While these events were going forward, the Governor was making preparations for his expedition up the Wabash. The noise of the coming storm soon reached the ears of the Kentuckians. On the twenty-fourth of August, Joseph Hamilton Daviess wrote to the Governor offering himself as a volunteer. He had been instrumental in checking the treasonable designs of Aaron Burr, was Master of the Grand Lodge of Free Masons of the state of Kentucky, and was one of the most eloquent advocates at the bar of his state. His coming was hailed with eager joy by the rough militiamen of the frontier. In the latter part of the month Harrison was in Louisville asking for volunteers. His call, says Pirtle, "was met with a prompt and ample response. He was very popular, his voice stirring the people like a bugle call. Old Indian fighters like Major General Samuel Wells and Colonel Abraham Owen, of the Kentucky militia, instantly started for the field." Captain Frederick Geiger raised a company, and Captain Peter Funk, who was in command of a company of militia cavalry, at once hastened to Governor Charles Scott of Kentucky, to obtain permission to raise a company of mounted riflemen. In a few days his men were enrolled and early in September joined the forces of Colonel Joseph Bartholomew on their march to Vincennes.
On the third of September, the regular troops of the Fourth United States Regiment of infantry, under Colonel John Parke Boyd, arrived in keel boats at the Falls of the Ohio. The Governor was there to meet them. Boyd was a soldier of fortune and one of the most striking military adventurers of that day. A short sketch of him as given by Benson J. Lossing is as follows: "John Parke Boyd was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, December 21, 1764. His father was from Scotland, and his mother was a descendant of Tristam Coffin, the first of that family who emigrated to America. He entered the army in 1786, as ensign in the Second Regiment. With a spirit of adventure, he went to India in 1789, having first touched the Isle of France. In a letter to his father from Madras, in June, 1790, he says: 'Having procured recommendatory letters to the British consul residing at the court of his highness, the Nizam, I proceeded to his capital, Hyberabad, 450 miles from Madras. On my arrival, I was presented to his highness in form by the British consul. My reception was as favorable as my most sanguine wishes had anticipated. After the usual ceremony was over, he presented me with the command of two kansolars of infantry, each of which consists of 500 men.' His commission and pay were in accordance with his command. He describes the army of the Nizam, which had taken the field against Tippoo Sultan. It consisted of 150,000 infantry, 60,000 cavalry, and 500 elephants, each elephant supporting a 'castle' containing a nabob and servants. He remained in India several years in a sort of guerrilla service, and obtained much favor. He was in Paris early in 1808 and at home in the autumn of that year, when he was appointed (October 2) Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of the U. S. Army." This tall, handsome and courteous officer, who had fought with the hordes of India on the other side of the world, was shortly to encounter the eagle-feathered chiefs of the Winnebagoes on the banks of the Wabash.
On the night of the 19th of September the regulars of the Fourth Regiment arrived at Vincennes by way of the Wabash. They were under the immediate command of Colonel James Miller, of "I'll try, Sir," fame in the War of 1812. The Governor and Colonel Boyd had already traveled overland on horseback from Louisville. The sight which greeted the eyes of the old French residents on the morning of the twentieth, was a novel one. The American infantry of that period wore a uniform consisting of "blue, brass-buttoned tail-coats, skin-tight pantaloons, and 'stove-pipe hats,' with red, white and blue cockades." One pictures them marching in the brown October woods, their bayonets gleaming in the sunshine, and their bugles awakening strange echoes from headland and bluff. The regiment, though small, was made up of a formidable array of men. While not disciplined in Indian warfare, the rank and file were composed of brave, resolute soldiers, and such officers as Captains W. C. Baen, Josiah Snelling, Robert C. Barton, Return B. Brown, George W. Prescott and Joel Cook, were of the best of that time. The gallant Baen was on his last march, and his bones were destined to repose in a savage wilderness.
A military conference was now held, participated in by Governor Harrison, Colonel Boyd, and two judges of the supreme court, Benjamin Parke and Waller Taylor, both of whom were officers in the local militia. It was determined to ascend the river with a respectable force, which would not only defy attack, but impress the tribesmen, if possible, with a due respect for the power and authority of the United States. The Prophet, though not a warrior, was known, as Harrison says, to be, "daring, presumptuous and rash." He was now reinforced by a considerable body of Winnebago warriors, and the Potawatomi of the prairies and the Illinois were coming to his support. A small expedition would not only excite contempt, but might lead to a disaster.
Accordingly, on the morning of the twenty-sixth of September, an army of about one thousand men, including one hundred and forty dragoons and sixty mounted riflemen, commenced its march to the upper end of the New Purchase. The cavalry had been sent forward two days before to the settlement of Busseron, where forage for the horses could more easily be procured. Just before the departure of the army, a deputation of warriors arrived from the Prophet's Town, led by a war chief of the hostile Kickapoos. He expressed his astonishment at seeing such warlike preparations, said that his women and children were all in tears, and falsely asserted that the hearts of all the Prophet's party were warm towards the United States. The Governor peremptorily informed the Kickapoo that the army was about to march, and that nothing but an immediate surrender of the Indian murderers and horse-thieves would satisfy the government. The mount of Captain William Piatt, chief quartermaster of the expedition, and four horses from Busseron had just been stolen, and all further dissimulation on the part of the savages was without avail.
The account of the march, as recorded by Captain John Tipton, is exceedingly interesting. The militiamen of southern Indiana and Kentucky assembled from the frontier settlements, were men of simple habits, rough, unlettered, hard to teach the intricacies of military evolutions, but as General John C. Black has stated, they were also "insensible to fatigue, watchful as a catamount, resolute as men, heroic as martyrs." Some of their favorite sports were wrestling, shooting at a mark, and horse-racing. All were inured to an active, outdoor life. Most of them were without tents and few had blankets, but they did not complain. As the army advanced through the wilderness, the cutting down of bee trees, the shooting of squirrels, raccoon and deer were everyday occurrences; horses strayed away and were recovered; the provision boats lodged on the sand bars in the river and were launched again; stories of adventure and midnight massacre were told about the great camp fires. All came from families who had suffered from savage outrage; all hated both British and Indians "with a holy hate," and all were determined that the forces of civilization should not recede. They were eager for battle and unafraid.
Drawing by Heaton
The Line of Harrison's March to Tippecanoe and the New Purchase of 1809.[ToList]