Asa Hartshorne
Asa Hartshorne was a United States Army officer who died in 1794 during the Northwest Indian War. He is the namesake of a 1790 attack on United States settlement in Kentucky.
Asa Hartshorne | |
|---|---|
| Born | Connecticut |
| Died | 30 June 1794 Fort Recovery, Ohio |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/ | Army |
| Years of service | 1787 - 1794 |
| Rank |  Captain |
| Unit | First American Regiment, Legion of the United States |
| Battles/wars | Hartshorne's Defeat, Hardin's Defeat, Siege of Fort Recovery † |
| Signature |  |
Hartshorne was from Connecticut.[1] and joined the Army in 1787.[1] As an ensign in the First American Regiment, he signed the 1789 Treaty of Fort Harmar[2] He travelled west from Fort Harmar that August, along with his fellow junior officer Jacob Kingsbury, under the command of Captain David Strong.[3]
On 30 May 1790, Ensign Hartshorne commanded a party near Limestone, Kentucky that was attacked in retaliation for an attack on the Shawnee village of Chalawgatha by Charles Scott a month earlier. He reported 8 people missing after the attack, and 5 killed, including 3 children.[4] This attack is known as "Hartshorne's Defeat."[5]
Later that same year, Hartshorne participated in the Harmar campaign, an assault on Native American villages deep in Ohio Territory. He and Captain John Armstrong were the only two active duty Army officers to survive when a force under Kentucky colonel John Hardin approached the Miami village of Little Turtle on 19 October 1790.[6]
Hartshorne was promoted to Lieutenant on 4 March 1791,[7] and returned to Connecticut to recruit for the new Second American Regiment.[8] He was promoted to Captain in the 1st Sub-Legion on 1 September 1792.[9]
In January 1794, shortly after the construction of Fort Recovery, Hartshorne was tasked with building a road north to the village of Simon Girty.[10] He was killed on 30 June 1794 during the Siege of Fort Recovery, when he refused to surrender to Thomas McKee.[11] When his body was recovered the following day, it had been mutilated. However, two leather hearts had been placed in his chest as a testament to his courage.[12]
References
- "Asa Hartshorn". Indian Land Tenure Foundation. Retrieved 10 Dec 2021.
- "Treaty With the Wyandot, etc., : 1789". The Avalon Project. Retrieved 10 Dec 2021.
- Jones, Robert Ralston (1902). Fort Washington at Cincinnati, Ohio. Ohio: Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Ohio. p. 11. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
- "Diary entry: 9 July 1790". Founders Online. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
- Winkler 2011, p. 15.
- Sword 1985, p. 108.
- Heitman, Francis Bernard (1903). Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army: From Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 507. Retrieved 10 Dec 2021.
- Lytle, Richard M. (2004). The Soldiers of America's First Army, 1791. Scarecrow Press. p. 170. ISBN 0810850117.
- "Roster of the Officers of 'The Legion of the United States,' Commanded by Major-General Anthony Wayne". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 16 (4): 424. 1893. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
- Gaff 2004, p. 188.
- Hogeland 2017, p. 321.
- Gaff 2004, p. 251.
Sources
- Gaff, Alan D. (2004). Bayonets in the Wilderness: Anthony Wayne's Legion in the Old Northwest. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3585-4.
- Hogeland, William (2017). Autumn of the Black Snake. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374107345. LCCN 2016052193.
- Winkler, John F. (2011). Wabash 1791: St. Clair's Defeat; Osprey Campaign Series #240. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84908-676-9.
- Sword, Wiley (1985). President Washington's Indian War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1790-1795. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1864-4.