USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 29
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slow in strategic warfare. He sent word to Clay to land about half of his forces as he came down the river, and have them quietly gain the rear of the British fortifications. At the proper time, while the enemy would nat- urally be giving their attention to the remainder of Clay's forces, and when Harrison from near his own fortress would be storming them, Clay's landed troops were to assault the fortress from the rear, destroy their wagons, spike their guns, and do all the damage they could, and then take their boats and pull for Fort Meigs. Clay's main forces were to come on down the river and enter the fort. Clay was delayed till about eight o'clock in the morning, and his forces were severely attacked by a band of savages as they were entering the fort, the morning of May 5, 1813. Major John B. Alexander, with his Pennsylvania troops, was ordered to protect them when they should land. The Indians increased, and Alexander's troops charged them with bayonets and forced them back about a half mile, while Clay's troops dis- embarked and entered the fort.
The part of Clay's forces which had landed up the river was under the command of Colonel Dudley, a daring officer of sufficient skill and executive ability to successfully carry out the scheme. They gained the rear of the enemy and at the proper time by a furious attack had captured their four batteries and put them to flight before they realized the situation. Their guns were spiked, their carriages cut to pieces, and the red cross of St. George was hauled down. Then Dudley, always cool-headed, ordered an immediate retreat to the boats and Fort Meigs as had been prearranged. But the soldiers were wild with joy and excitement over their unprecedented victory. In place of obeying orders they madly pursued the enemy. The English soon recovered themselves. After being routed from their fortifi- cations they united with a band of Indians and quietly awaited the approach of Dudley's reckless forces. They exposed a few Indians and British, who drew them into the proper locality. The batteries taken by Dudley's men had in their excitement been left lightly guarded. Dudley's men were cut off from the fortress they had taken, and the British and Indians easily overpowered the guard left there. It was a victory fairly won by brave troops, but thrown away through 3 reckless disobedience. The Americans in charge of the fortifications resisted bravely when the British came back, but were nearly all killed or wounded. Fifty of them were killed and seventy wounded. About five hundred of Dudley's troops were taken prisoners and only one hundred and fifty of them escaped. These fought their way to the boats and entered Fort Meigs. Colonel Dudley, while trying to cut through the lines and gain the boats, was mortally wounded. After he fell he killed an Indian assailant and then himself expired.
Then the Indians began to murder the prisoners under the eye of the British General Proctor, who had not manhood enough to even attempt to stop it. In the midst of the slaughter came the greatest Indian warrior of
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his age, and, next to Pontiac, the greatest leader of the Indian race, Tecum- seh, who had been engaged in another part of the battle. He stopped their bloody work at once, saying that no defenseless prisoners should be killed when he commanded.
When Dudley began his attack on the batteries, Harrison was carrying out his part of the program to the letter. Alexander's battalion had acquit- ted themselves so nobly in protecting Clay's landing that Harrison at once assigned them to Colonel John Miller's forces to storm the British fortifi- cations. There were under Miller the Pittsburgh Blues, the Peterson Rifles and the Pennsylvania Volunteers, among whom were the Westmoreland sol- diers. The part of the fortification which they meant to and did attack was the side next to the river, for in doing so they would not interfere with Dudley's command in their work at the rear. They were opposed largely by Indians under the command of Tecumseh and his brother, and there were also five companies of British troops. The American army numbered only 350, for that was all that General Harrison could spare from the fort for that part of the attack. They charged the British and Indians, numbering about 1150, routed them from their concealment, killed and wounded many of them, and drove the remainder into the woods. The attack, though against great odds, succeeded admirably ; they also took forty-three prisoners.
Then the English General Proctor sent a request to have Harrison sur- render, but this was indignantly refused. Proctor's army was in a bad con- dition. They had provisions, but no wagons. Their four cannon had been rendered useless by Dudley's men. They had also lost more men than the enemy whom they attacked and whom they hoped to annihilate. An ex- change of prisoners was asked for and granted by Harrison. On May 9th the British army moved off under a heavy fire on the part of the Americans. Thus ended the siege of Fort Meigs, which had lasted about two weeks. Had Dudley's soldiers obeyed orders it would undoubtedly have resulted in one of the most brilliant victories of American arms. Even as it was, our army did most glorious work. Our loss was 131 killed and 259 wounded. Gen- eral Harrison made special mention of the gallant conduct of the 350 men under Miller and Alexander.
