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CHAPTER XXI.

INDIAN WARFARE-WAR OF 1812.

[BY COL. D. W. MCCLUNG.]

THE "MIAMI SLAUGHTER HORSE "-INDIAN WARFARE AND TREATIES-CINCINNATI A STRATEGIC POINT IN WAR, COMMERCE AND TRADE-FORT WASHINGTON-EXPEDITIONS AGAINST The INDIANS-FINAL DESTRUCTION OF The INDIAN CONFEDERACY-.CINCINNATI IN THE INDIAN WARS-WAR OF 1812-14--WARLIKE FEELING IN CINCINNATI--RECRUITING-MILITARY SENT TO THE FRONT-CONCLUSION.

CINCINNATI owed its beginning to military considerations, and its first history is of garrisons and campaigns. Even before the title to the fertile and beautiful hills and valleys lying about her had been transferred to the United States, the region had acquired among the aborigines the designation of the "Miami Slaughter

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House." The Northern tribes whose villages were in the uplands of central Ohio and Indiana and around the lakes, and the Southern tribes, whose abiding place was along the upper waters of the Tennessee and Cumberland, knew nothing of peace, and only enjoyed a truce, when separated by the whole diameter of the " Miami Slaughter House" and the `dark and bloody ground."

After the early settlers had occupied the region about Lexington and Harrodsburg, and immigrants were floating to Louisville and other points on the lower river--for twenty years before Cincinnati was occupied-the " Slaughter house " increased its distinction. Many of the expeditions and raids made into Kentucky followed the Miami and the Licking, others from the Miami passed down the Ohio and up the Kentucky river. The vengeful expeditions of the Kentucky pioneers, in retaliation for the plundering and murders of the Northern marauders, followed the same routes.

Unwittingly the government of the confederation prepared the way for a continuance of the bloody experiences that have given the Slaughter House its suggestive name. The Indians of the North and Northwest had, during the struggle for independence, been the cheap and efficient allies of the Mother country. Their murderous forays were a constant menace. Their hostile attitude compelled many of the most intrepid and courageous of the frontiersmen to keep watch over their own homes. In this way the Indians had kept from the Continental forces a large number of men who were the finest material for soldiers. They were compelled to do frontier duty, while others fought the armies of the great enemy. Indeed the warfare with the Indians continued without cessation after the Mother country had ceased efforts to subdue the rebellious colonists.

The savage allies of the British were not mentioned either in the provisional or definitive treaty that announced a new nation. Their territory was given over to their enemies, and they were abandoned to their fate. Enmity and suspicion, the memory of appalling wrongs, would not allow the storm of war to settle to the calm level of peace. Hatred and jealousy were to do their perfect work. The government of the confederation, asa means of breaking the Indian power, disregarded the Indian confederacy, and proceeded to make treaties with tribes in detail. At Fort Stanwix (Rome, N. Y.) a treaty was made with the famous Six Nations. At Fort McIntosh (Beaver, Penn.), and at Fort Harmar (Marietta), separate treaties were made with other tribes. Last of all a treaty was made at Fort Finney, situated less than a mile above the mouth of the great Miami, and about 150 yards from the bank of the Ohio. This treaty was supposed to complete satisfactory arrangements with the last of the Indians that menaced the frontier.

The most sagacious and experienced participants in these negotiations had no expectation that they would result favorably, except as they might be enforced by military power. It soon developed that Gen. Harmar, George Rogers Clarke and their associates were wiser than the committees or the Congress that directed their actions. But, as soon as these abortive treaties had been concluded, by which it was supposed that the Indians had forever abandoned all eastern and southern Ohio, the Ohio Company and Symmes and his associates made their purchases, and eagerly pushed forward their colonies. The true condition was soon made manifest. The treaties had been made with irresponsible detachments, whose authority was repudiated by the great Confederacy. Gifts, largesses, provisions and blankets had been bestowed in vain. Not for these things, nor by such methods, were the Indians to abandon the most beautiful and inviting region in the world. We can not wonder at their tenacity. Savages though they were, they rebelled against being dispossessed of the heritage of their fathers by bargains made as they believed under the influence of bribes and threats.

Just before the coming of Symmes and his colony, a flood in the Ohio had submerged the site of Columbia, and also of Fort Finney. The little garrison at the

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latter place had escaped from the upper story by the only boat left them by the ice, and floated upon the flood to Louisville. The first cry of the defenseless settlers was for protection. Fort Harmar and Fort Steuben (at Jeffersonville, Ind.) were too distant to watch over the infant settlements. Not only were the Indians dissatisfied and threatening, but the treaty stipulations with Great Britain had not been observed. The Americans had failed to give the promised protection to those who had adhered to the Mother country, and, in retaliation, Great Britain still held the Northwestern posts, within the territory ceded to the United States, and in the midst of the turbulent Indians. There was urgent need for vigorous action.

