USA > Pennsylvania > Border warfare in Pennsylvania during the revolution > Part 10
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harbored by the Moravian converts, 1 and even these them- selves occasionally joined in taking up the hatchet. 2 But we must not forget that there were numbers of such Americans as McKee, Elliott and Girty, who told them that the American armies had been all cut to pieces by the English, that General Washington was killed, that there was no more Congress, that the English had hung some of its members and taken the others to England, to hang them there, that the whole country beyond the Alle- ghenies was in the possession of the English, and that the Americans on the west side of the mountains were pre- paring to kill all the Indians, even the women and chil- dren.3 Under such influences, it is not strange that the work of Heckewelder and Zeisberger and their co-laborers was sometimes without avail in holding their converted Indians for the American cause.
Having arranged for the safety of the Moravian In- dians, Colonel Brodhead proceeded to Coshocton and at- tacked the hostile band, and made them sue for peace. He committed the care of the prisoners-about twenty- to the militia. Exasperated by the frequent outrages that had been committed against them, these frontiersmen on their way back to Pittsburg murdered and scalped the whole number in their charge, except a few women and children. Notwithstanding the chastisement of the Dela- wares, in April, the usual fright and flight of the settlers was reported from Westmoreland 4 and Bedford 5 in June and July ; and the designs upon Detroit were naturally revived. Want of men and supplies still made it impos- sible for Brodhead to execute it. So, much to his chagrin,
1 Heckewelder's Narrative, p. 166.
2 Pennsylvania Packet, April 16, 1782.
3 Heckewelder's Narrative, p. 180.
4 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, p. 246.
5 Ibid, p. 152.
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Virginia undertook an expedition against that point, and the person to command it was George Rogers Clark. Though Brodhead obeyed orders, and supported Clark in his preparations, yet he suspicioned that Virginia's enter- prise was not intended so much for the relief of the fron- tiers as for the extension of her territorial claims.1 It looked suspicious even to others.2 However, the fact that the people of Westmoreland joined in it most heartily 3 seems to indicate that they, at least, regarded Virginia's motive to be an honest one. Colonel Lochry, with a force of volunteers and a company of rangers, was to form a part of Clark's command ; Lochry went down the river to join Clark, who had started some time before the West- morelanders. But, alas ! Lochry's force was suddenly attacked, August 24th, by a body of Indians under Brandt and George Girty (brother of Simon) some distance below the mouth of the Miami. Every man of them-number- ing more than a hundred-was killed or captured. 4 Colo- nel Lochry was among the slain. This unfortunate affair, and the non-arrival of other reinforcements, made it nec- essary for Clark, who was at the falls of the Ohio, to abandon his enterprise. A detachment of artillery, which he had taken along from Fort Pitt, arrived there after many hardships, November 26th.
Colonel Brodhead, before Clark's departure, had gone to Philadelphia on public business and turned his com- mand over to Colonel Gibson. At the suggestion of Clark, Gibson agreed to make an excursion against the Wyandots at Sandusky,5 to start in the beginning of September. When Brodhead returned, August 11th, the
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, pp. 152 and 307.
2 Ibid, p. 405.
3 Ibid, pp. 247 and 306.
4 Ibid, p. 358.
5 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 57.
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matter was at once laid before him. He agreed to it, and, claiming the right of command, called upon the county lieutenants for their assistance. But a clash now occurred between him and Colonel Gibson as to which was the commanding officer at Fort Pitt. Charges had been brought against Brodhead in April, that he with others was "concerned in buying manors and millseats and speculating on public money." 1 So when the San- dusky expedition was to be undertaken, Colonel Gibson and his friends claimed that Washington's instructions to Brodhead, on his return from Philadelphia, were such that he could not with propriety be in command until after the depositions relating to the charges had been taken.2 But Brodhead stood his ground, and wrote to Washington that the expedition against the Sanduskies would proceed from Fort McIntosh, September 4th and 5th, and that he would command. 3 Everybody that wanted to could go ; and the volunteers thus raised were allowed to select their own officers. Each man was to provide himself with a horse and thirty days' provisions.
