Just finished reading: Gallop Toward the Sun
I just finished reading Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation by Peter Stark. When I heard about this book on The Road to Now podcast, I added it to my must read list immediately.
This is my second book about William Henry Harrison. I doodled my way through William Henry Harrison (by Gail Collins) way back in sketchbook #3. At the time, I was left with the following thoughts about him:
Impressive family tree! So many Bens!
He had some big balls. Campaign balls! It was a thing!!
What a great campaign song.
Oh, how adept he is at spin! Look at him, making the whole “log cabin” thing work for him.
How funny! He had a 2,000 beaver bounty on his head.
This book left me with an entirely different feeling toward Harrison:
He had some big balls, completely ignoring President Madison, lying about Madison’s positions, and doing whatever the heck he wanted.
He was committing genocide, so the bounty is less “haha” and more “holycrapthisguyisamonster”.
Take a flip through my recent sketchbook.
The more I grew to detest Harrison, the more the doodle quality fell as I tried to zip through everything faster. But there were a lot of doodles up-front and narrowing it down to a couple of handfuls of things I wanted to share was challenging.
No spoilers here… my doodles didn’t get into the specifics of the war. Or even much about Tecumseh. Go out and read this book yourself. I am glad to be done with William Henry Harrison, but I’m also very grateful I read Gallop Toward the Sun.
We know Lewis & Clark’s route because of poop pills.
While in med school, Harrison studied under Benjamin Rush. Before Lewis & Clark left on their expedition, Rush gave them “thunderclap pills” — little mercury poison balls (“laxative of awe-inspiring power”). The pills and poison poops helped archeologists track their campsites… and that’s how we know so much about their travels.
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Much of what we know about Tecumseh is because of a kidnapping.
Stephen Ruddell (A.K.A. Sinnamatha; A.K.A. Big Fish) was kidnapped by a Shawnee war party at 12 years old, along with his 6-year-old brother Abraham.
Big Fish and Tecumseh were inseparable as kids. They trained together and taught each other their language.
Abraham never left, but Stephen eventually did after about 15 years.
He wrote about Tecumseh.
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Judge Symmes, why you gotta be so rude?
John Cleves Symmes served in the NJ militia during the Revolutionary War.
After his wife died, he dressed as a British officer and snuck his daughter Anna to his in-laws on Long Island.
William Harrison asked to marry that same daughter.
Symmes wasn’t having it, as Harrison could neither bleed (he wasn’t a doctor), plead (he wasn’t a lawyer), or preach (he wasn’t a preacher). When he asked how Harrison intended to support his daughter, Harrison gave an incorrect answer: “With my right arm and sword, sir.”
Symmes refused to his permission. inspiring Harrison to write the song Rude and elope with Anna. Kidding. About the song. He totally ran off with Anna.
Judge Symmes’ third wife was Susan Livingston Symmes, descendant of Philip Livingston.
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Leopold II of Belgium was a monster.
Admittedly, I was pretty excited when Leopold showed up, having just read one book about royalty. Except this wasn’t the Leopold I thought it was (Leopold I of Belgium). It was Leopold II. But not Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold II of Austria.
Backtracking to Leopold II of Belgium. He was responsible for the deaths of around 10 million people in Congo… not to mention the forced labor, mutilation, etc., etc. How have I never heard of him??
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Harrison lived in a fortress.
Grouseland looks normal from the surface, but down below it’s a damned fortress: two foot thick walls with gunports (aiming all around), indoor water wells, escape tunnels, a hidden staircase… and loads of powder. Which may seem dangerous with his family living there, but he’d “rather see them blown to bits” than have them “taken captive.”
In any case, the name of his house/fortress was a nod to the grouse in the area. It wasn’t easy picking out a grouse to draw because their appearances … vary, shall we say. Be sure scroll to the end of this post for a sexy grouse video. Sexy if you are a grouse. Just kind of peculiar if you’re not. But worth a watch anyhow.
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Everyone is related to everyone.
So much interconnection and so any nepo babies.
William Henry Harrison’s dad was Founding Father Benjamin Harrison V.
Harrison’s stepmother-in-law was a descendant of Phiiip Livingston.
John Jay was Harrision’s father-in-law’s brother-in-law. (His Jay Treaty jump-started party polarization by opening trade with Great Britain.)
After Ben V died, his friend and Revolutionary War hero Harry “Light Horse” Lee suggested Harrison snag an officer’s commission and go out west. Harrison was too young, but he had connections so it all worked out. For him, anyhow. George Washington himself signed Harrison papers.
Light Horse was Robert E. Lee’s father.
Guess who Robert E. Lee married? Martha Washington’s granddaughter.
Jefferson probably didn’t really say “sacresbleu!” Despite being a Francophile, living in France for five years, and having a reputation for being good with languages … he could really only read in French.
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Two constants: Thomas Jefferson never stops showing how terrible he was and I’ll never stop flagging things that sound dirty but aren’t.
William Henry Harrison said that “all these horrors are produced to these unhappy people by their too frequent intercourse with the white people.” … which sounds funny, but obviously isn’t at all.
Thomas Jefferson said they must be “civilized” so they wouldn’t need as much land for hunting. Then they could just change their ways and give their land to the Americans. Or leave. Or be killed. Whichever. Their choice, really.
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I’ve doodled loads of cockades, but didn’t realize they have a name. It’s like a ribbon rosette, but with the potential to be fancier!
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Tecumseh wasn’t interested in dealing with Apekonit “Carrot Top” (Captain William Wells). The former captive, raised as a Miami warrior, was always flip-flopping in his loyalties. When Tecumseh declared “I will hold no further intercourse with Captain Wells,” Wells was working for the Americans.
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Jefferson’s 3-part land-grab plan was as follows:
Take lots of pieces of land here and there so there isn’t enough wildlife to support a hunting lifestyle.
Hey! Look at that! Now they are farmers!
[Evil laugh] Saddle them with crushing debt. Huzzah!
Exhibit A: After some chiefs and warriors approached Harrison on a peace mission, he got wealthy traders to offer them a massive line of credit. Then they jacked up their prices. The total debt exceeded $2,000. Then Harrison made a “deal,” erasing the debt, releasing a warrior from jail, snagging 15 million acres, and gaving them $1,000/year and “protection”.
According to Gary B. Nash, “Jefferson’s love of minimal government and maximal individual freedom, combined with his insatiable appetite for land, became the perfect formula for seizing Indian land and rationalizing the frontiersman’s ethnic cleansing.”
PS Someone shot at Harrison while he held baby John Scott. Baby John Scott was Benjamin Harrison’s dad!
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Favorite sentences from the book:
“It was another thing entirely to have the ravenous Bonaparte swinging his sharpened cleaver so close to America’s lands and controlling the Mississippi’s output.”
“Members of the east coast aristocracy managed to find one another in the Ohio Valley wilds like mating birds calling through the woods.”
Speaking of mating birds…
Check out this sexy grouse video!
These are the birds Harrison named his house after!
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Bonus: sexy video!