By J. W. Faulkner, in the Cincinnati _Enquirer_.
“We have determined to hold this place, and, by heavens, we can.” This
was the closing sentence of a military despatch written on the night of
July 29, 1813. It was penned in the commandant’s room of the rude
stockade known as Fort Stephenson, on the Sandusky River.
The writer was Maj. George Croghan, of the Seventeenth United States
Infantry, a boy who had just attained his twenty-first year. It was
addressed to Gen. William Henry Harrison, in command of the American
forces in the Northwest. The reply of General Harrison to this
remarkable despatch was an order removing Major Croghan from command and
ordering him to report to headquarters under virtual arrest for
disobedience.
Young Croghan responded promptly, traversing a dangerous country. Face
to face with his general he explained that it was not braggadocio that
inspired the language of his message. When it was written it was
expected that it would fall into the hands of the enemy, then boastfully
advancing to the attack. With the warlike eloquence that came as
heritage from his Irish ancestors, Major Croghan showed his general that
it was too late to retreat from the fort, and that it was a necessary
military maneuver to hold it pending the execution of other movements.
His tongue won for him what every great soul desires—opportunity.
Restored to command, he returned to the fort and won a victory that will
forever live in the annals of the early republic.
Not long ago the body of Major Croghan was interred at the base of the
monument erected to the memory of the soldiers of Sandusky County. This
imposing shaft marks the site of the old fort where the dead hero won
his laurels and where the blow was struck that opened the way to
ultimate victory over the British and Indian power in the northwestern
country. Over his grave will stand as a silent witness the single cannon
used in defense of the fort, an ancient six-pounder, which wears the
affectionate feminine sobriquet of “Old Betsy.” It was a single belch
from the iron jaws of this that decided the fate of the battle, and
though inanimate, still it deserved a share of the glory that surrounded
the interment of the gallant Croghan.
Since that eventful day in August many great events have occurred to
fill the pages of history. General Harrison became greater and filled
the president’s chair. Around the base of the old fort a city has sprung
up named after Gen. John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder. In Croghan’s day
the little settlement was known as Lower Sandusky, to distinguish it
from the city in Wyandot County known as Upper Sandusky. So powerful a
pleader as Rutherford B. Hayes, then a practising attorney at the
Sandusky County bar, and afterward president of the United States,
pleaded that the old name be permitted to stand.
There was pomp and ceremony to mark the final sepulture of the old
commander’s dust in the ground that he hallowed with his victory, but no
greater tribute could be paid to his soldier memory than to tell again
the story of the battle. He came of fighting stock, this young American
soldier. The blood of “Kelly, Burke and Shea” flowed in his veins and he
smelled the battle from afar off. His father was William Croghan, an
Irishman, born in Dublin in 1752, but who was well settled in this
country when the War of the Revolution broke out. He fought at Monmouth,
Brandywine and Germantown, and froze with the rest of the immortal band
at Valley Forge.
Joining in the drift from the Virginias across the mountains, he reached
the settlement at the falls of the Ohio, where Louisville now stands. In
1791 he married Lucy Clark, sister of George Rogers Clark, the mighty
figure of the Vincennes campaign, who saved an empire to the American
republic. Another brother, William, was the Clark who, with Captain
Lewis, made the historic exploration tour across the then unknown
continent. Of such a union was born the man whom a state and a nation
afterward honored for bravery. The exact place of his birth was at
Locust Grove, Ky., a few miles below Louisville. When but twenty years
of age he gained distinction at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was
promoted to a captaincy in March, 1812, being detailed as aide-de-camp
to General Harrison, with the rank of major. This was his condition when
the events that were to make him famous began to unfold themselves.
The Indians, under Tecumseh, and the British, under General Proctor, had
raised the siege of Fort Meigs, in what is now Wood County, and were
coming toward the post at Upper Sandusky and Seneca. The British sailed
around into Sandusky Bay, while their Indian allies marched across
through the swamps and marshes of the Portage River. They expected to
meet and make a combined attack upon Lower Sandusky while Harrison was
engaged in protecting Forts Winchester and Meigs. The work known as Fort
Stephenson was in reality an old stockade used for storage purposes, and
inclosed an acre of ground.
Examination by Harrison some days before the allies invested Fort Meigs
showed that the stockade was commanded by a hill to the southeast. It
was not strong enough to resist heavy artillery, and only 200 men could
be accommodated as a garrison. Croghan was left in charge, with orders
that if the British approached by water, which carried the presumption
that if they had their heavy artillery, he was to retreat, if possible,
destroying both the fort and the public stores. If only the Indians came
he was to stand fast, as retreat through these wary hostiles was an
impossibility and a defense was a certainty.
