50 - DARKE COUNTY It has ever been difficult for the staid and cultured Anglo-Saxon to understand and delineate the true character of the North American Indian. Some writers depict him as the red aristocrat of the forest, possessed of true virtue, chivalry and valor, while others would make him appear a fiend incarnate, delighting in rapine and brutal slaughter. Like all savage peoples his character was unsymmetrical, and manifested many crude and violent inconsistencies. Being children of nature, they reflected nature's changing moods; now dwelling peaceably in skin tepees or frail bark huts in their secluded forest homes; again making the wilderness ring with their hideous yells, as they danced in frenzied glee at the prospect of the fearful slaughter of their foes. To them the natural world was an enchanted fairyland whose spirits they worshipped or cajoled, according to their changing whims, and disease was an evil spirit to be driven out of the body by the weird maneuvers of the Medicine Man. Easily elated by success, they were just as readily dejected by defeat, causing them to waver in their various alliances as prompted by expediency. As a means of personal decoration they loved to smear their sinewy bodies with colored clays or tint them with the juice of berries, and wear jangling trinkets and colored beads. Living a rude and simple life they knew no law but necessity, and no government save expediency. Their meat was the flesh of the deer, the buffalo and the wild game which they chased with craft and glee through the primeval forest. For a diversified diet they cultivated small areas of corn, beans, melons, etc., and gathered the nuts and wild fruits of the wood. The wife, or squaw, together with the children, cultivated the fields and did the drudgery incident to the care of the camp or village, while the brave or warrior roamed the forest in quest of game, warred with hostile tribes, constructed the tepee, or hut, the swift gliding canoe, and the various implements of war and the chase. When not on the chase or fighting his hereditary foes, he loved to idle about the camp and engage in racing, wrestling, gambling, chanting and dancing, while incited by the frenzied yells of his fellow abettors. In feasting, smoking, jesting and repartee he was a past master. Lavish in hospitality and faithful to friends, he was, nevertheless, the implacable persecutor of real or fancied enemies. Two remarkable traits seemed to lift him above the level of common savagery; his stoicism, which made him insensible DARKE COUNTY - 51 to suffering, fatigue and physical exposure; and his eloquence, which; aided by a well trained memory and keen intellect, was a marvel to the whites who met him in council. Freedom from conventional restraints and the beauty of his natural haunts contributed, no doubt, to the development of his oratorical powers. Belonging to one ethnic group the North American Indians, nevertheless, manifested distinct characteristics and were separated into well-defined families and tribes, having distinct dialects, traditions and definite places of abode. Two great families occupied the basin of the Great Lakes and the valley of the Ohio river at the advent of the whites. The Algonquin family were the more numerous, and were represented by the larger number of tribes, the more prominent being the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawatomies in the upper lake region; the ancient and powerful Miamis, with subject and related tribes, along the Maumee, the Wabash and the upper Miami river valleys; the active and warlike Shawanese in the valley of the Scioto and neighboring territory; the Delawares in the valley of the Muskingum and upper Ohio. The wandering disposition of some of these tribes is shown by their various migrations. The Shawanese had recently emigrated from the valleys of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, from which they had probably been driven by the hostility of the neighboring southern tribes. They were active, egotistic, restless and warlike and were destined to become more frequently engaged with the advancing frontiersmen than any other of the Ohio tribes. The Delawares had emigrated from the Delaware and Susquehanna river region, on account of the encroachment of the whites and the hostility of their northern neighbors, the Five Nations, and are especially prominent in colonial history because of their treaty with William Penn. Their peaceable disposition won for them the contempt of some of the more warlike tribes, who called them "women." Their conduct in the Ohio country, however, proved them to be warriors worthy of respect. The Miamis had lived "from time immemorial" in their secluded abode, and their title to the lands claimed by them was probably more valid than that of any of the northwestern tribes. With their relatives, the Tawas, the Weas, the Piankeshaws and Eel river Indians, they formed a powerful nation. 52 - DARKE COUNTY Their central and established location, together with intelligent leadership, gave them a decided prestige among their neighbors. All of these prominent tribes had, no doubt, absorbed the scattered remnants of the New England and coast tribes which otherwise would have been exterminated. The other great family of Indians, identified with the territory tinder consideration, was the Iroquoian. This family occupied the lands between the Ottawa river and the lower lakes, and a portion of the region below the latter. Their influence, however, extended from Lake Champlain to the Mississippi, and from the Ottawa to the Ohio. Several of the smaller tribes of this powerful family roamed over the Ohio country and made some large settlements. Five of the most powerful stationary neighboring tribes, the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks, formed a confederacy known originally as the Five Nations, and later, after being augmented by the Tuscaroras tribe from the Carolinas, the Six Nations. This confederation lived mainly in central New York from the Hudson river to the region south of Lake Ontario, having several palisaded towns of hark huts and considerable orchards and cultivated lands. Within historic times they had practically exterminated the Fries, who dwelt westward along the southern shore of Lake Erie, and the Andastes, who lived to the south in the region of the Susquehanna, both belonging to the same family. They had also driven their brother tribe, the Huron Wyandots, from their ancient abode below the Ottawa river, rausing them to retire to the southwestern shore of Lake Erie. The Wyandots, however, ultimately became the leading nation among the Indians beyond the Ohio and were addressed as "uncle" by the other tribes. In their keeping was placed the Grand Calumet, or peace pipe, which entitled them to assemble the tribes in general council and open all deliberations. The Five Nations came into contact with the Dutch and English traders at an early date and were supplied with firearms, which they used to advantage in awing and subduing the western tribes. Although their population probably never exceeded twenty-five thousand, they were intelligent, aggressive, eloquent and powerful, and continually waged war on the northwestern tribes, whose lands they claimed by right of conquest. But for the timely appearance of the Europeans, they would probably have subdued or exterminated the DARKE COUNTY - 53 separate and poorly organized tribes of the wandering Algonquins, and thus have formed a powerful savage nation. It seems improbable, however, that they would ever have established a permanent and prosperous nation, worthy the respect of civilized peoples. While these children of the forest dwelt in this delightful land of virgin rivers, lakes, prairies and woods, unmolested save by their own kindred, the white man planted settlements along the Atlantic seaboard and commenced a campaign of conquest and expansion that was not to cease until practically the whole continent had come into his possession. Centuries of civilization had prepared the Anglo-Saxon for a new abode where he might have sufficient room and resources to work out the destinies of a new and mightier nation than the world had ever known. His conquest was to be not merely a matter of might, but of fitness and greater service to the expanding race of man. Where a few wandering tribes had long made a precarious living, millions of a civlized people were soon to subdue the forces of primitive nature, establish the institutions of a higher life and raise a new standard for all the races of the world. In the carrying out of this great enterprise two powerful nations, who had met on many a field of battle in their home land, were to try their strength on new fields, in rough places, and prove which was to he chosen for the high and responsible destiny of leading and shaping a mighty nation, yet unborn. The circumstances which caused the English to settle on the James river in 1607 and on Cape Cod Bay in 1620, and the French on the St. Lawrence in 1608, scarcely seemed to foreshadow the tremendous results that were to follow in less than two centuries. Thus two active forces were located on converging lines, and were to meet and come in deadly conflict beyond the apparent barrier of the Alleghany mountains. The hardy English, inheriting the vigor of their northern ancestors and inured to the rigors of the British Isles, settled the coast from Maine to the Carolinas, laid the foundations of an enduring civilization and depended largely upon the labor of their own hands for subsistence. They subdued the red man or drove him away, and gradually advanced the frontier westward. Desiring to extend the Catholic church and the domain of France, the French took possession of the valley of the St. Lawrence, establishing a strong base on the rock of 54 - DARKE COUNTY Quebec. From this advantageous center their missionaries, fired with zeal to convert the savages, and their explorers, anxious to find new lands, followed up the watercourses of the St. Lawrence, crossed the upper lakes in their birch-bark canoes and passed over the divide by easy portages to the headwaters of the branches of the Ohio and Mississippi, and finally reached the Father of Waters. The most direct route from Quebec to the northern lakes was by way of the Ottawa river and Lake Nipissing to Georgian bay. This fact, together with the hostility of the Iroquois, who dwelt along the lower lakes, led the French to establish posts at Kaskaskia, Vincennes and other remote western points, several years before Cadillac fortified Detroit, the most strategic point on the lakes, in 1701. For the same reason the territory now comprised in Ohio, with the exception of the Maumee valley and some lake points, was the last explored by the French. The early enmity of the Iroquois, incurred by Champlain. was later taken advantage of by the British through the offices of their invaluable agent, Sir Wm. Johnson, and became a powerful factor in directing the fortune of the contending-whites in the Ohio country. On account of location and fortuitous circumstances, the northwestern tribes were destined to align themselves largely with the French in opposing the expansion of the English settlements beyond the Alleghany mountains. The early water routes explored by the French were simply those which the northwestern Indians had used from time immemorial. They led from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers by the most direct and convenient tributary streams and were traveled by means of canoes made of birch-bark, the skins of animals, or some light wood. These canoes were carried by the voyagers across the shortest portages between the headwaters of the approaching streams and launched at well-known landing-places, thus providing the simplest, swiftest and most effective means of travel known to primitive man. By gaining the friendship of the northwestern tribes the French explorers soon learned their best routes and were enabled to make rough maps of their country to be kept for future reference and to support their later claims of discovery. The more prominent routes established were: From Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, (1) by way of Green Bay. the DARKE COUNTY - 55 Fox and Wisconsin rivers; (2) by the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers; and (3) by the St. Joseph's and Kankakee; from Lake Michigan to the Ohio by way of tht St. Joseph's and Wabash rivers; and from Lake Erie to the Ohio by way of the Maumee and Wabash rivers. Other well-known routes connected the Maumee and Great Miami, the Sandusky and Scioto, and the Cuyahoga and Muskingum. For these early and important explorations we are indebted to the zealous and intrepid Catholic missionaries and daring French adventurers, such as LaSalle, Marquette, Joliet, Nicollet, Hennepin, Brule, and others who faithfully served their country and their cause and left a record that shall long acid luster to their names. The Indian mind seems peculiarly susceptible to the elaborate forms and ceremonies of the Catholic church, which ever appeal forcibly to the outward senses and objectify the teachings intended to be inculcated. Thus the spiritual labors of the missionaries were not in vain from the standpoint of the church and, in addition, helped to cultivate a friendly disposition toward the French traders who soon followed. The Frenchman is naturally volatile, versatile and vivacious, making him responsive to change and excitement or adventure. The wild, free, and changeable life of the savage appealed forcibly to the trader, who soon learned his dialects, married his women, adopted his customs, and finally won his affection and confidence. The influence exercised by this class is indicated by the freedom with which they penetrated to the western plains and planted a chain of trading posts reaching from the region of the Hudson Bay to the far south. They supplied the natives with the things which they desired in the way of fancy blankets, coarse, bright cloths, guns, ammunition, knives, hatchets, kettles, beads, tobacco, intoxicating liquors, etc. Whatever may have been France's ulterior motive in searching out these lands, her early representatives seemed content to establish posts on small tracts and live peaceably among the natives, caring only for the profit to be derived from their extensive trade. In due course of time, however, the French established fortified posts at Frontenac on the northeast shore of Lake Ontario, at Niagara, at Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.), at Detroit. at Mackinac, and