Part I
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CHAPTER I OLD WESTMORELAND P.5 The County of Westmoreland was erected by the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania by an act signed by Lieutenant Governor Richard Penn, on Friday, February 26, 1773. It was the eleventh county of the Commonwealth and the last erected under the proprietary government. Like all the earlier counties of Pennsylvania, except Philadelphia, it received its name from a county in England. this name, as applied to the most distant territory of the Province, was especially appropriate. The land comprised in the new county was bought by the Penns from the Six Nations or Iroquois Indians, at a treaty held at Fort Stanwix, N. Y., in November, 1768, and was opened for settlement in the following April. Its northern boundary was a line extending from Canoe Point, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna river, west by north to the site of the Indian town called Kittanning, on the Allegheny river, thence down along the Allegheny and the Ohio rivers to the western limit of the Province, while its western and southern lines were to be the western and southern boundaries of Pennsylvania, not yet definitely ascertained. In 1771, this wide region was included in the county of Bedford, but settlements grew so rapidly west of the mountains during the year 1772 that a new frontier county was soon demanded. The evacuation of Fort Pitt by the British troops, in the fall of 1772, also led the borderers to demand a stronger civil government. P. 6 When Westmoreland was erected it covered all of the Province west of the Laurel Hill, being what is broadly known as Southwestern Pennsylvania. It included the present counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, Greene and Washington, the parts of Allegheny and Beaver counties south of the Ohio river, about two-thirds of the county of Indiana and on-third of the county of Armstrong, the total area being about 4,700 square miles. While this was the area of Westmoreland in theory, it was restricted in fact by Virginia's seizure and government of a large portion of the territory. After the capture of Fort Duquesne from the French in 1758 and the construction of Fort Pitt in the following year, a few settlements were made along the Forbes and Braddock roads, by permission of the Fort Pit commandant. These permissions were granted to tavern keepers, that they might give shelter and entertainment to persons traveling on the king's business.1 The general settlement of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains did not begin until the Pennsylvania land office was opened for the granting of warrants, in the spring of 1769. Population flowed into the new region through two channels. Scots from the Cumberland Valley and other settled parts of the Province made their way westward by the Forbes military road and planted their cabins along its course, from the lovely Ligonier Valley to Fort Pitt. These men were faithful to Pennsylvania, under whose seal they held their lands. From the Valley of Virginia other Scots crossed the mountains by way of the old Braddock road and occupied the rich lands along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers and Chartiers creek. These men were Virginians and believed that their settlements were still within the territory of the Old Dominion. It had not yet been determined by survey how far Pennsylvania extended westward of the mountains. Virginia claimed all the interior country west of Pennsylvania and asserted that the entire valley of the Monongahela, including Pittsburg, was within her jurisdiction. P. 7 A lively contest for the control of the region tributary of Pittsburg began between Pennsylvania and Virginia. the organization of Westmoreland county was designed to strengthen the Pennsylvania authority, and sixteen magistrates were appointed to administer justice within its boundaries. The county seat was established a t Robert Hanna's little settlement on the Forbes road, 35 miles east of Pittsburg, and at Hannastown the first Pennsylvania court west of the mountains was held in April, 1773. these proceedings stirred up the Virginia authorities. the Earl of Dunmore, governor of Virginia, took forcible possession of the disputed territory. he appointed John Connolly, of Pittsburg "captain commandant of Pittsburg and its dependencies." Connolly mustered the militia under Virginia law, seized and garrisoned Fort Pitt, intimidated the Pennsylvania magistrates, marched some of them off to prison, and established the authority of Virginia throughout all the region between the Monongahela and the Ohio. Pennsylvania, having no militia law, was powerless to resist this usurpation.2 Thus it came about that, during the Revolution, the authority of Westmoreland county was limited to about half of its actual area. It was not until the summer of 1780 that Virginia agreed to accept the results of a joint survey which would extend the southern boundary line of Pennsylvania (Mason and Dixon's line) to a distance of five degrees of longitude west of the Delaware river. This joint survey was delayed, by official quibbling and the hostility of the Virginia settlers, until the fall of 1782. In the spring of 1781 that part of Westmoreland lying west of the Monongahela was set off as a new county, named Washington, so that the officers of Westmoreland never had the privilege of exercising their authority over the whole extent of their large territory. P. 8 In 1775 the Ligonier Valley, extending along the eastern border of the county, was well settled. The focus of settlement was the village of Ligonier, where a British fort had been built in 1758, and the principal man was Captain Arthur St. Clair, a Scotchman who had served under Wolf at Quebec and had afterward become the agent of the Penn family in Western Pennsylvania.3 West of the Chestnut Ridge, along Loyalhanna and its little tributaries, settlements were rather numerous as far as Hannastown, on the Forbes road. To the north of the road, between the Loyalhanna and the Conemaugh, was the Derry settlement, so called from the city of Ireland, whence most of its people came. Nearly all the pioneers in this eastern part of the county were Scots from Ulster, or their immediate descendants, with a slight sprinkling of Irish of Presbyterian faith. Another center of Ulster settlement was at the Braddock road crossing of Big Sewickley creek, a tributary of the Youghiogheny; while lower down on that creek and on Turtle and Brush creeks were the cabins and blockhouses of German emigrants from the Rhine Palatinate. Among the Virginia settlers along the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers and westward to the Ohio there were not many natives of either Scotland or Ireland. The people were two or three generations removed from the old country, but nearly all were of scotch stock. The larger land owners had brought their slaves with them from Virginia and negroes were held in bondage in Southwestern Pennsylvania until long after the Revolution. P. 9 At Pittsburg some of the principal characters, chiefly traders, were members of the Church of England, and it was among these men that the tory sentiment developed, during the Revolution. Old Westmoreland was, however, decidedly a Scotch and Calvinistic settlement. While the territorial dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia was very bitter, it was doubtless because the opposing forces consisted of men of the same race and creed that no homicides were committed during the long period of contention. The Scotch pioneers of this western region were bold, stout and industrious men, sharp at bargains, fond of religious and political controversy and not strongly attached to government either of the royal or the proprietary kind. In nearly every cabin three articles were to be found: a Bible, a rifle and a whiskey jug. A strong characteristic of the settlers was an intense hatred of the Indians, for whose treatment the extermination policy of Joshua toward the heathen beyond the Jordan was generally considered to be the proper model.4 At the opening of the revolution the village of Pittsburg was the largest center of population west of the mountains. When Washington visited the place in the autumn of 1770, he found about twenty log houses ranged along the Monongahela shore, "inhabited," he wrote in his journal, "by Indian traders."5 During the succeeding four years emigration to the west was so heavy that by 1775 the town had probably trebled in size and the traders were no longer in the majority, although they formed the influential element. These traders were nearly all Pennsylvanians, but most of the other inhabitants were Virginians. With its taverns, its hard drinking traders, trappers and mule drivers, its fugitives from eastern justice and its frequent Indian visitors, Pittsburg was a rude and boisterous frontier settlement. Rev. David Jones, a Baptist missionary who visited the town in June, 1772, described it as "a small town chiefly inhabited by Indian traders and some mechanics....Part of the inhabitants are agreeable and worthy of regard, while others are lamentably dissolute in their morals."6 P. 10 The one man of most influence in this community was the fat old trader and Indian agent, Colonel George Croghan, who lived on a pretentious plantation about four miles up the Allegheny river. He was an Irishman by birth and an Episcopalian by religion, when he permitted religion to trouble him. He had long been a resident of Pennsylvania, but his landed interests attached him to Virginia. His nephew, Captain Connolly, who was the official representative of the Virginia government and a petty despot on the frontier, was under Croghan's guidance. Other leaders of the Virginia party on the border were John Campbell, a trader and land owner at Pittsburg; Dorsey Pentecost, who dwelt on a large tract called "Greenway" in the Forks of the Youghiogheny, and William Crawford, surveyor, land owner and agent for George Washington, living at Stewart's Crossing (now New Haven), on the Youghiogheny. Pentecost and Crawford were Virginians who had once held commissions as Pennsylvania magistrates but had later become violent partisans of the Virginia claims. In 1775 the most prominent representative of the Pennsylvania interest in old Westmoreland was Captain Arthur St. Clair, at Ligonier; while others who took active parts were John Proctor and Archibald Lochry, living near the Forbes road west of Chestnut ridge; Robert Hanna and Michael Huffnagle, at Hannastown; James Cavet and Christopher Hays, of the Sewickley settlement; John Ormsby, Devereux Smith and Aeneas Mackay, traders and storekeepers at Pittsburg; Edward Cook, living in the Forks of the Youghiogheny, a short distance below Redstore, and George Wilson, whose plantation was on the Monongahela at the mouth of George's creek, in the very heart of Virginianism.
CHAPTER II P. 11 During 1774 the pioneers of Westmoreland were so occupied by their labor in clearing the forest, by the civil contention with Virginia and by the war between Virginia and the Shawnee Indians, that most of them heard little and thought little of the eastern agitation against the oppressions of the British Parliament. Yet scraps of news concerning the struggle going on in Boston occasionally reached the frontier and a few of the pioneers who had personal and official connection with Philadelphia kept in touch with the momentous contest then beginning with the mother country. In May, 1774, on an appeal from Boston, a committee of correspondence was formed in Philadelphia. Under the date of June 12, a circular letter was addressed by this committee to certain of the principal inhabitants of the other counties in the Province, advising the formation of a similar committee in each county; and on June 28 the Philadelphia committee called a meeting of delegates from the several county committees. In response to this call, a "very respectable body of people"1 met at Hannastown on Monday, July 11, and chose Robert Hanna and James Cavet to represent Westmoreland in the delegate convention. On July 15 this convention met in Philadelphia and its minutes show the presence of Hanna and Cavet. They could not have reached the provincial capital within four days after their election, but were doubtless in attendance before the meeting adjourned on July 21.2 P. 12 This convention was not revolutionary. It expressly declared allegiance to King George, but denounced recent acts of the British Parliament, especially those for the closing of the port of Boston and the annulment of the Massachusetts charter, as unconstitutional. It approved a proposal for a colonial congress and pledged the readiness of the people of Pennsylvania to cease all commercial intercourse with Great Britain if necessary to secure a repeal of the obnoxious laws. A fair inference from these proceedings is that a committee of correspondence was organized in Westmoreland in the early summer of 1774 and continued its existence until succeeded, a year later, by the revolutionary association. No records of this committee have been found. They were probably destroyed when the Indians burned Hannastown. The American cause was, at the same time, arousing the sympathy of the leaders among the Virginia settlers in Southwestern Pennsylvania, although they were actively engaged in an Indian war. On October 1, 1774, while serving in Dunmore's army against the Shawnees, Valentine Crawford, brother of William Crawford, wrote from Wheeling to George Washington that the frontiersmen all hoped for an early peace with the savages, "in order that we may be able to assist you in relieving the poor distressed Bostonians. If the report here is true that General Cage has bombarded the city of Boston, this is a most alarming circumstance and calls on every friend of the liberty of his country to exert himself at this time in its cause."3 After the Shawnees had been forced to make peace in the valley of the Scioto river, the officers of Lord Dunmore's army, on the homeward march, held a meeting at the mouth of the Hocking river, on November 5, 1774, and unanimously declared their intention, as soldiers, to exert "every power within us for the defense of American liberty and for the support of our just rights and privileges."4 P. 13 When it began to appear probable, early in 1775, that an armed conflict would occur between the colonies and the home government, Captain Connolly undertook to organize the chief men in Pittsburg and its neighborhood in the interest of Great Britain. He was of Irish-English blood, a member of the Church of England and a devout follower of the Earl of Dunmore. He wholly misapprehended the spirit of the Presbyterian Scots with whom he had been associated in the Virginia boundary contest. His efforts to seduce the pioneers from the American cause were almost entirely unavailing. they had stood by him in opposition to the territorial claims of the Penns, but when he sought to enlist them in opposition to the general colonial cause, they and he parted company. The news of Lexington and concord reached Pittsburg during the first week in may, 1775. To the liberty loving Scots and Irish of the frontier it was a signal to forget, for the time, their local jealousies and quarrels and to unite and organize in defense of their mutual rights as Americans. Pennsylvanians and Virginians joined hands to resist the hard enactments of the British parliament. The committees of correspondence, one in eastern Westmoreland and the other in West Augusta, as the Virginians called the portion of the border which they controlled, at once called meetings of the settlers to declare their minds on the sudden crisis. The Pittsburg meeting was held on Tuesday, May 16, being the day for the opening of the Virginia court in that village, and the attendance was large. Te assembly chose a committee of 28 men, nearly all of whom are more or less famous in the border annals. Colonel George Croghan, who was afterward suspected of being lukewarm in the American cause, was chairman, and other committeemen were Edward Ward, who surrendered the site of Fort Pitt to Contrecoeur in 1754, John Canon, the founder of Canonsburg; John McCulloch, a daring frontiersman; John Gibson, the interpreter of the celebrated speech of Logan the Mingo; Edward Cook, the founder of Cookstown, now Fayette City; William Crawford, the surveyor and land agent of Washington, and David Rodgers, a partisan leader who fell in combat with the Indians on the site of Newport, Ky. Of the 28 members of the body, at least five were Pennsylvania partisans in the territorial dispute. This committee adopted unanimously a resolution