USA > Pennsylvania > Early history of western Pennsylvania, and of the West, and of western expeditions and campaigns, from MDCCLIV to MDCCCXXXIII > Part 13
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It was the overweening confidence, presumptuous arrogance, and reckless temerity of Gen. Braddock, that led him into this ambuscade. Had he hearkened to the advice of Washington, Sir Peter Halket, or Franklin, and kept scouts and guards on the wings of the army, the In- dians in the ravines would have been discovered, and his whole force would have been prevented from falling into the snare. This neglect was the primary cause of his defeat, which common prudence might have avoided. Had he charged the concealed enemy with the bayonet, the ravines would instantly have been cleared. Or had he brought his artillery to the points where the ravines terminate in the valley, and scoured them with grape-shot, the French and Indians would have im- mediately been driven from the places of their concealment, and the terrible slaughter of his troops would not have followed. (1) Had he fallen back upon the level ground, which extended half a mile in dis- tance from the Monongahela, at his crossing place, to the battle ground, as soon as the advantageous position of the enemy was discovered, he would have prevented the total insubordination of his troops, and have been able to have scoured the ravines with cannon, or have led his men to the charge. But he contemptuously disregarded all prudent counsel : remained upon the same spot, a mark for the rifles and musketry in the ravines : and for three hours raving like a maniac at his panic-stricken soldiery: prohibiting the provincial troops from adopting the Indian mode of warfare, until the ground was strewed with the dead and the
(1) Spark's Washington, Vol. 11. p. 474-475.
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dying : every officer on horse back, except Col. Washington, either killed or wounded: one half of the whole army weltering in gore, and the remainder fleeing from the field of carnage in disorder and dismay. At length, after being five times himself dismounted by the shots of the enemy, he was carried from the field mortally wounded, the victim of his own folly, his contempt of Indian warfare-his own overweening confidence in the prowess of veteran troops, and his obstinate self-com- placency.
The character of Braddock has been well drawn by Grahame, a Bri- tish historian, which is inserted in conclusion :
"Braddock was a man of courageous and determined spirit, and ex- pert in the tactics and evolutions of European regiments and regular warfare. But, destitute of real genius, and pedantically devoted to the formalities of military science, he was fitter to review than to command an army ; and scrupled not to express his contempt for any troops, how- ever efficient in other respects, whose exercise on parade did not display the same regularity and dexterity which he had been accustomed to' witness, and unfortunately to overvalue, in a regiment of English guards in Hyde Parke. Rigid in enforcing the most trifling punctilios and in in- flicting the harshest severities of military discipline, haughty, obstinate, presumptuous, and difficult of access, he was unpopular among his own troops, and excited the disgust both of the Americans and the Indians. There are two sorts of vulgarity of mind; to the one of which it is congenial timidly to overrate, and to the other presumptuously to under- rate, the importance of scenes and circumstances remote from the rou- tine of its ordinary experience. The latter of these qualities had too much place in the character of Braddock, who, though totally unconver- sant with American warfare, and strongly warned by the Duke of Cum- berland that ambush and surprise were the dangers which he had chiefly to apprehend in such scenes, scorned to solicit counsel adapted to the novelty of his situation from the only persons who were competent to afford it. Despising the credulity that accepted all that was reported of the dangers of Indian warfare, he refused, with fatal skepticism, to be- lieve any part of it. It seemed to him degrading to the British army to suppose that he needed the directions of provincial officers, or could be endangered by the hostility of Indian foes." (1)
(1) Grahame's History of N. Am. III. 394.
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CHAPTER VI.
CAMPAIGN OF 1756 AGAINST CROWN POINT, NIAGARA, FORT DEQUESNE FAILED -FRONTIERS OF PENNSYLVANIA EXPOSED TO THE RAVAGES OF THE IN- DIANS-COL. ARMSTRONG'S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE INDIANS IN 1756- THEIR SIGNAL DEFEAT-PROCEEDINGS OF THE PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL -THE EFFECT OF ARMSTRONG'S EXPEDITION ON THE INDIANS.
