History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, Part 13

Author:
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1288

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Braddock had formed extravagant plans for his campaign. He would march forward and reduce Fort Du Quesne, thence proceed against Fort Ni- agara, which having conquered he would close a season of triumphs by the capture of Fort Frontignace. But this is not the first time in warfare that the result of a campaign has failed to realize the promises of the manifesto. The orders brought by Braddock giving precedence of officers of the line over provincials gave offense, and Washington among others threw up his commis- sion; but enamored of the profession of arms, he accepted a position offered him by Braddock as Aide de camp. Accustomed to the discipline of military establishments in old, long-settled countries, Braddock had little conception of making war in a wilderness with only Indian trails to move upon, and against wily savages. Washington had advised to push forward with pack horses, and, by rapidity of movement, forestall ample preparation. But Braddock had but one way of soldiering, and where roads did not exist for wagons he stopped to fell the forest and construct bridges over streams. The French, who were kept advised of every movement, made ample preparations to receive him. In the meantime, Washington fell sick; but intent on being up for the battle, he hastened forward as soon as sufficiently recovered, and only joined the army on the day before the fatal engagement. He had never seen much of the pride and circumstance of war, and when, on the morning of the 9th of July, the army of Braddock marched on across the Monongahela, with gay colors flying and martial music awakening the echoes of the forest, he was accustomed in after years to speak of it as the "most magnificent spectacle" that he had ever beheld. But the gay pageant was destined to be of short duration; for the army had only marched a little distance before it fell into an ambuscade skill- fully laid by the French and Indians, and the forest resounded with the un- earthly whoop of the Indians, and the continuous roar of musketry. The advance was checked and thrown into confusion by the French from their well- chosen position, and every tree upon the flanks of the long drawn out line con- cealed a murderous foe, who with unerring aim picked off the officers. A res. olute defense was made, and the battle raged with great fury for three hours; but the fire of the English was ineffectual because directed against an invisi- ble foe. Finally, the mounted officers having all fallen, killed or wounded, except Washington, being left without leaders, panic seized the survivors and "they ran," says Washington, "before the French and English like sheep be- fore dogs." Of 1,460, in Braddock's army, 456 were killed, and 421 wounded, a greater mortality, in proportion to the number engaged, than has ever oc- curred in the annals of modern warfare. Sir Peter Halkett was killed, and

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Braddock mortally wounded and brought off the field only with the greatest difficulty. When Orme and Morris, the other aids, fell, Washington acted alone with the greatest gallantry. In writing to his brother, he said: "I have- been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me; yet I escaped unhurt, though death was leveling my companions on every side." In after years, when Washington visited the Great Kanawha country, he was approached by an Indian chieftain who said that in this battle he had fired his rifle many times at Washington and had told his young men to do the same; but when he saw that his bullets had no apparent effect, he had bidden them to desist, be- lieving that the Great Spirit was protecting him.

The panic among the survivors of the English carried them back upon the reserve, commanded by Gen. Dunbar, who seems himself to have been seized with it, and without attempting to renew the campaign and return to the en- counter, he joined in the flight which was not stayed until Fort Cumberland was reached. The French were anticipating a renewal of the struggle; but when they found that the English had fled leaving the frontier all unprotected, they left no stone unturned in whetting the minds of the savages for the work of plunder and blood, and in organizing relentless bands to range at will along all the wide frontier. The Indians could not be induced to pursue the retreating English, but fell to plundering the field. Nearly everything was lost, even to the camp chest of Braddock. The wounded General was taken back to the summit of Laurel Hill, where, four days after, he breathed his last. He was buried in the middle of the road, and the army marched over his grave that it might not be discovered or molested by the natives. The easy victory, won chiefly by the savages, served to encourage them in their fell work, in which, when their passions were aroused, no known people on earth were less touched by pity. The unprotected settler in his wilder- ness home was the easy prey of the torch and the scalping knife, and the burn- ing cabin lit up the somber forests by their continuous blaze, and the shrieks of women and children resounded from the Hudson to the far Potomac Be- fore the defeat of Braddock, there were 3,000 men capable of bearing arms west of the Susquehanna. In six months after, there were scarcely 100.

