Fighting It Out Along the Wabash--Part Two

by Harry Tunnell

Two decades after St. Clair’s Defeat, General William Henry Harrison, the Governor of the Indiana Territory, led an expedition against a Shawnee-led Indian Confederacy. Tecumseh was the political and military leader of the confederacy and his brother Tenskwatawa, known as the Shawnee Prophet, the spiritual leader.  Prophet’s Town was the headquarters of the Indian Confederacy.  It was located near the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers.  The town sat on a bluff overlooking the Wabash River about 130 miles, as the crow flies, NE of the territorial capital at Vincennes, IN.  One of the main factors that precipitated the battle was the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne that Harrison negotiated with the Delaware, Potawatomie, Miami, and Eel River Miami.  In the treaty, the Indians ceded 3,000,000 acres to the United States.  Tecumseh disputed the legitimacy of the treaty, setting the stage for conflict between the confederacy and United States.  Without any resolution in sight, Harrison decided to organize a military expedition of regulars and militia.  Harrison’s expedition would ultimately engage the Indian Confederacy in battle 1 ½ miles NW of the Wabash River (near present-day Battle Ground, IN) and Prophet’s Town.  Harrison and the expedition departed Fort Knox (present-day Vincennes, IN) on September 26, 1811 enroute to a battlefield legacy of hardship, endurance, and close combat.

Harrison and the army arrived at the outskirts of Prophet’s Town on November 6, 1811.  Surprised by the army’s advance on their headquarters, the Indians asked for a conference the next day in an attempt to buy time.  Harrison agreed and the expedition established camp and posted a strong guard force on a small bit of high ground not far from Prophet’s Town.  Having learned the lessons of Indian warfare well enough, and fearing a surprise attack, soldiers and militiamen, slept “on their arms,” meaning fully dressed, weapons loaded, and bayonets fixed—ready to fight at a moment’s notice.  The Indians did not disappoint.  During the early morning hours of November 7, 1811, with the crack of rifle fire and “an awful Indian yell” emanating from every corner of the encampment, the fight was on.  In a hard-fought battle, the Americans persevered, repulsing the attack after several hours of close combat, sometimes hand-to-hand.  The Americans advanced on the abandoned Indian headquarters the next day and destroyed Prophet’s Town.  The army returned to Vincennes on November 18, 1811 and disbanded, having reduced the threat of Tecumseh’s Indian Confederacy in the Indiana Territory.  The battle, known as the Battle of Tippecanoe, takes its name from the lesser river near Prophet’s Town.

Tecumseh was not at the battle or Prophet’s Town.  His brother—far less skilled as a military leader—was the one to commit Indian forces to combat with the American force.  Tecumseh had gone south (to present-day Alabama) to recruit more allies for his confederacy.  Harrison, through his spy network, learned that Tecumseh was planning something more sinister than political networking even though he could not determine precisely what was planned.  In an act of pure military brilliance, Harrison decided to seize the initiative and take an expedition north while the confederacy’s most celebrated and effective military leader was absent.  Tecumseh returned to Prophet’s Town in February or March 1812 to find the confederacy in shambles.  He was subsequently forced to seek an alliance with the British during the War of 1812.  Forces commanded by Harrison and Tecumseh would meet on several battlefields during the war.  Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames (present-day Chatham-Kent, Ontario), by members of Harrison’s command.  Harrison survived the war and by its end was a national hero.  However, he remained most famous for his combat leadership near Prophet’s Town.  After his military career ended, he used the sobriquet “Old Tippecanoe,” to great effect on the political battlefield—eventually becoming the ninth President of the United States, dying in office on April 4, 1841.

More Book Reviews

by Carmen Doyle

The History Center has received FIVE new books since the book reviews in July. Now is the time to start making your holiday wish list!

New in the miscellaneous section (for books that don’t really fit in another category) is Aboite Township One-Room Schools by Deborah Eidson. The pictures of various schools are great and the amount of information is staggering. It is obvious that this book was done by someone who loved the Aboite schools.

A new Lincoln book has come in: Abraham Lincoln’s Wit & Wisdom. This is a collection of different sayings attributed to Lincoln. I particularly liked the section on Lincoln’s Generals, especially the remark about sending a barrel of whatever Grant drank to all the generals. I’ve heard versions of this remark before, and also heard that Lincoln never really did say that, so seeing the entire remark and attribution was rather neat. However, the editor says that he corrected Lincoln’s spelling and grammar to make the book easier to read. I think it would have been more interesting and informative to have left the original spelling and punctuation intact, in order to get an even better idea of how Lincoln thought. A great book for Lincoln fans though.

Another new book that has come in is Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House: Memoirs of an African-American Seamstress by Elizabeth Keckley. This book is really fascinating. Elizabeth Keckley worked as a seamstress for Mary Todd Lincoln, but before that, she was born into slavery, and then worked her way into Washington. She even served as a seamstress for Jefferson Davis before the Civil War. Fascinating story!