approving the acts of the New Englanders in resisting "the invaders of American rights and privileges to the utmost extreme," and formulated plans for the organization of military companies to be ready for the country's call.5 P. 14 These proceedings gave great offense to Connolly and were a stinging personal rebuke to his royalist schemings. His uncle, Croghan, and his father-in-law, Samuel Semple, were members of the committee. Two days after the meeting Connolly sat for the last time as a member of the West Augusta court at Pittsburg, but for two months he remained in the settlement, endeavoring perseveringly to influence his acquaintances to support the royalist cause and plotting with Indian chiefs to make war on the colonists in the event of an actual revolution.6 On the day succeeding the meeting at Pittsburg, "a general meeting of the inhabitants of Westmoreland" was held in the log cabin settlement at Hannastown. Here also the action taken was distinctly revolutionary, for while the assembled borderers declared their allegiance to King George, they voted it to be the duty of every true American, "by every means which God has put in his power," to resist the oppression of the British Parliament and ministry, and they proceeded to form a military organization called the Association of Westmoreland County, whose purpose was declared to be forcible resistance to the power of Great Britain.7 P. 15 Captain St.. Clair, who evidently took part in this meeting, was not in full sympathy with its radicalism. On May 18 he wrote to Joseph Shippen, Jr., the provincial secretary: "Yesterday we had a county meeting and have come to resolutions to arm and discipline, and have formed an association, which I suppose you will soon see in the papers. God grant an end may be speedily put to any necessity of such proceedings. I doubt their utility and am almost as much afraid of success in this contest as of being vanquished."8 In accordance with the Hannastown resolutions, meetings were held in every township one week later, on Wednesday, May 24, to form military companies. St. Clair wrote to Governor Penn on May 25: "We have nothing but musters and committees all over the country and everything seems to be running into the wildest confusion. If some conciliating plan is not adopted by the congress, America has seen her golden days: they may return, but will be preceded by scenes of horror." His forcast was correct. It was because the prospect of civil war appalled him that St. Clair doubted and held back at the outset. But he did not hesitate long. When he realized that the crisis could not be avoided, he earnestly devoted his life and his fortune to the patriot cause. The yeomen of Westmoreland formed themselves into companies, elected their company officers and were arranged in two battalions. Of the first battalion the officers were: Colonel, John Proctor, the first sheriff of the county; lieutenant colonel, Archibald Lochry; major, John Shields. The officers of the second battalion were" colonel, John Carnaghan, then sheriff; lieutenant colonel, Providence Mountz; major, James Smith, a famous character on the frontier, whose narrative of captivity among the Indians is one of the interesting stories of the border.9 It was Colonel Proctor's battalion which adopted as its banner the celebrated rattlesnake flag. It is of crimson silk, having, in the corner, on a blue field, the red and white crosses of St. George and St. Andrew. The emblems are worked in gold. Above a rattlesnake, coiled to strike, are the characters, "I. B. W. C. P.," meaning, First Battalion, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and below the serpent is the motto, "Don't Tread on Me." Near the flag's upper margin is a monogram of J. P., the initials of John Proctor. P. 16 This flag was never carried into battle, but it was, doubtless, borne to Philadelphia when the battalion was called to the succor of that city at the beginning of 1777. The standard bearer was Lieutenant Samuel Craig, of the Derry settlement, and the silken relic is still carefully kept by his descendants in Westmoreland. The tory conduct of Captain Connolly at Pittsburg became so bold and obnoxious that in June, 1775, he was seized by twenty men, under the orders of Captain St. Clair, and carried to Ligonier, with the intention of delivering him to the revolutionary government in Philadelphia. His arrest was misunderstood by many of the Virginia settlers, who thought it a blow at their territorial claims, and they made such violent demonstration that Captain St. Clair considered it advisable to let the prisoner go.10 Soon after his release, Connolly fled from Pittsburg by night and made his way to Portsmouth, Va., where he joined Lord Dunmore on a man-of-war. From that refuge he continued his efforts, by correspondence, to influence border leaders in the king's cause and to stir up the Ohio tribes against the colonists.11 P. 17 Some knowledge of Connolly's machinations and a fear of an Indian uprising persuaded the Virginia convention, in August, to direct Captain Neville, a militia officer and a member of the patriot committee at Pittsburg, to occupy Fort Pitt with his company from the Shenandoah Valley. With about one hundred men, Captain Neville marched from Winchester and took possession of the fort on September 11.(12) He continued in command there until June 1, 1777, when he transferred the post to General Edward Hand, the representative of the United States of America. For a year and a half after the Revolution began the civil government of Western Pennsylvania was under the control of the two committees, one meeting at Hannastown and the other at Pittsburg, acting in conjunction with the justices of the peace who espoused the patriot cause; and this loose system of government continued until the autumn of 1776, when both Pennsylvania and Virginia had adopted state constitutions.
CHAPTER III P. 18 The men of the border did not feel themselves in danger from the British armies landed on the Atlantic coast, but from the beginning of the Revolution their homes and families were menaced by a more dreaded foe--the savage tribes of the wilderness. The quickly revealed plottings of Connolly at Ft. Pitt, to incite the Indians against the settlements, were believed to be a sample of what the British government would attempt on a general scale. As early as July, 1775, the second Colonial Congress initiated measures to secure the friendship of the savages. The frontier was divided into three Indian departments, of which the middle department included the tribes west of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and three members of congress, Benjamin Franklin and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, were appointed to hold a treaty with the Indians at Ft. Pitt.1 This treaty was held in October, with a few chiefs of the Senecas, Delawares, Shawnees and Wyandots. Guyasuta was the principal Seneca chief in attendance, representing the Iroquois dwelling in the Allegheny valley and in the Ohio country. As an Iroquois, he assumed to speak for the western tribes, and thereby aroused White Eyes, the Delaware orator, to declare the absolute independence of the Delawares. The council was not harmonious, but the chiefs protested their intentions to remain neutral, and Guyasuta promised to use his influence with the great council of the Iroquois in New York, to obtain a decision in favor of peace.2 P. 19 The Indians remained quiet during 1775 and the following winter, but it was not long until the agents of the British government outbid the colonists for a savage alliance. The British were able to give the greater display of military force. Sir Guy Johnson and Colonel John Butler held a great council with the Iroquois at Ft. Niagara, in May, 1776, when an overwhelming majority of the Iroquois voted to accept the war hatchet and to fight for the king.3 That was the beginning of the mischief on the border. The influence of the Six Nations soon made itself manifest among the western tribes. The Westmoreland settlers apprehended the storm long before it broke. They observed an alteration in the manner of the Indians with whom they came in frequent contact. In February, 1776, settlers near Pittsburg sent a memorial to Congress, complaining that Indian hunters were encroaching on the lands of the white people.4 Van Swearingen, a pioneer of the Monongahela Valley and one of the Pennsylvania magistrates, although a Virginian, raised a company of young riflemen and established a patrol along the Allegheny river.5 The Indian commissioners, at the treaty in October, 1775, selected John Gibson as Indian agent for the Ohio tribes. Gibson had intimate relations with the savages and was peculiarly adapted to the work, but had not sufficient influence at Philadelphia to retain his office. After a short term, he was succeeded by Richard Butler, another Pittsburg trader. In the spring of 1776 congress took direct control of the Indian agencies, and for the important post at Pittsburg chose George Morgan, a man of education, high family connections and considerable wealth. Morgan's home was at Princeton, N. J., his mercantile interests were in Philadelphia, and as agent of his own trading house he had traveled extensively in the Indian country, from the Allegheny to the Illinois. He arrived at Pittsburg about the first of May, 1776, and at once began to arrange for a more satisfactory treaty with the tribes. He sent agents, with pacific messages, into the Indian country, employing in this service William Wilson, Peter Long, Simon Girty and Joseph Nicholson.6 P. 20 The mission of Wilson was the most important. He was an Indian trader and acquainted with the tribes between the Ohio river and Detroit. It was his duty to invite the Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot chiefs to a council at Pittsburg some time in August or September. Early in June, he left Pittsburg, accompanied by Nicholson, and went on horseback to the Delaware towns on the Muskingum river. There his reception was hospitable and the chiefs of the Delawares accepted his invitation. He journeyed thence to the seats of the Shawnees on the Scioto, where he discovered many of the young warriors to be in a doubtful humor. The chief sachem, the Hardman, and the war chief, the Cornstalk, were inclined to peace and promised to attend the treaty, if possible; but they had received an invitation to take part in a great council with the British governor at Detroit, and must go there first. While Wilson was at the Shawnee towns, Morgan himself arrived there and endeavored to arrange a definite date for the treaty. The Shawnees, however, referred him to the Wyandots or Hurons, from whom the Shawnees had received permission to dwell in the Ohio country. P. 21 Before Morgan departed for Pittsburg, he gave to Wilson a large peace belt of wampum and a written message to deliver to the Wyandot chiefs. Wilson, Nicholson and the Cornstalk, set out in company for the Wyandot towns on the Sandusky river, but advanced only as far as Pluggystown, on the upper Scioto. This place was inhabited by renegade Indians from various tribes, principally Iroquois. The chief, Pluggy, was a Mohawk, and his followers, called Mingoes, were horse thieves and murderers. Wilson learned that a band of these rascals had already been on a raid into Kentucky and had taken some prisoners. Pluggy's warriors formed a plot to seize Wilson and Nicholson and carry them to the British fort at Detroit. This was revealed by Cornstalk, who advised the white men to flee to the Delaware town of Coshocton. They were able to escape by night and placed themselves under the protection of old King Newcomer. That venerable sachem, believing it to be unsafe for Wilson to proceed to Sandusky, lest the Mingoes should waylay the trail, sent Killbuck, a noted war captain, to bear the American message to the Wyandot chiefs. In eleven days Killbuck returned, with word fro m the Wyandots that they wished to see Wilson himself, as an evidence of his good intentions, but that they could not give an answer to his invitation until they had consulted their great council beyond the lake. The chief seat of the Wyandot nation was in Canada, near Detroit, and the portion of the tribe dwelling south of Lake Erie was under the rule of a deputy chief, Dunquat, called the Half-King. Wilson then determined to go to Sandusky and the Delaware council appointed Killbuck and two young warriors to escort him. The journey had barely begun when Killbuck fell ill and his place was taken by the celebrated White Eyes. Nicholson was no longer of the party, having gone to Pittsburg to carry a message to Morgan; but at a Delaware town on the Walhonding, Wilson was joined by John Montour, grandson of the famous Catherine Montour or Queen Esther. John was an Iroquois with an admixture of French blood, spoke well, was master of several Indian languages and served Wilson faithfully.7 P. 22 Before reaching Sandusky Wilson learned that the chief there had gone to the Detroit council, and he thereupon made up his mind to venture into the immediate neighborhood of the British post, in order that he might deliver his message to the chiefs of the Wyandot nation. It was the decision of a bold man. He found the Wyandots assembled on the eastern side of the Detroit river, on the site of Windsor. By most of the chiefs he was received with apparent friendliness, and on September 2 addressed them in council, presenting his peace belt and message from Morgan, and invited them to attend at Pittsburg in 25 days from that time. The delays to which he had been subjected had forced him to postpone the date for the intended treaty. Wilson's speech was supplemented by one from White Eyes. The Wyandots, in their reply, avowed their desire for peace, but did not commit themselves on the invitation. They promised a more definite answer in two days. On the next morning the Wyandots betrayed Wilson's presence to the British lieutenant-governor in Detroit, Col Henry Hamilton. They returned the belt to Wilson and advised him to explain his errand to the British commander. Wilson, White Eyes and Montour were compelled to go with the Wyandot chiefs to the great council house in Detroit, where they found themselves in the presence of Colonel Hamilton and an imposing assemblage of Indian sachems. Wilson frankly announced his purpose in coming to Detroit, and, in the presence of the lieutenant-governor, again presented the peace wampum and the written message to the Wyandot chief sachem. That personage passed the articles to Colonel Hamilton. The British commander thus addressed the Indians: "those people from whom you receive this message are enemies and traitors to my king, and before I would take one of them by the hand I would suffer my right hand to be cut off. When the great king is pleased to make peace with his rebellious children in this big island, I will then give my assistance in making peace between them and the Indians, and not before." P. 23 Hamilton thereupon tore the speech, cut the belt into pieces and scattered the fragments about the council house. He then harangued the Wyandots on a tomahawk or war belt, but as he spoke to the interpreter in French, Wilson did not understand. Hamilton chided Montour for aiding the Americans and unsparingly denounced White Eyes, whom he ordered to leave Detroit within twenty-four hours, as he valued his life. Hamilton, notwithstanding his anger, respected Wilson's character as an ambassador and gave him safe conduct through the Indian country. The trader returned to Ft. Pitt much discouraged by the outlook and reported to Morgan that many Wyandots were likely to go upon the warpath in a few weeks. The Mingoes or Ohio Iroquois were already committed to hostilities.8 In spite of Hamilton's opposition, Indians of four tribes did attend a council with the "rebels" at Ft. Pitt in the latter part of October. The Delawares were represented by all their ruling chiefs, the Wyandots by the Half-King, the Shawnees by the great Cornstalk and a few companions, and the distinct Ottawas by one sachem. Costly presents were given by the commissioners, and effusive peace speeches were made by the savages; but only the Delawares were sincere. The commissioners were persuaded that an Indian war had been averted, but they were deceived. At the conclusion of the treaty, George Morgan wrote to the president of the Congress, "The cloud which threatened to break over this part of the country appears now to be entirely dissipated."9 While the council was being held, Indian bands were raiding the Ohio river frontier, and early in the following year all the tribes represented at the treaty, except the Delaware's, were on the warpath.
