USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 23
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I Butler, p. 112 ; Pitkin's United States, Vol. II , p. 512 ; Jay's Life, Vol. I., p. 237.
2 Butler, p. 119 ; Collins, Vol. II., p. 39.
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161
RUDDLE'S STATION SURRENDERS.
a summons to surrender within an hour having been refused. Terms could not be arranged, and the fighting was resumed. The issue was near at hand, as a messenger had been dispatched to Kaskaskia for aid. A des- perate night assault was made by the Indians in force. When they had advanced in short range and in close order, Captain George Owens, who commanded one of the block-houses, had the swivels loaded with rifle and musket-balls, and fired them into the crowded ranks. The fire was very destructive and the slaughter excessive. The enemy, repulsed and dis- heartened, fell back to their camps. Soon after, Colonel Clark arrived with a relief force, and the Chickasaw army gave up the siege. . This fort was some time after abandoned, from its isolated position, and the difficulty of supplying so remote a garrison. The evacuation was the signal for peace, which was tacitly accepted by the Indians and faithfully observed by both parties after.
The daring expeditions of Clark and Bowman into the Indian country seem to have aroused the British authorities to greater exertions, in order to counteract the impressions made on their Indian allies of the prowess of the Americans. With this view, a formidable military force of six hundred Canadians and Indians, commanded by Colonel Byrd, of the English army, with several pieces of artillery, made an incursion into Kentucky. The artillery and its equipment were embarked on boats down the Miami and up Licking river, as far as the forks, where Falmouth now stands. From this rendezvous, Colonel Byrd marched in full force for Ruddle's station, and on the 22d of June, signalized the presence of his army before that place by the report of one of his cannon discharged. The occupants were completely taken by surprise. This was remarkable, as the invading army had been twelve days on the march from the Ohio river, and had cleared a wagon road over much of the way. It showed a want of vigilance in the measures of safety and defense, so common to the garrisons of these posts. A timely warning would have availed nothing against the formidable numbers and their equipment, but a timely retreat to a place of safety might have been effected. The sight of such an army and of the artillery paralyzed all hope of resistance; and on a summons by Colonel Byrd to an unconditional sur- render, Captain Ruddle answered that he would consent only on condition that the prisoners should be under the protection of the English, and not delivered to the Indians. To these terms Colonel Byrd consented, and promptly the fort was surrendered and the gates thrown open. The savages rushed into the station in advance, and each Indian seized the first person he could lay his hands on, and claimed such as his prisoner. In this way, families were separated and torn asunder, and subjected to the cruel caprices of their savage captors. Husbands and wives, parents and children, old and young, were made victims to their barbarities. The distressful cries of the children, the distracted throes of the mothers, when torn asunder, were heartrending. The scenes were indescribable. Captain Ruddle remon-
162
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
strated with Colonel Byrd against the atrocious conduct of the allies ; but the latter could only answer that, while he deplored and condemned these proceedings, it was out of his power to restrain the savages; their numbers being so much greater than that of the English soldiers that he himself was . completely in their power. 1
After appropriating all the property in the fort, and dividing the prisoners among themselves, the Indians eagerly importuned Colonel Byrd to march on and capture Martin's post, five miles further on. He was so affected by the brutal conduct of the Indians toward the captives and their insubordinate license in his command that he firmly refused, unless the chiefs would pledge themselves in behalf of their warriors that all the prisoners taken should be entirely under his control. and that the Indians should only be entitled to the plunder. Upon this basis of agreement, the army marched to Martin's station, and captured it without opposition. The agreement was here carried out, and the prisoners surrendered to the British, while the property was seized by the red men. They next urged the British commander to march at once on Bryan's station and Lexington, so elated were they at the easy successes and rich spoils of the two recent captures. Byrd firmly declined to invade farther. alleging the improbability of success, the impossibility of procuring supplies for his soldiers and the prisoners, the impracticability of moving his artillery through a heavily-wooded country without roadways, the dangers of being surrounded and cut off from retreat to the Ohio river by an overwhelming force, and finally the necessity of descending the Licking river before the subsidence of the high water.
