USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > Old Westmoreland : a history of western Pennsylvania during the Revolution > Part 5
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who worked among the mountaineers held out to them a vision of wholesale plunder and carnage on the property and lives of their patriot neighbors. His appeals were made only to the vicious. He told them that if they would organize and join a force of British and Indians, coming down the Allegheny valley in the spring, they would be permitted to participate in a general onslaught on the settlements, and would receive their share of the pillage. In addition to this, they should receive grants for the lands of their rebel neighbors, to the extent of 300 acres each, wherever they should select.1
One of the men who entered into this desperate plot afterward confessed that it was the design to slaughter the peaceable inhabitants without mercy, men, women and chil- dren, and to sieze their property and lands. Such a scheme could be taken up only by men of the lowest character and the most cruel instincts, but such men were not want- ing on the border, either at that time or in later years, when the frontier had been pressed hundreds of miles farther to the westward.
In the northern part of Blair county is a deep valley amid the mountains, called Sinking Spring valley. It is still a wild and romantic country, but 120 years ago was a singularly desolate and lonely spot, almost unknown, ex- cept to those few persons who lived in the immediate neigh- borhood. It was a fitting place for the meeting of such conspirators as had been enlisted in this cruel tory plot. In that isolated valley the tory band held its gatherings in February and March, 1778. Many of the plotters were from the frontier settlement of Frankstown, near what is now Hollidaysburg. The leader of the enterprise was John Weston, a bold and lawless man, half farmer and half hunter, who lived with his wife and brother Richard in one of the secluded mountain cabins.
The British agent, having fully enlisted Weston in the murderous undertaking, returned up the Allegheny, prom-
1 See the confession of Richard Weston, Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, vol. vi., p. 542.
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ising to come to Kittanning about the middle of April with 300 Indians and white men, there to meet his mountain friends, and with them swoop down on Fort Pitt, Franks- town and the other settlements, and make all of his parti- sans weary with the burden of their rich plunder.
Weston carried on the propaganda, and early in April had enlisted some 30 of his neighbors in the adventure. All were ignorant men, Irish, German and Scotch settlers, al- though it appears that only one Scotch family was involved.
Alarming intelligence of the tory plans leaked out and reached the settlement of Standing Stone, now Hunting- don. It was reported that a thousand Indians and tories were about to fall on the frontier, and the greatest alarm was felt. Although a stockade fort had been erected at the Standing Stone, it had a garrison of not more than a score of militiamen, and the borderers did not feel that it would afford protection. There was a general flight of the terrified people from the upper valley of the Juniata toward Carlisle and York, and by the middle of April that region of country was depopulated except by a party of bold men who still held the little fort, determined to stand until the last.
The band of schemers meeting in the Sinking Spring valley was joined, about the first of April, by a man of the name of McKee, who came from Carlisle. There he had been in communication with a British officer confined at Carlisle with other prisoners of war. The officer gave to McKee a letter addressed to all British officers, vouching for the loyalty of McKee and his associates. It was to be used in securing protection and a welcome for the Sink- ing Spring plotters when they should meet with the force of British and Indians on their flight to the Allegheny.
At the appointed time word reached the valley that a large force of Indians had gathered at Kittanning, where they had occupied the rude fort deserted by the Americans in the preceding year. Weston and his associates felt that their time had come, and that their enterprise was assured of success. The last meeting of the tories was held in the
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forest, at the loneliest spot in the glen. There 31 men took the oath of fidelity to King George, and pledged themselves to adhere to Weston.
In the morning they set out on their march over the mountains. They crossed the main range at Kittanning Point and struck the old Indian trail leading toward Kit- tanning. On the afternoon of the second day they came within a few miles of their destination, when they encoun- tered a band of Iroquois Indians, numbering about 100. The savages burst suddenly out of a thicket, clad in war paint and feathers.
John Weston, who was in advance of his party, ran forward, waving his hand and crying out, "Friends! Friends!" The Indians were not in the conspiracy. They were out on a plundering raid, on their own account, and regarded Weston and his men, all armed, as a hostile array.
The Indian war captain fired at Weston. The aim was quick but accurate, and the tory leader fell dead. His followers halted in dread astonishment. Another of the savages sprang forward, and, before the ignorant borderers could recover from their surprise or comprehend what was being done, tore the scalp from Weston's head. The sav- age uttered the scalp halloo and darted back into the thicket.
