USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Lancaster county Indians: annals of the Susquehannocks and other Indian tribes of the Susquehanna territory from about the year 1500 to 1763, the date of their extinction > Part 12
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The officers, as it was near evening, then retired to their respective en- campments and the Indians went back to the Fort."
"Early the next morning Capt. John Allen, a well known leader of rang- ers in Maryland service, was ordered to proceed with a file of men to the house of Randolph Hansom, one of the victims of the recent outrages, to ascertain if it had been plundered by the Indians and to bring any am- munition that may have been left on the premises. Capt. Allen promptly discharged this duty and returned with him the bodies of those murder- ed at Hansom's house."
"During his absence the Susquehan- nock chiefs had come out of the Fort probably by appointment on the pre- ceeding evening for the purpose of renewing their conference with the Maryland and Virginia officers. They were again charged by the latter more vehemently than before with having been concerned in the outrages in Virginia; but the allegation was again met with an absolute and in- dignant denial. Upon this the chiefs were placed in custody of the Mary- land and Virginia troops, and the of- ficers retired to another part of the field to deliberate and decide what course to pursue."
"Unfortunately for the prisoners, in the midst of the deliberations, Captain Allen and his detachment made their appearance bringing with them the slaughtered bodies-the bloody evidence of savage barbarity and hate.The whole camp was arous- ed; Maryland and Virginia alike burn- ed with indignation and thirsted for revenge. The council of officers was broken up and the feelings which had been stirred up by sight of their murdered countrymen found vent in an almost unanimous demand for the death of those now in their hands
who were strongly suspected of being the guilty parties in this case and who had been so strenuously de- nounced by the Virginians as the known murderers of their people."
"Before, they might have listened to the voice of reason and justice; but now they thought only of the in- juries that had been inflicted by sav- age hands and loudly called for ven- geance on those unfortunate repre- sentatives of the race whose confi- dence in the efficiency of our tokens of the past and the sanctity of their present pledges had placed in their power. They forgot that those men had responded to a professedly peace- ful summons. They had come out with the emblems of friendship in their hands; that they had received assurance of confidence and prom- ises of protection; and hurried away by the fury of the moment, commit- ted a deed, which as it violated the laws of God and of man brought up- on them the condemnation of their own contemporaries as it must have done of their own consciences in af- ter moments of coolness and reflec- tion."
"Major Truman struggled against the excitement and pleaded for delay but in vain. The Virginia officers, confident of getting immediate pos- session of the Fort and professing to others that they were only a few hours anticipating, the fate of the prisoners and perhaps depending in part on the effect of so terrible a blow insisted on the immediate execu- tion of the chiefs. Only one of them, for what reason we do not know, was spared; the remainder, five in num- ber were bound, led forth from the place of their detention and, to use the plain phrase of our authority were 'knocked on the head.' So died the chiefs of the Susquehannocks, not with arms, but with the pledges
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of the white man's protection in their hands; not in open field and with a fair fight, but entrapped by treachery, and encompassed by their enemies; not the death of warriors, but of dumb cattle. They died an ignomin- ious death, yet their executioners, by their act covered themselves with a thousand fold deeper disgrace and shame.
"It is but just to the rank and file of the Maryland troops, to say that though one authority speaks of the 'unanimous consent' of the Virginians and the eager impetuosity of the whole field as well Maryland as Vir- ginia, upon the sight of the Chris- tians murdered at Hanson; another, alluding to the uphappy act, states that Truman's first command for the killing of those Indians was not obeyed and he had some difficulty to get any men to obey him therein. And after they were put to death no man would own to have had a hand in it; but rather seemed to abhor the act."
"If the Virginians were moved to take the lives of these chiefs by the expectation that they would surren- der the fort, or hasten it, they greatly miscalculated. When those who had remained behind learned of what had been done; hate and desperation con- tended for the mastery in their hearts. The blood of their slaughtered leaders called for vengeance. The proved faithlessness of those who threaten- ed their slaughter, forbade them to hope. They shut themselves up with- in the palisades, strengthened their defenses, and prepared for a desper- ate resistance. Whenever and wher- ever the besiegers prepared or at- tempted an assault, they were ready to meet them. Whenever a proposal was made for a conference or a sur- render their reply was, "Where are our chiefs?"
