34 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. CHAPTER VIII. WAR OF 1812- ARRIVAL OF GEN. HULL'S ARMY AT THE MAUMEE RAPIDS-HULL'S " TRACE "SURRENDER AT DETROIT- THE PIONEER MAUMEE SETTLEMENT ABANDONED TO THE SAVAGES. SAID Montesquieu, Happy are the people whose annals area blank." Fortunate, indeed, would the first Maumee Pioneers have been could this part of our story have been a blank in their history. About the middle of June, 1812, the settlement about the Lower Maumee Rapids was set astir by the arrival of Gen. William Hull, with about two thousand troops, on his way to Detroit. This column consisted of three volunteer regiments, under Cols. Duncan McArthur, James Finley, and Lewis Cass, that had been recruited in southern Ohio, mostly about Dayton, Springfield and Urbana, also a battalion of regulars under Col. Boyd. They marched from Urbana, directly northward, and cleft their way through the heavy forests from Champaign county to the Maumee. Congress had appointed Gov. Hull brigadier general, and authorized the enlistment of this force for two causes: First, Gov. W. H. Harrison, in the Indiana Territory, had been having serious trouble with the Indians. Tecumseh, with a band of restless Shawnees, had settled on the Wabash, with the Miamis, and with his twin brother, Elkswatawa, better known as the "Prophet," a brawling, fanatical conjurer and medicine man, was "pow-wowing" the dissatisfied elements, in all the tribes, into an aggressive league against the whites, similar in some respects to that of Pontiac. Some of the half crazed Indians had already commenced depredations on the settlers, and Indians who disbelieved in the "Prophet" were driven off, and in some instances put to death for witchcraft by their overzealous ignorant brethren. Gov. Harrison, with the purpose of breaking up the powwow and restoring order, gathered up what troops he could and marched over to the "Prophet's" village, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe. The cunning Indian came out to meet him, and professed great friendship and wanted no war. A parley was arranged for the next day. Harrison then went into camp about a mile from the Indian village. The next morning, before daylight, his camp was assailed, with unexampled fury, by the "Prophet's" warriors, and one of the most stubborn battles in Indian warfare followed, the whites losing nearly two hundred men, and some of their best officers. The savages were beaten off finally, and their village burned; but it was evident, from this act of treachery, that when Tecumseh, who was absent, returned from his pilgrimage among other tribes, he and his fanatical brother would stir up a general war, if possible. Hence, the Governors of both Michigan and Indiana Territories, where a large portion of the tribes were, began active preparations to defend the settlements. This action, fought November 7, 1811, is known in history as the battle of Tippecanoe, taking its name from the creek near where the fight took place. The second cause, for an armed force at Detroit, was the strained relations between Great Britain and the United States. Because of the impressment of American seamen, and unredressed acts of injustice and overbearing insolence, the United States was on the eve of formally declaring war on England; in fact, had done so, when Hull was camped at the Rapids, but there were no telegraphs or railroads in 1812, so news went slow, and this army was still ignorant of the true situation. To guard their line of communications, Hull's forces, as they came north, constructed Forts McArthur in Hardin county, Findlay on the Blanchard, and a small stockade on the north WOOD COUNTY, OHIO 35 branch of the Portage, or Carrying river, called Fort Portage. These were temporary defenses, and were garrisoned with the necessary complement of men under subaltern officers. The presence of this military force was a great relief to the little settlement at the Rapids, as there had been a feeling of insecurity since the affair of Tippecanoe the previous fall. This was increased by the expected trouble with Great Britain, and the settlers prevailed on Gen. Hull to also leave them a small detail of soldiers for their better protection. Hull's army, after their toilsome march through the swamp, in which the water in places reached the saddle girths of the horses, enjoyed three days rest and refreshment, in their camp on the river, as only soldiers on the march know how to do. While they are encamped there, let us take a hasty look over the route they came. It was Wood county's pioneer road, and from north to south, the only one for many years after. It was such a miserable excuse for a road, however, that the early settlers did not respect it with the name of road, but called it "Hull's Trace." No professional engineering skill was expended either in its location or construction. Gen. Hull was at Dayton with his little army, and wanted to get to Detroit, so they decided to advance to Urbana, and thence take a straight northerly course. Instead of engineers, they employed three expert woodsmen, Isaac Zane, Robert Armstrong and James McPherson, as guides to pilot the army through the woods and keep it from getting lost. Zane and Armstrong had been raised among the Indians from boyhood, and McPherson was, a fur trader, familiar with the country between Cincinnati and Detroit. Looking over the ground now, since it is stripped of the forest and exposed to view, we must own that the most skillful topographical engineer could scarcely have improved on the route selected by those unlettered woodsmen without compass or chain. After seeing