Natives versus Settlers: Battle of Brownstown, August 5, 1812

Fighting a colonial war was always costly in money, men and materiel for any European power.  In North America, the French and British made frequent use of their Native auxiliaries, often sending trusted warriors to fight directly with soldiers of the other country, or the Americans, when resources were spread then.  During the War of 1812, the British had need of effective fighting men and commanders to lead them.  Tecumseh, a warrior with a proven track record, was a valuable asset. 

Brownstown was a Wyandot village located on Brownstown Creek near Fort Detroit, in what is now Gibraltar, Michigan.  The Wyandot of this village supported the U.S. and likely Major Thomas van Horne, on the way to the Raisin River to pick up beef on the hoof to return to Major General William Hull at Fort Detroit, thought he was safe enough.  Tecumseh and Roundhead, with 25 Shawnee, Chickamauga and Wyandot warriors quickly set him straight, ambushing Van Horne's party of 200 troops.  Van Horne's men, most of them untrained militia, lost their nerve and scattered, 18 killed, 12 wounded, and 70 missing.  Most of those missing later trickled in to Fort Detroit in the next few days.  Shawnee losses totaled 1 killed. 

The fact that Tecumseh was able to scatter a much larger force with his own was a testament to his own skill as a leader, the coordination of his troops, and the psychological effect of Native warriors on almost any battlefield.  It also showed up the lack of efforts by American forces to maintain this portion of the frontier against British and American attack.  Later, Hull would surrender Fort Detroit to the British after a badly handled siege that would lead to charges of misconduct.  He was later court-martialed and sentenced to death.  President James Madison pardoned him and his career was over.

 

Great Warrior: Roundhead of the Wyandot

Great warriors and leaders had a variety of weapons in their arsenal.  They preferred negotiation, would fight when it came to it, but were not above political intrigue or ruthless removal of an enemy who stood in their way.  Roundhead of the Wyandot, c 1760-1813, had all of these qualities.

Roundhead, also known as Bark Carrier, Stayeghtha or Stiahta, came from a powerful Wyandot family that included other leaders such as Leatherlips and Tarhe.  Roundhead was born near the Sandusky River in Ohio and was a leader of the Wyandot under Tarhe at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.  Other than that, little is known about his life until he allied with Tecumseh in 1810 and became one of Tecumseh's lieutenants, as well as a strict adherent of The Prophet's teachings about returning to traditional ways and disavowing the ways and material goods of the Whites.  When Tarhe disagreed with Tecumseh, Roundhead parted ways with the older leader and joined Tecumseh wholeheartedly.  When his own brother Leatherlips also disagreed with Tecumseh and advocated co-existence with the Whites, Roundhead approved charges of witchcraft against Leatherlips and ordered his execution.

Tecumseh joined Col. Henry Proctor's British forces at Fort Detroit, with Roundhead as his second in command.  He led warriors at the Battle of Brownstown and the Battle of Magagua, in August 1812.  Proctor had given Tecumseh a beautiful officer's sash, which Tecumseh presented to Roundhead, saying that the sash should be worn by an older and more experienced warrior.  It was the ultimate accolade.  Not wanting to cause jealousy among the other Native leaders, Roundhead put the sash away for the time being.  He participated in the capture of Fort Detroit, and later Fort Miami and Fort Miegs.  He was also present at the Battle of the Raisin River on January 22, 1813.  Tecumseh had given command of the Native auxiliaries with Proctor's army over to Roundhead, who led 800 Native warriors against almost 600 Americans commanded by Gen. James Winchester.  Winchester was captured by Roundhead, who turned him over to Proctor, saving his life. 

Proctor abandoned Fort Detroit and returned to Canada.  Tecumseh, Roundhead and their men following.  On October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames/Moraviantown, Roundhead was killed and Tecumseh either died in battle or shortly thereafter.  As William Henry Harrison toured the battlefield after the fight, he asked frontiersman Simon Kenton to identify Tecumseh's body.  Kenton pointed out Roundhead's corpse instead.  Was it because Tecumseh had managed to leave the field on his own power, or because neither Kenton nor Harrison wanted Tecumseh's body despoiled?  Was the tell-tale sash a giveaway?  We'll never know.  Roundhead's body was taken over by souvenir hunters on the battlefield.  Meanwhile, the question of whether to support Tecumseh's movement or cede more land to Whites had become a divisive feud within Wyandot society, and Roundhead's treatment of Leatherlips didn't help the breach any.  The Wyandot people would move further west, and eventually decide to cooperate with the Americans as best they could. 

Opposition: William Henry Harrison

A military hero who made his name partly on the basis of battles against one very worthy adversary, and a future President of the United States, William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) was a man of many talents and complex personality.  What concerns us here are his years on the frontier.  His time as POTUS is material for another blog someday-maybe.

