WESTMORELAND'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1775 - 75 her golden days; they may return, but will be preceded by scenes of horror. An association is formed hr this county for defense of American liberty. I got a clause added it by which they bind themselves to assist the civil magistrate in the execution of the laws they have been accustomed to be governed by." The idioms of the old English charters ; the formulas used by the writers on the constitution and statutes of England ; the stereotyped expressions which crop out in the declaration itself; the common law forms; in short, the strong English in which the resolutions are written, as well as the fact which he confesses to his lord paramount, the Governor himself, and the fact of his presence at the meeting, all would indicate that St. Clair had the chiefest part in directing the meeting and presenting the paper. In considering St. Clair as an historical character, we are too apt to regard him in his military capacity alone, while in truth St. Clair was one of that class of men conspicuous in the Revolutionary annals, who blended a knowledge of letters with a desire for martial fame and of active military service. Considered in its right place, the vigor of his mind is better displayed in his political career; for he was a man of fine literary acquirements and of strong parts, having enjoyed the benefits of a collegiate education and moving in good and polished society from early life. The meeting at Hannastown is remarkable for producing, or at least recording, such ideas as are generally produced only by deliberative assemblies, in which much argument is exhausted, and in which extensive experience and research are brought to bear. The resolutions adopted by masses of people collected together through excitement have, usually, nothing of stability in them. Such meetings have universally been held up to ridicule, and utterances emanating from them are seldom taken as the expressions of the people at large. But these resolutions are singular in this respect; and the meeting is one of the few recorded in which cool, deliberate determination and wise counsel are expressed by a hastily collected crowd, and by men unused to legislative or parliamentary experience. The instrument has been called Westmoreland's Declaration of Independence. But it is not a declaration in the same sense we are to regard the great paper adopted on the 4th of July, 1776. During 1775 meetings were held all over the colonies, in Massachusetts and in North and South Carolina. In their expressions of sympathy many of these are identical, and they all contain expressions which could only come from a people determined to resist oppression. But in few had the idea of resistance and the theory of an American Union been so prominent. There are sentences in these resolutions and sentences in the Declaration which correspond, word for word so that had the resolutions been written and promulgated after the Declaration the world would not have detected the sham without critically scrutinizing. But it was as earnest a State paper, and it as clearly defined their causes of complaint and showed the remedy for ministerial mismanagement as any paper ever penned on either side of the Atlantic. Therefore we may surely say that of all the meetings and of all the expressions which were anywhere adopted at them none excelled the meeting at Hannastown, either in a plain statement of grievances, in the assertion of well-defined rights, or in intimating a plan by which these difficulties might be adjusted. The noblest idea, perhaps, in the whole paper is the idea presented in one of the resolves, which we may well believe was heartily as well as unanimously adopted, in which the men in their hunting-shirts, standing there together beyond the barrier of the mountains, agreed to meet death for principle. They might be subjugated, the country might be overrun by hireling soldiers, nay, the king of England might hang them, but while to the world they acknowledged his rightful claim as their sovereign, yet they pledged their lives not to submit to a corrupt ministry or a venal Parliament that passed laws for them which the privileges of the English constitution did not admit of. In the prompt manner in which the military idea was brought out we see the secret hand of men who regarded the exercise of arms as part of their legitimate business. A nether fact discernible is the parity and the identity of interests which the colonists had with each other. On this patriotic ground stood the colonists of Pennsylvania and of Virginia. Between St. Clair and Crawford, Smith and Gibson, Proctor and Neville there were on this question no conflicting sentiments. The curiosity of the reader would be drawn to the association that day effected. The association of Westmoreland County was but an identical organization which, under different local arrangements, extended all over the provinces, and which was acknowledged as a loyal and patriotic representation at the first meeting at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia. The regiment organized first in our own county about Hannastown was under command of Col. Proctor, and its standard, unrolled before the Declaration of Independence and before the colonies had a flag, has been preserved, and was, when the descendants of those men celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of that glorious day at Greensburg, again unfurled to their applause. The .standard was of crimson silk, and had in its upper left corner the union-jack of Britain, and on its folds the rattlesnake with thirteen rattles, with the legend below, " Don't tread on me." In a half-circle above ware the letters " J. P. F. B. W. C. P.," standing for "John Proctor, First Battalion, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania."' By Col. Proctor it was presented to Gen. Craig, and in his family it has been treasured, along with the sword which the general carried through the Revolution, as a sacred heirloom. 1 This reminds one of the "S. P. Q. it." on the standards of the Prætorian Guards. 76 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. The regiment did not serve in the Continental armies under that organization, but most of those who had been active in forming it served in various capacities, and the associators becoming a regular militia organization by act of the General Assembly, many of the officers were retained, and promotion within its ranks was regular. Some of the men, however, enrolled that day lived through that long war to tell their battles o'er again, and some died heroically on the fields, on the retreat through Jersey, at Brandywine, and with Greene in the South. As for those men who signed the Great Paper, at the last they were scattered all over America. Most of them were 'freeholders, some were not; but as for all, they had no nationality but the brotherhood of man, no inheritance but the love of liberty, and nothing in common but the traditions of freedom. So in death they had no burial-place in common, unless it was the common earth, and on Decoration Day the little children with garlands and miniature flags do not know where they lie in the old graveyards. Their grassy mounds are scattered over the hills and valleys of Westmoreland, along the Ohio and the Delaware. Some have tried to throw a doubt upon the originality of these resolutions, asserting, without proof, they were plagiarized. Could these make out a claim as to the insignificance of the characters who wrote. and signed them, such position might be met with the observation of a writer of great authority, and one of the closest observers of the characteristics of men. For the great Plutarch, entering upon the life of Demosthenes, pays a noble tribute to virtue and to the natural ability of man. He ridicules the notion that only great men have been born and bred in large cities and in famous, places, and declares that virtue, like a strong and hardy plant, will take root in any place where it can find an ingenuous nature and a mind that has no aversion to virtue and discipline. Therefore, if our sentiments or conduct fall short of the point they ought to reach, we must not impute it to the obscurity of the place where we were born, but to our little selves. Thus common sense, no less than philosophy, tells us that the woods of America, as Dicke puts it, 1 produce men who, in parts and in natural abilities, are the equals of men born in the capitals of Europe.2 1" Essay on the Human Understanding." 2 For the text of these resolutions, see. Appendix B. CHAPTER XVII. CIVIL AFFAIRS IN WESTMORELAND ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION. Public Affairs—Connolly and Dunmore still Scheming—Connolly tries to carry the Pennsylvania and Virginia Officers for the King - His Plan to effect this, and to hold the West for Dunmore—Exeunt Omnes —Boston Harbor closed— Call for a Meeting at the State-House, July 15, 1774—Hanna and Caved as Deputies—William Thompson on the Committee of Safety—The Associators—Edward Cook and James P Delegates to the Convention of 1776—Special Law allowing Westmoreland Electors to vote for Members of the Convention— The County divided into Two Districts for this Election—One District North and one South of the Youghiogheny—Their Election Officers —Members returned to the Convention of 1776—All Male Inhabit subject to Military Service, and required to take the Oath of Allegiance—Frame of Government for the State adopted—John Proctor elected first Councilor— Archibald Lochry, the first County Lieutenant, succeeded by Cook and by Col. Campbell—Duties of the Con Lieutenant—The West to take care of Itself—British Influence the Indians—Hatred between the Indians and the Western Virginia Settlers. DURING 1775 events followed each other 71 rapidity. In June the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, which separated forever the colonies fro the government of England. But the loyalists we everywhere and in every manner actively engaged stirring up dissension amongst the colonists to eat with them the interests of the king. From Withers' "Chronicles" we have the statements that in July of 1775, Connolly presented himself Dunmore with proposals of a character