at Sault Ste. Marie, thus guarding the entrances to the Great Lakes and strengthening their prestige in the vast lake region. They also established palisaded trading 56 - DARKE COUNTY posts on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan, at Ouiatanon on the Wabast, at the Miami villages on the Maumee (Ft. Miamis) at Saudusky, and at other advantageous centers. The English and Dutch also tried to plant posts on the upper lakes, but with small success. They impressed the Indians as being cold, unsympathetic, and avaricious, with an ill-concealed and excessive lust for their diminishing lands. However, the Anglo-Saxon possessed a stubborn determination, industrious and conservative habits, and a system of fair and business-like dealing which were finally to turn the tide of savage sentiment in his favor and win respect and alliance. The question of boundaries between the French and English in America had not been definitely settled at the close of King George's War in 1748. The colonial frontiersmen, however, were steadily advancing westward and were climbing the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies and looking wistfully at the fertile lands beyond. They were largely the hardy Scotch-Irish whose ancestors had come over early in the seventeenth century, settled the Alleghany mountain ranges and were now pushing forward and making considerable settlements southwest of the mountains. They were extremely hardy, aggressive, thrifty and prolific and formed an effective barrier between the eastern white settlers and the retreating Red Man. The country south of the Ohio was now being explored and the Ohio company was formed to traffic with the Indians. In 1749 the French Governor of Canada sent Celeron de Bienville to take formal possession of the country drained by the upper Ohio river. With a motley following of some two hundred French officers and Canadian woodsmen he crossed Lake Ontario, skirted the southern shore of Lake Erie, crossed the portage to Lake Chautauqua, and followed the Indian path to the headwaters of the Alleghany. Here their birch bark canoes were launched again and the party proceeded on its spectacular journey down the Alleghany and the Ohio as far as the mouth of the Great Miami, thence up that stream and across the well worn carrying place to the St. Mary's branch of the Miami of the Lakes (Maumee), and thus on to Lake Erie and back to Quebec. English traders were found at several of the prominent Indian villages along the route. These were admonished to discontinue trespassing on territory claimed by the French, and the Indians who showed partiality to the English were DARKE COUNTY - 57 threatened with summary treatment should they continue to trade with hem. Thus was completed the eastern end of the great circuit which comprised the valley of the St. Lawrence, the lake region, the upper Mississippi, and the Ohio basins and gave tangible form to the extensive claims of the French to this immense territory. The outposts of the English colonists were already being firmly established within striking distance of the coveted and disputed lands beyond the Ohio and the hardy backwoodsmen chafed at the prospect of being arbitrarily prohibited from settling in this fertile country. In the fall of 1750 the Ohio Company sent Christopher Gist, an experienced explorer, from the Yadkin country of North Carolina, to explore the lands along the Ohio as far as the falls (Louisville). At the Indian village at the mouth of the Muskingum he was joined by Gorge Croghan, the veteran trader, and Andrew Montour, an interpreter. Early in 1751 these intrepid woodsmen proceeded to the Delaware and Shawanese villages of the Scioto, and, finding them well disposed, made arrangements for a friendly conference at Logs-town (on the north bank of the Ohio, seventeen miles below the present site of Pittsburg, Pa.) in the spring. The exploring party now struck across country to the upper waters of the Great Miami. At the mouth of the Pickawillany (Loramie Creek) where they arrived February 17th, they found an extensive settlement of Miami Indians under chief Old Britain, who had recently moved from the Wabash in order to get in touch with the English traders. A strong stockade had been erected here in the previous fall and considerable business was being transacted by the fifty or sixty white traders who had cabins here. A friendly council was held at this place and numerous valuable presents were given to the Indians, who thereupon promised to favor the English in the way of trade. Gist and his party then returned to the Scioto and proceeded down the Ohio to their destination, returning homeward through the beautiful Kentucky country in the spring. The French became jealous of the rising favor shown to the English traders by their former friends and in June, 1752, Charles Langdale, a Frenchman from Michilimackinac, led a band of some two hundred and fifty Chippewa and Ottawa Indians against the trading station at Pickawillany. This party rowed past Detroit, crossed the western end of Lake 58 - DARKE COUNTY Erie, turned up the Maumee and continued up the St. Mary's branch to the old Indian portage. They appeared suddenly and unexpectedly on the morning of June 21st before the stockade at Pickawillany. The warriors were absent on their summer hunt, leaving only the chief and twenty men and boys with eight white traders who could be depended upon to defend the place. As a special mark of disfavor these northern savages boiled and ate Old Britain who had shown marked preference for the Frenchman's foe. When the Miami chiefs returned, it is said they retaliated by eating ten Frenchmen and two of their negroes. By some historians this is regarded as the opening engagement of the French and Indian war, inasmuch as the parties engaged represented the opposing nations, contending on disputed soil and kindling a conflict which was destined to scourge the frontier with blood and fire for over forty years. The time was ripe to fortify the forks of the Ohio. This important step was delayed, however, on account of the contending claims of jurisdiction over this territory by the governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 17.53, while these disputes were in progress, the French Governor of Canada sent a mixed force to seize and hold the upper branches of the Ohio. This was the signal for decisive action and Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent Major George Washington to remonstrate against this move. Washington was courteously received by the French commander, but his message was referred to the Governor-General of Canada and the new posts established were held awaiting the action of the latter official. On July 3, 1754, Washington, while moving towards the forks of the Ohio with a force of some three hundred men, was intercepted by a force of French and Indians three or four times as large at Great Meadows. An engagement followed which lasted from noon till dark, when Washington capitulated on favorable terms. The French now built Fort Du Quesne at the forks of the Ohio and prepared to actively resist the English. The Indians, having a natural love for war and realizing their dangerous position, soon allied themselves according to inclination and fancied interest. The Northwestern tribes mostly joined their interests with the French, while the six nations favored the English. From a frontier skirmish the conflict developed into an international war. England sent General Braddock over with a large army of regulars, drilled and disciplined in the field tac- DARKE COUNTY - 59 tics of Europe, but practically ignorant of the mode of warfare of the American savage and unwilling to take the advice of the frontier soldiers, who alone knew the nature of their foe. This magnificent army was reinforced with troops from Virginia and proceeded against Fort Du Quesne. When near this post the army was suddenly attacked from ambush by a mixed force of Canadian French and Indians on July 9, 1755. An obstinate fight followed with success long in doubt, but the British were finally forced to give after great slaughter and the loss of their commander. Colonel Washington was aide to Braddock on this campaign and rendered valuable services. Had his advice been followed perhaps the day might have been saved and the war shortened. During the opening years of the conflict the French and their allies won victory after victory, and thus attracted the wavering alliance of many tribes. Even some of the Iroquois deserted the British as they saw them defeated time after time, but when the scales finally turned they resumed their old alliance. In 1758 the British gained the ascendency, taking Louisburg, and Fort Du Quesne, two of the most cherished strongholds of the enemy. In 1759 Wolfe, by a bold and hazardous stroke, reduced Quebec, the backbone of Canada and seat of government of the French. This was the climax of the struggle on the American continent that won for the Anglo-Saxon the supremacy in the new world and deprived France of her American possessions. Measured by results, it has proven to be one of the most decisive struggles in recent history. The valley of the Ohio was not destined to be governed from Quebec, neither were the language, laws, customs and religion of a Latin race to be engrafted on the hardy stock of the virile pioneers and mould the destiny of a budding nation. In 1760 the surrender of Montreal virtually ended the war on the continent but the conflict continued two or three years on the ocean. A treaty of peace was signed at Paris in 1763, and nearly all the French possessions east of the Mississippi passed into the hands of the British. At this time the Mohawk Valley in New York and the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania formed the outskirts of connected English settlements. Beyond were the scattered homes of the hardy, reckless, and venturesome bordermen, always exposed to savage caprice, but forming a protective fringe to the older settlements. 60 - DARKE COUNTY Fearing the encroachments of the English, the destruction of their fur trade, and the curtailment of their supplies of food and firearms, the savages formed a confederacy under the leadership of Pontiac, a crafty Ottawa chief, and planned the simultaneous capture and destruction of all their forts west of the Alleghany mountains. The eloquence of this resourceful chief stirred the latent resentment of the northern tribes and fanned their savage fury against the English invaders to a white heat. The friendship and active co-operation of the French were counted upon in this desperate coup but the savages soon realized that they too divided their allegiance. Although acknowledged subjects of the English by recent treaty, they still deceived the Indians with the hope that the Great French King would surely send them aid. The plot against Detroit was revealed, but before the middle of the summer of 1763, all the posts except Niagara, Fort Pitt and Detroit had been taken. Early in 1764 Pontiac again laid siege to Detroit, but the handful of stubborn English held out against great odds and finally wore out the patience of the Great Chief, who now sought peace and withdrew his dispirited warriors. While Pontiac was conducting his campaign in the lake region, the Delawares and Shawanese furiously assaulted the scattered frontier settlements in western Pennsylvania. Fort Pitt was attacked and the defenseless border settlers were forced to flee or be butchered by their infuriated foes. In order to counteract these movements, subjugate the Indians and force them to acknowledge the sovereignty of England, General Gage of the Colonial army sent Colonel Bradstreet with a large force against the lower lake tribes of Ottawas, Chippewas and Wyandots, and Colonel Bouquet against the Delawares and Shawanese near the forks of the Muskingum. Bradstreet proceeded toward Sandusky and met with indifferent success, but Bouquet, by decisive action. caused the tribes against whom he had been sent to deliver up a large number of prisoners and make arrangements for peace. England now attempted a new policy in reference to her newly acquired western and northern lands, with a view of retaining them for the benefit of the crown and thereby excluding the American colonists from settling them. Peaceful relations with the Indians, the extension of the fur trade and the safety of the colonies were the reasons assigned for this policy. To Sir William Johnson was entrusted the task of DARKE COUNTY - 61 carrying out this policy of conciliation. In the spring of 1764 he kindled the council fire at Niagara and induced the tribes to make peace separately, thus accomplishing the disruption of the great confederation formed by Pontiac. By a treaty at Easton, Pennsylvania, the English had engaged not to settle west of the mountains. Colonel Bouquet at Fort Pitt endeavored to enforce the provisions of this treaty, but Colonel Michael Cresap and the agents of the Ohio Company eagerly tried to trade with the Indians and to establish the settlements planned before the war. The eager frontiersmen were not to be easily restrained, however, and. soon began to cross the mountains and irritate the Indians. In order to conciliate the latter, Colonel Johnson, the British Indian agent, held a treaty with them at Fort Stanwix (Rome, New York) in 17768, at which all the country south of the Ohio to which the Iroquois had any claim was transferred to the British for $6,000 in money and goods. It was further stipulated here that the Ohio river should be the boundary between the red and white man. This region was being explored but it was twenty years before the lines of emigration were directed north of the Ohio. The opening of the Revolution in the east soon attracted attention in that direction. The west was also the scene of conflicts of momentous import. The hardy Scotch-Irish mountaineers of the border states pressed into Kentucky, and the region from Pittsburg to the southwest was the scene of great activity. Boone, Harrod, Logan and other pioneers built fortified stations near the upper Kentucky river and the romantic days of old Kentucky were ushered in. The Ohio Indians did not consider themselves hound by the treaty of Fort Stanwix and were not disposed to allow this valuable portion of their ancient domain to be quietly taken from them. When they saw the white emigrants floating down the Ohio in constantly increasing numbers they decided to dispute their advance. The murder of the relatives of Logan, a prominent Mingo chief, hastened hostilities. Matters