Editorialana. 161
mouth begin to move and approaching the
immobile features, silent for
centuries, he placed his ear to the
stone lips and heard a sound like a
subdued murmur "you're
another." As Artemus Ward would say of
this controversy of the critics "it
would be funny if it were not serious."
The Mound Builders builded better than
they knew. Their works are
food for thought and subjects for study.
Certain it is that they were a
vast and enterprising and interesting
race, whence and whither and why
we evidently have not learned.
Archaeological "history" is largely archaeo-
logical speculation, and with
speculation one man's guess is as good as
another's, unless it happens to be your
own and then of course it is a
good deal better than some one's else.
"But first I would remark, that it
is not a proper plan
For any scientific gent to whale his
fellow-man,
And, if a member don't agree with his
peculiar whim,
To lay for that same member for to 'put
a head' on him."
FORT ST. CLAIR.
In the first week in July it was the
privilege of the editor to be the
guest for a day of two of the Hon. C. R.
Gilmore of Eaton, the pretty
little county seat of Preble county. Mr.
Gilmore is the son of the late
Judge W. J. Gilmore who was for many
years a trustee of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society,
and one of its most active and
enthusiastic advocates and workers. He
was a devoted lover of historical
lore especially that pertaining to Ohio
and the Northwest. His grave
is located in the picturesque cemetery
of Eaton and commands a view
of the nearby hill upon which was
located the memorable Fort St. Clair.
This historic site and the surrounding
fields were the property of Judge
Gilmore, and at his death passed to the
possession of his son Clement R.
Gilmore.
Fort St. Clair was erected in the
tempestuous months of the Winter
of 1791-2. It was started December 15,
1791, and completed January
26, 1792. Gen. Wilkinson sent Major John
S. Gano, belonging to the
militia of the Territory, with a party
to build the fort. William Henry
Harrison then but an ensign, commanded a
guard every other night for
about three weeks, during the erection
of the fort. They had neither fire
nor covering of any kind and suffered
much from the winter cold. It
was a stockade of the usual kind, about
three hundred feet square and had
about twenty acres cleared around it.
The outline can yet be traced
in the contour of the field surface. It
was designed to be the midway
fortification between Fort Hamilton on
the south and Fort Jefferson on
Vol. XI.-11
162 Ohio Arch. and His. Society
Publications.
the north-forts some forty-four miles
apart. It was another advantageous
link in the chain of secure stations to
extend from the Ohio to the mouth
of the Maumee. This line of forts,
Washington, Hamilton, St. Clair,
Jefferson, Recovery, St. Marys, Defiance
Deposit, Miami and Industry,
with some others near or along the line
was for the purpose not only
of enabling transit across the state,
but to form a continuous impediment
to the inroads of the hostile Indians of
the old Northwest country. The
four southern posts, Washington,
Hamilton, St. Clair and Jefferson were
about twenty-five miles apart, and
connected by a road or trace cut
through the dense timber and undergrowth
by the soldiers of St. Clair's
army. It required about six days to go
on horse from Fort Washington
to Fort Jefferson and return. After St.
Clair's defeat garrisons were
left at the posts and it was necessary
to furnish these with provisions.
In the autumn of 1792, Little Turtle,
the celebrated chief, at the head of
about 250 Mingo and Wyandot warriors,
started out to attack a new
settlement of the whites then forming at
the mouth of the Little Miami
river (Columbia, Ohio). When passing
near Fort Hamilton, the Indians
attacked some of the garrison working in
the timber and captured two of
them. From these they learned that a
company of from fifty to one
hundred mounted Kentucky riflemen,
escorting a brigade of pack-horses
and under command of Captain John Adair,
were on the way to Ft. Jef-
ferson, and would pass on the return
trip at a certain time. Ac-
cordingly they lay in ambush along the
trail. The escort how-
ever rested at Fort Jefferson over Sunday,
and did not appear as soon
as expected. Hearing when the
Kentuckians had advanced as far as
Fort St. Clair, the Indians planned a
surprise and attacked them before
daylight, November 6, 1792 under the
walls of the fort. A hot fight
ensued which developed into a running
scrimmage to near the present
site of Eaton, Ohio, where the Indians
were lost sight of just after day
light. Twenty or thirty horses were
killed, six left to the soldiers and
the balance taken by the Indians who
seem to have made the attack
principally for this result. The bodies
of two Indians were found among
the dead horses and several others had
probably been carried away by
their friends. Several Americans were
wounded and the following six
were killed: Lieutenant Job Hale;
Sergeant Matthew English; Privates
Robert Bowling, Joseph Clinton; Isaac
Jett and John Williams. These
six heroes lie buried in the grove just
south of the south line of the fort.
Mr. C. R. Gilmore is about to have their
board markers replaced by neat
stone slabs bearing the names as now
designated, thus rescuing these
sacred spots from decay and oblivion.
It was on a bright Sabbath morning that
Mr. Gilmore and the writer
footed the way from the town to the
location of the Fort. Dodging
between showers, we trod the
water-soaked fields, climbed the interven-
ing fences, walked the slippery logs
across Garrison Branch, the swollen
stream near the battle ground, picked
our path through the thick forest
Editorialana. 163
to the row of graves in which repose the remains of the six heroes who laid down their lives for the advancing civilization there on the con- fines of the western frontier. For over one hundred years those sol- diers of the infant Republic have mouldered in that secluded, forest-shaded "god's acre"-far from the thoroughfare of the busy, noisy twentieth century. It would seem that they ought always to so remain close to the bounds of the old fort and on the scene of the conflict where they fell; the stately trees of the woods sheltering their sepulture; in summer singing low lullabies with their rustling foliage and in the Winter winds sighing dirges to their memory. They were American patriots no less than those who fell at Bunker Hill, Lundy's Lane, Monterey, Gettysburg and San Juan; yea, more, for they fell in the depths of an almost trackless forest, without the incentive of the pomp and circumstance of war. When they were placed beneath the sod doubtless not a "drum was heard, not a funeral note." They have no tablet of brass or shaft of marble to record their deeds in the days that tried men's souls, but they were the advance guards of the white civilization that was invading the vast Northwest; they were the fearless and sacrificing sculptors who carved from its primeval elements the modern proud Buckeye state. May the bivouac of these braves never be disturbed. |
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