But now most alarming news came from Zeisberger, the Moravian Missionary, that a large number of Wyan- dots, Delawares, Munseys and Shawanese were approach- ing the settlements. + He cautioned Brodhead not to dis- close the source of the information, lest the savages would take revenge on the Moravian Indians and missionaries. The county lieutenants were at once notified and Forts Henry (Wheeling) and McIntosh put in readiness for defense.5 The country took the alarm, and several hun- dred men were in arms, Nor was it long before the news
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, p. 97.
2 The Olden Time, vol. 2, p. 393.
3 Ibid, p. 395.
4 Heckewelder's Narrative, p. 230.
5 The Olden Time, vol. 2, pp. 395-396.
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from Zeisberger was confirmed by the appearance of the Indians at Fort Henry ; but on seeing the garrison pre- pared for them they disappeared. After killing and cap- turing several people and slaughtering all the cattle they could find, they withdrew across the Ohio.
Disappointed in not surprising Fort Henry, the sav- ages now swore vengeance on the Moravian Indians. They had learned in some way, just as Zeisberger feared might be the case, that he had notified the commander at Fort Pitt of their approach. However, this betrayal was not alone responsible for what followed. DePeyster, at Detroit, had been made to believe by McKee, Elliott and Girty that the Moravian missionaries were sent by Con- gress as spies among the Indians. To give their reports greater weight, these Tories persuaded some Indian chiefs to join them in lodging complaints with the commandant against the missionaries. 1 In this way they hoped to secure De Peyster's consent to murder the missionaries and their Indian converts. Not wishing to assume responsibility for such a crime, he sent McKee to the war council of the Six Nations, at Niagara, and got an order from them to the Chippewas and Ottawas to this purport: "We herewith make you a present of the Christian Indians on the Muskingum to make broth of them." 2 The occasion had now arrived for this order to be put into execution. On returning to the Muskingum after their poor success at Fort Henry, the exasperated savages took the mis- sionaries prisoners, tied them and destroyed everything they had. The Moravian Indians were told they must move or they would all be cut off. There was nothing to do but to obey. There were three mission stations in what is now Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and their Indian
1 Heckewelder's Narrative, pp. 229-230.
2 Loskiel's Indian Missions, part 3rd, chapter 9, p. 150.
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inhabitants now all marched through the wilderness un- der the command of the "infamous rascal, Matthew Elliott." They carried their simple stock of household goods on their backs and drove the cattle and swine be- fore them. Arriving at the Sandusky, October 11th, the Christian Indians were left there for the winter, while the missionaries were obliged to go with Elliott to Detroit and answer the charges that had been lodged against them ; but as the evidence was insufficient, they were allowed to return to Sandusky, when the cold of winter already made their journey one of great hardships. Their horses having been stolen before the start, DePeyster kindly furnished them others,1 a kindness of which his predecessor would scarcely have been capable.
While the main body of the savages under Elliott were convoying the Moravians to Sandusky, a band of seven returned to Washington county and captured an old man of sixty. The settlers quickly gave them chase and killed all but one. There was a better organization for defense now in southwestern Pennsylvania. The dispute about the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Virginia had run on to the great disadvantage of this section until 1779. In that year it was agreed to extend Mason and Dixon's Line due west to the five-degree limit, as called for by the charter of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian line from the western extremity of Mason and Dixon's Line should be the western boundary of Pennsyl- vania. This agreement was not carried out until 1783, and consequently there was anarchy and confusion in that section, lasting until Washington county was erected by an Act of the Assembly, March 28th, 1781.2 It included
1 Heckewelder's Narrative, p. 297.
2 Journal of the House of Representatives, vol. 1. p. 598.
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all the territory in Pennsylvania south of the Ohio and west of the Monongahela.
