USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pennsylvania > Part 15
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town, which in the upper part, comprising a local platean some three hundred feet above the water, known as the Plains of Abraham, was fortified. By throwing hot shot from Point Levi, opposite the town, the English nearly destroyed the lower town, but could not reach the upper portion. An attempt to foree the passage of the Mont- morenei failed with a loss of five hundred men. For eight weeks all attempts to take the city proved fruitless. Meantime Wolfe had heard of the partial failure of Amherst, and the prospect seemed gloomy enough. Finally, by the advice of General Townsend, his faithful lieutenant, he determined to scale the rugged bluff which hems in the river, by secret paths. Accordingly, on the evening of the 12th of September, ascending the river with muffled oars to the mouth of a ravine, and following trusty guides, Wolfe brought his whole army with artillery by sunrise upon the Plains of Abraham, mueh to the surprise and discomfiture of the French, whose attention had been diverted by a noisy demonstration where a previous attempt had been made. Montcalm immediately drew up his entire force to meet the offered wager of battle. Long and fiercely the battle raged, but everywhere the French were worsted. Both Generals were mortally wounded. When at length Wolfe heard the glad accents of victory, he asked to have his head raised, and when he beheld the French fleeing on all sides he exelaimed with his failing breath, " I die content."
The campaign of 1759, like the preceding, ended gloriously for the combined English and American arms, yet the French were not entirely dispossessed of power in Canada. Early in the spring of 1760, Vaudreuil, Governor General, sent Levi, snecessor to Montealın, with six frigates and a strong force to retake Quebec. He was met three miles from the city by General Murray, and a very sanguinary battle was fought on April 28th, in which the English were defeated, Murray losing a thousand men and all his artillery. Levi now laid siege to the city, and just when its condition was becoming perilous from the lack of supplies, a British squadron with reinforcements and supplies appeared in the St. Lawrence. Whereupon Levi hastily raised the siege, and losing most of his shipping, fled to Montreal. Vaudreuil now had but one stronghold left, that of Montreal, and here he gathered in all his forces and prepared to defend his " last ditch." Early in September, three English armies met before the city. First came Amherst on the 6th with ten thousand, accompanied by Johnson with a thousand of the Six Nations, and on the same day came Murray with four thousand from Quebec, and on the fol- lowing day Col. Haviland with three thousand from Crown Point. Seeing that it would be useless to hold out against such a force, Vaudreuil capitulated, surrendering Montreal and the entire dominion of Canada into the hands of the English. This ended the war upon
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the land. But upon the ocean, and among the West India Islands, it was prosecuted until 1763, when a treaty of peace was signed at Paris, February 10th, whereby France surrendered all her possessions in America east of the Mississippi and north of the latitude of the Iberville River, and Spain at the same time ceded to the English East and West Florida.
Thus was the Indian war, virtually commenced by planting the leaden plates by the French along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, and commonly designated in history as the Seven Years' War, brought to a successful close, by the vast plans of empire formed by the comprehensive mind of Pitt, though at a cost to the British nation of five hundred and sixty millions of dollars.
And now was forever settled the question whether the population about to spread over the beantifnl valleys bordering upon the Alle- gheny and Monongahela Rivers-La Belle Riviere,-should be an English or a French speaking people, should be Catholic or Protestant.
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CHAPTER XI.
MIND OF INDIAN POISONED-THE RED AND WHITE MAN LIVE TOGETHER -PONTIAC -- HIS CONSPIRACY-GAME OF BAGGATIWA-GLADWIN AT DETROIT-INDIAN GIRL DISCLOSES THE PLOT -- PONTIAC FOILED -CONCEALED MUSKETS -- ATTACKS THE FORT -- GLADWIN SECURES SUPPLIES -- PONTIAC'S ORDERS FOR SUPPLIES MADE ON BIRCH BARK -- DALZELL SENT FOR SUCCOR-BOLDLY OFFERS BATTLE REPULSED, DEATH- SETTLERS DRIVEN FROM THEIR HOMES --- PITIABLE CON- DITION-PRESQUE ISLE-LE BOEUF AND VENANGO FALL-FORT PITT ATTACKED -- COMMANDER SUMMONED TO SURRENDER-BO- QUET SENT FOR RELIEF --- BATTLE OF BUSHY RUN-WON BY STRATEGY-RAISE THE SIEGE-BOQUET ENTERS-£100 OFFERED FOR PONTIAC-COLONEL BRADSTREET-DECEIVED BY THE INDIANS -BOQUET FIRM-DEMANDS PRISONERS AND HOSTAGES-IS STERN -MAKES TERMS -- CAPTIVES BROUGHT IN-NOT RECOGNIZED --- MANY PREFER TO STAY WITH THE INDIANS-LOVERS BRAVE ALL FOR THEIR LOVES-SONG OF THE GERMAN MOTHER -- PONTIAC YIELDS -- MISERABLE DEATII.
