Revolution Redux for the 4th in Four Stories

Bill Ferris and Bob Ferris in Friday Harbor, Washington. Nereid is a nymph but also the name of ship in a novel by Patrick O'Brian.  There are connections and parallels everywhere.

By Bob Ferris

My father read books all the time.  I do too.  So before Carlene and I left on this last trip I hit most of our Friendly Neighborhood mini-libraries and finished off my book search off at Saint Vincent DePaul—a good place for paperbacks.  The first book I read was called 1812 by David Nevin (1996). This book is a mixture of fact and informed supposition giving insights on key characters and events in the War of 1812.  Nevin does a good job of covering a complicated and nuanced situation.  He touches on the major battles and tells us tales about Aaron Burr, Daniel Webster, Winfield Scott, James Madison and, of course, Dolley.  

USS Chesapeake

There were lots of reasons why we fought Britain again but nearly all fall into three pigeon holes.  The first being impressment of our sailors exemplified by the brazen attack on the USS Chesapeake by the HMS Leopard on June 22, 1807.   (Coincidentally, the refitted HMS Leopard is also a main “character” of an audio book, Desolation Island, by the late Patrick O’Brian that Carlene and I are now enjoying as we drive.) 

The second reason is a broad category related to foreign trade, particularly with France.  We argued that we were a neutral country but our trade was being hampered by England through blockades, attacks and acts of harassment.  All suffered in this but the New England states—which characterized this conflict as a southern and western war—seemed most hard hit and so argued loudest for quick and peaceful resolution.  Noted orator Daniel Webster was one who campaigned strongly against the war though he did not support the Hartford Convention or the calls from some for a New England succession.  

In many ways this was simply a continuation of the Federalist (Anglo-centric) versus Jeffersonian (Franco-centric) debate which was forestalled by the ten-year duration of the Jay Treaty that expired in 1806.    Reading much about the politics of this era makes your head spin (i.e., nothing changes).  It is tough to encapsulate but if you imagine an extremely contentious divorce where both sides had affairs and the parties are still trying to occupy the same house you get a sense of it.  

And the territorial confusion was not just with England but between states and other countries including Spain.

And then there were Britain’s various actions—both large and small—directed at hampering our young country’s desire for western expansion.  The Jay Treaty removed concentrated British military presence from the ceded lands of what was known as the Northwest then.  But there was still a sense of the British messing with these frontier lands.  I cannot help but think that this is somewhat analogous to the Russian situation now in that the incursion is clearly going on but it is often difficult to sort out the specifics.
    

Taken collectively this situation was much about respect with the town bully still thinking the wiry and rustic farm boy had laid him out with a lucky punch.  We did, but the question was whether or not we could do it again.  In my reading I felt drawn for a number of reasons more to those actions on the frontier and to Andrew Jackson—for good and bad—the unruly, junkyard dog we probably needed at this critical time.  

Certainly there are opportunities for vigorous debate about whether or not we had any reasonable right to conquer or acquire these lands from those here long before us but soldiers died, money changed hands, and documents were written for legality’s sake if not morality’s.  It is a wheel that has rolled for countless centuries on wagons driven by virtually every people. 

I think history becomes more real when painted with people.  And our family was peppered across the entirety of this event including the frontier.  So I thought this 4th I would share some sketches to make this often forgotten or diminished war more real.  Some of these are just wisps of smoke whispered in written accounts, Bible scribblings or verbally, but they help personalize these events and make them less abstract.  Some speak directly while others imply or encourage informed supposition.  

Cruelty, valor, greed and tragedy all lived in these lands at this time and our collective family experienced it all as well as that feeling of hope likely shared by all pioneers. There was probably hatred too in all quarters as the American rebels had altered the normal course and rebelled against rulers.  These “rabble” discarded rules and killed officers which was seen as a sin in a hierarchical setting but considered strategic expedience in a land bent on equality.  And the natives trying to keep their ancestral homes often doled out savagery and played one exploiter against the other.  In short, it was war where mantles of anger and self-righteousness are easily donned and everyone can play aggressor or victim by simply flying on the wings of an outcome.  

Story One: Life on the Frontier

John KW Waller from the 1790 Tax Rolls in Spotsylvania County where he still held property.  

