Disturbed state of the country in 1775--Breaking out of
the Revolutionary war--Exposed situation of the Kentucky
settlements--Hostility of the Indians excited by the British--First
political convention in the West--Capture of Boone's daughter and
the daughters of Colonel Callaway by the Indians--Their rescue by a
party led by Boone and Callaway--Increased caution of the colonists
at Boonesborough--Alarm and desertion of the Colonies in the West
by land speculators and other adventurers--A reinforcement of
forty-five men from North Carolina arrive at Boonesborough--Indian
attack on Boonesborough in April--Another attack in July--Attack
on Logan's Fort, and siege--Attack on Harrodsburg.
The reader will not fail to remark that the period at which Daniel Boone
commenced the settlement of Kentucky, was the most eventful one in the
history of our country. In the year 1775 hostilities between Great
Britain and her American Colonies commenced at Lexington and Concord,
and the whole country was mustering in arms at the time when Boone and
the other western emigrants were forming settlements four hundred miles
beyond the frontiers of Virginia and the Carolinas. Encouraged by the
treaty of Lord Dunmore with the Indians in 1774, and knowing the Indian
titles to the lands they were occupying to have been extinguished, they
naturally counted on an unmolested possession of the region they were
settling. But in this expectation they were sorely disappointed. The
English officers and agents in the northwest were indefatigable in
stimulating the Indians to attack the American colonists in every
quarter. They supplied them with arms and ammunition, bribed them with
money, and aided and encouraged them to attack the feeble settlements in
Kentucky and Tennessee. But Providence overruled these circumstances for
the benefit of the Western country. "The settlement of Kentucky led to
the conquest of the British posts in Illinois and Indiana, in 1778, and
eventually threw the wide valleys of the West under control of the
American Union."[25]
The settlers in Kentucky in 1775, were still acting under the belief
that the claims purchased by Henderson and Company from the Cherokees
were valid, and that "the Proprietors of the Colony of Transylvania"
were really founding a political State. Under this impression they
took leases from the Company, and in the course of the year, eighteen
delegates assembled in convention at Boonesborough, and acknowledged the
Company as lawful proprietors, "established courts of justice, and rules
for proceeding therein; also a militia law, a law for the preservation
of game, and for appointing civil and militia officers."[26] This was
the first political convention ever held in the Western Valley for the
formation of a free government.[27]
The winter and spring of 1776[28] were passed by the little colony
of Boonesborough in hunting, fishing, clearing the lands immediately
contiguous to the station, and putting in a crop of corn. The colonists
were molested but once by their enemies during the winter, when one man
was killed by a small band of marauding Indians, who suddenly appeared
in the vicinity, and as suddenly departed.
In the middle summer month, an incident of a thrilling character
occurred, which cast a deep but only momentary shadow upon the little
society of Boonesborough. This was the capture, by some skulking Indians
belonging to a numerous band who were now prowling through the woods and
brakes of Kentucky, and occasionally approaching the settlements for the
purpose of plunder, of three young females, members of the families of
Boone and Callaway.
This incident, which has been taken as the ground-work of two or three
western fictions, and also had thrown around it all the warm coloring of
romance, by writers professing to deal only with the authentic, is thus
briefly related in the papers of Colonel John Floyd, as quoted by Mr.
Butler:
"On the 7th of July, 1776, the Indians took out of a canoe which was
in the river, within sight of Boonesborough, Miss Betsey Callaway, her
sister Frances, and a daughter of Daniel Boone. The last two were about
thirteen or fourteen years of age, and the other grown.
"The affair happened late in the afternoon, and the spoilers left the
canoe on the opposite side of the river from us, which prevented our
getting over for some time to pursue them. Next morning by daylight we
were on the track, but found they had totally prevented our following
them by walking some distance apart through the thickest cane they could
find. We observed their course, however, and on which side they had left
their sign, and traveled upward of thirty miles. We then imagined that
they would be less cautious in traveling, and made a turn in order to
cross their trace, and had gone but a few miles before we found their
tracks in a buffalo-path.
"Pursuing this for the distance of about ten miles, we overtook them
just as they were kindling a fire to cook. Our study had been more to
get the prisoners without giving their captors time to murder them after
they should discover us, than to kill the Indians.
"We discovered each other nearly at the same time. Four of our party
fired, and then all rushed upon them, which prevented their carrying
any thing away except one shot-gun without any ammunition. Mr. Boone and
myself had a pretty fair shot, just as they began to move off. I am well
convinced I shot one through; the one he shot dropped his gun, mine had
none."
[Illustration: CAPTURE OF BOONE'S DAUGHTER.]
"The place was very thick with cane; and being so much elated on
recovering the three little broken-hearted girls, prevented our making
any further search. We sent them off without moccasins, and not one of
them with so much as a knife or a tomahawk."
Although the people of the little colony of Boonesborough were not
aware of the fact at the time, the marauding Indians who thus captured
Miss Boone and the Misses Callaway, as they were amusing themselves by
paddling about the foot of the rock in the canoe, were one of the many
scouting parties of Indians who were scattered about watching all the
different settlements in Kentucky, and preparing to attack them. The
incident of the capture of the girls spread an alarm, and guards were
stationed to defend the hands who were engaged in cultivating the
ground.
Toward autumn the alarm of Indian hostilities, and the knowledge that
war was raging throughout the Colonies east of the mountains, excited
so much alarm, that some three hundred land speculators and other
adventurers deserted the Western country and returned to their old
homes.[29]
With the exception of the capture of the young girls mentioned
above, no incident is recorded as having disturbed the tranquility of
Boonesborough during the year 1776. An occasional immigrant added a new
member to its little society, who assisted in the labors of the hardy
colonists on the surrounding grounds. But its numbers received no
considerable increase till the following summer, when (25th July, 1777,)
a party of immigrants from North Carolina, consisting of forty-five men,
arrived in the country, and took up their first abode in the wilderness
at Boonesborough.
This was a fortunate circumstance for that station, and great cause of
rejoicing among all the settlements, for there were none of them that
had not been much molested by the Indians since the opening of spring,
and one or two of them had undergone long and regular Indian sieges.
Boonesborough had been surrounded by about one hundred of the enemy,
as early as the middle of April, 1777, and fiercely attacked. But the
Indians were so warmly received by the garrison on this occasion, that
they in a very little time withdrew, having killed one of the settlers,
and wounded four others. Their own loss could not be ascertained.
Increased to two hundred warriors, this party had returned to the attack
of Boonesborough on the fourth of July.[30] On the present occasion,
having sent detachments to alarm and annoy the neighboring settlements,
in order that no reinforcements should be sent to Boonesborough, the
Indians encamped about the place, with the object of attempting its
reduction by a regular siege. After a close and vigorous attack for two
days and nights, in which they succeeded in killing but one man and
wounding four others, the Indians, losing all hope of success, suddenly,
and with great clamor, raised the siege, and disappeared in the adjacent
forest. Their own loss was seven warriors, whose fall was noted from the
fort.
After this attack, Boonesborough was disturbed no more by the Indians
during the year. Had it been after the arrival of the immigrants above
referred to, it would, in all probability, have taught its indefatigable
enemies a lesson such as they had never then received at the hands of
the Kentuckians.
But notwithstanding these two considerable attacks, and the "signs"
of Indians in the surrounding forests for the whole summer, the men
continued to clear the lands adjacent to the Station, and to cultivate
corn and garden vegetables, some always keeping a vigilant look-out
while the others labored. For supplies of meat they depended upon the
forests, each of the men taking his turn as a hunter, at great hazard.
Meantime, the other settlements in Kentucky had suffered attacks
from the Indians. Logan's Fort was invested by a force of one hundred
Indians on the 20th of May, 1777, and after sustaining a vigorous
siege for several days, was finally relieved by the timely arrival of
a reinforcement commanded by Colonel Bowman. On the 7th of March, 1777,
the fort at Harrodsburg, then called Harrodstown, was assailed by a body
of Indians, but they were speedily driven off, one of their number being
killed. The whites had four men wounded, one of whom afterward died of
his wounds.
[Footnote 25: Peck. "Life of Daniel Boone."]
[Footnote 26: Butler. "History of Kentucky."]
[Footnote 27: Peck. "Life of Daniel Boone."]
[Footnote 28: Mr. Peck mentions the spring of 1776, as the date of the
arrival at Boonesborough of Colonel Richard Callaway, and an intimate
friend of Boone, with his family, and the family of Benjamin Logan, who
had returned for them the preceding autumn.]
[Footnote 29: Peck.]
[Footnote 30: Gallagher.]