HAMTRAMCK TO HARMAR, JULY 14, 1788 |
89 |
you of, but few Indians of the Vermillion and of the Weyas are out at war in
Kentucky. I have the honor to inclose you a monthly return of the troops. This
latter goes by a number of soldiers of Capt. Smith company who are on a pass to
Muskingum, their time being out in August. Mr. Peters1 has made out
to reinlist 15 men of his company and Furgeson one.
I am yet in a very indifferent state of healt[h]. I expect the fevers in me in about three hours and so every day.
Please to present my respects to Mrs. Harmar and compliments to Doughty and all your gent. I have the honor to be with very great respect and sentiments of estime your most obedient and humble servent.
J F. HAMTRAMCK |
How is your little Charles Josiah. I had a peep at him. I believe if I mistake
not you have a yong lady. I hope she may
be well. Our village is very sickly. Doctor Lafon2 is gone to the
Illinois, McCoy and his wife to New Orleans, Vigo to
Lance a la Grasse,3 on the Mississippi.
J. F. H. |
[Addressed:]Honorable Brigadier Gen. Harmar Fort Harmar at the Muskingum
[Endorsed :] Major Hamtramck from Post Vincennes June 18th 1788. Answered
October 13th, 1788.
HAMTRAMCK T0 HARMAR, JULY 14, 1788
[ALS]
POST VINCENNES July 14th 1788 |
DEAR GENERAL Since I had the honor of writing you, nothing very extraordinary has happened, exepted one man
1Lieut. William Peters, of New York.
2Jean Baptiste Laffont, who was living at Kaskaskia at the time of Clark's conquest, and who, along with Father Gibault, served as Clark's emissary in persuading the French at Vincennes to surrender peacefully to the Americans. He was living in Vincennes in 1787 according to the census of the village that year. Alvord (ed.), Kaskaskia Records, xxx.
3Anse à la Graisse. A small settlement on the western bank of the Mississippi at the mouth of the Ohio, later site of New Madrid.
92 |
OUTPOST ON THE WABASH |
[Enclosure 1-Copy]
(Copy.) United States To Frances Vigo Dr. |
|||
| For the rent of two houses furnished by order | |||
| of Major Wyllys for the use of the hospital | £15.15 |
||
| three months and a half . . . at 90/ pr M | |||
| 136 bushels of corn furnished by order of | |||
| Major Hamtramck at 7/6 pr B | 51. |
||
| Cash paid ten men employed sixteen days in | |||
| fetching provisions from the mouth of Wa- | 60. |
||
| bash to this place at 7/6 pr day & | |||
| For a horse in public service 180 days at 3/9 | |||
| pr day | 33.15 |
||
| A perouge employed in public service | 1.17.6 |
||
| 2 Long saw files . . . . . . . . . . . 7/6 | .15 |
||
| __________ | |||
| Philadelphia C[urrenc]y | £163.2.6 |
POST VINCENNES 1 June 1788
I certify that the above articles were furnished to the troops at this place.7
(Signed) J. F. HAMTRAMCK Major Com'dt
|
FORT HARMAR, Sept. 6th 1788
(Signed) JOS. HARMAR Lt. Col. Comt. 1st U. S. Regt.
[Endorsed :] Mr. Francis Vigo's Acct. against ye United States £163.2.6 P. currency (Copy)
[Enclosure 2-DS]
The Deposition of Mr. Jean Bapt. Taitro, taken to-day this fourteenth of July 1788, before the magistrates undersigned, for the district of Post Vincennes, in the house of Mr. Antoine Gamelin notary for this place.
7For Hamtramck's comments on Vigo's valuable help to the troops at Vincennes, see his letter to Harmar immediately above, and also his letter of April 13, above.
|
HAMTRAMCK TO HARMAR, JULY 14, 1788 |
93 |
The said deponent upon oath, saith and deposeth, that Thursday last, the eighth
of this instant being with his family in a place called Petit Rocher by the
water-side of Ouabach, being three miles from the village, about half a hour
after sun-down eight Indians came to him, one of them called La-Grosse Tête of
the nation Pianguichia, that the said deponent knows him well, & spoke to
him, unknowing the others, the said Indians forced him to cross them over the
River Ouabach, which he did, & by crossing them over, they took from him
his stoars & provisions & told him, that they killed two men, that day
at Little River, on which lays the plantation of Mr. Sullivan. They gave him no
other sign of the murder than a big sharpe English axe, told him to say nothing
about it. They advised him to go home, because two other parties were round the
village for the same purpose, which he did accordingly; the deponent further
saith not.