A detachment composed of the Pittsburgh Blues, Petersburg Volunteers and the Westmoreland soldiers, in all about one hundred and sixty men, were sent to the Lower Sandusky, where there was a stockade fort commanded by Major George Crogan, an extremely youthful but brave officer. On An- gust Ist, 1813, the fort was surrounded by five hundred British soldiers under Proctor and about eight hundred Indians, besides a large number of Indians who were stationed outside to intercept any reinforcements to the fort. Proc- tor then sent a demand for surrender under a flag of truce, and warned them that they should be butchered if they compelled him to take the stockade by force. Crogan, young as he was, had plenty of the true soldier spirit, and his
1
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soldiers were mostly young and spirited like their commander. He first learned that their sentiments were all in favor of holding out as long as possible, and then sent an answer declining to surrender. To the threat, he an- swered that when the fort was taken there would be none left to butcher, as it would not be given up while one man was left able to fight. The firing began at night from the enemy in boats on the bay. It was soon discovered that the enemy fired on one angle of the fort alone, intending doubtless to effect an entrance there when sufficiently weakened. Crogan had only one cannon. and this he mounted in a position that it would rake the ditch sur- rounding the fort, should the enemy attempt to climb over the palisades. The fire was kept up all the next day, but Crogan's men put bags of sand, and even bags of flour, in the angle aimed at, so as to prevent any serious damage. At four o'clock they turned all their guns on this one angle, and made the assault amid the clouds of smoke which this heavy firing produced. Two attempts were made by three hundred and fifty British soldiers, but each time their ranks were thrown into confusion by the active firing from within. They were then led on by a brave officer, Colonel Short, and actually jumped into the ditch. The porthole was opened at once, and the six-pounder, within thirty feet of the men in the ditch, was fired. By this enfilading shot Colonel Short and over fifty of his men were cut down, though some of them were only wounded .. At the same time the rifles in the fort, perhaps one hundred and fifty of them, opened on the men in the ditch, and this soon compelled them to retire, leaving the wounded behind. By this time darkness came. The wounded begged for water, but their friends dare not venture near enough to them to supply it. Major Crogan and his men handed them water over the pickets. He also opened a hole under the pickets to the ditch, and many of the wounded crawled through it into the fort. At three o'clock in the morn- ing Proctor and his men quietly retreated down the bay, and in their haste left a boatload of valuable supplies behind. They also left seventy stand of arms and many braces of pistols. The Americans lost one killed and seven or eight slightly wounded. The loss to the British was estimated at one hundred and fifty or more, for over fifty were left in the ditch.
Nothing can better close this brief account of Westmoreland's troops in the war of 1812 than a reprint of the order by which they were discharged from further services. It is as follows :
Headquarters, Seneca Town, Aug. 28, 1813. (After General Orders)
The Pittsburgh Volunteers, commanded by Captain Butler, and those of Greensburg by Lieutenant Drum, of Major Alexander's battalion, having performed their services, the General hereby presents them an honorable discharge.
The General has ever considered this corps as the first in the North Western Army. Equal in point of bravery and subordination, it excelled in every other of those attain- ments which form complete and efficient soldiers. In battle, in camp, and on the march, their conduct has done honor to themselves and their country.
A. H. HOLMES, Asst. Adj. General.
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
The life and character of Major John B. Alexander has been considered in the chapter entitled the Bench and Bar of Westmoreland.
Captain Joseph Markle, generally known to our generation as General Markle, was born near West Newton, February 15, 1777. The genealogy of the Markle family, which was quite a noted one, has been considered elsewhere. A sketch of his life will be found among the prominent West- morelanders elsewhere in these pages.
CHAPTER XVIII
Taverns .- Turnpikes .- Wagons .- Stage Coaches.
The public houses erected and used as taverns along the Forbes and the State roads were very generally built of logs, and would not in our day be re- garded as attractive hostelries. They are nearly all gone now, but were not much better than the private houses of that period of house building. But when the turnpike between Pittsburgh and Bedford was completed, a new era in house building began. The pike was so thoroughly constructed, carrying with it every evidence of permanency, that builders thought they might well expend enough on their new houses to have them in keeping with the new age. This perhaps applied no less to the public than to the private houses along the way. Many specimens of both are standing yet, having withstood the storms of nearly a century. They were built in advance of the style of their day.
