USA > Ohio > The history of Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 6
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Hardly had the growing harvest quieted their apprehensions of perishing from hunger, when
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INDIAN OUTRAGES.
1790.]
the colonists were subjected to a new alarm. During the summer frequent attacks had been made by bands of savages upon boats going down the Ohio; and, in many cases, their occupants, mostly emigrants to Kentucky, were butchered with horrible barbarities. As the scene of these attacks was generally far below Marietta, they produced no great apprehension among the people there. But the murder of two German boys, at Neill's Station, on the Virginia shore, nearly opposite to Belpré, aroused them to a sense of their own danger. To add to the fears thus excited, St. Clair, who had been as far west as Kaskaskia, returned suddenly to Cincinnati with the intelligence, received through the mes- senger whom he had despatched the previous year to sound the intentions of the north-western savages, that they were determined upon an or- ganized and effective war. Kentucky was already clamorous for the marching of an army against the Indian towns. Finding such a course un- avoidable, St. Clair concerted with Harmar the plan of a campaign, and called upon Pennsyl- vania and Virginia for fifteen hundred militia.
By the 30th of September, three hundred and twenty regulars, and two quotas of Pennsylvania and Kentucky militia, in all about fourteen hundred men, were assembled at Cincinnati. On that day the expedition, under the command of Harmar, began its march. The destined point
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
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of attack was the Indian towns on the Maumee River.
Encumbered with baggage, and compelled to cut a road through the old war-path they were following, the army moved slowly; and it was not until the 17th of October that they reached the Miami villages upon the Maumee, finding
nothing but the deserted wigwams. Burning these, and destroying a large quantity of corn, Harmar encamped upon the ground, where he remained a week, uncertain how to act, or unable to carry out his concerted plans.
Meanwhile, the forest around him swarmed with numerous but invisible enemies. Discover- ing signs of these, Colonel Hardin, with one hundred and fifty of his Kentucky militia, and thirty regulars under the command of Captain Armstrong, was sent out to scour the woods in search.
A few miles from camp, the smoke of Indian fires was discovered. Not supposing the enemy in any force, Hardin unwarily pushed forward, until a sharp volley, bursting suddenly from the tall grass and matted bushes, made it evident that he had fallen into an ambuscade. All the militia, with the exception of nine, immediately fled, bearing their mortified leader along with them. Such as remained, joined with the regu- lars, who obstinately held their ground until but seven were left alive. Armstrong, their com-
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DEFEAT OF HARDIN.
1790.]
mander, escaped by throwing himself into a thicket, where he lay hid until night, the enemy constantly passing and repassing his place of concealment. Favoured by the darkness, he suc- ceeded in reaching the camp.
Apparently satisfied with the damage he had already done, though not with the result of this skirmish, Harmar, two days afterward, ordered a homeward march. That night, when about ten miles distant from the late camp, Hardin, wishing to retrieve his previous disaster, persuaded the commander-in-chief to place some three hundred militia, with sixty regulars led by Major Willis, at his disposal. With this force he marched back toward the ruined villages, which he had reason to believe were again occupied by the Indians. Soon after sunrise the following morning, a small party of the enemy discovered themselves. At the first fire they fled in apparent consternation, pursued by the militia. Upon the regular troops, thus left alone, a murderous discharge now broke from the main body of the Indians, who had thus drawn them into a cleverly-planned ambus- cade. Firmly and courageously, though deserted by a greater part of the militia, they maintained their ground, struggling fiercely with their exas- perated and vindictive foes. HIemmed in by a force far outnumbering themselves, they fought until scarcely one was left to raise a musket. Of the whole detachment but ten escaped; the
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HISTORY OF OHIO. [1790.
rest, with their gallant major, had fallen where the fight begun. Of the militia, many of whom returned and took part in the battle, too late, however, to do else than delay for a little while the inevitable and disastrous defeat, ninety-cight were killed and ten wounded.
Hardin fell back upon the main army, which, on the following morning, took up its line of march for Fort Washington, leisurely, and in perfect order.
