USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and its centennial celebration, Volume I > Part 12
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General Hand was not deficient in military ability, but he was constantly hampered by circumstances beyond his control, and met with but little success in his Department. One diffi- culty with which he had to contend was the suspicion which arose during the summer of 1777 as to the loyalty of some of the inhabitants of western Pennsylvania and Virginia. Some of the best men in Pittsburg were arrested, among whom was Colonel
1 General Clark was at Fort McIntosh in January, 1785, as one of the United States Commissioners, to make the treaty with the Delawares and Wyandots.
2 History of Allegheny County, 1889, p. 83; Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 16. This affair took place, according to some writers, within the former limits of Beaver County, about where Edenburg, Lawrence County, now is. See Old Westmoreland, p. 42. But Butterfield says that it was in the present Mahoning County, Ohio (Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 15).
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George Morgan,' the United States Indian Agent. Even General Hand himself was suspected. But if in some cases this suspicion was proved to be unfounded, in several it was shown by the re- sult to be terribly true. Alexander McKee was one of the sus- pected persons, and in April, 1776, he had been put on his parole not to give any aid to the British. Violating his parole he was arrested, confined to his own house for a time, and then paroled again. General Hand then ordered him to report to the Con- tinental Board of War at York. But in March of 1778 he, with Matthew Elliott, Simon Girty, and others, fled from Fort Pitt to the wilderness and the Indians. The following contemporary notice of this incident we copy from the manuscript letter-book of Col. George Morgan :
1 Morgan easily proved his innocence and was acquitted. His indignant repudiation of the charge of disloyalty is expressed in the following letter:
" YORK TOWN NOV'r II, 1777.
" GENTLEMEN,
"The gth Instant at Lancaster I was fav'd with your Letter of the 30th inclosing a Copy of the Resolve of Congress on the 22d Ulto., suspending me from my employments in con- sequence of certain Reports injurious to my Character, representing me as unfriendly to the Cause of America-As those Reports originated from one who murdered his own Wife & Children & were spread by Men of low & infamous Characters-And as those Members of Congress with whom I conversed during my late visit of ten days at York appeared satisfied therein & I was not even called on by Congress in the matter, tho' I transacted Business with them & received fourteen thousand dollars from them to compleat certain contracts, I flatter'd myself that no Suspicions against me remained in their Minds, arising from such groundless & infamous Charges & of the Falsehood whereof nothing could have prevented General Hand from informing Congress, but his thorough Contempt of them. I am however happy in having the Opportunity generously allowed me by Congress to answer the Charges which may be brought against me & to face my Accuser, if any has or may appear.
" If (with the assistance of the Delaware Council) my having prevented a general Indian War on the Western Frontiers contrary to the Expectations & Prophecies of those who pretended to know most-If my having prevented the total Evacuation of the Posts on the Ohio for want of Provisions, through the Neglect or Inability of those instructed to supply them-If my having procured constant & the most exact Intelligence of the En- emies Number & Inability to injure us from Detroit & Niagara whilst the Country was alarmed from the false Reports of ignorant & designing Men-If my having pointed out to Congress many things to promote the public Service-If my having put a Stop to the Encroachments on Indian Lands, the fine quality whereof tempted even some Men in Authority to transgress the Orders of Congress-If my having in every Instance most faithfully performed my Duty (which is or ought to be well known to Congress) can be construed as unfriendly to the cause of America I confess the charge-But if these things can be allowed as Tests of my Attachment to the Cause I was among the earliest in step- ing forth to defend on Principles which I have never varied from in a Single Instance, I doubt not but Congress will do my Character ample Justice, by the fullest Testimony in my Favour-Should anything contrary to this Declaration be proved against me-May I be punished with Infamy.
"The favours I beg of Congress are a speedy Hearing, an Examination of Witnesses in my Presence, & that I may know my Accuser if any.
"As my character must suffer deeply by an accusation, which however despicable as to its Author, is magnified into a Matter of so much consequence as to have claimed the Attention of Congress I must beg the favour of the Hon'ble Committee to give me a speedy Hearing & to furnish me with the Charges against me in writing, if they shall think proper. " I am &c, &c.
" GEO. MORGAN.