THE treaty of Paris put a period to the sanguinary campaigns of the Seven Years' War, so far as treaty stipulations could. But the Indians, who had confederated with the French, could not be reached nor bound by stipulations made three thousand miles away across the ocean, in which they had no voice. Though some of tlie tribes assembled and smoked the pipe of peace with the English, yet they had grown suspicious. The French had poisoned their minds against the English, telling them that the desire to obtain the fine lands was the motive which incited this deadly warfare, and that if the French were finally beaten, then the English would turn upon the natives, and drive them from all their pleasant hunting grounds. Though the French in America had accepted the conditions of the treaty, and were as a nation willing to be bound by it, yet there were individuals in whose breasts the recollection of sore defeats still rankled, and who saw in the hostility of the red men a means of wreaking their vengeance.
The thoughtful Indians saw, or fancied they saw, that daily com- ing to pass which the French had told them. They asked them- selves, not without reason, why the English were so intent to drive
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the French from the Ohio valley, spending freely hundreds of mil- lions of money, and sacrificing countless lives, if they did not expect to occupy these luxuriant valleys themselves; and when they saw the surveyor with his Jacob's staff and chain advancing as the 'armies retired, blazing his way through the forests, and setting up his mon- uments to mark the limits of the tracts, he was strongly confirmed in his suspicions. The English contemplated doing, so far as re- claiming the forests and settling the country, what was eventually done; but they indulged the-hope that the red man and the pale-face could dwell together in peace and unity, as the white man and the African have done since. But that dream had a baseless fabric. Hunting, fishing and war were the occupations of the one, while the arts of peace on farm, in workshop and mill, were the delight of the other.
The mutterings of discontent were heard among the Indians dur- ing the seasons of 1760-1-2, and seeret enterprises of dangerous consequence had been detected and broken up. Major Rogers, who with a small detachment had been sent to receive the surrender of the French posts along the great lakes of the Northwest, and raise the English colors, had met on his way the chief of the Ottawas, Pontiac, who dwelt on the Michigan Peninsula, who demanded from Rogers why he was entering upon the land of the Ottawas with a hostile band without his permission. Explanations ensued, the pipe of peace was smoked, and Rogers was allowed to proceed on his mission.
But ill concealed disaffection existed among all the tribes as they saw the emblem of the power of Britain floating from posts along all the lakes and the great river courses. Even the Six Nations, who had always remained the fast friends of the English, especially the Senacas, showed signs of hostility. These, with the Delawares and Shawnees, for two years had been holding secret communications with the tribes of the great Northwest, laboring to induce them to join in a war of extermination upon the English. "So spoke the Senacas," says Bancroft, "to the Delawares, and they to the Shawnees, and the Shawnees to the Miamis, and Wyandots, whose chiefs, slain in battle by the English, were still unavenged, until every- where, from the Falls of Niagara and the piny declivities of the Alleghanies to the whitewood forests of the Mississippi, and the borders of Lake Superior, all the nations concerted to rise and put the English to death."
It was not easy to arouse the tribes to united action, many feel- ing themselves bound to the English by treaties, and some by real friendship. It was necessary to work upon their superstition. A chief of the Abenakis declared that the great Manitou had shown himself to him in a dream saying: "I am the Lord of Life; it is I
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who made all men; I wake for their safety. Therefore I give you warning, that if you suffer the Englishmen to dwell among you, their diseases and their poisons shall destroy you utterly, and you shall all die."