McKee, holding aloft in one hand the letter from the British officer at Carlisle, and in the other hand waving a white handkerchief, called out to the Indians, "Brothers! Brothers!" The savages did not respond. Almost as sud- denly as they had appeared they vanished into the under- growth, leaving the bewildered mountaineers alone with their dead and mutilated leader. Weston was buried where he had fallen, and his resting place was unmarked. It was a just end for one who had entertained such sanguinary projects.
The thirty other tories, left leaderless, in a wilderness, whence hostile savages sprang apparently from the very earth, were completely dazed and disorganized. They fear- ed to go forward; many of them feared to return to their
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homes. They retired to a sheltered place and held a con- sultation. Some declared their intention to return to Bed- ford county, but those who were best able to appreciate the nature of their offense apprehended arrest and announc- ed that they would seek safety elsewhere.2
Hard was the fate of this company. Some of them wandered in the forests and perished from hunger. Others made their way southward, and reached British posts in the southern colonies after great suffering. Five of them, returning to their homes, were seized by the aroused fron- tiersmen, and conducted to the log jail in Bedford. Richard Weston, brother of the dead leader, was caught in Sinking Spring valley by a party of Americans going to work the lead mines there, and was sent under guard to Carlisle. He confessed the whole plot, but claimed that he had been misled by his older brother. He escaped from imprison- ment before he could be brought to trial.3
A special court, of which General John Armstrong, of Carlisle, was president, was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council to try the prisoners at Bedford. It held two sessions in the fall of 1778 and the spring of 1779, but did not convict any of the defendants of high treason. The leaders of the conspiracy were either dead or out of the country, and the few men brought before the court were but ignorant and deluded yeomen, who were sufficiently punished by their imprisonment and the contempt of their neighbors.4
Those who had fled away were attainted of treason, and their estates were declared forfeited. It appears that a few of them returned to Pennsylvania, after the war was over, and procured the removal of the attainder and the restoration of their land.
2 Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, p 372; Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, vol. vi., pp. 436, 438, 446, 467, 469, 512; Lytle's History of Huntingdon County, Lancaster, 1876, pp. 80, 283; Jones's History of the Juniata Valley, Philadelphia, 1856, pp. 250-257.
3 His escape is shown by the fact that he was attainted of treason with all those who fled to the southern states; see Pennsylvania Ar- chives, First Series, vol. x., p. 259.
4 The court did not report any treason convictions to the Supreme Executive Council, but did report one conviction for murder, Colonial Records, vol. xi., p. 581. See, also, on this court, Colonial Records, vol. x., p. 556; Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, vol. vi., pp. 569, 750, 769; vol. vii., p. 297.
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CHAPTER IX.
FATAL VOYAGE OF DAVID RODGERS.
An attempt was made, in 1778, to repeat the feat of Gibson and Linn, in bringing powder from New Orleans by river. The store of ammunition conveyed to Fort Pitt by Lieutenant Linn, in the spring of 1777, had been almost exhausted. A large part of it had been taken to Kentucky, Vincennes and Kaskaskia by George Rogers Clark, and much of it had been used for the defense of the immediate frontier.
The second undertaking was, like the first, ordered and directed by the government of Virginia. In this instance the powder was bought in advance, by correspondence with Oliver Pollock, and was transported by the Spaniards from New Orleans to the little post of St. Louis, where the Spaniards had established their authority in 1768. It seems that the removal of the powder to St. Louis was not understood in Virginia, and the expedition which went after it lost much time in going down the Mississippi to find it.
To organize and command the second expedition, Gov- ernor Patrick Henry chose Captain David Rodgers, of Red- stone. This gentleman was a native of Old Virginia, and had been engaged with distinction in the frontier conflicts of that colony. He settled on a farm near the present site of Brownsville, Pa., about 1773, and in March, 1775, was appointed a Virginia justice of the peace for the district of West Augusta, which included Southwestern Pennsyl-
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vania. He sat in court at Pittsburg and at Andrew Heath's house, near Monongahela. When the news of Lexington and Concord reached the frontier, in May, 1775, David Rodgers took part in the patriotic meeting held at Pittsburg and was elected a member of the revolutionary committee of West Augusta. He entered the Virginia service and became a captain. Before proceeding on his Louisiana adventure he sent his wife and children to Oldtown, Md., for safety. They never saw him again.
