Governor Harrison applies to the War Department for troops to
maintain peace on the frontiers--battle of Tippecanoe on the 7th of
November--its influence on the Prophet and his followers.
The late council at Vincennes having failed in producing any
satisfactory results, and Tecumseh having gone to the south for the
avowed purpose of extending his confederacy, the alarm among the
inhabitants of Indiana continued to increase. Public meetings were
held, and memorials forwarded to the President, invoking protection,
and requesting the removal of the Indians from the Prophet's town; the
memorialists being "fully convinced that the formation of this
combination, headed by the Shawanoe Prophet, was a British scheme, and
that the agents of that power were constantly exciting the Indians to
hostility against the United States." The President accordingly placed
the 4th regiment U.S. infantry, commanded by colonel Boyd, and a
company of riflemen, at the disposal of governor Harrison. The
Secretary of War, under date of 20th October, 1811, in a letter to him,
says: "I have been particularly instructed by the President to
communicate to your excellency, his earnest desire that peace may, if
possible, be preserved with the Indians; and that to this end, every
proper means may be adopted. By this, it is not intended that murder or
robberies committed by them, should not meet with the punishment due to
those crimes; that the settlements should be unprotected, or that any
hostile combination should avail itself of success, in consequence of a
neglect to provide the means of resisting and defeating it; or that the
banditti under the Prophet should not be attacked and vanquished,
provided such a measure should be rendered absolutely necessary.
Circumstances conspire, at this particular juncture, to render it
peculiarly desirable that hostilities of any kind, or to any degree,
not indispensably required, should be avoided."
On the seventh of August the governor informed the secretary that he
should call, in a peremptory manner, on all the tribes, to deliver up
such of their people as had been concerned in the murder of our
citizens; that from the Miamis he should require an absolute disavowal
of all connection with the Prophet; and that to all the tribes he would
repeat the declaration, that the United States have manifested through
a series of years, the utmost justice and generosity towards their
Indian neighbors; and have not only fulfilled all the engagements which
they entered into with them, but have spent considerable sums to
civilize them and promote their happiness; but if, under those
circumstances, any tribe should dare to take up the tomahawk against
their fathers, they must not expect the same lenity that had been shown
them at the close of the former war, but that they would either be
exterminated or driven beyond the Mississippi.
In furtherance of this plan, the governor forwarded speeches to the
different tribes, and instructed the Indian agents to use all possible
means to recall them to a sense of duty. He also wrote to the governors
of Illinois and Missouri, on the subject of the border difficulties, in
the hope that a general and simultaneous effort might avert an appeal
to arms.
In the month of September, the Prophet sent assurances to governor
Harrison of his pacific intentions, and that his demands should be
complied with; but about the same time some horses were stolen in the
neighborhood of his town, and the whites who went in pursuit of them
were fired upon by the Indians. Early in October the governor moved,
with a considerable body of troops, towards the Prophet's town, with
the expectation that a show of hostile measures would bring about an
accommodation with the Indians of that place. On the 10th of October,
one of the sentinels around his camp was fired on by the Indians, and
severely wounded. About the same time the Prophet sent a messenger to
the chiefs of the Delaware tribe, who were friendly to the United
States, requiring, them to say whether they would or would not join him
in the war against them; that he had taken up the tomahawk and would
not lay it down but with his life, unless their wrongs were redressed.
The Delaware chiefs immediately visited the Prophet, for the purpose of
dissuading him from commencing hostilities. Under these circumstances
there seemed to be no alternative for governor Harrison, but to break
up the Prophet's establishment. On the 27th, the Delaware chiefs
returned to the camp of the governor, and reported that the Prophet
would not listen to their council, and had grossly insulted them. While
at the Prophet's town, the Indians who had wounded the sentinel,
returned. They were Shawanoes and near friends of the Prophet; who was
daily practising certain pretended rites, by means of which he played
upon the superstitious feelings of his followers, and kept them in a
state of feverish excitement. On the 29th, a body of twenty-four Miami
chiefs were sent by governor Harrison, to make another effort with the
Prophet. They were instructed, to require that the Winnebagoes,
Potawatamies and Kickapoos, should leave him and return to their
respective tribes; that all the stolen horses in their possession
should be delivered up; that the murderers of the whites should either
be surrendered or satisfactory proof offered that they were not under
his control. These chiefs, however, did not return, and there is reason
to believe that they were induced to join the confederacy at
Tippecanoe.
