USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 14
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Clark had won for the new republic a territory, nany times the extent of New England. He was duly complimented by the Virginia legislature, which on March 10, 1779, passed an act organizing the Illinois ountry into the County of Illinois; and legislation ollowed providing for the establishment of a county overnment with its seat at Vincennes and Colonel ohn Todd, Jr., was named as Lieutenant or Comman- ant of the county, with a force of five hundred militia, which was "to march immediately into said county to arrison forts and protect said county," and exclude he British and hold the tribesmen in check.
Such was the romantic struggle and heroic triumph f George Rogers Clark ;- had it not been for his con- uest of Illinois, the surrender of Yorktown would ave been robbed of more than half its significance and lory.
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CHAPTER X. McINTOSH BUILDS FORT LAURENS
I T will be recalled that the autumn, winter and spring of 1777-8 was the period of the low ebb of the Colonial cause. Howe's victory at Brandy- wine gave him the possession of Philadelphia. The encounter at Germantown a month later added to the discomfiture and discouragement of the American army. Washington led his defeated and depleted troops to the barren banks of the Schuylkill, where they took up their quarters amid the snow and ice of Valley Forge, only twenty miles away from the luxurious city lodgings of Howe. The fate of the new nation seemed all but doomed. Howe was exultantly awaiting the cheery season of spring before pouncing upon Washington to annihilate the remnant of the "ragamuffin army" of the rash rebel general.
Then it was that the hope and effort of independence looked to a new field in the Ohio country. The war drama is transferred to the trans-Allegheny stage. The western headquarters of the British, at Detroit, held the key to the vast northwestern territory, the retention of which was so necessary to British success. In the autumn of 1777, the "hair-buying" commander at Detroit, summoned the tribesmen to a council and inaugurated that policy of sending into the Ohio country bands of savages augmented by Canadian soldiers and commanded by British officers, to plunder and massacre the American settlers. It was to be a guerrilla warfare of bloody and merciless annihilation.
It was in the late spring of 1778-while Washington was just emerging from Valley Forge-that George Rogers Clark entered upon his daring expedition to save the Northwest to the Colonies. Meanwhile
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rumors reached Fort Pitt that a great Indian expedition would advance on that post, and the Continental Congress determined to act on the offensive and "carry the war into Africa"-into the head centers of the Ohio Indians.
The rumors of the Indian advance were made good by the unsuccessful attack, in February (1778), of two hundred Shawnees, upon Fort Randolph, a bold at- tempt to avenge, upon the very scene of its occurrence, the treacherous murder of their leader Cornstalk. But the assault was unavailing. At the very same time General Edward Hand, learning that the British had a quantity of stores-consisting of arms, ammuni- tion, provisions and clothing-gathered in the Dela- ware town on the Cuyahoga for the purpose of support- ing the savages in their incursions into the border settlements, decided to effect their destruction. With a force of some five hundred backwoodsmen, General Hand proceeded upon his errand; among his men was Simon Girty, this being the only time, says Butterfield, in which "he ever marched against the foe under the American flag." He doubtless acted as guide for the general. The destination of the party was about one hundred miles from Fort Pitt.
At "a point a considerable distance above the mouth of the Beaver, on the Mahoning river, " the cautiously advancing force reached the site of an Indian camp, "supposed to contain between fifty and sixty Indians." "But to my great mortification," wrote the com- mander, "only one man, with some women and children, was found." The Indian and one of the squaws were killed, one squaw captured, "and with difficulty saved,"
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who reported that the Munsey Indians were making salt about ten miles further up the Mahoning. A small detachment under Girty, was sent to secure them. The result of the detour of this capturing band proved more inglorious than the first. The enemy 'turned out to be four women and a boy," wrote Hand, "of whom only one woman was saved." "In performing these great exploits," the general ironically ecites, "I had but one man-a captain-wounded and ›ne drowned." The "exploits" were not continued is the melting snows and falling rains prevented urther progress and the disgusted general led his cavalcade, for his "soldiers" were mounted, back to Fort Pitt, having thus "accomplished" the first Ohio xpedition in the American Revolution, an expedition which was thereafter known as the "Squaw Campaign."
