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Pictures and Illustrations
Ground-Plan of Fort Defiance.
At each angle of the fort was a block-house. The one next the Maumee is marked A, having port-holes, B B B, on three exterior sides, and a door, D, and a chimney, C, on the interior side. A line of pickets on each side of the fort connected the block-houses by their nearest angles. Outside the pickets and around the block-house was a glacis, or wall of earth, eight feet thick, sloping upward and outward from the foot of the pickets, supported by a log wall on the sides of the ditch, and by fascines, or a wall of fagots, next the Au Glazie. The ditch, twelve feet wide and eight feet deep, surrounded the whole work, except on the side net the Au Glazie. Diagonal pickets, eleven feet long and one foot apart, were secured to the log wall, and projected over the ditch. Gate-ways, E E. A bank of earth left, four feed wide, for a passage across the ditch, F. A falling gate, or draw-bridge, across the ditch, G. Officers' quarters, H. Store-houses, I. Two lines of pickets converged toward L, a ditch eight feet deep leading to the driver, as a covert way for water. Small sand-bar at the point M.
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Chapter I. — Manners and customs of the frontier population east and south of the Ohio River. A.D. 1770 to 1810.
Argument. — Condition of the frontier Settlements of western Pennsylvania and Virginia. — Characteristic Traits of the Pioneers generally. — Manners and Customs: 1. Costume of the Hunters: the Hunting-shirt; Pantaloons; Breech-cloth and Leggins; Moccasin. — 2. Habitation: the Log Cabin; its Location; internal Appearance. — 3. Employments: the respective Duties of Man and Wife. — 4. Diet: Meats; wild Game; Bread; Pone , Journey-cake; Hog and Hommony; Substitutes for Tea and Coffee. — 5. Settlement Rights: Nature and Extent; tomahawk Improvements. — 6. Fort, or Station: Form and Construction; its Location and Use; Stations in Kentucky. — 7. Hunters: Science of Hunting; a hunting Camp; Game; Hides; Peltries. — 8. Caravans: annual Trips' to Baltimore and Frederic; Equipment of Caravan; solitary Route across the Mountains; Order of March; Fare. — 9. The moral Sense: state of Morals; natural Honesty and Sense of Honor the supreme Law; force of Public Opinion; "Lynch Law;" "Regulators." — 10. Social Virtues: Hospitality; Sociality; Conviviality; a marriage Party; Sports and Amusements. — 11. Boatmen: general Character; Costume; Habits; peculiar Traits of Character. — 12. National Character: Diversity of People and Languages blended; Peculiarities of Feelings and Habits neutralized; Influence of free Government upon the Enterprise and moral Character. — 13. Religious Traits: Religion disconnected with civil Power; Ministers dependent for Support upon their own Merit; religious "Awakenings," or "Revivals," in the West; "Camp-meeting" Scene; Origin of Camp Meetings in Kentucky and Tennessee; Camp Meeting at Cane Ridge; at Desha's Creek; at Cabin Creek; astonishing Influence of sylvan Preaching, and the attendant Circumstances; extraordinary Conversions; Disturbance of mental and nervous Systems.
WHATEVER pertains to manners and customs of the early-pioneer settlers on the tributary waters of the Ohio, applies, with nearly equal correctness, to the early white population of all the western half of Pennsylvania and Virginia, no less
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than to Kentucky and Tennessee, from the year 1770 to 1794, and to the white settlements northwest of the Ohio, until the termination of the Indian war by the victorious arms of General Anthony Wayne. All the settlements on the northwest, as well as those on the southeast side of the Ohio, during the hostilities of the western tribes, were placed in nearly the same circumstances in every thing pertaining to frontier life.[A.D. 1770-1794.] One general trait has always characterized most of the frontier settlers contiguous to hostile tribes of Indians, and that is a daring, fearless, and enterprising spirit; a hardy, robust, and patient constitution, unaccustomed to the refinements, luxuries, or comforts of the older Atlantic colonies. The circumstances by which they were surrounded were such as tended to form constitutions capable of enduring almost any privation or bodily exposure without danger of serious disadvantage, mentally or physically.
Such qualifications were indispensable to those whose situation compelled them to brave the inclemency of the seasons, far remote from civilized life, and to contend with the fierce beasts of prey, and with the wily savage in his native haunts and forests. The pioneer who advances into the American wilderness against the consent of the fierce and vindictive savage, must possess no ordinary share of courage, and an iron constitution to sustain him.
To form a proper estimate of the character of the western pioneer, we must view him in all the relations of life, under the circumstances in which he is placed; examine him in his manners, customs, mode of life; in his pursuits, pastimes, and his domestic relations. Living in constant intercourse with the savage tribes, his costume, manner of life, habits, and customs were necessarily half savage and half civilized, and often the whole character of the savage was assumed.
1. The costume of the pioneer was simple, plain, and well adapted for use, comfort, and durability, and not unlike that of the native savages. The ordinary apparel of the hunter consisted of a peltry cap, pantaloons, buckskin moccasins, and a hunting-shirt, girded with a leather belt. Over this was worn the cross-belt of the shot-pouch and powder-horn, crossing from the left shoulder to the right side. On actual hunting duty, and during inclement weather, a pair of "leggins" were closely wrapped upon the legs and lower portion of the thighs,
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of dressed deer-skin made smooth and firm. The pantaloons, worn tight and close to the legs, were made of domestic linsey, or tow-linen, but more commonly of soft and pliant dressed buckskin, which was both elastic and durable.Sometimes, instead of pantaloons, the hunter adopted the "long leggins" of the Indian, which extended to the upper part of the thighs, while the breech and loins were covered with the more convenient breech-cloth of the savage, secured by a girdle around the waist. This covering was formed by a piece of cloth or linen, nearly a yard long, and eight or ten inches wide, passed between the thighs, with the two extremities carried under the belt, in front and rear, and the loose ends hanging over the girdle behind and before served as ornamental flaps. These flaps were often ornamented with coarse embroidery. The leggins were attached by straps, or suspenders, to the same girdle. With this dress, the upper part of the thighs and hips, for the sake of free action, were partially exposed, unless covered by the skirt of the hunting-shirt.
After the settlements had advanced to some degree of civilized refinement, this costume, formed of dressed buckskin, had been adopted by the young beaux as a fancy dress to display their fine forms and persons. To do this more effectually, it has been no uncommon occurrence for them to make their appearance in church during public worship, and gravely take their seat in the congregation, or stand gazing with stoical indifference, in imitation of Indian curiosity, but not contributing in the least to the sedate devotion of the young ladies present.
The hunting-shirt was a characteristic article of costume among the western emigrants. Although many declined assuming the leggins and breech-cloth of the Indian, and still adhered to the pantaloons and breeches of their ancestors, all adopted the hunting-shirt as an overcoat, peculiarly adapted to their frontier mode of life, from its comparative simplicity of form, and its convenience in their rambles and hunting excursions through brush and the forests. Hence, as Dr. Doddridge observes, "the hunting-shirt was universally worn. It was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot
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or more when belted. The cape was large, and sometimes handsomely fringed with a raveled piece of cloth, different in color from the hunting-shirt itself." The bosom of this dress, above the belt which encircled the waist, served as a wallet to carry a chunk of bread and "jerked beef," cakes, tow for the gun, and other necessaries for a hunter and warrior. The belt, which was always tied behind, served to hold the dress close and in order. On the right side was suspended a tomahawk, and on the left a scalping-knife, each in a leathern case.The hunting-shirt was generally made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen, and occasionally a very fine one for summer was made of calico, or of dressed deer-skins for winter; the latter were very warm in cold and dry weather, but were not well adapted for rain. Sometimes the deer-skin hunting-shirt was ornamented with numerous tassels and bands of fringed deer-skin around the skirts, the cape, and even around the sleeves near the shoulders and wrists.
Under the hunting-shirt was often worn an ordinary vest, made of the same material, while a common cotton or linen shirt was worn next the skin. Such was the apparel adapted to freedom of action, and to the life of a hunter.
The "moccasins" are Indian coverings for the feet instead of shoes. These were made of thick, dressed buckskin, in a single piece, gathered by a single seam on top of the foot from the toe to the instep, and by another from the bottom of the heel to the top without gathers, as high as the ankle joint, or higher. Flaps were left on each side, which, in cold weather, could be closely adjusted around the ankle and lower part of the leg; but in dry weather these flaps were permitted to hang down over the upper side of the foot. These flaps in the Indian moccasin were often highly ornamented by a species of figures, embroidered with variegated porcupine quills and shells, similar to our modern bead-work; in fact, many of them were handsomely covered with the brilliant colors of bead embroidery.
In cold weather the moccasin was well stuffed around the feet with loose deer-hair, wool, or leaves, to protect the feet from the inclement weather. The seams in this covering for the feet were sewed and gathered by means of an awl and thongs of buckskin, or the sinews of the deer, which were known by the general term of "whangs" Every hunter's shot
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pouch was supplied with a rude moccasin-awl and a roll of buckskin, and whangs for mending and patching his moccasins at night. It was the use of buckskin moccasins in wet weather, and cold spring thaws, doubtless, that laid the foundation for the inveterate cases of rheumatism so common among the early settlers of the Ohio region.2. Habitations. — The log cabin was the primitive abode of the agricultural population which first advanced west of the mountains upon the waters of the Ohio. These habitations of the western settlements were rude and simple, and well adapted to the circumstances by which they were surrounded. Almost the only tools possessed by the first settlers were axes, hatchets, knives, and a few augers. They had neither sawmills nor carpenters, nails nor glass, bricks nor masons. Each house erected was of similar construction, and consisted of one or more log pens, in the shape of a square or parallelogram, with the logs notched at each end, and riding transversely on each other, forming the body of the house. The logs were cut to one length, and were selected of nearly the same size; they were put up, either round, and with the bark on, or were neatly hewed on two sides, just as the taste and means of the builder might prompt. After the pen was raised to the height of eight or ten feet from the foundation, the gable ends were carried up with ridge poles extending lengthwise for the support of the clap-board roof. The clap-board shingles were laid in regular courses, over each of which a weight pole was laid, and retained in its place by short blocks of wood at right angles intervening.
The roof being completed, a door was cut out and faced, and also a window, if it were deemed necessary or desirable.
The spaces between the logs of the house were closed by "chinking," or small blocks of wood riding upon each other, and afterward daubed and plastered with tempered clay or mud. An opening was also cut out for the chimney, and a wooden square stack, of small pieces of wood, rudely dove-tailed to one end of the house, was built up, tapering to the top. It was so connected with the house as to form a large fireplace and chimney literally outside of the house. This chimney was chinked, daubed, and plastered similar to the house, except that the plastering was chiefly inside, and quite thick, to protect the wooden
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structure from the action of the fire within. The jambs and back of the fireplace were also further secured by three upright, large, flat stones laid in mud.The earth was often the only floor, but more commonly the floor was made of "puncheons," or slabs split from logs, hewed smooth on the upper side, and resting bedded upon poles raised above ground. The "loft," or attic story, sometimes had a puncheon floor, and a rude ladder in one corner served as a stairway. The door was made of thick clap-boards split from oak logs, and pinned to cross-pieces, and were hung upon wooden hinges, and fastened by a wooden latch. The open door or the broad chimney admitted light by day, and a rousing fire and a bear-grease lamp, or a buffalo-tallow candle, were their resource at night.
As soon as the mechanic and merchant appeared, sashes with two or four lights of glass might be seen set into gaps cut through the side logs. Contemporaneously, old barrels began to constitute the tops of chimneys, and joists and plank, sawed by hand, took the place of puncheons.
At first log cabins were built in villages or clusters, and surrounded with stockades formed by logs set upright in the ground, and made bullet-proof for mutual protection against Indian surprise and massacre.
The location of the house was generally in some vale or dell, near a running stream of water, or near some permanent spring. Thus they consulted their own convenience in obtaining a constant supply of water, and also, considering that every thing coming to the house from abroad is more easily carried "down hill" than up, the house was seldom placed upon an eminence. In all the first locations the bottoms were selected, and the contiguous ridges formed the boundaries of the tract. This continued until the system of square surveys was introduced, when the boundaries of tracts were straight lines, and not the natural features of the country.
The inside appearance of a frontier habitation was also unique, and adapted to the circumstances of the times. Bureaus, side-boards, and armors were unknown, and so were their uses. The whole furniture of a room consisted of one home-made bedstead, and one trundle bedstead under it for children, both well furnished with bear skins and buffalo robes
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instead of blankets; a few split-bottom chairs, and a few three-legged stools, a small movable bench or table, supported by two pairs of cross-legs, for the family meals; a shelf and water-bucket near the door. The naked wood and clay walls, instead of the ornamental paper and tapestry of the cities, were embellished with the whole wealth of the family wardrobe. The frocks, dresses, and bed-gowns of the women, the hunting-shirts, pantaloons, and arms of the men, all were suspended around the walls from wooden hooks and pegs, and served as a good index to the industry and neatness of the mistress of the house. The cooking utensils and table furniture consisted of a few iron pots, "pewter plates and dishes," spoons, knives and forks, which had been transported from the east with their salt and iron; besides these, a few wooden bowls, or "trenchers," "noggins and gourds," completed the list of cooking and eating utensils.The domestic employments of the women were chiefly in the household affairs. They milked the cows, and prepared food and clothing for the family; washed the clothing, and regulated the minutiae of domestic affairs.
3. The employment of families was arranged by common custom. The husband was chiefly engaged in procuring food and materials for clothing; in erecting cabins and enclosures; in clearing and cultivating the land; and in building forts and stations for mutual protection against Indian hostilities. Much of his time in the cold season was spent in roaming the forests in quest of deer, bear, or other game, with which the unfrequented forests abounded. The dressed skin of the bear, the buffalo, and the deer, with its coat of long and shaggy hair, often served the double purpose of bed and blanket, and much more effectually protected the delicate from the rigors of winter.
As the settlements advanced in age and improvement, during the cessation of Indian hostilities, the exceptions to these general remarks became more frequent.
4. The diet was plain and homely. Wild game constituted the chief portion of animal food. The flesh of the bear was highly prized, and could easily be made a good substitute for beef and bacon; the deer yielded the most delicious venison, far preferable to veal; occasionally the flesh of an elk or buffalo supplied the place of fresh beef. The flesh of the partridge,
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the wild pigeon, the pheasant, the wild turkey, and the like, yielded a more delicious fare than any domestic fowl. The squirrel, the rabbit, the opossum, and many other smaller quadrupeds, supplied the delicacies of veal, lamb, mutton, and pork.Corn-meal, pounded in a wooden mortar, or ground in a hand-mill of steel, supplied the place of flour, and all the preparations of wheat. The dough, properly prepared, was spread upon a piece of shaved clap-board from three to four inches wide, and from fifteen to twenty inches long, and baked upon the hearth. When both sides were perfectly done, it was called "journey-cake," or Johnny-cake. A journey-cake board was an indispensable implement of frontier cooking. Johnny-cake and pone were the only varieties of bread used among the early frontier settlements for breakfast and dinner. At supper, milk and mush were the standard dish. When milk was not plenty, the lack was supplied by the substantial dish of hommony, or pounded corn thoroughly boiled. Sometimes maple molasses or bear's oil, and the gravy from fried meat, served as a substitute for milk in the regular supper dish.
After domestic stock began to multiply, one of the standing dishes in western Pennsylvania and Kentucky was "hog and hommony." Vegetables at length began to be cultivated in abundance, and every garden yielded a supply of common culinary vegetables, such as peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, cabbage, and many other choice articles; while the "truck-patch" close by furnished a supply of roasting ears, squashes, pumpkins, and potatoes. The standard "dinner dish" at log-rolling, house-raisings, and harvest days was a large "pot-pie," inclosing minced meats, birds, or fruits.
Tea and coffee were unknown, and many of the native frontier inhabitants attained to the age of manhood without having ever seen or tasted these luxuries; yet the root and bark of the sassafras furnished a valuable substitute for the exotic from China, while parched rye and beans formed a substitute for coffee. In many of the remotest settlements, such articles as tea-cups and saucers were unknown. At length the manufactures and agricultural products of the older settlements, and cattle and hogs, were introduced, and the frontier manners yielded to the civilized.
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5. Settlement Rights. — In forming settlements and making locations of land, each settler had a valid claim under the provisions of the Virginia laws. One of these allowed to each emigrant as a settlement right four hundred acres of land, besides a preference right to one thousand acres more contiguous. The boundary lines between any contiguous settlement rights were generally adjusted amicably by the parties interested, before actual survey was made. In these adjustments, they were guided chiefly by the ridges or water courses, or some other natural boundary. In this manner, much of the country of western Pennsylvania and Virginia was parceled out among settlers, and subsequently nearly all the country between the Muskingum and the Ohio on the east.
During the continuance of Indian hostilities, every neighborhood was provided with a "stockade fort" for the common protection, to which all retired upon any alarm of Indian incursion. As all the frontier settlements west of the Blue Ridge, from the commencement of the French war in 1754, with only short intermissions, were continually exposed to Indian hostilities, in one form or another, "the Fort," or "Station," became a characteristic feature in the western settlements. In Western Pennsylvania and in Western Virginia, north of the Big Sandy, these stockades were commonly denominated "forts," while in Kentucky and Tennessee, in later times, they were known by the name of "stations."
6. The Fort or Station. — A station, in most cases, was constructed for the protection of a large number of families, as a safe retreat in time of danger. It consisted of an enclosure of
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cabins, stockades, and block-houses, embracing about two acres or more, in the shape of a parallelogram or square; the inclosure being formed generally by cabins on two sides and by stockades on two sides. A large station sometimes presented three sides inclosed with cabins, the windows and doors all on the inner side. The outside wall of the cabin was generally ten or twelve feet high, without external openings, and perfectly bullet-proof, with the roof sloping downward to the inside. The cabins otherwise were finished in the usual manner, for the residence of families. The gate or entrance was a strong puncheon door between the parallel walls of adjoining cabins, and protected by a platform and sentry-box above. The remainder of the inclosure was completed by strong palisades set in the ground, with their sharpened points standing ten feet above ground. The whole inclosure, cabins and stockades, was provided with port-holes for defensive firing. In time of danger the gate was closed, and securely barricaded each day at sunset. During the day, if no immediate danger threatened, the inmates dispersed to their several homes or employments, until nightfall again approached.Some larger stations in Kentucky were securely fortified against the most formidable attacks of the largest Indian army. Such were defended at the opposite angles by block-houses, or bastions, built of hewed logs, two stories high, and extending a few feet beyond the line or outer range of the stockade, each bastion commanding two sides of the stockade. These blockhouses were bullet-proof, and provided with double sets of portholes for defense, and so arranged that the riflemen could at all times clear the walls in case of assault, and prevent any secret lodgment near them.
Some small settlements were protected by a single blockhouse, surrounded by a strong palisade inclosure, so as to form a secure retreat for the families in case of Indian alarm. Every station or fort, however, was invariably located near some permanent spring or water course.
In Kentucky the stations were generally large, and protected a greater number of families, who in time of danger lived in the cabins of the station as in a fortified village, having their little farms and improvements in the immediate vicinity, upon which they remained engaged in the labors of husbandry during the day, returning to the fort for safety at night. Sometimes
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the stations in Kentucky contained three parallel rows of cabins, the two outer rows being connected by the line of palisades. As the Indians were without artillery, and had very little desire to take any fortified place by storm, these stockades proved amply sufficient to withstand all the attacks which they could make with their rifles and small arms. Many of these stations during the Indian hostilities were invested by large bodies of warriors, sometimes for several weeks together, yet it was a rare occurrence for one of them to be captured.In the absence of Indian alarms and "signs," the people left the station and dispersed upon their respective farms and improvements, and resided in their own individual residences. But so soon as any alarm was given, or any "Indian sign" was found, they again retired into the station for security.
7. The Hunter. — "Hunting" constituted an important feature in the life of a western emigrant. By this means he supplied his family with a large proportion of their subsistence. Often their chief food was derived from the woods; while the skins and furs taken from the game supplied them with the only convertible medium of currency and exchange for the purchase of rifles, salt, and iron from the settlements east of the mountains. The "fall" and early part of the winter were the seasons for hunting the deer, and the whole winter and part of the spring for bears and animals which yield furs. The fur was said to be good in every month in whose name the letter r is found; besides, the annoyance and danger from Indian hostilities was less apprehended during the winter than in any other season. Every man, who was a farmer and husbandman in summer and autumn, became a hunter in winter. "As soon as the leaves were pretty well down, and the weather became rainy, accompanied with light snows, these men, after acting the part of husbandmen, so far as the state of the war permitted, began to feel that they were hunters. They became uneasy at home. Every thing about them became disagreeable. The house was too warm, the feather bed was too soft, and even the good wife, for the time, was not thought a good companion. The mind of the hunter was wholly occupied with the camp and the chase."
A hunting party being formed, "a day was soon appointed for the march of the little cavalcade to the camp. Two or three horses, furnished with pack-saddles, were loaded with
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flour, Indian meal, blankets, and every thing else requisite for the use of the hunter."The hunting camp is at length erected in a suitable situation; in some valley or dell protected by hills from the northern blasts, as well as from discovery by Indians. The hunting camp is a half-faced cabin, made of logs or stakes driven into the ground, enclosed on three sides with slabs, bark, or skins, and covered on top with the same, the roof sloping from the open front backward. In front is the log fire; inside are the slabs, moss, and skins for the bed. Sometimes a hunting camp serves for several years, especially when made with care.
"Hunting was not a mere ramble in pursuit of game," without skill and calculation. The hunter must be skilled in the nature and habits of the animals he expects to take, in the weather, and their predilections; in what situation the game is to be found, whether on hill-sides, bottoms, or on high hills. In stormy weather the deer always seek the most sheltered places, and on the leeward side of hills; in rainy weather, with but little wind, they generally keep in the open woods, and on the highest ground.
It is requisite, also, to know the direction of the lightest winds, the cardinal points, and many other hunting sciences, which none but hunters know, to enable them to traverse the pathless forest in search of game. "The whole business of hunting consists in a succession of intrigues. From morning to night the hunter must be on the alert to gain the windward of his game," in order to avoid discovery. If a deer were killed, it was skinned and hung up out of the reach of wolves, and the chase was resumed and pursued until evening, when he returned toward the camp and prepared to cook the supper. The supper being ended, the adventures of the day furnish a theme for the tales of the evening. The spike buck, the two and three pronged buck, the doe, and the barren doe figure through the tales and anecdotes of the day. After hunting some time in the same range, the hunter becomes acquainted with all the "gangs" or herds of deer in that range, and can easily recognize each when he sees them. The manoeuvers of these are themes of discourse. Often some old buck, by his superior sagacity and watchfulness, has saved his little gang from the hunter's skill by giving timely notice of his approach.
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The cunning of the hunter and that of the old buck are often staked against each other; and not infrequently, at the close of the hunting season, the old fellow is left the free, uninjured tenant of the forest; but if his rival succeeds in bringing him down, it is a victory followed by no small share of boasting on the part of the conqueror.
Is the weather unsuited to the chase? The skins and carcasses of the game can be brought in, and a proper disposition made of them. Some hunters refrain from the chase on the Sabbath from motives of piety; others, from a superstitious belief that it brings "bad luck" to hunt on the Sabbath. Nor do those who revere the day, and abstain from their usual labors, lose their reward; for they are sure of a prosperous hunting season.
The spoils of the hunting season, the skins and furs taken during the winter, constitute the stock in trade for the purchase of sundry articles which are necessary in a new and wilderness country. Of these the most indispensable were salt, iron utensils, and implements. To purchase these, every family carefully preserved the furs and skins collected during the whole year, for the purpose of sending them over the mountains to be bartered for such necessaries as were not to be had in the wilderness. For this purpose, it was customary, in the western settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia, from the Kenhawa to the Alleghany River, every fall, for each little neighborhood of a few families to dispatch "a caravan" to the settlements east of the mountains. Unlike their prototypes which traverse the deserts of Africa, they were generally few in number, and their merchandise of but little comparative value.
8. The caravan, when organized, consisted of a master, two or three young men, and one or two boys; a few horses, with pack-saddles on their backs, stuffed bells on their necks, and a pair of hickory-withe hopples attached to each pack-saddle. On each pack-saddle was secured a bag of shelled corn for provender on the way, to be deposited at convenient distances for the return route. A large wallet, well filled with bread, jerked bear's meat, or boiled ham and cheese, contained the provision for the drivers. Thus equipped, the cavalcade set out from the wilderness east of the Ohio for Baltimore, Frederic,
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Hagerstown, or Oldtown in early times, and subsequently to Fort Cumberland and Winchester.As these places successively, in the order of their names, became the marts of the western trade, the whole amount of hides and peltries, ginseng, snakeroot, and bear's grease were exchanged or bartered for salt, nails, and other articles of iron, and occasionally for a few pewter plates and dishes for the table. The bartering for the settlement being finished, the caravan was ready for its retrograde march. Each horse without a rider carried two bushels of salt, weighing eighty-four pounds to the bushel, besides a few light articles superadded.
The caravan route from the Ohio River to Frederic crossed the stupendous ranges of the Alleghany Mountains as they rise, mountain behind mountain, in the distant prospect. The path, scarcely two feet wide, and traveled by horses in single file, wound over hill and dale, through mountain defile, over craggy steeps, beneath impending rocks, and around points of dizzy heights, where one false step might hurl horse and rider into the abyss below. To prevent such accidents, the bulky baggage was removed in passing the dangerous defiles, to secure the horse from being thrown from his scanty foothold. This route, selected by experienced woodsmen, differed but little from that selected for turnpikes and rail-roads by professed engineers at a much later day.
The order of the march, going and returning, was the same. The horses with their packs were marched along in single file, the foremost led by the leader of the caravan, while each successive horse was tethered to the pack-saddle of the horse before him. A driver followed behind to keep an eye upon the proper adjustment of the packs, and to urge on any horse that was disposed to lag. In this way two men could manage a caravan of ten or fifteen horses, each carrying about two hundred pounds burden. When night came, a temporary camp and a camp fire protected the weary travelers; while the horses, released of their burdens, with hopples on their feet, and their bell-clappers loosed, were turned loose to graze near the camp.
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Salt, in the frontier settlements near the Ohio, was an expensive article for a backwoodsman; for a bushel of alum salt was equivalent to a good cow and calf. The salines of Kenhawa were then unknown, and the cattle multiplied without money.
In those early days, in the dawn of civilization in the West, the manners and customs, as well as the sense of propriety, were regulated by the state of things in the wilderness. A backwoodsman, in his first trip to Baltimore, could not conceive a more awkward predicament than the loss of his horse-bell and his hopples when about to enter the city.
9. The state of morals was as might be expected; men were untrammeled by law or gospel; each man did that which was right in his own eyes. The line which separates Western Pennsylvania from Virginia was not defined, and for many years the civil jurisdiction of both states was withheld. Hence natural justice, and the sense of right and wrong, were unsophisticated by lawyers and courts, magistrates, sheriffs, or constables. "Their own consciences were a law unto themselves;" and if they erred, "it was human to err." Public opinion was the aggregate of individual judgment, and ruled with the force of the purest democracy. In those times, each man who could shoulder his rifle was a citizen-soldier, and as such was valued as a defender of his country, and ranked among her heroes. Conscious of his own importance, each man considered his neighbor his equal, and each was anxious to merit the general esteem. Industry in hunting or work, bravery and fortitude in war, honesty, candor, and hospitality in private life, entitled a man to his full share of public honor and confidence, which
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was never withheld. The incorrigible offender received the sentence which the majesty of moral virtue pronounces against vice and turpitude, and he was "hated from society." Courage was a virtue, and military duty was performed with alacrity. He who refused to appear in arms, fully equipped, at a moment's notice, found public censure resting upon him, and he was "hated from the place." Did a neighbor wish to erect a cabin, or to roll his logs, or to gather his harvest, each man was a willing hand, and in turn received aid from others. At such places an idler or an indifferent spectator dared not approach, or the contempt of the hardy pioneers settled upon him. Did any contract a debt, it was paid in labor or by the exchange of commodities; and the force of the moral sense, sustained by public sentiment, was a stronger guarantee than all the forms of law, which often serve as a protection against honest demands. Did a man want a bushel of salt, he received it in exchange for a cow and calf. So equal was the distribution of their scanty wealth, that no one envied that of his neighbor: if any were in want, they freely received from those who could give. Was any so base as to steal, with these advantages, "the law of Moses" was enforced, and forty stripes, save one, were freely given; but if the theft were small, in memory of the "old thirteen," as his reward, thirteen stripes disgraced his back. But such was the impression, and so firmly were the stripes applied, that they were not likely soon to fade away. In the absence of a judge and court, and the forms of law, "Judge Lynch" was sure to mete his just deserts to every disturber of the peace.Lynch Law. — Although the pioneers in the West were a hardy, enterprising, honest race of men, yet the frontier settlements are often a retreat for loose and unprincipled individuals from the old settlements, who, if not familiar with crime, have very blunt perceptions of virtue. The genuine pioneer, the woodsman, is independent, brave, and upright; but, as the jackal follows in the footsteps of the lion, so the sturdy hunter is followed by the miscreant destitute of noble qualities; men who are the pests of the human race, averse to labor, impatient of the wholesome restraints of law, or the courtesies of civilized life. Some, indeed, are desperadoes, flying from justice, to escape the grasp of the law in older settlements; and in the frontier settlements he bids the civil law defiance. For such
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intruders the frontiers had a law of their own, a lex loci, known as Lynch law, which seldom failed to purge the community of his unwelcome presence. Its operation was often indispensable when a horse-thief, a counterfeiter, or other desperate vagabond infested a neighborhood, evading justice by cunning, or by a strong, audacious arm, or by the number of his confederates. The citizens formed themselves into a regulating party, commonly known as "regulators" a kind of holy brotherhood, whose duty required them to purge the neighborhood of such unruly members. Mounted, armed, and commanded by a leader, they proceeded to arrest the object of their mission. Night was the season for their official acts. Chief-justice "Birch" established his tribunal under a forest canopy; before him the culprit was arraigned, and with form and ceremony tried, and, as a matter of course, convicted. Sentence was pronounced, and without delay the penalty was inflicted, without stint or mercy. Tied securely to a tree, he was made to feel the rod, dealt by many sturdy hands, until justice was satisfied. If perchance he were an old offender, or had claims to the title of a "British Tory," his wounds were dressed, not with oil and wine, but with "tar and feathers." As the culprit retired from this ordeal, he was informed by Judge Lynch that the operation would be repeated in a few days unless he withdrew from the jurisdiction of the court. If there were confederates in crime, this warning served for all.This tribunal was resorted to only in extreme cases; and, although liable to occasional abuse, it was a great protection to honest people against the most abandoned intruders, who defied the usual forms of law.
10. Social Virtues. — Hospitality was a duty as well as a virtue; with the stranger or wayfaring man, they would readily divide their rough fare without pay or reward. In their settlements all lived together in harmony and rude simplicity. Warm and constant in their friendships, they lived and worked, feasted or suffered together in cordial harmony.
Was a man's honor or integrity impeached, the offender must prove his manhood on the spot. If he were unable to fight at fisticuff, or "rough and tumble," his friend must maintain the contest in his place. When the contest was decided, the combatants, reconciled, often shook hands, and there the
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matter ended. Pitched battles between two rival heroes sometimes were seen, when fists, and feet, and teeth were used; but knives and fire-arms were deemed dishonorable and base.In these rude settlements female virtue was safe without the protection of law. Each brother and kinsman was the prompt avenger of a sister's wrongs, and the penalty was not delayed by the slow process of law; but a want of chivalry in defense of female weakness was never known.
A marriage was the signal of a general jubilee among the friends of both parties. Days passed in anxious expectation of the appointed festival, when all hearts were to indulge in mirth and feasting.
At the appointed time, the rustic guests began to arrive from every quarter, males and females on horseback and on foot. No broad-cloth or beaver adorned their persons. Men were clad in their western dress, shoe-packs, or moccasins, leather breeches, leggins, and hunting-shirts. The women were dressed in their best, in linsey petticoats or gowns, coarse shoes, home-made stockings, handkerchiefs on their necks, and, if the weather was very cold, with leather gloves or woolen mittens on their hands. Few were able to adorn themselves with buckles, rings, or ruffles. Their horse caparisons were of the same rude stamp. The company, thus arrayed, began to arrive in single file about noon, when the rustic mirth began: with the swains, the bottle was an indispensable companion, and each made frequent draughts upon its inspiration.
The marriage ceremony over, all sat down to a wholesome dinner of backwoods fare. Beef, pork, fowls, baked or roasted, and sometimes venison or bear's meat, loaded the rustic board, together with vegetables of all kinds in great profusion; rude pies, pastry, and fruits served for dessert. The dinner past, a rustic dance engaged the joyous friends until the dawn of the following day, when they began to separate for their respective homes.
In sketching these traits of pioneer life, we have left much untold, which may be found in the excellent Notes of Dr. Doddridge. But such traits of pioneer life have long since vanished from Western Virginia, and are scarcely to be found, at this time, even in the remote West; yet, as they did exist, they constitute an important portion of early pioneer history, and as such demand a passing notice, without which the history of the pioneers would be incomplete.
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The sports were characteristic of the frontier mode of life. Running, jumping, and wrestling were the pastimes of the boys as well as of the men. Throwing the tomahawk was common, and gave skill in the arts of war. When the stock of ammunition would permit, the men preferred the more warlike exercise of the rifle, with which the diameter of a cent upon a target was pierced at the distance of fifty steps at every shot by half the men present, and some could lodge two successive balls in the same place. The best marksman always took the prize, for which all were zealous competitors.
After the settlements had become more dense on the Monongahela and on the Ohio, a new class of men sprung up, whose life was unique in the West. This was the class of
11. Boatmen. — These were a hardy, fearless set of men, who always kept just in advance of civilization and luxury. They were athletic, persevering, and patient of privations. They traversed in their pirogues, barges, or keels, the longest rivers, penetrated the most remote wilderness upon their watery routes, and kept up a trade and intercourse between the most distant points. Accustomed to every species of exposure and privation, they despised ease and luxury. Clothed in the costume of the wilderness, and armed in western style, they were always ready to exchange the labors of the oar for offensive or defensive war. Exposed to the double force of the direct and reflected rays of the sun upon the water; their complexion was swarthy, and often but little fairer than the Indians. Often, from an exposure of their bodies without shirts, their complexion, from the head to the waist, was the same.
Steam had not exerted its magic influence on the western waters, and the rich cargoes which ascended the Mississippi in keel-boats and barges were propelled by human labor for nearly two thousand miles, slowly advancing against the strong current of these rivers. The boatmen, with their bodies naked to the waist, spent the long and tedious days traversing the "running board," and pushing with their whole force against their strong setting-poles firmly fixed against the shoulder. Thus, with their heads suspended nearly to the track on the running-board, they propelled their freighted barge up the long and tedious route of the river. After a hard day's toil, at night they took their "fillee," or ration of whisky, swallowed their homely supper of meat half burned and bread half
20
baked, and retiring to sleep, they stretched themselves upon the deck, without covering, under the open canopy of heaven, or probably enveloped in a blanket, until the steersman's horn called them to their morning "fillee" and their toil.Hard and fatiguing was the life of a boatman; yet it was rare that any of them ever changed his vocation. There was a charm in the excesses, in the frolicks, and in the fighting which they anticipated at the end of the voyage, which cheered them on. Of weariness none would complain; but rising from his hard bed by the first dawn of day, and reanimated by his morning draught, he was prepared to hear and obey the wonted order, "Stand to your poles and set off!" The boatmen were masters of the winding-horn and the fiddle, and as the boat moved off from her moorings, some, to cheer their labors, or to "scare off the devil and secure good luck," would wind the animating blast of the horn, which, mingling with the sweet music of the fiddle, and reverberating along the sounding shores, greeted the solitary dwellers on the banks with news from New Orleans.
Their athletic labors gave strength incredible to their muscles, which they were vain to exhibit, and fist-fighting was their pastime. He who could boast that he had never been whipped was bound to fight whoever disputed his manhood. Keel-boatmen and barge-men looked upon rafts-men and flat-boatmen as their natural enemies, and a meeting was the prelude to a "battle-royal." They were great sticklers for "fair play," and whoever was worsted in battle must abide the issue without assistance.
Their arrival in port was a general jubilee, where hundreds often met together for diversion and frolick. Their assemblages were often riotous and lawless to extremes, when the civil authorities were defied for days together. Had their numbers increased with the population of the West, they would have endangered the peace of the country; but the first steam-boat that ascended the Ohio sounded their death-knell, and they have been buried in the tide, never more to rise.
12. National Character. — Here we design to sketch in the western people the perceptible, but slight peculiarities which are the results of the peculiar circumstances and conditions of western pioneer life, and the influx of eastern and foreign immigration.
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[A.D. 1795-1810.] The people of the Mississippi Valley are constituted from all nations, characters, languages, and conditions of men. Not a nation of Europe, not a class in all those nations, except royalty, which has not its full representation here; not a state in the Union which has not sent out its colonies to people more western regions; not a sect or denomination of Christians who have not their churches and their ministers here. The subjects of despotic monarchies, and the citizens of the freest republics in the world, all commingle here, and unite to form one people, unique in feeling, character, and genius. The Puritan of the North, the planter of the South, the German and the Iberian, the Briton and the Gaul, and even the sable sons of Africa and the northern Swede, all are here, each bringing with him his peculiar prejudices, local attachments, and predilections, and side by side they have set down together, and have gradually become assimilated in language, feelings, manners, and usages. Mutual prejudices have been effaced by contact and intimate connection, and the people, thus released from the narrow prejudices of birth and education, become more liberal, enlarged in feeling, more affectionate and agreeable, and, of course, more unprejudiced than a people who have long been unique in birth, education, and national character.
The rough, sturdy, and simple habits of the western people, living in a new and wilderness country, amid that abundance which God and Nature provide, and requiring only their own industry and exertion, give to them that fearless independence of thought and action which constitutes a characteristic trait in the American pioneers. Accustomed to the fascinating, but faithless intercourse of refined society and of great cities, men acquire habits of thought and feeling, and are subject to those restraints which give them a different mental development from the fearless, unrestrained freedom of feeling which characterizes the native of the great Valley of the Mississippi. Here candor, truth, sincerity, independence, and equality predominate over the more degenerate traits of character inculcated in old and densely-populated countries. Inhabiting a country of immense extent, with boundless prairies and forests, and traversed by the most magnificent rivers of the globe, their ideas travel, and distance is correspondingly enlarged. Free to roam at will through the whole extent, with facilities unheard of in the
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Old World, with them the field of ordinary travel is one which, in Europe, would embrace many nations and languages. Accustomed to the independent control of property and their own action, the western people become habitually more ardent, more energetic, and more enterprising than the serfs and minions of arbitrary power. The constant toils and active life prompted by interest and a hope of personal gain, in a salubrious and fertile country, give energy of action and a patent endurance unknown to human nature chained in its efforts and limited in its aspirations.13. The Religious Character. — The experiment is being made in this vast region of future empires upon a broad scale, which will test the question whether religion, as a national trait, can be maintained without legislative aid, or a union with the civil power. Men are here left free to adopt such religious views and tenets as they choose, and the laws protect every man alike in his religious opinions. Ministers of the Gospel and priests being presumed as devoted to humanity, charity, and general benevolence, are precluded by many of the state constitutions from any active participation in the legislative authority, and their compensation depends upon the voluntary aid of those among whom they labor in charity and love. In a wide country with large districts as yet sparsely populated, there are comparatively few stationary ministers; yet there are thousands, embracing all denominations, who traverse the whole country, forming an itinerant corps, who visit in rotation, within their respective bounds, every settlement, town, and village. Unsustained by the rigid precepts of law in any privileges, perquisites fixed revenue, prescribed reverence or authority, except such as is voluntarily acknowledged, the clergy find that success depends upon the due cultivation of popular talents. Zeal for the great cause, mixed, perhaps, with a spice of earthly ambition the innate sense of emulation, and laudable pride, a desire of distinction among their cotemporaries and brethren, prompt them to seek popularity, and to study all the arts and means of winning the popular favor. Traveling from month to month through dark forests, with such ample time for deep thought as they amble slowly along the lonesome horse-path or unfrequented road, they naturally acquire a pensive and romantic turn of thought and expression, which is often favorable to
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eloquence. Hence this preaching is of a highly popular cast, its first aim being to excite the feelings and mold them to their own: hence, too, excitements, or, in religious parlance, "awakenings," or "revivals," are common in this region. Living remote from each other, and spending much of their time in domestic solitude in vast forests or wide-spreading prairies, the "appointment" for preaching is often looked upon as a gala day or a pleasing change, which brings together the auditors from remote points, and gratifies a feeling of curiosity, which prompts them to associate and interchange cordial congratulations.Religious excitements sometimes pervade a town or settlement, or even an extensive section of country, simultaneously. People in every direction are fired with a desire to be present at the appointed time and place of meeting. They assemble as to an imposing spectacle; they pour in from their woods and remote seclusions to witness the assemblage, and to hear the new preacher, whose eloquence and fame have preceded him. The preaching has a scenic effect; it is a theme of earnest discussion, with apt illustrations, forcible arguments, and undaunted zeal. The people are naturally more sensitive and enthusiastic than in older countries. A man of rude, boisterous, but native eloquence rises among these children of the forest, and of simple nature, with his voice pitched to the highest tones, and his utterance thrilling with that awful theme to which each string of the human heart responds, and while the woods echo his vehement declamations, his audience is alternately dissolved in tears, awed to profound ecstasy of feeling, or, falling convulsed by spasms, attest the power of western pulpit eloquence.
In no instance are these effects more striking than at a regular "camp meeting." No one who has not seen and observed for himself can imagine how profoundly the preachers have understood what produces effect among the western people, and how well they have practiced upon it. Suppose the scene to be in one of those regions where religious excitements have been frequent and extensive, in one of the beautiful, fertile, and finely watered valleys of Tennessee, surrounded by grand and towering mountains. The notice has been circulated for several weeks or months, and all are eager to attend the long-expected occasion. The country, perhaps, for fifty miles around,
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is excited with the cheerful anticipation of the approaching festival of religious feeling and social friendship. On the appointed day, coaches, chaises, wagons, carts, people on horseback and on foot, in multitudes, with provision-wagons, tents, mattresses, household implements, and cooking utensils, are seen hurrying from every direction toward the central point. It is in the midst of a grove of beautiful, lofty, umbrageous trees, natural to the western country, clothed in their deepest verdure, and near some sparkling stream or gushing fountain, which supplies the host with wholesome water for man and beast. The encampment spreads through the forest over hundreds of acres, and soon the sylvan village springs up as if by magic; the line of tents and booths is pitched in a semicircle, or in a four-sided parallelogram, inclosing an area of two acres or more, for the arrangement of seats and aisles around the rude pulpit and altar for the thronging multitude, all eager to hear the heavenly message.Toward night the hour of solemn service approaches, when the vast sylvan bower of the deep umbrageous forest is illuminated by numerous lamps suspended around the line of tents which encircles the public area, besides the frequent altars distributed over the same, which send forth a glare of light from their fagot fires upon the worshiping throng and the majestic forest with an imposing effect, which elevates the soul to fit converse with its creator, God.
"The scenery of the most brilliant theatre in the world is only a painting for children compared to this. Meantime, the multitudes, with the highest excitement of social feeling, added to the general enthusiasm of expectation, pass from tent to tent, and interchange apostolic greetings and embraces, and talk of the approaching solemnities. A few minutes suffice to finish the evening repast, when the moon (for they take thought to appoint the meeting at the proper time of the moon) begins to show its disk above the dark summits of the mountains, and a few stars are seen glimmering, in the west, and the service begins. The whole constitutes a temple worthy of the grandeur of God. An old man in a dress of the quaintest simplicity ascends a platform, wipes the dust from his spectacles, and, in a voice of suppressed emotion, gives out the hymn, of which the whole assembled multitude can recite the words, to be sung with an air in which every voice can join. We should esteem
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meanly the heart that would not thrill as the song is heard, ‘like the sound of many waters,’ echoing among the hills and mountains." The service proceeds. "The hoary orator talks of God, of eternity, of a judgment to come, and of all that is impressive beyond. He speaks of his ‘experiences,’ his toils and his travels, his persecutions and his welcomes, and how many he has seen in hope, in peace, and triumph gathered to their fathers; and when he speaks of the short space that remains to him, his only regret is that he can no more proclaim, in the silence of death, the unsearchable riches and mercies of his crucified Redeemer.""No wonder, as the speaker pauses to dash the gathering moisture from his own eye, that his audience is dissolved in tears, or uttering exclamations of penitence. Nor is it cause for admiration that many who poised themselves on an estimation of a higher intellect and a nobler insensibility than the crowd, catch the infectious feeling, and become women and children in their turn, while others, ‘who came to mock, remain to pray.’"
And who constitute the audience, and who are the speakers? "A host of preachers of different denominations are there, some in the earnest vigor and aspiring desires of youth, waiting an opportunity for display; others are there who have proclaimed the Gospel as pilgrims of the cross, from the remotest lakes of Canada on the north to the shores of the Mexican Gulf on the south, and who are ready to utter the words, the feelings, and experience which they have treasured up in a traveling ministry of fifty years, and whose accents, trembling with age, still more impressively than their words, announce that they will soon travel and preach no more on earth."
But the ambitious and the wealthy, too, are there; for in this region opinion is all-powerful. They are there, either to extend their influence, or lest even their absence might prejudice their good name. Aspirants for office are there, to electioneer and to gain popularity. Vast numbers are there from simple curiosity, and merely to enjoy the spectacle. The young and beautiful are there, with mixed motives, which it were best not to scrutinize severely. Children are there, and their young eyes glisten with intense interest of eager curiosity. The middle-aged fathers and mothers are there, with the sober view of
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people whose plans of life are fixed, and who wait calmly to hear. Men and women of hoary hairs are there, with such thoughts, it may be hoped, as their years invite. Such is the congregation, consisting of thousands.It was about the year 1800 that camp meetings were introduced in the western country, and for several years afterward they became a remarkable feature in the religious exercises of several denominations of Christians, but with none more than the Presbyterians and Methodists. The operations of the Spirit at these meetings were often remarkable and extraordinary to an astonishing degree. Conversions were exceedingly numerous and effectual, producing in most cases a thorough change in the disposition, feelings, and conduct of the individuals, which continued through subsequent life. At some of these meetings, which were continued from five to ten days, no less than forty or fifty persons professed conversion by a powerful and extraordinary change. During the revivals, which often extended over wide sections of country, several hundreds, and even thousands, were operated upon in like manner.
The first important camp meeting on record was held at "Cane Ridge," in Tennessee, in the summer of 1799. The revivals and protracted meetings which had preceded it caused it to be attended by a vast concourse of people, encamped in the dense forest, where the religious exercises were continued day and night. This novel mode of worshiping God excited great attention, and people flocked to it from a distance of fifty and sixty miles; many came from Lexington, Kentucky, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles. At night the grove was illuminated with lighted candles, lamps, and torches. The stillness of the night, the serenity of the heavens, the vast concourse of attentive worshipers wrapped in the deep solemnity which covered every countenance, the pointed and earnest manner in which the preachers, in different portions of the vast concourse, exhorted the people to repentance, prayer, and faith, denouncing the terrors of the law upon the impenitent, produced the most awfully-solemn sensations in the minds of all present. A general scene of penitential sorrow, mingled with the ecstasy of joy and gladness,
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spread over the encampment, such as had never been seen before. During this meeting one hundred persons professed a thorough conversion, and thousands were deeply impressed with the solemnities of the occasion.At this meeting about three thousand persons fell under the power which overshadowed the encampment. Among them were several Presbyterian ministers, who had before possessed, by their own confessions, only a speculative knowledge of religion and its influences.
Such was the vast concourse at this meeting, that it was estimated at twenty thousand persons. As no one man's voice could reach half the audience, the people assembled into several large congregations, in different portions of the encampment, and were addressed by as many speakers at one and the same time. The whole grove became vocal with the praise of God and the cries of the penitent. At night the scene became peculiarly awful and solemn. The long ranges of tents, the glare of the illuminated forest from the midst of the encampment, the moving masses of anxious and admiring people passing to and from, some preaching, some praying for mercy, others, in the ecstasy of joy, praising God for his pardoning love, produced a scene of indescribable awe and solemnity.
The majority were wrought upon by a silent, inward awakening, to a solemn concern for salvation, which brought them from "a state of nature to a state of grace." In some, however, the inward concern and mental agony occasioned the most extraordinary effects upon the whole physical system.
The next important camp meeting was on Desha's Creek, near Cumberland River. This meeting was attended by many thousands of people from the distance of fifty and sixty miles. The same scenes were again witnessed in a still more remarkable manner. Hundreds were struck down insensible and powerless, as by lightning, under the solemn exercises; others fell "like corn before a storm of wind," in the most intense mental agony. From this state, after a longer or shorter time, they would rise, "with divine joy beaming in their countenances," praising God in strains of ecstasy and earnest exhortation, which was perfectly irresistible to the most obdurate sinner. Speaking the pure and heavenly feelings of the heart, and burning with rapture, their words were "sharper than a two-edged
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sword" in piercing the heart and extorting the cry, "What shall I do to be saved?" In many of these impassioned and burning exhortations, the young and modest females, as well as the sterner sex, were endued with a fluency and a power of eloquence which "confounded the wisdom of the learned" and subdued the most stubborn hearts.Curiosity was excited far and near, and the newspapers of that day abounded with descriptions of the operations exhibited in this work, both defending and condemning the reality of the astonishing influences there operating. Yet all tended to excite public curiosity to the gratification of a desire to be eyewitnesses of the phenomena said to have been exhibited.
Not only the openly profane, the carnal-minded, the irreligious, but the formal professor, beheld these strange exercises with mingled emotions of pity and abhorrence. The natural enmity of the carnal mind, the pride of philosophy, and the prejudices of education and religious bigotry created a formidable array of opposition, which was displayed in a variety of modes. Some would scoff, others would philosophize; some would dogmatize in terms of religious intolerance while they beheld those manifestations which, by the friends of the cause, were believed to be the true power and grace of God.
Yet all arguments on these points were answered by a fact which none could deny: that those, in many instances, who had been most violent in their opposition, and most vociferous in their denunciations against the "wild-fire" and hypocrisy of the converts, had subsequently yielded to its influence, and had become convinced of its power; in such it had melted their hearts within them, and caused them to fall down upon their faces and to worship God, "declaring that of a truth God is here." Blasphemers, scoffers, persecutors, and bigoted dogmatizers were struck dumb; and "the tongue of the dumb was made to sing," and the enemies of the work became living witnesses of its power and divine influence.
[A.D. 1801.] At Cabin Creek, Kentucky, in the summer of 1801, twenty thousand persons are said to have attended the camp meeting, and but few escaped its influence and its mysterious power. On the third night multitudes fell, and remained unconscious of external objects for hours together; and, to prevent their being trodden under foot by the crowd, they
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were carried and collected into one of the squares of the meeting-house in the charge of their friends, until they should pass through the strange phenomena of their conversion.Those who have witnessed these scenes can recall the picture faintly in their minds, but it is impossible to impart the conception to those who have never been present to witness for themselves. It is impossible to revive the thrilling sensations produced by the solemn melody reverberating through the sounding forest and echoed from the surrounding hills, bearing aloft the swelling anthems of thousands, rolling like the sound of many waters, wave after wave, and in sweet, melodious harmony, rising up to heaven.
"The groves were God's first temples: ere man learn'd
To hew the shaft or lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them; ere he framed
The lofty vault to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems, in the shady grove,
Amid the tow'ring oaks, he raised his voice,
And offer'd to the Mightiest solemn praise
And supplication."
The ministers who led the way in these exciting revivals were William and John M'Ghee, the Rev. Messrs. Gready, Hoge, and Rankin, of the Presbyterian Church, and William M'Kendree, William Burke, John Sale, and Benjamin Lakin, of the Methodist Church.
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Chapter II. — Indian warfare, and its effects upon the frontier people. Eminent pioneers of Kentucky. A.D. 1775 to 1794.
Argument. — Man in his natural Condition the Creature of Circumstances, in Habits, Feeling, and Character. — The hostile Attitude and Jealousy of the Six Nations. — Their Neutrality secured by "Treaty of German Flats," in 1776. — Indians paid to violate treaty Stipulations by the British Commissioners at Oswego in 1777, and take up Arms against the frontier People. — The frontier People become daring and vindictive. — Influence of Indian Warfare upon Manners and Usages of the Whites. — Compelled to adopt the Indian Revenge. — Volunteer Defense of the West. — Personal Characteristics of frontier Soldiers. — Athletic Form and Strength. — Patience of Toil and Privation. — Recuperative Powers of the System. — State of Feeling on the Frontiers. — Exterminating Policy of Indians. — Cruelty of British Tories. — Spirit of Revenge in the People. — Their domestic Enjoyments. — Indian scalping Parties on the Frontier. — Their cautious and destructive Movements. — Renegade white Men associated with Indians.
Indian Implements of War. — The Rifle. — The Scalping-knife. — Tomahawk. — Battle-ax. — War-club. — Declaration of War. — Torture. — Running the Gantlet. — Torture at the Stake by Fire.
Eminent Pioneers of Kentucky. — 1. Daniel Boone. — His Nativity and early Habits. — Personal Traits of Character. — His first Acquaintance with Kentucky in 1769 and 1771. — At Watauga in 1775. — Opens a Road from Holston to Kentucky River. — Captain at Boonesborough until 1778. — Captured by Indians at Blue Licks. — His Captivity and Escape. — An active Defender of Kentucky until 1783. — Abandons Kentucky in 1800. — Settles in Missouri. — His Remains and those of his Wife removed to Kentucky in 1845. — 2. Simon Kenton. — His Character as a fearless Pioneer. — Nativity and Early Habits. — Youthful Indiscretion and subsequent Hardships. — A Hunter in Kentucky. — A Hunter in Western Virginia. — Attached to Dunmore's Army. — Becomes "a Hunter of Kentucky." — His personal Appearance at the Age of twenty-one Years. — His benevolent Disposition. — Attached to Kentucky Stations. — Accompanies Colonel Clark to Kaskaskia. — Returns to Harrod's Station. — Visits the Paint Creek Towns. — Captured by Indians. — Wild Horse Torture. — Divers Tortures and Punishments suffered during his Captivity. — Sold in Detroit. — Escapes to Kentucky. — Serves under Colonel Clark in 1780 and 1782. — An active partisan Warrior until 1792. — Encounters Tecumseh. — Serves in Wayne's Army. — Abandons Kentucky in 1802. — Removes to Ohio. — Serves under Colonel Shelby in 1813. — Died in 1836. — 3. Robert Patterson. — Nativity, early Life, and Habits. — Serves in Dunmore's Army. — A prominent Pioneer of Kentucky in 1776. — Erects a Station on the Site of Lexington in 1779. — Active Defender of Kentucky during the Indian War. — 4. Major George Rogers Clark. — His early frontier Services. — His Character and Military Genius. — Superintends the Defense of Kentucky from 1776 to 1782. — Reduction of British Posts in 1778, 1779.
[A.D. 1775.] MAN is the creature of the moral and physical circumstances with which he is surrounded. As these vary, or as any peculiar circumstances predominate, so will be the physical development, and the moral and social character. Labor, toil, and constant exposure to hardships and dangers, give strength and firmness to the muscles, and develop the full stature of the body. Men accustomed from youth to brave
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every danger from man and beast, exposed to the constant inroads and assaults of the savages, compelled to be on the alert at all times and places, in order to prevent surprise and death, and often driven by necessity and imminent danger to engage in fearful encounters with the wily Indian in defense of their families or friends, of necessity became bold, fearless, and implacable, eager only for vengeance or victory, whether gained by open war or stratagem.Contending with civilized foes, man becomes imbued with all the feelings and principles of enlightened warfare, as practiced by civilized nations; but contending with the naked savage in his native forests and mountain defiles, he necessarily becomes assimilated in feelings, habits, and customs, and is compelled to meet all the savage wiles and artifices with similar caution and circumspection; he is likewise compelled to adopt their policy of extermination toward their enemies.
As a beautiful writer has observed, "The success of the early adventurers to the West is almost a miracle in colonization. Nation has heretofore precipitated itself upon nation, conquered the occupants of the soil, and seized upon their possessions; but in this case isolated emigrants, without the benefit of military or civil organization, relying upon their own bravery and skill, and with such assistance from men equally daring as accident might furnish, seized and held an extensive country, and laid the foundation of powerful states. The waste of life by incessant war was more than supplied by a constant stream of new-comers, until the aboriginal race, weakened and discouraged by contending with enemies whom no disaster or defeat appeared to diminish or dishearten, gave up in despair, and attempted by peace to save themselves from extermination."
The Indians, at the close of Lord Dunmore's war, had been compelled to yield to the demands of the whites, and to acknowledge the Ohio River as the western boundary of the white settlements. The hostilities which had terminated with the treaty of Camp Charlotte had served only to renew the feelings of mutual enmity between the white man and the savage. These feelings of mutual enmity and jealousy were but imperfectly satisfied on either side by that treaty, for the royal governor had an eye to future events which were likely to transpire between the mother country and the colonies. Thus,
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in 1776, there existed between the frontier people and the savages a feeling of mutual jealousy and mutual suspicion, which was only restrained for a time by the proclamation of the governor.Many permanent settlements had been established on the banks of the Ohio, above Wheeling, and on many of the tributaries of the Kenhawa and Kentucky Rivers. The Indians looked upon all these advances with a jealous eye, but their remonstrances were disregarded; and when they found, year after year, that these settlements continued to increase, and that with every increase came additional claims for lands still further west, the jealousy of the savage ripened into settled revenge, and a fixed determination to arrest the white man's advance.
The wars which had raged from 1755 to 1764 had roused up the whole northwestern tribes to the importance of protecting their country from the white man's grasp. After a delusive calm of ten years, the advances under Lord Dunmore's administration had roused the Indians again to a general war, and their hostility to the whites was only quieted by another delusive peace, which had been entered into by the royal governor in view of ulterior arrangements, in case the colonial disturbances should result in open war.
[A.D. 1776.] Such was the state of Indian feeling at the opening of the Revolutionary war; the Indians were content to remain quiet and see the mother country destroy her own colonies, which had been so annoying to their peace and security. Yet the active part taken by the colonists in the war under Lord Dunmore was such as to leave no good will for them in the breast of the Indian, and they could scarcely desire the colonists to be triumphant. The colonists, however, in contending with the mother country, desired no contest with the Indian; yet, having rendered themselves obnoxious to the Indian resentment by their former efforts in favor of Great Britain for the occupancy of the West, it was deemed expedient by Congress to conciliate the Six Nations, and secure their neutrality by formal treaty.
To this end, provision had been made for a treaty early in the summer of 1776, and General Schuyler, duly authorized and provided, repaired to the "German Flats," where, early in June, the chiefs, warriors, and sachems of the Six Nations
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were assembled in council. After due negotiation, a treaty was formed and signed on the 14th of June, 1776, in which the Indians stipulated to observe a strict neutrality in the war which had been commenced by England. Such was the relation existing between the Six Nations and the United States in the early part of the Revolutionary war. But British rapacity, intolerance, and barbarism could not tolerate such a state of neutrality.[A.D. 1777.] "About one year afterward, a messenger from the British commissioners arrived among the Indian tribes, requesting all the Indians to attend a grand council to be held soon at Oswego, on Lake Ontario. The council convened, and the British commissioners informed the chiefs that the object in calling a council of the Six Nations was to engage their assistance in subduing the rebels, the people of the States, who had risen up against the good king, their master, and were about to rob him of a great part of his possessions. The commissioners added, that they would amply reward the Indians for all their services.
"The chiefs then informed the commissioners of the nature and extent of the treaty into which they had entered with the people of the States the year before; informing them, also, that they should not violate it now by taking up the hatchet against them. The commissioners continued their entreaties without success until they addressed their avarice and their appetites. They told the Indians that the people of the States were few in number, and easily subdued; and that, on account of their disobedience to the king, they justly merited all the punishment which white men and Indians could possibly inflict upon them. They added, that the king was rich and powerful, both in subjects and money; that his rum was as plenty as the water in Lake Ontario; that his men were as numerous as the sands on the lake shore; that if the Indians would assist in the war until the close, as the friends of the king; they should never want for money or goods." "Upon such persuasion, the chiefs at length concluded a treaty with the British commissioners, in which, for certain considerations stipulated, they agreed to take up arms against the rebels, and continue in his majesty's service until they were subdued."
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As soon as the treaty was concluded, the commissioners made a present to each Indian, consisting of one suit of clothes, a brass kettle, a gun, a tomahawk, a scalping-knife, a quantity of powder and lead, and one piece of gold, promising likewise a bounty on every scalp which should be brought in. Such is the price of blood and rapine with Great Britain.
In a few weeks the warriors, "full of fire and war, and anxious to encounter their enemies," sallied forth against the unsuspecting settlements of New York and Pennsylvania, and their deeds were inscribed with the scalping-knife in characters of blood upon the fields of Wyoming and Cherry Valley, along the banks of the Mohawk, and in the Valley of the Susquehanna, in massacres unparalleled in the history of Indian warfare.
At the same time, orders were issued to Sir John Stewart, his majesty's agent for southern Indian affairs, commanding him to stir up the Cherokees against the frontier settlements of Virginia and the two Carolinas, occupying the territory drained by the sources of the Holston, Broad, Tugeloo, and French Broad. The flame of Indian war was lighted up simultaneously west of the mountains and against all the settlements upon the waters of the Ohio. These feeble settlements, remote from the dense population and from succor, without defense or support, were thrown, as an isolated portion of the States, entirely upon their own resources for the support of their families in the wilderness, and for the protection of their homes and lives from savage massacre and rapine. Not provided with the means of regular warfare, they were compelled to associate for mutual protection and defense with the limited means at command. Surrounded by hostile savages in every quarter, whose secret approaches and whose vengeance none could foresee or know, they were compelled to depend upon their own courage and energy of character in order to maintain an existence against the exterminating warfare of these allies of the British king. The mode of Indian warfare itself suggested their only course. To protect themselves from midnight slaughter, they were compelled to secure themselves in forts and stations, where the women and children could enjoy comparative security, while the men, armed always in the Indian manner, went out to meet
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the enemy in their secret approach and in their hiding-places, whether in the recesses of the mountains or in the dense forests. Thus detached parties of two or three, and sometimes seven, were kept on constant duty as "rangers," or "spies," in traversing the forests in every direction, to prevent surprise at the stations and forts. None but the strong, the active, and the courageous dared engage in these excursions; the remainder occupied the stations and forts as permanent garrisons, and as guards to protect those who were engaged in the labors of the field, or in the avocations of domestic employments.Every residence, however humble, became thus a fortified station; every man, woman, and child able to raise a gun, or ax, or club, in case of assault, became a combatant in defense of their castle, and every able-bodied man or youth was a soldier of necessity. During hostilities, every day was spent in anxious apprehension, and each night was a time of suspense and watching, uncertain who might survive the night. Life, in such a condition, was a forced state of existence against the dangers of the tomahawk and rifle, for no retreat was safe, no shelter secure, and no caution effectual against the insidious advances and midnight sallies of the ever-watchful savage. The private paths, the springs, the fields, and the hunting-grounds were all waylaid by parties of Indians, who remained quietly in their hiding-places for days to secure the devoted victim who might incautiously frequent those places. To cut off supplies, the gardens and the fields were laid waste at night, the stocks were killed in the woods, and the game was destroyed around them by lurking savages. The bear and the panther, and the most ravenous beasts of prey, were less an object of dread than the Indian, thirsting for human blood, and bent on extermination.
Every recent massacre of helpless innocence and female weakness; every ruined family; every depredation and conflagrated dwelling; every daring incursion and new alarm, served but to increase the white man's terror of the horrid warfare, and to stimulate his vengeance to deeds of blood against the omnipresent foe. To remain at home and in their fortified stations was to starve and make themselves an easy prey to their enemies, or to invite an attack from united numbers, which would overwhelm all in one promiscuous carnage; hence the active, the strong, and the daring scoured the woods
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for miles in every direction, to discover any approaches that might be made, and, in case of large numbers discovered, to give the alarm, and prevent surprise to the respective stations. Were offensive operations in force required, where no regular government existed, and where no military organization had been formed, each man volunteered his individual patriotism, and devised ways and means for the general defense; each man became a private soldier, supplied and equipped himself, and entered the expedition to aid in the enterprise. The bold and experienced were, by general consent, placed in command, and all submitted to a cheerful obedience. If the object was the destruction of a remote Indian town, probably two hundred miles distant, and known to be the dwelling-place of hostile bands which had repeatedly laid waste the settlements with conflagration and blood, all were eager to engage in the enterprise. Fathers, sons, brothers, and relatives, all were ready to march to the destruction of the devoted town. Were the numbers required less than the voluntary levy, the leader selected the chosen men and the skillful warriors, leaving the remainder to defend the stations. Thus a portion of the pioneers were compelled to seek danger at a remote distance in order to secure safety for those at home. Every man was a soldier by profession and by daily practice. The frontiers were strictly military cantons for nearly forty years; every man from boyhood was a soldier, and civil government was a mere interlude between the great acts.Courage, stimulated by the constant demands for active enterprise, unfolded to each man a knowledge of his powers and capacity. Mutual dependence, sincere friendship, and strict confidence in times of danger, cemented them into a band of brothers. The circumstances by which they were surrounded served admirably to develop all those manly traits and noble qualities which, united, constitute "nature's noblemen," such as are rarely seen in dense communities. Early and constant exercise, and habitual exposure to the labors of frontier life, in constitutions naturally vigorous, gave a noble development to their forms and physical stature.
The superiority of the early pioneers and hunters of the West was too apparent to escape the notice of the most careless observer. In stature of body, in strength and activity, in swiftness in the chase, in patient endurance of cold, hunger
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and fatigue, in dexterity with the tomahawk and rifle, no set of men probably ever excelled them. Not only were their corporeal developments of the finest proportions, but their daring and active mode of life, and the dangers which they encountered and surmounted from youth to manhood, stamped upon the countenance an open, frank, and fearless air of expression, which was the true index to the soul. Such were Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, George Rogers Clark, Joseph Bowman, Robert Patterson, Benjamin Logan, James Harrod, Ebenezer Zane, Jonathan Zane, Adam Poe, Captain Whitley, Leonard Helm, John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, and many others who distinguished themselves in the darkest hours of savage danger.These men, as were hundreds of their associates, emigrants to the western country, were persons of robust forms, of great strength, full of courage and fearless adventure. Such only could survive and withstand the hardships necessarily encountered in the western wilds, beset by savages in every direction. Hence, in the emigration from the older states, the choice spirits, the bone and sinew of the country, and the iron hearts only were attracted to the western frontier during these times of danger and privation. A detachment of these men, marshaled in the West, appeared like giants compared to common men, or like the towering grenadiers among common troops, and when experienced in Indian warfare, were more than equal to the savages themselves.
Not only did they excel in vigor of body and in physical development, but the firmness of muscle was peculiar, and all the powers of life within were endued with uncommon vigor and energy. The recuperative powers of the constitution, the vis medicatrix naturae, was active beyond all former example among a civilized people. The restorative power of the vital energy was such, that wounds of a serious character, lacerations, incisions, contusions, and even gun-shot wounds, healed speedily and with remarkable facility. Wounds which, in a dense population or in a highly-civilized community, would inevitably have been attended with gangrene and sloughing, among these frontier people produced only a temporary inconvenience, and healed by the first intention, with inflammation barely sufficient to produce a healthy granulation; many have recovered after having been tomahawked and scalped; and
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Simon Kenton recovered and lived to old age after thrice enduring the ordeal of "running the gantlet" in its worst form.Few persons living in the old settlements, remote front frontier dangers and privations during Indian hostilities, can properly appreciate the horrors of Indian warfare, such as was encountered by the frontier people of Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee; no painting of the historian can fully describe them, and his most glowing descriptions fall far short of the stern reality.
The life of the frontier settler was one of fearful danger; a continual contest with a foe who recognized no rules of civilized warfare, and knew no mercy to his enemy but that of extermination. In civilized warfare, those not found in arms may be safe from the death-blow of the soldier; no civilized warrior dishonors his sword with the blood of helpless infancy, old age, or female weakness. He aims his blows at those only who are arrayed against him in open war. But the Indian kills indiscriminately. His object is the total extermination of his enemies, and children are equally the victims of his vengeance; because if males, they may become warriors, and mothers if females. The unborn infant is his enemy also; and it is not sufficient that it should cease to exist with its murdered mother, but it must be torn from its mother's womb, to share with her the horrors of savage vengeance.
[A.D. 1778.] The Indian takes no prisoners; if he deviates from this rule, avarice, not mercy, prompts the deed. He spares the lives of such as fall into his hands because his Christian allies of Canada will pay him more for the living prisoner than for his dead scalp. But perhaps the victim is reserved only for torture, to grace the horrid festival and furnish the young warriors with an opportunity to feast their eyes upon the dying agonies of an enemy to the Indian race, and to gloat upon the pangs which the slow fire inflicts upon the white man. The prisoner may be reserved, though rarely, to strengthen the tribe and to fill the place of a fallen warrior. The cruelty of the savage otherwise knows no bounds; his revenge toward his enemies is insatiable.
The confines between the white man and the savage presents human nature in its most revolting aspect. The white man insensibly, and by necessity, adopts the ferocity and the cruelty of his savage competitor for the forests; and each is alternately
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excited with a spirit of the most vindictive revenge, a thirst for human blood which can be satiated only by the indiscriminate destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.Man, in his primitive state, is by nature a savage, and in his wars knows no object except the extermination of his enemies in one form or another. When civilized man comes in collision with the savage, all the usages and maxims of civilization, calculated to ameliorate the horrors of war, are abandoned, and civilized man becomes in all these respects a savage in his mode of warfare, in his unrestrained passions, and in his cruel excesses. Too often, indeed, under the contagion of example, we find that civilized man degenerates into the most inhuman barbarian, not excelled by the most ruthless savage. Instances of this kind were of frequent occurrence during the war of the Revolution, exemplified in the persons of the "British Tories," who fought with the Indian allies against the defenseless frontier settlements.
Nor can it be concealed that the American pioneer, smarting under the loss of friends and relatives murdered by the savages under every species of savage torture, burning with revenge for repeated incursions and murders upon the settlements, from which they had escaped with impunity, should sometimes wreak his vengeance, when occasion offered, with an unsparing
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hand. Humanity is the same in all ages under the same circumstances. The atrocities perpetrated upon the Ohio from 1777 to 1782, and in Tennessee and the Northwestern Territory as late as 1790 and 1794, no less than the inhuman barbarities of the River Raisin in 1812, were sufficient to provoke human nature to a revenge which was truly insatiable. Hence, in their successes over their savage foes, the backwoods soldier has repaid them "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."[A.D. 1780.] Nor was the frontier settler himself proof against the example set by the savages and their British allies. More than once it has happened that the pioneer warrior, in defending his home, and in revenging the deaths of his murdered family or of his friends, has transcended the bounds of justifiable revenge, and, yielding to the impulses of outraged humanity, has inflicted the most signal and summary death upon unresisting Indians. History does not furnish an instance in which a civilized people, waging war with savages or barbarians, have not adopted the mode of warfare necessary to place them on an equality with their antagonists. It is impossible to adapt civilized warfare to the chastisement of savages.
How can the unprotected people of the frontiers meet a savage war of extermination and cruelty? Can it be met and resisted by the lenient maxims and usages of civilized warfare? In the face of the most horrid scenes of indiscriminate slaughter, the wholesale murder of settlements in cold blood, in the face of the most atrocious murders of friends and relatives, whose ghastly wounds, inflicted by the tomahawk and scalping-knife, were crying to Heaven for vengeance, shall the guilty authors be treated as civilized men? or shall they be treated as human beings? The pioneer who has witnessed these enormities will answer, that every principle of self-preservation requires the adoption of the Indian mode of revenge in its most destructive features. Civilized warfare is inefficient with the savage, and to adhere to it in a war with them is patiently to submit to self-immolation at the shrine of savage vengeance.
For forty years was the strife continued along the frontier settlements of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, from the first hostilities under the royal governor, Robert Dinwiddie, in 1754, to the close of the Indian hostilities by General Wayne at Fort Greenville, in August, 1795. The tribes engaged in these hostilities were alternately the "Six
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Nations," and their confederates the Shawanese, the Cherokees, the Creeks, and Chickasas. During this time but few intervals of peace were known, and for the greater portion of the time the pioneer settler was constantly menaced with the tomahawk and scalping-knife, over a scope of country extending from the sources of the Alleghany River on the north to the sources of the Cumberland and Tennessee on the south.To the inhabitants of cities and countries long settled and cultivated, it seems wonderful that any of their race should voluntarily seek the hardships which were necessarily encountered by the early emigrants to the West. That wonder is increased by the consideration that it was at the hazard of their lives, and in the midst of incessant war. With the rifle in one hand and the ax in the other, they traversed the wilderness and erected their scattered stations. Party after party was attacked and butchered on the road through the wilderness. Boat after boat was captured, and whole families were massacred upon the Ohio River and its tributaries. Scarcely a station escaped repeated sieges by the lurking savages. Some were taken and burned; and the inmates, men, women, and children, were tomahawked, or carried prisoners to the Indian towns. The men were waylaid and shot while cultivating their crops, the women and little children were captured or murdered in their cabins while their husbands and sons were in the forest or the field. Still the adventurous pioneer advanced, and thousands from the older settlements seemed to covet the danger, which certainly had its pleasures, though mingled with bitterness.
"But could there be happiness or comfort in such dwellings, and such a state of society? To those who are accustomed to modern refinements the truth appears like fable. The early occupants of log cabins in the ‘bloody land’ were among the most happy of mankind. Exercise and excitement gave them health; they were practically equal; common danger made them mutually dependent; brilliant hopes of future wealth and distinction led them on; and as there was ample room for all, and as each new-comer increased individual and general security, there was little room for that envy, jealousy, and hatred which constitute a large portion of human misery in older societies. Never were the story, the joke, the song, and the laugh better enjoyed than upon the hewed blocks or puncheon stools
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around the roaring log fire of the early western settler. The lyre of Apollo was not hailed with more delight in primitive Greece than the advent of the first fiddler among the dwellers of the wilderness; and the polished daughters of the East never enjoyed themselves half so well moving to the music of a full band, upon the elastic floor of their ornamented ball-room, as did the daughters of the emigrants keeping time to a self-taught fiddler on the bare earth or puncheon floor of the primitive log cabin. The smile of the polished beauty is the wave of the lake where the zephyr plays gently over it, and her movement is the gentle stream which drains it; but the laugh of the log cabin is the gush of nature's fountain, and its movement its leaping waters."Such were the merry hearts of the frontier people in the absence of Indian hostilities and dangers. The intervals of peace were short and uncertain, but they were seasons of refreshment, which all enjoyed as a season of rest.
Yet they lived in continual apprehension of danger and death. "The wars of the red man were terrible; not from their numbers, for on any one expedition they rarely exceeded forty men; it was the parties of six or seven which were most to be dreaded. Skill consisted in surprising the enemy. They follow his trail, to kill when he sleeps; or they lie in ambush near a village, and watch for an opportunity of suddenly surprising an individual, or, it may be, a woman and her children, and with three strokes to each the scalps of the victims are suddenly taken off, and the brave flies back with his companions to hang the trophies in his cabin, to go from village to village, exulting in procession, to hear orators recount his deeds to the elders and the chief people, and by the number of scalps gained with his own hand to gain the high war titles of honor. Nay, parties of but two or three were not uncommon. Clad in skins, with a supply of red paint, a bow and quiver full of arrows, they would roam through the wild forest as a barque would over the ocean; for days and weeks they would hang on the skirts of their enemy, waiting the moment for striking a blow. From the heart of the Six Nations two young warriors would thread the wilderness of the South, would go through the glades of Pennsylvania, the valleys of Western Virginia, and steal within the mountain fastnesses of
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the Cherokees. There they would hide themselves in the clefts of rocks, and change their place of concealment, till, provided with scalps enough to astonish their village, they would bind over the ledges and hurry home. It was the danger of such inroads in time of war that made every white family on the frontier insecure."The state of Indian hostilities is one of terror to the stoutest heart, because the feeble, the unprotected, and the sleeping families are their chief victims. During a state of active hostilities against an extended frontier settlement, the Indians seldom appear in great force, or desire to meet the white man in the field of battle. If an Indian army approaches the settlements, it is only to divide into numerous bands or scalping parties, for distribution against each unprotected habitation, which may become an easy prey to their wiles. These parties separate, and skulk through dense forests, concealed behind trees, bushes, logs, stumps, or in cane-brakes and tall grass, until some victim, unconscious of his approach, hears but the crack of the rifle announcing his own instant death. By night, a fearless band will gain a covert, in full view of some unsuspecting settlement, from which they can observe every movement, until evening twilight approaches, when they advance and sacrifice every soul to their vengeance.
When they appear in great force before a fort or station, where many families are congregated for protection, after the first assault scarce an Indian is seen by the besieged. Without cannon or scaling-ladders, their hope of carrying the place is predicated upon stratagem, or upon starving the inmates into capitulation. They waylay every path, and stop the supplies of water and food, and cut off their victims in detail, without exposing themselves to danger. They kill the cattle, destroy the hogs, steal the horses, plunder every thing which can be of use to them; burn the deserted houses, the barns, the stacks of grain and hay, and cut off all intercourse with those who might render them aid. The chief glory of the savage warrior is to inflict the greatest injury upon his enemy with the least injury or exposure to himself; hence he deems it an act of superior merit to destroy the unwary, the sleeping, and the unresisting victim. Although he often engages in acts of fearless daring, it is not his policy to expose his person; hence,
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cunning, stratagem, and secret assaults are the means by which he effects the destruction of the unprotected. It is a maxim with him never to attack unless he possesses every advantage; and if this can be obtained by cunning, treachery, or stratagem, it redounds so much the more to his fame as a warrior.While the scalping parties are traversing the country of an enemy, every precaution is observed to leave no "sign" or trace of their route; not a bush or twig is broken, not a stick or log is moved, not a stone disturbed, not a portion of any thing used by an Indian is dropped; not even his lodging-place for the night, or his excrement, is suffered to be exposed, lest the white man, skilled equally with himself in tracing the secret courses of his advance, might follow his trail, and take him unawares, or when asleep. Lest he should leave "a sign," he dispenses with fire, with food, with the choicest game, which may pass him undisturbed; for no indication of his route must remain to point his course to an enemy. He utters no sound above a whisper, lest some skillful hunter may be at hand and catch the sound. He walks slowly and cautiously along, and sees the minutest animal or bird that crosses the path, as far as the eye can reach; he sees every leaf that falls, every warbler that carols in the woods, and every branch that is disturbed in the forest. While he sees and hears every thing, nothing, not even the watchful tenant of the forest, sees or hears him. If any moving object in the vista of the forest attracts his eye, he becomes as motionless as a statue, and is scarcely discerned from the inanimate objects around him. Such is the character of an Indian brave as he pursues his way in search of his enemies, and such is the character of the pioneer scout, or "spy," who traverses the forests to watch the approach of the lurking foe.
An Indian army can not long keep the field and remain imbodied; hence, when they imbody for any great enterprise, they proceed rapidly in the direct course, governed by the cardinal points as to the direction, and come suddenly upon their object. A furious assault is made: if upon a "station," swarming on every side, with horrid yells, they thicken around the walls, enter the unguarded gate, or scale the palisades, and, overpowering the feeble garrison within, reduce the whole to a promiscuous scene of carnage and flame. The inmates, probably unconscious of the approaching host, had been engaged in
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the ordinary avocations of domestic life, and, taken by surprise, each defends himself and his friends with such means and weapons as are at hand, without any order or preconcerted arrangement. If the station falls under the attack, the inmates and defenders are mostly put to death with indiscriminate slaughter, the houses and defenses are destroyed by fire, when the victors, laden with the spoil, and assisted by such able-bodied prisoners as might be useful to carry off the plunder, depart speedily to their towns.If the inmates of the station have fortunately received timely intelligence of their approach, the gates are closed, every point is manned, and the men, women, and children are assigned to their proper posts and duties, while the active defenders give their savage assailants a warm and warlike reception. The Indians, perceiving the danger of persisting in the attack, retire from the reach of the fire-arms of the fort, and conceal themselves in the neighboring forest. Each man being his own commissary, and having no supplies of provision, the host is compelled to spread out in search of game and other kinds of food, while a few chosen warriors alternately remain to keep up a strict ambuscade around the fort, lest any should escape and bear intelligence to other stations for assistance and re-enforcements, or lest any should get out at night to procure sustenance for their families. Thus for many days, and sometimes for many weeks, the siege is maintained by bands of Indians alternately relieving each other, while the whole region around, for twenty miles or more, is infested with lurking bands of warriors, whose whole operations are little better than the adventures of thieves and robbers. A successful attack, or a rich supply of plunder, would itself disperse the most formidable army of Indians; for the warriors, as soon as loaded with plunder, can not be restrained from returning to their towns.
The horrors of Indian massacre none can describe: the scene of triumph and savage revelry over the mangled bodies of their victims, in a successful enterprise against large numbers, beggars description, and presents them more as fiends incarnate than as human beings. Scenes of this character were witnessed in the war of Pontiac in 1763, when the frontier
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posts toward Canada, from Niagara to Chicago, were simultaneously assailed by the allied savages.The most revolting influences of Indian association upon the white man is witnessed in the renegade who has become an outcast from his own people, and, with hatred to his own race, and vindictive toward those he may have injured, retires to the Indian towns, stimulates them to deeds of blood and rapine against his country, and enters with fiendish zeal upon the horrid warfare of the savage. Such men there were along the frontiers in advance of civilization, from which their misdeeds or their lawless propensities had driven them; men who, associating with the savage, found ample pretexts under British authority to wreak their vengeance, side by side with the Indian, against their own countrymen who had become enemies to regal power. These were the frontier British Tories and agents among the Indians. Imbued with all the worst passions of civilized man, they became, in their savage state, the most cruel, the most implacable, and blood-thirsty of the hostile warriors. Adopting the dress, the arms, the manners, and the life of the savage, they also wore the ornaments and paint of the Indian, not excepting the slitting of the ears and nose for the savage pendants.
Among this class of men none were more notorious than Simon Girty, a renegade Pennsylvanian, who was a hunter and trader near Fort Pitt at the commencement of the Revolutionary war. A man of enterprise and daring disposition, he shunned the intercourse of civilized life; and when the Indian tribes took up the hatchet, he retired to the towns upon the Muskingum and Scioto, and, finally, to those between the sources of the Miami and Sandusky Rivers. Here he was actively engaged in planning, organizing, and leading on many of the most powerful Indian incursions against the settlements on the Ohio north and south of Wheeling, as well as against those upon the Kentucky River. Before the close of the war, his name had become notorious as a fierce and cruel warrior, and a chief among the hostile savages. Not only did he organize their warriors and lead them to battle, but he often attended, if he did not preside, at the horrid scenes of torture at the stake.
Savage Implements of War. — The savage warrior, preparatory to the excursion of a war-party, paints his face fantastically
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with vermilion and blue stripes, ornaments his head with feathers from the eagle, the owl, and the hawk, fantastically interwoven with his scalp-lock, and then prepares for his enterprise. Thus decked, and armed with his rifle, or the bow and arrows, his tomahawk, and scalping-knife, he celebrates the war-dance, and proceeds to avenge his tribe upon their enemies.1. The rifle is indispensable to every warrior who can procure fire-arms; this accompanies him in all his excursions of every kind and of every distance, and none is more skillful in its use than the Indian.
