USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume III > Part 40
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 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108
"It appears very clear to us that the proceedings now at this place are carried on in so unfair, partial and unlawful a manner, that we despair of establishing peace and good order in this part of the country ; therefore, for my own part, I think it not prudent to act for the future in my office unless properly supported, as we are very sure nothing short of law, impartially distributed without distinction, will restore peace and quiet the minds of the people in this place.
"Sorry we are, and with reluctance we mention the partial proceedings here by the officers of Government; but at the same time we think it our indispensable duty to bear testimony against them. We are much alarmed at the horrid abuse of power lodged in the hands of designing and biased men. We fear eventually it may bring on an intestine war between the States-to pre- vent which we hope the authority of Pennsylvania will execute justice to every citizen thereof. The Connecticut party have generally declared themselves as such by taking the oath of allegiatice to this State, as directed by law.
"God forbid that I should have any desire or inclination to favor the Connecticut party or their claims! I can honestly declare that I should be as well pleased to see them legally removed from this place as any man in the State, as my interest here is under the Pennsylvania right. It must appear, to every one acquainted with this circumstance, that it is much to my interest to have them dispossessed.
"I again say, that I have nothing in view respecting the unhappy disputes here but to do equal justice to every person, as I hope my conduct will at all times stand the test, and I be esteemed a faithful servant to the Government. Gentlemen, you may make what use you please of this letter, either public or private."
On the same day that the foregoing letter was written, preparations were completed at Wilkes-Barré to march the thirty Locust Hill men to the jail of Northampton County, at Easton, distant sixty-five miles, via the Sullivan Road. The prisoners, still handcuffed, were formed in column of twos, and between each two were placed the same number of militia men. All were bound together by a long rope running from the head to the rear of the column, and they were flanked on both sides by a strong guard of armed militia, with bayonets fixed.
When they were ready to take up the line of march, Colonel Armstrong gave orders to the guards that, if any one prisoner should attempt to make his escape, the whole body of prisoners should be put to death immediately, and the Government would "indemnify" the guards for such procedure. Notwith- standing these orders, and all the precautions taken by the guards, three of the captives escaped while en route to Easton, and were not recaptured-Joel
*To be taken down the river to Sunbury.
THE START OF THE YANKEE PRISONERS TO EASTON, (1784)
1423
Abbott and Waterman Baldwin, by superior activity, escaping at Sebitz's, or Learn's, and William Ross taking French leave at Heller's.
The remaining twenty-seven unfortunates were safely conducted to their destination and lodged in jail, where they were confined together in two small rooms. The Easton jail of that period was a two-story stone structure, which had been erected about 1753, and stood on the east side of South Third Street, near the present Pine Street. The daily rations of the Yankee prisoners were limited to one pound of bread per man, and a modicum of water; "but", wrote (in 1838) Elisha Harding, who was one of the prisoners, "I must record the generosity of a Jew, Michael Hart by name, who, by Jewish custom, was taught to feed the poor. Every Friday he sent two young women to the jail with two wooden vessels filled with fresh beef soup and with beef and bread-a very comfortable meal. He has been long dead, but his memory will live with me while I have life."
On August 19th, the forty-two Yankees who had been confined in the house of Colonel Butler for nine days were taken out, bound together with ropes, in a team, and marched off down the river to Sunbury jail, under a strong guard of militia, commanded by Col. Nicholas Kern, of Northampton County. Lieut. John Armstrong (see page 1347) was one of the subordinate officers of this military escort.
Colonel Franklin states that Sheriff Antes proposed at Wyoming to take charge of all the prisoners who were to be sent to Sunbury, and be accountable for them, but was not permitted to do so.
At Sunbury, under the date of Sunday, August 22, 1784, Colonel Kern wrote to Colonel Armstrong, at Wilkes-Barré, as follows *:
"I have to inform you of my arrival at this place with the prisoners under my command. Yesterday morning Josiah Pell and another made their escape; the remainder I delivered to Sheriff Antes, called the roll, and saw them put in prison. The Sheriff said the prisoners were now under his care. A few minutes after I saw many of the prisoners at liberty, and this morning when I went to the gaol I found eleven of the number I delivered absent. Inclosed you have their names. You have much to fear from those men, as I presume they are gone to Wyoming. I march to-morrow for Northampton."
