OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Gen. Simon Perkins [11]
***********************************************************************
OHGENWEB NOTICE:  All distribution rights to this electronic data are
reserved by the submitter.  Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted
material will require the permission of the copyright owner.  The submitter 
has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently 
for free access.
***********************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
June 19, 1999
***********************************************************************
Historical Collections of Ohio
The Kelley Family Collections
Newspaper article, Plains Dealer
compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925
And Then They Went West
by Darlene E. Kelley  1998
***********************************************************************

Eleventh in Series--

     In the meantime, British General  Prctor beat a hasty return to
Malden, for he feared an attack by Harrison. He left the American
wounded behind, and the following day, Jan. 23, a party of Indians
murdere all who were not able to walk and burned the village of
Frenchtown.
     The savages then returned to Detroit to celebrate their victory.
They danced from door to door to show the scalps they had taken. The
prisoners were thn offered for sale,amid much shouting and waving of the
scalp-poles by the Indians. The fearful people of Detroit, both American
prisoners and British citizens--watched silently because, like the
doctor who had watched the Indians tomahawk the wounded at Frenchtown
and not resisted even when he felt the brains of one man splatter in his
face, they were afraid teir resisitance might make them share he same
fate.
     Unaware of these grisly events to the North that would go down in
history as the River Raisin Massacre, Harrison and Simon set up camp at
the Portage of Carrying River.  The following week they received
reinforcements and supplies of war, and on Feb.1, they again advanced to
the Rapids to prepare for the expected enemy attack by building Fort
Meigs
     The Malitia forces were subject to only six months' service, and
Simon's term had now nearly expired.  After Fort Meigs was completed, he
performed but one more service at the front. Several companies were put
under his command, and they marched between thirty-five and forty mile
on the ice of the Maumee River in search of Indians that scouts had
reported were camped on an island in Maumee Bay.  But lke so many of the
American troop movements during the early months of the war, this march
was too late; when they arrived at the island, Simon and his men found
that the Indians were gone.
     On Feb.25,1813, Simon dismissed the men who had served their
six-month tour and also prepared to return to his Warren home.  He and
Harrison had by this time become good friends.
Officially,Harrison wrote to Simon:
" I cannot avoid expressing my high sense of zeal and ability with which
you have performed your duty since you have been under my orders and I
beg you to believe that upon all occasions and in every situation I
shall be with great truth Your friend. You can count on me in any
situation ,that is in my upmost power, to show you my friendship and
respect.--------"
     Simon soon discovered that on the Republican Reserve disbelief of
the party's  conviction that Canada wanted to join the United States and
talk of the lack of troop strength were equated with the New England
opposition to the adminitration and the war.  On Sept.12, 1812, Daniel
Coit had told Simon of a secret delegation from Connectict and other
Northern States that was meeting with deligates from the south about
changing the administration.  In Oct., a Connecticut resident wrote to
his brother on the Reserve that he feared their hands might yet mingle
in each others blood.  That some of the settlers believed Simon shared
the New England view became evident after a meeting was held on April 7,
1813, in the Warren courthouse, to nominate Simon as a canidate for
Reresentative from Ohio's Sixth Congressional District.
     On April 12, five days after Simon's nomination, a committee that
included Simon's Battalion Commander, William Cotgreave met in answer to
a report being circulated that 
" Gen Simon Perkins, while in service of his country--- endeavored to
influence the officers and soldiers under his command not to go beyond
the bounds of th United States."
****************************
To Be Continued