with their wives and children, were dispered among the different villages of the Pottawatomies, upon the Illinois, Wabash, Rock River and Milwaukee. The largest proportion were taken to Detroit, and ransomed the following spring. Some, however, remained in captivity another year, and experienced more kindness than was expected from an enemy so merciless.*

In addition to the accounts of the massacre of Fort Dearborn, already given, I will affix the official report of Capt. Heald, which differs in no essential particular from that already given:

The

"On the ninth of August, I received orders from Gen. Hull to evacuate the post, and proceed with my command to Detroit, leaving it at my discretion to dispose of the public property as I thought proper. neighboring Indians got the information as early as I did, and came from all quarters to receive the goods in the factory store, which they understood were to be given to them. On the thirteenth, Capt. Wells, of Fort Wayne, arrived with about thirty Miamis, for the purpose of escorting us in by the request of Gen. Hull. On the fourteenth, I delivered the Indians all the goods in the factory store, and a considerable quantity of provisions, which we could not take away with us.

The surplus arms and ammunition, I thought proper to destroy, fearing they would make bad use of it, if put in their possession.

I also destroyed all the liquor on hand, soon after they began to collect. The collection was unusually large for that place, but they conducted with the strictest propriety, till after I left the fort.

On the fifteenth, at nine o'clock A. M., we commenced our march-a part of the Miamis were detached in front, the remainder in our rear as guards, under the direction of Capt. Wells. The situation of the country rendered it necessary for us to take the beach, with the lake on our left, and a high bank on our right, at about one hundred yards distance. We proceeded about a mile and a half, when it was discovered the Indians were prepared to attack us from behind the bank.

I immediately marched up the company to the top of the bank, when the action commenced; after firing one round, recharged, and the Indians gave way in front and joined those on our flanks. In about fifteen minutes, they got posssssion of all our horses, provision and baggage of every description, and, finding the Miamis did not assist us, I drew off the few men I had left, and took possession of a small elevation in the open prairie out of shot of the bank or any other cover. The Indians did not follow me, but assembled in a body on the the top of the bank, and after some consultation among themselves, made signs to me to approach them. I

Peck's Compilation.

advanced towards them alone, and was met by one of the Pottawatomie chiefs called the Blackbird, with an interpreter.

After shaking hands, he requested me to surrender, promising to spare the lives of all the prisoners. On a few moments' consideration, I concluded it would be the most prudent to comply with his request, although I did not put entire confidence in his promise. After delivering up our arms, we were taken back to their encampment near the fort, and distributed among the different tribes.

The next morning they set fire to the fort, and left the place, taking the prisoners with them. Their number of warriors was between four and five hundred, mostly of the Pottawatomie nation, and their loss, from the best information I could get, was about fifteen. Our strength was fifty. four regulars and twelve militia, out of which twenty-six regulars and all the militia, were killed in the action, with two women and twelve children.

Ensign George Ronan and Doctor Isaac V. Van Voorhees, of my company, with Capt. Wells, of Fort Wayne, are, to my great sorrow, numbered among the dead. Lieut. Lina T. Helm, with twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates, and eleven women and children, were prisoners when we separated.

Mrs. Heald and myself were taken to the mouth of the river St. Joseph, and being both badly wounded, were permitted to reside with Mr. Burnet, an Indian trader. In a few days after our arrival there, the Indians all went off to take Fort Wayne, and in their absence I engaged a Frenchman to take us to Michilimack inac, by water, where I gave myself up as a prisoner of war, with one of my sergeants.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

RAISING AN ARMY TO CONQUER THE ENGLISH IN THE NORTHWEST EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN ILLINOIS EXPEDITION UNDER GOVERNOR EDWARDS AND COLONEL RUSSELL-SEIGE OF FORT HARRISON CAPTAIN TAYLOR'S DEFENSE THE ARMY UNDER HARRISON, WINCHESTER AND TUPPER.

THE defeat of General Hull, and the victories of English and Indians in the Northwest produced the greatest excitement among the people of the Western States, and especially in Kentucky and Ohio. By the middle of August, 1812, the whole Northwest, with the exception of Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison, was in the possession of the British and the savages. But one desire seemed to actuate the heart of every American on the borders-"to wipe off the disgrace with which our arms had been stained, and to roll back the desolation that threatened the frontier of Ohio and territories beyond."

