NOVEMBER 24:

November 24, 1812: As a young boy, Spemicalawba (called Captain Logan or High Horn), is captured by General James Logan. General Logan raises him until he is returned to the Shawnee during a prisoner exchange. Tecumseh's nephew, he tries to temper Tecumseh's feelings toward the Europeans. Spemicalawba scouts for the Americans during the war of 1812. He is killed on this date during a scouting expedition. Buried with military honors, Logansport, Indiana is named after him.

November 24, 1807:   Iroquois leader Joseph Brant dies.
{Many of the points in the history that follows are disputed.}

BACKGROUND:

From http://www.shelbycountyhistory.org/schs/indians/captainlogan.htm
 

Captain Logan, born Spenica Lawbe, in 1774, to the Indian Chief Moluntha and Grenadier Squaw (his wife) was taken captive by General Benjamin Logan during his attacks, in 1786, on the Macochee Towns in Logan County. General Logan became attached to the boy and took him into his home; raising and educating him, and giving him the name, Logan, to which the title of captain was later added.

The attack at Macochee also included General Simon Kenton, and Colonel Daniel Boone.

Logan became a famous scout with General Harrison in the promotion of the American cause. His Indian home village was at current day Wapakoneta. With a towering height, for the day, of six feet tall and 250 pounds, he became a true friend to the whites. His close companions were the Indians, Captain Johnny and Bright Horn. After the fall of Fort Detroit to the British, Fort Wayne was in danger, and it was Logan and his friends, who traveled to the fort to bring the women and children to safety. Later, Colonel John Johnston at Upper Piqua secured Logan’s help in returning the body of his brother Stephen from the besieged fort for burial in the cemetery at the Johnston Indian Agency.

During the War of 1812, he was asked, in November, 1812, to lead a small party of scouts to reconnoiter the Maumee River rapids in their battle with the British. In a confrontation with a superior British force they were obliged to retreat to the American lines. Stung by accusations of infidelity and sympathy toward the enemy by a junior officer, he, and his friends, Captain Johnny and Bright Horn, set out on November 22, 1812, for the same area.

Around noon, they were resting along the river when they were captured by seven Indians, including the infamous Pottawatomie Indian Chief Winnemac and one with a British commission. Logan, in an attempt to stall for time convinced Winnemac that they were tired of the American cause and were in the process of deserting. Winnemac was suspicious and the three men were disarmed.

As they followed the trail back to the English lines, they plotted their escape, and, at the same time convinced Winnemac of their sincerity in deserting, causing him to return their weapons to them. With bullets in their mouths, for quick loading, the three attacked their captors, killing two and seriously wounding another. The remaining four suffered wounds and retreated, but not before firing a bullet into Captain Logan. Captain Johnny lashed the mortally wounded Logan, and injured Bright Horn to the enemy’s horses and directed them back to the American lines; arriving around midnight. Captain Johnny scalped Winnemac and headed back on foot, entering the camp at daybreak.

The entire camp was saddened at the news of Logan’s injuries, and the foolish accusation that caused him to return to an area, known to be dangerous, in defense of his honor.

Captain Logan, before dying two to three days later, asked that his children be given into the care of Major Hardin to be raised and educated in Kentucky. Although every effort was made to honor this request, the mother of the children took custody of them, and, as reported by Sutton, "The children accompanied their mother to the west and became as wild as any of the race." Captain Logan’s body was returned to his home village of Wapaghkonetta, at Wapakoneta, for burial.
 
 

*****
 

From http://www.tolatsga.org/shaw.html
 

In 1774 the Hathawekela Shawnee had left Ohio and moved to the Upper Creek in northern Alabama. Tecumseh's mother, who had just lost her husband (a Kispoko) at the battle of Point Pleasant, went with them but left her two sons to be raised by their older sister Tecumpease. Tecumseh and his brother grew up as orphans, but in many ways this mirrored the circumstances of the Ohio Shawnee. Large groups of Shawnee had left Ohio in 1773 and 1779 and settled in southeast Missouri. The Spanish appreciated them as a means of checking the Osage and a defense against the Americans east of the Mississippi. Spanish emissaries came to Ohio in 1788 to urge more Shawnee and Delaware to emigrate, and more groups left. In 1793 Baron de Carondelet, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, gave the Missouri Shawnee a 25 mile square land grant near Cape Girardeau. Groups of Ohio Shawnee unwilling to accept the Greenville treaty joined them, and two years later, the Hathawekela left the Creek in Alabama and immigrated to Spanish Louisiana.