to be heal indorsed by the Governor. Dunmore acquiesced i Connolly's plan, and, as it was in his power, offer? solid bribes to such officers in the Virginia militia; were loyally inclined, and upon whom he thought could depend. These were to co-operate with Connolly. Connolly's influence further among the Indians was known to be powerful. The agent went to Gen Gage at Boston, and disclosed to him the plans fix upon between himself and the Governor. He was di made colonel of a proposed regiment to be raised the borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Till belonging to it were to be mustered in in the interest of the crown. The plan itself was that these were proceed to Detroit, then held as a British mill post, where they would be supplied and equip Then with the co-operation of the Indians, all under command of Connolly, they were to rendezvous Fort Pitt. From Fort Pitt he was to march thee Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, and form a junction with Dunmore in the April following, 1776. Such was the scheme, but it was frustrated by taking of Connolly and by the subsequent withdraw of Dunmore. Connolly was arrested in the later part of November, 1775, at Fredericktown, Md. I was kept in confinement, and by an order of Congress sent to Philadelphia for security. When nothing more could be apprehended from his mischievous actions he was released. He retired to Canada, where he lived on the bounty of the English government and there it is said he died. But it must not CIVIL AFFAIRS IN WESTMORELAND ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION - 77 omitted that towards the end of the Revolution he made another effort to get the Virginia officers in the West to resign from the colonial and Continental service and raise the standard of a second revolt. Among others, he tried, with many offers, to prevail upon Col. John Gibson. A doubt was at one time thrown upon the patriotism of Gibson, but this doubt has long since been entirely dispelled. Among those who did remain loyal to the British, and became traitors not only to their country but to their race, were Girty, McKee, and Matthew Elliot. These were mixed up in Connolly's plan, and some time subsequent to this, being apprehended as enemies, were kept in confinement at Fort Pitt, from which they made their escape, and ever after remained in open hostility against the colonists. Connolly and Dunmore were carried away in that wind which blew over the country in 1775. Glad are we to get rid of them with but one more observation. As to Connolly—a man in a secondary position to Dunmore, as Dunmore was in a secondary position to the ministry—to him, it may be said, the people of Westmoreland and of the West owe in a great measure their political independence. He was to the people west of the Alleghenies in general, and to the people of Westmoreland in particular, what Gage was to the people of Boston. There is no questioning the influence which he left in these parts derogatory to the interest of his master. For years the names of both were detested. Perhaps had it not been for such men as Connolly and Dunmore, Westmoreland would not have been so patriotic and so outspoken in her subsequent resolves and measures. While these notices refer to general history, we must not forget that the domestic troubles were not yet adjusted. The calm and patriotic men who then passed to the head of affairs in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and whom to name without eulogy is honor enough, regarded these frequent collisions as unworthy the citizens of two great commonwealths. The noise had reached the Continental Congress, and had attracted its notice. On July 25th the delegates, among whom were Jefferson, Henry, and Franklin, united in a circular urging the people in this region to a mutual forbearance. They recommended that all armed men kept by either party should be dismissed, and that all in confinement or on bail should be discharged. Although, as Craig says, the only armed force kept up was by the Virginian authorities, it was so worded to avoid invidiousness. But on the 7th of August, perhaps before the circular had reached the Provincial Convention of Virginia, it passed a resolve which directed Capt. John Neville, with his company of one hundred men, to take possession of Fort Pitt under pay of the colony. Neville did so, and St. Clair, in a letter to John Penn, expressed his apprehension. With a forbearance under this infraction which is worthy of honorable mention, the Penns acquiesced. Neville occu- - 6 - pied this post not so much as a Virginian as an American, and under direction of the Congress kept it secure to the interests and the cause of the colonies in general. Neville commanded at Fort Pitt till 1777, and settling there became identified with the future prosperity of the city of Pittsburgh, and with the history of the union by his connection with the Whiskey Insurrection. The spark that kindled the flame was the Boston Port Bill. On the 13th of May, 1774, the town of Boston resolved " that if the other colonies would unite with them to stop all importation from Great Britain and the West Indies until that act should be repealed, it would prove the salvation of the colonies." The act was to go into effect on the 1st of June, and when that day came it was observed throughout the colonies as a fast day. While the excitement consequent on this measure was growing, the Committee of Correspondence for the city of Philadelphia sent out a circular to the principal citizens of the different counties, saying that "the Governor, declining to call a meeting of the Assembly, renders it necessary to take the sentiments of the inhabitants ; and for that purpose it is agreed to call a meeting of the inhabitants of the city and the counties at the State-House on the 15th inst., Wednesday, July, 1774." This call was signed by Charles Thompson, clerk of the first Continental Congress. On these suggestions meetings were held in most of the counties, and especially where the Scotch-Irish took the lead. Deputies were chosen from every district in the Province, and these assembled at Philadelphia on the day fixed. To the coipcompany of illustrious men as sat in that convention Westmoreland sent Robert Hanna and James Cavett. These men talked with Thomas Mifflin and Joseph Reed, and joined in the resolutions of that body, and in the instructions which were gratuitously proffered to their representatives in Assembly. They further subscribed to an essay which came from the scholarly pen of Dickinson on the abstract nature of liberty and privileges on the king's prerogatives, and which was illuminated with copious extracts from Burlamaqui, Montesquieu, and Blackstone. Hanna had been an innkeeper, and Cavett stood so high that he had been elected one of the first county commissioners. They received their latter honor by the suffrages of the people at a special election. They were then, without dispute, fully capacitated to consider of the learning of Queen Elizabeth's chief justice, and advise the deputies to the next Congress to abate from Great Britain a renunciation of all powers under the statute of the Thirty-fifth, Henry VIII., Chapter II., of internal legislation and of the imposition of taxes. Congress, at its session in May, 1775, resolved to raise a Continental army. Washington was appointed to command the forces of the colonies. The quota of Pennsylvania was fixed at 4300 men, and the Assembly recommended to the commissioners of the several counties to provide arms and accoutrements for this 78 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. force. They also directed the officers of the military association to select a number of minute-men equal to the number of arms they had, to be ready to march in case of emergency on the shortest notice. To assist in carrying these measures into effect a Committee of Safety was appointed. William Thompson, who had been the first person returned to the Assembly at the election in 1773, was of this committee from Westmoreland. This Committee of Safety prepared articles for the government of the associators. Thus the associators, at first merely a voluntary association on the part of those who entered it, was by a resolution of the Assembly which required all able-bodied men to belong to the military organization, made a compulsory militia. The assessors of the several townships were required to furnish the names of all persons of military age capable of bearing arms. On those who had not joined the associators a sum of two pounds ten shillings, besides the regular tax, was levied. By one of the articles for the government of this military body passed by the Assembly, if one of the associators called into actual service should leave a family. not able to maintain themselves in his absence, the justices of the peace, with the overseers of the poor, should make provision for their maintenance. Towards the close of 1775 a further demand was made on the State for four battalions; and of these, one was placed under command of Col. Arthur St. Clair. The Continental Congress in May, 1776, declared that it was irreconcilable to reason and good conscience that the American people should take the oaths for the support of government under the crown of Great Britain, and that it was necessary that every kind of authority under the crown should be suppressed. A long struggle then ensued between the proprietary interest, represented principally by members of the Assembly, and their opponents, called Whigs. The plan of the Whigs to call a convention was finally successful ; and at a conference of the Committees of Observation for the different counties, held at Carpenter's Hall on the 18th of June, 1776, it was resolved that it was necessary to call a Provincial Convention to form a new government in the interest of the people only, and to the members was proposed a religious test.' The delegates from West- 1 Oath of Profession: " I do profess in God the Father and in Jesus Christ the Eternal Son, the true God, and in the Holy Spirit one God blessed evermore, and I do acknowledge the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration." Following is the form of the Oath of Allegiance: "I do swear (or