The River Raisin Massacre - Our Family Connection
Robb Russell
Marie Elizabeth Rushlow (married Calvin F. Bussinger) is the third
great granddaughter of Captain Jean-Baptiste Couture. He was the
Captain of the local militia at Frenchtown, Michigan and died there on
Jan 22, 1813 during the War of 1812 . This Battle was known as the
Massacre at River Raisin. A survivor of this battle was General George
Armstrong Custer's father, Emanuel Custer .
General George A. Custer and his father, Emanuel and other River raisin
survivors
are in a picture along with other 1812 veterans .
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-15481_19271_19357-117138--,00.html
Another resident, Jean-Baptiste Soleau is probably related to the
Solo's of Frenchtown, Monrtoe Co, Michigan. I have seen the name
Soloeau and Solo both used and we have plenty of ancestors named Solo
and Soloeau from Frenchtown from that period.
Both Couture and the Solo's are related to my Great Grandmother Almyra
Elizabeth St Charles
AMERICAN DEAD AT THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER RAISIN
Jan. 18-23, 1813
(Monroe, Michigan)
Note: In addition to those named below, an estimated 300 dead or
missing have not been accounted for.
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Staff of General Winchester
Surgeons: Thomas McIlvain
Captains: John Woolfolk
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17th U. S. Infantry
Surgeon: Alexander Montgomery
Capts. Robert Edwards, James Meade
Lts.: Robert Logan, Thomas Graves, Thomas Overton
Ensigns: Philip Sharer, Levi Wells
Privates: Braxton Blake, John Gardner, William Redding, Thomas Wells,
Henry Downey, Beverly Blake, Robert Reed
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19th U. S. Infantry Regiment
None known.
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1st Kentucky Volunteer Militia Regiment
Ensign: Joseph Bowles.
Privates: Thomas Ward, Cyrus Short, Thomas Crow, John Vincent,
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5th Kentucky Volunteer Militia Regiment
Majors: Benjamin Franklin Graves
Captains: Nathaniel G. S. Hart, James Price
Sergeant: John Snydor
Privates: James Blythe, Alexander Crawford, William Davis, Samuel
Elder, Thomas Fant, Thomas King, Peter Mesmer, James Reiley, George
Shindlebower, Stephen Smith, Armstrong Stewart, Allen Darnell, Daniel
Darnell, William Frame, John McDonald, Alfred Chinn, Luke Fields,
Ezekiel Suddeth (former Lt.)
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1st Kentucky Volunteer Rifle Regiment
Lieut. Col.: John Allen
Surgeon: Thomas Davis
Captains: John Simpson, Paschal Hickman, Virgil McCracken, John
Edmiston.
Lieutenants: John Williamson
Sergeants: Thomas Benson, David Quinn, John Nailor, George McClary
Corporals: Richard Chism
Drummer: Jesse Cock
Privates: Moses Morgan, Joseph Simpson, Robert Harrison, Jesse Humble,
Arnold Berrisford, James Biscoe, Isaac Boone, Philip Clark, John Cox,
Simon Kenton, John Lane, Lapsley McBride, Francis Mayhall, Joshua
Moore, James Parker, John Phillips, Joseph Pitts, Meriweather
Poindexter, William Prewitt, Alexander Robertson, George Robinson,
Samuel Smith, John Smith, William Stevens, John Tate, Samuel
Throckmorton, James Wilson, Moses Morgan, (MIA's: Joseph Becket,
William Butler, Abraham Byrd, William Crawford, Thomas Ellis, Andrew
Hamilton, William Johnston, John McCormick, william McDowell, William
Shingleton, William Thomas.)
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Captain William Garrard's Volunteer Light Dragoons
Privates: Stephen Bedford, John Boswell, Beverly Brown
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Militia & Residents of the River Raisin
Captain: Jean-Baptiste Couture
Residents: Henri Shovin, Rene LeBeau, Jean-Baptiste Soleau
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Sources:
Clift, G. Glenn, Remember the Raisin, Frankfort: Kentucky Historical
Society, 1961.
The Battles of the River Raisin
In the summer of 1812, the River Raisin Militia was called into
service to build a military road which linked Detroit with Ohio. In
July, General William Hull, Commander of U.S. forces in the Old
Northwest, marched several thousand Ohio volunteers over that road to
defend Detroit. Hull's plans to capture British Fort Malden in
Amherstburg, Ontario, were dropped when the supply road between Detroit
and the River Raisin was cut by hostile Indians. General Hull made
three unsuccessful attempts to open the road. Confronted with a large
army of British soldiers and Indians, Hull surrendered his entire army
to the British at Detroit on August 16, 1812, almost without firing a
shot.
