Heading to Tippecanoe

            “My letter of yesterday will inform you of the arrival and departure of Tecumseh from this place and of the route which he has taken.
            “There can be no doubt but his object is to excite the Southern Indians to war against us….
            “The implicit obedience and respect which the followers of Tecumseh pay to him is really astonishing and more than any other circumstance bespeaks him one of those uncommon geniuses, which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the established order of things.  If it were not for the vicinity of the United States, he would perhaps be the founder of an Empire that would rival in glory that of Mexico or Peru.  No difficulties deter him.  His activity and industry supply the want of letters. for Four years he has been in constant motion.  You see him today on the Wabash and in a short time you hear of him on the shores of Lake Erie or Michigan or on the banks of the Mississippi and wherever he goes he makes an impression favorable to his purposes.”  From a letter by Governor William Henry Harrison at Vincennes to Secretary of War William Eustis, August 7, 1811.
            “I am now able to inform you that certain information concerning the campaign up the Wabash is received.
            “Gov. Harrison has written a gentleman of this place (Lexington) that he will take the field about the 20th of Sept. and has received full powers from the government to that effect.
            “I would recommend it to my comrades that we rendezvous at Louisville on the evening of 13” of Sept and on the morning of the 14th proceed.  This will allow us a day or two to rest our horses at Vincennes.
            “The clothing ought to be a blue coatee and pantaloons without any scarlet, a hat or leather cap covered with bear skin, boots and spurs and a pair of tanned leather moccasins to spare.  The arms a good sword and a brace of pistols, with good locks, and a belt round the body with cartridge box and 12 cartridges.  The cartridge to consist of such a number of buckshot as the caliber of the pistol will permit, provide the ammunition but omit making up cartridges till we meet.”  From an announcement by Joseph H. Daviess calling for volunteers.
            Events were rapidly moving toward a final confrontation between the Indians and the United States government in the region west of the Appalachian Mountains in the spring of 1811.  For the past five years, Indian resentment and resistance toward the American land acquisition policy in this vast area had grown sharply under the leadership of two Shawnee brothers, the Prophet and Tecumseh.
            Following his second meeting at Vincennes with Governor William Henry Harrison in early August 1811, Tecumseh traveled southward to try to enlist the tribes below the Ohio River in his cause.  By this time, Harrison had concluded that a confrontation was inevitable and that the time to act was while Tecumseh was absent from his headquarters at Prophetstown on the Tippecanoe River near present-day Lafayette, Indiana.
            Harrison had been in frequent communication with Secretary of War William Eustis regarding Indian depredations on the frontier.  Although the administration hoped for a peaceful resolution, the Fourth Regiment of Regular Army troops had been ordered from Pittsburgh to Newport, Kentucky (opposite Cincinnati, Ohio), where they were subject to Harrison’s orders.
            At Harrison’s direction, the Fourth Regiment left Newport and traveled down the Ohio River.  Arriving at the mouth of the Wabash, it took them 10 days to travel upriver to Vincennes, arriving on September 19.
            Adam Walker, a soldier in the regiment gave the following account of their arrival in that frontier settlement:  “After a fatiguing passage of ten days through an unsettled country, which presented nothing to the view but a wild and dreary wilderness, our ears were cheered by a prospect of the town of Vincennes.  It was dark before we landed and by the noise and confusion about us we concluded the town to be overrun with troops.  A rabble soon gathered about the boats and assisted in hauling them ashore--their whooping and yells and their appearance caused us to doubt whether we had not actually landed among the savages themselves.  Many of  these militia spoke the French language; their dress was a short frock of deer-skin, a belt around their bodies, with a tomahawk and scalping knife attached to it, and were nearly as destitute of discipline as the savages themselves.  The militia from Kentucky and a few companies of Indiana were decent soldiers; yet the large knife and hatchet which constituted a part of their equipment, with their dress, gave them rather a savage appearance.”
            Joining Harrison’s Indiana militia and Kentucky volunteers, the Fourth Regiment had only a week to recuperate before the combined force of a thousand men departed Vincennes on September 26.  Leaving the sick to garrison Fort Knox II, three miles north of Vincennes, the column advanced slowly with mounted scouts and troops in front, the infantry in the middle, and a mounted contingent bringing up the rear.
            After a march of six days, the army arrived at present-day Terre Haute where they constructed Fort Harrison.  On October 29, the army again commenced their march toward the Tippecanoe River.
            On the afternoon of November 6, 1811, Harrison’s army made its final approach to Prophetstown prepared for battle.  The Prophet sent a delegation forward to ask for a meeting the following day.
            Although Harrison was doubtful that a parley would prove successful, he felt an obligation to try negotiations because of the administration’s preference for a peaceful resolution.  He selected a large guard for the night.  Many of the troops would not live to see the sunrise.