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***** THE SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C- FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1938 Battle of Thames 125 Years Ago Ended Career of a Great Red Man Gen. W. H. Harrison's Victory on October 5, 1813, Not Only Marked the Passing Of "The Most Extraordinary Indian Character in American History" But Also Helped Make Col. R. M. Johnson, Reputed Slayer of Tecurrseh, Vice-President Of the United States. • Western Newspaper Union. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON O N AN October day 125 years ago there died in battle one of the great est Indians the American continent has ever known. His name was Tecumseh, a chieftain of the Shawnee tribe, and the engagement in which he was killed was the Battle of the Thames. This battle is not nearly so well known to the average Ameri can as a dozen others of less er importance but its after- math makes it one of the most interesting engage ments in the history of the United States. The history of Tecumseh he lms in 1768 when the wife of Chief Puckeshinwau of the Shaw- nees, in the Indian village of Pi- qua on the Mad river near the present site of Springfield, Ohio, gave birth to twin sons. One of them was given the name of La- la we thika, referring to a dance rattle or some similar instru ment. Later he would take the name of Tenskwatawa, meaning the Open Door, through which he would lead his people to a new and better life. The whites would know him as The Prophet, whose skill as a demagogue, when com bined with the statesmanship and military genius of his brother, would be one of the most serious threats to white domination of the Middle West that it had ever known. The other twin was given the name of Tikamthi or Tecumtha, meaning One Who Springs and indicating that he belonged to the clan of tiie Great Medicine Pan ther or Meteor. So the Shaw- nees knew him as the Crouching Panther or the Shooting Star, but history would write him down as Tecumseh. When the twins were six years old their father was killed in the Battle of Point Pleasant, W. Va., where Andrew Lewis and his Vir ginia frontiersmen defeated Chief Cornstalk and his Shawnees.’Aft er that young Tecumseh was placed under the care of an elder brother who taught him the ways .if warriors until this elder broth er was killed in battle with the whites on the Tennessee frontier in 1788 or 1789. A Fighting Heritage. With this fighting heritage Te cumseh soon distinguished him self as a warrior but one who was more humane and chival rous toward his enemies than was common among his tribes men. He fought in two great bat tles of that period—at the defeat cf St. Clair in 1792 and at Fallen Timbers in 1794 when “Mad An- — The Death of Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames. <rram mm *m W m« »t> TSCiraBsm-' thony” Wayne smashed the pow er of the Indian confederacy that had been formed by Little Turtle, the Miami leader. Unreconciled to accepting peace with the whites, Tecumseh re fused to take part in the Treaty of Greenville and gathered around him a band of young war riors who roved over the pres ent states of Ohio and Indiana before finally settling down on the White river in Indiana about 1708. He remained there for a few years, peacefully occupied with hunting, until the continued encroachment of the whites upon the lands guaranteed to the In dians by the Treaty of Green ville aroused him to action. On the ground that the Ohio valley country belonged to all the tribes in common, he denied the right of a single tribe to sell its lands to the whites. When the federal government refused to accept this principle and began negotiations for the purchase of more land from the Red Men, he determined to form a great confederation of all the Western and Southern tribes for the pur pose of holding the Ohio river as the permanent boundary be tween the two races. Undaunted by the fact that Pontiac, the Ottawa, and Little Turtle, the Miami, had failed in such a scheme, the Shawnee leader began visiting other tribes and enlisting their support. No doubt he was doomed to failure, just as the other Indian leaders had failed, but the chances are that his attempt to hold back the tide of white settlement would have come nearer realization than theirs had it not been for his brother, the Prophet. Tecumseh probably realized that the Prophet was a charlatan but he was glad enough to have the aid of Tenskwatawa’s influ ence over the superstitious sav ages in forwarding his plan. He could not foresee that the charac ter of his twin brother might make him more of a liability than an asset to his cause. For that was exactly what happened. While Tecumseh was attempt ing to enlist the Southern tribes in his confederation, the Prophet on November 7, 1811, precipitat ed the attack on the forces of Gen. William Henry Harrison at the Tippecanoe river which end ed so disastrously for the Indians. Not only was the Prophet thor oughly discredited among the Shawnees by that defeat, but it dampened the ardor of other tribes for Tecumseh’s scheme and he saw his elaborate plans crash to the earth. Embittered by this disappoint ment and still unreconciled to accepting American domination over his country, Tecumseh wel comed the outbreak of the War of 1812 and cast his lot with the British as a possibility of regain ing control of his ancestral lands. Nearly all of the war chiefs fol lowed his lead and Tecumseh soon found himself the nominal head of more than 700 Shawnee warriors. Made a British General. Gen. Isaac Brock, commander of the British forces in the West, immediately recognized the gen ius of Tecumseh and made him a brigadier-general. Thus the Shawnee chieftain had the dis tinction of being one of two In dians who ever held such high rank in a white man’s army. The other was Gen. Ely