Ocean to Ocean on Horseback: Being the Story of a Tour in the Saddle from the Atlantic to the Pacific; with Especial Reference to the Early History and Development of Cities and Towns Along the Route; and Regions Traversed Beyond the Mississippi; Together with Incidents, Anecdotes and Adventures of the JourneyGlazier, Willard W.
History
Ocean to Ocean on Horseback: Being the Story of a Tour in the Saddle from the Atlantic to the Pacific; with Especial Reference to the Early History and Development of Cities and Towns Along the Route; and Regions Traversed Beyond the Mississippi; Together with Incidents, Anecdotes and Adventures of the Journey
Glazier, Willard W.
United States -- Description and travel
Seventy-fifth Day.
_Strong's Hotel_,
MONROE, MICHIGAN,
_July Twenty-fifth_.
Wrote to my mother in the morning, and after dinner took a stroll about
town. Beyond its associations with Custer, Monroe is interesting through
its connection with one of the most romantic and sanguinary scenes
connected with the war between Great Britain and the United States; for
on the banks of the River Raisin, which runs through it to the lake,
occurred the famous Indian massacre of 1812. Relics of the bloody
encounter are still found on the field.
It was at a time when the British were making successful inroads upon
Michigan, and General Winchester, at the head of eight hundred
Kentuckians, had been ordered to Frenchtown, the old name for Monroe,
the same point toward which General Miller had previously moved on a
mission equally fatal.
Winchester was warned of the advance of the enemy, but thought there was
no cause for immediate alarm, and on the night before the engagement, he
crossed to the side of the river opposite his men, leaving the camp open
to attack. The result was, that he awoke the next morning to find
Proctor's troops putting his men to rout, at the point of the bayonet,
while their Indian allies were adding to the confusion by their deadly
assault.
Although a part of the Americans escaped on the ice of the river, the
field was covered with their dead and wounded, General Winchester being
among the former. When the engagement was over, Proctor rode away,
leaving a detachment to guard the prisoners and wounded, with
instructions that no violence was to be committed; but some of the
savages who followed him having become intoxicated, returned and fell
upon the prisoners with unrestrained frenzy. Most of the latter had been
placed in two small cabins. These were fired, and the victims perished
in the flames, the Indians pushing them back when they attempted to
escape through the small windows. The remainder were massacred and their
bodies left a prey to the wolves. It was this horrible affair that
aroused the Americans and particularly the Kentuckians to revenge; and
when Tecumseh, the Shawnee warrior, who was the chief instigator of
these atrocities, urged the British to hazard an engagement at the
Thames, after their defeat by Perry, they prepared to return with full
interest the blow given their comrades on the Raisin. The battle of the
Thames is well known. Tecumseh, with the war cry on his lips, met his
reward through a Kentucky bullet early enough in the fight to be spared
the shame of defeat. With him fell a powerful foe, but one whom we must
admire even in his death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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