USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio, containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history : with descriptions of its counties, principal towns, and villages > Part 80
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Nothing material happened during their march until the sixth of June, when their guides conducted them to the site of the Moravian villages, on one of the upper branches of the Sandusky river ; but here, instead of meeting with Indians and plunder, they met with noth- ing but vestiges of desolation. The place was covered with high grass, and the remains of a few huts alone, announced that the place had been the residence of the people whom they intended to destroy, but who had moved off to Scioto some time before.
In this dilemma what was to be done ? The officers held a council, in which it was de- termined to march one day longer in the direction of Upper Sandusky, and if they should not reach the town in the course of the day, to make a retreat with all speed.
The march was commenced the next morning through the plains of Sandusky, and con- tinued until about two o'clock, when the advance guard was attacked and driven in by the
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Indians, who were discovered in large numbers, in the high grass, with which the place was covered. The Indian army was at that moment about entering a piece of woods, almost entirely surrounded by plains ; but in this they were disappointed by a rapid move- ment of our men. The battle then commenced by a heavy fire from both sides. From a partial possession of the woods which they had gained at the onset of the battle, the In- dians were soon dislodged. They then attempted to gain a small skirt of wood on our right flank, but were prevented from doing so by the vigilance and bravery of Maj. Leet, who commanded the right wing of the army at that time. The firing was incessant and heavy until dark, when it ceased. Both armies lay on their arms during the night. Both adopted the policy of kindling large fires along the line of battle, and then retiring some distance in the rear of them, to prevent being surprised by a night attack. During the conflict of the afternoon, three of our men were killed and several wounded.
In the morning our army occupied the battle ground of the preceding day. The In- dians made no attack during the day, until late in the evening, but were seen in large bo- dies traversing the plains in various directions. Some of them appeared to be employed in carrying off their dead and wounded.
In the morning of this day a council of the officers was held, in which a retreat was resolved on, as the only means of saving their army. The Indians appeared to increase in number every hour. During the sitting of this council, Col. Williamson proposed taking one hundred and fifty volunteers, and marching directly to Upper Sandusky. This propo- sition the commander-in-chief prudently rejected, saying, " I have no doubt but that you would reach the town, but you would find nothing there but empty wigwams, and having taken off so many of our best men, you would leave the rest to be destroyed by the host of Indians with which we are now surrounded, and on your return they would attack and destroy you. They care nothing about defending their towns ; they are worth nothing. Their squaws, children and property, have been removed from them long since. Our lives and baggage are what they want, and if they can get us divided they will soon have them. We must stay together and do the best we can."
During this day preparations were made for a retreat by burying the dead, burning fires over their graves to prevent discovery, and preparing means for carrying off the wounded. The retreat was to commence in the course of the night. The Indians, however, became apprized of the intended retreat, and about sundown attacked the army with great force and fury, in every direction, excepting that of Sandusky.
When the line of march was formed by the commander-in-chief, and the retreat com- menced, our guides prudently took the direction of Sandusky, which afforded the only opening in the Indian lines and the only chance of concealment. After marching about a mile in this direction, the army wheeled about to the left, and by a circuitous route gained the trail by which they came, before day. They continued their march the whole of the next day, with a trifling annoyance from the Indians, who fired a few distant shots at the rear guard, which slightly wounded two or three men. At night they built fires, took their suppers, secured the horses and resigned themselves to repose, without placing a sin- gle sentinel or vidette for safety. In this careless situation, they might have been surprised and cut off by the Indians, who, however, gave them no disturbance during the night, nor afterwards during the whole of their retreat. The number of those composing the main body in the retreat was supposed to be about three hundred.
Most unfortunately, when a retreat was resolved on, a difference of opinion prevailed concerning the best mode of effecting it. The greater number thought best to keep in a body and retreat as fast as possible, while a considerable number thought it safest to break off in small parties and make their way home in different directions, avoiding the route by which they came. Accordingly many attempted to do so, calculating that the whole body of the Indians would follow the main army ; in this they were entirely mistaken. The Indians paid but little attention to the main body of the army, but pursued the small par- ties with such activity that but very few of those who composed them made their escape.
