Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/139

 HISTORY OF OHIO.

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��CHAPTER XL

THE WAR OF 1812— GROWTH OF THE STATE— CANAL, RAILROADS AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

—DEVELOPMENT OF STATE RESOURCES.

��IN June, 1812, war was declared against Great Britain. Before this, an act was passed by Con- gress, authorizing the increase of the regular army to thirty-five thousand troops, and a large force of volunteers, to serve twelve months. Under this act, Beturn J. Meigs, then Governor of Ohio, in April and May, 1812, raised three regiments of troops to serve twelve months. They rendez- voused at Dayton, elected their officers, and pre- pared for the campaign. These regiments were numbered First, Second and Third. Duncan Mc- Arthur was Colonel of the First ; James Findlay, of the Second, and Lewis Cass, of the Third. Early in June these troops marched to Urbana, where they were joined by Boyd's Fourth Regiment of regular troops, under command of Col. Miller, who had been in the battle of Tippecanoe. Near the middle of June, this little army of about twenty-five hundred men, under command of Gov. William Hull, of Michigan, who had been author- ized by Congress to raise the troops, started on its northern march. By the end of June, the army had reached the jNIaumee, after a very severe march, erecting, on the way. Forts Mc Arthur, Ne- cessity and Findlay. By some carelessness on the part of the American Government, no official word had been sent to the frontiers regarding the war, while the British had taken an early precaution to prepare for the crisis. Gov. Hull was very care- ful in military etiquette, and reftised to march, or do any ofi'ensive acts, unless commanded by his superior officers at Washington. While at the Maumee, by a careless move, all his personal effects, inchiding all his plans, number and strength of his army, etc., fell into the hands of the enemy. His campaign ended only in ignominious defeat, and well-nigh paralyzed future efforts. All Mich- igan fell into the hands of the British. The com- mander, though a good man, lacked bravery and promptness. Had Gen. Harrison been in com- mand no such results would have been the case, and the war would have probably ended at the outset.

Before Hull had surrendered, Charles Scott, Governor of Kentucky, invited Gen. Harrison,

��Governor of Indiana Territory, to visit Frankfort, to consult on the subject of defending the North- west. Gov. Harrison had visited Gov. Scott, and in August, 1812, accepted the appointment of Major General in the Kentucky militia, and, by hasty traveling, on the receipt of the news of the surrender of Detroit, reached t^incinnati on the morning of the 27th of that month. On the 30th he left Cincinnati, and the next day overtook the army he was to command, on its way to Dayton. After leaving Dayton, he was overtaken by an ex- press, informing him of his appointment by the Government as Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Indiana and Illinois Territories. The army reached Piqua, September 3. From this place Harrison sent a body of troops to aid in the de- fense of Fort Wayne, threatened by the enemy. On the 6th he ordered all the troops forward, and while on the march, on September 17, he was informed of his appointment as commander of the entire Northwestern troops. He found the army poorly clothed for a winter campaign, now ap- proaching, and at once issued a stirring address to the people, asking for food and comfortable cloth- ing. The address was not in vain. After his appointment. Gen. Harrison pushed on to Au- glaize, where, leaving the army under command of Gen. Winchester, he returned to the interior of the State, and establishing his head(juarters at Frank- linton, began active measures for the campaign.

Early in March, 1812, Col. John Miller raised, under orders, a regiment of infimtry in Ohio, and in July assembled his enlisted men at Chillicothe, where, placing them — only one hundred and forty in number — under command of Captain Angus Lewis, he sent them on to the fi'ontier. They erect- ed a block-house at Picjua and then went on to Defiance, to the main body of the armv.

In July, 1812, Gen. Edward W.'Tupper, of Gallia County, raised one thousand men for six months' duty. Under orders from Gen. Winches- ter, they marched through Chillicothe and Urbana, on to the Maumee, where, near the lower end of the rapids, they made an ineffectual attempt to drive off the enemy. Failing in this, the enemy

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