The Land of the Miamis: An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812Barce, Elmore
History
The Land of the Miamis: An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812
Barce, Elmore
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815; Miami Indians; Northwest, Old -- History
On the twenty-fifth of June, governor St. Clair wrote to the Kentucky
Board of War to send a second expedition against the Wabash towns. On
the fifth day of July the Board appointed James Wilkinson as the
commander. The troops were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Washington, by
the twentieth of July, "well mounted on horseback, well armed, and
provided with thirty days' provisions." In certain instructions from
Governor St. Clair to General Wilkinson, of date July thirty-first,
Wilkinson's attention is called to a Kickapoo town "in the prairie,
northward and westward of L'Anguille," about sixty miles. This town will
be mentioned later. Wilkinson was directed also to restrain his command
from "scalping the dead." With a Kentuckian, the only good Indian was a
dead one.
On the first day of August, Wilkinson rode out of Cincinnati with five
hundred and twenty-five men. His destined point of attack was the Eel
river towns, about six miles above the present city of Logansport. The
country he had to pass through was mostly unknown, full of quagmires and
marshes, and extremely hard on his horses. He made a feint for the Miami
village at Kekionga, but on the morning of the fourth, he turned
directly northwest and headed for Kenapacomaqua, or L'Anguille, as the
Eel river towns were known. After some brief skirmishes, with small
parties of warriors and much plunging and sinking in the bogs, he
crossed the Wabash about four and one half miles above the mouth of the
Eel river, and striking an Indian path, was soon in front of the Indian
towns. He now dismounted and planned an attack. The second battalion was
to cross the river, detour, and come in on the rear of the villages.
The first battalion was to lie perdue until the maneuver was executed,
when a simultaneous charge was to be made on all quarters of the town.
Before the plan could be executed, however, the troops were discovered,
whereupon an instant charge was made by plunging into the river and
attacking the town on the front. Six warriors were killed, "and in the
hurry and confusion of the charge, two squaws and a child."
Wilkinson found the towns of the Eel river tribes scattered along Eel
river for a distance of three miles. These villages were separated by
almost impassable bogs, and "impervious thickets of plum, hazel and
black-jack." The head chief of the tribe, with his prisoners and a
number of families were out digging a root, which the Indians
substituted for the potato. A short time before Wilkinson arrived, most
of the warriors had gone up the river to a French store to purchase
ammunition. This ammunition had come from Kekionga on the same day.
Several acres of green corn with the ears in the milk were about the
town. All of this was destroyed. Thirty-four prisoners were taken and a
captive released.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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