USA > Pennsylvania > Border warfare in Pennsylvania during the revolution > Part 9
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It seems that the inferior officers and private soldiers at Fort Pitt also had difficulties to contend with at the close of the year. The depreciation of paper money had become a serious burden to them, as well as to the whole country. Even the Indians would not accept it. Penn- sylvania had tried every remedy but the right one to lessen its evil effects. The only expedient that seemed natural to adopt was to prohibit excessive prices. Every town- ship and county had its committee of prices, a scale of prices having been authorized and published , and a per- son offering or giving an extravagant price was to be summoned for a hearing.+ But the traders on the fron- tiers paid no attention to these regulations ; and so the officers of the line and staff at Fort Pitt held a meeting, and appointed a committee to investigate the regulations adopted " down the country," and thus force the traders to sell at the same prices, on penalty of being expelled from the country west of the Allegheny mountains. 5
The impossibility of an expedition against Detroit,
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 7, p. 664.
2 Ibid, vol. 3, p. 40.
3 Ibid, p. 109.
4 Ibid, vol. 8. p. 250.
5 Pennsylvania Packet, June Ist, 1779.
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though a great disappointment to Brodhead, is evident from the difficulties that attended the organization of Sul- livan's. In July,1 General Washington wrote to the Executive Council that he feared the troops requested of Pennsylvania would not be furnished, and entreats in the most pressing terms that the Council forward their quota. It was not in his power to send a greater Continental force. He had "stretched this string as hard as it will possibly bear." General Sullivan had made Easton his head- quarters, and had expected to march the army for Wyom- ing the first week in June, 2 but he did not start until the 18th. He had to get warrants from the Council to pro- cure wagons and horses ; for Pennsylvania had a law by which wagon-masters were appointed in each county, subordinate to a wagon-master general, who received his orders from the Executive Council.3 As this was a more roundabout method than impressment, there was much delay in getting the transportation train under way. Sul- livan procured a hundred wagons and teams in Bucks and Northampton counties. These were used to haul the stores to Middletown on the Susquehanna, whence they were to be transported up the North Branch in boats. The demand for these wagons and boats had much to do with the failure to raise the ranging companies intended for Sullivan ; for the expedition was under the authority of Congress, and the latter paid more for the service of transportation than Pennsylvania offered for military duty. +
Having provided transportation for the stores, Sulli- van marched out of Easton, June 18th, with a force of 2,500 men, but the rangers of Pennsylvania had not joined
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 7, p. 539.
2 Ibid, p. 450.
3 Ibid, p. 427.
4 Ibid, p. 458.
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him, 1 nor were "any about to do it." On the 23rd, the army arrived at Wyoming by way of the Wind Gap and the Pocono Mountain, passing over the most barren coun- try ever seen by a man from the Granite State even. 2 Wyoming's massacre was then a year old, and the story of its horrors, the charred remains of its houses, and the two hundred and fifty widows of its slain defenders, nerved and strengthened the men for the campaign before them. A stay of more than a month was made here to await the arrival of the provisions and the military stores. The fleet that brought these came up the North Branch, July 24th, 134 boats strong, and was saluted by thirteen guns from the garrison at Wyoming.
The British had not failed to note the movements of this large army. Before it left Wyoming, attacks were made by strong bodies of Indians and British to the right and to the left of it. To the right of it, Captain Brandt, the Mohawk Chief, with some 60 Indians, and 30 Tories disguised as Indians-which was a very common practice with the Loyalists when acting with the savages-made an incursion into the Delaware Valley.3 Though the bat- tle that ensued occurred at Minisink, in New York, yet it was just across the border from the Minisinks in Penn- sylvania, and many of the fugitives made their escape to the latter place. The Lieutenant of Northampton county at once notified the Executive Council, and hurriedly or- dered out the militia. The Council promptly forwarded powder and lead ; but the militia was slow to respond. Colonel Stroud, of Fort Penn, was expected to defend the settlements above the Delaware Water Gap. But the Lieutenant of Northampton county failed to supply him
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 7, p. 568.
