{038}
_Tecumseh's Scheme--Harrison's March to Fort Wayne--Defence of Fort
Harrison--Defence of Fort Madison--Ball's Fight._
|The great Indian leader, Tecumseh, cherished a design similar to
that of Pontiac in the previous century. He wanted to unite all the
northwestern tribes in an effort to drive the white man out of the
country, or at least out of the Northwestern Territory. For the
prosecution of this design the disasters which the Americans had
sustained in the fall of Michilimackinac, Fort Dearborn, and Detroit
seemed an auspicious opening, and Tecumseh endeavored to follow it up
promptly with attacks on the other frontier posts held by United States
troops. The most important of these were Fort Wayne, on the present site
of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, above Terre
Haute.
A force of Kentuckians had been gathered in August and placed under
command of General William Henry Harrison, afterward President of the
United States, destined for the reënforcement of {039}Hull at Detroit.
But after the news of his surrender, it was directed to the relief of
Fort Wayne, to reach which required a long march through the wilderness
of western Ohio. A journal kept by one of the soldiers on this march,
Elias Darnell, is still extant. It contains many amusing and suggestive
anecdotes. Under date of September 5th he says: "General Harrison,
having paraded the remaining part of the army in a circle in close
order, delivered a speech to them, stating that he had just received
intelligence from Fort Wayne; that it was in great danger of being taken
by the Indians and British; he said that we were under the necessity of
making a forced march to their relief. He read some of the articles
of war, and stated the absolute necessity of such regulations and
restrictions in an army, and if there were any who could not feel
willing to submit to those articles and go on with him, they might then
return home. One man, belonging to Colonel Scott's regiment, made a
choice of returning home, rather than submit to those terms. Some of his
acquaintances got a permit to escort him part of the way home. Two of
them got him upon a rail and carried him to the river; a crowd followed
after; they ducked him several times in the water, and washed away all
his patriotism." The danger from firearms in the hands of undisciplined
volun{040}teers is shown by these passages: "One of Captain McGowen's
company was accidentally shot through the body by one of the sentinels."
"A man was accidentally shot through the head by one of the mounted
riflemen."
"One of the light horsemen wounded a man as he was feeding his horse,
believing him to be an Indian." The privations of such an expedition are
well illustrated by this: "We marched through some first-rate woodland,
and through a prairie of the best quality. It is badly watered; the
water in the wagon-ruts was the only drink we could get to cool our
scorching thirst, and but very little of that." And the romantic
incidents by this: "The tomb of a chief was discovered; it was built on
the ground with timber and clay, so that no rain or air could enter. The
chief was laid on his blanket, his head toward sunrise, his rifle by his
side, his tin pan on his breast, with a spoon in it; he was ornamented
in their style, with ear-rings, brooches, etc."
Fort Wayne, which was well provisioned and had a garrison of about
seventy men, commanded by Captain Rhea, was besieged by the Indians for
two weeks. A portion of General Harmar's expedition had been defeated by
the savages on this spot twenty-two years before. The fort now had four
small field-pieces, and was otherwise well equipped. {041}The Indians at
first professed to be friendly, and tried by all means to surprise the
garrison. Then they mounted logs to look like siege guns. But the wary
Captain Rhea was not to be deceived, and on the approach of Harrison's
expedition, September 12th, the besiegers decamped. Their villages and
cornfields in the neighborhood were destroyed.
Fort Harrison was less fortunate than Fort Wayne. It was commanded
by Captain Zachary Taylor, who was afterward President of the United
States. His force was very small, and had been reduced by sickness to
about fifteen effective men. On the 3d of September two young settlers
were killed and scalped near the fort by Indians. The next day thirty or
forty of the savages appeared with a white flag, asked for admission to
the fort, and wanted something to eat. Taylor had been warned to
expect an attack, was on his guard, and refused to open the gates.
