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I 
 
UNIFORM EDITION 
 
 THE 
 WINNING OF THE WEST 
 
 An Account of the Exploration and Settlement 
 OF Our Country from the Alle- 
 
 GHANIES to the PaCIFIC 
 
 By 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 Volume II. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 GEBBIE AND COMPANY 
 1903 
 

 t-c^o 
 
 • rig 
 
 
 ^°pil^ 
 
 1 THi l.iSRARY Of 
 
 
 i CONGRESS, 
 
 
 
 1 One Copy HEoervBO 
 
 
 
 ' MAR 211 1903 
 
 
 
 ^ Co«v«i«HT WTRV 
 
 
 
 CLASS o- XXa No. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^-L^rs 
 
 
 
 COPY A. 
 
 
 Copyright, 1889 
 
 Copyright, 1903 
 
 by 
 
 G. 
 
 P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 1 
 
 This edition of " The Winning of the West" is issued under 
 special arrangement with G. P. Putnam's Sons. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Battle of the Great Kanawha; and Logan's 
 
 Speech, 1774 i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Boon and the Settlement of Kentucky, 1775 34 
 
 * 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 In the Current of the Revolution — The Southern 
 
 Backwoodsmen Overwhelm THE Cherokees, 1776 66 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Growth and Civil Organization of Kentucky, 1776.. 108 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 The War in the Northwest, 1777-1778 133 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Clark's Conquest of the Illinois, 1778 169 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Clark's Campaign against Vincennes, 1779 201 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Continuance of the Struggle in Kentucky and the 
 
 Northwest, 1779-1781 240 
 
 VOL. U. . . 
 
 Ill 
 
iv Contents 
 
 Appendices: page 
 
 Appendix A — To Chapter 1 3°3 
 
 Appendix B — To Chapter V 322 
 
 Appendix C — To Chapter VI 3^5 
 
 Appendix D— To Chapter VIII 328 
 
 Appendix E— To Chapter VIII 33° 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 McColloch's Leap . . . . Frontispiece 
 C. Mente 
 
 The Transylvania Legislature . . • 56 
 Louis Bauhan 
 
 Escape of Kate Sherrill . . . -9° 
 C. Mente 
 
 Clark's Attack at Vincennes . . . 230 
 
 E. A. King 
 
THE WINNING OF 
 THE WEST 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 the battle of the great kanawha; and 
 Logan's speech, 1774 
 
 M 
 
 EANWHILE Lord Dunmore, having gar- 
 risoned the frontier forts, three of which 
 were put under the orders of Daniel 
 Boon, was making ready a formidable army with 
 which to overwhelm the hostile Indians. It was 
 to be raised, and to march, in two wings or divi- 
 sions, each fifteen hundred strong, which were to 
 join at the mouth of the Great Kanawha. One 
 wing, the right or northernmost, was to be com- 
 manded by the Earl in person; while the other, 
 composed exclusively of frontiersmen living among 
 the mountains west and southwest of the Blue 
 Ridge, was entrusted to General Andrew Lewis. 
 Lewis was a stalwart backwoods soldier, belong- 
 ing to a family of famous frontier fighters, but, 
 
 VOL. II.- 
 
2 The Winning of the West 
 
 though a sternly just and fearless man,' he does 
 not appear to have had more than average quali- 
 fications to act as a commander of border troops 
 when pitted against Indians. 
 
 The backwoodsmen of the Alleghanies felt that 
 the quarrel was their own; in their hearts the 
 desire for revenge burned like a sullen flame. The 
 old men had passed their manhood with nerves 
 tense from the strain of unending watchfulness, 
 and souls embittered by terrible and repeated dis- 
 asters ; the young men had been cradled in stock- 
 aded forts, round which there prowled a foe whose 
 comings and goings were unknown, and who was 
 unseen till the moment when the weight of his 
 hand was felt. They had been helpless to avenge 
 their wrongs, and now that there was at last a 
 chance to do so, they thronged eagerly to Lewis's 
 standard. The left wing or army assembled at 
 the Great Levels of Greenbriar, and thither came 
 the heroes of long rifle, tomahawk, and hunting- 
 shirt, gathering from every stockaded hamlet, 
 every lonely clearing and smoky hunter's camp that 
 lay along the ridges from whose hollows sprang 
 the sources of the eastern and western waters. 
 They were not uniformed, save that they all wore 
 the garb of the frontier hunter ; but most of them 
 were armed with good rifles and were skilful woods- 
 men, and, though utterly undisciplined, they were 
 
 ' Stewart's "Narrative." 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 3 
 
 magnificent individual fighters. ' The officers were 
 clad and armed almost precisely like the rank and 
 file, save that some of them had long swords 
 girded to their waist-belts ; they carried rifles, for, 
 where the result of the contest depended mainly 
 on the personal prowess of the individual fighter, 
 the leader was expected literally to stand in the 
 forefront of the battle, and to inspirit his followers 
 by deeds as well as words. 
 
 Among these troops was a company of rangers 
 who came from the scattered wooden forts of the 
 Watauga and the Nolichucky. Both Sevier and 
 Robertson took part in this war, and though the 
 former saw no fighting, the latter, who had the 
 rank of sergeant, was more fortunate. 
 
 While the backwoods general was mustering his 
 unruly and turbulent host of skilled riflemen, the 
 English Earl led his own levies, some fifteen hun- 
 dred strong, to Fort Pitt.^ Here he changed his 
 plans, and decided not to try to join the other 
 division, as he had agreed to do. This sudden 
 abandonment of a scheme already agreed to and 
 acted on by his colleague was certainly improper, 
 and, indeed, none of the Earl's movements indi- 
 cated very much military capacity. However, 
 he descended the Ohio River with a flotilla of a 
 
 ^ American Archives. Colonel William Preston's letter, 
 September 28, 1774. 
 ^ Ibid., p. 872. 
 
4 The Winning of the West 
 
 hundred canoes, besides keel-boats and pirogues,'^ 
 to the mouth of the Hockhocking, where he built 
 and garrisoned a small stockade. Then he went 
 up the Hockhocking to the falls, whence he 
 marched to the Scioto, and there entrenched him- 
 self in a fortified camp, with breastworks of fallen 
 trees, on the edge of the Pickaway plains, not far 
 from the Indian town of old Chillicothe. Thence 
 he sent out detachments that destroyed certain 
 of the hostile towns. He had with him as scouts 
 many men famous in frontier story, among them 
 George Rogers Clark, Cresap, and Simon Kenton 
 (afterwards the bane of every neighboring Indian 
 tribe, and renowned all along the border for his 
 deeds of desperate prowess, his wonderful adven- 
 tures, and his hairbreadth escapes). Another, of a 
 very different stamp, was Simon Girty, of evil 
 fame, whom the whole West grew to loathe, with 
 bitter hatred, as "the white renegade." He was 
 the son of a vicious Irish trader, who was killed by 
 the Indians; he was adopted by the latter, and 
 grew up among them, and his daring ferocity and 
 unscrupulous cunning early made him one of their 
 leaders. 2 At the moment he was serving Lord 
 Dunmore and the whites; but he was by tastes, 
 habits, and education a red man, who felt ill at 
 ease among those of his own color. He soon re- 
 
 ' Doddridge, 235. 
 
 ' See Magazine of American History, xv., 256. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 5 
 
 turned to the Indians, and dwelt among them ever 
 afterwards, the most inveterate foe of the whites 
 that was to be found in all the tribes. He lived 
 to be a very old man, and is said to have died 
 fighting his ancient foes and kinsmen, the Ameri- 
 cans, in our second war against the British. 
 
 But Lord Dunmore's army was not destined to 
 strike the decisive blow in the contest. The great 
 Shawnee Chief, Cornstalk, was as wary and able 
 as he was brave. He had from the first opposed 
 the war with the whites ^ ; but as he had been un- 
 able to prevent it, he was now bent on bringing it 
 to a successful issue. He was greatly outnum- 
 bered; but he had at his command over a thou- 
 sand painted and plumed warriors, the pick of the 
 young men of the western tribes, the most daring 
 braves to be found between the Ohio and the 
 Great Lakes. His foes were divided, and he de- 
 termined to strike first at the one who would least 
 suspect a blow, but whose ruin, nevertheless, 
 would involve that of the other. If Lewis's army 
 could be surprised and overwhelmed, the fate 
 of Lord Dunmore's would be merely a question 
 of days. So without delay. Cornstalk, crafty in 
 
 ^ De Haas, p. i6i. He is a very fair and trustworthy 
 writer; in particular, as regards Logan's speech and Cresap's 
 conduct. It is to be regretted that Brantz Mayer, in deahng 
 with these latter subjects, could not have approached them 
 with the same desire to be absolutely impartial, instead of 
 appearing to act solely as an advocate. 
 
6 The Winning of the West 
 
 counsel, mighty in battle, and swift to carry out 
 what he had planned, led his long files of warriors, 
 with noiseless speed, through leagues of trackless 
 woodland to the banks of the Ohio. 
 
 The backwoodsmen who were to form the army 
 of Lewis had begun to gather at the Levels of 
 Greenbriar before the ist of September, and by 
 the seventh most of them were assembled. Alto- 
 gether, the force under Lewis consisted of four 
 commands, as follows : a body of Augusta troops, 
 under Colonel Charles Lewis, a brother of the gen- 
 eral I ; a body of Botetourt troops, under Colonel 
 William Fleming ^ ; a small independent company, 
 under Colonel John Field; and, finally, the Fin- 
 castle men, from the Holston, Clinch, Watauga, 
 and New River ^ settlements, under Colonel Wil- 
 liam Christian. "^ One of Christian's captains was 
 a stout old Marylander, of Welsh blood, named 
 Evan Shelby; and Shelby's son Isaac, ^ a stalwart, 
 
 ^ His eight captains were George Matthews, Alexander Mc- 
 Clannahan, John Dickinson, John Lewis (son of WiUiam), 
 Benjamin Harrison, WiUiam Paul, Joseph Haynes, and Sam- 
 uel Wilson. Hale, Trans-Allcghany Pioneers, p. i8i. 
 
 ^ His seven captains were Matthew Arbuckle, John Murray, 
 John Lewis (son of Andrew), James Robertson, Robert Mc- 
 Clannahan, James Ward, and John Stewart (author of the 
 "Narrative"). 
 
 3 As the Kanawha was sometimes called. 
 
 4 Whose five captains were Evan Shelby, Russell, Herbert, 
 Draper, and Buford. 
 
 s Born December ii, 1750, near Hagerstown, Md. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 7 
 
 stem-visaged young man, who afterwards played 
 a very prominent part on the border, was a subal- 
 tern in his company, in which Robertson likewise 
 served as a sergeant. Although without experi- 
 ence in drill, it may be doubted if a braver or 
 physically finer set of men were ever got together 
 on this continent.' 
 
