Summary Information
Draper Manuscripts: Frontier Wars Papers
1754-1885
Draper Mss U
5.6 cubic feet (24 volumes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers collected and arranged by Lyman Draper preparatory to writing a series of sketches on border warfare. Though the earlier Indian wars are briefly considered, the larger portion of the material deals with wars waged in the Northwest (1788-1795) and with Western operations during the War of 1812. The papers include several significant series of original documents and journals of participants in the campaigns. Present is the manuscript original of General Dearborn's defense against the charges of General Hull in relation to the Detroit surrender; papers of Richard Butler, Josiah Harmar, Absolom Baird, James Winchester, Charles S. Todd, Benjamin Whiteman, Nathan Heald, Joseph Martin, Daniel Smith, and others; and much information on Indian treaties and their negotiation.
Descriptions of the volumes are copied from the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts by Josephine Harper. Out of date and offensive language may be present. This collection is also available as a microfilm publication. Forms part of the Lyman Copeland Draper Manuscripts. The fifty series included in the Draper Manuscripts have been cataloged individually. See the Draper Manuscripts Overview, and the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts by Josephine Harper (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1983) for further information. There is a restriction on use to this material; see the Administrative/Restriction
Information portion of this finding aid for details.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-draper00u ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Scope and Content Note
Mainly original letters, journals, and other documents kept by participants in Indian wars in the West from 1754 until 1815, with emphasis on events in the Old Northwest in the 1780s and 1790s and in the War of 1812. Related papers include Draper correspondence, materials written by him, and clippings and miscellany. Most of the volumes were arranged by Draper, some during his writing of the unpublished book on “Border Forays” (Series D), others during his preparation of a proposed new edition of Alexander Withers's Chronicles of Border Warfare; the latter, unfinished at the time of Draper's death in 1891, was completed and published by Reuben G. Thwaites in 1895. For this series the Society has an indexed calendar in typescript.
Administrative/Restriction Information
PHOTOCOPY RESTRICTION: Photocopying originals is not permitted; researchers may copy from the microfilm available in the Library.
Contents List
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Draper Mss U
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Series: 1 U (Volume 1)Papers, 1758-1885. Opening the volume is a brief section containing assorted materials of widely scattered dates concerning persons and events prior to 1776. These include Draper's rough draft of an article (1851) on the Sandy Creek expedition against the Shawnee in 1756, a few letters to him on this topic, contemporary copies of two 1758 letters by Henry Bouquet and John Hazlett on the destruction of Fort Duquesne by the French, newspaper clippings about Chief Kishkalwa of the Shawnee and Chief Blackbird of the Omaha, and a short excerpt from Abraham Hite's journal in Kentucky in 1775. Interesting and significant original correspondence, 1776-1777, composes the bulk of this volume. More than two dozen letters written in 1776 from Williamsburg, Virginia, and from frontier outposts concern the origin and mounting of the expedition against the Cherokee. Approximately ninety letters in 1777 pertain to events on the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiers: Indian raids with losses of lives, Negroes, and crops; the ravages of measles and smallpox among the garrison at Fort Pitt; the difficulties of raising and provisioning militia; problems of communication; and relations between Congress and colonial governments. Numerous letters by trader George Morgan (written under his Indian name of Taimenend), Moravian missionary David Zeisberger, Chief White Eyes of the Delaware, and other government and military officials concern the desire of the Christianized Delaware to remain at peace. Correspondents in 1776 included Matthew Arbuckle, John Bowyer, William Christian, Andrew Donnally, William Fleming, Patrick Lockhart, William McClenechan, William McKee, Arthur Matthews, John Page, Edmund, Pendleton, William Preston, Alexander Purdie, and John Sevier. The great majority of the 1777 letters were addressed to Edward Hand, with a few sent to William Fleming. In addition to Arbuckle, Bowyer, Hand, McKee, and Page, other writers in this year were Arthur Campbell, James Chew, William Cross, John Dickinson, Thomas Gaddis, John Gibson, Patrick Henry, Abraham Hite, Morgan Jones, William Linn, Archibald Lochry, James McIlhany, Samuel Mason, Samuel Miller, James Milligan, John Minor, Samuel Moorhead, Zackwell Morgan, Joseph Ogle, Dorsey Pentecost, John Proctor, Andrew Robinson, William Russell, Philip Schuyler, David Shepherd, George Skillem, David McClure Smith, Thomas Smith, Archibald Steel, Henry Taylor, Stephen Trigg, George Woods, and William Zane. Slightly fewer than half of these letters were published by Reuben G. Thwaites and Louise Phelps Kellogg in The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777 (1908) and Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 1777-1778 (1912).