Gov. Morris made an earnest appeal to the Assembly for money to ward off the impending enemy and protect the settlers, in response to which the As- sembly voted £50,000; but having no exemption of the proprietor's estates, it was rejected by the Governor, in accordance with his original instructions. Expeditions undertaken against Nova Scotia and at Crown Point were more fortu- nate than that before Du Quesne, and the Assembly voted £15,000 in bills of credit to aid in defraying the expense. The proprietors sent £5,000 as a gratuity, not as any part of expense that could of right be claimed of them.

In this hour of extremity, the Indians for the most part showed themselves a treacherous race, ever ready to take up on the stronger side. Even the Shaw- anese and Delawares, who had been loudest in their protestations of friendship for the English and readiness to fight for them, no sooner saw the French vic- torious than they gave ready ear to their advice to strike for the recovery of the lands which they had sold to the English.

In this pressing emergency, while the Governor and Assembly were waging a fruitless war of words over money bills, the pen of Franklin was busy in in- fusing a wholesome sentiment in the minds of the people. In a pamphlet that he issued, which he put in the familiar form of a dialogue, he answered the objections which had been urged to a legalized militia, and willing to show his devotion by deeds as well as words, he accepted the command upon the

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

frontier. By his exertions, a respectable force was raised, and though in the dead of winter, he commenced the erection of a line of forts and block-houses along the whole range of the Kittatinny Hills, from the Delaware to the Po- tomac, and had them completed and garrisoned with a body sufficient to with- stand any force not provided with artillery. In the spring, he turned over the command to Col. Clapham, and returning to Philadelphia took his seat in the Assembly. The Governor now declared war against the Indians, who had es- tablished their headquarters thirty miles above Harris' Ferry, on the Susque- hanna, and were busy in their work of robbery and devastation, having se- cured the greater portion of the crops of the previous season of the settlers whom they had killed or driven out. The peace party strongly objected to the course of the Governor, and voluntarily going among the Indians induced them to bury the hatchet. The Assembly which met in May, 1756, prepared a bill with the old clause for taxing the proprietors, as any other citizens, which the Governor was forbidden to approve by his instructions, "and the two parties were sharpening their wits for another wrangle over it," when Gov. Morris was superseded by William D)enny, who arrived in the colony and as- sumed authority on the 20th of August, 1756. He was joyfully and cordially received, escorted through the streets by the regiments of Franklin and Duché, and royally feasted at the State House.

But the promise of efficient legislation was broken by an exhibition of the new Governor's instructions, which provided that every bill for the emission of money must place the proceeds at the joint disposal of the Governor and As- sembly; paper currency could not be issued in excess of £40,000, nor could ex- isting issues be confirmed unless proprietary rents were paid in sterling money ; proprietary lands were permitted to be taxed which had been actually leased, provided that the taxes were paid out of the rents, but the tax could not become a lien upon the land. In the first Assembly, the contention be- came as acrimonious as ever.

Previous to the departure of Gov. Morris, as a retaliatory act he had issued a proclamation against the hostile Indians, providing for the payment of bounties: For every male Indian enemy above twelve years old, who shall be taken prisoner and delivered at any forts, garrisoned by troops in pay of this province, or to any of the county towns to the keepers of the common jails there, the sum of one hundred and fifty Spanish dollars or pieces of eight; for the scalp of every male Indian above the age of twelve years, produced as evidence of their being killed, the sum of one hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for every female Indian taken prisoner and brought in as aforesaid, and for every male Indian under the age of twelve years, taken and brought in, one hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for the scalp of every Indian woman produced as evidence of their being killed, the sum of fifty pieces of eight." Liberal bounties were also offered for the delivering up of settlers who had been carried away captive.

But the operation which had the most wholesome and pacifying effect upon the savages, and caused them to stop in their mad career and consider the chances of war and the punishment they were calling down upon their own heads, though executed under the rule of Gov. Denny, was planned and provided for, and was really a part of the aggressive and vigorous policy of Gov. Morris. In response to the act of Assembly, providing for the calling out and organizing the militia, twenty-five companies were recruited, and had been stationed along the line of posts that had been established for the defense of the frontiers. At Kittanning, on the Allegheny River, the Indians had one of the largest of their towns in the State, and was a recruiting station and