The only successful party who were detached from the main army was that of about forty men under the command of a Captain Williamson, who, pretty late in the night of the retreat, broke through the Indian lines under a severe fire, and with some loss, and over- took the main army on the morning of the second day of the retreat.
For several days after the retreat of our army, the Indians were spread over the whole country, from Sandusky to the Muskingum, in pursuit of the straggling parties, most of whom were killed on the spot. They even pursued them almost to the banks of the Ohio. A man of the name of Mills was killed, two miles to the eastward of the site of St. Clairsville, in the direction of Wheeling from that place. The number killed in this way must have been very great, the precise amount, however, was never fairly ascertained.
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At the commencement of the retreat Col. Crawford placed himself at the head of the army and continued there until they had gone about a quarter of a mile, when missing his son, John Crawford, his son-in-law, Major Harrison, and his nephews, Major Rose and William Crawford, he halted and called for them as the line passed, but without finding them. After the army had passed him, he was unable to overtake it, owing to the weari- ness of his horse. Falling in company with Doctor Knight and two others, they travelled all the night, first north, and then to the east, to avoid the pursuit of the Indians. They directed their courses during the night by the north star.
On the next day, they fell in with Captain John Biggs and Lieutenant Ashley, the latter of whom was severely wounded. There were two others in company with Biggs and Ashley. They encamped together the succeeding night. On the next day, while on their march, they were attacked by a party of Indians, who made Col. Crawford and Doctor Knight prisoners. The other four made their escape, but Captain Biggs and Lieutenant Ashley were killed the next day.
Colonel Crawford and Doctor Knight were immediately taken to an Indian encampment at a short distance from the place where they were captured. Here they found nine fellow prisoners and seventeen Indians. On the next day they were marched to the old Wyan- dot town, and on the next morning were paraded, to set off, as they were told, to go to the new town. But alas ! a very different destination awaited these captives! Nine of the prisoners were marched off some distance before the colonel and the doctor, who were conducted by Pipe and Wingenund, two Delaware chiefs. Four of the prisoners were tomahawked and scalped on the way, at different places.
Preparations had been made for the execution of Colonel Crawford, by setting a post about fifteen feet high in the ground, and making a large fire of hickory poles about six yards from it. About half a mile from the place of execution the remaining five of the nine prisoners were tomahawked and scalped by a number of squaws and boys. Colonel Crawford's son and son-in-law were executed at the Shawnese town. * * *
Dr. Knight was doomed to be burned at a town about forty miles distant from Sandusky, and committed to the care of a young Indian to be taken there. The first day they trav- elled about twenty-five miles, and encamped for the night. In the morning the gnats be- - ing very troublesome, the doctor requested the Indian to untie him that he might help him to make a fire to keep them off. With this request the Indian complied. While the In- dian was on his knees and elbows, blowing the fire, the doctor caught up a piece of a tent pole which had been burned in two, about eighteen inches long, with which he struck the Indian on his head with all his might, so as to knock him forward into the fire. The stick, however, broke, so that the Indian, although severely hurt, was not killed, but imme- diately sprang up ; on this the doctor caught up the Indian's gun to shoot him, but drew back the cock with so much violence that he broke the main spring. The Indian ran off with an hideous yelling. Doctor Knight then made the best of his way home, which he reached in twenty-one days, almost famished to death. The gun being of no use, after carrying it a day or two, he left it behind. On his journey he subsisted on roots, a few young birds and berries. * * * * *
Thus ended this disastrous campaign. It was the last one which took place in this sec- tion of the country during the revolutionary contest of the Americans with the mother country. It was undertaken with the very worst of views, those of plunder and murder ; it was conducted without sufficient means to encounter, with any prospect of success, the large force of Indians opposed to ours in the plains of Sandusky. It was conducted with- out that subordination and discipline so requisite to insure success in any hazardous enter- prize, and it ended in a total discomfiture. Never did an enterprize more completely fail of attaining its object. Never, on any occasion, had the ferocious savages more ample re- venge for the murder of their pacific friends, than that which they obtained on this occasion.
