Ohio History Journal

THE RIVER RAISIN MONUMENTS AT MONROE, MICHIGAN.     JOHN M. BULKLEY. The erection at Monroe, Michigan, in September, 1904, of a monument to fitly commemorate one of the most important,

as it was one of the most tragic events in the history of the Northwest, was a notable occasion in that city, and witnessed by a most distinguished assemblage of men and women of Michi- gan, Ohio and Kentucky. The monument was made possible by the persistent and patriotic efforts of the ladies composing the Civic Improvement League of Monroe, and their influence in (141)

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bringing about the action by the State legislature of Michigan,

which made an appropriation of $5,000 and appointed a commis-

sion to carry the work to a successful issue. This commission

consisted of Hon. H. A. Conant of Monroe, Ex-Lieut. Governor

John Strong of South Rockwood, and Hon. R. B. Robbins of

Adrian. The citizens of Monroe undertook to raise an amount

of money that should be equal to defraying all the expenses of

properly and becomingly dedicating the monument, and all other

expenses aside from the bare cost of the monument itself. This

was patriotically accomplished, and the occasion was one reflect-

ing the highest credit upon the city and one long to be remem-

bered. The principal oration was by Hon. J. C. Burroughs, U. S.

Senator from Michigan, and addresses were made by the Hon. H.

V. McChesney, Secretary of State of Kentucky; the Hon. Thos.

T. Crittenden, Kansas City, Mo., and Colonel Bennett H. Young

of Louisville, Ky.

The site of the monument which was fixed by the enact-

ment providing for the memorial is in a beautiful new park

on Monroe Street, where the bones of many of the massacred

were buried, near the Toledo and Monroe thoroughfare, and well

within view of passengers on the Detroit, Monroe & Toledo

Short Line Electric Railway. It is built of granite, massive and

graceful in its proportions, bearing upon the east front pilasters

the State seals of Kentucky and Michigan in bronze, with the in-

scription which follows, upon the broad panel:

 

 

MICHIGAN'S TRIBUTE TO KENTUCKY.

 

THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED

TO THE

MEMORY OF THE HEROES WHO

LOST THEIR LIVES IN DEFENSE OF OUR COUNTRY

IN THE BATTLE AND MASSACRE AT THE RIVER RAISIN,

JANUARY 22-23, 1813,

ERECTED BY THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,

1904.

 

The completed monument, while it is not pretentious or elab-

orate, speaks to the beholder in a language that impresses him

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The River Raisin Manuments.             143

 

with the dignity of its spirit, and the patriotism and gratitude of

the people who erected it. Really, the inception of the move-

ment to erect this monument dates for back into the '70's, and

was the outgrowth of another remarkable assemblage in Monroe.

In the year 1872 a most notable gathering which probably

has no counterpart in history took place in Monroe, at a cele-

bration of the Fourth of July, when nearly one hundred of the

survivors of the massacre, gray haired men from Kentucky and

Ohio, were present, whose ages averaged above 75 years. One

of those who attended this reunion was General Leslie Combs,

who was at the time 91 years of age, vigorous as a man of half

those years. General Custer was master of ceremonies, and

Chief Justice James V. Campbell was the chief orator who ad-

dressed an assemblage estimated at 20,000 people. The occasion

is remembered as the greatest and most interesting celebration

ever held in Southern Michigan. One of the most remarkable

feats in connection with this event was the success attending the

transportation of this large number of men of advanced age such

long distances and returning them to their homes without the

occurrence of an accident or a case of illness.

At that reunion and celebration it was proposed to follow

it up immediately by a movement to erect a monument. This

proposition, under the patriotic impulses of the occasion, met

with spontaneous and enthusiastic endorsement, but like many

another well conceived and meritorious scheme it was allowed

to rest, until through lack of prompt and concerted action, inter-

est flagged and was before the end of the year practically forgot-

ten. After a lapse of thirty years it is a living certainty.

