Mystery: Who was Fort Brown Named For?

 

Personal note: Looking over what I'd written here my first thought was, "Man that sounds a little whacky." It may be, but whacky as it is, I gave it my best shot. All I ask is that you read it with an open mind and if it causes you to question things, (my sanity excluded) great, that's how we learn new things.

Setting the Stage

If you remember from my previous post https://fortamanda1812.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-long-forgotten-military-road-in.html, Harrison's 1812 war plan called for capturing the British stronghold at Detroit before Winter weather set it. He was still at St. Marys at the time with 3000 Kentucky volunteers. His second-in-command, Gen. James Winchester, was at Ft. Wayne with a force of 2000. The plan called for Winchester to advance along the Maumee as far as Defiance and halt there and wait for supplies and further orders.

Harrison then ordered Lt. Col. William Jennings to advance with his regiment along the Auglaize and build an intermediate post mid-way between St. Marys and Defiance. He took with him a large herd of cattle, food and other supplies to deliver to Winchester once he arrived in Defiance. On Sept. 30, Harrison received word that Winchester was unknowingly marching toward a large British and Indian force near Defiance. Harrison assembled all the men at St. Marys including Pogues and Barbees regiments and immediately set out for Defiance. The sense of urgency is witnessed by the fact that despite the weather, Harrisons force of 3000 men advanced 30 miles that day and arrived Fort Jennings just as the sun was going down. When it was discovered that to be a false alarm, on Oct. 2, Harrison ordered Lt. Col. Barbee to return to St. Marys, Pogue, who was still at Ft. Jennings at the time, to finish cutting a road to Defiance then return to the "old Ottawa Town" 12 miles from St. Marys and build a stockade. He named it Fort Amanda.



The red line represents the road Pogue was to cut from Jennings to Defiance a distance of 35 miles.Coincidentally, at 20 miles, one days march, from Jennings the men someone built Fort Brown.

Where is Fort Brown?

Fort Brown is located on the west bank of the Auglaize River 20 miles north of Fort Jennings. It was one of a chain of forts built along the Auglaize river during the War of 1812 to support troops moving to the front lines and to keep supply routes open.


Historical Marker at Fort Brown
41° 6.699′ N, 84° 24.881′ W

FORT BROWN was built m 1812 by a "Col. Brown." Together with Fort Jennings and Fort Amanda to thesouth, and Fort Winchester to the north, it guarded the army supply route into the Maumee Valley. In 1813 Gen. Greene Clay's Kentucky Militia, forming the left wing of Harrison's army, passed this site in boats on their way to relieve besieged Fort Meigs. According to tradition several soldiers are buried on this site.

Who Built Fort Brown?

First of all, despite the fact that the historical marker at Fort Brown says that the fort was built by Col. Brown, it should be noted that Colonels didn't build forts, the soldiers in their companies built the forts. The Colonels just got credit for it.

Here's What We Do Know

The one thing we know for certain is that it was built before March 1813. That's proven by 2 sources. The first from a journal entry kept by Ensign William Schillinger at Fort Amanda. On March 24, he wrote:

 Wednesday, the 24th of March, 1813
Weather cold & cloudy, All hands busy raising a block house - our Major dispatch,d our orderly sergeant and one Man on express to forts - Jennings, Brown & Defiance - Our Men which had been complaining all able to walk about

The second was a journal entry written by Lieutenant William Shafor of the Ohio militia. On April 12, 1813 he wrote:

 “April 9th, we were ordered to Amanda, and on the same night started to Fort Jennings, arriving there on the 11th. On the 12th we went to Brown and on the same night to Defiance and on the 14th to Fort Meigs."

Note, Lt. Shafor tells he "went" to Brown" on April 12th, but he also tells us he didn't stay the night there. He added: "...and on the same night to Defiance..." They probably didn't stay there because for some unexplained reason they had problems getting to Fort Jennings on the 9th and were in a hurry to catch up with Gen. Harrison and he rest of the troops before they got to Ft. Meigs

Before You Yell "Eureka"

On of the most frustrating things about doing historical research is that one can spend hours, days even months following a lead only to find out it leads to a dead end. Such was the case in something I read at this site: Fort Brown:" Also in 1812, Fort Brown was built at the confluence of the Big and Little Auglaize Rivers by General William Henry Harrison’s troops under Colonel Samuel Wells."