Where the rifle is not obtainable, the bow and arrow, in the hand of the warrior, is not less deadly in its effects as an offensive weapon in a close engagement, no less than in pursuit and in retreat; it is more efficient than the rifle itself, because its deadly shafts are hurled with greater frequency.
2. The scalping-knife is a part of his dress; it is worn in his belt at all times, and is a substitute for the dagger in all cases of close personal contest. It serves the uses of a knife in all, cases: being large and sharp, it is a butcher-knife in killing his game, in skinning and dressing the bear, the deer, or the buffalo; but its most terrible use is to butcher helpless human beings, to cut their throats from ear to ear, to disembowel them, and otherwise to mangle their bodies. Its chief and indispensable use, however, and from which it derives its ominous name, is to strip the scalp from the heads of his victims as the trophies of his prowess.
3. The tomahawk is a small, narrow hatchet, not unlike those used by plasterers, having a cutting edge on one side and a hammer on the other. With the first he cleaves open the skull of his enemy as he stands or runs; with the other he knocks him in the head after he has fallen, as a butcher would a steer at the bull-ring, to extinguish life. Sometimes the tomahawk is hollow, and serves likewise for a pipe, in which he smokes his tobacco.
The tomahawk is also used as a missile, and is often thrown at the enemy before he comes into close quarters. Such is the practiced skill in throwing this weapon, that the warrior can plant its edge fast in a sapling not six inches in diameter at the distance of thirty yards. Such is his unerring aim, that he seldom fails to plant it in the head or body of the victim at whom it is thrown. This is a terrible weapon in the hands of the Indian
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in a promiscuous massacre of an overpowered army or captured station.4. The battle-ax of the Indian is still more horrid in its use. It is formed of an angular club, about two and a half feet in length, the angle of one hundred and fifty degrees, being about, ten inches from the large extremity. On the outer angle, or curve, is inserted securely a flat, sharp, triangular piece of iron about three inches long. This answers the double purpose of a tomahawk and scalping-knife. In pursuit or close attack it is equally destructive with the hatchet; and when the victim is down, one stroke across the neck, under the ear, divides the carotids, jugulars, and wind-pipe, and death is certain. Instruments of this kind were abundantly used by the savages on the Ohio frontier, and in the Kentucky and Cumberland settlements.
5. The Bow and Arrow. — This weapon is still used in war by the Indians west of the Mississippi. It is a destructive weapon, and in the hands of the savage was often more annoying and effectual than the rifle itself, especially in a general assault in the open field, or in the rout and pursuit of a retreating army. With his bow and quiver the savage could discharge half a score of deadly arrows as he ran, while his companion with the rifle would stop to load. Every arrow which took effect was nearly as fatal as a rifle-ball, and in a mÄlée and rout it could be thrown with more unerring effect.
The arrow, whether pointed with steel or stone, was rendered fatal by the envenomed point. The force with which it was sent made its wound deep and effectual. The Indian arrow will pierce a man through; and often a single arrow is fatal to the buffalo, piercing him to his heart; and the rapidity with which these shafts are sent makes them terrible to a routed foe.
Torture is a part of savage warfare. If an enemy have been noted as a warrior, or if a white man, taken in battle or captured by ambuscade, is a distinguished leader, and has been efficient in repelling the Indian incursions, they commemorate his capture by the horrid rites of torture. The same fate is doomed to the first prisoners taken in spring, upon the opening of the campaign.
1. Torture by Fire at the Stake. — The victim is taken to the appointed place for celebrating this savage festival, where the
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assembled chiefs, warriors, and the whole population of the villages have convened to witness the approaching tragedy. The victim is stripped to the waist, and his face painted black. In the center of a circle of fagots stands a green sapling, to serve as a stake for the burning. With his arms pinioned, he is led into the circle and haltered to the stake, when the women and children, provided with switches, sticks, and clubs, approach and commence their part of the torture, assailing him furiously with their sticks and other implements. If he falls or reels under the innumerable blows inflicted, or recoils from their force, it serves only to excite the greatest mirth and merriment to his juvenile and feminine tormentors. In this manner he is exposed to this species of torture until he is exhausted, or until the incarnate fiends around him are wearied in their amusement, and retire. During this initiatory ceremony, the mirth and gratification experienced by his tormentors at the sufferings inflicted are expressed in repeated peals of laughter and other signs of merriment, while the warriors look on with unconcern and indifference.The signal of a more terrible ordeal is at length given. The victim is disengaged from the stake or sapling, and secured to it by a green grape-vine tether or wet rope ten or twelve feet in length. This gives him a circle of twenty or thirty feet in diameter around the stake, which can be traversed alternately back and forth under the infliction of subsequent tortures. His head is now enveloped in a soft clay cap, to protect his brain from the immediate action of the fire, which otherwise might prevent his protracted sufferings. His feet are covered with bear-skin moccasins, having the hair outside to protect them from the burning coals which may become scattered over the area of the circle. The fagots, placed in a circle around the stake, are at length set on fire, and the blazing element soon completes a circle a few feet outside of the circle described by his tether. The prisoner, constantly shunning the fire, retreats from one point to another, and is scourged around the stake forth and backward for the amusement of the youth and old women, exposing every part of his body successively to the action of the fire, until the surface is literally roasted. During this part of the process, the youths and squaws indulge in the free and boisterous mirth at the struggles, screams, and the agony of the victim, while the crowd of spectators look on
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with complacency and unconcern. At length, after this ceremony has continued half an hour or more, the victim, exhausted with suffering, becomes faint or insensible, reels to and fro, or falls upon the ground. To rouse his latent sensibilities, and to quicken his movements, the warriors, and even the squaws, step into the ring, and by the application of firebrands to his skin, or by piercing his body with blazing fagots of pine, endeavor to rouse him to renewed efforts.If the victim be an Indian warrior, he is now goaded to perfect fury; he sweeps around the extent of his circle, kicking, biting, and stamping with inconceivable rage. As he sweeps around, the women and children fly from him with great merriment, and give place to fresh tormentors. At other times the warrior will bear all their torments without disclosing a single indication of pain, sullenly smoking his pipe, while he scornfully derides his tormentors by singing, or applying to them the most reproachful epithets, of which none is more degrading than the term of old women or squaws.
As the victim becomes faint and exhausted, the cap of clay is removed from his head, and burning coals and hot embers are poured over the head; at other times the scalp itself is removed with the scalping-knife, and hot embers poured over the bleeding skull.
2. The Gantlet. — This is likewise a severe ordeal, but not invariably fatal. This torture is likewise inflicted upon the prisoners who are deemed worthy such distinguished honor. The mode of conducting this torture is as follows: The inhabitants of one or more villages assemble near a council-house, and young and old, male and female, are formed in two parallel lines facing each other, and about ten feet apart, extending from three to six hundred yards in length, and terminating within fifty yards of the council-house, and comprising from one to five hundred individuals. The victim is taken to the remote extremity, and stripped of any clothing which might furnish protection from the blows and stripes aimed at his body, and thus he stands ready for sacrifice.
Each person in the lines has prepared himself, or herself, with some weapon or implement with which they intend to inflict
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a blow or wound as he passes in his race to the council-house. The women and boys have switches, rods, or sticks; the men have sticks, clubs, paddles, and sometimes knives, with which they seek to inflict some injury as he passes. All things having been duly arranged, the signal is given, the victim takes his position at the extremity of the two lines, his race is pointed out to him, and he is told to exert himself and do his best; that if he make his way alive to the council-house, it shall be to him an asylum not to be violated. He is scourged by those around him, and commanded to run for his life. As he progresses, every one endeavors to inflict a blow as he approaches; and many a severe buffet, and many a stripe, and many a heavy blow, and sometimes a deep wound by knives, does he receive before he reaches the goal of his desire. None but the vigorous and active can expect to reach the "council-house," and few who expect it ever succeed. The repeated blows, which fall thick and heavy upon him, seldom fail to arrest his career before he has run more than half his race.Simon Kenton, one of the most athletic of the Kentucky pioneer warriors, succeeded in reaching the council-house in three different towns, where he was compelled to submit to this species of torture while a prisoner among the Indians.
Declaration of War. — This ceremony, with the Mingoes, was at once singular and terribly expressive. When it had been determined in council to declare war against an enemy, a formal declaration of their intention was made in their peculiar style. A chief in command of a party of warriors proceeds to the vicinity of some small settlement, where they kill and scalp all that fall into their hands, burn the houses, and completely lay waste the enclosures, and secure the plunder preparatory to their return. The war-club is then placed in some conspicuous place, where it can not fail to be seen by those who come to pay the last tribute of sepulture to their friends. The pioneer, seeing the emblem, knows well the fearful import. The symbol near the silent dead and smoking ruins gives an indication which can not be misunderstood. It declares that a national war has begun, and that the havoc near is only a notice of future visitations still more terrible. This symbol was left by Logan, the Cayuga chief, in the beginning of Lord Dunmore's war in Western Virginia. The same symbol was also left, in
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the same manner, at the Big Bottom, on the Muskingum, in the winter of 1790 and 1791; a full warning of the dangers which threatened them.The war-club is not a weapon of war, as its name would seem to imply. It is purely symbolical, indicating that the ball has been thrown and the game has commenced. The symbol consists of the club, or bandy. It is about three feet and a half long, with each end terminating in a reversed curve, not unlike the human clavicle. In the concave extremity of one end is a large wooden ball, firmly attached to the club. This ball is about the size of a four-pound iron shot. The whole is a neat piece of workmanship, and prepared with care by the savage.
The best illustration of the manners and customs of the frontier people during savage hostilities, and their characteristic traits connected with border life, will be found in a condensed summary, a comprehensive sketch of their lives and actions. Hence, for the purpose of presenting the reader with the tissue of dangers, toils, privations, and sufferings encountered by those who opened the way for civilization in the West, we will sketch the biography of some of the prominent "hunters of Kentucky," as exhibited in the lives of Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Robert Patterson, and George Rogers Clark; the three former, bold, experienced hunters and woodsmen in their earlier years, gradually rising to rank as soldiers and warriors; the fourth, a bold, towering, and successful commander in the warfare of the wilderness.
[A.D. 1769.] Daniel Boone, reared upon the frontiers of North Carolina and Virginia, west of the mountains, a woodsman and hunter by nature and habit, was a man of strongly-marked character. A bold and skillful hunter from his youth, shunning the dense settlements, and preferring to rove in the solitary wilderness, he became associated in his views and feelings with all that was wild, romantic, and aboriginal. Endued by nature with remarkable equanimity of feeling, which assimilated him to his red brothers of the forest, and trained from youth, by his avocation as a hunter, to traverse deep solitudes remote from social life, his countenance assumed that demure cast, which, like that of the Indian, knows no change from inward emotions, and preserves a changeless uniformity in every
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vicissitude of fate or fortune. Yet in his domestic intercourse he was sociable and kind, his manners were plain and unassuming, and his benevolence embraced the whole circle of his acquaintance. With great bodily vigor, with indomitable courage, and with perseverance which never faltered in his object, he was peculiarly adapted to be the pioneer to civilization in the West, while his talents for social life fitted him for the relative and social duties which necessarily devolved upon him, surrounded by a frontier population.Grave, taciturn, and retiring, he courted not the presence of the crowd, or the excitements of popular assemblies, but the excitement of the battle-strife, and the daring adventures of the chase, subduing the denizens of the forest, whether man or beast, were his chief ambition, and the great business of his life.
In the summer of 1769, prompted by wealthy men of North Carolina, speculators in western lands, and allured by the glowing descriptions of Finley as to the abundance of game and the magnificence of the western wilderness, Boone plunged into the remote wilds of Kentucky, in company with John Finley, John Stuart, and three other companions, upon a protracted hunting expedition. Here, in the wilderness, two hundred miles west of the Cumberland Mountains, and three hundred miles from the frontier settlements of North Carolina, the party separated into two divisions, Boone and, Stuart taking one course, and the remaining three taking another, for the purpose of compassing a more extensive hunting range and scope of exploration. Boone and Stuart advanced westward almost to the sources of Salt River, where they found the buffalo, elk, and deer in great abundance. Bearing north, they saw Kentucky River, and with astonishment beheld its smooth channel cut out to the depth of three hundred feet in the solid rock, through which its placid waters gently moved. Here, from a lofty eminence, they beheld the beautiful plain of Kentucky. Intending to return and rejoin their party, they set out from Kentucky River; but they had proceeded only a short distance, when a party of Indians, suddenly springing from a cane-brake, seized and bound them as prisoners, depriving them of their arms, ammunition, and clothing. Close prisoners with the Indians, they were marched several days on the Canada route, when, by their knowledge of Indian character, they succeeded in making
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their escape, and recovering their rifles while the savages were asleep, when they pressed forward in their return route, and at length established themselves in a hunting-camp, preparatory to the winter's toil. Here they were soon joined by Boone's brother and a small party from North Carolina, who, spending the winter in a regular hunting tour, exhibited a fair specimen of "Kentucky hunters," securing skins and peltries, and faring sumptuously on wild flesh without bread.[A.D. 1770.] In the spring the proceeds of the winter's hunt were sent by the brother of Boone and his companions to the eastern market, and Daniel Boone and Stuart remained sole occupants of Kentucky. But they were upon forbidden ground. It was the "common hunting-grounds" of the Shawanese from the north, and of the Cherokees from the south, upon which no white man could safely establish himself. An intruder upon the rights of the savage, Boone required all his tact and experience as a hunter to avoid being discovered by the vindictive red man of the forest. The Indians were upon his trail and his haunts, and his place of rest was daily changed to insure his safety. More than once had his camp been plundered by the lurking savage in his absence, while the wily foe laid in wait near it for his return. Still Boone, superior to the red man in his own element, continued to elude pursuit. At length he was encountered by the Indians, and the first fire laid Stuart dead at his feet, when Boone, disappearing in the thick cane-brake, without arms, ammunition, or clothing, eluded his pursuers and secured his escape. Then followed the trying time of the wary hunter. Alone in the wilderness, without the means of procuring sustenance, or of defense against beasts of prey, without weapons or hunting implements, he roamed sole white tenant of the "dark and bloody ground," compelled to starve, or to subsist upon roots, shrubs, and fruits. Thus did Daniel Boone spend the summer of 1770, until fortunately relieved by his brother's return in the autumn.
[A.D. 1772.] The next two years were spent in hunting excursions and expeditions on the extreme western frontier of North Carolina, and in frequent intercourse with the Cherokee Indians. Still haunted by the images of the glorious fertility and abundance of Kentucky, he determined to encounter the peril of conducting a colony into that remote and inhospitable
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region.In the spring of 1775, after the close of the Indian war, he accompanied Richard Henderson and company to the Watauga, to assist in conducting the treaty for the relinquishment of the lands south of the Kentucky River. After the close of the treaty, he was the first man to advance beyond the Cumberland Gap, and, with twenty hunters and woodsmen, he proceeded to open and mark a trace more than two hundred miles through the wilderness to the banks of the Kentucky River. This was the first "blazed trace" in Kentucky. Notwithstanding the Cherokee cession, the route was infested by hostile Indians; and although several of his party were killed in repeated attacks of Indians, yet he continued to advance, and laid the foundation of Boonesborough. Returning to North Carolina, he led out in the fall the first regular colony.
He was an active and useful member of the little Republic of Transylvania until the following year, when it was merged in the "county of Kentucky." In 1777 he was appointed captain, and served in defense of the settlements on Kentucky River until the close of Indian hostilities. In the month of January, 1778, he and twenty-eight men under his command were captured by the savages, and six months he remained a prisoner among the Indians of Canada. Excelling the Indians themselves in every quality which exalts an Indian warrior, he became a favorite among them, and was adopted into their tribe as a brave. Gaining daily upon their confidence, he became their most expert and confidential hunter, and obtained his liberty to go at large with the warriors. Evincing cheerfulness, and a feigned attachment for the Indian mode of life, Boone was hardly suspected by the savages of entertaining a wish to return to Kentucky. But Kentucky and Boonesborough were the idols of his heart; and he secretly longed
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for the opportunity of presenting himself to his family and friends.In June, 1778, when the British and Indians had assembled a strong force for the invasion of Kentucky and the destruction of Boonesborough, he determined to give the alarm, and thus prevent a disastrous surprise. Seeking the first opportunity, he escaped from a regular hunting-tour, and with one meal in his wallet directed his eager steps toward Kentucky. From the head waters of the Great Miami, traversing the wilderness alone on foot, more than one hundred and fifty miles in six days, along the most unfrequented routes, he reached Boonesborough in advance of the Indian host, and gave the first intelligence of the approaching danger.
The escape of the prisoner not only gave the notice for preparation to his friends, but it likewise deferred the contemplated attack; for, knowing that the enemy, apprised of their approach, would be prepared, they thought success hopeless.
In August, 1782, he was commander of a company, and, obedient to the orders of his superiors, but against his own better judgment, advanced against the concealed savages in the disastrous battle of the Blue Licks. In the heat of the engagement, he came into a personal and mortal conflict with a powerful Shawanese warrior, and in the struggle laid him dead at his side.
[A.D. 1785.] After the close of the Indian wars, he remained a plain and retired farmer, enjoying the domestic comforts of rural life in the country which he had explored, settled, and so nobly defended. But it was not to be his abiding place. While lands were cheap and plenty, and exposed to constant dangers from hostile savages, his right to the possession and occupancy of a small portion was not disputed; but when settlements were extended, and a dense population had filled the country, and Indian dangers were past, lands became valuable, and titles were examined and compared. The hardy pioneer, the hunter, or the woodsman, unskilled in the technicalities of law, and the intricacies of land-titles and judicial procedure, was compelled to give way to the avarice of the speculator, the land-jobber, and the script-holder. The possession of paper titles, or script, from the Atlantic seaboard, when, the whole West was in the possession of the hostile Indians, had more virtue in them, and gave a better title to the emigrant stranger,
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than the actual possession and conquest of the country; and those who had expelled the savages, and encountered all the horrors of a frontier life in holding possession of the country, were, in their old age, compelled to surrender the result of all their toils to some fortunate heir, born to be an unworthy script-holder and legal robber of the pioneer. In all litigation relative to land-titles in Kentucky, the law leaned to the non-resident script-holder; and Boone, who could conceive no title better than conquest and actual possession, was stripped of his lands by legal decisions, while his personal estate was exhausted in payment of costs for the unjust decisions.No wonder that Boone, in his old age, driven from lands which he so well deserved to inherit, retired in disgust from civilized society, and sought an asylum in the remote wilds of the West, beyond the reach of the land-jobber and script-holder! In early life he had found independence and justice in the wilds of the West, and he resolved to enjoy it still in advance of civilization.
Hence, in the year 1800, taking his faithful rifle and his family, ejected from their homes, and bidding farewell to Kentucky, as he had to North Carolina thirty years before, he took up his pilgrimage to the far West, beyond the Mississippi, and sought a last resting-place on the banks of the Missouri, within the dominion of Spain. Here, in advance of civilization, and beyond the reach of a crowded population, he spent the residue of his days, where he was quietly gathered home to his fathers before he had again felt the approach of the advancing multitude.
But he was not forgotten in Kentucky; there was still virtue in that noble state duly to appreciate his merits, and a generous spirit of patriotism could not permit his bones to remain in the wilds of Missouri. The patriotic citizens of Frankfort, in the summer of 1845, transferred his mortal remains from their resting-place in Missouri, and deposited them under a monument erected to perpetuate the memories of the first pioneers of Kentucky.
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Boone, and those of Rebecca Bryan, who had been the wife of his bosom for more than forty-five years, the companion and solace of his life, and his theme in death, shall remain inseparable until the general resurrection.2. Simon Kenton was one of the most fearless and the most successful of the Indian fighters in Kentucky, not excepting Daniel Boone himself. No man among all the daring pioneers of the West encountered the savage foe in so many ways and on so many bloody fields. No one man in his own person encountered as many dangers, as many privations, and as many hair-breadth escapes in defense of the western settlements, from the very first dawn of civilization upon the Ohio. Others may have distinguished themselves by their usefulness in any one sphere of action, or in one or more important engagements with the savages; but with Kenton it was one uninterrupted train of operations, a continued scene of perils unknown to any other man. Rarely deigning to shelter himself in forts and stations, he preferred to encounter the enemy in the open forest, depending alone for success upon his superior strength, skill, and prowess. The child of adversity and the sport of fortune, his life can not fail to present an impressive picture of the dangers, privations, and horrors of a frontier life during a state of Indian war.
Born of Irish parents, in March, 1755, in Fauquier county, Virginia, he spent the first fifteen years of his life in the humble labors of the field and in the domestic avocations of a frontier life. His father being poor, and belonging to one of the degraded classes of the British empire, from whom the lordly aristocracy of England exclude even the first glimmerings of learning and science, Simon grew up to manhood in the aristocratic province of Virginia utterly ignorant of the English alphabet, and old age found him barely able to inscribe a scroll
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with an autograph intended for "Simon Kenton." Yet he was not unskilled in the strategy of the hunter and the frontier soldier.[A.D. 1771.] At the age of sixteen, an unfortunate encounter, in which he supposed his antagonist mortally wounded, caused him to fly from the settlements, where law and order prevailed, to the remote West, where these restraints were unknown, and where obscurity might be a sure protection from the demands of law and justice. Hence, leaving his father's house and the victim of his just vengeance, he fled west of the mountains, traveling on foot all night, and lying concealed all day, living upon the most scanty forest fare, in constant fear of pursuit, until he reached the settlements upon the head waters of Cheat River. Here, almost perished with fatigue and hunger, and fearing discovery, he assumed the name of Simon Butler, and friendless, destitute, and unlettered, sought a bare subsistence by daily labor as a menial. At length, after months of arduous toil, he succeeded in supplying himself with a rifle, when he entered upon the hunter's life, and, in company with a party of hunters in a canoe, descended the Monongahela to Fort Pitt. Having secured the favor and patronage of Simon Girty, a man of talent and influence in the fort, he became special hunter for the garrison.
In company with Yeager and Strader, Kenton set out down the Ohio, floating in a canoe, and visiting the Indian towns as they passed along in quest of the "cane lands" of Kentucky, of which they had heard much as a region abounding in game. At length, late in the autumn, they found themselves at the
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mouth of Kentucky River. Having thus far seen none of the "cane lands," they ascended the Ohio as far as the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, and ascending this stream as far as the mouth of Elk River, on the present site of Charleston, they established a "hunting-camp" for the winter's campaign.[A.D. 1772.] After a prosperous hunt, the spring found them on the Ohio, exchanging their rich supply of hides and peltries for clothing, ammunition, and other necessaries, which they procured from a French trader.
The ensuing summer and fall was spent by Kenton and his party in hunting excursions, roaming over the hills, plains, and mountains which lie upon the sources of the Great Kenhawa and Big Sandy Rivers. In these romantic regions of primeval forests, Kenton himself declares he spent the most happy periods of his long and eventful life. Here, in the majestic solitudes of nature, free from care, the denizen of nature in the full vigor of health, and abounding in all that a hunter's life can desire, he enjoyed that perfect independence which fears no rival in its wide domain.
[A.D. 1773.] The spring brought with it the portents of a savage war, the clouds of the American Revolution began to lower, and Indian difficulties in the West had commenced. The encroachments of the white man had become intolerable to the Indian, for cases of individual revenge were already frequent; and Kenton, in his lonely "camp," a hundred miles from the white man's settlements, was not secure from the vindictive savage. In the cold month of March, one evening just at dark, after a tedious ramble during the day, Kenton and his two friends had returned to camp, and before a cheerful camp-fire were lounging upon their bearskin pallets, thoughtless of danger, and beguiling away the dull hours of a winter evening with cheerful glee, when, like the lightning's flash, the sharp crack of the Indian's rifle laid Yeager a lifeless corpse. Surrounded by a party of lurking Indians, lest the camp-fire should direct their unerring aim, Kenton and Strader instantly fled under the shelter of night, without clothes, arms, or rifle. Thus exposed in the wilderness before the close of winter, in their shirts, without shoes, destitute of arms or ammunition, without the means of procuring food or fire, exposed to the horrors of cold and starvation, they sought their melancholy way through
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a pathless wilderness toward the white settlements.[A.D. 1774.] The determined hostilities of the Indians the following spring compelled the hunting parties and traders throughout the wide frontier to retire to the settlements and posts. Kenton, with others, having disposed of his hides and peltries to a French trader on the Ohio, retired to Fort Pitt.
He is next employed as a hunter and ranger attached to Lord Dunmore's army. Selected by Major Connolly at Fort Pitt, he was employed as the bearer of dispatches from his lordship to General Lewis on the Kenhawa. Failing to meet the general's division while in his lonely search, he was attacked by Indians on the Kenhawa, and escaping, made his way through a region infested with hostile savages to Fort Pitt, in time to join the main expedition to the Scioto.
From the mouth of the Hocking River across to the Scioto, Kenton was employed as a spy, or scout, to range the forest in advance of the army, to observe the movements and "signs" of the savages, and to guard the army against surprise or ambuscade. The service of a "spy," or scout, in an Indian country, is one of great danger and great responsibility, and none but choice men are assigned to the arduous and dangerous task. None ever possessed the requisites of a spy more amply than Simon Kenton, and when he was in advance of the army it was more safe from ambuscade than if preceded by a cohort. Thoroughly acquainted with the Indian character and wiles, with deliberate courage, a steady nerve, a keen eye, ranging miles in advance of the marching column, and moving with the caution and silence of the wolf, he detected the first "signs" of a lurking enemy, himself unseen. Such was Kenton's task in the expedition to the Scioto.
[A.D. 1775.] The campaign closed, and Kenton resumed his favorite employment, and passed the winter in a hunting tour among the mountains and highland forests of that wild and romantic region on the sources of the Big Sandy. The spoils of the winter hunt having been again exchanged for a plentiful supply of ammunition, he descended the Ohio, again to explore
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the famous "cane lands" of Kentucky. In company with Thomas Williams, early in May he encamped for the night at the mouth of Limestone Creek, but "saw no cane." Next morning with his rifle, he commenced a hunting ramble over the highland plain, and before he had proceeded four miles from the river, to his great joy he saw "the most luxuriant cane" growing upon the richest lands he had ever seen, and which abounded in game, and was finely watered with gushing springs. Near a fine spring, bursting from the rock, he selected a tract of land, which he determined to secure under the preemption laws of Virginia. This was the first time Kenton had felt a desire to appropriate lands to his own use, and it became the fruitful source of perplexity and loss. His location was within one mile of the present town of Washington, in Mason county, Kentucky.With his companion, Williams, he erected his camp, declared half an acre of ground, and planted a patch of corn, when his "right of settlement" was complete. The whole region for sixty miles south and west was the range of his hunting-grounds and his summer explorations.
In one of his solitary excursions upon the waters of Elkhorn, disguised as an Indian, he encountered Michael Stoner, a hunter from North Carolina, also in Indian guise. A silent contest of Indian strategy for mutual destruction commenced, but not a word was spoken. Each knowing himself to be a white man, and believing his antagonist an Indian, sought by all the arts of Indian warfare, to protect himself, and draw the enemy's fire. After mutual efforts and manoeuvers ineffectually to draw each other from his shelter, or to steal his fire, Stoner, suspecting that his antagonist was verily not an Indian from his covert exclaimed, "For God's sake, if you are a white man, speak!" The spell was broken. They were both white men speaking the same tongue and soon were companions in the solitary wilderness. Stoner conducted Kenton to the new settlements which had been commenced at Boonesborough and Harrodsburg. This was Kenton's first introduction to the inhabitants on the Kentucky River; and here he subsequently took up his abode as an active defender of these settlements through the Indian wars which soon commenced.
But where was Thomas Williams? Indian hostilities had
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been commenced by straggling bands of hunting warriors, and when Kenton returned to his pre-emption improvement near Limestone Creek, he found it deserted. The Indians had been there and plundered the camp, and a few rods distant he found evidences of a fire, and hard by were human bones, which told the fate of Williams, the first victim of the war in Kentucky. Returning to Harrod's Station, Kenton soon found employment congenial with his nature in guarding the inhabitants from danger and in supplying them with meat.[A.D. 1776.] The Indians began to move against all the new settlements, most of which were soon abandoned, and their occupants retired for safety to the vicinity of Boonesborough, Harrod's Station, and Logan's Fort. These places, being securely fortified, served as places of general rendezvous. Kenton served all these stations in the capacity of a general scout, or "ranger," to detect the first approach of the enemy, during the remainder of this year. Here he commenced his pupilage in the wiles of actual Indian warfare, in which he soon became noted for his courage, skill, and stratagem against the wary Indian.
His first enterprise was one for the supply of ammunition for the general defense of the stations. A volunteer with Robert Patterson and twenty-eight other pioneers of Kentucky, he accompanied Major George Rogers Clark from Harrod's Station to the mouth of Limestone Creek, for the purpose of escorting and transporting on foot twenty-five kegs of powder to the stations on Kentucky River.
[A.D. 1777.] Kenton was now in his twenty-first year, and presented a fair specimen of a hardy, athletic young backwoods hunter. In stature he was above the middle size, standing in his moccasins six feet and one inch. His ordinary weight varied from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and eighty pounds; his muscle was full and firm, and free from redundant fat; his body was vigorous, active, and patient of toil, hunger, and exposure; his form was erect and graceful, his limbs well proportioned, and possessing uncommon strength. In personal prowess he had few equals, either among the American pioneers or among the native tribes of the forest.
His complexion was naturally fair, his hair flaxen brown, and his eye a soft grayish blue. In his eye there was a
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bewitching smile, which seldom failed to fascinate the beholder and bespeak his partiality. In his disposition he was frank and void of suspicion, generous, kind, and confiding to a fault. Careless of himself and his own interests, he was most happy when he could serve those around him.Unskilled in the lore of schools or the refinements of polished society, he was one of nature's noblemen, uncontaminated by luxury and vice. Honest himself, he could scarcely conceive a motive for deception or dishonesty in others. Skilled in all the signs and maxims of Indian warfare, and expert in all the mysteries of the chase and in the exploration of unfrequented regions — true to his course as the needle to the pole, he was at home in the most retired valley or in the most intricate forest, and with his comprehensive knowledge of the relative bearings of remote points, he required no pathway to direct his feet.
Mild and benevolent in his feelings, he was slow to anger; but when his rage was once excited, it was a hurricane of action. When enraged, his fiery glance withered the object of his fury from his presence.
His voice was soft and tremulous, but not unpleasant to the ear.
It was in the spring of 1777 that he commenced his fierce contests with the wily savage in Kentucky. While on a tour of duty as a scout, in company with five others, near "Hingston's Station," he was attacked by a superior party of Indian warriors, and after a vigorous defense he was defeated, with the loss of one man killed and all their horses captured by the victors.
Soon afterward, by the orders of Major Clark, the captain of each station was required to keep out three state-rangers, or spies, for the security of the settlements; and Captain Boone selected Simon Kenton as one of his state-spies on the part of Boonesborough. In company with five others, he was dispatched on a tour of duty, to guard the inhabitants from surprise. To accomplish this object, it was necessary to traverse the whole region from the principal forts and stations upon the Kentucky to the Ohio, and from the mouth of Licking on the north to the mouth of Kentucky River and to "the falls" on the south.
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Kenton's first adventure in his new capacity was close at hand. One morning early, while with two companions he was just leaving Boonesborough on a morning hunt, and before he had left the gate, the alarm was given by two men who were suddenly driven back from the woods, with five Indians close at their heels. One of the men fell under the tomahawk within seventy yards of the fort. The pursuer, eager for his trophy, was tearing the scalp from his victim, when the unerring rifle of Kenton dropped him upon his fallen foe. Kenton, with his companions, gave pursuit to the remaining four Indians as they retreated to the woods. Re-enforced by Captain Boone and ten men from the fort, Kenton's party advanced until they were drawn into an ambuscade, and the whole of Boone's party became engaged in a destructive skirmish. During the deadly strife, while Indians and white men were sheltered each by his tree, Kenton perceived upon his right an Indian taking deadly aim upon Captain Boone, and, quick as thought, he dropped the savage before his aim was complete, and Captain Boone's life was the trophy of his skill. He had scarcely reloaded his piece, when the Indians in large numbers were perceived deploying from a covert on the left, in order to cut off their retreat to the fort. The fearless Boone resolved to force his way through their line to the fort; but in the advance the intrepid captain fell, having his leg fractured by a rifle-ball, when the pursuing savage raised the yell of triumph as he drew his tomahawk to give the fatal blow. But Kenton's unerring and quick-sighted aim dropped the warrior in his tracks before the tomahawk had done its work. Twice had Kenton saved the life of Boone that day; which drew from the intrepid captain, after being borne to the fort, and in the presence of the garrison, the well-earned and highly-prized plaudit of "Well done, Kenton! you have acted like a man this day!"
[A.D. 1778.] During two subsequent sieges of Boonesborough, in which the garrison and inmates were reduced to great extremities, Kenton was a valuable and indefatigable defender; by whose skill as a hunter, and by whose fearless daring and perilous service the lives of the starving station were preserved.
The Indians, having dispersed in detached parties for miles around the fort, had killed all the cattle and stock of every kind; gardens and fields, with every other source of sustenance,
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were destroyed; even the wild game for miles was consumed or driven off; and none dared to roam the forest in search of meat. It fell to Kenton's lot to risk his life for the preservation of the whole station. Accompanied by a few choice companions, in the dead of night, eluding the beleaguering host in the gloom of darkness, he plunged into the remote forest lying south and west beyond the lurking savages, in search of the deer and the elk.Penetrating the remote forest under cover of the night, they sought for game at the distance of nearly fifteen miles from the station, where they remained for several days, until they had secured an ample supply. The meat thus procured was carefully cut from the bones and jerked, or dried in small pieces upon spits before a slow fire until greatly reduced in bulk. Loaded with this substantial nutriment, the hunters made their cautious way back to the fort, and, eluding the watchful savages in the darkness of the night, arrived safely at the fort, and were admitted by their friends. Supplies thus obtained were the means of securing the beleaguered stations from famine and starvation. This substitute for better fare was eaten or made into broth, without bread, salt, or vegetables. Such was the service which Simon Kenton rendered to the Kentucky stations in the years 1777 and 1778.
But Kenton's restless genius sought a wider field of action. In June, 1778, he was the first man from the Kentucky stations who volunteered to join the hazardous expedition under Colonel Clark against Kaskaskia; he was also the first man to enter Fort Gage, the man who surprised Governor Rocheblave in his bed, and received from him the surrender of the fort, with its sleeping garrison.
No sooner had the Illinois posts and country been subdued and quietly occupied by the Virginians, than Kenton, seeking more active adventures in Kentucky, was made the bearer of dispatches to Colonel Bowman at Harrodsburg, and undertook, in his route thither, to reconnoiter the British post at Vincennes, on the Wabash, in order to furnish Colonel Clark with correct information of its condition, force, and the feelings of the people. At Vincennes, after lying concealed by day and reconnoitering by night for three days and nights, he transmitted to Colonel Clark the true state of the post, informing him of its weakness and the disaffection of the people. Thirteen
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days after his departure from Vincennes, he arrived in Harrodsburg and delivered his dispatches safe to Colonel Bowman.In August, Daniel Boone, having escaped from his long captivity among the Indians, proposed to lead an incursion against the Indian town of Chillicothe, upon the North Fork of Paint Creek, now occupied by the present town of Frankfort, in Ross county. The enterprise was one congenial with Kenton's taste, and his feelings were soon enlisted in the hazardous undertaking. In company with Boone and eighteen chosen companions, all armed with rifles, and supplied with knapsacks filled with parched corn for rations in their march, Kenton set out for the Indian town, distant one hundred and sixty miles. Within six miles of the town, Boone encountered a party of forty Indians, who were taken by surprise and routed, without loss to the assailants. But the fugitives, giving the alarm to the town, rendered surprise impracticable, and Boone ordered a speedy retreat. Kenton could not retire without another adventure. In company with Montgomery, a fearless Irishman, he laid in concealment near the town for two days and nights, until they succeeded in capturing two horses from the Indians, upon which they retreated to Boonesborough.
In September following, Kenton planned an incursion to the Paint Creek towns in quest of horses. In company with Montgomery, and a companion named Clark, he succeeded in bringing off seven horses from the Indian town as far as the Ohio River. Here, having imprudently delayed two days in crossing his horses over to the Kentucky shore, he was overtaken by a party of Indians in pursuit. After a severe conflict, Kenton was overpowered and taken prisoner, Montgomery was killed, and Clark escaped.
The Indians were elated with their good fortune in capturing such a formidable antagonist and warrior, a future object for the vengeance of the Shawanese towns.
Kenton, deeming his case utterly hopeless, gave himself up to despair, in the fearful anticipation of all the horrors of Indian torture, and the protracted sufferings of the slow fire and the stake. Nor were these forebodings dispelled by the savage mirth over him, amid taunts and sallies of savage wit, while they ironically professed to admire his horse-stealing propensity, slapping him gently on the face with Montgomery's scalp.
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The horrors of his captivity during nine months among the Indians may be briefly enumerated, but they can not be described. The sufferings of his body may be recounted, but the anguish of his mind, the internal torments of spirit, none but himself could know.
The first regular torture was the hellish one of Mazeppa. He was securely bound, hand and foot, upon the back of an unbroken horse, which plunged furiously through the forest, through thickets, briers, and brush, vainly endeavoring to extricate himself from the back of his unwelcome rider until completely exhausted. By this time Kenton had been bruised, lacerated, scratched, and mangled, until life itself was nearly extinct, while his sufferings had afforded the most unbounded ecstasies of mirth to his savage captors. This, however, was only a prelude to subsequent sufferings.
Upon the route to the Indian towns, for the greater security of their prisoner, the savages bound him securely, with his body extended upon the ground, and each foot and hand tied to a stake or sapling; and to preclude the possibility of escape, a young sapling was laid across his breast, having its extremities well secured to the ground, while a rope secured his neck to another sapling. In this condition, nearly naked, and exposed to swarms of gnats and musquetoes, he was compelled to spend the tedious night upon the cold ground, exposed to the chilling dews of autumn.
On the third day, at noon, he was within one mile of old Chillicothe, the present site of Frankfort, where he was detained in confinement until the next day. Toward evening, curiosity had brought hundreds, of all sexes and conditions, to view the great Kentuckian. Their satisfaction at his wretched condition was evinced by numerous grunts, kicks, blows, and stripes, inflicted amid applauding yells, dancing, and every demonstration of savage indignation.
This, however, was only a prelude to a more energetic mode of torture the next day, in which the whole village was to be partakers. The torture of a prisoner is a school for the young warrior, to stir up his hatred for their white enemies, and keep alive the fire of revenge, while it affords sport and mirth to gratify the vindictive rage of bereaved mothers and relatives, by participating in the infliction of the agonies which he is compelled to suffer.
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Running the gantlet was the torture of the next day, when nearly three hundred Indians, of both sexes and all ages, were assembled for the savage festival.
The ceremony commenced. Kenton, nearly naked, and freed from his bonds, was produced as the victim of the ceremony. The Indians were ranged in two parallel lines, about six feet apart, all armed with sticks, hickory rods, whips, and other means of inflicting pain. Between these lines, for more than half a mile, to the village, the wretched prisoner was doomed to run for his life, exposed to such injury as his tormentors could inflict as he passed. If he succeeded in reaching the council-house alive, it would prove an asylum to him for the present.
At a given signal, Kenton started in the perilous race. Exerting his utmost strength and activity, he passed swiftly along the line, receiving numerous blows, stripes, buffets, and wounds, until he approached the town, near which he saw an Indian leisurely awaiting his advance with a drawn knife in his hand, intent upon his death.
To avoid him, he instantly broke through the line, and made his rapid way toward the council-house, pursued by the promiscuous crowd, whooping and yelling like infernal furies at his heels. Entering the town in advance of his pursuers, just as he had supposed the council-house within his reach, an Indian was perceived leisurely approaching him, with his blanket wrapped around him; but suddenly he threw off his blanket, and sprung upon Kenton as he advanced. Exhausted with fatigue and wounds, he was thrown to the ground, and in a moment he was beset with crowds of savages, eager to strip him, and to inflict upon him each the kick or blow which had been avoided by breaking through the line. Here, beaten, kicked, and scourged until he was nearly lifeless, he was left to die.
A few hours afterward, having partially revived, he was supplied with food and water, and was suffered to recuperate for a few days, until he was able to attend at the council-house and receive the announcement of his final doom.
After a violent discussion, the council, by a large majority, determined that he should be made a public sacrifice to the vengeance of the nation, and the decision was announced by a burst of savage joy, with yells and shouts which made the
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welkin ring. The place of execution was Wappatomica, the present site of Zanesfield, in Logan county, Ohio. On his route to this place, he was taken through Pickaway and Mackacheck, on the Scioto, where he was again compelled to undergo the torture of the gantlet, and was severely scourged through the line.At this place, smarting under his wounds and bruises, he was detained several days, in order that he might recuperate preparatory to his march to Wappatomica. At length, being carelessly guarded, he determined, if possible, to make his escape from the impending doom. In this attempt he had proceeded two miles from the place of confinement, when he was met by two Indians on horseback, who in a brutal manner drove him back to the village. The last ray of hope had now expired, and, loathing a life of continual suffering, he in despair resigned himself to his fate.
His late attempt to escape had brought upon him a repetition of savage torture, which had well-nigh closed his sufferings forever, and he verily believed himself a "God-forsaken wretch." Taken to a neighboring creek, he was thrown in and dragged through mud and water, and submerged repeatedly, until life was nearly extinct, when he was again left in a dying state; but the constitutional vigor within him revived, and a few days afterward he was taken to Wappatomica for execution.
At Wappatomica he first saw, at a British trading-post, his old friend Simon Girty, in all the glory of his Indian life, surrounded by swarms of Indians, who had come to view the doomed prisoner and to witness his torture. Yet Girty suspected not the presence of his old acquaintance at Fort Pitt. Although well acquainted with Kenton only a few years before, his present mangled condition and his blackened face left no traces of recognition in Girty's mind. Looking upon him as a doomed victim, beyond the reach of pity or hope, he could view him only as the victim of sacrifice; but so soon as Kenton succeeded in making himself known to Girty, the hard heart of the latter at once relented, and sympathizing with his miserable condition and still more horrid doom, he resolved to make an effort for his release. His whole personal influence, and his eloquence, no less than his intrigue, were put in requisition for the safety of his fallen friend. He portrayed in
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strong language the policy of preserving the life of the prisoner, and the advantage which might accrue to the Indians from the possession of one so intimately acquainted with all the white settlements. For a time Girty's eloquence prevailed, and a respite was granted; but suspicions arose, and he was again summoned before the council. The death of Kenton was again decreed. Again the influence of Girty prevailed, and through finesse he accomplished a further respite, together with a removal of the prisoner to Sandusky.Here, again, the council decreed his death, and again he was compelled to submit to the terrors of the gantlet, preliminary to his execution. Still Girty did not relax his efforts. Despairing of his own influence with the council, he secured the aid and influence of Logan, "the friend of white men." Logan interceded with Captain Druyer, a British officer, and procured, through him, the offer of a liberal ransom to the vindictive savages for the life of the prisoner. Captain Druyer met the council, and urged the great advantage such a prisoner would be to the commandant at Detroit, in procuring from him such information as would greatly facilitate his future operations against the rebel colonies. At the same time, appealing to their avarice, he suggested that the ransom would be proportionate to the value of the prisoner.
[A.D. 1779.] Captain Druyer guarantied the ransom of one hundred dollars for his delivery, and Kenton was delivered to him in charge for the commandant at Detroit. At the latter post Kenton remained a prisoner of war until June 3d, 1779, when, with the aid of Mrs. Harvey, a trader's wife, he made his escape, in company with Captain Nathan Bullitt and John Caffer, fellow-prisoners from Kentucky, and set out through the wilderness for the settlements on the Kentucky River,
To avoid hostile bands on the frequented route from Detroit to Kentucky, Kenton plunged into the western wilderness by way of the Wabash. Through this circuitous route, depending for sustenance upon the rifle alone, they pursued their lonely journey on foot without seeing the face of another human being until, after thirty-three days, they arrived safely at the Falls of the Ohio. Such was the termination of Simon
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Kenton's sufferings and perils among the Indians in 1779; such, too, had been the renewed cause for eternal hostility to the Indian race.[A.D. 1780-1792.] From this time until the close of the war Kenton was an active partisan in all the movements against the Indians in Kentucky, both offensive and defensive. First, we find him an active scout, with one companion, watching every movement of the Indian host under Colonel Bird, as they retired from the invasion of Kentucky in the summer of 1780, and faithfully reporting the same to his commander at Harrod's Station. Next, we find him commanding a choice company of riflemen in Colonel Clark's mounted regiment against the Miami towns in the autumn of the same year; and on the whole route, from the mouth of Licking, Kenton's company led the way, and conducted the invasion to the hostile towns upon the sources of the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers. Next, in 1782, we find him again a volunteer captain, commanding a choice company under Colonel Clark in his terrible incursion against the Indian towns upon the head waters of the Scioto and Miami Rivers. From 1784 to 1792 he was a frontier settler in the exposed region of Mason county, Kentucky, and took the command of all the defensive and offensive operations from his county against the savages. During these operations he was engaged in many fearful encounters with the savages, and once with the great, rising Shawanese warrior, Tecumseh himself.
[A.D. 1793.] Next we find him, in the autumn of 1793, acting major of a volunteer battalion of choice spirits from Kentucky, under General Scott, attached to General Wayne's army.
[A.D. 1795-1802.] After the close of the Indian war, Major Kenton retired to his farm near Washington, in Mason county, where he remained beloved by all for his generous and confiding friendship, and for his unbounded hospitality. His house was known as the stranger's home and the pioneer's welcome. He had become a wealthy frontier resident; possessed of extensive landed estates, a great number of cattle and horses, besides domestic stock of divers kinds, with abundant fields, he began to enjoy the comforts of a green old age in peace and competence. But a dark cloud was about to lower upon the evening of his life. Ignorant of the technicalities of law, and of the intricacies of land-titles, he had quietly enjoyed his possessions, unsuspicious of the requirements of law in the conveyance
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of lands and the formalities requisite to complete inchoate titles, until he was involved in litigation. Defending imperfect titles to lands which he believed justly his own, his whole attention was engrossed in efforts to secure himself and family from poverty and dependence in his declining age. He was now in his forty-seventh year; his ardor and physical energy abated, his spirits depressed by misfortunes which had followed in close succession, he saw himself ejected from one piece of land after another, which he had defended against the savage in his youth, and for which he had shed his blood and endured tortures indescribable. One suit after another was decided against him; one tract of land after another was lost; and one bill of costs after another stripped him of his remaining property, until he was reduced to absolute poverty.Such was the recompense which Kentucky awarded to her pioneers and early defenders. Such was her gratitude to Boone, Clark, and Kenton.
Thus was Major Simon Kenton, in the forty-seventh year of his age, refused a resting-place in the country which he had defended against the savage, and for which he had spent the prime of his life, and had done and suffered more than any other man in Kentucky.
Hence, in 1802, he emigrated to the Northwestern Territory, and settled on the frontier, near Urbana, in Champaign county of the present state of Ohio, in a region then scarcely reclaimed from the Indian warwhoop. Here, in advance of civilization, he settled, preferring the dangers of Indian warfare to the treachery of civilized man. He became a useful member of the frontier settlements, poor and retired, but beloved by his neighbors, who subsequently elected him to the office of brigadier-general in the new militia organization of the state. In 1810 he became a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and such he continued until his death.
[A.D. 1813.] But the patriotic fire of Kenton had not been extinguished by the ingratitude of Kentucky and the unfeeling avarice of her people. Again, in 1813, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, rejecting inglorious ease when his country required his services, his military ardor revived, and as a volunteer under Governor Shelby, he joined the Kentucky troops as they advanced through Urbana in their march to the northwestern frontier. Attached to the military family of Governor Shelby,
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and true to his former spirit, he adhered to the fortune of the army, and closed his military career by his intrepid aid in achieving the glorious victory of the Thames, in Upper Canada.[A.D. 1820.] In 1820 he removed to the head of Mad River, in Logan county, near the site of the old Indian town Wappatomica, one of the places where, in 1779, he had encountered the horrors of Indian torture. Here, in a beech forest, he took up his final residence, where he lived in humble poverty through the evening of his eventful life, relieved from actual want, during the last twelve years, by a mere pension of twenty dollars per month from the Federal government. On the 24th of June, 1836, he resigned his spirit to God, in peace with all men, and in hope of a glorious immortality.
[A.D. 1836.] Thus died General Simon Kenton, in the eighty-second year of his age, a man who, as a western pioneer, passed through more dangers, privations, perils, and hairbreadth escapes than any man living or dead; a man whose iron nerve never quailed before danger, and whose patriotism warmed up the evening of his life. After a long life devoted to his country, having passed through a thousand dangers, and having outlived the sufferings of a thousand deaths, he was permitted to die quietly in his bed at home, in peace and resignation, in the midst of a flourishing settlement, where once was the center of the Indian power. His bones repose within the bosom of the state which sheltered and protected his declining age, and well does Ohio deserve to retain them.
[A.D. 1774-1776.] 3. Robert Patterson, a native of Pennsylvania, was one of the most enterprising pioneers of Kentucky. At the age of twenty-one years he served as a ranger six months on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, during Lord Dunmore's Indian war.
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state, and which was subsequently fortified and known as "M'Clellan's Station." Attacked by Indians on the 29th of December following, the feeble garrison, encumbered with women and children, and unable to withstand a siege, secretly left the fort by night, and were conducted by Patterson safely to the more secure settlements near Harrodsburg. Here he became an active defender of the feeble colony first formed in Kentucky, and was called by Major George Rogers Clark, in 1776, to assist him in forwarding ammunition from Fort Pitt to be distributed among the settlements on Kentucky River.In the month of October, in company with Major Clark and five other companions, he engaged in the perilous enterprise of conveying powder to the Kentucky stations. Descending the Ohio River from Fort Pitt in a large canoe, with five hundred pounds of powder in twenty-five kegs, this fearless party eluded the hostile savages infesting the river until they reached the mouth of Hocking River. Here they were furiously assailed by a party of Indians on shore, when Patterson was severely wounded in the arm, and two of his companions were killed. The remainder effected their escape with the precious treasure, and succeeded in safely reaching the "Three Islands," above Limestone Creek. Here the powder was securely concealed from the lurking Indians until an ample escort from "Harrod's Station" should be able to convey it safely to the settlements.
From this time he continued an active pioneer soldier, engaged in the defense of the Kentucky settlers until June, 1778, when, with ten comrades from the stations, he volunteered to accompany Colonel Clark in his expedition against the British posts in the Illinois country. In this expedition he was an active and efficient subaltern, and took a prominent part in the capture of Kaskaskia and Fort Gage, on the 4th of July, 1778. In September following, in company with seventy others, whose term of service had expired, he returned to Kentucky and entered into the militia service at Harrod's Station.
In April, 1779, as ensign, commanding twenty-five men, he repaired to the south fork of Elk-horn, and encamped on the present site of Lexington, in Fayette county. On the 17th of April a stockade was commenced, which was the first white man's residence in the beautiful region which now surrounds the city of Lexington.
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About the middle of May following, he joined the expedition under Colonel Bowman against the Shawanese towns on the sources of the Little Miami, in which he distinguished himself as a valuable and efficient officer. In August, 1780, he again served as an officer under Colonel George Rogers Clark in the expedition which spread terror and devastation throughout the Shawanese towns, from the sources of the Scioto to those of the Wabash. From this time until the close of the Indian wars, he was one of the regular defenders of the Kentucky stations in all attacks, and in every invasion of the Indian country. In the terrible and disastrous battle of the Blue Licks, on the 19th of August, 1782, he was a prominent actor,
4. George Rogers Clark, a man whose history has not yet been written, was one of the most prominent pioneer defenders of the whole West; confined to no particular section of country, his field of operation was the whole western settlements, over which he exercised a watchful care, which secured them from utter extermination and ruin. For decision, energy, forethought, good sense, and intrepidity, he will compare favorably with any general of the Revolutionary war. In the West, he was certainly the best soldier that ever led an army against the savages, and he knew how to control those uncontrollable beings better than any other man of his day.
Clark, if not the first founder of Kentucky, was certainly a principal architect in rearing the superstructure. He was the guardian angel which stood over the infant colony from 1776 until 1785 with the aegis of his protection, and his name deserves to stand enrolled high among the worthies who have been honored as the fathers of the western country comprised in the eastern half of the Valley of the Mississippi, and his bones should lie side by side with those of Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton in the capital of Kentucky, under the monument which patriotism may rear to their memories.
He has been justly esteemed as the most extraordinary
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military genius which Virginia has ever produced, although the field of his operations was the remote wilderness of the West. Judge Hall declares him to have been "a man of extraordinary talents and energy of character, and possessed of a military genius, which enabled him to plan with consummate wisdom, and to execute his designs with decision and promptitude." His great mindIn his personal appearance Major Clark was commanding and dignified; hence, as Mr. Marshall observes, "His appearance was well calculated to attract attention; and it was rendered particularly agreeable by the manliness of his deportment, the intelligence of his conversation, and, above all, by the vivacity and boldness of his spirit for enterprise."
Major Clark was a native of Virginia, and was engaged in the early defense of the western inhabitants of the Old Dominion; yet the most important portion of his history commences in 1776, when he was upon the Ohio frontier, engaged in the protection of the settlements against Indian hostilities consequent upon the war of the Revolution. He was upon the frontiers near the Monongahela and southward to the Kenhawa during the year 1776, and superintended the construction of Fort Fincastle for the protection of the inhabitants in the vicinity of Wheeling Creek, as well as other settlements north and south of that point, near the Ohio River. Subsequently he repaired to Kentucky, and superintended the construction and defense of the settlements in that quarter. Finding those settlements in a state of insecurity, and destitute of ammunition for defense, he procured from the executive of Virginia an appropriation of five hundred pounds of powder for the use of
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the Kentucky stations. Repairing in person to Fort Pitt, he obtained the powder, and with six men conducted it safely through the Indian territory, down the Ohio to the "Three Islands," near Limestone Creek, where it was carefully concealed from the scrutiny of the savages, who roamed the whole country. Finding it too hazardous to advance with the precious treasure without a strong guard, he returned to Harrodsburg on foot, in company with Captain Jones, and by way of "M'Clellan's Station," for a sufficient escort to conduct it safely to the forts. Having procured the aid of Simon Kenton, Robert Patterson, and twenty-seven other hunters of like mold from the stations, he set out for the place of concealment, and returned a few days afterward, each man bearing his keg of powder.[A.D. 1777.] Shortly afterward he received his commission from the governor, authorizing him to organize the militia of the Kentucky stations. The militia of Kentucky were accordingly organized into three companies: one at Boonesborough, under Captain Daniel Boone; one at Logan's Fort, under Captain Benjamin Logan; and one at Harrod's Station, under Captain James Harrod. This was the first militia organization in Kentucky. From this time, Major Clark, as the real father of Kentucky, continued to watch over the infant settlements with paternal solicitude, which never faltered, until the close of the Revolutionary difficulties. During his service on the western frontier, he was advanced to the rank of brigadier-general, and was actual commander-in-chief of all the Virginia forces on the Ohio.
His observing eye and his military perception soon discovered that, after Detroit, the posts at Vincennes and Kaskaskia were the grand sources of Indian hostilities, the points from which emanated the plans and operations of the western savages for the destruction of the Kentucky settlements. Having been perfectly convinced of this fact, he conceived the design of putting an end to these incursions by the capture or destruction of these posts. Concealing his designs, he proceeded to Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, to concert with the governor and Executive Council a plan for accomplishing this object. His views and plans were approved by the governor, and measures were adopted to enable him to execute his designs. It was then that Major Clark was commissioned as
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colonel, with authority to raise a battalion of seven companies in the western counties of Virginia for a secret expedition under his command.Early in June his recruiting captains returned with their levies from the counties west of the Blue Ridge to Pittsburgh, and he descended the Ohio with the broken companies to "the Falls." Here, encamped on "Corn Island," he tarried some time, in hopes of recruiting his forces from the stations; but the secret expedition was unpopular in the settlements, which were entirely dependent on the protection of the militia, and it was deemed inexpedient to reduce their numbers, and thereby invite attack from the enemy.
With one hundred and fifty-three men, he descended the river below the mouth of the Tennessee; there concealing his boats, he advanced through the wilderness direct to Kaskaskia, and on the night of July 4th took possession of the British post and the town of Kaskaskia, without the loss of a man or the fire of a gun.
[A.D. 1778.] A few days sufficed to reduce the whole country to the allegiance of Virginia, and the posts to her arms. Before the lapse of many days he was master of all the British posts from the Wabash to the Upper Mississippi, had established the authority of Virginia, and had sent the governor and commandants prisoners of war to the State capital.
[A.D. 1779.] The following year, the British commandant at Detroit having advanced upon Vincennes and recovered the post, which had been without a garrison, Colonel Clark, with the same celerity as at Kaskaskia, advanced eastward to the Wabash, at the most wet and inclement season of the winter, and after an investment of thirty-six hours, captured the entire British force and recovered the place, sending Colonel Hamilton and his officers prisoners of war to Virginia.
[A.D. 1780.] Having supreme military command on the Lower Ohio and on the Mississippi, he established Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi, a few miles below the Ohio, thus extending the authority and the arms of Virginia to the remotest limit of British power in the West. For several years afterward he commanded on the Ohio above "the Falls," and became the admiration and the terror of the hostile tribes.
The history of Colonel Clark during the subsequent years, until 1786, is so intimately blended with that of Kentucky, that it is unnecessary here to trace his services further.
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Chapter III. — Extension of Virginia settlements and jurisdiction to the Mississippi. Indian hostilities upon the Ohio. A. D. 1776 to 1780.
Argument. — Retrospect of the frontier Settlements of Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Kentucky in 1776. — Check to these Settlements by hostile Cherokees. — Cherokee War. — Three-fold Invasion of Cherokee Country. — "Treaty of Dewett's Corner." — "Treaty of Long Island," on Holston. — Cherokees retire from ceded Territory. — Hostilities of Northwestern Tribes. — Kentucky Stations supplied with Powder by Major Clark. — Posts on the Ohio. — Attack on M'Clellan's Station, December, 1776. — Hostilities in West Augusta. — County of Kentucky erected. — Militia Organization in 1777. — District of West Augusta divided into three Counties. — Ohio County organized. — Settlements in West Augusta. — The Indians attack Harrod's Station; also, Logan's Fort and Boonesborough. — Militia organization in Ohio County. — Memorable Siege of Boonesborough from July 4th to September. — Captain Logan's Re-enforcement from North Carolina. — Colonel John Bowman's Re-enforcement. — County of Kentucky organized. — Militia Organization. — Extent of Kentucky County. — Colonel Henderson indemnified for Loss of Transylvania. — Indian Hostilities near the Ohio. — Cornstalk, Ellinipsico, and Red Hawk killed at Point Pleasant. — Condition of Wheeling Fort. — "Fort Henry." — Situation and Importance of this Fort. — Attacked by four hundred Indians under Simon Girty. — Loss of the Garrison near the Fort. — Incidents of Indian Warfare. — Major M'Cullock. — Captain Mason. — Major Clark plans the Reduction of Kaskaskia. — The Expedition proceeds from "the Falls." — Surprise and Capture of Kaskaskia and "Fort Gage." — Suspension of Civil Government in West Augusta. — Martial Law suspended. — Courts organized. — Attorneys and Attorney-general. — Daniel Boone and twenty-seven Men captured at Blue Licks. — His Captivity among the Indians. — His Escape and Return to Boonesborough. — Makes an Incursion to Paint Creek. — Boonesborough invested by large Indian Force, August, 1778. — Defense and Incidents of the Siege. — "Fort M'lntosh" erected. — "Fort Laurens" erected. — Protracted Siege of Fort Laurens. — Court of Land Commissioners established in Kentucky, 1779. — First Settlement at Lexington, Bryant's Station, Forks of Licking, and on Sources of Salt River. — Massacre of Colonel Rodgers and ninety Men on the Ohio. — Colonel Bowman's unsuccessful Expedition to the Miami Towns. — Emigration to Kentucky. — Arrival of Immigrants in 1779. — Scarcity of Provisions. — Depreciation of Paper Currency. — Distress of Emigrants until 1780. — Defenses on the Ohio. — "Fort Nelson." — Colonel Slaughter. — Landed Interest in Kentucky. — The Indians capture Ruddle's and Martin's Stations, and retire. — Destruction of the Moravian Towns on the Coshocton. — Massacre of Captives and friendly Moravians. — Colonel Clark invades the Shawanese Country in 1780. — Militia Organization in 1780. — Colonel Clark erects "Fort Jefferson" on the Mississippi. — Southern Boundary of Virginia extended to the Mississippi.
[A.D. 1776.] DURING the period under consideration, the state of Virginia, in virtue of her royal charter, claimed all the territory which would be included by extending her northern and southern boundaries due west to the Mississippi. This would comprise all the lands east of the Mississippi between the parallels of 36° 30' and 39° 40', of course including Kentucky,
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the southern half of Illinois, and one third of Ohio, or all that portion south of M'Connelsville, Lancaster, and Xenia; and before the close of the year 1780, her jurisdiction had been extended over the whole of her claim, besides an extensive portion of Western Pennsylvania south of Fort Pitt, upon the Monongahela and Youghiogeny, which was supposed to be within the limits of Virginia.At this time, as we have already shown,
In the extreme southeastern angle of the present State of Virginia, the population had been advancing slowly for the last ten years, upon the sources of the Holston and Clinch Rivers, within the territory claimed by the Cherokees. This war-like
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nation had again commenced hostilities against these frontier settlements, and the immigrants had been compelled hastily to abandon their homes, and seek safety and protection in the older settlements. At this period the vicinity of the present old town of Abington was an exposed frontier region, where several hundred of the inhabitants had collected for mutual protection and defense against the hostile Cherokees. The stockade in which they were cooped up for nearly six months was known as "Black's Station," and occupied the present site of Abington.The whole region north and south of Kentucky River was virtually beyond the civil jurisdiction of Virginia, although, by an act of the Legislature, it had been annexed to the jurisdiction of Fincastle county. The authority of the Transylvanian Republic had failed, and the civil organization had not been extended over the settlements.
In the mean time, the colony which had been commenced upon the Kentucky River had been harassed by straggling parties of hostile Indians, who infested all the settlements, occasionally killing those who were passing from one habitation to another, destroying the cattle, and stealing horses. So frequent had these murders and depredations become toward the close of the year, that no family was considered safe beyond the limits of the "stations," to which all retired for mutual protection and defense. Individuals passing from one station to another were armed, or an armed guard escorted them to their destination, as a protection from Indian massacre. No one was safe to walk beyond the stockades; for death, in the shape of an Indian, might lurk in every thicket, behind every tree, or under every bush. Were the fields to be tilled, was firewood or timber for building to be procured from the forest, or were the cattle to be penned outside the stockade, an armed sentinel stood by to give alarm of danger, or an armed guard was ready to resist any sudden assault. To accomplish his purpose of capturing a prisoner, of taking a scalp, or of stealing a horse, the wily Indian, in his silent approaches, would lurk near the stations and settlements, unseen for days, until an opportunity offered to retire with his trophy.
It was not until October that the inhabitants were supplied with powder for their defense, through the intrepid perseverance of Major George Rogers Clark, the protector and patron
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of Kentucky. Having visited the capital of Virginia, and procured the appropriation of five hundred pounds of powder, to be delivered at Pittsburgh for the settlements of Kentucky, he proceeded in a boat with six companions, two of whom were killed by the Indians on the way, to convey it down the river, through a region infested with hostile savages. With great precaution and secrecy, he succeeded in conveying it to the vicinity of the Limestone Creek, near the present town of Maysville, where it was concealed until he could proceed on foot to M'Clellan's Station in search of a sufficient escort for its safe delivery at Harrod's Station. Having procured a guard of twenty-seven men, including Simon Kenton, Robert Patterson, and others of like character, he returned to Limestone Creek, whence the twenty-five kegs of powder were safely conveyed by the escort to the principal stations.The nearest military post was that at the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, where Captain Arbuckle commanded a garrison of militia, not less than two hundred miles from the isolated settlements of Kentucky.
In the mean time, the hostile Indians of the Mingo tribes, as well as the Shawanese, had not been idle in their operations
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against the settlements on the Upper Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. Numerous hostile bands had infested this portion of Virginia with their robberies, outrages and murders upon the unprotected families. Many exposed habitations near the Ohio River, below "Wheeling Fort," were abandoned until greater security could be enjoyed. Among those then abandoned was the one near Big Grave Creek, and another near the mouth of the Little Kenhawa.At the next session of the Legislature, the jurisdiction of Virginia was formally extended over the settlements on the Kentucky River. At the recommendation of Major George Rogers Clark, the "county of Kentucky" had been formally organized, embracing all the country west of Big Sandy Creek, and extending to the Mississippi River. To this extension of the civil jurisdiction over the Transylvania purchase and the little republic organized therein, strong opposition was urged by Colonels Henderson and Campbell, but ineffectually.
To Major Clark was committed the military organization of the county, and the superintendence of the defensive operations for the protection of the inhabitants. Without loss of time, he repaired to his post, and entered upon the duties of his station.
[A.D. 1777.] Early in the spring, the militias were organized into three companies, one at Boonesborough, under Captain Daniel Boone; one at Logan's Fort, under Captain Benjamin Logan; and one at Harrod's Station, under Captain James Harrod. The different stockades were placed in a state of complete defense, with the resident militia and occasional re-enforcements derived by way of the "wilderness road," both from the Holston settlements, and other portions of North Carolina.
The settlements on the Kentucky River had already begun to contract their limits, and the pioneers had retired from the danger which awaited them, or had fortified themselves in the most commanding stations. "Leestown," a general rendezvous for explorers and surveyors, situated upon the Kentucky River, one mile below the present town of Frankfort, was abandoned early in the summer of 1776. Explorers, surveyors, and settlers, who had been traversing the country and opening preemption settlements on the north of the Kentucky River, and upon the branches of Elk-horn Creek, now retired under
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the protection of the general "Rendezvous" of Harrod's Station. Georgetown, on the north fork of Elk-horn, has since sprung up on the site of M'Clellan's Station, which was soon afterward abandoned to the savages. The present site of Lexington was then a desolate forest, upon which the white man had not entered. A few scattered habitations had been erected east of the sources of Elk-horn, but they were broken up during the same year, when most of the surveyors and explorers retired from Kentucky to the old settlements of Virginia, or to those on the Monongahela.The most extensive and populous frontier settlements of Virginia, however, were those upon the waters of the Monongahela and the Upper Ohio, and sparsely distributed upon the eastern sources of the Great and Little Kenhawas. These remote settlements, until near the close of 1776, had been beyond the organized limits of Virginia, but they had been attached to the jurisdiction of Augusta county, as the "District of West Augusta."
Meantime, the Legislature of Virginia, during the autumn of 1776, had been active in providing for the protection and civil government of the remote settlements upon the Ohio frontier. The district of West Augusta was divided into three large counties, designated as the counties of "Ohio," "Youghiogeny," and "Monongahela," which were organized during the following spring, when the first civil government was extended formally over this portion of the state.
Ohio county was first organized by the appointment of John M'Cullock, sheriff, his commission bearing date November 9th, 1776. His instructions required him to hold an election on the 27th of December, to decide by the votes of the landholders the location of the county seat of justice. The choice fell upon "Black's Cabin," on Short Creek, at which place was held the first county court ever organized upon the Ohio. The court opened on the 7th of January, 1777, constituted of seven associate justices, of whom David Shepherd was "presiding justice," and John M'Cullock, sheriff.
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and jail. Other counties were organized in like manner soon afterward.At this time the county of Ohio contained several large settlements, the most important of which were those on Buffalo Creek, Beech Bottom, Cross Creek, at the Forks of Wheeling Creek, on Big Grave Creek, Fish Creek, and Middle Island Creek. That on Short Creek was the largest settlement, and comprised the county seat. In nearly all of these settlements there was at least one block house, or fort, in which the families could be sheltered from Indian barbarity in case of imminent danger.
Since the Declaration of Independence, the Cherokees, instigated by John Stuart, Esq., his majesty's "Superintendent of Indian Affairs" in the South, in obedience to his instructions, had been active in their hostilities against the frontier population of Virginia and North and South Carolina. The Legislature of Virginia, co-operating with the authorities of the Carolinas, had been actively engaged in providing for the protection and defense of her extreme southwestern frontier. During the autumn of 1776, active preparations were in operation throughout the southwestern counties of Virginia for a formidable invasion of the Cherokee country on the north, at the same time that it was invaded in two opposite directions by the troops of North and South Carolina from the southeast. While the preparations for this three-fold invasion were in progress for the effectual chastisement of this warlike and implacable nation, the whole of the border settlements of Virginia and the Carolinas in this quarter were broken up and deserted by the inhabitants, who had hastily fled from their homes to the older settlements, while others retired to more secure situations, where they were compelled to remain cooped up in crowded forts and stockaded stations for months together. During this time the
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frontier settlements of Virginia, upon all the sources of the Holston and Clinch Rivers, were entirely abandoned to the savages. The same was true of the settlements of South Carolina, which had been advancing upon the sources of the Savannah, the Broad, and Saluda Rivers, and their tributaries, until they were relieved in the winter of 1776-7 by the simultaneous advance of the invading forces.Each of the contiguous states, notwithstanding they were engaged near the seaboard in contending with the myrmidons of Great Britain for their lives and property, had organized a strong military force for the protection of their western frontier from the ravages of her savage allies. Late in the autumn of 1776, these different invading divisions were in motion for the Indian country. The division from South Carolina, commanded by Brigadier-general Andrew Williamson, invaded the country upon the Keowe and Tugalo Rivers, comprising a large portion of the southeastern frontier of the nation. The whole of the Indian towns in this quarter were totally destroyed, and their fields ravaged by fire. The division from North Carolina, commanded by General Rutherford, advanced against the country upon the southern and eastern tributaries of the Holston, comprising the eastern portion of the nation. The towns and fields in this quarter, upon the branches of the south fork of Holston and upon the French Broad, were utterly destroyed, and the savages reduced to great suffering from extreme want.
About the same time, the division from Virginia, commanded by Colonel Christian, consisting of fifteen hundred men, advanced upon the country and towns on the waters of the north fork of Holston and of Clinch Rivers, comprising the northwestern portion of the nation. This division, in like manner, had laid waste the whole of their towns and fields as it advanced. After completing the destruction of all the towns in this quarter, Colonel Christian advanced his division to the south fork of Holston, and took up his winter-quarters upon Long Island, a few miles above the junction of the north and south forks. Here he erected "Fort Henry," so called in honor of the patriotic Governor of Virginia.
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The whole Cherokee nation, by this prompt and powerful invasion of their country in every direction, had been reduced to great want and suffering. At length, their national pride being humbled, and their martial spirit subdued, they made overtures for peace, which were readily met by the victorious commanders. Preliminary arrangements required both portions of the Cherokee nation to send delegates, or representatives, to treat separately with the commissioners of South Carolina and those of Virginia. Having complied with this preliminary, two separate treaties were subsequently entered into.
The first treaty was that of "Dewett's Corner." This treaty was conducted with the commissioners of South Carolina and Georgia, on the part of those states respectively. The Cherokees, by this treaty, signed in December, ceded and relinquished, by right of conquest, to those states large tracts of country upon the head branches of the Savannah and Saluda Rivers, free from any future claim on the part of the Indians.
The second treaty, held in January, 1777, on "Long Island," was conducted by commissioners on the part of Virginia and North Carolina. In this treaty, also, the Indians ceded large tracts of country to those states respectively upon the head waters of the north fork of Holston, and upon the branches of Clinch River. The ceded country embraced the frontier settlements west of Abington, and southeast of the Cumberland range of mountains, at present partly in Virginia and partly in East Tennessee.
After these treaties, the Cherokees retired further south and west, relinquishing the country upon Powell's River, and other head branches of Clinch River and the north fork of Holston, and occupying the country on the south fork, and upon the Tennessee River as far south and west as the Muscle Shoals. In less than two years after the treaty, the inhabitants of Virginia had advanced into the conquered country.
Meantime, the Shawanese and their confederates had commenced a regular Indian war against the new settlements upon the waters of Kentucky River. By the 1st of March, a large party of Indian warriors had advanced across the Ohio River, and on the 6th of March they were before Harrod's Station, having killed several persons and dispersed diverse parties of pioneers on their advance. The fortunate escape of James
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Ray, a mere lad, from one of these parties, and his speed in reaching the station with the alarm, saved the post from surprise and a disastrous defeat.The Indians, having perceived that one of the party which they had surprised near the station had escaped to give the alarm, immediately resolved to defer the contemplated attack, which was not made until next day, when the station was in a complete state of defense, the men having been all called in from the vicinity. On the morning of the 7th the savages appeared before the fort, and commenced the attack by secretly setting fire to an outbuilding a short distance from the stockade. Supposing the fire had been communicated accidentally, as no Indians were seen, several men sallied out to extinguish it; but they were immediately attacked by the Indians, who suddenly appeared and attempted to intercept their retreat to the fort. The men, being hard pressed by the Indians in their retreat, took shelter behind a copse of trees near at hand, when a sharp skirmish by the savages commenced. The fire of the Indians was promptly returned from the fort, and the savages soon afterward withdrew, having lost one warrior killed and several wounded. After a desultory fire with small arms for a few hours longer, they retired and abandoned the attack. The whites lost one man killed and three wounded.
On the 5th of April, a party of about one hundred Indians surrounded the station at Boonesborough, and immediately commenced a brisk attack. Their fire was promptly returned from the fort, and after a few hours the Indians retired, carrying off their dead and wounded. In the fort one man was killed and four wounded.
The same party, re-enforced, invested Logan's Fort on the 20th of May. The garrison, consisting of only fifteen men, made a vigorous defense for several hours, after which the Indians retired, carrying off their dead and wounded. In the fort two men were killed and one wounded.
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For a time the inhabitants of Kentucky were exempt from hostile attacks, although the country in the vicinity of the stations continued to be infested by lurking savages, compelling the occupants to remain within their stockades.
In the mean time, the border inhabitants on the Monongahela and upper Ohio had been less exposed to the incursions of the war parties, although not wholly exempt from nocturnal depredations by marauding bands.
Civil government had been established, and the threatening attitude of the savages north and west of the Ohio made it expedient to organize the militia. Commissions had been forwarded from the governor for the organization of a regiment in the counties comprised in the former district of West Augusta. On the second day of June, the several commissioned officers appeared in open court, received their commissions, and took the required oath of allegiance and fidelity to the state, preparatory to entering upon their respective duties. David Shepherd, presiding justice, was colonel-commandant, and Samuel M'Cullock, major, with five captains.
The militia rolls were to be immediately filled, and every able-bodied man over sixteen years was required to hold himself in readiness to take the field at a moment's warning.
On the 4th of July, a force of about two hundred savages appeared before Boonesborough, and commenced one of the most memorable sieges in the early annals of Kentucky. This was a regular Indian siege, kept up without intermission for nearly nine weeks, or from the 4th of July until the 4th of September. During this whole period the people and garrison were reduced to great extremities of both mental and physical suffering. They were harassed with continual watching; excited by constant alarms and fearful apprehensions, cut off from all supplies of food to sustain life, destitute of ammunition to
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maintain a protracted siege, confined to the narrow limits of the stockade, cut off from communication with other stations, alarmed by repeated attacks and fearful yells of the savages, life itself was almost a burden to them.While the main body of savages invested Boonesborough, detachments were constantly scouring the country near Logan's Fort and Harrod's Station, to intercept supplies, to prevent communication, and to excite fears of attack, which might deter the garrison from a division for the relief of Boonesborough.
Such were the incessant efforts of the savages, and such the variety and perseverance of their stratagems and their wiles, that the forts must certainly have fallen under their repeated attacks and the privations of the defenders, had they not received timely relief and supplies, about the 25th of July, by a party of forty riflemen, who forced their way through the wilderness from North Carolina. These brave men, fortunately, reached the fort in safety, restored confidence to the desponding, replenished their stores of ammunition, and shared with them the toils of their perilous defense. Yet the relief was temporary; the Indians continued the siege, and a few weeks found them as exhausted and destitute as before. The second relief came, most opportune, on the first of September, when Colonel John Bowman arrived, with one hundred men, from the Holston settlements. To the Indians, already impatient to return to their towns, this unexpected re-enforcement was an event of ominous import, and they soon afterward abandoned the siege and retired north of the Ohio.
During the whole of this protracted siege, the regular force at any one time was only twenty-two men at Boonesborough, fifteen at Logan's Fort, and sixty-five at Harrod's Station. At Boonesborough only one man was killed, and two wounded in the fort. A number of Indians were known to have been killed by the riflemen when they extended their approaches within rifle-shot.
Upon the body of one of the Indians, killed near the fort, was found a copy of a proclamation by Henry Hamilton, British lieutenant-governor, and commandant at Detroit, in which he offers protection to such of the inhabitants of Kentucky as would abandon the cause of the revolted provinces, but denounces vengeance against those who adhere to them.
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To illustrate the hardy daring of the early pioneers of Kentucky, their own actions are the best examples. The last re-enforcement, about the first of September, as before observed, was led on by Captain Logan, who, with a select party of woodsmen, had departed from the fort by night, and set out for the Holston settlements for aid and supplies. Traveling all night on foot, concealed in deep, secluded valleys by day, to avoid the hostile savages who infested the road, often leaving the beaten trace for the unfrequented routes, supplied with only a sack of parched corn for his fare, and enduring fatigues incredible, he at length, after ten days, reached the Holston settlements, two hundred miles from Boonesborough. The enterprise, and the daring perseverance which could accomplish this hazardous journey, could not fail to rouse his countrymen to relieve the beleaguered forts, and he soon returned with supplies, and one hundred pioneer riflemen.
Although the county of Kentucky had been laid off by law nearly twelve months, no regular organization of the civil government had taken place until after the termination of the siege of Boonesborough. Such had been the incessant alarms and dangers from the savages, that the militia organization alone had been carried into effect.
Late in the autumn, however, when Indian incursions had been in a good degree suspended, the first legal county court was regularly convened at Harrod's Station. It was constituted of John Todd, presiding justice; and John Floyd, Benjamin Logan, John Bowman, and Richard Calloway, associate justices. Levi Todd was clerk. The sheriff opened the court, and the justices entered upon their duties. Militia officers were commissioned for the organization of a regiment, and Lieutenant-colonel John Bowman proceeded immediately to enroll all the able-bodied men in the county.
Thus was the jurisdiction of Virginia extended to the Mississippi on the south side of the Ohio; and the infant Republic of Transylvania, established nearly two years previously, was swallowed up in the county of Kentucky, and became an integral part of the State of Virginia. The laws of the Commonwealth and the state jurisdiction superseded all the former legislation by the proprietors.
The county of Kentucky, as first laid off, comprised all the
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country south of the Ohio River, and west of Big Sandy Creek and the Cumberland Mountains, with the boundary of North Carolina as its southern limit. Of course it comprised within its jurisdiction the whole country south of the Kentucky River, which had been purchased of the Cherokees by Colonel Richard Henderson and company. Colonel Henderson could be recognized only as a private individual, having no right to make treaties with the Indian tribes, or to purchase lands from them.In the course of the summer, the northwestern settlement of Virginia, upon the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, were harassed by the incursions of scalping parties, which prowled through the country, committing such depredations and outrages upon the weak and unprotected settlers as chance and accident threw in their power. But their chief object was to supply themselves with horses, great numbers of which were stolen by them during the summer.
Cornstalk, the great Shawanese warrior, who had commanded the confederate Indians in the battle of the Kenhawa in the fall of 1774, had remained an idle spectator in the present war, and was even a friend of the white men; but he fell a victim to the natural enmity between the two races.
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could receive instructions from his government. Some time afterward, the son of Cornstalk, Ellinipsico, who had fought by his side at the Point, came to the fort to inquire the cause of his father's delay. He was received into the fort, and detained also. A few days afterward, several murders were committed in the vicinity by hostile Indians; whereupon a number of militia men, with Captain Hall at their head, highly exasperated at the murders, in a fit of fury determined, in retaliation, "to kill the Indians in the fort." With their guns cocked, breathing vengeance and death to any who dared to interfere, they proceeded to execute their horrid design. Cornstalk was engaged conversing with some of the officers, and delineating the region north of the Ohio upon the ground, when he was apprised of their murderous intent. At their approach, Ellinipsico appeared agitated, but the veteran chief bade him not to fear death: "My son, the Great Spirit has seen fit that we should die together, and has sent you here to that end; it is his will, let us submit." The murderers had now arrived; the old chief turned around to meet them, when, shot through the body with seven balls, he fell and expired without a struggle. Ellinipsico met his fate with great composure, and was shot upon the seat in which he was sitting when he first received the announcement of his fate. Red Hawk endeavored to escape, but was soon slain by his pursuers.The murders in this case were perpetrated by individuals from a detachment of militia which had arrived a few days before, and whose martial fire exhausted itself in the cowardly act which threw disgrace upon the arms of Virginia. They returned from their tour of service without once facing an enemy in the field.
But such is the spirit of inveterate hostility which burns in the breasts of the frontier people, that the murder of their friends seems to cry continually for vengeance against every individual of the race. Thus died ingloriously, by the hand of violence, one of the most talented, and one of the bravest Indian warriors that ever lived. In cool courage and commanding talents he has never had his superior, and seldom his equal.
A few weeks more convinced the people of the newly-organized counties of Northwestern Virginia that they were not forgotten by the hostile warriors. The savages had looked
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with a jealous eye upon the fort at Wheeling, and its destruction had engaged the attention of the British commandant at Detroit. A strong expedition for its reduction had been committed to the command of the notorious renegade, Simon Girty. This had been one of the oldest and strongest settlement forts on the Ohio, and had been too strong for attack by any of the war parties which had scoured the frontier settlements. To reduce it, a regular Indian army must be collected, and well provided with the means of offensive warfare.This fort, formerly known as "Fort Fincastle," and now called "Fort Henry," stood on the east bank of the Ohio River, nearly five hundred yards above the mouth of Wheeling Creek, and about three hundred yards from the base of the abrupt hill which rises east of the present city of Wheeling. The immediate site of the fort was upon an elevated plateau, rising twenty or thirty feet above the surrounding creek and river bottom, which was then cultivated as a corn-field. Between the fort and the base of the hill stood the straggling village, composed of about thirty small log dwelling houses and outbuildings. The fort was a parallelogram, with two blockhouses at corners, and surrounded by a strong palisade eight feet high. The principal gateway opened on the east side, next the village. The garrison was a small detachment of militia, kept in active service under the direction of the colonel commandant.
About the first of June, the Indian incursions and depredations had been made with such boldness and frequency, that the civil jurisdiction ceased, and martial law prevailed over all the settlements; and such was the apprehension of imminent danger from the Indians, that the common safety was a paramount object; people threw aside their private pursuits, and every man became an energetic soldier.
Early in September it was ascertained that an immense Indian army was concentrating on the Sandusky River, under the direction of Simon Girty, who exercised unbounded influence over the Wyandots and their confederates. It had been ascertained, also, that this Indian army was well supplied with arms and ammunition by Governor Hamilton at Detroit. By this enlightened functionary Girty was empowered, if he saw proper, to grant protection from the tomahawk and scalping-knife to such of the western settlers as would espouse
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the cause of England, and swear allegiance to the British crown.The force under Girty amounted to about four hundred warriors. With these duly provided, he set out, and, to conceal his real destination, he marched toward Kentucky. Although Colonel Shepherd suspected his object, and kept out a detachment of the most active and experienced scouts, Girty succeeded in eluding them, and appeared suddenly before the walls of the fort before his advance was discovered. This was on the 27th of September.
