USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 3
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We know that the tirent Spirit was angry with us for stealing your horses and attacking your
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
people. He has sent ns so much snow and cold weather as to kill your horses with our own. We are a poor people. We hope that God will help us, and that the Long Knife will have compassion on our women and children. Your people who are with us are well. We shall collect them when they come in from hunting. We love them, and so do our young women. Some of your people mend our guns. Others tell us they can make rum out of corn. They are now the same as we. In one moon after this we will take them back to their friends In Kentucky.
My Father! This being the day of joy to the Wabash Indians, we beg a little drop of your milk (rum to let our warrlors see that it came from your breast. We were born and raised in the woods. We could never learn to make rum. God has made the white man master of the world."
Having finished his speech, Piankeshaw presented Mr. Dalton with three strings of wampum as a pledge of peace. Every reader must be impressed with the tone of despondency that pervades this address and the melancholy spirit that asks for rum.
In all the various treaties and intercourses for peace with the Indians, the reader is frequently met by the term "Long Knife." By this expression, of course, is meant the "white man," or the "general government." The way the term came to be used. is said to have occurred in this wise: A Colonel Gibson, while stationed at Fort Pitt, in a certain attack with his troops upon a company of Indians, and getting into a hand to hand fight, ent off the head of an Indian with' his sword, in one stroke. This struck terror into the hearts of the other Indians, who fled, and reported to their chiefs that a pale face had cut off the head of an Indian with a "Long Knife."
The British traders in Canada kept up their business with the Indians as before, and, in direct violation of the treaty, replenished the fuel that was still burning in the hearts of the savages throughout the northwest against the white people.
The vast territory lying north of the Ohio river and extending far west to the Mississippi, was claimed, by charters from the King of England, by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Virginia. Each of these states now consented to relinquish its claim to the general government with the exception of reservations by Connecticut and Virginia. These two states, embarrassed by the war, retained each a portion of the territory for the purpose of paying its debt to the revolutionary soldiers.
The region thus ceded to Connecticut, lying north of the 41st degree north latitude, and extending from the west line of Pennsylvania to the west line of what is now Huron county, was called the " Western Reserve" -"Firelands." It extends from the lake, south, to what is now known as the "base line." fifty miles wide and one hundred and twenty miles long from east to west.
Virginia retained the lands lying between the Scioto and the Little Miami. which was called the "Virginia Military District."
By these cessions the general government became possessed of the vast region of uninhabited territory extending to the lakes of the north and west to the Mississippi river, now forming the states of Ohio. Indiana. Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. By the celebrated ordinance of 1787. no less than three nor more than five states were to be organized in this vast
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INTRODUCTION.
realm as soon as the number of white inhabitants would warrant. The Federal Government now established a territorial government over the same.
Let us not forget before leaving this part of our subject one beautiful feature in that great ordinance, engrafted upon it by slave owners. and which teaches a lesson for meditation, when the passions of party strife will admit of sober reflection, and give the better part of our nature nobler impulses and a larger field :
"No man shall be arrested for his mode of worship or his religious sentiments. The utmost good faith shall be observed toward the Indians: that their lands shall never be taken from them without their consent. unless in just and lawful war.
"There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." etc.
Now companies began to be organized in the Atlantic states for the purpose of establishing colonies in this territory. The Ohio Company. formed of officers of the army and soldiers of the revolution, located between the Muskingum and the Hockhocking rivers. The government owed many of these large sums of money and had nothing to pay them with but land. They took their lands at one dollar per acre, and paid for it in serip or other evidences of debt for revolutionary services. The purchase included about one and a half millions of acres.
John Cleves Symmes. of New Jersey, purchased 54.000 acres between the Little Miami and the Great Miami for sixty cents an acre.
General Rufus Putnam. with his party. settled near the mouth of the Muskingum on the 7th day of April, 1783. One remarkable feature in all these early settlements is the fact that the colonists were generally men of culture, refinement and high moral worth. They framed simple codes of laws and published them by nailing them against trees.
The ordinance which organized the government was placed in the hands of a governor and three judges. General Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor, and immediately proceeded to organize his council. The whole country north of the Ohio river, between the Muskingum and Hockhocking, was designated as the county of Washington, with Marietta, of course, as the county seat. Marietta was named in honor of Marie Antoinette, the unhappy queen of Louis XVI., and in token of gratitude for the aid furnished by France in the revolution. Here the first civil court was held for the northwestern territory, on the 2d day of September, 1788.
Mathias Denman, of New Jersey, purchased a section of land and a fraction, for which he paid five shillings per acre. He laid out a town and called it Losanteville, which was afterwards changed into Cincinnati. How the price of land has increased in that section!
HER COMMERCE.
The commerce of Cincinnati for the year ending January 1, 1879, amounted, in valne of goods imported and exported, to $409.446,803. For the present year, with the renewed activity in business of all kinds; the great production in agricultural and mining districts, the increase in manufactures and the higher values, it is easy to see that they will aggregate fully $500,000,000. Of
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the sum for last year. $185.000,000 were for exports, and $223,000.000 imports. Among the former may be mentioned pork and hog products at a value of over $10,000,000: groceries, $5,000,000: cotton $10,000,000; whisky, $18,000,000; malt liquors, $2,000,000; boots and shoes, $5.500,000; butter. $1,250,000; coffee. $5.000,000; furniture, $5,000,000; hardware, $5,000,000; oil, $3,000,000; tobacco. $15.000.000. In imports there were cattle valued at $8,000,000; coal, $3,000,- 000: coffee, $5,500,000; cotton, $10,000,000; flour, $3,000,000; boots and shoes. $3,500,000; hardware, $5,500,000; hogs valued at $12,000,000; sugar, ยง6,500,000; tobacco. $10.000,000; whisky, $7,000,000; wheat $4.000,000.
Vincennes, near the western line of Indiana, was also made the county seat of another county, bounded on the south by the Ohio river, on the east by the Great Miami, and on the west by the Wabash, larger than several states of the Union. St. Clair proceeded to the Mississippi where a few huts on the left bank formed another settlement. Here he established the county of St. Clair, embracing nearly the whole of Illinois.
It would be a source of great pleasure to record here some of the very many incidents, of a most thrilling nature, connected with the early settlements along the Ohio river and along the months of the Miami and Muskingum.
But, admonished by the fact that too many of our pages are being taken possession of by these reminiscences, I will only describe a few of the expeditions that were organized from time to time to subdue the savages. because all or nearly all of these had a tendency to rescue the valley of the Sandusky and northwestern Ohio from the owners. who by force of circumstances and without paper title, were the monarchs of the soil. These expeditions are given in the abstract without regard to chronological nicety. For detail, the kind reader will of course pernse more general and extended history.
General Clark was a military leader of Kentucky. stationed at the falls. He was a man of great force of character and considerable military ability.
When he heard of the disastrous battle at Blue Licks, he resolved to pursue and punish the Indians. He formed a junction with Colonels Floyd and Logan, which gave him a force of about one thousand men. Colonel Boon joined the army as a volunteer. They crossed the Ohio on the 20th of September, 1782, and commenced their march up the Little Miami. They reached the old town of Chillicothe, where they chastised the Indians terribly and destroyed their town, their goods and their erops, and returned victoriously.
Again, in the fall of 1786, General Logan organized another great campaign against the savages in Ohio, in which many prominent men from Kentucky took part. It was the intention of the General to make this expedition the finishing stroke in the war against the savages. Colonel Floyd and General Logan with their troops again marched on the Indian villages on the Scioto, and laid them waste, killing many savages. Simon Kenton accompanied this expedition. All the villages were burnt. and nearly all the inhabitants were slain or taken captives. A region of forty miles wide and one hundred miles in length, was laid utterly desolate. The company. under the command of Simon Kenton, took no prisoners. It was
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INTRODUCTION.
their object to wreak such terrible vengeance upon the savages that they would never again make raids upon the settlements.
The party with General Clark was less successful. His provisions became exhausted and a large number of his men deserted him to keep from starvation. Without accomplishing anything, he with his half-starved men. returned to the falls of Ohio, covered with shame and confusion at the unmerited disgrace of their arms. The unfortunate General never recovered from the blow. He sunk into profound melancholy, in which at length he died, aged and poor. The failure of Clark excited the vindictive Shawnees on the Wabash, and urged them on to further outrages. The winter following, the depredations of the savages were extended all along the frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia, a distance of over three hundred miles.
It is estimated that between 1783 and 1790, the Indians killed, wounded and took captive, fifteen hundred men, women and children, and destroyed property worth fifty thousand dollars, which sum at that time was considered immense. There were no millionaires in those days. Fortunes were not made and lost in one stroke. Men were not made rich or ruined by the sale or purchase of railroad stocks, and there were no "bulls" nor "bears" in Wall street; hence there was no Black Friday in that struggle for life. Fortunes made and lost in a day, speculations in railroad, steamboat and mining stocks, Black Fridays in gold, and the making of millionaires in a day. are the things of a faster age. For better or for worse?
GENERAL HARMAR'S EXPEDITION.
In the fall of 1790, Gen. Harmar, at the head of three hundred regular troops, and abont one thousand militia, was ordered to march upon the Indian towns along the lake and chastise them to such a degree as to arrest all future depredations.
On the 21st of September this expedition rendezvoused at Fort Washington. and on the following day commenced their march upon the Miami villages. It took them seventeen days' hard marching over a rough and swampy conntry before they came into the vicinity of the enemy. Meantime. provisions became scarce. The General found himself under the necessity of sweeping the forest with numerous small detachments, and as the woods swarmed with Indians, most of these parties were cut off.
At length the expedition. thus greatly reduced, came within a few miles of an Indian town. Here Captain Armstrong was ordered, at the head of thirty regulars. and Col. Hardin, of Kentucky, with one hundred and fifty militia, to advance and reconnoitre. In the execution of this order they suddenly found themselves in an ambuscade by a large body of Indians, who immediately opened fire upon them.
The militia gave way, and the regulars attempted a more orderly retreat. The Indians, with tomahawks held high in the air. rushed upon and com- pletely surrounded the troops. The regulars attempted to open a passage with their bayonets. but they were all destroyed except their captain and one lieutenant, who made their escape. The loss of the militia was very trifling.
Notwithstanding this heavy blow, Gen. Harmar advanced upon the
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
villages, which he found deserted and in flames, the Indians themselves having fired their honses. He also found here several hundred acres of corn, which he destroyed. Marching on to the other villages he found them destroyed in the same manner, and he also destroyed the corn near there. Then the army commenced its retreat from the Indian country, supposing the Indians to be sufficiently punished.
After a march of about ten miles on the homeward route, the General received news which led him to suppose that the Indians had returned to their burning villages, and he immediately detached eighty regular troops. with nearly all of the militia, the former under the command of Major Wyllys, and the latter under Col. Hardin, with orders to return to the villages and destroy such of the enemy as presented themselves. The detachment countermarched with all possible speed to the appointed spot. fearful only that the enemy might have noticed their return and escaped again before they could reach them. The militia, in loose order, took the advance. The regulars brought up the rear. Just as the troops were nearing the town, a number of Indians were observed, and a sharp action immediately ensued. Shortly the savages fled and were hotly pursued by the militia, who in the ardor of the chase were drawn into the woods, quite a distance from the regulars.
Suddenly several hundred Indians appeared from the opposite quarter. rushing with loud yells upon the regulars, thus unsupported by the militia. Major Wyllys, a brave and experienced officer, formed his men into a square and endeavored to gain a more favorable spot, but was prevented by the impetuous attack of the Indians. In spite of the heavy fire poured in upon them. they rushed upon the bayonets and hurled their tomahawks with fatal ' accuracy. Putting the bayonets aside with their hands, or clogging them with their bodies, they were quickly mingled with the troops, where they used their knives with such terrible effect, that in two minutes the bloody struggle was over. Major Wyllys fell, one lieutenant and seventy-three privates. One captain, one ensign and seven privates, three of whom were wounded, were the sole survivors of this short but desperate encounter. The loss of the Indians was about equal. The attack was as finely conceived as it was boldly executed. When the militia returned from the pursuit of the flying party it was too late for help. They soon effected their retreat to the main body, with a loss of one hundred and eight killed and twenty-eight wounded. This dreadful slaughter so reduced Gen. Harmar's army, that he was happy to return to Fort Washington with the fraction he had left. having utterly failed in his mission.
This disaster was followed by a loud demand for a greater force to form a new expedition, which was also accomplished, as we shall presently sce.
ST. CLAIR'S EXPEDITION.
By an act of Congress of 1781, Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the northwest- ern territory, was also appointed Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the military forces.
An army of two thousand men assembled at Fort Washington. An expedition was organized against the Indians on the Manmee. A blockhouse was erected twenty miles north of Cincinnati, and called Fort Hamilton.
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INTRODUCTION.
Twenty miles further north they erected and garrisoned another fort and called it St. Clair. Still another further on was called Fort Jefferson. Five or six weeks were employed at these works. Provisions became scarce, and at a point about ninety miles from Fort Washington, sixty Kentuckians, disgusted with the proceedings, shouldered their muskets, and in defiance of all anthority, commenced their march homeward. Gen. St. Clair was daily expecting fresh supplies, and fearing that the deserters might secure them, sent quite a force to protect the provisions. This left him only about 1,400 men. November had come with its storms and rains. They were compelled to ent their way through a dense forest, over wet soil, and the movement of their artillery was attended with great difficulty.
Gen. St. Clair was aged, infirm, and suffering greatly with gout. Some- body was certainly to blame for undertaking a campaign at this season under these circumstances, and the sequel will show that they were out-generaled by the Indian chiefs. On the third of November they reached a point one hundred and twenty-five miles north of Fort Washington, and still fifty miles south of the Indian towns on the Manmee, which they were on the march to destroy. It was a dismal day; the ground was covered with snow. and the feet of the soldiers were soaked with water. Cutting their way through the pathless forest they reached a creek, a confluent of the Wabash. Here they camped for the night. The militia were sent across the creek. and bivouacked in two parallel lines, with a space of about two hundred feet between them. Soon they had a roaring fire in this intermediate space' illuminating the forest far and wide. No scouts were sent out. for all were nearly perishing with cold and fatigue, and there were no signs of any foe. But the shrewd savages were watching every movement, and, having assem- bled around the camp in great numbers, each selected his position behind soine tree where he could be protected and remain unseen. St. Clair's men were huddled closely together, without any protection, hovering around their fire. On the other side of the creek the regulars were stationed around their fires, also, fully revealed to the savages. The troops could not well have been put into a more exposed position. The night passed away quietly. Meanwhile, the savages were preparing for the slaughter. The day had dawned, and the militia were preparing their breakfast in thoughtless confusion, when the yell of a thousand savages and the discharge of mins- ketry fell upon their ears. Every Indian had a soldier for a target; scarcely one missed his aim. The slaughter was terrible. The militia became panic stricken, and fled with utmost haste, many of them withont their guns. They phinged pell-mell through the creek and through the first lines of the regulars, and stopped a tumultuous, helpless mass at the second.
All this was the work of fifteen minutes.
Now the little army of less than a thousand men were huddled together in terror-stricken confusion, and exposed to a deadly fire from every direc- tion. No foe to be seen, except when a savage would make an exchange of trees. There was no room for bravery, except to meet death without a tremor. There was no room for heroism, because the enemy was invisible.
C'ol. Drake was in command of the second line of regulars, and stopped the flight of the militia. He formed his line and charged into the forest. The wary Indians retired before him, while the bullets from all around were
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
rapidly striking down his men. As Drake drew back his position. the Indians closed in like the waves of the sea. It seems that a large body of sharp-shooters had been detailed especially to attack the artillerymen. In a short time every man at the guns was shot down. Within one hour from the commencement of the attack, one-half of St. Clair's men were either killed or wounded, and nearly every horse was shot. The Indians killed over nine hundred of St. Clair's army, took seven field-pieces, two hundred oxen, a great many horses, but no prisoners. The wounded were tomahawked and scalped on the spot. The Indians lost but sixty-six warriors. For the Governor's official account of this disaster, see Abb. History of Ohio. page 324.
The Governor was himself not wanting of bravery. He did all he could under the circumstances. Eight bullets passed through his clothes and hat. He had three horses killed under him. The men who tried to bring up the fourth horse fell dead with the animal, and the invalid Governor was com- pelled to retreat on foot, which he did with wonderful alacrity.
An old, worn-out horse was overtaken and the Governor put upon that. and but for that timely aid he would have been left upon the field to fall into the hands of the savages. Greatly would they have rejoiced at the opportunity to apply the torture of Crawford to another "Big Captain."
We are compelled, for want of space, to omit recording any of the very many thrilling scenes connected with this sad page of frontier history, and will only mention the remarkable fact that amongst the camp followers there were no less than two hundred and fifty women-they, with a great many of the men in the ranks, taking it for granted that there would be no fighting; that the Indians would sue for peace; that garrisons would be established. under whose protection they and their husbands might find new homes. Fifty-six of these were killed, and tortured even more brutally than the men. Some accounts state that even two hundred of these women fell victims to savage barbarity. Some time after this disaster an old squaw was heard to say that "her arm got very tired that day scalping white men." The troops never stopped in their retreat until Fort Jefferson was reached. thirty miles away.
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On reaching the fort and finding the provisions exhausted there, it was thought best to proceed on and meet the wagons loaded with provisions that were expected every day, and could not be more than one or two days marches away. So the army, exhausted and terrified as it was, pressed on at ten o'clock that night and met the wagons the next morning. A part of the flour was immediately distributed, and the balance sent on to the fort. The main body now proceeded to Cincinnati and reported at Fort Wash- ington.
Three distinguished Indian chiefs led the battle-Blue Jacket, Buckonga- helas and Little Turtle. These were men of remarkable ability. Little Turtle, especially, took great interest in bringing his tribe to adopt civiliza- tion. He inquired of Gen. Harrison respecting the organization of the national government. He met Kosciusko in Philadelphia, in 1812, and quite a warm friendship sprung up between them. Little Turtle lived several years after the late war, and was esteemed for his wisdom, courage and humanity. His grave is near Fort Wayne.
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INTRODUCTION.
The most simple explanation of the defeat of St. Clair is, that he was out-generaled by chiefs who were his superiors in Indian warfare.
And shall we ask the question why such humane chiefs would allow these horrible atrocities to be perpetrated before their own eyes?
Let us take the Yankee way by asking a question to answer another. Were not the inquisitions, the crusades, the burnings at stake carried on under the preaching of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, pleading for love to God and your fellow-man, scenes of atrocity equal to these in all their horror?
GENERAL WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN.
St. Clair's defeat raised a fearful storm of indignation against him. He was a man greatly esteemed for many manly traits of character. He was sincerely devoted to the public welfare. He was born in 1734. He received a liberal education, studied medicine, joined the army and was with Gen. Wolf at the storming of Quebec, in 1763. In the revolutionary war he was appointed Major-General and stationed at Ticonderoga. Before he was appointed Governor of the north western territory, he was a member of the Continental Congress, and succeeded Hancock as chairman. . He continued in office as Governor until he was removed in 1502, by Thomas Jefferson. He died on the 31st day of August, 1818, poor in means, at the age of eighty-four.
The sad fate of St. Clair's army spread grief and mourning amongst the frontier settlements.
Those in the Miami country were abandoned. Many of the pioneers went with the army across the Ohio river. The Indians crowded their ravages upon the settlements, and became so bold as to appear in the streets of Cincinnati to spy ont a plan for an attack upon Fort Washington.
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