Of the tragedy itself, which by its cause, the unspeakable

barbarity of its perpetration and by reason of the unparalled

circumstances of heroism of the men of our sister state may well

be counted a national one, it may be not inappropriate to speak

briefly in this article.

Whatever may be said of the failure to connect the events

with the British authorities of the home or colonial government,

there is absolutely no palliation of the outrageous conduct of

the officers in command of the British forces, and their savage

allies, whose atrocities no effort was made to control or check.

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144       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   To return for a brief glance at the occurrences, immediately preceding the war, we find that it was determined, if possible by the participators in the profits of the old monopolies, to retain Michigan at least in its old relations of trade, if not of govern- ment. By Jay's treaty estates were to be protected without for feiture in consideration of exchange of allegiance. Purchases of lands from Indians were forbidden by the laws of both coun-

tries. But, between the date of that treaty and the change of possession, titles were obtained or fabricated with the immediate co-operation of persons connected with the local government, whereby the Indians purported to grant Detroit merchants all the land between the Sandusky and the Central meridian of Mich- igan as far north as Saginaw Bay, including the whole tract anciently known to the French and Indians as Saginaw county, then supposed to be the richest fur country in America. Know- ing the illegality of these purchases, the conspirators devised a notable scheme of corruption. In 1795 they organized a company to purchase of congress, for a nominal sum, the entire lower peninsula of Michigan; the first step being the preliminary pur-

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The River Raisin Monuments.             145

 

chase of members enough to carry through the measure. They

were unfortunate in this effort, as the members whom they ap-

proached, appearing to fall in with the scheme, led them on to

a full disclosure and then exposed them. The disappointed agents

were let off with a light punishment for contempt by the house

of representatives.

The men engaged in this scheme as partners, elected, by an

agreement in writing, under Jay's treaty, together with most of

the business men (traders) of Detroit, to retain their British alle-

giance, the object of which can easly be guessed.

What was before a matter of policy became, now, one of

border feud. The old agents of mischief were still alive, and

kept stirring the Indian tribes to war with the whites.

There was throughout the whole country a growing belief

that Great Britain would lose no chance of doing us an injury,

and that she was no more friendly than before. Our ships were

exposed to search, and our seamen to imprisonment on the high

seas, and hostile emissaries, whose faces had long been familiar,

were seen prowling among the lodges of the savages. The de-

tection of Henry's mission to detach the Northwestern States

from the Union showed that the Canadian magnates were in-

triguing on their own account, without the sanction of the home

authorities. But the people drew no nice distinctions in these

matters; and when General Harrison defeated the Indians at

Tippecanoe, and foiled the scheme of Tecumseh, that battle was

always connected in the popular mind with the War of 1812,

which opened soon after. The war was not unexpected, but by

a series of blunders and neglects, its opening scenes in this

neighborhood were full of misfortune. The schemes already

mentioned, as was intended, kept down the members of the bor-

der population, so that it could not defend itself.

The backwoodsmen, scattered through the Northwest, as

ready with the rifle as the axe, were eager to take part in the

fray. A war on the frontier required a different style of pro-

ceedings from one in an older settled country; and men who had

for years held their lives in their hands, not knowing at day-

break that the sun would ever again rise upon their homes, or

whether the torch and tomahawk would end all forever for them

Vol. XV- 10

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146      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   and their families--these needed leaders of their own stamp, at once vigilant, prompt and daring. During the following winter the inhabitants of Frenchtown (now Monroe, Michigan) and all the smaller settlements in the vicinity of the River Raisin, were subjected to great annoyances and indignities from the Indians, and were threatened with all the evils of savage cruelty. Proctor, who now commanded in this part of Canada, appears to have had none of the soldierly or manly qualities which characterized Brock, his predecessor in com-

mand. He gave full license to his barbarous and savage asso- ciates, and their outrages alarmed the whole frontier. At the urgent appeal of the people of Frenchtown, Gen- eral Winchester sent up from his camp on the Maumee a force of between 600 and 800 men, under command of Col. Lewis, who arrived with his force on January 18th, 1813. On the day this command left camp, Winchester prepared a dispatch to inform General Harrison of this movement, stating that his prime object was to prevent the flour and grain being carried off by the

