LOGAN, OR TAL-GA-YEE-TA, THE CAYUGA (MINGO)
CHIEF.
ORATOR AND FRIEND OF THE WHITE MAN. ALSO, A BRIEF SKETCH
OF CORNSTALK.
This unfortunate chief is better known to the world by the eloquent and
pathetic speech, which he has left as a record of his misfortunes and
sorrows, than by his exploits in war. His father, Shikellimus, was a Cayuga
chief, whose house was on the borders of Cayuga Lake, in New York. He was a
personal friend of the benevolent James Logan, the intimate friend of
William Penn and the founder of the Logonian Library, at Philadelphia. The
name of the second son was probably derived from this person.
Logan inherited his gifts and noble nature from his father, who was ever a
lover of peace, and also known as the white man's friend. His wigwam was
famed far and near as the abode of hospitality, friendship, and kindness.
It was a wigwam, but there was something of the halo about it which
invested a feudal castle in the days of English chivalry and romance.
Shikellimus was a good provider, and those who gathered around his
comfortable fire, which was lighted for every stranger by the forest
chieftain, felt the independence of the lone traveler in some old baronial
hall; and he who presided at the feast to which all were welcome, was not
less noble or less dignified than an English lord. Had there been a pen to
record his hospitality and _table talk,_ there would probably have been
seen in it more wisdom than entered into the discourse of many a prince or
potentate. But, alas, for forest eloquence, it was wafted only by the
breeze, and its echo died away forever.
So much for the environment of the home of his childhood. Another thing
which no doubt influenced his character was the fact that in boyhood he
came under the influence of the sweet-spirited Moravian missionaries, with
their gentle manners and soothing words. There was about him a similar
quiet and softened dignity, a refinement of sentiment and delicacy of
feeling, which characterizes none but the lofty, and exhales from none but
the pure.
Logan moved in early life to the banks of the Juniata, which is a
beautiful little river, flowing through a wild, romantic country, watered
also by the Susquehanna. In a pleasant valley he built his cabin, and
married a Shawnee wife. Thus he became identified with the Shawnees and
Delawares, though belonging to the Six Nations. Logan inherited his
father's talents of oratory and bid fair to be equally prosperous. He took
no part in the French and Indian war of 1760, nor that of Pontiac which
followed, except to assume the role of peacemaker.
His house, like his father's, was the Indian's and the white man's home,
the dwelling-place of love. Alas! that the milk of human kindness in his
bosom should ever have been turned to gall by cruel and inhuman wrongs. In
his childhood a little cousin had been taken captive by white men, under
aggravating circumstances, but for this he did not become the foe of the
white race.
"Forgive and forget," seems to have been his motto at this time; and he
lived to be an aged man, before vengeance took possession of his soul.
In all the country where he dwelt he was known, and to every cottage Logan
was welcome; terror did not creep into the heart of woman nor fear disturb
the little child, when his footsteps were heard at their doors. And this,
as was afterwards proved, was not because he had not all the traits which
make a brave warrior, but from a settled principle that all men were
brothers and should love one another.
Minnie Myrtle, in her interesting book, "The Iroquois," says of Logan: "He
set forth at one time on a hunting expedition, and was alone in the forest.
Two white hunters were engaged in the same sport, and having killed a bear
in a wild gorge, were about to rest beside a babbling spring, when they saw
an Indian form reflected in the water. They sprang to their feet and
grasped their rifles, but the Indian bent forward and struck the rifles
from their hands, and spilt the powder from their flasks. Then stretching
forth his open palm in token of friendship, he seated himself beside them
and won his way to their hearts. For a week they roamed together, hunting
and fishing by day and sleeping by the same fire at night. It was Logan,
and henceforth their brother. At the end of their hunt, he pursued his way
over the Alleghenies, to his lodge, and they returned to their homes, never
again to point a gun at an Indian's heart.
"Some white men on a journey stopped at his cabin to rest. For amusement a
shooting match was proposed, at which the wager was to be a dollar a shot.
