USA > Virginia > A history of the valley of Virginia, 1st ed > Part 22
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When the murderers arrived at the house where the hostages were confined, Cornstalk rose up to meet them at the door, but instantly received seven bullets through his body ; his son and his other two fellow-hostages were instantly dispatched with bullets and tomahawks.
Thus fell the Shawuce war chief Cornstalk, who, like Logan, his companion in arms, was conspicuous for intellectual talent, bravery and misfortune.
The biography of Cornstalk, as far as it is now
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DEATH OF CORNSTALK.
known, goes to show that he was no way deficient in those mental endowments which constitute true great- ness. On the evening preceding the battle of Point Pleasant, he proposed going over the river to the camp of Gen. Lewis, for the purpose of making peace. The majority in the council of warriors voted against the measure. "Well," said Cornstalk, "since you have re- solved on fighting, you shall fight, although it is likely we shall have hard work to-morrow ; but if any man shall attempt to run away from the battle, I will kill him with my own hand," and accordingly fulfilled his threat with regard to one cowardly fellow.
After the Indians had returned from the battle, Corn- stalk called a council at the Chilicothe town, to consult what was to be done next. In this council he remind- ed the war chiefs of their folly in preventing him from making peace, before the fatal battle of Point Pleasant, and asked, "What shall we do now ? The Long-knives are coming upon us by two routes. Shall we turn out and fight them ?" All were silent. He then asked, "Shall w . kill our squaws and children, and then fight until we shall all be killed ourselves ?" To this no re- ply was made. He then rose up and struck his toma- hawk in the war post in the middle of the council house, saying, "Since you are not inclined to fight, I will go and make peace :" and accordingly did so.
On the morning of the day of his death. a council was held in the fort et the Point, in which he was pre- sent. During the sitting of the council, it is said that he seemed to have a pre-entiment of his approaching fate. In one of his speeches, he remarked to the coun- cil, " When I was young, every time I went to war I thought it likely that I might return no more; but I still lived. I am now in your hands, and you may kill me if you choose. I can die but once, and it is a- like to me whether I die now or at another time." When the men presented themselves before the door. for the purpose of killing the Indians, Cornstalk's son mani- fested signs of fear, on observing which, his father said,
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WAPPATOMICA CAMPAIGN.
" Don't be afraid, my son ; the Great Spirit sent you here to die with me, and we must submit to his will. - It is all for the best."
CHAPTER IV.
Wappatomica campaign.
Under the command of Col. Angus M'Donald, four hundred men were collected from the western part of Virginia by the order of the carl of Dunmore, the then governor of Virginia. The place of rendezvous was Wheeling, some thne in the month of June, 1774. They went down the river in boats and canoes to the mouth of Captina. from thence by the shortest route to Wappatomica town. about sixteen miles below the pre- sent Coshocton. 'The pilots were Jonathan Zane, Tho- mas Nicholson and 'Tady Kelly. About six miles from the town, the army were met by a party of Indians. to the number of 10 or 50, who gave a skirmish by the way of ambuscade, in which two of our men were kill- ed and eight of nine wounded. One Indian was kill- ed and several wounded. It was supposed that several more of them were killed. but they were carried off. When the army came to the town, it was found evacu- ated. The Indians had retreated to the opposite shore of the river, where they had formed an ambuscade, sup- posing the party would cross the river from the town. This was immediately discovered. The commanding officer then sent sentinels up and down the river, to give notice. in caso the Indians should attempt to cross above or below the town. A private in the company of Capt. Cre-ap, of the name of John Harness, one of the sen- tinels below the town, displayed the skill of a back- woods sharpshooter. Seeing an Indian behind a blind
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CHAPTER V.
Gen. M'Intosh's campaign.
In the spring of the year 1773, government having sent a small force of regular troops, under the command of Gen. M.Intosh, for the defense of the western fron- tier, the general, with the regulars and militia from Fort Pitt, descended the Ohio about thirty miles, and built Fort M'Intosh, on the site of the present Beaver town. The fort was made with strong stockades, furnished with bastions, and mounted with one 6-pounder. This station was well selected as a point for a small military force, always in readiness to pursue or intercept the war parties of Indians, who frequently made incursions into the settlements on the opposite side of the river in its immediate neighborhood. The fort was well garrison- ed and supplied with provisions during the summer.