Notwithstanding the campaign of 1755, especially the expeditions against Niagara and Fort Duquesne, entirely failed, and as a conse- quence, several hundred miles of the frontiers were exposed to the rava- ges of the Indians, and by their bloody incursions whole settlements were broken up in the province of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and many English killed and others carried captive to Kittanning and Logstown,*
* At a council held at Carlisle, January 13th-19th, 1756, attended by Gov. Morris, James Hamilton, Wm. Logan, Richard Peters, Joseph Fox, Esq., Commissioners ; George Croghan and Conrad Weiser, Interpreters, and the Indians, Belt, Seneca George, New Castle, David, lagrea, Silver-Heels, Isaac and others. Mr. Croghan was called on to make some statements touching his Indian agency :
" Mr. Croghan informed the Governor and Council that he had sent a Del- aware Indian, called Jo Hickman, to the Ohio for intelligence, who returned to his house the day before he came away. That he went to Kittanning, an Indian Delaware town, on the Ohio, (Allegheny) forty miles above Fort Du- quesne, the residence of Shingass and Capt. Jacobs, where he found one bun- dred and forty men, chiefly Delawares and Shawanese, who had there with them, above one hundred English prisoners, big and little, taken from Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
That then the Beaver, brother of Shingass, told him that the Governor of Fort Duquesne had often offered the French hatchet to the Shawanese and Delawares, who had as often refused it, declaring that they would do as they' should be advised by the Six Nations, but that in April or May last, (1755) a party of Six Nation warriors, in company with some Caghnawagos and Adi- rondacks, called at the French fort in their going to war against the Southern Indians, and on these the Governor of Fort Duquesne prevailed to offer the French hatchet to the Delawares and Shawanese, who received it from them and went directly against Virginia. That neither Beaver nor several others of the Shawanese and Delawares, approved of this measure, nor had taken up the hatchet; and the Beaver believed some of those who had, were very sorry for what they had done; and would be glad to make up matters with the English.
That from Kittanning he went to Logstown, where he found about one hun- dred Indians, and thirty English prisoners, taken by the Shawanese, living at the Lower Shawanese town, from the western frontier of Virginia, and sent up to Logstown. He was told the same thing by these Shawanese that the
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the plan for the campaign of 1756, was as extensive as that of 1755. It was agreed upon, in a grand council of war, held by Gen. Shirley, successor of Gen. Braddock, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in America, and the Governors of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylva- nia and Maryland, to reduce Crown Point, Niagara, with other posts on Lake Ontario, and Fort Duquesne. It was resolved for this purpose, to raise nineteen thousand men (1) in America. The Pennsylvania quota of troops was fifteen hundred. But in consequence of unavoid- able delays in recruiting a sufficient number of soldiers, and whilst the British and American officers were adjusting their respective claims to rank, and deliberating whether to attack Niagara or Fort Duquesne, Montcalm, successor to Dieskua, in the command of the French troops, in Canada, advanced at the head of five thousand Europeans, Canadians, and Indians, and invested Oswego, and obliged the garrison there, con- sisting of sixteen hundred men, to surrender ; which so disconcerted the plan of offensive operations, agreed upon in grand council. that every thing of that kind was given up, and the whole attention of Gen. Shirley was directed to security against further losses. " The colonies were urged to send on reinforcements to their army, by representations, that the enemy would have it in their power to overrun the country, unless a superior force was immediately brought forward to oppose them." And though much labor had been employed in collecting and transporting troops and provisions, for decisive operations, nothing was accomplished. The sanguine hopes of the colonists, of a successful campaign against their combined enemies, again terminated in disap-
(1) Ramsays's Colonial History, Vol. 1, p. 311.
Beaver had told him before, respecting their striking the English, by the ad- vice of some of the Six Nations ; and further he was informed that the French had solicited them to sell the English prisoners; which they had refused, de- claring they would not dispose of them until they should receive advice from the Six Nations, what to do with them. That there are more or less of the Six Nations living with the Shawanese and Delawares in their towns, and these always accompanied them in their excursions upon the English, and took part with them in their war. That when at Logstown, which is near Fort Duquesne, on the opposite side of the river, he intended to have gone there to see what the French were doing in that Fort, but could not cross the river for the driving of ice ; he was, however, informed that the number of the French did not exceed four hundred. That he returned to Kittanning, and there learned that ten Delawares were gone to the Susquehanna, and as he supposed to persuade those Indians to strike the English, who might perhaps be con- cerned in the mischief lately done in the county of Northampton.
Mr. Croghan said he was well assured, by accounts given him from other Indians, that the Delawares and Shawanese acted in this hostile measure, by the advice and concurrence of the Six Nations, and that such of those as lived in the Delaware towns, went along with them, and took part in their incur- sions."