As we have seen, General Harrison had been appointed Brigadier-General in the army of the United States. The all absorbing theme was now the raising of another army to conquer the British and subdue the red men. The work immediately began. In the course of a few weeks Kentucky had about seven thousand men in the field under Gen. Thos. Todd. A large body of troops was also raised in the same State to march against the Indians of Indiana and Illinois, under Gen. Samuel Hopkins. Meanwhile Governor Edwards, of Illinois, was active in raising men and making preparations for an expedition against the hostile Indians on the Illinois river. Col. Wm. Russell engaged himself in raising a company of rangers to coöperate with Governor Edwards. The place of rendezvous was near the present town of Edwardsville, west of Cahokia, and named "Camp Russell." The scattered set

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tlements of Illinois then extended no further north than Wood river, near Alton. A line drawn from that point past Greenville and Mount Vernon to Shawneetown, would have enclosed all the white population, except a few families on the Wabash, adjacent to Vincennes. The concerted arrangement was, for Gen. Hopkins, with about four thousand mounted riflemen, to move up the Wabash to Fort Harrison, cross over to the Illinois country, destroy all the Indian villages near the Wabash, march across the prairies to the head waters of the Sangamon and Vermilion rivers, form a junction with the Illinois rangers under Governor Edwards and Col. Russell, and sweep over all the villages along the Illinois river.*

As soon as the troops under Gen. Hopkins entered the prairies of Illinois they became disorderly, which defeated the objects of the expedition. By constantly firing at the game with which they came in contact, they made the Indians aware of their approach, and gaining a knowledge of the force of their invaders, they left their villages in flight. The troops under Governor Edwards and Col. Russell, however, accomplished more; they ascended the river to the village of the Peorias and drove the savages into the swamps, killing many and destroying their town.

On the twenty-eighth of August of the same year, the Pottawatomies, Ottawas, and other hostile Indians, made an attack on Fort Wayne, which they continued until the sixteenth of September, cutting off all approach to the fort until relieved by a strong force under Gen. Harrison. Early in September a fierce attack was made on Fort Harrison, situated a short distance above the site of the present city of Terre Haute, and which was commanded by Capt. Z. Taylor. Tecumseh's band and many other hostile Indians appeared before the fort, having first murdered two persons belonging to the post, whom they found in the open fields. They set fire to one of the blockhouses, which was discovered about midnight, and which produced the greatest confusion among the garrison. Capt. Taylor immediately directed the men to get the buckets, carry water from the well and extinguish the fire, but from some cause *Peck's Compilation

the men were slow in executing the orders, and in spite of every exertion they could make the flames ascended to the roof. As this blockhouse adjoined the barracks that made part of the fortifications, most of the men immediately gave themselves up for lost, and the Captain had the greatest difiiculty in getting his orders executed. Indeed, from the raging of the fire, the yelling and howling of a thousand savages, the cries of women and children in the fort, and the desponding of so many men, his own feelings were unpleasant. The situation became worse on account of the sickness which at the time prevailed in the fort. Two of the strongest men of the garrison, regarding resistance out of reason, jumped the pickets and left. In this terrible moment Capt. Taylor conceived a plan by which the fort and garrison were saved. He explained to the men that by throwing off a part of the roof that joined the blockhouse that was on fire and keeping the end perfectly wet, the whole row of buildings might be saved. In this way the fire would leave only an opening of eighteen or twenty feet for the entrance of the Indians after the house was consumed, and that a temporary breastwork might be erected to prevent their entering there. The men were taken with the plan and went to work in a good spirit to execute it; meanwhile those unable for such arduous duty kept up a constant fire from the other blockhouse and the two bastions. The men who undertook the execution of the Captain's plan succeeded by the loss of only one of their number. In a few moments the roof was removed, and before the dawn of the following morning a temporary breastwork had been erected over the ashes of the blockhouse. During the whole of the siege but two of the men were killed within the fort. Of those who jumped the pickets, one was murdered in the most cruel manner by the Indians, the other escaped to the fort with his arm broken. The savages kept up a continual fire until about six o'clock on the following morning, when it was returned with such effect that they were driven away.

The Indians drove up the horses that belonged to the settlers of the post, and as they could not catch them they shot the whole of them before the eyes of the commandant, as also the