On the following morning, the first man who ventured out was shot down by the Indians in sight of the fort. A negro in company escaped to the fort and gave the alarm, and reported six Indians in the corn-field. Colonel Shepherd detached Captain Mason, with fourteen men, to dislodge the Indians. He proceeded through the field, and finding no Indians, was about to return, when he was furiously assailed on every side by nearly the whole of Girty's army. The captain and his men endeavored to cut their way through the savages to the fort. In accomplishing this object, he lost more than half of his command, and was severely wounded himself. Captain Ogle, at the head of twelve volunteers, in his attempt to cover the retreat of Captain Mason, was led into an ambuscade, in which two thirds of his men were killed. The Indians pressed forward to the fort in two extended lines; and as they advanced the war-whoop rang through the lines until the welkin echoed with the wild and startling chorus.
The action commenced by a brisk fire of rifles and musketry. The garrison, in the two sallies, had already lost more than half their original number, including two of the best officers. None of the parties succeeded in reaching the fort, but were lying, wounded and concealed, beyond reach of aid
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from the garrison. The effective force in the fort was now only twelve boys, who on that day performed prodigies of valor.The Indians surrounded the fort in every direction, keeping up a brisk fire by parties stationed in the houses of the village, and behind fences, and in the corn-field, from which they could securely annoy the garrison.
After an active firing of an hour, Girty suspended a white flag from the window of a house, and demanded the surrender of the fort in the name of his Britannic majesty. He read the proclamation of Governor Hamilton, and promised protection to such as would swear allegiance to the British crown. He warned the garrison of the danger of resistance, and added the usual threat of his inability to restrain his savages in case the fort fell by assault. Colonel Shepherd returned for answer that he could not obtain possession of the fort while an American soldier remained to defend it. Girty renewed his proposition for surrender, which being disregarded, he retired, and a brisk fire was again opened upon the fort.
It was now about nine o'clock in the morning, and the fire was kept up, with but little intermission, for about six hours. The Indians, elated with the early successes of the day, and furiously impatient to complete the work of butchery in the fort, fired at random against the pickets, houses, and every thing which seemed to shelter a man. The garrison, on the contrary, was cool and deliberate with their fire, and every man and boy was a marksman and a soldier. Many of the Indians, at length, in their fury, rushed up to the block houses for the purpose of firing through the logs and openings; but they were soon compelled to retire.
An intermission of an hour occurred about two o'clock, after which the Indians renewed their exertions. The fire was resumed with great activity, and about twenty Indians, with rails and blocks of wood, rushed to the gate for the purpose of forcing it open or of breaking it down. They were repulsed, with the loss of several of their warriors killed ; but the attack was continued until night. Soon after dark the Indians advanced within sixty yards of the fort with a large log, which they had converted into a cannon, charged to the muzzle with chains, stones, slugs of iron, and other hard substances taken
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from the blacksmith shop of the station. This was directed so as to discharge its contents full against the gate. A crowd of Indians stood near to witness the discharge. The match was applied, and the explosion burst the iron-bound cannon into a hundred fragments, killing several of the Indians, but inflicting no injury on the fort. A loud yell proclaimed their disaster, and the failure to injure the fort. The main body of the Indians soon afterward retired from the siege to take food and repose, while a few prowled about the fort all night to annoy and harass the garrison.Next day the garrison was fortunately re-enforced by Colonel Swearengen, who succeeded in reaching the fort safely with fourteen men. The Indians still remained dispersed over the surrounding country, committing such depredations and murders as presented to their rapacity.
Next morning, about daybreak, Major Samuel M'Cullock, already a distinguished frontier soldier, arrived at the fort with a troop of forty horsemen from Short Creek. The gate was thrown open, and the troop dashed in through a shower of bullets and crowds of Indians, who attempted to intercept them. The troop succeeded in entering the fort in safety; but their brave commander, by the press of the Indians, had been separated from his men, and excluded from the gate. He was well known to many of the Indians, and was deemed well worthy the honor of being taken alive as one of the greatest trophies. Twenty Indians were eager to intercept him; and after several ineffectual attempts to pass his pursuers and dash into the fort, he wheeled his charger and dashed swiftly toward Wheeling Hill, east of the fort. He reached the top of the hill, and took down the ridge, determined to reach the Short Creek settlement, if possible; but here he was met by another party of Indians on the eastern side of the hill, who quickly joined in pursuit of the flying hero. He immediately wheeled and retraced his steps, in hope of finding some other opening for his escape, but he soon met his first pursuers in full chase, who had already gained the top of the ridge. His situation was now exceedingly critical; surrounded on two sides by his pursuers, hemmed in on the third side by impending cliffs and rocky steeps, and the fourth side presenting a precipice, nearly perpendicular, of one hundred and fifty feet to the channel of Wheeling Creek. An instant decided his
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course. Supporting his rifle in one hand, and carefully adjusting his reins with the other, he urged his horse to the brink of the bluff, and made the leap which decided his fate. Having, by the activity of his horse, reached the base of the hill in safety, he dashed across the creek, and was soon beyond the reach of his pursuers. This is only a specimen of the many adventures and hair-breadth escapes incident to Indian warfare.The escape of Major M'Cullock and the re-enforcement received by the garrison decided the siege. The Indians soon afterward assembled near the foot of the hill, set fire to all the houses and enclosures outside of the fort, killed about three hundred head of cattle, and then took up the line of march for some other theatre of action.
During this siege not a man in the fort was killed, and only one slightly wounded by the enemy. But the whole loss sustained by the whites in this incursion was severe. Of forty-two men in the fort on the morning of the 27th, twenty-three were killed in the corn-field before the siege commenced. Two men, who had been sent down the river in a canoe on the evening of the 26th, were killed by the Indians. Mr. Duke, son-in-law of Colonel Shepherd, had been killed by the Indians on the evening of the 27th, in attempting to reach the fort. Thus the whole loss of the whites was twenty-six killed and five wounded. The loss of the enemy was not correctly known, as they always remove their dead; but it was variously estimated from sixty to one hundred killed.
Those who took a conspicuous part in the defense of Wheeling Fort, and distinguished themselves for courage and intrepidity, were Colonel Shepherd, Silas and Ebenezer Zane, John Caldwell, men of the first standing and influence in the western settlements; also, Abram Rogers, John Linn, Joseph Biggs, and Robert Lemmon, expert Indian fighters, and noted on the frontiers. Nor must we omit that heroic and devoted girl, Elizabeth Zane, who offered herself a willing sacrifice to bring a keg of powder, during the siege, from a building sixty yards distant into the fort, to which she fortunately returned unhurt, amid a shower of bullets.
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In the mean time, Major Clark had taken great interest in the defense of the whole northwestern frontier of Virginia, as well as of Kentucky. Auxiliary to his contemplated operations during the summer of 1777, he had dispatched secretly two spies by the names of Moore and Dunn, and from them had learned the state of things at the remote British posts of Detroit, Vincennes, and Kaskaskia. He was convinced that they were the true source of all the Indian hostilities against the settlements of Kentucky, and he had conceived the secret design of leading an expedition against them. Accordingly, on the 1st of October, he left Kentucky on a visit to the capital of Virginia, to consult with the Executive Council relative to the protection of the western inhabitants. He proceeded to Williamsburg, and on the 10th of December he first disclosed to Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, his proposed plan of a secret expedition against those British posts, and especially against Kaskaskia. After several conferences with the governor and Executive Council, and after due consideration of all his plans for the reduction of those posts, they approved the plan, and pledged themselves to sustain him in the attempt. He was commissioned as a colonel in the service of Virginia, with authority to raise troops on the credit of the Commonwealth. They also obligated themselves to use their efforts and influence with the Legislature to procure a bounty of three hundred acres of land for each man who should serve in the expedition.
[A.D. 1778.] Having received authority for supplies and transports from General Hand at Fort Pitt, he set out for that post, preparatory to further operations toward organizing his expedition.
On the 4th of February Colonel Clark set out for Fort Pitt to make arrangements for his expedition, and to levy troops in the western settlements near Fort Redstone, which was then claimed by Virginia. Major William B. Smith had been dispatched to the Holston settlements, while Captains Leonard Helm, Joseph Bowman, William Harrod, and several others were sent to other counties west of the Blue Ridge to recruit men for the expedition. Each of these was instructed to meet him, with his respective company, on the Monongahela. At length Colonel Clark descended the river in boats from Fort
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Pitt, with his recruits, to the Falls of the Ohio, where he was detained several weeks, encamped upon "Corn Island," recruiting his forces and completing his preparations for the ultimate object of his commission. Here he received an important accession to his little army of twenty volunteers from Kentucky, under Captain Montgomery.All things being in readiness, about the middle of June he descended the river with less than two hundred men in barges, until they arrived at a point within sixty miles of its mouth. Here Colonel Clark determined to disembark his troops, and make a rapid and secret march across the country, so as more certainly to surprise the post of Kaskaskia. After a hazardous and tedious march through the unfrequented wilderness of wet lowlands, he at length reached Kaskaskia in safety.
The further consideration of the military operations of this division of the army of Virginia, in the reduction of the British posts on the Upper Mississippi and Wabash, agreeably to the plan of this work, will be found in book iii., chap. iv. Suffice it to say here that the whole of the British posts north of the Ohio and west of Detroit were subdued by Colonel Clark and his brave associates during the following month of July. The authority of Virginia was acknowledged by the inhabitants, and the country was embraced as an integral portion of the State of Virginia, under the name of the "county of Illinois." Many of the hostile tribes of Indians between the Wabash and the Upper Mississippi entered into treaties of peace and amity with Colonel Clark, and ceased their hostilities against the frontier settlements of Virginia.
The capture of Kaskaskia and other northwestern British posts served to rouse the commandant at Detroit to greater exertions in harassing the frontier population east and south of the Ohio. Although, for a time, his operations in Kentucky and Illinois were paralyzed by this unexpected disaster to his majesty's arms, he resolved to retrieve the honor of the British flag, and add new laurels to his own brow.
With this resolution he concentrated all his forces, and called in all his savage allies, for the contemplated recapture of the British posts on the Wabash and in the Illinois country, together with
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the rebel Virginians who held possession of them. With eighty British regulars, and a large force of Indian warriors, he advanced to Vincennes, and took possession of the post without resistance; but it was only a few weeks afterward when he was compelled to surrender his whole force to Colonel Clark, and proceed a prisoner of war to the capital of Virginia, where he and others of his subordinates were put in close confinement as a retaliation for their past cruelties.The Cherokees, instigated by his agents, had again resumed hostilities against the frontier settlements of North Carolina, and Colonel Shelby, at the head of a victorious army, had overrun their country with fire and sword, destroying no less than eleven towns, besides twenty thousand bushels of corn, and the capture of a large supply of stores and goods, valued at Å20,000, which had been provided by his "majesty's agents" for distribution at a general council of the northern and southern Indians, which was to convene at the mouth of Tennessee in the spring of 1779.
Thus were terminated forever the hostile operations of Great Britain in the Illinois country, from the Wabash to the Mississippi; yet many years elapsed before the strong-holds of her power were demolished northeast of the Wabash.
The settlements on the Monongahela and Upper Ohio, although erected into counties as early as January, 1777, had been so continually harassed by Indian hostilities, that courts and civil government had been entirely neglected until April of the following year. During this period of more than fifteen months, the militia of the three newly-organized counties had been held under marching orders, with but little intermission, until the 6th of April, 1778. Martial law superseded the civil authority; and the District of West Augusta was again, to all intents, a military colony, wholly absorbed in defensive operations for the general safety.
Yet at this early period, and in the infancy of the western settlements, the people, true to the principles of liberty, were jealous of military power, although its exercise had been necessary for the public safety and the protection of the inhabitants
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from savage incursions. After the first respite from Indian alarms and danger, the Court of Quarter Sessions held its regular term early in April. On the second day of court, Colonel Shepherd was formally arraigned before the court, charged with having established martial law during the recess. The colonel pleaded the public danger and the necessity of the times as his justification, and the court, satisfied that he did not intend to encroach upon the prerogatives of the civil authorities, discharged him, and the complaint was dismissed.In these early times, licensed attorneys, as a necessary appendage to a court of justice, were unknown. While courts are unsophisticated by legal quibbles and technicalities, the administration of justice is simple and easy; but as civilization and legal lore pervert the ends of justice, the other adjuncts become necessary to clear away the mist thrown before the mental vision. It was not until the second day of November, 1778, that Philip Pendleton and George Brent were admitted as the first attorneys, and licensed to practice in the court of Ohio county. At the same time, the state required an attorney to enforce the penalties of the law, and Philip Pendleton was appointed first attorney-general
During the spring and summer of 1778, Indian hostilities upon the Upper Ohio and upon the Monongahela were partially suspended, and civil government resumed its supremacy. Released from imminent danger and constant alarm, the people had leisure to apply themselves to domestic concerns, in the improvement of their farms and dwellings, in cultivating fields and gardens, and in rearing their stock and multiplying domestic animals.
The people of Kentucky were less fortunate. In this quarter the Indians commenced their incursions early in January; and, with occasional remissions, they were continued until the close of the year. Their principal operations, however, were directed against the Fort of Boonesborough. This was the most exposed of the three principal stations, and appeared to be an object of peculiar aversion to the savages, who directed all their efforts to its destruction.
Among their first operations was the capture of Captain Daniel Boone, with a detachment of twenty-seven men, at the
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Blue Licks, while making salt for the inhabitants. Such had been the harassing incursions of the savages during the past year, that most of the settlements near the Kentucky River had become almost destitute of the requisites for sustaining life. Among the privations most sensibly felt was the want of salt. As the Indians generally abstain from their incursions during the winter, Captain Daniel Boone proposed to take a party of thirty men and go to the Lower Blue Licks, on Licking River, and make salt to supply the stations. He set out on this expedition about the 1st of January, and continued making salt and sending it in to the settlements until the 7th of February, when he was surprised and taken prisoner by a large body of Indians on their way to Boonesborough. Alone in the woods, in quest of game for his salt-makers, he was taken prisoner, and deemed it expedient to enter into a capitulation for the surrender of his men, to the number of twenty-seven, who were at the salt-lick. The Indians promised to spare their lives and to give them good treatment while prisoners. Nor did they violate the stipulations into which they had entered.This band of Indians, exceeding one hundred in number, elated with their success, without any loss, determined to return with their prisoners to their towns on the Little Miami River. In March following, Boone and ten of his men were marched to Detroit, the headquarters of Governor Hamilton, the British commandant.
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toward Boonesborough, where he arrived in five days, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, sustained by one single meal, which he had concealed under his blanket.On the 8th of August this formidable force was before the fort, with a demand for its surrender in the name of his "Britannic majesty." Two days' consideration was requested and granted. The garrison did not exceed fifty men; the subject was considered in all its bearings, and at length the answer returned was, "We are determined to defend our fort as long as a man of us lives." This answer was proclaimed aloud by Captain Boone from one of the bastions of the fort to the listening commander of the Indian host. To this Captain Boone subjoined his own personal thanks for the notice given him of the intended attack, and the time allowed to prepare his defense,
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This was discovered and prevented. At length, on the 20th of August, the siege was abandoned, and the Indian army returned without having accomplished the great object of their campaign.This was the only important Indian incursion during this year on the extensive frontier of Western Virginia, other operations being most probably diverted by Colonel Clark.
For the protection of the settlements upon the Upper Ohio and upon the Monongahela more effectually, General M'Intosh, of the Federal army, early in the spring of 1778, had descended the river from Fort Pitt, with a detachment of regulars and militia, and erected a stockade fort on the north side of the Ohio, half a mile below the mouth of Big Beaver Creek, and about thirty miles below Fort Pitt. The fort was defended by strong bastions, and mounted with one six-pounder cannon. The post was called "Fort M'Intosh," in honor of the general. It was situated upon an elevated plain, terminating in a rocky parapet, two hundred feet above the river, and having a most commanding position. It was directly in the line of the warpath leading to the settlements on the west side of the Monongahela.
Late in the autumn, General M'Intosh received orders from the Federal government to march a strong force against the Wyandot towns on the head waters of the Sandusky River, situated about one hundred and seventy miles west of Fort M'Intosh. It was not until late that the troops were put in motion, when the general set out with one thousand men. Advancing by slow and regular marches, he was overtaken by winter, about sixty miles from Fort M'Intosh, and upon the head waters of the Tuscarawas. Here, on account of the lateness of the season and the inclemency of the weather, the council of war deemed it expedient to suspend the march, and defer further operations until spring.
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The expedition against the Sandusky towns was accordingly postponed, and a stockade post was erected upon the Tuscarawas, just below the mouth of Sandy Creek, and, in honor of the President of Congress, it was called "Fort Laurens."
Colonel John Gibson, with one hundred and fifty men, detached as a garrison, took command of the fort, and General M'Intosh, with the residue of the troops, returned to Fort Pitt.
This was the first advance of the white man's power west and north of the Ohio; and although the Indians had relaxed their operations against the frontier settlements, it was not their intention to permit the enemy thus quietly to occupy their country, and they left untried no effort to capture the post and destroy the feeble garrison.
[A.D. 1779.] It was early in January following when they made their first hostile movement against Fort Laurens, and the investment was continued without intermission until spring. Early in January the first party of Indians appeared before the fort, and before they had been seen succeeded in drawing a portion of the garrison into a disastrous ambuscade. Concealing themselves in the high grass, they sent a number of horses, with bells on their necks, to graze near the fort. The horses continued for some time in sight of the fort, and no Indians appearing, the commandant was induced to order out a fatigue party of sixteen men to secure the horses. They had advanced but a few hundred yards, when, by a sudden fire from the concealed Indians, fourteen of them were killed on the spot, and the remaining two were taken prisoners. Such was the beginning of the siege of Fort Laurens.
The same evening the savages appeared in great force, numbering, according to estimate, at least eight hundred and forty warriors. They continued to surround the fort with detached parties for nearly six weeks, entirely cutting off all communication with Fort M'Intosh or the settlements below Fort Pitt. During this time they kept the garrison in continual alarm and constant watching by their incessant attacks and threatened assaults.
In March they had disappeared for some days, and the commandant, in the vain hope that they had retired to their towns, permitted Colonel Clark, of the Pennsylvania line, with a guard, to escort twelve invalids to Fort M'Intosh. But the party had
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not advanced two miles from the fort, when they were surprised by a party of Indians, and at the first fire fourteen men were killed; four only escaped. Their bodies, horribly mangled, were left unburied on the plain, to be devoured by wolves.So close had been the siege during the winter, that the bones of those killed in January, in sight of the fort, remained unburied, and were devoured by wolves.
Settlements had extended rapidly in Kentucky, and the resident population in all the region south of the Ohio could not be less than five thousand souls, besides hundreds of visitors and transient persons. Organized civil government had been in operation nearly two years, hundreds of settlements had been made, and the whole country was covered with improvements barely sufficient to establish a claim, or inchoate title, to the land; the extent and bounds of each claim were undefined, and conflicting interests of individuals required adjudication to confirm and ratify the claims in the order of their precedence. For this purpose, the Legislature of Virginia, at its last session, had created a Court of Commissioners to examine and adjudicate upon all claims, or inchoate titles, having their inception anterior to the first day of January, 1778. This court held its sessions alternately in the different settlements during the summer of 1779, and at the close of the year the commissioners had adjudicated no less than three thousand claims. Such had been the progress of pioneer emigrants up to the beginning of the year 1778 in Kentucky. Other acts of the Legislature had made ample provision for pre-emption rights subsequent to that time.
It was about the first of April, this year, that the first permanent settlement was made on the present site of Lexington, in Fayette county. It was begun by Ensign Robert Patterson and twenty-five men from Harrod's Station. The houses, or log cabins, were arranged in parallel rows, and connected by a strong picket enclosure. It was soon occupied by the families of James Masterson, Major John Morrison, the M'Connels, Lindsays, and others.
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five miles northeast of Lexington, was begun, and several others in the vicinity of Danville. Many other stations on the southwest side of Licking River, and thence westward to the sources of the Elk-horn, and upon the sources of Green River, and Rolling Fork of Salt River, were also commenced about this time.The older stations became the principal resort of emigrants and new-comers, and their population was thus rapidly increased. The region near the Ohio River, except near the falls, was avoided by emigrants as an exposed frontier, where families were not safe from Indian outrage.
About midsummer the Indians resumed their incursions, distributed in small marauding parties from five to twenty in number, which penetrated every settlement, infested the roads near the stations, occasionally capturing a prisoner, taking a scalp, or firing upon such as came within their reach. By such means the Indians succeeded in keeping the inhabitants in a state of continual alarm, and compelling the families to concentrate around the stations for protection from secret attacks.
But the most disastrous event upon the frontiers of Kentucky, during this summer, was the defeat and massacre of Colonel Rodgers and a detachment of ninety men, near the mouth of the Little Miami. This defeat, in its effects upon the frontier settlements, was far more disastrous than any thing which had been experienced from the Indians since the hard-fought battle of the Kenhawa. Colonel David Rodgers and Captain Robert Benham, agents for the supply of the western posts, had returned from New Orleans in charge of two large keels freighted with an abundant supply of military stores, ammunition, and provisions for the western posts, with a complement of one hundred men. About the first of June, having recovered from the fatigue of a long and toilsome voyage up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, Colonel Rodgers set out from the "falls" to conduct the supplies up the Ohio to Fort Pitt. Near the mouth of the Little Miami, he beheld a number of Indians in canoes and upon rafts floating out of the Miami, which was then in flood from recent rains. As he approached, the Indians retired behind a copse of willows near the mouth, and the brave but unfortunate Colonel Rodgers resolved to attack them. The boats were landed, and his men were ordered to attack the savages on shore. In their advance they were soon led into a
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dangerous ambuscade just beyond the willows, where his men were instantly surrounded by more than four hundred Indians. Colonel Rodgers, at the head of his men, fought to the last; but the Indians, in a furious onset with tomahawk and seal ping-knife, soon dispatched about ninety men, including their commander. Only two escaped to the boats, and six or eight subsequently made their way to the falls. The whole amount of stores and supplies fell into the hands of the savages; one boat was ultimately recovered.To revenge this disaster, and to protect the settlements from the frequent incursions of marauding parties, known to be Shawanese from the head waters of the Miami and Scioto Rivers, the people of Kentucky planned a mounted expedition, under the command of Colonel John Bowman, against these Shawanese towns, and especially that known as Chillicothe. About the middle of July, the expedition, comprising nearly two hundred of the best men in Kentucky, set out for the devoted town. After a rapid march, they arrived near the first Indian town unobserved. The town and all its inhabitants might have been sacrificed to their vengeance; but by some extraordinary mismanagement or indecision of the commander, they utterly failed to accomplish this object. Assailed by a panic more formidable than the savage warriors, Colonel Bowman ordered a retreat, which was maintained under a galling pursuit and fire from a few savages for nearly one hundred miles, until they reached the Ohio River. Several of their number had fallen under the Indian fire during the retreat, and left their bones in the wilderness, and many others were severely wounded. The injury sustained by the enemy was inconsiderable.
Yet one of the great sources of Indian invasion and of hostile instigation had been broken up by the capture of the British posts on the Wabash and in the Illinois country, and the captivity of Colonel Hamilton, who was now secure in the dungeons of Williamsburg.
The news of these successes had reached the Atlantic settlements, and the spirit of emigration, which for months had
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languished, began to revive with renewed ardor. The terrors of the Indian waned in the distant horizon, and autumn found hundreds of families again on the road for the Monongahela, besides hundreds who had advanced from that region down to Kentucky, admitted to be the paradise of all the West. Already, during the last spring, while Indian hostilities for a time had been suspended, more than a thousand emigrants had reached Kentucky from the Monongahela; and before the recession of the spring floods, three hundred large family boats had arrived at the falls, all freighted with emigrants for the interior of Kentucky. For months together, trains of wagons, ten or fifteen in number, might be seen daily departing from "the falls" for different parts of the interior settlements. Before the last of October there had been established six "stations" on Bear-grass Creek, with a population of six hundred men.The rapid increase of population exhausted the limited supplies of food in the country, and a dearth ensued. Corn, and every article of provisions for family consumption, became remarkably scarce, with the price increased in due proportion. In December, corn was worth fifty dollars per bushel in Continental money, and before the first of March following its value had increased to one hundred and sixty-five dollars, which price was sustained until opening spring supplied other means of sustenance. This was a memorable period for emigrants to Kentucky. In the midst of an inclement winter, without meat, except that obtained from the forest, without bread, for the store of wheat was exhausted, and corn, the only substitute, one hundred and sixty-five dollars a bushel! This, indeed, was in depreciated paper money; but this was their circulating medium. The condition of all classes of people was alarming in the extreme; all were compelled to subsist upon such roots and vegetables as could be procured; upon the flesh of the deer, the bear, and the wild turkey, or such other animals as the hunter could procure. Milk, butter, and curd, to those possessed of domestic stock, afforded a grateful variety in their daily fare; but bread, however coarse, was the luxury of but few.
The same state of scarcity prevailed throughout the whole frontier line for five hundred miles. The pressure was not
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relieved until the last of May, when corn fell to thirty dollars per bushel.[A.D. 1780.] The winter of 1779-80 had been uncommonly severe and protracted. Emigrants had continued to arrive on the Monongahela and in Kentucky until mid-winter. Many had been overtaken by the severity of winter while in the midst of the wilderness, and there many of them were compelled to encamp, exposed to hardships and privations almost incredible. Hunger and cold, in their extremes, were the lot of all; their domestic stock of all kinds, designed for their new settlements, died from cold and starvation. The store of provisions for the journey became exhausted, and those camps which could not produce an experienced hunter, reduced to the verge of starvation, were obliged to sustain life by killing their remaining stock of cattle and hogs, already reduced to living skeletons. The ground was covered several feet deep with snow, drifted in many places to the depth of six or eight feet. The rivers and springs were congealed to solid ice, or entirely dried up. Wild beasts and game of all kinds were poor, emaciated, and sickly; many died from inanition. When winter began to break up, such were the enormous floods from rains and melting snows, that many of the beasts of the forest, such as the bear, the elk, the deer, and game of less magnitude, were drowned or killed by drifting ice. To such extremities, in many cases, were migrating families reduced before they reached Kentucky, that they were compelled to sustain life by eating the dead carcasses of such animals as were found floating on the river floods. Having arrived in Kentucky, they
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were able to procure a scanty supply of vegetables, of milk, and animal food of divers kinds; but the corn and wheat had been exhausted, and, consequently, bread was an article rarely seen.Settlements were advancing over the central parts of Kentucky, and the population of each was rapidly increasing. The same was true upon the waters of the Monongahela, the Kenhawa, and the Ohio itself. But Indian hostilities had not ceased. Incursions by hostile bands continued to harass the exposed inhabitants in both regions and along the whole course of the Ohio. Covered boats, for the protection of their inmates from the fire of the Indian rifle, seldom arrived at the "falls" without having encountered an attack from the savages who infested the shores; often family boats were plundered and destroyed, and their inmates were fortunate to escape with their lives.
To protect the emigrants advancing by this great route to Kentucky, troops were stationed at suitable places on the river, but chiefly at Fort Pitt, at Fort M'Intosh, Wheeling, and Point Pleasant.
About this time, Colonel George Slaughter, from Virginia, descended the Ohio with one hundred and fifty state troops for the protection of Kentucky. He established his headquarters near the mouth of Bear-grass Creek, just above the falls. Here he erected a stockade fort, after the western manner, defended by several pieces of cannon, and known as "Fort Nelson." For several months public attention was directed to this point, which was strongly fortified, under a belief that the British commandant at Detroit designed to lead a strong expedition for its destruction. Other points, deemed more secure, were less prepared to resist a hostile attack, and public attention in the interior, notwithstanding occasional instances of Indian hostilities, seemed wholly engrossed in the acquisition of land, as if it were the only subject of interest, the only great business of life.
In the mean time, the British commandant at Detroit, to offset the former successes of Colonel Clark in the Illinois country, had prepared a strong military expedition for the reduction of Ruddle's and Martin's Stations on the forks of Licking River. The expedition was prepared with great secrecy, and about the first of June the whole allied British force, consisting
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of six hundred Indians and Canadian French, under the command of Captain Bird, a half-breed British officer, began to descend the Great Miami, with six pieces of artillery, and a large supply of military stores and ammunition. This British and Indian host advanced with such caution and secrecy, that they had ascended the Licking River, with their cannon, unperceived; and on the 22d of June they suddenly made their appearance before Ruddle's Station, on the south fork of Licking. This fort was a common stockade, without artillery, and the feeble garrison, encumbered with many women and children, was beyond the reach of aid from any quarter. Resistance was vain, and the garrison was compelled to surrender at discretion to the "arms of his majesty," with the guarantee of their lives only. Having demolished the fort, the victors loaded the prisoners with the spoils, and pursued their route to Martin's Station, on Stoner's Fork. The fort and garrison here shared the same fate, and were led into hopeless captivity.Elated by their unexpected success, and without loss, the invading host quickly retired with their prisoners and booty to the north side of the Ohio. Such of the women and children as could not keep up with their rapid march were sacrificed to the tomahawk and scalping-knife.
About this time a formidable invasion of the Coshocton towns was preparing on the waters of the Monongahela, to proceed from Wheeling, the point of general rendezvous. The whole number of troops collected for this expedition amounted to eight hundred men, including regulars and militia, under the command of General Broadhead. About mid-summer they set out from Wheeling, and after a rapid march by the most direct route, they reached the vicinity of the lower Moravian town, called "Salem." Here the commander halted, and sent an express to the missionary, the Rev. John Heckewelder, requesting of him an interview at his camp, and desiring him to bring a small supply of provisions for the army. The missionary attended accordingly, when the general communicated to him the object of the expedition, and informed him that it was designed against the hostile Indians, and not against the peaceable Moravians under his charge, who had conducted themselves with propriety as neutrals during the war; that it would be a source of pain to him to learn that any of the peaceable Indians, his disciples, should suffer any injury from the troops;
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to prevent which, he advised them not to be found in the route of their march.The militia, however, had been highly incensed against Indians indiscriminately, on account of the continued and harassing incursions and murders committed upon the frontier settlements east of the Ohio. They had, moreover, secretly resolved to destroy the Moravian villages with those of the hostile bands, and with difficulty were prevented from accomplishing their object only by the influence of General Broadhead and Colonel Shepherd.
Although they receded from their purpose, their fury was not appeased; it was only suppressed for the time. The army made a forced march to the hostile towns on the Coshocton, a few miles above, and succeeded in surprising one village on the east side of the river, and capturing every soul found in it; but, owing to a sudden flood in the river, from a recent heavy rain, the Indians of another village, on the west bank, escaped. Ten or twelve prisoners were picked up from some other towns in the vicinity. The prisoners, among whom were sixteen warriors, were placed under guard until night, when a council of war was held to determine their fate. The decision of the council doomed the whole sixteen warriors to death. By the order of the commander, they were bound, and marched a short distance below the town, where they were immediately dispatched by the bayonet, the tomahawk, and the spear;
On the following morning a fine-looking chief presented himself on the bank of the river as a messenger of peace, and, after having been introduced into camp, was treacherously murdered by a man named Wetzel while conversing with the commander. Wetzel approached with a tomahawk concealed under his hunting-shirt, which he suddenly drew, and cleft open the head of the chief with a single blow, so that he instantly expired.
At noon the army took up the line of its retrograde march. The Indian prisoners, about twenty in number, were committed to the custody of the militia, whose thirst for blood had not been satiated. After proceeding half a mile, the men began to
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kill the prisoners, and in a short time they had dispatched all of them except a few women and children, who were spared to be subsequently exchanged for an equal number of white prisoners held by the Indians.Such is the insatiable revenge which exists between the two races of men, in whom the utter extermination of each other is the only sufficient revenge. In all the invasions made into the Indian country for the last three years, the savage chiefs omitted no opportunity of deploring the existing state of feelings between the white and the red men, and professing their earnest desire of peace; yet they could not accede to a peace which did not protect their country from the occupation of their enemies.
The people of Kentucky, smarting under the defeat of Colonel Bowman last summer, and the more recent invasion of their country by the savages under Captain Bird, determined to invade the Shawanese towns on the Great Miami with a force adequate to the object in view. For this purpose, a regiment of mounted volunteers had assembled at the falls; and in the month of August they placed themselves under the command of Colonel George Rogers Clark, ready to take up the line of march for the Miami towns.
The regiment proceeded up the Ohio, on the Kentucky shore, until they reached the mouth of Licking River. Here they crossed over to the present site of Cincinnati, where they erected a block house for the protection of some military stores and a few wounded men of Captain M'Gary's company, who had been imprudently and rashly led by their commander into an Indian ambuscade on the north side of the river. This block house was the first building ever erected by white men on the site of Cincinnati. This being completed and provided with a suitable guard, the army proceeded northwardly toward the head waters of the Great Miami. With the celerity so characteristic of all Colonel Clark's military movements, they reached the object of their destination unperceived. The town was taken by surprise, and the troops rushed to the assault. After a fierce conflict, the brave warriors who defended the town were compelled to fly, leaving seventeen of their number dead on the field. The town was consumed with fire, and their fields of growing corn were utterly destroyed.
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In this engagement Colonel Clark's regiment lost seventeen men killed, besides several severely wounded, a certain evidence of the resolute resistance of the savages.
Captain Hugh M'Gary, who, by his rashness, had exposed his men, foolishly crossing the river and marching upon the Indian shore, was the man who, two years afterward, brought on the disastrous defeat at the Blue Licks. He was courageous to a fault, but rash in the extreme.
After the destruction of the principal town and its fields, the expedition ravaged several other towns upon other head waters of the Miami, and spread consternation wherever they appeared. A British trading-post, on a branch of Mad River, was likewise taken and unceremoniously destroyed. The regiment returned to the falls, having fully accomplished the object of the expedition, and having, for the present, put an effectual check to the Indian incursions from this quarter.
This year the militias of Kentucky were organized into a brigade, under Brigadier-general Clark. The brigade officers were Colonels Benjamin Logan and John Todd; Lieutenant-colonels John Floyd, William Pope, Stephen Trigg, and Daniel Boone.
At the same time, emigrants from Virginia and North Carolina, by hundreds, were advancing by way of the "wilderness road" into Kentucky, through Cumberland Gap, as well as by the northwestern routes to the Ohio River. The Commonwealth of Virginia never receded from her western limits, and the county of Illinois was still a military dependence of Virginia, under the command of a civil commandant, appointed by the executive of the state.
At the same time, Virginia was anxious to extend her authority to the Mississippi, south of the Ohio River. General Clark was accordingly instructed to take military possession of the extreme western limit of Kentucky. Obediently to this order, he descended the Ohio with a detachment of troops, and took possession of a point of high land on the east bank of the Mississippi, five miles below the mouth of the Ohio, upon which he erected "Fort Jefferson."
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Colonel Clark placed it under the command of Captain George, with a garrison of one hundred men. This occupancy on the Lower Mississippi was discontinued the following year.This arrangement completed, General Clark, with two companions, Josiah Harland and Harmon Connolly, all dressed and painted in Indian style, traversed on foot the wilderness eastward nearly three hundred miles to Harrodsburg. Armed with rifle, tomahawk, and scalping-knife, sustained by jerked beef and parched corn, he plodded the tedious route through desolate forests, swamps, and swollen rivers, crossing the Tennessee on a frail raft, evading the hunting parties of the savages, and finally reaching his destination in safety.
But Fort Jefferson was within the territory claimed by the Chickasâs Indians; the fort had been erected without their consent, and their relinquishment had never been obtained to any portion of the western territory. The Chickasâs immediately remonstrated against the aggression upon their domains. But the commandant had no authority to negotiate with them on the subject, although, as it subsequently appeared, the Governor of Virginia had directed the purchase of a site for the fort from the Indians. Their remonstrances being disregarded, under the promptings of Colbert, a Scotch half-breed, they prepared to repel the invaders by force.
During the past year, difficulties had arisen between the States of Virginia and North Carolina relative to their respective limits, and the rights of the inhabitants as to property and jurisdiction in the western settlements. The settlements south of Kentucky River had been made under a doubt whether they would fall under the jurisdiction of Virginia or North Carolina. So rapidly had they advanced to the West, and so much had the state government been engrossed with the protection of the eastern frontier from British invasion, and the western from savage warfare, that the lines of her northern and southern limits had been alike neglected, and had never been properly surveyed and designated.
The line which divided Virginia and North Carolina was the parallel of 36° 30' north latitude, and this had never been ascertained. To ascertain the latitude, and to designate the proper boundary line between the two states, each state appointed one commissioner: Colonel Richard Henderson on the part of North Carolina, and Dr. Walker on that of Virginia.
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These gentlemen disagreed in their respective lines, and the question of boundary was not conclusively settled for several years afterward. Colonel Henderson abandoned his survey before it was completed, while Dr. Walker completed his line westward to the Tennessee River, about sixty miles above its mouth. Descending the Tennessee and Ohio to the Mississippi, he there ascertained that the parallel of 36° 30' would intersect the Mississippi, and not the Ohio.
Chapter IV. — Indian wars on the Ohio. Extension of the American settlements east and south of the Ohio. A.D. 1781 to 1784.
Argument. — Severe Winter of 1780-81. — Scarcity in Kentucky. — Kentucky divided into three Counties. — Indian Hostilities on Bear-grass Creek. — Attack on Boone's and M'Afee's Stations. — Indians contemplate utter Destruction of Kentucky Settlements. — Chickasâs attack Fort Jefferson in 1780. — Counties of Kentucky organized. — General Clark's gun-boat Defense on the Ohio River. — Abundant Crops of 1781. — Indian Hostilities renewed in the Spring of 1782. — Estill's Defeat. — Last Survivor of his Party. — Indian Hostilities continued. — Laherty's Defeat. — Indian Invasion, under Simon Girty, on Bryant's Station. — Disastrous Battle of Blue Licks. — Colonel Logan buries the Dead. Upper Ohio. — Settlements of West Augusta harassed. — Wheeling Campaign against the Moravian Towns. — Horrible Massacre of peaceable Indians. — Former Position of the Moravian Towns. — Previous Admonitions neglected. — Disastrous Campaign against Moravians on Sandusky. — Colonel Crawford and Dr. Knight captured. — Execution and horrid Torture of Colonel Crawford. — British Agency the Source of Indian Hostilities. — Attack on Wheeling Fort, and on Rice's Fort. Lower Ohio. — General Clark invades the Indian Country in 1782. — Effects of this Invasion. — Domestic Prosperity of Kentucky. — Settlements extend North of Licking. — Flood of Emigration sets into Kentucky. — The "District of Kentucky" organized. — Peace with Great Britain announced. — Extent of the Kentucky Settlements in 1783. — Population and Moral Condition of the Settlements. — Settlements extend North of Licking River in 1784-85. — Settlements in Western Virginia.
[A.D. 1781.] THE winter of 1780-81 was unusually protracted and severe; Indian depredations and murders for a time were suspended, and the people enjoyed a temporary respit from harassing alarms; the crops of the previous year had been greatly injured, and, in many cases, entirely destroyed by the Indians; the domestic stock of cattle and hogs had been killed; the supplies of salt, and other indispensable requisites
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of new settlements, had been exhausted, and the whole population of Kentucky was now on the verge of absolute want. Such was the state of things in the settlements, when opening spring enabled the savages to resume hostilities. The whole line of frontier settlements in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky was simultaneously assailed by marauding parties of Indians distributed along this extensive frontier. Terror and consternation were only the precursors of havoc and desolation. The whole country was again thrown into a state of preparation to repel the invaders at every point.Agreeably to the provisions of an act of the Legislature of the preceding year, the county of Kentucky was divided into three counties, designated by the act as the "counties of Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln." The county of Jefferson comprised all the country lying on the Ohio River, between the Kentucky and Green Rivers, presenting a frontier of more than two hundred miles along the Ohio. The county of Fayette comprised the country on the northeast side of Kentucky River, and extending to the Big Sandy, presenting a frontier coast of equal extent on the Ohio. The county of Lincoln comprised all the southeastern portion of the present State of Kentucky. These extensive counties were organized with a civil and military government, similar to other counties in Virginia, and, like many of the western counties, they comprised extensive regions of uninhabited country.
The first Indian incursions into Kentucky took place early in March, and were directed against Jefferson county. Several persons were killed during that month. Among the most conspicuous of those who suffered in the opening campaign were Colonel Lynn, and Captains Tipton and Chapman, of the Bear-grass settlements. A party of fifteen men having set out in pursuit of one of the marauding bands of Indians, was surprised near the Ohio, on the waters of Bear-grass Creek, and were severely defeated by the Indians, with the loss of nine men killed, and one wounded.
In April, a station settled by Squire Boone, near the site of the present town of Shelbyville, was alarmed by signs of Indians, and the occupants deserting it, sought safety at the stronger settlements on Bear-grass Creek. While on this route, a party of men, encumbered with the women, children, household
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goods, and cattle, were attacked by the Indians, who killed several persons, and dispersed the remainder in the recesses of the forest. To revenge this outrage, Colonel John Floyd, with twenty-five men collected from the vicinity of the falls, went in pursuit of the Indians, but soon fell into an ambuscade, and was defeated with the loss of half his men.Early in May, a party of Indians appeared before M'Afee's Station, and, after a brisk skirmish with a few men, who retreated to the fort, a fierce attack was commenced, and continued with vigor for nearly two hours, when persons from other stations in the vicinity, apprised of the attack, came to the relief of their friends, who were thus enabled to defeat the Indians within one mile of the fort. In this affair, one white man was killed and one mortally wounded; the Indians lost six or seven killed, besides their wounded.
M'Afee's Station, although a frontier post, was not again molested by them. The hostile incursions of these marauding bands against other points of the settlements also became less frequent during the remainder of this year, and Kentucky again, for a time, enjoyed comparative tranquillity from Indian invasions; but it was only the deceptive calm before the desolating storm; the savages were only preparing for more important operations.
The Indians had perceived that their detached predatory incursions by small parties, however harassing they might be to the whites, did not check the increase of their settlements. They saw that, in spite of all their hostilities, all their marauding incursions, and all their persevering efforts in this way to check the advance of the whites from the east side of the mountains, their numbers daily increased by the arrival of additional emigrants; the number of dwellings and fortified stations likewise increased, and the surveyors were again busily employed measuring the land. This latter circumstance, from the first occupancy by the whites, had always been a hated omen and a sure precursor of the entire loss of their territories. Nor had the whites been satisfied in defending their settlements east and south of the Ohio; they had sent several expeditions into the heart of the Indian country north of the Ohio, and had burned their towns, laid waste their fields, and reduced their women and children to wretchedness and want. Their favorite
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hunting-grounds south of the Ohio were already in the occupancy of the whites, who were never known to recede from their advances; and so long as their forts remained, the people would hold the country, and the surveyors would measure off the land for fields and residences. It was in vain to invade their settlements by small bands, who could not take and destroy the forts. Hence it was evident to them that they must give up the contest in Kentucky, or they must bring their whole united force, and, by one grand effort, recover the country, with the destruction of the forts and the extermination of the whites. The latter plan was adopted by the leading chiefs of the Shawanese tribe, and during the remainder of the year they were unremitting in their efforts to bring about a general concert of action among all the northwestern tribes for a grand exterminating invasion during the next summer. In this they had the approbation and encouragement of British agents and officers at Detroit and on the Maumee, who assured them of the powerful aid of their great ally "George III., by the grace of God king of Great Britain," &c.While the plan of this grand invasion was in contemplation, and the preparations were secretly progressing, it was deemed expedient to keep the frontier settlements in a state of alarm and apprehension, with a renewal of desultory hostilities by detached bands.
In the mean time, Kentucky was threatened with a war from the Southern Indians. Fort Jefferson, as has been before observed, had been built the previous year upon the territory of the Chickasâs Indians, without their consent. So soon as it had been known to them, they had formally remonstrated against this invasion of their territory. This remonstrance being disregarded, they prepared to repel the invaders by force. Accordingly, early in the following autumn, when the garrison was reduced to about thirty men, most of whom were invalids, the fort was invested by a large force of Chickasâs Indians, led on by Colbert, a half-breed chief of Scotch extraction. During six days the siege was pressed with much vigor, and frequent assaults were made by the savages, who were as often driven back by the artillery loaded with grape and musket-balls. At length the garrison was relieved from its perilous condition by the arrival of General Clark, with a re-enforcement from Kaskasia
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and a supply of ammunition and provisions. The Indians were thus compelled to abandon the siege and retire.Soon afterward, the Governor of Virginia issued instructions to General Clark to abandon and dismantle the fort, it being unnecessary for defense, and serving only as a source of hostility with the Indians. The order was obeyed, and the hostility of the Chickasâs ceased.
The ultimate plans of the northwestern savages were unknown to the people of Kentucky until late in the following winter. In the mean time, emigrants continued to arrive in great numbers from the western parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Population extended, under the protection of new stations, in the more exposed frontier settlements, while organization of the civil government was gradually extended over them, in the establishment of regular county courts, with a qualified jurisdiction in common-plea cases, reserving to the jurisdiction of the district courts near the capital all important civil cases, together with criminal and capital offenses.
General Clark having been appointed to superintend the general defense of Kentucky, and relieved from his command on the Mississippi, now began to put in operation his plans of frontier defense for the settlements near the Ohio River.
A portion of his plan of defense comprised a large floating battery of gun-boats, mounted with several pieces of artillery, and garrisoned by a strong detachment of light troops and riflemen, who could debark at any point to encounter the savages hovering near the Ohio. This battery was removed from point to point on the Ohio, between the mouth of Licking River and the "falls," which had now become the most exposed frontier of Kentucky. This new species of defense greatly interrupted the operations of the Indians against the Kentucky settlements, and afforded comparative security against their frequent incursions.
The year 1781 had yielded abundant crops of wheat, corn, and vegetables of all kinds, and plenty once more smiled upon the new settlements. The autumn brought with it great numbers of emigrants for permanent residence; and many of them were in good circumstances, and well qualified to be valuable members of the new and rising state, whose intellect and talents contributed greatly toward the building up of the new commonwealth a few years afterward.
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[A.D. 1782.] Early in the following spring, the Indians resumed their hostile incursions against the settlements, and predatory bands began to infest the vicinities of the frontier stations in March and April. On the 20th of March a party of twenty-five Wyandots invested "Estill's Station," on the south side of Kentucky River. Having killed Miss Gass, and all the cattle in the vicinity, they retired with one captive negro. Captain Estill, ignorant of their numbers, proceeded to raise a party of twenty-five men, and set off in pursuit of the retiring enemy. Following their trail as far as Hingston's Fork, a few miles below Little Mountain, and in the vicinity of Mount Sterling, Montgomery county, on the 22d of March he came suddenly upon the enemy. The Indians were Wyandots, a tribe that are never known to retreat or to surrender. A desperate contest immediately commenced. Each opposing party being equal in numbers, the contest was, indeed, so many individual rencounters, "each man to his tree, and every man to his man." A more sanguinary conflict has not been seen in all the West. For two hours the deadly strife raged, and half the combatants were among the slain. Victory leaned toward the white man, when an unfortunate manoeuver, if not "an inglorious flight," deprived Captain Estill of one half his surviving force. Lieutenant Miller, with six men, supposed to have been endeavoring to gain the enemy's flank, disappeared from the contest. This gave the Indians the ascendancy, and the strife was soon finished. Captain Estill, in a deadly struggle with a powerful warrior, received the knife of his antagonist in his heart, just after his arm gave way at a former fracture, and that instant the Indian received his death from Joseph Proctor's unerring rifle.
The survivors were compelled to make a precipitate retreat, leaving nine of their companions and their commander dead upon the ground.
Nearly one half of the Indians had likewise fallen, when Miller's defection turned the scale in their favor.
The usefulness and popularity of Captain Estill; the deep and universal sensibility excited by the premature death of a
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citizen so gallant and so beloved; the character of his associates in the battle; the masterly skill and chivalric daring displayed in the contest; the grief and despondence produced by the catastrophe, all contribute to give to "Estill's defeat" a most signal notoriety among the early settlers.The memory of the brave but unfortunate Captain Estill is perpetuated by the state in the name of one of her counties.
The last surviving hero of this memorable defeat was Joseph Proctor, who had distinguished himself by his deliberate courage in the contest. He lived, beloved by all, until the 2d of December, 1844, when he died, in the ninetieth year of his age, full of honors, in Estill county, Kentucky, where he had been a Christian minister more than fifty years. In commemoration of his youthful valor and his heroic deeds, he was buried with military honors by the volunteer companies of two counties, and attended by a concourse of one thousand of his fellow-citizens. A native of North Carolina, he had been a prominent and courageous defender of Kentucky from 1778 to 1782, and had fought side by side with Boone, Calloway, and Logan.
Among the disasters which befell the Ohio frontier this spring, we must not omit the melancholy fate of a detachment of regular troops, which was descending the river to Fort Steuben, at the Falls of Ohio, to re-enforce the garrison at that place. Captain Laherty, with one hundred and seven men, had advanced as far as the mouth of the Great Miami, when he was attacked by a large body of Indians a short distance below that stream. After a brave resistance, he was finally compelled to escape with the loss of nearly half his detachment, slain by the savages. This defeat is commemorated on the Ohio by a small creek near the scene of the disaster, which is still known as Laherty's Creek.
The Shawanese, Delawares, and Wyandots continued to make their incursions, and to spread terror among the frontier stations. A party of more than twenty Indians presented themselves before Hoy's Station, destroyed the cattle, took several prisoners, and then retired. Soon after, Captain Holder, with seventeen men, set out in pursuit of them, and after following their trail about twenty miles, he overtook the Indians on the second day, near the Upper Blue Licks. A sharp conflict ensued, when Captain Holder and his party were
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compelled to retreat precipitately, with the loss of four men killed and wounded. The loss of the Indians was not ascertained.Indian depredations and successes against Kentucky became alarming. They were effected generally by parties of five or six penetrating into the heart of the country, prowling unseen for days until a fatal stroke could be made. Large bodies of savages, however, hovered near the Ohio River, whose spies observed all the movements on the river, and, when opportunity offered, never failed to make a bold effort before they retired.
Early in the spring, a man was shot by an Indian in a field adjoining the present site of Lexington; the Indian, however, was killed while scalping his victim.
In the mean time, the grand confederate army of Indians was assembling at Chillicothe, from which they were to proceed to the invasion of Kentucky. About the first of August, the savages, to the number of five hundred warriors, collected from the northwestern tribes, as well as from the Cherokees, were assembled at Old Chillicothe, all painted and equipped for war. They were led on by two degenerate white men, known as Simon Girty and Colonel M'Key, men in the British interest at Detroit, and who had been active in stirring up the northwestern Indians to commit their horrid atrocities upon the border population.
On the eve of their departure for the invasion of Kentucky, Simon Girty made a harangue in the presence of the Indian host, and encouraged them, with all his powers of eloquence, to seize upon the present occasion to exterminate the long-knife rebels, the enemies of their father, the British king, from their favorite hunting-grounds, which the Great Spirit had prepared for his red children. After inflaming their avarice and revenge to the highest pitch, he ceased, and the deep tones of the war-whoop were their approving response.
In a few days, the frontier settlements, ignorant of the extent of the hostile preparations against them, as well as of the route by which they were approaching, were alarmed
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by the advanced parties of the invading army. On the 15th of August this formidable host of savage warriors presented themselves before Bryant's Station, on the south bank of Elk-horn Creek, not far from the present road leading from Lexington to Maysville. The station comprised about forty cabins, in three parallel lines, and connected by strong palisades, in the usual form of a stockade fort. The garrison consisted of about fifty men, some of whom were absent at different points in the vicinity when the attack was first made. The fort was closely invested for two days, during which time the besiegers killed all the cattle, and kept up a continual fire of small arms upon the fort, besides numerous attempts to fire the buildings, by shooting blazing arrows upon the roofs, and throwing burning torches upon the wooden enclosures. On the fourth day, after having sustained a loss of about thirty warriors in their different assaults, and having failed to effect any serious injury to the fort and garrison, they retired toward the lower Blue Licks, passing along the Great Buffalo Trace, by the way of Martin's and Ruddle's Stations, which they had destroyed two years before. In their retreat, contrary to the customary Indian tactics, they made no effort to conceal their trace, but rather seemed to invite pursuit and encounter.In the mean time, Colonel Todd, of Lexington, had assembled several companies, under their respective officers, amounting in all to one hundred and eighty-two mounted men, for the relief of the station. On the 18th they reached the station, and found the Indians had retired. Without waiting for further re-enforcements, which were expected, it was resolved to march in immediate pursuit of the enemy. Not an Indian was seen until the troop reached the banks of Licking River, at the Lower Blue Licks. After some delay, disregarding the prudent counsel of Colonel Daniel Boone, who believed an ambuscade near, the whole army marched forward across the river, under the fatal influence of Major M'Gary's example: he, spurring his horse forward, exclaimed, "Those who are not cowards, follow me, and I will show you where the Indians are!" The whole troop passed the ford without order or concert, and entered upon a narrow ridge almost encircled by the river, and covered with stunted forest-trees and cedar undergrowth. The Indians, who lay concealed on each side of the ridge, opened a heavy fire upon the advancing
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column, which was placed fairly between two fires, each of which more than equalled their own number. The men fought bravely for about ten minutes, when they were thrown into confusion, and every man used his utmost exertions to force his way back to the opposite side of the river, through the narrow descent to the ford. As they crowded promiscuously along, the fire of the pursuing Indians did prodigious execution, mowing down the men by scores. The Indians pressed forward in every direction, and, crossing the river above and below the ford, attempted to intercept their retreat. The flight necessarily became a perfect rout, and the victorious Indians continued the pursuit for twenty miles. Such was the "disastrous battle of the Blue Licks," which continued only about ten minutes. Sixty men were killed on the spot, and seven were taken captive by the savages. Among the slain were Colonel Todd, Lieutenant-colonel Trigg, and Majors M'Bride and Harlan.On the 20th of August, Colonel Logan, who was only a few hours behind the advanced detachment, reached the battleground with his command of four hundred and fifty men; but the work was done; the fate of his friends and fellow-soldiers was sealed. The most he could do was to view and weep over the scene of carnage, and bury the mangled and disfigured bodies of the slain.
While these things were transpiring south of the Ohio, hostilities had been almost incessant upon the eastern side of the river, above and below Wheeling. The settlements along the river and upon the Monongahela had been greatly harassed by repeated incursions, which had not been intermitted, as usual, during the winter months. The weather, during the greater part of February, had been uncommonly fine, so that the war parties from the Sandusky River had visited the settlements earlier than usual. Several families had been killed in the latter part of February. From the early period at which these fatal visitations had taken place, many were led to believe that
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the murderers were either Moravians from the Muskingum, or that the war parties had spent the winter at the Moravian towns, to be convenient for their spring operations. If either conclusion were correct, the Moravian towns were dangerous to the safety of the settlements, and should be destroyed. Under this impression, an expedition was hastily prepared for the fatal enterprise. Each man furnished himself with his own arms, ammunition, and provisions, and some with horses. In this manner, nearly ninety volunteers assembled, under the command of Colonel David Williamson, in the Mingo Bottom, on the west side of the Ohio River. The second day's march brought them to the middle Moravian town, called Gnadenhutten, where they encamped for the night. In the morning, having ascertained that there were Indians on each side of the river, the men were divided into three parties, so as completely to surround the town from both sides of the river. When they reached the town, they found a large party of Indians in the field gathering corn. Professing peace and friendship for the Indians, they informed them that they had come to take them to Fort Pitt for their protection. The Indians immediately surrendered, delivered up their arms, and, appearing highly pleased with the prospect of their removal, began immediately to prepare breakfast for the white men and for themselves previous to their journey. A detachment was sent to Salem, another town not far off, to bring the Indians of that town also. They, like those of the first town, were found gathering their corn, and were carried to Gnadenhutten. The whole number from both towns were confined in two houses under a strong guard.After the prisoners were thus secured, a council of war was held to decide upon their doom. The officers, unwilling to incur the whole responsibility of the terrible decision, agreed to refer the question to the whole number of men engaged in the expedition. The men were accordingly paraded in a line, and the commandant, Colonel Williamson, then put the following question to them: "Shall the Moravian Indians be taken prisoners to Pittsburgh, or shall they be put to death? All those who are in favor of saving their lives, step forward and form a front rank." Only sixteen or eighteen stepped forward. The line for vengeance greatly outnumbered that of mercy, and the fate of the innocent and defenseless Indians was sealed. They were informed that they must prepare for death. They
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were not surprised at the summons; for, from the moment they were placed in the guard-house, they anticipated their fate, and had commenced their devotions with hymns, prayers, and exhortations to each other to place a firm reliance upon the mercy of the Savior of men."When their fate was announced to them, these devoted people embraced and kissed each other, and, bedewing each other's faces and bosoms with their tears, asked pardon of the brothers and sisters for any offense they may have committed through life. Thus at peace with God and each other, they replied to those who, impatient for the slaughter, demanded ‘whether they were ready to die,’ that, having commended their souls to God, they were ready to die."
"Suffice it to say, that in a few minutes these two slaughterhouses, as they were then called, exhibited in their ghastly interior the mangled and bleeding remains of these poor unfortunate people, of all ages and sexes, from the aged, gray-headed parent down to the helpless infant at its mother's breast; all dishonored by the fatal wounds of the tomahawk, war-club, mallet, spear, and scalping-knife."
"The number of the slain, as reported by the men on their return from the campaign, was about eighty-eight; the Moravian account, which is more correct, no doubt, makes it ninety-six. Of these, sixty-two were grown persons, of whom one-third were women; the remaining thirty-four were children. Of this entire number, about five were shot on their first approach to surround the town. A few of the men, who were supposed to be warriors, were taken from the slaughter-houses to be tomahawked." These suffered without resistance, except one, who resisted and attempted to escape, after turning upon his executioner; but he was at length dispatched by several shots from the fire-arms.
After the massacre was finished, fire was set to the town, which consumed the whole village, including the two slaughterhouses and the dead bodies within them.
The Indians of the upper town, called Schoenbrunn, having received intelligence of what was transpiring at the lower towns, fortunately made their escape by deserting their town. The detachment sent to secure them, finding the town deserted, loaded themselves with plunder and returned to their companions.
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As this is a memorable instance of the horrors of Indian warfare, and of the excesses and barbarities into which men raised in a civilized country may be carried by rage, prejudice, or fear, it may merit a further passing remark.
As Dr. Doddridge remarks, the whole campaign evinced a perfect disregard of military discipline and of military foresight. Had the Indians been disposed to make a firm resistance, in all probability the whole number in the expedition might have been cut off. Nothing would have been easier, had the Indians been so disposed; and yet they submitted to be "led like sheep to the slaughter," by men who well knew that no resistance would be made. Some of the men under the command of Colonel Williamson were probably the last who could have been induced to march against the hostile towns. They knew the pacific principles of the Moravians, and knew that blood and plunder might be their recompense, without incurring danger.
The situation of these Indians, both as respects the whites and their native countrymen, was one of peculiar danger. These villages had been commenced, under the superintendence of the Moravian missionaries, in the year 1772, and were first composed partly of emigrants from the missions of these people on the Big Beaver, at Freidenshutten, and from Wyalusing and Sheshequon, on the Susquehanna.
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During the Revolutionary war, their situation became more critical and dangerous. In this war England had associated the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage with her own arms against the frontier settlements near the Ohio; and these allies had spread the most horrid barbarities along the whole extent of the western border. From this cause, the settlers of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia had endured the severest hardships and privations. They had been cooped up in small stockade forts; they had cultivated their little fields under the protection of armed guards; they had lived from day to day with sentinels on duty; they had been compelled to hear, if not to witness, the rumors of almost daily murders, or the still more horrid captivity of their friends and neighbors, the burning of their houses, and the plunder of their property. Almost unprotected by the eastern population, who were fully absorbed in resisting the civilized armies of Great Britain, they were compelled to bear the whole burden of the western war, and supply their means, choose their officers, and to conduct the war in their own manner. In this way they were often driven to acts which the government was bound to disavow. Constantly habituated to violence and insubordination, the people naturally became wanton and lawless in their contests with the Indians.The Moravian villages were situated nearly midway between the white settlements and the hostile towns, being from sixty to eighty miles from each. Thus they were viewed by the whites as the "half-way houses of the warriors." Situated, as they were, between two contending races, it was no easy task to preserve a strict neutrality. Their pacific feelings and their aversion to the shedding of blood brought them into difficulties with both parties. When they sent their runners to Fort Pitt to inform our people of the approach of the war parties; when they received and fed, secreted and sent home such of our people as had escaped from savage captivity, they were guilty of breaches of their neutrality to the hostile Indians. If they afforded the warriors a resting-place and food, it was a breach of neutrality to the whites; yet they were so situated that the war parties could compel them to furnish all they had, and the whites required the same.
They were first suspected by the hostile Indians and the English commandant at Detroit as being confederates of the
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American Congress, and to have induced the Delawares and others not to espouse the cause of Great Britain against the provinces. The frequent failure of their war parties was ascribed to the Moravians, who had sent runners to Fort Pitt to give the alarm.A Delaware chief, during the spring of 1781, had fully informed the missionaries and their flocks of their imminent danger, both from Indians and from the whites, and had advised a removal to a place of safety. They disregarded the admonition; and in the fall of the same year a party of three hundred warriors broke up their settlements, plundered their towns, and took the missionaries prisoners. The Moravian Indians were carried to the Sandusky Plains, and there turned loose to shift for themselves, while the missionaries were carried to Detroit. In February following, about one hundred and fifty of these Moravian Indians had returned to their deserted villages on the Muskingum, to procure corn to keep their families and cattle from starving. Of these, ninety-six fell into the hands of Williamson's party, and were murdered. Under a similar jealousy on the part of the hostile Indians, they had been on the point of being murdered once or twice before. In the fall of 1781, such had become the exasperation of the whites against the position occupied by the Moravians, that the militia had determined to go and break up their settlement. For this purpose, a detachment had been sent out under Colonel David Williamson, to induce them to move further off, or to bring them to Fort Pitt. The few Indians found in their villages had been carried to Fort Pitt, and, after a short detention, had been dismissed. The people had censured Colonel Williamson for his lenity toward them. This may account for his non-interference in the next campaign.
As a palliation to the massacre of these Indians, it may be said that many of those engaged in the campaign, who were men of standing and worth, had lost one or more of their families or friends by the hands of the savages. In their towns several articles were found which had been plundered from their own houses or from those of their neighbors. One man is said to have found the bloody clothes of his wife and children, who had been murdered a few days before. Those articles, no doubt, had been purchased of the hostile Indians.
The majority of those in the expedition took no hand in the
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massacre, but turned away with horror from the scene, their voice and their displeasure being silenced by the clamor and violence of a lawless minority.The next hostile movement on the part of the white inhabitants on the Upper Ohio and on the Monongahela took place late in May following. As we have already observed, less than half of the Moravian Indians were at their old towns on the Muskingum when Colonel Williamson and his party marched against them. The remainder, who had been carried off by the hostile Indians to Sandusky, had settled themselves upon that river, not far from the towns of the hostile Wyandots. The plan of destroying the remainder of the Moravians, together with the Wyandots, was conceived soon after the return of the expedition under Colonel Williamson. Preparations for a campaign against the Sandusky towns were immediately put in operation, with the design of making "a dash" upon them early in the summer.
The long continuance of the war and the innumerable outrages perpetrated by the Indians upon the settlements, the horrid murders which had been so often committed upon their families, neighbors, and relatives, whenever they ventured out of the forts and fortified stations, had at length produced in the minds of the frontier people a thirst for indiscriminate revenge, with a proportionate debasement of the moral feeling toward the authors of all their troubles; and having once tasted the sweets of a bloody revenge, obtained without risk or loss, they determined to wreak their vengeance indiscriminately upon every Indian, whether a professed friend or foe.
A strong force was accordingly raised to make a rapid and secret march to the Sandusky towns. For the sake of secrecy and dispatch, the whole were to be mounted upon the best horses they could procure; each man furnished himself with arms and every necessary outfit except ammunition, which was supplied by the lieutenant-colonel of Washington county. On the 25th of May, four hundred and eighty volunteers from the vicinity of the Ohio, and from Washington county, in Pennsylvania, mustered at the old Mingo towns,
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of the Ohio, seventy-five miles below Fort Pitt. Here they elected their commander for the expedition. The candidates were Colonel Williamson and Colonel Crawford. The latter was elected to command, although with reluctance he accepted the office.All things being in readiness, the expedition commenced its march westward along "Williamson's Trail" to the old Moravian towns on the Muskingum. Here, finding plenty of corn in the fields for their horses, they encamped during the night. Soon after the army had halted near these towns, Colonel Crawford had a presage of evil in the utter disregard of military order by the men under his command. To illustrate this, one fact will suffice. Three men having walked beyond the encampment, discovered two Indians and fired upon them. This brought the men from the camp, regardless of military discipline and the authority of their commander, in a most irregular and tumultuous manner, to see what had happened. Next morning they continued their march without any important incident, and on the 6th of June their guides conducted them to the site of the Moravian villages; but the place was deserted, and the Indians had removed to the Scioto. A few huts among the high grass were all that remained. This was on the upper branches of the Sandusky. They were at the ultimate destination of the expedition, and neither blood nor plunder had slaked their fury. A council of officers was held, and they determined to march one day further toward Upper Sandusky, and, if no Moravians were found, they were to retreat immediately. They proceeded a little over half a day's march, when the advanced guard was driven back by a large body of Indians concealed in the high grass. A general fire from both sides immediately ensued, and continued incessantly until dark, when night separated the combatants. During the evening the Indians had been completely dislodged from a copse of woods in the prairie, which they had perseveringly attempted to hold. During these movements, the vigilance and bravery of Major Leet were conspicuous; and the detachment had lost but three men killed, and several wounded.
At night both armies retired behind a line of fires, mutually to avoid surprise and lay upon their arms. During the next day the Indians seemed busily engaged traversing the plains in every direction, but made no attack upon the whites. In
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the mean time, another council of war was held, and a speedy-retreat was decided to be the only path of safety, as the Indians were hourly increasing in numbers. Colonel Williamson, who accompanied the expedition, had proposed to march with a strong detachment and attack the Upper Sandusky towns; but the commander prudently declined to divide his forces, saying, "We must stay together, and do the best we can." The dead were buried, and their graves concealed from the search of the Indians, and every thing was in readiness to retreat after night. The Indians perceived the object in contemplation, and about sunset attacked the army in every direction except that next the Sandusky, with great fury and in great force. Early in the night, after a circuitous march of two miles, they changed their direction, eluding their assailants in the dark, and retreated rapidly toward the trail by which they had advanced the day before. During the next day they pursued their retreat without loss of time, and were but little annoyed by pursuit. But the army became divided into small parties, in hope of eluding Indian pursuit. This was a most disastrous resolve: it was the very thing desired by their savage enemies. The Indians, during the whole retreat, paid but little attention to the main body, but dispersed over the whole country, from the Sandusky to the Muskingum, actively pursuing and cutting off the small parties, nearly all of whom were killed, and some almost in sight of the Ohio River. The number killed in this retreat was never known.At the commencement of the retreat, Colonel Crawford, missing his son and several of his family connections, halted to search for them as the line passed on. They were not in the line; and, having fallen behind the retreating column, he was never able to overtake it, on account of the wearied condition of his horse. He traveled all night, first toward the north and then toward the east, to avoid the Indian parties dispersed along the trail in pursuit. Having fallen in company with Dr. Knight and several others, they proceeded until the third day, when they were attacked by a party of Indians, who made Dr. Knight and Colonel Crawford prisoners; the remainder of the party, who were unable to escape, were killed. Dr. Knight and Colonel Crawford were conducted to an Indian camp not far distant, where they found nine fellow-prisoners in charge of seventeen Indians.
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The next day Colonel Crawford and Dr. Knight were conducted by two Delaware chiefs, Pipe and Wingemond, to an Indian village, while four of the other prisoners were tomahawked and scalped at different places on the way. Five others were tomahawked and scalped by a party of squaws and boys near the place designed for Colonel Crawford's execution.
After the colonel was conducted to the place of execution, a post about fifteen feet high was set in the ground, and a large fire of hickory poles was made about eighteen feet from it. He was stripped and ordered to sit down; when he was severely beaten with sticks, and afterward tied to the stake by a rope just long enough to allow him to walk two or three times around the post and then back again. The torture began by shooting a great number of loads of powder upon his body from head to foot. Next they applied the burning ends of the firebrands to different portions of his body, with fiendish mirth at the agony produced; at the same time, the squaws amused themselves by pouring hot embers and coals over his naked body, until the ground within the limit of his tether became covered with live coals and embers, over which he was compelled to walk barefoot.
In the midst of his protracted sufferings, he cast an imploring look at the notorious Simon Girty, whom he had known many years before, and entreated him to take pity upon him, and in mercy shoot him. But Girty, true to his savage nature, taunted him, and with a fiendish smile bade him "entreat someone else."
After three hours of this kind of torture, he became faint, and fell upon his face; an Indian stepped up and scalped him, after which an old squaw threw a quantity of burning coals on the raw and bloody skull from which the scalp had been torn. After this, he rose and walked once or twice around the post,
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and soon after expired. His body was thrown into the flames and consumed to ashes. His son and his son-in-law, Major Harrison, were executed at the Shawanese towns.Dr. Knight was more fortunate. He was doomed to be burned at a town about forty miles distant, whither he was sent in charge of a young Indian. On the way he sought the first opportunity to rebel, and escaped from his guard. In his subsequent hazardous advance, after suffering all but death and the extreme of famine, he reached the settlements on the Ohio after twenty-one days of toil and hunger.
Most of the prisoners taken in this campaign were burned to death with cruel tortures, in retaliation, it is supposed, for the massacre of the Moravian Indians. Incidents of personal adventure and imminent peril, among some of those who finally escaped from Indian captivity to the white settlements, are full of thrilling interest, but can not be detailed within the limits of this work.
Thus ended this disastrous campaign, in which the Indians severely retaliated the cruel massacre of the Moravians on the Muskingum. It was the closing campaign on the part of the whites into the Indian country during the Revolutionary war. Undertaken for the purpose of blood and plunder, and not for necessary defense; carried on without the sanction of the government, it was conducted without judgment or strict military discipline, and could not have terminated otherwise than disastrously. If it were presumed that the hostile Indians would not protect their pacific brethren, a wrong estimate was placed on human nature. It was also ascertained that the hostile Indians had observed all their movements, from the first rendezvous on the old Mingo fields until their final disastrous defeat, and had, accordingly, made all their preparations to receive them.
All the horrors of this Indian war, without doubt, are to be ascribed to the inhuman policy of England in employing the savages to murder the defenseless frontier settlements, because they were a portion of the revolted provinces. Thus the most powerful of civilized nations, and whose subjects are most active in disseminating the Gospel, prostituted her power and her resources to encourage the most inhuman barbarities upon innocent women and children, and authorized the
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commandants of the western posts to pay the Indians a stipulated price for each scalp and each prisoner, for the purpose of stimulating them to greater exertion against the helpless frontier people. Thus the scalps of the white man, and of his wife and children, under this diabolical policy, were, in the hands of the savages, a current coin, which, at the British posts, served to purchase powder, arms, clothing, and the other necessaries for savage comfort.The policy pursued by this more than savage enemy on the western frontier had the effect of debasing many of the western people to the state of savage barbarity; it produced in them that thirst for indiscriminate revenge against the Indian, which caused the commission of barbarities which the government never could approve. "It was a war of mutual but unavailing slaughter, devastation, and revenge, over whose record humanity must drop a tear of regret; but that tear can not efface its disgraceful history."
Colonel Williamson returned safe from the disastrous Sandusky expedition. Of Colonel Crawford, we may pay him the tribute of one further notice. He was among the first emigrants to the West; he was a man of good heart and sterling worth. He had been a meritorious officer under General Forbes in his march to Fort Duquesne in 1758.
Apprehensive of a renewal of Indian incursions, after the late
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disastrous invasion of the Sandusky country, the people near Fish Creek erected a stockade for their common protection on the east bank of the Ohio, at the head of "Cresap's Bottom." This was subsequently known as "Baker's Station."The campaign of Colonel Crawford was the last invasion of the Indian territory from western Pennsylvania and Virginia during the war of Independence; yet it was not the conclusion of hostilities on the part of the Indians. Encouraged by their recent successes, they determined to carry the war into the white settlements, and to the very doors of those who had invaded their country. Besides the scalping parties which occasionally overrun the settlements in their secret and predatory excursions, the Indians sent a regular army of three hundred warriors to invade and lay waste the enemy's country. During the month of September, this Indian army invested the fort at Wheeling, and, after three days of ineffectual efforts to take or burn it, they retired. Having sent two hundred warriors home, a chief, with one hundred chosen men, made an attack on Rice's Fort, about twelve miles north of Wheeling, on Buffalo Creek. After four hours of fruitless attempts to capture the fort, they endeavored to burn it, setting fire to all the outhouses, barns, and stacks of grain and hay, in hopes fire might thus be communicated to the stockade. Failing in this, they collected the cattle, hogs, and sheep, and killed them near the stockade, by which means the whole air in the vicinity became tainted by the effluvia from their putrid bodies.
After having lost five of their number killed, and several wounded, they retired. This fort was defended by only six effective men, besides some boys and women. Such were the hostile operations on the upper portion of the Ohio in 1782.
Indian depredations and occasional murders were experienced in the Kentucky settlements for some weeks after the disastrous battle at Blue Licks, perpetrated, as was supposed, by a few western Indians who had joined the invading force from Detroit, and were taking the Salt River settlements in their route to the Wabash. The remainder of the Indian army had retired to their towns on the Great Miami tributaries and those of Sandusky, or had gone to Detroit to receive their supplies and presents, and to claim their premiums on their scalps taken from Kentucky.
The terrible blow struck by the savages at the Blue Licks
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had roused the people to a determination to inflict signal vengeance upon the hostile towns. Hundreds were eager to engage in a formidable invasion of the Shawanese country; and the habiliments of mourning, daily presented to their view by the friends and surviving relatives of the slain, continued to impress them with the melancholy reflection concerning the late loss of many valuable citizens, who were deeply deplored by all.To provide for the future security of the settlements against such incursions, it was the desire of the community that General Clark would take command of a mounted regiment for the destruction of the most hostile of the Shawanese towns on the upper tributaries of the Miami and Scioto Rivers. No man possessed the confidence of the people of Kentucky more than General Clark; and as an experienced and energetic commander, he certainly had no rival. He accordingly took measures for the speedy organization of a mounted brigade for the invasion of the Shawanese country.
The brigade was to consist of one thousand mounted men, to be raised partly by a draft and partly by volunteers. It was to embrace two divisions: one under Colonel Logan, from the upper settlements, to rendezvous at Bryant's Station; the other from the lower settlements, to rendezvous at "the falls," under the command of Colonel Floyd. The two divisions were to form a junction at the mouth of Licking River, preparatory to the invasion of the Indian country. The people readily contributed their aid in supplying all the requisites in the way of transportation and supplies for the contemplated expedition, and advanced the greater portion upon the faith of the Commonwealth.
All things having been arranged, the two divisions of the brigade united at the mouth of Licking on the 28th of September, when General Clark assumed the command. On the 30th the line of march was taken up, and the troops crossed the river and entered the Indian country. With the dispatch and celerity so characteristic of all General Clark's military movements, they advanced rapidly up the Miami, and arrived at the first Indian town, more than one hundred and thirty miles from the Ohio, before the enemy had intelligence of their approach. The savages fled with the utmost precipitation, leaving their deserted village to the mercy of the invaders, who
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were in close pursuit. The alarm spread rapidly through all the towns up Mad River and as far as the Scioto. The pursuit was continued more than one hundred miles, to the head branches of the Scioto, and in every direction the army encountered nothing but deserted fields and villages; the latter were utterly destroyed by fire, and every vestige of their growing corn was cut up and destroyed.The loss of the army in this expedition was only two men killed by Indians. Several Indians were killed, and seven warriors were taken prisoners. Although attended with but little loss of life on either side, this expedition resulted in great advantage to the settlements of Kentucky. It inspired confidence in the people, and struck terror into the savages, such as had not been known of any previous invasion from Kentucky. Their principal resources were cut off, and their country desolated by fire. It produced, also, a conviction in the savages that the increasing numbers and power of the whites were such that all hope of exterminating them was abandoned forever; and they never afterward attempted any formidable invasion of Kentucky. The incursions of small detachments and scalping parties also ceased to harass the country, and people began to feel security in their homes.
The attention of the inhabitants, and of the numerous emigrants who were arriving daily, was again engrossed in the selection and acquisition of lands, under every species of warrant or title which had been legalized for the last ten years. Locations of every kind were stretched over the whole country, with but little precision or accuracy of boundaries, and these as vaguely defined. Speculation in land claims became a trade, or, rather, a science, from which sprang a fruitful harvest of contention and litigation in subsequent years.
[A.D. 1783.] Agriculture now began to flourish; commerce began to appear; the arts and manufactures connected with agriculture and domestic life became incorporated with the new state of society; labor was rewarded, and employment
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given to the industrious; schools sprung up for the education of youth; ministers of the Gospel who had emigrated west consecrated the Sabbath to the service of God and teaching the truths of salvation. Farmers began to prosper; their fields were enlarged, their stock of domestic animals began to multiply, and a market was already open for their surplus produce. Money began to circulate, and property assumed a definite value.About the first of June, immigrants began to arrive by hundreds, and spread like a flood of fertilizing water over the whole country. Merchandise from Philadelphia and Baltimore, transported in wagons across the mountains, by way of Ligonier and Cumberland, to Pittsburgh and Brownsville, and thence boated down the Ohio, in keel-boats and arks, to Limestone and the falls, began to arrive in the new settlements. The same summer Kentucky was greeted with the first dry-goods store, opened in Louisville by Daniel Broadhead, from Brownsville, on the Monongahela. The second store was not opened until the following year, when Colonel James Wilkinson, of Maryland, also from Brownsville,
The population of all the settlements, up to the year 1783, exceeded twelve thousand souls. This number was greatly augmented by the daily arrivals during the succeeding summer; and the spring of 1784 found the entire number increased to more than twenty thousand souls.
The intercourse through the country was extended by the opening of new roads from the river to the interior settlements. Such was the prosperous condition of Kentucky when the news of peace arrived, confirming the independence of the United States, and diffusing universal joy throughout the West.
Military law ceased to be paramount to the civil authority. The garrisons in all the western posts were soon afterward reduced, and only twenty-five privates were retained at Fort Pitt, to guard the stores.
[A.D. 1784.] Hitherto the principal settlements were north and south of Kentucky River, and upon the sources of Salt River; also upon the southwestern tributaries of Licking River, and near the Ohio, below the mouth of Kentucky, and above "the Falls." Those upon the branches of Bear-grass Creek were increasing rapidly.
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The country on the north side of Licking had been abandoned to the Indians on account of its exposed situation. The war-path to the settlements on the Kentucky River traversed this region nearly in the route now occupied by the great road from Lexington to Maysville, and had rendered any settlements insecure in this quarter.
Early in the spring, the three counties of Kentucky, agreeably to an act of the Legislature of Virginia, had been organized into a judicial district, known as the "District of Kentucky." The district court was invested with civil and criminal jurisdiction, as other circuit courts of Virginia.
It was early in the winter when the whole country was electrified by the news of peace with Great Britain, and the recognition of the independence of the United States.
Wearied and impoverished by a war of nearly eight years, the American people heard with rapture the news of peace, and rejoiced in the beaming prospects before them. Those upon the sterile and sandy shores of the Atlantic desired retirement and ease upon the fertile and virgin lands which lay inviting their occupancy upon the waters of the Ohio, and where they might repose in the peaceful shades of agricultural retirement. From North Carolina, by way of Cumberland Gap, the tide of emigration was rapidly pouring into Kentucky and the present State of Tennessee, while Virginia and the states north of her were sending their colonies upon the Upper Ohio, and by way of Limestone and "the Falls" into Kentucky.
As yet Kentucky was a large, isolated settlement. The region on the east, for nearly five hundred miles, through the sources of the Big Sandy and the Kenhawa, was a desolate mountain wilderness. On the west and north, the country, to a boundless extent, was in the occupancy of the native tribes. The region north of Licking, which now sustains a dense and
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wealthy population, was then an exposed, sparsely-populated frontier, liable to the continual incursions of marauding bands of savages.A great portion of Western Virginia was then an unsettled country, having only a few habitations on the Kenhawa, Greenbrier, Elk, and Cheat Rivers, while the country near the Ohio, from Fishing Creek to Licking River, a distance of three hundred miles, was a frontier region too much exposed to Indian incursions to afford a safe residence. In Pennsylvania, north of the Kiskeminetas, and on the Alleghany River to its source, was the heart of the Six Nations, and all the extensive region south of this border was an exposed frontier. The principal settlements of Western Virginia south of Wheeling were upon the head branches of the Monongahela, upon the East and West Forks, and upon Cheat River; also, the head branches of the Great and Little Kenhawas. All that extensive region lying between the Ohio and the west branch of the Monongahela, from thirty to fifty miles in width, had been subject to the continual incursions of the hostile Indians. Clarksburg, near the west branch, was then a frontier settlement. A small military post had been maintained for several years at the mouth of the Kenhawa, known as the "Point;" yet the settlements east of it had been penetrated repeatedly by the war parties, which eluded the military posts on the Ohio, and crossed between the Muskingum and the Kenhawa.
Before the close of the year 1784, the settlements of Kentucky had augmented their population to nearly thirty thousand souls. The people began to take a deep interest in completing the organization of civil government, and were gathering around them the elements of foreign intercourse and domestic wealth. The accumulation of personal property, as well as real estate, began to engage the energies of the recent emigrants; towns were laid off, mills and factories were erected; agriculture and trade began to develop the resources of the country; domestic stock of all kinds were introduced, and were multiplying abundantly; and all began to enjoy the comforts and luxuries of a newly-settled country.
The moral condition of the people was not neglected. Ministers of the Gospel, and religious teachers of every sect and creed, borne along on the tide of emigration, found the field
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ripe for the harvest, and the laborers were not few. Societies and churches were organized by the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists, and were subsequently attached to the mother-churches east of the mountains. Schools were established for the education of youth, and the rudiments of learning were freely dispensed among the rising generation.The people east of the mountains, released from a long and unnatural war, and having only partially recovered from the consequent depression, after peace had been restored with the Indian tribes, sought ease and fortune in the West. The tide of emigration began to set with unprecedented rapidity from the Atlantic settlements across the mountains and down the Ohio River. The roads from Cumberland and Bedford to Pittsburgh and Brownsville were traversed by continued and successive groups of emigrant colonies, with their long lines of family wagons, followed by herds of cattle, hogs, and all kinds of stock, and the necessary appendages for agricultural life.
The mouth of Limestone Creek, the site of the present town of Maysville, had already become a frequented route from the Ohio to the older settlements on the waters of the Kentucky River, comprised in the counties of Nelson, Lincoln, and Fayette. Simon Kenton, the first explorer of this route, had returned from his "station" on the waters of Salt River, and resumed his tomahawk improvement made in 1774. In the autumn of 1784, he commenced a block house and other buildings for a settlement, three miles from Limestone and one mile from the present town of Washington, in Mason county. Early in the following spring, he received an accession of several families, and thus commenced the first permanent settlement in this exposed frontier. For several years subsequently it. was known as "Kenton's Station." The town of Limestone soon sprung up as a noted point of debarkation for emigrants advancing to the central settlements of Kentucky.