" To The Hon'ble RICHARD H. LEE DANIEL ROBERDEAN Esqs. Committee of Congress
& RICHARD LAW
YORK TOWN." *
* From Ferdinand J. Dreer collection of manuscripts owned by the Historical Society of Penna.
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FORT PITT, March 31, 1778.
To the Hon'ble Henry Laurens, Esq'r
SIR,
As the Commissioners and General Hand are possessed of every information respecting the situation of affairs in this Quarter, I beg leave to refer you to their Letters & to the enclosed Message from the Delawares & Governor Hamilton's new Proclamation with two of his old ones which accompany this.
I only wait here in hopes of being assistant to the Commissioners during their stay at this place. As they are fully acquainted with my sentiments respecting Indian Affairs I need not repeat them to Congress.
The elopement of Mr. McKee, late Crown Agent at Pittsburgh who most dishonorably broke his Parole on the 28th inst. has somewhat checked the pleasing expectation I entertained respecting the Delawares & Shawanese, tho' I think the former will not be altogether influenced by him. Four persons accompanied him, viz. Matthew Elliott, Simon Girty, Robin Surplis & Higgins
Elliott had but a few weeks ago returned from Detroit via New York on his Parole & I am told had possessed McKee's mind with the persuasion of his being assassinated on his Road to York. Indeed several persons had expressed the like apprehensions and perhaps had also mentioned their fears to him which I am of opinion has occasioned his inexcusable Flight. It is also very probable that Elliott might have been employed to bring Letters from Canada which may have influenced Mr. McKee's conduct.I
Girty has served as Interpreter of the Six Nation Tongue at all the public Treaties here & I apprehend will influence his Brother who is now on a Message from the Commissioners to the Shawanese to join him.
The Parties of Wiandots mentioned in the Letter from Capt. White Eyes have committed several Murders in Monongahela County. Last week two soldiers who had crossed into the Indian Country 4 or 5 miles from this Post to hunt discovered five Indians, one of whom they shot before the Indians perceived them-the Fire was returned, one of our Men was killed & the other escaped back to the Fort.
The Massacre of the Indians who were invited to a friendly Conference at Fort Randolph 2 & the unlucky mistake at Beaver Creek I doubt not Congress are fully informed of by General Hand to whose letters I beg leave to refer & remain with the greatest respect
Your hble Obedt. Servt.
GEORGE MORGAN.
The flight of these men, especially of Girty,3 McKee, and
1 He had in his pocket a captain's commission from the British .- Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 17.
2 The massacre at Fort Randolph referred to in this letter was that of Cornstalk and other Indians, which we mentioned in the text on page 77.
3 There were four Girtys, Thomas, Simon, George, and James, brothers; all of whom, with their mother and their stepfather, were taken captive by the Indians, the stepfather being burned at the stake before the eyes of his family. Of these brothers Thomas alone returned to civilized life. The others led lawless and savage careers, Simon becoming the most infamous. But he had, perhaps, more humanity than is generally supposed. It is
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Elliott, was fraught with dire results for the borderers, for they were soon heard from as organizing revolt among the tribes friendly to the Americans, and stimulating the hostile savages to further depredations along the frontiers. The record of their deeds fully justifies the strong language which Hugh H. Bracken- ridge used a few years later, when he called them "that horrid brood of refugees, whom the devil has long since marked as his own." They finally made their way to Detroit, and the British, who received them hospitably, at once began to employ them in fomenting trouble for the western settlements. The command- ant at Detroit-the notorious Governor Hamilton-encouraged them and their Indian banditti in the commission of every atrocity against the Americans. Hamilton offered liberal bounties for scalps, but would pay nothing for prisoners, and was on this account nicknamed "the hair-buyer." I This con- duct of the commandant induced the Indians, after making their captives carry their baggage into the vicinity of Detroit, there
said that through his importunities many prisoners were saved from torture and death and that in business transactions he was scrupulously exact and honest. It was when he was under the influence of rum, of which he was very fond, that he had no compassion. His cruel indifference to the agonies of Col. Crawford's death at the stake, of which he was a witness, and his mocking refusal to end them by shooting Crawford, as the latter en- treated him to do, showed him to be at times a monster. It is hard to believe that this was the same man who could at other times show fondness for little children. For an instance of this fondness, see account of James Lyon's captivity in a note to our chapter on Beaver borough.