his JEAN BAPT. X TAITRO mark |
>We, by these presents, certify, that the above deposition of Jean Bapt. Taitro, has been deposed upon oath, before us, whereof we have signed these presents, & has been contre signed by Mr. Antoine Gamelin, notary for the place
POST VINCENNES 14th July 1788
| MOSES HENRY his NICOL'S X BAILLARDJON mark ANTOINE GAMELIN [Notary public] |
JEAN BTE MILIET JAS. JOHNSON VALENTINE THOMAS DALTON |
We also certify, that the eighth of this instant two men were killed, on the plantation of Mr. Daniel Sullivan, which
94 |
OUTPOST ON THE WABASH |
lays on the Little River, mentionned in the deposition of Mr. Jean Bapt.
Taitro.
Given under our hands this 14 July 1788
his NICOLAS X BAILLARJON mark ANTOINE GAMELIN [Notary public] |
JEAN BTE MILIET JAS. JOHNSON VALENTINE THOMAS DALTON MOSES HENRY |
Daniel Sullivan being duly sworn, deposeth upon oath, that the day following
of the murder was committed, he went
in search of the boy [who] was missing, some time after searched for the ax,
which could not be found, it being a large finished ax, such as appears in Mr.
Tetro's deposition.
DANIEL SULLIVAN |
We, by these presents, certify that the deposition of Mr. Daniel Sulivan, has been deposed upon oath before us.
Given under our hands this 14th July 1788
| MOSES HENRY his NICOLAS X BAILLARDJON mark ANTOINE GAMELIN [Notary public] |
JEAN BTE MILIET JAS. JOHNSON VALENTINE THOMAS DALTON |
[Endorsed :] The deposition of Jean Bapt. Taitro taken on the 14th July 1788 Post Vincennes
HARMAR To HAMTRAMCK, July 26, 1788
[Letterbook Copy]
FORT HARMAR July 26th 1788 |
DEAR MAJOR, I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your several letters of the 3rd November, the 1st
| HAMTRAMCK TO HARMAR, JULY 26, 1788 |
95 |
January, and the 13th April last, to which I shall particularly reply. The two
former did not arrive until very late, otherwise they should have been answered
long since. The latter was handed to me by Lieutenant Spear.
As Lieutenant Pratt before he left you, neglected to give you some wampum, I now send you by this conveyance two thousand of that article of the white sort & one thousand of the black.
I am happy to hear of the different Indian intelligence, which you have collected & communicated to me, and also to learn that you are in such a good state of defence. I hope you are plentifully supplied with provisions, as the new contractors, Messrs. Elliot & Williams, 1 enter upon the business with spirit, and have given me the strongest assurances, that there shall be no failure in their part in throwing in the necessary supplies at the several posts. I do not wonder that both officers & soldiers were much dissatisfied at the money remaining at the Falls, which Captain Ashton brought forward. Certainly means ought to have been speedily adopted for its conveyance to Post Vincennes.
I observe that Mr. Vigo furnished you with provisions all last winter. What could Major Finley be about? You wish to know whether Mr. Vigo is to receive his pay from the public, or from the contractor. I really am apprehensive that this affair will be attended with some difficulty. Major Finley as contractor was the person to look for supplies, but
1The contract with Messrs. (Robert) Elliott & (Eli) Williams
of Maryland began July 1, 1788, and ran through 1789.
Their terms per ration were as follows:
at Fort Pitt McIntosh Harmar Rapids of the Ohio Post Vincennes Venango |
7/90 of a dollar " " " " " " 7 1/2 ninetieths of a dollar 16/90 of a dollar 9/90 " " |
Thian, Legislative History of the General Staff of the United States Army,
328; Jacobs, The Beginning of the U.S. Army,
p. 36; Journals of the Continental Congress, XXXIV, 586.
108 |
OUTPOST ON THE WABASH |
* I have the honor to inclose you a ground plan of the garrison, to which I beg
you will give a name.5 The money that Capt. Ashton brought down is
still at the Falls. I also inclose monthly return of the two companies.