2 General Sullivan's Indian Expedition, p. 181.
3 Stone's Life of Brandt, vol. 1, p. 415.
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with troops. So he took steps of his own to collect sol- diers, and then came a clash, which had to be investigated by the Executive Council.1 The trouble was the same as elsewhere-the people not immediately exposed to the attacks of the Indians thought themselves safe, and did not answer the call as they should have done. President Reed, however, lost none of his faith in the militia. He said, " It was to this force, and not to standing troops or volunteer companies raised for a few months and stationed in forts, that New England delivered herself from the most horrible Indian wars." But he forgot that the people of his State had never had a compulsory militia law before the Revolution, and that their training in answering to calls was therefore not calculated to make them prompt now. Fortunately, Northampton county was not visited by Brandt. He had to retrace his footsteps to protect his own home, for General Sullivan would not allow himself to be turned aside.
To the right, in Northumberland county, the same tactics were employed to divide or turn back the expedi- tion. The first attack was made upon Fort Freeland, 15 miles from Northumberland. It was surrounded on the morning of July 28th, by about 300 British and Indians under Captain McDonald. There were twenty-one men in the fort, and some women and children. The women at once began to ruu their spoons and plates into bullets ; but the men had to surrender. However, to the presence of Sullivan at Wyoming, no doubt was due the favorable condition that the old men, women and children should be set free. In this way, one lad of sixteen was able to avoid captivity by quickly putting on his mother's clothes. A party sent from Northumberland 2 to succor
1 Frontier Forts, vol. 1, pp. 341-345.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 7, p. 589.
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the garrison at Freeland's was met by a superior force and lost the captain and twelve men, killed and scalped. Again the situation in Northumberland beggared descrip- tion, not a single inhabitant being north of Northumber- land Town. 1 But Sullivan, though appealed to by Colo- nel Hunter for help, would not "answer the intention of the enemy and destroy the grand object of this expedi- tion." "Tomorrow morning," he wrote on the 30th of July, "the army moves from Wyoming and by carrying the war into the Indian country, it will certainly draw them out of yours." General Sullivan might have had more sympathy if Pennsylvania had furnished the troops Congress had asked for. Since she did not furnish them, he concluded she certainly would be able to defend her frontiers without much inconvenience. 2
Sullivan was correct ; for as soon as his drums and fifes had played in sprightly unison and reveille-
"Don't you hear your General say, Strike your tents and march away?"
Captain McDonald fled as precipitately from the frontiers of Northumberland as Brandt from the Valley of the Delaware. The expedition, with its pack horses and cat- tle, moved out of Wyoming the last day of July, passing many houses and farms ruined and laid waste by the enemy soon to be encountered. The artillery followed in boats, 120 in number and forming a line nearly two miles long. The army reached Tioga Flats on the 11th of August, and General Clinton formed a junction with it on the 22nd. Clinton likewise had met with disappoint- ment in not getting as many troops as he had expected. The Oneidas and some Onondagas had volunteered to
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 7, p. 593.
2 Ibid, p. 594.
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join him, but at the last moment they received a warning from General Haldimand, that he would let loose upon them such a number of his Indian allies as would con- vince them of their folly when too late.1 After erecting a strong stockade at Tioga Plains, and stationing a gar- rison in it, General Sullivan slowly moved up the Che- mung to give battle to the enemy at Newtown, the site of Elmira now. Brandt commanded the Indians, and Colo- nel John Butler the British and Tories. They were en-
trenched behind breastworks half a mile long and difficult of approach. Their works were masked by shrubs stuck in the ground, as if still growing. They contested their position bravely, but were compelled to break and flee. It was the 28th of August. The fields were ripe with corn, squashes, beans, potatoes and other vegetables. These were destroyed wherever found. Immense orchards of peach trees were laid waste, and the whole Indian country of the Lake region, including some forty towns, was laid in ashes. One whole month was devoted to the work of devastation, which had been enjoined upon Sul- livan in Washington's instruction. On the 5th of October the whole army, except the pack horses and their attend- ants, embarked in boats and floated merrily down the Susquehanna to Wyoming, where they arrived on the 8th of October, and were feasted for two days on venison and turkey. In spite of the fact that Congress had found fault with Sullivan for having requested an unreasonable amount of provisions, 2 the troops had been on half rations for some time.3 The sumptuous feast at Wyoming was therefore badly needed for the march to Easton, where they completed their victorious expedition, October 15th.
