Ohio History Journal

AN UNKNOWN GRAVE.     JOHN JAMES PIATT. [The following poem with preface was read by Mr. Piatt at the Annual Banquet of the Ohio Society S. A. R., held at the Columbus Club on the evening of April 19, 1904.] On the title page of an interesting volume of family history recently published at Columbus, I read two sentences,- the first from Edmund Burke: "Those who do not treasure up the mem-

ory of their ancestors do not deserve to be remembered by posterity." The other is from the Bible: "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers." I thought, therefore, if I were to speak here to- night, as an hereditary member of the Society of the Cincinnati, I might not appear too personal,- not unpardonably personal, I hope,- if I should take occa- sion to honor, so far as I could, the New Jersey officer of the Revolution whom I

represent, when I may explain that, eight years after his seven years' service in the Continental Army - having been in every important engagement under his great commander, including that at Yorktown, (he was with three brothers in the battle of Trenton) it is reported he received a new commission, raised a band of men at his New Jersey home, and marched with them across the country in the autumn of 1791, and, joining St. Clair's army at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, was killed in the memorable defeat on Ohio soil. There is an interesting reference to him in Howe's Historical Collection, describing his unwillingness to be- lieve that a retreat had been ordered. It is said that General Washington, when he learned of St. Clair's defeat, wept at hearing of Captain Piatt's fate. Capt. Jacob Piatt, his younger (555)

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556       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

brother-who came to Cincinnati five years later and settled in

Boone County, Kentucky - had been on Washington's staff.

Captain William Piatt's eldest son, Captain James Piatt, my

grandfather, served in the War of 1812, commanded a garrison

in New York Harbor, and was in the battle of Plattsburgh. He

came west to Cincinnati fifteen years later, and also sleeps in an

unmarked grave, dying a few weeks after his coming, on the

banks of the Ohio in Boone County, Kentucky. One of Captain

William Piatt's nephews, his namesake, Colonel William Piatt,

was with General Harrison at Tippecanoe; he was also on Gen-

eral Jackson's staff in the battle of New Orleans. He lived at

Home City, near Cincinnati, and died there. Another nephew,

John H. Piatt, at one time a wealthy banker in Cincinnati, under

assurances from James Monroe, then Secretary of War, provis-

ioned the northwestern army in the War of 1812, but died in a

debtor's prison at Washington, while vainly seeking repayment

from the Government. Among Captain William Piatt's grand-

nephews is General Abram S. Piatt, of Logan County, Ohio, as

was the latter's brother, Colonel Donn Piatt; and, it may be

added, another was the late Major General Canby, at one time

Secretary of War, who shared his grand-uncle's fate in being

killed in battle by the Indians. Captain William Piatt was thus

the pioneer of his name and family in Ohio and the Ohio Valley.

He became their Moses, so to speak, and, having looked upon the

Promised Land, had, if he had any, an unknown grave in Ohio.

AN UNKNOWN GRAVE IN OHIO.

In Memoriam: Captain William Piatt, New Jersey Line, Army

of the Revolution, 1775-1783. Killed at St. Clair's Defeat, in Ohio,

November 4th, 1791.

 

Why came I here to live? Because he came

Hither, my great-grandsire, who came-to die.

Leading his little neighbor dwelling band,

A century and thirteen years ago,

Across the mountain wilderness, he came,

Who had left his all to serve the Common Weal;1

Then out of all that seven-years' fight unscathed,

1 Omnia relinquit servare Rempublicam is the inscription on the

medal of the Society of the Cincinnati.

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An Unknown Grave.                      557

 

In which his sword was given to Her, our Land,

(In which his life was offered, too, for Her,)

Briefly indeed went back unto his plow

Like him our prototype of Roman name,

Like him our chieftain first and best beloved;

Then hither brought his sword, to give his life

In that lost fight there in the marshy wood, -

First of his name to touch the Ohio sod,

Only to bathe it with his blood, and fill

An unknown grave in the vast wilderness.

True son of the Revolution thou, indeed!

Ohio-born in thy baptism of blood,

But in an unknown sepulchre dost sleep,

Like him of old whose burial no man saw,

 

And no man knoweth his grave unto this day:

Not all forgotten could I lay my flower

(My poor unworthy bud, not bloom, of song)

Where it might bear me witness, me thy heir

In that great brotherhood with him thy chief,

Who wept unwonted passionate angry tears

To learn thy fate, with theirs thy fellows - thou

Who wouldst not leave, and didst not leave the field:

He brought his sword and gave his life no less,

Rock-built metropolis of my Valley Land,

To make thine earlier tenure possible

In that stronghold named for his comrade chief

(His brother in the brave fraternity

Named for that Roman name which soon was thine)^--1

He brought his sword and gave his life no less,

Ohio, toward thy making, he who sleeps

There in thy unrecognizable earth,

Whose coming hither was his going hence,

Whose going hence my coming hither brought,

By some mysterious thread of human fate

That drew in far-off years all mine and me.

1The City of Cincinnati was named after the Society of the Cincin-

nati, of which Washington was the first President. The Miami Purchase

had been largely in the interest of the impoverished officers and sol-

diers of the Revolution, according to Judge Burnet, the name being

given by General St. Clair, who, by the way, was the owner of many

of the lots in Judge John Cleves Symmes's proposed city, antedating

Cincinnati, at North Bend.

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