Jean Baptiste Constan, the interpreteur from the Weya you had last year, is now in town and tels me that he has been to the Miami at which place he staid some time and that every day 5 & 6 scalps were brough in by those Indians, that a number of our prisoner were burnt. He also tels me that when he left the Weeya village a courier had arrived from Capt. McKee6 the British commissionair for Indian affairs to request their chiefs to attend to a treaty that was to be at La Roche Dubout which is about thirty six miles from Detroit on this side, that the chiefs were gone and not yet return'd. Pakane the Indian chief who went after the drumer the deserter last year and a good Indian, is going to the Miami and will know the result of this conseil.
I have repeatedly send word to the Wabash Indians that Congress would not suffer their subject to be killed every day, that they no doubt would be chastised if they continued to comit depredation, and the only answer is that it is their yong men and cannot prevent it.
I have the honor to be with every sentiment of respect and estime your most obedient and very humble servant
J. F. HAMTRAMCK |
Be pleased to present my respect to Mrs. Harmar and my compliments to the officers.
[Addressed:] The Honorable Brig'd General Harmar Fort Harmar on the Muskingum
[Endorsed:] Major Hamtramck from post Vincennes August 12th, 1788. Answered
October 13th, 1788. Copy
*From here on this letter is in Hamtramck's hand.
5For Harmar's reply to this, see p. 138 below.
6Capt. Alexander McKee.
114 |
OUTPOST ON THE WABASH |
peared before us the subscribers magistrates of the District of Post Vincennes,
Joseph St. Marie of the same place, merchant-trader who made oath on the holy
Evangelists of Almighty God that the above state of his case is just and true.
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals the day and year
before written
JEAN BTE MILIET VALENTINE THO'S DALTON |
To MAJOR HAMTRAMCK 1st U. S. Regiment & Commandant at Post Vincennes.
HAMTRAMCK TO HARMAR, August 31, 1788
[ALS]
| POST VINCENNES August 31st 1788 |
DEAR GENERAL On the 18th of this month one Patrick Brown who calls himself a major and from Nelson County in Kentucky, arrived on the other side of the river with about sixty men.1 He waited on me and informed me that he was
1Patrick Brown, who moved into Kentucky in 1782, participated in the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1787) in which his brother James was killed. Indian fighting seems to have been his particular forte. He was with the Kentucky troops under Col. William Oldham at St Clair's defeat (1791) and he commanded in the last Indian fight in his part of Kentucky in August. 1792. In this last encounter he and a party of about sixteen men pursued an equal number of Indians to a site on the Rolling Fork of Salt River. Three of the whites were killed as were several of the Indians. The remainder of the Indians were dispersed. Brown served as a justice in the first court held in Hardin County and was a member of the Second Constitutional Convention of Kentucky in 1799. As a member of an ardent antislavery faction he refused to sign the Constitution which recognized slavery. Brown thereafter freed the slaves he owned and about 1814 moved to the free soil of Indiana. He acquired land near Madison, where he lived until his death in 1835, aged seventy-five. William Allen Pusey, "Three Kentucky Pioneers: James, Patrick, and William Brown," in The Filson Club History Quarterly, IV, number 4 (October, 1930), 170-73. Patrick Brown's Revolutionary record shows that he served with the Virginia troops from May, 1778, to October, 1782, attaining the rank of sergeant-major, and that he was a member of George Rogers Clark's expedition on the Little Miami in 1780. He married Elizabeth Paul, sister of Col. John Paul
HAMTRAMCK TO HARMAR, AUGUST 31, 1788 |
115 |
after Indians and had killed nine that morning. I asked him by whose authority
he came into the teretory of the United
States to make war? He told me that it was by order of his governor. I asked
him for his orders and commission but finding himself so much pushed he made
some frivolous excuse saying he had them not with him or about him. I then told
him
that I did not believe that he had any order to come into the teretorys of the
United States to make war, that possibly he
had ordres to follow Indians as it is directed by an act of the Assembly of
Kentucky (as I am inform'd) to have a body of
troops to follow any body of Indians who may come in to their settlements to
comit depredation, but that there was a great differance between following
Indians who had forfeited their lives, or looking out for others that were in a
pasific state and under the protection of the United States. I told him that I
did not know any authority but that of Congress who could order a war with the
Indians: in co[n]sequence of which I ordered him in the name of the United
States to depart immediatly, and told him I should report him. He asked me
to put him a cross the Wabash River with his men. I refused him, declaring that
the service he was on could not permit me to give him the least assistance and
the founder of Madison, Indiana. Roster of Soldiers and Patriots of the
American Revolution Buried in Indiana
(n. p., 1938), p. 74.