Notwithstanding these sanguinary repulses, HIarmar, having destroyed the Indian towns, laid claim to victory, which neither the people of the West nor the savages seemed willing to allow. So keen, indeed, were the strictures of the former, that both he and Hardin demanded a court-martial, which resulted in their acquit- tal. To the Indians their successes gave new courage, which soon evinced itself in furious on- slaughts upon the whole line of the Kentucky and Ohio frontier. Now it was that for the first time since their settlement, the Muskingum colo- nists were to experience the full horrors of border warfare.
In the course of the year a new settlement had been made at Big Bottom, a remarkably fine tract of lowland, lying along the Muskin- gum, some thirty miles from its mouth. The settlers, thirty-six in number, were mostly young men, raw to border life. Unsuspicious of danger,
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1791.]
MASSACRE AT BIG BOTTOM.
they had left their block-house unfinished. With- out any regular system of defence, keeping no watch, and even allowing their dogs to sleep in the block-house, they discovered a lamentable want of forethought, for which they were to suffer terribly.
About dusk on the evening of the 2d of Janu- ary, 1791, while all were either cating or cook- ing their suppers, a war party of Indians, who during the whole afternoon had been watching the settlers from the high grounds on the oppo- site shore, crossing over the river on the ice, and forming into two divisions, crept noiselessly upon their unsuspecting victims. While one party surprised and took prisoners the four occupants of a little cabin, a short distance up the river, the other, headed by a warrior of remarkable size and strength, without alarming the inmates, had surrounded the block-house. Throwing open the door, their leader placed his back against it, while the rest shot down the white men around the fire. So sudden was the attack that scarce a show of resistance was made by the affrighted settlers. Before they had time to snatch up their guns, the work of slaughter was nearly over. But as the Indians rushed in to complete with the tomahawk what their rifles left unfinish- ed, Mrs. Meeks, a stout resolute woman, scizing an axe, dealt a fierce blow at the foremost war- rior, inflicting a fearful gash in his check, that
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severed nearly half the face. Before she could a second time raise the axe, a tomahawk in the hands of another savage had cleft the unfortu- nate woman's skull. One young man, while the savages were slaughtering his comrades, clamber. ed upon the roof the block-house, vainly hoping to escape. Discovered by those without, he ago- nizingly entreated them to spare his life, but his appeal was cut short with a rifle-ball. He was the last to suffer. His brother, a lad of sixteen, was found secreted among the bedding. Throw- ing himself at the feet of one of the warriors, he implored his protection. The chief, com- passionating his youth, interposed between him and a dozen uplifted tomahawks, and succeeded in saving his life.
Piling the bodies of the slain, twelve in num- ber, in a heap, the Indians covered them with boards torn up from the floor of the block-house. Then, kindling a fire, which, however, did not long burn, they departed, with the intention of surprising some of the lower settlements.
But the appeals of the young man shot upon the roof of the block-house had not been altogether vainly uttered. A short distance lower down the river was a small cabin, occupied by two brothers of the name of Ballard. Alarmed by the crack of the Indian rifles, they rushed out of their cabin, and hastened toward the block-house, where they would inevitably have shared the fate
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WAR DECLARED.
1791.]
of their unfortunate comrades. Hearing the cries of the young man, and at once conjecturing the true state of affairs, they ran back to the cabin, snatched up their rifles, and hastened through the woods down the river, giving cvery- where the alarm.
Great was the consternation occasioned, and many a heart beat anxiously during that night, in the little block-houses which the intelligence of the Ballards speedily filled. About dawn of the next day the Indians made their appearance at Millsborough, the first settlement below the scene of the late massacre. Finding the people prepared to receive them, they hastily retreated to the north, carrying with them four prisoners, the scalps of the murdered settlers, and consider- able plunder. Before departing, they hung up a war-club in a conspicuous place, to show that they had acted, not as a marauding band, but as the forerunners of a formal and declared war.
On the 4th of January, a party from Water- ford ventured to visit the ruined settlement. The remains of the unfortunate associates, blackened and disfigured by the action of the fire with which it had been attempted to destroy them, were mournfully gathered together and buried in one grave beneath the roof of the block-house.
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HISTORY OF OHIO. -
[1791.
CHAPTER VIII.
