An Average Day at Fort Amanda - Inventories and British Visitor

 

A Day in the Life of a Ft. Amanda Soldier  

While visitors to the Ft. Amanda park today will find a peaceful, serene place, a lovely spot to picnic or just enjoy nature, in 1813 it was anything but.  The area was a hustling bustling, noisy and rather unpleasant smelling place.

A bronze plaque on the obelisk shows a stylized version of a typical square shaped frontier fort with 4 blockhouses, in reality, Fort Amanda was rectangular shaped, enclosing an area of approx. 64,000 sq. ft (1 1/2 acres) and there were 5 blockhouses not 4.  

In addition, there were sheds for storage, corrals for horses, cattle, hogs and oxen, a gunpowder storage area, a boat building area across the river, a 19th century version of an army PX (commissary) and buildings that at one time held several thousand pounds of bacon and 9,000 gallons of whiskey.      

The Johnson Theory:  The area surrounding the monument has long been accepted as the original "footprint" of the fort however my theory suggests that the southeast end of the fort may actually have been a few feet south of the obelisk and extended 320 feet to the northwest, or approx. 200 feet into the adjacent field.   I'll be posting more about this at a later date.    

The Men  of Fort Amanda

 On Feb. 28, 1813, Captain Thompson Ward, of the Kentucky militia turned over command of Ft. Amanda to Captain Daniel Hosbrook, commander of a company of Ohio militia troops from Hamilton and Clermont counties.   Census records and letters show that some of the men were neighbors and even relatives.  Many had immigrated from New Jersey and Maryland.  The average age of the officers (Hosbrook, Davis and Schillinger) was 30.  The average age of the enlisted men was  26 and ranged from age 17 to 50   There were 3 teenagers in the company; John Hamilton, James Warbington, and John Landon.

  Formality

In today’s military, there is a definite hierarchy and chain of command between enlisted men and women and their officers with fraternization between the two, often frowned upon.  The same appears to have been the case at Fort Amanda.    Schillinger, the officer who kept a daily journal at Amanda was neighbors with at least one of the men yet he referred to him and others as “Mr.” or simply “one of the men.”   He rarely used first names.  He referred to his fellow officers by their rank and last names; i.e. Lieutenant Davis and Captain Hosbrook. 

 The Fort Amanda facility itself was a formal structured, sophisticated, well managed and disciplined military installation. Like todays military, documentation is required for almost everything and the same was true at the fort. Ensign Schillinger's civilian job was township clerk for Columbia township in Hamilton County so he was the logical choice for managing the accounting system at Amanda. He was responsible for preparing "returns;" documentation showing the number of meals distributed by which group on a given day, and where men were assigned that day. The pic below is of one of Schillinger's "returns" showing the Captain received 3 meal rations par day, the Lieutenant and Ensign 2 each and the private soldiers 1 ration per day. Every type of transaction was recorded. Military related correspondence between the officers and non-commissioned officers was also formal and in writing.

Mornings

At Fort Amanda the day began at sunrise.  Unlike Ft. St. Marys where the morning wakeup call or reveille was the firing of a small cannon, at Amanda it was probably a drum roll performed by Pvt. Lewis Bayle, company drummer.  The men lined up and a roll call taken to see if anyone had deserted during the night or if anyone was too sick to work that day.  The men were given their allotted rations for the day and work assignments and after breakfast, weather permitting, they practiced marching in different formations.  Following that they dispersed to their work assignment. 

 Typical Work Assignments

1.   Keeping the place clean.  Hygene and cleanliness were major concerns in the frontier forts, not only for appearance sake but to prevent the spread of diseases.  Each day a group was assigned to do general policing (cleanup) around the fort and included things like covering sinks (latrines/toilets), digging new ones (yes there were military specs on where to place them), disposing of animal carcasses and general cleanup.

2.   Construction work:  With increased war activities to the north, additional storage space was needed at Amanda so in addition to expanding the size of the fort the men also needed to build a smokehouse add a 5th blockhouse and build additional storage sheds.  