the route marked out on a sectional map under the careful guidance of some of the earliest settlers, as Gen. John E. Hunt, Judge William Ewing, Jacob Eberly, Thomas Cox, Collister Haskins and others, who were familiar with and had traveled it, the " Trace " may be described in general terms as follows: It entered the county from the south, on the east part of Section 35, in Henry township, not far east of Rocky Ford creek, which it followed north to the center of Section 19, Bloom township, where it crossed to the west side of the creek, near the present bridge, and continued north between the creek and the Perrysburg and Findlay pike, to the southeast corner of Section 1, Henry township, where it bore west gradually, about to the half-section line, when it continued nearly due north, through the chain of beech ridges and swails, to the north branch of the Portage, or Ditch 12, near which point was established the stockade post, sometimes called Fort Portage. Here the trail turned down stream, northeast, until about eighty rods east of the pike, where it crossed the Portage, and from there lay nearly parallel with the railroad to Bowling Green, a part of the way on the railroad's right of way. The railroad track is on top of the old trace at the Wooster street crossing, Bowling Green. Passing north near the old cemetery ground, the route was almost direct to the point of ridge across the prairie, on the west side of the stone pike, in the northeast corner of Section 13, Plain. Here, on the dry ground that is sometimes called Terry's Corners, was a favorite camping place, with prairie grass convenient for grazing the oxen and beef cattle. From this point the trace bore away from the pike, passing just west of Union Hill cemetery, Plain township, thence to the corner of Section 23, Middleton township, which it crossed diagonally, also Fractional Sections 15 and 34, and River Tracts 46, 47 and 48, striking the Maumee near the ravine, opposite the lower end of Dodd's island, at River Tract 49, thence down the river, on the most eligible ground, to the " Big flats," where the army camped and crossed the river at that point, when the march was resumed. This route is thus somewhat minutely described for future reference, not only because of its relation to one of the unfortunate historic events of the war of 1812, but because it was for some years a path for the pioneers to their county seat (Urbana, and, afterward, Bellefontaine), and also, in part, a United States mail route. For some of the incidents of the march, and the inglorious end of the expedition, and career of Gen. Hull, an extract from the "Reminiscences of Gen. John E. Hunt," read before the Maumee Valley Pioneer Association, in Perrysburg, February 22, 1876, will prove instructive and of interest. Hunt, who went with the troops, was at that time in his fifteenth year, and in later years was a commissioner of Wood county. "In 1812," he says, ''I was living with my brother-in-law, Dr. Abraham Edwards, at Dayton. He became surgeon-general of Hull's army. Going out with him, I messed with the staff officers and dined at Gen. Hull's table. The army left Dayton in the forepart of June. 36 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. We struck the Maumee river about the 15th of that month. In passing through Hull's Prairie the water was up to my saddle skirts. It was a clear summer day when the army struck the river, at the head of the " Big flats," about two miles above Fort Meigs. There were three regiments of volunteer militia, and the Fourth U. S. Infantry, who had joined Hull at Urbana, and were just come from the victory of Tippecanoe, in all 2,500 men. After corning through the wilderness so many days, it was beautiful to look upon the broad, open channel of the river, expanding among the islands and sweeping off into the blue distance in graceful curves. The high banks were clothed with the primeval forest, and the level bottom land and islands were covered with grass. It was not half an hour before the whole army was in the water. When we left Dayton, a regiment went forward at a time. Col. McArthur went first and built Fort McArthur, and Col. Findlay followed and built Fort Findlay. We camped at the "Big flats" three days, the General expecting every day to hear news from Washington of the declaration of war against Great Britain. The first day they moved they marched four miles down the left bank of the river, having forded at Presque Isle, and camped on the bottom land below Miami. There they found a small vessel, ' The Cuyahoga, which was chartered and sent ahead for Detroit, loaded with the officers' wives and baggage. On the way she was captured by the British at Malden. [As Hull's men marched through the settlement where Maumee is, a Capt. Bond, a sort of clerk or deputy collector for Maj. Spafford, brought out his militia company and paraded them in honor of the occasion. Each man, in the absence of a feather, had a deer tail stuck in his hat.