USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Connellsville > Centennial history of the borough of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, 1806-1906 > Part 12
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ford as ensign in a company of riflemen, probably on the recommendation of the young man's friend, Colonel George Washington. Though not in the Braddock expedition, as has sometimes been erroneously stated, he rendered import- ant service. For about three years he did frontier duty along the Potomac, acted as a scout, served in the garrison at Cumberland, and was promoted to a lieutenancy.
When the Forbes expedition was being organized, Washington was given the command of the Virginians, and, by his own act, made Crawford a captain, an act for which he had the Governor's authority. On receiving his com- mission, Captain Crawford recruited a full company in his own neighborhood and led it in the march westward. After some further military service, he returned to his home in Virginia, and resumed his work as a farmer and surveyor.
Twelve years or more pass, and Crawford appears again upon the scene as a soldier. He is now living on the Yough. It is 1774 and "Dunmore's war" is going on. Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, has marshalled an expedition against the tribes of Indians in the Ohio val- ley. Scenes of barbarity and savage cruelty have been en- acted by these tribes. Far and wide, there has been con- sternation. The settlements have been raided and ravaged. The whole frontier is in a blaze. The red men resent the encroachments of the whites. They seek revenge for the massacre of their people at Captina and of Logan's family and kindred at Yellow Creek-seek fierce, immediate, indis- criminate revenge.
Western Pennsylvania is roused. "We have every rea- son to apprehend that we shall not long be exempt from the calamities of a savage war." The settlers in what is now Washington and Greene counties flee in large num- bers, to the east side of the Monongahela, and many flee to the east side of the mountain. The men of this region build forts and blockhouses. One is built at Stewart's Crossings. Valentine Crawford, brother of William, builds what he calls "a very strong blockhouse" on Jacob's creek,
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and says: "The neighbors, what few of them have not run away, have joined with me, and we are building a stockade fort at my house." Gilbert Simpson builds a fort on Wash- ington's land where Perryopolis now stands. A dozen forts. or more are built in the present county of Fayette, and Valentine Crawford writes to Washington in June, 1774: "If we had not had forts built, there would not have been ten families left this side of the mountains besides what are at Fort Pitt." A large scouting party is sent out after strag- gling Indians who have been plundering and murdering within four miles of the Monongahela river on the western side ; and in this same month of June a company is raised by William Crawford, living at Stewart's Crossings, and taken to Fort Pitt to join the Dunmore expedition.
Lord Dunmore, "an ambitious, energetic man," musters. a strong force, a force of about three thousand border troops. One wing, composed of men from the Holston, Watauga and Kanawha settlements, is commanded by General Andrew Lewis; the other wing, the right or northern, is led by the Earl himself. Lewis assembles his men near the headwaters of the Great Kanawha, and marches them to the mouth of that river at Point Pleasant. Here, October 10, 1724, in early morning, he is attacked by a force of nearly a thousand warriors, led by Cornstalk, the famous Shawnee chief. The battle rages all day long, but it ends in the defeat and retreat of the Indians.
The right wing of Lord Dunmore's army comes west- ward by way of Winchester and Cumberland, over the mountains and through our county to Redstone (now Brownsville), thence to Fort Pitt. From Fort Pitt he goes down the Ohio "with a flotilla of a hundred canoes, besides keel-boats and pirogues," to the mouth of the Hockhocking river, builds a stockade there, presses westward to the Sci- oto, fortifies himself on the Pickaway plains near Chillicothe, sends word to Lewis to join him at this point, and sends out detachments against neighboring Indian towns.
Among these detachments is one commanded by
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William Crawford, now a major, who with his company has come with Dunmore's army from Fort Pitt. Lord Dun- more knows and values Crawford. Last year (1773), he visited Crawford, spent some time at his humble home on the banks of the Yough, and probably went with him to look at the land round about, with a view to making an investment. When Lewis was in the Kanawha valley in June, Lord Dunmore had sent word to the officer in com- mand at Fort Pitt: "You could not do better than send Captain William Crawford with what men you can spare to join him, to co-operate with Colonel Lewis, or to strike a blow himself, if he thinks he can do it with safety. I know him to be prudent, active and resolute."
