550 - HISTORY OF OHIO little town of Mount Vernon, Ohio, was born Daniel Decatur Emmett. His father, a blacksmith, who had come from Virginia, had been a soldier in the War of 1812. Young Daniel grew up with little opportunity for education. At that time there were no free public schools. He was fond of music and early learned to play upon the violin. In his old age he once said to the writer that he could scarcely remember when he did not compose tunes. He did this before he could read and write musical notes. Old Dan Tucker was one of his early productions. It is said that he had a dog that he called Tucker, and when he wished to christen the tune he compounded the name by which he was familiarly known with that of his faithful canine companion—hence Dan Tucker, or Old Dan Tucker. In the words, which have many variations, Old Dan Tucker figures as a colored man who did many grotesque things : “Old Dan Tucker, he got drunk, He fell in the fire and kicked out a chunk." At the age of seventeen Emmett entered the Regular Army as a musician. Here he took lessons under a gifted bandmaster. He was stationed for a time at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. After leaving the army he was a member of several bands. In the summer he usually traveled with the circus, and in the winter played in the theatres of New York City. It was here in the autumn of 1859 that he composed his famous lay, Dixie's Land or as it is familiarly called Dixie. The circumstances under which it was composed have been stated by Emmett himself. Late one Saturday evening, after the performance at the music hall. Mr. Jerry Bryant came to him and asked him to write for rehearsal Monday a "walk-around," or "hooray song," of the plantation type. It must have a good tune. It did not matter so much what the words were. The song should be "catchy" and contain phrases that the boys would readily pick up and repeat on the streets. Emmett remarked that the time was unusually short but that he would do his best. That night he undertook to compose a tune, but failed. He stated to his wife what he expected to do and said he feared he had undertaken too much. She urged him to persevere and told him that after a night's rest he should have the room all to himself the day following ; that she knew he would make a song that would please his employers. He had always done so and he would not fail this time. She would be his audience, and if the song suited her, it would be acceptable to the crowds that came to hear it. Early in the morning he picked up his violin and began work on the tune. It was a cold and dreary day. The rain was falling. As he looked out of the window into the chill and comfortless street, he involuntarily repeated the expression, familiar to showmen in the winter time, "I wish I was in Dixie's Land." Emmett had previously traveled much through the South, and it was very natural that this expression should rise to his lips on such a day. Taking up the violin again, he began to hum the words and play. After some hours of patient endeavor, he completed what he thought would fill fairly well the requirements. He first composed the chorus, which was never changed. He next wrote a stanza. The song was written before the Civil war with no thought that it would ever become famous. The stirring music and the two lines in the chorus "In Dixie's Land we'll take our stand To live and die in Dixie" appealed especially to the southern people at the outbreak of the war and made this the battle-song of the Confederacy. EDUCATION AND THE PRESS - 551 We need not repeat the words here. They are familiar. The song has had an interesting history. It was on the lips of the Southern legions as they bore arms on many a hard fought field. After the fall of Richmond, when President Lincoln returned to Washington, a crowd called with a band to tender congratulations and a serenade. Several members of the cabinet were present. In closing his brief remarks Mr. Lincoln said : "I see you have a band with you. I should like to hear it play Dixie. I have consulted the attorney general, who is here by my side, and he is of the opinion that Dixie belongs to us. We have captured the song with the Confederacy. Now play it." The band responded with spirit to the evident satisfaction of the President. Someone has said that this was among the first of his kindly, conciliatory expressions toward the South: Dixie has become a song of all sections of our common country, and is greeted with tumultuous applause in the national conventions of both the republican and democratic parties. It cheered the boys in blue as they marched to the front to battle for the liberation of Cuba, and later in the camps and overseas in the World war. Wherever its stirring notes are heard it attracts instant attention and calls forth generous applause. It has an "indescribable something" that stirs men's souls. It is one of the most truly national of all our songs. It is known in all sections. The words and music were composed by an American. The author was Daniel Decatur Emmett, an Ohioan. In his eightieth year Emmett made a tour through the South with the Al G. Field minstrels and was accorded in many cities an enthusiastic reception. It was Emmett who organized the Virginia Minstrels in 1843, the first negro minstrel troupe of America. His later days were spent in a neat but humble little home near Mount Vernon, not far from his birthplace. Here he passed peacefully away in his eighty-ninth year on the evening of June 28, 1904. A large concourse of people with bowed heads stood about his final resting place as the band softly played his immortal Dixie. BENJAMIN RUSSELL HANBY, AUTHOR OF DARLING NELLY GRAY In close communication with the City of Columbus to the north is the neat and orderly Village of Westerville. We have only to visit the place, however, to find that it is not a part of the capital city—that it is pervaded by a spirit peculiarly its own—that it is dominated by the wholesome and elevating influence of Otterbein College. Sixty-seven years ago, among the students in attendance at this institution was a genial and vivacious youth by the name of Benjamin Russell Hanby. He was born in Rushville, Ohio, January 22, 1833. In college his standing was good in his classes, he took an active interest in the work of the literary societies, was fond of music, a good singer and popular with teachers and fellow students. His father, Bishop Hanby, was strongly opposed to slavery. The son entertained similar views on that question, and while he was still a student gave expression to his sentiments in that sweetly pathetic song, Darling Nelly Gray. The music teacher of the university heard it while it was yet in manuscript form and was so favorably impressed that she urged him to send it to a publisher. This he did. Months passed, and supposing that it had been consigned to the critic's waste basket, Hanby no longer expected to hear from the publisher. One day he was much surprised to learn through some friends that his song had been published and in some places was already accorded a popular reception. In a Columbus music store he purchased the first printed copy that he had seen. The publishers had lost his address and failed to notify him when the song was issued. One dozen copies were sent to him and this was the only compensation that he ever received. The song had a phenomenal sale. It was published in many forms 552 - HISTORY OF OHIO and the tune was arranged for band music. The publisher must have made a small fortune out of it ; Hanby had the obscure notice accorded to the song writer and what to a man of his taste and sensibility must have been far greater—the satisfaction of knowing that he had reached the popular heart and conscience in the support of a worthy cause. Of the many songs that were written to advance the anti-slavery cause, Darling Nelly Gray alone retains a measure of its old-time popularity. The melody and words survive because of their intrinsic beauty. Hanby wrote many other songs that were for a time quite popular. They cover a wide range.. He was very fond of children and many of his compositions were written for them. He spent some years in the ministry, but finally decided to devote his entire time to musical composition. After a brief illness he died at the age of thirty-three years. A tablet was recently erected to his memory at Otterbein University. In the beautiful cemetery, not far away, a monument fittingly marks his resting place. Nor poet, nor minstrel in all this Middle West has found a place more fitting his lowly mansion of dreamless repose. WILL L. THOMPSON, AUTHOR OF GATHERING SHELLS FROM THE SEASHORE While the songs of Emmett and Hanby have long been familiar in every American