At Sunbury, on August 23, 1784, Capt. William Wilson, Lieutenant of Northumberland County, wrote to Colonel Armstrong, as follows:
"The prisoners arrived here yesterday, and after they were delivered into the Sheriff's custody he gave them permission to go at large, which alarmed the inhabitants exceedingly. One of the magistrates last evening ordered them to be closely confined, and ten of them are missing this morning. There are a number of the prisoners now at the Sheriff's house, and I have the greatest reason to imagine that he has paroled some of them. In consequence of an application from the most respectable people here, I have ordered a Sergeant's guard to be mount- ed at the gaol. This step I hope will meet with your approbation, as the present condition of the gaol is such that it renders a measure of that nature indispensably necessary."
Immediately upon receipt of the two foregoing letters, Colonel Armstrong despatched them to President Dickinson, accompanied by a letter reading as followst :
"The enclosed letters contain some intelligence very closely connected with the peace and happiness of this unfortunate country; and which, if I may hazard an opinion, will deserve the immediate attention of Government. I have, therefore, despatched them to your Excellency by express.
"The whole of the militia has been dismissed some days since, and your Excellency's orders concerning the works, arms &c., executed. These events, you will readily conceive, have left the Pennsylvania claimants in a very disagreeable situation; which, joined to the conduct, will induce, I'm afraid, to a very general desertion of the country, or, what is perhaps more to be dreaded, an immediate appeal to arms. I would only further observe to your Excellency that
*See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X: 654.
¡See "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, X: 653.
1424
the hands which have been already loosed by the Sheriff are among the most dangerous of the whole number; and that I have every reason to believe they will be joined to those of [John] Swift and [Joel] Abbott before this letter can reach Philadelphia.
"Enclosed is a list of those persons who have attached themselves to the fortunes of those two desperate villains [Swift and Abbott], and are now collected at Bowman's Creek."
With respect to two of the matters treated of in the foregoing letter, we would say: (1) Although President Dickinson, in pursuance of a vote of the Supreme Executive Council, had ordered that Fort Dickinson and the block-houses ad- joining it should be "leveled and totally destroyed", yet Commissioners Arm- strong and Boyd had not strictly carried out those orders, but had ef- fected the demolition only of the block-houses and a small part of the fort. (2) About the time of the arrival of Commissioners Armstrong and Boyd, at Wilkes-Barré, John Swift, Ishmael Bennett, Jr., Elisha Satterlee, Phineas Steph- ens, Moses Sill, George Minard, William McClure and one or two others, who had been members of the Locust Hill party, retired up the Susquehanna to the neighborhood of Bowman's Creek, twenty-six miles from Wilkes-Barré. There they were joined, later, by Joel Abbott, Waterman Baldwin and William Ross, upon their escape from the custody of the Northampton militia while en route to Easton. Some days later other Yankees, who had been active in the hostil- ities against the Pennamites, attached themselves to the Bowman's Creek party.
Captain Boyd was temporarily in Philadelphia when Colonel Armstrong wrote the last-mentioned letter to President Dickinson, and on August 27th the latter, before he had received the letter in question, wrote to Colonel Armstrong that it was the sense of the Council that, until further measures could be pursued, "the wheat lately reaped on the disputed lands should be secured for the use of the persons who sowed the same"; and Colonel Armstrong was directed to "immediately give strict directions for this purpose."
Three days later, having received Colonel Armstrong's letter and enclosures, President Dickinson wrote to him, as follows:
"We have received your Letter of the 24th Instant with the inclosures, & have this Day put them into the Hands of a Committee of the General Assembly.
"That Committee is appointed for the purpose of bringing in a Bill to prevent any In- terruption by suit of Certiorari, or other writ, to legal proceedings for restoring forthwith to the persons who were violently dispossessed in May last the Lands & Tenements which they then occupied.
"This Measure is adopted in Conformity to the sentiments of the Board & the Chief Justice, as well as of the Legislative Branch of government, and the Insurgents may be convinced, by considering the circumstances existing at the Time when it was adopted, that nothing but a Regard for Equity has prompted it. If they repeat their violences, they. will at length render themselves answerable to public Justice for so many offences, that they must expect a very different Treatment, which it is in the Power of this Commonwealth to inflict at the Instant when it is in her Inclination.