CHAPTER IV P. 24 The first depredations, in the fall of 1776, were along the eastern shore of the Ohio river, between Yellow creek and the Big Kanawha, by small parties of Mingoes from Pluggystown. It was in 1777 that the frontier war really began, with fury, on the part of the Indian tribes in general. The first outrage on the frontier of Westmoreland was the capture of Andrew McFarlane, at the outpost of Kittanning. McFarlane, who was of Scotch descent, came from the County Tyrone, in Ireland, to Philadelphia, soon after the close of the French and Indian war, and made his way to Pittsburg. There he was employed in the Indian trade and was joined by his brother James. When the territorial dispute with Virginia became acute, in January, 1774, Andrew McFarlane was one of the additional justices of the peace appointed by Governor Penn, and he was vigorous in his efforts to uphold the Pennsylvania authority in the neighborhood of Pittsburg.1 In April, 1774, Captain Connolly, with his Virginia militia, interrupted the sessions of the Pennsylvania court at Hannastown and arrested the three Pennsylvania justices who lived in Pittsburg. These were Andrew McFarlane, Devereux Smith and Captain Aeneas Mackay. They were taken as prisoners to Staunton, Va., and there detained four weeks, until released by the order of Governor Dunmore.2 P. 25 On the evening of his arrest in Pittsburg, McFarlane managed to send a letter to Governor Penn, in which he said: "I am taken at a great inconvenience, as my business is suffering much on account of my absence, but I am willing to suffer a great deal more rather than bring a disgrace upon the commission which I bear under your honor." One result of his arrest indicates that McFarlane did not really suffer much during his captivity at Staunton. In that town the young trader formed the acquaintance of Margaret Lynn Lewis, the daughter of William Lewis, one of five brothers famous in the military history of Virginia. It must have been a case of love on sight, for Andrew McFarlane and Miss Lewis were married that summer and she went with her husband to his log home at the frontier post at the forks of the Ohio. To escape from the exactions and persecutions of the Virginia militia officers, Andrew and his brother removed their store, in the autumn of 1774, from Fort Pitt to Kittanning, on the Allegheny, the extreme limit of white settlement toward the north. At that time probably not more than half a dozen huts existed there. Joseph Speer, another Pennsylvania trader, established a branch store at Kittanning, and the two houses soon built up a vigorous fur trade with the Indians on the tributaries of the upper Allegheny. When the Revolution came the McFarlanes were prospering. In July, 1776, when it began to appear probable that the Iroquois were going to war, the continental congress ordered the raising of a Western Pennsylvania regiment, consisting of seven companies from Westmoreland and one company from Bedford, to build and garrison forts at Kittanning, Le Boeuf and Erie, to protect that region from British and Iroquois attacks by way of Lake Erie. This battalion of frontier riflemen was raised rapidly, largely out of the ranks of the associators, and the following officers were appointed to its command: Colonel, Aeneas Mackay; lieutenant colonel, George Wilson; major, Richard Butler.3 After its formation went into camp at Kittanning and was there preparing for an advance up the Allegheny, to build the two other forts, when a call was received for it march eastward, across the State of Pennsylvania, to join the hard-pressed army of General Washington on or near the Delaware. P. 26 This call raised a storm of protest on the frontier but it was not to be disobeyed, and early in January, 1777, Colonel Mackay's regiment, afterward known as the gallant Eighth Pennsylvania, set out on its long and disastrous march across the mountains. At that time many persons, not well informed, thought the frontier was not in danger, but this was not the belief of Andrew McFarlane and his neighbors living at the exposed settlement at Kittanning. Immediately after the departure of Colonel Mackay's regiment, Magistrate McFarlane wrote to the commissioners of Westmoreland county, begging that a company of armed men be sent to Kittanning. He feared that the Iroquois would attack the little settlement. His neighbors were uneasy and he said that he remained only to keep them from running away.4 It seems, however, that most of the other settlers at Kittanning did run away during the winter, for in February, when McFarlane was taken, the only other men at the place were two servants in charge of Joseph Speer's store. It appears that no soldiers were at once available to occupy Kittanning and guard the stores left there by Colonel Mackay. In this emergency Samuel Moorhead, who lived at Black Lick creek, north of the Kisiminetas, began the formation of a company of volunteer rangers for frontier protection. He chose McFarlane as his lieutenant and these two men were at work during the winter trying to embody the scattered settlers into a small company. P. 27 The story of McFarlane's capture is preserved in two forms. One is gathered from letters written at the time, while the other is a tradition handed down in the Lewis family of Virginia. These two accounts illustrate the frailty of tradition as a source of historical narrative. No tale transmitted by word of mouth for two or three generations is to be relied upon unless corroborated by contemporary documents, though the tradition often forms the more interesting story. The Lewis story is now preserved in a history of Lynchburg, Va., and runs thus: "When Margaret Lynn Lewis married Mr. McFarlane, of Pittsburg, and left the parental roof, she traveled through a wilderness infested with hostile Indians till she reached that place, where they did not consider themselves safe, constantly expecting attacks from Indians. Once, when they least apprehended danger, a warwhoop was heard, her husband taken prisoner, the tomahawk raised and she averted her eyes to avoid witnessing the fatal stroke. The river was between them, and she, with her infant and maid servant, of course, endeavored to fly, knowing the inevitable consequences of delay. After starting the servant reminded Mrs. McFarlane of her husband's money and valuable papers, but she desired the girl not to mention anything of that sort at such a moment; but, regardless of the commands of her mistress, the servant returned to the dwelling, bringing all of the money and as many of the papers as she could hold in her apron, overtaking, in a short time, her mistress, as the snow was three feet deep. On looking back she saw the house in flames, and pursuing their journey, they, with incredible fatigue, reached the house of Colonel Crawford, a distance of fourteen miles. "Through the space of three years the brave heart of this remarkable woman was buoyed up with the firm hope and belief that she should again behold her beloved husband alive, and at length she received intelligence that he had been carried captive to Quebec, where he had encountered incredible hardships; but the chiefs had agreed that for a heavy ransom he might be restored to his friends. Of course, this ransom was paid with the greatest alacrity, his brother going on and returning with Mr. McFarlane to Staunton. In a short time the husband and wife returned to their desolated home at Pittsburg, where they literally found nothing left, the Indians having destroyed house, stock and everything pertaining to their establishment. They rebuilt dwelling in the same spot and for many years they happily and peacefully resided there, leaving a large family, all respectably settled about Pittsburg, with the exception of two sons, who engaged in the fur trade."5 P28 The contemporary account of this event is found in letters from the frontier, written to the officers of the Pennsylvania government at Philadelphia and made public in recent years. The British authorities, in Canada, who were preparing to send rangers and Indians against the western Pennsylvania border, wished to get a reliable account of the situation in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt and decided to send down a small party to take a prisoner and carry him to Canada, that he might be examined. Two British subalterns, two Chippewas and two Iroquois were sent out by the commandment at Fort Niagara, to descend the Allegheny. At the Delaware town not far from the site of the present Franklin the white men were exhausted and stopped to rest, but the four Indians continued their journey down the west bank of the river. On February 14, 1777, they arrived opposite the little settlement of Kittanning. Standing on the shore, they shouted over, calling for a canoe. Thinking that the Indians might have come to trade or to bring important news, McFarlane decided to venture across. The instant he stepped from his boat he was seized by the savages and told that he was a prisoner. His capture was undoubtedly seen by his wife and by two other men at the settlement, but it is not likely that a tomahawk was brandished over his head. The Indians had orders from the officer who sent them to treat their captive kindly and to return with him as quickly as possible to Niagara. To that point McFarlane was hurried, through the deep snow, and there he was subjected to the most rigid examination concerning the condition of the frontier defenses. He was then taken to Quebec. His capture caused great alarm on the border and stimulated the frontiersmen to the enrolling of the militia. Captain Moorhead hurried with his recruits to Kittanning and took charge of the houses and stores there, and all along the border preparations were made to repel the expected attacks of the savages, which came quickly with the opening of spring. P. 29 It is probable that Mrs. McFarlane did flee from Kittanning after the capture of her husband, for there was every reason to expect an Indian attack; but the place where she took refuge could not have been the house of Colonel Crawford. That gentleman lived at New Haven, on the Youghiogheny river, nearly sixty miles away, in a straight line. At the time of the capture Crawford was in Maryland, on a journey to Philadelphia. Fourteen miles would have taken the fugitives to a little settlement of two or three huts at the mouth of the Kiskimetas river, but the nearest place of real refuge was Carnaghan's blockhouse, not less than 20 miles south of Kittanning. The Lewis tradition knows nothing of Kittanning but locates the event in the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg. At the time of Andrew's capture his brother James was a lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania, under General Washington. It was through his efforts that Andrew was exchanged, in t he fall of 1780. The released man rejoined his wife and child at Staunton, and they soon afterward returned to the vicinity of Pittsburg. Kittanning was now deserted and exposed to frequent Indian raids, and Andrew McFarlane opened a store on Chartiers's creek, within the present limits of Scott township, where he lived for many years. During the later years of the Revolution he was a commissioner of purchases for the continental troops serving on the border. P. 30 His eldest son, Andrew, doubtless the infant whom Mrs. McFarlane carried in her arms when she fled from Kittanning, became one of the pioneer settlers on the Shenango, near the present New Castle, Pa., and his descendants are numerous in Lawrence county.
CHAPTER V P. 31 When the Indian outbreak began, in the spring of 1777, the borderers found themselves in a desperate situation, because of the lack of powder. In those days, the few gunpowder factories in the colonies were all near the seaboard, and the supply for the settlers in Western Pennsylvania was carried by pack horses, in small quantities, over the mountains. It commanded a high price at Ft. Pitt, and was usually paid for with furs. Indian hostilities closed the fur trade, and made it impossible for the traders to buy powder, save on credit. This, however, was not the chief reason for the shortage. The Revolution caused a demand in the East for more powder than the factories could produce, and none could be spared for the country beyond the mountains. To be sure, each settler kept a small stock for his own use in hunting, but in all the region around Fort Pitt there was no supply to meet the emergency of an Indian war. The savages began to break in at many places, striking the isolated cabins, burning, murdering and pillaging. The best method of defending the scattered settlements was to organize companies of rangers, to patrol the course of the Allegheny and Ohio, and to pursue the bands of Indian marauders. Several such companies were formed, but without gunpowder they could render little service. For a few weeks the frontier was almost helpless, but at the very verge of the crisis it was relieved by a daring exploit accomplished by a band of hardy pioneers, led by Captain George Gibson and Lieutenant William Linn. These bold adventurers descended the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, bought powder from the Spanish government, and successfully returned with it to Fort Pitt. This achievement has received little attention from the historians of the frontier days. P. 32 George Gibson was the son of a Lancaster tavern keeper. He had been engaged in the fur trade with his brother John at Pittsburg. In his youth he had made several voyages at sea, and he had traveled much in the Indian country. William Linn was a Marylander, who had served with Braddock as a scout and afterward settled on the Monongahela river, on the site of Fayette City. He was a farmer and a skillful hunter. He served in the Dunmore war under Major Angus McDonald and was wounded in the shoulder in a fight with the Shawnees at Wapatomika. These men were of sterling stock. A son of George Gibson became chief justice Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and a grandson of William Linn became United States senator of Missouri.1 At the very beginning of the Revolution Gibson and Linn raised a company of young men about Pittsburg and along the Monongahela valley and entered the service of Virginia. The company marched to the Virginia seaboard, and its members so distinguished themselves for fierce valor in two conflicts with the British and tories under Dunmore that they were called "Gibson's Lambs." They were soon sent back to the Monongahela valley, for frontier defense, and the alert and vigorous government of Virginia commissioned Gibson and Linn to undertake the hazardous journey to New Orleans. Fifteen of Gibson's lambs--the hardiest and the bravest--were selected to accompany the two officers. Flatboats were built at Pittsburg and the voyagers set forth on Friday, July 19, 1776. They had barely time, before their departure, to learn of the declaration of Independence. P. 33 At that time a voyage down the Ohio was extremely dangerous. The lower river was closely watched by savages. Shawnees, Miamies and Wabash Indians were already at war with the Kentucky settlements. If information of the enterprise should reach the British officers at the western posts, special endeavors would be made to intercept and destroy or capture the adventurers. The Lambs left behind them all evidences that they were soldiers. They retained their rifles, tomahawks and knives, but they were clad coarsely as boatmen or traders. Even at Pittsburg the nature of their errand was kept secret, for that frontier post was beset by tory spies. It was given out that the party was going down the river on a trading venture. Gibson's band was both vigilant and fortunate. It passed several parties of refugees, fleeing to Fort Pitt from the Indiana ravages in Kentucky. Bands of savages were all along the river, yet Gibson's barges passed unscathed. At Limestone (now Maysville, Ky.), Lieutenant Linn and Sergeant Lawrence Harrison took to the shore, and made an overland journey through Kentucky to the falls of the Ohio (now Louisville), where the barges waited for them. Both were desirous of spying out good land, and Linn afterward became a Kentucky settler. In the Kentucky woods they met John Smith, a friend, who had been hunting land, but was ten on his homeward journey toward Peter's creek, on the Monongahela. Him they persuaded to accompany the expedition. The entire river voyage was made in safety, the British post at Natchez was passed in the night, and the powder hunters arrived at New Orleans in about five weeks. Louisiana was then a Spanish province, under the government of don Louis de Unzaga. Captain Gibson bore letters of commendation and credit to Oliver Pollock and other American merchants living in New Orleans. Pollock, a Philadelphian of