Ohio History Journal

UNVEILING OF FORT RECOVERY MONUMENT. On July 1st at Fort Recovery the splendid monument just erected at that place was unveiled with imposing and fitting

ceremonies. This monument was the result of the gener- ous appropriation of $25,000 made by Congress. It com- memorates  the  defeat of General St. Clair on Novem- ber 4, 1791, and the defeat of the Indians under Little Tur- tle, in the Wayne campaign, on June 30th and July 1st, 1794.  The monument is a beautiful shaft of stone 100 feet in height and stands in the center of the village park about a mile and a half from the site of the historic fort, which was on the small branch of the Wabash. A large crowd assembled to witness the ceremonies on the day in question; there was appropriate music and elo-

quent speeches. Miss Belle Noble Deane, a grandniece of Gen- eral St. Clair, unveiled the shaft and fittingly completed the program. Descriptions of the two events which are commemorated by this monument, are given in Randall and Ryan's History of Ohio, published by the Century History Company, New York. The quotations are from volume II, of the work mentioned. The sudden blows struck by Scott and Wilkinson-in their (419)

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preceding expeditions May and July 1791,- served only to fur-

ther exasperate the Ohio tribesmen, who now entered upon ex-

tensive plans in defense of their country and resistance to the

threatened approach of St. Clair. Under the leadership of Little

Turtle, chief of the Miamis, Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawnees,

and the noble head warrior of the Delawares, Buckongahelas, a

war alliance was formed of their respective tribes. In this the

chiefs had the aid not only of Simon Girty but of Alexander

McKee and Mathew Elliott of the British Indian department,

which began at once to forward supplies and munitions of war

to the Miami towns for the use of the tribes in their impending

campaign.

Meanwhile General St. Clair, under directions from Wash-

ington, was pushing forward preparations for his invasion

which was intended to be irresistible, three thousand men being

designated as the enrollment required. The objective point was

to be the Miami towns at the head of the Maumee, the wig-

wams of which had been destroyed by Harmar, a habitable lo-

cation, which had been the seat of the powerful Miami nation

from time immemorial, often made desolate and as often re-

habitated-a tribal site called by Little Turtle, "that glorious

gate through which all good words of our chiefs had to pass

from the north to the south and from the east to the west."

A chain of forts, which were to be some twenty-five miles apart,

was to be erected from the Ohio to the Lakes. Elaborate and

specific instructions as to the expedition, its routes, manner of

march and encampment, discipline, and precautionary measures

were outlined by the president. Special levies, militia and reg-

ulars were to constitute the army which slowly began to as-

semble at Fort Washington.

It was September 17, (1791), that the main portion of

the two thousand three hundred "effectives"-as they were called

with seeming irony-moved forward twenty-five miles from Cin-

cinnati to the Great Miami, where the advance detachment had

already erected Fort Hamilton, a stockade fifty yards square with

four good bastions and platforms for cannon and with bar-

racks for about two hundred men. This army though larger

in numbers was little better in condition than that of Harmar,

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in the previous campaign. Washington Irving says these levies

were picked up and recruited from the off-scourings of large

towns and cities, enervated by idleness, debauchery, and every

species of vice. The "effectives" were certainly a disreputable

lot, dissipated and disorderly; the equipment was poor and in-

adequate; the tents and clothing nearly worthless; food for

the men and fodder for the horses were deficient in both quality

and quantity; desertions from the start, often in squads, were

appalling in number. St. Clair, the commander, a brave, high-

minded man, versed in the art of scientific warfare, but inex-

perienced in Indian combat, was broken in health, hardly able

to sit upon his horse and really unfit for the hardships and

duties that lay before him. General Butler was also in ill health

and the main burden of responsibility fell upon Adjutant Gen-

eral Winthrop Sargent.

But there was no turning back and the forces, united at

Fort Hamilton, slowly trudged forward, cutting roadways

through the woods, building bridges over the streams and

wearily tramping across the boggy plains, making but five or

six miles a day. On October 12th, they had left Fort Hamilton

forty-four miles behind and stopped, six miles south of Green-

ville, to build another stockade, they named Fort Jefferson.

Here they remained twelve days. On November ₃d, the foot-

sore and bedraggled army, now reduced to a total of about four-

teen hundred men, encamped on the eastern fork of the Wabash,

upon an elevated timber-covered ground, with the creek in

front and on the right, and a ravine on the left. Here were

stationed the artillery and regulars. In front across the low,

fordable stream the militia bivouacked, "while all around the

wintry woods lay in frozen silence." It was the night before

the battle, for at sunrise of the ₄th, just as the soldiers were

preparing breakfast the Indian horde, whose presence was un-

known and unsuspected, suddenly plunged from their hidden

ambush and with savage yells opened fire on the militia, who

rushed pellmell into the center of the camp of the regulars amid

whom they spread dismay and confusion. It was the repetition

of Braddock's entrapment. The story of the desperate and

gory conflict has been told again and again from the official

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reports and the diaries of participants, the last and perhaps best

war picture being that by the pen of Roosevelt.

There was no time nor room for the terror-benumbed sol-

diers to form or respond to the onslaught of the "woodland

warriors," who soon completely encircled the American camp,

and Indian fashion, protected by logs, trees and brush, crowded

closer and closer, as they poured their shots into the crowded

and disordered soldiers, huddled like sheep on the elevated

ground. The officers, amid this "wall of flame" strove bravely

to rally and form the troops, who discharged their rifles in an

aimless manner for the enemy was mostly hidden from sight.

The artillerymen were soon picked off and the cannon silenced.

The men fell in great numbers in all parts of the camp, con-

fusion increased, the Indians boldly swarmed forward to shoot at

close range and even dash into the American ranks and engage

in close encounter.

St. Clair, so weak he had to be lifted upon his horse, had

three mounts shot from under him; eight bullets pierced his

clothing and one clipped his grey hair. General Richard Butler,

second in command, was twice hit and fell mortally wounded,

and lay according to the account of Stone, in the "Life of Brant,"

upon the field, writhing in agony, when Simon Girty, who played

a conspicuous part in the battle, being in command of the Wy-

andots, passed the general who knew the renegade and requested

him to put an end to his misery; this the traitor refused to do

but one of his warriors sprang forward and planted his toma-

hawk in the head of the dying officer, and thus terminated his

sufferings; "his scalp was instantly torn from his crown, his

heart taken out and divided into as many pieces as there were

tribes engaged in the battle."  Butterfield in his "History of

the Girtys" regards this account as "trustworthy" but Roose-

velt insists that after Butler received his mortal wound, "there

is no further certain record of his fate except that he was

slain." Certain it is that many such incidents added bloody col-

oring to the dreadful scene of battle, and "no words can paint the

hopelessness and horror of such a struggle as that in which they

were engaged."

The conflict continued nearly three hours until the sur-

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vivors, comprising the remnant of the army became too stupe-

fied and bewildered for further action of any kind. That all

might not be sacrificed, St. Clair ordered a retreat. Such of

the wounded as could be moved were hastily gathered together,

a last charge, by the remaining combatants, was made against

the enemy, that an opening through their line might be made en-

abling the fleeing force to escape. The flight was successful.

The Indian warriors at first attempted pursuit but returned to

secure the rich booty left upon the field. As the diary of Major

Ebenezer Denny-a brave participant in the battle-recounts, it

was a disgraceful flight even to the very gates of Fort Jefferson.

The road for miles was covered with fire-locks, cartridge-boxes

and regimentals. Stragglers for hours continued to stumble into

the fort. The killed and missing numbered thirty-seven officers,

one major-general (Butler), one lieutenant-colonel, three majors,

twelve captains, ten lieutenants, eight ensigns, two quartermas-

ters, one adjutant, and one surgeon; and five hundred and ninety-

three privates; the wounded, thirty-three officers and two hun-

dred and fifty privates. A total disability of over nine hundred

men, two-thirds the entire force engaged. It was a far greater

loss than that incurred by Washington in any battle of the Rev-

olution, surpassing by hundreds his most disastrous defeat at

Germantown. The artillery and all supplies, including clothing,

two hundred tents, three hundred horses, one hundred and thirty

beef cattle, and food in wagons with muskets and other equip-

ments, all valued at $33,000, or more, were left to be gathered

by the highly elated savages and borne to their lodges as plunder

of war. The loss of the Indians was supposed to be about one

hundred and fifty. As the contest was one for territorial pos-

sessions, the Indians, in their mutilations of the dead, practised,

says Stone, a bitter sarcasm upon the rapacity of the white

men, by filling their mouths with the soil they had marched

forth to conquer.