The local militia on the River Raisin were expecting an Indian attack.
They were shocked when a British officer arrived on August 17 with news
of the surrender of Detroit and with orders from General Hull for them
to surrender. After a brief British occupation, the settlement's
fortified blockhouse was burned and the British left.
In November 1812, a small detachment of Canadian militiamen, armed with
a small cannon, was stationed here to watch the advance of another
American army. The new American army had been recruited in Kentucky in
August of 1812, with the elderly Revolutionary War veteran, General
James Winchester, in command. This army suffered on their march from
the lack of winter clothing and food, yet arrived at Maumee, Ohio, on
January 10, 1813, eager for a fight. After messengers from the River
Raisin arrived pleading for rescue from the British and Indians,
Winchester's army moved to strike at the enemy.
Over six hundred men, under the command of Colonels William Lewis and
John Allen, were dispatched. They arrived south of the Raisin in the
afternoon of January 18. Facing them were 63 Canadian militiamen and
200 Potawatomi Indians. The Americans were reinforced with 100 men
from the River Raisin, and quickly routed the British and Indians and
drove them into the woods a mile north of the settlement. The fighting
continued, tree to tree, and log to log, until dark. The Americans won
at the cost of 13 killed and 54 wounded. The British and Indians
retreated north to Brownstown, across the river from the British base
at Fort Malden.
The Americans set up camp among the homes on the north side of the
river. General Winchester arrived with reinforcements three days
later, bringing the number of American troops to 934.
The British counterattacked. On the morning of January 22, 1813, 597
British and Canadian soldiers, six cannons, and 800 Indians launched an
attack. As they moved forward in the pre-dawn darkness, they were
discovered by an American sentry. Although surprised, the Americans
took positions quickly and returned fire.
The fighting had been raging for twenty minutes when the U.S. 17th
infantry, camped on the right in an open field, was flanked by Canadian
militia and Indians. Orders were given to retreat to the river and
make a stand, and 240 more Americans were sent from the center lines to
help. The retreat became a disastrous flight for Ohio. Of the 400
Americans who ran, nearly 220 Americans were killed, about 147
including General Winchester, were captured. Only 33 escaped to
safety.
At the same time, the left wing of nearly 500 Kentucky militiamen were
fighting from behind a puncheon fence. They successfully repulsed
three British frontal attacks and drove back the British cannons with
their rifles. These Americans, with only five killed and 40 wounded,
expected the British to ask for a truce. They saw a British officer
with a white flag, but were shocked to find he carried a message from
General Winchester advising them to surrender. The Kentuckians
reluctantly surrendered, after insisting on terms that the American
wounded be protected from the Indians.
The British withdrew hurriedly, due to heavy casualties and news that
more Americans under command of General Harrison were nearby. The
American wounded were left behind in the homes of the settlers. On the
morning of January 23, 1813, all of the British guards, who were
supposed to be protecting the wounded, left. Indians returned to the
River Raisin. They plundered homes and the wounded for valuables, and
then killed and scalped Americans who could not walk. Bodies were
tossed into burning houses that the Indians had set aflame. Those able
to walk were claimed by the Indians and taken to Detroit where they
were ransomed. Over 60 unarmed American wounded were killed. This was
later known as the "Massacre of the River Raisin".
Americans in the west rallied to the flag. Eager for revenge, their
battle cry became "Remember the Raisin!"
The River Raisin was a desolate, nearly abandoned settlement for eight
months following the massacre. American dead lay unburied; many homes
were burned and plundered. Most settlers fled to Detroit or to Ohio.
Local citizens later supported the Americans at the seiges of Fort
Meigs in Ohio, but could not stop Indians from using the River Raisin
settlement as a base of operations and supply depot.
The River Raisin was liberated on September 27, 1813, when Colonel
Richard M. Johnson's Kentucky cavalry, led by men from the River
Raisin, rode into the settlement. Moving on, the Kentuckians quickly
pushed the British and Indians deep into Canada and decisively defeated
them at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813.
Although the British and hostile Indians could not return, destruction
was so severe that the River Raisin settlement remained destroyed and
impoverished for five years after the battles.