to prevent which, he advised them not to be found in the route of their march. The militia, however, had been highly incensed against Indians indiscriminately, on account of the continued and harassing incursions and murders committed upon the frontier settlements east of the Ohio. They had, moreover, secretly resolved to destroy the Moravian villages with those of the hostile bands, and with difficulty were prevented from accomplishing their object only by the influence of General Broadhead and Colonel Shepherd.* Although they receded from their purpose, their fury was not appeased; it was only suppressed for the time. The army made a forced march to the hostile towns on the Coshocton, a few miles above, and succeeded in surprising one village on the east side of the river, and capturing every soul found in it; but, owing to a sudden flood in the river, from a recent heavy rain, the Indians of another village, on the west bank, escaped. Ten or twelve prisoners were picked up from some other towns in the vicinity. The prisoners, among whom were sixteen warriors, were placed under guard until night, when a council of war was held to determine their fate. The decision of the council doomed the whole sixteen warriors to death. By the order of the commander, they were bound, and marched a short distance below the town, where they were immediately dispatched by the bayonet, the tomahawk, and the spear;† after which they were all scalped according to the Indian custom. Such are the horrors of savage warfare, although waged by a civilized people. On the following morning a fine-looking chief presented himself on the bank of the river as a messenger of peace, and, after having been introduced into camp, was treacherously murdered by a man named Wetzel while conversing with the commander. Wetzel approached with a tomahawk concealed under his hunting-shirt, which he suddenly drew, and cleft open the head of the chief with a single blow, so that he instantly expired. At noon the army took up the line of its retrograde march. The Indian prisoners, about twenty in number, were committed to the custody of the militia, whose thirst for blood had not been satiated. After proceeding half a mile, the men began to * Doddridge, p. 291, 292. + Idem, p. 292. kill the prisoners, and in a short time they had dispatched all of them except a few women and children, who were spared to be subsequently exchanged for an equal number of white prisoners held by the Indians.* Such is the insatiable revenge which exists between the two races of men, in whom the utter extermination of each other is the only sufficient revenge. In all the invasions made into the Indian country for the last three years, the savage chiefs omitted no opportunity of deploring the existing state of feelings between the white and the red men, and professing their earnest desire of peace; yet they could not accede to a peace which did not protect their country from the occupation of their enemies.t The people of Kentucky, smarting under the defeat of Colonel Bowman last summer, and the more recent invasion of their country by the savages under Captain Bird, determined to invade the Shawanese towns on the Great Miami with a force adequate to the object in view. For this purpose, a regiment of mounted volunteers had assembled at the falls; and in the month of August they placed themselves under the command of Colonel George Rogers Clark, ready to take up the line of march for the Miami towns.‡ The regiment proceeded up the Ohio, on the Kentucky shore, until they reached the mouth of Licking River. Here they crossed over to the present site of Cincinnati, where they erected a block house for the protection of some military stores and a few wounded men of Captain M'Gary's company, who had been imprudently and rashly led by their commander into an Indian ambuscade on the north side of the river. This block house was the first building ever erected by white men on the site of Cincinnati. This being completed and provided with a suitable guard, the army proceeded northwardly toward the head waters of the Great Miami. With the celerity so characteristic of all Colonel Clark's military movements, they reached the object of their destination unperceived. The town was taken by surprise, and the troops rushed to the assault. After a fierce conflict, the brave warriors who defended the town were compelled to fly, leaving seventeen of their number dead on the field. The town was consumed with fire, and their fields of growing corn were utterly destroyed. * Doddridge, p. 293. American Pioneer, vol. ii., p. 377, 378. + Idem, p. 245. In this engagement Colonel Clark's regiment lost seventeen men killed, besides several severely wounded, a certain evidence of the resolute resistance of the savages.* Captain Hugh M'Gary, who, by his rashness, had exposed his men, foolishly crossing the river and marching upon the Indian shore, was the man who, two years afterward, brought on the disastrous defeat at the Blue Licks. He was courageous to a fault, but rash in the extreme. After the destruction of the principal town and its fields, the expedition ravaged several other towns upon other head waters of the Miami, and spread consternation wherever they appeared. A British trading-post, on a branch of Mad River, was likewise taken and unceremoniously destroyed. The regiment returned to the falls, having fully accomplished the object of the expedition, and having, for the present, put an effectual check to the Indian incursions from this quarter. This year the militia of Kentucky were organized into a brigade, under Brigadier-general Clark. The brigade officers were Colonels Benjamin Logan and John Todd; Lieutenantcolonels John Floyd, William Pope, Stephen Trigg, and Daniel Boone.