Maj. Doughty of the regular army of the United States was sent by Gen. Harmar to select a site for a fort near the mouth of the Great Miami river. The site of Fort Finney and of Columbia had already been condemned by the great flood in the Ohio river. He visited North Bend, examined the river at various points, and in a few days decided that Cincinnati was the most desirable place for his purpose. Selecting fifteen acres of ground, bordering on the section of land which had been sold by Symmes to Mathias Denman, he appropriated it to government uses for the building of a stockade. This site was east of Broadway, extending from the Ohio river northward. There is no reason to suppose that any other than military reasons influenced Maj. Doughty in his selection. The situation at that time made Cincinnati a strategic point of great importance, as well as a most convenient base of operations. Doubtless Judge Symmes had expected that the garrison and the city would go to North Bend. For very plausible reasons he had chosen that as the site of the coming city. At that point the Ohio river makes its extreme north bond; the Miami river sweeps southward, until the distance between the two is but little, if any, more than a mile. In the days before railroads or steamboats had been dreamed of, it was reasonable to suppose that this location would be most advantageous. It was natural that the Miami river should be regarded as of commercial importance. And it is true now, as it was then, that a city located so as to front upon two rivers, would have many advantages. Doubtless Judge Symmes believed that other than military reasons had influenced the gallant Major. Nevertheless, the military reasons are sufficient, and the short time during which Maj. Doughty held the question under advisement, would make it almost incredible that any affair of gallantry could have been involved. His examination began at the Little Miami August 16, 1789, and on the 21st of the same month he dates his report to Gen. Hamar, stating that he had found the place opposite the Licking to be " the most proper position for the purpose."

To the southward, already not less than forty thousand people were living in central Kentucky. The valley of the Licking river furnished easy access to that region, where supplies and soldiers might be found. To the northward the open valley of the Mill creek afforded access to the heart of the Miami valley, more directly and more conveniently than from North Bend. This last feature of the surroundings of Cincinnati explains, not only the military advantages at that time, but also the growth of the city. It has been the open gateway for trade and commerce, as it was the convenient route for armies. If the range of hills, that so nearly encircle Cincinnati, had been closed across the valley of the Mill creek, it would never have been chosen as a military station, and never would have become an important center of commerce. As so often happens, the highway of armies and the highway of commerce are the same. The strategic points in war become the strategic points in commerce and trade.

Fort Washington was first occupied as headquarters by Gen. Harmar, December 29, 1789. Two companies were left at Fort Harmar, and the remainder of the regiment was transferred to Fort Washington. The Indian raids and murders still continued. Immigrants passing down the Ohio river were daily in danger of being attacked from the shore. Settlers upon the Miami Purchase were in hourly danger

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of being shot flown by enemies lying in wait for their appearance. The tide of immigration to the West during these years may be estimated from the statement of Gen. Harmar dated Fort Harmar, December 9, 1787, He says be had caused careful count to be kept, and from the 1st of June to the day of his report, there had passed to Kentucky 146 boats with 3,196 souls, 1,371 horses, 167 wagons, 191 cattle, 245 sheep and 24 hogs.

The people of Kentucky complained that Indian murders had already cost them more than 1,500 lives. It was clearly evident that the treaties had failed and that force must be employed. The first attempt to chastise the savages, with which Cincinnati and Fort Washington were directly associated, was the expedition of Gen. Harmar, a most accomplished and high-minded soldier. On the 15th of July, 1790, Governor St. Clair issued his call for militia to the officers of Kentucky, and the western portions of Pennsylvania and Virginia. On the 19th of September when the troops were assembling at Fort Washington, he addressed a note of explanation and friendly assurance to the British commandant, notifying him of the expedition, and assuring him that it had no unfriendly significance toward Great Britain. By the 5th of October, the little army was on its march. Its destination was the Indian village near where the city of Defiance now stands. It took its course over the highlands, northward of the city, the line of march being east of the watershed, between the two Miamis. The line passed not far from Lebanon. It ran between Dayton and Xenia, and then bearing a little to the west was directed to Defiance. The motley assemblage bore little resemblance to an army. There were 320 regular soldiers, and 1,133 raw militia, without drill or discipline, without camp equipage, or axes, or intrenching tools; with defective arms, and many of the soldiers without the skill to remove and oil their gun locks, or even place the flints in the hammers.