About the same time other settlements were begun in other portions of the present county of Mason, although it was not until the year following that Simon Kenton, Arthur Fox, and William Wood laid off the town of Washington.
From this time habitations began to multiply in this quarter of the country, and Indian hostilities had apparently ceased.
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"Lee's Station," "Warren's Station," and "Clark's Station" were formed about this time; and emigrants, as they advanced into the interior, began to settle upon all the northern branches of Licking.Chapter V. — Indian hostilities on the Ohio. Predatory incursions into Kentucky, and partisan warfare. A.D. 1785 to 1793.
Argument. — The Shawanese resume predatory Incursions. — Indian Horse-stealing. — Object and Extent of these Depredations. — The Continuance of them provokes Invasion of the Indian Country in 1786. — Plan of Campaign under General Clark and Colonel Logan. — Colonel Logan destroys Scioto and Mad River Towns. — General Clark advances to the Wabash. — His further Operations frustrated for Want of Supplies. — A Mutiny ensues. — He returns inglorious to Kentucky. — His Sun sets. — Virginia comes to his Relief. — The Shawanese commence active Hostilities. — Exposed Condition of Settlements in Mason County in 1787. — Colonel Todd invades the Faint Creek Towns. — Simon Kenton as a Partisan Warrior. — Emigration in 1788. — Indians harass the Ohio Frontier of Kentucky and Western Virginia. — Depredations and Murders on the Ohio from 1788 to 1790. — Population of Kentucky in 1791. — Partisan Warfare from 1790 to 1791. — General Harmar's Efforts to suppress Indian Hostilities. — The Campaigns of 1790 and 1791 divert Hostilities from the Kentucky Frontier. — Indian Hostility and partisan Warfare in Kentucky renewed in 1792-93. — Kenton makes an Incursion upon the Little Miami, and encounters Tecumseh. — Severe night Skirmish with Tecumseh in 1792. — Kenton continues his partisan Warfare in 1793. — Makes an Incursion to Paint Creek. — Intercepts and kills a marauding Party of Indians at Holt's Creek on the Ohio, and recovers a large Number of Horses.
[A.D. 1785.] NOTWITHSTANDING treaties had been formed and ratified with the principal Indian tribes on the western frontier,
Although incursions by marauding parties were made subsequently, it was not with the design of collecting scalps, but for the purpose of "stealing horses" from the settlements. This
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is one of the feats which gives distinction to the warrior, and entitles him to the character of a brave.The object of the savages in these incursions was not to create alarm and terror by any outrage against individuals, for this would at once have roused an armed party in pursuit; but their object was simply plunder, and to supply themselves with horses, and to deprive their late enemies of the valuable animals which had made their incursions so terrible to the Indian country. To insure success in this line of operation, it was necessary to pass unperceived through the country, leaving no certain trace of their inroad except such as might be inferred from the disappearance of the horses.
[A.D. 1786.] These depredations had annoyed the inhabitants during the autumn of 1785, and toward the close of the year they had become more frequent; and the marauders extended the field of their operations. At first a party of two or three warriors would occasionally penetrate a settlement and secretly retire with one or two horses; but at length they began to advance to the Ohio River at different points, in parties of six, ten, and twelve; and, having selected some secure and retired rendezvous near the river, they would distribute themselves in parties of one or two, penetrate far into the settlements, and supply themselves with horses, which were taken to the general rendezvous and left in charge of a keeper, while they returned to secure others. So soon as ten, fifteen, or twenty had been procured, the company secretly crossed the river with them, and made all speed for their towns.
Toward the close of the year 1786 these depredations became so frequent and annoying, that the settlements were seriously injured, being deprived of great numbers of horses, which were requisite for the agricultural necessities of the country. No man felt safe in the possession of his property; for the wily savage prowled like the wolf in the dark, alike unseen and unheard, penetrating the remotest settlements and visiting every inclosure in the dead hour of night, against which no precaution was a guarantee for the security of property.
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It was no uncommon occurrence for a party of five or six Indians, after an absence of a week or ten days, to return to the rendezvous with an aggregate of ten or fifteen horses; sometimes each individual would bring in one every night, until their complement was full. It was no unusual exploit for a party of five or six Indians to set out from their village, more than a hundred miles from the settlements, and, after an absence of ten or twenty days, to return with fifteen or twenty horses. Nor was it an unfrequent occurrence for a single county of Kentucky to lose one hundred horses in a single month.
To such an extent had these depredations been carried against the settlements of Kentucky and Western Virginia, during five years previous to 1791, that, from estimates based upon authentic information, it was supposed not less than twenty thousand horses had been taken by the Indians.
It was ascertained that the most active agents were the Shawanese malcontents from the towns upon the head waters of Mad River, an eastern tributary of the Great Miami, and from the towns on White River, an eastern tributary of the Wabash. Those from the former extended their incursions chiefly to the settlements near the Ohio and upon the waters of Licking River, while the latter extended their operations mostly to the settlements on Salt River and its head waters.
To prevent these depredations, and to intercept the movements or discover the trail of these marauding parties, each settlement kept out in active service one or more scouts or rangers, as had been customary during actual hostilities. These rangers used every effort to discover the trail of such parties, or to detect any "Indian sign" by which it could be ascertained that Indians were in the country. Yet so cautious was the wily savage, that their haunts were seldom discovered, unless where they had concentrated to cross the river on their departure.
The marauders at length infested the Ohio River, upon which hundreds of family boats and arks were continually descending from Fort Pitt to different points along the Kentucky shore. Occasionally family boats were attacked and plundered, and not unfrequently the occupants were killed or wounded by the fire of the Indians from the shore. At length it became hazardous for solitary boats, unarmed, to descend; and, for safety and mutual defense, emigrant families were compelled to associate
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in companies and descend in several boats together, with a full proportion of expert riflemen. Subsequently, it became evident that large bodies of Indians from the remote towns had assembled near the Ohio, and from the general rendezvous west of the river marauding parties were distributed at different points on the shore, while others penetrated to the remote settlements east and south of the Ohio.Yet the Federal government discouraged every attempt to conduct partisan incursions into their country, and took active measures for an amicable settlement of all grounds for difficulty with the malcontent Shawanese. As early as the 31st of January, 1786, a council had been convened at the mouth of the Great Miami, and a treaty of peace and friendship had been concluded with the Shawanese nation by Generals Richard Butler and George R. Clark. In consideration of certain benefactions and presents from the United States, the Shawanese stipulated for the suppression of the marauding incursions.
But the malcontents, regardless of the stipulations of the treaty, continued their incursions and their depredations on the river, with increasing frequency and audacity. The settlements north of Licking River, in the line of the "old war-path," were particularly obnoxious to this species of Indian warfare. The savages continued to obstruct the river commerce and the advance of emigrants, and to plunder the settlements of the interior with unremitted perseverance.
At length it was perceived that these continual aggressions were prompted and instigated by British traders and agents at Detroit and upon the Maumee. The fur-trade in the Northwestern Territory was almost wholly controlled by these British traders, who were deeply interested in checking the advance of the American population across the Ohio, which would sound the knell of approaching dissolution to their monopoly. A state of active hostilities renewed by the savages might yet defer for many years the advance of white settlements north of the Ohio, and thus prolong the monopoly of the Indian fur-trade. Such were the views and conclusions of the British agents and traders at Detroit and at other points south of Lake Erie.
It was during the summer of 1786 that these hostilities became so frequent and daring that a recourse to arms was deemed the only mode by which the settlements and emigrants upon
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the river could be secured from continual danger. Murders had already been frequent, not only on the river, but in the settlements, and the people of Kentucky became clamorous for an invasion of the Indian country.To inflict suitable chastisement upon the Shawanese nation, it was resolved to invade their country with two mounted expeditions; one against the eastern, and the other against the western portion of their towns, and completely to ravage with fire and sword the whole country from the Scioto to the Wabash. The command of the campaign was given to General Clark, whose name alone carried terror to the savages. Many of the officers who volunteered to serve under him were among the first military men of Kentucky; and among the private soldiers were some of the most fearless backwoodsmen in all the West.
The brigade was to consist of two full regiments, or nearly eighteen hundred men, which were to enter the Indian country in two divisions. The main body, under General Clark in person, was to rendezvous at "the Falls," and advance across the country by way of White River to Vincennes, at which place they were to meet their supplies forwarded by water. From this place they were to ravage the whole country upon the head waters of the Wabash, as far as Tippecanoe and Eel Rivers.
The other division, under the command of Colonel Logan, was to advance from their rendezvous at "Kenton's Station," three miles from Limestone, by way of the Little Miami, to its sources, and thence to ravage the whole country from the Scioto westward down Mad River to the Great Miami.
Such was the general plan of the campaign for the chastisement of this warlike and restless nation. To accomplish this, all Kentucky was in commotion, and all were emulous in advancing the preparations which were to render it one of the most formidable invasions which had ever proceeded from Kentucky, and one which would strike terror into the remotest tribes. It was not expected that the expedition would encounter any formidable force of embodied savages in arms, for the troops themselves were to bear the intelligence of their approach. The object was to inflict a severe chastisement upon the Shawanese nation for the many murders and depredations
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committed by their war-parties and marauders by destroying their towns, laying waste their fields, and destroying their resources, and breaking up their settlements within striking distance of Kentucky.For the supply of the Wabash expedition, nine keel-boats were freighted with stores and provisions, and dispatched by way of the Ohio and Wabash for Vincennes. Such was the active state of preparation until the close of September, when the troops were ready to take up the line of march.
On the first of October Colonel Logan began to move his division, consisting of seven hundred mounted riflemen. After a rapid march of ninety miles, he surprised the Indian town of Chillicothe, upon the sources of the Little Miami. Conducted by Captain Kenton, at the head of a company of picked men from his own neighborhood, such was the celerity and precision of his movements that two Indian towns, situated one mile apart, were simultaneously surprised by two separate columns of his command. A large portion of the inhabitants of each were either captured or killed in their attempt at resistance. The towns were destroyed by fire, and the extensive fields of ripe corn were laid waste and destroyed, so as to cut off their future supplies. The few who escaped gave the alarm to other towns, from which the savages fled with great precipitation, leaving their wigwams, cabins, and fields to the mercy of the invaders. Four other towns, deserted by their inhabitants, together with their fields, were destroyed by fire. The country east and west upon the waters of the Scioto, and upon the sources of Mad River, was ravaged for nearly one hundred miles around, when Colonel Logan and his victorious companions prepared to return with their prisoners.
The whole number of Indians slain in the different skirmishes was about thirty. The troop lost ten men killed, besides several wounded, during the campaign.
But General Clark was less fortunate. After a circuitous march of one hundred and thirty miles to Vincennes, with more than a thousand mounted riflemen, he found his supplies had not arrived, having been delayed by extreme low water in the river. His further advance was unavoidably arrested. Nine days was he compelled to remain inactive at Vincennes, awaiting the tardy arrival of supplies for his men. The troops
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had left Kentucky full of ardor and enthusiasm, to acquit themselves by the celerity of their movements, and the sudden destruction of the Indian towns. Each day tended to damp the military spirit of the men, and impatience began to undermine military subordination, and introduce disaffection for the service. A few days elapsed, when the continued delay of the expected supplies placed them upon short allowance, and increased their impatience almost to mutiny. Still, the pervading influence of their beloved commander restrained them until the expected arrival of the supplies. But the arrival was a greater disappointment than its delay. Inspection proved too clearly that the pickled beef was highly tainted from the excessive heat; scarcely rations for three days remained in a sound condition, and the hostile towns were yet distant at least two hundred miles. General Clark would have proceeded in his march, and quartered upon the enemy; but the discontent of his men had broken out into insubordination, and many, refusing to advance, demanded to be led back to Kentucky. The fury of the savage they could encounter, but the more appalling form of famine they would not meet, and they refused to advance.In vain the veteran commander and the successful leader, "in the most persuasive terms of entreaty," implored the mutineers to advance to the enemy's towns. At length a body of three hundred men, encouraged by some officers of rank, regardless of the honor of the soldier, or the disgrace of an inglorious retreat, retired from the expedition.
With little more than half his original force, General Clark advanced toward the Indian towns, and after several days of fruitless search for Indians, who had received intelligence of the formidable preparations against them, he returned to the Falls, covered with shame and confusion at the unmerited disgrace which, for the first time, had rested upon his arms.
Such had been the effect of inaction to undisciplined troops, although naturally courageous, and commanded by the most extraordinary military genius of his day. For want of timely supplies a brave army was dissolved, and the conqueror of Kaskaskia and Vincennes returned ingloriously from an enterprise which, with proper supplies, he would have surmounted without an effort.
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But the fact of the entire failure of his division of the expedition seemed to prey upon his spirits, and he ceased to be the iron-hearted chieftain of 1778, as he began to feel the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens no less than the neglect of his native state, which had reaped all the advantages of his early toil and suffering. In his many efforts for the defense of the unprotected settlements during his most vigorous period of life, he had become involved in liabilities for money which his resources did not enable him to pay; and his creditors, regardless of the high claims which he had upon their forbearance, began to oppress him with legal coercion. At length, harassed by vexatious lawsuits and oppressive executions for the recovery of money which had been expended for the benefit of the state, he became stripped of his personal as well as his landed estate, and was left poor and destitute.
General Clark was a native of Albemarle county in Virginia. He was early engaged in defense of the frontier settlements of Virginia, and served as a captain under General Lewis in the campaign to the Scioto, and was an active participant in the sanguinary battle of "the Point." For the first eight years after the commencement of the war of Independence, he was the life of all defensive operations in Kentucky and other portions of Western Virginia. His campaign against Kaskaskia in 1778, and against Vincennes in 1779, for fortitude, daring intrepidity, and military skill, are not surpassed in the annals of war, surrounded as he was with the most limited resources. In his defense of Kentucky he shed a lustre over the chivalry of that state, and carried the arms of Virginia triumphantly to the Mississippi. To testify the exalted regard entertained for her hero, she had presented him with two swords, and at last, when old age and poverty had overtaken him, the bounty of his native state was extended to him as a support for his declining years.
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[A.D. 1787.] This invasion of the Shawanese country served only to exasperate that fierce and vindictive nation. They immediately commenced active hostilities against the whole line of the Kentucky frontier. During the winter and succeeding spring they infested the settlements near the Ohio, as well as those more remote, with their marauding and war parties, which did not confine their operations exclusively to the capture of horses, but exerted themselves also for the acquisition of scalps, the trophies of their efforts against the enemies of their race.
Such was the frequency of these murders and depredations during the summer of 1787, throughout the counties of Mason and Bourbon, that the inhabitants were again compelled to congregate in "stations" and forts, to avoid the danger of exposure to the vengeance of the lurking savage. The whole country was again in a state of actual Indian war; the labors of the field and the intercourse between settlements were safe only under the protection of an armed guard, while the Ohio River was under a state of savage blockade.
Impatient of this insecure state of the settlements, Captain Kenton proposed to lead an invasion into the Indian country, and retaliate upon the hostile towns of the Scioto. Early in the autumn, Colonel Todd, of Lexington, and Major Hingston,
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united with Captain Kenton in organizing an expedition of three hundred mounted riflemen for the destruction of the towns on the north fork of Paint Creek. From their rendezvous, near Kenton's Station, the troop proceeded toward the Shawanese towns. Crossing the Ohio at Limestone, they arrived, after a rapid and secret march, at the town of Chillicothe, on the north fork of Paint Creek, which they surprised and destroyed, after killing several Indians and capturing some prisoners. The country for many miles round was ravaged, and the fields of ripe corn were destroyed. After an absence of ten days, the troop returned without the loss of a man.[A.D. 1788.] The Indian incursions continued to increase in frequency and audacity during the summer of 1788; the savages became more vindictive and blood-thirsty, making frequent attacks upon emigrants descending the river, as well as upon any parties of scouts or rangers with whom they came in collision.
Yet emigration to Kentucky did not cease. The settlements of Mason and Bourbon counties, although exposed to continual danger, continued to augment their population by the numerous arrivals of emigrant families, who erected new stations for their own security, or united with the occupants of older stations for mutual defense. To intercept the war parties in their advance or retreat, armed detachments were distributed near certain frequented routes; and in several instances parties of savages were overtaken and dispersed, while their stolen horses were recovered.
In the partisan warfare for the defense of the settlements, no man was more active, or took a more prominent part, than Captain Simon Kenton.
At one time a marauding party of fifteen or twenty Indians had established their rendezvous within a few miles of Kenton's Station, until they had collected their complement of horses. Kenton undertook to discover their trail, and to intercept them as they retired with their booty. With a party of hunters, he set out and discovered their trail and crossing-place on the Ohio, near the mouth of Locust Creek. Crossing the Ohio, he pursued their trail for several miles with the certainty of animal instinct, and late in the evening came upon
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the fresh trace, just as they were preparing to encamp for the night. Cautiously concealing his men until dark, he made a sudden and furious onset upon their encampment. The Indians, alarmed at the unexpected attack, and ignorant of the number of the assailants, fled precipitately at the first fire, leaving one of their number killed, all their camp equipage, some of their guns, and all their horses. The party returned home in triumph, to the great gratification of the settlement.As the tide of emigration continued to swell the population of Kentucky, the Shawanese malcontents became more and more exasperated; and the recent incursions by the mounted riflemen had induced many from other tribes to make common cause with the Shawanese. They were willing to assist in arresting the advance of the white settlements, and to prolong their own national existence; and the more now, since the white population was already advancing across the Ohio River in the vicinity of Fort Harmar and Fort Washington. Hence, strong hostile parties advanced to the Ohio to redouble their efforts for harassing the settlements on both sides of the river, and for arresting the descent of emigrants.
To effect these objects, atrocious murders were committed upon defenseless females and children. Emigrants for Kentucky, descending the Ohio, although protected from the rifle while floating in their family arks and covered barges, were exposed to continual danger from the bands of warriors lurking upon the shores, and ever ready to attack, decoy, or pursue any unprotected or unguarded boats. Yet the river was continually thronged with the adventurous emigrants, descending, mostly in strong parties for mutual defense, in boats, barges, and every species of river craft, freighted with families, goods, agricultural implements, horses, and domestic stock of all kinds, for their future residences. Did any one of these become separated from the rest, or did they incautiously approach the shore, or attempt to make a landing, the eye of the wily savage was upon them; and if the sharp crack of his rifle did not carry death to the pilot, or others on deck, it was because he contemplated a wholesale capture and massacre by a successful ambuscade. Was any party of emigrants too strong for open attack, the wily Indian, from his concealment on shore, with his rifle deliberately picked off, one by one,
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those who incautiously exposed their persons above the decks. Did a party of them have occasion to go on shore for firewood, to kill the game which presented on the bank, or to give their stock temporary freedom from the narrow prison of the boat, or to enjoy an evening stroll on land, the lurking savage, from his covert, cautiously observed every movement, and so planned his ambuscade as to make a sure and easy capture, or a slaughter of the whole.[A.D. 1789.] While parties thus waylaid the river banks, others were incessant in their roaming incursions through the settlements, waylaying every path, ambuscading every neighborhood, lurking as invisibly as the wolf near every residence, watching every family spring, ensconced in every corn-field and near every cross-road, patiently waiting whole days and nights for the approaching victim.
Although the "Northwestern Territory" had been erected into a territorial government, and the Federal authorities were nominally exercising jurisdiction over it; although several military posts had been established on the western bank, the depredations and incursions of the savages were unrestrained. Avoiding the fortified places and military stations, which could not be attacked with impunity, they passed on to feeble settlements and unprotected neighborhoods, where scalps and plunder were easily obtained, and where caution and cunning secured an easy victory.
The hostile incursions into the Kentucky settlements in 1789 commenced early in March, and were continued occasionally until May, when they became frequent and alarming. These parties consisted chiefly of warriors from the towns upon the sources of the Little Miami and of branches flowing into the Scioto and Great Miami, and the field of their operations was the whole range of settlements near the Ohio, from Fort Harmar to the mouth of Salt River.
From the first of May to the first of August there had been thirteen persons killed and ten wounded by Indians in the county of Jefferson, besides twenty horses stolen. In the county of Nelson, two persons had been killed and two wounded, besides twenty horses stolen. In Lincoln county, two persons had been killed and two wounded, and twenty-five horses stolen. In Madison county, one person had been killed and three wounded, and ten horses stolen. In Bourbon county,
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two persons had been wounded and fifteen horses stolen. In Mason county, two persons had been killed and forty-one horses stolen. In Woodford county, one boy had been killed and several horses stolen. Many other harassing depredations of less note had been perpetrated by lurking parties of savages, so that the whole frontier region within thirty miles of the Ohio was kept in a state of continual alarm and apprehension. Parties of Indians often penetrated unperceived into the very heart of Kentucky, at least fifty or sixty miles from the Ohio. In Woodford county, on the 10th of August, two men were fired upon by a party of Indians, but escaped with the loss of one horse, saddle, and bridle. On the night succeeding, the same party stole eleven horses in that vicinity. A party of men next day set out in pursuit of the Indians, and, having overtaken them, killed two of them, and recovered most of the horses. On the 16th of August, a party of Indians in ambuscade captured six negroes. Having retreated half a mile with the captives, and fearing pursuit, they tomahawked four of them, and the other two escaped. Two of those who were left for dead finally recovered. The same party, on the following night, stole a number of horses, with which they fled across the Ohio. Next day a party of forty men, under Lieutenant Robert Johnson, set out in pursuit, and followed them to the Ohio River, about twenty-five miles below the mouth of the Great Miami. Here part of the company returned; but twenty-six of them volunteered to cross the river and continue the pursuit. Having followed their trail about twelve miles further, they came upon the Indians, encamped at a salt lick. By a vigorous and unexpected attack in two divisions, the Indians were at length routed, and forty horses were recovered. Lieutenant Johnson lost two men killed and three wounded.Other parties of Indians had penetrated the settlements, and served to keep up alarm and apprehension among the frontier people; and occasional murders and depredations were continued, with but little intermission, until checked by the severity of winter. In December the Indians killed three men within twelve miles of Danville, at "Carpenter's Station," and five others on Russell's Creek, besides some who were wounded and escaped.
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Such was the state of Indian hostilities in the District of Kentucky. The same predatory warfare had been carried on against the western counties of Virginia, on the east side of the Ohio, over nearly three hundred miles of exposed frontier, extending as far south as the mouth of the Big Sandy.
[A.D. 1790.] The year 1790 opened with a more vigorous and extensive series of depredations and murders upon the emigrants, who were advancing in great numbers to Kentucky and to various points on the northwest side of the Ohio River.
In January, a family boat or covered barge, with ten persons on board, was captured by the Indians only about sixteen miles above Limestone. Nine of the persons were killed, and their dead bodies, scalped, were afterward found in the boat. One woman was taken captive.
About the middle of March, a party of fifty desperadoes, chiefly Shawanese, with a few Cherokees, stationed themselves near the mouth of the Scioto, on the north bank of the Ohio, for the purpose of carrying on their operations more successfully.
From this rendezvous they continued for several weeks to interrupt the navigation of the river, besides dispatching occasional scalping parties into the frontier settlements for murder and plunder. Not a boat could pass without receiving a volley from their rifles when stratagem and deception failed to bring them to shore. For the purpose of deceiving the crews and commanders of boats, they had one or more white captives, who were made to present themselves as objects of distress, to decoy boats to their relief, while the Indians laid concealed ready to kill those on board, and, when practicable, to capture the boat. By this device they succeeded in decoying several boats to shore, which fell an easy prey to the savages.
On the 20th of March they attacked and captured the boat of John May, Esq., of Virginia, with six persons on board. May and one other person were killed, and the remainder taken captive. Next day an open pirogue, with six men, was ascending the river, when the Indians fired upon it and killed every soul on board.
About the last of March a party of Indians captured and carried off three persons from Brashear's Creek, near the Falls of the Ohio. A few days afterward they killed two men while working a field in the same vicinity. About the same time a
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party of Indians from the Wabash captured a boat laden with salt at the mouth of Salt River, having killed and scalped three men who had charge of the cargo.A short time previously two men had been killed, and one woman and five children taken captive, in Kennedy's Bottom, on the Ohio, twenty-five miles above Limestone. On the 2d of April, Colonel Ward, from Greenbrier, in company with several family boats from the Monongahela, was attacked by Indians near the same place. One man was killed; the remainder, accelerating their flight by the abandonment of one boat and its contents to the enemy, and placing the hands on the others, succeeded in effecting their escape, after a severe chase of two hours.
On the 4th of April, Colonel George Thompson, in company with three family boats, was attacked near the same place by the same Indians. After failing to decoy the boats ashore, they manned a barge, which they had captured, with thirty warriors, and set out in vigorous pursuit. To preserve the lives of the families on board, two boats were abandoned, and the hands transferred to Colonel Thompson's barge, in which, with the oars double-manned, they at length succeeded in effecting their escape, after a vigorous chase of fifteen miles. The Indians, despairing of successful pursuit, gave up the chase, and returned to take possession of the boats which had been abandoned. The boats thus lost contained twenty-eight horses, a large amount of household furniture, besides dry-goods to the value of nearly five thousand dollars.
On the 18th of April, it being Sunday, a company of defenseless women and children returning from preaching at Hartford Town to a station on Rough Creek, were attacked by a party of Indians, who killed a boy and a girl, both of whom were tomahawked and scalped. One old woman was tomahawked and scalped alive, and her daughter was carried off captive.
On the 11th of May, nine miles above Limestone, a barge containing sixteen persons, including an officer and eight regular soldiers, in company with goods, household furniture, and horses, was captured by a party of twenty Indians from the Scioto. Five persons were murdered in the most barbarous manner, three escaped, and eight were taken captive.
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Soon afterward the Indians captured two boys, who were hunting near "Loudon's Station," on the head waters of Drennon's Lick Creek. On the 23d of May the Indians fired upon a company of unarmed people returning from church, near Clear Creek; one man was killed on the spot; one young woman was taken prisoner, who, after having been driven ten miles on foot, and exhausted by fatigue, was tomahawked and scalped.
Such was the state of Indian hostilities upon the Ohio River during the spring and summer of 1790. Nor were these all: many murders and outrages upon other portions of the settlements must be omitted, lest the enumeration become tedious.
To suppress these hostilities on the Ohio, General Harmar, early in April, had sent a detachment of one hundred regular troops, and two hundred Kentucky militia, under General Scott, to surprise and capture this band of desperadoes, whose camp was not far from the Scioto; but the detachment failed to accomplish that object. The Indians eluded pursuit as effectually as so many wolves, and the detachment returned to Limestone, bringing four Indian scalps as their only trophies.
During the whole summer, volunteer companies and scouting parties had been in motion along the Kentucky shore, and detachments had been sent occasionally from Fort Harmar and Fort Washington, for the purpose of breaking up any Indian camps that might be found within striking distance of the settlements. The activity with which these defensive movements were made along the Ohio, below the Kenhawa, finally succeeded in diverting the operations of the hostile bands from Kentucky to the settlements of Western Virginia upon the waters of the Kenhawa and the Monongahela.
Western Virginia. — On the 19th of September, a party of Indians penetrated into the country within nine miles of Clarksburg, in Harrison county, where they killed and scalped four persons, and captured four others. On the 22d, they killed a woman and two children, and burned the house. The same night, in that vicinity, they burned another house, from which the family had just escaped. The same party continued in that region for several days, committing like depredations, until the 28th of September, when they departed, having stolen
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eleven horses from that county, and having killed a large number of hogs, cattle, and sheep.Kenhawa county did not escape. Several persons were killed, and others who escaped had been fired upon by the Indians. Several negroes, and more than twenty horses, had been stolen, besides other depredations near Point Pleasant and Charleston. Such had been the hostilities of the Indians upon the northwestern frontier before the Federal government would consent to abandon fruitless negotiation for the last resort of nations.
[A.D. 1791.] The population of Kentucky, by the close of the year 1790, had increased to more than eighty thousand souls. The whole country for two years was in a state of excitement and military parade in defending her own frontier, and in giving aid to the expeditions of the Federal government under Generals Harmar and St. Clair, against the Indian tribes of the northwestern territory.
[A.D. 1793.] These settlements were defended by volunteer detachments, which patrolled the country in every direction, to observe any Indian movements which might be attempted. Sometimes a bold spirit of partisan warfare led voluntary detachments to pursue the trail of the Indians from the vicinity of the settlements to the region north of the Ohio. Of these partisan leaders, none were more persevering and more daring than Captain Simon Kenton. One of the most important of these excursions in which he was engaged in the year 1792 was against a party of warriors commanded by the Shawanese
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chief Tecumseh, who subsequently became one of the most distinguished warriors of his nation and age.To avenge themselves upon the hostile Indians on the Little Miami, whose incursions and depredations had become exceedingly harassing to the settlements, none was so fit as Captain Kenton. With a volunteer company of thirty-seven men, all excellent hunters and woodsmen, young, bold, cautious, and trained by himself, he set out in pursuit of a band of Indian marauders, which had retired from the settlements with a large number of horses. Following their trail across the Ohio and advancing up the Little Miami, he discovered "signs" of his near approach to an Indian encampment on the East Fork, about a mile above the present town of Williamsburg, in Hamilton county, Ohio. Concealing his company from observation, he advanced to reconnoiter the camp, in company with three excellent marksmen, among whom was Cornelius Washburn, whose pulse was as regular and whose nerves were as steady while taking aim at an Indian as if he were practicing at the target, and who had never failed to distinguish himself as an intrepid soldier. An Indian on horseback, hunting for deer, with his horse-bell open,
Kenton and his companion remained stationary, while Washburn and a comrade advanced cautiously along the trail to make further observations. A few hundred yards brought them within bearing of a large number of horse-bells, indicative of the Indian camp, near which the horses were feeding. With the utmost circumspection, Washburn quickly retired to communicate the fact to his captain. A council was immediately
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held for the arrangements preparatory to the approaching conflict. Having determined upon the time for attack, Kenton, in company with Washburn, advanced to make a personal examination of the strength and position of the enemy. He discovered their encampment on the second bottom of the creek, comprising a large number of linen tents and markees; the number of Indians he could not discover.Believing the savages greatly superior in numbers, he resolved to avail himself of the advantage which might result from the panic and confusion of a night attack. The evening was cloudy and drizzly, and the night would be dark and quiet. Pursuit can not be made in the night; and as he might need the protection of the night for retreat in case of defeat, he resolved to make the assault at midnight, when the enemy would be asleep and unprepared. At the appointed time, Kenton led on his little band cautiously and silently toward the sleeping host. So well had this advance been made, that they were undiscovered when within ten paces of the line of encampment and tents.
In this perilous enterprise only one man, John Barr, was killed, and one captured by the Indians, Alexander M'Intyre, who was executed by them next day.
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man living among them, was about thirty killed and several wounded. The whole number of savages was about two hundred, of whom some were women.After the first alarm, they were rallied and brought back to the contest by a fearless chief, who inspired courage wherever he moved. This was the undaunted Tecumseh, afterward king of the Shawanese. This war party consisted of about one hundred and fifty warriors; and had it not been for the courage of their chief in checking the flight, and in rallying them by his authority and example, they would have been routed by less than one fourth of their number of "hunters from Kentucky."
The tents and markees in possession of this party were doubtless those which had been lost by Harmar and St. Clair in their disastrous defeats in 1790 and 1791.
The next important partisan enterprise within the limits of Kentucky was conducted by Captain Kenton. In June, 1793, a party of Indians had attacked and captured "Morgan's Station," from which they had retired rapidly across the Ohio to their towns upon the Yoctangee, or Paint Creek. Captain Kenton immediately raised a party of thirty men, and moved rapidly across the country to intercept them near the Scioto. Having reached Paint Creek at "Reeve's Crossings," he discovered the "fresh signs" of a large party of Indians. Pursuing the trail down the creek until close upon them, he halted his party, and, in company with Michael Cassady, proceeded to reconnoiter the enemy's camp. He found the Indians encamped upon the bank of the creek, with three fires; many were carousing and singing, with other indications of mirth and conscious security. Having viewed their position, he deferred the contemplated attack until just before daylight next morning. It was made in three opposite directions, and carried forward with a vigorous assault by three divisions of ten men each. The Indians were routed in great consternation, with the loss of four warriors, including a white man who had been captured when a child, and who to all appearance was an Indian. Kenton and his troop reached home in safety, having lost only one man, Joseph Jones, in the assault.
Incursions by marauding parties still continued occasionally
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to annoy the settlements of Kentucky, and Kenton was ever ready to engage in any hazardous enterprise connected with the defense of the inhabitants. The regular spies had discovered the trail of twenty Indians, who were advancing through the country in quest of horses and plunder, and it fell to Kenton's lot to raise a company for the pursuit and capture of the depredators. With a party of seven men, among them Cornelius Washburn, he crossed at Limestone, and proceeded down the river to Holt's Creek. Here, on the south side of the river, he found the Indian canoes concealed in the bottom, and withdrawing his men to the opposite side, he patiently awaited the return of the Indian marauders, with their horses and plunder. On the fourth day three Indians returned with six horses, which they drove across the river. After the horses had been passed over, the Indians raised one of the canoes and followed them. As the canoe approached the shore where Kenton's party laid in ambush, perceiving that one of them was a white man, he directed his men to spare him. The first fire killed both Indians as the canoe struck the shore. To the surprise of all, the white man refused to be taken, and they were compelled to shoot him in self-defense. His ears were slit, his nose bored, and he otherwise possessed the marks of an Indian. On the same day, four hours afterward, two more Indians and one white man, with five horses, arrived, and the horses were crossed over inlike manner. Another canoe was raised, and the whole party passed over in it. As they approached the shore, one simultaneous discharge killed every soul.During the night the main body of the party arrived, with thirty horses stolen from Bourbon county, and gave a signal by hooting like owls. The signal not being answered from the opposite side, suspicion was awakened, and, after a cautious reconnoissance, one Indian silently swam the river, and approached in the rear of the ambuscade. Suddenly he gave the signal to his party by three deep and long yells, when, in his native tongue, he warned them of the lurking danger, and bade them escape for their lives, for a party of white men were in ambuscade. The words were well understood by Kenton and several of his men, who were familiar with the Indian tongue. At the signal the Indians fled precipitately in the dark, leaving
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all their horses in the hands of their enemies. In less than one hour a detachment of militia from Bourbon county arrived, in hot pursuit of the fugitives.Such is the character of the daring and perilous encounters to which the frontier settlers have been exposed in innumerable instances.
Chapter VI. — Political condition of the "District of Kentucky," from 1783 until its admission into the Federal Union as an independent state. A.D. 1783 to 1794.
Argument. — Retrospect of the political Condition of the District. — Causes for political Discontent. — The People desire an independent State Government — First Convention in 1784. — Second Convention in May, 1785. — Third Convention recommended. — Great Emigration to Kentucky in 1786. — Improved Condition of the Kentucky Settlements in 1786. — Measures adopted by the third Convention. — Action of the Virginia Legislature in favor of Separation. — Requisite Action by Kentucky unavoidably delayed. — Fourth Convention appointed for August, 1787. — First Newspaper in Kentucky. — Agricultural and commercial Prosperity in 1787. — Navigation of the Mississippi commenced. — Fifth Convention held in September, 1787. — Sixth Convention in July, 1788. — Diversity of political Sentiment. — Political Parties. — Action of the sixth Convention. — Prominent Men. — Corresponding Action of the Virginia Legislature. — Final Action of this Convention, and Application for Assent of Congress. — Assent of Congress granted February 4th, 1791. — Boundaries of the new State. — First State Governor and Legislature convened June 4th, 1792, for the organization of State Government. — Causes of the protracted delay of Separation. — A new Experiment in Political Philosophy. — Notice of political Parties. — Foreign Influence. — Spanish Intrigue. — Increasing Trade with New Orleans. — The fluctuating Policy of Spain with regard to the Navigation of the Mississippi. — Genet's Intrigue for the Invasion of Louisiana in 1793-94. — Measures taken by the Federal Government to suppress the contemplated Invasion. — Reluctance of Governor Shelby to interfere in the Plans of Genet. — Increasing Population of Kentucky in 1794. — New Counties organized. — Kentucky levies for the Campaign in the Northwestern Territory. — Advantages derived by Kentucky from Treaties of London and Madrid. — Last Efforts of Spain to detach Kentucky from the Union. — Progressive Wealth and Population of Kentucky. — Governors of Kentucky.
[A.D. 1783.] THE political relations of Kentucky had already become a source of great anxiety, as well as inconvenience and danger, to the people. Removed five hundred miles from the capital, their dependence upon Virginia was like that of a remote province, governed by laws enacted by strangers, too remote to appreciate their wants or their grievances. Such was the tardy intercourse between them and the state government,
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that months often elapsed before they could communicate with the executive authorities relative to civil or military affairs. They had a representation in the Legislature, but it was that of an isolated colony, and not of an integral portion of a great whole; they had organized county courts, with regular quarterly sessions, for the trial of misdemeanors, and persons charged with such criminal offenses as were punishable by fine and imprisonment; they might adjudicate civil cases involving an amount not exceeding twenty-five shillings; but for capital offenses there was no court of competent jurisdiction short of the state capital, and the prisoner, the prosecutor, and the witnesses must travel by land five hundred miles to Richmond, with delays and expenses which could not fail to be oppressive to all who came within the influence of the superior courts. In appeal cases the same difficulties presented, and the same delays were unavoidable.During the existence of the Revolutionary war, it was esteemed fortunate if an order from the executive of the state reached its destination in Kentucky in less than three months; and military commanders were often unable to obey instructions, based upon certain emergencies, before it was too late to accomplish their objects. In April, 1781, Governor Jefferson issued an order to Colonel Clark, directing a military expedition into the Indian country, and the order was not received at "the Falls" until the 11th of July. But delays of this kind were viewed as trivial inconveniences compared to other embarrassments under which the people of the "District of Kentucky" labored, as to their civil and military organization, during her colonial dependence upon Virginia. They had been compelled to rely almost exclusively upon their own unaided exertions for defense against the combined savages of the northwest.
Amid the incessant incursions of the hostile savages, and the continual dangers which surrounded all the settlements, their chief defense proceeded from their own voluntary efforts for the protection of their firesides and families. A few state troops, in small detachments, were occasionally sent to re-enforce a post or station, or to aid in a hostile invasion of the Indian country; but the most efficient and the most essential service in protecting the country was rendered by individual enterprise and patriotism, without the authority of the state,
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and without any legal claims upon her for remuneration. The operations for the common defense fell unequally and oppressively upon the most patriotic, and the state was reluctant to assume and remunerate expenses incurred for private enterprise against the Indians.[A.D. 1784.] The attention of the people was first drawn forcibly to the imperfection of their military organization in the autumn of 1784. Martial law had now ceased to be paramount, and the civil authorities resumed their supremacy. Impressments for the public service could no longer be enforced with impunity. A year had now elapsed since military parade and martial law had prevailed, and citizens had mostly retired to the private walks of life, to reinstate their exhausted resources.
It was at this time that rumor represented a contemplated invasion of Kentucky by the hostile Cherokees from the South. The settlements were thrown into excitement and alarm, and Colonel Logan was urged to organize an expedition to invade the Cherokee towns. After due reflection and advice, it was discovered that the isolated community of Kentucky possessed no legal authority or military jurisdiction competent for the organization of a military expedition against the savages. Accordingly, it was deemed advisable to invite a meeting of representatives from the whole district during the succeeding month, to take into consideration the important subjects of political interest then agitating the district, in view of legislative relief to this portion of the state. This convention assembled at Danville, and after a short session adjourned, having adopted a written circular to each militia company in the district, recommending the election of one delegate from each company, to meet in convention at Danville on the 27th of December following, for the purpose of a full discussion of the subjects worthy of consideration. The delegates, twenty-five in number, convened accordingly; Samuel M'Dowell was elected president of the convention, and Thomas Todd clerk. After a session of two days, during which business was "conducted with great decorum," the convention adjourned sine die.
During the session there had been a free interchange of opinion upon the important subjects connected with the prosperity of "the District." To some it was evident that many of their grievances might be removed by suitable legislation on
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the part of Virginia; but to others it was evident that the grievances of greatest magnitude grew out of the remote distance of the state capital from the district, and that these were evils which could be removed only by a separation of the district from the parent commonwealth, and its erection into an equal and independent member of the Federal Union. The latter opinion prevailed, and, by a large majority, a resolution was adopted expressive of their sentiments "in favor of applying for an act to render Kentucky independent of Virginia." Yet, not having been delegated for a purpose so radically affecting the political condition of their constituents, the convention determined to do nothing more than offer a simple expression of their opinion for the consideration of the people at large.[A.D. 1785.] The convention suggested the propriety of electing other delegates to a convention to be assembled at Danville on the third Monday in May following, and that these delegates be elected with special reference to the question of "separation from the Commonwealth of Virginia."
The canvass for the April elections opened by a full and general discussion of the question of separation, and all those delegates who advocated a separation were returned to the next convention, which assembled on the 23d of May, 1785. A large majority of the former delegates having been re-elected, the organization of the deliberative body was unchanged.
The convention proceeded with great decorum to the important task assigned them. The delegates comprised a fair representation of the talent and eloquence of the district; for the people, in committing to their charge the most vital interests of the community, had selected the first men in the country, of known talent and integrity. During the session of the convention, the meetings were attended by a large concourse of people anxious to witness the proceedings and to hear their discussions.
The result of the deliberations of this convention was the adoption of the following resolution, expressive of the sense of the whole number of delegates, viz.:
"Resolved unanimously, as the opinion of this convention, that a petition be presented to the Assembly praying that this
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district may be established into a state, separate from Virginia."The convention had also recommended the election of another convention, to be assembled on the second Monday of August following at Danville, "to take under their further consideration the state of the district," and suggesting the propriety of electing the new delegates upon the "principle of population, and not of property or territory;" thus discarding a principle which had obtained in Virginia from the old colonial usages. This was the first step taken by Kentucky toward a more democratic form of government.
In the mean time, the Legislature of Virginia, at its last session, had laid out a new county, designated as the county of Nelson. This county had been duly organized early in the spring, and comprised all that portion of Jefferson county which laid south of Salt River and north of Green River. The district was now comprised in four counties, each embracing a large extent of territory, the greater portion of which was sparsely inhabited.
The people, acting upon the recommendation of the former convention, had proceeded to elect delegates from the different counties, according to the population of each, as ascertained from the muster-rolls and other records, which afforded an approximate estimate. No census had as yet been taken in Kentucky, although the number of people at this time must have amounted to thirty thousand.
According to the basis of population adopted, the following ratio of representation was selected for the new convention, viz.: to the counties of Jefferson and Nelson, each six delegates; to Lincoln, ten delegates; to Fayette, eight delegates. Thus the convention, representing the four counties of the district, was to consist of twenty-four delegates. Nearly all the former delegates were re-elected, and the deliberative body was organized as before.
The result of the August convention was the adoption of a petition to the Legislature of Virginia, praying for "a separation from the commonwealth," and the adoption of the draft of an address for circulation among the people.
The address to the people was an able statement of the views entertained by the convention as to the proper policy of the people of Kentucky in obtaining from the parent state
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a legalized separation, and an independent system of state government. It also recommended the election of delegates to another convention, to be assembled twelve months from that time, in order to be fully apprised of the disposition of the State Legislature at its next session. The object of this course was to give the people of the district generally an opportunity of considering the important question maturely, and enable them more fully to appreciate the advantages of separation, after the whole matter had been fully presented to the people of Virginia, as well as to their representatives in the Legislature.The petition of the convention was laid before the executive of the state for his consideration previous to its formal introduction to the legislative bodies.
At this time, the population of Kentucky, as well as all the western portions of Virginia and Pennsylvania, was augmenting rapidly by emigration from the old settlements east of the mountains. The Ohio River was thronged with families descending in boats, barges, and Kentucky arks, freighted with their movable effects, comprising household furniture, implements of husbandry, goods and wares of all sorts, and domestic stock and supplies of every kind, all destined for Kentucky.
Among the numerous emigrants which were arriving almost daily, were many men of talent and enterprise; many had been officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war, who sought ease and competence in the delightful regions of Kentucky, where they constituted valuable accessions to the young and flourishing colony. Some of the emigrants were from France, England, and Ireland; but by far the greatest portion were from the eastern counties of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
[A.D. 1786.] The spring of 1786 opened with an increase of emigration to the West, and to Kentucky especially. Among those who had arrived during the past year was Colonel James Wilkinson, a distinguished officer of the Revolutionary army, a man of fine address, of great talent, and of untiring industry and enterprise; qualities which never fail in the West to receive from the people the highest appointments, and the most honorable political preferment, as a mark of popular confidence. Colonel Wilkinson had been an active officer, and served under the command of Generals Washington, Gates, Wayne, and St.
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Clair, and was the associate of Generals Morgan, Mercer, and Schuyler; he had fought in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga, and Ticonderoga.Heretofore the whole western country on the Ohio south of Pittsburgh could not boast a single newspaper or periodical. The circular address to the militia companies in December, 1784, was in manuscript copies, as was also the address of the convention to the people in August, 1785. One of these was posted up in each county seat.
Previous to the year 1784, the great business of the colony, the all-absorbing interest in the settlements, was military service and military preparation for the defense of the exposed frontier, or to carry invasion into the heart of the enemy's country. Now the arts of peace had begun to appear, agriculture and commerce began to employ the industry and enterprise of many valuable citizens, and all were absorbed in the acquisition of lands either for use or speculation; and settlements were rapidly filling the country north of Licking as far as the Ohio River.
The time appointed for the assembling of the convention found the whole country involved in the excitement and parade of a military campaign for the chastisement of the Shawanese nation, whose war parties had been for several months committing a succession of murders, depredations, and outrages upon the extensive frontier. The people were determined to inflict summary punishment upon the whole nation, and the most active measures were now in progress throughout all the settlements; public attention was greatly absorbed in preparations for a formidable invasion of the Indian country from the banks of the Scioto to the head waters of the Wabash. Many of the delegates elect were deeply engaged in the arduous labors of the contemplated campaign.
Owing to this circumstance, the convention failed to secure a full attendance of the members, and after a short session it adjourned. The sense of the convention was fully expressed in a resolution reported by George Muter, chairman of a committee to whom the subject had been referred. This resolution
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declared that "it was the indispensable duty of the convention to make application to the General Assembly at the ensuing session for an act to separate this district from the present government forever, on terms honorable to both, and injurious to neither."This resolution was followed by an address to the Legislature of Virginia, and another to the people of the district, both written by General James Wilkinson in a style of dignity, beauty, and energy of language heretofore unknown in the public proceedings of Kentucky.
Chief-justice George Muter, and the attorney-general, Harry Innes, were instructed to present and sustain the petition before the next session of the Virginia Legislature.
It was during the early part of this year that the counties of Bourbon, Mercer, and Madison were erected and properly organized under the authority of the Virginia Legislature, increasing the number of counties in the district to seven. The county of Bourbon, indicative of Spanish influence and partiality, was districted from Fayette; the counties of Mercer and Madison were laid off from Lincoln county.
[A.D. 1787.] The General Assembly of Virginia had received the petition and address of the convention with due consideration, indicative of that liberality and generous sentiment which has always characterized the "Old Dominion." An act of the Legislature provided that, at the next election in August, five representatives from each of the counties should be elected by the free white male inhabitants of the district; that the representatives so elected should meet and determine whether it be expedient, and the will of the people, that the district of Kentucky should be erected into an independent state.
The act provided further that these representatives, if they approved of a separation, should appoint a day, subsequent to the first of September, 1787, when the authority of Virginia should cease over the district, provided that Congress, prior to June 1st, 1787, should assent to said separation, and release Virginia from her Federal obligations arising there from, and also agree to admit Kentucky into the Federal Union as an independent state.
Meantime, political embarrassments and Indian disturbances had interfered with the action of Kentucky on the subject, until
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it was too late to obtain the assent of the United States previous to the first of June, 1787. Thus the former act of Virginia stipulating that condition became null and void. Yet the Legislature of Virginia freely assented to the desired separation, provided the new convention, to convene in August, 1787, should consent to the separation by a majority of two thirds. Hence the period of separation was necessarily deferred for eighteen months longer, in order to obtain the assent of Congress, and the subsequent legislation by the State of Virginia.Such was the difficulty of disseminating political views and political communications by manuscript circulars, that public meetings and public discussions became the most obvious mode of operating upon the public mind. This difficulty, however, was removed soon after the convention of August, 1787, by John and Fielding Bradford, citizens of Lexington. These men, although not practical printers, determined to issue a weekly paper, and on the 18th of August the "Kentucky Gazette," in the shape of a small demy sheet, made its first appearance. Their stock of type being small and imperfect, several deficiencies were supplied by wooden type cut from dog-wood.
In the mean time, new objects of interest began to attract the public attention in Kentucky. As early as the year 1786, the people perceived the necessity of the free navigation of the Mississippi, as the proper outlet for the surplus products of their flourishing settlements. The agricultural produce was abundant, and New Orleans and Louisiana presented a rich market for their enterprise; but Louisiana was a foreign province, and the duty imposed upon American commerce descending the Mississippi was exorbitant, and the commercial regulations were highly oppressive. The rich market for American produce was thus withheld; or the people, in the excessive exactions levied upon their property, saw themselves robbed of one half of their profits. The subsequent difficulties and embarrassments thrown in the way of American trade by the Spanish authorities were the result of a settled policy on the part of Spain, for the purpose of effecting ultimately in the western people an alienation of feeling from the Federal Union,
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and a consequent alliance with Louisiana under the Spanish crown.On the 17th of September, 1787, the fifth convention assembled at Danville. The decision was unanimous in favor of separating the "District" from the parent state, upon the terms and conditions prescribed by the Legislature of Virginia. An address was prepared for Congress, relative to the admission of the new state into the Federal Union, under the name of the "State of Kentucky." The convention provided for the election of a new convention, clothed with authority "to adopt a form of state government, and to frame and establish a state Constitution for the proposed state."
Thus the period of separation was necessarily deferred, although conceded by Virginia, until the session of Congress, which was the last under the old confederation. This Congress declined to take any decided action in the case, preferring to refer the whole subject to the new administration under the new Constitution. Thus the definite legislation of Virginia was again deferred another year.
[A.D. 1790.] The population of Kentucky in the last three years had greatly augmented by emigration from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and also from North Carolina by way of Cumberland Gap. According to a census taken during the year 1790 by authority of the United States, the District of Kentucky, comprising nine counties, had an aggregate population of 73,677 persons, of whom 61,103 were free whites, the remainder being chiefly slaves and free people of color.
About one half of the above number of whites, and two thirds of the slaves, were emigrants from Virginia. The remainder were chiefly from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina.
Various political difficulties connected with the adoption of the new Constitution of the United States, and the organization of the government under that Constitution, delayed any definite action relative to the separation of Kentucky until the year
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1789, after the election of the first Congress under the new Federal Constitution. Of course no action on the part of Congress could be obtained until after the assembling of the new Congress, under the administration of General Washington.It was on this account that the final separation of Kentucky was deferred for two years more. It was at this critical period, when disappointment, delay, and uncertainty seemed to brood over the political prospects of Kentucky, and when her numerous talented statesmen, who were ambitious of taking their rank in the new order of things, were impatient of political distinction, that the intrigue of the Spanish minister and the Governor-general of Louisiana was set on foot for encouraging disaffection in the western people, preparatory to a separation and alliance with Louisiana under the dominion of Spain.
[A.D. 1791.] At length, after an angry and spirited controversy between the district of Kentucky and the parent state, the Legislature of Virginia passed an act which, in the nature of a solemn compact between the State of Virginia and Kentucky, provided that the district of Kentucky should become "separate from, and independent of, the State of Virginia, from and after the first day of June, 1792."
The question as to the admission of Kentucky had been presented before Congress by President Washington, with a strong recommendation in favor of the independence of the new state. The president had taken a lively interest in the welfare of this rising state, and lost no time in taking measures for securing to the western people the free navigation of the Mississippi.
On the 4th of February an act of Congress was approved which provided for the admission of Kentucky into the Federal Union as an independent state. This act authorized the election, in December following, of a convention authorized to form and adopt a State Constitution, to be submitted for the approbation of Congress. The convention elected under this authority convened at Danville on the first Monday in April following. They proceeded to the task assigned them, and after a session of nearly three weeks they had completed their labors, and on the 19th day of April, 1792, the Constitution was adopted and received the signatures of the members.
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[A.D. 1792.] The boundaries of the new state, as prescribed by the Legislature of Virginia and ratified by Congress, were as follows: On the north, the Ohio River, from the mouth of Big Sandy to the Mississippi River: on the east, Big Sandy Creek, from its mouth up to the mouth of Knox Creek, on Tug Fork; thence the top of the Cumberland Mountain to the line of North Carolina, at Cumberland Gap: on the south, the line of Virginia, running due west from Cumberland Gap, as designated by Dr. Walker in 1780, to Tennessee River: on the west, the Mississippi River. The line of boundary on the east was established by commissioners, subsequently appointed by Virginia and Kentucky.
On the fourth day of June, the governor and Legislature elected under the new Constitution assembled at Lexington. Isaac Shelby was the first governor elect. The two Houses of the Legislature organized by electing Alexander S. Bullitt President of the Senate, and Robert Breckenridge Speaker of the House of Representatives. On the sixth of June, Governor Shelby, in accordance with the ancient usage of Virginia, delivered his address to the two Houses of the Legislature.
On the part of the Eastern States, a strong opposition to the admission of Kentucky into the Union had manifested itself in Congress as early as the year 1788, when the subject was first laid before that body. This opposition, no doubt, gave encouragement to the Spanish minister, Don Guardoqui, in his plans for separating the western people from the Atlantic
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States, and the formation of independent states, in alliance with Louisiana, under the protection of the Spanish crown.Many in Kentucky seem to have contemplated a forcible separation from the State of Virginia, and without her consent; for the accomplishment of which they expected aid from Spain, if necessary. But as the Federal government would have resisted any illegal dismemberment of Virginia, the majority was uniformly in favor of a voluntary and legal separation from the parent state, with the sanction of the Federal government. Hence the preliminary application to Congress in 1788.
The case of Kentucky was the first instance of the formation of an independent state from territory previously embraced within the organized limits of a sovereign state; hence the experiment of separation and the mode of accomplishment did not clearly present itself to the minds of those in authority, and the road to a voluntary and legal independence from the states of the Union was an untried experiment, an unexplored route to the Federal and state politicians. But since the way has been explored by Kentucky, the mode for amicable and legal changes in the state sovereignty has become plain and easy, and the retrospect scarcely perceives a cause for former embarrassment.
In organizing the executive and judicial departments of the government, James Brown was appointed first Secretary of State, and George Nicholas Attorney-general. John Brown and John Edwards were elected first Senators in Congress. Inferior and superior courts were organized, and commissioners for locating the state capital were appointed, who soon selected the present site of Frankfort as the permanent capital of the state.
At the period of the adoption of the first Constitution of Kentucky, the aggregate population of the state could not have been less than ninety thousand persons. The tide of emigration to this delightful region had not abated since 1788, and every year continued to add thousands of immigrants to the settlements
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spreading rapidly from the sources of Green River to those of the Kentucky. Notwithstanding the hostile attitude of the Indian tribes, the population had increased greatly during the next five years. Towns had grown up in various parts of the state. Lexington already had a population of about one thousand souls. Danville and Louisville were thriving towns, with more than five hundred inhabitants each.Here it may not be improper to take a brief retrospect of the dissensions of political parties and the foreign intrigue which had been brought to operate upon the people of Kentucky.
Isolated and unprotected as they had been under the old confederacy in all their Indian wars; cut off from trade with the East by natural obstacles; deprived, by the arbitrary will of the Spanish intendant of Louisiana, from trade on the Mississippi, their only and natural outlet for the surplus product, unless they would enter into alliance with Louisiana under the protection of Spain; harassed with the confiscation of their property by Spanish commandants, and encouraged by Spanish intrigue to separate from the United States, which had been unable to afford them redress or to obtain for them the privileges of navigation which their peculiar situation demanded, it was hardly to have been expected that the people of Kentucky should have entertained very strong predilections for the old confederation. Engaged with their own difficulties, and almost indifferent as to the new Federal Constitution, they had felt but little interest in the election which had taken place in 1788 for President of the United States under the new confederation. After the installation of the new administration, it remained to be seen whether the government was able to extend relief to them, as well as what might be the advantages of a union with the older states.
During this crisis, England and Spain were anxious spectators, awaiting the result of the political contest which agitated the people of Kentucky. Both these powers viewed Kentucky as a prize almost within their grasp. Great Britain still occupied the posts of Detroit, Maumee, and other points south of the lakes, which gave her virtual possession of the Northwestern Territory, separated from Kentucky by the Ohio River. Spain possessed and occupied the whole of Louisiana
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and West Florida, embracing all the region west of the Mississippi, as well as its eastern bank for five hundred miles above its mouth. Besides this, she had asserted a claim to the whole eastern bank up to the mouth of the Ohio, and had taken possession of the same in virtue of her Indian treaties.Through the governors of the respective provinces and their agents, both these courts were intriguing to produce a separation from the United States. A spirit of hostile feeling between the two governments had nearly matured into a pretext for the invasion of their respective and contiguous provinces of Canada and Upper Louisiana.
During the summer of 1790, Doctor Connolly, who had been a British agent at Fort Pitt at the beginning of the Revolutionary war, and was now a citizen of Quebec, and an emissary of the Earl of Dorchester, honored Kentucky with a visit. He was a man of talents and fine address, and under the pretext of closing up some old unsettled business, or searching for confiscated lands, was the secret agent of the Governor-general of Canada to sound the leading men of Kentucky on the subject of an invasion of Louisiana from the Ohio River. He was authorized to give assurances of aid from Canada in case an invasion of Louisiana was attempted by the western people. Rumor had already reported "that four thousand British troops were in readiness to march from Canada at a moment's warning." The Governor of Louisiana, apprehensive of the invasion from Canada, had a pretext for new fortifications near the mouth of the Ohio, and the re-enforcement of his garrisons on the Upper Mississippi.
After a temporary sojourn in Kentucky, perceiving, from his intercourse with some of the prominent men, that a prejudice existed among the western people against British faith, and that the public feeling was not in favor of the invasion of Louisiana so much as against the occupation of the northwestern posts by British troops, and contrary to treaty stipulations, Doctor Connolly retired from Kentucky. Before his departure, he had made an imperfect disclosure of his views and propositions to some of his confidential friends; and shortly afterward suspicion was awakened, and he was suspected as a "British spy." Alarmed at his position, and aware of the danger of public vengeance, his friends conveyed him, with the
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utmost secrecy and expedition, to Limestone, on his way to Canada.It would carry us beyond our limits to give a full account of all the plans and dissensions of the numerous political leaders and their respective adherents. It is sufficient in this place to enumerate some of the prominent views of the principal parties. It is beyond doubt that many were so swayed by interest and the future prospect of trade, that they were perfectly reconciled to a union with Louisiana under the Spanish crown. The peculiar condition of Kentucky previous to the adoption of the State Constitution, and the conflicting interests of a new and unsettled government, had reduced the people to a deplorable state of discord and anarchy. The Spanish authorities were active in their efforts to wean them from the Federal Union, by restrictions and favors alternately, as the emergency might dictate; while the court of Madrid, with an eye to the separation, delayed any decisive negotiations with the United States relative to the navigation of the Mississippi, or the surrender of the territory east of that river, agreeably to the boundary designated in the treaty of 1783. There can be no doubt that the Governor of Louisiana used all his art and finess in state intrigue through General James Wilkinson, Judge Sebastian, and others, in hope of ultimate success. Through General Wilkinson, the privilege of trade with New Orleans and Louisiana, and the right of emigration to West Florida, on the east side of the Mississippi, with liberal grants of land to each family, had been held out as means of first counteracting the prejudice of the western people against the Spanish character. General Wilkinson had descended the Mississippi to New Orleans in June, 1787, with a boat-load of tobacco and western produce, which he had disposed of to great profit. While in Louisiana, he had entered into arrangements with the governor, which secured to himself the monopoly of the tobacco trade on very lucrative
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terms. He had also procured the privilege, according to his own statement, of introducing and settling several thousand families in Louisiana and West Florida.The numerous plans and intrigues put in operation by the governors of Louisiana and Florida, and by the Spanish minister, Guardoqui, at the seat of the Federal government, are not properly within the province of the present work, but are more specially noted in another place.
During the political excitement in Kentucky and Tennessee, from the year 1788 to 1792, the policy of Spain, and the restrictions upon western trade, together with Genet's intrigue, gave rise to the following parties, viz.:
1. In favor of forming a separate and independent Republic, under no special obligation of union, except such as might be most advantageous.
2. In favor of entering into commercial arrangements with Spain, and of annexing Kentucky to Louisiana, with all the advantages offered.
3. Opposed to any Spanish connection, and in favor of forcing the free navigation of the Mississippi by the arms of the United States, with the invasion of Louisiana and West Florida.
4. In favor of soliciting France to claim a retrocession of Louisiana, and to extend her protection to Kentucky.
5. The strongest party, however, was in favor of a separation from Virginia, and admission into the Federal Union as a free and independent state, leaving it to the general government to regulate the Mississippi question with Spain.
It may be proper here to take some notice of the state of trade and commerce of the western country about this time, and of Kentucky especially. Since the general peace of 1783, Spain had claimed the right to control the navigation of the Mississippi River, in virtue of her treaty with England, which relinquished to her the provinces of East and West Florida, as appendages to Louisiana. West Florida, under the pretensions
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of Spain, extended up the east bank of the Mississippi to the mouth of the Yazoo, and gave Spain virtual control of both banks of the Mississippi River, nearly five hundred miles above its mouth.About the year 1786, the people of the western settlements of North Carolina and Virginia, upon the waters of the Holston and Clinch, and upon the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers, began to look to the Spanish settlements on the Lower Mississippi as the natural market for the surplus products of their fine agricultural regions, and the Mississippi River as the natural high-way upon which their trade should meet the ocean through the Gulf of Mexico. The increasing population, and the prosperous condition of these settlements, rendered it expedient to seek some foreign market for their abundant products; and numerous attempts were made by enterprising men and adventurers to open a lucrative trade with New Orleans and the river settlements of West Florida. But the fluctuating policy of Spain, growing out of the peculiar situation of the western people, at length produced a high degree of prejudice and national irritation, which threatened the security of all Louisiana. The western people, again restricted in their trade, and plundered by Spanish exactions on the Mississippi, without relief from the Federal government, began to evince their impatience of the inefficient administration of the national councils, and their indignation against the Spanish restrictions by a contemplated invasion of Louisiana and Florida.
To allay this feeling of hostility among the western people, Governor Miro, of Louisiana, sought every favorable opportunity to conciliate the people of Kentucky and the Cumberland settlements, by extending to them certain commercial privileges, besides the rights of Spanish subjects to such as would emigrate to West Florida, and a general relaxation of the revenue exactions upon the river trade. By this policy he at length succeeded in effecting a partial reconciliation of the western people to the Spanish authorities. But his successor, the Baron de Carondelet, having adopted an opposite course of policy, revived the prejudices and hostility of the western people, until they again contemplated asserting their rights by the invasion and conquest of Louisiana and West Florida.
Through the judicious policy of the Federal government, this state of feeling toward the Spaniards of Louisiana had been
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in a great measure allayed, and the people of Kentucky had been received into the Union as an independent state, when the whole West was again thrown into a state of great excitement by a new intrigue, planned and conducted under the agency of M. Genet, the French minister in the United States.The object of this enterprise was to invade and repossess the province of Louisiana for France, by means of an expedition raised and furnished within the United States under the authority of revolutionary France. The French minister, apprised of the political factions which had been prevailing in the West, and the renewed impatience of the western people under the rigid policy of the Baron de Carondelet, conceived the plan of uniting all parties for the expulsion of the Spanish authority from Louisiana and Florida.
It was during the excited and unsettled state of political feeling in the West that the French minister, M. Genet, arrived in Charleston. He was received with enthusiasm by the people wherever he appeared, until, elated with the marked attention of the people, who took a deep interest in the cause of France against the combined powers of Europe, he so far forgot his duty to the Federal government as to encourage the people of Charleston to fit out privateers against the commerce of England, who was at peace with the United States. From Charleston he proceeded triumphantly to the seat of the Federal government as the accredited minister of the French Republic. "Scarcely were the first ceremonies of his reception over, when M. Genet displayed a disposition to usurp and exercise within the United States the choicest and most important duties and powers of sovereignty. He claimed the privilege of arming and embodying the citizens of America within their own territory, to carry on from thence expeditions against nations with whom they were at peace; of fitting out and equipping within their limits privateers to cruise on a commerce destined for their ports; of erecting within their jurisdiction an independent judiciary; and of arraigning their government at the bar of the people." Such was the tenor of his conduct, when President Washington, indignant at his unwarrantable interference with the prerogatives of the government, demanded his recall. "The recall of the minister was received with universal joy, as a confirmation that his whole system of conduct was attributable only to himself."
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Early in October, the agents of Genet, M. Lachaise, Charles Delpeau, M. Mathurin, and Gignoux, left the city of Philadelphia in the stage for Kentucky, where they subsequently fomented great popular excitement and indignation against the Federal government.
[A.D. 1794.] Early in January following, Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States, in answer to inquiries directed to Governor Shelby, received from him in reply the admission that "two Frenchmen, Lachaise and Delpeau, have lately come into this state; and I am told they declare publicly that they are in daily expectation of receiving a supply of money, and that, as soon as they do receive it, they shall raise a body of men, and proceed with them down the river. Whether they have any sufficient reason to expect such a supply, or have any serious intention of applying it in that manner if they do receive it, I can form no opinion."
Yet doubts were entertained by Governor Shelby whether there was any legal authority to restrain or punish them for such enterprise before it was actually accomplished, provided their operations were conducted with prudence. In his dispatch to the Federal government, he asserts, "that if it is lawful for any one citizen of a state to leave it, it is equally lawful for any number to do the same. It is also lawful for them to carry any quantity of provisions, arms, and ammunition. And if the act is lawful in itself, there is nothing but the particular intention with which it is done that can possibly make it unlawful; but I know of no law which inflicts a punishment on intention only, or any criterion by which to decide what would be sufficient evidence of that intention, even if it were a proper subject of legal censure."
Yet Governor Shelby, concealing his own doubts of the illegality of the enterprise, in reply to an impertinent letter from Delpeau, declaring in express terms his intention to join the expedition of the Mississippi, and inquiring his instructions from the President of the United States, condescended to reply "that his present condition required him to take those legal measures necessary to prevent such an enterprise."
Early in January General Wayne had notified the Governor of Kentucky that the legionary cavalry, then stationed between
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Lexington and Georgetown, and any other troops requisite, should be held ready to obey his orders in suppressing any enterprise attempted against Louisiana.All effectual interposition on the part of the Governor of Kentucky being precluded by his expressed opinion, the President issued his proclamation on the 24th of March, warning the people of the United States against the unlawful enterprise, and the consequences of any participation in it.
On the 31st of March an order from the War Department instructed General Wayne, commander-in-chief of the northwestern army, to send without delay to Fort Massac a respectable force, "under the command of an officer of approved integrity, firmness, and prudence," and there to "erect a strong redoubt and block-house," supplied with "some suitable cannon from Fort Washington." The object of this post was to prevent the advance of any "lawless people residing on the waters of the Ohio, who, in defiance of the national authority, had entertained the daring design of invading the territories of Spain."
At this time, an agent of General Clark, of Georgia, was at Lexington, engaged in the purchase of five hundred pounds of powder and one ton of cannon ball, to be shipped from "the Falls" in boats, with provisions said to be ready on the Ohio, to descend by the 15th of April.
Yet such was the influence of the French party, and the hostility
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to the Spanish dominion in the West, that neither Governor Shelby nor the Legislature of Kentucky took any measures to interrupt the unlawful enterprise;The enterprise of Genet was wholly frustrated by the recall of the French minister, and the active efforts of the Federal authorities in suppressing any attempt to continue his schemes. Thus ended the exciting period of French intrigue in the West. The people of Kentucky, and of the West generally, were soon afterward officially informed that the Federal government had opened an active and pressing negotiation with the Spanish minister for the speedy adjustment of existing difficulties relative to the free navigation of the Mississippi. With this assurance of the energetic action of the Federal government in their behalf, the public mind became quieted, and harmony was restored to the country.
In the mean time, the population of Kentucky had continued to increase rapidly under the new state government; the people were making rapid advances in wealth, manufactures, and commerce, no less than in arts, sciences, and intellectual refinement. The new state, which had been the theatre of strife and discord, now rose proudly in her station as the first independent state in the Valley of the Mississippi, the foster-mother of the rising empire of the West.
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The first Legislature in 1793 had laid off and organized three additional counties. These were the "counties of Washington, Scott, and Shelby," the first named in honor of the President of the United States, and the father of his country; the others in honor of the two prominent defenders of Kentucky, General Charles Scott and Colonel Isaac Shelby.
In the spring of 1794 the "counties of Greene and Hardin" were laid off and organized. They were named in honor of General Nathaniel Greene, a distinguished officer of the Revolutionary war, and of Colonel Hardin, a distinguished officer of the western army, who fell a sacrifice to Indian revenge on his way to negotiate for peace with the hostile tribes in 1792.
In the winter of 1794 the "counties of Franklin, Christian, and Campbell" were laid off, and named in honor of the patriotic philosopher Benjamin Franklin, and two prominent defenders of Kentucky, Colonel Christian, a noted and gallant defender of southwestern Virginia, and Colonel Campbell of North Carolina, who was also one of the first proprietors of Transylvania.
Colonel Christian was a veteran of the Revolution, and had distinguished himself early in the war by his noted invasion of the Cherokee country upon the sources of the Holston River in December, 1776. Having distinguished himself in defense of the western frontier of Virginia, at the close of the Revolutionary war he retired to Kentucky, and settled upon the waters of Bear-grass Creek, where he was killed by a party of Indians in April, 1785.
The Legislature, at the next session, laid off and organized the "county of Floyd," which was named in honor of Colonel John Floyd, one of the most enterprising of the early pioneers of Kentucky.
During the Indian war which was prosecuted by the Federal government against the northwestern tribes in the years 1793 and 1794, Kentucky furnished nearly sixteen hundred volunteers and militia, chiefly under the command of her favorite general, Charles Scott. These, co-operating with the regular troops under General Wayne, carried the American arms victoriously to the confines of the British province of Upper
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Canada, and effectually humbled the power of the savages. During all the campaigns into the northwestern territory, Kentucky had been the principal store-house for the army, and the theatre of military parade and preparation, no less than for the decisive campaign conducted by General Wayne. Many of the officers of the regular army, and hundreds of recruits, besides the militia and mounted volunteers, were citizens of Kentucky.Kentucky continued to increase in population and wealth; organized government was gradually extended to the remote limits of the state, and new counties were laid off from the larger ones as the population multiplied and the settlements reached into the unoccupied portions of the state. Each new county formed was designated by the name of some one of the early pioneers and defenders, who were occasionally leaving the stage of action; and to this day her ninety counties are so many monuments perpetuating the memory of the most prominent founders of the state.
The population by the census of the United States in 1790 was 73,677 souls, including 12,430 slaves. The emigration of ten years augmented the number to 220,960 souls, including 40,343 slaves. This number in ten years more had increased to 406,511 souls in 1810, including 80,560 slaves. The increase of population continued rapid for thirty years more, although in a diminished ratio. The census of 1820 gave the population at 564,317 souls; that of 1830 at 688,884 souls, of whom 165,350 were slaves. The census of 1840 gave the entire population
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at 779,828 souls, including 182,258 slaves.Chapter VII. — The early settlement and political condition of western Pennsylvania. A.D. 1783 to 1796.
Argument. — Jurisdiction of Pennsylvania extended to the Ohio. — "Westmoreland County" organized. — "Washington County" organized. — Emigration to the Monongahela and Youghiogeny. — Town of Pittsburgh laid out. — Brownsville laid out; becomes an important Point. — First Newspaper in the West. — Pittsburgh becomes a Market Town in 1788. — Trade and Manufactures spring up. — It derives great Importance as a military Dépôt in 1790. — Prosperous Condition of Settlements on the Monongahela. — Pittsburgh becomes an important manufacturing and trading Town. — Agricultural Prosperity of Monongahela Settlements. — Effects of Spanish Restrictions on the Mississippi. — "Excise Law" odious. — Disaffection toward Federal Government. — French Influence in the West. — Resistance to Excise on Whisky. — Difficulties encountered by excise Officers. — General Neville appointed Superintendent of excise Customs. — His moral Worth and Popularity insufficient to sustain him. — His House burned by a Mob. — Other Outrages perpetrated by the Mob. — Character of the Insurgents. — A Meeting of the Militia. — A Convention proposed. — Measures adopted by the President of the United States. — Proposed Amnesty. — Convention at Parkinson's Ferry. — Alarm of the insurgent Leaders. — Effects of General Wayne's Victory on the Maumee. — Commissioners appointed by the President. — Troops levied to suppress the Insurrection. — Fourteen thousand Troops advance to Pittsburgh. — The Insurrection is suppressed. — Insurgents dispersed. — Inquisitorial Court established. — Three hundred Insurgents arrested. — The Troops discharged. — Pittsburgh incorporated in 1794. — Quietude of Frontiers, and Advance of Population. — Uninhabited Region west of Alleghany River. — Emigration encouraged. — "Population Company." — Their Grant. — State Grants to actual Settlers. — Conflict of State Grants with the Company's Privileges. — First Paper Mill on the Monongahela. — Manufactures increase.
[A.D. 1783.] WE have already remarked, that in the early settlement of the country west of the mountains, before the close of the Revolutionary war, the northern and southern limits of Virginia were not clearly defined and known. Virginia, however, was prompt in asserting her right to all the territory which was supposed to lie within her chartered limits on the west. It was not until the year 1780 that her southern boundary, separating her from North Carolina, had been surveyed from the mountains westward to the Mississippi.
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Her northern boundary next to Pennsylvania had not been properly ascertained and designated until several years afterward.
Previous to running this line, Virginia had claimed, and had exercised, jurisdiction over Western Pennsylvania as far north as Fort Pitt, which was claimed as a post of the Old Dominion. Emigrants from Virginia and Maryland had formed settlements, and had introduced their slave property, believing themselves within the jurisdiction of Virginia. Hundreds of the best citizens, who had settled on the Youghiogeny and Monongahela Rivers, afterward finding themselves in Pennsylvania by the line of demarcation, were compelled to retire, with their slaves, to Western Virginia and to Kentucky, where they would be protected in their property by the laws of Virginia.
After the southern line of Pennsylvania had been fully designated, the Legislature proceeded to organize the country thus detached from Virginia into two counties, called Westmoreland and Washington. Westmoreland county extended from the mountains westward to the Alleghany River, including the town of Pittsburgh and all the country between the Kiskeminetas and the Youghiogeny. North of this was the Indian territory, in the possession of the native tribes. Washington county comprised all south and west of Pittsburgh, including all the country east and west of the Monongahela, now comprised in the counties of Washington, Green, Alleghany, and Fayette.
[A.D. 1784.] After the close of the Revolutionary war, the tide of immigration set with double force into the region west of the mountains. Besides hundreds of families who had suffered in their fortunes by the war, there were thousands of soldiers and officers of the Continental army, who, now disbanded, were compelled to seek homes in the West, and provide for their growing families.
As late as the year 1784, Fort Pitt was a frontier post, and the region contiguous was quite unprotected. The Indian tribes occupied the country on the north and west, and their numbers and prowess rendered them terrible to the weak settlements. The town of Pittsburgh, which had sprung up near the fort, was a frontier trading place, frequented by hundreds of friendly Indians in time of peace, eager to barter their furs, skins, and bear's grease for the rude staples of a trader's stock
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of goods. The Alleghany River was the Indian boundary, and in time of peace the Indian trade brought to the town hundreds of canoes and pirogues, by means of which a regular intercourse was maintained with remote towns in the country still in possession of the natives.After the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania was formally extended over the southwestern portion of the state in the organization of counties, population began to press forward into the most exposed points contiguous to the Indian boundary, and the village of Pittsburgh now assumed the form of a regular American town. It was in the month of May, 1784, that Colonel George Woods, agent for the proprietors and heirs of William Penn, to whom the land belonged, as a portion of one of the manors of the original grantee, first surveyed and laid out the regular plan of a town, which was called Pittsburgh.
About the same time, the settlement at "Red Stone Old Fort" had become an important point of embarkation for emigrants to Kentucky, and bid fair to be the future seat of trade for the western country. In the spring of the same year, Thomas and Basil Brown, from Maryland, having purchased the claim formerly belonging to Captain Michael Cresap, including the "Old Fort," deemed it a suitable point for a town. In May, 1785, they laid off a plot near the "Old Fort," and called it by its present name of "Brownsville."
[A.D. 1785.] The situation of this place, as the point to which nearly the whole western emigration concentrated previous to its descent of the Ohio, soon gave to Brownsville a trade and importance unknown then to any town in the West. Before the close of the year 1786, its population had increased to five hundred souls.
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Heretofore the western settlers had been compelled to send their annual "caravans" across the mountains to Fort Cumberland, Hagerstown, Frederictown, or some other point, for all their supplies, which were transported upon pack-horses several hundred miles to the West. But this usage was now about to cease, and be superseded by regular commercial houses at Brownsville, which could supply the emigrants with implements of agriculture, provisions, salt, iron, and other articles indispensable in a new country.
[A.D. 1787.] By the following year, several mercantile houses were established, and supplied with goods hauled in wagons across the mountains from Forts Cumberland and Ligonier. These tended to give additional importance to Brownsville, as a point of embarkation for the West. Emigrants could carry money with less inconvenience than the heavy articles for which they could exchange it at the end of their journey. Of course, money would seek its way to the West, instead of being carried to the East.
A good wagon road had been opened to Brownsville from the East, and a regular line of freight-wagons from Baltimore and Frederictown had been established, each wagon making the trip to Brownsville and back, with full loads, once a month. The cost of transportation over this route was generally three dollars per hundred weight, and the great numbers of emigrants to the West soon opened a profitable commerce between these remote points. The same cause soon made Brownsville one of the most active trading and manufacturing towns in the West. The demand for mechanics and manufacturers of a certain class brought great numbers of adventurers from the East in search of profitable employment. The great demand was for carpenters and boat-builders, to supply conveyance for the hundreds of emigrants who arrived every week, seeking boats of all kinds for the voyage to Kentucky and Western Virginia, as well as to the Northwestern Territory. The boat-building and the boating business soon became an important branch of western enterprise. Hundreds of arks, keels, barges, and every variety of boats, kept up a constant intercourse between the Monongahela and the settlements on the Ohio below, and also with the city of New Orleans, and the rich settlements on the Lower Mississippi.
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In the mean time, Pittsburgh had been rapidly increasing its population and business. Already a printing-office had been established by John Scull and Joseph Hall, two industrious young men, who had embarked their whole means in the enterprise. On the 29th of July, 1786, they had issued the first number of the "Pittsburgh Gazette," and the first newspaper printed west of the mountains,
[A.D. 1788.] As late as the year 1788, Pittsburgh was a small frontier town, thirty miles distant from the county seat of Westmoreland county, to which it pertained. Hannahstown was the county seat, to which the people of Pittsburgh had to repair on county business, twelve miles east of Chestnut Ridge. On the 24th of September of that year they were released from these journeys by the organization of "Alleghany county," taken from Westmoreland and Washington counties. From that time Pittsburgh became the county seat for Alleghany county,
Manufactures had already begun to flourish in Western Pennsylvania. Iron had been found in great abundance from its first settlement, and the great demand for it, connected with the difficulty of transporting it from the east side of the mountains, soon prompted the erection of furnaces and iron-works. The first blast-furnace west of the mountains was "Union Furnace"
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on Dunbar Creek, fifteen miles east of Brownsville. It was erected by Colonel Isaac Meason, John Gibson, and Moses Dillon. The increasing population in the West, and especially in Kentucky, created a demand which caused others to spring up in different sections of the country. Forges were erected for the manufacture of bar iron. A few years elapsed, when more than twenty forges were in operation upon the waters of the Monongahela.[A.D. 1789.] Notwithstanding the treaties concluded by the United States with the northwestern tribes of Indians in the year 1785-80, they became impatient of the advance of the whites upon the Ohio and Alleghany Rivers. Settlements had already been made upon the west side of the Ohio, and the natives plainly foresaw their approaching destruction. For several years past lawless bands of savages had infested the Ohio River, committing frequent murders and robberies upon the emigrants, who were continually descending the river to Kentucky. The main body of the tribes had scarcely refrained from similar acts of hostility; and now these aggressions, on the part of the Indians, had become so frequent and audacious, that it was evident that a general hostile movement of the savages against the advancing settlements was contemplated. To avoid any such occurrence, negotiations had been resorted to ineffectually, and the Federal government had resolved to invade the Indian country with a strong military force.
[A.D. 1790.] At length, early in the year 1790, troops began to advance from the east by way of Bedford and Cumberland, and to concentrate at Fort Pitt, as a general rendezvous and dépôt for military stores and munitions of war, preparatory to an invasion of the Indian country west of the Ohio.
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degree of importance heretofore unknown. It became the general store-house for all the western posts, and the grand dépôt for the western army. It was also the point at which military supplies were procured, and where the principal disbursements of public moneys were made for the use of the army, as well as the distribution of annuities and supplies for the friendly Indian tribes.[A.D. 1791.] As yet the Alleghany River was the remote frontier limit of the Pennsylvania settlements, and all its northwestern tributaries were wholly within the Indian country. A few settlements had been made near the river for forty miles above Pittsburgh by the more fearless and inconsiderate. But they paid with their lives the forfeit of their temerity. The whole of these settlements were broken up about the 9th of February, 1791, soon after the outbreak of the Indian war. On that day the settlements were simultaneously assailed and exterminated by one hundred and fifty warriors, distributed in bands assigned for the extermination of their respective neighborhoods. The settlements in this quarter were entirely broken up; some were killed, some were taken prisoners, and others escaped with their lives.
[A.D. 1792.] Notwithstanding all the difficulties encountered in the West, the settlements on the Yough and Monongahela, comprised in the western portions of Pennsylvania and Virginia, had become prosperous and enterprising. They had extended arts and manufactures, and were rapidly increasing in numbers. The manufacture of iron had become extensive; smelting-furnaces, forges, and founderies existed in every important settlement, and the hills yielded abundance of ore. Agriculture had increased, until scarcity and want had been driven from the settlements, and the Ohio formed a magnificent outlet for their surplus products of all kinds to the new settlements, which were rapidly extending into Kentucky and the northwestern territory. Such was the abundance of the agricultural products and of manufactures, that the new settlements on the lower tributaries of the Ohio failed to afford an adequate market, and the more enterprising extended their trading voyages to the rich settlements of Spain on the Lower Mississippi. Thus a commerce, which had first sprung up in 1786, in five years had become an important item in the prosperity
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of Western Pennsylvania. To diminish the proportionate cost of transportation for corn, rye, and other grains and products, these articles were converted into whisky, which could be sent to all parts of the world through the great avenue of the Ohio and Mississippi. Thus the value of thousands of bushels of these grains was contained in the small bulk of a few barrels of whisky, and an equal quantity was withdrawn from the grain-market. The fame of their favorite drink, "Old Monongahela", extended not only to the whole western settlements, but also to New Orleans, the Atlantic States, and to Europe. Horses, cattle, and blooded stock from the Atlantic seaboard had been introduced upon the Monongahela, and had also become an important item of western trade for the supply of the new settlements lower down the Ohio, in the Northwestern Territory, and those of Louisiana. Rude castings of all descriptions, cutlery of every variety, adapted to the use of new settlements, such as axes, hoes, drawing-knives, carpenters' tools, knives and forks, scythe-blades, reaping-hooks, and the like, were made in great abundance for the supply of the extending settlements. Navigation on the Ohio assumed an importance hitherto unknown. Besides the endless variety of small craft, and the rude arks, or "Kentucky flats," numerous well-built keel-boats, barges, and some sea vessels were conveying the produce of this region to every portion of the Ohio region; and, in return from Louisiana, supplying the commercial points with the products of the West Indies and the specie of Mexico by way of New Orleans.It was in the year 1792 that the Spanish authorities began to embarrass this trade by the imposition of transit and port duties, which greatly reduced the profits, and sometimes resulted in the entire loss of vessel and cargo by confiscation. The western people, conscious that the free navigation of the Mississippi would greatly promote their prosperity and extend the field of their enterprise, had vainly looked to the Federal government for relief from the Spanish imposts and the arbitrary exactions of a despotic government. They expected from the Federal government, through commercial treaties with Spain, an exemption from duties upon a river, the use of which they claimed as a natural right, growing out of their relative situation and occupancy. In these respects, their condition was identical with the settlements upon the great southern tributaries of the Ohio.
