Auglaize County, Ohio - Chapter 6: St. Clair's Campaign, 1905 (part 2 of 2)

It is needless to add that had Judge Symmes accompanied the army his opportunity for observing the country in the neighborhood of Fort Recovery would have been too limited for any practical use.

"In May, 1815," says a writer, "four of us called on St. 'Clair on the top of Chestnut Ridge, eastwardly eight or ten miles from Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. We were traveling on horseback to Connecticut, and being informed that he kept tavern, we decided to call for entertainment for the night. We alighted at his residence late in the afternoon, and on entering the log house saw an elderly, neat gentleman, -dressed in black broad cloth, with stockings and small clothes, shining shoes, whose straps were secured by large silver buckles, his hair clubbed and powdered. On closing his book he arose' and received us most kindly and gracefully, and pointing us to chairs he asked us to be seated. On being asked for entertainment, he said: "Gentlemen, I perceive you are travelling and dhough I should be gratified by your custom, it is my duty to

"There stood before us a Major General of the Revolution - the friend and confident of Washington - late Governor of the territory northwest of the Ohio river, one of nature's noblemen, of high, dignified bearing, whom misfortune, nor the ingratitude of his country, nor poverty, could break down nor deprive of self-respect : keeping a tavern but could not furnish a bushel of oats nor a lock of hay. We were moved principally to call upon him to hear him converse about the men of the Revolution?, and of the Northwestern Territory, and our reeret that he could not entertain us was greatly increased by hearing him converse about an hour. The large estate which he sacrificed for the cause of the Revolution was within a short distance of the top of Chestnut Ridge - if not in sight." He died on the thirty-first day of August, 1818, near Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. His best eulogist speaks of him as an enemy to the Indian tribes in war, but more frequently their friend and counselor in peace.

In January, 1792, General James Wilkinson, who then commanded at Fort Washington, made a call for volunteers to accompany an expedition to the scenes of St. Clair's defeat for the purpose of burying the dead. Ensign William Henry Harrison - afterward President of the United States - was attached to one of the companies of the regular troops. The volunteers numbered more than two hundred and fifty mounted men, and twohundred regular soldiers from Fort Washington. They began* the march on the 25th of January, 1792, from Fort Washington and afterward completed the organization by electing Captain John S. Gano, Major. They crossed the Big Miami on the ice, with horses and baggage, at Fort Hamilton, on the 28th day of January. The general in command issued an order at Fort Jefferson abandoning one of the objects of the campaign, which was a demonstration against an Indian town on the Wabash, not far distant from the battle ground of St. Clair. The regular soldiers, all on foot, returned to Fort Washington. The expedition reached the scene of disaster at 11 o'clock, but for a long distance along the road and in the woods the bodies of the slairr could be seen scalped, in many instances, and mutilated by the wild beasts.

It is said that the body of General Richard Butler was recognized where the carnage had been the thickest and among a group of slain. The bodies were gathered together, and in the solitude of the forest, and amidst the gloom of winter, were given a last resting place.

In the year 1800 Latour d'Auvergne, a descendant of Turenne, fell in the field of battle. He had joined the French army in the place of his son, and so exemplary was his conduct that he was named "The First Grenadier" of France. Napoleon .directed that the heart of Latour d'Auvergne, who fell at the battle of Neuburg, should be carried ostensibly by the Quartermaster Sergeant of the Grenadier Corps of the Forty-sixth Regiment, in which he served. His name was preserved on the roll, and when called the Corporal of the Guard to which he belonged answered, "Dead on the field of honor." The field of honor is measured by the cause and the self-consecration. It may mean the field of defeat as well as the field of victory. It is the selfsacrifice which determines the reward.

It is not possible to call the list of the slain in any engagement. Many must be left to catch the tears of mothers and wives and sisters shed in desolated homes and by vacated firesides. The officers who fell in the battle were Major General Butler, second in command; Major Ferguson, Captain Bradford, and Lieutenant Spear, of the artillery; Major Hart, Captains Phelon, Newman and Kirkwood, Lieutenant Warren and Ensign Cobb, of the Second Regiment; Captains Van Swearingen, Tibton and Price, Lieutenants McMath and Boyd, Ensigns Wilson and Reaves, Brooks and Chase, Adjutant Burges and Doctor Grayson, of the First Regiment of Levies. Lieutenant Colonel Gibson, of the Bayonets, died of his wounds at Fort Jefiferson; Lieutenant Colonel Oldham, Captain Lemon, Lieutenant Briggs and Ensign Montgomery, of the Kentucky Militia. General William Darke, for whom Darke county was named, was Lieutenant Colonel of the First Regiment of Levies, and was wounded in the engagement. He died on the 20th day of November, 1801.

cteries with appropriate memorials to commemorate their names and their deeds. A sacred duty to the dead of the battlefield will not have been discharged by the Federal Government until a stately shaft of magnificent proportions shall be erected to tell not only of that eventful day in November, but to teach the coming generations as well, by their example, when duty requires, to die for their country.

We turn from the ashes of the heroic dead to contemplate, with a supreme affection, the country for which they died. One hundred years have passed since that day of disaster for the whole Northwestern Territory. It has been a century crowned by the blessings of liberty and order and law. The gentle flowing Wabash traverses almost a continent where the English tongue is the language of freedom until its quiet waters mingle with the gulf. The harvests are peacefully gathered to their garners, and the songs of home are uninvaded by the cries and terrors of battle. The principle of civil and religious liberty, upon which five great Republics of the Northwest have erected their law and constitution, is strong in the hearts of a people who breathed the inspiration of freedom from the very air of heaven, and whose soil was never cursed by the unrequited toil of the bondsman. We may well have faith in the greatness and permanence of our political creations, and in unbroken unity, prophecy, and unconquerable strength.

Talleyrand characterized the United States, in speaking to the Emperor Napoleon, as a giant without bones. If the diplomat were here to-day he would find the National sentiment stronger than at any period since the Revolution ; nor will the pages of history show a more splendid example of self-sacrificing vindication of National integrity than the late civil war. It is the crowning glory of the century, and a free people, having an abiding faith in the strength and permanence of their political institutions, may look forward with supreme confidence as they march onward in the path to imperial greatness.

At the conclusion of Judge Hunt's address, the Sidney Cornet Band headed the procession, playing a slow march, followed by the military company from Portland, Indiana. The Sons of Veterans came next, followed by the G. A. R. Post of Fort Recovery. Then came the catafalque on which the remains were placed, drawn by four horses. The Executive Board of the Mon'- umental Association followed the catafalque and a procession of young ladies, representing the different states of the Union, brought up the rear.

The procession slowly marched from the church through the village to the park, where the grave had been prepared to receive the remains. Prayer was offered by Rev. O. S. Greene, after which General Shanks delivered the dedication address. Three salutes were fired by the military over the graves of the soldiers. The scene was an impressive one, and will long be remembered by those who witnessed it.