USA > Ohio > History of the state of Ohio > Part 18
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Among these prisoners was William Robinson, with whom Logan was very friendly during the journey to an Indian town near Dresden, on the Muskingum River-" speaking English well," as Robinson testifies in an affidavit annexed to Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. Arrived at the village, Logan made an extraordinary effort to save the life of Robin- son. He spoke nearly an hour, and very eloquently ; but the council was resolved to torture the prisoner. He was at length rescued, while bound at the stake-Logan cutting his thongs, throwing a belt of wampum around him, and leading
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DUNMORE AND LEWIS' EXPEDITION.
him in safety to his wigwam, where he was adopted in place of a brother who was killed at Yellow creek.
About the 21st of July, Logan came to Robinson, and brought a piece of paper, and told him to write a letter for him. Some ink was prepared from gunpowder, and Logan dictated the following letter :
"CAPTAIN CRESAP : - What did you kill my people on Yellow creek for ? The white people killed my kin at Cone- stoga, a great while ago; and I thought nothing of that. But you killed my kin again, on Yellow creek, and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too, and I have been three times to war since ; but the Indians are not angry : only myself. CAPTAIN JOHN LOGAN."
This document was afterwards found tied to a war-club, in a house on the north fork of Holston creek, in Fincastle county, the family having been cut off by the Indians.8
While the war was thus carried to the heart of the Alle- ghany range, the Virginians, in their turn, gathered in July at Wheeling, descended the Ohio to the mouth of Captina, or as some say, Fish creek, and thence struck westwardly to the Indian town of Wappatomica, on the Muskingum. They were commanded by Col. McDonald, and baffling an attempt to surprise them, destroyed several villages, and returned with three chiefs as prisoners. This foray only added to the general irritation.
In August, the governor of Virginia determined to raise a large force and carry the war into the enemy's country. The plan of the expedition was soon arranged. Three com- plete regiments were to be raised west of the Blue Ridge, under the command of General Andrew Lewis, while an
8) American Pioneer, vol. i., pp. 7-24-an interesting compilation of facts in respect to Logan.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
equal force from the interior should be commanded by Lord Dunmore in person. The armies were to form a junction at the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, and proceed together under Dunmore to the Indian towns in Ohio.
On the 1st of September, a part of General Lewis' divi- sion, consisting of two regiments under the orders of Col. Charles Lewis, his brother, and Col. William Fleming, of Botetourt, assembled at Camp Union, (now Lewisburgh, Va.) where they were joined by an independent regiment of backwoods volunteers, under the orders of Col. John Fields, a distinguished officer, who, together with most of those now assembled, had served under Braddock. Here they remained, awaiting the arrival of Col. Christian, who was busily engaged in collecting another regiment. By the junction of Field, Lewis' force amounted to about eleven hundred men, accustomed to danger, and conducted by the flower of the border officers. General Lewis, as well as his brother, had been present at Braddock's defeat, and were subaltern officers in two companies of Virginia riflemen, who formed the advance of the English army.
Having waited several days at Lewisburgh for Colonel Christian, without hearing from him, Gen. Lewis determined no longer to delay his advance. On the 11th of September he left Lewisburgh, and without any adventure of impor- tance, arrived at the concerted place of rendezvous. Dun- more had not yet arrived, and Lewis remained several days in anxious expectation of his approach. At length he re- ceived dispatches from the governor, informing him that he had changed his plan, and had determined to move directly upon the Scioto villages, at the same time ordering Lewis to cross the Ohio and join him.
Although not much gratified at this sudden change of a
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BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT.
plan which had been deliberately formed, Lewis prepared to obey, and had issued directions for the construction of rafts, boats, &c., with which to cross the Ohio; when, on the morn- ing of the 10th of October, two men were fired upon, while scouting about a mile and a half from the camp. One was killed, but the other escaped to the camp, bearing the alarm that a body of Indians was at hand.
