THE
CHEM AW A
A M E R IC A N
5
soldiers, requested the im placable chief not to allow his excited w arriors
to ill-treat the prisoners, the chief replied disdainfully, “ No, I despise
them too m uch to m eddle w ith th e m .’’ But the fear of Brock was
groundless, for it had ever been the hum ane policy of T ecum seh to re
strain his w arriors from all deeds of cruelty and to rtu re in dealing w ith
th eir captives, nor was he him self ever g u ilty of w anton bloodshed. In
th is he stood forth in strik in g contrast to the custom s of his tribe and race.
T h e collapse of the H ull cam paign touched the torch to In d ian hostile
activity in various parts of the N orthw est.
T h e garrison at Chicago
was attacked and destroyed and about one h u n d red m en, women and
children were m assacred. A ttack s were made on F o rt H arrison and
other interio r points. T he Indians of the w hole N orthw est seemed ready
for an u p risin g and T ecu m seh ’s confederacy bid fair to become a terrible
reality. H u n d red s flocked to his standard and he is said to have had
at his com m and, soon after B rock’s occupancy of D etroit, betw een three
and four thousand Indian w arriors.
T he w hites of the W est were
aroused to in stan t action. V olunteers in P ennsylvania, V irginia, K en
tu ck y , Ohio and the W est sp ran g forth and “ an arm y way ready as if
by m agic to retrieve th e fortune of a rm s.” A leader was needed and all
eyes looked w ith a com m on im pulse to th e “ hero of T ip p ecan o e.”
W illiam H enry H arrison was brevetted a m ajor general, w ith directions
to take charge of th e N orthw est arm y.
W hile T ecum seh was trav ersin g the forests of the In d ian a and Illinois
country, enlisting his In d ian recru its from the N orthw est and w hile
G eneral H en ry A . P rocter, successor of Brock, who had been killed in
battle, was m obilizing th e British forces in C anada, G eneral H arrison
was organizing th e A m erican arm y and on F ebruary 2d began the con
struction of F o rt Meigs at the R apids of the M aumee. T his citadel of
th e A m erican forces was n atu rally the first point of attack by th e enem y.
T h e assault occurred in A pril (1813) and was led by G eneral P rocter
com m anding 600 B ritish regulars, 800 Canadian m ilitia and 1500 I n
dians under th e Shaw nee chief. It was a m em orable siege. H arrison
had only 600 troops to defend his position but was expecting hourly the
arrival of G eneral G reen Clay w ith 1500 K entucky volunteers. Clay a r
rived in the m idst of the o n slau g h t by P rocter and T ecum seh. T he
details of the battle cannot be recited here, save to say th a t T ecum seh
formed an am buscade of his savages and en trap p ed 800 of the K entucky
troops under Colonel D udley. It was a m asterpiece of generalship, 600
of D udley ’s soldiers, and Dudley him self, were slain and scalped by the
savages.
But T ecu m seh ’s superior tactics and g allan try were fully
equaled by th e nobility and hu m an ity of his conduct w hen his enem y
was at his m ercy. T h e tribesm en so u g h t to m assacre the prisoners, w here
upon Tecum seh sp ran g from his horse and. d raw ing his tom ahaw k and