But, instead of going with the left wing to serve under Lewis, he accompanies the right wing and serves under the Earl of Dunmore. Neither he nor his commander saw much service in the campaign. Crawford is sent to destroy a defiant Indian town, called Salt-lick town, in Franklin county, Ohio, and he destroys it, takes fourteen prisoners and rescues several white captives. But the spirit of the Indians has been "broken by their defeat" at Point Pleas- ant. A treaty of peace is negotiated, the Indians agreeing to surrender all claim to the lands south of the Ohio.
So ended Dunmore's war; a short war, less than six months in duration, but one which had great results. It has been truthfully said of this war that "it was the first in the chain of causes that gave us for our western frontier in 1783 the Mississippi and not the Alleghanies." It cowed the northwestern tribes and "kept them quiet for the first two years of the Revolutionary struggle," and allowed the advance of civilization westward.
On the 13th day of November, 1774, Crawford arrived at his home at Stewart's Crossings (New Haven), and the next day he wrote Washington: "Sir, I yesterday returned from our late expedition against the Shawanese, and I think we may with propriety say we have had great success, as we made them sensible of their villainy and weakness, and
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I hope made peace with them on such a footing as will be lasting, if we can make them adhere to the terms of agree- ment."
We do not know the names of the men of his com- pany, or anything of the losses which the company may have sustained.
THE REVOLUTION.
Fayette county, to use its present name, cordially approved the stand made by the colonies against the aggres- sion of the mother country in 1775. The news of Lexing- ton and Concord, April 19th, 1775, brought forth an out- burst of enthusiastic patriotism. Local issues were for the time forgotten. The partisans of Virginia and the partisans of Pennsylvania in the boundary line contention were of one mind as to the sacred cause of American liberty.
Under the call of the Pennsylvanians, the people of Westmoreland county ( Fayette being included in it at that time) met May 16, 1775, at Hannastown, the county seat,. and adopted a series of radical and energetic resolutions which amounted almost to a declaration of independence, arranging for the forming of regiments and the taking of measures for defense in case of British invasion, and announcing to the world that they were ready to oppose the acts of "a wicked ministry and a corrupted Parliament" with their "lives and fortunes."
On the very same day, a meeting, under Virginian aus- pices, was held in Pittsburgh, at which "the inhabitants of that part of Augusta county that lies on the west side of the Laurel Hill" adopted resolutions of similar import, and appointed a committee of defense. Twenty-eight prominent and influential citizens were put on this committee, several of them being residents of the present Fayette county and one of them, Major William Crawford, being a resident of what is now New Haven.
During the fall of that year, Crawford recruited a bat- talion that came in time to be known as the Seventh Vir- ginia Regiment. On the 12th of January, 1776, he was
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appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Virginia; and on the 11th of the following October, he was commissioned colonel of the Seventh by act of Congress, his commission dating from August 14th. The men under his command were chiefly from southwestern Pennsylvania, then claimed by Virginia, and some of them were, no doubt, from the Yough region. They were with Washington in the battle of Long Island August 27th, and in the retreat through New Jersey into Pennsylvania. They crossed the Delaware with him that Christmas night when he advanced upon the enemy, though the river was full of floating ice and the air full of blinding sleet and snow. They were in the battle of Trenton the next day, the battle of Princeton January 3d 1777, the battle of the Brandywine September 11th, and that of Germantown October 4th. Crawford, their colonel, was sent out with a detachment of light-armed men acting as scouts during the operations round about Philadelphia, in the fall of that year, in which service Washington said : "He rendered efficient service." In the battle of the Brandy- wine, "he took an active and prominent part," according to Washington, and "came near being captured"; and in the battle of Germantown, General Reed said that Crawford had proved himself "a very good officer."
In November of that year, the Congress requested Gen- eral Washington to send Crawford to Pittsburgh "to take command, under Brigadier-General Hand, of the Conti- nental troops and militia in the Western Department," the savages again becoming troublesome along the border. After going to York, Pennsylvania, where the Congress was then in session and receiving instructions, he came westward to his home at Stewart's Crossings and then to Fort Pitt.
Washington spoke of him as "a brave and active officer," and the officers of his regiment, on separating from him, presented him with an address in which they said: "We beg leave to take this method of expressing our sense of the warmest attachment to you, and at the same time our sorrow in the loss of a commander who has always been
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influenced by motives that deservedly gain the unfeigned esteem and respect of all those who have the honor of serv- ing under him. Both officers and soldiers retain the strong- est remembrance of the regard and affection you have ever discovered towards them; but as we are well assured that you have the best interest of your country in view, we should not regret, however sensibly we may feel the loss of you, that you have chosen another field for the display of your military talents.