On the 5th of November, 1811, governor Harrison, with about nine
hundred effective troops, composed of two hundred and fifty of the 4th
regiment U.S. infantry, one hundred and thirty volunteers, and a body
of militia, encamped within ten miles of the Prophet's town. On the
next day, when the army was within five miles of the village,
reconnoitering parties of the Indians were seen, but they refused to
hold any conversation with the interpreters sent forward by the
governor to open a communication with them. When within a mile and a
half of the town a halt was made, for the purpose of encamping for the
night. Several of the field officers urged the governor to make an
immediate assault on the village; but this he declined, as his
instructions from the President were positive, not to attack the
Indians, as long as there was a probability of their complying with the
demands of government. Upon ascertaining, however, that the ground
continued favorable for the disposition of his troops, quite up to the
town, he determined to approach still nearer to it. In the mean time,
captain Dubois, with an interpreter, was sent forward to ascertain
whether the Prophet would comply with the terms proposed by the
governor. The Indians, however, would make no reply to these enquiries,
but endeavored to cut off the messengers from the army. When this fact
was reported to the governor, he determined to consider the Indians as
enemies, and at once march upon their town. He had proceeded but a
short distance, however, before he was met by three Indians, one of
them a principal counsellor to the Prophet, who stated that they were
sent to know why the army was marching upon their town--that the
Prophet was desirous of avoiding hostilities--that he had sent a
pacific message to governor Harrison by the Miami and Potawatamie
chiefs, but that those chiefs had unfortunately gone down on the south
side of the Wabash, and had thus failed to meet him. Accordingly, a
suspension of hostilities was agreed upon, and the terms of peace were
to be settled on the following morning by the governor and the chiefs.
In moving the army towards the Wabash, to encamp for the night, the
Indians became again alarmed, supposing that an attack was about to be
made on the town, notwithstanding the armistice which had just been
concluded. They accordingly began to prepare for defence, and some of
them sallied out, calling upon the advanced corps, to halt. The
governor immediately rode forward, and assured the Indians that it was
not his intention to attack them, but that he was only in search of a
suitable piece of ground on which to encamp his troops. He enquired if
there was any other water convenient besides that which the river
afforded; and an Indian, with whom he was well acquainted, answered,
that the creek which had been crossed two miles back, ran through the
prairie to the north of the village. A halt was then ordered, and
majors Piatt, Clark and Taylor, were sent to examine this creek, as
well as the river above the town, to ascertain the correctness of the
information, and decide on the best ground for an encampment. In the
course of half an hour, the two latter reported that they had found on
the creek; every thing that could be desirable in an encampment--an
elevated spot, nearly surrounded by an open prairie, with water
convenient, and a sufficiency of wood for fuel.[A] The army was now
marched to this spot, and encamped "on a dry piece of ground, which
rose about ten feet above the level of a marshy prairie in front
towards the town; and, about twice as high above a similar prairie in
the rear; through which, near the foot of the hill, ran a small stream
clothed with willows and brush-wood. On the left of the encampment,
this bench of land became wider; on the right, it gradually narrowed,
and terminated in an abrupt point, about one hundred and fifty yards
from the right bank."[B]
[Footnote A: M'Afee's History of the Late War.]
[Footnote B: Ibid.]
The encampment was about three-fourths of a mile from the Prophet's
town; and orders were given, in the event of a night attack, for each
corps to maintain its position, at all hazards, until relieved or
further orders were given to it. The whole army was kept during the
night, in the military position which is called, lying on their arms.
The regular troops lay in their tents, with their accoutrements on, and
their arms by their sides. The militia had no tents, but slept with
their clothes and pouches on, and their guns under them, to keep them
dry. The order of the encampment was the order of battle, for a night
attack; and as every man slept opposite to his post in the line, there
was nothing for the troops to do, in case of an assault, but to rise
and take their position a few steps in the rear of the fires around
which they had reposed. The guard of the night consisted of two
captain's commands of forty-two men, and four non-commissioned officers
each; and two subaltern's guards of twenty men and non-commissioned
officers each--the whole amounting to about one hundred and thirty men,
under the command of a field officer of the day. The night was dark and
cloudy, and after midnight there was a drizzling rain. It was not
anticipated by the governor or his officers, that an attack would be
made during the night: it was supposed that if the Indians had intended
to act offensively, it would have been done on the march of the army,
where situations presented themselves that would have given the Indians
a great advantage. Indeed, within three miles of the town, the army had
passed over ground so broken and unfavorable to its march, that the
position of the troops was necessarily changed, several times, in the
course of a mile. The enemy, moreover, had fortified their town with
care and great labor, as if they intended to act alone on the
defensive. It was a favorite spot with the Indians, having long been
the scene of those mysterious rites, performed by their Prophet, and by
which they had been taught to believe that it was impregnable to the
assaults of the white man.