Stirring events followed the Squaw Campaign. Less han a month after the return of General Hand to Fort Pitt, the renegade trio, Simon Girty, Alexander AcKee and Mathew Elliott, deserted the Colonial ause and joined the enemy. On the other hand Captain White Eyes and John Killbuck, the Delaware hiefs, made report to Pittsburg of their visit to Detroit, the previous December. They stated the british forces under the command of Hamilton, were Do few to cause the Americans any uneasiness.
It was this same month (March) that Daniel Sullivan turned and made report of his "spying" experience t Detroit. Sullivan had been employed the year efore (1777) by the State of Virginia, to act as a spy t the Indian country. He was well qualified for the ervice. He had lived nine years as a captive boy
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among the Delaware tribesmen. He coveted not his release, made in 1773, for he had become so attached to the Indian life, he preferred it to any other. He therefore readily entered (April, 1777) upon General Morgan's scheme to send him to Detroit attired in the garb of an Indian. Sullivan joined a fur trader and in a batteau coasted from the mouth of the Cuy- ahoga to Detroit, a water journey of eight days. As a pretended friendly savage he met General Hamilton became fully informed of the British strength and the policy of the commander to induce the Indians, by payment of high prices for all scalps, to massacre the white frontiersmen. Sullivan, however, was, after a time, identified by a son of "the notorious banditt chief" Pluggy, who betrayed the spy to Hamilton
Sullivan was arrested and in irons sent to Quebec whence later he was conducted with other prisoner to New York, and there released on parole. Hi report at Fort Pitt, made about the time of the arriva of White Eyes and his companions, confirmed th statements of the Indians concerning the wester situation. The Colonial commission for Indian affair at once ordered six large boats to be built and equippe with a four pound cannon each, for the defense of th navigation between the military posts on the Ohio- a sort of patrolling navy.
In April (1778) the plan was revived of making a overwhelming invasion into the enemy's territory The campaign was modeled after Dunmore's wa four years previous. The Continental troops could no be spared, for Washington was just planning to leav Valley Forge, and the forces for this expedition mu
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e forthcoming from the Virginia mountains, that gion which was ever appealed to in the hour of need and which seemed inexhaustible in its resources for rave and ready fighters.
The force demanded was three thousand men; nine- enths of whom were to come from the counties east the Alleghenies. This army was to be in two divi- ons of fifteen hundred each; one division was to as- mble and march through Greenbrier down the Big anawha to Fort Randolph; the other division was › assemble at Fort Pitt and in batteaux descend the t thio to the former point, just designated, whence er di te united forces would cross the river, invade the terior and destroy the Indian towns and crops, and ish on to Detroit. Hildreth, in his Pioneer History, ves the detailed figures in the estimate for the re- lired provisions, live stock, to be driven along on ot, and the horses needed for the transportation; the tter were to number no less than 3,800 for the carrying
the flour alone and 236 additional pack horses for le salt. The whole expense of this expedition was timated at over $600,000," not in depreciated paper irrency, but in silver dollars or its equivalent," for e national paper money was well nigh worthless, Washington put it about that time, a wagon load Continental paper would not buy a wagon load of ovisions.
Congress-then a fugitive at York, Pa .- in May, dorsed this pretentious plan, voting to raise the en and to appropriate $900,000 for the necessary pense. This same month General Hand requested be recalled from Pittsburg and be transferred to
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the immediate command of Washington. He pre ferred scientific warfare to the dare-devil savagery o the West, although he hailed from Ireland and was doughty fighter. His subsequent career was patrioti and eminent. Washington named as Hand's successo Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh, "an officer c worth and merit," a Scotlander by birth (1727 and an American since 1736, when his parents settle in Georgia. Washington wrote Congress, from Valle Forge, "I part with this gentlemen with much reluc tance. I know his services here are and will be mater: ally wanted. His firm disposition and equal justice his assiduity and good understanding, added to h: being a stranger to all parties in that quarter [For Pitt and the West], pointed him out as a proper persor and I trust extensive advantages will be derived from his command, which I could wish was more agreeable He will wait on Congress for their instructions."
Washington at the same time forwarded certai detachments of "regulars" to report at Fort Pit among these troops were sections of regiments unde Colonel Daniel Brodhead-often spelled Broadhead- Colonel William Crawford, the personal friend ( Washington, and Colonel John Gibson, he of Loga speech fame. In August, General McIntosh reache his quarters at Fort Pitt, but there was a suspensic of the Ohio-Detroit campaign plans, which Washing ton, himself, helped perfect during his encampmer at Valley Forge.
