A memoir of the public services of William Henry Harrison, of Ohio

Front matter

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THE f'OLLECTIOX OF

Preface

In preparing for the press a work lately published, containing sketches of the History of the Western States, the author became possessed of a large number of facts, connected with the public services of General Harrison. They would properly have formed a part of the work alluded to ; but as that had already swelled to a larger size than had been anticipated, as these would form in themselves a connected narrative, and as they relate to an individual whose name is now placed before the people of the United States, under circumstances calculated to awaken curiosity in regard to his history— it has been thought best to°arrange these materials into a separate volume. It is mostly a compilation from other writers ; among which the author especially acknowledges his obligations to Dawson, the biographer of General Harrison; and to M'Affee, the historian of the late war.

Chapter XIV

Events in Indiana and Illinois— Movements on the North-western frontier— Massacre at the River Raisin 201 CHAPTER XV.

Opening of the second campaign — Siege of Fort Meigs— Brilliant sortie— Detcat of Colonel Dudley 222 CHAPTER XVI.

The mounted regiment under Col. R. M. Johnson 237

CH4PTER XVII.

Second siege of Fort Meigs 245

CHAPTER XVIII.

Preparations for the invasion of Canada 265

CHAPTER XIX.

Perry's victory— Preparations for invading Canada . . . 270

CHAPTER XX.

Invasion of Canada— Battle of the Thames, and capture of the British army — Expedition to Niagara — Resignation of General Harrison 275

CHAPTER XXI.

Civil services since the war 286

CHAPTER XXII.

Conclusion — Character of General Harrison 309

MEMOIR

OF

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.

Chapter I

Mr. Harrison's birth, parentage, and education.

It is one of the happiest results of our republican institutions, that no individual can claim respect on account of his parentage. The property accumulated by the industry of the parent may be transrnitted to his offspring ; every man has a right to dispose, as he pleases, of the fruit of his own labour, and the law facilitates and sanctions its descent to those who stand nearest to the possessor in consanguinity and affection. But the good name of an honest man, or the fame of an illustrious citizen, is earned by his own deeds ; it is neither gained by inheritance, nor bestowed by devise.

If any class of citizens may with propriety indulge the pride of ancestry, it is those who are descended from the distinguished patriots and virtuous men, who, by their talents, their sacrifices, and their blood, have become justly numbered among .he benefactors of their country. The sages and heroes of the American Revolution were engaged in a noble enterprise, which they carried triumphantly to a successful termination, by an exertion of wisdom, patience, courage, and forbearance, rarely paralleled in the history of the world. They disinterestedly and fearlessly exposed their lives, and jeoparded their fortunes, for their country, and for posterity — for a country too poor at that time to reward them for their services, and in a cause too uncertain to promise any immediate personal advantages to those who bore the heat and burthen of the struggle. Their contemporaries could admire their magnanimity; it is for vs, who are reaping the rich harvest of their patriotic labours, to testify the gratitude of a generous people, by holding their names in everlasting honour ; and when a descendant from that venerated stock combines in himself qualities worthy of admiration, his claim to the respectful consideration of his countrymen, is at least not diminished by the advantage of such a parentage. By many it would be considered as greatly enhanced, and the services of a distinguished patriot would derive additional lustre from the fact that he had trodden in the footsteps of an equally illustrious father, whose unbought and unrequited services had been freely given to the nation, in its day of peril and weakness.

Less than this we could not say, in allusion to the eminent person whose biography we are about to place before the public— himself a warrior and statesman of no mean repute, and the son of one who was conspicuous among the founders of the American republic. The lives of public men, who have participated largely in affairs of general interest, form a part of the history of their country, and should be recorded with careful fidelity, for the instruction of those who follow after them. To no one does this remark apply more justly than to General Harrison, who has filled with honour the highest places in the gift of his country, and been an efficient actor in many of the most important national transactions which have taken place since the revolution. His public career has been long and eventful; nearly his whole life has been devoted to the service of his country. He is one of the very few remaining among us, the commencement of whose career is dated back to the first days of the republic, who have grown up with our political character and public institutions, have witnessed the gradual advance of our country from infant weakness to mature prosperity, and who form the connecting link between the generation which secured our liberty, and that which is enjoying its fruits. Reared up among the patriots of the revolution, under the pure and vigorous counsels of republican simplicity—appointed to his first office by the sagacious

Washington — and enjoying successively the confidence of the elder Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, he may truly be said to have been taught and trusted in the purest school of democracy.