- Way's Memoirs.] "On the march from Miami to Monroe, when about half way, news reached us of the declaration of war. The British got the news before we did, through a fur company's agent, who took it by express direct to Canada. The Canadians might have taken Detroit, by surprise, before we got there. Hull stopped two days at Monroe to make a display of his troops. Thence he marched to the river Huron; there we camped on an open prairie. We could see from our camp the masts of the 20-gun brig, 'Queen Charlotte,' which lay in the lake, off Malden. Some Indians were observed in the distance. During the night we were aroused by a false alarm. Hull's apprehension of an attack by a force which might be landed from the 'Queen Charlotte,' gave color to the alarm. " It was afterward learned that the Indians were Wyandots, who offered themselves as allies at Detroit. Their services were not accepted, as our government's orders were to have nothing to do with them. At that time there were no British troops on board the - Queen Charlotte.' On the occasion of this false alarm it was whispered in the camp that the old man Hull was a good deal frightened. The next day we went into camp at the River Rouge, seven miles from Detroit. We marched in great disorder, strung along five or six miles. Hull halted there eight or ten days to prepare his men to make a display in the streets of Detroit. Detroit was then a town of ten or twelve hundred people. Then he marched his men through Detroit and back again to camp on the River Rouge. After some days he moved up and crossed the Detroit river, in batteaux, below Belle Isle. One beautiful morning they crossed the river without opposition, and made a fine display marching down opposite Detroit, with colors flying and music playing. There they made a fortified camp and remained. Atwo-story brick house in the center of the camp was the General's headquarters. There I first saw Gen. Cass, then a colonel. "It was a warm July morning, and I was taking my breakfast at a boarding house, kept by a man whose name was Deputy. At the table sat Maj. Munson, of Zanesville, Ohio. A redfaced young man, with a morning gown on, came in, and as he took a seat alongside of Maj. Munson, he said something severe against Gen. Hull. Maj. Munson said: ' Col. Cass, what is the matter with you?' Cass replied that he had been two hours with that old fool, and could not get him to make a push toward Malden, all he could do. He has agreed to let me go down with my. regiment and two companies of the Fourth United States Infantry, and if God lets me live I'll have Malden before I get back.' " The British had a 2-gun battery at the River Canard, four miles above Malden, so posted as to rake the causeway and bridge at that point. A day or two before, a regiment of our militia had been driven from there. Cass sent two companies of the U. S. Fourth Infantry under Snelling to ford the stream above the battery. When Snelling made his appearance, approaching the British on their flank, Cass moved forward with his main force upon this bridge. The enemy opened fire upon him, but when they discovered Snelling on their flank they retreated. Cass followed them to within a mile and a half of Malden, when it became so dark he thought it prudent to retreat to the battery at the bridge. WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 37 Thence he sent an express to Hull for reinforcements, so as to attack Malden the next morning. Instead of doing so, Hull sent his aid, Col. Wallace, of Cincinnati, and ordered Cass back. "Cass has frequently told me he has always regretted he did not disobey orders, and march on Malden. He afterward learned that the British had all their valuables ready to leave, and loaded on board the ' Queen Charlotte.' If he had made his appearance in the morning the British would have blown up their fort. and sailed away to Niagara. This would have prevented an Indian war, and saved Detroit. Cass returned to camp, and a few days after, Hull, on hearing of the advance of Gen. Brock, retreated across the river to Detroit, where he occupied Fort Shelby. This fort was situated right about the center of the present city of Detroit, about the fourth street from the river. "Gen. Brock, at Niagara, had overreached Gen. Dearborn, another superannuated Revolutionary officer, who was in command of that frontier, and concluded with him an armistice of thirty days. This gave time for the 'Queen Charlotte' to sail from Malden to the lower end of Lake Erie, and returned with himself and the force which captured Detroit. Soon after Hull crossed back, Brock moved the 'Queen Charlotte' up the river, and anchored off Sandwich, covering with her guns the crossing to Detroit. While the ship was stationed there, Capt. Snelling asked Gen. Hull, in my presence, for liberty to take two 12 pound guns down to Spring Wells, and sink her or start her from her position. "Hull said, No, sir; you can't do it.' Brock had built a battery on the Canada side, opposite Fort Shelby; as soon as it was finished, when the sun was about an hour high, he opened fire on us. During the night, shells were thrown at intervals. At the dawn of day a heavy fire of bombs and solid shot was opened. I was taking a drink of water at the door of one of the officers' quarters, in company with a boy of my age, who afterward became Maj. Washington Whistler, U. S. A. At the next door to us, and about twelve feet away, four of our officers were standing together. They were Capt. Hanks, Lieut. Sibley, Dr. Blood and Dr. Reynolds, of Columbus. A 32 pound shot cane from the enemy's battery, killing Hanks, Sibley and Reynolds, and wounding Dr. Blood. They were knocked into a heap in a little narrow entrywaya narrow, confined space. Their mangled remains were a terrible sight. Capt. Hanks was lying on top, his dyes rolling in his head. Directly came along Gen. Hull, who looked in upon them and turned very pale, the tobacco-juice running from the corners of his mouth to the frills of his shirt. In a short time after, the white flag was hoisted; that ball seeming to unman him. "After these men were killed, I left the fort to reconnoitre. On the street in front of Maj. Whipple's house, one-fourth of a mile in front of Fort Shelby, I found two 32-pound guns in