S. Parker, an Iroquois who served on Grant’s stall during the Civil war. There was a strong bond of friendship between Brock and Te cumseh which continued until Brock’s death at the Battle of Queenstown in October, 1812. General Proctor, his successor, lacked all of the qualities which had won the admiration and re spect of Tecumseh for Brock. De spite the aid of the Shawnee lead er and the 2,000 warriors of the allied tribes which he placed at Proctor’s disposal, the British leader soon proved himself such a bungler, if not actually a cow ard, that Tecumseh clearly fore saw the ultimate triumph of the Americans. He covered Proctor’s retreat before Harrison’s army, after Perry’s decisive victory on Lake Erie until he became disgusted with the British commander and, declining to retreat farther, forced Proctor to make a stand on the Thames river near the present site of Chatham, Ontario. Even then he was not sure that Proctor would fight if he could avoid it. His low opinion of the British commander was soon justified. At the first attack by Harrison’s troops, Proctor fled in his car riage, accompanied by his per sonal staff, a few dragoons and some mounted Indians. When the American cavalry broke the Brit ish line, Proctor’s soldiers imme diately threw down their arms and surrendered. Within five minutes after the first shot was fired, the British force was beat en and most of them were pris oners. Very different was the situa tion when the Kentucky cavalry men struck the Indians. Before the battle, Tecumseh with a pre sentiment of disaster, had told his friends that he would never leave the battlefield alive. So he had laid aside his British gen eral’s uniform and gone into ac tion dressed in his native cos tume. Under his leadership, the Indi ans stoutly resisted the onslaught of Col. Richard M. Johnson’s mounted men and it was not un til Tecumseh fell that the sav ages at last gave way. Who Killed Tecumseh? The slayer of the Shawnee chieftain is unknown. Since there was nothing in his dress to dis tinguish him from any other war- rior, no one on the American side knew when he fell or whose bul let it was that killed him. But that did not prevent several Americans from claiming that “honor.” In fact, the question “Who killed Tecumseh?" became a famous one in American politi cal history. When Col. Richard M. Johnson was a candidate for vice presi dent in 1836, his partisans, who hailed him as “The Hero of the Thames,” claimed that he was the slayer of the Shawnee chief tain, because in those days suc cess as an Indian fighter was a strong recommendation for polit ical preferment. The claim of Johnson’s follow ers was based upon the fact that during the battle of the Thames he had killed an Indian, supposed to be a chief, who had wounded him and was advancing upon him with upraised tomahawk when the Kentuckian shot the Indian with his pistol. They asserted that this chief was Tecumseh. Johnson Claims Corroborated. More than half a century later what appears to be a corrobo ration of the claims of the John son partisans appeared in the Century magazine. In a letter to the editor of the Century Ben jamin B. Griswold of Carroll, Md., asserted that in 1842 he was present when Johnson gave an accotmt of the incident and "re marked that for some time a doubt had existed whether the In dian killed was really the formid able chief or not; but, he added, in terms entirely unqualified, that recently developed circum stances had removed all uncer tainty as to this fact. He gave no information showing what cir cumstances had determined his question, but simply spoke with positiveness on the subject.” This resulted in another letter, written by D. B. Cook, editor of the Niles (Mich.) Minor, tell ing of an interview he had had with Noon Day, chief of the Ot- tawas, in 1838. He said Noon Day had told him that he was near Tecumseh when he was slain and had helped rnrry his body from the field. Later when Noon Day was taken to Washing ton by Gen. Lewis Cass to see the “Great White Father,” Pres ident Van Buren, and was intro duced to Vice President Johnson, he recognized him immediately as the man he had seen shoot Tecumseh at the Thames. So it seems entire probable that Johnson was the slayer of the great Shawnee leader. Indicative of the greatness of Tecumseh is the fact that despite pioneer prejudice against the In dian, he was the subject of a poetic tribute by one of Ohio’s early bards. Charles A. Jones (1815-1851) was the author of TECUMSEH Aunt Tibby’s Trunk By- D. J. WALSH Copyright—WNU Service. Where rolls the dark and turbid Thames His consecrated wave along Sleeps one, than whose, few are the names More worthy of the lyre and song; Yet o’er whose spot of lone re pose No pilgrim eyes are seen to weep; And no memorial marble throws Its shadows where his ashes sleep. Stop, stranger! there Tecumseh lies; Behold the lowly resting place Of all that of the hero dies; The Caesar—Tully—of his race; Whose arm of strength and fiery tongue Have won him an immortal name. And from the mouths of millions wrung Reluctant tribute to his fame. Stop—for ’tis glory claims thy tear! True worth belongs to all man kind; And he whose ashes slumber here Though man in form was god in mind. What matter he was not like these In race and color—this the soul That marks man’s true divinity— Then let not shame thy ear control. Art thou a patriot?