The Land of the Miamis

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.

"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.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Ade, John. Newton County 1853-1911. (Indiana State Library.)

2. Albach, James E. Annals of the West. 1857. A valuable book on western history. (Indiana State Library.)

3. American State Papers.Indian Affairs. Vol. I. A vast store-house of knowledge of early Indian affairs, embracing reports of officers and agents of the government, instructions to Indian commissioners, etc., messages of the early Presidents to Congress, reports of the Secretary of War on Indian affairs, treaties with various tribes, etc. (Indiana State Library.)

4. Atwater, Caleb. History of Ohio. Cincinnati, 1838. (Indiana State Library.)

5. Bancroft, George. History of the United States ofAmerica.

6. Barce, Elmore. The Land of the Potawatomi. Fowler, Indiana, 1919.

7. Beckwith's History of Fountain County, Indiana. Chicago, 1881. (Chicago Public Library.)

8. Birch, Jesse S. History of Benton County, Indiana. In manuscript. Accurate and interesting.

9. Bradford, Thomas G. An illustrated Atlas of theUnited States. Historical, and with excellent maps. 1838. Presented by the late Judge Edwin P. Hammond, of Lafayette, Indiana, to the writer.

10. Bureau of American Ethnology.Handbook of AmericanIndians. Parts I and II. (Indiana State Library.)

11. Burnet, Jacob. Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory. Cincinnati, 1847. (Indiana State Library.)