History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 8

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912

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snow melted recommenced the ravages along the frontier, killing, scalping and taking prisoners men, women and children.

Bouquet could muster scarcely 500 men of the regular army, most of them Highlanders of the 42nd and 60th regiments, but Pennsyl- vania, at her own expense, furnished 1,000 militia, and Virginia, a corps of volunteers. With this imposing force he was directed to march against the Delawares, Mohicans and Mingoes; while General Bradstreet, from Detroit, should advance into the territory of the Wyandots, Ottawas, and Chippewas; and thus, by one great simultaneous movement, crush those warlike tribes. Bouquet's route, how- ever, was without any water communication whatever, and lay directly through the heart of an unbroken wilderness. The expedition, from beginning to end, was to be carried on without boats, wagons or artillery, and without a post to fall back upon in case of disaster, The army was to be an isolated thing, a self- supporting machine.

Although the preparations commenced early in the spring, difficulties and delays occurred in carrying them forward, so that the troops that were ordered to assemble at Carisle did not get ready to march until the 5th of August. Four days after, they were drawn up on parade, and addressed in a patriotic speech by the Governor of the Colony. This ceremony be- ing finished, they turned their steps toward the wilderness, followed by the cheers of the peo- ple. Passing over the bloody field of Bushy Run, which still bore the marks of the sharp conflict that had taken place there the year before, they pushed on, unmolested by the In- dians, and entered Fort Pitt on the 13th of September.

In the meantime a company of Delawares visited the fort, and informed Bouquet that General Bradstreet had formed a treaty of peace with them and the Shawnees. Bouquet gave no credit to the story, and went on with his prepar- ations. To set the matter at rest, however, he offered to send an express to Detroit if they would furnish guides and a safe conduct, say- ing he would give it 10 days to go and 10 days to return. This they agreed to; but, unwilling

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

to truft their word alone, he retained 10 of their number as hostages, whom he declared he would shoot if the express came to any harm. Scan after, other Indians arrived and en- deavored to persuade him not to advance until the express should return.

Suspecting that their motive was to delay him until the season was too far advanced to move at all, he turned a deaf ear to their solicita- tions, saying that the express could reach him on his march; and, if it was true, as they said. that peace was concluded, they would receive no harm from him. So, on the 3rd of October. under a bright autumnal sky, the imposing little army of 1,500 men filed out of the fort, and taking the great Indian trail westward boldly entered the wilderness. The long train of pack- horses and immense droves of sheep and cattle that accompanied it gave to it the appearance of a huge caravan, slowly threading its way amidst the endless colonnades of the forest. Only one woman was allowed to each corps, and two for the general hospital.

This expedition, even in early history, was a novel one: for, following no water-course. it struck directly into the trackless forest, with no definite point in view, and no fixed limit to its advance. It was intended to overawe by its magnitude; to move as an exhibition of awful power into the very heart of the red man's dominions. Expecting to be shut up in the forest at least a month, and receive in that time no supplies from without, it had to carry along an immense quantity of provisions. Meat, of course, could not be preserved, and so the frontier settlements were exhausted of sheep and oxen to move on with it for its support. These necessarily caused its march to be slow and methodical. A corps of Virginian volun- teers went in advance, preceded by the three scouting parties, one of which kept the path, while the other two moved in a line abreast on either side to explore the woods. Under cover of these the axe companies, guarded by two companies of light infantry, cut two parallel paths, one on each side of the main path, for the troops, pack-horses, and cattle that were to follow. First marched the High- landers in column two deep in the center path,

and in the side paths in single file abreast, the men six feet apart; and behind them the corps of reserve and the second battalion of Pennsyl- vania militia. Then came the officers and pack- horses, followed by the vast droves of cattle, filling the forest with their loud complainings. A company of light horse walked slowly after these, and the rear guards closed the long array. No talking was allowed, and no music cheered the way. When the order to halt passed along the line, the whole were to face outward, and the moment the signal of attack sounded, to form a hollow square, into the center of which pack-horses, ammunition and cattle were to be hurried, followed by the light horse. In this order the unwieldly caravan struggled on through the forest, neither. extremity of which could be seen from the center, it being lost amidst the thickly clustering trunks and foliage in the distance.

