OUR GLAMOROUS HISTORY
By R. CLYDE FORD
A long time ago Pericles once said in a
memorial day ad-
dress outside the walls of Athens that
it was fitting to remember
the dead who had fallen on the fields of
battle, but also Athenians
must never forget by what principles of
action and deeds of valor
Athens had risen to power and become
great. When we turn to
our own history we can discover
principles of action, and deeds
of valor to defend them, that stir our
souls. It's that thrill that
constitutes the glamor of our history.
I have been reading anew the story of
our Revolution, and
I have felt as never before that our
emergence from that struggle
as a free and independent people is one
of the miracles in the
long, long narrative of human progress.
And I am afraid that
in the teaching of the history of that
period and of later times,
also, we have turned away from any real
glorification of our
achievements, as if to display such
enthusiasm was unscholarly
and unscientific. We have even leaned so
far over backwards
in that attitude that some of our
historians have displayed more
zeal in debunking trifles than in
magnifying greatness. Under a
worked-up feeling of disillusionment
following the outcome of
the Great War, plus the havoc of the
lean years of the Great
Depression, speakers, teachers,
preachers, writers have been in-
clined to lament how capitalism,
poverty, lack of opportunity
were robbing us of our birthright as a
free people. Our books
of history, civics, and political and
social economy were quick to
reflect this and were streaked with
pessimism, not to say social-
ism and radicalism. To own up quickly to
being a Son of the
American Revolution was regarded as
naive, for the causes of
that struggle were now discredited; our
War of 1812 was unneces-
sary and ill-advised, and a retired
admiral has recently said that
we lost it; and one may hear from the
pulpit that before we pour
(31)
32
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
out our wrath on Hitler for the rape of
Poland, or on Japan for
her war on China, we should go back to
our own Mexican War
which was also an offense against
civilization. We must not be
too proud, either, of our ancestors who
starved at Valley Forge,
or fought with Perry on Lake Erie, or
stormed Chepultepec, or
took their covered wagons across the
plains and mountains to the
Pacific. No! Forget the past, and turn
our faces toward the
future where all wrongs are to be
righted!
Well, in my opinion that attitude is
both foolish and fatal.
As a people, young though we are, we
have a proud heritage, and
it should not be reserved for Fourth of
July orators alone to
recall it. We, and our children and our
children's children,
should be nurtured in it. What is better
calculated to awaken a
feeling of pride in ourselves as
citizens of a great republic than
to be reminded till we everlastingly
remember how our fore-
fathers on this continent struggled and
carried on till they won
through? Softness won't get us anywhere.
Stamina, courage,
high resolve, unceasing vigilance and
toil are the qualities which
exalt and save a nation. As Walter
Lippman says, "The con-
sciousness of greatness can be preserved
only by the memory of
greatness." That is why we are
lauding the memory of General
Anthony Wayne throughout the length of
the Maumee Valley and
in this city of Fort Wayne which, let us
hope, will be a monument
to his name forever.
The setting up of the Northwest
Territory by our Federal
Government was an event of far-reaching
consequences in our
expansion westward beyond the
Alleghenies. Let me for a mo-
ment recall the salient historical facts
connected with the found-
ing of this empire, or better, maybe, of
this great province of an
empire, for the vague region called the
Northwest occupied the
valley of the Ohio and that expanse of
country northwards to
the remotest confines of the Great
Lakes. The French had owned
it to begin with, and understood its
strategic importance, and
dotted over it were posts and forts
which they had planted. When
French supremacy and sovereignty were
surrendered at the close
of the French and Indian War by the
Treaty of Paris in 1763,
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 33
the vast region became British and was
occupied, in part at least,
as early as 1760. A British fort
was located here at the forks of
the Maumee in that year, but it was
captured in 1763 by Pontiac's
Indian allies and was never
reestablished. However, British in-
fluence gradually penetrated and
dominated the country and won
over the allegiance of the Indian
tribes. From the settlement of
Miami villages on the site of the city
of Fort Wayne, Miami
Town, as the English called it, war
parties set out to harry
the western border all through the
period of the Revolution. In
that conflict the only bright spot in
the history of the Northwest
was George Rogers Clark's taking of
Kaskaskia and Cahokia,
climaxed by the spectacular capture of
Vincennes, and along with
it, of Governor Hamilton, the "Hair
Buyer." Up to date, no
one, as far as I know, has attempted to
whitewash the record of
Governor Hamilton and argue that his
hair-buying zeal was only
a scientific interest in the various
types of the American coiffure.
