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Now the wrath of the Indians was turned against Logan's. Leaving prowling bands to prevent the sending of aid from Boonesborough or Harrodstown, the Indians in large numbers 14 marched secretly on Logan's. On the morning of the twentieth of May they appeared before the fort and surprised the women milking the cows while a few men were standing on guard with ready rifles. Of the
11 Filson, Autobiography of Boone, p. 58.
12 It was in the desperate attempt to regain the fort that Kenton twice saved the life of Boone, the second time carrying him bodily into the fort after he was wounded.
13 Clarke's "Diary."
14 Smith estimates the number at 100.
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white men one was killed by the first volley and two were wounded ; 15 the women and the other men reached the fort unharmed.
From this time until the close of the year, there was as little rest for Logan's as for Boonesborough or Har- rodstown. Yet it would be the reverse of the truth to refer, as many have done, to the siege of the fort. Ken- tucky in 1777 was continually infested by Hamilton's sav- ages, but for the most part they confined themselves to prowling through the forests, lurking around the forts and along the trails in small bodies, in the hope of killing from ambush whatever white men might come in their way. They were particularly successful in preventing communi- cation between the forts. Yet there is every evidence that the settlers did not consider themselves in particular dan- ger within their stockades. They continued, in fact, all their usual occupations, planting their crops and going on hunting trips whenever opportunity presented itself. Sev- eral times in the summer the savages appeared in force before the different forts, as in the attacks previously men- tioned, but these attacks were of short duration and re- sulted invariably in favor of the white men. The greatest danger to which the settlers were exposed came from con- cealed Indians when they were out hunting or tending their crops. There was also the anxiety caused by the gradual
15 Of the wounded men one named Harrison staggered and fell some distance from the fort, whence the little garrison could plainly see him bleeding and pathetically trying to rise. Logan and a friend named Martin resolved to attempt a rescue, but Martin's courage failed him when the gate was opened, and Logan was left to face the Indians alone. Running straight into the Indian fire, he reached the wounded man, swung him with easy strength to his shoulders and returned amid a hail of bullets, unharmed. Logan was a giant physically, and the early history of Kentucky abounds in stories of his exploits. It may be said in passing that his mental and moral equipments surpassed even his physical. He was probably the most heroic figure that ever trod Kentucky soil.
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diminishing of their ammunition and the small prospect of getting more. Logan's Fort suffered more from this cause than did either of the others, and it was this fact that caused Logan to make his celebrated trip to the Hol- stein in the midst of the trouble that was come on Ken- tucky. He managed to elude the Indians, and, after many privations, reached the Holstein settlements two hundred miles to the east. Within two days he returned to his fort, while his companions followed him a little later, bringing four kegs of powder and four horseloads of lead.16 The feat was heroic, but it is absurd to represent him stealing out of a besieged fort and running the gauntlet of Indians that beset his path.
On the first of August Colonel Bowman arrived at Boonesborough from Virginia with a much-needed enforce- ment of one hundred militia.17 This was the end of the Indian troubles for that year. But even at the last mo- ment the savages contrived to strike a blow. Learning of the coming of Bowman's men, they had carefully pre- pared an ambuscade into which the advance guard of the white men unsuspectingly fell. Several were killed before the main body came up and drove off the Indians. Upon the dead the Indians placed a proclamation signed by Hamilton, which proclaimed pardon and forgiveness to all the Kentuckians who would return to the allegiance of their Lord George III, and denouncing all who should neglect to so conduct themselves. What course the Ken- tuckians would, in the face of this magnanimous offer, have taken can only be conjectured, inasmuch as the papers fell into the hands of Logan, who, with lamentable lack
16 Draper, MSS. Life of Boone, Vol. IV, p. 131.
17 He first came to Boonesborough where he was informed of Logan's distress.
.
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of respect for royal communications, promptly destroyed them. Notwithstanding the multiple guesses of succeed- ing historians in regard to the reason for Logan's action, it would not seem to require elaborate explanation. It was the most natural action for a man who in all his simple, heroic life never dallied with dishonor.