William Henry Harrison was born in Virginia, in the year 1773, and among his relations are numbered some of the most distinguished men of that state. His father was Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the declaration of independence, to whose ardent zeal and intrepidity that body of patriots were greatly indebted for their harmonious organization. In the Biography of the signers of the declaration of independence, an incident is recorded, which, with the explanation we are enabled to add, is highly illustrative of the disinterested love of country which animated the public men of that day. When Mr. Hancock was appointed to succeed Peyton Randolph as President of Congress, it is said, that, " with a modesty not unnatural at his years, and a consciousness of the difficulty he might experience in filling a station of such high importance and responsibility, he hesitated to take the seat. Mr. Harrison was standing beside him, and with the ready good-humour that loved a joke, even in the Senate house, he seized the modest candidate in his athletic arms, and placed him in the presidential chair ; then turning to some of the members around, he exclaimed, ' We will show mother Britain how little we care for her, by making a Massachusetts man our president, whom she has excluded from pardon by public proclamation.'"* The truth is, that a large portion of the members of that Congress wished to call Mr. Harrison to the chair, vacated by the death of his brother-in-law Peyton Randolph ; but with noble selfdenial, and admirable judgment, he declined in favour of John Hancock, and insisted on his takinothe post of honour. The latter, not to be outdone in generosity, was willing to give way to the Virginia delegate, when the amicable controversy was terminated in the manner described, and a coolness between Virginia and Massachusetts avoided, whichmight have resulted, had a contest for the most conspicuous place in Congress been permitted between the distinguished delegates from those colonies. Benjamin Harrison afterwards filled the executive chair of Virginia, at a period when every energy of a great and powerful mind was necessary to keep up the spirits of his countrymen.

William Henry Harrison, the third and youngest son of the illustrious patriot, whose name we have mentioned, was born the 9th of February, 1773, in Charles City county, Virginia, and was educated at Hampden Sydney College. He inherited fro'm his father little save his noble example, and a name

* Waln's Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

12 ME3I0IR OF

identified with the great struggle for liberty. His education having commenced during the storms of the revolution, he imbibed the sentiments of republicanism, and of resistance to oppression, which have always influenced him in his career through life. Dependent on his own exertions, he applied himself with great ardour to the study of medicine, and was about to graduate as a practitioner, when he conceived the idea of serving his country as a soldier, in the western wilderness. Being under age, his guardian, the celebrated Robert Morris, used every exertion to induce him to continue his studies ; for that penetrating statesman discerned, even then, in his young friend, the germs of a noble character, and was desirous of giving him all the advantages of scientific attainment, which our country could afford, and of placing him in a profession, for which he considered him peculiarly fitted by his talents, the kindness of his nature, and the suavity of his manners. The desire of the young student to distinguish himself in the defence of our western frontiers, under the accomplished but unfortunate St. Clair, predominated ; and President Washington, who had been the intimate friend of his father, sanctioned his views, and gave him an appointment in the army.

Thus, although young Harrison was connected with those who were affluent, he commenced his eventful career in life, without the advantages of fortune. Embracing a profession which seldom opens the way to wealth, he threw himself into the ranks of patriotism, and gave his energies to his country, with a patriot's devotion. His was not the service of a holiday soldier. He lingered not in the cities, to sport the gaudy habiliments of the warrior in the resorts of fashion and dissipation. The nation was too poor to support its officers in idleness ; and the independent spirit of Harrison would not permit him to lead a life of useless indolence. He began, at the early age of nineteen, to act the part of a man on the great theatre of life, and to build up the fabric of his fortunes. Selecting a dangerous and laborious field of exertion, he proceeded at once to the post of honour and duty, and entered upon that perilous and active career of usefulness, in which he has continued to be engaged, with but little interruption, up to the present time.

