Battles of River Raisin Bicentennial Commemoration

The Star Spangled Banner

I attended the Battles of River Raisin Bicentennial Commemoration this weekend in Monroe, Michigan  (which was formerly known as Frenchtown) and which is just about 20 miles north of where I live in Toledo.

There were actually two battles - all part of the War of 1812. The first occurred on January 18, 1813 (which the U.S. won against a small force of British soldiers and a confederation of 18 native tribes).  The British and tribal forces had occupied Frenchtown and the American force under the command of General James Winchester were able to drive the combined British and tribal confederation out of Frenchtown. The second battle was fought on January 22, 1813, and resulted in a humiliating defeat of the American army by a larger force of British and tribal forces which had arrived on the scene, undetected as a result of the negligence of the American sentries, just before dawn. During that battle in which the American general was captured - and the aftermath on January 23rd, members of the 18 tribes deliberately  killed wounded Americans (most from Kentucky) as they lay helpless on the snow-covered, frozen field or in the homes of Frenchtown citizens where they had been taken. Further, the warriors would not allow the people of Frenchtown (mostly ethnic French people with whom the tribes had no quarrel)  to gather and bury the American dead.  The cry "Remember the Raisin" that resulted served as a rallying cry throughout all the individual United States and its territories. Many men, especially in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, fearing that the 18 tribe confederation with the British army would sweep down from Canada to destroy their homes and drive them out forever, volunteered to fight.  It is thought that the defeat and the deliberate killing of the wounded American soldiers after the second battle of the River Raisin. symbolized by the cry, so galvanized the American effort that the combined forces were ultimately defeated a little less than seven months later in Canada on October 15, 1813 at the Battle of the Thames (River).

I was impressed to see about three hundred reenactors present. Most were portraying either American or British Soldiers and officers. Three or four portrayed a contingent of Native Americans. I listened to preliminary and introductory remarks made by Monroe's mayor and Michigan state legislator and a Major General of the Kentucky National Guard.  Then marched with the reenactors from the Sawyer House (site of the Navarre house where General Winchester was caught sleeping as the counter-attack of the 22nd began) and traced his failed attempt to reach the American line - now the site of the River Raisin Battle Field Park (National Park Service).

Flags Raised

Then I stood at the sites' center and watched the old American 1812 Flag (Star Spangled Banner) raised along with the flags of Michigan and, afterwards,  the the old ensigns of the British Empire followed by wreath layings by the decendents of Frenchtown citizens and members of the Canadian military forces. From there I walked west with the reenactors to the actual battlefield site where the two forces offered three fired volleys in honor the dead of both sides. From there, proceeding across Dixie Highway to a large field south of a sports complex I watched, for about an hour a tactical reenactment of the First Battle of the River Raisin. I walked back to Custer's corner (Monroe St.and Elm where General Custer's equestrian statue is) and after lunching at Subway, I walked six blocks south (half a mile) to the Kentucky Memorial  at Sixth St. and Monroe to attend a service held to honor the fallen Kentuckians where flanking wreaths were laid, three volleys were fired along with taps by members of local post of the American Legion honor guard, and speeches given by the town Mayor, a minister, a colonel of the Michigan National Guard, the same Major General from Kentucky and a Congressional member from Michigan to honor the brave men who died in battle or were killed afterwards in the aftermath by members of the 18 tribes.

A Salute to the Fallen

Quite a lot for a body to take and given, after parking my Fiat near the Custer statue, that I walked wherever I went I was exhausted when it was all over.