 

3. Ammunition:  One thing an army could never have enough of is ammunition.  In 1813 the "bullets" were called "cartridges."   A cartridge consisted of a paper tube filled with gunpowder and a lead ball.  It was tied off at both ends and when needed, a man simply chewed the end off the end of the tube, dumped the gunpowder and ball down into the barrel of the rifle. When men weren't doing other work around the fort, they were put to work making cartridges. 

A side note:  A man could be exempted from military service in 1812 if he had few front teeth.  In a battle situation, a soldier needed to be able to chew off the powder end of the cartridge so he could dump the powder and ball down into the musket.  Without front teeth that could have been difficult as well as a danger to his comrades.

4.   Slaughter house:  Beef cows and pigs were herded to Ft. Amanda on foot (to save money) usually in large droves.  There they were slaughtered, the meat smoked then placed in barrels for shipment.  Beef was the meat of choice during the summer months and pork during the winter.  One of the first assignment for Hosbrook's men was to get rid of animal carcasses left over from butchering that were strewn along the river bank. 

5.   Firewood:  Every morning, teams of men were sent into nearby woods to gathering and cutting firewood.  Enormous amounts of wood was needed for construction projects as well as for cooking fires and to heat the blockhouses and cabins.

6.  Blockhouse.:  There were 5 blockhouses at Amanda, each manned by sentries 24 hours a day. A fifth blockhouse called the "Picket blockhouse" was added in the middle of March 1813 and indications are it served not only as a sentry station but possibly the forts commissary store managed by a man named "Picket."

7.  Supply Depot:  

  

Supplies being shipped north on the Auglaize were brought to and stored at Amanda then dispensed as needed.  The chart below, shows the inventory at Fort Amanda in July of 1813. 

400 barrels of flour

20 barrels of biscuits

69 barrels of whiskey (3000 gal.)

45 barrels of salt

110,000 pounds of bacon (yes, 55 tons of bacon)

14 boxes of soap  

22 boxes of candles. 

 8.  Boat Construction:  When needed, men from Amanda went across the river to work with civilian contractors building boats.  Large numbers and various types of watercraft were built there in 1813.   

 9. Deliveries:  As orders came in for supplies needed at forts Jennings, Brown or Winchester, men at Amanda loaded the supplies into pirogues (canoes) or on large rafts and delivered the materials to  them.  

Meals

Indications are that the officers ate their meals separately from the private soldiers.  Schillinger used the term "our cook" 4 times in his journal.  For a time I had assumed that one of the private soldiers was designated as the cook for their group, but the following excerpts have caused me to rethink that.  

Mar. 6 - "This evening, our cook being sick, I had to cook supper,

Mar. 27 - "I went out with our cook to get a Broom stick." 

Apr. 7 -  "This morning our cook in company with an Indian went out hunting and kill,d five turkeys"  

July 6 -  "this morning our cook kill,d A fawn 12 oclock."

To add some variety to their meals, Schillinger often went into the woods to hunt for deer, rabbits, pheasants and turkey.  He tells us that  the men also fished in the Auglaize and would sometimes purchase fruits and vegetables from the Indians in Wapak.  While he doesn't specifically mention chickens, it wouldn't have been uncommon to see chickens running loose around the fort.   They were a good food source and by letting them roam for their own food they needed little attention.  They may also have been a number of small gardens for fresh vegetables.

Sentry Duty

As mentioned earlier, there were 5 blockhouses at Fort Amanda.  Schillinger tells us that on at least 2 occasions, sentries spotted and fired on Indians near the fort.  On March 8 he wrote:  

 Receiv,d intelligence this evening By Mr. Oliver, Express to Gen’l Harrison that the Shawonoes, had Discover,d 5  Potawatimies skulking in the woods between our fort & Wapukanati the Indian town 8 miles above on the river

Two months later on May 8th he wrote:   

Saturday the 8 1813

Cloudy Drizley weather, at 4 A.M. one of our Centinels Discovered 2 Indians approaching the fort fired at them but miss,d.  The Lieut & myself & one Man went Down the River about 6 miles to see what Discoveries we could make of Indians  found some fresh Signs of 2 or 3  returned to fort and went out in the evening and & killed some pigeons

 As for the sentry schedules, I've yet to figure them out but using post 5 for example, my thought is this. 