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[A.D. 1793.] The prevalence of eastern influence in Congress and in the cabinet of the United States was strong, and swayed the national policy as to measures affecting the western people, and these measures operated no less perniciously upon them than if they had been prompted by interested jealousy in the Atlantic States. The Spanish authorities of Louisiana had been permitted for years to obstruct and embarrass the river trade, which fell heavy upon the people of Western Pennsylvania, as well as upon those of Kentucky and Cumberland, while the commerce of the Atlantic ports was favored with a more liberal policy; and, as if to increase their burdens, Congress, in 1790, had passed a law imposing excise duties upon all spirituous liquors distilled in the United States, when it was well known that the most extensive and most important distilleries were those on the waters of the Monongahela, where the surplus grain was worthless unless it could be converted into whisky and other distilled spirits.
Besides these disadvantages, the whole burden of the Indian war, which had been improvidently planned and injudiciously conducted for more than three years, had fallen chiefly upon the western settlements. While these things were operating to weaken the ties which bound the western people to those east of the mountains, the Spanish authorities of Louisiana, sagaciously perceiving the error of the Federal government, lost no opportunity to augment the embarrassments and stimulate the discontent, while they held out in prospect ultimate relief from the Spanish crown, by a separation from the Federal Union and an alliance with Louisiana. Congress beheld the cloud in the West: the loud murmurs from the commercial classes, the open denunciations from the exposed frontiers, the spirit of insurrection in the grain districts against the iniquitous excise, convinced the Federal government that they were daily losing the confidence of the western people, and absolving them from their allegiance.
The Indian war had been waged with but little success for some time, and at great expense to the general government. The war was for the protection of the western people especially, and more particularly for those of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia. These people were the principal sufferers from Indian barbarity and revenge. They, too, were called on chiefly to fill the ranks of the armies which had been sent
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against the savages, until they began loudly to complain of the burdens which were thrown upon them, while the East reaped the advantages of their labors. The western people, although ardent friends of the Federal Union, could not submit to oppression by an unjust exercise of Federal power, and the attempt to enforce it roused them to resistance.The impost upon whisky, distilled from grain in a country where grain was a surplus article, was tantamount to a tax upon grain itself, and operated oppressively upon the West. In the eastern counties and Atlantic States grain was not a surplus product; of course, but little of it could be distilled into spirits; consequently, the tax fell entirely upon the western people, who were otherwise embarrassed in their commerce. The enforcement of the law for collecting the revenue was considered as indicative of a disposition in the Federal government to usurp the powers of the states toward the formation of a consolidated government, whose controlling power would be east of the mountains.
The western people had become prejudiced against the Federal government, not only because the frontier settlements had been left for years exposed to Indian hostilities, almost unprotected by the national power from 1787 to 1790, but because the protection extended subsequently had been ineffectual, and had resulted in two disgraceful defeats, with the loss of many lives and great expense, without any equivalent advantage, chiefly for want of a liberal appropriation by Congress. Another cause of discontent, closely connected with Indian depredations, was the temporizing policy of the Federal government with the court of St. James, in permitting the continued occupancy of the western posts, for more than ten years after the time stipulated for their delivery, agreeably to the treaty of 1783. The whole Indian war had been the result of intrigue between agents and emissaries from the British posts along the Canada frontier, whose avowed object was to check the advance of population northwest of the Ohio.
Another prominent cause of dissatisfaction in Western Pennsylvania was the inefficient policy of the Federal government in submitting to Spanish usurpations on the Mississippi, object of which was to embarrass the western people. Not only had Spain claimed the exclusive navigation of the river, but she held possession of the country on the east bank as far north
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as the Chickasâs Bluffs, nearly five hundred miles by the river above the boundary established by the treaty of 1783.To encourage the dissatisfaction of the western people on this point, French emissaries, under the authority of the French minister, Genet, were sent to the West to foment discord and to instigate a hostile expedition against the Spanish provinces, under the patronage and authority of the French Republic, which promised to open to them the free navigation of the river, when once under the dominion of France. "Democratic clubs," or societies, under French influence, were organized in many parts of the country, with the avowed object of opposing the general measures of the Federal administration in the West. Their resolutions openly denounced the excise on distilled spirits, and the acts of the government in its attempts to enforce the law. Newspapers, filled with inflammatory speeches by members of Congress favorable to the French party, were circulated with great industry through every town and settlement, while the friends of the administration, the advocates of the Federal authorities, were few and odious.
[A.D. 1794.] Such was the state of feeling in Western Pennsylvania, which had developed itself gradually and progressively for nearly four years after the passage of the law taxing distilleries, and generally known as the "excise law."
A feeling of resistance had been manifested from the first passage of the law in 1790; and the president, aware of its pernicious tendency, had recommended a modification of its obnoxious features at the next succeeding session. Congress adopted the suggestion, and modified the law in 1791. But this concession was not sufficient; it seemed rather to strengthen opposition. The people demanded its unconditional repeal, and every expedient was resorted to for the purpose of defeating its operation. Many refused to pay the duties in any form, and resistance to the Federal government already began to assume the form of rebellion. The president proceeded to enforce the law; but, as far as practicable, he omitted no opportunity to strip the law of its obnoxious features, and sought to allay excitement and to conciliate opposition by the influence and popularity of those who were charged with its execution.
For this purpose, General John Neville was appointed collector for Western Pennsylvania, and he accepted the appointment from a sense of public duty. He accepted, however,
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at the hazard of his life and the loss of all his property; for he became the object of public indignation and the victim of an incensed community. All his former Revolutionary services, and his well-known benevolence and charity to the suffering frontier people for years past, were insufficient to shield him from popular indignation.General Neville had been one of the most zealous patriots of the Revolution, a man of great wealth and unbounded benevolence. From his own resources alone, he had organized, equipped, and supplied a company of troops, including his son as an officer, which he had marched at his own expense to Boston, to re-enforce the command of General Washington in support of the Declaration of Independence. During the "starving years" of the early settlements on the Upper Ohio and Monongahela, he had contributed greatly to the relief and comfort of the destitute and suffering pioneers; and, when necessary, he had divided his last loaf with the needy. In seasons of more than ordinary scarcity, when his wheat matured, he had opened his fields to those who were destitute of bread. By blood and marriage he was related to some of the most distinguished officers of the Revolutionary armies; and such was his popularity in the West, that, had it been possible for any one to have enforced this odious law, General Neville was the man.
Having entered upon the duties of his office as collector, he appointed his deputies from among the most popular of his fellow-citizens, who proceeded to execute the law. But the first attempts were resisted. They were warned to desist, and to resign their thankless office. Some of the deputies, disregarding this admonition, were seized by the mob, and invested with "a coat of tar and feathers;" others were compelled to surrender their commissions, as the only condition of safety.
The malcontents soon proceeded to acts of open violence. Simple resistance assumed the attitude of revolt and insurrection. A mob of several hundred men proceeded to the house of General Neville and demanded the surrender of his commission; but, finding his house defended by ample force, they retired without violence. Believing that there was in the country sufficient patriotism to enable the civil authorities to sustain him and protect him in the discharge of his official duties, he continued to maintain his position. But he was mistaken:
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the magistrates, who are but the emanations of popular will, as the ministers of civil liberty, were powerless in resisting the current of public displeasure. Their authority in support of the obnoxious law was set at defiance.In the mean time, the feeling of excitement continued to increase in violence, and spread into every section of the country, and the civil authorities were utterly powerless in restraining the progress of disorder and outrage. Public meetings were held by the disaffected at Pittsburg, Brownsville, Parkinson's Ferry, "Braddock's Fields," and other places.
Many who never designed to resist the laws of the country had indirectly aided in raising a political storm which they could neither allay nor direct. The western country for many years had been receiving a large increase of population from Irish emigrants, no strangers to popular outbreaks in their native country. There was also a floating population, who had found employment heretofore in guarding the frontiers from Indian incursions, or as supernumeraries attached to the campaigns during the Indian wars, who were fond of excitement and commotion. These, as they could lose nothing by insurrection, swelled the amount of the insurgents, and their numbers gave a preponderance in favor of violent measures, against the wishes of those who were more considerate. Organized resistance to law was formed. Public meetings were held in all the malcontent districts, and officers were appointed to take the lead. Several hundred men volunteered to take General Neville into immediate custody. His friends in Pittsburgh devised plans for his protection; but it was the strength of a few men to arrest the advance of the avalanche. His house was protected by an armed guard of fifteen regular soldiers; but on the 15th of July, 1794, it was surrounded by five hundred men, organized into a lawless mob.
On the approach of the insurgents, the general, with his servant, had consented to retire from the mob. They advanced, and demanded the surrender of the general and his papers. The refusal brought on a contest, and some were killed. The outbuildings were set on fire; and the party within the splendid mansion house surrendered, to prevent its destruction. But it was in vain; the demon was unchained, and the hospitable mansion was consumed to ashes, in the view of hundreds who had shared his bounty or had enjoyed his benevolence. Insubordination
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walked abroad at noon-day; all law was disregarded; the peaceable and orderly members of society became obnoxious to the enraged mob and their adherents. The mail was boldly robbed, and disclosed letters which added new victims to the lawless rage. The United States marshal was compelled to escape for his life down the Ohio.Soon afterward, a public meeting of the militia was called by the insurgents at "Braddock's Fields," and seven or eight thousand obeyed the summons. Resolutions were passed, and a committee was appointed to consult and devise measures for future action. Without a resolute and able chief, no plan of operation could be adopted; and after various efforts to act, the discordant materials of the faction began to lose its cohesive properties, and dissolution followed soon afterward. Law and order once more resumed the sway, and the guilty dreaded the recompense of their deeds. The subject was referred to a convention of delegates from the several towns for a decision as to future proceedings.
In the mean time, the President of the United States, reluctant to use the force of arms in quelling the insurrection, had sent three commissioners to the western country, to offer pardon from the general government to all offenders who should return to their duty and peaceably submit to the law. These commissioners reached the region of disaffection about the time the convention were to meet at "Parkinson's Ferry," now Williamsport, on the Monongahela.
Among the delegates to the convention were men of distinguished ability, at the head of whom was Albert Gallatin. Although a foreigner, who could with difficulty make himself understood in the English language, yet he presented with great force the folly and danger of past resistance, and the ruinous consequences which must result from a continuance of the insurrectionary movements. He showed that the government was bound to vindicate the laws, and that an overwhelming force would be marched against them unless the offered amnesty was accepted. The insurrection by him was placed in a new light; it was shown to be a matter of much more serious import than had been apprehended. The ardor of the most reckless was abated; the commissioners of the government were admitted to a conference; in an earnest discussion
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relative to a submission to the laws, a strong disposition was manifested to accept the proffered amnesty. Some of the leaders of the rebellion already began to tremble for the consequences. The Democratic clubs of Paris did not work so well in the western country; and, for the permanent citizens, mob-law, executed by a set of desperadoes, had proved an indifferent substitute for law regularly administered.Many had seen their folly, and would gladly return to their allegiance, but to retrace their steps was no easy matter. The Federal government might grant an amnesty, but they had incurred a fearful state of responsibility to their fellow-citizens and neighbors; violence against individual property and personal rights might meet a fearful retribution in the state courts. A dissolution of the Union had been agitated in the West; many were anxious to throw themselves under the protection of Spain or of France, if she resumed dominion in Louisiana. Spanish emissaries and agents of the Jacobins of France were encouraging disaffection in Kentucky and Tennessee. The British emissaries from Canada had likewise been through the western country, to ascertain the tone of public feeling.
The convention was in favor of submission; but they had not been authorized by their constituents to make any terms with the general government. They declined to act, and referred the question back to the primary town meetings.
Early in September, the country was electrified with the news of General Wayne's victory on the Maumee. The combined army of the hostile horde, and their English and Canadian allies, had been signally defeated in sight of a British fortress. The danger of Indian barbarity was over; the general government had triumphed in the arduous warfare with the indomitable savage tribes; could not this victorious army, released from foreign wars, quell the discontent of a disorganized mob at home? Be this as it may, the general government began to acquire respect and consequence among those who lately had defied its power.
The primary meetings were held near the middle of September. Resistance was no longer advocated, except by a few desperate men. The terms of submission proposed by the commissioners were printed, and distributed widely through the country. They were carried to the primary meetings, and
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were signed by hundreds, who gladly accepted the proffered amnesty. The leading insurgents were deserted, discouraged, and powerless; the first of October hailed the restoration of peace and order.The disorganized malcontents still were sufficiently numerous to make a show of resistance, and to produce some annoyance to the tranquility of the country. The Federal government had made active preparations to subdue the rebels by force of arms, while overtures of peace were tendered to them. Already a powerful army of fourteen thousand militia, assembled from Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, was on its march to the western counties of Pennsylvania. The army proceeded to Pittsburgh, and there encamped. Not a shadow of resistance was shown, and the last remains of disaffection disappeared. Bradford and a few obnoxious chiefs fled to the Spanish dominions on the Mississippi, and others to the remote settlements of the West.
An inquisitorial court was opened by General Hamilton on the part of the government, and informers flocked in by hundreds, of whom many had suffered severely from the insurgents. At length a catalogue of names was completed and handed over to a captain of dragoons, who found no lack of guides in making his arrests. A few days sufficed to place under military guard about three hundred prisoners for further examination.
The intercession of influential friends procured the discharge of many; but others, less fortunate, were detained in custody and sent to Philadelphia for trial. Some were there detained in prison for several months, and finally discharged. One individual was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for robbing the mail, but was ultimately pardoned. Thus terminated this first resistance to the laws of the country by a regularly organized insurrection.
The main body of the army soon afterward took up the line of march for their homes; some, at their request, were paid off and discharged at Pittsburgh. A few battalions were retained on duty through the winter. To keep down any germs of insurrectionary spirit, the government ordered the enlistment of a regiment of dragoons, to serve six months, and to be composed of such persons as were well disposed to the government.
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Portions of this troop were kept in constant motion from point to point, or in attending the excise officers in their visits.In the mean time, the inhabitants of the western settlements had been gradually and steadily increasing. Pittsburgh had acquired much importance by reason of the arrival and departure of the United States troops and military stores. The population was now one thousand souls, and the Legislature at its last session had incorporated it as a regular borough, by an act approved April 22d, 1794. The same year a settlement at Presque Isle had been abandoned, in order to conciliate the Indians.
[A.D. 1795.] The decisive victory of the Maumee over the combined savages and their English allies had restored the frontiers to quietude and safety. Confidence was renewed, and emigrants again began to press forward; settlements became more dense; trade and manufactures began to flourish, and prosperity smiled upon the country. About the close of this year Pittsburgh presented a population of fourteen hundred souls.
Yet the country northwest of the Alleghany River was still an uninhabited wilderness, and its contiguity to the warlike tribes near the lakes formed but little inducement to immigrants more securely located. To procure the occupancy of this region, the state government deemed it expedient to hold out strong temptations to the poor settler as well as to the rich capitalist. Among the first measures adopted for this purpose was the grant, or the right of entering or locating a large body of lands, designated in the act of the Legislature, to a number of capitalists who had assumed the name of the "Population Company." The principal condition required of this company was, that within a certain time they should place upon every tract of four hundred acres so located at least one able-bodied settler, and cause to be made certain slight preemption improvements.
The company, to induce immigrants to settle their lands, proposed to grant in fee simple to every such settler one hundred and fifty acres of land, provided he should comply with the requisitions imposed on them. Thus the settler would secure for himself one hundred and fifty acres of land, including
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his improvement, while the "company," through him, would secure two hundred and fifty acres more.Soon afterward, the Legislature passed an act giving to the individual settler, for the same improvements, four hundred acres, the same amount previously allowed to the "company." This interfered with the company's plan of aggrandizement, and was deemed by them an infringement of "vested rights." Immigrants, of course, would prefer to receive four hundred acres from the state, rather than one hundred and fifty acres from the company. The company's grants were slowly taken up; each settler made his improvement for himself, and not for the company, and some incautiously made their improvements within the district which had been appropriated exclusively to the "Population Company."
Settlements progressed in this manner for some time, when the agents of the company commenced suits of ejectment against the state settlers who had encroached upon their privilege. At length the latter harassed with suits and the expenses of litigation, and being utterly unable singly to contend with a moneyed company, voluntarily abandoned their habitations and retired westward into the "Connecticut Reserve." Here no lands were given away; but it was sold for a reasonable price, and the title was indisputable to such amounts and tracts as purchasers desired.
[A.D. 1796.] In the mean time, manufactures and arts had greatly multiplied since the treaty of Greenville. Trade began to stand upon a firm basis, and capital was freely invested. The first paper-mill west of the mountains was erected this year, within four miles of Brownsville. This was the "Redstone paper-mills," owned by Samuel Jackson and Jonathan Sharpless, two Quaker mechanics from "Gilpin's paper-mills," on Brandywine Creek.
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Chapter VIII. — Indian relations and treaties with the United States, from the Treaty of Paris to the "Treaty of Greenville." A.D. 1783 to 1795.
Argument. — Retrospect relative to the Northwestern Boundary. — Reluctantly assented to in the Treaty of 1783 by Great Britain. — Disregard of Treaty Stipulations relative to the Northwestern Posts by British Cabinet. — British and Indian Alliance during the Revolutionary War. — Western Feeling toward the Indians. — Jealousy of the Indians at the rapid Advance of the White Settlements. — Measures of Congress to conciliate Indian Jealousy. — Preliminary Steps for Treaties with all the Tribes. — Treaties by individual States prior to 1784. — Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and the Treaty Line. — Treaty of Fort M'lntosh, and Boundary Line. — Treaty of the Miami with the Shawanese, and their Cession of Lands. — Treaties of Hopewell with Southern Indians. — Cherokee Treaty. — Choctâ Treaty. — Chickasâ Treaty. — Extent of Country and Number of Warriors of each Nation respectively. — Dissatisfaction of the Six Nations relative to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. — Their Grievances. — Preparations for a new Treaty. — Treaty of Fort Harmar in 1789. — The Shawanese refuse to attend. — Shawanese encouraged to Hostilities by British Traders at Detroit. — Connivance of the British Government at these Intrigues. — Hostilities commenced upon the Ohio Frontier. — Pacific Overtures of Governor St. Clair. — Unsettled Condition of the Southern Indians. — The Cherokees. — Encroachments of the Cumberland Settlements. — Treaty of Holston, July 2d, 1791. — Creek Disturbances. — Measures to conciliate the Creeks. — The Treaty of New York with M'Gillivray and other Creek Chiefs. — Efforts of Spanish Agents to embarrass the Negotiations. — M'Gillivray's Opposition. — The Creeks instigated to War. — Cherokees commence Hostilities. — Spanish Intrigue with Creeks and Cherokees. — Creek Preparation for Hostilities against Cumberland Settlements. — Bowles, a Creek Chief. — Indian Tribes generally make Overtures for Peace and Friendship after Wayne's Victory. — Treaty with Six Nations in 1794. — Treaty of Greenville in 1795, comprising all Northwestern Tribes. — Termination of Indian Wars.
[A.D. 1783.] BY the treaty of Paris, September 3d, 1783, Great Britain renounced all claim to the territory of the United States south of all the great lakes, and east of the Mississippi to its sources. That power also stipulated to withdraw her troops and military garrisons, as soon as convenient, from every part of the relinquished territory. Among the most important posts held by Great Britain within the said territory were those of Niagara. Detroit, and the Miami, on the Maumee River, below the Rapids, besides other posts of minor importance upon the head waters of the Wabash.
The stipulations for this relinquishment were made with great reluctance on the part of the British government. During the greater part of the negotiations preceding the treaty, Mr.
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Oswald, the British commissioner, persisted in his demands that the Ohio River should form the northwestern boundary of the United States; and it was only after every effort had failed to move Mr. Adams and Mr. Jay that he consented to adopt the present boundary through the middle of the great lakes.[A.D. 1784.] We have already seen that, during the war of Independence, Great Britain had armed all the northwestern tribes against her revolted colonies; that her agents and emissaries had instigated all the tribes south of the lakes, and as far west as the Mississippi, to carry the scalping-knife and the tomahawk, with all the horrors of Indian warfare, upon all the frontier settlements from the Hudson River to the western parts of North Carolina and Georgia. To carry out this plan of Indian hostilities, the agents and military officers of Great Britain at her western posts were authorized to enter into treaties of alliance with the savage tribes, with stipulations to protect and defend them, and to furnish them with arms, ammunition, and all the means necessary to their hostile operations. Still further to inflame their avarice and stimulate them to deeds of blood, the agents of Great Britain were encouraged to pay a premium upon every scalp taken from the head of the colonists, whether male or female, child or adult. Such was the spirit in which England carried on the war with her colonies.
By such means, the greater portion of the "Six Nations," inhabiting the northern and western parts of New York and Pennsylvania, had been involved in hostilities with the colonies. All the tribes south of Lake Erie, embracing the Shawanese, Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawâs, Chippewas, and many smaller tribes, had been enlisted in the British interest. The hostilities which had been incessantly waged against the frontier inhabitants during the struggle for Independence, had created and kept alive in the breasts of the western people of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia an undying hatred and desire of revenge against those tribes, who continued their hostility after the war with Great Britain had been terminated. Compelled to contend alone with the savages, while their eastern friends were engaged with the ruthless armies of the mother country, the western people were now anxious to conciliate the Indian power, after the support and protection of England had been withdrawn.
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After a persevering negotiation in behalf of the Indians as independent allies, England, by treaty, had abandoned the savages, and left them to make such terms as they could with the United States. Yet, in order to extend partial protection to them, Great Britain, in violation of her treaty with the United States, continued to hold possession of the northwestern posts, especially those of Niagara, Detroit, and Miami,
To conciliate the feelings of the frontier people, as well as of the hostile tribes, Congress took the subject under the earliest consideration. The necessity for some prompt action was the more evident, as the tide of emigration had begun to set westward in every direction immediately after the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain. Thousands of emigrants were pushing westward, often regardless of any claim which the Indians asserted to the territory.
The rapid immigration alone, independent of the collisions between the border settlers and the Indians, was calculated to create and foster a spirit of hostility in the native tribes, who saw in it the certain presage of their own destruction or expulsion from the country.
The same circumstances generated a similar feeling of hostility and resistance on the part of the Southern Indians, who also saw the white settlements rapidly encroaching upon their territories. The confederated tribes, who inhabited and claimed the southwestern frontier, and who were most deeply interested in the advance of the settlements from North and South Carolina, were the Cherokees and Creeks. These were powerful and warlike tribes, and had occasionally, during the war of Independence, sent bands of warriors to join the hostile tribes on the northwest. They occupied the western parts
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of both Carolinas and of Georgia, and were each able to bring at least twenty-five hundred warriors into the field in case of a general war.In this state of things, the Federal government adopted a humane and conciliatory course of policy toward the native tribes, while it exerted its whole power and influence to restrain the western people from aggressions upon the Indian territories. Every effort was used to prevent collisions and difficulties between the frontier people and the Indians, to cultivate harmony and friendship, by the establishment of Indian agencies, by granting annuities, and by entering into treaty stipulations for the purchase of the Indian title to such lands as they were willing to relinquish. The agents of the United States and the military commandants on the frontiers were instructed and commanded to cultivate peace and friendship with all the tribes, by a strict observance of justice and forbearance toward all the natives with whom they might have intercourse. They were required strictly to enforce all the laws of Congress prohibiting lawless white men from residing in the Indian country, and from carrying on any contraband trade with them. Agencies were to be established by the general government, well supplied with articles of Indian trade, where they could obtain, at fair and reasonable prices, such articles as they might wish to purchase, free from the impositions and extortions of private traders. Messages were sent from the war department to the different agents in the Indian nations, and to the chiefs, head men, and warriors of the frontier tribes, proposing peace and amity, by the adoption of regular and formal treaties. To conciliate, and as tokens of friendship, presents were sent to influential chiefs and warriors throughout all the tribes from the western part of New York to the southern limit of Georgia.
Great Britain had claimed the sovereignty over the region south of the Ohio, comprising the present State of Kentucky, in virtue of the cession made by the Six Nations, in the treaty of Fort Stanwix, on the Mohawk River, in the year 1768. This claim was never recognized by the Chickasâs and Cherokees, the real owners of the country, who denied the right of the Six Nations to make such cession. As the cession, if ever made, was a fraud upon the true owners of the soil, and was never intended by the Six Nations, the confederated states
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individually, as well as Congress, declined to set up any claim on the score of the British treaty.The Creeks were a powerful confederacy, inhabiting the western parts of Georgia, upon the head waters of the Savannah, Oconee, Ocmulgee, and Chattahoochy Rivers. This confederacy had maintained a hostile attitude during the whole of the war of Independence, and the states of South Carolina and Georgia had conducted the Indian wars and treaties in this region up to the termination of hostilities by Great Britain. During this time, several treaties with those Indians had been made by those states, and certain cessions of territory had been obtained from them.
Yet a large portion of the southern part of Kentucky had been disposed of by the Cherokees to Colonel Henderson and company by the treaty of Watauga in March, 1775. At the close of the Revolutionary war, the State of North Carolina obtained from the Chickasâs, in a treaty held by Colonels Donaldson and Martin, near the present site of Nashville, in the autumn of 1783, the relinquishment of a large district of country upon the Cumberland River, extending southward to the sources of Duck River. This territory was subsequently comprised in the district of Miro, and the jurisdiction of North Carolina was peaceably extended upon the Valley of the Cumberland River.
Other portions of territory, occupied and claimed by the Chickasâs, Creeks, and Cherokees, within the present states of Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, were successively relinquished to the Federal government of the United States by the tribes respectively claiming the same, in the different treaties subsequently held and concluded with them.
The extinguishment of the Indian title to the territory in the western parts of New York and Pennsylvania, as well as in the Northwestern Territory, became an object of primary importance with the Federal government. For this purpose, preliminary measures were taken for a general treaty with the Iroquois confederacy, known as the Six Nations. The first treaty by the Federal government with the Six Nations was designated.
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix. — This treaty was held at Fort Stanwix, or Fort Schuyler, on the Mohawk River, one hundred
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and ten miles west of Albany. A large number of confederate tribes attended with their chiefs, head men, and warriors. On the part of the United States were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, commissioners. The treaty was concluded and signed on the 22d of October, 1784.By this treaty, the United States grant peace to the hostile Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas, and Cayugas, and receive them under their protection, upon condition that they deliver six hostages for the surrender of all American prisoners in their possession which had been captured by any of these tribes during the previous wars. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras nations are permitted to remain upon the lands then in their occupancy. The boundary line between the Indian territory and the white settlements was established. By this treaty, the Indian title was peaceably extinguished to a large portion of western New York.
[A.D. 1785.] In January following, another treaty was concluded with the tribes inhabiting the northwestern territory south of Lake Erie. This was
The Treaty of Fort M'lntosh. — This treaty was conducted by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, commissioners on the part of the United States, and signed on the 21st day of January, 1785, at Fort M'Intosh, in the western part of Pennsylvania. The tribes represented in this treaty were the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawâs, and Chippewas, then inhabiting the extreme northern portions of the present State of Ohio, west of the Cuyahoga River.
In this treaty, the chiefs, sachems, and warriors of these tribes relinquish to the United States all claim to the lands lying south of Lake Erie, and east of Cuyahoga River, as well as all the southeastern portion of the present State of Ohio. The boundary line agreed upon at this treaty was as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, on the southern shore of Lake Erie; thence up the east bank of the Cuyahoga River to its lake source: thence across to the source of the Tuscarawa, and down that stream to its junction with Walhonding Creek, near the site of the old American ‘Fort Laurens;’" thence in a direct line south of west, to the mouth of Mad River, a large eastern tributary of the Great Miami, or Stony River; "it being that branch of the Stony River on
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which the French had a fort" in the year 1752;East and south of this line the lands are ceded and relinquished to the United States, for the use of the people thereof. The United States grant and relinquish to the Indians all lands north and west of this line for their use and occupancy, as dwelling-places and hunting-grounds, free from encroachment by the whites, excepting certain roads therein specified, leading to the principal military posts on the northwestern frontier, and also six miles square contiguous to and including each of said posts; also, six miles square at the Rapids of the Maumee, and six miles square, also, at its mouth; also, six miles square on the Sandusky River, another at Detroit, and one on the River Raisin.
In the fall of 1785 the United States took formal possession of the eastern portion of the country ceded by the treaty of Fort M'Intosh, by a detachment of troops under Major John Doughty, who was in the autumn ordered from Fort M'Intosh to the mouth of the Muskingum. Here he commenced a block house and other works of defense, which were finished the following summer, when he gave to the whole the name of "Fort Harmar," in honor of his commanding general at Fort M'Intosh. This was the first military post of the United States within the limits of the present State of Ohio, if we except the old Fort Laurens, built in the year 1778, on the right bank of the Tuscarawas, not far below the mouth of Sandy Creek.
[A.D. 1786.] The next treaty with the northwestern tribes was
The Treaty of the Great Miami, concluded with the chiefs, warriors, and head men of the Shawanese nation, and signed on the 31st day of January, 1786. It was conducted by General George Rogers Clark, Colonel Richard Butler, and Samuel H. Parsons, commissioners on the part of the United States, near the mouth of the Great Miami River.
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In this treaty the Shawanese nation acknowledges the United States to be the sole and absolute sovereign of all the territory heretofore relinquished to them by their chiefs in the treaty of January 14th, 1784. The nation agrees to be peaceable, and to abstain from hostilities against the white settlements; to surrender three hostages for the faithful delivery of all prisoners in their possession; to punish such of their young. warriors as should be guilty of murder or robbery against the whites ; and to give notice to the officers of the United States of any contemplated incursion by any of the savages upon the frontier inhabitants.
The United States, upon these conditions, grant peace to the Shawanese, and receive them under their protection and friendship, and allot to them, as their hunting-grounds, the territory lying west of the Great Miami, and north of a line drawn due west from the mouth of Mad River to the River de la Panse, and down that stream to the Wabash. The United States stipulate to prevent the intrusion and settlement of white men north of this boundary, and the Shawanese relinquish all claim whatever to all lands east and south of the same.
The next important treaty was with the great southern nations occupying the country from the settlements of Georgia westward to the Mississippi. In the preparation for this treaty, the object of the Federal government was to assemble the delegates from all the southern tribes, and thereby to establish a general peace throughout the whole southern frontier.
After due notice and preparation, the savages, in large numbers, attended at the place designated, on the Keowee River, in Georgia, known as Hopewell, for the contemplated treaty.
The Treaty of Hopewell commenced in October, 1785, and was continued until late in January following. The Cherokees being more convenient, were first on the ground, some weeks before the arrival of the Chickasâs and Choctas, who came more than three hundred miles from their western towns.
At this treaty the Indian tribes were amply represented by chiefs, warriors, and sachems from each of the above-mentioned nations.
The commissioners on the part of the United States were Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin, and Laughlin M'Intosh; and also William Blount as commissioner
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on the part of North Carolina. Three separate treaties were negotiated, one with each of the respective nations.The treaty with the Cherokees was concluded and signed on the 28th day of November, 1785, at which time the delegates from the Chickasâs and Choctâs had not arrived. By this treaty the Cherokee nation placed itself under the protection of the United States, and recognized an established boundary between the Indian territory and the lands claimed by the State of North Carolina, in the "Western District," upon the branches of Holston River, and also by the States of South Carolina and Georgia.
The Choctâ delegates having arrived, negotiations were commenced, which terminated in a treaty, which was signed on the 3d day of January, 1786. The Choctâs stipulate for peace and friendship with the United States, and the recognition of certain boundaries established between the United States and other conterminous tribes. Having no territory contiguous to the American settlements, they made no cessions of lands.
Immediately after the conclusion of the Choctâ treaty, negotiations were opened with the Chickasâs, and terminated in a treaty, which was signed on the 10th of January. The Chickasas stipulated for peace and friendship, and they agreed to ratify and confirm the treaties heretofore made in 1783 with Colonels Donaldson and Martin, commissioners of North Carolina, for the relinquishment of certain lands on Cumberland River. They also agreed to cede and relinquish, for a valuable consideration, extensive bodies of lands on the southern branches of Cumberland River, and upon the head waters of Duck River, nearly as far west as the lower portion of Tennessee River,
At this time the Cherokee Indians were a powerful confederacy, and inhabited the region drained by all the branches of the Holston River and the whole Valley of the Tennessee above the Muscle Shoals. Their hunting-grounds formerly comprised one third of Western Virginia, all East Tennessee, one third of North Carolina and Georgia, and nearly all North Alabama. For nearly fifty years they had been the terror of the western frontier of Virginia and the two Carolinas. At the period of the treaty, their national strength was estimated at more than two thousand warriors; two years subsequently, Colonel Joseph Martin, experienced in Indian affairs, estimated their strength at twenty-six hundred and fifty warriors.
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The Chickasâs occupied and claimed the country east of the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Ohio to the mouth of the Yazoo, and westward to the Cumberland Mountains on the north, and to the Tombigby and Black Warrior on the south. The claims of this nation included all the western half of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the northern half of Mississippi. Subsequently, in the year 1787, their strength was estimated at twelve hundred warriors.
The Choctâs, one of the most powerful nations of the South, occupied all the country south of the Chickasâs and west of the Cherokee and Creek territories. Their limits comprised all the regions drained by the Lower Tombigby and the western tributaries of the Black Warrior, and westward to the Mississippi, including the whole country drained by the Pearl and Pascagoula Rivers. Their fighting men were estimated at six thousand.
[A.D. 1787.] The treaty of Fort Stanwix, signed October 22d, 1784, had been a source of great dissatisfaction and complaint with the Six Nations. The chiefs persisted in their declarations that they had been deceived by the commissioners of the United States, both as to the amount of territory relinquished and the line fixed in the treaty, as well as in the consideration which they believed was stipulated in the same. They declared, also, that, coerced by threats of war upon their people, and the destruction of their towns, they had been induced to sign the treaty against their will; that they had been thus compelled to relinquish more territory to the United States than they were authorized to cede, and that the nations would not ratify the cession.
They declared, moreover, that they had been defrauded out of the goods stipulated in the treaty, and, consequently, the same was not binding upon them. The government endeavored, without success, to satisfy them on these points. In the mean time, notwithstanding their remonstrances and protestations, the whites continued to advance upon the lands claimed to have been ceded by the treaty. At length, finding all their efforts unavailing, they had seriously contemplated a league offensive and defensive with the western tribes, for resisting by force of arms the encroachments of the whites. To this measure they were strongly incited by the western tribes.
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The latter upbraided them with a want of courage in surrendering their own lands, and being compelled to fall back upon those tribes who had the courage to defend and hold their country. On this subject the British agents and traders at Niagara and Detroit neglected no opportunity to poison the minds of the savages, for the purpose of exciting animosity against the border settlements of the United States.[A.D. 1788.] Under these circumstances, the frontiers had been almost continually harassed by depredations, murders, and thefts, constituting a series of petty hostilities, perpetrated by lawless bands of Indians, almost from the signing of the treaty of Fort M'Intosh. To allay this feeling of dissatisfaction on the part of the Six Nations, the government issued instructions to General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwestern Territory, to assemble the sachems, warriors, and head men of all the northwestern tribes and nations in general convention at Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum, for the purpose of negotiating a new treaty and satisfying any demands which they might urge for further compensation under the treaty of Fort Stanwix.
Agreeably to the invitation of Governor St. Clair, the Indians began to assemble near Fort Harmar early in the winter. Negotiations were opened and conducted by the governor as Commissioner Plenipotentiary of the United States. The sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the "Five Nations," exclusive of the Mohawks, of the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Potawatamies, and Sauks, attended on the part of the hostile tribes. The negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Fort Harmar, signed on the 9th day of January, 1789.
The treaty of Fort Harmar consisted of two separate parts:
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first, a treaty with the Five Nations, the Oneidas, Onondagas, Tuscaroras, Cayugas, and Senecas; second, a treaty with the six northwestern tribes before enumerated.[A.D. 1789.] The treaty with the Five Nations of the Iroquois was designed to confirm and ratify the treaty of Fort Stanwix, and to establish the boundaries designated in that treaty. Therefore the United States stipulated to pay to the Indians the additional sum of three thousand dollars, to be properly distributed among them. Besides this amount, in cash or its equivalent, various presents of valuable goods and necessary articles of Indian costume were made to the chiefs and warriors. Upon these conditions, they ratified and confirmed the former treaty.
In like manner, the treaty with the six northwestern tribes stipulated for peace and friendship between their people and those of the United States, and for the recognition of the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort M'Intosh, and the lines established by them respectively. For and in consideration of said recognition, and relinquishment of all claim to said designated territory, the United States stipulate to pay them, for distribution, six thousand dollars, besides sundry valuable presents to the chiefs and warriors.
The Shawanese, and some other bands upon the head waters of the Wabash and Maumee, still maintaining a hostile attitude, refused to attend the treaty or to sanction its provisions. These dissenting tribes and bands soon after resumed their hostilities against the frontier settlements of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, embracing the settlements east and south of the Ohio River, from the Monongahela to Green River.
From the close of the war of Independence, the Indian tribes, instigated by British agents and traders at Detroit and other western posts within the United States, had urged the Ohio River as the proper boundary between the white man and the Indian, as fixed by the English treaty of Fort Stanwix, under Sir William Johnson, in 1768. Hence it is evident that the British cabinet, in retaining the northwestern posts, had not abandoned the hope that circumstances might yet compel the United States to recognize the Ohio River as their northwestern boundary.
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This policy of the British government having been defeated, the traders and agents in Canada, being fully convinced that their influence and the lucrative trade with the northwestern Indians would cease with the advance of the whites, sought every occasion to prolong their own power by instigating the Indians to arrest the advance of the settlements by a resort to open warfare.
The spirit of dissatisfaction and hostility which prevailed so extensively among the northwestern tribes soon after the treaties of Forts Stanwix and M'Intosh was clearly traced to British influence and intrigue, under the superintendence of Colonel M'Key, the British agent at Detroit, and afterward at the Rapids of the Maumee.
Detroit had long been an important central dépôt for the British fur traders with the northwestern Indians. It was an important place of business, and many Scotch and English capitalists had large investments in the lucrative trade with the natives. To comply with the treaty stipulations would incommode these important personages, by interrupting their trade and restricting their influence over the savage tribes south and west of the lakes. A state of hostilities between the Indians and the American people of the West would be a sufficient guarantee to them that, for a time, they should be free from interruption; hence they desired to arrest the advance of immigrants across the Ohio River.
[A.D. 1790.] Although these hostile demonstrations of the Indians produced a temporary check to the advance of the whites into the territory west of the Ohio, yet large settlements had been advanced to the west and north banks of the river, under the protection of Forts Harmar and Washington. It required no great foresight in the British traders to perceive that, if the late treaties were observed, the whole country north of the Ohio would soon be filled with a white civilized population. This state of things would completely annihilate the fur trade in that region. Should the interests of a privileged monopoly be interrupted by the obligations created by treaty stipulations? Such must have been the reasoning of the British court,
Hence Indian discontent was fanned into a flame of war.
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Open hostilities were encouraged; the savages were induced to disregard the stipulations of the recent treaty of Fort Harmar; and the warrior bands, prepared for war and plunder, having obtained their outfit of arms and ammunition from British traders and agents, were sent, with the tomahawk and scalping-knife, against the defenseless border population and the tide of emigration flowing down the Ohio.During the critical state of affairs which preceded the first military movement of the United States under General Harmar, Governor St. Clair, of the Northwestern Territory, had been unintermitting in his efforts to bring about a better state of feeling among the northwestern tribes. By negotiations and treaties, he had endeavored to convince them, not only of the justice, but of the humane policy of the Federal government. At length, finding all overtures abortive and unavailing, he had devoted his whole attention to the protection of the frontier settlements from their aggressions.
Yet the military posts, although kept in a state of complete defense, and amply garrisoned, were found wholly insufficient to protect the feeble and remote settlements from continual incursions by small detachments and straggling parties of Indians, who studiously avoided the fortified places and the military force. Hence the stationed garrisons were a protection only to those settlements within their immediate vicinity. Such was the state of Indian affairs on the northwestern frontier previous to the active military campaign of the United States in that quarter; and no settlement within fifty miles of the Ohio was safe unless within a stockade inclosure.
In the mean time, the hostile attitude of the northern tribes was fully known to the Southern Indians. Between the Shawanese on the Wabash, and the Cherokees and Creeks south and east of Tennessee River, an uninterrupted intercourse existed, and a regular interchange of feeling was sedulously cultivated by the prominent chiefs, who desired to bring about a general league against the white inhabitants both north and south of the Ohio. In effecting this object, they had so far succeeded that the government of the United States was compelled again to adopt measures for conciliating the hostile spirit among the Creeks.
The Federal government had used great exertions to settle the difficulties existing between the Creek nation and the people
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of Georgia; yet they had failed to conciliate the chiefs, who were believed to be under Spanish influence. No effort had been spared by the Federal government to assemble a large portion of the nation for the purpose of entering into a treaty of peace and friendship, with an adjustment of boundaries. For this purpose, the chiefs, warriors, head men, and other Indians, to the number of two thousand, were assembled during the last summer at Rock Landing, on the Oconee River. The treaty was concluded, and ready for signatures, when, under some frivolous pretext, M'Gillivray abruptly broke off all negotiation, and the treaty was not signed.The following spring, Colonel Marius Willet, a distinguished officer of the Revolution, and a man of great prudence and firmness, was appointed to visit the Creek nation, in order to effect an amicable arrangement. After some time spent in the nation and about the Creek agency, he succeeded in his delicate mission so far as to induce M'Gillivray and twenty-nine chiefs to accompany him to New York, for the purpose of negotiating with the heads of the Federal government. They were formally introduced to the president and the heads of departments, and entertained with marks of great distinction. On the 7th day of August a treaty was concluded, and signed by these chiefs on the part of their nation, and by General Knox, Secretary of War. This treaty, it was hoped, would produce harmony between the people of Georgia and the Creeks; but the hope was fallacious.
The treaty stipulated for perpetual peace and friendship between the United States and the Creek nation; that the Creek nation should remain under the protection of the United States; and that their warriors should be restrained from committing outrages against the white settlements, and made to observe their obligations of friendship. The United States stipulated to restrain the encroachments of the white people upon the lands and hunting-grounds of the Creeks. A boundary line was agreed upon, and commissioners were to be appointed by both nations to run out and mark the line separating the lands of the Indians from those of the whites. M'Gillivray was honored with the title of Brigadier-general of the United States.
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As soon as it was made known to the Governor-general of Cuba that the Creek chiefs were to visit New York, he took immediate measures for observing the tendency of the negotiations, and for embarrassing the operations of the commissioners of the Federal government in conducting them. For this purpose, the Secretary of East Florida was dispatched from St. Augustine to the city of New York with a large sum of money, for the ostensible purpose of purchasing flour for the Spanish garrisons, but in fact for observing, and, as far as practicable, for the purpose of embarrassing the negotiations with the Creek chiefs. The watchful eye of the government was upon the Spanish emissary, and all interference on his part was circumvented.
But the efforts of the Spanish authorities did not stop here, Intrigues were set on foot in the Creek nation, and with the chiefs after their return from New York, by which the objects of the treaty were for a time effectually defeated. M'Gillivray, bought over to the Spanish interest, resigned his nominal commission of brigadier-general under the United States, and accepted the same rank under the Spanish crown, with an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars.
The treaty was rejected by the Creek nation; the line of demarkation was never run, and a spirit of revenge against the American settlements was manifested in no ambiguous manner for several years afterward.
In the mean time the Cherokees had become highly exasperated at the lawless encroachment of the white population into their territory. The Chickamaugas on the Lower Tennessee had repeatedly indicated their resentment to these encroachments by depredations and acts of hostility upon the settlements, which were advancing upon the waters of Duck River and Elk River into the Indian territory. These acts of hostility by the Indians had given occasion to partisan warfare on the part of the white inhabitants south of Nashville, until a regular war had broken out between these settlements and a portion of the Creek and Cherokee Indians, Notwithstanding the efforts made by the Federal government to restrain the encroachments of the American people, and to compensate the Indians for the unlawful intrusion of
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the whites, hostilities were not finally suspended until the spring of 1794.The Indians had remonstrated without effect, and the proclamations of the Federal government had been disregarded. As early as 1788, soon after the first Cherokee incursions, the old Congress issued their proclamation on the first of September, forbidding "the unwarrantable intrusions" upon the Indian territory on the waters of Duck and Elk Rivers.
Again, in August, 1790, President Washington presented the subject to Congress in a message as one well deserving their serious attention. On this subject he says, "Notwithstanding the treaties with the Indians, and the proclamations of the Federal government against encroachments on the Indian territory, upward of five hundred families have settled on the Cherokee lands, exclusive of the settlements between the French, Broad, and the Holston Rivers."
Before the close of the year 1790, marauding parties of Cherokee and Creek Indians had begun to assail all the exposed settlements, from the eastern limit of Washington District, on Holston River, to the western limit of Miro District, on the Cumberland.
[A.D. 1791.] To check hostilities on the part of the Cherokees, William Blount, "Governor of the Southwestern Territory, and Superintendent of Indian Affairs," was instructed to convene the chiefs and head men of the Cherokee nation for the purpose of entering into negotiations for the amicable relinquishment of certain lands on the south side of Cumberland River. The Indians were convened accordingly, and a treaty was concluded and signed on the second day of July, 1791, near the present site of Knoxville, on the Holston River. This treaty, signed by William Blount on the part of the United States, and by forty-one chiefs and warriors of the Cherokee nation, is known as the "Treaty of Holston."
By this treaty the Cherokee nation ceded to the United States extensive tracts of land situated south of the Cumberland, and upon the waters of Duck River, and as far as the sources of Elk River.
They also agreed, for a stipulated annuity, to grant to the
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people of the United States the right of a road through their country to the Cumberland settlements from the Southwest Point, at the junction of Holston and Clinch Rivers, and the free navigation of the Tennessee River. They also entered into obligations to observe peace and friendship with the United States.[A.D. 1792.] But the treaty of Holston did not restore peace to the whole Cherokee nation, and partial hostilities against the white inhabitants upon the Cumberland and the Holston Rivers continued for several years, notwithstanding all the efforts of the Federal government to establish peace,
The natural jealousy of the Indian character required but little prompting to induce them to resist the white man's encroachments. The American people, believing the region upon which they were advancing to be within the proper limits of the United States, and that the Indian claim was a mere nominal right of occupancy, were less scrupulous in their advances, because the encroachment was one for which the government could easily compensate them.
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The government of the United States invariably endeavored to maintain the utmost good faith toward the Indians, although it was not always practicable to restrain and prevent aggression by individuals. Hence, under the influence of some new alarm or popular excitement, partisan warfare has been carried on against innocent towns, and occasionally the tribe has been made to suffer for the acts of lawless individuals. But the general government, in all its intercourse with the Indian tribes, has scrupulously observed the stipulations and obligations of treaties and natural justice.
The Spanish authorities in Louisiana and Florida had indulged a spirit of jealous hostility toward the rapid extension of the American settlements into the territory occupied by the southern tribes. As they could not occupy it themselves, they were anxious that it should remain neutral, in the exclusive possession of the savages. Foreseeing a collision between the Federal government and the native tribes, under which the latter must melt away, the Spanish authorities had taken the precaution to secure the alliance and friendship of the Indians by formal treaties, and by means of traders and agents located among them. By the same means they exerted a secret influence upon them in favor of the Spanish monarchy, while they encouraged them to resist the encroachments of the whites on the east and north.
In this manner hostilities had been instigated by the Spaniards against the settlements on Cumberland and Holston Rivers for more than two years past, until the territory was necessarily placed in a defensive attitude, and troops were advanced toward the Indian country for the protection of the inhabitants from surprise and massacre. The Indians resorted to their usual mode of operations, harassing the exposed population by sudden incursions of their scalping-parties. But it was not long before the whole nation was in arms for the entire destruction of the advanced settlers.
At length, in September, 1792, Governor Blount received certain intelligence of the intrigues of the Spanish authorities in Louisiana and Florida. This intelligence was conveyed by Richard Finnelson, a half-breed Cherokee Indian, and Joseph Deraque, a Canadian half-breed, who had been sent by the Governor of Louisiana as agents and bearers of dispatches to the Indian tribes. These men, having been well paid by the
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Spanish agents for discharging their duties as emissaries, and seeing the imminent danger which might suddenly overwhelm the settlements on the Cumberland River, resolved to convey to them due notice of their danger. Therefore, while in the Indian country, and seeing the savages prepared for the sudden destruction of the white inhabitants, they desired and urged the Indians to defer their expedition for ten days, until they could return from Knoxville, alleging that the Spanish intendant had required them to convey letters to a friend of his in that town before war should be commenced. Instead of returning to the Indians, they communicated to Governor Blount the facts which had transpired in the Creek nation.By this information, it appeared that it was the Spanish governor at New Orleans, the Baron de Garondelet, and Don O'Neil, governor of Florida at Pensacola, who had been instigating the southern Indians to hostilities against the United States. Agents had been sent to the Choctâs, Chickasâs, Creeks, and Cherokees, to distribute among them presents, and to encourage them to resist the advance of the white population into the Cumberland country, and to assure them of the aid of the King of Spain, who would see justice done to them in case of a war with the United States; that he would supply them with ammunition and arms to carry on the war; and they were instructed to urge the Indians to strike now! that now was the time, while the United States were engaged with the Shawanese and other northern tribes, unless the Americans would agree to give up and withdraw from the lands on the Cumberland and Oconee Rivers.
It also appeared that Alexander M'Gillivray had been on a visit to New Orleans, in consequence of a special invitation from the Spanish governor, upon matters of importance.
It also appeared that a half-breed Creek, by the name of Bowles, had returned from England or some of the British West India Islands, and that he was exerting his influence among the Creeks, encouraging them to war against the United States, and assuring them that both England and Spain were ready to aid them in the undertaking. These emissaries, moreover, declared that they had seen six hundred Indian warriors, armed and painted black, holding their war-dances preparatory to an invasion of the American settlements.
[A.D. 1793.] Thus was the Cherokee nation and the
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Creeks for nearly three years wavering between war and peace, closely observing the progress of events in the Indian war north of the Ohio. Had General Wayne been as unfortunate as his predecessors, in all probability the southern Indians, from the banks of the Savannah to the Mississippi, would have been united in one general league with those of the north, under the auspices of English and Spanish diplomacy. But the successes of General Wayne during the years 1793 and 1794, and is impetuous and vigilant character, struck terror into the savage warriors, and dispelled all intentions of a general league.[A.D. 1794.] The Cherokees at length evinced a willingness to treat with the Federal government, and sent a deputation of thirteen chiefs to Philadelphia, authorized to enter into treaty stipulations for the Cherokee nation. On the 26th of June, 1794, a treaty was concluded and signed in Philadelphia; in which, for an additional annuity, the chiefs stipulated to ratify and confirm the treaty of Holston, made in 1791, and also the treaty of Hopewell, made in 1785.
During the latter months of this year, several treaties were concluded with the northwestern tribes by Timothy Pickering, acting as commissioner of the United States. The first and principal was that with the Six Nations, at Canandaigua, in New York, concluded and signed November 4th, 1794. The second was that with the Oneidas, Tuscaroras, and Stockbridges, signed at Oneida on the 2d of December following. These treaties established the boundaries between the white settlements and the Indian territory within the limits of the State of New York, and secured the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania from the hostile incursions of these warlike bands.
[A.D. 1795.] In January following, General Wayne entered into preliminary articles of treaty with the Chippewas, Ottawâs, Potawatamies, Sauks, and Miamis, on behalf of the northwestern tribes, for a general treaty of peace and friendship, to be holden by the hostile nations of the West in the course of the following summer. Accordingly, in July, the chiefs and warriors of the northwestern tribes east of the Mississippi had convened in the vicinity of Fort Greenville. After protracted negotiations for more than six weeks, a treaty was signed on the 3d day of August, 1795, by General Wayne, commissioner plenipotentiary of the United States, and by the
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chiefs of the following twelve tribes, to wit: the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanese, Ottawâs, Chippewas, Potawatamies, Miamis, Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshas, and Kaskaskias.The Treaty of Greenville, besides the usual stipulations of peace and friendship, ratifies and confirms the cessions made by the treaties of Fort M'Intosh and Fort Harmar, as also a complete relinquishment of sixteen square tracts in the vicinity of the several military posts, then held or claimed by the United States, south of the lakes, together with the right of way to and from them.
The United States delivered to the Indians at the treaty, for proper distribution, goods to the amount of twenty thousand dollars, and stipulated to pay annually forever, while the treaty was observed, an annuity of nine thousand dollars in goods.
Ever since the decisive battle of the Maumee Rapids, on the 20th of August, 1794, the Indian tribes had been reduced to great privation and suffering by the destruction of their towns and the extensive fields of corn which had lined the banks of the Au Glaize and Maumee for more than fifty miles above the Rapids. Thrown out of their villages and winter residences, destitute of every comfort which the savage is enabled to collect around him, and deprived of the sustenance which their fertile fields were so well calculated to yield, they were anxious for peace, and were obliged to receive it at the dictation of the conqueror.
The treaty of Greenville is an important epoch in the history of the Indian wars upon the Ohio region, and closes the long series of hostilities which had been kept up against the western frontier, with but few interruptions, ever since the beginning of the French war in the year 1754.
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Chapter IX. — Extension of the first white settlements across the Ohio, until the close of the Indian Wars. A.D. 1787 to 1794.
Argument. — Claims of Virginia and other States to "Northwestern Territory" relinquished, with certain Reservations. — "Connecticut Reserve." — Virginia military District. — "Northwestern Territory" laid off by Ordinance of 1787. — Territorial Government provided. — Partial Occupation by United States. — First Settlement on the Muskingum. — Putnam's Colony, from Connecticut, arrives at Fort Harmar April 17th, 1788. — Character of the Colonists. — Second Colony arrives July 2d. — Celebration of 4th of July in the Wilderness. — First Clergyman, Daniel Story. — Governor St. Clair and territorial Officers arrive. — Territorial Government organized. — "Washington County" laid off. — Arrival of Emigrants. — Campus Martius. — Settlements formed at Belpre and Newberry. — Emigration to Kentucky. — Miami Settlements. — Symmes's Purchase on the Miami. — Settlement at Columbia. — Settlement at Cincinnati. — Fort Washington commenced. — Its Form and Dimensions. — "County of Hamilton" organized. — Squire M'Millan. — Colerain Settlement. — Headquarters established at Fort Washington. — "Knox County" organized. — "St. Clair County" organized. — Population of Settlements on Muskingum and Miami in 1790. — Indian Hostilities commence. — Defensive Measures adopted. — Indians exasperated at the unsuccessful Expedition of General Harmar. — Destruction of Settlement of Big Bottom, January 2d, 1791. — Attack on Wolf Creek Settlement. — Attack on Colerain Station. — Nathaniel Massie settles Manchester, on the Ohio. — French Settlement at Gallipolis, March, 1791. — Fraud of the "Scioto Company." — General St. Clair also unsuccessful. — Indian Audacity and Hostilities increase. — President Washington adopts more energetic Measures with the Indians. — Indian Outrages multiply in 1792. — Cincinnati in 1793. — Its Importance as a military Dépôt. — First Presbyterian Pastor. — Indian Hostilities in 1793. — Martial Law paramount. — First Newspaper in Northwestern Territory. — General Wayne takes Command of the Army. — Confidence restored to the western People. — Troops concentrate in the Miami Country. — Advanced Posts established. — Indians defeated and reduced to great Distress. — Settlements again advance.
THE territory lying north and west of the Ohio was claimed partly by the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. The claim of the first three states was based upon their early royal charters, which left their western boundaries undefined. Virginia claimed under the same title; and she also claimed under another title, which was indisputable, the title of conquest. For the amicable adjustment of these claims, each state consented to relinquish its individual interest to the Federal government, for the common use and benefit of the Union, excepting two principal reservations, one in favor of Connecticut, and another in favor of Virginia, for the purpose of liquidating their respective liabilities to Revolutionary soldiers. The reservation of Connecticut was laid in the northeastern section, embracing that region of the
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present State of Ohio lying north of latitude 41° and west of the Pennsylvania line. It was bounded on the north by Lake Erie, and was about one hundred and twenty miles in length from east to west, and its greatest breadth from north to south was about sixty-eight miles. The area comprised, by estimate, three millions of acres, and was known and designated as the "Connecticut Reserve."Virginia, in relinquishing her claim, reserved the lands lying between the Scioto and Little Miami, to be appropriated to the liquidation of the claims of her Revolutionary soldiers. This reservation was known as the "Virginia Military District." Besides these reservations, Congress appropriated a large amount of the lands to liquidate the claims of Revolutionary soldiers upon the Federal government. This reservation was known as the "United States Military District," and laid upon the east side of the Scioto River. With these reservations, the remainder of the territory was relinquished by the states respectively to the Federal government, as the property of the whole Union, and constituting a territory of the United States, to be subsequently organized into new states when the population should be sufficient.
[A.D. 1787.] These cessions having been completed, Congress proceeded to establish a territorial form of government for the whole territory, until the increase of population should entitle them to state governments. The jurisdiction of the United States was formally extended over this extensive region, under the provisions of an ordinance of Congress approved July 13th, 1787. This ordinance provided for the subsequent division of the territory into not less than three and not more than five states, agreeably to the stipulations of the compact with Virginia, as a condition of cession.
The following articles in the ordinance were "to remain forever unalterable, unless by common consent:"
"No person shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments.
"No law shall be passed that shall in any manner whatever interfere with or affect private interests or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed.
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"The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians. Their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress.
"No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States, and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than resident.
"There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three nor more than five states. And the boundaries of the states, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established.
"There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor in service, as aforesaid."
The territory was designated in the ordinance as the "Northwestern Territory," and comprised all the possessions of the United States northwest of the Ohio River. The form of government prescribed by the ordinance consisted of two grades of territorial government prior to the assumption of an independent state government.
The first grade of territorial dependence was to continue until the aggregate number of free white males over twenty-one years should amount to five thousand. During this period the jurisdiction was confided to a governor, appointed for three years, a secretary, appointed for four years, and three superior judges, appointed for four years.
Each judge is required to hold two terms of the Superior Court in his district every year, with the jurisdiction of a superior and appellate court. The three judges, or a majority of them, constitute the Supreme Territorial Court, which is required to meet once every year.
The governor, by the ordinance, is invested with authority as commander-in-chief of the militia, and appoints and commissions all officers in the same below the rank of general; he appoints and commissions all magistrates and civil officers for the preservation of the peace; and, with the advice and concurrence of the judges, or a majority of them, "he shall adopt
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and publish such laws of the original states, civil and criminal, as may be necessary and best adapted to the circumstances of the district, and report them to Congress from time to time" for their approbation. "He shall lay off counties, and organize such inferior courts" as he may deem requisite."The secretary of the territory shall keep and preserve the acts and laws, and the public records of the territory, and the records of the governor in the executive department, and transmit authentic copies of such acts and proceedings every six months to the secretary of Congress." In the absence of the governor, he shall exercise the authority and perform the duties of that officer.
The second grade provides for the election of a Legislative Assembly and a Legislative Council, which, with the concurrence of the governor, shall enact all laws and regulations necessary for the administration of justice.
The Legislative Assembly consists of representatives elected by the legal voters in the proportion of one representative to every five hundred free white males over the age of twenty-one years. The representatives, when duly elected, shall have authority to elect and nominate to Congress ten persons, from whom Congress shall select and appoint five as a Legislative Council, of whom any three shall be a quorum.
The Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, duly organized in co-operation with the governor, shall constitute the General Assembly, under the second grade of territorial government. The General Assembly shall be vested with all legislative powers for the good government of the territory, and enact such laws as they may deem expedient, not repugnant to the laws and Constitution of the United States. No act of the Legislature shall have the force and sanction of law until it has received the signature of the governor, who shall have power to convene, prorogue, or dissolve the General Assembly when, in his opinion, it may be expedient.
The Legislative Assembly, or House of Representatives, so soon as regularly organized, have power to elect a delegate to Congress, who shall have the right to speak, but not to vote.
The second grade of government was to continue until the whole population increased to sixty thousand souls; at which time the people, expressing their wishes through the General
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Assembly, shall be entitled to the right of an independent state government, under the authority and approbation of Congress.The Muskingum Settlement. — In the mean time, colonies were organizing on the Atlantic seaboard for the establishment of the first Anglo-American settlements within the Northwestern Territory. Congress had already entered into arrangements with Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, agents of the "Ohio Company," for the sale of large bodies of land, to be located on the west side of the Ohio, between the Muskingum and the Hockhocking Rivers. The purchase was made at one dollar per acre, payable in land scrip and other evidences of debt for Revolutionary services.
The company found no difficulty in procuring emigrants for their contemplated colony. Besides the proprietors, forty-seven in number, there were hundreds of Revolutionary soldiers and officers who were ready to embark for the West, to secure a permanent home and to retrieve their exhausted fortunes.
Yet the whole region west of the Ohio was in the occupancy of Indian tribes, who were jealous of the advance of the white population. Although, by treaties made after the close of the Revolutionary war, they had ceded large bodies of lands in this region, yet they still maintained a hostile attitude, and refused to permit the whites to occupy the lands ceded by former treaties. The only occupancy west of the Ohio was that of two military posts, Fort M'Intosh, at the mouth of Big Beaver, and Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum.
Such were the inducements for the New England immigrants. Yet in the autumn of 1787, General Rufus Putnam, a son of the brave General Israel Putnam, and an enterprising pioneer, had already advanced with a colony of forty-seven persons upon the Youghiogeny, to commence the first settlement of the "Northwestern Territory." For nearly eight weeks they had toiled with their families across the mountains,
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and through the rugged frontier country of Pennsylvania, before they reached "Simrel's Ferry," on the Yough. The severities of a western winter, in a wilderness region, forbade them to proceed beyond that point, and the colony remained upon the Yough until returning spring.During the winter they were diligent in preparing to reach their new homes on the Muskingum. A large covered barge, made bullet-proof against the Indian rifle, was built by Jonathan Devoll, the first ship-builder on the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers. In remembrance of their pilgrim ancestors, it was called the "May Flower;" it was well adapted to transport the families and their colonial effects to their ultimate destination, and to serve as a floating residence while more permanent ones were erecting on land.
[A.D. 1788.] Toward the last of March the "May Flower" was freighted with the new colony at Simrel's Ferry, on the Yough. The colony, composed chiefly of officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary army, proceeded on their voyage by way of Fort Pitt and the Ohio. Early in April they arrived in the mouth of the Muskingum, and on the 7th of April the agents of the Ohio Company formally took possession of their purchase, by locating a portion of the colony, under General Putnam, upon the north bank of the Muskingum, on the point of land opposite to the military post. Some provision for their reception had been made in advance, and the "May Flower" served as a store-house until others were supplied. The colony entered at once upon the work of making a permanent settlement, and erecting the necessary houses for their families. Like the ancient Greek colonies, and unlike some of the American, the colonists of Marietta were chiefly men of science and refinement, and they carried these advantages into the western wilderness.
On the 2d day of July following, the new colony received an accession to its numbers, by the arrival of forty persons from Worcester, Massachusetts. This colony included General Edward Tupper, Major Asa Coborn, Major Nathan Goodale, Major Nathaniel Cushing, and Mr. Ichabod Nye, with their families. Nine weeks had they been toiling in the tedious journey through a rough frontier wilderness, with their wagons, cattle, and stock of every kind. Eight weeks' travel, with
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a regular encampment each night, brought them to Wheeling, upon the banks of the Ohio, about eighty miles above the point of their ultimate destination. After several days of preparation, they procured a large Kentucky flat-boat, into which the colonists were crowded with their personal effects, and after two days' floating upon the current, they landed at the wharf, beside the "May Flower," in the mouth of the Muskingum. Here they were welcomed by their joyful friends who had preceded them into the garden of the West. Their greetings and mutual congratulations had not ceased, when the dawn of the 4th day of July was ushered in by the roar of the artillery of Fort Harmar, reminding them of the glorious anniversary of their national independence. The whole colony, with joyful hearts, prepared to pass over to the fort, and unite with the troops in celebrating the joyful day. Thus civilization and patriotism entered the wilderness together, emblematic of the peace and harmony which have since characterized the civil and military powers of the great West.Nor had the proprietors and the colonists been negligent of the more benign influences of religion. Already they had engaged a pious and zealous young minister to teach, not only the principles of religion and morality to the adults and parents, but likewise the rudiments of learning and the elements of religion to their children. This was the Rev. Daniel Story, from Worcester, Massachusetts, who came out with the colonists during the following summer. He arrived, and for many years continued to labor in his vocation within the company's claim, dividing his time between the settlements at Marietta, Belpre, and Newberry, and adhering to his flock through prosperity and adversity for fifteen years.
Early in July the officers for the new territorial government arrived at Marietta or Fort Harmar. These were General Arthur St. Glair, governor, Winthrop Sargent, secretary, and three judges for the executive council, agreeably to the first grade of territorial government.
A few days after their arrival, the governor published his commission, and those of his executive council, and also the ordinance of Congress under which they exercised their authority. A public meeting of the settlers and others was called, when the governor made an address to the people, in
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which he explained to them the new form of government, to which he asked their cordial support and hearty cooperation.On the 26th of July the governor called together his council, and proceeded to organize the civil and military departments of the new government. The whole country north of the Ohio River, and between the Muskingum and the Hockhocking Rivers, was designated as the "county of Washington," in honor of the first President of the United States. Marietta was declared the seat of justice for this county.
In the mean time, it was evident, from the hostile bearing of the Indian tribes, that the colony could not expect perfect security in the midst of their savage neighbors. Prudence dictated a timely preparation for any danger which might threaten in this quarter. It was resolved to convert the block-house and other buildings into a regular stockade, or fortified station. Under the direction and superintendence of General Rufus Putnam, the work was commenced on a plan adapted to the security of the colony. The work progressed regularly until the close of the following year, when it was fully completed.
The walls of the main buildings formed a regular parallelogram of one hundred and eighty feet on each side. Each corner was protected subsequently, in 1791, by a strong projecting block-house, twenty feet square in the lower story, and twenty-four feet in the upper. Each block-house was surmounted by a tower, or sentry-box, bullet-proof; and the curtains, or sides of the parallelogram, were protected by a range of sharpened pickets, inclining outward. The whole was surrounded by a strong palisade ten feet high, and securely planted in the ground, beyond which was a range of abattis.
The buildings were constructed of whip-sawed timbers four inches thick, and neatly dove-tailed at the corners, two stories high, and covered with good shingle roofs. The rooms were large and commodious, provided with good fireplaces and brick chimneys.
A guarded gateway on the west and south front gave admission and exit to the inmates; and over the gateway, facing the Muskingum on the south, was a large room, surmounted with a belfry, in which was suspended the church-going bell. The whole range of buildings was amply supplied with portholes for defensive firing. Such is the outline of the first regular
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station northwest of the Ohio, known as the "Campus Martins."Its bastions and towers, all white-washed and glistening in the sun, reminded the beholder at a distance of some ancient feudal tower, with its imposing battlements, rising as if by magic in the western wilderness.
Thus began the first settlement and the first regular town west of the Ohio River, and the first made by white men in the present State of Ohio, which now contains, after a lapse of half a century, a population of more than one million of civilized people.
The militia were organized in three companies, with three captains, three lieutenants, and three ensigns. Three justices of the peace were also appointed, and duly commissioned; also, a probate court, and clerk. A court of quarter sessions was also organized, with three associate justices, having jurisdiction over common pleas, and authority to sit as a court of quarter sessions, with a sheriff, duly commissioned for the county.
In the mean time, the plan of a regular town was laid off on the bank of the Ohio, above the mouth of the Muskingum, to which was given the name of Marietta, in honor of the unfortunate French queen Marie Antoinette.
During the summer and autumn the settlements in Washington county increased by the arrival of numerous emigrants from east of the mountains, as well as from Western Virginia and Pennsylvania. Early in the autumn Marietta received an accession of twenty families, including those of several of the proprietors of the Muskingum purchase. In December an additional colony from Connecticut arrived by way of the Yough and Pittsburgh. Other accessions were received from the East during the following spring and summer.
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The first civil court ever held in the Northwestern Territory convened on the 2d day of September, 1788: it was the "Court of Common Pleas," held in the hall of the Campus Martius, with Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper presiding justices.
The opening of this court in the remote wilderness was attended with an imposing ceremony, for the first time seen in the West. The governor and judges of the territory having collated, examined, and adopted such of the statutes of the states as were deemed appropriate to the condition of the new colony, proceeded to assert the supremacy of the laws by the organization of a regular court.
A procession was formed on the point near the residence of the citizens; the sheriff, with a drawn sword, in advance, followed by the citizens, officers of the garrison at Fort Harmar, the members of the bar, the judges of the Supreme Court, the governor and a clergyman, with the judges of the newly-organized Court of Common Pleas, in the order they are named.
Arriving at the hall of the Campus Martius, the whole procession was countermarched into it, and the judges Putnam and Tupper took their seats on the bench; the audience was seated, and, after the divine benediction was invoked by the Rev. Dr. Cutler, the high sheriff, Ebenezer Sproat, advanced to the door, and proclaimed aloud, "Oyes! Oyes! a court is opened for the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and the rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial by their peers, and in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the case."
Besides the crowd of emigrants and settlers, there were present to witness the ceremonies hundreds of Indians, who had their encampment in the vicinity, for the purpose of entering into a treaty with the Federal government.
The population continued to increase by the arrival of emigrants during the autumn and winter, and by other colonies which arrived subsequently.
In the spring following, it had been determined to make other settlements on the Ohio below the Muskingum, and General Putnam, with a number of families, descended the river to a beautiful level tract about twelve miles below Marietta; and on the 11th day of April, 1789, he commenced a new settlement near a natural meadow, and called it Belpre.
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settlers here were intelligent and hardy men; foremost among them was Nathan Goodale, an enterprising officer of the Revolutionary army. These colonists proceeded to erect a blockhouse and the ordinary family residences. Subsequently, a stockade was added, to secure them from Indian outrage, and the station assumed the name of "Farmer's Castle."Shortly afterward, a small colony was located ten miles below, upon the bank of the Ohio, and received the name of Newberry. This settlement also augmented its population during the fall and winter, and subsequently was compelled to erect a block-house for protection against the Indians.
Such were the settlements comprised in the first New England colony on the Ohio, included within the limits of the first county of Washington.
Miami Settlement. — At the same time that the settlement was made at the mouth of the Muskingum, a colony was on the route to the West for the settlement of the Miami country. Arriving at the Monongahela late in the autumn, they descended to Limestone, where most of them remained during the winter.
Soon after the purchase by the Ohio Company, Judge John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, had purchased of the government six hundred thousand acres of land, to be located between the Great and Little Miami Rivers. The value of the government scrip having advanced since the purchase of the former company, Judge Symmes stipulated to pay sixty cents per acre in military warrants, and in other evidences of debt against the United States.
During the winter of 1788-89, arrangements were made at Limestone for locating the colony early in the following spring. Large portions of land were sold and distributed in smaller tracts to private companies and individuals, for the purpose of opening the settlements at different points between the Little Miami and the North Bend of the Ohio, twenty-three miles below.
The first purchase from Symmes was made by Major Benjamin Stites, from the Monongahela. This purchase comprised ten thousand acres immediately below the Little Miami River. The colony for its settlement was already on the river from Brownsville.
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The first portion of Major Stites's colony embraced some twenty families, originally from New York and New Jersey, who advanced from Limestone late in the autumn, and commenced a settlement three miles below the Little Miami about the 16th of November, 1788, upon the north bank of the Ohio. This little colony comprised some of the most intelligent of all the early emigrants to the Miami country. Among them were Colonel Spencer, Major Gano, Judge Goforth, Francis Dunlavy, Major Kibby, John Smith, and Colonel Brown, all men of enterprise and worth, who have left numerous descendants to perpetuate their names.
A few houses or log cabins were erected for dwellings, a block-house for protection against Indian hostility, and such other out-buildings as were necessary to a permanent settlement. Major Stites then proceeded to lay off a town in the woods, which he called Columbia, in honor of his country.
Thus, about the close of the year 1788, commenced the first settlement in the Miami country, about six months after the first on the Muskingum.
The next purchase was made by Mathias Denham, of New Jersey, comprising a large body of lands immediately adjoining, and west of the former purchase. Denham lost no time in making preparations to enter upon his settlement. Forming a partnership with Robert Patterson and John Filsom, a surveyor, both of Lexington, Kentucky, he engaged the latter to survey and lay off the plan of a town immediately opposite the mouth of Licking River, and to superintend the sale of the lots, while himself and Patterson returned to Limestone to make arrangements for the new colony.
Filsom proceeded to survey the purchase of Denham, and to establish the boundaries of the same; but after a short tour he was killed by Indians, and the survey of the town for a time was delayed.
[A.D. 1789.] About the first of January, 1789, Israel Ludlow was employed to complete the survey and to lay off the plan of the contemplated town. Accordingly, about six weeks after the first location of the town of Columbia, Israel Ludlow and Robert Patterson repaired to the site selected, and, in company with twenty persons, began the first settlement in
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Denham's purchase, about five miles below Columbia, and opposite the mouth of Licking River.Three log houses were erected, and other preparations were made for the reception of families in the spring. The site was a beautiful wooded first bottom, on the immediate bank of the Ohio, about sixty feet above low-water mark, and stretched away upward of three hundred yards from the river, where a second bank, or terrace, rose gently forty feet higher. The second bottom extended back, gently declining to the base of the bluff, more than half a mile from the shore. The whole was clothed with a heavy forest; on the lower bottom was chiefly sycamore, sugar-maple, and black walnut; on the upper terrace were chiefly beech, oaks, and walnut.
Thus commenced the second settlement and the second town in the Miami country. By some freak of fancy, the village assumed the name of "Losanteville." But the point was a dangerous one. Immediately in the line of the old Indian war path, emigrants were not anxious to make it their residences; hence it received but few accessions to its population ox houses until near the close of the year. In June the population was eleven families and twenty-four single men, and the whole town consisted of about twenty log cabins.
The summer witnessed a continual line of emigration from the Atlantic States to the Ohio River. Many of these, from the New England States, took up their residence in the Ohio Company's purchase, near the settlements already formed on the Muskingum and the Ohio, above the Hockhocking River. Many from New Jersey and Virginia, desirous of joining the settlers of the Miami country, were induced, by the uncertain peace of the Indian tribes, to take up a temporary residence in Kentucky. Yet the settlements of Colonel Stites and Major Denham, below the Little Miami, received several emigrant parties from New York and New Jersey.
About this time, Judge Symmes, who was indefatigable in settling his lands, laid out and commenced a town at North Bend, sixteen miles below the last settlement, to which emigrants were attracted until the following year, when the erection
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of Fort Washington presented greater inducements near the mouth of Licking.In the mean time, these new settlements were gradually increasing, and attracting the attention of the commander of Fort Harmar, from their exposed situation and the frequent indications of approaching hostilities by the Indians. Accordingly, early in the summer, Major Doughty, a brave and efficient officer, was detached from Fort Harmar with one hundred and forty regular troops for the protection of the Miami settlements. He took up his position on the terrace, or second bottom, just above the town of Losanteville, where he encamped his troops until a selection for a post should have been made. Before the expiration of June, he decided to erect his post opposite the mouth of Licking, upon a reservation of fifteen acres belonging to the Federal government. He immediately commenced the, erection of four block-houses, as the outlines of a stockade, upon the margin of the terrace above the town.
The body of the new fort and the outline of palisades were soon in a state of perfection, indicating a formidable military post, completely impregnable to any Indian attack.
The principal building was a large two-story house, one hundred and eighty feet in length, constructed of hewed logs, the upper story projecting two feet beyond the lower, and divided off into apartments for the soldiers, and well provided with port-holes for defensive firing: the whole surrounded by an inclosure of strong palisades planted in the ground, and flanked at each corner by strong block-houses or bastions, projecting ten feet beyond the line of stockades, from which cannon could be brought to rake the walls. Through the middle of the lower story was the principal entrance, facing the river, and secured by strong wooden doors, leaving a passage twelve feet wide and ten feet high. On the north or back side it was secured by a strong picket inclosure surrounding the outbuildings, shops, and stables. The front presented a fine esplanade eighty feet wide, with a glacis of thirty feet descent. The whole exterior was thoroughly white-washed, and from a distance presented a handsome and imposing appearance. Around it were the beautiful gardens of the officers, handsomely ornamented with summer-houses, and affording a variety of vegetables in great abundance. Such was Fort Washington after
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its completion in 1790, and until after the treaty of Greenville.About the last of December, 1789, General Harmar, with three hundred regular troops, arrived, and Fort Washington shortly afterward became the headquarters of the northwestern army and the residence of the governor.
[A.D. 1790.] In the mean time, the population in the Miami settlements had increased to such an extent that Governor St. Clair deemed it expedient to organize civil government without further delay.
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River to the Great Miami, was designated as the "county of Hamilton," in honor of the Secretary of the Treasury. Cincinnati was declared to be the seat of justice for this extensive county. On the 2d day of January the governor and executive committee completed the civil organization of Hamilton county, which, like that of Washington, comprised three justices of the peace, four captains of militia, four lieutenants, and four ensigns, a court of quarter sessions, constituted of three associate justices, a clerk, and a sheriff. The regular meetings of the Court of Quarter Sessions was fixed by law, ordained and enacted January 5th, to be holden on the first Tuesdays in February, May, August, and November.Cincinnati, being the seat of justice for Hamilton county, as well as headquarters of the army, began to assume a degree of importance unknown to similar towns which had recently sprung up in the wilderness. It became the center of fashion and refinement, and soon attracted many persons of intelligence and enterprise. Frame houses began to appear, and during the following summer nearly forty log cabins were added as the dwellings of so many new families.
A new settlement was made about this time on the Great Miami, seventeen miles north from Cincinnati. This was the settlement of Colerain where a number of families united and erected a stockade for mutual protection and defense. Such was the exposed situation of this advanced settlement, while the incursions of the savages were becoming more frequent and daring, that a small detachment of United States troops, under the command of Lieutenant Kingsbury, with one piece of artillery, was ordered to take post in the station for its defense.
Governor St. Clair was ever active. No sooner had he completed his public duties in organizing the civil government of Hamilton county, than he set off for the "Falls of the Ohio,"
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where he spent a few days in Clarksville, engaged in similar duties. Thence he proceeded by land across the wilderness, one hundred and thirty miles by an Indian trace, to Vincennes, on the Wabash. Here, with his council, he proceeded to organize the county of Knox, named in honor of the Secretary of War. The limits of Knox county extended from the Great Miami to the Wabash, with the Ohio on the south. Vincennes was the seat of justice.The governor proceeded westward; and at Cahokia, on the Upper Mississippi, he organized the county of St. Clair. This county comprised all the territory from the Wabash to the Mississippi, and southward to the Ohio, and was subdivided into three judicial districts, known as those of Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher, and Kaskaskia.
Since the first arrival on the Muskingum, more than two years had now elapsed, and the settlements on the Ohio Company's purchase had multiplied, and the number of immigrants upon each had gradually increased. The militia rolls in the county of Washington comprised four hundred and forty-seven men fit for militia duty. Of these, one hundred and three were heads of families. A few persons had been cut off by the lurking Indians. The total population of Washington county was about twenty-five hundred souls.
Since the first arrival upon the Miami purchase, eighteen months had elapsed; and between the Little Miami and the Great Miami numerous settlements had already been commenced, and there had been a rapid increase of settlers in those first planted. The entire population of Hamilton county was about two thousand souls; and the whole number of men upon the muster rolls fit for militia duty was but little less than those of Washington county, besides the regular troops in Fort Washington.
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or eight miles of Fort Washington had been so exposed to the lurking savages that General Harmar had furnished them with a few soldiers for their protection.The Indians had from the first indicated signs of a hostile movement. They had loitered about the settlements, and appeared to observe the nature and extent of the defenses. They had committed sundry depredations on the property of the settlers. They had waylaid the paths and traces which led from one settlement to another, and several persons had been murdered by them near the larger stations. At length the murders became more frequent and daring. The settlers dared not venture out from their inclosures only at the peril of their lives. No precaution or vigilance was sufficient security from the vengeance of the insidious foe, who lurked unseen under every bush and covert. Some would insinuate themselves under the guise of friendship, to enable them the more securely to destroy. Fugitive negro slaves had taken asylum among the savages, and were sometimes emissaries of death.
Such became the dread and apprehension in the settlements on account of Indian and negro treachery, that the executive council ordained it to be a penal offense for any one to entertain any Indian or negro without first reporting him to the commandant. All male settlers and immigrants were likewise required by law to carry their arms with them on all occasions, even to public worship. When at their daily work in the fields and about the stations, one or more sentinels were posted near, upon some stump or other eminence, to give timely warning of any approach of danger.
For nearly twelve months the Federal government had resolved to invade the Indian country with a strong military force, and to destroy their fields and burn their towns, in retaliation for the murders and depredations which had been committed upon the whites on the Ohio for three years past. During the year 1790, active preparations had been in operation for concentrating at Fort Washington a sufficient force of regular troops and militia for the accomplishment of this purpose, provided negotiation and overtures of peace, in the mean time, should fail to induce a suspension of their outrages upon the settlers. The chief towns of the hostile Indians at that time were upon the great branches of the Maumee River, and especially upon the waters of the Au Glaize.
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Near the close of summer, a large body of troops had been assembled at the mouth of Licking, and in the vicinity of the Miami River, north of Cincinnati, for the contemplated invasion. Many of the settlers and recent immigrants connected themselves with the army, which early in October was in motion, under General Harmar, for the Maumee towns. Hope gleamed on the new settlements, and foretold better days, with exemption from Indian dangers. But, before one month had elapsed, the remnant of the army returned to Fort Washington, if not defeated, certainly with the loss of many brave men, and with little or no injury to the savages,
The tide of immigration to the Ohio had been already checked, and the new settlements in the Northwestern Territory were greatly depressed by the unsuccessful campaign under the commander-in-chief. The settlers became more fearful, and the Indians became more audacious. They prowled secretly about the stations, and even through the streets of Cincinnati at night.
[A.D. 1791.] The first massacre upon the Muskingum was on the second day of the year 1791, and gave a fearful import of future vengeance.
This was the destruction of the settlement at Big Bottom, on the Muskingum. This situation had been imprudently occupied a few months before, and against the advice of the more experienced, by a party of young men, who had been delighted with the beauty of the lands. The whole colony consisted of about twenty-five persons, including several female heads of families. They had erected a block-house and several log cabins, and seemed to enjoy perfect impunity from Indian molestation.
