Peoria County, Illinois - Chapter 6: Indian Wars, 1880

Chapter 6: Indian Wars

Gen. Harniar's Defeat - Gen. St. Clair - His Defeat - Gen. Wayne - His Victory - His Treaties with the Indians - British Posts Surrendered - Death of Wayne - Gen. Harrison - Tecumseh - The Prophet - Battle of Tippecanoe - Tecumseh's Alliance With the British - Harrison .\ppointed Brigadier-General - Perry's Victory - Gen. Mc.^rthur - Battle of the Thames - Tecumseh Killed - Peace with the Indians - Indian Titles Extinguished - Military Posts Established at Belle Point, Council Bluffs, and St Peters - The Kicarees - Gen. Cass - Treaty at Fort Dearborn - Fort Atkinson - Grand Council at Prairie du Chien - Indian Outrages - The Militia Called Out - Gen. Atkinson - Policy of Removing the Indians West - Treaty with the Sacs and Foxes - Black Hauk - He Refuses to Comply with Treaties - Black Hawk War - Battle of Bad Axe - Gci>. Henry Dodge - Black Hawk Captured - Taken lo Washington - Keokuk - Black Hawk Purch.v-c - Gen. Winfield Scoti - Treaties at Davenport - Anloine Le Claire - Removal of >acs and Foxes to Iowa - Gen. Street - Wapello - Maj. Beach - Sac and Fox Villages un the Des Moines - Gov. I.ucas - Gov. Chambers - Visit of Hard-Fish to Burlington - An Incident - Speech of Keokuk.

Almost every advance of civilization on the American continent has been made at the expense of more or less conflict and bloodshed at the hands of the savape tribes who were the occupants and owners of the soil prior to the advent of the white man. Passing over the conflicts of the colonists in the early settlements of the East, the later struggles of the pioneers of the " Dark and Bloody Ground," and the Indian wars of the South, we shall briefly refer to some of the troubles with the aborigines in the Northwest. Witii the opening of the new country to white settlers it was necessary to establish military posts for the protection of the pioneers against the attacks of the Indians. In ITi'O, all pacilic means having failed with the tribes north of the Ohio, President Washington sent Gen. Harmar with a military force against them. After destroj'ing several of their villages, he was defeated in two battles near the confluence of the St. Joseph's and St. Mary's rivers, and not far from the {)resent city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. In ITSl Gen. .\rthur St. Clair was promoted to the rank of major general, and was entrusted with a command against the hostile Miainis. On a.ssuming his command, tlie last admonition of Washington was, " Beware of surprise." Gen. St. Clair marched with his troops to the vicinity of the Miami villages on the Maumee. On the 4th of November, 1791, he was surprised in camp on tiie St. Mary's river, and his force of 1,400 ill disciplined men was cut to pieces. He soon after resigned his commission. In this defeat St. Clair's loss was about (JOO men. The savages were greatly emboldened by their successes, and it was soon found that more vigorous measures were necessary. The Indians continued to commit outrages .igaiiist the infant settlements. In some cases, doubtless, the whites were the aggressors, for Washin:,'ton in his annual message of November 6, 1792, recommended more adequate measures " An- restraining the commission of outrages u])on the Indians, without which all jjacific plans must prove nugatory." Attemjils were made to treat with the Indians, but the attempted negotiations proved unsuccessful.

After tiie unsuccessfid and disastrous campaigns of Generals Harmar and St. Clair, General Anthony Wayne, who had won distinguished laurels in the war of the Revolution, was, in April, 1792, promoted to the rank of major general, and made commanderin-chief in the war against the western Indians. In August, 1794, he gained a signal victory over the Miamis, near the rapids of the Maumee, and compelled them to sue for peace. In the same year a fort was erected by his order on tlie site of the old "Twightwee Village " of the .Miami tribe, where the city of Fort Wayne is now located. It continued to be a military post until 1819.

The Northwest Territory

sioner to treat with the Indians, and also to take possession of the forts still held by the British in the Northwest. He negotiated the treaty of Greenville which was signed by all the principal chiefs of the Northwest. By this treaty the Indians relinquished their title to a large tract of country. That characteristic determination which, during the war of the Revolution, had gained him the sobriquet of " Mad Anthon}'," impressed the hostile tribes with a dread of him which operated as a wholesome restraint. Gen. Wayne also took possession of the British posts in the Northwest, which were peaceably surrendered, in accordance with Jay's treaty, and from this time there was assurance of peace on tlie frontier. He died in the garrison at Presque Isle (Erie), Pa., December 14, 1796.

From the date of Wayne's victory up to 1809 the whites maintained comparatively peaceable relations with the Indians. During this year. Gen. Harrison, then Governor of Indiana Territory, entered into a treaty with the Delawares. Kickapoos, Pottawattamies, Miamis, Eel River Indians and Weas, in which these tribes relinquished their title to certain lands on the Wabash river. About this time the noted chief Tecumseh comes into prominence as the bitter opponent of any more grants of land being made to the whites.

