USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 16
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They left Hannastown and Kittanning on January 6, 1777, and made, all things being considered, one of the most wonderful marches known in the military history of America. They crossed the Allegheny mountains, then across Pennsylvania, and across the Delaware into New Jersey. They had no tents, were poorly clothed and poorly subsisted. They camped at night on the snow, building fires to keep themselves from freezing. Many of them died on the way. At Trenton, Colonel Mackay died, and, a few days after, Colonel George Wilson, whose letter is quoted in part above, also died. Both succumbed to the hardships of this long wintry march. Many of the soldiers who survived the march were laid up with a throat disease of a putrid nature. After the deaths of Mackay and Wilson, Daniel Broadhead
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was made colonel, Richard Butler lieutenant-colonel, and Stephen Bayard major. Butler was shortly afterwards made lieutenant-colonel of Morgan's rifle regiment, and Major James Ross took his place. There were ten com- panies in the regiment, which numbered 681 soldiers in all, exclusive of the officers. Nearly all of them were enlisted from Westmoreland county, as the limits were then. Captain David Kilgore's company had 58 men; Cap- tain Samuel Miller's had 85; Captain Van Swearingen's had 74; Captain Joseph Piggot's had 59; Captain Wendel Ourry's 59; Captain Andrew Mann's 62 ; Captain James Montgomery's 59; Captain Michael Huffnagle's 74; Captain John Finley's 79, and Captain Basil Prather's 73. In this regiment was Mat- thew Jack, afterwards quite noted in Westmoreland, as shall be learned later. He was wounded April 13. They had made the long march from January 6 to about February 22.
The reader will recognize several old Westmoreland names in the list of captains, among others that of Huffnagle, the second prothonotary of West- moreland county.
Several Westmoreland soldiers deserted on the long march, and, we be- lieve, afterwards returned to the army and performed good service. It must not be forgotten that to desert was not regarded as harshly as it is now. In the Revolution many honest soldiers ran away in the spring to their crops, and then returned to duty again. Washington readily saw the difference between a genuine deserter and one who went home to assist his needy wife and chil- dren.
The regiment was under General Benjamin Lincoln, and suffered severely at Bound Brook, where they were attacked by Cornwallis. They stood up and repulsed a charge of British bayonets at Paoli, and were also in the battles of Ash Swamp, Brandywine and Germantown. Like all regiments in the Revolution, it was often divided, and parts of it attached to other battalions. Officers were also removed to other commands, and all this was apparently necessary then, and was done much more extensively in the Revolution than in later wars. The soldiers of the Revolution were generally enlisted for short terms. It was not uncommon for them to serve a year or two and then go home to provide for their families by repairing their houses, improving farms and then return to the army. Their enlistments were for as long as they thought their families could subsist without them. But in the meantime, the army had to be kept up and in the best possible condition, for it was invariably called on to meet larger numbers of trained British soldiers.
Some of our Westmoreland members of the Eighth Regiment re-enlisted, and were sent with Morgan to fight the battle of Saratoga, and others with Wayne to capture Stony Point. They were nearly all at Valley Forge. On March 5, 1778, after more than a year's service in the east, the regiment was sent back to Pittsburgh to defend the frontier, for which purpose it was orig- inally intended. This was necessary because of the constant Indian raids
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made on the frontier, which is treated elsewhere. At Pittsburgh, they were under the command of General McIntosh. Captain Matthew Jack has de- scribed them as first going down the Ohio river to the mouth of the Beaver river, where they built Fort McIntosh, after which they journeyed to the headwaters of the Muskingum, in Ohio, where they built Fort Laurens. In 1779 they went up the Allegheny river about two hundred miles with Gen- eral Broadhead's expedition and attacked the Indians at various points, de- feating them and burning their towns. On their return, says Captain Jack, who accompanied both expeditions, they were discharged because their term of service had expired. The Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment was not dis- banded, however, but was kept up by recruits from this county till the close of the war, and most if not all of the time after their return from the east in March, 1778, they were doing frontier duty in and around Pittsburgh.