William Henry Harrison's family had lived in Virginia since the 1630's.  He came from the upper crust plantation gentry and was born when Virginia was still a colony of Great Britain.  He was the last POTUS to be born prior to the Revolution and thus a British subject before becoming an American citizen.  His father, Benjamin Harrison V was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.  He later served as Governor of the state of Virginia.  William Henry's brother was a United States congressman.  Young WH had his career mapped ahead of him before he was old enough to have a say.  Politics and public service was definitely in his future somewhere.

But first there was school.  William Henry had some idea of becoming a minister, but his father nixed that idea.  He also studied under Dr. Benjamin Rush with the idea of becoming a doctor, but decided that wasn't for him.  His father died when WH was 18, which cut short any further study at a college or university.  Since he was a younger son, he didn't inherit as much of the family fortune as his older brothers so it was necessary to find a job ASAP.  A friend of the family was Light-Horse Harry Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee and by that time Governor of Virginia.  His sponsorship earned WH a commission as an ensign in the 1st Infantry Regiment, Ensign being a land as well as naval rank at the time.  He was assigned to Fort Washington, present-day Cincinnati, during the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795). 

In 1792, WH was promoted to Lieutenant when Mad Anthony Wayne took over command in the Ohio frontier.  Harrison went to school on Wayne, learning how to both deal with soldiers on the frontier and the enemy they had to fight.  He was present at Fallen Timbers in 1794.  He was also a signatory to the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, witnessing Wayne's signature.  By this time, Harrison had come into some money from his mother's estate, but sold the land to his brother and continued on in the army.  In 1795, he met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio.  She was a judge's daughter and her father wasn't too keen on the idea of his daughter marrying a soldier.  Harrison and Anna waited until Father was out of town and then eloped.  Later, Judge Symmes confronted Harrison, demanding to know how the young man intended to support a family.  "By my sword and my own right arm, Sir," Harrison replied.  Later, the Judge gave his new son-in-law some land as a means of income.

Life was had for the young couple, who had ten children in quick succession.  Anna's health was poor, though she outlived her husband by several years.  Needing a more lucrative income, Harrison resigned from the army and was appointed Territorial Secretary of the Northwest Territory in 1798, frequently taking over as acting governor.  He became a successful farmer and horse breeder and ran for Congress, representing the Northwest Territory.  He could not vote, but could debate and serve on committees.  As he had done with army life, he learned what politics entailed.  While Harrison was in Congress, the Northwest Territory was split up, Ohio and eastern Michigan forming one section.  Indiana Territory was composed of what is now Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and portions of Minnesota.  In 1800, as one of his last acts of office, John Adams appointed Harrison as Governor of Indiana Territory.  He would serve from 1801-1812.

Harrison was bound and determined that Indiana and its governor would be respected as any other state or territory.  He built a mansion in Vincennes, the territorial capitol, staffed with slaves, and entertained guests in the Virginia style he'd grown up with.  One of his duties was to negotiate the cession of Native land from various tribes.  During his years as Governor, Harrison would negotiate 11 such treaties with various Nations, often entertaining chiefs and leaders at Grouseland.  This begs the question, what were his personal feelings about Natives?  He didn't appear to have the deep animosity that Andrew Jackson displayed toward Natives, Redcoats, Spaniards or anyone else who crossed him up.  Harrison was a competitor and he had an ego.  Blacks and Natives had a place and it was not as the equal of a White man.  He saw nothing wrong with slavery, which was legal in Indiana Territory at the time.  He also saw nothing about driving a hard bargain with reluctant Native leaders for land and backing it up with force.  Tecumseh, Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, Buckongahelas and any others were obstacles and enemies, bragging rights and curiosities, but nothing more. 

While Harrison could boast of adding over 60 million acres of Native land to the United States, many tribes were deeply dissatisfied with the concessions he'd forced on them, to say the least.  Tecumseh's movement gained momentum in Ohio and Indiana, leading to two tense confrontations between Harrison and Tecumseh himself.  Did the altercation almost become physical between the two men on one occasion?  Several witnesses said it did.  Harrison owed his survival to the intervention of friendly Native leaders.  As Tecumseh gathered more warriors to his side, Harrison was preparing an army to fight him.  The two sides met at Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811.  Harrison's force scattered the Native army under Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa.  The Natives fled, leaving their village of Prophetstown in Harrison's hands.  He ordered the village burned. 

The American press whipped up anger against the Natives, who were believed to be allies of Great Britain.  With the outbreak of the War of 1812, Harrison would have a two-front war on his hands.  He resigned the governorship to return to the Army as commander of the Army of the Northwest Territory.   In 1813, he led his army into Canada and faced a combined British and Native army at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, in which Tecumseh was either killed or died immediately after.  This battle, and Jackson's victory at New Orleans, were considered the two pivotal battles of the War.  Harrison resigned after the invasion of Canada, due to drama with a subordinate, but was vindicated and awarded a gold medal by Congress.  It would be up to him and Michigan territorial governor Lewis Cass to negotiate a new Treaty of Greenville in 1814, and the Treaty of Spring Wells in 1815.

