History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 25

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164

USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 25

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228

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

forcements from France, while the English, on the contrary, were constantly receiving troops from the mother country.

Mons. de Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, persuaded four hundred men from the "Illinois country " to follow him eastward. Taking with him two hundred thousand pounds of flour, he em- barked his heterogeneous force in bateaux and canoes. The route by way of the Ohio was closed; the English were in possession of its headwaters. IIe went down the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio to the month of the Wabash. Having ascended the latter stream to the Miami villages, near the present site of Fort Wayne, his fol- lowers made the portage, passed down the Maumee, and entered Lake Erie.

During the whole course of their journey they were being con- stantly reinforced by bands of different tribes of Indians, and by Canadian militia as they passed the several posts, until the army was augmented to sixteen hundred men, of whom there were six hundred French and one thousand Indians. An eye-witness, in speaking of the appearance of the force, said : "When they passed the little rapid at the outlet of Lake Erie (at Buffalo) the flotilla ap- peared like a floating island, as the river was covered with their bateaux and canoes."*

Aubry was compelled to leave his flour and provisions at the Miami portage. IIe afterward requested M. de Port-neuf, com- mandant at Presque Isle, to take charge of the portage, and to send it constantly in his bateaux. +

Before Aubry reached Presque Isle he was joined by other bodies of Indians and Canadians from the region of the upper lakes. They were under the command of French traders and commandants of interior posts. At Fort Machault; he was joined by M. de Lignery ; the latter had assembled the Ohio Indians at Presque Isle. It was the original intention of Aubry to recapture Fort Du Quesne from the English. On the 12th of July a grand council was held at Fort Machault, in which the commandant thanked the Indians for their attendance, threw down the war belt, and told them he would set out the next day for Fort Du Quesne. Soon after messengers arrived with a packet of letters for the officers. After reading them Aubry told the Indians: "Children, I have received bad news; the Eng- lish are gone against Niagara. We must give over thoughts of going down the river to Fort Du Quesne till we have cleared that place of

* Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187

+ Idem, p. 152.

# Located at the mouth of French Creek, Pennsylvania. .

§ Idem, 187.

229

AUBRY'S CAMPAIGN.

the enemy. If it should be taken, our road to you is stopped, and you must become poor." Orders were immediately given to pro- ceed with the artillery, provisions, etc., up French Creek, and the Indians prepared to follow .*

These letters were from M. Ponchot, commandant at Niagara, t and stated that he was besieged by a much superior force of English and Indians, who were under the command of Gen. Predeaux and Sir William Johnson. Aubry answered these letters on the next day, and said he thought they might fight the enemy successfully, and compel them to raise the siege. The Indians who brought these mes- sages to Ponchot informed him that they, on the part of the Indians with Aubry and Lignery, had offered the Iroquois and other Indian allies of the English five war belts if they would retire. These prom- ised that they would not mingle in the quarrel. "We will here recall the fact that Ponchot, by his letter of the 10th, had notified Lignery and Aubry that the enemy might be four or five thousand strong without the Indians, and if they could put themselves in condition to attack so large a force, he should pass Chenondac to come to Niagara by the other side of the river, where he would be in con- dition to drive the English, who were only two hundred strong on that side, and could not easily be reinforced. This done, they could easily come to him, because after the defeat of this body they could send bateaux to bring them to the fort."

M. Pouchot now recalled his previous request, and informed Aubry that the enemy were in three positions, in one of which there were three thousand nine hundred Indians. He added, could Aubry succeed in driving the enemy from any of these positions, he had no doubt they would be forced to raise the siege. +

Aubry's route was up French Creek to its head-waters, thence making the portage to Presque Isle and sailing along the shores of Lake Erie until he reached Niagara. Arriving at the foot of Lake Erie he left one hundred and fifty men in charge of his canoes, and with the remainder advanced toward Niagara. Sir William John- son was informed, on the evening of the 23d, of this advance of the French, and ordered his light infantry and pickets to take post on the left, on the road between Niagara Falls and the fort ; and these, after reinforcing them with grenadiers and parts of the 46th and 44th regiments, were so arranged as to effectually support the guard left

* Extract from a letter dated July 17, 1759, of Col. Mercer, commandant at Fort Pitt, published in Craig's Olden Time, vol. 1, p. 194.