The name of Daniel Morgan will not soon be forgotten by the American people. As the commander of Morgan's Rifles and as the hero of Cowpens. his name will shine with star-brightened splendor as long as the American people revere true courage and patriotism. It is not generally known how closely his name is linked with Westmoreland soldiers in the Revolution. Reference has already been made to his participation in Braddock's expe- dition in the attempted capture of Fort Duquesne. The Eighth Regiment was with him at Saratoga, as we have said, and one of his most trusted colonels was our own Richard Butler. Morgan's corps was made up of the best sharpshooters selected from all the American army, though the credit of it is generally attributed to Virginia, because Morgan himself was a Virginian. In reality, the fifth company was commanded by Captain Van Swearingen, of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment. In General James Wilk- inson's memoirs, it is said there were 163 Virginians and 193 Pennsyl- vanians, these two states furnishing the greater part of the corps, since the entire regiment numbered only 508. The official name was not Morgan's Rifles, as it is generally called, but "Morgan's Partisan Corps." It was or- ganized for the special purpose of sharpshooting by Washington himself, and he selected the officers with his well-known unerring judgment of military men. Of their services at Saratoga, George Bancroft, the greatest of Revolutionary historians, has the following: "In concurrence with the advice of Arnold, Gates ordered out Morgan's riflemen and light infantry. They put a picket to flight at a quarter past one, but retired before the di- vision of Burgoyne. Leading his forces unmolested through the woods, and securing his right by thickets and ravines, Morgan next fell unexpect- edly upon the left of the British center division. To support him, Gates, at two o'clock, sent out three New Hampshire battalions, of which that of Scammel met the enemy in front, that of Lilly took them in flank. In a warm engagement Morgan had his horse shot under him, and with his rifle- men captured a cannon, but could not carry it off."
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General Henry L. Lee in his "Memoirs of the Revolution in the South- ern States," speaks of Colonel Butler as the renowned second and rival of Morgan in the Saratoga encounter. But this is not all. Captain Van Swearingen and Lieutenants Basil, Prather and John Hardin were all West- morelanders and were with Morgan, and all of them rendered distinguished services, particularly in the many encounters which resulted in the over- throw and capture of Burgoyne's army. Van Swearingen was probably the most noted captain of the regiment. On September 9, 1777, he and twenty of his men were captured by a charge of the British into the heart of Mor- gan's force. He was taken before General Fraser, who wanted him to give information concerning the strength of the American forces. The captain persistently refused to answer, except that it was commanded by Generals Gates and Arnold. Upon this the general said he would hang him, but the only words elicited were, "You may if you wish," and then General Fraser rode away, but first handed him over to Sergeant Dunbar and Lieu- tenant Aubury, who had him guarded with other prisoners, but gave orders that he should not be illtreated. Not long after this Burgoyne's army was captured, and Van Swearingen made every exertion to have Dunbar and Aubury exchanged. But a moment after General Fraser rode away, he was seen from a long distance by Morgan. He ordered Timothy Murphy, from Northumberland county, one of his best sharpshooters, to shoot him, with the result that Fraser fell from his horse dead, almost immediately after threatening to hang Van Swearingen. Van Swearingen returned to West- moreland from the army, and was afterwards the first sheriff of Washing- ton county. Another company of Morgan's Rifles was commanded by Major James Parr, of Westmoreland, and was sent to western New York to defend the frontier against the Indians, after which they came to Tioga and united with General Sullivan's army in his campaign against the Indians, who were engaged in the Massacre of Wyoming. Other Westmoreland soldiers were with Morgan when he won his greatest honors in the south, from which he is remembered as the "Hero of Cowpens."
Lieutenant John Hardin, of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, after the war was over removed from our county to Kentucky, where he is remembered as General Hardin. He took a prominent part in the Indian warfare conducted in the west by Generals Harmar and St. Clair, and rose to distinction in arms. He was murdered by the Indians near Sandusky, in 1791. We think he was the father of General Benjamin Hardin, a con- temporary of Henry Clay, and one of the ablest lawyers Kentucky has yet produced.
