If
you recall the day before, Commissary Picket had come to Amanda to do an inventory. As he was preparing to leave Schillinger
approached him and gave him two letters for his wife and asked him to drop them
off at the first mail pickup point on his way south.
Around 2 o’clock that
afternoon, Capt. Oliver, one of Harrison’s couriers from Ft. Meigs, along with two
soldiers and an Indian arrived at the fort with news that 2000 British and 1000
Indians were within sight of Ft. Meigs.
He said Harrison had sent him to intercept General Clay to be aware of the
situation and to advance with all speed. He said that when he was approaching
the rapids about 3 miles west of Meigs, he heard the distinct sound of cannon
fire and assumed that General Harrison and his 2000 troops at Ft. Meigs were
under attack.
The British gun emplacements were still under
construction when Oliver left Meigs so the artillery shelling he heard was
actually the American artillery shelling the British positions. Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, having
rested and fed their horses, Oliver and his companions started back north
toward Ft. Defiance.
Mystery; On this
day (May 1st) Schillinger wrote; “(Oliver) Left here at 4 P.M. for
Ft. Defiance to warn the Kentucky troops of the approach of the enemy to beware
of them in descending the river.” This
entry implies that Oliver hadn’t yet warned Clay about the British at Meigs
which raises an interesting question. By this date, Clays force was somewhere
between Ft. Amanda and Ft. Defiance so how did Oliver not intercept them on his
way to Ft. Amanda? One explanation might
be that he first went to Ft. Findlay to warn them then to Amanda with the same
purpose. He would then have to rush to catch
up with Clays force along the way.
Because of the seriousness of the situation, the more likely scenario is
that Schillinger misunderstood Oliver’s intentions and that Oliver had already
warned Clay and came to Amanda to give them some advance warning that they
might soon be called to assist.
A Shot for a Shot
The British finished building their artillery positions and around
10 o’clock Saturday morning, the British began shelling Ft. Meigs with 12 and
24 pound shot. A 12 pound shot is
similar to a school shot-put and the 24 pound would be larger than a steel bowling
ball. The British had no shortage of
ammunition so firing was continuous. The
enemy was lobbing between 5 – 600 shells a day into Ft. Meigs. The Americans on the other hand were using
only 12 pound shot but their ammunition supply was very limited. In a stroke of genius, Harrison offered
rewards of whiskey to any men brave enough to gather up the spent 12 pound
balls. One can imagine soldiers scurrying around the compound gathering up
cannon balls as fast as they came in. The “prizes” were turned in and the American
artillery fired the same balls back at the British. By the end of the siege,
nearly 1000 rounds had been returned to their “sender.” If each man received 1 cup of whiskey or rum
for collecting a cannon ball, Harrison would have dispensed almost 63 gallons
of whiskey for their efforts.
Sunday May the 2nd
1813 This morning
Pleasant
Ft. Amanda was quiet and peaceful
that morning while 100 miles to the north, Ft. Meigs was under constant
bombardment, Schillinger only comments that day were that Mr. Benagh, the
forage master who had been at Ft. McArthur for some time returned to Amanda
that day.
Once again, the fluctuations in the weather were beginning to
take its toll as several more men at Amanda were reported for sick call that
morning. Capt. Hosbrook, Lt. Davis and
Sgt. Swing along with several soldiers went to Ft. Logan to bring back a boat
that was being built there.
Tuesday the 4th Light
Showers
During the night it began to rain again and it continued
throughout most of the day so the men at Ft. Amanda worked indoors making
cartridges. Doctor Jacob Lewis came to
the fort during the day to treat some of the sick men. Around 7:00 that night Capt. Hosbrook and his
men returned to Amanda with the boat they brought back from Ft. Logan.
Wednesday May the 5th
1813 This morning Drizly
weather
The light rain continued for a second day at Ft. Amanda so
the men once again spent the majority of their time making cartridges and doing
camp chores. At morning roll call it
was discovered that a private in the company named John Burris[1] had
deserted. A quick investigation showed that Burris had approached two of the
contractors working on boats across the river, paid them for their horses then
started for home. Meanwhile across the
river from Ft. Meigs a major massacre was underway.