community and are known and appreciated in other lands, it is somewhat disappointing to learn that the authors realized practically no compensation for them. In contrast to their experience it is pleasing to relate that genius is not always without financial reward. In the prosperous City of East Liverpool, Ohio, lived a song writer who wrote much and so carefully managed the sale of his publications that he made them all pay. His name was Will L. Thompson. His first venture was a financial success. Rightly concluding that four of his songs had merit, he took them in manuscript form to a well known Cleveland publisher and offered them all for $100. He was told that the price was too high for an unknown author ; that such material could be had in abundance free of charge ; that the four pieces were not worth more than $25. After thinking over the matter for some time, the young composer decided to hold his manuscripts. Later he went to New York City on a business trip for his father, and while there arranged for the publication of his songs, determining to undertake the management of sales himself. One of these songs, Gathering Shells from the Seashore, almost immediately attained great popularity. Tor some months the presses were kept running night and day to supply the demand. In less than a year the Cleveland publisher and dealer, who had refused to pay $100 for the manuscript of the four songs, had turned over to the author, as commissions on sales handled through him, more than $1,000. Mr. Thompson succeeded so well in the music business that he was sometimes referred to as the "millionaire song writer." This, he declared, was extravagant, but he admitted that he had prospered financially. In addition to Gathering Shells from the Seashore, he wrote other popular songs. Among them are Drifting with the Tide, Come Where the Lilies Bloom, My Home on the Old Ohio, and God Save the Union. He wrote many sacred songs. Of these the best known and the one most likely to live longest is Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling. It has been included in many popular selections and has been translated into almost every language in which Christian music is sung. It has been published in the Hawaiian tongue and has enjoyed the favor of those sturdy latter day Puritans—the Boers of South Africa. The life experience of these song writers of Ohio have differed widely, but each has added to the sum of human joy and has aided in extending the fame of the Buckeye State. EDUCATION AND THE PRESS - 553 SEALS OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY AND OHIO The origin of the seal of the Northwest Territory is involved in obscurity. The seal itself seems to have disappeared long ago. The earliest mention of its use is made in Govenor St. Clair's proclamation of July 26, 1788. Hon. William H. English, of Indiana, with the aid of the authorities at Washington, including President Benjamin Harrison, examined many impressions of the seal on old documents, and had made a sketch which he considered "an exact reproduction in every respect of the original." In regard to the design, Mr. English says : "A study of this historic seal will show that it is far from being destitute of appropriate and expressive meaning. The coiled snake in the foreground and the boats in the middle distance ; the rising sun, the forest tree felled by the ax and cut into logs, succeeded, apparently, by an apple tree laden with fruit ; the Latin inscription, Meliorem lapsa locavit, 'he has planted a better than the fallen,'—all combine forcibly to express the idea that a wild and savage condition is to be superseded by a higher and better civilization." The first constitution of Ohio, which was adopted November 29, 1802, and went into effect March 1, 1803, made general provision for a state seal without specifying its form. The origin of its essential features is given as follows : For some time after the admission of Ohio into the Union, Secretary of State William Creighton used his private seal for state papers ; but one night, early in the spring of 1803, he, Governor Edward Tiffin, and U. S. Senator Thomas Worthington, with perhaps a few others, met at Adena, the home of Worthington near Chillicothe, to discuss state affairs. They talked through the night and among other things considered the matter of a state seal. Before separating, they stood for a moment on the lawn south of the house, just as the sun rose slowly behind the Mount Logan range. Looking with admiration on the morning scene spread out before them, Creighton said : "The rising sun of the new state !" He then made the suggestion for the great seal of Ohio. The arrows and the sheaf were afterthoughts. This is the legend as it has been handed down by the Creightons and the Worthingtons. The addition of the canal boat made some changes necessary. To get such a view, one must look across Mount Logan from the range of hills just west of Chillicothe. It is doubtful, however, whether there was any effort to make the seal an actual picture. The hills have always been conventionalized, and in the first seal the river was indicated only by a row of trees. It might be added that in some devices two or more sheaves of wheat appear and that great liberties have been taken with the bundle of arrows, as will be seen in one of the illustrations. The law describing the seal was passed March 25, 1803. It prescribed the following device : "On the right side near the bottom a sheaf of wheat, and on the left a bundle of seventeen arrows, both standing erect ; in the background and rising above the sheaf and bundle of arrows, a mountain over which shall appear a rising sun, the state seal to be surrounded by these words : 'The Great Seal of the State of Ohio.' " About two years later this law was repealed. The constitutional provision requiring a state seal remained in force, but there was no specific legislation on the subject until 1866. In commenting on the omission in our laws, Judge Rush R. Sloane says : "What a singular oversight in legislation ! Is it not remarkable that in this long period of years some of the state officials, the codifiers of the statutes, or the members of the Constitutional Convention of 1851, 554 - HISTORY OF OHIO among whom were many of the ablest lawyers of the state, should not have discovered it ? "We can understand now that it was because there was no law which required a particular form or device, that there were so many different devices used upon the seals of our state during this long period of years. In the absence of any act or statutes upon this subject, any one who was aware of the repeal of the act of 1903 could secure '.a seal according to his caprice or interest ; and this evidently was the result, as we find that about the time of the inauguration of the canal system in Ohio, the canal or river with the canal-boat upon it first appeared on our state seal. The mountain as it was designated in the act of 1803 has never appeared on any of the seals of the state, nor has it figured in the coat of arms of the state, so far as I have been able to discover ; but on the seal provided under the act, as well as the seals and coats of arms of later statutes, in conformity to the practice under the former and the language of the latter, it has always been 'a range of mountains,' which is more appropriate to Ohio, as the first-born of the Ordinance of 1787. "It is useless to attempt to give a description of all these devices, which had their origin in individual taste and not in any statute. You will see on most of them the date '1802' or '1803' in cardinal numbers. On some you will see a broadhorn floating on a river ; and, later, the canal-boat and canal." Judge Sloane does not refer to the traditional origin of the seal. He seems to accept the view advanced by other writers to explain that the range of mountains represents the Alleghanies, over which came the pioneers ; that the river is the Ohio in the valley of which they laid the foundation of the new state, fittingly symbolized in the rising sun. The act of 1866 provided for an elaborate coat of arms, and the following motto to be inscribed on the seal : "Imperium in imperio,"-- an empire within an empire, or a government within a government; a sentiment that gave offense to many people and led to the repeal of the law in 1868 and the substitution of the present act which differs but little from the law of 1803. No motto is now provided for either the seal or the coat of arms of the state. Ohio is therefore without a motto. OHIO STATE FLAG Perhaps the only state flag with a historical tradition behind it is that of Texas. Texas was an independent republic before it became a member of the Union. As a tribute to those who