Two episodes from the Robb side of our family give a glimpse of the tenuous nature of frontier life leading up to the war.   The first involves a man of Welsh descent by the name of John Waller.  John was born in Virginia in 1739.  He called himself “KW” because he was raised in King William County, Virginia and this was his way of differentiating himself from the John Wallers before and those to come.  KW fought in the Revolution and then moved to Kentucky with his wife Mary Small and their children in the 1780s.  They settled in Jefferson County (now Washington County) on Cartwright Creek eventually moving in 1806 to Henderson County when the area became "too populated" with Catholics for their Protestant sensibilities (see 1,2,3).   

The rolling hills around present-day Cartwright's Creek.

Sometime (likely prior to 1806 but one source says 1811) KW and some others travelled to the "falls" in the Louisville area.  They were attacked by Indians on the way and this John Waller was wounded and captured.  He escaped two years later and it is said that KW's delay was driven by his desire to wait until both he and his fellow captive could make their escape together.  Since his pack horse returned without him his family thought him dead for this period.

During this same post-Revolutionary period James and Margaret Barr Robb moved to Kentucky from Pennsylvania. James was a Scotch-Irish emigre who fled Ireland in 1774 when he was to be jailed for smuggling sassafras tea on his ship.  With the help of friends he, a pregnant Margaret, and their children fled to the Colonies only to go from one frying pan into another.  James served in a militia during the Revolution and they all moved to the Mann’s Lick area near present-day Louisville.

James was quite a hunter and trapper. I found one account (which misidentified James as David Barr Robb) that claimed he was part of a group who took a large shipment of furs down the Mississippi to New Orleans.  They then reportedly sailed towards Philadelphia only to be captured by pirates.  James eventually made it back but not until one year after he was presumed dead.  

There are take-home messages from the above and hundreds of other similar tales.  Clearly life on the frontier during this period was perilous and tricky.  Encounters with Indians on the frontier could result in undesired outcomes.  And many of these settler families were founded by fathers who had fought in the Revolution and likely passed anti-British sentiments onto their children.

Story Two: The First Battle

During the same period that the Robbs and Wallers were moving between Kentucky and Indiana so was the family of Abraham Lincoln.  Here are pictures from Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana.   Carlene Marie Ramus (top).  Caroline Hall and Bob Ferris (bottom).

By the early 1800s the Wallers and Robbs were connected by marriage with some moving across the Ohio into southern Indiana to present-day Posey and Gibson counties.  Here we find John Thomas Robb along with his brothers David Barr and James.  John Thomas married Lydia Waller and her brother John was with them.

David Barr Robb married Nancy Eckley whose father Lt. Joseph Eckley was killed by Indians working for British forces during the Revolution at “Battle Island” in Pennsylvania.  Moreover, David was a reader too and he often borrowed books from a neighbor whose name was William Henry Harrison. Given sentiments, experience and associations it is not really a huge surprise that David, James and brother-in-law John Waller soon found themselves at a place called Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811 serving under General Harrison as captain, corporal and ensign respectively. Captain David Robb’s company (see center of map below) did well and he brought his brother and brother-in-law home alive through James was shot through both legs.  Tippecanoe is considered by many as the first major battle of the War of 1812.  

Tippecanoe Battle Plan showing deployment of Captain Robb's forces.

The Battle of Tippecanoe severely dampened the hopes of the charismatic Shawnee Chief Tecumseh to form a broad native confederation to forestall western expansion of the US. Tecumseh eventually died fighting on the British side at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813.  David Barr Robb went on to elected office serving both in the Indiana House and Senate along with helping craft the Indiana Constitution.  David also lived long enough to see his book-lending friend elected President of the United States in1840. Harrison died soon after taking office, but probably not from his lack of hat, gloves and overcoat during his long inaugural address as has been rumored.

The toppled and neglected gravesite of David Barr Robb (Rebecca Childers)

Story Three: Remember the Raisin

As a child my wife used to wade in the Raisin River near Monroe, Michigan.  There Carlene had little to do but avoid the dangers of pesky crawdads, but it was not always so.  This area, once know as Frenchtown, was the site of a series of battles fought during the period of January 18-23, 1813.  The first engagement was a slight victory for the Americans but the last is typically referred to as a massacre with many, mainly from Kentucky, on the receiving end.  More than 500 US soldiers were killed in the Frenchtown Massacre many of the wounded killed with tomahawks or burned in buildings by Indians allied with the British. Certainly fruits of a war with atrocities on both sides but this was witnessed by an orphaned, teenaged girl named Marie Jeanne Guie (or Guy or Ghee).   