When he received his orders from Governor Henry, -- in the spring of 1778, to bring the powder from New Or- leans, he raised a special company of men in what was then known as the Redstone settlement. The band numbered about 40. Most of its members were hardy young farm- ers, but not many of them were experienced in military service. Isaac Collie was commissioned lieutenant, Pat- rick McElroy ensign, and Robert Benham commissary.
Two large flatboats, partially covered, were built at Pittsburg. These were operated by long sweeps and a steering pole. One of them was taken up the Monongahela to Redstone and there received a stock of provisions and the men who were to make the expedition. Among those who embarked was Basil Brown, younger brother of Thomas Brown. These brothers were the sons of Thomas Brown, and were the founders of Brownsville.
The expedition of Captain Rodgers left Fort Pitt in June, 1778. For some days it was accompanied by two family boats, carrying settlers to Kentucky. The voyage down the Mississippi, as far as the mouth of the Arkansas river, passed without special incident. Rodgers entered the Arkansas and ascended it a few miles to a small Spanish fort. There he learned that the powder had been sent up the Mississippi to St. Louis.
Having had no communication with the Spanish com- mander at St. Louis, Captain Rodgers considered it neces- sary to go to New Orleans, and there procure, from the governor, an order on the St. Louis officer for the powder. He left his boats and most of his men at the post on the
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Arkansas, embarked with six companions in a large canoe, and floated down to the Spanish capital of Louisiana. There he obtained the paper which he desired, and set out on his return.
Not wishing to take a second risk, especially on an up-stream, by passing the British fort at Natchez, Rodgers and his comrades returned overland from New Orleans to the Arkansas. This was a toilsome and dangerous tramp through the swamps and forests along the western shore of the great river. Doubtless the little party had a guide, for, after many wearisome days, it came safely to the place where the flatboats lay in the Arkansas. The voyage thence to St. Louis was made successfully, and the powder was pro- cured. At that time St. Louis had a population of about 800 persons, mostly French refugees from the Illinois. The Spanish garrison, of 100 soldiers, was under the com- mand of Don Francisco de Leyba. The sale by the Span- iards of this powder to the Americans was a violation of in- ternational law, but its actual delivery to Rodgers probably did not take place until after Spain had declared war against Great Britain in May, 1779.1
The slow and laborious voyage up the Ohio, with the heavily laden flatboats, was made during the summer and autumn, and all went well until the expedition reached the Licking river, opposite the site of Cincinnati. That region then was unbroken wilderness, nearly the whole course of the Ohio being bordered by great forests, with dense under- growtlı.
At the mouth of the Licking, the great Indian war- path from the Maumee and the valleys of the two Miamis, struck the Ohio valley, on the way to Kentucky and the land of the Cherokees. As Indian bands were frequently crossing there, it was a point of danger for boats passing up and down the Ohio.
On an October afternoon, as the craft of Rodgers approached the mouth of the Licking, keeping rather close to the Kentucky shore, a few Indian warriors, in three or
1 Annals of the West, pp. 312, 313.
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four canoes, were discovered crossing the Ohio to the southern shore, nearly a mile up stream. The savages gave no sign that they had seen the Americans, and Rodgers believed that his boats, close to the heavy foliage of the bank, had not been observed. He had no doubt that the Indians were on their way to attack some Kentucky set- tlement. He decided, therefore, to land his party and at- tempt to surprise and destroy the savages in the woods.
The flatboats were guided into the mouth of the Lick- ing and pulled up on a sandy beach at the southeastern point between the two rivers. The scene of the ensuing conflict is now occupied by the town of Newport, Ky.
Being confident of overcoming easily the small party of savages, the Americans advanced into the woods with some eagerness. They had not penetrated far when they rushed into an ambush. They had been cleverly entrapped. The few warriors crossing the river in the canoes were but decoys. A strong force of savages, led by Simon Girty and Matthew Elliott, lay hidden in the dense forest. They out- numbered the white men two to one. On every side they sprang up amid the underbrush, shrieking their terrifying warwhoops, pouring a deadly fire into the astonished bor- derers.