Sometime in the fall of the same year, Gen. M'In- tosh received an order from government to make a cam- paign against the Sandusky towns. This order he at- tempted to obey with one thousand men ; but owing to the delay in making necessary outfits for the expedition, the officers, on reaching Tuscarawa, thought it best to halt at that place, build and garrison a fort, and delay the farther prosecution of the campaign until the next spring. Accordingly they erected Fort Laurens on the bank of the Tuscarawa. Some time after the comple- tion of the fort, the general returned with the army to Fort Pitt, leaving Col. John Gibson with a command of one hundred and fifty men to protect the fort until spring. The Indians were soun acquainted with the existence of the fort. and soon convinced our people, by sad experience, of the bad policy of building and at- tempting to hold a fort so far in advance of our settle- ments and other forts.
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across the river, raising up his head, at times, to look over the river, Harness charged his rifle with a second ball, and taking deliberate aim, passed both balls through the neck of the Indian. The Indians dragged off the body and buried it with the honors of war. It was found the next morning and scalped by Harness.
Soon after the town was taken, the Indians from the opposite shore sued for peace. The commander offered them peace on condition of their sending over their chiefs as hostages. Five of them came over the river and were put under guard as hostages. In the morning they were marched in front of the army over the river. When the party had reached the western bank of the Muskingum, the Indians represented that they could not make peace without the presence of the chiefs of the other towns : on which one of the chiefs was re- . leased to bring in the others. He did not return in the
. appointed time. Another chief was permitted to go ou the same errand, who in like manner did not return. The party then moved up the river to the next town, which was about a mile above the first, and on the op- posite shore. Here we had a slight skirmish with the Indians, in which one of them was killed and one of our men wounded. It was then discovered, that during all the time spent in the negotiation, the Indians were employed in removing their women and children, old people and effects, from the upper towns. "The towns were burned and the corn cut up. The party then re- turned to the place from which they sat out, bringing with them the three remaining chiefs, who were sent to Williamsburg. They were released at the peace the succeeding fall.
The army were out of provisions before they left the towns, and had to subsist on weeds, one car of corn each day, with a very scanty supply of game. The corn was obtained at one of the Indian towns.
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GEN. M'INTOSH'S CAMPAIGN. 273
The first annoyance the garrison received from the Indians was some time in the month of January. In the night time they caught most of the horses belonging to the fort, and taking them off some distance into the woods, they took off their bells, and formed an ambus- cade by the side of a path leading through the high grass of a prairy at a little distance from the fort. In the morning the Indians rattled the horse bells at the farther end of the line of the ambuscade. The plan succeeded ; a fatigue of sixteen men went out for the horses and fell into the snare. Fourteen were killed on the spot, two were taken prisoners, one of whom was given up at the close of war, the other was never after- wards heard of.
Gen. Benjamin Biggs, then a captain in the fort, bc- ing officer of the day, requested leave of the colonel to go out with the fatigue party, which fell into the ambus- cade. "No," said the colonel, " this fatigue party does not belong to a captain's command. When I shall have occasion to employone of that number, I shall be thank- ful for your service ; at present you must attend to your duty in the fort." On what trivial circumstances do life and death sometimes depend !
In the evening of the day of the ambuscade, the whole Indian army, in full war dress and painted, marched in single file through a prairy in view of the fort. Their number, as counted from one of the bas- - tions, was S17. They then took up their encampment on an elevated piece of ground at a small distance from the fort, on the opposite side of the river. From this camp they frequently held conversations with the peo- ple of our garrison. In these conversations, they seem- ed to deplore the long continuance of the war and hoped for peace; but were niuch exasperated at the Americans for attempting to penetrate so far into their country. This great body of Indians continued the investment of the fort, as long as they could obtain subsistence, which was about six weeks.