1 Stone's Life of Brandt, vol. 2, p. 8.
2 Journal of Congress, vol. 5, p. 252.
3 General Sullivan's Indian Expedition, p. 167.
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The day before Congress had passed a resolution thanking General Sullivan and his army for their important ser- vices, and setting apart a day of general thanksgiving in the United States. 1
The expedition of Sullivan and that of Brodhead, to- gether with the surrender of Hamilton to Clark in the same year, marked the high tide of border warfare in Penn- sylvania. When Governor Hamilton had learned of Clark's success in 1778, he at once started out with a little army of 500 British, Tories and Indians and marched through the forest to Vincennes. Taking possession of it, he spent the winter making alliances with the Indians. But late in February the crafty Virginian appeared before Vincennes, and after getting willing possession of the town, forced Governor Hamilton to surrender. Instead of having the carnival of burning and scalping which he had planned for the summer, the cruel Britisher went to Virginia, a prisoner of war, to be exchanged in New York and allowed to return to England, March 10, 1781.2 His successor at Detroit was DePeyster, who was more humane than Hamilton, for he told the Delawares, when later they joined the British cause, that he preferred live meat (meaning prisoners) to scalps.
Though the expeditions of 1779 put an end to organized Indian invasions, they did not stop the depredations of isolated bands. So exasperating did these again become that the year 1780 marks the time when premiums for scalps were offered by the authorities of Pennsylvania. On the Western frontier the attacks began as early as the middle of March, on the Ohio south of Pittsburg ; and by May they had reached Westmoreland.3 Most of the in-
1 Journals of Congress, p. 289.
2 Haldimand MSS., Book 123, p. 53.
3 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, p. 246.
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habitants were again in the forts, and the work in the fields had to be done with guns close at hand. Ranging companies were organized at the expense of the people, who subscribed liberally. But a great scarcity of powder existed. Some that had been sent was damaged in the carriage over the mountains, and what was received in good order was accompanied with a request to use spar- ingly, as the lower counties were heavily taxed and it was necessary to convince them that care and prudence would be exercised. Moreover, help of any kind was not to be expected from Philadelphia in the summer of 1780. The British were in New Jersey, scarce two days' journey away, and Washington required the support of Eastern Pennsylvania, lest the consequences of an accident might be fatal to the city.1 It is therefore not surprising that the calls from the frontier were loud and impatient. They came from Huntingdon 2 and Bedford, 3 where the presence of the Indians was a greater menace even than in Westmoreland ; for the preparations to meet them were not so extensive. Huntingdon had only four or five pack horses and wanted two or three beef cattle "drove down" from Bedford ; while Bedford had four horses and wanted six more, one driver, and a supply of forage.4 No wonder President Reed wrote to Colonel Piper, Lieuten- ant of Bedford county, that the public business was some- times delayed a whole day while members of the Council were employed in looking for horses and wagons.
On the 10th of July, to give relief to the Western country, Colonel Brodhead informed the Lieutenants of his department that he would make an attack upon the Wyandots upon the Sandusky. But before he was ready
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, p. 318.
2 Ibid, p 278.
3 Ibid, p. 297.
4 Ibid, p. 350.
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news arrived that a body of thirty of their warriors had attacked the settlements southwest of Fort Pitt. He sent a detachment down the river to intercept the savages. The movement was successful, for the whole party were killed, but not before some unsuspecting harvesters had been surprised and shot.1 This affair made Brodhead all the more anxious to proceed to Sandusky. But he had only one day's allowance of bread and three or four of beef, and the conflicting authority of Pennsylvania and Virginia made it difficult to get supplies.2 The time for starting to the Sandusky was now postponed until Oc- tober ; but when that time had arrived, all hope of the expedition was abandoned.3 Brodhead deeply lamented the failure to "retaliate on the hell-hounds of the forest." However, he felt that the blame did not lie at his door. "The want of provisions," wrote Washington, "is a clog to our operations in every quarter." 4 Added to his cha- grin, the Colonel was much annoyed by the disaffection of the inhabitants west of the mountains. They often drank the health of George III, and seemed to desire the removal of the Continental troops to give them a chance to submit to the British Government. 5
On the Northumberland frontier there were fewer de- predations committed in 1780 than in the years before ; but they were sufficient in number to keep the people in daily fear. The German regiment was stationed in the valley, but it did not seem to be of much account, 6 for they would not stir a foot off their posts without some other support. The Indians made their appearance in
1 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 48.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, p. 536.