 On this date (Apr,. 17, 1813) James Dougherty was sentry at post 5 from 6 pm to 10 pm.  He was relieved by William Patterson at 10 pm who then manned post 5 until 4 am. Notice how

 John Hamilton's schedule overlaps both (8 pm until 2 am).  Could it be that hours between 8 and 2 were considered the hours in which the fort was most vulnerable to danger and the men on the 8 to 2 schedule "floated between the other 2" as an extra pair of eyes and to ensure that everyone was awake and alert.   Just a thought.  

Discipline

Depending on locations and situations, sleeping on sentry duty could result in execution by firing squad. It wasn't that severe at Amanda.  On April 16, 1813, Sergeant Bradbury caught John Hamilton asleep at Post 5.  He arrested him had him taken to a cabin in the fort for confinement.  The following morning Bradbury sent the following report of the incident to Ensign Schillinger, then the acting commander of the fort 

 Hamilton was in the "Ft. Amanda jail" for 3 days.  Three days later, Sergeant Swing caught 29-year-old Pvt. Archibald Job sleeping on sentry duty and arrested him.  Like Hamilton, he was released 3 days later.   

A Face From The Past

Another sentry on duty that night was 20-year-old Pvt. George Bowman, sentry on post 3.   The picture below is of Bowman taken in 1865 when he was 72 years old.  

   

The face of a man who meant business

One particularly colorful character in the company was 50 year old John  Burrows (Burris)who  friends described the 6 ft. 5" tall Burris was described by acquantainces as:

 "Given to poetry, confining his wit & genius to satire of local characters. These he would sing to very appreciative audiences.”

On March 5, Schillinger wrote that private J. Burrow (Burris) had deserted.  I'm still working on this.

The British Come to Fort Amanda

 

 The second and last attempt by the British to capture Fort Meigs (Perrysburg, Oh.) officially began on July 21, 1813.  After 2 unsuccessful attempts, at least one man must have decided that he had enough. On July 24th, 3 days after the siege began, a British deserter arrived at the gate of Fort Amanda. Whether he'd officially surrendered somewhere between Meigs and Amanda is unknown, but its highly unlikely that he passed through forts Winchester, Brown and Jennings and dozens of American soldiers along the way without having some kind of proof that he's surrendered.  That proof may have been a document called a "parole." 

Parole

During the War, it was to little advantage for armies to keep large numbers of prisoners.  Afterall prisoners needed to be guarded, fed and sheltered and those all required manpower.  One solution was once a battle was over, and the high value targets (high ranking officers) separated out, soldiers could sign a document in which they agreed to go home and not take up arms against them for the remainder of the war.   Not a gentleman's agreement or honor system because if a man  was found to have violated those conditions he could be executed on the spot.    

Consider this.  It's roughly 115 land miles from Ft. Amanda to Ft. Meigs.  We know the British soldier arrived at Amanda on the afternoon of July 24th.  If the man deserted on the first day of the  siege at Ft. Meigs (July 21) that would mean he had just traveled 115 miles in 3 days an average of 38 miles per day.   That's impressive.   

A Non-Event?

The following is Schillinger's journal entry for the day the British soldier came to Ft. Amanda.

Saturday the 24^th July

Clear & warm, sent one of our Men after the Doctor,  Capt Benagh being very sick,  went out hunting this afternoon  Kill,d nothing but a coon  One of the Brittish Deserters came to fort this evening.

  There are 2 things that I found interesting in this entry; 1) the way it's written gives the impression that to him (Schillinger), the incident was a non-event, in fact he never mentions it again.  And 2), notice the words, "One of the Brittish Deserters," and the word "one of."  Was Schillinger saying simply that he had heard that several British deserted at Meigs OR was he saying that this soldiers was the first of many expected to come to Amanda.   We'll may never know.

Did Schillinger Talk With the Deserter?

Quite possibly.  In 1813 Captain Sebree of the Kentucky militia drew a map of Fort Meigs (The Sebree map).   Keep in mind Schillinger had never been to Fort Meigs yet on the same day the British deserter arrives at Fort Amanda Schillinger makes a sketch in his journal that closely resembles the Ft Meigs drawn on Sebree's map.   In other words, the only way Schillinger could draw a map of Ft. Meigs is if someone described it to him and my thought is the person who did that was the British soldier.

