ON LAND.
Shortly after the gallant and successful defence of Fort Stephenson,
Fernando, with a detached squad of twenty riflemen, joined General
Harrison, and was subsequently assigned to the regiment of Colonel
Richard M. Johnson, whose Kentuckians won the battle of the Thames.
After his signal defeat at Fort Stephenson, Proctor with his British
troops returned to Malden by water, while Tecumseh with his followers
passed over by land, round the head of Lake Erie, and joined him at that
point. Discouraged by want of success, and having lost all confidence in
General Proctor, Tecumseh seriously meditated a withdrawal from the
contest, but was induced by Proctor to remain.
From a distant shore, Tecumseh witnessed Perry's wonderful naval battle;
but of course could not determine which had been victorious. Proctor, to
reconcile the chief, said:
"My fleet has whipped the Americans; but the vessels being much
injured, have gone into Put-in Bay to refit and will be here in a
few days."
[Illustration: TECUMSEH.]
This base falsehood did not deceive the wily Indian. The sagacious eye
of Tecumseh soon perceived indications of a retreat. He finally
demanded, in the name of the Indians under his command, to be heard, and
on September 18, 1813, delivered to Proctor, as the representative of
their great father, the king, the following speech:
"Father, listen to your children. You have them now all before you. The
war before this, our British father gave the hatchet to his red
children, when our old chiefs were alive. They are now dead. In that war
our father was thrown on his back by the Americans, and our father took
them by the hand without our knowledge, and we are afraid that our
father will do so again at this time. Summer before last, when I came
forward with my red brethren and was ready to take up the hatchet in
favor of our British father, we were told not to be in a hurry, that he
had not yet determined to fight the Americans. Listen! when war was
declared, our father stood up and gave us the tomahawk, and told us that
he was ready to strike the Americans; that he wanted our assistance,
and that he would certainly get our lands back which the Americans had
taken from us. Listen! you told us at that time, to bring forward our
families to this place, and we did so; and you promised to take care of
them, and they should want for nothing, while the men would go and fight
the enemy; that we need not trouble ourselves about the enemies'
garrisons; that we knew nothing about them, and that our father would
attend to that part of the business. You also told your red children
that you should take good care of your garrison here, which made our
hearts glad. Listen! when we were last at the rapids, it is true, we
gave you little assistance. It is hard to fight people who live like
ground-hogs. Father, listen! Our fleet has gone out; we know they have
fought; we have heard their great guns; but we know nothing of what has
happened to our father (Commodore Barclay) with one arm.
"Our ships have gone one way, and we are much astonished to see our
father tying up everything and preparing to run away the other, without
letting his red children know what his intentions are. You always told
us to remain here and take care of our lands; it made our hearts glad to
hear that was your wish. Our great father, the king, is the head, and
you represent him. You always told us you would never draw your foot off
British ground; but now, father, we see that you are drawing back, and
we are sorry to see our father doing so without seeing the enemy. We
must compare your conduct to a fat dog, that carries its tail on its
back, but when affrighted, drops it between its legs and runs off.
Father, listen! the Americans have not yet defeated us by land, neither
are we sure that they have done so by water; we, therefore, wish to
remain here and fight our enemy, should they make their appearance. If
they defeat us, we will then retreat with our father. At the battle of
the rapids, the Americans certainly defeated us, and when we returned to
our father's fort at that place, the gates were shut against us. We were
afraid that it would now be the case; but instead of that, we now see
our British father preparing to march out of his garrison. Father, you
have got the arms and ammunition which our great father sent for his red
children. If you have any idea of going away, give them to us, and you
may go and welcome, for us. Our lives are in the hands of the Great
Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and, if it be his will,
we wish to leave our bones upon them."
Unless the unscrupulous Proctor was utterly lost to shame, his cheek
must have burned as he listened to the stinging reproof of the noble
Indian Chief. Ever since the white men began their political struggles
for power on the American continent, the unfortunate Indian has been
their tool, and their scapegoat. Cheated, deceived by falsehoods and
false friends, he was ever thrust forward as a sacrifice to the hatred
of contending white men. Spanish, English and French were all alike
equally guilty.
