Defiance County, Ohio - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 3 of those read), 1883 (part 1 of 2)

The Miamis

ACCORDING to John B. Dillon, the mild and fertile region now included within the boundaries of the State of Indiana w.iis at the time of its discovery by Europeans, claimed and possessed by the Miami confederacy of Indians. The Miamis proper, who, in former times, bore the' name of Twightwees, formed the eastern and most powerful branch ot this confederacy. " The dominion of the confederacy extended for a long period of time over that portion of Ohio which lies west of the Scioto River and over the whole of Indiana, over the southern part of Michigan and over the principal part of the State of Illinois, lying southeast of E'ox River and the River Illinois. The tribe have no tradition of their migration from any other part of the country, and the great extent of the territory which was claimed by them may be re garded as some evidence of the high degree of national importance which they foriSierly maintained among the Indian tribes of North America. "

The Miami tribe were of Algonquin lineage and spoke much the same language or dialect as the Delawares, the Shawnees and Wyandots. In stature for the most part, the Miamis were of medium height, well built, heads rather round than oblong, countenances agreeable, rather than sedate or morose, swift on foot and excessively fond of racing, both on foot and horse. Some of them were quite tall and yet retained tine forms. They were noted for their clean ly habits and neatness of dress.

The Miamis unlike most other tribes, were 'much whiter or fairer in color. This peculiarity attracted the attention of the French and other foreigners. Their color partly'arose from inter-marriage with the French who frequently sought such alliances, and became quite influential with the tribe. The squaws cultivated the corn and other vegetables and performed most of the field labor. The warriors were regarded as hunters, and provided most of the game upon which the tribe subsisted. They went to war and were regarded as being above drudgery and toil. The men were proud and haughty, though generally evincing strong attachments for their squaws and children. The tribe for a long period lived along the banks of the Wabash, the St. Joseph and the Maumee, formerly called by the tribe the " Omee." Here the Miami lived doubtless centuries before the first civilized settlement in America had begun ; his squaws cultivated the maize and performed the common hardships of life, while the red man hunted the buffalo, the elk and other wild game; and speared the fish in the beautiful Maumee or Bean Creek, as they basked in the sunshine, or devoted himself to plays and games, or went forth to secure the trophies and honors of war, from his camp fires, upon the banks o£ the Maumee or the grand Glaize.

Ever eager to advance the interests of their respective Governments, the French and English were always antagonists in their missionary enterprises. The French from Canada were industrious in their efforts to propagate the Catholic faith among the Western tribes. In 1672, the Indians residing along the Maumee and the southern shore of Lake Michigan were visited by the missionaries, Allouez and Dablon, who opened a mission among the Miamis. There followed, between 1672 and 1712, the following: Rebourde, Membre, Hennepin, Marquette, Pinet, Benneteau, Bosles, Periet, Berger, Meoniet, Marest, Gravier, DeVille and Charden, who endured many privations and dangers to propagate their religion among the various tribes.

Hennepin pushed the mission in 1680 to the Illinois tribes, and, though peacefully heard, complains that the mission accomplished but little. The Indians could not comprehend the mysteries of the Christian religion, bat silently heard his story and suffered their children to be baptized. When asked why they remained silent, they informed him that "their habit was always to hear the speaker tell his story in a courteous manner without contradiction and at the same time judging of its truth or falsity;" while white men declare the religion of the red man to be false! This they thought very rude and unjustifiable. They never disturb a man because of his religious belief. The result was that his mission produced no lasting impression.

About this time the Five Nations of New York became involved in a war with the Colonists of Canada, which continued until the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, which retarded the ambition of the French in planting colonies in the Northwest and the valley of the Mississippi. Between 1680 and 1700, several efforts were made by French missionaries to establish missions along the southern shores of Lake Michigan for the purpose of converting the Indians of Illinois. These missions were composed of a few Frenchmen under the lead of the celebrated La Salle, the mis- sionary and explorer, and attracted the attention of many adventurers to the Illinois country, and about the year 1700 a small number of them settled on the banks of Kaskaskia River and became the founders of a village of that name.

La Salle pushed his discoveries in the new country until the Mississippi, the great river of North America, was discovered and traced to its mouth, by this ambitious explorer and hia followers in 1682. The Government of Prance immediately took measures to plant a line of forts connecting their Canadian possessions with the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. By the efforts of La Salle, a small fort was built on the lake shore, forming a missionary station and trading post on the borders of the River St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. Hennepin, in his notes, states that .the fort was situated at the mouth of the St. Joseph on an eminence, with a kind of a platform naturally fortified. It was pretty high and steep, of a triangular form, defended on two sides by the river and on the other by a deep ditch, which the fall of the waters had made. We felled the trees that were on the top of the hill; and having cleared the same from bushes for about two musket shot we began to build a redoubt of eighty feet long and forty feet broad, with great square pieces of timber laid one upon another, and prepared a great namber of stakes of about twenty-five feet long to drive into the ground, to make our fort the more inaccessible on the river side. We employed the whole month of November, 1679, about that work, which was very hard, though we had no other food but the bears' flesh our savage killed. These beasts are very common in this place, because of the great quantity of grapes they find there; but their flesh being too fat and luscious, our men began to be weary of it, and desired leave to go hunting to kill some wild goats (deer). Mr. La Salle denied them that liberty, which caused some murmurs among them; and it was but unwillingly that they continued their work. "We made a cabin wherein we performed divine service every Sunday; and Father Gabriel and I, who preached alternately, took care to take such texts as were suitable to our present circumstances and fit to inspire us with courage, concord and brotherly love." This fort, when completed, was named "Fort Miami," and was within the dominion of the Miami nation. This was the sixth fort erected by the French, and guarded the routes to the great father of waters, via the Wisconsin and Illinois Rivers. Another fort was built near the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers, near the present site of Ft. Wayne, where settlements of French traders began to collect at an early period, which extended to Vincennes and other points. Time wore on. The church of Rome was the church of the Frenchmen of the day; and his God was not the God of the Englishman. The contest was foe surpemacy, and destined to be a bitter one; the vantage-ground seemed to be on the side of the French; but 1749 came, and the English began to make inroads on the French dominion as traders; this year La Jonquiere, then Governor of Canada, found English traders at Sandusky exerting an influence against French traders among the Wyandots, and encouraged by the Iroquois of New York, who had been unwittingly insulted by Champlain in 1609 by uniting with a party of Algonquin Indians. The English sided with the Iroquois and encouraged their animosities against the French settlements. This feeling among the New York tribes continued until the fall of French power in Canada in 1760.

Ke-ki-ong-gay was the great capital of the Miamis, and from the importance exerted by the tribe was regarded the "great gate" of the tribe through which all great enterprises must pass before they were given the consent of the confederacy. It stood where the city of Ft. Wayne now stands, and at the junction of St. Joseph and St. Mary's, near the head of the Maumee, up which the French missionaries and Miami warriors anciently passed in their bark canoes and pirogues.

Prom 1774 (Dunmore's war) to 1794, the victory of Wayne on the Maumee, the Miamis along the upper waters of the Scioto, the Mad and Little Miami Rivers in Ohio, and the Wabash River and the Miami village in Indiana, the Miamis, Shawnees, Wyandots, Delawares and other tribes gave the border settlers of Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania much annoyance by their hostile raids along the Ohio River. The treaty of Ft. Harmar was expected to quiet their hostility, but failed to pacify the Miamis, Shawnees, and others who were still anxious to reserve all the territory northwest of the Ohio, and still visited the settlers of the borders and committed many murders and thefts. During this time, the hero Gen. George Rodgers Clark led an expedition into the territory of Southern Ohio and Indiana, to humble the pride and cruelty of the Miamis and other tribes. The Indians were still treacherous and cruel. Simon Kenton visited the Shawnees with his Kentuckians to punish their horse-stealing, and was, taken prisoner. The Indians continued hostile, contending for the whole of Ohio. Boats were frequently taken on the Ohio and the crews murdered and scalped by the Indians. In self-defense, it finally became necessary to send an expedition against them, commanded by Gen. Harmar. This led to the war of 1791 to 1795, when the Miamis and other tribes were completely humbled by the great campaign of Gen. Wayne.

the present time backward through a period of 150 years, we must pass painfully over a long and mournful picture of ignorance, superstition, injustice, war, barbarity and the most debasing intemperance," says Dillon "they fell into decay from habits of indolence, idleness, drunkenness and barbarism. Intemperance is the bane of the red man, and under its influence the American Indians are rapidly disappearing. At the present time a few small, mixed and miserable bands constitute the remnant of the once powerful Miami nation. Their misfortunes and vices which they learned from the white race still cling to them, with unabated power to degrade and destroy. Thus, with the light of civilization beaming around them, the last fragments of one of the most powerful aboriginal nations in North America are rapidly passing away from the earth forever. There are but a few remnants of this people in Indiana, the rest having long since been transferred to reservations west of the Mississippi.

