Title

Chapter 22

Identifier

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?b=1&ref=oo&id=298180

page

234-239

Bibliographic Citation

1812; the war and its moral : a Canadian chronicle / William Foster Coffin.

10167813

1812; the war and its moral : a Canadian chronicle / William Foster Coffin.

Type

Text

extracted text

234

TECUMSEH—HIS ASPECT AND COSTUME.

CHRONICLE OP THE WAR.

He had little respect for the superstitions of his people. " Totems"
and genealogies he treated with indifference. As a specimen of
his eloquence, may be related his reply to Governor Harrison of
Indiana. On the 12th August, 1810, he appeared, at the head of
400 warriors, at Vincennes, in front of the Governor's residence,
and was invited " in." He replied : " Houses are built for you to
hold council in ; Indians hold theirs in the open air." When the
meeting was over, one of the governor's aides-de-camp said to him,
pointing to a chair : " Your father requests you to take a seat at
his side." Standing erect, and in a scornful tone, the chief
answered : " My father ! the sun is my father, and the earth my
mother. On her bosom I will repose ;" and then seated himself
upon the ground.
He hated the " Long-knives " with an intensity of hatred. In
battle, in actual conflict, he was unsparing. To the wounded he was
pitiful ; from the conquered he turned with contempt. At the
capture of Detroit, to a remark from Brock, he replied, haughtily:
" I despise them too much to meddle with them." Not an act of
violence could be charged against the Indians on that occasion.
Brock, admiring the control he possessed and exercised, took off his
silken scarf, and wound it round the waist of the chief. Tecumseh
was, in despite of his stoicism, evidently gratified ; but, to the surprise of all, appeared the next day without the decoration. To an
inquiry, he answered that he could not wear such a distinction,
when an older and an abler warrior was present. He had given the
sash to the Wyandot chief, Round-head. Before crossing the Detroit, to attack Hull, Brock had sought from him topographical information. Tecumseh threw himself on the ground, took a sheet of bark,
and with his knife traced a map of the country—its woods, hills,
rivers, roads, morasses,—which the best officer in the army could
not have surpassed. He was taciturn by habit, after the manner

•

235

of the Indians; but when roused, his intellect and his imagination
gave utterance to a flood of impassioned oratory.*
The American delineator delights in depicting Tecumseh in a
red coat, with a pair of tinsel epaulettes, such as append to the
shoulders of unhappy British officers on the American stage. He
has even been mustered into the service as a Brigadier-General.
Without disrespect to his memory, it may be said that he did not
hold a rank which he would have adorned. Contrary to the Indian
nature, he had an aversion to external ornament. His invariable
costume was the deer-skin coat and fringed pantaloons ; Indian
moccasins on his feet, and an eagle-feather in the red kerchief
wound round his head, composed his simple and soldierly accoutrements. Richard, Cceur de Lion, himself was not more contemptuous
of spoil, or avid of glory. He was about five feet ten inches in
height, with the eye of a hawk, and of gesture rapid ; of a wellknit, active figure ; dignified when composed, and possessing features of countenance which, even in death, indicated a lofty spirit.
He was in the forty-fourth year of his age when he fell.
He had, under severe trial, adhered with stern fidelity to the
British arms. He did not assimilate with Proctor. Still, in prosperity and in adversity, with his counsel, or against it, to the last
hour he was true as steel. True to King George, true to British men,
* The greater portion of the facts relating to the career and character of
Tecumseh, have been drawn from " Tupper's Life of Brock," and from the
spirited sketch of the chief given therein, and drawn by Colonel Glegg, after_
wards Military Secretary Lord Aylmer in Canada ; but, in the temporary
absence of the book, and, in addition, recourse has been had to one of a series
of papers on the war of 1812, which have lately appeared in a popular periodical—Harper's Magazine. It is to be regretted that these papers, cleverly
written and artistically illustrated, should, in an attractive form, pander to
the worst prejudices of an obsolete time, and should disseminate, near to our
own firesides, and in the year of grace 1863, the most unjustifiable statements
with respect to Indian violence and British complicity.

236

CHRONICLE OF THE WAR.

