USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 12
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"The fire was about six or seven yards from the stake to which the colonel was tied; it was made of small hickory poles, burnt quite through the middle, each end of the pole remaining about six feet in length. Three or four Indians, by turns, would take up, individually, one of these burning pieces of wood and apply it to his naked body, already burnt black with the powder. These tormentors presented them- selves on every side of him, so that whichever way he ran round the post they met him with the burning fagots and poles. Some of the squaws took broad boards, upon which they would put a quantity of burning coals and hot embers and throw them on him, so that in a short time he had nothing but coals of fire and hot ashes to walk upon. . . .
"Colonel Crawford at this period of his sufferings besought the Almighty to have mercy on his soul, spoke very low, and bore his torments with the most manly fortitude. He continued in all the extremities of pain for an hour and three quarters or two hours longer, as near as I can judge, when at last, being almost spent, he lay down; they then scalped him and repeatedly threw the scalp in my face, telling me ' That was my great captain's.' An old squaw-whose appearance every way answered the ideas people entertain of the devil -got a board, took a parcel of coals and ashes and laid them on his back and head after he had been scalped; he then raised himself upon his feet and began to walk round the post; they next put a burn- ing stick to him as usual, but he seemed more insen- sible to pain than before."
Thus died Colonel William Crawford, and thus was terribly revenged the slaughter of the Moravian
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Indians, but not upon the perpetrators of that fiendish act.
EXPEDITION OF GENERAL JOSIAH HARMAR.
The expedition of General Harmar, against the western Indians in 1790 was the first military move- ment north of the Ohio after the establishment of civil government in the Northwest Territory. The army was organized at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, and consisted of three battalions of Kentucky militia commanded by Colonel Trotter; one battalion of Pennsylvania troops under Colonel John Harden ; a detachment of Kentucky cavalry under Major Fon- taine; Ferguson's battery of three guns and two battalions of regulars commanded by Majors Wyllys and Doughty-the entire force amounting to fourteen hundred and fifty-three men.
On the 26th of September the advance left Fort Washington, followed on the 30th and 3d and 4th of October by the main army, the objective point being the Indian towns at the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's rivers-now Fort Wayne, Indiana. On the 15th of October the army reached its destination ; no enemy was found, but the principal village, together with twenty thousand bushels of corn, was destroyed.
From here detachments were sent out in search of the enemy. On the 19th a body of three hundred men under Colonel Harden crossed the St. Joseph's river, and when about twenty miles west of its junction with the St. Mary's it was attacked by a large number of Indians, at the head of whom was the celebrated chief, Little Turtle. In a short time nearly one hun- dred of Harden's men lay dead upon the field, and the
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survivors reached the main army closely pursued by the victorious savages.
On the 22d General Harmar was informed by his scouts of the presence of the enemy in force at one of the neighboring towns. A detachment consisting of three hundred and forty militia and regulars was sent out under Major Wyllys. Discovering the Indians at day-light an engagement at once began. Major Fon- taine fell at the first fire. The savages fought with a desperation hitherto unknown, many of them throwing down their guns and rushing upon the soldiers with tomahawk in hand, carrying death into the ranks. When fifty-three regulars and one hundred and three of the militia had fallen, a panic began and continued until the fugitives reached the main army. General Harmar at once began a retreat to Fort Washington, leaving the unburied bodies of the dead to moulder on the banks of the Maumee, where their whitened skeletons were collected and buried four years after by the soldiers of Wayne's army. Thus ended in disaster the campaign of General Harmar.
DEFEAT OF GENERAL ST. CLAIR.
The only effect of Harmar's campaign was to in- tensify the exasperation and hostility of the savages, and as a consequence the ensuing year was one of murder and destruction along the Virginia and Ken- tucky frontier. To stay the tide of blood, it was re- solved to organize a larger army than had yet invaded the Indian country, one of such numbers as should be able, despite every combination of the savages, to build a cordon of forts from Fort Washington on the Ohio to the source of the. Maumee.
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To carry out this design, on the 3d of March, 1791, the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act pro- viding for "The addition of another regiment to the military establishment of the United States, and for the better protection of the frontiers." In execution of this act, President Washington immediately appointed Gen- eral Arthur St. Clair to the command of the army of the Northwest and authorized him to enlist a force of three thousand men to be employed against the Indians.
