The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-19
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
HARRIsON,s VICTORIES

(Extract from a letter written by
 Gen. William Henry Harrison and for 1 warded to the Secretary of War Oct. f 21. 1813-)
 ''The River Thames, along the banks of which our route lay, is a ! fine deep stream appropriate for ves- i sels of considerable burden, after the
 passage of the. bar at it's mouth over which there is six and a half feet of water.
 '.The baggage of the army was i brought from Detroit in boats, pro- tected by three gunboats, which Com
 modore Perry had furnished for the
 purpose, as well as to cover the pas sage of the army over the Thames itself. or the mouths of it's tributary i streams: the banks being low and the i country generally open (praires) as 1 high as Dalson's, these vessels were well calculated for the purpose. Above 1 Da1son's how ever, the character of l the river and the adjacent country is considerably changed. The former,
 though still deep, is very nar-
 woody. The Commodore and myselz
 therefore, agreed upon the pro Ipriety of leaving the boats under
 a guard of 15O infantry, and I de- termined to trust to fortune and the l bravery of my troops tof effect the ! passage of the river.
 Below a place called Chatam, and 1 four miles above DalsonSs Is the third 1 unfordab1e branch of the Thamess the 1 bridge over it's mouth had been taken l up by the I1-dians, as well as that at | 5McGregor's Mills, one mile above
 several hundred of the Indians re-
 mained to dispute our passage, and | upon the arrival of the advance guard
 mmenced a heavy fire from the op- posite bank of the creek as well as I that of the river.
 Believing that the whole force of l the enemy was there, I halted the army, formed in order of battle, and | brought up our two six-p pounders to
 cover the party that were ordered to repair the bridge-a few shots from 1 these pieces soon drove off the In-
 dians and enabled us, in two hours. repair the bridge and cross the troops l .fC0I sJohnson's mounted regiment 1 being upon the right of the army had
 seized the remains of the bridge at
 the Mills, under a heavy fire from the
 Indians. Our loss upon this occasion was two killed, and three or Hour
 wounded--that of the enemy was as- l certained to be considerably great
 CT
 IA house near the bridge contained l d considerable number of nuskets 1 had been set afire but it was extin- 1 guished by our troops and the arms
 saved. At the first farm above the bridge, we found one of the enemy's
 vessels on fire, loaded with arms and
 ordinance stores, and learned that Ithey were a few miles ahead of us, still on the right bank of the river, l with the. great body of Indians. 1 ssAt Bowles's form, four miles from the bridge, we halted for the night, found two other vessels and 3, large disti1Iery filled with ordinance and other valuable stores to an immense 1 amo ount,s in flames-it was impossible to put out the fire-two twenty four pounders with their carriages were taken, and a. large quantity of balls and shells of various sizes The army was put in motion early in the morn 1 ing of the 5th of October, 1913. l pushed on in advance of the mounted regiment, and requested Governor
 Shelby to follow as expeditiously as possible with the infantry. the Cover
 nor's zeal and that of ahis men, en- alled them to keep up with the cav airy an at g o'clock we were at Ar holds Mills. having taken in the course of the morningJ two gun-boats and several batteaux l6aded with pro- visi ons and anInunition.s
 Continued