in ambush near Fort Meigs and were unable to make longer resistance. He
was wounded at Maguagua, where nearly four hundred were killed and
wounded on both sides. He covered the British retreat after the battle
of Lake Erie, and, refusing to retreat farther, compelled the British
General Proctor to make a stand at the Thames river. Almost the whole
force of the American attack fell on Tecumtha's division. Early in
the engagement he was shot through the arm, but continued to fight
desperately until he received a bullet in the head and fell dead,
surrounded by the bodies of 120 of his slain warriors. The services
of Tecumtha and his Indians to the British cause have been recognized
by an English historian, who says, "but for them it is probable we
should not now have a Canada." Authorities: Drake, Indians, ed. 1880;
Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1894; Eggleston, Tecumseh
and the Shawnee Prophet.
(34) Fort Mims Massacre, 1813 (p. 89): Fort Mims, so called from an
old Indian trader on whose lands it was built, was a stockade fort
erected in the summer of 1813 for the protection of the settlers in
what was known as the Tensaw district, and was situated on Tensaw
lake, Alabama, one mile east of Alabama river and about forty miles
above Mobile. It was garrisoned by about 200 volunteer troops under
Major Daniel Beasley, with refugees from the neighboring settlement,
making a total at the time of its destruction of 553 men, women, and
children. Being carelessly guarded, it was surprised on the morning of
August 30 by about 1,000 Creek warriors led by the mixed-blood chief,
William Weatherford, who rushed in at the open gate, and, after a stout
but hopeless resistance by the garrison, massacred all within, with
the exception of the few negroes and halfbreeds, whom they spared, and
about a dozen whites who made their escape. The Indian loss is unknown,
but was very heavy, as the fight continued at close quarters until the
buildings were fired over the heads of the defenders. The unfortunate
tragedy was due entirely to the carelessness of the commanding officer,
who had been repeatedly warned that the Indians were about, and at the
very moment of the attack a negro was tied up waiting to be flogged for
reporting that he had the day before seen a number of painted warriors
lurking a short distance outside the stockade. Authorities: Pickett,
Alabama, ed. 1896; Hamilton and Owen, note, p. 170, in Transactions
Alabama Historical Society, II, 1898; Agent Hawkins's report, 1813,
American State Papers: Indian Affairs, I, p. 853; Drake, Indians,
ed. 1880. The figures given are those of Pickett, which in this
instance seem most correct, while Drake's are evidently exaggerated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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