With the coming of Bowman and his men, the long harassed pioneers took heart anew. Already a company of North Carolinians, numbering forty-five, had entered Kentucky and joined, as was natural, their friends at Boonesborough.18 These additions made it possible for the little garrison to take the offensive. Even in June Major Smith, with seventeen other Boonesborough men, had ven- tured as far northward as the Ohio in pursuit of an Indian band, one of whom they killed. Returning, they surprised and scattered an Indian force of thirty and arrived safely at home with but one man wounded. A little later the Indians, in revenge, besieged the fort for the fourth time in the course of the year. Numbering two hundred, they kept up the siege for two days and nights with much clamor and no success. They then withdrew and Boonesborough enjoyed a respite after five months of constant anxiety. Harrodstown enjoyed the honor of bringing the year's hostilities to a fortunate close. Here Clarke, forewarned of the Indians by the uneasiness of the cattle, flanked their ambuscade, killed four and scattered the remainder in all directions. No further Indian conflicts worthy of the name occurred in the Kentucky country till 1778.
From a record of Indian contests, it is pleasant to return to a story of more peaceful happenings. Virginia, in sup- porting the cause of liberty against England, had been
18 July 25th, Captain Watkins was in command.
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slow to organize the county she had with such dubious mor- ality acquired. True, the militia had been put in shape by Clarke in the early spring, but of civil government or regulation there was none. In the tumults of Indian war- fare the pioneers had not needed or desired other than military law; now that the land was enjoying, or at least experiencing, a period of quiet, there came an opportunity and a desire for civil justice. By the act erecting Ken- tucky out of Fincastle County, Harrodstown was fixed upon as the seat of government.19 The reason for this action is more evident than its justice. Here, on the second day of September, 1777, assembled the first 20 court ever held in Kentucky. It was styled the Court of Quarter Sessions and was composed of five judges. These were John Todd, John Floyd, Benjamin Logan, John Bowman and Richard Calloway. None of these men were jurists, but they were all men that honored the law and loved justice. Perhaps no other five men could be named who deserved more of Kentucky or suffered more for her sake. A record of their lives would almost be a history of their country. Todd became one of the most eminent of Ken- tuckians and was honored abundantly even before his death. It may be sufficient to say of Floyd that he was the best beloved man in Kentucky. The deeds of Logan were such as to require no comment. Bowmen and Callo- way were both heroic figures and strove with all their might in behalf of their land and their people. Of the Court of Quarter Sessions Levi Todd was clerk. The entire military and civil provisions of the act creating Kentucky
19 Hening, Statutes, Vol. IX, pp. 257, 258.
20 Trabue, in his Autobiography, mentions a court held at Logan's in July. Bowman, Riddle, Calloway and Logan were judges and Levi Todd, clerk.
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were now put into effect and Kentuckians soon found them- selves living under a well-organized form of government. In the military organization to which allusion has already been made, John Bowman was county-lieutenant, Anthony Bledsoe, lieutenant-colonel, George Rogers Clarke, major, and Boone, Harrod, Todd and Logan, captains. Logan also served as the first sheriff of the new county, while John May was the official surveyor. Ten justices of peace in the different stations lent their influence in preserving order among the sometimes unruly backwoodsmen.21
While this Court was in session at Harrodstown a census was taken of the town.22 It was found to have a popu- lation of 198, of whom 24 were women. There were 81 arms-bearing men and 4 who were unfit for service. White children under the age of ten numbered 58; over ten, 12. There were 19 slaves, 7 of whom were less than ten years old. A census was most probably taken at other forts at the same time as at Harrodstown, but unfortu- nately it has not been preserved. The combined population of Boonesborough and Logan's probably did not equal that of Harrodstown. The population was, in fact, during the year rarely the same for any two weeks. Individuals and companies were constantly arriving and departing. The arrival of Bowman and Watkins has already been men- tioned. In October Clarke, with twenty-two men, started from Harrodstown for Virginia, and was joined by fifty- five men from Logan's. The next day Captain Montgom- ery came into Logan's with thirty-eight men. In Septem- ber, W. B. Smith, who had gone to the Yadkin to secure aid, had succeeded in piloting into Boonesborough Captain Holder and forty-eight men. In this manner the popula-
21 Cowan's "Journal."
22 Draper, MSS. Life of Boone, Vol. IV, p. 134.
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tion changed from day to day. With the closing of the year Kentucky had practically the same population as in its beginning.