The Miamis were less cruel in war than the New York tribes, but had many customs that were revolting in their nature. Gen. Cass, in a speech delivered at Ft. Wayne July 4, 1843, at the celebration of the opening of the canal, said: "For many years during the frontier history of this place and region, the line of your canal was a bloody war-path, which has seen many a deed of horror, and this peaceful town has had its Molocji, and the records of human depravity furnish no more terrible examples of cruelty than were offered at its shrine. The Miami Indians, our predecessors, in the occupation of this district, had a terrible institution whose origin and object have been lost in the darkness of aboriginal history, but which was continued to a late period, and whose orgies were held upon the very spot where we now are. It was called the man-eating society, and it was the duty of its associates to eat such prisoners as were preserved and delivered to them for that purpose. The members of this society belonged to a particular family and the dreadful inheritance descended-to all the children, male and female. The duties it imposed could not be avoided, and the sanctions of religion were added to the obligations of immemorial usage. The feast was a solemn ceremony, at which the whole tribe was collected as actors or spectators. The miserable victim was bound to a stake and burned at a slow fire, with all the refinements of cruelty which savage ingenuity could invent. There was a traditionary ritual which regulated with revolting precision the whole course of procedure at those ceremonies. Latterly, the authority and obligations of the institution has declined and I presume it has now wholly disappeared. But I have seen aud conversed with the head of the family, the chief of the society, whose name was "White Skin - wi'h what feeling of disgust I need not attempt to describe. I well knew an intelligent Canadian who was present at one of the last sacrifices made at this horrible institution. The victim was a young American captui-ed in Kentucky toward the close of our Revolutionary war. Here where we now are assembled, in peace and security, celebrating the triumph of art and industry, within the memory of their present generation, our countrymen have been thus tortured, and murdered and devoui-ed. But, thank God, that council fire is extinguished. The impious feast is over; the wardance is ended; the war-song is sung; the war -drum is silent, and the Indian has departed to find, I hope, in the distant West, a comfortable residence, and I hope also to find, under the protection, and, if need be, under the power of the United States, a radical change in the institutions and general improvement in his morals and condition. A feeble remnant of the once powerful tribe, which formerly won their way to the dominion of this region, by blood, and by blood maintained it, have to-day appeared among us like passing shadows, flitting round the places that know them no more. Their resurrection, if I may so speak, is not the least impressive spectacle, which marks the progi'ess of this imposing ceremony. They are the broken columns which connect us with the past. The edifice is all in ruins, and the giant vegetation which covered and protected it lies as low as the once mighty structure, which was shelved in its recesses. They have come to witness the first great act of peace in our frontier history, as their presence here is the last in their own. The ceremonies upon which you heretofore gazed with intere.st, will never again be seen by the white man, in the seat of their former power. But thanks to our ascendancy, these representations are but a pageant; but a theatrical exhibition, which, with barbarous motions and sounds and contortions, show how their ancestors conquered their enemies, and how they glutted their revenge in blood. To-day, this last of the race is here; to-morrow they will journey toward the setting sun, where their fathers, agreeable to their rude faith, have preceded them, and where the red man will find rest and safety. "

Little T0Ktle

This chief was of mixed origin - half Mohican and half Miami, and son of a chief; born at his village on Eel River, about 1747, he very early became the war chief of the Miamis. In stature he was a short, well built, with symmetrical form, prominent forehead, heavy eye-brows, keen, black eyes and a large chin. His Indian name was Me-che-kan-nahquah, and he was noted for his bravery and wisdom in the councils of the tribe with whom he was allied. In leading his army of braves to sure victory, one hour, it is said, he was cutting and slashing with his tomahawk with the ferocity of a tiger, and the next hour was calm and passive as a child, At the treaty of Greenville, he proved himself to be a full match for Wayne in the councils of the tribes, for shrewdness and far-reaching diplomacy. After the treaty he returned to his people and gave his adherence to the United States, which he freely supported as long as he lived. He, with his tribe, resisted the invasion of Harmar in 1790-91, and met Gen. St. Clair with all his savage confederates, which resulted in the defeat of St. Clair's army at what was afterward Ft. Recovery. Upon the approach of the army of Wayne, he again prepared to meet that heroic commander at the battle of Fallen Timbers, in 1794. But the Shawnee chief. Blue Jacket, was made the commander of the Indian forces and led that army. The result of that battle is well known. It was fought against the advice of Little Turtle, and resulted in disaster to che Indians. In all those battles, the Little Turtle proved himself a brave and discreet chief. In the war of 1812, though urged by Tecumseh, he refused to take sides with that wily leader of the Shawuees. He was content with the treaty of Greenville and remained near Ft. Wayne. He died on the

14th of July, 1812, at his lodge at the old orchard, a short distance north of the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph Eivers, in the yard fronting the house of his brother-in-law, Capt. William Wells

The chief had long suffered with the gout, and had come there from his place of residence, at his village on Eel Bi^er, about twenty miles from Ft. Wayne, to be treated by the United States Surgeon at the fort. It was a solemn and interesting occasion. After the treaty of Greenville, he had remained the true friend of the Americans and the United States Government, and was much respected by all who knew him. He was borne to the grave with the highest honors, by his great enemy, the white man. The muffled drum, the solemn march, the funeral salute, announced that a great soldier had fallen, and even enemies paid tribute to his memory. His remains were interred about the center of the old orchard, with all his adornments, implements of war, and a sword presented to him by Gen. Washington, together with a medal of the likeness of Washington thereon - all laid by his side and hidden beneath the sod in one common grave. This remarkable chief possessed a great mind. For many years he was the leading chief among the Miami tribe, surpassed for bravery and intelligence by none of his race. He is said to have possessed a very inquiring mind and never lost an opportunity to gain some valuable information.

Chapter

IN an address delivered before the New York Historical Society, December 6, 1811, by Gov. De Witt Clinton, on the origin and history of the Iroquois Nation, he says: " There is a strong propensity in the human mind to trace up our ancestry to as high and as remote a source as possible, and if our pride and our ambition cannot be gratified by a real statement of facts, fable is substituted for truth, and the imagination is taxed to supply the deficiency. This principle of our nature, although liable to great perversion, and frequently the soui'ceof well-founded ridicule, may, if rightly directed, become the parent of great actions. The origin and progress of individuals, of families and of nations, constitute biography and history - two of the most interesting departments of human knowledge. Allied to this principle, springing from the same causes, and producing the same benign effects, is that curiosity we feel in tracing the history of the nations which have occupied the same territory before us, although not connected with us in any other respect. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible if it were endeavored, and it would be foolish if it were possible. The places where great events have been performed, where great virtues have been exhibited, where great crimes have been perpetrated, will always excite kindred emotions of admiration or horror. And if that man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona, we may with equal confidence assert that morbid must be his sensibility and small must be his capacity for improvement who does not advance in wisdom and in virtue from contemplating

It will be interesting to all ethnologists, and those engaged in the study of archaeology, to take a general geographical and hi?torical view of the Shawnee Nation, which formerly owned and inhabited the valleys of the Ot-ta-wa and Auglaize, before they came into the possession of the present inhabitants of Allen County by treaty and sale. We enter upon this task the more cheerfully from the conviction that no part of Ohio contained a braver race, or one which furnished a more interesting and instructive history. The Shawnees have, since their intercourse with the white man, been conspicuous for the possession of many remarkable chiefs and leaders of great military talent - men distinguished in war and in treaties for their shrewdness and far-seeing diplomacy.

Originally, the nation was called Chaouanons by the French, and Shawanoea by the English. The English name Shawano changed to Shawanee, and recently to Shawnee. Chaouanon and Shawano are obviously attempts to represent the same sound by the orthography of the two languages, the French 'ch' being the equivalent of the English 'sh.' The Shawnee nation originally migrated from the north, .perhaps Canada, and used largely the dialect of the Wyandots or ancient Hurons. Their eccentric wanderings, their sudden appearances and disappearances, says a noted writer on Indian history, perplex the antiquary and defy research. In all history the Sha^vnees were noted for their restless disposition, frequently changing their residence and migrating hundreds of miles.

The Shawnees, by permission of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, emigrated from the South, perhaps the coast of Florida, some time prior to 1682, and located on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. The Five Nations regarded them as inferiors, and did not permit them any representation in the great Northern confederacy, but simply designated them as brothers and relations. We find, however, that when William Penn landed at Coaquannuck, the present site of Philadelphia, in 1682, and entered into a mutual understanding with the Iroquois, the Delawares and other Indian tribes inhabiting Pennsylvania, concerning the purchase of lands and a league of peace, the Shawnees were sufficiently numerous and powerful to be present at the consultation.

