gone gayly to the wilderness were now lost to the service for a while. They had accomplished their errand, but at a great cost. 20 The commander-in-chief of the army of the Northwest, in a general order, congratulated Lieutenant Colonel Campbell on his success, and commended him for his obedience to orders, his gallantry, and his magnanimity. 21

These expeditions against the savages produced salutary effects, and smoothed the way for the final recovery of Michigan. They separated the friends and enemies of the Americans effectually. The line between them was distinctly drawn. There were no middle-men left. The Delawares on the White River, and others who desired to be friendly, and who had been invited to settle on the Au Glaize in Ohio, now accepted the invitation. 22 The other tribes, who had cast their lot with the British, were made to feel the miseries of war, and to repent of their folly. So severe had been the chastisement, and so alarmed were the tribes farther north, who received the fugitives from the desolated villages on the Wabash and the Illinois at the close of 1812, that Tecumtha’s dream of a confederacy of Indians that should drive the white man across the Ohio was rapidly fading as he awoke to the reality of an unsuspected power before him, and the folly of putting his trust in princes – in other words, relying upon the promises of the representatives of the sovereignty of England to aid him in his patriotic schemes. Before the war was fairly commenced, the spirits of the Indians, so buoyant because of the recent misfortunes of the Americans in the Northwest, were broken, and doubt and dismay filled the minds of all excepting those who were under the immediate command and influence of the great Shawnoese leader.

In view of all these difficulties, the enormous expense of transportation, and the advantages which dishonest contractors were continually taking, Harrison suggested to the War Department, at about the middle of December, that if there existed no urgent political necessity for the recovering of Michigan and the invasion of Canada during the winter, the amount of increased expenditure of transportation at that season of the year might be better applied to the construction of a small fleet that should command the waters of Lake Erie – a suggestion made by Hull, but little heeded, early in the year. 23 The response came from the pen of a new head of the War Department. Dr. Eustis 24 had resigned, and James Monroe, the only man in the cabinet who had experienced actual military service, had succeeded him. With a more perfect knowledge of military affairs, he better comprehended the character of the campaign; and, having perfect confidence in the commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Army, he reiterated the instructions of his predecessor to Harrison, directing him to conduct the campaign according to his own judgment, promising, at the same time, that the government would take immediate measures for securing the command of Lake Erie. Only on two points were positive instructions given: First, in the event of penetrating Canada, not to promise the inhabitants any thing but the protection of life, liberty, and property; and, secondly, not to make any temporary acquisitions, but to proceed so surely that any position which he might obtain would be absolutely permanent.

The whole effective force in the Northwest did not exceed six thousand three hundred infantry, 25 and a small artillery and cavalry force; yet Harrison determined to press forward to the Rapids, and beyond if possible. From Lower Sandusky he dispatched Ensign Charles S. Todd, then division judge advocate of the Kentucky troops, to communicate instructions to Winchester. He was accompanied by two white men and three Wyandottes. He bore oral instructions from General Harrison to General Winchester, directing the latter to advance toward the Rapids when he should have accumulated twenty days’ provisions, and there commence building huts, to deceive the enemy into the belief that he intended to winter there; at the same time to prepare sleds for an advance toward Malden, but to conceal from his troops their intended use. He was also to inform Winchester that the different lines of the army would be concentrated at the Rapids, and all would proceed from thence toward Malden, if the ice on the Detroit River should be found strong enough to bear them. Young Todd performed this dangerous and delicate duty with such success that he received the highest commendations of his general.

AMeanwhile Leslie Combs, another Kentuckian, a brave and spirited young man of scarcely nineteen years, who had joined Winchester’s army as a volunteer on its march from Fort Wayne to Defiance, had been sent by Winchester to Harrison on an errand fraught with equal peril. He bore a dispatch to Harrison communicating the fact that the left wing had moved toward the Rapids on the 30th of December. Combs traversed the pathless wilderness on foot, accompanied by a single guide (A. Ruddle), through snow and water, for at least one hundred miles, enduring privations which almost destroyed him. He, too, performed his mission so gallantly and satisfactorily that his general thanked him. These two messengers, who passed each other in the mazes of the great Black Swamp fifty years ago – young, ambitious, patriotic, and daring – performed other excellent service during the war, as we shall have occasion to observe. Combs and Todd are still [1867] living; both residents of Kentucky, enjoying a green old age, and wearing the honors of their country’s gratitude. I had the pleasure of meeting them both during 1861, and listening to interesting narrations of their experiences in that war. Portraits and biographical sketches of these heroes [Combs - Todd] may be found in future pages of this work. 26