Painting of the Lasselle (La Salle) homestead where young Marie hid during the Frenchtown attack.  Charles James and Mary Lanman later purchased the farm from her Lasselle relatives.  The painting is by their son Charles Lanman who was born in the cottage.

Marie would likely have passed into historic oblivion like many on the frontier except that a handful of years later she caught the eye of Charles James Lanman the son of a former US Senator named James Lanman.  After law school, the Connecticut native went west at the invitation of his father’s friend, Senator and then Congressman Henry Clay.  But instead of going to Kentucky as Clay suggested, Charles selected Michigan.  Clay is an interesting connection as he was a hawk for this war and then one of the negotiators of the Ghent Treaty that ended the War of 1812.  Charles and Marie married and she became Mary Lanman in 1819.  

A portrait of Charles Lanman called "The Angler" by William James Hubard (1846)  

There is much about Marie that is mysterious.  My cousin Patty Lavarias told me that her mother Mary Douw Schoessler (Ferris) related to her a story about either Marie or her mother Angelique Bourdeau being shot in the leg by an Indian arrow during an attack.  Nothing is mentioned in any records I could find about this arrow wound to either woman.  Marie certainly has strong and deep French-Canadian roots and her family is long associated with frontier towns populated by Indians.  Her son Charles Lanman, the Hudson River School artist and writer, wrote a biographical sketch and family history and this work did not shed any light on this.  Charles did say that Marie was related somehow to the French explorer LaSalle. Of curious note, Charles was also once a private secretary to Daniel Webster and wrote a well-received biography called The Private Life of Daniel Webster (1852).  

Sketch by Charles Lanman "Indians Returning from a Hunt." (1841)

Although little is known about Marie, it is known is that she witnessed an event that galvanized many on the frontier to get engaged and join in the effort.  Was it a springboard for Andrew Jackson being let loose?  It was certainly a contributing factor.  We also know that the granddaughter of Marie and Charles— Mary Lanman Douw—married the grandson of Captain John Ferris—Morris Patterson Ferris.  John Ferris served in the 2nd Artillery Regiment of the New York State Militia in the falls of 1812 and 1814.

Story Four: Unleashing the Junkyard Dog

Col. Thomas Gales

Reports on North Carolina Schools.  Many mentions of Thomas and Joseph.

There is a large portrait of a young man with dark, curly hair dressed in a high-collared, braided uniform that hangs in my uncle’s Pat Ferris’ living room.  It is of my fourth great-grandfather Col. Thomas Gales.  My mother has a miniature of this portrait too (see above).  Thomas made much of his short life.  British-born in 1790 to parents with pro-American sympathies, little Thomas lived for a time in a home that was visited by the likes of Thomas Paine and where reading and thinking were always encouraged.  His parents, Joseph Gales Sr. and Winifred Marshall Gales,  were forced to flee England for their political beliefs ending up in Philadelphia before finally settling in Raleigh, North Carolina and founding the Raleigh Register.  Here his father could fully and freely practice his journalism and his mother could pursue her literary aspirations. 

Listing of Judge Advocates in The Judge Advocate Journal June 15, 1944 pp. 14

Once in the US and grown, Thomas' older brother Joseph Gales Jr. pursued journalism like his father and so did Thomas for a time.   But according to his mother, "the business" did not suit Thomas so he took up law studying first under Judge Henry Potter in Raleigh and then with Judge Walter Jones in Washington, DC.  His mentors and friends convinced him that Western Florida or Louisiana were places with opportunities.  So south from Washington, DC he went to New Orleans at a time when his new country was preparing for war with his old.    

From here.

Thomas Gales attracted the attention of General James Wilkinson then senior officer in the US Army and was appointed Judge Advocate of the 7th Military District on September 26, 1812, although it appears he was already advising Wilkinson about his legal powers on the 3rd of that month (see correspondence thread here). We learn much about Thomas during this war from his letters and other documents which link him to many key players in this conflict from the infamous and traitorous General Wilkinson and President Madison to Secretary of War John Armstrong and then Secretary of State James Monroe who later also became Secretary of War (and President).  He was involved too with Andrew Jackson serving as his aide-de-camp for a period until his resignation on December 16, 1814.  He was serving in this role in October and then in November when he was with Jackson at Pensacola where Thomas is said to have removed the Union Jack flying over the city with his own hand.

