USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve and early Ohio > Part 3
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This is the first known military expedition to have passed through the "Ohio Country" as it was then called.
GEN. AMHERST'S EXPEDITION
This expedition was under the command of Maj. Wilkins and consisted of 600 British regulars. It
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started from Albany, New York, in 1763 for the pur- pose of re-stocking and re-inforcing the frontier forts.
From Buffalo they came in boats, but when a few miles west of Rocky River were struck by a violent lake storm and driven on the rocky shores and wrecked, losing 73 men, three officers, 50 barrels of provisions, all their ammunition and a number of cannon. The re- mainder returned to Buffalo by the Northern Indian Trail.
COL. BRADSTREET'S EXPEDITION
This force, consisting of 1200 men, 300 boats, supplies and ammunition, came up Lake Erie and reached Sandusky in safety. Pontiac with a strong force of Indians had for several months been besieging Detroit, but this expedition reached there safely and relieved the garrison. Gen. Israel Putnam, the Revo- lutionary hero, was a member of the force.
On their return they were struck by a severe storm and on attempting to enter the mouth of Rocky River were dashed upon the shore and completely wrecked. They lost all their boats, supplies, guns, can- non and baggage. The loss in lives was heavy. Out of 1200 men, but a few hundred ever reached Buffalo. Those who succeeded in saving their lives passed a wretched night on the shore and the next morning took up their march to the eastward along the Northern Indian Trail. Some boats were saved, and those pro- ceeded on their watery way.
For a century after, guns, swords and pistols were found here. Here, too, was a great mound of human remains and many trenches. Many gold and silver
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coins, silver spoons, bayonets, surgon's instruments, etc., were found, but the treasure chest and six brass cannon have never been discovered.
COL. BOQUET'S EXPEDITION
On Sept. 17, 1764, Col. Boquet with 1500 men left Fort Pitt for the "Ohio Country." He reached the Tuscarawas, then called the Upper or Little Muskin- gum, Oct. 13, 1764. This little army crossed the Ohio at Beaver, Pennsylvania, afterwards Fort McIntosh, and cut a wide roadway through the forest to their des- tination. The first ever cut in Ohio.
Their journal says: Oct. 8, "The army crossed Lit- tle Beaver Creek, one of its branches." This enters the Ohio on the state line. Their journal further states : Oct. 13, "Came to the main branch of the Muskingum (Tuscarawas) 70 yards wide with a good ford." A river at that time, now but a mere brook.
They proceeded at once to erect a temporary fort. Oct. 17th they received a delegation of some 50 chiefs and warriors and demanded of them the return of all the white prisoners in their hands. On Oct. 20th he again received the chiefs of the "Ohio Country" and reiterated his demands and plainly stated that he would not leave their country until every white prisoner in their hands was delivered to him. They agreed with him that they would meet him in twelve days at the junction of the Tuscarawas and White Woman's River (now the Walhondling).
Consequently, Col. Boquet moved his army down the Tuscarawas to the "Forks of the Muskingum," now Coshocton, where he arrived Oct. 25. The time had
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been short for the Indians to collect their captives, so a general meeting was arranged for Nov. 9, when some 260 captives were delivered, and pledges made that 100 more would be delivered at Fort Pitt in the coming spring, the Indians giving him hostages for the per- formance of their contract.
Human language is too poor to portray the scenes enacted here. Here were husbands clasping their long lost wives, fathers and mothers gathering lost children to their hearts, brothers and sisters meeting for the first time in years. There was joy and rapture, tears and weeping, with many flying around as if demented. Not all had come back; some had died at the torture stake, some had met horrible fates, some young girls had taken Indian mates.
Col. Boquet's expedition had been the most suc- cessful of its kind in the United States, and for this he was made a Major General. On the 18th of November, 1764, he broke camp and after ten days march arrived at Fort Pitt without losing a man, and with 206 white Indian prisoners of whom there were 125 females and children and 81 males. Of these there were 67 women with children from Pennsylvania and 58 women with children from Virginia, 49 males from Pennsylvania and 32 from Virginia.
This expedition was unique, it never had its pro- totype in American History.
COL. MACDONALD'S EXPEDITION
In 1774, Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, and the man who afterwards burnt Norfolk, Virginia, escaping by an English vessel in the Hampton
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Roads, to his royal master King George the III of England, commissioned Col. Angus MacDonald to raise a force of men and proceed against the Ohio Indians.
