USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 17
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PLAN OF THE TOWN & FORTIFICATIONS .. DETROIT As they stood before the year 1796. From T.Smiths Map made May 30" 1816. With additions from Notes Arsibjerg Ga obtained from the War Department, showing ils den relation to the present plan of the City Scale 400 feet to 1 inch.
A.Location of old, Fre Pontchartrain in 1951
FORT LERNOULT Fterwards
FORT
ST.
FORT SHELBY
ST.
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SHELBY ST.
GRISWOLD ST.
WOODWARD AV.
CASS
Burying Ground
Bastaore
LARNED ST.
Bastlots
Citadel
ossech
Basia
Catholic Church.
JEFFERSON AV.
Guard HOUS
R
Chenun
Bastion
-
Public What
Merchants What
DETROIT RIVER
Taken from Farmer's History of Detroit.
--
1
WAYNE ST.
CONGRESS
ST
Navy
Early Map of Detroit.
CHAPTER VII.
Ft. Pitt Besieged by the Indians-Fate of Fts. Presque Isle, Le Bœuf, and Venango-Col. Bouquet Marches to the Relief of Ft. Pitt-Battle of Bushy Run-Gen. Amherst Resigns His Position as Commander-in-Chief, and Gen. Gage is Appointed His Successor-Sir Wm. Johnson Calls an Indian Convention at Niagara-Gen. Bradstreet Marches to the Relief of Detroit-Col. Bouquet Invades the Indian Country on the Muskingum River-Holds a Council with the Indians-Demands the Rendition of Captives-Passionate Emotions of Forest Life-Preliminaries of Peace-The Army Returns to the Frontier Settlements in Pennsylvania with 206 Returned Captives.
On the head waters of the Ohio the French and Indian war began. It terminated in Canada, as far as the French issue was concerned; but the overthrow of the French armies brought the Anglo-Americans into close relations with the Indians of the interior, and on the head-waters of the Ohio the two rival elements met each other. Here stood Ft. Pitt, amid the desolations of savage warfare. To the west, a continent spread out its vast extent, yet unknown; and even to the east, for one hundred and fifty miles, the savage foe had ranged the country in triumph, and killed or led into captivity the hapless settlers along the borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia. More than a thousand families had fled before these merciless invaders, to save themselves from the fate of the first victims of their vengeance.
177
Ft. Pitt Attacked.
Capt. Simeon Ecuyer, an able officer, of Swiss nationality, held command of Ft. Pitt. Its garrison numbered 300 men. During the interval between the close of the French and Indian war and Pontiac's re- newal of war on savage account, twenty or thirty fam- ilies had settled around the fort, under protection of its guns; but as soon as the war-whoop again rang through the forests, the few Indian traders of the Ohio country who had escaped the tomahawk, took refuge within its walls, and with them the families adjacent .*
On the 22d of June, the first attack was made, but was evidently premature in its conception. The fire was kept up throughout the day and the succeeding night, killing two men in the fort. The next morning, a parley ensued, in which a Delaware chief, under the guise of friendship, told Ecuyer that all the western forts had been taken, and if he wished to save the lives of his soldiers, as well as his women and children, he must leave the fort at once and retreat to the English settle- ments; otherwise they would all be killed by the great army of Indians who were marching against the place.
Ecuyer thanked the chief for his good intentions, to which he also retorted that as a friend he would advise him to instantly retreat into the forests, as a large English army were on their way to the place. This information, gravely told as it was, nonplussed the chief, and the Indians betook themselves to the forest, think- ing it might be true.
Four days after this riddance, there came to the fort a fugitive from Presque Isle, bringing the first positive tidings of the progress of the war. The place had been taken, and all but himself killed, was the news he
*Loskiel, the Moravian historian, a co-worker of Heckewelder and Post, on page 99, relates a plot of the Indians to capture the traders in the vicinity of. Sandusky, which challenges a parallel for audacity. The traders were told that the tribes to the west were about to make war on the English, with the determination to kill every one of them. This fate could be averted if the traders would become their prisoners, by which condition they could claim protection. Of course, their arms must be given up; and, to make the deception complete, they had better be bound. The credulous traders consented, submitted their muscular limbs to the thongs of the savages, when they were killed with little ceremony, and their goods taken.