An old Indian by the name of John Thompson, who
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was with the American army in the fort, frequently went out among the Indians during their stay at their encampment, with the mutual consent of both parties. A short time before the Indians left the place, they sent word to Col. Gibson, by the old Indian, that they were desirous of peace, and that if he would send them a barrel of flour they would send in their proposals the next day ; but although the colonel complied with their request, they marched off without fulfilling their en- gagement.
The commander, supposing the whole number of the Indians had gone off, gave permission to Col. Clark, of the Pennsylvania line, to escort the invalids, to the num- ber of eleven or twelve, to Fort M'Intosh. The whole number of this detachment was fifteen. The wary In- dians had left a party behind, for the purpose of doing mischief. These attacked this party of invalids and their escort, about two miles from the fort, and killed the whole of them with the exception of four, amongst whom was the captain, who ran back to the fort. On the same day a detachment went out from the fort, brought in the dead. and buried them with the honors of war, in front of the fort gate.
In three or four days after this disaster, a relief of seven hundred men, under Gen. M'Intosh, arrived at the fort with a supply of provisions, a great part of which was lost by an untoward accident. When the relief had reached within about one hundred yards of the fort, the garrison gave them a salute of a general dis- charge of musketry, at the report of which the pack horses took fright. broke loose and scattered the provi- sions in every direction through the woods, so that the greater part of them could never be recovered again.
Among other transactions which took place about this time, was that of gathering up the remains of the fourteen men for interment, who had fallen in the ani- buscode during the winter, and which could not be done during the investment of the place by the Indians. They were found mostly devoured by the wolves. 'The
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fatigue party dug a pit large enough to contain the re- mains of all of them, and after depositing them in the pit, merely covering them with a little earth, with a view to have revenge on the wolves for devouring their com- panions, they covered the pit with slender sticks, rotten wood and bits of bark, not of sufficient strength to bear the weight of a wolf. On the top of this covering they placed a piece of meat, as a bait for the wolves. The next morning seven of them were found in the pit. They were shot and the pit filled up.
For about two weeks before the relief arrived. the garrison had been put on short allowance of half a pound of sour flour and an equal weight of stinking ineat for every two days. The greater part of the last week, they had nothing to subsist on but such roots as they could find in the woods and prairies, and raw hides. Two men lost their lives by eating wild parsnip roots by mistake. Four more nearly shared the same fate, but were saved by medical aid.
On the evening of the arrival of the relief, two days' rations were issued to each man in the fort. These ra- tions were intended as their allowance during their march to Fort M'Intosh ; but many of the men. sup- posing them to have been back rations, ate up the whole of their allowance before the next morning. In con- sequence of this imprudence, in cating immoderately after such extreme starvation from the want of provi- sions, about forty of the men became faint and sick du- ring the first day's march. On the second day, how- ever, the sufferers were met by a great number of their friends from the settlements to which they belonged, by whom they were amply supplied with provisions, and thus saved from perishing.
Maj. Vernon, who succeeded Col. Gibson in the com- mand of Fort Laurens, continued its possession mil the next fall, when the garrison, after being, like their predecessors, reduced almost to starvation, evacuated the piace.
'Thus ended the disastrous business of Fort Laurens,
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in which much fatigue and suffering were endured and many lives lost, but without any beneficial result to the country.
CHAPTER VI.
The Moravian campaign.
This ever memorable campaign took place in the month of March 17S2. The weather, during the great- er part of the month of February, had been uncom- monly fine, so that the war parties from Sandusky visit- ed the settlements, and committed depredations earlier than usual. The family of a William Wallace, con- sisting of his wife and five or six children, were killed, and John Carpenter taken prisoner. These events took place in the latter part of February. The early period at which those fatal visitations of the Indians took place, led to the conclusion that the murderers were either Mo- ravians, or that the warriors had had their winter quar- ters at their towns on the Muskingum. In either case, the Moravians being in fault, the safety of the frontier settlements required the destruction of their establish- . ments at that place.
