A Journal of Two Campaigns of the Fourth Regiment of U.S. Infantry: In the Michigan and Indiana Territories, Under the Command of Col. John P. Boyd, and Lt. Col. James Miller During the Years 1811, & 12. — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
A Journal of Two Campaigns of the Fourth Regiment of U.S. Infantry: In the Michigan and Indiana Territories, Under the Command of Col. John P. Boyd, and Lt. Col. James Miller During the Years 1811, & 12.
John Stuart Mill · en
In Council, they declared their detestation of the Prophet and his
adherents, expressing their wishes to remain in peace and friendship
with their father, the President of the U. States.--The Governor, in
a short reply, warned them against entering into any alliance with
the Prophet and his warriors--telling them, if he should again be
disturbed, and obliged to come among them, it would be out of his
power to restrain his young warriors from destroying them all. A
treaty was signed, and the Indians received their annual presents of
blankets, broadcloths, calicoes, &c. and left the town for their
encampment.
April 2.--The Indians again came in, habited in their new dresses,
performing their dances through the town, to the great diversion of
the Regiment, who were unacquainted with their peculiarities, except
their propensity to deception and treachery; the ill consequences of
which we had been taught at the battle of Tippecanoe.--Towards evening
they retired in good order, and soon after received their arms, and
returned to their villages up the Wabash.
There were still remaining many refractory Indians on the Wabash, who
would agree to no terms of peace with the U. States. They had even
opened the graves of our unfortunate comrades who fell in the late
action--stripped and scalped them, and left their bodies above ground.
Col. Miller was preparing to send a detachment of troops to the battle
ground to have them again interred; but some friendly Indians
undertook this office, and the bodies were again replaced.
April 4.--Information was received of the murder of a family of
seven persons on White river, and others in Indiana, besides many
depredations on the Mississippi. The settlers were alarmed, and fled
to the forts and the most populous towns for protection, leaving their
property to the mercy of the savages.
April 9.--A family on the Embaras river, only seven miles from
Vincennes, consisting of a man, his wife and three small children,
were massacred while in the act of leaving their home for the purpose
of finding protection at Vincennes. A young man who had resided with
the family escaped and fled to Vincennes, where he arrived about 12
o'clock at night, and gave the alarm; the troops were immediately
called to arms, expecting an attack upon the town. The next day Col.
Miller, with a small detachment from the regiment, proceeded to the
river Embaras, where they found the bodies of the murdered family,
shockingly cut up with the tomahawk and scalping knife. The man had
his breast opened, his entrails torn out and strewed about the ground.
They were all scalped except an infant child in the mother's arms,
which was knocked on the head.--The bodies were decently interred and
the party returned to Vincennes without being able to discover the
perpetrators of this horrid massacre.