Robert,
Charles, and their parents were seated around the dinner table when Ida asked
Joe, a student of history, to tell the boys about the Battle of Tippecanoe.
“The battle
took place in the early morning hours of November 7th in 1811,” Joe began. “The
town of Battle Ground north of Lafayette is named for it. The Shawnee leader,
who was named Tecumseh, had been gathering many tribes between where the
Tippecanoe River flows into the Wabash River and where Wildcat Creek meets the
Wabash River. Tecumseh wanted to block American settlers from expanding further
into Indian territories. The Governor of the Indiana Territory was William
Henry Harrison. He learned that Tecumseh had gone to the southern states to
recruit more tribes, and he marched his troops northward from the territorial
capital at Vincennes to fight a pitched battle against the Indians. He wanted
to break up the confederation that Tecumseh had been forming. You remember the
historical marker that we stopped to read near the Andersons’ place about four
miles from here. That marker designates where Harrison’s army marched. Harrison
had about a thousand men. When Harrison arrived at the Indian village on the 6th,
Tecumseh’s brother met him. Tecumseh’s brother was called ‘the Prophet.’ Harrison
accepted the Prophet’s offer to camp on a stretch of wooded, narrow, triangular
ground between two ravines.”
Ida had
percolated coffee, and she poured a cup for Joe. He dipped a teaspoon into the
coffee and blew on it to cool it before sipping the coffee from the teaspoon.
Robert and Charles waited expectantly.
Joe
continued, “That night, representatives of the tribes discussed what to do. The
Prophet wanted to negotiate with Harrison to buy time for Tecumseh to return,
but most of the other leaders wanted to attack. The Prophet felt outnumbered.
He agreed to attack the soldiers just before dawn the next morning. A half mile
southwest of Battle Ground, there's a rocky cliff high above the low land
where the rivers and creeks flow together. The Prophet, who was a spiritual
leader, said he would stand there and offer holy chants to protect the Indians
from the soldiers’ bullets. Today, the cliff is called ‘Prophet’s Rock.’ It is
said that Indians crawled unseen through the underbrush to within a few feet of
the sleeping soldiers and that some of the Indians silently climbed the trees
at the perimeter of the army’s campground. Just before daybreak, the firing
began almost simultaneously at the northern and southern ends of the triangular
point of land. The fighting soon spread throughout the soldiers’ encampment.
Many lives were lost on both sides. After about two hours, the Indians withdrew
because they were running low on ammunition. Harrison regrouped and buried the
dead soldiers on the spot. The Indians had dispersed because they expected
Harrison to come after them. Harrison ordered his men to burn the empty Indian
village, which he referred to as Prophetstown. On the return march to
Vincennes, Harrison buried a few more soldiers who died of their wounds along
the way.”
“How many
were killed?” Charles asked.
“Some sixty
soldiers were killed and well over a hundred wounded. The Indians carried off
their dead, so no one knows how many were killed. Harrison’s first estimate was
that about forty Indians had been killed. The country decided to blame the
British for inciting the Indians, and the Battle of Tippecanoe was one of the
factors that led to the War of 1812. After the battle, the Indians rebuilt
Prophetstown, and Tecumseh managed to keep the confederation together, but
Harrison called the Battle of Tippecanoe a decisive victory. It may be true
that the Indian confederation had been weakened somewhat by the battle. Many
years later, when he was in his late sixties, Harrison ran for President, and
his having supposedly won a victory over the Indians helped him win the
election of 1840. He died of pneumonia in the spring of 1841 only a month after
taking office.”
Ida told
Robert and Charles, “We’re going to see the reenactment of the battle.”
“What’s a
reenactment?” Robert asked.
“People in
costume,” Joe explained, “will fight the battle again—but without bullets—so
that visitors can watch what took place back in 1811. This year is the
sesquicentennial.”
Robert
found the word “sesquicentennial” surprising.
“It means
that a hundred and fifty years have passed,” his father said.
On the
afternoon of the 19th of August—when the reenactment was to occur—the boys and
their parents drove to Lafayette. Joe and Ida had not been prepared for the
massive turnout. Over ten thousand people attended. Traffic was snarled on the
highways leading to Battle Ground. As the family’s Chevrolet inched its way
forward in the bumper-to-bumper procession, the reenactment began. The sound of
guns popping in the distance told them that they were missing the battle. When
they finally were within sight of the battlefield, which was surrounded by a
tall iron fence, they saw Indians walking along the road who had obviously
already done their part toward replicating the fight and were conversing
casually with one another.
It was one
of the rare times that Ida had not been first in line, and she was not happy
that the reenactment had come and gone long before Joe could park the car. The
delay could not have been avoided, though. Who would have thought that so many
people would assemble for such an event?
Rather than
stay for the barbeque dinner on Main Street in Battle Ground, Joe and Ida
decided to return home.
Even though
the family had missed the reenactment, Robert felt he had experienced a
significant event. He had seen Indians wielding guns, and, even though they
were “out of character,” so to speak, they were symbolic of conflict. Robert
had watched many a Western, but he had not given much thought to the nature of
warfare, for which he felt a deeply instinctual revulsion.
“Why would
Indians and soldier have to fight each other?” Robert asked his father later
that evening. Joe was sipping coffee, and Robert was sitting cross-legged on
the davenport. Joe’s eyebrows drew downward, and he pursed his lips as he tried
to think how best to answer Robert’s question.
Joe began,
“History is full of wars. They seem inevitable.” Joe thought longer about what
to say. “Your ancestors were Quakers. Many of them are buried in Quaker
Cemetery near the Independence Road. We’ve taken you there on Memorial Day. The
Quakers believed in peace. They would not fight. For that reason, they were generally
trusted by Indians. Even though our family has attended the Methodist Church
for the past four generations, some of the Quaker beliefs may have been passed
down to us. I’ve given considerable thought to whether or not Quaker teachings
may have persisted into the Methodist years, and I’ve concluded that there
could well be Quaker attitudes among us. If you’re thinking that people lost
their lives unnecessarily at the Battle of Tippecanoe, you might be getting
that feeling from bits and pieces of Quaker philosophy. It's also true that,
customarily, nations respect the nobility and honor of those who fight for
them.”
While
Robert felt satisfied with the answer, he continued to ponder why two groups of
people would try to kill one another.