At four o'clock in the morning of the 7th, governor Harrison, according
to his practice, had risen, preparatory to the calling up the troops;
and was engaged, while drawing on his boots by the fire, in
conversation with general Wells, colonel Owen, and majors Taylor and
Hurst. The orderly-drum had been roused for the purpose of giving the
signal for the troops to turn out, when the attack of the Indians
suddenly commenced upon the left flank of the camp. The whole army was
instantly on its feet; the camp-fires were extinguished; the governor
mounted his horse and proceeded to the point of attack. Several of the
companies had taken their places in the line within forty seconds from
the report of the first gun; and the whole of the troops were prepared
for action in the course of two minutes; a fact as creditable to their
own activity and bravery, as to the skill and energy of their officers.
The battle soon became general, and was maintained on both sides with
signal and even desperate valor. The Indians advanced and retreated by
the aid of a rattling noise, made with deer hoofs, and persevered in
their treacherous attack with an apparent determination to conquer or
die upon the spot. The battle raged with unabated fury and mutual
slaughter, until daylight, when a gallant and successful charge by our
troops, drove the enemy into the swamp, and put an end to the conflict.
Prior to the assault, the Prophet had given assurances to his
followers, that in the coming contest, the Great Spirit would render
the arms of the Americans unavailing; that their bullets would fall
harmless at the feet of the Indians; that the latter should have light
in abundance, while the former would be involved in thick darkness.
Availing himself of the privilege conferred by his peculiar office,
and, perhaps, unwilling in his own person to attest at once the rival
powers of a sham prophecy and a real American bullet, he prudently took
a position on an adjacent eminence; and, when the action began, he
entered upon the performance of certain mystic rites, at the same time
singing a war-song. In the course of the engagement, he was informed
that his men were falling: he told them to fight on,--it would soon be
as he had predicted; and then, in louder and wilder strains, his
inspiring battle-song was heard commingling with the sharp crack of the
rifle and the shrill war-whoop of his brave but deluded followers.
Throughout the action, the Indians manifested more boldness and
perseverance than had, perhaps, ever been exhibited by them on any
former occasion. This was owing, it is supposd, to the influence of the
Prophet, who by the aid of his incantations had inspired them with a
belief that they would certainly overcome their enemy: the supposition,
likewise, that they had taken the governor's army by surprise,
doubtless contributed to the desperate character of their assaults.
They were commanded by some daring chiefs, and although their spiritual
leader was not actually in the battle, he did much to encourage his
followers in their gallant attack. Of the force of the Indians engaged,
there is no certain account. The ordinary number at the Prophet's town
during the preceding summer, was four hundred and fifty; but a few days
before the action, they had been joined by all the Kickapoos of the
prairie, and by several bands of the Potawatamies, from the Illinois
river, and the St. Joseph's of lake Michigan. Their number on the night
of the engagement was probably between eight hundred and one thousand.
Some of the Indians who were in the action, subsequently informed the
agent at fort Wayne, that there were more than a thousand warriors in
the battle, and that the number of wounded was unusually great. In the
precipitation of their retreat, they left thirty-eight on the field;
some were buried during the engagement in their town, others no doubt
died subsequently of their wounds. The whole number of their killed,
was probably not less than fifty.
Of the army under governor Harrison, thirty-five were killed in the
action, and twenty-five died subsequently of their wounds: the total
number of killed and wounded was one hundred and eighty-eight. Among
the former were the lamented colonel Abraham Owen and major Joseph
Hamilton Davies, of Kentucky.
Both officers and men behaved with much coolness and
bravery,--qualities which, in an eminent degree, marked the conduct of
governor Harrison throughout the engagement. The peril to which he was
subjected may be inferred from the fact that a ball passed through his
stock, slightly bruising his neck; another struck his saddle, and
glancing hit his thigh; and a third wounded the horse on which he was
riding.
Peace on the frontiers was one of the happy results of this severe and
brilliant action. The tribes which had already joined in the
confederacy were dismayed; and those which had remained neutral now
decided against it.