Volume 2, Issue 1
The Federalist
The General Society of the War of 1812 in Iowa Newsletter
Gentlemen and Compatriots after receiving the latest edition of the “War Cry” I don’t believe
there can be any mistake that the 2014 Triennial Meeting is going to be an event not to be missed. The
event will be held in Baltimore, Maryland the weekend of September 11-14th and that will be the place to
be for all things War of 1812 and history in general. Baltimore, Maryland is truly the epicenter for the
War of 1812 on many levels.
The Battle and Siege of Baltimore gave us The Star Spangled Banner as our national hymn and
historic relic. The national monument/shrine that is Ft. McHenry is an awe inspiring landmark that is
not to be missed. I can not say enough about the people of Baltimore and their true propriety of
ownership to the War of 1812 and its significance to our great country. It is something that they take
very seriously and wear with pride.
If you are on the fence about whether to attend the Triennial Meeting perhaps the attached link
can help you make that decision.
http://www.starspangled200.com/commemoration-events/star-spangledspectacular/#.UxaYdfldV8E
The amount of sailing ships that plan on attending seem to be reason enough.
Hell On The Wabash
It’s origins are lost in the sands of history but many military historians believe the fife and drum
music of the title were most likely written to immortalize either one of two military events. The first
possibility is the 1791 defeat of the young United States Army suffered at the hands of the native Indians
at the Battle of the Wabash. And the other is the Battle of Tippecanoe along the Wabash River in 1811
that helped start the War of 1812.
It is also believed that this popular military fife and drum music might have started its life with
another title. Some believe it may have originally been known as “Hell on Oil Creek” or “The Night We
Made The Match”. Whatever its origins or its names its lively cadence and uplifting drums can’t help
but make just anyone hearing it think that a “fight is a com’in!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POeAQWt1b4w
And for those of you that followed the link and now have to own this music follow the next link
and you will be able to purchase it. The Camp Chase Fife & Drum Corps currently has 4 CDs available.
All four can be purchased for a reasonable sum but if you want only “Hell on the Wabash” it’s on
Volume 4.
http://www.campchasefifesanddrums.com/shop.php
Election Time
We are fast approaching spring even if old man winter does not seem to want to let us go and
with that we need to start thinking about elections and new officers. In most organizations it is
customary to stagger the election of officers so there is a constant flow of new blood with old hands. As
we have not officially had elections since our inception as an organization I think it prudent to put all
positions up and those wishing to retain their current office may make their intentions known.
The offices that will need to be filled are;
-President
-Vice-President
-Secretary
-Treasurer
-Chaplain
These are the main positions but there are others that will also need to be addressed when the
new officers step in to their terms.
The Battle of Credit Island
As mentioned in an earlier Federalist people often forget that the War of 1812 was fought in
what was then the west as well as the eastern and southern parts of the United States. One of the little
known and easily forgotten battles of the War of 1812 was fought on the Mississippi River between Iowa
and Illinois. This battle was a running water race battle between United States forces led by future
President Zachery Taylor and Indian forces under Chief Black Hawk.
Although the casualties were not heavy during the battle it was a significant event in the War of
1812. This was the last time the United States would try to wrestle the Upper Mississippi River area away
from the Indian forces during the war. This would also delay the territorial expansion of white settlers
into Iowa and lay the ground work for Chief Blackhawk to go to war with the United States again some
20 years later. This next round of fighting would become known as the Blackhawk War of 1832 and
another future President would see enough action to earn a military pension for it…Abraham Lincoln.
An article of interest to this battle so close to home:
http://warof1812archaeology.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-forgotten-battle-1814-battle-of.html
War of 1812 Artifact
The War of 1812 was the end of an era in many ways. The extensive use of brass and pewter hat plates
would begin their decline after this war and become a thing of the past by the time of the Civil War.
The hat plate in the picture above was found in an American Infantry camp in New York and dates to
about 1814-15. It is made of pewter and is very fragile. The holes on all four corners were to stitch the
plate to a leather “tombstone” hat as shown below.
War of 1812 Soldier
Benjamin Coleman Payne was born July 16, 1796, in Occoquon, Prince William County, Virginia. He was
the third of seven children born to William Bennett Payne and Eleanor Coleman. His father had come
from Ireland and became a planter in Virginia.
