History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

30

HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

whites retaliated, and the Americans could not help seeing
that they must prepare for an Indian war.
In the fall of 1811, Gen. William H. Harrison, Governor
of Indiana, took the field to chastise the unruly warriors.
Tecumseh had been greatly aided in his efforts to form an
Indian confederacy by his brother Elkswatawa, a prominent
' medicine-man," commonly known as the Prophet. At
the time when Harrison's army approached the Shawnee
villages on the Wabash, the chieftain himself was in the
far South, endeavoring to persuade the Cherokees, Choctaws, and other Southern Indians to take up arms, and
Elkswatawa was left to exercise supreme authority. Either
thinking there was no time to spare, or desiring to acquire
for himself the glory of defeating Harrison, Elkswatawa
prepared to make an attack on the Governor's army with all
the warriors he could collect together. Messengers were sent
to the nearest tribes, and several small bands came in to help
the Shawnees. The dread of the Americans, caused by
Wayne's victory, was, however, not yet entirely dissipated,
and many hung back.
But about the first of November he was cheered by the
arrival of band after band of the fierce Pottawattamies,
some from the head of Lake Michigan, and some from the
valley of the St. Joseph, numbering in all about three hundred warriors. Having this powerful accession to his force,
he determined at once to attack.
Before daybreak on the morning of the 7th of November,
just as Harrison had given orders for the arousing of his
little army by the sound of the trumpet, a fierce outburst of
yells was heard, and hundreds upon hundreds of Shawnee
and Pottawattamie warriors, with some from other tribes,
came rushing to the attack, lighting up the darkness with
the fire of their guns, and stripping the scalps from whatever victims they could reach with all of their old-time
energy. But Harrison's men were sleeping upon their
arms, and scarcely had the first demoniac shrieks sounded
in their ears ere they were on their feet, ranged in order of
battle, and returning with steady aim the fire of the assailants. For two or three hours the battle raged with great
violence; both Shawnees and Pottawattamies fought with
furious energy, and many of the Americans were slain or
wounded. But at length the steady valor of the regulars
and the Indiana militia prevailed over the fierce desperation
of the Indians, and the latter gave way at all points. They
speedily fled the field, and Harrison marched unopposed to
the destruction of the Shawnee villages.
After the battle the Pottawattanmie warriors returned to
their own homes, and these were so far distant that they
escaped all punishment for the part they had taken. If
there had been any intention on the part of the American
officials to follow them to their retreats and chastise them
the next spring, the former were effectually precluded from
doing so by the approach of war with Great Britain.
In June, 1812, war was declared, and Tecumseh at once
made common cause with the English, with all the warriors

of his own and other tribes whom he could persuade to follow him. The Pottawattamies had not been so severely
injured by the battle of Tippecanoe, but that some of
their braves were still willing to try the chances of war
against the hated Americans. When Gen. Hull crossed the

Detroit River into Canada in July of that year, Tecunseh,
with thirty Shawnees and Pottawattamies, was at Malden.
Others were added to these, and when Hull, by his tardy
movements and feeble conduct, showed the weakness of his
heart, the number was largely increased. The Pottawattamies, being nearly or quite the nearest tribe to the scene of
action, and being anxious for revenge for their humiliation
at Tippecanoe, formed a considerable part of Tecumseh's
force.
About the 5th of August, Hull sent Major Van Horn
with two hundred men to escort a convoy of provisions from
the river Raisin. As the detachment approached Brownstown Creek it was saluted by volleys of musketry, and the
usual terrific accompaniment of savage yells which announced the presence of an Indian foe. Tecumseh with a
large number of warriors, principally Shawlees. Pottawattamies, and Ottawas, had placed his people in ambush on Van
Horn's path, and had assailed him with the greatest fury.
After a brief conflict the Americans were utterly defeated,
and fled to Detroit, having lost half their number in killed,
wounded, and missing.
This victory of Tecumseh and his followers determined
Hull to evacuate Canada. After doing so the general sent
another force of six hundred men, under Lieut.-Col. Miller,
to open the road to the convoy at the river Raisin. Again
Tecumseh and his warriors flung themselves in the pathway
of the advancing Americans, this time being assisted by
a large body of British troops. A battle ensued at Maguaga, twelve miles below Detroit, where Miller found the
enemy, both British and Indians, drawn up in line of battle
to meet him. He attacked them without hesitation. After
a brief conflict the English fled from the field, but Tecumseh,
with his Shawnees and Pottawattamies, still kept up the
fight. These, too, were at length defeated, and both white
men and red men fled across the river to Canada, having
lost a hundred and thirty-four in killed and wounded. The
Americans had seventeen killed and sixty-four wounded.
Notwithstanding this check, Tecumseh still maintained
his control over his warriors, and when the British commander, Gen. Brock, followed the imbecile Hull to Detroit,
he reported to his government, and no doubt correctly, that
he was accompanied by seven hundred Indians. At all
events, there were enough to terrify the feeble Hull to an
extraordinary degree, and his mind was filled with terrible
visions of all the " hordes of the Northwest '-Shawnees,
Ottawas, Pottawattamnies, and Chi7ppewas-overwhelming
his fort, massacring himself and his garrison, and devastating the settlements of Michigan with tomahawk and
scalping-knife. Of the disgraceful surrender which followed on the 16th of August it is needless to speak here,
save to say that all attempts to justify or extenuate it have
miserably failed, and the name of the cowardly Hull must
ever remain on the pages of American history only less
hateful than that of Arnold, and even more contemptible.
As Mackinaw had already yielded to a British force, the
surrender of Detroit and of Hull's army, with all the
troops in the vicinity, carried with it control over the whole

of Michigan, which, for the next year, became practically
British territory. All the'Indians were already favorable to the English, and the remarkable success of the