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OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest                    Volume 99 : Issue 524

Today's Topics:
  #1 HAMILTON COUNTY PART 47              [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE]


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X-Message: #1
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 20:50:06, -0500
From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER)
To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <199907220050.UAA05448@mime3.prodigy.com>
Subject: HAMILTON COUNTY PART 47
Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII

HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

                        HAMILTON COUNTY PART 47

                                MAJOR DAVID ZEIGLER

        Originally an officer under Frederick the Great and then of the
army of the American Revolution, Commandant of Fort Washington and the
first President or Mayor of Cincinnati. -Written for this work by Mary D.
Steele, Dayton.

        "In the Indian border warfare, between 1788 and 1795," says
Rosengarten, in his 'German Soldier in the Wars of the United States,' "a
leading figure was that of DAVID ZEIGLER, whose story is typical of that of
many of our early German soldiers." He also "won great praise," for courage
and military ability during the Revolution, and took much pride in having
the best drilled company in the regiment. He began his military career as
an officer in Frederick the Great's army, and also, served in the Russian
army in the reign of Catherine Second, during the campaign against the
Turks, which ended with the cession of the Crimea of Russia. Major Denny
states, in his "Military Journal," that Zeigler was also at one time in the
Saxon service.
        DAVID ZEIGLER was born at Heidelberg in 1748. He emigrated to
America in 1775, for the purpose of entering the Revolutionary army. In
June, 1775, he was commissioned third lieutenant in Captain Ross's company,
which was recruited in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and immediately sent
to escort a supply of powder, of which Washington's army was desperately in
need, to Cambridge. On the 25th of June, 1775, Zeigler was promoted first
lieutenant and adjutant of Col. William Thompson's battalion of riflemen.
This regiment was more than half made up of Germans, and was "the second in
Pennsylvania to enlist for the war under Washington." January 16, 1777, was
promoted captain. From his promotion till the end of the Revolution he
served as senior captain in this famous regiment, which General Wayne said
"always stepped the first for glory." It distinguished itself in the
battles of Long Island, Brandywine, Monmouth and Bergen's' Point. The same
day that he was commissioned, Captain Zeigler was made Brigade Inspector of
the Pennsylvania Brigade Department of the South.
        Once during the Revolutionary was he was taken prisoner. The
following account of the adventure is given by the American Pioneer:
General Samuel Findlay, Major Zeigler, late of Cincinnati, the first
marshal of Ohio, and Major Thomas Martin, were captured by the British and
imprisoned in Philadelphia. They made their escape, Martin killing the
British officer in pursuit with a club. Reaching a Dutchman's house, Major
Martin passed Zeigler -who was a Prussian -for a Dutch doctor, who, by
making pills of bread mixed with a little spittle, cured the landlady and
escaped a bill of charges. A niece of the major often related this story,
but she said that he cured the landlady with hair powder, shaken from a
powder-puff which he carried in a box in his pocket. His powder-puff
figured in many a joke at a later date. He was very witty and fond of a
good story, and numerous humorous anecdotes about him used to be in
circulation among his old friends.
        In 1780, just before the mutiny of the troops at Morristown, when
an effort was at last being made to satisfy their just demands, Zeigler was
appointed by Pennsylvania State clothier and issuing commissary of State
stores, and was sent to President Reed with an estimate of the clothing
needed for the troops by Wayne, who ended his letter with the words:
"Captain Zeigler will be able to inform you excellency of matters I don't
choose to commit to paper."
        After the mutiny the First Pennsylvania, of which Harmar was now
colonel, was sent to Virginia, where it distinguished itself at Yorktown.
January 4, 1782, it joined Greene in South Carolina, remaining a year and a
half, and being present at the investment and surrender of Charleston.