wealth, had great influence with the Spanish authorities, and through him the negotiations for the gunpowder were conducted. Spain was at peace with Great Britain but was ready to give secret aid to the Americans for the mere sake of weakening her traditional British enemy. P. 34 English agents in New Orleans discovered the arrival of Gibson's party, and, suspecting that tier errand was to obtain munitions of war, complained to the Spanish officers that rebels against the British government were in the city. Captain Gibson was therefore arrested and lodged in a Spanish prison, where he was treated with the greatest consideration. While he was locked up Oliver Pollock secured the powder and secreted it in his warehouse. The purchase amounted to 12,000 pounds, at a cost of $1,800. The powder was divided into two portions. Three thousand pounds of it was packed in boxes, marked falsely as merchandise of various kinds, and quietly conveyed to a sailing vessel bound by way of the gulf and ocean to Philadelphia. On the night when this ship sailed Captain Gibson "escaped" from his prison, got on board the vessel and accompanied the precious powder safely to its destination. The greater portion of the gunpowder, 9,000 pounds, being intended for the western frontier, was turned over to the care of Lieutenant Linn. It was in half casks, each containing about sixty pounds. These casks were muggled by night to the barges, tied up in a secluded place in the river above the city. Lieutenant Linn hired more than a score of extra boatmen, most of them Americans, and on September 22, 1776, the little flotilla got away without discovery, and began its journey up the Mississippi. The ascent of the rivers was slow and toilsome, occupying more than seven months. At the falls of the Ohio it was necessary to unload the cargoes and to carry the heavy casks to the head of the rapids. The barges were dragged up with heavy ropes and reladen. Several times ice forced the expedition to tie up, and many hardships were endured before the return of the spring weather. On May 2, 1777, Lieutenant Linn arrived at the little settlement of wheeling, where Fort Henry had been erected. There he turned over his precious cargo to David Shepherd, county lieutenant of the newly erected Ohio county, Virginia.2 P. 35 On the arrival of Gibson at Philadelphia, he communicated to the Virginia authorities the information that Linn was returning with his cargo by river. Orders were at once sent to Fort Pitt for the raising of a body of 100 militia to descend the Ohio and meet the expedition. The Ohio was considered the most dangerous part of the journey, and it was feared that Linn might be set upon and overwhelmed by savages. The officers directed to raise the relief force were so tardy in their work, that they were hardly yet ready to start when Linn's arrival at Wheeling was announced. Long as the journey was, it had been made by Linn more quickly than had been reckoned on by the frontier officers. Lieutenant Linn's responsibility ended at Wheeling. County Lieutenant Shepherd there took charge of the powder and conveyed it, under heavy guard, to Fort Pitt, where it was given into the care of Colonel William Crawford, of the Thirteenth Virginia, and was stored in the brick-vaulted magazine of the fort. Is safe arrival was the subject of general rejoicing, and nothing was too good for Lieutenant Linn and his fearless Lambs. The action of Virginia in this affair was liberal and patriotic. The powder had been paid for by her government and procured by her soldiers, but it was not held for her exclusive use. The receipt for it, given by Colonel Crawford, states that it was "for the use of the continent." Portions of it were distributed to the frontier rangers in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt and to the two regiments being mustered in Southwestern Pennsylvania for the continental service. It was from this stock that Colonel George Rogers Clark drew his supply, in the spring of 1778, for his famous and successful expedition to the Illinois country. P. 36 George Gibson was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Virginia service and William Linn was made a captain, in command of the gallant Lambs. To each officer the Virginia Legislature made a grant of money in addition to the regular pay. Both of these men did other gallant service during the Revolution, and both were killed by Indians. Linn made a settlement about ten miles from Louisville. On March 5, 1781, while riding alone on his way to attend court at Louisville, he was surprised by a small party of Indians in the forest. Next day his mutilated body was found near the road, with his horse standing guard over it. Lieutenant Colonel Gibson was mortally wounded at St. Clair's defeat, in Northwestern Ohio, November 4, 1791, and died a few days afterward, during the retreat to the Ohio river.3
CHAPTER VI P. 37 It was apparent to General Washington and other patriots that the Indian uprising which the agents of Great Britain were organizing on the frontiers was a part of the general campaign for the subjugation of the rebellious colonies. It seemed proper, under these circumstances, that the continental Congress should take charge of the western defense, and it offered to take Fort Pitt under its care and provide a garrison at the continental expense. The offer was accepted by Virginia, and Captain Neville was directed to transfer the fort to the United States officer appointed to its command. For this important place General Washington selected Brigadier General Edward Hand, whose brave and efficient work in the continental army led the commander to believe that he would do well in an independent command and would be an able defender of the border. Fighting British and Hessians on the seaboard and Indians in the western woods are two quite different things, as General Hand discovered in a short time. Edward hand was not a stranger at Fort Pitt, but during his earlier service there he had no experience in Indian warfare. He was a native of the County of Kings, Ireland, and was educated to be a physician. At the age of 23 he obtained the place of assistant surgeon in the Eighteenth Regiment of Foot, known as the Royal Irish, and in the spring of 1767, he accompanied the regiment to America. P. 38 He was stationed for a time in the Illinois country and afterward at Fort Pitt. In 1774 he resigned his commission and took up the practice of medicine at Lancaster, Pa. Soon after Lexington and Concord he interested himself in the raising of troops and was commissioned lieutenant colonel of Thompson's celebrated battalion of Pennsylvania riflemen, afterward the First Regiment of the Pennsylvania line. In March, 1776, Hand succeeded as colonel and under his command the regiment did gallant work in the battles of Long Island, Trenton and Princeton. On April 1, 1777, Hand was rewarded for his really exceptional services by promotion to the rank of brigadier general, and soon thereafter General Washington further displayed his appreciation and confidence by assigning General Hand, then 33 years old, to the Pittsburg post, to defend the western border. It was on Sunday, June 1, 1777, that General Hand arrived at Fort Pitt and took over the property from Captain Neville. He led no force across the mountains. He was accompanied only by a few officers. His garrison consisted of but two companies of the Thirteenth Virginia, raised in and near Pittsburg and rather hard to manage. The larger part of this regiment was with Washington in New Jersey. Hand carried authority to call upon the militia officers of the frontier counties of Pennsylvania and Virginia for assistance in whatever undertaking he might plan, but he found this assistance very unreliable. In the eat, Hand had been engaged in a system of warfare where it was never difficult to find the enemy, in large bodies, ready to stand up and fight. There the Americans did most of the dodging. On the frontier the conditions were reversed. The enemy could not be found and yet seemed to be ever present. In small bands, often containing only three or four warriors, the savages entered the settlements at isolated places, struck quick but terrible blows, and then by night fled away into the forest. Where they had been was shown by dead bodies and ashes, but they left no trail that white men could discover. What could either regular troops or militia do with such a foe? To General Hand the conditions were perplexing. P. 39 Many murders had been committed before hand's arrival, but they became more numerous in the mid-summer and autumn.1 Colonel Hamilton, at Detroit, began, about June 1, to equip and send out war parties to attack the settlements of Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Toward the end of July he reported to his superior at Quebec that he had sent out 15 parties, consisting of 30 white men and 289 Indian, and average of only 21 in each band.2 These Indians were chiefly Wyandots and Miamis from Northwestern Ohio and Shawnees from Southern Ohio. At the same time parties of Senecas invaded the Pennsylvania settlements from Western New York. Beside the bodies of many of the victims of these raids were found the proclamations by Hamilton, offering protection and reward to all settlers who would make their way to any of the British posts and join the cause of the King. General hand had not studied the situation long when he made up his mind that there was but one way to fight the Indians; that was to invade their country and destroy their towns and provisions. The Ohio tribes were not nomadic. They had permanent villages of rude huts and grew great crops of corn, beans and pumpkins. These products were stored in large cabins or in earth silos. The hardest blow to the savages was to burn their cornfields or to destroy their garnered stores. Left without food for the winter, they were driven to the chase for subsistence, and found no time for the warpath. Hand decided to gather a large force of militiamen, to descend the Ohio river as far as the mouth of the big Kanawha and to march thence overland against the Shawnee towns on the Scioto. Letters were sent to the militia commanders of Westmoreland and Bedford counties, in Pennsylvania, and of all the frontier counties of Virginia, from the Monongahela to the Kanawha, asking them to muster their men for the expedition. Hand appealed to the revolutionary governments of both states, and they directed their officers to respond to the calls. The project was even formally endorsed by the Continental congress. In spite of all these efforts, the expedition was a failure. P. 40 Hand expected 500 men from Westmoreland and Bedford, who were to assemble at Pittsburg, and 1,500 from Western Virginia, who were to gather at two points, Fort henry, at Wheeling, and Fort Randolph, at the mouth of the Big Kanawha.3 His expectations were unreasonable. He did not take into account the drained and distressed condition of the border. The hardiest and most adventurous young men of this region had gone away to the East to fight the British. Most of those who remained in the scattered settlements felt that they were needed at home, to protect their families, exposed daily to the raids of savage warriors. The Indians were penetrating to the Ligonier Valley, and even occasional outrages were perpetrated as far east as Bedford. It seems that no men were furnished by Bedford county, and Colonel Lochry,4of Westmoreland, raised only 100, who marched to Fort Pitt. On October 19, 1777, General Hand left Fort Pitt and went down the river to Wheeling. There he remained about a week, waiting in vain for the assembling of a considerable body of Virginians. Only a few poorly equipped squads appeared. Hand then gave up the project and returned in disgust to Fort Pitt. The largest body of volunteers rallied at Fort Randolph, where it waited for two or three weeks without hearing a word from hand, and then dispersed.5 P. 41 During October and November, while Hand was trying to form his army for the invasion of the Indian country, many raids were made in Westmoreland county. Near Palmer's Fort, in the lower end of the Ligonier Vallley, 11 men were killed and scalped, and a few days later four children were killed within sight of the fort. Three men were killed and a woman was captured within a few miles of Ligonier. A band of Indians, led by a Canadian, made a fierce attack on Fort Wallace, a stockade about a mile south of Blairsville, but the white leader was killed and the assailants were repulsed. The marauders were pursued by a party of rangers, led by the celebrated Captain James Smith, who overtook the savages near Kittanning, killed five of them and triumphantly returned to the settlements with the five Indian scalps. The snow put an end to the inroads, as the Indians would not expose themselves to the certainty of being trailed in the snow.6 About Christmas General Hand learned that a British expedition, by lake from Detroit, had built a magazine at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river (within the present Cleveland) and had stored there arms, ammunition, clothing and provisions, to be used by the Indians on the opening of spring. He saw another chance to do something for the frontier, and prepared to lead an expedition for the destruction of this magazine. He sent out calls for "brave, active lads" to assemble at Fort Pitt. He required that each man be mounted and provided with food for a short campaign. He promised to furnish ammunition and a few arms. As an incentive for enlistment, the general announced that all the plunder would be sold, and the cash proceeds divided among the members of the force. It was not until February 15 that about 500 horsemen were at Pittsburg ready for the adventure. A considerable body of them was from the Youghiogheny, under the command of Colonel William Crawford. This was a formidable force and general Hand was sanguine that at last he should accomplish something.7 P. 42 The expedition followed the old Indian trail which descended the Ohio to the Beaver and then ascended that stream and the Mahoning toward the Cuyahoga. Snow covered the ground when Hand started, but rain soon began to fall, and continued for several days, making travel exceedingly difficult. By the time the Mahoning was reached that stream had become excessively swollen and the crossing of its tributaries became more and more difficult. In some places the level valleys were covered with water for wide stretches. The horsemen began to grumble, and hand was just about to give up the expedition when the foot prints of Indians were discovered on some high ground. The tracks were followed until the Americans discovered a small village of huts in a grove. This was a village of the Wolf clan of the Delawares. A sudden attack was made, but the place contained only one old man, some squaws and children. The warriors were away on a hunt. The startled savages scattered in every direction through the woods, and all escaped aped except three. The old man and one of the women were shot down and another woman was captured. Some of the borderers tried to kill her, but she was saved by Hand and his officers. This affair took place about where Edinburgh is, in Lawrence county. The Indian woman told her captors that ten Wolf or Muncy Indians were making salt at a lick ten miles farther up the Mahoning. Hand sent a strong detachment to take these savages, while he went into camp, under most uncomfortable circumstances, at the Indian village. The reported Wolves turned out to be four squaws and a boy. The borderers fell upon them as fiercely as if they were Indian warriors, and killed three of the squaws and the boy. The other squaw was taken prisoner. Some defense must have been made here by the Indians, as one of Hand's men was wounded. Another man was drowned during the expedition. It was no longer possible, on account of the weather, to continue the campaign, and General Hand led his dispirited and hungry men back to Fort Pitt. His trophies were two Indian women. His formidable force had slain one old man, four women and a boy. On his arrival at Fort Pitt his work was generally derided by the frontiersmen and his expedition was dubbed the Squaw Campaign.8 P. 43 This finished Hand as the defender of the frontier. He at once wrote to General Washington a request to be relieved of his command, his request was laid before Congress, and that body, on May 2, 1778, voted his recall.9 He could not fight Indians, but he attained distinction in other directions. He became adjutant general of the army of the United States before the close of the Revolution, was a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, and in 1798, when war was expected with France, he was made a major general in the Provisional Army. He died at Lancaster September 3, 1802.