There is a tradition, founded on the statements of prisoners afterwards returned, that Colonel Byrd was so affected by the inhuman conduct of the Indians toward the unfortunate captives that he determined in his own mind not to be a further instrument to execute the diabolical orders of the British Government, or to a re-enactment of the atrocities of its savage allies; and that this was the real cause of his sudden withdrawal from the country. However this may be, there was certainly plausible force in the reasons assigned, that there was difficulty in moving artillery through the unbroken forests, danger from an attack of five or six hundred riflemen from the cover of trees, after their custom, and a want of food supply in the country after the exhaustive winter previous.
Byrd's army returned to the forks of Licking, and embarked with all possible dispatch upon the boats that were left there, with its artillery and stores. At this place, the discontented Indians separated from Byrd, and took with them all the prisoners from Ruddle's station. They were treated with violence, especially the weak and feeble, and such as sank down exhausted under their burdens were murdered with tomahawk or scalping- knife. Some were captives for years; some children, perhaps, never re- turned.
1 Marshall, Vol. I., p. 107; Butler, p. rto; Collins, Vol. II., pp. 327-8.
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163
HINKSON ESCAPES.
Among the prisoners was John Hinkson, a daring and expert woodsman. The second night after separation from Byrd, the Indians encamped near the river at nightfall. While they were kindling a fire with difficulty, on account of the wet, Hinkson sprang out into the dark, and soon disappeared in the brush. The alarm was given and pursuit made, but against hope. Hinkson ran some distance into the woods, and lay down by the side of a log, with the shadow of a large beech tree to help conceal his person, until he felt satisfied that the Indians had given up the pursuit. He then moved off stealthily under the clouds of a very dark night. He had no object nor thing to guide his course, and directing his steps, as he thought; toward Lexington, soon found himself in hearing of the camp of Indians he had just escaped from. Without light enough to see the moss on the bodies of the trees to guide him, he was much perplexed. Finally remembering that the little air stirring was from the west, he would moisten his hand and hold it up until the cold side indicated the point of the compass, and by this sign traveled for some hours toward Lexington; then, in weariness, sat down by the root of a tree and fell asleep. Before day he awoke, and found all enveloped in a dense fog. At dawn of light, the gobbling of turkeys, the bleating of fawns, and the hoot of owls, were heard in various directions. Hinkson was too expert in Indian wiles to be thus deceived. He dis- tinguished the imitations of the cries of birds and animals, and avoided the spots from whence they came. Though several times very near to them, with the aid of the fog, he managed to escape, and to safely reach Lex- ington with the full news of the disaster at Ruddle's and Martin's.
The disastrous defeat and massacre of the forces of Colonel Rogers and Captain Benham, near the mouth of the Licking, and the capture of Ruddle's and Martin's, by Byrd, called into active operation the military policy of Colonel George Rogers Clark, who held that no injury of importance done by the enemy should go unpunished. He waged a war of relentless aggres- sion and retaliation, and held that the Indians must not long be influenced by the prestige and encouragement of any temporary successes in their war upon the whites. Clark now hastened from Vincennes to Louisville, and from the latter headquarters began his arrangements and issued his orders, rallying and organizing all the men of arms in Kentucky for a campaign against the Miami towns, in Ohio. Six hundred men were gathered at Louisville, and the remainder from the interior. The general rendezvous was the mouth of Licking river. The troops camped on both sides of the Ohio. So promptly had the militia responded to the call that over one thousand troops gathered at the appointed place, all armed and eager to be led forward. A small battery of artillery was added to the equipment. General Clark assumed chief command, while the two regiments into which the force was divided were led by Colonels Logan and Linn, 1 ready for the march, every man eager to avenge the injuries inflicted.
1 Marshall, Vol. I, p. to9; Clark's Memoirs; Collins, Vol. II., p. 449.
164
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
While tarrying a few days in camp, opposite the mouth of Licking, and where is now reared the queenly city of Cincinnati, with its vast commerce and teeming population, it was found necessary to build a block-house, for the purpose of leaving some stores, and some men wounded by skirmishing Indians on the way up the Ohio. The sound of the axman's strokes and the falling timbers echoed through the virgin forest, and the first house ever built on the site of the great city of to-day, speedily went up under the busy hands of the Kentucky foresters.
