USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County : together with historic notes on the Northwest, and the state of Ohio, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and all other authentic sources > Part 11
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
only raided upon the country-they never occupied it; their war parties, after doing as much mischief as they could, returned to their own country as rapidly as they came. Still their several deeds to the English crown were a "color of title" on which the latter laid great stress, and paraded at every treaty with other powers, where questions involving the right to this territory were a subject of dis- cussion.
The war for the fur trade expanded into a struggle for empire that convulsed both continents of America and Europe. The limit assigned this work forbids a notice of the principal occurrences in the progress of the French-Colonial War, as most of the military movements in that contest were outside of the territory we are considering. There were, however, two campaigns conducted by troops recruited in the northwest, and these engagements will be noticed. We believe they have not heretofore been compiled as fully as their importance would seem to demand.
In 1758 Gen. Forbes, with about six thousand troops, advanced against Fort De Quesne. In mid-September the British troops had only reached Loyal-hannon, where they raised a fort. "Intelligence had been received that Fort Du Quesne was defended by but eight hundred men, of whom three hundred were Indians," and Major Grant, commanding eight hundred Highlanders and a company of Virginians, was sent toward the French fort. On the third day's march Grant had arrived within two miles of Fort Du Quesne. Leav- ing his baggage there, he took position on a hill, a quarter of a mile from the fort, and encamped.
Grant, who was not aware that the garrison had been reinforced. by the arrival of Mons. Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, with four hundred men from the Illinois country, determined on an ambus- cade. At break of day, Major Lewis was sent, with four hundred men, to lie in ambush a mile and a half from the main body, on the path on which they left their baggage, imagining the French would send a force to attack the baggage guard and seize it. Four hundred men were posted along the hill facing the fort to cover the retreat of Mac Donald's company, which marched with drums beating toward the fort, in order to draw a party out of it, as Major Grant had reason to believe there were, including Indians, only two hundred men within it.
M. de Ligneris, commandant at Fort Du Quesne, at once assembled seven or eight hundred men, and gave the command to M. Aubry. The French sallied out of the fort, and the Indians, who had crossed
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the river to keep out of the way of the British, returned and made a flank movement. Aubry, by a rapid movement, attacked the different divisions of the English, and completely routed and dispersed them. The force under Major Lewis was compelled to give away. Being flanked, a number were driven into the river, most of whom were drowned. The English lost two hundred and seventy killed, forty- two wounded, and several prisoners ; among the latter was Grant.
On the 22d of September M. Aubry left Fort Du Quesne, with a force of six hundred French and Indians, intending to reconnoitre the position of the English at Loyal-hannon.
"He found a little camp in front of some intrenchments which would cover a body of two thousand men. The advance guard of the French detachment having been discovered, the English sent a captain and fifty men to reconnoitre, who fell in with the detachment and were entirely defeated. In following the fugitives the French fell upon this camp, and surprised and dispersed it.
"The fugitives scarcely gained the principal intrenchment, which M. Aubry held in blockade two days. He killed two hundred horses and cattle." The French returned to Fort Du Quesne mounted. "The English lost in the engagement one hundred and fifty men, killed, wounded and missing. The French loss was two killed and seven wounded."
The Louisiana detachment, which took the principal part in both of these battles, was recruited from the French posts in "The Illinois," and consisted of soldiers taken from the garrison in that territory, and the coureurs des bois, traders and settlers in their respective neigh- borhoods. It was the first battalion ever raised within the limits of the present states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. After the action of Loyal-hannon, "the Louisiana detachment, as well as those from Detroit, returned home."
Soon after their departure, and on the 24th of November, the French abandoned Fort Du Quesne. Pouchot says : "It came to pass that by blundering at Fort Du Quesne the French were obliged to abandon it for want of provisions." This may have been the true reason for the abandonment, but doubtless the near approach of a large English army, commanded by Gen. Forbes, had no small influence in accelera- ting their movements. The fort was a mere stockade, of small dimen- sions, and not suited to resist the attacks of artillery.
Having burnt the stockade and storehouses, the garrison separated. One hundred retired to Presque Isle, by land. Two hundred, by way of the Alleghany, went to Venango. The remaining hundred des-
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cended the Ohio. About forty miles above its confluence with the Mississippi, and on a beautiful eminence on the north bank of the river, they erected a fort and named it Fort Massac, in honor of the commander, M. Massac, who superintended its construction. This was the last fort erected by the French on the Ohio, and it was occu- pied by a garrison of French troops until the evacuation of the country under the stipulations of the treaty of Paris. Such was the origin of Fort Massac, divested of the romance which fable has thrown around its name.
On the day following the evacuation the English took peaceable possession of the smoking ruins of Fort Du Quesne. They erected a temporary fortification, named it Fort Pitt, in honor of the great English statesman of that name, and leaving two hundred men as a garrison, retired over the mountains.
On the 5th of December, 1758, Thomas Pownall, governor of Massachusetts Bay Province, addressed a memorial to the British Ministry, suggesting that there should be an entire change in the method of carrying on the war. Pownall stated that the French were superior in battles fought in the wilderness; that Canada never could be conquered by land campaigns ; that the proper way to suc- ceed in the reduction of Canada would be to make an attack on Quebec by sea, and thus, by cutting off supplies from the home government, Canada would be starved out.
Pitt, if he did not act on the recommendations of Governor Pownall, at least had similar views, and the next year (1759), in accordance with this plan, General Wolfe made a successful assault on Quebec, and from that time, the supplies and reinforcements from the home government being cut off, the cause of the French in Canada became almost hopeless.
During this year the French made every effort to stir up the Indians north of the Ohio to take the tomahawk and scalping-knife in hand, and make one more attempt to preserve the northwest for the joint occupancy of the Gallic and American races. Emissaries were sent to Lake Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw, Ouiatanon, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Fort Chartes, loaded with presents and ammunition, for the purpose of collecting all those stragglers who had not enter- prise enough to go voluntarily to the seat of war. Canada was hard pressed for soldiers ; the English navy cut off most of the reinforce- ments from France, while the English, on the contrary, were con- stantly receiving troops from the mother country.
Mons. de Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, persuaded four
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CHANGE OF WAR PLAN
hundred men from the "Illinois country " to follow him eastward. Taking with him two hundred thousand pounds of flour, he embarked his heterogeneous force in bateaux and canoes. The route by way of the Ohio was closed ; the English were in possession of its headwaters. He went down the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash. Having ascended the latter stream to the Miami villages, near the present site of Fort Wayne, his followers made the portage, passed down the Maumee, and entered Lake Erie.
During the whole course of their journey they were being con- stantly reinforced by bands of different tribes of Indians, and by Canadian militia as they passed the several posts, until the army was augmented to sixteen hundred men, of whom there were six hundred French and one thousand Indians. An eye-witness, in speaking of the appearance of the force, said : " When they passed the little rapid at the outlet of Lake Erie (at Buffalo) the flotilla appeared like a floating island, as the river was covered with their bateaux and canoes."
Aubry was compelled to leave his flour and provisions at the Miami portage. He afterward requested M. de Port-neuf, commandant at Presque Isle, to take charge of the portage, and to send it constantly in his bateaux.
Before Aubry reached Presque Isle he was joined by other bodies of Indians and Canadians from the region of the upper lakes. They were under the command of French traders and commandants of interior posts. At Fort Machault he was joined by M. de Lignery ; the latter had assembled the Ohio Indians at Presque Isle. It was the original intention of Aubry to recapture Fort Du Quesne from the English. On the 12th of July a grand council was held at Fort Machault, in which the commandant thanked the Indians for their attendance, threw down the war belt, and told them he would set out the next day for Fort Du Quesne. Soon after messengers arrived with a packet of letters for the officers. After reading them Aubry told the Indians : "Children, I have received bad news ; the English are gone against Niagara. We must give over thoughts of going down the river to Fort Du Quesne till we have cleared that place of the enemy. If it should be taken, our road to you is stopped, and you must become poor." Orders were immediately given to proceed with the artillery, provisions, etc., up French Creek, and the Indians prepared to follow."
These letters were from M. Pouchot, commandant at Niagara, and
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stated that he was besieged by a much superior force of English and Indians, who were under the command of General Predeaux and Sir William Johnson. Aubry answered these letters on the next day, and said he thought they might fight the enemy successfully, and compel them to raise the siege. The Indians who brought these messages to Pouchot informed him that they, on the part of the Indians with Aubry and Lignery, had offered the Iroquois and other Indian allies of the English five war belts if they would retire. These promised that they would not mingle in the quarrel. "We will here recall the fact that Pouchot, by his letter of the 10th, had notified Lignery and Aubry that the enemy might be four or five thousand strong without the Indians, and if they could put themselves in condition to attack so large a force, he should pass Chenondac to come to Niagara by the other side of the river, where he would be in condition to drive the English, who were only two hundred strong on that side, and could not easily be reinforced. This done, they could easily come to him, because after the defeat of this body they could send bateaux to bring them to the fort."
M. Pouchot now recalled his previous request, and informed Aubry that the enemy were in three positions, in one of which there were three thousand nine hundred Indians. He added, could Aubry suc- ceed in driving the enemy from any of these positions, he had no doubt they would be forced to raise the siege.
Aubry's route was up French Creek to its head waters, thence making the portage to Presque Isle and sailing along the shores of Lake Erie until he reached Niagara. Arriving at the foot of Lake Erie he left one hundred and fifty men in charge of his canoes, and with the remainder advanced toward Niagara. Sir William Johnson was informed, on the evening of the 23d, of this advance of the French, and ordered his light infantry and pickets to take post on the left, on the road between Niagara Falls and the fort; and these, after reinforcing them with grenadiers and parts of the 46th and 44th regi- ments, were so arranged as to effectually support the guard left in the trenches. Most of his men were concealed either in the trenches or by trees.
On the morning of the 24th the French made their appearance. They were marching along a path about eight feet wide, and " were in readiness to fight in close order and without ranks or files." On their right were thirty Indians, who formed a front on the enemy's left. The Indians of the English army advanced to speak to those of the French. Seeing the Iroquois in the latter's company, the French
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AUBRY'S CAMPAIGN.
Indians refused to advance, under pretext that they were at peace with the first named. Though thus abandoned by their chief force, Aubry and Lignery still proceeded on their way, thinking that a few savages they saw were isolated men, till they reached a narrow path- way, when they discovered great numbers beyond. The English Indians then gave the war whoop and the action commenced. The English regulars attacked the French in front, while the Indians poured in on their flank. Thus surprised by an ambuscade, and deserted by their savage allies, the French proved easy victims to the prowess of far superior numbers. They were assailed in front and rear by two thousand men. The rear of the column, unable to resist, gave way, and left the head exposed to the enemy's fire, which crushed it entirely. An Indian massacre followed, and the pursuit of the vic- tors continued until they were compelled to desist by sheer fatiguc. Almost all the French officers were killed, wounded or taken prisoners. Among the latter was Aubry. Those who escaped joined M. Rocheblave, and with his detachment retreated to Detroit and other western lake posts.
This defeat on the shores of Lake Erie was very severe on the struggling western settlements. Most of all the able bodied men had gone to Aubry, many never to return. In 1760 M. de MacCarty, commandant at Fort Chartes, in a letter to Marquis Vaudreuil, stated that "the garrison was weaker than ever before, the check at Niagara having cost him the elite of his men."
It is apparent, from the desertion of Aubry by his savage allics, that they perceived that the English were certain to conquer in the end. They felt no particular desire to prop a falling cause, and thus deserted Mons. Aubry at the crisis when their assistance was most needed. Thus was defeated the greatest French-Indian force ever collected in the northwest.
The next day after Aubry's defeat, near Fort Niagara, the fortress surrendered.
After the surrender of Niagara and Fort Du Quesne, the Indian allies of France retired to the deep recesses of the western forests, and the English frontiers suffered no more from their depredations. Set- tlements were gradually formed on the western side of the Alleghanies, and they remained secure from Indian invasions.
In the meantime many Canadians, becoming satisfied that the con quest of Canada was only a mere question of time, determined, before that event took place, to remove to the French settlements on the lower Mississippi. "Many of them accordingly departed from Canada
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
by way of the lakes, and thence through the Illinois and Wabash Rivers to the Mississippi."
After the surrender of Quebec, in 1759, Montreal became the headquarters of the French in Canada, and in the spring of 1760 Mons. Levi, the French commander-in-chief, besieged Quebec. The arrival of an English fleet compelled him to relinquish his designs. Amherst and Johnson formed a junction, and advanced against Montreal. The French governor of Canada, Marquis Vaudreuil, believing that further resistance was impossible, surrendered all Canada to the English. This included the western posts of Detroit, Mackinaw, Fort Miami, Quiatanon, Vincennes, Fort St. Joseph, etc.
After this war ceased to be waged in America, though the treaty of Paris was not concluded until February, 1763, the most essential parts of which are contained in the following extracts :
"In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America, it is agreed that for the future the confines between the dominions of his Britannic Majesty and those of His Most Christian Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi from its source to the River Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea ; and for this purpose the most Christian King cedes, in full right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of Mobile, and everything which he possesses, or ought to possess, on the left side of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of New Orleans and of the island on which it is situated; it being well understood that the navigation of the Mississippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole length and breadth, from its source to the sea."
Thus Gallic rule came to an end in North America. Its downfall was the result of natural causes, and was owing largely to the differ- ence between the Frenchmen and the Englishmen. The former, as a rule, gave no attention to agriculture, but found occupation in hunting and trading with the Indians, acquiring nomadic habits that unfitted them for the cultivation of the soil; their families dwelt in villages separated by wide stretches of wilderness. While the able men were hunting and trading, the old men, women and children produced scanty crops sown in "common fields," or inclosures of a
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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH.
piece of ground which were portioned off among the families of a village. The Englishman, on the other hand, loved to own land, and pushed his improvements from the coast line up through all the valleys extending westward. Reaching the summit of the Allegha- nies, the tide of emigration flowed into the valleys beyond. Every cabin was a fort, every advancing farm a new line of intrenchment. The distinguishing characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon is consistency and firmness in his designs, and, more than all, his love for a home. In the trials and hardships necessarily connected with the opening up of the wilderness these traits come prominently into play. The result was, that the English colonies prospered in a degree hitherto unknown in the annals of the world's progress. And by way of contrast, how little did the French have to show in the way of lasting improvements in the northwest after it had been in their possession for nearly a ยท century !
However, the very traits that disqualified the Gaul as a successful colonist gave him a pre-eminent advantage over the Anglo-Saxon in the influence he exerted upon the Indian. He did not want their lands ; he fraternized with them, adopted their ways, and flattered and pleased them. The Anglo-Saxon wanted their lands. From the start he was clamorous for deeds and cessions of territory, and at once began crowding the Indian out of the country. "The Iroquois told Sir William Johnson that they believed soon they should not be able to hunt a bear into a hole in a tree but some Englishman would claim a right to the property of it, as being found in his tree."
The happiness which the Indians enjoyed from their intercourse with the French was their perpetual theme; it was their golden age. " Those who are old enough to remember it speak of it with rapture, and teach their children to venerate it, as the ancients did the reign of Saturn. 'You call us your children,' said an aged chief to General Harrison, ' why do you not make us happy, as our fathers the French did ? They never took from us our lands, which, indeed, were in common between us. They planted where they pleased, and cut wood where they pleased, and so did we ;' but now, if a poor Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own.'"
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CHAPTER XI.
GENERAL CLARK'S CONQUEST OF "THE ILLINOIS."
After the Indians had submitted to English rule the west enjoyed a period of quiet. When the American colonists, long com- plaining against the oppressive acts of the mother country, broke out into open revolt, and the war of the revolution fairly began, the English, from the westward posts of Detroit, Vincennes and Kas- kaskia, incited the Indians against the frontier settlements, and from these depots supplied their war parties with guns and ammunition. The depredations of the Indians in Kentucky were so severe that in the fall of 1777 George Rogers Clark conceived, and next year executed, an expedition against the French settlements of Kaskaskia and Vin- cennes, which not only relieved Kentucky from the incursions of the savages, but at the same time resulted in consequences which are without parallel in the annals of the Northwest.
The account here given of Clark's campaign in "the Illinois " is taken from a manuscript memoir composed by Clark himself, at the joint request of Presidents Jefferson and Madison. We prefer giving the account in Gen. Clark's own words, as far as practicable.
The memoir of Gen. Clark proceeds : "On the (24th) of June, 1778, we left our little island, and run about a mile up the river in order to gain the main channel, and shot the falls at the very moment of the sun being in a great eclipse, which caused various conjectures among the superstitious. As I knew that spies were kept on the river below the towns of the Illinois, I had resolved to march part of the way by land, and of course left the whole of our baggage, except as much as would equip us in the Indian mode. The whole of our force, after leaving such as was judged not competent to [endure] the expected fatigue, consisted only of four companies, commanded by Captains John Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helms and William Harrod. My force being so small to what I expected, owing to the various circumstances already mentioned, I found it necessary to alter my plans of operation.
"I had fully acquainted myself that the French inhabitants in
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those western settlements had great influence among the Indians in general, and were more beloved by them than any other Europeans ; that their commercial intercourse was universal throughout the west- ern and northwestern countries, and that the governing interest on the lakes was mostly in the hands of the English, who were not much beloved by them. These, and many other ideas similar thereto, caused me to resolve, if possible, to strengthen myself by such train of conduct as might probably attach the French inhabit- ants to our interest, and give us influence in the country we were aiming for. These were the principles that influenced my future conduct, and, fortunately, I had just received a letter from Colonel Campbell, dated Pittsburgh, informing me of the contents of the treaties between France and America. As I intended to leave the Ohio at Fort Massac, three leagues below the Tennessee, I landed on a small island in the mouth of that river, in order to prepare for the inarch. In a few hours after, one John Duff and a party of hunters coming down the river were brought to by our boats. They were men formerly from the states, and assured us of their happiness in the adventure. They had been but lately from Kaskaskia, and were able to give us all the intelligence we wished. They said that Governor Abbot had lately left Port Vincennes, and gone to Detroit on business of importance ; that Mr. Rochblave commanded at Kaskaskia, etc. ; that the militia was kept in good order, and spies on the Mississippi, and that all hunters, both Indians and others, were ordered to keep a good look-out for the rebels ; that the fort was kept in good order as an asylum, etc., but they believed the whole to procced more from the fondness for parade than the expectation of a visit; that if they received timely notice of us, they would collect and give us a warm reception, as they were taught to harbor a most horrid idea of the rebels, especially the Virginians ; but that if we could surprise the place, which they were in hopes we might, they made no doubt of our being able to do as we pleased ; that they hoped to be received as partakers in the enterprise, and wished us to put full confidence in them, and they would assist the guides in con- ducting the party. This was agreed to, and they proved valuable men.
" The acquisition to us was great, as I had no intelligence from those posts since the spies I sent twelve months past. But no part of their information pleased me more than that of the inhabitants viewing us as more savage than their neighbors, the Indians. I was determined to improve upon this if I was fortunate enough to get
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