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
As the morning approaches the fight narrows down to the two flanks. Here
the savages will make their last stand. Harrison now draws the companies
of Snelling, Posey and Scott from the front lines, and the company of
Captain Walter Wilson from the rear, and forms them on the left flank.
At the same time he orders Baen's company from the front and Cook's from
the rear, to form on the right. The infantry are to be supported by the
dragoons. But as soon as the companies form on the left, Major Samuel
Wells orders a charge, the Indians flee in front of the cold steel, and
are pursued into the swamps by the dragoons. At the same moment the
troops on the right dislodge the savages from behind the trees, and
drive them headlong into the wet prairie in front. The battle is over. A
long and deafening shout from, the troops proclaims the victory.
Thus ended the battle of Tippecanoe, justly famed in history. The
intrepidity of the officers, the firm resolution of the regulars, the
daring brilliancy of the militiamen, all brought about the desired end.
The conflict had been severe. One hundred and eighty-eight men and
officers were either killed or wounded. The officers slain were, Colonel
Abraham Owen, Major Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Captain Jacob Warrick,
Captain Spier Spencer, Captain William C. Baen, Lieutenant Richard
McMahan, Lieutenant Thomas Berry, Corporal James Mitchell and Corporal
Stephen Mars. The loss of the savages in killed alone was nearly forty.
The number of their wounded could never be ascertained. They were led in
battle by the perfidious Winamac, who had always professed to be the
friend of the Governor, and by White Loon and the Stone Eater.
In the weeks that followed the battle much censure of Harrison was
heard, and much of the credit for the victory was at first accorded to
the United States regulars and Colonel Boyd. This was so manifestly
unfair to General Harrison, that Captains Cook, Snelling and Barton,
Lieutenants Adams, Fuller, Hawkins and Gooding, Ensign Burchstead and
Surgeons Josiah D. Foster and Hosea Blood, all of the Fourth United
States Regiment, signed an open statement highly laudatory of the
Governor's talents, military science and patriotism. They declared that
throughout the whole campaign the Governor demeaned himself both as a
"soldier and a general," and that any attempt to undermine their
confidence in and respect for the commander-in-chief, would be regarded
by them as an "insult to their understandings and an injury to their
feelings." The legislatures of Indiana and Kentucky passed resolutions
highly commendatory of the Governor's military conduct and skill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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