In June, 1682, a conference for ratifying the treaty appears to have been held under a large elm tree at Shackamaxen, nc?ar the Delaware River. The chiefs of the Five Nations, the Delawares, the Shawnees, the Mingoes and the Gan-aw-eese, from the Potomac River, were present, and received compensation for lands, and the right to occupy the country

The Shawnees were of Algonquin descent, and spoke much the same dialect as the Iroquois, and it is tolerably certain that they were of Northern or Canadian origin. If it be true, as suspected by some, that they were a remrant of the ancient Eries, or Andastes, who fell under the fury of the relentless Iroquois in 1655, who fled their country and became widely scattered in North and South . Carolina, Florida and the wilds of Kentucky, the fact of their return to the upper waters of the Susquehanna, some thirty f)r forty years after the conquest of their country south of Lake Erie, seems easy of explanation. Certain it is, that at the conquest of the Eries by the Five Nations, great numbers of the fallen tribe were killed on the various fields of battle, while large numbers were captured and canned home to grace the triumph of the Iroquois, and, to carry out their savage customs, burned to the stake. Tra(iition also declares that great numbers of the Eries were incorporated into the body of the Iroquois nation, and thenceforward regarded as a part of that people; while, desiring to escape Iroquois vengeance, great numbers of the fallen Eries fled to the far South, and obtained a home among the Creeks and the tribes in Georgia and Florida.

From the date of their contact with Europeans, the Shawnees were regarded as the most restless of all the Indian tribes. Like the Mohawks, they were cruel to their enemies, fierce in war, and rarely forgot or forgave an insult or injury.

The Algonquin family, at one time, appears to have possessed all the territory from Cape Canso and the Bay of Gaspe, to the branches of Mississippi, from the Cumberland River to Capo Fear, and probably from the Savannah to the land of the Esquimaux in the far North.

As early as 1682, the integrity cf the Shawnees was so far admitted by the Iroquois and other tribes in attendance upon the treaty of William Penn that a copy, in parchment, of the treaty, was deposited with them for safe keeping, and more than forty years afterward was produced at another conference by the chiefs of the Shawnees.

After the conference of 1682, large bands of the Shawnees removed to Winchester, Va., and from thence to the Cumberland River, in Kentucky, and thence to the head-waters of the Congaree, in South Carolina, thence to the head- waters of the Mobile, adjoining the Creeks, and thence to the Wabash River, in Indiana, where La Salle found them in 1684, and was joined by thirty of their warriors in his expedition to discover the mouth of the Mississippi, after which we hear no more of these restless warriors.

As early as 1698, over seven hundred warriors or fighting men of the Shavyneea had returned and located upon the head waters of the Susquehanna, by permission of the Five Nations, then occupying Northern New York and Pennsylvania.

For a period of nearly forty years, say from 1698 to 1745, we nearly lose sight of this wandering and restlesi people. Between that time and 1755, large bands of the Shawnees settled on the Allegheny Kiver, near the present site of Pittsburgh, the former home of the fallen Andastes and afterward removed to Cape Girardeau, between the Whitewater and the Mississippi. In 1755, the Shawnees aided the French in repelling the expedition of Gen. Braddock.

In 1701, forty-four years before the English invasion of Fort Du Quesne, Wapatha, a great chief of the Shawnees, held a conference with William Penn at Philadelphia, in which it was agreed that a good understanding between the said Penn and the several Indian nations there assembled, should be forever maintained, and thenceforward they should be as one head and one heart, and live in peace, friendship and unity as one people.

In 1715, Opes-sah, a great chief of the Shawnees, attended another council, held at Philadelphia, at which the pipe of peace was smoked. We are not informed of the location of the Shawnees represented by him, but are told he came a great distance, possibly from the Cumberland River, or the wilds of the Scioto or the Little Miami, in Ohio.

We are unable to fix the exact date of the arrival and settlement of the Shawnees in Southern Ohio; but from certain statements of the Wyandots, who gave them permission to occupy that territory, their settlement must have occurred about 1750.

The first treaty between the United States and the Shawnees, as a separate people, was held at the mou^h of the great Miami, January 31, 1786. In that treaty the limits of their lands and future hunting-grounds are defined, while they relinquish all title or pretence of title in their lands, to the United States. The Wyandots protested against this treaty, contending that the lands ceded by the Shawnees to the United States belonged to them, and that the restless disposition of the Shawnees caused so much trouble, both to them and the United States, that they felt it to be their duty to dispossess them entirely.

It will be remembered that, from 1755, the Shawnees were jealous of the encroachment.^ of the colonists of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and met the pioneer settlements with gloaming tomahawks and scalping knives. This hatred of the English was imbibed from the French, who had been expelled from the head- waters of the Ohio, and who, under the Eng

The depredations of the Shawnees upon the settlements in Virginia oaased Gov. Dunmore, in 1774, to send an army for the invasion of the Indian tribes on the Scioto and Little Miami, in Ohio, In September, 1774, a great battle was fought at the junction of the Great Kanawha with the Ohio, in which the Shawnees and their allies were defeated, and compelled to beat a hasty retreat across the Ohio River. The Shawnees were led by Cornstalk, a great chief, assisted by the celebrated chief and warrior. Blackhoof, equally distinguished for his bravery, oratory, shrewdness and generosity.

In the fall of 1774, Gov. Dunmore held a treaty, being the last English Governor of Virginia, with the Shawnees and their allies, not far from the present site of Circleville, Ohio, in which Cornstalk, Blackhoof, Logan, the Grenadier Sqtiaw and other noted Indians participated. Peace was proclaimed, but was of short duration.

The arrival of Boone, the McAffees, the Harrods, the Hendersons, the Bullets, Hancocks, Ployds and others in Kentucky, from 1773 to 1776, again inflamed the jealousy of the Shawnees, and repeated raids were made against the new settlers to exterminate them. British agents fomented the discontent of the Ohio Indians, and in some instances planned and headed their expeditions against the white settlements. In 1777, the Shawnees became somewhat divided on the policy of continuing the war against the revolted colonies, then seeking independence from the mother country. Cornstalk, celebrated as a chief and leader, headed the anti-war party, and visited an American block-house, at the mouth of the great Kanawha, to warn the Virginians of the approaching storm and, if possible, avert the calamity of border invasion. He was accompanied by another chief, called Red Hawk. These messengers of peace were immediately seized and confined in the block-house, "as hostages, to prevent the expected depredations of the Shawnees.

While thus confined, his son, Ellimpsico, who had also fought in the great battle at Point Pleasant in 1774, came to the fort to learn the fate of Cornstalk, his father. He had become uneasy at his long absence, and, prompted by filial aflection, had come to seek him out in his exile. While in the fort, a few soldiers, who had crossed the Kanawha to hunt, were attacked by strange Indians, and a soldier by the name of Gilmore was killed. The result was, that a party of soldiers, in revenge for the death of Gilmore, proceeded to the block-house and shot Cornstalk, Red Hawk and Ellimpsico! This act - barbar- ous and unjiistifiable - terminated all uncertainty, and precipitated the Shawnees upon the borders of Virginia and Kentucky, and was the occasion of repeated invasions from 1777 to the peace of 1795. under Gen. "Wayne at Greenville.

The residence of the Shawnees extended along the Scioto at various points, from its junction to its headwaters. There was a large band at the present site of Chillicothe, Circleville and Columbus. The band had villages near what is now London, Madison Coimty, in Logan County, along Darby and Mad River, the Miami and other points, and finally at the Mackichac towns. The assaults upon emigrant boats along the Ohio soon rendered it dangerous for emigrants to Kentucky and elsewhere. Frequent expeditions into the Kentucky settlements, to take prisoners and steal horses, became so annoying, that Kenton and Logan and Clark, in self-defense, were compelled to head large forces to invade the Indian country, and finally the Indian war became so well contested that the United States supported quite a little army at North Bend, the future residence of Gen. W. H. Harrison, under Gen. Harmar. The presence of these forces was soon discovered by the Shawnees. As soon as the news reached the Indians, they began to move toward the scene of action, which it was supposed would be somewhere on the Miami or Maumee. Another village was established where Cincinnati now is, named Losantiville, which became the residence of Gov. St. Clair and his executive council. A fort, named after the father of his country, Washington, was erected in the new village, and the soldiers transferred from North Bend to it. By this demonstration the Shawnees, the Miamis, the "Wyandots, the Delawares and other tribes were the more incensed, being already very jealous at the encroachments upon their huntinggrounds upon the north side of the Ohio.

The conduct of Gov. St. Clair upon this occasion was rather anomalous. Under his construction of the treaty of Muskingum, he decided, if upon any occasion it became necessary for Virginia or Kentucky to repel the attack of an enemy within the limits of the teriitory of Ohio, it would be necessary to first obtain the consent of its Territorial authorities, who proposed to act under the treaty of amity (that of the Muskingum) with the United States. This was tantamount to surrendering the Western country to the Indians, for no effective expedition could be carried over the Ohio River. The result was, the people of Kentucky were greatly harassed by the Ohio Indians, who were constaatly sending over bands to steal horses, capture negroes and take white scalps and prisoners, without the means of redress! The continuance of these aggressions at length aroused the people of Kentucky, and, relying upon their own energies, they resolved to pursue their wily and fugitive enemy across the river into the river into their own forests and towns.