enemy; then, if he got possession of Frenchtown he intended to hold it, and that a co-operating force from the right wing might be necessary. Before the express started with this letter, informa- tion was received from Col. Lewis, a distance of twenty miles in advance, that there was a force of 400 Indians at the River Raisin, and that Col. Elliott was expected from Maiden, with a detachment to attack the camp in the Rapids. Colonel Lewis marched rapidly to anticipate, if possible, Colonel Elliott at Frenchtown. The route lay over the ice of Maumee Bay, and along the shore of Lake Erie. When arriving

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The River Raisin Monuments.            147   within a quarter of a mile of the village the enemy was discov- ered in motion. Our troops were formed in line of battle expect- ing an immediate attack, but it was soon perceived that the enemy did not intend to risk a battle in the open field. Our men then assumed the offensive, and a general charge was ordered. The British regulars made a stand with their howitzers and small arms, covered by low palisades of enclosed lots and a group of houses, having in their rear a thick wood filled with fallen timber, The engagement soon became general, and continued hotly con-

tested for over three hours, during which time they were driven back nearly two miles in a northerly direction through the village, and over the river, every foot of the distance un- der charge. Darkness pre- vented further pursuit, and our men withdrew in good order encamping upon the ground which the enemy first occupied. General Leslie Combs, of Kentucky, was with these troops on the staff of General Winchester as aid, being then about eighteen years of age. Many of the particulars of this tragedy were obtained from

him by the writer when he was the guest of the citizens of Mon- roe in 1872. He describes the action of the troops as gallant in the extreme, fighting with the greatest courage, which, follow- ing the terrible privations endured on the march through the wilderness for weeks, poorly clad, and scantily fed, displayed the heroism and powers of endurance more plainly than language can depict it. The loss of the Americans was twenty-five killed and fifty-five wounded; that of the enemy could not be ascer- tained, and probably never was known by our officers, but from the number found on the field where the battle commenced and

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148      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. from the bloody trails on the snow where they dragged off the bodies of their dead and wounded the slaughter must have been great. Immediately after the engagement an express was sent to convey the news to General Winchester, and another to Gen- eral Harrison, in hopes that reinforcements might be sent in time to hold the place against another attack by a larger force of the enemy. The situation was critical, for the lake and streams were frozen sufficiently to bear any weight, and the distance to Malden being but eighteen miles the way was not impeded.

On the evening of the 20th, General Winchester arrived with about 300 men, all that could be spared from the Rapids, and encamped in an open space near the former detachment. Colonel Wells, of the Seventeenth United States Infantry, com- manded the reinforcement. General Winchester established his headquarters at the house of Colonel Francis Navarre on the south side of the river about one hundred rods from the camp. (See cut on Page 149.) It was not considered necessary to fortify their position that night, but it was determined to do so on the following day. Leslie Combs

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The River Raisin Monuments.            149   said of this circumstance to the writer: "I always considered it very remarkable that General Winchester should have fortified his camp every night on our march through the wilderness of Ohio and Indiana, when no enemy was near, and yet failed to do so on the night of the 21st while almost within hearing of the British guns at Malden." Major Madison and Colonel Lewis together with most of the officers had cautioned their men to be on the lookout and prepared for an attack. Guards as usual were out, but as the cold was very severe, no picket guard was placed upon the

road by which it was most probable the ene- my would approach. This fatal neglect was bitterly repented of the  following  day. "At daybreak," says another informant, "on the morning of the 22d, just as the drums began to beat, three guns were fired by the sentinels. In an instant the men were at their posts. The British now began to open a heavy fire of cannon and small

arms. They appeared to direct the fire mostly at the building, which contained the ammunition and where the wounded officers lay. Every circumstance attending this awful scene rendered it more alarming; the time and manner in which it was commenced -for they approached in the darkness with profound silence- the surprise was complete, and the result simply terrible. The roar of musketry, and the enemy's cannon, the flying of bombshells, the yells and whoops of the savages, the cries, shrieks and groans of the wounded all in the heavy darkness, made up a scene but little short of pandemonium itself."

