Natives versus Settlers: the Battle of Wildcat Creek, November 22, 1812

This battle is also known as the second Battle of Tippecanoe, since part of the windup to the battle took place on the Tippecanoe battlefield.  It's also known as Spur's Run, since after their encounter with a combined Native force Kickapoo, Winnebago and Shawnee commanded possibly by Tecumseh's brother, the detachments of the US Army and Kentucky and Indiana militia were content to do just that-spur their horses as far away from the area as they could.

By winter of 1812 tempers on both sides of the conflict were high.  The battle of Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811 had broken the back of Tecumseh's Confederacy.  He was still alive, but dependent on the British in Canada.  Hundreds of his followers had fled, but others had stayed in the area.  The Battle of Fort Dearborn in August, 1812 and Pigeon's Roost Massacre of September, 1812, had local inhabitants demanding punishment of the remaining tribes.  It was only a matter of time before the two collided and things got very ugly.  A force consisting largely of Indiana and Kentucky militia under Samuel Hopkins and William Russell was dispatched on a punitive raid in the Tippecanoe area, taking the same route that Harrison had before the battle.  Russell destroyed a Kickapoo village but had to retreat to Cahokia, Illinois.  Hopkins and his Kentucky militia were driven back to Vincennes, and nearly became the victims of a prairie fire started by the Kickapoo.

Furious, Hopkins dismissed most of the Kentucky militia with him and turned to the regular Army.  Major Zachary Taylor (future POTUS) and the 7th Infantry, along with the few units of Kentucky and Indiana militia who had been spared Hopkins wrath traveled to the Tippecanoe battleground.  There, they found that the White dead from the original battle had been dug up and the corpses scalped or dismembered.  Natives believed that a person went to the afterlife with the same injuries he'd suffered in this life.  A dismembered enemy couldn't be a threat in the afterlife.  That explanation wouldn't have satisfied Hopkins and Taylor, whose men buried the dead and reached the remnants of Prophetstown.  The village once run by Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa had been partially rebuilt, with a large Kickapoo encampment nearby.  Both were deserted.  The army burnt the camp and the remains of Prophetstown and kept looking for their enemy.

On Wildcat Creek, a Winnebago village was found abandoned, the Natives having left in the face of the advancing White force.  Hopkins sent a detachment of men to burn that, as well.  On November 21, a Native fired on an advance scouting party, that hurried back to the main force, leaving a dead soldier behind.  On November 22, a detachment rode out to recover the body and found the severed head stuck on a pole, with a lone Native warrior standing beside it.  Incensed, some of the Indiana militia charged at the lone warrior who fled, leading them right into an ambush.  Shawnee, Winnebago and Kickapoo warriors, perhaps under the command of Kumakskau, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa's brother, open fire, killing twelve men.  The remainder put their spurs to their horses and fled back where they'd come.  Eventual losses were 17 killed and 3 wounded.

Scouts of the American force later learned that a larger party of Native warriors was heading toward Hopkins' main position.  A snowstorm deterred the attack.  On November 24, 1812, when the American forced reached the larger Native camp, it was abandoned.  The men turned back to Vincennes, several of them suffering from frostbite.  Samuel Hopkins was so worn out and depressed from his losses that he resigned his command.  He was brought before a court-martial and whitewashed, later becoming a Senator.

The exact location of the battle remains a mystery.  Each year, local reenactors commemorate this battle, one of the westernmost of the War of 1812.