1 Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 7. The following graphic account of British brutality is given by an eye-witness, viz., John Leith, who was taken prisoner by the Indians and remained among them eighteen years. On his return from captivity, and on a later occasion, he was for several days at Fort McIntosh (Beaver). His narrative says:
" When we arrived there [on the bank of the Detroit River], we found Governor Hamilton and several other British officers, who were standing and sitting around. Immediately the Indians produced a large quantity of scalps; the cannon fired; the Indians raised a shout; and the soldiers waved their hats, with huzzas and tremendous shrieks, which lasted some time. This ceremony being ended, the Indians brought forward a parcel of American prisoners, as a trophy of their victories; among whom were eighteen women and children, poor creatures, dreadfully mangled and emaciated, with their clothes tat- tered and torn to pieces in such a manner as not to hide their nakedness; their legs bare and streaming with blood, the effects of being torn with thorns, briars, and brush. To see these poor creatures dragged like sheep to the slaughter, along the British lines, caused my heart to shrink with throbbings, and my hair to rise with rage; and if ever I committed murder in my heart it was then, for if I had had an opportunity, I should certainly have killed the Governor, who seemed to take great delight in the exhibition."-Biography of John Leith, by Ewel Jeffries, Robert Clarke & Co.'s Reprint, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1883, p. 29.
Some of the British commanders were worse than the Indians. The old Moravian missionary, Heckewelder, relates the following incident:
" A veteran chief of the Wyandot nation, who resided near Detroit, observed to one of the British commanders that surely it was meant that they should kill men only, and not women and children. 'No, no,' was the answer, 'kill all, destroy all, nits breed lice !' The brave Indian veteran was so disgusted with this reply, that he refused to go out at all."-An Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations, by the Rev. John Heckewelder, Reprint by the Hist. Soc. of Penna., 1876, p. 338.
In each of these accounts the Governor alluded to was Hamilton. For another version of his conduct, see the following chapter.
VOL 1 .- 6.
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to put them to death. It is a pleasure to know, however, that there were British officers who were opposed to this barbarous policy. De Peyster, who succeeded Hamilton in the command at Detroit, was very humane, and sought to check the cruelties of the savages. To the Delawares he said in one of his speeches: "Bring me prisoners. I am pleased when I see what you call 'live meat,' because I can speak to it and get information; scalps serve to show that you have seen the enemy, but they are of no use to me, I cannot speak with them." In a letter from John Hackenwelder I to Colonel Brodhead, dated Coochocking, June 30, 1779, an account is given of the spirited and humane con- duct of a Captain Bird, a British officer, who was sent with some warriors against Fort Lawrence (Laurens), and while at San- dusky interposed to save the life of an American prisoner of the Wyandots. We give the following extract from this letter, which is almost entirely unpunctuated, but which tells its story with a good deal of force and directness:
Simon Girty after coming into Detroit went Immediately to the Com- mandant informing him that he had 800 Warriors ready at his Command who had determined to attack and take Fort Lawrence that all their re- quest was that an English Captain might be sent with them to see how they would behave this then was immediately agreed to and Captain Bird sent off to go with them likewise to take 4,000 £ worth of goods with him for these Warriors after all had been done according to Orders and the goods given unto the Indians he was told that none of all the Wyandotts would go with him against Fort Lawrence but that they were about to Murder a poor prisoner which they had in their possession, the Captain on hearing this did all that was in his power to save the poor man, begging and praying their head men to save his life, and frequently offering 400 Dollars for him on the spot, and indeed was about to offer 1000 Dollars of which the above mentioned Gentleman [a trader present] agreed to pay down 400 out of his store Immediately, but after finding all to no purpose went to the man told him that he could do nothing that if he (Capt.) was in his place he would pick up a gun and de- fend himself as long as he could, but the Prisoner seeming Pretty easy only told them that the time would come that they would pay dear for all their committed Murders, and then was taken away by the Women and
1 Hackenwelder, usually spelled Heckewelder, was the well-known Moravian missionary, who was David Zeisberger's assistant at Friedenstadt, on the Big Beaver, and who went with the mission to the Tuscarawas River, Ohio, in 1773. Like Zeisberger, he was very useful to the American commanders, frequently giving them notice of intended incursions of the savages. Coochocking, from which his letter quoted above was written, is the present Coshocton, Ohio.