CHAPTER VII P. 44 The one event in the Revolutionary history of the border which had the most calamitous results was the flight of the tories from Fort Pitt in the spring of 1778. From the beginning of the struggle for liberty many partisans of King George were to be found on the frontier. Some of these were men who had been in the British service, most of them members of the Church of England. Others were animated by that natural reverence which many men feel for their sovereign. Many were adventurous and ambitious spirits seduced by the British promises of reward. There were some who did not believe that the Revolution would succeed, and others grew dissatisfied with the perils and the hard circumstances of frontier life in a time of war. A few were simply scoundrels, desiring turmoil and plunder. A failure of General Hand two expeditions had much to do with the dissatisfaction with the American cause which developed on the border in the spring of 1778. During the winter the British had been in possession of Philadelphia, the American Congress had been driven to York, and Washington's army was reduced to a half-naked and half-starved remnant at Valley Forge. The cause of liberty languished, and there were many defections. Governor Hamilton, at Detroit, sent many agents, red and white, to penetrate the border settlements, to circulate offers of pardon and reward and to organize the tories. In February and March, 1778, a daring and shrewd British spy visited Pittsburg and carried on his plotting almost under the nose of general Hand. A British flag was set up, for a short time, in the King's Orchard, which bordered the Allegheny river within gunshot of the fort, and there meetings were held by the disaffected among the soldiers of the garrison. Most of the tory gatherings in this neighborhood were at the house of Alexander McKee, at what is now called McKees rocks. Another place of assembly was at Redstone, where a British flag flew during all of that winter.1 P. 45 The tory leader at Pittsburg was Captain Alexander McKee, a man of education and wide influence on the border. He had been an Indian trader, and for 12 years prior to the revolution had been the King's deputy agent for Indian affairs at Fort Pitt. For a short time he had been one of the justices of the peace for Westmoreland county. He was intimately acquainted with most of the Indian chiefs and even had an Indian family in the Shawnee nation.2 In 1764 he received a grant of 1,400 acres of land from Colonel Bouquet, at the mouth of Chartiers creek, and he divided his time between his house in Pittsburg and his farm at McKees Rocks. In the spring of 1776 McKee was found to be in correspondence with British officers in Canada, and he was put on hid parole not to give aid or comfort to the enemies of American liberty, and not to leave the vicinity of Pittsburg without the consent of the revolutionary committee. In February, 1778, General Hand had reason to suspect that McKee had resumed or was continuing his correspondence with the British authorities and was organizing disaffection, and he ordered the Captain to go to York, Pa., and report himself to the Continental Congress. For a short time McKee avoided compliance with this order on the plea of sickness, but not being able to shirk obedience permanently, he decided to escape to Detroit and openly ally himself with the British cause.3 P. 46 About a year before this a young trader of the name of Matthew Elliott, who understood the Shawnee language, had been employed by the Americans to carry messages from Fort Pitt to the Shawnees and other Indian tribes to the westward, in the interest of peace. He had been made captive by hostile savages and carried to Detroit, where, after a short imprisonment, he had been released on parole. He returned to Pittsburg by way of Quebec, New York and Philadelphia, all then in British possession. He had been impressed by the show of British power in the East, in contrast with the miserable condition of the American forces. He became convinced that the Revolution would be a failure, and, on his return to Pittsburg, got into communication with McKee and others of the tory party. Elliott is suspected of having poured into the ears of McKee a tale that he was to be waylaid and killed on his journey to York. It is certain that McKee heard such a story and believed it, and that it decided him in his plan to escape from Fort Pitt4 to the West. The flight of the tories took place from Alexander McKee's house during the night of Saturday, March 28, 1778. A hint of McKee's intention was given to General Hand early in the evening, and he ordered a squad of soldiers to go to McKee's house Sunday morning and remove the suspected man to the fort. The soldiers were too late. The members of the little party which fled into the Indian land in that rough season of the year were Captain McKee, his cousin Robert Surphlit, Simon Girty, Matthew Elliott, a man of the name of Higgins, and two negro slaves belonging to McKee.5 Simon Girty was a Pennsylvania, who had been captured by the Indians when 11 years old, kept in captivity for three years by the Senecas, and afterward employed at Fort Pitt as an interpreter and messenger. Until within a few weeks of the time of his flight he had been a faithful servitor of the American interests, and had participated earnestly in the Squaw Campaign under General Hand. In the absence of positive knowledge of the reason for his desertion, it must be presumed that he was tempted by Mckee with promises of preferment in the British service. P. 47 The seven renegades made their way through the woods, which they knew well, to the chief town of the Delawares, Coshocton, where they tarried several days and endeavored to arouse that tribe to rise against the colonists. Their efforts were thwarted by White Eyes. That remarkable savage had, during the winter of 1776-7, been elected chief sachem of the Delaware nation in the place of old Newcomer, who had died in Pittsburg. White Eyes had declared his friendship for the "buckskins," as he called the Americans, and he proved his sincerity with his life. A great debate took place in the Coshocton council, Captain Pipe, an influential chief, haranguing the savages in advocacy of war, and White Eyes pleading the cause of peace. The oratory and character of White Eyes prevailed, and the tories departed to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto. There they were welcomed. Many of the Shawnees were already on the warpath and all were eager to hear the speeches of their friend McKee. James Girty, a brother of Simon, was then with the Shawnee tribe, having been sent from Fort Pitt by the American authorities on a futile peace embassy. He had been raised among the Shawnees, was a natural savage and at once joined his brother and the other tories.6 Governor Hamilton heard of the escape of McKee and companions from Fort Pitt and sent Edward Hazle to the Scioto to conduct the renegades safely through the several Indian tribes to Detroit.7 Hamilton received them cordially and gave them commissions in the British service. For 16 years McKee, Elliott and the Girtys were the merciless scourgers of the border. They were the instigators and leaders of many Indian raids and their intimate knowledge of the frontier rendered their operations especially effective. Long after the close of the Revolution they continued their deadly enmity to the American cause and were largely responsible for the general Indian war of 1790-94. P. 48 McKee and his associates left behind them a band of tories organized among the members of the Thirteenth Virginia, of which a detachment was stationed in Fort Pitt. These rascals had formed a plot to blow up the fort and escape in boats by night. In some way this scheme was frustrated at the last moment, probably by the confession of one of the conspirators, and the explosion was prevented. Sergeant Alexander Ballantine and about a score of the traitors were able to get away in one of the large boats belonging to the post, and in the night of April 20 fled down the Ohio river. On the following day they were pursued by a large party of their comrades and were overtaken near the mouth of the Muskingum. Eight of the runaways escaped to shore and were lost in the trackless woods, some were killed in conflict on the spot and others were returned as prisoners to Fort Pitt. They were tried by a court-martial, of which Colonel William Crawford was president. The leaders were found to be Sergeant Ballantine, William Bentley and Eliezer Davis. Two of these were shot and the other was hanged. Two other men were publicly whipped on the fort parade ground, each receiving 100 lashes on the bare back.8 The punishment of these men was almost the last act performed by General Hand before his departure for the East. For a time it put an end to the machinations of the tories at Pittsburg, but it marked the beginning of the most cruel and disastrous warfare since the uprising of the tribes under Pontiac in 1763.
CHAPTER VIII P. 49 One of the melancholy tragedies of the revolutionary frontier is connected with the effort of a band of tories to escape from Bedford county and join the British and Indians on the Allegheny river. While the tory plotting, which led to the flight of McKee, Girty and associates, was going on at Port Pitt, during the winter of 1777-78, British agents were busy at many places on the western border seeking to corrupt the frontier settlers. During that winter these agents, from Niagara and Detroit, visited the lonely settlements of Bedford and Westmoreland counties, insinuating sentiments of discontent into the minds of the border farmers, assuring them that the American cause was sure to fail, and making glittering promises of reward for those who should join the cause of the King. One of these agents, who spent the winter months in the valleys of the Allegheny Mountains, in what is now Blair county, but was then a part of Bedford, was successful in deluding a considerable band of ignorant frontiersmen by the most despicable methods. The villain did not confine himself to the promises authorized by the British authorities, as endorsed by Governor Hamilton, of Detroit. These promises were that any many who deserted the American cause and joined the British should have 200 acres of land, on the conclusion of peace, and that any officer of the American forces should receive a corresponding commission under the King. The rascal 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 P. 50 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 children, and to seize 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 wanting on the border, either at the 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, except to those few persons who lived in the immediate neighborhood. 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, promising 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 of Fort Pitt, Frankstown and the other settlements, and make all of his partisans weary with the burden of their rich plunder. P. 51 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, although 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 Huntingdon. It was reported that a thousand Indians and tories were about to fall of 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 Sinking 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 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. P. 52 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 Kittanning. On the afternoon of the second day they came within a few miles of their destination, when they encountered 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 savage 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 suddenly as they had appeared they vanished into the undergrowth, 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 feared to go forward; many of them feared to return to their homes. They retired to a sheltered place and held a consultation. Some declared their intention to return to Bedford county, but those who were best able to appreciate the nature of their offense apprehended arrest and announced that they would seek safety elsewhere.2 P. 53 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 frontiersmen, 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 imprisonment 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.
CHAPTER IX P. 54 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, Governor Patrick Henry chose Captain David Rodgers, of Redstone. This gentleman was a native of 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 Pennsylvania. 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. P. 55 When he received his orders from Governor Henry, in the spring of 1778, to bring the powder from New Orleans, 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 farmers, but not many of them were experienced in military service. Isaac Collie was commissioned lieutenant, Patrick 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 commander at St. Louis, Captain Rodgers considered it necessary 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 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. P. 56 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 hence to St. Louis was made successfully, and the powder was procured. 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 command of Don Francisco de Leyba. The sale by the Spaniards of this powder to the Americans was a violation of international 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 undergrowth. At the mouth of the Licking, the great Indian warpath 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 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 thought that the Indians were on their way to attack some Kentucky settlement. He decided, therefore, to land his party and attempt to surprise and destroy the savages in the woods. P. 57 The flatboats were guided into the mouth of the Licking 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 outnumbered 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 borderers. 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 escape 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 undergrowth and 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 Kentucky. Captain Rodgers received a bullet wound in the abdomen, but managed by the help of John Knotts to get away from the scene of conflict and hide in a dark ravine. Fortunately for the hunted Americans, nightfall soon put an end to the pursuit. The scattered savages called to one another with weird cries, soon assembled, and after plundering 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. P. 58. 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 wilderness. 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 probably 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 hurriedly 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 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. P. 59 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 supplemented 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 Brownsville 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
