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LF/UtliX TIMW5, 11Clay Countian Who Helped DefeatBritish in 1812 Buried in Cottage HillISiRev. A. F. Bridges, D. D., LL; D., Colorado Springs, Colo., writes: “Sometime since a patriotic order inquired concerning ex-soldiersconcerning who are buried in Clay county cemeteries. Among others mentioned was “D. W. Bridges, veteran of the Civil War, Cottage Hill cemetery.” Reference was made to my grandfather, Rev. Dillon Wayne Bridges, Sr., a veteran of the War of 1812, who was born on the Shenandoah river between Charleston and Harper’s Ferry in Virginia, December 25, 17 9 4, and who died at the home of my father, Dillon Wayne Bridges, Jr., in Brazil, October 9, 1806.important, although not large. The buttle really ended with the defeat of tlie British. The Indians did not emerge from the swamp to aid their allies. They wero irregularly lined up behind trees and stumps iu soil inaccessible to cavalry. Tecumseli, having doffed the uniform of a British brigadier general for war paint and feathers under the conviction that he was to lose his life in83iGen. W. H. Harrison, in command of the Army of the West, was j moving around Detroit and the Canadian border generally, in order to recover Michigan which had been cowardly surrendered to England by Governor Hull, in eo’mmand of United States forces. Six hundred mounted infantry was recruited, principally around Maysville, Ky., Colonel Richard M. Johnson commander, soon after war was declared, to reinforce Harrison. My grandfather, then seventeen years old, enlisted us a bugler under Dave Gooding, captain. He returned to his home in Flemingsburg, Ky., to which place his father, Dillon Bridges, had moved from Virginia in 1S00, at the expiration of his short term of enlistment; hut re-enlisted with twelve hundred mountedthat engagement, rode fearlessly at the front, commanding and cheering his force in a stentorian voice. This did not last long. Following a squirrel rifle shot which Good-wing claimed to have fired, the doughty old chieftain threw up botharms and fell dead from his horse.The Indians then fled in disorderan the fight was over.A feature of the battle in which history does not record, but which my grandfather mentioned, was the stnmpede of horses from which the Americans dismounted in order toenter the swamp and fight Indians after their own fashion. The horsesmade for a knot hole in reaching which two or more sank in quicksand and the rest crossed on theirAsubmerged bodies. About, two hundred horses wore thus lost. TheDinfantry, under Gov. Shelby in1813. They reached Fort Meigs late in September to find Harrison besieged by General Proctor with fifteen hundred British regulars aided by Tecumseh at the head of two thousand Indians. The Kentucky troops cut their way through the enemy’s lines and liberated Harrison from his critical situation.troops were embarrassed somewhat by their loss, hut they had met the enemy and routed him, thus ending tiic Canadian campaign.The war lasted iu other parts for sometime, but the line between Canada and the United States as it noW exists was established by the decisive battle of the Thames.My grandfather saw and admired Tecumseh, along with other Americana. He was an Indian, hut he was brave and noble—a veritable uncrowned king. He saw him• yThe British then retreated toSandwich, thence to the Thames river, near a Moracian settlement, where the famous battle of the Thames river was fought October 5. The British occupied u hill, wliilo Tecumseh and his Indians were intrenched in a swamp, thickly wooded and abounding in quickstand, adjoining the hill on the west. Proctor being a coward, fled before the battle began. Col. Johnson charged furiously on the British line, which gave way. Johnson was desperately wounded, twenty-five shots having penetrated his flesh or clothing. He was carried from the field. He recovered, however, in time to resume bis scat in Congress next spring. History is backward in giving the total casualties in thatbattle, but they were comparativelythrow up his arms and fall from his horse, and noted the panic that followed his death among the Indians. He is buried near the south her-dor of the central part of CottageHill and his grave is marked by a monument. No soldier who sleeps in that or any other cemetery is more worthy of recognition on Decoration Day. He married at Flcm-ingsburg in 1814, came into Indiana by way of Brookville in 1816; settled near Centerville soon after j where a brother lived; lived awhile i at Aldington and Milton, where my ] father was horn in 1882; moved to j Jordan Village in 184 0, thence to ; Poland in 1 849. For several yearsMethodist itinerantihe was ai preacher.I Note—Mr.Bridgesprobablyi• means the Hill cemetery as the Cot-I• tuge Hill cemetery was not in ex-iI istence in 1866.
Newspaper Details
Brazil Daily Times
Brazil, Indiana, US
Tue, May 22, 1923
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Sullivan C.
IN, USA 19 Oct 2020
Other Publications Near Brazil, Indiana
Brazil National Index
Brazil Manufacture and Miner
Brazil Clay County Enterprise
Brazil Weekly News
Brazil Weekly Democrat