Three days past his seventeenth birthday, Benjamin was drafted into the Virginia Military as a Private
and served in Captain William Nelson’s Company of the Virginia Military Regiment, General Madison’s
Brigade, Colonel Cratchfield’s Regiment at Dumfries, Virginia on July 19, 1813. He was discharged
December 7, 1814, at Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Benjamin married Maria Bryan on December 4, 1823, in Allegany County, Maryland. They became the
parents of five children. For a time, he partnered in business with S. Hoblitzell and ran a mercantile in
Allegany County.
The Paynes moved to Clay County, Indiana, in 1830. Maria died in Bowling Green, Indiana on February
27, 1842. She is buried in the same cemetery as both of Benjamin’s parents and his brother George,
along with George’s son, Benjamin, though the name of the cemetery is unknown. Benjamin married
Mrs. Nancy Burton on November 3, 1842. Her husband, Josiah Burton, had died earlier the same year.
Benjamin Payne arrived in Boonsboro, Iowa on November 5, 1854, first as a merchant, then moving to a
farm of town. Sometime about 1880, he moved back to Boone, where he died Sunday evening at about
8 o’clock on February 21, 1886. Benjamin and Nancy are buried in Linwood Cemetery, Boone, Iowa.
The following is from the Boone Times Republican the following week:
It often happens that the best spoken eulogy fails in doing justice to its object. As is natural for
the human race to speak in highest encomium of its dead kindred, Heros, statesman and scholars of “the
ancient of days” are before us in, monument, chapter and song. When a good man dies all who knew
him are sorry, and however humble his walk in life his good deeds are forgotten only when memories
fail.
Uncle Benny Payne is dead. February 21, 1866, he breathed his last, and his spirit returned to
the God who gave it; and this pen nor other or tongue can write or speak the apt words touching his
life and times. He was a grand old man; grand for his deeds in early life; grand for the part he has
acted in the great drama of civilization; grand for the foot-prints he has left behind him. Uncle Benny
came down to us from a former generation. He was compeer of the fathers of those of us whose hair is
silvered and whose heads are beginning to bow to old age. All his early companions have long ago gone
down to the shades of death. He was born in 1796, in or near Dumfries, Virginia. Only think what that
old man has seen in the four score an ten years of his life: He has seen the star of empire, resting first
on the horizon of his mountain home, take its westward way, halting only for a time on the confines of
the Ohio, then to the great father of waters, then to the muddy river of the west, and the foot hills of
the everlasting Rockies, and at last take its place over the golden gate of the occident. He has seen the
desert wastes of Iowa converted into a garden, and has joined in anthems of praise to the good God in
the land habited by wild beasts and savage men when he was an old man. This much has he seen, for
he followed the tide from his old home first to the rough rocky fastness of Cumberland, Maryland,
thence to the wilds of western Indiana and then to the far west Iowa.
When Robert Fulton, driven by vexatious litigation from the Hudson River, went to the Potomac
to try the power of steam in propelling vessels on the water, be found Uncle Benny a hostler at a hotel
at Dumfries and when the boat was ready to start the hostler boy was an invited guest on the trial trip
to Alexandria. Uncle Benny used to say that the boat looked like a log sled compared with the floating
palaces of late years.
But he was an actor in greater events of those times. The writer is vain enough to think that he
has heard more of those events from his lips than any other person, having aided him as counsel in
procuring his bounty land warrants. Uncle Benny stood on Arlington Heights and saw the smoke and
flames that arose from the White House, the Capitol, the Carroll residence, and other noted buildings,
that the vandal British set out when they sacked Washington; and it came about in this way: As soon as
the British fleet had passéd Dumfries, Colonel Madison, alarmed for the safety of the capitol, without
any right other than the Great Jehovah, gathered every man and boy and hurried them north to aid in
its defense. He had no authority from any one to do so, but he knew it was right and the people
flocked to his standard. Benny has often described that march and those men to the writer, and his
eyes would glisten as he would recall them. Ragged bare-foot, well-clad, clerks, doctors, lawyers,
preachers, black and white going helter-skelter, as the crusaders went, so went they to the relief of their
capitol, armed with guns, pikes, clubs, and no arms, save their own. But they were too late; the vandals
had got in their work of destruction, and soon left to invest and sack Baltimore. But the old flag still
floated through the worst of the gloom after they had raised the siege and gone away.