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pointment. The marauding parties of French and Indians prowled upon the frontiers, as they had prior to, and immediately after Brad- dock's defeat .*
The frontiers of the province of Pennsylvania, were during the au- tumn of 1755, and the year 1756, over-run by scalping parties of Indians, instigated and assisted by the French. Governor Morris, in his mes- sage to the Assembly, (1) anticipated their cruel incursions. "This un- fortunate and unexpected change in our affairs," says the Governor, " deeply effect every one of his majesty's colonies, but none of them in so sensible a manner as this province ; while having no militia, it is thereby left exposed to the cruel incursions of the French and barbarous Indians, who delight in shedding human blood, and who make no distinction as to age or sex, as to those that are armed against them, or such as they can surprise in their peaceful habitations ; all are alike the objects of their cruelty-slaughtering the tender infant, and frightened mother, with equal joy and fierceness. To such enemies, spurred by the native cruelty of their tempers, encouraged by their late success, and having now no army to fear, are the inhabitants of this province exposed ; and by such must we now expect to be over-run, if we do not immediately prepare for our own defence; nor ought we to content ourselves with this, but resolve to drive to, and confine the French to their own just limits." (2)
King Shingas, at the head of a party of warriors, fell upon the fron- tier settlements west of the Susquehanna, and committed the most cruel
* FALLING SPRINGS, (Chambersburg,) Sabbath Morning, Nov. 2, 1755. To the inhabitants of the lower part of Cumberland county :
GENTLEMEN :- If you intend to go to the assistance of your neighbors, you need wait no longer for the certainty of the news. The Great Cove is de- stroyed, James Campbell left his company last night, and went to the Fort at Steel's meeting house, and there saw some of the inhabitants of the Great Cove who gave this account, that as they came over the hill they saw their houses in flames. The messenger says that there are but one hundred, and that they are divided into two parts ; the one part to go against the Cove, and the other against the Conollaways, and that there are two French among them. They are Delawares and Shawanese.
The party that came against the Cove are under the command of Shingass, the Delaware King. The people of the Cove that came off saw several men lying dead ; they heard the murder shout, and the firing of guns, and saw the Indians going into their houses-that they had come out before they left sight of the Cove.
I have sent express to Marsh creek, at the same time I send this; so I ex- pect there will be a good company there this day ; and as there are but one hundred of the enemy, I think it is in our power, if God permits, to put them to flight, if you turn out well from your parts. I understand the west set- tlement is designed to go, if they can get any assistance to repel them.
All in haste, from your humble servant,
BENJAMIN CHAMBERS.
(1) July 24, 1755.
(2) Votes Assembly, IV. 416.
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murders. (1) " A party of the Indians fell upon the inhabitants of Ma- hahony, (Penn's creek, Union county,) killed and carried off about twenty-five persons, and burnt and destroyed their buildings and im- provements, and the whole settlement was deserted. In Tuscarora val- ley, an Indian trader and several other persons were killed. The settlements of the Great Cove were attacked, the houses burned, a number of persons killed, seventeen carried off, and the whole set- tlement broken up and destroyed. In December, 1755, the Indians extended their incursions into Northampton county-burnt fifty houses, murdered above one hundred persons, continued their ravages, murders, and devastations, and over-run and laid waste a great part of that county, even as far as within twenty-five miles of Easton. A large body of Indians under the direction of French officers, had fixed their head quarters within the borders of that county, for the better security of their prisoners and plunders." (2)
In the spring of 1756, the Indians, headed by some French, continued their depredations ; committed several murders in the Little Cove, and in the region of Fort Cumberland. "McCord's fort,* in Conococheague, was burned by the savages, twenty-seven persons were killed or cap- tured ; the Indians escaped the pursuit of two parties of inhabitants of the vicinity, while another party overtook some of the enemy at Sidling Hill, where an engagement (3) took place, in which a severe loss was
(1)" Were his (Shingas') war exploits, says Heckewelder, all on record, they would form an interesting document, though a shocking one ! Conogo- cheagio, Big Cove, Shearman's valley and other settlements along the frontier, felt his strong arm sufficiently, that he was a bloody warrior,-cruel his treat- ment, relentless his fury. His person was small, but in point of courage and activity, savage prowess, he was said to have never been exceeded by any one."-Appendix 42, 53, 81, 88, 92, 119.
