Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 4

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192

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In closing this chapter, and bidding a last farewell to the aborigines, we cannot but pause and reflect sadly upon their melancholy fate. While in the nature of things the savage must fall back before the advance of colonization, we are moved to pity at the thought of the wrongs he was made to suffer from the intrigues and injustice of the civilized and Christianized whites, as well as from his own misguided conduct. It was not until the palefaces took pos- session of his ancestral domain, often without the formality of a treaty, that he raised his tomahawk against then. At first the Indian welcomed the white man as a superior being; later he judged him by the standard which he himself had given him. With a sad and vengeful heart he was forced to quit the hunting grounds of his fathers forever, and with feelings of commiseration our thoughts accompany him to his home in the far West.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE ALWAYS WRITTEN WITH AN ENGLISH BIAS-EARLY DIS- COVERERS-EARLY TREATIES BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE -- INDICATIONS

OF A COMING APPEAL, TO ARMS-CONRAD WEISER'S MISSION, 1748-LOUIS CÉLORON'S, 1749 -- EFFORTS OF BOTH TO GAIN THE INDIANS-FRENCH FORTS IN NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA-WASHINGTON'S MISSION TO THEIR

COMMANDER - CAPTAIN TRENT AT THE FORKS - FIRST PERMANENT

OCCUPATION - FRENCH CAPTURE THE PLACE

AND BUILD FORT

DUQUESNE -- FIRST

BATTLE, WASHINGTON AND JUMONVILLE

BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION, BATTLE, DEFEAT AND DEATH-COUNTRY AT THE MERCY OF THE FRENCH AND INDIANS-DESTRUCTION OF KITTANNING - WEAKNESS AND DEMORALIZATION OF

THE FRENCH AT FORT DUQUESNE-FORBES' MARCH-

GRANT'S DEFEAT - FALL OF FORT DUQUESNE - LITTLE FORT PITT-TRIUMPH OF THE SAXON RACE.

The history of the French in North America has generally been written from an English point of view; and, while the more painstaking and reliable authors have been at the trouble of investigating the matter carefully, they have almost invariably done so with an English bias. The less weighty author- ities have as a rule taken it for granted that the English were right and the French wrong, and have written accordingly. French histories have indeed been written; but few of them have been translated into English, and these have commonly been read with an English bias. Writers have been led to this way of thinking from the hereditary unfriendly feeling that has for cen- turies existed between the two nations, with an additional religious animosity in the case of America, which has frequently showed itself, even in Western Pennsylvania. But it is the duty of the historian to seek the truth with dili- gence, and to state it with impartiality.

It is a fact which has escaped the attention of the vast majority of histo- rians, that, although North America came to be divided between the Spanish, the English and the French, each of these nations was indebted to an Italian for the discovery, and consequently for its claim. Spain had Columbus, a Genoese; England, Cabot, a Venetian, and France, Verazanno, a Florentine. To come, however, to the claims of the English and the French to the terri- tory now under consideration, with its strategetic point, the forks of the Ohio, the importance of which both nations realized, they were based in part on priority of discovery and occupation, in part on royal charters, and in part on treaties entered into by the mother countries. But the actual possession and occupation of the country depended in the end on force; this, and this only, was finally to constitute right. Both nations felt this, but neither was willing to declare it openly.

In tracing the claims of the two nations it will be necessary to remark very briefly on the first discoveries. Sebastian Cabot, under Henry VII of England, discovered and explored the eastern coast of the greater part of North America in 1597; and Verazanno, under the auspices of Francis I of France, passed along a considerable part of the same coast twenty-eight years later. But while in the early settlements the English confined themselves

