post of Detroit, the Western head-quarters of the British government.
Pontiac was personally to strike the first blow. The rendezvous of his
painted and armed warriors was to be the banks of the little river
Ecorces, which empties into the Detroit River a few miles below the
Fort, now the city of Detroit. It was April 27th when the assembled
warriors listened to the final war-speech of the great chief.
Pontiac was an orator of a high order, fierce and impassioned in style.
He presented at length the injustice of the British as compared with
that of the French; he set forth the danger to his race from the
threatened supremacy of the British power; he predicted the awakening of
"their great father the King of France," during whose sleep the English
had robbed the Indian of his American possessions. In passionate appeals
he aroused the vengeance and superstition of his people and warned them
that the white man's civilization was poisoning and annihilating the red
race. In his dramatic way he related to the superstitious Indians a
dream wherein the Great Spirit sent his message that they were to cast
aside the weapons, the utensils of civilization, and the "deadly rum" of
the white men, and, with aid from the Great Spirit, drive the dogs in
red from every post in their (Indian) country. He revealed his plans of
destruction of the whites and the details of the plot to secure Detroit.
He and a few of his chosen chiefs were to visit the Fort, under pretence
of a peaceful visit, gain admittance, seek audience with Major Henry
Gladwyn, the commandant, and his officers, and then at an agreed signal
the chiefs were to draw their weapons, previously concealed beneath
their blankets, raise the war-whoop, rush upon the officers and strike
them down.
The Indian forces waiting meanwhile at the gate were then to assail the
surprised and half-armed soldiers. Thus through this perfidious murder
Detroit would fall an easy prey to the savages and Pontiac's conspiracy
have a successful inauguration. His plan was approved. Just below
Detroit, on the same side of the river, was a Pottawottomi village;
across the river some three miles up the current was an Ottawa village;
on the same eastern side about a mile below Detroit was the Wyandot
village. Along each side of the river for two or three miles were houses
of the French settlers. "The king and lord of all this country," as
Major Rogers called Pontiac, had located one of his homes, where he
spent the early summer, on a little island (Île à Pêche) at the opening
of Lake St. Clair. Here he had a small oven-shaped cabin of bark and
rushes. Here he dwelt with his squaws and children, and here doubtless
he might often have been seen, lounging, Indian style, half naked, on a
rush mat or bear-skin.
The number of warriors under the command of Pontiac is variously
estimated from six hundred to two thousand. The garrison consisted of
one hundred twenty soldiers, eight officers, and about forty others
capable of bearing arms. Two armed schooners, The Beaver and The
Gladwyn, were anchored in the river near the Fort. Pontiac's plot was
revealed to Gladwyn the night before its proposed execution by an Ojibwa
girl from the Pottawottomi village.[50] Gladwyn, thus warned, was
forearmed. Pontiac and his six chiefs were admitted to the
council-chamber. Pontiac began the harangue of peace and friendly
palaver and was about to give the preconcerted signal when Gladwyn
raised his hand and the sound of clashing arms and drum-beating was
heard without. Pontiac feared he was foiled, and announcing that he
would "call again," next time with his squaws and children, he and his
party withdrew.
The next morning, Pontiac, in hopes of regaining Gladwyn's confidence,
repaired to the Fort with but three of his chiefs, and bearing in his
hand the pipe of peace. Offering it to Gladwyn he again protested his
friendship for the British, whom he declared "we love as our brothers."
A few days later, the Indians thronged the open field behind the Fort
gate. It was closed and barred. Pontiac, advancing, demanded admittance.
Gladwyn replied that he might enter, but only alone. The great chief,
baffled and enraged, then "threw off the mask he had so long worn" and
boldly declared his intention to make war. A day or two later the four
tribes, Ottawas, Ojibwas, Pottawottomis, and Wyandots, clamored about
the Fort, and the attack was begun by volleys of bullets fired at the
palisade walls. Thus opened the famous siege of Detroit, which lasted
six months, from May 1 to November 1 (1763), one of the longest and most
bitterly contested sieges in the history of Western Indian warfare.