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The reinforcements which arrived with General Winchester,

and which were unprotected by breastworks, after maintaining

their position a short time, were overpowered and fell back. Just

at this time General Winchester came up and ordered the re-

treating troops to rally and form behind the second bank of the

river and inclining toward the center, take refuge behind the

stockade. These orders may not have been understood, and,

being hard pressed both by the Biritish and Indians in front,

and on their right flank, they were completely thrown into con-

fusion, and retreated southward in disorder over the river.

A detachment which was sent from the pickets to reinforce the

right wing, and a few others who supposed the whole army was

ordered to retreat, joined in the flight. Colonels Allen and Lewis

both followed, endeavoring to rally the troops. The Indians had

taken possession of the woods on the south side of the river and

completely cut off their retreat, and the alternative presented itself

either to fight a vastly superior force at great disadvantage or

to retreat to more favorable ground.

In this dilemma, confusion reigned and the soldiers were

shot down on every side. A rally was finally effected, and the

men fought with the greatest courage and heroism, but Winches-

ter, evidently demoralized, exhausted and intimidated, too, by

Proctor's threats to let loose the savages on the inhabitants, un-

less he surrendered unconditionally, gave the order for the whole

command to lay down their arms. The surprise and indignation

of the officers and men knew no bounds, and Majors Madison

and Graves bluntly refused to obey, saying that they would ac-

quiesce in no surrender except on conditions which would save

the sick and wounded from distress, the inhabitants from plunder

and preserve the self respect of the troops. Proctor refused to

agree in writing, but pledged his honor as a soldier and a gen-

tleman, that these conditions should be observed. Madison little

knowing the perfidy of the man with whom he was treating

trusted him, and capitulated. Before the surrender even, the plun-

dering began by the Indians. The wounded were left at French-

town, when the British with their prisoners, started towards Mal-

den, but no guard was provided for their protection from the

outrages of the savages. Proctor had promised to send sleighs

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The River Raisin Monuments.            151

 

to convey them to Malden, the next day, but none ever came.

Instead, however, there appeared about three hundred half drunk

and frenzied savages screaming and yelling and brandishing their

knives and tomahawks in a frightful manner. It had plainly

been determined to kill and scalp all who could not make their

way on foot. The scene that followed cannot be adequately de-

scribed, say those who survived.

Many of the wounded were slaughtered in their beds, some

were burned with the houses that sheltered them, or tomahawked

in trying to escape from the flames. Plunder was the first object

and nothing was left untouched; blankets were stripped from

the sick and wounded; defenseless prisoners, women and children

all were treated alike, and when nothing remained for them to

steal the awful scenes of butchery commenced.

Peter Navarre, a French scout attached to Harrison's army.

was with the troops and was a witness of the massacre. From

him a thrilling account of the affair was obtained just before

his death, which occurred at Toledo in 1879. He was born in

Detroit in 1786, where he lived with his grandfather, Robert

Navarre, who was a native of France, a descendant from the

best families of the old monarchy. He was a man of great en-

durance, never it is said, having been sick a day during the whole

of his long and eventful life. His memory was undimmed, and

the events of seventy years were as clear as those of but recent

occurrence. He states that he stood near the house in which

Captains Hart, Hickman and others of the Kentucky officers were

confined, when the former came out and stood in the snow in his

bare feet, pleading with his captors for his own life and those of

his countrymen.

Several proposals for their own safety were made by the

captives, offerings of money and houses, to be given on their

safe arrival at Detroit. But all these were treated with contempt

and derision. Captain Hart then asked what was to be done

with the prisoners left behind. The reply was, "Boys, you are

all to be killed and scalped."

