Litchfield enquirer., 1840-10-01
THE BRAVE SUPPORT THE BRAVE.

Cannon or tennessee, ln WHICH, hIter SOtne remarks upon his plan of military defence by Rail Roads for the purpose of bringing many men to focus, he speaks of Gen. liar rison thus:
 Having disposed of the subject oi my sys- tenn of national defence until the meeting ut the next Congress, will now proceed to no- tice the efforts made by some of the party tGcticians s0pperS and miners, to misreprescnt my views in respect 10 Major General Will liam Henry Harrison, and, without attempt ing to repeat my answers to numerous ques- tiOns asked me in reference to that dlStIn- guished individual, I will here stHte such facts us, according to the best of my recol- lection, will afford an accIrate outline of what have said in my n1lswers.
 Iserved under tbe orders of Gen. Harrison in the North Western Army during the princi- pal part of the summer and autumn of the year 1913; during part of which time held the appointment of Adjutant General, which bro't me into daily, and often hourly inter- course with him,and though never with him in batte,l had many opportunities of witnessing his vigilance!and devotion to the service, and of admiring the energetic simplicity and sys- tematic accuracy of his views, and the zeal and promptitude with which he marched to and from Fort Meigs, through the deep PSotS expecting to enter combined savage and British ambuscade of from four to five thou sand Red and White savages from whose cannon, rifle and tomahaWk, General Harri- son was often protected and escorted by few CT men than the Life Guards who accompa- nied our distinguished General Jackson upon his Seminole campaign in the year l6lS, while the force opposed to him was not half as great as that with which Harrison was menaced. With an equal knowledge of Jackson and Harrison, l should be unjust to both, and false to my country, if did not de- clare that, upon the occasions here alluded 10, more trying to the real soldier than any thing the field of battle often presents, have never known Gen. Jackson, whose military honors are beyond all dispute, 10 evince more cheerfulness under the privations of food and rest, or more intrepidity of purpose in danger, than Harrison uniformly exhibi- ted. And, although had the deep mortif. cation to be unable .te accompany him from Detroit, in the pursuit of Tecumseh and Proc tor, which terminated in the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1913, yet was assured by Gov. Shelby and Commodore Perry, than whom there never breathed .ruer, or more chiyalric spirits. that liar l,son proved him. self to be an able Gene al, without fear and without reprCach."
 !t ,s de, ttat in the early part of the war ID the fail and winter of 18ll-l3--I felt, and expressed freely the apprehension. that Harrison possessed too much of the milk of human kindness, and too much caution in his movements for an efficient U. s. Command er-in-Chief. I was strongly inclined to blame him for not sustaining the. gallant army headed by our esteemed Winchester, defeated at the river Raisin and for not con- trolling and saving the brave Dudley and his regiment on the 9th of May, at Fort Meigs.- But careful investigation of the circum- stances that surrounded him, convinced me, that his discipline, though mild and paternal, was strictly comformable to our military law; and that without great caution, such as put it out of his power to reinforce WncheStissrd is dis 9r fb6sabfe f sRbff force would probably have been sacrificed, in these, or in other unayailing efforts to bring the war in the Northwest to speedy termination by great battle; when any time before Perry's victory, great bat tie lost by General Harrison would have ex- posed to almost certain massacre hundreds of families, on hundreds of miles of from tier more difficult to defend than any other part of the national frontier, not excepting that of Florida. A frontier where, from the great depth of rich soil and muddy roads, a forced march ota few successive days, often resulted in loss of effective strength nearly equal to that of we'll fought battle.
 have often admitted, what could not now conceal without fragrant injustice to the ;slandered patriot, that learned in 1913 from Gen. Harrison the best lessons had ever learned in the art of war against a savage foe lessons precisely such as in 1878 found Gen. Jackson Zealously employed in teach ing to his volunteers in the first Seminole war. To these lessons, and more especially to that terrible theGtre of savage and British war, am indebted for the first impressions of my system of national defence by Rail Roads and Floating Batteries. With Rail Road from Cincinnati to Fort Meigs, with another from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and Sandusky. Gen. Harrison would have tri- umphed over the British and Indians at one tenth part of the expense of life and money which attended his operations without such roads. ..
 In the expression of my admiration of Harrison as military commander, am by no means disposed to compare him with Washington or Napoleon-who stand alone, unrivalled in the history of their respective countries. Compared with these extraordi- nary men we can boast of TO great Generals Nor shall we probably ever see such men in our country, until we see our principal sea- ports in the hands of Foreigners, which we may very soon be obliged to witness. That and Russia, or civil war, such us ragged in France prior to the advent of Napoleon, would produce such men as Washington and Napoleon, have no doubt-but that months. .or year or two of active service, alternate ly against savage and civilized foe, dis regarding all the approved principles of the .ari of war, can never produce great General