 Among such undisciplined troops it was inevi- 
 table that there should be both delay and insubor- 
 dination. Nevertheless, they behaved a good 
 deal better than their commander had expected; 
 and he was much pleased with their cheerfulness 
 and their eagerness for action. The Fincastle 
 men, being from the remote settlements, were un- 
 able to get together in time to start with the 
 others ; and Colonel Field grew jealous of his com- 
 mander and decided to march his little company 
 alone. The Indians were hovering around the 
 camp, and occasionally shot at and wounded 
 stragglers, or attempted to drive off the pack- 
 horses. 
 
 The army started in three divisions. The bulk, 
 consisting of Augusta men, under Colonel Charles 
 Lewis, marched on September 8th, closely fol- 
 lowed by the Botetourt troops under Andrew 
 Lewis himself.^ Field, with his small company, 
 
 ' Letter of Colonel William Preston, September 28, 1774. 
 Atnerican Archives. 
 
 ^Letter of one of Lord Dunmore's officers, November 21, 
 1774. American Archives, 4th Series, vol. i., p. 1017. Hale 
 
8 The Winning of the West 
 
 started off on his own account; but after being 
 out a couple of days, two of his scouts met two 
 Indians, with the result that a man was killed on 
 each side; after which, profiting by the loss, he 
 swallowed his pride and made haste to join the 
 first division. The Fincastle troops were delayed 
 so long that most of them, with their commander, 
 
 gives a minute account of the route followed; Stewart says 
 they started on the nth. 
 
 With the journal of Floyd's expedition, mentioned on a 
 previous page, I received MS. copies of two letters to Colonel 
 William Preston, both dated at Camp Union, at the Great 
 Levels; one of September 8th from Colonel Andrew Lewis, 
 and one of September 7th (9th?) from Colonel William 
 Christian. 
 
 Colonel Lewis's letter runs in part: "From Augusta we 
 have 600; of this county [Botetourt] about 400; Major Field 
 is joined with 40. ... I have had less Trouble with the 
 Troops than I expected. ... I received a letter from 
 his Lordship last Sunday morning which was dated the 30th 
 of August at Old Towns, which I take to be Chresops; he 
 then I am told had Colonel Stephens and Major Conolly at his 
 Elbow as might easily be discovered by the Contents of his 
 letter which expressed his Lordship's warmest wishes that I 
 would with all the troops from this Quarter join him at the 
 mouth of the little Kanaway; I wrote his Lordship that it 
 was not in my power to alter our rout. . . , The In- 
 dians wounded a man within two miles of us . . . and 
 wounded another; from this we may expect they will be pick- 
 ing about VIS all the March." He states that he has more 
 men than he expected, and will therefore need more provi- 
 sions, and that he will leave some of his poorest troops to 
 garrison the small fort. 
 
 Colonel Christian's letter states that the Augusta men took 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 9 
 
 were still fifteen miles from the main body the 
 day the battle was fought; but Captains Shelby 
 and Russell, with parts of their companies, went 
 on ahead of the others, and, as will be seen, joined 
 Lewis in time to do their full share of the fighting. 
 Colonel Christian himself only reached the Levels 
 on the afternoon of the day the Augusta men had 
 marched. He was burning with desire to distin- 
 guish himself, and his men were also very eager 
 to have a share in the battle; and he besought 
 
 with them 400 pack-horses, carrying 54,000 pounds of flour, 
 and 108 beeves; they started "yesterday"; Field marched 
 "this evening"; Fleming and his 450 Botetourt men, with 
 200 pack-horses, "are going next Monday." Field had 
 brought word that Dunmore expected to be at the mouth of 
 the Great Kanawha "some days after the 20th." Some In- 
 dians had tried to steal a number of pack-horses, but had 
 been discovered and frightened off. 
 
 Christian was very much discontented at being bidden to 
 stay behind until he could gather 300 men, and bring up the 
 rear; he expresses his fear that his men will be much exas- 
 perated when they learn that they are to stay behind, and 
 reiterates: " I would not for all I am worth be behind crossing 
 the Ohio and that we should miss lending our assistance." 
 Field brought an account of MacDonald's fight (see ante, p. 
 254, vol. i.) ; he said the whites were 400 and the Indians but 30 
 strong, that the former had four men killed and six wounded; 
 the Indians but three or four killed and one captured, and 
 their town was burnt. The number of the Shawnees and 
 their allies was estimated at 1200 warriors that could be put 
 into one battle. The 400 horses that had started with the 
 Augusta men were to return as fast as they could (after reach- 
 ing the embarkment point, whence the flour was carried in 
 canoes) . 
 
lo The Winning of the West 
 
 Lewis to let him go along with what troops he 
 had. But he was refused permission, whereat he 
 was greatly put out. 
 
 Lewis found he had more men than he expected, 
 and so left some of the worst troops to garrison 
 the small forts. Just before starting, he received 
 a letter from the Earl advising, but not command- 
 ing, a change in their plans ; to this he refused to 
 accede, and was rather displeased at the proposal, 
 attributing it to the influence of Conolly, whom the 
 backwoods leaders were growing to distrust. There 
 is not the slightest reason to suppose, however, 
 that he then, or at any time during the campaign, 
 suspected the Earl of treachery ; nor did the lat- 
 ter' s conduct give any good ground for such a 
 belief. Nevertheless, this view gained credit 
 among the Virginians in later years, when they 
 were greatly angered by the folly and ferocity of 
 Lord Dunmore's conduct during the early part of 
 the Revolutionary War, and looked at all his past 
 acts with jaundiced eyes.^ 
 
 ^ When the Revolutionary War broke out, the Earl not 
 only fought the revolted colonists with all legitimate weapons, 
 but tried to incite the blacks to servile instirrection, and sent 
 agents to bring his old foes, the red men of the forest, down 
 on his old friends, the settlers. He encouraged piratical and 
 plundering raids, and on the other hand failed to show the 
 courage and daring that are sometimes partial offsets to fero- 
 city. But in this war, in 1774, he conducted himself with 
 great energy in making preparations, and showed consider- 
 able skill as a negotiator in concluding the peace, and appa- 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 1 1 
 
 Lewis's troops formed a typical backwoods 
 army, both officers and soldiers. They wore 
 fringed hunting-shirts, dyed yellow, brown, white, 
 and even red; quaintly carved shot-bags and 
 powder-horns hung from their broad ornamented 
 belts ; they had fur caps or soft hats, moccasins, 
 and coarse woollen leggings reaching half-way up 
 the thigh/ Each carried his flint-lock, his toma- 
 hawk, and scalping-knife. They marched in long 
 files with scouts or spies thrown out in front and 
 on the flanks, while axemen went in advance to 
 clear a trail over which they could drive the beef 
 cattle and the pack-horses, laden with provisions, 
 blankets, and ammunition. They struck out 
 straight through the trackless wilderness, making 
 their road as they went, until on the twenty-first of 
 the month ^ they reached the Kanawha, at the 
 mouth of Elk Creek. Here they halted to build 
 dug-out canoes; and about this time w^ere over- 
 taken by the companies of Russell and Shelby. 
 On October ist ^ they started to descend the river 
 
 rently went into the conflict with hearty zest and good- will. 
 He was evidently much influenced by Conolly, a very weak 
 adviser, however; and his whole course betrayed much vacil- 
 lation and no generalship. 
 ^ Smyth's Tour, ii., p. 179. 
 
 2 American Archives, p. 1017. 
 
 3 Ihid. Stewart says they reached the mouth of the Kana- 
 wha on October ist; another account says September 30th; 
 but this is an error, as shown both by the American Archives 
 and by the Campbell MSS. 
 
12 The Winning of the West 
 
 in twenty-seven canoes, a portion of the army 
 marching down along the Indian trail, which fol- 
 lowed the base of the hills, instead of the river 
 bank, as it was thus easier to cross the heads of 
 the creeks and ravines.' 
 
 They reached the mouth of the river on the 
 6th, ^ and camped on Point Pleasant, the cape of land 
 jutting out between the Ohio and the Kanawha. 
 As a consequence the bloody fight that ensued is 
 sometimes called the battle of Point Pleasant, 
 and sometimes the battle of the Great Kanawha. 
 Hitherto the Indians had not seriously molested 
 Lewis's men, though they killed a settler right on 
 their line of march, and managed to drive off some 
 of the bullocks and pack-horses. ^ 
 
 The troops, though tired from their journey, 
 were in good spirits and eager to fight. But they 
 were impatient of control, and were murmuring 
 angrily that there was favoritism shown in the 
 issue of beef. Hearing this, Lewis ordered all the 
 poorest beeves to be killed first ; but this merely 
 produced an explosion of discontent, and large 
 
 * Hale, 182. 
 
 2 Campbell MSS. Letter of Isaac Shelby to John Shelby, 
 October 16, 1774. A portion of this letter, unsigned, was 
 printed in American Archives, p. 10 16, and in various news- 
 papers (even at Belfast; see Hale, p. 187, who thinks it was 
 written by Captain Arbuckle) . As it is worth preserving and 
 has never been printed in full, I give it in Appendix A, sec. i. 
 
 3 Stewart's "Narrative." 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 13 
 
 numbers of the men, in mutinous defiance of the 
 orders of their officers, began to range the woods, 
 in couples, to kill game. There was little order in 
 the camp,' and small attention was paid to picket 
 and sentinel duty; the army, like a body of In- 
 dian warriors, relying for safety mainly upon the 
 sharp-sighted watchfulness of the individual mem- 
 bers and the activity of the hunting-parties. 
 
 On the 9th, Simon Girty ^ arrived in camp, 
 bringing a message from Lord Dunmore, which 
 bade Lewis meet him at the Indian towns near the 
 Pickaway plains. Lewis was by no means pleased 
 at the change, but nevertheless prepared to break 
 camp and march next morning. He had with him 
 at this time about eleven hundred men.^ 
 
 ' Smyth, ii., p. 158. He claims to have played a promi- 
 nent part in the battle. This is certainly not so, and he may 
 not have been present at all; at least Colonel Stewart, who 
 was there and was acquainted with every one of note in the 
 army, asserts positively that there was no such man along; 
 nor has any other American account ever mentioned him. 
 His military knowledge was nil, as may be gathered from his 
 remark, made when the defeats of Braddock and Grant were 
 still recent, that British regulars with the bayonet were best 
 fitted to oppose Indians. 
 
 2 Some accounts say that he was accompanied by Kenton 
 and McCuUoch; others state that no messenger arrived until 
 after the battle. But this is certainly wrong. Shelby's let- 
 ter shows that the troops learned the governor's change of 
 plans before the battle. 
 
 3 American Archives ,4th. Series, vol. i., p. 1017 ; and was joined 
 by Colonel Christian's three hundred the day after the battle. 
 
14 The Winning of the West 
 
 His plans, however, were destined to be rudely- 
 forestalled, for Cornstalk, coming rapidly through 
 the forest, had reached the Ohio. That very 
 night the Indian chief ferried his men across the 
 river on rafts, six or eight miles above the forks,' 
 and by dawn was on the point of hurling his whole 
 force, of nearly a thousand warriors,^ on the camp 
 of his slumbering foes. 
 