affirm) that I renounce and refuse all allegiance to George the Third, King of Great Britain, his heirs and successors; and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a free and independent State, and that I will not at any time do or cause to be done ally matter or thing that will be injurious to the freedom and independence thereof, as declared by Congress; and also 'that I will discover and make known to some one justice of the peace of moreland to this Provincial Conference were Edward Cook and James Perry. This organization, under the presidency of Mr. McKean, passed to the consideration of the circular and resolves which had called them together. They then, on the next day, the 29th, unanimously resolved, "That the resolutions of May were approved by the Conference; that the present government of the Province was not competent to the exigencies of the affairs ; that it was necessary that a Convention of the Province should be called by that Conference for the purpose of forming a State government ; and that a committee should be appointed to ascertain the number of members of which the Convention should consist." Of this committee the city of Philadelphia was allowed two, and each county two also, with the exception alone of Westmoreland, which was allowed but one. Cook was appointed of this committee. The Conference proceeded to make such regulations. as regarded the qualifications of the voters for the members to the Convention, and when they began to consider the resolution which made it obligatory on an associator that he should have paid taxes, or should have been assessed before he could vote, it was seen that under that order of things Westmoreland would be totally disfranchised, for Westmoreland had been exempted for three years from the payment of provincial taxes. If it were possible for this state of affairs to be brought around again by. any reasonable effort on the part of the tax-payers of the county in this year of grace, there would, no doubt, be a determined effort to make it perpetual.. This disability, however, was removed by a resolution allowing it to be no disqualification to the electors of Westmoreland. For the purposes of this election the whole of the county was divided into two election districts. The first division was of all that part south of the. Youghiogheny, the inhabitants of which were to vote at Spark's Fort, on the river, and the other di. vision was of all the rest north of that line, who were to vote at Hannastown. 2 Each county for this convention had been allowed eight members. Ours was represented by Jams Barr, Edward Cook, James Smith, John Moore, John Carmichael, James Perry, James McClellan, and Christopher Lobingier. 3 On the 15th of July, 1776, said State all treasons or traitorous conspiracies which I now knows; hereafter shall know to be formed against this or any of the United State of America.” See Appendix C. 2 Judges, First Division.—George Wilson, John Nile, Robert McConnell. Judges, Second Division.—Barr, James John Moore, Clement McGeary. 3 Biographical Sketches of the Westmoreland Members of the Constitution Convention of 1776.—James Barr, of Westmoreland County, was born in Lancaster County in 1749. He removed to Westmoreland County prior to its organization, and located in Derry township. At the outset of the, Revolution he was energetic in assisting the formatron of the associated CIVIL AFFAIRS IN WESTMORELAND ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION - 79 the Convention, now for the State of Pennsylvania, met, for on the 4th the Congress had declared the colonies independent States. The members of this Convention took the prescribed oath, a copy of which is given in Note 1, p. 78, and besides discussing the plans and perfecting the measures necessary to the adoption of the constitution, assumed the supreme authority in the State.1 That the delegates went beyond the scope of business intrusted to them by the people, and for which they had been convened, was not at the time questioned, but it afterwards was, without avail, for the people themselves ratified and sanctioned what was done. The old Assembly, in interest with the proprietaries, made a feeble remonstrance against the actions of the Convention but it was too late, for the old was rung out with the bells swinging in the steeples on the Fourth of July. This body, therefore, among other matters, appointed a Committee of Safety to discharge the executive duties of the new government, approved of the Declaration of Independence, and appointed justices of the peace, who before assuming official functions were each required to take an oath of renunciation of the king's authority and of allegiance to the State, resolved that Pennsylvania was thenceforth a free and independent State, put forth a bill of rights, formed a constitution, and declared a plan or frame of government for the Commonwealth. The constitution went into effect on its adoption, Sept. 28, 1776. The Legislature had previously, about the middle of June, made provisions for the enrollment battalions both for general and frontier defense; was chosen a member of the Convention of July 15, 1776; served as justice of the peace subsequent thereto, and from 1787 to 1790 was a member of the General Assembly, in which he opposed the calling of the Constitutional Conventioa of 1790. He was, however, an associate judge of Westmoreland County under that constitution, and in 1802 signed a remonstrance against the impeachment of Judge Addison, then president judge of the diserict. On the organization of Armstrong Ccunty, Judge Barr was in the new county, and was appointed one of the commissioners for laying out the micn of Kittanuing, the County-seat. He was appointed one of the first associate judges of Armstrong County, an office which he filled until his death, which occurred May 11, 1824. Edward Cook, of Westmoreland County, was born in 1738, of English parentage, in the Cumberland Valley, on the Conococheague, then in Lancaster, now Franklin County, Pa. In 1772 he removed to the "Forks of Yough," between the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers, now Fayette County, and between that date and 1776 built a stone house, yet standing, where he lived and died. When he first settled in the western pare of the State he kept a store, farmed, had a still-house, and owned slaves. He was a member of the Committee of Conference which met at Carpenter's Hall, June 18, 1776, and of the Convention of July 15, 1776. In 1777 he was appointed by the General Assembly one of the commissioners from this State to meet those from the other States, which assembled at New Haven. Conn., Nov. 22, 1777, to regulate the prices of commodities. In 1751 he was in command of a battalion of rangers for frontier defense. He was sub-lieutenant of Westmoreland County, 1780 -81, and lieutenant Jau. 5, 1782, which latter office he held at the time of the erection of Fayette County in 1783. On Nov. 21, 1786, Col. Cook was appointed a justice, with jurisdiction including the county of Washington, and Aug. 7, 1791. associate judge of Fayette County. He was a man of influence, and during the Excise troubles in 1794 was chosen chairman of the Mingo Creek meeting, and was largely instrumental in allaying the excitement, aud thus virtually ending the so-called Whiskey Insurrection. Col. Cook died on the 28th of November, 1808. His wife Martha Crawford. Cumberland, now Franklin County, sister of Col. Josiah Crawford. She died in 1837, aged ninety-four years, in the old stone house into which they moved, as she always said, in "independence year." Col. Cook had but one child, James Crawford Cook, who was bora in 1772, and died in 1848. James Smith, of Westmoreland County, was born in Cumberland, now Franklin County, Pa., in the year 1737. At the age of eighteen (1755) he was taken captive by the Indians during their marauds on the frontiers subsequent to the defeat of Braddock, was adopted into one of their families, aud accompanied them in all their wanderings until his escape in 1759.. He returned to the Conococheague early in 1760, where be settled at his old home. He was leader of the fatuous " Black Boys" of 1763 and 1769; served as a lieutenant in Bouquet's expedition against the Ohio Indians in 1764, and in 1766 went on an exploring excursion into Southern Kentucky. After the peace of 1768 he removed to Westmorelaad County. In 1774, during Dunmore's war, he was appointed captain of a ranging company, aud in 1775 major in the associated battalion of the county. He was a member of the Convention of July 15, 1776, and chosen to the Assembly in 1776 and again in 1777. During the latter year he was in command of a scouting-party in the Jerseys, and in 1778 commissioned colonel in command on the frontiers, doing excellent service in frustrating the marauds of the Indians. At the close of the Revolution, Col. Smith removed to Kentucky, settling in Bourbon County. In 1788 he was elected a member of the Convention which assembled at Danville to confer about a separation from the State of Virginia, and front that year until 1799 he represented the county either ia Convention or Assembly. In 1810 he published two pamphlets against the Shakers,—" Shakerism Developed" and " Shakerism Detected,"—and in 1812, "A Treatise on the Mode and Manner of Indian war," with extracts from his journal of his captivity. He died in Washington County, Ky., in the summer of 1812. For sketch of life of John Moore, see notes to Chapter XI. John Carmichael, of Westmoreland County, was a native of Cumberland County, Pa., born about 1751. Previous to 1775 he bad settled in what is now Franklin township, Fayette County, on the waters of Redstone Creek, about eight miles from Col. Cook's, where be erected a mill and still-house. He was elected a member of the Convention of July 15:1776, and of the Assembly in 1777. He died in 1796, leaving a widow and two sons,—James and Thomas. James Perry, of Westmoreland County, located at an early period on Monongahela River, at the mouth of Turtle Creek, just above what is known as Frazer's cabin, where he took up a large tract of land. He was a member of the Provincial Conference held at Carpenter's Hall June 28, 1776, and of the Convention of July 15th