1675-Fall of the Susquehannocks Chap. IV. (The Seige).
"The Susquehannocks had been too suddenly attacked to allow them to lay in supplies to stand a long siege, even if their mode of warfare had en- couraged or their resources had al- lowed such a proceeding; and as the besieging forces cut them off from the surrounding country, they soon suffered for want of provisions. Not daunted by the prospect of starvation they made frequent and fierce sallies to the severe annoyance and loss of the besiegers, and at last in their extremity resorted to the expedient of capturing and feeding upon the horses which belonged to their assail- ants. These do not appear to have been opposed with much vigor either because the first rash step had so damped the ardor of the men or be- cause it was the policy of the com- mander to starve rather than force the Indians to surrender. The fort also was too strong to be stormed. Its situation on low ground precluded the possbility of undermining the foundations and palisades even if the watchfulness of the dependers had permitted their approach; and they had no cannon with them to batter it down. So that they were compelled in fact to wait the time when famine would have weakened the enemy so as to render them an easy prey.
"But the Susquehannocks had no idea of such a termination of the struggle. After six weeks of heroic defense during which time they had inflicted much injury on their ene- mies, but with litle loss to them- selves, they yielded, not to the prow- ess of the besiegers, but to the want of food, and prepared not to surrend- er but to evacuate the fort.
1675-Fall of the Susquehannocks Chap. V. (Evacuation).
It certainly gives a strong color of probability to the charge of neglect
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of duty, on the part of the investing troops, that the Susquehannocks af- ter destroying everything within the fort that could be of use to the as- sailants, and leaving behind only a few decrepit old men, marched out under cover of the night 75 strong, with their women and children, pass- ed through the lines of the besieging forces undiscovered and on their way killed ten of the guards whom they found asleep.
"The next morning the united forces discovered that the prey had escaped and followed in pursuit; but either could not or would not over- take these desperate fighters, and fugitives for fear of ambuscade. Both detachments it would seem were heartily tired of the enterprise from which neither officers nor men were likely to receive honor or profit. We may therefore infer both parties readily relinquished pursuit; and after detailing sufficient force to oc- cupy the fort and range through the adjoining country returned to their respective provinces, not merely will- ing but desirous that their exploits during the expedition should pass in- to oblivion.
1675-Fall of Susquehannocks Chap. VI. (Retreat).
"Not so the Susquehannocks. They left the last place of refuge on the soil of Maryland with a stinging sense of injury, a recollection of solemn ob- ligation slighted and of murder yet unavenged. The voices of their. slaughtered chiefs called upon them for the sacrifice of blood and as they took the leave of
the territory of their enemies and crossing the Po- tomac directed their route over the head of the Rappahannock, York and James rivers, the tomahawk fell upon settler after settler. Sixty victims were sacrificed to atone for the slaughter of the heads of their tribe. has fallen.
One of the sufferers at the head of the James river was a valued over- seer on a plantation of Nathaniel Bacon; and it was the murder of this man, in connection with the distract- ed state of the country which caused Bacon's application for a commission to go against the Indians, a part of whom were Susquehannocks. His subsequent difficulty with Gov. Berk- ley, his rebellion, and his untimely death are familiar to all readers of the colonial history of Virginia.
The Susquehannocks believing they have now sacrificed victims enough to redeem their own honor and to appease the angry spirits of their murdered chiefs are willing to enter into negotiations with Virginia. They sent to the governor a remon- strance drawn up by an English in- terpreter of the following purport:
(1) They ask why he (Virginia's governor) a professed friend, has taken up arms in behalf of Maryland, their avowed enemies ?
(2) They express their regret to find that the Virginians from friends have become such violent enemies as to pursue them even into another province.
(3) They complain that their chiefs sent out to treat for peace were not only murdered but the act was coun- tenanced by the governor.