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

rallying point for sending out their murderous bands. The plan proposed and adopted by Gov. Morris, and approved and accepted by Gov. Denny, was to send out a strong detachment from the militia for the reduction of this stronghold. Accordingly, in August, 1756, Col. Armstrong, with a force of three hundred men, made a forced march, and, arriving unperceived in the neigh- borhood of the town, sent the main body by a wide detour from above, to come in upon the river a few hundred yards below. At 3 o'clock on the morning of the 7th of September, the troops had gained their position undiscovered, and at dawn the attack was made. Shielded from view by the tall corn which cov- ered all the flats, the troops were able to reach in close proximity to the cabins unobserved. Jacobs, the chief, sounded the war-whoop, and made a stout re- sistance, keeping up a rapid fire from the loop holes in his cabin. Not desir- ing to push his advantage to the issue of no quarter, Armstrong called on the savages to surrender; but this they refused to do, declaring that they were men and would never be prisoners. Finding that they would not yield, and that they were determined to sell their lives at the dearest rate, he gave orders to fire the huts, and the whole town was soon wrapt in flames. As the heat began to reach the warriors, some sung, while wrung with the death agonies; others broke for the river and were shot down as they fled. Jacobs, in attempt- ing to climb through a window, was killed. All calls for surrender were re. ceived with derision, one declaring that he did not care for death, and that he could kill four or five before he died. Gunpowder, small arms and valuable goods which had been distributed to them only the day before by the French, fell into the hands of the victors. The triumph was complete, few if any escaping to tell the sad tale. Col. Armstrong's celerity of movement and well conceived and executed plan of action were publicly acknowledged, and. he was voted a medal and plate by the city of Philadelphia.

The finances of the colony, on account of the repeated failures of the money bills, were in a deplorable condition. Military operations could not be carried on and vigorous campaigns prosecuted without ready money. Ac- cordingly, in the first meeting of the Assembly after the arrival of the new Governor, a bill was passed levying £100,000 on all property alike, real and personal, private and proprietary. This Gov. Denny vetoed. Seeing that money must be had, the Assembly finally passed a bill exempting the proprie- tary estates, but determined to lay their grievances before the Crown. To this end, two Commissioners were appointed, Isaac Norris and Benjamin Franklin, to proceed to England and beg the interference of the royal Gov- ernment in their behalf. Failing health and business engagements of Norris prevented his acceptance, and Franklin proceeded alone. He had so often de- fended the Assembly. in public and in drawing remonstrances that the whole subject was at his fingers' ends.

Military operations throughout the colonies, during the year 1757, con- ducted under the command of the Earl of Loudoun were sluggish, and resulted only in disaster and disgrace. The Indians were active in Pennsylvania, and kept the settlers throughout nearly all the colonies in a continual ferment,. hostile bands stealing in upon the defenseless inhabitants as they went to their plantings and sowings, and greatly interfering with or preventing alto- gether the raising of the ordinary crops. In 1758, Loudoun was recalled, and Gen. Abercrombie was given chief command, with Wolfe, Amherst and Forbes as his subordinates. It was determined to direct operations simul- taneously upon three points-Fort Du Quesne, Louisburg and the forts upon the great lakes. Gen. Forbes commanded the forces sent against Fort Du Quesne. With a detachment of royal troops, and militia from Pennsylvania.

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

and Virginia, under command of Cols. Bouquet and Washington, his column moved in July, 1758. The French were well ordered for receiving the attack, and the battle in front of the fort raged with great fury; but they were finally driven, and the fort, with its munitions, fell into the hands of the victors, and was garrisoned by 400 Pennsylvanians. Returning, Forbes placed his remain- ing forces in barracks at Lancaster.

Franklin, upon his arrival in England, presented the grievances before the proprietors, and, that he might get his case before the royal advisers and the British public, wrote frequent articles for the press, and issued a pamphlet entitled "Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsyl- vania." The dispute was adroitly managed by Franklin before the Privy Council, and was finally decided substantially in the interest of the Assem- bly. It was provided that the proprietors' estates should be taxed, but that their located uncultivated lands should be assessed as low as the lowest uncul- tivated lands of the settlers, that bills issued by the Assembly should be re- ceivable in payment of quit rents, and that the Deputy Governor should have a voice in disposing of the revenues. Thus was a vexed question of long standing finally put to rest. So successfully had Franklin managed this con- troversy that the colonies of Massachusetts, Maryland and Georgia appointed him their agent in England.

