In connecting Urbana with the incidents of the war of 1812, some mention should be made of one of her citizens who came, as has been elsewhere intimated, at a very early day, raised a large family and at one time seemed very prosperous in his affairs, but reverses came, and John Hamilton died in 1868, dependent upon his children for the necessary comforts at the close his life.
     The writer of this, knowing the facts that Mr. Hamilton, when a young man, had volunteered in the service of his country in the war of 1812, taken a very active part, and been prisoner among the Indians for one year, thought in view of is dependent condition, that the Government, upon proper showing would make special provision for him, and he waited upon Mr. Hamilton a short time before his death, and proposed to prepare a narrative of his service and wild adventures, coupled with a memorial of the old citizens who knew him, asking Congress to grant him a special pension for life.  He being then in his seventy-sixth year and being a very modest man rather declined at first, but upon weighting the matter consented.  It was drawn up, and through Hon. Wm. Lawrence, was introduced in the beginning of the year 1868, and a bill to make such provision passed its second reading in the House, but before it could be finally acted on his death occurred.
     Since I commenced these sketches, by accident I have found a rough draft of all his statements, which were verified at the time by him, and that will enable me to do him a (word illegible) justice and perpetuate facts that would soon have passed out of knowledge.  I shall not attempt to publish his whole narrative of the events, but will merely condense in as small a compass as possible to substance.
     He begins by telling that his father about 1793, emigrated to Kentucky from Maryland before he was a year old, that he continued with his father until about 1811, having in the meantime learned the saddlers trade, and went to Winchester, and worked as a jour-

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neyman with one Robert Griffin until the breaking out of the war of 1812.  The enthusiasm that animated the young men of that day reached young Hamilton and under the call of Governor Scott, he volunteered and attached himself to Capt. Brasfield’s Company which was attached to the regiment commanded by Col. Lewis, of Jessamine county, which moved on to Georgetown the latter part of June, thence to Newport where they were equipped and ordered to Fort Wayne via Dayton, Piqua, and St. Mary’s.  From Fort Wayne they were ordered westward in the direction of Tippecanoe, to drive away and destroy the supplies and burn the village of a hostile tribe, which was accomplished, and they returned to the place of their last departure.
     From Fort Wayne, Colonel Lewis’ Regiment was ordered by General Winchester to march to Defiance and start rations about November 1; thence down the (illegible 2 words) Camp. No. 1, 2, and 3.  Here they had no flour, and very little meat for about three weeks.  He recites the fact, that near this place while on a scout, Logan being in company with Captain Johnny  and Comstock, was shot through the body some seventeen miles from camp, and rode in behind the latter and died soon after his arrival in camp, a little port was furnished, but that they were still on short rations.  Great afflictions were here endured from fevers and other diseases incident to camp life, and many died.  On the 25^th of December 1812, they left this encampment, and it commenced snowing, continuing all day, and fell two feet deep.  They reached a point on the banks of the river, and pitched their tents with much difficulty in the deep snow, and enjoyed themselves that night in all the sweats of soldier life.  The next day they marched in body to the head of the Rapids, and encamped and remained there a few days.  General Winchester ordered Colonel Lewis to detach about six hundred of his regiment, and move them immediately to the river Raisin, to dislodge the British and Indian forces there encamped, and on the 18^th of January, 1813, Colonel Lewis commenced the assault and drove them from their quarters into the woods, both belligerents suffering great loss in the skirmish.  Colonel Lewis returned and occupied the enemy’s position within pickets enclosing a Catholic Church sufficiently large to contain his forces, when he immediately sent a courier to General Winchester reporting the victory, which induced the General to order

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another detachment of three hundred to support Col. Lewis, of which Mr. Hamilton was one, and these were commanded by the General himself, who arrived and encamped outside of the pickets.
     On the morning of the 22d of January, 1813, the British forces with their Indian allies, were discovered in line of battle; the long roll was sounded, and the American lines were formed, the battle commenced, and was fought with desperation, the enemy having the vantage ground; at this juncture Major Graves ordered the second detachment to retreat, and it retreated into the woods, when Col. Lewis rode up and requested it to make a stand, that perhaps the force of the enemy might be broken.  The request was complied with; but before many rounds had been fired, he exclaimed, “Brother soldiers, we are surrounded; it is useless to stand any longer; each take care of himself as best he can.”
     Here was the beginning of the troubles of John Hamilton, and in my further extracts, I will let him speak for himself, and he says:  “I immediately shaped my course southward, and soon discovered I had been singled out by an Indian; I kept about sixty yards ahead of him – so near that we could converse.  I was still armed and held him in check, and when I stopped I would tree, he using the same precaution.  He could use enough English to say with a beckoning hand, “Come here!”  I responded “No!” We remained in this position until I could see an opportunity to make another effort to escape.  Then I would present my gun in shooting position as though I would shoot; this would drive him again to his tree, when I would spring forward and gain another tree.  Spending sometime in this way, I discovered I had another pursuer who fired upon me from a western position, and I at once was satisfied I could not dodge two – one north and one west – so I made up my mind to surrender to the first to avoid being instantly killed.  I leaned my gun against my covert tree and beckoned to the first, and gave myself up to him; the other arriving immediately, demanded a division of spoils, which was settled by No. 2 taking my long knife and overcoat, and he left me the prisoner of No. 1, after showing me his power to scalp me, by the flourish of his knife over my head.
     My captor then took me to the rear of the British lines, where we remained by some camp-fires, it being a very cold day, and while at the fire the same Indian that got my over-coat and knife made further claim, which was not so easily settled this time.  In

