Battle of Brownstown | |||||||
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Part of the War of 1812 and Tecumseh's War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Tecumseh's Confederacy Essex Militia | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Tecumseh | Major Thomas Van Horne | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
25 | 200 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1 killed | 18 killed 12 wounded 70 missing |
The Battle of Brownstown was an early skirmish in the War of 1812. Although the United States military outnumbered the forces of Tecumseh's Confederacy 8 to 1, they lost the battle and suffered substantial losses while Tecumseh's forces were almost untouched.
The battle occurred near Brownstown, a Wyandot village south of Fort Detroit on Brownstown creek. Brownstown was also known as "Sindathon's Village". Carlson High School in Gibraltar, Michigan, is near the site of the battle.
Assisted by the British, the Mingo, Wyandotte, Miami, Delaware, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Sauk, Ottawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Mohawk and Chickamauga joined an alliance in 1783 against the United States of America. The alliance was originally formed at the Sandusky villages of the Wyandot, but after those villages were destroyed, the council fire was moved to Brownstown. Walk-in-the-Water and seven other Wyandot chiefs petitioned the U.S. on February 5, 1812, and obtained a 50-year possession of Brownstown and Monguagon; he lived at Brownstown and commanded the Wyandot warriors.
On August 5, 1812, Major Thomas Van Horne and the 200 U.S. soldiers were en route south to the River Raisin, where they were to pick up cattle and other needed supplies and escort them back to Fort Detroit for the use of Brigadier General William Hull. Hull was, at the time, in the Canadian village of Sandwich, now known as Windsor, Ontario, although he would abandon his position there and return to Detroit on August 8. [1]
As the U.S. Forces forded Brownstown creek, the 200 U.S. soldiers were set upon by two dozen Native Americans led by the Shawnee war chief Tecumseh, Chickamauga war chief Daimee, Wyandot chief Roundhead, as well as a detachment from the Essex Militia. Faced with such opposition, Van Horne ordered a retreat, whereupon the untrained American militia scattered in a panic. Van Horne was able to save only half of his command; 18 men were killed, 12 were wounded, and 70 went missing. Most of those listed as "missing" were dispersed during the battle and returned to Detroit during the ensuing days.
Josiah Snelling, known colloquially as the Prairie Chicken, was cited for gallantry for his actions during the Battle of Brownstown, and promoted to Major. Later, after Hull surrendered Fort Detroit to Tecumseh, Snelling's testimony was used at Hull's court-martial.
One minor chief, Blue Jacket, died in the battle. This was not the famous Shawnee chief Blue Jacket, but most likely was one of his sons. [2]
Two active battalions of the Regular Army (1-5 Inf and 2-5 Inf) perpetuate the lineage of the old 4th Infantry, elements of which were present at the Battle of Brownstown.
By an act of the United States Congress on June 1, 1813, the widows of those men killed in the battle were awarded half pay for five years. In at least one case, that of Jacob Pence, $953.43 was paid in October 1832 and $422.53 in April, 1839, for a total of $1,375.96. [3]
The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and tribal forces associated with Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, leaders of a confederacy of various tribes who opposed European-American settlement of the American frontier. As tensions and violence increased, Governor Harrison marched with an army of about 1,000 men to attack the confederacy's headquarters at Prophetstown, near the confluence of the Tippecanoe River and the Wabash River.
Tecumseh was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and promoting intertribal unity. Even though his efforts to unite Native Americans ended with his death in the War of 1812, he became an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian popular history.
William Hull was an American soldier and politician. He fought in the American Revolutionary War and was appointed as Governor of Michigan Territory (1805–13), gaining large land cessions from several American Indian tribes under the Treaty of Detroit (1807). He is most widely remembered, however, as the general in the War of 1812 who surrendered Fort Detroit to the British on August 16, 1812 following the Siege of Detroit. After the battle, he was court-martialed, convicted, and sentenced to death, but he received a pardon from President James Madison and his reputation somewhat recovered.
The Shawnee are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language.
The Northwest Indian War (1785–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native American nations known today as the Northwestern Confederacy. The United States Army considers it the first of the American Indian Wars.
Whitmore Knaggs was a fighter, linguist and spy.
The siege of Fort Meigs took place in late April to early May 1813 during the War of 1812 in northwestern Ohio, present-day Perrysburg. A small British Army unit with support from Indians attempted to capture the recently constructed fort to forestall an American offensive against Detroit, and its Fort Detroit in the Great Lakes region which the British from the north in Canada had captured the previous year. An American sortie and relief attempt failed with heavy casualties, but the British failed to capture the fort and were forced to raise the siege.
