Harrison, William Henry

Harrison, William Henry (1773–1841) 9th president of the United States (1841), born at “Berkeley,” his family's plantation on the James River in Virginia. As a member of the U.S. Infantry, Harrison fought Indian skirmishes in the Old Northwest from 1791 to 1798. In 1800 he was appointed governor of the Indiana Territory by President John Adams, a position which he held for twelve years, during which time he showed a tolerance for slaveholding and acquired as much Indian land as possible. An outcome of the latter was the noted Battle of Tippecanoe (1810). The Americans barely won, enduring greater casualties than the Indians, and no peace resulted. Nevertheless, the dubious victory gave him his nickname, “Old Tippecanoe,” and the slogan for his eventual presidential campaign, “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too.” As an officer in the regular army during the War of 1812, Harrison, after some early failures, succeeded in retaking Detroit and shortly thereafter also won a decided victory over the British at the Thames River (1813). In 1818 Congress awarded him a gold medal for his wartime service. From 1816 to 1828 Harrison served first in the Ohio state senate and then in the U.S. Senate (1826–28). He was elected president in 1840, but served only thirty-one days, dying from pneumonia shortly after his inauguration.