 

 

 At Days End, No Shortage of Entertainment

Schillinger, a staunch Presbyterian, spent most of his evenings in his cabin writing letters to his wife Alasanna.   As for the other soldiers, they probably spent their evenings sitting around campfires laughing, telling stories and enjoying the music of the company musicians; Lewis Bayley, a drummer and Robert Ross, who played the fife.   

 

                                          Lewis Bayley

Add to that a ration of whisky or rum and for at least a brief period of time, the men could, at least temporarily, forget about the dangers of the war that surrounded them and the melancholy feeling of being a long way from home. 

 

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f you would like learn more about Fort Amanda and the men who passed through or were stationed there or the wives and mothers who "kept the home fires burning" these books can be purchased locally, on the net or by contacting me at djohnson43@att.net

     

                 $20                                                              $15

Available at;
Readmore's Hallmark stores in Lima, Ohio (E. Elm st., Eastgate and Flanders ave.

Casa Chic (109 W. Auglaize st)  in Wapakoneta, Ohio

The Allen County Museum (620 W. Market st) in Lima, Ohio 

Amazon.com 

If you'd like a signed copy email me at djohnson43@att.net and I'll send you the details.

If you're looking for a speaker related to this subject for  your group, simply email me at djohnson43@tt.net. I do not charge speaking fees. 

 

 

William Ogden – Death at Winchester Camp 3

Things Remain Mysteries Because We Give Up Trying To Solve Them.

The Mystery of Lieutenant William Ogden's Grave 

(1790 - 1813)

If I've learned anything over the years of doing historical research, it's that things can often fall into the "well its a mystery" category simply because we fail to take the time and make the extra efforts to solve them, especially if we consider them of little consequence to an overall storyline.  Case in point are the countless number of ordinary soldiers who during the War of 1812, died, were buried in unmarked graves and basically forgotten sometimes even by their own descendants.

One such soldier was a man named William Ogden from Clermont County, Ohio.  Ogden, like hundreds of others never made it home.  His death wasn't glorious, he more than likely died from the measles in  a dirty, filthy, disease ridden fort at Defiance, Oh.  (Ft. Winchester)   For over 200 hundred years history has treated him, like so many others as a "who cares" or his life was "of little consequence to an overall storyline." I took that as a challenge.   

My first introduction to Ogden was through studying a journal of William Schillinger, an Ensign at Fort Amanda who kept a daily journal while stationed there from March  to August 1813. Schillinger mentions Ogden only twice in his journal; once when Ogden arrived at Ft. Amanda and the second when he was told that Ogden had died.   Ordinarily I'd not have pursued the subject any further until I remembered how I the terms "unknown soldier" and "burial site unknown" always bothered me.  I knew Ogden had died at Fort Winchester (Defiance, Oh.) the middle of July 1813, but the question was where?

First what we know about Ogden the man

We don't know much about William Ogden the man.  Other than internet sources showing he was born in Maryland around1780, little is known about his pre-military days.  What we do know is he married married a woman named Sarah Stewart/Stuart (b. 1790). It's believed the couple made their home in Neville, Ohio, a small town on the bank of the Ohio River.  Ogden may have been married prior because some sources state that when he died in 1813 he left behind a 4-year-old daughter, Mary,  and 8-year old son, Lucian.  In 1813, Sarah was 23-year-old.  Lucian, 8 years old born in 1805 meaning  Sarah would have been 14 or 15-years old when Lucian was born which, though possible, isn't likely.  As for an occupation, William was probably a farmer. 

My Quest to Find Ogden's Gravesite

To fully appreciate the conditions the men were subjected to in the area in 1812 - 13 look no further than the story of Winchester's Camp #3 or better known to the soldiers there as "Camp Starvation."  Camp #3 was located on the north side of the Maumee River and 6 miles east of Ft. Winchester (Defiance, Oh.)   

What's for supper?   Horsemeat, leather belts and shoes again?

