46 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. CHAPTER X. WAR OF 1812 CONTINUED-SECOND SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS-CAPT. OLIVER'S PERILOUS MISSION GEN. CLAY IN COMMAND-THRILLING INCIDENTS-TECUMSEH AND PROCTOR-BATTLE OF THE THAMES-MEMOIR OF TECUMSEH. AS soon as Gen. Harrison was sure the enemy had given up his attempt to possess the Maumee Country, and had left, he repaired the damages to his works, left Gen. Clay in command, and started for the interior of the State to organize a more effective force, not only to protect American soil, but to invade Canada, as soon as the naval equipment on Lake Erie could get ready to co-operate with the land forces. In this effort he was quite successful, and by midsummer his prospects for a well-organized, well-equipped army, of respectable size, for the work contemplated were good. Col. R. M. Johnson had arrived, in May, at Ft. Meigs, with 700 mounted Kentuckians, and did good service in scouting and outpost duty, and restraining the savages from raids on the interior settlements. Meanwhile the British about Detroit were not idle. While Harrison was getting ready to invade Canada, they were getting ready to come back, to the Maumee. Proctor had sent agents among the tribes as far as the Mississippi river and Green Bay, and by great promises had lured them into his services. A thousand or more warriors arrived from the West early in June, and by the middle of July about 2,500 savages were assembled at Detroit to take the warpath against the Americans. With this formidable auxiliary force, Proctor joined his 1,500 British and Canadians, and true to his former threat to make Fort Meigs another visit, he sailed into Maumee bay July 20, and landed his forces for a second attempt to take the fort. [Harrison, in his report to the WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 47 Secretary of War, says: "Gen. Proctor left Malden with the determination of storming Fort Meigs. His immense body of troops was divided into' three commands (and must have amounted to at least 5,000); Dixon commanded the Mackinaw and other Northern tribes; Tecumseh, those of the Wabash, Illinois and St. Joseph; and Round Head, a Wyandot chief, the warriors of his own nation, and those of the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawatamies of the Michigan Territory. Upon seeing the formidable preparations to receive them at Fort Meigs, the idea of storming was abandoned, and the plan adopted of decoying the garrison out, or inducing men to come to its relief with a force inadequate to repel the attack of his immense hordes of savages. Having waited several days for the latter, and practicing, ineffectually, several stratagems to accomplish the former, provisions began to be scarce, and the Indians to be dissatisfied. The attack upon Sandusky was the dernier resort. The greater part of the Indians refused to accompany him, and returned to the River Raisin. Tecumseh, with his command, remained in the neighborhood of Fort Meigs, sending parties to all the posts upon Hull's road, and those upon the Auglaize, to search for cattle. Five hundred of the Northern Indians, under Dixon, attended Proctor. "] There was at that time only a few hundred men in the garrison; but the fort had been reduced in size, and Proctor knew that it would be defended as long as there was a man in it alive. [It afterward became known that if, by any means, the fort had been captured, the survivors of the garrison were to fire the magazine, and let friend and foe perish together, and thus cheat the savages out of the fiendish pastime of a massacre.] He knew that Gen. Harrison was somewhere outside the fort, with probably a pretty fair sized command, and was liable at any time to make his sudden appearance. Gen. Clay, who had been warned, by his spies, that he would receive a hostile visit from Proctor, had sent word to Harrison at Upper Sandusky. On the night of the arrival of the British force, he sent another courier. By this time, and for some days previous, swarms of Indians had appeared in the vicinity, and on the morning of the 21st ten men were surprised by them, and only three escaped. In this state of affairs, it was no sure thing that a courier could get safely from the fort to Gen. Harrison. Again the reckless rider and fearless soldier, Capt. William Oliver, was called upon, and, with his patriotic sense of duty, did not hesitate to undertake the perilous mission. He was accompanied by Capt. McCune, of the Ohio volunteers, and a Virginia corporal. As the three emerged from the fort about nine o'clock at night, the British band on the opposite side of the Maumee struck up the tattoo, which in some degree helped to cover the noise of their movements until they got about a quarter of a mile from the fort, when they rode almost into an Indian camp. For a little time their suspense was very great, but the startled Indians luckily passed round them in their search in the darkness, when Oliver's party dashed off in an opposite direction into the forest, pursued by the savages. McCune got separated from the others, and not being used to the woods was a day late in reaching Harrison. At nine o'clock the following night, Oliver reached Upper Sandusky, but found that the General had gone to Lower Sandusky, to which place he at once followed him, making a continuous ride of over one hundred miles through forests and swamps, much of his time without a trail, and two entire nights and a day and a half without sleep. Gen. Harrison, having need of Oliver's services in another direction, sent Capt. McCune back to Gen. Clay, with word that no effort would be spared to relieve the fort, but that, meantime, he must be on his guard against surprises by the enemy. It appears to have been the determination of Gen. Harrison, in