Near midnight a block-house which formed part of the outer line of
fortifications was found to be on fire. The crowd of savages outside was
now swelled to several hundreds, and what with their horrible yelling
and the cries of nine women and children inside the fort, and
the rapidly spreading flames, the little garrison was thrown into
considerable confusion. The destruction of the block-house would open
a gap through which the {042}Indians would quickly pour in a swarm, and
then woe to the little band of whites! But Captain Taylor never lost his
coolness for a moment. He ordered the part of the roof of the barracks
which was nearest to the fire to be thrown down, and the end of the
barracks kept wet. The invalids and convalescents manned the two
bastions and the other blockhouse, and kept up a fire on the Indians,
to protect the men who were at work on the roof. This fight against
a double foe was kept up for eight hours; and the garrison not only
prevented the fire from spreading, but erected a temporary breastwork
to cover the gap made by the destruction of the blockhouse, and thus
completely foiled the Indians, who disappeared next day, driving off as
many as possible of the cattle belonging to the neighboring farmers. Of
the garrison, two men were killed and two wounded. For this skilful
and gallant action, Taylor was made a major. A passage in his official
report of the affair is interesting, not as having any bearing on the
result, but because by detailing the experience of two individuals
it gives us a vivid idea of the manner in which such contests were
conducted. He says: "One man lost his life by being too anxious; he got
into one of the galleys in the bastions, and fired over the pickets,
and called out to his comrades that he had killed an Indian, and
{043}neglecting to stoop down, in an instant he was shot dead. One
of the men that jumped the pickets returned an hour before day, and,
running up toward the gate, begged for God's sake for it to be opened.
I suspected it to be a stratagem of the Indians to get in, as I did not
recollect the voice; I directed the men in the bastion, where I happened
to be, to shoot him, let him be who he would; and one of them fired at
him, but fortunately he ran up to the other bastion, where they knew
his voice, and Dr. Clark directed him to lie down close to the pickets,
behind an empty barrel that happened to be there, and at daylight I had
him let in. His arm was broke in a most shocking manner, which he says
was done by the Indians--which I suppose was the cause of his returning.
The other they caught about one hundred and thirty yards from the
garrison, and cut him all to pieces."
Fort Madison, which had been built in an exposed and badly chosen
situation on the bank of the Mississippi, near the site of St. Louis,
was attacked on the 5th of September by more than two hundred Indians,
Winnebagos. They approached stealthily, caught one of the garrison
outside of the fort, and shot and scalped him within sight of his
comrades on the walls. Firing was kept up on both sides for two days,
but with little effect. On the 7th the sav{044}ages displayed on poles
the head and heart of the man they had killed, and later in the day
tried to destroy the buildings by shooting upon the roofs arrows to
which they had tied combustible matter and set it on fire. As at Fort
Harrison, the appearance of fire created a panic among the men; but the
commander, Lieutenant Hamilton, was equal to the occasion. He ordered
eight old gun-barrels to be made into syringes, and small holes to
be broken through the roof from the inside. Thrusting up the syringes
through these holes, the men were able in a few minutes to make the roof
as wet as if a heavy shower had fallen, which completely baffled the
design of the enemy. On the 8th the Indians took possession of an old
stable near the fort, and renewed the fight; but a few cannon-shot were
sent crashing through the stable, while the gun-barrel syringes did duty
as before, and the savages then withdrew.
Besides these actions at the forts, there were numerous encounters
between small parties of white men and Indians, in which often great
skill and courage were displayed. One of the most noteworthy was Colonel
Ball's fight. That officer was descending the bank of Sandusky River
with twenty-two mounted men, when a party of Indians about equal to
their own numbers fired upon them from {045}ambush. Ball and his men
charged into the ambuscade, drove out the savages, and killed the
chiefs. Ball was dismounted, and struggling with a gigantic chief, when
one of his men came up and shot the Indian. The remaining Indians
then became furious, and gave the signal for no quarter. Ball's men
understood the situation, and fought without flinching, till they had
killed every one of their antagonists. This affair had a wholesome
effect upon the Indians of that region, and for some time the settlers
were unmolested.