Stephen and Abraham Ruddell and their connection to
Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet
Attack at
Ruddell’s Station
This story begins
June 24, 1780; the American Revolutionary War has lasted for nearly seven or eight years, depending on
whether you consider the start of the Revolution to be the Battles of Lexington
and Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775 or the issuance of the Declaration
of Independence on July 4, 1776. There
are still three years to go, as the conflict officially ended in 1783 with the
Battle of Yorktown. The revolution as
many well know was against British colonial control. The chief issues were taxation without
representation – taxes that the Empire used to pay off their French-Indian War
debts - and the British Proclamation of 1763, which denied colonists’ the legal
right to settle in the Ohio country, which is where this story takes
place.
The location
is Ruddell’s Station (a/k/a Hinkston’s Station and known by the British as Fort
Liberty), located on the south fork of the Licking River in Kentucky – between
the present day cities of Cynthiana and Paris. Positioned 80 yards from this fortress,
during one very violent rainstorm, is a company of British and Indian raiders. . The
settlers had not expected a northern attack and had earlier sent two boys in that
direction to drive stray cattle back to the stockades. The boys encountered an advance party and
though one of the boys is scalped in the process, both of them escape back to
the fort and inform the settlers. Those inside
the station can see that they are under siege but are unable to see the extent
and composition of the company and its armaments; the sheets of rain that are
coming down hinder visibility outside the fortress walls.
The Indians
fired their rifles, though this onslaught does not lead to any surrender. The British then fired shots from their three-pound
cannon twice into the fortification walls.
The first shot blasts a spar apart; the second embeds a cannonball into
the side of one of the houses. It is important
to note that this is the very first recorded cannon fire in the Ohio country
wilderness. Although the settlers are
rattled, they believe this to be the extent of the British firepower, so they do
not surrender themselves. Then from out
the rain they see a six-pound cannon rolling across the field. The Captain of
the fort, knowing the station is wholly unsuited to withstand a blow of this
magnitude, opens the gate and offers surrender.
The roughly 170 inhabitants are vastly outnumbered by the forces outside
their walls.
The opposing
forces, which include over 1000 British soldiers, Tory loyalists, Canadian
volunteers and Indians, are led by Captain Henry Bird. Bird believed Fort Ruddell to be an outpost
for Revolutionary soldiers, and he was right in that belief. Colonel George Rogers Clark (of the American
side) had contracted this fort’s Captain, Isaac Ruddell [~50 years of age], to
enter Ohio Country with his militia to fight the British and hostile Indians. Ruddell, his militia, and their families
likely left Washington County, Virginia for Kentucky to do just that in the
summer of 1778. Now those that Ruddell
had come to fight against were upon his doorstep.
If
you will permit, a quick look at some background about the factors that contributed
to this particular British - Shawnee cooperation: In 1779, United States Colonel John Bowman
led a band of three-hundred Kentuckians into the Chalgotha Shawnee village at
Chalahgawatha [Old Chillicothe], north of modern day Xenia, Ohio. Due to a noisy
entry, most of the tribes’ people - mostly children and elderly – had advanced warning
of the invasion. They had all moved to
the central council house, which sat on high ground. The main warriors had actually removed to a
newer village west of the Mississippi.
The U.S. soldiers looted the village and burned the wegiwa (teepees) of
Shawnee families, but the Indians in the council house attacked, killing a few
soldiers. Not knowing the size of the
Shawnee forces, Bowman commanded his men to retreat. Young Indian braves, realizing they had the
advantage followed Bowman’s company and killed more soldiers. The total casualties of Bowman’s expedition
numbered ten. The total casualties of
the Shawnee are unknown but their chief, Black Fish, suffered a wound to the
knee that proved fatal.
