page_title: Nathaniel G. S. Hart
section_title: Military service and death
hierarchical_section_title: Nathaniel G. S. Hart / Military service and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Location of the crossing of the River Raisin by Colonel Lewis during the First Battle of the River Raisin
context_page_description: Nathaniel Gray Smith Hart was a Lexington, Kentucky lawyer and businessman, who served with the state's volunteer militia during the War of 1812. As Captain of the Lexington Light Infantry from Kentucky, Hart and many of his men were killed in the River Raisin Massacre of January 23, 1813, after being taken prisoner the day before following the Battle of Frenchtown in Michigan Territory.
  Hart was especially well-connected politically and socially. In addition to reading law with Henry Clay, Hart's sister Lucretia was married to Clay. Another sister of Hart named Ann was married to James Brown, a future ambassador to France. Hart's wife Anna Edward Gist was the stepdaughter of Charles Scott, Governor of Kentucky and through her Hart was the brother-in-law of James Pindell a member of the Society of Cincinnati. Many other members of Hart's Kentucky militia unit and its associated troops also came from the elite of Lexington and of the state. The men's deaths in the two Battles of Frenchtown, but especially in the subsequent Massacre captured state and national attention. The phrase "Remember the Raisin!" became an American call to arms for the duration of the War.
context_section_description: At the start of the War of 1812, Hart was commissioned as Captain of the Lexington Light Infantry Company (aka "The Silk Stocking Boys")   a volunteer unit of the Fayette County, Kentucky militia.  He later served as either a Deputy Inspector or as Inspector General of William Henry Harrison's Army of the Northwest.  Hart's command was attached to the Fifth Regiment of the Kentucky Volunteer Militia and left for the Northwest in August 1812, where it became part of Army of the Northwest under General James Winchester.  In January 1813, a detachment was sent to the defense of Frenchtown, Michigan Territory as part of an effort to retake Detroit from the British. Frenchtown residents had sent word to the Americans asking for relief from an occupying force of the British and their Indian allies.
  During the First Battle of Frenchtown on January 18, 1813, the American forces under Lt. Colonel William Lewis were successful in forcing the retreat of the small British force stationed there. The British commander of the Fort Malden garrison in Amherstburg, Colonel Henry Procter, made plans to take back Frenchtown and he ordered troops to the area.
  On the morning of January 22, 1813, Procter's forces, including hundreds of Indian warriors, attacked the American troops and overwhelmed the right flank of regulars under Winchester, forcing him and much of the general staff to surrender. The Kentucky militia under the command of Major George Madison on the left flank fought on and thought the flag of truce presented by the enemy was a British flag of surrender.  During this second Battle of Frenchtown, 397 Americans were killed.  Hart was wounded and was among the 547 survivors who surrendered to Procter upon orders of Winchester.  Not many more than 30 Kentucky troops escaped death or capture.
  William Elliott, Hart's former Princeton classmate who had become a Captain in the British Army, promised the wounded man safe passage to Fort Malden, but did not carry out his pledge. Elliot borrowed a horse, bridle and saddle from Major Benjamin Franklin Graves, an American officer, promising to send help to the American wounded, but none arrived.  Acting American captain William Caldwell wrote the next month that he heard Elliott tell General Winchester and Major Madison that "the Indians were very excellent surgeons (and ought to kill all the officers and men)."  In one official letter, the eye-witness says that Elliott's broken promise included an offer to take Hart in Elliott's "own sleigh to Malden that evening" and that Hart could stay at Elliott's home for his recovery.
  Unable to march with the able-bodied prisoners who were being directed to Fort Malden, Hart paid a friendly Indian to take him to the fort. Along the way they encountered other Indians, who shot and scalped Hart. Hart and an estimated 30–100 unarmed prisoners were killed by Indians on January 23, the day after the battle, in what became known as the River Raisin Massacre.
  The high fatalities of the Americans in the Battle of Frenchtown and the subsequent Massacre of prisoners became fuel for pro-war political factions known as War Hawks, and for anti-British sentiment of the era. The phrase "Remember the Raisin!" entered the lexicon of the day as a flashpoint for popular sentiment, becoming a battle cry for American troops, especially the ones on the western frontier.  The fact that many of the murdered men were well-known and well-connected members of Kentucky's elite increased the public outcry. Among the dead was Colonel John Allen, Henry Clay's law-partner and co-counsel in Aaron Burr's conspiracy trial at Frankfort.  Hart's death is remembered in modern times as "The Murder of Captain Hart." Major Benjamin Franklin Graves of Lexington was another officer apparently killed while a prisoner of the Potawatomi, who were overseeing him and others marching to Detroit.  Many American prisoners disappeared or were killed while being force-marched back to British-held territory.
caption: Lewis' River Raisin crossing – First Battle
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