The Land of the Miamis

The account of the march, as recorded by Captain John Tipton, is exceedingly interesting. The militiamen of southern Indiana and Kentucky assembled from the frontier settlements, were men of simple habits, rough, unlettered, hard to teach the intricacies of military evolutions, but as General John C. Black has stated, they were also "insensible to fatigue, watchful as a catamount, resolute as men, heroic as martyrs." Some of their favorite sports were wrestling, shooting at a mark, and horse-racing. All were inured to an active, outdoor life. Most of them were without tents and few had blankets, but they did not complain. As the army advanced through the wilderness, the cutting down of bee trees, the shooting of squirrels, raccoon and deer were everyday occurrences; horses strayed away and were recovered; the provision boats lodged on the sand bars in the river and were launched again; stories of adventure and midnight massacre were told about the great camp fires. All came from families who had suffered from savage outrage; all hated both British and Indians "with a holy hate," and all were determined that the forces of civilization should not recede. They were eager for battle and unafraid.

On the second of October the army arrived at Terre Haute or "high land," said to be the scene of a bloody battle between the ancient tribe of the Illinois and the Iroquois. The place was designated by the old French traders and settlers as "Bataille des Illinois." A few old apple and peach trees still marked the site of an ancient Indian village. About two miles from this location was a town of the Weas. Harrison immediately began the erection of a quadrangular stockaded fort, with a blockhouse at three of the angles. This fortification, amid much celebrating, was, on Sunday, the twenty-seventh of October, christened as Fort Harrison. An oration was delivered on the occasion by Joseph Hamilton Davis.

All doubt of the Prophet's hostility was now dispelled. He had committed open acts of war on the United States. While the army was on the march to Terre Haute a party of the Prophet's raiders, in open daylight, took eight horses from a settlement in the Illinois Territory about thirty miles above Vincennes. At eight o'clock, on the evening of the tenth of October, a sentinel belonging to the Fourth United States Regiment was fired on and badly wounded by savages prowling about the camp. "The army was immediately turned out," says Harrison, "and formed in excellent order in a very few minutes. Patrols were dispatched in every direction, but the darkness was such that pursuit was impracticable. Other alarms took place in the course of the night, probably without good cause, but the troops manifested an alertness in taking their positions which was highly gratifying to me." On the evening of the eleventh, John Conner and four of the Delaware chiefs came into camp. Before leaving Vincennes, Harrison had sent a request that some of their chiefs might meet him on the march, for the purpose of undertaking embassies of peace to the different tribes. On the sixth of October, many of them had set out from their towns, but were met on the way by a deputation from the Prophet's Town. This deputation declared that the followers of the Prophet had taken up the tomahawk against the United States, "and that they would lay it down only with their lives." They were confident of victory and required a categorical answer from the Delawares to the question of whether they would or would not join them in the coming war. Conner and the four chiefs were immediately sent to report to Harrison, and another party ordered forward to Tippecanoe to remonstrate with the Prophet. On the twenty-seventh the latter party reported to the Governor at Fort Harrison. They had been insulted and badly treated by the Prophet and were dismissed with contempt. During their stay with the Shawnee leader, the warriors arrived who had fired on the sentinel at Terre Haute. They were Shawnees and the Prophet's nearest friends.

Harrison now resolved to immediately march to Tippecanoe and demand satisfaction. To return to Vincennes with his troops without effecting a dispersion or humiliation of the Prophet's party would be attended with the most fatal consequences. "If he is thus presumptuous upon our advance," writes the Governor, "our return without chastising him, or greatly alarming his fears and those of his followers, would give him an eclat that would increase his followers, and we would have to wage through the winter a defensive war which would greatly distress our frontiers." The Governor's display of force on the Wabash had not had the desired effect. While some of the Weas were returning to their villages, and the Wyandots were reported to be urging the tribes to fall away from the Prophet, still the spirit of treachery was abroad in the whole Wabash country. The Miami chiefs arrived for an apparently friendly council, but the Stone Eater was vacillating, and already under the influence of the Prophet. Winamac, who had made so many professions of friendliness towards the government, was now rallying his forces on the side of the Shawnee. Reinforcements of savage Kickapoos and Potawatomi from the Illinois river were beating down the great trails on the way to Tippecanoe. The constant and continued influence of the British, the "ridiculous and superstitious pranks" of the Shawnee impostor, and the natural fear and jealousy of all the tribesmen, on account of their lands, had at last cemented the savage union. The young men and braves of all the clans were ranged in either open or secret hostility against the United States.

The forces at the Prophet's Town were estimated at about six hundred. At a council of the officers it was decided to send for a reinforcement of four companies, but without waiting for their return, to at once take up the march, as all forage for the horses would soon disappear. On the twenty-ninth of October the army moved forward. It consisted of about six hundred and forty foot and two hundred and seventy mounted men. Two hundred and fifty of these were regulars, about sixty were Kentuckians, and the remainder were Indiana militia, raised at Corydon, Vincennes, and points along the Wabash and Ohio rivers. "The militia," says Harrison, "are the best I ever saw, and Colonel Boyd's regiment is a fine body of men." Along with the army rolled nineteen wagons and one cart to transport the supplies, as the winding course of the river and the nature of the ground near it, rendered their further transportation by boats impracticable. The Governor at the last moment sent forward a message to the Prophet's Town requiring the immediate disbandment of the Winnebago, Potawatomi and Kickapoo followers of the Shawnee, the surrender of all murderers, and the delivery up of all stolen horses. "I am determined," wrote Harrison to Governor Scott of Kentucky, "to disperse the Prophet's banditti before I return, or give him the chance of acquiring as much fame as a warrior, as he now has as a saint."