Permit us, therefore, to express our most cordial wish that you may find a regiment no less attached to you than the Seventh, and that your services may ever be productive of benefit to your country and honor to yourself."
To this address, Colonel Crawford sent an appropriate and appreciative reply.
The feelings expressed in this communication from the men of the regiment were, no doubt, the feelings entertained toward Colonel Crawford by all those who, at various times and in various places, served under his command.
He was courageous and reliable. He interested him- self in the comfort of his soldiers. With all his fearlessness and vigor, he was prudent. Indications are not lacking that he had skill in the leadership of men, though it may be he was not capable of large, independent command. He was trusted by those above him, and those under him. He was considerate and kind, and yet firm. In fact, he was a rigid disciplinarian, from all accounts. A. credible story is told that a soldier, named Rotruck, who lived on the west side of the Yough river not far above our present borough lini- its, came home on a furlough to see his sick wife. For some reason, he overstayed his leave of absence. Colonel Crawford, then at home, hearing of the matter, had the man arrested and the case investigated; believing the man guilty of desertion, he ordered that he be shot at once. Tradition adds that the wife came to the Colonel on bended knee, begging the life of her husband, and, finding her entreaties to avail nothing, she pronounced a fearful curse
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upon him, devoting him to a death of torture and unspeak- able horror, and his descendants to lives of imbecility and shame.
Another regiment, raised in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1777, was the Thirteenth Virginia, often called the "West Augusta Regiment." It was intended for border service, and was raised chiefly through the efforts of Crawford, whom the Governor of Virginia appointed its first Colonel. It was stationed in detachments at various points on the Ohio and Alleghany rivers. Under the authority of Penn- sylvania, a company was raised in Westmoreland county in 1776, with Joseph Erwin as its captain. It took part in the battles of Long Island, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown, and was mustered out at Valley Forge, New Year's day, 1778, its term of enlistment having expired.
The Eighth Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line con- sisted of seven . companies from Westmoreland county and one from Bedford, was raised in the summer of 1776, and served until the close of the war. Eneas Mackey was the first Colonel; George Wilson, of New Geneva, Fayette county, the first Lieutenant-Colonel. After their death in 1777, Daniel Brodhead became Colonel, and Richard Butler Lieutenant-Colonel.
The regiment was at Bound Brook, N. J., in the winter and spring of 1777, and a detachment of it was sent that summer with Morgan in his Northern campaign. The regi- ment was ordered to Fort Pitt afterward. It went, under General McIntosh's directions, to the Wyoming and West Branch valleys to suppress Indian insurrections, and to the mouth of the Beaver and built Fort McIntosh (where the town of Beaver now stands), and to the Muskingum, where they helped to build Fort Laurens.
In these three regiments-the Seventh and Thirteenth Virginia and the Eighth Pennsylvania-there were many men from the Yough region, probably not a few of them from our own vicinity, and it can be safely asserted that this neighborhood was represented in the independent or-
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ganizations that from time to time were formed for special service on the frontiers.
Colonel Crawford took an active part in these border expeditions. He built a stockade fort on the Alleghany river about sixteen miles above Fort Pitt, near the present towns of Parnassus and New Kensington. The fort was directed by General McIntosh to be called Fort Crawford, and Crawford at intervals was in command of it. He went with the expedition that resulted in the building of the forts McIntosh and Laurens and in "several minor expeditions against the Indians." George Rogers Clark wished Craw- ford to accompany him in his campaign against the Illinois country, but Crawford felt obliged to decline the invitation. Clark came from Williamsburg, Virginia, with a small force, to Redstone (now Brownsville), where he gathered a few recruits, and on the 12th of May, 1778, left Redstone bound for the Falls of the Ohio ( Louisville), with about a hundred and fifty soldiers and with about twenty families, on their way to Kentucky, who desired his protection. In due time he reached the Illinois country, captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes, dealt a crushing blow to the Indians and their British allies, extended our territory westward and rendered a most valuable service to his country for all time to come.
LOCHRY'S EXPEDITION.