Proctor and Tecumseh fled from Malden at the approach of the Americans.
They had been gone scarce an hour, when the head of the American column
appeared playing Yankee Doodle.
Fernando Stevens was with Colonel Johnson's riflemen, when, on the 29th
of September, they reached Detroit, while Harrison was encamped at
Sandwich. Informed that Proctor and Tecumseh were flying eastward toward
the Moravian town on the river Thames, or La Tranche, as the French
called the stream, eighty miles from Detroit, the American forces, about
thirty-five hundred strong, on October 2, 1813, began pursuit. Johnson's
mounted riflemen led the van, while General Selby, a hero of King's
Mountain, followed with his Kentuckians, eager to avenge the slaughter
of their friends at River Raisin. For three days the pursuit continued.
At last, on the morning of the 5th of October, the army came up with
Proctor. Fernando was with the advance guard when they came on a small
party of Indians. The sharp crack of their rifles warned the armies to
prepare for action, and both began to form.
The victory which followed properly belonged to Johnson and his mounted
Kentuckians, though, as historians seldom know any one save the heads of
armies, it has been accorded to Harrison.
Fernando galloped back to Colonel Johnson and informed him that the
enemy was posted on a narrow strip of dry land, with the river Thames on
the left, and a swamp on the right. Tecumseh, with about twelve hundred
savages, occupied the extreme right on the eastern margin of the swamp.
The infantry, eight hundred in number, were posted between the river and
swamp, the men drawn up in open order. They waited for Harrison's orders
to attack. The general at first designed to attack with infantry; but,
perceiving the position of the British regulars to be favorable for a
charge, he turned to Johnson and asked:
"Will you undertake it?"
"I have accustomed my men to it from the first," he answered.
"Then charge!"
Galloping to the head of his regiment, Johnson said:
"My brave Kentucky lads, to us is accorded the honor of winning this
battle. Forward!" The whole cavalcade, more than a thousand strong,
went thundering over the solid plain. In the whole range of modern
warfare, perhaps there has never been a charge which, for reckless,
romantic courage, could compare to this. The Kentuckians were armed only
with long-barrelled rifles, hatchets and knives. None had sabres, so
essential to cavalry; few had pistols, and there was not a carbine among
them; but, as Johnson had said, they were accustomed to those charges on
horseback, and could load and fire those long rifles with marvellous
rapidity even while in the saddle. Their hatchets and knives were as
deadly as the sabre. As they thundered down on the enemy, leaving the
infantry and General Harrison a mile behind, Johnson discovered that the
ground on which the British were drawn was too narrow for his whole
regiment to charge abreast, so he divided his force, sending his brother
Lieutenant-Colonel James Johnson with one division, against the
regulars, while he with the other turned off into the swamp, and fell
like a tornado upon the Indians under Tecumseh.
Fernando went with the division against the British; but he heard the
splashing of mud and water, the cracking of rifles and wild shouts of
combatants, as, through smoke, spray, mud and low bushes, the
Kentuckians under Colonel Johnson charged the ambushed Indians. His own
division continued galloping forward, until they were close on the
British, who opened a heavy fire. The fire checked them; but
Johnson shouted:
"Forward, Kentuckians!"
Ashamed of their momentary hesitation, the men shook their bridles and,
with wild huzzahs, dashed right through the enemy, shooting right and
left. Wheeling rapidly about, as soon as the British line was passed the
Kentuckians poured in a destructive volley on their rear, and they fled,
or threw down their guns and cried for quarter, which was granted.
Proctor, with a part of his command, escaped, leaving his carriage
and papers.
Fernando's horse had been wounded in the shoulder, and as he dismounted
to try to alleviate the suffering of the poor beast, he heard the
conflict still raging on his right. Colonel Johnson with his half of the
Kentuckians had struck Tecumseh and was routing his entire force. The
Indians fought stubbornly until Tecumseh fell, and hearing his voice no
longer they fled in confusion. A complete victory was gained before
General Harrison reached the field.