During the sport Logan lost five shots, and when they had finished he
entered his lodge and brought out five deer skins in payment of his losses,
as a dollar a skin was the established price in those days and the red
man's money. But his guests refused to take them, saying they had only
been shooting for sport and wished no forfeit. But the honorable Indian
would take no denial, replying, 'If you had lost the shots I should have
taken your dollars, but as I have lost, take my skins.'
"Another time he wished to buy grain, and took his skins to a tailor, who
adulterated the wheat, thinking the Indian _would not know._ But the miller
informed him, and advised him to apply to a magistrate for redress. He went
to a Mr. Brown, who kindly saw that his loss was made up, for Logan came
often to his house, and he knew his noble heart and grieved to see him
wronged. As he was waiting the decision of the magistrate, he played with
a little girl, who was just trying to walk, and the mother remarked that
she needed some shoes, which she was not able to purchase for her.
"The child was very fond of Logan and loved to sit upon his knee, and when
he went away was ready to go too. He asked the mother if he might take her
to his cabin for the day, and she, knowing well the attention which would
be bestowed upon her in the Indian's lodge, consented. Toward night there
was a little anxiety about the child, but the shades of evening had
scarcely begun to deepen, when Logan was seen wending his way to the
cottage with his precious charge; and when he placed her in her mother's
arms, she saw upon her feet a tiny pair of moccasins, neatly wrought and
ornamented with beads, that his own skilful hands had made. Was not this a
delicate way of showing gratitude and expressing friendship? Was it a rude
and savage nature that prompted this attention to a little child, to
gladden a mother's heart? Not all the refined teachings of civilization
could have invented a more beautiful tribute of sympathy and grateful
affection."
The hunters and backwoodsmen of the period describe Logan as a chief or
headman, among the outlying parties of Senecas and Cayugas, and the
fragments of broken tribes that lived along the upper Ohio and its
tributaries.
They tell us he was a man of splendid appearance, over six feet tall,
straight as a spear-shaft, with countenance as open as it was brave and
manly, until the wrongs he endured stamped on it an expression of gloomy
ferocity. He had always been the friend of the white man, and had been
noted particularly for his kindness and gentleness to children. Up to this
time he had lived at peace with the borderers, for though some of his kin
had been massacred by the whites, years before, he had forgiven the
deed--probably because he had knowledge of the fact that others of his
relatives and people had been concerned in equally bloody massacres of the
whites.
A skilled marksman and mighty hunter, of commanding presence, who treated
all men with grave courtesy and dignity, and exacted the same treatment in
return, he was a prime favorite with all the white hunters and borderers
whose friendship and goodwill was worth having. They admired him for his
skill and courage, and they loved him for his straightforward integrity and
his noble loyalty to his friends of both races.
In the "American Pioneer" an old hunter is quoted as saying that he
considered "Logan the best specimen of humanity he ever met with, either
white or red."
Logan was never tempted to touch a drop of "fire-water" until after his
great wrongs kindled revenge in his soul. He adopted few of the customs
and rejected all the vices of civilization. Such was Logan before the evil
days came upon him and his heart was fired with the passion for revenge.
And such, indeed, would have been recorded of many other Indians had they
received the same kind treatment they extended to the whites. But, "alas
for the rarity of human charity under the sun."
Early in the spring the border settlers began to suffer from the deeds of
straggling bands of Indians. {FN} Horses were stolen, one or two murders
were committed, the inhabitants of the more outlying cabins fled to the
forts, and the frontiersmen began to threaten fierce vengeance.
* * * * *
{FN} Thatcher says these robberies were all charged to Indians, "though
perhaps, not justly, for it is well known that a large number of civilized
adventurers were traversing the frontiers at this time, who sometimes
disguised themselves as Indians and committed many depredations and even
murder."
On April 16 an Indian trader by the name of Butler had his store attacked
and plundered by a roving band of Cherokees. Of the three men in charge at
the time one was killed, another wounded, but the third made his escape and
raised the alarm. Immediately after this, Connolly, who was acting as
Governor Dunmore's lieutenant on the border, issued an open letter,
commanding the frontiersmen to hold themselves in readiness to repel any
attack of the Indians, as the Shawnees were known to be hostile.
Among the backwoodsmen was one Michael Cresap, a Maryland borderer, who had
moved to the banks of the Ohio to establish a home for his family.
Roosevelt, in "The Winning of the West," says of Cresap: "He was of the
regular pioneer type; a good woodsman, sturdy and brave, a fearless
fighter, devoted to his friends and his country; but alas, when his blood
was heated, and his savage instincts fairly roused, inclined to regard any
red man, whether hostile or friendly as a being who should be slain on
sight. Nor did he condemn the brutal deeds done by others on innocent
Indians."
Cresap, who had been appointed a captain of the frontier militia, was near
Wheeling at the time Connolly's letter was received, with a band of hunters
and scouts. These were fearless men who had adopted many of the ways of the
Indians, including their method both of declaring war and fighting. Of
course, they put a very liberal interpretation upon the order given them by
Connolly to repel an attack and proceeded to declare war in the regular
Indian style. Calling a council, they planted the war-post, and after
marching around it many times, brandishing their hatchets, knives, swords
or whatever weapon they carried, all at a signal from their leader struck
the post, leaving their weapons sticking in it, and waited eagerly for a
chance to attack their common enemy, the Indians.
Unfortunately, as is often the case, the first blood shed was that of
friendly Indians. It seems that Butler, the Indian trader, hoping to
recover some of the peltries of which he had been robbed by the Cherokees,
had sent two friendly Shawnees in a canoe to the place of massacre. Cresap
and his men ambushed these friendly Indians on the 27th near Captina, and
killed and scalped them. Some of the more humane of the frontiersmen
strongly protested against this outrage; but a large majority of them were
excited and enraged by the rumor of Indian hostilities, and threatened to
kill whoever interfered with them, cursing the traders as being worse than
the Indians, as was often the case. Cresap boasted of the murder, and never
said a word against scalping. The next day he again led out his men and
attacked another party of Shawnees, who had been trading near Pittsburg,
killed one and wounded two others, one of the whites being also wounded.
Shortly after this Cresap and his band started to Logan's camp, then
located at Yellow Creek, some fifty miles distant. After marching several
miles they began to reflect on what they were about to do; calling a halt,
they discussed the fact that the camp they were going to attack consisted
of friendly Indians, and mainly women and children; their better nature
asserted itself, and they immediately returned home.
{Illustration: Logan, or Tal-Ga-Yee-Ta, the Mingo Chief and Orator.}
"But," as Roosevelt says, "Logan's people did not profit by Cresap's change
of heart. On the last day of April a small party of men, women and
children, including almost all of Logan's kin, left his camp and crossed
the river to visit Daniel Greathouse, as had been their custom; for he made
a trade of selling rum to the savages, though Cresap had notified him to
stop. The whole party were plied with liquor, and became helplessly drunk,
in which condition Greathouse and his associate criminals fell on and
massacred them, nine souls in all. It was an inhuman and revolting deed,
which should consign the names of the perpetrators to eternal infamy."
The whole family of Logan perished in this and other similar massacres; in
one of the last were his brother and sister.
It will excite the wonder of no man that Logan from this moment breathed
nothing but vengeance against the treacherous and inhuman whites. A
general Indian war immediately followed. Logan was the foremost in leading
his countrymen to the slaughter of their perfidious enemies. On July 12,
with a party of only eight warriors, he attacked a settlement on the
Muskingum, captured two prisoners and carried them off. When they arrived
at an Indian town, they delivered them to the inhabitants, who at once
prepared to put them to death by torture. Logan, however, in the heat of
his vindictive feelings, displayed the humanity of his nature. He cut the
cords of one of the prisoners, a man named Robinson, who was about to be
burned at the stake, and saved his life at the risk of his own. A few days
afterward he suddenly appeared to this prisoner with some gunpowder, ink
and a wild-goose quill, wherewith to make a pen, and dictated to him a
note. This note was afterward tied to a war-club and left in the house of a
settler, whose entire family had been butchered by the savages. It was
brief, but written with ferocious directness to the man whom he wrongly
believed to be the author of his heart-rending troubles. It read as
follows:
"Captain Cresap"
"What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white people killed
my kin at Conestoga, a great while ago, and I thought nothing of that. But
you killed my kin again on Yellow Creek, and took my cousin prisoner. Then
I thought I must kill too; and I have been three times to war since; but
all the Indians are not angry, only myself.