"We therefore desire that you will order the men who are collected at Bowman's Creek immediately to disperse; & to inform them and others what will be the Consequences to them- selves if they continue to disturb the Peace of the State.
"Captain Boyd proposes to set off for Wyoming in a Day or two, who will bring more particu- lar Intelligence."
On the same day (August 30, 1784) that this letter was written, the Yankee prisoners in the jail at Sunbury were released under bail, and they returned to Wyoming Valley as expeditiously as possible. Colonel Franklin states that several of them upon arriving here "were fired upon by the Pennsylvania party, and were obliged to fly from Wyoming"-undoubtedly to Bowman's Creek.
At Philadelphia, September 7, 1784, the Pennsylvania Assembly considered "the subject of reinstating those tenants in Northumberland County who" had been forcibly dispossessed of their lands; whereupon it was resolved that "the President and the Supreme Executive Council be requested to appoint
1425
Commissioners to obtain the most exact knowledge they can get of the names of the widows and children of such persons as were lately settled at or near Wyoming, and who have fallen fighting against the savages; and also of all such others as did actually reside on the lands at or near Wyoming when the Trenton Decree was given." * *
On September 9th the Supreme Executive Council "took into consideration the resolutions of the General Assembly, authorizing them to appoint Commis- sioners to proceed to Wyoming for the purpose of obtaining the most exact knowledge possible of the claims of the people," and resolved that the Hon. John Boyd, Lieut. Col. John Armstrong, Jr.,* Lieut. Col. James Read, and John Okely, Esq., be appointed Commis- sioners for carrying into execution the said resolutions-any two of the Com- missioners being empowered to act in the premises. On September 10th President Dickinson wrote to these gentlemen as follows:
"You will perceive by the resolutions of the General Assembly of the 7th instant, and our Act of yesterday, inclosed, that you are appointed Commissioners for executing a Trust of Great Im- portance. Relying on your Integrity, Prudence & Zeal for the public interest, we shall only say that we wish the business may be soon completed. It may be of considerable use if you could obtain a list of the names of those persons not claiming under Pennsylvania who have settled at or near Wyoming since the Decree made at Trenton."
BRIG. GEN. JOHN ARMSTRONG, JR. From a portrait in oils in the War Department, Washington, D. C.
*JOHN ARMSTRONG, JR., was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, November 25, 1758, the youngest son of John Arm- strong, Sr. The latter was born in Ireland in 1725, and, coming to this country prior to 1748, settled in that part of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which in January, 1750, became Cumberland County. His name first appears in the annals of Cumberland County as that of a surveyor under the Proprietary Government As noted on page 259 Vol. I, he was not only a surveyor, but a member of the Provincial Assembly, in 1754. He was also, about that period, a Justice of the Peace and an Elder in the first Presbyterian Church organized in Carlisle The town of Carlisle, the county-seat of Cumberland County, having been laid out in 1751, was, together with its adjacent lands, resurveyed in 1762 by John Armstrong.
As early as the Spring of 1756 John Armstrong, Sr., held a Commission as Lieut. Colonel of the First Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment, and in August, 1756, he was selected to command an expedition against the Indian town of Kittanning, in what is now Armstrong County, Pennsylvania-which county was erected in March, 1800, and named for John Armstrong, Sr. Kittanning was the headquarters of "King" Shingas and "Captain Jacobs" of the western Delawares, and the Indians who resorted there were chiefly Delawares and Shawanese who were friendly to the French. (See note "}" on page 326, Vol. I.)
Armstrong's expedition marched from Fort Shirley, in what is now Huntington County, August 30, 1756, and consisted of 307 men. Among the Captains in command of companies was Hugh Mercer, mentioned in the note on page 361, Vol. I. Early in the action at Kittanning Mercer was wounded in the arm, but was carried off by some of his men to a point of safety; while later in the day Colonel Armstrong was wounded in his shoulder "by a large musket-ball." The Indians were defeated, and those who were not killed were dispersed, while their town was destroyed. Colonel Armstrong's official report concerning this expedition is printed in full in "Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania", II: 453, and is complete and interesting.