The Indian invasion into Wheeling and Monongahela valleys, together with the conflict of authority at Fort Pitt, caused a postponement of the expedition against Sandusky, and finally its abandonment.1 Washington now put an end to the dispute between Brodhead and Gibson by appointing the latter to the command "during the dependence of the trial." 2 Brodhead was mildly re- buked for misconstruing the Commander-in-Chief 's letter to him. He was told that there should have been no doubt as to the impropriety of holding the command while his trial was preparing and hearing. 3 The change took place September 17th ; but Gibson was in command only until Brodhead's successor, General William Irvine, arrived early in November. The new commander spent the rest of the year in a reformation of military affairs at Fort Pitt, working at times with his own hands as an ex- ample for his officers. Nothing else of consequence is to be recorded about the Western frontiers for the year 1781, except that there was a report sent to Fort Pitt, by Zeis- berger, to the effect that Guy Johnson with a large army was coming down from Presque Isle. This had some foundation. Sir Henry Clinton had proposed to General Haldimand, as a threat to Clark's expedition against De- troit, that a force of 2,000 men should come down from Niagara to Fort Pitt by way of Presque Isle and co- operate with an expedition from the Southern army up the rivers Potomac and Susquehanna. But Haldimand did not think well of Clinton's proposition. "Fort Pitt," said he, "is not to be taken by a coup de main, nor will
1 Washington to Gibson, Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 62. 2 Spark's Letters to Washington, vol. 3, p. 452.
3 Washington to Brodhead, Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 62.
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the enemy suffer it to be surprised." 1 General Irvine was therefore not disturbed in his preparations for an active campaign in 1782.
William Irvine was born in Ireland, 1741, and was like so many other officers from Pennsylvania, of Scotch- Irish descent. He studied medicine and was appointed surgeon of a British ship of war. In the French war his line of duty brought him to America, whither he returned after peace had been declared, settling at Carlisle. Irvine took an active part on the side of the Colonies at the opening of the Revolution. He raised the Sixth Penn- sylvania and was appointed to its command early in 1776. He marched at its head to Canada and was among the 200 prisoners at Three Rivers. He was carried to Quebec and not exchanged until April, 1778, although paroled shortly after his capture. Having won distinction in the battle of Monmouth, he was made a brigadier General in 1779. He was actively engaged in the army until 1781, when after doing duty in the recruiting service for awhile he was appointed to the command of the western depart- inent. He held this post to the close of the war. Penn- sylvania showed her gratitude for his services by giving him a tract of land on Lake Erie, known as "Irvine's Reserve." It was through his advice that Pennsylvania bought the "triangle" on Lake Erie from the United States. After the war he held a number of important trusts-on the Council of Censors, in the Congress of the Confederation, in the State Constitutional Convention of 1790, in the Congress under the Constitution, in the Whiskey Insurrection and in the Electoral College, etc. He died, 1804, in Philadelphia, having removed there from Carlisle. 2
1 Vermont Historical Society, vol. 2, p. 342.
2 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 65.
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There was quite a decrease of Indian outrages in the Susquehanna and Delaware Valleys in the year 1781. The savages appeared early in the spring, but after har- vest there were but few of them seen ; 1 for they had re- ceived a signal blow in New York.2 A later incursion had been ordered, as appears from the following letter to Joseph Brandt, dated October 3rd, 1781 :
"DEAR JOSEPH :- If you have no other object of importance in view, I request that you will make a move upon Minisink and the East Branch of the Susquehanna as soon as possible."3
The ravages began in March and April.4 In Northum- berland the enemy had made five different strokes from the 22nd of March till the 12th of April. A force of militia from the counties below was called out on a two months' tour, and sent up the North Branch. Their presence seems to have frightened the Indians, for Colonel Hunter discharged some of them in August, though he claimed that it was because of a lack of rations.5 There was the greatest distress in Northumberland at that time. Many of the rangers were so naked for want of clothing that they could not do duty. There was no surgeon in the county, within forty miles, 6 to attend either the sol- diers, if wounded, or the people, if taken sick. One offered himself from Lancaster county, but he was found lacking in character and ability.7 General Potter ex- pressed the wish that the Assembly could make a visit with him, that they might be moved to extend relief. But relief was impossible from that quarter, especially when
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, p. 392.
2 Stone's Life of Brandt, vol. 2, pp. 155-159.
3 Haldimand, MSS., Vermont Hist. Society, vol. 2, p. 345.
4 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, pp. 70, 106, 107; Miner's Hist. of Wyom- ing, p. 292.
5 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, p. 364.
6 Ibid, p. 208.
7 Ibid, p. 238.
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it was expected that the British in New York would in- vade Pennsylvania after Washington had stolen that matchless march on Clinton-across New Jersey, through Pennsylvania and Maryland, and down into Virginia- there to fight the last battle of the Revolution.