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Murdered at a most horrid rate after the Capt took the Body buried it but they (the Wyandotts) diging it out again and sticking the head upon a pole, had to bury it a second time-after all was the Capt went up to them they were all assembled and spoke to them in the following manner -You damned Rascals-if it was in my power as it is in the power of the Americans not one of you should live, Nothing would satisfy me more than to see such D-Is as you are all killed, you Cowards is that all you can do to kill a poor Innocent prisoner, you dare not show your faces where an Army is, but there you are busy when you have nothing to fear get away from me never will I have to do with such-as you are, and be Guilty in such a horrid murder as you have Committed at. This and the Capts behavior towards them so long as he was at Sandusky brought the ill will of the Indians upon him, he would not suffer an Indian to come near him for a long time and would never forget it .- I am informed that the Capt was determined that should he meet with the good luck of having the Fort at Tuscarawas surrendered up to him, to tell all the men there to march under arms to Detroit and that if any Indians should offer to touch any one of the Prisoners to fier upon them and kill all who should come in their way.I
The fall of 1777 saw a fearful increase of Indian hostilities along the western borders, and, under a resolution of Congress of November 20, 1777, Commissioners of the United States were sent to Fort Pitt to inquire into border affairs and to provide for carrying the war into the enemy's country. These Commis- sioners recommended to General Hand the protection, by the militia alone, of the frontiers, until they could secure some action of Congress for that purpose. Accordingly, in May, 1778, that body determined upon raising for the Western Department two regiments in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and as General Hand had requested to be recalled, Washington was asked to nominate his successor in that Department. To this office he appointed Brig .- Gen. Lachlan McIntosh, an officer in whom he had great confidence, and whom he spared from the eastern army with great reluctance, writing of him at the time: "His firm disposi- tion and equal justice, his assiduity and good understanding, added to his being a stranger to all parties in that quarter, point him out as a proper person; and I trust extensive advantages will be derived from his command, which I could wish was more agreeable." 2
1 Penna. Arch., 1773-1779, vol. vii., pp. 524-525.
2 Washington to Congress, May 12, 1778 .- Sparks's Washington, v., 361; Washington's Letters to the American Congress, New York, 1796, vol. ii., p. 224; Penna. Arch., Ist Ser., vol. vi., pp. 460, 461, 467, 528.
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GENERAL MCINTOSH'S EXPEDITION I
We reach here a point of vital interest in our local history, for the name of McIntosh is inseparably connected with the story of Beaver County, and especially of its county-seat.
We shall now give, with as much fulness as possible, an account of his connection with Beaver County history, and of the fort which he built at the mouth of Beaver River.
In June of 1778 Congress was informed that the general Indian war which had been so long anticipated was now immi- nent, and it was resolved to send a formidable expedition against the British at Detroit and their Indian allies in the intermediate country. Orders were therefore issued to General McIntosh to organize such an. expedition. Washington had already ordered the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment to Fort Pitt. This was a veteran body of men who had been recruited in the counties adjoining that place. That part of the Thirteenth Virginia Regiment which was still at Valley Forge was also ordered under Col. John Gibson, well known to the history of this region, to march to the same point. For the reduction of Detroit three thousand troops were voted, with an appropriation of nearly a million dollars for the expenses of the expedition. Fifteen hundred men were to assemble at Fort Randolph, and the same number were to go by the river from Fort Pitt to that place, whence the combined forces were to penetrate the Indian country, and destroy their crops and towns. Brodhead did not reach Fort Pitt until September 10th, having been ordered to make a digression against the Indians at Wyoming, and as it was then impossible to procure provisions within the time named
1 Lachlan McIntosh was born at Borlam, Inverness, Scotland, March 17, 1727. His father, John More McIntosh, the head of the Borlam branch of the clan McIntosh, accom- panied Oglethorpe to Georgia in 1736 with one hundred of his tribesmen, and settled in New Inverness (now Darien), in what is now McIntosh County. Lachlan had few oppor- tunities for education, but, aided by Governor Oglethorpe, he studied mathematics and surveying. He became a clerk at Charleston in the counting-house of his friend Henry Laurens, and was afterwards a surveyor in the Altamaha region. Having studied military tactics, he became Colonel of the First Georgia Regiment in the early part of the Revolu- tion, and was soon made a brigadier-general. In a duel in May, 1777, he killed Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He accepted a command in the central army, under Washington, and while in this position was sent, in 1778, to Fort Pitt, which he reached in August of that year. He was actively engaged in the siege of Savannah in 1779, and in the defense of Charleston in 1780, where he became a prisoner of war. In 1784 he became a member of the Continental Congress, and in the following year was appointed a commissioner to treat with the Southern Indians. He died in Sa- vannah, February 20, 1806.