A new book about Native Americans that has come: “Thus Fell Tecumseh” by Frank E. Kuron. There is a debate about how the Shawnee leader Tecumseh died and this book addresses all the theories about what really happened. The book quotes from many primary sources, some of which disagree with each other about what really happened. This is a fascinating book for people interested in historical mysteries or the War of 1812. While the book description tries to make it sound as if YOU can solve the mystery, it’s more of a collection of event descriptions and discussions about what led to the events. Very interesting, except so many theories are put forth it can be overwhelming.

Two pictorial history books are new to the shop.

 Fort Wayne Postcards by Randolph L. Harter is a collection of over 200 postcards representing different scenes and events from Fort Wayne. This book was compiled with the help of the library and the History Center’s curator, Walter Font. (editor's note: Harter will be signing his books and showing the actual postcards on January 25 at the History Center)

The other pictorial history is Fort Wayne: a Pictorial Love Story by Gerald Gaff. This book has a “then-and-now” approach, with two pictures of the same place being taken decades apart and then placed facing each other. It is really cool to see how some places have completely changed (such as the mid block of Wayne looking east to Calhoun--one picture taken in 1890 and the other in 2009) and how some places have changed very little (such as the History Center in 1895 and 2009). This book was really enjoyable.

William Wells the Miami Apekonit

by Tom Castaldi

Wells

William Wells was one of the most extraordinary figures ever associated with the Fort Wayne region.  Known along the frontier as a “white Indian,” he led a life that was the product of two cultures.  Unable ultimately to choose one or the other, he consequently was never fully accepted by either.  In the end, he died in battle dressed and painted as a Miami warrior while defending whites.

Born in 1770, Wells had been captured as a sixteen year-old boy by Miami warriors raiding in Kentucky.  He was adopted by Chief Graviahatte – or the Porcupine – taught Indian ways and was given the name “Apekonit.”  An old tale has it that the name means Wild Carrot and had to do with his red hair, however, wild carrots are white in color.  Another more probable story says that Wells was famished after the long journey to reach to the Three Rivers region where his captors offered him food to eat.  He devoured a great quantity with such gusto that he was then and there given the name of a soup he ate, which was made from the wild carrot.

He proved himself an able young warrior in raids against pioneer settlements.  So attached did Wells become to his new Indian family that no attempt to lure him back to Kentucky succeeded.  Wells married a Wea woman and together they produced a son. Later he participated in the early battles led by Miami War Chief Little Turtle against the United States forces.  In return, U.S. soldiers raiding in the lower Wabash River valley captured Well’s wife and child and took them as hostages to Fort Washington which is present-day Cincinnati.  This was one reason Wells abandoned the Indian cause and joined the U.S. military camp.

William Wells subsequently was wedded to Manwangopath – Sweet Breeze – the daughter of Little Turtle.  In 1794, Wells served Major General Anthony Wayne as his “chief of spies,” or head scout, in the general’s campaign against Indian resistance. He, along with other “white Indians,” led the scouts in daring spying raids on the camps of the Shawnee War Chief Blue Jacket and his allies, bringing Anthony Wayne valuable information that helped the Americans win the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794.

Wells had a stormy career as Indian Agent and Interpreter in the many negotiations between the Indians and the government. A staunch supporter of Indian rights, William Wells, along with his friend and father-in-law, Little Turtle, struggled to help the Miami keep as much of their land as they could in the treaty settlements that followed the wars.  Between 1796 and 1809, he accompanied Chief Little Turtle on his four trips to the nation’s capital.

A tract of 320 acres of land extending west of the St. Joseph River – known as Wells’ Preemption, the modern Bloomingdale and Spy Run neighborhoods – was set aside by an act of Congress in 1808 for Wells in recognition of his many services to the U.S. Government.  This established Wells’ right to occupy and develop the land with an option to buy it at $1.25 an acre – rather than having to bid for the land, as was usually the case – when the area was opened for land sales by the U.S. Land Office.  Wells created on these lands a farm that was worked by twelve African-Americans, who were held as slaves through lifetime indentures, contrary to the prohibition of slavery declared in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.  Present-day Spy Run Avenue and Spy Run Creek, which run through Wells’ Preemption, are named for William Wells in remembrance of his role as Anthony Wayne’s “Chief of Spies.”

As a result of aggressive United States treaty demands between 1803 and 1809, new Indian resistance developed under the leadership of the Shawnee Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet.  In 1812, William Wells volunteered to go to Fort Dearborn – present-day Chicago – to provide safe passage for the small garrison there back to the stronger Fort Wayne.  Through sensing the great danger, Wells obeyed orders and led the small troop of soldiers, women, and children back toward Fort Wayne in August 1812.  After traveling only a short distance from the fort, the wagon train was attacked by a large band of Potawatomi.  Defending a wagon full of children, William Wells was cut down by musket fire. The Indians cut off his head and, as a show of honor for a great warrior, ate his heart on the spot.

 This article originally appeared in Fort Wayne Magazine “Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – Oct 2006 No. 27.

Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast at 6:35 a.m., 8:35 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on WLYV-1450 AM and WRRO 89.9 FM. Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com