After
that, the Shawnee sought retribution for the attack on their Chillicothe village
and looked to drive the white settlers – invaders to them – permanently away
from their lands. The British were looking for a way to ease tensions with the
natives and seek strategic alliances that could help them to defeat the colonial
insurgency. These arrangements were
increasingly common between the British and the Natives. The tribes would fight under the British
crown and, in return, the British would support those Indians on “expeditions”
into neighboring lands. During these
expeditions, the British and the Indians released or ransomed many whites taken
hostage, but natives kept a few as slaves and additions to, or replacements for,
members of the tribal community. The
raiders killed other white settlers immediately. Such are the cycles of war; retribution
begets retribution. Bowman was not the
first, nor would he be the last American soldier to lead a raid into Native
settlements during the Indian Wars. Capturing
or murdering Indians and destroying whole villages was as common an occurrence
as the killing of white settlers in the British-Indian raids. It should also be
noted that while most of the native tribes sided with the British during the
war, believing them to be sympathetic to native concerns regarding white
encroachment, a few tribes fractured over whom to support. The Oneida and the Tuscarora, of the Iroquois
confederacy, fought alongside colonists, as did factions of the Shawnee and the
Cherokee. Upon the end of the
Revolution, the natives would discover a complete betrayal of their trust from
their supposed allies. The British ceded
the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains at the Peace of Paris in 1783
without even a mention of the people who had inhabited the American continent
for centuries.
Back
to Ruddell’s Station: British
Captain Henry Bird [aged 40 years], following orders from his superiors, claims that prior to the attack
he had explained to his allied native leaders that their warriors were not
to enter into the fort until the siege
had concluded, and that they were not to “commit cruelties” upon the settlers. According to newspaper accounts, Ruddell
refused to consent to surrender unless he and Bird agreed on certain
conditions. Chief amongst those conditions was that the British would hold all captives and take them to Detroit. Bird
consented to the terms.
But when the
gates opened, many Indians rushed straight in and claimed prisoners despite the
agreement. Bird claimed he had no power
to control the Shawnee, and so in the ensuing chaos, families were separated
and some people were killed, burned and tortured. To quote Bird, “they rushed in, tore the poor
children from their Mothers' breasts, killed a wounded man, and every one of
the cattle, leaving the whole to stink.”
(Letter, Capt. Henry Bird to Major De Peyster, 1 July 1780) Reports
counted many more people killed on site, as many as twenty or thirty. The killing of cattle was a major mistake as
there were too many hostages to feed given the provisions that the British and
Shawnee had brought, and hauling all that dead meat was not an option. Ruddell was infuriated with Bird for the
blatant disregard to the terms of surrender, but the situation had spiraled
well out of control.
Once the
prisoners were bound and the looting had ceased, the Shawnee readied themselves
to head to another fort some miles to the south, Martin’s Station. Bird refused, stating that first, the
prisoners must be released into his army’s custody and second, the booty be
distributed as agreed upon prior to the attack.
Once the Indians consented to these demands the whole regiment with
their captives marched on to their intended target. This time the British-Indian forces took the
fort with no opposition and no casualties.
The total estimate of people taken at Ruddell's and Martin’s Station is
470 men, women and children. The Shawnee
forces, excited by this pair of victories, urged Bird to move quickly toward
Bryant’s Station and Lexington. Bird,
for some reason - possibly due to exasperation with commanding this combined British-Native
regiment - refused to go forward and the expedition turned north of the Ohio
River and marched their captives back to Detroit.
Accounts of Captain
Bird’s humanity towards the captives differ, depending on which side does the
recounting. Bird stood passively and
allowed brutal acts to occur during the siege and afterwards. This includes witnessing the killing of an
infant pulled from his own arms. He
returned all but three of Isaac Ruddell’s children to him and his wife
Elizabeth. One child an infant had been
killed during the invasion, the other two children, both sons, were kept, or
“adopted” by the Shawnee, due to their promise as potential warriors. These two
boys’ names were Stephen A. Ruddell and Abraham Ruddell. At the time of the raid, Stephen was 12 and
Abraham was only 6. The remainder of the
prisoners in British custody at Detroit were released and exchanged through the
end of the Revolution, with the assistance of General George Washington. For fifteen years, the Chalgotha Shawnee kept
the Ruddell boys. Stephen’s adopted family
(Adopted father was either Black Fish or Black Hoof) raised him as a warrior,
alongside another Shawnee boy of the same age who had also recently been
separated from his parents.