soon assumed such a serious turn that the Earl of Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, called out the militia, and raised an army to check the hostile demonstrations in territory claimed by that colony. The troops were finally collected in two divisions, one of some fifteen hundred men under Dunmore, the other of some eleven hundred men tinder General Andrew Lewis. The former collected at Wheeling, 62 - DARKE COUNTY proceeded down the Ohio and crossed to the Scioto plains. Lewis' division, composed of Virginia backwoodsmen, proceeded along the Great Kanawha, intending to cross the Ohio and join Dunmore. On October 10, 1774, however, Lewis was intercepted at the mouth of the Kanawha by the combined Indian forces under Cornstalk, the famous Shawanese chief. A spirited all-day battle ensued, in which the backwoodsmen adopted the tactics of the savages, flitting from tree to tree and fighting hand to hand. The Indians were about equal in numbers to the whites and had among them some of their best chiefs and warriors. They had found their superiors in the "Longknives," however, and were forced to retreat across the Ohio at dusk, taking their dead and wounded with them. This was probably the most severe whipping ever administered to the Red Men at the hands of the whites. A treaty was soon consummated in which the Shawanese agreed to surrender all prisoners ever taken in war, and to cease hunting south of the Ohio. Besides driving them back to their retreats and causing them to sue for peace, this engagement showed the temper of the Americans, and, no doubt, deterred the Indians from harassing the hardy and adventurous pioneers who, held the land beyond the mountains during the Revolution. Considering the encouragement given to the Indians from the British in the north and the failure of Dunmore to take part in this engagement, along with the magnificent conduct of the backswoodsmen, this might be regarded the opening conflict of the great contest between the mother country and her colonies. No doubt it nerved many a patriot for the great battles in the south during the Revolution and will always be looked to with patriotic pride by coming generations of Americans. In 1774 the Quebec Act, establishing civil government in the northwest, was passed by Parliament. By its provisions Detroit, then a place of some fifteen hundred inhabitants, was made the capital of this immense territory, north and west of the Ohio river, and Henry Hamilton was appointed lieutenant-general with civil and military powers. Upon assuming office in 1775 he proceeded to use heroic measures in dealing with the Americans, employed the notorious renegades, Simon Girty, Alexander McKee and Mathew Elliott, and sent war parties against the border. To check these incursions, DARKE COUNTY - 63 George Rogers Clark, a dashing young surveyor, who had been appointed commander of Kentucky militia by Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia, was sent on a secret expedition against Kaskaskia. With some one hundred and seventy-five men he proceeded from the Falls of the Ohio to a point opposite the mouth of the Tennessee river and followed the trail to Kaskaskia, which place he took by a bold stroke on July 4. 1778. He then proceeded to subdue the neighboring tribes and sent Captain Helm with a guard to hold Vincennes. Governor Hamilton then advanced from Detroit by the Maumee and Wabash, with a mixed force, enlisted some savages, proceeded to Vincennes and, with their assistance, dislodged Helm on December 17th. Early in February, 1779, Clark left Kaskaskia with about one hundred and sixty men, made a hazardous forced march across the frozen and inundated plains of the Illinois country, and, after great hardships, appeared before Vincennes. With his brave and determined men lie invested the town on the night of February 23d, and forced Hamilton to surrender on the 24th. The whole country along the Mississippi and Wabash was now in the possession of Virginia. This state anticipated the results of Clark's expedition by creating the county of Illinois in October, 1778, and now claimed by conquest what she had formerly claimed by virtue of her colonial charter. This conquest was the death blow to British ambition in the country between the mountains and the Mississippi. Hamilton was planning to lead the united western and southern tribes and, with the assistance of the terrible Iroquois, drive the Americans beyond the Ohio, thus making that beautiful and well-known stream the ultimate boundary between Canada and the United States. Especially does the significance of this conquest appear when viewed in the light of the Quebec Act, which aimed to establish interior colonies dependent upon a government on the St. Lawrence, instead of on the Atlantic coast. This act also deprived the colonies of their charter lands in the west and was one of the causes of the Revolution. During the years 1777 and 1778 the Indians attacked the new Kentucky stations established by Boone, Harrod and Logan. In the fall of 1778, Brigadier-General McIntosh of the Continental Army built Ft. McIntosh (Beaver, Pa.), some thirty miles below Fort Pitt. He then proceeded with a force of one thousand men to attack Sandusky, but stopped upon 64 - DARKE COUNTY reaching the Tuscarawas and built Fort Laurens (near Bolivar, Ohio). Both of these posts were afterwards abandoned, owing to frequent attacks, the severity of the ensuing winter, and the extreme difficulty of maintaining a sufficient garrison, leaving no American defenses in the west except Fort Pitt, Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Late in May, 1779, Colonel John Bowman led an expedition of some three hundred Kentucky volunteers against the Shawanese village of Chillicothe on the Little Miami (near Xenia, Ohio). The Indians were surprised early on the morning of the 30th, their town was burned and sacked and a large amount of plunder secured. The Americans lost eight men and secured one hundred and sixty horses. The aggressiveness of the hardy pioneers, who had settled south and east of the Ohio, had gradually driven the Indians toward the northwest, so that by 1779 they had retreated in large numbers to the headwaters of the Scioto, the two Miamis, and the watershed between these streams and the Maumee. This was a beautiful tract of land, with fine timber and rich meadows, affording ideal hunting grounds and fertile fields for the remnants of the dwindling tribes. Many of the discouraged Shawanese retreated across the Mississippi. The principal seat of the ancient Miamis was at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's, and from this important center trails radiated in many directions. It was well located with reference to the lake region and the headwaters of the Wabash and Miamis. Important villages were also located along the Maumee, on the headwaters of the Auglaize and the Great Miami, and on the portages between these streams. The Weas and Piankeshaws dwelt along the Wabash and were in intimate relation with the mother nation on the Maumee. In the summer of 1780, Colonel Byrd, of Detroit, invaded Kentucky, by way of the Miami and Licking rivers, with a mixed force of Canadians and Indians. He attacked and took Martin's and Ruddle's stations but soon abandoned the invasion. In order to retaliate for this raid, Colonel Clark raised a large force of frontiersmen, including Boone, Kenton and some of the most noted Kentucky fighters, crossed the Ohio and proceded against the Indians of the tipper Miami valley. He destroyed the old Shawanese town of Piqua, the boyhood home of Tecumseh, on Mad river, and several other villages, together with considerable standing corn. This raid greatly DARKE COUNTY - 65 discouraged the Indians and their British abettors at Detroit and brought security to the Kentuckians until the following year, when attacks on the exposed pioneer stations were renewed. In April, 1781, Colonel Brodhead of Fort Pitt led an expedition against the Delaware tribes on the Muskingum, destroyed several villages, and killed and captured a few Indians. In August, Colonel Lochry with a force of one hundred and seventy mounted Pennsylvanians, was surprised by a large body of Indians near the mouth of the Miami, while on his way to aid Clark in the west. Several of his men were killed and the balance captured. The Moravins, a Christian sect of marked missionary zeal, who had followed the Delaware Indians from their former home in Pennsylvania, settled in the valleys of the Tuscarawas and Muskingum rivers in 1768. Here they purchased small tracts from the natives, cultivated a portion of them, founded four substantial villages, and established places of worship under the leadership of Zeisberger and Heckewelder. They were peaceable and industrious, being opposed to war and aggression. Many of the neighboring Indians of various tribes were converted to their doctrines. Being on important Indian trails, leading from Fort Pitt and the frontier settlements to Sandusky and the northwest, their position became more hazardous as the American settlements advanced, on account of the opposing war parties which passed through their villages. Trying to be hospitable to all, they naturally incurred the suspicion of the turbulent frontiersmen. In 1781 Colonel Brodhead urged these Christian Indians to move to Fort Pitt in order to be under the protection of the Americans. This they refused to do, but later in the same year were forced to settle near Upper Sandusky by orders from the British authorities of Detroit. The winter of 1781-82 was a hard one on the exiled Moravians and early in the spring a party of them returned to the towns of Ghadenhutten and Salem to harvest the corn left ungathered the previous fall. While engaged in this work, a band of some eighty or ninety militiamen under Colonel David Williamson stealthily captured and deliberately murdered ninety-six men, women and, children, thus perpetrating one of the most pitiable and atrocious crimes of frontier history. Williamson's party was composed largely of the brutal and ruffianly frontier bordermen and their atrocious deed caused a storm of protests from the better class along the border. (5) 66 - DARKE COUNTY On May 25, 1782, an expedition of some five hundred Pennsylvania and Virginia volunteers set out from the Mingo Bottoms (near Steubenville, Ohio), under the leadership of Colonel William Crawford to chastise the Indians of the Sandusky plaints (near Upper Sandusky, Ohio), who had been harassing the borders. On account of its location on one of the most traveled routes leading from Lake Erie to the Upper Ohio, and the ease of access from Detroit, this was a strategic center and a favorite rendezvous of the savages friendly with the British. Hearing of this move, the commandant of Detroit sent Captain Caldwell with a troop of Rangers, and Colonel McKee with some Canadians to intercept the Americans. The Indians, comprising many doughty warriors of the Delawares, Wyandots and Shawanese, net the Americans in a grove near Upper Sandusky on June 4th. Crawford dislodged the advance party from the timber. The Indians then took a sheltered position in the low, grassy ground, which surrounded the grove and were reinforced on the 5th by other tribes and the Rangers. The fight was continued and the Americans held their position throughout the day but were forced to retreat under cover of the night with a loss in killed. wounded and captured of some one hundred and fifty men. Colonel Crawford was captured, and on the following day Colonel Williamson drove back the pursuing savages in a rain storm. The Indians, still smarting under the cowardly and inhuman massacre of their Moravian brethren, wreaked vengence on Colonel Crawford in lieu of Williamson, the real offender, by burning him at the stake. Simon Girty was with the savages and witnessed this, one of the most revolting tortures in the annals of Indian warfare. Partly because of its spectacular and revolting features, this was probably the most noted Revolutionary engagement within the territory later comprising Ohio. Crawford was an intimate friend and compatriot of Washington during the Revolution and was highly esteemed by his people. In August, 1782, Simon Girty was sent from Detroit with Caldwell and a party of Indians and British Rangers against Bryant's station near the upper Kentucky river. Failing to take this place they were pursued by a force of Kentuckians under Boone and other noted backwoodsmen, whom they defeated in a hard fight at the Blue Licks. The Americans lost seventy men in this engagement and the Canadians only seven. Aroused at this raid, a thousand Kentucky riflemen DARKE COUNTY - 67 assembled under Clark at the mouth of the Licking, crossed the Ohio and desolated the Miami valley. They destroyed an Indian town on the present site of Piqua, Ohio, also Upper Piqua(Pickawillany), three miles above, and burned Loramie's store, fifteen miles beyond at the head of the portage leading to the St. Mary's river. This punishment cooled the ardor of the savages who now began to realize the growing numbers and strength of the Americans. The frontiers of Pennsylvania and western Virginia were still harassed somewhat, but the close of the Revolution soon caused these incursions to abate. After Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the Colonies she still retained possession of the principal lake posts, including Mackinac, Detroit, Niagara, Presque Isle, and those on the Sandusky and Maumee rivers, contrary to the express specifications of the treaty of 1783. To justify this policy, she pointed out that the United States had violated certain articles of this treaty referring to the payment of debts due British subjects and had even permitted the confiscation of many of her subjects' estates. The Americans contended that they had done all that they had promised in enforcing these provisions but that difficulty had arisen in trying to get the various states to change their laws to conform to the order recently inaugurated. In the eyes of the mother country the new government was considered somewhat of an experiment and was to be confined, if possible, between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic. The great struggle had bound the colonies together in a common cause, but that being over, they were loosely held by the Articles of Confederation until the adoption of the constitution in 1787. Moreover, the lake posts were the receiving stations for the very valuable fur trade and decided points of vntage for equipping the Indians and influencing them against the Americans. The French had concerned themselves mostly with trade and religious propagandism during their ascendency and had purchased only small tracts about their posts from the natives. At the peace of 1763 these had been transferred to Great Britain and finally, in 1783, to the United States. Congress, however, regarded all the lands north of the Ohio as forfeited on account of hostilities during the Revolution and by virtue of the British cession. Peace was accordingly granted to the 68 - DARKE COUNTY Indians and their bounds fixed without further purchase of lands. In October, 1784, the Six Nations held a treaty with the United States at Fort Stanwix (Rome, New York). These powerful tribes had aided the British materially during the recent war but had been somewhat weakened by the expedition of General John Sullivan against them in 1779. Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee represented the new government in the negotiations, while Cornplanter and Red Jacket took the chief part on behalf of the Indians. The latter desired to have a general council in which the principal tribes living northwest of the Ohio might participate but the government desired to deal directly with the Six Nations who had most actively aided the British in the late war. Red Jacket urged the assembled tribes with great spirit and eloquence to continue to fight the Americans. The saner counsel of the older chiefs finally prevailed, however, and a treaty was signed establishing peace with the hostile nations and securing them in the possession of the lands then actually occupied by them in return for the release of all prisoners then in their possession and the relinquishment of all claim to the country west of an irregular line beginning near Niagara, extending to the intersection of the western boundary of Pennsylvania by the Ohio river, thence down that river. Red Jacket was dissatisfied with the terms of this compact and continued to spread disaffection among his tribesmen. Chief Brant, who was absent in Canada at the time of the treaty, was highly displeased when he heard some of its provisions. This courageous chief cherished the plan of forming a grand confederacy of all the prominent northwestern tribes, together with the Six Nations, probably expecting to be made the great chief of the united tribes. For this purpose he now went here and there in the tipper lake region and held councils with the tribes. Late in 1785 he made a trip to England, partly with the purpose, no doubt, of sounding that government concerning its attitude in case of a general uprising of the confederated tribes. He bore a captain's commission in the British army, and being intelligent, tactful and refined was received with marked favor by the people whose government he had so zealously served. From this time until the end of the Indian wars he played an important part in leading and influencing his people. In January, 1785, a treaty was held at Fort McIntosh DARKE COUNTY - 69 (Beaver, Pennsylvania), with the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa nations, at which these Indians agreed to relinquish their claim to lands lying east of the Cuyahoga river and south of a line running near the fortieth parallel to Loramie's store on the headwaters of the Miami, together with small tracts about Detroit and Michilimackinac, some 30,000,000 acres in all. These tribes, however, were to retain their right of hunting as far south as the Ohio river. With some modifications this treaty was the basis of later negotiations with the new government. At Fort Finney (mouth of the Great Miami), the United States held a treaty with the Shawanese, Delawares and Wyandots in January, 1786. The Shawanese agreed to confine themselves between the Great Miami and Wabash, but paid small attention to carrying out its provisions. A very bad spirit was manifested at this treaty and the Wabash tribes, whose presence was especially desired, absented themselves, probably being influenced by the British agents. The remoter Indians, however, did not cease their depredations. Two expeditions were accordingly sent against them; one in command of General Clark against the towns of the Wabash; the other, under Colonel Logan, against the Shawanese between the Miami and Scioto rivers. On account of the delay in the arrival of provisions, the discontent of the soldiers, and the desertion of a large body of troops, Clark's expedition was abandoned. Logan, however, destroyed several towns (in Logan county, Ohio), a lot of corn, and killed and captured some of the enemy. In December, 1786, a grand council of the tribes was held near the mouth of the Detroit river. Together they formulated an address to Congress expressing surprise that they had not been considered in the treaty of peace with Great Britain; stated their desire for continued peace provided the United States did not encroach upon their lands beyond the Ohio; and recommended that the government make no treaties with separate Indian tribes or nations, but with the Confederation alone. This was the grand ultimatum delivered to the United States by the Confederated Tribes prior to the general war that came later and it shows the true points of contention between the Indians and the new government. Great Britain, through her Indian agent, Sir William Johnson, kept in close touch with the movements of her former allies and took advantage of every rupture with the new govern- 70 - DARKE COUNTY ment to show her continued friendly attitude toward them. During the course of the Revolution, Congress offered grants of land to volunteers in the American service, but Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut claimed portions of the west by virtue of their old colonial charters, and purchase from the Indians. After the close of the war and the reawakened interest in the western country, Congress decided to open up these western lands for settlement, but was confronted by the conflicting claims of these states. The old colonial charters, given when the extent of North America was unknown, extended the grants of land "from sea to sea." The crown, however, claimed the country between the Alleghanies and Mississippi after the French and Indian War, and the United States after the Revolution, by virtue of conquest. Maryland, and other states having no western claims, contended that all such claims should be ceded to the United States government for the general welfare. A lengthy controversy ensued which threatened the stability of the Confederation, but the whole matter was settled satisfactorily in 1786 when Connecticut followed the example of the other states interested and completed the cession of these western claims, excepting a tract between the forty-first parallel and Lake Erie, reserved by this state, and one between the Scioto and the Little Miami rivers, reserved by Virginia for her soldiers, together with a small tract at the falls of the Ohio. In 1787, while the last Congress under the articles of confederation was in session, a petition was presented by Dr. Manasseh Cutler in behalf of a company of New Englanders, organized to purchase lands and make a settlement north and west of the Ohio. In the meantime the famous "Ordinance of 1787," one of the wisest and farthest reaching charters ever given to any people, was passed. It provided for the organization and government of the "Territory Northwest of the River Ohio." Among its wise provisions were: the prohibition of slavery; the promotion of education, morality and religion; and the formation of not less than three, nor more than five states, as conditions suggested. The grant of land asked for was made to the New England Company, and soon afterward John Cleves Symmes negotiated for the purchase of land between the Little and Great Miami rivers. In 1788, a company of emigrants, including many distinguished Revolutionary soldiers, floated down the DARKE COUNTY - 71 Ohio from Pittsburg to the mouth of the Muskingum and founded Marietta, which became the capital of the new country. Thus the initial step was taken and from this time a steady flow of emigration set in. In a few years Gallipolis, Manchester, Columbia and Fort Washington (Cincinnati) dotted the northern shore of the Ohio, and the soldiers of the Revolution, whose fortunes had been lost in the struggle for freedom, found a new home. Thus was inaugurated a new era in the old northwest. New forces were being set in motion which were destined to change the current of the ancient order and set up in the matchless forests and sacred hunting grounds of this western country a new and better civilization. With Fort Washington as a base, the new government was about to engage in a series of hazardous conflicts with a savage foe, goaded on and assisted by the subtle agents of the British at Detroit. Only time could tell whether the Anglo-Saxon settlers were to be confined east of the mountains or spread indefinitely to the far west. The great White Chief Washington desired peace, but was schooled in the art of war, and directed a free, hardy and vigorous constituency who would brook no interference from a vanquished adversary without severe and protracted resistance. The battlefields of the Revolution had schooled a host of warriors who knew how to reckon with a stalwart foe and these were to show their mettle on many a new field of conflict. CHAPTER IV. HARMAR AND ST. CLAIR. Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor of the new Northwest Territory, July 13, 1788, and immediately became actively engaged in the great work entrusted to him. A Scotchman by birth, he had emigrated to North America in 1755 and rendered valuable service with the British during the French and Indian war. Settling in Pennsylvania, he espoused the cause of the colonies during the course of the Revolution and was prominently engaged at Three Rivers, Trenton, Princeton, Hubbardstown and Ticonderoga. Washington and Lafayette were his warm friends and a large and prominent circle enjoyed his polished attainments. His adopted country appreciated his loyal service and distinguished talents, and in 1786 he was elected president of Congress. Thus equipped, he was soon to receive even greater honors and direct the energies of an expanding people. On January 9, 1789, Governor St. Clair concluded two separate treaties of confirmation, one with the Five Nations, the Mohawks excepted; the other with the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies and Sacs, at Fort Harmar, opposite Marietta, thus counteracting the formation of a grand Indian confederacy which had been agitated by some of the far-seeing chiefs of the various tribes. At the grand council of the northwestern tribes, held on the Maumee in the previous fall, the general sentiment was for peace. The Miamis, Shawanese, and tribes of the Wabash, however, failed to concur and desired to make the Ohio river the final boundary separating them from the Anglo-Saxon invaders. This sentiment was especially strong among the younger warriors who could scarcely be restrained by the wise counsels of the older chiefs. Many successful war parties were sent against the exposed settlements or waylaid the immigrants floating in open boats or upon rafts down the Ohio. The brutal atrocities committed by the Indians and the retaliatory raids of the rough settlers during this period are recited in the romantic and patriotic tales of the backwoodsmen, many of whom experienced extended captivity. 74 - DARKE COUNTY Early in 1790, Governor St. Clair went to Fort Washington, Vincennes and Kaskaskia to set in motion the new government. This was the signal to the British and Indians to cooperate in opposing the advance of the frontier settlements, and attacks were accordingly commenced. At this time the northwest tribes could probably rally some fifteen thousand effective warriors, about one-third of whom were openly hostile to the new government. They no longer depended upon the bow and arrow and other crude implements of earlier savage warfare, but had become expert in the use of firearms through association with the French and British in the recent wars. Their courage, discipline and power of endurance were good offsets to the intelligence and strength of the Americans. The Wabash tribes became especially aggressive and _Major Hamtramck, of Vincennes, tried to pacify them, but in vain. Hearing of these movements, St. Clair hastened to Fort Washington, in July, consulted with General Josiah Harmar, a Revolutionary soldier, commanding the United States Infantry, and decided to send an expedition against the hostile tribes. He requested the militia of western Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky to co-operate with the federal forces and notified the British commandant at Detroit that the proposed expedition was not directed against any British post but intended solely to punish the Indians who had been attacking the frontiers. A mixed force was assembled at Fort Washington, which, when ready to move, was composed of three battalions of Kentucky militia, under Majors Hall, McMullen and Ray, with Lieutenant-Colonel Trotter in command; one battalion of Pennsylvania militia under Lieutenant-Colonel Truby and Major Paul; one battalion of mounted riflemen, commanded by Maj. James Fontaine, together with two battalions of regulars under Majors P. Wyllys and John Doughty, and a company of artillery commanded by Captain William Ferguson. The entire force numbered fourteen hundred and fifty-three, including many boys and infirm men who had been sent as substitutes and were unfit for the hard service before them. This army, being hastily assembled, was necessarily poorly equipped and disciplined, and, as usual where mixed troops are employed, jealousy soon arose betwen the militia and regulars. The season being late, it was impossible to properly drill and discipline the awkward and insubordinate troops—thus increasing the hazard of the projected campaign. Harmar, who had served with merit in the Revolution, was DARKE COUNTY - 75 first in command, and Colonel John Hardin led the militia, subject to his orders. Major Ebenezer Denny was appointed aide-de-camp to Harmar; Mr. Stephen Ormsby, brigadier-major to the militia; and Mr. John Bellie, quartermaster. The militia advanced up the Mill Creek valley on September 26th, and the main army followed on the 30th. The forces were united on the 3d of October and took the trace made by George R. Clark up the Little Miami valley, passing near the present sites of Lebanon and Xenia, Ohio; crossing Mad river at old Piqua town (between