On July 29 Harrison received word that the siege of Fort Meigs had been
raised and that it seemed the intention of the allies to descend upon
either Sandusky or Seneca. At a council of war held that night it was
decided that Fort Stephenson was untenable and orders were sent to Major
Croghan to carry out his original instructions. This order did not reach
Croghan until the next morning at eleven o’clock. A council of his
officers reached the decision that it was too late to retreat and the
famous note was sent and the meeting with Harrison arranged. On August 1
the advance guard of the enemy was seen on the hill over the river. They
were the fleet-footed Indians who had been observed by a reconnoitering
party from headquarters the day before. There was but one piece of
artillery in the fort, “Old Betsey,” and it was promptly fired, causing
the redskins to retire. Within a half hour the British gunboats, a part
of Commodore Barclay’s fleet, hove into sight. A landing was effected a
half mile below the fort and a howitzer disembarked and mounted.
A British officer, Major Chambers, with a flag of truce, was sent
forward and was met by Ensign Shipp, of the Seventeenth Regiment. The
visitor demanded in the name of General Proctor the immediate surrender
of the fort. The Americans were warned that it would be almost
impossible to restrain the Indians in case of success, and that the
whole garrison would be slain. The gallant answer was returned that the
Indians would find no one to massacre when the fort fell, for every man
had sworn to die before surrender.
The battle then opened, the gunboats, the land battery, five hundred
Wellington veterans and eight hundred Indians joining in the attack.
Throughout the evening Croghan fired his six pounder in a desultory way,
moving it from place to place to make it appear that he had more
artillery. Ascertaining from the enemy’s fire that the northwestern
angle of the fort was to be reached, he made preparation to checkmate
his plans. During the night the gun was removed to a block house which
commanded that angle and the embrasure was masked. The piece itself was
loaded with grape and slugs. Croghan’s foresight was vindicated when the
next day additional artillery was landed and the hammering of the doomed
angle was renewed. The shaking wall was reinforced with bags of sand and
even of flour, making it capable of resisting the pounding. On the
evening of August 2 the grand assault was launched, Colonel Short
leading the principal column.
He rallied his men with great bravery under a destructive rifle fire and
gained the ditch beneath the stockade walls. There he ordered his men to
cut down the pickets and give the Americans no quarter. At the proper
second of time the masked embrasure was thrown open and the slug-charged
cannon was permitted to belch its death-dealing contents into the close
packed mass of soldiers at short range. Few escaped this destructive
fire. Colonel Short was killed.
The second column, led by Major Chambers and Colonel Warburton, was also
defeated by the line in charge of Captain Hunter. When night came the
enemy withdrew in a disorderly fashion, leaving behind them one of their
gunboats, some of the wounded, much ammunition and many guns. At nine
o’clock the next morning, Major Croghan sent an express to Harrison
announcing his victory and the retirement of the defeated enemy. The
defenders of the fort lost only one killed and seven wounded of the 100
men who answered roll call. Ten times that number opposed them, and
2,000 more were in reserve near Fort Meigs to cut off any reinforcement
from that direction.
In his official report of the battle Harrison said: “It will not be
among the least of Proctor’s mortifications that he has been baffled by
a youth who has just passed his twenty-first year. He is, however, a
hero worthy of his gallant uncle, Gen. George Rogers Clark.” The brevet
rank of lieutenant-colonel was at once conferred upon the young hero by
the president of the United States, and he was presented with a sword by
the ladies of Chillicothe. Of this victory, Gen. W. T. Sherman, writing
from the standpoint of a military expert, said: “The defense of Fort
Stephenson by Croghan and his gallant little band was the necessary
precursor to Perry’s victory on the lake and of Harrison’s triumphant
victory on the Thames. These assured our immediate ancestors the mastery
of the great West, and from that day to this the West has been the
bulwark of the nation.”
The following year saw him made a full lieutenant-colonel. He served
with distinction until 1817, when he resigned and went to New Orleans to
live. He was made postmaster of that city in 1824. Some years later he
was appointed inspector general of the army, and in 1835 he was voted a
gold medal by Congress in recognition of his fight of twenty-two years
before.
He died on January 8, 1849, while the guns were thundering their salutes
in honor of another great victory, that of General Jackson, another
Irishman’s son, over Packenham and the British below New Orleans in
1814. His body was removed to the old family burying ground at Locust
Grove and buried near that of his famous uncle, where they were found
last June by Maj. Webb C. Hayes, acting for the Fremont Chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution, which is named after Major
Croghan.
They were removed to Fremont on June 10, and were placed temporarily in
the vault at Oakwood Cemetery. The pall-bearers were five venerable
survivors of the Mexican War who had enlisted in Sandusky County. The
youngest was seventy-seven years of age and the oldest eighty-five. As
Croghan was inspector-general of the army during the Mexican War, they
can be said to have served under him. The dead hero left three children.
His only son, St. George Croghan, died on the field early in the Civil
War, wearing the gray of the Confederate army. A grandson, also George
Croghan, survives, and there are other descendants on the distaff side.
The Daughters of the American Revolution have erected on the British
redoubt 250 yards northwest of Fort Stephenson a tablet commemorating
the fact that it was there that the cannon from Commodore Barclay’s
fleet thundered against Croghan’s walls. Exultingly the fact is
proclaimed that Barclay was afterward wounded and his entire fleet,
including the cannon which had been used against Fort Stephenson, was
captured by Commodore Perry at the battle of Lake Erie in the following
September.