The Desertion and Redemption of William Suttenfield
He was only fourteen and five feet tall when he enlisted in the U.S. Army, 1st United States Infantry Regiment, a poor boy from Virginia. Or, it should be said, he thought he was fourteen but didn’t know his exact birthdate. His enlistment date was recorded precisely, however: December 10, 1802, and the boy’s name was William Suttenfield. He had blue eyes, “light” hair, and a complexion that burned easily out in a Virginia field. He enlisted in Detroit, signed up by Lieutenant James Rhea for five years of service.(1)
How he made his way to Detroit and why is not known. The majority of enlisted men at this time were “drawn from the most turbulent elements of the east. The soldier’s life was not a popular vocation.”(2) Three meals a day, clothing and pay may have sounded pretty good to a 14-year old on his own, assuming he was on his own. He was assigned to serve as a waiter to, and under the command of, Lieutenant Eli B. Clemson with Captain Lewis’ company.
He was transferred to Captain Whipple’s company October 8, 1806, again as a waiter. On September 1, 1807, he reenlisted and was finally promoted to corporal in May 1809.
Then, his military record says, he deserted at Fort Osage on November 29th or 30th, 1809, “being on [command? illegible] at Belle Fontaine. Captain Jno. Whistler’s Co.”
Background
William was serving at a time in American military history, and in places, that few Americans are taught about in school. It is mostly forgotten today. The First Regiment was established in 1784; it became known as the First when the Second was established in 1791. Both were sent against the Indians of the Ohio country. In 1792 Congress created the Legion of the United States, which combined the infantry, artillery and cavalry under “Mad Anthony” Wayne, merging the 1st into the first division. As many a Fort Wayne school child was taught, it was the 2nd Infantry that defeated the Northwest Indian Confederacy and its British support at Fallen Timbers in 1794.
The 1st Infantry was reorganized in 1802 under Colonel Jean-Francois Hamtranck. So young William Suttenfield was getting in on a newly reorganized unit.
He must have been excited about the annual allowance of clothing for every private in the infantry, more clothing than he had possessed at one time in his life. The official list was: one hat, one plume, one cord and tassel; one hat plate, one coat, one cockade and eagle, one vest, two pairs of woolen overalls and two pairs of linen overalls; one coarse linen frock and trousers for fatigue clothing; four pairs of shoes, four shirts, two pairs of socks, two pairs of short stockings, and one pair of half gaiters. Additionally, he was issued one blanket, one canteen, one knapsack, and one haversack.(3)
In the army, he was assured of being fed each day, too. William’s daily ration consisted of one and a quarter pounds of fresh beef or three-fourths of a pound of salted pork, eighteen ounces of bread or flour (usually delivered in a one-pound loaf of bread), and one gill of rum, whiskey or brandy. A gill equaled four ounces. For every hundred rations he also received one quart of salt and a gallon of vinegar. The men were issued one candle per every six men per day and four pounds of soap every hundred days. Each garrison was expected to grow a vegetable garden and the quantity of vinegar was for pickling vegetables. Cucumbers and beets were popular for this.(4)
About every six to eight men formed a mess who would rotate fixing meals for the group. Each mess was expected to furnish itself with “coarse tablecloths” and a system of roller towels, with each man required to wash his hands and face before meals. The man detailed to cook for the mess on a given day also had to deliver meals to the soldier serving guard duty.(5)
Fort Belle Fontaine
Other than the notes in his military record, William Suttenfield’s moves are difficult to trace with precision. The record says he deserted at Osage being under command at Fort Belle Fontaine. Today Belle Fontaine is a county park about twenty miles from St. Louis across the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers from Alton, Illinois. There is little sign of its once strategic importance.
It had a grand past, and was claimed by three nations, Spain, France and the United States. It was an important gathering place in the wilderness, a place where Indian treaties were signed, and a jumping off point for expeditions including those of Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike. It was the first U.S. military installation built west of the Mississippi in the Louisiana Territory. During the War of 1812 it was a rendezvous point for campaigns against the British and Indians.The name lingered from the French, a tribute to a spring that gushed from the side of a cliff and supplied the garrison.
In December 1804 a few selected companies of the 1st Infantry Regiment were chosen to relocate to Belle Fontaine. These included Lt. Eli B. Clemson’s and Captain John Whistler’s, both of whom William worked under. The troops reached St. Louis in 1805 with orders to build and staff an Indian trading factory – factory being an old term for trading posts. Work began in July after land purchases were secured.(6)
The original location was not on the bluff above the Missouri River where the park is, but on the river levee near marshy backwaters. Of course this created problems with mosquitoes-borne illnesses such as malaria and encephalitis and many men died as a result. Much illness was still attributed to miasma - bad air. Also not understood was the cause of rampant dysentery that the men experienced. Although they had adequate drinking water from the Belle Fontaine spring, river water was used for cooking and washing and is a likely source of sickness.
