MEMOIRS 



READ BEFORE THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



VOLUME I. PART IV. 



XI. On the Weapons and Military Character of the Race of the Mounds. By Colonel Charles 



Whittlesey, Cleveland, Ohio. 



Read March 20, 18G7. 



1. The Implements and Military Character op the Mound-builders. 



In an article which was written in 1855-56 upon the Ancient Copper Mines of Lake Supe- 

 rior, and published in 1863 in the "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," the imple- 

 ments used by the ancient miners in that region are described and illustrated. They are 

 adapted principally to mining for copper. The tools found in the Ohio mounds were, almost 

 without exception, intended for peaceful purposes, indicating a people whose habits were not 

 warlike. They did not leave behind them in the Mississippi Valley, to my knowledge, any 

 implements designed exclusively for purposes of warfare. 



In the work of the Hon. E. George Squier, constituting the first volume of the " Smith- 

 sonian Contributions," their utensils, ornaments, and implements, composed of pottery, stone, 

 shells, and copper, are fully described. They relate principally to domestic and agricultural 

 uses, or to the chase. The race of the Mounds has left, however, numerous earth-works on 

 the waters of the Ohio, that could be intended for nothing else than fortifications. After 

 examining at least three fourths of those in Ohio, not less than one hundred in number, I 

 have not seen conclusive evidence that any of them were attacked. 



They must have been occupied by a people prepared for defence without being called 

 upon to resist. It is a singular fact that weapons of war have not been found within these 

 fortifications. Copper and stone axes are abundant, also copper chisels and gouges, but no 

 exclusively warlike implements. There could have been no serious attack upon these for- 

 tifications without some trace of the assault being left upon the works. 



It is a military principle which belongs to all systems of defence, in all conditions of war- 

 fare, through all ages and in all degrees of perfection in war, that permanent forts require 

 a style of engineering for the attack similar to the system attacked. If there are moats, 

 mounds, and parapets to be overcome, the besiegers must construct approaches, ditches, and 

 embankments, or they will be exposed to the weapons of their adversary. When that is 

 done, the works of circumvallation should remain visible upon the ground as long as the 

 forts themselves. 



MEMOIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. Vol. I, Pt. 4. 120 



