CHAPTER IX.

INDIAN BARBARITIES AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR 1764-COL. BRADSTREET'S EXPEDITION TO THE UPPER LAKES-COL. BOUQUET'S SECOND EXPEDITION-HIS ADVANCE TO THE INDIAN TOWNS ON THE MUSKINGUM—THE SUBMISSION OF THE SAVAGES-THE DELIVERY OF THE CAPTIVES TO THE WHITES THE FINAL TREATY OF PEACE.

During the winter of 1764, there was a cessation of hostilities on the part of the Indians. Stricken with terror at the defeat and slaughter of their warriors at the battle of Brush creek, in Western Pennsylvania, by the army under Col. Bouquet, they retired farther into the forests and abandoned their usual haunts east of the Muskingum. But they retired only to prepare themselves for a renewal of hostilities in the ensuing year. The inhabitants on the frontiers being lulled into fancied security, by the stillness that reigned in the Indian camps during the winter, were awakened in the spring by the terrors of the war-whoop to all the horrors of savage barbarity. In several and distinct places they fell upon the border settlements, and wherever they went desolation and blood marked their trails. Alarm and suffering were again abroad among the inhabitants, and the whole frontier was the theatre of murdered families and burning dwellings.*

* February 10, 1764-Indians to the number of fifty, attacked the farm of James Russell, Northampton county, near Stroudsburg, burnt his barn, and killed one of his sons. Feb. 22-Six Indians attacked a party from the garri. son at Pitt, out cutting wood, killed one, wounded another. The wounded man drove from him three Indians and escaped into the fort. Feb. 26-John Russell, brother of the lads above-mentioned, was attacked by three Indians. He took to a tree, received three fires from each, returned as many and drove them off. He was slightly wounded. March 19-The Indians carried off five persons from within nine miles of Shippensburg, and shot one man through the body. The enemy, supposed to be eleven in numbhr, were pursued successfully by about one hundred provincials. The houses of John Stewart, Adam Sims, Janes McCammon, Wm. Baird, James Kelly, Stephen Caldwell and John Boyd, were burnt. These people lost all their grain, which they had threshed out with the intention to send it for safety further down among the inhabitants.

March 20-Agnes Davidson, and her child, of a year old, Andrew Sims, fourteen years old, Margareta Stephens, twelve years old, and Jos. Mitchell. three years old, were made prisoners. Seven houses were burnt down on the 21st, and a great number of horses. cows, sheep and hogs, were killed. On the 22d a barn was burnt in Path Valley. About twelve Indians carried off the captives, and seven or eight tarried behind, and did considerable damage. April 19-David Owens, a deserter from the regulars, who lived some years among the Indians, returned to one of the out-posts, bringing with him five fresh Indian scalps, and a white boy, who was prisoner among the Indians. July 224, two or three Indians were seen near Fort Loudon. On the 25th, a woman with a child, named Cunningham, passing to a neighbor's house was met by savages, scalped and murdered, and her belly ripped open, and the child left beside her. Another woman named Jamieson, was missing supposed to be

It was therefore resolved that a decisive blow should be struck, and the merciless depredators be awed into silence and subjection. It was proposed to attack them at two different points, and "carry the war in the heart of their own country."

With this view, Col. Bradstreet was sent, with a body of troops, to act against the Wyandotts, Ottawas, Chippewas, and other nations living in the vicinity of the Lakes; while Colonel Bouquet should pass an army through Pennsylvania into Ohio, and attack the Delawares, Shawanese, Mingoes, Mohicans, and other nations between the Ohio and the Lakes.

These two divisions of the army were to act in concert. Colonel Bradstreet was to proceed to Detroit, and Michilimackinac, in the first place, and on his return he was ordered to encamp and remain at Sandusky, to awe and hold in check the numerous north-western tribes, so as to prevent them from sending any assistance to the Ohio Indians, while Colonel Bouquet should march from Fort Pitt, and attack them in their settlements upon the Muskingum.

