90 HISTORY OF TWENTY-FIRST U. S. INFANTRY

Plattsburg, preserved the honor of American arms and aroused
the waning enthusiasms of the public and the Congress. So
prominently did these successes stand out above the general
level of failure that Congress hastened to show its appreciation
by awarding gold medals, together with formal votes of
thanks, to Generals Brown, Scott, Gaines, Ripley, Miller and
Porter, and by conferring brevet promotions upon a large num-
ber of the subordinate officers of the Army.
General Miller, recognizing the sore need for the recruit-
ment of the depleted Regular regiments, wrote, in behalf of
his own, the Twenty-first, the following letter to General
Dearborn :

Lincoln, Nov. 29, 1814.
Sir:

"The Twenty-first Regiment Infantry has suffered very



BIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL MILLER.
James Miller was born at Peterborough, New Hampshire, on the
25th of April, 1776. He was educated for the bar but entered the
United States Army in 1808, being commissioned Major of the Fourth
Infantry on July 8th of that year. On November 30, 1810, he was pro-
moted to be Lieutenant Colonel of the Fifth Infantry, but remained
on duty with the Fourth, with which he performed gallant services
under General Harrison in the campaign against the Indians that ended
with the Battle of Tippecanoe.
