Fort Amanda

From The Ohio Country....(See e-mail information below)*

 The three thousand men then at Fort Barbee were at once started direct for Defiance, Harrison commanding in person. The first night they encamped at Fort Jennings, where word of the retreat of the enemy was received. This gave opportunity for part of the soldiers to clear the road to Defiance, and others to build a fortification farther up the Auglaize River, on the site of Wayne's Fort Auglaize. This post was named by Lieutenant-Colonel Pogue, its builder, Fort Amanda... .

Jim's Photo of The Fort Amanda Monument

*Note: I received the following information via email:

There are a couple items shown on the webpage regarding Fort Amanda that are incorrect. I’ve researched Fort Amanda for the past 43 years and just recently published my book titled; “Fort Amanda – a Historical Redress.” Fort Amanda was built by Lt. Col. Robert Pogue of the Kentucky militia, not Colonel Poague. Lt. Col. Pogue named the post for his 12 year old daughter Amanda. It was built in 2 phases, the first by Kentucky troops in Oct. 1812 then enlarged by Ohio militia troops in the spring of 1813. When finished there were 5 blockhouses, not 4.

See the Fort Amanda blog here (related to the above e-mail).

Skirmishing And Spies Near Defiance

Fort Defiance (Ohio) In Granite

From Elias Darnell -- A journal containing an accurate and interesting ...;


[Sept.? 1812] 27th. The spies and Capt. Garrard's troop started this morning to bury the dead. They were attacked by a party of Indians who were watching the dead. One of the spies got shot in the ankle by an Indian. They fired on the Indians, and with the assistance of Capt. Garrard, they made them run... .  It was supposed some of them were badly wounded. Capts. Hickman and Ruddell returned, who had started this morning to reconnoitre Fort Defiance. They reported, that they saw many fresh signs of Indians. As they returned to camp they spied an encampment of Indians; the Indians were talking and laughing merrily. A detachment was sent after dark in order to surprise them. Ruddell, their pilot, got lost before he got far, so that they could not execute their design.

Lost Spies

From A journal containing an accurate and interesting ...;

[Sept. 26th. [1812] Two white men, and Capt. John (an Indian who was with us), lost their horses. They continued about the camping ground in search of them; they saw two or three Indians exploring our encampment. They took this method, no doubt, to calculate our number. The spies returned to camp this evening, who had discovered many Indian signs in front. Five of the spies who had yesterday started with the view to go to Fort Defiance, were found on the road shot, scalped, and tomahawked by the Indians or British.

Other entries from Elias Darnell's Journal here and here.  

Fort Defiance (Ohio) Map

Source

A Spy Captured

While in Piqua he [Joseph Paxton] was chosen as a volunteer spy in Captain Leslie Combs's company of spies.

Commemorating A Revolutionary War Era Battle At Piqua in Ohio

May of 1813 Captain Combs, who was then at old Fort Defiance at the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers, was ordered to take a part of his company and proceed to Fort Meigs.  Paxton was the first to volunteer for a very dangerous expedition....in company with Captain Combs three other volunteer spies and an Indian named Blackfish... .

The memorialist was...struck by a ball near the right shoulder blade ....and was conducted to the British camp.

He was taken before General Proctor who asked him under whose command he came to (General Green Clay of Kentucky). [Was asked] how many men General Clay had with him (two thousand Kentuckians and seven hundred Indians).  Major Chambers of the British army repeated the last question; the major pronounced him a liar and said that Kentucky could not raise half that number of fighting men.... .

Source: Congressional edition (Google eBook) (1841)

Oliver Anderson

In the Oliver Anderson biography at the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site in Missouri, it was noted that:

"Oliver Anderson was born Feb. 15, 1794, in Nicholasville, Ky....by the age of 16 or 17, had already established an extensive trade with New Orleans by means of flat boats, returning to Kentucky on foot."

Though a youth at the time, Oliver Anderson was a member of Capt. Patrick Gray's Company of Kentucky Volunteers in the War of 1812 and helped build Fort Defiance in Ohio. He was also wounded and made a prisoner at Frenchtown on the River Raisin, but made his escape from the British forces. [Source]

Around 1850, Oliver Anderson moved to Lexington, Missouri; his wife, Mary, had died in 1847.

In the fall of 1861, the war came into Anderson's home. The Union army, which had occupied the Masonic College in Lexington and surrounded it with defenses, now claimed Anderson's house for use as a field hospital.