On the 14th of October the advance guard reached the Indian villages, but the inhabitants had all fled. On the 17th, the main army arrived, and for four days the troops were employed in burning villages and cornfields. Five villages were destroyed, and more than twenty thousand bushels of corn burned. Before the return, however, detachments of the army, sent out to find the Indians, were involved in ambuscades, and suffered severely. The usual results of want of discipline were made manifest. On the part of some, great personal courage was shown, but on the part of the majority, only an eager desire to flee from danger. The losses were heavy, the army was demoralized, and the return march was resumed at once. The only effect of the expedition had been to exasperate the enemy, and to inflate him with pride in his superior prowess. The Indians fully believed that they had won a great victory, and were more than ever determined to prosecute the war. Want of preparation and discipline had brought the campaign through humiliating failures to an ignominious conclusion. The next year Gen. Harmar was fully exonerated by a court of inquiry, as be has been by the judgment of history. Nevertheless, he retired to his charming home near Philadelphia, and the government lost a most capable and patriotic officer. The government, in its baste and poverty, had sent him to certain disaster, and a proud soldier finds it hard to bear undeserved popular obloquy. Ho was too proud to complain, and too magnanimous to throw the blame upon those to whom it belonged.

Up to this time, the entire army of the United States consisted of but one regiment, which had never reached its maximum number. After the ineffectual campaign of Gen. Harmar, Congress authorized another regiment, the second of our army, and also an additional force of artillery. Preparations upon a larger scale were made for subduing the Indians. In the month of June an expedition of militia under Gen. Charles Scott, of Kentucky, marched from the mouth of the Kentucky river against the Indians on the upper Wabash. In August an expedition under Col. Wilkinson moved from Fort Washington northward, marching rapidly until it had reached the neighborhood of the Indian villages on the Maumee, then turned

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due west, to attack the villages on the Wabash that had been harried by Gen. Scott a few months earlier. Neither expedition accomplished any permanent result, either in breaking the power or in overawing the Indians. The killing of a few warriors, the capture of women and children, the devastation of cornfields and the burning of villages only exasperated the savages. and made peace more remote.

Governor St. Clair had been appointed a major-general, and designated to command the expedition against, the Indians. He was given command of the two regiments of the army, wit with the artillery and an additional force of militia, which should have raised his army at least three thousand men. The General himself was a model of energy, courage and fidelity. He did all that was possible to prepare the expedition and make it efficient. The object of the expedition, as set forth in the instructions given him by Secretary of War Gen. Knox, was to establish a chain of posts from Fort, Washington to the Maumee river, at the mouth of the Auglaize. At the latter place it was designed to establish a strong fort in the heart of the Indian country to overawe the hostile Indians, and to strike as necessity might suggest.

The time allotted to Gen. St. Clair was too short for the purpose, even if he had at his command a disciplined army. The work of building the forts and transporting provisions through a difficult country could not, by possibility have been executed within the time allowed. From the first, ill omens seemed to warn hire of impending disaster. It was not until the 7th of September that Gen, Richard Butler, the second in command, reported at Fort Washington, On the same day the chief quartermaster made his appearance, and the chief commissary did not appear at all, except at the Treasury Department in Philadelphia. There was no time given for discipline or drill, or forwarding military stores. In order to protect the army from the drunkenness and disorder about Fort Washington, Gen. St. Clair early moved a portion of his command twenty-five miles to the north, and established Fort Hamilton. Even while the troops remained at Cincinnati, the place of encampment was fixed three miles to the northwest of Fort Washington. The precise spot is unknown, but it must have been near that part of the city still known as Camp Washington. From the first, desertions were almost daily occurrences. Adj. Denny, in his Journal of the Campaign, states: "On the 3d of October a sergeant and twenty-five militia deserted. On the 4th a sergeant and nine militia;" and so on with the dismal record.

Gen. Harmar declined to take any command, and warned Gen. St. Clair that he was going out to certain overthrow. His experience of the previous year had been sufficient warning to him to keep away from coming doom. On the 4th of October the army moved from Fort Hamilton by way of Eaton and Greenville. A stockade fort was erected near Eaton, and another six miles south of Greenville, called Forts St. Clair and Jefferson. Desertions continued to increase until, five days before the final slaughter, the General was compelled to detach the first regiment, the best in his command, to march to the rear and guard the supplies from being plundered by deserters. This veteran regiment was not in the action at Fort Recovery. The second in command became seriously offended with Gen. St. Clair, and held no communication with him. Under such conditions, the army, being reduced by desertions and detachment to 1,4110 men, on the 4th of November the great slaughter at Fort Recovery took place. The undisciplined militia fled at the first fire, and the camp was shortly in confusion. It, affords some relief to the dismal picture, that personal courage and a very limited discipline held the bulk of the soldiers to a desperate fight for more than three hours. But the retreat was a rout in which nothing but speed was desirable. The army, which had moved forward at the rate of seven miles a day, was able on the retreat to reach Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles from the field of action, before nightfall on the day of the battle. It had required thirty days to move from Fort. Hamilton to the battlefield, but the return was made in forty-eight hours. When the army reached Fort Jefferson on its retreat, not a

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single ration had reached that point. The flight from the enemy was of necessity changed to a hurried and eager race for food.

