USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume One > Part 26
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less he might often have been seen, lounging, Indian style, half naked, on a rush mat or bearskin.
The romantic and memorable siege of Fort Detroit cannot be recited in particularity here. For its exact details we refer the reader to the "Pontiac Manuscript" published in the Michigan Pioneer Collection. This original source of information from which we have gleaned many facts, is a translation of a diary kept and indited in French during the days of the siege, by an anonymous writer, though evidently a French priest. Its reliability is amply substantiated by con- temporaneous authorities and from this manuscript Parkman drew freely in writing his unsurpassed account of the "Conspiracy of Pontiac."
According to the manuscript above mentioned, Pontiac's forces embraced members of the Fox nation, "governed by a chief named Ninivois, a man without backbone and very easily carried away;" also the Hur- on nation, "divided into two bands, governed by two different chiefs of different character, one named Také, was of the same character of Pondiak-(so the chief was called in the manuscript)-while the other, Teata, was a very discreet man of consummate pru- dence." Mackatepelicite, was the "second chief of the Ottawas" and aid to Pontiac. While runners were scurrying in all directions, to summon the other tribes, especially the Sauteux of the Saginaw, and remoter bands of the Hurons and Ottawas, Pontiac, "cherishing in his bosom a poison which was to carry death to the English, and perhaps to the French," perfected his plans for surprising and slaughtering the members of the garrison, consisting of one hundred and twenty
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soldiers, eight officers and about forty others capable of bearing arms. Two armed schooners, "The Beaver" and "The Gladwyn," were anchored in the river near the fort. The day for stealthy and treacherous entry to the fort was set by Pontiac. But the night or day previous the plot was revealed to Gladwyn by a friendly Indian cognizant of the bloody scheme. The identity of this informant has created much confusion and dispute among the chroniclers. It is claimed that the friendly party was an Indian maiden who was engaged in making elk-skin moccasins for Gladwyn; that it was an Indian mistress of the post commandant; that it was an old squaw, subsequently severely punished by Pontiac for her treachery; the "Pontiac Manu- script" says it was "an Ottawa Indian, named Mahi- gama, who had only feebly given his voice in the conspiracy and who was not satisfied with the bad proceedings of those of his nation." Anyway, Gladwyn was warned and forearmed.
Pontiac and his little band of warriors with concealed weapons were admitted to the fort. Pontiac began his harangue of peace and friendly palaver and was about to give the preconcerted signal when Gladwyn raised his hand and the sound of clashing arms and drum beating was heard without. Pontiac. "whose genius always furnished new resources," realized that his plans had gone awry and announced that he would "call again," next time with his squaws and children, and with his party withdrew; he "struggling with different emotions,-anger, fury, rage, like a lioness from whom her young had been taken." The next morning Pontiac, in hopes of regaining Gladwyn's
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confidence, repaired to the fort with but three of his Ottawa chiefs, Mackatepelicite, Breton and Chavoinon. They bore in their hand the pipe of peace. Offering it to Gladwyn, Pontiac again protested his friendship for the British whom he declared "we love as our brothers." A few days later the Indians thronged the open field behind the fort gate. It was closed and barred. Pontiac advancing demanded admittance. Gladwyn replied that he might enter, but only alone. The great chief, baffled and enraged, then "threw off the mask he had so long worn" and boldly declared his intention to make war. A day or two later the four tribes, Ottawas, Ojibways, Pottawattomies and Wyandots clamored about the fort and the attack was begun by volleys of bullets fired at the palisade walls. Thus opened the famous siege of Detroit, which lasted six months, from May I to November 1, 1763, one of the longest and most bitterly contested sieges in the history of western Indian warfare.
The incomparable treachery of Pontiac in endeav- oring to secure the fort by dissemblance of friendship was further evidenced by his pretense at a truce. Pon- tiac declaring his earnest desire for "firm and lasting peace," requested Gladwyn to send to the camp of the chief, Captain Campbell, Gladwyn's second in com- mand, a veteran officer and most upright and manly in character. Campbell went, was made prisoner and subsequently foully and hideously murdered. Pontiac neglected no expedient known to Indian perfidy, cruelty or deviltry. He surpassed his race in all the detestable elements of their nature. His conduct from the first to last was only calculated to create distrust, contempt
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and loathing. His warriors murdered the British settlers in the vicinity of the fort, burned their huts, robbed the Canadians and committed every variety of depredation.
Pontiac realizing the seriousness of the situation and recognizing the obstinate courage of the British garri- son, prepared for a lengthy campaign. He ordered the Ottawa village moved across the river to the Detroit side, where it was located about a mile and a half northeast of the fort at the mouth of Parent's Creek, afterwards known as Bloody Run.
The British garrison bravely and patiently withstood all assaults and bided the time of rescue. By midnight sallies and other expedients they moved all exterior buildings, fences, trees and other obstacles that lay within the range of their guns or that might afford protection to sneaking and stealthy Indians who would crawl snake-like close to the palisades and fire at the sentinels and loopholes, or shoot their arrows tipped with burning tow upon the roofs of the structures within the fort. Fortunately the supply of water was inexhaustible; the provisions were wisely husbanded; friendly Canadians across the river under cover of night brought supplies. These Canadian farmers were also subject to tribute to the Indians, who seized their supplies by theft or open violence. They appealed to Pontiac and about the only creditable act recorded of that perfidious chief was his agreement to make restitution to the robbed settlers. Pontiac gave them in payment for their purloined property promissory notes, written by his French clerk, on birch bark and signed with the mark of the chief and the figure of
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an otter-the totem to which he belonged-all of which promises to pay, to the credit of the Indian promisor, were redeemed, and "therein this otter money was very much more valuable than the wildcat money issued many years later by the white successors of the redmen," remarked Judge Thomas Cooley, in an address before the Michigan Historical Society.
Day after day passed with varying incidents of attack and repulse. The keen-eyed watchfulness of the Indians never for an instant abated; their vigils were tireless and ceaseless; woe to the soldier who ventured without the fort or even lifted his head above the palisade. Pontiac's patience was sustained with the delusive idea that the French were only temporarily defeated and would soon rally to his assistance. He even dispatched messengers across the interior to the French commandant Neyon, at Fort Chartres on the Mississippi, requesting that French troops be sent with- out delay to his aid. Meanwhile Gladwyn had sent one of his schooners to Fort Niagara to hasten promised reinforcements from the British. Lieutenant Cuyler, of the Queen's Rangers, had already (May 13) left Niagara with a convoy of seven boats, ninety-six men and quantities of supplies and ammunition. This little fleet coasted along the northern shore of Lake Erie until near the mouth of the Detroit River. The force attempted to land, when a band of Wyandot Indians suddenly burst from the woods, seized five of the boats and killed or captured sixty of the soldiers. Cuyler with the remaining men (36), many of whom were wounded, escaped in the other boats and crossed to Fort Sandusky, which they found had been taken
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and burned by the Wyandots and the garrison slaugh- tered. Cuyler, wounded and weak, with his escaping companions slowly wended his way back to Niagara where he reported the result of his expedition to the commanding officer, Major Wilkins. At the same time the Wyandots, with the captured boats and prisoners, proceeded up the Detroit to Pontiac's quarters, in full sight of the fort's garrison, where the unfortunate captives of Cuyler's party were butchered, as the Pon- tiac Manuscript relates, with all the exquisite tortures known to infuriated and drink-crazed savages.
The news of the destruction of Cuyler's flotilla brought a disappointment to the inmates of the fort almost unbearable. Gladwyn's schooner, however, reached Fort Niagara and returned about July I, laded with food, ammunition and reinforcements and the most welcome news of the Treaty of Paris. Pontiac, undismayed, continued his efforts. His forces now numbered, according to the manuscript, some eight hundred and fifty warriors; two hundred and fifty Ottawas; four hundred Ojibways; and one hundred and fifty Pottawattomies; and fifty Wyandots. As the warriors brought their squaws and children with them, there must have been congregated in the fields and meadows about Detroit a seething populace of three to four thousand savages. That this estimate is not improbable, we may infer, from the figures given about this time (1763) in a census made out by Sir William Johnson. He enumerated the men-fighting force- in the vicinity of Detroit, St. Joseph and Mickilimack- inac, in what he calls the "Ottawa Confederacy, " as, Wyandots, two hundred and fifty; Pottawattomies,
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three hundred and fifty; Ottawas, seven hundred; Chip- pewas (Ojibways), seven hundred and twenty; Sacs, Foxes, etc., one thousand, two hundred; total, three thousand, seven hundred and twenty. To this may be added eight hundred Miamis or Twightwees on the Ohio-Miami Rivers; two hundred Wyandots on the Sandusky; three hundred Shawnees on the Scioto; and six hundred Delawares on the Muskingum and its branches, or one thousand, nine hundred warriors, at least, in the Ohio country proper. All these were practically under the jurisdiction of Pontiac. This census does not take notice of the Indian population east or south of the Ohio, nor of Canada, in which there were four thousand warriors of the Ottawa tribe alone, nor of the remote northwest.
The two schooners at anchor in the adjacent river were a serious menace to the movements of the Indians, and many desperate attempts were made to burn them by midnight attacks, and the floating of fire rafts down upon them but all to no avail. Pontiac had the stubborn persistance of a later American general who said he would fight it out on that line if it took all summer. He exerted himself with fresh zeal to gain possession of the fort. He demanded the surrender of Gladwyn, saying a still greater force of Indians was on the march to swell the army of besiegers. Glad- wyn was equally tenacious and unyielding, he proposed to "hold the fort" till the enemy were worn out or reënforcements arrived. Pontiac sought to arouse the active aid of the neighboring Canadians, but the Treaty of Paris had made them British subjects, and they dared not war on their conquerors. History
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scarcely furnishes a like instance of so large an Indian force struggling so long in an attack on a fortified place.
The Wyandots and Pottawattomies, however, never as enthusiastic in this war as the other tribes, late in July decided to withdraw from the besieging con- federacy and make peace with the British. They did so and exchanged prisoners with Gladwyn. The Otta- was and Ojibways, however, still held on, watching the fort and keeping up a desultory fusilade. The end was drawing nigh. On July 29, Captain James Dalzell -also written Dalyell-arrived from Niagara with artillery supplies and two hundred and eight men in twenty-two barges. Their approach to the fort was bravely contested by the combined Indian forces, even the Wyandots and Pottawattomies breaking their treaty and treacherously joining in the assault. Dalzell's troops made successful entry into the fort, immediately after which he proposed a sortie upon the besieging enemy.
Dalzell was bravery personified, and he had fought with Israel Putnam in the Rogers' Rangers. On the morning after Dalzell's arrival, (July 31), at two o'clock, he led a force of two hundred and fifty men out of the fort. They silently in the darkness marched along the river towards the Ottawa village just across the Parent's Creek. The Indians were prepared, having ambuscaded on both sides of the road. They were, Indian fashion, secreted behind trees, fences and Can- adian houses. Their presence was not discovered until the van of Dalzell's column reached the bridge span- ning the creek when a terrible fire was opened upon the soldiers from all sides. It was still dark, the Indians could not be seen. The usual panic ensued. The
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troops in disorder retreated amid an awful slaughter. Dalzell himself was killed and Major Rogers assumed command, and the fleeing soldiers were only spared from total destruction by two of the British boats coming to the rescue. About sixty men were killed or wounded. It was known as the Battle of Bloody Bridge. Upon the retreating into the fort of Major Rogers' survivors the siege was renewed.
Pontiac was greatly encouraged over this victory and his Indians displayed renewed zeal. The Schooner "Gladwyn" was sent to Niagara for help. On its return it was attacked and its crew and supplies prac- tically destroyed. Another relief expedition under Major Wilkins in September was overwhelmed in a lake storm and seventy soldiers drowned. But even Indian doggedness began to wane. The realization that the French were beaten and time only would bring complete domination to the British, led all the tribes, except the Ottawas, to sue for peace. This was October 12th. Pontiac could hold only his own tribe in line. The Ottawas continued their hostility until October 30th when a French messenger arrived from Neyon who reported to Pontiac that he must expect no help from the French as they were now completely and permanently at peace with the British. Pontiac was advised to quit the war at once. His cause seemed hopeless, but true to his Indian nature he determined to assume a mask of peace and bide his time. Gladwyn wrote as follows to General Amherst: "This moment I received a message from Pontiac telling me that he should send to all the nations concerned in the war
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to bury the hatchet; and he hopes your excellency will forget what has passed."
The great chief who had so valiantly and unre- mittingly fought for six months sullenly raised the siege and retired into the country of the Maumee where he vainly endeavored to arouse the Miamis and neigh- boring Ohio tribes to another war upon the invading British.
Though the memorable siege of Detroit, personally conducted by Pontiac, ended in failure to the great chief, his conspiracy elsewhere met with unparalleled success. The British posts, planned to be simultane- ously attacked and destroyed by the savages were some dozen in number, including besides Detroit, the ones at St. Joseph, Michilimackinac, Ouiatenon, San- dusky, Miami, Presque Isle, Niagara, Le Boeuf, Venan- go, Fort Pitt and one or two others of lesser importance. Of all the posts from Niagara and Pitt westward, Detroit alone was able to survive the conspiracy. For the rest "there was but one unvaried tale of calamity and ruin." It was a continued series of disasters to the white men and the victories of the savages marked a course of blood from the Alleghanies to the Miss- issippi.
We have already announced the destruction of Fort Sandusky but this post, the successor of the first stock- ade erected by white men in Ohio, and the first of the forts to fall beneath the blows of Pontiac's forces, deserves more than a passing notice. This fort more- over, commanded the strategic point in northern Ohio, as it swept the entrance to the Sandusky River with the latter's portage connections with the Scioto, the
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"short line," so to speak, from Lake Erie to the Ohio. It also guarded the connecting link in the water- route between the Ohio country and Detroit and the Northwest.
In a preceding chapter has been recounted the erection (1745) of the palisaded post by English traders in the village of Nicolas, on the south shore of the peninsula separating Sandusky Bay from Lake Erie, across the neck of which peninsula was the portage travelled by the canoe-voyagers from the Ohio country to Detroit. In 1748 this stockade post, as we saw, was destroyed by Chief Nicolas, previous to his flight to the south. De Celoron, while commandant at De- troit seems to have occupied, perhaps partially rebuilt this stockade, for Christopher Gist in his journey into Ohio in 1750 reports, when at the Muskingum village, "two traders belonging to Mr. Croghan came into town and informed us that two of his people had been taken by forty Frenchmen and twenty Indians, who carried them with seven horse loads of skins to the new post the French are building on one of the branches of Lake Erie." This "new post" was without doubt Fort "Sandoski."
Fort Sandusky-Otsandoské-as de Lery in his journal states, was evacuated after 1751 and before 1754, at which later date the French built Fort Junun- dat on the south shore of Sandusky Bay. On his return-from Detroit-in March 1755 de Lery in speak- ing of the portage point-on the south side of the peninsula-where the old fort had been located, alludes to it "as the portage of the village of Ainoton," and again as "the portage of the village of Aniauton, the
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said village whereof only three cabins and some pali- sades remain." This is important as giving confirma- tory testimony as to the site of the old Sandusky fort. Fort Junundat shortly after the capture of Fort Du- quesne (1758) was destroyed by the British. So that when Major Rogers reached Lake Sandusky on his fort receiving trip (1760) there was no Fort Sandusky for him to accept. But the British realized the neces- sity of fortifying so important a point, and Captain Campbell, whom Rogers left in charge of Detroit, wrote Bouquet (Dec. II, 1760) "a small post at San- dusky would be useful for communication with Pitts- burg." In the fall of the succeeding year (1761) Lieutenant Meyer, obeying orders from General Am- herst, "fixed on a good spot for a blockhouse," three miles from a village called by the Indians Canontout, where all the traders unload and load their goods for Detroit; it is almost in the middle of little Lake San- dusky." This Canontout of Lieutenant Meyer was the "Aniauton" of de Lery. And here-three miles from Canontout-the blockhouse and palisades were finished in the autumn of 1761. It was this Fort Sandusky, not yet completed when he there arrived, of which Ensign J. C. Pauli took command with a garrison of fifteen men.
In the spring of 1762 Pauli, spelled Paully by many writers, wrote Bouquet that the Indians about the blockhouse were discontented and asked what he should do if they became insolent. In May he reported the "Iroquois are very quiet." A year later a more dread- ful quiet prevailed. Under date of May 28, (1763) the Pontiac Manuscript reports "about five o'clock p.
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m. there were seen in the woods behind the fort [De- troit] a large number of Indians, who came along the lake and ascended to go to the camp with scalps, uttering death cries, to the number of twenty, mixed with cries of joy for making known that they came from fighting some where. It was the remainder of those who had taken Fort Sandusky." This "taking" had occurred twenty days earlier when the Wyandots surrounded the fort and under pretense of a friendly visit, several of them well known to Ensign Pauli, the commander, were admitted. While smoking the pipe of peace the treacherous and trusted Indians suddenly arose, seized Pauli and held him prisoner while their tribesmen killed the sentry, entered the fort, and in cold blood murdered and scalped the little band of soldiers. The traders in the post were likewise killed and their stores plundered. The stockade was fired and burned to the ground. Pauli was conveyed to Pontiac's quarters, bound hand and foot. He was made the subject of grotesque torment by the squaws and Indian children and he expected to be burned alive, when an old widow squaw, "chose to adopt him in place of her deceased warrior." He was plunged into the river that the white blood might be washed from his veins; conducted to the lodge of the widow and treated henceforth with all the considerations due to an Ottawa warrior. In due time the involuntary husband escaped from the affectionate toils of his sav- age spouse and took refuge in the Detroit fort.
St. Joseph post, located at the mouth of the River St. Joseph, near the southern end of Lake Michigan was in command of Ensign Schlosser with a mere
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handful of soldiers, fourteen in number. On the morn- ing of May 25th, the commander was informed that a large party of Pottawattomies had arrived from De- troit "to visit their relations" and the chief-Washashe -and three or four of his followers wished to hold a "friendly talk" with the commander. Disarmed of suspicion, the commander, Schlosser, admitted the callers; the result is the oft repeated history. The entering Indians rushed to the gate, tomahawked the sentinel, let in their associates who instantly pounced upon the garrison, killed eleven of the soldiers, plun- dered the fort and later carried Schlosser and his three surviving captives to their quarters near Detroit.
Fort Michilimackinac was the most important point on the upper lakes, commanding as it did the straits of Mackinac, the passage from Lake Huron into Lake Michigan. Great numbers of the Chippewas, in the last of May, began to assemble in the vicinity of the fort, but with every indication of friendliness. June fourth, was the king's (George) birthday. It must be celebrated with pastimes. The discipline of the garrison, some thirty-five in number, was relaxed. Many squaws were admitted as visitors into the fort, while their braves engaged in their favorite game of ball just outside the garrison entrance. It was a spirited contest between the Ojibways and Sacs. Cap- tain George Etherington, commander of the fort and his Lieutenant, Leslie, stood without the palisades to watch the sport. Suddenly the ball was thrown near the open gate and behind the two officers. The Indians pretending to rush for the ball instantly encircled and seized Etherington and Leslie, and crowded their way
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into the fort where the squaws supplied them with tomahawks and hatchets, which they had carried in, hidden under their blankets. Quick as a flash, the instruments of death were gleaming in the sunlight and Lieutenant Jamlet and fifteen soldiers and a trader were struck down never to rise. The rest of the garri- son were made prisoners and five of them afterwards tomahawked. All of the peaceful traders were plun- dered and carried off. The prisoners were conveyed to Montreal. The French population of the post was undisturbed. Captain Etherington succeeded in send- ing timely warning to the little garrison at La Bay (Green Bay); Lieutenant Gorrell the commandant and his men were brought prisoners to the Michilimacki- nac Fort and thence sent with Etherington and Leslie to the Canadian capital. The little post of Ste. Marie (Sault) had been partially destroyed and abandoned. The garrison inmates had withdrawn to Michilimacki- nac and shared its fate.
The garrison at Ouiatanon-or Ouatanon-situa- ted on the Wabash-(Ouabache)-near the present location of Lafayette (Indiana) then in the very heart of the western forest, as planned, was to have been massacred on June Ist. Through the information given by the French at the post, the soldiers were apprised of their intended fate and through the intervention of the same French friends, the Indians were dissuaded from executing their sanguinary purpose. Lieutenant Jenkins and several of his men were made prisoners by stratagem, the remainder of the British garrison readily surrendered.
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On the present site of Fort Wayne, (Indiana) was Fort Miami, built in 1759 by the French commandant Raimond, at the confluence of the rivers St. Joseph and St. Mary, which unite to form the Maumee. The fort at this time was in charge of Ensign Holmes. On May 27th, the commander was decoyed from the fort by the story of an Indian girl, that a squaw lay dangerously ill in a wigwam near the stockade, and needed medical assistance. The humane Holmes for- getting his caution on an errand of mercy, walked without the gate and was instantly shot dead. The soldiers in the palisades, seeing the corpse of their leader and hearing the yells and whooping of the exult- ant Indians, offered no resistance, admitted the redmen and gladly surrendered on promise of having their lives spared.
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