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 16
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" Among the captives brought into camp was a woman with a babe, a few months old, at her breast. One of the Virginia Volunteers soon recognized her as his wife who had been taken by the Indians about six months before. She was immediately delivered to her happy hus- . band. He flew with her to his tent and clothed her and his child with proper apparel. But their joy, after their first transports, was soon checked by the reflection that another dear child, about two years old, taken captive at the same time with the mother, and separ- ated from her, was still missing, although many children had been brought in. A few days afterwards a number of other prisoners were brought to the camp, among whom were several more children. The woman was sent for, and one, supposed to be hers, was presented to her. At first sight she was uncertain, but, viewing the child with
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great earnestness, she soon recollected its features, and was so over- come with joy that, literally forgetting her nursing babe, she dropped it from her arms, and, catching up the new-found child, in an ecstacy pressed it to her bosom, and, bursting into tears, carried it off, unable to speak for joy, while the father, taking up the infant its mother had dropped, followed her in no less transport of affection and gratitude.
" Albach says that 'in many cases strong attachments had grown up between the savages and their captives, so that they were reluctantly surrendered, some even not without tears, accompanied with some token of remembrance.'
"Colonel Bouquet, having accomplished his purpose, broke up his camp at the 'Forks of the Muskingum' on the 18th of November, and, after a march of ten days, arrived at 'Fort Pitt.' His expedition was generally regarded as pre-eminently successful. His large army of well-equipped soldiers, led by a determined commander, struck terror into the hearts of the savages. They saw that resistance would be vain, and hence readily yielded to the conditions submitted to them. The results secured were the restoration to their frends of more than three hundred captives, a treaty of peace the next year, made with Sir William Johnson at the German Flats, and comparative exemption in the entire northwest, for about ten years, from the horrors of Indian warfare.
" The success of Colonel Bouquet's expedition secured him imme- diate promotion to a Brigadier-Generalship, and he was also highly complimented by the Legislative Assembly of Pennsylvania ; also by the House of Burgesses of Virginia, and by his Majesty's Council of the same Colony, as well as by Governor Fauquier.
" General Henry Bouquet was a native of Rolle, a small town in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, near the borders of Lake Geneva. He was born in 1719, and died at Pensacola, Florida, late in the year 1765. He was a man of sense and of science, of education, of ability and talents. He was subordinate in the Forbes expedition against Fort Du Quesne, in 1758. General Bouquet had a command while yet a very young man, in the army of the King of Sardinia, and passed through several of 'the memorable and ably conducted campaigns that monarch sustained against the combined forces of France and Spain.'
AN ACT OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.
" It may not be generally known, and yet be a fact worth recording, that the British Parliament, in the year 1774, passed an act making
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the Ohio River the southwestern boundary of Canada, and the Mis- sissippi River its western boundary, thereby attaching the northwest to the province of Quebec, as it was called, thus placing the territory that now constitutes the State of Ohio under the local administration of said province. Some historians have 1766 as the time of the afore- said parliamentary enactment, but I think they are in error as to date.
" For ten years after the celebrated Bouquet expedition, the settlers on the western frontiers of the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania enjoyed comparative immunity from the marauding excursions and murderous raids of the western savages, and from the barbarities previously and subsequently practiced by the Ohio Indians. That decade of peace, however, may be fairly judged to have been more the wholesome result of the instructive lessons taught by Colonel Bouquet and of his large, well-equipped and formidable army than of the action of the English Parliament above named (even if said act was passed in 1766), or of any other cause or com- bination of causes whatever. When the army of the gallant Bouquet started on its long western march 'the wilderness was ringing with the war-whoop of the savage, and the frontiers were red with blood '-when the return march was ordered the signs of the times were auspicious, promising a long season of peace and quietude to the courageous frontiersmen of those 'heroic times,' and those hopeful indications were, in a good degree, realized during the halcyon years of the succeeding decade.
COLONEL M'DONALD'S EXPEDITION.
"As has been already intimated, the ten years that immediately followed the Bouquet expedition (from 1764 to 1774), was a period of comparative peace on both sides of the Ohio river. What might be appropriately called ' a state of war' between the Ohio Indians and the Western frontiersmen did not exist at any time during that decade. It is true some outrages were perpetrated by the Indians that pro- voked some acts of retaliation on the part of the whites during ' those piping times of peace;' but, taken all in all, those ten years may be properly styled the halcyon decade of the latter half of the eigh- teenth century, as between the civilized white men east of the Ohio and the savage red men west of it.