In April, 1790, Gen. Scott, with 230 volunteers, crossed the Ohio at Limestone, now Maysville, and was joined by Gen. Josiah Harmar and 100 regulars of the United States. They invaded the Scioto villages, but found them deserted. In the fall of 1790, Gov. St. Clair became convinced that more energetic measures were necessary. An attempt had been made to treat with the Indians, but had failed. The Gov - ernment then took more effective measures to make the Indians feel the force of arms. Gen. Harmar had been appointed, under the old Congress, as Brigadier, and was now placed at the head of the United States troops, who amounted to 320 men. These were joined by about 1,200 Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia militia, and in September rendezvoused at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati; with a view of attacking the Miami towns, often called Omee by the French.

After about seventeen days' rharch, the army reached the great Miami village, which they found set on fire by the Indians. The enemy, Parthianlike, kept out of the way of the unwieldy movements of the main army, until an opportunity for effective fighting presented, when they made a stand. The Indians were concealed in thickets on each side of a large plain near the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph Rivers, and ambushed their pursuers. About 700 Indians were engaged, which put the militia to a disgraceful flight without firing a single shot! The noted Miami leader and chief, Little Turtle, commanded the Indians. The regulars made a stand, but were mercilessly shot down until nearly all the ofiicers and men were killed. After a few ineffective attempts to rally and renew the fight, we are informed that, after a few attempted surprises by the ofiicers who accompanied Harmar, he returned, by easy marches, with" all his artillery and baggage to Fort Washington by the 4th of December, 1790.

Thus the Miamis and Shawnees, with their allies, were successful in repelling the invasion of Harmar. The soldiers left on the field wounded or dead, were scalped and barbarously mangled by the Indians. This triumph increased their courage and audacity. They boasted of their ability to repel the whites, and became more relentless in their cruelties to prisoners captured on the Ohio River. They were much affected bj' the destruction of their villages, and the loss of a large number of their braves in skirmishes with Harmar's troops, all of which increased their ferocity toward the whites. The retreat of Harmar was construed into a victory on the part of the Indians, and did not in the least humble their leading chiefs. The Shawnees were commanded by Blue Jacket and Blackhoof, noted for their courage and cunning. The Delawares were led by Bockongahelas and Captain Pipe, relentless in their hate toward the pale faces, the latter of whom had caused the execution, by burning, of Col. William Crawford, on the Tymochtee, eight years prior to this battle.

The fierceness of the Shawnees remained unsubdued, but, if anything, more revengeful. The result was, that Gen. Harmar had to submit to a court martial, which gave htm an honorable acquittal, when he resigned. Gov. St. Clair was appointed to succeed Gen. Harmar in command of the army. He had been a General in the Revolutionary army, arid had a good deal of experience in the field. Large expectations were entertained concerning his ability to outwit and over-reach the furious red men of the forests of Western Ohio. Gens. Scott, Wilkinson, Innis, Shelby, Hardin and Logan crossed the Ohio River and in vaded the Indian country. Gov. St. Clair at once began to organize a new expedition, which rendezvoused at Fort Washington. Many Revolutionary officers of distinction accepted a command in the new army. The soldiers, however, were mostly raw militia, and not noted for courage and, discipline.

Diu'ing the summer of 1791, the forces were collecting at the fort, to march early in the fall. The preparations to meet the wily savages of the Northwest were inadequate, and the troops were not reliable, many being f i-om the haimts of towns, corrupt and lazy, and unwilling to submit to the hard discipline of regulars. No general officer from Kentucky would accept command, and the General Government drafted 1,000 men, and |^Col. Oldham was given the command. By September, St. Clair's army amounted to about two thousand regulai's, a corps of artillery and several squadrons of cavalry. The militia, in the aggregate, amounted to 3, 000 men.

The expedition left Fort Washington about the first of October, by the way of Fort Hamilton, now in Butler County, Ohio. The objective point was the Indian villages upon the Miami or Maumee of the lake. While these preparations for invasion were being made by Gen. St. Clair, the Indian chiefs were equally active. The Little Turtle of the Miamis, Blue Jacket and Blackhoof of the Shawnees. Bockong-ahelas and Pipe of the Delawares, and Crane of the Wyandots were actively engaged in an effort to organize a confederacy of tribes sufficiently powerful to drive the white settlers from the territory lying on the northwestern side of the Ohio River, receiving aid from Simon Girty, Alexander McGeeand Matthew Elliott (the latter two sub-agents in fJie British Indian departments), and from a number of British, Fi-ench and American traders, who generally resided among the Indians, and supplied them with arms, ammunition and clothing in exchange for furs and peltries. Under these influences, a confederation of Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Pottawatomies, Kickapoos and Ottawas was formed, and all the proper steps taken to confront the invaders of their territory. The British agents were particularly active in fomenting hate and revenge. The British Government had failed to evacuate the ports of Niagara, Detroit and Michilimackinac, according to the definitive treaty of 1783, under the pretence that a part of that treaty, relating to the collection and payment of debts contracted by Americans and due to the King's subjects, had not been faithfully complied with by the Americans, to the detriment of the former, and, therefore, British agents justified themselves in stimulating Indian hostilities! These agents, also, enlisted the Mohawks of Northern New York, under their great chief, Joseph Brandt, who passed over British territory to aid the Little Turtle and Blue Jacket in repelling the forces of Gen. St. Clair.

The main body of St. Clair's army, under Gen. Butler, took up its line of march from Fort Washington, and, moving northward some twenty-five miles, on the eastern bank of the Great Miami, erected a post, which was called Fort Hamilton. On the 4th of October, the fort being completed, the army began its further advance for the Miami village, having marched forty-two miles, and the work was erected within six miles of the present site of Greenville, Ohio, which was named Fort Jefferson. Here the army remained until the 24th of October. It again set forward, and, after marching nine days, many of the militia deserted, and their provisions became short. Gen. St. Clair was a gouty old officer, and sick much of the way. On the 8d of November, the army reached the present site of the town of Recovery, Ohio, and encamped on the head-waters of the Wabash. The weather was quite cold, and the snow covered the earth. The Indians, by spies, kept watch of the advance of St. Clair, and the confederated tribes, inspired with great coui-age and determination, were already resorting to their usual strategy, to draw the white ariuy into an ambuscade. They sometimes advanced, under their great leaders, the Little Turtle, Back-oug-a-he-las, Blue Jacket, Blackhoof, Pipe and Simon Qirty, to within a short distance of St. Clair's advance, and then fell back. They had, under the Little Turtle, about 1,200 warriors.

Gen. St. Clair was now within fifteen miles of the Miami town. As a means of safety for the knapsacks of the soldiers, he ordered that a light work should be thrown up, and then intended to move on and attack the enemy in the morning. A short time before day, the Indian whoop and wild yell startled the army of St, Clair, already under arms, and at once the Indians began a furious attack upon the militia, which soon gave way, and, pell-mell, rushed into the midst of the camp, through Maj. Butler's battalion, creating the wildest disorder on every side, closely pursued by the Indians. The front ranks of St. Clair's army, by a well-directed fire, checked the Indian advance. The artillery was brought to bear on the Indians, but produced little effect. A bayonet charge was ordered, led on by Col. Darke, which drove the Indians back some distance, but they soon returned, and compelled Darke to give way. In the meantime, St. Clair's camp was attacked in flank and the troops began to huddle in the center. Butler and Darke's battalions renewed the charge, but with great loss; many officers fell, Maj. Butler himself being dangerously wounded, and after.ward killed in his tent. The artillery was now silenced by the Indian sharpshooters, and the army commenced a stampede to regain the trail, and everything became precipitate. The panic assumed a terrible flight! The camp and artillery were abandoned - not a horse was left to remove the cannon - the soldiers threw away their arms as they ran, strewing the road for miles with them. The retreat began about 9.30 o'clock, and continued a distance of twenty-nine miles, to Fort Jefferson, where they arrived about sunset, having lost 39 officers and 593 men, 22 officers and 242 men wounded, and a loss of public stores amounting to $32,810. After the flight of the army, the Indians began to avenge their wrongs by perpetrating the most horrible acts of cruelty and brutality upon the bodies of the living and the dead who fell into their hands. Many of the Delawares, from the villages of Mohican, Johnstown and Greentown, in what is now Ashland County, were in the fight, and it is stated that the chief Armstrong, Captain Pipe, and the noted Tom Lyon, often related their exploits on that bloody field. Pipe claimed to have tomahawked men until his arms were weary with the bloody work! Believing that the whites desired all the lands, the Indians crammed clay and sand into the eyes and down the throats of the dying and the dead!