+ Fort Niagara was one of the earliest French military posts, and situated on the right, or American shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of Niagara River. It has figured conspicuously in all of the wars on the lake frontier.

# Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187, 188.

230

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

in the trenches. Most of his men were concealed either in the trenches or by trees.

On the morning of the 24th the French made their appearance. They were marching along a path about eight feet wide, and "were in readiness to fight in close order and without ranks or files." On their right were thirty Indians, who formed a front on the enemy's left. The Indians of the English army advanced to speak to those of the French. Seeing the Iroquois in the latter's company, the French Indians refused to advance, under pretext that they were at peace with the first named. Though thus abandoned by their chief force, Aubry and Lignery still proceeded on their way, thinking that the few savages they saw were isolated men. till they reached a narrow pathway, when they discovered great numbers beyond. The English Indians then gave the war-whoop and the action com- menced. The English regulars attacked the French in front, while the Indians poured in on their flank. Thus surprised by an am- buscade, and deserted by their savage allies, the French proved easy victims to the prowess of far superior numbers. They were assailed in front and rear by two thousand men. The rear of the column, unable to resist, gave way, and left the head exposed to the enemy's fire, which crushed it entirely. An Indian massacre followed, and the pursuit of the victors continued until they were compelled to desist by sheer fatigue. Almost all the French officers were killed, wounded or taken prisoners. Among the latter was Aubry. Those who escaped joined M., Rocheblave, and with his detachment re- treated to Detroit and other western lake posts .*

This defeat on the shores of Lake Erie was very severe on the struggling western settlements. Most all of the able-bodied men had gone with Aubry, many never to return. In 1760 M. de Mac- Carty, commandant at Fort Chartes, in a letter to Marquis Vaudreuil, stated that " the garrison was weaker than ever before, the check at Niagara having cost him the élite of his men."+

It is apparent, from the desertion of Aubry by his savage allies, that they perceived that the English were certain to conquer in the end. They felt no particular desire to prop a falling cause, and thus deserted Mons. Aubry at the crisis when their assistance was most needed. Thus was defeated the greatest French-Indian force ever collected in the northwest. ;

* The account of this action has been compiled from Mante, p. 226; Pouchot, vol. 1, p. 192; and Garneau's History of Canada, vol. 2, pp. 250, 251, Bell's translation. + Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 1093.

# Aubry returned to Louisiana and remained there until after the peace of 1763. In 1765 he was appointed governor of Louisiana, and surrendered the colony, in March,

231

THE DOWNFALL OF FRENCH RULE.

The next day after Aubry's defeat, near Fort Niagara, the fortress surrendered.

After the surrender of Niagara and Fort Du Quesne, the Indian allies of France retired to the deep recesses of the western forests, and the English frontiers suffered no more from their depredations. Settlements were gradually formed on the western side of the Alle- ghanies, and they remained secure from Indian invasions.

In the meantime many Canadians, becoming satisfied that the conquest of Canada was only a mere question of time, determined, before that event took place, to remove to the French settlements on the lower Mississippi. .. Many of them accordingly departed from Canada by way of the lakes, and thence through the Illinois and Wabash Rivers to the Mississippi."*

After the surrender of Quebec, in 1759, Montreal became the headquarters of the French in Canada, and in the spring of 1760 Mons. Levi, the French commander-in-chief, besieged Quebec. The arrival of an English fleet compelled him to relinquish his designs. Amherst and Johnson formed a junction, and advanced against Montreal. The French governor of Canada, Marquis Vaudreil. believing that further resistance was impossible, surrendered all Canada to the English. This included the western posts of Detroit. Mackinaw, Fort Miami, Quiatanon, Vincennes, Fort St. Joseph, etc.