General St. Clair proceeded to Fort Washington in April, and began preparations for the invasion of the wilderness. General Richard Butler, a gallant soldier of the Revolution, who served in Morgan's Rifle Corps, arrived at the head of the Pennsylvania levies, and be- came the second ranking officer of the expedition. In mid-summer Colonel William Darke, with a battalion of Virginia troops from the counties of Hampshire and Berkeley-now in West Virginia-reached Fort Wash- ington. September 17, the army, 2,300 strong, moved forward and began the erection of Fort Hamilton, the first in the line of forts to the Maumee, and distant twenty-two miles from Fort Washington. On the 12th of October they commenced building Fort . Jefferson, forty-four miles from Fort Hamilton, and within six miles of the present site of Greenville, the seat of jus- tice of Darke county, Ohio. On the 24th of October the fort was completed. The army again moved for- ward, and on the 3d of November encamped on a branch of the Wabash, now in the southwestern corner of Mercer county, Ohio, and within two miles of the Indiana State line and five miles from the Darke county line. 12
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Here on the next morning at sunrise the army was unexpectedly attacked by the Indians, 2,000 strong, and the slaughter which followed has no parallel in forest warfare. As usual, the militia fled in confusion at the first fire. Colonel Darke, at the head of the Virgin- ians, made two daring charges, in both of which the foe was beaten back, but St. Clair was unable to hold the advantage thus gained. For three hours successes and reverses rapidly followed each other, both of which resulted in great loss of life, especially among the officers. Every commissioned officer in the second regiment except three was either killed or wounded, and when the artillery was silenced every artillery officer had been killed except Captain Ford, and he was severely wounded.
When the retreat began 630 men had been killed and 240 wounded. Among the former eighty were from Berkeley county, now in West Virginia. The number of officers lost was unusually large. Among the fallen were General Butler, Colonel Oldham, and Majors Ferguson, Clarke and Hart. Among the wounded were Adjutant-General Winthrop Sargent, Colonel Darke, Lieutenant-Colonel Gibson and Major Butler.
In complete rout, the fugitives reached Fort Jeffer- son, thirty miles distant, that night, and the next morn- ing the flight continued toward Fort Washington. Thus ended in failure an expedition from which much had been expected.
No battle ever fought between the Indians and Americans in the Northwest had been attended with such disastrous results or equalled it in the destruction of human life. It was indeed the most terrible reverse
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the Americans ever sustained from the Indians. A de- fenceless frontier, extending from the Monongahela to the Mississippi, was, by the defeat, left exposed to the inroads of maddened, victorious and revengeful sav- ages. The situation was at once seen by the War De- partment, at the head of which was General Henry Knox, the "Artillerist of the Revolution," who hastened to lay the matter before Congress. That body promptly made provision for raising another army for frontier service.
WAYNE'S VICTORY-TREATY OF GREENVILLE.
General Anthony Wayne, of Revolutionary fame, was appointed to the chief command. He repaired to Pittsburg in June, 1792, and at once proceeded to raise an efficient, disciplined army. Recruiting and drilling continued at Pittsburg until December, 1792, when " Wayne's Legion," as the force was denominated, was removed twenty-two miles down the Ohio, and went into winter quarters at what has ever since been known as Legionsville. From there, on the 30th of April, 1793, the army began the descent of the Ohio to Fort Washington, where it remained under constant drill in Indian tactics until the 7th of the ensuing Octo- ber, when it took up the line of march northward, and on the 13th reached Fort Jefferson on the Miami. Be- fore Christmas, Wayne had erected Fort Greenville, on the present site of Greenville, Darke county, Ohio, and after discharging the Kentucky militia, 1,000 in num- ber, went into winter quarters.