Should it be asked what considerations led so great a number of people into this despe- rate enterprize ? Why with so small a force and such slender means they pushed on so far as the plains of Sandusky ?
The answer is, that many believed that the Moravian Indians, taking no part in the war, and having given offence to the warriors on several occasions, their belligerent friends would not take up arms in their behalf. In this conjecture they were sadly mistaken. They did defend them with all the force at their command, and no wonder, for notwithstanding their christian and pacific principles, the warriors still regarded the Moravians as their relations, whom it was their duty to defend.
We have omitted to copy from the preceding the account of the burning of Col. Crawford, for the purpose of giving the details more
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WYANDOT COUNTY.
fully. " The spot where Crawford suffered," says Col. John Johns- ton, "was a few miles west of Upper Sandusky, on the old trace leading to the Big Spring, Wyandot town. It was on the right hand of the trace going west, on a low bottom on the east bank of the Tyemochte creek. The Delawares burnt Crawford in satisfaction for the massacre of their people at the Moravian towns on the Muskingum." It was at a Delaware town which extended along the Tyemochte. The precise spot is now owned by the heirs of Daniel Hodge, and is a beautiful green with some fine oak trees in its vicinity.
The following is from Heckewelder, and describes an interview which Crawford had with the Indian chief, Wingenund, just previous to his death. Some doubts have been expressed of its truth as the historian Heckewelder has often been accused of being fond of ro- mancing, but Col. Johnston, (good authority here,) expresses the opinion that " it is doubtless in the main correct."
Wingenund, an Indian chief, had an interview with Col. Crawford just before his execu- tion. He had been known to Crawford some time before, and had been on terms of friend- ship with him, and kindly entertained by him at his own house, and therefore felt much at- tached to the colonel. Wingenund had retired to his cabin, that he might not see the sen- tence executed ; but Crawford sent for him, with the faint hope that he would intercede for and save him. Wingenund accordingly soon appeared in presence of Crawford, who was naked and bound to a stake. Wingenund commenced the conversation with much em- barrassment and agitation, as follows :
Wingenund-" Are you not Col. Crawford ?"
Crawford-" I am."
Wingenund, somewhat agitated, ejaculates, " So !- yes !- indeed !"
Crawford-" Do you not recollect the friendship that always existed between us, and that we were always glad to see each other ?"
Wingenund-" Yes! I remember all this, and that we have often drank together, and that you have been kind to me."
Crawford-" Then I hope the same friendship still continues."
Wingenund-" It would, of course, were you where you ought to be, and not here."
Crawford-" And why not here ? I hope you would not desert a friend in time of need. Now is the time for you to exert yourself in my behalf, as I should do for you were you in my place."
Wingenund-" Colonel Crawford! you have placed yourself in a situation which puts it out of my power, and that of others of your friends, to do any thing for you."
Crawford-" How so, Captain Wingenund ?"
Wingenund-" By joining yourself to that execrable man, Williamson, and his party- the man, who, but the other day, murdered such a number of Moravian Indians, knowing them to be friends; knowing that he ran no risk in murdering a people who would not fight, and whose only business was praying."
Crawford-" But I assure you, Wingenund, that had I been with him at the time, this would not have happened. Not I alone, but all your friends, and all good men, whoever they are, reprobate acts of this kind."
Wingenund-" That may be; yet these friends, these good men, did not prevent him from going out again to kill the remainder of these inoffensive; yet foolish Moravian In- dians. I say foolish, because they believed the whites in preference to us. We had often told them they would be one day so treated by those people, who called themselves their friends! We told them there was no faith to be placed in what the white man said ; that their fair promises were only intended to allure us, that they might the more easily kill us, as they had done many Indians before these Moravians."
Crawford-" I am sorry to hear you speak thus ; as to Williamson's going out again, when it was known he was determined on it, I went out with him to prevent his committing .fresh murders."