Another expedition had failed, more imposing and better armed than Gen. Harmar's, but in other respects not better prepared. Want of discipline, of supplies, of all things needful for an army of conquest or occupation, had led to the most deplorable slaughter ever witnessed in the United States.

In November, 1791, at the time when the remnants of St. Clair's army were drifting homeward through Cincinnati, William H. Harrison, a young ensign, who was to be a conspicuous figure in the history of this region, appeared on the scene. The youth, fresh from his stately home at Berkeley and from the society of Philadelphia, was appalled at the dissipation and drunkenness ho witnessed in the embryo city. He says: "I certainly saw more drunken men in Cincinnati in forty-eight, hours than I had ever seen in all my life."

Searching official inquiry acquitted Gen. St. Clair of blame, but the hero of a disaster rarely escapes popular odium. The slaughter at Fort Recovery was the end of hasty movements and half preparation. Congress at last became aware of the gravity of the situation. Great Britain on the north and Spain in the south and west eagerly watched the infant republic, and their agents fomented Indian hostilities. International questions of the gravest character were pending between the United States and the two unfriendly powers. Evidently a crisis was at hand. The army was raised to 5,168 men, and Gen. Wayne was appointed to the command. He dictated his own conditions, and made them wholly different from those imposed upon St. Clair and Harmar. He would have no raw levies, no more six-months soldiers, no more hurried incursions into a hostile country. All was careful, deliberate, comprehensive. Every preparation was thorough, and every movement indicated permanent occupation and final results.

In order that no means might be neglected to secure peace, the government entered upon further negotiations. Two of its emissaries, bearing flags of truce, were assassinated. One, under the guidance of the missionary Heckewelder, reached Vincennes and held an ineffectual conference. Three commissioners reached the northwest by courtesy of the governor of Canada, and were entertained at the mouth of the Detroit river in the house of a British subject. All the negotiations ended in nothing. The Indians demanded the Ohio river as the perpetual boundary line. This the United States could not grant.

While Fort Washington was the strong defense of the settlers, there were blockhouses at Ludlow Station, at Colerain, at Columbus, at North Bond, and, possibly,. elsewhere. These heavy log structures, loop-holed for rifle practice, with over banging second story to permit a vertical fire by the garrison, were a safe refuge in danger. They were impregnable to Indians, except against blazing arrows. Captures and murders of settlers, hairbreadth escapes, and attacks upon blockhouses, kept in mind that the war was actual and its dangers always imminent. A vigorous attack upon Colerain Station was long remembered, and its stirring incidents told at frontier firesides. The name of Bloody Run perpetuates the memory of a stubborn miniature battle near Carthage between a few Indians and whites, in which the percentage of casualties far exceeded our bloodiest battles. It was only an obscure skirmish, but it illustrated the personal courage that defied death, a courage that did not depend upon oaths, or discipline, or the commands of officers. There seems to have been generally peace and quiet about North Bend, a result ascribed to the wise conduct of Judge Symmes. In July, 1792, Rev. John Heckewelder, the good missionary of the Moravians, writes: "The most singular circumstance is that for two years they have been troubled with no Indian raids" (at North Bend); and he adds: "Judge Symmes, who is looked upon as a father by this people, has, by his kind treatment of the Indians, who at first came bore very

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frequently, gained their friendship, and this has proved a better protection than a regiment of soldiers.

During the winter of 1792-93 Gen. Wayne had his army in a camp of instruction twenty miles below Pittsburgh. In the month of April, 1793, he reached Cincinnati. He called his encampment "Hobson's Choice," because on account of the river being very high it was the only encampment possible at the time, It was situated near the foot of Fifth street. The cavalry of his army was sent to the Kentucky side of the river, where Covington now stands, and during the following summer both the cavalry and infantry were continually drilled and practiced in all the evolutions and exercises that might, fit them for their work. On September 17, 1793, be took up the march to Greenville, where be established a strong fort, and supplied it with ample provisions. True to his original determination, he loft no means unemployed that might show to the enemy that ho was able and eager to seize and hold. In December he took possession of the battlefield of St. Clair, twenty-three miles beyond Greenville, and erected Fort Recovery. During the autumn he had been reinforced by a thousand mounted men from Kentucky under Gen. Charles Scott. They were employed in guarding wagon trains and in scouting the forest. When he put his army in winter quarters he dismissed the Kentucky horsemen with orders to return the following season.