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Series: 2 U (Volume 2)Papers, 1778-1788, 1832-1884. Original correspondence for 1778-1779 fills nearly one half of the volume. Most of these letters were addressed to Edward Hand and William Fleming, but several were sent to Patrick Henry. Almost all relate to the service of the Virginia militia in the Virginia-Pennsylvania region. Major topics are similar to those for 1777 in 1 U, but some correspondents comment on or convey news from the East, South, Detroit, and the Mississippi Valley. A few of the 1779 letters pertain to Evan Shelby's Chickamauga campaign and are accompanied by rough notes about Shelby by Draper. Writers in 1778-1779, in addition to Fleming, Hand, and Henry, included James Callaway, Arthur Campbell, William Christian, William Crawford, David Espy, John Evans, John Green, John Irwin, Andrew Lewis, Archibald Lochry, Patrick Lockhart, Lachlan McIntosh, William McKee, Sampson Matthews, George Morgan, Providence Mounts, William Preston, Andrew Robinson, David Rogers, William Russell, David Shepherd, George Skillern, James Smith, John Taylor, John Tipton, Stephen Trigg, and George Vallandigham. The financing of the war in the West and Indian forays and threats in Kentucky are the topics of correspondence, 1782-1786, written by Anne (Mrs. William) Christian, Governor Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, Samuel McDowell, Thomas Marshall, and John Wyllys. The values of forts, of military offensives, and of immigration as means of frontier protection Marshall expounded in a letter of December 22, 1782. McDowell's reactions to the United States Constitution are contained in a letter to Fleming dated December 20, 1787, and briefer mention of the Constitution occurred in a letter by William Russell to Fleming three months later. In another 1788 letter, Josiah Harmar informed John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Council, that paper money was not acceptable for the recruiting service. A narrative describing settlement of the Miami country from 1787 to 1796 has been attributed to the authorship of John. S. Gano; particularly discussed in the account are John Filson, Reverend John Gano, Israel Ludlow, the elder John C. Symmes, Anthony Wayne, and James Wilkinson. Also found in the volume are a few notes by Draper on the massacre of the neutral Delaware at Gnadenhutten by militia commanded by David Williamson in April, 1782. These are followed by a larger body of notes, letters to Draper, and clippings about William Crawford's ill-fated Sandusky expedition a few weeks later in 1782 and Crawford's fatal torture by his Indian captors. Several genealogical letters pertain to William and Valentine Crawford and their relatives in the Harrison, Minter, and Stevenson families.
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Series: 3 U (Volume 3)Richard Butler papers, 1754-1793. Original manuscripts by Butler (1743-1791), written mainly in the 1770s and 1780s as a Pennsylvania army officer and as United States Indian commissioner and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Northern District, almost entirely fill this volume. However, a few pre-Revolutionary papers have no obvious direct relationship to Butler; these include portions of a daybook, 1754-1755, kept by John Potter, high sheriff of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, to record writs issued; and an account book, 1756-1757, kept by a Cumberland merchant, tentatively identified as Robert Elliott. For use in Indian administration, in 1788 Butler copied the records of negotiations and a treaty made by John Bradstreet in August, 1764, and secured a manuscript copy of the treaty proceedings at Fort Stanwix between Sir William Johnson and the Six Nations in October-November 1768. Forming the heart of the Butler papers are his pocket diaries spanning-but with many gaps-the period beginning in November 1777, to March 1786. Volumes for 1777-1778 record his military service under Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan and troop movements in New York and New Jersey. During the summer of 1781 Butler was in southeastern Virginia and recorded the siege of Yorktown and the British surrender. Fragments of his diary and copies of speeches by Lafayette and others pertain to Butler's participation in treaty negotiations at Fort Stanwix in October 1784. His series of journals from September 1785, through March 1786, appears to be virtually complete; these describe his journey from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to Fort Pitt and down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Great Miami, the subsequent treaty negotiations with the Delaware, Shawnee, and Wyandot tribes, and his return to Fort Pitt and Bedford, Pennsylvania. Supplementing these latter diaries are Alexander Campbell's minutes of negotiations by Butler and his fellow commissioners, George Rogers Clark and Samuel H. Parsons, and also copies of Butler's addresses to the Indians. Among Butler's other papers are his commissions or appointments as a Pennsylvania lieutenant colonel and colonel (1777), brigadier general in the Army of the United States (1783), superintendent of Indian affairs for the Northern District (1786), Pennsylvania commissioner to purchase Indian lands (1788), and justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Allegheny County (1788); noteworthy signers included Charles Biddle, Elias Boudinot, Nathaniel Gorham, John Jay, Henry Laurens, Thomas Mifflin, John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, and Charles Thomson. A few drafts or copies of Butler's letters include ones to William Grayson (1785), Henry Knox (1787), and George Washington (1788); in the latter Butler discussed Shawnee language, Indian history, and his theory of Indian origins. Other records include James Potter's field notes (1787-1786) of land surveys made for Timothy Pickering and Company, for Jared Ingersoll, and others; an incomplete biographical sketch about Butler; a contemporary account of his death during an Indian attack while he was second in command on Arthur St. Clair's expedition north of the Ohio River; and a letter (1793) by Thomas Smith requesting Congress to consider financial relief for Butler's impoverished widow and for dependents of other officers killed in Indian warfare. The Butler papers were mounted and bound in random, haphazard order.