Dayton and Springfield, Ohio) ; proceeding northwesterly and crossing the Great Miami above the present site of Piqua, Ohio; thence to the site of Loramie's store (Berlin, Ohio), across the old Indian and French portage to the St. Mary's river(near St. Mary's, Ohio), and on toward the Miami villages (Fort Wayne, Ind.). These town-, comprised a large number of wigwams of the Miamis, Shawanese and Delawares, and some log huts formerly occupied by British traders. This was the center from which the hostile and renegade Indians had sent many war parties to harass the borders. The St. Joseph and St. Mary's branches meet here to form the Maumee river and along their banks were several small villages and the capital town of the confederacy surrounded by gardens, orchards and extensive cornfields which indicated long continued occupancy. Learning of the approach of a large army the Indians hastened to desert these villages. General Harmar was apprised of their movements by a captive and accordingly sent forward a detachment of six hundred light troops tinder Colonel Hardin on the 14th to surprise the stragglers, which he failed to do. The main army arrived at the deserted villages about noon on the 17th having accomplished a march of nearly one hundred and seventy miles from Fort Washington. On the 18th Harmar sent Colonel Trotter with three hundred men, including militia and regulars, to reconnoiter the country and ascertain the location of the enemy. This detachment marched a few miles but soon returned, reporting the slaying of two Indians. Colonel Hardin, displeased with Trotter's failure to accomplish his orders, was next dispatched with the same detachment. The men were given two days' provisions and marched on the 19th with great reluctance. About a third of the militia deserted before attaining three miles and returned to camp. Some ten miles out the balance of the troops were surprised by a party of about one hundred of the enemy 76 - DARKE COUNTY under the celebrated Miami chief, Little Turtle. The Indians commenced firing at a distance of about a hundred and fifty years and advanced, steadily driving the panic-stricken militia before them. Some few of the latter with about thirty of the regulars, however, stood firm and were cut to pieces. The main army advanced from the Miami village to Chillicothe, a Shawanese town two miles east, and proceeded to burn all property in sight, including corn, beans, hay, cabins, etc. Five villages and the capital town, besides some twenty thousand bushels of corn in ears having been destroyed, the army took up an orderly retreat for Fort Washington on the 21st and marched eight miles. Thinking that the enemy would immediately return to the site of their destroyed villages, Harmar sent back Major Wyllys with four hundred picked men, including sixty regulars, to surprise them. This detachment was in three divisions under Wyllys, Hall and McMullen. Major Hall was sent with part of the militia by a circuitous route to gain the enemy's rear, while the other troops were to engage them in front. On account of the imprudence of some of Hall's men, this plan failed. The other militia now began the attack before the arrival of the regulars. Little Turtle, grasping the opportunity, threw his entire force first against the militia and then against the regulars with disastrous results. Most of the regulars were slain and the brunt of the fight fell on the remaining militia, who now fought desperately but were soon scattered and forced to retreat. The savages had lost heavily and did not pursue the retreating troops. When the main encampment was reached Hardin requested Harmar to send back the main army in order to finish the work on the site of the village. Harmar, it seems, had lost confidence in the militia, and, in view of the lack of forage and proper transportation facilities, refused this request. The Americans lost one hundred and eighty-three men including brave Major Wyllys and several valuable officers on this expedition. The shattered and dispirited army resumed its dreary retreat toward Fort Washington on the 23d. Bad feeling developed between Harmar and Hardin on account of the unsatisfactory action of the troops. Both were court-martialed later and acquitted, but Harmar soon resigned his commission in the army and -retired to private life. The government seeing the inefficiency of its first attempt in dealing with the Indians, adopted stronger measures. It DARKE COUNTY - 77 was decided to offer peace to the western Indians; to organize expedieitions in the west against the villages of the Miamis, Shawanese and Weas, should they refuse to make peace; and to send a large force to build forts and take possession of the enemy's land. The British, who now seemed disposed to a peaceful settlement, urged Joseph Brant, the intelligent chief of the Mohawks and moving spirit of the Six Nations, to use his influence among his people for peace, thinking that the United States would allow the tribes to retain their possessions along the Maumee. On the night of January 2, 1791, a band of savages stealthily massacred a number of friendly New England settlers at Big Bottom blockhouse on the Muskingum, forty-six miles above Marietta. The government still hoped for peace, however, and in March sent Col. Thomas Proctor to placate the Senecas and proceed with their friendly chief, Cornplanter, to the council of the Miamis on the Maumee. In April, Col. Timothy Pickering was also sent to the Senecas on a like mission. Soon after Harmar's expedition the frontier settlements of western Pennsylvania and along the Ohio river were again attacked and terror spread among the people south of the river. It is estimated that the population of the west at this time was between one hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand, scattered in groups; one in southwestern Pennsylvania; two in western Virginia, about Wheeling and the mouth of the Kanawha: and one in Kentucky, below the Licking river. These settlers had poured in from the eastern states as well as from several European countries since the close of the Revolution, being attracted largely by the great fertility of the land and the exceptional business opportunities. For the most part they had floated down the Ohio in crude flat boats, but many had come overland by Boone's celebrated wilderness road. To the hardships of their life in a new and exceedingly rough country were added the terrors of Indian attacks, inspired by the killing, wounding, and capturing of more than fifteen hundred men, women and children in Kentucky and vicinity, since the peace of 1783. Delegates from several of the exposed counties of Virginia petitioned the governor, and the legislature of that state authorized him to make temporary provision for the protection of the frontier until the United States government should take proper steps in the same direction. Charles Scott, who 78 - DARKE COUNTY had served in the Revolution, was appointed brigadier-general of the militia of Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, and was ordered to raise a volunteer force to co-operate with several companies of rangers from the western counties, and proceed against the Wea villages on the Wabash (near Lafayette, Ind.). Scott chose two Revolutionary compatriots to accompany him on this raid—Col. James Wilkinson being placed second in command and Col. John Hardin in charge of the advance guard. The expedition was delayed until May 23, 1791, awaiting the return of Proctor, but, hearing nothing from him by that time, Scott crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Kentucky with some eight hundred mounted men and arrived at Ouiatenon (Lafayette, Ind.), June 1st. Here he found a village of some seventy houses with a number of French inhabitants living in a state of civilization. The village was burned and a large quantity of corn and household goods destroyed. A detachment was sent on foot against Tippecanoe, the most important village, which it also destroyed. The army returned with several prisoners, reaching the Ohio in twelve days with the loss of only two men. On August 1, 1791, Colonel Wilkinson was sent against the Indians of the Eel river with a command of five hundred and twenty-five mounted men. He encountered much difficulty in his march from Fort Washington on account of the boggy land. Arriving at the mouth of the Eel river he attacked the village located there, killed a few Indians and captured others. Proceeding to Tippecanoe and Ouiatenon, the army destroyed the corn which had been planted since Scott's raid. The army reached the rapids of the Ohio on the 21st, having marched some four hundred and fifty miles. The results accomplished by these desultory raids were similar to those of Harmar's expedition and left the savages in an enraged state of mind ready for the intrigues of the British agents of Canada and the lake posts. Colonel Johnson of the British Indian service, especially encouraged the Indians in the idea that the Americans had no valid claim to any of their lands beyond the line established at the treaty of Fort Stanwix after the French and Indian war. The actions of the Americans in assembling councils in various places for the apparent purpose of making peace and at the same time inviting the Six Nations to espouse their cause against the western tribes added to the confusion and gave the British agents a pretext to renew friendly relations with their old allies. DARKE COUNTY - 79 The American peace commissioners who had been sent out in the spring carried on negotiations with the Six Nations. Colonel Pickering held a successful council with all except the Mohawks in June, 1791. Colonel Proctor and Cornplanter had tried to promote friendly relations with them in the spring, but Brant and Col. John Butler, of the British Indian service, had previously warned them against the American agents. A long conference was held at Buffalo, but Brant had been sent on to the council of the Miamis in the meantime and the Indians would do nothing definite in his absence, inasmuch as the sentiment of their people was much divided. The British commandant at Fort Niagara refused to allow the use of a schooner to carry Proctor, Cornplanter and some friendly warriors across Lake Eric to Sandusky thus defeating the purpose of their mission. While Brant was inflaming the Miamis, Proctor returned to Fort Washington without having reached them with his message of peace. Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis, a warrior of great intelligence, craft and courage, who led the attack against Harmar and who had great influence among the western tribes, together with Blue Jacket, the great chief of the Shawanese, and Buckongehelas, chief of the Delawares, formed a confederacy of the northwestern savages to drive the white settlers beyond the Ohio. These chiefs, with the assistance of Simon Girty, Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliot, the renegades. headed a band of warriors whose discipline has probably never been equaled in Indian warfare. Nothing but a decisive blow by a large and well disciplined force could quell the uprising being stirred up by these leaders. What the border states had attempted to do in a crude and spasmodic way the new government now decided to essay in an orderly and organized manner. Accordingly Governor St. Clair, who had been appointed a major-general in the U. S. army March 4. 1791, and placed in chief command of the forces to be employed against the Indians was instructed to speedily assemble his forces. The object of the main expedition planned by the government was to establish a post at Ke-ki-on-gay, the Miami (Maumee) village (Fort Wayne) fot the purpose of awing and curbing the Indians in that region, and preventing future hostilities. This village had been the seat of the powerful Miami nation from time immemorial and it was called by Little Turtle at the treaty of Greenville in 1795, "That glorious gate through which all the good words of our chiefs 80 - DARKE COUNTY had to pass from the north to the south and from the east to the west." The troops were to consist of two small regiments of regular infantry, two regiments of levies and three hundred or four hundred Kentucky militia. "The mounted men were to receive two-thirds of a dollar per day and to be under command of their own officers, while footmen were to receive three dollars per month and be subject to military law." It proved a difficult task to preserve harmony among the regulars and volunteers, as the latter would scarcely submit either to the discipline of the army, or to the slow movements which one having a road to cut every step he advanced, and forts to build was necessarily subjected to—neither would they labor. St. Clair found himself confronted by the same problems that had vexed poor Harmar. The small pay and unattractive conditions of service filled the ranks of the regulars with many weak, diseased and unfit men from the streets of the Eastern cities. The best of the troops were trained only in regulation mass movements which were totally inadequate for fighting a stealthy savage foe concealed in the fastness of a dense forest. The experienced backwoodsmen with the militia were better trained for meeting the Indians on their own ground, but they were in the minority. The Indians on the other hand were unencumbered with baggage, free, stealthy and elastic in their movements, were thoroughly acquainted with the shadowy recesses of the forest and inured to hardship and deprivations. Preparations for the expedition were now pushed vigorously but at a great disadvantage. The Secretary of War was just getting initiated in a newly created office and suffared for want of adequate equipment. Maj.