Joseph Denbo ~ Affidavit regarding 1st tour of Duty

Denbo, Joseph - filing for Bounty Land Dec. 1850 1st term Service

State of Indiana

Crawford County

On this the 12th day of December A.D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty, Joseph Denbo personally appeared before Simon J. Monk Justice of the Peace within and for the County and State afore said. Joseph Denbo aged 71 years and 8 months being a resident of Crawford County, and State of Indiana according to the law, declares that he is the identical Joseph Denbo who was commissioned Lieutenant in the Company commanded by Capt. Richard M. Heath in the 5th Regiment of the Indiana Militia commanded by Colonel Joseph L. Bartholomew in the war with the Indians and that he was called out by General Harrison and was mustered into service at the Half Moon Springs in Orange County, Indiana on or about the 13th day of September A.D. 1811 and that he was not called out for any specific time, but served one month and eight or nine days in said war and was Honorably Discharged at Fort Harrison on or about the 20th day of October A.D., 1811.  (Scratched out line) never had any certificate of discharge. He makes this declaration for the purpose of obtaining the Bounty Land to which he may be entitled under the act granting Bounty Lands to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the Military Service of The United Stated stated Sept. 28th 1850.

                                                                                                            Joseph Denbo

                                                                                                            Claimant

One to three months was the normal tour of duty in the U.S. up until the Civil War. I was so excited to think that Joseph fought in the Battle of Tippecanoe, which occurred November 7, 1811. However,  according to a document from the Treasury Department I've found, Joseph served in his first tour of duty until October 7, 1811, one month before the battle.

From Wikipedia, an outline of events during what led up and became known as "Tecumseh's War":

After being appointed governor of the newly formed Indiana Territory in 1800, William Henry Harrison sought to secure title to Native American lands to open more land for settlers; in particular, he hoped the Indiana Territory would attract enough settlers to qualify for statehood. Harrison negotiated numerous land cession treaties with American Indians, including the Treaty of Fort Wayne on September 30, 1809, in which Miami, Pottawatomie, Lenape, and other tribal leaders sold 3,000,000 acres (approximately 12,000 km²) to the United States.

Tecumseh, by Benson Lossing in 1848 based on 1808 drawing.

Tenskwatawa, by Charles Bird King.

Tenskwatawa, known as the Prophet, had been leading a religious movement among the northwestern tribes, calling for a return to the ancestral ways. His brother, Tecumseh, was outraged by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, and thereafter emerged as a prominent leader. Tecumseh revived an idea advocated in previous years by the Shawnee leader Blue Jacket and the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, which stated that Native American land was owned in common by all tribes, and land could not be sold without agreement by all the tribes.

In an 1810 meeting with Harrison, he demanded that Harrison nullify the treaty and warned that settlers should not attempt to settle the lands sold in the treaty. Harrison rejected his demands and insisted that the tribes could have individual relations with the United States.

In the meeting Tecumseh warned Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if hostilities broke out.

In August 1811, Tecumseh again met with Harrison at Vincennes, where Tecumseh assured Harrison that the Shawnee brothers meant to remain at peace with the United States. Tecumseh then traveled to the south on a mission to recruit allies among the "Five Civilized Tribes". Most of the southern nations rejected his appeals, but a faction of the Creeks, who came to be known as the Red Sticks, answered his call to arms, leading to the Creek War, which also became a part of the War of 1812.

By mid-September, most of the militia regiments had formed. By then, Harrison had returned, accompanied by a small force of army regulars, and had taken command of the militia. Harrison had already been in communication with his superiors in Washington, D.C., and he had been authorized to march against the confederacy in a show of force, hoping that they would accept peace.^[11][12]
Harrison gathered the scattered militia companies at Fort Knox near a settlement on Maria Creek, north of Vincennes; There he was joined by the sixty-man company called the Yellow Jackets, so named for their bright yellow coats, from Corydon, Indiana, as well as the Indiana Rangers.^{[note 1]} From there the entire force of about 1000 men set out northward towards Prophetstown.^[14] The force consisted of about 250 army regulars from the 4th US Infantry Regiment, 100 Kentucky volunteers, and near 600 Indiana militia including two companies of the Indiana Rangers.^[12] The army reached the site of modern Terre Haute, Indiana, on October 3 where they camped and built Fort Harrison while they waited for supplies to be delivered. A scouting party of Yellow Jackets was ambushed by Native Americans on October 10 causing several casualties and preventing the men from continuing to forage. Supplies quickly began to run low.  - Joseph's tour of duty ended on the 7th of October.
I will be posting the second affidavit of Joseph Denbo, for the period of late 1812 - early 1813 soon.