Indeed the later disclosures, upon the scene of action, of

the Indian brutalities, are almost too inhuman to be recorded.

In January, (1792), following St. Clair's disaster, General

James Wilkinson was ordered to visit, with a sufficient force,

the site of the late battle, examine the conditions prevailing

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and make such disposal as might be possible, of the dead. From

the letter of Captain Buntin, one of Wilkinson's officers, to St.

Clair, we take the following passage, as quoted in the "Annals

of the West" (1846) by James H. Perkins: "In my opinion,

those unfortunate men who fell in the enemy's hands, with life,

were used with the greatest torture-having their limbs torn

off; and the women (many accompanied the army) have been

treated with the utmost indecent cruelty, having stakes as thick

as a person's arm drove through their bodies.   .  By the

General's orders, pits were dug in different places and all the

dead bodies that were exposed to view, or could be conveniently

found, the snow being very deep, were buried."

The actual number of Indians engaged in this victory, for

them, is not recorded. Simon Girty is said to have told a pris-

oner (William May), that there were twelve hundred in the

attack, among them, it is known, were many Canadians and

half breeds. Little Turtle was the acknowledged chief in com-

mand, aided by Blue Jacket, Buckongahelas, and other chiefs,

among whom at the head of one hundred and fifty Mohawks,

was the famous Brant, according to statements subsequently

made by the chief's descendants to Stone, his biographer. There

must also have been found in the Indian ranks, of that attack,

a young warrior, now in the beginning of his career and des-

tined to be the greatest hero of the Ohio tribes, Tecumseh, the

Shawnee. Upon their learning of the proposed St. Clair cam-

paign, the chiefs selected Tecumseh to act as the head of a

small party of spies, to watch the movements of the American

army and make report to the Indian headquarters. Most faith-

fully did Tecumseh perform the duty assigned him. All unbe-

known to St. Clair, every mile of his progress, was heralded to

the chiefs, planning for the opportune moment to strike the ad-

vancing foe. Tecumseh will merit greater attention later on.

After his return to Fort Washington, St. Clair prepared his

official report, "a model in its way, cool, dispassionate, mag-

nanimous in a high degree," to General Knox, the War Secre-

tary at Philadelphia,then the seat of government. Major Denny

was the messenger and it was December 19th before he reached

his destination. When Washington learned the appalling news,

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the story goes, it was whispered to him, as he sat at a formal

dinner, which he continued with his usual serenity, following

which was a reception attended by him with his characteristic

courtliness.  The guests having departed, Washington-now

alone with Tobias Lear, his secretary-walking backward and

forward, broke out suddenly: "It's all over-St. Clair's defeated

-routed-the officers nearly all killed; the men by hundreds-

the rout complete-too shocking to think of-and a surprise into

the bargain." He continued to pour forth a torrent of bitter in-

vectives against St. Clair, that he had ignored the president's

warnings and permitted their army "to be cut to pieces, hacked,

butchered, tomahawked, by a surprise-the very thing I guarded

him against. O God, O God, he's worse than a murderer! How

can he answer it to his country? The blood of the slain is upon

him-the curse of widows and orphans-the curse of heaven."

This explosion came in tones appalling. His very frame shook.

It was awful, said Mr. Lear. More than once he threw up his

hands as he hurled imprecations upon St. Clair. Mr. Lear re-

mained speechless, awed into breathless silence. Then having

spent his "ungovernable burst of passion," Washington regained

his composure and declared, "St. Clair shall have justice," and

that was accorded him for he still retained the undiminished

esteem and good opinion of the president. This anecdote was

first published in "Washington in Domestic Life" by Benjamin

Rush, who received the account direct from  Colonel Tobias

Lear, private secretary to the president and a personal witness

of the incident. It has since been repeated by innumerable his-

torians from Washington Irving to Roosevelt and Lodge and

undoubtedly occurred as related, despite the scepticism of Wil-

liam Henry Smith, who in his valuable sketch of St. Clair, pro-

nounces the story as apocryphal.

The popular clamor against St. Clair was, of course, loud

and deep. He promptly announced his intention of resigning

his commission but expressed his desire to retain it until a court

could investigate his conduct. Officers could not be spared at

that time for such a purpose, and the matter was referred to

a committee of Congress, which after due examination ex-

onerated St. Clair and reported the cause of the defeat as due

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to circumstances and conditions for which the commander of

the expedition was not responsible.

*    *    *

On Christmas day, (1793), a detachment, under Captain

Alexander Gibson, sent forth by Wayne, took possession of the

field of St. Clair's defeat. The previous burial work of Wilkin-

son had, necessarily, been only partially done and the bones of

the slain he had interred had become in large part uncovered

and exposed. The "American Pioneer" quotes a letter written

by one present, to the effect: "Six hundred skulls were gathered

up and buried; when we came to lay down in our tents at

night, we had to scrape the bones together and carry them

out to make our beds." Here was erected a stockade called

Fort Recovery, as significant of the American reoccupation of

the ground, which was now properly garrisoned and placed

under the charge of Captain Gibson.

The winter and spring, (1794), gradually wore away and

still Wayne delayed, waiting for the arrival of provisions and

a thorough readiness before setting forth.  Meanwhile the

hordes of Little Turtle grew impatient and bold and under their

intrepid leader advanced, in June, to make an assault on Fort

Recovery which was then garrisoned by one hundred and fifty

men, commanded by Major William McMahon. The war-

riors were estimated to be from one to two thousand strong,

while Wayne in his report to Knox, says: "Certain facts and

circumstances which amount almost to proof show that there

were a considerable number of British and Militia of Detroit

mixed with the savages, in the assault."  The fort was as-

sailed on every side with great fury, the savages, though re-

pulsed again and again with great loss, continued the siege for

two days and the intervening night, but were ultimately com-

pelled to retreat from the very field on which they had been

so proudly victorious less than three years before. The Ameri-

can loss was twenty-two killed and thirty wounded. Simon

Girty fought, with conspicuous fearlessness, with the Indians,

and Butterfield says it was the last battle against own country-

men in which he took an active part. The disastrous result of

this assault was not only an unexpected reverse to the savages,

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whose loss was unusually great, but also to the British, who

stood as sponsors to the movements of the tribesmen, for the

British were not only redoubling their assistance to the tribes,

supplying them with arms and munitions but were in their own

behalf taking bold measures of offensive warfare. For it was

at this time, April, (1794), that under the orders of Governor

Simcoe, three British companies, commanded by Colonel Richard

England, proceeded to the foot of the Maumee Rapids and

built a fort, a veritable stronghold on the left or northern bank

of the Maumee, "an encroachment of nearly forty miles upon

the American soil." This fortification, called Fort Miami, was

thoroughly armed and garrisoned under the command of Major

William Campbell, while only a mile and a half above the fort

and near the river rapids was the British agency of Superin-

tendent Alexander McKee, under whose management provi-

sions and arms were distributed to the Indians. The British,

as noted by Slocum in "The Ohio Country," also built another

post twelve to fifteen miles within the American territory, situ-

ated on Turtle Island, just outside the Maumee Bay, twenty

miles or so northeast from the Fort Miami.

 

ADDRESS OF HON. W. E. TOUVELLE.

On this day, associated with the holiest attributes, loyalty to

our country, love for our homes and gratitude to those who gave

up comfort, aye, even life, to aid heaven in making the lonely

forests blossom into fertile fields, we have gathered around a

common altar to render our individual and united tribute to

these our country's heroes.