In October, 1759, James Hamilton was again appointed Governor, in place of Gov. Denny, who had by stress of circumstances transcended his instruc- tions. The British Government, considering that the colonies had borne more than their proportionate expense in carrying on the war against the French and Indians, voted £200,000 for five years, to be divided among the colonies, the share falling to Pennsylvania being £26,000. On the 25th of October, 1760, George II died, and was succeeded by his grandson, George III. Early in 1762, war was declared between Great Britain and Spain, but was of short continuance, peace having been declared in November following, by which Spain and France relinquished to the English substantially the territory east of the Mississippi. The wise men of the various Indian nations inhabiting this wide territory viewed with concern this sudden expansion of English power, fearing that they would eventually be pushed from their hunting grounds and pleasant haunts by the rapidly multiplying pale faces. The In- dians have ever been noted for proceeding against an enemy secretly and treacherously. Believing that by concerted action the English might be cut off and utterly exterminated, a secret league was entered into by the Shawa- nese and the tribes dwelling along the Ohio River, under the leadership of a powerful chieftain, Pontiac, by which swift destruction was everywhere to be meted out to the white man upon an hour of an appointed day. The plan was thoroughly understood by the red men, and heartily entered into. The day dawned and the blow fell in May, 1763. The forts at Presque Isle, Le Boeuf. Venango, La Ray, St. Joseph's, Miamis, Onaethtanon, Sandusky and Michili- mackinack, all fell before the unanticipated attacks of the savages who were making protestations of friendship, and the garrisons were put to the slaugh- ter. Fort Pitt (Du Quesne), Niagara and Detroit alone, of all this line of forts, held out. Pontiac in person conducted the siege of Detroit, which he vigorously puslied from May until October, paying his warriors with promises written on bits of birch bark, which he subsequently religiously redeemed. It is an evidence of his great power that he could unite his people in so gen- eral and secretly kept a compact, and that in this siege of Detroit he was able to hold his warriors up to the work so long and so vigorously even after all hope of success must have reasonably been abandoned. The attack fell with great

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

severity upon the Pennsylvania settlers, and they continued to be driven in until Shippensbung, in Cumberland County, became the extreme outpost of civilization. The savages stole unawares upon the laborers in the fields, or came stealthily in at the midnight hour and spared neither trembling age nor helpless infancy, firing houses, barns, crops and everything combustible. The suffering of the frontiersmen in this fatal year can scarcely be conceived.

Col. Armstrong with a hastily collected force advanced upon their towns and forts at Muncy and Great Island, which he destroyed; but the Indians escaped and withdrew before him. He sent a detachment under Col. Bouquet to the relief of Fort Pitt, which still held out, though closely invested by the dusky warriors. At Fort Ligonier, Bouquet halted and sent forward thirty men, who stealthily pushed past the Indians under cover of night, and reached the fort, carrying intelligence that succor was at hand. Discovering that a force was advancing upon them, the Indians turned upon the troops of Bou- quet, and before he was aware that an enemy was near, he found himself sur- rounded and all means of escape apparently cut off. By a skillfully laid ambuscade, Bouquet, sending a small detachment to steal away as if in retreat, induced the Indians to follow, and when stretched out in pursuit, the main body in concealment fell upon the unsuspecting savages, and routed them with immense slaughter, when he advanced to the relief of the fort unchecked.