(4) They declare that seeing no other way of satisfaction they have killed ten of the common English for each one of their chiefs to make up for the disrotation arising out of the difference of rank.
(5) They propose if the Virginians will make them compensation for the damages they have sustained by the attack upon them and withdraw all aid from Maryland to renew the an- cient league of friendship; otherwise they and those in league with them will continue the war so unfairly be- gun and fight it out till the last man
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"This message to Governor Berkley notwithstanding its lofty tone made no impression and elicited no reply, and the Susquehannocks were left to fulfill their terrible threat. which they did to the letter. They succeed- ed in enlisting in their cause several tribes before friendly to the Virgin- ians and their allies, and then address- ed themselves with savage earnest- ness to their bloody work. So sud- den were their attacks and so awful the inhumanities of which they were guilty that the frontier plantations were deserted; and it would seem that even Jamestown itself was not safe from their attack. (It will be remembered that Jamestown was burnt during Bacon's rebellion).
"A line of forts was established along the frontier to prevent their incursions; but like most similar in- tempts of the colonists, owing to their distance from each other, the want of sufficient garrison they failed entirely to afford protection. Bands of sav- age marauders watched their oppor- tunity, passed between the forts, ef- fected their murderous objects, re- passed the lines and were beyond pursuit before the garrison could be alarmed and despatched to the point of assault.
"Yet these were after all the last desperate efforts of a despairing people. Few in numbers themselves, and leagued with feeble tribes they could only hope to inflict the utmost injury upon their adversaries with the certainty of finally perishing as individuals and as a people in the contest. Had not Virginia herself been crippled by a civil controversary they would have been crushed at once; but even as it was in the midst of all its distraction and its
differences with the government, Bacon found time to avenge those of his friends and of the province who had fallen beneath the assaults, and
reassured the desponding colonists. He swept the country of the tribe with whom the Susquehannocks had leagued themselves, burned their towns, put a large number to the sword and dispersed the remainder The Indians fled before him, several tribes perished and those who sur- vived were so reduced as to never again be able to make a stand. Ann Cotton's Account, Written 1676.
A very plain an apparently lliit- erate outline account of the end of the Susquehannocks as a tribe, is that known as Ann Cotton's account, written the year after the happen- ings. It is in the form of a letter and appears in Force's Facts, Vol. 1, No. 9. It is brief and as follows: ' The Susquehannocks & Marylanders of friends being ingaged enimyes, & that the Indians being resolutely bent not to forsake there forts; it came to this pointe, yet the Maryland- ers were obliged (finding themselves too weak to do the worke themselves) aide of ye Virginians put under the conduct of one Colonell Washington (him whom you have sometimes seen at your house) who being joined by the Marylanders invests the Indians in the forts with a negligent siege, upon which the enemy made small sal- leys with as many loss to the beseig- ers, and at last gave them the oppor- tunity to desert the forte, after that the English had (contrary to ye law of arms) beat out the brains of 6
grate men sent out to treat a peace; an action of ill consequence, as it proved after. For the Indians having in the darke slipped through the lea- gure and in their passage knocked 10 of the beseigers on the head, which they found fast asleep leaving the rest to prosecute the siege (as Scorg- ing's wife brooding the eggs which the fox has sucked) they resolved to imploy their liberty in avenging their commissioners' blood which they
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speedly effected in the death of 60 inniscent soules, and then send in their remonstrance to the governor in justification of the fact with this ex- postulation annext, demanding what it was moved the Virginian governor to take up arms against them, his professed friends, in the behalfe of Marylanders, their avowed enimyes."
1675-Fall of the Susquehannocks. Chap. VII. (Slaughter in Virginia).
"Among those who were made to feel the avenging arm of Bacon was the homeless remnant of the Susque- hannocks. His residence was on the James river at a point called 'Curles' in Henrico county ; and as has been mentioned his favorite overseer had been murdered by those savages. The confidence the frontier settlers had in his courage and ability made them anxious to obtain him as leader against their enemies. He was will- ing to take command of an expedition but he had no commission from the Governor, for raising military forces. After many difficulties a commission was promised him and he commenced his preparations but in the midst of them ascertained the Governor had acted the part of a hypocrite and did not intend to fulfill his promise."