When a village was laid out there was usually a public square in the center, and at least two corners of the square were set apart for taverns. These towns and public houses followed the stage-coach lines and the wagon lines upon which were transported nearly all of the passengers and goods between Phila- delphia and Pittsburgh. The best men and women of our country traveled back and forth along the turnpike, and their entertainment called for and brought about a new and better style of hostelries. There was almost a con- tinuous stream of four or six-horse wagons laden with merchandise going west, and returning with the product of the west to supply the eastern cities. They journeyed mostly between Philadelphia or Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Wagon- ers generally stopped at the wayside tavern, which was less expensive than to put up at the villages. They cared little for style, but demanded an abundance, while the stage-coach passengers wanted both. The wagoner invariably slept on a bunk which he carried with him, and which he laid on the floor of the big bar-room and office of the country hotel. Stage drivers and their passengers stopped at the best hotels and paid higher prices.
The public square, so common in many of the older Pennsylvania towns, was not intended to be an ornament as it is now, but was for a special purpose. There the wagons laden with freight stood over night, and as a general rule,
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in all kinds of weather. The horses were blanketed, fed and bedded in the square also. For this purpose the wagoner carried a long trough which at night he fastened with special irons on the tongue of the wagon, the end of which was held up by a prop. There are few of our public squares which have not thus been filled even to overflowing with wagons and horses. An old gen- tleman told the writer that he had once seen fifty-two wagons in an unbroken line going west on the Greensburg and Stoystown turnpike. These were Conestoga wagons, with great bowed beds covered with white canvas, and it must have taken a large stable-yard and square to stow them away for the night wherever they stopped. The square of a wagon or stage road town was usually from three to five hundred feet long, by perhaps two to three hundred feet wide. Some old villages had two squares separated a short distance from each other.
A requisite of the old fashioned wagon or stage town hotel, or of the way- side tavern, was a large room used as an office, a bar-room, and a sleeping place for the wagoners. In it was a large open fire-place which was abund- antly supplied with wood in the early days, and later with coal. Around this, when their horses were cared for and the evening diversion over, the wagoners spread their bunks in a sort of semi-circle, with their feet to the fire. Colored men drove wagons, but never became stage drivers. They stopped at the same hotel with white wagoners, but never ate at the same table. Wagoners drove in all kinds of weather, and the descent of a mountain or large hill was often attended with great danger, when it was covered with ice, for instance. The day's journey for a regular wagoner when heavily laden was rather less than over fifteen miles, and one hundred miles in a week was more than the average. To urge his horses on, or compel a lazy one to pull its share, the wagoner used a large tapering wagon-whip made of black leather and about five feet long, with a silken cracker at the end. The best whips were called Loudon whips, made in a little town in Franklin county, named Loudon. The average load hauled was about six thousand pounds for a six-horse team. Sometimes four tons were put on, and even five tons, which the wagoner boastfully called "a hundred hundred," were hauled, but these were the exceptions.
The wagons were made with broad wheels, four inches or more, so that they would not "cut in" if a soft place was passed over. The standard wagon was the "Conestoga." The bed was low in the center, and higher at each end. The lower part of the bed was painted blue. Above this was a red board about a foot wide, which could be taken off when necessary, and these, with the white canvas covering, made the patriotic tri-color of the American flag, though this was unintentional. Bells were often used in all seasons of the year, though not strings of bells such as used now in sleighing. They were fastened to an iron bow above the hames, and were pear-shaped, and very sweet-toned. They perhaps relieved the monotony of a long journey over the lonely pike.
Wagoners always preferred to stop with a landlord who was a good fiddler, -not a violinist, but "just a plain old-fashioned fiddler." Then, when the even-
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ing work of the wagoner was over, an evening's dance in the dining-room or bar-room was not an infrequent occurrence. Gathered together at one place were the young maidens of two or three nearby taverns, or other neighbors, and then to the music of the landlord's fiddle came the Virginia hoe-down, the memory of which makes the old wagoner's eyes sparkle with joy even to this day.
A young wagoner who saved his money did not always remain a wagoner. Very soon he could own a team of his own, then another and another, until he could purchase a farm with a "tavern stand" on it, or engage in other business. Some of them became men of prominence as merchants and manufacturers in Pittsburgh or elsewhere. One of the best known wagoners between Pittsburgh and the east was Jacob Painter, who afterward became a business man of high standing and great wealth in Pittsburgh. On one occasion he said that he had "driven over the road many times, and knew every man, woman and child on the way. I was welcome everywhere, and had plenty of enjoyment. Indeed," said he, "those were the happiest days of my life."
