To James Madison from Daniel Parker, 25 August 1813
From Daniel Parker
August 25th. 1813.
War Office
D. Parker has the honor to inform the President of the UStates that the report of the Commanding General at Fort George, received at the War Office this morning, details a successful skirmish with the enemy by a party of the Six Nations and a detachment from the army. The report will be published in the paper of tomorrow.1
The fleets have done nothing yet. The extract of a letter, in the paper of this day, under the head Indians humanity is from General Harrison.2 The report of Genl. Boyd will show similiar conduct from our Indians in that quarter.
General Armstrong has been at Albany several days—it is not known whether he has yet left that place for the frontier.
General Bloomfield has gone to Annapolis to quiet their fears in that quarter. He will go down the shore & return by the Potomac.
RC (DNA: RG 59, ML).
1. Brig. Gen. John P. Boyd’s letter to John Armstrong of 17 Aug. 1813 appeared in the Daily National Intelligencer on 26 Aug. 1813. Boyd stated that the Indians who fought for the United States had “captured twelve of the British Indians, and four whites,” that they had “conducted with great bravery and activity,” and that true to their promise “not to scalp or murder,” they had “treated the prisoners with humanity, and committed no wanton cruelties upon the dead.”
2. On 25 Aug. 1813 the Daily National Intelligencer published an extract from William Henry Harrison’s letter to Armstrong of 11 Aug. 1813 (printed in Esarey, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, Indiana Historical Collections, 2:522–24), which stated that a group of “friendly Indians” had captured four British soldiers after the Battle of Fort Sandusky. The editorial commentary on the passage emphasized that the Indians had followed the “American example” and treated these prisoners with “civilized humanity,” thus demonstrating the falsehood of British assertions that their Indian allies could not be restrained from committing acts of brutality.