" While, however, it was yet early spring-time, in 1774, rumors of threatened horse-stealing raids, and of contemplated hostile visits by the Indians into the frontier settlements, were rife. The border set-
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tlers were in a painful state of distrust, of doubt, uncertainty and apprehension, which culminated in fully arousing the partially smoth. ered hostility mutually cherished by the two hostile races towards each other.
" On the 16th of April, 1774, a large canoe, owned by William Butler, a well-known and leading merchant or trader of Pittsburgh, with a number of white men in it, was attacked by three Indians (sup- posed Cherokecs), while it was floating down the Ohio River, near Wheeling, and one of the men was killed. This outrage soon became known, and was followed at once by wild, but generally believed rumors of further contemplated Indian atrocities. It will readily be seen how news of such an outrage, with the accompanying and prob. ably exaggerated reports, would fall upon the ears of the already highly excited and inflammable frontiersmen, many of whom had, probably, for good cause, been long nursing their hatred of the Indian. The outrage, as might have been expected, was promptly succeeded by retaliation, for it was only a few days thereafter when a number of Indians that were going down the Ohio river in a boat were killed by some white men who alleged the murder of one of Butler's men as the provocation and their justification. It has been often asserted and extensively published, that Captain Michael Cresap, of border and revolutionary fame, had command of the murderers of these friendly Indians. I do not think the charge clearly established, but whatever may be the fact on that point, it is probable that the atrocity was per- petrated at the instigation of Dr. John Connolly, who was at this time commandant, under Virginia authority, at the 'Forks of the Ohio;' the fort at that time being called Fort Dunmore, in honor of the usurping Governor of Virginia. The frontiersmen about Wheeling being generally Virginians and Marylanders, naturally and easily became victims of the malign influence of the artful, designing Con- nolly, a tool of Dunmore's, who was always ready to do his bidding. Captain Cresap recognized Connolly's authority, and was in corre- spondence with him. Connolly sent an express to Cresap, which reached him April 21st, informing him ' that war was inevitable; that the savages would strike as soon as the season permitted.' This mes- sage, says Brantz Mayer, was the 'signal for open hostilities against the Indians, and resulted in a solemn and formal declaration of war on the 26th of April, and that very night two scalps were brought into camp.' Upon the receipt of the letter from Connolly, on the 21st, 'a council was called at Wheeling, of not only the military there then,
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but all the neighboring Indian traders were also summoned for con- sultation on the important occasion, resulting as above indicated.'
" The settlers at and in the vicinity of Wheeling, and along the Ohio River, were doubtless inveigled into the commission of hostile acts towards the Indians by the inflammatory appeals to them by Connolly, whose influence over them was of vicious tendency. He was an ambitious intriguer, a mere instrument in the hands of Dun- more; and the war of 1774 is fairly traceable, to a large extent, to his intrigues, exciting appeals and machinations.
"Brantz Mayer says that ' the day after the declaration of war by Cresap and his men, under the warning authority of Connolly's mes- sage, some canoes filled with Indians were descried on the river, keep- ing under cover of the island, to screen themselves from view. They were immediately pursued and overtaken fifteen iniles below, at or near the mouth of Captina creek, where a battle ensued, in which an Indian was taken prisoner, a few were wounded on both sides, and perhaps, one slain. On examination, the canoes were found to contain a considerable quantity of ammunition and warlike stores, showing that they were "on the war-path " in earnest.' Captain Cresap is gen- erally supposed to have commanded the pursuing party, but his biographer, Rev. John J. Jacob, emphatically declares that he was not present. This affair occurred April 27th.