Dudley’s Massacre
By now the British now had constructed artillery emplacements
across the river from Ft. Meigs and were shelling it. The night before, May 4th,
General Clay’s 1200 man force had loaded onto 18 flatboats and had now arrived
at the Grand Rapids.[2] The river current was very fast that night
and it was dark owing to very little moonlight so the river pilot refused to
try to float across the shallow rapids unless he was ordered to. The decision was made to tie up to shore and
wait until morning. Around 2 or 3 in the morning, Capt. Hamilton arrived at the
spot and told Clay and Dudley that Harrison wanted them to move to within 1 ½
miles of Meigs, unload 800 men on the north side of the river then advance to
and attack the British gun emplacements across from the fort and spike their
cannons[3]. The remainder of the force would land on the
south bank and fight its way into the fort.
A Disaster
Shortly after sunrise[4] the
Clays force moved on toward Ft. Meigs.
Col. Dudley was in the lead boat and General Clay in the 13th. Instead of landing a 1 ½ miles from Ft. Meigs
as instructed by Harrison, for some reason they landed 5 miles east of Meigs at
a place called “Hamilton’s Station.”[5] Dudley, the ranking Col. and 866 men went
shore and quickly advanced to the British guns batteries. By the time they reached the batteries they
were exhausted, having marched through swamp and high grasses, but that changed
to exuberance when they saw that the batteries were abandoned. After spiking
the cannons, the men, mostly raw recruits looking for a fight, charged off into
the woods looking for the enemy. By that
point, the officers had lost all control.
In their excitement, they failed to see the Indians circling in behind
essentially cutting off from their escape route to the boats. The Indians then attacked with ferocity. Many of the soldiers their weapons wet and/or
out of ammunition were quickly surrounded and killed on the spot. The 46 year old Col. Dudley described as a
“heavy and fleshy man,”[6] was
shot through the body then again through the thigh. Disabled and exhausted, he sat down on a
stump and was immediately surrounded by a large number of Indians who on
converged on him, killing him then scalping and mutilating his body.
The Worse Was Yet To Come
Those men not killed or left to dying on the battlefield were
rounded up and marched along the north side of the river 2 miles to old Ft.
Miami. As the prisoners were herded back into the British fort, the Indians,
formed lines and arbitrarily stabbed, shot or clubbed men to death as they
passed by. Enraged by Proctors failure to stop the carnage, Tecumseh screamed
at him calling him a “woman” for not stopping it. Proctor finally ordered a stop to the
killing. The survivors were taken to Detroit with many dying on the way. Those who survived were either exchanged or
paroled to return to their homes.
Harrison’s final report showed that of the 866 man force that
landed, Only 150 men were able to wade back across the river to the safety of
the fort. Of the remaining, 80 had been
killed on the battlefield, 100 had been wounded and taken prisoners, 530 were
not wounded but taken prisoner and 6 were missing. In other words, of the
original 866 man landing party 82% of them were either dead, prisoner or
missing. Indians killed; 19. This day had been a total disaster in the
worst of terms.
Around 2:00 that afternoon, Capt. Perry along with 3 soldiers
and a servant returned to Amanda from Ft. Winchester. They reported that 2 of the men in Capt.
Leslie Combs Company of spies had been killed near Ft. Meigs.[7]
Two Less Unknown
Soldiers
For years writers have
written only that 2 men in Combs company were killed; their identities unknown. Looking through pay records for Captain Combs
company, I came across the names of two of Combs spies who had been killed during the same time period and
2 who he reported as “missing.” The two missing
men were Thomas Law and 45 year old Shadrach Pilcher,[8] neighbors from Jassmine
County, Kentucky.
The two men killed were Privates John Johnson one of Combs
spies who was killed on Sunday May 2nd and John Doughert killed 3 days later
on Wednesday May 5th. Finally after 200 years, the identity of the
two men, previously known only to God are now known to man. Their bodies remain in unmarked graves in Ohio soil somewhere along the Maumee River. While their gravesites are long forgotten, what better way to honor the men who gave the lives for their coutries than to simply remember their names.
[1] Correction, man was 50
year old John Burris. See biography
[2] The rapids begin at
Buttonwood Island, at Providence, Ohio (Grand Rapids, Oh).
[3] Spiking a cannon was done
by shoving a bayonet tip or metal pin down into the touch hole of the piece
than snapping it off so it plugged the hole making it impossible to insert a
fuse.
[4] About 5 am.
[5] Hamilton’s station was
near Wayne’s old Camp Deposit and Roche de Bout at Waterville, Ohio.
[6] http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wcarr1/Lossing2/Chap23.html
[7] The fight took place very near Hull-Prairie and W.
River road (SR 65) approx. ½ mile east of the point where Rt. 23 (I475) crosses
the Maumee River west of Perrysburg.
[8] Biography
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