1779. Clark and Hamilton meet. 211 think it prudent to agree to the proposals; and sent the following answer: Colonel Clark's compliments to Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, and begs leave to inform him that he will not agree to any terms other than Mr. Hamilton's surrendering himself and garrison prisoners at discretion. If Mr. Hamilton is desirous of a conference with Colonel Clark, he will meet him at the church, with Captain Helm. [Signed,] February 24th, '79. G. R. C. We met at the church,* about eighty yards from the fort-Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, Major Hay, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Captain Helm, their prisoner, Major Bowman and myself. The conference began. Hamilton produced terms of capitulation, signed, that contained various articles, one of which was that the garrison should be surrendered, on their being permitted to go to Pensacola on parole. After deliberating on every article, I rejected the whole. He then wished that I would make some proposition. I told him that I had no other to make, than what I had already made-that of his surrendering as prisoners at discretion. I said that his troops had behaved with spirit; that they could not suppose that they would be worse treated in consequence of it; that if he chose to comply with the demand, though hard, perhaps the sooner the better; that it was in vain to make any proposition to me; that he, by this time, must be sensible that the garrison would fall; that both of us must [view ?] all blood spilt for the future by the garrison as murder; that my troops were already impatient, and called aloud for permission to tear down and storm the fort: if such a step was taken, many of course would be cut down; and the result of an enraged body of woodsmen breaking in, must be obvious to him; it would be out of the power of an American officer to save a single man. Various altercation took place for a considerable time. Captain Helm attempted to moderate our fixed determination. I told him he was a British prisoner, and it was doubtful whether or not he could with propriety speak on the subject. Hamilton then said that Captain Helm was from that moment liberated, and might use his During the conference at the church, some Indian warriors who had been sent to the Falls of the Ohio, for scalps and prisoners, were discovered on their return, as they entered the plains near Post Vincennes. A party of the American Troops, commanded by Captain Williams went out to meet them. The Indians, who mistook this detachment for a party of their friends, continued to advance "with all the parade of successful warriors." “Our men," says Major Bowman, "killed two on the spot; wounded three, took six prisoners, and brought them into town. Two of them proved to be whites, we released them, and brought the Indians to the main street, before the fort gate-there tomahawked them, and threw them into the river."-[Major Bowman's MS. Journal.] 212 Hamilton capitulates. 1779. pleasure. I informed the Captain that I would not receive him on such terms-that he must retarn to the garrison, and await his fate. I then told Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton that hostilities should not commence until five minutes after the drums gave the alarm. We took our leave, and parted but a few steps, when Hamilton stopped, and politely asked me if I would be so kind as to give him my reasons for refusing the garrison on any other terms than those I had offered. I told him I had no objections in giving him my real reasons, which were simply these that I knew the greater part of the principal Indian partizans of Detroit were with him-that I wanted an excuse to put them to death, or otherwise treat them, as I thought proper-that the cries of the widows and the fatherless on the frontiers, which they had occasioned, now required their blood from my hands, and that I did not chose to be so timorous as to disobey the absolute commands of their authority, which I looked upon to be next to divine: that I would rather lose fifty men, than not to empower myself to execute this piece of business with propriety that if he chose to risk the massacre of his garrison for their sakes, it was his own pleasure; and that I might perhaps take it into my head to send for some of those widows to see it executed. Major Hay, paying great attention, I had observed a kind of distrust in his countenance, which in a great measure influenced my conversation during this time. On my concluding, "Pray, sir," said he, "who is it that you call Indian partizans ?" "Sir," I replied, "I take Major Hay to be one of the principal." never saw a man in the moment of execution so struck as he appeared to be-pale and trembling, scarcely able to stand. Hamilton blushed-and, I observed was much affected at his behaviour. Major Bowman's countenance sufficiently explained his disdain for the one and his sorrow for the other. Some moments elapsed without a word passing on either side. From that moment my resolutions changed respecting Hamilton's situation. I told him that we would return to our respective posts; that I would reconsider the matter, and let him know the result: no offensive measures should be taken in the mean time. Agreed to; and we parted. What had passed, being made known to our officers, it was agreed that we should moderate our resolutions. In the course of the afternoon of the 24th, the following articles were signed, and the garrison capitulated : I.-Lieutenant Governor Hamilton engages to deliver up to Colonel Clark, Fort Sackville, as it is at present, with all the stores, &c. II. The garrison are to deliver themselves as prisoners of war; and march out with their arms and accoutrements, &c. III.-The garrison to be delivered up at ten o'clock, to-morrow. Major Bowman's MS. Journal. 1779. Hamilton sent to Virginia. 213 IV. Three days time to be allowed the garrison to settle their accounts with the inhabitants and traders of this place. V.-The officers of the garrison to be allowed their necessary baggage, &c. Signed at Post St. Vincent, [Vincennes,] 24th February, 1779. Agreed for the following reasons: the remoteness from succor; the state and quantity of provisions, &c.; unanimity of officers and men in its expediency; the honorable terms allowed; and lastly, the confidence in a generous enemy. [Signed,] HENRY HAMILTON, Lt. Gov. and Superintendent. The business being now nearly at an end, troops were posted in seve ral strong houses around the garrison, and patroled during the night to prevent any deception that might be attempted. The remainder on duty lay on their arms; and, for the first time for many days past, got During the siege I got only one man wounded: not being able to lose many, I made them secure themselves well. Seven were badly wounded in the fort, through ports.* some rest. Hamilton's surrender of St. Vincent's, or Fort Sackville, put a stop of course to the proposed purging of the West from the Long Knives. The Governor and some others were sent prisoners to Virginia, where the Council ordered their confinement in jail, fettered and alone, in punishment for their abominable policy of urging barbarians to ultra barbarism, as they surely had done by offering rewards for scalps but none for prisoners, a course which naturally resulted in wholesale and cold-blooded murder; the Indians driving captives within sight of the British forts and then butchering them. As this rigid confinement, however just, was not in accordance with the terms of Hamilton's surrender, General Phillips protested in regard to it, and Jefferson, having referred the matter to the commander-in-chief, Washington gave his opinion decidedly against it, in consequence of which the Council of Virginia released the Detroit "hair-buyer" from his irons.† Clark returned to Kaskaskias, where, in consequence of the competition of the traders, he found himself more embarrassed from the depreciation of the paper money which had been advanced him by Virginia, than he had been by the movements of the British; and where he was forced to pledge his own credit Our extracts from Clark's Journal we owe to Dillon, i. 157 to 173. + Sparks' Washington, vi. 315.-Almon's Remembrancer for 1779, pp. 337. 340-Jefferson's Writings, i. 451 to 458. 214 Conduct of the Iroquois. 1779. to procure what he needed, to an extent that influenced vitally his own fortune and life thenceforward. After the taking of Vincennes, Detroit was undoubtedly within the reach of the enterprising Virginian, had he but been able to raise as many soldiers as were starving and idling at Forts Laurens and McIntosh. He could not; and Governor Henry having promised him a reinforcement, he concluded to wait for that, as his force was too small to both conquer and garrison the British forts. But the results of what was done were not unimportant; indeed, we cannot estimate those results. Hamilton had made arrangements to enlist the southern and western Indianst for the next spring's campaign; and, if Mr. Stone be correct in his suppositions, Brant and his Iroquois were to act in concert with him.‡ Had Clark, therefore, failed to conquer the Governor, there is too much reason to fear, that the West would have been, indeed, swept, from the Mississippi to the mountains, and the great blow struck, which had been contemplated, from the outset, by Britain. But for his small army of dripping, but fearless Virginians, the union of all the tribes from Georgia to Maine, against the colonies, might have been effected, and the whole current of our history changed. Turning from the west to the north, we find a new cause of trouble arising there. Of the six tribes of the Iroquois, the Senecas, Mohawks, Cayugas, and Onondagas, had been, from the outset, inclining to Britain, though all of these, but the Mohawks, had now and then tried to persuade the Americans to the contrary. During the winter of 1778-9, the Onondagas, who had been for a while nearly neutral, were suspected, by the Americans, of deception; and, this suspicion having become nearly knowledge, a band was sent, early in April, to destroy their towns, and take such of them, as could be taken, prisoners. The work appointed was done, and the villages and wealth of the poor savages were annihilated. This sudden act of severity startled all. The Oneidas, hitherto faithful to their neutrality, were alarmed, lest the next blow should fall on them, and it was only after a full explanation that their fears were quieted. As for the Onondagas, * Clark in his letter to Jefferson, (Jefferson's Writings, i. 451,) says that with 500 men, when he first reached Illinois, or with 300 after the conquest of St. Vincents, he could have taken Detroit. The people of Detroit had great rejoicings when they heard of Hamilton's capture, and the garrison of the fort was but eighty strong. 2: 1779. General Sullivan attacks Iroquois. 215 it was not to be hoped that they would sit down under such treatment; and we find, accordingly, that some hundred of their warriors were at once in the field, and from that time forward, a portion of their nation remained, and, we think, justly, hostile to the United Colonies.* Those colonies, meanwhile, had become convinced, from the massacres at Wyoming and Cherry Valley, that it was advisable to adopt some means of securing the north-western and western frontiers against the recurrence of such catastrophes; and, the hostile tribes of the Six Nations being the most numerous and deadly foes, it was concluded to begin by strong action against them. Washington had always said, that the only proper mode of defence against the Indians was to attack them, and this mode he determined to adopt on this occasion. Some difference of opinion existed, however, as to the best path into the country of the inimical Iroquois; that most lovely country in the west of New York, which is now fast growing into a granary for millions of men. General Schuyler was in favor of a movement up the Mohawk river; the objection to which route was, that it carried the invaders too near to Lake Ontario, and within reach of the British. The other course proposed was up the Susquehanna, which heads, as all know, in the region that was to be reached. The latter route was the one determined upon by Washington for the main body of troops, which was to be joined by another body moving up the Mohawk, and also by detachments coming from the western army, by the way of the Alleghany and French Creek; upon further thought, however, the movement from the West was countermanded. All the arrangements for this grand blow were made in March and April, but it was the last of July before General Sullivan got his men under way from Wyoming, where they had gathered; and, of course, information of the proposed movements had been given to the Indians and Tories, so that Brant, the Johnsons, and their followers stood ready to receive the invaders. They were not, however, strong enough to withstand the Americans; and, having been defeated at the battle of Newtown, were driven from village to village, and their whole country was laid waste. Houses were burned, crops and orchards destroyed, and every thing done that could be thought of, to render the country uninhabitable. Of all these steps Mr. Stone speaks fully. Forty Stone, vol. i. p. 405. * Sparks's Washington, vol. vi. pp. 183 et seq. |