Winchester did not heed the cautious suggestions of his superior, but pressed on toward the Rapids. General Payne, with six hundred and seventy men, was sent forward to clear the way. Payne went down the Maumee several miles below old Fort Miami, but saw no signs of an enemy. The remainder of the army arrived at the Rapids on the 10th of January, 1813, and established a fortified camp on a pleasant eminence of an oval form, covered with trees and having a prairie in the rear. This was a little above Wayne’s battle-ground in 1794, opposite the camp-ground of Hull at the close of June, 1812, and known as Presque Isle Hill. 27 On the day of their arrival, an Indian camp, lately deserted, was discovered. Captain Williams, with a small detachment, gave chase to the fugitives, whom he overtook and routed.

Winchester was now satisfied that the pleadings of humanity would speedily summon him to the Raisin. First came rumors that the enemy, exasperated by their want of success in their recent movements, were preparing at Malden an expedition to move upon Frenchtown, on the Raisin, for the purpose of intercepting the expedition from Ohio on its way to Detroit. These rumors were speedily followed by messengers from Frenchtown [January 13, 1813.], made almost breathless by alarm and rapid traveling, bringing intelligence that the Indians whom Williams had scattered had passed them on their way to Malden, uttering threats of a sweeping destruction of the inhabitants and their habitations on the Raisin. Others soon followed [January 14th and 16th.], deeply agitated by alarm, and, like the first, earnestly pleaded for the shield of military power to avert the impending blow. The troops, moved by the most generous impulses, were anxious to march instantly to the defense of the alarmed people. Harrison, the commander-in-chief, was at Upper Sandusky, 28 sixty-five miles distant, and could not be consulted. Winchester called a council of officers. The majority advised an immediate march toward the Raisin, between thirty-five and forty miles distant by the route to be traveled. This decision was approved by Winchester’s judgment and humane impulses, and on the morning of the 17th he detailed Colonel Lewis and five hundred and fifty men in that direction. A few hours afterward Colonel Allen was sent with one hundred and ten men. Lewis’s instructions were "to attack the enemy, beat them, and take possession of Frenchtown and hold it." These overtook Lewis and his party at Presque Isle, a point on Maumee Bay a little below, opposite the present city of Toledo, about twenty miles from the Rapids. There Lewis was told that there were four hundred British Indians at the Raisin, and that Colonel Elliott was expected with a detachment from Malden to attack Winchester’s camp at the Rapids. This information was sent by express to General Winchester, whose courier was on the point of starting with a message to General Harrison, informing him of the movement toward the Raisin, and suggesting the probable necessity of a co-operating force from the right wing.

Frenchtown, 29 at the time in question, was a flourishing settlement containing thirty-three families, twenty-two of whom resided on the north side of the Raisin. Gardens and orchards were attached to their houses, and these were inclosed with heavy pickets, called "puncheons," made of sapling logs split in two, driven in the ground, and sometimes sharpened at top. The houses were built of logs of good size, and furnished with most of the conveniences of domestic life. Two days after the surrender of Detroit, as we have seen, this place was taken possession of by Colonel Elliott, who came from Malden for the purpose with authority from General Brock. The weapons and horses of the inhabitants were left on parole, and protection to life and property was promised. The protection was not given, and for a long time the inhabitants were plundered not only by the Indians, but by Canadians, French, and British, 30 and were kept in a state of almost continual alarm by their threats. In the autumn two companies of the Essex (Canadian) militia, two hundred in number, under Major Reynolds, and about four hundred Indians, led by Round-head and Walk-in-the-water, 31 were stationed there, and these composed the force that confronted Colonel Lewis when he approached Frenchtown on the 18th of January, 1813, and formed a line of battle on the south side of the Raisin, within a quarter of a mile of the village. Lewis’s force numbered less than seven hundred men, armed only with muskets and other light weapons. The enemy had a howitzer 32 in position, directed by bombardier Kitson, of the Royal Artillery.