General Andrew Lewis immediately ordered his brother, Col. Charles Lewis, with one hundred and fifty of the Augusta troops, to march to the right some distance from the Ohio, while Col. Fleming, with one hundred and fifty of the Botetourt, Bedford and Fincastle troops, was ordered to the bank of the Ohio on the left. Col. Charles Lewis had not marched half a mile, when, about sunrise, he was attacked by a large Indian force, and in "about the second of a min- ute," Col. Fleming's division was also engaged. The two commandants fell mortally wounded, and the Augusta or Lewis' division was forced to give way before the heavy fire of the enemy. The former were shortly reinforced by eight companies led by Col. Field, and the Indians retreated in turn, until the right wing was in line with Fleming's divis- sion, who were still engaged on the bank of the Ohio. The action was fiercely contested. "The close underwood and many steep banks and logs, greatly favored the retreat of the Indians." The savages made the best use of these advanta- ges, while small detachments were employed in throwing the dead into the Ohio River, and removing their wounded. The closing scenes of the engagement are thus described by a Virginia officer, whose letter from camp bears date October 17, 1774. "After twelve," he writes, "the action in a small degree abated, but continued, except at short intervals, sharp enough until after one o'clock. The long retreat of
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
the Indians, gave them a most advantageous spot of ground, from whence it appeared to the officers so difficult to dislodge them, that it was thought most advisable to stand as the line was then formed, which was about a mile and a quarter in length, and had sustained a constant and equal weight of the action from wing to wing. A scattered fire continued until near sunset, and as soon as it was dark, the Indians effected a safe retreat.
Another letter (Staunton, Virginia, November 4, 1774,) says that Lewis' division retreated about a quarter of a mile. After the reinforcement, "they continued fighting until noon, and were never above twenty yards apart from the Indians, often within six and sometimes closer, tomahawking one another." "Our men," the writer adds, " got upwards of twenty scalps, eighty blankets, about forty guns, and a great many tomahawks."
The foregoing narrative of the battle of Point Pleasant, is derived from contemporary publications,9 but the current version is somewhat different. It describes the battle as "raging until four o'clock in the afternoon, without any decisive result "-that the Indians were at length entrenched behind a breastwork of logs formed from one river to an- other, and enclosing the Virginians within the point, (when could it have been constructed without interruption from the adjacent camp?) and that."the savages did not give way, until three companies under the command of Captain Evan Shelby,10 had been detached by Gen. Lewis to ascend a small stream which empties into the Kenhawa a short dis- tance above its mouth, and which at that time had high and
9) See letters in American Archives, fourth series, i., 808-18.
10) Father of Isaac Shelby, afterwards Governor of Kentucky, and then a lieutenant in his father's company.
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DUNMORE'S EXPEDITION.
bushy banks, and attack the Indians in the rear. All accounts agree that the latter withdrew during the night across the river, while the Virginians were indisposed to molest them.
It is a tradition of the border, that Logan, Cornstalk, Ellenipsico, Red Hawk and many other celebrated chiefs were present, and were often heard loudly encouraging their warriors. Cornstalk, the well known Shawanese chieftain, and leader of the allied forces, was particularly conspicuous. His voice rang above the din of the battle, "Be strong ! Be strong!" and he is said to have buried his hatchet in the brain of a warrior, who exhibited a disposition of flight.
In this desperate conflict the Virginians lost half their commissioned officers and 52 men killed. It is not an un- reasonable statement that the whole number of killed and wounded was one-fourth of the force engaged. The Indian loss is unknown, but 33 is the highest estimate of the number found dead on the field, and many were thrown into the river. One statement makes their loss in killed and wounded 233. The force on both sides was nearly equal-about eleven hundred.
Soon after the battle, three hundred Fincastle troops, under the command of Col. Christian, reached Point Pleasant, and the Virginians, cager with the purpose of revenging their deceased brethren, dashed across the Ohio, in obedience to Dunmore's orders, leaving a garrison at the scene of the late engagement.
