The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-03-30

About the end of March, or early in
April, 1852, the western Indians COM
meneed annoying the border settle
ments in Ohio, Washington, Noughi-
Ogany and WestmOreland Counties
On account of these troublesome in
roads, the principal officers of those
counties, particularly COlOnels Will
hanson and Marshall, tried all means
to carry on a campaign against the
Wyandot villages, which they could
only accomplish by holding out all
possible encOuragementst tOvOlunteers.
They therefore offered to every
man who whOuld come forward, fuTn-
iShed with horse, q rifle, and prOvis-
ions for month, exemption from two
tours of militia duty, and further, that
every one who had been robbed by
the Indians, in case his effects were
found in the Indian villages, should
recover his own by proving his prop
erty; and that all horses, unavOida-
bly, lost during the campaign, should
be replaced by those taken from the
enemy.
The time fixed for the general rem
devious of the volunteers was the 10th
of May, and the place the old Mingo
village, on the west bank of the Ohio,
about forty miles below Fort Pitt by
land, and about seventy-five by water.
By general agreement of these west
ern counties, Col. Crawford was elect
ed commander-in-chief of this eXpe-
dition. He accordingly arrived at
Fort Pitt, as a volunteer, two days be-
fore the general meeting. As no sur
geOn had been yet appointed, Gen,
Irving was requested by Col. Craw-
ford 70 allow me to 20 with him, (my
consent having been asked previous
ly), to which the General agreed, in
case Col. Gibson would not object.
After obtaining Col GibsOn's per
mission, left Fort Pitt on Tuesday,
the 2lst of May, aud arrived at Mingo
valley the next evening. The vOlun-
teers did not all cross the river till Fri
day morning the 24th; they then di-
vided themselves into eighteen COM
panies, electing their captains by vote.
They elected also a commander-in-
chief, four field majors, and one bri-
gade major. Four hundred and sixty
five men voted.
We took up the line of March on
Saturday, May 25th, in a westerly di-
rection. On the fourth day we reach
ed the old Moravian village, on the
| Muskingum. about sixty miles from
/ the Ohio river.
| On Tuesday evening, May 2Sth, Maj
or Brenton and Captain Bean went q
short distance beyond the camp to re-
Gonnoitre. About quarter Of a mile
from the camp they discovered two
Indians, upon whom they fired, and
| then retreated. 1t was here that we
were first discovarad- es ,I-ss n fto-rT,a '-1a
On Thursday, June 4th, the eleventh
/ day of our march, we arrived at the
place where Sandusky formerly stood.
/ The inhabitants had moved eighteen
miles down the creek, near the Lower
| Sandusky. As neither our guides nor
any one Of us knew any thing about
I their moving, we supposed that no
Indian village was nearer than Upper
Sandusky, which was about forty
miles distant.
After resting our horses we set out
to look for their settlements; but we
/ had hardly travelled four miles from
the old village, when number of our
men desired to return home some of
them pretended to have only five days
| provisions left.
The field officers and captains held
a council, and determined to move on
that afternoon but before the council
sat, a small body of horse was sent
out to reconnOitre.
Just as the council broke up a mes
! senger arrived from these spies, bring
ing the news that they had journeyed
about three miles when they met q
great number of Indians advancing. -
The spies joined US soon after, and
about a mile ahead we met the Indi-
ans, occupying a forest before US,
while we were in an open plain; our
men dismOunted, advanced, and soon
drove them out of their position.
| The enemy, after being reinforced,
wheeled to the right, and part of
/ them attacked us in the rear, which
gave the fight a serious turn. The con-
| test grew hotter on both sides, and
lasted from 4 o'clock until dusk, each
party keeping their ground. The field
officers met next morning and con-
! cluded, that as the enemy were in
creasing in numbers continually, andas
many of the men were already wound
ed, it would be best to retire on the
following night. The whole force was
to form in three columns, and take
the wounded men in the middle. We
had four men dead and twenty-three
wounded, seven of them dangerously,
and on their account we had to pre-
pare as many biers, to carry them
of. After dark the officers went to
the sentinels and called them off as
suddenly as possible. Just as the
troops were forming the enemy fired
some guns, whereupOn some of our
men declared that the Indians having
discovered our intentions, were giving
the alarm. Now, many of our fore
most men rushed on, and the rest fol-
| lowing them, left the seven wounded
men behind; who, however, escaped,
some on horseback, others by the aid
of their friends.
Scarcely a quarter of mile from
the battlefield, L heard Col. Crawford
calling his sOn-in-law, Major Harri-
son, and his nephews, Major Rose and
William Crawford. l went to him
and told that they were probably be-
fore US. He asked me, as it you,
Doctor" l answered, "Yes," and he
/ replied that they were not ahead, and
I asked asked me not to leave him,
which promised.
We now waited and called continu-
ally for those men, till all the troops
/ had passed. The Colonel now said,
that his horse was nearly exhausted,
I that he could not keep up with the
/ troops, and requested that some of his
! friends might stay with him. He
then accused the militia of starting in
such an abrupt manner, leaving the
wounded men behind against his ord
I er. Soon after two men, an old man
and young one, overlook us. We
asked them about the persons before
mentioned, bat they did not any thing
about them.
The old man Jagged behind several
times, but always called loudly to
wait for MIN. Just as we were 90
| ing to seold him on account of the
noise he was making, 1 heard an In
1 dian yelling "HallOWu' about hun
dred and fifty yards ahead of him.
We did not hear OF see any thing
more of the old man, 1t was now
midnight; the horses of the Colonel
and OF the young man could not move
any further, and were left behind
i We went due east, and about two
o'cloekwe met Capt. Biggs, who had
carried Lieut.. Ashley from the bBt-
l ue-heldWhen wounded.
AS the wounded officer was riding
Capt. Biggs' horse, L gave mine TO the
Captain The Colonel ard ] went
ahead on foot, about one hundred
yards; the Captain and the wounded
officer following, with two young men
/ in their rear. One mile and a half
further on, several Indians jumped
! up, about fifteen or twenty PAGES be-
fore US. Seeing but three of them at
/ first, | went behind q big black oak,
and tried to get an aim at them with
my rifle, but the Colonel called twice
not to fire; one of the Indians then
went up to him and gTasped his hand
! The Colonel now desired me to lay
down my rifle, which I did. One Of
them then came up to me 1 had seen
i him often before: he called me 9iDoc-