What Clarke's reasons were for leaving Kentucky and returning to Virginia are unknown.23 He had declared his intention to resign his commission as major and not again to hold a military command unless there was impera- tive need. There can be little doubt that the principal motive influencing him in returning to Virginia was the desire to lay before Governor Henry a plan he had formed for invading the Northwest and capturing the English posts in the Illinois.24 He had, while in Virginia the pre- vious year, learned of Morgan's proposed conquest of the Illinois, and it was doubtless this fact that caused him to send the two spies there to find out the condition of the country. These two men, after a roundabout journey by way of the Cumberland River, had visited Kaskaskia on the Mississippi, and on the twenty-second of June had returned with a vast store of information. They reported that the British were constantly sending out war parties from the Illinois posts; that the militia in these posts were well trained, but had little fear of an American inva- sion ; that the French habitants were by no means ardent in their affection for the English ; that the Spanish to the west were well disposed to the Americans, but that the English were closely watching the lower course of the Mis- sissippi and the Ohio.25 The first part of this report was untrue, but the remainder extremely accurate, and no doubt
23 Clarke's ostensible mission was to have the militia accounts drafted.
24 Clarke's action from the time of leaving Kentucky until the capture of Vincennes are most minutely and critically set forth in Consul Butterfield's Conquest of the Illinois.
25 Clarke's "Memoir," Dillon's Indiana, p. 118.
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as Clarke reflected on the situation, he became convinced that the capture of the British posts was both feasible and necessary.
In the summer 26 Clarke had sent Harrod and a compan- ion to Fort Pitt, apparently for ammunition; they had brought back the report that there was no apparent pros- pects of peace. This fact and his knowledge of the weak- ness of the British determined Clarke. To his ambitious mind it seemed that a continued war and a weak enemy presented an opportunity not to be neglected. Accord- ingly, while the feeble settlement of Kentucky were en- gaged in a life and death struggle with the enemy at their gates, Clarke determined to carry the war into the enemy's country. That the enemy could enter Kentucky as well as he could enter Illinois was a thought that apparently never entered his mind. That he might fail to conquer Illinois if he attempted it, or even when it was captured the Indians might insist on continuing their war against Kentucky, were thoughts that he apparently failed to entertain. No benefit could come to Kentucky save by a cessation of Indian attacks. But the prospect of Amer- ican neighbors in Illinois was well calculated to enrage the Indians without serving to overawe them. Kentucky had nothing to gain from the project. It was for the benefit of Virginia.
In December Clarke reached Williamsburg and laid his plan before Henry, the governor. Henry entered into the plans with the same enthusiasm he had displayed in con- fiscating Transylvania; it was another opportunity for acquiring a goodly amount of territory without the incon- venience of paying for it. But as the success of the expe-
26 Clarke's "Diary," May 18th.
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dition would depend on the secrecy with which it was conducted, Henry decided not to communicate the plan to the Legislature where, as he knew, there was wont to be an enormous output of the English language on very slight provocation. He called into his counsel Jefferson, Madi- son, Wythe and Mason, and discussed the plan of Clarke's until January. In making up their minds to aid Clarke, these worthy sons of Virginia were far from being actuated by any such abstract idea of safeguarding Kentucky. But the opportunity was come to put into effect Virginia's oft- repeated claim of sovereignty over all the northwest ter- ritory. It was not characteristic of Virginians to hesitate at such a time.
The plan which Clarke's fertile mind had originated and which the Virginia statesmen had discussed in such detail was not concerned primarily with Detroit, but aimed at the conquest of the whole country between the Ohio and the Great Lakes. In this region the British held a number of posts recently taken from the French and serving as bases for dealing with the Indians. Of these the chief were Kaskaskia on the Mississippi and Vincennes on the Wabash. Cahokia, not far from Kaskaskia, was also an important stronghold. Clarke aimed specifically at Kas- kaskia ; his other operations were to be determined by for- tune. He wished, if possible, to get possession of Ham- ilton, whom he termed the "great hair buyer," and to capture Detroit if circumstances would allow.
