USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 20
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When the suffering and want was at its worst, Po moacan, the Wyandot Half-King, to whose super vision they were subject, visited the mission an
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arned of their desperate condition, and while rudely pressing his disapproval of their preaching and pray- g, he granted their request to be permitted to send portion of their number to the grain fields about teir Tuscarawas towns where corn of the previous ar's husbandry still hung unplucked. It was late i February (1782), as soon as the snow began slightly 1 subside, that "about one hundred and fifty Christian Idians"-the younger and stronger members of the i Ission-left the Captives' Town for the Tuscarawas. Sarcely had they departed when a runner arrived at tz isberger's cabin, summoning him to the Half-King's d-vlage. There he found a council of Wyandots and uI lawares, and with them Simon Girty, who brought "a message from de Peyster again summoning the mot .chers and their families to Detroit. Little wonder hrtheir hearts sank within them, for they had once more bed their hopes on a permanent mission on the Sadusky, which should be as prosperous as the pre- div us ones had been in the valley of the Tuscarawas. ns I was a terrible blow to their leader Zeisberger. our: we were to be slain it would be better, we should meteln be relieved of all our troubles; but now we seem diato be reserved for many deaths," he wrote in his ime ornal.
Giving a pledge to Girty that in two weeks he would, whawh the teachers and their families, meet him at ver Sandusky, Zeisberger dispatched runners to the ntry round about and to the Tuscarawas to recall converts, that all might prepare for the departure the teachers. Those near by came at once, but hse from the Tuscarawas came not. A second mes-
n. st, PE sup on
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senger was sent for them and still not one returned Suddenly there arrived in the Captives' Town a Dela ware warrior with the startling announcement that th Moravians on the Tuscarawas had been slaughtere by American militia. Zeisberger could not credit th story, there must be some mistake, or it was a fals rumor. Gathering his faithful followers about him with pathetic exhortations that they "stand fast i the faith and endure to the end," Zeisberger and h little company of assistants, Heckewelder and Sens man and their families, started on their journey, und guidance of the Frenchman Lavallie, to Lower Sa dusky, thence they were escorted to Detroit by Simo Girty, whom Albach charges with being responsib for their recall by de Peyster on the charge of t renegade that the Moravians were in friendly cori spondence with the Americans at Pittsburg. We ca- not follow that weary and sad journey to Detroit, f. we have more heart-rending scenes to recount.
We have already seen, in the history of their missi towns, how the Moravian Indians were the subjes of suspicion, hostility and ravaging war from the tv- fold enemy; on the one hand, the British and thr savage allies, especially the Shawnees, Mingoes al Wyandots; on the other, at times, the frontiersma across the Ohio on the borders of Pennsylvania ad Virginia. The location of the Moravian villages, o it well chosen for their proselyting purpose, was on e dividing line between the bitterly contending natios. Both sides, took advantage of the Christian neutraly 3 a of these devoted Disciples of the Prince of Peace, ad used the Moravian villages as "half-way houses, "it Pkn
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which to "halt and refresh themselves whether starting on a foray or returning with scalps and plunder."
The hostile tribesmen regarded the Christian Indians as traitors to their race and the British regarded their "neutrality" as a guise under which they aided the colonists. Moreover the marauding tribesmen, unable :o goad or cajole the Moravians into complicity with hem, took malicious pleasure in trying to embroil them n the racial conflict and on returning from raids against over-the-Ohio settlements, often passed through their towns and tarried there for rest and carousal hereby arousing the suspicion of the frontiersmen hat the friendliness of the Indian converts to the whites vas not sincere. Colonel Gibson offered them pro- ection at Fort Pitt; de Peyster urged them to take refuge at Detroit. Loskiel puts it; the Half-King of he Wyandots, tried to pursuade them to abandon heir dangerous position and to come well within the British lines, saying: "Two mighty and angry gods tand opposite to each other with their mouths wide pen, and you are between them, and are in danger of being crushed by one or the other or by both."
That the frontier settlers should have preserved full aith in and, at the risk of their lives, protected the Moravians, there was every reason in the world; the military authorities at Fort Pitt knew perfectly well hat the Indians of the missions were not only what hey pretended to be, but that they had frequently eceived information from them of intended Indian aids among the settlements that enabled the colonists › defend themselves. Still among the backwoodsmen his knowledge, for obvious reasons, did not prevail
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and the opinion constantly gained ground that the Moravian settlements on the Muskingum were simply temporary quarters for the "wild Indians" on their plundering and scalping tours and that the frontiers men would get no permanent relief until those village: were once for all wiped out. That attempt had in deed already been made, and all but accomplished by the British and hostile Indians, and the doomed centers of Schoenbrunn, Salem and Gnadenhutten, a we saw, were well-nigh depopulated, but at this momen the Christian Indians, who rashly remained after the invasion of Pomoacan, were augmented by the relief seeking party from Captives' Town; the absentees tha did not return at the call of Zeisberger. Strang destiny that these peace-seeking Moravians shoul meet their dreadful doom at the hands of those the had befriended. They were neutral, it is true, equall to both sides, so far as any warlike activity was con cerned, but their sympathy lay with the American and the occasions were numerous when they gav information, often life-saving, to the frontiersmer This was the complaint of the British and the charg of the tribesmen, and critical authorities have not faile to note that in their plea before de Peyster, at th first hearing, Zeisberger and his assistants mad stronger denial of their alleged assistance to the Amer cans, than the actual facts warranted. Even if tha be true, the customs of war, if not the rights of tria justified the averments of Zeisberger. But his cha: acter and his career forbid for an instant the belie that he intentionally varied from the strictest truth
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It should be also acknowledged that one cause for some, at least slight, justification for the increasing enmity of the bordermen for the Moravians, was the act, inevitable under the circumstances, that, at times, ome of the young Christian Indians would repudiate heir conversion, rejoin their heathen brethren and with the latter go upon the warpath against the Americans.
Events during the winter of 1781-2 were especially xasperating to the Ohio frontiersmen. The "wild Indians," as Roosevelt calls them, from the Ohio nterior had made many petty raids, committing rutal murders in the unprotected or unwarned back- roods settlements. These deeds and the recent whole- ale slaughter of Lochry's party, cried aloud for ven- eance, and this sentiment of retaliation against the Moravians was perhaps fanned into a flame in Feb- lary, when a band of savages crossed the Ohio at ne mouth of Yellow Creek and stealthily proceeding ong the dividing ridge between King's and Travis reeks attacked the cabin of Robert Wallace. The ock was killed, the cabin looted and set on fire and Irs. Wallace and her three children, one an infant, arried away prisoners. The mother being unable to eep up the required pace of rapid retreat, on account the burden of her babe, both were tomahawked and iried in a hidden grave by the trailside.
The return route of the marauders took them to le Moravian villages, and it is credibly stated by me chroniclers that the blood-stained dress of Mrs. allace was found in the possession of the Christian dians. The date and details of the Wallace murder
th
De
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are not uniformly related by its various reciters, but be that as it may, the incident in the main is typical of the period and representative of those that directly or indirectly led to the massacre at Gnadenhutten. The clamor for bloody measures at last reached its climax and word was passed along in Washington county, Pennsylvania, for the assembly of a company willing to enter upon desperate work.
We are persuaded that careful perusal of all the available evidence in this affair will lead to the con- viction that the expedition, about to be described, was in its inception and execution a purely volunteer one and without any county or state authority, military or civil.
As Mr. William M. Farrar shows, in his thorough study, the results of which were presented in an address to the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, the affair had no official sanction, much less direction "This expedition which originated in the western township of Washington County, Pennsylavnia, during the fall and winter of 1781, has been represented as a military one, authorized by the lawfully constitutec military authority of that county, commanded by ¿ regularly commissioned militia officer, and called out in the regular way. And yet no such order has eve: been found, nor is there any muster roll in existence giving the list of names of the officers and private composing the expedition, showing to what companie or battalion of the enrolled militia of the country they belonged, nor has any claim for services rendered damages sustained, provisions furnished, arms pro vided, or property lost, ever been presented eithe
it
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against the state or general government, by any person claiming to have been a member of the expedition. Neither is there any official report of the expedition extant, made by either Col. Williamson, the officer in command, or by James Marshal, the lieutenant of the county who was responsible for it, if any such expedition was ordered out, or by Brigadier General Irvine, the commandant at Fort Pitt in whose department it occurred."
With the above conclusion, as Mr. Farrar admits, Mr. Butterfield, "an accurate and careful historian," has taken issue. But Mr. Butterfield bases his opinion ipon a single statement made by General Irvine in letter written from Fort Pitt-two months after the nassacre-May 3, 1782, to President Moore of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania. In September 1781) General Brodhead relinquished his office to Colonel John Gibson who in turn was superseded, October II, by General William Irvine, as commandant of the Western Military Department. General Irvine vas a native of Ireland, of Scotch descent, a graduate of the Unversity of Dublin, had served the colonial ause in the Revolution and was a most capable and accomplished officer.
In the letter mentioned above, General Irvine wrote: 'On receipt of your excellency's letter of the 13th of April, I wrote to Colonel James Marshal, who ordered ut the militia to go to Muskingum [to that branch nown as the Tuscarawas] for his and Colonel William- on's report of the matter; Colonel Williamson com- nanded the party. Inclosed you have their letters o me on the subject by way of report." Mr. Farrar,
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after quoting the above, concludes: "That Genera Irvine wrote to Marshal and Williamson for their reports of the matter, and transmitted the letters received from them in reply to the President of the Council, 'by way of report,' as stated, is no doubt correct. But to assume that these were the officia reports of the transaction is not warranted." Perhap the most convincing bit of evidence of the guerrilla character of the expedition is the letter of Presiden Moore to General Irvine, on May 30, 1782, nearly three months after the event, in which letter Mr Moore says: "Your favors of the 2d, 3d and 9th o the present month, with the representations made by Colonel Williamson and Colonel Marshal have been read in Council and shall be immediately laid befor Congress as a matter of high importance to the rep utation of this State and to the general interest and honor of the United States; we request that you will continue you enquiries on this subject and transmi us such information from time to time, as may com to your knowledge tending to elucidate this dark trans action." This apparently exculpates the state an national authorities from any sanction or even fore knowledge of "this dark transaction."
A letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Cook c Westmoreland county, to President Moore, in th following September, reveals the public sentiment "The Savages have been tolerable these few week Past, what they are about we Cannot Determine. am Informed that you have it Reported that the Mas sacre of the Moravian Indians Obtain the Approbation of Every man on this side of the Mountains, which
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assure your Excellency is false, that the Better Part of the Community are of Opinion the Perpetrators of that Wicked Deed ought to be Brought to Condein Punishment, that without something is Done by Gov- ernment in the Matter, it will Disgrace the Annals of the United States, and be an Everlasting Plea and Cover for British Cruelty."
This controversy, however, as to the authority or non-authority for the expedition is not pertinent to he relation of the facts of the campaign; the discussion, ather, is evoked for the purpose of mitigating, if pos- ible, the responsibility of the proceedings by relieving he American military and civil officers of all blame ›y the plea that it rested on a "mob" of unlicensed backwoodsmen. That many of these men were of igh standing among their neighbors, there is no oubt and not a few belonged to the militia, though, s Roosevelt suggests: "It was of course, just such an xpedition as most attracted the brutal, the vicious nd the ruffianly; but a few decent men, to their hame, went along." But that the company was unofficial" is clearly established. General Irvine ould not have issued orders for its organization or ction and Albach notes that "as soon as General 'ibson heard of their designs, he dispatched messengers › the Indians to warn them of their danger, but they rrived too late."
It was "on Monday, the 4th of March," says Mr. arrar, when "men in couples, squads and singly, on orseback and on foot, appeared suddenly on the ist bank of the River Mingo [in Ohio], crossed over the west side, where, when all had assembled, they
ch
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chose officers, and on the next morning disappeared, going west along the old Moravian trail up Cross Creek."
They numbered between eighty and ninety, when assembling at the Mingo, some fifty more had started from Washington county; but the Ohio River being high and difficult to cross and the weather cold and stormy, one-third of the original volunteers abandoned the undertaking and turned back. Many of these men had not told their own families of the purpose of their departure or where they were going; each man furnished his own ammunition, arms, and provisions; and those who were mounted furnished their own horses. A1 Mingo Bottom they elected David Williamson captain a choice probably well agreed upon by the prospective volunteers before the expedition was under way, fo Williamson was a native Pennsylvanian of the age o thirty; a captain in the county militia; possessed o all the qualities of a brave and heroic frontiersman
On Wednesday evening they encamped within on mile of Gnadenhutten, carefully concealing their ap proach until the next morning, when dividing thei force, they moved upon the village from both sides o the river, Williamson sending one company to strik the river below the town, a second to cross the strear above and cut off retreat in that direction, while th third company, forming the center, should advanc upon the place directly.
Their coming was discovered by Joseph Shebosh -son of John Joseph Shebosh, an early convert- half-breed and one of the most prominent Christia Indians, who was killed and scalped while piteousl
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eading for his life. Others were shot or tomahawked fore the town was entered. They found most of te Indians in the adjacent fields, quietly gathering the rn. Heckewelder in his Narrative implies that their ry occupation and appearance was evidence of their on-combative disposition: "The Christian Indians ere well known by their dress, which was plain and de- nt, no sign of paint to be seen on their skin or cloathes -no feathers about their heads, nor these shaved and immed, as every Indian warrior does; but wearing their ir as we do. These, with other marks on them, were one sufficient to prove that they were not warriors." And Mr. Stone, in his "Life of Brant," pays this ibute to the Moravians: "A more humble, devout, id exemplary community of Christians, probably, as not at that day to be found in the new world. nder the untiring instructions of their missionaries, ey had been taught the dress and practices of civil- ed life. They were tillers of the soil, and had become well acquainted with the usages of society, and were well furnished with the necessaries and some of the xuries of life, that they could set a comfortable table id a cup of coffee before a stranger."
Feigning a friendly behavior, the Americans re- tested them to assemble in the village and "even etended to pity them on account of the mischief one to them by the English and the savages; assuring em of the protection and friendship of the Ameri- ans." The confiding converts, not knowing of the urders already committed, returned to their village lits and offered to the Americans such hospitality they could provide.
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With resignation the Indians received the infor mation that they would not be permitted to return t the Sandusky but would be taken to Fort Pitt, wher they would be free from any harm either by the British or by the "wild Indians." Relying upon this assurance "they cheerfully delivered their guns, hatchets and other weapons, to the murderers; who promised t take care of them and in Pittsburg to return ever article to its rightful owner."
Meanwhile one or more of the beguiled Indians accompanied by members of Williamson's company were despatched to Salem to summon the Moravian at that place to Gnadenhutten. These Salem Indians likewise, unquestionably accepted the message tha on their arrival at Gnadenhutten they would be prc tected by the Americans and taken to Pittsburg where they believed they would be well cared for. Bu the confiding trust of the Salem party, in their pre tended protectors, was of short duration, for as the entered Gnadenhutten they were at once surrounde by the armed frontiersmen, robbed of their guns an even of their pocket-knives and conducted, bound an defenseless, into the village, where they were divide and confined in two of the log houses, in which th Gnadenhutten Indians had been imprisoned, th women and children in one and the men in the othe:
Among the assailants there were, however, some i whom conscience and humanity were not entirel extinct and their non-compliance with the most extrem measures led the company to deliberate during th day of the seventh, on what should be the fate of the: victims. Some of Williamson's men, realizing th
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formity of their original purpose, were in favor of leasing the Indians, or at worst taking them captive Fort Pitt, where the United States authorities would responsible for the sequence; "some were for ırning them alive, others for taking their scalps." oddridge in his notes reports: "A council of war was eld to decide their fate. The officers, unwilling to ke on themselves the whole responsibility of the awful cision, agreed to refer the question to the whole ımber of men. "
The men were accordingly drawn up in line and the mmandant Captain Williamson, who, it is claimed, as opposed to violent measures, put the question to em : "Whether the Moravian Indians should be ken prisoners to Pittsburg or put to death?" and quested that all those who were in favor of saving eir lives should step out of rank. On this, eighteen, one in five-"a paltry eighteen," stepped forward .d formed themselves into a second line; "but alas! is line of mercy was far too short for that of ven- ance." The mode of execution created not a little bate. At last it lay, says De Schweinitz, between l'o proposals; one, to set fire to the guard-houses and E t' rn the captives alive; the other, which prevailed, tomahawk and scalp them. The fate of the Mora- Tans was thus decided and they were told to prepare f- death. Captain Williamson, one of his company a erwards testified, "did what he could in a mild, argu- i; sort of way," to avert the carrying out of the ceadful decision, but all to no avail. This was the eening of the seventh, the very day the Moravians Hd previously agreed upon to set out on their return
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to Captives' Town with the provisions of relief fc their distressed brethren. But the terror-stricke prisoners from the time they were disarmed and place in confinement, foresaw their fate and "began the' devotions of singing hymns, praying and exhortin each other to place a firm reliance in the mercy of th Savior of Men."
When their fate was told them, "these devote people embraced, kissed, and bedewing each other faces and bosoms with their mutual tears, asked pardc of the brothers and sisters for any offense they migl have given them through life." Solemnly protestir their innocence, they nevertheless declared themselv willing to die and asked no favor other than time 1 prepare for death. This was granted them and tl following morning fixed for the execution.
"There now ensued a scene that deserves to find place in the history of the primitive martyrs; shut 1 in their two prisons, the converts began to sing ar pray, to exhort and comfort one another, to mutual unburden their consciences and acknowledge the sins." "As the hours," says De Schweinitz, "wo away, and the night deepened, and the end drew nea triumphant anticipations of heaven mingled with the hymns and prayers; converted heathens taught the Christian slayers what it means to die, as more thi --- conquerors."
At last the morning broke, "the air was raw all chilly, and gusts of wind and soft snow would at tims sweep through the air," and the slayers, impatie: to begin their work of blood, brutally called to the captives, whether they would not soon be ready. "V?
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are now ready," was the reply. Several of the butch- erers immediately seized Abraham, surnamed the Mohican, one of the patriarchs of the converts, "whose ong, flowing beard had attracted their notice the day before as fit for making a fine scalp, tied him and another convert with a rope, and dragged them to the cooper shop, the "slaughter house," selected for the killing of the men. The two were deliberately slain and scalped. The rest, says De Schweinitz, whose account we are closely following, suffered in the same way, two by two. When all the men and boys were dead, the women and small children were brought out, two by two as before, taken to the 'slaughter house" selected for the women, and "dis- patched with the same systematic barbarity." Toma- hawks, mallets, war-clubs, spears, and scalping knives were used to effect the slaughter.
It appears only a portion of the Williamson company acted as assassins, the remainder approvingly witness- ng the butchery, save the eighteen who voted against he wholesale murder; these heroes of humanity would not even countenance the crime by their presence and betook themselves to a position on the river bank where they might not see the enactment of the dam- hable taking off of the innocent Indians.
"Thus," reports Loskiel, "ninety-six persons mag- nified the name of the Lord, by patiently meeting i cruel death." Sixty-two were grown persons and hirty-four were children. Five of the adults were 'most valuable assistants"-teachers of the Moravian aith; one being Isaac Glikkikan, formerly the great varrior, and chief of the Wolf clan of the Delawares,
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after his conversion one of the most illustrious and faithful of the Indian converts; likewise his wife, Anna Benigna, who took the pony of one of the Sandusky warriors and rode all night to notify the garrison at Fort McIntosh of the proposed Indian attack on Fort Henry; another was Captain Johnny, the chief of the Turtle clan of the Delaware tribe. Only two escaped, Jacob, a young boy, who slipped through a trap door into the cellar of the house in which were slain the women and children; escaping he hid in a clump of hazel bushes and was afterwards joined by another Indian boy, Thomas, who, struck on the head by a mallet, and scalped, lay as if dead until night, when he got away and joined Jacob. In their place of secretion these two lads, of fourteen and fifteen years of age, watched the murderers set fire to the "slaughter houses" and "make merry over the result of their work and then with savage shouts and oaths start for Schoenbrunn," where they expected to repeat the crime committed at Gnadenhutten.
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