won independence from Mexico, the "Lone Star" flag was retained, though waving to the breeze beneath the Stars and Stripes. Some other states have adopted flags, chiefly as a symbol of state loyalty, and, as has been suggested, for similar reasons that prompt a state seal. The first Ohio state flag was displayed at the Ohio building at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo in the summer of 1901. It was designed by John Eisemann, architect, and approved by the Exposition Commission. It had no legal status, however, until the following year. On April 1, 1902, W. S. McKinnon, speaker of the house of representatives and a member of the Ohio Pan-American Exposition Commission, introduced a bill authorizing and describing the flag. This became a law May 9th of the same year. Following is the essential text of the law : "The flag of the State of Ohio shall be pennant shaped. It shall have three red and two white horizontal stripes ; the union of the flag shall be seventeen five-pointed stars, white, in a blue triangular field, the base of which shall be the staff end or vertical edge of the flag, and the apex of which shall be the center of the middle red stripe. The stars shall be grouped around a red disc superimposed upon a white circular EDUCATION AND THE PRESS - 555 ‘O.' The proportional dimensions of the flag and of its various parts shall be according to the official design thereof on file in the office of the Secretary of State. "In the design placed on file in accordance with the above law, the dimensions are summarized as follows : "A rectangle that will include the flag is thirteen parts long and eight parts wide. In other words, it is one and five-eighths as long as it is wide. The red stripes are each one part in width. The two white stripes occupy equal portions of what is left of the flag. The blue triangular union measures eight parts from base to apex. The red disc is two parts in diameter ; the width of the white ring about it is one-half part. The distance from the apex of the blue field to the apex of the triangular cut of the tail of the flag is two parts. The stars are grouped as in the cut of the flag. "The symbolism of the flag is in part somewhat fanciful and obscure. The designer has explained it substantially as follows : "The triangles formed by the main lines of the flag represent the hills and valleys, as typified in the State seal, and the stripes the roads and waterways. The stars, indicating the thirteen original states of the Union, are grouped about the circle which represents the original Northwest Territory, and that Ohio was the seventeenth State admitted into the Union is shown by adding the four more stars. The white circle with its red center, not only represents the initial letter of Ohio, but is suggestive of its being the 'Buckeye' State." In design this standard resembles the Cuban flag. The field and the stripes in form and number are essentially the same. Change red to blue and blue to red, remove the stars and substitute for the disc and circular "0" a single star, and we have the pennant form of the Cuban flag. This similarity is historically fitting. A United States senator from Ohio introduced the resolution that made the people of Cuba free and independent. Ohio's sons rendered distinguished service on land and sea. An Ohio president conducted the Spanish-American war to a triumphant conclusion. OHIO IN THE WARS OF THE NATION CHAPTER I THE WAR OF 1812 "Now tell us all about the war And what they killed each other for." This is a subject that belongs to the general history of the United States rather than to that of any particular state, but since the war was more extensively fought in Ohio than any of the other contests in which the nation has engaged, it may not be out of place to consider briefly its causes. Especially is this warranted in view of the fact that recent research inclines to the conclusion that Ohio, and what was then the West, had much to do in precipitating the war. In an informing and carefully written monograph on "Western Opinion and the War of 1812," Mr. John F. Cady sums up the causes of the War of 1812 as follows : "The real grievances which the United States Government had for declaring war were, of course, Britain's Orders in Council and her impressment of seamen ; but the new factors, which at this time were responsible for turning the country toward war, were the reports of the Henry mission to New England, the intrigues among the Indians which sent Western opinion pell-mell toward war, and the fact that an energetic war-like minority led by Western men was able to capture the leadership in congress. Had it not been that Foster, the British minister, acquainted only with New England Federalist and the Eastern republican sentiment failed utterly to appreciate the intensity of the war spirit in the West the declaration of war, at least at this particular time, might have still been avoided." The "Orders in Council" in this instance were the orders of the British government virtually prohibiting the Americans from trading with the French, with whom Great Britain was then at war. They aroused great opposition in the United States and resulted in retaliatory embargo acts that virtually destroyed for a time American commerce on the seas. These "Orders of Council" were finally revoked conditionally June 23, 1812, after the United States had declared war against Great Britain, but before the news of that act had reached London. This concession came too late to modify the resentments of America. The impressment of seamen was an irritant of long standing. Great Britain claimed the right to board and search American vessels and to seize and impress into her service seamen who had been, or who were supposed to be her subjects, insisting that "Once an Englishman, always an Englishman." This, of course, was humiliating to a nation whose independence had been acknowledged and was in direct conflict with the American theory of naturalization set forth in the Constitution. For years it had been the cause of irritation between the two nations. The treatment of the merchant marine of the young republic on the high seas by Great Britain has long been considered the only important cause of the war. So careful a writer as Roosevelt so regarded it. In his "War of 1812" he says: "Any innocent merchant vessel was liable to seizure at any moment ; and when overhauled by a British cruiser short of men was sure to be stripped of most of her crew. The British officers were themselves the judges as to whether a seaman should be pronounced a native of America or of Britain, and there was no appeal from their judgment. If a cap- - 559 - 560 - HISTORY OF OHIO tain lacked his full complement there was little doubt as to the view he would take of any man's nationality. The wrongs inflicted on our seafaring countrymen by their impressment into foreign ships formed the main cause of the war." The Henry Mission to New England aroused much excitement when it was revealed. The retaliatory act of the United States that resulted in the temporary destruction of American commerce were bitterly opposed in New England. John Henry was an Irishman, a naturalized American citizen, at heart something of a reactionary, whose favorite pastime was writing articles against "Republican institutions, which he detested." A rather rare combination in one person. His writings attracted the attention of the governor-general of Canada, Sir James H. Craig, who invited him to Montreal, from which place he was sent to Boston in 1809 to determine the attitude of New England toward a separation from the other states. He spent out three months on this mission and reported to the governor-general that he found much sentiment in favor of such a separation. A number of letters passed between him and the governor-general. He later reported that withdrawal from the Union was unpopular with the masses in New England, but that prominent leaders there favored it. He did not name them. He afterward went to England to demand pay for his services. He was coolly treated and referred to the new governor-general, the successor to Sir James H. Craig, who had resigned. This angered Henry and he turned over all the papers and information in his possession to the American Government. This was at a time when hostility to Great Britain in this country ran high and the revelation sent resentment up to fever heat. It is to be noted, however, that, while the eastern seaboard suffered most from interference with commerce on the high seas and the impressment of seamen, that section of the country opposed the war ; while the West and South which were farthest removed from the maritime aggression were clamoring most loudly for an appeal to the "God of battles" and their representatives in Congress included the majority that actually precipitated the war. There was, of course, cause for this. There had been continual friction between .the Indians on the western border and the white settlers. The victory of Wayne at. Fallen Timbers OHIO IN THE WARS OF THE NATION - 561 and the treaty at Greenville in 1795 brought about a peace that was temporary—an armistice in the long drawn out border wars. After the close of the Revolution a number of posts in the northwest portion of the territory transferred to the United States were still held by the British. The Americans believed, not without cause, that Great Britain was secretly encouraging the Indians in their hostile attitude. Every isolated Indian outrage was charged to British influence. The continued plying at intervals of the tomahawk and scalping knife raised the resentment of the pioneer settlers to a high pitch. There were other contributory causes. The desire of the early settlers in the Ohio Valley to possess the land made them restive on the claims that they already occupied. Lord Dunmore in one of his reports to his' home government expressed surprise at the disposition to rove about in quest of land that he found among the American pioneers. "They do and will remove," he said, "as their avidity and restlessness incite them. They acquire no attachment to place, but wandering about seems engrafted in their nature ; and it is a weakness incident to it, that they should forever imagine the lands farther off are still better than those upon which they are already settled." Again he reported, "They do not conceive that government has any right to forbid their taking possession of a vast tract of country, either uninhabited, or which serves only as a shelter to a few scattered tribes of Indians, nor can they be easily brought to entertain any belief in the permanent obligation of treaties made with those people, whom they consider as but little removed from the brute creation." Though his lordship may have stated this a little too strongly, there can be no doubt of the actual existence of the characteristic he describes. The pioneers, in spite of the ample tracts that they already possessed, were land hungry and the prospect of coming into possession of larger areas of cheap virgin lands in the possession of the Indian tribes in the United States and of the British government in Canada had its appeal to the West. We have evidence of this in the message which Governor Return Jonathan Meigs read before the Ohio General Assembly. In fact, between the lines of that message, elsewhere published in full, we can read pretty clearly the causes of this war. In the following paragraph the hope was held out that there would be opportunities for acquiring vast tracts of fertile land when the Indian titles to them should be extinguished. On this subject the governor said : "Yet through an apparent cloud in the western horizon, a brighter light of future prospect may be reasonably anticipated, nor do I deem the time far distant when the western and northern boundary lines of the state shall be designated as provided by a law of the United States, passed at the last session of Congress—and when a great portion of the Indian titles within them shall be extinguished and territorial indemnification acquired from these heathen remnants of those mighty hosts which have warred upon us without reason or provocation." The battle of Tippecanoe on the banks of the upper Wabash, November 7, 1811, must be numbered among the immediate causes of the war which it so closely preceded, as to be almost a part of it. In this battle the Indians made a midnight attack and inflicted heavy losses upon the Americans, although it resulted in a triumph for William Henry Harrison and his little army. There were captured in this engagement many arms that had been furnished by the British. The publication of this fact had a wonderful influence in hurrying the United States into a declaration of war. Among the leaders of the West whose voices were continually raised in behalf of such a declaration were Henry Clay and Gen. William Henry Harrison. They and their followers have sometimes been called the "war-hawks" of the time. In view of these facts it is a little singular that the author of the "Winning of the West" should have ascribed so little importance to 562 - HISTORY OF OHIO the West itself in bringing on the War of 1812. While the search of American ships and the impressment of seamen were old offenses that were irritating to Americans, it is not at all probable that they alone would .have brought on the war. For Ohio the War of 1812 was the culminating phase of a struggle that had been going on for years. This was a struggle for the extension and protection of the western frontier. At the close of the French and Indian war in 1763 the western boundary of British territory within what is now the United States was "fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the Mississippi River from its source to the River Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea." By, treaty with the Indians at Fort Stanwix in 1768, however, they were secured in possession of their lands north and west of the Ohio River and the territory south of that river and west of the Tennessee. For a time this treaty hald back the tide of western migration, practically to the limits established. The war for independence took from the Indian allies of Great Britain additional lands and transferred to the United States the British title to the territory as fay west as the Mississippi River. But many of the provisions for the treaty of 1783 were not carried out for fully a dozen years. The posts along the great lakes were still in possession of English garrisons, and the British fur companies carried on an extensive business with the Indians from the south as well as the north at Detroit. There is considerable evidence that the British officials and Mr traders encouraged the Indians to believe that their best interests lay in resisting the advance of American settlements. While the United States had nominal title to the country east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes, this title conflicted with the aboriginal title of the Indians to the land. In all the early settlements west of the Ohio River, there was an encroachment upon the Indian land. From the banks of the Ohio River the settlers pushed out into the interior, faster than the Indians receded. The outlying districts consequently were always in danger of destruction and massacre and the government never had at its disposal the force capable of policing the border. One fact proved over and over again in the history of the West is that it was impossible for Indians and whites to live neat neighbors. Thus even without the active influence of the British in OHIO IN THE WARS OF THE NATION - 563 Canada, and in spite of some of the early treaties between the government and the Indian tribes, there remained a constant possibility of friction and hostility as the tide of settlement moved into the Northwest Territory. Under the direction of St. Clair and Wayne, a cordon of posts was established throughout what is now Western Ohio. Then on August 20, 1794, at the battle of Fallen Timbers, on the banks of the Maumee River, General Wayne inflicted a defeat upon the Indian tribes that for some years secured the peace and security of the frontier of the Ohio settlements. The treaty of Greenville of 1795, concluded by General Wayne, established a part of the present western boundary line of Ohio as the dividing line between the country of the whites and red men. About the same time as the result of the Jay treaty, of 1794, definite steps were made to carry out the provisions of the treaty of 1783 between the United States and Great Britain. As a result of this treaty, the British evacuated the northwestern posts in 1796, Wayne's army taking possession of Detroit while the British garrison and the Indian traders moved across the river to Malden. In 1800, with William Henry Harrison as the territorial delegate in Congress, the Northwest Territory was divided, the western half becoming the territory of Indiana, of which Harrison was appointed governor in 1801. Soon after the eastern division came into the Union as the State of Ohio. But Indiana Territory was still Indian country. Up the Wabash Valley moved regular processions of Indians from the South and West to trade at Fort Malden, the British post on the east side of the Detroit River. Governor Harirson had his seat at Vincennes, where he could witness these processions of Indians passing north and coming south 564 - HISTORY OF OHIO from Malden. North of Vincennes he established Fort