Ohio History Journal
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AN UNKNOWN GRAVE.
JOHN JAMES PIATT. [The following poem with preface was read by Mr. Piatt at the Annual Banquet of the Ohio Society S. A. R., held at the Columbus Club on the evening of April 19, 1904.] On the title page of an interesting volume of family history recently published at Columbus, I read two sentences,- the first from Edmund Burke: "Those who do not treasure up the mem- |
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ory of their ancestors do not deserve to be remembered by posterity." The other is from the Bible: "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers." I thought, therefore, if I were to speak here to- night, as an hereditary member of the Society of the Cincinnati, I might not appear too personal,- not unpardonably personal, I hope,- if I should take occa- sion to honor, so far as I could, the New Jersey officer of the Revolution whom I |
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represent, when I may explain that, eight years after his seven years' service in the Continental Army - having been in every important engagement under his great commander, including that at Yorktown, (he was with three brothers in the battle of Trenton) it is reported he received a new commission, raised a band of men at his New Jersey home, and marched with them across the country in the autumn of 1791, and, joining St. Clair's army at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, was killed in the memorable defeat on Ohio soil. There is an interesting reference to him in Howe's Historical Collection, describing his unwillingness to be- lieve that a retreat had been ordered. It is said that General Washington, when he learned of St. Clair's defeat, wept at hearing of Captain Piatt's fate. Capt. Jacob Piatt, his younger (555) |
556 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
brother-who came to Cincinnati five
years later and settled in
Boone County, Kentucky - had been on
Washington's staff.
Captain William Piatt's eldest son,
Captain James Piatt, my
grandfather, served in the War of 1812, commanded a
garrison
in New York Harbor, and was in the
battle of Plattsburgh. He
came west to Cincinnati fifteen years
later, and also sleeps in an
unmarked grave, dying a few weeks after
his coming, on the
banks of the Ohio in Boone County,
Kentucky. One of Captain
William Piatt's nephews, his namesake,
Colonel William Piatt,
was with General Harrison at Tippecanoe;
he was also on Gen-
eral Jackson's staff in the battle of
New Orleans. He lived at
Home City, near Cincinnati, and died
there. Another nephew,
John H. Piatt, at one time a wealthy
banker in Cincinnati, under
assurances from James Monroe, then
Secretary of War, provis-
ioned the northwestern army in the War
of 1812, but died in a
debtor's prison at Washington, while
vainly seeking repayment
from the Government. Among Captain
William Piatt's grand-
nephews is General Abram S. Piatt, of
Logan County, Ohio, as
was the latter's brother, Colonel Donn
Piatt; and, it may be
added, another was the late Major
General Canby, at one time
Secretary of War, who shared his
grand-uncle's fate in being
killed in battle by the Indians. Captain
William Piatt was thus
the pioneer of his name and family in
Ohio and the Ohio Valley.
He became their Moses, so to speak, and,
having looked upon the
Promised Land, had, if he had any, an
unknown grave in Ohio.
AN UNKNOWN GRAVE IN OHIO.
In Memoriam: Captain William Piatt, New
Jersey Line, Army
of the Revolution, 1775-1783. Killed at
St. Clair's Defeat, in Ohio,
November 4th, 1791.
Why came I here to live? Because he came
Hither, my great-grandsire, who came-to
die.
Leading his little neighbor dwelling
band,
A century and thirteen years ago,
Across the mountain wilderness, he came,
Who had left his all to serve the Common
Weal;1
Then out of all that seven-years' fight
unscathed,
1 Omnia relinquit servare
Rempublicam is the inscription on the
medal of the Society of the Cincinnati.
An Unknown Grave. 557
In which his sword was given to Her, our
Land,
(In which his life was offered, too, for
Her,)
Briefly indeed went back unto his plow
Like him our prototype of Roman name,
Like him our chieftain first and best
beloved;
Then hither brought his sword, to give
his life
In that lost fight there in the marshy
wood, -
First of his name to touch the Ohio sod,
Only to bathe it with his blood, and
fill
An unknown grave in the vast wilderness.
True son of the Revolution thou, indeed!
Ohio-born in thy baptism of blood,
But in an unknown sepulchre dost sleep,
Like him of old whose burial no man saw,
And no man knoweth his grave unto this
day:
Not all forgotten could I lay my flower
(My poor unworthy bud, not bloom, of
song)
Where it might bear me witness, me thy
heir
In that great brotherhood with him thy
chief,
Who wept unwonted passionate angry tears
To learn thy fate, with theirs thy
fellows - thou
Who wouldst not leave, and didst not
leave the field:
He brought his sword and gave his life
no less,
Rock-built metropolis of my Valley Land,
To make thine earlier tenure possible
In that stronghold named for his comrade
chief
(His brother in the brave fraternity
Named for that Roman name which soon was
thine)--1
He brought his sword and gave his life
no less,
Ohio, toward thy making, he who sleeps
There in thy unrecognizable earth,
Whose coming hither was his going hence,
Whose going hence my coming hither
brought,
By some mysterious thread of human fate
That drew in far-off years all mine and
me.
1The City of Cincinnati was named after
the Society of the Cincin-
nati, of which Washington was the first
President. The Miami Purchase
had been largely in the interest of the
impoverished officers and sol-
diers of the Revolution, according to
Judge Burnet, the name being
given by General St. Clair, who, by the
way, was the owner of many
of the lots in Judge John Cleves Symmes's proposed city, antedating
Cincinnati, at North Bend.