Tecumseh
Stephen
Ruddell recollected that he was the same age as Tecumseh when he was brought to
the tribe, and they became fast and enduring friends as the years passed. Stephen was renamed Sinnamatha, or “Big
Fish,” and was raised as a full member of the tribe. Seemingly inseparable,
Ruddell and Tecumseh hunted, fought, and played together as childhood friends
and into their early adulthood. They
spent hours trading knowledge about each other’s cultures and exchanging
lessons in their native tongues. Stephen
was trained – like Tecumseh – as a warrior, and he closely studied Shawnee
religion and culture on his own.
That boy,
named Tecumseh (which could mean either Shooting Star or Panther Leaps in the
Sky), was the son of Methoataske, a Creek Indian and Puckeshinwa a Kispokotha
Shawnee. He was born either near a small
spring by Old Chillicothe or in Old Piqua, OH –the historical record is hard to
confirm. His father Puckeshinwa had been
killed in 1774 at the Battle of Point Pleasant and his mother migrated with
other “Absentee Shawnee” in 1779, and died later.
An older
sister, Tecumpease, raised Tecumseh and his four younger siblings: another
sister named Nehaaeemo, and an adopted brother named Wehyahpihreshnwah (Blue
Jacket -- adopted 1771), and two of three triplets – the second born triplet,
named Kumskaukau---is believed to have died in the first year. The first born of the triplets was named
Sauwaseekau (was killed at the Battle of Fallen Timbers) and the third born
triplet’s name was Lalawethika or “The Noise Maker”.
Given the
death of his father, Tecumseh’s eldest brother Chiksika (Cheeseekau), educated
him to be a warrior. Tecumseh would play
war games with other fellow youths in his tribe and he began accompanying
Chiksika on a series of raids against frontier settlements in Kentucky and
Tennessee in the late 1780's. He showed
leadership abilities as he grew into adulthood and was considered as a
promising warrior, a skillful hunter early on.
He also abhorred the mistreatment and torturing of prisoners and slaves
that he witnessed as a youth, which strengthened his convictions about proper
treatment of enemies in his later years.
Time and time again historical accounts rank this quality as one that
set Tecumseh apart from many of his fellow Indians.
Abraham
Abe did not have as much good fortune
in Chillicothe as his older brother.
During the War of 1812, and in response to settler’s accusations that
Stephen and he were aiding and abetting Indians in their homes, Abe attempted
to set the record straight by giving his account of his life with the
Shawnee. What follows is an abridgement
of his account:
After the Shawnee and British took him and his
family, Abe [aka “Black Hawk”, which I think translates to Mkate'kwaawithi] was
sold into slavery to an Indian woman who gifted him to her grandson. Abe served this grandson three years, living
outdoors the entire time, every season. From
age 6 to 9 he was given little clothing and food, and was expected to cut wood
until his hands blistered. Although he
attempted to run away multiple times early on, thinking that taking his chances
alone in the woods would be better than his current life, he was captured each
time by the grandson and driven back by whip, sometimes even dragged back by a
rope leash. The third time he was given
an interpreter who explained to him that if he ran away again he would be
burned to death. When he said he did not
care about dying he was offered "better treatment", given he would
stop escaping. He still was not allowed to live indoors with his master.
After those three years, his master
died and following tribal deliberation, Abe was allowed to keep his master's
home. He was still unable to gather much
in the way of food for himself, until around the age of 15 (6 years after
receiving the home) when he became skillful enough to hunt game for
himself. He recounts the time he failed
to bring game home to his adopted mother and had managed to hurt the horse that
he rode. The "mother" tied a
rope around his neck and severely beat him with a club. He screamed until his brother Stephen heard
his cries and came to his aid - signaling to the woman that he would kill her at
that moment if she did not stop beating him, promising the same would be true in
the future. Stephen tried with help from
his friends - possibly even Tecumseh - to collect enough property to purchase
Abe from the woman, but she flatly refused all offers. Abe recalled that Stephen cried inconsolably
over many days at his failure to free his younger brother. Beyond this statement, there are not many
details about Abe’s Shawnee life.