3 The Olden Time, vol. 2, p. 375.
4 Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 49.
5 The Olden Time, vol. 2, p. 378.
6 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, pp. 156, 157 and 172.
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April,1 coming as far down even as Colonel Hunter's plantation, fifteen miles from Sunbury. Here they killed a man and child and carried off a woman. Northumber- land Town was almost abandoned, and there was danger of another "Runaway." During the summer the usual appeals for help were sent to Philadelphia, and several companies of militia from the nearby counties were ordered into Northumberland. In September 2 a large body of Indians appeared at Fort Rice, which had been put up the fall before by the Pennsylvania Germans and occupied by them. These having now been withdrawn, the Indians thought it a favorable chance to attack the fort. Colonel Kelley was first ordered to relieve the small gar- rison ; but when he got there the enemy had gone off to set fire to the barns and grain-stacks in the valley. Learning that there were some two or three hundred Indians, General Potter, who was then home from Camp, marched to Muncy Hill. But the wily savages, having accomplished their work of ruin, escaped with but one scalp and one prisoner, but with a large number of horses and cattle.
General Potter, 3 born in Ireland, was the son of the first Sheriff of Cumberland county, served in the French war as lieutenant, and pursued the Indians who had killed school-master Brown and his ten pupils near the present site of Greencastle. When the Revolution made it necessary for the Associators to organize, he became Colonel of the Upper Battalion of Northumberland county. He commanded the men of his county at Tren- ton and Princeton, and was a brigadier-general at Brandy- wine and Germantown. In 1778 he was at his home in
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, p. 156.
2 Ibid, p. 567.
3 Pennsylvania Mag., vol. 8, p. 563.
.
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Penn's Valley on account of his wife's sickness and as- sisted in repelling the savages. He held important State offices after the war and died on his large estate in Penn's Valley, 1784, being a member of the Council of Censors at the time of his death.
The Indian invasions made so early on the frontiers of Northumberland were a part of a general movement that proceeded from Niagara. It fell heaviest upon New York, 1 however, where one of the first things done by Brandt was to fulfill the threat of Sir Frederick Haldi- mand against the Oneidas. It had been a very severe winter, so cold that in New York harbor cannon were wheeled on the ice from Staten Island to the city. The Indians who had been driven from their comfortable homes in the lake region of New York suffered greatly in their narrow and crowded quarters at Niagara.2 Spring therefore was welcomed by them that they might satisfy their thirst for revenge. They probably, and correctly so, counted on a feeling of security on the frontiers after Sullivan's Expedition. The first news from the North Branch concerning Indian attacks reached Philadelphia through the military commanders of Northumberland county. 3 Then Colonel Stroud of Northampton informed the Council of the distress which "the unexpected and cruel invasion of the savages had occasioned." + About the middle of April he reported that two men had been captured a few miles from his house, up the Delaware, and that the inhabitants were fleeing below the moun- tains towards Easton, Bethlehem and Nazareth. The reports from Wyoming, or the North Branch, had not been exaggerated. One of the first captives made by the