Meanwhile the Indian commissioners proposed 1 Congress that a treaty with the Indians be held ¿ Pittsburg as soon as the Ohio tribes could be notified
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was September 17th before the parties met for con- rence. Andrew Lewis and Thomas Lewis represented irginia. Messengers carrying the usual persuasive resents had been dispatched to the Delaware, Shaw- ee and some other tribes. It was especially desirable at the Americans get permission from the Delawares march through the latter's territory on the way to etroit.
The Shawnees refused to accept the invitation to le conference. The Delawares-still proving friendly › the Americans-alone appeared, being represented their three principal chiefs, Captain White Eyes, aptain Pipe and John Killbuck, Jr. The attendance ¿ this tribe was the more to the credit of the loyalty id bravery of the Delawares, as the British were aring no effort to secure their alliance; Hamilton ad even gone so far as to send messengers from De- oit to Gnaddenhutten, commanding the Moravian issionaries to arm their Indians-mostly Delawares and lead them against the "rebels" beyond the hio, whom they were indiscriminately to attack, and ay without mercy; and bring the scalps to Detroit. hreats were added, that if the Moravians refused obey this infamous bequest of the British, the latter ould regard them as enemies and treat them accord- gly.
At this Pittsburg meeting, however, a treaty was gned by which the American army was to be permitted pass over the Delaware domains and be allowed to ed dect a post therein, and the Delawares even agreed Id 1 furnish, for the American army, "such a number ti ( their best and most expert warriors, as they could
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spare, consistent with their own safety." In thi treaty-the first treaty ever made by the United States and an Indian tribe-White Eyes, says on writer, displayed the qualities of a statesman, for th sixth article of this treaty read: "It is further agreed on and between the contracting parties, should it fo the future be found conducive for the mutual interes of both parties, to invite any other tribes who hav been friends to the interests of the United States, t join the present confederation, and to form a State whereof the Delaware nation shall be the head, and have a representative in Congress."
White Eyes then dreamed of an Indian State il the confederated American Union; but his dream wa of short duration, for only a month after this treaty this chief who had offered his services to McIntosh died from smallpox, that dread disease that mad such fearful havoc among the red race. His takin off was at Tuscarawas, the Delaware capital on th Muskingum. De Schweinitz, the biographer of Zeis berger, pays a fitting tribute to the departed chiel "White Eyes was one of the greatest and best of th later Indians where his remains are resting no ma knows; the plowshare has often furrowed his grave But his name lives; and the Christian may hope tha in the resurrection of the just, he too, will be foun among the great multitude, redeemed out of ever kindred and tongue and people and nation."
The place of the burial of White Eyes, however seems to be in dispute. Brodhead wrote from Pitts burg, (June 22, 1779) to the Delawares, expressin sorrow over the death of White Eyes, saying "he wa
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in honest man, a great counselor and very good man," ind he (Brodhead) was grieved for the loss of his wise ind good counsel. Brodhead adds, "I buried him in he firm place and put a shade over the grave to keep he rain storms and sun off." But he does not in- licate the location of the burial place.
Butterfield says that White Eyes was buried at Pittsburg, but this must be an error, as the statement f his death at Tuscarawas is from the manuscript of Weisberger, who certainly knew, and the body, espe- ially as the death was from a contagious disease, could tot have been borne to Pittsburg. Heckewelder has t that White Eyes died "while accompanying General McIntosh's army to Tuscarawas." It probably oc- urred at Tuscarawas after the army arrived there. The death of White Eyes, who, though unbaptized, ad stood so faithfully and fearlessly for the Moravians, vas a great blow to their missions, for Killbuck was a reak supporter, while Large Cat-more often called Big Cat-was an enemy of the converts of Zeisberger.
The death of this great and useful man was severely amented by and a great loss to the nation; and al- hough his ambitious and political opponent, Captain 'ipe, with an air of prophesy, uttered; "the Great pirit had probably put him out of the way that the ation (Delaware) might be saved;" it was not so onsidered by the faithful post. His death was nnounced to all the surrounding nations, who all ondoled the Delawares on the loss.
The directing of the Delaware nation now devolved pon three chiefs, Gelelemund, known as Killbuck; Iachingwe-Puschis, or Large Cat and Tetepachski.
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Killbuck and Large Cat kept up a lively correspond- ence with Colonel Brodhead, then commandant at Fort McIntosh and with Colonel George Morgan, the Indian agent. Captain Pipe, heretofore inclined to the English side and probably at this very time under pay of Hamilton as a spy, continued his intrigues to deceive his people and play them into the hands of the British.
General McIntosh now blazed a roadway from Pitts- burg to Beaver Creek, where just below its mouth on the east bank of the Ohio, he built, with the aic of five hundred men, who accompanied him, a stockade post, with picket enclosure and four bastions, defendec by six pieces of artillery. He called it Fort McIntosh and it was to be the "covering point" of the projectec campaign, and to this post the headquarters of the army were transferred from Fort Pitt.
The preparations for the expedition moved slowly the want of necessary supplies, the price of which had greatly risen, prevented an immediate departure. Th Greenbrier-Kanawha division of the army was neve assembled and the original plans of the expedition were abandoned. But early in November alarming intelligence reached General McIntosh from the west ern wilderness that all the Ohio Indians were abou to unite on the Tuscarawas to oppose his progress it being understood by them that Detroit was th objective point of his march. Orders, by the com mander, were immediately issued for twelve hundre men to prepare for the expedition.
The contingent set forth on November 5th and, afte a fourteen days' tedious march, over the same rout
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ursued by Colonel Henry Bouquet in 1764, a distance of seventy miles was covered, bringing the army to he Tuscarawas. It was at this point, or near it, that he soldiers expected to encounter the Indian forces ind give them battle; "but only a few Delawares from Coshocton and some Moravian Indians met them and hey were friendly." It was here that McIntosh earned that the winter supplies he had expected from he East had not reached Fort McIntosh and hence is base of relief was unavailing and he was reluctantly ompelled to abandon his cherished plan of reaching nd reducing Fort Detroit, the capture of which was till his ambition.
That his efforts might not, however, be entirely with- ut results, he decided to build upon the Tuscarawas strong stockade and leave as many men as provisions vould permit to protect it until the next spring. Such military post would at least act as a barrier to the urther eastern encroachments of the Indians and could be another defensive milestone in the westward progress of the Colonists.
The site selected for this post was close to that pon which Colonel Bouquet had erected one in his xpedition fourteen years earlier. It was on the west ank of the Tuscarawas, below the mouth of Sandy Creek, something more than a mile south of the present illage of Bolivar. The usual approach to it from ort McIntosh was from the mouth of Yellow Creek nd down the Sandy, which latter stream heads with he former and puts off into the Tuscarawas, just bove the fort site. The entire force was employed 1 the erection of the stockade, which was a regular
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rectangular fortification, enclosing less than an acre of land. This, the first fort erected by Americans within the present Ohio state boundaries, was named Fort Laurens in honor of the President of Congress.
The fort partially completed, McIntosh, leaving (December 9th) a garrison of one hundred and fifty men, a part of the 13th Virginia regiment, with scanty supplies, under Colonel John Gibson, returned to Fort McIntosh, where the militia under his command were discharged "precipitately." After the departure of McIntosh and the main army, Colonel Gibsor continued the work upon the fortification. "I have already finished setting up the pickets," he wrote before the close of the month, "and in a few days think I can bid defiance to the enemy." "The dis tressed condition of the men, " he continued, "prevent the work from going on as briskly as it otherwise would." Meanwhile he opened negotiations with the friendly Delawares at Coshocton (Goschochgung).
To the hostile tribes, this placement of Fort Lauren in the enemy's country, by McIntosh, who then re treated to his headquarters on the Ohio, was "lik poking a bumble-bee's nest and then running away, for the savages came swarming out of the woods fror every direction like so many angry insects.
Here temporarily we leave the little stockade an its brave band of defenders,-who knew how to endur hardship and suffering, for they belonged to the 13t Virginia Continental, and had been with Washingto at Valley Forge,-while we pick up the thread of th career of Simon Girty, who is to be a conspicuou
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figure in the coming attack on Fort Laurens; recounting at the same time the exploits of his more noted asso- ciates.
Simon Girty's desertion from Fort Pitt, as already noted, was in March of this year (1778). In June, he, with his companions, McKee and Elliott, after leaving the Shawnee towns and passing en route through the Wyandot villages of the Sandusky River, arrived at Detroit, where he became a well compensated agent of the British, as interpreter and guide. He took part in the Indian councils, summoned by Hamil- ton, and was a forceful instigator and director of savage marauding expeditions. McKee's services re- ceived hearty recognition and Elliott's services were similarly employed in a less degree. James Girty likewise engaged in the British service and often coöperated with his brother, Simon.
The main fields of activity of these renegade recruits were among the Mingoes and the Shawnees, whose centers lay between Detroit and Pittsburg. The vil- lages of the Mingoes, at this time, lay along the Scioto, from the mouth of the Olentangy to its headwaters, while some were located on the upper waters of the Mad River. There were two principal routes from Detroit to the Mingo country, one down the Detroit River and across the head of Lake Erie to the Sandusky Bay, thence up the Sandusky River and across the portage to the waters of the Scioto; another ran around the west end of the lake, crossing the Maumee, and leading thence to the Mingo towns.
The Shawnees occupied a more extensive region. Their villages were not only on the lower Scioto, but
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west of that on the Big and Little Miamis, with several in the Mad River region. The routes to them from Detroit were but continuations of those to the Mingo towns. Roosevelt in his "Winning of the West," locates the Shawnees or portions of them on the San- dusky River, but there were very few, if any, Shawnees on the Sandusky or any of its tributaries.
CHAPTER XI. CAPTIVITY OF SIMON KENTON
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S IMON KENTON was at this time and had been since 1771, when he was sixteen years of age, living under the assumed name of Simon Butler. The use of this fictitious surname had its origin in the result of an encounter between Kenton and an associate, while the former was a resident of the county of Fauquier, Virginia, during the year above noted. It was a fisticuff fight growing out of a love affair. Kenton, in ring parlance, knocked out his antagonist and left him for dead, though he had no intention of effecting so fatal-as he supposed-a result. The victim recovered but not until after Kenton, fearing for his life, had fled. He assumed the name Butler and took refuge at Fort Pitt, where ne met Simon Girty and between them a mutual Friendship was formed. Girty had not then revealed the yellow streak in his nature. Kenton typified the hoblest class of backwoodsmen. Over six feet in height, possessed of a "stout heart and a robust set of limbs," with the strength and alertness of a trained athlete, fearless almost beyond compare, cool and quick-witted, he was extraordinarily adapted to the backwoods life he led. He was honest to a fault, oyal and steadfast to his friends and their cause. We cannot follow the fascinating details of Kenton's experiences, which have been related at length in McClung's "Biographical Sketches" (1832) and Mc- Donald's "Sketches of Western Adventure" (1838). These works are now classics in pioneer literature and portray history at first hand, for the authors personally ‹new many of the characters concerning whom they wrote.
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We saw Kenton as a guide for Dunmore in the latter's Ohio invasion. He was with Captain Crawford when the later destroyed the Mingo towns on the Scioto. We saw him among the earliest settlers of Kentucky, where he met and became attached, in ties of compan- ionship, to Daniel Boone; they were similar heroes in character and career, and associated in the beginnings of Boonesborough and Harrodsburg and in the struggles of the Transylvania company. As scout, he was with George Rogers Clark in the early part of the Illinois campaign and after the capture of Kaskaskia was dispatched by his commander to the Kentucky settle- ments with the news of Clark's success.
Kenton arrived at Harrodsburg from Kaskaskia, shortly after Boone had reached his home in Boones- borough, following his escape from the Ohio Indians as related heretofore. Restless and adventurous, these two backwoodsmen were ever ready for a game hunt in the wild forest or a venture on the warpath. They at once, in the summer of 1778, concerted an expedition against a small town on Paint Creek, not far from the present site of Chillicothe. With a party of nineteen, chosen from the Boonesborough garrison, they crossed the Ohio and proceeded part way to Paint Creek when they were surprised and attacked by a band of Indians superior in number. Further progress was useless and Boone and his followers, except Kenton and a compan- ion, returned safely to Boonesborough, arriving in time to take part in the siege of that post. Kenton and his com- rade remained in the Shawnee country long enough to cap- ture two horses each, with which, by a rapid night's travel they crossed the Ohio and got beyond danger of pursuit.
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