Today we blend with the devotion of Christian worship

the impressive service in which the Nation expresses its regard

for those, who in two great struggles between races, opened

the gateway of the great Northwest, conquered, perhaps, or

bringing home the trophy of their gain, the long years have

made of them all, victors. Even the fallen accomplished their

share in the onward march of civilization. In all our National

history there is nothing which so stirs the imagination, reaches

down and opens deeper fountains of feeling, makes the heart

throb with nobler emotions or makes men more one with each

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other, than this gathering of our countrymen to pay affectionate

tribute to our patriotic and heroic dead. Here in the village of

Ft. Recovery which has been made into a garden of beauty,

dreams in peaceful home and answers chimes of church and call

of school, or fearless, plies its honest trade in mart; where the

sun shines and the flowers grow and the children play upon the

banks of the Wabash; here, one hundred years ago and more,

a thousand of our forefathers, men who helped to found the

Republic we now enjoy, knocked upon the fast locked door of

the wilderness, breasted the ghastly storms of savage war and

laid down their lives for the advancement of Christian civiliza-

tion; that we, living in this later day, may feast upon the fruits

of the land and untroubled rest when toil is o'er, nor wake to

cry of the untamed foe nor elude the wild beast as he stalks.

On the edge of the winter they started across a stranger

land to subdue a far more forboding enemy, one whose ethics

of glory and of warfare were as foreign to that of the open

battle and the chivalry to the vanquished practiced by St. Clair

and his soldiers of the East as though they were of a planet yet

unlisted in the names of stars. Warnings of the border men

were treated lightly because the peril was unrecognized until

every tree became a menace, one minute wreathed with clamor

and smoke, the next standing out stark and silent, as if it itself

breathed out bullets and smoke and breathed in the crisp Novem-

ber air. And with every breathing the men fell, futilely firing,

praying with their dying gasp for a glimpse of the foeman which

they could not mark and answered by the crashing of some fall-

ing forest giant and the taunt of the invisible guard of the In-

dian's country. But a handful retreated beyond the reach of

the savage pursuit, the forest was filled with the fallen. With-

out covering except the fallen snow, unburied they lay, no

hand to make their graves, to lift them down or spread the

kindly sod; no courier to cry the news except the lean wolf

howling to his kind upon some far off trail, so far the forests

stretched, so distant lived their kin, so inaccessible in its winter

chains the land wherein they slept. For over two years kindly

nature clothed their bones with flowers and waving grass, with

autumn's browning leaf and the whitening frosts until General

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Anthony Wayne, with his conquering legions and that dash

which made the Impossible gasp with awe and yield to him her

most impregnable barriers, swept down upon the old battle

ground, wrested it from its former victors and where the faith-

ful dead had kept their silent watch, set new sentinels to guard

the site whereon he builded a double log fort which he christened

Fort Recovery. In this later battle, fought in 1794, Major Mc-

Mahon and many of his fellow officers and comrades gave to

their country the full measure of their devotion as had every

officer, gallant men and brave, of St. Clair's regiments, with

630 American soldiers, a monstrous sacrifice for an infant nation

to suffer for the welfare of her border citizens, a glorious, un-

selfish deed of the men who marched into the jaws of death by

battle or famine or the hungry denizens that haunted the winter

desolation.

It is not oblivion to those who have given us safety, per-

haps a little touch in the blood of "the Land of Tomorrow,"

or, perchance, the struggle of life that demands that we pro-

vide for our own living ones ere we fitly bury our dead, that

causes our nation sometimes to appear ungrateful and slow to

acknowledge the debt by appropriate ceremony and, too, doubt-

less sixty years is not a vast length of time for a people who

must build its hearthstones in an inhospitable land of rigorous

seasons. It may be that our fathers deserve commendation for

grasping an early opportunity not condemnation for laxity, for, in

1851, they provided thirteen coffins for the reception of the re-

mains of those who had marched to a higher reward. Thirteen

coffins, a remarkable number. These men came from each of

the thirteen old colonies, many of them were heroes who had

fought for the independence of these colonies and were citizens

of the original thirteen states. As ragged continental soldiers

they had upheld the doctrine of American freedom   against

British aggression and had emerged from that struggle as vic-

torious soldiers of a splendid new-born Nation.

They had seen service with Washington and Marion and

Green and were led, at the time of their death, by the distin-

guished Revolutionary Generals, St. Clair, Butler and Wayne.

Their bones in the aggregate, represented the continental sol-

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diery of every colony, from Massachusetts to Georgia and in

their totality spoke the glories of Bunker Hill, of Saratoga and

Trenton, of Kings Mountain and Camden and Yorktown;. they

were the last remains of an illustrious phalanx of Revolutionary

heroes, and it was singularly appropriate that thirteen coffins,

representing the magnificent thirteen colonies for which they

fought in their younger days and the thirteen States, constitut-

ing the latest born nation of the earth for whose progression they

laid down their lives, should be selected to hold their remains.

On hundred years after St. Clair's defeat it was the "Grand

Army of the Republic," that noblest of all patriotic orders

which preserves and strengthens "those kind of fraternal feel-

ings which have bound together the soldiers, sailor and marine

who united to suppress the late rebellion,." who, through re-

membrance of long marches in sun or storm and night watches

under the stars or wrapped in the marsh mists, fitly cherishing

the memory of our heroic dead who made their breasts a barri-

cade between our country and its foes, again interred the ashes

of these heroes with salute of gun and sound of taps and

requiem for the slain, lest we forget and forgetting lose a vast

heritage. For the world is advanced by every incident of worthy

action and lofty purpose. Glorious traditions beget glorious

deeds; precedents and examples of heroism lead to higher en-

deavor. If we mold the future to noble fashion we should hold

the fame of our valorous ones bright as the splendor of the

summer sun upon their shields, their memory fragrant as the

open flowers upspringing from the turf that wraps their clay.

In every age the soldier's deeds have been remembered.

God's ancient people offered prayer and songs of thanksgiving

in commemoration of great deliverance and in remembrance of

men who had been instruments of blessings to them, and other

nations of antiquity had their ceremonies for the slain in battle

and for the return of the victors, their weaving of garlands and

mourning for the dead, their gala parade and flaunting banner

for the returned, keeping the festal day of triumph even for

centuries, believing that by thus recognizing their patriots the

future generations would more fully estimate the value of and

their obligations to, the nation, for the people's gratitude is a

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government's salvation, it perpetuates in the hearts of men the

worth of national integrity and glory.

Equipments of armies become obsolete, fortifications value-

less, the weapons of today the toys of tomorrow but the graves

of soldiers are stronger intrenchments against a foe than are

moats or bayonets or artilleries. Through all time, in every na-

tion, savage or refined, their memory has been fondly cherished.

Armed peasants have claimed a following, have seized thrones

and founded dynasties and pyramids and mausoleums have been

erected in their honor, triumphal arches have proclaimed the

fame of warrior chiefs and pillars pierced the heavens to point

to victorious nations. The statues of Themistocles long fired

the Grecian heart and the Romans were wont to place sculptures

of their dead heroes in the porches and passage ways of their

dwellings so that, day by day, when they went out and when

they came in, when they sat down or when they arose, marble

forms might speak to them in mute but impressive language of

those deserving of perpetual remembrance and emulation.

England has placed her mark of triumph over France upon

the blood stained field of Waterloo; in Trafalgar Square, Lon-

don; near Niagara Falls to General Brock and his men who fell

contesting American arms; they arise wherever British heroism

and daring and loyalty have been displayed. In every civilized

country we find them, signatures of tribute from  the living

to the immortal dead.

In memory of the brave who dedicated their lives at these

places we have built monuments at Saratoga and at Kings

Mountain, two great turning points in our struggle for liberty.

Art has adorned the erections with which we have honored our

heroes of the War of 1812, Florida and Indian Wars, the

Mexican war, and the great titanic struggle between sections

and orators have anointed with sentiments of profound grati-

tude and veneration those whose dust they commemorate.

