History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 91

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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* Post's Journal.

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ary 17, 1759. On the eleventh of March, General Forbes died, and was buried in the chancel of Christ's church, in that city.

Post was now sent on a mission to the Six Nations, with a report of the treaty of Easton. He was again in- strumental in preventing a coalition of the Indians and the French. Indeed, to this obscure Moravian mis- sionary belongs, in a large measure, the honor of the capture of Fort Du Quesne, for by his influence had the Indians been restrained from attacking the army on its march.

The garrison, orf leaving the fort, went up and down the Ohio, part to Presque Isle by land, part to Fort Ve- nango, while some of them went on down the Ohio nearly to the Mississippi, and there, in what is now Mas- sac county, Illinois, erected a fort, called by them Fort Massac. It was afterward named by many Fort Massa- cre, from the erroneous supposition that a garrison had been massacred there.

The French, though deprived of the key to the west, went on preparing stores and ammunition, expecting to retake the fort in the spring. Before they could do this, however, other places demanded their attention.

The success of the campaign of 1758 opened the way for the consummation of the great scheme of Pitt-the complete reduction of Canada. Three expeditions were planned, by which Canada, already well nigh annihilated and suffering for food, was to be subjugated. On the west, Prideaux was to attack Niagara; in the centre, Am- herst was to advance on Ticonderoga and Crown Point; on the east, Wolfe was to besiege Quebec. All these points gained, the three armies were to be united in the centre of the province.

Amherst appeared before Ticonderoga, July 22. The French blew up their works, and retired to Crown Point. Driven from there, they retreated to Isle Aux Nois and entrenched themselves. The lateness of the season pre- vented further action, and Amherst went into winter quarters at Crown Point. Early in June, Wolfe appeared before Quebec with an army of eight thousand men. On the night of September 12th, he silently ascended the river, climbed the heights of Abraham, a spot consid- ered impregnable by the French, and on the summit formed his army of five thousand men. Montcalm, the French commander, was compelled to give battle. The British columns, flushed with success, charged his half- formed lines, and dispersed them.

"They fly ! they fly!" heard Wolfe, just as he expired from the effect of a mortal wound, though not till he had ordered their retreat cut off, and exclaimed, "Now, God be praised, I die happy." Montcalm, on hearing from the surgeon that death would come in a few hours, said, " I am glad of it. I shall not live to see the sur- render of Quebec." At five the next morning he died happy.

Prideaux moved up Lake Ontario, and on the sixth of July invested Niagara. Its capture would cut off the French from the west, and every endeavor was made to hold it. Troops destined to take the small garrison at Fort Pitt, were held to assist in raising the siege of

Niagara. M. de Aubry, commandant in Illinois, came up with four hundred men and two hundred thousand pounds of flour. Cut off by the abandonment of Fort Du Quesne from the Ohio route, he ascended that river as far as the Wabash, thence to portage of Fort Miami, or Fort Wayne down the Maumee to Lake Erie, and on to to Presqueville or Presque Isle, over the portage to Le Bœuf, and thence down French creek to Fort Venango. He was chosen to lead the expedition for the relief of Niag- ara. They were pursued by Sir William Johnson, successor to Prideaux, who had lost his life by the bursting of a cannon, and were obliged to flee. The next day Niag- ara, cut off from succor, surrendered.

All America rang with exultation. Towns were bright with illuminations; the hillsides shone with bonfires. From press, from pulpit, from platform, and from speak- ers' desks, went up one glad song of rejoicing. England was victorious everywhere. The colonies had done their full share, and now learned their strength. That strength was needed now, for ere long a different conflict raged on the soil of America -a conflict in the birth of a new nation.

The English sent General Stanwix to fortify Fort Pitt, still looked upon as one of the principal fortresses in the west. He erected a good fortification there, which re- mained under British control fifteen years. Now noth- ing of the fort is left. No memorial of the British pos- session remains in the west but a single redoubt, built in 1764 by Colonel Bouquet, outside of the fort. Even this can hardly now be said to exist.

The fall of Quebec did not immediately produce the submission of Canada. M. de Levi, on whom the com- mand devolved, retired with the French army to Mon- treal. In the spring of 1760 he besieged Quebec, but the arrival of an English fleet caused him to again re- treat to Montreal.

Amherst and Johnson, meanwhile, effected a union of their forces, the magnitude of whose armies convinced the French that resistance would be useless, and on the eighth of September M. de Vaudreuil, the governor of Canada, surrendered Montreal, Quebec, Detroit, Macki- naw and all other posts in Canada, to the English com- mander-in-chief, Amherst, on condition that the French inhabitants should, during the war, be "protected in the full and free exercise of their religion and the full enjoyment of their civil rights, leaving their future destinies to be decided by the treaty of peace."

Though peace was concluded in the New World, on the Continent the powers experienced some difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory settlement. It was finally set- tled by what is known in history as the "family compact." France and Spain saw in the conquest the growing power of England, and saw, also, that its continuance only ex- tended that power. Negotiations were re-opened, and on the third of November, 1762, preliminaries were agreed to and signed, and afterwards ratified in Paris, in February, 1763. By the terms of the compact, Spain ceded to Great Britain east and west Florida. To com- pensate Spain, France ceded to her by a secret article, all Louisiana west of the Mississippi.

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The French and Indian war was now over. Canada and all its dependencies were now in possession of the English, who held undisputed sway over the entire west as far as the Mississippi. It only remained for them to take possession of the outposts. Major Robert Rogers was sent to take possession of Detroit and establish a garrison there. He was a partisan officer on the borders of New Hampshire, where he earned a name for bravery, but afterward tarnished it by treasonable acts. On his way to Detroit, on the seventh of November, 1760, he was met by the renowned chief, Pontiac, who authori- tatively commanded him to pause and explain his acts. Rogers replied by explaining the conquest of Canada, and that he was acting under orders from his king. Through the influence of Pontiac, the army was saved from the Indians sent out by the French, and was al- lowed to proceed on its way. Pontiac had assured his protection as long as the English treated him with due deference. Beletre, the commandant at Detroit, refused to surrender to the English commander until he had re- ceived positive assurance from his governor, Vaudreuil, that the country was indeed conquered. On the twenty- ninth of September, the colors of France gave way to the ensign of Great Britain amid the shouts of the sol- diery and the astonishment of the Indians, whose savage natures could not understand how such a simple act de- clared one nation victors of another, and who wondered at the forbearance displayed. The lateness of the season prevented further operations, but early the next spring, Mackinaw, Green Bay, Ste. Marie, St. Joseph and the Ouitenon surrendered, and nothing was left but the Illi- nois towns. These were secured as soon as the neces- sary arrangements could be made.

Though the English were now masters of the west, and had, while many of these events narrated were transpiring, extended their settlements beyond the Alle- ghanies, they were by no means secure in their posses- session. The woods and prairies were full of Indians, who, finding the English like the French, caring more for gain than the welfare of the natives, began to exhibit impatience and resentment as they saw their lands gradu- ally taken from them. The English policy differed very materially from the French. The French made the In- dian, in a measure, independent and taught him a desire for European goods. They also affiliated easily with them, and became thereby strongly endeared to the sav- age. The French were a merry, easy-going race, fond of gaiety and delighting in adventure. The English were harsh, stern, and made no advance to gain the friend- ship of the savage. They wanted land to cultivate and drove away the Indian's game, and forced him further west. "Where shall we go?" said the Indians despond- ently; "you drive us farther and farther west; by and by you will want all the land." And the Anglo-Saxon went sturdily on, paying no heed to the complaints. The French traders incited .the Indian to resent the encroach- ment. "The English will annihilate you and take all your land," said they. "Their father, the king of France, had been asleep, and now he had awakened and was coming with a great army to reclaim Canada, that had

been stolen from him while he slept." Discontent, under such circumstances, was but natural. Soon all the tribes, from. the mountains to the Mississippi, were united in a plot. It was discovered in 1761, and arrested. The next summer another was detected and arrested. The officers, and all the people, failed to realize the danger. The rattlesnake, though not found, was ready to strike. It is only an Indian discontent, thought the people, and they went on preparing to occupy the country. They were mistaken-the crisis had only needed a leader to direct it. That leader ap- peared.

CHAPTER IV.

PONTIAC'S CONSPIRACY --- BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION.

PONTIAC, the great chief of the Ottawas, was now about fifty years old. He had watched the conflict be- tween the nations with a jealous eye, and as he saw the gradual growth of the English people, their encroach- ment on the lands of the Indians, their greed, and their assumption of the soil, his soul was stirred within him to do something for his people. He had been a true friend of the French, and had led the Indians at the defeat of Braddock. Amid all the tumult, he alone saw the true state of affairs. The English would inevitably crush out the Indians. To save his race he saw another alliance with the French was necessary, and a restoration of their power and habits needed. It was the plan of a states- man. It only failed because of the perfidy of the French. Maturing his plans late in the autumn of 1762, he sent messengers to all the western and southern tribes, with the black wampum and red tomahawk, em- blems of war from the great Pontiac. "On a certain day in the next year," said the messenger, "all the tribes are to rise, seize the English posts, and then attack the whole frontier."

The great council of all the tribes was held at the river Ecorces, on the twenty-seventh of April, 1763. There, before the assembled chiefs, Pontiac delivered a speech full of eloquence and art. He recounted the in- juries and encroachments of the English, and disclosed their designs. The French king was now awake and would aid them. Should they resign their homes and the graves of their fathers without an effort? Were their young men no longer brave? Were they squaws? The Great Master of Life had chided them for their inactiv- ity, and had sent his commands to drive the "Red Dogs" from the earth. The chiefs eagerly accepted the wampum and tomahawk, and separated to prepare for the coming strife.

The post at Detroit was informed of the plot the evening before it was to occur, by an Ojibway girl of great beauty, the mistress of the commander, Major Gladwin. Pontiac was foiled here, his treachery dis-

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covered, and he was sternly ordered from the conference. A regular siege followed, but he could not prevail. He exhibited a degree of sagacity unknown in the annals of savage warfare, but all to no purpose ; the English were too strong for him.

At all the other posts, save one, however, the plans of Pontiac were carried out, and atrocities, unheard of be- fore in American history, resulted. The Indians at- tacked Detroit on the first of May, and, foiled in their plans, a siege immediately followed. On the sixteenth, a party of Indians appeared before the fort at Sandusky. Seven of them were admitted. Suddenly, while smok- ing, the massacre begins. All but Ensign Paulli, the commander, fall. He is carried as a trophy to Pontiac.

At the mouth of the St. Joseph, the missionaries had maintained a mission station over sixty years. They gave way to an English garrison of fourteen soldiers and a few traders. On the morning of May 25th, a deputa- tion Pottawatomies are allowed to enter. In less than two minutes, all the garrison but the commander are slain. He is sent to Pontiac.

Near the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the junction of the waters, stood Fort Miami, garrisoned by a few men. Holmes, the commander, is asked to visit a sick woman. He is slain on the way, the sergeant fol- lowing is made prisoner, and the nine soldiers surrender.

On the night of the last day of May, the wampum reaches the Indian village below La Fayette, Indiana, and near Fort Ouitenon. The commander of the fort is lured into a cabin, bound, and his garrison surrender. Through the clemency of French settlers, they are re- ceived into their houses and protected.

At Michilimackinac a game of ball is projected. Sud- denly the ball is thrown through the gate of the stockade. The Indians press in, and, at a signal, almost all are slain or made prisoners.

The fort at Presque Isle, now Erie, was the point of communication between Pittsburgh and Niagara and De- troit. It was one of the most tenable, and had a garri- son of four and twenty men. On the twenty-second of June, the commander, to save his forces from total annihilation, surrenders, and all are carried prisoners to Detroit.

The capitulation at Erie left Le Bœuf without hope. He was attacked on the eighteenth, but kept off the In- dians till midnight, when he made a successful retreat. As they passed Venango, on their way to Fort Pitt, they saw only the ruins of that garrison. Not one of its in- mates had been spared.

Fort Pitt was the most important station west of the Alleghanies. "Escape!" said Turtle's Heart, a Dela- ware warrior; you will all be slain. A great army is coming." "There are three large English armies com- ing to my aid," said Ecuyer, the commander. "I have enough provisions and ammunition to stand a siege of three years' time." A second and third attempt was made by the savages to capture the post, but all to no avail. Baffled on all sides here, they destroy Ligonier, a few miles below, and massacre men, women and chil- dren. Fort Pitt was besieged till the last day of July,

but withstood all attacks. Of all the outposts, only it and Detroit were left. All had been captured, and the majority of the garrison slain. Along the frontier, the war was waged with fury. The Indians were fighting for their homes and their hunting-grounds ; and for these they fought with the fury and zeal of fanatics.

Detachments sent to aid Detroit were cut off. The prisoners are burnt, and Pontiac, infusing his zealous and demoniacal spirit into all his savage allies, pressed the siege with vigor. The French remained neutral, yet Pontiac made requisitions on them and their neighbors in Illinois, issuing bills of credit on birch-bark, all of which were faithfully redeemed. Though these two posts could not be captured, the frontier could be annihilated, and vigorously the Indians pursued their policy. Along the borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia a relentless war- fare was waged, sparing no one in its way. Old age, fee- ble infancy, strong man and gentle woman, fair girl and hopeful boy-all fell before the scalping-knife of the merciless savage. The frontiers were devastated. Thou- sands were obliged to flee, leaving their possessions to the torch of the Indian.

The colonial government, under British direction, was inimical to the borders, and the colonists saw they must depend only upon their own arms for protection. Al- ready the struggle for freedom was upon them. They could defend only themselves. They must do it, too; for that defence is now needed in a different cause than settling disputes between rival powers. "We have mill- ions for defence, but not a cent for tribute," said they and time verified the remark.

General Amherst bestirred himself to aid the frontiers. He sent Colonel Henry Bouquet, a native of Switzerland, and then an officer in the English army, to relieve the garrison at Fort Pitt. They followed the route made by General Forbes, and on the way relieved Forts Bedford and Ligonier, both beleagured by the Indians. About a day's journey beyond Ligonier, he was attacked by a body of Indians at a place called Bushy Run. For a while, it seemed that he and all his army would be destroyed ; but Bouquet was bold and brave and, under a feint of retreat, routed the savages. He passed on, and relieved the garrison at Fort Pitt, and thus secured it against the as- saults of the Indians.

The campaign had been disastrous to the English, but fatal to the plans of Pontiac. He could not capture De- troit, and he knew the great scheme must fail. The bat- tle of Bushy Run and the relief of Fort Pitt closed the campaign, and all hope of co-operation was at an end. Circumstances were combined against the confederacy, and it was fast falling to pieces. A proclamation was is sued to the Indians, explaining to them the existing state of affairs, and showing to them the futility of their plans. Pontiac, however, would not give up. Again he renewed the siege of Detroit, and General Gage, now in com- mand of the army in the colonies, resolved to carry the war into their own country. Colonel Bradstreet was or- dered to lead one army by way of the lakes, against the northern Indians, while Colonel Bouquet was sent against the Indians of the Ohio. Colonel Bradstreet went on

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his way at the head of twelve hundred men, but trusting too much to the natives and their promises, his expedi- tion proved largely a failure. He relieved Detroit in August, 1764, which had been confined in the garrison over fifteen months, and dispersed the Indians that yet lay around the fort. But on his way back, he saw how the Indians had duped him, and that they were still plundering the settlements. His treaties were annulled by Gage, who ordered him to destroy their towns. The season was far advanced, his provisions were getting low, and he was obliged to return to Niagara chagrined and disappointed.

Colonel Bouquet knew well the character of the In- dians, and shaped his plans accordingly. He had an army of fifteen hundred men-five hundred regulars and one thousand volunteers. They had had experience in fighting the savages and could be depended on. At Fort Louden he heard of Bradstreet's ill luck, and saw through the deception practiced by the Indians. He arrived at Fort Pitt the seventeenth of September, where he arrested a deputation of chiefs, who met him with the same promises that had deceived Bradstreet. He sent one of their number back, threatening to put to death the chiefs unless they allowed his messengers to safely pass through their country to Detroit. The deci- sive tone of his words convinced them of the fate that awaited them unless they complied. On the third of October the army left Fort Pitt, marched down the river to and across the Tuscarawas, arriving in the vicinity of Fredrick Post's late mission on the seventeenth. There a conference was held with the assembled tribes. Bou- quet sternly rebuked them for their faithlessness, and when told by the chiefs they could not restrain their young men, he as sternly told them they were responsi- ble for their acts. He told them he would trust them no longer. If they delivered up all their prisoners within twelve days they might hope for peace, otherwise there would be no mercy shown them. They were com- pletely humbled, and, separating hastily, gathered their captives. On the twenty-fifth the army pro- ceeded down to the Tuscarawas, to the junction with White Woman river, near the town of Coshocton, in Coshocton county, Ohio, and there made preparations for the reception of the captives. There they remained until the eighteenth of November; from day to day pris- oners were brought in-men women and children-and delivered to their friends. Many were the touching scenes enacted during this time. The separated hus- band and wife met, the latter often carrying a child born in captivity. Brothers and sisters, separated in youth, met; lovers rushed into each other's arms; children found their parents, mothers their sons, fathers their daughters, and neighbors those from whom they had been separated many years. Yet, there were many dis- tressing scenes. Some looked in vain for long-lost rela- tives and friends, that never would return. Others, that had been captured in their infancy, would not leave their savage friends, and when force was used some fled away. One mother looked in vain for a child she had lost years before. Day by day, she anxiously watched, but no

daughter's voice reached her ears. One, clad in savage

attire, was brought before her. It could not be her daughter, she was grown. So was the maiden before her. "Can not you remember some mark ?" asked Bouquet, whose sympathies were aroused in this case. "There is none," said the anxious and sorrowful mother. "Sing a song you sang over her cradle, she may remember," suggested the commander. One is sung by her mother. As the song of childhood floats out among the trees the maiden stops and listens, then approaches. Yes, she remembers. Mother and daughter are held in a close embrace, and the stern Bouquet wipes away a tear at the scene.

On the eighteenth the army broke up its encampment and started on its homeward march. Bouquet kept six principal Indians as hostages, and returned to their homes the captives. The Indians kept their promises faith- fully, and the next year representatives of all the west- ern tribes met Sir William Johnson, at the German Flats, and made a treaty of peace. A tract of land in the In- dian country was ceded to the whites for the benefit of those who suffered in the late war. The Indians desired to make a treaty with Johnson, whereby the Allegheny river should be the western boundary of the English, but he excused himself on the ground of proper power.

Not long after this the Illinois settlements, too remote to know much of the struggle, or of any of the great events that had convulsed an empire, and changed the destiny of a nation, were brought under the English rule. There were five villages at this date: Kaskaskia, Cahokia, St. Philip, Vincennes, and Prairie du Rocher, near Fort Chartres, the military headquarters of these French possessions. They were under the control or command of M. de Abadie, at New Orleans. They had also extended explorations west of the Mississippi, and made a few settlements in what was Spanish territory. The country had been, however, ceded to France, and in February, 1764, the country was formally taken pos- session of and the present city of St. Louis laid out.

As soon as the French knew of the change of govern- ment, many of them went to the west side of the river, and took up their residence there. They were protected in their religion and civil rights by the terms of the treaty, but preferred the rule of their own king.

The British took possession of this country early in 1765. General Gage sent Captain Stirling, of the Eng- lish army, who arrived before summer, and to whom St. Ange, the nominal commandant, surrendered the author- ity. The British, through a succession of commanders, retained control of the country until defeated by George Rogers Clarke, and his "ragged Virginia militia."

After a short time, the French again ceded the country west of the Mississippi to Spain, and relinquished for- ever their control of all the west in the New World.

The population of Western Louisiana, when the exchange of governments occurred, was estimated to be thirteen thousand five hundred and thirty-eight, of which eight hundred and ninety-one were in the Illinois coun- try-as it was called-west of the Mississippi. East of the river, and before the French crossed into Spanish

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country, the population was estimated to be about three thousand. All these had grown into communities of a peculiar character. Indeed that peculiarity, as has been observed, never changed until a gradual amalgama- tion with the American people effected it, and that took more than a century of time to accomplish.

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 91

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559