On account of this victory, the Common Council of Philadelphia, on January 5. 1757, addressed a complimentary letter to Colonel Armstrong, thanking him and his officers for their gallant conduct, and in addition presented him with a piece of plate. A silver medal was also struck by order of the Council, bearing on the obverse, in addition to an appropriate sculptured design, the legend: "Kittanning destroyed by Colonel Armstrong, September 8, 1756." On the reverse of the medal the arms of the corporation were shown, with this inscription: "The gift of the corporation of Philadelphia." These medals were presented to Armstrong and all the commissioned officers of his expedition. A small sum of money was also presented to each officer. In June, 1779, a stockaded fort was erected at Kittanning by order of the Continental authorities, and was named Fort Armstrong in honor of Colonel (then Brig. General) Armstrong.
Lieut. Colonel Armstrong was promoted and commissioned "Colonel commanding" the "First Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment", December 2, 1757, and the same day Capt. Hugh Mercer was promoted Lieut. Colonel of the battalion. As to some of the military activities of Colonel Armstrong in 1763, see pages 426 and 427, Vol. I. He appears to have been always ready, in those perilous times on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, to go on the war-path against the inimical Indians. That he had no particular love for them is shown by a letter to Governor Penn of Penn- sylvania, which he wrote at Carlisle in February, 1768. It was undoubtedly called forth by the Act of Assembly men- tioned on page 447, Vol I, and it read in part as follows: "They [the inhabitants] tell us that the Government always manifest a greater concern at the killing or death of an Indian than at the death or killing of any of them [the in- habitants]; that the Indians first break the peace, and have, since the last establishment thereof, killed a considerable
1426
number of Pennsylvanians at different times and places, and that no lamentation has been made, nor exertion of the power of Government to bring those savage butchers to account."
Colonel Armstrong was, at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, a member of the Committee of Corre ;- pondence of Cumberland County. He was commissioned a Brigadier General hy the Continental Congress, March 1, 1776, being the first officer of that rank to be commissioned by the Congress. It having been resolved by Congress in the Summer of 1775 that a certain number of Brigadier Generals for the Continental army should be appointed and commissioned, Washington, at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wrote to the Congress on August 23, 1775, relative to the appointment of these officers, as follows: "Col. John Armstrong of Pennsylvania * * * served during the last war in most of the campaigns to the southward, was honoured with the command of the Pennsylvania forces, and his general military conduct and spirit [were ] much approved by all who served with him; besides which his character was distinguished by an enterprise against the Indians which he planned with great judgment and ex- ecuted with equal courage and success. It was not till lately that I had reason to believe he would enter again on publick service."
Colonel Armstrong was in Philadelphia when he was appointed and comm ssioned Brigadier General, and having accepted the appointment and received his commission on March 2ud he was directed by the President of Congress to repair immediately to South Carolina to take command of the Continental troops there. In August, 1776, General Armstrong was at Charleston, South Carolina. He resigned his commission April 4, 1777, and the next day was ap- pointed a Brig. General of the Pennsylvania militia. In the following October he commanded the Pennsylvania militia engaged in the battle of the Brandywine. He also commanded them at the battle of Germantown. At this time he also held the office of Lieutenant of Cumberland County. January 9, 1778, he was promoted Major General of the Pennsylvania militia, and served in that rank till the close of the war. He was a Delegate from Pennsylvania in the Caotinental Congress in the years 1778-'80. He died at Carlisle, March 9, 1795.
Jahu Armstrong, Jr., in the Summer of 1775, being then in the seventeenth year of his life and a student at the College of New Jersey ( Princeton), enlisted in the regiment of Pennsylvania militia commanded by Col. James Potter of Northumberland County. Later in the same year he served as a volunteer in the Canada Expedition and at Quebec. The next year-in June or July-he became an aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer (see page 361, Vol. I), with the rank of Major, and served as such until Mercer's death, January 3, 1777. He was then-about March, 1777- made an aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Horatio Gates, and was with him until the close of the campaign against Burgoyne (which ended at Saratoga, October 17, 1777), and during the ensuing Winter and the next Spring.