Years later, Harrison would use his victory at Tippecanoe as a talking point, staging campaign events on the battlefield.  With a slogan of Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, he and his vice-presidential running mate, John Tyler, would sweep into the White House in 1841.  On March 4, 1826, Harrison insisted on riding in his Inaugural parade in a pouring rain storm, without a coat so as to show his braided uniform and medals to an advantage.  He also gave one of the longest Inaugural addresses on record, over two hours long.  On March 26, 1841, he came down with a cold.  Although people at the time put it down to his behavior at his Inauguration, he'd been healthy for nearly three weeks intervening.  Despite the ineffective treatment modalities of the time, he died 9 days later, diagnosed with pneumonia of the right lung.  He'd served 30 days, 12 hours and 30 minutes.  Game to the end, he told Tyler "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government.  I wish them to be carried out.  I ask nothing more." 

Natives versus Settlers: Battle(s) of the River Raisin, January 18-23, 1813

As we've seen throughout this blog, one person's battle or victory is another person's massacre.  The same could be said for the differing approaches to battle, and to what happens afterwards.  Another example of this is the Battles of Frenchtown, sometimes known collectively as the Battle of River Raisin or the River Raisin Massacre, the windup to the later Battle of the Thames and an ultimate expression of White revenge.  We'll cover that later.

The Raisin River, or Riviere aux Raisins as it is known in French, flows in southeastern Michigan.  It was named by early French explorers for the wild grapes in the area, raisin being the French word for grape, with raisin sec (dried grape) being what we now consider a raisin.  Local Potawatomi and Wyandot people would portage from this river to the Grand and Kalamazoo Rivers flowing into Lake Michigan.  The town of Monroe is now built near the site of the battle that took place here.  Because of its use as a portage point, both the British and Americans were keen to keep possession of this area during the War of 1812, particularly after the Americans surrendered Fort Detroit, which briefly returned to its status as a British garrison.  At the time, the area where the battle would be fought was known as Frenchtown Township. 

On January 18, 1813, Canadian militia and Potawatomi auxiliaries met up with a group of Kentucky militiamen who had crossed frozen rivers to reach the portage area.  They surprised the Canadians and Potawatomis, who were not expecting an attack in this weather and had made camp.  Despite the lack of preparation, the Canadians and Potawatomis fought back, contesting every inch of the battlefield.  After bloody fighting on both sides, Canadians had 1 man killed or wounded, with 3-15 Potawatomi warriors killed and two militia with a warrior captured, with thirteen killed and 54 wounded, the Canadians and their auxiliaries withdrew and left the area to the Americans.

Neither side could afford to lose this ground, so a rematch had to occur and soon.  On January 22, 1813, General Henry Proctor, who had replaced Isaac Brock, along with two Native leaders, Roundhead of the Wyandot and Walks in Water of the Huron, arrived with 800 warriors and 597 militiamen, opposing a force lead by General James Winchester returned to the area to supplement the militia forces already there.  The Kentucky militia on scene had strengthened the settlement with a palisade and warned Winchester that enemy troops were still in the area and likely to attack soon.  What they didn't know was the size of the force Proctor had brought with him, augmented with artillery, which the Americans did not have.  This encounter lasted less than half an hour before the American forces broke apart.  The British lost 24 killed and 191 wounded, with losses unknown for the Natives.  The American suffered 397 killed, 40 wounded and 547 captured.  It was worse than a disaster, it was a disgrace.  Walks in Water captured Winchester and made him strip out of his uniform and march in his underwear. 

The next day would be far worse.  British forces left the field with the most mobile of the American prisoners, leaving the wounded and the less ambulatory to the Natives.  Whether there were instructions given on how to treat prisoners has never been known for certain.  Left in possession of the battlefield, the Natives reverted to standard operating procedure and killed over 100 prisoners in what became known as the Raisin River Massacre.  As we have seen time and again, killing prisoners and/or non-ambulatory captives and wounded was standard operating procedure for most Natives, who did not operate according to Rules of War.  However, news of the massacre inflamed American sentiment against the British in general and the Natives in particular.

Repercussions were coming, but as always they fell in an unlikely place.  Tecumseh of the Shawnee was known to be in the area at the time of the battles, though he was not present and no Shawnee took part in the events.  However, in subsequent battles, particularly the Battle of the Thames, fought on October 5, 1813, the cry of "remember the River Raisin" served as a rallying point for American forces, who directed their ire at one Native in particular.  The desire to be the man who killed Tecumseh overrode the fact that he hadn't been around, and was known for more generous treatment of captives.  It may have also led to the stories about the desecration of Tecumseh's body after the battle.

Despite being responsible for the lack of preparation and lack of discipline among his men during the second battle, Winchester was released and later returned to military duty.  Several counties in Kentucky were named after officers killed at River Raisin.  Streets in Monroe, Michigan also bear the names of those killed in battle.  A monument to the battle stands in downtown Monroe.  The place where the battles took place is a state historic site and a National Battlefield Park as of 2009.