Stephen, Shawnee Life and
the Northwest Indian Wars
Much better
documented was Stephen Ruddell’s time with the Shawnee. His name is mentioned in many of the key stories
that develop his friend Tecumseh’s legend.
Here is one such example: early on, when they were both age 16, they helped
to successfully fight off an attack from another tribe on the Ohio River. Ruddell also took part in an exceptional
Buffalo hunt that Tecumseh undertook, totaling 16 kills. This hunt apparently took place after a previous
hunt that was an embarrassing failure for the future leader. The story of that second hunt eventually
evolved into a legendary fictional tale that fed into the Tecumseh
mythology.
Alongside
Tecumseh, Ruddell witnessed, and participated in many of the major battles of
the Northwest Indian Wars of 1785–1795. Stephen was considered brave enough
that in time he became a leader in the tribe with many warriors at his
command. He was present at the defeat of
the first U.S. military campaign led by Gen. Josiah Harmer, near Kekionga, in
the Autumn of 1790. Ruddell was also involved as a Shawnee warrior in the Aug
20, 1794 battle at Fallen Timbers. This
was the third campaign of the war, led by General “Mad Anthony” Wayne. Sauwaseekau, Tecumseh’s younger brother and
eldest of the triplets, was killed at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. This battle ended in victory for the United
States, ended the Wars, and resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, signed on
August 2, 1795 at Fort Wayne. (Curious
side note for history buffs: William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
was also present at Greenville.)
Despite
accounts that Tecumseh had also been involved in the battle against the second
U.S. campaign near the Wabash River, led by U.S. General Arthur Saint Clair,
Ruddell rejected the assertion, saying that Tecumseh was hunting at the time
and had not known of the campaign until he returned. Shortly following the St.
Clair campaign, noted frontiersman Simon Kenton staged an attack upon Tecumseh
and his men. Tecumseh, a light sleeper,
called to Ruddell to help fight them off and Ruddell engaged directly with
Kenton in the attack. Kenton escaped,
only to return with General Wayne’s campaign to fight the Shawnee.
Present
during the Greenville Treaty, both Abe - now 21 years old - and Stephen - now
27 - were approached by a Captain under Gen. Wayne named McColester, about
whether they knew the Ruddell boys who were taken so many years ago, as
McColester was unaware of who they were.
Stephen said that they did, and when pressed to identify Stephen Ruddell,
Stephen put his hand on his heart and said, “Me. Me Stephen Ruddell.” Astonished, Captain McColester informed the
two young men that their parents were alive and arranged to rejoin them with
their father at once. Both the boys had
operated the past fifteen years on the assumption that their parents had been
killed, but kept a bit of hope that they had not. Accounts differ as to how this reunion
occurred, but upon arriving, Isaac Ruddell was clearly distressed over the
appearance and speech of his two sons.
Ultimately, he was calmed, accepted his son’s current “condition” and
welcomed them back into the greater Ruddell family. Isaac took his sons back to
Ruddell’s Mills, to work and live. He
gave both Abe and Stephen a means to survive comfortably and some education to
provide them with the understanding of language and traditions that they had
lacked during their time with the Shawnee.
Stephen had brought his native wife with him, and accounts describe that
Isaac asked McColester to convince Stephen to leave his native wife
behind. Stephen refused; he had respect
and affection for his Shawnee wife.
Sometime later it was apparent that she was not adjusting well to living
amongst whites and eventually she left Stephen.
Upon her departure, he gave her horses to take back to the tribe.
Why they had
not tried to discover the status of their parents to this point is unknown, but
one speculation was that Watmeme, Stephen’s adopted mother, had been ill for
the previous two years and had recently died.