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Series: 4 U (Volume 4)Papers, 1789-1874, subdivided into three sections: 1) Josiah Harmar (1753-1813) papers. Original manuscripts, 1790-1791, and letters and interviews, 1839-1874, gathered by Benjamin Drake and Draper, relate to Harmar's rather unsuccessful campaign against the Miami Indians in 1790. The original papers include two letters (1790) alluding to Indian threats to Kentucky and to Harmar's alleged misconduct of the expedition and records (1791) of the court of inquiry appointed to investigate the charge. Partial minutes of the court sessions, of which Richard Butter was the presiding officer, are accompanied by about a dozen detailed accounts of the expedition written for Butler by officers who had served under Harmar. Writers of letters and statements included Hamilton Armstrong, Daniel Britt, Ebenezer Denny, Thomas Doyle, William Ferguson, Bernard Gaines, Asa Hartshorne, Robert Johnson, William Kersey, Bartholomew Shaumburgh, David Strong, and David Zeigler. Draper's notes include a copy of a letter (1818) by Lewis Cass concerning the captivity of John Tanner and the death of the Chief Black Fish of the Shawnee in 1790. Another letter (1874) gives the provenance of a portion of the Harmar records. 2) Arthur St. Clair (1736-1818) papers. Original manuscripts, 1791-1792, plus clippings, interview notes, and a few letters of later dates, pertain to St. Clair's disastrous campaign ending in defeat on the Wabash on November 4, 1791. References to Harmar's campaign in the previous year also occur in the interviews. Original papers include: the descriptive diary, July 30-October 23, 1791, kept by Samuel Newman, captain in the Second Regiment of United States Infantry, covering his company's journey from Philadelphia to Cincinnati and the march northward in St. Clair's army; two letters by Charles Scott, one to William Croghan on business, the other to the governor of Virginia to discuss St. Clair's preparations for his campaign; a speech to the Indians by Scott in June 1791; and one letter of military content to John Armstrong, written and signed by St. Clair a month after his defeat. Among the printed pieces are published letters about the defeat by participants and observers, two engraved portraits of St. Clair, and an incomplete contemporary publication of the Treaty of Fort Harmar (January 9, 1789) between the United States and the Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wyandot tribes. A complete manuscript copy of this treaty is in 23U. 3) Absolom Baird (1758-1805) papers. Original manuscripts, 1791-1797, of Baird, Pennsylvania physician and lieutenant and brigade inspector of the Washington County militia, almost wholly concerning the use of the militia in western Pennsylvania and Ohio in defense against restive Indians primarily in the 1791-1793 period. In his correspondence are letters, incoming and outgoing, exchanged between Baird and Henry Knox, Thomas Mifflin, and Anthony Wayne; and single letters written by Baird to Benjamin Biggs, John Heaton, George McCully, and General Minor. Correspondents writing to Baird at later dates were Biggs, Samuel Brady, and Timothy Pickering. Among his remaining papers are a printed broadside entitled “Indiana Business,” issued by George Morgan in 1791 about the land claim of the Indiana Company; an account (1792) describing Littleton Abdill's recent captivity among the Indians; numerous orders and receipts for payment for provisions and supplies for Washington County troops; and a printed form letter (1794) authorized by the governor to call for measures to bring to justice the armed rioters who had destroyed the house of John Neville, a customs official in Allegheny County-an event in the Whiskey Rebellion.
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Series: 5 U (Volume 5)Mainly original letters, 1792-1811, with some related Draper materials, memoranda, transcripts, interview notes, and a few letters written to him. The majority of the papers pertain to events in Ohio and Kentucky in the 1792-1794 period. Letters in 1792 by St. Clair, Charles Scott, and James Wilkinson deal with the aftermath of St. Clair's defeat-prisoners and men missing in action, the recovery of military equipment left on the battlefield, lack of new supplies and pay for the soldiers, and the need for continued protection of the frontier. Two letters by Alexander S. Bullitt to William Fleming describe the political excitement aroused in Kentucky by the state constitutional convention and new state constitution. William Goforth wrote (1793) an account of the Indian attack in May 1792, on the embassy to the Indians on the Maumee led by Alexander Trueman, based on a report from William Smalley who had been captured and later escaped; both the original and an edited annotated copy by Samuel Drake are in this volume, and an additional copy is in 15 U. Preparations for Wayne's expedition and Isaac Shelby's suggestions for use of the Kentucky volunteers are discussed in 1793-1794 documents by Wayne, Scott, and Robert Todd. Copies of journals by Nathaniel Hart (1770-1844) and William Clark cover events during the July-October 1794 campaign by Wayne. Later correspondence (1804, 1807) by Samuel Finley, John S. Gano, William Wells, Benjamin Whiteman, and the Indian chiefs Black Hoof, Black Snake, and Big Snake concern the murder of John Boyers, white fears that British agents were inciting the Indians, and routine militia administration; one letter was addressed to Governor Edward Tiffin of Ohio. With the 1807 correspondence are proceedings of a council with the Shawnee and Wyandot to investigate the killing of Boyers and resolutions of militia officers and citizens of Greene and Champaign counties in Ohio addressed to President Thomas Jefferson to urge frontier fortification and to condemn the attack of the Leopard on the Chesapeake . Scattered through the volume are several letters, 1794-1811, written by James Robertson to John Sevier and Willie Blount, and one each by Blount and Return J. Meigs. All relate to Tennessee politics, to the state's problems with land claims, and to troubled relations with the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek nations. Two other letters in 1811 were authored by Charles Larrabee, lieutenant stationed in the United States Army in Vincennes. To his father Adam Larrabee he expressed his opinions on William Henry Harrison, the battle of Tippecanoe, and the rigors and dangers of Indian warfare.