Disastrous consequences of Harmar's campaign-Belpré and Waterford fortified-The rangers-General Putnam re- quests additional military support from the government - Military preparations at Waterford-An Indian stratagem -Independent conduct of the people of Kentucky-Gene- ral Scott's expedition against the Indian towns on the Wa- bash-Colonel Wilkinson's expedition against the Eel River Indians-Design of the campaign under General St. Clair-St. Clair's army commences its march-Desertion of the Kentucky volunteers-St. Clair's defeat-Courageous conduct of St. Clair during the battle-His honourable ac- quittal from the charges preferred against him -- The ap- pearance of St. Clair's battle field after the defeat.
THE disastrous consequences of Harmar's campaign were now to be felt. Elated by their successive victories over Hardin, and exasperat- ed by the destruction of their towns, the In- dians, during the winter of 1791, resolved to exterminate every white inhabitant north of the Ohio River. The bold avowal of this determi- nation caused all the straggling settlers to aban- don their plantations and seek refuge behind the defences of Marietta, Belpré, and Waterford. At the two places last mentioned, extensive and well-planned military stations were constructed in this emergency, and all the able-bodied men subjected themselves voluntarily to a strict rou-
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APPLICATION FOR TROOPS.
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tine of military duty. Spies or rangers, gene- rally three for each station, were employed to traverse the woods daily, for a distance of eight or t les around the garrison. These men were selected for their known courage and hardi- hood-for their knowledge of woodcraft, and for their thorough acquaintance with all the tricks and lures which usually form the strategy of Indian warfare. Adopting in their perambu- lations the costume of their foe, the rangers kept careful watch and ward over the garrisons, whose safety from surprise was entrusted to their care, and rendered valuable and important service during the whole period of the war.
A few days after the massacre at Big Bottom, General Putnam wrote to General Washington, President of the United States, stating the danger to which the settlements north of the Ohio were exposed, and asking for the support of government troops. Knox, the Secretary of War, was also appealed to at the same time. The language used by General Putnam on this occasion, though perfectly respectful, was bold and earnest.
"I hope," said he, " government will not be long in deciding what part to take, for if we are not protected the sooner we know it the better ; better that we withdraw at once, than remain to be destroyed piecemeal by the savages ; and bet- ter that governnient disband their troops now in
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
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the country, and give it up altogether, than be wasting the public money in supporting a few troops totally inadequate to the purpose of giv- ing peace to the territory."
The condition of the settlers, both north and south of the Ohio River, was indeed an alarming one. The little stockade at Waterford was hardly completed before it was invested by a large party of Indians. Fortunately the garri- son, having timely warning of their approach, succeeded in finishing the outworks, and hanging the great gates, and by spies without, and senti- nels within, kept up a vigilant watch. Two days having passed without the enemy making their appearance, it was thought probable that they had retired with their plunder, or, suddenly changing their arrangements, had precipitated themselves upon a station less defensible. These surmises were however erroneous; for, on the third morning, a young man, who had impru- dently ventured beyond rifle shot from the fort, fell into an ambush, and was dangerously wound- ed. Though greatly disabled, he outran his pur- suers, until within a few yards of the gates, when he sank exhausted behind the stump of a large tree. In this exposed situation any at- tempt to relieve the suffering fugitive was re- garded by the more prudent part of the garrison as an act of unjustifiable rashness. His brothers, however, heroically resolved to make an effort in
1791.]
INDIAN STRATAGEM.
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his behalf, and by a sudden dash fortunately succeeded in bearing him through a shower of bullets in safety to the fort.
In the midst of the confusion occasioned by this incident, Mccullough, one of the rangers, observed on the outskirts of the forest a number of men, habited in garments similar to those usually worn by the frontier settlers, and suppos- ing them to be a party of whites in distress, hastened from the fort to their relief. It proved to be a stratagem of the Indians, who had dressed some of their number in the well-known caps and hunting shirts of their victims, hoping by this means to decoy the garrison from their defences. A quick-sighted watcher among the latter de- tecting the snare, warned McCullough of his peril in time to enable him to avoid the bullet of an Indian who was in the act of firing at him from behind a tree. Retreating hastily, by a series of diagonal movements he was enabled to clude the balls which whistled about him, and to gain the fort unharmed.
