USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 17
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By the 25th of May, 1782, the river had been crossed and the men mustered at the old Mingo towns west of the Ohio. Imme- diately an election was held for officers, William Crawford being chosen Colonel, by five of a majority, over David Williamson, his competitor, who had many persistent friends.
The dauntless commander of this ill-starred expedition was of Scotch-Irish parentage, but a native of Orange county, Virginia, where he was born in 1732. He was a man of stalwart physical proportions, a companion and associate of Washington, with whom he acquired a knowledge of surveying, in which profession he en- gaged in his earlier years. At the age of twenty-three (1755) the Governor of Virginia commissioned him as an ensign, when he became a member of a body of riflemen that were to join Brad- dock, who had set out for the reduction and capture of Fort du Quesne. He participated in the engagement of July 9, and for his courage was promoted to a lieutenancy, and subsequently served as a captain in Forbes' expedition which captured Pittsburg. None were bolder than he in their advocacy of the liberties and inde-
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pendence of the Colonies, and the battle echoes of Lexington had scarcely died upon the air when he offered his services to his country.
In January, 1776, as a Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th Virginia Regiment, he joined the Revolutionary forces, in October of the same year gaining promotion to the Colonelcy of the 7th Regi- ment of the Virginia batallions. He crossed the Delaware with Washington on Christmas of this year, and rejoiced with him in the Trenton triumph of the next day. After much valuable ser- vice to the country, in the fall of 1781 he was placed upon the retired list, being then nearly fifty years of age. The surrender of Cornwallis being compelled on the 19th of October, 1781, this faithful officer, possessed of the plausible conviction of the com- plete liberation of his country, determined upon a life of retire- ment, an evening of rest, of
"Leisure, silence, and mind released From anxious thoughts."
Crowned with honors, and conscious of a faithful and zealous dis- charge of public duties,
" Escaped from office and its constant cares, What charms he sees in freedom's smiles expressed ! "
A scheme, however, was soon discussed, in view of the turbu- lences of the time and the threatening aspect of the border, hav- ing for its object more energetic measures with the Indians, who were becoming more aggressive and menacing in their attitude to the settlers - especially the tribes in the vicinity of Sandusky. Crawford's avowed and previously promulgated opinions relative to the propriety of such an expedition naturally enough made him a conspicuous figure in the contemplated project, and as a conse- quence, his counsel was eagerly solicited and his judgment dili- gently consulted. Against his fixed resolution to remain in re- tirement was arrayed the public exigency, his powerful impulse of patriotism, and the importunities of warm friends, including General Irvine himself. With severe reluctance he accepted the
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command, to which, on the 24th of May, he had been elected, for none better than he knew the hellish craft and diabolism of the subtle and malignant adversary he had to encounter.
So the sunlight of Saturday morning, May 25, 1782, witnessed the small but determined army, under the command of Colonel William Crawford, then in his fiftieth year, in four columns and gallantly officered, inaugurate its march from Mingo Bottom for Sandusky, its objective point, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. We now abandon our own descriptive narrative, and inter- polate the very accurate and fuller one of Mr. Butterfield :
"The route lay through what is now the counties of Jefferson, Harrison, Tuscarawas, Holmes, Ashland, Richland and Crawford, nearly to the center of Wyandot county, Ohio. A direct course would have led near the present towns of New Philadelphia, Mil- lersburg, Loudonville and Galion, but, as will hereafter be seen, this straight line was not followed. The whole distance, except about thirty miles at the end of the route, was through an un- broken forest.
* * * * *
* *
"The principal impediments to a rapid march were the hills, swamps and tangled growth of the forests. The Muskingum, Kill- buck, forks of the Mohican and Sandusky, were the streams to be crossed, all of which, at this season of the year, and especially in the spring of 1782, were not fordable without difficulty.
As the cavalcade moved up over the bluff, an almost due west course was taken, striking at once into the wilderness, now deep- ening and darkening around it. The army progressed rapidly at first, moving along the north side of Cross creek, which had already received the name it still bears. After leaving what is now Steubenville township, it passed through the present town- ships of Crosscreek and Wayne, to the western boundary of Jef- ferson county, as at present defined ; crossing thence into what is now Harrison county, in German township; thence across the summit to the spot where the town of Jefferson now stands.