As we have already seen, the boundary line between Maryland and Penn- sylvania had long been in dispute, and had occasioned serious disturbances among the settlers in the lifetime of Penn, and repeatedly since. It was not definitely settled till 1760, when a beginning was made of a final adjustment, though so intricate were the conditions that the work was prosecuted for seven years by a large force of surveyors, axmen and pioneers. The charter of Lord Baltimore made the northern boundary of Maryland the 40th degree of lati- tude; but whether the beginning or end of the 40th was not specified. The charter of Penn, which was subsequent, made his southern boundary the beginning of the 40th parallel. If, as Lord Baltimore claimed, his northern boundary was the end of the 40th, then the city of Philadelphia and all the settled parts of Pennsylvania would have been included in Maryland. If, as Penn claimed by express terms of his charter, his southern line was the begin- ning of the 40th, then the city of Baltimore, and even a part of the District of Columbia, including nearly the whole of Maryland would have been swal- lowed up by Pennsylvania. It was evident to the royal Council that neither claim could be rightfully allowed, and nence resort was had to compromise. Penn insisted upon retaining free communication with the open ocean by the Delaware Bay. Accordingly, it was decided that beginning at Cape Henlopen, which by mistake in marking the maps was fifteen miles below the present location, opposite Cape May, a line should be run due west to a point half way between this cape and the shore of Chesapeake Bay; from this point "a line was to be run northerly in such direction that it should be tangent on the west side to a circle with a radius of twelve miles, whose center was the center of the court house at New Castle. From the exact tangent point, a line was to be run due north until it should reach a point fifteen miles south on the parallel of latitude of the most southern point in the boundary of the city of Phila- delphia, and this point when accurately found by horizontal measurement, was to be the corner bound between Maryland and Pennsylvania, and subsequently, when Delaware was set off from Pennsylvania, was the boundary of the three States. From this bound a line was to be run due west five degrees of longi- tude from the Delaware, which was to be the western limit of Pennsylvania, and the line thus ascertained was to mark the division between Maryland and

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Pennsylvania, and forever settle the vexed question. If the due north line should cut any part of the circle about New Castle, the slice so cut should be- long to New Castle. Such a segment was cut. This plan of settlement was entered into on the 10th of May, 1732, between Thomas and Richard, sons of William Penn, on the one part, and Charles, Lord Baltimore, great-grandson of the patentee. But the actual marking of the boundaries was still deferred, and as the settlers were taking out patents for their lands, it was necessary that it should be definitely known in which State the lands lay. Accordingly, in 1739, in obedience to a decree in Council, a temporary line was run upon a new basis, which now often appears in litigations to plague the brain of the attorney.

Commissioners were again appointed in 1751, who made a few of the measurements, but owing to objections raised on the part of Maryland, the work was abandoned. Finally, the proprietors, Thomas and Richard Penn, and Frederic, Lord Baltimore, entered into an agreement for the executing of the survey, and John Lukens and Archibald McLean on the part of the Penns, and Thomas Garnett and Jonathan Hall on the part of Lord Baltimore, were appointed with a suitable corps of assistants to lay off the lines. After these surveyors had been three years at work, the proprietors in England, thinking that there was not enough energy and practical and scientific knowledge mani- fested by these surveyors, appointed Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two mathematicians and surveyors, to proceed to America and take charge of the work. They brought with them the most perfect and best constructed instru- ments known to science, arriving in Philadelphia on the 15th of November, 1763, and, assisted by some of the old surveyors, entered upon their work. By the 4th of June, 1766, they had reached the summit of the Little Allegheny,

when the Indians began to be troublesome. They looked with an evil eye on the mathematical and astronomical instruments, and felt a secret dread and fear of the consequences of the frequent and long continued peering into the heavens. The Six Nations were understood to be inimical to the further prog- ress of the survey. But through the influence of Sir William Johnson a treaty was concluded, providing for the prosecution of the work unmolested, and a number of chieftains were sent to accompany the surveying party. Mason and Dixon now had with them thirty surveyors, fifteen axmen, and tif- teen Indians of consequence. Again the attitude of the Indians gave cause of fear, and on the 29th of September, twenty-six of the surveyors abandoned the expedition and returned to Philadelphia. Having reached a point 244 miles from the Delaware, and within thirty-six miles of the western limit of the State, in the bottom of a deep, dark valley, they came upon a well-worn Indian path, and here the Indians gave notice that it was the will of the Six Nations that this survey proceed no further. There was no questioning this authority, and no means at command for resisting, and accordingly the party broke up and returned to Philadelphia. And this was the end of the labors of Mason and Dixon upon this boundary. From the fact that this was subse- quently the mark of division between the Free and Slave States, Mason and Dixon's line became familiar in American politics. The line was marked by stones which were quarried and engraved in England, on one side having the arms of Penn, and on the opposite those of Lord Baltimore. These stones were firmly set every five miles. At the end of each intermediate mile a smaller stone was placed, having on one side engraved the letter P., and on the opposite side the letter M. The remainder of the line was finished and marked in 1782-84 by other surveyors. A vista was cut through the forest eight yards in width the whole distance, which seemed in looking back through it to come to a

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History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, Part 13

Author: Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Brown, Runk Number of Pages: 1288

Author:
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Brown, Runk
Number of Pages: 1288