THE FALL OF THE LESSER FORTS
While Fort Detroit was withstanding Pontiac's hordes,
the smaller forts and block-houses scattered throughout
the hinterland were faring badly. On the southern shore
of Lake Erie, almost directly south of the Detroit river,
stood Fort Sandusky--a rude blockhouse surrounded by a
stockade. Here were about a dozen men, commanded by Ensign
Christopher Paully. The blockhouse could easily have been
taken by assault; but such was not the method of the band
of Wyandots in the neighbourhood. They preferred treachery,
and, under the guise of friendship, determined to destroy
the garrison with no risk to themselves.
On the morning of May 16 Paully was informed that seven
Indians wished to confer with him. Four of these were
members of the Wyandot tribe, and three belonged to
Pontiac's band of Ottawas. The Wyandots were known to
Paully, and as he had no news of the situation at Detroit,
and no suspicion of danger to himself, he readily admitted
them to his quarters. The Indians produced a calumet and
handed it to Paully in token of friendship. As the pipe
passed from lip to lip a warrior appeared at the door of
the room and raised his arm. It was the signal for attack.
Immediately Paully was seized by the Indians, two of whom
had placed themselves on either side of him. At the same
moment a war-whoop rang out and firing began; and as
Paully was rushed across the parade-ground he saw the
bodies of several of his men, who had been treacherously
slain. The sentry had been tomahawked as he stood at arms
at the gate; and the sergeant of the little company was
killed while working in the garden of the garrison outside
the stockade.
When night fell Paully and two or three others, all that
remained of the garrison, were placed in canoes, and
these were headed for Detroit. As the prisoners looked
back over the calm waters of Sandusky Bay, they saw the
blockhouse burst into flames. Paully and his men were
landed at the Ottawa camp, where a horde of howling
Indians, including women and children, beat them and
compelled them to dance and sing for the entertainment
of the rabble. Preparations were made to torture Paully
to death at the stake; but an old squaw, who had recently
lost her husband, was attracted by the handsome,
dark-skinned young ensign, and adopted him in place of
her deceased warrior. Paully's hair was cut close; he
was dipped into the stream to wash the white blood from
his veins; and finally he was dressed and painted as
became an Ottawa brave.
News of the destruction of Fort Sandusky was brought to
Gladwyn by a trader named La Brosse, a resident of Detroit,
and a few days later a letter was received from Paully
himself. For nearly two months Paully had to act the part
of an Ottawa warrior. But early in July--Pontiac being
in a state of great rage against the British--his squaw
placed him in a farmhouse for safe keeping. In the
confusion arising out of the attack on Fort Detroit on
the 4th of the month, and the murder of Captain Campbell,
he managed to escape, by the aid, it is said, of an Indian
maiden. He was pursued to within musket-shot of the walls
of Detroit. When he entered the fort, so much did he
resemble an Indian that at first he was not recognized.
The next fort to fall into the hands of the Indians was
St Joseph, on the east shore of Lake Michigan, at the
mouth of the St Joseph river. This was the most inaccessible
of the posts on the Great Lakes. The garrison here lived
lonely lives. Around them were thick forests and swamps,
and in front the desolate waters of the sea-like lake.
The Indians about St Joseph had long been under the
influence of the French. This place had been visited by
La Salle; and here in 1688 the Jesuit Allouez had
established a mission. In 1763 the post was held by Ensign
Francis Schlosser and fourteen men. For months the little
garrison had been without news from the east, when, on
May 25, a party of Potawatomis from about Detroit arrived
on a pretended visit to their relations living in the
village at St Joseph, and asked permission to call on
Schlosser. But before a meeting could be arranged, a
French trader entered the fort and warned the commandant
that the Potawatomis intended to destroy the garrison.
Schlosser at once ordered his sergeant to arm his men,
and went among the French settlers seeking their aid.
Even while he was addressing them a shrill death-cry rang
out--the sentry at the gate had fallen a victim to the
tomahawk of a savage. In an instant a howling mob of
Potawatomis under their chief Washee were within the
stockade. Eleven of the garrison were straightway put to
death, and the fort was plundered. Schlosser and the
three remaining members of his little band were taken to
Detroit by some Foxes who were present with the Potawatomis.