 Before dayHght on the tenth, small parties of 
 hunters had, as usual, left Lewis's camp. Two of 
 these men, from Russell's company, after having 
 gone somewhat over a mile, came upon a large 
 party of Indians; one was killed, and the sur- 
 vivor ran back at full speed to give the alarm, tell- 
 ing those in camp that he had seen five acres of 
 
 ^ Campbell MSS. Letter of Colonel William Preston (pre- 
 sumably to Patrick Henry), October 31, 1774- As it is in- 
 teresting and has never been published, we give it in Appendix 
 A, sec. 2. 
 
 2 Many of the white accounts make their number much 
 greater, without any authority; Shelby estimates it at be- 
 tween eight hundred and one thousand. Smith, who gener- 
 ally gives the Indian side, says that on this occasion they 
 were nearly as numerous as the whites. Smyth, who bitterly 
 hates the Americans, and always beHttles their deeds, puts 
 the number of Indians at nine hundred; he would certainly 
 make it as small as possible. So the above estimate is prob- 
 ably pretty near the truth, though it is, of course, impossible 
 to be accurate. At any rate, it was the only important en- 
 gagement fought by the English or Americans against the 
 northwestern Indians in which there was a near approach to 
 equality of force. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 15 
 
 ground covered with Indians as thick as they 
 could stand/ 
 
 Almost immediately afterwards two men of 
 Shelby's company, one being no less a person than 
 Robertson himself and the other, Valentine, a 
 brother of John Sevier, also stumbled upon the 
 advancing Indians; being very wary and active 
 men, they both escaped and reached camp almost 
 as soon as the other. 
 
 Instantly the drums beat to arms,^ and the 
 backwoodsmen, — lying out in the open, rolled in 
 their blankets, — started from the ground, looked 
 to their flints and priming, and were ready on the 
 moment. The general, thinking he had only a 
 scouting party to deal with, ordered out Colonel 
 Charles Lewis and Colonel Fleming, each with 
 one hundred and fifty men. Fleming had the left 
 and marched up the bank of the Ohio ; while Lewis, 
 on the right, kept some httle distance inland. 
 They went about half a mile.^ Then, just before 
 sunrise, while it w^as still dusk, the men in camp, 
 eagerly listening, heard the reports of three guns, 
 
 ^ Campbell MSS. Shelby's letter. Their names were 
 Mooney and Hickman; the latter was killed. Most histo- 
 rians have confused these two men with the two others who 
 discovered the Indians at almost the same time. 
 
 2 American Archives, 4th Series, vol. i., p. 1017. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 1017. Letter from Stanton, Va., November 4, 
 1774, says three quarters of a mile; Shelby says one quarter 
 of a mile. 
 
1 6 The Winning of the West 
 
 immediately succeeded by a clash like a peal of 
 thin thunder, as hundreds of rifles rang out to- 
 gether. It was evident that the attack was seri- 
 ous and Colonel Field was at once despatched to 
 the front with two hundred men. ^ 
 
 He came only just in time. At the first fire 
 both of the scouts in front of the white line had 
 been killed. The attack fell first, and with espe- 
 cial fury, on the division of Charles Lewis, who 
 himself was mortally wounded at the very outset ; 
 he had not taken a tree, ^ but was in an open piece 
 of ground, cheering on his men when he was shot. 
 He stayed with them until the line was formed, 
 and then walked back to camp unassisted, giving 
 his gun to a man who was near him. His men, 
 who were drawn up on the high ground skirting 
 Crooked Run, 3 began to waver, but were rallied 
 by Fleming, whose division had been attacked 
 almost simultaneously, until he, too, was struck 
 down by a bullet. The line then gave way, ex- 
 cept that some of Fleming's men still held their 
 own on the left in a patch of rugged ground near 
 the Ohio. At this moment, however. Colonel 
 Field came up and restored the battle, while the 
 
 ^ Ibid., Letter of November 17th. 
 
 * The frontier expression for covering one's self behind a 
 tree-trunk. 
 
 3 A small stream running into the Kanawha near its mouth. 
 De Haas, p. 151. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 17 
 
 backwoodsmen who had been left in camp also 
 began to hurry up to take part in the fight. Gen- 
 eral Lewis at last, fully awake to the danger, 
 began to fortify the camp by felling timber so as 
 to form a breastwork running across the point 
 from the Ohio to the Kanawha. This work 
 should have been done before; and through at- 
 tending to it Lewis was unable to take any 
 personal part in the battle. 
 
 Meanwhile, the frontiersmen began to push back 
 their foes, led by Colonel Field. The latter him- 
 self, however, was soon slain ; he was at the time 
 behind a great tree, and was shot by two Indians 
 on his right, while he was trying to get a shot at 
 another on his left, who was distracting his atten- 
 tion by mocldng and jeering at him.^ The com- 
 mand then fell on Captain Evan Shelby, who 
 turned his company over to the charge of his 
 son Isaac. The troops fought on steadily, un- 
 daunted by the fall of their leaders, while the 
 Indians attacked with the utmost skill, caution, 
 and bravery. The fight was a succession of single 
 combats, each man sheltering himself behind a 
 stump, or rock, or tree-trunk, the superiority of 
 the backwoodsmen in the use of the rifle being 
 offset by the superiority of their foes in the art of 
 hiding and of shielding themselves from harm. 
 The hostile lines, though about a mile and a 
 I Campbell MSS. Preston's letter. 
 
 VOL. II. — 2. 
 
i8 The Winning of the West 
 
 quarter in length, were so close together, being never 
 more than twenty yards apart, that many of the 
 combatants grappled in hand-to-hand fighting, and 
 tomahawked or stabbed each other ' to death. 
 The clatter of the rifles was incessant, while above 
 the din could be heard the cries and groans of the 
 wounded and the shouts of the combatants, as 
 each encouraged his own side or jeered savagely 
 at his adversaries. The cheers of the whites 
 mingled with the appalling war-whoops and yells 
 of their foes. The Indians also called out to the 
 Americans in broken English, taunting them, and 
 asking them why their fifes were no longer whis- 
 tling — for the fight was far too close to permit of 
 anv such music. Their headmen walked up and 
 down behind their warriors, exhorting them to go 
 in close, to shoot straight, and to bear themselves 
 well in the fight ^ ; while throughout the action 
 the whites opposite Cornstalk could hear his deep, 
 sonorous voice as he cheered on his braves and 
 bade them "be strong, be strong." 3 
 
 About noon the Indians tried to get round the 
 flank of the whites into their camp; but this 
 movement was repulsed, and a party of the Ameri- 
 cans ■* followed up their advantage, and running 
 
 ^ American Archives. Letter of November 4, 1774. 
 
 2 Campbell MSS. Preston's letter. 
 
 3 Stewart's "Narrative." 
 
 4 Led by Isaac Shelby, James Stewart, and George 
 Matthews. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 19 
 
 along the banks of the Kanawha, out-flanked the 
 enemy in turn. The Indians, being pushed very- 
 hard, now began to fall back, the best fighters 
 covering the retreat while the wounded were 
 being carried off; although, — a rare thing in 
 Indian battles — they were pressed so close that 
 they were able to bear away but a portion of their 
 dead. The whites were forced to pursue with the 
 greatest caution ; for those of them who advanced 
 heedlessly were certain to be ambushed and re- 
 ceive a smart check. Finally, about one o'clock, 
 the Indians, in their retreat, reached a very strong 
 position, where the underbrush was very close and 
 there were many fallen logs and steep banks. 
 Here they stood resolutely at bay, and the whites 
 did not dare attack them in such a stronghold. 
 So the action came almost to an end; though 
 skirmishing went on until about an hour before 
 sunset, the Indians still at times taunting their 
 foes and calHng out to them that they had eleven 
 himdred men as well as the whites, and that to- 
 morrow they were going to be two thousand 
 strong.' This was only bravado, however; they 
 had suffered too heavily to renew the attack, and 
 under cover of darkness they slipped away and 
 made a most skilful retreat, carrying all their 
 wounded in safety across the Ohio. The ex- 
 hausted Americans, having taken a number of 
 ' Campbell MSS. Preston's letter. 
 
20 The Winning of the West 
 
 scalps, as well as forty guns and many tomahawks' 
 and some other plunder,^ returned to their camp. 
 The battle had been bloody as well as stubborn. 
 The whites, though the victors, had suffered more 
 than their foes, and, indeed, had won only be- 
 cause it was against the entire policy of Indian 
 warfare to suffer a severe loss, even if a victory 
 could be gained thereby. Of the whites, some 
 seventy-five men had been killed or mortally 
 wounded, and one hundred and forty severely or 
 slightly wounded, 3 so that they lost a fifth of 
 their whole number. The Indians had not lost 
 much more than half as many; about forty 
 warriors were killed outright or died of their 
 
 ^ American Archives. Letter of November 4, 1774. It is 
 doubtful if Logan was in this fight; the story about Corn- 
 stalk killing one of his men who flinched may or may not be 
 true. 
 
 2 Hale, 199; the plunder was afterwards sold at auction for 
 £74 45. 6d. 
 
 3 These are the numbers given by Stewart; but the ac- 
 counts vary greatly. Monette {Valley of the Mississippi), 
 says 87 killed and 141 wounded. The letters written at the 
 time evidently take no account of any but the badly 
 wounded. Shelby thus makes the killed 55 and the 
 wounded (including the mortally hurt) 68. Another ac- 
 count (American Archives , p. 10 17), says 40 men killed and 
 96 wounded, 20 odd of whom were since dead; whilst a 
 footnote to this letter enumerates 53 dead outright and 
 87 wounded, "some of whom have since died." It is evi- 
 dently impossible that the slightly wounded are included in 
 these lists; and in all probability Stewart's account is correct, 
 as he was an eye-witness and participant. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 2 1 
 
 wounds. ' Among the Indians no chief of import- 
 ance was slain; whereas the Americans had 
 seventeen officers killed or wounded, and lost in 
 succession their second, third, and fourth in com- 
 mand. The victors buried their own dead and left 
 the bodies of the vanquished to the wolves and 
 ravens. At midnight, after the battle, Colonel 
 Christian and his Fincastle men reached the ground. 
 The battle of the Great Kanawha was a purely 
 American victory, for it was fought solely by the 
 backwoodsmen themselves. Their immense su- 
 periority over regular troops in such contests can 
 be readily seen when their triumph on this oc- 
 casion is compared with the defeats previously 
 suffered by Braddock's grenadiers and Grant's 
 highlanders at the hands of the same foes. It was 
 purely a soldiers' battle, won by hard individual 
 fighting ; there was no display of generalship, ex- 
 cept on Cornstalk's part.^ It was the most closely 
 
 ^ Twenty-one were scalped on the field; the bodies of 
 1 2 more were afterwards found behind logs or in holes where 
 they had been lain, and 8 eventually died of their wounds 
 (see American Archives, Smith, Hale, De Haas, etc.). Smith, 
 whowrote from the Indian side, makes their loss only 28; but 
 this apparently does not include the loss of the western In- 
 dians, the allies of the Shawnees, Mingos, and Delawares. 
 
 ^ Smyth, the Englishman, accuses Lewis of cowardice, an 
 accusation which deserves no more attention than do the simi- 
 lar accusations of treachery brought against Dunmore. Brantz 
 Mayer speaks in very hyperbolic terms of the "relentless 
 Lewis," and the "great slaughter" of the Indians. 
 