When within three miles of Frenchtown Colonel Lewis was informed that the enemy was on the alert and ready to receive him; and as the Americans approached the village on the south side, the howitzer of the foe was opened upon the advancing column, but without effect. Lewis’s line of battle was instantly formed, and the whole detachment moved steadily forward to the river, which was hard frozen, and in many places very slippery. They crossed it in the face of blazing muskets, and then the long roll was beaten, and a general charge was executed. The Americans rushed gallantly up the bank, leaped the garden pickets, dislodged the enemy, and drove him back toward the forests. Majors Graves and Madison attempted to capture the howitzer, but failed. Meanwhile the allies were retreating in a line inclining eastward, when they were attacked on their left by Colonel Allen, who pursued them more than half a mile to the woods. There they made a stand with their howitzer and small-arms, covered by a chain of inclosed lots and groups of houses, and having in their rear a thick, brushy wood, full of fallen timber. While in this position Majors Graves and Madison moved upon the enemy’s right, while Allen was sorely pressing his left. The enemy fell back into the wood, closely pursued, and the conflict became extremely hot on the right wing of the Americans, where both whites and Indians were concentrated. The contest lasted from three o’clock until dark, the enemy all the while slowly retreating over a space of not less than two miles, gallantly contesting every foot of the ground. The detachments returned to the village in the evening, and encamped for the night on the ground which the enemy had occupied. American officers occupied the same buildings in which the British officers had lived. The troops had behaved nobly. There had not been a single case of delinquency. "This amply supported," as was said, "the double character of Americans and Kentuckians," and fully vindicated the faith and judgment of General Harrison. Twelve of the Americans were killed and fifty-five wounded. Among the latter was Captain B. W. Ballard, 33 who gallantly led the van in the fight; also Captains Paschal, Hickman, 34 and Richard Matson. 35 The loss of the enemy must have been much greater, for they left fifteen dead in the open field, while the most sanguinary portion of the conflict occurred in the wood. That night the Indians gathered their dead and wounded, and, on their retreat toward Malden, killed some of the inhabitants and pillaged their houses.

As soon as his little army was safely encamped in the village gardens, behind the strong "puncheon" pickets, and his wounded men comfortably housed, on the night of the battle [January 18, 1813.], Colonel Lewis sent a messenger to General Winchester with a brief report of the action and his situation. 36 He arrived at Winchester’s camp before dawn, and an express was immediately dispatched to General Harrison with the tidings.

Lewis called a council of officers in the morning, when it was resolved to hold the place and wait for re-enforcements from the Rapids. They were not long waiting. From the moment when intelligence of the affair at Frenchtown was known in Winchester’s camp, the troops were in a perfect ferment. All were eager to press northward, not doubting that the victory at the Raisin was the harbinger of continued success until Detroit and Malden should be in the possession of the Americans. It was also apparent that Lewis’s detachment was in a critical situation; for Malden, the principal rendezvous of the British and Indians in the Northwest, was only eighteen miles from Frenchtown, and that every possible method would be instantly put forth to recover what had been lost, and bar farther progress toward Detroit. Accordingly, on the evening of the 19th [January.], General Winchester, accompanied by Colonel Samuel Wells, of Tippecanoe fame, marched from the Maumee toward Frenchtown with less than three hundred men, it being unsafe to withdraw more from the camp at the Rapids. He arrived at Frenchtown at three o’clock in the afternoon of the next day, crossed the river, and encamped the troops in an open field on the right of Lewis’s forces, 37 excepting a small detachment under Captain Morris, left behind as a rear-guard with the baggage. Leaving Colonel Wells in command of the re-enforcements, after suggesting the propriety of a fortified camp, Winchester, with his staff, recrossed the Raisin, and established his head-quarters at the house of Colonel Francis Navarre, on the south side of the river, and more than half a mile from the American lines. 38

According to the testimony of an officer of the expedition, very little vigilance was exercised by General Winchester. Spies were not sent out to reconnoitre, nor any measures adopted for strengthening the camp. A large quantity of fixed ammunition, sent to Winchester’s quarters from the Rapids, was not distributed, although the re-enforcements had only ten rounds of cartridges each; and the urgent recommendation of Colonel Wells that the quarters of the commander-in-chief and the principal officers should be with the troops was unheeded. 39

