army, many of the inhabitants fled to the Ohio frontier, others went to the settlements near Detroit and soon the entire settlement of the River Raisin was nearly abandoned and deserted. "I remark here that after the surrender of Detroit and the defeat of Gen. Winchester, the British made several attempts to persuade the Indians to destroy the settlements on the River Raisin, for it was alleged that it afforded or would afford assistance to the Americans. "It was even proposed to the Indians in council, but the Pottawatamies protested against it and declared that in such an event they would take part in favor of the inhabitants, for it was they, the Pottawatamies, who had given the lands to the first settlers, and had been recompensed therefor, and had built on each piece so given a fire thereon, and would not suffer the inhabitants to be destroyed. And I further remark, to refute false statements heretofore made against the French population, that no people could have been more loyal or more attached to the government of the United States than were the inhabitants of the River Raisin at that time under such distressing circumstances— their sufferings even to starvation, murdered friends, abandonment of their habitations, their willingness to defend their country, and that the flower of the young men volunteered their services and were at all times willing to take up arms against the British and Indians and did so when they were prisoners of war on parole. HARRISON TO SHELBY Report and comment by General Harrison to Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, two days after the tragedy at the River Raisin :— "From Major General Harrison to Governor Isaac Shelby-CAMP of Carrying ROCK, fifteen miles from the Rapids, January 24, 1813. "My dear Sir: I send Colonel Wells to you to communicate the particulars (as far as we are acquainted with them), of an event that will overwhelm your mind with grief, and fill your whole state with mourning. "The greater part of General Winchester's regiment, United States Infantry, and the First and Fifth Regiments of Kentucky Infantry, and Allen's rifle regiments under the immediate orders of General Winchester, have been cut to pieces by the enemy or been taken prisoners. Great as the calamity is, I hope that as far as it relates to the objects of the campaign, it is not irreparable. As soon as I was informed of the attack upon General Winchester, about 12 o'clock on the 22d instant, I set out to overtake the detachment of Kentucky troops that I had sent that morning to reinforce him, and I directed the only regiment that I had with me to follow. I overtook Major Robb's detachment at a distance of six miles; but before the troops in the rear could get up, certain information was received of General Winchester's total defeat. A council of war was called, and it was the unanimous opinion of the Generals Payne and Perkins, and all the field officers, that there was no motive that could authorize an advance, but that of attacking the enemy, and that success could not be expected, after a forced march of forty miles against an enemy superior in number, and well provided with artillery. Strong detachments of the most active men were, however, sent forward on all the roads to assist and bring in such of our men as had escaped. The whole number that has reached our camp does not exceed thirty, among whom were Major McClanahan and Captain Claves. 'Having a large train of heavy artillery and stores coming on this road from West Sandusky, under an escort of four companies, it was thought advisable to fall back to this place for the purpose of securing them. A part of it arrived last evening, and the rest is within thirty miles. As soon as it arrives, with a reinforcement of three regiments from the Virginia and Pennsylvania brigades I shall again advance and give the enemy an opportunity of measuring their strength with ours once more. 'Colonel Wells will communicate some circumstances, which while they afflict and surprise, will convince you that Kentucky has lost none of her reputation for valor for which she is famed. The detachment to the River Raisin was made without my consent or knowledge, and in direct opposition to my plans. Having been made, however, I did everything in my power to reinforce them, and a force exceeding by three hundred men that which General Winchester deemed necessary was on its way to join him, and a fine battalion within fourteen miles of its destination. After the success of Colonel Lewis I was in great hopes that the post could be maintained. Colonel Wells will communicate my future views to you, much better than I can do in writing at this time. "I am, dear sir, with esteem your obedient servant, "W. H. HARRISON.' "His Excellency, Governor Shelby." HARRISON TAKES THE FIELD Far from being discouraged by the discomfiture of their armies under Generals Hull and Winchester, a third and more formidable force under General Harrison was despatched, which reached Fort Meigs shortly after the Frenchtown battle. Determined if possible to thwart the operations of this new government, Proctor, who had meanwhile been promoted from colonel to brigadier-general, ordered an expedition to be in readiness to move for the Miami. Accordingly, toward the close of April a detachment of the Forty-first Regular Foot, a body of militia and one thousand four hundred Indians, accompanied by a train of artillery and attended by two gunboats, proceeded up that river (Miami) and established themselves on the left bank at the distance of a mile from the site selected for their batteries. The season was very wet, but the work went on rapidly. The enemy were well equipped with artillery, among which were two splendid twenty-four pounders which they had captured at Detroit, the transportation of which the horrible condition of the roads made necessary the combined efforts of two hundred men, several horses and oxen. The siege and battle of the Miami continued for several days and was one of the most severe engagements of the war. The following copy of a dispatch from General Harrison and other documents following are of historical interest and value in this connection: GENERAL HARRISON TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR "HEADQUARTERS, CAMP MEIGS, 9th May, 1813. "Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the enemy having been several days making preparations for raising the siege of this post, accomplished this day, the removal of their artillery from the opposite bank, and about 12 o'clock left their encampment below, were soon embarked and out of sight. I have the honor to enclose to you an agreement entered into between General Proctor and myself for the discharge of prisoners of the Kentucky militia in his possession and for the This portrait of the Great Shawnee Chief was painted by one of the officers of the 41st Regiment, British troops, after the death of Tecumseh, at Moravian Town, --and is said to be very life-like. It is the only one in existence. exchange of the officers and men of the regular troops, which were respectively possessed by us. My anxiety to get the Kentucky troops released as early