_British Allies._
Death of Squire Boone.--Indian Outrages.--Gerty and McGee.--Battle of Blue
Lick.--Death of Isaac Boone.--Colonel Boone's Narrow Escape.--Letter of
Daniel Boone.--Determination of General Clarke.--Discouragement of the
Savages.--Amusing Anecdote of Daniel Boone.
It was in the autumn of the year 1780 that Daniel Boone, with his
family, returned to Boonesborough. A year before, the Legislature of
Virginia had recognized essentially what is now Kentucky as one of the
counties of Virginia, and had established the town of Boonesborough as
its capital. By this act Daniel Boone was named one of the trustees or
selectmen. Town lots were ordered to be surveyed, and a very liberal
grant of land was conferred upon every one who would erect a house at
least sixteen feet square, with either brick, stone, or dirt chimney.
For some reason Colonel Boone declined this office. It is probable that
he was disgusted by his own experience in the civil courts.
There was little danger now of an attack upon Boonesborough by the
Indians. There were so many settlements around it that no foe could
approach without due warning and without encountering serious
opposition. On the sixth of October Daniel Boone, with his brother
Squire, left the fort alone for what would seem to be an exceedingly
imprudent excursion, so defenceless, to the Blue Licks. They reached the
Licks in safety. While there they were discovered by a party of Indians,
and were fired upon from ambush. Squire Boone was instantly killed and
scalped. Daniel, heart-stricken by the loss of his beloved brother, fled
like a deer, pursued by the whole band, filling the forest with their
yells like a pack of hounds. The Indians had a very powerful dog with
them, who, with unerring scent, followed closely in the trail of the
fugitive. For three miles this unequal chase continued. The dog,
occasionally embarrassed in his pursuit, would be delayed for a time in
regaining the trail. The speed of Boone was such that the foremost of
the savages was left far behind. He then, as the dog came bounding on,
stopped, took deliberate aim, and shot the brute.
Boone was still far from the fort, but he reached it in safety, leaving
upon the Indians the impression that he bore a charmed life. He was very
deeply afflicted by the death of his brother. Squire was the youngest of
the sons, and the tie which bound the brothers together was unusually
tender and confidential. They had shared in many perilous adventures,
and for months had dwelt entirely alone in the wilderness, far away
from any other society.
The winter of 1780 was one of the saddest in the annals of our country.
The colonial army, everywhere defeated, was in the most deplorable state
of destitution and suffering. Our frontiers were most cruelly ravaged by
a barbarian foe. To add to all this, the winter was severely cold,
beyond any precedent. The crops had been so destroyed by the enemy that
many of the pioneers were compelled to live almost entirely upon the
flesh of the buffalo.
Virginia, in extending her jurisdiction over her western lands of
Kentucky, now, for the sake of a more perfect military organization,
divided the extensive region into three counties--Fayette, Lincoln, and
Jefferson. General Clarke was made commander-in-chief of the Kentucky
militia. Daniel Boone was commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel of Lincoln
County. The emigration into the State at this time may be inferred from
the fact that the Court of Commissioners to examine land titles, at the
close of its session of seven months had granted three thousand claims.
Its meetings had been held mainly at Boonesborough, and its labors
terminated in April, 1780. During the spring three hundred barges,
loaded with emigrants, were floated down the Ohio to the Falls, at what
is now Louisville.
As we have stated, the winter had been one of the most remarkable on
record. From the middle of November to the middle of February, the
ground was covered with snow and ice, without a thaw. The severity of
the cold was terrible. Nearly all unprotected animals perished. Even
bears, buffalo, wolves, and wild turkeys were found frozen in the woods.
The starving wild animals often came near the settlement for food. For
seventy-five years the winter of 1780 was an era to which the old men
referred.
Though the Indians organized no formidable raids, they were very
annoying. No one could safely wander any distance from the forts. In
March, 1781, several bands entered Jefferson County, and by lying in
ambush killed four of the settlers. Captain Whittaker, with fifteen men,
went in pursuit of them. He followed their trail to the banks of the
Ohio. Supposing they had crossed, he and his party embarked in canoes,
boldly to continue the pursuit into the Indian country. They had
scarcely pushed a rod from the shore when hideous yells rose from the
Indians in ambush, and a deadly fire was opened upon the canoes. Nine of
the pioneers were instantly killed or wounded. The savages, having
accomplished this feat, fled into the wilderness, where the party, thus
weakened in numbers, could not pursue them.