Aeneas Mackay, who was so prominent in those days, was born in South Carolina, in 1721. The first mention of him seems to be that when Washington was at Great Meadows, and was building Fort Necessity, in 1754, he was reinforced by Captain Aeneas Mackay with one hundred soldiers
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from South Carolina. There, without as much grace as he showed later in life, he resented the idea of serving under Washington, who was a mere un- known backwoods militiaman, while he was commissioned by the King. After leaving Great Meadows he took his company to Will's Creek, where he assisted in building Fort Cumberland, which was named after the Duke of Cumberland, a name the city built there bears yet. Later he was for several years commander of the garrison at Fort Ligonier, under the commis- sion of the King of England. From his Bible it is learned that his son Samuel was born there on July 20, 1766. The same year he was moved to Fort Pitt. He was a tower of strength in Dunmore's war over the bound- ary question, and was appointed a justice in Westmoreland county. His death, as colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, as a result of the long march from Westmoreland to New Jersey, has been mentioned else- where. He died February 14, 1777, and was buried in the "Presbyterian burying ground" at Trenton, New Jersey. His wife was born in New York, and was afterwards married to George Adams, of Pittsburgh. His daughter Elizabeth was married to Stephen Bayard. Had Mackay lived through the Revolution he would undoubtedly have made for himself an enviable name in our military annals, for he was a man of superior char- acter, training and courage.
Stephen Bayard was born January 23, 1744, of an old family in Mary- land. Early in life he was a Philadelphia merchant, and in the beginning of the Revolution raised a company in Philadelphia, of which he was made captain. The company was part of St. Clair's expedition to Quebec. Later he served under Richard Butler, and was with the Eighth Regi- ment when it returned from Valley Forge to Pittsburgh. He was a colonel under Broadhead when he conquered the Indians in Ohio, and up the Allegheny river. In 1781 he commanded the regiment at Fort Pitt. After the Revolution he located in Pittsburgh and became wealthy. He had taken up large tracts of land on the Monongahela river, and on one of them founded a boat-building town which he named after his wife Elizabeth, which yet bears her name. In the war of 1812 President Madison offered him a major general's commission, but he wisely declined it because of his age. He died in Pittsburgh, December 13, 1815.
George Wilson, lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth Regiment, was a na- tive of Augusta county, Virginia. He was an officer in the French and Indian war, and settled in Westmoreland county shortly after the close of the war. He was appointed a justice, first for Bedford county, and later, when our county was erected, held the same position here for many years. He was also, as will be remembered, one of the trustees appointed to locate the county seat of Westmoreland county. Of course he was a leading spirit in Dunmore's war, and was one of the justices whom Connolly arrested. Rather than give bail he was taken to Staunton in irons. He died like
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Colonel Mackay, from the effects of the long march to New Jersey. His death occurred in April, 1777, and he was buried at Quibbletown.
Daniel Broadhead commanded our Westmoreland soldiers in the army frequently, but had no other special connection with our county as it is now bounded. He was a native of New York, and was afterwards survey- or-general of Pennsylvania.
The Butler family was purely a Westmoreland family and it was the most noted family we produced during the Revolution. Their father was Thomas Butler, who was born in Ireland, and three of his sons were also born there, viz .: Richard, William and Thomas. Richard, as will be recalled, was lieutenant-colonel of Morgan's Rifle Regiment. From his first con- nection with the regiment he drilled them at all reasonable hours, and much of the honor they gained was doubtless due to the pains he took in prepar- ing them for future actions. Butler was with Wayne when he charged up Stony Point, and was prominent at the last when Cornwallis was compelled to surrender to Washington. In 1790 he was appointed a major-general, but unfortunately, as we have said, he was killed the following year (1791) while fighting the Indians in Ohio with St. Clair. It is well authenticated that on the night before the battle, knowing more about Indian warfare than St. Clair, he said to him, "I have some good wine here, general; let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."
Thomas Butler was a law student in Philadelphia in 1776, when the Revolution was beginning to be thoroughly felt in that city. He enlisted as a private and rose to the rank of captain, serving till the close of the war, It was he whom General Washington publicly thanked at the battle of. Brandywine. At the battle of Monmouth he defended a dangerous ravine, while his brother Richard's regiment was retreating through it. For this he received the thanks of General Wayne. He was also in the Ohio Indian battle with St. Clair in 1791, as commander of a battalion. St. Clair in that. battle ordered a bayonet charge. Thomas Butler was on horseback and had had his leg broken by a ball, yet in this painful condition he led the charge. He was removed from the field by a third brother, Edward. Thomas died September 5, 1805.