The Battles of Frenchtown, also known as the Battle of the River Raisin and the River Raisin Massacre, were a series of conflicts in Michigan Territory that took place from January 18–23, 1813, during the War of 1812. It was fought between the United States of America and a joint force of British and Native Americans near the River Raisin in Frenchtown.
The siege of Detroit, also known as the surrender of Detroit or the Battle of Fort Detroit, was an early engagement in the War of 1812. A British force under Major General Isaac Brock with indigenous allies under Shawnee leader Tecumseh used bluff and deception to intimidate U.S. Brigadier General William Hull into surrendering the fort and town of Detroit, Michigan, along with his dispirited army which actually outnumbered the victorious British and Indians.
The Battle of Maguaga was a small battle between British troops, Canadian militia and Tecumseh's natives against a larger force of American troops, Ohio Volunteers and Michigan Legion near the Wyandot village of Maguaga which become The Township of Monguagon Township, Michigan in what is now The City of Riverview, Michigan.
Henry Brush was an American lawyer, soldier, legislator and farmer.
The Northwestern Confederacy, or Northwestern Indian Confederacy, was a loose confederacy of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of the United States created after the American Revolutionary War. Formally, the confederacy referred to itself as the United Indian Nations, at their Confederate Council. It was known infrequently as the Miami Confederacy since many contemporaneous federal officials overestimated the influence and numerical strength of the Miami tribes based on the size of their principal city, Kekionga.
Mongaugon Township, is a former township of Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Quarries including the DTE Energy Sibley Quarry that mines, gray limestone and celestine associated with calcite, fluorite, gypsum, epsomite, and rarely, sulfur were first worked by the French circa 1749. United States forces aided by Muskrat French defeated United Kingdom aided by Native Americans forces at the Battle of Monguagon during the War of 1812.
Snake was the English language name of two Shawnee leaders prominent in the history of the Ohio Country: Peteusha and Shemanetoo. They were both commonly referred to as "Snake" in historical records, or by variations such as "Black Snake" or "Captain Snake," so it is often difficult to determine which individual was being referred to. On a number of occasions, the two Snakes both signed a letter or appeared together, so it is clear they were two different people. There may have been additional Shawnees called "Snake," further complicating the matter. According to historian John Sugden, "it is unlikely if the biographies of these chiefs will ever be completely disentangled."
Captain Logan, also known as Spemica Lawba, James Logan, or simply Logan, was a Shawnee warrior who lived in present-day Ohio. Although he opposed the expansion of the United States into Shawnee lands, following the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, he became one of many Shawnees who sought to preserve Shawnee independence by maintaining peaceful relations with the United States. When the War of 1812 reached Ohio, Logan served as a scout and guide for the American military.
During the War of 1812, the Indiana Territory was the scene of numerous engagements which occurred as part of the conflict's western theater. Prior to the war's outbreak in 1812, settlers from the United States had been gradually colonizing the region, which led to increased tensions with local Native Americans and the outbreak of Tecumseh's War. In 1811, Tecumseh's confederacy, formed in response to encroachment by white American settlers, was defeated by U.S. forces at the Battle of Tippecanoe. After the conflict broke out, most Native Americans in the region joined forces with the British Empire and attacked American forces and settlers in concert with their British allies.
Tecumseh's confederacy was a confederation of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of North America which form during the early 19th century around the teaching of Shawnee leader Tenskwatawa. The confederation grew over several years and came to include several thousand Native American warriors. Shawnee leader Tecumseh, the brother of Tenskwatawa, became the leader of the confederation as early as 1808. Together, they worked to unite the various tribes against colonizers from the United States who had been crossing the Appalachian Mountains and occupying their traditional homelands.
Roundhead, also known as Bark Carrier, Round Head, Stayeghtha, and Stiahta, was an American Indian chief of the Wyandot tribe. He was a strong member of Tecumseh's confederacy against the United States during the War of 1812. He died of unknown natural causes about a month or two before Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames.
Thomas B. Van Horne, served as a federal land register and Ohio State Senator. He is noted for his leadership during the War of 1812.
Quatawapea or John Lewis, also known as Captain Lewis and Colonel Lewis and ‘’’Captain Johnny’’’, was a Shawnee leader for whom Lewistown, Ohio, is named.