"Roused by the discourteous and distrustful procedure, Bacon at once armed his servants and called togeth- er the frontier settlers and placing himself in command went into the forest to pursue and punish the Sus- quehannocks. Advancing to a village occupied by a tribe of the Occonegies he was received by them in a friendly manner and informed in regard to the place where the Susquehannocks had fortified themselves and perpared for a desperate resistance in case of an attack. He pushed forward with- out delay and found them strongly posted in a rude fort; but this did not deter him. He led his men to the assault and after a fierce struggle
succeeded in forcing his way into the fort and put 70 of the defendants to the sword. See ("Strange News from Virginia,-London, 1677," a report of the affair in a London paper). A few of the original tribe may have survived but the information we possess relative to the diminished number of the tribe at that period justifies the conclusion that this severe blow completed their extinc- tion."
1675-Fall of the Susquehannocks- Chap. VIII, (Extinction as a Tribe).
So disappeared the stout Susque- hannocks from the page of aborigi- nal history. They met the first white man who set foot on their soil with firm and unyielding front. They re- sisted for years the attempted nego- tiations and encroachments on their territory; yet pressed, hard pressed, at least by powerful enemies of their own race, they yielded to necessity and accepted his proffered friendship; for a quarter of a century they held the sacred pledges of Lord Baltimore, and kept the peace; during which
time, driven by the Senecas from their homes they were forced into a position which brought upon them the hostility of the people of Maryland; they accepted proposals for negotia- tions, only to find their leaders en- trapped and put to death; they de- fended themselves bravely in their strongholds and rather than surrend- er they retreated to another terri- tory, and thereafter sending to the authorities with a proud and unshak- en spirit the choice between the hand of friendship and the tomahawk, ac- cepted the latter alternative as that alone was left to them. Then came the deadly struggle in the crisis of which though individuals survived
and were incorporated into other tribes, as a distinct people they per- ished in a manner most glorious to their vengeance, in the blaze of the
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burning mansions, the ruin of culti- vated estates, with the shriek and the supplication of the murdered white man ringing in their ears and their hands red wth human blood."
"Yet the act which in the com- mencement of their difficulties drove them to extremities and which was in fact the cause of their destruction, was not allowed to pass unrebuked."
1676-Fall of the Susquehannocks- Chap. IX. (Attainder of Major Truman).
"After the return of his detachment to Virginia, Colonel Washington on the 5th day of January, 1676 took his seat as a member of the Assembly. In his opening address on that occasion, Governor Berkley alluded to the late Indian disturbances and in reference to the chiefs who had been put to death at Piscataway, used the follow- ing emphatic language: "If they had killed my grand-father and my grand- mother, my father and mother and all my friends, yet if they had come to treat in peace, they should have gone in peace." His opinion of the deed therefore is sufficiently evident; but whether the mass of the people, im- bittered as their feelings were by the recollections of recent Indian out- rages, would have joined him in the condemnation may be doubted. The pressure of events, however and the necessity for self-protection within and without soon absorbed the atten- tion of the Governor and Legislature and the people; and the life or the death of a few savages became a minor consideration."
"In Maryland the case was differ- ent. The detachment of Major Tru- man having returned with the excep- tion of one company under Captain John Allen to guard the frontier, the murder of the Susquehannock chiefs became the subject of public discussion and legal inquiry.
On May 16, 1676 Major Truman was arrested by order of the Legisla- ture then in session to answer the charge of impeachment brought against him by the lower House, charging him with having broken his commission and instructions, in that he received as friends six Indians sent out by the Susquehannocks as Ambassadors to treat with him and after giving them asurance that there was no intention of using force against them and that no damage should be done to them, their wives or their children, did without calling a Council of Mary land officers, in a barbarous and cruel manner cause five of the said Indians to be killed and murdered contrary to the law of God and of Nations."