On the 24th of December a detachment was sent forward to the scene of St. Clair's defeat, thirty miles distant, where a fortification was erected and named
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Fort Recovery. Here and at Fort Greenville the army remained until the summer of 1794. July 25 of that year it was joined by a force of 1,600 mounted men from Kentucky, commanded by General Charles Scott, and on the 28th Wayne's Legion, now number- ing more than 3,000 men, moved forward. On the 8th of August it reached the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers, where Fort Defiance was erected. Leaving a garrison here, the main army moved on, and on the 18th encamped on the present site of Maumee City, Lucas county, Ohio. Here was erected a bag- gage station, which was called Fort Deposit. The next day was spent in strengthening the works, and on the 20th the entire Legion was moved forward to attack the hostile tribes then concentrated in large force at the "Rapids of the Maumee," three miles below and on the same side of the river. The warriors, 2,000 in number, secreted in the woods and high grass, opened fire on Wayne's advance, which consisted of a battalion of mounted volunteers under Captain Price. The work for which years of preparation had been made was now to be performed. It was a struggle for race supremacy in the Northwest. Detachments of troops hurried forward over and around fallen timbers, which had probably been levelled by the whirlwind, hence the name of the battle-field-" Fallen Timbers." The bat- tle soon became general. Scott's mounted Kentuck- ians bore down with resistless force upon the right flank of the enemy, while a charge in front drove the savages back at the point of the bayonet. It was dis- cipline contending against savage daring, and soon the warriors who shot down St. Clair's army a few years before, were in full retreat, hotly pursued by the vic-
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torious legions, and " Mad Anthony " was left in pos- session of the field.
The battle of "Fallen Timbers " completely broke the power of the savages in the Northwest and se- cured peace to the settlers on the frontier for a period of more than fourteen years. Indeed, it forever put an end to Indian warfare on the Virginia border. No more did the savage hordes visit the southern bank of the Ohio. The tomahawk and scalping-knife had fin- ished their work on the hills and in the valleys of West- ern Virginia, and the pioneer henceforth dwelt in his cabin home without fear of savage fury.
Wayne's army returned to Fort Greenville, where it spent the winter, and there, on the 3d of August, 1795, the representatives of twelve Indian tribes signed arti- cles of agreement " to bury the hatchet forever and re- store all captives." This, known as the "Treaty of Greenville " or " Wayne's Treaty," was zatified by the United States Senate December 22, 1795.
CHAPTER XII.
BOUNDARY BETWEEN WEST VIRGINIA AND PENNSYLVANIA.
Western Limits of Virginia as first Defined-Charter of Maryland-Penn's Grant -Its Western Limits-Dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia regarding the Same-Dividing Line between Maryland and Pennsylvania-Commissioners appointed to determine the Same-Mason and Dixon's Line-Its Western Extension-Slow Progress of the Same -- Virginia's Protest-Her Constitutional Concession in 1776-Commissioners of Virginia and Pennsylvania continue Mason and Dixon's Line-Southwest Corner of Pennsylvania Determined and Marked-Origin of the Northern Panhandle.
ON the 10th day of April, 1606, King James granted to the London Company letters patent for all that territory in America called Virginia, "lying and being all along the seacoast, between four and thirty degrees of north latitude from the Equinoctial line, and five and forty degrees of the same latitude * * * * and the islands thereunto adjacent or within one hundred miles of the coast thereof." This charter, while it included the territory on the Atlantic coast from Cape Lookout on the coast of North Carolina to the present site of Eastport in Maine, was without a defined western boundary. Hence under it Virginia had no positive claim to the territory west of the Blue Ridge.
But this was corrected in the second charter, granted on the 23d day of May, 1609, by which the London Company was made a body politic, the limits and juris- diction of which included "All those lands, countries and territories, situate, lying and being in that part of America called Virginia, from the point of land called
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Cape or Point Comfort, all along the seacoast, to the northward two hundred miles, and from the said Point of Cape Comfort all along the seacoast to the south- ward two hundred miles, and all that space and circuit of land throughout, from sea to sea west and northwest."
Here then is defined for the first time the western boundary of Virginia-"from sea to sea"-meaning .from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Upon this charter Virginia based and maintained her claim to the North- west Territory-a claim afterward recognized by both the Federal Government and the States formed within the said territory.