The first buildings constructed were the blacksmith’s shop, the quartermaster’s store and the Indian trading factory. The log cabin structures were built of green logs with bark still on and no nails. Nails were ordered but hadn’t arrived. Timber for construction had come from trees cut and floated down the Missouri River to the site, because there were not enough trees for building purposes nearby. Roofs were ash or oak shingles kept on only by logs laid atop them - again because of the lack of nails. The soldiers cut the logs, made the shingles, and mixed limestone for mortar. The limestone needed for the foundation of the main administration building and for fire hearths for the cooking huts was obtained from a nearby limestone cliff face, about a third of a mile away. Log cabins were built for officers; the men slept in tents in the dirt and mud until rough-hewn floors were laid out in partial waist-high huts in October 1805.(7)
Practical Instructions For Officers, an 1811 manual, describes a common infantry tent of the times: “ …the ridge pole is 7 feet; length of standards, 6 feet; The tent is six and ½ feet square, five feet high and holds five men.” It would be one thing to stay in such a tent while bivouacking on the way to a new location, but quite another to be “housed” semi-permanently in such a structure in all seasons and weather.(8)
When Colonel Daniel Bissell arrived as the third commander of Belle Fontaine on May 20, 1809, he quickly noticed that the buildings, though only four years old, were in poor repair, and that the troops suffered excessively from poor health, attributed to “miasma” from the river. Other serious problems with the river location were detailed in his report to the War Department. In addition to disease there were problems with flooding, and the low-lying location of the buildings on the levee left troops vulnerable to any enemy attack from the bluffs directly above.
The location was then abandoned and a new fort was built on the bluff. This was very labor-intensive - just plain hard, physical labor - and was probably not what the troops envisioned when they enlisted. They hadn’t seen military action and illness and death took their toll. Consequently, morale reared its head as another serious issue. There was an increase in troop desertions; William was not some rare case. A significant financial cost to the post became that of tracking down deserters.
In the documents in the Correspondence File Records for 1810, payment was made to both officers and outside agents who acted as bounty hunters trying to capture deserters. As an example of the cost, the fort paid one agent $13 on June 10. Five agents were paid on July 9; nearly $23 was spent on July 23. More agents were paid $15 on August 3; and in early September the fort paid $14.26.(9)
Belle Fontaine was not a happy place for too many men. Maybe worse, from the perspective of the military, from the start it was not a success as a trading post with the Indians, either. The Osage found its location inconvenient, and most trade was instead with St. Louis residents and military personnel. The inventory of goods sent to St. Louis for the trading post was interesting. It included ceramic plates, cups, creamers and pint bowls; glass tumblers and munition supplies such as 33,000 gunflints, 5,200 pounds of gunpowder and 3,000 pounds of lead to make shot. But Fort Belle Fontaine did not last long as a trading post.(10)
Fort Osage
Fort Osage, Missouri, also known as Fort Clark and Fort Sibley, was built in 1808 under the direction of General William Clark, joint commander of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition. It was part of the same factory system of trading posts as Belle Fontaine. Its purpose was to provide a military presence in the new Louisiana Territory and reassure foreign powers that the U.S. meant to protect its territory. Of course it was also to maintain trade with the Indians. Built on a bluff, it overlooked the Missouri River for many miles.
At the time of its establishment it had 81 men (officers and enlisted) under command of Captain Eli Brady Clemson. They enlisted for five years and were paid $5 a month, depending on rank. They were also required to perform extra labor daily in their free time, but were paid 10 to 16 cents for this per day. Clemson commanded the military garrison there from its establishment till its evacuation in 1813.
Clemson made his feelings clear about being stuck out in the hinterlands at Fort Osage. He wrote in a letter to the adjutant general, “You are no doubt informed that this place was built by me in 1808. I have resided at it ever since with the exception of a few months furlough and I can assure you with truth that I would far rather serve before the walls of Quebec than at a place so cut off from every person and thing.”(11)
If it was hard for the officers, it was hard for the average enlisted Joe, just as Belle Fontaine was.
A Soldier’s Life
In 1840, four years after William’s death, a veteran named Marshall Durkee petitioned the U.S. government for redress. He joined the army in the Fourth Regiment from his New England home in 1809. In his petition, he recounted his experiences. Although each regiment was different and in different locations, there must be similarities in what William endured. Certainly long marches, tent living, and his imprisonment were commonalities.