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Series: 6 U (Volume 6)James Winchester papers, 1779-1830. James Winchester (1752-1826) and his younger brother George (d. 1794), natives of Maryland, served together in the Revolution and moved to Tennessee in 1786, where both were active in civil and military affairs. Commissioned a brigadier general in the United States Army in 1812, James commanded a portion of William Henry Harrison's Army of the Northwest until dealt a disastrous defeat by the British at Frenchtown on the Raisin River (Michigan) in January 1813. Aside from one letter by Martin D. Hardin in 1812, this volume contains no contemporary records of Harrison's and Winchester's campaign. For the year Winchester spent as a British prisoner (1813-1814), the collection contains lists of the American prisoners and hostages, one letter written to his nephew, and general orders he issued in Quebec to govern the conduct of his fellow captured American officers in such matters as intoxication, gambling and card playing, and “associating with persons of bad fame of either sex.” Only allusions to Winchester's command of the Mobile District after his release by the British appear in letters in 1815; instead these focus on charges that Winchester had displayed cowardice and misconduct in the Raisin River campaign. The quarrel between Winchester and Harrison was bitter, and the Raisin River charges and rebuttals were kept in circulation by pamphlet and newspaper publications throughout the rest of Winchester's life. The bulk of the correspondence relates to this controversy, particularly letters, 1817-1830, written by a former military associate, William L. Robeson, and by a writer, Charles Cassedy. One of Cassedy's accounts (1829), couched as a letter to John Armstrong, a former secretary of war, gives a detailed narrative of the 1812-1813 campaign. Many of the Robeson and Cassedy letters also contained current commentary of other American events and policies, but especially on politics involving Harrison and Andrew Jackson. Among other writers of occasional letters were William P. Anderson, Edward Conway, William Eustis, and Daniel Smith. Found in this volume are commissions issued to the Winchester brothers for their services as Revolutionary military officers, North Carolina and Tennessee militia officers, deputy surveyor in North Carolina, register and justice of the peace in Tennessee, and deputy postmaster. Signers of these documents include Isaac Bledsoe, William Blount, Abraham Bradley, Jr., Samuel Huntington, John Hay, Samuel Johnston, John Sevier, and Daniel Smith. There are also two presidential appointments to James Winchester: member of the legislative council for the Territory South of the Ohio River (1794), signed by George Washington and Edmund Randolph; and commissioner to evaluate Tennessee lands and dwelling houses and to enumerate slaves (1798), signed by John Adams and Timothy Pickering. The latter is accompanied by a printed letter of instructions bearing an autograph signature of Oliver Wolcott. A masonic certificate (1786) issued to James White by Union Lodge at Fayetteville, North Carolina, is also filed in the Winchester collection.
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Series: 7 U (Volume 7)
: Papers, 1812-1875, pertaining to the War of 1812 in the Old Northwest and to two participants in particular, William Oliver, Fort Wayne trader; and Captain Jim Logan, a Shawnee chief. Opening the volume are several descriptive original letters written from camps during Harrison's campaigns in the autumn of 1812: James Simrall (Simroll) to Isaac Shelby; Martin D. Hardin to Mark Hardin and to Henry Clay; Jock Bickley to Thomas T. Barr; and John Allen to Henry Clay and George Bibb. Oliver's successful efforts to secure Harrison's aid in breaking the Indian siege of Fort Wayne are further discussed in a group of articles and letters, and most notably in the manuscript of Oliver's own recollections (probably written about 1839), in which he described the organization of the expedition, his arrival at Fort Wayne, and the subsequent death of Logan. Material on this Shawnee chief composes more than half of this volume. A nephew of Tecumseh and a son of Joshua Renick, a white adopted by the Indians as a young lad, Jim Logan gave his allegiance to the Americans in 1812 and was killed during a scouting mission in November. Correspondence, clipped articles, and Draper's notes not only provide biographical details and personal reminiscences about Logan but also include discussion of Renick family genealogy and accounts of the Indian attack on the Robert Renick family in the late 1750s or early 1760s and the experiences of Joshua and his sister Nancy in years of captivity.
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Series: 8 U (Volume 8)Papers relating to the War of 1812, subdivided into four sections: 1) Charles S. Todd papers, 1835-1871. Todd (1791-1871) served as judge advocate and officer with William H. Harrison in the campaigns in 1812-1813 and later was active in the United States diplomatic service. His letters, mainly to Draper, interview notes, and newspaper articles not only give his recollections of Harrison and the northwestern campaigns but also comment on other topics: Kentucky pioneers he had known, including George Rogers Clark, William Stewart, and members of the Shelby family; the writings of historians Benjamin Drake and Benson J. Lossing; his allegiance to the Union during the Civil War and his reactions to the removal of General George B. McClellan (1862) and to the assassination of Lincoln (1865). 2) Benjamin Whiteman papers, 1812-1815, 1854. A small group of letters and orders kept by Whiteman (1769-1852) as general of the Ohio militia in the northwestern campaigns concern troop movements, recruitment problems, and friction between state militia and regular army. Correspondence includes one letter written by Whiteman, and a contemporary copy of a letter by Harrison to Secretary of War John Armstrong about the siege of Fort Meigs (Ohio). Among other correspondents are James Findlay, Othniel Looker, and Thomas Worthington. Provenance of the papers is given in the 1854 letter to Draper by Whiteman's son. 3) Nathan Heald papers, 1811-1835. In 1812 Heald (1775-1832) was captain of a company of the First Regiment of United States Infantry stationed at Fort Dearborn; in attempting to carry out orders for the evacuation of the fort, Heald was wounded and captured, and the other soldiers and settlers were either massacred or taken into captivity. Records, 1811-1813, include: a muster roll, payrolls, and other reports for Heald's company from October 1811, through June 1812; William Hull's letter of July 29, 1812, ordering the evacuation of Fort Dearborn; orders, letters, and receipts concerning Heald's claims for postage, baggage transportation, and treatment by an Indian physician during his captivity; Heald's parole and documents about his exchange signed by United States officials, Thomas H. Cushing and John Mason, and by a British agent, Thomas Barclay; and a bill of sale for a Negro purchased by Heald in Kentucky. Papers of later dates relate to his successful claim for a pension for disability due to his war wound, his move to Missouri in 1817, and legal proof of his death. Additional Heald papers are in volumes 17U and 24U. 4) A group of four accounts relating to the war in the Northwest: Benjamin F.H. Witherell's manuscript on William Hull and the battle of Monguagon [Brownstown]; James Dalliba's printed pamphlet, A Narrative of the Battle of Brownstown (New York, 1816); a manuscript copy of the publication by Josiah Snelling entitled Remarks on General William Hull's Memoirs of the Campaign of the Northwestern Army, 1812 (Detroit, 1825); and extracts about Tecumseh copied by Draper from James Foster's History of Hull's Expedition (Chillicothe, 1812).
