Interesting facts of Early Am'n History. 2361 Reading.......... Interest-What?..... Journeys on Maps..... Lessons in Form-Moulding in Clay.. 377 ....... 379 669 Rhyming Table of Presidents... 470 ...... 65 92 Ring, Rang, Rung........... 255 Late Admissions to Family of Subjects... 245 Letter Writing.... 613 378 Study your Lesson.... .......... 437 544 5 30 Stop my Journal when the time is out.... 32 62 List of County Institutes to be Held...... 395 Second Stage in Reading......... Meeting of Reading Circle ... 95 139 Southern Ind. Teachers' Assoc'n..... 157, 259 ..... 309 539 Seven Laws of Teaching... Method of Geographical Instruction-A State Superintendent's Report......... 429 557 588 661 676 28 60 64 73 79 82 82 85 130 152 188 258 189 The Esthetic Element in Child Nature. Outlines of Reading Circle...44, 100, 153, Our Text-Books in U. S. History........ Objects to be accomplished in the Study Opening Exercises.. Our Presidents... On Teaching Words Outline of a Geography Lesson. 417 The Use of Books as a Branch of Edu 488 The Indiana Library System... 383 412 485, 541 cation...... 465 486 The Crime of Tattling.. ........ 473 481 531 The Modern School Teacher........... 483 611 The First Day.. 498 522 The Phunny Phellow" as an Institute 605 Pen Pictures of the Quincy Schools... Personal...48, 106, 159, 217, 282, 336, 397, 621 Teaching Arithmetic... 645 Worker 649 The Ground for Punctuality in School... 610 459 Temperance. 513, 575,, 640, 705 The Syllogism in Arithmetic. 620 651 Primary Reading.. ......70, 368, 426, 493, 549 The Means for Teaching Geography.. 666 INDIANA SCHOOL JOURNAL. Vol. XXXI. T JANUARY, 1886. INDIANA IN THE WAR OF 1812. HUBERT M. SKINNER. No. I. HE second war with Great Britain is of special interest to the people of Indiana, and the operations of the region. which now constitutes our State deserve special attention, for the following reasons: First, almost every settlement then established participated in the dangers and in the work of defense; hence many of our towns have an interesting connection with the conflict. Second, the battles in Indiana were fought generally by our own citizens; not by regular soldiers, but by the ancestors of a large part of our present population. Its history records their valor, preserves a picture of their time, and gives an index to their character. Third, it was a peculiar warfare, very different from that which raged in the States. We fought not the British, but their Indian allies, and were subjected to the horrors of Indian atrocities. Though manifestly a part of the same war with Great Britain, and deserving, as such, due attention from historians, it thus possessed features of a peculiarly local character and interest. The territory was left almost alone and unaided to defend itself. Comparatively few of the events of the war of 1812 in Indiana have been recorded by historians. They linger in the recollections of the oldest inhabitants, and in the traditions of neighborhoods. I think it would be well for teachers everywhere to gather up these memories and traditions for the use of the historian of the future. In the city of Vincennes there remains to-day an old brick house which is regarded with peculiar interest by all visitors. Not only was it long the home of our first Territorial Governor, the famous statesman who succeeded in 1841 to the Presidency of the United States; it was also the scene of a noted historical meeting which occurred seventy-five years ago in 1810. William Henry Harrison was then the Chief Magistrate of Indiana Territory, which contained a population of rather more than 24,500 whites and several thousands of Indians. A second war with Great Britain was manifestly approaching. In the last war-the Revolution, happily terminated twenty-seven years before, the savages had been bribed by British gold to fight against Americans. Events led men to fear that such an alliance was probably arrange 1 in the present instance. In 1809, a strange, shrewd scheme was developed among the red men. A brother of Tecumtha, the famous chief, had announced himself as a chosen prophet of the Great Spirit, sent with a mission to unite his race in opposition to the growing power of the white men, and to lead them to glory and power. He adopted the name of Lalewasika, or The Open Door. Building a new town near the Wabash, he gathered about him six hundred or more followers, who admitted his claims to inspiration, in spite of the opposition of Winamac, a prominent Indian leader of Northern Indiana. Governor Harrison had sent many messages to the Prophet's Town, desiring, if possible, to disarm the opposition of the spiritual ruler and the temporal prince,―The Open Door and Tecumtha, but to little purpose. And now, on the 12th of August, 1810, the great sachem of the Aborigines appeared in Vincennes; and under the