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was consulted. Not one anticipated a surrender, till he saw the white flag displayed; even the women were indignant at so shameful a degradation of the American character; and all felt as they should have felt, but he who held in his hands the reins of authority.

Our morning report had that morning made our effective men present fit for duty 1060, without including the detachment before alluded to, and without including 300 of the Michigan militia on duty. About dark on Saturday evening, the detachment sent to escort the provisions, received orders from General Hull to return with as much expedition as possible. About 10 o'clock the next day, they arrived within sight of Detroit. Had a firing been heard or any resistance visible, they would have advanced and attacked the rear of the enemy. The situation in which this detachment was placed, although the result of accident, was the best for annoying the enemy and cutting off his retreat that could have been selected. With his raw troops enclosed between two fires and no hope of succor, it is hazarding little to say, that very few would have escaped.

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I have been informed by Col. Findley, who saw the return of their quarter-master-general, the day after the surrender, that their whole force every description, white, red and black, was 1030. They had twentynine platoons, twelve in a platoon, of men dressed in uniform. Many of those were evidently Canadian militia. The rest of their militia increased their white force to about seven hundred men. The number of their Indians could not be ascertained with any degree of precision; not many were visible. And in the event of an attack upon the town and fort, it was a species of force which could have afforded no material advantage to the enemy.

In endeavoring to appreciate the motives and to investigate the causes which led to an event so unexpected and dishonorable, it is impossible to find any solution in the relative strength of the contending parties, or in the measures of resistance in our power. That we were far superior to the enemy; that upon any ordinary principles of calculation we would have defeated them, the wounded and indignant feelings of every man there will testify.

A few days before the surrender, I was informed by Gen. Hull, we had 400 rounds of 24 pound shot fixed, and about 100,000 cartridges made. We surrendered with the fort 50 barrels of powder, and 2500 stand of arms.

The state of our provisions has not been generally understood. On the day of surrender, we had 15 days provisions of every kind on hand. Of meat, there was plenty in the country, and arrangements had been made for purchasing and grinding the flour. It was calculated we could readily procure three months' provisions, independent of 150 barrels of flour, 1300 head of cattle which had been forwarded from the State of Ohio, and which remained at the River Raisin, under Capt. Brush, within reach of the army.

But had we been totally destitute of provisions, our duty and our interest was undoubtedly to fight. The enemy invited us to meet him in the field.

By defeating him the whole country would have been open to us, and the object of our expedition gloriously and successfully obtained. If we had been defeated, we had nothing to do but to retreat to the fort, and make the best defence circumstances and our situation rendered practicable. But basely to surrender without firing a gun-tamely to submit without raising a bayonet-disgracefully to pass in review before an enemy as inferior in the quality as in the number of his forces, were circumstances which excited feelings of indignation more easily felt than described.

To see the whole of our men flushed with the hope of victory, eagerly awaiting the approaching contest, to see them afterwards dispirited, hopeless, desponding, at least 500 shedding tears because they were not allowed to meet their country's foes, and to fight their country's battles, excited sensations which no American has ever before had cause to feel, and which I trust in God will never again be felt, while one man remains to defend the standard of the Union.

I am expressly athorized to state, that Colonels McArthur and Findley, and Lieutenant Colonel Miller viewed the transaction in the light which I do. They knew and I feel that no circumstance in our situation, none in that of the enemy, can excuse a capitulation so dishonorable and unjustifiable. This, too, is the universal sentiment among the troops; and I shall be surprised to learn, that there is one man, who thinks it was necessary to sheath his sword, or to lay down his musket.

I was informed by General Hull, the morning after the capitulation, that the British forces consisted of 1800 regulars, and that he surrendered to prevent the effusion of human blood. That he magnified the regular force nearly five fold, there can be no doubt. Whether the philanthropic reason assigned by him is a sufficient justification for surrendering a fortified town, an army and a territory, is for the government to determine.. Confident I am, that had the courage and conduct of the General been equal to the spirit and zeal of the troops, the event would have been as brilliant and suceessful as it now is disastrous and dishonorable.

Very respectfully, sir, &c.
LEWIS CASS,

Hon. WILLIAM EUSTIS, Secretary of War.

Col. 3d Reg. Ohio Vol.

CHAPTER III.

Effect of Surrender of Detroit-Volunteers of 1812-Symms' "Card "-Indian Warfare-Cruelties of the Savages-The Massacre at the River Raisin-The Defence of Fort Stephenson by Croghan and his brave compeers,

The surrender of Detroit, after the first momentary shock of its announcement, aroused the spirit and patriotism of the entire country, particularly among the western people, who felt especially aggrieved by the disaster. A feeling, amounting to eothusiasm, pervaded the whole community. The country was electrified. The call to arms was hailed with rapture by the pioneer population of the West. Men capable of bearing arms vied with one another who should be first to enroll themselves. Men of all ranks and stations in life, filled the rolls of volunteers. By the twenty-fifth of August, nine days after the surrender, four thousand men, armed and equipped, voluntarily assembled at Urbana, in Ohio. Governor Meigs, of that State, was honorably and conspicuously active in encouraging the patriotism manifested by his fellow citizens. Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, poured forth their best citizens by thousands. The city and county of Baltimore proposed alone to raise an entire regiment. On the spur of the moment eighteen hundred Kentuckians marched from Newport. The gallant Col. Richard M. Johnson, then mem ber of Congress from Kentucky, proposed to raise five hundred mounted men, and march forthwith to Detroit, trustiug to the liberality of Congress for future indemnification. Kentucky was represented on different portions of the western frontier by at least six thousand of her brave volunteers. Virginia sent out fifteen hundred men, for whom the ladies of Richmond made knapsacks and tents. The same hearty patriotism, manifesting itself by deeds, existed in every section of the country. Even the opponents of the war were effected by it, and many of them became strenuous advocates of what they had previously opposed.

As characteristic of the feeling which animated the West, the following Card, which appeared in the newspapers of that day, is here inserted:

A CARD. Col. Symmes, of the senior division of the Ohio Militia, presents his respectful compliments to Major-General Brock, commanding his Britanic Majesty's forces, white and red, in Upper Canada. Colonel Symmes observing that by the 4th article of Capitulation of Fort Detroit, to Major-General Brock, all public arms, moving towards Detroit, are to be delivered up, but as no place of deposit is pointed out by the capitula tion, forty thousand stand of arms, coming within the description, are at the service of Major-General Brock, if his Excellency will condescend to come and take them!"

The required number of men were soon in the field. Brigadier General William H. Harrison, of the United States Army, was commissioned as Major-General by the Governor of Kentucky, and assumed command of the army, numbering about ten thousaud men.

In the wars which have taken place on this continent, between rival nations, the Indian tribes have been engaged. The British and the French employed them in their quarrels; and in the Revolutionary War, and in the war of 1812, the Indians fought on the side of the British. History abounds with heart-rending accounts of Indian outrage, perpetrated during the Revolution, and the recollection of the bloody massacres of the last war, is yet vivid in the remembrance of our citizens. No language can convey an adequate idea of the horrors and barbarities of Indian warfare. The Indian, from earliest infancy, is initiated into the cruelties and tortures of exterminating hostilities. War to the knife—the knife to the handle, is the first teaching he receives from the lips and example of his father and brothers. His ambition is to use the scalping knife and tomahawk with skill and success. The scalp is more precious than the prisoner. In the conflict, he neither asks nor gives quarter. He or his enemy must lie dead on the field. Exceptions there are, it is true, to this general practice, but it is a most bloody and cruel mercy that stays the death-blow. The conquered victim had better, by far, fall dead beneath the arm of his antagonist, than follow as a prisoner to the wigwam. In the latter case he is reserved for far more dreadful sufferings at the stake, often times to be prepared to suit the cannibal tastes of his victor.

With atrocious disregard of the dictates of humanity, the British government did not hesitate to enroll the murderous savages in

close alliance with their regular soldiers. They did this with the full knowledge of the difficulty of restraining them, when once the fight begun, within the recognized limits of civilized warfare. In all these instances, too, the bloody instinct of the savage was referred to by their Christian employers to intimidate and force their enemies to surrender.

At the commencement of the war of 1812, the American government used every possible means to induce the Indians to remain neutral and quiet; but the passion for war, and strong inducements offered to them by the British Government, were too powerful to be resisted. They were seduced by promises and costly presents, to join hands against the United States, and led by talented and influential chiefs, they rendered many and valuable services to their Christian allies.

It is not within the scope of this work to enumerate the frequent and barbarous butcheries of innocent and defenceless women and children, or the merciless and disgraceful slaughters which were permitted by the British officers, when the fortunes of war were in their favor. We have gone more into the detail of Indian characteristics than might seem appropriate to the present undertaking. But it will be recollected that the subject of this work, passed the greater part of the active portion of his life, surrounded by the warriors of the woods-within hearing of the dread war-whoopand a witness of the solemnities of the war dance; that it was his duty as the representative and dispenser of the authority of his government, to negotiate treaties of peace and amity with them, or if needs be shoulder his rifle and lead his men to conquering com. bat against them. To give some idea of the fierce and turbulent spirits with whom he had to deal is the object of introducing here and elsewhere, the evidence of the difficulties and dangers which beset the path of him who is brought in contact with the Indian, either in peace or war.

In January, 1813, the American army met with a sad reverse at the River Raisin, in Michigan. This conflict is marked with incidents of horror and barbarity, which stamp it as one entire scene of bloody butchery on the part of the enemy, which finds no parallel in the history of war, where either of the contending parties

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