The first day the expedition made only three miles. The next, after marching two miles, it came to the Ohio, and moved down its gravelly beach six miles and a half, when it again struck into the forest, and making seven miles en- camped. The sheep and cattle, which kept up an incessant bleating and lowing that could be heard more than a mile, were placed far in the rear, at night and strongly guarded.

Friday, October 5th, the march led across a level country, covered with stately timber and with but little underbrush, so that paths were easily cut, and the army made 10 miles before camping. The next day it again struck the Ohio but followed it only half a mile when it turned abruptly off, and crossing a high ridge, over. which the cattle were urged with great difficulty, found itself on the banks of the Big Beaver Creek. The stream was deep for fording, with a rough, rocky bottom, and high steep banks. The current was. more- over, strong and rapid; so that, although the soldiers waded across without great difficulty, they had trouble in getting the cattle safety over. The sheep were compelled to swim and, l'eing borne down by the rapid current, landed, bleating, in scattered squads, along the steep banks, and were collected together again only after a long effort. Keeping down the stream,

RESIDENCE OF JOHN C. THOMPSON, EAST LIVERPOOL

RESIDENCE OF MRS. J. T. BROOKS, SALEM

RESIDENCE OF W. H. MULLINS SALEM

RESIDENCE OF J. J. DOWLING, WELLSVILLE

RESIDENCE OF DR. J. W. HAMMOND, WELLSVILLE

RESIDENCE OF HENRY GOODWIN, EAST LIVERPOOL

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they at length reached its mouth, where they found some deserted Indian huts, which the Indians with them said had been abandoned the year before, after the battle of Bushy Run. Two miles further on they came upon the skull of a child stuck upon a pole. There were a large number of men in the army who had wives, children, and friends held as prisoners among the Indians, and who had accompanied the expedition for the purpose of recovering them. To these the skull of the little child brought sad reflections. Some one among them was perhaps its father, while the thought that it might stand as an index to tell the fate of all that had been captured made each one shudder. As they looked on it, bleached by the winds and rain, the anxious heart asked questions it dared not answer.

The next day was Sunday, but the camp broke up at the usual hour, and the army re- sumed its slow march. During the day it crossed a high ridge, from the top of which one of those wondrous scenes found nowhere but in the American wilderness burst on their view. A limitless expanse of forest stretched away until it met the western heavens, broken only here or there by a dark gash or seam, showing where, deep down amidst the trees, a river was pursuing its solitary way to the Ohio, or an occasional glimpse of the Ohio itself, as in its winding course it came in line of vision. In one direction the tree-tops would extend miles upon miles, a vast flooring of foliage, level as the bosom of a lake, and then break into green billows, that went rolling gently against the cloudless horizon. In an- other, lofty ridges rose, crowned with majestic trees, at the base of which swamps of dark fir trees, refusing the bright beams of the Octo- ber sun, that flooded the rest of the wilderness, made a pleasing contrast of light and shade. The magnificent scene was new to officers and men, and they gazed on it in rapture and wonder.

OLD CAMP BOUQUET.

There is a slight conflict of dates; but a consensus of several authorities at hand would seem to show that it was on Monday, October

8th, that Colonel Bouquet and liis army en- camped at what in one record is given as camp No. 7, in Columbiana County, at the beautiful spot, near Negley, which has since been and is now known as Camp Bouquet. One author- ity says : "Camp No. 7 lies on and at the foot of a beautiful knoll, commanding the ground around it, and is distant eleven miles, one quarter, and forty-nine perches from the last encampment."

Keeping on their course, they came, two days after, to a point where the Indian path they had been following so long divided-the two branches leading off at a wide angle. The trees at the forks were covered with hierogly- phics, describing the various battles the Indians had fought, and telling the number of scalps they had taken, etc. This point was in the southern part of the present county of Colum- biana. The trails were both plainly marked and much traveled.

The right-hand trail took a general course northwest toward Sandusky, and led to that place and on to Detroit ; the course of the left- hand trail was generally south-west, and passed through the counties of Carroll and Tuscar- awas, striking the Tuscarawas River, down which it followed, on the south side, to Coshoc- ton, and crossing the Muskingum a few miles below the site of Coshocton continued down the west side of the Muskingum to Dresden, where it crossed the Wakatomika and entered Licking County ; passing across that county to the present reservoir, it continued on southwest to the Indian towns on the Scioto.