CHAPTER X P. 60 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 measure be taken to defend the western border. The Command-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 Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh to succeed in the command of Fort Pitt.1 Three weeks later the Eighth Pennsylvania 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 11 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 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. P. 61 While many of the Scots of Georgia adhered to the cause of King and parliament, McIntosh was an enthusiastic American, and at the outburst of the Revolution became 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 rendered 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."3 Such was the man who went, with high expectations, to succeed Hand as he defender of the Pennsylvania frontier. It was at the request of the Board of War that Washington 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 believed that they would be the most effective defenders of the border.4 P. 62 The Eighth Pennsylvania was one of the notable organizations of the Revolution, and well deserves to be remembered 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 Huffnagle, of Hannastown; Chaplain, David McClure; Paymaster, 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 Indians 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.6 The captains were Van Swearingen, Moses Carson, Samuel Miller, James Piggott, Wendel Ourry, David Killgore, Eliezer Myers and Andrew Mann. Of these, Carson was the only one who proved false to his country.7 P. 63 The nucleus of the regiment was the company of riflemen formed by Van Swearingen, in May, 1776, for defense against the Indians. Swearingen was one of the noted characters of the border. With his father and brothers, he moved from Virginia and became a pioneer of the upper Monongahela valley. He was of great stature and fearless spirit. By the time of the Revolution he had acquired on the frontier the name of "Indian Van." One of his brothers was captured by the Indians, and became a chief of the Shawnee nation. Swearingen's company was stationed at Kittanning for two months and then joined the new continental battalion, ordered by congress on July 11, 1776. The purpose of the organization of this battalion or regiment was to garrison the western posts and protect the frontier. It was an easy matter to recruit the borderers for the defense of their own homes, and the very best men of Westmoreland joined the organization. Between August 9 and December 16, 1776, 630 men were enlisted. Mackay's battalion, as it was formed, went into camp at Kittanning, where the men built their own rude cabins for the winter. They had settled down for the cold season, sending out scouting parties up and down the river, when, on December 4, the regiment was surprised by the receipt of an order from the Continental Congress to march to New Jersey and join the army of General Washington. At that time the Commander-in-chief was being driven, by the British, across New Jersey to the Delaware river, Philadelphia was in danger, the Revolution seemed to be at its lowest ebb, great alarm prevailed in the East, and the call for aid went out to all parts of the colonies. The Eighth Pennsylvania, encamped on the Allegheny river, was the most distant command summoned to the support of the patriot cause. P. 64 The order caused much discontent in Mackay's battalion, for officers and men felt it a hardship to be called away from the duty for which they had enlisted, leaving their families unprotected in the face of an impending Indian warfare. The regiment, moreover, was badly provided for a mid-winter march over the mountain ranges. It was without uniforms or tents, and was scantily furnished with blankets and cooking utensils. Yet there was little hesitation. The scouting parties were called in, pack horses were collected, and the command began its desperate journey on January 6, 1777, at the very worst period of the Pennsylvania winter.8 This was a trying march across the state, along bad roads, amid deep snows, by mountain passes, through desolate forests, without tents or sufficient food or clothing. The whole distance exceeded 300 miles, of which more than 100 was through a region of rough mountains and their intervening valleys. Encampments were made in the most sheltered places, amid heavy timber, and great fires were kept going all night, that the men might not perish from the cold. Hunting parties procured some meat, but for most of the journey the only food consisted of cakes and bread. Arnold's winter toil through the Maine woods into Canada was the only march of the Revolution that exceeded this in severity. It is not surprising that some of the men deserted and returned to their homes. Toward the end of February the regiment reached Quibbletown, near Philadelphia, and went into camp in miserable quarters. One-third of the men were ill, and within two weeks there were 50 deaths. Among those who died as the result of their terrible privations were Colonel Mackay and Lieutenant Colonel Wilson.9 P. 65 While this perilous march was making, Washington had won the victories of Trenton and Princeton, had relieved Pennsylvania from the danger of immediate invasion, and had taken post, with his little army, north of the Raritan river, in New Jersey. To that place, after a short rest, the Eighth proceeded, and there it received new officers. Daniel Brodhead became colonel; Richard Butler was promoted to be lieutenant colonel, and Stephen Bayard, a son-in-law of Aeneas Mackay, was made major. The regiment was placed in the second brigade of General Anthony Wayne's Pennsylvania division. In June Washington formed Morgan's famous rifle corps, of the best sharp-shooters to be found in the whole army. There is a general impression that this corps of 500 dead-shots was made up of Virginians, but this is an error. Virginia contributed only 163 men. More were chosen from the Eighth Pennsylvania than from any other command. It furnished 139, including Lieutenant Colonel Butler and Captain Swearingen. The First Pennsylvania furnished 54 men, from that part of the regiment recruited on the upper Susquehanna, among the number being the celebrated Lieutenant Samuel Brady.10 This corps was sent to the northern army under General Gates. It did the most effective fighting at Stillwater and Saratoga, and participated in the triumph when Burgoyne surrendered. Late in the fall Morgan rejoined Washington near Philadelphia. The men of the Eighth Pennsylvania returned to their regiment, and Lieutenant Brady was transferred to that organization. Thus he obtained the opportunity which gave him lasting fame of the western border. The portion of the regiment which had remained with Washington's army had been engaged, under Wayne, in the defeats of Brandywine, Paoli and Germantown, and the reunited command passed the winter of 1777-78 in the distressful encampment of Valley Forge. Daniel Brodhead, who led the Eighth Pennsylvania back to the west and subsequently acted an important part in the history of the frontier, was the son of a pioneer tavern-keeper living near the Delaware Water Gap. He had early experience in Indian war, learned surveying, settled in Reading, and took a prominent part in the agitation against the oppressions of the British Parliament. He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention in 1775, raised soldiers for the revolutionary army, and in 1776 became a lieutenant colonel in the Pennsylvania service. He acquitted himself gallantly in the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, and won promotion. He was a man of energy and persistence, bold in planning, fearless in executing, keen to assert his authority, well set in his opinions and of hasty temper. P. 66 The other regiment ordered to Fort Pitt, the Thirteenth Virginia, had been raised by Colonel William Crawford in the territory now included in the counties of Fayette, Washington and Greene. Its formation in 1777 had been somewhat slow, and before it was completed about 200 of the men were ordered to the East. The remainder of the command, about 100 men, when enlisted, was detained at Fort Pitt, and was still there, under Colonel William Russell, when the eastern detachment, with Washington's army, was ordered to return to the West. Lieutenant Colonel John Gibson was promoted to the rank of colonel, went west with the main part of the regiment, and took command of the reunited force under McIntosh. Colonel Russell was called to the East.11
CHAPTER XI P. 67. In both of its marches across the state of Pennsylvania, the eighth regiment was unfortunate. The first, from Kittanning to Philadelphia, was made in the dead of winter; the second, from Valley Forge to Fort Pitt, was in the heat of midsummer, and included a long diversion up the valley of the Susquehanna. General McIntosh, with the detachment of the Thirteenth Virginia, left camp toward the end of May and marched to Lancaster, where the fugitive congress was in session. The Eighth Pennsylvania, under Colonel Brodhead, did not march from Valley Forge until the middle of June, and then proceeded by way of Lancaster to Carlisle. Before their departure into the borderland the men of the Westmoreland regiment received uniforms. The officers were outfitted with the traditional blue of the continental line, but the men were clad in hunting shirts, with broad-brimmed hats looped up, and long leggings. When organized in the West, the men carried long rifles, but these were replaced, on the advice of General Wayne, by muskets and bayonets, with the exception of a small detachment of sharp-shooters, who retained their rifles for scouting and skirmishing work. While the Thirteenth Virginia pushed onward, over the mountain road toward Ohio, General McIntosh waited at Carlisle until the Eighth regiment arrived there early in July. The most alarming news had been received from the upper branches of the Susquehanna. In May the Iroquois came down on the scattered settlements of the West Branch and in two weeks killed and captured more than 30 persons. This caused what was known as the Big Runaway, when nearly all the settlers on the West Branch, from Bald Eagle down to the junction with the North Branch, fled by boats, on horses and afoot to Sunbury, Carlisle, York and Lancaster. Great was the suffering of the thousands of fugitives.1 General McIntosh reached the Susquehanna to find himself surrounded and beset by the fleeing settlers and their families, crying for protection and relief. He determined to send some of his troops up the Susquehanna to stop the Indian incursions, but before the Eighth arrived at Carlisle the news of a greater calamity was received. P. 68 On the 3d of July, 1778, took place the "massacre" of Wyoming, most notably but untruthfully commemorated by Thomas Campbell in his poem, "Gertrude of Wyoming." Four hundred British and tories and 700 Iroquois Indians, from Central New York, burst into the beautiful valley on the North Branch of the Susquehanna with gun, tomahawk, scalping knife and torch, and in a few days swept it clean of its inhabitants and habitations. At once Colonel Brodhead was ordered to march up the Susquehanna, drive out the enemy and encourage the settlers to return to their plantations. The baggage and pack horses were left at Carlisle, and on July 12, the regiment marched in light order, about 340 strong.2 Several small detachments had already preceded the regiment on the road toward Fort Pitt, to prepare provisions for the men and forage for the horses at points along the route. The command hurried to Sunbury, where Fort Augusta was held by 100 bold volunteers. From the place Colonel Brodhead sent details up both branches of the great river. P. 69 The British and Indians had retired from Wyoming valley and the commander found that it was too late to assist the inhabitants there against their enemy. The ruin had been wrought, and all the settlers had either been killed, carried away captives or driven across the mountains toward the Delaware river. On the West Branch the situation was not quite so bad, for there harvests had not been destroyed, and many cabins were yet standing. It became Brodhead's duty to clear the region of bands of prowling savages, guard the trails and place detachments at the principal centers of settlement to encourage the farmers to return and do their harvesting. Mayor Butler was sent up the North Branch to Nescopec, with two companies; Captain John Finley, who had succeeded Moses Carson when that individual deserted, was detailed with is company into Penn's valley, west of the Susquehanna, and with the remainder of the command Brodhead advanced up the West Branch to Muncy, to cover the harvesters in that rich agricultural region. On July 24 Brodhead wrote from Muncy: "Great numbers of the inhabitants returned upon my approach, and are now collected in large bodies, reaping their harvests."3 The Nescopec and Muncy inhabitants had few opportunities to fire their muskets at skulking Indians, but the men of Captain Finley's company, sent into Penn's valley, had the only serious encounter. They were posted at the settlement of Colonel James Potter, the pioneer of that region, who had built a stockade around his house, about nine miles southeast of the present town of Bellefonte, Center county. On an evening of July a detail of the soldiers, being at a little distance from the stockade, was attacked by a band of savages, and made a running fight for shelter. Two of the men were killed in sight of the fort, but their scalps were saved by a relief party. One of the Indians was killed and another severely wounded. P. 70 At Muncy a stockade fort had been built by Captain John Brady, the father of the famous Samuel, and there some of the bolder settlers had made a stand until the regulars came to their relief. John Brady had commanded a company in the Twelfth Pennsylvania, had been wounded at the battle of Brandywine, and had been honorably discharged fro m the continental service that he might assist in the defense of the northern frontier. Lieutenant Samuel Brady returned with his regiment to Muncy, and for the first time after three years of service in the army of the Revolution, was permitted to revisit his parents, brothers and sisters. The family reunion was not a long one.4 The Eighth Pennsylvania was relieved, at the end of July, by the eleventh Pennsylvania, and Colonel Brodhead's men returned down the Susquehanna to Carlisle, arriving there on August 6. Before taking the road over the mountains to the West, the command rested at Carlisle one week. Just before it marched, Lieutenant Brady suffered a terrible blow. He received word that his younger brother James, from whom he had so recently parted, had been scalped by Indians and was dying at his home. It was on Saturday, August 8, 1778, at the settlement of Peter Smith, about one mile below the site of Williamsport, on the bank of the West Branch, that James Brady received his mortal wounds. On the preceding day 14 reapers and binders, accompanied by eight soldiers, went from Fort Brady to Smith's place to cut oats. The work of the first day was carried on without molestation. In the evening four of the men grew uneasy and went away. The morning of Saturday was very foggy. The cradlers began work at one side of the large field, under the protection of the soldiers. Six binders, of whom Brady was one, proceeded to the farther side of the field, separated from the view of the cradlers and soldiers by a ridge. Five of the binders placed their rifles against a tree, but Brady stood his apart. P. 71 About an hour after sunrise, under cover of the fog, 30 Senecas and Muncy Indians slipped up on the binders and opened fire on them. The moment they were discovered Brady ran for his rifle, but the five other men took to their heels across the oatfield, leaving their guns untouched. Brady was shot and fell, but he sprang up, ran several rods, and fell again. Three Indians pounced upon him. He was wounded by a spear, struck on the head with a tomahawk and scalped. The soldiers and cradlers, hearing the firing, appeared on the ridge. The Indians exchanged a few shots with them, killing tow of the white men, and then ran away into the forest. In the other direction the soldiers and the harvesters, with one exception, fled as rapidly toward Muncy. The one exception was Jerome Veness. He discovered that young Brady was not dead, but was trying to make his way toward Smith's cabin, near the field. Veness assisted the wounded man into the cabin, and remained with him during the day, dressing his wounds as well as he was able. In the evening a company of soldiers reached Smith's plantation from Muncy. They made a rude litter and carried Brady on it to the house of his parents. There he lingered in a delirium for five days, but expired before his brother Samuel arrived from Carlisle.5 The Bradys were a family of vigorous bodies and strong passions. Samuel Brady's rage over the cruel death of his favorite brother was intense, and his soul was possessed with a craving for revenge. Tradition tells us that he ascertained that Bald Eagle, of the Wolf clan of the Delawares, and Cornplanter, a Seneca, were the chiefs of the Indian band and that he was relentless in his pursuit of those two savages. Brady had the satisfaction of killing Bald Eagle at the mouth of Red Bank creek, on the Allegheny, in June, 1779.6 He was never able to accomplish the death of Cornplanter. P. 72 Lieutenant Brady was excused, doubtless because of his brother's death, from accompanying the regiment on its march to Fort Pitt. During the month of September he was detailed as a recruiting officer in Cumberland county. Before the Westmoreland regiment reached Fort Pitt it suffered another loss. Early in the year Captain Samuel Miller had been sent to Westmoreland county on the recruiting service. His home was about two miles northeast of the site of Greensburg. In July he was engaged, with several men of his company, in providing at Hannastown, near his home, a stock of forage and provisions for the coming regiment. On the 7th of July, while he and nine soldiers were conveying grain from a farm near the Kiskiminetas, they were waylaid and attacked by Indians, and only two of the white men escaped alive. The bodies of Captain Miller and his seven companions were afterward found, scalped and stripped.7 The Eighth regiment left Carlisle on August 13 and moved slowly.8 It was two weeks going as far as Bedford, and two weeks more in making the journey over the mountains, past Ligonier and Hannastown, to Fort Pitt. It arrived at its destination, footsore and weary, on September 10, 1778, having been nearly three months on the road from the camp on the Schuylkill.9 After it reached Bedford it was in its own country. From that place to Pittsburg, all along the line of march, there were many joyful reunions, and doubtless the travel-stained soldiers were well served with food and drink as they passed through Westmoreland. Yet many tearful women sat at the wayside cabins and sad-faced parents looked in vain for the familiar figures of beloved sons. Nearly three hundred of the stout frontier youths who marched away to the East to help Washington did not return to the defense of their own borderland.