178
Second Attempt to Take the Fort.
brought. * The same day, eight soldiers, almost dead with hunger, came in from Ft. Le Bœuf. The whole number of their garrison was but thirteen, under charge of Capt. Price. They had defended the place with heroic valor till its walls were half consumed by the flames, when, by a secret exit, they made their escape under cover of night, unbeknown to the savages. Pushing their way down French Creek to Venango, with the intention of helping to defend it, they found the place already burnt to ashes, while the bones and half- consumed flesh of its garrison, which lay scattered around, admonished them of the fate they had escaped. Thence they continued their course down the Allegheny river, and finally reached Ft. Pitt.
The next day, two more fugitives came in, who had lagged behind for want of strength to travel, having been accidentally separated from their companions. The fate of the three remaining soldiers never became known.
Ft. Pitt, now severed from all communication with the outer world, kept a vigilant watch for the foe, who was daily expected, but did not come till the 26th of July, when the adjacent woods again became animated with warriors, tented outside of the range of its guns, hungry for revenge. Before commencing hostilities, they wished to hold a council. Shingis, the famous old Delaware chief, was the orator, and the following is a part of his speech :
" Brothers, we wish to hold fast the chain of friend- ship-that ancient chain which our forefathers held with their brethren the English. You have let your end of the chain fall to the ground, but ours is still fast in our hands. Why do you complain that our young men have fired at your soldiers, and killed your cattle and your horses? You yourselves are the cause of this. You marched your armies into our country and built forts here, though we told you again and again that we wished you to remove.
*This informer had fled before the fate of the garrison was known. Christie, the commander, was taken a captive to Detroit, and soon es- caped from custody and joined Gladwin. The fate of the soldiers has never been brought to light, leaving little doubt that they were killed.
179
Colloquy between Shingis and Ecuyer.
"My brothers, this land is ours, and not yours. If you leave this place immediately and go home to your wives and children, no harm will come of it; but if you stay, you must blame yourselves alone for what may happen."
Ten years before, he had conferred with Washington on this very spot, and had rendered him essential ser- vice when he came to warn the French out of the country. Since that time, however, Shingis had been forced into an alliance with the French by the war cry of his tribe; but since the peace with France, he had again been an advocate for peace with the English, but, withal, a tenacious defender of Indian rights. For this he challenges our respectful memory.
Ecuyer's reply to his inadmissible but not unreasonable request (if the savages had not forfeited their natural rights), was unnecessarily harsh. He told him the forts were built for the benefit of the Indians, to supply them with clothing and ammunition, and threatened to blow him to pieces if he ever appeared again before him. The chief, with accumulated feelings of resent- ment, left the council with Turtle's-Heart and his other associates, and immediately set about environing the fort.
It occupied a sharp tongue of land at the confluence of the two rivers, which unite here. Its walls had been built by Gen. Stanwix in 1759, at so great an expense that it was regarded as a monument of British power in the wilds of America, worth commemorating in the archives of the British Museum, where drawings of it are still preserved. Of course, any attempt of the Indians to take it was rash; but, nevertheless, they crept under its walls, along the river, in the night, buried themselves in holes in the earth, like ground hogs, and kept up a brisk but ineffectual fire on the place for three days. Twenty of their number being killed, they withdrew in the night, and the serenity of the fort was again restored, as the last echo of savage bedlam rang from the high bank across the river. Only one man was killed in the fort and six wounded, among whom was Ecuyer slightly.
·
OHIO R.
ALLEGHENY
RIVER
Road
Ditch
Road
' BouquetR Redoubt
PENN
Barracks
Owell
C
well O
ine
ST.
well
Barracks
LIBERTY
Ditch ...
RIVER
SCALE 300 ft 200 - 100
0
. C
Scale. 300 ft. perinch
PLAN OF FORT PITT.
A. Fort Duquesne.
B. Stockade Fort 1758.
C: Fort Pitt-Built 1759-60.
D. Stockade, covering French Barracks
D
MONONGAHELA
S T.
181
Battle of Bushy Run.
To send an army to the relief of the place, but more especially to the relief of the border settlements, was the first pressing necessity, and Sir Jeffrey Amherst, whose headquarters were still at New York, had already set about doing this in June, the previous month. He had formed too low an estimate of the power of the Indians for mischief, and had been slow in his prepara- tions to meet the emergency, but, fortunately for the country, the men employed in the service had made up in effectiveness for the tardiness of the commanding general.
