Part 13
On approaching the mountain, the two centre columns displayed to the right and left, formed a front, and commenced an attack; while the right and left wings were marching to surround the enemy. In a few minutes the action was general and severe. It continued furiously for three-quarters of an hour, when the enemy, being driven from the east to the west end of the mountain, surrendered at discretion. Ferguson was killed, with three hundred and seventy-five of his officers and men, and seven hundred and thirty taken prisoners. The Americans had sixty killed and wounded; among the former was Colonel Williams.
This glorious victory took place at the most gloomy period of the revolution, and may be styled the first link in the great chain of events at the south, which established the independence of the United States. It was achieved by raw, undisciplined riflemen, who had no authority from the government under which they lived; who were without pay, rations, ammunition, or even the expectation of reward, other than that which resulted from the noble attempt to advance the independence of their beloved country. The tories were completely dispirited, and Cornwallis, who then lay within thirty miles of King’s Mountain, became so alarmed that he ordered an immediate retreat to Winnesborough, sixty or eighty miles distant, where he remained for three months, until reinforced by General Leslie, with two thousand men from the Chesapeake.
The legislature of North Carolina passed a vote of thanks to Colonel Shelby and his brother officers, and directed each to be presented with an elegant sword, for his patriotic conduct in the attack and defeat of the British on King’s Mountain, on the memorable 7th of October, 1780. Colonel Shelby served the two following years under that distinguished partisan officer, General Marion. In 1782, Colonel Shelby retired from the army, and was appointed one of the commissioners to settle the pre-emption claims upon the Cumberland river, and to lay off the lands allotted to the officers and soldiers of the North Carolina line, south of where Nashville now stands. In 1783, he returned to Boonsborough, Kentucky, and married Susanna, second daughter of Captain Hart, one of the first settlers of Kentucky, and one of the proprietors styled Henderson & Co., by their purchase of the country from the Cherokees. Colonel Shelby established himself on the first settlement and pre-emption granted in Kentucky, for the purpose of cultivating the soil; and it is a remarkable fact, that at the period of his death, forty-three years after, he was the only individual in that state residing upon his own settlement and pre-emption. In 1812 he was chosen governor of the state in which he lived; and during the trying crisis of 1813, at the request of the legislature, he organized a body of four thousand volunteers, which he led in person, at the age of sixty-three, under General Harrison, into Canada. His gallantry and patriotism at that ever memorable victory on the Thames, were acknowledged by the commanding general, and by President Madison, and in resolutions by the legislature of Kentucky, which recognized “his plans and the execution of them as splendid realities, which exact our gratitude and that of his country, and justly entitle him to the applause of posterity.” Congress also passed a vote of thanks, and awarded a gold medal (_see_ Plate VII.), as a testimony of its sense of his illustrious services.
In 1817, he was selected by President Monroe to fill the department of war, but his advanced age induced him to decline the honor. In February, 1820, he was seized with a paralytic affection, which disabled his right arm and was the occasion of a lameness the remainder of his life. His mind continued unimpaired until his death by apoplexy, on the 18th of July, 1826, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was fitted, by a vigorous constitution, to endure active and severe bodily exercise, and the energetic symmetry of his person rendered his deportment impressively dignified. His strong, natural sense was aided by close observation of matters and things; and the valuable qualities of method and perseverance imparted success to all his efforts.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.
OCCASION.--Battle of the Thames.
DEVICE.--Bust of General Shelby.
LEGEND.--Governor Isaac Shelby.
REVERSE.--A representation of the battle of the Thames, in Canada; Governor Shelby charging the enemy with his mounted rangers.
LEGEND.--Battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813.
EXERGUE.--Resolution of Congress, April 4th, 1818.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
William Henry Harrison was born at the seat of his father, at Berkely, on James river, twenty-five miles from Richmond, Virginia. His father, Benjamin Harrison, was a descendant of the celebrated leader of that name in the wars of Oliver Cromwell. He appears to have inherited republicanism, for he acted a most conspicuous part in our own revolutionary struggle. He represented Virginia in Congress, in the years 1774, 1775 and 1776, and was chairman of the committee of the whole house when the Declaration of Independence was read, and was one of the signers of that act. In 1782 he succeeded Governor Nelson in the executive chair of that state. William Henry Harrison, the subject of this memoir, was educated at the college of Hampden Sydney, which he left at the age of seventeen, to obey the wishes of his father in the study of medicine, and for that purpose repaired to Philadelphia in 1791, that he might prosecute his studies with greater advantage.