true to his faith in a cause and in a people of whom he had but an
indistinct idea, he died fearlessly in that faith, true to the last.
His death sheds a halo on the story of a much abused and fast
departing race. May the people of England and their descendants
in Canada never forget this noble sacrifice, or the sacred obligation
it imposes. It should be held as the seal of a great covenant.
" And Jonathan said to David, the Lord be between thee and me,
and between my seed and thy seed for ever."
The lash words of Tecumseh to Proctor, had been " Father, have
a big heart !"—and with his own big heart on his lips, he withdrew
to direct his own people in the swamp on the left of the battle-field.
The American horsemen in their advance divided into two bodies.
The right division, under Lieut.-Colonel James Johnston, advanced
upon the British line, threw out their dismounted riflemen, and
charged with the effect related. The left division, under Colonel
Richard M. Johnston, the elder brother, attacked the Indians in
the swamp. An account given by a fair American writer is intelligible enough.* Richard Johnston and twenty of his men devoted
themselves to draw the Indian fire. Nineteen out of the twentyone fell, but the Indians, elated by their success, sprang from their
covert and met, on even ground, a portion of the rifles who had been
providently dismounted, and who, now pushed forward into the fight.
Johnston, himself wounded in four places, but still in the saddle,
was attacked by a prominent warrior, who wounded him a fifth time
with a rifle shot. At the same moment, his horse, also wounded,
stumbled forward, but did not throw his rider. Johnston had at
his side a pistol loaded with four buckshot and a bullet. He saw
the Chief rush at him with upraised tomahawk—levelled his pistol
and fired. He remembered no more. He could discover nothing
through the smoke—faint from loss of blood, he reeled out of the

TECUMSEH—HIS ASPECT AND COSTUME.

237

saddle, and was borne almost lifeless from the spot. He was told
afterwards, that he had killed Tecumseh. The Colonel gave his
story simply and not boastfully, but others scrambled for credit
where a brave man found cause for pain. There is every reason
to believe that Johnston did slay Tecumseh. On his body was
found the marks of four buckshots and a bullet. These wounds
had caused his death. From their direction they must have been
inflicted from above—as from a man on horseback. Johnston was
the only man on horseback in that part of the field.*
And so died as brave and as true a soldier of England as ever
trod the heather of the Highlands or the wealds of Kent. He
completes the tale of the immortal four, who, to the end of time,
will hold up in the face of all nations, the young escutcheon of
Canada. Four more chivalrous supporters of a national trophy
have never before adorned the pages of History or the triumphs of
Sculpture, than Wolfe and Montcalm—Brock and Tecumseh.
It is painful to be compelled to record the disgraceful fact, that
the body of the Indian hero was treated with foul indignity. It is
believed, that the inanimate corse was scalped, and it was braggishly
asserted by the Kentucky men, that strips flayed from his skin had
been used as razor straps.f Scotchmen of the present day blush
• Battle of the Thames. " This action fought in October, 1813, was the
last and most complete defeat of the Savages of the North-Western Lakes.
Tecumseh was supposed to have fallen by the hand of Colonel Johnston, of
Kentucky ; but that veteran soldier has himself said, that all he could say,
was : when attacked by the Chief, be fired, and when the smoke cleared away,
the Indian lay dead before him. The popular account attributes the deadly aim
and wound to one Mason, a .native of the county of Wexford, Ireland, who
though a grandfather, aged four-score, volunteered his services on that expedition. He had been an old revolutionary soldier, and fought in the ranks with
his own sons—themselves men of middle age."—History of the Irish Settlers in
North America, by Thomas d'Arcy McGee.

f " The Indian hero, Tecumseh, after being killed, was literally flayed in part
* Army and Navy of America, by Jacob K. Neff, M.D., p. 566.

by the Americans, and his skin carried off as a trophy."
Bishop Strachan's Letter.

Vide Appendix—

238

CHRONICLE OF THE WAR:

when told, that after the battle of Sterling—five centuries and a
a half ago,--their countrymen made whip-thongs of the hide of
Crossingham, the English Treasurer; and generations of Americans
will remember, with greater shame, an act of equal barbarism, committed, in a refined age, by a Puritan people, with even less show of
provocation.

CHAP. XXIII.
Battle of the Thames—Its effect—In the States—In Canada. Sir George Prevost. Demon.
stration on Niagara. Vincent concentrates at Burlington Heights. American projects
on Montreal. Generals Wilkinson and Hampton. Plan of attack from the West and
from Lake Champlain. Hampton advances to Odelltown—Encountered by De Salaberry—Retires—Followed to the Four Corners. Career of De Salaberry—Attempts to
Surprise the Americans—Discovered—Falls back on the line of Chateauguay. Preparations for defence. Reports on the battle by the American Adjutant-General, Ring.

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The catastrophe of the Thames was a source of intense exultation to the American government and people. " Io triumphe "
resounded through the land. It had obliterated the disaster of
Hull. It had restored the Western country, the territory of
Michigan, and the Fort of Detroit, to the American arms. It had
cowed the Indians. Cannon, the trophies of Burgoyne and
Saratoga, which had been re-captured by Brock, were re-taken
and paraded, crowned with flowers. The remnants of a British
regiment were marched with triumphal pomp through the bourgades
of the West, and though entitled to the treatment usually accorded
to prisoners of war, had been ignominiously herded with the inmates of a local Penitentiary.* British officers, confined in the
cells at Frankfort in Kentucky, had leisure to study the philosophy
of institutions, which award the same penalty for shooting a wife
or stealing a negress. To crown all, it elevated Shelby and Johnston
to the rank of heroes, and, in after years, made General Harrison
President of the United States.
James, Vol. II, p. 299.