USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 18
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Many are the poetical tributes to the Mingo hero of which that of Joseph D. Canning was written as a proposed epitaph for a Logan monument, which was never erected:
"Logan! to thy memory here, White men do this tablet rear; On its front we grave thy name- In our hearts shall live thy fame. While Niagara's thunders roar; Or Erie's surges lash the shore While onward broad Ohio glides, And seaward roll her Indian tides, So long their memory, who did give These floods their sounding names, shall live. While time, in kindness, buries low The gory axe and warrior's bow, O, Justice! faithful to thy trust, Record the virtues of the just!"
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On learning of Colonel Bird's raid up the Licking River and the terrible blow it dealt the two Kentucky settlements, George Rogers Clark, then at Fort Jeffer- son, entered at once upon a retaliatory expedition to the Ohio Shawnee towns on the Miami and Mad rivers. With two companies of his Fort Jefferson force, he marched through the dense wilderness to Harrodsburg, a long and perilous journey, through thick forests and amid hostile Chickasaws and Choctaws, to deceive whom Clark and his soldiers painted their faces and attired themselves like Indians. The soldiers relied on Buffalo and other game, which they might shoot, for food.
At Harrodsburg, scores of brave backwoodsmen flocked to Clark's standard, among them James Harrod, John Floyd, Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone. All gathered at the mouth of the Licking, the site of so many warlike scenes in the frontier days. It was a typical motley force of rough and ready riflemen, regulars from Fort Jefferson, militia from Louisville and volunteers from the back river settlements, the whole numbering slightly less than a thousand; a body of sturdy men, mostly unacquainted with the tactics of scientific warfare but all at home with the flint-lock and on the forest trail and fearless in the face of savage foes. It was a laborious and tedious task to ferry this armament across the Ohio, to the mouth of the Little Miami, where two blockhouses were built, in which provisions could be stored and to which the wounded might be carried and cared for. These war- purposed cabins, says Butterfield, were the first build- ings erected upon the site of Cincinnati, though that
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settlement does not date its founding from the time of their being built. The advance was begun, the columns following along the river, in two parallel lines with a space between for the horses and one small cannon, a three pounder-the weight of the ball carried by this cannon is variously given from two to six pounds-strapped to a pack horse. At night the encampment was in the form of a hollow square with the baggage and horses in the middle. The journal kept by one of the soldiers recites that "in the cam- paigns of these days none but the officers thought of tents-each man had to provide for his own comfort. Our meat was cooked upon sticks set up before the fire; our beds were sought upon the ground and he was a most fortunate man that could gather small branches, leaves and bark to shield him from the ground in moist places."
Old Chillicothe, the scene of Bowman's former semi- failure, was reached August 6th, 1780 just two days later than the day that Bird reached Detroit on his return from his Kentucky raid. Certainly Clark's retaliation was swift winged. But the Indians had anticipated Clark's approach, though by only a few hours, for after learning of his advance, they hardly had time before his arrival, to fire their huts and flee for Piqua.
Leaving the burning and deserted Chillicothe, Clark, after a night's encampment, pushed on to the Shawnee capital, Piqua, twelve miles distant and about five miles south of modern Springfield. Piqua was a pretentious and populous Shawnee tribal settlement, the name denoting in Indian parlance, a "village that arises
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from its ashes." Here was the seat of the Shawnee national council, and here was born (1768) the greatest chief of his nation and one of the foremost men of his race, Tecumseh, who as a boy of twelve is said, by tradition, to have been present and to have witnessed the attack upon, and destruction of, his home and native hamlet. It was picturesquely and strategetic- illy situated, as a visit to its location will reveal. The situation is upon an elevated plain on the north banks of the Mad River which here gracefully curves und winds its course southwesterly till it unites with the Big Miami near Dayton. Piqua-not to be con- ounded with the modern city of Piqua-was sub- tantially built and was laid out in the manner of a French village; the stout built log huts, standing far tpart, stretched in a narrow row three miles along he ridge of the upland and at places straggled down nto the plain below. Many of the cabins were sur- ounded with "truck patches" or gardens for the aising of beans and corn. The town contained, within ts limits, on the elevation, a stockade in the shape of
spacious rude log cabin surrounded by pickets; it vas the citadel and capital, the fort and council-hall.