He had hardly commenced the study of his new profession when the death of his distinguished parent obliged him to return. After his return, and during the time appropriated for the settlement of his father’s estate, the preparations for a campaign against the Indians of the west caused much excitement, and Harrison resolved to enter the service of his government despite the most eloquent entreaties and persuasions of his guardian and friends. Nothing could check his enthusiastic ardor. He begged, he importuned, and Washington at last yielded to his constant importunities, and presented him with an ensign’s commission. With a heart beating with enthusiasm, he departed for Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, where he arrived only in time to learn the unparalleled massacre of St. Clair’s army, and the deaths of several distinguished officers. The sight of the broken troops had no effect on the warlike zeal of young Harrison. In the following year, General Wayne assumed the command, and appointed Ensign Harrison as one of his aids.
The first time he had a chance to distinguish himself was in the engagement of _Roche de Bouc_, in the official report of which, his general did him the justice to name him especially.
After the departure of General Wayne for the Atlantic States, in 1795, Harrison was left in command of Fort Washington. During the first year of his garrison life, he married the daughter of Judge Symmes, the proprietor of the Miami purchase. But the active mind of Harrison could not be confined within the walls of a garrison; he therefore resigned his commission, and obtained an appointment as secretary of the northwestern territory. His able talents, exercised in that capacity, soon made him popular, and in 1799 he was elected the first delegate in Congress for that extensive region, now comprising the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the territory of Michigan. The first object of his attention was a repeal of the obnoxious land bill, which ordained, that not less than four thousand acres could be sold at once. He became chairman of the committee on lands and framed a bill, which was carried with very little opposition. This bill lowered the number of acres to sections, half-sections, and quarter-sections, so as to enable the industrious husbandman to commence his labors; also providing for the payment of the lands in such a way as to meet the exigences of the most frugal means.
To this grand and important act of William Henry Harrison, is imputed the rapid settlement of the whole of that extensive region; and had he only been permitted to live to see this noble act completed, he would richly have merited the title of a benefactor to mankind. Shortly after, Indiana was erected into a separate territory, and Mr. Adams appointed Harrison the first governor.
In 1801, Governor Harrison entered upon the duties of his new office, with powers never before conferred upon any other officer, either civil or military, that of commissioner to treat with the Indians. In this capacity he negotiated and concluded fifteen treaties, with their title to upwards of seventy millions of acres of land. Although he was surrounded by numerous tribes of warlike Indians, whose hostile feelings were constantly inflamed by the intrigues of British agents and traders, and often by the American hunters themselves, Harrison kept down Indian invasion in the territory, only by conciliation accompanied by firmness. His administration of justice was always tempered with mildness. In this way he surmounted difficulties which would have prostrated any ordinary capacity. The ability and success of the administration of Governor Harrison are recorded in his voluminous correspondence with Mr. Jefferson from 1802 till 1809.
During the year 1811, affairs approached a crisis which appeared to render hostilities unavoidable; and Governor Harrison found it necessary to apply to Colonel Boyd, of the 4th United States regiment, then at Pittsburgh, who immediately joined him, with as large a force of militia as time permitted him to collect, together with a small but gallant band of volunteers from Kentucky, numbering about seventy persons. With these he marched towards the prophet’s town, at Tippecanoe. His object was to bring about a negotiation with Tecumseh and his prophet brother, who for a long time had been harassing and plundering the inhabitants of that part of the country. On the 6th of November he arrived in sight of the Indian village, and commenced his attempts at negotiation with these ruthless savages. Finding, however, that all his attempts were fruitless, he resolved to encamp for the night, the chiefs having promised to listen to him on the day following. Governor Harrison was careful in selecting a spot for the encampment, in case of a sudden attack, which he anticipated. His anticipation proved too true; for on the morning of the 7th, before daylight, the onset of these blood-thirsty savages was announced by their hideous yells. The Indians fought with their usual desperation, and for some time were victorious; but the extraordinary skill and courage of the American officers changed the tide against them, and they fled before their pursuers. Victory was propitious, but at the expense of some of the most gallant spirits of the age.
Colonels Davis and Owen, of Kentucky, and Captain Spencer, of Indiana, were among the slain. Governor Harrison received a bullet through his stock, but without injury.
Governor Harrison still continued to negotiate with the Indians, until the declaration of war against England, in 1812. He then received a commission as a major-general in the army of the United States, embracing a larger sphere of action. At that period the greatest confusion prevailed. Money, arms, and men must be raised, but who would assume the responsibility of procuring them?
All the talents and energies of our hero were called into action. He organized his army, obtained money, arms, and ammunition, and on the 5th of October, 1813, he brought the British army, with their Indian allies under Tecumseh, to action, near the river Thames. The decisive victory achieved by militia over the disciplined troops of England, was a matter of joy and exultation through the whole Union. This gallant victory is attributed to the novel maneuver of General Harrison, that of charging through the British lines with mounted infantry. For this important action, Congress presented a vote of thanks and a gold medal. (_See_ Plate VIII.)