22 The Winning of the West 
 
 contested of any battle ever fought with the 
 northwestern Indians; and it was the only vic- 
 tory gained over a large body of them by a force 
 but slightly superior in numbers.' Both because 
 of the character of the fight itself, and because of 
 the results that flowed from it, it is worthy of 
 being held in especial remembrance. 
 
 Lewis left his sick and wounded in the camp at 
 the Point, protected by a rude breastwork and 
 with an adequate guard. With the remainder of 
 his forces, over a thousand strong, he crossed the 
 Ohio and pushed on to the Pickaway plains. When 
 but a few miles from the Earl's encampment he 
 was met by a messenger informing him that a 
 treaty of peace was being negotiated with the 
 Indians.'' The backwoodsmen, flushed with suc- 
 
 ^ Wayne won an equally decisive victory, but he outnum- 
 bered his foes three to one. Bouquet, who was almost beaten 
 and was saved by the provincial rangers, was greatly the 
 superior in force, and suffered four times the loss he inflicted. 
 In both cases, especially that of Bouquet, the account of the 
 victor must be received with caution where it deals with the 
 force and loss of the vanquished. In the same way Shelby 
 and the other reporters of the Kanawha fight stated that the 
 Indians lost more heavily than the whites. 
 
 ^ The stories of how Lewis suspected the Earl of treachery, 
 and of how the backwoodsmen were so exasperated that they 
 wished to kill the latter, may have some foundation; but 
 are quite as likely to be pure inventions, made up after the 
 Revolutionary War. In De Haas, the Amer-ican Pioneer, etc., 
 can be found all kinds of stories, some even told by members 
 of the Clark and Lewis families, which are meant to criminate 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 2 
 
 o 
 
 cess and angry at their losses, were eager for more 
 bloodshed; and it was only with difficulty that 
 they were restrained and were finally induced to 
 march homewards, the Earl riding down to them 
 and giving his orders in person. They grumbled 
 angrily against the Earl for sending them back, 
 and in later days accused him of treachery for 
 having done so; but his course was undoubtedly 
 proper, for it would have been very difficult to 
 conclude peace in the presence of such fierce and 
 unruly auxiliaries. 
 
 The spirit of the Indians had been broken by 
 their defeat. Their stem old chief. Cornstalk, 
 alone remained with unshaken heart, resolute to 
 bid defiance to his foes and to fight the war out to 
 the bitter end. But when the council of the head- 
 men and war chiefs was called, it became evident 
 that his tribesmen would not fight, and even his 
 burning eloquence could not goad the warriors 
 into again trying the hazard of battle. They lis- 
 tened unmoved and in sullen silence to the thrill- 
 ing and impassioned words with which he urged 
 them to once more march against the Long 
 Knives, and if necessary to kill their women and 
 
 Dunmore, but which make such mistakes in chronology — 
 placing the battle of Lexington in the year of the Kanawha 
 fight, asserting that peace was not made till the following 
 spring, etc. — that they must be dismissed offhand as entirely 
 untrustworthy. 
 
24 The Winning of the West 
 
 children, and then themselves die fighting to the 
 last man. At last, when he saw he could not stir 
 the hearts of his hearers, he struck his tomahawk 
 into the war-post and announced that he himself 
 would go and make peace. At that the warriors 
 broke silence, and all grunted out approvingly, 
 "Ough! ough! ough! " and then they instantly 
 sent runners to the Earl's army to demand a 
 truce.' 
 
 Accordingly, with all his fellow-chiefs, he went 
 to Lord Dunmore's camp, and there entered into a 
 treaty. The crestfallen Indians assented to all 
 the terms the conquerors proposed. They agreed 
 to give up all the white prisoners and stolen 
 horses in their possession, and to surrender all 
 claim to the lands south of the Ohio, and they 
 gave hostages as an earnest of their good-faith.^ 
 But their chief spokesman. Cornstalk, while 
 obliged to assent to these conditions, yet pre- 
 served through all the proceedings a bearing of 
 proud defiance that showed how little the fear of 
 personal consequences influenced his own actions. 
 At the talks he addressed the white leader with 
 vehement denunciation and reproach, in a tone 
 that seemed rather that of a conqueror than of one 
 
 ' Stewart's "Narrative." 
 
 ^ American Archives, 4th Series. St. Clair's letter, Decem- 
 ber 4, 1774. Also Jefferson MSS. Deposition of William 
 Robinson, etc. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 25 
 
 of the conquered. Indeed, he himself was not 
 conquered ; he felt that his tribesmen were craven, 
 but he knew that his own soul feared nothing. The 
 Virginians, who, like their Indian antagonists, 
 prized skill in oratory only less than skill in war- 
 fare, were greatly impressed by the chieftain's 
 eloquence, by his command of words, his clear, 
 distinct voice, his peculiar emphasis, and his sin- 
 gularly grand and majestic, and yet graceful, 
 bearing; they afterwards said that his oratory 
 fully equalled that of Patrick Henry himself. ' 
 
 Every prominent chief but one came to the 
 council. The exception was Logan, who remained 
 apart in the Mingo village, brooding over his 
 wrongs and the vengeance he had taken. His 
 fellows, when questioned about his absence, an- 
 swered that he was like a mad dog whose bristles 
 were still up, but that they were gradually falling ; 
 and when he was entreated to be present at the 
 meeting he responded that he was a warrior, not 
 a councillor, and would not come. The Mingos, 
 because they failed to appear at the treaty, had 
 their camp destroyed and were forced to give hos- 
 tages, as the Dela wares and Shawnees had done,^ 
 and Logan himself finally sullenly acquiesced 
 in, or at least ceased openly to oppose, the 
 peace. 
 
 ^ See De Haas, 162. 
 
 2 American Archives, 4th Series, vol. i., pp. 1013, 1226. 
 
26 The Winning of the West 
 
 But he would not come in person to Lord Dun- 
 more; so the Earl was obliged to communicate 
 with him through a messenger, a frontier veteran ^ 
 named John Gibson, who had long lived among 
 the Indians and knew thoroughly both their 
 speech and their manners.^ To this messenger 
 Logan was willing to talk. Taking him aside, he 
 suddenly addressed him in a speech that will 
 always retain its place as perhaps the finest out- 
 burst of savage eloquence of which we have any 
 authentic record. The messenger took it down 
 in writing, translating it literahy.s and, returning 
 to camp, gave it to Lord Dunmore. The Earl 
 then read it, in open council, to the whole back- 
 woods army, including Cresap, Clark, and the 
 other scouts. The speech, when read, proved to 
 be no message of peace, nor an acknowledgment of 
 defeat ; but, instead, a strangely pathetic recital of 
 his wrongs, and a fierce and exulting justification 
 
 ^ John Gibson, afterwards a general in the army of the 
 United States. See Appendix A, sec. 3. 
 
 2 Jefferson MSS. Statements of John Gibson, etc.; there 
 is some uncertainty as to whether Logan came up to Gibson 
 at the treaty and drew him aside, or whether the latter went 
 to seek the former in his wigwam. 
 
 3 Jefferson Papers (State Department MSS.), 5-1-4- State- 
 ment of Colonel John Gibson to John Anderson, an Indian 
 trader at Pittsburg, in 1774. Anderson had asked him if he 
 had not himself added somewhat to the speech ; he responded 
 that he had not, that it was a hteral translation or transcrip- 
 tion of Logan's words. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 27 
 
 of the vengeance he had taken. It ran as 
 follows : 
 
 ' ' I appeal to any white man to say if ever he 
 entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him 
 not meat ; if ever he came cold and naked and he 
 clothed him not? During the course of the last 
 long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his 
 camp, an advocate for peace. Such was my love 
 for the whites that my countr^^men pointed as I 
 passed and said, ' Logan is the friend of the white 
 man.' I had even thought to have lived with 
 you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel 
 Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unpro- 
 voked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not 
 even sparing my women and children. There 
 runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any 
 living creature. This called on me for revenge. 
 I have sought it. I have killed many. I have 
 fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I 
 rejoice at the beams of peace; but do not harbor 
 a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan 
 never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to 
 save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? 
 Not one." 
 
 The tall frontiersmen, lounging in a circle round 
 about, listened to the reading of the speech with 
 eager interest; rough Indian haters though they 
 were, they were so much impressed by it that in 
 the evening it was a common topic of conversa- 
 
28 The Winning of the West 
 
 tion over their camp-fires, and they continually 
 attempted to rehearse it to one another.^ But 
 they knew that Greathouse, not Cresap, had been 
 the chief offender in the murder of Logan's fam- 
 ily ; and when the speech was read, Clark, turning 
 round, jeered at and rallied Cresap as being so 
 great a man that the Indians put everything on 
 his shoulders; whereat, Cresap, much angered, 
 swore that he had a good mind to tomahawk 
 Greathouse for the murder.^ 
 
 The speech could not have been very satisfac- 
 fory to the Earl; but at least it made it evident 
 that Logan did not intend to remain on the war- 
 path; and so Lord Dunmore marched home with 
 his hostages. On the homeward march, near the 
 mouth of the river Hockhocking, the officers of 
 the army held a notable meeting. They had fol- 
 lowed the British Earl to battle ; but they were 
 Americans, in warm sympathy with the Continen- 
 tal Congress which was then in session. Fearful 
 lest their countrymen might not know that they 
 were at one with them in the struggle of which the 
 shadow was looming up with ever increasing black- 
 ness, they passed resolutions which were after- 
 ward published. Their speakers told how they 
 had lived in the woods for three months without 
 
 ^ Jefferson MSS. Affidavits of Andrew Rogers, William 
 Russell, and others who were present. 
 * Clark's letter. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 29 
 
 hearing from the Congress at Philadelphia, nor 
 yet from Boston, where the disturbances seemed 
 most likely to come to a head. They spoke of 
 their fear lest their countrymen might be misled 
 into the belief that this numerous body of armed 
 men was hostile or indifferent to the cause of 
 America; and proudly alluded to the fact that 
 they had lived so long without bread or salt, or 
 shelter at night, and that the troops they led 
 could march and fight as well as any in the world. 
 In their resolutions they professed their devotion 
 to their king, to the honor of his crown, and to 
 the dignity of the British empire ; but they added 
 that this devotion would only last while the king 
 deigned to rule over a free people, for their love 
 for the liberty of America outweighed all other 
 considerations, and they would exert every power 
 for its defence, not riotously, but when regularly 
 called forth by the voice of their countrymen. 
 
 They ended by tendering their thanks to Lord 
 Dunmore for his conduct. He was also warmly 
 thanked by the Virginia Legislature, as well as by 
 the frontiersmen of Fincastle,^ and he fully de- 
 served their gratitude. 
 
 The war had been ended in less than six months' 
 time ; and its results were of the utmost import- 
 ance. It had been very successful. In Brad- 
 dock's war, the borderers are estimated to have 
 
 ^ See De Haas, 167. 
 