Many of the Americans fell at the first discharge, and panic seized the remainder. They were almost instantly overwhelmed and scattered. With tomahawk and knife, the savages rushed in upon them, and the only hope of es- cape for any one was by rapid flight through the forest. Many of the frontiersmen were slain and scalped on the spot, and others were overtaken and killed in the woods as they ran. It was only because of the denseness of the under- growth and the quick approach of night that any escaped. Of the company of 40 men, only 13 got away with their lives. Some of these were sorely wounded and endured great agony in the wilderness. Those who were unscathed made their way to the little settlements in the interior of Ken- tucky.
Captain Rodgers received a bullet wound in the abdo-
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men, but managed by the help of John Knotts to get away from the scene of conflict and hide in a dark ravine. For- tunately for the hunted Americans, nightfall soon put an end to the pursuit. The scattered savages called to one another with wierd cries, soon assembled, and after plun- dering the flatboats on the Licking beach, went entirely away. Their trophies were enough to satisfy them, and they probably crossed to the north side of the Ohio that night.
All through the darkness Captain Rodgers lay in great torment. Knotts could do nothing for him save to make his resting place soft and to bring water from a neighboring brook. In the morning the wounded man was delirious and evidently near death. Knotts felt it to be his duty to save himself, if he could. He screened the form of the dying Captain with bushes and set out through the wilder- ness. After great hardship he reached his home on the Monongahela. Afterward search was made for the body of Captain Rodgers, but it could not be found. It had prob- ably been torn to pieces by wolves.
Robert Benham, the commissary of the expedition, was wounded through both legs, but was able to conceal himself in the top of a fallen tree. He had clung to his rifle, but for a long time feared to fire it or to make other alarm, lest the Indians might still be in the neighborhood. It was not until the afternoon of the second day after the battle that hunger persuaded him to shoot a raccoon which ventured within his range. The sound of his gun had scarcely died away when he heard the call of a human voice. He suspected that it was the shout of a savage, and hurried- ly reloaded his rifle; but footsteps were soon heard in the thicket, and a haggard and ragged white man, covered with blood, pushed his way through. It was Basil Brown. He was wounded in the right arm and the left shoulder, so that both hands hung helpless at his sides. He, like Benham, had been in hiding until he heard the sound of the rifle shot.
Here, in the wilderness woods, were two wounded
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Americans, having between them only one pair of good arms and one pair of good legs! It was a singular situation, and it was a queer partnership of mutual aid which they formed for their preservation. Benham pointed out the dead raccoon. Brown kicked it to the place where Benham reclined. The latter built a fire, dressed and cooked the animal and fed his companion as well as himself.
To procure water, Benham placed a folded hat between Brown's teeth and Brown then waded into the Licking river, dipped the hat into the water and carried it full to his thirsty comrade. Thus these two men in distress sup- plemented the actions of one another for many days. Brown made wide circuits in the woods, shouting and kicking the underbrush, driving rabbits, squirrels and wild turkeys within the range of Benham's accurate rifle. When the game had been brought down, Brown kicked it to the fire and Benham did the rest.
Every day Brown spent much of his time on the bank of the Ohio, watching for a passing boat. It was not until 19 days after the disaster that a flatboat descending the river was attracted by Brown's cries. The wounded men were rescued and taken to the new settlement at the falls of the Ohio (Louisville). After their wounds were healed they returned to their homes at Redstone, and both lived for many years afterward. Basil Brown died about 1835, at the age of 75. He never married, but lived at Browns- ville with his crippled sister, Sally. Robert Benham, when the war was over, bought and settled on the land where Rodgers met his disaster and death, and was one of the pioneers of Newport.2
2 Annals of the West, p. 306; Affidavit of Basil Brown, in Notes and Queries, Third Series, vol. iii., p. 423; Howe's Hist. Coll. of Ohio, vol. ii., p. 741; Winning of the West, Roosevelt, vol. ii., p. 136; The Girtys, p. 110.
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CHAPTER X.
THE EIGHTH PENNSYLVANIA.