With that information, I thought it might be a good idea to find out first if Colonel Samuel Wells was even in the area of the Fort Brown site. Turns out he may not have been.Tracking the Colonel
I tracked Colonel Wells movements from Harrison's papers and it looked to me like he was at Shane's Crossing in Mercer County in September 1812, 35 miles from Brown. I next find him at Fort Wayne where he joined Winchesters forces later that month. My guess is his regiment left Fort Wayne on the Sept. 22 and was part of Winchesters force heading toward Defiance. 

Now the dead end.

Wells was geographically in the area of the Fort Brown site, but there was a lot of activity in the area at that time including building Fort Winchester (Defiance). Add to that there was a lot of dissension among the troops who had "signed up" to fight Indians and as of this time they hadn't even seen one. Add that they were very low on supplies.

With all that in mind, if I was Harrison I would be a little hesitant to ask men who had traveled all over northwest Ohio, marched for days in mud and rain, hadn't yet seen an Indian and who were practically starving, if they would build a fort.

Keep in mind throughout all this, the only regiments Harrison refers to in regards to creating supply a chain from St. Marys to Defiance were Barbee, Pogue and Jennings. He makes no mention of a "Col. Brown" as part of that force and now there's the possibility that Colonel Samuel Wells may not have built the fort.

The $1,000,000 Question

So here's the million dollar question: Is it possible Pogue's men built it?



The red line represents the road Pogue was to cut from Jennings to Defiance a distance of 35 miles. Coincidentally, at 20 miles, one days march, from Jennings the men someone built Fort Brown.

Consider This
Pogue's Command

Pogue's Command	Officers	Men
Lt. Col. Pogue, Robert (Staff)	2	9
Capt. Simon R. Baker	3	41
Capt. Joseph C. Belt	3	75
Capt. William Brown	3	80
Capt.  Clemmons	3	59
Capt. John Dowden	3	98
Capt. Washington Kennedy	3	63
Capt. John McKee	3	79
Capt. George Matthews	3	56
Capt. Whitehead	3	37
Capt. McGuire	3	57
Capt. Thompson Ward	3	64
Waggoners (teamsters)		10
Totals (officers & men)	35	728

I realize this may be a stretch but bear with me. With all the scant information we have to date on Fort Brown, the information that is available is questionable. For example, there is some question as to whether Col. Wells regulars would even build a fort or if that was left up to contractors and militia troops. We don't know if the "fort" was a fort in the classical sense, or simply a stockade. We have no records of anyone dying there (although with all the disease, there must have been some). In fact, we don't know with absolute certainty whether the forts namesake was "Col. Brown" or if he was even a colonel.

Keep in Mind

The Kentucky volunteers with Pogue were getting pretty disheartened too because they had signed up to kill Indians and British soldiers and here they were cutting roads and doing escort service for supply wagons. Remember also these were men who did not want to be referred to as "militia" choosing instead to be called volunteers.

Now Consider This

As I wrote earlier, Colonels don't build forts, their men do, so is it possible that Captain William Brown, one of Pogue's company commanders, was part of the road cutting detail and Pogue told him to stop at one days march (20 miles), and build some kind of post (Fort Brown). Hopefully one day we'll find out.?

Regardless of who built Fort Brown, whether it was "Col. Brown' or Captain William Brown, the fact is, it existed and it was an important link in Harrison's supply chain along the Auglaize. We still have 1 clue remaining, Captain William Brown had 83 men in his company and we know who they were. When I get the time I plan to search out all I can find on them and hope that one of them, like Schillinger and Shafor, kept some kind of journal. If found it could solve a lot of mysteries about Fort Brown and the "Mysterious Col. Brown."