Harrison on the the site of the present Terre Haute. Still further north, near the present City of Lafayette, Tecumseh and his brother The Prophet had established Prophetstown, and in their wild visions of a leadership in an Indian empire, this became a center for disaffection on the part of all the Indians in the western country. Between Prophetstown and Malden there was continuous intercourse. This intercourse was interpreted by Harrison as a menace to the peace and security of the frontier. The great bulk of Indiana lands had not yet been "ceded" by the Indians and as in the case of Ohio, the advance of settlement made hostilities inevitable. To curb the rising prestige of Tecumseh and his followers, Harrison in 1811 collected a force of men, including some regulars and also Kentucky volunteers, and in September began a march up the Wabash. It was a military demonstration and took place in Indian country to which the Indians had their right of possession. The culmination of the expedition, as is well known, occurred at the junction of the Tippecanoe with the Wabash, where on November 7, 1811, the Indians made an early morning attack on Harrison's camp. The Americans held their ground and with the coming of light drove off Tecumseh and his warriors. The consequences of the battle of Tippecanoe are important. It did for the Wabash country what Fallen Timbers did for the Maumee, permanently impairing the leadership of Tecumseh, and extended the frontier to Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. Throughout the West it was generally believed that Tecumseh was secretly supported and encouraged by the British authorities in Canada. That was one of the many counts in the indictments against England, leading up to the formal declaration of war and marking the beginning of the second conflict with Great Britain. President Madison in a special message in March, 1812, reviewed the many indignities suffered by the United States from England and urged military preparation to meet the coming crisis. On June 1, 1812, he asked Congress to recognize the fact that England had created a state of war and the formal declaration of war followed on the 18th of June. The West at that time had the dominant influence in the Government and the West was strongly for war. Before the actual outbreak of hostilities plans had been made for an invasion of Canada and in the execution of these plans Ohio had a prominent part. The governor of Ohio was Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., whose father was one of the original settlers at Marietta. He had had some military experience and he lost no time in mobilizing several regiments of state militia in which citizens of the best families enrolled. These three regiments were assembled at Dayton in May, 1812. The first from the Scioto Valley was under Col. Duncan MacArthur ; the second from the Miami Valley was under Col. James Findlay ; and the third from Eastern Ohio was under Col. Lewis Cass. For the command of the army of operation in Ontario, President Madison selected Governor William Hull of Michigan Territory, who had been an officer in the Revolutionary war, but had had no active military experience for thirty years and was then old and unfitted for the rigors of a campaign through largely wilderness country. General Hull took command of the Ohio troops at Dayton on May 25, 1812, and he was on his way to the Maumee River when Congress declared war. On arriving at Toledo Bay he sent some of his baggage on to Detroit by boat. The British captured this boat, and all his papers, containing his military plans, fell into the hands of the enemy. Moreover, the British commander at Fort Malden was apprised of the declaration of war two days earlier than General Hull, who arrived with his army at Detroit, July 5. He had in his command between 1,000 and 1,500 men, practically all of them western frontiersmen and eager to fight. General Brock at Fort Malden had a force of inferior numbers, OHIO IN THE WARS OF THE NATION - 565 though he was soon reinforced by Tecumseh and his Indian allies. While Hull refused the advice of his subordinate officers to take the aggressive, Brock was exercising every ingenuity to play upon the timidity and fears of his opponents. After building up his force of Canadians and Indians, Brock finally took the aggressive and on the 15th of August opened fire on Detroit. The next day, to the lasting mortification of his soldiers, Hull made a complete surrender of his entire army. It was a complete reversal of the plans and hopes of the western country. Instead of invading and capturing Canada, the British forces almost without striking a blow held all the outlying American posts north and west of the Wabash Valley. On the day before Hull's surrender, the British and Indians had murdered the garrison at Fort Dearborn (Chicago). The surrender of Hull had exposed all Northern Ohio to incursions of the enemy. All eyes now turned toward William Henry Harrison as the man of the hour. Governor Scott of Kentucky swept aside technicalities and appointed Harrison to the command of the state troops raised to wipe out the disgrace of Hull's surrender. At the head of these troops Harrison proceeded north. When just north of Dayton he received word from Washington that General Winchester had been appointed to the chief command, but that he himself had been raised to the rank of brigadier-general. He was disappointed, but his men were even more chagrined. As immediate action seemed necessary and without awaiting the arrival of orders from General Winchester, Harrison proceeded to the relief of Fort Wayne, then being besieged by the Indians. By this prompt action another bloody massacre was doubtless averted. General Harrison, under orders from his superiors, turned over his command to Winchester without a murmur, although it was known that he had much more experience in Indian fighting than had his successor. Few men understood the dusky native of the forests as did Harrison. Gen. James Winchester was a Tennesseean and a Revolu- 566 - HISTORY OF OHIO tionary officer, but little known among the frontier men of this section. In charge of several thousand troops, most of whom were f rom Kentucky, he entered upon an extensive campaign in Northwest Ohio. General Winchester dispatched some spies down the Maumee, but the first detachment consisting of five men was waylaid and killed by the savages. He advanced cautiously in order to provide against surprise. He discovered indisputable evidence of the recent retreat of British troops at one or two places along the Maumee not far from Defiance. In their haste, the British threw one cannon into the river which was later recovered and employed in the campaign. The march along the Auglaize was made under the most distressing conditions. 1 he rain descended in torrents. The flat beach woods were covered with water and the horses sank up to their knees in mud at almost every step. Fort Jennings was built on this marsh by Colonel Jennings as a protection for supplies. Fort Amanda was also erected by Colonel Poague and named by him in honor of his wife. It was in the usual quadrangular form with a blockhouse at each corner. Late in September the position of the two officers was reversed and General Harrison was given the supreme command of the northwestern army. When General Harrison received the notification of his appointment, there were about 3,000 troops at Fort Barbee (St. Marys) , a considerable number of which were cavalry. The cavalry were under the command of Gen. Edward W. Tupper. This army was set at once in motion for Defiance with three days' rations. They arrived at Fort Jennings the first night, notwithstanding a severe, rain, and camped there without tents until morning. Receiving word here that the enemy had retreated, a part of the troops were sent back to Fort Barbee. General Harrison continued down the Auglaize with his cavalry. General Harrison planned a three column march into the enemy's country. The right wing of his army was to be composed of three brigades from Virginia and Pennsylvania, together with some Ohio troops, and was to proceed down the Sandusky River. During their march they erected Fort Ferree at Upper Sandusky, Fort Ball on the site of Tiffin and Fort Stevenson at Lower Sandusky. General Tupper's command was styled the center and was to move along Hull's trail by the way of Forts McArthur, Necessity and Findlay. The main command devolved upon General Winchester, and was known as the left wing. It included the United States troops and six regiments of Ohio and Kentucky militia. These troops were to superintend the transportation of supplies to the new Fort Winchester in readiness for the advance movement and they