Colonel Bouquet took the right-hand trail, which he followed until he reached the Tuscar- awas River, when he left it and turned south- ward along that stream. The path selected by the army was so overgrown by bushes that every foot of the way had to be cleared with the axe. It led through low, soft ground, and was frequented by narrow, sluggish rivulets, so deep and miry that the pack-horses could not be forced across them. After several attempts to do so, in which the animals became so thoroughly imbedded in the mud that they had to be lifted out with main force, they halted, while the artificers cut down trees and poles

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

and made bridges. This was the hardest day's trial to which they had been subjected, and with their utmost efforts they were able to accomplish but five miles.

On Thursday, the IIth, the forest was open and so clear of undergrowth that they made 17 miles. Friday, the 12th the paths led along the banks of Yellow Creek, through a beauti- ful country of rich bottom land on which the Pennslyvanians and Virginians looked with covetous eyes, and made notes for future refer- ence. The next day they crossed it, and ascend- ing a swell of land marched two miles in view of one of the loveliest prospects that the sun ever shone upon. There had been two or three frosty nights, which had changed the whole aspect of the forest. Where, a few days be- fore, an ocean of green had rolled away, there now was spread a boundless carpet decorated with an endless variety of the gayest colors, and lighted up by the mellow rays of an Octo- ber sun. Long strips of yellow, vast masses of green, waving lines of red, wandering away and losing themselves in the blue of the distant sky-immense spaces sprinkled with every imaginable hue, now separated clear and dis- tinct as if by a painter's brush, and now shad- ing gradually into each other or mingling in inextricable, beautiful confusion, combined to form a scene that appeared more like a won- drous vision suddenly unrolled before them than this dull earth. A cloudless sky and the dreamy haze of Indian summer, overarching and enrobing all this beauty and splendor, com- pleted the picture and left nothing for the imag- ination to suggest.

At length they descended to a small river, which they followed till it joined the main branch of the Muskingum (Tuscarawas), where a scene of a very different character greeted them. A little below and above the forks, the shores had been cultivated and lined with Indian houses. The place was called "Tuscaroras," and for beauty of situation could not well be surpassed. The high, luxuriant banks, the placid rivers meeting and flowing on together, the green fields sprinkled with huts and bordered with the rich autumnal foliage, all basking in the mellow October light, and so

out of the way there in the wilderness, com- bined to form a sweet picture, and was doubly lovely to them after having been so long shut up in the forest. They reached this beautiful spot Saturday afternoon, October 13th, and the next day being Sunday they remained in camp, and men and cattle were allowed a day of rest. The latter revived under the smell of green grass once more, and roaming over the fields gave a still more civilized aspect to the quiet scene.

During the day the two messengers that had been sent to Detroit came into camp, accom- panied by their Indian guides. The report they brought showed the wisdom of Bouquet in re- fusing to delay his march until their return. They had not been allowed to pursue their journey, but were held close prisoners by the Delawares until the arrival of the army, when, alarmed for their own safety, the Indians re- leased them and made them bearers of a petition for peace.

CONFERENCE WITH THE INDIANS.

The next day, Monday, the army moved two miles farther. down the Tuscarawas, and encamped on a high bank, where the stream was 300 feet wide, within the present limits of Tuscarawas County, where it remained in camp about a week. On Tuesday six chiefs came into camp, saying that all the rest were eight miles off, waiting to make peace. Bou- quet told them he would be ready to receive them the next day. In the meantime he ordered a large bower to be built a short distance from camp, while sentinels were posted in every di- rection to prevent surprise, in case treachery was meditated.