In June, 1794, the Indians made an attack upon Fort Recovery, which was characterized by unusual fierceness and persistency; but after a struggle of two days they were driven away with heavy loss. This was the first serious check suffered by the confederated Indians of the Northwest. Gen. Wayne had taken no backward step. Every foot of ground once occupied was held, and he had defiantly pushed his posts into the enemy's country. On the 28th of July he moved from Greenville, fully prepared to bring the war to a decisive end. Before this time he had been rejoined by the Kentucky mounted troops under Gen. Scott, and his army was in the highest state of efficiency. Fort Defiance was erected almost upon the ground recently occupied by Indian villages, and from this fact it received its name.

On the 20th of August was fought the battle of Fallen Timbers, near the rapids of the Maumee river, and in one hour the Indian confederacy was hopelessly broken and dissolved. It was a victory of far-reaching consequence. It, aided greatly in securing a treaty with Great Britain in the following year, which settled the most dangerous questions in controversy. It gave to the Spanish power, in the west and south, a new idea of the vigor and patriotism of the young republic.

It may seem somewhat surprising that so few of the men conspicuously identified with the early campaigns about Cincinnati made that city their home. Gen. Harmar retired to Philadelphia. Gen. St. Clair, as soon as he had discharged his duties as governor of the Northwest, returned to Ligonier Valley, in Westmoreland county, Penn., where he lived in extreme poverty, caused by the sacrifices he had made for his country, and by the neglect of Congress to repay him the money he had actually advanced out of his private fortune. Gen. Wayne died shortly after the treaty at Greenville, at Erie, Penn., on his return eastward. Gen. Charles Scott and other Kentuckians returned to their own homes. George Rogers Clarke lived at Louisville, neglected and disregarded until his death in 1818.

A notable exception, however, is the case of Maj. David Zeigler, who was the first mayor or president of Cincinnati, as the office was then styled. A native of Germany, an experienced soldier in his native land, he came to this country in 1775, for the purpose of entering the army of Independence. He was almost continuously in the military service until after the campaign of St. Clair, when he settled in Cincinnati. He became a prosperous merchant, and, from his experience and culture, he was easily one of the leading citizens of the village. In 1804 he was appointed the first United States Marshal of the District of Ohio, and from 1809 to his death he was surveyor of the port.

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Ephraim Kibbey, one of the original company that settled Columbia, was captain of the famous forty scouts who kept Gen. Wayne accurately informed of every movement of the enemy. He retained his legal residence at Columbia, but continued in the military service, and dying at St. Charles, Mo., in command of that military fort, about 1812, his remains rest in the old cemetery at that place. Some of his descendants still live in Cincinnati, among whom Thomas S. Rouse may be named. His widow, Rachel (Stites) Kibbey, daughter of Benjamin Stites, the founder of Columbia, died in 1864 at the age of eighty-one, and was buried in the old Columbia graveyard.

By far the most distinguished acquisition brought to Cincinnati by these wars was Gen. William Henry Harrison, who was first ensign, then a lieutenant serving on Wayne's staff, during his campaign; then secretary of the Northwest Territory, then governor, and in the next war a distinguished and successful commander.

During these years of war and danger, Cincinnati was only a cluster of cabins attached to a garrison, the inhabitants never exceeding five hundred. None of the arts of peace was possible, and there was nothing to attract thrifty and virtuous citizens. The people lived by the military expenditures of government, and suffered all the ill effects of uncertain occupation, and the disorders that attach to a floating and irresponsible population. All accounts agree in presenting a dismal picture of an idle, drunken population, whose vices were neither relieved by refinement, nor awed by public reprobation. Peace brought change, but the growth of the city was scarcely noticeable until after the turn of the century. In 1800 the population was only 750-with few houses except log cabins. Even in this modern Sardis there were those who kept their garments clean. It is noteworthy that the gentle ministry of women was not wanting among the soldiers-anticipating by more than half a century the work of Florence Nightingale-forerunners of thousands, who, three quarters of a century later, gave themselves to the work of mitigating the hardships of war.

The embryo city slowly took on the habits and practices of peace. The corrupting influences of armies and garrisons ebbed away. The modifying influences of law, and of a more exacting public opinion, restrained vice or drove the incurably lawless to the receding frontier. The country to the north and south rapidly filled up with a hardy and industrious population. The forests, year by year, went down before the axe, and disappeared in flame. The plow furrowed the fertile soil-ere lung selling and buying demanded a common point of exchange, and the growth of the city had fairly begun.

WAR OF 1812-14.