The expedition impatiently took up its march northward into Ohio, from the place of rendezvous. The objective points were Chillicothe, Pickaway, and other noted towns on the waters of the upper Scioto and Miami rivers. With celerity and all the secrecy which could be observed, the Kentuckians appeared before Chillicothe in time to take the Indians by surprise, who fled without resistance, leaving ail their property at the mercy of the aveng- ing army of Clark. The houses and all their rude furnishings were set to the consuming torch; and after feasting on all that could be consumed of garden vegetables, of luscious roasting-ears, and of the orchard fruits just ripe, the remainder was destroyed, and a scene of desolation made of the homes of the red men. Following on to Pickaway town, the retreating sav- ages halted and gave battle. After a sharp fight under their usual methods, with about seventeen whites killed and a number wounded, and many In- dians, they again retreated, leaving the town and all property in its vicinity defenseless.
The same destructive measures were adopted here as at Chillicothe. At no other point did the Indians make a stand for battle. From Pickaway, Colonel Logan was sent out some twenty miles further, with a force to destroy another town of considerable importance, and where was located a store from whence the savages obtained supplies of arms and ammunition. Other detachments were sent to distant villages, and a general waste spread over the country of Indian habitation. This season of the year was pur- posely chosen for this destructive invasion, which was a sort of substitute for an investment and capture of Forts Detroit and Sandusky, the strong- holds behind. The crops for the winter, and next year's supply, were just matured, and once destroyed, could not be replaced. Great destitution and suffering must follow until another harvest, twelve months off; and the Indians would be in no condition in that time for another formidable move against the whites. The victorious troops, loaded with such spoils as they could bear away, and carrying back large numbers of horses and cattle, were marched on return to the rendezvous on the Ohio, and then discharged for their respective homes. The effect was as expected; no considerable body of Indians entered Kentucky for nearly two years after.
An incident of this campaign bears a tinge of romance. Simon Kenton commanded a company from Harrodstown in Logan's regiment, 1 and was in
I Collins, Vol. II., P 448.
165
A RACE FOR LIFE.
the front of the fight at Pickaway, after piloting Clark's army on the entire route. Here, two years before, he had been forced to run the gauntlet amid the uproarious laughter and shouts of the hundreds of savages in double line, ready, each one, to assail and beat him down with club or bludgeon, his sufferings or his death alike the subject of hilarious fun to warriors, women, and children. Kenton, the incarnation of an Indian hater and fighter, recognized his old acquaintances in front, and on familiar ground that brought vividly to mind the provoking reminiscences. At the head of his marksmen, he dashed into the thickest of the fight, dealing death to every enemy in his power. thus repaying, with usurious interest, the old dues of the past.
Many incidents of individual massacres, of thrilling dangers, and of hair- breadth escapes occurred from scurring bands of hostiles, some of whom were never absent from the country. Now and then the ludicrous would come in, and furnish many a joke with merry laughter among the foresters, in spite of serious phases. 1 A month or two after the return of Clark's troops to Louisville, two athletic young men, Adam and Jacob Wickersham, went out to a small field they had cleared and planted the spring before, two or three miles from the fort on Beargrass. Filling a bag with pumpkins, Jacob threw it over his shoulder and got over the fence, going home. An Indian sprang out from concealment, and raising his tomahawk, ran up behind him, with the weapon uplifted. Seeing himself covered under the eye of Adam, and disconcerted, he dropped the tomahawk and seized Jacob around the body. The latter, by a sudden movement, threw the bag and pumpkins across the Indian's neck, jerked loose, and ran for life. The red man re- leased himself from the troublesome bag, seized his gun, and fired at the swift-footed Jacob, but missed. Another Indian gave attention to Adam, in the hope to capture him. The latter was on the inside of the fence; the former, outside. Now began a race for life, each eyeing the other, and each maneuvering, with the fence between. The white was the fleetest; and gaining a distance in advance, sprang over the fence and darted through the brush in front of the Indian. Turning down a ravine, he leaped the huge body of a fallen tree in his way. The Indian followed; but not active enough to leap over the tree, he hurled his tomahawk, with the pole foremost, and planted a stinging blow on Adam's back, leaving a blood-red spot. The report of the gun brought a dozen men rapidly out from the fort. in time to save their comrades, but too late to catch the wily Indians.