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

to a narrow strip on the Atlantic coast, the French immediately penetrated to the extremity of the great lakes and the shores of the Mississippi. It is said that Colonel Henry Ward, who lived on the James River, sent one Mr. Needham, in 1654, across the "Alleghany Hills" on an exploring expedition, and that he penetrated to the Ohio River, and spent ten years traversing the country. But it is certain that John Nicolet, a Frenchman, traveled as far west as the present State of Wisconsin at least twenty years earlier; and the French missionaries and traders were in the Wabash and Illinois countries before the middle of the seventeenth century. Whether La Salle passed down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers in the winter of 1669-70 or not is disputed between the best authorities, with the weight of probability against it, although Mr. Francis Parkman, one of the highest authorities, states distinctly that he did. Without attaching any importance to this unsettled point-although so long as it is unsettled it makes for the French claims-it is certain that La Salle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi on the 8th of April, 1682, and formally took possession in the name of the French king the following day. This action, according to the interpretation of international law recognized at that time, gave the French a claim to all the territory drained by that mighty stream and all its countless tributaries, which was co-extensive with all the territory between the summit of the Alleghany Mountains on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west. If this claim be regarded as little short of pre- posterous, it must be said that it is no more preposterous than it was for the English to claim the entire continent "from sea to sea," as some of the royal charters expressed it, because Cabot passed along the east coast for a few hundred miles, without perhaps penetrating one mile into the interior.

The mother countries made several treaties which affected their foreign possessions, but these were as favorable to the French as they were to the English, as far as they related to the Valley of the Ohio, and they always failed to settle the matter of the boundary line, upon which so much depended. By the Peace or Treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, both parties retained the colonial possessions they had before the war; but at that time the French were in actual possession of the Valley of the Mississippi, and of a considerable part of that of the Ohio, while the English had not made any settlements nor occupied any post west of the mountains. By the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, by which another war was nominally terminated, the French were forced to relinquish a considerable portion of their territory, but it did not affect their possessions west of the mountains. Finally, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in October, 1748, concluded another war, but left the boundary question still far from settled, while it tended, as did the others, to embitter the contending parties more and more, and forced the conviction home to the minds of all thinking men that the only final settlement must come in the triumph of the stronger party. As regards the royal charters or grants, they depended on the pos- session of the territory by the government that executed the grant or charter. We need not pause to discuss them in this connection, although reference will be made to some of them in a subsequent chapter. The way is now paved for an intelligent treatment of the proper subject of this chapter.

Up to about the middle of the last century neither the English nor the French had explored the country around the headwaters of the Ohio, although it was imperfectly known to the former through its traders and the Indians who came east from time to time. To the French it was wholly unknown, although they had received some . vague ideas of it from the Indians. But it was not long to remain unknown; circumstances were fast drawing atten- tion to it as the future battleground west of the mountains between the repre- sentatives of the two nations.