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Series: 9 U (Volume 9)Mainly original manuscripts, 1812-1823, most of which were written during the war years, 1812-1815. Supplementing these are a few contemporary publications and later Draper notes and correspondence. Events in numerous theaters of war are touched upon in this miscellaneous assortment. Two letters (1812) by Charles Larrabee to his father Adam describe his journey from Pittsburgh to Vincennes, the battle of Tippecanoe, and the earthquakes of 1811-1812. A bitter denunciatory account (1812) of William Hull's surrender was sent from Detroit by Nathaniel Adams to his brother; other criticism of the Detroit defeat was made by William Eustis to Henry Clay. Events in Illinois, Missouri, and the upper Mississippi region were the topics of one letter by Mann Butler and several by the younger John C. Symmes in 1812. James Winchester's defeat at Frenchtown in 1813 is documented by a letter by Thomas Smith, printed articles, manuscript lists of Kentucky militiamen and members of the Seventeenth Regiment of United States Infantry taken prisoner by the British, and abstracts of the numbers of Americans killed, wounded, and captured. Pertaining to Andrew Jackson's Creek campaign are his orderly book for October-December 1813, and an incomplete letter to him by William Martin. A letter (1815) to William A. Tremble and later reminiscences apparently based on a journal, both by Symmes, describe the campaign around Niagara in the summer of 1814. On naval affairs there is a letter by Thomas D. Owings about Perry's victory on Lake Erie (1813). Writing from Washington, D.C. (1814), Joseph H. Hawkins commented not only on the victory of the United States sloop Wasp but also on the economic need for a new bank. Losses sustained at the hands of British troops and Indians encamped on her property in Ontario near Lake Erie were detailed in an account (1815) by Catharine Brant, widow of the Mohawk leader, Joseph Brant. A letter (1823) of James Winchester to Alfred Shelby concerned use of some of Winchester's war documents. Writers of other letters on military matters in the West were John Bickley, Green Clay, Asa Lewis, Duncan McArthur, Return J. Meigs, and George Walker. Addressees not previously mentioned included Thomas T. Crittenden, Eustis, John S. Gano, Hugh Moore, Robert Patterson, Frederick Ridgley, Daniel Symmes, the elder John C. Symmes, and William W. Worsley. Printed items of special interest include: several handbills and patriotic war proclamations issued by Governor Return J. Meigs of Ohio in 1812-1813; and three announcements (1813) of British victories issued by Edward Baynes, adjutant general at Kingston, Ontario, of which two were published as extra editions of the Quebec Mercury .
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Series: 10 U (Volume 10)Draper's notes and correspondence, 1854-1886, on various subjects involving southern Indian tribes, particularly the Creek, the Chickasaw, and the Catawba. The major Creek-related topic is the Creek War in 1813, including discussion of the attack on Fort Mims (Alabama) and biographical material on a few participants, Samuel Dale, William Weatherford, and George S. Woodward. Tecumseh's association with the Creek Indians, possibly through his mother, is more briefly considered. There is also a biographical sketch about Edward Hanrick, pioneer Montgomery (Alabama) merchant, who had business transactions with the tribe. The Chickasaw papers are extensive and include: detailed recollections from Malcolm McGee (b. 1760); other correspondence, much of which pertains to the Colbert family, especially James (d. circa 1784) and his four sons William (circa 1760-1823), George (circa 1764-1839), James, and Levi; material on Tecumseh's visit to the Chickasaw in 1811; and biographical data on Alexander McGillivray, Piomingo, and a longtime missionary to the tribe, Thomas C. Stuart (Stewart). An original letter in 1813 by James Robertson to John Sevier, and an early copy of a letter by James Colbert to Andrew Jackson in 1818, both on Chickasaw affairs, are the only contemporary manuscripts in this volume. A lengthy manuscript (nearly one hundred pages in length) by A. Whyte contains an account of the Catawba Indians and their lands in South Carolina, with copies or excerpts from treaties, reports, correspondence, legislative and gubernatorial documents. Fewer and briefer references relate to the Choctaw leader Pushmataha and to the Cherokee chiefs Big Bear, Junaluska, Nantihala John, and Yonaguska. On a few non-Indian topics there are scattered or incidental interesting references. Letters of John T. Donald and R.A. Springs comment on Reconstruction and Democratic party politics. Donald also gave anecdotes about Patrick Ferguson, Andrew Jackson, and Thomas Sumter. A personal tribute to sculptor Vinnie Ream was written by Albert Rive.