Foiled in their subsequent attempts to reduce the garrison, the mortified savages, after killing all the cattle in the woodland pastures, gathered in a body on the edge of the plain, and shouting loudly to attract the attention of the besieged, gesticulated their contempt and defiance. shot from an old ducking piece in the hands of Judge Devoll, scattered the exasperated war-
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HISTORY OF OHIO. [1791.
riors, the whole of whom disappeared soon after. Dividing into small parties, they lurked for some time in the vicinity of the lower settlements, where, in two instances, they succeeded in cut- ting off a number of the inhabitants.
Other war parties were, at the same time, committing depredations on the southern bank of the river, but the people of Kentucky, al- ready sufficiently numerous to justify their ad- mission into the Union as a separate state govern- ment, disdaining the assistance of regular troops, simply asked permission of Congress to fight the Indians in their own way. To this, however, the government would not consent, but created, instead, a local Board of War, which was invest- ed with power to enlist the militia of the state into the service of the United States, to co-ope- rate with the regular troops whenever necessary. The occasion speedily arrived ; and on the 9th of March, 1791, orders were given to Brigadier- General Charles Scott to muster a force of cight hundred mounted men, for an expedition against the Indian towns. This battalion was intended only as the forerunner of a powerful army, then organizing under General St. Clair.
Hoping still to avoid the necessity of war, Colonel Thomas Procter was despatched to the North-Western Indians with pacific proposals ; but his mission not meeting with that success which had been anticipated, on the 23d of May,
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1791.]
T. CLAIR S EXPEDITION.
Scott crossed the Ohio, and succeeded in effect- ing the destruction of the Indian settlements on the banks of the Wabash. His loss in killed and wounded was trifling.
A second detachment was now ordered against the Eel River Indians, under Colonel Wilkinson. The troops, after floundering up to their arm- pits in mud and water, among the marshes of the Wabash, failing to reach their destination, the expedition returned after a few desultory skir- mishes with the Indians, and the destruction of their cornfields.
The object of the expedition of St. Clair was the crection of a strong cordon of military forts across the wilderness, commencing at the head of the waters of the Maumee and ending at Fort Washington on the Ohio, in order to over- awe the Indians, and protect the frontier settle- ments against their sanguinary forays. On the 17th of September the troops under General St. Clair, two thousand strong, exclusive of militia, took up their line of march from Ludlow's Sta- tion, six miles distant from Cincinnati, and moved forward about twenty miles to a point on the east ban' " the Great Miami, where they built Fort Ham. .. n. After leaving a small garrison in the fort, St. Clair advanced forty- four miles farther ; and having constructed Fort Jefferson, on the 24th of October, the army commenced its toilsome march across the wilder-
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HISTORY OF OHIO. [1791.
ness. Encumbered by wagons and artillery, its progress was painfully slow, and the difficulties of the route were enhanced by the insubordinate conduct of the militia. One thousand volun- teers had been drafted from Kentucky, where St. Clair was extremely unpopular, and where, ever since the unfortunate defeat of General Braddock, a strong prejudice existed against the em- ployment of regular troops in Indian warfare. Disliking their commander, regarding the regu- lars with contempt, and anticipating nothing but defeat and disgrace, the militia from Ken- tucky sought every opportunity of escape, and on the 1st of November three hundred of them deserted and returned to their homes. The sup- plies for the army being still in the rear, St. Clair, fearing that the convoys of provisions would be plundered by the deserters, detached the first regiment of regulars, under Major Hamtranck, to rearward, to protect them, while with the remainder of his force, now reduced to little more than one thousand effective men, he continued his march in the direction of the In- dian towns.
Late in the evening of the 3d of November, after a fatiguing march, the army encamped on the banks of one of the branches of the Wabash. The enemy being reported in the neighbourhood in considerable force, St. Clair arranged with Major Ferguson, to commence next morning the
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DEFEAT OF ST. CLAIR.