following. Fn.'', March 21, 1777, to the close of the Revolution he served as oue of the sub-lieutenants of Westmoreland County. Of his subsequent history all inquiries have failed to elicit any information, save that he removed either to Kentucky or Missouri at a very early day. John McClelland, of Westmoreland County, was born in Lancaster County, Pa., in 1734. He emigrated to what is now Fayette County prior to 1776, and took up a tract of land in Franklin township. He was a member of the Convention of July 15, 1776, and of the General Assembly of 1778. He was in active service on the frontiers during the Revolution, and was captain in the First Battalion of 'Westmoreland militia at the close of the war. He figured with some prominence in the Whiskey Insurrection, during its closing scenes, as animism of the committee appointed by the meeting at Redstone to confer with the commissioners of the United States and State of Pennsylvania. He died on his farm in February, 1819. Gen. Alexander McClelland was his son. Christopher Lobengier, of Westmoreland County, the son of Christopher Lobengier, a native of Wittenburg, Germany, was born in Lancaster, now Dauphin County, Pa., in the year 1740. He removed in the spring of 1772 to Mount Pleasant township, Westmoreland County. He served on the Committee of Correspondence for the county, 1775-76; and was chosen a member of the Convention of Jul; 15, 1776 ; and under the constitution of 1790 was a member of the House of Representatives from 1791 to 1793. He died on the 4th of July, 1798. Mr. Lobengier married, in 1766, Eliza- beth, daughter of Rudolph Muller, by whom he had four sons and five daughters. She died at Stoystown, Somerset Co., Pa., Sept. 5, 1815, aged seventy-one years. John, the eldest son, was one of the associate judges of Westmoreland County, and served in the General Assembly. Col. Israel Painter and Gen. C. P. Markle, of Westmoreland, are descendants of Christopher Lobengier.—Articles in "Pennsylvania Magazine,' by Dr. Wm. H. Egle. 1 Minutes of Provincial Conference, &c., and Pennsylvania Archives, second serves, vol. iii., historical note. 80 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. of all persons fit for military duty. The test oath, which was a general one, was a measure considered necessary to restrain the insolence of the Tories, a name "applied in general to those who were loyally inclined to the old proprietaries or to the crown. By this enactment all white male inhabitants of the State above the age of eighteen years, except of the counties of Bedford and Westmoreland, should, before the first day of the ensuing July, 1777, and in the excepted counties before the first day of August, take and subscribe to, before some justice of the peace, the. prescribed form of oath. On all who neglected or refused to take the oath severe penalties were imposed by law. Nearly all who took a prominent part in the Revolution subscribed to this oath. These subscriptions are not at present accessible. We have inserted all the names we have yet found 1 in the Appendix (which see). The religious test was dispensed with at the adoption of the constitution of 1790. By the plan or frame of government adopted for the Commonwealth by the Convention of 1776,2 the supreme executive power was vested in a President and Council, and the Council was to consist of twelve men, distributed over the State, of which Westmoreland was allowed one, to be chosen by election. John Proctor, who had been appointed by the proprietary the first sheriff in 1773, was elected the first councilor, and as such continued from March 10, 1777, to Nov. 18, 1777 ; he was succeeded by Thomas Scott, who was settled in the region afterward incorporated into Washington, and whose name frequently appears in the history of that county, he being their first member of Congress under the Federal Constitution. Scott was councilor from the time when Proctor ceased to be one to Nov. 13, 1780, a period of three years, and the time limited for any one to remain in office continuously. 3 Under the new state the military affairs were carefully attended to and made more efficient. To facilitate the system, and to give even to civil affairs a martial aspect, several offices were created, the holders of which possessed extensive powers delegated to them. The chief of these was that of county lieutenant. This officer was the chief military officer in the county, and he had both civil and military duties. He distributed arms and clothing among the associators, the Council drew upon him for the amount of the assessments for the army, he could order the militia to any point in time of danger, he could hold courts-martial ; his authority, indeed, in these matters was bounded only by the Council itself, or was in abeyance whilst a regular officer in the State or Continental service was in command over his district. Archi- 1 For form of oath see Note 1, page 78; for list of subscribers see appendix to Chapter XVII., " A."   2 convention sat from July 15, 1776, to Sept. 28, 1776. 3 For list of councilors and other early officers, including officers of the court, etc., see Appendix " D." bald Lochry, one of the Scotch-Irish settlers, and a neighbor when at home of John Proctor, was the first county lieutenant, coming to office March 21, 1777. His time of office was most critical and trying to the fullest, and although he necessarily got into some altercations with Officers who wanted to divide their authority, yet lie showed great energy in watching and holding the frontiers during those perilous years from 1777 to 1781. That he was a responsible man, and that the officers of the government and the people had confidence in him, is apparent from this that he remained in office till his death. He not only directed many small expeditions into the country of the Indians towards the north, but himself headed many others, and in the outskirts beyond the settlements they guarded the cabins of the settles behind. He left his bones. with other of his comrade, at the Miami River in Indiana, where he, leading his Westmorelanders to join Clark, was surrounded by innumerable warriors and killed. Edward Cook was Lochry's successor, and he was in office Jan. 5, 1782; he held part of the time and a special commission, and did not remain in office long, for he was identified with Fayette and Washington, the latter by this time erected. Cook, however, enjoyed the favor of holding commissions in both, and ex officio a justice of the peace in all at the same time. Cook's successor was Col. Charles Camp bell, an active military man, and who was a representative man and a mouth-piece somewhat later. He was often heard from during the troublous times of 1791 and 1792; He was an early settler in Indiana County when it was of Armstrong township, Westmoreland. He lived at Black Lick. He in his day did well, serving his country and generation wi watchfulness. Some local information can be gathered from his correspondence, and if a person should see a few of his letters in print he could readily their fellows, for he spelled as an old Indian-fighter would spell, began every second word with a letter, and after telling the true state of the " fr tiers," signed, with the conventional urbanity of old time, " With The Greatest Hon'r. Your Most Old Hbl.. Svt. &c." At the same time the office of sub-lieutenant created, but the office being deemed not necessary soon after abolished. Pennsylvania was thus fully committed to theca of the colonies. With them all it now was to do die ; it was either the crown or the halter. He forth during all this eventful era all history of al character is more or less connected with the his of the confederated government. Nor can our rative during this time be given with any degree of cision or connection. Natural barriers separated East from the West. The Atlantic seaboard furni the armies then in actual service, although recruits from the west of the mountains were in the early of the war forwarded to protect the larger cities WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. - 81 the invaders, but thenceforward to a great extent the West was left to take care of itself. Early in the war the British had made a department, with headquarters at Detroit. They had still retained their ascendency over the Indians, an ascendency which had been secured by the most influential man ever employed to effect alliances with them, Sir William Johnson. This influence was yet kept up by the profuse use of money, the distribution of arms and necessaries to the tribes, by the standing reward for scalps, and the influence of renegade whites wino remained loyal to the kingly government, and who did not take part with the cause of the colonies. But even had the same influence been exercised by the Continental Congress it would not have had the same results. The American settler had been brought up from his childhood, or at least from early manhood, to regard the Indian as his greatest foe. Nor would an alliance With these have been acceptable to many, even had such an alliance been effected, such were the feelings of hatred indulged by most of the Western settlers, although it was not wise, nor politic, nor consistent with the pretensions and the motives of the general government in them to harbor such feelings. CHAPTER XVIII. WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION. First Battalion directed to be raised in Pennsylvania for the United Colonies—Capt. John Nelson's Company from Westmoreland—Ordered to Canada—Services of this Company— Second Pennsylvania Battalion under St. Clair—Capt. William Bntler's Company. and Capt. Stephen Bayard's Company—History of the Services of this Battalion in the Expedstiun into Canada, and in the Retreat to Ticonderoga—The Third Penasylvania Regiment formed nut of Saint Clair's Battalion—Memorial of the Officers of the Third and Ninth Pennsylvania Regiments—Sketch of Capt. Jsmes Chrystie, and of Thomas Butler—Pennsylvania. Rifle Regiment—Its History—Capt. Joseph Erwin's Company—Their Gallaat Services at Long Island—The Company Incorporated into other Commaads—State Regiment of Foot—Capt. Carnahan—Capt. Scott's Compsny—The Second Peuusylvania Regiment—Condition of the Western Frontiers at the Beginning of the Revolution—George Morgaa, Indian Agent at Fort Pitt—Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment raised by Authority of Congress—Directed to be raised in Westmoreland and Bedferd Counties—Seven Companies raised in Westmoreland —Its Officers—Mustered into Service for the Defense of the Frontiers —They receive Orders from the Board of War to join Washington—Letter from Col. Mackay to President of the Board—Letter from Lieut.