The animosities toward Great Britain caused by the war of the Revolution had never been allowed to cool. The unfortunate and exasperating failures to comply with the requirements of the Treaty of Paris, with their charges and counter charges of had faith, would have been sufficient to prolong distrust and alienation; but the continuation of the border wars for twelve years brought the frontiersmen to a frenzy of hatred and resentment. They were in no mood to weigh the counter claims of Great Britain. They knew only of murderous forays and desolated homes. They heard of Elliott, McKee and the Girtys, renegades who lived among the Indians, and were reported to receive British pay and to move according to British inspiration. When that evil influence was ended by the Jay treaty with Great Britain, and the treaty of Greenville with the Indians, the wars of the French Revolution were raging, and the ends of the earth soon felt the shock of nations in battle array.

The disturbance, caused by this unequal upheaval, could not be confined to the eastern continent. As the contest deepened and intensified, the two giant gladiators seemed to divest themselves of everything but deadly weapons, and to struggle without regard to the rights or comfort of spectators. The contention between the

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United States and Great Britain arose about the practice of searching American ships for contraband goods, and for British subjects, who might be pressed to service in the British navy. For years these aggressions continued, both the great belligerents partaking in them, each according to his means and opportunities. There is reason to conclude that hostile feeling toward Great Britain was too valuable a party capital in those days, to be either dissipated by a treaty of peace, or risked in war. Thus a condition between peace and war, without the advantages of either, with more than the rancor of war, but without its seriousness or dignity, continued more than a decade.

Not the least striking feature of the history of that period is the fact, that the feeling of resentment., and the demand for war, was strongest in the West, among a people whose goods were in no danger of seizure, and whose neighbors were not exposed to impressment. It was also a general feature of the strife throughout the whole country, that the political party, seemingly in favor of war, was opposed to preparation, while the party that favored peace urged vigorous armament as a means of securing peace, or, if the worst came, to make war effective.

In Cincinnati there seems to have been a unanimous clamor for war. The publications of that day, and the items of information preserved in the only newspaper, all point to the same conclusion. Every aggression of Great Britain was exploited, and many were announced with no better support than the tongue of rumor. Every aggression of France was palliated or explained away. If a British regiment landed at Quebec, the fact was carefully noted, and a deduction made plain. If a squad of Indians was seen in the woods north of Greenville, their passage was chronicled, and a sinister meaning intimated. Party zeal and national hostility were fed with the same exciting food. The diplomatic correspondence between the two governments was largely published. A rupture in the cabinet of Mr. Madison-Robert Smith, Secretary of State, resigning because he differed from the President about. the negotiations with Great Britain-is more fully discussed, with more documents, letters and comments, than would now be accorded to a similar affair by our huge daily papers. Constant efforts were made to impress the popular mind with the belief that England was exhausted, moribund and tottering to her fall. It was asserted that the old King, "blind, and lame and crazy," was a complete representative of the government. The battle of Tippecanoe, fought November 7, 1811, was taken as full confirmation of every charge made against the British, and added greatly to the spirit of war. Congress was called to meet in 1811, a month earlier than the prescribed date. The British minister and the Secretary of State had dropped the courtly circumlocution of diplomacy, and were bluntly making "demands" upon each other.

In Cincinnati, people met at the "Columbian Inn," on the southwest corner of Main and Second streets, or at the " Wheat Sheaf Tavern," and drank toasts as hot as their liquors. We read that on Sunday the 10th of May, 1812, one month before the declaration of war, "the Cincinnati Troop, commanded by Capt. James W. Sloan, with a great concourse of people assembled at the stone meeting-house, and listened to an eloquent discourse by Rev. R. W. Burke from the text: `Prepare for war; wake up the mighty men; let them come up; beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.' " If anything was wanting to the furor of war, it could be supplied from that text.

The government ordered the army to be increased by an addition of twenty-five thousand men. Out of the whole number of officers to command this army, Ohio was allowed one lieutenant-colonel, one major, seven captains, seven first lieutenants, seven second lieutenants, six ensigns, and one surgeon. Such distribution of offices would hardly be satisfactory to the Ohio men of the present day. Congress also authorized the President at his discretion to accept the services of the militia of the different States, not to exceed fifty thousand in number. About this time war songs,

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with more blood than poetry, appeared in the "poet's corner " of the only newspaper published in the town.

To stimulate recruiting, a bounty of sixteen dollars was offered to each recruit, with three months' additional pay, and 100 acres of land, upon receiving an honorable discharge. For each acceptable recruit, the officer in charge of that service was allowed a premium of two dollars. Stimulated and encouraged by this bounty and premium a recruiting office was opened in Cincinnati, and the roll of fife and drum was heard almost continually on the streets. The Light Dragoons, under Capt. Sloan, drilled regularly at their " usual place of muster," and the Light Guards, under Capt. John Fenno Mansfield, were preparing for expected war. The 22nd of February. 1812, was proclaimed in solemn and warlike phrase, and the spirit of Washington was invoked to arouse the people to deeds of arms. The banquet of that clay at the " Wheat Sheaf Inn" was enlivened by sentiments, calling upon the government "to immediately direct the storm of war," and by the promised spectacle of "The British Lion crouching beneath the talons of the American Engle."