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construction of some slight defences for the pro- tection of the baggage, intending to await the return of the first regiment, and the arrival of the supplies before advancing to the attack. The enemy, however, anticipated his plans. Taking advantage of the weakness of his force, by rea- son of the desertion of the militia and the ab- sence of Hamtranck's regiment, early on the morning of the 4th of November they attacked the outposts, and driving the militia, by which they were defended, across the river, pursued them closely into camp. The fugitives, en- countering Major Butler's battalion, threw it into disorder also, and although the advance of the Indians was temporarily checked by a well di- rected fire from the front line, consisting of Butler's, Clarke's, and Patterson's regiments, they soon rallied, and spreading themselves in great force along the right and left wings, pour- ed from their places of concealment a perfect storm of bullets on the bewildered troops, shoot- ing down the artillerymen at their guns, and ef- fectually preventing the pieces from being dis- charged. Finding his men falling on all sides. while no impression was made on the concealed foe, St. Clair ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Darke with a part of the second line to advance and turn the left flank of the enemy with the bayonet. By this movement a temporary relief was ob- tained; but owing to the want of riffemen to se-
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HISTORY OF ONIIO. [1791.
cure possession of the ground from which the In- dians were driven, the latter were enabled to rally and drive back the troops in their turn. Several desperate charges, similar in their cha- racter, were attempted, but they were attended with a like result, and in all of them the troops suffered severely. Major Butler fell, gallantly fighting at the head of the second regiment, every officer of which was killed but three, one of the latter being shot through the body. The artillery was either captured or rendered useless. while of the rank and file more than one-half had already fallen. Hemmed in on all sides, the weight of the Indian fire became gradually too oppressive to be borne, and the total destruc- tion of the survivors seemed almost inevitable ; the road, the only avenue of escape, being in possession of the enemy. In this emergency, St. Clair resolved on the desperate expedient of charging the right flank of the Indians, in order to draw them from the occupation of the road, and thereby open a way for the retreat of the troops. This manœuvre was successfully ac- complished, and the road being clear, the few militia in the field were the first to rush along it, closely followed by the surviving regulars, who abandoning their artillery and disencumbering thomaselves of their arms and accoutrements, bever paused in their headlong flight until they
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ST. CLAIR'S ACQUITTAL.
1791.]
reached Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles distant from the field of battle.
The defeat of General St. Clair subjected him to an infinite amount of popular odium and abuse. But there appears to have been no want of skill or courage on his part, either before or during the engagement. After a careful consideration of all the circumstances which led to this terri- ble defeat, a military tribunal pronounced him free from all blame. Washington, never once doubting the honour of St. Clair, remained his firm and steadfast friend. During the action, St. Clair was personally present in the thickest of the fight. Although so severely afflicted with the gout that he was unable to mount or dis- mount his horse without assistance, he and Gene- ral Butler rode up and down the lines encourag- ing the men, and giving such orders as they adjudged to be necessary. While thus engaged St. Clair had four horses killed under him in succession, and his clothing was repeatedly per- forated by the balls of the enemy. After his horses were killed, despite of his painful condition, he exerted himself on foot with a degree of alertness and energy surprising to all who witnessed it ; and when a retreat became indispensable, he headed the column which broke the ranks of the enemy and opened a way for the flight of the army along the road. He was the last to leave the field of battle, and after remaining on foot
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HISTORY OF OHIO. [1791.
until nearly exhausted, he was mounted on a pack-horse which it was impossible to prick out of a walk. This prevented him from pressing forward and rallying the fugitives ; and the panic was so great that he could not get his orders attended to by others.
Major Hamtranck's regiment, which had been detached to protect the advancing supplies, was met at Fort Jefferson by the fugitives. It was the opinion of St. Clair that had this increase of force been on the field of battle it would have been implicated in the defeat. On the whole, therefore, he regarded its absence as a fortunatc occurrence, inasmuch as a small effective army was still left to protect the frontier.
There was no supply of provisions at Fort Jefferson, and the convoy had not made its ap- pearance. General St. Clair, therefore, called a council of the surviving officers of the army to de- cide on the best course to be pursued. It was resolved to continue the retreat, and meet the convoy which was known to be on the road, as the destitute and half-famished condition of the troops rendered them liable to be attacked at any moment at a disadvantage. The resolution was carried into effect the same evening, and the march of the army continued through the night. On the following day a quantity of flour and a drove of cattle were intercepted, which having been disposed of as the necessities of the
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