Depositions having been taken and witnesses examined for and against the accused, he declared through Mr. BenjaminCrozier his counsel assigned him that, "He confessed his fault and did in no way intend to stand upon his justification," but humbly prayed permission to read a paper which he hoped would somewhat extenuate the force of the charge brought against him so that they should not appear so grievous as in the said impeach- ment they were set forth to be." This petition was granted. What was the nature of the justification the record does not show; but that it was enough to vindicate him appears from the fact that after a full hear- ing he was found guilty by unani- mous decision of the Upper House of having "commanded five of the Sus- quehannock Indians that came out to treat with them to be put to death, contrary to the law of Nations and in violation of the second Article of his instructions by which he was or- dered to entertain any treaty with the said Susquehannocks."
"The duty now devolved upon the Lower House of drawing a bill of At-
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tainder against Major Truman,but al- though it was upon its (the Lower House) own impeachment that he had been tried and found guilty, influenced as it appears by attenuating circum- stances afterwards brought forward, that body prepared a
bill which while entitled an Act of attainder, only proposed a fine instead of the penalty of death. The Upper House return- ed the bill, remonstrating that it corresponded neither to the impeach- ment nor to the crime of which the accused had been found guilty and insisting that it was due to the Gov- ernment to vindicate it from the
shame and wickedness of countenanc- ing such a deed and urging that if crimes so heinous deserve no severer punishment than they inflicted by the Act, offenses of a lower nature would not require any. Not only would no satisfaction be given to the heathens with whom the public faith had bro- ken but no confidence would be placed on any treaty which in that dangerous juncture of affairs might be offered to the Indians unless such offense were not only publicly dis- owned but also punished without sev- erity which it deserved.
The Lower House in reply after re- capitulating the extenuating circum- stances in the case stating its opin- on that the offense was not premed- itated or out of design to prejudice the Province but merely out of ignor- ance and to prevent a mutiny of the whole army refused to modify its former bill, whereupon the Upper House admitting that the crime was not maliciously perpetrated, denied that the facts charged as true were any extenuation ; and declaring anew its abhorrence of the Act re- minded the Lower House that by its refusal to draw up a bill of Attaind- er in full, it must make itself re- sponsible for the consequences that
might ensue to the people of the Pro- vince. The Lower House did not hesi- tate to take the responsibilty. Un- fortunately the journals for this per- iod are lost and we are left in ignor- ance of what the conclusion of the controversy was. A petition to his Lordship in behalf of Truman is mentioned in the records of the Lower House for June 12, 1676. Per- haps this was for his pardon and for this reason, (it may be) the subject is no more alluded to in the journals which remain."
"Whatever may have been the de- cision of his Lordship, Charles Cal- vert, or of the Legislature and the people of that day, there can be little hesitation at the present in deciding that the execution of men who came out as agents to treat for peace with pledges of peace in their hands, un- armed and trusting to repeated as- surances of safety, was a violation of the laws of God, of Nations and of man-a cruel unjustifiable murder."
This is a detailed history of the battle, retreat and execution of the Susquehannocks in the Fall and Winters of 1675 and 1676 given by Mr. Streeter in his Admiral Paper, entitled, "The Fall of the Susquehan- nocks" which may be found in the Historical Society at Philadelphia as I have stated above.
1676 - Proceedings Against Major Truman for Slaughterng the Susquehannock Chiefs.
In Vol. 2 of Md. Archs., page 475, under the date of May 16, the fol- lowing proceedings in the Lower House were had: "Ordered that Cap- tain John Alden and Dr. Charles Gregory do with all expedition make their appearance before the right honorable, the Proprietary and his Honorable Council, sitting in As- sembly to testify the truth of their knowledge, touching the late barbar-
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ous and inhuman murder of five Sus- quehannock Indians; and that the said Captain Allen give strict com- mand to his Lieutenant to continue ranging the woods, in his absence."
1676 -Ninian Baell Called as a Witness.
In the same Volume of the Md. Archives, page 476 it was "ordered Ninan Biell do with all expedition make his appearance before the right Honorable, the Lord Proprietary and his Council now sitting, to testify the truth of his knowledge, touching the barberous and inhuman murder of five Susquehanna Indians."
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