General Harrison, having given the necessary aid to Niagara and the western frontier, left his troops at Sacket’s Harbor under the command of Colonel Smith, and repaired to Washington for the purpose of resigning his commission, in consequence of a misunderstanding between the Secretary of War and himself. The resignation was presented and accepted by Secretary Armstrong, much to the regret of the President, who was absent at the time; on his return he remarked, in a letter to a friend, “that had he been in Washington, it should not have been accepted.” General Harrison retired to his estate at North Bend, in Ohio. Thence he was successively called to represent the people of Ohio in the House of Representatives, and Senate of the United States, by which he was appointed minister to Colombia, till recalled by President Jackson. On his return to the United States, General Harrison again enjoyed the pursuits of agriculture in the bosom of his family at North Bend, until 1834, when he was appointed prothonotary of the court of Hamilton county. This office he punctually attended in person, until 1840, when he was triumphantly elected to the presidency of the United States. He was inaugurated and entered upon the duties of his office on the 4th of March, 1841, and died on the following 4th of April. In their official announcement of the death of General Harrison, the members of his cabinet say, “that the people of the United States, overwhelmed, like ourselves, by an event so unexpected and so melancholy, will derive consolation from knowing that his death was calm and resigned, as his life had been patriotic, useful, and distinguished, and that the last utterance of his lips expressed a fervent desire for the perpetuity of the constitution, and the preservation of its true principles.”
DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.
OCCASION.--Battle of the Thames.
DEVICE.--Bust of General Harrison.
LEGEND.--Major General William H. Harrison.
REVERSE.--A female placing a wreath round two bayonets fixed on muskets, and a color staff stacked, over a drum and a cannon, a bow and a quiver; her right hand resting on a shield, bearing the stars and stripes of the United States, and holding a halbert. From the point of union of the stack, hangs a badge with the inscription, Fort Meigs, Battle of the Thames.
LEGEND.--Resolution of Congress, April 4th, 1818.
EXERGUE.--Battle of the Thames, Oct. 5th, 1813.
LIEUT.-COLONEL CROGHAN.
George Croghan was born at Locust Grove, near the falls of Ohio, on the 15th of November, 1791. His father, Major William Croghan, left Ireland at an early period of life; was appointed an officer in our revolutionary army, and discharged his duties to the satisfaction of the commander-in-chief. His mother was the daughter of John Clark, Esq., of Virginia, a gentleman of worth and respectability, who exerted himself greatly, and contributed largely towards the support of our just and glorious contest.
George Croghan received all the advantages of education which the best grammar-schools in Kentucky could afford. In his seventeenth year he entered the ancient college of William and Mary in Virginia. Both at school and at college, he was remarked for an open manliness of character, for elevation of sentiment, and for strength of intellect, connected with a high and persevering ambition. In July, 1810, he graduated at William and Mary College, and soon afterwards entered the law school of that institution, where he remained until the fall of 1811, when he volunteered his services as a private in the campaign up the Wabash. A short time before the action of Tippecanoe, he was appointed aid-de-camp to General Boyd, the second in command; and, although from his situation, he was not enabled to evince that activity which has since so much distinguished him, he exhibited a soul undaunted in one of the most sanguinary conflicts of that time, and accordingly received the thanks of the commanding general. In consequence of his services on the Wabash expedition, he was appointed a captain in the provincial army, directed to be raised and organized in the spring of 1812. In August he marched with the detachment from Kentucky, under General Winchester, destined to relieve General Hull in Canada. During the movements of that gallant but unfortunate little army, the caution, zeal and military capacity of Captain Croghan were conspicuous.
Upon visiting the various encampments of the army on its march along the Miami of the Lake, both before and after the attack on Fort Wayne, the ground occupied by Captain Croghan was easily designated by the judicious fortifications erected for the night. On the movement of the army towards the Rapids, he was entrusted with the command of Fort Winchester, at the junction of the Anglaize and Miami rivers, where he adopted his usual military arrangements. After the defeat at the river Raisin, he joined General Harrison at the Rapids, previous to the erection of Fort Meigs. General Harrison has often expressed the great confidence he had in the judicious arrangements of Captain Croghan, during the trying, brilliant and ever memorable siege of Fort Meigs.
In the sortie under the gallant Colonel, now General Miller, on the 5th of May, the storming of the British batteries was confided to the companies led by Captains Croghan, Langhan and Bradford. These batteries were defended by a regular force and a body of Indians, either of them superior in number to the assailants. Here Captain Croghan’s gallantry was again noticed in general orders. At a critical period in the campaign of 1813, Captain Croghan was promoted to a majority, and appointed to the command of Fort Sandusky, at Lower Sandusky.