"July 21, 1774. Captain John Logan."
The frontier was now in a blaze, and the Indians made preparations for war.
The Mingos, Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots and outlying Iroquois, especially
the Senecas, together with a party of warriors of the Miamis from western
Ohio, all banded themselves together, under the command of Cornstalk, the
great Shawnee chieftain, and Logan.
Meantime Governor Dunmore was making ready a formidable army with which to
overwhelm the hostile Indians. The plan was to raise three thousand men;
one half, or the northern wing, was to be under the command of Lord Dunmore
in person, while the other, composed entirely of border men, living among
the mountains west of the Blue Ridge, was under Gen. Andrew Lewis.
Both wings were ordered to take a position at Point Pleasant, where the
Great Kanawha empties into the Ohio. The division led by Lewis reached this
place and, having camped on a jut of land between the two rivers, waited
the coming of Lord Dunmore and his command.
But the crafty Cornstalk did not propose to wait for the coming of the
other wing; through his runners he had full knowledge of the movements of
the frontier militia. He was greatly outnumbered; but he had at his command
over a thousand warriors, the very pick of the young men to be found among
the tribes between the Great Lakes and the Ohio. His foes were divided, and
he determined to strike a decisive blow before they were again united.
Accordingly, he led his long file of warriors to the mouth of the Kanawha,
and attacked the division under Lewis on the morning of October 10, 1774,
about daylight.
This battle, known in history by two names--Point Pleasant and the Great
Kanawha--was purely an American affair because it was fought solely by the
backwoodsmen on one side, and American Indians on the other. It was Greek
meeting Greek, or, better still, white American meeting Red, and was one of
the most stubbornly fought and bravely contested in the annals of history.
The fight was a succession of single combats, each man sheltering himself
behind a stump, or rock, or tree-trunk, or whatever was at hand. The
backwoodsmen were the best shots, but the Indians excelled in the art of
hiding and shielding themselves from harm. The two lines, though more than
a mile in length, were so close together that many of the combatants
grappled in hand-to-hand combat, using knife or tomahawk. The crack of the
rifles was continuous, while above the noise could be heard the groans of
the wounded and the shouts of the combatants, as each encouraged his own
side or jeered at the enemy. The cheers of the whites mingled with the
war-whoops of the Indians. The chiefs continued to exhort their warriors to
still greater deeds of valor.
Cornstalk, the commander of the savages, distinguished himself in all his
maneuvers throughout the engagement by the skill as well as the bravery of
a consummate general. During the whole of the day his stentorian voice was
heard throughout the ranks of his enemies, vociferating, "Be strong! be
strong!" After an incessant fire of about twelve hours' duration darkness
put an end to the conflict. The Indians now made a most skilful retreat,
carrying all their wounded in safety across the Ohio, and the Americans
were too exhausted to pursue them.
This battle was not only stubbornly contested but bloody. The whites,
though claiming the victory, had suffered more than their foes, and indeed
had won only because it was against the entire policy of Indian warfare to
suffer a severe loss, even if a victory could be gained thereby. Some
seventy-five of the whites had been killed or mortally wounded, and one
hundred and forty severely or slightly wounded, so that they lost a fifth
of their entire number. Of the Indians, the loss was not much more than
half as many; only about forty were killed or mortally wounded. No chief of
importance was slain among the Indians, while the whites lost in succession
their second, third and fourth in command, and had seventeen officers
killed or wounded.