were instructed to possess the corn and her crops that had been abandoned as soon as possible. General Harrison had suggested to General Winchester that two regiments of infantry be sent southward to be near the base of food and clothing supplies and that General Tupper with all the cavalry, almost 1.000 in number, should be sent down the Maumee and beyond the rapids to disperse any of the enemy found there. They were to return to Fort Barbee by way of the Tawa towns on the Blanchard River. These orders were never executed. One reason was the scarcity of powder and food, which made so long an excursion almost impossible. Another was the ill feeling between Generals Winchester and Tupper and the weakening of Tupper's force by the withdrawal of some troops whose enlistment had expired. General Tupper was eventually dismissed from his command by Winchester, who gave it to Colonel Allen, under whom the troops refused to march. Instead of leading his command down the Maumee River and then to St. Marys, as he was ordered to do, General Tupper went directly across the country to Fort McArthur. For this act charges of insubordination were placed against him and his arrest was ordered. At the trial, a year later, he was acquitted. When the troops under General Winchester reached the confluence of the Auglaize and the Maumee rivers, they found Fort Defiance in OHIO IN THE WARS OF THE NATION - 567 ruins. General Harrison, who had by this time joined the army, drew a plan for a new fort a dozen times as extensive as Fort Defiance. This new fort was named Fort Winchester by General Harrison in deference to the superseded commander. For a considerable length of time this fortress was the only obstruction against the incursions of the British and the Aborigines in Northwestern Ohio. Fort Winchester was completed on October 15, 1812. Nevertheless a large number of the troops continued to camp outside the enclosure. Most of the soldiers were provided only with summer clothing and it was well into the winter before any heavier outfitting was received. Army life was certainly deprived of its glamour. The rations were constantly short. Some days they consisted only of beef and other days only of flour, or some hickory nuts were gathered near the camp. The absence of salt was also greatly felt. It is no wonder that sickness increased because of the inadequate food and the thin clothing worn by the soldiers. Their weakened condition rendered the men an easy prey to pestilence. Three or four deaths a day with the constant succession of funeral rites, greatly depressed the soldiers. Hunger drove many away from the camp in search of food. The delay of contractors and the inclemency of the weather both contributed to delay, so that a fall campaign against Detroit became absolutely impossible, much to the regret of the commander-in-chief. General Harrison from his headquarters at Franklinton, now Columbus, was kept fully informed and he in turn advised the department, but communications were slow and the war department was so demoralized that supplies did not reach this outlying fortress. No other troops operating in this part of the state had to endure such hardships as befell this army in the fall and early winter of 1812. The difficulties of transportation were so great because the mud became almost impassable. In January, General Winchester finally started down the Maumee. This was contrary to the instructions of General Harrison, who had ordered him southward to Fort Jennings in order to protect supplies. On the 10th of January, 1813, General Winchester reached a point opposite the site of the battle of Fallen Timbers. He had with him an army of 1,300 men. Here he established an improvised encampment and storehouse. A number of messengers arrived at his camp from Frenchtown (now Monroe) representing the danger to which the inhabitants were exposed from the hostility of British and Indians and almost tearfully begged for protection. These representations excited the sympathies of the Americans and turned their attention from the main object of the campaign, causing them to overlook to a great extent proper military precaution. Col. William Lewis was first dispatched to the relief of Frenchtown with 550 men on January 17. A few hours later Col. John Allen followed with 110 men and overtook the others at the mouth of the river. Marching along the frozen borders of the bay and lake they reached there on the afternoon of the following day. Attacking the enemy who were posted in the village, they gained possession of it after a spirited engagement. Learning that the savages were collecting in force, General Winchester became alarmed and started from the Maumee Rapids on the 19th, with all the troops that he could detach to the relief of that settlement, in all about 250 men. They arrived there on the the 20th inst. Had General Winchester followed the advice of those wiser than himself, a disaster might have been prevented. Having lived for so many months, however, in primitive surroundings, after a life of luxury, he relaxed himself in the good home of Colonel Navarre, where he was established and was not as vigilant as he should have been. He left his troops in open ground, and took no precautions against surprise. Peter Navarre and his brothers, who were acting as scouts, reported that a large body of British and Indians was approaching and would attack him that night. Other information-of a OHIO IN THE WARS OF THE NATION - 569 similar nature was brought in, but he was unmoved by these reports. He seemed to be under an evil spell. As a result an attack was made upon him in the early morning of the 22d. The British and their dusky allies approached entirely undiscovered. General Winchester attempted to rejoin his troops, but was captured by an Indian and led to Colonel Proctor. Winchester was persuaded to order his troops to surrender, but the gallant Major Madison refused until the third request was received. Several hundred of his men were killed in battle or afterwards massacred and the dreaded Indian yell was heard on every side. The remainder of his troops were taken prisoners and marched to Amherstburg. Most of them were afterwards released upon parole. General Winchester was kept as a prisoner for more than a year. Surrender was doubtless induced by the statement of the British commander that an Indian massacre could hardly be prevented in case of continued resistance and a promise of help to all the wounded. But the promise was not kept. Only thirty-three of the Americans escaped death or captivity. This great disaster of the River Raisin was most lamentable, but it was not without its good results. "Remember the Raisin" became a slogan that spurred many to enlist in the army and perform valiant service for their country. It had been with the intention of prosecuting a winter campaign for the recovery of the Michigan territory and Detroit that General Harrison dispatched General Winchester to the Maumee Rapids. As soon as the news of the unauthroized advance toward the River Raisin by that commander reached General Harrison at Upper Sandusky, he apprehended the threatening danger and hastened to the Maumee River in advance of his troops. Upon his arrival at Camp Deposit (Roche de Boeuf ) the day following the disaster, he ordered a detachment under General Payne to follow Winchester in order to render any needed aid. They had not proceeded far until several fugitives were overtaken who reported the total defeat of General Winchester's command. A council was quickly held and the entire body decided to return to Camp Deposit, excepting a few scouts who were to render all possible aid to stragglers who were escaping. At a council held at this post it was determined that the position was on the wrong side of the river and was too exposed to be successfully maintained against a powerful enemy. The troops therefore set fire to the blockhouse and retired towards the Portage River about half way on the road to Lower Sandusky, where they fortified a camp and awaited the advancing reinforcements. About the first of March in 1813 word reached Fort Meigs that General Proctor had ordered the assembling of the Canada militia and the Indian allies early in April, preparatory to an attack on Fort Meigs. To encourage the Indians he had assured them of an easy conquest and had, promised that General Harrison should be delivered to Tecumseh himself. That Indian chief had an unquenchable hatred for the American commander since the battle of Tippecanoe. The mode of attack. so it was reported, would be by constructing strong batteries on the opposite side of the river to be manned by British artillerists, while savages would invest the fort on that side of the river. It was thought