"From this point a straight course would have led them, at no
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great distance, into what is now Carroll county. But their horses had tired under their heavy loads in the hills and swamps. This obliged them to incline to the southward, toward the wasted Mora- vian towns, into a more level country, though more frequented by hunters and warriors. This alternative was accepted by Crawford with great reluctance, as his policy was to avoid trails and the re- gion infested by the enemy, relying for success, as already stated, upon effecting a surprise. Otherwise he would have followed Wil- liamson's trail from Mingo Bottom to the Muskingum, which led along a considerable distance south, near where Smithfield, in Jefferson, and Cadiz, in Harrison county, now stand, through a region not so difficult to be traversed, but on the line of Indian traces between that river and the Ohio."
From the moment of starting, every precaution was taken against surprises, or ambuscades, and this, too, although, as yet, not an Indian had been seen. The wily nature of the sav- age was too well understood by the commander of the expedition, to allow of any confidence of security, because no foe had been discovered. * Nothing worthy of note transpired un- til Monday night, the 27th, while at their third encampment. Here a few of the men lost their horses, which were hunted for the next morning, without success. It was thought best by Craw- ford that these men should return home, as their continuing with the army, unable, as they would be, to carry little besides their arms, would only prove a source of embarrassment. Reluctantly, therefore, they retraced their steps to Mingo Bottom.
Sixty miles had been made in four days' march, when the fourth encampment was made upon the charred remains of New Schon- brunn. "During the evening," continues the same author, "Major Brinton and Captain Bean went some distance from camp to reconnoiter. When but a quarter of a mile away they espied two savages, upon whom they immediately fired, but without ef- fect. These were the first hostile shots fired at the foe. It was supposed, by Crawford, that the army had not before been discov- ered by the enemy. Fallacious belief! Secrecy now being out of
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the question, as the two Indians had made their escape, it only re- mained for Crawford to press forward, with all practicable dispatch, to afford the enemy as little time as possible for defensive prepara- tions. The march was continued, therefore, on the morning of the 29th, rapidly, but with greater precaution than had previously been observed. The guides, taking a north-west course through the wilderness from the Muskingum, brought the army to the Kill- buck, some distance above the present town of Millersburg, coun- ty seat of Holmes county. 'Thence,' says Dunlevy, 'we marched up the Killbuck.' At not a great distance the army reached a large spring, known at the present time as Butler's or Jones' spring, near the line of Wayne county, ten miles south of Wooster, where, on the evening of May 30, the volunteers encamped.
"At this spring one of the men died, and was buried. His name was cut on the bark of a tree close by his grave."
"From this point the army moved westward along the north side of what is known as Odell's Lake, passing between two small lakes, where they found the heads of two large fish, freshly caught, lying on the ground, which awakened suspicions that Indians were near. Thence they passed near the spot where was afterward the village of Greentown, in what is now Ashland county. From this point they struck across to the Rocky Fork of the Mohican, up which stream they traveled until a spring was reached, near where the city of Mansfield now stands, in Richland county ; thence a little north of west, to a fine spring five miles farther on, in what is now Springfield township-a place now known as Spring Mills, on the line of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad, eight miles east of the town of Crestline, in Crawford county -where, on the evening of the Ist of June, the army halted and encamped for the night."
It forcibly pressed forward into what is now Crawford county, to a point on the Sandusky river, a short dis- tance west of Crestline, where a brief halt was ordered and en- joyed. Although on the enemy's threshold, being then but twenty-five miles from the contemplated point, there was not visi-
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ble the face of a solitary red devil. The march was vigorously conducted, leaving Bucyrus about three miles to the north, when a rest was taken near the present village of Wyandot. After ex- traordinary caution, and the most circumspect care, on the morn- ing of the 4th of June, the expedition-then but ten miles from its destination-opened march. This was executed with consider- able celerity, and the Wyandot town was soon in possession of Crawford and his men. But the artful and wary Copper-Cheeks were not there! The cunning of the wily savages was demon- strated and the surprise strategy forestalled and outwitted !
The abandoned Indian village was occupied but a brief hour by the somewhat disappointed but indomitable commandant and his troops. He resolved upon pursuit, which was commenced. But before much progress in this respect had been made, and for prudential and grave reasons, he checked the advance of his force and convened his subordinates for purposes of consultation. The substance of their deliberations was to not much longer continue in the pursuit, as the absence of an Indian force on the Plain lands induced the sober conjecture that they were concentrating their hordes for bloody and stubborn opposition. For such is the antithesis of the Indian character, such its fecundity of plot and de- sign, such its fertility in original conception, that to circumvent it is no easy task ; and with this vast central fact was Crawford familiar. As a consequence a body of light-horse was utilized as scouts. Their reconnoiterings soon developed the locality and position of the tawny warriors, of which fact Crawford was immediately ap- prized. The advance of the savages was slow but determined. Crawford prepared for battle and ordered a forward movement. Sharp volleys from his ranks soon caused them to withdraw from a grove which they had selected, a most favorable position. Captain Pipe, or The Pipe, commanded the Delawares, the van of the as- sailants; and with him, were Girty and Wingenund. Soon the Delawares were reinforced by the Wyandots, the whole force being under the command of the infamous Elliott, a white demon, who ordered a flank movement, which for awhile, tasted mightily like
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disaster to the brave boys who mustered on Mingo Bottom. But the American position, in spite of the craft of the enemy, was valorously maintained. From four o'clock, when the gauntlet of battle was accepted, until the shadows of the night were descend- ing, the conflict was carried on, and very frequently with ambigu- ous success to our arms. However, as night approached, the fir- ing perceptibly diminished, and by day-break it had substantially subsided.
"At dark," says Butterfield, "the victory was clearly with the Americans." And, "although Crawford was left in full possession of the battle field, yet the Indians were far from being dispirited. They well knew that reinforcements were hastening to their relief; that these would certainly reach them on the morrow."
On the next day, 5th of June, irregular and random inter- changes of musketry were indulged without any serious "hurt or inconvenience " to either side. Meanwhile plans had been con- summated for a desperate and decisive assault.
" Alas! how hope is born but to expire."
This project was dashed in its inception, crushed in embryo. Mounted Assyrians from a British camp made their appearance in the interest of the barbaric wretches whom they were inciting to cruelty and revenge. Here was an element of resistance on which Crawford had not calculated, and which had not excited the re- motest suspicion. That night a council of war resolved that " pru- dence dictated a retreat," when orders were issued to that effect, the same to take place at 9 P. M. Suspecting a retreat and gen- eral backward movement, the Indians began a sharp fire, which produced some temporary confusion and consternation, but which was unaccompanied with any stirring results. This was but a slight impediment to the retreat, as it was soon undertaken, with Crawford at the front. The Delawares and Shawanese interposed prompt and stout resistance. Flank and rear of the army were sorely harrassed. A portion of it had become considerably de- moralized. For the first time it was now discovered that Colonel
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.
Crawford was missing, as was also Dr. Knight, the surgeon of the command.
David Williamson, on whom devolved the control of the force, displayed great activity and zeal in restoring order and dispelling confusion. Nor was the jewel of good luck to be awarded him either, for, on the 6th of the month, he was " brought up stand- ing " by his devoted pursuers. Yet he delivered heroic battle, and although "attacked on the front, left flank and rear," his assailants soon inclined to withdraw. As the retreat continued, at intervals the enemy would pour a destructive fire into our ranks, but through the chivalrous efforts of Williamson and Lieutenant Rose, any rout or stampede was avoided.
After the final shots were exchanged the boys who had escaped the torment and the tormentors were permitted to return to the Ohio as best they could through the wilderness, without any seri- ous molestation or fear.
We deem it needless, in view of our object in this somewhat discursive sketch, to descant at any further great length upon this fated military enterprise, unless to merely indicate the harrowing and lacerating catastrophe which befel its bold leader.
Crawford's capture resulted from the confusion incident to the retreat, and the solicitude he had for his son John, his son-in-law, and nephew, from whom he became separated. He was ambus- caded by a gang of Delawares, about twenty-eight miles east of the battlefield, and borne to the Indian camp where, besides the Colonel and Dr. Knight, were nine other prisoners. On the 10th of June the prisoners were marched to Sandusky, over thirty miles distant, accompanied by seventeen Delawares, who carried the scalps of four white men. The next day, The Pipe and Wingenund visited them, Pipe painting the face of all the prisoners black. They were then marched to Wyandot, a distance of eight miles, and thence to Tymochtee creek, where it was distressingly evident their doom was sealed. Here an Indian took possession of Knight, who was to escort him to the Shawanese towns, distant, as the Indian said, forty miles. The doctor became somewhat social
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with his red companion, and as it was the 12th of June, the mos- quitoes were rather pestilent, so they concluded to build a fire to banish, if possible, these insectile tormentors. The doctor in poking up the fire, managed to secure a good dogwood club, and vigilant of an opportunity, delivered a staggering blow upon the head of his custodian, precipitating him to the ground. Recover- ing from the blow, he sprang to his feet and scampered away, yelling in true Indian fashion. This was Knight's moment of escape, and gloriously did he embrace it. Narrow indeed was his escape from the fagot and the tormentor's wasting flame !
He* reached Fort Pitt, July 4th, just twenty-two days after his escape.
But no such story is to be told concerning poor Crawford. We insert a recital of the incidents of his death, by Butterfield:
"Crawford was stripped naked and ordered to sit down. * * The Indians now beat him with sticks and their fists. * The fatal stake-a post about fifteen feet high-had been set firmly in the ground. Crawford's hands were bound behind his back, and a rope fastened-one end to the foot of the post and the other to the ligature between his wrists. The rope was long enough for him to sit down or walk around the post once or twice, and return the same way. Crawford then called to Girty and asked if they intended to burn him. Girty answered "yes." He then replied he would take it all patiently. Upon this Captain Pipe made a speech to the Indians, who, at its conclusion, yelled a hideous and hearty assent to what had been said.
"The spot where Crawford was now to be immolated to satisfy the revengeful thirst of the Delawares for the blood of the bord- erers, was in what is now Crawford township, Wyandot county- a short distance north-east from the present town of Crawfordsville. About four o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, June II, 1782, the torture began. The Indian men took up their guns and shot powder into Crawford's naked body, from his feet as far up as
*Dr. Knight, after his escape, and on his return, passed through Wayne county.
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his neck. It was the opinion of Knight that not less than seventy loads were discharged upon him! They then crowded about him, and, to the best of Knight's observation, cut off both of his'ears ; for, when the throng dispersed, he saw blood running from both sides of his head !
"The fire was about six or seven yards from the post to which Crawford was tied. It was made of small hickory poles, burnt quite through in the middle, each end of the poles remaining about six feet in length. Three or four Indians, by turns, would take up, individually, one of these burning pieces of wood and apply it to his naked body, already burnt black with powder.
"These tormentors presented themselves on every side of him, so that whichever way he ran round the post, they met him with the burning fagots. Some of the squaws took broad boards, upon which they would carry a quantity of burning coals and hot em- bers, and throw on him, so that, in a short time, he had nothing but coals of fire and hot ashes to walk on.
"In the midst of these extreme tortures, Crawford called to Girty, and begged of him to shoot him. Girty, by way of derision, told him he had no gun. * Crawford, at this period of his suffering, besought the Almighty to have mercy on his soul, spoke very low, and bore his torments with the most manly fortitude. He continued in all the extremities of pain for an hour and three-quarters or two hours longer, as near as Knight could judge, when at last, being almost spent, he lay down upon his stomach.
"The savages then scalped him, and repeatedly threw the scalp into the face of Knight, telling him that was his 'great Captain.' An old squaw, whose appearance, thought Knight, every way an- swered the ideas people entertain of the devil, got a board, took a parcel of coals and ashes and laid them on his back and head. He then raised himself upon his feet and began to walk around the post. She next put burning sticks to him, but he seemed more insensible of pain than before. Knight was now taken away from the dreadful scene."
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A tradition has it that Crawford's life only went out with the setting of the sun.
The next morning, in passing the spot, Knight witnessed the bones of his old commander, lying among the debris of the wasted flames of the day before.
Who that admires valor in the human breast can fail to appre- ciate, aye, even love, the God-like fortitude of this man? To be shot in battle, to be stabbed to the heart by an assassin, to drink the caput mortuum of the cup of poison would be a glorious release from the bondage of a life compared with this damnable and dia- bolical process of dispossessing the startled soul of its raiment of flesh !
Great heaven ! in the sight of Thy impartial eye was the patri- otism of Crawford so horrid a crime that his death should be as terrible as that of Ravillac !
And who that despises robbery, rapine, blood-thirstiness, law- lessness, cruelty, theft and murder, can fail to register his hatred of these forest-outlaws, bandits of the plain, fiends of the gorge and bluff, highwaymen of the desert, and assassins of the lava bed. We record our antipathy to the Indian, a creation, no doubt, illus- trative of the possible satire of the Deity, and announce our de- sire, in advance, for the advent of the day when the trees of the hill and the valley shall become gibbets, when every rock under the shadow of which they shall take refuge shall become a scaffold, and when a thousand of their captors shall struggle to be the ex- ecutioner of the last son of the tribes.
Innocence swathed in blood, trampled law, throttled justice and outraged humanity, demand it, and demand it in the name of the American life they have betrayed, crucified and slain.
We have thus, after protracted research, been enabled to define with gratifying accuracy the passage of this army, with the belief that in future it will be dis-associated with any subsequent military expedition that penetrated the county. We had long been persuaded that Crawford's line of march touched our county,
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and that of Ashland, although Knapp, in his history of the lat- ter county, expresses his doubt in reference to its transit through the same. All our investigations pointed in this direction.
Independent of such information as we had been able to obtain from close inspection of the authorities, we were strengthened in our convictions in the premises by intelligent observations made to us by Hon. L. D. Odell, of Clinton township. We attached great significance and weight to the statements of Mr. Odell, on account of his soundness of memory, and his extraordinary accuracy in the relation of facts.
While it is true that the Indians did not follow the retreating army as a body, further than the eastern line of Crawford county, some of the stragglers were pursued much further. A party of six was overtaken in this county by some Shawanese scouts, and two of them murdered. Their names, it seems, are not known.
The story of Philip Smith, who was shot in the arm, and who became separated from the command, is one of interest. He was but a young man, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1761. He was likewise one of the pioneers of Ohio, and came to Wayne county in 1811. He was the father of Nathan W. Smith, of Wooster township.
Isaac Newkirk, of Washington county, Pa., grandfather of John W. Newkirk, of Clinton township, and Nercissa L., wife of Ben. Douglass, was a volunteer in this expedition, and we were informed by his son, the late Reuben Newkirk, of Clinton township, that it was during their encampment near Odell's Lake that he discov- ered what is widely known as the Newkirk Spring. With it he was so delighted, and the beautiful surrounding prairies and wooded uplands, that he subsequently entered a section of these lands.
It may be proper for us to say in this connection, that we had expended considerable research upon the line of passage of this army, and had a chapter written for the history a year prior to our knowledge of the existence of Mr. Butterfield's "Campaign against Sandusky." In that article we had defined his march through
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Clinton township, and so intended to proclaim it, whether con- firmed or not in our position, by any author or any man.
Nor do we readily forget the opposition we met in declaring our purpose. Our province, however, as we construed it, was not to accommodate individuals, or be governed by any cherished opinions of neighbors or friends, however sacredly embraced, but to record what the evidence assured us was truthful and reliable. In other words, to register the real as against the suppositional.
We desire no better vindication of our original position than the volume of Mr. Butterfield. After it came to our notice we care- fully perused it, abandoned portions of our manuscript, re-wrote our article, quoting freely from his work, which we unhesitatingly pronounce as conclusive, reliable and exhaustive, and a monument to the energy, ability and genius of its author.
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