case the enemy had laid siege to the fort, to have taken a picked body of men, and, by an unfrequented route, reach the fort in the night, and cut his way in. Gen. Clay was mystified by the enemy's action; they had not begun a siege as if intending to prosecute it to the end. In this dilemma, he again dispatched the faithful McCune to Harrison with word that a force of about B00 Indians had been seen, from the fort, passing up the north bank of the Maumee, for the purpose, as was supposed by Clay, of attacking Fort Winchester, at Defiance. This move puzzled Harrison, but still he thought it was a ruse to cover some other design; the fact of their marching by, in plain sight of the fort, was, to a soldier, suggestive that the move was a blind of some sort. The Commander's judgment was, that Proctor contemplated an attack on Lower Sandusky, Upper Sandusky, or Cleveland, and he kept a force on the lookout for that contingency. On the afternoon of July 25th, McCune was sent back to Fort Meigs, with the views of the Commander on the situation, and saying, that in case Proctor laid siege to the fort, he would come to its help. Again Gen.. Clay was enjoined to beware of surprises. This came well nigh being McCune's last ride. He 48 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. lost his way in the night, and did not reach the fort until about daylight. When entering the open ground he was discovered by the savages, and only after a most exciting race, and very narrow escape, did he get inside the gates. Henry Howe's Ohio history gives this spirited account of McCune's adventure: " He arrived near the fort about daybreak on the following morning, having lost his way in the night, accompanied by James Doolan, a French Canadian. They were just upon the point of leaving the forest and entering upon the cleared ground around the fort, when they were intercepted by a party of Indians. They immediately took to the high bank with their horses, and retreated at full gallop up the river for several miles, pursued by the Indians, also mounted, until they came to a deep ravine, putting up from the river in a southerly direction, when they turned upon the river bottom and continued a short distance, until they found their further progress in that direction stopped by an impassable swamp. The Indians foreseeing their dilemna, from their knowledge of the country, and expecting they would naturally follow up the ravine, galloped thither to head them off. McCune guessed their intention, and ho and his companion turned back upon their own track for the fort, gaining, by this maneuver several hundred yards upon their pursuers. The Indians gave a yell of chagrin, and followed at their utmost speed. Just as they neared the fort, McCune dashed into a thicket across his course, on the opposite side of which other Indians had huddled, awaiting their prey. When this body of Indians had thought them almost in their possession, again was the presence of mind of McCune signally displayed. He wheeled his horse, followed by Doolan, made his way out of the thicket by the passage he had entered, and galloped around into the open space between them and the river, where the pursuers were checked by the fire from the block-house at the western angle of the fort. In a few minutes after their arrival, their horses dropped from fatigue. The Indians probably had orders to take them alive, as they had not fired until just as they entered the fort; but, in the chase, McCune had great difficulty in persuading Doolan to reserve his fire until the last extremity, and they therefore brought in their pieces loaded." That episode, one of the most thrilling of the many exciting incidents of that war, would form a lively theme for the pencil of an artist. The artists of Tam O'Shanter's ride drew wholly on their imaginations, while in this case the scene is laid on real facts. There was more at stake than McCune's life hanging on that terrible race to keep from the clutches of the howling savages. The fate of the garrison was in the balance. The message he carried, no doubt, save the fort, as will be seen from what followed that afternoon. About an hour before dark a rapid, heavy musketry fire was heard on the Lower Sandusky road; there were loud Indian yells, and a terrific battle seemed in progress. The savages could be seen attacking a body of troops with great fury; the troops gave way, but rallied again and drove the savages. The belief at once prevailed in the fort that Harrison had sent reinforcements, and that they were in a severe battle with the enemy. With one accord the men demanded to be led to the assistance of their comrades. Gen. Clay was greatly perplexed. He could not account for the fighting, yet he felt sure that it was not Harrison's men, for the message of that morning disproved that theory; that he would not come with, or send any more troops to Fort Meigs until there seemed further necessity for it," were the words of McCune; still the men were clamorous and almost mutinous in their conduct, because their General refused to send out help. Even the higher officers shared quite generally in the same feeling. That was a critical moment; it required a self-poised, cool, decided mind at the helm to prevent a fatal mistake. Gen. Clay proved equal to the emergency, though a heavy rain storm, just at that time, caused the din of battle to subside, and helped to quiet the frenzied clamor within the fort. The garrison had escaped. A deadly trap had been laid for them ; an ingenious, bloody snare, the offspring of a greater brain than Proctor's, had been set for the impulsive, over brave Kentuckians in the fort. It well nigh succeeded. Tecumseh and Proctor naturally calculated that, with the large demonstration of forces they were making, Clay would send for help, which, as