This force 400 strong rendezvoused at Wheeling, and proceeded down the Ohio to the Indian village near the mouth of the Wakatomika Creek. Six miles above they met the Indians in force and defeated them, losing two men killed and nine wounded. The two Indian villages, a mile apart, were burned and their corn fields destroyed. This battle was near the present town of Dresden.
Taking with them three Indian Chiefs as hostage the expedition returned to Wheeling, no permanent relief from Indian forray having been accomplished.
LORD DUNMORE'S WAR
All summer and fall sounded the preparation for war in Virginia against the Ohio Indians.
Among the noted names in this army we find those of Generals Isaac Shelby, Andrew Lewis, Geo. Rogers Clarke, John Gibson, Simon Kenton, Daniel Morgan, Col. James Wood, Col. Chas. Lewis and the notorious Capt. Michael Cresap.
The right wing of the army reached the Ohio by the way of "Potomac Gap" about October 1st and went down the Ohio to the Hock-Hocking River, and there built Fort Gower. This army was under the treach- erous and traitorous command of Lord Dunmore who was soon to be proven not only a traitor but a coward.
The left wing of the army was under the com- mand of General Andrew Lewis. They reached the mouth of the Kanawha River about the first of the
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month where he went into camp. In the meantime he received notice from Lord Dunmore that he was not to form a junction with the right wing at the place agreed upon.
Lord Dunmore waited at Fort Gower until he heard the guns of Lewis and was told by scouts that his left was entirely surrounded and that a massacre was imminent, when instead of sending re-inforcements he ordered his whole command to re-embark and they fled up the Hock-Hocking across the present counties of Athens, Hocking, Fairfield and Pickaway and en- camped on Sappo Creek, a tributary to the Scioto. Here he intrenched himself and named his new loca- tion "Camp Charlotte".
On Oct. 8th Gen. Lewis had completed arrange- ments to march on the morrow to form a junction with the right wing.
During the night Cornstalk surrounded the camp with a thousand warriors and with the first break of day the solitary crack of a rifle broke the stillness of peace and set the camp in commotion. The forces were equal, and all day long raged the great battle. It has been characterized as "one of the most sanguinary and best fought battles in the annals of Indian war- fare in the west".
During the battle Cornstalk moved among his men crying "Be strong ! Be strong !" During the night he withdrew his men, and in the morning General Lewis received a reinforcement of 300 borderers. The losses on the side of Lewis was 75 officers and men killed and 140 wounded.
On the 11th he began his march to the Indian
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towns of the Scioto. An 80 mile march brought him to within four miles of Camp Charlotte, when he camped on Congo Creek and called it Camp Lewis.
Lord Dunmore affected a treaty here with the chiefs on the Scioto but it was never regarded by either side. The 39 years war had begun, and the forest land was to run red with blood.
After leaving a small force of men at the mouth of Kanawha, another at Fort Fincastle, afterwards called Fort Henry, now Wheeling, also a few at the "Forks of the Ohio" afterwards called Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, he withdrew his forces to Virginia and soon committed the dastardly crime against the common- wealth of which he was governor and fled for safety to England.
GEN. LACHIN McINTOSH'S,EXPEDITION
Gen. McIntosh, commander in chief of the Western Military Department, started out in 1778 with an army of 1000 men, object, Detroit. When he arrived at the Tuscarawas River, near Bolivar, he got cold feet and decided to stop and build a fort and then return to Fort Pitt, the place from which he started. This fort he named Fort Laurens.
It was the first parapeted and stockaded fort built in the state of Ohio. It was built in the shape of a five-pointed star and the Ohio Canal today runs over its site. After provisioning it he left a garrison of 150 men under the command of Col. John Gibson, afterwards Gen. Gibson, the friend of Logan, whose cousin he adopted.
Gen. McIntosh returned to Fort Pitt and disaster
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soon followed. They were unable to do any scouting, their horses were stolen, for Capt. Pipe with 800 war- riors soon invested the place. They could not cut or haul any wood, for on two attempts they were am- bushed and shot down. The first time they lost 14 men, the second time 11 men. Provisions grew short but a supply train was expected soon; it came, and the besieged were so elated that they fired a general salute which so frightened the animals they ran away and scattered the supplies all over Northern Ohio, the most of which was a total loss.