Accordingly, between eighty and ninety men were hastily collected together for the fatal enterprise. They rendezvoused and encamped the first night on the Min- go bottom, on the west side of the Ohio river. Each man furnished himself with his own arms, ammunition and provision. Many of them had horses. The se- cond day's march brought them within one mile of the middle Moravian town, where they encamped for the night. In the morning the men were divided into two equal parties, one of which was to cross the river about a mile above the town, their videttes having reported
MORAVIAN CAMPAIGN.
that there were Indians on both sides of the river. The other party was divided into three divisions. one of which was to take a circuit in the woods, and reach the river a little distance below the town, on the east side. An- other division was to fall into the middle of the town, and the third at its upper end.
When the party which designed to make the attack on the west side had reached the river, they found no craft to take them over, but something like a canoe was seen on the opposite bank. The river was high with some floating ice. A young man of the name of Slaugh- ter swam the river-and brought over, not a canoe. but a trough designed for holding sugar water. This trough could carry but two men at a time. In order to expe- dite their passage. a number of men stripned off their clothes, put them into the trough, together with their guns, and swam by its sides, holding its edges with their hands. When about sixteen had crossed the river. their ยท two sentinels, who had been posted in advance, discor- ered an Indian whose name was Shabo-h. One of them broke one of his arms by a shot. A shot from the other sentinel killed him. These heroes then scalped and tomahawked him.
By this time about sixteen men had got over the riv- er, and supposing that the firing of the guns which killed Shabosh would lead to an instant discovery, they . sent word to the party designed to attack the town on the east side of the river to move on instantly, which they did.
In the mean time, the small party which had crossed the river, marched with all speed to the main town on the west side of the river. Here they found a large. com- pany of Indians gathering the corn which they had h.t. in their fields the preceding fall when they removed to Sandusky. On the arrival of the men at the town. they professed peace and good will to the Moravian :, and informed them that they had come to take them to Fort Pitt for their safety. The Indians surrendered. delivered up their arms, and appeared highly delighted
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with the prospect of their removal, and began with all speed to prepare victuals for the white men and for them- selves on their journey.
.A party of white men and Indians was immediately dispatched to Salem, a short distance from Gnadenhut- ten, where the Indians were gathering in their corn, to bring them into Gnadenhutten. The party soon arri- ved with the whole number of the Indians from Salem.
In the mean time the Indians from Gnadenhutten were confined in two houses some distance apart, and placed under guard ; and when those from Salem arri- ved, they were divided, and placed in the same houses with their brethren of Gnadenhutten.
'The prisoners being thus secured, a council of war was held to decide on their fate. The officers, unwilling to take on themselves the whole responsibility of the decision, agreed to refer the question to the whole num- ber of the men. The men were accordingly drawn up in a line. The commandant of the party, Col. David . Williamson, then put the question to them in form, " Whether the Moravian Indians should be taken pri- soners to Pittsburg. or put to death, and requested that. all those who were in favor of saving their lives should step out of the line. and form a second rank." On this sixteen, some say eighteen, stepped out of the rank, and formed themselves into a second line; but alas! this line of mercy was far too short for that of vengeance. .
The fate of the Moravians was then decided on, and they were told to prepare for death.
The prisoners, from the time they were placed in the guard-house, forc-uw their fate, and began their devo- tions by singing hymns, praying, and exhorting each ( ther to place a firm reliance in the mercy of the Sa- vior of men. When their fate was announced to them, these devoted people embraced, kissed, and bedewing each others' faces and bosoms with their mutual tears, asked pardon of the brothers and sisters for any offense they might have given them through life. Thus, at peace with their God and each other, on being asked by
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MORAVIAN CAMPAIGN.
those who were impatient for the slaughter, "Whether they were ready to die ?" they answered "that they had commended their souls to God, and were ready to die."
The particulars of this dreadful catastrophe are too horrid to relate. Suffice it to say, that in a few minutes these two slaughter-houses, as they were then called, exhibited in their ghastly interior, the mangled, bleed- ing remains, of these poor unfortunate people, of all ages and sexes, from the aged grayheaded parent, down to the helpless infant at the mother's breast, dishonored by the fatal wounds of the tomahawk, mallet, war club, spear and scalping-knife.