The header from Thomas Gales' form record of service in the Indian Corps.

Record from Indian member of the Thomas Gales' Indian Corps.

Somewhere in all of this Col. Thomas Gales began working with Indians and Indian troops (see above).  He had his own Indian Corps and was appointed Indian Agent by Louisiana Governor William C. C. Claiborne for the tribes west of the Mississippi in late 1814.  In early 1815, just as he was welcoming his first child Eliza Rae near the one-year anniversary of his marriage to Elizabeth Ray Hennen Yates, Thomas assumed duties at what was known as the Caddo or Red River Indian Agency located in Natchitoches, Louisiana.   I have not found anything indicating exactly when Col. Thomas Gales' Indian Corps was formed but records exist for members with native names as well as names of French, Spanish and English derivation.   It is hard to tell if this group saw any action during the conflict.  I suspect that they might have been the 150 Caddo warriors mentioned here or in this letter to Andrew Jackson in March of 1815.

Eliza Rae Ramsay

Conditions at the Caddo Agency under Thomas Gales worsened (see pp. 93).  It is hard to tell how much of this was the fault of Thomas or just the common problem of a new person coming into replace someone of longstanding with deep relationships with the Caddo leadership during a time of change.  In any case, Elizabeth Gales died in early September of 1815, perhaps of yellow fever, while Thomas was away securing housing for his family in Natchitoches.  Thomas died roughly two months later in his 26th year from some unidentified illness which was probably not helped by his mental state.  They both passed on at the home of his in-laws, Dr. James and Ann Hennen, in Attakapas Parish, Louisiana.  Eliza Rae was raised by relatives and at the age of 23 she married a West Point graduate and widower George Douglas Ramsay.  (Winifred Marshall Gales left a hand-written account of her son Thomas' short life that can be found here: 1,2,3.)

Joseph Gales Jr.  (1844)

It is important to note that while we tend to focus on those nearest the battle lines, with the most braids on their uniforms and in the most peril, we also need to look at individuals and groups who contribute in other ways.  Col. Thomas Gales may have held a captured British flag in his hand, but Joseph Gales Jr. and his brother-in-law and partner William Winston Seaton (both trained by Joseph Gales Sr.) held the young nation's attention and heart through their pieces in the National Intelligencer published in Washington City. Thought both Joseph and William served as privates in defense of the Capitol, I suspect that their efforts with pens were much more impactful than theirs with swords.

From here with more complete discussion of relationship between the National Intelligencer and the Administration.

We must remember too in looking at this that Joseph Gales Sr. was a staunch Jeffersonian Republican and therefore supportive of France and in favor of the war with Britain.  These were views he certainly passed down to Joseph Jr., Thomas and William.  And then Joseph Jr. and William passed those views on to others.  Gales and Seaton were very hard on those who participated in the Hartford Convention and the British were hard on them (see above).  It is interesting too that according to one biographer two of Joseph Gales Jr.'s closest friends were Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.  Names that we have seen before.

Our Story

The War of 1812 is more than two centuries gone.  All those mentioned above are but dust, worn headstones or faint memories.  But are these issues gone?  How, for instance, is this current conflict between Republicans and Democrats fundamentally different than the battle between Republicans and Federalists then?  Yes it seems like the two sides have shuffled the core issues a bit so the parties or functional successors look much different than they did in the days of knee pants and powdered wigs but we are still fighting many of the same sorts of battles.  How is General Wilkinson so dissimilar to General Flynn?  Or alignments to Britain versus France unlike those with the European Union versus Russia of present-day?  Moreover, the need for free and good press to inform and help us sort this out is as needed now as it was then. All things to think about.

I was going to call this piece the 1812 Overture.  But someone had already claimed that.  It turns out a Russian named Tchaikovsky wrote a piece in the 1890s celebrating Russia's repulsion of Napoleon in 1812.  And now we are playing this as we celebrate our independence in our nation's capitol. Those damn Russians sneaking into everything!  (Happy 4th Everyone!)