Some historians of good authority state that Johnson shot Tecumseh with
his pistol, just as his own horse fell dead under him;--that as the
colonel's horse was sinking under innumerable wounds, he discovered a
large Indian, whose regal feathers denoted his rank, coming toward him
with uplifted tomahawk. He drew a pistol and shot him through the
heart. This has been denied. [Footnote: Seventeen years ago an aged man,
who was in the conflict, informed the author that he saw Tecumseh fall,
that he was shot through the head by a private soldier; "a big
Kentuckian."]
Fernando accompanied the army of General Harrison to Niagara to join the
army of the centre; but Harrison, becoming offended at General
Armstrong, secretary of war, resigned and quit the service. Fernando
with his detached party, seven only of Captain Rose's original company,
joined the army under Gen. Boyd on November 10th, 1813, was with them on
the next day, the 11th, when they fought the enemy five hours at
Chrysler's farm in Canada. The Americans were driven from the field with
a loss of three hundred and thirty-nine.
The writer must pause a moment to mention some of the stirring incidents
in which Fernando did not participate. On March 4th, 1813, Mr. Madison
was inaugurated for his second term. Terrence, who chanced to be in
Washington, greeted the president with: "Now Misther Prisident, we'll
whip the British sure."
The Emperor of Russia having offered his services as mediator between
the United States and Great Britain, the president, on March 8th, 1813,
appointed commissioners to treat for peace. On the 10th of April, the
British attacked Lewiston, Delaware, but after several days bombardment
abandoned the siege. On April 27, the Americans under General Pike
besieged upper York under General Sheaffe. The British, deserted by
their Indian allies, who fled before the roar of artillery, took post
with the garrison near the governor's house and opened a fire of grape
and round-shot on the invader. The battery was silenced and all thought
the British had surrendered. General Pike was sitting on the stump of a
tree talking with a captive British officer, when a tremor of the earth
was felt, 'immediately followed by a tremendous explosion near by. The
British, unable to hold the fort had fired a magazine of gunpowder on
the edge of the lake. The effect was terrible. Fragments of timber and
huge stones, of which the magazine walls were built, were scattered in
every direction over a space of several hundred feet. When the smoke
floated away, the scene was appalling. Fifty-two Americans lay dead, and
one hundred and eighty others were wounded. Forty of the British were
also slain. General Pike, two of his aides and the captive officer were
mortally hurt. The dying general was taken to one of Chauncey's vessels.
His benumbed ears heard the shout of victory, when the British ensign
was pulled down at York. Just before he died, the captured British flag
was brought to him. He smiled and made a sign for it to be placed under
his head. This was done, and he expired. Though Sheaffe and the larger
part of his force escaped, the civil authorities and a larger part of
the militia formally surrendered York. The American loss in killed and
wounded was two hundred and eighty-six; the British lost one hundred and
forty besides prisoners.
On May 27, General Scott and Commodore Perry captured Fort George at
Niagara, and at the same time Sir George Prevost was repulsed at
Sackett's Harbor, New York, by General Brown. On June 6th, Generals
Chandler and Winder were surprised and captured, though their troops
retired. On the 23d, Colonel Boerstler with six hundred men was captured
at Beaver Dam by a superior force of British.
While Perry was defeating the enemy on Lake Erie, and the Johnson
brothers were defeating Proctor and slaying Tecumseh, the discontent
which that redoubtable chief had stirred up in the South was beginning
to have its effect among the Creeks. On August 30, 1813, they attacked
Fort Mimms, which they set on fire and captured, massacring all but
twenty out of four hundred men, women and children. The British agent at
Pensacola, it is said, had offered five dollars each for scalps, and
many of the savages carried the scalps of women and children there to
claim their reward.
A cry for help went northward and the brave Tennesseeans flew to the
relief of their neighbors. General Andrew Jackson, military commander of
that region, was disabled by a wound received from a brilliant but
brutal ruffian named Thomas H. Benton, who was afterward United States
Senator from Missouri.
