During his revolt and afterwards, Tecumseh achieved a celebrity status that only Osceola would approach during the pre-Removal era, and that it would take the likes of Sitting Bull and Geronimo to reach again. People in America and Canada during and after the War of 1812 were fascinated with Tecumseh. That he could speak some English, was known to be generous to captives, and could conduct himself like a gentleman in the presence of Whites helped spread a legend of which he was probably unaware. In the years after his death, babies were named for him (see Sherman, William Tecumseh), as were warships (HMS Tecumseh), a Naval Base in Canada, a courtyard at the Naval Academy in America, towns, buildings, geography were named for him. There were coins, memorial plaques, paintings, poems and plays. Tecumseh's Revolt was more famous in its time than the War of 1812, as though he had posed a bigger threat than the British. William Henry Harrison held political rallies on Tippecanoe Battlefield, billing himself as Tippecanoe and Tyler too, riding that all the way into the White House.
But, one election cycle earlier, another political candidate had risen to fame claiming even better (in the eyes of public opinion at the time). Van Buren's running mate, Col. Richard Mentor Johnson boasted that he had actually killed Tecumseh. A jingle during his campaign ran, "Rumpsey-dumpsey, Col. Johnson killed Tee-cum-see!" By that time, Johnson wasn't the only man boasting of having killed Tecumseh, and some men even had relics to "prove" their story in the form of scalps, fingers, pieces of dried skin or other items taken from or on dead warriors at the Battle of the Thames. Then as now, fact-checking was beside the point and probably impossible anyway.
So, who killed Tecumseh? When? And where did he die/get buried?
Let's go back to October 5, 1813. In the aftermath of the battle, Harrison and his senior commanders toured the battlefield. This was custom in those days, even Wellington and Napoleon often toured scenes of their victories. But there was no doubt that they had heard Tecumseh had been killed and were looking for that particular body. According to tradition, Harrison asked frontiersman Simon Kenton to make the identification. Kenton picked out another body, possibly the body of Wyandot leader Roundhead and stated that he was Tecumseh. Souvenir hunters took out their grim satisfaction on that body, even though Tecumseh's body was nearby. They left it alone. There's a problem with this story. While Simon Kenton was adopted by the Shawnee (and nearly killed by them several times, earning the name Cutahota, or Condemned Man), and would have possibly known Tecumseh on sight, Harrison was had also had two close encounters with him. If Kenton deliberately lied and chose another body to be Tecumseh, would Harrison have gone along with it? Probably. Harrison had an ego and wouldn't like to have been shown up by another man telling him he was wrong. If he saw Tecumseh's body there, it would've been enough to satisfy him. The souvenir hunters could get their penny's worth elsewhere, for all he cared. Johnson's account, as witnessed by others, indicated that, as his troops became enmeshed in the swamp where the Native battle positions were at the Thames, he became tangled up with an impressive warrior whom he took to be Tecumseh. It's doubtful Johnson and Tecumseh ever met. Johnson would naturally assume that the most flashy-dressed Native on the battlefield, drawing the most attention to himself, would be the Shawnee leader. Others who knew Tecumseh better indicated that he, like Osceola, tended to dress for practicality during a battle, saving his finer regalia for meetings and ceremonial events. Some accounts indicate that the warrior Johnson tangled up with was a Potawatomi. No matter. Johnson survived a one-on-one combat with a Native warrior showing great skill and bravery on both sides. He killed the Potawatomi, who couldn't argue that he wasn't Tecumseh. At that point, would Johnson really care if he had killed the right man? By that time, rumors were rife that Tecumseh had been killed by somebody. As long as Johnson said he was the man, who would argue?
Col. William Whitley might have been one, but he also died during the battle and his account was preserved by others. William Whitley was a Revolutionary War veteran and a bona fide friend of Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark and other Kentucky luminaries. His family was one of the first to use Boone's wilderness road. He was also a horse racing pioneer in Kentucky. The leader of a mounted militia unit and riding an early prototype of a walking horse, he cut a fine figure. He was one of those who followed Johnson into the swamp from which the rest of Harrison's army had to extricate them even after the Natives had left the fight. According to witnesses, and later embellished by his granddaughter, Whitley found himself face to face with another Native in full battle regalia. Each shot and killed the other. Whitley's horse, rifle, pistol and other personal effects were sent home to his family while he was buried on the battlefield. With him dead, nobody else could steal Johnson's thunder and, for some reason, Whitley's family didn't make the story public until decades later.
Both of these accounts seem to suggest that Tecumseh, or someone like him, was killed during the battle and thus would've been lying on the battlefield for anyone to view. But did he die during the battle, or shortly thereafter?
There are other accounts, one provided by Billy Caldwell/Sauganash, a Potawatomi leader whom we've already run across and who would become a local legend in Chicago. According to him, he came across Tecumseh leaving the battlefield after the fight was over. He had a gunshot wound in his chest but was still ambulatory. "What happened?" Billy asked. "I'm shot," Tecumseh replied in English and moved on. Billy had grown up among the Mohawk and spoke Mohawk as well as his Native Potawatomi. He supported Tecumseh's Confederacy and even became a trusted lieutenant of Tecumseh. He would know Tecumseh if he saw him. Possibly, they were speaking in English either because Billy did not know Shawnee, or to keep their conversation away from the ears of any Natives who might be listening and who didn't need to know right then how badly their leader was hurt. Billy Caldwell, a mixed-race Native, was not someone whose word would have counted for much in a 19th century Presidential race. He died of cholera in 1841, having been removed with his people to Iowa.
Other Native accounts also indicate that Tecumseh survived the battle somewhat ambulatory. One describes him as still trying to direct his men and fend off attackers with a lance stuck in his shoulder or run through his body. A lance, not a gunshot wound, suggests that he was attacked by another Native. Was it a disgruntled member of his own command? Was it one of Harrison's auxiliaries. The Chickasaw and Choctaw who came with Harrison were not in sympathy with Tecumseh's movement. Could one of them have seen his chance to off a troublemaker?
Over 203 years later, we'll never know the real answers to these mysteries. If Johnson didn't kill Tecumseh, and Whitley might have, or someone else, he died in the battle. If not, and if Caldwell's account and other Native accounts are correct, he walked away after the battle on his own power and died later. The main takeaway is that people who claimed to have taken relics from or desecrated his body are most likely stretching the truth, as Johnson himself later stated. Most likely, Tecumseh's body was not desecrated and was either off the battlefield by the time Harrison and the other brass toured, or shortly thereafter. Either Tecumseh walked away, was helped away, and later died. Or, his body was later removed and buried in an undisclosed location. At least, in death, he wasn't disrespected.
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