taries had each been engaged in that branch of the service which they were now called to superintend.

The campaign of 1813 was looked to with deep anxiety and concern on the part of the nation at large; and it was hoped, at least, that the mortifying disasters of the previous year would be fully made up by deeds of daring and success in carrying the war into the enemy's country.

General Harrison, as we have related above, (see p. 166,) was in 1813. command of the forces in the north-west. Unable to effect any thing of consequence before the end of 1812, with the very beginning of the present year, he put his troops in motion. General Winchester was sent to take possession of the tract about the Rapids of the Miami, or Maumee, which had been vainly attacked by General Tupper two months before. And he effected this, although he had to march through a deep snow; dispersing the Indians who had taken posts there, and making all needful provisions, such as the collection of corn from the Indians' fields near, the erection of a storehouse, etc. Whilst thus engaged, information was brought him from Frenchtown, of the straits to which the inhabitants were reduced by the Canadians and Indians in the British service, who were ready to occupy the place; and they feared a massacre would ensue. A council of officers having been called, it was determined to send a detachment sufficiently strong to defeat the enemy at that place.

Six hundred and sixty men were therefore detached, under the command

of Colonels Lewis and Allen, who set out on the morning of the 17th of January. Their movements being quickened by the intelligence that Colonel Elliot was expected from Malden, on his way to attack the camp at the Rapids, they marched partly on the ice of Miami Bay, and the border of Lake Erie, and drove back the Indians, whom they met in the woods. About three o'clock on the next afternoon, they fell upon the enemy, consisting of about five hundred men, four hundred being Indians, and after a sharp engagement which lasted till it was dark, drove them out of Frenchtown, and pursued them for two miles beyond it; returning then in good order with a loss of twelve killed and fifty-five wounded, they encamped before the town.

Frenchtown was only eighteen miles distant from Malden, from which it could be reached on the ice; this rendered the position of Lewis and Allen one of great danger, and as soon as the tidings of their success reached the Rapids, "a complete ferment” was produced in the camp. "All were anxious to proceed to Frenchtown in support of the advanced corps," says M'Afee; "it was evident that corps was in a critical situation." Every man wished to rush forward and join Lewis, and Winchester, unable to restrain the impetuosity of the volunteers, set out himself, on the evening of the 19th, with two hundred and fifty men, to reinforce Colonel Lewis. That brave officer had posted his force in a place where they were defended by garden pickets, sufficiently close and strong to protect his men against an attack of small arms.

CH. IX.]

1813.

But little precaution was taken to prevent a surprise. The general did hardly any thing to increase the security of the detachment. He named to Colonel Wells, but did not positively order, a breastwork for the protection of his camp. He established his own quarters in a house on the south side of the river, about three hundred yards from the lines! On the 21st, a place was selected for the whole detachment to encamp in good order, with a determination to fortify it on the next day. About sunset, Colonel Wells solicited and obtained leave to return to the Rapids. Certain information had been received, that the British were preparing to make an attack; and that it would be made as speedily as possible, seemed to be a matter of course. Colonel Wells reached the Rapids that night; at which place, General Harrison,-to whom Winchester, when he started for Frenchtown, had sent for reinforcements, and to inform him of his movements,-had arrived on the 20th of January, and had exerted himself to hasten forward the reinforcements.

After Colonel Wells's departure, a Frenchman from the neighborhood of Malden, came to General Winchester, and informed him that a large force of British and Indians were about to set out from that place. There could be no doubt that Frenchtown was their destination. But, strangely enough, as it seems, knowing their critical position, this information went for nothing; no preparations were made to be in readiness for the enemy; no apprehensions were excited, the most fatal security pre

181

vailed; Colonel Lewis and Major Madison alone seem to have been on the alert, and anxious to guard against sudden attack. "Guards were placed out," says M'Afee, "this night as usual; but, as it was extremely cold, no picket guard was placed on the road, on which the enemy was to be expected. The night passed away without any alarm, and the revcille began to beat at daybreak, on the morning of the 22d. A few minutes afterwards, three guns were fired in quick succession by the sentinels. The troops were instantly formed, and the British opened a heavy fire on the camp from several pieces of artillery, loaded with bombs, balls, and grape-shot, at the distance of three hundred yards. This was quickly followed by a charge made by the British regulars, and by a general fire of small arms; and the Indian yell on the right and left. The British had approached in the night with the most profound silence, and stationed their cannon behind a small ravine which ran across the open fields on the right."

The detachment, whose position was left unfortified, as above stated, was driven back, and in spite of the efforts of their officers, of Colonels Lewis and Allen, and of General Winchester, when he reached the field, to rally them, in spite of the assistance of two companies sent from the cover of the pickets, was routed utterly; and after a retreat of three miles, through the deep snow, wholly destroyed or made prisoners. Winchester and Lewis were captured; Colonel Allen was shot by an 1813. Indian whilst he paused, cxhausted by a wound received in a flight

he had used his utmost to prevent; Captain Simpson, a gigantic Kentuckian, six feet six inches in height, was shot and tomahawked at the edge of the woods. The Indians gathered round his body where it lay, to admire its massive proportions.