A party composed of William Bryan. Nic. Tomlin, Stephen Frank, and others, from Bryan's and Lexington, on their way to Mann's Salt Licks, in Jefferson county, for a supply of salt, camped on the bank of Kentucky river, where Frankfort now stands. They were here attacked by a band of Indians, who killed Frank and wounded Bryan and Tomlin. From this event, the city of Frankfort first derived its name. 2
I Collins, Vol. II., p. 359
2 Collins, Vol. II., p. 241.
166
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
It was in the early months of 1780 that Alexander McConnell, of Lex- ington, went to the woods with a horse to bring in a deer he had killed. A party of five Indians coming up on it, ambushed for the return of the hunter. Coming in sight, the Indians fired and killed his horse, and made him a prisoner while he struggled to extricate himself from the fallen animal. The Indians proved a remarkably merry, good-natured set, leaving McCon- nell not only unbound by day, but with gun in hand. Feigning cheerfulness and showing expertness in shooting game, he seemed a favorite with them. Traveling thus several days, they came to the banks of the Ohio. They had bound him only at night; but here he complained of the hurt from the buffalo thongs, and they tied him very loosely, attaching the other ends of the cords to the bodies of two Indians.
1 The latter fell asleep; while McConnell, awake, planned his escape before crossing the Ohio. Near one of the Indians lay a knife, under the light of the camp fire, loosed from its sheath. To move his body would wake the Indians to whom he was tied. With difficulty he grasped the knife between his toes, and after long and stealthy effort, drew it in reach of his hand. The thongs were cut and the prisoner loosed. What next? His work was only well begun. To leave his captors alive, was to risk being recaptured, with death his fate. To attempt to destroy the Indians with the knife, was to risk the waking of the balance on killing one. The guns of the sleeping men were stacked near by. These he quietly moved to a place of concealment in the brush. except two. Returning, he took a rifle in each hand, rested the muzzles on a log, pointed one at the head of an Indian, and the other at the heart of another, pulled the triggers, and fired simul- taneously. Both were killed, and the others sprang up out of their slumbers in dazed confusion. McConnell sped to the hidden guns. With one, he fired at two Indians in line, killing one and wounding the other, who, with the fifth man, disappeared in the woods. Selecting his own rifle from the guns, McConnell made his way to Lexington again.
Mrs. Dunlap, of Fayette, who had been several months a prisoner among the Indians on Mad river, made her escape and returned to Lexington soon after this adventure. She reported that the survivor returned to his tribe with a lamentable story. He related that a fine young hunter was captured by his party near Lexington and brought to the Ohio river; that while in camp there, a body of white men had fallen upon them suddenly at night. and killed all his companions, together with the poor prisoner, who lay bound hand and feet, unable to escape or resist.
A party from Harrodsburg, going toward Logan's fort, were fired upon. and two of them very badly wounded. One reached the fort, and reported the other to have laid down in the cane. too severely hurt to go further, their companions having fled. Logan at once called together a number of his men, and repaired to the assistance of the unfortunate man, whom they
I McClung's Sketches.
167
WILLIAM MONTGOMERY KILLED.
found alive, but helpless. No time was to be lost, for the Indian signs were around. Having no suitable conveyance, he was placed on Logan's back, who carried him thus to his own home. After leaving the wounded man, as they were returning, the Indians fired on them, and wounded another man. They were beaten off, when Logan took on his shoulders the last one wounded, and bore him safely into the fort.
By this time Colonel Logan had moved his mother and a sister, together with a numerous family connection, to selected lands in the vicinity of St. Asaph's. Among these were William Montgomery, his wife's father, with his family, and son-in-law, Joseph Russell, and his family. They came out from Virginia late in 1779, and took refuge in the fort, where they remained a few months. Apprehending little danger, at the first opening of spring, the elder Montgomery, with his sons, William, John, Thomas, and Robert, and his son-in-law, Russell, moved out into four cabins they had built twelve miles south-west of the fort, on the headwaters of Green river.