I have to admit my feelings about the all of this patriotism on display have become some what jaded. My scooter journeys across Ohio and Indiana in 2011 and 2012 have changed my perspective. Whereas in the past I might probably would have felt goose-bumps as the flags were raised; wreaths laid; volleys fired and taps played; stirring speeches given to remember the brave soldiers who died in defense of their country.  But after actually seeing the site battle of Tippecanoe in Battle Ground, Indiana and fought in early November of 1811 (and in the opinion of some was the actual start of the war) at its bicentennial last year; then revisiting the memorial the Battle of Fallen Timbers (fought in August of 1794); visiting the site of the Battle of the Wabash in 1791 (aka St. Clair's defeat where over 950 American soldiers died against a confederation of native tribes) at Fort Recovery Ohio a force under General Mad Anthony Wayne defeated a force of the same confederation at the Second Battle of the Wabash and the Battle of Fort Recovery; visiting Shawnee Prairie Preserve (site of the first Prophet's town founded by Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskatawah - founded deliberately south of and in defiance of the Greenville Treaty line of 1795 - consequence of the Battle of Fallen Timbers - and later moved to the banks of the Wabash River in Indiana - less than a mile  from where the Battle of Tippecanoe was fought); visiting former President Harrison's grave near the banks of the Ohio River at North Bend Ohio;  riding past the rebuilt Fort Meigs in Perrysburg many times; seeing the site, just a few miles south of Carey, Ohio, where an American Army officer, Colonel Crawford, was burned at the stake by members of the Lenape  (Delaware) Tribe in June of 1782 and finally - visiting the site of a true massacre - where about 90 innocent Christianized Lenape at Gnadenhutten in March of 1782 were slaughtered-  this past August - for which Colonel Crawford was brutally killed in retaliation, I was troubled that no member of the any of the tribes whose ancestors participated in the River Raisin Battles spoke at this commemoration.

Wyandotte Chief

I spoke to the head Ranger of the River Raisin Battlefield park and asked him if any members of the tribes were invited. He told me they were, but only one official member attended: a chief of the Wyandotte Tribe (either Billy Friend or Norman Hildebrand).  I saw him on the porch of the site's building in full tribal dress standing near the podium set up there, but for some reason he was not a listed speaker - I don't know why.  The Ranger, in response to that query, said there was still much hard feelings in the tribes and in Monroe's citizens and even Michigan and further many native peoples did not feel comfortable going to a town  where George Armstrong Custer was being held up as hero of the Indian wars while the peoples who fought him and died trying to save their homes are still being vilified as vicious perpetrators of another misnamed "massacre" which happened on June 25, 1876  One can see that the sentiments of the events on occurring January 22 and 23, 1813 were still present when the white officials who spoke on January 19, 2013 at the event's commencement at the Sawyer house and later at the flag raising at the battlefield site and at the Kentucky Memorial service were still calling it a "massacre".  Even the Kentucky Memorial had that word on it carved in stone. I asked the Ranger about it and he was quite apologetic and said the Rangers of the National Park Service were quietly working hard to try and help to change attitudes on both sides.

He digressed a bit on Custer saying that is quite likely the reason why he may have had such a negative attitude about the tribal peoples was  because during his formative years in Monroe (arriving at age 5 from New Rumely, Ohio were he was born) and likely listened, with a boy's interest, to one-sided war stories told by old soldiers and townspeople who lived through it - leaving out, for example, that the General Harrison when he marched up in force in response to the battles either ordered or allowed the brutal killing of noncombatant native peoples and the destruction of their homes in retaliation.

I hope that things will change. A sign of that is that a Native American Pow-wow  is now held once per year in Monroe. But there is a long way to go. What America did then was nothing short ethnic of cleansing.  People were deprived of their lands by force - actually taken from their homes and - as the Ranger told me -  gathered on reservations (really concentrations camps)- one nearby Dundee, and forced marched to lands across the Mississippi River where most of their descendants  reside today.

But it is sad to see and hear that the trigger word "massacre" was still being used to describe the events happening on January 22 and 23, 1813 and that no member of any of the tribes whose ancestors fought here were able to speak, for whatever reason, at the Bicentennial.

Kentucky Memorial

“Ego delustro sic non tu poteris nutu”. 

I disabuse so you can’t snooze.