One by one they have been builded here and there, often to

lesser heroes, and our fathers, many of whom sleep in God's

acre on yonder hill, for over half a century petitioned our gov-

ernment to recognize the services of the men who from 1776

to 1783 fought to create the Government and, at its after call,

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gave their lives in 1791 and 1794. They dared the death call

of the haughty British- foe in our war for independence and

defying the savage of the wilderness for the winning of the

West, perished upon its threshold.

Too far from friend to claim a sheet or shroud, or mother's

prayer or widow's anguished cry, or e'en the funeral note when

battling was done, fearlessly their departing spirits went alone,

down into the dark shadows of the "Valley of death," eyes

darkening to the horrors of the awful carnage, ears deafening to

the savage warrior's cry. Knowing this and believing that his-

tory asserts the unchallenged truth that when a nation turns

with cold indifference from the graves of those who, in fiery

ordeal of battle, protected its flag and builded its power, the

elements of dissolution and decay are at work; our fathers

taught their children that the worm gnaws through the oak

which the tempest could not bend, and the canker eats to the

core where the lightning could never reach.

Urged by these sentiments which were forever kept fresh

by the sight of these neglected graves and with the inestimable

assistance of The Grand Army of the Republic, success at last

crowned their efforts and by this act of tardy justice our Nation

has redeemed the debt it owes, not only to its defenders, but to

itself. The hope of the Nation is the youth of the land and if

upon them can be impressed the thought that love of country is

paramount to all other emotions of the soul, except devotion to

their God, the salvation of the Republic is secure. This doctrine,

instilled into the American hearts has proven stronger than

drills and marching and counter marching. For not being a

military nation, we have depended upon our citizen soldier, and

when yet has he ever failed us? While it cannot be said of

our country, as has been proclaimed of Great Britain, "that it

is a power which has dotted over the face of the globe with her

possessions and military posts whose morning drum beats fol-

lowing the sun and keeping company with the hours, circle the

earth with one continuous strain of the martial airs of England,"

we Americans thank God that from the time the sun's first rays

salute the shores of the Atlantic until the twilight voicelessly

bugles forth "lights out" unto Pacific's golden strand, as it

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crosses three thousand miles of the fairest and freest land in

the world, a Government with imperial dimensions and pledging

to every man security in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,

from hill and from dale it is greeted with the harmony of bells

calling men to worship or luring the children's vagrant feet to

paths of knowledge, a continuous peal of sweeter and better

music than any calls to arms, the token of victories long won

and heaven's blessing of peace and christianity and enlighten-

ment. And, this, too, we owe to these who first trod the wilder-

ness; its preservation depends upon the generations that follow.

The glory of the past is secure, no time can dim the splen-

dor of the great deed of the dead who nobly fell in the per-

formance of a noble duty. Forever it is ours and even the foe-

man loves a gallant antagonist. But what of the future? That

lies with our children and our children's children and upon their

strength and intelligence and morality the perpetuity of the Re-

public must ever depend. The lives of other Republics have

been brief; Greece and Rome maintained themselves for only

a few hundred years, while despotism has stood for ages and

monarchies count their years by centuries. We, a world power

now, must valiantly dispute imperialism for the future of civil-

ization, must make ourself a living precept for our younger sis-

ter Republics.

You hear of the decay of the Republic, you know of the

bribery of legislatures, of extravagance in the administration of

government; inequality of taxation; accumulation of enormous

wealth through special privilege, giving private individuals power

over the fruits of toil and the destiny of the artificer and pro-

ducer, leaving him but a small recompense; of a lawless foreign

element coming each year by the thousands, not to enjoy our

free institutions, not to make this their country, but to return

to their native land with their hoarded wealth after a huddling

life in unsanitary surroundings, leaving behind the germs of

noxious diseases and unwholesome and menacing conditions;

they accuse some of our statesmen of ignoring these maladies

because they hold more dear the brand upon the dollar than

the eagle upon the shield and the conditions of our nation have

been compared to that of France prior to her revolution.

Vol. XXII- 28.

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434       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance" and whether or

not these evils exist it is incumbent that we make all attempts

at such menaces futile by demanding public and private integrity;

that official position be unstained and incorruptible and by

stamping out the negligent and dishonest by public reprobation.

The good, the true, even the beautiful, all are necessary to our

higher aspirations and ambitions for long life and perfect gov-

ernment. All virtues, divine and human, are embraced in this

grand trinity and patriotism is the first of human virtues. It

is a sentiment as pure and tender as a lily. It must be nurtured,

not merely by gentle precept of eloquent speech, but by deeds

done with noble purpose; it must weld the interests of all the

nation and upon the heights upon which it thrives we must plant

the banner of justice and equality. Beneath, and far below it

in the lower ground of passion and arrogance, men may dwarf

if they will, but each, must not only be permitted, but encour-

aged, to climb the steep that leads to knowledge, self respect and

competency.

Let us continue to build monuments to our soldier dead as

milestones of educative progress to our youths, pointing them

to the deeds of their fathers, instilling into their souls the obli-

gations that can but honorably be cancelled by achievements

worthy of the sacrifice; let them meet arches and memorial

shafts everywhere, in order that the fires of patriotism may not

grow dimmed in their hearts, nor the American's great love of

country be quenched forever. Let us twine around our hearts

each thread of our country's flag until the sundering of a single

strand is as the wrenching of the heart from out our breast,

vibrant, palpitating, quivering with life. Could lesser love be

adequate? Did not our ancestors design it of glorious fashion

and consecrate it with the sacrifice not only of their best, but

of their all? Was ever emblem   so beautiful as our Star

Spangled Banner? Did ever ensign so fill the souls of men, the

love of women, the sense of duty, the thirst for glory start such

heart throbs as impels the humblest American to stand by its

colors, fearless in the defense of his native soil and for its

preservation hold it sweet to die? What legends hover around

this symbol of protection, authority and power! On its folds

• 16
 

Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.         435

 

we see emblazoned daring and unselfish deeds of heroes who

have scaled the walls of duty and gained the parapets of the City

beyond. And, too, what a lesson it conveys! Its white teaches

purity of purpose, its red typifies the blood which has been so

freely shed in its defense, and its blue, with its constellations,

reminds us of fidelity, fidelity to our God, fidelity to ourselves,

fidelity to

"The Star Spangled Banner,

Oh long may it wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

These soldiers have not died in vain. Our nation of one

hundred millions of free and self governing people will always

be guided by their example of heroic sacrifice, and, recognizing

the universal practice of justice, benevolence and national vir-

tue, Providence will let its blessings descend upon us and our

posterity "like unto the dews of heaven, unseen, unfelt, save

in the richness and beauty it contributes to produce, and we will

continue to walk in the path of the just which is as the dawning

light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

 

ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. WARREN KEIFER.

I thank you, the local Post of the Grand Army of the Re-

public, and all those in authority here for the invitation to be

present and to address those assembled on this historic occa-

sion.

This splendid monument just unveiled was fittingly erected

through the bounty of the United States, the appropriation

($25,000) therefor having been secured chiefly through the ef-

fective efforts in Congress of Hon. William E. Touvelle, a

Representative therein.

Great nations and peoples have, in the course of the ages,

erected monuments to individuals distinguished in War, as

rulers, in learning, in science, the arts, for philanthrophy, for

discoveries and for other things, but it remained to this twen-

tieth century for two South American Republics, Argentina and

Chili, to erect the first colossal statue to Christ-The Prince of

Peace-to stand in a lonely spot on their boundary line on the

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436       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

summit of the Andean Mountains, as a testimonial of perpetual

peace between the two countries.

This monument is also erected not so much as a testimonial

to war as to the peace that has ensued since the bloody scenes

were enacted here. They antedate the War of 1812-1815 with

Great Britain, but mark the beginning of an epoch which ended

that war, followed by a Century of Peace with Great Britain.

Our country has so far done little in erecting monuments

to individual citizens, however distinguished, in peace or war,

save as aided and inspired thereto by patriotic organizations

and private individuals. However, it has done much to com-

memorate the dead heroes of all wars, from Lexington, (1775),

to the present time, in which it has been engaged.