-Gen. Richard Butler, an officer of the Pennsylvania line in the Revolution who had served in Harmar's expedition, had been placed second in command with orders to remain in Pennsylvania to recruit and forward troops. Two thousand levies were to be raised, marched to Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) in companies as soon as collected; and there receive orders from St. Clair. They could be safely sent in small companies, but were held back by Butler to protect the frontiers according to orders from the War Department, much to the annoyance of St. Clair, who kept urging that they be sent to Fort Washington Mr. Samuel Hogdon had been appointed Quartermaster-General of the army and, although zealous, seems to have been totally unfit for the responsibilities of the position. The DARKE COUNTY - 81 delay in forwarding troops was also partly due to his failure in furnishing horses, supplies, provisions, and the necessary boats for transportation. St. Clair arrived at Fort Washington on the 15th of May after passing through Lexington to arrange for the forwarding of the Kentucky militia. Here he found a garrison of but eighty-five men fit for duty. The arms and accoutrements left from Harmar's expedition were in bad condition and the supplies forwarded later by the quartermaster from time to time were deficient both in quantity and quality. New gun carriages had to he made; the deficiencies of the camp equipage supplied; nearly all of the ammunition had to be made up and a laboratory equipped for this purpose. Musket shells, artillery cartridges, and shells for the howitzers had to be filled—a tedious and laborious business. Not only ammunition for the campaign but also for the garrison of 1,200 or more for the projected post at the Maumee and intermediate posts must be prepared. Workshops and an armory had to be built and tools constructed. In his report the general said: "A great number of axes, camp kettles, knapsacks, kegs for the musket cartridges, and spare cannon ball, and boxes of ammunition had to he made; and cordage of various kinds, and the cartridge boxes to be repaired. Splints for the wounded were to be made of half-jacked leather prepared on the spot. In short, almost every art was going forward, and Fort Washington had as much the appearance of a large manufactory on the inside, as it had of a military post on the outside." To perform all this labor smiths, carpenters, harnessmakers, colliers, wheelwrights, etc., had to be drafted from all that could be found among the troops as they slowly arrived. Considerable cattle and horses for the use of the army had to be cared for and, on August 7th, the country near the fort being eaten off, all the troops that had arrived, except the artificers and a small garrison, advanced about six miles northward to Ludlow's station. On the 1st of September the Secretary of War wrote to St. Clair: "The President enjoins you by every principle that is sacred to stimulate your operations in the highest degree, and to move as rapidly as the lateness of the season and the nature of the case will possibly admit." The balance of the troops, however, had not yet arrived at the above date, but soon came on and joining those at Ludlow's station, moved northward on the 17th toward the crossing of the Great Miami river about twenty miles distant, (6) 82 - DARKE COUNTY where a fort was built to command the river crossing, to serve as a place for depositing provisions, and to form the first link in the chain of forts projected between Ft. Washington and the Indian village on the Maumee. St. Clair described this post in the following very interesting manner: "A stockade fifty yards square, with four good bastions, and platforms for cannon in two of them, with barracks for about two hundred men, with some good storehouses, etc." "The circuit of that fort is about one thousand feet, through the whole extent of which a trench about three feet deep was dug to set the picquets in, of which it required more than two thousand to enclose it; and it is not trees, taken promiscuously, that will answer for picquets; they must be tall and straight and from nine to twelve inches in diameter (for those of a larger size are too unmanageable). Of course few trees that are proper are to be found without going over a considerable space of woodland. When found they are felled, cleared of their branches, and cut into lengths of about twenty feet. They were then carried to the ground and butted, that they might be placed firm and upright in the trench, with the axe or cross-cut saw; some hewing upon them was also necessary, for there are few trees so straight that the sides of them will come in contact when set upright. A thin piece of timber, called a ribband, is run round the whole near the top of the picquets, to which every one of them is pinned with a strong pin, without which they would decline from the perpendicular with every blast of the wind, some hanging outward, and some inward, which would render them in a great measure useless. The earth thrown out of the trench is then returned and strongly rammed to keep the picquets firmly in their places, and a shallower trench is dug outside about three feet distant, to carry off the water and prevent their being moved by the rains; about two thousand picquets are set up inside, one between every two others; the work is then inclosed. But previously the ground for the site of the fort had to be cleared and two or three hundred yards round it, which was very thickly wooded and was a work of time and labor. (The ground where this fort stands is on the east side of the Miami river, on the first bank; but there is a second bank considerably elevated, within point blank shot, which rendered it necessary to make the quicquets, particularly along the land side, of a height sufficient to prevent an enemy seeing into DARKE COUNTY - 83 the area, and taking the river in reverse, and a high platform was raised in one of the bastions on the land side to scour the second bank with artillery. Another made with the trunks of trees, and covered with plank, as that was, was raised in one of the bastions toward the river, in order to command the ford, and the river for some distance up and down. Plank was sawed for the platform and the gate, and barracks for one hundred men; a guardroom, two storehouses for provisions, and barracks for the officers were constructed within it, and all this was done in about fourteen days, almost entirely by the labor of the men; though some use was made of oxen in drawing timber; the woods were so thick and encumbered with underwood, it was found to be the most expeditious method to carry it.)" This post was named Fort Hamilton. The main part of the amy, consisting of two small regiments of regular infantry, and the levies, about two thousand in all, left this place October 4, and were followed on the 5th by some three hundred and fifty Kentucky militia. Many of the regulars had rendered distinguished service during the Revolution and the militia included a number of the hardy pioneers who had engaged in the recent raids and expeditions of the exposed border. St. Clair, in describing the marching order of the troops, observes: "When the army was in march, it was preceded by a small party of riflemen, with the surveyor, to mark the course of the road; for we had no guides, not a single person being found in the country who had ever been through it, and both the geography and the topography were utterly unknown; the march was, therefore, made up on a compass course, conjectural indeed, but which proved to be sufficiently correct, as it brought us into a large path leading to the Miami towns about twenty miles from them; from that party scouts were sent out to scour the country every way. Then followed the road cutters with a party to cover them; then the advanced guard, and after them the army in two columns, with one piece of artillery in front, one in the center, and one in the rear of each. In the space betwen the two columns marched the remaining artillery, destined for the fort at the Miami towns; then the horses with the tents and provisions, and then the cattle with their proper guard, who were to remove them in case of the enemy appearing. Without the columns, at a distance of about one hundred yards, march the cavalry in file, and without them at 84 - DARKE COUNTY the same distance, a party of riflemen, and scouts without them; then followed the rear guard at a proper distance." Roads for the artillery had to be cut through the thick timber nearly all the way and some considerable bridges built. Progress was necessarily very slow and by the evening of the 9th the army had advanced but twenty miles from Ft. Hamilton through a level, well watered and fertile country. On the 10th an open beech country was reached (near Eaton, Ohio) and about eight miles made. Progress continued fair until the following afternoon when the army was forced to encamp on the margin of an extensive wet prairie (Maple Swamp), at the headwaters of Twin creek (near Castine, Ohio), some thirty-eight miles in advance of Ft. Hamilton. Two parties were sent out to reconnoiter on the morning of the 12th, one to the westward under Major Denny, the other eastward under Maj. Butler. It was ascertained that the army could not continue on its regular course west of north without constructing a causeway of about a thousand feet. A suitable passage was found around the swamp to the eastward which soon led into a well worn Indian path leading through and avoiding the wet places. By following this the army advanced some six miles and encamped in an excellent, well-watered spot. On the morning of the 13th, St. Clair reconnoitered the country and selected a site for a fort of deposit a mile in advance of camp on one of the gravel knolls of this beautiful rolling region. (Hills of Judea.) A fort one hundred feet square with four good bastions was soon laid out and the work of building commenced. The weather now became cold and wet and the work progressed slowly. Provisions for the army were inadequate, the terms of enlistment of many of the levies expired,and great discontent developed. Some of the levies were discharged, and several of the militia deserted. Two artillery men were hanged for desertion and one of the levies for shooting a comrade. At this critical time Gen. Butler, who was second in command, proposed to St. Clair that he be allowed to take one thousand picked men and go to the Maumee villages, and there establish the projected post, leaving the commander-inchief to finish the fort and follow at his leisure. The season was late, and as St. Clair was advanced in years and very much indisposed at times by attacks of the gout, this was proposed ostensibly to relieve him and hasten the consummation DARKE COUNTY - 85 of the campaign. The general, however, was very disagreeably surprised by the proposition and refused the proffer. Butler seems to have taken offense at the rebuff and grown more reserved in his relations with St. Clair, although the latter thought that his own action was a proper exercise of his power as head of the army. After much delay the little log fort was completed, garrisoned with a small detachment, equipped with two pieces of artillery and named Fort Jefferson. On the 24th the army took up the line of march northward following the Indian trail along the high ground on the east side of the prairie. A fine country with rich soil and beautiful oak woods was now encountered. After proceeding some five miles an excellent elevated camp site with a wide creek in front and a large prairie on the left was discovered. Here (Greenville, Ohio) the army halted a week, grazing the horses, awaiting the delayed supplies and preparing for the advance. Gen. St. Clair continued ill, the weather inclement and discontent prevailed among the troops. On the 29th, a bridge was thrown across the creek, and a corps of road-cutters sent forward under a strong guard of militia. The friendly chief Piomingo, with nineteen warriors, and Capt. Sparks, with four riflemen, were sent out to ascertain the location and strength of the enemy. The army broke camp on the 30th and proceeded on a course twenty-five degrees west of north. With much difficulty seven miles were gained this day and the troops were forced to encamp in a very thick woods. (Probably in section 20, Brown township, Darke county.) During the night a heavy storm arose, precipitating much timber in the camp and causing considerable confusion. While the troops remained encamped here awaiting provisions sixty of the disgruntled militia marched off threatening to plunder the second convoy of provisions which was then thought to be within twenty miles on the trail. In order to save the supplies, which were necessary for the sustenance of the army, and to prevent further desertions, the whole of the First regiment of regulars, the flower of the army, was de- tached and sent hack. The quartermaster had failed to start the convoy at the appointed time, however, and this regiment became separated from the main body by a greater distance than anticipated, thus reducing the effective fighting force to about 1,400 men. The first convoy of some two hundred 86 - DARKE COUNTY horses loaded with flour arrived in the evening of the 31st. The road cutters advanced on Nov. 1st, and the army followed on the 2d, after depositing the heavy and superfluous baggage. The troops now labored through the flat, marshy country, near the "spreads of Stillwater," which creek they crossed about noon. In the afternoon their trail was joined by another Indian path, indicating that the right course was being followed. The direction this day was north, twenty-five degrees east and the army encamped after gaining eight miles. On the 3d the troops broke camp at nine o'clock and gained nine miles on a course thirty degrees west of north. The first four miles continued very flat and wet but at noon the ridge which divides the waters of the Ohio from those of Lake Erie was passed over and descent made to a small creek three miles further on. A few Indians had been observed hanging about the flanks of the army and on the 3d a larger number than usual were noticed. After a hard march through the cold on short rations the army arrived about sunset on that day at a small stream about 60 feet wide flowing southward, which was supposed to be the St. Mary's branch of the Maumee, but was in fact a branch of the east fork of the Wabash. Here an encampment was made in two lines on a slightly elevated piece of timbered ground, barely large enough to accommodate the army. To the north and east the view was obstructed by the thick forest. On the south a prairie bordered by a fringe of low marshy ground, thickly studded with trees and low brush skirted the camp. Along the west side or front of the camp, the east bank of the Wabash was some twenty-five feet above the river, which was probably thirty or forty feet wide and knee deep at this place. The bluff was also thickly set with forest trees and underbrush. Across the stream to the west the bottom land partook of the nature of a low, wet prairie about sixty rods wide, covered with tall, rank grass, and clumps of willow and spice brush. The first line of the encampment was composed of Butler's, Clark's and Patterson's battalions of levies, and commanded by Gen. Butler. The second consisted of Bedinger's and Gaither's battalions and the Second regiment of regulars commanded by Lieut-Col. Darke, and was about 200 feet to the rear of and parallel with the first. The right flank was protected by the creek; the left by a steep bank, Faulknor's corps and some of the infantry. The militia advanced about a DARKE COUNTY - 87 fourth of a mile across the creek bottom and camped on high ground. It had been a hard day's march and it was near 8 o'clock before the scanty mess was cooked. The soldiers, tired and worn, were soon sleeping heavily. Capt. Slough of the First battalion of levies was sent out with some thirty picked men with instructions to advance one, two or three miles along the trail in search of Indians. About midnight they returned, with the report that they had fired on a party of six or seven savages, killing one, and had been passed by a much larger party later going toward the camp. The report, according to Capt. Slough's testimony, was made to Maj.