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CHAPTER VIII

OHIO IN WAR

Since her admission to the Union, Ohio has participated in four wars, counting the further conflict with the Indians as one. Her part in these wars will now

be described.

80. The Indians After the Treaty of Greenville. This treaty left about one-third of Ohio in the hands of the Indians. The Indians also exercised the right of passing through the territory that they had sold in 1795, and hunting in it, which the treaty had guaranteed them, but they refrained from acts of hostility. They saw, however, that the white population was continually increasing, and they knew perfectly well that, if this increase went on unchecked, the boundary line which the treaty had established would not furnish them any permanent protection against further aggression. Still, the Indians continued quiet until they began to forget the great defeat of 1794 and Tecumseh began to gain an ascendency over them.

81. Tecumseh. This renowned warrior was born at Piqua, an old town of the Shawanese tribe, about five miles west of the City of Springfield. The date of his birth is given as about 1768.

He took an active

part in the hostilities against the Whites from the time that he was old enough to follow the war-path until the battle of the Fallen Timbers. After peace was made in 1795, he lived sometimes at one place and some

times at another. In 1805 he and his brother Elsquata established themselves at Greenville, where they began to gather around them an increasing number of Indians. Elsquata, who is known as the Prophet, claimed to be the agent of the Great Spirit, and by means of cunning and sorcery contrived to gain much influence over the tribesmen. The two brothers were

not chiefs, and they sought to break down the power of the chiefs of their own tribe and other tribes, because, as they believed, the chiefs were selling the hunting grounds for their own benefit. Stealthily the brothers undertook to organize a widespread Indian conspiracy. The Prophet set up a mysterious religious order, with a view to controlling the minds of the Indians; while Tecumseh ranged in all directions, from Florida to the far North, and from Western New York to the Mississippi, trying to persuade the tribes to join in one more movement to drive their enemies beyond the Ohio. It was the old plan of Pontiac and the Confederates of the Miami over again. Finally, the Indians who were under the influence of the two brothers became threatening and troublesome. In 1808 Tecumseh and the Prophet removed to a branch of the Wabash River, in Indiana, where they continued their plotting. In December, 1811, General Harrison inflicted upon the Prophet a severe defeat at the battle of Tippecanoe, which destroyed his power. Generally the Indians now made peace, but Tecumseh continued as hostile as ever, and the Indian war soon merged in the war with Great Britain. Tecumseh now joined the British army on the Detroit River, and bore an active part in the war in the Northwest until it closed

with the defeat of the British and his own death, as will soon be narrated. It is to be said to the honor of Tecumseh that, although he was an implacable enemy, he never resorted to the inhuman cruelty in which most Indians so much delighted.1

82. Beginning of the War of 1812.- When this contest opened, Ohio contained a population of something more than a quarter of a million people. A very large majority of these people lived in the southern part of the State. The parts adjoining Michigan and Lake Erie did not contain more than 20,000 souls, and most of these were found east of the Cuyahoga River. The surrender of General Hull, in August, 1812, threw all Michigan into British hands, and laid the whole northwestern part of Ohio open to British. invasion. In addition to actually possessing the western bank of the Detroit River, the British also commanded the head of Lake Erie. The people in the more exposed parts now fled in terror from their homes, and the whole State was panic-stricken. The calling out of the militia, and the arrival of some Kentucky troops, tended partially to restore confidence. General Harrison was put in command of the Northwestern army, and he spent the last months of the year in attempting to organize a force with which to re-conquer Michigan. Thus far the war had been very unfavorable to the Americans.

83. The Further Progress of the War.-In January, 1813, a detachment of Harrison's army reached Frenchtown (now Monroe) on the River Raisin, in

1 Accounts of Tecumseh will be found in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol. I., pp. 328, 374, 387, 391, 532.

the Territory of Michigan. Here it was attacked by a force of British and Indians, and compelled to surrender, whereupon the larger part of the detachment were butchered in cold blood by the savages. In the spring following Harrison built a strong fortification at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee, naming it Ft. Meigs in honor of Governor Meigs. General Proctor, the British commander, with an army of regulars, Canadian militia, and Indians led by Tecumseh, entered Ohio and twice attempted the capture of this fort, together with General Harrison's army, but failed in both instances. Soon after the failure of the second attack, Major Croghan, with a small garrison, successfully defended Ft. Stephenson, on the Sandusky River, where Fremont now stands, inflicting upon the enemy a severe loss. The cap

ture of the British fleet in the battle of Lake Erie by Commodore Perry, September 10, was the turning point of the war in the Northwest. The British were now compelled to abandon not only Ohio but Michigan as well. There soon followed in quick succession the re-occupation of Detroit by the American troops, General Harrison's passage with his army into Canada, his pursuit of Proctor, and his complete victory over that commander at the battle of the Thames. One of the incidents of this battle was the death of Tecumseh. Ohio soldiers continued to serve until the end of the war, but as directly involving the State the War of 1812 was at an end. Moreover, this war was the end of the long struggle for Ohio that the Indians began in 1755.1

1 Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol. III., pp. 560-578.

84. Indian Treaties.-The failure of Tecumseh naturally led at once to further concessions by the Indians. In fact, some important concessions had already been made before the War of 1812 commenced. For example, by the Treaty of Fort Industry (Toledo), entered into in 1805, the tribes interested sold to the United States forever, for a certain sum paid down, and a perpetual annuity of a specified amount, all their right and title to the lands lying east of the western boundary of the Western Reserve, extended north to the International line and south to the Indian boundary of 1795. This treaty released the western half of the Western Reserve, including the Fire Lands, and the parallel strip lying between the Reserve and the Greenville treaty line. A series of treaties' negotiated in the period 1807-1818 released the remainder of the State, save only a few scattered reservations that the Indians retained in the northwestern part. The double ownership of the soil, that of the Government and that of the Indians, now came to an end. One by one the Ohio tribes exchanged their reservations for much larger reservations west of the Mississippi River. The Wyandots were the last to go. The remnant of this once powerful tribe, about 700 in number, in 1842 ceded to the United States its last reservation, lying near Upper Sandusky, and soon after removed to Kansas. The progressive yielding of the land by the Indians left it open for settlement and cultivation.

85. The Mexican War.-The annexation of Texas

1 These are the names of the principal treaties, with dates: Treaty of Detroit, 1807; Treaty of Brownstown, 1808; the Treaty of the Rapids of the Miami of the Lake (Maumee), 1817, and the supplement to this Treaty, 1818.

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