When the Revolution was over in 1783,
and the second
Treaty of Paris gave us the entire
Northwest extending to the
Mississippi and Lake Superior, our
difficulties commenced in
earnest. The advancing tide of
settlement was irritating to the
Indians, and the British refused to
withdraw from the country,
taking refuge behind what they claimed
were the vague pro-
visions of the treaty. Detroit, their
western capital, and their
trading posts on the Maumee, and Fort
Miami on the river near
present-day Toledo, toward the end of
their occupation, were a
spearhead of influence in the Indian
country. Their propaganda
was effective: the Ohio River ought to
be the boundary between
the Americans and the Indians of the
Northwest. This was
welcome support, for the Indians had
long made this their con-
tention.
As I have said, the Revolution ended in
1783, and the Con-
tinental Congress began at once to toy
with the troublesome ques-
tion of how to administer this vast
region. In 1780 Congress
pledged that if the various states would
renounce their territorial
claims founded on their old charters,
these lands should be dis-
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OHIO ARCAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
posed of for the common good, and be
admitted into statehood
on an equality with the original
thirteen states.
In 1784 Jefferson proposed a fantastic
plan of government,
cutting up the Territory like a
checker-board by meridians and
parallels. The resulting areas were to
be states for which he had
devised "highfalutin' "
classical names. I wonder if you know,
ladies and gentlemen, that your city of
Fort Wayne is located
somewhere near the interlocking corners
of Assenisipia, Illinoia,
Mesopotamia and Saratoga?
But Jefferson was not alone in his
whimsy of names. Our
University of Michigan is a successor of
the Catholepistemiad, or
University of Michigan, where the
professors were called didac-
tors, and a chair of learning a didaxia.
A man who taught
literature was a didactor of
Anthropoglossica; if it was historical
science, he was professor of Diegitica.
If he was a little more
ambitious, he might hold the chair of
Ennoeica, "embracing all
epistemiim or sciences relative to the
mind of animals, to the
human mind, to spiritual existences, to
the deity, and to religion,
the didactor of which shall be
vice-president of the institution."
With all the personified learning that
has come to the Uni-
versity of Michigan, no one has yet been
found to qualify for
that position.
In 1785 Congress made a provision to
survey the lands of
the Territory and at once settlers began
to move in.
But it was the famous Ordinance of 1787
which gave a
practical constitution of government to
the Northwest Territory.
Our Declaration of Independence was a
great document; the
Constitution, as written in blood and
iron, was an immortal docu-
ment; but we must not forget that the
Ordinance of 1787 "set
forth for the first time in unified form
the essence of American
thought as to the relations of our
government to the rights of
man--the crystalized expression of what
America had fought for
--the principles under which the people
willed to live."
For temporary government the whole
Territory was to be
regarded as one district, with a
governor, a secretary, and three
judges appointed by Congress. Until a
legislature could be
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 35
elected, these officials were to set up
a body of laws adopted
from the eastern states, subject to the
approval of Congress.
When 5000 male votes were registered in the
Territory, a legis-
lature was to be called into existence.
In October of 1787 Gen-
eral Arthur St. Clair was made first
governor, and in July of
that year came on to Marietta, the seat
of the Territorial gov-
ernment.
Washington entered upon his second
term as President,
March 4, 1793. His first term had been
successful, but he had
had his troubles at home and abroad. Not
the least of his worries
centered around the turbulent conditions
which existed in the
Northwest Territory. More and more
settlers were venturing
into the valley of the Ohio; the British
still held the border
posts and were constantly irritating and
obnoxious; and the
Indians were vindictive and war-like,
encouraged by the British
and provoked by the Americans. As an
example of the way we
fell upon our knees and then upon the
aborigines, as Macaulay
says, a hundred frontiersmen in 1782
cruelly butchered a whole
village of Christian Indians in the Ohio
country west of Pitts-
burgh. The next year the Indians
retaliated by defeating Colonel
Crawford and burning him at the stake.
Things went on from
bad to worse, and Washington, not
unmindful of the rights and
grievances of the tribes, still felt in
duty bound to repress them
in the interest of the whole country.