On the 2d day of January a party of twenty-five Indians advanced to the brow of the eminence which overlooks the Muskingum Valley.
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The tenants of the block-house were sitting around the supper-table by the cheerful fire-light, and their guns were standing in the corner of the room. The house being surrounded by the Indians, one large Mohawk gently pushed open the door, while his comrades fired upon the men at the table, who dropped one after the other. A woman seized an ax, and made a desperate blow at the Mohawk who held the door, and inflicted upon him a terrible wound. She was immediately dispatched by the tomahawk, with the remaining inmates.
Another cabin was entered at the same time by another party of Indians, who bound the inmates and took them prisoners. The occupants of a third cabin had not been secured, when, alarmed by the report of the guns at the block-house, they escaped into the woods and concealed themselves from the enemy. The Indians failing to find them, proceeded to plunder the houses of every thing valuable, and then set fire to them. They secured the prisoners and regaled themselves by the light of the burning houses. The whole number killed at this settlement was fourteen persons, of whom eleven were young men, besides one woman and two children. Five persons, including four men and one boy, were taken captive to Detroit.
Within a few days, all the settlements on the Muskingum beyond the guns of Fort Harmar were broken up, and those who had not made a timely escape were killed or taken prisoners.
Hostile movements were made simultaneously against other neighborhoods, and those around Fort Washington were special objects of savage indignation. A large Indian force had marched for this quarter of the American settlements. Colerain was already a large station, advanced seventeen miles north of Fort Hamilton. On the 8th day of January four men from this station were exploring the lands on the west bank of the Miami, when they suddenly perceived the advance of a large Indian army. They fled with all haste; but two of them, Cunningham and Abner Hunt, were killed; the other two escaped to the station and gave the alarm. The body of Hunt was afterward found most barbarously mutilated, and with a firebrand thrust into the bowels.
The Indians did not appear before the station until next
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morning, when three hundred warriors demanded its surrender. The demand was promptly refused, and the attack immediately began. The defense was made with equal spirit and perseverance for twenty-four hours. The Indians, apprehending a re-enforcement from the garrison at Fort Washington, suddenly retired, to the great relief of the station. One hour afterward, Captain Truman, with thirty regular troops and thirty-three volunteers from Cincinnati, came to the assistance of the besieged.During the attack the defense was conducted with the usual frontier courage. Captain Kingsbury, with eighteen regular troops and fourteen other inmates of the station, conducted the defense. The women supplied the riflemen with bullets, and when the lead was expended, they melted their pewter plates and spoons into balls.
But no danger seemed sufficient to deter the emigrants from attempts to obtain a foothold in the delightful country which had been partly explored. New locations were still made near the banks of the Ohio, where a partial security was felt from the vicinity of the Virginia and Kentucky shores.
It was early in January, 1791, that Nathaniel Massie, one of the most enterprising pioneers of Ohio, first made a location on the north bank of the Ohio River, within the "Virginia Military District," twelve miles below the town of Limestone.
In the location at Manchester, he had obligated himself, by a written compact with his colonists, to grant in fee simple to every person who should settle and remain with his family two years, one town-lot and one out-lot, besides one hundred acres in the vicinity, until the number amounted to twenty-five families. About thirty families soon joined him under these stipulations. The settlement was immediately begun, and by the middle of March cabins were erected for their residence, and the whole inclosed with a strong stockade, with a block-house at each angle, for defense.
The next colony located within the present State of Ohio was that of Gallipolis, direct from France. This colony, of about four hundred persons, had been made up in Paris, where the principal persons had purchased a large extent of lands from Joel Barlow, "agent of the Scioto Company." They had paid for their lands at the rate of a French crown per acre
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while in France, to enable the company to consummate their contract with the government. The agent of the company had accompanied them to the Ohio River, and had selected for them a beautiful site on the west bank, two miles below the Great Kenhawa River, and within the limits, as was subsequently ascertained, of the Ohio Company's purchase. The location having been selected, the immigrants remained upon the Ohio River, whither they had arrived from Philadelphia, during the winter, ready to commence their new settlement. Early in March the colony was all action and enterprise, clearing land, erecting houses and inclosures for their future security from Indian hostility. Peace and joy seemed to smile upon them; and the arduous toils of the day were beguiled by mirth and festivity at night, cheered by the melody of the violin and the gay dance. But soon they found themselves deceived in a strange land, beset by savage foes, and, in fact, without a home and without money.During the summer of 1791 the settlements on the Muskingum, and on the Ohio below Marietta, as well as the French colony of Gallipolis, were greatly harassed by Indian depredations and incursions; yet each settlement was re-enforced by a few troops, detailed for their protection by Captain Haskell who commanded at Fort Harmar during the Indian war.
The summer had been spent by the officers of the United States army in preparations for another campaign against the Miami towns southwest of Lake Erie. Troops had been drawn
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from the different states contiguous; and volunteers from Kentucky and the western parts of Virginia, as well as from the new settlements north of the Ohio River, cheerfully joined the standard of General St. Clair, who was to command the expedition in person. At length, on the 17th day of September, the army set out from Fort Washington, and, by slow and regular marches, advanced on the west side of the Great Miami northwardly as far as the extreme sources of the Wabash River, and by estimate about fifty miles from the principal Miami towns near the mouth of the Au Glaize. Here, on the 4th of November, the army was surprised by the Indians and completely routed, with the loss of nearly half of the troops left on the field of battle.The whole settlements in the Miami country were broken up or forsaken, except those in the immediate vicinity of the forts. Many determined to retire, for greater safety, across the Ohio, to the more settled parts of Kentucky, until the imminent danger should cease.
The Indians, encouraged by their late successes, ventured into the streets of Cincinnati by night, and spied out all the movements in the town and about Fort Washington. Others lurked and prowled through the settlements, and destroyed all who were unprotected.
[A.D. 1792.] General Washington, President of the United States, had been anxious to see the war prosecuted with that energy and force which the honor and peace of the government required; but he had met with every kind of opposition in his plans from the opponents of his administration in Congress. Now, after two disastrous campaigns, and the destruction of two armies, they had assumed more assurance, and urged the policy of withdrawing the Federal jurisdiction and forces from the Northwestern Territory, conceding the Ohio River as the boundary, and a speedy peace upon this basis with the Indians.
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The tardy manner in which Congress met the wishes of the president in providing the means of prosecuting the war was ample evidence of its unpopularity east of the mountains.
The whole of the year 1792 had nearly elapsed without any active measures by the general government for the protection of the frontier settlements, or the chastisement of the Indians. At length, in the spring of 1793, Congress authorized and provided for the organization of a strong expedition with regular troops into the heart of the Indian country, to chastise the hostile savages and retrieve the national honor. Recruiting officers were distributed through the western counties, and also east of the mountains, preparatory to the ulterior operations on the frontier.
[A.D. 1793.] Indian hostilities, since St. Clair's defeat, became more regular and systematic; war parties penetrated into every settlement, and killed, with the most cruel barbarities, all who fell into their hands. Having acquired confidence in themselves, and contempt for their enemies on the Ohio, they became more daring in their incursions upon the settlements, as well as upon the immigrants descending the Ohio River to Kentucky.
During the year 1793, about fifty immigrants were added to the population of Cincinnati. Several cabins, three or four frames, and one Presbyterian house of worship were erected, and it began to assume the appearance of a regular place of trade and business.
Religion and morals were not neglected. The rude Presbyterian church recently erected was occupied on Sabbaths by its first pastor, James Kemper, an eloquent divine. A
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school had been opened during the summer, and was attended by thirty boys and girls, who were taught the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic.The greater portion of this year had been spent in raising the new levies for the regular army, and late in the autumn detachments began to arrive on the upper portions of the Ohio, preparatory to opening an early campaign next spring. Advanced detachments of the regular army at Fort Washington and bodies of militia had been posted at Fort Jefferson, seventy miles north of Cincinnati, which served to protect that frontier.
The continual hostile movements of the war parties who scoured the country north and west of the Ohio, during the preparations for another invasion under General Wayne, were such that but few of the settlements increased their population, unless it were those in the immediate vicinity of Forts Harmar and Washington. During this time the Ohio Company's colony kept in continual service about six "spies," who ranged the woods for miles in the vicinity of the settlements, for the purpose of discovering and destroying any small parties of Indians who might be lying about for scalps or plunder. If larger bodies were discovered, they immediately gave notice, and the forts and stations were prepared to receive them. The alarm-gun fired at the fort admonished all within hearing of the danger, and all hastened to the stockade for protection. The same precautions were taken on the Miamis. Yet this year witnessed several murders near the settlements, notwithstanding these precautions. At Belpre several persons had been killed, having ventured too far into the woods when no Indian sign had been seen. Major Nathaniel Goodale, an officer of the old Continental army, having gone into the forest to haul timber, was taken prisoner by two lurking Indians, and carried captive to Sandusky, where he died six weeks afterward. Captain King, from Rhode Island, was shot while cutting wood in sight of the stockade, besides others at other points of the settlement. Newberry settlement lost one woman and two children, killed by Indians near the adjoining field.
Notwithstanding all these dangers, civilization was taking deep root upon the north bank of the Ohio. Before the close
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of this year, the first newspaper ever published north of the Ohio was issued in Cincinnati. This was the "Sentinel of the Northwestern Territory," the first number of which was issued on the 9th day of November, 1793, by William Maxwell. This paper, like those which had been issued in Pittsburgh in July, 1786, and in Lexington in August, 1787, was a small weekly sheet, badly printed, and of inferior materials. Like all the newspapers in the West for many years afterward, it was printed on an old cast-off press, with worn-out types, having only a few sets of new type for job-work. All the first western papers were published by young printers, who were unable to purchase new presses and type, and were compelled to use those that had been worn out, because they could be obtained cheap.During nearly three years past, while the settlements were driven into forts and block-houses, and harassed with continual alarms and menaced with constant attack, the civil administration of the territorial government had almost ceased, or had been only partially enforced. The military authority, as is common in all countries in time of general danger, had superseded the civil administration, and swallowed up the legislative and judicial functions in the person of the commander-in-chief.
In the mean time, General Anthony Wayne, a distinguished officer of the Revolutionary army, had been appointed commander-in-chief of the northwestern army, and to him were confided the arduous duties of organizing a powerful military force for the effectual invasion of the Indian country. The well-known character of this accomplished and energetic soldier for prudence, system, courage, and command, gave general satisfaction to the western people, and restored the confidence and drooping courage of the frontier settlers.
During the close of the year 1793, military preparations had been active throughout all the western country, and troops were rapidly concentrating upon the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to the "Falls." The ranks were filled not only with regulars enlisted during the war, but with militia and cheerful volunteers. The settlements northwest of the Ohio began to experience some relief from Indian incursions, and a gleam of hope shone again upon their future prospects.
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Although the Indians had remitted their depredations partially upon the Ohio River, they were actively engaged in forming alliances with western and southern tribes, and concentrating upon the waters of the Maumee their utmost strength, to meet the hostile invasion with which they were threatened.
[A.D. 1794.] Want, privation, and distress had been experienced by the new settlements, until they had almost despaired of a change. But the movements of General Wayne, upon the opening of the campaign, early in the summer of 1794, withdrew the Indian warriors to the immediate defense of their own towns. A succession of bold advances from Fort Jefferson drove the Indian forces before him, with the loss of all their towns, fields, and possessions, until they made a stand upon the north bank of the Maumee, within two miles of the British "Fort of the Miamis." In a pitched battle, on the 20th day of August, the American army completely routed and defeated the combined army of Indians and Canadians, driving them under the protection of the guns of the British fort.
On the other hand, the whites took fresh courage; the settlements near the Ohio began to increase their numbers by the arrival of new immigrants, and those who two years before had retired in despair to the secure settlements of Kentucky, began to return to the occupation of their former improvements.
[A.D. 1795.] Although few or no hostilities were perpetrated upon the inhabitants after the battle of the Miamis, yet suspicion of danger, and the uncertain security from Indian incursions, deterred immigrants from attempts to form new settlements.
The treaty of Greenville,
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Chapter X. — Early settlement and Indian hostilities in the "Southwestern Territory," until its admission into the Federal Union as the state of Tennessee. A.D. 1776 to 1796.
Argument. — Retrospect of the First Settlements of East Tennessee. — First Settlements on Cumberland River. — Cherokee Hostilities in 1780. — North Carolina encourages Emigration to the Cumberland in 1783. — Military Land District erected. — Chickasâ Cession in 1784. — Increased Emigration to Holston and Cumberland in 1785. — Political Difficulties in Washington District. — Attempted Organization of the "Republic of Frankland." — Colonel John Sevier attainted for Treason, and restored to his Rights. — Authority of North Carolina sustained. — Spanish Influence in the Cumberland Settlements. — Population of Washington and Miro Districts in 1789. — North Carolina cedes her Western Territory to the Federal Government. — "Southwestern Territory" organized in 1790. — Indian Hostilities commence. — Efforts of the Federal Government to maintain Peace. — Rapid Increase of Emigration Westward in 1791. — Indian Hostilities in 1791 to 1793. — Spanish Intrigue with the Indians. — Colonel Sevier and General Robertson conduct Defenses. — Population of Southwestern Territory in 1794. — Population of the Territory in 1795. — Second Grade of Territorial Government assumed. — State Constitution adopted in 1796. — "State of Tennessee" admitted into the Union. — Features of Constitution. — Progressive Increase of Population and Extension of Settlements to the Mississippi until 1840. — Displacement of the Indian Tribes. — West Tennessee and Memphis. — Population and Enterprise. — Colonies sent out from Tennessee.
[A.D. 1776.] IN another portion of this work,
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In the autumn of 1776, these settlements, as the "Western District," were entitled to a delegate in the convention for the adoption of a state constitution. Among the prominent men of this region at that early period was Captain John Sevier, who had been an active defender of the frontiers in the preceding Indian wars. The confidence reposed in him by the western people was such that they elected him to represent the Western District in the convention for adopting a state constitution for North Carolina. During the continuance of the struggle for independence, he was a prominent soldier in resisting the incursions of the British cavalry in the western settlements.
[A.D. 1777.] During the year 1777, the jurisdiction of North Carolina was formally extended over the Western District, which was organized into the "county of Washington," having a nominal jurisdiction westward to the Mississippi.
The militia of Washington county was organized under Colonel Carter and Lieutenant-colonel John Sevier.
[A.D. 1778.] Only a few months elapsed from the organization of Washington county, when the adventurous pioneers began to plunge into the remote western forest, more than three hundred miles by the only route from the older settlements of the new county. A settlement was commenced on the lower valley of the Cumberland River, nearly one hundred miles west of the chain of the Cumberland Mountains. To reach this remote region, the pioneers advanced through Cumberland Gap, and, diverging from the wilderness route to Kentucky, they proceeded nearly one hundred miles through the southern part of the present State of Kentucky, and thence down the Cumberland Valley to the vicinity of the present site of Nashville. This route traversed the country which had been partly relinquished by the Cherokees to Richard Henderson and Company. South of it was the undisputed territory of the Cherokees and Creeks, who permitted no encroachment with
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impunity. The first settlement in this remote region was that near Bledsoe's Station, in the vicinity of Bledsoe's Lick; it was occupied the first year by less than a dozen families, isolated in the heart of the Chickasâ nation, with no other protection than their own courage and a small stockade inclosure.About the same time, a number of French traders advanced up the Cumberland River as far as "the Bluff," near the present city of Nashville, where they erected a trading-post and a few log cabins,
[A.D. 1780.] Bledsoe's Station, in the year 1779, received an accession of several additional families, who advanced by the same route from the Holston settlements. With this accession to their numbers, the little colony continued to hold undisputed possession of the country now comprised in Middle Tennessee, until the autumn of 1780, when Colonel James Robertson led out a colony of forty families, who were anxious to retire beyond the reach of the marauding incursions of the British cavalry, which had repeatedly ravaged the remote western settlements of North Carolina. So long as they remained within striking distance of Tarlton's troop, they were allowed the only alternative of submitting to the insolent ravages of the British soldiery, or of espousing the royal cause against their friends and fellow-citizens.
Colonel Robertson and his colony, preferring to encounter the dangers of savage warfare to the ruthless incursions of the English, set out for the remote wilderness upon the lower Cumberland Valley. His location was made not far from the present site of Nashville, where he proceeded to erect a stockade inclosure, for the protection of the colony from Indian hostility. This was the beginning of "Robertson's Station," which became the nucleus of the Cumberland settlements, around which were gathered the numerous emigrants who soon afterward advanced to this region.
This remote point continued to be the object of adventurers for three years, when the flood-gates of emigration were opened by North Carolina, in establishment of a military land district in this vicinity.
In the mean time, the Cherokees had become impatient of
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the advance of the white population upon the Holston, and before the close of the year 1780 they commenced active hostilities upon the frontier inhabitants of Washington District. To protect the exposed colonies, and to chastise the warlike savages, Colonel Campbell, of North Carolina, invaded the Cherokee country with a force of seven hundred mounted riflemen, and spread consternation and desolation in his march. This was the first time that cavalry in the character of mounted riflemen had been employed successfully against the hostile Indians, and it was the beginning of a new era in savage warfare in the West.It was in the summer of 1782 that the government of North Carolina determined to establish a military land district in her western territory for the liquidation of military land-scrip and Revolutionary claims in favor of officers and soldiers of the old Continental line. The same year commissioners were appointed to explore the country upon Cumberland River, and select a suitable region for the military district. After due exploration, they reported in favor of the country south and west of the new settlements upon that river, which was still in the occupancy of the Chickasâ Indians.
[A.D. 1783.] At the next session of the Legislature, provision was made for the formal extension of the state jurisdiction over this country in the organization of a land district, with a land-office, together with a pre-emption law in favor of actual settlers. The latter opened the way of emigration to the Cumberland River, and was a virtual invitation to the people to advance to the occupancy of this valuable region of country.
To prevent collision with the Chickasâ nation, commissioners were appointed to hold a council with the chiefs, head men, and warriors of that tribe for the amicable relinquishment of the country designated. The Indians were assembled early in the year 1783, in the vicinity of Robertson's Station, where a treaty was concluded. In this treaty, the Chickasâs, for and in consideration of certain amounts to them paid, agreed to cede and relinquish to the State of North Carolina an extensive region of country extending nearly forty miles south of the Cumberland River, to the dividing ridge between the tributaries of that river and those of Duck and Elk Rivers. This cession, subsequently confirmed by the treaty of Hopewell, in the year
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1785, was formed into a land district for the entry and location of lands. Emigrants immediately commenced their journeys to these western regions, which offered many advantages unknown to the country east of the mountains. Among them were hundreds of officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary armies, and with them came men of talent and enterprise.[A.D. 1784.] The tide of emigration during the year 1784 began to set strong upon the Cumberland, as well as into Washington District. In the latter, the population had greatly increased, and settlements had extended until the district contained no less than four counties.
The peace of 1783 had quieted all apprehension on the score of English depredations and partisan warfare. The restless population of the Atlantic States were left free to pursue their own inclinations for western adventure and exploration. No state in the confederacy possessed more of this roving and adventurous spirit than North Carolina. Her western regions had been explored, and the fame of their beauty and fertility were the subject of every fireside conversation, and the object of every family's ambition. The privations, the hardships, and the dangers of a frontier life to them had all the charms of romance without its novelty. There is a charm in the virgin earth and primeval forests of the West which perfectly bewilders the mind of the emigrant from old and dense settlements.
The whole Atlantic population, from Maine to Georgia, was convulsed with the tide of emigration setting toward the great Valley of the Mississippi. While Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey were sending their colonies upon the tributaries of the Monongahela, the states of North and South Carolina, as well as Southern Virginia, were sending numerous colonies upon the waters of the Holston and Clinch, and even to the remote regions of Cumberland River and to Kentucky.
Although settlements were extending west of the Cumberland Mountains and upon the lower portion of the Cumberland River, yet such had been the inveterate hostility of the Cherokees and Creeks, that the southern tributaries of the Holston were still chiefly in their possession.
But the following year brought large accessions of emigrants from North Carolina and Georgia to the head waters of the south fork of the Holston, and upon the Watauga. The white population was rapidly extending upon the waters of the
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Nolichucky and French Broad, where five years before the Indian was sole lord of the soil.The settlements which had been made on the Cumberland River, and which had been slowly increasing for the last two years, now began to augment rapidly. Nashville, the present emporium of the state, was first laid out during this summer, and received its name in honor of the gallant General Francis Nash, who fell in the battle of Brandywine.
[A.D. 1785.] The same inconveniences which induced the separation of Kentucky operated with equal force in the western settlements of North Carolina. These inconveniences multiplied in the ratio of the increase of population, and all looked forward to a time when they would be obviated. There were many of the first men in North Carolina who had removed to the western country, and who were ambitious of political distinction in becoming the founders of a new state. The question of separation began to be examined in all its bearings, not only in the western settlements, but in the capital of North Carolina. The Legislature, willing to extend relief to the western people, proposed to cede, at the expiration of two years, all the western territory to the Federal government, for the purpose of forming an independent state. Until such time, it was to remain under the jurisdiction of North Carolina. But the people, dissatisfied with the remote period designated for their separation, and the difficulties in calling out and controlling their militia in sudden emergencies, to which their situation in an Indian country exposed them, proposed to dispense with the jurisdiction of North Carolina without further delay. A convention was called, consisting of delegates
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from each of the western counties. The convention met, and enacted sundry regulations for the good government of the western settlements. Among these were the following: that all laws of North Carolina, compatible with the condition of the new settlements, should remain in force; that a memorial should be sent to Congress praying the speedy acceptance of the act of cession by North Carolina, with authority to organize an independent state government; that the political affairs of the new settlements shall in the mean time be conducted through a convention elected by the people; that the convention shall elect a delegate to Congress.[A.D. 1786.] A second convention met in Jonesborough, composed of five members from each county. Commencing their deliberations as delegates of the sovereign people, they formally declared the Washington District independent of North Carolina, and constituting the new State of "Frankland." The new state government was put into operation by the appointment of judges and executive officers. A memorial was sent to Congress by the delegate, who carried with him a copy of the new Constitution. But Congress refused to encourage any rebellion against the mother-state, and declined to recognize the new government in any manner whatever. The delegate was obliged to return to his constituents, and report his fruitless mission.
The State of North Carolina asserted her jurisdiction, and manifested a determination to maintain it over any irregular assumption of power. Two parties, of course, soon sprung up: one for the new government, and one for the state jurisdiction. Each authority persisted in maintaining its supremacy, and collisions were unavoidable. The "State of Frankland" contained within its limits two distinct and opposing courts, each exercising jurisdiction, and each claiming for its decisions paramount authority. In some instances the sheriff of Frankland, with his "posse comitatus," entered the court established by North Carolina, and, having seized the papers, turned the court and its officers out of doors. The power of the mother state in due time retaliated the same courtesy upon the courts of Frankland.
Colonel John Sevier had been elected the first governor of Frankland. Soon after his inauguration he came in collision with Colonel Tipton, a stanch adherent of the old state. From
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words they came to blows, and a personal combat ensued. The adherents of each principal followed the example of their leaders, and a general mÄlée followed. But this did not settle principles or establish the supremacy of law.The regular state elections were held. The counties of Washington District elected their representatives to the Legislature of North Carolina. Colonel Tipton was one of these, and carried with him the names of those who were willing to accept the terms of cession by North Carolina, and to secede from the new state authority. The former law proposing a cession to the United States was repealed, and the state persisted in enforcing her authority.
In the mean time, the third convention of Frankland met, enacted laws, and levied taxes. They also selected the eloquent William Cocke, Esq., as a delegate to Congress. He was permitted to address that body on behalf of the helpless and distracted condition of Frankland. Engaged in a civil war with North Carolina on the one hand, and assailed again by the warlike Cherokees, their only protection, their only hope, was in the wisdom of Congress. That body readily interposed its influence to restore harmony in this portion of North Carolina. The authority of the state was maintained, and the new government of Frankland declared illegal. An amnesty was recommended for all past differences, and the regular state authorities were soon after re-established.
The new government very reluctantly yielded. The legislative convention of Frankland met in 1787 for the last time. Their power was at an end, and but little was attempted. The adherents of the new state gradually abandoned their leaders, and the organization of their new government wasted by degrees, until it finally became extinct.
[A.D. 1788.] Thus terminated the first attempt in the West to throw off the allegiance to a parent state in violation of law. The authority of North Carolina having been established over the western counties, her jurisdiction was also extended over the whole settlements, then spreading rapidly upon all the Holston tributaries, as well as those on the Cumberland River.
During the year 1788, the population of the Cumberland settlements had increased to more than six thousand souls, sparsely located within twenty miles of the river, for a distance of more than fifty miles along the same.
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Governor Sevier, however, had been highly obnoxious to the authorities of North Carolina. His property had been declared confiscated, and himself outlawed. Colonel Tipton had been active in prosecuting the state authority against his late antagonist, until the Legislature of North Carolina, swayed by public opinion, which duly appreciated his character and services in the war of the Revolution, as well as in the Indian wars, in which he had lately distinguished himself, resolved, in 1789, to repeal the obnoxious law,
[A.D. 1789.] Since the year 1787, the people of all the Holston settlements, in common with those on the Cumberland River, had become deeply interested in the navigation of the Mississippi, which was the natural outlet for all their surplus products. On this subject they were influenced by all the motives, interests, and prejudices which operated so powerfully upon the people of Kentucky about the same time. During this period, Spain had viewed the rising Republic with jealous concern. Kentucky was presumed by Spain to be disaffected, and the Cumberland and Holston settlements were by no means contented.
It was under these circumstances that the benevolent Governor Miro, of Louisiana, through Colonel Wilkinson, tendered to the people of the Holston and Cumberland settlements, in common with those of Kentucky, the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the rights and privileges of Spanish subjects, upon conditions deemed advantageous to them. Many, lured by the tempting offers of the governor, emigrated to the district of West Florida, and became Spanish subjects.
About the same time, the cultivation of cotton was partially introduced upon the Cumberland River; and for several years it constituted an article of trade and barter between the Cumberland settlements and those of Kentucky, under the control of Colonel Wilkinson's agents.
Meantime, the population on all the head branches of the Holston and Clinch Rivers, as well as on Cumberland, continued
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to extend and to increase in number under the jurisdiction of North Carolina. The Cumberland settlements, before the close of the year 1789, had increased their population to more than eight thousand souls, and had been erected into a judicial district designated "Miro District." Washington District comprised the counties of Washington, Carter, Sullivan, and Greene; and new settlements were extending upon the French Broad and Nolichucky, within the Indian territory. The aggregate population in this district was but little short of thirty thousand persons.During the advance of the settlements in 1789, the Indians on the whole southern frontier began to manifest extreme impatience of the rapid encroachments upon their territory, and depredations and murders upon the inhabitants became frequent, perpetrated chiefly by Cherokees and Creeks.
[A.D. 1790.] North Carolina had not been averse to an amicable and legal separation of her western territory for the purpose of forming an independent state. Early in the year 1790 the Legislature took measures for accomplishing this desirable object. Following the example of Virginia in her relinquishment of the Northwestern Territory, the Legislature proposed to cede to the Federal government all the western territory, for the purpose of organizing in the same a territorial form of government, preparatory to an independent state government, agreeably to the provisions of the ordinance of July, 1787. In April, Congress acceded to the proposed cession, and the relinquishment on the part of North Carolina was completed.
The ceded country, by act of Congress approved May 20th, was erected into a territory of the United States, under the name of the "Southwestern Territory," agreeably to the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, excepting the clause which prohibits slavery.
The territorial government was organized agreeably to the first grade provided by the ordinance of 1787, with a legislative assembly elected by the people, and a legislative council nominated by the Assembly, and appointed by the president. The two houses, thus constituted, elected the delegate to Congress, with the right of speaking, but not of voting, in the House of Representatives. The first territorial governor was William
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Blount, who was also superintendent of Indian affairs, which station he continued to fill until the territory passed through its dependent grades to the rank of an independent state.The census of 1790 gave to Washington District a population of thirty-six thousand souls, including three thousand five hundred slaves; at the same time, the settlements on Cumberland River contained an aggregate of nearly ten thousand souls.
To protect the frontier people from Indian attacks, a military post of the United States was established at the "Southwest Point," the present site of Kingston, near the confluence of the Clinch and Holston Rivers, then within the Indian country.
During the same year, the territorial government went fully into operation, and the present site of Knoxville was selected as the future seat of government, within a few miles of the Indian boundary. The same year witnessed the publication of the first newspaper in the Southwestern Territory, and the first number of the "Knoxville Gazette" was issued on the 5th of November, 1790.
To secure the people of the territory from Indian hostility, the Federal government took immediate measures for conciliating the rising spirit of resistance which had been manifested by portions of the Cherokee and Creek nations. Governor Blount, as superintendent of Indian affairs, commenced a series of treaties and negotiations with different portions of the Cherokee and Creek nations for the peaceable sale and relinquishment of lands occupied by the settlements, and for the amicable adjustment of all cause of complaint on the part of the Indians. These negotiations continued at different points along the exposed border until the close of the following year.
[A.D. 1791.] By this means the Federal government succeeded in restraining the great body of warriors in these two powerful and warlike nations from open war and invasion of the settlements; but it was unable to prevent the encroachments of lawless emigrants upon the Indian lands, or to restrain the depredations and murders which were frequently committed by small parties of hostile Indians upon the exposed colonies.
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had entered into treaties of peace and friendship with the chiefs of the Cherokee and Creek nations, a partisan warfare sprung up along the whole frontier between disorderly individuals and detached parties from both Indian nations; and although the Federal authorities forbore to plunge the country into a general Indian war, it was unable entirely to restrain the voluntary expeditions of the people.[A.D. 1792.] The following year opened with a continuation of hostile incursions and murders by small parties of Creeks and Cherokees along the whole line of border settlements in both Washington and Miro Districts.
Yet Governor Blount had not remitted his efforts to conciliate the savages and to restrain the unlawful aggression of the whites upon the Indian territory. The warriors of both nations were gradually preparing for a regular invasion and destruction of the white settlements, especially those on the
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Cumberland, prompted and supplied, as was subsequently ascertained, by Spanish emissaries from Florida and Louisiana.On the 23d of June, Governor Blount had concluded a treaty of peace and friendship with the Cherokees at Coyatee, where he distributed a large amount of goods and blankets. On the 26th, a council was held with the Cherokees at Estanaula, where the chiefs and warriors entered into an agreement to use their utmost efforts to restrain their young men from acts of hostility. On the 10th of August, a treaty of peace and friendship was concluded with the Chickasâs and Choctâs, near Nashville, accompanied with a distribution of a large amount of goods, and presents to the chiefs. On the 31st of October, a similar treaty was concluded with a portion of the Creek nation, near the site of Knoxville, on the Holston.
Notwithstanding these negotiations, and the earnest efforts to allay all hostile feeling in the Creek and Cherokee nations, they produced no other effect than to prevent an open and general war against all the settlements in the Southwestern Territory.
On the 3d of September, a large Indian trail was discovered within four miles of Buchanan's Station. The same day a party of twenty-four Indians advanced to Fletcher's Lick, eight miles southeast of Nashville, and near the new wilderness road from Knoxville. On the 11th of September, Governor Blount greatly apprehended a descent upon the Cumberland settlements by a large body of Indians which had been discovered upon their march in that direction. On the 30th of September, Buchanan's Station, within four miles of Nashville, was attacked by four hundred Indians, who were repulsed with loss by the garrison. On the 2d of October, Governor Blount wrote to the Secretary of War that "about five hundred Creeks, within a few days, had passed the Tennessee River on their way to the Cumberland settlements, and that they were re-enforced by two hundred Cherokees near the crossing-place, thirty miles below Nicojack."
All these parties of Indians had been well supplied with arms and ammunition by the Spanish agents from Florida, by whom the savages had been urged to exterminate the Cumberland settlements while the American army was advancing north.
[A.D. 1793.] The year 1793 opened with increased activity on the part of the hostile Indians against the whole frontier, from
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Holston to Cumberland.Those on Cumberland River had gradually extended during the year 1792, until they were distributed along the Cumberland River on both sides for a distance of eighty-five miles from east to west, with a general width of about twenty-five miles from north to south. Such was their extent, according to Governor Blount's report to the Secretary of War in 1792.
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region, diversified with deep valleys and towering cliffs, intersected and watered by numerous deep, transparent streams flowing through lofty forests and verdant plains. Many had advanced beyond the limits of the ceded territory, and were encroaching upon the Indian lands upon the northern tributaries of Duck River, when the hostile movements of the Creeks and Cherokees in 1793 compelled them to retire and abandon their unlawful habitations.Before the close of summer the savages had begun to make formidable demonstrations against the whole extent of the white settlements, and the militias were necessarily called into service for the general defense. In the eastern district the military operations were confided to Brigadier-general Sevier, one of the most efficient officers in the West. Bold, active, and persevering, he possessed the entire confidence of his fellow-citizens, who cheerfully rallied under his command at the first summons. In East Tennessee he was the bulwark of defense against savage invasion. Such was his energy and skill in conducting the Indian wars, that Governor Blount declared in one of his dispatches that "his name carries more terror to the Cherokees than an additional regiment would have done."
The principal commander in the District of Miro was General William Robertson. Although he conducted the defenses with great skill and prudence, yet such was the cautious and secret movements of the savages that they never could be encountered in force upon the field of battle. They studiously avoided a general engagement, and restricted their operations to harassing the settlements by frequent incursions of small war parties, which could evade any large force sent against them.
The most formidable demonstration by the savages during this year was made by the Cherokees on the 25th of September, when a large body of warriors, estimated at one thousand, advanced toward Knoxville by night, passing within seven miles of General Sevier's camp of four hundred men; but, after committing several murders and other outrages upon defenseless families, they retired without any attempted collision with his troops.
The successful operations of General Wayne upon the northwestern frontier evidently exerted a restraining influence upon the Cherokees and Creeks in the South. From this time their
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hostilities began to cease, and during the next year they made overtures for the establishment of peace and amity by formal treaties.[A.D. 1794.] Notwithstanding the hostile attitude of the Creeks and Cherokees, the settlements continued to extend, and the population had steadily increased in numbers, from the continual arrivals of immigrants, not only from North Carolina, but also from Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. During the past year, the people became impatient of their dependent form of government, and the grand jury at Knoxville, in the month of November, adopted an address to the governor, claiming a more independent form of government, as provided by the ordinance of 1787, since the territory contained more than the requisite number of "five thousand free white males." In December following, the governor issued his proclamation for the election of a General Assembly, as provided by law. The Legislature, duly constituted, convened at Knoxville in February, 1794. Much of the session was occupied in providing for the opening of roads and for the protection of the inhabitants from Indian hostilities.
[A.D. 1795.] According to a census ordered by the territorial Legislature, the aggregate population of the territory in 1795 was 77,262 persons; of whom 66,490 were whites, the remainder slaves and colored persons. This amount of population, under the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, entitled the people to an independent state government, and application was made to Congress for authority to frame and adopt a state constitution.
[A.D. 1796.] The convention authorized assembled at Knoxville on the 11th of January, 1796, and after a session of four weeks a state constitution was adopted, which having been approved by Congress, the new state was on the first of June admitted into the Federal Union as the "State of Tennessee."
The new Constitution, in its general features, was more Democratic than that of the parent state, and imposed fewer restraints not absolutely necessary for good government. In its provisions it illustrates the principle established by all subsequent constitutions, that the new states, as well as the older which have remodelled their constitutions, exhibit a
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uniform tendency in the public mind to render government more and more the instrument of the popular will.From the adoption of the state government until the year 1840, the advance of population, agriculture, arts, and manufactures was unprecedented in the West. Tennessee, abounding in fertile lands and rich mineral resources, and possessing a genial climate and an enterprising population, has been surpassed by no state in the rapid development of her natural resources, and in the patriotic chivalry of her citizens.
The increase of her population continued to extend her settlements westward into the Valley of the Cumberland and upon the tributaries of the Tennessee River. Four years after the establishment of state government, the population had increased to 105,602 souls, including 13,584 slaves and colored persons. Ten years afterward the census of 1810 gave the whole population at 261,727 souls, including 44,535 slaves and colored persons.
[A.D. 1820.] In ten years more this number had almost doubled, and the census of 1820 gave an entire population of 420,813 souls, including 80,107 slaves and colored persons. The ratio of increase for the next ten years was almost as great. The census of 1830 gave the inhabitants at 681,903 souls, including 141,603 slaves and 4555 colored persons.
Yet the whole of the present western district of Tennessee, as late as 1816, was an Indian wilderness, in the undisputed occupancy of the native savages. Until that year, the Chickasâ nation occupied the whole western portion of Tennessee, as far eastward as the Tennessee River, and northward to the southern boundary of Kentucky. The rapid advance of the civilized population made it requisite that the Indian tribes should occupy more circumscribed limits; and they retired within the present State of Mississippi, and subsequently to the Indian territory provided for them west of the present State of Arkansas.
It was on the 20th of September, 1816, that General Andrew Jackson, with David Meriwether and Jesse Franklin, concluded a treaty with the Chickasâs, after a protracted negotiation in a general council of the nation. By this treaty, the Chickasâ nation, for a valuable consideration, ceded to the United States large bodies of land lying on both sides of the
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Tennessee River, west of the Muscle Shoals, partly in Alabama, and partly within the present State of Mississippi.This treaty extinguished the Indian title to a large portion of country, and opened the way for the egress of the redundant population. The treaty was ratified by the Senate on the 30th day of December following, and soon after, the lands were surveyed for market. This was the first advance of the whites into the Chickasâ country after the Creek war.
The second relinquishment of lands by the Chickasâs in Tennessee was two years afterward. In this case, negotiations were conducted by General Andrew Jackson and Colonel Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky; and the treaty was finally concluded and signed on the 19th day of October, 1818, and ratified by the Senate on the 7th of January following.
By this treaty the Chickasâ nation cede and relinquish to the United States all their lands in the western part of Tennessee north of latitude 35° and east of the Mississippi. The Chickasâs soon afterward commenced their gradual removal from the ceded territory. Some retired across the Mississippi to the Indian territory west of the present State of Arkansas; others retired into the heart of the nation in North Mississippi, where they remained until the treaty of Pontatoc, sixteen years afterward.
The first white immigrants advanced into the country early in the year 1820, and extended down the tributaries of the Obian, Forked Deer, Hatchy, and Wolf River, to the Mississippi. Among the first settlements upon the Chickasâ Bluffs was one by John Overton, for himself and company, near the old Fort Pickering, below the mouth of Wolf River. The site of a town was laid off in the month of May, and called Memphis,
[A.D. 1822.] Emigration from East and Middle Tennessee began to advance into all the late Chickasâ cession, and the jurisdiction of the state was annually extended over new counties successively erected and organized by the Legislature. Settlements continued to multiply in all the fine cotton lands upon the tributaries of the Hatchy and Wolf Rivers, until the year 1830, when the entire population of the Western District, according to the census of that year, was 94,792 souls, including 26,224 slaves, distributed over fourteen counties. Such had
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been the tide of emigration in ten years into the western district of Tennessee.[A.D. 1840.] The population, wealth, and resources of Tennessee continued to increase almost in an equal ratio for the next ten years. The Indian claim having been extinguished to the entire territory within the state, and the whole Indian population removed from its eastern as well as its western frontier, the energies of the people of Tennessee were untrammeled, and their wealth, resources, and agricultural enterprise even outstripped their prolific population.
The census of 1840 gave the aggregate inhabitants at 829,210 souls, including 183,059 slaves and colored people The Western District alone contained a population of 193,241 persons, comprised in eighteen organized counties. The admirable agricultural resources of this portion of the state had been greatly developed, and it had become an important portion of the great cotton region of the Mississippi Valley. Memphis, the emporium of Western Tennessee, had received the impress of Tennessee enterprise, and was already the third commercial city on the Mississippi River, and the great cotton mart for West Tennessee and North Mississippi. Its population in 1840 was nearly four thousand inhabitants; but such was the enterprise awakened in 1842, that the commerce and population of the city had more than doubled before the year 1846, when it had also been selected as the location of a naval depot for the United States.
[A.D. 1846.] Tennessee, not inaptly, has been called the mother of states. From the bosom of this state have issued more colonies for the peopling of the great Valley of the Mississippi than from any one state in the American Union.
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Chapter XI. — Indian wars and military operations by the United States north of the Ohio River. A.D. 1787 to 1795.
Argument. — Unsettled State of the Indian Tribes from 1784 to 1790. — Extent of Indian Depredation and Murders up to 1790. — General Harmar prepares to invade the Indian Country. — Advances to the Maumee. — Is defeated in two Engagements. — Retreats to Fort Washington. — Indian Hostilities renewed. — General Scott marches an Expedition against the Wabash Towns. — Colonel Wilkinson leads another against the Towns on Eel River and Tippecanoe. — General St. Clair prepares to invade the Maumee Country. — Marches toward the St. Mary's. — Meets with a disastrous Defeat. — Terrible Onset of the Savages. — Their Number and Allies. — The Remnant of the Army arrives at Fort Washington. — Colonel Wilkinson commands at Fort Washington. — He proceeds from Fort Jefferson to the Scene of the Defeat. — Overtures of Peace tendered to the Indians in 1792. — The Federal Government authorizes a strong Force for the Humiliation of the Savages. — General Wayne Commander-in-chief. — Indians continue their hostile Demonstrations. — Excited by British Emissaries. — General Wayne concentrates his Forces at Fort Greenville. — The advanced Posts harassed by Indians. — Plan of Encampment at Greenville. — Lord Dorchester. — President Washington's Views of Indian Tactics. — Fort Recovery built. — Is attacked by Indians in 1793. — General Scott arrives with the mounted Riflemen. — General Wayne takes up the Line of March for the Maumee. — "Fort Defiance" commenced. — "Fort Deposit" at the Head of the Rapids. — Force concentrated at this Point. — Battle of the Miami, August 20th, 1794. — Utter Defeat of the Savages. — The Army returns to Fort Defiance, which is strongly fortified. — Army advances to Miami Villages. — Fort Wayne erected. — Army retires to Winter-quarters at Greenville. — Indians sue for Peace.
[A.D. 1787.] ALTHOUGH the northwestern Indians had resumed hostilities against the frontier settlements of Kentucky, and those in the western part of Virginia and Pennsylvania, as early as 1789, the Federal government had taken no active measures to enforce peace and the observance of their recent treaties entered into at the Great Miami and at Fort Harmar. The Federal executive studiously abstained from any military operations against the hostile savages, vainly relying upon the success of negotiation and treaty, from which they disdainfully retired. Partisan expeditions from Kentucky and other portions of the exposed settlements, for the defense of the Ohio frontier, were the only defensive measures adopted, and they were undertaken at individual expense, and sustained by individual enterprise, and without the sanction of the Federal government.
The extent and nature of the hostile operations of the savages against the frontier people, and the emigrants upon the
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Ohio River, have been enumerated in another place, to which the reader is referred.[A.D. 1790.] To such an extent had these hostilities and depredations been carried in the spring of 1790, that in a communication from Judge Harry Innis to the Secretary of War, dated July 7th, he states that, to his knowledge, about fifteen hundred persons had been killed or captured by the Indians on and near the Ohio since the peace of 1783. The number of horses seized or stolen from the new settlements and from emigrants during that time was estimated at not less than twenty thousand, besides household furniture and other property taken or destroyed to the value of fifteen thousand pounds, or about fifty thousand dollars.
At length, all overtures and efforts at negotiation on the part of the Federal government having been rejected by the savages, the president determined to organize a strong military force for the invasion of the Indian country, and the destruction of the towns upon the head waters of the Miami and Maumee Rivers. Orders were accordingly issued by the Secretary of War to General Harmar on the 7th of June, 1790, to plan, in conjunction with Governor St. Clair, a vigorous expedition against the Indians of the Maumee. The governor was authorized to call out the militia and volunteers of Western Pennsylvania and Kentucky to co-operate with the Federal troops. Agreeably to this authority, a requisition was made by Governor St. Clair upon the western counties of these states, as follows : From the counties of Washington, Fayette, Westmoreland, and Alleghany, in Pennsylvania, five hundred men, to rendezvous at M'Mahon's Creek, four miles below Wheeling, on the 3d of September; from the District of Kentucky, embracing the counties of Nelson, Lincoln, and Jefferson, three hundred men, to rendezvous at Fort Steuben, near "the Falls," on the 12th of September; and from the counties of Madison, Mercer, Fayette, Bourbon, Woodford, and Mason, seven hundred men, to rendezvous at Fort Washington on the 15th of September.
On the 27th of September the advanced detachments were in motion, and on the 30th the line of march was taken up for the towns on the St. Mary's River. The route pursued was the "Old War-path" of the Indians across the head waters of the
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Little Miami and Mad Rivers, where the villages had been deserted by the enemy. Thence the march was directed westward, crossing the Great Miami at Piqua, a few miles below the mouth of Loramie's Creek. Here the first three Indians were seen, and they appeared to be spies reconnoitering the force and movements of the army. A small detachment of mounted men were sent in pursuit, who succeeded in capturing one; the others escaped.From Loramie's Creek the march was continued west of north, and on the west side of that stream about thirty miles, crossing the head stream of the St. Mary's River. The army was now about one hundred and thirty miles from Fort Washington, and about fifty miles from the principal town at the confluence of the St. Mary's. The whole force consisted of three hundred and twenty regular troops, and eleven hundred and thirty-five volunteers and militia.
Colonel Hardin and Major Paul of the Pennsylvania line were detached in advance with six hundred men, to surprise and capture the town at the confluence. On the second day, October 16th, Colonel Hardin approached the Indian stronghold, and found it deserted and burned by the savages. The only resistance made was from some straggling Indians, who exchanged a few shots with the advanced guard of the troops. This detachment remained four days encamped at the village, awaiting the arrival of General Harmar with the main body of the army, during which time no important movement was made against the enemy. The Indians, in the mean time, were making vigorous efforts to repel the invaders. They began to assemble in great numbers in the vicinity of the camp, and every foraging detachment was either cut off or driven back.
On the 20th, Colonel Hardin, with one hundred and fifty Kentucky militia and thirty regulars, was detached to surprise and destroy an Indian town on the St. Mary's, six miles above the confluence. This detachment marched without interruption until within half a mile of the town, when suddenly they found themselves in the midst of several hundred Indians in ambuscade, concealed by the high grass and brushwood on each side of the path in the margin of the prairie. The marching column was suddenly assailed by a destructive fire from
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the concealed enemy, and, being thrown into confusion, the militia fled precipitately. The regulars maintained their position with the utmost courage, defending themselves with the bayonet as the Indians rushed upon them with the tomahawk, until nearly the whole number were killed. Two privates and two officers escaped the massacre by concealing themselves behind logs in an adjacent swamp. Twenty-three regulars were killed upon the ground, and several others in their retreat. Ten of the militia were killed, and others wounded.General Harmar, alarmed at this foreboding of disaster, resolved to take up the line of march for Fort Washington. On the following morning he broke up his encampment, and marched eight miles on the retrograde route, when he encamped for the night. While at this place, intelligence was received that the Indians had taken possession of the town immediately after it had been evacuated by the army. Colonel Hardin, mortified with his recent disaster, and in hopes of retrieving his military character, solicited permission once more to give the Indians battle, and to drive them from the town. Permission was granted, and he was dispatched with six hundred militia, and sixty regulars under Major Fontaine, to attack the town. The attack was made with skill and great courage; but the Indians had arranged matters to complete his discomfiture. At first they made a strong show of resistance, and then fell back across the Maumee, and retreated up the St. Joseph's, drawing the militia after them, and leaving the regulars to be overpowered by superior numbers in the rear. The militia continued the pursuit for nearly two miles, when, unable to bring them to an engagement, they retired. In the mean time, two ambuscades had been laid; one to fall upon the regulars after they had been abandoned by the militia, and another to intercept the militia on their return. The plan succeeded to their most sanguine expectations. The militia had pressed on after the retiring Indians, heedless of danger, while the regulars on the opposite side of the river were attacked by an overwhelming number of savages, who rushed furiously upon them with the tomahawk and war-club. They fought with desperate courage, defending themselves with the bayonet until nearly every man was killed. Lieutenant-colonel Wyllis and Major Fontaine fell valiantly fighting, the latter pierced by eighteen balls; and around them laid the bodies of fifty of their brave
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men. The militia on both sides of the St. Joseph's were severely harassed in their return by the Indians in ambuscade upon elevated ground near their path. The whole loss of the militia under Colonel Hardin was one hundred privates and ten officers killed, besides the wounded.Thus terminated the whole of General Harmar's operations against the northwestern savages upon the waters of the Maumee. In two disastrous enterprises, conducted by Colonel Hardin, he had lost in one week no less than one hundred and eighty-three men killed, besides about forty wounded, leaving no evidence of more than about fifty Indians destroyed. The town at the confluence of the St. Joseph's and St. Mary's, known as "Girty's Town," and which was consumed by the savages, contained about two hundred and fifty cabins. The entire injury sustained by the Indians was trivial compared to the number of troops in the field and the loss of life sustained by the Americans.
A portion of the orders to General Harmar, which were utterly neglected after his disasters on the St. Mary's, required him to advance westward from the Maumee for the destruction of the Wea towns upon the Upper Wabash, as well as others upon Eel River, noted as the residence of several hostile bands which had been active in their incursions against the frontier population upon the Ohio; yet, gratified in his reverses by the slightest success, and fearful of other disasters, he ordered an immediate retreat, consoling himself with the reflection "that we are able to lose ten men to their one;" also, that one great object of the expedition had been accomplished in "the destruction of the Miami towns." The retrograde march was immediately commenced for Fort Washington, leaving the slain upon the field of battle, unburied, and having the savages in his rear almost to the Ohio.
The campaign of 1790, instead of producing a salutary restraint upon the savages, served only to provoke them, and render them more confident and daring. During the winter and spring, war parties continued their incursions against the unprotected settlements near the Ohio River, from Fort Pitt down to the "Falls," while marauding parties infested the
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banks of the river, greatly interrupting the intercourse between the upper and lower settlements.[A.D. 1791.] For the restraint of the savages and the protection of the exposed frontiers, until the Federal government could concentrate a strong force for the effectual chastisement of the hostile tribes, General Charles Scott, of Kentucky, was authorized to organize and equip a volunteer brigade of mounted riflemen, not exceeding seven hundred and fifty in number, to be sent against the tribes located on the head waters of the Wabash.
The volunteers began to rendezvous at the mouth of Kentucky River about the middle of May. On the 23d, having crossed the Ohio with his whole command, General Scott took up the line of march upon the route leading to the Miami towns, until he crossed the St. Mary's, when, suddenly changing his course toward the west, after a rapid march he succeeded in surprising several towns upon the Wabash and Eel Rivers. On the 2d of June the expedition had destroyed several large towns, and laid waste extensive fields of growing corn, and otherwise ravaged the country.
On the 14th of June the expedition returned to Kentucky, without the loss of a single man killed, and having only five wounded. In the campaign, the troops had encountered the savages in numerous skirmishes, killing no less than thirty-two warriors, and taking fifty-eight prisoners, including women and children.
Meantime, the Federal government had made provision for a second invasion of the Miami country with a strong force, under the immediate command of General St. Clair, who was actively engaged in Kentucky, making preparations for the contemplated campaign, preparatory to the arrival of new levies of regular troops from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey. While these preparations were in progress, General St. Clair organized a volunteer mounted expedition, consisting of five hundred and thirty men, under the command of Colonel Wilkinson, for the destruction of several large towns upon Eel River.
On the first of August, Colonel Wilkinson left Fort Washington with his command, and marched with a bold feint toward the Miami towns, until he reached St. Mary's River,
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when he marched rapidly to the northwest and west, crossing the head streams of the Wabash, and coming suddenly upon the towns on Eel River and other northern tributaries of the Wabash. Having destroyed several towns, together with their fine fields of corn, on the Eel River and Tippecanoe, the expedition set out on their return to Fort Washington with thirty-four prisoners, having lost two men killed and one wounded. Eight Indians had been killed. In this campaign, much of the Wabash and Weatanon country had been overrun and ravaged, the troops having traveled four hundred and fifty miles when they reached Fort Washington, on the 23d of August.Early in September the new levies from the East arrived at Fort Washington, and soon afterward the arrival of the volunteers and militia from the western country increased the entire force under General St. Clair to two thousand men, including cavalry and artillery.
At the head of this force, the general commenced his march from Fort Washington on the 3d of October, and proceeded to Fort Hamilton, an advanced post on the Miami, twenty miles from Fort Washington. Having received a small addition of three hundred militia from Kentucky, he proceeded northward twenty miles further, and erected another stockade, called Fort St. Clair. Twenty miles further he erected Fort Jefferson; each of which was furnished with a suitable garrison. About this time a company of sixty Kentucky militia deserted and returned home. After these reductions, the whole force of General St. Clair was less than eighteen hundred men, with which he continued his march for the Miami towns. He had now reached a champaign country, which was frequently wet, and heavily timbered. The roads were poor, and with great labor the baggage-wagons and artillery were slowly advanced on the route, while the infantry proceeded with scarcely less difficulty.
On the 24th of October the army was about ninety miles from Fort Washington. The advance was slow and tedious; desertions were frequent; and at last, on the 31st, sixty men deserted in a body, and set out on their return march. All efforts to restore them to their duties having failed, Lieutenant-colonel Hamtramck was dispatched with a strong detachment
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in pursuit of the deserters, reducing the main army to little more than fourteen hundred men. After the arrival of a company of about sixty men from Kentucky, under Captain Ellis, the general pursued his march. Provisions and forage became scarce, and many of the horses began to fail, which still further retarded the progress of the army, while the Indians began to make their appearance in small detachments, hovering upon the flanks of the advancing column.On the 3d of November the army encamped in a wooded plain among the sources of a Wabash tributary, upon the banks of several small creeks, about fifty miles south of the Miami towns.
Next morning, November 4th, just before sunrise, and immediately after the troops had been dismissed from parade, the Indians made a furious attack upon the militia, whose camp was about a quarter of a mile in advance of the main camp of the regular troops. The militia immediately gave way, and fled with great precipitation and disorder, with the Indians in close pursuit; and rushing through the camp, they threw the battalions of Majors Butler and Clark into confusion. The utmost exertion of those officers failed to restore complete order. The Indians, pressing close upon the militia, immediately engaged Butler's command with great intrepidity and fury. The attack soon became general both in the front and second lines, but the weight of the enemy's fire was directed against the center of each line, where the artillery was stationed. Such was the intensity of the enemy's fire, that the men were repeatedly driven from their guns with great loss. Confusion was spreading among the troops, from the great numbers who were constantly falling, while no impression was made by their fire upon the enemy. "At length resort was had to the bayonet. Colonel Darke was ordered to charge with part of the second line, and endeavor to turn the left flank of the enemy. This order was executed with great spirit. The Indians instantly gave way, and were driven back three or four hundred yards; but, for want of a sufficient number of riflemen to pursue this advantage, they soon rallied, and the troops were obliged in turn to fall back. At this moment the Indians had entered our camp by the left flank, having driven back the troops that were
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posted there. Another charge was made here by the second regiment, Butler's and Clark's battalions, with equal effect, and it was repeated several times, and always with success; but in each charge several men were lost, and particularly the officers; which, with raw troops, was a loss altogether irremediable."The slain were left with the wounded upon the field of battle, both alike subject to the mercy of the infuriate savages, who tomahawked and scalped them indiscriminately. Some who were taken prisoners in the fight were afterward burned at the stake.
The detachment at Fort Jefferson was insufficient to restore the former numerical strength of the army, as it was previous to the attack on the 4th, and a large number of those who had escaped were without arms, and were useless as soldiers.
In this most disastrous battle, thirty-eight commissioned officers were killed on the field. Six hundred non-commissioned officers and privates were either killed or missing. Among the wounded were twenty-one commissioned officers, and two hundred and forty-two non-commissioned officers and privates. Many of the wounded died subsequently of their wounds. The Indian loss did not exceed sixty warriors killed.
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The grand error in this campaign was the impolicy of urging forward on a dangerous service, far into the Indian country, an army of raw troops, who were unwilling to enter upon the campaign, as was fully evinced by frequent desertions as they approached the hostile towns. The army was fatally reduced by the detachment sent to overtake the deserters from the Kentucky militia; and General St. Clair himself was quite infirm, and often unable to attend to his duties as commander-in-chief. On the fatal day of the defeat, he was scarcely able to be mounted upon his horse, either from physical infirmity or culpable intemperance.
The Indians engaged in this terrible battle comprised about nine hundred warriors. Among them were about four hundred Shawanese, commanded by Blue Jacket, and chiefly from the waters of the Wabash. The remainder were commanded by Little Turtle and Buckongahelas, consisting of Delawares, Wyandots, Potawatamies, and Mingoes. The Delawares alone numbered nearly four hundred warriors, who fought with great fury. On the ground, during the battle, were seen several British officers in full uniform from Detroit, who had come to witness the strife which they had instigated.
Among the camp-followers in this campaign were nearly two hundred and fifty women, of whom fifty-six were killed during the carnage; the remainder were chiefly captured by the Indians.
The army made but little delay at Fort Jefferson; but, leaving the wounded in charge of a suitable garrison, the main body advanced eagerly toward Fort Washington, where it arrived with its broken detachment on the evening of the 8th of November. Such was the terror and the consternation with which the troops had been impressed, that the sentinels at Fort Jefferson repeatedly deserted their posts and escaped.
Thus terminated the disastrous campaign of General St. Clair, who returned ingloriously to the civil administration of his government, surrounded with a cloud of public indignation, which was not wholly dispelled during his subsequent life.
[A.D. 1792.] Early in January he set out for the city of Philadelphia, in order to vindicate himself before the Federal
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government, leaving Colonel James Wilkinson in command at Fort Washington. A committee of Congress, appointed to investigate his conduct during the campaign, after a full investigation acquitted him of all censure on the part of the government.During the absence of General St. Clair, Colonel Wilkinson, who had been commissioned colonel of the second regiment of United States infantry, assumed the command of the northwestern army.
Soon after the departure of General St. Clair, Colonel Wilkinson, with a detachment of regulars, and one hundred and seventy militia commanded by Major Gano, proceeded to relieve Fort Jefferson. From that post he advanced to the scene of the late disastrous defeat, where he collected more than two hundred muskets and one piece of artillery, which had been left on the field by the savages.
The Indian war had now become a matter of serious consideration to the whole United States, and the inefficient measures adopted by the Federal authorities heretofore for its successful termination had met with but one indignant response from the whole West. The war having assumed a national character, the people of the West as well as those of the nation at large, no less than the country's honor, required some adequate provision for the defense of the frontier people, and such movements on the part of the nation as should signally retrieve the disgrace of these repeated disasters.
At the urgent recommendation of President Washington, Congress at length authorized the enlistment of three additional regiments of infantry, and one complete squadron, two thousand of cavalry, for a term of three years' service, or until peace should finally be extorted from the Indians.
While these levies were organizing and concentrating upon the Ohio River for the humiliation of the hostile savages, General Anthony Wayne, a distinguished officer of the Revolutionary war, was appointed commander-in-chief of the northwestern army. The new levies were to rendezvous at Fort Pitt and other posts on the Ohio, preparatory to an early campaign during the following year.
Meantime, Colonel Wilkinson, commanding at Fort Washington under the instructions of the president, had made frequent overtures of peace to the hostile tribes. But the savages
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treated with disdain every attempt at negotiation, and repeatedly put to death such as ventured to bear his dispatches.After the failure of several messages from Colonel Wilkinson to the inimical bands during the spring of 1792, in June he determined, at the desire of the president, to send a formal embassy by an officer of rank, authorized to make preliminary arrangements for a general treaty of pacification with all the confederate tribes of the Northwestern Territory. For this hazardous mission, he selected Major Truman as the bearer of dispatches from the commander of the army, and a peace-talk from the president, under the protection of a flag of truce. Willing to advance the interests of his country even at the risk of his life, Major Truman set out upon his dangerous mission, accompanied by a French interpreter, and one other attendant in the capacity of a servant boy. On his route to the Indian towns, he fell in with two Indian warriors, who, affecting to apprehend danger by the inequality of numbers, proposed to leave the camp during the night. To quiet their apprehension on that point, and to inspire confidence in his professed object, Major Truman permitted himself to be tied, so as to leave the two parties equal without him. But no sooner was he confined by his bonds, than the treacherous savages took occasion to shoot his two companions, after which he was dispatched with the tomahawk.
At a subsequent period, Colonel Hardin and Captain Hendricks, having been sent for the same object, were in like manner killed by the Indians.
The medals, speeches, and papers in their possession were delivered by the Indians to the officers of the British garrison at the "Rapids" of the Maumee, and by them transmitted to the commandant at Detroit. Other papers, taken from some of the flag parties who had been killed by the Indians, were carried to the Wabash. M. Vigo, from Vincennes, on the 3d of July, reported at Fort Washington that a flag party of four had been killed by the Indians on the 28th of June, and that from them the Indians had obtained a great many papers, among which was "a great and good talk from a great chief."
During the year 1792, the advanced posts of Fort St. Clair and Fort Jefferson were occupied by the regular troops and
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detachments of militia, as a restraint upon the advance of hostile Indians against the settlements of Kentucky and the "Miami Purchase." These advanced garrisons were frequently assailed by the savages, who lurked in the vicinity to observe and cut off communication with Fort Washington, or to capture the supplies forwarded for their use. Skirmishes with detachments of regular troops or militia passing to the relief of these posts were common during the summer and autumn.Among the skirmishes of this kind we may enumerate one on the 6th of November, in which Major John Adair, with one hundred Kentucky militia, was attacked near Fort St. Clair by a large body of Indians under Little Turtle, and after a severe skirmish was compelled to retreat, with the loss of six men killed, besides the loss of one hundred and forty pack-horses and all their camp equipage. The Indian loss was six warriors killed.
Several of the Indian parties which harassed the advanced posts and infested the frontier settlements during the summer and fall of 1792 were led or planned by Simon Girty, a renegade Pennsylvanian in the British service. During this year he had been exceedingly active in his operations among all the northwestern as well as the southern tribes, to rouse them against the American people. Under the direction of Alexander M'Key, Indian agent of his Britannic majesty, he had visited numerous tribes, and had sent emissaries and presents to the Creeks of Western Georgia, and to other portions of the southern nations, urging them to the conflict. It was during this year that Girty, exulting in his success, declared that when the next campaign opened the United States would find seventeen nations arrayed in arms against them, and that, in his rude phraseology, "he would raise all hell to prevent a peace."
During the months of November and December, the new levies from the East were arriving at Pittsburgh, on their way to the seat of war. Such as arrived were placed in winter quarters on the Ohio, about twenty miles below Pittsburgh, where they remained until spring, when they were quartered in the vicinity of Fort Washington and at the advanced posts toward the Miami towns.
[A.D. 1793.] Early in April General Wayne began to concentrate his troops and military supplies in the vicinity of Fort
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Washington, and was actively engaged in his preparations for the invasion of the Indian country. But it was not long before he perceived that the period for active operations would be passed ere the arrival of the whole complement of the new-levies. The recruiting officers in many places had encountered much difficulty in filling their rolls, on account of the prejudice which existed against the dangerous character of the service, which had already proved so disastrous to two armies.During this unavoidable delay, he lost no opportunity of renewing overtures of peace with the Indian foe; but the savages disdainfully rejected not only all his proposals, but those made by commissioners from the president.
At length, finding all his efforts to reconcile the savages ineffectual, he began, in September, to advance his forces toward the seat of the Indian power upon the branches of the Maumee. Having proceeded about eighty miles northward from Fort Washington, he took up his position for the winter, and erected a strongly-fortified camp, which he called "Fort Greenville." This position was about six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson, near the bank of Greenville Creek, a western tributary of the Great Miami, and near the site of the present town of Greenville, in Darke county, Ohio.
During the winter the Indians were active in their demonstrations against the troops, as well as against the frontier settlements in the rear of the army, even to Fort Washington.
On the 17th of October, a detachment of ninety men, commanded by Lieutenant Lowry and Ensign Boyd, conducting a quantity of provisions and military stores from Fort Washington, was attacked early in the morning by a superior force of savages, seven miles in advance of Fort St. Clair. After a severe skirmish, both officers were killed, and the detachment retreated to Fort St. Clair, leaving thirteen of their number on the field, together with seventy horses and the stores in twenty-one wagons, to the mercy of the enemy. The whole number killed was fifteen. The wagons and a large portion of their contents were subsequently recovered.
On the 24th of October, General Charles Scott, with one thousand mounted riflemen from Kentucky, arrived at Greenville; but as all active operations were deferred until the close
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of winter, he returned with his command to Kentucky until the following spring.During the winter the scouting parties of General Wayne, at the head of whom was Major Simon Kenton, ascertained that the Indians were concentrating in great force on the Maumee, below the mouth of the Au Glaize, and were active in their preparations to meet their invaders.
Nor had the British authorities in Canada failed to take a deep interest in the success of the savages, while they encouraged them in a vigorous resistance, under the assurances of a probable co-operation of the British arms before the close of the contest.
In the autumn of 1793, Lord Dorchester had issued a proclamation to the western savages, in which he declared that, "from the manner in which the people of the United States push forward, act, and talk, I should not be surprised if we are at war with them in the course of the present year: if so, a line will have to be drawn by the warriors." The same fall Governor Simcoe advanced from Detroit to the foot of the "Maumee Rapids," with three companies of British troops, to occupy and erect a military post at that place, ostensibly to protect Detroit from the advance of the American army, which was about to invade the Indian country.
[A.D. 1794.] The summer of 1794, until near the last of July, was spent in active preparations by the commander-in-chief for his advance against the combined savages. During this time, the general was indefatigable in completing the organization and discipline of his troops, and in providing ample supplies and military stores.
The president, in a military conference and personal interview with General Wayne and the Secretary of War, had urged the necessity of strictly observing certain principles of tactics in the campaigns to be undertaken against the Indian tribes.
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The most important of these were "a facility of forming an order of battle from an order of march," so as to be able to resist a sudden attack from any quarter; also, "a capacity of forming a line in thick woods," and "an easy mode of securing and prolonging the flanks, with a line of extreme open order," having each file more than arm's length asunder. These were considered by President Washington essential points in a war with our northwestern Indians; for no vigilance could guard against an unexpected attack in their native forests and defiles. Their object in all their tactics is to turn the enemy's flank. The president further observes: "The plan suggested above presents to the Indians, in all their attempts to turn either flank, a succession of fresh troops coming from the rear to extend the line." The plan of fighting regular troops requires the files so close that the shoulders of the men touch each other. "In fighting Indians, as no shock was to be given or received, a very open order was, therefore, attended with two very great advantages: it more than doubled the length of the lines, and in charging, which was an essential part of the system, it gave more facility to get through the obstacles which an action in the woods always presents. The camp was to be always in a hollow square, within which were to be placed all the baggage and cavalry, and sometimes the light infantry and riflemen, for the purpose of making sallies in a night attack. Ramparts of logs or fallen timber are requisite for the purpose of arresting a night attack until the troops can be gotten under arms. Patrols and picket guards are useless, as they are sure to be cut off by the savages. A chain of camp sentinels are placed within supporting distance of each other around the camp. The army is to be kept together as an entire whole, for detachments are generally intercepted, or surrounded and cut off by the savages."Such was the general outline of the plan suggested by Washington for conducting a campaign against the savages; and upon these principles General Wayne formed his fortified camp at Greenville, as well as his daily encampment, on the line of inarch into the Indian country,
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a tolerably correct representation of the encampment at Greenville.In June, a strong detachment of the army was advanced to the scene of "St. Clair's defeat." The ground was still strewed with the bleached bones of the brave men who had been slaughtered nearly three years before. After the melancholy duty of collecting and interring nearly six hundred skulls, besides other bones, in one common grave, the ground was occupied by the detachment, and a stockade was immediately commenced.
The Indians, by their scouting parties, had observed this movement of the troops, and impatiently witnessed the erection of this post upon the field of their triumph. Encouraged by British agents and officers, they were making great preparations to encounter the invading foe. The whole of the northwestern tribes from New York to the Upper Mississippi, and many Creek and Cherokee auxiliaries, had contributed their quota of warriors to augment the allied army upon the waters of the Maumee, where the final contest was to decide the fate of the Indian tribes.
Undaunted by the formidable array preparing against them, the savages seemed to bid defiance to the power of their enemies, and invited the contest. On the last day of June, a large body of Indian warriors appeared before Fort Recovery early in the morning, and made a furious attack upon a detachment of ninety riflemen and fifty dragoons, under Major M'Mahan, encamped near the fort. The attack soon became general, extending from the detachment of Major M'Mahan to the whole garrison in every direction. The action was continued with great spirit, and the Indians were repulsed with the loss of many of their warriors; but, rallying their forces, they renewed the assault, and continued their efforts without intermission until night. Although the severe fire from the fort compelled
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them subsequently to maintain a respectful distance, they did not abandon their design of capturing the post. They were re-enforced on the following morning, July 1st, and resumed the attack with increased fury; but having been soon repulsed, with great loss, by the small arms and artillery of the fort, they retired from the contest. Thus the savages experienced a signal reverse upon the same field where once they had been so triumphantly victorious.The American loss in this attack was twenty-five men killed and missing, and thirty wounded. Two hundred and twenty-two horses fell into the hands of the Indians, and twenty-two were wounded.
The Indian loss in this attack was severe; but, as they labored almost incessantly during two nights in removing their dead and wounded, only ten bodies were found when they retired. The entire number engaged in the attack, as was subsequently ascertained, was nearly fifteen hundred, including many Canadian French, who, with blackened faces, took an active part in the attack. Several British officers in full uniform were also seen on the field.
Among the slain on the part of the Americans were the gallant officers Major M'Mahan, Captain Hartshorne, and Lieutenant Craig. The intrepid M'Mahan was the pride of the northwestern army, and the idol of his soldiers. In honor of his heroic defense of the post, General Wayne, in his official report, proudly refers to him as the "defender of Fort Recovery."
On the 20th of July, General Scott, from Kentucky, arrived at Fort Recovery with sixteen hundred mounted men, to re-enforce the regular army. This brigade augmented the whole effective force to nearly four thousand men; and on the 29th, General Wayne took up the line of march for the hostile towns upon the Au Glaize River. The fourth day brought them to the St. Mary's River, forty-seven miles from Greenville, and twenty-four miles in advance of Fort Recovery. Here, on the margin of a beautiful prairie, the legion remained three days, erecting a stockade fort, which was completed on the 4th of August, and called "Fort Adams." It consisted mainly of two salient block-houses, connected by a salient stockade, inclosing the quarters of the troops and the military stores. This post was left in command of Lieutenant Underhill, with a
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garrison of one hundred men, when the army resumed its march for the Au Glaize.The advance was by regular marches across the Au Glaize, and thence down that stream through extensive towns and fields which lined its banks for many miles. On the 8th of August the army encamped at the mouth of the Grand Glaize, fifty-three miles in advance of Fort Adams, and one hundred and three miles from Greenville. Next day the general ordered the erection of a strong stockade, immediately at the junction of the Au Glaize and Maumee Rivers, which he called "Fort Defiance." During the construction of this fort, the troops remained encamped in the principal Miami village, surrounded by extensive fields of corn, until the 14th, during which time the cavalry scoured the whole country for many miles round, laying waste the fields and burning the deserted towns
On the 15th, such was the progress made toward the completion of Fort Defiance, that General Wayne, leaving a detachment of troops for its defense, proceeded with the main body of the army down the Maumee by regular marches until the 18th, when he encamped near the head of the Rapids, forty-five miles in advance of Fort Defiance, and within seven miles of the British Fort Miami.
Here he erected a stockade for the security of the baggage and military stores, and called it "Fort Deposit." The army under his command assembled at this point amounted to two thousand regulars, besides eleven hundred mounted riflemen, commanded by General Scott. The troops were in fine spirits, and in a high state of discipline, all eager to be led against the allied savages, who were encamped in the rear of the British fort, and within five miles of the American army.
On the 20th, at eight o'clock in the morning, the troops in battle array advanced toward the enemy. The line of battle consisted of three columns: the "legion" on the right, next the river; General Todd's brigade of mounted riflemen on the left; and General Barbee's brigade of mounted men in the rear. Major Price, with his select corps, marched in front as an advanced detachment, to give timely notice of the approach of the enemy.
The Indians were formed in three lines, within supporting distance of each other, in the midst of a forest which was
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interrupted with prostrate trees, and having their left resting upon the river, and their right extending nearly two miles into a dense thicket of brushwood.In this order the army advanced slowly five miles down the left bank of the Maumee, when Major Price sent an express to the commander-in-chief, with intelligence that he had discovered the enemy. It was only a few minutes afterward when the major was compelled to fall back from the heavy fire of a large body of Indians, concealed in the high grass and behind fallen timber. The action soon became general, and the troops advanced to their respective stations in front.
The Indians immediately began to extend their front, advancing their right into the brushwood thicket, with the design of outflanking the left of the American line, when General Scott was ordered to that quarter with General Todd's brigade, to turn the enemy's right flank. Captain Campbell, with the legion on the right, was ordered to charge the enemy's left. The order was promptly obeyed, but in the advance Captain Campbell was killed, and his command was driven back upon the infantry. The infantry were ordered to advance with trailed arms, and rouse the Indians from their covert with the bayonet, and, when roused, to deliver a well-directed fire upon their backs, and follow it up immediately with a brisk charge, so as to give no time to reload, or to form their line again.
Such was the impetuosity of this charge by the first line of infantry, that the Indians and Canadians were driven from all their coverts so rapidly, that only a part of the second line of General Scott's mounted battalion could gain their position in time to take an active part in the battle. The Indians were driven through the thick woods and fallen timber more than two miles in the course of one hour by less than half their number.
The force of the Indians and their British allies was estimated at about two thousand combatants; the troops under General Wayne who were actually engaged did not exceed nine hundred.
The woods for a considerable distance were strewed with the dead bodies of the Indians and their white allies, the latter
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having been armed with British muskets and bayonets. The loss of the American army on this occasion was comparatively small. Of the legion of cavalry, Captain Robert Mis Campbell, Lieutenant Henry B. Towles, and twenty-four non-commissioned officers and privates were killed, and eighty-seven officers and privates wounded. Of the dragoons and artillery, three were killed and eight wounded. Of the Kentucky volunteers, seven were killed and thirteen wounded. The total loss of killed and missing, including eleven who died of their wounds, was forty-four; the whole number wounded was one hundred.In this campaign, and in the battle of August 20th, every officer and soldier behaved with that courage and promptness which drew from their commander the most unbounded approbation. Among the officers who distinguished themselves for courage and intrepidity were Brigadier-general Wilkinson, Colonel Hamtramck, Lieutenant Covington, who cut down two savages with his own hand; Captains De Butts and Lewis; Lieutenant Harrison, Major Mills, and Lieutenant Webb, who also cut down a savage with his own hand.
This battle was fought in view of the British post, and many of the fugitive Indians and Canadians took refuge from the vengeance of the American troops under the guns of the fort. The American army encamped on the banks of the Maumee, in sight of the British post, for three days. During this time, General Wayne reconnoitered the fort and its defenses by advancing with his staff within range of the guns. The troops destroyed and burned all houses and property of every kind belonging to the Indians and Canadians, as well as the house and store of the British agent, Alexander M'Key.
After the battle, a spirited correspondence was opened between the British commandant, Major Campbell, and the American commander-in-chief. The former desired to know of the latter in what light he should view "such near approaches of an American army, almost within reach of the guns of a post belonging to his majesty, the King of Great Britain?" General Wayne, in a tone of proud defiance, replied, "Were you entitled to an answer, the most full and satisfactory was announced to you from the muzzles of my small arms yesterday morning, in the action against hordes of savages in the vicinity of your fort, and which terminated gloriously for the American
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arms; but had it continued until the Indians were driven under the influence of the post and guns you mention, they would not much have impeded the progress of the victorious army under my command, as no such post was established at the commencement of the present war between the Indians and the United States." The correspondence was continued by several letters from each commander, in one of which General Wayne demanded, in the name of the President of the United States, that the British post should be abandoned, and the troops and military stores removed to the nearest post occupied by the British troops at the treaty of 1783. The commandant, in his reply, observed, "that the post would not be abandoned at the summons of any power whatever until orders were received from his superiors, or the fortunes of war should oblige him."Here the correspondence terminated, and every thing in view of the fort which could be of any service to the Indians or British having been destroyed, the American army returned to Fort Deposit.
This was one of the most decisive battles ever fought with the western Indians, and tended more than any other to humble the power and spirit of the hostile tribes. The name of General Wayne alone was more terror to them than an army, for they looked upon him as a chief that never slept, and whom no art could surprise.
The army, by easy marches, returned to Fort Defiance, where it arrived on the 27th of August, having laid waste the whole adjacent country. The sick and wounded received due attention, and the regular troops were employed in completing the defenses of the post. On the 12th of September, an additional glacis and fascines, with a ditch twelve feet wide and eight feet deep, besides four bomb-proof block-houses, having been completed, the main army took up the line of march for the "Miami villages," at the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's Rivers. A suitable garrison was detailed for the defense of the post against any Indian force which could be arrayed against it.
This fort, being in the most exposed portion of the Indian country, was completed with great labor, and was one of the strongest ever built for the defense of the frontier. The annexed diagram represents the general plan of the works.
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On the 17th the army encamped at the Miami villages, forty-seven miles above Fort Defiance. The camp was fortified as usual, and the following day General Wayne selected the site for another stockade fort, the construction of which was begun on the 24th of September. On the 23d of October it was completed, and by Colonel Hamtramck called "Fort Wayne," in honor of the commander-in-chief.
On the 18th of October the cavalry and the greater portion of the infantry set out from Fort Wayne on their march for Greenville. On the way, a detachment was left at Loramie's Creek, seventy miles from Fort Wayne, where Fort Loramie was erected. On the 20th of November the regular troops went into winter-quarters at Greenville.
The campaign of 1794 put a close to the Indian hostilities in the northwest The spirit and power of the savages had been subdued; their country had been ravaged with fire and sword; their houses and their fields were destroyed; their supplies consumed; their hopes of checking the advance of the white population had been blasted; and now, fearing the power of the United States, they soon began to evince a disposition to enter into amicable negotiations for a permanent treaty of peace and friendship, notwithstanding the opposition urged by the British agents.
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Chapter XII. — Advance of the white population into the Northwestern Territory. Admission of the "State of Ohio" into the Federal Union. A.D. 1795 to 1804.
Argument. — Security of the frontier Population after the Treaty of Greenville. — Amicable intercourse with the Indians. — Emigrants advance upon the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami Rivers. — Population of Northwestern Territory in 1796. — Of Cincinnati in 1797. — Population advances into the Virginia Military District. — Nathaniel Massie, Pioneer of Scioto Valley. — Chillicothe first Settled. — Tribute to Memory of Massie. — First Mail-route opened from Wheeling to Limestone. — Population advances to the "Western Reserve." — "County of Wayne" organized. — Old French Settlements near Detroit. — Traits of Character in French Population. — Retrospect of Northwestern Territory in 1796. — Extension of Settlements up the Scioto and Muskingum Valleys. — "Adams County" organized. — "Ross County" organized. — Condition of Chillicothe in 1798. — Extreme Settlements north of Chillicothe. — Herman Blannerhasset emigrates to Ohio in 1799. — His Traits of Character. — Blannerhasset's Island. — Steubenville laid off and settled. — Territorial Population in 1798. — Second Grade of Government assumed. — First Territorial Legislature. — Public Surveys. — Counties of Trumbull and Fairfield organized. — Belmont County organized. — Indiana Territory organized into a separate Government. — Congress authorizes a Convention to form a State Constitution. — Convention assembles and adopts a Constitution. — "State of Ohio" admitted into the Union. — State Government organized March 1st, 1803. — Character and Merits of Governor St. Clair. — New Counties organized. — Governors of Ohio. — Subsequent Increase of Population and Extension of Civil Government — Population in 1840. — Character of Emigration to Ohio.
[A.D. 1795.] The treaty of Greenville was hailed with joy throughout the West; in Kentucky, Western Virginia, and Pennsylvania, no less than in the Northwestern Territory. The whole western population of these states was deeply interested in the peace and security of the frontier, for all had participated in the dangers and privations incident to the state of hostilities which had called forth the previous unfortunate campaigns into the Indian country.
Several months before the treaty, the greater portion of the Indian tribes had been anxious for peace, and had discontinued their incursions against the Ohio border; yet the exposed settlements in the Northwestern Territory were not altogether secure from outrages committed by a few desperate malcontents, belonging chiefly to the Shawanese nation. The apprehension of danger from such was sufficient to prevent the extension of population beyond the immediate vicinity of forts, stations, and stockades. But no sooner had the treaty of
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Greenville been concluded, than the frontier inhabitants, in conscious security, began to advance; while the Indians, relieved from the toils and privations of war, confidently approached the settlements, anxious to open a friendly intercourse and trade in the sale of their furs, peltries, and game for cash, or to exchange them for powder and lead, and for such necessaries and comforts as were adapted to their mode of life. On the part of the whites, all apprehension of danger ceased, and friendly intercourse succeeded to outrage and war. The disaffected Indians who persisted in their hostility had retired either into the Far West or to their allies in Canada. Repose and security lighted up the path of the pioneers with new hopes, and renewed energy and enterprise for peopling the fertile and boundless regions before them; and again they prepared to explore the lands which lay inviting their advance in the valleys of the Muskingum, the Hockhocking, the Scioto, and the two Miamis. Forts, stations, and stockades, having lost their importance, began to crumble and decay; while the restless pioneer confidently advanced, pitched his tent, and erected his cabin in the dense forest, or the remote plains which expand near the sources of these beautiful streams. Men of capital and enterprise in the older settlements soon became interested in securing claims and titles to extensive bodies of land, and in leading forth colonies for their occupation. Emigrant families from Kentucky, from Western Virginia, and from Pennsylvania were also advancing across the Ohio, by way of Cincinnati, Marietta, and Wheeling, into the valleys of the Little Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum.Among the most active of the early landed proprietors in the Miami country were Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Northwestern Territory, and General James Wilkinson, of Kentucky. These two officers, anxious to speculate in lands, associated themselves with Jonathan Dayton and Israel Ludlow, a surveyor, and made a joint purchase of a large body of lands from J. C. Symmes, lying high up the Little Miami, and extending westward to the Great Miami as high as Mad River. This purchase was made on the 20th day of August, and only seventeen days after the treaty of Greenville had been signed. Preparations were made for the early distribution of this purchase into suitable family tracts, and on the 4th day of November Israel Ludlow commenced surveying the plot of a town,
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which was named "Dayton," in honor of one of the proprietors.[A.D. 1796.] Extension of Settlements into the Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum Valleys. — A large portion of the emigrants from the New England States, and from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia, advanced by the way of Brownsville and Wheeling. Here a portion descended the Ohio to Limestone, and other points in Kentucky, to make preparations for their final residence. Others proceeded across the Ohio River at Wheeling and other convenient points, and thence by land to the section of country which they had selected for their homes. The colonies for the Muskingum and Scioto valleys passed chiefly by this route into the interior of the territory.
Before the close of the year 1796, the white population of the Northwestern Territory increased to about five thousand souls of all ages, who were distributed chiefly in the lower valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami Rivers, and upon their small tributaries within fifty miles of the Ohio River. Such were the extent and condition of the white settlements previous to the year 1797.