30 The Winning of the West 
 
 suffered a loss of fifty souls for every Indian slain ; 
 in Pontiac's war, they had learned to defend them- 
 selves better, and yet the ratio was probably as 
 ten to one s whereas in this war, if we consider 
 only males of fighting age, it is probable that a 
 good deal more than half as many Indians as 
 whites were killed, and even including women and 
 children, the ratio would not rise to more than 
 three to one. Certainly, in all the contests waged 
 against the northwestern Indians during the last 
 half of the eighteenth century there was no other 
 where the whites inflicted so great a relative loss 
 on their foes. Its results were most important. 
 It kept the northwestern tribes quiet for the 
 first two years of the Revolutionary struggle; 
 and, above all, it rendered possible the settle- 
 ment of Kentucky, and therefore the winning 
 of the West. Had it not been for Lord Dun- 
 more' s war, it is more than likely that when the 
 colonies achieved their freedom they would have 
 found their western boundary fixed at the Alle- 
 ghany Mountains.^ 
 
 Nor must we permit our sympathy for the foul 
 wrongs of the two great Indian heroes of the con- 
 
 ^ These are Smith's estimates, derived largely from Indian 
 sources. They are probably excessive, but not very greatly 
 so. 
 
 ^ It is difficult to understand why some minor historians 
 consider this war as fruitless. 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 3 1 
 
 \ 
 
 test to blind us to the fact that the struggle was 
 precipitated, in the first place, by the outrages of 
 the red men, not the whites ; and that the war was 
 not only inevitable, but was also in its essence just 
 and righteous on the part of the borderers. Even 
 the unpardonable and hideous atrocity of the 
 murder of Logan's family was surpassed in horror 
 by many of the massacres committed by the In- 
 dians about the same time. The annals of the 
 border are dark and terrible. 
 
 Among the characters who played the leaders' 
 parts in this short and tragic drama of the back- 
 woods few came to much afterwards. Cresap died 
 a brave Revolutionary soldier. Of Greathouse we 
 know nothing; we can only hope that eventually 
 the Indians scalped him. Conolly became a viru- 
 lent tory, who yet lacked the power to do the evil 
 that he wished. Lewis served creditably in the 
 Revolution ; while at its outbreak Lord Dunmore 
 was driven from Virginia and disappears from our 
 ken. Proud, gloomy Logan never recovered from 
 the blow that had been dealt him ; he drank deeper 
 and deeper, and became more and more an im- 
 placable, moody, and bloodthirsty savage, yet 
 with noble qualities that came to the surface now 
 and then. Again and again he wrought havoc 
 among the frontier settlers ; yet we several times 
 hear of his saving the lives of prisoners. Once he 
 saved Simon Kenton from torture and death, when 
 
32 The Winning of the West 
 
 Girty, moved by a rare spark of compassion for 
 his former comrade, had already tried to do so 
 and failed. At last, he perished in a drunken 
 brawl by the hand of another Indian. 
 
 Cornstalk died a grand death, but by an act of 
 cowardly treachery on the part of his American 
 foes ; it is one of the darkest stains on the check- 
 ered pages of frontier history. Early in 1777 he 
 came into the garrison at Point Pleasant to ex- 
 plain that, while he was anxious to keep at peace, 
 his tribe were bent on going to war ; and he frankly 
 added that, of course, if they did so he should 
 have to join them. He and three other Indians, 
 among them his son and the chief Redhawk, who 
 had also been at the Kanawha battle, were de- 
 tained as hostages. While they were thus con- 
 fined in the fort a member of a company of rangers 
 was killed by the Indians near by ; whereupon his 
 comrades, headed by their captain,^ rushed in 
 furious anger into the fort to slay the hostages. 
 Cornstalk heard them rushing in and knew that 
 his hour had come; with unmoved countenance 
 he exhorted his son not to fear, for it was the will 
 of the Great Spirit that they should die there to- 
 gether; then, as the murderers burst into the 
 room, he quietly rose up to meet them, and fell 
 
 ^ John Hall; it is worth while preserving the name of the 
 ringleader in so brutal and cowardly a butchery. See Stew- 
 art's "Narrative." 
 
Battle of the Great Kanawha 33 
 
 dead, pierced by seven or eight bullets. His son 
 and his comrades were likewise butchered, and we 
 have no record of any more infamous deed. 
 
 Though among the whites the men who took 
 prominent parts in the struggle never afterwards 
 made any mark, yet it is worth noting that all 
 the af tertime leaders of the West were engaged in 
 some way in Lord Dunmore's war. Their fates 
 were various. Boon led the vanguard of the 
 white advance across the mountains, wandered 
 his life long through the wilderness, and ended his 
 days in extreme old age beyond the Mississippi, a 
 backwoods hunter to the last. Shelby won laurels 
 at King's Mountain, became the first governor of 
 Kentucky, and when an old man revived the 
 memories of his youth by again leading the west- 
 em men in battle against the British and Indians. 
 Sevier and Robertson were for a generation the 
 honored chiefs of the southwestern people. Clark, 
 the ablest of all, led a short but brilliant career, 
 during which he made the whole nation his debtor. 
 Then, like Logan, he sank under the curse of 
 drunkenness, — often hardly less dangerous to the 
 white borderer than to his red enemy,— and 
 passed the remainder of his days in ignoble and 
 slothful retirement. 
 
 VOL. II. — 3. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BOON AND THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY, 1 7 75 
 
 L 
 
 ORD DUNMORE'S war, waged by Ameri- 
 cans for the good of America, was the 
 opening act in the drama whereof the clos- 
 ing scene was played at Yorktown. It made 
 possible the two-fold character of the Revolu- 
 tionary War, wherein on the one hand the Ameri- 
 cans won by conquest and colonization new lands 
 for their children, and on the other wrought out 
 their national independence of the British king. 
 Save for Lord Dunmore's war, we could not have 
 settled beyond the mountains until after we had 
 ended our quarrel with our kinsfolk across the 
 sea. It so cowed the northern Indians that for 
 two or three years they made no further organized 
 effort to check the white advance. In conse- 
 quence, the Kentucky pioneers had only to con- 
 tend with small parties of enemies until time had 
 v/ been given them to become so firmly rooted in the 
 
 land that it proved impossible to oust them. Had 
 Cornstalk and his fellow-chiefs kept their hosts 
 unbroken, they would undoubtedly have swept 
 Kentucky clear of settlers in 1775, — as was done 
 
 34 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 35 
 
 by the mere rumor of their hostihty the preceding 
 summer. Their defeat gave the opportunity for 
 Boon to settle Kentucky, and therefore for Rob- 
 ertson to settle Middle Tennessee, and for Clark 
 to conquer IlHnois and the Northwest ; it was the 
 first in the chain that gave us for our western 
 frontier in 1783 the Mississippi and not the Alle- 
 ghanies. 
 
 As already mentioned, the speculative North 
 Carolinian Henderson had for some time been plan- 
 ning the estabUshment of a proprietary colony be- 
 yond the mountains, as a bold stroke to re-estabHsh 
 his ruined fortunes ; and early in 1 775, as the time 
 seemed favorable, he proceeded to put his ventur- 
 ous scheme into execution. For years he had 
 been in close relations with Boon ; and the latter 
 had attempted to lead a band of actual settlers to 
 Kentucky in 1773. Naturally, when Henderson 
 wished to fix on a place wherein to plant his col- 
 ony, he chose the beautiful land which the rumor 
 of Boon's discovery had rendered famous all 
 along the border ; and equally naturally he chose 
 the pioneer hunter himself to act as his Heutenant 
 and as the real leader of the expedition. The re- 
 sult of the joint efforts of these two men was to 
 plant in Kentucky a colony of picked settlers, 
 backed by such moral and material support as 
 enabled them to maintain themselves perma- 
 nently in the land. Boon had not been the first 
 
36 The Winning of the West 
 
 to discover Kentucky, nor was he the first to 
 found a settlement therein ^ ; but it was his ex- 
 ploration of the land that alone bore lasting 
 fruit, and the settlement he founded was the first 
 that contained within itself the elements of per- 
 manence and growth. 
 
 Of course, as in every other settlement of in- 
 land America, the especial point to be noticed is 
 the individual initiative of the different settlers. 
 Neither the royal nor the provincial governments 
 had anything to do with the various colonies that 
 were planted almost simultaneously on the soil of 
 Kentucky. Each little band of pioneers had its 
 own leaders and was stirred by its own motives. 
 All had heard, from different sources, of the 
 beauty and fertility of the land, and as the great 
 danger from the Indians was temporarily past, 
 all alike went in to take possession, not only acting 
 without previous agreement, but for the most 
 part being even in ignorance of one another's de- 
 signs. Yet the dangers surrounding these new- 
 formed and far-off settlements were so numerous 
 and of such grave nature, that they could hardly 
 have proved permanent had it not been for the 
 comparatively well-organized settlement of Boon, 
 
 * The first permanent settlement was Harrodsburg, then 
 called Harrodstown, founded in 1774, but soon abandoned, 
 and only permanently occupied on March 18, 1775, a fort- 
 night before Boon began the erection of his fort. 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky zi 
 
 and for the temporary immunity which Hender- 
 son's treaty purchased from the southern Indians. 
 The settlement of Kentucky was a much more 
 adventurous and hazardous proceeding than had 
 been the case with any previous westward exten- 
 sion of population from the old colonies; be- u^ 
 cause Kentucky, instead of abutting on already 
 settled districts, was an island in the wilder- 
 ness, separated by two hundred miles of un- 
 peopled and almost impassable forest from even 
 the extreme outposts of the seacoast common- 
 wealths. Hitherto every new settlement had 
 been made by the simple process of a portion of 
 the backwoods pioneers being thrust out in ad- 
 vance of the others, while nevertheless keeping in 
 touch with them, and having their rear covered, 
 as it were, by the already colonized country. 
 Now, for the first time, a new community of pio- 
 neers sprang up, isolated in the heart of the wilder- 
 ness and thrust far beyond the uttermost limits 
 of the old colonies, whose solid mass lay along the 
 Atlantic seaboard. The vast belt of mountain- 
 ous woodland that lay between was as complete 
 a barrier as if it had been a broad arm of the 
 ocean. The first American incomers to Kentucky 
 were for several years almost cut off from the bulk 
 of their fellows beyond the forest-clad mountains, 
 much as, thirteen centuries before, their forebears, 
 the first English settlers in Britain, had been cut 
 
8 The Winning of the West 
 
 off from the rest of the Low Dutch-folk who con- 
 tinued to dwell on the eastern coast of the German 
 Ocean. 
 