By 1800 the Hathawekela, Kispokotha, and Piqua were in Missouri, and only the Chillicothe and Mequachake remained in Ohio. After fighting Shawnee in Ohio for 30 years, most Kentucky frontiersmen would have found it difficult to believe there were more Shawnee in Missouri than Ohio in 1795. The Missouri Shawnee maintained close ties to the Delaware who settled with them, but both tribes had problems with the Osage who had a nasty habit of taking other people's horses. There were also problems with the Kaskaskia (Illinois) east of the Mississippi who, because of memories of earlier wars with the Shawnee, usually refused to allow the Shawnee to hunt or travel across their territory to visit their relatives still in Ohio. This erupted into open warfare during 1802 when the Shawnee attacked a large Kaskaskia hunting party. The Kaskaskia lost so many of their few remaining warriors, they never again challenged the Shawnee's right to move as they pleased through southern Illinois.

The alliance just disintegrated after Fort Greenville, and most of the political and social organization of the individual tribes went with it with alcohol a major problem. Wayne recognized Bluejacket as the Shawnee chief, but after an attempt to revive the alliance failed in 1801, the leadership of the Ohio Shawnee passed to his rival Black Hoof, a Mequachake. Black Hoof may have been a "peace chief" favoring accommodation with the Americans, but he was no fool and was determined to keep his people's lands. During a visit to Washington in 1802, he startled Secretary of War Henry Dearborn by asking for a specific deed to the Shawnee lands in Ohio. After some frantic consultation, the request was denied. Meanwhile, almost as a challenge, Tecumseh had located his village on the deserted grounds of Fort Greenville. Individual Americans who met him found him friendly, intelligent, and even charming, but he was also absolutely determined to fight any farther expansion of settlement.

In 1805 a Shawnee drunk named Lalawethika ("the rattle" - the Shawnee did not intend his name as a compliment) underwent an spiritual awakening in which he received a religious vision. Afterwards, he stopped drinking and changed his name to Tenskwatawa (The Open Door) - Americans simply called him the Shawnee Prophet. His message was essentially the same as the Delaware prophet Neolin had been 40 years earlier: return to traditional ways and forsake the white man's whiskey and trade goods. However, unlike Neolin, Tenskwatawa did not have to wait for a Pontiac - his brother was Tecumseh! While his own people watched this sudden transformation with amazement, Tenskwatawa gathered a large following among the Shawnee and Delaware, but there was an ugly side to his movement. Americans were children of an evil spirit, the Great Serpent, and anyone who disagreed with him was likely to be killed as a witch or traitor. This side showed itself during his visit to the Delaware and Wyandot villages in the spring of 1806. The Delaware head chief and several Christian converts were burned as witches, and similar incidents occurred at the Wyandot villages in Ohio.

The witch hunts turned most of the Delaware and Wyandot against the Prophet and his followers. However, Tenskwatawa dramatically predicted a solar eclipse (some would say with the aid of a British almanac) in June, and his influence spread during the next two years as thousands visited him at Greenville. Tecumseh added a political element to his brother's religion: an alliance of all tribes to halt the surrender of land to the Americans. Perhaps the greatest of all Native Americans, Tecumseh was brave, respected, a skilled politician, and spell-binding orator. In the years following 1795, the Americans had been steadily chipping away at the Greenville Treaty line. The Delaware had sold a part of southern Indiana in 1803, and the Wyandot surrendered much of southeastern Michigan in 1807. Tecumseh believed that no chief had the authority to sign away his tribe's lands nor could any tribe sell lands that were used in common. By 1808 he had a promise of support from the British in Canada and had placed himself in direct opposition to Black Hoof, Little Turtle, and the other peace chiefs.

The dislike was mutual, and Black Hoof's opposition insured that Tecumseh and the Prophet had few followers among the Ohio Shawnee. With most of their support among the tribes in the western Ohio Valley, Tenskwatawa abandoned Greenville in the spring of 1808 and, with the permission of the Kickapoo and Potawatomi, established his new capitol at Prophetstown on Tippecanoe Creek in western Indiana. The chosen location was no accident and was intended as an insult and challenge to Little Turtle, the Miami peace chief. In August the Prophet visited Vincennes and met William Henry Harrison, the American governor of the Indiana Territory who would soon prove to be Tecumseh's nemesis. The meeting ended on a friendly note, but Harrison remained suspicious and in the spring sent spies to Prophetstown. Their reports confirmed his worst fears, for it appeared that Tecumseh had assembled almost 3,000 warriors, from different tribes, ready to fight American expansion.

Harrison had instructions from Congress to end native land titles in Indiana and Illinois. In 1809 he concluded treaties with the Delaware, Miami, Kaskaskia, and Potawatomi at Fort Wayne and Vincennes ceding 3,000,000 acres of southern Indiana and Illinois. When he heard what had happened, Tecumseh "went ballistic" and threatened to kill the chiefs who signed. The following June his followers executed Leatherlips, a Wyandot chief, and brought the wampum belts and calumet of the old western alliance to Prophetstown. The reaction of the Brownstown council was to denounce Tenskwatawa as a witch. Tecumseh met with Harrison at Vincennes in August, but the exchange of harsh words almost resulted in a fight between Harrison's soldiers and Tecumseh's escort. They met again during the summer of 1811, but by this time both were convinced war was only a matter of time. Immediately afterwards, Tecumseh left for the south to try to recruit the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee. Before leaving, he gave his brother specific instructions that, during his absence, he was to avoid any confrontation with the Americans.

Unfortunately, he would probably have done better to have told this to Main Poche and the Potawatomi. Tecumseh was barely south of the Ohio River when they attacked settlements in Illinois bringing the frontier to the point of war. Harrison assembled 1,000 regulars and militia at Vincennes and in September moved against Prophetstown. After pausing to build Fort Harrison on treaty line just north of Terre Haute, he arrived at Prophetstown in November and camped just across Tippecanoe Creek from it. Shots had yet to be fired, but the Prophet ignored his brother's orders and decided to kill Harrison with a suicide squad. The ensuing battle ended in a draw, but the Americans lost 62 killed and 126 wounded. The warriors eventually were forced to withdraw, and Harrison burned Prophetstown. Tippecanoe was not significant as a military victory, but it destroyed Tensquatawa's reputation as a prophet. Angry Winnebago held him prisoner for two weeks, and when Tecumseh returned from the south in January, his alliance was in shambles, and the War of 1812 (1812-14) was only months away.

By the time of a formal declaration of war in June, Tecumseh had gathered over 1,000 warriors in Canada to fight for the British. However, after a council with Tecumseh and the Prophet on the Mississinewa River (Indiana) in May, the Shawnee, Delaware, and Wyandot decided to remain neutral. Some even supported the Americans, but few joined Tecumseh and the British. The war began with a series of disasters which sent the Americans reeling. General William Hull invaded Canada in July but, upon hearing a rumor 5,000 warriors were coming down Lake Huron by canoe, retreated to Detroit. In truth, Hull's opposition was only 800 of Tecumseh's warriors and 300 Canadians. After several detachments were attacked near Detroit, Hull surrendered in August without a fight - an act which earned him the dubious distinction of being the only American general ever court- martialed for cowardice and sentenced to death by firing squad. The victory at Detroit brought more warriors to Tecumseh and set off a series of raids against American forts and settlements across the frontier as far west as Missouri.

Following the death of Little Turtle in July, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa returned to northern Indiana to recruit warriors from the Miami. In September the Prophet ended the military side of his career with an unsuccessful attack on Fort Harrison - garrisoned by 50 regulars commanded by Zachary Taylor. William Henry Harrison was given command of the American army in the Northwest and launched a series of attacks which forced the Prophet and his followers to return to Canada. Early in 1813, Harrison built Fort Ferree on the upper Sandusky and moved the Delaware from Indiana to the Shawnee villages at Piqua and Auglaize in Ohio to preclude any chance of their joining Tecumseh. However, a unit of 900 Kentucky militia commanded by General James Winchester was ambushed on the Raisin River in southeast Michigan with 300 killed. After surrender, 50 prisoners were massacred while British officers just stood and watched. There would have been more victims if Tecumseh (who had a strong personal aversion to torture and massacre) had not arrived and personally intervened. Afterwards, he berated the British officers as cowards for their failure to protect American prisoners.

Despite the setback on the Raisin River, Harrison kept inching forward and built Fort Meigs on the Maumee River in February. Tecumseh, meanwhile, had returned to Indiana for more warriors and increased his force to almost 2,000. In May they joined the new British commander, Colonel Henry Procter, to attack Fort Meigs, but the Americans held on, and many of Tecumseh's warriors became discouraged with siege warfare and went home. Proctor was forced to end the siege but made a second unsuccessful attempt in July to take Fort Meigs. By August Harrison had assembled an army of almost 8,000 and, after Oliver Perry's naval victory on Lake Erie, was ready to take the offensive. Proctor's resources at Fort Malden (Amherstburg, Ontario) were already strained, not only with having to feed Tecumseh's 1,500 warriors, but also 12,000 members of their families. When Harrison began his advance, the British could offer only limited resistance.

Ultimately, Proctor was to prove every bit as incompetent and cowardly as the American's William Hull. Detroit surrendered, and Proctor abandoned Fort Malden without even bothering to inform his native allies. Tecumseh described him as "a fat animal, that carries its tail upon its back, but when affrighted ...drops it between his legs and runs off." Harrison pursued Procter east across Upper Canada. Tecumseh did his best to cover the British retreat and slow the American advance. The British attempted a stand at the Battle of the Thames (Moraviantown) on October 6th, but Proctor and his staff suddenly left the field abandoning their own troops and leaving Tecumseh and 600 warriors to make a last stand in a small patch of swampy woods. When Tecumseh was killed late in the afternoon of October 6th, 1813, the last possibility of united Native American resistance to American expansion died with him.