The remnant of St. Clair's army returned, as rapidly as possible, to Fort ^\^ashington, the Indians failing to give pursuit. They were, doubtless, too busily employed in plundering St, Clair's camp, and in avenging their imaginary wrongs on the poor, unfortanate soldiers left on the field of battle. All efforts against the Miami village were, for the time, brought to a close. The news of the defeat fell heavil upon the country, especially Kentucky. Many of her bravest sons were left dead upon the battle-field, and her borders would be again open to the ravages of the red man. The Miami village, now Port Wayne, was looked upon as the gate of the West, just as Fort Du Quesne, in 1755, was to the English, in' their contest with the French and Indians. The defeat of St. Clair greatly depressed Gen. Washington, then President. He had hoped for speedy relief to the sparse and greatly exposed settlements of the West, and relied largely upon Gen. St. Clair to carry out his designs and those of the Government to a successful termination. He seems to have had considerable confidence in St. Clair's capacity to carry out his wishes, though in his commands during the Revolution he was not a successful officer. In his great depression, Washington said to his private secretary, " It's all over; St. Clair's defeated - routed! " And then those present were " awed into breathless silence by the appalling tones in which the torrent of invective was poured forth by Washington." But this depression and invective were of short duration. The President resolved to send an army and a leader into the field to chastise, more effectually, the redman of Ohio. The whole range of the frontier settlements on the Ohio was exposed to the fury of the Indians, and the settlers were in danger of annihilation or expulsion, and immediate action was necessary.

In the selection of a suitable commander. Gen. Anthony Wayne, a Revolutionary officer of distinction, and a great favorite with the people, was pro posed as a proper man to take command of the Western troops. He received the appointment, and at once commenced to organize an army to penetrate the Indian country. A factious Congress delayed the equipment of the army nearly two years. He did not advance until 1794, and, during the intermediate period, between the defeat of St. Clair and the advance of Wayne, the Indians, apprehensive of a renewed effort for their conquest, to some extent refrained from incursions on the border setttements, devoting all their energies in the formation of a confederation of Indian tribes, to drive the whites over the Ohio River.

In the meantime the Government was making strenuous efforts to establish peace and good will among the hostile tribes, by sending messengers with speeches and propositions to treat. The British were constantly inciting the Indians to acts of resentment, and most of the messengers were captured as spies and murdered near the rapids of the Maumee; and propositions of peace were spurned by the Indians. In these delays, Gen. Wayne tarried one winter at Legionville, on the eastern border of Ohio. All hope of concilliation being abandoned, he descended the Ohio, with his army, to " Hobson's Choice," near Fort Washington, and on the 6th of October, 1793, commenced to advance in the direction of Fort Jefferson, leaving a garrison at Fort Hamilton, now Butler County, Ohio, under Maj. Jonathan Cass, father of the late Gen. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, and, in about a month subsequently, established his headquarters at Fort Greenville, which he built after his arrival. He ordered the erection of a fort on 'the site of St. Clair's defeat of 1791, which was called " Fort Recovery. " He then made an ineffectual attempt to treat with the Indians. The British interfered, and proposed to render the Indians sufficient aid to enable them to eipel and destroy the Amercian settlers situated on the territory northwest of the Ohio.

The expedition of Gen. Wayne remained in comparative quiet, at the different posts - Jefferson, Greenville and Recovery - until the morning of the 30th of June, 1794, when Maj. McMahon, commanding an escort of ninety riflemen and fifty dragoons, was fiercely assailed by a body of some 1,500 Indians, under the walls of Fort Recovery, assisted, as was believed, by a number of British agents and a few French Canadian volunteers. The Indians, for a period of about twenty-four hours, continued the assault, and then retired. The garrison lost twenty-two in killed, and thirty wounded and three missing. Two hundred and twenty-one horses were killed, wounded or missing. The Indians carried away their dead and wounded.

Jonathan Alder, who was then adopted and living with the Shawnees, participated in a part of these engagements, and gives a very full history of themovements of the red men. He says: " I gathered up all my effects that I had not sold, and started for the Mack a-chack towus. I soon found that there would be a conflict between the whites and Indians. The Indians had been so successful against St. Clair, that they were very sanguine of success. They talked as though it would be an easy victory, but it turned out very different. Gen. Wayne was not to be caught in any of the traps set for him. Little Turtle and one other chief were for making a treaty of peace, but they were a long way in the minority, and consequently they were over-ruled. Preparations now began in earnest for the conflict. The Indians never insisted on my taking up arms against the whites, but left it for me to decide, and consequently I was never in a battle, except a short time in the first conflict of the great campaign. They had flattered me that it was going to be a very easy victory, and that Wayne was rich in everything that an Indian desired - horses, blankets and clothing of all kinds, together with guns and ammunition in abundance. They told me that if I did not wish to fight I need not do so. I studied it over some time, and thought I might as well have some of the good things he had as any one, and when the army got ready to move I went along. Gen. Wayne had been gradually moving down upon us, but very slowly and cautiously. There was not a- night, after he got within one hundred miles of us, that an Indian spy was not within his picket lines. They said, when he was on the march, he fortified every evening so securely that it was next to impossible to get a horse out of his camp. Our runners and spies reported every day; they said that at night Wayne would cut down great trees, and fence in a tract of land large enough to hold his entire army and baggage, and that these fences were built so high, with these great trees and tops, that none could get at them, and but few could get out. But when they got into Fort Recovery, which they thought a safe place, they relaxed some of the caution used in traveling. Blue Jacket was chief and commander of the Shawnee frirces. He moved upon Gen. Wayne's position, when he got within two or three miles of us, and the first thing I heard of any battle was the whites calling out ' Indians ! Indians ! ' We had come suddenly upon about two hundred of Wayne's Light Horse. The Indians, on horseback, made a rush for them, and they, on foot, ran as fast as they could. The Indians pressed the whites so closely, that over fifty jumped off their horses and got into the fort as fast as they could, leaving their horses to run around outside. These horses were finely equipped, with saddles, bridles and a brace of pistols. The fort was soon surrounded, and a regular fire kept up on both sides for an hour or so. As soon as the fine horses were seen running around loose, I thought it was my chance to get one already equipped, if I could only catch it. I got within two hundred yards of the fort, behind a tree. The horses were running in every direction, very much frightened. Several times they passed close to me, almost near enough for me to reach their bridles; but whenever I moved toward them they would be off as fast as they could run. I saw Indians running, half bent, within fifty yards of the fort, after the horses; then they would take a circle around and back. An Indian that stood behind a tree close to me asked why I did not shoot, he loading and shooting as fast as he could. I told him I saw nothing to shoot at. He said, ' Shoot at them holes in the front, and perhaps you will kill a man. ' I told him I did not want to shoot, and he replied that ' I had better get out of there, then, for if I did not I would be killed. ' Did you see the bark fly above your head a few minutes ago?' said he. I replied that I did. 'Well,' said he, 'just fall back out of reach, if you will not shoot, or you will get killed.' All at once, as he passed his head around the tree to shoot, I saw him drop his gun and clap his hand to his chin, and then stoop and pick up the gun with his other hand, and start and run, half bent, back as far as I could see him. They had shot him in the cbin, and made a flesh wound. I stood where I was a short time, looking about to see if any one was near me. Just then I heard what I supposed to be a cannon fire behind me, but, as I afterward learned, it was only a shell which burst. I now began to feel very badly frightened, and supposed we were surrounded! "While I was thinking what to do a cannon (mortar) fired in the fort, and a shell burst right over my head. The horses fell all around me, and then it was that I understood the cause of the report behind me. I started and ran back to the crowd; they held a council and concluded to give it up, as they were unable to take the fort by storm, but would try and take it by surprise. After night, we moved off down the river about a mile, and encamped. In meandering about to find some of my companions, I found one of Wayne's pack-horses. I haltered it, and concluded I had a horse, anyway. We built our fires and laid down. There were abouC five hundred Indians at the time, all lying in a circle. About midnight, I was awakened by the firing of guns. The firing was so rapid that I could not tell one report from another. I arose and looked eround, but could see but five or six Indians in the circle where I had lain. They had all gone to try to take the fort by surprise, as they hoped. In about one hour, the firing began slacking up a little, so that I could tell one gun from another, and in about an hour more the Indians began to come in. The tiring finally stopped altogether, and I listened to their talk as they came in. I learned that they had accomplished nothing, but a good many had been killed and a large number wounded.

" The next morning, the old chief (Blue Jacket) who was lying in the same circle with me, got up early and called for our attention. He said that ' they were out last night to try to take the fort by surprise, but were not successful, and that they had left one of the men of our circle lying close to the fort unattended, and that he must be brought away. ' He said ' It would be an everlasting shame to the nation to let the man lie there and be murdered, as he surely would be, by the whites. As they had abandoned the idea of whipping Wayne in the fort, all we could do was to wait, and let Wayne come out and make an attack on us on the open ground. ' He then said ' that some one who knew where our wounded brother lies would have to go, with others, and bring him off the field.' Big Turtle said he would go, for one. as he knew exactly where the wounded man fell, so that there would be no need of wasting time hunting for him. 'Who will be next?' said the chief.