During Nov. and Dec. 1812, several hundred soldiers died at Fort Winchester, and at Gen. Winchester's Camp 3 (Camp Starvation) The Kentuckians at Camp 3 entered service in August of 1812 wearing only linen clothing.  That Winter was particularly brutal and with the shortages of supplies the men were forced to eat their horses and even boil down leather shoes and belts to eat.  The graves of 300+ Kentuckian militia soldiers  who died at Camp #3 were discovered in 1845 while crews were digging the Miami-Erie Canal.   The site is marked by a historical marker.

Ogden wasn't afforded the luxury of a dignified funeral or a marked grave and in fact, his burial site has gone unidentified for over 200 years.  The purpose of his blog is to present evidence to show where I believe William Ogden is buried.  You be the judge.   

William Ogden the Soldier - 1813

The first mention of William Ogden the soldier in any records I've found to date is in the journal kept by William Schillinger, an Ensign stationed at Fort Amanda and who kept meticulous records of daily events including the weather.  On March 8, Schillinger wrote the following in his journal.

Monday the 8 March 

This morning cold, & cloudy,  Lieutenant Ogdon, of Capt Seaton’s  company with 12 Men March,d to join the company at fort Defiance, there being no prospect of getting down by water with their baggage on acount of the Ice & they Left two Men, one of which being Lame & unable to travel -  our sick Men on the mend -  Men busy Chinking the block house and hang the S.W. gate,  Receiv,d intelligance this evening By Mr. Oliver, Express to Gen’l Harrison that the Shawonoes, had Discover,d 5  Potawatimies skulking in the woods between our fort & Wapukanati the Indian town 8 miles above on the river

William Ogden was a lieutenant in a militia company from Clermont County, Oh. led by Captain Thomas Seton.  Seaton and most of his company arrived at Fort Amanda around 4 o'clock in the afternoon of March 1, 1813.  Seton's company was on its way to relieve the troops now at Fort Winchester (Defiance, Oh.).   Military life must not have suited at least 2 men in the company as they deserted a few days later. 

The following week, March 8, Lt. Ogden and 12 others from Seton's company arrive at Fort Amanda. As an officer, Ogden may have remained behind to help 12 men who hadn't kept up with the rest of the company.   We know from Schillinger's journal that at least one of men was "lame" and was unable to go any further.  How long that man remained at Amanda is unknown.    

Normally the men would have loaded into boats and traveled on to Ft. Winchester, but the weather was so  cold, the Auglaize River had frozen over and they had no chance but to go on to Ft. Winchester by foot. 

Ogden's New Home- Ft. Winchester

Fort Winchester was built a short distance south of Wayne’s old Fort Defiance.  Years after the war, a man named William Atherton, who was a soldier stationed at Ft. Winchester during it’s construction wrote this about Ft. Winchester’s location.

"south of the ruins of Fort Defiance, near the present First Street of the city of Defiance, Ohio, the fort extended southward to, or south of, Third Street, a distance of something over six hundred feet, and including the highest ground. Its east line was about Washington Street. It was in the form of a parallelogram, and extended in width to about Jefferson Street."

Weather and Illness; a Correlation?

One thing is for certain, illness was taking its toll on men in forts on the Auglaize that year.  On July 4th, 1813, all celebrations at Fort Amanda were cancelled because so many of the men were sick with either measles or other ailments.  The same was no doubt true at Ft. Winchester as well.

To give readers some idea of what weather was like at that time, I compiled a list of the weather conditions Schillinger recorded each day.   Bottom line; of the time the men were on active duty, it  was either cold, cool or rainy 80% of time.  Put another way, of the 197 days the men were on active duty, the weather was pretty miserable 158 of them.   

The weather the men endured in 1813

 

What Happened to Ogden? 

The next mention of Ogden is found in Schillinger's journal entry of  July 16, 1813.  Measles and other diseases were running rampant at Ft. Winchester.  Captain Seton had less than a month of enlistment time left, but was so ill, he had to turn over his command at Winchester to Capt. Daniel Hosbrook, (Ft. Amanda).  Seton stopped at Amanda on his  way home and informed them that  "he had lost his Lieut by sickness."   With less than 3 weeks left on his active duty time, William Ogden had died.