There could be no success-
ful colonization in the new Territory
without it. And another
thing: he feared that the governor of
the Territory, General St.
Clair, lacked those qualities that a
proconsul should have on the
border marches of a republic. He had no
real genius for ad-
ministration of Indians or white men.
It is the fateful year of 1791 and
Governor St. Clair, who is
also commander-in-chief of the army of
the United States, is
leading his troops into the Indian
country toward the head of the
Maumee Valley. His mission is to subdue
the defiant Indians
once for all. Only the year before they
had defeated General
Harmar on this very spot, and then
Scott, and then Wilkinson,
and now General Arthur St. Clair is to
retrieve these disasters.
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
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He is encamped with 1400 men on a branch
of the Wabash some
fifty miles or so from where we are
today. The Indian onslaught
began on the 4th of November, and when
the attack was over
650 of St. Clair's men were dead. Thirty
women, too, out of
two hundred, for his army "had
taken along as many women
as cared to sleep on the snow-covered
ground among a host of
border hoodlums." (Boyd.)
It was the worst defeat our armies have
ever suffered at
the hands of the Indians, not excepting
even the battle of Little
Big Horn.
When the news of the disaster reached
President Washing-
ton, he burst into a fury compounded of
anger and humiliation,
for he had expressly warned St. Clair
against surprise. Some of
what he said has been recorded, some has
been left to the imagi-
nation. But since the day he addressed
General Lee at the Battle
of Monmouth, when, as a bystander
reported, he swore like
an angel from Heaven, historians have
always believed that he
had an adequate command of language for
any occasion.
We have now reached the situation where
General Anthony
Wayne comes into the history of the
Northwest. It was high
time something was done. If the region
was ever to open to
settlement in any permanently successful
way an end must be
put to these Indian troubles, first by
force, and then by con-
ciliation.
General St. Clair resigned as
commander-in-chief of the
army, retaining, however, the
governorship of the Territory.
Washington began at once to cast around
for a successor and
immediately Wayne's name came up for
consideration. He was
about the last of the distinguished
generals of the Revolution
whose reputation yet endured. His rivals
and enemies said he
was still "Mad" Anthony Wayne,
which meant that he was im-
petuous, dashing, confident, a little
difficult for superiors, but
at the same time admired by fighting
men. After a good long
discussion of his merits and demerits,
Congress finally confirmed
his appointment as head of the army in
April, 1792. Everybody
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL PROCEEDINGS 37
knew that his job was to bring order
into the forests of the
Northwest.
He said good-bye to wife and children in
the old manor at
Waynesboro near Philadelphia, and within
two months was at
Pittsburgh beginning the building of an
army. The material
was worse than he had had to deal with
in the Revolution. The
men carroused and slouched around; and
his under officers were
quarrelsome and insubordinate. When
winter came he moved
out of Pittsburgh thirty miles away and
at a camp which he
called Legionville, he began the hard
task of licking his con-
glomerate Legion into shape. Work with
axe and cross-cut saw,
and drill, drill, drill with musket and
spontoon under his watch-
ful eye did it. His men were toughened
into soldiers at last.
Mindful of President Washington's
desires Wayne tried to
hold a friendly council with a few
neighboring chiefs, but the
only result was a firm declaration from
them that the Ohio
River must always be the boundary
between them and the Amer-
icans.
Spring came and with it more volunteers
from the seaboard
states, then in May of 1793 a flotilla
of a hundred barges and
flatboats moved his army of more than a
thousand men and
officers down the Ohio. He landed at
Fort Washington on the
site of modern Cincinnati, and waited
for a last word from fur-
ther negotiations with the northern
tribes. It came in the sum-
mer--the Ohio River must forever remain
the dividing line be-
tween the red man and the white. At once
he moved northward
into the forest, slowly, deliberately,
cautiously, but always for-
ward.
By middle of October the Legion, as his
force was called,
had reached a prairie a few miles beyond
Fort Jefferson, seventy
miles north of the Ohio, and here it was
that Wayne decided
to spend the winter. His men, handy now
with both axe and
musket quickly built a log fort and
stockade which he named
Fort Greenville after dead Nathaniel
Greene, a comrade in arms
of the Revolution whom he loved like a
brother. There was a
38
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
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man for you after his own heart, a man
who could smell powder
and not get sick!
