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BEALL'S CAMPAIGN - 223 CHAPTER XV. BEALL's CAMPAIGN — 1812. IN our endeavor to obtain an accurate, or even satisfactory, account of this military campaign, we were met, at the very out- start, with stubborn and insurmountable difficulties. No history of the war of 1812, that we have had access to, contributes any certain clue to its organization or plan of operations. What was, and is, known as " Beall's Army," consisted of a regiment of raw, undisciplined Ohio militia, with, perhaps, an ingredient of similar material from some of the western counties of Pennsylvania. If documents, public or otherwise, have existence, either in the drawers of surviving friends, or the closets of societies of history, they have certainly not been available to us. We have given no portion of our history more attention, with conspicuously correspondingly small compensation for our efforts. Prior to the war of 1812, General Beall, who had served in the regular army, and who had removed to Columbiana county, Ohio, in 1803, was made Colonel of the militia of said county, and subsequently a Brigadier General. After the surrender of Hull, August 16, 1812, a terrible consternation seized upon the whole community, whereupon a detachment of the militia was organized under Beall, and turned in the direction of the western frontier. He marched his detachment to Canton, Stark county, Ohio, where additions were made to it from Stark and Jefferson counties, etc., enlarging its rank and file to the dimensions, probably, of a full regiment. No time was lost in organizing the new militia companies, when a regular frontier campaign was inaugurated. Reach- 224 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY OHIO. ing the Wayne county line, they passed through Sugarcreek and Paint townships, thence on to Wooster, where they made brief encampments ; thence to the north-west, crossing the Big Killbuck a few rods north of the old salt works, on the line of the Indian trail; thence west and south to the farms of John A. Lawrence, Esq., and Joshua Warner, Sen., about two miles west of Wooster ; thence due west, near the line of the State road, passing through or near the present sites of Jefferson and Reedsburg, in Plain township ; thence on to Jeromeville, and going to the north of Maysville, in Ashland county ; thence to the Huron, Sandusky and Fort Meigs. Throughout this march General Beall accompanied the army to Camp Huron, where he joined the troops of the Western Reserve, under General Elijah Wadsworth* and General Simon Perkins. + they were personally visited by the Commander-in-Chief, General Harrison, who organized all the troops into a single brigade, devolving the command upon General Perkins. From this point General Beall returned home. The subsequent operations of the army, under General Perkins, are not of a character to call for any special or enlarged comment. A detachment of 300 of his men, under a Major Cotgreve, were, at one time, ordered to the relief of General Winchester, but hearing of the disaster that had befallen that officer, they retreated to the Rapids, where General Harrison was stationed, and who retired to Carrying river, for the purpose of forming a junction with the troops in the rear, and favoring the convoy of artillery and stores then coming from Upper Sandusky. What proportion of the army of General Beall was at the siege of Fort Meigs we are unable to note—possibly all of them. His army * General Wadsworth, born in Hartford, Conn., November 14, 1747; died in Canfield, Mahoning county, Ohio, December 30, 1817. He was a descendant of Captain Joseph Wadsworth, who hid the Charter of Connecticut in the oak tree, on the 9th of May, 1680. + General Perkins was born in Lisbon, Conn., September 17, 1771, and removed to Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1804. He descended from one of the oldest Puritan families who crossed the sea with Roger Williams, in the good ship Lion, 1631, BEALL'S CAMPAIGN - 225 was an eager, patriotic band, composed largely of farmers and their sons, though their march was seemingly an irregular and confused one, at times widely scattered and without the order of military discipline, but their patriotism was none the less ardent. As far as Camp Huron it presented but few obstacles, and was characterized by sudden alarms, scouts, scares and scrimmages. Beyond that, its part in the drama is only seen by dim lights, and almost disappears in the excitements of the actors in the heavier scenes. There can be no doubt, however, that the transit of this army through the county was a source of terror to the Indians, and that its very presence was a great protection to the early settlers against their murderous invasions. Thomas Eagle, who settled in Mohican township, then Wayne, but now Ashland county, in May, 1809, piloted