The next day, the 17th, he paraded the Highlanders and the Virginian volunteers, and, escorted by the light horse, led them to the bower, where he disposed them in the most imposing manner, so as to impress the chiefs in the approaching interview. The latter, as they emerged from the forest, were conducted with great ceremony to the bower, which they entered with their accustomed gravity; and without saying a word quietly seated them-

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selves and commenced smoking. When they had finished, they laid aside their pipes, and drew from their pouches strings of wampum. The council being thus opened, they made a long address, laying the whole blame of the war on the young men, whom they said they could not control. Bouquet, not wishing to appear eager to come to a settlement, replied that he would give his answer the next day; and the council broke up. The next day, how- ever, a pouring storm prevented the meeting of the council which did not convene until the day following. Bouquet's answer was long and conciliatory, but the gist of it was he would make peace on one condition and no other- that the Indians should give up all the prisoners in their possession within 10 days. The Indians present at this council were Ki-yas-uta, chief of the Senecas, with 15 warriors; Custaloga, chief of the Wolf tribe of the Delawares, and Beaver, chief of the Turkey tribe of the Dela- wares, with 20 warriors; and Kissinautchtha, as chief of the Shawnees, with six warriors.

On Monday, October 22nd, the army, ac- companied by the Indian deputies, resumed their march, as Bouquet wished to show that he was determined to enforce his demands. They marched nine miles down the Tuscarawas and went into camp. This was their 14th camp since leaving Fort Pitt, and was within a few miles of the east line of Coshocton County. The next day, October 23rd, the army crossed the present boundaries of . Coshocton County, marching 16 miles and camping seven miles east of the present site of the town. Here Bouquet remained until the 25th, when he con- tinued his march a little more than six miles, camping within a mile of the forks of the Muskingum.

Judging this to be as central a position as he could find, he resolved to fix himself here until the object of his mission could be accomplished. He ordered four redoubts to be built, erected several storehouses, a mess house, a large num- ber of ovens and various other buildings for the reception of the captives, which, with the white tents, scattered up and down the banks of the river, made a large settlement in the wil- derness and filled the Indians with alarm. A

town with nearly 2,000 inhabitants, well sup- plied with horses, cattle and sheep, and ample means of defence, was well calculated to awaken the gloomiest anticipations.

The steady sound of the ax day after day the lowing of the cattle, and all the sounds of civilization within the very heart of their terri- tory, were more alarming than the resistless march of a victorious army, and anxious to get rid of such unwelcome companions they made every effort to collect the prisoners scattered among the various tribes.

The American wilderness never presented such a spectacle as was here exhibited on the banks of the Muskingum. It was no longer a hostile camp, but a stage on which human na- ture was displaying its most attractive and noble traits; or rather a sublime poem, enacted here in the bosom of the wilderness, whose burden was human affection and whose great argument, the common brotherhood of mankind. Bouquet and his officers were deeply impressed and could hardly believe their senses when they saw young warriors, whose deeds of daring and savage ferocity had made their names a terror on the frontier, weeping like children over their bereavement.

A treaty of peace having been concluded with the various tribes, Bouquet, taking hostages to secure their good behavior and the return of the remaining prisoners, broke up his camp on the 18th of November and began to retrace his steps toward Fort Pitt. The leafless. forest rocked and roared above the little army as it once more entered its gloomy recesses, and that lovely spot on the Tuscarawas, on which such strange scenes had been witnessed, lapsed again into solitude and silence. The Indians gazed with various and conflicting emotions on the lessening files -- some with grief and desola- tion of heart because they bore away the ob- jects of their deep affections; others with sav- age hate, for they went as conquerors.

In 10 days the army again drew up in a little clearing in front of Fort Pitt and were welcomed with loud shouts. The war was over, and the troubled frontier rested once more in peace.

Captain Thomas Hutchins gives in detail

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

the conference between Colonel Bouquet and the chiefs of the different tribes. The quaint simplicity of his narrative is charming. A quo- tation from him, with some of the incidents of the conference between Bouquet and the Shaw- nees, follows :

"The Shawnees still remained to be treated with, and though this nation saw themselves under the necessity of yielding to the same con- ditions with the other tribes, yet there had ap- peared a dilatoriness and sullen haughtiness in all their conduct which rendered it very sus- picious.

"The 12th of November was appointed for the conference with them, which was arranged on their part by Kissinautchtha and Nimwha, their chiefs, with the Red Hawk, Lavissimo, Bensivasica, Eweecuntwe, Keigleighque and 40 warriors. The Caughnawaga, Seneca and Delaware chiefs, with about 60 warriors, being all present.