Chapter II

Situation of the North-western Territory previous to Wayne's campaign — Intrigues of the British—Defeat of Harmer and St. Clair— 'Appointment of Wayne — Organization of the Legion.

The war in which Mr. Harrison first met the enemies of his country, may properly be considered as a continuation of the great struggle for independence. When peace was concluded with Great Britain in 1783, many of the Indian tribes, who had been in alliance with that power, refused to lay down the hatchet, but continued to perpetrate their merciless outrages upon the frontier settlements. These had now extended themselves into the beautiful valley of the Ohio, and were spreading rapidly over the fertile lands of that delightful region. About the year 1763, the hardy borderers from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, taking advantage of a short season of peace with the Indians, had begun to cluster around the forts at Redstone, Pittsburgh, and Wheeling, and thence spread along the margins of the Monongahela and Ohio, in Pennsylvania and Western Virginia. Previous to the breaking out of the revolution, the savages again.

WILLIAM HENRY HAERISON. 15

became troublesome ; but the gallant pioneers maintained their ground, and when the storm of the revolution thickened around them, they supported these distant outposts with the most obstinate valour.

At a period a little later, and just before the commencement of the revolutionary war, Kentucky and Tennessee began to be peopled from Virginia and North Carolina, and the work of emigration was carried successfully forward during the continuance of that hard-fought struggle. These early adventurers were not only opposed by hostile savages, who fought for the possession of the soil which they had occupied through ages countless to the present historian, but by the wealth, the weapons, and the skill, of our European oppressor. While the armies of the republic were gaining imperishable renown under the standard of liberty, at various points throughout the eastern, middle, and southern states, the patriotic inhabitants of the frontier were not less active ; but honourably sustained the common cause, and under the orders of such men as Clark, Seveir, Shelby, Scott, Logan, and other equally gallant leaders, performed many brilliant achievements. When the American recurs with admiration to the eventful story of our contest for independence, it should never be forgotten, that the decisive battle of King's Mountain was fought by riflemen from the western forests, who had crossed the Allegheny ridge by laborious marches, to aid their oppressed brethren in breaking the yoke of the tory ascendancy, leaving their own homes exposed to the predatory incursions of the savage. Nor are these services to be slightly valued. They formed an important part of the great military drama. The pioneers, by keeping the savages employed on the western waters, held in check an immense mass of merciless warriors, who would otherwise have been poured into the heart of the middle and southern states, destroying the cities, and violating the firesides, of a country which, even without this scourge, was bleeding at every pore. Washington estimated these services at their true value, and Britain never forgave them.

Scarcely had the thunder of artillery ceased to roll over the battle-fields, when the north-western territory began to receive inhabitants. A hardy band from New-Jersey and Pennsylvania founded Cincinnati, a colony of French settled at Gallipolis, and the people of New-England seated themselves at Marietta, and on the Connecticut reserve. Others followed them, and point after point was rapidly occupied ; but the war of the revolution was not yet concluded. The harvest was ripened, but not gathered in. The independence of America was acknowledged, but not secured. The billow had rolled over the Atlantic states, but the surge was breaking upon the forests of the west. Here the tomahawk was still busy.

A calm retrospect of these events must satisfy every unprejudiced mind that Great Britain, in reluctantly consenting to acknowledge the independence of the United States, had been driven by the valour of our fathers into a measure which she was determined to retract, upon the first favourable opportunity. The noble sentiment expressed by her King, at his first interview with Mr. Adams — > " I was the last to conform to the separation ; but the separation having been made, I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power" — was not responded by the feelings of his people, or the action of his government. They never relinquished the hope of punishing the rebel, and regaining the country; and unhappily for us, they possessed the means of annoying us, and keeping alive their unhallowed lust for revenge. We were weak, and they were strong. Predominant on the ocean, our commerce was at their mercy ; nor did they cease to cripple our trade, to impress our seamen, and insult our flag, until a series of brilliant victories on the ocean had taught them that we had the strength and the spirit to maintain our rights. On the north-western frontier they held a chain of fortresses garrisoned by disciplined troops, and they had a band of trained emissaries moving over the vast wilderness,