" On the 30th of April, a force of twenty or thirty men, led by Captain Daniel Greathouse, went up the Ohio river to the mouth of Yellow creek, above the present city of Steubenville, and there, accompanied by circumstances of great perfidy and atrocity, murdered ten Indians, some of whom were the kindred of Logan, the celebrated Mingo Chief. This act was the more dastardly because committed against men, women and children who were known to cherish no hos- tile purposes toward the whites! After these occurrences, it was manifest to the most hopeful friends of peace that an Indian war was inevitable! As might have been anticipated, the savages at once furiously took the war-path ! Parties of them, with murder in their hearts, scoured the country east of the Ohio river, and made hostile raids into the settlements and laid them waste! Men, women and children were murdered, and scalped; the brains of infants were dashed out against the trees, and their bodies were left exposed, to be devoured by birds of prey and by the wild beasts of the forest ! Ter- ror, gloom, excitement, consternation pervaded all the border settle- ments !
"Upon the representations made to Governor Dunmore of out-
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rages that clearly indicated a hostile disposition of the Indians toward the whites and a determination to make war upon them, that func- tionary promptly commissioned Colonel Angus McDonald, and author- ized him to organize the settlers on the Youghiogheny and Monon- gahela rivers for the defense of the frontiers.
" Lord Dunmore, knowing Michael Cresap to be a man of courage, energy, and force of character, personally tendered him a captain's commission, with a view to the immediate enlistment of a force for co-operation with the troops rapidly organizing by McDonald, west of the Alleghenies. Captain Cresap accepted the commission, and entered upon his duties promptly. Such was his popularity, that more than the required complement of men were recruited in a very short time, and at once marched to join the command of McDonald, the ranking officer of the expedition. The combined forces, number- ing four hundred men, after a dreary march through the wilderness, rendezvoused at Wheeling, some time in June. The invasion of the country of the Ohio Indians was their purpose. In pursuance of their object, they went down the Ohio in boats and canoes to the mouth of the Captina creek, and from thence they pursued their march to the Indian towns at and near the mouth of the Wakatomika creek (now Dresden), a point about equi-distant from the present eity of Zanesville and the town of Coshocton, both on the Muskingum River, Jonathan Zane being the chief pilot of the expedition.
"About six miles from Wakatomika a force of forty or fifty Indians, lying in ambush, gave a skirmish, in which two of McDonald's men were killed and eight or nine wounded, while the Indians lost one or more killed and several wounded. When McDonald arrived at the chief Wakatomika town he found it evacuated, and the whole Indian force were in ambuscade a short distance from it, which, being discov- ered, the Indians sued for peace. A march to the next village, a mile above the first, was effected, and a small skirmish ensued, in which some blood was shed on both sides. The result was the burning of the town and the destruction of their corn fields. There was the usual perfidy on the part of the Indians, and really nothing substantial was accomplished, when the expedition returned to Wheeling, taking with them three chiefs as captives, or hostages, who were sent to Williamsburg, the seat of the colonial government of Virginia. This expedition was designed only to give temporary protection to the frontier settlers, and was preliminary to the Dunmore expedition to
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the Pickaway Plains, or ' Old Chillicothe,' towns, near the Scioto, later in the year.
"Colonel Angus McDonald was of Scotch parentage, if he was not himself a native of the Highlands of Scotland. He lived near Winchester, Frederick county, Virginia, upon, or near to the pos- sessions early acquired in 'the valley,' and which was then, and is still, known as 'Glengary,' named in honor of the ancestral clan to which the ancient McDonalds belonged in the Highlands of Scot- land. Some of Colonel McDonald's descendants, in the fourth gen- eration, are still living near to, or upon, these domains of the earlier McDonalds.
LORD DUNMORE'S WAR.