The incomparable treachery of Pontiac in endeavoring to secure the Fort
by dissemblance of friendship was further evidenced by his pretence at a
truce. Pontiac declaring his earnest desire for "firm and lasting
peace," requested Gladwyn to send to the camp of the chief, Captain
Campbell, Gladwyn's second in command, a veteran officer and most
upright and manly in character. Campbell went, was made prisoner, and
subsequently was foully and hideously murdered. Pontiac neglected no
expedient known to Indian perfidy, cruelty, or deviltry. He surpassed
his race in all the detestable elements of their nature. His conduct
from first to last was only calculated to create distrust, contempt, and
loathing. His warriors murdered the British settlers in the vicinity of
the Fort, burned their huts, robbed the Canadians, and committed every
variety of depredation.
Pontiac, realizing the seriousness of the situation and the obstinate
courage of the British garrison, prepared for a lengthy campaign. He
ordered the Ottawa village moved across the river to the Detroit side,
where it was located about a mile and a half northeast of the Fort, at
the mouth of Parent's Creek, afterward known as Bloody Run.
The garrison bravely and patiently withstood all assaults and bided the
time of rescue. By midnight sallies and other expedients they removed
all exterior buildings, fences, trees, and other obstacles that lay
within the range of their guns or that might afford protection to
sneaking and stealthy Indians who would crawl snakelike close to the
palisade and fire at the sentinels and loop-holes, or shoot their arrows
tipped with burning tow upon the roofs of the structures within the
Fort. Fortunately the supply of water was inexhaustible; the provisions
were wisely husbanded; friendly Canadians across the river, under cover
of night, brought supplies.
These Canadian farmers were also subject to tribute to the Indians, who
seized their supplies by theft or open violence. They appealed to
Pontiac, and about the only creditable act recorded of that perfidious
chief was his agreement to make restitution to the robbed settlers.
Pontiac gave them in payment for their purloined property promissory
notes drawn on birch-bark and signed with the figure of an otter--the
totem to which he belonged--all of which promises to pay, it is said,
were redeemed.
Day after day passed with varying incidents of attack and repulse. The
keen-eyed watchfulness of the Indians never for an instant abated; their
vigils were tireless and ceaseless; woe to the soldier who ventured
without the Fort or even lifted his head above the palisade. Pontiac's
patience was strengthened with the delusive idea that the French were
only temporarily defeated and would rally to his assistance. He even
despatched messengers across the interior to the French commandant,
Neyon, at Fort Chartres on the Mississippi, requesting that French
troops be sent without delay to his aid. Meanwhile Gladwyn had sent one
of his schooners to Fort Niagara to hasten promised reënforcements from
the British.
Lieutenant Cuyler had already (May 13th) left Niagara with convoy of
seven boats, ninety-six men, and quantities of supplies and ammunition.
This little fleet coasted along the northern shore of Lake Erie until
near the mouth of the Detroit River. The force attempted to land, when a
band of Wyandot Indians suddenly burst from the woods, seized five of
the boats, and killed or captured sixty of the soldiers. Cuyler with the
remaining men (thirty-six), many of whom were wounded, escaped in the
other boats and crossed to Fort Sandusky, which they found had been
taken and burned by the Wyandots; the garrison had been slaughtered and
Ensign Paully sent prisoner to Pontiac's camp. Cuyler with his escaping
companions slowly wended his way back, where he reported the result of
his expedition to the commanding officer, Major Wilkins.
At the same time the Wyandots, with the captured boats and prisoners,
proceeded up the Detroit to Pontiac's quarters, arriving in full sight
of the Fort's garrison, when Gladwyn, of course, learned of the
destruction of the Cuyler flotilla. The disappointment to the inmates of
the Fort was almost unbearable. Gladwyn's schooner, however, reached
Fort Niagara and returned about July 1st, laden with food, ammunition,
and reënforcements, and the most welcome news of the Treaty of Paris.
Pontiac, undismayed, continued his efforts. His forces now numbered, it
is recorded, about eight hundred twenty warriors: two hundred fifty
Ottawas, his own tribe and under his immediate command; one hundred
fifty Pottawottomis, under Ninivay; fifty Wyandots, under Takee; two
hundred Ojibwas, under Wasson; and one hundred seventy of the same
tribe, under Sekahos.
The two schooners were a serious menace to the movements of the Indians,
and many desperate attempts were made to burn them by midnight attacks,
and the floating of fire-rafts down upon them; but all to no avail.
Pontiac had the stubborn persistency of a later American general who
said he would fight it out on that line if it took all summer. He
exerted himself with fresh zeal to gain possession of the Fort. He
demanded the surrender of Gladwyn, saying a still greater force of
Indians was on the march to swell the army of besiegers. Gladwyn was
equally tenacious and unyielding; he proposed to "hold the fort" till
the enemy were worn out or reënforcements arrived. Pontiac sought to
arouse the active aid of the neighboring Canadians, but the Treaty of
Paris had made them British subjects, and they dared not war on their
conquerors. History scarcely furnishes a like instance of so large an
Indian force struggling so long in an attack on a fortified place.
The Wyandots and Pottawottomis, however, never as enthusiastic in this
war as the other tribes, late in July decided to withdraw from the
besieging confederacy and make peace with the British. They did so, and
exchanged prisoners with Gladwyn. The Ottawas and Ojibwas, however,
still held on, watching the Fort and keeping up a desultory fusillade.
The end was drawing nigh. On July 29th, Captain James Dalzell arrived
from Niagara with artillery supplies and two hundred eighty men in
twenty-two barges. Their approach to the Fort was bravely contested by
the combined Indian forces, even the Wyandots and Pottawottomis breaking
their treaty and treacherously joining in the assault. Dalzell's troops
entered the Fort, and he proposed an immediate sortie. Dalzell was
bravery personified, and he had fought with Israel Putnam.
On the morning after his arrival (July 31st) at two o'clock, he led a
force of two hundred fifty men out of the Fort. They silently in the
darkness marched along the river toward the Ottawa village just across
Parent's Creek. The Indians were prepared and had ambuscaded both sides
of the road. They were, Indian fashion, secreted behind trees and fences
and Canadian houses. Their presence was not discovered till the van of
Dalzell's column reached the bridge over the creek, when a terrible fire
was opened upon the soldiers from all sides. It was still dark; the
Indians could not be seen.
A panic ensued. The troops in disorder retreated amid an awful
slaughter. Dalzell himself was killed, and Major Robert Rogers assumed
command, and the fleeing soldiers were only spared from total
destruction by two of the British boats coming to the rescue. About
sixty men were killed or wounded. It was known as the Battle of Bloody
bridge. Upon the retreating into the Fort of Major Rogers' survivors the
siege was renewed. Pontiac was greatly encouraged over this victory, and
his Indians showed renewed zeal. The schooner Gladwyn was sent to
Niagara for help. On its return, it was attacked and its crew and
supplies practically destroyed. Another relief expedition under Major
Wilkins in September was overwhelmed in a lake storm and seventy
soldiers were drowned.
But even Indian persistency began to tire. The realization that the
French were beaten and time only would bring victory to the British led
all the tribes, except the Ottawas, to sue for peace. This was on
October 12th. Pontiac could only hold his own tribe in line. The Ottawas
sustained their hostility until October 30th, when a French messenger
arrived from Neyon, who reported to Pontiac that he must expect no help
from the French, as they were now completely and permanently at peace
with the British.[51] Pontiac was advised to quit the war at once. His
cause was doomed. The great chief who had so valiantly and unremittently
fought for six months suddenly raised the siege and retired into the
country of the Maumee, where he vainly endeavored to arouse the Miamis
and neighboring tribes to another war upon the invading British.
Though the memorable siege of Detroit, personally conducted by Pontiac,
ended in failure to the great chief, his conspiracy elsewhere met with
unparalleled success. The British posts planned to be simultaneously
attacked and destroyed by the savages were some dozen in number,
including besides Detroit, St. Joseph, Michilimackinac, Ouiatenon,
Sandusky, Miami, Presqu'île, Niagara, Le Boeuf, Venango, Fort Pitt,
and one or two others of lesser importance. Of all the posts from
Niagara and Pitt westward, Detroit alone was able to survive the
conspiracy. For the rest "there was but one unvaried tale of calamity
and ruin." It was a continued series of disasters to the white men. The
victories of the savages marked a course of blood from the Alleghanies
to the Mississippi.
On May 16, 1763, the Wyandots surrounded Fort Sandusky, and under
pretence of a friendly visit several of them well known to Ensign
Paully, the commander, were admitted. While smoking the pipe of peace
the treacherous and trusted Indians suddenly arose, seized Paully, and
held him prisoner while their tribesmen killed the sentry, entered the
fort, and in cold blood murdered and scalped the little band of
soldiers. The traders in the post were likewise killed and their stores
plundered. The stockade was fired and burned to the ground. Paully was
taken to Detroit where he was "adopted" as the husband of an old
widowed squaw, from whose affectionate toils he finally escaped to his
friends in the Detroit Fort.
St. Joseph was located at the mouth of the river St. Joseph, near the
southern end of Lake Michigan.[52] Ensign Schlosser was in command with
a mere handful of soldiers, fourteen in number. On the morning of May
25th the commander was informed that a large "party" of Pottawottomis
had arrived from Detroit "to visit their relations," and the chief
(Washashe) and three or four of his followers wished to hold a "friendly
talk" with the commander. Disarmed of suspicion, the commander-ensign
admitted the callers; the result is the oft-repeated story. The entering
Indians rushed to the gate, tomahawked the sentinel, let in their
associates, who instantly pounced upon the garrison, killed eleven of
the soldiers, plundered the fort, and later carried Schlosser and his
three surviving companions captives to Detroit.
Fort Michilimackinac was the most important point on the Upper Lakes,
commanding as it did the Straits of Mackinac, the passage from Lake
Huron into Lake Michigan. Great numbers of the Chippewas (Ojibwas), in
the last of May, began to assemble in the vicinity of the fort, but with
every indication of friendliness. June 4th was King George's birthday.
It must be celebrated with pastimes. The discipline of the garrison,
some thirty-five in number, was relaxed. Many squaws were admitted as
visitors into the fort, while their "braves" engaged in their favorite
game of ball just outside the garrison entrance. It was a spirited
contest between the Ojibwas and Sacs.
Captain George Etherington, commander of the fort, and his lieutenant,
Leslie, stood without the palisades to watch the sport. Suddenly the
ball was thrown near the open gate and behind the two officers. The
Indians pretending to rush for the ball instantly encircled and seized
Etherington and Leslie, and crowded their way into the fort, where the
squaws supplied them with tomahawks and hatchets, which they had carried
in, hidden under their blankets. Quick as a flash, the instruments of
death were gleaming in the sunlight, and Lieutenant Jamet and fifteen
soldiers and a trader were struck down, never to rise. The rest of the
garrison were made prisoners and five of them afterward tomahawked. All
of the peaceful traders were plundered and carried off. The prisoners
were conveyed to Montreal. The French population of the post was
undisturbed. Captain Etherington succeeded in sending timely warning to
the little garrison at La Baye; Lieutenant Gorrell, the commandant, and
his men were brought as prisoners to the Michilimackinac fort and thence
sent with Etherington and Leslie to the Canadian capital. The little
post of Ste. Marie (the Sault) had been partially destroyed and
abandoned. The garrison inmates had withdrawn to Michilimackinac and
shared its fate.
The garrison at Ouiatenon situated on the Wabash (Indian _Ouabache_),
near the present location of Lafayette (Indiana), then in the very heart
of the Western forest, as planned, was to have been massacred on June
1st. Through the information given by the French at the post, the
soldiers were apprised of their intended fate, and, through the
intervention of the same French friends, the Indians were dissuaded from
executing their sanguinary purpose. Lieutenant Jenkins and several of
his men were made prisoners by stratagem; the remainder of the garrison
readily surrendered.
On the present site of Fort Wayne (Indiana) was Fort Miami,[53] at the
confluence of the Rivers St. Joseph and St. Mary, which unite to form
the Maumee. The fort at this time was in charge of Ensign Holmes. On May
27th the commander was decoyed from the Fort by the story of an Indian
girl, that a squaw lay dangerously ill in a wigwam near the stockade,
and needed medical assistance. The humane Holmes, forgetting his caution
on an errand of mercy, walked without the gate and was instantly shot
dead. The soldiers in the palisades, seeing the corpse of their leader
and hearing the yells and whoopings of the exultant Indians, offered no
resistance, admitted the red men and gladly surrendered on promise of
having their lives spared.
Fort Presqu'île stood on the southern shore of Lake Erie at the site of
the present town of Erie. The block-house, an unusually strong and
commodious one, was in command of Ensign Christie, with a courageous and
skilful garrison of twenty-seven men. Christie, learning of the attack
on the other posts, "braced up" for his "visit from the hell-hounds" as
he appropriately called the enemy. He had not long to wait. On June 15th
about two hundred of them put in an appearance from Detroit. They sprang
into the ditch around the fort, and with reckless audacity approached to
the very walls and threw fire-balls of pitch upon the roof and sides of
the fortress. Again and again the wooden retreat was on fire, but amid
showers of bullets and arrows the flames were extinguished by the
fearless soldiers.
The savages rolled logs before the fort and erected strong breastworks,
from behind which they could discharge their shots and throw their
fire-balls. For nearly three days a terrific contest ensued. The savages
finally undermined the palisades to the house of Christie, which was at
once set on fire, nearly stifling the garrison with the smoke and heat,
for Christie's quarters were close to the block-house. Longer resistance
was vain, "the soldiers, pale and haggard, like men who had passed
through a fiery furnace, now issued from their scorched and
bullet-pierced stronghold." The surrendering soldiers were taken to
Pontiac's quarters on the Detroit River.
Three days after the attack on Presqu'île, Fort le Boeuf, twelve miles
south on Le Boeuf Creek, one of the head sources of the Allegheny
River, was surrounded and burned. Ensign Price and a garrison of
thirteen men miraculously escaped the flames and the encircling savages
and endeavored to reach Fort Pitt. About half of them succeeded; the
remainder died of hunger and privation by the way.
Fort Venango, still farther south, on the Allegheny River, was captured
by a band of Senecas, who gained entrance by resorting to the
oft-employed treachery of pretending friendliness. The entire garrison
was butchered, Lieutenant Gordon, the commander, being slowly tortured
to death, and the fort was burned to the ground. Not a soul escaped to
tell the horrible tale.
Fort Ligonier, another small post, commanded by Lieutenant Archibald
Blane, forty miles southeast of Fort Pitt, was attacked but successfully
held out till relieved by Bouquet's expedition.
Thus within a period of about a month from the time the first blow was
struck at Detroit, Pontiac was in full possession of nine out of the
twelve posts, so recently belonging to and, it was thought, securely
occupied by the British. The fearful threat of the great Ottawa
conspirator that he would exterminate the whites west of the Alleghanies
was wellnigh fulfilled. Over two hundred traders with their servants
fell victims to his remorseless march of slaughter and rapine, and goods
estimated at over half a million dollars became the spoils of the
confederated tribes.
The result of Pontiac's widespread and successful uprising struck untold
terror to the settlers along the Western frontier of Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Virginia. The savages, roused to the highest pitch of fury
and weltering in the blood of their victims, were burning the cabins and
crops of the defenceless whites and massacring the men, women, and
children. Many hundreds of the forest-dwellers with their families
flocked to the stockades and protected posts. Particularly in the
Pennsylvania country did dread and consternation prevail. The
frontiersmen west of the Alleghanies fled east over the mountains to
Carlisle, Lancaster, and numbers even continued their flight to
Philadelphia. Pontiac was making good his threat that he would drive the
pale-faces back to the sea.
But Forts Niagara and Pitt were still in the possession of the
"red-coats," as the British soldiers were often called by the forest
"redskins." Following the total destruction of Le Boeuf and Venango,
the Senecas made an attack on Fort Niagara, an extensive work on the
east side of Niagara River, near its mouth as it empties into Lake
Ontario. This fort guarded the access to the whole interior country by
way of Canada and the St. Lawrence. The fort was strongly built and
fortified and was far from the centre of the country of the warpath
Indians, for, with the exception of the Senecas, the Iroquois tribes
inhabiting Eastern Canada and New York did not participate in Pontiac's
conspiracy. The attack on Fort Niagara, therefore, was half-hearted, and
after a feeble effort the besiegers despaired of success or assistance
and abandoned the blockade, which only lasted a few days.