Wingenund-" This the Indians would not believe, were even I to tell them so."
Crawford-" Why would they not believe ?"
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WYANDOT COUNTY.
Wingenund-" Because it would have been out of your power to have prevented his doing what he pleased."
Crawford-" Out of my power ! Have any Moravian Indians been killed or hurt since we came out ?"
Wingenund-" None ; but you first went to their town, and finding it deserted, you turned on the path towards us. If you had been in search of warriors only, you would not have gone thither. Our spies watched you closely. They saw you while you were em- bodying yourselves on the other side of the Ohio. They saw you cross the river-they saw where you encamped for the night-they saw you turn off from the path to the deserted Moravian town-they knew you were going out of your way-your steps were constantly watched, and you were suffered quietly to proceed until you reached the spot where you were attacked."
Crawford felt that, with this sentence, ended his last ray of hope, and now asked, with emotion, " what do they intend to do with me ?"
Wingenund-" I tell you with grief. As Williamson, with his whole cowardly host, ran off in the night at the whistling of our warriors' balls, being satisfied that now he had no Moravians to deal with, but men who could fight, and with such he did not wish to have anything to do-I say, as they have escaped and taken you, they will take revenge on you in his stead."
Crawford-And is there no possibility of preventing this? Can you devise no way of getting me off? You shall, my friend, be well rewarded if you are instrumental in saving my life."
Wingenund-" Had Williamson been taken with you, I and some friends, by making use of what you have told me, might perhaps have succeeded in saving you ; but as the matter now stands, no man would dare to interfere in your behalf. The king of England himself, were he to come on to this spot, with all his wealth and treasure, could not effect this purpose. The blood of the innocent Moravians, more than half of them women and children, cruelly and wantonly murdered, calls loudly for revenge. The relatives of the slain, who are among us, cry out and stand ready for revenge. The nation to which they belonged will have revenge. The Shawanese, our grandchildren, have asked for your fellow-prisoner ; on him they will take revenge. All the nations connected with us cry out, revenge ! revenge ! The Moravians whom you went to destroy, having fled, instead of avenging their brethren, the offence is become national, and the nation itself is bound to take revenge !"
Crawford-" My fate is then fixed, and I must prepare to meet death in its worst form."
Wingenund-" I am sorry for it, but cannot do anything for you. Had you attended to the Indian principle, that as good and evil cannot dwell together in the same heart, so a good man ought not to go into evil company, you would not be in this lamentable situation. You see now, when it is too late, after Williamson has deserted you, what a bad man he must be. Nothing now remains for you but to meet your fate like a brave man. Farewell, Col. Crawford !- they are coming. I will retire to a solitary spot."
The savages then fell upon Crawford. Wingenund, it is said, retired, shedding tears, and ever after, when the circumstance was alluded to, was sensibly affected.
The account of the burning of Colonel Crawford is related in the words of Dr. Knight, his companion, and an eye-witness of this tragic scene.
When we went to the fire, the colonel was stripped naked, ordered to sit down by the fire, and then they beat him with sticks and their fists. Presently after I was treated in the same manner. They then tied a rope to the foot of a post about fifteen feet high, bound the colonel's hands behind his back and fastened the rope to the ligature between his wrists. The rope was long enough for him to sit down or walk round the post once or twice, and return the same way. The colonel then called to Girty, and asked if they intended to burn him ? Girty answered, yes. The colonel said he would take it all patiently. Upon this, Captain Pipe, a Delaware chief, made a speech to the Indians, viz., about thirty or forty men, sixty or seventy squaws and boys.
When the speech was finished, they all yelled a hideous and hearty assent to what had been said. The Indian men then took up their guns and shot powder into the colonel's body, from his feet as far up as his neck. I think that not less than seventy loads were discharged upon his naked body. They then crowded about him, and to the best of my observation, cut off his cars ; when the throng had dispersed a little, I saw the blood run- ning from both sides of his head in consequence thereof.
