Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/117

Uncle Sam Counts the Cost besieged Fort Meigs, were repulsed at Fort Stephenson, twice invaded Ohio, and played the devil generally? What did it cost us to get rid of them? Tabulated totals would make the tight-fisted Yankee squawk. Here's a rough estimate of the human effort: Besides our hastily organized and half filled regiments of regulars sent to the West, about 50,000 militia were called out in the years of 1812 and 1813 from Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia — for service against those 800 British regulars. It finally required General Harrison with more than three thousand men to disperse and capture them at the Battle of the Thames. All of which means, that during the time they were ravaging our country we employed a force of more than sixty men against one — and employed it ineffectually for upwards of two years. This does not include the unnecessary loss of life, nor property destroyed by the Brock and Proctor command. Did you ever read that in a popular school history? Ever hear any Fourth of July orator tell that [99]