CHAPTER XII P. 73 The plan of General McIntosh for the protection of the frontier was to attack Detroit. In this he was encouraged by the opinions of many officers and members of Congress. The difficulty and hazard of such an undertaking was not appreciated in the East. It involved a march of more than 300 miles through a wilderness inhabited by savages, most of whom were hostile to the American cause. It must carry an army far from its base of supplies, and that base, at Fort Pitt, a precarious one. It was against an enemy having greater resources and a superior line of communication, by water, through Lakes Erie and Ontario. It was a project which Hand had meditated and which other commanders after McIntosh essayed; but all were doomed to disappointment.1 The two regiments of regulars, the Eighth Pennsylvania and the Thirteenth Virginia, were to be augmented by the militia from Westmoreland, and the three Virginia counties of Yohogania, Monongalia and Ohio, and there was hope of adding to these a force of Delaware warriors. The Delawares, living on the Tuscarawas and the Muskingum, were the only Indians who had maintained neutrality between the Americans and the British. This was the tribe which had made the treaty with William Penn, under the elm at Shackamaxon, and its traditions attached it to the white man's council which sat at Philadelphia. Moreover, its head sachem, White Eyes, the greatest chieftain ever produced by this remarkable Indian nation, was peculiarly devoted to the American cause. He revealed a spirit of intelligent sympathy with the struggle for liberty, and even hoped that a Delaware Indian state might form a fourteenth star in the American Union. P. 74 Preparations were made to enter into a formal treaty of alliance with this Indian tribe. In June, 1778, congress ordered the treaty to be held at fort Pitt on July 23, and requested Virginia to name two commissioners and Pennsylvania one. Virginia chose general Andrew Lewis, the victor of Point Pleasant, and his brother, Thomas Lewis, a civilian; Pennsylvania neglected to appoint. It being found impossible for the continental troops to reach Pittsburg at the time first set, their treaty was postponed until September. When Colonel Brodhead and his Westmoreland regiment marched into Fort Pitt, on September 10, 1778, they found the wigwams of the Delaware chiefs and warriors pitched near the shore of the Allegheny river, a short distance above the fort. Two days later, the conference between white men and red was begun in one of the buildings within the walls of Fort Pitt. This was probably the most remarkable treaty ever made on behalf of the United States. Its proceedings are worthy of preservation as matters of curiosity and as illustrating one of the strange developments of the revolutionary struggle. They were handed down to us in the manuscript letter book of Colonel George Morgan, Indian agent at Fort Pitt.2 By this treaty the United States entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with a tribe of savages, recognizing that tribe as an independent nation, guaranteeing its integrity and territory. Each party bound itself to assist the other against its enemies. The treaty laid the groundwork for the establishment of a system of judiciary in the Delaware nation and contained a provision for the admission of an Indian state into the American Union. The commissioners who made the treaty must have known that such a state was an impossibility, yet they deliberately provided for it in a solemn treaty, taking care, however, to subject the scheme to the approval of Congress. It was a "gold brick," presented by the white men to their red brethren. P. 75 It was a courageous act for the Delaware chiefs to form this alliance with the Americans. All other Indian tribes of the west were in league with the British, and for months had been coaxing and threatening the Delawares to draw them into the general combination. By daring to form an open union with the United States, White eyes exposed his people to absolute destruction by the British and their red allies. He fully realized his danger, yet he had the courage to do what he believed to be the right thing. He fell a martyr to his convictions. The Americans had sent messengers to the Shawnees, inviting them to come with the Delawares to the treaty, but that warlike tribe did not respond. The deputies of the Delawares were White Eyes, the chief sachem; Killbuck, a famous medicine man and war chief, and Pipe, the chief warrior of the Wolf clan. These three red men appeared at the council in holiday regalia, painted, feathered and beaded. Captain Pipe was especially celebrated for the gaudiness of his attire. The scene in the assembly room must have been picturesque. The councils were attended by General McIntosh and his colonels and staff officers, in new uniforms, and the Indian deputies were supported by a band of warriors in bright paint and gay blankets. The interpreter was Job Chilloway, a Delaware from the Susquehanna, who had lived many years among the white people.3 Soldiers in hunting shirts patrolled before the barrack doors or stood in groups on the parade ground, watching the coming and going of the bedizened Indians. P. 76 On the Saturday forenoon when the conference began, General Lewis offered the friendship of the United States and presented to the Indians a belt of white wampum, emblematic of peace. He praised the Delawares because they alone, of the many Indian tribes, had been faithful to their treaties; and in token of this fidelity he presented a broad belt of white wampum, having marked into it, in black, the figures of a white man and an Indian, connected by a black line, denoting a road or path. He then proposed a formal alliance, giving another white belt, showing a white man and an Indian clasping hands. General Lewis stated the intention of sending an army against Detroit, and asked permission of the Delawares for a passage through their territory. The Delawares claimed control over the country bounded on the east by the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, and on the west by the Hocking and Sandusky. Lewis expressed a desire that the western expedition might be so conducted as to cover and protect the Delaware towns in the Muskingum valley. Chief White Eyes gave thanks for the offer of friendship and alliance. It was to form such an alliance that he and his comrades had come into council He promised a prompt consultation and an answer in the afternoon. At this conference all the talking for the Indians was done by White Eyes. The speeches of this chief, on all occasions, were notable for their directness, force and clearness. He did not indulge in that metaphorical verbiage and tiresome prolixity by which Indian oratory is characterized. He had mingled much with white men, had studied their ways and imitated their style of speech. In the afternoon their was no meeting, for another delegation of Indians arrived in camp, with firing of guns and beating of tom-toms, and ceremonies of their reception occupied the time. They were led by Wingenund, the Delaware wise man, and by Nimwha, chief of a small band of Shawnees who lived with the Delawares at Coshocton. P. 77 It was on a fair Sunday that the conference was resumed. White Eyes announced the readiness of the Indians to accept the alliance. "We have taken fast hold of the chain of friendship," he said, "and are determined never to part the hold, though we should lose our lives." The commissioners then announcing that they would write out and submit the words of the treaty, White eyes said: "Brothers, we are become one people. The enemy Indians, as soon as they hear it, will strike us. We desire that our brethren would build some place for our old men, women and children to remain in safety whilst our warriors go with you." On Monday the articles of confederation between a civilized and a savage nation were interpreted and explained to the Indians. There was a heavy rainstorm on Tuesday, which prevented a meeting, but on Wednesday White Eyes accepted the treaty on behalf of the Delawares and the Maquegea branch of the Shawnees. It was a momentous event in the life of this Indian chief and he delivered an affecting address, a brief outline of which has been preserved for us. "We now inform you," he said, "that as many of our warriors as can possibly be spared will join you and go with you." Thus he pronounced his own death warrant. "We are at a loss to express our thoughts, but we hope soon to convince you by our actions of the sincerity of our hearts. We desire you not to think any of our people will have any objection to your marching through our country; on the contrary, they will rejoice to see you." He requested that Colonel John Gibson be appointed Indiana agent, saying: "He has always acted an honest part by us, and we are convinced he will make our common good his chief study, and not think only how he may get rich." It appears that some of the Indian agents had the same weakness then as now.4 P. 78 "When we were last in Philadelphia, " White Eyes concluded, "our wise brethren in Congress may remember, we desired them to send a schoolmaster to our towns to instruct our children. As we think it will be for our mutual interest, we request I may be complied with." The petitions of this wise Indian concerning Gibson and the schoolmaster were both neglected by the continental government. On the following day, Thursday, September 17, 1778, the articles of confederation were signed in triplicate, one copy for congress, one for the Delawares and one for General McIntosh. There were six articles, to the following effect: First, all offenses were to be mutually forgiven; second, a perpetual peace and friendship was pledged, each party to assist the other in any just war; third, the Delawares gave permission for the passage through their country of an American army, agreed to sell corn, meat and horses to that army, and to furnish guides and a body of warriors, while the United States bound themselves to erect and garrison, with the Delaware country, a fort for the protection of the old men, women and children; fourth, each party agreed to punish offenses committed by citizens of the other only by trial by judges or jurors of both parties, according to a system thereafter to be arranged. Fifth, the Untied States pledged the establishment of a fair trade under the control of an honest agent. The sixth article was the most remarkable. It guaranteed the integrity of the Delaware territory, so long as the nation should keep the peace with the United States, and concluded with the following provision, apparently, drawn rather hastily: "And it is further agreed on between the contracting parties that, should it, in future, be found conducive to the mutual interest of both parties, to invite any other tribe who have been friendly to the interest of the United States to join the present confederation and to form a state, whereof the Delaware nation shall be the head, and have a representative in Congress; provided nothing contained in this article be considered as conclusive until it meets with the approbation of Congress." P. 79 This is certainly as strange a proposition as ever was made to a savage nation. Of course, it never went any farther than the piece of parchment on which it was written. It was probably never intended to go any farther. The treaty was signed by the several deputies, Andrew and Thomas Lewis, White Eyes, the Pipe and John Killbuck, the Indians making their marks. The following signatures were attached as those of witnesses: Lachlan McIntosh, Brigadier General, Commander of the Western Department; Daniel Brodhead, Colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment; W. Crawford, Colonel; John Campbell, John Stevenson, John Gibson, Colonel of the Thirteenth Virginia Regiment; Arthur Graham, Brigade Major; Lachlan McIntosh, Jr., Brigade Major; Benjamin Mills, Joseph L. Finley, Captain of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, and John Finley, Captain of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment. On the succeeding day presents were given to the Delawares on behalf of Congress and the Indians then departed for Coshocton, to make preparations for joining the expedition against Detroit.
CHAPTER XIII P. 80 In the notice of General McIntosh, in the "Dictionary of American Biography," is to be found this statement: "In a short time he restored peace to the frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia." Unfortunately for the frontier, he did not do anything of the sort. He was as much a failure on the border as his predecessor, hand, not because of his own lack of ability, but because of the want of men and supplies for the accomplishment of his plans. Immediately after the conclusion of the treaty with the Delawares, in the middle of September, 1778, McIntosh prepared to execute his design against Detroit. He had already summoned the militia, from the frontier counties of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Westmoreland county failed to contribute, as her own borders were almost daily harried by savage bands. The Virginia counties, Yohogania, Monongalia and Ohio, furnished nearly 800 men, but they gathered at Fort Pitt slowly and provisions for the long campaign were collected with difficulty. About October 1 the army, consisting of 1,300 men, of whom 500 were regulars of the Eighth Pennsylvania and the Thirteenth Virginia, moved from Fort Pitt down the Ohio, constructing a road along the southern bank of the river to the mouth of the Beaver. P. 81 Four weeks were occupied in the building of a fort on the high bluff overlooking the Ohio, on the western side of the Beaver river. The site of this fort was within the present town of Beaver, just above the station of the Cleveland and Pittsburg railroad. It was built under the direction of Colonel Cambray, a French engineer and chief of the artillery in McIntosh's army. The walls were of heavy logs, filled in with earth, and on them six-pound cannon were mounted. The fort contained barracks for a regiment of soldiers. the commander designed Fort McIntosh as an advanced depot for munitions and provisions. It was the most western point to which supplies could be conveyed with ease by water, but from the mouth of the Beaver onward the expedition must go entirely by land. 1 While Fort McIntosh was building, the general was trying to get forward his stores, in preparation for the march into the wilderness. But things moved slowly over the bad roads of the frontier. Every delay was annoying to the Scotch commander. The fine days of autumn were slipping by and Detroit was still far away. The Delaware Indians, of whom a band of 60 warriors accompanied the army, could not understand why so much time was spent in building a fort which would not be needed when Detroit was captured, and some of the American officers considered the month passed at the mouth of the Beaver as that much time wasted. On November 3 a herd of lean cattle, driven over the mountains, arrived at Fort McIntosh, and two days later the army began its march westward through the Indian country. The pack horses and cattle were so poor and weak that they could not make more than five or six miles a day, and it was November 19 when the force reached the Tuscarawas river, at the site of the present town of Bolivar, near the line between Stark and Tuscarawas counties. P. 82 According to the pledge contained in the treaty with the Delawares, to erect a fort in their country for the protection of their women and children, it was the intention of General McIntosh to build a stockade at the Delaware capital of Coshocton, at the junction of the Tuscarawas and the Walhonding, but several things conspired to thwart this plan.2 During the march to the Tuscarawas the Delaware chief, White eyes, was "treacherously put to death." The exact manner of his killing is unknown, but it is believed that he was shot by a Virginia militiaman.3 His death caused dismay among his warriors and most of them deserted the American force and returned to Coshocton. It became thereafter uncertain whether the Americans would be received kindly at the Delaware capital. A march south to Coshocton would take the army far out of its way. Beyond all, the season had now become so late that Detroit was out of the question. A winter campaign through the land of the savages was not to be considered. With great reluctance McIntosh was driven to the conclusion that he could not continue his campaign during that season. He was not willing, however, to retire without accomplishing something. He decided to build a stockade fort at Tuscarawas, where the army was then encamped, to hold that place during the winter and from it to set forth in the spring on another attempt against Detroit. Such a fort would fulfill the pledge of the treaty to build a place of refuge in the Delaware country, and McIntosh hoped to send out war parties from it to strike the towns on the Sandusky river. Even this hope was ruined by the general's failure to bring forward sufficient provisions. The fort at the Tuscarawas was built on the west bank of the river, about half a mile below the present village of Bolivar. It was a small thing, enclosing only about an acre of ground. High embankments of earth were raised and topped with pickets, consisting of logs set upright and pointed at the top. Colonel Cambray superintended the building of this fort, which was named Laurens, after the president of the Continental Congress.4 P. 83 While this work was going on, McIntosh found that he could not get forward sufficient provisions to maintain his large force in the Indian country long enough even for an expedition against the Sandusky towns. The commissary department seems to have been managed miserably, although it contended with great difficulties.5 The time of the Virginia militia ran only until the end of the year. the weather began to grow cold, and to prevent starvation and disaster in the snows, McIntosh was forced to return with his army to the Ohio. He left at Fort Laurens 150 men of the thirteenth Virginia, under Colonel John Gibson, the stout-hearted and active frontiersman. Colonel Brodhead, with a detachment of the Eighth Pennsylvania, formed the winter garrison of Fort McIntosh, while General McIntosh took up his quarters in Fort Pitt, and there brooded over his disappointments. A terrible winter was spent by the little garrison of Fort Laurens. Colonel Gibson did not have sufficient food to last him until spring, and hunting in the woods was soon stopped by the appearance of hostile Indians. the savages began to prowl about the post early in January, 1779. The erection of this fort, almost in the heart of the Indian country, greatly provoked the savages of the Wyandot, Miami and Mingo tribes, and they plotted its destruction.6 McIntosh had promised to send back provisions, and about the middle of January Captain John Clark, of the Eighth Pennsylvania, was sent from Fort McIntosh with 15 men to convoy pack horses, with flour and meat, to the little post on the Tuscarawas. Captain Clark reached the fort in safety on January 21 and two days later set out on his return to the Ohio. Three miles from the fort he was ambushed by Simon Girty and 17 Mingo Indians, who killed tow of the soldiers, wounded four and captured one.7 Captain Clark was driven back to the fort, but a few days afterward he again started and went through without molestation. Girty carried his prisoner to Detroit, where he raised a much larger force and returned to the vicinity of Fort Laurens. P. 