The Indians becoming alarmingly hostile and aggres- sive in 1780, George Rogers Clark proceeded to raise a force, intending to march to the Wabash country and, if practi- cable, capture Detroit, the seat and center of the British influence in the Northwest. He went back and forth from the Falls of the Ohio to Fort Pitt seeking troops, but his progress was slow. It is said "he hoped to raise the bulk of his forces" in western Pennsylvania, but from various causes his hopes were not realized. Colonel Crawford, with whom he had served in the Dunmore war, aided him to the best of his ability in securing troops.
From Westmoreland county, 110 men joined the expe-
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dition, some of whom, as we know, belonged to that part of the county which was afterward erected into Fayette; and these 110 men were put under the command of Colonel Archibald Lochry, County Lieutenant. Sixty of the men belonged to Captain Thomas Stokely's Rangers, and fifty of them were new recruits. They went down the Ohio in flat boats to Fort Henry ( Wheeling), expecting to join Gen- eral Clark at that point, but finding that he had gone further down the river, Lochry and his men proceeded to a point some miles below the mouth of the Great Miami, August 24, 1789, where they were surprised by a band of Indians under Joseph Brant and "were all slain or captured with small loss to their assailants. Many of the prisoners, includ- ing Lochry himself, were afterwards murdered in cold blood by the Indians."
Another company of men from Westmoreland, prin- cipally from the Yough region, went out to take part in this expedition. The company was recruited chiefly by James Paull, afterward Colonel Paull, of Dunbar township, and was commanded by Captain Benjamin Whaley, of Tyrone township. They floated down the river from Elizabeth to Fort Pitt, and from Fort Pitt, where Captain Isaac Craig's artillery joined them, to the Falls of the Ohio. But, "the other forces failing to assemble," the expedition was aban- doned and Captains Whaley and Craig, with their men, came home on foot through Kentucky and Virginia, "encounter- ing innumerable perils and hardships."
Colonel David Williamson, of Washington county, led a force against the Indians in the Muskingum valley in 1781 and again in 1782. In his second expedition, he fell upon the hapless, peaceful Moravian Indians, "the Christian Indi- ans," and massacred them, a deed of revolting cruelty. It is not known that any soldiers from Fayette county were in either of these expeditions. If there were any, let us hope that they were among the eighteen men who protested against the slaughter of those innocent people, and who withdrew from the scene, calling on God to witness that they abhorred the deed about to be done.
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On the 24th of May, 1782, a force of 480 mounted men assembled at Mingo Bottom, on the Ohio river, about two and a half miles below Steubenville. These men were about to take part in an enterprise in which our own neighborhood was profoundly interested :
CRAWFORD'S SANDUSKY EXPEDITION.
Many of the men were from the Yough, and the leader was the sturdy and well-tested soldier, William Crawford, of Stewart's Crossings, New Haven, now in the fiftieth year of his age. It was an expedition, long felt to be absolutely necessary, to put down the hostile tribes in the neighborhood of the Sandusky river, in what in now Ohio. The fierce Wyandots and Delawares and Shawnees, known as the San- dusky Indians, were bitter enemies of the Americans and, encouraged as they were by the British commandant at Detroit, they kept up an unceasing warfare against the fron- tier settlements. General Washington said: "I am con- vinced that the possession or destruction of Detroit is the only means of giving peace and security to the western frontier," and General William Irvine, now in command at Fort Pitt, said: "It is, I believe, universally agreed that the only way to keep Indians from harassing the country is to visit them. But we find, by experience, that burning their empty towns has not the desired effect ..... They must be followed up and beaten, or the British, whom they draw their support from, totally driven out of their country. I believe if Detroit was demolished, it would be a good step toward giving some, at least temporary, ease to this coun- try."
This was the belief of Colonel Crawford and, though he had no intention of going with this Sandusky expedition of 1782, he cordially approved and recommended it. There was no difference of opinion as to the necessity of it, and it was "as carefully considered and as authoritatively planned as any military enterprise in the West during the Revolution," its promoters being not only "the principal military and civil officers in the Western Department, but
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a large proportion of the best known and most influential private citizens."