Stephen and his brother may have been there in a purely official capacity.
Tecumseh vowed that he would never lend his signature to a treaty with the
white man, believing that the whites would not honor the letter or the spirit
of the agreement. A skeptical Tecumseh
might have sent Stephen on his behalf so that he could hear about the details
without being party to the treaty itself, which he disagreed with on
principle.
It might
also have been that the defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers signified to
these two young Ruddells that the encroachment into tribal lands and future
dominance of white settlers was imminent.
Given Stephen’s good standing amongst the Chiefs who worked with the
Americans, the time was right to rejoin their birth family, in whatever shape
that family might be. One account from the
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society says that Abraham was enthusiastic
about leaving the tribe, while Stephen had reservations about returning to life
amongst the whites and did so conditionally, providing that his Shawnee wife
return with him and that his surrounding tribesmen be provided for while in
Wayne’s encampment.
Tecumseh was
infuriated with the results of the treaty; disgusted that his chiefs would give
away so much of the Shawnee’s land and considered his elder leaders ineffective
from this point on. With the help of his
brothers, Tecumseh worked toward a unified nation of Indians across the
American landscape with a goal of driving out the whites and reclaiming land
for natives to restore their way of life before European settlement. In 1800, the United States appointed William
Henry Harrison as governor of the Indiana Territory, which bordered land near
the Wabash, where the native people lived and had not yet ceded to whites. Harrison began arguing for increasing white
settler land, through additional treaties with the tribes of the region. This validated many of Tecumseh’s misgivings
about the intentions and honor of the whites, and his attitude of resistance
strengthened even more.
The Chillicothe Session
Another
remarkable moment in which Stephen Ruddell (and possibly Abe) was a participant
occurred 12 years later, after he had left the tribe. On September 19,
1807, a Saturday morning about four months following the British attack upon
the American frigate USS Chesapeake, frightened
settlers of the frontier town of
Chillicothe, Ohio – then a new state – gathered en masse to witness an unusual
session called by acting Governor Thomas Kirker. The cause for the fear and agitation was the
recent influx of natives from various tribes at a recently established Shawnee
village 100 miles to the NW, at Greenville, OH near the juncture of the Wabash
and Tippecanoe rivers. This was land
already ceded by treaty, and the Shawnee man who attracted these
tribespeople was said to hold a message from Waashaaa Monetoo, the Great Spirit
or “Master of Life” which is drawing
them to the newly formed “Prophetstown.”
This man,
“Tenskwatawa” (the “Open Mouth” or “Open Door”) was in fact the man formerly
known amongst his people as Lalawethika or “The Noise Maker”. His early life was remarkable only in its
absolute failure. Raised by the same
siblings as Tecumseh, Lalawethika did not prove to be a good hunter, even
losing his right eye in a hunting accident.
He did not prove to excel at much of anything. Homely and boastful with no cause, he was
ridiculed within his own people. Despondent
and useless in an ever shrinking world where disease and malnutrition scourged
his people, he did as many Shawnee - turning to liquor and living hand to mouth. One night, after many years of alcohol abuse
and meandering at the margins of his tribe, Lalawethika had a vision. While drunk he claims to have ascended to
“the world above” and, with the help of Waashaaa Monetoo, bore witness to his
own sins against his people – seeing the destructiveness of such behavior to
the native way of life. Swearing off
alcohol and shunning any fondness for European culture, he renamed himself
“He-Who-Opens-The –Door”, or Tenskwatawa, and promised to show his people the
way to save themselves from the invading Americans. He also was taking advantage of a renewed
religious fervor after the smallpox-related death of a prominent leader who
supported cooperation with white settlers, which many attributed to some sort
of witchcraft amongst chiefs that accommodated whites. Many white called him the Shawnee
Prophet. Both Abraham and Stephen
Ruddell regarded this man, in both his past life and current incarnation, to be
a skillful manipulator and that his character was one of selfishness and
deceitfulness. Despite the Ruddell
brothers’ deep affection and respect for Tecumseh, they remained astonished at
the amount of sway his younger brother Tenskwatawa held over him in later
years. Tenskwatawa gathered momentum by
instructing natives to reject all white practices and dress in order to “return
to grace.” Tecumseh’s vision of a
greater Indian union was in many ways given an audience through his younger
brother’s religious community, so there is some shrewdness to Tecumseh tying
himself to his sibling, however flawed he may have been. The Prophet’s growing power from this vision would
elevate his brother Tecumseh, but also prove to destroy him.