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

The French, the better to restrain the encroachments of the English, whose settlements were constantly extending westward, resolved upon building a line of fortifications by way of the St. Lawrence, the lakes, and the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, to connect the mouth of the St. Lawrence with that of the Missis- sippi. To counteract this movement the English depended to a considerable extent on maintaining friendly relations with the Indians of those regions, and inspiring them with a feeling of hostility to the French. To cement the bond of union more closely the Governor of Pennsylvania promised a delegation that visited Philadelphia in 1747, that a messenger would be sent to them with large presents the coming spring. It was his intention to have the gov- ernors of Maryland and Virginia unite with him and send presents also; but they declined, and Pennsylvania alone was represented. It was not, how- ever, till the middle of August, 1748, that all things were in readiness; and the inessenger selected was Conrad Weiser, a very competent person, who had long acted as colonial interpreter, and who was highly esteemed by the sav- ages. During the previous June he had been dispatched to the Indians of Central New York to ascertain the designs of the French on the frontier. The Governor furnished him with very precise instructions for the regulation of his conduct in his intercourse with the Indians, in which he was directed to make himself as agreeable to them as possible, to ascertain as far as he might be able the strength and disposition of the various tribes of that region, to distribute the presents with discretion, and in all things to study to attach the Indians more closely to the cause of the English. As yet the forks of the Ohio had not assumed any importance, the Indian village of Logstown, about eighteen miles further down the Ohio, on the north bank, being the center of trade and communication. He reached this village on the 27th of August, and remained about three weeks, holding councils and private con- ferences with the Indians, making observations, and securing all the informa- tion possible, and returned September 19th, having met with entire success .. He reported 789 warriors of the several tribes, the Senecas, the Shawanese and the Delawares having the largest numbers. The journal of the expedi- tion, which he kept and which has come down to us, is one of the most valuable documents relating to our early frontier history. This expedition may be regarded as the beginning of that long struggle which was to cause the French the loss of nearly all their possessions in three-quarters of the globe; leave the Saxon race triumphant over the Latin in North America; train a leader in the service of the English who would eventually lead the colonies to victory in their efforts to throw off the galling yoke of the mother country, and found the Great Republic of the West. In the meantime the Ohio Land Company had secured from the British crown the grant of a very extensive tract of land, as we have seen, on the south side of the Ohio; and, although the company exercised but little influence over the destinies of the territory now under con- sideration, it tended, in the explorations of its efficient agent, Christopher Gist, in making the Ohio country better known to the governments and people of both Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The French did not remain idle spectators of what was going on in the territory which they claimed as belonging to their royal master; and early in the following year the Marquis de la Gallissonière, Governor-General of New France, as the French possessions in North America were then called, sent a strong detachment composed of French and Canadian soldiers and Indians in command of Captain Louis Céloron, accompanied by the Jesuit Father Joseph Bonncamps, as chaplain and astronomer, to explore the country and learn the temper of its inhabitants. Fortunately, both of them kept jour- nals, which have come down to us. The expedition set out from La Chine,

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

near Montreal, June 15, 1749, passed up the St. Lawrence, along Lake Ontario, up the Niagara River, along the shores of Lake Erie to the mouth of Chau- tauqua Creek, up that stream to the lake of the same name and down Cone- wango Creek to the Allegheny River. Here the first of the series of the leaden plates bearing inscriptions, asserting that the country was officially taken possession of in the name of the French sovereign, was buried. This inscription, to which those on the other plates conformed more or less closely, was couched in these terms: "In the year 1749, in the reign of Louis XV, King of France, we, Céloron, commander of the detachment sent by M. the Marquis de la Gallissoniére, Governor-General of New France, to reestablish peace in some villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at the con- fluence of the Ohio and the Kanaaiagon, the 29th of July, for a testimony of the renewal of possession which we have taken of the said River Ohio, and of all those which fall into it, and of all the territories on both sides as far as the source of the said rivers, as the former kings of France have possessed or should have possessed them, and as they are maintained therein by arms and by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht and of Aix-la-Chapelle; we have moreover affixed to a tree the arms of the king. In testimony whereof we have drawn up and signed this written record. Done at the entrance of the Beautiful River, the 29th of July, 1749. All the officers affixed their signatures."

Continuing his course, he arrived at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers August 7th, and took dinner with Queen Alliquippa at Shannopinstown, already referred to as being in his opinion the prettiest place he had seen on the Beautiful River. Neither he nor his chaplain makes any reference in his journal to the forks nor of their advantages from a military point of view, although, as is evident from subsequent events, he must have noted them, and recommended them to his superiors.

The statement made by some writers that he buried a leaden plate at the forks August 3d, when he gives us a detailed account of having buried one on the same date at what has long been known as "The Indian God Rock," 115 miles further up the river, is, of course, without the slightest foundation. His journal is careful to record the date and place of all the plates buried; but there is no reference to any having been buried at the confluence of the rivers; on the contrary, he does not even mention the forks, but states that he passed directly from Shannopinstown to Chiningue-the Indian village known to the English and the savages as Logstown. The expedition con- tinued down the Ohio to the mouth of the Miami, up that stream to a portage, thence to the headwaters of the Maumee, down that river to Lake Erie, and back to the place 'of starting.