To Col. Bouquet was given the command of the expedition for the relief of Ft. Pitt. He was an able Swiss officer, who had served during the French and Indian war. In accordance with his instructions, after leaving Carlisle, he took up his march for Ft. Pitt, at the head of 600 men. This place reinforced, the whole Pennsylvania border would be rescued from the mer- ciless forays of the Indians.
On the 5th of August he arrived at a place called Bushy Run, twenty-five miles from Ft. Pitt, and a less distance from the fatal field of Braddock. Here he was attacked by an army of savages, about equal to his own in numbers, and it is not too much to say that the annals of Indian warfare furnish no record of a more sanguinary battle. For two days the contest raged. Charge after charge was made by the Indians and repelled, till at last the victory was decided by a retreat on the part of Bouquet, by which timely piece of strategy the Indians, in their headlong pursuit after what they supposed to be a defeated army, were brought within a flanking fire of Bouquet's veterans. A decisive victory followed, and Bouquet reached Ft. Pitt on the 10th, without further molestation.
Never did the red cross of St. George shine with more resplendent luster than when, borne aloft by the triumphant victors, it suddenly emerged from the forest path into the open glade that environed the fort. The wounded soldiers were tenderly nursed, and the garrison felt an assurance that no farther trouble need be feared from the enemy.
182 Gen. Gage Appointed Commander-in-Chief.
The next spring Amherst resigned his position as commander-in-chief, and Gen. Gage, a more practical man, was his successor. However well he was qualified to command large bodies of men, he had failed in the minor details of the late Indian campaign.
While Gladwin had enough to do to keep his savage besiegers from breaking over his frail defenses at Detroit, Amherst had ordered him to garrison the forts that had been taken at Michilimackinac and other places. He further showed his mistaken notions of the situation by offering a reward of one hundred pounds to any one who would kill Pontiac. Instructions to this effect were sent to Gladwin August 10th, 1763,* but there is no evidence that he ever fulfilled the indiscreet measure; had he done which, the resentment of the Indians would have been stimulated to a higher pitch than ever.
The borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania were still in the breach, and it was determined to send an expedi- tion into the interior beyond the Ohio, to set at rest any future apprehension of invasion. The command of it was to be given to Col. Bouquet. It was equally im- portant to relieve Detroit, and an expedition was to be sent for that purpose, under Gen. Bradstreet.
The mistaken policy of Gen. Amherst, by which he had refused the offer of provincial troops for the service, had been sufficiently demonstrated by the tardy prog- ress of the war for the past year, and it was now determined by Gen. Gage to raise a sufficient force of colonial troops to make the two expeditions planned for the campaign of 1764 a success.
On the 30th of May, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed a resolution to raise 1,000 men; New York was called upon for 1,400 ; New Jersey for 600; and New England for her proportionate number. Virginia was only required to defend her own borders; but, besides doing this, she generously raised 300 men to fill the deficiency of Pennsylvania deserters from the ranks after her quota had been filled for Bouquet's expedition. The Quakers were the cause of this delinquency. They
* Bancroft, vol. V, p. 132.
183
Indian Council at Niagara.
were in favor of conciliation with the Indians, rather than war; but at the same time there was a ruffian element in that state, whose persistent practice, in the other extreme, went beyond the bounds of humanity. Many peaceful Indians, against whom no evidence of disloyalty could be brought, had been murdered by these men .*
Of the two expeditions planned for the campaign of 1764, Bradstreet's was ready first. Late in June, at the head of 1, 200 men, he started from Albany; thence up the Mohawk river he took his course, crossed Oneida lake, and went down the river connecting it with Lake Ontario at Oswego. From this place Ft. Niagara was soon reached. Here his boats were drawn up the bank, and the whole army tented under the friendly guns of Ft. Niagara.
Sir William Johnson had summoned a grand Indian council to meet here, and the red delegations had already begun to assemble. Even to the far distant tribes along the upper waters of the Mississippi and on the Ottawa river of Canada, the trusty Indian messengers of Johnson had carried invitations to meet the English Father at Ft. Niagara and listen to his speech. Had this convention been called the year before, no notice would have been taken of it, and the messengers who carried the invitation would have been lucky to have escaped alive from the Ottawas or the Shawanese, and would have been received, in no friendly manner, by any of the western tribes; but now the situation was changed.