On January 2, 1778, he received from Henry two sets of instructions 27 in regard to the expedition, and the next day a letter reached him from Jefferson, Wythe and Mason. Henry, in one set of instructions meant for public con-
27 English, Life of Clarke, p. 95.
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sumption, addressed Clarke as lieutenant-colonel and au- thorized him to enlist seven companies of fifty men each from any part of Virginia. Said men were to serve three months and were to follow Clarke to Kentucky, where they should obey such orders and directions as he might give them. The second set of instructions was private and authorized Colonel Clarke to enlist seven companies of men for the purpose of marching against Kaskaskia. The letter from Jefferson, Wythe and Mason promised in the name of Virginia three hundred acres of land for each vol- unteer if the expedition should prove successful.
Clarke's instructions called for three hundred and fifty men, and he set to work at once to raise the number. Captain W. B. Smith was sent to take charge of the enlist- ment of four companies in the Holstein settlement. Captain Leonard Helm was to raise a company in Fauquier County and Captain Joseph Bowman one in Frederick County. Clarke himself, aided by Captain William Harrod, took charge of the recruiting in the Monongahela country. As is evident from the location of these men, the army was to be made up of men from the west of the Alleghanies. For whatever reason Tidewater Virginia was not to be a party to the undertaking. Clarke had fixed upon Red- stone 28 as the rendezvous for all the men save those re- cruited in the Holstein ; they were to meet him at the Falls of the Ohio.29 Redstone on the Monongahela was in the territory then claimed by Virginia but later confirmed to Pennsylvania. None of the officers engaged in the recruit- ing or the men whom they were to enlist knew the real object of the movement; they thought, as Clarke pro- claimed, that the force was designed to protect Kentucky.
28 Now Brownsville.
29 Pirtle, Clarke's Campaign in the Illinois, p. 25.
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In Clarke's private instructions he was ordered to apply to General Hand at Fort Pitt for powder and lead.30 He was given twelve hundred pounds in Virginia currency and was authorized to draw on Oliver Pollock, Virginia's agent in New Orleans, for whatever additional money he might need. As far as paper plans were concerned the expedi- tion was well contrived ; unforeseen obstacles soon began to present themselves. In the first place the Monongahelians obstinately refused to enlist; Clarke's public instructions proved a source of embarrassment, inasmuch as the fron- tiersmen were not at all interested in Kentucky and would not enlist for the purpose of guarding her. The section was in a turmoil over the conflicting claims of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and this made recruiting difficult. Bowman and Helm each succeeded in raising a company, only to have most of them desert at the last moment.31 In thorough disgust Clarke set out for Redstone on the twelfth of May with what men he could secure-one hundred and fifty- divided into three companies. They were commanded by Bowman, Helm and Harrod. Some twenty families of emigrants accompanied the army, designing to settle in Kentucky.32
General Hand at Fort Pitt did all in his power to help the expedition. He furnished ammunition and supplies from his stores at that place and at Wheeling. Taking on these supplies, Clarke moved down the Ohio in rowboats for the Falls, where Captain Smith had written he would meet him with two hundred men. At Fort Randolph on the Kanawha he was joined by a company of men under
30 Henry, Patrick Henry, Vol. I, pp. 603-605.
31 Dillon, Indiana, p. 121.
32 Southern Bivouac of January, 1884.
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Captain James O'Hara,33 bound for the Spanish settle- ment Ozark at the mouth of the Arkansas. Resisting the importunities of the garrison to join in the pursuit of a body of Indians who had just closed an unsuccessful attack on the fort, Clarke kept on his way until he reached the mouth of the Kentucky, where he soon learned on inquiry that Captain Smith had not yet reached Kentucky. Only a few of his men under Captain Dillard had come, and Clarke, in order to secure others, wrote to John Bowman at Harrodstown to collect these men of Dillard's and with what others he was able to meet him at the Falls, where he intended to build a post.34 On the twenty-seventh of May he reached the Falls and landed his men on Corn Island (opposite Louisville) in order that he might more easily restrain his force from deserting when he disclosed his real destination as he intended to do here.