(2) Provincial Records, N. p. 258.
* To guard against these devastations, a chain of forts and block-houses was erected at an expense of eighty-five thousand pounds, by the Province of Pennsylvania, along the Kittanning hills, from the river Delaware to the Maryland line, commanding the principal passes of the mountains, garrisoned with from twenty to seventy-five provincials, as the situation and importance of places respectively required. On the east side of the Susquehanna, begin- ning at the Delaware, were Depui's fort, Fort Lehigh, Fort Allen, Fort Ev- erit, Fort Williams, Fort Henry, Fort Swatara, Fort Hunter, Fort Halifax, Fort Augusta; west of the Susquehanna, Fort Louther, at Carlisle; Fort Morris and Fort Franklin, at Shippensburg; Fort Granville; Fort Shirley, on Aughwick Branch, a creek that empties into the Juniata; Fort Littleton ; Fort Loudon, on the Conococheago creek, Franklin county; these three last named forts, ranged in the north and south line. From Fort Shirley there was an Indian path to Fort Augusta, on the Susquehanna. Eight companies of soldiers were stationed on the west side of the Susquehanna, commanded by Lieut. Col. John Armstrong, called the Second Battalion of Pennsylvania Regiment.
(3) April 12, 1756.
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sustained by the inhabitants." About the same time, another party of Indians, headed by some French, were seen in the neighborhood of Fort Cumberland. (1)
In July, 1756, the Indians appeared in Sherman's valley. They fell on Fort Granville,* at or near the present site of Lewistown, stormed it and took a number of prisoners, and carried them to Kittanning, an In- dian town on the Allegheny river, where the present seat of justice of Armstrong county is located.
(1) About the first of April, 1756, a Mr. Paris, with a scouting party from Fort Cumberland. fell in with a small body of Indians, commanded by Mon- sieur Donville, a Frenchman ; an engagement ensued ; the commandant was killed and scalped, and the following instructions, written at Fort Du Quesne, was found about him:
FORT DU QUESNE, 23d March, 1756.
The Sieur Douville, at the head of a detachment of fifty savages, is ordered to go and observe the motions of the enemy in the neighborhood of Fort Cum- berland. He will endeavor to harrass their convoys, and burn their magazines at GONOKOCHEAGUA, should this be practicable. He must use every effort to take prisoners who may confirm what we already know of the enemy's de- signs. Then Sieur Donville will employ all his talents, and all his credit, to prevent the savages from committing cruelties upon those who may fall into their bands. Honor and humanity ought, in this respect, to serve as our guide. Olden Time. DUMAS.
* The enemy before leaving the fort posted up a paper, which was after- wards found there, and was sent to the Governor and Council at Philadelphia, and has been carefully preserved among the letters and papers in the Secre- tary's office at Harrisburg. The following is a literal transcript of the ori- ginal, copied in 1844:
Il nece poin deux peu ne pase pas que Jamay je nous Regarde de bon Coeur Et nesperce jamay auqueune grase de mapare Car jene auqueune an vie de vous voyr apre le Chagrien que vous mave Causex ain si Char Che allteur pour moy nefaitte pon defou non plus sur un in Conseten qui ne panse Cason ple sir Croye moy Char Che fore tune allieurs pour moy je ri ne panse arien moy Case la il nex rien qui puise me De tou ne de nest santi man adie bon soir el nes pa tar je par de mein vous mouve toujours dixetros vous il nes pa Convenable que vous Restier isci Cela ne vous Convenien pas Cinon je pran - dre plu vous prandre des Mesure pour y me ditour uer plue je serai rustique ne panse pa que serve devous percequittee vous panserie malle Car je sivous voulle netre poin tenu retire vous demoy Car je ne sourois re sis ter.
Vostre Servettee
PINELLA CIERE.
The following is also copied from the same paper of the original. It is an interlineal orthographical correction of the original spelling:
It nest point d'aussi peu. Ne passer pas que jamais je vous. Regarderai den bon coeur it n'esserex jamais ancune grace de ma parte car je nai ancune envie de vous voir apres le chagren que vous m'avez cause ainsi chercher aillieure pour moi ne faitez point de Fou non plus sur un Inconstant qui ne pense qua son plaisir croyer moy chercher Fortune ailleurs pour moy je ris ne pense a rien moy qua cela il nest rien qui puisse me detourner de unest sentiment adieu bon soer il nest pas tard je pars Demain vous monvez toujours (ja) dis retirez vous il nest pas convenable que vous Restioz ici cela ne vous convenient pas sinon je prendrai plus vous prendroz des measures pour y me ditourner plus je sui Rustique ne pensor pas que sur de vous perse cater vous penserier mal ear je se vous voulez netre point tenu retiroz vous de moy car je ne sourois resister. Vostre Serviteur.
