eloquence was nervous, concise, and figurative.  His dress was plain, and he was never known to indulge in the gaudy decoration of his person, which is the common practice of the Indians.  On the day of his death, he wore a dressed deer skin coat and pantaloons.  He was present in almost every action against the Americans, from the period of Harmer’s defeat to the battle of the Thames—­was several times wounded—­and always sought the hottest of the fire.  On the 19th July, 1812, he pursued, near Sandwich, a detachment of the American army under Colonel M’Arthur, and fired on the rear guard.  The colonel suddenly faced about his men and gave orders for a volley, when all the Indians fell flat on the ground with the exception of Tecumseh, who stood firm on his feet, with apparent unconcern!  After his fall, his lifeless corpse was viewed with great interest by the American officers, who declared that the contour of his features was majestic even in death.  And notwithstanding, it is said by an American writer, that “some of the Kentuckians disgraced themselves by committing indignities on his dead body.  He was scalped, and otherwise disfigured.”  He left a son, who fought by his side when he fell, and was then about seventeen years old.  The prince regent, in 1814, as a mark of respect to the memory of the father, sent a handsome sword as a present to the son.  A nephew of Tecumseh and of the prophet, (their sister’s son,) who was highly valued by the Americans, was slain in their service, in November, 1812, on the northern bank of the river Miami.  Having been brought up by the American general, Logan, he had adopted that officer’s name.  He asserted that Tecumseh had in vain sought to engage him in the war on the side of the British.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 118:  “But General Sheaffe, like his superior, was a lover of armistices, and after the action he concluded one of his own with the American general, for which no reason, civil or military, was ever assigned.”—­Quarterly Review, April and July, 1822; article, “Campaigns in the Canadas.”]

[Footnote 119:  From an American work,—­Major-General James Wilkinson’s “Memoirs of my own Time,” published in 1816.—­ED.]

[Footnote 120:  “But the most fatal and palpable error of the commander-in-chief was his neglect to preserve that ascendancy on Lakes Erie and Ontario which was actually enjoyed by the British at the opening of the contest.  The command of these lakes is so evidently an object of primary consideration in the defence of the Canadas, that it is perfectly inconceivable how any man in Sir George Prevost’s situation could have been so infatuated as to disregard the importance of maintaining his superiority!”—­Quarterly Review.]

[Footnote 121:  “General Sheaffe has been much blamed, first for the injudicious position of the troops, by which the grenadier company of the 8th regiment, who behaved with great gallantry, were exposed to be cut to pieces in a wood, and again for not returning to the attack, after the explosion of a powder magazine had destroyed 250 of the enemy, and thrown them into confusion.”—­Quarterly Review.]