So disastrous had been the affairs at this lonely, outlying outpost that it was abandoned in 1779. It was the only frontier fort in Ohio; from the lake on the north, to the river on the south; from Pennsyl- vania on the east, to the Pacific Ocean on the west.
Named after the President of the then Continental Congress, it did not stand as rock, as he did for human liberty.
COL. JOHN BOWMAN'S EXPEDITION
In July 1779, Col. Bowman with 160 border Ken- tuckians marched against the Shawnee Indian towns on the Little Miami River, within the present limit of Greene County.
The troops divided, a portion being under the command of Col. Benjamin Logan. Two nights from the present site of Cincinnati they struck and de- stroyed one of the towns, Chief Blackfish was badly wounded and nine of Col. Bowman's men were killed. but they captured 160 horses and began a running retreat towards the Ohio. All that day the Indians
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fought them, pursuing them to the Ohio, where they crossed that river at the mouth of the Little Miami, and dispersed to their homes in the blue grass.
COL. GEORGE RODGERS CLARK'S EXPEDITION
In the summer of 1780, the "Long Knives of Ken- tucky" under the command of Col. Rogers Clarke, or- ganized an army 1000 strong to chastise the Indians on the Mad and Little Miami Rivers.
This army crossed the river at the mouth of the Licking (Cincinnati) and stopping long enough to erect two block-houses, pushed on, and on August 6 arrived at the Indian town on the banks of the Little Miami, called Old Chillicothe, which they found in ashes; the Indians having destroyed it in anticipation of the coming of the "Long Knives". After cutting down all the growing corn Rogers proceeded to the celebrated Indian town of Piqua, the birthplace and home of that great chieftain, Tecumseh, the terror of the west. This town was on Mad river, but five miles west of the present city of Springfield. Here they were ambucaded by the Indians hiding in the long grass of the lowlands. A terrible battle followed. Rogers' loss was twenty men killed and many wounded. The Indians fled and their town of Piqua was burned to the ground, all the growing crops destroyed including 500 acres of corn. This was a terrible blow to the Indians, many of whom nearly starved during the en- suing winter.
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Among those opposing Rogers was Simon Girty, the renegrade, from the Cuyahoga Valley. Girty com- manded several hundred Mingoes.
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Rogers' army returned to the block-houses on the site of Cincinnati and there disbanded, the Kentucky borderers returning to their homes well satisfied with the lesson they had given the Ohio Indians.
GEN. DANL. BROADHEAD'S EXPEDITION
For cold blooded brutality this expedition out- nerved even the bloody Indian. It is one of the blots on Ohio's fair fame. It was composed of Pennsylvania Indian hunters, flat boatmen and hangers-on of the river settlements. It was an organized force of some 300 men under the command of Gen. Daniel Broad- head, which left Wheeling in April of 1781, and marched on to the "Forks of the Muskingum", (Co- shocton).
It surrounded the Indian town at that place, burned it, capturing its inhabitants. With Gen. Broad- head was Lewis Wetzel, a noted chief, a hostage and a prisoner. He was contrary to all rules of warfare, brutally murdered and scalped by these men who claimed to be civilized.
Not satisfied with this, they selected sixteen of the most promising warriors of the village and with spears and tomahawks murdered them in cold blood, and afterwards scalped them. All manner of brutal outrages were practiced against these people, not only here, but on their way home. Several other small vil- lages were also captured and the usual outrages fol- lowed.
The men crazed with blood and success were bound to march up the Tuscarawas and murder the peaceful Moravians in their quiet villages on that stream where
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they followed agriculture only-loving God, and prac- ticing the precepts of early Christians.
Only the second in command, Col. Shepard, pre- vented this. He stood like a stone wall for the right, and he prevailed, all honor to his name.
COL. ARCHIBALD LOCHRY'S EXPEDITION
This unfortunate expedition probably owed its misfortunes mostly to Capt. Pipe.