Captain Bowman was not able to secure more than twenty Kentuckians to march to the Falls, and even this small number proved reluctant to accompany Clarke to Kaskaskia, when he finally made known to officers and men his real destination. The Holstein men went even further ; the majority of Dillard's men, led by Lieutenant Hutchins, escaped the night before the day fixed upon for depar- ture.35 They were pursued by mounted men and overtaken twenty miles away on the road to Harrodstown. Seven were retaken, but the others escaped to Harrodstown, where, after some reluctance, they were received. There were left now on the island about one hundred and eighty men that were to compose the army. These were divided into four
33 When Clarke stopped at the mouth of the Kentucky, O'Hara's company continued on down the river.
34 Butler, History of Kentucky, p. 49.
35 Monnette, History of the Valley of the Mississippi, Vol. I, p. 418 (note).
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companies under Helm, Harrod, Bowman and Montgom- ery.36 Having previously built a block house on the island, Clarke put in it a part of his supplies, left seven soldiers and ten families of the Redstone immigrants, and, with the little army, started down the Ohio, June 24th.37
On the twenty-eighth of June he landed his men on a small island in the mouth of the Tennessee River. From this point he intended to march overland to Kaskaskia. He had hardly landed before his soldiers fell in with a boat of hunters,38 who proved to have left Kaskaskia eight days before. Clarke administered the oath of allegiance and questioned them. They were Americans and asked permis- sion to go with him. Clarke gave it and engaged one of them to guide them to Kaskaskia. In the evening of this day the force rowed ten miles down the river and landed about a mile above old Fort Massac 39 on the Illinois side. Spending the night here and concealing their boats in a creek, they began on the morning of the twenty-ninth their journey of one hundred and forty miles to Kaskaskia.
The progress and success of this expedition is only in- directly a part of Kentucky history ; its formation has deserved notice because of the popular fallacy that it was a Kentucky enterprise. Of the whole force of Clarke's men only twenty could be classed as Kentuckians. From
36 Pirtle, Clarke's Campaign in the Illinois; Letter of G. R. Clarke, November 19, 1779.
37 A total eclipse of the sun began as the boats entered the Rapids. 38 These hunters were six in number and were under the leader- ship of John Duff. The man taken for a guide was John Sanders.
39 Fort Massac was on the north side of the Ohio, ten miles below the mouth of the Tennessee. Its official name given it by the French when they built it and who then occupied the valley of the Ohio was l'Assomption. It was erected in 1756 (some writers claim it was only strengthened, and was built much earlier) to counteract the building by the English of Fort Loudon on the upper waters of the Ten- nessee. It was of course unoccupied at the date of Clarke's visit .- Butterfield, Clarke's Conquest of the Illinois, p. 591.
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Boonesborough only Kenton and Haggin joined the enter- prise. Kentucky would have none of it. There was, in the first place, some little resentment felt against Clarke by those who felt that Henderson had been badly used. But perhaps the greater reason was that Kentucky and espe- cially Boonesborough was expecting an Indian invasion. It seemed to them the height of folly to invade another country while leaving their own defenseless against attack. Nor does it speak very well for the military genius of Clarke that at the very time when Kentucky needed all her re- sources he was engaged in an effort to enroll her militia for an external war. Surely it would have been better tactics to defeat the enemy at the gates.
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THE GREAT INVASION.
TT WAS from the north that Kentucky was expecting the Indian attack. The Shawnese were again, as in the preceding year, planning destruction for the settlements. A lack of allies, intervening distance, and even a sense of honor held the Cherokees in restraint ; Kentucky was never to suffer an attack from the south. From Detroit and her other Canadian posts England let no opportunity pass for arousing the Indians. One hundred dollars was the price paid for a prisoner ; one-half that sum for a scalp.1 The British agents had been active and successful. They were busy sending out officers among the Indians to reduce them to some discipline of war. Their trading posts throughout the north were become depots of supplies which the Indians were encouraged to rally around in order to receive provisions and to secure gifts. As for the Indians, they were well pleased with their new friends ; they were quick to pledge allegiance and to promise aid. England constantly kept the barbarian eye turned toward Kentucky and continually used her utmost arts to direct their anger thither. As an assistance for their raids there had been constructed on the Ohio River a regular ferryboat on which the Indians might pass from shore to shore.2 The English honored the chiefs, armed the warriors and atten- tively cared for the interests of all. Yet, in the utilizing of the Indians against Kentucky, it must be conceded that England tried sincerely to mitigate the inhumanity of her
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