No one spoke, and the chief looked right at me, and said 'Young man, you will go, for another - and you - and you, for another,' said he, pointing to two more. He then said, ' None of you were out last night, in the tight, so, men, go and bring your comrade away.' The brush and small trees were cut off for two hundred yards ' around. As soon as we got inside of the fort, the whites commenced firing at us. We ran along in single file, one behind the other, stopping at every tree that was in our line large enough to shelter us. Here we would stop but a moment, and then run again. The bullets were flying like hail around us all the time. We had stopped behind a large tree near the open ground, when Big Turtle said, ' We were doing very wrong in scopping, as it gave them time to re-load. 'Now,' said he, 'when we start again, I shall not stop until I have gotten to the man; and, in order that there may be no confusion in taking hold of him, we will go out in the same way we came in; that is, I will lead going out. The one that is before going in, and the one behind going out, is in the most danger. We will arrange it in this manner, and thus escape some of the bullets.' When wo started, there was a perfect shower of bullets flying around us; but we ran for the man, dodging from side to side. In this manner we ran, and it seemed to me, right up to the fort; for the man did not lay more than sixty yards from it. As soon as we came to him, we took hold according to instructions, and in no very tender manner either, but just - seized him as best we could, and started to run, dodging about, just as we had come in. When we picked him up his shirt was a little up, and I saw that he was shot in the bowels, and it had turned green around the bullet-hole. I thought how foolish it was for four live men to risk their lives for one dead one. But we had little time to think of such matters, for as we picked him up it appeared to me as if the air was full of whistling balls, on either side and above us ! How four men could pass through such a storm and come out safe, has always been a mystery to me; and now, after many years, I almost shudder to think of this terrible ordeal. Big Turtle was the only one touched by a bullet; one had grazed him in the thigh, and there were four or five bulletholes in his hunting-shirt, which was swinging loosely about him. The wounded man groaned mournfully as we ran with him, but we had no time to spare for his comfort. When we got to the woods the firing ceased, and we laid the wounded man down, to rest ourselves. Thanks, devout and sincere, went up to the Great Spirit for our safe deliverance from the great danger through which we had passed. We carried the half-dead man to the Indian army, which was

" Before I started on this perilous trip, I lashed my blanket and kettle on my horse, and thtty had let him stray off. There being no time to hunt^him, I lost blanket, kettle and horse! We moved down the river, and about noon the wounded man died. He was taken to a fallen tree, the leaves were scratched away, and he was buried scarcely deep enough to cover his body. We then went down to Fort DefiancB, where we remained about two weeks, until we heard of the ' approach of Gen. Wayne, for he was closely watched. We now picked up ^everything and started for the old English fort, near the Maumee Rapids. Here we prepared for battle, at the lower end of the long prairie. "

We think it due to the memory of Mr. Alder to state, that his account supplies many things that have heretofore been omitted, in the affair at Fort Recovery and the ^rategy of the Shawnees. His notes have never appeared in print, and the only copy in existence is in the possession of the writer.

Maj. Gen. Scott, with some sixteen hundred mounted volunteers, having arrived at Fort Greenville on the 26th of July 1794, and joined the regulars under Wayne, the army began its march on the Indian towns along the Maumee. After the army had passed Fort Recovery, about twenty- four miles to the north, Gen. Wayne caused to be built and garrisoned a small post, which was called Fort Adams. From this point, the army moved toward the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers, where he arrived on the 8th of August. At this point a strong stockade work, with bastions, was erected, and called Fort Defiance. His arrival at that point was unanticipated by the Indians, who deserted their settlements, towns and villages with a good deal of precipitation, thus giving evidence of apparent surprise. Wayne had made feints to the right and left of his present position, striking the Auglaize some forty miles further up some days before, and the chiefs were really deceived at the actual route he intended to advance, and had given attention only to those points, while Wayne finally advanced by a central route, and thus gained the grand emporium of the Indians without loss of blood. While at Defiance, he sent Christopher Miller, a former Indian captive, with a speech, under a special flag, to the Indians, proposing to treat, and thus spare the effusion of human blood. The speech was directed to the Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Wyandots, and all other nations of Indians northwest of the Ohio. He proposed that the Indians should appoint deputies, to assemble, without delay, at the junction of the Auglaize and the foot of the rapids, to settle the preliminaries of a lasting peace. Miller's answer proposed to Wayne a delay of ten days where he was, and then they would treat with him. In the meantime, an old captive, by the name o" Wells, withdrew from the Miamis by their consent, and came into the camp of Wayne. This circumstance greatly mortified Little Turtle, who deemed it ominous of the defeat of the confederated tribes. The slow movement of Wayne toward the Miami village had caused many Indians to feel no little distrust as to their ability to defeat the great chief of the Americans, who was creeping like a huge anaconda upon their strongholds.

On the 15th of August, Gen. Wayne moved his forces toward the rapids, and came to a halt a few miles above that point on the 18th, and the next day began the erection of a temporary garrison for the reception of stores and baggage, the better to reeonnoiter the enemy's ground, which lay behind a thick, bushy woods, and the British fort which was at the foot of the rapids, called " Fort Miami," and seven miles in advance of the new work, which he called " Fort Deposit." The Miamis became more undecided as to the policy of attacking Wayne, notwithstanding the British had promised aid. At the general council of the tribes, held on the 19th of August, Little Turtle was earnest in his efforts to persuade the Indians to make peace with Wayne. He said, " We have beaten the enemy twice, under separate commanders. We cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps. The night and the day are alike to him. During all the time that he has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers me it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace." One of the chiefs derided Little Turtle for his advice, and intimated that it originated from cowardice. The council broke up, and the Turtle, at the head of his braves, took his stand to meet and give battle to the invader, and the desires of Blue Jacket, head chief of the Shawnees, were assented to by a majority of the chiefs of the various tribes. Wayne could not assent to a further delay.

On the morning of the 20th of August, the army again advanced in columns, agreeably to the standing order of march; t.he legion on the right with flank covered by the Maumee; one brigade of mounted volunteers on the left, under Brig. Gen. Todd, and the other in the rear, under Brig. Gen. Barbee. A select battalion of mounted volunteers moved in front of the legion, commanded by Maj. Price, who was directed to keep sufficiently advanced.

so as to give timely notice to the troops to form in case of action, it being yet undetermined wliether the Indians would decide for peace or war. In this manner the army of Wayne advanced about five miles, when the corps of Maj. Price received a severe fire from the enemy, who were secreted in the woods and high grass. The legion immediately formed in two lines, in the close, thick woods, which extended for miles to the left and front, the ground being covered with fallen timber, the result of a tornado which made it impassable to cavalry, and afforded a fine covert for the Indian warrior. The Indians had formed in three lines, within supportiug distance of each other, and extending for nearly two miles at right angles with the river. The weight of the fire soon revealed the extent of their lines, and showed that they were in full force in front and in possession of their favorite ground, and endeavoring to turn the left flank of Wayne. Wayne's second line advanced to support the first, and Maj. Gen. Scott was directed to gain and turn the right flank of the Indian army, with the whole of the mounted volunteers, by a circuitous route. At the same time, Wayne ordered the front line to advance and charge with trailed arms, rouse the Indians from their coverts at the point of the bayonet, and, when up, to deliver a close and well-directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load again. At the same time, the legionary cavalry moved to the left flank of the Indians, next to the river, and there was a general advance. All orders were obeyed with spirit and promptitude, and the impetuosity of the charge by the first line was such, that the Indians, Canadian militia and volunteers were driven from their concealment in so short a time, that the second line of the legion of the mounted volunteers was unable to participate in the action, the enemy having been routed and driven more than two miles through the woods by less than half their own number ( ?). The Indians are supposed, by the officers of Wayne's army, to have numbered about two thousand, while the troops engaged against them were short of nine hundred. The Indians, with their allies, aban doned themselves to flight, and dispersed in terror and dismay, leaving the gallant forces of Wayne in quiet possession of the field of battle, which extended to the British fort. T\'ayne remained three days and nights on the banks of the Maumee, in front of the field of battle, during which time all the houses and coru-fields of the enemy were consumed and destroyed to a considerable distance above and below the British fort. Among the houses destroyed was the store of Col. McKee, the British agent - the principal stimulator of the war between the United States and Indians.

On the 27th, the army returned to Fort Defiance, laying waste, as it moved, villages and corn-fields, for a distance of fifty miles along the Maumee. The fort was repaired and made substantial, and the army remained there until the 14th of September, 1794, when the legion began its march for the Miami village, where it arrived on the 17th, when the army rested in a fortified camp until the country was reconnoitered and a proper site selected to build a garrison. The work was completed by the 22d of October, and the garrison placed under the command of Lieut. Col. Hamtramck, when a salute of fifteen rounds of cannon was fired and the garrison named " Port Wayne," the present site of the city of that name.