" The summer and early autumn of 1774 resounded with the din of preparation for war in various portions of Virginia, having in view the raising of armies, ostensibly for the purpose of subjugating the hostile Ohio Indians. Governor Dunmore organized an army numbering about fifteen hundred men, in the northern counties, prin- cipally in Frederick, Hampshire, Berkley and Dunmore (now Shen- andoah), which assembled on the banks of the Ohio River, above Wheeling ; while, at the same time, by arrangement, General Andrew Lewis raised over a thousand men in the southern counties for the same purpose, which rendezvoused at Camp Union, on the Greenbriar Riyer. The two armies were to form a junction at the mouth of the Kanawha. Bancroft says 'these armies were composed of noble Vir- ginians, who braved danger at the call of a royal governor, and poured out their blood to win the victory for western civilization ' Three companies that served in the McDonald expedition to the Muskingum, immediately upon their return in July entered the army of Lord Dunmore, and formed a part of the right wing thereof, which was directly under his immediate command. They were commanded respectively by Captain Michael Cresap, Captain James Wood, and by Captain Daniel Morgan, who all subsequently figured as officers in our Revolutionary war, the last named being the distinguished General Morgan of heroic fame, while Captain James Wood reached high military and civil positions, having served as Governor of Vir- ginia from 1796 to 1799. Among others of the Dunmore army who afterwards attained to more or less distinction as military commanders, and whose names, to the present time, are 'household words' in the West, were Colonel William Crawford, General Simon Kenton, Gen- eral John Gibson, and General George Rogers Clark. Among those
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connected with the left wing of the Dunmore army, who were then, or subsequently became, honorably identified with the history of our country, were its gallant commander, General Andrew Lewis; Gen- eral Isaac Shelby, a lieutenant then, afterwards the 'hero of King's Mountain ;' Colonel Charles Lewis, who gave up his life for his country on the battlefield of Point Pleasant, also, Hon. Andrew Moore, who served Virginia many years in both branches of our national legislature with honor to himself and credit to his State.
" The right wing of the Dunmore army reached the Ohio River by way of ' Potomac Gap,' about the first of October; and the left wing, under command of General Lewis, encamped at the mouth of the Kanawha River near the same time, where he soon received a dispatch from Lord Dunmore, changing the place of the junction of the two wings of his army to the vicinity of the Indian towns on the Scioto, near the 'Pickaway Plains.' Meanwhile Dunmore, with his com- mand, went down the Ohio to the mouth of the Hock-Hocking River, and there built 'Fort Gower.' From thence he marched his army up said river through the territory that now constitutes the counties of Athens, Hocking, Fairfield, and portions of Pickaway, and encamped on Sippo Creek, a tributary of the Scioto, within a few miles of the Shawanese towns, where he erected some entrenchments, naming his encampment 'Camp Charlotte.'
" General Lewis intended to start with his command towards the Indian towns on the Scioto on the 10th of October, to join Governor Dunmore, but at sunrise on that day he was unexpectedly attacked by about one thousand chosen warriors, under the command of Cornstalk, the celebrated Shawanese chief, who had rallied them at the Old Chil- licothe town, on the Scioto, near the 'Pickaway Plains,' to meet the army of General Lewis, and give them battle before the two corps could effect a union. The battle lasted all day, and terminated with the repulse of Cornstalk's warriors, with great slaughter on both sides. It has been generally characterized by historians as 'one of the most sanguinary and best fought battles in the annals of Indian warfare in the west.' Seventy-five officers and men of, Lewis's army were killed, and one hundred and forty were wounded. The loss was, probably, equally as great on the part of the Indians, who retreated during the night.
"General Lewis was reinforced to the extent of three hundred men, soon after the battle, and then started upon his march of eighty miles, through the wilderness, for the Indian towns on the Scioto, arriving within four miles of 'Camp Charlotte' on the twenty-fourth of Octo-
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ber. ITis encampment, which was named Camp Lewis, was situated on Congo Creek, a tributary of Sippo Creek, near the southern ter- mination of the 'Pickaway Plains,' and within a short distance of the Old Chillicothe town.
" The principal chiefs of the Indians on the Scioto met Lord Dun- more at 'Camp Charlotte,' and agreed with him upon the terms of a treaty. Cornstalk, who had been defeated by General Lewis, was present, and, being satisfied of the futility of any further struggle, was especially anxious to make peace, and readily obtained the assent of the chiefs present to it. The Mingoes were not a party to the treaty, but remained rebellious ; whereupon Captain Crawford was sent, with a small force, against one of their towns on the Scioto, which they destroyed, and took a number of prisoners, who were not released until the next year. And it is a noteworthy fact, too, that Logan, the great Mingo Chief, would not attend the council at Camp Charlotte.' He could not be prevailed upon to appear, and in any way make himself a party to the treaty. Dunmore greatly desired his presence and acquiescence, at least, if he could not secure his approval of the terms of the treaty. To this end, he sent Colonel John Gibson as a messenger to the Old Chillicothe town, across the Scioto, where Logan usually spent his time when not 'on the war- path,' to ascertain the reasons for his absence, and, if possible, to secure his presence.