A small party of settlers had reared their log-huts near the present
site of Shelbyville. Squire Boone had been one of the prominent actors
in the establishment of this little colony. Alarmed by the menaces of
the savages, these few settlers decided to remove to a more secure
station on Bear's Creek. On their way they were startled by the
war-whoop of they knew not how many Indians concealed in ambush, and a
storm of bullets fell upon them, killing and wounding many of their
number. The miscreants, scarcely waiting for the return fire, fled with
yells which resounded through the forest, leaving their victims to the
sad task of burying the dead and nursing the wounded. Colonel Floyd
collected twenty-five men to pursue them. The wary Indians, nearly two
hundred in number, drew them into an ambush and opened upon the party a
deadly fire which almost instantly killed half their number. The
remainder with great difficulty escaped, leaving their dead to be
mutilated by the scalping knife of the savage.
Almost every day brought tidings of similar disasters. The Indians,
emboldened by these successes, seemed to rouse themselves to a new
determination to exterminate the whites. The conduct of the British
Government, in calling such wretches to their alliance in their war with
the colonies, created the greatest exasperation. Thomas Jefferson gave
expression to the public sentiment in the Declaration of Independence,
in which he says, in arraignment of King George the Third:
"He has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the
merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."
There were two wretched men, official agents of the British Government,
who were more savage than the savages themselves. One of them, a
vagabond named Simon Gerty, had joined the Indians by adoption. He had
not only acquired their habits, but had become their leader in the most
awful scenes of ferocity. He was a tory, and as such was the bitterest
foe of the colonists, who were struggling for independence. The other,
Colonel McGee, with a little more respectability of character, was
equally fiendlike in exciting the Indians to the most revolting
barbarities. Thus incited and sustained by British authority, the
Indians kept all the settlers in Kentucky in constant alarm.
Instigated by the authorities at Detroit, the warriors of five tribes
assembled at Old Chilicothe to organize the most formidable expedition
which had as yet invaded Kentucky. These tribes were the Shawanese on
the Little Miami, the Cherokees on the Tennessee, the Wyandotts on the
Sandusky, the Tawas on the Maumee, and the Delawares on the Muskingum.
Their choicest warriors, five hundred in number, rendezvoused at Old
Chilicothe. This Indian village was built in the form of a square
enclosing a large area. Some of their houses were of logs, some of bark,
some of reeds filled in with clay. Boone says that the Indians
concentrated their utmost force and vengeance upon this expedition,
hoping to destroy the settlements and to depopulate the country at a
single blow.
Not far from Boonesborough, in the same valley of the Kentucky, there
was a small settlement called Bryant's Station. William Bryant, the
founder, had married a sister of Colonel Boone. On the fifteenth of
August, a war party of five hundred Indians and Canadians, under the
leadership of Simon Gerty, appeared before this little cluster of
log-huts, each of which was of course bullet-proof. The settlers fought
heroically. Gerty was wounded, and thirty of his band were killed, while
the garrison lost but four. The assailing party, thus disappointed in
their expectation of carrying the place by storm, and fearing the
arrival of reinforcements from other settlements, hastily retired.
Colonel Boone, hearing of the attack, hastened to the rescue, joining
troops from several of the adjacent forts. The party consisted of one
hundred and eighty men, under the leadership of Colonel Todd, one of
"nature's noblemen." Colonel Boone seems to have been second in command.
Two of his sons, Israel and Samuel, accompanied their father upon this
expedition.
The Indians, led by British officers, were far more to be dreaded than
when left to their own cunning, which was often childish. As the little
band of pioneers, rushing to the rescue, approached Bryant's Station and
were informed of the retreat of the invaders, a council of war was held,
to decide whether it were best for a hundred and eighty men to pursue
five hundred Indians and Canadians, through a region where every mile
presented the most favorable opportunities for concealment in ambush.
