Mississinewa: The Battle

Continuing from last post, the American forces were encamped in some of the out-lying Miami villages they had won the day before, near the junction of the Wabash and Mississinewa rivers. It was December and the men were getting frostbite. At 4:00am on December 18th reveille was played and the officers met to discuss their situation. During their meeting the Indians attacked. Private Nathaniel Vernon of the Pittsburgh Blues was on sentry duty when the attack began,

"It was near an hour to daybreak when Mr. I. Davis and myself, who were posted on the river before our quarters, were speaking of the possibility of an Indian attack, he was in a very ill humor, and remarked we have marched a hundred miles into the wilderness through snow and sleet, half leg deep in the bleak month of December, with nothing but what we have carried on our backs, and now, what is worse, we shall have to march back without any fight at all. Scarcely had he ended his remarks, when a ball whistled over our heads, and the next instant a yell prevaded the forest as if all the fiends of the lower regions had been loosed upon us. 'There they are now' was his exultant exclamation, and the next moment we were forming in line." 

The next couple hours were filled with fighting in the pre-dawn darkness, as the rifle, musket, and tomahawk were all used with lethal effect. Many screams and battle cries filled the air, and horse went wild as they found themselves tied in the middle of a battle. The commanding officers hurried to put the soldiers in the right positions as the Indians attacked different parts of the encampment. Finally, as dawn came the Americans gained accuracy and efficiency. Seeing that the Americans were gaining power, the Indians dispersed.

While the Indian numbers were hard to estimate, there had been approximately 300 warriors, and their casualties were an estimated 100 killed and wounded. The 600 American soldiers had lost 8 killed, 45 wounded, their main loss being the death of 109 horses, shot by the Indians either on purpose to hinder the Americans or because they were simply in the way of the fighting. While the Americans had successfully repelled the attack, they were hindered from continuing their campaign and left to a hard struggle back to Fort Greenville.

Not only did the U.S. forces have to march back in the freezing snow, with dwindling supplies (including ammunition), with less horses than they used to have, while taking care of their wounded, and being under orders to safely transport the women or children they had taken captive (thus taking up more valuable horses), but they were also in imminent danger of another, larger Indian attack. They did successfully make it back on December 24th, although 300 of the men were incapacitated for a while from frostbite. (The Indian captives were escorted to Indian settlements at Piqua.)

-Peter Bringe
 Memor!