The total number of memorial monuments on battlefields

and in National and other cemeteries has reached eighty-five,

which the general government participated in erecting, this one

being the last.

Its erection, almost one hundred and twenty-two years after

the first battle fought here, testifies to the patriotic spirit of the

people of this day, and yet its earlier erection is not a reflec-

tion on the preceding generations.

The generations of the past have been charged with high

duties and paramount responsibilities which they have heroically

met and discharged with glorious results, and in the interest

of human freedom and individual liberty.

The United States, in its first century of existence as a

nation, experienced about sixteen years of actual war, all In-

dian Wars excluded, which is equivalent to one year of such

actual war in every six years. Indian Wars have been almost

constant from the earliest white settlement of America to a

recent date. The battles here fought are classed as taking place

in a purely Indian War, though there is evidence that English,

(even French) influence had much to do with promoting and

aiding in them.

The Revolutionary War, of seven years duration; the War

of 1812, lasting three years; the Mexican War, continuing about

two years, and the Civil War of above four years, all in our

first century, and the Spanish-American War (1898-9), with

• 18
 

Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.      437

 

the never ceasing Indian Wars, constitute the bloody annals of

our now great and prosperous Republic.

The settlement of the whole of continental United States

was unique in more than one respect. The settlement or oc-

cupancy of new countries or regions, in most instances, history

teaches us, was, in general, by the influx of wild, nomadic bands,

in a barbaric or semi-barbaric state, to regions of the world not

inhabited in considerable numbers, if at all previously occupied

by any human beings. Sometimes, it is true, a barbaric horde

advanced and drove out an antecedent like barbaric horde or a

partially civilized people. I am not now speaking of biblical

historic movements of peoples, such as Abraham's Emigration

from Ur of the Chaldees to Palestine, though he took posses-

sion of an almost uninhabited country west of the River Jordan;

nor am I forgetting the Hebrew race in its return from four

hundred years of Egyptian bondage to the land they formerly

inhabited and found it occupied by an alien people somewhat

civilized.

Civilization originated and developed from the wild bar-

baric tribes inhabiting Europe and other parts of the world,

especially from the Goth and Vandal tribes that invaded and

occupied Italy, Germany and Gaul.

Here the reverse took place; barbarism was driven out and

civilization was moved in.

Under the conditions war, long, bloody, devastating and ex-

terminating to the Indian race, was inevitable; and much white

blood was necessarily shed in actual battle and in barbarous

attacks by bands of Indians on imperfectly protected settle-

ments.

The justice and wisdom, if any, or the righteousness, in

the light of Christian civilization, there was in forcibly driving

back a barbaric race and in supplanting it with a modern civiliza-

tion, it is too late now to try to fathom with any practical re-

sults. It is, however, consoling to entertain the belief that

it was accomplished in execution of a divine plan to advance

the human race and to spread the Christian religion. The

treacherous, cruel and savage character of the Indian race in

defending its hunting grounds and its tribal homes, hardly justi-

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438       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

fies the aggressions of a Christian people. What race or people

will not savagely defend their homes and native land from the

usurper?

Those of our countrymen who fought here are not, in-

dividually or collectively, chargeable with the initiation or con-

tinuation on this continent of the policy adopted which led

to the battles on this ground. They responded to existing con-

ditions and superior orders, and, in a large sense, to an ob-

solute necessity to go forth in defense of their own homes and

firesides.

In a great measure they engaged in war more justifiable,

so far as they individually were concerned, than can usually be

fairly claimed for those who are called to battle.

The implacable Indians were constantly liable to be at their

pioneer homes, engaging in massacre of families, tomahawk and

scalping knife in hand, women and children not spared.

And who were the pioneers on the frontiers exposed to the

savage dangers, and what was their personal mission? First,

it should be remarked, they were, aside from being of white

blood, generally of no distinctive race of people as classified, or

as coming from any one country or climate. Homogeneous in

character, they were heterogeneous in race or blood. While

white they, though some were born in foreign countries, were

commingled, for the most part, in blood and in custom or habit

so as to make an American in type, if not in race, and, though,

in general, they were not highly educated in a scholastic way,

they were patriotically imbued with the spirit of true liberty-

not license-to act as they pleased-which, under the restraint

of law, insures happiness, prosperity, peace and contentment,

which includes all there is worth seeking in life. They, in a

high degree, sought to live up to the true test of civil liberty,

under law, in obedience to the second of the Savior's divine

Commandments: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," or,

in other words: Insist upon your and your family's right to

enjoy, unmolested; protection of person and property, and, at

the same time, and in like manner, insist upon the same right

for your neighbor and his family. This test of free citizen-

ship constitutes the highest ideal of human liberty.

• 20
 

Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.       439

 

Those who pushed westward closely after the Revolutionary

War, which decreed the principles of the Declaration of Inde-

pendence to be right, and to be, we hope and pray, immortal

and immutable as basic principles of free government, were in-

spired by the achievements of that war and the greatness and

glory of Washington and his generals and patriot soldiers and

the great statesmen of the same period.

They were not mere adventurers, but avaunt couriers of

a moving civilization under the banners of the Prince of Peace,

into a thitherto untamed region of the earth to there take pos-

session and develop what had so beautifully and bountifully

been prepared for civilized man by the Creator of all things.

They crossed, with implements of industry, the Allegheny Moun-

tains and the great Ohio River, and other streams, to become

cultivators of the soil, to establish communities and to plant

churches and to spread the Gospel where all could worship God

according to the dictates of their own conscience, guaranteed

by the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787 and the Constitution

of the United States, which, through the prescient wisdom of

our Revolutionary fathers, had then become written organic

law.

Major-General Arthur St. Clair, who commanded (Nov. 4,

1791) in the first of the battles fought here, was President of

the Continental Congress which enacted (July 13, 1787) that

Ordinance.

He had been a distinguished general in the Revolutionary

War and he enjoyed the confidence of General Washington dur-

ing that War and, later, while President of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States was almost simulta-

neously adopted (September 17, 1787), with the Great Ordinance,

in convention, but it did not go into effect until March 4, 1789.

The Ordinance was a Magna Charta, dedicating, in advance, a

coming Christian civilization in the fertile and beautiful terri-

tory Northwest of the River Ohio, for all time, to freedom,

education and liberty of conscience. It was re-enacted by Con-

gress, August 7, 1789, to adapt its provisions to the then new

Constitution.

The territory, then almost uninhabited by white men, was,

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440       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

in area, 260,000 square miles, and included the now states of

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with, by the

census of 1910, 18,250,621 inhabitants, enjoying a prosperity ex-

celling that of any other people of any age or country. Its

sixth Article provided:

"There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary serv-

ice in the said territory, otherwise than for the punishment

of crimes."

Despite many attempts to legalize human slavery in said

territory and in states formed therefrom no slave has ever

been rightly held therein.

This Ordinance also provided for the descent of property;

for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious

freedom; prohibited legislative interference with private con-

tracts; secured the writ of habeas corpus and trial by jury; for-

bade infliction of cruel and unusual punishments, and enjoined

the encouragement of schools and general education.

Though this Ordinance and the Constitution of the United

States were in full force when (1791-1794) the war scenes took

place here, Ohio was not, until May 7, 1800, organized as a

separate territory and did not become a state until March 1,

1803. Ohio in 1800 had 45,365, and in 1910, 4,767,121 inhab-

itants, about 1,500,000 more than there were in the Thirteen

States at the beginning (1776) of the War for Independence.

There were then but fifteen states of this Union. Kentucky

(not of said territory) was organized as a territory in 1790,

with a population of 73,677, and became a state, February 4,

1791. She furnished a principal part of the gallant officers

and men constituting the armies who fought here in the several

battles. In 1910 Kentucky had a population of 2,289,905.

Vermont, admitted into the Union February 18, 1791, be-

came the fifteenth State in the Union.

 

St. Clair's Defeat.