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Series: 11 U (Volume 11)Draper correspondence, 1852-1883, on Indians, particularly the Wyandot and the Oneida. A few interviews, notes, and clippings accompany the letters. Wyandot material comprises one-third of the volume and consists mainly of correspondence with William Walker (d. 1874) and Peter D. Clarke, both of Wyandot descent. The participation of the Wyandot and other northern tribes in the Revolution and the War of 1812 is the central topic, but dozens of individual names and events are mentioned, only a few of which are noted here specifically. In Walker's letters, 1852-1873, and interviews are numerous references to Simon Girty and his descendants; a Wyandot account of William Crawford's execution in 1782 and the tribal negotiations which preceded it; biographical sketches of Abram Kuhn and of Walker's parents William Walker, Sr. (circa 1763-1824) and Catherine Rankin Walker (1771-1845); information on Wyandot clan organization, government, and customs; and brief personal recollections of Tecumseh. Clarke's letters pertain particularly to the content of his book, Origin and Traditional History of the Wyandotts, and Sketches of Other Indian Tribes of North America (Toronto, 1870). In 1873 both Clarke and Walker discussed the organization of Oklahoma Territory, with Walker commenting on the Indian distrust of government promises and treaties and expressing his evaluations of James R. Doolittle and James Harlan as successive chairmen of the Senate committee to investigate Indian affairs. In addition to Wyandot history, Clarke's letters contain ridicule of Eleazer Williams's claim to be the “lost Dauphin,” commentary on the mixture of native Americans with members of the white and black races, and discussion of the ruinous effects of whiskey on Indians. Nearly two-thirds of the volume is composed of correspondence, interviews, and notes on the Oneida, most of which Draper gathered from residents of the reservation in Wisconsin. These papers deal primarily with participation in the Revolution in New York, their allegiance to the Americans, and biographical data on New York Indian leaders in that era: Joseph Brant, Johannes Crine, Captain John Deserontyou, members of the Doxtator family, Good Peter, Paul Powless, and Skenando. Letters of two ministers, Methodist S.W. Ford and Episcopalian A.E. Goodnough, not only describe the social and economic condition of the Oneida and their mission churches and schools in Wisconsin in the late 1870s, but also contain brief autobiographical sketches of the two clergymen. A synopsis of a census of the Oneida tribe taken in October 1877, gives statistics on population, livestock, and agricultural production. The final few pages of this volume contain clippings and notes related to the Tuscarora and Seneca nations. Included are articles on James Cusick, Farmer's Brother, and the captivity of Mary Jemison among the Seneca.
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Series: 12 U (Volume 12)Notes, articles, and manuscripts on miscellaneous topics. Biographical materials discuss the Seneca chief Red Jacket; Simon Girty and his half-brother John Turner; Robert Stobo and Jacob Van Braam, British officers captured by the French in 1754 and accused of illicit communications with British white hostages in Quebec; and Thomas Morris, who in 1764 sought unsuccessfully to persuade the Indians of the Northwest to switch their allegiance from the French to the British. John Ingles's manuscripts, undated but perhaps written in the late 1830s, describe the settlement of his father and George Draper at Draper's Meadows (Virginia) about 1750, the raids on the settlement, the captivity of Mrs. William Ingles, and the murder of Thomas Ingles's family. Drafts of speeches and articles by Charles P. Avery concern the early history of central New York, both Indian and white, particularly in the Susquehanna Valley. The Black Hawk War (1832) is the subject of a transcript of a periodical article (1833). Manuscript reminiscences embodied in a long letter (1870) by Henry O'Rielly discuss his career as a journalist, promoter of canal transportation, and developer of a network of telegraph lines. Interspersed are a few original manuscripts: a list of recruits (1762) received from William Fleming and signed by Adam Stephen; a letter of recommendation for Stobo (1763), written by Robert Stewart to Fleming; a letter (1764) by John Campbell to John Bradstreet mentioning the building of barracks and navigation difficulties at Detroit; lists of horses, cattle, and personal property stolen from the Shawnee Indians in Missouri, 1810-1825; and a summary list of livestock and tools to be furnished to them by terms of the treaty concluded in 1825. A few engravings are scattered in printed articles. Among these are portraits of Red Jacket, a sketch of the medal given him in 1792 by President Washington, and a drawing of the monument erected over Red Jacket's grave in 1884 in Buffalo; a portrait of Ely S. Parker, Seneca sachem, engineer, and Civil War officer; and a sketch of the old fort at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1782.
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Series: 13 U (Volume 13)
: Thomas Blake's journal, 1777-1780. This small volume consists entirely of a manuscript copy of a journal begun in Lebanon, New Hampshire, by Blake (1752-1840), a lieutenant in the First New Hampshire Regiment. Concise entries cover the march to Ticonderoga; fighting near Lake George; the British surrender at Saratoga; the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge; the battle of Monmouth; the march to Wyoming, Pennsylvania; and participation in John Sullivan's New York campaign in 1779; the discovery of Benedict Arnold's plot; and the hanging of John Andre. Included also are a list of men in the regiment, clothing returns, copies of acts of the Continental Congress concerning clothing for the army, and other miscellaneous notes, 1776-1813. This copy was made in 1847 by Isaac Child of Boston. Aside from a few typographical alterations in capitalization and punctuation, the same version of the journal was published in Frederic Kidder's History of the First New Hampshire Regiment in the War of the Revolution (Albany, 1868), but some of the additional regimental records in Child's copy were omitted in Kidder's publication.
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Series: 14 U (Volume 14)A volume subdivided into three parts: 1) Joseph Martin papers, 1785-1786, kept while Martin, Benjamin Hawkins, and Andrew Pickens were United States commissioners to treat with the southern Indians. This group of Martin's records includes the commissioners' report (June 1785) to Charles Thomson on treaty preparations and journals covering the proceedings of the three treaties of Hopewell negotiated from November 1785, to January 1786, with the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. Preceding these manuscripts is a note by Draper explaining their provenance and an index he prepared in 1846 to list persons who either spoke during the negotiations or were discussed by the speakers. 2) William Sudduth's autobiographical narrative written in 1840. Sudduth (1765-1845) was a native of Virginia, who journeyed to Kentucky in 1783 and settled at Andrew Hood's station in 1785. In his account he emphasized the campaigns of Benjamin Logan in 1786, of John Edwards in 1791, and of Anthony Wayne in 1794. An index by Draper and letters, 1845-1850 by Sudduth and his son, W.M. Sudduth, accompany the recollections. Another copy of the narrative is in 12 CC. 3) Draper's notebook in which he copied newspaper articles about Josiah Harmar's campaign against the Shawnee in 1790. An index to the material Draper entered on the inside of the front notebook cover.