The activities of the tories and the excessive malignity of the Indian attacks on the frontier, in the spring of 1778, alarmed the Continental Congress. It recommended to Washington that more vigorous measures be taken to de- fend the western border. The Commander-in-Chief, hard pressed as he was in the East, responded promptly to the appeal. Congress voted the recall of General Hand on May 2, and on the same day Washington appointed Briga- dier General Lachlan McIntosh to succeed in the com- mand at Fort Pitt.1 Three weeks later the Eighth Penn- sylvania and the Thirteenth Virginia were detached from the army at Valley Forge-an army already too small- and ordered to march to the Ohio river.2
McIntosh was a Scotch Highlander, 53 years old. He was born near Inverness, the son of the head of the Borlam branch of the Clan McIntosh. When the boy was II years old, his father and mother, with other Highlanders, left their native land and joined General Oglethorpe's new colony of Georgia. The McIntosh settled a plantation near the mouth of the Altamaha river, in what is now McIntosh county. A few years later the father was captured by the Spaniards, and died in a prison at St. Augustine.
Lachlan McIntosh owed most of his education to his excellent mother. At 17 he entered a mercantile house in
1 Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, vol. vi., pp. 460, 461, 467, 528.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, voi. vi., pp. 556, 564.
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Charleston, but an indoor life was not to his liking. As soon as he was a man, he returned to the plantation, learned the trade of surveyor, and took an active interest in the militia. He married a Highland woman, and became a leader in his part of the colony.
While many of the Scots of Georgia adhered to the cause of King and Parliament, McIntosh was an enthusi- astic American, and at the outburst of the Revolution be- came a colonel in the colonial service. In 1776 he was made a brigadier general. In 1777 he became involved in a quarrel with Button Gwinnett, one of the signers of the Declaration. Gwinnett challenged McIntosh to a duel, and the challenger was mortally wounded. McIntosh was tried for murder and acquitted, but the resulting feud ren- dered life in Georgia unpleasant and unprofitable. He asked for a transfer, and early in 1778 was ordered to join Washington at Valley Forge. The Georgia Scotchman at once made a good impression on the great Commander- in-Chief. In writing to Congress of his appointment of McIntosh to the western command, Washington said: "I part with this gentleman with much reluctance, as I esteem him an officer of great worth and merit, and as I know his services here are and will be materially wanted. His firm disposition and equal justice, his assiduity and good understanding, added to his being a stranger to all parties in that quarter, point him out as a proper person."" Such was the man who went, with high expectations, to succeed Hand as the defender of the Pennsylvania frontier.
It was at the request of the Board of War that Wash- ington ordered two regiments of regulars to Fort Pitt, and the regiments chosen were the two that had been raised about the headwaters of the Ohio. In marching to what was then the far West, the men of these commands were simply marching home. Because they were frontiersmen, already acquainted with Indian warfare, Washington be-
3 Washington's Letters to the American Congress, New York, 1796, vol. ii., p. 224.
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lieved that they would be the most effective defenders of the border.4
The Eighth Pennsylvania was one of the notable or- ganizations of the Revolution, and well deserves to be re- membered by succeeding generations, especially in Western Pennsylvania, where live many of the descendants of its brave officers and privates. Seven of its companies were raised in Westmoreland, and the eighth in Bedford county. The names of most of its officers are still familiar names in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Washington and Fayette. The original staff officers, commissioned by Congress in the summer of 1776, were: Colonel, Aeneas Mackay, of Pittsburg; Lieutenant Colonel, George Wilson, of George's creek, Fayette county; Major, Richard Butler, Indian agent at Pittsburg ; Quartermaster, Ephraim Douglass, a Pittsburg trader; Commissary, Ephraim Blaine. great- grandfather of James G. Blaine; Adjutant, Michael Huff- nagle, of Hannastown; Chaplain, David McClure; Paymas- ter, John Boyd, of Pittsburg.5
With the exceptions of Ephraim Blaine and David McClure, the officers and men were frontiersmen. Blaine was an Ulsterman, of the Cumberland Valley, a merchant and landed proprietor, a man of great energy, who became afterward commissary general of the revolutionary army. Rev. David McClure was a native of Rhode Island, of Ulster parentage, who went as a missionary to the Delaware In- dians in the Tuscarawas valley in 1772. Being rejected by the savages, he remained in Westmoreland county as an itinerant preacher until June, 1773, when he returned to New England, and there spent the remainder of his life. He never joined the regiment to which he was appointed chaplain.®
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