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this controversy between the two, my friend being an Ottawa and the other a Potawatamie they had much difficulty.  The Indian No. 2, the Potawatamie they had much difficulty.  The No. 2, the Potawatamie, manifested a determination to take my life by actually cocking his gun and presenting it to shoot, when it was again settled by an agreement to take my remaining coat and relinquish all further claim, which was complied with, and I became the undisputed prisoner of No. 1, the Ottawa.
     At this point a Canadian Frenchmen, who was a camp-suttler, beckoned me one side and said if I had any money or other valuables that I wished saved he would take charge of them, and at the end of my captivity he would be at Detroit and restore them to me; and if I did not I would be rifled of them; not knowing what to do I yielded.  I had a small sum of money, and some other valuables, which I handed to him, but never realized any return.  I could not find him at Detroit after my release.
     While we remained at the fire, General Winchester and other prisoners passed by, stripped of their honors and apparel, which was the last I saw of my suffering comrades-in-arms; and at this point I also discovered the fight was not over, but the defense within the pickets was still continued by Major Matison, under several  repeated charges of the British forces, demanding surrender; finally, after consultation, he agreed to surrender on the terms that the British would treat all as prisoners of war, protect them from their savage allies, and remove our wounded to Amherstburg to be properly cared for; but the history of the sequel must supple this part of my narrative.
     On the evening of the battle, I as a prisoner with the Indians retired to Stoney Creek, about four miles eastward; there I was informed by an interpreter that I would not be sold or exchanged, but must go with my adopted father, who was the natural father of my captor, to his wigwam, where we arrived after about nine days’ walk in about a northwestern direction, and with whom I remained up to the 1^st day of January, 1814.
     In brevity, I would say I lived with them nearly one year, and endured all the privations and hardships of savage life.  And this is saying a great deal in my case, as all the warriors were absent preparing for the intended siege of Fort Meigs, which left the old men, women and children, including myself, without the supply generally provided by hunters, and we were reduced almost to

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starvation much of the time I was with them.  I became so reduced that many times I was almost too weak to walk, by reason of short supplies.  My condition really was worse than that of my friends, as I may call them, for they resorted to horse flesh, and even to dog meat, which I could not eat.  I do not design to spin out this narrative, or I could present many diversified incidents, that might be considered very interesting.”
     At this point Mr. Hamilton made some statements which were merely intended as episodes, not intending to add them to this narrative, which I will, however, from memory, try to give in his own language, and it was about to this effect:
     “The family belonging to our wigwam at a time when starvation stared them in the face was very agreeably surprised one day, when my old adopted father drew forth from a secret place he had a small sack, and required his whole family then in camp to form a circle around him, myself among them, when he began by opening his sack to distribute in equal quantities to each a small measure full of parched corn, and as small as this relief may seem, it was received by us all with great thankfulness, and seemed to appease our hunger.  We appreciated it as a feast of fat things.
     “This old Indian Patriarch had traits of moral character that would adorn our best civilized and Christianized communities; he was strictly impartial in distributing favors and in dispensing justice to those around him, and was in all respects unquestionably an honest man.  His moral sense was of a higher order; he could not tolerate in others any willful obliquity in the shape of deception or prevarication, as I can very readily testify; on one occasion, I had attempted to hold back a fact of which I new affected one of his natural children that he was about to punish for some disobedience, and as soon as he became satisfied of the built of the culprit and my prevarication, he procured a hickory and applied it upon both of us in equal measure of stripes.  This was characteristic of that man of nature’s mould.”
     Here his written narrative is resumed:  “Some time in the latter part of November, 1813, the commanding officers at Detroit sent a deputation to our little Indian town, offering terms of peace to the Ottawa Nation or tribe, o condition that they would bring into Detroit their prisoners and horses, which they had captured, and that if these terms were not accepted and complied with in a

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reasonable time, measures would be adopted to compel a compliance.
     “A council was shortly afterward called and convened, and the terms proposed were accepted, and complied with, and I was delivered of Detroit on the first day of January, 1814, to the commanding officer of the Fort, and there I met with other prisoners and we were all provided for.”
     Here Mr. Hamilton’s captivity ended, and in the continuation of his narrative, he says he found himself three hundred miles from home in the middle of a cold northern winter, thinly clad, and without money.  He was here furnished with an order for rations to Urbana, to which place he came and remained a few days with friends and then left for Winchester, Kentucky, where he arrived without any further government aid about the middle of February, 1814, after an absence of nearly twenty months.  He further says, he remained at Winchester a few days, arranged his little affairs and returned to Urbana and made it his home.  Mr. Hamilton’s exemplary and religious life is well known to his community, and here this narrative ends.