Early in April Gen. John Stites Gano was ordered, by Governor Meigs, to raise eight companies in his division of the militia for service in the field. A similar order had been given other major-generals in the State of Ohio, and the rendezvous for the State troops was fixed at a camp three miles above Dayton. on Mad river. Governor Meigs was repeatedly in Cincinnati during these days, making his arrangements here and in Dayton. The companies of Capts. Sloan and Mansfield were received into the service among the first. Before leaving for the camp at Dayton, we read that these companies "assembled with a very large concourse of citizens at the Presbyterian Meeting-house, and heard a very learned, patriotic and impressive discourse by Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, from the text: `Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully; and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood'." If the intrepid and clear-headed preacher took occasion to denounce the double-minded Christian, and the cowardly reluctant soldier, he could find full warrant in his text, and a ready response in every true and brave heart.

On the 30th of March, Governor Meigs proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer to be observed on the 15th of April, in which peace was designated as the chief subject of prayer-peace at home and peace throughout the world. On the 4th of April, the President approved the act of Congress which laid an embargo upon all commerce to and from ports of the United States, for the ensuing ninety days.

On the 10th of the same month, Gen. John S. Gano, by a circular order, notified the militia of this portion of the State, that 800 men were required for immediate service from his division. These were to be obtained by volunteering if possible, otherwise by a draft. By the 25th of the same month, the volunteers called for began to arrive. A camp had been provided for them on the hill above the town. At that time the town was almost entirely built on the lower bank of the river, or what we have since called "the bottom." The location of the camp was at the top of the bluff, which then had its crown along Fourth street. These volunteers were joined by the companies of Capts. Mansfield and Sloan. Governor Meigs reviewed the troops and delivered a patriotic address, in which he foreshadowed certain war at an early day. On the same day, it was announced in Cincinnati that Col. Lewis Cass, afterward the famous senator from the State of Michigan, was passing down the Muskingum river with 250 men, destined for Cincinnati and the camp above Dayton. On the 7th of May 500 militia paraded the streets of the town, and were reviewed by their officers; and on the day following took up their march for Camp Meigs. The soldiers had scarcely found themselves in camp, when the want of military supplies was made manifest. Governor Meigs issued his proclamation, setting forth the want of blankets and other articles necessary for the comfort of the soldiers, and appealing to the good people of the State, especially to the mothers and sisters, to furnish supplies without delay.

342 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

Three regiments of Ohio troops were organized at Camp Meigs commanded by Cole. Cass, McArthur and Findley. The last mentioned colonel was a resident of Cincinnati, and was long known as one of her foremost citizens. He had been receiver of the Land Office, and after the war served in Congress. Col. McArthur was a resident of Chillicothe, and Col. Cass, of Zanesville. On the 25th of May, Governor Meigs, by formal order, transferred the Ohio militia, now organized and officered, to Gen. Hull, then governor of the Territory of Michigan. who had received the commission of brigadier-general. He had served in the Revolutionary war with distinction and honor. He led one storming column at the capture of Stony Point. He was a brother of the famous Capt. Hull, whose intrepid and persistent courage displayed signally in command of the frigate " Constitution " helped to make our navy illustrious. He was the father of Capt. Abraham F. Hull, who served on his staff, and later was killed in the midst of the fierce conflict at Lundy's Lane, and lies buried where he fell. There was ample proof of fighting qualites, but Gen. Hull had grown very fleshy, and had long passed the meridian of military life. At sixty years he was a totally different man from the daring youth whom Gen. Wayne selected to lead a desperate night attack with empty muskets and fixed bayonets. Ill informed and worse supported by his government, hope and courage failed, and he became the vicarious sacrifice for the blunders of others, more than his own. He should have vindicated the honor of a soldier, by fighting and marching, as long as hope remained. Hard campaigning, much suffering and a long death roll, would have handed him on to the fame of a hero.

On the first day of June the Fourth United States Infantry arrived in Cincinnati, from Vincennes, by way of Louisville and Frankfort, Ky., and marched through the town to the encampment on the hill. These men were mostly the survivors, and, in the popular mind, the heroes of the battle of Tippecanoe. They were received with extravagant demonstrations of welcome. The military organizations of the town had already moved to the northward, but the older men, whose gray hairs announced that they had passed the limit of military service, had organized themselves into a company called the "Cincinnati," under Gen. William Lytle. These had prepared for their coming by the erection, on Main street near the courthouse, of a triumphal arch over which they had emblazoned the inscription: " THE HEROES or TIPPECANOE." They did not tarry, but on the following morning set out upon the march to the northward, joining the army of Gen. Hull at Urbana.