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Series: 15 U (Volume 15)A volume containing two subdivisions: 1) Daniel Smith papers, 1791, all of which concern the treaty of Holston negotiated between Governor William Blount of Tennessee and the Cherokee Indians. As territorial secretary, Smith was present to record or collect these copies of the speeches and journals of the treaty negotiations. Draper's index to these records and his note on their acquisition precede the original manuscripts. 2) “Historical Extracts” relating to Indian wars in the West, copied by Draper from newspapers of the 1791-1793 period. The copies are accompanied by his detailed index to men and events discussed.
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Series: 16 U (Volume 16)A volume composed of three original records kept by officers serving with General Anthony Wayne in 1793-1794. Two are orderly books covering July 1, 1793, to October 21, 1794, which were kept by Robert Todd, brigadier general of the Kentucky volunteers. In addition to Todd's orders, the books contain copies or excerpts of orders and letters by Wayne and Charles Scott and lists of other officers. Each orderly book is prefaced by an index by Draper, and accompanied by his note giving the provenance of the acquisition. The journal, 1792-1800, of Thomas T. Underwood, lieutenant in the United States Army, composes the third segment. His entries cover not only his participation in Wayne's campaigns in 1793-1794 and the battle of Fallen Timbers, but also his service in Cincinnati as a recruiting officer, life at Fort Massac (Illinois) under Zebulon M. Pike's command (1795-1798), a trip to Detroit, the removal of settlers from Cherokee lands in Tennessee (1797-1798), and his resignation from the army. His notes contain brief but descriptive comments on the social life of an army officer on the frontiers and on Indians, Spanish, and British encountered during his service. Underwood's journal is accompanied by notes on its authorship and its acquisition by Draper.
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Series: 17 U (Volume 17)A small volume with two subsections: 1) A pocket notebook kept by Nathan Heald. His entries include a journal of military and naval events in the Great Lakes region during the War of 1812; an autobiography and family record covering his life through January 1822; a record of pension payments received, 1814-1831; lists of United States Army officers in 1813; and a few medicinal memoranda. 2) A few contemporary newspaper articles concerning the War of 1812, clipped and arranged by Draper.
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Series: 18 U (Volume 18)
: A manuscript copy of Charles Lewis's journal, October 10-December 27, 1755. Lewis (circa 1696-1770), a resident of Fredericksburg, Virginia, recorded his service under Andrew Lewis and George Washington during the march to Fort Cumberland to defend the frontier against the Indians. His entries include a list of Washington's officers, descriptions of settlements ravaged by Indian raids, of floggings meted out to recaptured deserters, and of the observance of Christmas festivities. Another copy of this journal is in 21 U.
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Series: 19 U (Volume 19)
: Manuscript copies of three journals authored by Ebenezer Elmer, James Norris, and Samuel M. Shute, participants in John Sullivan's campaign from Wyoming, Pennsylvania, into central New York during the summer and autumn of 1779. Draper acquired these copies for research and possible publications: Elmer's in 1879, Norris's in 1867, and Shute's in 1885, but all were printed during Draper's lifetime by Frederick Cook in his Journals of the Military Expedition of Major-General John Sullivan (Auburn, New York, 1887).
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Series: 20 U (Volume 20)
: Mainly letters, 1890-1891, to Draper concerning the controversial authorship of Alexander S. Withers's Chronicles of Border Warfare (Clarksburg, Virginia, 1831). The manuscripts purportedly written for the volume by Edwin S. Duncan (d. 1858), Alexander Hacker, William Hacker (1770-1826), Jacob Hardman, William Powers (1765-1855), and Hugh Paul Taylor form the central topic. There is no correspondence with Withers's family on the authorship of the book, but only a biographical sketch of Henry H. Withers (1824-1873). Genealogical material is found in many letters, but it is especially extensive for the family of William (b. 1735) and John (1743-1824) Hacker. A few letters concern persons mentioned in the Chronicles: Andrew Lewis (1720-1781), Alexander McNutt (circa 1726-1811) and his brother John, and the Delaware Indian Bald Eagle killed by William Hacker in 1773. Newspaper articles written in the 1880s by William Hacker of Shelbyville, Indiana, luridly detail Indian cruelties in western Virginia, particularly to women and children attacked or captured by parties led by Simon Girty and Leonard Schoolcraft; families discussed in the articles include those of John Bush, John Corbly, Mrs. Thomas Cunningham, Mrs. Margaret Hardman, John Mack, Mrs. James Moore, John Thomas, and Benjamin and William Walker.