After this war ceased to be waged in America, though the treaty of Paris was not concluded until February, 1763, the most essential parts of which are contained in the following extracts :

"In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America, it is agreed that for the future the confines between the dominions of his Britannic Majesty and those of Ilis Most Christian Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi from its source to the River Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea ; and for this purpose the most Christian King cedes, in full right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of Mobile, and everything which he possesses, or ought to possess, ou the left side of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of

1766, to the Spanish governor, Ulloa. After the expulsion of Ulloa, he held the government until relieved by O'Reilly, in July, 1769. He soon afterward sailed for France. The vessel was lost, and Aubry perished in the depths of the sea.

* Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 305.

232

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

New Orleans and of the island on which it is situated ; it being well understood that the navigation of the Mississippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole length and breadth, from its source to the sea."*

Thus Gallic rule came to an end in North America. Its downfall was the result of natural causes, and was owing largely to the differ- ence between the Frenchmen and the Englishmen. The former, as a rule. gave no attention to agriculture, but found occupation in hunting and trading with the Indians, acquiring nomadic habits that anfitted them for the cultivation of the soil; their families dwelt in villages separated by wide stretches of wilderness. While the able men were hunting and trading, the old men, women and children produced scanty crops sown in " common fields." or inclosures of a piece of ground which were portioned off among the families of the village. The Englishman, on the other hand, loved to own land, and pushed his improvements from the coast line up through all the valleys extending westward. Reaching the summit of the Allegha- nies, the tide of emigration flowed into the valleys beyond. Every cabin was a fort, every advancing farm a new line of intrenchment. The distinguishing characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon is consistency and firmness in his designs, and, more than all. his love for a home. In the trials and hardships necessarily connected with the opening up of the wilderness these traits come prominently into play. The result was. that the English colonies prospered in a degree hitherto unknown in the annals of the world's progress. And by way of con- trast, how little did the French have to show in the way of lasting improvements in the northwest after it had been in their possession for nearly a century !

However, the very traits that disqualified the Gaul as a successful- colonist gave him a preeminent advantage over the Anglo-Saxon in the influence he exerted upon the Indian. He did not want their

* "On the 3d day of the previous November, France, by a secret treaty ceded to Spain all her possessions west of the Mississippi. His Most Christian Majesty made known to the inhabitants of Louisiana the fact of the cession by a letter, dated -April 21, 1764. Don Ulloa, the New Spanish governor, arrived at New Orleans in 1766. The French inhabitants objected to the transfer of Louisiana to Spain, and, resorting to arms, compelled Ulloa to return to Havana. In 1769, O'Reilly, with a Spanish force, arrived and took possession. He killed six of the ringleaders and sent others to Cuba. Spain remained in possession of Louisiana until March, 1801, when Louisiana was retroceded to the French republic. The French made preparations to Occupy Lousiana, and an army of twenty-five thousand men was designed for that territory, but the fleet and army were suddenly blockaded in one of the ports of Hol- Rand by an English squadron. This occurrence, together with the gloomy aspect of affairs in Europe, induced Napoleon, who was then at the head of the French republic, to cede Louisiana to the United States. The treaty was dated April 30, 1803. The actual transfer occurred in December of the same year." Vide Stoddard's Sketches of

Louisiana, pp. 71, 102.

233

FRENCH WAYS WITH THE INDIANS.

lands ; he fraternized with them, adopted their ways, and flattered and pleased them. The Anglo-Saxon wanted their lands. From the start he was clamorous for deeds and cessions of territory, and at once began crowding the Indian out of the country. "The Iro- quois told Sir Wm. Johnson that they believed soon they should not be able to hunt a bear into a hole in a tree but some Englishman would claim a right to the property of it, as being found in his tree. "

The happiness which the Indians enjoyed from their intercourse with the French was their perpetual theme ; it was their golden age. " Those who are old enough to remember it speak of it with rap- ture, and teach their children to venerate it, as the ancients did the reign of Saturn. . You call us your children,' said an aged chief to Gen. Harrison. ' why do you not make us happy, as our fathers the French did ? They never took from us our lands, which, indeed, were in common between us. They planted where they pleased, and cut wood where they pleased, and so did we ; but now. if a poor Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from the rain. up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claim- ing the tree as his own.'"+

* Pownall's Administration of the Colonies.