that "a few hours' action of the cannon would smoke the Americans out of the fort into the hands of the savages," as one of the officers expressed it. The forces within Fort Meigs had been seriously weakened at this time by the expiration of the term of the enlistment of many of the Virginians and Pennsylvanians, who had already started for their homes. Not more than 500 effective soldiers remained. In fact, it was a very difficult task, because of the irregularity and short time of the enlistment, to maintain an efficient body of soldiers and also supplies owing, to the difficulties of transportation in the winter season. The Legislature passed an act adding $7 a month. to the pay of any of the 1,500 570 - HISTORY OF OHIO Kentuckians already in the service who would remain until others were sent to relieve them. General Harrison forwarded messages to the troops that were known to be advancing, urging them to hasten, as their presence was badly needed at Fort Meigs. As soon as the ice broke, advantage was taken of the high water to transport supplies down the river to Fort Meigs from the supply depots farther up the Maumee and the Auglaize. The Canadian militia assembled at Sandwich on the 7th of April, pursuant to call and on the 23rd of that month General Proctor's army, consisting of almost 1,000 regulars and militia, embarked at Malden on several vessels and sailed for Fort Meigs, being convoyed by two gunboats carrying artillery. The savages, amounting to fully 1,500, crossed the Detroit River and made their way to the rendezvous on foot, although a few sailed the lakes in small boats. The vessels arrived at the mouth of the Maumee River on the 26th inst., and a few days later the army landed near the ruins of Fort Miami, about two miles below Fort Meigs and on the opposite side of the river. The effective force at Fort Meigs at this time numbered about 1,100 soldiers, which was wholly inadequate to cope with such a large, well trained and far better equipped army. General Harrison himself had arrived on the 12th with considerable reinforcements. Most of the savages immediately crossed the river and began to invest and harass Fort Meigs at every possible point, filling the air with their hideous yells and the firing of musketry both day and night. Excessive rains hindered the British in planting their cannon as they wished. At times as many as 200 men and several oxen would be engaged in the work of pulling a single twenty-four pounder through the mud. At first the work was carried on only by night, but a little later, owing to the impatience of the commander, the work was continued by day, although some of the men were killed by shots from Fort Meigs. By the 30th of April they had completed two batteries nearly opposite Fort Meigs. The British fired almost incessantly with their cannon at Fort Meigs on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of May. Little damage was done to the fort and the casualties were inconsiderable. Two Americans were killed on the first day and one man so severely wounded that he died of tetanus ten days later. No fewer than 500 balls and shells were thrown on the first day of the siege, so it was estimated. A demand for the surrender of the fortress by General Proctor was answered by a prompt refusal, General Harrison saying : "Assure the general, however, that he will never have this post surrendered to him upon any terms. Should it fall into his hands, it will be in a manner calculated to do him more honor and to give him larger claims upon the gratitude of his government than any capitulation could possibly do." On the evening of the 4th of May news arrived that General Greene Clay with 1,200 Kentuckians in eighteen flat boats had reached the head of the Grand Rapids. By orders of General Harrison this force was divided, 800 men under the command of Colonel Dudley being ordered to proceed down the river on the side of the British batteries, while the remainder under General Clay himself was to come up on the Fort Meigs side. The latter movement, with the aid of a sortie from the garrison, was executed with complete success. Colonel Dudley also executed his task gallantly and successfully reaching the British batteries unobserved. The Americans rushed forward and spiked eleven of the largest guns, hauling down the enemy's flag. However, the Kentuckians whose enthusiasm was difficult to restrain, becoming infuriated when the Indians fired upon them, dashed out from the batteries in pursuit and ran into the ambuscade which had been prepared for them near the site of the old courthouse in the Village of Maumee. All order of battle was lost, fighting being hand to hand, each man for himself. Of the 866 men who landed with Colonel Dudley, only 170 OHIO IN THE WARS OF THE NATION - 571 escaped to Fort Meigs, Colonel Dudley himself being killed. The Dudley massacre was the third great loss suffered by the American armies of the Northwest in the first year of the War of 1812. Those who were made helpless by wounds were slain and scalped by the savages and the prisoners who were taken to the fort were treated with unmerciful cruelty, unchecked by the British officers. Tecumseh himself was far more humane than his white allies. Learning of the atrocities being committed, he is reported to have fallen into a great rage, rebuked the British commander Proctor and with a great show of authority compelled his followers to desist from their bloody work. Tecumseh was a great warrior and a native of Ohio, born near the present City of Springfield. Inimical as was Tecumseh toward the Americans, insatiable as was his hatred of personal courage, he was excelled by none. In oratory few were his peers, but in humanity he stood out in striking contrast to the customs of his own tribe, one of the most savage of all. He was never guilty of wanton bloodshed and ever used every effort to restrain his followers from all deeds of cruelty and torture in dealing with their captives. All honor to a chieftain of that kind. In his opposition to Americans he was simply endeavoring to save and protect his own people in their ancestral rights and this is the measure of patriotism even among our own people. On the whole the situation favored the Americans. The strength of Fort Meigs was unimpaired. The main body of the Indians, tired of the long siege, withdrew from the British command. There was no immediate prospect of fulfilling the promises made to Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet. Baffled at every point by the Americans, Proctor on May 9 raised the siege and departed. General Harrison at once repaired and strengthened the defenses of this post. Fort Meigs remained the key to the American defenses of the Northwest. It was particularly effective in the defense of Ohio. As long as it was garrisoned by the Americans, the British could not successfully invade the state. In July, Proctor started another expedition against Fort Meigs, but after two days, having failed to draw out the garrison by strategy, he again withdrew. After leaving Fort Meigs for the second time, a part of the British 572 - HISTORY OF OHIO army sailed around through Lake Erie and up the Sandusky River to Fort Stephenson, where was enacted the most thrilling drama of the war on Ohio's soil. Fort Stephenson was a small post, just large enough for about 200 men, located on the site of the modern City of Fremont. Nine miles south, also on the Sandusky River, was Fort Seneca, General Harrison's headquarters. Anticipating an attack from the British, up the Sandusky, Harrison decided that the defenses of Fort Stephenson could not stand against artillery. The commander at Fort Stephenson was a young Kentuckian, Maj. George Croghan, then in his twenty-second year and a nephew of Gen. George Rogers Clark. His orders from General Harrison were to the effect that with the approach of British troops with cannon, he should destroy the post and retreat. When on the 29th of July, Harrison received word that Proctor and Tecumseh had abandoned the siege of Fort Meigs and were on their way to the Sandusky River, he immediately dispatched a messenger to Major Croghan to abandon Fort Stephenson. The bearer of this message was delayed and Major Croghan, aware of the presence of Indians around, replied that he had determined to maintain his position. Accordingly when on August 1, 1813, General Proctor with a force of 1200 British and Indians appeared, Major Croghan and his little band of 160 men had the seemingly impossible task of opposing his further advance. To Proctor's demand for the surrender of the fort, the reply of Croghan was : "When the garrison surrenders there would be none left to massacre, as it would not be given up while there is a man able to