1 In March they were attacked by savages. Mrs. Montgomery was at the fort, with her youngest child, Flora, and Thomas and Robert were absent scouting. The others of the families, old and young, were at home, with some slaves owned among them. At night, the Indians surrounded the cabins, which were built close to each other in a square, and lay in wait until morning light. The elder Montgomery, followed by a negro boy, arose and stepped outside the cabin door, when they were suddenly fired on, and both killed. The daughter Jane, afterward the wife of Colonel William Casey, of Adair county, sprang forward and shut the door, and called for the gun of her absent brother. Thomas. Betsey, a twelve-year-old sister, clambered out the chimney, which was built low, and ran for Pettit's station, over two miles distant. An Indian pursued her some distance, but the fleet- footed girl outran him, and reached Pettit's. A messenger immediately was dispatched from here to Logan's for help.
William Montgomery, Jr., occupying an adjacent cabin, barricaded his cabin door, and directed an apprenticed boy living with him to support the barricades. Then grasping his rifle, he fired twice at the Indians, killing one and wounding another. His brother John, yet in bed, was shot through a crack, as he attempted to rise up, and mortally wounded, in another cabin. His door was then forced open. and his wife made prisoner. Russell, the brother-in-law, escaped from his cabin, and his wife, three children. and a servant-girl were made prisoners. The savages then retreated, bearing off their captives and the man wounded by William. They had not long started, when the Indian who had pursued Betsey returned and mounted a log in front of William's cabin : Montgomery fired through an opening in the log walls, and shot him dead.
On arrival of the messenger at the fort. Logan gave a few loud blasts with his horn, the signal of alarm. and in a few minutes a dozen or more
I Collins, Vol. II , p. 472.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
mounted foresters, with rifles in hand, came in from the neighboring cabins. Under Logan's lead, they galloped to the assaulted cabins, and there took the trail. Pursuing rapidly, and aided by signs which Mrs. Russell had presence of mind to make with broken twigs and pieces of a handkerchief broken off and dropped, they first came upon the negro girl, who had been tomahawked, scalped, and left for dead. She had revived, and on hearing the voice of Logan, sprang up, and joyfully exclaimed, " Bless God, it's Massa Ben!" She afterward recovered.
A few minutes after, they came in sight of the savages, when Logan ordered a charge with a shout, so as to give the Indians no time to massacre and scalp the prisoners. They fled with precipitancy, leaving their wounded comrade to the mercy of the whites. A daughter of Mrs. Russell, twelve years old, spying Logan in front, clapped her hands, and like the negro, cried out, "O, there's Uncle Ben!" when the savage in charge struck the innocent child dead with his tomahawk. The remainder of the prisoners were recaptured without injury. Encumbered with these, and with the main object of pursuit accomplished, the rescuers returned, and reached their cabins in safety before nightfall.
In October of this year, Daniel Boone and Edward, his brother, were returning from Blue Lick with a supply of salt, when they were fired on by concealed Indians near Grassy Lick, Bourbon county. Edward fell dead by his side, and the scalping knife was applied within Boone's sight, as he ran for his own life into the woods.1 The pursuing Indians put a dog on the trail of the retreating man, which followed him some miles, greatly to his annoyance. Finding that safety required, Boone halted until the dog came within sight and range, when he shot it, and made his escape. From Bryan's, Lexington, and Strode's stations, he hastily summoned a troop of sixty, under Captain Charles Gatliffe and James Ray, who went in pursuit of the Indians. Passing through the eastern part of Mason county, they followed the trail to a point where it crossed the Ohio river below the mouth of Cabin creek, when they abandoned it and returned home
Strode's station, two miles from the present Winchester, was this year assailed by a considerable body of Indians; but after some fighting, without serious or decisive results, they withdrew to other parts.
The following characteristic tradition of Boone? was often told by James Wade, an old acquaintance, and a well-known pioneer of Bath county, in years gone by: In passing alone, as he often did, in 1780, from Boonesboro to Upper Blue Lick, Boone diverged eastward of the direct route down Slate creek. Fresh signs of Indians near Gilmore's station, twelve miles east of Mt. Sterling, caused him to move very secretively. Passing over several miles of level forest, afterward Judge Ewing's, two miles south of Owings- ville, he reached the brow of a gentle slope extending to Slate creek, and halted to quench his thirst at a spring. A bullet whistled near, and scaled
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