 Henderson, and those associated with him in 
 his scheme of land speculation, began to open 
 negotiations with the Cherokees as soon as the 
 victory of the Great Kanawha for the moment 
 lessened the danger to be apprehended from the 
 northwestern Indians. In October, 1774, he and 
 Nathaniel Hart, one of his partners in the scheme, 
 journeyed to the Otari towns and made their pro- 
 posals. The Indians proceeded very cautiously, 
 deputing one of their number, a chief called the 
 Carpenter, to return with the two white envoys 
 and examine the goods they proposed to give in 
 exchange. To this Henderson made no objection ; 
 on the contrary, it pleased him, for he was anxious 
 to get an indisputable Indian title to the proposed 
 new colony. The Indian delegate made a favor- 
 able report in January, 1775 ; and then the Overhill 
 Cherokees were bidden to assemble at the Syca- 
 more Shoals of the Watauga. The order was 
 issued by the head chief, Oconostota, a very old 
 man, renowned for the prowess he had shown in 
 former years when warring against the English. 
 On the 17th of March, Oconostota and two other 
 chiefs, the Raven and the Carpenter, signed the 
 treaty of the Sycamore Shoals in the presence 
 and with the assent of some twelve hundred of 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 39 
 
 their tribe, half of them warriors ; for all who could 
 had come to the treaty grounds. Henderson thus 
 obtained a grant of all the lands lying along and 
 between the Kentucky and the Cumberland rivers. 
 He promptly named the new colony Transylvania. 
 The purchase money was ;/^i 0,000 of lawful Eng- 
 lish money; but, of course, the payment was 
 made mainly in merchandise and not specie. It 
 took a number of days before the treaty was 
 finally concluded ; no rum was allowed to be sold, 
 and there was little drunkenness; but herds of 
 beeves were driven in, that the Indians might 
 make a feast. 
 
 The main opposition to the treaty was made by 
 a chief named Dragging Canoe, who continued for 
 years to be the most inveterate foe of the white 
 race to be foiind among the Cherokees. On the 
 second day of the talk he spoke strongly against 
 granting the Americans what they asked, point- 
 ing out, in words of glowing eloquence, how the 
 Cherokees, who had once owned the land down to 
 the sea, had been steadily driven back by the 
 whites until they had reached the mountains, and 
 warning his comrades that they must now put a 
 stop at all hazards to further encroachments, un- 
 der penalty of seeing the loss of their last hunting- 
 grounds, by which alone their children could live. 
 When he had finished his speech, he abruptly left 
 the ring of speakers, and the council broke up in 
 
40 The Winning of the West 
 
 confusion. The Indian onlookers were much im- 
 pressed by what he said ; and for some hours the 
 whites were in dismay lest all further negotiations 
 should prove fruitless. It was proposed to get the 
 deed privately; but to this the treaty-makers 
 would not consent, answering that they cared 
 nothing for the treaty unless it was concluded in 
 open coiincil, with the full assent of all the In- 
 dians. By much exertion, Dragging Canoe was 
 finally persuaded to come back; the council was 
 resumed next day, and finally the grant was made 
 without further opposition. The Indians chose 
 their own interpreter; and the treaty was read 
 aloud and translated, sentence by sentence, before 
 it was signed, on the fourth day of the formal 
 talking. 
 
 The chiefs imdoubtedly knew that they could 
 transfer only a very imperfect title to the land 
 they thus deeded away. Both Oconostota and 
 Dragging Canoe told the white treaty-makers that 
 the land beyond the mountains, whither they were 
 going, was a "dark ground," a "bloody ground" ; 
 and warned them that they must go at their own 
 risk and not hold the Cherokees responsible, for 
 the latter could no longer hold them by the hand. 
 Dragging Canoe especially told Henderson that 
 there was a black cloud hanging over the land, 
 for it lay in the path of the northwestern Indians 
 — who were already at war with the Cherokees, 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 41 
 
 and would surely show as little mercy to the white 
 men as to the red. Another old chief said to 
 Boon: " Brother, we have given you a fine land, 
 but I believe you will have much trouble in set- 
 tling it." What he said was true, and the whites 
 were taught by years of long warfare that Ken- 
 tucky was indeed what the Cherokees called it, a 
 dark and bloody ground.^ 
 
 ' The whole account of this treaty is taken from the Jeffer- 
 son MSS., 5th Series, vol. viii.; "A copy of the proceedings 
 of the Virginia Convention, from June 15 to November 19, 
 1777, in relation to the Memorial of Richard Henderson, and 
 others" ; especially from the depositions of James Robertson, 
 Isaac Shelby, Charles Robertson, Nathaniel Gist, and Thomas 
 Price, who were all present. There is much interesting mat- 
 ter aside from the treaty; Simon Girty makes depositions as 
 to Braddock's defeat and Bouquet's fight; Lewis, Croghan, 
 and others show the utter vagueness and conflict of the Indian 
 titles to Kentucky, etc. Though the Cherokees spoke of 
 the land as a "dark" or "bloody" place or ground, it does 
 not seem that by either of these terms they referred to the 
 actual meaning of the name Kentucky. One or two of the 
 witnesses tried to make out that the treaty was unfairly 
 made; but the bulk of the evidence is overwhelmingly the 
 other way. 
 
 Haywood gives a long speech made by Oconostota against 
 the treaty; but this original report shows that Oconostota 
 favored the treaty from the outset, and that it was Dragging 
 Canoe who spoke against it. Haywood wrote fifty years 
 after the event, and gathered many of his facts from tradi- 
 tion; probably tradition had become confused and reversed 
 the position of the two chiefs. Haywood purports to give 
 almost the exact language Oconostota used; but when he is 
 in error even as to who made the speech, he is exceedingly 
 unlikely to be correct in anything more than its general tenor. 
 
42 The Winning of the West 
 
 After Henderson's main treaty was concluded, 
 the Watauga Association entered into another, by 
 which they secured from the Cherokees, for ^^2000 
 sterhng, the lands they had already leased. 
 
 As soon as it became evident that the Indians 
 would consent to the treaty, Henderson sent 
 Boon ahead with a company of thirty men to 
 clear a trail from the Holston to the Kentucky. ^ 
 This, the first regular path opened into the wil- 
 derness, was long called Boon's trace, and be- 
 came forever famous in Kentucky history as the 
 Wilderness Road, the track along which so many 
 tens of thousands travelled while journeying to 
 their hoped-for homes in the bountiful West. 
 Boon started on March loth with his sturdy band 
 of rifle -bearing axemen, and chopped out a narrow 
 bridle-path — a pony trail, as it would now be 
 called in the West. It led over Cumberland Gap 
 and crossed Cumberland, Laurel, and Rockcastle 
 rivers at fords that were swimming deep in the 
 time of freshets. Where it went through tall, 
 open timber, it was marked by blazes on the tree- 
 trunks, while a regular path was cut and trodden 
 out through the thickets of underbrush and the 
 dense canebrakes and reed-beds. 
 
 After a fortnight's hard work the party had 
 
 ^ Then sometimes called the Louisa — a name given it at 
 first by the English explorers, but by great good-fortune not 
 retained. 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 43 
 
 almost reached the banks of the Kentucky River, 
 and deemed that their chief trials were over. But 
 half an hour before daybreak on the morning of 
 the twenty-fifth, as they lay round their smoul- 
 dering camp-fires, they were attacked by some 
 Indians, who killed two of them and wounded a 
 third; the others sprang to arms at once and 
 stood their ground without suffering further loss 
 or damage till it grew light, when the Indians 
 silently drew off.^ Continuing his course. Boon 
 reached the Kentucky River, and on April ist 
 began to build Boonsborough, on an open 
 plain where there was a lick with two sulphur 
 springs. 
 
 Meanwhile, other pioneers, as hardy and en- 
 terprising as Boon's companions, had likewise 
 made up their minds that they would come in to 
 possess the land; and in bands or small parties 
 they had crossed the mountains or floated down 
 the Ohio, under the leadership of such men as 
 
 ^ Collins, ii., 498. Letter of Daniel Boon, April i, 1775. 
 Collins has done good work for Kentucky history, having col- 
 lected a perfect mass of materials of every sort. But he does 
 not discriminate between facts of undoubted authenticity and 
 tales resting on the idlest legend; so that he must be used 
 with caution, and he is, of course, not to be trusted where he 
 is biassed by the extreme rancor of his political prejudices. 
 Of the Kentucky historians, Marshall is by far the most 
 brilliant, and Mann Butler the most trustworthy and impar- 
 tial. Both are much better than Collins. 
 
44 The Winning of the West 
 
 Harrod, Logan/ and the McAfees.^ But hardly 
 had they built their slight log cabins, covered with 
 brush or bark, and broken ground for the corn- 
 planting, when some small Indian war-parties, 
 including that which had attacked Boon's com- 
 pany, appeared among them. Several men were 
 "killed and sculped," as Boon phrased it; and 
 the panic among the rest was very great, insomuch 
 that many forthwith set out to return. Boon 
 was not so easily daunted ; and he at once sent a 
 special messenger to hurry forward the main body 
 under Henderson, writing to the latter with quiet 
 resolution and much good sense : 
 
 "My advice to you, sir, is to come or send as 
 soon as possible. Your company is desired greatly 
 for the people are very uneasy, but are willing to 
 stay and venture their lives with you, and now is 
 the time to fiusterate [frustrate ?] the intentions of 
 the Indians, and keep the country whilst we are 
 in it. If we give way to them now, it will ever 
 be the case." ^ 
 
 Henderson had started off as soon as he had 
 finished the treaty. He took wagons with him, 
 but was obliged to halt and leave them in Powell's 
 Valley, for beyond that even so skilful a path- 
 
 ^ Benjamin Logan; there were many of the family in Ken- 
 tucky. It was a common name along the border; the Indian 
 chief, Logan, had been named after one of the Pennsylvania 
 branch. 
 
 " McAfee MSS. 3 Boon's letter. 
 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 45 
 
 finder and road-maker as Boon had not been able 
 to find or make a way passable for wheels. ^ Ac- 
 cordingly, their goods and implements were 
 placed on pack-horses and the company started 
 again. ^ Most forttmately, a full account of their 
 journey has been kept; for among Henderson's 
 followers at this time was a man named William 
 Calk, who jotted down in his diary the events of 
 each day. 3 It is a short record, but as amusing as 
 it is instructive; for the writer's mind was evi- 
 dently as vigorous as his language was terse and 
 untrammelled. He was with a small party who 
 were going out as partners; and his journal is a 
 faithful record of all things, great or small, that 
 at the time impressed him. The opening entry 
 contains the information that " Abram's dog's leg 
 got broke by Drake's dog." The owner of the 
 latter beast, by the way, could not have been a 
 pleasant companion on a trip of this sort, for else- 
 where the writer, who, like most backwoodsmen, 
 appreciated cleanliness in essentials, records with 
 evident disfavor the fact that "Mr. Drake Bakes 
 bread without washing his hands," Every man 
 who has had the misfortune to drive a pack-train 
 
 ' Richard Henderson's Journal of an Expedition to Can- 
 tucky in 17 js (Collins). 
 
 == April 5th. 
 
 3 It is printed in the Filson Club Publications; see The 
 Wilderness Road, by Thomas Speed, Louisville, Ky., 1886; 
 one of the best of an excellent series. 
 
46 The Winning of the West 
 
 in thick timber, or along a bad trail, will appre- 
 ciate keenly the following incident, which occurred 
 soon after the party had set out for home : 
 
 " I turned my hors to drive before me and he 
 got scard ran away threw Down the Saddel Bags 
 and broke three of our powder goards and Abram's 
 beast Burst open a walet of corn and lost a good 
 Deal and made a turrabel fiustration amongst the 
 Reast of the Horses Drake's mair run against a 
 sapling and noct it down we cacht them all again 
 and went on and lodged at John Duncan's." 
 