•Col. George Wilson to Cad. James Wilson—They set out for New Jersey—Their Terrible March—Their Condition on their Arrival at Headquarters—Hon. T. Pickering's Mention of their Distressful Condition—Change in the Officers of the Regiment—Return of June, 1777—Different Retorns of 1777—Engagements of the Regiment—Their Losses and Casualties— Valley Forge—Regiment ordered to Pittsburgh in 1778—Col. Brodhead, with the Regiment, makes a detour up the West Branch—Remains of the Regiment stationed at Pittsburgh--Extracts from the Order-Book of the Regiment— Morgan's Rifle Regiment— Character and Object of the Organization—Its Officers—Their Services at Saratoga—Col. Richard Butler second in commaad—Capt. Van Swearingen—First Lieut. Basil Prather—Second Lieut. John Hardin—Anecdote of Van Swearingen—His Subsequent Career—Stony Poiut—Its Position and Importance—Washington determines to Capture it if possible—Confers with Gen. Wayne—Col. Richard Butler commands one of the Detachments who are detailed for this Service—Thu carry the Fort at the Point of the Bayonet— Arthur St. Clair's first Services in the Revolution—Biographical Sketches of Col. Mrens Mackay—Of Col. Stephen Bayard— Of Lieut.-Col. George Wilson—Of Col. Daniel Brodhead—The Fighting Butlers: Thomas, Sr., Richard, William, Thomas, Jr., Percival—Other Members of the Butler Family—Anedotes."' vs—Col. James Smith—Col. John Gibson. ON the 12th day .of October, 1775, the Continental Congress passed a resolution requesting the Assembly or Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania to raise one battalion for the services of the United Colonies, on the same terms as those which had been ordered to be raised in New Jersey, and to be officered in like manner. The captains were recommended by the Pennsylvania Assembly on the 25th of October, and commissioned by Congress on the 27th. Capt. John Nelson, of Westmoreland County, having in the mean time enlisted a company of independent riflemen, composed for the most part of Westmorelanders, had offered his services to Congress. Congress thereupon, by a resolution dated Jan. 30, 1776, directs that,— "Capt. Nelson's company of riflemen, note raised, cousisting of one captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, and seventy privates, be enlisted for the service in Canada, on the same terms as the other troops ordered for that service." It was ordered to New York, March 13, 1776. It was, by Gen. Arnold's orders, attached to Col. De Haas' battalion in Canada, and after De Haas' battalion left Ticonderoga, Nov. 17, 1776, it was attached .to the Fourth Battalion, Col. Wayne's, and on the 24th of March, 1777, was attached to Col. Francis Johnston's Fifth Pennsylvania. For the roll of this company see supplementary notes. 1 Their services in Canada will be recalled with that of the other Westmorelanders there under St. Clair. Some of these remained with the Fifth Regiment as it was organized on the Continental establishment, when they fought under the celebrated Richard Butler, then colonel of the regiment, and himself at that time a Westmorelander, but later, on the division of the county, a citizen of Fayette. Col. Butler was in command, under Wayne, in the campaign in the South, in the closing days of the war. They were engaged at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown. SECOND PENNSYLVANIA BATTALION. The Second Pennsylvania Battalion was raised upon the authority of a resolution of Congress, dated 9th of December, 1775, which resolved " that an order issue for raising four battalions more in the colony of Pennsylvania, on the same terms as the one already raised." This was speedily done, and the men were enlisted for one year. As this battalion was associated with the Fourth Battalion, Col. Wayne, and the Sixth, Col. William Irvine, while in active service, its history mingles with that of theirs. 1 See Appendix " E." 82 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. On the 2d of January, 1776, the Council of Safety, which had been requested by Congress as do so, recommended Cols. St. Clair and Wayne as field-officers, and on the next day they were elected and commissioned by Congress. The lieutenant-colonels and the majors were chosen on the 4th, and a resolution passed that one company of each battalion consist of expert riflemen. Arthur St. Clair had been busily engaged in organizing the raw levies of Pennsylvania prior to this time, and elsewhere we refer to his individual services more at length than here. But upon the organization of this contingent he was Ordered to take part in the expedition to Canada, upon the results of which so much was expected and eloquently predicted. Two companies from Westmoreland, composed of his friends, ;Acquaintances, neighbors, and compatriots, accompanied him. One of these was under William Butler, his Warm bosom friend, who shared with him the toils of the Revolutionary campaign, and who died second in command on the disastrous field on the 4th of November, 1791. The other company was commanded by Stephen Bayard, afterwards lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in the line, the regiment which was distinctively the Westmoreland regiment.1 Of the men themselves we shall have occasion to say more hereafter. At present we shall touch on the services of the battalion, and of the subsequent organizations into which the battalion was merged. On the 16th of February, 1776, the Secret Committee of Congress was directed to furnish Col. St. Clair's battalion with arms, and to write to him to use fie utmost diligence in getting his battalion ready, and to march the companies as fast as they were ready, one at a time, to Canada. On the 13th of March, Lieut.-Col. Allen of the battalion had arrived in New York, and embarked some of the companies for Albany. He here received an order from Gen. Stirling to direct the rest of the companies to proceed to New York, where quarters would be found for them. On the 6th of May, Lieut.-Col. Allen, with the Second, had passed Deschambault, in Canada, and was within three miles of Quebec, where he met Gen. Thomas with the army retreating from Quebec. The expedition into Canada was a failure. After one of the most daring and energetic marches through the wilderness and into the very heart of the civilized portion of that province, and after the capture of their city and citadel, the inhabitants proved recreant, failed to rise up, as had been anticipated, and declare their independence of the British crown, and instead of turning upon the British troops they turned upon the Americans, whom they treated as invaders. Under this state of affairs the Americans could not hold what they had captured. The army of the col-- 1 See Appendix "F" and "G." onies, then in Canada, had begun their retreat towards the River Sorel. On the 15th of May, 1776, Thomas, the commander of the expedition now after the death of the young Montgomery, arrived at Three Rivers ( Troia Rivieres). Here he had about eight hundred men. He left the command hereto Col. Maxwell, and continued on to the Sorel. The River Sorel flows from Lake Champlain, in New York, to the St. Lawrence, in Canada. From his position here he issued an order to Maxwell to abandon Three Rivers. This Maxwell did, and with the rear of his army reached the line of the Sorel on the 24th of May, 1776. Col. Thompson and Col. St. Clair crossed over from Chambly to Montreal, and left the latter place for the Sorel on the 16th. On the 24th, Gen. Thompson was in command there. The British were in pursuit with a largely superior force. On the 2d of June, Gen. Thompson sent Col, St. Clair from Sorel with over six hundred men to attack the camp of Col. McLean, who had advanced as• far as Three Rivers with eight hundred British reg. ulars and Canadians. Gen. Sullivan was at Chambly on the 3d (June), and reached Sorel on the 4th. Gen, Thomas, the commander-in-chief, having died on the 2d, Sullivan assumed command on the fourth day after his arrival. On the 6th, Gen. Sullivan ordered Gen. William Thompson to march, with Col. Irvine's and Col, Wayne's battalions, with the companies of Col. St.! Clair's battalion which were then 'remaining at Sorel, and with them to join St. Clair at Nicolette, where he was to take command of the whole party, and, unless he found the number of the enemy at Three Rivers to be such as would render an attack upon them has ardous, he should cross the river at the most conventTent place he could find and attack them. He advised not to attack if the prospect of success was not much in his favor, as a defeat of his party at the time might prove the total loss of that country. Something further will be said in another place of the brilliant and entirely successful attack on Three Rivers, in which St. Clair distinguished himself. The imminent danger, the toil, the incessant labo and the glory of that affair were partaken of and shared by those Westmorelanders who followed St, Clair and Butler ; and this night foray and attack has been regarded and treated by all the historic who have written of the expedition to Canada as on of the most brilliant episodes of it. The British army, however, were gradually pressin back the invaders. They, with an army much superior in numbers to the Americans, composed of regulars, Canadians, and Indians, were under the common of Burgoyne ; ours was now under Sullivan. When the great historical story of the Revolution shall have been written it will be seen that no campaign of the Seven Years' war was fuller of glory, of military heroism, of bravery, of instances of fortitude or of hardships encountered and surpassed, and of WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION - 83 obstacles overcome, than that expedition which, after having taken the capital of the British provinces in the north, walked