2* and uniting the tribes against us. With the single object in view of repressing the expansion of our population, by depriving us of the traffic with the Indians, and embittering them to acts of outrage, they conciliated them with presents, roused their passions by supplying them with the dreadful means of intoxication, and furnished them with weapons.

This fiendish combination between the civilized and savage man, warring against the social principle and the sacred rights of the fireside, immolating the peaceful citizen, the female, and the helpless infant, upon the altar of revenge, — retarding the spread of the arts, and rolling back the tide of knowledge and religion, continued to operate until it was broken up by the successful valour of an indignant people. The brilliant victories on the northern, north-western, and southern frontiers, redeemed our country from the thraldom of foreign influence, and added the names of Macomb, Scott, Brown, Jackson, and Harrison, with a host of others, to the glorious list of those who fought for independence. Washington and his associates gained the victory, Wayne and his contemporaries improved it, and the military and naval heroes of the last war struck the final blow which rendered it secure and lasting.

From 1783 to 1790, it was estimated that fifteen hundred men women, and children, had been killed or taken prisoner by the Indians upon the waters of the Ohio ; more than two thousand horses were stolen from the inhabitants ; houses had been burned, fields ravaged, boats plundered, and property destroyed to an unknown amount. Still the settlements grew, and the gallant pioneers sustained the war with undaunted spirit. The British, in defiance of a solemn treaty, continued to hold military posts within our acknowledged territory, to tamper with the tribes in our limits, and faithlessly to supply the munitions of war, to be used against a civilized people at peace with herself.

Every effort by negotiation having failed to restore peace, Brigadier General Harmer, a most accomplished gentleman and skilful officer, was ordered to advance into the Indian country with a force deemed sufficient to chastise the savages, break up their towns, and force them to peace. The defeat of that gallant officer, after he had accomplished some of the objects of the campaign, and the annihilation of his army by an overwhelming force, carried dismay throughout the frontier, and inspired the Indians with fresh confidence.

A new army was raised, and placed under the command of Major General St. Clair, a veteran and skilful soldier of the revolution, in whom Washington placed entire confidence. The public had become aware of the magnitude of the trust reposed in this gentleman, and the eyes of the nation were directed towards him with anxious solicitude. They hoped every thing from his talents, experience, and unquestioned courage ; they feared every thing from the numbers and ferocity of the enemy, who were rendered audacious by their recent victory. The honour of the federal government was at stake ; the confidence of the people in its wisdom, and the respect of foreign nations, could only be secured by striking a successful blow, which should at once blast the corroding influence of the foreign incendiary, and give security to a frontier so long the scene of rapine, conflagration, and slaughter. The result is too well known. A variety of unforeseen and unpropitious circumstances combined to foil the skill of St. Clair; and on the 4th of November, 1791, his gallant army was defeated with great loss, near the Miami villages, by a confederated body of Indians, under the command of the Little Turtle, a consummate warrior, and aided by white auxiliaries from Canada. Upwards of thirty officers, and near a thousand men, were slain. Among the former was General Butler, a distinguished soldier of the revolution.

The defeat of St. Clair filled the whole country with consternation and mourning. A succession of disasters had rendered the war unpopular. The gallant spirits whose inclinations would have led them to the field, shrunk from a contest so laborious and unsuccessful, in which a victory would yield little honour, while defeat was attended with torture and death in their most horrible forms. To fall by the rifle, the tomahawk, and the seal ping-knife, had thus far been the fate of those who had ventured upon these perilous wars. The vast expenditures made in the two recent expeditions had drained the treasury, and fallen heavily upon the resources of the country ; parties were becoming formed in the nation, and in Congress, for and against the prosecution of war, and the whole aspect of the times was gloomy.