84 About the middle of February the wilderness post was surrounded by a band of 200 Indians, mostly Miamis and Mingoes, led by Captain Henry Bird and Girty.8 Gibson succeeded in sending a messenger through the savage lines, who carried the news of the situation to General McIntosh, with this word from Gibson: "You may depend upon my defending the fort to the last extremity." On February 23 the garrison suffered a severe loss. Early in the winter the men had cut a lot of firewood and piled it in the forest not afar from the fort. On the day mentioned a wagon was sent out, under an escort of 18 soldiers, to haul some of the wood into the stockade. At about half a mile from the fort the little party passed by an ancient Indian mound, and behind that mound a band of savages lay hidden. As the white men went along one side of the mound the Indians burst upon them, both in front and rear, took them completely by surprise and quickly killed and scalped every member of the party except two, who were taken prisoners. The Indians now laid regular siege to the fort and endeavored to starve it into surrender. The camp fires of the savages were seen at night in the bleak woods, and in the daytime the warriors showed themselves on the adjacent hills, shaking their guns at the fort and waving aloft the scalps of the slain soldiers. The food of the garrison grew so scanty that Colonel Gibson cut down the daily ration to a quarter of a pound of flour and the same weight of meat. Gibson sent another messenger for help, a courageous fellow, who eluded the watchful Indians and reached Fort McIntosh on March 3. At once the general set about to gather a relieving force, but it was two weeks before the collected enough men to do any good. P. 85 In the meantime the straits of the garrison grew desperate. A sortie in force was contemplated, but this was given up when a count was made of the besieging savages. The Indians paraded over the crest of a hill within plain sight of the garrison, and about 850 warriors were counted. This kept the garrison closely within the walls. It was learned years afterward that there were not more than 200 Indians, but they had exaggerated their real strength by marching around the farther base of the hill and showing themselves in long single file, four or five times over, within sight of the white men. Captain Bird, after this stratagem, sent in a demand for surrender, promising safe passage for the soldiers to Fort McIntosh, but Gibson sternly refused. The Indians then promised to withdraw if Gibson would furnish them with a barrel of flour and a barrel of meat. Bird believed that the garrison was reduced to its last provisions and would refuse the request. In such an event, he felt certain that starvation would bring the white men to terms in a few days. Gibson had but a few barrels of food, and that in bad condition, but he quickly complied with the demand, sent out the two barrels and said that he had plenty left. The savages were discouraged, for they were almost without food themselves. The snow was so deep that they were not able to replenish their larder. They had a feast on the flour and pork, and on the following day left the vicinity and returned to their towns in Northwestern Ohio. On March 23 General McIntosh appeared with his relieving force of 300 regulars and 200 militiamen, escorting a train of pack horses with provisions. The joy of the garrison was excessive. For more than a week the men had been living on roots and soup made by boiling rawhides. The famished men sallied forth with their rifles and fired a volley to express their gladness. The shooting frightened the pack horses and they stampeded through the woods, scattering their provisions in every direction. Some of the horses were never recovered and not more than half of the food was gathered up. P. 86 General McIntosh remained only two or three days at Fort Laurens. Colonel Gibson and his hungry Virginians were relieved and returned with the general to Fort Pitt, while Major Vernon and 100 men of the Eighth Pennsylvania were substituted as the garrison of the wilderness post. In February, before going to the relief of Fort Laurens, General McIntosh had concluded that he was a failure as a frontier officer, and had written to General Washington asking to be recalled. The Commander-in-Chief acceded to the request, with evident chagrin, and named Colonel Daniel Brodhead, of the Eighth Pennsylvania, as commander of the Western Department. The nomination of Brodhead was communicated to Congress on march 5 and was approved by that body. On his return to Fort Pitt, April 3, McIntosh received the notification of his release from command, and soon afterward departed for Philadelphia, while Colonel Brodhead went from Fort McIntosh to Fort Pitt and took charge of affairs.9 In writing of McIntosh, under date of February 20, 1779, General Washington said: "I wish matters had been more prosperously conducted under the command of General McIntosh. This gentleman was in a manner a stranger to me, but during the time of his residence at Valley Forge I had imbibed a good opinion of his good sense, attention to duty and disposition to correct public abuses, qualifications much to be valued in a separate and distinct command. To these considerations were added (and not the least) his disinterested concern with respect to the disputes which had divided and distracted the inhabitants of the western world, and which would have rendered an officer from either Pennsylvania or Virginia improper, while no one could be spared from another state with so much convenience as McIntosh. He is now coming away, and the second in command, Brodhead (as there will be no military operations of consequence to be conducted), will succeed him. But once for all, it may not be amiss for me to conclude with this observation, that, with such means as are provided, I must labor.10 P. 87 Brodhead was one of the officers who believed that the building of fort McIntosh was useless and the erection of Fort Laurens foolish. During April and May the soldiers suffered great privations through the shortage of food. A few deer were killed by Delaware Indian hunters and sold to the garrison, but in the middle of May Brodhead ordered the greater part of the force to return to Fort McIntosh to escape actual starvation. Major Vernon remained with only 25 men until August 1, part of the time being reduced for food to herbs, salt and boiled hides. It was impossible fort was finally dismantled, by Brodhead's orders, and the last little handful of men returned to Fort Pitt. The stockade remained for many years, falling into decay slowly. Fifty years ago some of the pickets were standing, and even now the outlines of the embankments can be made out on the western bank of the Tuscarawas river.11
CHAPTER XIV P. 88 General Washington excused the appointment of Colonel Brodhead to the command of the Western Department on the plea that no important operations were to be undertaken in that quarter. Brodhead did not understand the matter in that light. He had his own ideas about the defense of the frontier and proceeded actively to put them into execution; and although not much was expected of him, he proved to be the most vigorous and the most successful in punishing the savages among all the commanders at Fort Pitt during the Revolution, including his two successors as well as two predecessors. In the beginning of April, 1779, McIntosh transferred to Brodhead 722 men, regulars and militia.1 Most of these troops were at Forts Pitt and McIntosh, but small parties garrisoned Fort Henry, at Wheeling; Fort Randolph, at Point Pleasant, and Fort Hand, near the Kiskiminetas, three and a half miles southwest of the site of Apollo. About the middle of April, Lieutenant Lawrence Harrison, formerly one of Gibson's Lambs, but now connected with the Thirteenth Virginia, was sent to occupy Fort Crawford, a small stockade built by Colonel William Crawford at Parnassus, during the preceding summer. Forts Hand and Crawford were intended to protect the northern border of Westmoreland county from the raids of the Iroquois who lived on the upper waters of the Allegheny river, but they were not altogether effective. P. 89 With the first mild weather of spring the incursions of the savages began. The Senecas and Muncys descended the Allegheny in canoes until within striking distance of the Westmoreland settlements, hid their canoes in the thickets and scattered in little bands through the country. They burned cabins, killed and scalped men, carried off the women, children and household goods, regained their canoes and ascended the river before they could be overtaken by the soldiers or aroused settlers. It was almost impossible for regular troops to accomplish anything in this kind of predatory warfare. The movements of the Indians were secret and swift. Except when snow was on the ground, they usually left no trail that could be followed save by the most experienced woodsman. The spring and early summer of 1779 present a terrible record of Indian depredations on the border, and the northern portion of Westmoreland county, between the Forbes road (nearly the present line of the Pennsylvania railroad) and the Kiskiminetas river, was almost depopulated. Brodhead put into operation a system of scouting along the border, from one fort to another, and from the regulars at Fort Pitt he organized a number of ranging bans, composed of the boldest experienced frontiersmen, whom he sent on extended tours into the forests. To command these ranging parties he selected three of the bravest and keenest woodsmen in the Eighth Pennsylvania, Captain Van Swearingen, Lieutenant Samuel Brady and Lieutenant John Hardin. It was in this work that Brady won fame as an Indian fighter and killer. P. 90 Daniel Boone said, in his elder days, that, while he had fought Indians for many years, he did not know positively that he had ever killed one. Such was not the case with Samuel Brady. His hatred of the red men was personal and he made it his business to kill them. He had abundant justification. The cruel death of his brother, in August, 1778, was followed by the killing of his father, Captain John Brady, on April 11, 1779. Captain Brady was conveying supplies from Fort Wallis to Muncy, on the west branch of the Susquehanna, when he was shot dead from his horse by three Iroquois Indians secreted in a thicket. His body was recovered unscalped and was buried at Muncy, where a handsome monument was erected by public subscription in 1879.2 Samuel Brady received news of his father's death about the time he was chosen by Brodhead as a forest ranger. It swelled his hatred of the Indian race, gave him additional eagerness on the warpath and nerved his arm to execute vengeance. Only a brief review is possible of the Indian depredations in Westmoreland county in that terrible spring of 1779. On April 15 Colonel Brodhead wrote to a friend in the East, "The Indians are daily committing murders in Westmoreland to such a degree that it is apprehended they have formed a camp on some of the waste lands of the inhabitants." Toward the end of April a strong band of Iroquois entered the Ligonier settlement, slaughtered cattle and hogs, killed one man and carried two families into captivity.3 It was probably the same band, estimated to be 100 strong and accompanied by several tories, that attacked Fort Hand on April 26. The garrison consisted of 17 men, under Captain Samuel Moorhead and Lieutenant William Jack. About 1 o'clock in the afternoon the savages fired from the woods at two ploughmen, who escaped unharmed into the stockade. The team of horses and the yoke of oxen with which they were working were killed by Indians, who then spread around the place and shot down all the domestic animals in sight. The savages hid behind stumps, fences and sheds and opened fire on the fort, which was returned with vigor by the garrison. Several women within the stockade molded bullets for the riflemen, and the firing kept up briskly until nightfall. Three members of the garrison were wounded and one of them died a few days later. He was sergeant Philip McGraw, who occupied a sentry box in a corner bastion. A bullet entered a narrow porthole, and after McGraw had been shot and removed, a man of the name of McCauley was wounded in the same manner. P. 91 During the night the Indians continued to whoop and shoot a the stockade. They mimicked the sentinel's cry, "All's well!" About midnight the savages set fire to John McKibben's large log house not far from the fort, and as the flames poured upward and illuminated the stockade, the tories among the Indians cried, "Is all well now?" There was but little wind and the fire did not spread. In the morning the savages were still about the fort, but during the forenoon they gave up the siege and went away to the northward. During the night a messenger had been sent out and he made his way to Fort Pitt for aid. Forty soldiers were hurried to Fort Hand, but they were too late to intercept the marauders.4 During May Brodhead kept his scouts out along the upper Allegheny, to give warning of the approach of any other hostile bands, and he was employing every exertion to prepare for an expedition into the Seneca country. He was much hampered by the lack of supplies, which came with painful slowness over the mountain roads from the East. For many days his men were without meat. Flour was bought only at a high price. The soldiers were clothed in rags and many were without shoes. They learned to make Indian moccasins, and Brady and his scouts were clad almost entirely in the Indian fashion. On all their forest excursions they painted their bodies and faces as the savages did, wore feathers in their long hair and were to be distinguished only by close scrutiny from the red men whom they hunted. They were accompanied by a few Delaware warriors, who rendered excellent service in trailing the Seneca war parties. A young Delaware chief, Nanowland, took an especial fancy to Brady and was with him so constantly as to become known as Brady's "Pet Indian." P. 92 About the first of June Brodhead was informed that a large band of Seneca Indians and tories, under Colonel John Butler, was preparing to descend the Allegheny river and ravage the settlements. He sent three scouts in a canoe up the Allegheny as far as Venango (the present Franklin). There they were discovered by a party of hostile Indians, who pursued them in canoes almost to the mouth of the Kiskiminetas. The scouts had a narrow escape and the news they brought to Fort Pitt satisfied Brodhead that the threatened invasion was at hand. The savages were not as numerous, however, as was supposed. There were but seven of them They hid their canoes on the Allegheny and penetrated into Westmoreland county between Fort hand and Fort Crawford. There they encountered a solitary soldier, and left him dead and scalped in the woods. They surprised the little settlement at James Perry's mill, on Big Sewickley creek, killed a woman and four children and carried off two children, half a dozen horses, blankets, jewelry and articles of female raiment.5 When the news of this raid reached Fort Pitt two parties were sent out after the Indians. One considerable company marched to the Sewickley settlement and attempted from there to follow the Indian trail. The other band, consisting of 20 men under Brady, all painted and dressed like Indians, ascended the Allegheny river. Brady was satisfied that the marauders came from the north and would return in that direction, regain their hidden canoes and seek to escape by water. His experience told him that the surest way to cut them off would be to make a rapid march up the stream. His men kept a sharp lookout for the Indian canoes and toward an evening found them drawn up amid shrubbery, on the beach within the mouth of one of the large creeks entering the Allegheny from the east. The authorities differ as to the identity of this creek. McCabe, who compiled a series of traditions concerning Brady's exploits, says that it was the Big Mahoning. Colonel Brodhead, in his contemporary report to General Washington, says that it was "about 15 miles above Kittanning." This agrees with the location of Red Bank creek, and would make the scene of Brady's adventure not far from the place since called Brady's Bend. P. 93 The Indians had gone into camp in the woods, on a little knoll north of the creek, and were preparing their evening meal when discovered by Brady. They had hobbled the stolen horses and turned them out to graze on the meadow between their camp and the creek. This stream was very high and the scouts were compelled to ascend it two miles before they were able to wade across. After nightfall Brady and his men stealthily descended the northern side of the creek until they were near the Indian camp, and hid themselves in the tall grass of the meadow. Crawling on their stomachs, they approached closer and closer to the hill where the Indians and their prisoners were sleeping around the campfire. They were much annoyed by the horses in the meadow, which threatened to betray the presence of the strange creatures in the grass, but the animals were probably too weary with their long journey of the day to make any demonstrations of alarm. Brady and Nanowland, laying aside their tomahawks, knives, powder horns and bullet pouches, crept to within a few yards of the Indian camp, to count the savages and ascertain the position of the captive children. One of the Indian warriors suddenly cast off his blanket, arose, stepped forth to within six feet of where Brady lay, stood there awhile, stretched himself and then returned to his slumber. Brady and Nanowland then crawled silently back to their companions and prepared for an attack at daybreak. P. 94 The whole party of scouts made their way amid the grass and bushes as near the Indian camp as was considered safe, and lay awaiting the dawn. By and by, as morning began to come, one Indian awoke and aroused the others. They stood about the fire, laughing and chatting, when a deadly volley blazed forth from the adjacent bushes. The chief of the seven Indians fell dead and the others fled almost naked into the dense forest, two of them being severely wounded. Brady's own rifle brought down the Indian captain, and, with a shout of almost fiendish triumph, Brady sprang forth and scalped the fallen chief. The traditions of the Brady family say that this chief was the very Indian, Bald Eagle, who had struck down and scalped Brady's younger brother on the Susquehanna ten months before. Brodhead informed Washington that he was "a notorious warrior on the Muncy nation." The two wounded Indians were trailed for some distance by the drops of blood on the ground, but they quickly staunched their wounds with leaves and were lost in the dense thicket. Nanowland uttered the cry of a young wolf, the peculiar call of the Muncys, and it was twice answered by the fugitives; but further calls brought no response and the wounded savages could not be found. Three weeks later Brady was in the same neighborhood and observed a flock of crows hovering about a thicket. On searching there, he found the partially devoured body of an Indian.6 The children captured at Sewickley were recovered unharmed and Brady and his men returned to Fort Pitt with the stolen horses and plunder, the blankets, guns, tomahawks and knives of the savages. The punishment of this Indian band was so sever that not another inroad was made by the northern savages into Westmoreland county during that year.
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