Back in
Chillicothe, rumors of the natives' ultimate plans, and accusations of British
traders encouraging native hostility to white settlers, abounded. Ohio Governor Thomas Kirker was under
pressure from settlers, traders and local Indian agents to send the militia in with
threats to raze the native congregation’s village if they did not disband.
Kirker, however, followed a reasonable course – not wanting to ignite a battle
between whites and natives. He summoned
close to 1500 militiamen to stand ready at his command, while sending
representatives on September 12 to Greenville to inquire, observe, and report upon
the situation and intentions of the villagers and their leaders.
These
representatives returned to Chillicothe on the 19th with six other
men. Four were chiefs from the
Greenville village: Stayghta, (Roundhead
or “Bark Carrier”) of the Wyandot and Panther, Blue Jacket, and Tecumseh of the
Shawnee. The other two men were the
Ruddell brothers, Stephen and Abraham, brought as interpreters for the
chiefs. Tecumseh implicitly trusted
Ruddell and asked that Ruddell interpret for him when he spoke with white
settlers, even suggesting that Stephen would make a fine Indian Agent to
replace the current agent, William Wells, who actually agitated whites against
the Shawnee encampment.
Tecumseh was
a great orator in his native tongue by non-native accounts, and in translation
his words impressed and convinced the settlers that the natives had no
intention to harm the whites. While
Tecumseh had learned a broken form of English from Ruddell, he appeared to
steadfastly avoid its use when addressing whites. Likely he would not want his broken delivery
to make him appear intellectually inferior or to dilute his natural speaking
skills and charisma. Ruddell’s
translations between the Indian leader and whites became the conduit through
which Tecumseh’s speech in his native tongue could impart its significance in
English. Kirker called off the militia and folks went back, perhaps a bit nervous, but concentrating on more common and
daily affairs.
While this one session did not stop the cycle
of events that led to the War of 1812, it is reasonable to assume that
Tecumseh, the Ruddells, and Kirker did stop needless suffering that would have
ensued from the rapidly deteriorating atmosphere in Ohio. During 1807 and 1808, Tecumseh cemented his
status as a leader amongst Shawnee who resisted white influence, and earned the
respect of even those who disagreed with his position. Canadian British even approached Tecumseh
with an offer to create an alliance at this point, but Tecumseh refused the
offer. The Ruddell’s encountered
Tecumseh or Tenskwatawa on occasion after the events at Chillicothe; there are
many accounts of these men’s lives and deeds as they diverged from those early
days in the Shawnee village. I will
summarize them the best that I can in the following passages.
Tippecanoe
The village of Prophetstown continued to attract natives from numerous
tribes, clamoring to hear the words of the Prophet and Tecumseh, and to
experience the return to native traditions that the villagers practiced. Both Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa’s message became
increasingly political as the years progressed and the town grew to over one
thousand people. Tecumseh’s ultimate
goal was the creation of an independent Indian confederacy that would occupy
the lands surrounding the Great Lakes. Villagers
also participated in rigorous athletic drills and religious ceremony. The town was not only a political center; it
was a place for natives to prepare both physically and spiritually for the
coming conflict.
In the late summer of 1811 William Henry Harrison gathered one thousand
of his own warriors to overtake Prophetstown while Tecumseh was in the south
seeking new members for his pan-Indian movement. Tecumseh had expressly warned his brother to
not wage war with the whites until the Indian coalition amassed at Prophetstown
was cohesive and prepared to take on advancing forces, and told him instead to
practice diplomacy. Tenskwatawa sent out
representatives a mile west from the village to meet Harrison upon their
arrival November 6th, and both sides agreed to refrain from
hostilities until they formally met the next day, but that meeting never took
place.