Gerty was a desperado who was to be feared as well as hated. Contrary to
the judgment of both Colonels Todd and Boone, it was decided to pursue
the Indians. There was no difficulty in following the trail of so large
a band, many of whom were mounted. Their path led almost directly north,
to the Licking River, and then followed down its banks towards the Ohio.
As the pursuers were cautiously advancing, they came to a remarkable
bend in the stream, where there was a large and open space, with prairie
grass very high. A well trampled buffalo track led through this grass,
which was almost like a forest of reeds. Along this "street" the Indians
had retreated. The scouts who had been sent forward to explore, returned
with the report that there were no signs of Indians. And yet, four
hundred savages had so adroitly concealed themselves, that their line
really extended from bank to bank of the river, where it bent like a
horseshoe before them. The combined cunning of the Indian, and the
intelligence of their white leaders, was now fatally enlisted for the
destruction of the settlers. A hundred and eighty men were to be caught
in a trap, with five hundred demons prepared to shoot them down.
As soon as Colonel Todd's party passed the neck of this bend, the
Indians closed in behind them, rose from their concealment, and with
terrific yells opened upon them a still more terrific fire. The pioneers
fought with the courage of desperation. At the first discharge, nearly
one third of Colonel Todd's little party fell dead or wounded. Struck
fatally by several bullets, Colonel Todd himself fell from his horse
drenched with blood. While a portion of the Indians kept up the fire,
others, with hideous yells sprang forward with tomahawk and scalping
knife, completing their fiendlike work. It was a scene of awful
confusion and dismay. The survivors fighting every step of the way,
retreated towards the river, for there was no escape back through their
thronging foes. Colonel Boone's two sons fought by the side of their
father. Samuel, the younger, struck by a bullet, was severely but not
mortally wounded. Israel, his second son, fell dead. The unhappy father,
took his dead boy upon his shoulders to save him from the scalping
knife. As he tottered beneath the bleeding body, an Indian of herculean
stature with uplifted tomahawk rushed upon him. Colonel Boone dropped
the body of his son, shot the Indian through the heart, and seeing the
savages rushing upon him from all directions, fled, leaving the corpse
of his boy to its fate.
Being intimately acquainted with the ground, he plunged into a ravine,
baffling several parties who pursued him, swam across the river, and
entering the forest succeeded in escaping from his foes, and at length
safely by a circuitous route returned to Bryant's Station. In the
meantime the scene of tumult and slaughter was awful beyond all
description. Victors and vanquished were blended together upon the banks
of the stream. In this dreadful conflict there were four Indians to each
white man. There was a narrow ford at the spot, but the whole stream
seemed clogged, some swimming and some trying to wade, while the
exultant Indians shot and tomahawked without mercy. Those who succeeded
in crossing the river, leaving the great buffalo track which they had
been following, plunged into the thickets, and though vigorously
pursued by the Indians, most of them eventually reached the settlements.
In this dreadful disaster, the colonists lost sixty men in killed and
seven were taken prisoners. The Indians in counting up their loss, found
that sixty-four were missing. In accordance with their barbaric custom,
they selected in vengeance four of the prisoners and put them to death
by the most terrible tortures which savage ingenuity could devise. Had
Colonel Boone's advice been followed, this calamity might have been
avoided. Still characteristically, he uttered not a word of complaint.
In his comments upon the event he says:
"I cannot reflect upon this dreadful scene but sorrow fills my heart. A
zeal for the defence of their country led these heroes to the scene of
action, though with a few men to attack a powerful army of experienced
warriors. When we gave way, they pursued us with the utmost eagerness,
and in every quarter spread destruction. The river was difficult to
cross, and many were killed in the flight; some just entering the river,
some in the water, others after crossing, in ascending the cliffs. Some
escaped on horseback, a few on foot; and being dispersed everywhere in a
few hours, brought the melancholy news of this unfortunate conflict to
Lexington. The reader may guess what sorrow filled the hearts of the
inhabitants; exceeding anything I am able to describe. Being reinforced
we returned to bury the dead, and found their bodies strewed everywhere,
cut and mangled in a dreadful manner. This mournful scene exhibited a
horror almost unparalleled; some torn and eaten by wild beasts; those in
the river eaten by fishes; all in such a putrified condition that no one
could be distinguished from another."