The leader in all these discontents was Pontiac. He was now about fifty years old. He had been taken a prisoner from the Catawbas, and had been adopted into the tribe of the Ottawas, in- stead of having been tortured and burned, and had by his cunning and skill risen to be chief, and was now asserting his authority over all the tribes of the north. Pontiac had been a leading warrior, a sort of lieutenant general in the battle of the Monongahela, in which General Braddock had been worsted and mortally wounded. Seeing what slaughter his people had then wrought he doubtless thought that it would be easy, if all the Indians could be united, to utterly exterminate the English, and reclaim their country. Accord- ingly he sent out his runners to all the tribes in the northwest, with the black wampum, the signal for war, and the red tomahawk, direct- ing to prepare for war, and on a day agreed upon they were to rise, overpower the garrisons, and then lay waste and ntterly exterminate the English settlers. That he might rouse the entire people he snm- moned the chief's to a council, which was held at the river Ecorces on the 27th of April, 1763. Pontiac met them with the war-belt in his hand and spoke in his native and firey eloquence. He pointed to the Brit- ish flags floating everywhere, to the chieftains slain unavenged. He said the blow must now be struck or their hunting grounds would be forever lost. The chiefs received his words with accents of ap- proval, and separated to aronse their people and engage in the great conspiracy. The plan was skillfully laid. They were to fall upon the frontiers along all the settlements during harvest time, and destroy the corn and cattle, when they could fall upon all the out- posts which should hold out and reduce them, pinched with hunger. The blow fell at the concerted signal and blood and devastation marked the course of the conspirators. So sudden and unexpected was the attack that of eleven forts only three of them were success- fully defended, Venango, Le Boeuf, Presque Isle, La Bay, St. Joseph's, Miamis, Onachtunon. Sandusky and Michilimackinac, falling into their hands, the garrisons being mercilessly slaughtered; Detroit. Niagara and Fort Pitt alone holding out.
Among the first to feel the blow was Miehilimackinac. Major Etherington, who was in command, felt no alarm at the assembling of an unusual number of the tribes under their chief Menehwehna; though he had been warned of their hostility. But so confident was the Major of their pacifie intentions that he threatened to send any one who should express a doubt of their friendly purposes a prisoner to Detroit. On the 4th of June, the Indians to the number of about
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four hundred began, as if in sport, to play a game of ball, called baggatiway. Two stakes are driven into the earth something like a mile apart, and the ball is placed on the ground midway between them. Dividing their party into two sides each strives to drive the ball by means of bats to the stake of the other. This game they commenced, and the strife became fierce and noisy. Presently the ball was sent. as if by accident, over the stockade into the fort when the whole company rushed pell inell into the fort. This maneuvre was repeated several times without exciting any suspicion. Finally, having discovered all of the interior desired, they again sent the ball within, and when all had gained admission, suddenly turned upon the garrison, ninety in number, and murdered all but twenty, whom they led away to be made the subjects of torture or servitude.
For several reasons the fort at what is now Detroit was among the inost important of all the fortified posts. Its location on the river which connects the upper with the lower lakes gives it the command of these great waterways, and along its margin ran the chief Indian war-path into the great Northwest. Attracted by the fertility of the soil, and the mildness of the climate, the French farmers liad early settled here. "The lovely and cheerful region attracted settlers, alike white men and savages; and the French had so occupied the two banks of the river that their numbers were rated so high as twenty-five hundred souls. * The French dwelt * * upon farms, which were about three or four acres wide upon the river, and eighty acres deep; indolent in the midst of plenty, graziers as well as tillers of the soil, and enriched by Indian traffic."
All this happiness and prosperity Pontiae regarded with an evil eye. To his mind all this country of right belonged to the red man. By the cutting down of the forest, and multiplying the sounds of civilization, the game, which was their chief resource for living, was frightened away. The favored spots by the living springs and the fountains of sweet waters were grasped by the white man to make his continual abiding place, and would consequently be forever lost to the red man. If, by deep laid strategy, and unblushing deception, they could once seize upon all the strongholds and put the defenders to the slaughter they could then pursue their trade of blood upon the defenceless frontiers until the whole land would be cleared of the pale- face and his race exterminated.