The view from the higher portions of Piqua, in its ristine primitiveness, must have been of unusual eauty; in front and below, stretching away to the rest and south, was the spacious and fertile valley, Those green center was cut by the gentle flowing tream; the eastern horizon was fringed by a range f low rising hills; in the immediate background of ne town were the broad areas of cornfields, which in arvest season gave to wigwams and huts a golden
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setting, beyond which lay an expanse of lofty forest almost impenetrable in its density.
Into the plain between the river and the hill-capped town, marched the soldiers of Clark, who resorted to the customary tactics of dividing his force into two divisions, one of which he led in front of the village the other under Benjamin Logan was directed to make a detour and assail the town from the upper end and the rear, and thus prevent the Indians from making any escape. But in this Logan did not succeed, a his column of four hundred became "entangled" il the grass enveloped swamp, that impeded his progress At the sight of Clark's formidable army, the Shawne warriors, estimated at some seven hundred in numbe for the most part, precipitately fled, leaving abou one hundred-with whom were Simon Girty and Jame Girty-to sustain the attack.
The fighting continued, in a skirmishing manne: for most of the day; the Indians skulking behind th blockhouse and cabins and adjacent bushes and tree The little three pounder was finally mounted an brought into use, and the savages, outnumbered an outarmed, were finally compelled to abandon the fiel and to scatter to the forest depths. The losses c each side are variously stated, but did not surpass score of killed in either case; the wounded were r greater in number. The town was destroyed, ar under the torch of Clark returned to its ashes; and tl growing crops roundabout were likewise the prey the fire-fiend.
One of the sad incidents of this battle was the dea of a cousin to Colonel Clark, viz., Joseph Roger,
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who was with the colonel in the Illinois campaign and who commanded the river boat "Willing" in the Vincennes attack. Rogers was a prisoner of the Shaw- hees at Piqua, and in the attempt to escape to Clark's army, in the midst of the battle, was shot and fatally wounded, but succeeded in reaching the American ine, where he died in the arms of Clark. This incident has been greatly exaggerated and distorted by different writers, most of them crediting Rogers with being a enegade and a reprobate who, after the Illinois cam- ›aign deserted to the Indians. William English, in his laborate biography of Clark, gives the authoritative acts, finally commenting on the event thus: "What must have been his (Clark's) feelings when he realized t was the bright and beloved son of his mother's rother, whom he had influenced to leave his house Virginia, only to find captivity, death and an un- nown grave in the western wilderness?"
On August 10th, two days after the battle, the army, o successful in its undertaking, began the march omeward, and at the mouth of the Licking the soldiers ispersed and "each individual made his best way ome."
The invasion of the heart of the enemy's country y Clark's regiment of backwoodsmen, was hailed by e Kentuckians with great rejoicing. The two most nportant of the Indian towns had been burned; de eyster's plans had been disconcerted; the fierce hawnees checked, at least for a time; and McKee rote from Wapatomica to de Peyster, August 22, 780: "The loss of their corn will be a very distressing le to their families." Roosevelt appraises the result:
es Dass ere
nd rey e den Rog
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"The Indians were temporarily cowed by their loss and the damage they had suffered, and especially by the moral effect of so formidable a retaliatory foray following immediately on the heels of Bird's inroad. Therefore, thanks to Clark, the settlements south of the Ohio were but little molested for the remainder of the year. The bulk of the savages remained north of the river, hovering about their burned towns. planning to take vengeance in the spring."
CHAPTER XIV. BRODHEAD DESTROYS GOSCHOCHGUNG
I N the summer and autumn of 1780, Washington in his letters to Colonel Brodhead at Fort Pitt, urged the great advantage that would accrue from the seizure of Detroit, thereby depriving the British of their western stronghold. If that were impracticable because of the inability of Congress to furnish the required men and supplies, then an inroad should be made upon the Ohio Indian centers on the Muskingum and the Sandusky, to chastise the savages and acquaint them with the strength of the Americans and the certainty of the latter's success.
Brodhead was the man to do either, if properly supported, for he had shown his bravery and general- ship in most effective campaigns, particularly that of the summer of 1779, against the Iroquois allies on the Jpper Allegheny and in the Wyoming Valley. But Congress, even at the earnest solicitation of Washing- on, was powerless to sustain a Detroit expedition. The distressing condition of Brodhead at Fort Pitt is ›est revealed by a letter from him to Mr. Reed, Presi- lent of Congress, written January 22, 1781: "A grand council of British and other Savages is now holding at Detroit, and I am informed they are pre- neditating a descent on this post; and as I cannot rely on a private Contract, which may or may not be made, is shall best suit the Contractors, and it is at most in- ufficient; this and the other circumstances I have nentioned, have induced me to send Mr. Duncan, Col. Blaine's Deputy) to apply for money to purchase Ind lay in provisions for the Troops that are or may e under my Command, if possible, before Spring, so hat, if I should be unfortunate enough not to be
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sufficiently reinforced to enable me to pursue some hostile measures against the Enemy, I may not be under the disagreeable necessity of shamefully abandon- ing posts of the first consequence committed to my care, and suffering the already much distressed In- habitants to be slaughtered by the merciless Savages and their abettors.
"The Soldiers are almost naked, and will not have a rag to cover their nakedness by the first of March I conceive it will be very difficult for me to quiet them much longer.
"I have never been furnished with goods of any kind, nor a penny of money to enable me to transac business with the Indians; neither has any person beer appointed to take the trouble of them off my Hands And yet, if I can serve my Country, I shall be happy but it is necessary I should be supported, and a littl hard money to give rewards to partizans will be highly expedient.
"The Indian Captains appointed by the British Commandant at Detroit, are clothed in the mos elegant manner, and have many valuable present made them. The Captains I have Commissioned b authority of Congress are naked, and receive nothin but a little Whiskey, for which they are reviled b: the Indians in general; So that, unless a change c System is introduced, I must expect to see all Indian in favor of Britain, in spite of every address in m power."
A month later Brodhead seems to have been mor discouraged than ever for he wrote Mr. Reed: “M force being too much reduced to admit my undertakin
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iny offensive measures, I shall probably obtain leave o wait upon your Excellency at Philadelphia where or several reasons I have for some time past wished o be, and as much as may be promote the welfare of his new country."
In reply to pressing appeals direct from Brodhead, Washington wrote Congress on April 14, 1780, vigor- usly demanding that there be deposited at Fort Pitt, is he had previously directed, "2,400 barrels of flour, ,000 barrels of salt meat or salt equivalent to put up hat quantity on the spot and 7,000 gallons of spirit." But before any supplies or relief reached Brodhead, te valiantly advanced into the country of the enemy, s meanwhile the necessity of offensive and decisive var upon the Indians of eastern Ohio, was augmented y the movements of the tribesmen in the winter of 780-81, for during that time Captain Pipe had trans- orted his band of Monseys-often spelled Munceys- rom his village on the Walhonding, some fifteen miles rom Goschochgung, to the Sandusky, there building is town on both sides of the Tymochtee Creek, in which position he was nearer to the British, whose lly he was and whose aid he thus the more easily btained.
The Delawares on the Muskingum, with their main uarters at Goschochgung, heretofore friendly, in urge part, to the Americans, were now rapidly drifting the British standard. The Moravian Indians had rarned Brodhead of the Delaware disaffection, and Ieckewelder himself, in February, had written the ommander at Fort Pitt: "the people (Indians) at Coshocton have been very busy trying to deceive you
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this long time; I believe the greater part of them will be upon you in a few days." The leader of these hostile Delawares was a war chief called Wingenund.
It was time for action and Brodhead, who had just returned from a campaign of devastation among the Indians of the Upper Allegheny, and was in fighting trim, determined to carry the war west into the homes of the Delawares on the Muskingum.
De Peyster, watchful of every movement in the Ohio country, learned of the growing war spirit o: the Delawares, from a message they sent him in which they requested the visit to their settlements of British traders, with whom they might deal, thereby revealing that the tribesmen had repudiated the Americans De Peyster made a most conciliatory and flattering reply, in which he said: "I am pleased when I se what you call live meat because I can speak to it and get information; scalps serve to show that you hav seen the enemy, but they are of no use to me; I canno speak to them." By "live meat" de Peyster mean prisoners of war, and the statement is quoted b Butterfield as indicative that de Peyster was mor humane in his methods than his "hair-buyer" prede cessor, Hamilton. This message of de Peyster wa borne from Detroit to Coshocton by Simon Girty who, early in 1781, at the express direction of d Peyster, had taken up his residence at Upper Sandusky among the Wyandots, as it was believed his service would be most useful in that location.
On April 7, 1781, Colonel Brodhead set out from Fort Pitt, with one hundred and fifty regulars, whic were reënforced, when he reached Wheeling, by a
-
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qual number of Virginia militia under Colonel David hepherd and Captains Jonathan Zane and William Crawford; several friendly Indians, one being Pekillon, Delaware chief, accompanied the troops and one of he guides was John Montour. The published accounts f this important invasion are numerous, but the etails in many instances inaccurate and the statements f different writers conflicting. But the main facts re easily obtained from official records and letters; ich as the Pennsylvania Archives and Washington's ersonal correspondence.
Crossing the Ohio, the little army pushed rapidly to the enemy's country. When near Salem, the Ioravian town, Colonel Brodhead, sent a courier to eckewelder, then resident there, informing him of le approaching troops; requesting a small supply of ovisions and expressing a desire to see Heckewelder. avid Zeisberger, during these events, was temporarily sent in Pennsylvania. The supplies were readily rnished and Heckewelder repaired to the camp of olonel Brodhead, who stated that he was anxious to low before proceeding further, whether any Christian dians were out hunting or on business in the direc- on the army was moving, as he did not wish to do y harm to their (Moravian) people, "as these Indians d conducted themselves from the commencement of e war, in a manner that did them honor; that neither rviste English nor the Americans, could with justice doroach them with improper conduct in their situa- fton." However, continues Heckewelder in his Nar- wiitive, "while the Colonel was assuring me, that our Idians had nothing to fear, an officer, coming with a
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great speed from one quarter of the camp, reported that a division of the militia was preparing to breal off, for the purpose of destroying the Moravian settle ments up the river, and that he feared that they could not be restrained from so doing."
Colonel Brodhead and Colonel Zane instantly tool measures to prevent the threatened calamity. Th colonel, with his troops, then hurried forward, knowing the hostile Indians would learn of the approachin army. He reached Goschochgung (Coshocton) in th midst of a heavy rain. The right wing of the arm was directed to occupy a position above the town which was mainly on the east side of the river; th left was to assume a stand below, while the cente marched directly upon it. The Indian inhabitants ignorant of the fact that the enemy was in their vicinity were completely surprised and all made prisoner without the firing of a gun. The village was pillage and laid waste and the surrounding crops burned These usual warlike measures were followed by horrible incident reflecting great discredit on th American soldiers if not upon their commande Among the prisoners sixteen warriors were pointed ou by Pekillon, as being especially known for their hosti. and "diabolical" deeds, and therefore fit subjects fo retributive justice. "A little after dark," a counc of war decreed their death and they were taken short distance below the town, and "dispatched wit tomahawks and spears and then scalped." The othe captives were committed to the care of the militi. to be conducted to Fort Pitt. But other crimes wel to follow. The next morning, after the capture (
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le town, an Indian made his appearance on the pposite bank of the river, which owing to the swollen aters the soldiers had not crossed, and called out or the "Big Captain," meaning Colonel Brodhead, ho demanded what the Indian wanted. "I want pace," he replied. "Then send over some of your niefs," said the colonel. "Maybe you kill, " responded te peace messenger. But the commander prom- ed they would be safe. Relying on this assurance, ne of their chiefs, "a well looking man," got over te river and entered into a "talk" with the colonel, hen one of the soldiers stole up behind the chief and awing a tomahawk from beneath his hunting shirt alt him a blow on the head, which felled him dead. The destruction of Goschochgung was accompanied the demolition of Lichtenau, formerly the Moravian llage on the river not far below Coshocton, but which ving to its exposure to the hostile Delawares, had en abandoned in the spring of 1780, when the chapel as pulled down, "that it might not be applied to athenish purposes;" after its desertion by the Mor- ian Indians, who took refuge at Salem, the hostile elawares occupied the site, naming their village lich was to be so short lived, Indaochaie.
Colonel Brodhead with the prisoners and a large antity of plunder started on the return march. ithers is responsible for the statement that they Id proceeded but a mile or less from Coshocton, vien the militia guarding the prisoners commenced I irdering them and "in a short space of time a few Women and children alone remained alive," some enty warriors having been butchered like so many
0
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sheep. Brodhead proceeded up the Tuscarawas River to Newcomerstown, or Gekelemukpechunk, the famous Delaware capital, where there were about thirty friendly Delawares and from there, as well as from the towns of Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten and Salem, the three Moravian missions, strung closely together along the Tuscarawas, the soldiers obtained a sufficien supply of provisions for themselves and enough prov ender for their horses, to serve them till they reacher Wheeling, which they did on April 28th, the invasion having occupied exactly three weeks.
Let Colonel Brodhead make his own report, as sen to Congress, May 22d: "In the last letter I had th honor to address to your Excellency, I mentioned m intention to carry an expedition against the revolte Delaware Towns. I have now the pleasure to inforr you, that with about three hundred men, (nearly ha the number Volunteers from the Country), I surprise the Towns of Cooshasking and Indaochaie, kille fifteen Warriors and took upwards of twenty old men women and children. * *
* After destroying the Towi with great quantities of poultry and other stores ar killing about forty head of cattle, I marched up th River, about seven miles, with a view to send for son craft from the Moravian Towns, and cross the Riv to pursue the Indians; But when I proposed my pla to the Volunteers, I found they conceived they ha done enough, and were determined to return, when fore I marched to Newcomerstown, where a few India who remain in our Interest had withdrawn themselv‹ not exceeding thirty men. The Troops experienc great kindness from the Moravian Indians and the
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: Newcomerstown and obtained a sufficient supply [ meat and corn to subsist the men and Horses to ne Ohio River. Captain Killbuck and Captain Lu- erne, upon hearing of our troops being on the Mus- ngum, immediately pursued the Warriors, killed one their greatest Villains and brought his scalp to me. he plunder brought in by the Troops, sold for about ghty thousand pounds at Fort Henry. The roops behaved with great Spirit and although there as considerable firing between them and the Indians, had not a man killed or wounded, and only one horse Lot. "
But Brodhead's brief summary of his campaign, by ) means tells the substantial results. His expedition, ith its harrowing features of wanton bloodshed and king of life, for which the colonel may not have been ttirely to blame, wrought havoc among the near- order Indian settlements. The Delawares fled west- ard, drawing back to the Scioto and the Sandusky, here British encouragement awaited them, in the ape of ample supplies.
The blight of war fell heavily on the Moravian issions, and their faithful ministers, David Zeisberger id John Jungmann at Schoenbrunn; Gottlob Sense- an and William Edwards at Gnadenhutten; John eckewelder and Michael Jung at Salem. These wns lay in the direct path of the hostile posts of Pitts- trg and Detroit and through their peaceful streets arched in turn the soldiers of the contending nations. any of the Christian Delawares at these settlements, e 1 rough which Brodhead passed, fearing the hostile t 1 besmen, put themselves under the protection of the
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American army and accompanied it to Fort Pitt. In- deed Brodhead proposed that all the Moravian Indian! and missionaries take refuge with him in Pennsylvania but they mostly stood bravely by their Christian homes As De Schweinitz testifies, these Christian Indians and Moravian missionaries were neutral in this American Revolution, but while they never attempted to inter fere with the legitimate warfare, the case was differen in regard to the massacres perpetrated or proposer by the Indians. They exerted every effort to preven the scenes of butchery; "it was not enough to theoriz in the Delaware council upon the wickedness of burnin homesteads and butchering women and children; thei sacred office and religious faith compelled them t prevent treacherous slaughter and save non-combatant from being the victims of the indiscriminate tomahaw and the scalping-knife." In this they were impartia but their motives were misunderstood and their action looked upon with suspicion by both the British an the Americans, though much the less so by the latte
As early as the first week in June (1781), followin the departure of Brodhead, an Indian force hosti to the Moravians, appeared before the three mission "The first party," reports De Schweinitz, "reache Salem with a painful attempt at martial array. Most of the invading Indians were mounted and roc in the following order: the Half-King, Pomoacal and his men, from Upper Sandusky; Abraham Cool a white man adopted and made captain by the Wyar dots, led that tribe from Lower Sandusky; Wyando from Detroit; Mingoes from the Scioto and Mad river the two Shawnee captains, John and Thomas Snak
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