+ Memoirs of Gen. Harrison, p. 134.

CHAPTER XXII.

PONTIAC'S WAR TO RECOVER THE NORTHWEST FROM THE ENGLISH.

AFTER the surrender of Canada to the English by the Marquis Vandreuil, Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander-in-chief of His Majesty's forces in North America. ordered Major Robert Rogers to ascend the lakes and take possession of the western forts. On the 13th of September Rogers, with two hundred of his rangers, left Montreal. After weeks of weary traveling, they reached the mouth of Cuyahoga River, the present site of Cleveland, on the 7th of November. Here they were met by Pontiac. a celebrated Ottawa chieftain, who asked Rogers what his intentions were, and how he dared enter that coun- try without his permission. Rogers replied that the French had been defeated ; that Canada was surrendered into the hands of the British ; and that he was on his way to take possession of Detroit, Mackinaw, Miamis and Onitanon. He also proposed to restore a general peace to white men and Indians alike. "Pontiac listened with attention, but only replied that he should stand in the path of the English until morning." In the morning he returned, and allowed the English to advance. He said there would be no trouble so long as they treated him with deference and respect.

Embarking on the 12th of November. they arrived in a few days at Manmee Bay, at the western end of Lake Erie. The western Indians, to the number of four hundred, had collected at the month of Detroit River. They were determined to massacre the entire party under Rogers. It afterward appeared that they were acting under the influence of the French commandant at Detroit. Rogers pre- vailed upon Pontiac to use his influence to induce the warlike Indians to disband. After some parleying, Pontiac succeeded, and the road was open to Detroit.

Before his arrival at Detroit Rogers had sent in advance Lienten- ant Brehm with a letter to Captain Beletre. the commandant, inform- ing the latter that his garrison was included in the surrender of Canada. Beletre wholly disregarded the letter. He declared he thought it was a trick of the English, and that they intended to obtain possession of his fortress by treachery. He made use of every endeavor to excite the Indians against the English. "He

234

235

DETROIT SURRENDERED.

displayed upon a pole, before the yelling multitude, the effigy of a crow pecking a man's head, the crow representing himself, and the head, observes Rogers, . being meant for my own.'

Rogers then sent forward Captain Campbell "with a copy of the capitulation and a letter from the Marquis Vaudreuil, directing that the place should be given up in accordance with the articles agreed upon between him and General Amherst." The French command- ant could hold out no longer, and, much against his will, was com- pelled to deliver the fortress to the English. The lilies of France were lowered from the flagstaff, and their place was taken by the cross of St. George. Seven hundred Indian warriors and their families, all of whom had aided the French by murdering innocent women and children on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New York. greeted the change with demoniacal vells of apparent pleasure ; but concealed in their breasts was a natural dislike for the English. Dissembling for the present. they kept their hatred to themselves, for the late successes of British arms had awed them into silence.

It was on the 29th of November, 1760, that Detroit was given over to the English. The garrison, as prisoners of war. were taken to Philadelphia.

Rogers sent an officer up the Maumee, and from thence down the Wabash, to take possession of the posts at the portage and at Oui- atanon. Both of these objects were attained without any difficulty.

On account of the lateness of the season the detachment which had started for Mackinaw returned to Detroit, and all efforts against the posts on the upper lakes were laid aside until the following sea- son. In that year the English took possession of Mackinaw. Green Bay and St. Joseph. The French still retained possession of Vin- cennes and Fort Chartes. +

It always was the characteristic policy of the French to render the savages dependent upon them, and with that design in view they had earnestly endeavored to cultivate among the Indians a desire for European goods. By prevailing upon the Indians to throw aside hides and skins of wild beasts for clothing of European manufacture, to discontinue the use of their pottery for cooking utensils of iron, to exchange the bow and arrow and stone weapons for the gun, the knife and hatchet of French manufacture, it was thought that in the course of one or two generations they would become dependent upon their French neighbors for the common necessaries of life. When

* Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, p. 150.

t This account of the delivery of the western forts to Rogers has been collated from his Journal and from Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac.