The fort was situated upon the banks of the river within the limits of the present city of Detroit. It consisted of a stockade twenty feet high, some two hundred yards in circumference and iu- elosing seventy or more houses. The garrison, under command of Colonel Gladwin, was composed of the remains of the eightieth regiment of the line, reduced now to about one hundred and twenty men and eight officers. Two six-pounder and one three-pounder
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guns and three useless mortars constituted the armament of the fort, and two gunboats lay in the stream. Against this, Pontiac, with a smile on his face, but treachery in his black heart, came in person with fifty of his warriors on the first of May. Ile announced his purpose to come in a more formal manner in a few days for the purpose of brightening the chain of friendship, -- which usually meant that the chief's were ready to receive high piled up presents .- and to renew pledges of lasting peace. As this was a ceremony of frequent occurrence Gladwin had no suspicion of treachery. Tribes of the Pottawatamies and Wyandots dwelt a few miles below the fort, and a short distance above on the eastern side, the Ottawas, Pontiac's own tribe. The day was drawing near when the universal uprising. which had been agreed upon in council, should take place. Pontiac had laid his scheme skillfully, and as he thought there could be no possibility of failure. He had already been admitted to the fort, and had spied ont its strength and appointments and had bespoken admittance with his warriors. He had agreed with his confederates that when he should rise to speak he would hold in his hands a belt of wampum, white on one side and green on the other, and when he should turn the green side uppermost that should be the signal for the massacre of the garrison. But in savage as in civilized diplomacy,
The best laid schemes of mice and men Gang oft a-gley.
A dusky maiden of the forest had formed an abiding friendship for Colonel Gladwin. She had often visited the fort, and had, with native art, executed pieces of her handy work for the use of the Colonel. She had received from his hands a curious elk skin, from which she had wrought with her usual skill a pair of moccasins, and on the night previous to the contemplated massacre she had visited the fort to bring the work, and return the unused portion of the skin. So pleased was Gladwin with her skill that he asked her to take the skin and make him another pair, and if any were then left she might appropriate it to her own use. Ilaving paid her for her work she was supposed to have gone to her wigwam. But when the watchmen whose duty it was to clear the fort and shut the gates went at the evening signal gun, they found this maiden lingering in the inclosure and unwilling to depart. On being informed of this, Gladwin ordered her to be led to his presence, and in answer to the inquiry why she did not go away as had been her custom, she made the lame excuse that she did not like to take away the skin which the Colonel seemed to set so high a value on lest some injury or destruction might come to it. When asked why she had not made that objection before, seeing that she must now disclose her trouble, she ingennonsly declared, " If I take it away, I shall never
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be able to return it to you." Inferring that something unusual was foretold in this answer, she was urged to explain her meaning. Whereupon she revealed the whole secret,-that Pontiac, and his chiefs were to come to the fort on the morrow, and while the dusky warrior was delivering his pretended speech of peace he was to present a white and green belt which on being turned in a peenliar way was to be the signal for the murder of the commandant and all the garrison. That the hostile intent might be entirely hidden beneath the garb of peace, the ingenions savages had cut off a piece from the barrels of their guns so that they could carry them concealed beneath their blankets. Ilaving given the partienlars of the conspiracy she departed.
Being thus put in possession of the horrible purpose Gladwin communicated the intelligence to his men, and sent word to all the traders to be on their guard. At night a ery as of defiance was heard and the garrison anticipated an immediate attack. The gar- rison fires were extinguished, and the men silently sought their places in readiness to meet the onset. But none eame, and it was supposed the chiefs were acting their parts by their camp fires, which they were to play on the morrow.
At the appointed hour, Pontiac came accompanied by thirty- six chiefs and a cloud of dusky warriors bearing his speech belt and the pipe of peace. Gladwin was prepared to receive him, his men all under arms, guns eleaned and freshly loaded, and officers with their swords. On entering the fort Pontiae started baek utter- ing a ery of anguish, convinced that he had been betrayed, by the evidences of preparation about him ; but there was no way of retreat now. When the number agreed upon had been admitted the gates were closed. When arrived, at the council chamber, Pontiae complained that the garrison was all under arms, a thing unusual in an embassage of peace. Gladwin explained that the garrison were that morning holding a regimental drill. But l'ontiae knew better than that. He commenced his speech with that air of dissimulation which he had the ability to command, and expressed the desire for peace and friendship with the English which he hoped would be as lasting as the coming and going of the night and morn- ing. But when he advaneed to present the belt the officers grasped their swords, and drew them partially from their scabbar .s. Seeing that his treachery was known, but not in the least disconcerted, he did not give the signal, he had agreed upon, and elosed his speech in the most friendly and pacifie tone.