        In June, 1783, it returned by sea to Philadelphia. Major Zeigler
was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati; an honor which he valued
highly. In a beautiful miniature in our possession, painted on ivory by
Pine, at Philadelphia in 1799, he wears the Continental uniform, and the
gold eagle badge of the Society, fastened by its blue ribbon to the breast
of his coat.
        After the disbandment of the Continental army Congress raised a new
regiment of which Harmar was made colonel and Zeigler was commissioned
captain of one of the four Pennsylvania companies, August 12, 1784. In
September the four companies marched for Fort McIntosh, twenty-nine miles
below Pittsburg, where they remained till the fall of 1785, when the
regiment was reorganized and Zeigler went to Pennsylvania to recruit. He
returned in November with his company to McIntosh, leaving there in the
spring for Fort Finney, at the mouth of the Great Miami. A high flood led
to the abandonment of this fort, and another of the same name was built at
the Rapids of the Ohio in July, where Zeigler remained till winter. In
January, 1787, his company and two others were at Fort Harmar..."officers
and men in close quarters."
        In the summer of 1787 Zeigler accompanied Harmar on his Western
expedition, for the purpose of treating with Indians and deciding
difficulties among settlers about public and private property. They went by
water from what is now Louisville to Port St. Vincent or Vincennes,
Indiana. Zeigler's company returned on foot through the woods to Fort
Finney near Louisville. Here, October 28, Harmar received his commission as
brigadier-general, and the troops left at once by water for Fort Harmar,
where they spent the winter. The regiment was only enlisted for a year, and
in the spring Zeigler went East to recruit. He returned to Harmar September
9, escorting from Fort Pitt Gen. Butler, Capt. O'Hara, and the friendly
chief, Corn-planter, with about fifty Seneca Indians, who came to negotiate
a treaty with the United States Government. Major Denny says that "Zeigler
and his party were received with a salute of three rounds of cannon and the
music;" and Buel says "We saluted them with our field-pieces, which they
returned with a running fire from their rifles."
        "Soon after we left the Point," Dr. Cutter writes in his 'Journal,'
"saw the soldiers and a number of Indians, expected from Fort Pitt, coming
down on the other side of Kerr's Island. We crossed the river and met them.
Captain Zeigler commanded the company of new levies of fifty-five men.
There were about Indians in canoes lashed together. The soldiers were
paraded in a very large boat, stood up on a platform, and were properly
paraded, with the American flag in the stern. Just as we got up to them
they began to fire by platoons. After they had fired, the Indians fired
from their canoes singly or rather confusedly. The Indians had two rather
small flags of thirteen stripes. They were answered from the garrison by
train, who fired three field-pieces; flag hoisted."
        Zeigler was noted as the drill-master and disciplinarian, as well
as for personal bravery. Major Denny says in his "Military Journal:"
"Zeigler is a German, and has been in the Saxon service previous to our
late war with England. Takes pride in having the handsomest company in the
regiment; to do him justice, his company has been always considered the
first in point of discipline and appearance. Four-fifths of the company
have been Germans. Majority of the present are men who served in Germany."
In fierce and cruel engagements with Indians, in which half the army was
killed, he exhibited the coolness and courage which were characteristic of
him. On one occasion, duty obliging him to remain for some time stationary
on a spot exposed from every direction to the bullets and tomahawks of the
savages, he seated himself on the stump of a tree, took out his pipe,
filled and tranquilly smoked it, apparently utterly fearless of danger and
oblivious of the harrowing sights around him.
        In December 1789, General Harmar left Marietta for Fort Washington
with three hundred men, leaving Captain Zeigler at Fort Harmar with twenty
soldiers. Those who remained received their pay the day before Christmas,
as is shown by Captain David Zeigler's receipt, dated December 24, for the
$859.45 paid himself and his company, which is still preserved. In
September, 1799, Harmar undertook the expedition against the Indian
villages, near the present city of Fort Wayne, which ended in a retreat to