 Another entry records the satisfaction of the 
 party when at a log fort (before getting into the 
 wilderness) they procured some good loaf-bread 
 and good whisky. 
 
 They carried with them seed-corn ' and " Irish 
 tators" to plant, and for use on the journey had 
 bacon, and corn-meal, which was made either into 
 baked corn-dodgers or else into johnny-cakes, 
 which were simply cooked on a board beside the 
 fire, or else perhaps on a hot stone or in the ashes. 
 The meal had to be used very sparingly; occa- 
 sionally a beef was killed out of the herd of cattle 
 that accompanied the emigrants; but generally 
 they lived on the game they shot — deer, turkeys, 
 and, when they got to Kentucky, buffaloes. Some- 
 
 ^ It is not necessary to say that "corn" means maize; 
 Americans do not use the word in the sense in which it is 
 employed in Britain. 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 47 
 
 times this was killed as they travelled ; more often 
 the hunters got it by going out in the evening 
 after they had pitched camp. 
 
 The journey was hard and tiresome. At times 
 it rained; and again there were heavy snow- 
 storms, in one of which an emigrant got lost and 
 only found his way to camp by the help of a 
 pocket-compass. The mountains were very steep, 
 and it was painfully laborious work to climb them 
 while chopping out a way for the pack-train. At 
 night a watch had to be kept for Indians. It was 
 only here and there that the beasts got good 
 grazing. Sometimes the horses had their saddles 
 turned while struggling through the woods. But 
 the great difficulty came in crossing the creeks, 
 where the banks were rotten, the bottom bad, or 
 the water deep ; then the horses would get mired 
 down and wet their packs, or they would have to 
 be swum across while their loads were ferried over 
 on logs. One day, in going along a creek, they 
 had to cross it no less than fifty times by "very 
 bad foards." 
 
 On the seventh of April they were met by 
 Boon's runner, bearing tidings of the loss occa- 
 sioned by the Indians; and from that time on 
 they met parties of would-be settlers, who, panic- 
 struck by the sudden forays, were fleeing from the 
 country. Henderson's party kept on with good 
 courage, and persuaded quite a number of the 
 
48 The Winning of the West 
 
 fugitives to turn back with them. Some of these 
 men who were thus leaving the country were not 
 doing so because of fright ; for many, am.ong them 
 the McAfees, had not brought out their famihes, 
 but had simply come to clear the ground, build 
 cabins, plant com, and turn some branded cattle 
 loose in the woods, where they were certain to 
 thrive well, winter and summer, on the nourishing 
 cane and wild pea-vine. The men then intended 
 to go back to the settlements and bring out their 
 wives and children, perhaps not till the following 
 year; so that things were in a measure prepared 
 for them, though they were very apt to find that 
 the cattle had been stolen by the Indians, or had 
 strayed too far to be recovered.^ 
 
 The bulk of those fleeing, however, were simply 
 frightened out of the country. There seems no 
 reason to doubt ^ that the establishment of the 
 strong, well-backed settlement of Boonsborough 
 was all that prevented the abandonment of Ken- 
 tucky at this time ; and when such was the effect 
 of a foray by small and scattered war-parties of 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. Some of the McAfees returned with Hen- 
 derson. 
 
 ^ Boon's letter, Henderson's journal, Calk's diary, Mc- 
 Afee's autobiography, all mention the way in which the early 
 settlers began to swarm out of the country in April, 1775. 
 To judge from their accounts, if the movement had not been 
 checked instantly the country would have been depopulated 
 in a fortnight, exactly as in 1774. 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 49 
 
 Indians from tribes nominally at peace with us/ 
 it can easily be imagined how hopeless it would 
 have been to have tried to settle the land had 
 there still been in existence a strong hostile con- 
 federacy such as that presided over by Cornstalk. 
 Beyond doubt the restless and vigorous frontiers- 
 men would ultimately have won their way into 
 the coveted western lands ; yet had it not been for 
 the battle of the Great Kanawha, Boon and Hen- 
 derson could not, in 1775, have planted their col- 
 ony in Kentucky ; and had it not been for Boon 
 and Henderson, it is most unlikely that the land 
 would have been settled at all until after the Revo- 
 lutionary War, when perhaps it might have been 
 British soil. Boon was essentially a type, and 
 possesses his greatest interest for us because he 
 represents so well the characteristics as well as the 
 life-work of his fellow backwoodsmen; still, it is 
 unfair not to bear in mind also the leading part he 
 played and the great services he rendered to the 
 nation. 
 
 The incomers soon recovered from the fright 
 into which they had been thrown by the totally 
 
 ^ It must be remembered that the outrages of the Indians 
 this year in Kentucky were totally unprovoked; they were on 
 lands where they did not themselves dwell, and which had 
 been regularly ceded to the whites by all the tribes — Iroquois, 
 Shawnees, Cherokees, etc. — whom the whites could possibly 
 consider as having any claim to them. The wrath of the 
 Kentuckians against all Indians is easily understood. 
 
 VOL. II. — 4. 
 
50 The Winning of the West 
 
 unexpected Indian attack; but the revengeful 
 anger it excited in their breasts did not pass away. 
 They came from a class already embittered by 
 long warfare with their forest foes ; they hoarded 
 up their new wrongs in minds burdened with the 
 memories of countless other outrages; and it is 
 small wonder that repeated and often unprovoked 
 treachery at last excited in them a fierce and in- 
 discriminate hostility to all the red-skinned race. 
 They had come to settle on ground to which, as 
 far as it was possible, the Indian title had been by 
 fair treaty extinguished. They ousted no Indians 
 from the lands they took; they had had neither 
 the chance nor the wish to themselves do wrong ; 
 in their eyes the attack on the part of the Indians 
 was as wanton as it was cruel; and in all prob- 
 ability this view was correct, and their assailants 
 were actuated more by the desire for scalps and 
 plunder than by resentment at the occupation of 
 hunting-grounds to which they could have had 
 little claim. In fact, throughout the history of 
 the discovery and first settlement of Kentucky, the 
 original outrages and murders were committed by 
 the Indians on the whites, and not by the whites 
 on the Indians. In the gloomy and ferocious 
 wars that ensued, the wrongs done by each side 
 were many and great. 
 
 Henderson's company came into the beautiful 
 Kentucky country in mid-April, when it looked 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 51 
 
 its best : the trees were in leaf, the air heavy with 
 fragrance, the snowy flowers of the dogwood 
 whitened the woods, and the banks of the streams 
 burned dull crimson with the wealth of red-bud 
 blossoms. The travellers reached the fort that 
 Boon was building on the twentieth of the 
 month, being welcomed to the protection of its 
 wooden walls by a volley from twenty or thirty 
 rifles. They at once set to with a will to finish it, 
 and to make it a strong place of refuge against 
 Indian attacks. It was a typical forted village, 
 such as the frontiersmen built everywhere in the 
 West and Southwest during the years that they 
 were pushing their way across the continent in the 
 teeth of fierce and harassing warfare; in some 
 features it was not unlike the hamlet-like "tun" 
 in which the forefathers of these same pioneers 
 dwelt, long centuries before, when they still lived 
 by the sluggish waters of the lower Rhine, or had 
 just crossed to the eastern coast of Britain.' 
 
 The fort was in shape a parallelogram, some 
 two hundred and fifty feet long and half as wide. 
 It was more completely finished than the majority 
 of its kind, though little or no iron was used in its 
 construction. At each comer was a two-storied 
 loop-holed blockhouse to act as a bastion. The 
 
 ' When the blockhouse and palisade enclosed the farm of 
 a single settler, the "tun," in its still earlier sense, was even 
 more nearly reproduced. 
 
52 The Winning of the West 
 
 stout log cabins were arranged in straight lines, so 
 that their outer sides formed part of the wall, the 
 spaces between them being filled with a high 
 stockade, made of heavy squared timbers thrust 
 upright into the ground and bound together within 
 by a horizontal stringer near the top. They were 
 loop-holed like the blockhouses. The heavy 
 wooden gates, closed with stout bars, were flanked 
 without by the blockhouses and within by small 
 windows cut in the nearest cabins. The houses 
 had sharp sloping roofs, made of huge clapboards, 
 and these great wooden slabs were kept in place 
 by long poles, bound with withes to the rafters. 
 In case of dire need each cabin was separately de- 
 fensible. When danger threatened, the cattle 
 were kept in the open space in the middle. 
 
 Three other similar forts or stations were built 
 about the same time as Boonsborough, namely: 
 Harrodstown, BoiUng Springs, and St. Asaphs, 
 better known as Logan's Station, from its found- 
 er's name. These all lay to the southwest, some 
 thirty odd miles from Boonsborough. Every 
 such fort or station served as the rallying-place 
 for the country round about, the stronghold in 
 which the people dwelt during time of danger; 
 and later on, when all danger had long ceased, it 
 often remained in changed form, growing into the 
 chief town of the district. Each settler had his 
 own farm besides, often a long way from the fort, 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 53 
 
 and it was on this that he usually intended to 
 make his permanent home. This system enabled 
 the inhabitants to combine for defence, and yet 
 to take up the large tracts of four to fourteen 
 hundred acres ' to which they were by law en- 
 titled. It permitted them in time of peace to live 
 well apart, with plenty of room between, so that 
 they did not crowd one another — a fact much 
 appreciated by men in whose hearts the spirit of 
 extreme independence and self-reliance was deeply 
 ingrained. Thus the settlers were scattered over 
 large areas, and, as elsewhere in the Southwest, 
 the country and not the town became the govern- 
 mental unit. The citizens even of the smaUer 
 governmental divisions acted through representa- 
 tives, instead of directly, as in the New England 
 town-meetings.^ The centre of county govern- 
 ment was, of course, the county court-house. 
 Henderson, having established a land agency at 
 
 ^ Four hundred acres were gained at the price of $2.50 per 
 one hundred acres, by merely building a cabin and raising a 
 crop of corn ; and every settler with such a ' ' cabin right ' ' had 
 likewise a pre-emption right to one thousand acres adjoining, 
 for a cost that generally approached forty dollars a hundred. 
 
 2 In Mr. Phelan's scholarly History of Tennessee, pp. 202- 
 204, etc., there is an admirably clear account of the way in 
 which Tennessee institutions (like those of the rest of the 
 Southwest) have been directly and without a break derived 
 from English institutions; whereas many of those of New 
 England are rather pre-Normanic revivals, curiously paral- 
 leled in England as it was before the Conquest. 
 