Gen. Wayne, with the main body of the regulars, took up his line of march for Port Greenville, where he arrived on the 2d of November. After the close of the battle on the 20th of August, he invited the Indians to 'a friendly meeting, but they, for some time refrained from entertaining a proposition to treat, in the hope that the British would render them assistance. Gen. Simcoe, Alexander McKee, Simon Girty and other British officers, taking advantage of this uncertainty, invited Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, Bock-ong-a-helas, Blackhoof and Tecumseh, then a young Shawnee warrior of great promise, to an Indian council to be held at the mouth of the Detroit River. In the meantime, a treaty of amity, commerce and navigation was, through the efforts of John Jay, the American Envoy, established between the United States and Great Britain. The news of this treaty destroyed all hope of British aid for the Indians, and their chiefs began to assemble at Greenville, with a view of arranging the preliminaries for a final treaty.

Before giving the result of the campaign, it will be interesting to hear what Mr. Alder says concerning the great battle of " Fallen Timbers." He continues: " Our camping place was about two miles below the prairie. The women and children were sent down about three miles below the fort, and, as I did not wish to fight, I was sent to Upper Sandusky, to inform some warriors there of the great battle that was about to be fought. I remained at Sandusky until the fight was over. Although the camp was below the lower point of the prairie, the fighting ground was to be just at the lower point of it, hoping to fight Wayne in the open ground, while the Indians would be in the timber. The Indians estimated their number at 3,500 (?), but perhaps it was not so large. It was, however, a large army, and much larger than the whites supposed. There were 400 friendly Indians from New York, under Brant, that the whites knew nothing of. They happened not to get in the fight, and as soon as it was over they made their way

Wayne came on down the river, and halted at the upper end of the prairie, expecting the Indians would attack him; but in that he was mistaken. If an Indian expects to go into battle he eats nothing that morning, for the reason, that if a man is shot in the bowels, the internals are not so apt to be severed as if ihey are full; so, when Wayne made his appearance, the Indians were ordered not to eat any breakfast, as they expected to tight that day. Accordingly, they were all on the ground in good order and in good spirits, for they confidently expected another St. Clair defeat. They stayed all day, but Wayne did not attack them. They fell back at night and ate their suppers and lay on their arms all night, expecting a night attack, but all remained quiet. The next morning they came out as before, eating no breakfast, and the result was the same - Wayne did not attack. Again they fell back, and then called a council of the chiefs. They said that this thing of eating one meal a day would weaken the men, so that they would not be fit for action, and there was no knowing how long Wayne would hold off; and if this thing continued eight or ten days the men would be almost worthless. They thought that Wayne had learned from prisoners of their peculiarity in this respect, and no doubt that it was strategy on his part not to fight until the men were weakened. Hence, they concluded they would not be in such a hurry again, and so the order was given for the men to eat as usual the next morning, before starting out. The next morning they went to cooking and eating, and as soon as they were through they started for the ground. Some were on the ground by daylight while others were in their beds. This was the third morning that they had been on the ground, waiting for an attack. Just as the sun was rising, Wayne's army came down the prairie, in the direction expected, but sooner than the Indians anticipated, and they were not prepared for him. There was not, at this time, more than sne-third of the army on the ground. Some were cooking, some eating and some on their way to the grounds. The firing began before Wayne got in reach, in order to hold his men in check until the Indian forces could come up; but it had no effect. The old General just moved right on, as though nothing was the matter. He had sent his light horse around to the right of the Indians, so as to surround them. At the same time that he opened fire, the cavalry commenced^ blowing their bugles in the rear, and cut off the balance of the Indians from reaching the ground. The Indians who were on the way, and those who were eating when the firing commenced, started . on the run to join the army. Those who were on the way, when they came to the cavalry, finding that they were cut off, ran back, hunting those who were behind, so that there were persons running both ways in great confusion. Some broke through the lines of the cavalry, and of those that were surrounded a great many broke for the timber, while others plunged into the river. Those of the Indians who did not get shot or drowned in the river, made their escape. Such an awful rout was scarcely ever seen. Some stood their ground, and were either killed or taken prisoners. The slaughter was very great, and the Indians were so terrorstricken that they never attempted to rally themselves. As all the principal chiefs were either killed or taken prisoners, the battle was very short and decisive. The Indians fled down the river to the British fort, but, when they got there, the soldiers stood, with bayonets charged, in the doorway and would not let them in. Wayne followed the fugitives but a short distance, and then fell back. The British commander at the fort told the Indians to push on, for if he let them in, Wayne would attack the fort and destroy all of them. This conduct of the British commander did more to make peace between the Indians and Americans than any one thing during the war: for, before the war, the Indians had been promised aid and protection, and now, when they were in the worst possible condition, they had thus been rudely pushed from the doors of the fort and refused shelter! It was an act they never forgot; and, rather than apply again for British protection, they made application to their victorious enemies, and obtained security upon a more solid foundation." This inhuman act of Maj. Campbell was thrown into the teeth of Gen. Proctor by Teoumseh, in the war of 1812, just before the battle of the Thames.

The statement of Mr. Alder overturns the whole theory of the battle. Wayne, and all those who have attempted to give an account of that wonderful victory, go upon the presumption that he was contending against the united forces of the confederated tribes, and that about one-half of his men had actually met and routed the entire Indian army! If Mr. Alder be correct, the fact really was, that a part of Wayne's forces met a fraction of the army, under the command of Little Turtle, and took it by surprise, and, before the chief could be re-enforced, put the Indians into inextricable confusion, and a great rout and flight necessarily followed.

About the 1st of June, 1795, Indian deputations from the different tribes began to assemble at Greenville, with a view to the consummation of a treaty. H aving failed to obtain assistance and active co operation from the British Government, the Indians, became disheartened, and gradually yielded to a prop- osition to treat by Gen. Wayne. The chiefs and deputations assembled at Fort Greenville, and entered into a council to form a treaty. The time occupied extended from the 16th of June to the 10th of August, 1795. The point to be settled was a future line between the United States and the Indians. The real cause of this bloody and cruel war was the treaty of Fort Harmar, better known as the " Treaty of the Muskingum," held at Marietta, in January, 1789. It was alleged, by Little Turtle and other chiefs, that said treaty was a fraud, and effected altogether by the Six Nations (Iroquois of New York), who seduced some of their young men to attend it, together with a few Chippeways, Wyandots, Ottawas, Delawares and Pottawatomies, and that most of the land ceded belonged to the Miamis, which people were entirely ignorant of a treaty. The Delawares, Wyandots and Shawnees, who were permitted to occupy Ohio hunting-grounds by the favor of the Miamis, Little Tui'tle contended, had no right to dispose of his lands. Gen. Wayne insisted upon the legality of the treaty of Muskingum, while the chiefs who opposed it insisted upon making the Ohio River the boundary of the Indian country. At the end of a long debate, the line was carried west, and extended in a direct course from Fort Recovery to the mouth of the Kentucky River; and certain reservations, for forts, were made west of that line. The south line began at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where it enters Lake Erie, and ran up to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum. Crossing the portage, it followed down the Tuscarawas to Fort Laurens, an important military station about half a mile below the present town of Bolivar. From that point it ran directly west to Loramies Creek, a tributary of the Great Miami. Thence it followed a line almost due west of Fort Recovery, which point was very near the present eastern boundary of Indiana. It then ran in a southerly direction to the Ohio, striking that stream near the mouth of the Kentucky River, as first stated.

The Indians finally accepted the terms dictated by their conquerors, and signed the treaty, which was to be sacredly observed as " long as the woods grow and waters run." No former treaty, perhaps, was attended by so many noted chiefs and orators. The Little Turtle, whose Indian name was Me-che-cunaqua, displayed unusual ability as a diplomat, a thinker and orator. Indeed, it must be admitted that he was a full match for Gen. Wayne, who was an educated and experienced officer. The Little Tui'tle possessed many of the characteristics of the great Pontiac. His ability to organize and command was not inferior to any of the most distinguished chiefs of his race. The defeats of Harmar and St. Clair were due to the shrewdness and military strategy of this great chief ; and a man of less caution and nerve than Gen. Wayne would have been defeated and crushed. He desired to treat before the battle of " Fallen Timbers," and after that disaster, on learning the best terms to be given by "^'ayne to the conquered, signed the treaty for his people, and faithfully kept its terms to his decease, which occurred on the 14th of July, 1812, at the age of sixty-five years.

Tarhe, or the Crane, a great Wyandot chief, took a leading part at the treaty, and was the orator for his people. He signed the treaty, and became a friend to the United States. He served, with a com-' pany of Wyandots, in the war of 1812, in the campaign of Gen. W. H. Harrison. He died at Cranetown, near Upper Sandusky, in 1818.

The great Delaware chief Bock-ong-a-he-las, who fought against Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, was also at the treaty, and signed it. This great chief was present at the treaty of Fort Mcintosh in 1785. He had been a leading chief in Eastern Ohio in 1781, and from thence, with other Delawares, had located on the Miami and White Rivers in Indiana. His name is attached to many treaties, down as late as 1817. He probably died on the Auglaise.

The great Shawnee chief Bluejacket, Weya-piersen-wa, was also present at the treaty, and made several speeches. He was more sanguinary and precipitate than Little Turtle, and possessed less discrimination and judgment. His combative qualities were undoubted. He was among the last chiefs who came to treat. By his example, the Shawnees were slow to accept terms. He commanded about two thousand Shawnees and others at Wayne's great battle. He died, most probably, at the Ottawa town, on Auglaize, prior to the treaty at the " Foot of the Rapids," in 1817.