The Ohio Company's purchase continued to receive emigrants, and numerous settlements had been made on the banks of the Ohio and upon its small tributaries south of the Muskingum. The purchase of Symmes on the Miami presented numerous small villages, besides those near Fort Washington and Columbia, both of which had greatly increased their population since the treaty of Greenville.
Cincinnati had increased its population and improved the style of its buildings. In the year 1792 the town contained about thirty log cabins, besides the buildings and appurtenances of Fort Washington, and not above two hundred and fifty inhabitants. In the beginning of the year 1796 it contained
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more than one hundred cabins, besides about one dozen frame houses, with a population of nearly six hundred persons.Within the Virginia Military District, between the Little Miami and the Scioto Rivers, were several new settlements in the vicinity of Manchester, and less than thirty miles from the Ohio. Within three years a few settlements had been extended ten miles up the Little Miami and twenty-five miles up the Scioto Rivers, or as far as the present town of Piketon. Surveys had been executed by Nathaniel Massie, the enterprising pioneer of the Scioto Valley, over most of the fertile lands westward to the Little Miami, as far north as Todd's Fork, and upon all the branches of Paint Creek, and eastward to the Scioto, near Westfall. He had done much to extend the settlements upon the Scioto, and his name deserves to be enrolled among the hardy pioneers who led the van of civilization into the western wilderness. Nathaniel Massie was an early emigrant to Kentucky; born in Goochland county, Virginia, near the close of the year 1763, he was a soldier in the Revolutionary war at the age of seventeen. A surveyor in 1783, he set out for the West in quest of employment, where, for more than two years, he was engaged in exploring, locating, and surveying the fine lands upon the north side of the Kentucky River. In the autumn of 1787 he engaged with zeal as a surveyor under Colonel Richard C. Anderson, surveyor-general for the Virginia Military Land Districts, and surveyed north of the Ohio in the Virginia Military District, between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers. Near the close of the year 1790, he commenced the first settlement in the Virginia Military District by laying out the town of Manchester, twelve miles above Limestone. In March following his stockade was completed as a defense against Indian hostility, and contained a population of thirty families.
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During the year 1795, Massie, having secured large bodies of excellent lands west of the Scioto, upon the branches of Paint Creek, led out an exploring party for the purpose of laying off a town at some advantageous point on the Scioto; but encountering hostile Indians near Reeve's Crossings, on Paint Creek, he returned to Manchester.
Thus commenced the first settlement on the waters of Paint Creek, at "Station Prairie," three miles below the present city of Chillicothe. While the settlers were employed in the duties of a pioneer colony, Massie, assisted by Duncan M'Arthur, was engaged in the selection of a site for the contemplated town upon the banks of the Scioto River. The elevated alluvial plain three miles above was selected for the town, and was soon laid off into two hundred and eighty-seven town lots, and one hundred and sixty-nine out-lots, regularly intersected at right angles by wide streets and lanes alternately. According to the original plan of settlement, one hundred town lots and one hundred out-lots were selected by lot as a donation to the first hundred settlers. To others, the price of a choice town lot was ten dollars, and each owner proceeded to erect upon his lot the stipulated house or tenement for future residence. The town sprang up almost, as it were, by magic. Before the close of the year, it contained, besides private residences, several stores, taverns, and mechanical shops. The arts of pioneer life began to multiply, and to give competence in the midst of the wilderness. Emigrants constantly arrived; the population, trade, and enterprise of the place continued to increase under the liberal policy of its enterprising founder.
The town was called "Chillicothe," a term which in the Indian dialect signifies town. It was the first town west of the mountains which was built in peace and quietude, and not requiring the protection of stockades and forts against Indian hostility.
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Nathaniel Massie continued to retain the confidence and respect of the new settlements until the day of his death, November 3d, 1813. Under the territorial government, enjoying the entire confidence of Governor St. Clair, he was commissioned colonel for the proper organization of the territorial militia. He was subsequently a prominent member of the convention which formed the state constitution; he was a senator from Ross county in the first General Assembly under the constitution, and speaker of the Senate; and he was subsequently elected major-general of the second division of Ohio militia.
Emigrants from Virginia advanced in great numbers into the Scioto Valley, and settlements were extended rapidly upon all the fine lands in the vicinity of Chillicothe, upon the branches of Paint Creek and Deer Creek, as well as upon the smaller tributaries of the Scioto, within twenty miles of Chillicothe.
Such was the advance of population into the wide and fertile Valley of the Scioto in less than three years after the restoration of peace with the Indians.
At the same time, settlements were advancing upon all the beautiful tributaries on the eastern side of the Great Miami. Sparse settlements were formed as high as Dayton; but the principal population in this quarter was near Cincinnati, and in the Valley of the Little Miami. Settlements, likewise, were gradually extended up the Muskingum as far as the mouth of Licking. It was in this year that Ebenezer Zane obtained a grant for one section of land, in compensation for opening a bridle-trace from the Ohio River at Wheeling across the country to Limestone, in Kentucky.
Extension of Settlements into the Connecticut Reserve. — About the same time, emigrants from the New England States began to arrive in the northeastern part of the territory, and to form settlements in "New Connecticut," or the "Western
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Reserve." During the same year the first settlement was made at the mouth of Conneaut Creek, near the western line of Pennsylvania, upon the shore of Lake Erie; a few months after, the town of Cleveland had been laid out, near the mouth of the Cuyahoga.The claim of the State of Connecticut to the lands comprised in the "Connecticut Reserve" had been formally transferred and confirmed to the Connecticut Land Company, by deed bearing date September 5th, 1795, two months after the Indian title to the same had been extinguished by the Federal government. This land company was constituted of fifty-six individuals, acting through a board of directors. During the next summer, the company sent out forty-three surveyors, to lay off and subdivide that portion lying east of the Cuyahoga into townships five miles square.
It was on the 16th of September, 1795, that the agents of the company advanced to the lake shore, selected and laid off the plot of a town, upon a beautiful, dry, alluvial, wooded plain, comprising a peninsula between the Cuyahoga River and the lake, and elevated about eighty feet above the water. The site was one well adapted for a commercial town. The original plot represented two hundred and twenty lots, seven streets, and four lanes. In honor of General Moses Cleveland, the enterprising agent of the Connecticut Company, the town was called "Cleveland."
Although emigrants continued to arrive in the Western Reserve, yet Cleveland attained no importance as a town until May, 1806, when it became the county seat of Geauga county, organized in March preceding. Such it continued until May, 1810, when it became the seat of justice for Cuyahoga county, which had been erected two years before. In this county the first presiding justice of the Court of Common Pleas was Benjamin Ruggles.
Settlements near Detroit. — In the mean time, the northwestern posts, including the country west and south of Lake Erie, had been evacuated by the British troops, and were now in the occupancy of the United States. The settlements near the Detroit River and upon the Maumee were annexed to the jurisdiction of the Northwestern Territory, and were comprised in the "county of Wayne," which included all the southeastern
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portion of Michigan and the northwestern portion of the present State of Ohio, eastward to the Cuyahoga, and the "portage path" to the Tuscarawas. The town and post of Detroit was the county seat of justice.Two full regiments of troops were retained upon this frontier until the spring of 1708, when they were chiefly removed to the posts near the Upper and Lower Mississippi. A road, or trace, had been opened from Cincinnati, through the wilderness, by way of Forts Wayne and Miami, to Detroit, and to other remote posts in the territory.
Detroit, and other western posts occupied by the British troops within the boundaries of the United States, agreeably to the stipulations in the treaty of 1783, were to have been surrendered, "as soon as convenient," to the authorities of the United States; yet they had been retained for more than ten years after the treaty, notwithstanding the earnest remonstrances of the American government. This infraction of the treaty, and other difficulties of a kindred nature, was deemed a matter of such vital importance to the peace and welfare of the country, that a special minister had been sent to England to urge the amicable evacuation of them. The minister, John Jay, after a difficult and tedious negotiation, succeeded in obtaining the treaty, of November 19th, 1794, containing a stipulation for the surrender of all the military posts within the United States, and the withdrawal of all British troops and munitions of war prior to the first day of June, 1796.
In conformity with this stipulation, the military posts at Detroit and upon the Maumee were formally surrendered to General Wayne early in that year.
Detroit was one of the oldest French settlements in the western country, having been occupied by the French as early as the year 1700. Since the fall of Canada, it had been a regular British military post, and the great western depot of the American Fur Company, until its delivery to General Wayne.
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a corrupt dialect, and ignorant of the English tongue, which was a foreign language to them.Their ignorance of the language of their new rulers for a time was a source of much inconvenience to both parties. This made public business, and especially the administration of justice in the Federal courts, slow and tedious. Every word must necessarily pass from mouth to ear through an interpreter for the benefit of the French citizens. The progress in business was not only slow and tedious, but novel, and often amusing; but it was seldom satisfactory to the French. Another cause of dissatisfaction to them was the mode of administering justice through the mummery and tedious process of court forms, and, as they conceived, that useless appendage to a court, a jury.
Another source of dissatisfaction prevailed, which also sprang from the American mode of conducting litigated questions. Attorneys were of course interested in encouraging litigation, especially where doubts arose concerning points of law relative to real estates. The attorneys were anxious to test the correctness and validity of the late commandant's decisions, and hence they stirred up questions of law at the expense and cost of the litigants. The attorneys were a new appendage to the forms of judicial proceedings with the French, and, what was more annoying, they encouraged litigation whether the cause was good or bad, provided the parties were good for their fees. Cases of this kind, relative to real estate or landed property, in the course of a few years became numerous, prominent upon the records of the courts, and highly profitable to the attorneys.
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The settlements on the Raisin, Detroit, and Maumee Rivers, as well as those on the Wabash and in the "Illinois country," were composed almost exclusively of Creole French, or French Canadians, remains of the old French colonies. They lived in the old Creole style, each settlement or homestead having a narrow front on the river bank, near which ran the public road, passing each man's door successively. They were generally poor, indolent, illiterate, and credulous, if not superstitious. They were Catholics, as their fathers had been before them, in whose footsteps they had trodden for three generations without change or desire of change.
The Counties of the Northwestern Territory in 1796. — The whole of the Northwestern Territory not in the actual possession of the Indian tribes was now organized into five extensive counties, as has been before observed. Washington county comprised all that portion of the present State of Ohio within forty miles of the Ohio River, and between the Muskingum and the Little Miami; Marietta was the seat of justice. Hamilton county comprised all that portion of the state between the Little and the Great Miami, within the same distance of the Ohio River; and Cincinnati was the county seat. Knox county embraced the region near the Ohio River, between the Great Miami and the Wabash Rivers; and Vincennes was the county seat. St. Clair county embraced the settlements upon the Illinois and upon the Kaskaskia Rivers, as well as those upon the Upper Mississippi; and Kaskaskia was the seat of justice. Wayne county, recently organized, embraced all the settlements upon the Maumee, Raisin, and Detroit Rivers; and Detroit was the seat of justice.
The jurisdiction of each of these counties extended over a territory but little less in extent than some of the New England States. The settlements were few, comparatively small, and widely separated by an uninhabited wilderness of not less than one hundred miles in extent, except where the solitary hut of the frontier hunter broke the uniformity of the scene. The only routes of intercourse between these remote settlements were either the liquid high-ways of nature, or bridle-paths and
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"blazed-traces," through the deep forests which covered the southern portion of this extensive territory. A cabin, a hunter's hut, or a solitary family residence might be seen on these routes at the distance of ten or fifteen miles from each other, where man and horse might obtain imperfect shelter and scanty fare. In other directions, the traveler might traverse the wilderness for thirty or forty miles without house or shelter, or food for man or beast, except the prolific herbage which covered his route on every side.[A.D. 1797.] Extension of Population in 1797 and 1798. — The settlements had extended sparsely up the Scioto Valley and River; a village of more than fifty cabins, log houses, and frames, had sprung into existence upon the site where Chillicothe had been laid out twelve months before; a few scattering settlements were found along the river for twenty miles below, and also upon some of the tributaries within fifty miles of the mouth. Forty-five miles by land above Chillicothe, on the Scioto, were three or four cabins, recently erected near the site of the present town of Franklinton, opposite the present location of Columbus, and not far from the Indian boundary. But this remote portion was a perfect wilderness of woods and wet prairies, and the few settlers were such hunters as live only on the extreme verge of civilization, or who, like John Brickell, had lived with the Indians until they had been "weaned" from civilized life.
Upon the Muskingum but few settlements had extended above the present site of Zanesville, which was near the limits of the Indian country, and was occupied by a few squatters with their half-formed cabins, barely giving them a shelter from the inclemency of the seasons.
In the mean time, since the treaty of Greenville, a large number of emigrants from Kentucky and Virginia had advanced into the extreme eastern portion of Hamilton county, on the West side of the Scioto River, within the limits of the "Virginia Military District." Hundreds of settlements had been already made, and the population had augmented until it became expedient to divide the county of Hamilton. The governor and council, accordingly, on the 10th day of July laid
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off and organized Adams county, which comprised the eastern half of what had been Hamilton county. Manchester was made the seat of justice, and the first court was held in September following. The same year the seat of justice was fixed at "Adamsville," four miles above the mouth of Brush Creek, by Secretary Sargent.Emigrants from New England and from Pennsylvania continued to arrive in the eastern portion of the territory, and had already formed numerous settlements west of the Ohio for more than fifty miles north of the Muskingum, and beyond the Ohio Company's purchase. This region was organized into the county of Jefferson, and embraced the country upon the Ohio for more than thirty miles above Wheeling, and as far below.
For nearly eight years past, Cincinnati had presented an animated scene of military parade, with the pomp and circumstance of war, and the thrilling music of the drum and fife, diversified by the roar of the morning gun as its echo reverberated along the hills which form the shores of the Ohio; but Fort Washington having ceased to be the headquarters of the army, and the general rendezvous of all the troops destined for the northwestern campaigns and frontier posts, Cincinnati lost much of its former consequence, which had been imparted by the arrival of droves of pack-horses, with all the attendant business of the commissary department. Stripped of all these incitements to life and enterprise, Cincinnati began to assume the appearance of a quiet commercial town.
[A.D. 1798.] The year 1798 found the population of Hamilton county greatly augmented by recent emigration. The same increase by emigration existed at different points on the Ohio, from Hamilton eastward to Jefferson county. But the strongest tide of population was beginning to flow into the Scioto Valley, not only from the East, but also from Kentucky and Tennessee. The Scioto country had become noted
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for its fine wooded bottoms, no less than for its level plains, which spread out almost boundless in extent a few miles north of Chillicothe. Hence it became a center of attraction to the advancing emigrants. Before the midsummer of 1798, the governor deemed it expedient to organize the country north of Adams, to comprise the upper settlements on the Scioto; and, on the 20th of August, in council, he laid off and organized the county of "Ross," named in honor of James Ross, an enterprising agent of the Ohio Company. Chillicothe, having about two hundred inhabitants, was the county seat. The first Court of Common Pleas was held in Chillicothe during the same autumn, and the first case on the docket was conducted by William Creighton, Jr., a lawyer of great worth and talents.As yet Chillicothe was in the midst of an isolated settlement of not more than ten miles in extent, and Ross county contained large regions of country unexplored. The "Piqua Plains," intersected by "Zane's Trace," twenty miles from Chillicothe, presented only one cabin near the eastern margin, and three miles south of it was another; thence to the present site of Lancaster one more cabin was seen near the trace; from thence to the mouth of Licking Creek several improvements were commenced; but from that point eastward to Indian Creek, near the Ohio, the route was through an unsettled region. A "blazed trace" of sixty miles opened a communication between the frontier settlements of Western Virginia, near Clarksburg and Marietta. About the first of October, 1798, Felix Renick and Joseph Harness, surveyors from the south branch of the Potomac, and Leonard Stump, set out on a tour of exploration in the Scioto Valley in search of the fine lands seen by their friends more than twenty years previous in Lord Dunmore's campaign. Provided each with a good rifle, a pack-horse laden with supplies, and ammunition, they passed by way of Clarksburg, on the west branch of the Monongahela, to the Muskingum Valley, and thence westward to the Scioto Plains. Advancing upon Zane's Trace, they found upon the present site of Zanesville only a wilderness house of entertainment, near which were encamped a few white hunters, surrounded by Indian wigwams, occupied by the native savages employed in hunting, fishing, trading, and drinking. The region near Columbus, the present state capital, was a dense forest; one mile distant, near the present town
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of Franklinton, were a number of newly-erected log cabins without chinking or daubing, and having only a blanket in the doorway instead of a wooden door. In the same vicinity was the cabin of John Brickell, a while captive, adopted into the Indian tribes from childhood, but surrendered at the treaty of Greenville, and still more wedded to savage life than to the comforts of civilization. From the mouth of Whetstone Creek to Chillicothe the trace passes a new cabin or improvement "about every eight or ten miles."Among the emigrants to the Northwestern Territory during this year was Herman Blannerhasset, an accomplished gentleman and a man of fortune, from Ireland. Driven from his native country by political difficulties, he sought an asylum on the bosom of the beautiful Ohio. He purchased from Colonel Devoll, of Virginia, the island in that river, one mile below the mouth of the Little Kenhawa, and soon afterward commenced his improvements,
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fire in 1810, and since then every vestige of improvement has disappeared.Settlements continued to extend upon all the lower tributaries of the Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum Rivers, while their head branches were still inhabited by the Indian tribes. Numerous towns sprung up, but their population did not augment rapidly. Cincinnati, with all its advantages of location, scarcely numbered eight hundred souls. Chillicothe, after two years, now numbered two hundred and fifty souls. These were the largest towns in the territory.
About the close of the year 1798, James Ross and Basil Wells, Esquires, having purchased a large tract of land in the northern portion of Jefferson county, laid out a town on the west bank of the Ohio, which was named "Steubenville," in honor of the Baron Steuben,
Second Grade of Territorial Government. — In the mean time, the population of the territory had gradually increased, and a census, taken during the summer of 1798, proved that the whole number of free white males amounted to full five thousand.
Those elected to compose this Legislature were such as are not excelled in point of talent by the members of any legislative body in the United States, even at this late day. Among the pioneers of Ohio were men of the first order of talent and of finished education, improved and polished by much intercourse with the most refined population of the Atlantic States. Hamilton county sent a strong representation. Of these, William M'Millan was a native of Virginia, a man of strong and commanding talent, and a finished scholar. John Smith was a man of strong mind, native talent, and great energy of character. His laudable ambition and rectitude of purpose
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placed him above many of the talented leaders of his day. Jacob Burnett, another representative from Hamilton, was a prominent member of the territorial government, and continued to fill responsible offices under the state government for many years.Solomon Sibley, of Detroit, and representative from Wayne county, possessed a sound mind, improved by a liberal education, and a stability of character which commanded general respect, and made him rank as one of the most talented men in the House. Return J. Meigs and Paul Fearing, both lawyers of Marietta, and representatives of Washington county, were men of talent and great worth. The former subsequently filled more important offices than commonly falls to the lot of one man, both in the State and Federal governments. Nathaniel Massie and Joseph Darlington, representatives of Adams county, were among the earliest and most enterprising citizens of Ohio. Ross county sent a representation not excelled by any county in the territory for intelligence and talent. Worthington, Tiffin, Finley, and Langham were qualified to exert an influence in any deliberative body. They, too, were natives of Virginia, excepting Tiffin, and all were conspicuous in the subsequent state government. Edward Tiffin was an Englishman by birth, having arrived in the United States as surgeon in Burgoyne's army.
[A.D. 1799.] The representatives elected convened at Cincinnati on the first Monday of February, 1799, and nominated ten persons to the President of the United States, from whom he appointed five to serve as a "legislative council." The first legislative council, appointed by the president on the 22d of January, 1799, consisted of the following persons, viz: Henry Vanderburg, of Vincennes; Robert Oliver, of Marietta; James Finley and Jacob Burnett, of Cincinnati, and David Vance, of Vanceville.
The new territorial Legislature met, agreeably to the governor's proclamation, at Cincinnati, on the 16th day of September.
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body his views of such measures as were worthy its consideration. Among these, the most important duty was the revision of the former laws, and the formation of a regular territorial code, adapted to the condition of the territory, under its new form of government. The former laws required to be altered, amended, repealed, or otherwise modified, so as to adapt them to the present state of the territory. After a laborious session of nearly three months, the Legislature was prorogued by the governor, to meet again on the first Monday in November following. Captain William H. Harrison had been elected first delegate to Congress.At this first session of the territorial Legislature, Governor St. Clair began to manifest his high-toned aristocratic feelings and his imperious disposition. The misfortunes which attended the campaign against the Maumee towns, while under his immediate command seven years before, had any other effect than to create respect and submission to his arbitrary demands. Conscious of his power and the moral rectitude of his intentions, he in turn disregarded the opposition of his adversaries.
Inconvenience had been experienced already by emigrants, on account of the large continuous bodies of fine lands held by private companies and individual proprietors, which tended to exclude the former class of people.
To prevent such unfavorable influences in future, and to place the emigrant beyond the power of the capricious monopolist, Congress devised a new mode of survey and sale, by which the public lands should be laid off in small tracts, and be held open for sale to any individual. The investigations on this subject resulted in the present enlightened and eligible plan of survey, which has been in general use for more than forty years.
[A.D. 1800.] The "Connecticut Reserve" continued to receive numerous emigrants from the New England States, who
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formed settlements chiefly near the shore of Lake Erie. The population in this region having greatly increased, the governor laid off and organized the county of Trumbull on the 6th of December, 1800. It was about this time that a large number of settlers upon the Pennsylvania state grants, northwest of the Alleghany River, abandoned their improvements, to avoid litigation, and retired to the "Connecticut Reserve."The high, rolling, and broken country upon the upper branches of the Hockhocking River, between the Scioto and Muskingum, had also received a numerous population of German emigrants from Europe and from Pennsylvania, forming an interesting colony. Industry and frugality were their characteristic traits, and their settlements soon evinced the great accession to the moral worth of the territory. The county of Fairfield was accordingly organized on the 9th day of December, and the town of Lancaster was made the seat of justice, around which sprang up, soon afterward, one of the most wealthy settlements in Ohio.
During the same summer the country directly north of Fairfield was settled by enterprising immigrants from Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, and subsequently by others from New England. Hence this region had already received the elements of an industrious and frugal population. These settlements were soon afterward comprised in the newly organized "county of Licking."
The population was rapidly increasing in all the settlements within sixty miles of the Ohio, from the county of Jefferson on the east to the Great Miami on the west, and the people were becoming impatient for the adoption of a state government under the ordinance of 1787, when Congress proceeded to set apart a portion of the territory preparatory to the formation of such a government. The eastern part was separated by act of Congress from the western, by a line to be run due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, until it should intersect the parallel of latitude which passes through the southern extremity of Lake Michigan.
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Northwestern Territory was restricted on the west to the limits of the present State of Ohio.The rapid extension of settlements on the Ohio near the Pennsylvania line made it expedient to lay off another county in that part of the territory. The county of Jefferson was therefore divided, and the northern portion was organized as the county of "Belmont," and St. Clairsville was made the seat of justice.
[A.D. 1801.] Indiana Territory organized. — Meantime, Congress had provided for the organization of a new territorial government for the western division, designated as the "Indiana Territory," by the appointment of Captain William H. Harrison, the former delegate to Congress, as governor and "Superintendent of Indian Affairs." From this time Captain Harrison became identified with the early history of the Indiana Territory.
The Indiana Territory comprised all the country from the Great Miami westward to the Mississippi River, and from the Ohio on the south, to the sources of the Mississippi and Lake Superior on the north. The name by which it was designated was indicative of the principal inhabitants, consisting of the native Indian tribes, who still occupied the greater portion of the country.
[A.D. 1802.] Congress authorizes a Convention. — The leading politicians of that day, warmly opposed to the governor, resolved to abolish the territorial form of government; and, believing that their wishes on this subject were not sufficiently advocated by the territorial Legislature, they pressed forward by direct means to the accomplishment of their purpose.
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in Congress, and on the 30th of April, 1802, the president approved the act entitled "an act to enable the people of the eastern division of the territory northwest of the River Ohio to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and for other purposes."This act defined the limits of the territory, agreeably to the present boundaries of Ohio, designated the number of delegates from each county, prescribed the qualification of the electors and the day of holding the election, as well as the time and place of holding the convention. The act also empowered the members of the convention, when properly assembled and organized, "first to determine, by a majority of the whole number elected, whether it be or be not expedient at that time to form a constitution and state government for the people within said territory." The act also provided "that, if it were determined to be expedient, the convention shall be, and hereby are, authorized to form a constitution and state government; or, if it be deemed more expedient, the same convention shall provide by ordinance for electing representatives to form a constitution or frame of government, which said representatives shall be chosen in such manner and in such proportion, and shall meet at such time and place as shall be prescribed by said ordinance, and shall form for the people of said state a constitution and state government; provided the same shall be Republican, and not repugnant to the ordinance of July 13th, 1787, between the original states and the people and states of the territory northwest of the Ohio River."
In assenting to the admission of Ohio into the Union as an independent state, Congress required the exemption of all the public lands from taxation by the state for five years from the date of sale, including such as had been sold since the 30th day of June, 1802. In consideration of this privilege, Congress appropriated permanently, for the use of schools in the state, the sixteenth section in every township of the public lands, subsequently to be sold within the state, or one thirty-sixth part of the whole. The same conditions have been extended to all other new states upon their admission into the Union; and
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hence originated the appropriation of one section of school lands in every township.Although, by many, this act in its provisions was deemed an unwarrantable assumption of power on the part of Congress, and an infringement of the Constitutional rights and prerogatives of the territorial Legislature, yet the members of that body deemed it expedient to submit quietly to the operation of the law. The election of delegates to the Convention was accordingly held on the second Tuesday of October, and the Convention assembled at Chillicothe on the first Monday in November following. Having organized, the Convention determined that it was expedient to proceed forthwith to form a constitution and state government. The territorial Legislature having been prorogued until the third Monday in November, the President of the Convention was authorized to desire the governor to prorogue the General Assembly indefinitely.
Yet Governor St. Clair desired to participate in the deliberations of that body. As the chief executive of the territory, he wished to address the Convention in his official capacity; but the proposition was resisted; and after a warm discussion as to the impropriety of permitting any official influence to interfere with their deliberations, the Convention decided, by a majority of five votes, to receive a communication from him in his private capacity; and a resolution was adopted declaring "that Arthur St. Clair, Senior, Esquire, be permitted to address the Convention on those subjects which he deems of importance."
Constitution adopted. — The Convention consisted of thirty-five members, elected in the ratio of one to every twelve hundred white inhabitants, agreeably to the returns of the territorial census taken during the summer of 1802. By this census it had been ascertained that the aggregate white inhabitants in all parts of the eastern division of the territory amounted to forty-five thousand persons.
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The Convention proceeded to the important duty of forming a constitution for the state government, which was finally completed, adopted, and signed by all the members on the 29th day of November, 1802, after an arduous session of three weeks.
The Convention of Ohio, like the first territorial Legislature, was composed of men of superior talent. As a whole, they were not surpassed, probably, by any body which has since convened for a similar purpose in the West. Many of them had been distinguished for talent and enterprise in the Atlantic States, and had proved themselves men of intelligence and worth in their new station. Some of them became distinguished in the subsequent history of the state.
Although the framers of this Constitution, in the language of Caleb Atwater, "were generally young men who had been little engaged in legislation, and could not take a very wide survey of human societies," "they were, perhaps, better qualified for the task than any other men then in the territory."
But the Constitution was peculiarly Democratic: it gave the Legislature all the power, and to the governor none. "Owing to their ill-will toward Governor St. Glair, the members of the Convention made the governor a mere cipher: he can pardon criminals, appoint the adjutant-general, sign commissions, and fill temporary vacancies; but he has no voice in making laws,
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no veto power, nor has he any power to interfere in the appointment of officers."Wayne County excluded. — The people of Wayne county, who had been included in the previous territorial government, were sorely disappointed when they learned that the new boundary prescribed for the state excluded them from the anticipated advantages of a state government, and left them to serve out a tedious territorial probation for many years, while their fellow-citizens further south were in the enjoyment of independent state privileges. They remonstrated with much warmth, and claimed the right to become a part of the new state until their numbers should entitle them to a separate state government of their own: they complained of the separation as unconstitutional and oppressive, to which they could not submit. It was not long, however, before their views underwent a change, and they became convinced that their interests required a separate territorial government, the offices of which would be filled with their own citizens. Jacob Burnett, of Cincinnati, by advocating the cause of the discontented in Wayne county, drew upon himself the displeasure of the Federal executive.
[A.D. 1803.] Ohio admitted into the Union. — The Constitution at length was duly approved by Congress. Although the ordinance of July, 1787, required a population of sixty thousand inhabitants, yet Congress waived that requirement, and on the 19th of February, 1803, an act was approved by the president fully recognizing the admission of the "State of Ohio" into the Federal Union as a free and independent state.
Party politics ran high; many were still opposed to the adoption of state government, as premature and impolitic for the true interests of the territory; they objected to the restriction of the boundary on the north, which excluded the settlements in the vicinity of Detroit. The majority was in favor of the new government; but the feelings and passions on both sides were highly excited, and much personal rancor was indulged. The arguments of the minority were rejected; they were denounced as aristocrats and enemies of the people; their motives were questioned; their patriotism and fidelity to the interests of the territory were impeached. On the other hand, the minority alleged that their opponents were influenced by
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personal considerations of interest, by a love of popularity, and a desire of office, for which they would sacrifice the ulterior interests of the territory. These criminations and recriminations, in some instances of the most bitter character, produced between many of the leading men a personal enmity which ceased only with their lives.State Government organized. — On the first of March, 1803, the first "General Assembly of the State of Ohio" under the Constitution convened in Chillicothe, for the purpose of organizing the state government. The Legislature, having organized, proceeded to the appointment of the principal executive and judicial officers for carrying into operation the provisions of the Constitution.
Judges of the new courts were appointed, and all the courts under the territorial form of government were abolished, or so changed as to conform to the new order of things. Most of the powers formerly exercised by the Court of Quarter Sessions regulating the internal police of the counties were transferred to the Court of Common Pleas. Provision was made for the election of justices, and for transferring to them the unfinished business under the territorial magistrates. The tax laws under the territorial Legislature were continued in force with slight modifications. A secretary of state, an auditor of public accounts, and a state treasurer were appointed, with their appropriate duties assigned to each. Senators to Congress were elected, and provision was made for the election of a representative. Other minor provisions for state and county police and good government were enacted.
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In due time the new order of things under the Constitution superseded the old. The state government, as organized by the first General Assembly, was accordingly put into operation.
Character of Governor St. Clair. — It may be well to review the causes which produced the strong opposition to Governor St. Clair during the last two years of his administration as governor of the Northwestern Territory. The feelings of the West were still revolutionary, and highly averse to arbitrary authority. Previous to the year 1798, the governor was invested with extensive powers, and until after the adoption of the second grade of territorial government. After this change, scrupulous of his prerogatives in his intercourse with the territorial Legislature, he created enemies and excited prejudices by his firmness and his close adherence to the privileges of his office, and the authority which he claimed as the chief executive of the territory. On these points he, not very erroneously, supposed the co-ordinate branches of the Legislature were strongly inclined to encroach. The Legislative Assembly had claimed for itself all the powers and prerogatives which were not expressly withheld by law. On the other hand, the governor, having possessed almost absolute power from his first appointment until the election of the Legislative Assembly, laid claim to all those powers which were not expressly taken away by law. Among these was that of laying off and organizing new counties. On the other hand, the Legislative Assembly claimed the same power independent of the governor's control.
Governor St. Clair was a stanch Federalist of the John Adams and Hamilton school; but, before the adoption of the state Constitution, the majority of prominent men in the territory had warmly espoused the Republican principles of Jefferson, and, under these circumstances, it was impossible that harmony could prevail in the legislative departments.
It is but a tribute of merited respect to Governor St. Clair to sum up his general character in a few words. During his long term of service, from the year 1788 to 1802, from the first organization of the Northwestern Territory until it was ready to become an independent state, he enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the people generally. He was plain and unassuming in his manners; but, placing a high estimate upon his own judgment and intellect, he rarely yielded his opinions to those
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of other men. In his dress he was plain and simple, without ostentation or gaudy equipage; in his deportment, easy, frank, and accessible to persons of every rank, he presented a strong contrast with the austere, haughty, and repulsive bearing of his secretary, Colonel Winthrop Sargent. As Judge Burnett justly observes, he was a man of superior native talent, "of extensive information, and great uprightness of purpose."Among the legislative acts of the first General Assembly was the laying off and organizing of seven new counties, which had been attempted before the adoption of the Constitution, but had been vetoed by Governor St. Clair. These new counties were designated Gallia, Scioto, Geauga, Warren, Green, Montgomery, and Butler.
The number of counties in the state was now about fifteen, many of them large and thinly settled, with extensive districts of uninhabited country in different parts of the state south and east of the Indian line, while all north and west of that line, comprising about one third of the state, was uninhabited by whites, and chiefly occupied by the Indians. The last remnant of these, the Wyandots, were not removed from their "Reserve" on Sandusky River until the summer of 1843. With this exception, the Indian title to the whole area of the state had been extinguished by successive treaties previous to the year 1820.
Since the adoption of the state Constitution, the State of Ohio
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has increased in population, wealth, arts, manufactures, and internal improvements beyond all parallel in the history of nations. From the close of the war in 1815, when the northern half of the state was an uninhabited wilderness, the settlements have advanced to its extreme limits; a dense population has extended to the shores of Lake Erie, as well as over all the former unoccupied portions of the older counties. Towns have sprung up, as if by magic, in every part of the state; agriculture and trade have penetrated to the most secluded recesses; and arts and manufactures have multiplied in the same ratio.[A.D. 1810.] The census of 1810 gave a population of more than 230,000 souls, showing an increase of about 185,000 persons in the previous seven years, or an annual increase of over 26,000 persons. Cincinnati, in the same time, had increased from about 1000 to more than 2300 inhabitants. Five years afterward, this number was more than doubled. Chillicothe in 1815 had augmented its population from about 500 souls in 1803, to more than 1500; and in 1830 its population was 2800 inhabitants.
[A.D. 1840.] In 1840 the aggregate population of the state had increased to one million five hundred and fifteen thousand souls:
The war with Great Britain, which closed in 1815, had been waged with great energy by that power against the northern frontier of Ohio, which was then occupied by a few sparse white settlements; but the advance of troops, and munitions of war for defense against hostile invasion, opened to the government
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and the people the unbounded advantages of this beautiful region, for the extension of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. The efforts of Great Britain from Canada to check the advance of the American settlements northwest of the Ohio River, resulted in ultimate advantage to the country; for this, more than all other causes, subsequently drew population upon the lake frontier.The great Ohio Canal, which intersects the state from north to south, was commenced in 1825, and completed a few years afterward. It has given an impulse to manufactures and commerce unparalleled in the history of civilization, and has raised the state in wealth and population to a rank second only to the Empire State of New York.
The population of Ohio, besides the natural increase, has been derived from emigration. The first settlements previous to the adoption of the state Constitution were formed chiefly by emigrants from the older states near the Atlantic. The northeastern portion, south of Lake Erie and northeast of the Muskingum River, was settled chiefly by emigrants from Connecticut and other New England States, besides numerous accessions from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The southern portion, between the Hockhocking and Great Miami Rivers, was settled chiefly by emigrants from Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky, as well as by numerous colonies from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
In the eastern portion of the state, including Columbiana county, adjoining Pennsylvania, a large population was derived from colonies of Germans, Scotch, English, and Irish, from Pennsylvania and from Europe.
Emigration from the Atlantic seaboard has continued to send annual colonies to different portions of Ohio; and since the year 1830, not less than two hundred thousand frugal, industrious emigrants from Germany have been distributed over every part of the state. The influx of foreign immigrants, especially those from Germany, after the year 1840, continued to increase the population of Ohio and the whole West. Not a town or village, not a city or capital, not an agricultural district in the great State of Ohio in 1844, which did not present a copious admixture of Germans who had not yet acquired a fluency in the English language.
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Chapter XIII. — "The Mississippi Territory" from its first organization to the commencement of the Creek War. A.D. 1798 to 1813.
Argument. — Original Extent of the Mississippi Territory. — First Governor and Territorial Judges. — Authority and Jurisdiction of the same. — Arrival of the United States Troops under General Wilkinson. — First Grade of Territorial Government organized in 1799. — Extent of the White Settlements and Indian Territory. — Adams and Pickering Counties organized. — Population in 1799. — Washington County organized on the Mobile River. — Second Grade of Territorial Government in 1800. — The Federal Army in the Mississippi Territory. — Indian Treaties in 1801. — Treaty of Fort Adams. — Treaty of Chickasâ Bluffs. — Governor Claiborne enters upon his Duties. — The Counties of Claiborne, Jefferson, and Wilkinson organized in 1802. — First System of Jurisprudence. — First Newspapers in Mississippi. — "Articles of Agreement and Cession" by Georgia. — Extent of Georgia Claim. — Adjudication of Private Claims by Commissioners. — Land Offices. — Surveyor-general's Office organized. — Enlargement of Territorial Limits. — Indian Nations included. — Legislative Care for the Encouragement of Education. — First College and first Academy chartered. — The Robber Mason killed. — Emigration in 1803, in anticipation of the Occupation of Louisiana. — Governor Claiborne Commissioner. — Commissioners and Troops advance toward New Orleans. — Protestant Religion introduced in Mississippi Territory. — Washington County erected into a Judicial District. — Harry Toulmin, Judge. — First Delegate to Congress. — Robert Williams, Governor. — First City Charter of Natchez. — Spanish Exactions on the Mobile. — First Natchez Hospital. — Border Collisions. — Abduction of the Kempers. — Indian Treaties in 1805: with the Chickasâ; with the Cherokees; Creeks; Choctás. — First "Choctá Purchase." — Extent of White Settlements in 1806. — Spanish Encroachments on the Sabine. — Militia Movements in Mississippi. — Burr's Conspiracy in the West. — Burr prepares to descend the Mississippi. — President's Proclamation. — General Wilkinson protects New Orleans. — Defensive Measures of Governor Mead in the Mississippi Territory. — Burr appears before the Superior Court. — Patriotic Citizens of Wilkinson County. — Abortive Attempt to arraign Burr. — He escapes from Custody. — Is arrested near Fort Stoddart. — Sent to Richmond, Virginia. — Emigration to Mississippi induced by Burr's Plans. — Agriculture in the Territory in 1807. — Cotton the Staple Product. — Cotton Receipts negotiable by Law. — First Digest of Territorial Laws. — First Road across to Tombigby. — Lands on the Upper Tombigby. — Condition of the Tombigby Settlements. — Patriotism of the Inhabitants. — Governor Williams. — First White Settlements in "Madison County." — First Bank in the Territory in 1809. — Population in 1810. — Revolution in District of Baton Rouge. — First Brigade of Militia in 1812 — Tennessee Volunteers under General Jackson. — General Wilkinson occupies Fort Charlotte. — Mobile District annexed to the Mississippi Territory.
[A.D. 1798.] Original Limits. — The territory heretofore surrendered by the Spanish authorities, and lying north of the thirty-first degree of latitude, with the consent and approbation of the State of Georgia, was erected into a territory of the United States by act of Congress, approved April 7th, 1798,
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entitled "an act for the amicable settlement of limits with the State of Georgia, and authorizing the establishment of a government in the Mississippi Territory."The territory comprised in the new organization, or the original Mississippi Territory, embraced that portion of country between the Spanish line of demarkation and a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chattahoochy River. The Mississippi River was its western limit, and the Chattahoochy its eastern. The organization of a territorial government by the United States was in no wise to impair the rights of Georgia to the soil, which was left open for future negotiation between the State of Georgia and the United States.
The sixth section of the act of April 7th provided "that from and after the establishment of said government, the aforesaid territory shall be entitled to and enjoy all and singular the rights, privileges, and advantages granted to the people of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, in and by the aforesaid ordinance of July 13th, 1787, in as full and complete a manner as the same are possessed and enjoyed by the said last-mentioned territory."
Organization of Territorial Government. — Agreeably to the provisions of this act, President Adams appointed Winthrop Sargent, former secretary of the Northwestern Territory, as governor, and John Steele, secretary of the new government; Thomas Rodney, of Delaware, and Daniel Tilton, of New Hampshire, were appointed territorial judges of the Superior Court. Other subordinate officers under the first grade of territorial government were subject to the governor's appointment.
The governor and judges, with their friends, arrived at Natchez in August following, in company with a number of emigrant families from the Northwestern Territory. The governor shortly afterward, with the advice of the judges, proceeded to make provision for the regular administration of justice, and the preservation of order in the territory; magistrates and inferior civil and militia officers were appointed for the respective settlements within the Natchez District.
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The powers of the governor, with his legal advisers, were extensive and multifarious. He was empowered to exercise supreme executive jurisdiction within the prescribed limits of his government; he appointed and commissioned all magistrates, inferior judges, and all other civil officers, and all militia officers below the rank of general; he could lay off counties, subdivide or create new ones, adopt and ordain laws for the territory with the consent of the judges, who, in their judicial capacity, were empowered to execute and enforce the same in their respective districts.
On the 26th of August, General Wilkinson, commander-in-chief of the army, arrived at Natchez with the United States troops. They were quartered in cantonments in the vicinity of Washington, and near the Half-way Hill, on the road leading to Second Creek, until the following year, when a military post was erected at the first highland point on the Mississippi, a few miles above the Spanish line of demarkation. This post, which was occupied by the United States troops until the close of the year 1807, was situated upon an elevated plateau near the river, and was called "Fort Adams," in honor of John Adams, the second president of the United States.
[A.D. 1799.] In April following, Governor Sargent proceeded to complete the organization of the territorial government by laying off counties, and organizing county courts having subordinate jurisdiction.
The principal white population within the limits of the territory
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at this early period was that of the "Natchez District," comprising about six thousand inhabitants, including slaves. These were distributed in several large settlements upon the waters of the Bayou Pierre, Cole's Creek, St. Catharine, Second Creek, Homochitto and Buffalo Creeks, and chiefly within ten or fifteen miles of the Mississippi River. Besides these, a few inhabitants were distributed near the Walnut Hills, and near the Big Black. Another isolated settlement of about eight hundred inhabitants existed on the Tombigby and Mobile Rivers. The aggregate white population in all these settlements, after the evacuation by the Spaniards, scarcely exceeded five thousand persons, exclusive of slaves and Indians.Many of these were Anglo-Americans, remnants of the former British colonies of West Florida, and a few were individuals of Spanish and French descent. Some had emigrated from the United States after the termination of the Revolutionary war, under the inducements held out by the Spanish governor previous to 1792. Others from the Western States, and from North Carolina and Georgia, had arrived subsequently to the treaty of Madrid, which recognized the country as a portion of the United States.
The whole region extending north and east of the Natchez District for nearly five hundred miles, to the settlements on Cumberland River of Tennessee, and to those on the Oconee, in Georgia, was Indian territory, in the sole occupancy of the native tribes, except the small district on the Tombigby and Mobile Rivers, to which the Indian title had been extinguished by the former governments of France and England. The Natchez District extended upon the east side of the Mississippi River for about one hundred miles, and was bounded on the east by a line extending direct from the sources of the Tickfaw, in a direction west of north to the Yazoo River, ten miles above its mouth. No portion of this district extended more than twenty-five miles direct from the river.
Such was the country which was then placed under the first grade of territorial government. The only route of intercourse with the United States was that of the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers to the settlements of Kentucky and Tennessee; or by the lonely route of a solitary Indian trace, leading for five hundred miles, either to the Cumberland settlements or those of the Oconee, in Georgia.
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[A.D. 1800.] The counties of Adams and Pickering comprised the whole Natchez District until the 4th of June, 1800, when the governor again issued his proclamation, countersigned by John Steele, secretary, laying off the "County of Washington" on the Tombigby River. The limits of this county were the territorial boundaries on the north and south, the Pearl River on the west, and the Chattahoochy on the east;
Meantime, in consequence of an increase of population, and also on account of dissatisfaction among the people, and remonstrances against the arbitrary measures of Governor Sargent and his council, Congress, by special favor, passed an act authorizing the establishment of the second grade of territorial government at an earlier period than the population of the territory would authorize under the provisions of the ordinance of July 13th, 1787. Thus, the second grade of representative government commenced in the Mississippi Territory before the free white males had increased to five thousand in number.
A House of Representatives, or Legislative Assembly, was duly elected, and members of the "Council" having been appointed, the General Assembly was organized for business in December following. The Legislative Assembly consisted of four representatives from Adams, four from Pickering, and one from the Tombigby settlements, elected in the ratio of one representative to every five hundred free white males; and the Legislative Council consisted of five members. The first General Assembly thus organized convened at Natchez on the first Monday in December, which was fixed as the time for each annual meeting thereafter. All bills enacted by the two houses received the force of law only after the approbation and signature of the governor, who held an unqualified veto upon
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all their acts, when, in his opinion, they were impolitic or unconstitutional.The Superior Court was required by law to hold two terms annually.
[A.D. 1801.] Indian Treaties. — While the headquarters of General Wilkinson were at Natchez and Fort Adams, he was engaged in conducting negotiations with the Indian tribes south of Tennessee. Previously to his departure on this service, detachments of troops were stationed at different points on the line of demarkation from Fort Adams eastward to Pearl River, for the preservation of order and neutrality along the border settlements. A detachment was also stationed at Fort Stoddart, near the line, on Mobile River, and another at Fort Florida, a few miles above.
The object of negotiations with the Indian tribes was the establishment of amicable relations, confirmed by treaty stipulations, and to procure their consent to the opening of roads and mail-routes from the frontier settlements of Tennessee and Georgia, to those on the Mobile and in the Natchez District, in order to facilitate intercourse with those remote places, and to encourage emigration to the Mississippi Territory.
The first treaty was held with the Chickasâ nation at the Chickasâ Bluff, on the Mississippi. By this treaty, the Chickasâs conceded to the United States the right of opening a wagon-road from Miro District, in Tennessee, to the American settlements in the Natchez District, and that this road should be at all times free to the people of the United States passing and re-passing from the settlements on Cumberland River to those near Natchez; also, for the transportation of the United States mail between the same points, free from molestation.
This road crossed the Tennessee River a few miles below the Muscle Shoals, at "Colbert's Ferry," and thence led through the Chickasâ nation to the "Grindstone Ford," on the Bayou Pierre. The Indians reserved to themselves the privileges and emoluments pertaining to all ferries on the route, and the establishing of public houses for the entertainment of travelers.
The next treaty was with the Choctâ nation, concluded on the 17th of December, at Fort Adams. In this treaty, besides
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other stipulations, the Choctâs consent to the exploration and opening of a convenient wagon-road through their country, from the vicinity of "Fort Adams" to the Chickasâ boundary near the Yazoo River. The old British boundary, extending from the Tickfaw northwest to the Yazoo, was confirmed and marked anew as the proper boundary between the white settlements and the Indian territory.In the mean time, Thomas Jefferson, having succeeded as President of the United States, early in his administration appointed William C. C. Claiborne,
A corresponding change was made in the territorial authorities, when those who adhered to the late administration were superseded by those attached to the Republican party, which had become predominant.
Since the first organization of the American government in the territory, the population had been greatly increased by emigration. The census of 1800 gave the aggregate of the white inhabitants at eight thousand eight hundred and fifty persons, exclusive of about two thousand slaves. In January, 1802, the entire population was probably not less than twelve thousand souls.
Governor Claiborne entered upon the duties of his office with zeal and patriotic devotion. Although a man of strict integrity, and an undoubted patriot, yet, possessing all the graces of a polished courtier, he delighted more in the pomp and display of military parade than was congenial with the plain, unaffected simplicity of many of his associates.
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[A.D. 1802.] Early in the year 1802 the territory was erected into five counties by the division of both Adams and Pickering. On the 11th of January an act of the General Assembly changed the name of Pickering county to that of "Jefferson," in honor of the newly-elected president. On the 27th of January, another act divided the county of Jefferson, by a line varying but little from the present one between Jefferson and Claiborne counties, and which extended eastward to the western bank of Pearl River. That portion of the territory on the north of this line was called "Claiborne county," in honor of the new governor.
On the 30th of January another act of the General Assembly divided the county of Adams by the Homochitto River, from its mouth up to "Richard's Ferry," and thence eastward by an imaginary line to Pearl River. That portion of the territory south of this line was called "Wilkinson county," in honor of General James Wilkinson, commander-in-chief of the Federal army.
The first regular code of jurisprudence and judicial proceedings for the use of the territory were adopted during the session of 1801 and 1802. An act of the same session, passed February 1st, removed the seat of the territorial government to the town of Washington. This session had organized with Joshua Baker speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and John Ellis president of the Council. Each of these received as salary five dollars per diem during the session, and the members of both houses four dollars per diem.
The first weekly newspaper in the Mississippi Territory was published in the spring of 1802, by Colonel Andrew Marschalk, formerly a lieutenant in General Wayne's army. Having descended the river with General Wilkinson, he continued in the service until 1802, when he commenced the publication of the "Natchez Gazette." This paper, under different forms and names, such as the "Mississippi Herald and Natchez Gazette," the "Washington Republican," and "Mississippi State Gazette," was published by this father of the press in Mississippi for nearly forty years afterward.
The second weekly paper in the territory was the
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"Mississippi Messenger," published by Samuel and Timothy Terrell, and which was continued under Dr. John Shaw and others until the year 1810.Compromise with Georgia. — Agreeably to the provisions of the Compromise Act, the commissioners of Georgia and those of the United States had entered into "Articles of Agreement and Cession," which were signed on the part of their governments respectively on the 24th day of April, 1802.
The sovereignty over all the territory south of Tennessee, and north of the Spanish line of demarkation, and eastward to the Chattahoochy River, was now vested in the Federal government, excepting only the right of occupancy reserved to the native tribes then in possession.
[A.D. 1803.] Emigration from Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, as well as from Western Pennsylvania, had begun to augment the population in all the old settlements of the five organized counties, and men of capital and enterprise were ready to invest their capital in valuable land. A large portion of the lands within the limits of the white settlements was claimed and occupied by virtue of grants or titles derived through the authorities of England, Spain, and Georgia, and required adjudication before confirmation by the United States; and Congress proceeded to make the necessary provisions through a board of commissioners, appointed to examine and adjudicate the respective claims. The first and most important act for the accomplishment of this object was approved March 3d, 1803, and was entitled "An act regulating grants of land, and providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States south of the State of Tennessee."
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This act provided for a surveyor-general's department, connected with two district land-offices, for the record and sale of all lands duly surveyed. One of these was established at Fort Stoddart, for the "district east of Pearl River," and the other at Washington, Adams county, for the "district west of Pearl River." To each of these offices was attached a "board of commissioners," to receive and adjudicate private claims.
The land-office west of Pearl River was organized on the 9th day of July, with Edward Turner as register, and Thomas Rodney and Robert Williams as commissioners of claims. This board convened at the town of Washington on the 1st of December, 1803, and continued open for the reception of claims until the 3d of July, 1807, when it was adjourned sine die, after having received for record two thousand and ninety claims. Some of these claims were subsequently contested in the high courts of the United States.
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The office for the district east of Pearl River was established at Fort Stoddart, with Joseph Chambers as register, and Ephraim Kirby and Robert Carter Nicholas as commissioners. This board convened for business first on the 2d of February, 1804, and continued open for the presentation of claims until September 21st, 1805, when it adjourned sine die, after receiving for record two hundred and seventy-six claims.
The surveyor-general's office was established at Washington, and Isaac Briggs was first surveyor-general. He soon afterward commenced the public surveys in the territory.
The whole of the extensive territory ceded by Georgia, lying north of the Mississippi Territory, and south of Tennessee, was, by the seventh section of the act supplementary to the "act regulating the grants of land south of Tennessee," approved March 27th, 1804, annexed to the Mississippi Territory, and was subsequently included within its limits and jurisdiction. The
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boundaries of the Mississippi Territory, consequently, were the thirty-first degree on the south, and the thirty-fifth degree on the north, extending from the Mississippi River to the western limits of Georgia, and comprised the whole territory now embraced in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, excepting the small Florida District between the Pearl and Perdido Rivers. Four fifths of this extensive territory were in the possession of the four great southern Indian confederacies, the Choctâs, the Chickasâs, the Creeks, and the Cherokees, comprising an aggregate of about seventy-five thousand souls, and at least ten thousand warriors. The only portions of this territory to which the Indian title had been extinguished was a narrow strip from fifteen to fifty miles in width, on the east side of the Mississippi, and about seventy miles in length, and a small district on the Tombigby.Education. — The subject of education was one which had engaged the early attention of the Territorial Legislature. A large portion of the recent emigrants to the territory, and especially those connected with the government, were men of education, enterprise, and talent, who were duly impressed with the importance of providing for the "encouragement of learning," and "the dissemination of useful knowledge." To aid in the accomplishment of this desirable object, a literary society was organized, which received its incorporation on the 8th of November, 1803, under the name of "the Mississippi Society for the Acquirement and Dissemination of Useful Knowledge." The society originally comprised eighteen members, including the governor, secretary, judges, and several members of the Legislature.
About the same time, the first college in the territory was chartered, under the control of twenty-five trustees, including several members of the Mississippi Society. The new college, in honor of the President of the United States, was called "Jefferson College." The trustees were authorized to receive for its support the proceeds of a "lottery," and "to collect donations from citizens of the territory and elsewhere." The charter required a book to be kept, in which should be inscribed the "names of the donors, with their donations annexed," which book "should be preserved in the archives of the college, in order that posterity might know who were the benefactors of the institution." The first of these were John and James Foster,
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and Randall Gibson, who made the "donation of a parcel of land, including a spring, commonly called ‘Ellicott's Spring,’ and ‘situated in the vicinage of the town of Washington.’" On the 11th of November following, this tract of land by law was declared to be "the permanent site of Jefferson College."Such was the origin of the oldest and best endowed college in the State of Mississippi. But its subsequent history has been disastrous and mortifying. Although liberally endowed by Congress, soon after its first charter, with the use of the territorial escheats for ten years, with liberal and gratuitous loans by the state in 1817 and 1820, and with a most bountiful relief or second endowment by Congress in 1832, it has failed to accomplish the object of its creation. After having realized ample funds in 1836, and having attracted the notice of the whole Union for its wealth in 1838, yet, without concert of action in its numerous trustees, for the wise appropriation of its ample resources, at the end of forty years from its first endowment, after many abortive attempts to build up an institution of learning, after a few partial successes and repeated failures, it presented to the eye of history only the emaciated skeleton of a college, bereft of its power to benefit posterity, or to advance the cause of science and literature.
Other institutions, chartered by the early territorial government for the advancement of learning, unlike Jefferson College, being destitute of any liberal endowment, either by public or private munificence, struggled through a short period of unsuccessful efforts to promote the cause of education, when they sunk into oblivion. Such was the "Franklin Society," instituted "for the purpose of establishing an academy in the town of Greenville or its vicinity, in the county of Jefferson."
Among the incidents in the early history of the Mississippi Territory was the violent death of the notorious robber Mason. This fearless bandit had become the terror of the routes from New Orleans and Natchez through the Indian nations. After the organization of the territorial government, and the opening of roads through the wilderness to Tennessee, the return of traders, supercargoes, and boatmen to the northern settlements with the proceeds of their voyage was on foot and on horseback, in parties for mutual protection, through the Indian nations; and often rich treasures of specie were packed on mules and horses over these long and toilsome journeys. Nor was
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it a matter of surprise, in a dreary wilderness, that bandits should infest such a route. It was in the year 1802, when all travel and intercourse from New Orleans and the Mississippi Territory was necessarily by way of this solitary trace, or by the slow-ascending barge and keel, that Mason made his appearance in the Mississippi Territory."Long accustomed to robbery and murder upon the Lower Ohio, during the Spanish dominion on the Mississippi, and pressed by the rapid approach of the American population, he deserted the ‘Cave in the Rock,’ on the Ohio, and began to infest the great Natchez Trace, where the rich proceeds of the river trade were the tempting prize, and where he soon became the terror of every peaceful traveler through the wilderness. Associated with him were his two sons and a few other desperate miscreants; and the name of Mason and his band was known and dreaded from the morasses of the southern frontier to the silent shades of the Tennessee River. The outrages of Mason became more frequent and sanguinary. One day found him marauding on the banks of the Pearl, against the life and fortune of the trader; and before pursuit was organized, the hunter, attracted by the descending sweep of the solitary vulture, learned the story of another robbery and murder on the remote shores of the Mississippi. Their depredations became at last so frequent and daring, that the people of the territory were driven to adopt measures for their apprehension. But such was the knowledge of the wilderness possessed by the wily bandit, and such his untiring vigilance and activity, that for a time he baffled every effort for his capture.
"Treachery at last, however, effected what stratagem, enterprise, and courage had in vain attempted. A citizen of great respectability, passing with his sons through the wilderness, was plundered by the bandits. Their lives were, however, spared, and they returned to the settlement. Public feeling was now excited, and the governor of the territory found it necessary to act. Governor Claiborne accordingly offered a liberal reward for the robber Mason, dead or alive! The proclamation was widely distributed, and a copy of it reached Mason himself, who indulged in much merriment on the occasion. Two of his band, however, tempted by the large reward, concerted a plan by which they might obtain it. An opportunity soon occurred; and while Mason, in company with the
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two conspirators, was counting out some ill-gotten plunder, a tomahawk was buried in his brain. His head was severed from his body and borne in triumph to Washington, then the seat of the territorial government."The head of Mason was recognized by many, and identified by all who read the proclamation, as the head entirely corresponded with the description given of certain scars and peculiar marks. Some delay, however, occurred in paying over the reward, owing to the slender state of the treasury. Meantime, a great assemblage from all the adjacent country had taken place, to view the grim and ghastly head of the robber chief. They were not less inspired with curiosity to see and converse with the individual whose prowess had delivered the country from so great a scourge. Among those spectators were the two young men, who, unfortunately for these traitors, recognized them as companions of Mason in the robbery of their father.
"It is unnecessary to say that treachery met its just reward, and that justice was also satisfied. The reward was not only withheld, but the robbers were imprisoned, and, on the full evidence of their guilt, condemned and executed at Greenville, Jefferson county.
"The band of Mason, being thus deprived of their leader and two of his most efficient men, dispersed and fled the country. Thus terminated the terrors which had infested the route through the Indian nations, known to travelers as the ‘Natchez and Nashville Trace.’"
Emigration from the Western States, by way of the Mississippi River, for two years past had gradually augmented the population of the four counties organized near this river. The sparse pastoral population on the Mobile and Tombigby Rivers had likewise been increased to nearly fifteen hundred souls, by emigrants from West Florida and from Georgia.
During the autumn of 1803, numerous emigrants and men of enterprise pressed forward to the Mississippi Territory, in anticipation of the expected occupancy of the province of Louisiana by the Federal government. Among the arrivals at Natchez were several volunteer companies of patriotic Tennesseans, impatient of the dominion of Spain. The contemplated occupancy of the province by the United States had diffused hope throughout the whole West, and its final delivery
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was expected to take place in December. Fired with zeal and ardor for the aggrandizement of their country in the extension of the Federal dominion over the whole Valley of the Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of enterprising men — merchants, traders, laborers, mechanics, men of the three learned professions, and those who had been bred to arms — flocked to the Mississippi Territory, ready to seize the first advantages of citizenship in the rich province. Volunteer companies, fully equipped, coveted the honor of accompanying the Federal troops and witnessing the ceremony of the national transfer.Hence the close of the year 1803 was a memorable epoch in the early history of Mississippi. Within its limits were assembled the army of the United States, as well as the patriotic volunteers, at the head of which the commander-in-chief and Governor Claiborne, commissioners of the United States, were to advance to the consummation of the purchase, by extending over it the authority and jurisdiction of the Federal government. All were eager to witness this glorious termination to the dominion, extortion, and perfidy of the Spanish authority on the Mississippi.
About the 2d of December, Governor Claiborne took his departure from Natchez, in company with his friends and the volunteer troops, to join the Federal army under General Wilkinson at Fort Adams.
The province of Louisiana was formally surrendered to Governor Claiborne on the 20th day of December, 1803, as we have more fully detailed in another place.
Although the official duties of Governor Claiborne had ceased, he was nevertheless the actual governor of the Mississippi Territory until his successor, Robert Williams, entered upon the duties, near the close of the following year. During the same time, he exercised the prerogatives and powers of governor-general of the province of Louisiana, until Congress provided for it a regular form of territorial government.
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During his administration in the Mississippi Territory, he ceased not to enjoy the confidence and esteem of the patriotic, the intelligent, and the virtuous. Yet, during his whole administration, he encountered active opposition to many of his official acts and executive measures; but it was chiefly that opposition which springs from a party spirit and political difference of opinion.
It has been said that he was unpopular, but it was only with a certain class of men. With the majority of the people no one was more esteemed for his intelligence, virtue, and patriotism as a man; and as the chief executive, his course was patriotic, dignified, and urbane, securing him the confidence of the intelligent and good. By the interested and designing, attempts had been made to embarrass his measures and destroy his usefulness soon after his departure for New Orleans. But the people of Mississippi spoke for themselves. While discharging the responsible duties of Governor-general of Louisiana, he received, in March, 1804, from the citizens of Washington and its vicinity, a flattering address, with the signatures of nearly three hundred respectable persons of the county of Adams, who testified to his "talents, benevolence, universal philanthropy, and sense of justice," and who tendered "their undivided approbation of the firm and dignified measures of his late administration in this territory." They also expressed "an earnest desire for the return of his excellency." About the same time, a correspondent from New Orleans, who had made special observation on this point, declares that the attempts to render Governor Claiborne unpopular in that place "have originated with certain disaffected and unprincipled characters, whose views are insidious, and whose conduct can not stand the test of investigation."
On the 18th of March, an address from a number of citizens of Wilkinson county was forwarded to him in New Orleans, expressing "their fullest approbation of the wise and virtuous measures of his late administration in the Mississippi Territory, with assurances of the firm support which is due from a patriotic community to a public functionary whose only object is the happiness of the people." They also declare that "the simplicity of manners and the dignified conduct observed by his excellency in discharging the important trust of Commissioner
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of the United States for receiving possession of the province of Louisiana will remain a lasting monument of honest fame, not to be corroded by the breath of faction." They declare, moreover, that "they earnestly regret the loss sustained by this section of the Union, should the President of the United States require a continuance of his services in the high station which he now fills."The friends and admirers of the governor did not hesitate to declare that the opposition proceeded from a "faction, formed by the union of opposite principles and characters, fomented and encouraged by the party out of power and patriots out of place;" among whom were classed "ex-attorney-generals, ex-sheriffs, ex-clerks, and ex-officers" of divers grades, and their dependents.
Introduction of the Protestant Religion. — Previous to the extension of the American jurisdiction over the Natchez District, the Catholic religion alone was tolerated, and all Protestant denominations whatever were strictly prohibited from inculcating their tenets or in any manner exercising parochial duties. Hence, when the American authority was introduced, there existed nothing like a Protestant church or meetinghouse. No religious association or society had been organized; public preaching had been unknown; and the only mode of observing the Sabbath had been the morning solemnization of mass in the chapel before a few devout Catholics, from which they could retire to spend the residue of the day with the giddy throng in the recreations of balls, theatres, military parades, or festive exhibitions.
The first public preaching by Protestant ministers was from those among the promiscuous emigrants who might possess the gift of speaking. The only regular Sabbath exercises were by those who early came as missionaries from the Protestant churches of Kentucky and Tennessee.
The first Methodist missionary was Tobias Gibson, from the South Carolina Conference, who advanced by way of East Tennessee and the Cumberland River, and arrived at Natchez in the summer of 1799. He at once entered upon the work of organizing societies in Washington and its vicinity, where he continued until his departure next spring. Late in the autumn of 1800, he again descended the river from Tennessee
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as a missionary of the Tennessee Conference. He entered upon his work, and continued diligently employed in forming and building up societies throughout the settlements from the Bayou Pierre to the line of demarkation. During three years prior to his death, in 1804, he had formed societies at Washington, Kingston, on Cole's Creek, near Greenville, and on the Bayou Pierre, together comprising two hundred church members. These, after his death, were left without a shepherd until the arrival of Learned Blackburn in 1806, who undertook to gather up the lost sheep. Thus was Methodism first introduced into the Mississippi Territory.One of the most useful missionaries at Natchez was the Rev. Mr. Bowman, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who came from Tennessee in the year 1803, and confined his labors chiefly to the city and vicinage of Natchez. Zealous as a missionary, and devoted to the intellectual culture, as well as the religious instruction of the people, he was still preaching and lecturing on scientific subjects and ethics in the city of Natchez as late as the year 1807.
It was about the year 1802 that the first Presbyterian missionaries, the Rev. Messrs. Hall and Montgomery, arrived in the territory. Hall labored several years in his ministerial duties in Natchez. Montgomery became a permanent resident, and more than forty years afterward he was exercising his pastoral calling as the patriarch of the Scotch settlement in Jefferson county.
The first Baptist missionary was David Cooper, a most excellent and pious man, who arrived in the year 1802, and continued to build up his churches for more than thirty years, when he was gathered home to his fathers in great peace triumphantly. The Rev. Dr. Cloud, of the Episcopal Church, entered upon his missionary duties about the same time, and, after nearly thirty-five years, he was still officiating within the limits of Jefferson county.
[A.D. 1804.] The Spaniards still held a footing on the eastern side of the Mississippi.
Louisiana, as surrendered to the United States, embraced only the Island of New Orleans on the east side of the Mississippi, and the Spaniards continued to occupy and exercise dominion over all the remaining country east of the river, and south of the line of demarkation. The port of Mobile, as
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well as the town and district of Baton Rouge, including one hundred miles of the eastern bank of the river, was still occupied as a portion of West Florida. Along the line of demarkation from the Mississippi eastward to the Chattahoochy, a distance of more than three hundred miles, the only barrier between the jurisdiction and settlements of the Mississippi Territory and the province of West Florida was an open avenue through the forest, or a surveyor's line and mile-posts through the prairies and open woods. The manners and customs, the races and their characteristic traits, their feelings, prejudices, and national antipathies, as well as their government, laws, and civil jurisprudence, were opposite and altogether antagonistical. In such a state of things, could border difficulties between the scattered dwellers of the forest be avoided? Each, placed beyond the reach of the strong arm of the civil authorities, revenged his own wrongs, and vindicated his own rights.Hence border difficulties, broils, and private animosities had occasionally presented from the first establishment of the line of demarkation; but a few detachments of troops, stationed at intervals along the border, served to suppress any important outbreak.
Washington District. — In the mean time, the population on the Tombigby and Mobile Rivers had increased, and it was deemed expedient to erect the county of Washington into a judicial district, with an "additional judge." Agreeably to an act of Congress, approved March 27th, 1804, an additional judge was appointed, and required to reside in or near the principal settlements of Washington county, where he should hold two regular terms of the Superior Court annually on the first Mondays in May and September.
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the peace and inferior courts." The task committed to his charge was completed during the year 1806, and formally approved by an act of the Legislature in February following.[A.D. 1805.] By the beginning of the year 1805, the population of the territory had so far been augmented that Congress assented to the election of a delegate from the territory under the provisions of the ordinance of 1787.
In the mean time, Robert Williams, of North Carolina, having been appointed governor of the territory, arrived at the seat of the territorial government on the 26th of January, 1805. His appointment was greeted with a cordial reception and a public dinner.
Having made his appointments,
First City Charter of Natchez. — Natchez had already become an important commercial point for the western people. It was a large village, consisting chiefly of small wooden buildings of one story, distributed over an irregular, undulating surface, with but little regard to system or cleanliness. Impressed with its growing importance as a great commercial point, the Legislature, as early as the 10th of March, 1803, had incorporated it with ample municipal power, under the style of "The Mayor, Aldermen, and Assistants of the City of Natchez." The city authorities consisted chiefly of a mayor, a recorder, three aldermen, six assistants, a clerk, and a marshal; all except the marshal and six assistants exercising the authority of justices
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of the peace. In the selection of the city authorities popular suffrage was not entirely excluded by the charter. "Citizens and freeholders" might elect the six assistants, the city treasurer, and the assessor and collector; but the Federal government reserved to itself the appointment of the remainder. The governor appointed the mayor, the recorder, the three aldermen, and the marshal, all of whom were subject to his removal. The powers of the "Mayor's Court" were extensive and summary. The mayor might hold his court for the hearing of civil cases three days in every month, with a jury empanneled, if desired by either party. Cases were to be adjudicated and judgment enforced in a summary manner. The jurisdiction extended to all civil cases in the city wherein the subject of controversy did not exceed one hundred dollars in value, and to all criminal cases in which the penalty did not exceed one month of imprisonment, fifty dollars' fine, or thirty-nine lashes on the bare back.Such were some of the powers and provisions of this charter, which went into operation early in the summer of 1803. If it leaned to the despotism, of monarchy, it resulted from the nature of the circumstances under which it was enacted. Such was the number of lawless adventurers and boatmen from the Ohio region which annually infested the city and habitually defied the municipal authorities, that no man was safe from their depredations and assaults until the city authorities were clothed with ample powers for their punishment.
Yet each session of the Legislature conferred additional powers upon the municipal authorities, until the year 1805, when the mayor and aldermen, with the common council, were authorized to appoint the times for holding the Mayor's Court, the jurisdiction of which was also enlarged to the adjudication of all civil cases within the city, where the amount in controversy did "not exceed five hundred dollars." The arbitrary proceedings of this court at length became so oppressive that public opinion was roused against it, until it was denounced in a public meeting, and finally made the object of a presentment by the grand jury, "as a public grievance."
Spanish Difficulties. — In the mean time, Congress had erected the District of Washington into a revenue precinct, known as the "District of Mobile;" and Fort Stoddart was declared a port of entry, for the commerce of the Mobile and Tombigby
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settlements. Hence began a series of vexatious exactions, searches, and delays to all American trade or produce passing up or down the river. The Spaniards at Mobile, twenty miles below the line, claimed the right to control the entire navigation of the bay and river within their limits. They therefore imposed a heavy duty upon all American produce exported, as well as upon all other commodities of trade passing to and from the settlements, as well as the military posts on the river, above the line. Even the military supplies and the Indian annuities from the Federal government were not exempt. Hence the national government, no less than the citizens individually, was compelled to pay tribute to a foreign power for the privilege of entering its own ports, and navigating its own waters.This transit duty was levied and collected in the port of Mobile, at the rate of twelve and a half per cent, ad valorem, by Spanish estimate, upon all articles without exception. Thus the crops seeking the market of New Orleans, and the proceeds invested in the necessary articles of domestic use, paid an aggregate duty of twenty-five per cent, for the privilege of passing through the Spanish waters.
The same year gave rise to the first public charitable institution in the city of Natchez. The increasing numbers of indigent boatmen who were annually thrown helpless upon the city prompted the humane members of the medical profession to set on foot the plan of erecting a charity hospital for their relief, by means of private donations and contributions throughout all the organized counties near the Mississippi. The plan
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was so far matured in 1804, that a bill of incorporation was obtained in January following for the "Natchez Hospital."The preamble to the bill proceeds: "Whereas great numbers of sick and distressed boatmen, employed in the navigation of the Mississippi River, and other indigent persons destitute of the means of procuring medical assistance, are found in the city of Natchez and other parts of the territory, for the relief of whose wants private charity and the present legal regulations are inadequate, and subscriptions to a considerable amount having been raised, and the sum of one thousand dollars bequeathed by the late George Cochrane, Esq., for the purpose of establishing a hospital in said city; and whereas David Lattimore, Garrett E. Pendergrast, William Lyon, Joseph Macreary, James Speed, Andrew Macreary, and Frederic Seip, physicians of that place, have humanely proffered their professional services gratis for the benefit of such institution," &c. Such is the origin of the present "Natchez Hospital," which yet stands an honorable memorial of the early benevolence of Adams county.
Before the close of the summer, the border animosities between the American and Spanish population had broken out into acts of open violence and mutual aggression.
The first violation of American soil by these lawless persons was on the 12th of August, when Lieutenant John Glasscock, with twelve Spanish light-horse, crossed the line two miles into the territory, where he captured William Flannagan and wife, who were forcibly abducted, together with his horse, saddle, and bridle, fifteen miles into the Spanish dominion; but subsequently finding he had seized the wrong man, he permitted them to return; the horse, however, was retained.
On the 3d of September one of these border feuds terminated in an open violation of the American territory by an armed detachment from the Spanish border. Samuel, Reuben, and Nathan Kemper, brothers, residing within the limits of the Mississippi Territory, near Pinckneyville, having become highly
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obnoxious to the Spanish authorities, were unlawfully seized at night in their own houses by a party of twelve white men in disguise and seven negroes. After great personal violence and abusive language, they were forcibly abducted beyond the line, and placed in the custody of a party of twelve Spanish light-horse, under the command of Captain Alston, who had been waiting to receive them. They were hurried off to the river, near Tunica Bayou, and, in charge of Captain William Barker and five men, were embarked on board a boat as prisoners, to be delivered into the custody of Governor Grandpre at Baton Rouge.But their captivity was of short duration. In the morning, soon after daylight, as the boat passed the American post at Point Coupée, the prisoners gave the alarm to a person on shore, and before the boat had traversed the bend, Lieutenant Wilson, with a file of soldiers, having crossed the isthmus and taken his station below, succeeded in capturing the boat, with the prisoners and their abductors.
To secure quiet on the border, and to prevent future violations of the American territory, Governor Williams, soon after this outrage, directed two full companies of militia to be stationed near the line, with orders to patrol the country and arrest all trespassers from the Spanish settlements, preserve the peace, and prevent any violation of territory.
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Indian Treaties in 1805. — The eastern half of the territory was still an unbroken savage wilderness in the possession of the Creek nation, except the district on Tombigby and Mobile Rivers. The routes from this district to Georgia and East Tennessee were only Indian trails, traversed and occupied by the Creeks and Cherokees. The principal intercourse between these settlements and those on the Mississippi was by way of the road leading from New Orleans to Fort Stoddart. To open a direct communication between these settlements and the populous portions of Tennessee and Georgia, and to afford mail facilities to the remote portions of the Union, the Federal government entered into treaties with the Indian nations.
The first treaty of this year was with the Chickasâs, wherein they ceded the extreme eastern portion of their country lying north of the "Great Bend" of Tennessee River, and comprising about three hundred and forty-five thousand acres in the vicinity of Huntsville, and which was subsequently organized into the "county of Madison."
The next was with the Cherokees at Tellico, on the 7th of October, 1805. By this treaty the Cherokees ceded to the United States a mail-route through their country, from Knoxville, in East Tennessee, to New Orleans, by way of the Tellico and the Tombigby Rivers. They also conceded to the people of the United States the free and unmolested use of this road in traveling from one extreme to the other. This was the first public road from East Tennessee to the Tombigby, and it opened the way for emigration to the settlements on the banks of that river below the Indian boundary.
By a convention concluded at Washington city on the 14th of November, 1805, certain Creek chiefs, about thirty in number, in behalf of the Creek nation, guarantied to the United States forever the right of a horse-path through the Creek country, from the Ocmulgee to the Mobile River, upon which the people of the United States shall have a right at all times peaceably to travel. They stipulated, also, that the Indians would keep up suitable ferries and ferry-boats upon the different rivers, for the convenience of travelers, and maintain houses of public entertainment at suitable distances on the road.
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About the same time, a treaty was concluded by General James Robertson and Silas Dinsmoor with the Choctâ nation, at "Mount Dexter," for the sale of a large extent of country, comprising about five millions of acres, contiguous to the line of demarkation. This cession was bounded on the north by a line running nearly east by north from the intersection of the old Choctâ boundary near the sources of the Homochitto River, along "M'Leary's Path" to the Pearl River, and thence east by north to the Chickasâhay River, near the Hiyoowanee towns, and thence northeast by east across the Tombigby River to the eastern limit of the Choctâ nation.
By this treaty, in consideration of the sum of fifty thousand five hundred dollars in hand paid, besides a perpetual annuity of three thousand dollars, and other sums formerly paid, the Indians conveyed their title to the whole territory lying west of Washington county, on the Tombigby, and east of the old Choctâ boundary. Thus the whole southern portion of the present State of Mississippi, near the line of demarkation, was thrown open to the white population, and the Choctâ nation was virtually removed from the Spanish border by an intervening strip of more than fifty miles in width.
[A.D. 1800.] The Mississippi Territory, for several years afterward, with its wide extent of Indian country, was traversed by only three principal roads, or horse-paths. These were, first, the road from the Cumberland settlements through the Chickasâ and Choctâ nations to the Natchez District; second, from Knoxville through the Cherokee and Creek nations, by way of the Tombigby, to Natchez; third, that from the Oconee settlements of Georgia, by way of Fort Stoddart, to Natchez and New Orleans. The Chickasâ, or Nashville Trace, was frequented more than, any other, it being the traveled route for the return journeys of all the Ohio boatmen and traders from New Orleans and Natchez.
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The country recently purchased from the Choctâs comprised a large extent of sterile pine lands, of which the uplands were unprofitable for agricultural purposes, and the greater portion of the low grounds were subject to frequent inundations from heavy rains and spring floods. Such was the condition of the Mobile, Tombigby, and Pascagoula bottoms; and many years did not elapse before the pioneers began to covet the fine lands beyond the Indian boundary, and upon the Upper Tombigby.
This subject was brought before the Superior Court by the grand jury as early as May, 1806. The grand jury represents "that nearly four fifths of the lands in Washington county are unfit for cultivation; that the Tombigby is navigable within sixty miles of the Tennessee River; that the Choctâs are willing to sell lands high up the Tombigby," and they desire to have permission to settle them.
Spaniards on the Sabine. — Meantime, the Spanish commander, General Herrera, having advanced from Texas with a force of twelve hundred men, had taken his position on the Bayou Pierre, in the vicinity of Natchitoches, claiming the Arroyo Hondo as the eastern boundary of Texas. Having occupied this position during the summer, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Governor Claiborne against the intrusion, General Wilkinson had been ordered to take his position at Natchitoches with the troops of the United States.
Preparatory to the advance of the regular army, the general had made a requisition upon the governors of the territories of Orleans and Mississippi for detachments of militia, to be held in readiness to co-operate with the regular army on the Spanish frontier.
On the 6th of September, while General Wilkinson was in the county of Adams conferring with the governor relative to the requisition, he issued orders to the commandant at Fort Stoddart, requiring him to hold himself in readiness to invest Mobile with his command, supported by two hundred militia
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from Washington county, under Colonel James Caller, who was then actively engaged in preparations for the capture of Mobile.About the last of September, the militia and volunteers from Mississippi advanced toward Natchitoches. Two fine cavalry troops, under Captains Farrar and Hinds, proceeded from Natchez to Natchitoches. Soon afterward, Major F. L. Claiborne, at the head of a battalion of militia from Adams county, consisting of two hundred and fifty men,
Aaron Burr's Movements. — It was in November, 1806, that Kentucky was thrown into great excitement and apprehension relative to the designs of Aaron Burr.
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District Attorney of the United States, having failed in his laudable attempts to bring Burr to trial upon a treasonable indictment, against the tact of his counsels, Henry Clay and John Allen, Esquires, abandoned the prosecution, and Burr was discharged.This premature attempt to bring Burr to justice, without sufficient evidence for his conviction, had produced a popular
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impression in his favor, and a general disbelief of his guilt. This gave him an opportunity of hastening his equipments for descending the Mississippi River.After his discharge at Lexington, Burr proceeded to Nashville, in Tennessee, where his late honorable acquittal secured him a hearty welcome and numerous friends. Encouraged by his good fortune, he lost no time in expediting the preparations for his contemplated enterprise. Friends and money were at command, and active preparations were prosecuted with vigor. Boats adapted to the low stage of the river were erecting at various points on the Cumberland;
He, with other agents and emissaries, advanced, by different routes, to Natchez and New Orleans, to prepare matters for the arrival of their leader and his vanguard of three hundred men. In arranging their plans, and in gaining the influence of prominent men, they did not fail to court the favor and adherence of the commander-in-chief of the army, then on the Sabine. At the same time, it was rumored mysteriously that Burr, with three hundred men, would arrive at Natchez about the 20th of December, in the prosecution of his enterprise, which was represented as laudable and advantageous to the American people, and pre-eminently so to those engaged in the enterprise.
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Among the confidents it was asserted that four thousand men were in readiness to follow as soon as their leader should
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give the order, and that Burr was compelled to reject the services of more than half the applicants, and that twelve thousand, were it desirable, could be obtained as easily as four thousand; those who were accepted would appear suddenly in arms, at a moment's notice. Such was the tenor of the rumors which reached the executive of the Mississippi Territory about the last of November. Nor were these idle rumors, for there were portents and visible indications of some unusual movement from the regions upon the Ohio. About this time, it appeared that the thousands of adherents of which Burr boasted, instead of embodying on the Ohio, in readiness to follow their chief at the word of command, had been sent before him singly, as emigrants, traders, and private adventurers, and they were dispersed into every town and settlement, unobserved and unsuspected, patiently awaiting the arrival of their leader and his chosen band of three hundred men.Yet, from some cause, Burr did not leave the Cumberland River until the 22d of December, at which time the president's proclamation, bearing date of November 27th, had preceded him to the Lower Mississippi. In this proclamation the president warned all good citizens against the unlawful enterprise which was contemplated by certain citizens of the United States against the dominions of the King of Spain, and "commanded
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all civil and military officers of every grade and department to be active and vigilant in searching out and bringing to condign punishment all persons engaged or concerned in such enterprise, by all the lawful means within their power."373
commander-in-chief, to suppress and defeat the operations of Burr and his adherents.On the 23d of December, Cowles Mead, acting governor of the Mississippi Territory, issued his proclamation against the contemplated unlawful enterprise, and requiring all officers, civil and military, in the territory to be vigilant and active in their efforts to suppress the treasonable movements, and to bring all offenders to justice. The Governor of Louisiana had issued his proclamation to the same effect on the 16th of December.
On the 25th Governor Mead issued his orders as commander-in-chief of the militia, ordering the four regiments of the western counties to assemble for parade and organization in their respective counties between the 10th and 20th of January.
[A.D. 1807.] In the mean time, the whole country was in a state of great excitement and apprehension on account of the danger which seemed to threaten the settlements with the horrors of anarchy and civil war. This apprehension was further increased by the continual arrival of strangers and emigrants at this unusual period, and who, apparently, were unconcerned at the dangers which threatened.
At the same time, there were some who affected to deride and pity the timidity of those who magnified trivial incidents into portents of treason and civil war. Such persons seemed anxious to quiet public apprehension by denouncing the unnecessary steps of precaution taken by the commander-in-chief, and by the executive departments of the two territories. Bollman and Swartwout had already been arrested in New Orleans by General Wilkinson, and were in the custody of the law, the general having sent them under a military guard to the proper authorities of the United States near the Federal government.
On the 10th of January an express from Washington city arrived at Natchez with dispatches for the executive of the territory; after a short delay, he proceeded by way of Fort Adams to New Orleans, with dispatches for Governor Claiborne.