† General Clark's command extended to the banks of the Mississippi. At the same time, emigrants from Virginia and North Carolina, by hundreds, were advancing by way of the "wilderness road" into Kentucky, through Cumberland Gap, as well as by the northwestern routes to the Ohio River. The Commonwealth of Virginia never receded from her western limits, and the county of Illinois was still a military dependence of Virginia, under the command of a civil commandant, appointed by the executive of the state. At the same time, Virginia was anxious to extend her authority to the Mississippi, south of the Ohio River. General Clark was accordingly instructed to take military possession of the extreme western limit of Kentucky. Obediently to this order, he descended the Ohio with a detachment of troops, and took possession of a point of high land on the east bank of the Mississippi, five miles below the mouth of the Ohio, upon which he erected "Fort Jefferson." This post was strongly fortified, and well supplied with light artillery. After its completion, * Marshall, vol. i., p. 110. + Butler's Kentucky, p. 114-119. See Flint's History and Geography, vol. ii., p. 461, first edition. Colonel Clark placed it under the command of Captain George, with a garrison of one hundred men. This occupancy on the Lower Mississippi was discontinued the following year. This arrangement completed, General Clark, with two companions, Josiah Harland and Harmon Connolly, all dressed and painted in Indian style, traversed on foot the wilderness eastward nearly three hundred miles to Harrodsburg. Armed with rifle, tomahawk, and scalping-knife, sustained by jerked beef and parched corn, he plodded the tedious route through desolate forests, swamps, and swollen rivers, crossing the Tennessee on a frail raft, evading the hunting parties of the sava ges, and finally reaching his destination in safety.* But Fort Jefferson was within the territory claimed by the Chickasâ Indians; the fort had been erected without their consent, and their relinquishment had never been obtained to any portion of the western territory. The Chickasâs immediately remonstrated against the aggression upon their domains. But the commandant had no authority to negotiate with them on the subject, although, as it subsequently appeared, the Governor of Virginia had directed the purchase of a site for the fort from the Indians. Their remonstrances being disregarded, under the promptings of Colbert, a Scotch half-breed, they prepared to repel the invaders by force. During the past year, difficulties had arisen between the States of Virginia and North Carolina relative to their respective limits, and the rights of the inhabitants as to property and jurisdiction in the western settlements. The settlements south of Kentucky River had been made under a doubt whether they would fall under the jurisdiction of Virginia or North Carolina. So rapidly had they advanced to the West, and so much had the state government been engrossed with the protection of the eastern frontier from British invasion, and the western from savage warfare, that the lines of her northern and southern limits had been alike neglected, and had never been properly surveyed and designated. The line which divided Virginia and North Carolina was the parallel of 36° 30′ north latitude, and this had never been ascertained. To ascertain the latitude, and to designate the proper boundary line between the two states, each state ap pointed one commissioner: Colonel Richard Henderson on the part of North Carolina, and Dr. Walker on that of Virginia. * Butler, p. 115, 116. These gentlemen disagreed in their respective lines, and the question of boundary was not conclusively settled for several years afterward. Colonel Henderson abandoned his survey before it was completed, while Dr. Walker completed his line westward to the Tennessee River, about sixty miles above its mouth. Descending the Tennessee and Ohio to the Mississippi, he there ascertained that the parallel of 36° 30′ would intersect the Mississippi, and not the Ohio.* This line is the basis of the present southern limit of Kentucky. CHAPTER IV. INDIAN WARS ON THE OHIO.- EXTENSION OF THE AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS EAST AND SOUTH OF THE OHIO.-A.D. 1781 TO 1784. Argument. Severe Winter of 1780-81.-Scarcity in Kentucky.-Kentucky divided into three Counties.-Indian Hostilities on Bear-grass Creek.-Attack on Boone's and M'Afee's Stations. - Indians contemplate utter Destruction of Kentucky Settlements. Chickasâs attack Fort Jefferson in 1780.-Counties of Kentucky organized. -General Clark's gun-boat Defense on the Ohio River.-Abundant Crops of 1781. -Indian Hostilities renewed in the Spring of 1782.-Estill's Defeat.-Last Survivor of his Party.-Indian Hostilities continued.-Laherty's Defeat.-Indian Invasion, under Simon Girty, on Bryant's Station.-Disastrous Battle of Blue Licks.-Colonel Logan buries the Dead. Upper Ohio.-Settlements of West Augusta harassed.Wheeling Campaign against the Moravian Towns.-Horrible Massacre of peaceable Indians. Former Position of the Moravian Towns.-Previous Admonitions neglected. -Disastrous Campaign against Moravians on Sandusky.-Colonel Crawford and Dr. Knight captured. Execution and horrid Torture of Colonel Crawford. - British Agency the Source of Indian Hostilities.-Attack on Wheeling Fort, and on Rice's Fort. Lower Ohio.-General Clark invades the Indian Country in 1782.-Effects of this Invasion.-Domestic Prosperity of Kentucky.-Settlements extend North of Licking.-Flood of Emigration sets into Kentucky.-The "District of Kentucky" or ganized.-Peace with Great Britain announced.-Extent of the Kentucky Settlements in 1783.-Population and Moral Condition of the Settlements.-Settlements extend North of Licking River in 1784-85.-Settlements in Western Virginia. [A.D. 1781.] THE winter of 1780-81 was unusually protracted and severe; Indian depredations and murders for a time were suspended, and the people enjoyed a temporary respit from harassing alarms; the crops of the previous year had been greatly injured, and, in many cases, entirely destroyed by the Indians; the domestic stock of cattle and hogs had been killed; the supplies of salt, and other indispensable requisites * Marshall, vol. i., p. 113. |