On the morning of the 21st Winchester requested Peter Navarre and his four brothers to go on a scout toward the mouth of the Detroit River. Peter was still living when I visited the Maumee Valley in the autumn of 1860, and accompanied me from Toledo to the Rapids. He was a young man at the time in question, full of courage and physical strength. He and his brothers complied with Winchester’s request with alacrity. They saw a man, far distant, coming toward them on the ice. He proved to be Joseph Bordeau, whose daughter Peter afterward married. He had escaped from Malden, and was bringing the news that the British would be at the Raisin, with a large body of Indians, that night. Peter hastened back to Winchester with this intelligence. Jacques La Salle, a resident of Frenchtown, in the interest of the British, was present, and asserted, in the most positive language, that it must be a mistake. Winchester’s fears were allayed. Peter was dismissed with a laugh, and no precautions to insure safety were taken by the general. 40 Another scout confirmed this intelligence during the afternoon. The general was still incredulous. Late in the evening news came to Lewis’s camp that a very large force of British and Indians, with several pieces of heavy artillery, were at Stony Creek, only a few miles distant, and would be at Frenchtown before morning. The picket-guard was immediately doubled, and word was sent to the commanding general. He did not believe a word of it; but Colonel Wells, who did believe the first rumor brought by Bordeau, had meanwhile hastened to the Rapids with Captain Lanham for re-enforcements, leaving his detachment in charge of Major M‘Clanahan.

The exposed re-enforcements in the open field were driven in toward Lewis’s picketed camp, after bravely maintaining a severe conflict for some time. At this moment General Winchester arrived, and endeavored to rally the retreating troops behind a "puncheon" fence and second bank of the Raisin, so that they might incline to the right, and find shelter behind Lewis’s camp. His efforts were vain. The British and their savage allies were pressing too heavily upon the fugitives; and when at length a large body of Indians gained their right flank, they were thrown into the greatest confusion, and fled pell-mell across the river, carrying with them a detachment of one hundred men which Lewis had sent out for their support. Seeing this, Lewis and Allen joined Winchester in his attempt to rally the troops behind the houses and fences on the south side of the Raisin, leaving the camp in the gardens in charge of Majors Graves and Madison. But all efforts to stop the flight of the soldiers were vain. The Indians, more fleet than they, had gained their flank, and swarmed in the woods on the line of their retreat, while those who made their way along a narrow lane leading from the village to the road from the Rapids were shot down and scalped by the savages skulking behind the trees and fences. Others, who rushed into the woods hoping to find shelter there from the fury of the terrible storm, were met at every turn by the bloody butchers, and scarcely one escaped. Within the space of a hundred yards, near Plum or Mill Creek, nearly one hundred Kentuckians fell under the hatchets of hired savages, who snatched the "scalp-locks" from their heads, and afterward bore them in triumph to Fort Malden to receive the market price for that precious article of commerce. 41 Death and mutilation met the fugitives on every side, whether in flight or in submission, and all about that little village the snow was crimsoned with human blood. On that dreadful morning it was on the part of the allies of the British a war of extermination. 42

General Winchester and Colonel Lewis were made prisoners by Round-head, 43 at a bridge about three fourths of a mile from the village, stripped of their clothes except shirt, pantaloons, and boots, and in this plight were taken to the quarters of the British commander, who proved to be Colonel Proctor, the unworthy successor of the worthy Brock in the command at Detroit and Amherstburg. He was in Fort Malden, at the latter place, when intelligence of Lewis’s occupation of Frenchtown reached him, and he made immediate preparations to drive the Americans back. The British and Indians expelled from Frenchtown on the 18th had fallen back with their howitzer to Brownstown, where Proctor joined them, on the evening of the 20th, with a detachment of the 41st Regiment, one hundred and forty in number, under Lieutenant Colonel St. George; the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, under Colonel Vincent; and a part of the 10th Veteran Battalion and some seamen. These, with Reynolds’s militia and a party of the Royal Artillery, with three three-pounders and the howitzer already mentioned, made a white force about five hundred strong. The Indians, under Round-head and Walk-in-the-Water, numbered about six hundred. With these Proctor advanced from Brownstown on the morning of the 21st, and halted at Swan Creek, twelve miles on the way. There he remained until dusk, when the march was resumed. So great was the lack of vigilance on the part of the Americans that Proctor’s troops and guns were made ready for assault before their presence was positively known. Then followed the attack just recorded.