backwards, their faces and their bayonets towards their enemies, through the winter snows, through the deep, dark wilderness, and through the marshes, of Southern Canada and Northern New York. The rear of the army, with baggage and stores, reached St. John's on the 18th of June (1776). They were embarked, and moved up the Sorel the same afternoont The head of Burgoyne's column entered St. Johns on the evening of the 18th, and Gen. Philips' advance-guard on the morning of the 19th. On the 19th, general orders at Isle Aux Noix directed the commands of De Haas, Wayne, St. Clair, and Irvine to encamp on the east side of the island. Isle Aux Noix proved very unhealthy. Many of the soldiers while there were down sick, and many died. On June 13th one woman from each company of the Pennsylvania battalions who had been left at Ticonderoga were drafted and immediately sent to the general hospital at Fort George to nurse the sick. On the 27th of June, at Isle La Motte, all the army took vessels for Crown Point, which they reached on the 1st of July (1776). Gen. Horatio Gates arrived here on the evening of the 5th, superseding Gen. Sullivan in command. On the 7th, at a council of war, it was determined to remove the army to Ticonderoga. The battalions of Cols. De Haas, St. Clair, and Wayne arrived there on the 10th. The army was brigaded by Gen. Gates on the 20th, and the four Pennsylvania battalions were made the Fourth Brigade, Col. Arthur St. Clair commanding. On August 24th, St. Clair's battalion numbered 429 rank and file, 161 sick, total officers and men 485. On the 6th of September (1776), Lieut.-Col. Hartley, who was in command at Crown Point, desired Gent Gates to send him either Gen. Wayne's battalion or the Second—St. Clair's—and he would defend it with them against any attack whatever from the enemy. But Gates gave him positive orders to retreat if the British reached that point. But the season was too far advanced for the British to make any further progress. After threatening Ticonderoga they retired into winter-quarters. On the 18th of November, Gen. Gates, putting Gent Wayne in command of Ticonderoga, proceeded with the larger part of his army to join Washington. The three Pennsylvania battalions whose time would expire on the 5th day of January, 1777, agreed to remain until they were relieved by other troops. On the 29th of November the Second, commanded now by Colt Wood, numbered four hundred and twenty-six officers and men. On the 4th of December, Col. Wayne writes to the Committee of Safety : “The wretched condition the battalions are now in for want of almost very necessary, except flour and bad beef, is shocking to hunt .psty, and beggars all description. We have neither beds or bedding for our sick to lay on or under other than their own clothing, no medicine or regimen suitable for them ; the dead aud dying lying mingled together in our hospital, or rather house of carnage, is no uncommon sight. They are of truly worthy of your notice, as well as of your most obedient, humble servant, Ant'y Wayne." On the 24th of January, 1777, the Second Battalion left Ticonderoga, with Gen. Wayne, for their homes. Many of the privates of the Second re enlisted in the Third Pennsylvania Regiment. While these companies were at Ticonderoga, the Declaration of Independence, which had been passed on the Fourth of July, was read to the men drawn up in line on the morning of the 17th. By them it was received with loud cheers. Lieut.-Col. Allen, of the Second Battalion, left the service on account of the Declaration. He, however, afterwards again entered it. THIRD PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. The Third Pennsylvania Regiment in the Continental line was formed on the basis of Col. St. Clair's Second Battalion, in which were the two original companies of Capt. Butler and Capt. Bayard. It was recruited in December, 1776, and January and February, 1777, and arranged in the Continental service March 12, 1777. The compilers of the New Series of Pennsylvania Archives state that no returns of this regiment have been found, and, with the exception of a few letters that incidentally relate to the regiment, nothing exists upon which to base an account at length. The health of Col. Joseph Wood, who was in command of the battalion, was impaired by wounds received in the Canada campaign, and this induced his resignation. After Capt. Butler accepted the position of lieutenant-colonel in Morgan's rifle regiment, the command of his company devolved on Capt. James Chrystie, who succeeded him. Col. Thomas Craig succeeded to the command of the regiment, retiring only in January, 1783. By the various arrangements in the Continental establishment, the different companies were from time to time transferred to other regiments, and the officers were given different commands. Most of Capt. Butler's men re-enlisted under Capt. James Christie into the Third Pennsylvania. We gather these facts from a " Memorial of the Third and Ninth Pennsylvania Regiments," 1 dated Lancaster, 3d February, 1778, and addressed to the president and members of the Executive Council, and their services may be traced up in the context. The paper set forth that they, the captains in their respective regiments, reported agreeably to instructions, and that they laid before that body the distressed situation of their corps for want of every article of clothing ; the men were barefooted, naked, and miserable beyond expression, several brave soldiers 1 - In Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 169. 84 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. having nothing else than a piece of old tent to shield them from the inclemency of the season, and not more than one blanket to six or perhaps eight men. Very few, indeed, were in anywise fit for duty, the clothing of both officers and men having been lost in the course of the campaign, particularly twice, in consequence of general orders for storing them at Concord and at Wilmington, and their blankets lost in the several actions they had had with the enemy. These regiments, with the Sixth and Twelfth Pennsylvania Regiments, were attached to a division composed chiefly of Jersey troops, under the command of general officers not belonging to the State, and these general officers were allowed to have a preference to soldiers from their own State. We have also noticed that Capt. Samuel Miller and Adjt. Crawford, from the Eighth Regiment, and Col. Brodhead were ordered on recruiting service from camp at Valley ,Forge, Feb. 10, 1778. The stations for the recruiting-officers in Westmoreland were at Capt. Francis Moor's, Capt. James Carnahan's, and Lieut. Joseph Brownlee's. The recruits were ordered twenty dollars bounty by Congress, and one hundred dollars by the State, and the county furnishing the recruits had to furnish the money to pay them. The most of these men who went out at the first call and survived either remained in the Continental service till the war was over, or, coming back here after they were discharged from the command of Col. Brodhead, took part in the defense of the frontier. This they did by enlisting in the militia for short campaigns, or by joining independent companies of rangers for the protection of the posts. On the 17th of January, 1731, the Third was re: organized under Col. Craig, and after recruiting at Easton, accompanied Gen. Wayne upon the Southern campaign. Of the officers of the regiment whose names we are familiar with as Westmorelanders are Capt. James Chrystie, Capt. Thomas Butler, Lieut. Daniel St. Clair, Capt. Samuel Brady, Lieut. Ebenezer Denny, besides Col. Richard Butler and Lieut.-Col. Stephen Bayard. Capt. James Chrystie (sometimes the name appears as " Christy") was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1750 ; came to Pennsylvania in 1755, and settled in Westmoreland before the Revolution, and there he died. On the discovery of Arnold's plot at West Point, he was detailed specially by Gen. Washington to visit all the posts. He served until the end of the war, and was said to be the oldest captain in service except one. He was the father of Lieut.-Col. James Chrystie, of the Fifteenth United States Infantry, who distinguished himself at Queenstown in the war of 1812. They were both dead in 1824. Capt. Thomas Butler, at the battle of Brandywine, received the thanks of Gen. Washington on the field for rallying a detachment of retreating troops. He was major at St. Clair's defeat, and had his leg broken by a ball, and it was with difficulty that his surviving brother, Capt. Edward Butler, got him off the field. In 1794 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel commandant to sub-legion, and in 1802, on reduction of the army, he was continued as colonel. He died Sept. 7, 1805, aged fifty-one. Daniel St. Clair, son of Arthur St. Clair, died in Mifflin County, Feb. 13, 1833. Of those others we shall recall 'them again. PENNSYLVANIA RIFLE REGIMENT. The Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment and the Pennsylvania Regiment of Musketry were embodied strictly for the defense of the Province of Pennsylvania by the House of Representatives, at the suggestion of the Committee of Safety. The House acted promptly in considering the matter, and on the 4th of March, 1776, appointed 8 committee to prepare an estimate of the expense of levying a body of one thousand five hundred men, victualing and paying them for one year. On the 5th of March, on the report of the committee, the House resolved to levy and to take min pay fifteen hundred men, officers included, and t the men be enlisted to serve until the first day January, 1778, subject to be discharged at any time upon the advance of a month's pay to each man. On the 6th of March they determined that o thousand of the levies should be riflemen, diva into two battalions of five hundred men each, the remainder to be a battalion of musketmen. The is rifle battalions were to have one colonel, each battalion to consist of six companies; to be officered of one lieutenant-colonel, one major, six captains, eightteen lieutenants, etc., and the battalion of mush men to consist of eight companies, officered by colonel, lieutenant-colonel, major, eight captain etc. Samuel Miles was commissioned colonel of the rifle companies, and Samuel Atlee colonel of the baualion. of musketmen. Nearly the whole of the rifle went was raised in about six weeks, and rend voused at Marcus Hook for service under Wadi' ton, who then had possession of New York and Island. To this rifle regiment belonged the company Capt. Joseph Erwin, which was raised in West land, and contained some of the best fighting b there. This company joined the regiment at M Hook. They were two years' men. Erwin was pointed, captain on the 9th of March, 1776, and commission, as were those of all the other o was dated on the 6th of April, 1776. 