Tenskwatawa, claiming another message from the Great Spirit, stoked his
warriors for attack, claiming that the Great Spirit would protect them from the
white man’s bullets. They advanced upon
the Army’s camp in the night, poising to attack, but army sentinel’s warning
shots were fired immediately. After two
bloody hours the American forces pushed back the natives, though it cost them
many men. The villagers of Prophetstown,
defeated and without their full leadership, abandoned the village, their
spirits trampled into the dirt. Harrison
and his men, fearful that Tecumseh was returning with reinforcements, stayed at
their camp on high alert through the night of the seventh, but on the eighth,
they entered the town and found only one woman inhabiting it. They removed the remaining villager and
burned Prophetstown to the ground.
Rise and Fall of the Indian Confederacy during the War of 1812
Tecumseh returned three months later to find his dream reduced to ashes
and rubble. Tenskwatawa lost all but a
small fraction of his following and barely escaped being killed by those horror-struck
by his actions at what became known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. Many believe Tippecanoe to be the first
battle in the War of 1812. During this
new war a dispirited but unbowed Tecumseh, knowing his imperiled Indian
confederacy was unable to fight the Americans alone, helped the British to
defend Canadian colonies in numerous battles.
Tenskwatawa was with him despite Tecumseh’s deep anger over the destruction of
Prophetstown. Tecumseh allied with General Isaac Brock of
the British to fight This alliance succeeds in the taking of Fort Michillimackinaw
in July and Fort Detroit in August and for a moment in time, that confederacy
seems close to a reality. The Native
confederacy’s best hopes are smashed when Brock, the strongest supporter of the
Indian cause they have had to date, is killed in a Battle near Niagra
River. The General who replaces Brock,
Major General Henry Procter, is indifferent to their desire for autonomy but
uses their fighting power to aid the British cause.
On October 5th, 1813 Tecumseh and his followers joined the British
led by Procter in the Battle of the Thames near Moraviantown, Ontario. The battle was waged over control of the
Detroit frontier. During the course of
the battle, British forces found themselves overwhelmed and under-organized. They lose confidence in Proctor’s battle-plan
and begin to retreat. Tecumseh and his
followers stayed and fought. Tecumseh
suffered a fatal blow from an American soldier during this battle. Colonel Richard M. Thompson claims to have
delivered the blow, but there is no clear evidence that he actually killed
Tecumseh, and in fact no one positively identifies that any of the native dead
are the Shawnee leader. Many historians believe
that the remaining Indians carried him away in the evening. Others believe that American soldiers
mutilated his body past the point of recognition. Tecumseh died at the age of 45. He is remembered by history as one of the
greatest Indian leaders, and one of the greatest leaders of mankind of all
time.
The disgraced Shawnee Prophet was also present at the battle but fled
with the Procter and his British forces and was absent when his brother Tecumseh
was killed. He had tried unsuccessfully
to regain a higher position of leadership among his people after
Tippecanoe. In later years Tenskwatawa
held on to a dwindling following. In
1825 he returned from Canada to the United States and assisted in removing many
of the Shawnees west of the Mississippi. By 1826, he established a village where
Kansas City exists today; he died there ten years later in 1836.
The Ruddell Boys after Shawnee Life
According to one account by John W. Wayland, Abe Ruddell never returned
fully to European behaviors, speaking only broken English and having native
ornamentation, such as split earlobes and “trailing” (presumably meaning
tattoos) on the shoulders. This seems inconsistent with other recollections by
people who knew him, and by reading Abraham’s own words - though it must be
noted that he remained a quiet and peculiar character after his reintroduction
to white culture. He was given a large
amount of land by his father and married into an affluent family. Later, Abe
was among the very earliest settlers in the region that formed the Independence
County of Arkansas, in a township that carries his surname even to this
day. Later, Abraham and his wife Mary
Culp Ruddell were among the first whites to settle in the Batesville Arkansas
area and raised eight children there. Remarkably,
and despite his status as a slave while with the Shawnee, Abraham kept slaves
of his own and passed them to his heirs upon his death, as did his
brother. His ability to adjust to the
early American culture of that era occurred despite his experiences as a boy
and young man. Abe died February 25,
1841; he was 66 years old.