trees surrounding the brick house of the Governor, the famous conference was held. The meeting was like one of monarchs in old days. Stately forms of etiquette were observed, and formal addresses were made, through the medium of interpreters. For ten days the conference continued, the chiefs of the two races attended by their guards; and at the close of each interview the haughty Tecumtha withdrew to his camp. No good came of this extended consultation. Tecumtha was bent on war, yet desired to put off hostilities until a more opportune season. His design was grand. He would unite in one vast movement all the tribes for hundreds of miles in a universal uprising, and strike when all was ready and when the British should strike. The prophet was less wise. He had no mind for so vast an enterprise. He flouted at delay. During the year that followed the conference at Vincennes, the Governor gathered about him at his capital Federal and ter. ritorial troops to the number of over a thousand, and in September, 1811, set out with this force upon an expedition up the Wabash to the Prophet's Town. Passing near the site of Terre Haute, the Governor erected a fort, which the soldiers named, in his honor, Ft. Harrison. Here a small garrison was left, and the army proceeded on its way. On the 6th of November the force encamped on a low hill covered with scraggy oaks and rising about ten feet above the prairie, a short distance from the Prophet's Town. Tecumtha was not at the latter place, but was in Tennessee, perfecting his grand alliance; and had left orders to the prophet not to engage in hostilities in his absence. A Had the army expected an attack as certain, the encampment could not have been more perfectly arranged for defense. The soldiers slept with clothes and accoutrements on, with guns loaded and bayonets fixed. They were formed in order of battle. conflict, however, was not really expected, and the purpose of Governor's advance was purely defensive. Well it was that the hero of Tippecanoe had the wisdom to be prepared for the worst. In the dead of night-the darkest, drowsiest hour that precedes the day-about two hours before the dawn, the Prophet led his followers in a furious attack upon the camp. So sudden it was that before many of the soldiers could be awakened, daring Indians had penetrated the lines and were plying their tomahawks at the doors of the tents. Soon as possible, the lines were reformed, where broken, and heroically maintained. Had they yielded, all must have fallen in a universal slaughter. Standing in line, the brave boys made themselves targets for the Indian sharp-shooters who were hidden in the grass and sheltered by the darkness. The clump of trees near the camp formed a breastwork for the enemy, and it was necessary to dislodge them. Major Daviess, a gallant young officer, led a cavalry charge, but failed to disperse the enemy, and was mortally wounded. The charge was repeated by Capt. Snelling, with success. Through all the terrible fight, Harrison was everywhere. His quick eye determined at once each point of weakness; and with unerring judgment he distributed the strength of his resources. Meanwhile the Prophet, standing upon an adjacent knoll, sang, in a voice which rang above the din of battle, his inspiring war-song. He shouted to the red men that the balls of the soldiers could do no harm to the faithful followers of the Open Door. But as one by one the Indians fell, and as they were driven headlong from their covert by the charge of Capt. Snelling, their faith in the Prophet wavered and was at length completely broken. When morning dawned the Indian army fled without awaiting the charge of Harrison's men. Thirty-eight warriors lay dead in the grass. Probably more than a hundred and fifty were partially helpless from wounds. Sixty-two Americans were killed or mortally wounded. Among them were some of the noblest men of the Territory, whose death was deeply mourned throughout the West. Daviess and Randolph were the objects of especial sorrow. Thus bravely was fought the famous battle of Tippecanoe, famed above all other conflicts with the red men of America. As an event of our early history it eclipses all others. In former times, an acquaintance with the story of this conflict constituted the stock and store of early annals possessed by the mass of the people. It is amusing to note how a historical blunder repeats itself, and how almost impossible it is to eradicate one when it is started. Many years ago a stupid writer of Indiana history related the story of this conflict, describing it as a battle between General Harrison and Tecumtha, in which the former was the aggressor, and wound up in a slovenly way by stating that this battle completely broke the power of the savages and led to a lasting peace. These statements have been copied al |