Gen. Geo. Rogers Clarke had requested Col. Lochry to join him with Pennsylvania volunteers at the "falls of the Ohio" for a second invasion of the "Ohio Coun- try". With 106 men he arrived at Fort Henry (Wheel- ing) July 25, 1781. Here he swung down the river to a few miles below the Big Miami, where they concluded to make camp. Hardly had they landed when from a high bluff came a sharp volley of musketry. These men taken by surprise, and with no weapons in their hands, paid the price of carelessness in war. The ground was soon covered with dead and dying men. Col. Lochry fell dead and with him 41 of his men; the remainder, many of whom were wounded, were sur- rounded and made prisoners. But this did not stop the carnage, some of the living prisoners were killed and scalped to satisfy the blood lust of the savages. The remainder of the men who were not killed and scalped were rushed to Indian fastnesses and none lived to re- turn to their homes until after the peace of 1783.
This massacre which occured August 25, 1781, was in retaliation of Gen. Broadhead's unheard of outrages on the Muskingum in April, some four months previous.
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COL. WILLIAMSON'S EXPEDITION
A murdered woman and her infant was the cause of this expedition.
An Indian raid on the border settlements of Penn- sylvania had resulted in the capture and the carrying off by the savages of John Carpenter and a Mrs. Wal- lace and her three children. Later the woman and her infant were found dead on the trail. This happened in February and early in March 1782, Col. Williamson had organized a band of 100 men. Leaving Stuben- ville they came direct to the Moravian towns on the Tuscarawas. The previous fall this peaceful people had been removed from their homes to the Sandusky Plains by the British authorities on the alleged reason THAT THEY WERE FRIENDLY TO AMERICANS.
They had returned to their former homes for the purpose of gathering their corn which they had been compelled by their British masters to leave behind. Williamson found these Christian Indians busily at work in their cornfields. Telling the Indians that they had come to take them to Fort Pitt where they would be well cared for they induced them to enter two houses the males in one, and the women and children in an- other.
Williamson put it to a vote as to whether they should take them to Fort Pitt or kill them. All but 18 out of 100 voted TO KILL THEM. In these houses all night long rang the hymns, prayers and supplications of these Christian Indians crying to God their helper.
In the morning these white men entered the cabins and by mallet, gun, spear and knife killed all, men, women and children, to the number of 96. One man
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with a mallet killed 14, and then handed it to another saying: "Go on the same way ; my arm aches".
These men, women and children were murdered in cold blood. It is the foulest blot on Ohio's fair his- tory and as long as the state stands the name of Gnadenhutten will be remembered.
COL. WILLIAM CRAWFORD'S EXPEDITION
Col. Crawford was a great man in his day. He was the companion and intimate friend of Washing- ton, they were both surveyors, both born in the same state, both officers in Braddock's and Forbe's army. He was a captain in Lord Dunmore's War. He also participated in the erection of Fort McIntosh and Fort Laurens, and himself built Fort Crawford, sixteen miles below Pittsburg. He raised a regiment during the Revolutionary war and as its colonel he was with Washington on Long Island, at Trenton and Princeton, was Washington's Land Agent on the Ohio, and was frequently visited by him in his humble log cabin home.
By a majority of five votes he was elected over Col. Williamson as the commander of the expedition which bears his name. Most all of Williamson's men re-enlisted and he was chosen second in command.
The expedition rendezvoused at Mingo Bottom, three miles below Steubenbenville, on May 25, 1782, and followed "Williamson's Trail" to Gnadenhutten, from thence direct to the Sandusky Plains. From the time they left Mingo Bottom the eyes of Capt. Pipe's scouts never left them until they reached the Tuscara- was River towns. From here the swiftest runners
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brought the news to Pipe and he was ready for them, for he who had always hated the Moravians "because they would not fight," had now constituted himself as their avenger. Three months had scarcely elapsed since the terrible, unheard of murder of Christian Indians by these same men in the three Tuscarawas River towns.
The Sandusky Plains reached, they could find no Indians. They encamped for the night and comenced their march the next morning and until two o'clock in the afternoon, when the advance guard was attacked and driven in.
This was on June 7 and the battle of Sandusky was on. The plains were covered with a coarse, high grass in which the Indians were hidden. Two pieces of woods were fought over but remained in possession of the whites. The battle continued until darkness had fallen when both armies kindled large fires along their front and slept on their arms.
The next morning the battle was not renewed, and Crawford and his officers concluded to retreat during the hours of coming darkness. Just before sunset the Indians renewed the battle with great fury on the south, east and west sides. Crawford formed his com- mand to the north about a mile, then swinging around in a circle, regained their old trail. They continued their retreat all the next day, being annoyed by distant sniping of the red men. About 300 men were with the main body. About 180 had broken up into small parties thinking it a better chance to escape; the majority of whom were killed or captured.
