USA > Ohio > History of the state of Ohio > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
Thus much for the amiable Doddridge. We leave his plea for the friends and neighbors of his childhood undimin- ished, committing it freely to the discrimination of the reader. But there was still another construction placed upon this bloody deed-that of the savage fatalists of the woods. As the sad tale passed from village to village of the Ohio tribes, the Indians, particularly the scattered Delawares, recognized with simple reverence a providential design. They said they had envied the condition of their relations, the believing In- dians, and could not bear to look upon their peaceful and happy lives in contrast with their own lives of privation and war. Hence they had endeavored to take them from their own tranquil homes, and draw them back into heathenism, that they might be reduced again to a level with themselves. But the Great Spirit would not suffer it to be so, and had taken them to himself.
Soon after the massacre on the Muskingum, the congrega- tion at Sandusky, reduced in numbers and deprived of their teachers, yielded to the solicitations of their Delaware and
1
373
THE MUSKINGUM MISSION.
Shawanese friends, and abandoned their settlement at San- dusky. They were ordered to do so by Half King, who persisted in holding them in some degree responsible for the fate of his two sons; but in their present situations, it was doubtless a prudent resolution. Loskiel informs us, that on their dispersion, "one part went into the country of the Shawanese : the rest stayed some time in the neighborhood of Pipestown, and then resolved to proceed farther-to the Miami River." Heckewelder is more explicit, and mentions the Scioto and Miami of the Lake, now Maumee, as their respective destinations.
We have previously considered the probability, that Corn- stalk and the Shawanese tribe on the Scioto, were disposed to peace, and perhaps to accept Christianity, through the influence of the missionaries. Indeed, after the death of Cornstalk, a tribe of Shawanese removed to the Muskingum and concurred in the pacific policy of the Delaware chiefs, only retiring to the Scioto when that policy was reversed. These Indians doubtless tendered an asylum to the Moravi- ans. Their friends on the Maumee were the band of Dela- wares, who were the immediate followers of the magnanimous Pachgantschihilas, whose friendly solicitude and timely warn- ing to the missionaries had been so fully justified by recent events as to seem almost prophetic. There is ample evidence that in 1791, nine years afterwards, Delawares inhabited the banks of the Auglaize River near its junction with the Mau- mee ; and here, while the heathen, aboriginal and European, raged around thiem, the simple-hearted proselytes of a religion of peace, found a refuge from the persecutions of those pro- fessing the same benignant faith.
CHAPTER XXII.
PENNSYLVANIA CAMPAIGNS AGAINST THE OHIO INDIANS.
THE border war of the Revolution upon the Ohio, consisted of two series of expeditions in retaliation for Indian outrage -those already considered, which issued from the region of Kentucky traversed by the Kenhawa, the Licking and the Kentucky Rivers, usually led by George Rogers Clark, and designed to restrain the inveterate Shawanese, and those which had Wheeling and the vicinity of Pittsburgh for their base of operations, and aimed to chastise the bands of Wy- andots, Ottawas, Mingoes, and finally the Delawares, whose villages were scattered upon the sources of the Muskingum and Sandusky Rivers and along the Lake shore. The latter may be called the Pennsylvania Campaigns, from the fact that the western counties of Pennsylvania furnished the vol- unteer militia, which composed the main force of these expe- ditions.
To the Coshocton campaign of Col. Daniel Brodhead, inci- dental allusion has already been made. In the correspon- dence of that officer recently published,1 he says, under date of March 27, 1781, that he had called upon the County Lieutenants for a few of the militia, and intended to surprise the Indian towns about Coochocking-written Goschocking by Heckewelder, and now familiar as Coshocton. Soon afterwards, probably before the close of April, these levies
1) Craig's Olden Time, vol. ii, p. 392.
375
COSHOCTON CAMPAIGN.
assembled at Wheeling, and their number, including a few continental troops from Pittsburgh, are estimated by Dod- dridge2 at eight hundred men. In justice to those upon whom was imposed the responsibility of command, it should be borne in mind that the army was mostly composed of the tumultuous and intractable population of the frontiers.
When in the vicinity of the Moravian towns, it has been mentioned, that Col. Brodhead and Col. Shepherd of Wheel- ing could with difficulty restrain a foray of the militia upon the peaceful inhabitants. The remaining details of the expedition rest upon the authority of Doddridge.
At White Eyes Plain, a few miles from Coshocton, an Indian prisoner was taken. Soon afterwards two more Indi- ans were discovered, one of whom was wounded, but he as well as the other made his escape.
The commander knowing that these two Indians would make the utmost despatch in going to the town, to give notice of the approach of the army, ordered a rapid march, in the midst of a heavy rain, to reach the town before them and take it by surprise. The plan succeeded. The army reached the place in three divisions. The right and left wings approached the river a little above and below the town, while the center marched directly upon it. The whole number of the Indians in the village, on the east side of the river, together with ten or twelve from a little village
2) Rev. Joseph Doddridge, M. D. Frequent allusion has already been made to this narrator of frontier manners and incidents. In the infaney of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Ohio, his services as a minister of the Gospel were cheerfully given to the settlements opposite Wheeling; but in 1820, he announces an intention of resuming the medieal profession, as the means of acquiring a competency for his approaching age. See a Republication of the Journals of Episcopal Conventions in Ohio, from 1818 to 1827, edited by Rev. W. C. French, 1853. The citations of the text are from Doddridge's Notes of Western Virginia.
376
HISTORY OF OHIO.
some distance above, were made prisoners, without firing a single shot. The river having risen to a great height, owing to the recent fall of rain, the army could not cross it, and the villages with their inhabitants on the west side of the river escaped destruction.
Among the prisoners, sixteen warriors were pointed out by Pekillon, a friendly Delaware chief, as engaged in a recent excursion upon the frontiers of Virginia, during which all the male captives had been put to death by torture in the presence of their weeping families. A council of war was held in the evening to determine the fate of the warriors in custody. They were doomed to death, and by the order of the commander, they were bound, taken a little distance below the town, despatched with tomahawks and spears, and scalped.
Early the next morning, an Indian presented himself on the opposite bank of the river and asked for the "Big Captain." Brodhead came forward and inquired what he wanted ? to which he replied, "I want peace." "Send over some of your chiefs," said the Colonel. "May be you kill," said the Indian. "They shall not be killed," was the answer. A fine looking sachem thereupon crossed the river, and entered into conversation with the commander in the street, but while thus engaged, a man of the name of Wetzel3 came up behind him, with a tomahawk concealed in the bosom of his hunting shirt, and struck him on the back of his head. He fell and instantly expired.
On the retreat from Coshocton, Col. Brodhead committed the care of the prisoners, about twenty in number, to the militia. After marching half a mile, the men commenced
3) Lewis Wetzel, a noted borderer. See Appendix No. IX, for a biograph- ical notice of this type of a numerous class.
377
DESTRUCTION OF LOCHRY'S PARTY.
killing them, and soon, all except a few women and children were despatched in cold blood.
The reduction of Detroit, for which Congress had collected troops and munitions in 1778, with no other result than the useless fortifications of Laurens and McIntosh, was again proposed in 1780-1. Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia, authorized Gen. George Rogers Clark to raise a force adequate to march from the Falls of the Ohio through the valleys of the Wabash and the Maumee to Detroit. The expedition was approved by Washington, who wrote to Col. Brodhead, the commandant at Pittsburgh, to send a detachment with four field pieces and one eight inch howit- zer, besides other stores. Accordingly, Captain Isaac Craig descended the Ohio with two companies of artillery to the place of rendezvous, but Gen. Clark was obliged to relin- quish the expedition-his whole force, although nearly a year had passed in exertions to recruit it, not exceeding seven hundred and fifty men. Captain Craig returned to Pittsburgh on the 26th of December, 1781, having been forty days on the voyage from the falls. He was obliged to throw away his gun-carriages, but brought back the pieces themselves, and the best of the stores.
The most melancholy incident in connection with Clark's projected expedition against Detroit, was the massacre of a party of Pennsylvania volunteers. In a letter from General William Irvine, who assumed the command at Pittsburgh, in the fall of 1781, addressed to General Washington, and dated in December of that year, the affair is thus noticed : " A Col. Lochry, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, with about one hundred men in all, composed of volunteers and a company raised by Pennsylvania, for the defence of that county, started to join General Clark, who, it is said, 16*
378
HISTORY OF OHIO.
ordered him to unite with him (Clark) at the mouth of the Miami, up which river it was previously designed to proceed ; but the General having changed his plan, left a small party at the Miami, with directions to Lochry to follow him to the mouth of the falls. Sundry accounts agree that this party, and all of Lochry's troops, to a man, were waylaid by the Indians and British, (for it is said they had artillery) and all killed or taken, not a man escaping, either to join General Clark or to return home." In a journal kept by General Richard Butler, while attending a conference with the Ohio Indians at the mouth of the Great Miami, in the winter of 1785-6, he designates Lochry's creek, about seven miles south of the Great Miami, on the north side of the Ohio, as the scene of this tragedy. "Col. Lochry," he says, "and his party were defeated and cut to pieces by Brant and his people, who perfectly surprised Lochry." It is singular that our historical compilations contain so slight a reference to a battle which resulted in the destruction of more than a hun- dred whites, especially as, in the language of Gen. Irvine, "Lochry's party were the best men of the frontier." In the disastrous battle of Blue Licks, the Kentucky loss was but seventy-six, although on that occasion there were many survivors, to report as well as to revenge the horrors of the day. But at Lochry's creek a hecatomb of brave spirits died and gave no sign.4
In the spring of 1782, occurred the Moravian campaign, already noticed in the narrative of the mission on the Mus- kingum.
It was immediately followed by active preparations for a
4) Craig's Olden Time, vol. ii., 541. Gen. Butler was doubtless mistaken, if he supposed that the leader of the Indians engaged in the slaughter of Lochry's party, was the Mohawk chieftain, Joseph Brant.
379
CRAWFORD'S CAMPAIGN.
volunteer expedition against the new settlement of the Chris- tian Indians and the Wyandot and Delaware towns, on the head waters of the Sandusky. The enterprise was con- ducted with secrecy and dispatch ; the men were all mounted, and furnished themselves with all their outfits, except some ammunition which was supplied by the Lieutenant Colonel of Washington county.
On the 20th of May, 1782, the volunteers assembled at the deserted Mingo village, on the west bank of the Ohio, seventy-five miles below Pittsburgh. No estimate of their number is less than four hundred and fifty. Here, Colonel William Crawford, the agent and friend of Washington, was elected to the command. Col. David Williamson was an unsuccessful candidate for the post, and accompanied the expedition.
On Saturday, the 25th of May, the army commenced its march, and on the fourth day reached Shoenbrun, on the Muskingum, finding sufficient corn in the adjacent fields for a night's forage of their horses. On the morning of the 30th, Major Brunton and Capt. Bean, being a few hundred yards in advance of the troops, observed two Indians skulking through the woods, apparently observing the movements of the detachment. Although fired upon, they escaped. From the excitement and confusion of his troops on this slight occasion, Crawford was held to apprehend the worst conse- quences from their want of discipline.
It had been supposed that the expedition would surprise the Indians, but the spies of the latter had hovered near the army during the whole route, visiting each encampment the day after it was abandoned, and transcribing from the trees where some loungers had carved the words, that " No quarter was to be given to any Indian, whether man, woman or child."
380
HISTORY OF OHIO.
The savages were alert and ready to repel the invaders, who now pressed rapidly forward.
"Nothing material happened," says Doddridge, " until the sixth day, when their guides conducted them to the site of the Moravian village, on one of the upper branches of the Sandusky river, but here, instead of meeting with Indians and plunder, they found nothing but vestiges of desolation. The place was covered with high grass, and the remains of a few huts alone announced that the place had been the resi- dence of the people whom they intended to destroy." The removal of the missionaries to Detroit, and the dispersion of the congregation a few weeks before, thus proved a provi- dential interposition in their behalf.
The accounts of what followed are very conflicting. The men here insisted upon returning, as their horses were jaded and the stock of provisions nearly exhausted. The officers held a council and determined to march one day longer, and if they should not meet the enemy in the course of the day, to retreat. Doddridge states that the army commenced their march next morning, which was continued until two o'clock in the afternoon, when the advance guard was attacked and driven in by the Indians, who were discovered in large num- bers in the high grass with which the plain was covered. Another version is,5 that on the eleventh day of the march, " the army reached the spot where the town of Sandusky had formerly stood, but from which the Indians had lately removed to a spot about eighteen miles below"-that here a council was held with the result already mentioned ; and that " just as the council broke up," one of the advance guards arrived with the intelligence that the Indians had appeared in force " a few miles in advance." If the army, all of whom were
5) McClung's Western Adventure, 120.
381
CRAWFORD'S CAMPAIGN.
mounted, had advanced beyond the Moravian town from sun- rise on a June day, until two hours after noon, the distance to the place where the Indians were discovered would have been more than a "few miles."
The traditions of Wyandot county represent the scene of the engagement which ensued as three miles north of the Upper Sandusky of a modern map, and one mile west of the Sandusky River. A spot near Leesville or Leesburg in Crawford county, is called "the battle ground," from a tradition that there, Crawford, on his way to Upper Sandusky, had a skirmish with the Indians. If the route of his march was so far north as Leesville, and we admit the statement of a six hours' progress between the Moravian towns and the battle field, it becomes probable that the temporary settlement of the Christian Indians was in the vicinity of Bucyrus, whence a westward march of six hours before meeting the enemy, might have occurred.
The discrepancy is not merely whether the alarm of an enemy in advance, was communicated to the army "just as the council broke up" or after a six hours' further march ; but it includes a contradiction as to the locality of the Mora- vian settlement on the Sandusky. McClung makes it within a short distance of the Indian ambuscade-Doddridge, a full half day's journey by a mounted body of men. McClung's Narrative is consistent with the opinion that the council was held at the old Indian town of Upper Sandusky, which would also be the site of the Moravian settlement, and stood on the bank of the Sandusky River, four miles north-east of the present town of Upper Sandusky. Heckewelder's Narrative describes the destination of the captive congregation in a manner favorable to this view of the case. "On the 11th of October" (1781,) he says " they arrived at the old Up
382
HISTORY OF OHIO.
per Sandusky town, which is on the east branch of the river of that name, where the Half King and his party left them and proceeded nine or ten miles further to their homes." Hecke- welder also mentions that Pipestown was ten miles distant.6
All the accounts unite that there were two Wyandot villa- ges (of which one, Upper Sandusky Old Town, was probably deserted at this time) and one Delaware village, the residence of Captain Pipe. The latter was situated on the Tymochtee, about eight miles above its junction with the Sandusky, and we assume that New Wyandot Town, probably the residence of Half King, was at Big Spring, now Springville in Seneca county. These localities are ascertained with a fair degree of certainty, and rest upon the authority of Col. John John- ston, and Joseph Mccutchen Esq., of Wyandot county. The only doubt is raised by Doddridge's Narrative, whether Old Town of Upper Sandusky was the Moravian village. We incline to the affirmative belief, and that the council of war was held within a short distance of the battle field.
With these explanations, we resume the narrative of the battle of Sandusky Plains.
The main body of the Indians had stationed themselves in a grove of trees. Crawford immediately ordered his men to dismount, tie their horses, and force the enemy from this position, which was done. The Indians continued their fire from the high grass of the prairie. Doddridge relates that the savages attempted to gain a small skirt of wood on Craw- ford's right flank, but were prevented by the vigilance and bravery of Major Leet, who commanded the right wing; while McClung's statement is, that Crawford was outflanked and exposed, except as the wood was a partial shelter, to a severe fire on every side. From four o'clock until dark, the
6) Heckewelder's Narrative of Indian Missions, 281, 285.
383
CRAWFORD'S DEFEAT.
contest was very animated. Doddridge admits only " three killed and several wounded" on the American side, which was certainly an inconsiderable loss in so close an engage- ment. At night, the enemy drew off, and Crawford's party slept on their arms upon the field of battle.
On the next day, the Indians did not resume the attack, as they were awaiting reinforcements, but were seen in large bodies traversing the plains in every direction. Some of them appeared to be employed in carrying off their dead and wounded.
As soon as it was dark, the field officers assembled in council ; and, as the numbers of the enemy were evidently increasing every moment, it was unanimously determined to retreat by night, as rapidly as was consistent with order and the preservation of the wounded. The resolution was quickly announced to the troops, and the necessary dispositions made for carrying it into effect. The outposts were silently with- drawn from the vicinity of the enemy, and as fast as they came in the troops were formed in three parallel lines, with the wounded borne upon biers in the centre. By nine o'clock at night, all necessary arrangements had been made, and the retreat began in good order.
Unfortunately, they had scarcely moved a hundred paces, when the report of several rifles was heard in the rear, in the direction of the Indian encampment. The troops soon be- came unsteady. At length a solitary voice, in the front rank, called out, that their design was discovered, and that the Indians would soon be upon them. A panic, accompanied by an immense uproar, ensued-the wounded were aband- oned to the mercy of the enemy-straggling parties wander- ed away from the main body, under the delusive expectation of more safety by so doing: and of the whole number,
384
HISTORY OF OHIO.
scarcely three hundred reached the settlements. The Indi- ans soon ceased their attacks upon the main body, but pur- sued the small parties with such activity that few of them escaped.
Dr. Knight, the surgeon of the detachment, was in the rear when the flight commenced, and hurried forward. He had not advanced more than three hundred yards, when he heard the voice of Colonel Crawford, a short distance in front, calling aloud for his son, John Crawford, his son-in-law, Major Harrison, and his two nephews, Major Rose and Will- iam Crawford. Dr. Knight joined him, and they tarried until the last straggler had passed, without meeting or hear- ing of the young men. Presently a heavy fire was heard at the distance of a mile in front, accompanied by yells, screams, and other indications of a fierce attack. Crawford had lost all confidence in his men, and not choosing to unite his fortune with them, he changed his course to the northward in such a manner as to leave the combatants on the right. Dr. Knight, and two others, accompanied him. They con- tinued in this direction for nearly an hour, until they sup- posed themselves out of the line of the enemy's operations, when their course was turned eastward. They were guided by the north star, soon crossed the Sandusky, and pressed forward until daybreak, when their horses failed, and were abandoned.
Continuing their journey on foot, they soon fell in with Captain Biggs, who had generously surrendered his horse to a wounded officer, Lieutenant Ashley, and was composedly walking by his side, with a rifle in his hand and a knapsack on his shoulders. This casual meeting was grateful to both parties, and they continued their journey with renewed spir- its. At three o'clock in the afternoon a heavy rain fell and
385
CAPTURE OF CRAWFORD.
compelled them to encamp. A temporary shelter was formed by barking several trees, after the manner of the Indians, and spreading the bark over poles. Here they passed the night.
Resuming their route next morning, they were so fortunate as to find the carcass of a deer, neatly sliced and bundled in the skin, and a mile farther fell in with a white. man, who had kindled a fire. They breakfasted heartily after the fa- tigues and abstinence of thirty-six hours, and continued their march. By noon, they had reached the path by which the army had marched a few days before, in their advance upon the Indian towns, and some discussion took place as to the propriety of taking that road homeward. Biggs and Knight strenuously insisted upon continuing their course through the woods, and avoiding all paths, but Crawford overruled them, representing that the Indians would not urge the pursuit beyond the plains, which were already far behind. Unfor- tunately the colonel prevailed, and abandoning their due eastern course, the party pursued the beaten path. They had not advanced a mile, when a party of Delaware Indians sprang up within twenty yards of Crawford and Knight, who were one hundred and fifty yards in front of their comrades, presented their guns, and ordered the fugitives in good Eng- lish to stop. Crawford and Knight surrendered themselves prisoners, but the rest of the party made their escape, al- though Captain Biggs and Lieutenant Ashley were overtaken and killed the next day.
Col. Crawford and Doctor Knight were immediately taken to an Indian encampment, at a short distance from the place where they were captured. Here they found nine other prisoners, and passed the following day. The next morning, Monday, June 10, they were paraded (and our quotations
17
/
386
HISTORY OF OHIO.
in this connection are from Dr. Knight's own narrative) "to march to Sandusky, about thirty-three miles distant ;" but " Col. Crawford was very desirous to see Simon Girty, who lived with the Indians, and was on this account permitted to go to town the same night, with two warriors to guard him." The other prisoners "were taken as far as the old town, which was within eight miles of the new."
Crawford had known Girty, before the latter's adherence to the British, and hoped to make some arrangements for his ransom from captivity and torture. Girty promised to do every thing in his power to save Crawford, and it is probable that the former made a proposition to Captain Pipe, offering three hundred and fifty dollars for the release of the Ameri- can commandant, intending, unquestionably, to exact a much larger amount from Crawford. The Delaware chief treated the proposition as a gross insult, and threatened Girty him- self with torture at the stake, if it was renewed. This threat had such an effect, that Girty appeared subsequently at the execution of Crawford, an acquiescent, perhaps an exultant spectator.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.