Her northern boundary was a line extending from east to west and situated "two hundred miles" north of Old Point Comfort, a northern point at the mouth of James river. This distance measured northward would extend north of the present site of Harrisburg, and thus include within the limits of Virginia a large part of the southern half of the present State of Penn- sylvania. Here, then, Virginia rested her claim to what was afterward the disputed territory now included within the present counties of Washington, Green and Allegheny, Pennsylvania. ,
Thus Virginia's territorial limits remained until June, 1632, when Charles I. granted to Lord Baltimore all "that region bounded by a line drawn from Watkin's Point on Chesapeake Bay to the Ocean on the east ; thence to that part of the estuary of the Delaware on the north which lieth under the fortieth degree where New England is terminated; thence in a right line by the degree aforesaid, to the meridian of the fountain of the Potomac ; thence following its course by its farthest bank to its confluence."
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This was the first example of the dismemberment of a colony and the creation of a new one within its limits. The planters of Virginia petitioned against this act of the Crown, but the Privy Council dismissed their appeal with the declaration "that Lord Baltimore should retain his patent, and the petitioners their remedy at law." Of this the Virginians never availed themselves. Thus was carved out of Virginia the present State of. Maryland, the western boundary of which was deter- mined on the 17th day of October, 1746, and marked by the planting of the Fairfax stone at what has ever since been recognized as the southwestern corner of that State. But the formation of Maryland in no way invalidated Virginia's title to the territory lying west of "the meridian of the first fountain of the Potomac."
A half century passed away and brought the year 1681, in which Charles II. granted to William Penn a charter for the present State of Pennsylvania. In this act the King's wishes were consulted rather than the chartered territorial limits of Virginia. The southern boundary of Penn's Province was declared in his patent to be a line extending from the Delaware river five degrees west. It seems that it was thought that this western extension of Penn's grant would be coequal with that of Lord Baltimore, and that the same meridian would mark the western limit of both. Had such been the case, and had a better knowledge of the geography of the country prevailed at that time, Virginia would have exercised jurisdiction in the Monongahela Valley, and Pittsburg would to-day be the metropolis of West Virginia.
So long as the country remained a wilderness, the question of jurisdiction was of little importance. But
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no sooner did the frontiersmen begin to build their cabins along the banks of the Monongahela than dis- putes arose between Virginia and Pennsylvania regard- ing the right of possession. Pennsylvania claimed it under Penn's patent, while Virginia based her title upon her chartered boundaries of 1609. Both colonies issued patents for lands situated within the disputed territory, and both appointed Justices of the Peace for the same. Pennsylvania arrested those appointed by Virginia and imprisoned them at Carlisle, while Vir- ginia found quarters for those appointed by Pennsyl- vania in the jails at Winchester and Staunton.
Meantime, while the dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania regarding the western boundary of the latter continued, another difficulty arose, in which, how- ever, Virginia was an uninterested spectator. This was the question of boundary between the proprietary rights of the heirs of Lord Baltimore and those of William Penn. Both colonies appointed commis- sioners, who met at New Castle in November, 1760. They appointed surveyors, two on the part of each colony, who were for three years engaged in an effort to find the western line of Delaware for the purpose of making it a tangent to the circle, the centre of which was the court house at New Castle, Delaware. The proprietors, wearied of the slow progress, in August, 1763, secured the services of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two eminent surveyors of London, both of whom arrived in America in November fol- lowing. On Cedar (now South) street, Philadelphia, they erected an observatory to enable them to ascertain the latitude of that city. After various calculations they determined the point and planted the stone, at which
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begins the celebrated "Mason and Dixon's line." Slowly and carefully the surveyors proceeded west- ward, and on the 27th of October, 1765, they were on the summit of the North Mountain, ninety-five miles west of the Susquehanna river, and at the western terminus of the temporary line determined by the Penns and Baltimores in 1739. Here the work was postponed for the winter, but resumed early the next spring, and on the 4th of June, 1766, the surveyors were on the summit of the Allegheny mountains west of Wills' creek. Here the Indians-the Six Nations-forbade farther prosecution of the work, and here it rested until permission was obtained by treaty. This done, the work was continued in the summer of 1767, during which the surveyors reached the western limit of Mary- land-"The meridian of the first fountain of the Potomac." Here the interest of the Baltimores ceased ; but the surveyors pushed on, determined to find the western limit of Penn's "five degrees of longitude" from the Delaware. Onward continued the chain- bearers, rodmen, ax-men, commissioners, baggage- carriers, and servants, led by the London surveyors, until, at length, they reached a point near Mt. Morris, now in Green county, near the old Catawba war-path, where they were again stopped by the Indians, and here for fifteen years, Mason and Dixon's line ter- minated.