-Gen. Butler, who then dismissed him for the night without instructions to inform St. Clair. Col. Oldham of the militia also predicted an attack in the morning. Gen. St. Clair had observed on the afternoon previous that he did not expect an attack yet and in the evening concerted plans with Major Ferguson of the artillery for throwing up a small earthwork, wherein to have deposited the knapsacks and heavy luggage. He then intended to make a forced march to the Maumee village, which he thought to be about fifteen miles, but which was, in fact, some fifty miles distant, as soon as the First regiment came up. He was permitted to do neither, for on the 4th about sunrise, just after the regular morning parade, and while the soldiers were preparing breakfast, the swarming savages, who had been camping but a short distance beyond the militia, made a sudden attack on the pickets of the militia across the creek. A few shots were exchanged, but fear seized the Kentuckians, and they rushed pell mell into the main camp, pursued by a large party of Indians, whooping and yelling fiercely. A volley from the artillery in the front drove the latter back to cover but they soon renewed their fire and gradually encircled the encampment, concealing themselves behind trees, brush and logs and pouring in a galling fire. The soldiers were cramped for room and exposed because of the nature of the ground on which they were encamped and made an easy target for the savages, who were expert marksmen. The main fire was directed against the men at the guns in the center of the encampment and they were driven away again and again with great slaughter. This was kept up for perhaps an hour and a half until nearly every officer of the artillery had been killed or wounded and all the guns silenced. The roar of the artillery and rattle of the muskets of the regulars may have tended to awe the savages, 88 - DARKE COUNTY but much ammunition was wasted by the random shooting of the untrained troops. Men were falling in great numbers in all parts of the camp, confusion was spreading, and the Indians, becoming emboldened, swarmed forward to seize the guns. Previously they had flitted from cover to cover under the pall of smoke, but now they became more exposed at close quarters. A spirited charge was made against them under Col. Darke and they were driven back across the creek at the point of the bayonet. For want of a sufficient number of riflemen to follow up this charge, they were forced to return and were gradually followed by the Indians, who pressed forward from tree to tree and soon came into camp on the left flank. Here they were met by a spirited charge from the Second regiment, Butler's and Clark's battalions, and pushed hack. Again and again this was repeated, hut with great loss, especially of the officers, who had to expose themselves to rally the raw and undisciplined troops. Early in these charges Major Butler was dangerously wounded and all the officers of the Second regiment fell except three. Both St. Clair and Butler exhibited great bravery throughout, the latter, although indisposed, having been mortally wounded, continued to give orders while propped up in the center of the camp. In spite of his advanced age and enfeebled condition, St. Clair rode up and down the lines attempting to rally and reassure the fearful troops. The fire was continued nearly three hours on front and flank until the majority of the officers and half of the army were either killed or wounded. The terrified soldiers now crowded to the center of the camp, where the wounded had previously been taken for safety, being pressed gradually closer from all sides by the exulting savages. The remnant of the army became stupefied and bewildered and it became necessary to order a retreat. Accordingly, about 9 o'clock Col. Darke was ordered to make a charge and with a number of the best men made a feint, driving the Indians beyond the road and thus making an opening through which the balance of the troops hurried pell mell with the militia in front. The Indians had been thrown into confusion by the charge, but, discovering its object, soon pursued the straggling army along the trail and harassed the rear for four or five miles. Attracted by the rich booty, however, they soon returned to plunder the camp and mutilate, torture and kill those of the wounded who had been left on the field. Here a sickening sight presented itself. Huddled DARKE COUNTY - 89 in a comparatively small space were piles of the slain on the frozen ground, the silent cannon, the deserted tents and valuable camp equipments all abandoned in the flight for life. While the Indians were carousing, securing their plunder, scalping and disfiguring the slain, and gloating over their victims, the routed army continued its retreat and kept throwing away arms and equipments in the panic of fear. Nearly all the horses had been taken or killed and St. Clair, mounted on a slow pack-horse, was unable to reach the front himself and the other officers found it impossible to establish order and check the flight. The rout continued along the rude trail to Fort Jefferson, a distance of about thirty miles through the dense wilderness, where the men arrived just after sunset. Here the First regiment, which had been sent back to intercept the deserters, was met, but in view of the broken condition of the troops, the lack of provisions in the fort, and the strength of the enemy, it was decided to leave the wounded here and continue the march toward Fort Washington. Accordingly the advance troops set out about ten o'clock, marched until nearly daylight of the 5th, and halted until the rear came up. The army moved on about 9 o'clock and soon met the convoy, arrived at Fort Hamilton on afternoon of 6th, and at Fort Washington in afternoon of 8th. The number of Indians, Canadians and half breeds in this engagement has been variously estimated at from 700 to 2,500 or 3,000, but 1,000 or 1,500 is considered a conservative figure, and the amount of government property either lost or destroyed is put at about $34,000. The principal tribes engaged were the Delawares, Shawanese, Wyandots, Miamis, Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawatomies. Litte Turtle, chief of the Miamis, was their leader, and was ably assisted by Blue Jacket, Bukongehelas, Black Eagle, and the renegades Simon Girty and Blackstaffe. The warriors had poured in from the Wabash and the far north ; and it is even asserted that Captain Brant with one hundred and fifty select Mohawk warriors took part in this remarkable engagement. Their loss was estimated at about 150 killed and several wounded, but because of their custom of carrying away or concealing the slain it is difficult to ascertain their exact numher. The Americans had thirty-nine officers killed and twenty-one wounded, and their entire loss was estimated at 677 killed, including thirty or more women, and 271 wounded, a loss probably as great as any suffered in a single battle of 90 - DARKE COUNTY the Revolution. The remarkable number of officers killed bears unmistakable testimony to the bravery and patriotic devotion of these men. The list is as follows: Gen. Richard Butler, Col. Oldham, of the militia; Majors Ferguson, Hart and Clark; Captains Bradford, Phelan, Kirkwood, Price, Van Swearingen, Tipton, Purdy, Smith, Piatt, Gaither, Crebbs and Newman; Lieutenants Spear, Warren, Boyd, McMath, Burgess, Kelso, Read, Little, Hopper and Likens; Ensigns Cobb, Balch, Chase, Wilson, Brooks, Beatty and Purdy, besides two quartermasters and two adjutants. Among the wounded were: Col. Sargent (the Adj.-General) ; Lieut-Col. Gibson (who died later at Ft. Jefferson) ; Major Thomas Butler and Viscount Malartie, volunteer aide-de-camp to St. Clair. It was Maj. Denny's opinion that Gen. Butler might have been saved if he could have been gotten off the field, but his size precluded this action. On account of the indisposition of both general officers the brunt of the campaign had fallen on the Adjutant-General, Col. Sargent, who assumed this difficult and serious task with alacrity. General Harmar had predicted defeat before the army set out because of the poor material which composed the buk of the army, the inexperience of the officers in fighting Indians, and the haste in preparation. The ignorance of the presence of a large body, of the enemy also contributed materially to the result. Added to this was the Indian's advantage of fighting on his own ground and in his own way. The new government was experimenting in Indian warfare and had much to learn. Washington recalled Braddock's defeat and had warned St. Clair before departing. The latter sent his aide, Maj. Ebenezer Denny, with the news of the defeat to the President at Philadelphia. On account of high waters and ice in the Ohio river and the bad condition of roads it took twenty days to reach Wheeling from Fort Washington and ten more to reach Philadelphia. President Washington received the dispatch while eating dinner, but continued his meal and acted as usual until all the company had gone and his wife had left the room, leaving no one but himself and Secretary, Col. Lear. He now commenced to walk hack and forth in silence and after some moments sat down on a sofa. His manner now showed emotion and he exclaimed suddenly: "St. Clair's defeated—routed; the officers nearly all killed, the men by wholesale, the rout complete! Too shocking to think of—a surprise in the bargain." DARKE COUNTY - 91 Pausing again, rising from the sofa, and walking back and forth, he stopped short and again broke out with great vehemence: "Yes! here on this very spot I took leave of him; I wished him success and honor. You have your instructions,' I said, `from the Secretary of War. I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word, beware of a surprise! You know how the Indians fight us!' He went off with that as my last solemn warning thrown into his ears. And yet, to suffer that army to be cut to pieces—hacked by a surprise, the very thing I guarded against! 0 God! he's worse than a murderer. * * * " The President again sat down on the sofa and his anger subsided. At length he said: "This must not go beyond this room." After a while he again spoke in a lower tone: "General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked hastily through the dispatches, saw the whole disaster, but not all the particulars. I will hear him without prejudice he shall have full justice." A committee of the House of Representatives investigated the cause of St. Clair's defeat and acquitted him with honor because of the stupendous obstacles encountered in forwarding the expedition and the marked courage shown by St. Clair and the officers during the terrible engagement. St. Clair retained the confidence of Washington to the last and continued to serve as Governor of the new territory until the admission of Ohio as a state in 1803. He served his country well at his own personal loss and died at Greensburg, Pa., in 1818 at an advanced age and in comparative poverty, having seen the final overthrow of the hostile tribes and the permanent founding of civilization in this matchless region of the northwest. It has been proposed by the Ohio State Historical Society to erect a suitable memorial to his memory in the state house grounds at Columbus, and such action deserves the hearty co-operation and approval of all patriotic Americans. CHAPTER V. "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE. The defeat of St. Clair cast a gloom over the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky and along the Ohio, causing immigration to the northwest territory to cease abruptly. The tribes did not seem immediately disposed to make a united stand, but predatory bands lurked about the stations and attacked the scattered settlements north of the Ohio. It was even found difficult to hold and supply the chain of army posts established by St. Clair because of the marauding bands of savages, constantly interfering with the operations of the few regular American troops stationed at Fort Washington. The shock of defeat was also felt in the new nation at large and the Eastern people were especially conservative on the question of financing and equipping an army to fight the Indians of the western border. The frontier men naturally resented this indifferent policy and harassed the federal authorities. President Washington, however, sincerely desired peace, and early in 1792 made overtures and took proper steps to make the friendly disposition of his government known to the sulking savages. In response to his urgent invitation fifty warriors, representing the Six Nations, came to Philadelphia, the new capital, early in March. The President and Commissioner Pickering addressed them, setting forth the just and humane disposition of the Americans and urging them to use their potent influence with the western tribes in order to conciliate them and bring about peace without resort to arms. This they promised to do, but did not set out for the offended tribes until September. Major Alexander Truman, of the First United States regulars, and Col. John Hardin, of the Kentucky Horse, were dispatched to the Miami village (Fort Wayne) by way of Fort Washington. Captain Hendrick, a Stockbridge Indian, and Captain Brant, of the Mohawks, were urged to attend the grand council of the tribes, to be held during the summer on the Maumee, and make known the friendly attitude of the new government with a view to peaceful negotiations. 