USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume One > Part 27
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Fort Presque Isle, on the southern shore of Lake Erie at the site of the present town of Erie, contained a block house, unusually strong and commodious, in command of Ensign Christie with a courageous band of twenty-seven men. Christie learning of the attack on the other posts "braced up" for his "visit from the hell hounds" as he appropriately called the enemy. He had not long to wait. On June 15th, about two hundred of them put in an appearance from Detroit. They sprang into the ditch around the fort and with reckless audacity approached to the very walls and threw fire-balls of pitch upon the roof and sides of the fortress. Again and again the wooden structure was on fire, but amid showers of bullets and arrows the flames were extinguished by the fearless soldiers. The savages rolled logs before the fort and erected
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strong breast-works from behind which they could discharge their shots and throw their fire balls. For nearly three days a terrific contest ensued. The sav- ages finally undermined the palisades and worked their way to the house of Christie, which was at once set on fire nearly stifling the garrison with the smoke. Longer resistance was vain, "the soldiers pale and haggard, like men who had passed through a fiery furnace, now issued from their scorched and bullet pierced stronghold." The surrendering soldiers were taken to Pontiac's quarters on the Detroit River.
Three days after the attack on Presque Isle, Fort Le Boeuf, twelve miles south on Le Boeuf Creek, one of the head sources of the Allegheny River, was sur- rounded and burned. Ensign Price and a garrison of thirteen men miraculously escaped the flames and the encircling savages and endeavored to reach Fort Pitt. About half of them succeeded, the remainder died of hunger and privation by the way. Fort Ven- ango, still farther south, on the Allegheny River, was captured by a band of Senecas, who gained entrance by resorting to the oft employed treachery of pretend- ing friendliness. The entire garrison was butchered, Lieutenant Gordon, the commander, slowly tortured to death and the fort burned to the ground. Not a soul escaped to tell the horrible tale. Fort Ligonier, another small post, commanded by Lieutenant Arch- ibald Blane, forty miles southeast of Fort Pitt, was attacked but successfully held out till relieved by Bouquet's expedition.
Thus within a period of about a month from the time the first blow was struck at Detroit, Pontiac
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was in full possession of nine out of the twelve posts so recently belonging to, and it was thought, securely occupied by the British. Over two hundred traders with their servants fell victims to his remorseless march of slaughter and rapine and goods estimated at over half a million dollars became the spoils of the confed- erated tribes.
The rest of Pontiac's widespread and successful uprising struck untold terror to the settlers along the western frontier of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Vir- ginia. The savages roused to the highest pitch of fury and weltering in the blood of their victims were burning the cabins and crops of the defenseless whites and massacring the men, women and children. Many hundreds of the forest dwellers with their families flocked to the stockades and protected posts. Particu- larly in the Pennsylvania country did dread and consternation prevail. The frontiersmen west of the Alleghanies fled east over the mountains to Carlisle, Lancaster and numbers even continued their flight to Philadelphia. Pontiac was making good his fearful threat that he would exterminate the whites west of the Alleghanies and drive the pale faces back even to the sea.
But Forts Niagara and Pitt were still in the posses- sion of the "red coats" as the British soldiers were often called by the forest "redskins." Following the total destruction of Le Boeuf and Venango, the Senecas made an attack on Fort Niagara, on the east side of Niagara River near its mouth as it empties into Lake Ontario. This fort, as we have noted, guarded the access to the whole interior country by way of Canada
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and the St. Lawrence. The fort was strongly built and fortified and was far from the center of the country of the warpath Indians, for with the exception of the Senecas, the Iroquois tribes inhabiting eastern Canada and New York did not participate in Pontiac's con- spiracy. The attack on Fort Niagara therefore was half-hearted and after a feeble effort the besiegers despaired of success or assistance and abandoned the blockade, which only lasted a few days.