1 The company served in this regiment until it transferred to the Thirteenth Pennsylvania, for which it was transferred to the Second Pennsylvania and was finally discharged at Valley Forge, Jan. 1, 1 See Appendix "H." WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION - 85 1778, by reason of the expiration of its term of enlistment. On the 2d of July, 1776, the rifle regiment to which they belonged was ordered up to Philadelphia, and on the 4th one battalion, under Lieut.-Col. Brodhead, ordered to Bordentown, N. J., and on the 5th the whole regiment marched for Trenton, and from thence to Amboy, on the eastern shore of Jersey, under orders to join Gen. Mercer. This it accomplished on the 16th. Col. Atlee's battalion arrived on the beach at Amboy on the 21st. Col. Miles was ordered over to New York on the 10th of August, and Col. Atlee on the 11th. On the 12th they were brigaded with Grover's and Smallwood's regiment, under the command of Brigadier Lord Stirling. On the landing of the British army on Long Island, which they did in great force and in brilliant martial array, Col. Miles was ordered with his rifle regiment to watch their motions. He took up a position near the village of Flatbush, where the Highlanders then lay, but these moving away the next morning after to Lord Howe's camp their place was supplied with the Hessians. On the 27th of August, 1776, was fought the battle of Long Island, so disastrous to the Americans. There Howe, Clinton, Cornwallis, Von Heister, with the most perfectly equipped and appointed army then in the world, the largest British army that ever appeared in the field against the Americans, composed of regulars, marines, Hessians, and sailors, ten io one, sometimes twenty to one, circled round, attacked and drove in the ragged, ill-fed Continentals and militia under Washington, Stirling, Putnam, Sullivan, and Miles. At one time in this engagement Col. Miles' two battalions of riflemen (to which belonged the Westmorelanders under Erwin), Col. Willis' Connecticut, and a part of Col. Lutz's battalion of the Pennsylvania Flying Camp were opposed to the whole body of the British army, it being round them in a contracting circle, from which they fought their way back with loss but with untarnished glory. 1 The bravery of the men under Brodhead is spoken of with pride in Col. Miles' report of that engagement, and particularly when they succeeded in pushing their way across a mill-dam under a heavy fire, in which some were shot and others drowned, but which did not deter the rest from rushing on and driving the Hessians before them at the point of the bayonet. That whole battle, as it raged round the Pennsylvania militia at that point, is graphically told by Col. Miles in his report. He says,— "The main body of the enemy, under the immediate command of Gen. Howe, lay about two miles to my left, and Gen. Grant, with another Wily of British troops, lay about four milcs on my right. There were several small bodies of Americans dispersed to my right, but not a man 1 Journal of Colt Samuel Miles; Penn. Arch., 2d series, vol. i, p. 517, etct to my left, although the main body of the enemy lay to my left. This was our situation on the 25th of August. About one o'clock at night, Gen. ̊rant on the right and Gen. Howe on my left began their march, and by daylight Grant had got within a mile of our intrenchments, and Gen. Howe had got into the Jamaica road, about two miles from our lines. The Hessians kept their posstion until seven in the morning. As soon as they moved the firing began at our redoubt." He thus closes his report: "Finding that the enemy had possession of the ground between us and our lines, and that it was impossible to cut our way through as a body, I directed the men to make the best of their way as well as they could ; some few got in safe, but there were 159 taken prisoners. I was myself entirely cut off from our lines, and therefore endeavored to conceal myself with a few men who would not leave me. I hoped to remain until night, when I intended to try to .get to Hell Gate and cross this Sound; but about 3 o'clock in the afternoon was discovered by a party of Hessians and obliged to surrender. Thus ended the career of that day." 2 In the action of the 27th of August the rifle regiment and musketry battalion were so broken up that Gen. Washington ordered the three battalions to be considered as a regiment under the command of Lieut.-Col. Brodhead,—the lieutenant-colonel of the rifles,—until further orders. On Thursday, September 19th, the three battalions mutinied and appeared on the parade under arms. After this many of them deserted in parties with their arms. " Their complaints were want of pay, want of clothes, the want of blankets, and the not receiving the particular species of rations; . . . a very great cause of desertion was owing to the loss of their field-officers." But of these deserters, many of whom subsequently returned and did good service, few if any were Westmorelanders. 3  By a return dated Sept. 27, 1776, the three battalions were then in Gen. brigade and stationed at Mount Washington. On the 5th of October the Council of Safety determined that the three battalions should be arranged as follows : two were to be on the Continental establish= ment, and to serve during the war, the other to be retained in the service of the •State until the 1st of January, 1778, unless sooner discharged. This last was to consist of ten companies of one hundred men each, officers included. This they intended ordering home as soon as the condition of the Continental army would admit of it, as they were by arrangement to keep twelve complete battalions in the Continental 2 Idem. FROM COL. ATLEE'S JOURNAL, Penn. Archives, W. S., vol. I., p. 515 : "I fully expected, as did my officers, that the strength of the British army was advancing in this quarter with intention .to have taken this Rout to our Lines, but how greatly were we deceived when intelligence was received that the Centre, composed of the Hessians aud the Right wing, were rapidly advancing by our Rear, and that we were nearly surrounded. "This we were soon convinced of by an exceeding heavy Fire about a mile in our Rear, no Troupe being in that Quarter to oppose the march of this Grand Body of the British Army but Col. Miles' 2 Battalions of Rifle men, Col. Willis' Regtt of Connecticut, and a part of Lutz's Battalion of Penna. Flying Camp." See also Col. Miles' Journal, Penn. Arch., N.S., pp. 1-522. Many marked in some of the old lists as deserters were long after drawing pensions.—See Penn. Arch., New Series, ill. p. 197, et seq. 86 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. service. This regiment was thereafter known as "The Pennsylvania State Regiment of Foot." On the 25th of October, Capt. Erwin's company, which remained in the State establishment, was consolidated under an arrangement then made with other companies, and some of the officers of that company were promoted and transferred to other regiments. Those promoted mostly went into the Continental establishment. But the remains of these battalions thus consolidated followed the fortunes of the Continental army. They served in nearly all the battles of the campaign of 1777. STATE REGIMENT OF FOOT. In April, 1777, the Pennsylvania State Regiment of Foot, founded upon the remains of Miles' and Atlee's battalions as a nucleus, was supplied with field- and staff-officers. The remains of Capt. Erwin's company, under James Carnahan, who had been promoted captain from first lieutenant, was connected with this regiment until the campaign of 1777 was over and the army entered Valley Forge. Erwin had been promoted to a captaincy in the Ninth Pennsylvania in the regular line. We give the roll of Capt. Carnahan's company as it was mustered at Red Bank, May 9, 1777.1 Of this regiment John Bull was appointed colonel, Lewis Farmer lieutenant-colonel, and John Murray first major, on May 2, 1777. On the 2d of June, 1777, the regiment was stationed at Fort Mercer. On the 6th the Supreme Executive Council presented a memorial to the Assembly stating that- " As Congress had allotted twelve regiments to be raised in Pennsylvania, and has called for a return of the regiments, it was their opinion that it would be imprudent to put into the Continental service and pay the battalion now called 'The State Battalion,' which has been raised chiefly out of the remains of the battalions lately under the command of Col. Proctor, and the company under the command of Capt. Pugh, raised for guarding the Powder Mill." In compliance with this memorial the Assembly, on the 10th of June, 1777, transferred this regiment, with the artillery company and regiment and company mentioned, to the Continental Congress. When Col. Bull was appointed adjutant-general of the State, June 17, 1777, Col. Stewart succeeded him in command of the regiment. Capt. Carnahan's company was the tenth in a return of the regiment on the 20th of June. Col. Walter Stewart took command on the 6th of July, 1777, and commanded the regiment at Brandywine and at Germantown, where its loss was 16 killed and 22 wounded. By resolution of Congress, Nov. 12, 1777, Col. Stewart's regiment was to be annexed to the Pennsylvania line and form the Thirteenth Regiment, The Thirteenth in the Continental line was under Col. Stewart from Nov. 12, 1777, to July 1, 1778 ; but 1 See Appendix " I." it was known as early as July 6, 1777, as the Thirteenth Pennsylvania Regiment. Although the regiment was incorporated into the Second Pennsylvania on the 3d of April, 1778, the arrangement did not go into effect until July 1, 1778. Capt. James Carnahan was then transferred to the Eighth Pennsylvania. 