In 1814 and 1815, those joining to fight in the War of 1812 received considerably higher bounties and parcels of land than Durkee, who served throughout the war. He wanted the government to provide land equally to all soldiers who served. In his petition Durkee recalled the conditions he labored under - marches of over 200 and 300 miles, provisions cut off due to heavy rain and snow, causing the roads to become impassable, the struggle to gather food from local inhabitants, which consisted of spoiled cornmeal, fish and a small amount of meat.
“Our winter clothing did not arrive until December, and we had no money from the government since our enlistment. Worn down by hunger, fatigue and want of clothing, one or two died; others were unable to perform duty; and some of the most active deserted,” he wrote. They became too weak to perform their guard duty, and then smallpox struck. It was January.
“In consequence of our disease…we were ordered from our quarters in the village to some wretched log-huts, one mile in the wilderness. Here, with one blanket each and some loose straw, in hovels not fit to shelter cattle, in an inhospitable climate with the snow four feet deep around us and no money, we dragged out four weeks of miserable existence, suffering more than can easily be described.” By June his company had lost 32 men to death and desertion.
His petition is a fascinating, priceless account from an enlisted man. He described his company moving to Vincennes, Indiana mostly on foot, then marching to Detroit, wading through swamps in summer heat. He was captured and made a prisoner of war; he and other men were marched to Quebec and put on board two prison ships anchored in the middle of the river. “Here was the commencement of our most extreme sufferings.” Reading accounts like Durkee’s, we can understand why a young man like William would desert.
William’s Timeline
I am guessing that William was captured and returned. Otherwise, why would his military record list dates after his desertion? “Cptn, Jno Whistler’s Co. Bk. 226 [Drew?] clo. June, Aug. and Nov. 1810, May, July and Oct 1811 and May 1812.”
The story that William’s widow, Laura Taylor Suttenfield told, some of it presumably based on what he told her, is that he was “under the employ” of Colonel John Johnston in 1811. Johnston was appointed Indian Agent at Fort Wayne in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson. In 1811 he requested and was granted a transfer to a new Indian agency in Piqua, Ohio. According to Laura, William was in charge of a pack mule train hauling military and Indian stores from Upper Piqua to Fort Wayne.(12) This could be true but John Johnston is not mentioned in William’s military record.
On October 13, 1811 William married Laura Taylor, a 16-year old native of Boston, in Detroit. He was 22 (or so).
His military record continued: “Reenlisted at Detroit June 14, 1812 for five years.” Today desertion bars one from reenlisting in the military, but apparently that was not the case in William’s day. War was declared against the British June 18, 1812. A bounty of $31 and 160 acres of land was offered to men to enlist. Later that was increased to $124, an amount many unskilled laborers didn’t make in a year, and 320 acres of land.
Laura said during the War of 1812 they were captured by the British and held prisoner in Canada. They were paroled not too long after.
The military record says:
“Drew cls. June & Nov. 1812 - Capt. Hugh [?] Co. ….Capt. Whistler’s Co. June 3 of 1814. On parole. Tried as corpl. by Gen. [?] Oct 13, 1814, Gambling. Reduced to private. Promoted to corpl. Nov. 1, 1814 I.R. Capt. Jno. Whistler’s Co. 3rd [Infantry?] Oct. 31 and Dec. 16, 1815 present. jd. from 1st Inft.
Laura said in 1813 they went to Newport, Kentucky where William joined Whistler’s company. However, various sources say that Whistler was not assigned there until 1815. William was sent to Fort Wayne in 1814. Fort Wayne was not yet a town. Like Fort Osage or Fort Belle Fontaine, it was just a fort, an “outpost in the wilderness.” Historian Charles Poinsette gave a good glimpse of life for the enlisted in Fort Wayne:
At this western outpost, garrison life was more than harsh; it was extremely boring. The troops at Fort Wayne had nothing to do in their leisure time, and usually passed their days in drinking, fighting, and gambling. In vain did the officers have insubordinate men flogged at parade (not infrequently the maximum penalty of 100 lashes was given), deprived them of their whiskey rations, and put them to hard labor. When, in 1812, Congress amended the articles of war to prohibit flogging, other substitute punishments, hardly less severe and equally degrading, were devised. Men were confined in small dark rooms, put astride spiked wooden horses, forced to wear the wooden collar, ankle bolts, and irons. In the Orderly Books for the Fort Wayne garrison, we repeatedly find non-commissioned officers demoted to the ranks for misconduct or crimes of one nature or another, only to be reinstated when their successors proved even more incapable.