This battle of the Blue Licks, as it is called, occupies one of the most
mournful pages in the history of Kentucky. The escape of Boone adds
another to the extraordinary adventures of this chivalric and now
sorrow-stricken man. Colonel Boone communicated an official report to
the Governor of Virginia, Benjamin Harrison, father of William Henry
Harrison, subsequently President of the United States. In this report,
it is noticeable that Boone makes no allusion whatever to his own
services. This modest document throws such light upon the character of
this remarkable man, and upon the peril of the times, that it merits
full insertion here. It is as follows:
"Boone's Station, Fayette Co., Aug. 30, 1782.
"Sir,--Present circumstances of affairs cause me to write to Your
Excellency, as follows: On the sixteenth instant, a large body of
Indians, with some white men, attacked one of our frontier
stations, known as Bryant's Station. The siege continued from about
sunrise until two o'clock of the next day, when they marched off.
Notice being given to the neighboring stations, we immediately
raised one hundred and eighty-one horsemen, commanded by Col. John
Todd, including some of the Lincoln County militia, and pursued
about forty miles."
After a brief account of the battle which we have already given, he
continues:
"Afterwards we were reinforced by Colonel Logan, which made our
force four hundred and sixty men. We marched again to the battle
ground, but finding the enemy had gone, we proceeded to bury the
dead. We found forty-three on the ground, and many lay about which
we could not stay to find, hungry and weary as we were, and dubious
that the enemy might not have gone off quite. By the sign, we
thought that the Indians exceeded four hundred, while the whole of
the militia of the county does not amount to more than one hundred
and thirty.
"From these facts, Your Excellency may form an idea of our
situation. I know that your own circumstances are critical; but are
we to be wholly forgotten? I hope not. I trust that about five
hundred men may be sent to our assistance immediately. If these
shall be stationed as our county lieutenant shall deem necessary,
it may be the means of saving our part of the country. But if they
are placed under the direction of General Clarke, they will be of
little or no service to our settlement. The Falls lie one hundred
miles west of us, and the Indians north-east; while our men are
frequently called to protect them.
"I have encouraged the people in this county all that I could; but
I can no longer justify them or myself to risk our lives here,
under such extraordinary hazards. The inhabitants of this county
are very much alarmed at the thoughts of the Indians bringing
another campaign into our country this fall. If this should be the
case, it will break up these settlements. I hope therefore that
Your Excellency will take the matter into your consideration, and
send us some relief as quick as possible. These are my sentiments
without consulting any person. Colonel Logan will I expect
immediately send you an express, by whom I humbly request Your
Excellency's answer. In the meantime, I remain yours, etc., Daniel
Boone."
General Clarke, who was the military leader of Kentucky under the
Colonial government, was established at _the Falls_. The British
authorities held their head-quarters at Detroit, from which post they
were sending out their Indian allies in all directions to ravage the
frontiers. General Clarke was a man of great energy of character, and
he was anxious to organise an expedition against Detroit. With this
object in view, he had by immense exertions assembled a force of nearly
two thousand men. Much to his chagrin, he received orders to remain at
the Falls for the present, to protect the frontiers then so severely
menaced. But when the tidings reached him of the terrible disaster at
the Blue Lick, he resolved to pursue the Indians and punish them with
the greatest severity.
The exultant savages had returned to Old Chilicothe, and had divided
their spoil and their captives. Colonel Boone was immediately sent for
to take part in this expedition. Clarke's army crossed the Ohio, and
marching very rapidly up the banks of the Little Miami, arrived within
two miles of Chilicothe before they were discovered. On perceiving the
enemy the Indians scattered in all directions. Men, women and children
fled into the remote forest, abandoning their homes and leaving
everything behind them. The avenging army swept the valley with fire and
ruin. Their corn just ripening, and upon which they mainly relied for
their winter supply of food, was utterly destroyed. Every tree which
bore any fruit was felled, and five of their towns were laid in ashes.
The trail of the army presented a scene of utter desolation.
The savages were alike astonished and dismayed. They had supposed that
the white men, disheartened by their dreadful defeat at the Blue Lick,
would abandon the country. Instead of that, with amazing recuperative
power, they had scarcely reached their homes ere another army, utterly
resistless in numbers, is burning their towns and destroying their whole
country.