Active measures were taken to raise the requisite number of troops for the expedition of Colonel Bouquet. A part of two regiments of the regular army, to be joined by the troops of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and two hundred friendly Indians, were to compose the army under Colonel Bouquet.

of the savages

The Indians never came, and the depredations upon the frontier of Virginia, employed all her troops for the defence of her own frontier. In Pennsylvania, the Assembly passed a bill for raising one thousand men, which received the sanction of the Governor on the thirtieth of May: but the compliment of forces was not obtained until the beginning of August. On the fifth of that month, the troops assembled at Carlisle, under their officers, Colonel Reid, Lieutenant-Colonel Francis, and Lieutenant-Colonel Clayton. Colonel Bouquet, accompanied by Governor John Penn, having arrived and taken the command, the Governor addressed the Pennsylvania battalions, with a view to inspirit the soldiery, and to deter them from desertion. He adverted to the propriety of chastising the Indians, for their repeated and unprovoked barbarities on the inhabitants of the province: a just carried off.(1) Wednesday 26, in the forenoon three Indians killed a Mr. Brown, school master, and the whole school except one lad.(2) August 17-a young woman, daughter of James Dysart, going home from sermon at Big Spring, Cumberland county, was murdered and scalped. August 22d, a party of thirty or forty Indians killed one Isaac Stimble, near Bedford.(3) (1) Gordon's Hist. of Penna., 624–25. (2) See Appendix, 153-54.

resentment of which, added to the courage of our provincial troops on former occasions, would, he did not doubt, animate them to do honor to their country. He told them, that they were to be united to the same regular troops and under the same able commander, who had on that very day, the memorable fifth of August, in the preceding year, sustained the repeated attacks of the savages, and obtained over them a complete victory. He concluded by reminding them of the exemplary punishment that would be inflicted for desertion, should any one, forgetting the duty which he owed the country and the solemn oath he had taken, be guilty of the crime.

The army then commenced its march, and on the thirteenth of August reached Fort Loudon. After all the precaution to prevent desertion, it was found that not less than three hundred of the Pennsylvania troops were missing. Application was immediately made to the Governor to replace the number by enlistment. The Governor gave the order, but the men were never raised. An application to the Governor of Virginia was more successful, and the requisite number joined Colonel Bouquet at Fort Pitt, in the latter end of September.

While at Fort Loudon, Colonel Bouquet received dispatches from Colonel Bradstreet, dated August fourteenth, informing him that a treaty of peace had been concluded by him with the Delawares and Shawanese; but as these savages continued their murders and depredations, Colonel Bouquet placed no confidence in their sincerity, and resolved to prosecute his enterprise, and to force, if possible, the savages from the frontiers. The propriety of his course, was soon obvious. The express sent to Colonel Bradstreet, from Fort Pitt, with the answer to his communication, was murdered, and his head placed on a pole in the middle of the road.(1) The treaty entered into by the Indians, was merely to gain time to remove their families.(2)

Colonel Bouquet arrived at Fort Pitt on the fifteenth day of September. Shortly afterwards, ten Indians appeared on the opposite side of, the Allegheny river, and desired a conference. It was apprehended that it was a stratagem to learn the strength of the fort. They were requested to come over the river, but seemed unwilling. Three of the party, at length, crossed over. But giving no satisfactory reason for their visit, they were detained as spies and their associates fled back to their towns.

On the twentieth of September, one of the Indians, detained at the fort, was sent to the towns on the Muskingum with the following message: (1) Gordon's History of Pennsylvania, p. 435. (2) Penn. Gazette, 1764.

"I have received an account from Colonel Bradstreet that your na tions had begged for peace, which he had consented to grant, upon assurance that you had recalled all your warriors from the frontiers; and in consequence thereof, I would not proceed against your towns, if I had not heard that, in open violation of your engagements, you have since murdered several of our people. As soon as the rest of the army joins me, which I expect immediately, I was therefore determined to have attacked you, as a people whose promises can no more be relied upon. But I will put it once more in your power to save yourselves and your families from total destruction, by giving us satisfaction for the hostilities against us. And, first, you are to leave the path open for my expresses, from hence to Detroit; and as I am now to send two men with despatches to Colonel Bradstreet, who commands on the Lakes, I desire to know whether you will send two of your people with them to conduct them safe back with an answer? And if they receive any injury either going or coming, or if the letters are taken from them, I will immediately put the Indians now in my power to death, and will show no mercy in future to any of your nation that may fall into my hands. I allow you ten days to have my letters delivered at Detroit, and ten days to bring back an answer."(1)

About this time two Indians, an Onondago and an Oneida, came to Fort Pitt, with many professions of ancient friendship for the English, and endeavored to persuade Colonel Bouquet to abandon his design of marching against the Ohio Indians. They represented the expedition as dangerous, on account of the powerful and numerous tribes living in that region that would be arrayed against him. They recommended the dismissal of the two Indians detained at the fort, and gave assurances that if no hostile movements were made, the Indians would come and make peace. But these assurances being looked upon as a scheme to delay the march of the troops, till the lateness of the season would prevent them from proceeding, Colonel Bouquet answered that dependence could no longer be placed upon their promises, and that he would proceed to Tuscarawas, and either meet them in battle, or have a treaty permanently ratified.

On the third day of October, Colonel Bouquet, with fifteen hundred men, departed from Fort Pitt, marched about a mile and a half over a rich level country, and encamped for the night. The next morning the army proceeding about two miles, came to the Ohio, at the begiuning of the narrows, and then followed the course of the river along the beach.

The next day they passed through Logstown, seventeen miles and a half from Fort Pitt.

This place was noted for many years for the great trade carried on with the Indians, by the English and French. The Delawares and Shawanese abandoned it in 1750, and it was taken possession of by the Mingoes. It was deserted by the Mingoes after the battle of Brush Creek. The lower town extended about sixty perches over a rich bottom to the foot of a low steep ridge, on the summit of which, near the declivity, stood the upper town, commanding a most agreeable prospect over the lower town, and quite across the Ohio, which, by its majestic, easy current, added much to the beauty of the place.

The following day, the army passing over a steep ridge, crossed Big Beaver Creek, twenty perches in depth. It runs through a rich vale, with a strong current; its banks are high, and the upland adjoining it very good, covered with tall young timber.

About a mile from its confluence with the Ohio, stood formerly a large town, on a steep bank, built by the French for some Shawanese, Delawares and Mingoes. The houses were constructed of square logs, with stone chimnies. It was abandoned in 1758, when the French were driven from Fort Du Quesne. Near the fording of Beaver Creek, stood also several houses, which were deserted and destroyed by the Indians, after their defeat at Brush Creek.

Two miles before the army reached Beaver, a person who had escaped from the Indians, came in. He had been taken about a week before, near Fort Bedford, by six Delawares. He stated that the Indians had seen the army the day before, but kept aloof, being awed by its numbers.*

On the thirteenth of October, Colonel Bouquet, with his army, arrived at Tuscarawas, near the forks of the Muskingum. This place was found to be exceedingly beautiful, the lands rich on both sides of the river, the country on the north-west side being a level plain for more than five miles in circumference.

While the army remained in camp here, the two men who had been sent by Colonel Bouquet to Colonel Bradstreet at Detroit, arrived. They reported that they had been made prisoners by the Delawares, within a few miles of this place, and taken about sixteen miles to one of their towns, where they were kept until the savages learning the arrival of

The facts in relation to the march of the army, are mostly taken from Hutchens' Historical Account of Bouquet's Expedition, published in Craig's Olden Time, No. 6, pp. 241, 263; and Appendix, pp. 143, 166.