Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/306

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��HISTOKY OF RICHLAND (^OUNTY.

��Sandusky, thinks that Gen. Crooks must have left ; here hiter in the winter ; his impression being that his father did not leave hei*e as early as December, as he did not return until spring, and tliinks he could not have been absent from home that length of time. In piloting Gen. Crooks through to Upper Sandusky, Jacob New- man (the first settler in the count}) lost his life ; contracting a severe cold on the trip, from the effects of which lie died the following June.

Ih'ooks' Quartermaster, Col. James Anderson, could not have been far from Mansfield when Gen. Crooks left. His command was composed of Capt. Gratiot, Engineer of Equipments ; Capt. Paul Andei'son, Foragemaster ; Capt. Wheaton, Paymaster ; Capt. Johnston and ninety men, and Lieut. Walker, with forty men as a guard. Walker was afterward killed, while out hunting, by an Indian, while the command was encamped at Upper Sandusky.

Anderson's convoy consisted of twenty -five iron cannons, mostly four and six pounders. These, and the balls fitting them, were placed in covered road-wagons, drawn by six horses each. The cannon caiTiages, twenty -five in number, empty, were each drawn by four horses. The car- tridges, canister and other ammunition were in large covered wagons. There were fifty cov- ered road wagons, drawn by six horses each ; they were loaded with general army stores, and one or two of them with specie for paying the troops, this specie being put up in small iron- hooped kegs. Thus equipped. Col. Anderson left Allegheny City about the 1st of Novem- ber, 1812, and followed, as rapidly as possible, the trail of Gen. Crooks' army. About the 11th of November, he reached Canton, where he remained ten days, repairing the wagons, shoe- ing t)ie horses and gathering provisions. On the 21st, h.<^ reached Halm's Swamp, and was three or four days passing over the same to Wooster, owing to the fact that Beall and Crooks' wagons had cut up the road badly. He left

��Wooster December 10, arriving in Mansfield on the 12th.

The teamsters, being volunteers at |20 per month, and their time having expired, desired to return home. Col. Anderson, being ordered to follow Gen. Crooks to Upper Sandusky, offered to pay the teamsters $1 per day to con- tinue with him. These terms were accepted, and each teamster furnished with a gun, to be kept in the feed-trough for use in case of attack. The command was hardly out of sight of Mansfield when it began to snow, and continued until it was two feet deep. The ground being unfrozen, the heavy wagons cut into the soft earth, and the horses were unable to draw them. A council was held, and fifteen gun carriages were sent ahead to break the path. 3y this and various other means, they made a few miles each day. When a team gave out, it was turned aside and another put in its place. At night, the soldiers were compelled to work two or three hours shoveling off a suitable place to pitch their tents, build fires to cook their food and keep them from freezing. After two weeks of hardship and exposure, the command reached Upper Sandusky on New Year's Day, 1813.

The troubles between the Indians and early settlers, during this war, will be found in an- other chapter. But few of the heroes of that time are 3^et living. One by one they drop, like ripened fruit, and are gathered home. Here and there they are yet foimd, tottering on the verge of the grave, looking always back through the mist of years, and living over again, in memory, the thrilling scenes through which they passed. Thus history repeats itself; fifty years from to-day the survivors of the great rebellion will be looked upon in the same light, and will rehearse to their grandchildren, as these veterans are rehearsing to-day, the story of their exploits.

One of them — George William Kincade — yet lives in Jefferson Township, at the age of

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