Madison, surprised and mortified, refused to obey the order except on conditions. "It has been customary for the Indians," he observed, "to massacre the wounded and prisoners after a surrender; I shall therefore not agree to any capitulation which General Winchester may direct, unless the safety and protection of all the prisoners shall be stipulated." The haughty Proctor stamped his foot, and said, with a supercilious air, "Sir, do you mean to dictate to me!" "I mean to dictate for myself," Madison replied, with firmness. "We prefer selling our lives as dearly as possible rather than be massacred in cold blood." Proctor, who was scorned by Brock for his jealousy and innate meanness, and is remembered with dislike by the Canadians, who knew him as innately cruel and cowardly, 44 quailed before the honest, manly bravery of Madison, and solemnly agreed that all private property should be respected; that sleds should be sent the next morning to remove the sick and wounded to Amherstburg; that the disabled should be protected by a proper guard; and that the sidearms of the officers should be returned when the captives should reach Malden. Proctor refused to commit these conditions to writing, but pledged his honor as a soldier and a gentleman that they should be observed. Madison was ignorant of Proctor’s poverty in all that constituted a soldier and man of honor, and trusted to his promises. On the conditions named, he and his officers agreed to surrender themselves and their men prisoners of war.

MOVEMENTS AT FRENCHTOWN. 45

The night following the battle was a fearful one at Frenchtown. Day dawned with hope, but the sun at his rising [January 23, 1813 {original text has "1812".}.] found the inhabitants and prisoners in despair. Instead of the promised sleds from Malden, about two hundred half-drunken savages, with their faces painted red and black in token of their fiendish purposes, came into the village. The chiefs held a brief council, and determined to kill and scalp all the wounded who were unable to travel, in revenge for the many comrades they had lost in the fight. This decision was announced by horrid yells, and the savages went out upon their bloody errand. They first plundered the village; then they broke into the houses where the wounded lay, stripped them of every thing, and then tomahawked and scalped them. The houses of Jean B. Jereaume and Gabriel Godfrey, that stood near the present dwelling of Matthew Gibson, sheltered a large number of prisoners. In the cellar of Jereaume’s house was stored a large quantity of whisky. This the savages took in sufficient quantities to madden them, when they set both dwellings on fire. A number of the wounded, unable to move, were consumed. Others, attempting to escape by the doors and windows, were tomahawked and scalped. Others, outside, were scalped and cast into the flames, and the remainder, who could walk, were marched off toward Malden. When any of them sank from exhaustion, they were killed and scalped. Doctor Todd, who had been tied and carried to Stony Creek, informed Elliott of what was going on at the Raisin, and begged him to send conveyances for the wounded, especially for Captain Hart; but that young officer coolly replied, "Charity begins at home; my own wounded must be carried to Malden first." He well knew that an hour more would be too late for rescue. 46

Hart was placed on a horse, and when passing through the village, near the house of François La Salle 47 (who was suspected of complicity with the British), a Wyandot savage came out, and claimed the Captain as his prisoner. A dispute arose, and they finally settled it by agreeing to kill the prisoner, and dividing his money and clothes between them. So says the most reliable recorded history. 48 Local tradition declares that the Pottawatomie attempted to defend Captain Hart when the Wyandot shot and scalped him. There are many versions of the tragedy. He was buried near the place of his murder, but the exact spot is not known.

Proctor arrived with his prisoners at Amherstburg on the morning of the 23d of January, and on the 26th proceeded to Sandwich and Detroit. 49 Some of them were sent to Detroit, and others were forwarded to Fort George, on the Niagara, by way of the Thames. These suffered much from the severity of the weather and bad treatment of their guards. At Fort George they were mostly paroled, on condition that they should not "bear arms against his majesty or his allies during the war, or until exchanged." "Who are his majesty’s allies?" inquired Major Madison. The officer addressed, doubtless ashamed to own the disgrace in words, said, "His majesty’s allies are known." General Winchester, Colonel Lewis, 50 and Major Madison, 51 were sent to Quebec, and at Beauport, near that city, they were confined until the spring of 1814, when a general exchange of prisoners took place.

At Sandwich Proctor wrote his dispatch [January 26, 1813 {original text has "1812".}.] to Sir George Prevost, the commander-in-chief in Canada, giving an account of his expedition to Frenchtown, and highly commending the conduct of his savage allies. 52 His private representations were such that the evidently deceived Assembly of Lower Canada passed a vote of thanks to him and his men, and the equally duped Sir George promoted him to the rank of brigadier general "until the pleasure of the Prince Regent should be known." 53 That "pleasure" was to confirm the appointment, and thereby the British government indorsed his conduct.