"Logan was found, but he was in a sullen mood. At length, becom- ing somewhat mollified under the gentle and persuasive manipulations of Gibson, and from the effects of freely administered 'fire-water,' he moved from the wigwam in which this preliminary interview was held, and, beckoning Dunmore's messenger to follow, 'he went into a solitary thicket near by, where, sitting down on a log, he burst into tears, and uttered some sentences of impassioned eloquence, charging the murder of his kindred upon Captain Michael Cresap.' Those utterances of Logan were committed to paper by Colonel Gib- son immediately on his return to 'Camp Charlotte,' and probably read in the council and in the presence of the army. And this is substan- tially the history of the famous speech of Logan, until it appeared in the Virginia Gazette, of date February 4, 1775, which was published in the city of Williamsburg, the then seat of government of the colony of Virginia. Its publication was, doubtless, procured by Dun- more himself. It was neither a speech, an address, a message, nor a promise to assent to, or comply with, the provisions of a treaty, but simply the wild, excited, passionate utterances of a blood-stained sav-
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age, given, as near as remembered by Colonel Gibson, and which con- sisted, in part, of slanderous allegations, based on misinformation, against Captain Michael Cresap-charges known by every officer at 'Camp Charlotte' to be unfounded-allegations that have been persis- tently propagated to the present time, to the detriment of the fair fame and memory of an injured patriot, a valuable, enterprising, adventurous pioneer on the western frontiers, and a brave soldier and gallant officer in the Revolutionary army, who died a patriot's death while in the service of his country !
"Colonel Gibson, knowing that Captain Cresap had not participa- ted in any way in the murder of Logan's kindred at Yellow Creek, immediately after the close of the very spirited recital of his injuries, corrected Logan's impressions as to Cresap's guilt, but the half-frantic savage persisted in the false charge he had made, or at least declined to withdraw it, and Colonel Gibson felt bound to put Logan's words on paper, as near as he could, just as they were spoken. Soon after Logan's speech, as it was called, was published in Williamsburg, it was republished in New York and elsewhere, and its further republi- cation by Thomas Jefferson, in his 'Notes on Virginia,' in 1784, as a specimen of aboriginal eloquence, gave it still greater currency, and, tacitly, an apparent indorsement of the charge it contained against Captain Cresap. But Mr. Jefferson published it without any reference to the truth or falsity of said charge, but to disprove the statements of Buffon and Raynal, who alleged the inferiority of Americans, and charged that there was a natural tendency to physical, mental, and moral degeneracy in America !
" Colonel (afterwards General) Gibson was a man of talents, and abundantly capable of executing the agency attributed to him in this matter. He enjoyed the confidence of General Washington, who, in 1781, intrusted him with the command of the 'Western Military Department.' General Gibson was Secretary of Indiana Territory, and sometimes acting Governor, from 1800 to 1813, and held other positions of honor. He died near Pittsburgh, in 1822. Most of the foregoing facts are obtained from the sworn deposition of General Gibson himself, and from the corroborative statements of General George Rogers Clark, Colonel Benjamin Wilson, Luther Martin, Esq., Judge John B. Gibson, and other gentlemen distinguished for talents and veracity.
" During the summer of 1774 Logan acted the part of a murderous demon ! He was a cruel, vindictive, bloody-handed savage! He took thirty scalps and some prisoners during the six months that intervened
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between the time of the unjustifiable, wanton, unprovoked murder of his friends at Yellow Creek, and his interview with Colonel Gibson ! He had had his revenge! To quote his own vigorous language, 'he had fully glutted his vengeance!' And nothwithstanding he had indulged his savage propensities even to satiety, one would suppose, he nevertheless subsequently engaged in other hostile crusades against the frontiersmen, one of these being the murderous expedition into Kentucky which resulted in the capture of Ruddell's and Martin's Stations, and the taking of many prisoners! He also went on a simi- lar mission to the Holston River settlements, in 1779. Logan was a savage, but had been friendly to the whites. After the brutal murder of his friends, the frontiersmen east of the Ohio River, and the red men west of it, assumed an attitude of intense hostility towards each other, the latter embracing every opportunity to rob, capture, and murder the former, and those outrages were met by the white settlers in a determined spirit of retaliation and revenge! The conduct of Logan, therefore, was not surprising! The fact that he was a savage is the best plea that can be offered in mitigation of his enormities ! And he had great provocation, too !
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