The regiment was accompanied by the twelve-year-old son of Capt. Spencer, who had been killed in the battle of Tippecanoe. The father received his death wound with the child at his side. A boy with such an experience attracted much notice. It was commanded by that Col. James Miller-firm, taciturn, undemonstrative- who afterward at Lundy's Lane made the terse and famous reply: " I will try, sir," when he was ordered to attempt a work, in which success was remote, and death and failure about equally probable.

The declaration of war was made June 18, and at that tune the authorities at Washington supposed that the Northwestern army had already reached and occupied Detroit. In fact, it was making roads, building blockhouses, and slowly making its toilsome way through the swamps and forests of northwestern Ohio. It did not occupy Detroit until July 5. Information that war had been declared did not reach Gen. Hull until July 3, though it reached the British authorities in Canada June 25, more than a week in advance of our own army.

The announcement of an actual declaration of war was received in Cincinnati June 29, and seems to have met general approval. The village of 2,300 inhabitants, straggling along the lower bank of the river, had for months, if not years, kept itself in a tumult of excitement with the passions and apprehensions of war. The little community had sent out, at the first call, a number of volunteers, equivalent to fifteen thousand men from her present population. Out of their own enthusiasm, they

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY. - 343

had wrought up exaggerated hopes and expectations, making little account of material obstacles, or the energy of a brave foe, and the proverbial fortunes of war. The declaration was hailed with a hearty welcome, and at the celebration held in a few days, on the thirty-sixth anniversary of American independence, it served to heighten the interest and impressiveness of the festal occasion. The Declaration of Independence and the declaration of war were both read to the assembly by David Wade. An oration was delivered by William Hendricks, and the ceremonies were emphasized with music and song and salvos of artillery. Gen. Gano presided, sopported by Gen. William Henry Harrison and Hon. John Cleves Symmes. It strikes us strangely to read that the ceremonies were conducted " in an orchard on the south side of Columbia street." The oration and the toasts read at the banquet were much more sober than the utterances of a few months earlier. Actual war is so different, from its mere pomp and circumstance, and many of the homes had been bereft of their jewels, and there was concern lest there might be no return.

For a short time the community was amused with rumors of brilliant success, curiously mingled with unfounded reports of Indian massacre. A little later the rumors that flew about, were serious and discouraging. Gen. Hull's baggage and papers had been captured-a British war vessel had audaciously placed itself where it might damage the army-Gen. Hull's line of communication had been cut. the army had fallen back from Canada-Mackinaw had been captured. These disquieting reports were followed by authentic information that, Hull had surrendered his entire army, and with it the Territory of Michigan, and the whole frontier was loft defenseless. It was soon known, too, that Fort Wayne was besieged, and that Fort Dearborn (Chicago), had been evacuated, and that almost the entire garrison with the women and children had been treacherously massacred.

A. dismal summer ensued. Governor Meigs ordered out the military of the State. Governor Scott of Kentucky sent 1,800 troops with a State commission to Gen. Harrison. The enterprising British general, Isaac Brock, was called to the Niagara frontier, leaving the work in the northwest in the feeble hands of Proctor, and before the season closed a fair defensive array had been secured.

The troops surrendered by Hull were paroled, and sent across the lake to Cleveland, and Capt. Mansfield reached home to die-of a fever it was said, but his friends believed that his failure to recover was due to disappointment and humiliation, which sit so heavily upon a proud and sensitive soldier. He was a cousin of F. D. Mansfield, so long a well-known citizen of Cincinnati, and an elder brother of Gen. Joseph Mansfield, who fell at the battle of Antietam, a half century later.

It is a curious fact that, no writer seems ever to have found any record of the part taken by Cincinnati in the war of 1812, after the first troops were sent out. No list of her soldiers has been published. The only newspaper printed in the town fails to give facts or names. So far as the writer can learn the later history of the city in that war can not be written.

Gen. Harrison was the chief actor. Gen. James Taylor, of Newport, the founder of the well-known family of that name, was quartermaster-general of Hull's army. Col. William Stanley Hatch, of Cincinnati, was assistant quartermaster general Stephen McFarland was lieutenant in Mansfield's company. Thomas Heckwelder was ensign, and James Chambers orderly-sergeant. Soldiers are rarely historians rarely keep journals or make records of names or events, but it may well cause surprise that no patriotic citizen with a taste for preserving notes, facts and memoranda lived in the town at that time.