fight." The British opened their attack with artillery and under the cover of night advanced their guns to some woods only about 250 yards from the fort. The Americans had only a single cannon, "the Betsy," and during the first day it was fired occasionally, changing its position from time to time for the purpose of creating the impression that the fort had several cannon. The enemy had concentrated their fire on the northwest angle so that it was evident that .this was the main point of their intended attack. Croghan therefore removed his six pounder to the blockhouse, skillfully masking its position so that it could not be seen by the attacking forces. Late in the afternoon came the assault against the northwestern angle. The Kentucky riflemen poured in a deadly fire but the advance did not halt until it reached the ditch before the stockade. Then when the ditch was filled with men ready to leap through the dismantled angle, the masked porthole was opened and the six pounder at a distance of only thirty feet poured such destruction upon the British regulars that few were fortunate enough to escape. A second attempt was made and again the single cannon spread destruction among the assailants. In a brief half hour, the British lost twenty-seven lives, including two officers and the total loss of the British and Indians was 150, while the little garrison lost one man and seven were slightly wounded. The British troops fled to the woods for shelter, followed by their Indian allies, and in the early morning of August 3, Proctor repulsed for the second time, on the soil of Ohio, sailed down the Sandusky River, leaving his military stores and his dead to the Americans. The defense of Fort Stephenson has always ranked as one of the most brilliant incidents in American military annals. General Harrison in his official report, said : "It will not be among the least of General Proctor's mortifications to find that he has been baffled by a youth just past his twenty-first year." The cannon which played such an important part in the defense of Fort Stephenson, after the war was sent to the government arsenal at Pittsburg, but about 1851 at the request of the citizens of Fremont, it was sent back to the scene of its memorable exploits and the famous war relic has since been carefully preserved in the city of Fremont. During these days of varied success and failure on land, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, had been gathering and building a fleet at Erie OHIO IN THE WARS OF THE NATION - 573 and by the end of August, 1813, the British Commodore Leo on Lake Ontario and Commodore Barclay on Lake Erie, both felt the naval battles for the mastery of the lower and the upper lakes were imminent. By shutting off supplies for Amherstburg, Perry had reduced the garrison of Fort Malden to a condition of dire distress. In a letter to the home government, Prevost acknowledges the critical. situation in which American supremacy on Lake Erie would place Upper Canada. On the 10th of September, 1813, Perry, who was then less than twenty-nine years of age, with a fleet of nine vessels (most of which he had built out of green timber and had lifted on rafts over the shallows of Erie harbor,) fought near Put-in-Bay the British fleet of six vessels, that were his match in respect to guns and men. That night he sent to Harrison the laconic message : "We have met the enemy and they are ours." The naval battle of Put-in-Bay virtually restored the Northwest to the United States and the work left for Harrison was soon accomplished. On September 27th, Perry ferried the American army across to Amhertsburg where the soldiers landed to find Fort Malden deserted ; Proctor had fled an hour before. The cowardly Englishman had promised Tecumseh that he would surely make a stand on the Thames and on October 3d, the two armies met near that river. Harrison, accompanied by Commodore Perry, and General Cass, directed the battle and, at the first onset, the 800 British greeted by the cry : "Remember the River Raisin," gave way before the American cavalry and surrendered as fast as they could throw down their arms. Proctor escaped in his carriage. Afterwards a court martial having found him guilty of misconduct but not of cowardice, the Prince Regent reprimanded the court for mistaken leniency and Proctor, like Hull, was retired in disgrace. In the midst of the fight Tecumseh was killed by a bullet fired by one of the party led by Col. Richard M. Johnson and for years the query, "Who killed Tecumseh ?" was one of the country's conundrums. The battle of the Thames was notable at least for the Americans who took part in it. Perry, who died six years later, left a name illustrious in the history of the United States Navy ; Harrison became President ; Johnson, Vice President of the United States and Cass was immediately appointed governor of Michigan and later 574 - HISTORY OF OHIO became Secretary of War, Minister to France, a presidential candidate and finally Secretary of State. The battle of Lake Erie was the last engagement of the war of 1812 that occurred within the territorial limits of Ohio. After the subsequent battle of the Thames, there remained no serious menace from either British or Indians to the peace and security of the Ohio settlement. Officially, the war did not end until the declaration of peace on December 24, 1814. But for more than the year the Ohio and Indiana frontiers had been safe. The armies were broken up in the autumn of 1813, and for them the war was over. Harrison, who had been made a Major-General in the Regular Army, found so little left for him to do that he resigned his commission in May, 1814. Still earlier Governor Meigs had resigned his office March 25, 1814, to become Postmaster-General in President Madison's cabinet. In 1913, at Put-in-Bay, was held a national celebration to mark the centennial of Perry's victory. This celebration was attended by President Taft and other high officials of the United States as well as by notable Canadian delegates who came in a spirit of fraternity. The Perry victory monument is an imposing shaft, visible for scores of miles on every side, a fitting memorial to the heroism and achievements of Commodore Perry and his gallant sailors whose exploit was one of the remarkable naval battles of the age. THE BALLAD OF JAMES BIRD Perry's victory on Lake Erie stands out pre-eminent among the naval exploits of the War of 1812. And this is true, not only by virtue of the comparative importance of the battle and its results, but because it exhibits in an unusual degree the elements of intrepidity, patriotic fervor and personal valor that captivate the imagination, live in legend and story and song, and make up what we are pleased to call the poetry of war. In spite of Cooper's criticism of the young commander and the contention of Roosevelt that the battle was not a remarkable achievement —that greater things had been accomplished by McDonough on Lake Champlain—the commanding figure of Perry, as he passes from the shattered Lawrence to the Niagara in a frail boat through a storm of bullets and grape-shot, stands forth undimmed and undiminished in its original lustre and heroic proportions. The premonitory silence of the approaching fleet ; the daring advance of the commander's ship ; the roar of the cannon ; the fierce onslaught of the circling line of the enemy ; the shattered hull, the splintered masts and the reeking deck of the Lawrence, where valor strove desperately to keep aloft the stars and stripes and the banner inscribed, "Don't give up the ship ;" the reckless bravery of Perry as he bore the latter from his flagship and raised it over the Niagara ; the striking of the colors of the Lawrence ; the fierce renewal of the combat ; victory snatched from the jaws of defeat ; the thunders of floating armaments forever silenced on our northern "Inland Seas !" In the short space of a few hours we have here, on the romantic waters of the West, in action and fortune, an event dramatic and kaledioscopic, that lives in ballad and history and sheds lustre on the "men behind the guns," the young commander and the young Republic. The battle of Lake Erie is doubtless destined to more enduring fame because, while it stirs the blood of those who defend and glorify war, it was followed by a precedent confirmatory of the views of those who would silence the war drums and furl forever the battle flags of the nations. The terms of peace that followed the battle provided that our northern border should not be guarded on either side by forts or fleets. The parties to the compact have found in mutual respect and good will an ample defense, while the peace advocates point to it as a practical demonstration of the virtue of their cause.