Who is tecumseh

Others said it was not. Even Harrison could not positively identify it. Nevertheless a number of Americans were to claim that they had personally vanquished the Shawnee leader. Most prominent was Richard Johnson, a Kentucky politician who fought at the Thames as a cavalry commander. Whether or not he was indeed "The Man Who Killed Tecumseh," a great many of his constituents believed he was. Senate and then, in , to the Vice Presidency.

Frederick Pettrich began work on The Dying Tecumseh in , doubtless much influenced by these political happenings. This was certainly the case with John Dorival, who in painted the immensely popular Battle of the Thames. In the foreground of an extremely busy battle scene, Johnson and Tecumseh are engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The former brandishes a pistol, sports a dragoon's tall stovepipe hat adorned with an ostrich plume and sits astride a splendid white charger.

Tecumseh, on foot, appears to be about seven feet tall, overtopping Johnson's rearing horse. He wears a flowing headdress fabricated from the plumage of at least four or five eagles. Lithographic prints of Dorival's work were purchased and widely distributed by managers of Johnson's Vice Presidential campaign.

Other paintings of this battle, quite similar in heroic detail and inaccuracy, came to decorate many a 19th-century barbershop and barroom. For reasons of obvious self-interest the conquerors of Tecumseh eulogized him first as a "red Hannibal-Napoleon" and then as a man of preternatural sagacity, courage and honor.

Typically, the Indiana Centinel, published in Vincennes, editorialized: "Every schoolboy in the Union now knows that Tecumseh was a great man. His greatness was his own, unassisted by science or education. As a statesman, warrior and patriot, we shall not look on his like again. Towns, businesses and children — William Tecumseh Sherman, for one — were named for him. In my own youth, growing up in southern Michigan 30 miles to the west of the village of Tecumseh, it was still widely believed that his was the face that appeared on the "Indian Head" penny.

Tecumseh was a leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and became an ally of Britain in the War of He was considered a natural and charismatic leader and participated in numerous conflicts on the frontier.

Growing up during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War, Tecumseh developed a vision of an independent Native American nation east of the Mississippi under British protection as colonists moved further west.

Tecumseh emerged as the primary leader of the confederacy of tribes who followed his brother's teachings. In , a confrontation between Tecumseh and Indiana Territory governor William Henry Harrison regarding rescinding a treaty, led to an alliance with the British. In September , while Tecumseh was traveling to recruit allies, Harrison and 1, men moved on Prophetstown and destroyed the town. Unfortunately, hostilities continued to rise and soon there was bloodshed over the land.

The Indians were defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers and felt they had to give up their lands, so they signed the Treaty of Greeneville in This left them with a section of land in the northwestern part of Ohio. Tecumseh thought they should not have signed the treaty. He decided the Indian tribes needed to unite against the white man and he set out to convince them to form a confederacy.

He contacted all the tribes west of the Appalachians from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. He soon became a respected leader of the Shawnee people, calling for the Indians to stand up to the white men who were settling on their land. Tecumseh's Brother One thing that really helped shape the life of Tecumseh was his brother Tenskwatawa, the Prophet.

Tenskwatawa claimed that God told him that the Indians had to give up white customs and ways, which was anything like guns, liquor, clothing, ways of farming, etc. He said that God was offended that the Indians had given up their history and traditions and he supported Tecumseh.

If the Indians would return to the old ways, God would be happy and banish the white man from their lands. Many tribes met with the two brothers at the village called Prophetstown.

Consolidation of the Indian Tribes Most of Tecumseh's life was spent trying to make a gathering of tribes a reality. Tecumseh was not there and before he left, he instructed his brother not to attack the whites. Tenskwatawa said he had a vision to attack that showed bullets would not harm the Indians, so he attacked. With the threat of war, Tecumseh moved his band to the headwaters of the Mississinewa, five kilometres from Tippecanoe. The move was resented by the local Miamis and Delawares.

The impressive new Shawnee village, with houses, was called Prophetstown by the Whites for Tecumseh's brother, who continued preaching and who changed his name to Tenskwatawa , meaning Open Door. In an unknown Tecumseh made his first visit to Canada at Fort Amherstburg later Fort Malden , Upper Canada , in the place of his better-known brother who had been invited by William Claus. He arrived 8 June. Tecumseh was not enthusiastic to take the king by the hand. He was deeply distrustful of the British.

Nevertheless, the two sides met and Tecumseh established himself with the redcoats and raised his standing among the First Nations. He had developed into a fiery orator with a clear message: the First Nations must stand together to save their land and cultures. This treaty vindicated Tecumseh and roused him to a fury. When he returned to talk to the British at Fort Amherstburg in he had changed his attitude. He was ready for war and to throw in his lot with the British.

Tecumseh's task of building an Aboriginal confederacy was enormous given the forbidding geographical distances, the sense of powerlessness of many of the tribes, the jealousy of the older chiefs, tribal rivalries, and communication in different languages.

Even the different Algonquian groups could not understand one another without interpreters. In summer Tecumseh undertook a strenuous journey west to the upper Mississippi, down the Illinois River to Peoria, to present-day Wisconsin, then to Missouri.

In October he set out for Fort Amherstburg , arriving about 12 November. By now he was certain there would be war and asked for supplies. Tecumseh's efforts did not go unnoticed. William Henry Harrison wrote a tribute in "The implicit obedience and respect which the followers of Tecumseh pay to him is really astonishing, and more than any other circumstance bespeaks him one of those uncommon geniuses which spring up occasionally to produce revolutions and overturn the established order of things.

Harrison met Tecumseh at Vincennes in July Tecumseh erred by telling Harrison that he would be absent until spring. In Tecumseh's absence, Harrison moved a force near Prophetstown at the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers. The Prophet was unable to restrain his warriors and sniping between sentries escalated into a full-scale battle.

The warriors held their own but were forced to withdraw when they ran out of ammunition. Harrison followed the retreat and entered Prophetstown, finding it deserted. His men burned the town and destroyed the food supplies. Tecumseh's absence took him some 5, kilometres and when he returned to Prophetstown he saw the grim reality of the destruction: as he told the British later, "the bodies of my friends laying in the dust, and our villages burnt to the ground, and all our kettles carried off.

It was a devastating blow to the confederacy. On 18 June the United States declared war on Britain. Tecumseh went north to find the British strengthening the defences of Fort Amherstburg and saw an impressive number of soldiers there. Tecumseh brought about warriors from numerous tribes. General William Hull 's American forces occupied Sandwich on 12 July, but the general was fraught with doubt.

On 17 July, far to the north, Captain Charles Roberts forced the surrender of Michilimackinac , which further unnerved Hull. Tecumseh organized an ambush, routing them and inflicting the first casualties suffered by Americans in the War of On 5 August, Tecumseh confronted a far more numerous force south of Brownstown, killing In another attack he surprised Van Horne, killing 20 and wounding The ambushes at Brownstown were remarkable victories and weighed heavily on Hull's fragile frame of mind.

On 9 August , soldier and future writer John Richardson met Tecumseh, whom he was the first to call the real hero of the war. He described "that ardour of expression in his eye But Tecumseh chose the ground well and signalled the attack. Outgunned, the First Nations and British were forced to retreat and Tecumseh was wounded in the neck. It was an American victory but, as happened so often in this war, there was no follow-up and the blockade of Detroit remained intact.