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Battle of the Thames Cemeteries History
With Special Thanks to John M. Trowbridge, Kentucky Military Historian
We do have some information on burials in the Battlefield site area. However, since this area is included in the History of the Delaware and other First Nation History as well as ours, it is not immediately open to the public. If you are interested in seeing this information please email us at ... John at CKCemeteries.ca ...... (Email at sign replaced by word.) It is simply very important that visitors understand the significance of this material and research before you see the material.
The following text gives information on the actual burial of the soldiers from the Battle of the Thames. This text is taken from Bennett H. Young's book, "The Battle of the Thames" written in 1909 which describes what occurred following the battle. See three photographs from the same book in the Battle of the Thames section of Our Gallery.
(pages 94-97) Through the grasses and willows of the swamp, and along the ridges among the trees, search was made for the dead and wounded. At one place the dead were close together; at the spot where the immortal "Forlorn Hope" had received the concentrated fire of Tecumseh and his red men, the richest sacrifice had been made. The tall, stalwart form of the ever brave Whitley was there. His trusty rifle was in his hand, his powderhorn swung over his shoulder, and his hunter's knife in its sheath, and with his face to the foe they found the fearless soldier, now past threescore years, pierced by many bullets, lying at the side of his chivalrous leader, where he had gone down to death for his beloved country.
A few feet away lay all the dead of the ''Forlorn Hope." Colonel Johnson had been carried a few hundred yards south to a tent.
Lieutenant Logan, mortally wounded, had expired, and among the dead horses were found the lifeless forms of the other heroes who had so gloriously fallen in the advance upon the Indian line.
Less than twenty yards west were the bodies of the red men who had disputed the passage across the swamp with the Kentucky mounted soldiers. The corpses of the white slain were gathered together and lain side by side on a small knoll just northeast of where the men had fallen and where the British artillery had been placed to command the road along which the Kentuckians had advanced.
The British dead were also collected, and now that death, the great leveler and peacemaker, had done his work, the opposing slain lay calmly and quietly side by side on the mound which had been selected for a common sepulcher.
Over the bodies of the foe and friend blankets were spread, and there, with guards about them, they remained through the hours of the night, awaiting burial on the morrow.
In the morning two trenches were dug, one for the British, the other for the Kentucky dead. A blanket was their only coffin. Side by side, with hands folded over their stilled hearts, these patriots were laid in foreign soil. Their features and forms were imposing and majestic even in their rude cerements.
These hardy and warlike men were not unaccustomed to burials in the wilderness, but as they wrapped the bodies of their dead comrades in their winding sheets, which were only linsey blankets, and forever hid their faces from the light of day, they dropped tears upon these inanimate forms and bewailed that fate which gave them so rude a tomb on hated English soil.
There was no sound as the loose earth fell upon the soft and yielding blankets; the trenches were quickly filled. On the beech trees, which were to be the sentinels to stand guard over the Kentucky dead, were carved with hunting-knives the names of those who had found graves beneath their protecting shade. The tragedy was ended, and these glorious dead were left forever in the solitude of the Canadian forest. The firing squad performed the last sad rites, the drums beat a dirge, and William Whitley and his comrades, without monumental stone, have slept fourscore and ten years in a strange land.
Long since the forest has disappeared. Only a few trees on the river bank tell that once a dense woods covered the battlefield. The agriculturalist plows his corn, harrows and reaps his wheat. Tradition only tells where sleep our brave. The murmuring ripples of the Thames are the only requiem of these gallant slain, and the waving wheat and the rustling corn-leaves whisper that beneath their roots rest some of war's richest treasures-the ashes of the Kentucky freemen who died for their country on the battlefield of the Thames.
It is not to the credit of Kentucky that she has permitted her dead thus to sleep. The bones of the Raisin's dead were collected and borne to Frankfort and deposited in the State lot, but the Thames' dead have been left unhonored by any suitable mark, and in the ninety years passed since their sepulture I could learn of no Kentuckian, except myself, who had come to visit the spot where these noble heroes sleep their last sleep.
John Trowbridge writes... Sadly, Young did no footnoting so we can't say exactly from where this information came from I'm sure as a young man he had spoken with War of 1812 veterans. I am trying to locate something I had read which mentioned that the native warriors were buried by the Kentuckians. It did not give much detail and I'm not sure if they might have been buried in the British trench.
The following are documented as being killed in the Battle of the Thames. However, might some have been wounded and died very shortly after? If so they may in turn have been interred a fair distance back of Old Sherman Cemetery at or more likely near what became the approximate location of Old Thamesville Cemetery. Also we need to keep in mind that there are many sources claiming to know he numbers of dead from the battle and few of those agree with each other. As for British no sources have been found that we know to be reliable. It is likely some Canadian Militia where killed but where are they buried if so? Were they included in any suspected British numbers or were they simply forgotten?
US KIA in action in the battle
w/1st Battalion
From Captain Benjamin Warfield's Company.
First Sergeant Zachariah Jameson.
w/2nd Battalion
From Captain James Coleman's Company
Private Robert Scott.
From William M Rice's Company
Abraham Banta.
Private Andrew Banta.
Private James Turner
From Samuel R Combs Company
Private Jonathan Baler
Private George Coffer
Private Joseph Combs
Private Isaac Foster
Private James Gist
Private George S Howard
Private Hightown Hackey
Private John Haly
Private John McGinnigal
Private Graham Nelson
Private Horatio Owens
Private Jonathan Owens
Private Henry Rogers
Private James Ripper
Private James Roper
Private Howard Southerland
Private John Southerland
Private George Tangler
Private John Talbot
From Captain James Davidson's Company
Private Joshua Brown
Private Zachariah Eastan
Private William Whitley
See the information that we have on burials on the battle site.