The Indians were generally found by Celoron to be unfriendly to the French, and either fled at their approach or treated them with extreme cold- ness, showing that they refrained from open hostilities only through fear.

The flames of war were now kindled between the French and the English in the Valley of the Ohio, and all that was required for them to burst forth was time; and that time was destined to be very short. During the next three years the agents of both the French and the English were actively engaged in securing the cooperation, or at least the neutrality, of the Indians; for it was plain that they were to be a very important factor in the struggle, although victory for either contestant meant nothing more nor less for them than the permanent loss of their ancestral hunting grounds. The French were the first to begin active operations. Acting on the plan they had formed of connecting the mouth of the St. Lawrence with that of the Mississippi, they landed a force, in April, 1753, at a place on the southern shores of Lake

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

Erie, from that time known as Presqu' Isle but now as Erie City, where they built their first fort on Pennsylvania soil. On the completion of this fort, they cut a road to the head of canoe navigation on French Creek, or La Bœuf River, as they named it, on the site of the present Watertown, which they called Fort La Bœuf. Failing to get the consent of the Indians to build a third at the mouth of French Creek, they left a small garrison in the forts already built, with trusty agents to work on the minds of the Indians during the winter, and brought the rest of their forces back to winter in Canada, hoping to return in the spring, and with the consent of the Indians build the third fort.

In the meantime the English kept themselves informed of the operations of their enemies, but adopted no active measures to resist them. The Quaker authorities of Pennsylvania, with their unreasonable sympathy for the mur- derers of the colonists whom they had induced to settle on their lands, were willing to let things take their course, rather than do what everyone regarded as the only sensible course to be pursued under the circumstances; and this stubborn indifference for the lives and interests of their colonists was charac- teristic of them during all the struggles through which the colony had to pass before it finally attained its independence. Not so the sturdy Scotch- man, Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, who took the matter in hand early in the fall of 1753, and sent George Washington, with dis- patches to the commander of the French posts near Lake Erie, to ascertain the intentions of the French and their ability to realize them, and to make such other observations and secure such other information as might be useful to the colonies in the event of attempting armed resistance. On his way he stopped at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers, November 22d, and it is a remarkable fact that he is the first person who drew attention to its natural advantages. He says, in his journal of the expedition, that he made a careful examination of the place, and considers it well situated for a fort, and much superior to the point, about two miles down the river on the south side, where the Indians wanted the Ohio Company to build one. We shall have occasion to return to this matter later on. Washington continued with his small band to Logstown, where he held conferences with the Indians, and procured guides to the French posts. This done, he set out with as little delay as possible and soon reached the mouth of French Creek, from whence he was directed to Fort La Bœuf, where the commander of the French forces then was. Here his troubles began, for the French supplied the Indians lib- erally with rum, tried to detain them, and threw all manner of obstacles in his way. At length, however, he reached La Bœuf, and delivered his letters to the commander. While awaiting a reply, he busied himself secretly in taking notes of the strength of the French forces and their intentions, and succeeded in learning that they were determined to descend the river in the spring and take possession of the forks; and it was clear to him that with the army they had, and the reinforcements they expected, it would be comparatively easy for them to do so. The difficulty Washington found in keeping his Indians sober and frustrating the designs of the French to detain them caused him no little anxiety; but the tact he displayed enabled him to set out on the 16th of December. He soon reached Williamsburg, the seat of government of the Colony of Virginia, and delivered the reply from the French, com- mander, with the information he had been able to secure, to Dinwiddie. No time was to be lost if a successful resistance was to be made, and accord- ingly Captain William Trent was ordered to proceed with all possible dis- patch to the forts with one hundred men, and the necessary supplies and tools, and throw up a fortification to command the rivers. John Fraser, a