The combined Indian tribes of the Northwest were more

defiant, and numerically stronger and better united and organ-

ized, with greater and more celebrated and influential chiefs, and

• 22
 

Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.       441

 

better armed and equipped for war in the years covering the

times of the battles here than at any other period in their his-

tory. There is convincing evidence that, while the treaty of peace

at the close of the War of the Revolution (1783) brought that

war to a close, there remained much animosity on the part of

the English towards the new Republic, and the boundary be-

tween the United States and the British possessions in the North-

west was far from settled; nor was the Indian and English al-

liance existing in the Revolutionary War wholly broken up.

English military, and other, officials still exercised influence

with the Indian tribes against the American-"long knife"-ad-

vancement. They lived in touch with the tribes and their great

chiefs. Some of the French who once claimed much territory

inhabited by the Indians, remained therein late in the eighteenth

century as traders and in other occupations, and they also ex-

ercised considerable influence over them.

Throughout the period of the Revolution, and earlier, the

Indian had been made acquainted with fire arms, and had been

taught their use in hunting, and in war, and in many ways they

had been instructed in warfare, unknown to them in earlier

times. Besides these contributing influences there was earlier,

and at the time of the battles here, some wily renegade white

men residing with them, such as the three Girtys, McKee,

Elliott, and others, who not only made the willing Indian chiefs

familiar with the modes of conducting war by our officers, but

they participated in more or less commanding positions in bat-

tles, not being inferior to the Indian in savage cruelty, even to

defenseless women and children.

The Indian wars had also been almost perennial from the

earliest encroachments on the Indian possessions, thus adding

great experience to natural disposition of the Indian to engage

in war. The Indian tribes seem always to have been at war

with each other, and only ceased it to combine against their

common enemy, the white man.

Just prior to the these battles the Indians had some, to

them, significant successes against forces under General Har-

mar and others which greatly encouraged them and gave them

confidence of success.

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442       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Our forces operating against the English and Indians dur-

ing the Revolution had always been comparatively small in

number notwithstanding the marvelous successes (¹⁷⁷⁸-9) of

General George Rogers Clark, at Vincennes, Cahokia, etc.,

against Governor Hamilton and his Indian allies.

The Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant, the most sagacious of

Indian chiefs by education, and in influence in uniting the tribes,

was in the full vigor of his career. He participated-so states

his biographer Stone-in the first battle here, but not in chief

command. Tecumseh, later the most noted Shawnee chief, per-

haps ranking as the greatest of all Indian chiefs, participated in

St. Clair's defeat, though then but young.

And the celebrated Shawnee chief, Blue Jacket, led the war-

riors of his tribe in the battle. Buckongahelas, the greatest of

the Delawares, led his tribal warriors. So Black Eagle of the

Wyandots.

There was a close alliance of the Miamis, Delawares, Wyan-

dots, Ottawas, Pottowatomies, Sacs and Foxes and Shawnees

with other associated tribes. They constituted the most for-

midable and most successful combination of Indians for war

ever formed on this continent. Tecumseh's later (1811) attempt

to form a general Indian Confederacy to oppose the white was

largely a failure in comparison.  Still other celebrated great

chiefs participated in the campaign and battle, leading war-

riors of their respective tribes.

To the shame and disgrace, as already noted, the renegades,

Simon Girty, Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliott aided and

participated in the equipping, organizing and in conducting the

campaign and battle resulting in St. Clair's defeat. Still other

such renegades, less conspicuous, participated therein.

The actual number of Indians engaged in the battle is un-

known. Girty estimated them at above 1200 Indians; and with

them there were some Canadian and half breeds, variously

organized; some were engaged in the important business of

spies. Tecumseh is said to have been so engaged and to have

noted and reported the hourly movement of St. Clair's army

to this fatal field.

The general command, however, of all the Indian forces

• 24
 

Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.       443

 

in the campaign and battle was under the celebrated Miami chief,

Little Turtle, then about thirty-nine years of age, (born on Eel

River, 1752), who possessed extraordinary ability and by long

warlike experience, much Indian sagacity and capacity to com-

mand. So seldom have Indians been known to openly attack,

especially by night, an organized army of white soldiers that,

notwithstanding Little Turtle's admitted experience and ability

in war, it has always been claimed that the attack was planned

by a white man.

The long dangerous state of the Northwestern frontier,

even including the then (1791) state of Kentucky south of the

Ohio River, together with frequent massacres by Indians and

some disasters of our war parties, caused complaints to be made

to the authorities, including Washington then President of the

United States, and to which he gave an attentive ear. The Re-

public was poor and still struggling with Revolutionary War

and other debt; there was then but a skeleton of a regular

army, and the times generally were hard and the people also

poor. Washington, always interested in the West, and fully

alive to the necessity, as well as to the duty, to protect the ad-

vance pioneer settlers, having confidence in St. Clair, designated

and ordered him to collect a sufficient force to chastise the then

defiant combined Indian tribes.

St. Clair had ample war experience, save, perhaps in In-

dian warfare, such as was necessary to cope successfully with

Indian methods. He was born in Scotland (1734) and was

fifty-seven years of age when he fought here, and he was

possessed of some physical infirmities besides that of age, though

then of a vigorous intellect; and he was full of zeal and pa-

triotism. He was hastily, perhaps intemperately, censured and

unjustly by Washington for a time, for a supposed want of vigil-

ance and watchfulness through scouts and spies, to avoid sur-

prise and consequent disaster.

In reaching the conclusion that St. Clair's army was, through

negligence and incompetency, allowed to be surprised, there is

danger of doing him and Major-General Richard Butler of

Kentucky, the second in command, Colonel Oldham and other

of his distinguished officers and soldiers great injustice. That

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444       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

there was a surprise attack is not even well established as dis-

tinguished from what appears always from an energetic army

making a general attack upon an opposite army, especially

when made in the night time. Such attacks have taken place,

in some sense, in all great wars, and they are absolutely un-

avoidable, even in a generally open country, when proper se-

crecy of movement and purpose has been kept. The advantage

of cover in the dense forest, where there were no roads or

known lines of march to traverse, was with the enemy. The

Indians were not impeded in movement by artillery and supply

wagons and horses and the like impediments to secrecy in move-

ment and camping. They, on the contrary, were not embar-

rassed by anything. They were not required to camp, feed in

a body or provide for man and beast as is necessary in an

organized civilized army. Little Turtle's Indian forces, in this

situation, being thus free to act, made it almost impossible to

guard against a seeming or real surprise, especially by a night

attack.

Preparedness for battle in the event of sudden attack is of

the first importance, by day or night, but there is no satisfactory

evidence conclusively showing St. Clair's army was not as ad-

vantageously placed and instructed as the lateness of the sea-

son, its numbers, separate organizations and the character of

the troops would permit, and with the necessary advance guards

and sentinels in proper place to prevent surprise.

The fact that a general and simultaneous attack was made

by the Indians under their respective tribal chiefs, and executed

as it was by the best of Indian stealth and energy, necessarily

gave it the appearance, and it had the effect, of a surprise. No

vigilance or advantageous posting of troops, pickets or guards

could have averted the attack made, or, under the circumstances,

averted the disastrous results; and the conduct of the officers

and soldiers of St. Clair's army proves this to be true.

The defeat must be attributed, not to the character of the

attack alone, but to the active skill and bravery by which the

Indians were led and fought, and in part to the want of trained

soldiers for such warfare, if, indeed, they for the most part,

were trained in any proper sense for battle at all, for want

• 26
 

Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.     445

 

of time and opportunity. Without placing censure anywhere,

St. Clair's army was far from efficient by reason of its too

hasty organization to be relied on to meet successfully such a

formidable Indian attack, whether there was a surprise or not,

as was made upon it.

The soldiers of Gettysburg (July, 1863,) of either army,

well led as they were, would have been unequal to the shock

of battle in the Wilderness, (May, 1864). The enemy must

often be taken into account in determining the responsibility for

the result in any contest, in peace or war.

We are too often prone to attribute defeat in any cause

to the misconduct or neglect of our friends, and rarely to the

superior skill and energy of the opposition.

President Lincoln (1863), in passing on a report made in-

volving the conduct of a distinguished general (Milroy), used

this wise language:

"Serious blame is not necessarily due to any serious

disaster."

