Week 47: Soldier #52Ancestors

Another mysterious ancestor is Elijah Elliott, my husband’s 4th great-grandfather who has a strange story about his death. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and allegedly died at the Battle of the River Raisin in Monroe, Michigan. Even if you are not familiar with the facts regarding this battle, you may remember the battle cry “Remember the Raisin!”[1] During the Battle of the River Raisin, the combined forces of British, Canadian, and First Nations People attacked sleeping American soldiers killing 220 and capturing 147. The day after the battle, the Indians returned to plunder the American-controlled village and about forty-six more Americans were scalped, killed, or taken as property.[2]

Elijah Elliott was born about 1774 in Virginia. His parents were William Cundiff Elliott and Elizabeth Pearl.[3] Elizabeth’s sister, Margaret Pearl, was also my husband’s 5th great-grandmother on another side of the family. In 1790, Elijah married Elizabeth Feagans, the daughter of Edward and Elizabeth (Knox) Feagans.[4] They moved from Virginia to Kentucky sometime before 1800 and had five children.

On September 9, 1812, Elijah enlisted with Robert Smith’s Company, Colonel James Simrall’s Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Light Dragoons.[5] “Light Dragoons” are soldiers who use horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot.[6] Elijah likely provided his own horse for this service. 

In November of 1812, the Secretary of War, William Henry Harrison (and later 9th president of the U.S.), ordered the American forces, including the Kentucky Volunteer Light Dragoons, to attack the British-allied Delaware and Miami tribes along the Mississinew River in Indiana Territory (near modern-day Marion, Indiana). The fighting lasted for several days in mid-December 1812 and the “Battle of the Mississinewa” is thought by some to be the first American victory of the war.[7]  

Very few American soldiers were wounded or killed during the fighting, but many suffered from severe frostbite immediately after the battle. Simrall disbanded his regiment in January 1813, due in large part to the debilitating frostbite his men experienced.[8] Presumably, Elijah went home to his wife and children because in August of 1813 he re-enlisted in Bracken, Kentucky, with Captain John Payne’s Company of Kentucky Light Dragoons under Colonel Richard Johnson.[9] Payne had been a senior officer in Smith’s Company. In addition to Elijah, Jonathan Stout, a Farrier with Smith’s Company also re-enlisted with Payne.[10]

Under Payne’s command, Elijah was one of about 3,700 American troops who fought in the Battle of the Thames, also known as the Battle of Moraviantown.[11] The Battle of the Thames was one of the most decisive of the war. It took place on October 5, 1813 in Ontario, Canada, and during this battle, Native American Shawnee warrior and chief Tecumseh was killed.[12]

While the records of Elijah’s military service are sparse, they do confirm his participation in these two battles. However, family histories said that Elijah was supposedly killed during the Battle of the River Raisin, which took place on the 22nd of January 1813. 

Hmmmm. In January of 1813, Elijah was most certainly in Indiana and, of course, if he took part in the Battle of the Thames in October of 1813, he surely hadn’t died ten months earlier.

When I first started working on our family tree, every tree I encountered on Ancestry reported that Elijah died at the River Raisin. However, none of those trees had any supporting evidence.  

Ah, a challenge – how fun! 

I researched high and low for anything that would tell me when and where Elijah died and why everyone thought he died in Michigan. I found a story in the biography of his grandson, Jesse Elliott which reported a fantastical story of his grandfather and claimed that he was “tomahawked and killed by the Indians on the River Raisin.”[13] 

I also found a biography of his grandson Dr. Thomas Jefferson Dunn that claimed:

[Elijah] was wounded and made a prisoner at Fort DuQuesne, Pa. [near Pittsburgh] and carried to Canada. Becoming unable to travel, he was killed, scalped and left unburied by the side of the River Raisin. The account of his death was given by his fellow prisoners after their release and return to their homes. [14]

Nope and nope.

I haven’t been able to figure out when and where he died, but I do know these stories are false. I also know that he never returned to Kentucky after the end of the war – his wife was enumerated by her own name in the 1820 U.S. census.[15] Did he die in battle? I think this is unlikely because if he had his fellow soldiers wouldn’t have had to make up a story about him. At this point, all I have is speculation: he died in some rather inglorious way or he decided that life on the frontier was better than that back in Kentucky (which, of course, was the frontier). Someday I hope I will find out what happened to this soldier.

[1] “History & Culture,” River Raisin National Battlefield Park, National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/rira/learn/historyculture/index.htm : accessed 25 November 2019).

[2] Ibid.

[3] William Elliott will, 9 February 1828, Bracken County Court, Kentucky, Will Book C, p. 185; accessed as "Kentucky Probate Records, 1727-1990," browsable images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-20817-25533-63?cc=1875188&wc=37RT-N3N:173387501,173767301 : accessed 13 July 2015), path: Bracken > Will records, Index, 1823-1833, Vol. C > image 104 of 276.

[4] Fauquier County, Virginia, Marriage Bonds, [Vol. not noted]: 45, Elliot-Feagans marriage, 1796; digital image, FamilySearch, "Marriage bonds and returns, v. 1-3, 1759-1820" (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 25 July 2018), FHL microfilm 31,633.

[5] Adjutant General of Kentucky, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky: Soldiers of the War of 1812 (Frankfort, Kentucky: E. Polk Johnson, Public Printer and Binder, 1891), p. 38; Archive.org (http://archive.org/dtails/reportofadjutant01kant : accessed 21 October 2014).

[6] “Dragoon,” Wikipedia, 22:35, 13 November 2019.

[7] John Trowbridge, “Kentuckians on the Mississinewa, War of 1812,” Kentucky Ancestor, Vol. 41-1 (Autumn 2005), p. 14-45; digital images, Kentucky Historical Society (http://history.ky.gov/pdf/Publications/ancestors_v41_n1.pdf : accessed 2 October 2013).

[8] Ibid.

[9] Adjutant General of Kentucky, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky: Soldiers of the War of 1812 (Frankfort, Kentucky: E. Polk Johnson, Public Printer and Binder, 1891), p. 368; Archive.org (http://archive.org/dtails/reportofadjutant01kant : accessed 6 June 2017).

[10] Ibid.

[11] Col. Bennett H. Young, The Battle of the Thames in which Kentuckians Defeated the British, French, and Indians, October 5, 1813 (Louisville, KY:  John P. Morton & Co., 1903), 269.

[12] Ibid, 88.

[13] History of Fayette County Indiana (Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1885), p. 267-268; digital images, Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=5ULWAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA271.w.1.2.0 : accessed 21 February 2019).

[14] Newton Bateman, LL.D., & Paul Selby, A.M, Illinois Historical: Effingham County Biographical (Chicago: Munsell Pub. Co., 1910), 747; digital images, Ancestry.com.

[15] 1820 U.S. census, Bracken County, Ky., Germantown, p.15, Elizabeth Eliot; NARA microfilm publication M33, roll 19.

The reenactment of the Battle of Mississinewa Battle of 1812 in Marion, Ind. is the largest War of 1812 reenactment in The United States. Photo by Taylor Irby (https://taylorirbyphotography.wordpress.com/category/photography/).