The paper appears to be a mere fragment of a letter-it is incoherent-and evidently has omissions, which are not easily supplied, without knowing the particular circumstances under which it was written.
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About the middle of August of this year, Colonel Armstrong made preparations for an expedition against Kittanning, from which, up the Kiskiminetas and down the Juniata, the Indians made their incursions. At this place, ammunition and supplies for the Indians, was sent by the French to carry havoc into the settlements. At this place the noted Captain Jacobs, a Delaware, lived, and the famous Shingas also occasion- ally resided. To break up this Indian rendezvous, and to strike a blow which would be felt by the savages, and relieve the frontier settlements from the horrors of Indian warfare, the expedition of Col. Armstrong was planned, and gallantly carried into execution. His force consisted of 307 men.
The following is the official report of Col. Armstrong, and is an ex- cellent history of the transaction :
FORT LITTLETON*, Sept. 14th, 1756.
May it please your Honor :- Agreeable to mine of the 29th ult., we marched from Fort Shirley(1) the day following, and on Wednesday, the 3d instant, joined our advanced party at the Beaver Dams, a few miles from Frankstown, on the north branch of Juniata. We were there informed that some of our men having been out upon a scout, had discovered the tracks of two Indians on this side of the Allegheny Moun- tain, and but a few miles from the camp. From the freshness of the tracks, their killing of a cub bear, and the marks of their fires, it seemed evident they were not twenty-four hours before us, which might be looked upon as a particular Providence in our favor that we were not discovered. Next morning we decamped, and in two days came within fifty miles of the Kittanning. It was then adjudged necessary to send some persons to reconnoitre the town, and to get the best intelligence they could concerning the situation and position of the enemy. Where- upon an officer, with one of the pilots and two soldiers, were sent off for that purpose.
The day following, we met them on their return, and they informed us that the roads were entirely clear of the enemy, and that they had the greatest reason to believe they were not discovered; but from the rest of the intelligence they gave, it appeared they had not been nigh enough the town, either to perceive the true situation of it, the number of the enemy, or what way it might be most advantageously attacked.
We continued our march, intending to get as near the town as pos- sible that night, so as to be able to attack it next morning about day-
* Bedford County, Pa.
(1) Huntingdon County.
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HISTORY OF
light ; but to our great dissatisfaction, about nine or ten o'clock at night, one of our guides came and told us that he perceived a fire by the road- side, at which he saw two or three Indians, a few perches distant from our front. Whereupon, with all possible silence, I ordered the rear to retreat about one hundred perches, in order to make way for the front, that we might consult how we could best proceed without being disco- vered by the enemy.
Some time after the pilot returned a second time, and assured us from the best observations he could make, there were not above three or four Indians at the fire. On which it was proposed that we should imme- diately surround, and cut them off ; but this was thought too hazardous ; for, if but one of the enemy had escaped, it would have been the means of discovering the whole design, and the light of the moon, on which depended our advantageously posting our men, and attacking the town, would not admit of our staying until the Indians fell asleep. On which it was agreed to have Lieut. Hogg go with twelve men and the person who first discovered the fire, with orders to watch the enemy, but not to attack them till break of day, and then, if possible, to cut them off. It was also agreed (we believing ourselves to be but about six miles from the town,) to leave the horses, many of them being tired, with what blankets and other baggage we then had, and take a circuit off of the road, which was very rough and incommodious, on account of the stones and fallen timber, in order to prevent our being heard by the enemy at the fire place.
This interruption much retarded our march ; but a still greater loss arose from the ignorance of our pilots, who neither knew the true situa- tion of the town, nor the best paths that led thereto ; by which means, after crossing a number of hills and valleys, our front reached the river Allegheny, about one hundred perches below the main body of the town, a little before the setting of the moon; to which place, rather than by pilots, we were guided by the beating of the drum and the whooping of the warriors, at their dances.
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