Percival, the fourth son, was born in Carlisle, and entered the Revolu- tion when eighteen years old, as a lieutenant. He was at Valley Forge, Monmouth and Yorktown, and was greatly trusted by General Washing- ton. He moved to Kentucky in 1784, and was adjutant general of that state in the war of 1812.
Edward was too young to enter the Revolution, but was a captain in St. Clair's army in 1791, and in 1794 was adjutant-general of General Wayne's army.
The mother of the Butler brothers was a strong-minded, patriotic woman who was willing to part with her husband and sons, and endure the hard-
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ships which their absence added to her life, if only the cause of the colonies might thereby be advanced. It was probably this that led Washington, at his own table, surrounded by army officers, to propose that toast, "The Butlers and their five sons." Lafayette at one time said that when he wanted anything well done he ordered a Butler to do it.
At the surrender of Cornwallis, Baron Steuben had command of the trenches when the white flag was sent out by the British. While the terms of surrender were being considered by Washington and his generals, Lafayette's division marched up to relieve Steuben, the time for relief hav- ing arrived. But the Baron did not want to be relieved then, for he knew that the surrender would soon be at hand, and wanted the honor of hoisting the flag. Washington decided that neither he nor Lafayette should hoist it, but gave the honor to Ebenezer Denny, of Pittsburgh. But when the ensign was about to plant it, Steuben, perhaps in excitement, hurried for- ward, took the flag and hoisted it himself. Richard Butler thought this an insult to the Pennsylvania troops and challenged Steuben. Both these men had rendered great services to the colonial army, and there was too much glory in the army now to allow two of its best officers to engage in a deadly conflict ; but it required all the efforts of Washington, Hamilton and Rochambeau to prevent the duel. It is but fair to say that the Butlers, while coming from Westmoreland, were from that part of it now included in Alle- gheny county.
Colonel James Smith has often been referred to as early even as in Braddock's march. He was, indeed, a very important factor in the early annals of our county. He was born in Cumberland county, perhaps in a part that is now Bedford county, in 1737. In 1755 he was hunting near Bedford, and was captured by the Indians. He was a prisoner in Fort Du- quesne on July 9, 1755, and heard and saw the preparations made between Beaujeu and the Indians to surprise Braddock's army. Much of the in- formation concerning that attack comes from his writings. He escaped from the Indians in 1760 and went to Franklin county. His natural ability and his knowledge of the Indians, gained while a captive. made him valu- able to Bouquet in his Ohio expedition in 1764, when he served as an en- sign. Later he was a lieutenant in the militia of Western Pennsylvania. In 1769 and '70 he purchased lands along Jacob's creek and on the Yough- iogheny river. In 1774 he assisted St. Clair in organizing the Rangers to protect our frontier against Dunmore's invasions, and was one of the mem- bers of the Hannastown convention on May 16, 1775, which adopted the celebrated resolutions previously referred to. He was also one of the Asso- ciators called for in those resolutions. Later he was elected a member of ยท the convention of July 15, 1776, and was elected to the assembly of the state in 1776-'77. Here he was known as an authority on Indian affairs, and respected for his knowledge of border warfare. The assembly was
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in session in Philadelphia in 1777, and at his own request he was granted a leave of absence to conduct a scouting party through New Jersey. He re- mained in Washington's division of the army, and in 1778 was made a colonel, and sent to Western Pennsylvania, where he performed valuable services in the continuous warfare against the Indians. In 1788 he re- moved to Kentucky, where he was again a member of the assembly, though of another state. In 1812 he wrote "A Treatise on the Mode and Manner of Indian War," with many extracts from his journal kept when a prisoner among the Indians. It is a valuable work because of its simplic- ity, and contains much information about the habits of a race now almost extinct. He died in Washington county, Kentucky, in 1812.
CHAPTER XI
The Closing Years of the Revolution .- Indians, Hard Times .- Lochry's and Crawford's Ill-Fated Expeditions.