The spirit of the Indians had been broken by their defeat. Cornstalk and
Logan alone were ready and eager to continue the war. But when the former
saw that he could not stir the hearts of his warriors, even with his
burning eloquence, to continue the war, he stuck his tomahawk into the
war-post, and said that if he could not lead them in battle he would lead
them in making peace. Accordingly, with all his fellow-chiefs, except
Logan, he went to Lord Dunmore's camp, and there entered into a treaty.
In this the Indians agreed to surrender all the white prisoners and stolen
horses in their possession, to renounce all claim to the lands south of the
Ohio, and to give hostages as an earnest of their good faith.
Cornstalk was their chief spokesman, and though obliged to assent to the
conditions imposed, yet preserved through all the proceedings a bearing of
proud defiance that showed that he at least was not conquered, and was a
stranger to fear. In all his talks, he addressed the white leaders with a
tone of vehement denunciation and reproach, that seemed to evince more the
attitude of a conqueror than of one of the conquered. The Virginians, who
prized skill in oratory only less than skill in warfare, were greatly
impressed by the chieftain's eloquence, marvelous voice and majestic
bearing. Some of them afterwards stated that his oratory fully equaled that
of their great speakers, Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry.
Meantime Logan remained apart in the Mingo village, brooding over his
wrongs and the vengeance he had taken. The other Indians, when asked about
Logan and the reason of his absence, replied that he was like an angry dog,
whose bristles were still up, but that they were gradually falling, and
when he was urged to attend the meeting he replied that he was a warrior,
not a councillor, and would not come.
Since the mountain would not come to Mohammed, that prophet was forced to
go to the mountain; as it was deemed absolutely imperative to have an
understanding with this great leader, and learn his intentions. Accordingly
a messenger was sent to interview Logan. John Gibson, a frontier veteran,
who had long lived among the Indians and knew thoroughly both their
language and their manners and customs, was chosen for this task. To him
Logan was willing to talk. Taking him aside, he suddenly addressed him in
a speech that will always retain its place as one of the finest outbursts
of Indian eloquence recorded in the history of our country. John Gibson was
a plain, honest backwoodsman, utterly incapable of "doctoring" a speech for
the better, so he took it down in writing, translating it literally, and,
returning to camp, put it into Dunmore's hands. The Governor then read it
in council before the entire frontier army, including George Rogers Clark
and Cresap, to whom Logan imputed the butchery of his family.
The speech, when read, proved no acknowledgment of defeat, nor expression
of desire for peace, but rather a pathetic recital of the heartbreaking
wrongs which had been perpetrated against him, even though innocent of
harming the whites, and a fierce justification of the vengeance he had
taken. The justly famous speech is as follows:
"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry
and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and he clothed him
not? During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle
in his camp, an advocate for peace. {FN} Such was my love for the whites
that my countrymen pointed as I passed and said, 'Logan is the friend of
the white man.' I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the
injuries of one man, Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and
unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women
and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living
creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed
many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the
beams of peace; but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear.
Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who
is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."
* * * * *
{FN} Logan here refers to the French and Indian and Pontiac wars, when
he refused, positively, to join the Indians, though often urged to dig
up the hatchet.
The backwoodsmen listened with almost breathless attention to the reading
of this speech, and many of them no doubt regretted the wanton and brutal
murder. They were so much impressed by it, that it was the one subject of
conversation around the evening campfire, and they continually attempted to
rehearse it to each other. {FN} This was especially true of the last
clause; one would ask the question, "Who is there to mourn for Logan?"
and another would answer with much feeling, "Not one." But they were very
well aware that Daniel Greathouse, and not Michael Cresap, was the guilty
fiend who wantonly murdered this innocent family, and when the speech was
read George Rogers Clark turned to Cresap and said, "You must be a very
great man, that the Indians shoulder you with every mean thing that has
happened." Whereat Cresap, much angered, swore that he had a good mind to
tomahawk Greathouse for this heinous murder. We can only express a regret
that Cresap did not carry out his threat, and a hope that some Indian meted
out justice to Greathouse as he richly deserved.
* * * * *
{FN} Jefferson's Manuscript
Concerning this powerful address, Thomas Jefferson says: "I may challenge
the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent
orator--if Europe has furnished more eminent--to produce a single passage
superior to the speech of Logan"; and Clinton, in his "Historical
Discourse," subscribes to this noble eulogium:
"Old Logan was the white man's friend
But injuries forced his love to end;
Of children, wife and kindred shorn,
None left for him to joy or mourn,
He rose in calm, vindictive ire,
And bade them, by their fathers slain,
No more in voiceless peace remain,
But lift the brand, and battle cry.
For vengeance, if not victory." {FN}
* * * * *
{FN} Minnie Myrtle.
Roosevelt says, of the close of his career, "Proud, gloomy Logan never
recovered from the blow that had been dealt him; he drank deeper and
deeper, and became more and more an implacable, moody and blood-thirsty
savage, yet with noble qualities that came to the surface now and then.
Again and again he wrought havoc among the frontier settlers; yet we
several times hear of his saving the lives of prisoners. Once he saved
Simon Kenton from torture and death, when Girty, moved by a rare spark of
compassion for his former comrade, had already tried to do so and failed.
At last he perished in a drunken brawl by the hand of another Indian."
We notice the authorities differ in their account of Logan's death. Drake
says of him: "The melancholy history of Logan must be dismissed with no
relief to its gloomy colors. He was himself a victim to the same ferocious
cruelty which had already rendered him a desolate man. Not long after the
treaty (of Wayne at Greenville) a party of whites murdered him as he was
returning from Detroit to his own country."
There were none to mourn for Logan; but as Jefferson well says, "his
talents and misfortunes have attached to him the respect and commiseration
of a world."
Cornstalk died a noble death, but by an act of cowardly treachery, which is
one of the darkest stains on the pages of our frontier history. In the
early part of the year 1777 he came into the garrison at Point Pleasant to
explain that, while he was anxious to keep the terms of the treaty his
warriors were determined to go to war; and frankly added, that if they did
he would be compelled to join them. He and three others, including his son,
Ellinipsieo, and the chief Red Hawk, were retained as hostages and confined
in the fort. About this time a member of a company of rangers was killed by
the Indians near the fort; whereupon his comrades, headed by their captain,
one John Hall, rushed furiously into the fort to murder the Indian
prisoners. Cornstalk heard them rushing in and knew what to expect. Never
for an instant did his courage fail him. Turning to Ellinipsieo, the
youngest of the group, he thus exhorted him: "My son, the Great Spirit has
seen fit that we should die together, and has sent you to that end. It is
his will, and let us submit." Then, drawing his blanket around him, with
the grace and dignity of a Roman Senator, he faced his assassins, and fell
dead, pierced by seven or eight bullets. The other helpless and unarmed
Indians were butchered at the same time.
Mr. Withers, in his "Chronicles," writes thus of Cornstalk and this
indefensible murder: "Thus perished the mighty Cornstalk, a sachem of the
Shawnees, and King of the Northern Confederacy, in 1774, a chief remarkable
for many great and good qualities. He was disposed to be at all times the
friend of the white men, as he ever was the advocate of honorable peace.
But when his country's wrongs 'called aloud for battle,' he became the
thunderbolt of war, and made her oppressors feel the weight of his uplifted
arm. His noble bearing, his generous and disinterested attachment to the
colonies when the thunder of British cannon was reverberating through the
land, his anxiety to preserve the frontier of Virginia from desolation and
death, the object of his visit to Point Pleasant--all conspired to win for
him the esteem and respect of others; while the untimely and perfidious
manner of his death caused a deep and lasting regret to pervade the bosoms
even of those who were enemies to his nation, and excited the just
indignation of all toward his inhuman and barbarous murderers."
{Illustration: Logan and the Two Hunters.}