The brave Hart received this appalling declaration with

wonderful coolness and composure, and turned to enter the house

just as a powerful Indian dragged out the dead body of Major

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Hickman. "The last I saw of Captain Hart," said Navarre, "he

was standing under the great elm tree in front of the house where

the prisoners were confined, and an Indian was in the act of

raising his tomahawk to strike him to the earth; and it was here,

doubtless, that the brave Kentuckian met his death."

The carnage went on, now unrestricted, and none were

spared except to have their miseries prolonged by tortures along

the frozen and snow covered road towards Malden, which place

very few reached. The news of the terrible disaster, as may

be supposed, filled Kentucky with mourning and the cries of

mothers, widows and orphans were heard in every community.

The news at Lexington was received while the people were at

the theatre. The greatest consternation prevailed and the audi-

ence left the house. The best blood of the country had been

poured out like water. Col. Allen stood at the head of the legal

profession, Captain Simpson had just been elected to congress,

Major Graves, of the volunteers, Captain Hart, a brother-in-law

of Henry Clay, and Captains Mead and Edwards, of the Seven-

teenth U. S. Infantry, previously distinguished at the Battle of

Tippecanoe, under Colonel Davies, besides scores of others from

the best families in the state, either fell in battle or were wounded

and afterwards massacred.

Throughout the whole west arose the cry of vengeance. The

rally to arms was made with the fixed purpose that their weap-

ons should not be laid aside until red and white savages alike,

should yield to the arms of civilization, and the soil where their

brothers were slaughtered should be purged of every vestige of

British and Indian sway.

The war cry, "KENTUCKIANS, REMEMBER RIVER RAISIN!"

became a terror to all foes.

On the 5th of October following, the battle of the Thames

was fought, where the cowardly Proctor fled, and Tecumseh was

slain. The combined forces of British and Indians were routed.

The Indian Confederacy was dissolved and the warriors deserted

the British for the "Long Knives," while General Harrison's

kindness to the starving tribes completed the conquest, and the

future of Michigan and the Northwest was secured.

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The River Raisin Monuments.           153       THE MONUMENT ON THE BATTLE GROUND OF THE RIVER RAISIN AT MONROE, MICHIGAN. On the north bank of the River Raisin in Monroe, Michigan, has  been  erected  an

appropriate and im- pressive pile to mark the site of the two battles which  were  fought there; this too was done mainly through the in- strumentalities  of the women who compose the Civic Improvement So- ciety of Monroe. The monument is built of the native  field  bowlders found in the vicinity, laid in cement and rises to a height of about twelve feet, having a base some eight feet square and a pyramidical apex. Upon the east and west faces are oblong tablets of polished gran-

ite with these inscriptions in relief: Inscription on the west side shown in accompanying cut:         SITE OF THE BATTLES OF JAN. 18-22 AND OF THE RIVER RAISIN MASSACRE. JANY. 23, 1813. ERECTED BY THE CIVIC IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY OF THE WOMEN OF MONROE, MICH. 1904.

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Inscription on the east side:

 

 

 

800 AMERICANS UNDER COLONELS LEWIS, ALLEN AND

WELLS FOUGHT DESPERATELY AGAINST 3,000 BRITISH

AND ALLIES. FORCED TO SURRENDER, AND THO'

PROMISED PROTECTION, THE PRISONERS, LEFT UN-

GUARDED, WERE ATTACKED AND KILLED BY THE

INDIANS.

 

 

The monument which was unveiled in October, 1904. stands

on the river's bank, a conspicuous object in plain view from the

trains which pass a few hundred feet distant, and directly beside

the line of the Detroit, Monroe and Toledo Electric Railway.

While it commemorates the rugged bravery, the wonderful

fortitude and chivalry of that gallant band of Kentuckians who

made their way through a trackless wilderness amid the rigors

of a northern winter to respond to the appeals for help from the

defenseless settlers on these remote outposts of civilization, it

also with equal justice bears witness to the cowardice and base-

ness of the conscienceless victor.

It were well if this dark page in the annals of our country

could be expunged, but history deals with facts, not sentiment.

Monroe, Mich.

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