Uncle Benny received a discharge, a quaint little thing it is, about two inches square, written
with goose quill pen and shows that ink was scarce and it “Certifies that B. C. Payne has satisfactorily
performed a tour of service in defense of his country and is now honorably discharged and signed by
Madison, Colonel Commanding.” He had trouble to get a land warrant and later trouble in getting his
pension, the latter being procured for him by Judge Ramsey after a long siege, the only trouble being
that the expedition was unauthorized. But a just government at last recognized their claims and
although there is no name yet known for that army on the record of the war department, all its actors
who have applied have received the bounty of a grateful people.
Uncle Benny has been twice married. First in Virginia, his wife dying about 1840. He had
emigrated to Clay County, Indiana and in 1842 married Mrs. Nancy Burton, who still survives. His first
wife was the mother of all his children –W. B. Payne of Ida Grove; J. B. Payne and Thomas Payne of
Worth township; Maria, now Mrs. Eli Zenor of Story County; Mary, now Mrs. George Haskell of Mexico,
Missouri; and Cornelia, married to D. S. H. Bell, and now deceased.
Mr. Payne was for several years a merchant at Cumberland, Maryland, when almost all
transactions were “truck and trade”. We found him a merchant at Boonsboro, in 1854, in company with
W. D. Parker. He afterwards settled on a farm half a mile north of Boone; now owned by Mr. Burgess,
which he tilled until 8 or 10 years ago, when he removed to Boone, where he died.
Last fall when the soldiers had their reunion at the fair ground, Uncle Benny insisted he should
go and was in regular attendance during the reunion, honored by all who knew his past history, and he
was fittingly laid away “under the sod and dew: by hands tender and true, and the immense concourse
that followed his remains to their last resting place fitly attest the warm place he had in the hearts of
our people. Magnanimous old man, sweet be thy rest since life’s fitful fever is over. John A. Hull
Submitted by: Compatriot Danny Krock
Remember Our Website!
http://www.iowa1812.org/
A Compatriot’s View of All Jobs Big & Small
Grandmothers calling for their grandchildren, fathers contacting me for their sons, a man
awaiting a heart transplant wanting to complete this task before his surgery, sons and daughters
wanting to give a very special gift to their father, grandfather or favorite uncle. I have had the honor to
assist each of these people and many more. I am the Registrar for the General Society of the War of 1812
in the State of Iowa
There are other positions and duties in lineage organizations that some might consider more
prestigious. I have at one time or another served as State President, historian, secretary, 1st VP, 2nd VP,
ROTC chair, judge for Eagle Scout contests and Color guard member as well as each of these and
treasurer for my local chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. I'm not even sure if by our
current by-laws that the assistant Registrar is an actual voting member of the Board of Managers. It has
been for me the most challenging and most rewarding role I have ever had within GSW 1812.
My role as Registrar is to encourage and assist new applicants in proving their lineage for
eligibility to membership in the GSW 1812. The Registrar is often the new members first contact within
the organization. The process for approval can be quite simple or quite complicated depending on the
Patriot, past membership of common ancestors, available documentation or the lack of same. Each
piece of newly copied historical documents made publicly available enhances the opportunity for more
applicants to pursue membership. However sometimes new information also leads to the need to
explain the process and reasoning to both new applicants and those members seeking to make
supplemental applications.
It is quite common these days to hear from potential applicants saying, "My great-grandmother
was a DAR member and I would like to use her membership as the sole documentation for my
application." Other resources such as the older SAR application papers on www.ancestry.com also often
leads to potential new applicants thinking that they should not need any further documentation. The
road to membership with these potential members is communicating a delicate balance of potential bad
news and offer to assist. Telling someone that, "since your grandmother's DAR application was "center
checked" we will need more" or, "your grandfather's SAR application was not documented to the same
standard required today so we need to further research and document your application" can require a
bit of encouragement.
As Registrar I have completed applications in as quick as a weekend while others have taken up
to 3 years. I have worked on many for months and when finally ready the applicant decides that they
no longer wish to complete the process. I have had many join and then after getting their approval and
certificate never become active and never re-new their dues again. I have also assisted applicants
who become very active members and then they actively assist others in not only their own family but
also in their workplace and their own circle of friends. These new member often become the best
advocates to help others research, document, apply and become active within our organization.
I recently saw the movie "Monument Men" and near the end they asked the main character if
his time and sacrifice to save the history and culture was worth it. If I were asked the same question
about establishing a link to the past for our members and their families both past and present I would
reply the same as he did in the move. My reply would be a resounding, "Yes!"
Submitted by Compatriot Michael Rowley
Remember To Recruit new Members!