The expedition was made up of volunteers from the present counties of Fayette, Westmoreland and Washington, a number of them from the Youghiogheny valley. Colonel Crawford was prevailed upon to go, and with him went his son, his son-in-law, his nephew, and not a few friends and neighbors. On the 16th of May, he made his will, and on Saturday morning, the 18th, he left home, went to Fort Pitt, had an interview with General Irvine, joined the troops at Mingo Bottom on the 24th, was chosen commander by a vote of the men, started into the wilderness Saturday morning, the 25th of May, reached the Sandusky plains in nine days, and on the 4th of June entered one of the Wyan- dot towns and found it deserted. The same afternoon his army met a British force, called Butler's Rangers, and about 200 Indians. The Indians had learned of the expedition, and had sent runners to Detroit asking help. Captain Mat- thew Elliott, a tory from Path valley, Pennsylvania, and the notorious Simon Girty, "the white renegade," were with the Indians and British.
The battle lasted until sundown without marked advan- tage on either side. Colonel Crawford lost five killed and nineteen wounded; his opponents lost six killed and eight wounded.
The Americans "slept by their watch-fires in the grove" from which the enemy had been dislodged, and the enemy camped for the night upon the open plain. The next morn- ing neither side made attack, but, in the afternoon, 140 Shawnee warriors, painted and plumed, came from the south and took their position beside the Delawares and Wyandots, while small bodies of savages were seen coming to the scene of conflict. Lieutenant Rose said, "They kept pouring in hourly from all quarters."
A council of officers was held, and a retreat was de- cided upon. Fires were burned over the graves of the dead to prevent discovery. Seven of the wounded were put upon
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stretchers. The others, less seriously wounded, were put upon horses. Crawford and his imperilled army began the retreat as the darkness fell, but they were no sooner in motion than the Shawnees and Delawares attacked them, inflicting some loss and causing much confusion.
Three of the divisions hurried off from the route taken by the advance guard, and some of the men got into a swamp or "cranberry marsh."
At break of day, the retreating army reached the de- serted Wyandot village. Many had become separated from the main body, some of whom were captured by the Indians, while others found their way home through the untenanted forests, but somewhat more than three hundred had been able to keep together.
Among those who failed to appear when the divisions of the army had come together was Colonel Crawford him- self, and no one could give any information concerning him. The surgeon, Dr. Knight, and one of the guides, John Slover, were also missing.
Major David Williamson was now in command in Crawford's absence, and the retreat was continued. At noon of June 6th, the army found that it was being pursued, and that the pursuers were gaining on it. The woodland had almost been reached when the men began to be pressed by the foe, and at two o'clock in the afternoon they came to a stand on the eastern edge of the Sandusky plains, near Olen- tangy creek, five miles south of the present town of Bucyrus, in what is now Crawford county, Ohio. A battle followed between the Americans and the allied British and Indians. The Americans were "attacked on the front, left flank and rear," but stood their ground manfully. Then came on "a furious thunder storm," with torrents of rain that rendered much of the powder useless. The battle had lasted but an hour when the enemy withdrew.
The retreat was continued with occasional skirmishes, the last shot being fired near the present town of Crestline. On the 13th of June, the little army reached Mingo Bottom
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and crossed the Ohio. The next day they were discharged, and thus a sad and disastrous campaign of only twenty days "came to an end."
Many of the missing came in afterwards, but Colonel Crawford, who had been separated from his army the night of the retreat of June 5th, was captured ; was taken by sev- enteen Delawares to the Half King's town (Upper San- dusky), thirty-three miles to the west, where the chief painted his face black and started with him and Dr. Knight and other prisoners to a town of the Wyandots, then to a Delaware town on the Little Tymochtee Creek. All the pris- oners, except Crawford and Knight, were tomahawked on the way. Near the present town of Crawfordsville, in the northern part of Wyandot county, Ohio, Crawford was put to death amid indescribable tortures and indignities. He was tied to a stake, stripped naked, his hands bound behind him. A fire was made near enough to scorch him. "Powder was shot into his body, and burning fagots shoved against him." His executioners taunted him, Simon Girty, "the white renegade," prominent among them. For two hours he bore his excruciating suffering with unflinching fortitude, "speaking low and beseeching the Almighty to have mercy on his soul." He fell, and the savages scalped him and threw hot coals upon his head. Then he rose blinded, black- ened, burnt almost to a crisp, walked once or twice about the stake and fell dead. At sundown, June 11, 1782, the spirit of Crawford passed to rest, while for hours afterward the Indians danced in fiendish glee around his charred and lifeless body.
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