What Tecumseh Fought For-- Part 1: The Three Wars in 1812

From the October 26, 2020, New Yorker by Philip Deloria.

This is a book review, I believe of Peter Cozzen's joint effort called "Tecumseh and the Prophet:  The Shawnee Brothers Who defied a Nation."

The article had a lot about Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet's efforts to unite a strong Indian confederacy to stem U.S. encroachment onto Indian lands and the War of 1812.  It is one of those new histories that paints only negative views of the United States.

I will just be concentrating on Tecumseh in the War of 1812.

Most histories portray the role Indians played in the War of 1812 as being incidental to their British allies, marauding along the backcountry fringes of the Atlantic  conflict.  In actuality, the United States was waging three intertwined wars at once.  The war concerned with trade restrictions and impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy; the Creek War, which began as a Native conflict to halt settlement in the South; and Tecumseh's War, which started in 1811, but didn't conclude until 1815.

This last war was fought across Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, lower Canada, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.  Tecumseh's War was not only a struggle for territory, but also Indian future in relation to the United States.

--Brock-Perry

William McHenry, McHenry County (Illinois) Namesake-- Part 2: Fought the Indians

In 1811, William McHenry served in the Illinois militia during Tecumseh's War, which culminated in the Battle of Tippecanoe in the Indiana Territory.  In the War of 1812, he participated in the attack on the Indian village at Peoria, which was allied with the British.

After the war, he was a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1818, which led to statehood in 1819.  Then he was elected to the first Illinois House of Representatives.

During the Blackhawk War in 1832, he was a major of the Mounted Spies.  He became ill during the campaigning and was mustered out at age 61.  Immediately, he was elected to the Illinois Senate.

He died in 1835 in a boarding house in Vandalia, Illinois, which was then the capital of Illinois.

When McHenry County was formed in 1836 out of Cook (Chicago) and LaSalle counties and it was named after him.

What's In a Name.  --Brock-Perry

A Frontier in Flames, War On the U.S.-Canadian Border-- Part 6: Tensions Between Indians and Whites

Tecumseh protested that the tribes had no authority to sell the land, which was commonly held.  In August 1810, he and a band of several hundred warriors met with William Henry Harrison at the governor's home. Grouseland, in Vincennes, Indiana Territory.

Tecumseh demanded that Harrison rescind the Treaty of Fort Wayne, which the governor refused to do.  The discussion grew more and more heated.  At the end, Tecumseh warned Harrison that if the treaty stood, they would ally with the British.

Attacks on American settlers began to increase in what was known as Tecumseh's War.  Harrison asked for federal troops to help restore order.

--Brock-Perry