In Wyoming, the conditions were very like those of the North Branch. Occasional incursions of small bands occurred all summer, and several people were killed ; but the company of Continental troops now stationed there gave confidence. Scouting parties were sent out, going from fifty to eighty miles up the river. In September, a party of Indians attacked the Hanover settlement, and succeeded in carrying off two boys in revenge for the death of an Indian, who had been shot by the father the year before. To kill an Indian on the frontier was always liable to be fraught with serious consequences. In this respect, again, the lot of a soldier on the frontier was far less desirable than that of a man in the regular army.
Northampton was more scared than hurt in 1781. The Indians crossed the Delaware into New Jersey, and did some bloody work there. On their return they burned a house in Northampton county, and drove away a herd of cattle. This might not have alarmed the people much ; but, as the Indians hurried away, they lost a knapsack containing an order from Colonel Butler to Captain Brandt, by which it appeared that a heavy attack was intended to be made.1 The militia flew to arms as never before. Their methods of checking the Indians were specially recommended by President Reed to other counties : and the Council gave twenty-five pounds of hard money to one party for their activity and bravery. 2
Though the war along the seaboard had practically
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, p. 107.
2 Ibid, p. 238.
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closed in 1781, the border war in Pennsylvania continued in all its fury on some parts of the frontiers. Early in January, 1782, General Irvine had gone to his home in Carlisle and to Philadelphia. Until his return, March 25th, Colonel Gibson was in command at Fort Pitt. Dur- ing Irvine's absence, a most atrocious massacre was com- mitted by a body of two hundred Monongahela settlers, under David Williamson, colonel of a militia battalion of Washington county. The Moravian missionaries had ob- tained permission from Detroit for the Christian Indians, confined at Sandusky, to return to the Muskingum to get some corn that had been left there. Now, it happened that in February some Indian atrocities were committed in Washington county. 1 Coming so early, while the snow was still on the ground, these raids caused much surprise and consternation. The belief was prevalent that some "enemy Indians " had occupied the vacant villages of the Moravian Indians.2 Upon reaching the Muskingum, however, Colonel Williamson's militia found there the Moravian Indians who had come from Sandusky to get corn. There were about 150 men, women and children, and they offered no resistance. The question arose what to do with them. Sundry articles were found among them that had been taken from people in Wash- ington county. They confessed that ten warriors had come with them from Sandusky, and had gone into the settlements, and that four of these were then present in the villages. 3 The majority were no doubt friendly, for they offered to go to Pittsburg that their sufferings might end.4 Colonel Williamson put it to a vote whether the
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, p. 496.
2 Washington-Irvine Correspondence. p. 100; also, Wither's Border Warfare. p. 320.
3 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, p. 540.
4 Wither's Border Warfare, p. 322.
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Indians should be spared or slain. Just how the vote re- sulted is in doubt ; 1 but there is no doubt as to the fate of the Indians. They were all killed except those in the upper village, the slain numbering upwards of ninety, most of whom were women and children. After pillaging the villages, the white demons burned every house within them. While preparations for death were going on, the Indians assembled for the last time in the worship of God, and many of them were tied while in the act of prayer. 2 There was a divided sentiment on the frontiers about this massacre at the time of its occurrence ; but an investiga- tion was,impossible ; for, like school-boys, the militia would not testify against one another. Such was the end of the Christian Indians on the Muskingum. They fell
a victim at the hands of the frontiersman, after he had experienced unspeakable horrors for eight long years. In 1782, the " back inhabitants " could scarcely look upon an Indian any more as a human being. Nevertheless, the murder on the Muskingum was not justifiable.
To make the punishment of the Indians more com- plete still, another voluntary expedition was now organ- ized to proceed against the Indians at Sandusky. This place was the rendezvous for the Indians of the Northwest -Shawanese, Mingoes, Monseys, Ottawas, Delawares and others-preparatory to their raids on the Western frontier. General Irvine gave his permission for the ex- pedition, on condition that any conquests the volunteers might make should be in behalf and for the United States. 3 It was to be no expedition such as Virginia had sent out under Clark-with a double purpose, ostensibly to harass the enemy, but in reality to acquire territory. Each vol-
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, p. 540.
2 Heckewelder's Narrative, pp. 318-319.
3 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 113.