When in the Summer of 1780, General Gates was appointed by Congress to the command of the Southern army. Armstrong accompanied him as his Adjutant General and served in that capacity until, by reason of the ignominious defeat of Gates by Cornwallis near Camden, South Carolina, August 15, 1780, Gen. Nathaniel Greene was appointed to supersede Gates. Armstrong then became Greene's Adjutant General, with the rank of Major. Gates lost his laurels by his defeat, and was compelled to undergo a trial by court-martial; but, having been acquitted in 1782 of the charges upon which he had been tried, he was given a command suitable to his rank, and Armstrong again became a member of his staff, still with the rank of Major.
Under the date of October 15, 1782, Major Armstrong, being then in Philadelphia, applied to the Supreme Execu- tive Council of Pennsylvania for the office of Secretary of the Council. In his application (see "Pennsylvania Archives", Old Series, IX: 650) appeared the following paragraph: "I am sufficiently aware that I stand unsupported by any claim which another applicant may not urge with equal propriety. My pretensions rest chiefly upon my attachment to the State and my reverence for the Government. To these I may add (and perhaps to some effect) a long, unre- warded service in the field-convinced that to a patriotic Council the claims of a soldier cant neither he offensive nor indifferent."
At that time the main body of the American army was encamped along the Hudson in the neighborhood of New- burgh, New York, at which place Washington maintained his headquarters until the army was disbanded in November, 1783. Throughout the Winter of 1782-'83 the conditions in the country were full of danger. There was no assurance that the war would not be renewed, and it was necessary still to maintain the army. The patience of the soldiers had been marvelous; but now that peace was believed to be at hand they were growing weary of want and penury. The officers had been promised half-pay for life, by a resolution of Congress passed in 1780, but to move had been made to carry out the pledge. In fact, Congress had done nothing for the claims of the army, and it seemed highly probable that it would be disbanded without even a settlement of the accounts of the officers.
Alarmed and irritated hy the neglect of Congress; destitute of money and credit, and of the means of living from day to day, and oppressed with debts. the Continental officers presented a memorial to Congress, in December, 1782, in which they urged an immediate adjustment of their dues. The friends of the army in Congress did the best they could in the proposed adjustment of arrears of pay and the question of future pensions, "but party politics had too much weight even upon a question which should have been settled upon the single principle of common justice." While Congress was discussing the subject and lamenting its inability to do the proper thing, affairs at Newburgh put on a more threatening aspect than ever. The almost universal judgment of the officers was that Congress would disband the army, and what, in that event, would become of their hard-earned pay, so long overdue. In their opinion it was clearly the policy of Congress to postpone all action in the matter till after the peace, and then turn the soldiers adrift to starve, or live as hest they could on the charity of the country.
At no time during the Revolution was the American cause itt a more desperate situation than in the early part of 1783. "The camp at Newburgh was a powder-magazine, which needed only a torch, applied at the right place and the right moment, to produce a terrible explosion." The torch was lighted, hut fortunately there was a strong hand ready to extinguish it on the instant.
On March 10, 1783, an anonymous address was circulated among the officers at Newhurgh, calling a meeting of the general and field officers and of one officer from each company and one from the medical staff, to consider the late letter from their representatives at Philadelphia, and to determine what measures, if any, should be adopted to obtain that redress of grievances which they seemed to have solicited in vain. It was written with very unusual skill and in language calculated to excite the atiger and awaken still further the resentment of the officers of the army, who with much justice felt that they had sacrificed their comfort and were now treated with scorn and contumely. "Can you, then, consent to be the only sufferers by this Revolution", was the language of the address, "and, retiring from the field grow old in poverty, wretchedness and contempt. Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of dependency, and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity, which has hitherto been spent in honour.
"If you cant, go! and carry with you the jest of Tories and the scorn of Whigs; the ridicule and (what is worse) the pity of the world. Go, starve, and be forgotten! But if your spirit should revolt at this-if you have sense enough to discover, and spirit enough to oppose, tyrrany under whatever garb it may assume (whether it be the plain coat of republicanism or the splendid rohe of royalty)-if you have not yet learned to discrimina te between a people and a cause, between men and principles-awake! Attend to your situation, and redress yourselves! If the present moment be lost, every future effort is in vain; and your threats then will be as empty as your intreaties now. I would advise you, therefore, to come to some final opinion on what you can bear and what you will suffer. If your determination be in any proportion to your wrongs, carry your appeal from the justice to the fears of Government."
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.