War Clouds on the Horizon
When the Prophetstown warriors retreated from the battlefield they carried some of their fallen with them. They quickly buried them at their town and withdrew to see what Harrison would do next.
Although the American held their ground during the surprise attack they were bruised and stunned. Harrison ordered them to stand at the ready expecting the warriors to mount another frontal assault. He waited all through November 7th and part way through the 8th. That attack never came. Little did he know the warriors had withdrew due to lack of ammunition.
When the warriors failed to materialize he marched on Prophetstown burning it to the ground destroying everything that was there. The warriors watched from afar. They could see the large billows of black smoke rising from the valley. The next day their scouts informed them the Big Knives had left so they returned to see what the enemy had done. They were horrified at the sight that greeted them. Debased American soldiers had dug up the fresh graves of their brave fallen warriors and left the bodies strewn about to rot in the sun. They were livid. The re-interned their dead and left for their hunting grounds short of enough ammunition to get them through the winter.
Tecumseh’s confederacy had been dealt a serious setback. Warriors from the several nations that had been at Prophetstown left viewing the Prophet with disdain They declared him to be a false prophet because of the outcome of the battle. Tenskwatawa claimed the spirits deserted them because his menstruating wife had defiled the holy ground that he was drumming and chanting on during the battle. Often a reason such as this would be accepted for a failed prophecy. But not this time. The nations from the western Great Lakes that supported Tecumseh and his vision now rejected the Prophet which left them disenchanted with Tecumseh’s vision as well. He had a lot of work ahead of him rebuilding the confederacy.
Harrison was basking in the glory of self-proclaimed total victory. He confidently claimed the Indians had been dispersed in total humiliation and this would put an end to their depredations upon white settlers up and down the frontier. The American press lionized him and President Madison endorsed the message in an address to congress on the 18th of December. The “Indian problem” had bee dealt with or so they thought.
That congress was bristling with war hawks enraged at Great Britain mostly for impressing American merchant sailors at sea into British service in their war with France. They thought that a declaration of war on Great Britain and an attack on its colony of Upper Canada would give them an easy victory and the whole of the continent as a prize. Upper Canada was weakly defended and Great Britain’s military might was stretched thin as all its resources were being used in Europe.
In 1808 Congress tripled the number of authorized enlisted men from 3,068 to 9,311. In 1811 Secretary of War, William Eustis, asked for 10,000 more regulars. Virginia Democratic Senator William Branch Giles proposed 25,000 new men. Democrats for the most part held anti-war sentiments. It was thought he upped the ante to embarrass the administration because it was generally thought that 25,000 could not be raised. However, Federalists William Henry Clay from Kentucky and Peter B. Porter of New York pushed through a bill enacting Giles’ augmentation into law on the 11th of January 1812. By late spring authorized military forces had been further pushed to overwhelming numbers: 35,925 regulars, 50,000 volunteers and 100,000 militia.
When Tecumseh had visited Amherstburg in 1810 he made the British authorities there aware just how close the First Nations were to rebellion. Upon realizing this they adjusted their Indian Policy. Because of their weakened position they did not want to be drawn into a war the the Americans. So they informed their First Nation allies that the new policy stated that they would receive no help from the British if they attacked the United States. If they were attacked by the U.S. they should withdraw and not retaliate. Indian Agents were ordered to maintain friendly relations with First Nations and supply them with necessities but if hostilities arose then they were to do all in their power to dissuade them from war. This policy was continued by the new administrators of Upper Canada. Sir James Craig was replaced as governor-general by Sir George Prevost and Francis Gore with Isaac Brock as lieutenant-governor.
However, all the admonition to encourage peace by the British and Harrison’s claim that peace on the frontier had already been achieved by his victory at Tippecanoe was for nought. The British lacked the necessary influence with the war chiefs and Harrison’s proclamation was a myth. The Kickapoo and Winnebago suffered through a particularly hard winter. The snow had been unusually deep and game was scarce. The Shawnee suffered even more due to the destruction of their granary. They were forced to survive by the good charity of their Wyandotte brothers at Sandusky.
When spring arrived they were still seething at the desecration of their graves at Prophetstown. Tecumseh was travelling throughout the northwest rebuilding his confederacy. Although he preached a pan-Indian confederacy to stop American aggression his message was tempered with a plea to hold back until the time was right. But the war chiefs had trouble holding back some of their young warriors.
The melting snows turned into the worst outbreak of violence the frontier had seen in fifteen years. Thanks to governor Harrison First Nation warriors were no longer congregated in one place. Now they were spread out in a wide arc from Fort Dearborn (Chicago) to Lake Erie. They were striking everywhere at once. In January the Winnebago attacked the Mississippi lead mines. In February and March they assaulted Fort Madison killing five and blockading it for a time. In April they killed two homesteaders working their fields north of Fort Dearborn. That same month five more settlers were killed along the Maumee and Sandusky Rivers with one more on Greenville Creek in what is now Darke County.
The Kickapoo were just as busy. On the 10th of February a family by the name of O’Neil were slain at St. Charles (Missouri). Settlers in Louisiana Territory were in a state of panic. Potawatomi warriors joined in. April saw several attacks in Ohio and Indiana Territory. Near Fort Defiance three traders were tomahawked to death while they slept in their beds while other raids were made on the White River and Driftwood Creek.
On the 11th of April two young warriors named Kichekemit and Mad Sturgeon led a war party south burning a house just north of Vincennes. Six members of a family named Hutson along with their hired hand were killed. Eleven days later it is believed that the same Potawatomi party raided a homesteader’s farm on the Embarras River west of Vincennes. All of the Harryman family including five children lost their lives.
The frontier was ablaze with retribution for Prophetstown and settlers were leaving the territories in droves. Governor Edwards complained that by June men available for his militia had fallen from 2,000 to 1,700. A militia was raised by each of the Northwest Territories for protection. At times American First Nation allies were caught in the middle. Two friendly Potawatomi hunters were killed near Greenville and their horses confiscated. Both Governors Edwards and Louisiana Governor Benjamin Howard called for a new campaign against their antagonizers But the Secretary of War was occupied with the clamoring for war with Great Britain and its accompanying invasion of Upper Canada.
The raids on settlers stopped as quickly as they started. By May the warriors committing the atrocities declared their anger over grave degradation at Prophetstown spent. Tecumseh’s coalition had gelled in the Northwest. In the south the Red Sticks had taken ownership of his vision and had become extremists acting on their own and not really part of his confederacy. The stage was now set for a major war. In June of 1812, while General Hull and his army of 2,000 hacked their way through the wilderness to Detroit Tecumseh sent a small party of his followers, mostly Shawnee, to Amherstburg while he traveled south to visit Vincennes.
NEXT WEEK: The War of 1812: The Detroit Theater