Whistler was stationed at Fort Wayne in 1816. William was discharged from the army, “having procured a substitute,” March 27, 1816. By that time, he had already built the first log cabin outside of the fort; he was ready for civilian life.
Afterwards
On the 27th of November 1820 William received 160 acres of land in Arkansas Territory in payment for his war service. In the 22 years he lived as a civilian in Fort Wayne, he was called Colonel Suttenfield, known as owner of a two-story log cabin tavern. He also worked as a sutler supplying the military until the fort was decommissioned, and carried mail to Chicago, at least one time walking the entire way on foot. Another way he made money was transporting Indian annuity payments, such as a delivery of 190 bushels of salt to the Miami in 1823 and an 1824 trip from Vincennes to Fort Wayne. He would serve on the town’s first grand jury, and pledge funds for the first permanent minister (a pledge he did not keep, but he was hardly alone).(13)
He would be remembered for building the first log cabin outside the fort, and for being one of the town’s first residents. Suttenfield Street in Fort Wayne is named for him. He died in 1836.
After his death, Laura petitioned the government for a widow’s pension as a War of 1812 veteran’s widow. She survived William by fifty years and never remarried.
Notes:
U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments.
Poinsette.
Bennett. “Soldiers.”
Bennett. “Rations.”
Ibid.
Browman.
Ibid.
E. Hoyt.
Browman.
Ibid.
Letter from Captain Eli Clemson to Adjutant General Thomas H. Cushing, Esq., October 1st, 1812.
Griswold.
Mather.
Officers Mentioned in William Suttenfield’s Military Record
Captain Rhea - Dec. 10, 1802 - signed him up as a recruit
Lieutenant Eli B. Clemson (Captain Lewis’ Company)
Captain Whipple - Oct. 1806 transferred
Captain Clemson - Sept. 1807 reenlisted
Captain John Whistler - June 1810
Captain Hugh Moore - Sept. 1810
Captain John Whistler’s Co. June 1814 - According to Bert Griswold, WHistler was at Fort Wayne from 1814 to 1816.
Captain John Whistler’s Co. Feb. 16, 1815
Captain John Whistler’s Company 3rd Regiment - Oct. 31 1815 - joined from 1st Infantry
Captain Larrabee’s Company - April 30, 1816
Discharged March 27, 1816, having procured a substitute
Although I believe Laura Suttenfield was telling the truth, the record does not mention John Johnston at all.
Sources:
Bennett, David C. “Soldiers of Clemson’s & Symmes Company 1808-1815,” 2006, https://www.1stusinfantry.com/history.html
Bennett, David C. “Rations,” 2019, https://www.1stusinfantry.com/history.html
Browman, David L. “Cantonment Belle Fontaine 1805-1826, The First U.S. Fort West of the Mississippi River,” Washington University in St. Louis, 2018, https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=books
Durkee, Marshall: H.R. Rep. No. 232, 26th Cong., 1st Sess. (1840).
“Fort Osage,” State and Local History News, Vol. 1 No. 4 (January 1942), p. 7.
Grabitske, David M. “Tippecanoe: In Their Words,” Upper Mississippi Brigade Articles, https://umbrigade.tripod.com/articles/tippecanoe.html
Griswold, Bert. A Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, Chicago: Robert O. Law Co., 1917.
Hoyt, E. Practical Instructions for Military Officers, Greenfield: John Denio, 1811.
Mather, George R. Frontier Faith - The Story of the Pioneer Congregations of Fort Wayne, Indiana 1820-1860, Lima, Ohio: Fairway Press, 1992.
McAfee, Robert B. History of the Late War in the Western Country, Bowling Green, Ohio: Historical Publications Company, 1919.
Norton, W. T. “Old Fort Belle Fontaine,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984), Vol. 4, No. 3 (Oct. 1911), https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40193728.pdf
Poinsette, Charles. Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne 1706-1828, Fort Wayne Historical Society, 1976.
Receipt, William Suttenfield, 1824-07-10, Indiana State Library Digital Collection, https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p1819coll11/id/1866
U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914, Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com (National Archives Microfilm Publication M233, 81 rolls, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780-1917.
“Welcome to the 1st United States Infantry Regiment – Clemson’s Company,” https://www.1stusinfantry.com/
Wright, Lt. W.M. “The Army of the U.S. Historical Sketches of Staff and Line With Portraits of Generals-in-Chief First Regiment of Infantry,” U.S. Army Center of Military History, https://history.army.mil/books/r&h/R&H-1IN.htm
Copyright by Andrea Auclair © 2024
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