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by the Fort Pitt Commissioners for the march of the force to the westward, and the prices of all necessaries having also enormously advanced, it was considered best to postpone the expedition.
In the meantime, however, General McIntosh had not been idle. At the date of his arrival 1 in the Western Department, there were but two forts in Pennsylvania west of the Allegheny Mountains occupied by Continental troops, viz., Fort Randolph (Wheeling), and Fort Hand, in Westmoreland County. There were, however, besides these some thirty or forty small stations, or so-called "forts," scattered throughout this region, some be- tween Wheeling and Pittsburg; others upon the waters of the Monongahela, and still others along the northern frontier from the Kiskiminetas to Fort Ligonier. These, at different times, were garrisoned by militia, or defended by voluntary rangers, and were frequently altered, kept, or evacuated, according to the humors, fears, or interests of the people of the most influence. These stations were expensive, and, if the war was to be carried into the enemy's country, would be unnecessary, and McIntosh resolved, therefore, to break them up as soon as he could without giving too much offense to the people whose assistance he so much required.2
That the frontiers might not be left entirely exposed while the army marched into the Indian country, the lieutenants of Monongalia and Ohio counties were authorized to raise a ranging company jointly, to scout continuously along the Ohio River from Beaver Creek downward, where the savages usually crossed to annoy the settlements. McIntosh had also seen the disad-
1 About the 6th of August. The following heretofore unpublished letter shows him to have been at Fort Pitt in that month early enough to have begun the execution of his plans for the campaign.
"FORT PITT, Wednesday 19th August 1778.
" SIR, "I propose going over the Ohio River, into the Indian Country the first of next Month, and as I am apprehensive I will be disappointed in the Troops I expected. I must request of you to get three hundred of the Militia of your County ready for a march as they will then be ordered with their arms accoutrements &c to this & properly Officered according to Law-either by Draught or otherwise-I will be glad to hear when you are ready, & am Sir
"Y'r most obt. Serv't "LACHN MCINTOSH "Com'g Western Dept."
" To Colo Lochry "Lt. of Westmoreland County
" The men may be continued at the Posts General Hand allowed untill further orders- at the same time I will request you to inform me when their time expires."-From the Ferdinand J. Dreer coll. of MS. letters, etc., owned by the Hist. Soc. of Penna.
" See Frontier Forts of Penna, vol. ii .. p. 486; Wash .- Irvine Cor., p. 23.
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vantages of having the military stores at different points in the country, and he therefore adopted the plan of concentrating all these at Fort Pitt, making that a distributing point for the whole region.
FORT MCINTOSH BUILT
In preparation for future movements westward, the com- mander also moved down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Big Beaver Creek, where, upon the site of the present town of Beaver, he built, in the fall of 1778, by fatigue of the whole line, the fort which bore, in honor of its projector, the name, Fort McIntosh. The expedition by way of Fort Randolph having, as we have said, been abandoned, the commander's further in- structions included only a movement, at his own discretion, against the western Indians. But McIntosh was not satisfied with this minor project; he had in his own mind the more am- bitious design of striking a blow against the British power in their northwestern stronghold. He said "that nothing less than Detroit would satisfy him." As it turned out, however, neither project could be accomplished that season, and the General was compelled to await at Fort McIntosh the return of spring and the developments of the future.
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