Proctor, who commanded the British, had suffered very severely in his attack upon the pickets; but when he found that Winchester was a prisoner, he at once, as the writer we have above quoted indignantly states, "basely determined to take advantage of his situation to procure the surrender of the party in the picketing." He assured Winchester, that nothing but an immediate surrender could save the Americans from an indiscriminate massacre by the Indians, and he gave his pledge, that if they would promptly lay down their arms, they should be protected from massacre by the Indians; if this were not done, Proctor declared that he would set fire to the village, and would not be responsible for the conduct of the savages. Winchester, intimidated by this threat, sent an order to the troops under Major Madison, to surrender; which order was reluctantly obeyed, with the distinct understanding, that the lives, persons, and effects of the prisoners should be protected and properly cared for. At this time, the killed, wounded, and missing, of the little army, including those that had been outside of the pickets, amounted to more than three hundred men; those under Madison, who capitulated at Winchester's bidding, numbered thirty-five officers and above four hundred and fifty men.

1813.

The shocking barbarities which fol lowed the battle of Frenchtown, are almost incredible. "Scarcely had the Americans surrendered," says a contemporary writer, "under the stipula tion of protection from the British offi cer, when our brave citizens discovered, too late, that they were reserved to be butchered in cold blood. Of the right wing, but a small number escaped; the work of scalping and stripping the dead, and murdering those who could no longer resist, was suffered to go on without restraint. The infernal work was now to begin with those who had so bravely defended themselves. The infamous Proctor and the British officers turned a deaf ear to the just remonstrances of these unhappy men. Contrary to express stipulation, the swords were taken from the sides of the officers; and many of them stripped almost naked, and robbed. The brave dead were stripped and scalped, and their bodies shockingly mutilated. The tomahawk put an end at once to the sufferings of many of the wounded, who could not rise; in allusion to which, some days afterwards, a British officer observed, 'The Indians are excellent doctors.' The prisoners, who now remained, with but a few exceptions, instead of being guarded by British soldiers, were delivered to the charge of the Indians, to be marched in the rear of the army to Malden. This was, in other words, a full permission to indulge their savage thirst for blood; and in this they were not disappointed; for the greater part of these ill-fated men were murdered on the way, through About

mere wantonness.

CH. IX.]

sixty of the wounded, many of them officers of distinction, or individuals of much respectability, had been suffered to take shelter in the houses of the inhabitants, and two of their own surgeons permitted by Proctor to attend them, from whom they also obtained a promise that a guard should be placed to protect them, and that they should be carried to Malden the next morning in sleds. But this affected humanity, was but an aggravation of his cruelty, by awakening a hope which he intended to disappoint. No guard of soldiers was left, and on the next day, instead of sleds to convey them to a place of safety, a party of Indians returned to the field of battle, fell upon these poor wounded men, plundered them of their clothing, and every article of any value which remained, tomahawked the greater part of them, and, to finish the scene, fired the houses, and consumed the dying and the dead !"*

This sad calamity deeply affected the sensibilities of the entire American people. All Kentucky was literally in mourning; for the troops which had been massacred so shamelessly, were of the best families in the state, and many of them were young men of fortune and distinction, with numerous friends and relatives. The indignation

*The British "general order," in giving an account of this battle, presented a very different statement, and Proctor was lauded for "his humane and un

wearied exertions in rescuing the vanquished from the revenge of the Indian warriors." Beside this, which the Americans looked upon as a gross insult, this same Proctor was at once raised to the rank of a brigadier

general for his gallantry and excellent conduct.

183

of the west was roused to a far higher pitch than it had ever before attained. Winchester was severely censured by many for his advance to the River Raisin; others blamed Harrison for not reinforcing him in time; and some few took occasion, from this unexpected disaster, to reprobate the war altogether. In the mean time, Harrison, who reached the camp at the Rapids on the 20th of January, as we have said, and who had left orders to his troops at Sandusky to follow him with all speed, when the tidings of the 1813. affair at the Raisin reached him, fell back behind the Portage River, fearing to be himself attacked. But very soon he advanced again, and constructed a stronghold at the Rapids, on the right bank of the river, which, in honor of the governor of Ohio, he named Fort Meigs. The troops labored with great diligence in strengthening Fort Meigs, Upper Sandusky, and Fort Stephenson; but notwithstanding Harrison's efforts, it was found, by the middle of February, that it was useless to make any attempt against Malden this season. Winchester's movement had deranged Harrison's plan entirely, and he had no alternative but to reorganize his system of operations.

The term of service of the greater part of the militia composing the northwestern army having expired, new levies from Ohio and Kentucky were ordered on to supply their places. But these not arriving in season, the Pennsylvania brigade generously volunteered their services for another month to defend Fort Meigs, which was menaced with an attack. This conduct