Fort Pitt had become the British military head- quarters of the western frontier. It was the Gibraltar of defense, protecting the eastern colonies from invasion by the western Indians. The consummation of Pon- tiac's gigantic scheme depended upon the capture of Fort Pitt. It was a strong fortification, its northern brick-faced ramparts looking down the Ohio. Fort Pitt stood "far aloof in the forest and one might jour- ney eastward full two hundred miles before the English settlements began to thicken." The garrison con- sisted of three hundred and thirty soldiers, traders, and backwoodsmen, besides about one hundred women and a greater number of children. Captain Simeon Ecuyer, a brave Swiss officer, was in command. Every preparation was made for the expected attack. All houses and cabins outside the palisade were leveled to the ground. A rude fire engine was constructed to extinguish any flames that might be kindled by the burning arrows of the Indians. In the latter part of May the hostile savages began to approach the vicinity of the fort. On June 22, they opened fire "upon every side at once." The garrison replied by a discharge of howitzers, the shells of which bursting
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in the midst of the Indians, greatly amazed and dis- concerted them. The Indians then boldly demanded a surrender of the fort, saying vast numbers of braves were on the way to destroy it. Ecuyer displayed equal bravery and replied that several thousand British soldiers were on the way to punish the tribes for their uprising. The fort was now in a state of siege. For about a month, "nothing occurred except a series of petty and futile attacks," in which the Indians, mostly Ottawas, Ojibways and Delawares did small damage. On July 26th, under a flag of truce, the besiegers again demanded surrender. It was refused and Ecuyer told the savages that if they again showed themselves near the fort he would throw "bombshells" amongst them and "blow them to atoms." The assault was con- tinued with renewed fury.
Meanwhile Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the commander-in- chief of the British forces, awakening to the gravity of the situation, ordered Colonel Bouquet to take command of certain specified forces and proceed as rapidly as possible to the relief of Fort Pitt, and then make aggressive warfare on the western tribes. Bou- quet leaving his headquarters at Philadelphia, reached Carlisle late in June, where he heard for the first time of the calamities at Presque Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango. He left Carlisle with a force of five hundred men, some of them the pick of the British regulars, including some of the 42d Highlanders in bare legs, kilts and plaids; but many of the soldiers were veterans enfeebled by disease and long, severe exposure. Bouquet had seen considerable service in Indian warfare. He was not likely to be caught napping. He marched slowly along
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the Cumberland Valley and crept cautiously over the mountains, passing Forts Loudoun, and Bedford, the latter surrounded with Indians, to Fort Ligonier which as noted above, had been blockaded for weeks by the savages who, as at Bedford, fled at Bouquet's approach. On August 5th, the little army, foot sore and tired and half famished, reached a small stream within twenty-five miles of Fort Pitt, known as Bushy Run. Here in the afternoon they were suddenly and fiercely fired upon by a superior number of Indians. A terrific contest ensued, only ended by the darkness of night. The encounter was resumed the next day; the odds were against the British who were surrounded and were being cut down in great numbers by the Indians skulking behind trees and logs and in the grass and declivities. Bouquet resorted to a ruse which was signally successful. He formed his men in a wide- spread, thicket-concealed, semi-circle, and from the concave center advanced a company toward the enemy, the charging company then made a feint of retreat, the deceived Indians followed close after and fell into the ambuscade. The outwitted savages thus com- pletely encircled were routed and fled in hopeless con- fusion. Bouquet had won one of the greatest victories in western Indian warfare. His loss was about one hundred and fifty men, nearly a third of his army. The loss of the Indians was not so great. This battle of Bushy Run was one of the notably picturesque events of Indian-American history. A little volume descriptive of the scene published shortly after its occurrence contained illustrations by the first American painter, Benjamin West. As rapidly as possible Bou-
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quet pushed on to Fort Pitt which he entered without molestation on the 25th of August. The extent and the end of Pontiac's conspiracy had at last been reached. The Pennsylvania Assembly and King George, even, formally thanked Bouquet.
Forts Detroit and Pitt, as has been seen, proved impregnable, neither the evil cunning nor the per- sistent bravery of the savage could dislodge the occu- pants of those important posts. The siege of Detroit had been abandoned by the combined forces of Pontiac but the country round about continued to be infested with the hostile Indians, who kept up a sort of petty bushwacking campaign that compelled the soldiers and traders of the fort, for safety, to remain "in doors" during the winter of 1763-4. Bouquet on gaining Fort Pitt, desired to pursue the marauding and murderous savages to their forest retreats and drive them hence, but he was unable to accomplish anything until the following year.
CHAPTER XVII. BRADSTREET'S EXPEDITION
T HROUGH the failure of Pontiac's conspiracy the tribesmen of the Ohio Valley, hostile to the English, were subdued but not con- quered. They continued to hope and to plot for the destruction of the white invader. The restless enmity of the redmen at this time is evidenced by the message of Sir William Johnson (May II, 1764) to the Lords of Trade, London, wherein he says: "By late accounts from Detroit it appears that the western nations are again meditating a Rupture; they have not as yet recommenced hostilities, but from some discoveries lately made, Pontiac with his adherents are making preparations. I hope the firmness of the Friend[ly] Indians and their accompanying the troops will give it a timely check; if so, the Indians can be best employed against those on and about the Sciota, as the troops will have a great part of the campaign occupied in rebuilding and repossessing the posts."
It was in the early spring of this year (1764) that General Thomas Gage, who had recently (1763) suc- ceeded Jeffrey Amherst as commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, resolved to march two armies, each from a different point in the East, into the heart of the western Indian country. One expedition was to be under direction of Colonel John Bradstreet and was to pass up the lakes as far as the region beyond Detroit, stopping at the intervening points, and forcing the tribes to unconditional submission. The other expedition was to be led by Colonel Henry Bouquet into the midst of the Delaware and Shawnee settle- ments of Ohio.
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John Bradstreet, a professional and life-long soldier, was one, Parkman says, "whose exploits had gained for him a reputation beyond his merits." Certainly he had seen conspicuous service. He was with Pep- perell's regiment in the Louisberg expedition of 1745; in the Oswego campaign of ten years later; made lieutenant-colonel of a Royal American Regiment in 1757 and served under Abercrombie against Ticon- deroga; led the successful capture of Fort Frontenac and was with Amherst in his Crown Point expedition. He was well skilled in military tactics, sufficiently energetic and gallant but self-willed, vain, eager for notoriety and seemed totally unable to appreciate or to learn the treacherous and cunning nature of the Indians.
According to the directions of General Thomas Gage, the forces to accompany Bradstreet assembled at Al- bany in the spring of 1764. Among Bradstreet's subordinates were several officers who will attract special attention as the expedition proceeds, two of whom must be mentioned at the outset. One is none other than Colonel Israel Putnam, already distinguish- ed for original characteristics, and for courageous military service, and for whom greater fame was in store. In the records of Colonial Connecticut for March 1764 is the entry: "this assembly doth appoint Israel Putnam, Esq., to be major of the forces now ordered to be raised in this colony for his Majesty's service against the Indian nations who have been guilty of perfidious and cruel massacres of the English." Putnam had already won his spurs in the French and Indian War, having taken part under Sir William John-
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son, in the expedition against Crown Point and in the battle of Lake George. He then became a member of the dare-devil Rangers under Robert Rogers, for whom he did special scout service with the rank of captain, in the Ticonderoga campaign. Few of his associate officers encountered such perilous and hair- breadth experiences as the hero of the wolf story, all of which deeds are delightfully recited in the "Life of Israel Putnam" by Edward Ferrand Livingston.
In the movements about Fort Edward in the summer of 1758, Putnam, then a major in Rogers' "ranging" regiment, was, with a portion of his command, entrap- ped into an Indian ambuscade and made a captive by a large and powerful Caughnawaga chief, who, with whoops and yells, brandished a tomahawk over his victim's head and compelled the dauntless major to surrender. Putnam's subsequent adventures are with graphic details told in Humphrey's quaint biography. After being tied to a tree, tortured and threatened with death by slow fire, Putnam was rescued by a French officer and borne to Canada where he was kept a pris- oner for some time, till exchanged. He was ever "on the firing line" while the war continued. The assem- blymen of Connecticut naturally chose one so seasoned, in Indian warfare, to command their contingent in Bradstreet's army. Putnam was then in his forty- sixth year, resourceful, unflinching in the face of duty, and versed in scouting, engineering and all phases of backwoods warfare. He reported at Albany as lieu- tenant-colonel of a battalion of five companies, Con- necticut provincials.
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The one assigned as the advance road-clearer and defense-builder was Colonel James Montresor, an engineer of unusual acquirements having seen import- ant service in European warfare. He had been ordered to America as ensign and engineer under Braddock and helped to prepare the way followed by that un- fortunate hero to his defeat at Monongahela, in which battle Montresor himself was wounded. He served in the events of the French and Indian War, was present at the capitulation of Quebec and having, among others, the talent of an artist, painted the por- trait of General Wolfe, since regarded as the standard picture of that sad-fated but fame-endowed soldier. Montresor in the discharge of every assigned duty kept most exhaustive and exact notes, the printed copies of which fill a large volume in the collections of the New York Historical Society. From this journal of Bradstreet's expedition we secure much information not elsewhere published and are enabled to correct many errors found in the standard accounts of Brad- street's movement in his Ohio campaign. Parkman seems not to have seen this journal, as he never men- tions it or its author. He also fails to mention the fact that Israel Putnam accompanied the expedition. We shall speak of other conspicuous personages under Bradstreet as his army advances.
In June (1764) the forces under Bradstreet, assembled at Albany, consisting at the start of some twelve hun- dred provincial troops and three hundred Canadians, augmented later as we shall see. They proceeded up the Mohawk, crossed the Oneida Lake and descended the Onondaga to Oswego on Lake Ontario. After a
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passage of several days, amid severe storms, and "tumbling waters," the transporting convoys reached Fort Niagara, mouth of Niagara River, to which point several weeks previously, Montresor and a detachment, had advanced, with orders to fortify it "so as to keep up that communication," it being feared that the hostile Indians might take possession of this "carrying place." This fear was not without foundation for this "carrying place" or portage, comprised a distance of some fifteen miles from the Fort Niagara to Fort Schlosser, at the Falls of Niagara, above which point the army was to reëmbark and proceed to Fort Erie, now Buffalo.
The country through which the Niagara River passed was the stronghold of the savage nations and here, if any where, Bradstreet would find his way closed. When the soldier-crowded ships of Bradstreet unloaded their troops beneath the ramparts of Fort Niagara a striking spectacle met their view, for "hundreds of Indian cabins were clustered along the skirts of the forest and a countless multitude of savages, in all the picturesque variety of their barbaric costumes, were roaming over the fields or lounging about the shores of the lake." They were there in response to the summons of Sir William Johnson, who the previous winter had dispatched Indian runners to the tribes, far and near, to gather at this time and place. Such a conclave of savages had seldom been seen in America. Menominies, Ottawas, Ojibways, Mississaugas, Foxes, Winnebagoes, Sacs, from the northwest; Osages, from beyond the Mississippi; Hurons and Wyandots from Detroit; Caughnawagas from Canada, together with
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a host of Iroquois, the total being, as enumerated, each tribe in number, by Montresor, no less than seven- teen hundred and twenty-five. The Delawares and Shawnees from the Ohio towns, were conspicuous for their absence; more than that, by couriers they sent an insolent message to the effect, "that though they had no fear of the English and though they regarded them as old women and held them in contempt, yet out of pity for their sufferings, they were willing to treat of peace."
The Senecas, at first, held aloof, indeed it was reported they had leagued themselves with the hostile and defiant Delawares and Shawnees. From the English at the council a message was sent to the Seneca Castle that if the Senecas did not appear at the council war would be made on them. They then appeared and agreed that they should not again war on the English and would annul their alliance with the Dela- wares, Shawnees and the Ottawa Confederacy.
Sir William Johnson and Bradstreet's officers held, during many days, innumerable conferences and coun- cils with each tribe in turn. The council-room of the fort was crowded from morning till night with the expressionless, greasy-faced warriors, in their paint and feathers and blue and red blankets, fringed leggins and beaded moccasins. Wearisome formalities were enacted and re-enacted; there were endless speeches and replies; the giving of wampum belts, the smoking of pipes, the dancing and feasting and by the English the profuse presentation of gifts and the ladling out of barrels and barrels of rum, under the influence of which the warriors were at times "too drunk to sign
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the articles of peace." Montresor notes "the expense of provisions for the Indians only at the congress, Niagara, July 1764, £250,000, New York currency and besides, the presents £38,000 Sterling." This totals nearly a million and a half dollars. But the In- dians yielded all that was asked, among other things the permission to the English to the "re-establishment of Michilimackinac, also the liberty of building a post on the northwest side of the Niagara River, above the rapids at the mouth of Lake Erie belonging to the Jibbeways," reads Montresor's journal.
Sir William Johnson, having completed his task, returned to Oswego on his way to his palatial Johnson Hall, and wrote the Lords of Trade (August, 1764) : "Pontiac is with some of the most obstinate as yet in the Miami country near the west end of Lake Erie, but he has sent to desire peace and I believe is only apprehensive for his security and that of those with him. The Shawnees and Delawares about the river [Scioto] are I apprehend greatly alarmed at the fidelity of the Indians in our interests; Col. Bouquet is pre- paring to go against them and the enterprise must be attended with many difficulties. I have just sent a party of Indians to accompany him."
John Johnson, son of Sir William by his wife Cather- ine, accompanied Bradstreet at the head of a band of three hundred Iroquois, Andrew Montour acting as guide and interpreter. The hordes of Indian coun- cillors began to scatter for their distant countries and the vast encampment slowly melted away
Bradstreet's army now resumed its progress. The soldiers advanced to Fort Schlosser, above the falls,
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whither their boats had been wearisomely transferred, "craned up the rocks at Lewiston and dragged by oxen over the rough portage road." Departing from Fort Schlosser, Bradstreet's boats and bateaux pluckily pushed up the current of the Niagara and emerged into the expanding waters of Erie. A storm drove the flotilla ashore at Presque Isle, now the city of Erie.
While waiting for the wind and rain to cease and the rough waters to subside, Bradstreet was visited by ten Indians, who pretended to be sent by the Dela- wares and Shawnees, from the plains of the Scioto, to sue for peace. The Indian allies accompanying Bradstreet pronounced the claimant peace-makers spies, and demanded that they be killed. Bradstreet refused to resort to such severe measures; on the con- trary, being easily misled by the Indian subterfuge, he made a preliminary treaty with the presumptive embassadors in which he agreed not to proceed, as intended, against the "Castles" of the Delawares and the Shawnees. The spurious delegates promised for their tribes that all white prisoners held by them should be delivered at Lower Sandusky within twenty-five days, that all claims to the posts of the English in the west should be abandoned, and leave given to erect as many forts and trading posts as should be necessary for the traders, with a grant of as much land around each post as "a cannon could throw a shot over." Stone, in his Life of Sir William Johnson, comments on this incident with the remark that the conduct of Bradstreet in this affair was inexcusable and could only have been prompted by excessive vanity, for even had the deputies been duly accredited, Bradstreet's
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instructions gave him no authority to conclude a peace.
While this picturesque farce was being enacted, as Montresor says, "at the Cove of Peace, on the south side of Lake Erie, August 12, 1764," the Delawares and Shawnees in their "Castles" on the banks of the Scioto and Plains of Sandusky were wriggling their war dance and whetting their scalping knives. Brad- street added to the burlesqueness of his action by sending word to Bouquet, then at Fort Pitt, not to proceed on his expedition to Ohio as he, Bradstreet, had already reduced the Delawares and Shawnees to submission by a treaty. Bouquet paid no attention to the Quixotic message.
The pseudo-peace performance at an end, Brad- street's troops again embarked and set forth westward. Montresor, in his journal, gives a detailed statement of the force as it left the "Cove of Peace" as he styles Presque Isle. The total enrollment was two thousand two hundred eighty-nine, about twelve hundred of whom were the regular troops; near two hundred Canadians; one hundred boatmen, rangers, carpenters, etc., five hundred provincials from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and three hundred Indians. Among the Indian contingent, at the head of one hundred of his warriors, was the Caughnawaga chief, who had once been Putnam's captor and since that time his friend. Thus war brought about its curious changes. The floating transports embraced two or three vessels, seventy-five whale, or long boats and numerous canoes and nondescript crafts. On August 18, the flotilla reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga
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or La Grand Riviere, which, Montresor remarks, "is a considerable river where the upper nations hunt and also paddle." He adds that by proceeding up this river six leagues and then going east, a march of six days will reach Fort Pitt. On the 21st the Vermillion River was reached. The entrance to Sandusky Bay, was the next encamping station. At this point Brad- street had been, by his original orders, directed to attack the Wyandots, Ottawas and Miamis living in the vicinity, but on the approach of the general, so complacent with his Indian compacts, the representa- tives of the tribes named, forestalled the "thorough chastisement" he was to here give them, by meeting him and "promising that if he would refrain from attacking them, they would follow him to Detroit and there conclude a treaty." Again Bradstreet accepted their wily pleas and without molesting the settlements that had been the centers of Pontiac's conspiracy, he proceeded on his way to Detroit, landing the sea- weary army of soldiers and savages at the mouth of the River Raisin for the night of August 26th. We have said "sea-weary army," for as Montresor notes on the day previous, "the water rose this night two feet perpendicular, and a hard gale blowing N. E. which obliged the whole to unload and haul all their boats from the surf."
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