After perusing a preceding chapter the reader can form some idea of the condition of our county in 1779 and '80. With many soldiers in the field, our ranging parties, performing almost daily duty, and, the militia constantly guarding the forts, agricultural interests were sadly neglected and many homes were reduced to absolute want. Many had left their western homes for more peaceful habitations east of the mountains. It was not unusual to find several families living in one house or cabin, which, if strongly barri- caded, afforded a comparatively safe place of refuge from the Indians. There were not men enough to guard all of the houses, and by uniting them they felt more secure. There were scarcely men enough to gather their scanty crops. Sometimes they were not permitted to sow their ground in the spring, and some who sowed amid dangers in the spring were unable to reap in the fall. Often the husband and older sons went to the field in the morning and never returned. Often, also, upon their return at night, they found the family had been either captured or murdered. From 1778 to 1782 there was scarcely a family within the limits of our present county that had bread sufficient to subsist on from fall till spring. Their live stock was destroyed and stolen. With all their vigilance in watching the enemy there was scarcely a week that some depredation was not committed. Men, women and children were taken prisoners and carried away, and nothing was heard from them for months or years, and often they were never heard of again. This apparently never- ending war induced the authorities to offer and from time to time to in- crease the bounty on scalps of Indians.
Reference has been made heretofore to a scalp bounty paid regularly by the English. The fact is abundantly proved by the archives of New York and Pennsylvania, and the history of the Revolutionary period; and, it may be ' said, the thrilling, blood-curdling stories told by novelists of the present day are by no means without ample foundation.
But, on the other hand, the Indian was rightly regarded as the natural
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enemy of the white man, and it soon became the belief of the pioneers that the only solution to the question was the utter extermination of the native Indian race. From an early date the Proprietors offered a bounty for the scalps of Indian warriors. In 1756 (says Craig in "Early Pittsburgh") Gov- ernor Morris offered one hundred and fifty Spanish dollars for every male Indian above the age of twelve years taken prisoner and delivered to the authorities; for the scalp of every male Indian over twelve years old taken in war, one hundred and thirty Spanish dollars; for every male or female prisoner under twelve years old, one hundred and thirty Spanish dollars; for the scalp of every Indian woman, produced with evidence of being killed, fifty dollars. These bounties were payable by the commanders of the forts that were kept up by the province, upon the delivery of the prisoner or scalps with proper proofs; the jail keepers at the county seats were also authorized to pay for them. In 1764 Governor Penn offered a reward of $150 for every male Indian prisoner over ten years old, and $134 for his scalp when killed. For every male or female under ten years of age when captured, $130, or $50 for the scalp when killed. About 1782 there was a standing reward of $100 for a dead Indian's scalp, and $150 for the Indian if captured alive and brought to the garrison. The same offer was made for all white men taken prisoner while aiding the Indians. Colonel Samuel Hunter, Colonel Jacob Stroud and others in Westmoreland were authorized to offer the rewards. In a letter to President Reed the former says that he has just organized a party to go scalp-hunting, and that though they do not make as much out of a dead Indian as out of a living one, yet it was much less trouble and much more agreeable to the hunters to shoot him at once and scalp him than to be bothered carrying him along as a prisoner. Colonel Archibald Lochry, the county lieutenant, wrote from his house near Latrobe that there was no doubt but that the reward would answer a good end. He also in the same letter asks for more ammunition to supply the parties of scalp-hunters. But Colonel Hunter reported later an unsuccessful return of his party so far as procuring scalps was concerned, and in reply, President Reed told him to be of good cheer, and expressed a hope that another hunting excursion would prove more successful. Many scalps were thus taken, and on one occasion thirteen, with accompanying certificates, were sent in at one time. The scalp- hunting business reached its highest point in 1781 and 1782, if the Colonial records are to be believed. It must not be forgotten that the Indians were all these years engaged in the same business, and that they scalped men, women and children, and even innocent babes.
A person who was scalped was always supposed to be killed, though we have instances of some who survived the injury. The scalping itself did not kill the prisoner, for it consisted in the taking of the skin only from the crown of the head-a piece about four inches in circumference. This op- eration was performed by taking a firm hold of the hair with the left hand,
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