Crossing the bridge to the north side of the stream, we passed down Water Street toward the site of La Salle’s, the camp of Colonel Lewis, and other places connected with the battle and massacre already described. We met the venerable Judge Durocher, already mentioned in the narrative as one of the actors in the scenes there – a short, dark-complexioned man of French descent – who pointed out the spot, in an open lot between Water Street and the river, not far from where we were standing, a little westward of La Salle’s house, where Captain Hart was murdered by the Indians. Promising me another and longer interview at his office, we left Judge Durocher, and passed on to the site of La Salle’s dwelling, then the property of Hon. D. S. Noble, delineated on page 359, a part of which yet remains, with a pear-tree planted there during the last century. Not far below this we came to the railway and the common road leading from the Raisin to Detroit. On the corner of the latter, not far from the site of the houses of Godfrey and Jereaume, where the wounded were burned and massacred, was a large brick house, the residence of Matthew Gibson. Very near it, in an orchard, might be seen the remains of the cellars of those buildings. From that point, around which the battle was fought, and near which the Americans were driven across the Raisin just before the massacre on the south side of the stream, I made the above sketch (looking westward) of the river, the railway bridge, and the distant town. Gibson’s house is seen in the foreground, on the right; the railway bridge, on four piers in the water, with the town beyond it, is seen in the centre; and by the distant trees, seen immediately beyond the point on the left, is indicated the spot near which Winchester was captured. Returning to the village, I called upon Judge Durocher, who, in the course of a pleasant interview of an hour, gave me many items of information concerning the events we have been considering. He spoke of Winchester as a "fussy man," quite heavy in person, and illy fitted for the peculiar service in which he was engaged. He also assured me that after the defeat of the Americans at Frenchtown, Proctor endeavored to persuade the Indians to destroy the French settlements there, because he believed the inhabitants to be favorable to the United States. It was even proposed to the Indians in council, and another cold-blooded massacre, not by the permission, but at the instigation of Proctor, was only prevented by the firmness of the friendship which the Pottawatomies bore to the inhabitants on the Raisin. Judge Durocher was seventy-four years of age when I visited him. A little less than a year afterward he was borne to the grave. 54

Our next visit was to the head-quarters of Winchester, delineated on page 354, which was occupied by the rector of the Protestant Episcopal church in Monroe. It was too unlike the original to claim the service of the pencil, and we proceeded to the house of James Knaggs, one of the oldest inhabitants of that region, and a remarkable character, who, as an Indian fighter and volunteer soldier, performed good service during the war of 1812. He had just returned from some toil at a distance, and, octogenarian as he was, he seemed vigorous in mind and body. He was a stout-built man, about eighty years of age. His birth-place was at Roche de Bout, on the Maumee, a little above the present village of Waterville. His father was an Englishman, and his mother a Mohawk Valley Dutch woman. 55 From early life he was familiar with the Indians and the woods. He had been a witness of the treachery and cruelty of the savages, and his family had suffered severely at their hands. When speaking of the Indians and his personal contests with them, his vengeful feelings could hardly be repressed, and he talked with almost savage delight of the manner in which he had disposed of some of them. 56

Soon after Wayne’s campaign Knaggs settled at Frenchtown, and became a farmer. In 1811 he established a regular ferry at the Huron River, on the road to Detroit, with only Indians as companions and neighbors. These, excited against all Americans by British emissaries, were very troublesome, and Knaggs had frequent conflicts with them in some form. When Hull was on his way toward Detroit, Knaggs joined the army as a private in Captain Lee’s company of dragoons – "River Raisin men the best troops in the world," as Harrison said 57 – and became very expert and efficient in the spy, scout, or ranger service. He was engaged in the various conflicts near the Detroit River, already described, and in 1813 was in the battle of the Thames, under Colonel Richard M. Johnson. While with Hull at Sandwich, attached to Colonel M‘Arthur’s regiment, he performed important scout service. On one occasion, accompanied by four men; he penetrated the country as far as the site of the present village of Chatham, on the Thames, and there captured a Colonel M‘Gregor, a burly British officer, and a Jew named Jacobs, and carried them to Hull’s camp. He tied M‘Gregor to a horse, and thus took him to the head-quarters of his chief. After the surrender M‘Gregor offered five hundred dollars for the capture of Knaggs, dead or alive. The Indians were constantly on the watch for him, and he had many narrow escapes. This made him feel bitterly toward them.