Tecumseh was a cliief of the Shawnees, born on the Scioto river near Chillicothe, about the year 1770. It was said that he was one of three brothers who were triplets. The other two brothers were named Kumshaka and Elskwatawa. Kumshaka is believed to have died while young, but Elskwatawa became tlie Prophet who co-operated with the chief in all his plans. His father, Puckeshinwa, had risen to the rank of chief, but was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774. In 1795 Tecumseh was declared cliief at or near where Urbana, Ohio, is now located. In 1798 he went to White river, Indiana, and his brother, the Prophet, to a tract of land on the Wabash. Tecumseh, by reason of his oratory, had great influence over the savage tribes, and his plan was to unite all of them against the whites in a conspiracy, sinailar to that of Pontiac nearly half a century before. For this purpose he visited all the tribes west to the Mississippi, and upon Lakes Superior, Huron, and Michigan. At the same time his brothei', the Prophet, pretended to be directed by the Great Spirit to preach against the influence and encroachments of the white men. Their efforts to incite the Indians to hostilities were successful, and they gathered a large force of warriors, making their headquarters at a stream they called Tippecanoe, near the Wabash river.

Meantime Gov. Harrison was watching the movements of the Indians, and being convinced of the existence of Tecumseh's grand conspiracy, had prepared to defend the settlements. In August, 1810, Tecumseli went to Vincennes to confer witli tlie Governor in lelation to the grievances of the Indians, but demeaned himself in such an angry manner that he was dismissed from the village. He returned to complete his plans for the conflict. Tecumseh delayed his intended attack, but in the meantime he was gathering strength to this cause, and by the Autumn of 1811 had a force of several hundred warriors at his encampment on the little river called by the Indians Keth-tlp-pe-ce-nunk, or Tippecanoe. Harrison, with a force of eight hundred men, partly regulars and partly volunteers, determined to move upon the Prophet's town, as it was called. He encamped near the village early in October, and on the night of the 5th of November his camp was furiously but unsuccessfully attacked. On the morning of the 7th he was again attacked by a large body of the Indians, but Tecumseh's warriors were completelj^ routed, but not without a severe and hotly contested battle, and the loss of about 200 of Harrison's men.

" While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have been lost in the action which took place on the seventh ultimo. Congress will see with satisfaction the dauntless spirit iiiul fortitude victoriously displiij-ed by every description of the troops engafjcd, as well as the collected nmnicss which distinjiuished their commander on an occasion reijuirin;^' the utmost exertions of valor and discii)line. It may reasoualily be expected that the good effects of this critical defeat and dispersion of a combination of savages, which appeai-s to have been spreading to a greater extent, will be experienced, not only in the cessation of murders and depredations committed on our frontier, but in the prevention of any hostile excursions otherwise to have been apprehended."

The result of tlie battle of Tii)pccanoe utterly ruined the jilans of Tecnmseh, for his arrangements with the different tribes were not yet matured. He was greatly exasperated toward the I'ropiiet for precipitating the war. Had Tecumseh himself been present it is likely tlie attack would not have been made. The defeated Indians were at first inclined to sue for peace, but Tecumseh was not yet conquered. The breaking out of the war with Great Britain at tliis time inspired him with new hope, and his next endeavor was to form an alliance with the English. In tiiis he succeeded, and was appointed a brigadier general. He was entrusted with the command of all the Indians who co-operated with the English in the campaigns of 1812-lo, and was in several important engagements.

After the surrender of Detroit l)y Gen. Hull, August 18, 1812, Harrison was appointed to the command of the Northwestern frontier, with a commission as brigadier general. As this was in Scjitember, too late in the season for a campaign, he did not assume active operations until the next year, by which time he was promoted to the rank of major general. After Commodore Perry won his signal victory on Lake Erie in September, 1813, Harrison hastened with his command to capture Maiden. On arriving there late in September he found that Proctor, the British general, had retreated. About the same time Gen. Mc Arthur tocjk possession of Detroit and the Territory of Michigan. Pursuing the British army into the interior of Canada West, Harrison overtook Proctor at the Moravian settlements, on the river Thames, on the 5th of October. The British general had an auxiliary force of two thousand Indians under the command of Tecumseh. The battle was opened by the American cavalry under the command of Col. Richard M. Johnson, afterward vice-president of the United States. Early in the engagement Tecumseh was killed at the head of his column of Indians, who, no longer hearing the voice of their chief, fled in confusion. It has been claimed by some authorities that this celebrated chief was killed by Col. Johnson, who fired at him with a pistol. This, however, will remain one of the unsolved problems of history. The result of the battle was a complete victory for the Americans, with the capture of liOO prisoners, six pieces of cainifin, and a large tiuantity of armj- stores.