On June 10 Schlosser had the good fortune to be exchanged
for two chiefs who were prisoners in Fort Detroit.
The Indians did not destroy Fort St Joseph, but left it
in charge of the French under Louis Chevalier. Chevalier
saved the lives of several British traders, and in every
way behaved so admirably that at the close of the Indian
war he was given a position of importance under the
British, which position he held until the outbreak of
the Revolutionary War.
We have seen that when Major Robert Rogers visited Detroit
in 1760, one of the French forts first occupied was Miami,
situated on the Maumee river, at the commencement of the
portage to the Wabash, near the spot where Fort Wayne
was afterwards built. At the time of the outbreak of the
Pontiac War this fort was held by Ensign Robert Holmes
and twelve men. Holmes knew that his position was critical.
In 1762 he had reported that the Senecas, Shawnees, and
Delawares were plotting to exterminate the British in
the Indian country, and he was not surprised when, towards
the end of May 1763, he was told by a French trader that
Detroit was besieged by the Ottawa Confederacy. But though
Holmes was on the alert, and kept his men under arms, he
was nevertheless to meet death and his fort was to be
captured by treachery. In his desolate wilderness home
the young ensign seems to have lost his heart to a handsome
young squaw living in the vicinity of the fort. On May
27 she visited him and begged him to accompany her on a
mission of mercy--to help to save the life of a sick
Indian woman. Having acted as physician to the Indians
on former occasions, Holmes thought the request a natural
one. The young squaw led him to the Indian village,
pointed out the wigwam where the woman was supposed to
be, and then left him. As he was about to enter the wigwam
two musket-shots rang out, and he fell dead. Three
soldiers, who were outside the fort, rushed for the gate,
but they were tomahawked before they could reach it. The
gate was immediately closed, and the nine soldiers within
the fort made ready for resistance. With the Indians were
two Frenchmen, Jacques Godfroy, whom we have met before
as the ambassador to Pontiac in the opening days of the
siege of Detroit, and one Miny Chesne; [Footnote: This
is the only recorded instance, except at Detroit, in
which any French took part with the Indians in the capture
of a fort. And both Godfroy and Miny Chesne had married
Indian women.] and they had an English prisoner, a trader
named John Welsh, who had been captured and plundered at
the mouth of the Maumee while on his way to Detroit. The
Frenchmen called on the garrison to surrender, pointing
out how useless it would be to resist and how dreadful
would be their fate if they were to slay any Indians.
Without a leader, and surrounded as they were by a large
band of savages, the men of the garrison saw that resistance
would be of no avail. The gates were thrown open; the
soldiers marched forth, and were immediately seized and
bound; and the fort was looted. With Welsh the captives
were taken to the Ottawa village at Detroit, where they
arrived on June 4, and where Welsh and several of the
soldiers were tortured to death.
A few miles south of the present city of Lafayette, on
the south-east side of the Wabash, at the mouth of Wea
Creek, stood the little wooden fort of Ouiatanon. It was
connected with Fort Miami by a footpath through the
forest. It was the most westerly of the British forts in
the Ohio country, and might be said to be on the borderland
of the territory along the Mississippi, which was still
under the government of Louisiana. There was a considerable
French settlement, and near by was the principal village
of the Weas, a sub-tribe of the Miami nation. The fort
was guarded by the usual dozen of men, under the command
of Lieutenant Edward Jenkins. In March Jenkins had been
warned that an Indian rising was imminent and that soon
all the British in the hinterland would be prisoners.