—so was he! His breast was Freedom’s holi est shrine; And as thou bondest there thy knee His spirit will unite with thbie. All that a man can give, he gave— His life—the country of his sires From the oppressor’s grasp to save; In vain—quenched are the na tion’s fires. Art thou a soldier? Dost thou not O’er deeds chivalric love to muse? Here stay thy steps—what better spot Couldst thou for contemplation choose? The earth beneath is holy ground, It holds a thousand valiant braves. Tread lightly o’er each little mound. For they are no ignoble graves. Thermopylae and Marathon, Though classic earth can boast no more Of deeds heroic than yon sun Once saw upon this lonely shore, When in a gallant nation’s last And deadliest struggle, for its own, Tecumseh’s fiery spirit pass’d In blood, and sought its Fa ther’s throne. Oh, softly fall the summer dew. The tears of heaven, upon his sod, For he in life and death was true Both to his country and his God; For, oh, if God to man has given From his bright home beyond the skies One feeling that’s akin to heaven, ’Tis he who for his country dies. Rest, warrior, rest! Though not a dirge Is thine, beside the wailing blast. Time cannot in oblivion merge The light thy star of glory cast; While heave yon high hills to the sky, While rolls yon dark and tur bid river, Thy name and fame can never die— Whom freedom loves will live forever. Discounting the sentimentality of that poem, so characteristic of the period in American litera- “DUT, Mazie,” remarked Bert Howard to his pretty little wife, “it isn’t quite fair that Aunt Tibby should want to come back so soon; it’s less than three weeks since she left, and she had been here six months. I have no ob jections to your aunt; she’s a nice old lady, if a bit eccentric, but you always work so hard enter taining her that you wear yourself out. Between worrying over her comfort and fussing about the safety of that old cowhide trunk, home becomes a place of torment for me instead of a haven of rest.” And then Mazie, whose bobbed crown of glory was decidedly of the shade beloved by Titian, and with a temper to correspond, replied thus: “If you were, proper ly interested in the welfare of your family you’d want to keep Aunt Tibby here all the time! Do you fancy that she herself would be so particular about that old cowhide trunk, as you are pleased to call it, if it didn’t contain valu ables? She told me—no, I won’t say she exactly told me, but she gave me to understand, and, I know all the family have the same impression—that in it she carries her stocks and bonds. She has bequeathed the trunk to the one in whose home she happens to die.” “Mazie!” exclaimed Bert, put ting his arms around his wife, “waiting for ‘dead men’s shoes’ is sorry business! Do what you can for your aunt without making your family unhappy, but put all such ideas as you’ve just men tioned out of mind; they are un worthy of you!” and Bert stopped to kiss his wife good-by. The first evening of Aunt Tib by’s arrival Mazie began, “Bar bara! do sit still! You’ll make Aunt Tibby nervous!” or "John! don’t walk so heavy!” Aunt Tibby had been with them several weeks when she came down with a cold. The doctor called pronounced the trouble pneumo nia. “Which at her age,” said he (Aunt Tibby was 86), “is a serious matter. You had better get a nurse.” Aunt Tibby had been so humored by her niece, howev er, that the nurse could do little to suit her, and Mazie was obliged to fetch and carry, to run up and down stairs until, ten days later* Aunt Tibby sank into her last sleep. After the funeral the relatives who had gathered from far and near demanded that the will be read at once. So the old cowhide trunk was brought down to the living room and opened in the presence of all It contained Un cle David’s army uniform, a few books, half a dozen packages of old newspapers—and a long let ter written by Aunt Tibby herself. This was addressed to her rela tives in general and was a sort of confession. In it she stated that her income since Uncle David’s death had been limited to a pen sion of $6 a month. That in some way the story had been circulated that this old trunk contained valu ables and she had never contra- On the Highway ' It is a curious trait in human nature that we will take off our hats when a woman enters an elevator, and be most apolo getic if we bump into somebody inadvertently; but the instant we get our hands on a steering wheel we damn all mankind— woman and man alike. Too often, we are inclined to look upon traffic guides and regulations as irritating restric tions designed primarily to keep us from having a good time, when the truth of the matter is, they have been de vised solely for our convenience and comfort. dieted it, fearing if she told the truth some one might put her in an old ladies’ home, an institu tion ehe detested. She trusted her relatives would pardon her and that the old trunk would be kept for her sake; that it might prove a magic casket to the owner, just as it had to her. The trunk was left with Mazie, as she was the only person who displayed the least desire to pos sess it. After everyone had de parted she threw her arms ground her husband’s neck and cried, “Oh, Bert, can you ever forgive me?” Judging by the sigh of con tentment she uttered Bert’s an swer was satisfactory. Aunt Tibby was right; the trunk did prove a magic casket for Ma zie. It stood in the upstairs hall where she had to pass it many times a day and whenever she was seized with envy, stubborn ness or a desire for finery she could not afford, one glance at the old trunk was sufficient to dis pel such feelings in a twinkling. T4, : Firestone does it again—gives you lower cost and higher quality in a tire that is tops in the field — Firestone Convoy. Car owners everywhere are buying this tire because they want to get all of these patented and exclusive extra value features. First, Gum-Dipping, the Firestone patented process which gives greater protection against blowouts. Second, two extra layers of Gum-Dipped cords under the tread, a patented construction which gives greater protection against punctures. Third, scientifically designed tread which gives greater protection against skidding and gives longer mileage. See your nearby Firestone Dealer or Firestone Auto Supply &. 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