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Series: 21 U (Volume 21)
: Appendices prepared by Draper for his projected new edition of Withers's Chronicles. Topics of essays drafted by Draper include: John Peter Slang's adventurous explorations in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys about 1738-1742; Andrew Lewis (1720-1781); John Lewis (1678-1762); Benjamin Borden, Sr. (d. 1742); John McDowell and the first battle with Indians in the Valley of Virginia, 1742; James Patton (1692-1755); a list of officers killed, wounded, or missing in the defeat of James Grant, 1758; the Sandy Creek expedition against the Shawnee, 1756, with sketches of the officers; Alexander McNutt (circa 1726-1811); the captivity of the Robert Renick family, 1757-1765; the undated captivity of Mrs. Archibald Clendennin; and the Indian outbreak (Pontiac's uprising) of 1763. Draper's chapter on the Sandy Creek expedition and its officers includes biographical data on Archibald Alexander, Hugh Allen, Robert Breckinridge, James Dunlap, William Fleming, Peter Hog (Hogg), William Ingles, John McNeil, John Montgomery, Samuel Overton, Richard Pearis, William Preston, David Robinson, and John Smith. Several manuscripts were also copied by Draper for appendices: Charles Lewis's journal, 1755 (of which another copy comprises 18 U); William Preston's journal, 1756, of the Sandy Creek expedition (from the original in 1 QQ); Thomas Morton's fragmentary diary, 1756, on the same expedition; William Preston's register of persons killed, wounded, or captured by Indians in western Virginia, 1754-1758 (from the original in 1 QQ). One printed document, a deposition in 1806 by Mrs. James (McDowell) Greenlee on the settlement of the grant to Borden (Burden) in Augusta County, Virginia, Draper also intended to publish as an appendix.
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Series: 22 U (Volume 22)Henry Alexander Scammel Dearborn papers, 1824-1830. Dearborn (1783-1851), Massachusetts politician and author, attempted to defend the military strategy and performance in the War of 1812 of his father Henry Dearborn (1751-1829) against critics who charged that his mismanagement of military affairs in the Northeast had brought about Hull's western defeat. The original manuscript of H.A.S. Dearborn's publication, Defence of General Henry Dearborn against the Attack of General William Hull (Boston, 1824) is accompanied by additions which were designed to expand the Defence into a “Life of General Dearborn”: a preface and additional pages of biographical data covering the period from 1824 until Henry Dearborn's death in 1829. Also included are original letters of commendation of the defense efforts signed by John Quincy Adams, Lewis Cass, Greenleaf Dearborn, William Eustis, Thomas Jefferson, Richard M. Johnson, James Madison, Thomas Melvill, Bernard Peyton, and Benjamin Vaughan; copies of several letters by Henry Dearborn giving recollections of his service in Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec in 1775, and accounts of the presidential election of 1824 and of a reception and dinner in honor of Lafayette in Washington, D.C. Two other manuscripts are in this volume: an address delivered by Dearborn in 1830 for the “second centennial anniversary” of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and a survey of the financial condition and practices of the banks in Boston made in 1830 when Dearborn was member of a special investigative committee appointed by the governor.
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Series: 23 U (Volume 23)Records of Indian affairs, 1784-1791, transcribed in 1793 from papers in the office of the superintendent general and inspector general in charge of Indian affairs in Montreal. This volume is composed of treaties, 1784-1789, negotiated between representatives of the United States and tribes east of the Mississippi, letters and speeches during treaty negotiations and in intertribal councils, and proceedings of British councils with Indians at Detroit and Niagara (1790) and at Quebec (1791). Major treaties covered were those concluded at Fort Stanwix (1784), Fort McIntosh (Pennsylvania, 1786), the mouth of the Great Miami (1786), and Fort Harmar (1788-1789) by United States commissioners, one at Fort Stanwix (1784) by Pennsylvania, and one at Albany (1789) by New York. Among the persons writing letters or delivering speeches were Joseph Brant, Richard Butler, Captain Pipe, George Clinton, Lord Dorchester, Half King, Benjamin Logan, Alexander McKee, and Arthur St. Clair. Revealed in these records are the complex interrelationships and attitudes of American, British, and Indian leaders in the period immediately after the Revolution, but the most recurrent themes are Indian reluctance to accept the authority of the new United States and Indian uneasiness and discontent with the land cessions so persistently-and successfully-demanded by the Americans.
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Series: 24 U (Volume 24)Nathan Heald papers, 1812-1856. In many instances these manuscripts supplement or complement the Heald papers in 8U and 17U. However, these were neither collected nor used by Draper, but were gathered from 1913 to 1916 from Heald descendants by Milo M. Quaife, superintendent of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, who then had them arranged, bound, and added to the Draper Collection. Many pieces were severely damaged by dampness and mildew before their acquisition by Quaife. Some are virtually illegible. Military papers related to the War of 1812 include a mutilated portion of a diary by an unidentified soldier marching to the relief of Fort Wayne in August and September 1812; letters exchanged between Heald and Thomas Forsyth concerning the latter's war losses in Chicago; and correspondence and receipts involved in Heald's claims to the federal government for his expenses and losses. Among the latter papers is one letter (1813) signed by Thomas T. Tucker, the treasurer of the United States and one letter (1855) about her continuing claim for war compensation written by Nathan's widow, Mrs. Rebekah Heald. Postwar papers deal primarily with Heald's business affairs in Missouri, pensions for himself and later for his widow, and family matters. Among these papers are a deed from Jacob Zumwalt for land purchased by Heald in St. Charles County, Missouri, in 1817; financial accounts recording many of Heald's personal, farm, and household expenditures, 1814-1833, with one page of brief later entries, 1832-1837, for his son Darius; and letters of genealogical interest by Nathan Heald's brother Thomas (1815) and by William L. Lincoln (1854). A number of other papers, 1830-1848, originated in the McCausland family related to the Healds through marriage. Most notable among these are the payroll, muster roll, and clothing list for the company of Missouri volunteers raised by David McCausland in 1847 for Mexican War service.
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