The Northwest Territory
The Northwest Territory
The area in red is what was ceded by Virginia to the United States, known as the Northwest Territory (Northwest of the Ohio River), with much of the territory occupied by many native American tribes and confederacies, some who hold resentment towards the newborn United States of America.
Not long after independence, 1many new settlers began to spring westward into the vast new expanse of land to forge a new beginning, and to contribute to what is to be known as the most exceptional republic that has existed so far upon the Earth.
For more reliable historic information about the creation of the Northwest Territory and westward expansion, please visit the Indiana History Blog (Category: Frontier Indiana)
However, out of this humongous tract of newly ceded land had became the new state of Ohio, leading to the territory's name to be known as the Indiana Territory. It is during this time that the birth and story of the Indiana Yellow Jackets begins, and quite in earnest.
After Merriweather Louis and George Rogers Clark mapped much of the area, the most notable force tasked with taming this new westward land afterward began with General William Henry Harrison and his hearty Hoosiers.
The Birth of Indiana
The Birth of Indiana
With Harrison determined to cement his legacy here in this new territory, and eventually being appointed as the territory's Military Governor, he took to hard work and thought on how best to deal with resistant tribes with diplomacy and treaty, rather than through force of arms, though it was known that he had quite a distaste with them.
Settling in the new Indiana Territory in the late 1780s was as dangerous as it was difficult. There were many instances of disparities and grievances between the incoming settlers and the Indian nations, which occasionally and unfortunately led to bloodshed. In the face of the danger of the wilderness' flora and fauna, and dealing with the threat of Indian aggression, the Hoosiers pressed on and established very successful settlements, like Vincennes, Corydon, and Clark's Tract/Grant, and posts such as Fort Wayne and Fort Miami. In ten short years, Harrison was able to acquire the land for the Hoosier population to expand sevenfold. With all of the success, of course, there were to be recourse.
Figuring out how to regulate the land, that new frontiersmen and business could expand westward and, as Thomas Jefferson put it, "We have now lands enough to employ an infinite number of people in their cultivation. Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it’s liberty and interests by the most lasting bands." And cultivate they did! Surveyors, such as the likes of General Washington, spilled westward to help organize tracts of land for purchase and proper use! Take a look below and see what kind of surveying was done for the effort of cultivating and civilizing the Indiana wilderness!
In September 1811 John Gibson, secretary of the Indiana Territory, called out the militia in response to rising tensions with Native American tribes in the region. The Yellow Jackets were one such company to respond to the call. The company gained its name from the uniforms provided by the county for the men. The cuffs and fringes of their buckskins and wool coats were dyed a bright yellow.
The Yellow Jacket Militia of Harrison County (territorial Indiana) was organized into a company of sixty men, commanded by Captain Spier Spencer, the duly elected county sheriff of the county. Spencer was a veteran of at least forty prior engagements with Native Americans and was the best of men to lead them.
For more information on Captain Spier Spencer, please visit these sites for further reading:
John Tipton (future Senator and husband of Matilda Spencer, Spier's eldest daughter)
The second in command was 1st Lieutenant Richard McMahan, a new settler living near Corydon. The company had four sergeants and four corporals, one of each from each township in the county. Among them was Pearse Chamberlain, Henry Batman, and William Pennington, the younger brother of Dennis Pennington the speaker of the territorial legislature. Dennis Pennington was also a member of the company, but was unable to join the expedition because he was overseeing the construction of the new county courthouse and had to attend a meeting of the legislature who were called into an emergency session. The company had eight ensigns including future U.S. Senator John Tipton. Tipton kept a detailed journal of the company's activities and it is from that source that most knowledge of the company is known.
The company contained two musicians, Daniel Cline serving as a drummer and Isham Stroud as a fifer. Both boys were fifteen years old, the youngest men in the company. There were forty-three privates enlisted, including many of the prominent men in the county.
The privates were paid between $8 and $6.66 for the duration of their four-month enlistment. The officers were paid between $50 and $26. All the men were required to supply their own horses and were paid forty cents a day for their horses' fodder. The company first met at Harrison Mill on the western edge of the county. After camping there a night waiting for the entire force to come together the company set out to join the primary camp of the territorial militia.
On September 8 the company set out down the Buffalo Trace towards the capital in Vincennes. Traveling along the road they met up with other companies of infantry militia traveling by wagon who they accompanied the remainder of the journey. By the 16th they crossed the White River and met up with the main army commanded by Governor William Henry Harrison on the 18th. For the next twelve days the company remained in camp just north of Vincennes. On September 30 they received orders to march to Maria Creek with the rest of militia gathered in the camp to meet the army regulars already stationed near Maria Creek. Upon reaching their destination the Yellow Jackets were removed from the normal chain of command and moved to only answer to Harrison.
Harrison intended to use the company as scouts and foragers. He put them in a wide formation around the main body of the army where they kept watch for enemies and gathered wild game to bring back to the main army. The company was successful and was even able to find beehives and bring back ten gallons of honey. On October 3 the army reached the site of modern Terre Haute, a strategic location on the Wabash River. The company continued to scout the countryside and forage while the rest of the army constructed Fort Harrison. A small detachment of mounted men under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Berry was added the Yellow Jackets.
On October 10 a small group of Indians ambushed sentries at the fort, wounding a man. The Yellow Jackets quickly drew up around the fort preparing to drive off an attack, but it never materialized. On October 22 the company held elections for additional officers, and Tipton was promoted to Lieutenant. The army soon resumed its advance, and by the end of the month they had arrived in modern Vermillion County. On November 2 Harrison ordered the entire army to parade so he could inspect them. The entire force did so, except the Yellow Jackets, who were off foraging. Harrison threatened to demote all of their officers, but never carried through on the threat for fear they would desert.
On November 3 the army moved out again and the Yellow Jackets along with the dragoons were put out in a skirmishing formation in front of the army to clear any possible enemies. By November 6, they reached the village of Prophetstown, the center of the native resistance. That night the army camped on a hill near the edge of the settlement. The army was camped in a battle formation and the Yellow Jackets were placed on the far right flank. Early on the morning of November 7, the Indians in Prophetstown launched a preemptive strike on the army.
The attack took the army by surprise and the brunt of the attack came down on the right flank. Captain Spencer was among the first to be killed, being shot in each thigh. Governor Harrison later recorded his death in a dispatch to Washington. Of Spencer he said, "...Spencer was wounded in the head. He exhorted his men to fight valiantly. He was shot through both thighs and fell; still continuing to encourage them, he was raised up, and received a ball through his body, which put an immediate end to his existence..." Lieutenants McMahan and Berry were also soon wounded and killed. As the Yellow Jackets were quickly overwhelmed a reserve company of regulars came to reinforce their line and turned the tide. The battle lasted three hours before the Native forces withdrew. The Yellow Jackets suffered the highest casualties of the army, over 30%. Eleven were killed in the battle or died from wounds and thirteen wounded. The dead were buried in a mass grave on their campsite, but after the army withdrew, the Indians returned, dug up the graves and scattered their remains.
A few days after the battle, and successful conclusion of the campaign, the militia was released from duty and returned to their homes. The militia reached Corydon on November 27 after seventy-four days campaigning.
Tipton's Island
The Battle of Tipton's Island was an engagement between a Shawnee war party and Indiana militia under command of John Tipton in April 1813 on the White River near present-day Seymour, Indiana.
In April 1813, during the War of 1812, a Shawnee war party killed two white settlers eight miles from Fort Vallonia. The war party continued towards the fort, killing another settler and wounding three more. The Shawnee then put some distance between themselves and the fort, but were soon pursued by 30 Indiana militiamen under Major John Tipton known as "Corydon's Yellow Jackets".
The Shawnee crossed the flooded Driftwood River and, thinking they had lost their pursuers, set up camp on an island in the east fork of the White River, just northeast of modern day Seymour. One of Tipton's scouts located the trail, however, and the rangers cautiously approached the river. Major Tipton ordered the rangers to maintain absolute silence, and tied one ranger to a tree when he kept talking. The militia took positions along the bank of the river and opened fire. The Shawnee were taken by surprise, but returned fire for about half an hour. Few casualties were suffered due to the firing distance across the river and the shelter provided by the wooded island. One Shawnee was killed and several were wounded, but a few drowned when they tried to swim across the flooded White River.
The militia could not pursue the Shawnee across the river, so they returned to Fort Vallonia. There was a victory celebration, but as details of the skirmish emerged, it was determined to be a small engagement against a war party that managed to escape.
Other engagements seen by the Indiana Yellow Jackets include:
Battle of Wild Cat Creek
Battle of Mississinewa
Siege of Fort Harrison
Siege of For Wayne
Second Battle of Tippecanoe