The war had been persisted in for over a year, and the Indians were nearly destitute of ammunition, as well as such other elements of civilization as their fur trade, for the past century, had rendered indispensable to their existence. Under this duress, all the tribes of the country responded to the call, though the Ottawas, Shawanese, Ohio Delawares and Senecas came with reluctance.
The object of the council was to secure the friendship and confidence of such as were wavering in their loyalty to Pontiac, and these now constituted the majority
* Loskiel; Heckewelder.
184
Bradstreet Starts to Relieve Detroit.
of the entire Indian population. Over two thousand
warriors were present, all told. To each tribe, Sir William, with consummate skill, addressed a few words, calculated to turn their wills in favor of the English. A judicious distribution of presents and a moderate dispensation of tobacco and whisky did the rest. All that was expected now being accomplished, the different delegations separately withdrew, and the tumult that had reigned around Niagara for weeks finally died away, as the last savage band took up their march for their distant lodges in the wilderness, each with an increased respect for the English.
The way was now clear for the advance of Gen. Bradstreet's army, and, reinforced by 200 friendly Indians and a few companies of Canadian French, he embarked from Ft. Schlosser, above the Falls, on the 8th of August .* Coasting along the southern shore of Lake Erie, in accordance with his instructions from Gen. Gage to act against the Ohio Indians, he first landed at Presque Isle. Here a delegation of Shawanese and Delawares came to his camp with peace proposals.
The occasion was untimely for a treaty, and the little band who proposed it by no means represented the policy of their tribes. Bradstreet, however, waived the or- dinary conventionalities of savage diplomacy, and made a treaty with them, based on the conditions that they should deliver up their captives. No harm could have come from this, had the conditions been fulfilled; but on the arrival of Bradstreet at Sandusky, the place assigned for the delivery of the captives, instead of doing this, the wily redskins amused him further by promising to conclude a definite treaty on his arrival at Detroit. By this clever ruse, the Ohio tribes had averted the ven- geance of the English for a time; but ere long they were destined to answer to another officer, and be forced to fulfill the conditions which as yet they had evaded.
The summer was now well nigh spent, and Bradstreet took his departure from Sandusky, and, continuing his
* Alexander Henry had been redeemed with other captives, after being taken to Montreal, joined Bradstreet's army at Niagara, and returned as far as Detroit with him.
185
· Peace Council at Detroit.
course along the lake shore, arrived at Detroit, his final destination, on the 26th of August. His force was too formidable for even the most hostile Indians to think of attacking, and his passage up the river was greeted with cheers from the Wyandots, who, the year before, had taken sixty captives from Cuyler's detachment, and had doubtless eaten their full share of the soup made of their flesh; but now they were ready to make peace, not be- cause they were at heart better reconciled to the English, but because they were unable to protract the war for want of means.
The garrison were in transports as boat after boat pulled up to the landing opposite the fort, to supply their places with fresh men. The tedium of fifteen months' isolation from the freedom of the surrounding country was now relieved. Confinement, even in a palace filled with luxuries, soon becomes irksome. The glitter of its garnished walls palls upon the senses-the bounties of the board cloy the appetite-elastic cushions lose their comfort-and downy beds refuse rest. How, then, must the heart of the soldier rebound when released from his pent-up and comfortless barracks, and he is again allowed to go forth without the fear of being shot by the first one he meets!
After the first effusion of military courtesies was over, Bradstreet set about the business of the campaign; but, in truth, there was little to be accomplished. Pontiac, the moving spirit of the war, was at the Maumee Rapids, surrounded by a sort of forlorn hope of unrelenting spirits like himself, who were not yet cultured into a submissive frame of mind. The year before, Pontiac's confidence in the ability of the Indians to drive the English out of the country was unshaken; now he was a fugitive, and time was required to make a bridge of reconciliation over the intervening chasm-or, in other words, to come down to the practicable, and make the best of the situation.
As he could not yet do this, he refused to attend a council to which he had been invited by Bradstreet, to be held at Detroit on the 10th of September. The Ottawas were, however, represented by Wasson, the
186
Bradstreet's Demands Acceded to.
chief who, in a fit of revenge, had slain the estimable Col. Campbell the previous year. The other belligerent tribes, except the Delawares and Shawanese, were represented by their respective chiefs; but the conven- tion, lacking the true Indian spirit of reciprocity, was a tame affair.