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unteer furnished his own horse and gun and provisions for a month, on condition that he was afterwards exempt from two tours of military duty. In this way, an army of 500 was collected at Mingo Bottom, on the Ohio, be- low the present site of Steubenville. By a vote, Colonel William Crawford was elected commander, the other can- didate having been Colonel Williamson, under whom the Moravian massacre occurred. William Crawford was born in Virginia. He learned the art of surveying under Washington, but when the French war broke out he for- sook the compass and became a soldier. At the close of Pontiac's war, he was a captain. Having been across the mountains as a soldier, he settled there afterwards, and located in what is now Fayette county as a farmer, surveyor and Indian trader. He served as justice of the peace in old Bedford county, and in Westmoreland upon. its organization ; but he was prominent in Lord Dun- more's war, and thus became committed to serve the in- terests of Virginia in the long territorial dispute. He entered the Revolutionary service as lieutenant colonel of a Virginia regiment, and served at first on the frontier, then with Washington at Brandywine and Germantown. When General Hand was assigned to the Western De- partment, Colonel Crawford was ordered to Fort Pitt, where he did valiant and useful service under the various commanders.
Crawford's expedition started May 25th, and pursued " Williamson's trail" to the Muskingum, where the horses were fed with the corn of the Moravian Indians. Here two stray Indians were recklessly fired upon by the volunteers, and Colonel Crawford realized that the troops under him were hard to command. They were ten days on the march to Sandusky, while it might have been per-
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formed in seven. General Irvine had advised them to attack the town in the night, but, instead, they halted within ten miles of the enemy, and resumed the march at the late hour of seven in the morning.1 The enemy, numbering about 200 Indians and 100 British rangers, were encountered at 4 P. M. Both parties fought hard for a piece of woods, but the enemy gave way at sunset. The next day, the British and Indians being heavily reinforced and the Americans greatly burdened with their sick and wounded, Colonel Crawford ordered a retreat, but great confusion attended it. Quite a number, therefore, were missing after the detached bodies of the troops had been collected again. Among the missing ones was Colonel Crawford.2 They had been captured about thirty miles from the scene of the battle; and five days afterwards they were all but one cruelly put to death by the Dela- ware Indians. The one that escaped was a Doctor Knight, who arrived at Fort Pitt in the course of twenty- one days. He reported 3 that Colonel Crawford was first tied to a long post, with room to walk around it ; his ears were cut off, and squibs of powder blown into different parts of his body. Then the squaws took hickory brands and touched such parts of his body as would be most tender. They took the scalp and slapped it in the face of Doctor Knight. Thus the victim was tortured one whole hour, when Doctor Knight was removed from the horrible scene. Just as the Doctor was leaving, Colonel Crawford sank down on his knees exhausted ; but a squaw threw a shovelful of hot coals on him to put him again in motion. The colonel made no outcry, except to beg
1 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 122.
2 Pennsylvania Packet, July 4th, 1782; Pennsylvania Gazette, July 11th, 1782.
3 Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser, July 23, 1782; also, In- cidente of Border Life, pp. 131-139.
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Simon Girty, whom he had formerly known at Pittsburg, to shoot him. But his appeal was met with a satanic smile. The next day Doctor Knight passed the place under his Indian guard and saw the bones of his colonel in the ashes. Doctor Knight was to be burned, too, but he managed to escape before he was tied to the stake. The British accounts, though not going into the details, all agreed in pronouncing the death of Colonel Crawford as "cruel, " as a " torture," "abhorrent," etc., and they united in saying that it was in revenge for the murder of the Moravian Indians. 1
This account of Dr. Knight struck the people of Western Pennsylvania with a strange mixture of fear and resentment and they at once began to prepare for another expedition.2 Washington, however, cautioned General Irvine against rashness, for he thought such treatment as Crawford had received had to be expected when it was remembered how the Moravian Indians fared.3 But be- fore the settlers could retaliate, the Indians were on the frontier in Westmoreland county. The people of that section had kept together at various points of safety dur- ing the spring and summer and exercised the strictest watch. The militia deserted from the posts because they had not been paid and were in rags. The whole country north of the Forbes' Road was well-nigh deserted. Such was the condition of affairs when Hannastown was at- tacked on Saturday, July 13th. This town had been the county seat of Westmoreland since its organization in 1773. It consisted of about thirty houses built of logs. Its courthouse and jail, of like construction, had both witnessed many an exciting scene in the days of Connelly
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