These dispatches contained important information relative to the designs of Colonel Burr and his contemplated movements on the Mississippi River. Accordingly, on the 12th, the governor ordered a guard of sixty men to be stationed on the bank of the river, with instructions to board and examine every boat
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descending. The same day, Governor Mead, in view of the impending danger, prorogued the General Assembly until the 19th, for the purpose of taking active measures for averting the approaching storm, "which presaged an explosion dangerous to domestic safety, and insulting to national dignity."On the 14th of January, intelligence was received at Natchez that Colonel Burr, with about sixty men, had arrived at the mouth of the Bayou Pierre, when the acting governor immediately issued his orders for imbodying the militia. In twenty-four hours, two hundred and seventy-five men, under Colonel Ferdinand L. Claiborne, were ready for marching orders. The same evening, under a most inclement sky, they embarked in boats, and commenced their voyage to the mouth of Cole's Creek, twenty-five miles above Natchez. At this point they were joined by a troop of cavalry from Jefferson county; and the acting governor dispatched his two aids, Majors Shields and Poindexter, immediately to Burr's encampment, near the Bayou Pierre, with a message, notifying him of the formidable military movements against him, and inviting him to surrender himself and his adherents into the hands of the civil authorities. An armistice was arranged at Burr's camp, by which Colonel Burr agreed to meet Governor Mead next day at the house of Thomas Calvit, near Colonel Claiborne's encampment, attended by his friend Colonel Fitzpatrick, of Jefferson county. Next day, Colonel Burr, accordingly, descended the river to the mouth of Cole's Creek, and having spent an hour in the camp at that place, proceeded, escorted by several officers of the Jefferson troop, to the appointed interview with the acting governor. Having entered into a capitulation for the surrender of himself, thirteen boats, and sixty men, at discretion, he proceeded, a prisoner, in company with the governor, to Washington.
A detachment of cavalry from the Jefferson troop the same day proceeded to the mouth of the Bayou Pierre, to receive the prisoners, and to take charge of the boats containing his stores and military supplies, which were conducted to Natchez.
It was affirmed by some, that, previous to the departure of Burr from the Bayou Pierre, he had given orders for the concealment of a large portion of military stores, and some cannon which were contained in boats near the mouth of Bruin's Bayou, on the west side of the river.
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Colonel Burr appeared before Judge Rodney, of the Superior Court, and, having entered into recognizance with his sureties, Lyman Harding, Esq., and Colonel Benajah Osmun, in the sum of ten thousand dollars for his appearance at the called session of that court, to be holden on the 3d of February, was discharged from custody.
About this time, Herman Blannerhasset and Comfort Tyler, two prominent adherents of Burr, arrived at Natchez, and commenced their residence in the Mississippi Territory, some weeks after the arrival of Mrs. Blannerhasset.
In the mean time, many persons evinced a strong disapprobation to the course pursued by the executive authorities in their efforts to frustrate the plans which Burr and his adherents may have contemplated. This feeling of disapprobation, which discovered itself in various ways, sought to shield itself under the pretext of patriotic devotion to the untrammeled liberties guarantied by the Constitution and laws of the United States. In New Orleans, it had manifested itself through the grand jury on the 24th of January, in a presentment of General Wilkinson for the arrest of certain emissaries of Burr. The same disapprobation had displayed itself early in January, through James Workman, judge of the court of the county of Orleans, in a writ of habeas corpus for the release of Peter V. Ogden from the custody of the commander-in-chief; and subsequently, by his resolution to issue a writ of attachment from the same court against the person of the general for an alleged contempt of court.
About this time, the patriotic citizens of Wilkinson county, in an address, signed by ninety-six of the principal inhabitants, to the acting governor, assured him of their devotion to the cause of their country, and their readiness to sustain him in his efforts for the prompt suppression of any treasonable conspiracy against the government of the United States. They declared themselves firmly resolved; "and, being zealously attached to the government of the United States of America, they deemed it their indispensable duty to support, protect, and defend the Constitution thereof, at the risk of their lives and
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property." They declared that "this government is now our own; we may exchange it for a worse, but a better, as relates to the people in general, we can not expect; the designing only wish for a change." They expressed their warmest gratitude to Governor Mead and Colonel Claiborne for the zeal and energy with which they had suppressed the insidious designs of ambitious men.In the mean time, Burr remained in the settlements, and received every attention and respect which is usually shown to men of talent and distinction; nor did he fail to exert his influence, by impressing his acquaintances with his patriotic devotion, and the futility of the charges which had been made against his fidelity to the Union.
On Monday, the 3d of February, the extra session of the Superior Court was held in the town of Washington; and Colonel Burr, attended by his counsel, William B. Shields and Lyman Harding, Esquires, appeared upon his recognizance. "The grand jury having been duly impanneled, Judge Rodney delivered an impressive and comprehensive charge, and the court adjourned until next day, when the case was taken up. The attorney-general, George Poindexter, moved the court to discharge the grand jury.
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the public safety, the territorial judges ought immediately to convey the accused to a tribunal competent to try and punish him, if guilty of the charges alleged against him; which they might legally do, and thereby effectually prevent the contemplated military expedition against Mexico, and maintain inviolate the laws and Constitution of the United States. He therefore hoped that, inasmuch as the attorney prosecuting for the United States had no bills for the consideration of the grand jury, it would be discharged."Colonel Burr made several observations against the motion, and remarked that if the attorney-general had no business for the grand jury, he had, and that, therefore, it ought not to be dismissed. On this motion the court was divided. Judge Bruin declared himself opposed to discharging the grand jury, unless Colonel Burr was also instantly discharged from his recognizance.
"The attorney-general then withdrew, and the grand juries were directed to retire to their room." The next day the grand jury appeared in court, with several presentments of a negative character, which were not founded on any bill exhibited to them. After an appropriate reproof from the court for the "particularly improper interference" of the grand jury at that time, it was discharged the same evening, and no other notice was taken of their presentments.
Colonel Burr demanded a release from his recognizance, which the court promptly refused. On the opening of court next morning, Thursday the 6th, Colonel Burr did not make his appearance, and it was soon ascertained that he had made his escape.
The same evening, Governor Williams, who had returned from North Carolina, issued his proclamation, offering a reward of two thousand dollars for the apprehension and delivery of Aaron Burr, either to him in Washington, or to the Federal authorities of the United States. A troop of cavalry was dispatched to Claiborne county in search of the fugitive; yet no intelligence from Burr was received in Washington until near the last of February, when the governor was informed by
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Captain E. P. Gaines, commanding at Fort Stoddart, that Colonel Burr had been arrested near that post, and was their a prisoner in his custody.Colonel Burr was sent under a military guard by sea to Charleston, and from thence to Richmond by land, in charge of Major Perkins, by whom he had been arrested. He arrived at Richmond on the 30th of March, 1807, and was delivered over to the civil authorities to await his trial.
General Wilkinson, having succeeded in arresting the whole plan of the conspiracy, was assailed by Burr and his satellites as implicated in the conspiracy itself. Although Wilkinson was actively instrumental in frustrating the whole conspiracy, it is evident that for years before he did entertain the idea of invading the Mexican provinces with the army of the United States; but there is no evidence of any design on his part to turn his arms against his country, or to invade Mexico without authority.
Meantime, the excitement in the West, connected with Burr's movements on the Mississippi, brought hundreds, if not thousands, of enterprising emigrants to the Mississippi Territory, greatly increasing its population, and augmenting the talent and moral worth in the country.
Cotton Staple. — Agriculture within the territory had just emerged from that state of depression which existed at the time when the American jurisdiction was established over the country. Indigo had been a principal staple of export up to the year 1807, when the invention of the saw cotton-gin, by Whitney, was introduced, and imparted an impulse to the cultivation of cotton which produced a corresponding decline in the indigo crop. Cotton now became the engrossing staple of the
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fine agricultural settlements; and the comparatively easy and speedy mode of divesting the lint from the seed gave a presage of future wealth and prosperity to the country.Yet cotton-gins were few; and, like mills in a new country, one public cotton-gin performed the work of ginning the crops for a whole neighborhood. The large estates, which produced from one to two hundred bales of cotton, could afford to keep a gin for their own use; but the cotton crop of the territory was produced chiefly by small planters, whose entire crops seldom exceeded twenty-five or thirty bales. Such were compelled to carry their crops to the public gins and wait their turn, in the order of their application, for their ginned crops. The toll paid for ginning and pressing was one tenth of the nett cotton, besides an extra charge for bagging and rope.
To regulate this new species of trade, it became necessary to enact laws applicable to the changes thus introduced. Planters might be seriously injured in the price and sale of their crops by delays and disappointments at the gin, and by postponing their crops out of their order. Hence the time for delivering a crop ready baled to the owner was limited by law to four months from the date of the "cotton receipt" for its delivery at the gin. A longer delay rendered the gin-holder liable for any damage which might accrue to the owner from such cause; and the owner might claim twenty per cent, damage for any delay after legal notice and demand of his cotton. The "cotton receipt," as early as March, 1806, was "made negotiable" by law, and vested in the holder all the rights and privileges pertaining to the original owner. Thus, "cotton receipts" became domestic bills of exchange; and the staple of the country, stored in the public gins, supplied a circulating medium to the people. This was the first attempt, and a laudable one it was, to convert the staple of the country into exchange and domestic currency, untainted by the lust of speculation under chartered privileges.
As has been before observed, the statutes of the territory, revised and condensed by Judge Toulmin, were adopted by the Legislature on the 10th of February, 1807, when two hundred copies were ordered to be published. The edition was completed during the summer by Timothy Terrell, "territorial printer," and was known as "Toulmin's Digest." This code
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comprised not only a digest of the laws then in force, but it presented them arranged and digested into a regular system of "judicial proceedings," in the first part of which were comprised the "laws establishing courts of justice, defining the duties of their officers, and regulating judicial proceedings, chiefly in civil cases;" in the second part were comprised "laws relating to crimes, misdemeanors, and the public police;" besides a general "militia law." This is the oldest digest of Mississippi laws, and formed the basis of the present system of jurisprudence in the State of Mississippi.Tombigby Settlements. — About the close of the year 1806, a settlement had been commenced on the north side of the Tennessee River, in the vicinity of the present town of Huntsville. About the same time, another was commenced on the Lower Tombigby, near the present site of St. Stephen's, on the route leading from Georgia, through the Creek country, to New Orleans.
In the summer following, agreeably to an act of the Legislature, approved February 4th, 1807, Harry Toulmin, James Caller, and Leonard Henry had completed the duty assigned them as "commissioners to view, mark, and open a good road on the nearest route from the city of Natchez to Fort Stoddart, so as to intersect the new Creek road on the line of demarkation east of Pearl River."
At the same session of the Legislature, by an act approved January 8th, John Baker, James Morgan, and John F. M'Grew, as commissioners, were authorized to lay off a town on the lands of Edwin Lewis, near Fort St. Stephen, reserving for the public use the lands near the fort, where a land-office was subsequently established. On the 7th of December following, public notice was given that "the ferry is now complete over the Alabama River, above Little River, and on the Tombigby, just above Fort St. Stephen. The way is now completely opened and marked with causeways across all boggy guts and branches, so that strangers can travel the road with safety, by observing the three notches, or three-chopped way, which cuts off a great distance in traveling from Natchez to Georgia."
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The settlements on the Tombigby and Mobile Rivers labored under many privations and disadvantages. They were an advanced guard into the Indian Territory, remote and isolated, cut off from every other American community, surrounded on all sides by the most powerful tribes of Indians then existing within the original limits of the United States, and occupying but a limited district, which had been relinquished by the native tribes. They were not only cut off from intercourse with their fellow-citizens in other parts of the territory by an Indian wilderness, but were subjected to heavy exactions in the shape of transit duties to a foreign government on their commercial intercourse with the nearest ports of the United States. Yet their patriotism was unshaken, and, although chiefly composed of the remaining colonists of English Florida, who had been successively the subjects of the English and Spanish monarchies, they were true Americans in principle and feeling. And when the outrage perpetrated by the British frigate "Leopard" upon the American ship Chesapeake had produced a general burst of popular indignation from Maine to Louisiana, in no portion of the Union was the patriotic response more hearty and indignant than from the people of Washington county. At a public meeting held at Wakefield, the county seat, on the 8th day of September, 1807, resolutions were unanimously adopted expressive of their indignation at the "outrage which has been committed on our national rights by the arrogant representatives of British despotism."
The preamble declares, "That if England counts upon our divisions, she is mistaken: her violence has united America. Our settlements originally consisted, and still, in a great measure, consist of those who adhered to England in the Revolutionary war. They were led by principle: the elders taught them that resistance was sinful; and they imbibed from their infancy a deep veneration for their king; but the delusion lasts no longer. We have since seen that king engaged in almost incessant wars against the liberty and happiness of man; while the government which has succeeded his in America has preserved us in peace with all the world, and has been pre-eminently occupied in promoting our national prosperity. Old factions are forgotten; old Whigs and old Tories will cordially unite in devoting their lives and fortunes to avenge the wounded dignity of America against the insults and oppression of any
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government on earth." Such was the tenor of the sentiments of Washington county, expressed at Wakefield, and certified by James Caller, chairman, and T. Malone, secretary.At the same meeting they declared, "We have suffered multiplied injuries, inflicted upon us in a regular system, by the agents of the Spanish government. We have been the objects of oppression from the officers of his Catholic majesty for a series of years. The produce of our lands, before it could reach a market even in our own territories, has been subjected to a duty of twelve and a half per cent. ad valorem to a foreign monarch; we have been constantly the sport of vexatious searches and arbitrary seizures; we have been compelled to pay twelve and a half per cent, to the King of Spain on every thing which we have imported even from the next town within the American limits. Through the joint operation of the revenue systems of Spain and the United States, we have frequently been obliged to pay from forty-two to forty-seven per cent. ad valorem, on the price when first imported into the United States, of such articles as are most essential to family comfort."
"But we will discard all personal jealousies; we shall cease to regard our local grievances, until those of the nation are redressed; we will give the Spaniard his twelve and a half per cent.; we will continue to pay double price for the commodities of Europe; we will continue to pay, if need be, sixteen dollars a barrel for Kentucky flour, while our neighbors at Natchez, unencumbered by Spanish obstacles, are paying four dollars for the same article."
The multiplied difficulties operating against the settlements of Washington were duly represented to the American Congress in a memorial from the General Assembly in December following, in which the interference of the Federal government was invoked in their behalf.
[A.D. 1808.] Williams's Administration. — In the mean time, the executive department of the territorial government continued under the administration of Governor Williams, who had, in a great measure, within the last two years, lost the confidence, if not the respect, of a large and influential party in the old and populous settlements of the territory. In all the counties from the Yazoo, west of the "old Choctâ boundary,"
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he was decidedly unpopular, and a majority of the people impatiently awaited the close of his official career.The 4th of March was expected to close the administration as well as the political career of Robert Williams. Although received with due respect and cordiality upon entering upon the duties of his office in 1805, he had soon rendered himself odious to his political opponents, and scarcely respected by his friends. Destitute of refined sensibility and generous feeling, and governed in his official intercourse by a narrow and selfish policy, he knew not how to conciliate his enemies, or to secure the attachment and esteem of his friends. With strong prejudices and an uncultivated mind, his disregard of the courtesy due from a statesman, and his arbitrary disposition, created difficulties innumerable to his administration, while his inconsistency raised up enemies among his friends.
[A.D. 1809.] Meantime, settlements had advanced from Tennessee into the country north of the "Great Bend" of Tennessee River, in the vicinity of the present town of Huntsville, upon lands in the Chickasâ cession by treaty of July 23d, 1805. These settlements, during the past year, had been organized into the "County of Madison" by the territorial Legislature. This county received its population almost entirely from Tennessee, and was separated from others of the territory by a wilderness of three hundred miles in extent, in the entire occupation of the savages.
The first joint-stock bank in the territory was chartered on the 23d of December, 1809. The capital stock was five thousand shares of one hundred dollars each, making an aggregate of five hundred thousand dollars, when speculation was in its infancy in Mississippi. The books were opened subsequently in Natchez, under the superintendence of thirteen commissioners, among whom were the prominent men in the territory. They were Francis X. Martin, Ferdinand L. Claiborne, John Steele, Abner Green, Abijah Hunt, Samuel Postlethwaite, Ebenezer Reese, Cowles Mead, Joseph Sessions, William B. Shields, Winthrop Sargent, Alexander Montgomery, and Lyman Harding. The style of the company was, "The President, Directors, and Company of the Bank of Mississippi;" and its privileges were to remain inviolate twenty-five years, or until the year 1834. But this bank was established upon correct
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principles, making the directors liable in their individual capacity for any emission of notes or bills over three times the amount of their capital stock during their administration; those who might be absent during such emission, and were free from any connection in the transaction, were entitled to exemption by a timely disclosure of the facts. No bill or note was negotiable at said bank unless expressly so written on its face.But chartered associations are insatiable. No sooner had the state Constitution been adopted, and the new state government formally organized, than the company, desirous of monopolizing the whole banking privileges of the state, procured from the Legislature an act, approved February 4th, 1818, increasing the capital stock, making the state a stockholder, and extending the monopoly until the year 1840, with authority to establish branches in other parts of the state.
[A.D. 1810.] For the last three years the population of the territory had been gradually increasing in all the older settlements, and new counties had been organized in the district purchased of the Choctâs, north of the line of demarkation, with sparse settlements extending from the eastern limits of Franklin and Amité counties eastward to the Tombigby. The entire population in the white settlements, by the census of 1810, was 40,352 souls.
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had extended on both sides of the river as far up as Mount Sterling, more than sixty miles above Fort St. Stephen. Instead of the few pastoral French and Spaniards of former years, an active agricultural population was springing up, impressed with the enterprise and indomitable perseverance of the Anglo-Saxon race.Near the close of the year 1810, the territory was thrown into some excitement by the revolution in the western parishes of West Florida, near the Mississippi, and within the government of Baton Rouge. The dissatisfaction of the people under the Spanish authority had been gradually ripening into revolt, which, on the 7th of December, terminated in a formal renouncement of the Spanish authority. Under instructions from the Federal government, Governor Holmes ordered out a detachment of militia from Adams and Wilkinson counties, together with some volunteer companies, which were marched under Colonel Claiborne, to take possession of the country in the name of the United States. The American flag was hoisted at St. Francisville; the Spanish authorities retired, and the district was subsequently annexed to the Territory of Orleans.
[A.D. 1812.] Thus the Spanish influence and intrigue, aided by British agents and emissaries from Mobile and Pensacola, was restricted from active operation upon the banks of the Mississippi; but the Spaniards, restrained in this quarter, began to operate more actively in the eastern portion of the territory, by instigating the savages to commence hostilities against the American settlements. Thus, in the war which had commenced between Great Britain and the United States, the Spaniards of Florida became the secret allies of the former, and promoted the views of the English cabinet in arraying the powerful tribes of Florida against the unprotected inhabitants of the United States.
The president, apprehensive of a descent by the British fleet on some portion of the coast of Louisiana or of the Mississippi Territory, caused troops to be concentrated at suitable points to repel such invasion. Besides the regular army under his immediate command, General Wilkinson was authorized to call upon the governors of Louisiana and the Mississippi Territory
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for quotas of militia and volunteers in any case of emergency, to re-enforce his command.On the 16th of July, Governor Holmes, in consequence of a requisition from General Wilkinson, issued his general orders for a draft of the militia, requiring the quotas from each regiment to hold themselves in readiness to rendezvous under their respective officers at Baton Rouge on or before the 1st of October, to be organized into a brigade under the command of Brigadier-general Claiborne, heretofore colonel of the first regiment.
The patriotism of the Mississippi Territory has always been exalted and pure; they have ever been ready and willing to face danger and encounter privations in defense of their common country, whether against British aggression or the murderous warfare of the savages. The call of the governor was cheerfully obeyed; the complement required was supplied chiefly by voluntary enrolment, without recourse to a draft. On the 18th of August, 1812, General Claiborne reports to the governor the alacrity with which the citizens enrolled themselves for service. "With infinite satisfaction," he writes, "I have the honor to report to you that the lieutenant-colonels commandant of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, tenth, eleventh, and thirteenth regiments have in readiness, to march at the shortest notice, the number required from their respective regiments, under your order of the 16th ultimo; and I am persuaded it will be particularly gratifying to your excellency to be informed that the requisition has been filled principally by voluntary enrolment. The counties of Wilkinson, Jefferson, Claiborne, Warren, and Marion had no occasion to resort to a draft. Amité and Franklin drafted but a few privates. Adams was completed by a draft principally. All await your orders with solicitude; and from the thorough knowledge of the patriotism of the brigade, I am confident that they will march, when ordered, with great promptitude, and in all situations will discharge their duty with fidelity and zeal."
Such was the spirit and patriotism which animated the first brigade of Mississippi militia called into the service of the United States during the last war with Great Britain.
[A.D. 1813.] Tennessee Volunteers. — To aid in the defense of the southern frontier against apprehended invasion, Major-general
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Jackson, of Tennessee, had imbodied a force of two thousand and seventy volunteers at Nashville, consisting of fourteen hundred infantry and riflemen, and six hundred and seventy mounted riflemen.But, instead of encountering the enemies of their country, they were destined to great disappointment and embarrassment, through the imbecility of the Secretary of War, and the indecision of President Madison. Shortly after the arrival of this patriotic army under their chivalrous commander, an order was received from John Armstrong, Secretary of War, requiring General Jackson to discharge his men from service, under the alleged pretext that the imminent danger of invasion had vanished from Louisiana. This order of the imbecile, if not traitorous, secretary, issued before General Jackson's departure from Nashville, required him "to deliver all the public stores and property in his possession into the hands of General Wilkinson, commander of the seventh district."
To obey the order under present circumstances would inflict great injustice upon the brave men who had placed themselves under his command, and were now more than five hundred miles from their abodes, wholly dependent upon the government for sustenance and means of returning through a savage wilderness. Many of them were sick, and about two hundred were upon the invalid roll. Few or none of them were able, from their own resources, to reach their homes; and to have discharged them here, remote from their friends, and destitute,
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would have been to reward their patriotic devotion with the grossest injustice.Under these circumstances, General Jackson assumed the responsibility of disobeying the unreasonable order; he determined to retain his men in the service until they reached their homes in Tennessee.
General Wilkinson, of the regular army, conceiving it a fine opportunity of recruiting his command by the enlistment of the discharged volunteers, endeavored to dissuade General Jackson from his purpose, and reminded him of the great responsibility which would rest upon him in carrying out his determination; but the "commander of the Tennessee volunteers," nothing daunted, persisted in his determination to do justice to his troops, relying upon the purity of his motives as his justification with the Federal government.
At length, having been greatly harassed by the interference and machinations of General Wilkinson and his recruiting officers, General Jackson issued his orders to the quartermaster and commissary, requiring them to continue in the performance of their duties, under the penalty of military coercion.
The line of march was at length taken up for Tennessee through the Choctâ and Chickasâ nations, the commander "refusing to leave behind a single man who had life in him." After a fatiguing march of nearly five hundred miles through the Indian country, they were discharged near their homes, in Tennessee, on the 19th and 22d of May. The government, approving the course of the general, allowed his accounts, and the whole expense was paid out of the public treasury.
Occupation of Mobile District. — In the mean time, the attention of the Federal government was seriously directed to that portion of the original province of Louisiana which was still in possession of the Spaniards between the Pascagoula and the Perdido Rivers, including the bay and port of Mobile. Although the western extremity of West Florida, from the Mississippi
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eastward to Pascagoula, had been occupied in 1810 and was subsequently annexed to the State of Louisiana, no attempt had been made forcibly to occupy the country included in the district and government of Mobile. This region was still in the occupancy of the Spanish commandant of Fort Charlotte.Since the beginning of the war with Great Britain, there had been repeated evidence of the danger of permitting a part of the United States to be occupied by a power which was unable to maintain its neutrality against an enemy which was then waging a war of extermination against the American people. In view of this danger, Congress, by an act approved February 12th, had authorized its occupancy by the troops of the United States, and General Wilkinson was instructed by the president to take forcible possession of Fort Charlotte, and the district eastward to the Perdido. Accordingly, having completed his preparations, the general, at the head of a strong land and naval force, took possession of the fort and district on the 13th of April, 1813.
The fort was left in command of Colonel Constant, with a suitable garrison, when the general proceeded to erect a strong fortification at Mobile Point, to prevent the entrance of vessels of war into the bay. This fortification was left in command of Lieutenant John Bowyer, and, in honor of him, it was subsequently called "Fort Bowyer." The works had not been completed in September following.
By an act of Congress, approved May 12th, the Mobile District, dependent upon Fort Charlotte, was annexed to the Mississippi Territory.
For months afterward, the Spaniards, in their interviews with the hostile Creeks, asserted that Mobile had been basely surrendered by a cowardly commandant, and that his Catholic majesty's troops expected orders for its recapture, when they should expect the aid of the Creek warriors.
The occupation of all Florida had been an event ardently desired by the great mass of the southwestern people, and by the officers of the United States army. As early as January, 1813, General Jackson, in a communication to the Secretary of War, observes, "If the government orders, I will rejoice at
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the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and St. Augustine, effectually banishing from the southern coast all British influence." In June, General Wilkinson's instructions from the war department directed him that, "if the Spaniards should attempt to dislodge him from Mobile or the Perdido, it will be an act of hostility, and, as such, will warrant you, not only in repelling it on the spot, but in pursuing and punishing the perpetrators of it wherever they may be found. The same law will govern in case of Indian invasion." This was, in substance, the course pursued by General Jackson eighteen months afterward.Although the British fleet had been hovering near the Florida coast occasionally for several months, they made no decided effort to invade the territory of the United States. They were not yet ready for this measure, but rather desired to await the result of their intrigues with the powerful tribes of Indians in the interior of Florida and the Mississippi Territory, and to furnish them, through their agents and emissaries from Pensacola and St. Mark's, with supplies of arms and ammunition.
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Chapter XIV. — The "Mississippi Territory," from the beginning of the Creek War until the admission of the states of "Mississippi" and "Alabama" into the Federal Union. A.D. 1813 to 1819.
Argument. — British Policy of instigating savage Warfare. — Population and Settlements in 1813. — Origin of Creek Hostilities. — Prosperous Condition of the Creeks in 1812. — British Instigation from Canada. — Tecumseh stirs up a war Party in the Creek Nation. — Tombigby Settlements menaced by hostile Creeks. — Deluded Security of Colonel Hawkins and General Flournoy. — General Claiborne advances to the Tombigby. — Judge Toulmin's Opinion of the true State of the Indian Affairs. — Disposition of Troops under General Claiborne. — Condition of Affairs on the Alabama in August. — General Claiborne's Letter. — Major Beasly admonished of Danger. — Attack and Massacre of Mims's Fort. — Number of Whites slain. — Loss of Indians. — Consternation produced by the Disaster. — Wretched Condition of the Inhabitants. — Marauding Bands of Indians ravage the Country. — Employment of the Choctâs urged as indispensably necessary. — General Claiborne secures the Co-operation of the Choctâs under Mushulatubbe and Pushmataha. — Spanish Treachery detected. — British Supplies for Indians sent to Pensacola. — The Army advances to Fort Claiborne. — Advances to the Holy Ground, and defeats Creeks under Weatherford. — The Georgia Troops under General Floyd invade eastern Part of the Creek Nation. — Tennessee Troops invade the northern Part. — General Jackson advances to Fort Strother, on the Coosa. — Battle of Tallushatches. — Battle of Talladega. — Creeks supplied for the War by British Agents. — Battle of Emuckfaw. — Battle of Enotochopco. — Battle of the Horse-shoe, or Tohopeka. — The Power of the Creeks humbled. — Invasion of the Hickory Grounds. — "Fort Jackson" built. — Submission of the hostile Chiefs. — Surrender of Weatherford. — Treaty of Fort Jackson. — Its Conditions and Requirements. — Colonel Nichols in Florida. — General Jackson Commander-in-chief in 7th military District. — British Emissaries among the Florida Indians. — Jackson advances to Mobile. — Defense of Fort Bowyer against British Fleet. — Expels the British Forces from Pensacola. — Tribute of Esteem to General Jackson. — Advance of white Population into the Indian Country. — Settlements north and south of Tennessee River; upon Sources of Tombigby. — Monroe County organized. — Population of Madison County in 1815. — The Creeks instigated by British Emissaries to reject the Treaty of Fort Jackson. — Population of the Territory in 1816. — Application for Authority to form a state Government. — Indian Treaties in 1816. — Territory divided. — "State of Mississippi" admitted into the Union. Choctâ Cession by Treaty of Doak's Stand. — Ceded Territory organized into Counties. — Permanent state Capital selected. — "City of Jackson." — County of Monroe annexed. — Final Extension of the state Jurisdiction within the entire Limits. — Summary of Indian Treaties within the Mississippi Territory. — Governors of Mississippi. — Alabama Territory organized. — State of Alabama admitted into the Union. — Subsequent increase of Population.
[A.D. 1813.] IN the war of 1812-1815, Great Britain, not content to lay waste the seaboard of the United States, by burning the cities, towns, and private property of individuals within reach of her fleets and armies, together with the monuments of art and genius, again adopted the disgraceful and inhuman policy of instigating the savages, and supplying them with the means of carrying on a murderous warfare of indiscriminate
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destruction against the feeble frontier settlements which were remote from the seat of war, and were not, properly, parties in the contest. The Indian barbarities of the Revolutionary war were to be revived against the northern and southern frontiers.As late as the close of the year 1813, the American settlements within the Mississippi Territory were comprised in three distinct portions of the country, each remote from the other, with extensive Indian territory intervening. The principal population was to be found in the Natchez District, which included the counties of Warren, Claiborne, Jefferson, Adams, Wilkinson, Amite, and Franklin, containing in the aggregate about twenty-two thousand persons. In the eastern portion were the Tombigby settlements, including the annexed portion of Florida near the Mobile Bay. These settlements composed four counties, Washington, Clark, Mobile, and Baldwin, with an aggregate population of about seven thousand persons. West of these were the large counties of Hancock, Marion, Greene, and Wayne, extending to the eastern portion of Amite, and containing a sparse population, in the aggregate not exceeding five thousand persons. The third important settlement was north of the "Great Bend" of Tennessee River, and was comprised in the county of Madison, with a population of about eight thousand persons.
The aggregate white population did not exceed forty thousand, and scarcely forty-two thousand, including slaves. The remainder was occupied wholly by powerful tribes of Indians, known as the Chickasâs, Choctâs, Cherokees, and Creeks. The two latter nations, and especially the last, were numerous and warlike.
Origin of Creek Hostilities. — Although the Creeks, as a nation, for many years after the close of the Revolutionary war, under Spanish influence, had been occasionally hostile to the American people, yet, after the occupancy of Louisiana by the United States, their enmity had been subdued by the conciliatory policy of the Federal government, confirmed by formal treaties of peace and friendship. Missions had also been established in the nation for the purpose of improving their moral condition, opening schools for the education of their children, and teaching the useful arts and employments of civilized life. To encourage these aids to domestic comfort, and to introduce
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among them useful employments, and gradually wean them from the uncertain support and destitution of savage life, Congress made liberal appropriations toward the introduction of agriculture and manufactures; agencies were established for supplying them by government with all the articles of Indian trade at fair prices, excluding the introduction of whisky, and protecting them from the extortion of designing individuals.One of the principal agents of the government, Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, on the frontiers of Georgia, who had been zealously engaged for years in the laudable enterprise of introducing the arts and usages of civilized life among them, had succeeded in greatly meliorating their condition. Many towns were large, with buildings and improvements, which indicated a degree of comfort and domestic independence previously unknown among the Indians. Some of the industrious Creeks were wealthy, possessing large plantations, a great variety of domestic stock, and numerous slaves. The leading chiefs were pleased with the improved condition of their people, and gave their full influence to measures which were gradually to place them above the precarious dependence of savage life.
Such was the condition of the Creek nation after the commencement of the war with Great Britain, until the summer of 1813; and such, in all probability, it would have continued, with a progressive improvement, had it not been for the inhuman course of Great Britain, which seeks to accomplish her purposes regardless of the means employed.
Pursuing the barbarous policy which has characterized that government for the last three centuries, agents and emissaries were dispatched to instigate the northern and southern Indians to resume hostilities against the whole southern and western frontier of the United States.
Under the direction of Elliott, a British trader of Canada, and relative of the notorious Elliott, formerly British agent on the Maumee, the revengeful Tecumseh was employed as an emissary to rouse up the southern as well as the northern savages for the destruction of the border settlements.
This warlike Indian, in the winter of 1812-13, empowered by the British authorities of Canada, commenced his enterprise of uniting all the powerful nations south of the Ohio into a league with those of the north for a general war with the United States.
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Accompanied by his brother, the "Prophet," and about thirty-warriors from the northern tribes, Tecumseh set out from the Wabash on his mission to the great tribes of the South. With his fiery eloquence, and his vindictive hatred of the American people, he soon created a party in the Creek nation which began to defy all restraint and all subordination to their constituted authorities, and soon spread conflagration and havoc from the frontiers of Georgia to the banks of the Mississippi.
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This party soon began to increase both in numbers and violence. Imbued with all the insatiable malice, and the well-known contempt for civilized life, which was entertained by that ferocious savage, his adherents became violent in their opposition to every attempt to introduce any change in the national habits and customs of the Creek nation. They denounced any attempted innovation upon their long-established customs and usages as only an artifice of the whites for the ultimate acquisition of their country, after having deprived them of their ability to subsist on the resources so bountifully provided by Nature. Still, the party in favor of civilization, sustained by the principal chiefs, the United States agents, and by the missionary influence, resisted the efforts of the hostiles until they were finally overwhelmed by increasing numbers.
The war spirit spread rapidly from town to town, until the whole nation was thrown into the greatest state of excitement and phrensy. Elated with the assurances given by Tecumseh of efficient aid from the British king, they commenced their war-dances, their incantations, and national preparations for making common cause with England in the extermination of the frontier settlements of Georgia and Tennessee, with those of the Mississippi Territory.
At length the hostile Creeks conceived a bitter enmity to the ruling chiefs of the party in favor of peace and civilization. A rebellion was fomented against their authority, because the friends of civilization were the friends of peace; they were denounced as the enemies of their country, and confederates of the white man for the extinction of their nation. If so, they
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deserved to die, and each hostile warrior conceived himself the chosen instrument to execute the sentence.The opposing parties at length became organized under their respective leaders, and a civil war commenced. At the head of the peace party was the "Big Warrior," one of the legitimate chiefs; at the head of the hostile party was the "Little Warrior," a violent and sanguinary man. Acts of violence ensued, and several of the friendly chiefs were murdered in cold blood. As the hostiles gained strength, they proceeded to new acts of violence; regardless of the legitimate authorities, they deposed and put to death the friends of peace, until the nation was involved in general bloodshed. The war party at length prevailed, and all opposition was suppressed by arbitrary force.
The war-dances introduced by Tecumseh and the Prophet were celebrated generally, and served to rouse the enthusiasm of the savages into a perfect phrensy.
Parties of hostile warriors began to assemble in various parts of the Creek nation, with the avowed purpose of commencing hostilities against the white settlements of the Mississippi Territory, and of Georgia and Tennessee. Emissaries were employed in efforts to induce the Choctâs to unite with them in the general league, Tecumseh having been unsuccessful in his efforts among the chiefs of that nation.
Meantime, the settlements on the Alabama and Tombigby Rivers were harassed by continual alarms of divers incursions, which threatened to involve them in one promiscuous massacre. Tormented with the most exaggerated reports of approaching danger, and believing themselves menaced with speedy destruction, the people of Washington District made their urgent appeals to Governor Holmes for protection against the hostile savages. To quiet these apprehensions, the governor lost no time in organizing a brigade of nine hundred volunteers and militia, which he placed under the command of Brigadier-general F. L. Claiborne.
Although many of the Choctâ warriors were inclined to join the Creeks in their contemplated hostilities, the prudent counsel of Mushulatubbe, Pushmataha, and Pitchlynn, three influential
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war chiefs, prevailed, and the Choctâ nation remained friendly to the Americans. Yet the influence of these chiefs would have been of little avail, had it not been for the influence, address, and prudence of General Claiborne, who finally secured not only their neutrality, but their co-operation.Although the people on the Tombigby and Alabama frontier had been kept in a state of continual alarm and apprehension by the commotion and civil discord in the Creek nation, and the continual rumors of hostile designs against the American settlements, no actual warlike demonstration had been made against them until July. Early in this month the hostiles proceeded to acts of violence against the ruling chiefs who advocated peace and friendship with the whites. About the same time they began to burn the houses and destroy the property of the half-breeds living near the white settlements who were suspected of being friendly to the United States.
On the 20th of July information was received by Captain Gaines, Choctâ agent at St. Stephen's, from Mushulatubbe, a friendly Choctâ chief, apprising him of the disposition and movements of the Creek nation.
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all the disturbance and violence in the Creek nation was only the harbinger of a contemplated attack upon the frontier settlements, for which they were receiving supplies of ammunition from the Spaniards of Florida.At this time no efficient measures had been taken by the commander-in-chief of the Seventh Military District to protect the border inhabitants of Washington District from Indian revenge. General Flournoy, who had succeeded General Wilkinson, having his headquarters occasionally at New Orleans, or the Bay of St. Louis, rarely visited the exposed frontier, and was deaf to all the representations and entreaties, not only of the people, but also of the militia officers on duty in that quarter. With two or three full regiments of United States regular troops under his command, he permitted these settlements to be harassed by constant alarms, while the third and seventh regiments were in cantonments at Washington, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans.
Trusting in the perverted judgment, and guided by the mistaken declarations of the Creek agent, Colonel Hawkins, he remained at New Orleans and other points remote from the Indian region, ignorant of the true state of Indian feeling and hostile preparations, neglectful of the appeals for aid and protection from the exposed people, and apparently regardless of the storm which was about to burst over them. Notwithstanding the daily evidences of hostility in the Creek nation, and the repeated acts of violence by those in favor of war; and notwithstanding the same spirit was now extending to the Choctâs, and threatened to involve them with the Creek nation, he refused to give his sanction to any efficient measures for arresting the designs of the inimical Creeks, or securing the friendship of the Choctâ nation. Thus, by his incompetence for the station he occupied, and by his misdirection of the military resources under his control, he contributed in no small degree to all the horrors of the Indian war which soon afterward broke forth.
Meantime, Colonel Hawkins, at a period when the Creeks were ripe for the execution of their plans and the destruction of the exposed population infatuated by his misguided judgment,
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denied there was any hostile party in the Creek nation, Under this false impression, he omitted no effort to inculcate his belief among the white inhabitants, as well as upon the credulous commander-in-chief. He asserted that all the disturbance, commotion, and violence in the Creek nation was without any hostile design against the United States, but solely the result of a domestic faction opposed to civilization; that the alarm and distrust on the Alabama and Tombigby Rivers were without any real foundation, and that all precautions and means of defense were uncalled for and superfluous that no hostile movement against the whites could be made until the civil war in the nation was finally settled.Such were the views entertained by Colonel Hawkins, and which were imbibed by General Flournoy, controlling the defenses of the southern frontier; views which were not changed until the agent was compelled, early in July, to fly for his life from the Creek nation; and the commander-in-chief was astounded by the massacre of Fort Mims.
In the mean time, the British fleet had been cruising in the Gulf of Mexico for months, and had made its appearance several times off the coast of Florida, whence vessels had been dispatched to Pensacola and to other neutral ports in East Florida, to discharge supplies for their savage allies, together with munitions of war, and emissaries to superintend their distribution, and to expedite the hostile organization of the Creek nation.
It was not until the first week in July that General Claiborne received orders from General Flournoy, in New Orleans, requiring him to advance with his brigade from Baton Rouge and take post at Mount Vernon, three miles east of Fort Stoddart. Colonel Carson, with the advanced guard, set out immediately for the designated point, where he arrived and established a cantonment for the troops. On the 30th of July, General Claiborne, with the rear guard, arrived and took charge of the army for the protection of the exposed settlements. The greatest energy was then required to enable him to distribute his forces in such a manner as to give a tolerable security to the defenseless inhabitants and the recent stockades which they had hastily constructed for their preservation.
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Upon his arrival at Fort Stoddart, General Claiborne took every measure to ascertain the true condition of the Creek nation, and their designs toward the United States. The following day he received from Judge Toulmin a written opinion, assuring him that hostilities were already commenced against the frontier people.
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The general proceeded to distribute his troops in such a manner as would best promote the security of the exposed population, who were now in the greatest alarm and apprehension of a speedy attack from the hostile warriors, who were reported upon the march for the Tensas settlements. Two hundred men, under Colonel Carson, were allotted for the defense of the large settlement in the "Forks" of the Alabama and Tombigby, where the people had erected a stockade for protection, which was known as "Easley's Station." Major Beasly, with one hundred and eighty men, was dispatched to the Tensas settlement, where the inhabitants were also collected into a stockade, known as "Mims's Fort." Captain Scott, with one company, was dispatched to Fort St. Stephen, to re-enforce the garrison for the protection of that settlement, and for the security of the United States agency at that place. The mounted dragoons of Major Hinds were employed to scour the country in every direction, to discover the first approach
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of the Indians. The militia of Washington county were distributed to re-enforce the exposed stockades.Such was the precautionary measures taken to guard against any sudden attack which might be contemplated by the savages during the month of August. The settlements which were deemed greatly exposed were entirely abandoned by their inhabitants, many of whom fled westward as far as the Chickasâhay River, and some as far as the vicinity of Natchez.
We can not give a better idea of the condition of things on the Tombigby at this period than is contained in a letter of General Claiborne to the Governor of Georgia, dated "Cantonment, near Fort Stoddart, August 14th, 1813." The general says, "On my arrival here on the 30th ult., I found the inhabitants on Tombigby and Alabama in a state of the utmost confusion and alarm. They were flying from all quarters to the west side of the Tombigby, leaving behind them rich and highly cultivated farms, with immense crops and stocks of cattle, an easy prey to the hostile Indians. I took every possible pains to ascertain the disposition of the Creeks toward the American government; and, from the unquestionable testimony of many respectable planters and half-breed Indians who reside on the east side of the Alabama, and who are perfectly acquainted with the disposition and intentions of the unfriendly Creeks, I deemed it advisable to make such a disposition of the disposable force under my command as would best secure protection to the most exposed part of the eastern frontier of this territory.
"Some time previous to my arrival, information which could be relied on was received that M'Queen, who appears to be a leading man among the unfriendly Creeks, was on his way to Pensacola with a party of about three hundred Indians, who were going to procure powder and other warlike stores from the governor of that place.
"Immediately on the receipt of this intelligence, two gentlemen of respectability were dispatched to Pensacola, to ascertain whether the governor of that place would furnish munitions of war to the Indians, and also to discover their intentions toward us. Their report was, that the governor had supplied them with a considerable quantity of powder, lead, flints, and the like, and that the Indians did not hesitate to declare openly and at all times that their objects were hostile to the whites, and that they were determined to attack and destroy
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the settlements on Tombigby and Alabama. Information was also brought that this party of M'Queen's would proceed from Pensacola north to the Whetstone Hill, about eighty miles east of Tombigby, where they were to be met by a party from the nation, when they would distribute their stores, and immediately attack our defenseless frontier."When these things were known, Colonel Caller, of the militia, hastily collected about one hundred and seventy-five mounted men, and proceeded to the trace leading from Pensacola into the nation, with a view to prevent the junction of these two parties, and also to destroy the stores which they were conveying into the nation.
"On the 27th of July, Colonel Caller, with his militia, met the Indians on the edge of the Escambia low grounds, where he gave them battle. The savages were soon driven, and when every thing declared for the colonel's party, contrary to his express orders and expectations, a retreat was ordered by a junior officer; and, notwithstanding every exertion of Colonel Caller, and some of his officers and men, the militia could not be rallied, but retreated in confusion, with the loss of two killed, and seven or eight wounded. The loss of the enemy was much greater.
"From the information which I have collected, there can be no doubt but that the civil war between the Creeks has originated with the British in Canada. It is stated to me by some of the most intelligent half-breeds, that the Little Warrior, who had been with the British army in Canada, had written orders from the commanders in that quarter to the governor at Pensacola to furnish the Indians with whatever arms and ammunition they might require. These orders, when the Little Warrior was killed, fell into the hands of M'Queen, and on them there is no doubt he was supplied. From a letter of John Innerarity, of the house of John Forbes and Co., of Pensacola, it appears that the Indians have obtained, by threats and otherwise, considerable warlike supplies. It shows, too, that the Spanish government at that place is too weak to support their authority.
"When we are at war with a savage nation, who are thus able to procure warlike supplies from the Spanish government immediately on our borders, and which enables them to commit depredations on our frontier, and to support a contest with our troops at great expense to our government, sound policy
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would dictate that such dispositions should be made as would effectually destroy these resources. This can only be done by taking possession of Pensacola and such other places in East Florida as border on our lines. This measure, I hope, will be adopted."I have now at the different frontier stations about seven hundred men, and expect in a few days to be re-enforced by the seventh regiment. I sincerely hope that I may then be ordered by General Flournoy, under whose orders I act, to penetrate the Creek nation. More could be effected now by one thousand men than could be accomplished three months hence by double that number."
In order to prevent the apprehended incursion of the savages, General Claiborne solicited re-enforcements of regular troops from General Flournoy, with authority to invade the Creek country. But the latter withheld re-enforcements, and declared the Creek difficulties would soon be terminated. Conscious of the impending danger, General Claiborne having re-enforced the different garrisons with his feeble force, enjoined the most ceaseless vigilance and untiring industry in completing the stockades and block-houses.
In the mean time, the storm of Indian warfare was about to burst with savage fury upon the defenseless inhabitants east of the Tombigby. Rumor asserted that more than fifteen hundred Creek warriors were imbodied, and were already on their march in two divisions against the frontier settlements; one party, of nearly eight hundred warriors, was destined to lay waste those of Tennessee, from Georgia on the east to the Muscle Shoals on the west; another body, of more than seven hundred warriors, designed the destruction of the settlements on the southwest, from the Alabama and Mobile to the Pascagoula on the west. This party was led by the ferocious Weatherford, who delayed his advance for a few days in the vicinity of Pensacola, procuring supplies of ammunition from the Spaniards.
Yet General Flournoy, as if fearful to approach the scene of danger without express orders, and fearful of "transcending his authority," even to the discomfiture of the enemy, still enjoined upon General Claiborne to act strictly on the defensive.
Apprehensive of an attack on the lower settlements, General Claiborne dispatched orders to Major Beasly at Fort Mims,
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urging him to the utmost vigilance and caution; requiring him to complete the block-houses, to strengthen the stockades, to respect the prowess of the enemy, and prepare for a vigorous resistance, and to guard against a sudden attack by employing scouts throughout the settlements.These apprehensions on the part of General Claiborne and the citizens generally were not without good cause. On the 30th of August, near eleven o'clock A.M., the savages first made their appearance before Mims's Fort, when about sixty warriors, suddenly deploying from a thicket, rushed furiously to the gate, which was open. Before they were perceived they were within thirty yards of the gate, which they endeavored to possess before they could be assailed by the garrison within. Although the attack was unexpected, the whole garrison was immediately in arms, and each man bravely defending the fort. The slaughter at the gate was terrible; nearly every Indian who first approached was killed in the onset; but increasing numbers crowded on, and a furious mÄlée was maintained for half an hour by the commingled combatants, with the bayonet, sword, and the clubbed rifle on one side and the tomahawk, scalping-knife, and the war-club on the other, amid the deafening yells of the infuriated savages, until the garrison, reduced in numbers and borne down by superior force, retreated within the gate, and sought safety in the buildings and blockhouses. A scene of indescribable confusion and carnage ensued within and around the fort while the contest continued, and subsequently in the wholesale massacre of the helpless families who had taken shelter within it. The following extract is from the official report of the massacre:
"In the contest for the gate many fell on both sides. Soon however, the action became general, the enemy fighting on all sides in the open field, and as near the stockade as they could get. The port-holes were taken and retaken several times A block-house was contended for by Captain Jack at the head of his brave riflemen, for the space of an hour after the enemy were in possession of a part of it, when finally, they succeeded in driving this company into a house in the fort, and, having stopped many of the port-holes with the ends of rails, possessed themselves of the walls. From the houses our troops made a most gallant defense; but the enemy set fire to the roofs and an attempt to extinguish the flames proved unsuccessful. The
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few who remained now attempted a retreat under the direction of Captain Bayley of the militia, and Ensign Chambliss of the rifle company, both of whom had been badly wounded. Previously to their retreat, they threw into the flames many of the guns of the dead men. Few of them succeeded in escaping. A few citizens who fought in the stockade, but were not enrolled in any company, also escaped; one of them leaving a wife and six children, who were probably burned to death."Major Beasly fell, gallantly fighting at the head of his command near the gate, at the commencement of the action. Captain Jack was killed about the close of the scene, having previously received two wounds. Captain Middleton also distinguished himself, having received four or five wounds before he fell. He was active, and fought bravely from the commencement of the action until he died. Lieutenant Spruce M. Osborn, of Wilkinson county, after receiving two wounds, was taken into a house, but requested to die on the ground, that he might, as long as possible, see the men fight. The other officers fell nobly doing their duty, and the non-commissioned officers and privates deserve equally well. The action continued until five o'clock in the evening.
"Our loss is great; sixty-five, including officers and men, were killed, belonging to the first regiment of Mississippi Territory Volunteers, and twenty-seven volunteer militia, officers included. Many respectable citizens with numerous families, who had abandoned their farms for security, were also killed or burned in the houses into which they had fled."
The whole number of persons slain in the fort, including about twenty respectable families, which were massacred or burned in the houses, was over two hundred and fifty. Only seventeen escaped, most of them severely wounded.
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The loss of the Indians was but little less. Their whole number was subsequently ascertained to have been seven hundred and twenty-five warriors, chiefly Alabamons, commanded by the ferocious Weatherford. The detachment sent to bury the bones of the white victims, subsequently, on their return, reported that the woods adjacent presented nearly two hundred Indian graves. The loss of the enemy had previously been estimated over one hundred and fifty.
Such was the melancholy catastrophe of Fort Mims. In the massacre the fury of the savages was unbounded. Perfectly intoxicated with rage and vengeance, after they had gained the fort they murdered in cold blood, amid the heartrending screams and entreaties of their victims, the crowd of women and children.
The stockade of Mims's Fort was amply sufficient to have been defended by the garrison, had a proper degree of vigilance been enforced by the commandant; but he seemed to have been incredulous of the imminent danger to which he was exposed. On the morning of the 30th, a few hours before the attack, he had written to General Claiborne, declaring his ability to maintain the post against any number of Indians.
Such was the penalty for despising an enemy. That Major Beasly was brave, can not be doubted; but his courage was devoid of that ceaseless vigilance which alone gives victory to the brave, by detecting the movements and secret operations of an enemy. When cautioned from several sources of the impending danger, he treated the information as an idle tale, unworthy of his attention; and, instead of preparing to meet the storm, his gates were carelessly thrown open to admit the savage foe.
This melancholy catastrophe spread gloom and consternation throughout the whole territory. The country north and south of the post at Mount Vernon was abandoned by the inhabitants, except the few posts occupied by troops. A spectator at Mount Vernon writes, on the sixth of September, "Never in my life did I see a country given up before without a struggle. Here are the finest crops my eyes ever beheld, made and almost fit to be housed, with immense herds of cattle, negroes, and property, abandoned by their owners almost
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on the first alarm. Many have run from this neighborhood particularly, and have literally abandoned their property. The country is in a deplorable state. It is full of Indians, and the force on the frontier admits only of defensive operations. The Indians which took Mims's station are on the Alabama, only ten miles from that place."Nor did the Indians cease from their hostilities after the destruction of Fort Mims. Every station, every block-house, and every fort was assailed by the open foe or by lurking bands of concealed savages. During the month of September, the distress of the people in the midst of the sickly season was extreme; hundreds of families were lying around the stockades, unable to get within the walls. At Mount Vernon, both forts were so crowded that no more could be admitted.
On the seventh of September, Rankin's Fort, a stockade for the protection of the fugitive people, contained five hundred
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and thirty white persons, of whom only eighty-seven were capable of military duty. Others were arriving every hour, and it was feared the number would be doubled in a few days.Consternation pervaded the whole country, from the town of Mobile to the extreme northern settlements near the Choctâ boundary, and westward to the Tombigby. Parties of Indians spread themselves in every direction over the whole country, burning and destroying every thing in their reach. After burning the houses, they herded the stock together, and drove them off or destroyed them on the spot. The hogs were driven into the corn-fields to fatten for their use; the horses were taken for their marauding detachments, to enable them the better to spread their ravages; while their camp was furnished with all the luxuries requisite for the continuance of their bacchanalian orgies and nocturnal revelries.
People, prizing their lives above all worldly possessions, fled from their homes utterly destitute, leaving every thing, even their wardrobe and household furniture, to the mercy of the Indians, and with their families sought the nearest stockade.
Employment of the Choctâs. — In these perilous times, in the infancy of the State of Mississippi, Judge Toulmin was always active in his patriotic efforts to defend the settlements from acts of aggression, whether by a savage or a civilized foe. To conciliate the wavering Choctâs, he had been first to urge the employment of them against the unfriendly Creeks; he declared that they would take part on one side or the other; and that, if the American commander lost the opportunity then offered, the Choctâs, in self-defense, would be compelled to join the Creeks, who already looked upon their neutrality as cause of war, and for which they designed to treat them as enemies.
On the 23d of September, a "committee of safety" had prepared an address for the consideration of General Flournoy, setting forth the imminent danger of the inhabitants, and the necessity of conciliating the Choctâs by employing them in the service of the United States against the hostile Creeks. It urges, in view of the impending danger, that the public stores of the Choctâ agency at that place shall be opened for the supply of the Choctâ warriors who are ready to take up arms in defense of the American settlements, and it presents the names of many citizens who voluntarily obligated themselves to indemnify the agent for any loss which he might sustain by
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so doing. It represented that such is the condition of that nation, urged and menaced by the Creeks, and lured by the liberal supplies of arms and military stores promised by British emissaries to those who espouse the British interests and unite with the Creeks, that they are compelled to take sides in the war either with their old enemies, the Muskhogees, or with the American people.The committee further represented that "the Choctâs, through a principal chief of one of the three districts of the Choctâ nation, and a captain from another, have manifested a disposition to engage in the war, upon condition of being supplied by the United States with the means of carrying it on; that, upon these conditions, they will cooperate with our troops against the hostile Creeks, who, unless promptly checked, will ruin the settlements in this part of the territory." It represents further, that a number of the Choctâs have been already seduced to join the Muskhogees; and that, as the nation will embark in the war on one side or the other, the success which has heretofore attended the Creeks, in the only two battles yet fought, will exert a strong influence in making their final decision lean to the Creeks; and so strong was the conviction of many in the settlements that this would be their decision, that they are already deserting the country for more secure places.
It represents further, that it is now well known that a British vessel has arrived on the coast of West Florida laden with stores and presents to be distributed among the Indians, in order to attach them to the British interests;
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portion of the Creeks amounts to four fifths of the nation, all burning with mad enthusiasm for the destruction of the American settlements in this quarter, which they will abandon only with their lives.It recounts the inadequate protection now furnished to that portion of the territory, the troops from the Mississippi not yet arrived, no intelligence of assistance from Tennessee, and only a rumor that the Georgia militia had taken the field. Under these circumstances, the committee believe a crisis has arrived when it is absolutely necessary, for the future safety and peace of the country, to close with the propositions of the Choctâs, to invade the Creek country, and completely subdue or exterminate the Creek nation. Those best acquainted with Choctâ affairs deem it indispensable to make no delay in securing the co-operation of these Indians, lest they cease their friendly overtures, and yield to the seductions of the enemy. Such are the reasons urged for the employment of the Choctâs in the war against the hostile Creeks.
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Major Gibson, the point was narrowed down to this, "We must engage the Choctâs, or fight them!"Pushmataha, a medal Choctâ chief, had been active in his efforts to restrain the inimical feelings of his people toward the whites, and to induce them to abandon the contemplated alliance with the Creeks in the approaching war. He had succeeded in causing several Choctâ warriors to burn the war-club and abandon the Creeks.
To carry out his friendly designs in favor of the United States, this chief, with a few attendants, had visited Fort St. Stephen, to lay his views before the American commanders. A formal interview with General Claiborne was held on the 23d of September, when the first step was taken to enlist the Choctâ warriors in defense of the American settlements. The measures adopted were subsequently approved by General Flournoy.
Up to the 1st of October, nothing had been done by General Flournoy to secure the peace and friendship of the Choctâs. The whole country was deeply concerned at the position occupied by this nation in the contest which had commenced. Strongly urged by the Creeks to make common cause with them, and exposed to their resentment for refusal, and yet without any assurance of protection from the American commander, it was evident to all that, without some decided measures on the part of the American commanders, they must shortly ally themselves to the Creek nation. Many of the best men in the country, among whom was Judge Toulmin, believed the Choctâs would soon embark in the war on the side of the hostile Creeks, and thus place the settlements of Washington county between two opposing tribes.
General Claiborne had been impatient to invade the Creek country from the first outbreak of hostilities, and, at the same time, he had been anxious to secure the friendship and co-operation of the Choctâs; but General Flournoy, "fearful of
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transcending his authority," declined any decisive action in the case until the month of October.In the mean time, a confidential agent had been sent into the Choctâ nation with instructions to conciliate their feelings, and to induce them, if possible, to accept the tomahawk, and unite with us in chastising their old enemies the Muskhogees. The hostiles were conciliated by friendly talk, and several principal chiefs consented to visit St. Stephen's, and hold a conference with General Claiborne. From this place, they were induced to visit General Flournoy at Mobile, to impress him with the importance of some speedy and decisive action. But it was at Fort St. Stephen that the first efficient measures were taken to imbody the Choctâs in arms against the unfriendly Creeks; there, also, the first arrangements were made, and the first definite action taken, which resulted in the complete pacification of the Choctâs, and secured the settlements upon the Mississippi, as well as those upon the eastern frontier, from the revenge of the Choctâ nation.
Arrangements having been made for the co-operation of the Choctâs with the troops under General Claiborne, Pushmataha arrived at Mount Vernon on the 4th of November with a detachment of fifty-one warriors. Here they remained, waiting for arms and ammunition, until the 10th; Mushulatubbe, with another portion of the Choctâ warriors, was advancing toward the Black Warrior. By the first of December, Mushulatubbe' s captains, the "Talking Warrior" and the "Old Leader," had commenced operations against the Creek towns on the Black Warrior, and their first trophies were the scalps of four Creek warriors.
On the first of November, General Claiborne was still at "Pine Levels," near St. Stephen's, awaiting the arrival of supplies and equipments for his Indian auxiliaries his troops being impatient to advance into the strongholds of the Creeks, beyond the Cahaba.
At length, after great indecision and delay on the part of General Flournoy, he issued order, on the 10th of November for General Claiborne to advance with his command
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Bluff, on the east side of the Alabama River, eighty-five miles by land above Fort Stoddart, and one hundred and fifty miles below the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, and there erect a stockade cantonment as a dépôt for supplies and military stores for the relief of the Tennessee troops under General Jackson, who was advancing down the Coosa.Accordingly, on the 13th of November, General Claiborne took up the line of march from "Pine Levels," and traversed the region between the Tombigby and the Alabama until the 16th, when he encamped upon the west bank of the Alabama, opposite Weatherford's Bluff. Next day, having crossed the river, he took his position and commenced the stockade on the bluff, which was completed before the close of the month, and called "Fort Claiborne." It consisted of a strong stockade two hundred feet square, defended by three block-houses and a half-moon battery, which completely commanded the river. It was near the middle of December before General Flournoy permitted the army to advance against the Creeks.
The Creek war was now fully opened in every quarter of their wide, extended country, and the hostile Creeks were inflamed with the most vindictive rage against such of their own people as were neutral or favorable to peace. Hence the latter were compelled to seek safety against their enraged countrymen either by flying to the white settlements and joining the American troops, or by fortifying themselves in their towns as against an opposing foe.
The Georgia troops, advancing from the east, were accompanied by large numbers of the friendly warriors, who were compelled to seek the protection of the whites. On the north, each division of the Tennessee troops was also accompanied by large numbers of friendly Creeks, who were likewise compelled to take up arms against their own countrymen, who had become their most inveterate enemies. In like manner, the contiguous Choctâs, Chickasâs, and Cherokees, in self-defense, were compelled to take sides with the whites. The revengeful Creeks tolerated no suspicious neutrals; and, at a subsequent date, General Jackson adopted the same policy with rigor. Thus the war, in fact, shortly became to the Creeks a war of self-extermination.
On the 13th of December, General Claiborne, at the head of nearly one thousand men, including a portion of the third regiment
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under Lieutenant-colonel Russell, and the Choctâs under Pushmataha, took up the line of march for the Creek country on the Alabama, above the mouth of the Cahaba River. Advancing eastward, on the south side of the Alabama, after a march of more than one hundred miles from Fort Claiborne, he approached the strong-hold of Weatherford, a town of about two hundred houses, situated in a swamp near the south bank of the Alabama River, and known as Eccanachaca, or "Holy Ground."This town was attacked on the 23d of December by the army in three divisions, with great spirit and impetuosity. The Indians, encouraged by their chiefs and prophets, Weatherford, Josiah, Francis, and Sinquister, as firmly defended their town against the assault. But they were soon compelled to submit to a total defeat, with the loss of thirty of their warriors. Weatherford, in the midst of the battle, fought like a demon until overpowered, when he fled.
Meantime, the Georgia troops had advanced into the Creek nation. About the middle of October, General Floyd, at different points on the western frontier of Georgia, had under his command about twenty-five hundred troops; and early in November, at the head of nearly one thousand troops and about four hundred friendly Indians, he advanced from the Chattahoochy against the Creeks living upon the Tallapoosa and its tributaries. On the south side of the Tallapoosa, thirty miles above its mouth, and near Autossee Creek, he came upon a fortified town, defended by nearly four hundred Creek warriors. On the 29th of November, after a severe conflict of several hours, the town was carried by storm, and the hostile Indians were defeated and completely routed, with the loss of two hundred warriors killed on the field. Among the slain were two of their kings. Two towns, comprising four hundred houses were destroyed and burned, including many of a superior order not common among the Indians.
The Autossee towns were situated upon the "beloved ground" of the Creeks, where they had supposed no white man in hostile array could come without certain death; but the whole eastern portion of their country was subsequently overrun and terribly ravaged by the Georgia troops in other
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campaigns. Yet this was only the beginning of the retribution which awaited them during the following year from another quarter.Operations of the Tennessee Troops. — The people of Tennessee had been no idle spectators of the infuriate vengeance which impelled the savages to the destruction of the American settlements in the beginning of the war. The success at Fort Mims and other points on the Mobile waters had imboldened the savages, and accelerated their destiny by prompting their advance against the confines of Tennessee, and against that portion of Tennessee where the energy and skill of the commander and the courage of the troops were equal to the emergency of the conflict.
The exposed condition of the inhabitants in the Tennessee Valley, west of Huntsville, had presented a favorable opportunity for another savage triumph, and in the month of September the Indian warriors began to concentrate near the advanced settlements north of the Tennessee River. The rumor of their approach spread alarm throughout the exposed population, and hundreds of families on the advanced frontiers fled from their homes, and sought safety more remote from the Indian border.
Meantime, active preparations had been in progress for imbodying a strong military force in Tennessee for the invasion of the Creek country. Major-general Jackson, in West Tennessee, and General John Cocke, in East Tennessee, were each advancing with twenty-five hundred men toward the Indian Territory, for its simultaneous invasion from two opposite directions.
On the 10th of October, General Jackson commenced his march from Huntsville, with two thousand choice volunteers, for the Indian country. Marching the infantry toward the Coosa, he detached Brigadier-general Coffee, with nearly one thousand mounted volunteers, to make a circuit and scour the country upon the head waters of the Black Warrior, for the dispersion of the hostile Creeks who were supposed to be in that quarter.
In his advance into the Indian country, General Jackson encountered great difficulties in procuring supplies for his troops; yet, overcoming all obstacles by his indomitable energy and
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perseverance, he continued to advance toward the Indian town, near the "Ten Islands" of Coosa.Learning that a large body of Indians had posted themselves on Tallushatches Creek, southeast of the Coosa, and about thirteen miles from his encampment, General Jackson dispatched General Coffee with his mounted brigade to attack and disperse them. Conducted by the Indian pilot, General Coffee crossed the Coosa four miles above Ten Islands, and encamped a few miles distant from Tallushatches. Early next morning he advanced to the attack. Within one mile and a half he divided his troops into two divisions, each marching so as to unite their fronts beyond the town. An hour after sunrise the battle was commenced by two companies of spies, thrown within the circle of alignment for the purpose of drawing the Indians from their houses.
In a few minutes the action became general, and the Indians were immediately driven into the town, where they fought with the most obstinate fury as long as they could stand or sit, disdaining to ask quarter. The principal missiles used by the Indians after their first fire were bows and arrows, each warrior being furnished with a bow and quiver, which was used when no opportunity occurred for reloading. The savages were utterly defeated with great slaughter, and their town, with all its effects, was consumed with fire.
Upon the ground were found one hundred and eighty-six Indians killed, besides eighty-four taken prisoners. The Tennesseans lost five men killed, and had forty-one wounded.
General Jackson concentrated his force near Ten Islands, on the Coosa, where he established a strong post, which he called "Fort Strother," and made it his headquarters. On the 8th of November he took up his line of march for Talladega, with his whole disposable force, consisting of twelve hundred infantry and eight hundred mounted riflemen. At this point the hostile Creeks were in great strength.
After a rapid march, the army arrived within six miles of the enemy late in the evening, and there encamped with the
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utmost circumspection. Soon afterward, the scouts reported the Indians posted in great force within a quarter of a mile, but their numbers could not be ascertained. Orders were given about midnight to prepare the troops for marching. By four o'clock in the morning the whole line was in motion. The infantry proceeded, as usual, in three columns; the cavalry in the same order in the rear, with flankers on each wing. At seven o'clock, having arrived within a mile of the enemy's position, the columns were displayed in order of battle. At eight o'clock the battle was commenced by a heavy fire from the savages, throwing the advance into some confusion. Order was soon restored in every part except in the regiment of Colonel Bradley, who failed to advance.The force of the Indians in this engagement was one thousand and eighty warriors. The battle continued, with occasional remissions, for nearly two hours. The Indian loss was three hundred warriors left dead upon the field. The Tennessee troops lost fifteen men killed and eighty-five wounded.
Such was the result of the battle of Talladega; and had it not been for the defection of Colonel Bradley with his regiment, and the retreat of three companies of militia, which opened a space for the flight of the enemy, it is more than probable that scarcely a warrior would have escaped.
No other operations of importance were undertaken by General Jackson for want of supplies and re-enforcements, the term of service having expired with many, until January following.
Thus terminated the first campaign of the Tennessee troops in the Creek war. The only severe contests and honorable victories were achieved by the western division, which, under their active and skillful commander, had they not been paralyzed in their efforts by the want of provisions and supplies, would well-nigh have terminated the war in a single campaign.
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[A.D. 1814.] In the mean time, the British fleet had been off the coast of Florida, and through the Spanish ports had abundantly supplied the Seminoles and Creeks with arms and ammunition, and all the requisites for maintaining an Indian war. Thus sustained and assisted, the Creeks imbibed new life and new energy in their preparations to renew the conflict, and to compel the co-operation of their own nation.
Second Campaign of the Tennessee Troops. — At the distance of fifty miles from Fort Strother, in a southeast direction, the hostile Indians had concentrated in great force at the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River. The isthmus and peninsula formed by this bend had been fortified in such manner as to bid defiance to the militia without the aid of artillery. This fortified peninsula was near the mouth of a creek which the Indians called Emuckfaw, and included an island in the river, the whole situated just below the Indian village of New Youka. Toward this place General Jackson began his march on the 18th of January, and on the evening of the 21st he encamped on the Emuckfaw Creek, about twelve miles from the Indian citadel.
The Indians, apprised of his design against Tohopeka, had resolved to intercept his march, and, if possible, cut off the advancing enemy. But the wary commander had defeated the prompt execution of the chief design of the warriors from the Tallapoosa. The savage host resolved not to abandon the ultimate object of their advance, but prepared to attack the camp at the first dawn of day.
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About six o'clock on the morning of the twenty-second, a while before daylight, the Indians made a vigorous assault upon the left flank of the army. The attack was resisted with great firmness for half an hour, when a furious charge of the cavalry, under General Coffee, completely routed the Indians, and drove them nearly two miles from the field, with great slaughter.
During the first half hour, General Coffee, Colonel Carroll, Lieutenant-colonel Sitler, the adjutant-general, and Colonel Higgins, distinguished themselves for their cool and deliberate courage in sustaining the assault and in pursuing the flying enemy.
Not long afterward the camp was attacked with great vigor on the right, where the principal attack was intended from the first. Against this General Jackson had duly provided, he having from the first believed the attack on the left only a feint to confuse and weaken the right. This second attack was accordingly sustained with firmness and courage until the mounted volunteers were prepared to charge. The first charge, under Colonel Carroll and Colonel Higgins, put one division of the Indians to flight, and a second charge, under General Coffee, completely routed the remainder of their forces, with the loss of forty-five of their warriors left upon the ground.
General Jackson next encountered the savages on his return to Fort Strother, on the 24th of January. The retrograde march was taken up at ten o'clock on the forenoon of the 23d. Late in the evening the army reached their encampment on Enotochopco Creek. Here they spent the night in constant apprehension of an attack from the Indians, who had followed in their trail. The march was resumed on the morning of the 24th, with increasing evidence of a contemplated attack by the Indians at the defile in crossing the creek. Just as the first columns had crossed the creek, and the artillery was entering the ford, the rear columns were furiously attacked by the savages, and thrown into temporary disorder and flight. A short time, however, served to restore order, when the troops fought with great courage. The artillery was soon brought to bear upon the enemy by Lieutenant Armstrong and his brave company, who advanced in the face of a most galling fire from ten times their number of Indians. They were soon supported by the
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columns of infantry, which were brought up to take the place of the right and left columns, which had given way. In a short time the Indians were routed in every direction, and were pursued by the cavalry more than two miles, under the greatest consternation. Twenty-six warriors were left dead on the field.The loss of the Tennessee troops in these several engagements, on the 22d and on the 24th of January, was twenty-four men killed and seventy-five wounded.
Early in March, General Jackson having been appointed major-general in the United States service, was re-enforced by the thirty-ninth regiment of United States Infantry, under the skillful and intrepid Colonel John Williams. This regiment numbered about six hundred effective men, and possessed ample supplies. Several detachments of militia and volunteers had also joined his standard before the middle of March, when his entire force amounted to nearly four thousand men, besides Indian auxiliaries to the number of nearly one thousand.
At this time, the Choctâs from the Tombigby and Black Warrior, the Chickasas, and the Cherokees, as well as the friendly Creeks, had rallied to his standard.
The enemy was encountered again, and for the last time in a general engagement, at the strong-hold of Tohopeka, upon the Tallapoosa River. It was on the 27th of March, about ten o'clock in the forenoon, when the army reached the vicinity of the Indian fortress.
The savages, aware of the approach of General Jackson's
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forces, had made every preparation for defense, and had assembled their warriors, to the number of about one thousand, from their different towns. The peninsula enclosed by the bend was a place of great natural strength, being surrounded on all sides but one by a deep river, with high and steep banks. The isthmus, or neck which separated the extremes of the bend, was defended by a strong wall or breast-work, from five to eight feet high, and pierced with numerous port-holes.Preparations for an attack were made without delay. General Coffee, with his brigade of mounted volunteers, and with the friendly Indians, had been detached to cross the river, two miles below the bend, and to encompass the bend on the opposite side, so as to cut off from the enemy all opportunity of retreat. Soon afterward the infantry were put in motion, and advanced slowly along the isthmus toward the breast-work; one six-pounder cannon and one three-pounder were planted in an advantageous position, within two hundred yards of the enemy's line. The cavalry under General Coffee and the Indian allies had attained their position, and had commenced an attack on the rear from the opposite side of the river, when the cannon opened a very brisk fire upon the breast-work. The infantry slowly advanced, and poured in volleys of musketry and rifle-balls whenever the Indians presented themselves above the breast-work. In this manner the attack was kept up with but little intermission for two hours, when a part of the mounted volunteers and some of the friendly Indians crossed the river in canoes, and set fire to some buildings in the rear of the hostile Indians, and opened a brisk fire upon the enemy's rear. At this time General Jackson resolved to carry the place by storm. The infantry in front of the breastwork had been in readiness for some time, and were impatient for the order to storm the works. The order was given, and received by the troops with acclamation, and "the history of warfare furnishes few instances of a more brilliant attack. The regulars, led on by their intrepid and skillful commander, Colonel Williams, and by the gallant Major Montgomery, soon gained possession of the works, in the midst of a most tremendous fire from behind them; and the militia of the brave and venerable Doherty's brigade accompanied them in the charge, with a vivacity and firmness which would have done honor to regulars. The enemies were completely routed. Five hundred and fifty-seven
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were left dead upon the peninsula, and a great number were killed by the horsemen in their attempt to cross the river. It is believed that not more than twenty have escaped."The fighting continued with some severity for five hours; but we continued to destroy many of them, who had concealed themselves under the banks of the river, until we were prevented by night. The morning following, sixteen men were killed who had been concealed. We took two hundred and fifty prisoners, all women and children. The power of the Creeks is forever broken."
The loss of the Americans was twenty-five killed and one hundred and five wounded. Among the slain were the brave, accomplished, and lamented Major D. P. Montgomery, and Lieutenants Moulton and Somerville. The friendly Indians under Major M'Intosh, the Cowetan, lost twenty-nine killed and fifty-four wounded.
The memories of Lieutenants Moulton and Somerville are perpetuated in the flourishing towns of Moulton and Somerville, in the counties of Lawrence and Morgan, in North Alabama. That of the lamented Montgomery is perpetuated in the county and town of Montgomery, southeast of the Alabama River. Major Montgomery, a native of Virginia, had been an eminent lawyer and an accomplished gentleman in Tennessee at the commencement of the war with Great Britain, when he assumed the profession of arms, and entered the regular service of the United States. In this capacity he was the idol, and the model for imitation to his junior officers and men. Attentive to the wants of his men, to their health and comfort he was looked upon as a father and friend. Strictly obedient to the orders of his superiors, and punctilious in the performance of his promises, he secured the most implicit obedience from those under his command. In his person tall and graceful; in his manners, polite, reserved, and modest, he was the favorite of all who knew him. Ardent, brave, and patriotic, he hastened to the field of danger in defense of his country; and, scarcely expecting to return alive, he faltered not, observing, "If I fall in battle, I hope I shall die gloriously."
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In the mean time, Colonel Pearson, with two hundred and fifty militia from North Carolina, scoured the banks of the Alabama and captured six hundred and twenty-two Indians, including men, women, and children. Several other skirmishes with parties of Indians had resulted in the death of some, and the capture of many others.
These victories completely prostrated the Creek power. They had heretofore been a powerful confederacy, and for more than thirty years had been inveterated in their hatred of the white settlers. In this they had been instigated by Spanish emissaries ever since the close of the war of Independence. During this time, no permanent peace, no complete security, no sincere friendship could be obtained for the white population of Georgia and Tennessee, or for those of the Mississippi Territory.
On the 1st of April General Jackson marched to Fort Williams, where he remained a few days to refresh his troops and to recruit their horses.
"The fiends of the Tallapoosa will no longer murder our women and children, or disturb the quiet of our borders. Their midnight flambeaux will no more illuminate their council-house, or shine upon the victims of their infernal orgies. In their places a new generation will arise, who will know their duty
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better. The weapons of warfare will be exchanged for the utensils of husbandry, and the wilderness, which now withers in sterility, and mourns the desolation which overspreads it, will blossom as the rose, and become the nursery of the arts. But, before this happy day can arrive, other chastisements remain to be inflicted. It is indeed lamentable that the path to peace should lead through blood, and over the bodies of the slain; but it is a dispensation of Providence, and perhaps a wise one, to inflict partial evils, that ultimate good may be produced."With rations for eight days packed upon the backs of the soldiers, the army set out for the hostile towns over the rugged country which forms the dividing ridges between the Coosa and Tallapoosa. In less than ten days, the whole country on both sides of the Tallapoosa, for fifty miles above its mouth, was severely scoured and ravaged by fire and sword. But the Indians fled in every direction on the approach of the victorious army; the towns were all deserted, with their fields, to the mercy of the invader. On the 17th of April the army arrived at old Fort Talassee, on the Coosa, six miles above its mouth. This is the site of the old French Fort Toulouse, upon an isthmus between the Coosa and Tallapoosa, which approach within one hundred rods of each other. Here the last chain of military posts was erected, and, in honor of the victorious commander, it was called "Fort Jackson."
In the mean time, the Georgia troops, under Colonel Milton, had advanced to the east side of the Tallapoosa with provisions and supplies; and having formed a junction with General Jackson's army, advanced to the general rendezvous at Fort Jackson. Many of the Indian auxiliaries had been discharged at Fort Williams on account of the scarcity of provisions, and others were also discharged at Fort Jackson, as the war was now terminated.
The savages were humbled, and they had sued for peace and mercy from their conquerors. From the day that the general arrived at Fort Jackson, the Creek warriors and chiefs had been daily arriving from every quarter, imploring peace for their nation and for their families. Among the distinguished chiefs was the notorious Weatherford, chief of the Alabamons, a principal instigator of the outbreak, the leader in the capture and massacre of Fort Mims, and an active commander
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during the war. Vanquished, but not subdued, the proud warrior and fearless chief, disdaining to be led a captive, boldly advanced through the American camp into the presence of his victorious enemy, surrounded by his staff officers, and, bearing in his hands the emblem of peace, thus addressed General Jackson:"I am in your power; do with me as you please. I am a soldier. I have done the white people all the harm I could; I have fought them, and fought them bravely. If I had an army, I would yet fight, and contend to the last; but I have none; my people are all gone. I can do no more than weep over the misfortunes of my nation. Once I could animate my warriors to battle; but I can not animate the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my voice: their bones are at Talladega, Talllushatches, Emuckfaw, and Tohopeka. I have not surrendered myself thoughtlessly. While there were chances of success, I never left my post nor supplicated peace; but my people are gone, and I now ask it for my nation and for myself. On the miseries and misfortunes brought on my country, I look back with deepest sorrow, and wish to avert still greater calamities. If I had been left to contend with the Georgia army, I would have raised my corn on one bank of the river and fought them on the other; but your people have destroyed my nation. You are a brave man: I rely on your generosity. You will exact no terms of a conquered people but such as they should accede to: whatever they may be, it would be madness and folly to oppose. If they are opposed, you shall find me among the sternest enforcers of obedience. Those who would still hold out can be influenced only by a mean spirit of revenge; and to this they must not, and shall not, sacrifice the last remnant of their country. You have told us where we might go and be safe. This is a good talk, and my nation ought to listen to it: they shall listen to it."
In the mean time, arrangements were in progress by the Federal government for holding a regular treaty with the Creeks at Fort Jackson, on the Tallapoosa River. For the accomplishment of this desirable object, no one was so well calculated to impress the savages with the power and justice of the United States as the "commander of the Tennessee volunteers." Hence General Jackson, in conjunction with Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, the Creek agent, was appointed
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commissioner to negotiate and conclude a permanent treaty of peace and amity with the Creek nation. The whole country of the Creeks having been overrun, and the nation entirely subdued by the American troops, they were completely at the mercy of the conquerors, both as to territory and their own personal safety.On the 9th day of August the treaty was regularly concluded and signed by the American commissioners and the chiefs representing the Creek nation, which thereby ceded to the United States all the Creek territory lying east of the Tombigby and west of the Coosa Rivers.
The "treaty of Fort Jackson" bears upon it the impress of the great soldier, and the forbearance of a nation outraged by savage cruelty, yet kind and indulgent to the conquered.
The preamble of the treaty sets forth that the Creeks had commenced an unprovoked, inhuman, and sanguinary war against the people of the United States, which had been repelled, prosecuted, and determined by the United States successfully, and agreeably to the principles of national justice and honorable warfare; that prior to the outbreak of the war, and the subsequent conquest of the whole Creek country, numberless aggressions had been committed by hostile Creeks against the property, safety, and lives of American citizens, and against such Creeks as were friendly to the United States, at the mouth of Duck River, Fort Mims, and elsewhere, contrary to national faith and express treaty stipulations. That the United States, previous to the perpetration of these outrages, had endeavored to secure the peace and future harmony of their people respectively, by a strict conformity to former articles of treaty, while the Creeks, their chiefs, and warriors, had been induced, by foreign emissaries, impostors, and agents, to commence hostilities against the American people.
Wherefore, the United States claim, as an indemnity for the expenses of the war, a cession of the Creek territory within certain limits, while they guarantee to the Indians the integrity and occupancy of the residue, provided the Creek nation abstains from all intercourse with English or Spanish agents not authorized by the United States to trade with them.
The United States also claim and require the right to establish trading-houses and military posts, and to navigate all the waters of the Creek territory, and to open and use such roads
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as may be deemed expedient. The United States demand the immediate surrender of all prisoners and property in their possession, and also the capture and delivery of all prophets and instigators of the war, whether natives or foreigners.And whereas the Creek nation is reduced to extreme want, without the means of subsistence, the United States, out of pure benevolence and humanity, agree to furnish gratuitously to the Creek nation the necessaries of life until their crops shall be matured.
Under the foregoing provisions and considerations, the United States ratify and confirm the peace with the Creek nation, and between them and the Cherokees, Chickasâs, and Choctâs. Such are the leading provisions and stipulations of the "treaty of Fort Jackson."
Such was the close of the Creek war; a war of extermination commenced by them against the American settlements, instigated and sustained by British revenge, but which resulted in the loss of nearly four thousand of their people, slain in battle, and the complete devastation of their country.
British Emissaries in Florida. — In the mean time, British officers and emissaries had been actively engaged in rousing the Indians of Florida to renewed hostilities. This province was inhabited by portions of the Creek nation, and by a numerous tribe known as the Seminoles, within the limits of the Spanish dominions. These were to be armed against the frontier population of the United States, to renew the scenes at Fort Mims. For this purpose, the British brig Orpheus, early in August, landed several British officers, with a few men, and several pieces of artillery, at Appalachy Bay, near St. Mark's, in East Florida. These officers in advance were to stir up the Creeks and Seminoles; to imbody, train, and drill a large force of them, to assist in the reduction of Mobile Point, and other posts and settlements in the vicinity of Mobile Bay.
These agents and officers at St. Mark's at length succeeded in imbodying a large number of Indians, who were drilled in the field exercise, and supplied with arms and ammunition. Soon
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afterward, Colonel Nichols arrived with a British squadron at Pensacola, where he established his headquarters, and from which he soon issued his famous proclamation to the people of Louisiana.It was not long before his emissaries returned to him at Pensacola, accompanied by several hundred Indian allies recruited from Florida, who were subsequently engaged with the British troops in their abortive attack upon "Fort Bowyer," on Mobile Point.
Early in the autumn, General Jackson was appointed commander-in-chief of the Seventh Military District in place of General Flournoy. Proceeding without delay to the seat of
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war, near the Gulf of Mexico, he immediately took active measures to protect the coast of Louisiana and the Mississippi Territory from British invasion. At his summons the Tennessee volunteers again rallied under his standard for the defense of the country from foreign invasion, as they had already done for the humiliation of savage power.The fort which had been commenced by General Wilkinson at Mobile Point was the only defense against the entrance of the enemy's vessels into the Bay of Mobile, and General Flournoy had considered the post too much exposed to admit of successful defense in case of a vigorous attack. As such, it had been partially abandoned to its fate; but General Jackson immediately ordered its reoccupation by a suitable garrison, and proceeded to augment and strengthen the defenses, so as to close the pass against the entrance of the enemy's vessels. This post, known as Fort Bowyer, was placed under the command of Major Lawrence, with a garrison of one hundred and thirty men and twenty pieces of cannon; and with such success was the defense conducted, that on the 15th of September it successfully repulsed a combined attack by Colonel Nichols and Captain Woodbine with six hundred Indians on land, and the fleet of Sir W. H. Percy, consisting of four vessels and ninety-two pieces of cannon.