Late in September, Colonel John Coffee, at the head of five hundred
cavalry, hurried to the Creek frontier. He rendezvoused at Fayetteville,
where Jackson joined him early in October. On the 3d, Coffee attacked
the Indians at Tallahatchee (near Jacksonville, Benton county, Alabama)
and killed two hundred warriors;--not a warrior escaped. On the 8th of
November, Jackson defeated the Indians with great slaughter at
Talladega. Late in November, General Floyd with nine hundred Georgians
and four hundred friendly Indians attacked the hostile savages at
Autossee and drove them from the holy ground.
Weatherford, the Tecumseh of the South, was attacked, on the 23d of
November, at Econachaca. Weatherford was defeated and escaped by leaping
his horse from a precipice into the river and swimming to the
other side.
On January 21, 1814, General Jackson was fiercely attacked by the
Creeks at Emucfau on the west bank of the Tallapoosa River. Though he
repulsed the Indians, he thought it best to retire from the field.
The Creeks were gathered in great numbers at the "Horse-shoe Bend" of the
Tallapoosa. A strong breastwork, composed mostly of hickory logs, was
built across the neck of the peninsula. The Indians had great stores of
provisions and supplies at this place.
On the 27th of March, the Americans, led by Sam Houston, stormed this
fort and routed the Indians, whom they shot down like wild beasts. The
power and spirit of the Creeks was broken, and even the haughty
Weatherford sued for peace. Save the trouble caused by the Spanish and
British, the war in the South was practically ended.
Fernando, who was still with the northern army, had been shifted about
so much, that he had received but one or two letters from home. He had
participated in the affair at Black Rock, had seen Buffalo burned, and
while lying in camp near the ruins, learned of the ravages of the enemy
on the Delaware and Chesapeake bays. As yet the British, perhaps out of
respect for the Peace Party, had done little damage to the coast of New
England. Fernando often thought of the Maryland Coast, of Baltimore and
Mariana, and wondered if she were there yet, in the great, white stone
house on the hill.
One day, about March 1st, 1813, he received a letter from his mother. It
was the first news from home for nearly a year, for the facilities for
fast mails were not so good then as now.
"I have glorious news to tell you, Fernando." she said, among other
things. "Your friend Sukey is at home. His ship the _Macedonia_ was
captured by the frigate _United States_. He says if he can learn where
you are, he is coming to you."
There was a slip of paper in his mother's letter on which was written in
a well-known hand,
"Fernando, I am coming soon, for I am in the game now. SUKEY."
Fernando answered the letter, saying that he was soon to march under
General Wilkinson into Canada. A few days later, the Americans under
Wilkinson invaded Canada and, on March 30th, were repulsed at La Colle.
Fernando returned with others to the American side. He was near Oswego,
New York, when the British captured and destroyed it. He was assigned to
Brown's command and was with it in the capture of Fort Erie, on July 3d.
Fort Erie was the chief impediment to the invasion of Canada.
Prompt measures were taken to secure the advantages gained by this
victory; for it was known that General Riall, who was then the chief
commander of the British on the frontier, was moving on Fort Erie. Early
on the morning of the 3d, learning of the peril of the fort, he sent
forward some royal Scots to reinforce the garrison. At Chippewa they
heard of the fall of the fort, and Riall determined to attack the
Americans next day. To meet this force, General Brown sent General Scott
forward with Towsen's artillery.
At noon on the 5th, Scott was joined by Porter with his volunteers and
Indians. The British also were reinforced. Nearly half the day was spent
by the two armies feeling of each other. Skirmishers were deployed and
an occasional shot fired; but it was not until afternoon that they came
together in an earnest struggle. The fight was long and desperate; but
the Americans triumphed and defeated Riall and the veterans of
Wellington. They lost one hundred and thirty-three killed and forty-six
missing, while the Americans' loss was sixty killed and two hundred and
sixty-eight wounded and missing.
