The Rodney telegraph. (Rodney, Miss.) 1838-1840, 1840-07-30
From the Cincinnati Republican.
RICHARD M. JOHNSON.

Qualntance. Some OF our harrison e0ltorS |
have said few hard things about Col. II
NJ johnson, without knowing that they were
cnintentionaly slandering one of the bra
vest soldiers Of the last war, and one of the
firmest friends that ever Gen. Harrison had
the honor of possessing. We know them
both intimately, and we speak by authority
when we say there is nothing but the most
kindly feelings entertained ia the breasts of
these honorable and distinguished men, to-
ward each other Richard M Johnson has
been kicked to one side, by his Van Buren,
friends, but that makes no difference TO US.
We mean to tell tale, the incidents of
which we can prove by one of the most high
minded and respectable men of Cincinnati.
Elan p. Langdon is the man we allude to;
and although there are some hundreds of
others upon whose testimony we might rely,
we name him In preference to all the rest,
because, although a supporter of the pres
ent administration, he possesses a soul, on
which in eight years. acquaintance we new
our tale, which is not one of fancy:
On a certain occasion, not far from the
dog days Of 1885, it was rumored among
some of us jackson men of Cincinnati, that
Dick Johnson, as every body Familiarity call
ed him, was about to perpetrate a stump
speech in Covington, which, as we presume
all our readers know. lies exactly opposite
to Cincinnati, in the State of Kentucky,
State too well known in history and tradition
to require our feeble attempts to eulogize.
Well we crossed the river in the ferry boat,
went to the hall where Dick Johnson was to
hold forth, shook him cordially by the hand,
and then sat down, along with Elan p.
Langdon, to hear his speech.
Stump speeches in Kentucky are not pre-
cisely like those in Ohio. 1t is somewhat
difficult for Kentucky stump orator, when
he commences his speech, to guess with
much exactness as to its duration or its Pc
roration The Kentuckians dislike to be
humbugged, and they very frequently ask
stump orator, even in the very height and
flow Of his eloquence, question which
throws hun out of his own prescribed track.
Such was the case with our friend, Colonel
Johnson.
He began a dissertation on matters and
things in general, and democracy in partic-
nlar. He was moving on as smoothly as a
square rugged brig, with all her canvass
shaken out, when somebody in the crowd
yelled out,
"Were you at the battle of the Thames? p"
81 was, ard what of it?''
care you the hero of that battIe2''
"That's very singular question TO be put
to me by any gentleman that has read the
history of the last war. My brother James
ooJ tho CoIoaoI l.. -
from his eye when he pronounced the name
OF his brave and departed brother-my bro
Their James and myself raised regiment of
mounted riflemen and joined Gen Harrison
on the Maumee. We asked him for the
post of danger, the moment it could be OBJ
tanned, and he told us, if it were possible,
and it would not conflict with the general
operations of the troops, he would grant it 10
us cheerfully. We were shortly on the
trail of Proctor. We caught him on the
Thames. Our mounted regiment, as a mat
ter of course, was in the advance, and when
we deserted the enemy, my brother and
myself rode up to General Harrison and re-
minded him of his promise"
"Have your mounted men ever been
practised to charge upon infantry" said
the General.
"Certainly," said we.
"Then," said the General, ssthe post of
danger as well as of duty is before you
One half of your regiment will charge
through the British regulars, and the other
half will, simultaneously, commence an at
tack on Tecumseh's Indians in the swamp. -
$50 said the General-my brother James,
and Drawer and better man never lived,
charged through the British, with one half
of the ba talon, while |, with the other half.
undertook to rouse up the Indians in the
swamp. They were not hard to rouse up,
| for Tecumseb, man transcendently supe-
rior to Proctor, in point of real bravery, as
Hyperion to a Satyr,' had determined to
make that his best and most conclusive bat
tie ground. We met them and fought them /;
and, when they learnt that Proctor's British
regulars had been demolished by my bro
Their James, they began to retire. AT this
moment my body had been perforated by
five bullets, and my horse could only be
kept on his legs by the greatest exertion of
my bride hand. In endeavoring to make
him leap over log in the swamp he fell
and died, with two more balls in his carcase
than were in my own. A tall, good looking
Indian approached me with his tomahawk
ready for throw. My horse lay in posi-.
ton that did not permit me to be exactly
dismounted. | pulled out loaded pistol
from my holsters and shot him.
ssThey say it was Tecumseh shot. i
care not, and I know not would have
shot the best Indian that ever breathed I'M
der such circumstances without inqulring