On Thursday, the thirty-first, the army crossed the northern line of the New Purchase at Raccoon Creek, and a few hours later forded the Wabash at Montezuma. The water was very deep and the troops and wagons were three hours in making the passage. The east bank of the river had been reconnoitered for several miles up and a feint made as though to cut a wagon road, but the country on the left bank afforded too many opportunities for an ambuscade, and Harrison now resolved to strike the open prairies toward the state line. On the first of November the army encamped on the west side of the Wabash about two or three miles below the mouth of the Big Vermilion, and as it had been determined to take forward the provisions from this point in wagons, a small blockhouse, twenty-five feet square was here erected, with a breastwork at each corner next to the river, to receive supplies from the boats. Remnants of the old landing were still to be seen in 1914. Logs and brush were now employed to level down the great horse weeds that filled the lowlands, and corduroy roads made for the passage of the wagons to the uplands at the west. Major General Samuel Wells, Colonel Abraham Owen and Captain Frederick Geiger had now arrived with some of the Kentucky volunteers, and the army, after leaving a guard of eight men at the blockhouse, at once crossed the Big Vermilion at the site of the old Kickapoo village and entered upon Sand Prairie at the north.

Harrison was now in the heart of the hostile Kickapoo country. Like his old commander Wayne, he maintained a most diligent lookout. The army was moving forward with mounted men in advance, in the rear and on both flanks. The infantry marched in two columns of files, one on either side of the road. The heavy army wagons drawn by oxen, and the beeves and led animals were in the center. A company of twelve scouts under the command of Captain Touissant Dubois closely scanned every place of danger and pointed out the army's way.

Late on the third of November, the frontiersmen saw for the first time the great prairies of the west, stretching north to Chicago and west to the Mississippi. They camped that night in Round Grove, near the present town of Sloan. An abundance of blue grass carpeted the sheltered ground and a fine spring of water supplied fresh drink. All the next day the great wheels of the lumbering baggage wagons cut through the sod of the Warren prairies, leaving a long trail over the plains that was plainly traceable for a half century afterwards. Night found the army encamped on the east bank of Pine creek, above the site of the old Brier milldam. An old bayonet of the revolutionary type was long years afterward picked up in an adjoining wheat field and is now lodged in the Babcock museum at Goodland. The dangerous passes to the south had been avoided and scouts were Posted far down the stream to avoid the danger of a night attack.

Wednesday the sixth, it was very cold. Indian signs were now observed for the first time, the scouts caught four Indian horses, and parties of savages were constantly lurking on the skirts of the advancing forces. Every effort to hold conversation with them, however, was in vain. At a distance of about four miles from the Prophet's Town the army was formed in order of battle, and moved forward with great caution. The scouts had evidently picked out a poor path, for the army now found itself on dangerous ground, and Harrison was obliged to change the position of the several corps three times in the distance of a mile, to avoid the peril of an ambuscade.

At half past two o'clock in the afternoon the troops crossed Burnet's Creek at a distance of one and one-half miles from the town, and again formed in order of battle. Captain Dubois, now offering to go to the Indian camp with a flag, was sent forward with an interpreter to request a conference. The savages knew Dubois well, but they now appeared on either flank and attempted to cut him off from the army. Harrison recalled him and determined to encamp for the night.

In the meantime, the impatient Major Daviess had advanced to the Indian corn fields along the river with a party of dragoons. He now returned and reported that the Indians were very hostile and had answered every attempt to bring them to a parley with insolence and contempt. He, together with all the officers, advised an immediate attack. Harrison was mindful of the President's injunctions. He did not wish to bring on a conflict until all efforts for peace had failed. He ordered the army to advance, but placed the interpreters at the front, with directions to invite a conference with any Indians that they might meet with.

After proceeding about four hundred yards, the advance guard was approached by three Indians who expressed a wish to see the Governor. One of them was a chief closely connected with the Prophet. He told Harrison that they were surprised at his rapid advance upon them; that they had been given to understand by a party of Delawares and Miamis whom the Governor had sent forward, that he would not march on their town until an answer had been made to his demands; that Winamac had been detailed two days before to meet the Governor and arrange terms, but that he had proceeded down the south side of the Wabash. These statements were all false, but the General answered that he had no intention of attacking them until he was convinced that they would not comply with his demands, and that he would now go forward and encamp on the river. In the morning, an interview would be held and he would communicate to them the determination of the President. The march was then resumed.

The Indian corn lands extended for a great distance along the river and the ground was so broken and uneven, and the timber had been cleared away to such an extent, that no suitable place could be found for a camp. The troops were now almost upon the town, when fifty or sixty savages sallied forth and with loud cries called upon the cavalry and militia to halt. The Governor immediately pressed to the front, and directed the interpreter to request some of the chiefs to come near. Harrison now informed them that his only object for the present was to secure a camp, where he might find wood and water. The chiefs informed him that there was a creek to the northwest that would suit his purpose, and after mutual promises of a suspension of hostilities until the following day, the interview was brought to an end.

Majors Waller Taylor and Marston G. Clark, aides to the Governor, were now detailed to select a site for an encampment. The ground chosen was the destined battlefield of Tippecanoe. "It was a piece of dry oak land rising about ten feet above the level of a marshy prairie in front, (towards the Indian town), and nearly twice that height above a similar prairie in the rear, through which, and near to this bank, ran a small stream clothed with willows and brush wood. Towards the left flank this bench of high land widened considerably, but became gradually narrower in the opposite direction, and at the distance of one hundred and fifty yards from the right flank, terminated in an abrupt point."