Tippecanoe Battlefield brochure is published by the Tippecanoe County Historical Association. This brochure gives an excellent overview of the "The Battle of Tippecanoe" and the history surrounding this event. This brochure is included with permission of the Historical Society. They have another publication called "The Conflict of Cultures" that they are currently revising and release soon. The Battlefield Museum is maintained by the Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
The Battlefield Museum is a part of the Tippecanoe County Historical Association. The Association also maintains Fort Quiatenon, a French trading post along the Wabash River, 4 miles south of West Lafayette, the Tippecanoe County Historical Museum in the Moses Fowler House in downtown Lafayette, and Alameda McCollough Library and Wetherill Historical Resource Center next door to the County Museum. All of these are great sources of history.
Early man and many Indian tribes roamed this part of the Wabash
Valley before the thriving trading post of Keth-tip-pe-can-nunk was established
in the eighteenth century. Known to many as "Tippecanoe", the village thrived
until 1791, when it was razed in an attempt to scatter the Indians and
open the land to the new white settlers.
Seventeen years later a new Indian village was established on or near the old Keth-tip-pe-can-nunk site at the Wabash/Tippecanoe River junction. Known as "Prophet's Town", this village was destined to become the capital of a great Indian confederacy--their equivalent to Washington, D.C.
The town was founded in May, 1808, when two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (the Prophet), left their native Ohio after being permitted to settle on these Potawatomi and Kickapoo-held lands.
Tecumseh and the Prophet planned to unite many tribes into an organized
defense against the growing number of western settlers. Through this union
they could defend the lands they had lived on for thousands of years.
In addition to being a seat of diplomacy, Prophet's Town became a training center for the warriors, with a rigorous spiritual and athletic regimen. As many as one thousand warriors were based in the capital at its peak.
The white settlers of the Indiana Territory were disturbed by the increasing activities and power of Tecumseh's followers. In the late summer of 1811, the governor of the territory, General William Henry Harrison, organized a small army of 1,00 men, hoping to destroy the town while Tecumseh was on a southern recruitment drive. The regiment arrived on November 6, 1811, and upon meeting with representatives of the Prophet, it was mutually agreed that there would be no hostilities until a meeting could be held on the following day. Harrion's scouts then guided the troops to a suitable campsite on a wooded hill about a mile west of Prophet's Town.
Upon arriving at the site, Harrison warned his men of the possible
treachery of the Prophet. The troops were placed in a quadrangular formation;
each man was to sleep fully clothed. Fires were lit to combat the cold,
rainy night, and a large detail was assigned to sentinel the outposts.
Although Tecumseh had warned his brother not to attack the white men until the confederation was strong and completely unified, the incensed Prophet lashed his men with fiery oratory. Claiming the white man's bullets could not harm them, the Prophet led his men near the army campsite. From a high rock ledge west of the camp, he gave an order to attack just before daybreak on the following day.
The sentinels were ready, and the first gunshot was fired when the yells of the warriors were heard. Many of the men awoke to find the Indians upon them. Although only a handful of the soldiers had had previous battle experience, the army bloodily fought off the reckless, determined Indian attack. Two hours later, thirty-seven soldiers were dead, twenty-five others were to die of injuries, and over 126 were wounded. The Indian casualties were unknown, but their spirit was crushed. Angered by his deceit, the weary warriors stripped the Prophet of his power and threatened to kill him.
Harrison, expecting Tecumseh to return with a large band of Indians, fortified his camp soon after the battle. No man was permitted to sleep the following night.
Taking care of their dead and wounded, the demoralized Indians left Prophet's Town, abandoning most of their food and belongings. When Harrison's men arrived at the village on November 8, they found only an aged squaw, whom they left with a wounded chief found not far from the battlefield. After burning the town, the army began their painful return to Vincennes.
Tecumseh returned three months later to find his dreams in ashes.
Believing the reconstruction of the confederation to be too risky and the
chance of Indian survival under the United States government to be dim,
he gathered his remaining followers and allied himself with the British
forces. Tecumseh played a key role in the War of 1812, being active in
the fall of Detroit, but he was killed at the Battle of the Thames on October
5, 1813, at the age of forty-five.
Scorned by the Indians and renounced by Tecumseh, the Prophet took refuge along nearby Wildcat Creek. Although remaining in disgrace, the Prophet retained a small band of followers, who roamed with him through the Northwest and Canada during the War of 1812. He died in Wyandotte County, Kansas, in November 1834.
General Harrison remained governor of Indiana Territory until September, 1812, when he was assigned command of the Northwestern frontier in the War of 1812. He was in command at the capture of Detroit and the Battle of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed. At the close of the war, Harrison returned to public life at his old home in North Bend, Ohio. He served in the Ohio state Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.
Harrison was an unsuccessful Whig candidate in 1836, and four years
later his followers were still determined to land him in the White House.
After he clinched the nomination a second time, the Whigs prepared a massive
rally at the Tippecanoe Battlefield on May 29, 1840. Over 30,000 people
followed the poor roads and trails or the winding rivers to sing the praises
of "Old Tipp! Roast beef and pork were everywhere, the stew and bread were
free, and the hard cider flowed. Catchy campaign songs capitalized on the
great political slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!" Bands, floats, stump
speeches, and majestic tales of the battle added special color to the event.
The Tippecanoe rally and similar events were successful, and Harrison landed
the coveted office. He died just a month after assuming the Presidency,
but the people at the battlefield and other places lives on as the modern,
festive political campaign.
By the 1850's, the battlefield was already attracting visitors and
picnickers. A refreshing artesian spring was discovered, and the Louisville,
New Albany, and Salem Railroad laid its tracks along the eastern edge of
the battlefield. A large wooden frame refreshment stand was erected on
land adjacent to the battlefield to serve the growing number of visitors.
The stand and surrounding acreage became the property of the Northwest Indiana Conference of the Methodist Church in 1857. The building served as a school--the Battle Ground Collegiate Institute--until 1862, when it was replaced by a larger structure.
In 1873 the battle site was enclosed by an iron fence, which survives. Two years later the land just north of the fence was developed as a Methodist campground. The boarding house was remodeled into a hotel, and a 2500-seat tabernacle was erected. The Battle Ground campground became extremely popular, and as many as 10,000 persons attended special programs.
The camp was active through the early sixties and new buildings were erected to replace the old. A Sesquicentennial celebration in 1961 attracted 10,000 people to Battle Ground, but interest in maintaining the old camp and the battlefield dwindled after the event. Although great plans were made for the area, the camp eventually shut down and the grounds were neglected.
The battlefield was in disarray for many years after the conflict,
although there were sporadic attention given to the site. Nearly two decades
following the battle, serious motions were begun to preserve and mark the
battlefield. In 1834 the Indiana General Assembly authorized the acceptance
of the sixteen-acre campsite from its owner, battle veteran John Tipton.
The tract was formally presented on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the
conflict in 1836. The return of General Harrison to the site in 1835 inspired
toasts to the raising of a monument commemorating the battle. It would
be seventy-three years before this was accomplished.
Increasing activity at the site, by attendees at the Methodist Campground in the late 1800's, brought new urgency into erecting a suitable memorial to the battle. An association organized in 1892 worked the state and national representatives into funding a monument. It wasn't until 1908 that the 85-foot marble obelisk was finally erected, at the cost of $24,500.
Text taken from the Tippecanoe Battlefield brochure,
published by the TCHA.
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