Tills decisive victory over the combined forces of the British ami Indians practically closed the war in the Northwest, and as a consecjuencc peace with the Indian tribes soon followed. Other treaties were negotiated with the Indians by which they gave up their title to additional large tracts of territory. The settlement of the country progressed rapidly, and again an era of ap])arent good will juevailed between the whites and Indians. By the enil of the year 1817, the Indian title, with sonic moderate reservations, had been extingiii.-hed to the whole of the land within the State of Ohio, to a great jiart of that in Michigan Territory, and in the State of Indiaiui. In 1S1T (lov. (^ass. of Michigan, in conjunction with Gov. McArthnr, of Ohio, obtained a cession of most of the remaining lands in Ohio with some adjoining tracts in Indiaini and Michigan, amounting in all to about 4,000,000 of acres, and in 1810 Gov. Cass met the Chippewas at Saginaw and obtained a cession of lands in the i)eniiisnla of Michigan to the extent of about (5.000,000 of acres. The next year a treaty w'as made at Chicago, tlien notliing but a military post, called Port Dearborn, with the Cliii)pewas, Ottawas and I'ottawatamii's, by which a large additional tract was obtained, which completed the extinguishment of the Indian title to the iHiiinsula of Michigan south of the Grand river. By iHliO a number of military posts were established far in the interior, and among them was one at Belle Point on the Arkansas, at Council Bluffs on the Missouri, at St. Peters on the Mississippi, and at Green Bay on the upper lakes.

During the month of June, 1823, Gen. Ashley and his party, who were trading under a license from the government, were attacked by the Ricarees while trading with the Indians at their request. Several of the party were killed and wounded, and their property taken or destroyed. Col. Leavenworth, who commanded Fort Atkinson at Council Bluffs, then the most Avestern post, took immediate measures to clieck this hostile spirit of tlie Ricarees, fearing tliat it miglit extend to other tribes in that quarter and endanger the lives of traders on the Missouri. With a detachment of the regiment stationed at Council Bluffs, he successfully attacked the Ricaree village. The hostile spirit, however, still continued and extended to the tril^es on the upper Mississippi and the upper lakes. Several parties of citizens were plundered and murdered by those tribes during the }"ear 1824. An act of Congress of May 25th of this year, made an appi'opriation to defray tlie expenses of making treaties of trade and friendship with the tribes west of the Mississippi, and another act of March 3, 1825, provided for the expense of treaties with the Sioux, Chippewas, Menomonees, Sacs and Foxes, and other tribes, and also for establishing boundaries and iiromoting peace between them. These objects were in the main accomplished, and by the treaties made the government secured large acquisitions of territory. Gov. Cass, in conjunction with Gov. Clark, of Missouri, attended a grand council of the tribes this year at Prairie du Chien, to carry out the purposes of the act of Congress last mentioned. During his continuance in office as Governor of Michigan Territory, Gov. Cass made, or participated in the making of nineteen treaties with the Indians, and by them acquired lands in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, to an amount equal to one-fourth of the entire area of those States.

For many years it had been the policy of the government to obtain a relinquishment of the title of the Indians to all lands within the limits of the States, and as rapidly as possible cause the removal of the tribes to territory beyond the Mississippi. In 1830 the Chickasaws and Choctaws, occupying portions of the States of Alabama and Mississippi, agreed to remove, and in due time carried out their agreement in good faith. The same year a treaty was made with the Sacs and Foxes, b}^ which they agreed to cede their lands to the United States, and remove beyond the Mississippi. The principal village of these united tribes was located at the mouth of Rock river, on the east side of the Mississippi, near where the city of Rock Island now stands. Here had been an Indian village, according to tradition, for one hundred and fifty years. These tribes had owned and occupied the country bordering on the Mississippi, to an extent of seven hundred miles, from the mouth of the Wisconsin almost to the mouth of the Missouri. The Indians did not seem disposed to comply promptly with the terms of the treat}', and one band, under the noted chief Black Hawk (^Mush-a-tan-wish-e-ki-ak-Jci-aJc^, evinced a determination to keep possession of their old village. Jolin Reynolds, Governor of Illinois, construed their continued residence in the ceded territory as an invasion of the State, and under his authority to protect the State from invasion, ordered out seven hundred militia to force their removal, according to the treaty. This interference of the Governor of Illinois with the duties belonging to the Federal Government, obliged the commander of United States troojas in that quarter to co-operate witli him, in order to prevent a collision between the State militia and the Indians. Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, had been established as early as 1816, and when the Black Hawk trouble commenced, was in command of Gen. Atkinson. The Indians were overawed by this imposing militaiy force, and yielding to necessity, crossed the Mississippi.