as possible induced me to agree to the dismission of all the prisoners 1 had, although there were not as many of ours in General Proctor's hands; the surplusage is to be accounted for, and an equal number of ours released from their parole, whenever the government may think proper to direct it. The two actions on this side of the river on the 5th were infinitely more important and more honorable to our arms than I had at first conceived. In the sortie made upon the left flank, Captain Waring's company of the Tenth Regiment, a detachment of twelve months volunteers, under Major Alexander, and three companies of Kentucky militia under Colonel Boswell, defeated at least double the number of Indians and British. "The sortie on the right was still more glorious. The British batteries in that direction were defended by the grenadier and light infantry companies of the Forty-first Regiment, amounting to two hundred effectives and two companies of militia flanked by a great host of Indians. The detachment sent to attack these consisted of all the men off duty, belonging to the companies of Croghan and Bradford of the Seventeenth Regiment-Langham's, Elliot's (late Graham's) and Waring's of the Nineteenth, about eighty of Major Alexander's volunteers and a single company of Kentucky militia under Captain Sebree, amounting in the whole to not more than three hundred and forty. Yet the event of the action was not a moment doubtful, and had not the British troops been covered in their retreat by their allies (Indians) the whole of them would have been taken. "It is not possible for troops to behave better than ours did throughout; all the officers exerted themselves to execute my orders, and the enemy, who had a full view of our operations from the opposite shore, declared that they had never seen so much work performed in so short a time." TECUMSEH, THE GREAT SHAWNEE "Like monumental bronze, unchanged his look, A stoic of the woods, a man without a tear.' Tecumseh the Shawnee and Pontiac the Ottawa stand forth preeminently, as the two greatest Indian chiefs of their time. Differing widely in their personalities as they did in their dispositions and natures, they were much the same in their craftiness, intellectual strength, and magnetic qualities to influence and command large bodies of men, whose nature rebelled against authority of any kind except that exercised by their own chosen leaders-and these two eminent savages were, indeed, born leaders and generals, accustomed to be listened to with respect in the councils of their tribes, and to obedience when they chose to exercise the arbitrary right of rulers. Tecumseh's character was perhaps as plainly shown at the battle of the Thames, or Moravian towns, as Pontiac's was at the siege of Detroit, and in his conspiracy to destroy that fort, along with all the frontier forts west of the Alleghany. The British valued the cooperation of Tecumseh most highly for his sagacity, good judgment, friendly disposition towards them, as well as for his widely extended influence with other tribes besides his own. He was not at the battle of the River Raisin or Frenchtown, being absent on a mission to neighboring tribes in securing the confederation, nor was his brother "the prophet;" had he been there, it is the general belief of those who knew the nature of the great chief, that the massacre of the Kentucky troops and of the French settlers would not have taken place. But the Chief Roundhead who had command of the Indians, was an entirely different sort of man; brutal, bloodthirsty, inhuman, of the lowest and most detestable instincts; he it was who took Winchester prisoner, and led the intoxicated and infuriated Indians in the horrible scenes of massacre which followed the surrender of the American forces at Frenchtown. We have a circumstantial account of Tecumseh's behavior at the Moravian towns and of his death at that time, in a paper written by Major John Richardson, who was in command of a division of the Fortyfirst Regiment, British army in Canada. It is as follows: "The most serious loss we sustained on this occasion was that of the noble and unfortunate Tecumseh. Only a few minutes before the clang of the American bugles was heard ringing through the forest, and inspiring to action, the haughty chieftain had passed along our line, evidently pleased with the manner in which his left was supported, and seemingly sanguine of success. He was attired very becomingly in his usual deerskin dress, finely ornamented, which admirably displayed his sinewy, athletic figure from which was thrown back a fur mantle which he wore in camp. In his handkerchief, rolled up as a turban over his brow, was placed a handsome white ostrich feather, which had been given him by a near relative of the writer of this narrative and with which he was very fond of decorating himself, either for the council hall or the battlefield. He pressed the hand of each officer as he passed, made some remark in Shawnee, which was sufficiently understood accompanied as it was by the expressive signs of his mobile features, and then passed away forever from view, except as we saw him during the engagement, fighting gallantly, or as he afterwards lay stretched a corpse upon the field. Towards the close of the engagement, he had been personally opposed to General Johnson who was commanding the American mounted riflemen, and having severely wounded that officer with a ball from his rifle, was in the act of springing upon him with his tomahawk, when his adversary drew a pistol from his belt and shot him dead upon the spot. It has been denied by some that the chief met his death from the hand of Johnson; but such was the statement on the day of the battle, nor was it ever contradicted at that period. There is every reason to state then, authoritatively, that the merit (if any merit could attach to the destruction of all that was noble and generous in savage life) of having killed Tecumseh rests with Colonel Johnson of the Kentucky Mounted Riflemen. It was also repeated many times that the body of the fallen brave was flayed and razor strops made of his skin; if there was any truth in these (of which there are grave doubts) the outrages were committed by his own immediate followers. On the night of the engagement, when seated around a fire kindled in the forest, partaking on the very battle ground of the meat which General Harrison's aide de camp were considerately and hospitably toasting for us on long, pointed sticks, or skewers, and which, half famished as we were, we greedily ate without bread or salt, the painful subject was discussed and it is not less a eulogy to the memory of the high minded Tecumseh, than a justice to General Harrison to add that that officer was the first to deplore his death; while the sentiments he expressed, when the circumstances and manner of his death became known, were such as to reflect credit on himself both as a man, a Christian and a soldier. Doubts as to the fact of Tecumseh having fallen at all at Moravian Town have been expressed by parties who were unwilling to accord to Colonel Johnson the act of having shot him, and it has been asserted |