On September 14, Governor St. Clair reported to Secretary at War Knox on an expedition against the Wabash Indians which was probably the one commanded by Patrick Brown and deplored by Hamtramck: "There is intelligence which I believe may be depended upon, that the Indians at the mouth of the Wabash having been discovered, a party from Kentucky went to attack them: that, missing them there, they crossed and marched to the Salines (Salt River, I believe of Mr. Hutchins), went up that river to its head branches, and crossed from thence to the upper part of the Riviere de l'Embarras, where they fell in with and had an action with the Indians, some of whom were killed. They returned by Post Vincennes and Clarke's Trace to the Falls, and brought on with them six scalps, seven rifles, and twenty horses. But whether these were the Indians that made the stroke at the mouth of the Wabash, or not, does not appear." Smith (ed.), St. Clair Papers, II, 90. The "stroke at the mouth of the Wabash," was probably the attack on Lieut. Peters' convoy. See above, letter of August 23.
116 |
OUTPOST ON THE WABASH |
ordered him not to cross near the village, that I also should insist on his
returning such horses as belonged to the French, Americans, and Indians under
my protection. He promised me he would but did not comply. He also contrary to
my orders broke the padlocks which fastened the canoes and crossed the river at
the town. I could have prevented him with the canon of the fort, but did not
think the affair of sufficient consequence to spill blood, beside I wanted to
get the horses which could not be done but by gentle means, not having
sufficient force to compel him. The magistrates and people in town after he had
crossed the river waited on him and painted to him the mischief he had done,
the consequences of his conduct and forbided him to pass t[h]rough the village.
I also sent Capt. Furgeson twice to him to demand the horses he had belonging
to Pakan and dire[c]ted Capt. Furgeson to inform him that Pakan and his Indians
were imployed in the service of the United States (which is the case, for all
the true intelligence [I] have been able to collect from different places has
been by those Indians who have given me convincing proof of their fidelity and
have now Pakan at the Miami to know the result of a consel which is to be held
at la Roche du Bout by the British Commissioner for Indian affairs).
All those reason would not do. Six horses were too great a price to be return'd, and I was forced to the humiliating necessity of leting him keep the horses. Never was my feeling so much wounded before. But what could I do? I had but nine men fit for duty, the American militia would not have fought them if I had been able to have marched 50 men, what French there was in town at that time would have joined me cheerfully and would have perhaps persuaded Mr. Brown to accept of my propositions.
The Indians they have killed were of La Demoisel's band, and of Pakan. Perhaps you may recollect La Demoisel. He had your protection and Pakan was one who went with you to the Illinois.
| HAMTRAMCK TO HARMAR, AUGUST 31, 1788 |
117 |
The next day I called in to consel all the Indians in town and explained to
them who those people were, and took every possible measure to persuade them
that it was not done by any lafull authority, and that I disaproved of their
conduct. Some concluded to stay in the vicinity of the village, other are gone
to the Weeya and Pakan Indians are at La Tere Haute waiting for the return of
Pakan. What will be the consequance of this accident time will determine. I am
in hopes that I have persuaded them not to revange on us. Our garison is very
sickly and no medicine.
I have the honor to inclose you Lt. Peters report,2 also the petition of Mr. Joseph St. Mary3 praying Congress to examine into a seizure made on his property and on the teretories of the United States by a body of Spanish troops. I also send the return of the provision lost at the Mouth of the Wabash.
I will be very much oblig'd to you if you will be pleased to give me direction how I am to act with the contractors.4 They will I suppose demand a certificate of the lost and other expences attending it, such as expresses &c. I shall not do anything until I have your direction. This was the first provision they had send since their contract; how and in what maner they expected I was to live I know not. The provision which was in store belonging to Ohara I have been oblig'd to seize, promising for it the same price they (Ohara) had during the contract.5 If the price the new contractors gets is not so much as that of Ohara, I presume they will object to pay me what I have been oblig'd to give to Ohara; in that case I shall be exceedingly oblig'd to you to informe me how I am
2See above, August 23, 1788.
3See above, August 26, 1788.
4Elliott & Williams. See above, p. 95.
5On November 11, 1788, John Finley, agent for the contractor O'Hara at the Falls of the Ohio, reported to O'Hara that the amount of provisions at Vincennes belonging to O'Hara seized by Hamtramck amounted to 11,920 rations of pork, 176 rations of bacon, 4,136 rations of flour. Harmar Papers. For further discussion of this transaction, see below, pp 140-41n, 151, 157.