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

Scotch trader and gunsmith, whom Celoron had expelled from the mouth of French Creek in 1749, and who had settled at the mouth of Turtle Creek, ten miles above the forks on the Monongahela, was made lieutenant, and Edward Ward was ensign. Captain Trent arrived at the forks, the site of the future city of Pittsburg, on Sunday, February 17, 1754,-a memorable date in the history of Pittsburg, as it marks the beginning of the permanent occupation of the site of our now flourishing city. The day of the week, which it is sometimes difficult to fix in carly history, is arrived at from data furnished by Washington, where he states in his journal: "Tuesday, the first of January, we left Fraser's house," etc., which makes February 17th Sunday. The somber forests soon awakened to a new life, and resounded with the echo of many axes and the crash of falling trees. The fort was soon under way, and rude huts were constructed to protect the men against the inclem- ency of the weather.

While these operations were going on at the forks, the French, who had gained the consent of the Indians, were building Fort Machault at the mouth of French Creek, and assembling their forces and the Indians who, seeing their strength, had espoused their cause. The stronghold was soon completed, and with the opening of the river they were prepared for active operations; and about the middle of April they embarked for the forks in canoes and bateaux with an army consisting of French, Canadians and Indians, variously estimated at about one thousand, with eighteen pieces of cannon, in com- mand of Captain Contrecœur. It would appear that the English had not carefully watched their movements, because they came unobserved, and landed about half a mile above the point in the evening of April 16th. The date generally given is the 17th, because that was the day upon which the English forces left the place; but the discovery of the sunimons sent by Contrecœur leaves no doubt that it was on the 16th the French arrived and demanded a surrender of the unfinished works. In this important document Contrecœur expresses his surprise that the English should have dared to fortify a place within the dominions of the king, his master, and demands by what authority they have done a thing so contrary to the treaties between the two powers. He complains, also, that the English have for some time past been instigating the Indians against the French. Only one hour was given for deliberation. Both Captain Trent and Lieutenant Fraser were absent, and Ensign Ward was in command of the little band of thirty-three men. No officer was present with whom he could consult, but the Indian chief Tanacharison accompanied him to the French camp, where he represented that, as he was not an officer invested with authority to reply to the demand, the French should await the arrival of Trent, who was at Turtle Creek. This Contrecœur refused, and insisted on an immediate surrender; but with characteristic French politeness he invited Ward to supper. Nothing was left for the latter but to obey the summons; but whether he accepted the invitation to supper or not is not certain. Very probably he had but little appetite, and had Contrecœur foreseen the consequences of that day's doings, his happiness would also have been greatly clouded, as an old chronicler very properly remarks. On the follow- ing morning the English forces werc permitted to march out, and they proceeded to Red Stone, on the Monongahela, the site of the present Browns- ville. A French account says they had four cannon, and were permitted to take one with them. Contrecœur's demand on Ward to surrender his unfin- ished fort was practically the declaration of that memorable war whose oper- ations extended over a great part of the globe, and in the end forced the French to relinquish nearly all their possessions outside of Europe. Indi- rectly it exercised great influence on the achievement of American independence.

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

Washington was at this time at Wills Creek, now Cumberland, Maryland, on his way with additional forces and supplies to join Trent at the forks, when he received intelligence of the surrender; and he pushed forward with all possible speed in the hope of joining Trent and recapturing the place before the French had time to fortify themselves. But the difficulty of opening a road in an unbroken mountain forest delayed him, and it was near the end of May when he reached the Great Meadows, in the present Fayette County, Pennsylvania. On the 27th the scouts, whom he prudently kept in advance, brought word that the French were advancing with considerable force to mcet him, and that just then they lay in ambush in a place a few miles distant admirably suited by nature for concealment. Washington resolved to take the initiative and attack them, and he accordingly set out on the evening of the 28th, in a heavy rain and pitchy darkness, but did not succeed in reaching the vicinity of the enemy's camp till sunrise. Having reconnoitered the place, he made an attack in which the commander, Jumonville, and nine of his men were killed, and twenty-one taken prisoners. The prisoners were sent to Virginia, and Washington continued his march, cutting his way as best he could through the forests.

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 4

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192