Bradstreet demanded that they should become sub- jects of the king of England and call him father, to which the Indians assented, without comprehending the nature of the obligation. Wasson made a speech that, but for its brevity, might have been uttered by the Bishop of London: "Last year, God forsook us. God has now opened our eyes. It is God's will our hearts are altered; it is God's will there should be peace and tranquillity over the face of the earth and of the waters." Such were the words of the sentimental savage, who appears to have been the orator of the day on the part. of the Indians.
When the council was over, Bradstreet sent a suitable force, under Capt. Howard, to take possession of and garrison the posts of Michilimackinac, Green Bay and Ste. Marie-all of which was accomplished without opposition.
He now started on his return, stopping at Sandusky on his way, to enforce the fulfillment of the slipshod treaty he had made with the Shawanese and Delawares on his outward passage. These tribes, however, were too cunning to be easily brought to terms. After wast- ing his time in procrastination till the season was too far advanced for warlike measures, Bradstreet hastily departed, without securing. the rendition of a single captive or any other substantial marks of submission. For this inefficient conduct he was justly censured by Gen. Gage.
Let us now return to Ft. Pitt, from which the expe- dition under Bouquet was to penetrate the savage realms of the Indians, in places hitherto held sacred to barbarism, if the expression is admissible. It had been the intention of Gen. Gage to have Bradstreet at San- dusky, fighting the Wyandots and Delawares, while Bouquet was attacking the Indian towns on the Mus-
187
Bouquet's Advance into the Indian Country.
kingum ; but this strategic co-operation miscarried, owing to the hindrances in getting the forces into the field, destined for the interior service under Bouquet.
It was not till the 5th of August that Bouquet's army was ready. Carlisle was its place of rendezvous. It con- sisted of the Pennsylvania provincials, 200 friendly Indians, and the 42d and 60th regiments of British reg- ulars. On the 13th the army reached Ft. Loudon. Here Gen. Bouquet received a dispatch from Gen. Bradstreet, dated Presque Isle, August 14th, informing him of the treaty he had made at that place with the Delawares and Shawanese; but his quick penetration readily saw that Bradstreet had exceeded his instruc- tions in making the treaty, and that it had no binding force with the Indians, and he pressed on with the campaign.
On his arrival at Ft. Pitt, ten Indians appeared on the opposite bank of the river, wishing to have a talk with him; but when boats were sent to ferry them over, only three ventured to go. These, not giving a con- sistent account of their good intentions, were detained as spies. On the 20th of September he tested the fidelity of one of them, by sending him to the Delawares and Shawanese, reminding them of certain hostile acts they had committed since they had signed the treaty with Bradstreet. This message delivered, he was to proceed to Detroit and deliver another at that place ; in default of the faithful performance of which, the two remaining comrades of the messenger still in the custody of Bouquet, were to be put to death.
On the 3d of October all were ready, and the first white army of Americans that ever penetrated the interior of the West took up its march toward the heart of the Indian country. It numbered 1, 500 men, besides teamsters and a goodly number of mothers whose children had been taken captive by the Indians; while among the soldiers were not a few whose wives had been abducted into savage captivity. On the 5th, the army reached Logstown, the place rendered memorable as the spot where Washington had held council with Half- King eleven years before.
188
Demands the Rendition of Captives.
On the 6th, continuing its course westwardly, it passed a village built by the French, and deserted by them when Forbes took Ft. Duquesne. On the 14th, while encamped in the valley of the Muskingum, the Indian messenger dispatched from Ft. Pitt with letters to Bradstreet, came in. He had been detained by the Delawares till Bouquet's army had penetrated the country, and, not desiring to keep him any longer, they had dispatched him back to Bouquet, to inform him that they would soon send in peace proposals.
Bouquet was now in the heart of the Indian country, and could easily descend upon the various Indian towns and destroy their crops, in case they should not comply with his demands. Of this the Indians were well aware, and, on the 17th, a large delegation of Seneca, Delaware and Shawanese chiefs came in with peace proposals.
The Delawares had violated their treaty made with Bradstreet at Presque Isle, and were at their wits' ends to know how to frame a plausible apology; but they made the best of the situation, smothered their pride, and asked for peace. To these overtures Bouquet, in stern language, reminded the Indians of their treachery and of the feeling of just resentment which filled the hearts of mothers, brothers, sisters and husbands of captives now in their possession.
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