Gears, not harness, was the name used in that day, and they were so large that they almost covered the horse. The backbands were often over a foot wide, and the hipstraps as much as ten inches in width. The breeching of the wheelhorses were so large and ponderous that they almost covered the hind- quarters of the large horses. The housing was of heavy black leather, and came down almost to the bottom of the hames. It required the strength of a man to throw them on the back of a large horse. The wagoner's saddle was made of black leather, with long wide flaps or skirts cut square at the bottom.
With the Conestoga wagoners originated our modern stogie cigars, which have become so common among smokers. They were made of pure home- grown tobacco, and, being used very largely, at first by the Conestoga wagon- ers, took the name "stogies," which clings to them yet. There was no revenue on them then, and, labor being cheap, they were retailed at three and four for a cent. They are made now by the million in western Pennsylvania and in Wheeling, West Virginia. The wagoner smoked a great deal, perhaps to re- lieve the monotony of his life, but he very rarely drank liquor to excess, though whisky was only worth three cents per drink and was free at most tavern stands to wagoners. Landlords kept liquor, not to make money out of it, but to accommodate the traveling public. There was on our old pike, it is said, an average of one tavern every two miles between Pittsburgh and Bedford, yet all put together outside of the city did not sell as much as one well patronized house does now. In the corner of the bar-room of the county tavern was a small counter, and back of this were kept several bottles labeled with the name of the liquor they contained. The guest had his choice.
It may be somewhat surprising to the modern reader that the best of wagons in the early days of our pike were not supplied with brakes, or rubbers to enable the wagoner to move slowly going down a steep hill. They were not în use till later in the history of the pike, and are said to have been invented by a
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man named Jones, of Brownsville, on the old National pike. They were never patented, but came into general use soon after the inventor first put them on a wagon. In place of these the wagoner tied a hickory pole across his wagon, so that the one end bore heavily on the wheel. Sometimes he cut a small tree, which he tied to his rear axle and allowed it to drag behind, and thus descended the hill safely. In winter when the pike was covered with ice, he used a rough lock, which was a heavy linked chain tied around the wheel, and then he tied the wheel when the chain touched the ground or ice.
Wagoning, as a business between the east and west, began about 1818, and reached its highest point about 1840, or perhaps a year or so earlier. The busi- ness of the pike declined very rapidly when the Pennsylvania railroad was built, so that in 1853 it was almost a feature of the past. The canal across the state, finished about 1829, also injured the wagoner's business, but it had little
SIX HORSE TEAM USED IN EARLY TURNPIKE DAYS.
effect on the stage-coach traffic. Most of the elderly men of the past few years fix the highest point of travel and transportation on the pike as at about 1840. This was the year of the greatest political campaign in the nation's his- tory, and this year is likely fixed by that event in the minds of the old-timer. There is no reason why more business should not have been done in 1842, though after that it began to decline. Our pike played a great part in the campaign of 1840-the Log Cabin Campaign. William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe, and grandfather of the late President Benjamin Harrison, was the candidate of the Whig party for the presidency, while his Democratic opponent was Martin Van Buren, of New York. Harrison had been born and lived in a log cabin in Ohio, so the war cry on the part of the Whigs was "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," and this rang for months throughout the Union. Business was actually almost suspended in many parts of the country. Penn-
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sylvania was particularly the scene of great excitement. In Ligonier the Whigs met and constructed a log cabin about twenty feet long, ten feet wide, and eight feet high to the roof, and placed it firmly on a large Conestoga wagon, after removing the bed. It had a regular sloping roof, doors, windows, floor, etc., and the room within was bountifully supplied with hard cider, and whisky. With eight horses they took this to places on the pike where big meetings were to be held in the interests of the Whig party. Their longest and most noted trip was to Somerset, where the assembled Whigs, numbering thousands, were addressed by Charles (alias "Spoony") Ogle, whose eloquent tongue was a power in every part of the Union in winning victory for the Whig ticket. The leading spirit in constructing the cabin was Conrad George, who lived nearly fifty years afterwards, and was always delighted to tell of it.