The French and Indians in this region were under the
influence of the Mississippi officers and traders, who
were, in Jenkins's words, 'eternally telling lies to the
Indians,' leading them to believe that a great army would
soon arrive to recover the forts. Towards the end of May
ambassadors arrived at Ouiatanon, either from the Delawares
or from Pontiac, bringing war-belts and instructions to
the Weas to seize the fort. This, as usual, was achieved
by treachery. Jenkins was invited to one of their cabins
for a conference. Totally unaware of the Pontiac
conspiracy, or of the fall of St Joseph, Sandusky, or
Miami, he accepted the invitation. While passing out of
the fort he was seized and bound, and, when taken to the
cabin, he saw there several of his soldiers, prisoners
like himself. The remaining members of the garrison
surrendered, knowing how useless it would be to resist,
and under the threat that if one Indian were killed all
the British would be put to death. It had been the original
intention of the Indians to seize the fort and slaughter
the garrison, but, less blood-thirsty than Pontiac's
immediate followers, they were won to mercy by two traders,
Maisonville and Lorain, who gave them presents on the
condition that the garrison should be made prisoners
instead of being slain. Jenkins and his men were to have
been sent to the Mississippi, but their removal was
delayed, and they were quartered on the French inhabitants,
and kindly treated by both French and Indians until
restored to freedom.
The capture of Forts Miami and Ouiatanon gave the Indians
complete control of the route between the western end of
Lake Erie and the rivers Ohio and Mississippi. The French
traders, who had undoubtedly been instrumental in goading
the Indians to hostilities, had now the trade of the
Wabash and lower Ohio, and of the tributaries of both,
in their own hands. No British trader could venture into
the region with impunity; the few who attempted it were
plundered and murdered.
The scene of hostilities now shifts to the north. Next
to Detroit the most important fort on the Great Lakes
west of Niagara was Michilimackinac, situated on the
southern shore of the strait connecting Lakes Huron and
Michigan. The officer there had supervision of the lesser
forts at Sault Ste Marie, Green Bay, and St Joseph. At
this time Sault Ste Marie was not occupied by troops. In
the preceding winter Lieutenant Jamette had arrived to
take command; but fire had broken out in his quarters
and destroyed the post, and he and his men had gone back
to Michilimackinac, where they still were when the Pontiac
War broke out. There were two important Indian tribes in
the vicinity of Michilimackinac, the Chippewas and the
Ottawas. The Chippewas had populous villages on the island
of Mackinaw and at Thunder Bay on Lake Huron. They had
as their hunting-grounds the eastern half of the peninsula
which is now the state of Michigan. The Ottawas claimed
as their territory the western half of the peninsula,
and their chief village was L'Arbre Croche, where the
venerable Jesuit priest, Father du Jaunay, had long
conducted his mission.
The Indians about Michilimackinac had never taken kindly
to the new occupants of the forts in their territory.
When the trader Alexander Henry arrived there in 1761,
he had found them decidedly hostile. On his journey up
the Ottawa he had been warned of the reception in store
for him. At Michilimackinac he was waited on by a party
of Chippewas headed by their chief, Minavavna, a remarkably
sagacious Indian, known to the French as _Le Grand
Sauteur_, whose village was situated at Thunder Bay. This
chief addressed Henry in most eloquent words, declaring
that the Chippewas were the children of the French king,
who was asleep, but who would shortly awaken and destroy
his enemies. The king of England, he said, had entered
into no treaty with the Chippewas and had sent them no
presents: they were therefore still at war with him, and
until he made such concessions they must look upon the
French king as their chief. 'But,' he continued, 'you
come unarmed: sleep peacefully!' The pipe of peace was
then passed to Henry. After smoking it he bestowed on
the Indians some gifts, and they filed out of his presence.
Almost immediately on the departure of the Chippewas came
some two hundred Ottawas demanding of Henry, and of
several other British traders who were also there,
ammunition, clothing, and other necessaries for their
winter hunt, on credit until spring. The traders refused,
and, when threatened by the Indians, they and their
employees, some thirty in all, barricaded themselves in
a house, and prepared to resist the demands by force of
arms. Fortunately, at this critical moment word arrived
of a strong British contingent that was approaching from
Detroit to take over the fort, and the Ottawas hurriedly
left for their villages.
For nearly two years the garrison at Michilimackinac
lived in peace. In the spring of 1763 they were resting
in a false security. Captain George Etherington, who was
in command, heard that the Indians were on the war-path
and that the fort was threatened; but he treated the
report lightly. It is noteworthy, too, that Henry, who
was in daily contact with the French settlers and Indians,
and had his agents scattered throughout the Indian country,
saw no cause for alarm. But it happened that towards the
end of May news reached the Indians at Michilimackinac
of the situation at Detroit, and with the news came a
war-belt signifying that they were to destroy the British
garrison. A crowd of Indians, chiefly Chippewas and Sacs,
presently assembled at the post. This was a usual thing
in spring, and would cause no suspicion. The savages,
however, had planned to attack the fort on June 4, the
birthday of George III. The British were to celebrate
the day by sports and feasting, and the Chippewas and
Sacs asked to be allowed to entertain the officers with
a game of lacrosse. Etherington expressed pleasure at
the suggestion, and told the chiefs who waited on him
that he would back his friends the Chippewas against
their Sac opponents. On the morning of the 4th posts were
set up on the wide plain behind the fort, and tribe was
soon opposed to tribe. The warriors appeared on the field
with moccasined feet, and otherwise naked save for
breech-cloths. Hither and thither the ball was batted,
thrown, and carried. Player pursued player, tripping,
slashing, shouldering each other, and shouting in their
excitement as command of the ball passed with the fortunes
of the game from Chippewa to Sac and from Sac to Chippewa.
Etherington and Lieutenant Leslie were standing near the
gate, interested spectators of the game; and all about,
and scattered throughout the fort, were squaws with
stoical faces, each holding tight about her a gaudily
coloured blanket. The game was at its height, when a
player threw the ball to a spot near the gate of the
fort. There was a wild rush for it; and, as the gate was
reached, lacrosse sticks were cast aside, the squaws
threw open their blankets, and the players seized the
tomahawks and knives held out in readiness to them. The
shouts of play were changed to war-whoops. Instantly
Etherington and Leslie were seized and hurried to a
near-by wood. Into the fort the horde dashed. Here stood
more squaws with weapons; and before the garrison had
time to seize their arms, Lieutenant Jamette and fifteen
soldiers were slain and scalped, and the rest made
prisoners, while the French inhabitants stood by, viewing
the tragedy with apparent indifference.
Etherington, Leslie, and the soldiers were held close
prisoners. A day or two after the capture of the fort a
Chippewa chief, _Le Grand Sable_, who had not been present
at the massacre, returned from his wintering-ground. He
entered a hut where a number of British soldiers were
bound hand and foot, and brutally murdered five of them.
The Ottawas, it will be noted, had taken no part in the
capture of Michilimackinac. In fact, owing to the good
offices of their priest, they acted towards the British
as friends in need. A party of them from L'Arbre Croche
presently arrived on the scene and prevented further
massacre. Etherington and Leslie were taken from the
hands of the Chippewas and removed to L'Arbre Croche.
From this place Etherington sent a message to Green Bay,
ordering the commandant to abandon the fort there. He
then wrote to Gladwyn at Detroit, giving an account of
what had happened and asking aid. This message was carried
to Detroit by Father du Jaunay, who made the journey in
company with seven Ottawas and eight Chippewas commanded
by Kinonchanek, a son of Minavavna. But, as we know,
Gladwyn was himself in need of assistance, and could give
none. The prisoners at L'Arbre Croche, however, were well
treated, and finally taken to Montreal by way of the
Ottawa river, under an escort of friendly Indians.
On the southern shore of Lake Erie, where the city of
Erie now stands, was the fortified post of Presqu'isle,
a stockaded fort with several substantial houses. It was
considered a strong position, and its commandant, Ensign
John Christie, had confidence that he could hold out
against any number of Indians that might beset him. The
news brought by Cuyler when he visited Presqu'isle, after
the disaster at Point Pelee, put Christie on his guard.
Presqu'isle had a blockhouse of unusual strength, but it
was of wood, and inflammable. To guard against fire,
there was left at the top of the building an opening
through which water could be poured in any direction.
The blockhouse stood on a tongue of land--on the one side
a creek, on the other the lake. The most serious weakness
of the position was that the banks of the creek and the
lake rose in ridges to a considerable height, commanding
the blockhouse and affording a convenient shelter for an
attacking party within musket range.
Christie had twenty-four men, and believed that he had
nothing to fear, when, on June 15, some two hundred
Wyandots arrived in the vicinity. These Indians were soon
on the ridges, assailing the blockhouse. Arrows tipped
with burning tow and balls of blazing pitch rained upon
the roof, and the utmost exertions of the garrison were
needed to extinguish the fires. Soon the supply of water
began to fail. There was a well near by on the
parade-ground, but this open space was subject to such
a hot fire that no man would venture to cross it. A well
was dug in the blockhouse, and the resistance continued.
All day the attack was kept up, and during the night
there was intermittent firing from the ridges. Another
day passed, and at night came a lull in the siege. A
demand was made to surrender. An English soldier who had
been adopted by the savages, and was aiding them in the
attack, cried out that the destruction of the fort was
inevitable, that in the morning it would be fired at the
top and bottom, and that unless the garrison yielded they
would all be burnt to death. Christie asked till morning
to consider; and, when morning came, he agreed to yield
up the fort on condition that the garrison should be
allowed to march to the next post. But as his men filed
out they were seized and bound, then cast into canoes
and taken to Detroit. Their lives, however, were spared;
and early in July, when the Wyandots made with Gladwyn
the peace which they afterwards broke, Christie and a
number of his men were the first prisoners given up.
A few miles inland, south of Presqu'isle, on the trade-route
leading to Fort Pitt, was a rude blockhouse known as Le
Boeuf. This post was at the end of the portage from Lake
Erie, on Alleghany Creek, where the canoe navigation of
the Ohio valley began. Here were stationed Ensign George
Price and thirteen men. On June 18 a band of Indians
arrived before Le Boeuf and attacked it with muskets and
fire-arrows. The building was soon in flames. As the
walls smoked and crackled the savages danced in wild glee
before the gate, intending to shoot down the defenders
as they came out. But there was a window at the rear of
the blockhouse, through which the garrison escaped to
the neighbouring forest. When night fell the party became
separated. Some of them reached Fort Venango two days
later, only to find it in ruins. Price and seven men
laboriously toiled through the forest to Fort Pitt, where
they arrived on June 26. Ultimately, all save two of the
garrison of Fort Le Boeuf reached safety.
The circumstances attending the destruction of Fort
Venango on June 20 are but vaguely known. This fort,
situated near the site of the present city of Franklin,
had long been a centre of Indian trade. In the days o
the French occupation it was known as Fort Machault.
After the French abandoned the place in the summer of
1760 a new fort had been erected and named Venango. In
1763 there was a small garrison here under Lieutenant
Gordon. For a time all that was known of its fate was
reported by the fugitives from Le Boeuf and a soldier
named Gray, who had escaped from Presqu'isle. These
fugitives had found Venango completely destroyed, and,
in the ruins, the blackened bones of the garrison. It
was afterwards learned that the attacking Indians were
Senecas, and that they had tortured the commandant to
death over a slow fire, after compelling him to write
down the reason for the attack. It was threefold: (1)
the British charged exorbitant prices for powder, shot,
and clothing; (2) when Indians were ill-treated by British
soldiers they could obtain no redress; (3) contrary to
the wishes of the Indians, forts were being built in
their country, and these could mean but one thing--the
determination of the invaders to deprive them of their
hunting-grounds.
With the fall of Presqu'isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango, the
trade-route between Lake Erie and Fort Pitt was closed.
Save for Detroit, Niagara, and Pitt, not a British fort
remained in the great hinterland; and the soldiers at
these three strong positions could leave the shelter of
the palisades only at the risk of their lives. Meanwhile,
the frontiers of the British settlements, as well as the
forts, were being raided. Homes were burnt and the inmates
massacred. Traders were plundered and slain. From the
eastern slopes of the Alleghanies to the Mississippi no
British life was safe.