Joseph Brandt, Thayen-da-ne-ca, the great Mohawk chief, seems to have been present near the battle field, with 400 Mohawks. Authorities have disputed the accuracy of this statement, which was first made, we believe, by the Indian historian, Mr. Stone, but the statement of Mr. Alder confirms that assertion, and we are persuaded of its accuracy. Brandt was the most brilliant and courageous chief of the Mohawks, and has left a personal history unequaled for bravery, eccentricity, cruelty and cunning.

The speakers from among the Shawnees were Blue Jacket, Red Pole, Puck-se-kaw, Black Wolf, Lame Hawk, Blackhoof, Kec-a-hah, Kekia-pil-athy and Captain Johnny. Among the Delawares, Bock-onga-he-las and three others. Captain Pipe, who cruelly caused the torture and death of Col. Crawford, on the Tymochtee, in 1782, is believed to have died just before the treaty, though his death is a mystery. It is

At the conclusion of the treaty, Gen. AVayne addressed the assembled chiefs and deputies as follows: "As it is probable, my children, that we shall not meet again in public council, I take this opportunity to bid you all an affectionate farewell, and wishing you a safe and happy return to your respective homes and families." After which the Indiana quietly dispersed.

After the treaty, in the years 1807, 1808, 1809 and 1810, the Shawnees began to fall back on their reserves. Prior to the treaty of 1795, they were scattered pretty much all over Ohio, and along the streams in Indiana. Up to that treaty, they had been induced to sell portions of their hunting-grounds, in exchange for lands in the West and certain sums of money to be paid yearly. When the chiefs and warriors attended such treaties, they were often made drunk and badly cheated by the agents sent- out by the Government. It was easily to be seen that the Indian title to all their lands in Ohio would soon be extinguished. Their Ohio hunting-grounds were the choicest upon the continent, and their leading chiefs found it necessary to take proper steps to prevent the whites from getting all such lands.

Tecumseh and the Prophet, his twin brother, were opposed to parting with their hunting-grounds. They had great influence among the Indians, and were both fine speakers, and could arouse the feel ings of their hearers and influence their jealousies and passions as they desired. They held meetings all over the West, speaking to large crowds, declaring that they were not for war (?), but desired to unite the tribes into a kind of confederacy, to prevent thp sale of their lands without a majority of all the chiefs of the confederacy consented to their sale, as they declared the white race was united State after State, and thus maintained their rights, while the Government, and the Great Father at Washington, was chief over all.

Such arguments were sensible and logical, and had a powerful effect upon the Indians. These meetings excited the fears of the white settlers, and the authorities of the State and United States began to take notice of the matter.

About the year 1804, Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, commenced to agitate the question of an Indian confederacy to prevent the purchase and occupancy of their lands by the whites. Tecumseh visited the various tribes, and endeavored to enlist them in the combination, while the Prophet, who had.

prior to this time, been a drunken profligate, proclaimed that he had been commanded by the Great Spirit to inform his red children that all their misfortunes were the result of abandoning their former mode of life, and that through him (the Prophet) they were now commanded to return to their former habits, to leave ofi" the use of whisky and clothe themselves in skins instead of blankets. He fixed his headquarters at Greenville, and from that point his fame spread among the tribes, and he was soon surrounded by the most abandoned young men of the Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Pottawatomies, Ottawas, Chippewas and Kickapoos. The leading chiefs of all these tribes, however, could not be indu.ced to join his league, and the result was that many of them were assassinated by the orders of the Prophet, as mischievous men and witches, to get rid of their opposition and influence! Te-te-box-ke, a ven erable Delaware chief, and many of his friends, were mercilessly burned at the stake on the charge of being witches and dangerous persons.

In- September, 1809. a treaty was made at Fort Wayne, by which the title to a large tract of land extending sixty miles up the Wabash above Vincennes, belonging to the Miamis, was extinguished. This again aroused Tecumseh and the Prophet to renewed efforts to prevent any more sales. Tecumseh had been at the treaty of Greenville as a warrior, in 1795, and, with Blue Jacket, greatly regretted the loss of their lands, and while he was soliciting the Western and Southern tribes to help stop " the mighty water " that was about to sweep away all their lands, the Prophet was holding large meetings at Greenville and Tippecanoe. He was as cunning as he was fanatical and revengeful.

About this time, the Prophet ordered the execution of Leatherlips, a noted Wyandot chief, for pretended witchcraft, but really to get rid of his influence. Six Wyandot warriors were sent to put him to death. The warriors and their leader. Roundhead, went directly from Tippecanoe to execute him. They found him encamped on a stream about twelve miles above the present city of Columbus. When the warriors arrived, and their purpose was ascertained, several white men made an ineffectual effort to save his life. A council took place, and the warriors resolved to kill the chief, as ordered. An Indian, with much warmth, accused him with magic or witchcraft; but Leatherlips denied the charge. When the sentence of death was passed upon him, he returned to his camp, ate a dinner of jerked venison, washed, and dressed in his best Indian clothing, and painted his face. He was tall and dignified, and his hair quite gray. When the time of his execution arrived, he shook hands with those present, and turned from his wigwam and commenced to chant his death song. He then moved toward the point where the warriors had dug a grave. When he got to the grave, he knelt down and prayed to the Great Spirit. "When he finished, Roundhead also knelt and prayed. Leatherlips again knelt and prayed, and when he ceased, one of the warriors drew from his skirts a keen, new tomahawk, stepped up behind the chief, and struck him on the head with his whole strength. The chief fell forward in the agonies of death. The execiTfcioner struck him again, once or twice, and finished his suffering. The body was buried with all his Indian ornaments, and the warriors and whites disappeared. An attempt has been made to fix the responsibility of this great crime upon the Wyandot chief Crane. Crane was the friend of the whites, and opposed to the schemes of the treacherous Prophet, and. it is clear, never could have authorized the execution of a fellow Wyandot chief.

Mr. Alder says: "I was very well acquainted with the Prophet. He was not a warrior, but a low, cunning fellow. He prophesied many things that did not come to pass. He was a vain man, with a great amount of show, but with little sense. His powers of prophecy were not well sustained by the Indians in general; in fact, they had but very little faith in him."

Col. John Johnston says: "He was the twin brother of Tecumseh. His Indian name was Elsquata-wa. As a man, he was void of talent or merit, a brawling, mischievous, Indian demagogue."

While residing on Mad River, the Shawnees were divided into four tribes or bands - the Mequachake, the Chillicothe, the Kiskapocoke and the Piqua. The priesthood was confided to the Mequachake, and the office of chief was hereditary. In other tribes, the office of chief was bestowed from merit or achievement in war. Their towns were scattered alone;' the banks of the Scioto, the Mad River and the Little Miami, in Southern Ohio. Cornstalk, the great chief so cruelly assassinated at Point Pleasant, resided east of the Scioto River, on Slppo Creek, in what is now Pickaway County, and his sister, the Grenadier Squaw, who was six feet high, resided near him on the opposite side of the stream, in Squaw town. The principal town. Old Chillicothe, was located near the mouth of Massie's Creek, three miles north of the present site of Xenia. Piqua, memorable as the birthplace of Tecumseh and Elsqua ta-wa, was situated on the north bank of Mad River, seven miles west of the present site of the city of Springfield, in Clark County. Upper and Lower Piqua, in Miami County, were not far from the pi-esent site of the city of Piqua.

Mad River, in what is now Logan County, Ohio, in 1786, by Gen. Logan, of Kentucky, the Shawnees abandoned these towns, and gradually began a settlement on the Ottawa or Hog Creek, and at Wapakonetta, in what is now Auglaize^formerly Allen - County. They also had a few other villages in what is now Clark County, Ohio, and also along the streams in Indiana. In the fall of 1811, a good deal of uneasiness existed among the Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots and other Western tribes, and British agents were very active in their endeavors to seduce the Ohio Indians into the British service, in case of a war with the United States. Tecumseh, Blue Jacket and the Prophet employed all their arts to induce the Little Turtle, Blackhoof, Back-ong-ahe-las and other noted chiefs to join the league; but the Turtle, having been overruled by the Blue Jacket in the battle of " Fallen Timbers, " refused to follow the lead of the wily Shawnee again.

In the spring of 1812, Gen. Meigs convened a council at the village of Urbana, Ohio, and through Col. James McPherson, and the elder Walker, who had mai'ried a Wyandot, invited the Shawnee, Wyandot and Delaware chiefs and braves to meet hira. They assembled about the 1st of June. The result was very satisfactory, and ended in an exchange of ivampum, and in smoking the pipe of peace. The chiefs agreed to take sides with the United States; and protection was guaranteed their families, and a block-house was erected near Zanesfield, in what is now Logan County, for the protection of their women and children, where thsy were furnished, during the war, at the public expense, with provisions and clothing.