This avenging campaign so depressed the Indians that they made no
farther attempt for the organised invasion of Kentucky. The termination
of the war with England also deprived them of their military resources,
and left them to their own unaided and unintelligent efforts. Still
miserable bands continued prowling around, waylaying and murdering the
lonely traveler, setting fire to the solitary hut and inflicting such
other outrages as were congenial with their cruel natures. It thus
became necessary for the pioneers always to live with the rifle in hand.
Colonel Boone had become especially obnoxious to the Indians. Twice he
had escaped from them, under circumstances which greatly mortified their
vanity. They recognised the potency of his rifle in the slaughter of
their own warriors at the Blue Lick; and they were well aware that it
was his sagacity which led the army of General Clarke in its avenging
march through their country. It thus became with them an object of
intense desire to take him prisoner, and had he been taken, he would
doubtless have been doomed to the severest torture they could inflict.
Mr. Peck, in his interesting life of Boone, gives the following account
of one of the extraordinary adventures of this man, which he received
from the lips of Colonel Boone himself. On one occasion, four Indians
suddenly appeared before his cabin and took him prisoner. Though the
delicacy of Colonel Boone's organization was such, that he could never
himself relish tobacco in any form, he still raised some for his friends
and neighbors, and for what were then deemed the essential rites of
hospitality.
"As a shelter for curing the tobacco, he had built an enclosure of rails
a dozen feet in height and covered with canes and grass. Stalks of
tobacco are generally split and strung on sticks about four feet in
length. The ends of these are laid on poles placed across the tobacco
house, and in tiers one above another, to the roof. Boone had fixed his
temporary shelter in such a manner as to have three tiers. He had
covered the lower tier and the tobacco had become dry; when he entered
the shelter for the purpose of removing the sticks to the upper tier,
preparatory to gathering the remainder of the crop. He had hoisted up
the sticks from the lower to the second tier, and was standing on the
poles which supported it, while raising the sticks to the upper tier,
when four stout Indians, with guns, entered the low door and called
him by name.
[Illustration]
"'Now, Boone, we got you. You no get away more. We carry you off to
Chilicothe this time. You no cheat us anymore.'
"Boone looked down upon their upturned faces, saw their loaded guns
pointed at his breast, and recognising some of his old friends the
Shawanese, who had made him prisoner near the Blue Licks in 1778, coolly
and pleasantly responded:
"'Ah, old friends, glad to see you.'
"Perceiving that they manifested impatience to have him come down, he
told them he was quite willing to go with them, and only begged that
they would wait where they were, and watch him closely until he could
finish removing the tobacco.
"While thus parleying with them, Boone inquired earnestly respecting his
old friends in Chilicothe. He continued for some time to divert the
attention of these simple-minded men, by allusions to past events with
which they were familiar, and by talking of his tobacco, his mode of
curing it, and promising them an abundant supply. With their guns in
their hands however, they stood at the door of the shed, grouped closely
together so as to render his escape apparently impossible. In the
meantime Boone carefully gathered his arms full of the long, dry tobacco
leaves, filled with pungent dust, which would be blinding and stifling
as the most powerful snuff, and then with a leap from his station twelve
feet high, came directly upon their heads, filling their eyes and
nostrils, and so bewildering and disabling them for the moment, that
they lost all self-possession and all self-control.
"Boone, agile as a deer, darted out at the door, and in a moment was in
his bullet-proof log-hut, which to him was an impregnable citadel.
Loop-holes guarded every approach. The Indians could not show themselves
without exposure to certain death. They were too well acquainted with
the unerring aim of Boone's rifle to venture within its range. Keeping
the log cabin between them and their redoubtable foe, the baffled
Indians fled into the wilderness.
"Colonel Boone related this adventure with great glee, imitating the
gestures of the bewildered Indians. He said that notwithstanding his
narrow escape, he could not resist the temptation, as he reached the
door of his cabin, to look around to witness the effect of his
achievement. The Indians coughing, sneezing, blinded and almost
suffocated by the tobacco dust, were throwing out their arms and groping
about in all directions, cursing him for a rogue and calling themselves
fools."