On his conduct in the defence of that post, the official documents of the time, and the applause of a grateful country, are the most honorable commentary. The defence of the fort of Sandusky took place on the 4th of August, 1813, and although the work of a few hours, and of a small force, was an achievement brilliant in itself and important in its consequences. However diminutive it may appear, when compared with many of the military feats in the revolutionary war, it is justly entitled to a distinguished place in the annals of our country. It was among the first events of the last war that gave confidence to our soldiers, and compelled the enemy to respect our arms. It furnished, moreover, a memorable instance of what a few bold and determined spirits can perform, when opposed even to more than fourfold their number. It is not too much to add, that, under Providence, it was highly instrumental in preserving from the tomahawk and the scalping-knife, many of our defenceless frontier inhabitants.
The inclosure of Fort Sandusky, like that of most fortresses that are suddenly erected in our new settlements, was composed of picket-work, and surrounded by a ditch nine feet wide and six deep. The number of its defenders, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel, then Major Croghan, amounted to about one hundred and sixty, most of them raw, unexperienced troops. It contained but a single piece of mounted ordnance, and that only a six pounder.
The assailing force consisted of nearly a thousand men, one-half of them British regulars, commanded by General Proctor in person, and the remainder savages, led on, as we believe, by the celebrated Tecumseh. Their means of annoyance, besides small arms, were five six pounders, and one howitzer of considerable calibre. The fort was regularly summoned to surrender, under the usual plea of a wish to prevent the effusion of blood. To give to this message the greater weight, the force of the assailants was somewhat exaggerated, and it was added that, should the works be carried by assault, it would be impossible to restrain the savages from massacre. Undismayed by the odds that were against him, and the unsoldierly threat, that, should the enemy be successful, he would receive no quarter, Colonel Croghan unhesitatingly returned the customary answer, that he would defend his post “to the last extremity.”
This conference being ended, the British regulars, led on by Lieutenant-Colonel Short, an officer of high character and daring courage, advanced to the assault in a solid column, under the discharge of all their artillery. Notwithstanding a galling fire from the small arms of the fort, the assailants approached with firmness and gallantry, till, following the example of their intrepid leader, a large portion of them had leapt into the ditch. At this moment, when the enemy were completely within the toil he had prepared for them, Major Croghan unmasked his piece of cannon, which had been hitherto concealed, and poured among them a discharge of grape-shot which raked the ditch with terrible carnage. In the number of those who fell under this first and most destructive fire, was Lieutenant-Colonel Short. Another discharge or two from this piece of ordnance carried confusion into the British ranks, and forced them to retreat with the utmost precipitation; nor had they sufficient hardihood to return the charge. Panic-struck by this disaster of their allies, the savages also fled in all directions, leaving our countrymen in undisturbed possession of their well-defended fortress. The combined loss of the British and Indians in this affair, was computed at somewhat upwards of a hundred men; that of the Americans was one man killed and seven slightly wounded.
Such was the dismay created among the enemy by this signal and unexpected chastisement, that they precipitately abandoned their position, leaving behind them a large boat loaded with clothing and military stores. In consequence of the gallantry of this achievement, and the important effects of which it was productive, the brave Croghan, as yet but a major, besides being honorably mentioned in Congress, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. An affair of such brilliancy, achieved under such circumstances, could not fail to endear him to his country, and to exalt his name in the ranks of honor. Some years since Congress voted to Colonel Croghan a gold medal. (_See_ Plate VIII.)
DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.
OCCASION.--Defence of Fort Sandusky, 2d August, 1813.
DEVICE.--Bust of Colonel Croghan.
LEGEND.--Presented by Congress to Colonel George Croghan, 1835.
REVERSE.--The fort of Sandusky, with the enemy arrayed in front; American flag flying on the tower; columns of smoke from the fort, &c.
LEGEND.--Pars magna fuit.
EXERGUE.--Sandusky, 2d August, 1813.
PAUL JONES.
John Paul Jones was born on the 6th of July, 1747, at Arbigland, in the parish of Kirkbean, Scotland.
The residence of his father was near the shores of the Solway, one of the most beautiful and picturesque points of the Frith, where our young hero passed his hours of pastime in launching his “tiny bark” on the waters, and issuing to his supposed officers and crew his naval commands. At the age of twelve years, having made known his determination to lead a seafaring life, it was deemed proper to yield to it by his reluctant parents. Accordingly, he was apprenticed to a merchant at Whitehaven, on the opposite side of Solway Frith, in the American trade.
He made his first voyage before he was thirteen, in the ship Friendship of Whitehaven, bound for the Rappahannock. His elder brother, William, had married and settled at Fredericksburg, in Virginia, where Jones found a happy home during his stay in America.