Mr. Knaggs seemed in fine health and spirits when I visited him; but, a little more than three months afterward, he died suddenly. His death occurred on the 23d of December, 1860. 58

I returned to Detroit by the evening train, filled with reflections concerning the events of the day, and those which made the Raisin terribly conspicuous in the annals of the war. I remembered that some of the newspapers of the day censured Harrison for not promptly supporting Winchester; and that in the political campaign of 1840, when Harrison was elected President of the United States, his enemies cited his alleged shortcomings on this occasion as evidence that his military genius and services, on which his fame mostly rested, were myths. But contemporary history, and the well-settled convictions of his surviving companions in arms whom I met in the Northwest, as well as the gallant engineer, Colonel Wood, who afterward fell at Fort Erie, 59 fully acquit General Harrison of all blame or lack of soldierly qualities on that occasion. It was not until the night of the 16th that he was informed by a messenger that General Winchester had arrived at the Rapids, and meditated a forward movement. The latter intimation alarmed Harrison, and he made every exertion to push troops forward from Upper Sandusky, where he was then quartered, sixty miles from the Rapids by way of the Portage River, and seventy-six miles by Lower Sandusky. He immediately ordered his artillery to advance by way of the Portage, with an escort of three hundred men, under Major Orr, with provisions; and he pressed forward himself as speedily as possible, by the way of Lower Sandusky, where one regiment and a battalion were stationed, under the command of General Perkins. This battalion was ordered to march immediately, under Major Cotgrove, and Harrison determined to follow it the next morning. He was just rising from his bed when a messenger came with the tidings of the advance of Lewis upon Frenchtown. Perkins was immediately ordered to press forward to the Rapids the remaining troops under his command. After hastily breakfasting, he and Perkins proceeded in a sleigh. They were met on the way by an express with intelligence of Lewis’s victory at the Raisin. This nerved Harrison to greater exertions. He pushed forward alone and on horseback, through the swamps filled with snow, in daylight and in darkness, and, after almost superhuman efforts, he reached the Rapids early on the morning of the 20th. Winchester had departed for the Raisin the previous evening, and Harrison could do nothing better than wait for his oncoming troops, under Perkins and Cotgrove, and the artillery by the Portage. What remained at the Rapids of Winchester’s army, under Colonel Payne, were sent forward toward the Raisin, and Captain Hart, the inspector general, was sent to inform Winchester of the supporting movements in his rear.

General Perkins was intrusted with the arrangement and execution, at the head of a commission, of the extensive canal system of Ohio. From 1826 until 1838 he was an active member of the "Board of Canal Fund Commissioners." They were under no bonds and received no pecuniary reward. In the course of about seven years they issued and sold state bonds for the public improvements to the amount of four and a half millions of dollars. Among the remarkable men who settled the "Western Reserve," General Simon Perkins ever held one of the most conspicuous places, and his influence in social and moral life is felt in that region to this day. He died at Warren, Ohio, on the 19th of November, 1844. His widow long survived him. She died at the same place in April, 1862. To their son, Joseph Perkins, Esq., of Cleveland, I am indebted for the materials for this brief sketch, and the likeness of the patriot on the next page.

3 The charter of Connecticut, granted in 1662, covered the country from Rhode Island, or, as expressed, "Narraganset River," on the east, to the Pacific on the west. When New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania claimed dominion above the line of the southern boundary of the province, difficulties appeared. These were disposed of. In 1788 the State of Connecticut ceded to the United States all the lands within the charter limits westward of Pennsylvania, excepting a tract one hundred and twenty miles in length westward, adjoining that state. The cession was accepted. This was called the Connecticut or Western Reserve; and many settlers went there from the State of Connecticut. A part of the Reserve, containing half a million of acres, was granted by the state to the inhabitants of New London, Fairfield, and Norwalk, whose property had been burnt by the British during the Revolution. This was known as The Fire Lands. The remainder of the Reserve was sold in 1795, and the proceeds of the sale were devoted to the formation of the present school fund of Connecticut.

4 Elijah Wadsworth was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on the 4th of November, 1747, and became a resident of Litchfield before the Revolution. After the battle of Bunker’s Hill he volunteered to go to Boston, but his purpose was frustrated, when he engaged heartily in raising Colonel Elisha Sheldon’s troop of light-horsemen. He was commissioned a lieutenant of the company of which Benjamin Tallmadge was captain. He served with zeal during the entire war. He commanded the guard in whose custody Major André was placed immediately after his arrest.