It was a crisis worthy the mind of Washington. To vindicate the honour of the nation, to crush the growing discontent of factions, to rescue the frontier from devastation, and to secure the permanency of the free institutions which had just been established by a long and bloody war, required all the coolness and discrimination of his great intellect.

The war had risen into importance. It had ceased to be a matter of local interest, but had swelled into a national contest, involving: danger to the union. The Indians were confederated, and the hand of Britain was seen directing their movements. It became necessary to place our armies under the command of a military chief of consummate abilities and established reputation — one whe should be brave, energetic, and fertile in expedient

—a leader of sound judgment, ripe experience, and great prudence, who, besides possessing the highest qualities of the soldier, would command the confidence of the public.

The choice of the President was balanced for a time between two distinguished individuals — George Rogers Clark, and Anthony Wayne. Both had served with brilliant reputation in the revolutionary war— both had rare endowments of intellect and military genius— both had held important separate commands, and had earned the most enviable distinction in daring and successful exploits planned and executed by themselves. The latter was eventually chosen, and by his able conduct in this protracted and dangerous war, added a new laurel to his own wreath, and another to the already existing proofs of the discriminating mind of Washington. With Wayne were associated Brigadier Generals James Wilkinson and Thomas Posey, revolutionary officers of high repute : the former had shown himself an active partisan leader in several recent expeditions against the Indians ; the latter had shared for several years the toils and confidence of Wayne, had led a battalion in the desperate assault of Stony Point, and shared the eventful fortunes of Mad Anthony, from the icy plains of the Canadian frontier, to the burning sands of Georgia.

A writer who seems to have been intimately versed in this subject, has given the following description of the formation of Wayne's Legion. *' On the 25th of May, 1792, General Wayne having been furnished by the Secretary of War with the instructions of the President, in which it was emphatically expressed, ' that another defeat would be inexpressibly ruinous to the reputation of the government,' took leave of his family and friends, and repaired to Pittsburgh, the place appointed for the rendezvous of the troops, where he arrived early in June. By a new organization, the army was to consist of one major general, four brigadier generals and their respective staffs, the commissioned officers, and 5120 non-commissioned officers and privates, the whole to be denominated ' The Legion of the United States.' The legion to be divided into four sub-legions, each to consist of commissioned officers named, and 1280 non-commissioned officers and privates. The previous army having been nearly annihilated, a new one was to be recruited. Most of the experienced officers having been slain in the defeats of Harmer and St. Clair, or resigned their commissions, the labours of the commanding general were augmented to an extent which nothing but the most unwearied patience and ardent zeal could have performed. Many of the officers, as well as of the soldiers, had yet to iearn the rudiments of their profession. The organization of the troops, military tactics, discipline,

«Scc, devolved so far upon the general as to leave him scarcely time, without infinite labour, to keep up the correspondence incident to his station. His efforts were indefatigable ; and it is impossible at the present day to form an adequate idea of the difficulties he had to encounter, the labours to perform, and the obstacles to surmount. So panicstruck was the whole country" (meaning that part of it distant from the scene of danger, — for the pioneers stood firm) " at the repeated and bloody successes of the enemy, that an engagement with them was looked to as certain defeat. A perfect horror seemed to seize the recruits, when marched from the rendezvous where they had enlisted, and their faces turned to join the army. In a letter to the Secretary of War, dated Pittsburgh, 20th July, 1792, General Wayne says, 'The detachment under Major Ashton arrived at this place on Monday ; Lieutenant Campbell's, with Stokes' dragoons, and Captain Faulkner's riflemen, on Tues .ay. I am, however, sorry to inform you of the alarming desertion that prevailed in Ashton's detachment and Stokes' dragoons. Not less than fifty of the former, and seven of the latter, deserted on their march between Carlisle and Pittsburgh.'

" Another fact will show the degree of terror that the name of Indian had inspired, and the extraordinary difficulties the general had to surmount, to introduce obedience, self-confidence, and courage.