236

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

this change in their customs had taken place, by simply withholding the supply of ammunition they could coerce the savages to adopt any measures that the French government saw fit to propose. The pol- icy of the French was not to force, but to lead, the savages into sub- jection. They told the barbarians that they were the children of the great king, who had sent his people among them to preserve them from their implacable enemies, the English. Flattering them, asking their advice, bestowing upon them presents, and, above all, showing them respect and deference, the French gained the good will of the savages in a degree that no other European nation ever equaled. After the surrender of the western posts all this was changed. The accustomed presents formerly bestowed upon them were withheld. English traders robbed, bullied and cheated them. English officers treated them with rudeness and contempt. But, most of all, the steady advance of the English colonists over the mountains, occupy- ing their lands, driving away their game, and forcing them to retire farther west, alarmed and exasperated the aborigines to the limit of endurance. "The wrongs and neglect the Indians felt were inflamed by the French coureurs de bois and traders. They had every motive to excite the tribes against the English, such as their national rancor, their religious antipathies, and most especially the fear of losing the profitable Indian trade." Every effort was made to excite and in- flame the slumbering passions of the tribes of the Northwest. Secret councils were held, and different plans for obtaining possession of the western fortresses were discussed. The year after Rogers ob- tained Detroit there was. in the summer, an outbreak, but it was easily quelled, being only local. The next year, also, there was another disturbance, but it, like the former, did not spread.

During these two years one Indian alone, - Pontiac, - compre- hended the situation. He read correctly the signs and portents of the times. He well knew that English supremacy on the North American continent meant the destruction of his race. He saw the great difference between the English and the French. The former were settlers, the latter traders. The French came to the far west for their beaver skins and peltries, while the English would only be satisfied with their lands. Pontiac soon arrived at the conclusion that unless the ceaseless flow of English immigration was stopped, it would not be many decades before the Indian race would be driven from the face of the earth. Well has time justified this opin- ion of the able Indian chieftain !

To accomplish his designs, Pontiac was well aware that he must induce all the tribes of the northwest to join him. Even then he

237

PONTIAC'S WAR.

had doubts of final success. To encourage him, the French traders informed him " that the English had stolen Canada while their com- mon father was asleep at Versailles ; that he would soon awaken and again wrest his domains from the intruders; that even now large French armies were on their way up the St. Lawrence and Missis- sippi rivers." Pontiac believed these tales, for let it be borne in mind that this was previous to the treaty of Paris, and late in the autumn of 1762 he sent emissaries with black wampum and the red tomahawk to the villages of the Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Sacs, Foxes, Menominees, Illinois, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, Wyan- dots, Kickapoos and Senecas. These emissaries were instructed to inform the various tribes that the English had determined to exter- minate the northwestern Indians; to accomplish this they intended to erect numerous fortifications in the territory named ; and also that the English had induced the southern Indians to aid them .* To avert these inimical designs of the English, the messengers of Pon- tiac proposed that on a certain day all the tribes, by concerted action, should seize all the English posts and then attack the whole English border.

Pontiac's plan was contrived and developed with wonderful secrecy, and all of a sudden the conspiracy burst its fury simultane- ously over all the forts held by the British west of the Alleghanies. By stratagem or forcible assault every garrison west of Pittsburgh, excepting Detroit, was captured.

Fort St. Joseph, on the river of that name, in the present state of Michigan, was captured by the Pottawatomies. These emissaries of Pontiac collected about the fort on the 23d of May, 1763, and under the guise of friendship effected an entrance within the palisades, when they suddenly turned upon and massacred the whole garrison, except the commandant, Ensign Slussee and three soldiers, whom they made prisoners and sent to Detroit.

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History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 25

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164