In the meantime the Indians were ever
prowling like wolves
on the trail and flanks of the Legion,
ready to pick off stragglers
or a straggling convoy. But they
perceived that the leader of
this expedition was not a Harmar or a
St. Clair. Had not their
keen-eyed scouts seen him making the
rounds of his camp at
all times of day and night? He was the
fox who never slept.
Twenty-five miles beyond Fort Greenville
was the scene of
St. Clair's Defeat, and the bones of the
slain still bleached there
in the weather. In late December Wayne
sent eight companies
forward to the spot, scraped away the
bones, pitched a camp and
proceeded to build Fort Recovery,
defended by the same six-
pounders that St. Clair had lost.
Such an outpost was a humiliating threat
to the Indians and
a deputation of chiefs and warriors went
down from the Maumee
Valley to hold a council with the
invader. Both sides were full
of fine talk. The Indians were tired of
war, they desired nothing
so much as peace; and General Wayne--he,
too, wished that
peace might settle down over the Ohio
country. If the tribes
would bring in all their American
prisoners, he would treat with
them. Like the man of the Scriptures,
the warriors went away
sorrowful and did not return. Instead,
they decided to take his
Fort Recovery. They made the attempt and
failed.
On July 26 (1794) a thousand mounted men
from Kentucky
arrived, and two days later the army was
again in motion, with
no straggling, no lack of caution. It
was not unusual for Wayne
himself to turn up at a sentry-post at
three o'clock in the morn-
ing, as the Indians had discovered. No
guard dared to go to
sleep--there were the Indians outside,
and this devilish martinet
inside!
By the 8th of August the Legion was
where the Au Glaize
pours its muddy waters into the Maumee,
and in the midst of
Indian settled country. Their clearings
stretched up and down
the valley--cornfields waved green in
the summer sun. It was
a lovely view and strategically the
place for a fort. He would
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 39
build one here in the very heart of the
Indian country, and give
it a good name, too--Fort Defiance. It
took him only a week.
And then he made another offer of peace
to the tribes, but
refused to delay for long drawn-out
negotiations, and advanced
on the alert along the north side of the
Maumee to the head
of the rapids. A few miles below, the
Indians under Blue Jacket
had taken their position behind the
barricade of windrowed tim-
ber which a cyclone had levelled. Here
they would await the
enemy whom they had lured to sure
destruction.
On the night of the 19th of August a
council was held in
Wayne's tent and a young aide by the
name of William Henry
Harrison presented a plan for the ensuing
battle that was imme-
diately adopted. This was the same
William Henry Harrison
who defeated the Indians at Tippecanoe
in 1811, and the British
and Indians on the Thames in 1813. Being
along with General
Wayne was a good way to learn how to
fight.
The Indians too, went into council that
night. Chief Little
Turtle, a clever general himself, who
was largely responsible for
the defeat of General Harmar and later
of General St. Clair,
advised prudence and submission. He
said:
We cannot expect good fortune to be with
us always. The Americans
are now led by a chief who never sleeps.
Day and night are the same to
him. During all the time he has been
marching on our villages, notwith-
standing the watchfulness of our young
men we have not been able to sur-
prise him. Think well of it. Something
whispers to me that it would be
well to listen to his offers of peace.
But his advice was not heeded.
The morning of August 20 dawned bright,
with a little pall
of haze overhanging the valley. General
Wayne was freshly
barbered and powdered, wearing his best
uniform and his pistols.
His leg which had been wounded by a
bewildered sentry in the
campaign around Yorktown hurt him
terribly, and it was steadily
getting worse. The army was ready and in
motion; the baggage
and camp equipment was stacked in a
hastily prepared camp
under the guard of Captain Zebulon Pike.
It is interesting to note the men, young
and old, whom
Wayne had with him who were in the line
of coming fame:
40
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Zebulon Pike, soldier and father of the
explorer; William Henry
Harrison, soldier, statesman and
President of the United States;
William Clark and Meriwether Lewis,
empire-builders and ex-
plorers beyond the Rockies; and George
Washington Whistler,
army engineer and grandfather of
Whistler, the artist.
But to go back to the 20th of August and
the Battle of
Fallen Timbers, a most important and
conclusive action in the
history of the Northwest Territory. It
is not necessary to go
into detail. Wayne's legionnaires did
their duty with musket and
pike; and the fierce Kentucky militia
did well, too, on that bloody
day and rode down the enemy wherever
they could get at them.
It was a new kind of fighting for the
Indians, for the initiative
was no longer with skulking warriors
behind trees. And the
leader of the Long Knives was as crafty
as themselves--he was
not like Harmar or St. Clair. "If I
fall," he said, "remember the
standing order is, 'Charge the damned
rascals with the bayonet'."
The Indians were routed, and they fled
down the valley
behind them toward Fort Miami where
floated the flag of their
allies, the British. But they found the
gates barred against them
--their old friends had let them down.
They never gave the
English their entire confidence again.
The real campaign was about over. Wayne
and his Legion
turned back to Fort Defiance which he
put into shape to stand
any sort of siege, even that of winter.
Then he moved on west-
ward to the little prairie of
Ke-ki-on-ga between the forks of
the Maumee where the streams, St. Joseph
and St. Mary, meet.
Here was the famous Miami Town, the
Indian capital, the cross-
roads of the wilderness, and here he
proceeded to build another
fort to show the Indian world, and the
British, and all the French
and half-breed traders that the
Americans had come to stay.
At the suggestion of Colonel Hamtramck
the fortress was
named Fort Wayne. The drums beat, the
troops defiled in
parade, the chaplain preached from the
text, "If the Lord be
for us, who can be against us?"
Then Hamtramck took over
command with six companies of infantry
and two batteries, and
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 41
a week later the Legion departed with
creaking baggage train
on its way back to Fort Greenville to go
into winter quarters.
The closing events of Wayne's campaign
in the Northwest
were climaxed by the famous Treaty of
Greenville which was
signed, August 3, 1795, by ninety-odd
chiefs of the Ohio and
Michigan Indians. It is safe to say that
no more able and dis-
tinguished assemblage of savage leaders
ever engaged in treaty
making with the United States, and no
more important treaty
was ever signed.
The council fire had been lighted the
middle of June, and
there was much ceremonial and parade as
the preliminary dis-
cussions got under way. Some of the
Indian chiefs were slow
to appear. Blue Jacket, the unyielding,
who had suffered defeat
at Fallen Timbers, held off sullenly,
but came in on the 18th
of August. However, Little Turtle who
had been the undoing of
Harmar and St. Clair appeared early and
that was a good augury
--perhaps.
As in all such councils there was much
talk, much wise talk
even, though the Indians knew that the
end of such palaver was
usually submission, cession of lands,
solemn promises that the
white man was the first to break. After
much debate in which
Little Turtle more than held his own, he
finally signed on the
last day of the council, saying, "I
am the last to sign the treaty,
and I shall be the last to break
it."
He kept his word to the day of his
death.
When the council was over the 1100
Indians dispersed,
sad and disappointed in spite of the
double allowance of rum
as parting gesture of good will. They
had lost all but a third
of their lands above the Ohio, and even
this remainder was
patched over with cessions of little
tracts here and there. Twenty-
thousand dollars' worth of trade goods,
and annuities promised
them forever, were not sufficient
"appeasement," to use a very
common word now.
Perhaps it is appropriate to pause here
and say a kindly word
for the Indian who had figured so
largely in our history. The
42
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
white man's scheme of government and
politics confused him,
and those to whom he gave his confidence
often betrayed him.
The frontiersmen and the pioneers
regarded him as a cruel sav-
age, fit only to be exterminated. Still
he had many noble and
heroic qualities. Chief Little Turtle whose body rests within
the confines of Fort Wayne was called by
those who knew him
a brave warrior, a man of ability and
character. One reads with
much sympathy his answer to Count Volney
who asked him why
he did not accept the invitation of the
Quakers and settle per-
manently in Philadelphia:
Yes, I am pretty well accustomed to what
I find here. I think this
dress [he was wearing white man's dress]
is warm and comfortable. These
houses are good to keep out wind and
rain, and they have everything con-
venient. This market [he was looking
down on Market Street] gives us
everything we want without the trouble
of hunting in the woods. All things
considered, you are better off than we
are. But here I am deaf and dumb;
I do not speak your language; when I
walk the streets I see everybody
busy at something; one makes shoes,
another hats, a third sells cloth, and
all live by their work. I can make a bow,
catch fish, kill a deer, and go to
war, but none of these things is done
here. To learn to do what you do
would take much time, be very difficult,
and be uncertain of success. And
meanwhile, old age hurries on. Were I to
stay with the whites, I should
be an idle piece of furniture, useless
to myself, useless to you and to my
people. What must be done with useless
lumber? No, I must go back.