Friday the 16^th

very cool,  river rising,  some of our men repairing  a couple of pirogues for the purpose of taking some flour Down to fort Jennings,   4 PM. Capt Seaton arrivd at fort from Winchester  Received A Letter from Maj Kain  Men many of them sick at that fort  Capt Seaton quite ill & informd us that he had lost his Lieut by sickness,  Ensign Fleming of the Kentucky troops came to the fort this evening  from the settlements  no news particular

 The Mystery  - Ogden's Gravesite

Clue #1

One obvious question is "why wouldn't they bury Ogden where they buried the Kentuckians at Camp 3?"  I think the answer to that is why would they go to all the trouble to ferry the body across the Maumee River, than transport it 6 miles east to where they buried the Kentuckians.  Besides, it was common knowledge that the there was no love loss between the Kentuckians and Ohio troops.  The Ohioans saw Kentuckians as uncouth, backwoods country bumpkins and the Kentuckians viewed the Ohio troops as undependable an likely to run at the first sign of a fight.  NOTE:  Kentuckians suffered the highest casualty rate during the war.  

Site A or B?

What about in the area marked  "A" - Ft. Defiance had been abandoned by that point but some of the buildings probably still existed meaning there probably would have been some amount of foot and wagon traffic between Ft. Winchester and Ft. Defiance.  Having to pass through or even by a graveyard of dead soldiers would not have been a good idea in my view.

What about area marked "B" -  The area west of the fort would have been somewhat of a high traffic area.  Troops arriving from the south would have generally followed the dotted line route shown in the pic above which would have led directly to the fort.   In addition, troops  needed campsites and being close to a road seems logical.   

Clue #2

OK, If Not Areas "A" or "B" Where?

The most logical spot to bury the dead would have been "out of site, out of mind," for obvious reasons, and the area south of the fort seems to have been the best choice.  Looking at early maps of the area I learned that in 1880 there was a Presbyterian cemetery located south of the fort at the southeast corner of Washington and 4th street.   Going on the thought that  the Presbyterians used the old military graveyard as their new graveyard I began to wonder if Ogden was buried there.  

The black and white pics are from an 1880 map of the area.  The colored picture (top right) is the area today. 

Location Relative to the Fort

Area C shows the relative position of the old Presbyterian Church Cemetery to Fort Winchester.  The distance from the fort to the cemetery is approx. 400 feet.

"Some" Bodies Removed in 1847

Riverside Cemetery

The marker above is interesting in that it says that it marks the graves of soldiers from 1794 and the War of 1812 which raises a new question. Was there a cemetery for the soldiers at Ft. Defiance AND another for the soldiers at Ft. Winchester, OR, were they all buried in on the site of the old Presbyterian cemetery and later to removed to the Riverside cemetery? 

So Where is Ogden Buried?

An internet site for the old Presbyterian cemetery states that in 1847 "some of the bodies were removed." The term "some" intrigued me as it means that not all of the bodies there had been removed. The remains of the soldiers buried there would have been 50 years old by then which makes me wonder if perhaps little if nothing of Ogden's body remained. Whether they were moved doesn't really matter but truth be told, I'd like to like to think they weren't, they may remain, undisturbed under the parking lot on the east end of the church. And if his remains were moved to Riverside Cemetery, that's OK too because at the end of the day, the important thing is a man who was basically unknown to history and likely forgotten by his descendants now has an identity and a place in written history, albeit only a blog.  

What Became of William Ogden's Wife, Sarah

Two years after William's death, On Sept. 16, 1815, Sarah married a man named Elijah Larkin. They went on to have more children and lived out their lives, a highly respected couple in the village of Neville in Clermont County, Ohio. Sarah died at her daughter Polly's home in Neville on June 8, 1875. She and Elijah are buried in the Neville cemetery.

Conclusion

The next time I'm up near Defiance, I'll probably be driving the old Defiance Trail and as I'm driving into town I'll turn right and go over to the Presbyterian church at the corner of Washington and 4th st.

If by chance a member of an Ogden family in Clermont or nearby county reads this blog and finds that he/she is a descendant I hope they remember this. William Ogden never got the opportunity to sit his grandkids on his knees and tell them stories about growing up, the war, and stories of their ancestors, so my hope is that the modern day story tellers of the Ogden family do just that. William Ogden was forgotten for 200 years, whether he disappears from history again will be up to them.