WAR OF 1812: AN EXPENSE REPORT FROM A SENECA WARRIOR

Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Claim of Captain Isaac for unpaid expenses in the War of 1812. Cattaraugus County, New York, 25 July 1857. 2 pages, 8 1/2 x 14 in. With original seals. 

A claim from Captain Isaac, a Seneca warrior, requesting funds for unpaid expenses from his service in the War of 1812. Some of the expenses Captain Isaac was seeking pay for included $18 for an "ordinary coat," $8 for two blankets, $6 for the use of a rifle and $4 for a 140-mile roundtrip journey to Buffalo, New York. All of his expenses totaled to $60. 

Captain Isaac was a resident of the Allegany Reservation in Cattaraugus County, which was a Seneca nation when the War of 1812 broke out. He enlisted in June of 1813 for a two-year service under Governor Blacksnake as captain and Farmer's Brother as commander. According to "The Senecas in the War of 1812" by Arthur C. Parke, "Native strategy was shown by Captain Isaac, who was shot in the neck and taken to the British camp. Regaining consciousness he slowly opened his eyes, kept quiet and, when he located himself as in the enemy's lines, he waited his chance and escaped to the American encampment" (1916, 85-6). He clearly survived this injury because at the time of this request, Captain Isaac was recorded as being 92 years old. 

Governor Blacksnake, also known as Tah-won-ne-ahs or Chainbreaker, was a Seneca war chief and sachem that lived to be near, if not over, 100 years old. During the Revolutionary War, he led warriors to fight on the side of the British, in which he stood out for his role at the Battle of Oriskany. With the War of 1812, however, Blacksnake sided with the United States and later encouraged some Seneca relations with European-Americans, allowing missionaries and teachers onto the reservation. Notably, right before he passed away, he helped regain the Oil Springs Reservation after white men illegally bought it in the 1850s. 

[War of 1812, James Madison, Battle of Lake Erie, Battle of Plattsburgh, Fort McHenry, Battle of New Orleans, Treaty of Ghent, Andrew Jackson] [Native Americans, Native American History, American Indian, Indian History] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]