Listen to Francis Parkman's appraisal of
the Indian:
Some races of men seem moulded in wax,
soft and melting, at once
plastic and feeble. Some races seem like
metals, and combine the greatest
flexibility with the greatest strength.
But the Indian is hewn out of rock.
You can rarely change the form without
destruction of the substance.
Races of inferior energy have possessed
a power of expansion and assimi-
lation to which he is a stranger; and it
is this fixed and rigid quality which
has proved his ruin. He will not learn
the arts of civilization, and he and
the forest must perish together. The
stern unyielding features of his mind
excite our admiration from their very
immutability; and we look with deep
interest upon the fate of this
irreclaimable son of the wilderness, the child
who will not be weaned from the breast
of his rugged mother. And our
interest increases when we discern in
the unhappy wanderer, mingled among
his vices, the germs of heroic
virtues--a hand bountiful to bestow as it is
rapacious to seize and even in extremest
famine imparting its last morsel
to a fellow sufferer; a heart which,
strong in friendship as in hate, thinks
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 43
it not too much to lay down life for its
chosen comrade; a soul true to its
own ideas of honor and burning with
unquenchable thirst for greatness
and renown.
General Anthony Wayne left for the East
soon after the
great council at Greenville. Back in the ancestral home at
Waynesboro a partial feeling of
contentment came over him.
Congress had bestowed upon him and his
army the thanks of
the Nation, and his vindication as a
leader in the field and before
the council fire was complete. And his
friends and neighbors
were glad to see him back after four
long years in the wilderness.
Only one sorrow weighed upon him--his
wife was dead, she had
died while he was away on campaign.
On the 30th of April, 1796, Congress
approved Jay's Treaty
which he had negotiated with England to
settle all questions of
border occupation, and some other
difficulties as well. Wayne
was now ordered to return at once to the
regions beyond the
Ohio and take over the disputed posts,
which command, of course,
was to be regarded as a mark of the
country's confidence and
admiration. And so he journeyed westward
again.
He floated down the Ohio in the same
barge that had taken
him with his army three years before. He
landed as before
at Fort Washington and immediately
headed northward to the
Maumee, past Fort Recovery and Fort
Defiance. Things out-
wardly had not changed much; the same
unbroken forests
stretched across the land, and Indian
cornfields were ripening in
the sun. But the American flag now
floated over Ft. Miami
below the rapids where the Union Jack
had greeted him after
the Battle of Fallen Timbers. He visited
the battlefield and felt
a glow of pride as he reviewed the
happenings of that historic
day. Three days later he was in Detroit
and saw the American
flag flying at last over that stronghold
on the Lakes, thirteen
years after a solemn treaty had ceded it
to the United States.
Through the rest of the summer and
autumn of 1796 he
remained at Detroit, hard at work
adjusting military matters con-
cerned with the American occupation of
the country. And then,
late in the season, he heard rumors that
General Wilkinson who
44
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
had been in command of Fort Greenville
was preferring charges
against him to the secretary of war--he
did not know for what.
He had only one desire now, namely, to
get back home and meet
his accuser face to face. By God, he had
faced one court-martial
in the Revolution with honor, and he'd
be only too glad to meet
Wilkinson before another!
He left Detroit on the sloop Detroit and
had a tempestuous
voyage across Lake Erie to Presque Isle.
His leg was causing
him intense agony--something malignant
was the matter with it.
He was carried ashore and put to bed in
the fort. A few weeks
of suffering went by and it grew to be
mid-December. And
then came the end. He died on the
morning of December 15,
1796, at the age of fifty-one. His last
words were, "Bury me at
the foot of the flagstaff, boys,"
which spot, as his sympathetic
biographer, Thomas Boyd, says, was as
close home to him as if
he had died in the old stone house of
his fathers.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
and the temples of his gods?
Such is the glamorous chapter in our
history that we are
calling to mind on this occasion, a
chapter full of courage and
adventure, of pioneer endeavor and
struggles with the wilder-
ness; full of great deeds, great hopes,
great adversities; full
of ideals and belief in ourselves as a
people destined to found a
new nation under God on this western
continent. May we not
forget those principles of action and
deeds of valor by which we
have risen to power and become great.