After wagoning a few years at this rate, the times demanded a faster method of transportation between the east and west, and this brought about the Pitts- burgh and Philadelphia Transportation Company. They introduced a system of relays, that is, a change of horses about every ten or fifteen miles, by which they kept the wagon going day and night from the beginning to the end of the trip. When the tired team entered the relay station, a new team and another driver took the wagon and moved on at once. The tired horses rested, and in a few hours took a returning wagon of the same company back over the route. These wagons were never heavily loaded, four thousand pounds being about the heaviest they carried. The driver was expected to make on an average two miles per hour. For freight thus delivered in less than half the time consumed in the old way, merchants were willing to pay a much greater rate per pound. It was rarely ever that a team was fed at the middle of the day, the morning and evening meal being all they got. The rates of freight varied with the times.
The tollgate keeper took the toll from all who passed over the road, except- ing officers or others who were entitled to free travel. To approximate the ex- tent of travel it is hardly fair to take the record kept by gatekeepers in a popu- lous community or near a growing town. But the gatekeeper on Chestnut Ridge between Youngstown and Ligonier reported the following for the year ending May 31, 1818, which was the first year after the road was completed : Single horses, 7,112; one horse vehicles, 350; two-horse vehicles, 501 ; three- horse vehicles, 105: four-horse vehicles, 281 ; five-horse vehicles, 2,412; six- horse vehicles, 2,698; one-horse sleighs and sleds, 38; two-horse sleighs and sleds, 201 ; making a total of 38,599 horses for the first year of the pike. From March I to March 20, in 1827. 500 wagons passed through the gate east of Greensburg. On March 1, 1832, eighty-five wagons passed through the same gate. On March 12, 1837, ninety-two wagons passed through it and this was one of the best days.
Wagoners often drove in companies of six or eight, and sometimes more. In this way they could assist each other in any misfortune that might befall them, and they were thus company for each other at night. It was not unusual for a wagoner with a heavy load to get two additional horses, making eight in 17
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all, to help him up Laurel Hill, or up any steep grade. These were furnished at regular rates by a farmer or tavern keeper who lived near by, and who sent a boy along to bring the team back.
Another feature of the old pike days was driving horses, cattle, sheep, and sometimes hogs, to the eastern market. Then, as now, the west raised more live stock than they needed, and they were made to walk east in droves. By the west in that day was meant Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Men in the live- stock business were called drovers. They bought up live stock of all kinds in western Pennsylvania and in the states farther west, and drove them east on the pike for Philadelphia and New York markets. Horses were taken east by the score, and even by hundreds. They could be taken at almost any season of the year, for they could be stabled and fed on hay at night. They were al- ways led, that is, a man rode on one and led five or six others with halters. They did not necessarily therefore go in large droves. Hogs moved slowly, and droves of them were not so common. A drove of hogs could only walk from eight to ten miles per day. Droves of cattle and sheep were more numer- ous, and during the summer months could be seen almost daily on any part of the pike, all going east. Sheep were taken in droves of from three to six or even ten hundred. They walked farther each day than hogs, but not so far as horses or cattle. An average drove of cattle was about one hundred and fifty, sometimes more or less. They paid toll by the score, and less than a score originally passed free. So occasionally a drover took east a herd of nine- teen to avoid the payment of toll. These small droves were the exception, however, for a larger number could be driven with about the same help. The cattle were generally full grown, that is, from two to four years old. One large steer, having a rope around his horns, was led by a boy, and the rest followed him. After a few days' driving they followed the leader as though they had been driven all their lives. In that day oxen were used more or less instead of horses, for heavy drawing and farm work. When a yoke of oxen became old they were frequently fattened and sent east with other cattle, so that the drove often included a number of very large, long-horned steers. Behind the drove followed a driver who kept the lazy cattle from lagging behind. The owner of the drove generally rode on horseback. In the afternoon he rode on ahead to look out a good field of pasture where they could be kept all night. They paid the farmer a price which varied, but it was generally about three cents per head for the night's pasture. A drove of cattle, particularly if they were heavy animals, could not make more than twelve or fifteen miles per day. They plod- ded along and at length reached the market, where, if they were fat enough, they were slaughtered at once. As a general rule they gained in weight rather than lost on the way east, particularly if the pasture was good and the drover a careful one. The drover was paid in cash for his cattle, and this he put in his saddlebags, and rode home to purchase another lot. The young men who drove for him generally walked home and tried to reach there by the
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