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Col. Crawford, missing his son, son-in-law and two nephews, waited and watched for them until the main body had gone by. Unable to catch up with them, he fell in company with Dr. Knight and two others. They traveled all night, first north and then east. On the next day they fell in with Capt. John Biggs, Lt. Ashley and two others. They encamped together that night. On the next day's march they were attacked. Biggs and Ashley were killed, Crawford and Knight were taken prisoners and the other four escaped.
Preparations for torture were immediately begun. Pipe painted Crawford black and led him to the stake. Crawford offered Pipe untold wealth to release him, but Pipe would not forego his vengeance. The wealth of the Indies would not tempt him, the Moravians must be avenged. Crawford's son and son-in-law were also ex- ecuted. Crawford was burned by a slow fire at a Dela- ware village on Tyemochte Creek.
Williamson was the man Pipe was after, but Wil- liamson had resolved to save his own bacon. Early in the retreat he abandoned his command and with forty men pushed through the Indian line and escaped, leav- ing his comrades to imprisonment, death and the tor- ture stake.
Dr. Knight, condemned to the torture stake, was taken to an Indian town some forty miles distant, but escaped.
No command of so large a number had ever made such a futile and disastrous campaign in the Ohio Country.
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GEN. GEORGE RODGERS CLARK'S SECOND EXPEDITION
Soon after the battle of Blue Licks in Kentucky the borderers became desperate on account of the many successful incursions of the Ohio Indians and the sound of gathering troops once more resounded throughout the land.
In the fall of 1782, Gen. Clark with 1,000 gallant Kentuckians again crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Licking (Cincinnati) and marched to near the head waters of the Miami River and there destroyed some Shawanese towns and fields within Miami County. One division of this army was under Col. Logan and the other was under Col. Floyd.
They then marched on and destroyed "Loramie's Store" on the mouth of Loramie Creek, within the pres- ent Shelby County.
Ten Indians were killed and a large numbers of prisoners taken. They then returned to the mouth of the Licking and disbanded.
COL. LOGAN'S EXPEDITION
In 1786 Col. Benjamin Logan with 400 men, cross- ed the Ohio River at Limestone, and made one of the most successful expeditions ever made in the Ohio Country.
These were the "Long Knives" of Kentucky and were as hostile as Crawford's men, but had not former crimes against humanity to answer for, hence their suc- cess instead of failure.
The expedition was aimed against the Indian Mach-a-cheek towns on the Mad River.
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The result of this campaign was the destruction of eight Indian towns within the limits of Logan County. All their corn fields were also destroyed. One prom- inent chief and 20 warriors were killed and 75 taken prisoners.
Col. Dan. Boone, Gen. Simon Kenton and Col. Trot- ter were officers in this expedition.
COL. EDWARD'S EXPEDITION
This expedition in 1787, to the Big Miami River, was barren in its results, and requires no mention. Col. Edwards' second expedition to Upper Sandusky was more fruitful of results. This was, however, in 1812 and after Ohio had become a state.
COL. TODD'S EXPEDITION
Col. Todd's expedition to the Scioto Valley, in 1788, before the organization of the North-western Territory, was also barren of results and requires only a mere mention as part of our history.
THE WESTERN RESERVE
"Blest land of the free! Thrice hallowed by song, Where the holiest of memories Pilgrim-like throng; In the shade of the forests, By the shores of thy lakes,
On the hills of thy beauty, Made holy and great By footsteps of angels- The Angels of God."
"The Western Reserve" is situated in the north- east quarter of the State, bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the east by Pennsylvania, on the south by the parallel of the forty-first degree of north latitude, and on the west by the counties of Sandusky and Seneca. Its length east and west is one hundred and twenty miles, by an average width of fifty miles from north to south ; comprising an area of three million, eight hun- dred thousand acres. It is surveyed into townships of five miles square.
A half million acres was stricken off the west part. Out of and comprising this tract, were formed the coun- ties of Erie and Huron. This tract so stricken off was called "The Fire Lands of Connecticut." This was do- nated by the State of Connecticut, to certain sufferers by fire during the Revolutionary War. These sufferers by fire were the inhabitants of New London, Connecti- cut, in consequence of the fact that Benedict Arnold, the arch traitor, entered their harbor and burned the city.
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