position. Capt. Bryson, of the artillery, had placed them there to rake the British column of 1,500 men who had made a landing and were approaching the city by way of judge May's long lane to reach a ravine which crossed it, and through which they could file and be protected from any battery we had. They were marching in close column, in full dress uniform, of bright scarlet, in perfect order, at a steady regular pace, without music. As they came on, followed by their Indian allies and some twenty whites dressed as Indians, my boyish fancy was struck with their appearance, as I expected every moment to see them torn to pieces by those 32-pounders, double charged with canister and grape. My brother Thomas stood ready at the guns. In his hand a lighted match was held up in the air. He was in the very act of firing when Col. Wallace, the aide of Gen. Hull, came up and said: ' Don't fire, the white flag is up.' At that instant Capt. Hull, who had been across the river with a flag of truce, fell in with us on his return. Col. Wallace said to him: ' It's all up, your father has surrendered.' Capt. Hull exclaimed: 'My God ! Is it possible ?"' The disgraceful conduct of Gen. Hull came from treason or cowardice. He was a native of Connecticut, only sixty years of age, and had done gallant service in the Revolution; but strong drink had so blighted his mental and physical manhood that he was totally unfitted for the place he held. There was, too, delay and lack of energy at the War Department in Washington, in not more promptly advising Hull of events there. The war resolution passed the House June 4, the Senate June 17; the President proclaimed it publicly on the 19th, and Hull got no word until July 2, one day after the enemy had the news, by a longer route. Such news as this, where the possession of an empire, or the fate of an army, was at stake, ought to have reached Hull from Washington in seven days. With an enterprising commander in Hull's stead, early news of the war declaration would have been invaluable, but with Hull it could make but little difference. Under the findings of a court-martial he was sentenced to be shot, but because of his former services the President commuted the death part 38 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. of the sentence. Thus ingloriously ended Hull's campaign. Humiliation and defeat were the bitter fruits of the first efforts of the Americans in the war of 1812. Misfortunes did not come singly either. Mackinaw and Fort Dearborn (now Chicago) fell, through the same laggard policy at Washington, and Hull's incapacity. The whole Northwest was in the enemy's control. But how fared the infant settlement on the Maumee? If they were electrified when they saw Hull's army arrive, and felt security to some degree, the first time for months, they were depressed, paralyzed, when, a few weeks later, word came of the surrender of that army, and that the British had adopted their former infamous plan in warfare, of employing the savages as allies. Here was this little, scattered settlement of whites, in the very midst of the Ottawa tribe-at their mercy, in fact. All north of the Maumee was, practically, in the hands of the enemy. No settlement south of them to the Greenville Treaty line; west of them the turbulent followers of Tecumseh and his brother on the Wabash, and the Pottawatamies on the St. Joseph; east of them the nearest white neighbors were the weak settlements at the mouth of Huron river, now Erie county; north of them was Detroit and adjacent settlements, now headquarters for the British, who were active in their efforts to stir up the Indians, by bribery, and promises the most extravagant, to take up the tomahawk against the Americans. Tecumseh was there and had sworn allegiance to the King, and was effectively rallying the disaffected warriors to his standard. Even the lakes were under control of the enemy, who had several armed vessels patroling their shores. Gloomy, indeed, was the outlook for the isolated settlement at the Maumee Rapids. To make matters worse, the small detail of soldiers, left for their protection, abandoned their temporary fort, told the settlers to help themselves to the stores, which had to be left, and retreated to the interior. There was no choice left these pioneers; they had to go. They left their crops ungathered; took such of their worldly effects as they could, and started, they scarcely knew whither. The Indians and British soon came, and the torch obliterated nearly all the homely habitations of the people on the Maumee. The settlement was wiped out of existence. In its stead came hostile armies, and soon the roar and din of the deadly conflict proclaimed that new issues hung in the balance, to be decided in this court of last resort; or, rather, old issues were to be fought over again. It will be instructive, before passing to the stirring national events within the arena about the Maumee Rapids, now in order, to learn something more of the little band of settlers just passing from view, many of them never to return. Their story forms an important part of our Pioneer record. It would be interesting if we had it complete. Unfortunately, thedetails are very meager; but we introduce, in the chapter on Perrysburg, that (next to records) best of authority in histories of this kind, the testimony of truthful, intelligent, contemporary witnesses those who saw and knew the things of which they speak-Mrs. Perrin, Mrs. Hester Green, Mrs. Philothe Clark and others, some of whose recollections are given in the history of Perrysburg township. RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE