USA > Ohio > The Ohio Valley in colonial days > Part 9
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No doubt, perhaps, that the Shawanese and Dela- wares, conferring with Sir William Johnson, on July 16, were in earnest, when they promised to live in peace with their English brethren, for in the days when no steamships raced across the Atlantic nor an electric wire carried sparks under it, news from Europe came much slower and the declaration of war, issued in London May 17, 1756, did not reach Northern New York before the end of July .* Their subsequent attitude justified, however, Vaudreuil's hope, for in the following December Edmund Atkin, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Southern Colonies, writes to the Lords of Trade :+ "Sir Wil- liam (Johnson) told me, that the 6 Nations were weakened and in fact distressed, some of the West-
* Governor Hardy, of New York, received the Declaration of War on the 27th of July, while at Albany, and notified his subordinates of it from there. + N. Y. Col. Hist. VII, 209.
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ern Nations having fallen off from their allegiance, and the Shawanese and such of the Delawares as live upon the Ohio, who had been subject to them, having been set up and supported in an Independency upon them by the French still continuing Hostilities against the People of some of our Colonies, contrary to their orders." The same Mr. Atkin successfully endeavored to reconcile the Iroquois of New York with the Southern Indians and to extract from them a permission for the Cherokees and their allies, to make war on the Shawanese and Delawares of the Ohio Valley. Governor Dinwiddie had labored hard during the preceding summer, to keep the Cherokees in the British alliance, and had the satisfaction to find them eager for a fray with the French on the Ohio. A fort had been built in the Upper Cherokee country, which pleased the natives very much and "they have engaged to send in hear 400 of yr Warriors to pro- tect our front's. ... The retain'g of these People in our Int't is an essential piece of Service at ys time, as the Fr. have been long endeavour'g to get them from us."* But the Governor had not taken into con- sideration that "the Indians are a most inconstant and unfix'd Set of Mortals, and laying aside all Treaties, Promises and Engagements, are always ready to Join with the strongest Side and no longer there than they have success."+ Two months after he had rejoicingly reported that the Cherokees were firm in
* Dinwiddie Papers, II, 520.
+ Ib. 539.
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the British interest, he learned that they were waver- ing and had to begin his negotiations with them anew with the result, that the report of their defec- tion was not perfectly true. At the same time came reports of "All quiet on the Frontiers," for the French and their Indians had not molested the back settlements, probably on account of the winter and consequent bad roads.
The summer of 1757 saw no combined effort made to expel the French from the Ohio and we have only to note small skirmishes and military chess-playing. Lieutenant Baker, of Washington's detachment at Fort Loudon, with a scouting party of five soldiers and fifteen Cherokees had the good fortune to surprise and rout a similar party of French, of whom they killed two officers and captured the third, at the head of Turtle creek, two miles fromo Frt du Quesne. The death of the Indian chief commanding the Cherokees prevented a pursuit of the flying enemy .*
* N. Y. Coll. MSS., LXXXIV, 94.
CHAPTER VII.
THE FLAG OF ST GEORGE FLOATS AGAIN OVER THE OHIO VALLEY.
Colonel John Stanwix, commanding the First Bat- talion of the Sixtieth or Royal American Regiment, was at this time in charge of the military affairs in the southern department with head-quarters at Car- lisle, Pennsylvania. The following letter, written by him to Governor Denny, of Pennsylvania, from "Camp near Carlisle," June 19, 1757, gives an insight into the difficulties, under which war was carried on in the Colonies even by such an experienced officer as Colonel Stanwix was, and affords also a picture of the condition of affairs.
" ... I only wait for Waggons to march for Ship- pensburgh, but when I shall be able to set out it is impossible to say, as in two days Notice I have yet been able to get but two Waggons. ... The reasons of my moving is the hearing of Intelligence from Captain Dagworthy, who commands at Fort Dag- worthy, which I give you in his own words : " 'SIR
"' FORT CUMBERLAND, June 17, 1757.
""'Six Cherokee Indians, who just now came from Fort Duquesne say, that six days ago they saw a
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large body of Troops march from that Garrison, with a Number of Waggons and a Train of Artillery and by their Rout must intend an Attack on this Garri- son. Two days afterwards these Indians saw the Army on their March on this side the place where General Braddock was defeated.
" 'Sir, yours etc JOHN DAGWORTHY '
" .. Col. Washington thinks that their next object must be Fort Loudoun likewise in a bad Condition. Col. Washington intends to pursue the Resolution of a Council of War, which is, viz : " That as Rein- forcing this Garrison is absolutely necessary, that the Detached enfeebled Situation of the Garrisons on the South Branch must make them fall an easy Prey to the Enemy, and that as drawing them all to one place on the Branch would be giving up all the Settlements except that place, which (supposing it would be main- tained) would by no means be of such Consequence as reinforcing this Important place, that therefore they ought to be ordered here immediately."*
A few days before Washington had informed him from Fort Loudon, that "if the Enemy is coming down in such numbers and with such a Train of Artil- lery, as we are bid to expect, Fort Cumberland must inevitably fall into their hands, as no Efforts can be timely made to save it."+
Fort Cumberland, however, was not taken, not even invested, but the country along the border suf-
* N. Y. Coll. MSS., LXXXIV, 97.
+ Ib., LXXXIV, 95.
.
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fered from the incursions of the French Indians. The picture given of the condition of affairs by the Rev. Claude Godfroy Cocquard in a letter to his brother,* which describes Georgia, Carolina, Mary- land and Pennsylvania as "wholly laid waste," is perhaps overdrawn, the brush having been dipped too deep into French patriotism, for other English sources inform us, that the garrisons at Forts Loudon, Cumberland, etc., protected the farmers and settlers to the best of their abilities. The same Reverend Father reports under date of October 6, 1757, that a party of 300 English horsemen went to surprise or burn a Delaware village on the Ohio and that they were repulsed by five Canadians and the Indian in- habitants of the village, losing twenty-five killed and two prisoners. During the whole year 1,757 messages were carried to all the Indian tribes west of the Alle- ghanies to confirm their alliance with the French, for though he never confessed it in his letters, Gover- nor Vaudreuil must have felt that the closing scenes of this bloody drama were to be enacted shortly, and that as France with its war in Europe could not afford to support him sufficiently against the troops, which England was pouring into her Colonies, it be- hooved him to make the most of his Indian allies. His letter to M. de Machault,t dated April 19, 1757,
* N. Y. Col. Hist., X, 528, reprinted in Pennsylvania Arch., 2d Series, VI, 387.
+ Jean Baptiste Machault d'Arnouville, President of the Grand Council 1738, Comptroller-General of Finances 1745, Keeper of the Seals 1750, Minister of the Colonies 1754, exiled July, 1757. Fort Machault on French creek, Pa., called after him.
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gives an account of his endeavors to secure the Indians in the French interest and the success he had : "In the letter (of Octob' II) I did myself also the honor to observe that my negotiations with the Flatheads* were more and more successful ..... A Canadian of Detroit, who has since several years been adopted by that Nation and to whom I had se- cretly transmitted a letter, that he should endeavor, without too marked a zeal, to induce the Flatheads to unite with the French, wrote to the Commandant of Fort du Quesne, that the Flatheads had received my message with pleasure; that four of them were setting out to convey the message of the chiefs to the Hurons and to advise the Commandant of Fort du Quesne of the intentions of their nations. This Canadian added that he was himself going on the part of the Cherakees to carry their message to Mobile ; that all the Indians were making arrange- ments to do well for the French .... This letter was confided to the Chaouanon chief of Sonniatot by two Flatheads, who were desirous of going to see the Commandant of Fort du Quesne, whilst the other messengers would proceed on with a Chaouanon chief to convey to Detroit the belt with which they were intrusted on the part of their chiefs. .. . . The Flathead deputies arrived at Detroit and held a grand council with M. de Muy on the Ioth of January.
They commenced by asking me for peace and
* Choctaws on de l'Isle Map.
+ Scioto, Ohio.
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testified to all the Indian Nations the desire they felt to be admitted into the number of our allies ; and as soon as they should learn my sentiments more posi- tively, than by the messages, transmitted to them in my name, they would return in greater numbers and with stronger messages.
They asked pardon for all their faults and said : That they held on to the English by almost nothing and that their hand would slip from them the moment I should protect them and that all the nations were desirous of living in peace with them.
That if I would promise to supply their wants as I did those of the other nations, they would entirely abandon and strike the English.
The Chaouanons, who accompanied the Flatheads to Detroit, told them they had obeyed my message and had forthwith struck the English ..... M. de Muy received by these messengers a letter from a Canadian, who is also adopted in that tribe, wherein he informs him, that the Cherakis and Flatheads are really desirous to wage war against the English. I have reason to believe, that the Flatheads have already commenced hostilities, because the Acadians who have deserted from Carolina have assured me, that the Cherakis and Chicachaws [Chickasaws] being gone to Virginia for their presents, had on their return home destroyed 500 English plantations,*
* Governor Dinwiddie writes about the same time "We have had 148 Cherokees, 124 Catawbas etc at Fort Loudoun .... The Cherokees have been guilty of many Disorders in marching through this Country and killed a Chickasaw Warrior. Dinwiddie Papers, II, 633.
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which appears so little doubtful, that these Acadians assert having seen some of those very Englishmen, who had escaped from those Indians. . . .
My principal object is to prevent the Flatheads from pronouncing against us; I observe towards them the same policy, I have observed towards the Five Nations, because if these Flatheads attacked the nations on the Beautiful River, that would throw a damp on their ardor, and I even think, that our other nations would not go willingly to wage war against the English in those parts.
I should dare flatter myself that I might succeed in getting these Flatheads to strike, had I the where- withal to supply their wants ; this I could not do, so long, as they will remain constantly in their villages, in as much as they will always be obliged to have re- course to the English and it is not natural to suppose, that they wish by declaring war against those English to expose themselves to a lack of everything, there. fore it is desirable we could afford them an asylum. This is a matter of more urgency than apparent. The English employ all their resources to induce those Nations to unite with them and it would be highly dangerous should they succeed, for they have projected the erection of a fort and the building of large bateaux in the villages of those Indians, for the purpose of going by the Ouabache to attack the Illinois or at least surprise the Louisiana convoys.
It would be indispensable to establish a post at the falls of the Beautiful River, to secure the communi-
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cation of Canada with Louisiana. . . . . The soil at these falls invites settlements. If we could have some permanent ones, we should hold the Flatheads and Cherakis in check."*
The attitude of all the Indian tribes, living in or connected with the Ohio Valley, was a matter of importance not only to the French, but also to the English authorities. The purchase of large tracts of land, made at Albany by Pennsylvania in 1754, although consented to by some of the tribes in in- terest, had not the approval of all. The Six Nations expressed their dissatisfaction unreservedly at a meet- ing with Governor Denny, of Pennsylvania, held at Lancaster in May, 1757; they confirmed a report brought to Sir William Johnson by Margaret Wil- liams,+ who had been a prisoner among the Dela- wares and upon her release had told, that she heard the Indians frequently and solemnly declare, they would never leave off killing the English as long as there was an Englishman living on their lands . ... " which the English had cheated them out of." Other reports were still more alarming. Alexander McClure, of Pennsylvania, an Indian trader at Chenussio in the Seneca country, was told by a Delaware, coming from Niagara, that all the French Indians from the north side of the lakes were to destroy the Mohawk country and the Indians, living south of the lakes, and then attack Fort Cumberland and the Southern
* N. Y. Col. Hist., X, 539, and Penn. Arch., 2d Series, VI, 395. + Ib., VII, 331.
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Colonies .* But British gold, added in large quanti- tities to British diplomacy, proved an irresistible agent and kept the wavering Indians fairly in the British interest. George Croghan, Sir William John- son's deputy in Pennsylvania, labored with the Dela- wares and some of the Six Nations so successfully at Easton, Pennsylvania, during July and August, 1757, that he could report, "the grand Council of the Six Nations, which sat two months, has unanimously agreed to oppose the French measures and hold fast by the chain of friendship subsisting between the English and them."+ Mohawks and Senecas of the Six Nations and Cherokees from the south verified this to Sir William in a meeting at Fort Johnson, New York, in the following September : "We are warriors and our nation have lifted their ax against the French and are determined not to lay it down, whilst there is a man amongst us left alive."} The Cherokees appear to have been specially aroused against the French. Delegates from this nation with " several others from the Southward, viz .: Oghna- goes, Nanticokes and Connoys, had first consulted with the Six Nations, with the above result, and then extended an invitation to the English to renew and strengthen the covenant chain."§
The year 1757, now drawing towards its close, had been an uneventful one in the Ohio Valley, as far as
* Sir Wm. Johnson Papers, IV, 31.
+ N. Y. Col. Hist., VII, 285.
į Ib., 325.
§ Sir Wm. Johnson Papers, IV, 148, 154.
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military operations are to be considered. But the political movements of the same year had been of importance for the whole question of French do- minion. The weakness of the English Ministry had become so patent in the spring of 1757, that Pitt, one of the most able statesmen of his day, had been called to its head. America was to him the object of the greatest solicitude. He relieved Loudoun from the command in the Colonies, for which he had shown only mediocre ability. The Colonies were admonished to recruit troops for an active campaign and encouraged to do so by a promise of having the expenses, incidental to such an increase of the army, refunded by the home government; the Colonial military officers were given equal rank with the offi- cers of the Royal troops. All this infused new life into the attempts to drive the French out.
Three expeditions were planned by the English, two of which must be mentioned here, because their results affected the proceedings of the third against Fort du Quesne. The first against Louisburg, under Amherst and Wolfe, deprived the French of about 6,000 soldiers, who became prisoners of the English forces upon the fall of Louisburg. The second, un- der Abercrombie and Howe, which was to attack Crown Point and Ticonderoga and thereby open a new road to Canada, was not so successful. Lord Howe fell and the more or less incompetent Aber- crombie, his successor in command, managed to lose 2,000 men. But a detachment of this army, com-
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manded by Colonel Bradstreet, had the good luck to strike a blow, which was decisive for the fate of Fort du Quesne. Fort Frontenac and the French navy on Lake Ontario, fell into the hands of this officer on the 27th of August, 1758. This loss threw the French authorities into consternation. " Every thing is now to be feared for Fort Niagara," says M. Doreil, commissioner of war, in a letter to Marshall de Belle Isle, announcing the disaster. " Canada is lost, if peace be not made this winter."*
" We are expecting news from the Beautiful River, where a corps of 8,000 men was to operate under the orders of General Forbes," writes Montcalm to M. de Cremille, Assistant Minister of War, in Octo- ber, 1758.+ He probably did not expect these news to be very cheerful, for he writes at the same time to Marshall de Belle Isle, the Minister of War, that M. de Ligneris, the commander at Fort du Quesne, and M. de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, are of opinion General Forbes would have, besides his white troops, a great many Indians with him. " The Five Nations," says he, " are always assuring us of their attachment and receiving presents from the English. Their hearts are with the latter and their fears with us."}
The first attempt of the English to recover Fort du Quesne was not successful. General Forbes had, for good military reasons, followed Washington's ad-
* N. Y. Col. Hist., X, 819.
+ Ib., 856.
# Ib., 861.
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vice and taken a different road from that of Brad- dock's. On his march through the wilderness he built Fort Bedford, at Raystown, and finally reaching the Loyalhannon creek, fifty miles from du Quesne, he established his head-quarters there settling, down for a diplomatic campaign with the Indians, in which he was effectually assisted by an agent, Christian Frederik Post, sent by Governor Denny, of Penn-
sylvania .* Military operations were, however, not
neglected, and at first they led to disaster. Major James Grant, of the Montgomerie Highlanders, started out with a command of about 800 men from the camp on the Kiskiminitas, for an expedition against Fort du Quesne. On the third day of their march, the 15th of September, 1758, they were within a quarter of a mile from the fort. From here Major Grant sent out a detachment to attack all the Indians and others found outside of the fort ; they saw none nor were they seen by any body of the enemies, but in returning they foolishly announced their presence by setting fire to a large store-house, upon which they had stumbled. This, very naturally, aroused the French, who immediately made a sally and drove the enemy off. French accounts claim that the English speedily took to their heels and were pursued for two hours, losing between 600 and 700 men. Major Grant, four other officers and about 100 men were taken prisoners. From English reports we know
* See Second Journal of C. F. Post, London, 1759.
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In Colonial Days.
only, that Major Grant was captured and the whole expedition frustrated .*
But the days during which the French could main- tain themselves at Fort du Quesne were numbered. The capture of Fort Frontenac and of the fleet on Lake Ontario made it impossible to increase the gar- rison of the fort or to supply it with provisions. Even the small victory gained in September became a source of increased weakness, for the Indians, hith- erto acting under French orders, who had helped to repulse Major Grant's command, immediately on re- turning from their pursuit, quitted Fort du Quesne to seek their villages. De Ligneris and his officers found it impossible to retain them.
This defection of near 600 Indian warriors reduced the number of troops garrisoning du Quesne, to barely 1,000, commanded by Marchand de Lignery, an offi- cer of considerable military experience, gained during more than twenty years' service in America.+ Vau- dreuil and Montcalm were not in position to send suc- cor to the threatened post, the occupants of which had learned by intuition, that Forbes intended to capture it, even if it took the whole of the ensuing winter to do it. Illness kept this General more abed, than he prob- ably liked. He complained that he had to spend, his time " between business and medicine," but his stub- born Scotch head knew not such words as " give up."
* N. Y. Col. Hist., X, 884, 888, 902.
+ He made the campaign against the Fox Indians (1732), against the Chica- saws at Fort l'Assomption. Tenn. (1739), against the Mohawks with Chev. de la Corne (1747).
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"I have the Pleasure and Honour," he writes to Governor Denny, of Pennsylvania, from " Fort du Quesne or now Pittsburg," on Novbr 26, 1758, "of Acquainting you with the Signal Success of his Majesty's Troops over all his Enemys on the Ohio, by having obliged them to Burn and abandon their Fort du Quesne, which they effectuated on the 24th Instant, And of which I took Possession with my little Army the next Day."*
Captain de Ligneris having destroyed all he could, according to orders received for such an emergency, retired to Fort Machault.+ He was to remain here for various purposes, first to support the Indians who had remained faithful to the French interest, and then to annoy the English and force them to a diver- sion. The Marquis de Vaudreuil argued that the enemy would find it extremely difficult to make a movement towards Lake Erie because of the consid- erable preparations and obstacles attending efforts to provision a large force in a country "where the ground is capable of being defended inch by inch."} He had ordered the commanders at the Illinois and at Detroit to send to Presqu'ile all the men they could spare, and did not relinquish the hope of once more having the Fleur de Lys replace the Cross of St. George over Fort du Quesne. It appeared to him an easy matter, if he or his subordinates, only could
* Pennsylvania Archives, VIII, 232.
+ At the mouth of French Creek, Pennsylvania.
# N. Y. Col. Hist., X, 952.
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In Colonial Days.
induce the Indians of that section to take up the hatchet against the English.
But the Indians had discovered, that the French treasury had become so thoroughly depleted, that the officers of this nation could no longer compete in quantity and quality of presents with the English, hence the reports from Canada in April, 1759, had to say, that the Indian nations on the Beautiful River had undoubtedly made their peace with the English since the loss of Fort du Quesne. For the security of their reconquered possession troops poured into the disputed territory to reinforce the post of Fort Pitt and assist in establishing and garrisoning the new fortifications considered necessary. The first of these new posts on the Attique river,* built be- fore the preceding winter had set in, had already served the English at a somewhat critical moment. Captain Aubry, commanding some Louisiana troops, sent to help their brethren on the Ohio, had fallen upon a detachment of British soldiers, killed and cap- tured about 150 of them, and sent the rest to take refuge in this fort in November, 1758.+ Other strongholds were built by the English, " one above the village of the Shawanoes, ¿ another at the river aux Cannes,§ whence they proposed to proceed to the
* Loyalhannon, later Fort Ligonier, Westmoreland Co., Penn.
+N. Y. Col. Doc .; X, 901.
A map in the " American Gazetteer, London, 1762, has " Shawnoah or Lower Shawnoes (at the mouth of Elk creek), an English factory 400 miles from the Forks (of the Mississippi) by water." Another English factory is marked near " White Woman's creek, a tributary of the Muskingum."
§ Perhaps Cane Creek, Lincoln Co., Tenn.
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Illinois, and a third, which they called Fort Loudon, on the river of the Cherakis, whereby they are en- abled to keep in check the nations toward Louisiana. Half the Flathead nation is entirely on their side and the other half wavers. The Cherokees have allowed themselves to be gained by the presents of the English ; so that above and below the Beautiful River we need not flatter ourselves with finding any allies among the Indians."*
The result was that M. de Lignery was compelled to abandon Fort Machault in July, 1759, and the Ohio Valley saw no more French troops marching to meet or to evade an English foe.
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