1 Stone's Life of Brandt, vol. 2, chapter 2, passim.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, p. 591.
3 Ibid, pp. 157-171.
4 Ibid, p. 176.
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Indians was a man who had escaped from Queen Esther's ring of murderous torture, 1778.1 He was a prize of more than ordinary value. After committing various outrages in the very heart of the settlement, they pushed down to Fishing Creek, where they took the famous Moses Van Campen prisoner, after scalping his father, brother and uncle. There were at this time only about 120 men at Wyoming, the consolidated independent companies and a detachment of the German regiment. These were dis- tributed among the forts and in scouting parties. While they gave comparative security, they were not able to keep the savages from going around the settlements and penetrating even beyond the Blue Mountains. A party of Indians murdered a man and his three children on the Schuylkill, 33 miles north of Reading ; 2 at Tunkhan- nock, some booty was received that was supposed to have been taken at Fort Allen, below the Lehigh Water Gap ; while a man and his daughter were captured near Mauch Chunk and carried to Niagara. 3 Under these common dangers and sufferings, it would not seem possible for the territorial bitterness to come to the surface ; yet such was the case.4 Colonel Hunter, by order of President Reed, 5 had stopped some supplies on their way up the Susque- nanna to Wyoming, while "jealousy and discontent" broke out between the soldiers from the lower counties of Pennsylvania and those of Wyoming. Congress there- fore ordered that Washington should station a garrison at Wyoming, to consist of troops "not belonging to the Line of Pennsylvania or Connecticut, or citizens of either of said States."
1 Miner's History of Wyoming. p. 273.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. S, p. 529.
3 Miner's History of Wyoming, p. 286.
4 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, p. 649.
5 Ibid, p. 717.
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New Year's sun in 1781 was veiled heavily, though before the close of the year Cornwallis had surrendered at York Town. The mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line at Morristown was evidence of the complete exhaustion of material resources for the Revolution. But none of the States had been so thoroughly drained as Pennsylvania. This State had not only been the residence of Congress, with all their train of attendants and officers, but also of all the military mechanism of the United States. From hence the quartermaster principally drew his wagons, his horses, his camp equipage of all kinds-besides a great number of wagoners and artificers. Prisoners of war and state had been largely the inheritance of Pennsylvania. All this was done at great expense to the State, and bur- dened it with a heavy load of debt. The substance of the people had been used, but in its place they had nothing but money made of rags. Such was the condition of Pennsylvania when Congress made its requisition for sup- plies, in 1781, an amount equal to eleven years' taxes and all the other income of the State.1 It is not surpris- ing, therefore, that the demands from the frontiers were harder to meet now than ever. In the very first letter of the year, received by President Reed from Colonel Brod- head, the latter had to apologize for his " tale of misfor- tune." 2 He had to send to Virginia for cattle, and Gov- , ernor Jefferson had bought up all the flour in Pennsylvania west of the mountains. Scarcely a pound of either was left for the regulars at Fort Pitt, who, besides having scant rations, were almost naked, and would soon not have a rag to cover their nakedness. At the same time a grand council of British and Indians was in session at Detroit, planning a descent upon Western Pennsylvania. Money,
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 9, pp. 141-149.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, p. 700.
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fine uniforms and every other art of persuasion were used with the savages ; while Colonel Brodhead had never been furnished with goods of any kind, nor a penny of money to transact business with the Indians. They drove their cattle and swine to Detroit, and did business there on a gold basis, whereas at Fort Pitt they received money which even the Americans would not take from them. It was impossible, therefore, to hold the wavering Dela- wares any longer ; and not a single tribe beyond the Ohio remained friendly.1 Colonel Brodhead was informed of the defection of the Delawares by the Moravian missionary on the Muskingum-Heckewelder-and in April he or- ganized an expedition. He made a rapid march to the wilds of Ohio, and had an interview on the Muskingum with Heckewelder, as to the whereabouts of the Moravian Indians-converts of Heckewelder and his associate, Zeisberger. It was agreed that these Christian Indians were not to be disturbed, but it required the greatest ex- ertions of Brodhead to carry out his agreement ; for the militia hated the Christian Indians as much as the others. Nevertheless, it must be said that the peaceful attitude of the Delawares up to that time was largely due to these missionaries. Heckewelder was constantly with this tribe from 1771-1786, and Zeisberger spent sixty-two years of his life among them and other tribes.2 The information of these men respecting Indian affairs during the Revo- lution was always eagerly sought, 3 and they often gave timely warning of an intended raid on the Western fron- tiers. It is true, the Indian war parties that plundered and destroyed white settlers were sometimes sheltered and
1 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, p. 770.
2 Heckewelder's Narrative, p. 7.
3 Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 8, pp. 152-158 ; vol. 9, p. 57.
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