The fire was about six or seven yards from the post to which the colonel was tied ; it
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was made of small hickory poles, burnt quite through in the middle, each end of the poles remaining about six feet in length. Three or four Indians by turns would take up, indi- vidually, one of these burning pieces of wood, and apply it to his naked body, already burnt black with the powder. These tormentors presented themselves on every side of him with the burning faggots and poles. Some of the squaws took broad boards, upon which they would carry a quantity of burning coals and hot embers, and throw on him, so that in a short time he had nothing but coals of fire and hot ashes to walk upon.
In the midst of these extreme tortures he called to Simon Girty, and begged of him to shoot him ; but Girty making no answer, he called to him again. Girty then, by way of derision, told the colonel he had no gun, at the same time turning about to an Indian who was behind him, laughed heartily, and by all his gestures seemed delighted at the horrid scene.
Girty then came up to me and bade me prepare for death. He said, however, I was not to die at that place, but to be burnt at the Shawanese towns. He swore by G-d I need not expect to escape death, but should suffer it in all its extremities ..
Colonel Crawford, at this period of his sufferings, besought the Almighty to have mercy on his soul, spoke very low, and bore his torments with the most manly fortitude. He con- tinued in all the extremities of pain for an hour and three quarters or two hours longer, as near as I can judge, when at last, being almost exhausted, he lay down on his belly ; they then scalped him, and repeatedly threw the scalp in my face, telling me, " that was my great captain." An old squaw (whose appearance every way answered the ideas people entertain of the devil) got a board, took a parcel of coals and ashes and laid them on his back and head, after he had been scalped ; he then raised himself upon his feet and began to walk round the post ; they next put a burning stick to him, as usual, but he seemed more insen- sible of pain than before.
The Indian fellow who had me in charge, now took me away to Captain Pipe's house, about three-quarters of a mile from the place of the colonel's execution. I was bound all night, and thus prevented from seeing the last of the horrid spectacle. Next morning, being June 12th, the Indian untied me, painted me black, and we set off for the Shawanese town, which he told me was somewhat less than forty miles distant from that place. We soon came to the spot where the colonel had been burnt, as it was partly in our way ; I saw his bones lying among the remains of the fire, almost burnt to ashes; I suppose, after he was dead, they laid his body on the fire. The Indian told me that was my big captain, and gave the scalp halloo.
The following extract from an article in the American Pioneer, by Joseph M'Cutchen, Esq., contains some items respecting the death of Crawford, and Girty's interference in his behalf, never before published. He derived them from the Wyandot Indians, who re- sided, a few years since, in this county, some of whom were quite intelligent.
As I have it, the story respecting the battle is, that if Crawford had rushed on when he first came among the Indians, they would have given way and made but little or no fight ; but they had a talk with him three days previous to the fight, and asked him to give them three days to collect in their chiefs and head men of the different tribes, and they would then make a treaty of peace with him. The three days were therefore given ; and during that time all their forces gathered together that could be raised as fighting men, and the next morning Crawford was attacked, some two or three miles north of the island where the main battle was fought. The Indians then gave back in a south direction, until they got into an island of timber which suited their purpose, which was in a large plain, now well known as Sandusky plains. There the battle continued until night. The Indians then ceased firing ; and, it is said, immediately afterwards a man came near to the army with a white flag. Colonel Crawford sent an officer to him. The man said he wanted to talk with Colonel Crawford, and that he did not want Crawford to come nearer to him than twenty steps, as he (Girty) wanted to converse with Crawford, and might be of vast benefit to him. Crawford accordingly went out as requested. Girty then said, "Col. Crawford, do you know me ?" The answer was, " I seem to have some recollection of your voice, but your Indian dress deprives me of knowing you as an acquaintance." The answer was then, " My name is Simon Girty ;" and after some more conversation between them, they knew each other well. Girty said, "Crawford, my object in calling you here is to say to you, that the Indians have ceased firing until to-morrow morning, when they intend to commence the fight ; and as they are three times as strong as you are, they will be able to
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