Beall's army from Wooster to Jeromeville, and on farther west ; and it was by the direction of this officer that the old fort at Jeromeville was built. He also took the Jerometown Indians prisoners, and Baptiste Jerome's wife and daughter, who shortly after died, an act for which the General was criticised. General Beall, during the earlier stages of the war, caused the arrest of Jerome on the grounds of disloyalty and had him incarcerated in Fort Stidger for a short period. REMINISCENCES OF ONE OF BEALL'S SOLDIERS. Thomas Pittinger, who was in Fort Meigs during the siege, now living in Chester township, says: I was one of the " Harrison Boys " under General Beall, and a volunteer soldier in the war of 1812; helped to build Fort Meigs ; was in the siege and was discharged in the Fort. At the time I enlisted I was living twelve miles from Steubenville, in Jefferson county, Ohio. I went out as a volunteer private soldier in a rifle company, with James Alexander as captain, Henry Byles as tirst lieutenant and John Myers as ensign. The company was a full one. We first rendezvoused at Steubenville and from there we marched across the country to Canton, Stark county, Ohio, where we staid a few days, General Beall accompanied us from 226 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. Steubenville to Canton. We then started westward with the other soldiers along with us and General Beall in command. The biggest part of the troops came through Sugarcreek township after leaving Stark county. We came in a pretty straight line to Wooster and camped one night on the west side of the town near the Christmas run. We then went to the blockhouse and staid there several days. Benjamin Emmons had a field of corn close to the blockhouse. Our uniforms were an " aleneda" yellow hunting shirt and any such other underclothes as we had or could get. The members of my company were all armed with rifles. When the company was being armed, rifles were seized wherever they could be found and taken whether their owners were willing or not. I carried mine all through the campaign, and after my discharge and arrival home returned it to the neighbor from whom it was taken. It was what I call a " pressed " rifle. We crossed the Killbuck near the old salt works, stopped a short time close to old Yankee Azariah Smith's, then came to the John Lawrence farm, where we camped several days close to a fine spring, and then followed the line of the State road to Jeromeville, etc., on to the mouth of the river Huron. Here we butchered hogs for the army. We then proceeded to Fort Meigs, in the siege of which I was, as before stated. Mr. Pittinger says their march involved but little hardship, and that, although they were sometimes pinched in their rations, they had plenty to eat ; that they had some grumbles, but they amounted to nothing. He remarked that he " thought a good deal of General Beall," and seems to regret that they were in no pitched battles. He says they had several scares and false alarms, Mr. Pittinger will soon be 87 years old and we found his recollection good. A sketch of him appears elsewhere. BATTLE OF THE COW PENS. + In the summer of 1812 General Beall passed through Ashland county with the army, composed mostly of militia and mounted volunteers, on their way to Fort Meigs. They encamped for two weeks upon what is now known as the Griffin farm, about one mile and a half north-east of the present village of Haysville. While there one dark and rainy night, when the army were wrapped in slumber, and not dreaming of war, when nothing was heard but the patter of the rain, and the sentinel's cry of all's well !" there came, borne upon the damp night air, the sharp, shrill crack of a rifle. The sentinels rushed in and reported the enemy upon them ! The drums beat to arms, horses * Fort Stidger. + Knapp's Ashland County—the same line of facts having been furnished us by Thomas Pittinger, of Chester township, who was with the army. BEALL'S CAMPAIGN - 227 neighed, bugles sounded. The ground trembled with the dull tread of squadrons tramping. The order was given to " fire," and never before or since was such a noise and din heard in Vermillion, as there was on that eventful night. The cavalry charged in the direction of the supposed enemy, but finding no person or thing, they returned from the charge and reported that the foe had retreated ; but when the first gray of morning appeared, the outsposts discovered that they had been firing upon a herd of cattle belonging to the settlers, which had been roaming through the woods, and had slaughtered seventeen. This was afterward known among the soldiers as "The battle of the Cow Pens," and was the only engagement in which many of them were employed, although others gave vent to the patriotism that filled their bosoms, and yielded up their lives upon the bloody ramparts of Fort Meigs. |