2 As there were some Westmorelanders in Capt. Scott's company in this regiment, we give the company roll. 3 THE SECOND PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. The Second Pennsylvania Regiment was in the Continental service from October, 1776, to Nov. 3, 1783. The names of those Westmorelanders who were of this regiment appear on its returns during the latter part of the war, they being transferred on enlisting for the war to that regiment. Most of the Westmorelanders who fought and fell as privates in the latter and closing campaigns of the war were with this regiment, and the list, imperfect as it is, contains many names familiar to the last generation, who passed their last days here. They were under Wayne and Greene in the South, and took part in the engagements in North and South Carolina, at Guilford Court-House, at' Ninety-Six, and at Yorktown. There are no complete lists of this regiment ; those which were in existence were destroyed by the fire at the city of Washington, and by the burning of the public buildings, when the city was captured by the British in 1814. CONGRESS AND THE WESTERN INDIANS. When the Revolution commenced the most apparent danger menacing our people was from the Indians, although a perpetual menace was maintained by the intrigues of the. British in Canada, they waiting for the most favorable opportunity to invade that part of the colony west of Laurel Hill. It was the daring ambition of Connolly to wrest from the colonies the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. In an effort to do so the objective point must be Pittsburg When it was seen that the inhabitants of these p were not disloyally inclined, and that the plan itself was impracticable, the British resorted to control the Indians to their advantage, at the same time calling to mind the deep-seated enmity between them an, the border settlers of Virginia. The most warful tribes at this time occupied the river borders of Oh and the hunting-grounds and fishing-places of Northwestern Territory, having been driven thither long wars, by specious treaties, and by their natural instincts. Congress early perceived the necessity of securing the alliance of the tribes, or at least of effecti their neutrality. In April, 1776, Col. George Mor- 2 Capt. James Carnahan was drowned in the Allegheny River, 1786 he was father of the late Dr. Carnahan, president of Princeton 3 See Appendix " K." WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION - 87 gan was appointed Indian agent for the Middle Department of the United States, with headquarters bed at Pittsburgh. Trouble was apprehended, and the fall of 1776 a committee appointed by Congress, tad stopping there for that purpose, came to the conclusion that an Indian war with the colonists was inevitable, tracing the immediate causes of it to the unbounded influence of the British Governor Hamilton Per the Shawanese and Delawares. This committee recommended that all the militia that could be spared pinto garrison at Fort Pitt, and that the line of forts bong before erected by the French, and after them bold by the English, be manned and armed. EIGHTH PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. The Eighth Pennsylvania was thereupon raised under authority of a resolution of Congress, dated July 15,1776, for the defense of the western frontier, to garrison the ports of Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, and Kittanning. It was to consist of seven companies from 'Westmoreland and one from Bedford. On July 20, 1776, the Convention of Pennsylvania, then sitting, having recommended for field-officers Col. Æneas Mackay (written McCoy), Lieut.-Col. George Wilson, and Maj. Richard Butler, they were elected by Congress. Congress having resolved that the committees of the counties in which the companies were to be raised should name the company officers, and they lying named them, Congress, Sept. 14, 1776, accepted them, and ordered commissions. On the 23d of September, Congress elected David McClure chaplain, and Ephraim Douglas quartermaster. Nov. 23, 1776, Congress directed the Board of War to order the regiment to march with all possible expedition, by the nearest route, to Brunswick, N. J., or to join Gen. Washington wherever he might be. The regiment on being raised was mustered in at Pittsburgh, and remained on duty along the frontier of Pennsylvania during that summer and the early part of the fall. But when the American army under Washington, greatly diminished in numbers, prepared to face the large levies landed at New York from England, there was a wild cry to forward all troops that could be spared to the front. When the orders from the Board of War were received by Col. Mackay, the larger portion of the regiment was stationed at Kittanning. Under date "Kittanning, the 5th December, 1776," Col. Mackay writes to the President of the Board of War: “SIR, - I last night received your order from the Honorable the bard War in consequence of which 1 have this day issued the necessary orders, and shall march with all possible dsspatch to the place directed. ... I have ordered a general rendezvons on the 15th instant, at a porper place, and from thence shall proceed as ordered. As I would not done that the battalion should labor under every disadvantage when at Brunswick, being now in need of everything, I shall be obliged to sake Philadelphia my route in order to be supplied." In the day-book of the company, which subsequently fell into the hands of Judge Veech, under date of Dec. 5, 1776, is this entry : "This day received intelligence for the battalion to march to Amboy." The crotchety Scotch-Irishman, George Wilson, lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, of the same date, writes the following to Col. James Wilson. 1 We preserve all the characteristics of the letter: "KETANIAN, Decr. 5th, 1776. "DR. COLONALL : Last Evening we Recd Marching orders, Which I must say in not Disagreeable to me under ye Sircumstances of ye times, for when I entered into ye Service I Jugded that if a necessity appeared to call us Below, it would be Don, therefore it Dont come on me by; Surprise; But as Both ye officers and men understood they Were Raised for the Defence of ye Western frontiers, and their famellys and substance to be left in so Defenceless a situation in their abstence, seems to Give, Sensable trouble, altho I Hope We Will Get over it, By leaving sum of ower trading Officers Behind who Pirtend to Have more Witt than seven men that can Render a Reason. We are ill Provided for a March at this season, But there is nothiug hard under sum Sircumstances. We Hope Provision Will be made for us Below, Blankets, Campe Kitties, tents, arms, Regementals, etc., that we may not Cut a Dispisable figure, But may be Enabled to answer ye expectation of ower Countre. " I Have Warmley Recomended to ye officers to lay aside all Personal! Resentments at this time, for that it Would be construed By ye Worald that they made use of that Sircumstance to Elide themselves under from ye cause it ye countrie, and I hope it Will have a Good Effect at this time. We have ishued ye Neceserey orders, and appointed ye owt Parties to Randezvous at Hanows Town, ye 15th instant, and to March Emedstly from there. We have Recomended it to ye Militia to Station One Hundred Men at this poet untill further orders. "I Hope to have ye Plesure of Seeing ye Soon, as we mean to take Philadelphia in ower Root. In ye mean time, I am, With Esteem, your Harty Wellwisher and Hble Sert. G. Wilson." Up until the 5th of December, 1779, the regiment is styled in the receipts " the Battalion commanded by Col. Eneas Mackay." In those of Dec. 5, 1776, it is first styled " The Eighth Battalion of Penna. troops in the Continental service." The regiment marched from Kittanning on the 6th of January, 1777, and entered upon that wonderful march across the mountains of Pennsylvania, over the Delaware, into New Jersey in the depth of the winter. From this they suffered more terribly than from any battle. Some died on their march. When they came to Trenton Col. Mackay died, and at Quibbletown, N. J., their lieutenant-colonel, Wilson, died. Here the men were down with fevers and putrid sore throat, contracted from the exposure of their terrible march.2 In the " Life of Timothy Pickering," vol. i. p. 122,. is the following reference to the Eighth Pennsylvania : "MARCH 1, 1777, SATURDAY. "Dr. Putnam brought me a billet, of which the following Is a copy : "'DEAR SIR,—Our Battalion is so unfortunate as not to have a Doctor, and, in my opinion, dying for want of medicine. I beg you will come down tomorrow morning and visit the sick of my company, for that favor you shall have sufficient satisfaction from your humble servant, James Pigott, Capt. of 8 Bett. of Pa , Quibletown, feb. 28, 1777. 2 " I desired the Dr by all means to visit them. They were raised about the Ohio, and had travelled near five hundred miles, as one of the soldiers who came for the Dr. informed me, for 150 miles over mountains, never entering a house, but building Area and encamping in the Snow. Considerable numbers unused to such hardships have since died. The Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel among the dead. The Dr. informed are he found them quartered in cold shattered houses," etc. 1 Archives, Second Series, x. pt 641. 2 See sketch of Col. Anew, Mackay, infra. 88 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Col. Mackay and Lieut.-Col. Wilson having died, under the arrangement of March 12, 1777, Daniel Brodhead became colonel, Richard Butler lieutenant-colonel, and Stephen Bayard major.1 When Morgan's rifle command was organized, Lieut.-Col. Butler was made lieutenant-colonel of it, and Maj. James Ross, of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, became lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth in place of Butler. According to a return signed by the latter June 9, 1777, the number of men enlisted between the 9th of August and the 16th of December, 1776, was six hundred and thirty ; enlisted since the 16th of December, 1776, thirty-four ; making a total of six hundred and eighty-four. The strength of the respective companies then were: