PRESIDENTIAL EDITION
THE WINNING OF THE WEST
BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
VOLUME TWO
FROM THE ALLEGHANIES TO THE MISSISSIPPI 1777-1783
WITH MAPS
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH HIS PERMISSION TO
FRANCIS PARKMAN
TO WHOM AMERICANS WHO FEEL A PRIDE IN THE PIONEER HISTORY OF THEIR
COUNTRY ARE SO GREATLY INDEBTED
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.--THE WAR IN THE NORTHWEST, 1777-1778.
II.--CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE ILLINOIS, 1778.
III.--CLARK'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST VINCENNES, 1779.
IV.--CONTINUANCE OF THE STRUGGLE IN KENTUCKY AND THE NORTHWEST,
1779-1781.
V.--THE MORAVIAN MASSACRE, 1779-1782.
VI.--THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CONQUERED FRENCH SETTLEMENTS, 1779-1783.
VII.--KENTUCKY UNTIL THE END OF THE REVOLUTION, 1782-1783.
VIII.--THE HOLSTON SETTLEMENTS, 1777-1779.
IX--KING'S MOUNTAIN, 1780.
X.--THE HOLSTON SETTLEMENTS TO THE END OF THE REVOLUTION, 1781-1783.
XI.--ROBERTSON FOUNDS THE CUMBERLAND SETTLEMENT, 1779-1780.
XII.--THE CUMBERLAND SETTLEMENTS TO THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION,
1781-1783.
XIII.--WHAT THE WESTERNERS HAD DONE DURING THE REVOLUTION.
APPENDICES:
APPENDIX A--To CHAPTER I.
APPENDIX B--To CHAPTER II.
APPENDIX C--To CHAPTER III.
APPENDIX D--To CHAPTER IV.
APPENDIX E--To CHAPTER VII.
APPENDIX F--To CHAPTER VII.
APPENDIX G--To CHAPTER X.
APPENDIX H--To CHAPTER XII.
APPENDIX I--To CHAPTER XIII.
APPENDIX J--To CHAPTER XIII.
INDEX
[Illustration: The Colonies in 1774, when the First Continental Congress
assembled. The heavy line marks roughly the extension of population
westward. Based on a map by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.]
[Illustration: The States in 1783, when peace was declared. Based on a
map by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.]
CHAPTER I.
THE WAR IN THE NORTHWEST, 1777-1778.
The Tribes Hold Councils at Detroit.
In the fall of 1776 it became evident that a formidable Indian war was
impending. At Detroit great councils were held by all the northwestern
tribes, to whom the Six Nations sent the white belt of peace, that they
might cease their feuds and join against the Americans. The
later councils were summoned by Henry Hamilton, the British
lieutenant-governor of the northwestern region, whose head-quarters were
at Detroit. He was an ambitious, energetic, unscrupulous man, of bold
character, who wielded great influence over the Indians; and the conduct
of the war in the west, as well as the entire management of frontier
affairs, was intrusted to him by the British Government. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. Sir Guy Carleton to Hamilton, September 26, 1777.] He had
been ordered to enlist the Indians on the British side, and have them
ready to act against the Americans in the spring; [Footnote: _Do_.,
Carleton to Hamilton, October 6, 1776.] and accordingly he gathered the
tribes together. He himself took part in the war-talks, plying the
Indians with presents and fire-water no less than with speeches and
promises. The headmen of the different tribes, as they grew excited,
passed one another black, red or bloody, and tomahawk belts, as tokens
of the vengeance to be taken on their white foes. One Delaware chief
still held out for neutrality, announcing that if he had to side with
either set of combatants it would be with the "buckskins," or
backwoodsmen, and not with the red-coats; but the bulk of the warriors
sympathized with the Half King of the Wyandots when he said that the
Long Knives had for years interfered with the Indians' hunting, and that
now at last it was the Indians' turn to threaten revenge. [Footnote: "Am.
Archives," 1st Series, Vol. II., p. 517. There were several councils
held at Detroit during this fall, and it is difficult--and not very
important--to separate the incidents that occurred at each. Some took
place before Hamilton arrived, which, according to his "brief account,"
was November 9th. He asserts that he did not send out war parties until
the following June; but the testimony seems conclusive that he was
active in instigating hostility from the time of his arrival.]
Lt-Gov. Henry Hamilton. Scalp Buying.
Hamilton was for the next two years the mainspring of Indian hostility
to the Americans in the northwest. From the beginning he had been
anxious to employ the savages against the settlers, and when the home
government bade him hire them he soon proved himself very expert, as
well as very ruthless, in their use. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Germaine
to Carlton, March 26, 1777.] He rapidly acquired the venomous hatred of
the backwoodsmen, who held him in peculiar abhorrence, and nicknamed him
the "hair-buyer" general, asserting that he put a price on the scalps of
the Americans. This allegation may have been untrue as affecting
Hamilton personally; he always endeavored to get the war parties to
bring in prisoners, and behaved well to the captives when they were in
his power; nor is there any direct evidence that he himself paid out
money for scalps. But scalps were certainly bought and paid for at
Detroit; [Footnote: See the "American Pioneer," I., 292, for a very
curious account of an Indian, who by dividing a large scalp into two got
fifty dollars for each half at Detroit.] and the commandant himself was
accustomed to receive them with formal solemnity at the councils held to
greet the war parties when they returned from successful
raids. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS; _passim;_ also Heckewelder, etc.] The
only way to keep the friendship of the Indians was continually to give
them presents; these presents were naturally given to the most
successful warriors; and the scalps were the only safe proofs of a
warrior's success. Doubtless the commandant and the higher British
officers generally treated the Americans humanely when they were brought
into contact with them; and it is not likely that they knew, or were
willing to know, exactly what the savages did in all cases. But they at
least connived at the measures of their subordinates. These were
hardened, embittered, men who paid for the zeal of their Indian allies
accordingly as they received tangible proof thereof; in other words,
they hired them to murder non-combatants as well as soldiers, and paid
for each life, of any sort, that was taken. The fault lay primarily with
the British Government, and with those of its advisers who, like
Hamilton, advocated the employment of the savages. They thereby became
participants in the crimes committed; and it was idle folly for them to
prate about having bidden the savages be merciful. The sin consisted in
having let them loose on the borders; once they were let loose it was
absolutely impossible to control them. Moreover, the British sinned
against knowledge; for some of their highest and most trusted officers
on the frontier had written those in supreme command, relating the
cruelties practised by the Indians upon the defenceless, and urging that
they should not be made allies, but rather that their neutrality only
should be secured. [Footnote: E. g. in Haldimand MSS. Lieut.-Gov. Abbott
to General Carleton, June 8, 1778.] The average American backwoodsman
was quite as brutal and inconsiderate a victor as the average British
officer; in fact, he was in all likelihood the less humane of the two;
but the Englishman deliberately made the deeds of the savage his own.
Making all allowance for the strait in which the British found
themselves, and admitting that much can be said against their accusers,
the fact remains that they urged on hordes of savages to slaughter men,
women, and children along the entire frontier; and for this there must
ever rest a dark stain on their national history.
Hamilton organized a troop of white rangers from among the French,
British, and Tories at Detroit. They acted as allies of the Indians, and
furnished leaders to them. Three of these leaders were the tories McKee,
Elliot, and Girty, who had fled together from Pittsburg [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. Hamilton's letter, April 25. 1778. "April the 20th-Edward
Hayle (who had undertaken to carry a letter from me to the Moravian
Minister at Kushayhking) returned, having executed his commission--he
brought me a letter & newspapers from Mr. McKee who was Indian Agent for
the Crown and has been a long time in the hands of the Rebels at Fort
Pitt, at length has found means to make his escape with three other men,
two of the name of Girty (mentioned in Lord Dunmore's list) interpreters
& Matthew Elliott the young man who was last summer sent down from this
place a prisoner.--This last person I am informed has been at New York
since he left Quebec, and probably finding the change in affairs
unfavourable to the Rebels, has slipp'd away to make his peace here.
"23d--Hayle went off again to conduct them all safe through the Villages
having a letter & Wampum for that purpose. Alexander McKee is a man of
good character, and has great influence with the Shawanese is well
acquainted with the country & can probably give some useful
intelligence, he will probably reach this place in a few days."] they
all three warred against their countrymen with determined ferocity.
Girty won the widest fame on the border by his cunning and cruelty; but
he was really a less able foe than the two others. McKee in particular
showed himself a fairly good commander of Indians and irregular troops;
as did likewise an Englishman named Caldwell, and two French partisans,
De Quindre and Lamothe, who were hearty supporters of the British.
The British Begin a War of Extermination.
Hamilton and his subordinates, both red and white, were engaged in what
was essentially an effort to exterminate the borderers. They were not
endeavoring merely to defeat the armed bodies of the enemy. They were
explicitly bidden by those in supreme command to push back the frontier,
to expel the settlers from the country. Hamilton himself had been
ordered by his immediate official superior to assail the borders of
Pennsylvania and Virginia with his savages, to destroy the crops and
buildings of the settlers who had advanced beyond the mountains, and to
give to his Indian allies,--the Hurons, Shawnees, and other tribes,--all
the land of which they thus took possession. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.
Haldimand to Hamilton, August 6, 1778.] With such allies as Hamilton
had this order was tantamount to proclaiming a war of extermination,
waged with appalling and horrible cruelty against the settlers, of all
ages and sexes. It brings out in bold relief the fact that in the west
the war of the Revolution was an effort on the part of Great Britain to
stop the westward growth of the English race in America, and to keep the
region beyond the Alleghanies as a region where only savages should
dwell.
All the Northwestern Tribes go to War.
All through the winter of '76-77 the northwestern Indians were preparing
to take up the tomahawk. Runners were sent through the leafless, frozen
woods from one to another of their winter camps. In each bleak, frail
village, each snow-hidden cluster of bark wigwams, the painted,
half-naked warriors danced the war dance, and sang the war song, beating
the ground with their war clubs and keeping time with their feet to the
rhythmic chant as they moved in rings round the peeled post, into which
they struck their hatchets. The hereditary sachems, the peace chiefs,
could no longer control the young men. The braves made ready their
weapons and battle gear; their bodies were painted red and black, the
plumes of the war eagle were braided into their long scalp locks, and
some put on necklaces of bears' claws, and head-dresses made of panther
skin, or of the shaggy and horned frontlet of the buffalo. [Footnote:
For instances of an Indian wearing this buffalo cap, with the horns on,
see Kercheval and De Haas.]
Before the snow was off the ground the war parties crossed the Ohio and
fell on the frontiers from the Monongahela and Kanawha to the Kentucky.
[Footnote: State Department MSS. for 1777, _passim_. So successful were
the Indian chiefs in hoodwinking the officers at Fort Pitt that some of
the latter continued to believe that only three or four hundred Indians
had gone on the war path.]
On the Pennsylvanian and Virginian frontiers the panic was tremendous.
The people fled into the already existing forts, or hastily built
others; where there were but two or three families in a place, they
merely gathered into block-houses--stout log-cabins two stories high,
with loop-holed walls, and the upper story projecting a little over the
lower. The savages, well armed with weapons supplied them from the
British arsenals on the Great Lakes, spread over the country; and there
ensued all the horrors incident to a war waged as relentlessly against
the most helpless non-combatants as against the armed soldiers in the
field. Block-houses were surprised and burnt; bodies of militia were
ambushed and destroyed. The settlers were shot down as they sat by their
hearth-stones in the evening, or ploughed the ground during the day; the
lurking Indians crept up and killed them while they still-hunted the
deer, or while they lay in wait for the elk beside the well-beaten game
trails.
The captured women and little ones were driven off to the far interior.
The weak among them, the young children, and the women heavy with child,
were tomahawked and scalped as soon as their steps faltered. The
able-bodied, who could stand the terrible fatigue, and reached their
journey's end, suffered various fates. Some were burned at the stake,
others were sold to the French or British traders, and long afterwards
made their escape, or were ransomed by their relatives. Still others
were kept in the Indian camps, the women becoming the slaves or wives of
the warriors, [Footnote: Occasionally we come across records of the
women afterwards making their escape; very rarely they took their
half-breed babies with them. De Haas mentions one such case where the
husband, though he received his wife well, always hated the
copper-colored addition to his family; the latter, by the way, grew up a
thorough Indian, could not be educated, and finally ran away, joined the
Revolutionary army, and was never heard of afterwards.] while the
children were adopted into the tribe, and grew up precisely like their
little red-skinned playmates. Sometimes, when they had come to full
growth, they rejoined the whites; but generally they were enthralled by
the wild freedom and fascination of their forest life, and never forsook
their adopted tribesmen, remaining inveterate foes of their own color.
Among the ever-recurring: tragedies of the frontier, not the least
sorrowful was the recovery of these long-missing children by their
parents, only to find that they had lost all remembrance of and love for
their father and mother, and had become irreclaimable savages, who
eagerly grasped the first chance to flee from the intolerable
irksomeness and restraint of civilized life. [Footnote: For an instance
where a boy finally returned, see "Trans-Alleghany Pioneers," p. 119;
see also pp. 126, 132, 133, for instances of the capture and treatment
of whites by Indians.]
The Attack on Wheeling.
Among others, the stockade at Wheeling [Footnote: Fort Henry. For an
account of the siege, see De Haas, pp. 223-340. It took place in the
early days of September.] was attacked by two or three hundred Indians;
with them came a party of Detroit Rangers, marshalled by drum and fife,
and carrying the British colors. [Footnote The accounts of the different
sieges of Wheeling were first written down from the statements of the
pioneers when they had grown very aged. In consequence, there is much
uncertainty as to the various incidents. Thus there seems to be a doubt
whether Girty did or did not command the Indians in this first siege.
The frontiersmen hated Girty as they did no other man, and he was
credited with numerous actions done by other white leaders of the
Indians; the British accounts say comparatively little about him. He
seems to have often fought with the Indians as one of their own number,
while his associates led organized bands of rangers; he was thus more
often brought into contact with the frontiersmen, but was really hardly
as dangerous a foe to them as were one or two of his tory companions.]
Most of the men inside the fort were drawn out by a stratagem, fell into
an ambuscade, and were slain; but the remainder made good the defence,
helped by the women, who ran the lead into bullets, cooled and loaded
the guns, and even, when the rush was made, assisted to repel it by
firing through the loopholes. After making a determined effort to storm
the stockade, in which some of the boldest warriors were slain while
trying in vain to batter down the gates with heavy timbers, the baffled
Indians were obliged to retire discomfited. The siege was chiefly
memorable because of an incident which is to this day a staple theme for
story-telling in the cabins of the mountaineers. One of the leading men
of the neighborhood was Major Samuel McColloch, renowned along the
border as the chief in a family famous for its Indian fighters, the
dread and terror of the savages, many of whose most noted warriors he
slew, and at whose hands he himself, in the end, met his death. When
Wheeling was invested, he tried to break into it, riding a favorite old
white horse. But the Indians intercepted him, and hemmed him in on the
brink of an almost perpendicular slope, [Footnote: The hill overlooks
Wheeling; the slope has now much crumbled away, and in consequence has
lost its steepness.] some three hundred feet high. So sheer was the
descent that they did not dream any horse could go down it, and instead
of shooting they advanced to capture the man whom they hated. McColloch
had no thought of surrendering, to die by fire at the stake, and he had
as little hope of resistance against so many foes. Wheeling short round,
he sat back in the saddle, shifted his rifle into his right hand, reined
in his steed, and spurred him over the brink. The old horse never
faltered, but plunged headlong down the steep, boulder-covered,
cliff-broken slope. Good luck, aided by the wonderful skill of the rider
and the marvellous strength and sure-footedness of his steed, rewarded,
as it deserved, one of the most daring feats of horsemanship of which we
have any authentic record. There was a crash, the shock of a heavy body,
half springing, half falling, a scramble among loose rocks, and the
snapping of saplings and bushes; and in another moment the awe-struck
Indians above saw their unharmed foe, galloping his gallant white horse
in safety across the plain. To this day the place is known by the name
of McColloch's leap. [Footnote: In the west this feat is as well known as
is Putnam's similar deed in the north.]
In Virginia and Pennsylvania the Indian outrages meant only the
harassing of the borderers; in Kentucky they threatened the complete
destruction of the vanguard of the white advance and, therefore the
stoppage of all settlement west of the Alleghanies until after the
Revolutionary war, when very possibly the soil might not have been ours
to settle. Fortunately Hamilton did not yet realize the importance of
the Kentucky settlements, nor the necessity of crushing them, and during
1777 the war bands organized at Detroit were sent against the country
round Pittsburg; while the feeble forts in the far western wilderness
were only troubled by smaller war parties raised among the tribes on
their own account. A strong expedition, led by Hamilton in person, would
doubtless at this time have crushed them.
The Struggle in Kentucky.
As it was, there were still so few whites in Kentucky that they were
greatly outnumbered by the invading Indians. They were, in consequence,
unable to meet the enemy in the open field, and gathered in their
stations or forted villages. Therefore the early conflicts, for the most
part, took the form of sieges of these wooden forts. Such sieges, had
little in common with the corresponding operations of civilized armies.
The Indians usually tried to surprise a fort; if they failed, they
occasionally tried to carry it by open assault, or by setting fire to
it, but very rarely, indeed, beleaguered it in form. For this they
lacked both the discipline and the commissariat. Accordingly, if their
first rush miscarried, they usually dispersed in the woods to hunt, or
look for small parties of whites; always, however, leaving some of their
number to hover round the fort and watch any thing that took place.
Masters in the art of hiding, and able to conceal themselves behind a
bush, a stone, or a tuft of weeds, they skulked round the gate before
dawn, to shoot the white sentinels; or they ambushed the springs, and
killed those who came for water; they slaughtered all of the cattle that
had not been driven in, and any one venturing incautiously beyond the
walls was certain to be waylaid and murdered. Those who were thus hemmed
in the fort were obliged to get game on which to live; the hunters
accordingly were accustomed to leave before daybreak, travel eight or
ten miles, hunt all day at the risk of their lives, and return after
dark. Being of course the picked men of the garrison, they often eluded
the Indians, or slew them if an encounter took place, but very
frequently indeed they were themselves slain. The Indians always trusted
greatly to wiles and feints to draw their foes into their power. As ever
in this woodland fighting, their superiority in hiding, or taking
advantage of cover, counterbalanced the superiority of the whites as
marksmen; and their war parties were thus at least a match, man against
man, for the Kentuckians, though the latter, together with the Watauga
men, were the best woodsmen and fighters of the frontier. Only a very
few of the whites became, like Boon and Kenton, able to beat the best of
the savages at their own game.
The innumerable sieges that took place during the long years of Indian
warfare differed in detail, but generally closely resembled one another
as regards the main points. Those that occurred in 1777 may be
considered as samples of the rest; and accounts of these have been
preserved by the two chief actors, Boon and Clark. [Footnote: In Boon's
narrative, written down by Filson, and in Clark's diary, as given by
Morehead. The McAfee MSS. and Butler's history give some valuable
information. Boon asserts that at this time the "Long Knives" proved
themselves superior to their foe in almost every battle; but the facts
do not seem to sustain him, though the statement was doubtless true as
regards a few picked men. His estimates of the Indian numbers and losses
must be received with great caution.]
Boonsborough Attacked.
Boonsborough, which was held by twenty-two riflemen, was attacked twice,
once in April and again in July, on each occasion by a party of fifty or
a hundred warriors. [Footnote: Boon says April 15th and July 4th.
Clark's diary makes the first date April 24th. Boon says one hundred
Indians, Clark "40 or 50." Clark's account of the loss on both sides
agrees tolerably well with Boon's. Clark's diary makes the second attack
take place on May 23d. His dates are probably correct, as Boon must have
written only from memory.] The first time the garrison was taken by
surprise; one man lost his scalp, and four were wounded, including Boon
himself, who had been commissioned as captain in the county militia.
[Footnote: Two of the other wounded men were Captain John Todd and
Boon's old hunting companion, Stoner.] The Indians promptly withdrew
when they found they could not carry the fort by a sudden assault. On
the second occasion the whites were on their guard, and though they had
one man killed and two wounded (leaving but thirteen unhurt men in the
fort), they easily beat off the assailants, and slew half a dozen of
them. This time the Indians stayed round two days, keeping up a heavy
fire, under cover of which they several times tried to burn the fort.
[Footnote: Clark's diary.]
Logan's Adventures.
Logan's [Footnote: Boon says July 19th, Clark's diary makes it May 30th:
Clark is undoubtedly right; he gives the names of the man who was killed
and of the two who were wounded.] station at St. Asaphs was likewise
attacked; it was held by only fifteen gunmen. When the attack was made
the women, guarded by part of the men, were milking the cows outside the
fort. The Indians fired at them from the thick cane that still stood
near-by, killing one man and wounding two others, one mortally.
[Footnote: The name of the latter was Burr Harrison; he died a fortnight
afterward.--Clark.] The party, of course, fled to the fort, and on
looking back they saw their mortally wounded friend weltering on the
ground. His wife and family were within the walls; through the loopholes
they could see him yet alive, and exposed every moment to death. So
great was the danger that the men refused to go out to his rescue,
whereupon Logan alone opened the gate, bounded out, and seizing the
wounded man in his arms, carried him back unharmed through a shower of
bullets. The Indians continued to lurk around the neighborhood, and the
ammunition grew very scarce. Thereupon Logan took two companions and
left the fort at night to go to the distant settlements on the Holston,
where he might get powder and lead. He knew that the Indians were
watching the wilderness road, and trusting to his own hardiness and
consummate woodcraft, he struck straight out across the cliff-broken,
wood-covered mountains, sleeping wherever night overtook him, and
travelling all day long with the tireless speed of a wolf. [Footnote:
Not a fanciful comparison; the wolf is the only animal that an Indian or
a trained frontiersman cannot tire out in several days' travel.
Following a deer two days in light snow, I have myself gotten near
enough to shoot it without difficulty.] He returned with the needed
stores in ten days from the time he set out. These tided the people over
the warm months.
In the fall, when the hickories had turned yellow and the oaks deep red,
during the weeks of still, hazy weather that mark the Indian summer,
their favorite hunting season, [Footnote: Usually early in
November.--McAfee MSS.] the savages again filled the land, and Logan was
obliged to repeat his perilous journey. [Footnote: Marshall, 50.] He
also continually led small bands of his followers against the Indian
war--and hunting-parties, sometimes surprising and dispersing them, and
harassing them greatly. Moreover he hunted steadily throughout the year
to keep the station in meat, for the most skilful hunters were, in those
days of scarcity, obliged to spend much of their time in the chase.
Once, while at a noted game lick, [Footnote: These game licks were
common, and were of enormous extent. Multitudes of game, through
countless generations, had tramped the ground bare of vegetation, and
had made deep pits and channels with their hoofs and tongues. See McAfee
MSS. Sometimes the licks covered acres of ground, while the game trails
leading towards them through the wood were as broad as streets, even 100
feet wide. I have myself seen small game licks, the largest not a
hundred feet across, in the Selkirks, Coeur d'Alenes, and Bighorns, the
ground all tramped up by the hoofs of elk, deer, wild sheep, and white
goats, with deep furrows and hollows where the saline deposits existed.
In the Little Missouri Bad Lands there is so much mineral matter that no
regular licks are needed. As the game is killed off the licks become
overgrown and lost.] waiting for deer, he was surprised by the Indians,
and by their fire was wounded in the breast and had his right arm
broken. Nevertheless he sprang on his horse and escaped, though the
savages were so close that one, leaping at him, for a moment grasped the
tail of the horse. Every one of these pioneer leaders, from Clark and
Boon to Sevier and Robertson, was required constantly to expose his
life; each lost sons or brothers at the hands of the Indians, and each
thinned the ranks of the enemy with his own rifle. In such a primitive
state of society the man who led others was expected to show strength of
body no less than strength of mind and heart; he depended upon his
physical prowess almost as much as upon craft, courage, and headwork.
The founder and head of each little community needed not only a shrewd
brain and commanding temper, but also the thews and training to make him
excel as woodsman and hunter, and the heart and eye to enable him to
stand foremost in every Indian battle.
Clark Shares in the Defense of Kentucky.
Clark spent most of the year at Harrodstown, taking part in the defence
of Kentucky. All the while he was revolving in his bold, ambitious heart
a scheme for the conquest of the Illinois country, and he sent scouts
thither to spy out the land and report to him what they saw. The Indians
lurked round Harrodstown throughout the summer; and Clark and his
companions were engaged in constant skirmishes with them. Once, warned
by the uneasy restlessness of the cattle (who were sure to betray the
presence of Indians if they got sight or smell of them), they were able
to surround a party of ten or twelve, who were hidden in a tall clump of
weeds. The savages were intent on cutting off some whites who were
working in a turnip patch two hundred yards from the fort; Clark's party
killed three--he himself killing one,--wounded another, and sold the
plunder they took, at auction, for seventy pounds. At other times the
skirmishes resulted differently, as on the occasion chronicled by Clark
in his diary, when they "went out to hunt Indians; one wounded Squire
Boon and escaped." [Footnote: Clark's Diary, entry for July 9th.]
The corn was brought in from the cribs under guard; one day while
shelling a quantity, a body of thirty-seven whites were attacked, and
seven were killed or wounded, though the Indians were beaten off and two
scalps taken. In spite of this constant warfare the fields near the
forts were gradually cleared, and planted with corn, pumpkins, and
melons; and marrying and mirth-making went on within the walls. One of
Clark's scouts, shortly after returning from the Illinois, got married,
doubtless feeling he deserved some reward for the hardships he had
suffered; on the wedding night Clark remarks that there was "great
merriment." The rare and infrequent expresses from Pittsburg or
Williamsburg brought letters telling of Washington's campaigns, which
Clark read with absorbed interest. On the first of October, having
matured his plans for the Illinois campaign, he left for Virginia, to
see if he could get the government to help him put them into execution.
The Holston men Help Kentucky.
During the summer parties of backwoods militia from the Holston
settlements--both Virginians and Carolinians--came out to help the
Kentuckians in their struggle against the Indians; but they only stayed
a few weeks, and then returned home. In the fall, however, several
companies of immigrants came out across the mountains; and at the same
time the small parties of hunters succeeded in pretty well clearing the
woods of Indians. Many of the lesser camps and stations had been broken
up, and at the end of the year there remained only four--Boonsborough,
Harrodstown, Logan's station at St. Asaphs, and McGarry's, at the
Shawnee Springs. They contained in all some five or six hundred
permanent settlers, nearly half of them being able-bodied riflemen.
[Footnote: The McAfee MSS. give these four stations; Boon says there
were but three. He was writing from memory, however, and was probably
mistaken; thus he says there were at that time settlers at the Falls, an
evident mistake, as there were none there till the following year.
Collins, following Marshall, says there were at the end of the year only
one hundred and two men in Kentucky,--sixty-five at Harrodstown,
twenty-two at Boonsborough, fifteen at Logan's. This is a mistake based
on a hasty reading of Boon's narrative, which gives this number for
July, and particularly adds that after that data they began to
strengthen. In the McAfee MSS. is a census of Harrodstown for the fall
of 1777, which sums up: Men in service, 81; men not in service, 4;
women, 24; children above ten, 12; children under ten, 58; slaves above
ten, 12; slaves under ten, 7; total, 198. In October Clark in his diary
records meeting fifty men with their families, (therefore permanent
settlers), on their way to Boon, and thirty-eight men on their way to
Logan's. At the end of the year, therefore, Boonsborough and Harrodstown
must have held about two hundred souls apiece; Logan's and McGarry's
were considerably smaller. The large proportion of young children
testifies to the prolific nature of the Kentucky women, and also shows
the permanent nature of the settlements. Two years previously, in 1775,
there had been, perhaps, three hundred people in Kentucky, but very many
of them were not permanent residents.]
Boon Captured.
Early in 1778 a severe calamity befell the settlements. In January Boon
went, with twenty-nine other men, to the Blue Licks to make salt for the
different garrisons--for hitherto this necessary of life had been
brought in, at great trouble and expense, from the settlements.
[Footnote: See Clark's Diary, entry for October 25, 1777.] The following
month, having sent three men back with loads of salt, he and all the
others were surprised and captured by a party of eighty or ninety
Miamis, led by two Frenchmen, named Baubin and Lorimer. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. B., 122, p. 35. Hamilton to Carleton, April 25, 1778. He
says four-score Miamis.] When surrounded, so that there was no hope of
escape, Boon agreed that all should surrender on condition of being well
treated. The Indians on this occasion loyally kept faith. The two
Frenchmen were anxious to improve their capture by attacking
Boonsborough; but the fickle savages were satisfied with their success,
and insisted on returning to their villages. Boon was taken, first to
Old Chillicothe, the chief Shawnee town on the Little Miami, and then to
Detroit, where Hamilton and the other Englishmen treated him well, and
tried to ransom him for a hundred pounds sterling. However, the Indians
had become very much attached to him, and refused the ransom, taking
their prisoner back to Chillicothe. Here he was adopted into the tribe,
and remained for two months, winning the good-will of the Shawnees by
his cheerfulness and his skill as a hunter, and being careful not to
rouse their jealousy by any too great display of skill at the
shooting-matches.
Hamilton was urging the Indians to repeat their ravages of the preceding
year; Mingos, Shawnees, Delawares, and Miamis came to Detroit, bringing
scalps and prisoners. A great council was held at that post early in
June. [Footnote: _Do._, June 14, 1778.] All the northwestern tribes took
part, and they received war-belts from the Iroquois and messages calling
on them to rise as one man. They determined forthwith to fall on the
frontier in force. By their war parties, and the accompanying bands of
tories, Hamilton sent placards to be distributed among the frontiersmen,
endeavoring both by threat and by promise of reward, to make them desert
the patriot cause. [Footnote: Do., April 25, 1778.]
Boon Escapes and Makes a Foray.
In June a large war party gathered at Chillicothe to march against
Boonsborough, and Boon determined to escape at all hazards, so that he
might warn his mends. One morning before sunrise he eluded the vigilance
of his Indian companions and started straight through the woods for his
home where he arrived in four days, having had but one meal during the
whole journey of a hundred and sixty miles. [Footnote: Boon's
Narrative.]
On reaching Boonsborough he at once set about putting the fort in good
condition; and being tried by court-martial for the capture at the Blue
Licks, he was not only acquitted but was raised to the rank of major.
His escape had probably disconcerted the Indian war party, for no
immediate attack was made on the fort. After waiting until August he got
tired of the inaction, and made a foray into the Indian country himself
with nineteen men, defeating a small party of his foes on the Sciota. At
the same time he learned that the main body of the Miamis had at last
marched against Boonsborough. Instantly he retraced his steps with all
possible speed, passed by the Indians, and reached the threatened fort a
day before they did.
Boonsborough again Beseiged.
On the eighth day of the month the savages appeared before the stockade.
They were between three and four hundred in number, Shawnees and Miamis,
and were led by Captain Daigniau de Quindre, a noted Detroit partisan
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Aug. 17, 1778, Girty reports that four hundred
Indians have gone to attack "Fort Kentuck." Hamilton's letter of Sept.
16th speaks of there being three hundred Shawnees with de Quindre (whom
Boon calls Duquesne).]; with him were eleven other Frenchmen, besides
the Indian chiefs. They marched into view with British and French colors
flying, and formally summoned the little wooden fort to surrender in the
name of his Britannic Majesty. The negotiations that followed showed, on
the part of both whites and reds, a curious mixture of barbarian cunning
and barbarian childishness; the account reads as if it were a page of
Graeco-Trojan diplomacy. [Footnote: See Boon's Narrative.] Boon first got
a respite of two days to consider de Quindre's request, and occupied the
time in getting the horses and cattle into the fort. At the end of the
two days the Frenchman came in person to the walls to hear the answer to
his proposition; whereupon Boon jeered at him for his simplicity,
thanking him in the name of the defenders for having given them time to
prepare for defence, and telling him that now they laughed at his
attack. De Quindre, mortified at being so easily outwitted, set a trap
in his turn for Boon. He assured the latter that his orders from Detroit
were to capture, not to destroy, the garrison, and proposed that nine of
their number should come out and hold a treaty. The terms of the treaty
are not mentioned; apparently it was to be one of neutrality,
Boonsborough acting as if it were a little independent and sovereign
commonwealth, making peace on its own account with a particular set of
foes. At any rate, de Quindre agreed to march his forces peaceably off
when it was concluded.
Boon accepted the proposition, but, being suspicious of the good-faith
of his opponents, insisted upon the conference being held within sixty
yards of the fort. After the treaty was concluded the Indians proposed
to shake hands with the nine white treaty-makers, and promptly grappled
them. [Footnote: Apparently there were eighteen Indians on the treaty
ground, but these were probably, like the whites, unarmed.] However, the
borderers wrested themselves free, and fled to the fort under a heavy
fire, which wounded one of their number.
The Indians then attacked the fort, surrounding it on every side and
keeping up a constant fire at the loop-holes. The whites replied in
kind, but the combatants were so well covered that little damage was
done. At night the Indians pitched torches of cane and hickory bark
against the stockade, in the vain effort to set it on fire, [Footnote:
McAfee MSS.] and de Quindre tried to undermine the walls, starting from
the water mark. But Boon discovered the attempt, and sunk a trench as a
countermine. Then de Quindre gave up and retreated on August 20th, after
nine days' fighting, in which the whites had but two killed and four
wounded; nor was the loss of the Indians much heavier. [Footnote: De
Quindre reported to Hamilton that, though foiled, he had but two men
killed and three wounded. In Haldimand MSS., Hamilton to Haldimand,
October 15, 1778. Often, however, these partisan leaders merely reported
the loss in their own particular party of savages, taking no account of
the losses in the other bands that had joined them--as the Miamis joined
the Shawnees in this instance. But it is certain that Boon (or Filson,
who really wrote the Narrative) greatly exaggerated the facts in stating
that thirty-seven Indians were killed, and that the settlers picked up
125 pounds' weight of bullets which had been fired into the fort.]
This was the last siege of Boonsborough. Had de Quindre succeeded he
might very probably have swept the whites from Kentucky; but he failed,
and Boon's successful resistance, taken together with the outcome of
Clark's operations at the same time, ensured the permanency of the
American occupation. The old-settled region lying around the original
stations, or forts, was never afterwards seriously endangered by Indian
invasion.
Ferocious Individual Warfare.
The savages continued to annoy the border throughout the year 1778. The
extent of their ravages can be seen from the fact that, during the
summer months those around Detroit alone brought in to Hamilton
eighty-one scalps and thirty-four prisoners, [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.
Letter of Hamilton, September 16, 1778. Hamilton was continually sending
out small war parties; thus he mentions that on August 25th a party of
fifteen Miamis went out; on September 5th, thirty-one Miamis; on
September 9th, one Frenchman, five Chippewas, and fifteen Miamis, etc.]
seventeen of whom they surrendered to the British, keeping the others
either to make them slaves or else to put them to death with torture.
During the fall they confined themselves mainly to watching the Ohio and
the Wilderness road, and harassing the immigrants who passed along them.
[Footnote: McAfee MSS.]
Boon, as usual, roamed restlessly over the country, spying out and
harrying the Indian war parties, and often making it his business to
meet the incoming bands of settlers, and to protect and guide them on
the way to their intended homes. [Footnote: Marshall, 55.] When not on
other duty he hunted steadily, for game was still plentiful in Kentucky,
though fast diminishing owing to the wanton slaughter made by some of
the more reckless hunters. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] He met with many
adventures, still handed down by tradition, in the chase of panther,
wolf, and bear, of buffalo, elk, and deer. The latter he killed only
when their hides and meat were needed, while he followed unceasingly the
dangerous beasts of prey, as being enemies of the settlers.
Throughout these years the obscure strife, made up of the individual
contests of frontiersman and Indian, went on almost without a break. The
sieges, surprises, and skirmishes in which large bands took part were
chronicled; but there is little reference in the books to the countless
conflicts wherein only one or two men on a side were engaged. The west
could never have been conquered, in the teeth of so formidable and
ruthless a foe, had it not been for the personal prowess of the pioneers
themselves. Their natural courage and hardihood, and their long training
in forest warfare, [Footnote: The last point is important. No Europeans
could have held their own for a fortnight in Kentucky; nor is it likely
that the western men twenty years before, at the time of Braddock's war,
could have successfully colonized such a far-off country.] made them
able to hold their own and to advance step by step, where a peaceable
population would have been instantly butchered or driven off. No regular
army could have done what they did. Only trained woodsmen could have led
the white advance into the vast forest-clad regions, out of which so
many fair States have been hewn. The ordinary regular soldier was almost
as helpless before the Indians in the woods as he would have been if
blindfolded and opposed to an antagonist whose eyes were left uncovered.
Much the greatest loss, both to Indians and whites, was caused by this
unending personal warfare. Every hunter, almost every settler, was
always in imminent danger of Indian attack, and in return was ever
ready, either alone or with one or two companions, to make excursions
against the tribes for scalps and horses. One or two of Simon Kenton's
experiences during this year may be mentioned less for their own sake
than as examples of innumerable similar deeds that were done, and woes
that were suffered, in the course of the ceaseless struggle.
Simon Kenton's Adventures.
Kenton was a tall, fair-haired man of wonderful strength and agility;
famous as a runner and wrestler, an unerring shot, and a perfect
woodsman. Like so many of these early Indian fighters, he was not at all
bloodthirsty. He was a pleasant, friendly, and obliging companion; and
it was hard to rouse him to wrath. When once aroused, however, few were
so hardy as not to quail before the terrible fury of his anger. He was
so honest and unsuspecting that he was very easily cheated by sharpers;
and he died a poor man. He was a staunch friend and follower of Boon's.
[Footnote: See McClung's "Sketches of Western Adventure," pp. 86-117;
the author had received from Kenton, and other pioneers, when very old,
the tales of their adventures as young men. McClung's volume contains
very valuable incidental information about the customs of life among the
borderers,] and about Indian warfare; but he is a very inaccurate and
untrustworthy writer; he could not even copy a printed narrative
correctly (see his account of Slover's and McKnight's adventures), and
his tales about Kenton must be accepted rather as showing the adventures
incident to the life of a peculiarly daring Indian fighter than as being
specifically and chronologically correct in Kenton's individual case.
Once, in a fight outside the stockade at Boonsborough, he saved the life
of his leader by shooting an Indian who was on the point of tomahawking
him. Boon was a man of few words, cold and grave, accustomed to every
kind of risk and hairbreadth escape, and as little apt to praise the
deeds of others as he was to mention his own; but on this occasion he
broke through his usual taciturnity to express his thanks for Kenton's
help and his admiration for Kenton himself.
Kenton went with his captain on the expedition to the Scioto. Pushing
ahead of the rest, he was attracted by the sound of laughter in a
canebrake. Hiding himself, he soon saw two Indians approach, both riding
on one small pony, and chatting and laughing together in great
good-humor. Aiming carefully, he brought down both at once, one dead and
the other severely wounded. As he rushed up to finish his work, his
quick ears caught a rustle in the cane, and looking around he saw two
more Indians aiming at him. A rapid spring to one side on his part made
both balls miss. Other Indians came up; but, at the same time, Boon and
his companions appeared, running as fast as they could while still
keeping sheltered. A brisk skirmish followed, the Indians retreated, and
Kenton got the coveted scalp. When Boon returned to the fort, Kenton
stayed behind with another man and succeeded in stealing four good
horses, which he brought back in triumph.
Much pleased with his success he shortly made another raid into the
Indian country, this time with two companions. They succeeded in driving
off a whole band of one hundred and sixty horses, which they brought in
safety to the banks of the Ohio. But a strong wind was blowing, and the
river was so rough that in spite of all their efforts they could not get
the horses to cross; as soon as they were beyond their depth the beasts
would turn round and swim back. The reckless adventurers could not make
up their minds to leave the booty; and stayed so long, waiting for a
lull in the gale, and wasting their time in trying to get the horses to
take to the water in spite of the waves, that the pursuing Indians came
up and surprised them. Their guns had become wet and useless; and no
resistance could be made. One of them was killed, another escaped, and
Kenton himself was captured.
The Indians asked him if "Captain Boon" had sent him to steal horses;
and when he answered frankly that the stealing was his own idea, they
forthwith proceeded to beat him lustily with their ramrods, at the same
time showering on him epithets that showed they had at least learned the
profanity of the traders. They staked him out at night, tied so that he
could move neither hand nor foot; and during the day he was bound on an
unbroken horse, with his hands tied behind him so that he could not
protect his face from the trees and bushes. This was repeated every day.
After three days he reached the town of Chillicothe, stiff, sore, and
bleeding.
Next morning he was led out to run the gauntlet. A row of men, women,
and boys, a quarter of a mile long, was formed, each with a tomahawk,
switch, or club; at the end of the line was an Indian with a big drum,
and beyond this was the council-house, which, if he reached, would for
the time being protect him. The moment for starting arrived; the big
drum was beaten; and Kenton sprang forward in the race. [Footnote: For
this part of Kenton's adventures compare the "Last of the Mohicans."]
Keeping his wits about him he suddenly turned to one side and darted off
with the whole tribe after him. His wonderful speed and activity enabled
him to keep ahead, and to dodge those who got in his way, and by a
sudden double he rushed through an opening in the crowd, and reached the
council-house, having been struck but three or four blows.
He was not further molested that evening. Next morning a council was
held to decide whether he should be immediately burnt at the stake, or
should first be led round to the different villages. The warriors sat in
a ring to pass judgment, passing the war club from one to another; those
who passed it in silence thereby voted in favor of sparing the prisoner
for the moment, while those who struck it violently on the ground thus
indicated their belief that he should be immediately put to death. The
former prevailed, and Kenton was led from town to town. At each place he
was tied to the stake, to be switched and beaten by the women and boys;
or else was forced to run the gauntlet, while sand was thrown in his
eyes and guns loaded with powder fired against his body to burn his
flesh.
Once, while on the march, he made a bold rush for liberty, all unarmed
though he was; breaking out of the line and running into the forest. His
speed was so great and his wind so good that he fairly outran his
pursuers; but by ill-luck, when almost exhausted, he came against
another party of Indians. After this he abandoned himself to despair. He
was often terribly abused by his captors; once one of them cut his
shoulder open with an axe, breaking the bone.
His face was painted black, the death color, and he was twice sentenced
to be burned alive, at the Pickaway Plains and at Sandusky. But each
time he was saved at the last moment, once through a sudden spasm of
mercy on the part of the renegade Girty, his old companion in arms at
the time of Lord Dunmore's war, and again by the powerful intercession
of the great Mingo chief, Logan. At last, after having run the gauntlet
eight times and been thrice tied to the stake, he was ransomed by some
traders. They hoped to get valuable information from him about the
border forts, and took him to Detroit. Here he stayed until his
battered, wounded body was healed. Then he determined to escape, and
formed his plan in concert with two other Kentuckians, who had been in
Boon's party that was captured at the Blue Licks. They managed to secure
some guns, got safely off, and came straight down through the great
forests to the Ohio, reaching their homes in safety. [Footnote: McClung
gives the exact conversations that took place between Kenton, Logan,
Girty, and the Indian chiefs. They are very dramatic, and may possibly
be true; the old pioneer would probably always remember even the words
used on such occasions; but I hesitate to give them because McClung is
so loose in his statements. In the account of this very incident he
places it in '77, and says Kenton then accompanied Clark to the
Illinois. But in reality--as we know from Boon--it took place in '78,
and Kenton must have gone with Clark first.]
Boon and Kenton have always been favorite heroes of frontier story,--as
much so as ever were Robin Hood and Little John in England. Both lived
to a great age, and did and saw many strange things, and in the
backwoods cabins the tale of their deeds has been handed down in
traditional form from father to son and to son's son. They were known to
be honest, fearless, adventurous, mighty men of their hands; fond of
long, lonely wanderings; renowned as woodsmen and riflemen, as hunters
and Indian fighters. In course of time it naturally came about that all
notable incidents of the chase and woodland warfare were incorporated
into their lives by the story-tellers. The facts were altered and added
to by tradition year after year; so that the two old frontier warriors
already stand in that misty group of heroes whose rightful title to fame
has been partly overclouded by the haze of their mythical glories and
achievements.