Meanwhile, Lord Dunmore's division, about as numerous as that of General Lewis, had passed the mountains at the Potomac Gap, and came to the Ohio somewhere above Wheeling. About the 6th of October, a talk was had with the chiefs of the Six Nations and the Delawares, some of
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
whom had been to the Shawanese towns on a mission of peace, but they reported unfavorably. Dunmore descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Hockhocking, where he ordered a block-house, called Fort Gower, to be erected. He was at this point when the battle at Point Pleasant occurred, and Abraham Thomas, late of Miami county, has stated that by laying his ear close to the surface of the river, on the day of the battle, he could distinctly hear the roar of musketry twenty-eight miles distant. Leaving a garrison with some stores at Fort Gower, Dunmore's army ascended the Hocking to the site of Logan, the present seat of Hocking county, where he left the stream and marched westward to the left bank of Sippo creek, about seven miles southeast of Circle- ville. Near this place he was met by a flag and a white man named Elliott, who bore a message of submission from the Shawanese chiefs. The governor complied with their request to send in an interpreter, with whom they could communi- cate, and ordered an encampment on Sippo creek. It was called Camp Charlotte, and was situated on the southwest quarter of section 12, township 10, range 21, upon a pleas- ant piece of ground, in view of the Pickaway plains. Another express was now started to intercept the march of General Lewis, but that gallant officer and his men were solicitous for another opportunity to attack the Shawanese, and they pressed forward in pursuit of the enemy, until, on the 24th of October, they encamped on the banks of the Congo creek, in Pickaway township, Pickaway county, within striking dis- tance of the Indian towns. The principal Shawanese village stood where the village of Westfall is now situated, on the west bank of the Scioto, and on the Ohio canal, near the south line of Pickaway county. This was the head quarters of the confederated tribes, and was called Chillicothe, and
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SUBMISSION OF THE SHAWANESE.
because there were other towns either at that time or soon after, of the same name, it was known as Old Chillicothe.11
It was with the utmost difficulty that the Virginians could be restrained from falling upon the Indian towns. They were infuriated, not only by the border tragedies of the summer, but by the more recent carnage at Point Pleasant. They charged Dunmore with the design of forming an alliance with a confederacy of Indians to assist Great Britain against the colonies in the crisis of the revolution, which all foresaw. The dissatisfaction and disappointment with the negotiation for peace was almost a mutiny. Lewis, smarting with the death of his gallant brother, refused to obey the command for a halt. Dunmore went in person to enforce his orders, and drew his sword upon General Lewis, threatening him with instant death if he persisted in farther disobedience. Regarded historically, however, the conduct of the English governor in granting peace to a prostrate and supplicant enemy, cannot be blamed. The slaughter of the Indians, under such circumstances, would have been wanton massacre. Dunmore probably hastened a peace with the savages, from an anxiety to return to the sea-coast, where the stability of his government was already precarious, but beyond that there seems to be no reason to suspect sinister designs on his part.
On the opposite bank of Scioto, in the Indian town, there was now but one voice-peace at any cost. When Cornstalk returned from the battle of Point Pleasant, he called a council of the nation to consult what should be done, and upbraided them for not suffering him to make peace, as he is said to have desired, on the evening before the battle. "What," said he, "will you do now ? The Big Knife is coming on
11) Whittlesey's Discourse, 1810, p. 24.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
us, and we shall all be killed. Now you must fight or we are undone." But no one answering, he said, " then let us kill all our women and children and go and fight until we die." Still no answer was made; when, rising, he struck his tomahawk in a post of the council-house, and exclaimed, " I'll go and make peace," to which all the warriors grunted, "Ough ! ough !" and the chiefs immediately followed the example of their great leader. The appearance and oratory of Cornstalk, when he appeared before Lord Dunmore, is thus described by Col. Wilson, one of the staff :
" When he arose, he was no wise confused or daunted, but spoke in a distinct and audible voice, without stammering or repetition, and with peculiar emphasis. His looks, while addressing Dunmore, were truly grand and majestic, yet graceful and attractive. I have heard many celebrated ora- tors, but never one whose powers of delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk on this occasion."
As Dunmore approached the Scioto, the Indians had besought him to send an interpreter, and John Gibson was sent forward by Lord Dunmore. He has stated in an affidavit annexed to Jefferson's Notes, "that on his arrival at the towns, Logan, the Indian, came to where the deponent was sitting with the Cornstalk and the other chiefs of the Shawa- nese, and asked him to walk out with him; that they went into a copse of wood, where they sat down, when Logan, after shedding abundance of tears, delivered to him the speech, nearly as related by Mr. Jefferson in his notes on the State of Virginia ; that he, the deponent, told him then that it was not Col. Cresap, who had murdered his relations, and that although his son, Capt. Michael Cresap, was with the party that killed a Shawanese chief and other Indians, yet he was not present when his relations were killed at Baker's,
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LOGAN'S SPEECH.
near the mouth of Yellow creek, on the Ohio; that this deponent, on his return to camp, delivered the speech to Lord Dunmore ; and that the murders perpetrated as above were considered as ultimately the cause of the war of 1774, commonly called Cresap's war."
Of this speech or message, there are, besides that of Jefferson, two versions-one contained in a letter from Williamsburgh, Virginia, dated February 4, 1775, and pre- served in the American Archives, volume 1, page 1020, and another, which was published in New York, on the 16th of February, as an extract of a letter from Virginia. Jef- ferson adopted the latter. Probably Gibson noted down the expressions of Logan, as uttered by him in his simple Eng- lish, and on his return to Lord Dunmore's camp, the officers, in taking copies, may have modified an occasional expres- sion. The different versions are presented for comparison :
WILLIAMSBUGII. (Feb. 4, 1775.)
I appeal to any white man to say, that he ever entered Logan's cabin, but I gave him meat; that he ever came naked but I clothed him.
In the course of the last war, Logan remain- ed in his cabin an advo- cate for peace. I had such an affection for the white people, that I was pointed at by the rest of my nation. I should have even lived with them, had it not been for Col. Cresap, who, last year, cut off in cold blood all the relations of Logan, not sparing women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it-I have killed many,
NEW YORK. (Feb. 16, 1775.)
I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and I gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and I gave him not clothing.
During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained in his tent an advocate for peace. Nay, such was my love for the whites, that those of my own country pointed at me as they passed by, and said, "Logan is the friend of white men." had even thought to live with you, but for the in- juries of one man. Co- lonel Cresap, the last spring, in cool blood and unprovoked, cut off all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop
JEFFERSON. (1781-2.)
I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clotlied him not.
During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an ad- vocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my coun- trymen pointed as they passed, and said, " Lo- gan is the friend of white men." Iliad even thought to have lived with you, but for the in- juries of one man. Co- lonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Lo- gan, not even sparing my women and chil- dren. There runs not
11
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
and fully glutted my re- venge. I am glad that there is a prospect of peace, on account of the nation ; but I beg you will rot entertain a thought that any thing I have said procceds from fear! Logan dis- dains the thought. He will not turn on his hcel to save his life. Who is therc to mourn for Lo- gan ? No one.
of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. Yct, do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan ? Not one.
a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have soughtit. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I re- joice at the bcams of peacc. But do not har- bor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Lo- gan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Lo- gan ? Not one.
Of this production, Jefferson says: "I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished any more eminent, to produce a single passage, superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore when governor of Virginia." It was cited in refutation of the hypothesis, that the soil and climate of America tended to impair the vigor, mental and bodily, of the human race. Elsewhere he styles it a " mor- sel of eloquence." Certainly no specimen of the kind has been more widely circulated, or highly appreciated.
At the subsequent conference at Camp Charlotte, Logan did not attend, and the Mingoes were not parties to the peace there concluded, although their pledge to observe a peace had been communicated to Lord Dunmore. Little is. known of this treaty, except that the Shawanese agreed not to hunt south of the Ohio, nor molest travelers. A strong block-house, strengthened with pickets, was erected at the mouth of the Kenawha, and a hundred men left as its garri- son. Fort Dunmore or Pittsburgh, received a few troops- also Fort Fincastle at Wheeling. Lord Dunmore was to have returned to Pittsburgh in the spring, to meet the Indi- ans, and form a definite peace, but the Revolutionary move- 4 ments prevented. The army, which numbered about 2500
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SOCIETY OF UNITED BRETHREN.
men, returned to Fort Gower, and thence proceeded to Western Virginia, where they were disbanded.
Of the future fate of Logan, we shall repeat all the evi- dence within our reach. Heckewelder, in a letter to Jeffer- son, thus speaks of him after the close of the war: "His expressions from time to time, denoted a deep melancholy. Life (said he) had become a torment to him: he knew no more whát pleasure was; he thought it had been better if he had never existed. Report further states, that he became in some measure delirious, declared he would kill himself, went to Detroit, and on his way between that place and Miamis, was murdered. In October, 1781, (while as pris- oner on my way to Detroit,) I was shown the spot where this should have happened."
Mr. Benjamin Sharp, in 1842 a resident of Warren county, Missouri, communicated to the "American Pioneer," a narrative of the capture of two of his sisters, with their husbands and families, by a band of British and Indians, at Riddle's station, on the Licking in Kentucky, some time in 1778. They were taken prisoners to Canada, but after- wards returned in safety at the close of the Revolutionary War. Mr. Sharp proceeds: "The celebrated Logan was with this party: my brother-in-law, Captain John Dunkin, an intelligent man, had several conversations with him on this trip. He said Logan spoke both English and French: he told Captain Dunkin that he knew he had two souls, the one good and the other bad; when the good soul had the ascendant, he was kind and humane; and when the bad soul ruled, he was perfectly savage, and delighted in nothing but blood and carnage. The account that Captain Dunkin gave of his death, was, that his brother-in-law killed him as they
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
returned home from a council held at Detroit, on account of some misusage he had given his sister at the council."
Henry C. Brush, Esq., of Tiffin, Seneca county, has stated on the authority of Good Hunter, an aged and familiar acquaintance of Logan, that his last years were truly melan- choly. He wandered about from tribe to tribe, a solitary and lonely man; dejected and broken hearted by the loss of his friends, and the decay of his tribe, he resorted to the stimulus of strong drink, to drown his sorrow. He was at last murdered in Michigan, near Detroit. He was, at the time, sitting with his blanket over his head, before a camp fire, his elbow resting on his knees, and his head upon his hands, buried in profound reflection, when an Indian, who had taken some offence, stole behind him, and buried his tomahawk in his brains.
Thus closed the mournful episode of the sorrows, the ven- geance and the fate of Logan. Although his motive was personal-the paroxysm of private grief,-and therefore not so imposing as the patriotic impulse of a Pontiac or a Tecum- seh, yet the appeal to our sympathies is irresistible ; while the genius of Logan has irradiated the history of his race in the annals of the New World.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE RELATION OF THE WESTERN TRIBES TO THE REVOLU- TIONARY CONTEST.
THERE is no passage in the history of the struggle between England and her American colonies, which suggests more impressively the special guidance and aid of Providence, than the relations of the Indian tribes. One familiar with the border wars of 1755 and 1763, would immediately anticipate a third combination of all the tribes against the inhabitants of the American frontier; and if so, while the Atlantic cam- paigns exhausted the resources of the colonies, the most dis- astrous consequences were more than probable. There can be no doubt that the British agents, even prior to the battle of Lexington, urged the Indians to side with them, and assist in subduing their rebellious children.
The first mention of the subject is in the address of the Massachusetts Congress to the Iroquois, in April, 1775, in which they say, that they hear the British are exciting the savages against the colonies, and they ask the Six Nations to aid the Americans or be neutral; and in June following, when James Wood visited the Western tribes, and invited them to a council, which he did under the direction of the Virginia House of Burgesses, he found that Governor Carle- ton had already offered the alliance of England.1
It is not surprising that both parties should estimate highly
1) Perkins' Western Annals, p. 153. American Archives, fourth series, iv., p. 110.
(261)
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
the military power of the savages, and their ability to turn the impending scale of the contest. At the Revolutionary period, Col. George Morgan supposed that the Indians of New York, Ohio, and the vicinity of the Lakes, could bring 10,000 warriors into the field, and if a general confederacy had been organized, the concurrence of attack-by the savage hordes on one side and the British armies on the other-might have been decisive of the result.
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