Fort Washington. The real object of the campaign was however accomplished
by a party of 600 militia, under Col. Harden, including fifty regulars
commanded by Captain Zeigler. They burned the deserted villages, destroyed
corn, fruit trees, provisions, and all the property of the Indians. After
disbanding his army, Harmar resigned his commission and demanded a court of
inquiry, which met at Fort Washington, September 15, 1791. Capt. Zeigler
was one of the principal witnesses. He attributed the defeat to the
insubordination of the militia. Harmar and Zeigler were warm friends
through life.
        At the close of this campaign Zeigler was ordered back to Harmar,
where he remained in command till St. Clair's expedition was organized.
After his disastrous defeat St. Clair went to Philadelphia, leaving Major
Zeigler, promoted December 29, 1791, at Fort Washington, where he continued
in command of the United States army for almost six weeks. In January,
1792, probably while in Philadelphia as a witness for St. Clair, Zeigler
resigned his commission in the army.
        He settled at Cincinnati, opening a store, where, according to a
bill that has been preserved he sold "muslin, hardware, groceries, etc." He
was a successful merchant, and made what at that day was considered a
fortune. He owned two shares in the funds of the Ohio Company and many
acres of military bounty land; but these wild lands were of little value,
and his income was principally derived from his Cincinnati speculations.
The territorial legislature incorporated the town of Cincinnati, January 2,
1802, and Major Zeigler was appointed president of the village. In 1804 he
was appointed by President Jefferson the first marshall of the Ohio
district. From 1809-1811 he was surveyor of the port of Cincinnati. In
politics he was a Democrat. Judge Burnet says in his "Notes:" "Only four
individuals in Cincinnati are now remembered who then (1800) advocated the
election of Mr. Jefferson against Mr. Adams. These were Major David
Zeigler, William Henry Harrison, William McMillan and John Smith.
        In the spring of 1789 Captain Zeigler, then stationed at Fort
Harmar, married at Marietta, Lucy, youngest child of Benjamin and Hannah
Coggeshall Sheffield. She was a native of Jamestown, R.I., and came to
Marietta, December 17, 1788, with her mother, then a widow. Mrs. Sheffield
owned four shares in the funds of the Ohio Company. Judging from tradition
and the printed testimony of friends, few pioneer women were more highly
esteemed and influential than Mrs. Zeigler. Mrs. Ludlow writes from
Cincinnati: "Major Zeigler said to me, on his first visit (April, 1797);
'Our ladies are not gay, but they are extremely affectionate one to the
other.' I believe he spoke the truth. Perfect harmony and good-will appear
to exist in all their intercourse." Certainly this could have been truly
said of Mrs. Zeigler.
        Visitors to Cincinnati, when it was a mere village, were surprised
by the luxurious manner of living, and the generous hospitality of the
merchants and retired army officers who lived there. Major Zeigler shared
the prevailing tastes and habits, and loved to entertain both friends and
guests from abroad. A letter, written from Cincinnati in the fall of 1806,
says, "The girls had a variety of amusements -plays, balls and
tea-parties." A curious old ball ticket, addressed to one of these girls,
dated Cincinnati, Feb. 17, 1809, and printed, as was then the fashion, on
the back of a playing card (the queen of hearts) is still preserved. The
ball was given "in commemoration of Washington's birthday, at the Columbian
Inn on Wednesday evening, the twenty-second, at six o'clock. William
Ruffin, E.H. Stall, J. Baymillar, J.W. Sloan, mangers." Mrs. Ludlow,
describing Cincinnati in 1797, says "that it was then a village of wooden
buildings with a garrison of soldiers. The society consisted of a small
number of ladies, united by the most perfect good-will and desire for
mutual happiness. The gentlemen were social and intelligent." For several
of the gentlemen, among whom she also mentions Major Zeigler, she felt "an
almost fraternal regard;" a regard which others whom the kindly major, at
that or a later day, welcomed with cordial and genial hospitality, shared
with her.
        Major Zeigler died at Cincinnati, December, 1811, aged sixty-three
years.

        -continued in part 48

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End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #524
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