Thus, O Brainard and Zeisberger! faithful mission- aries, who devoted your whole lives to incessant toil and sufferings in your endeavors to make the wilder- ness of paganism "rejoice and blossom as the rose," in faith and piety to God ! thus perished your faithful followers, by the murderous hands of the more than savage white men. Faithful pastors ! Your spirits are again associated with those of your flock, "where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest !"
The number of the slain, as reported by the men on their return from the campaign, was eighty-seven or eighty-nine ; but the Moravian account, which no doubt is correct, makes the number ninety-six. Of these, six- ty-two were grown persons, one third of whom were women ; the remaining thirty-four were children. All these, with a few exceptions, were killed in the houses. Shabosh was killed about a mile above the town. on the west side of the river. . His wife was killed while en- deavoring to conceal herself in a bunch of bushes at the water's edge. on the arrival of the men at the town, on the east side of the river. A man at the same time was shot in a cance, while attempting to make his es- cape from the east to the west side of the river. Two others were shot while attempting to escape by swim- ming the river.
A few men, who were supposed to be warriors, were tied and taken some distance from the slaughter houses,
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to be tomahawked. One of these had like to have made his escape at the expense of the life of one of the murderers. The rope by which he was led was of some length. The two men who were conducting him to death fell into a dispute who should have the scalp. The Indian, while marching with a kind of dancing motion, and singing his death song, drew a knife from a scabbard suspended round his neck, cut the rope, and aimed at stabbing one of the men ; but the jerk of the rope occasioned the men to look round. The Indian then fled towards the woods, and while running, dex- terously untied the rope from his wrists. He was in- stantly pursued by several men who fired at him, one of whom wounded him in the arm. After a few shots the firing was forbidden, for fear the men might kill each other as they were running in a straggling man- ner. A young man then mounted on a horse and pur- sued the Indian, who when overtaken struck the horse - on the head with a club. The rider sprang from the horse, on which the Indian seized, threw him down and drew his, tomahawk to kill him. At that instant, one of the party got near enough to shoot the Indian, which he did merely in time to save the life of his companion.
Of the whole number of the Indians at Gnadenhut- ten and Salem, only two made their escape. These were two lad- of fontteen or fifteen years of age. One of them. after being knocked down and scalped, but not killed, had the presence of mind to lie still among the dead, until the dusk of the evening, when he si- lently cropt out of the door and made his escape. The other lad slipped through a trap door into the cellar of one of the slaughter houses, from which he made his escape through a small cellar window.
These two lads were fortunate in getting together in the woods the same night. Another lad, somewhat larger, in attempting to pass through the same window, it is supposed stuck fast and was burnt alive.
The Indians of the upper town were apprised of their danger in due time to make their escape, two of
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them having found the mangled body of Shabosh. Providentially they all made their escape, although they might have been easily overtaken by the party, if they had undertaken their pursuit. A division of the men - were ordered to go to Shonbrun ; but finding the place deserted, they took what plunder they could find, and returned to their companions without looking farther after the Indians.
After the work of death was finished. and the plun- der secured, all the buildings in the town were set on fire and the slaughter houses among the rest. The dead bodies were thus consumed to ashes. A rapid retreat to the settlements finished the campaign.
Such were the principal events of this horrid affair. A massacre of innocent, unoffending people, dishonor- able not only to our country, but human nature itself.
Before making any remarks on the causes which led to the disgraceful events under consideration, it may be proper to notice the manner in which the enterprise was conducted, as furnishing evidence that the murder of the Moravians was intended, and that no resistance from them was anticipated.
In a military point of view, the Moravian campaign was conducted in the very worst manner imaginable. It was undertaken at so early a period, that a deep fall of snow, a thing very common in the early part of March in former times, would have defeated the enter. . prise. When the army came to the river, instead of constructing a sufficient number of rafts to transport the requisite number over the river at once, they conmmen- ced crossing in a sugar trough, which could carry only two men at a time, thus jeopardizing the safety of those who first went over. The two sentinels who shot Sha- bosh, according to military law ought to have been ex- ecuted on the spot for having fired without orders. there. by giving premature notice of the approach of our men. The truth is, nearly the whole number of the army ought to have been transported over the river ; for after all their forces employed, and precaution used in getting
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