When Colonel Gladwin came to reply he boldly charged the chieftain with his blaek hearted perfidy.' But the latter protested his innocence, and expressed a sense of injury that he should be suspected of so base a crime; but when Gladwin advaneed to the
W. S. Throckmorton. I.S.
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nearest chieftain and pulling aside his blanket, disclosed the shortened gun with which each of them was secretly armed his discomfiture was complete. He was suffered to depart, but unwisely, has been the unanimous judgment of historians. Indeed, so little reliance has come to be placed on the words of an Indian, that it has been declared that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." Hoping still to disarm the suspicions of the commandant, and gain admission to the fort through treachery, Pontiac came again on the following morning accompanied with only three of his chiefs and smoked the pipe of peace in the most innocent garb, and declared that his whole Ottawa nation desired to come on the following morning to smoke. But Gladwin declared that this was unneces- sary, as he was willing to accept the word of the chiefs, and if they were so anxious to be at peace their own conduct would be the best pledge of their pacific intentions.
Seeing that his treacherous purposes were understood, and that he could not gain admission to the fort by any professions of friendship, he threw off the cloak of deceit under which he had in- tended to slaughter the garrison and possess the post, and attacked the fort with all his warriors. The few English who were outside were murdered, all communication was cut off, death was threatened any who should attempt to carry supplies to the garrison, and the keenest strategy was employed to tempt the troops to open combat. Carts loaded with combustibles were pushed np to the palisades in the attempt to burn them; but all to no purpose. Gladwin was wary, and met every artifice of the wiley foe with a counter-check. In one part the savages attempted to gain entrance by chopping down the picket posts. In this Gladwin ordered his men to assist them by cutting on the inside. When these fell a rush was made by the Indians to enter; but a brass four-pounder, which had been charged with grape and canister and so planted as to command the breach, was discharged at the opportune moment, which effected great slaughter. Pontiac now settled down to a close seige. Un- fortunately Gladwin had only supplies for three weeks. The savage chieftain, believing that he had learned something of civilized war- fare, on the 10th of May, summoned the garrison to surrender. Gladwin asked for a parley, intimating through the offices of a French emissary, that he was willing to redress any grievances of the Indians, not suspecting that the attack on him was a part of a deep laid conspiracy reaching all the posts of the frontier. Pontiac con- sented and Major Campbell and Lieutenant MeDougal were sent. IIostilities were suspended and Gladwin improved the opportunity to lay in ample supplies for the siege, when he ended the conference. But Major Campbell was retained as a prisoner and was subsequently murdered. The siege was now closely maintained, a species of hos-
9
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tility which the Indians had never before exhibited an aptitude to practice, but which the genius of their leader had acquired in his fellowship with the French. He organized a system of obtaining supplies after the best European methods, scorning the make-shifts of the freebooter; but giving his receipt for every thing taken, and issuing his promissory notes, written on the bark of the papyrus birch, and executed with the outline of an otter, which passed cur- rent among the French farmers, all of which he faithfully redeemed. Lieutenant Cuyler, with a force of ninety-six men and supplies for Gladwin, was dispatched from the fort at Niagara; but landing at the mouth of the Detroit River, he was attacked in his camp at midnight of the 28th of May, and utterly defeated, losing three of his boats, two only escaping with Cuyler, who returned to Niagara.
On the 29th of July, Captain Dalzell, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, had reached the fort with a reinforcement of some two hundred men. Dalzell was full of fight, and with but one day's rest insisted on marching out to offer battle. Gladwin knew the numbers and temper of the Indians and their treacherous methods better than the Captain, and counseled strongly against the advent- ure; but the latter was confident and the commandant yielded a reluctant assent. At the head of two hundred and forty-seven chosen men, Dalzell bravely led out of the fort at a little past mid- night of the 30th of July, accompanied by two barges in the river. Unfortunately the French had notified Pontiac of the intended attack. The course of Dalzell was along the river bank by Canadian cottages and gardens. A mile and a half above the fort was a small creek, since appropriately known as Bloody Run. Over this was a narrow bridge and on the heights beyond were the entrenchments of the foe, straggling fences and cabins, behind which they were in waiting for the approach of Dalzell. Scarcely had the advance crossed this bridge than the savages poured into their faces a volley from their safe hiding places. A charge was ordered before which the Indians vanished in the darkness, but soon reappeared in the rear with the design of cutting off escape; and now the red men had taken shelter behind houses and attacked in flank. This threw the line into confusion and in disorder, a retreat along the river com- menced. Major Rogers with a squadron of provincials took position in a house, which covered the retreat, and succeeded to check the onrushing savages. Captain Grant with another party gained an advantageous position for covering the retreat, when the forces were finally brought within the shelter of the fort, but with the loss of fifty-nine men, including the bold leader Dalzell.
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