The men and officers were brave and met death as patriot-

ically and heroically as though they had been the most sea-

soned soldiers that ever went to battle, or had fought, fell and

died on a field of their own victory.

St. Clair, as directed by Washington early in 1791, made

strenuous efforts to organize a sufficient force for a formidable

expedition to the Miami towns on the upper Maumee, to punish

and overawe the Indians of the region to be traversed from

Fort Washington (Cincinnati), the place of rendezvous.

Special levies, militia, and some so-called regulars, were to con-

stitute his army for this purpose. In general, both the few

regulars and the militia were not of the more substantial yeo-

manry of the country. The number intended for the invasion

was fixed at 3000, but by May 17, 1791, but 2300 had assembled

at Fort Washington, and they were then moved forward to the

but recently erected Fort Hamilton on the Miami River where

a small advance detachment had been sent.

I do not believe Washington Irving's exculpatory descrip-

tive denunciation of the soldiers assembled there further than

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446       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

that they were, through no fault of theirs or of their officers,

untrained for campaigning or for war, and that they were not

well clothed or fed, and were unused to the severe exposures

and trying hardships of the campaign before them. The con-

ditions caused many to desert, and it may be naturally explained

that only about 1400 effectives reached the battle field the night

before the disaster, and they were much enfeebled and more

or less disqualified to meet an irregular battle in the timber

with Indians whose whole life had been a constant training in

exactly that kind of endurance, hardship and warfare. The

patriotism and personal bravery of St. Clair, and his officers

remain unquestioned; and their unfortunate condition and posi-

tion demands charity and commiseration rather than severe judg-

ment.

President Washington on first hearing of St. Clair's defeat

momentarily was inclined to condemn him for negligently suf-

fering a surprise, then recovering his usual equanimity he largely

exonerated him and his officers from serious blame, and later

honored St. Clair by reappointing him Governor of the North-

west Territory.

Coincident with this situation and condition of this hastily

assembled small untrained body of soldiers, General St. Clair,

their commander, became much broken in health, hardly able

to mount or sit upon his horse, and Major-General Richard

Butler, the second in command, also unfortunately fell into ill

health, almost disqualifying him from any active duty.

Both generals, afflicted and ill as each was, boldly faced and

discharged their duty in the midst of danger, St. Clair having

three horses in succession shot from under him, and General

Butler was first wounded severely then tomahawked to death,

and scalped.

The encampment the night before the battle seems to have

been as well chosen as the situation permitted, though, possibly,

in the light of events and subsequent discoveries, it might have

been better chosen to resist the actual attack made, but the ne-

cessity of placing artillery and the supply trains and the dis-

position of horses, etc., necessarily required massing; and who

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Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.       447

 

can now say, all things considered, that there was any negligence

or lack of judgment.

I cannot attempt to describe the battle further than to

say St. Clair's army, exposed as it was to the practiced, un-

erring rifle-fire, almost always from behind trees, of the In-

dians who encircled our army for the most part, maintained a

stubborn, though hopeless, battle for above three hours. The

resistance was great, notwithstanding the losses by death and

wounds in the early part of the engagement.   The Indians

were so far held at bay and driven back as to enable a retreat

to be made, carrying away many of the wounded, after first

breaking through the cordon of warriors that surrounded

them. The enemy, too suffered irreparable losses in killed and

wounded on this field. Some of their bravest warriors here

fell. Long after this battle, as history tells us, Indians of all

the tribes who were represented here mourned the death of

chiefs and warriors who died on this now peaceful field.

This was the last signal triumph of the long Indian wars

for the Indian tribes alone or in alliance with British forces for

the retention of the Northwest territory though the war there-

for did not wholly cease until twenty-two years later-not until

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, of immortal fame (Sept. 10,

1813), defeated and captured the British fleet (under Barclay

of Trafalgar fame), on Lake Erie, and Major-General Wm.

Henry Harrison on Canadian soil (Oct. 5, 1813), defeated the

combined British and Indian forces at the decisive battle of the

Thames, which led to the treaty of peace at Ghent, December

24, 1814, succeeded by now almost a century of peace with

Great Britain, and whereby the northern boundary of the

Northwest territory was definitely established.

The succeeding battles here, June 30th and July 1st, 1794,

incident to General Anthony Wayne's campaign, were gallant

defenses by a detachment of his better prepared and organized

army, each testifying to the valor of those who fought here

and mingled their blood in the same soil where St. Clair's officers

and soldiers, in final sacrifice, paid their last penalty of devotion

to duty and country.

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448       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

There is no room for unfavorable comparison of the

heroism of the officers and soldiers who fought here under

St. Clair and those of Wayne's army who fought here later.

Nor do we take a laurel from General Anthony Wayne or his

gallant and skillful officers and soldiers who made the cam-

paign of 1794 and defeated the Indians so completely here and

at Fallen Timbers, Aug. 20, 1794, which led to the treaty of

Greenville (1795) where it was proclaimed that the participants

of both armies were entitled to equal honor.

Wayne was justly given great credit for his precipitancy of

movement, skill and bravery as a commanding officer. He too

was a trusted officer of the Revolution. We recall his success-

ful night attack on the British at Stony Point on the Hudson.

His army in his 1794 Indian campaign was deliberately organ-

ized: Wm. Henry Harrison was his Chief-of-Staff, and other

experienced officers and Indian fighters were with him, and the

summer season was more favorable to movements with less ex-

posure, and other favoring causes. On Christmas day, 1793, a

detachment of Wayne's army tinder Captain Alexander Gibson

took possession of this ground and here constructed a stockade

for defense, and called it Fort Recovery. While this fort was

held by a small garrison under Major Wm. McMahon of

Wayne's army, it was assailed, June 30, 1794, with great fury

by about two thousand Indian warriors aided materially by

the British in supplying arms and ammunition, and otherwise.

After two days' fighting they withdrew having suffered a most

disastrous defeat, and much loss of life. Here, then, it is said,

Simon Girty last took an active part in battle with the Indians.

A few words more as to General Arthur St. Clair. He

was born in Scotland (1734); educated at the University of

Edinburgh; studied medicine; became an ensign (1751⁾ in the

British Navy and came to America and was engaged in active

service in Canadian waters, and under General Wolfe at Quebec

(1758), but later (1762) resigned to become a citizen of Penn-

sylvania. He there became a judge of the Court of Quarter

Sessions and Common Pleas, and soon held other responsible

civil offices; and was made a Colonel of Militia in 1775, and of

the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment in January 1776; was made

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Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.       449

 

Brigadier-General in August 1776 and Major-General in Feb-

ruary 1777 in the Continental army, under General Washing-

ton, and served throughout the Revolution with distinction, fight-

ing in many battles, particularly at Brandywine and Yorktown.

He was a member of the Court Martial that tried Major Andre

(1780); was a member of the Continental Congress from No-

vember 2nd, 1785, to November 28th, 1787, and its President in

1787; and he was appointed by it (1787) Governor of the North-

west territory, a position he held by subsequent reappointments

by Presidents Washington (1789) and John Adams (1800) until

in 1802, just prior to Ohio being formed into a state-"the

first born of the Ordinance of 1787."  Meantime he became

(1791) Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the United

States Army. He negotiated important Indian treaties with the

Six-nations, etc., and faithfully discharged many other impor-

tant public, civil and military duties. He fairly earned renown

and in a large sense enjoyed the confidence of Washington and

others in high authority, though subjected to some criticism in

consequence of his defeat here.

In 1802, on being relieved as Governor of the Northwest

Territory (then consisting of Ohio alone), he retired to the Ligo-

nier Valley, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, old, broken in

health and strength in his country's service, neglected and poor,

where he lived and toiled as proprietor of a wayside tavern for

sixteen years and until his death (August ₃₁st, 1818), which was

occasioned by injuries received by the accidental over-turning of

a small wagon on which he was riding, engaged in gathering hay

and grain in the rough mountain region of his home for sale to

western movers. He was then eighty-four years of age; he had

been, with little pay, about thirty years in his country's service.