The English troops in that portion of Canada hastened to concentrate. On
the 25th of July, General Brown, being informed that a detachment of the
enemy had invaded American soil, hurried General Scott forward to
attack the party at the mouth of the Niagara, hoping by this division to
recall the foe. General Scott at the head of thirteen hundred men came
suddenly across a superior force at Lundy's Lane, under Generals
Drummond and Riall. A desperate conflict ensued, during which General
Brown arrived at dark, and, withdrawing Scott's brigade, the fight was
resumed. On a height at the head of the lane the enemy had posted a
battery. General Brown asked Colonel Miller if he could take it.
"I will try," he answered.
Amid a storm of grape, canister and leaden balls, the battery was taken
and victory won. Several unsuccessful efforts were made by the foe to
regain this elevation. The combat, which had begun before dark, raged
until midnight. By this time, both Generals Brown and Scott were wounded
and forced to retire from the field. The command now devolved on General
Ripley. The enemy being repulsed, Ripley concluded to retire to camp,
whence, after refreshing his men, he was directed to march by daylight
and engage the foe; but, finding the enemy's force had been much
increased during the night, Ripley thought it advisable to retreat, and
accordingly retired to Fort Erie, destroying the bridges as he went. The
loss of the British at Lundy's Lane was eighty-five killed, five
hundred and fifty-five wounded and two hundred and fifty-four missing.
The American loss in killed, wounded and missing was eight hundred
and sixty.
General Ripley used every exertion to strengthen Fort Erie before the
enemy should arrive.
At midnight during the battle of Lundy's Lane, Fernando Stevens and
about fifty sharpshooters became separated from the American army in the
darkness, and at dawn, when the retreat began to Fort Erie, they found
themselves cut off by the enemy. Three or four hundred British
grenadiers were sent in pursuit of them, and they continued to retreat
skirmishing along the way for three days, until they fell in with some
New York militia hurrying to the southern part of the State. There was
nothing better than to go with them. Fernando was chosen captain of the
company, and recruits soon swelled his numbers to a hundred. On reaching
New York he reported to Brown, for being a detached company, he had no
colonel to whom he could report. Brown had received orders by this time
to send all forces available to Washington, which was being threatened
by General Boss, and Fernando's riflemen were ordered South. The
Americans under Ripley were besieged at Fort Erie on August 4th. On the
15th, they repulsed the enemy with a heavy loss (962 men). On the 11th
of September, Commodore McDonough of the American navy captured the
British fleet under Commodore Downie. A simultaneous attack on
Plattsburgh by Provost miscarried by failure of the fleet and panic of
the soldiers. On the 17th, a sortie was made from Fort Erie, and the
British works were surprised and taken with a loss of one thousand to
the enemy.
The New England coast, which had, in the early part of the war, been
exempt from the ravages of the English, was now threatened. England came
to the conclusion that the New Englanders were blinding them with
professions of friendship, in order to preserve their own peace and
prosperity. Despite their professed objections to the war, New England
continually sent volunteers to the aid of the country's cause. The
British attacked various points on the New England coast. At Stonington,
on August 9, 1814, they were repulsed. Though Boston was threatened, it
was not bombarded.
Fernando Stevens with over one hundred men reached Philadelphia, where
he found two regiments of regulars marching to Washington. He
accompanied them. The second day's march from Philadelphia, they were
overtaken by two mounted men dressed in citizen's clothes, who inquired
for Captain Stevens. They proved to be Sukey and Terrence.
"I've been runnin' all over creation looking for you," Sukey declared.
"How can you skip from one side o' the earth to the other as easily as a
flea can cross a hammock? I went within sixty miles of Fort Erie the day
after the fight,--lost you;--heard you were in New York,--went after
you,--lost you; heard you were in Philadelphia,--went there,--lost you
and found Terrence. We supposed you were with the soldiers and came
after you."
Terrence had just returned from a cruise; and his ship _Privateer Tom_
had been so badly damaged in a gale, that it would take weeks to repair
her, so he came with Sukey.
Sukey had a terrible story to tell of captivity and service on the
_Macedonian_, which we reserve for the next chapter.