"The Red Hawk was their speaker, and as he delivered himself with a strange mixture of fierce pride and humble submission, a passage or two from his speech is added :

" 'Brother: You will listen to us your younger brothers, and as we discover something in your eyes that looks like dissatisfaction with us, we now wipe away everything bad between us that you may clearly see. You have heard many bad stories of us. We clean your ears that you may hear. We remove everything bad from your hearts that it may be like the heart of your ancestors when they thought of nothing but good. ( Here he gave a string.)

" 'Brother : When we saw you coming this road you advanced toward us with a tomahawk in your hands; but we, your younger. brothers, take it out of your hands and throw it up to God to dispose of as he pleases, by which means we hope never to see it more.' Their usual figure of speech is 'burying the hatchet,' but as such hatchets may be dug up again, perhaps he thought this new expression of 'sending it up to God,' or the 'Great Spirit,' a much stronger emblem of the permanency and stead- fastness of the peace now to be made. 'And now, Brother, we beg leave that you who are a warrior will take hold of this chain ( giving a

string) of friendship and receive it from us, who are also warriors, and let us think no more of war, in pity to our old men, women and children.' Intimating by this last expression that it was mere compassion to them and not inability to fight that made their nation desire peace.

"He then produced a treaty held with the government of Pennsylvania, 1701, and three messages or letters from that government of different dates, and concluded thus :

"'Now, Brother, I beg we who are war- riors may forget our disputes and renew the friendship which appears by these papers to have subsisted between our fathers.' He prom- ised, in behalf of the rest of their nation who had gone to a great distance to hunt and could not have notice to attend the treaty, that they should certainly come to Fort Pitt in the spring and bring the remainder of the prisoners with them."

As the season was far advanced, the Colonel could not stay long in these remote parts. He was obliged to rest satisfied with the prisoners the Shawnees had brought, taking hostages and laying them under the strongest obligations for the delivery of the rest, knowing that no other effectual method could be pursued.

PRISONERS DELIVERED UP.

After a reply from Bouquet and some further talk, the prisoners were delivered up. The circumstances are thus told by Dr. Smith : "The Caughnawagas, the Delawares and Senecas severally addressed the Shawnees, as grandchildren and nephews, 'to perform their promises and to be strong in doing good, that this peace might be everlasting.'

"And I am here to enter on a scene re- served on purpose for this place that the thread of the foregoing narrative might not be inter- rupted-a scene which language can but weakly describe ; and to which the poet or painter might have repaired to enrich their highest colorings of the variety of human passions; the philoso- pher to find ample subject for his most serious reflections : and the man to exercise all the tender and sympathetic feelings of the soul.

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"The scene I mean was the arrival of the prisoners in camp; where were to be seen fath- ers and mothers recognizing and clasping their once lost babes; husbands hanging around the necks of the newly recovered wives; sisters and brothers unexpectedly meeting together after long separation, scarce able to speak the same language, or, for some time, to be sure that they were children of the same parents. In all these interviews joy and rapture inexpressible were seen, while feelings of a very different nature were painted in the looks of others- flying from place to place in eager inquiries after relatives not found, trembling to receive an answer to their questions, distracted with doubts, hopes and fears, on obtaining no ac- count of those they fought for-or stiffened into living monuments of horror and woe on learning their unhappy fate.

"The Indians, too, as if wholly forgetting their usual savageness, bore a capital part in heightening this most effective scene.

"They delivered up their beloved captives with the utmost reluctance, shed torrents of tears over them, recommending them to the care and protection of the commanding officer. Their regard for them continued all the time they remained in the camp. They visited them from day to day, and brought them what corn, skins, horses and other property they had be- stowed upon them while in their families, ac- companied with other presents, and all the marks of the most sincere and tender affections. Nay, they did not stop here; but when the army marched, some of the Indians solicited and ob- tained leave to accompany their former captives all the way to Fort Pitt, and employed them- selves In hunting and bringing provisions for them on the road. A young Mingo carried this still further, and gave an instance of love which would make a figure even in romance. A young woman of Virginia was among the cap- tives, for whom he had formed so strong an attachment as to call her his wife. Against all the remonstrances of the imminent danger to which he exposed himself by approaching the frontiers, he persisted in following her at the risk of being killed by the surviving relatives of many unfortunate persons, who had been

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History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 8

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 912

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912