Stephen converted
to Christianity in 1812 and was ordained as a Baptist minister afterwards.
Large (5’11”, 210lb) and gregarious with “bright blue eyes”, Stephen engaged
easily with his fellow man. He converted
many Shawnees to Christianity following his ordainment and even discouraged
many of those Shawnee from joining with Tecumseh’s Canadian uprising during the
War of 1812. Stephen moved from Kentucky
to Pike County, Missouri in 1817 and settled on a farm there, but in 1823 he
sold that farm and came to Illinois and made a home on section 18, Ursa
Township. Very few families were there at that time On February 1833 the first
religious society was established in Ursa Township, Adams County, Illinois in
the home of Stephen Ruddle. This religious society first had seven members:
Stephen Ruddle and his wife, Jess Bowles and his wife, Sarah Crawford, Mary
Ruddle, and Elizabeth Stone. In 1835
they built a log cabin on Ruddell's farm. It was the first house of worship. It
was known as Bear Creek Christian Church until 1840, when it became the Ursa
Christian Church. He was married three
times following his Shawnee wife and had 5 children with each of them, 15 in
all and 12 of those survived to adulthood.
Stephen A.
Ruddell died in Ursa, Adams County, Illinois Oct. 12, 1845, at the age of 76.
Sources
Consulted
·
Burns,
Ric (Producer, Writer, Director) and Chris Eyre (Director). Part 2: Tecumseh’s Vision [Transcript] from American Experience Series: We Shall Remain. 2009. [Alexandria,
Va.] : [Distributed by] PBS Home Video.
·
Eckert,
Allen W. The Frontiersmen: A Narrative. 1967. (Boston: Little, Brown.)
·
Edmunds,
R. David. The Shawnee Prophet.
1983. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.)
·
Gibson,
Debra. “Ursa Christian Church” Illinois
Genealogy Trails. url: http://genealogytrails.com/ill/adams/ursachristianchurch.htm; last accessed online 2010.01.25.
·
Lyman
Copeland Draper Manuscript Collection Tecumseh Papers YY (E99.S35 S39x).
Wisconsin Historical Society.
·
Register
of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 54, October, 1956, No. 189
·
Ruddell,
Abraham. “Narrative of Abraham Ruddell, June 15, 1812” taken from
Ruddlesforter, v.1-2 : 26 Fall 1999.
·
Ruddell,
Stephen as related to Maj. R. Graham.
“Reminiscences of Tecumseh’s Youth” Document Number AJ—155 American Journeys Collection, Wisconsin
Historical Society, Digital Library and Archives.
·
Ruddle-Harman,
Pauline. “Ruddle-Riddle Genealogy and Biography” The Ruddle Family (West Virginia?: P.R. Harman, 1984. L.C.
#84-52275) pp. 21-26. Online at url: http://www.shawhan.com/ruddell.html; last accessed online 2009.10.05.
·
Ruddles
and Martin's Station Historicical Association. “Ruddle’s Station, Kentucky:
Captured by British and Indian Forces June 1780.” Online at url: http://frontierfolk.org/ruddles.htm; last accessed online 2010.01.25.
·
Shawnee
Nation United Remnant Band website, Online at url: http://www.zaneshawneecaverns.net/shawnee.shtml; last accessed online 2009.10.05
·
Sugden,
John. Tecumseh: A Life. 1988.
(New York: Henry Holt and Co.)
·
Thom,
James Alexander. Panther in the Sky.
1989. (New York: Ballantine Books.)
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