a matter of fact, he did. They supposed, too, that he was expecting it (here they miscalculated), and by way of the Sandusky road. Now it was easy for Tecumseh to put his scouts on that road, to make sure that troops did not come upon them unawares; then a strong British force, with a swarm of savages, was secreted in the wooded ravine near, and just below the fort, and a cavalry force in the woods just above. To complete the programme, a force of Indians and Canadians were placed on the Sandusky trail. A little before night, these, under the direction of careful leaders, got up a sham battle, planned so as to appear WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 49 like a body of Americans trying to cut their way through to the fort. They expected the garrison, or the major portion of it, to sally out to the aid of their comrades. Few, if any, would have ever returned; or even if they did, when the gates were opened to receive them, the British cavalry would have ridden in along with them. Happily the scheme failed. But it was a. deep-laid plot, worthy the brain of Pontiac himself. This practically ended the second siege of Fort Meigs. The enemy went aboard their boats the next day, July 28, and dropped down the bay. That was the last time the feet of armed foreign foes desecrated Maumee soil. A few days after, Proctor's forces, as Gen. Harrison foretold, drew up in line of battle and made an assault on Fort Stephenson, but were successfully repulsed by the garrison, then under the gallant Maj. Croghan. The same night they got on their boats and left for Malden. In a naval battle, on Lake Erie, September to, Commodore Perry annihilated the British naval power on the lake, and a little later shipped Harrison's army over to Canada, where soon after, at the battle of the Thames, the British were utterly routed. The Indian chief Tecumseh was killed, and Proctor only made his escape by leaving his carriage, taking one of the horses from the team and fleeing on a side trail. He did not care to fall into the hands of the Kentuckians, who were hot on his track. These victories virtually ended the war in the Northwest. Proctor was in disgrace, and, with Tecumseh dead, the Indians no longer had a leader to rally around. At that time there were not so many great war chiefs as at an earlier day, and the tribes were broken into smaller bands than formerly, and their numbers greatly diminished, consequently the chiefs had a smaller following and less prestige and authority than their predecessors. Of Tecumseh's character and ability, it is difficult to form a correct estimate, at least, from a white man's standpoint. He was a central figure, in the Northwest, in the war of 1812. He was associated in that war with a perfidious, cowardly Englishman, without courage to fight, or the honor and manhood to protect disarmed prisoners from his savage allies. By the side of Proctor, Tecumseh was great and honorable. He had courage and humanity; Proctor had neither. Tecumseh's career, as a war chief, began where Pontiac's left off-at Detroit and on the Maumee. He was in St. Clair's defeat, and Wayne's battle, but not as a chief. He did not become a chief until 1795; neither did he command at Tippecanoe, nor was he present there, He had taken 4 great offense at Harrison, as Governor of Indiana Territory, because of a treaty the latter made for land; which treaty, Tecumseh claimed, was signed by chiefs who had no authority to sign away lands, and when the war of 1812 began, he went to Canada and Proctor made him a brigadier, and gave him epaulets and a sword, which the Indian had too good sense to wear in service. Gen. Brock gave him a red sash, but Tecumseh politely replied that it did not become him to wear it when there was an older, and greater warrior, like Brock, about. It is, therefore, from that time, and in the skirmishes and battles about Detroit, Frenchtown and at the Maumee Rapids, and later at the Thames, where he was killed, that we see Tecumseh as a chief and commander of his' dusky associates. It should be said, in his behalf, that he did not command the Indians at Frenchtown. As a war chief, schooled in deeds of prowess, and as a commander in battle, Tecumseh's record does not rank with that of Pontiac, Blue jacket, or Little Turtle, whose war careers ended on the Maumee where his began. Had Tecumseh's lines been cast among civilized, instead of savage, people, he would have excelled as a statesman, possibly, more than as a warrior. He had attributes that made him a natural leader, and was free of many of the vices of his people. Gen. John E. Hunt, who saw him often, gives this personal description of the great chief: -Tecumseh was not a large man, but strong and well made. He usually dressed very plainly, in buckskin Indian costume. He wore three feathers, one given to him by Mrs. Proctor, the other two by wives of other English officers. These were fine ostrich plumes, one white, one red, one black. He wore them tied to his cue behind, hanging down his back. He was generally armed with his pipe-tomahawk and scalping knife in his belt, and his rifle in his hand. He resembled very much Otusso, an Ottawa war chief, who died at the mouth of the Maumee river before the Indians were moved. " Tecumseh was a Shawnee by birth, born not far from Springfield, on Mad river, and at the time of his death was about forty years of age. No doubt, he derived some of his early influence among the Indians, from the wizard performances of his brother, the " Prophet. " Both preached and practiced undying opposition to the aggressions of the white man. Lossing says of Tecumseh: "He was crafty, intrepid, unscrupulous and cruel, and possessed the qualities of a great leader, almost equal to those of Pontiac." RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE