Heights, and faced without flinching the fiery sleet that swept the column pressing up the rugged heights of Stony Point, should be adjudged a coward. He had been a gallant subordinate officer in the Revolution; but a man may be a good major or even colonel, yet a very poor commander-in-chief-qualified and eminently fit to act under orders, whom personal danger never moves, but unnerved by great responsibility. It is a singular coincidence that Napoleon was advancing on Moscow, and the very morning that Murat and Ney attacked and fell on the rear Russian Guard who began the memorable retreat, was the same morning that General Hull made his ignominious surrender of Detroit to General Brock, commander of the British forces. A considerable force of British and Indians was stationed at Detroit from the time of the surrender until the following winter, while Colonel Proctor's headquarters were at Malden with the main British army. In order to secure the force under Colonel Brush and the supplies in his charge, Captain Elliot, a British officer, was immediately after the surrender and capitulation sent to the River Raisin from Detroit, accompanied by a Frenchman and a Wyandot Indian, with a copy of the capitulation. Colonel Brush, learning from his scout that Captain Elliot was coming with a flag of truce, sent a guard out to meet him. Elliot and his companions were blindfolded and brought into the stockade. Colonel Brush would not believe Captain Elliot's story; thought it a hoax, and the copy of the capitulation a forgery, so utterly improbable did it seem to him that Detroit had been taken. For this reason he confined Captain Elliot and his companions in the blockhouse. The next day, August 17th, the story of the surrender was confirmed by an American soldier who had escaped from Detroit. Upon learning this, Colonel Brush packed up what provisions he could, retaining Captain Elliot's horse to aid in carrying the sick, and driving his cattle before him, escaped with his stores and army to Ohio, leaving orders to release Elliot on the next day, which was done. Elliot was of course indignant at his treatment and at the escape of Colonel Brush with so much of the supplies. To add to his rage, a great portion of the provisions and ammunition left by Brush had been carried off and secreted by the inhabitants of the place before his release, they thinking it no great harm to take from their own what would otherwise fall into the hands of the "rascally British," as they called them. Captain Elliot sent for the Indian Chief Tecumseh and his band to pursue Brush, and encouraged the Indians to ravage and plunder the settlement, in spite of the remonstrance of Tecumseh. The settlement was plundered not only of provisions and cattle, but horses, saddles, bridles, household furniture, and every valu able that had not been secreted. The settlement was so thoroughly stripped of horses that James Knaggs, who had for days been concealed in the settlement (a reward of $500 having been offered for his scalp), could find only one on which to escape to Ohio, and that horse had been hidden by a tailor in a cellar. Knaggs gave his coat and a silver watch for it. After much peril he succeeded in escaping. He was the scout or messenger who was entrusted with communication between Colonel Brush and General Hull when it was extremely hazardous to traverse the forests by Indian trails among hostile savages. Mr. James Knaggs subsequently fought under Colonel Richard M. Johnson at the Battle of the Thames, and with Medard Labadie of River Raisin carried Colonel Johnson, wounded, in a blanket from the field. The chief Tecumseh was the soul of honor when his word was pledged. When Tecumseh's hunting parties approached the white settlements, horses and cattle were occasionally stolen from the French settlers, but notice to the chief failed not to produce instant redress. The character of Tecumseh was that of a gallant warrior, an honest and honorable man, and his memory was respected by many of our old citizens who personally knew him. One incident will illustrate the character of the great Indian chieftain. When summoned by Elliot immediately after the surrender in August, 1812, to come to the River Raisin and pursue Colonel Brush, he found that most of the cattle of the settlement had been driven off, either by the settlers in order to save them or by the Indians as plunder. Therefore he experienced. great difficulty in getting meat for his warriors. He, however, discovered a yoke of fine black oxen, belonging to a Frenchman by the name of Rivard, who resided up the river some distance. Tecumseh insisted on taking the cattle, but Rivard begged hard, stating they were the only property he had left, and taking him into the house showed the chieftain his father sick and in need of medicine. He appealed urgently to Tecumseh's generosity, but Tecumseh said he must have the oxen, as his men were hungry. Young Rivard remonstrated. He told the chief that if he took them his father would starve to death. "Well," said Tecumseh, "we are the conquerors. I must have the oxen, my people must not starve, but I will not rob you of them. I will pay you $100, which is more than they are worth, but I must have them." The cattle were speedily killed, large fires built, and the warriors were soon feasting on their flesh. During the evening Tecumseh got a white man to write an order on the British Indian agent, Captain Elliot (who was on the river some distance below), for the money. Young Rivard took the order immediately to Colonel Elliot, who refused to pay it, and treated him harshly, saying: "We are entitled to our support from the country we have conquered, and I will not pay it." . The young man returned with a sorrowful heart and Elliot's answer to Tecumseh, who said: "He won't pay it, will he? Stay all night and to-morrow we will go and see." The next morning he took young Rivard straight into the presence of the captain in the block-house. On meeting him he said: "Do you refuse to pay for the oxen I bought?" Yes," said the captain, and reiterated the reason for refusal. The chieftain felt insulted, and said: "I bought them for my young men, who were very hungry. I promised to pay for them, and they shall be paid for if I have to sell all my own horses to pay for them. I have always heard that the white people went to war with each other and not with peaceable inhabitants; that they did not rob and plunder poor people. I will not." the Great Spirit and their good rifles. Their hunting grounds supplied them food enough and to them they can return.” He said further that the man was poor and had a sick father, as he knew, having seen him; that it was not right that this man should suffer for the evil deeds of his government, and that if this was the way the British intended to carry on the war he would pay the debt and then leave with his men for his home and let the British do their own fighting. Elliot was alarmed and frightened by the angry and determined chieftain, and brought out $100 in government scrip, but Tecumseh told him to take it back, as he promised the man the money and money he should have or he would leave. Elliot was with great reluctance compelled to pay the specie, and then Tecumseh made him pay the man a dollar extra for the trouble he had been to. Rivard went his way rejoicing with his $100, and Tecumseh's ire was appeased and his word vindicated. Soon after this the block-house on the site now occupied by Major Chapman was by the command of Captain Elliot burned; also a portion of the pickets were destroyed, deeming it prudent to destroy them, as he knew it was impossible for the British to keep an armed force at this point. Elliot then left, and from this time until the month of October, hands of Indians frequently returned to the River Raisin and plundered the settlement. In October, 1812, British officers came with a force of militia from Malden and took permanent possession of the town of Frenchtown. The officers occupied the houses of Jerome and Couture, below the brick house now owned by Louis Lafontain, not far from the present bridge of the Michigan Central Railroad. The Lafontain house was not then built, and was the site of Colonel Lacroix's residence; but the site of the building with those eastward was occupied with wooden buildings, all of which were burned to the ground at the time of the massacre in the following January. This location was made from the fact that it was adjacent to and commanded the only road from the south, "Well," said the captain, "I will not pay for which had been previously made by General them." The chief replied: "You can do as you please, but before Tecumseb, the Prophet and his warriors came to fight the battles of the great king, they had enough to eat, for which they had only to thank Hull, and from which point the British naturally expected the approach of American forces; also because from its elevation it overlooked the opposite (south) side of the River Raisin, as General Harrison was daily expected on his way with his army to Detroit. CHAPTER VII. FROM THE SURRENDER OF GENERAL HULL TO AND INCLUDING THE MASSACRE AT THE Y the terms of the capitulation, Fort Detroit tely to the ou Kentucky, mounted, Four thousand men raised by order of Governor ish forces under the command of Major-General Brock, together with all the troops, regulars as well as militia, and all public stores, arms, and documents. The troops were considered as prisoners of war, with the exception of such of the Michigan militia as had not joined the army. The Ohio troops were paroled and sent home by way of Cleveland, the Michigan militia released, and most of the regular troops were sent in flat-bottomed boats down the St. Lawrence River to Montreal and Quebec. Major-General Brock left Detroit in command of Colonel Proctor, with two hundred and fifty men. He by proclamation suspended the laws of the Territory, and declared the Territory under martial law until such time as the danger then existing or to be apprehended should be removed. The surrender of the northwestern army astonished and surprised the whole country, and was followed by indignation and a spirit of retaliation and revenge. The whole Northwest Territory was now laid open to the incursions of the savages. This army was regarded at the time by our Government as sure of success, and was expected to sweep everything before it, and this shameful surrender was not at first credited. Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia sent forth crowds of volunteers, eager to redeem the tarnished reputation of the country. Several members of Congress from Kentucky enlisted as private soldiers. The young and ardent Henry Clay at the musters thrilled the young men who surrounded him with his ardent zeal and eloquence. Ten thousand men were raised in a very short time and placed under General Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe. To these were added portions of the 17th and 19th Regiments of regular infantry, and two regiments from Kentucky and Ohio. under Major-General Hopkins, of the militia, who, jointly with three regiments already sent to Vincennes by General Harrison, were expected to defend the frontiers of Illinois and Indiana. September 12, 1812, General Harrison with about 2,500 men reached Fort Deposit and relieved the garrison, composed of about seventy men, who had gallantly withstood the attacks of hordes of Indians. Here he remained until the arrival of other troops, and occupied the time in sending out detachments against the Indian villages, all of which were successful. On the 18th of the same month, he returned to Fort Wayne, where he met General Winchester with re-enforcements of 2,000 men from Ohio and Kentucky. In the latter part of September he arrived at Fort Defiance. Leaving his forces there he returned to the settlements to organize and hasten up the forces designed to constitute the center and right wing of his army. He abandoned the original plan of boldly marching on Detroit and recapturing it at once, and determined to advance in three different columns, by as many different routes, to the Miami Rapids, thence move suddenly to Brownstown, cross the River Detroit and seize Malden, which had been the source of so much annoyance to General Hull, and avenge the disgrace of the surrender. The lakes being in possession of the enemy, provisions, ammunition and cannon had to be transported by land, through swamps and marshes, and along forest paths and Indian trails, which could be traced only by blazed trees, and traversed only when the ground was frozen. He therefore occupied his time in sending out detachments and hurrying up his forces, in order to be ready to advance when the frozen ground, and especially the ice along the margin of the lake, would facilitate the transportation of his guns and munitions of war. General Harrison in December gave the order for the whole army to move forward in three divisions: One from Sandusky, with a park of artillery and a nominal force of 10,000 strong; one from Fort McArthur; and the third, under General Winchester, was to advance from Fort Defiance to the Rapids of the Maumee, there take in their supplies of ordnance and provi sions, and proceed at once to invest Malden. Harrison, commanding the central division, started on the 31st of December. General Winchester, who had moved six miles from Fort Defiance towards the Maumee Rapids, commenced his march on the 8th of January. It was a cold, bitter day, and the snow lay over two feet deep in the forest when that doomed column, one thousand strong, set out for the Maumee Rapids, twenty-seven miles distant. The troops, most of whom were Kentuckians, were brave and hardy, and cheerfully harnessed themselves to sledges, dragging their baggage through the deep snow. General Winchester was ordered to fortify himself at the Maumee Rapids, and wait for the arrival of the other troops. Three days after arriving at this place, on the 13th of January, 1813, while construct ing huts to receive the supplies on the way and sleds for their transportation to Malden, he received an urgent request from the inhabitants of Frenchtown, on the River Raisin, to come to their assistance. Feeling the importance of fulfilling his general orders, he gave the messenger no encouragement. But another express on the next day and a third the day after, assured him that the whole settlement was threatened with massacre by the Indians, that only a small force of the enemy held possession of the place, and by a prompt answer to their prayer the ruin of all would be prevented. General Harrison called a council of officers. Colonel Allen and other gallant officers pleaded the cause of the helpless settlers, declaring that the true object of the expedition was the protection of the frontiers from the merciless Indians that brave men spurned danger when prayers of women and children were sounding in their ears. The troops, touched by the earnestness of the messengers and the peril of the inhabitants of Frenchtown, were anxious to move at once towards the River Raisin. Such appeals prevailed over the cooler and safer arguments drawn from the necessity of not damaging the success of the whole campaign by periling one of the wings of the advancing army. The result of this council with the officers was a determination to send troops immediately to the Raisin, thirty-five miles distant by the route they must travel. On the morning of the 17th, Colonel Lewis with 500 men started for Frenchtown, instructed to attack and rout the enemy and hold the place. These were followed a few hours later by Colonel Allen and 100 men, who joined Colonel Lewis at Presque Isle, a point on Maumee Bay a little below the present city of Toledo. There the troops passed an intensely cold night. Strong ice covered the bay and shores of Lake Erie, and over that icy bridge the little army moved early and rapidly. They breakfasted on the shores of the lake in snow several inches deep, then moved steadily forward in three lines, so arranged as to fall into order of battle with a moment's notice. They moved rapidly on the morning of the 18th, and were within six miles of Frenchtown before they were discovered by the scouts of the enemy -then about 500 strong and consisting of Canadians and Indians. Frenchtown at this time was a settlement containing thirty-five French families, twentytwo of whom resided on the north side, and had been taken possession of by the enemy soon after Hull surrendered. At the time of the approach of Colonel Lewis and his command, it was held by two companies of Canadians, 100 in number, under Major Reynolds, and about 400 Indians led by Round-Head and Split-Log, eminent Indian chiefs. The River Raisin was frozen hard, and when Colonel Lewis reached it the enemy were on the north bank, between the residence of Mr. Dubois and where the Lake Shore Railroad bridge now is, ready to dispute the passage. They had a six-pounder, which they commenced firing diagonally down the river while Lewis and Allen were approaching the present site of the old docks. They moved. steadily forward in the face of cannon and blazing musketry, and at a given signal made a furious charge upon the foe with bayonets. After a short contest with so much vigor and bravery, the Canadians and Indians of the British army were dislodged and driven in confusion to the forest on the north side of the river. The enemy then formed behind fallen timber and brushwood in the forest, and a sharp encounter ensued. The battle lasted from three o'clock in the afternoon until dark, the enemy all the time falling back before the brave Kentuckians, who pursued them so heedlessly that in the darkness they fell into an ambush and lost thirteen men killed and several wounded. The exact loss in the afternoon is not known, but was supposed to be as many more. The Americans returned to the Raisin, and occupied the camp abandoned by the enemy. The Indians gathered up the dead, and the allies retreated toward Malden. Colonels Lewis and Allen took possession of the quarters vacated by the British, and established guards at the picket fences and some distance from the houses in the woods. Colonel Lewis hastened to inform General Winchester of his success by one of his scouts. Immediately after the battle of the 18th, some of the French inhabitants who had sold provisions to the British followed them, and pursued their journey to Malden to get their pay. On their return they brought word that the British were collecting in large force to the number of 3,000 to attack Frenchtown. General Winchester paid but little attention to these reports, feeling considerable confidence in his own strength, and expecting re-enforcements which would render him safe beyond a doubt before the enemy could possibly attack him. The British seemed to be aware that they must make the attack before the re-enforcements came up, if they wished to effect any. thing; hence they hastened their preparations. On the 19th 200 Americans arrived, under the command of Colonel Wells, and encamped on the Reaume farm, about eighty rods east and below the other troops. and his four brothers (grandsons of Robert DeNavarre, a French officer who came to America in 1749) went on a scouting expedition on the ice towards the mouth of Detroit River by Winchester's request. They saw on the ice a solitary man approaching them on the run. He proved to be Joseph Bordeau, a Frenchman who had escaped from Malden. "My lads," said he, addressing Peter, "the Americans will be attacked by the whole British army to-night. I know it, and Colonel Proctor will be at the Raisin to-night with a large body of Indians." General Winchester was soon apprised of the fact, but a traitorous resident of Frenchtown (who proved to have been in the British interest) by the name of Jocko Lasselle, stood by and asserted in the most postive language that it must be a mistake, and persuaded the General that there was no truth in the story. Winchester dismissed the scouts with a laugh, but made no preparation to meet the threatened danger. Another scout was in during the afternoon with intelligence confirmatory of that given by Bordeau. A number of the French residents from the rumors that reached the town also called upon the General and strove to impress upon his mind that the American forces would be attacked that night. Yet Winchester was incredulous, and retired to bed without making any efficient arrangements of sentinels or pickets to watch the approach of the enemy. Late in the evening word was brought to Colonel Lewis's camp that a large force of British and Indians, with several pieces of artillery, were at Stony Creek, only four miles distant, and would be at Frenchtown before morning. That vigilant officer at once doubled the picket guard and sent word to General Winchester. The commander-in-chief did not believe the report, and composed himself for slumber. Lewis's field officers did believe it and remained up for some time, but they finally partook of the incredulity of their commander and retired. The small hours of the morning passed in perfect quietude, and Colonel Lewis, who had scarcely dared to slumber, began to doubt the truth of the last rumor, when suddenly just as the reveille was beaten, between four and five o'clock in the morning, the sharp crack of the sentinels' musketry firing an alarm was heard by still dull ears. These were followed by a On the morning of the 21st Peter Navarre shower of shell and canister shot, burled from On the 20th General Winchester arrived with Colonel Madison, whose forces were stationed in the camp with those of Colonels Lewis and Allen, while General Winchester made his headquarters in the house of Colonel Francis Navarre, on the opposite side of the river, about three-fourths of a mile above the position of Colonels Lewis and Allen. The site of the headquarters of General Winchester is now occupied as the residence of Doctor A. I. Sawyer. The American forces at the time amounted to about 1,000 men. |