After passing the western limits of Maryland, Vir- ginia protested loudly against the further extension of the line, claiming-and justly, too-that the western limit of Penn's "five degrees " would largely infringe upon her territory. Disputes between the frontiersmen of the two provinces continued, and so bitter had they
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become that in 1774, a resort to arms seemed immi- nent. But now the Revolution came on, and Virginia and Pennsylvania forgot their differences regarding territorial boundaries and united in one common cause against one common enemy, and the frontiersmen who had so recently been engaged in almost deadly con- flict marched side by side to the bloody fields of the Revolution.
. In June, 1776, Virginia framed her first constitution, and in the twenty-first section of that instrument de- clared that " The territories contained within the char- ters erecting the colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina are hereby ceded, released and forever confirmed to the people of those colonies, respectively, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction and government, and all other rights whatsoever which might at any time heretofore have been claimed by Virginia." Thus Virginia at last yielded her claim to that of which she had been deprived by royal mandate and against which she had protested for nearly a hun- dred years.
At length the Revolution was over, and Virginia and Pennsylvania, both elevated to the dignity of indepen- dent States, agreed to amicably adjust and settle all difficulties. regarding boundaries. To perform this work Dr. James Madison and Robert Andrews were appointed on the part of the former, and Rev. Dr. John Ewing, George Bryan and David Rittenhouse on the part of the latter. The commissioners met at Baltimore, and in 1780, entered upon their work, that -according to the agreement of the legislatures of the two States-of extending Mason and Dixon's line five degrees of longitude west from the Delaware
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river, and thence to the northern boundary of Penn- sylvania. But again they were stopped by the Indians, and nothing was done for four years. Then a part of the commissioners repaired to Wilmington, Delaware, where they reared an observatory; the others jour- neyed west, and on one of the loftiest points of the Fish Creek hills erected another. Supplied with astro- nomical instruments, the parties, from their respective stations, for six weeks preceding the autumnal equinox of 1784, continued to observe such celestial phenomena as would enable them to determine their respective meridians. From the data thus obtained they deter- mined the location of the fifth meridian west from the Delaware river, upon which they planted a square, unlettered, white-oak post, which, surrounded by a conical pyramid of stones, marked the southwest corner of Pennsylvania.
By this extension Virginia lost a large portion of Monongalia county, including the court-house of the same, and almost the entire area of Youghiogheny county, which Virginia had established by legislative enactment in 1776, and which thenceforth ceased to exist, the remainder being attached to Ohio county.
In 1784, Virginia ceded her northwestern territory to the General Government. This included all her possessions beyond the Ohio, leaving still in her pos- session the narrow strip lying between the western boundary of Pennsylvania and the Ohio river-that now designated as the northern "Panhandle " of West Virginia.
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CHAPTER XIII.
CESSION OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Virginia's Deed of Cession-The Conditions of the Same Recited-Extended Preamble-Agents on the Part of Virginia who Signed the Deed-Thomas Hutchins, Geographer of the United States-First Surveys North of the Ohio- The Ordinance of 1781-Virginia's Military Lands West of the Ohio-The Ohio Company of Associates-The Founding of Marietta, the Oldest Town in Ohio-Formation of Kentucky-Boundary between Same and West Virginia.
AT the close of the Revolution, the extensive region designated as the Northwest Territory, stretching from the Ohio to the Mississippi, and bounded on the north by the Great Lakes, was claimed by Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The smaller States, prominently Maryland, refused to sign the Articles of Confederation, fearing oppression in the future from the larger States, and at the same time asserted that the territory had been won by the blood and treasure of the whole country, and was therefore the property of the United States. The opposition on the part of Maryland led Congress to recommend the sur- render of these territorial claims to the United States, and on the Ioth of October, 1780, that body resolved that any territory thus relinquished should be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, "and be settled and formed into distinct Republican States, which shall become members of the Federal Union."
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