Though possessed of a small private fortune he loyally vol-

untarily gave it to maintain the war of the Revolution. It was

never fully repaid to him.

Our proud, prosperous nation has been ungrateful, and still

is remiss in duty and obligation to St. Clair and to his memory.

There is no public memorial at his grave. Let this monument,

on the field of his valor and humiliation, testify, through time, to

 

Vol. XXII- 29.

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450       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

those who will enjoy the priceless boon of liberty he fought to

obtain for them, in a substantial sense to his greatness, suffering,

heroism, sacrifice and accomplished results for his country and

the human race.

Turning again to the scene of the battles here, it may be

observed that they were characteristic of barbarism, in that the

number of killed largely outnumbered the wounded, more than

modern battles, notwithstanding the general use of artillery and

repeating fire arms, including rifles, carbines and pistols, also

swords, etc., is rarely more than one killed to six wounded. The

number of St. Clair's army left dead on this field, as near as

could be ascertained, was 62 officers, including Major-General

Butler, Colonel Oldham, Majors Ferguson, Hart and Clark,

twelve captains, ten lieutenants, and other officers; also 630

private soldiers. The wounded numbered 280; the total killed

and wounded being 972, out of a total of about 1400 officers and

men. The bodies of the dead laid on the field, a prey to wild

beasts and birds, and the brutal savage, until January following

(1792) when a detachment of about 150 mounted men under

Colonel James Wilkinson marched to the battlefield and buried

them as best they could.

Again in December 1793 a detachment of General Wayne's

army was sent from Greenville to this place and they reburied

the remains of the officers and soldiers in their present resting

place, on the field of their heroic death. The same detachment

made a permanent occupancy here, and called the place Fort

Recovery, in commemoration of its recovery from the Indians.

In the severe and bloody battle of June ₃₀th, and July 1st,

1794, already referred to, Major Wm. McMahon, the command-

ing officer, Captain Hartshorn, Lieutenant Craig and nineteen

other officers and one hundred and twenty soldiers, in all, one

hundred and forty-two, were then killed, and, presumably, buried

here to commingle their mortal dust with that of the six hundred

and ninety-two officers and soldiers of St. Clair's army. A total

of eight hundred and thirty-four bodies lie buried here to await

the resurrection morning.

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Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.       451

 

They fell when:

"The soul of battle was abroad

And blazed upon the air."

The virgin earth here became their fitting sarcophagus. On

September 10, 1851, their bones were reinterred in thirteen gigan-

tic caskets still on the field made famous by their death.

This splendid granite shaft, handsome in its proportions;

durable in its material; permanent in its foundation and pedestal,

and simple in its purity and design, we now dedicate to com-

memorate the last resting place of those of our heroic country-

men who fell here and are here interred; also to commemorate

the like heroism of those who fought and many of whom shed

their heart's blood here, and who have all long since found honor-

able graves in widely different parts of our country.

The immediate residents here; the visitors to this memorable

spot; the succeeding generations of our countrymen; the stu-

dents of the early history of pioneer and soldier life and all

comers will also see, in this enduring silent memorial, something

to cause them to honor and revere the devoted pioneers who

blazed westward the highway of Christian civilization, amid

dangers; using to that end implements of peace and husbandry

as well as those of war.

This memorial must now, with our advanced and advancing

Christian civilization and progress, be regarded, not so much a

testimonial to war, or human valor and glory, as to a succeeding

era of, "on earth peace, good will toward men."

The Indian has largely disappeared in his savagery; his

pl^ace is taken by a people educated in the ways of peace; science

and art have tamed the hitherto unused natural elements and har-

nessed them into control for man's uses and comfort; discover-

ies in medicine, surgery and sanitation have increased in the last

half century the average of human life in our land from thirty

to almost forty years.

We are about to celebrate an hundred years of peace with

Great Britain, and the world at large has grown better and wiser.

Christianity is abroad with its banners of good will to all man-

kind, proclaiming a belief in immortality, the Redeemer and one

God; and we, the successors of those who fought and died here,

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452       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

are charged with the incident high duties that present conditions

and paramount blessings have endowed us with, to, with the

mantle of peace and progress enveloping us, avert war and its

consequent destruction, devastation, bloodshed and dire suffering.

Your orator, in a comparatively surbordinate relation has

spent above five years of his life as a volunteer officer in the

army of the United States in times of war. He has fought on

more than one battlefield where more men were killed and

wounded and more blood was shed in a single day than in the

seven years' war of the Revolution in the American and British

armies. His voice and efforts shall be, to the end of his days,

for peace, believing, that through peace national honor can be

better preserved than through the dire effects of war. The too

common expression-"In time of peace prepare for war," if ever

a wise utterance or a true maxim to be followed by a Christian

nation, is now barbaric in the light of a civilization purified and

glorified by the merciful teaching of the Prince of Peace. The

maxim should be: In time of peace prepare to maintain it.

Let us close the unveiling and dedicatory service today by

standing, head uncovered, eyes turned heavenward, and by sol-

emnly pledging ourselves to so live and to so discharge our duty

as citizens of our proud and glorious country to the end that the

life and blood sacrificed here shall not have been in vain; and with

a devout prayer for universal peace on earth;

 

" * * * * until the eternal morning

Pales in its glories all the lights of time;"

and that "liberty of law" as guaranteed by our Constitution and

laws shall perpetually endure and secure manifold blessings to all

entitled to their protecting power; and that the flag we unfurl,

which has cost so much in treasure and precious blood, may be

perpetuated as an emblem of a free people, testifying to all the

world the glory and valor of those who, in peace and war, tri-

umphantly bore it to victory in the cause of the human race.

The far-reaching fruits of triumph in our Republic in the

interest of individual and National liberty are only now be-

ing revealed. The success of our Constitutional liberty has been

an example for other nations and peoples. There are few of the

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Unveiling of Fort Recovery Monument.  453

 

old autocratic empires and kingdoms of the earth now without a

representative parliament chosen by the people.  The once

mighty and absolute rulers of Russia, Persia, Japan, China and

other countries have been obliged to surrender a large share of

imperial power. Some all power. But recently the Sultan of

Mohanmmedan Turkey has yielded to a demand of his subjects

for a share in the government.

Let us devote our lives anew, today, to the duties of citizens

of our republic; always paramount to the duties of citizens

or subjects of a kingly power, and dedicate ourselves to those

duties that may devolve on us, that we may transmit, unsullied,

to posterity the blessings and liberty it has been vouchsafed to us

to enjoy.

*     *  *  *

 

DESCRIPTION OF MONUMENT.

The new Soldiers' Monument is one of the most beautiful

and impressive shafts in the country. Towering majestically

over a hundred feet in the air its grandeur is only understood

and felt by those who have seen it.

Its exact height is 1011/2 feet, the shaft itself rising about 90

feet from the base. The base is 35 feet square and varying from

five to ten feet in height. A heroic figure typifying the early

scout and settler stands on the western side of the shaft. This

figure, nine feet in height, is one of the most impressive features

of the monument. With face stern and unyielding, foot and leg

striding forward, flintlock and powder horn in hand, it seems to

be ever advancing toward that great west, of which this region

was once typical. It represents the conquest of the west, the

progress of the nation and the advancement of civilization, but

above all it commemorates the lives which were sacrificed that

all this might be achieved, and seems to cast over all surround-

ings the calm and quiet of a benediction. Certainly there was no

type which the sculptor might have chosen, which would more

happily illustrate the thought to be expressed.

On each side of the base is a bronze entablature. The four

bear inscriptions explanatory of the battle here, giving the roll

of officers killed and other information of interest.

The monument was designed by VanAmringe & Son, of

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454       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. Boston, and the figure carved by an eminent sculptor of this firm. The material is North Carolina granite with concrete foundation. The park in which it is constructed bids fair to become one of the most beautiful spots of its size in the state. The beauty

and whiteness of the shaft is enhanced by the green of the shrub- bery, trees and grass which surround it on every side. Expres- sions of approval and admiration were heard on every hand as visitors beheld the monument for the first time and the com- munity may well feel a thrill of pride in the possession of such a monument.

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