WILLIAM HEXRV HARRISON. 25

A letter to the Secretary of War, dated Pittsburgh, 10th of August, 1792, says, « Desertions have been frequent and alarming. Two nights since, upon a report that a large body of Indians were close in our front, I ordered the troops to form for action, and rode along the line to inspire them with confidence, and gave a charge to those in the redoubts which I had recently thrown up in our front, and on the right flank, to maintain their posts at any expense of blood, until I could gain the enemy's rear with the dragoons ; but such was the defect of the human heart, that from excess of cowardice, one-third of the sentries deserted from their stations, so as to leave the most accessible places unguarded.'

" By the salutary measures adopted to introduce order and discipline, the army soon began to assume its proper character. The troops were daily exercised in all the evolutions necessary to render them efficient soldiers, and more especially in those manoeuvres proper in a campaign against savages. Firing at a mark was constantly practised, and rewards given to the best marksmen. To inspire emulation, the riflemen and infantry strove to excel, and the men soon attained to an accuracy that gave them confidence in their own prowess. On the artillery, the general impressed the importance of that arm of the service. The dragoons he taught to rely on the broadsword, as all important to victory. The riflemen were made to see how much success must depend on their coolness, quickness, and accuracy ; while the infantry were led to place entire confidence in the bayonet, as the certain and irresistible weapon, before which savages could not stand. The men were instructed to charge in open order ; each to rely on himself, and to prepare for a personal contest with an enemy. The confidence inspired, and rapid improvement in discipline, are frequently mentioned with pleasure in the letters of the commanding general written during the autumn ; but the season was too far advanced before a reasonable force could be collected to warrant active operations."*

We have entered into this detail to show the perilous and unpromising nature of the service to which young Harrison devoted his youthful energies. It could not have been the desire of an indolent life, nor the indulgence of a puerile vanity, which led the youthful candidate for fame into scenes so fraught with danger and hardship. The service was neither popular nor inviting. Toilsome marches in the wilderness, incessant watching, coarse fare, uncertain supplies, awaited these gallant adventurers under the most favourable event of the campaign, while a reverse of fortune would

* Extracted from an able article in Atkinson's Casket for 1830.

bring torture, death, or a cruel captivity. A youth reared in affluence, surrounded by friends, and with fair hopes in prospect, who resigned all these advantages to serve his country on the frontier at that gloomy period, must have been gifted with a high courage and generous patriotism, which elevated him above the selfish motives which ordinarily govern human conduct.

Chapter III

Mr. Harrison's first appointment— His services under St. Clair and Wilkinson— Wayne's campaign.

Mr. Harrison received his first commission as an ensign in the first regiment of United States artillery, then stationed at Fort Washington, and immediately set out to join the army. He arrived at Fort Washington just after the defeat of General St. Clair's army, and witnessed the gathering in at that post of the broken fragments of that gallant band, which had marched out but a few weeks before in the pride of military power, and now returned a mutilated, disorganized, and panic-stricken corps. The whole defence of the frontier now de- Tolved on a few men, while the Indians, flushed vith victory, had grown more audacious than ever. The winter was setting in, and such were the hardships to be anticipated by those who were destined to protect the distant outposts of the wilderness, that the stoutest hearts might have failed, and the hardiest veterans have shrunk from the unequal contest. Harrison, young, slender, and apparently frail, was advised by his comrades to decline a service for which his constitution and early habits seemed to have rendered him peculiarly unfit. But his was not a spirit to recoil from danger. The same boldness and energy of character — the same prodigal exposure of his own person to danger and fatigue, which have marked his conduct through life, were displayed at the commencement of his career.

The first duty confided him was to command an escort having charge of a train of pack-horses bound for Fort Hamilton. The duty was difficult and perilous, requiring great exposure by night and by day, continual watchfulness, and a greater degree of sagacity than would ordinarily have been expected in a youth of nineteen. But he acquitted himself in a manner which proved his abilities to be equal to his spirit, and which elicited the commendations of General St. Clair.