94 - DARKE COUNTY Brigadier-General Rufus Putnam was sent to the Wabash tribe with an exceptional commission. He was given copies of all the treaties which the new government had consummated with various tribes and nations and instructed to convince the Indians that peace is desired, all unjust land claims renounced, to urge the treaty of Fort Harmar as a fair basis of negotiations, insist on the safety of the outposts, and insure the just, liberal and humane co-operation of the government. in all matters pertaining to their welfare. Captain Peter Pond and William Steedman were sent as secret spies, with instructions to mingle with the tribes on the Maumee and Wabash in the guise of traders, ascertain their views and intentions, and, if practicable, openly announce the peaceable and benevolent intentions of the Great Father at Philadelphia. The well laid plans of the new government were doomed to miscarry. The spies were intercepted at Niagara; Truman and Hardin were treacherously murdered. Brant arrived at his destination after the council had broken up, and Hendrick yielded to the wiles of the British agent, McKee, and failed to attend the council. Putnam, however, proceeded to Fort Washington, where he met the Commandant, Brigadier-General James Wilkinson, who reported that a band of Indians had made an attack upon a body of men near Fort Jefferson, capturing and killing sixteen of the latter. This advanced post was closely watched by the Indians who continually harassed its small garrison. The murder of four other whites was reported and Putnam hastened to Vincennes accompanied by Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary. Here he concluded a treaty with the Wabash and Illinois tribes on September 27th, which, however, was not ratified by the Senate because it provided that the tribes should retain all the lands to which they had a just claim. It probably restrained the restless elements in these tribes from engaging in the opening histilities. In October, 1792, a grand council was held at Grand Glaize (Defiance, Ohio). It was attended by the chiefs of all the northwestern tribes, about fifty chiefs of the Six Nations, besides many from remoter tribes. As usual, the Shawanese chiefs clamored for war and then requested an explanation of the instructions of Congress. Red Jacket, on behalf of the Six Nations, plead for peace and reminded the Shawanese that the Indians had sold all of their lands lying east of the Ohio to the British, and that they had assisted the latter DARKE COUNTY - 95 during the Revolution, at the termination of which the States took possession of all the lands which the English had formerly taken from the French. The Shawanese then recalled St. Clair's expedition and defeat; stated that peace messengers, who had been treacherously killed on the way, had been sent by this bloody road, and that, consequently, the voice of peace must now pass through the Six Nations. They consented to treat with the President early in the following spring and to lay aside the tomahawk until they should hear from him through the Six Nations. The latter promptly informed the President of these proceedings and urged him to send suitable men to the coming council and to forward a message to the western tribes without delay. The armistice agreed upon was not kept, for at dawn, on November 6th, 1792, a large party of Indians furiously attacked a detachment of mounted Kentucky volunteers under Major John Adair, encamping near Fort St. Clair (Eaton, Ohio), a post recently established between Forts Hamilton and Jefferson, to assist in the transportation of forage and supplies to the latter post. A desperate conflict followed in which the Indians were severely punished and the Americans lost ten men, six being killed and four missing, besides five wounded. Adair's riflemen sought shelter in the fort and the Indians retreated, carrying off most of the horses belonging to the detachment. In spite of these hostile demonstrations the government still confidently hoped to establish peace, and for this purpose sent three distinguished commissioners, General Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph and Timothy Pickering, to meet the tribes at the Maumee rapids early next spring. They were instructed to insist on the provisions of the treaty of Fort Harmar, demand the relinquishment of certain posts established beyond the stated boundary, and agree to pay to the several tribes proportionately the sum of fifty thousand dollars, besides ten thousand dollars annually forever in case an amicable agreement should be reached. Proceeding to Niagara in May, 1793, the commissioners were detained until late in June, when they embarked for the Detroit river to await the meeting of the Indians. They were again detained at Erie by contrary winds, and on July 5th Col. Butler, of the British Indian service, and Captain Brant, with some fifty Indians, arrived from the Maumee. The latter had been deputized by the assembled tribes to confer with 96 - DARKE COUNTY the commissioners in the presence of the Governor of Upper Canada. Brant stated that the tribes had not assembled at the time and place appointed because of their distrust of the warlike movements of the United States and asked an explanation of the same. He also inquired if the commissioners were properly authorized to establish a new boundary line between the Americans and the Indians. The commissioners replied that all hostilities had been forbidden until the result of the proposed treaty at Sandusky should be known; that peace was desired and that they were authorized to establish boundaries. They further assured the British agents that they would promptly inform the President of the proceedings and request him to restrain the military commanders, who were at that time actively engaged in strengthening and supplying the frontier posts and preparing for contingent hostilities. Being assured by the statements of the commissioners. Brant agreed to deliver their peaceful message to the chiefs in council on the Maumee and then accompanied them across Lake Erie to the mouth of the Detroit river. From this place the commissioners communicated with the assembled tribes and patiently awaited their reply. The Indians were suspicious of the warlike preparations of the Americans, of which they kept well informed by runners and spies, and, after much serious deliberation and spirited debate, delivered their grand ultimatum through Elliott and Simon Girty, asserting that the tribes had not been properly represented at former treaties, and insisting that the Ohio river must be the final boundary line separating them from the whites, as provided by the treaty of Fort Stanwix. In answer the commissioners called their attention to the inconsistency of their position in insisting on the first treaty of Fort Stanwix as a basis of final adjustment, inasmuch as several treaties had been held since, at which large tracts of land had been purchased in good faith and later opened for settlement. They stated further that the treaty with Great Britain in 1783 made the boundary run through the center of the Great Lakes, instead of down the Ohio, but that in spite of this fact the Americans were willing to make reasonable concessions in boundaries, give liberal hunting privileges, and deliver annually large quantities of valuable goods suited to the needs of the Indians, provided that the terms could he arranged in a properly called general council. DARKE COUNTY - 97 After much delay, due to the divided sentiment of the tribes, and, no doubt, to the machinations of McKee, Elliott, Girty and the British agents, acting under the inspiration of the Governor-General of Canada, the Indians finally replied that the recent treaties had been held with a few irresponsible chiefs, representing only part of the tribes, and were, therefore, not binding on the great confederacy; that the money offered did not appeal to them, but should be given to the poor whites who had settled north of the Ohio to make their homes on the Indians' lands; that Great Britain had no right to cede their lands to the Americans; that they had already retreated to the last ditch ; and that no agreement could be reached unless the Ohio river was made the final boundary between themselves and the United States, and all the whites now settled north of that river moved south of it. The commissioners replied that it was impossible to concede this unreasonable demand and thus put an end to the negotiations, which had occupied over three months of very precious time. From the standpoint of the Americans, the second treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1784, and those that followed at Forts McIntosh, Finney and Harmar, were valid and binding, and, taken in connection with the offer of further negotiations, seemed reasonable ground for the procedure which followed. With the exception of the Wyandots, Shawanese, Miamis and Delawares, the tribes seemed mostly disposed toward peace, and it seems very probable that a mutually satisfactory treaty might have been made, but for the continued pressure exerted on the savages by the scheming and aggressive British agents from Detroit and Canada. All hope of agreement being ended the commissioners returned to Erie and dispatched messengers to the Secretary of War and the new commander of the American forces, informing them concerning the results of their negotiations with the northwestern tribes. In order to understand the fears and the final decision of the tribes, it is necessary to take note of the movements of the Americans just prior to and during the peace negotiations. Upon withdrawal of St. Clair after the defeat, the President recommended Maj.-Gen. Anthony Wayne, of Pennsylvania, to succeed him, and Congress confirmed the selection. As usual in such cases the appointment caused some dissatisfaction and disgust, especially in Virginia, among the (7) 98 - DARKE COUNTY friends of Lee, Morgan, Scott and Darke, who seem to have figured as possible appointees. The sequel of the appointment, however, proved the sagacity of Washington, who had profited by his association and experience with these various officers during the course of the Revolution. Wayne at the time of his appointment was about forty-seven years of age. He came of old fighting stock and was naturally hold, dashing and courageous. In build he was of medium height, with an inclination to stoutness. His forehead was high and finely formed, his nose slightly aquiline, his face well proportioned, his hair was dark, his eyes were dark hazel, bright, keen and expressive, giving him, on the whole, a fine and animated expression. At the outbreak of the Revolution Wayne raised the Fourth Pennsylvania regiment and was commissioned colonel. During the course of war he attained the rank of Brigadier-General, and at its close was brevetted Major-General. He served his country well at Three Rivers, Brandywine, Germantown, Valley Forge, Green Springs, Monmouth and Yorktown. His most popular service, however, was at Stony Point, a rocky promontory on the Hudson, commanding an important crossing place. On the night of July 15th, 1779, he surprised this place and forced his way into the citadel by a bold bayonet charge, for which he was afterward familiarly called "Mad Anthony." This was one of the most brilliant exploits of the war and won for Wayne eminent and lasting distinction as a soldier. His experience in fighting Indians was confined to a successful campaign against the Creeks in Georgia after the Revolution. At about the time of Wayne's appointment Congress decided to thoroughly reorganize the military establishment, increasing the army enlistment to some five thousand men. The organization, when completed, was to consist of one squadron of cavalry, of four troops; one battalion of artillery, organized on the same plan, and five regiments of infantry, each of three battalions, as above, with one regiment composed entirely of riflemen. In addition provision was made for the employment of mounted militia and scouts. No doubt President Washington had a lengthy conference with Wayne before the latter left Philadelphia, in which the peculiar methods of Indian warfare and the exigencies which might arise in fighting in the western forests, were thoroughly,-discussed. DARKE COUNTY - 99 Proceeding to Pittsburg in June, 1792, Wayne promptly began to organize his army with a number of the survivors of St. Clair's unfortunate troops as a nucleus. Raw recruits were rapidly enlisted from Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey and Maryland, and in the winter, these forces were collected near Fort McIntosh (Beaver, Pa.), some twenty-seven miles down the Ohio. Here the troops were thoroughly and rigorously drilled, organized into a "legion" and prepared for the hardships incident to savage warfare. By spring the new commander had a well organized army of some twenty-five hundred troops. Descending the Ohio late in April, 1793, the infantry and artillery encamped between Fort Washington and Mill Creek, which place was selected on account of the high stage of the water and was appropriately called "Hobson's Choice." The cavalry, composed of one company each of sorrels, grays, bays and chestnuts, found a more suitable camp for their purpose south of the river, where they practiced throughout the summer for the coming campaign. From Fort Washington a military road was cut through the dense wilderness to a tributary of the Stillwater branch of the Great Miami (site of Greenville, O.), some six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson; the intermediate posts, Hamilton, St. Clair and Jefferson, were supplied with large quantities of provisions, and herds of horses and cattle were gathered beyond the advanced post under protection of troops. When Wayne received news of the failure of the negotiations of the commissioners, about September 1st, 1793, he repaired to Fort Washington with the balance of his troops. The quiet condition of the frontier convinced him that the Indians were at that time gahering in force to oppose his advance to the Maumee. Accordingly he took time by the forelock and decided to advance with the troops then available and fortify the strong position beyond Fort Jefferson, hoping thereby to keep the Indians in check until he might strike with greater assurance of success. Breaking camp at Fort Washington Wayne marched northward on the seventh of October with a force of twenty-six hundred regulars, thirty-six guides and spies and three hundred and sixty mounted militia. The army advanced in parallel lines with a strong front guard in addition to the usual sentinels, and was arranged in such a mariner that a fighting line might be readily formed without confusion. This proved