54 The Winning of the West 
 
 Boonsborough, at once proceeded to deed to the 
 Transylvania colonists entry certificates of sur- 
 veys of many hundred thousand acres. Most of 
 the colonists were rather doubtful whether these 
 certificates would ultimately prove of any value, 
 and preferred to rest their claims on their original 
 cabin rights ; a wise move on their part, though in 
 the end the Virginia Legislature confirmed Hen- 
 derson's sales in so far as they had been made to 
 actual settlers. All the surveying was, of course, 
 of the very rudest kind. Only a skilled woodsman 
 could undertake the work in such a country ; and, 
 accordingly, much of it devolved on Boon, who 
 ran the lines as well as he could and marked the 
 trees with his own initials, either by powder or 
 else with his knife.' The State could not under- 
 take to make the surveys itself, so it authorized 
 the individual settler to do so. This greatly pro- 
 moted the rapid settlement of the country, making 
 it possible to deal with land as a commodity, and 
 outlining the various claims, but the subsequent 
 and inevitable result was that the sons of the set- 
 tlers reaped a crop of endless confusion and litiga- 
 tion. 
 
 It is worth mentioning that the Transylvania 
 company opened a store at Boonsborough. Pow- 
 der and lead, the two commodities most in de- 
 mand, were sold respectively for $2.66f and i6f 
 
 ^ Boon's deposition, July 29, 1795. 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 55 
 
 cents per pound. The payment was rarely made 
 in coin ; and how high the above prices were may 
 be gathered from the fact that ordinary labor was 
 credited at ;^^^ cents per day, while fifty cents a 
 day was paid for ranging, hunting, and working 
 on the roads/ 
 
 Henderson immediately proceeded to organize 
 the government of his colony, and accordingly 
 issued a call for an election of delegates to the 
 Legislature of Transylvania, each of the four sta- 
 tions mentioned above sending members. The 
 delegates, seventeen in all, met at Boonsborough 
 and organized the convention on the 23d of May. 
 Their meetings were held without the walls of the 
 fort, on a level plain of white clover, under a 
 grand old elm. Beneath its mighty branches a 
 hundred people could without crowding find refuge 
 from the noon-day sun ; 't was a fit council-house 
 for this pioneer legislature of game hunters and 
 Indian fighters.^ 
 
 These weather-beaten backwoods warriors, who 
 held their deliberations in the open air, showed 
 that they had in them good stuff out of which to 
 build a free government. They were men of genu- 
 ine force of character, and they behaved with a 
 
 ^ Mann Butler, p. 31. 
 
 2 Henderson's Journal. The beauty of the elm impressed 
 him very greatly. According to the list of names eighteen, 
 not seventeen, members were elected; but apparently only 
 seventeen took part in the proceedings. 
 
56 The Winning of the West 
 
 dignity and wisdom that would have well become 
 any legislative body. Henderson, on behalf of 
 the proprietors of Transylvania, addressed them, 
 much as a crown governor would have done. The 
 portion of his address dealing with the destruction 
 of game is worth noting. Buffalo, elk, and deer 
 had abounded immediately round Boonsborough 
 when the settlers first arrived, but the slaughter 
 had been so great that even after the first six 
 weeks the hunters began to find some difficulty in 
 getting anything without going off some fifteen or 
 twenty miles. However, stray buffaloes were still 
 killed near the fort once or twice a week.^ Calk, 
 in his journal, quoted above, in the midst of entries 
 about his domestic work — such as, on April 29th 
 "we git our house kivered with bark and move 
 our things into it at Night and Begin housekeep- 
 ing" ; and, on May 2d, "went and sot in to clear- 
 ing for corn," — mentions occasionally killing deer 
 and turkey ; and once, while looking for a strayed 
 mare, he saw four "bofelos." He wounded one, 
 but failed to get it, with the luck that generally 
 attended backwoods hunters when they for the 
 first time tried their small-bore rifles against these 
 huge, shaggy-maned wild cattle. 
 
 As Henderson pointed out, the game was the 
 sole dependence of the first settlers, who, most of 
 the time, lived solely on wild meat, even the 
 
 ^ Henderson's Journal. 
 
Tlte Transylvama Legislature. 
 
.a^Mio\is^%i D\«uvj\T'iWO"»T sAT 
 

 4 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 57 
 
 parched corn having been exhausted ; and without 
 game the new-comers could not have stayed in 
 the land a week/ Accordingly, he advised the 
 enactment of game-laws; and he was especially 
 severe in his comments upon the "foreignors" 
 who came into the country merely to hunt, killing 
 off the wild beasts and taking their skins and furs 
 away, for the benefit of persons not concerned in 
 the settlement. This last point is curious as 
 showing how instantly and naturally the colonists 
 succeeded not only to the lands of the Indians, 
 but also to their habits of thought ; regarding in- 
 trusion by outsiders upon their hunting-grounds 
 with the same jealous dislike so often shown by 
 their red-skinned predecessors. 
 
 Henderson also outlined some of the laws he 
 thought it advisable to enact, and the Legislature 
 followed his advice. They provided for courts of 
 law, for regulating the militia, for punishing crim- 
 inals, fixing sheriffs' and clerks' fees, and issuing 
 writs of attachment.^ One of the members was a 
 clergyman: owing to him a law was passed for- 
 bidding profane sw^earing or Sabbath-breaking — a 
 puritanic touch which showed the mountain rather 
 than the seaboard origin of the men settling 
 
 ^ "Otir game, the only support of life amongst many of us, 
 and without which the country would be abandoned ere to- 
 morrow." — Henderson's address. 
 
 ^ Journal of the Proceedings of the House of Delegates or 
 Representatives of the Colony of Transylvania. 
 
58 The Winning of the West 
 
 Kentucky. The three remaining laws the Legis- 
 lature enacted were much more characteristic, and 
 were all introduced by the two Boons — for Squire 
 Boon was still the companion of his brother. As 
 was fit and proper, it fell to the lot of the greatest 
 of backwoods hunters to propose a scheme for 
 game protection, which the Legislature imme- 
 diately adopted; and his was likewise the "act 
 for preserving the breed of horses," — for from the 
 very outset, the Kentuckians showed the love for 
 fine horses and for horse-racing which has ever 
 since distinguished them. Squire Boon was the 
 author of a law "to protect the range"; for the 
 preservation of the range or natural pasture over 
 which the branded horses and cattle of the pio- 
 neers ranged at will was as necessary to the wel- 
 fare of the stock as the preservation of the game 
 was to the welfare of the men. In Kentucky the 
 range was excellent, abounding not only in fine 
 grass, but in cane and wild peas, and the animals 
 grazed on it throughout the year. Fires some- 
 times utterly destroyed immense tracts of this 
 pasture, causing heavy loss to the settlers; and 
 one of the first cares of pioneer legislative bodies 
 was to guard against such accidents. 
 
 It was likewise stipulated that there should be 
 complete religious freedom and toleration for all 
 sects. This seems natural enough now, but in the 
 eighteenth century the precedents were the other 
 
The Settlemenf of Kentucky 59 
 
 way. Kentucky showed its essentially American 
 character in nothing more than the diversity of 
 religious belief among the settlers from the very 
 start. They came almost entirely from the back- 
 woods mountaineers of Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
 and North Carolina, among whom the predomi- 
 nant faith had been Presbyterianism ; but from 
 the beginning they were occasionally visited by 
 Baptist preachers,^ whose creed spread to the 
 borders sooner than Methodism; and among the 
 original settlers of Harrodsburg were some Cath- 
 olic Mary landers.^ The first service ever held in 
 Kentucky was by a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, soon after Henderson's arrival ; but this 
 was merely owing to the presence of Henderson 
 himself, who, it must be remembered, was not in 
 the least a backwoods product. He stood com- 
 pletely isolated from the other immigrants during 
 his brief existence as a pioneer, and had his real 
 relationship with the old English founders of the 
 proprietary colonies and with the more modern 
 American land speculators, whose schemes are so 
 often mentioned during the last half of the eight- 
 eenth century. Episcopacy was an exotic in the 
 backwoods ; it did not take real root in Kentucky 
 
 ^ Possibly in 1775, certainly in 1776; MS. Autobiography 
 of Rev. William Hickman, in Durrett's library. 
 
 2 Life of Rev. Charles Nerinckx, by Rev. Camillus P. Maes, 
 Cincinnati, 1880, p. 67. 
 
6o The Winning of the West 
 
 till long after that commonwealth had emerged 
 from the pioneer stage. 
 
 When the Transylvania Legislature dissolved, 
 never to meet again, Henderson had nearly fin- 
 ished playing his short but important part in the 
 founding of Kentucky. He was a man of the 
 seacoast regions, who had little in common with 
 the backwoodsmen by whom he was surrounded; 
 he came from a comparatively old and sober com- 
 munity, and he could not grapple with his new 
 associates ; in his journal he alludes to them as a 
 set of scoundrels who scarcely believed in God or 
 feared the devil. A British friend ' of his, who at 
 this time visited the settlement, also described the 
 pioneers as being a lawless, narrow-minded, un- 
 polished, and utterly insubordinate set, impatient 
 of all restraint, and relying in every difficulty 
 upon their individual might; though he grudg- 
 ingly admitted that they were frank, hospitable, 
 energetic, daring, and possessed of much common 
 sense. Of course, it was hopeless to expect that 
 such bold spirits, as they conquered the wilder- 
 ness, would be content to hold it even at a small 
 quit-rent from Henderson. But the latter's col- 
 ony was toppled over by a thrust from without 
 before it had time to be rent in sunder by violence 
 from within. 
 
 Transylvania was between two millstones. The 
 
 I Smyth, p. 330. 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 6i 
 
 settlers revolted against its authority and appealed 
 to Virginia, and meanwhile Virginia, claiming 
 the Kentucky country, and North Carolina, as 
 mistress of the lands round the Cumberland, 
 proclaimed the purchase of the Transylvania 
 proprietors null and void as regards themselves, 
 though valid as against the Indians. The title 
 conveyed by the latter thus enured to the bene- 
 fit of the colonies ; it having been our policy, 
 both before and since the Revolution, not to per- 
 mit any of our citizens to individually purchase 
 lands from the savages. 
 
 Lord Dunmore denounced Henderson and his 
 acts ; and it was in vain that the Transylvanians 
 appealed to the Continental Congress, asking 
 leave to send a delegate thereto, and asserting 
 their devotion to the American cause ; for Jeffer- 
 son and Patrick Henry were members of that 
 body, and, though they agreed with Lord Dun- 
 more in nothing else, were quite as determined as 
 he that Kentucky should remain part of Virginia. 
 So Transylvania's fitful life flickered out of exist- 
 ence, the Virginia Legislature in 1778 solemnly 
 annulling the title of the company, but very prop- 
 erly recompensing the originators by the gift of 
 two hundred thousand acres.' North Carolina 
 pursued a precisely similar course; and Hender- 
 
 ^ Governor James T. Morehead's Address at Boonsborough, 
 in 1840 (Frankfort, Ky., 1841). 
 
62 The Winning of the West 
 
 son, after the collapse of his colony, drifts out of 
 history. 
 
 Boon remained, to be for some years one of 
 the Kentucky leaders. Soon after the fort at 
 Boonsborough was built, he went back to North 
 Carolina for his family, and in the fall returned, 
 bringing out a band of new settlers, including 
 twenty-seven "guns" — that is, rifle-bearing men — 
 and four women, with their families, the first who 
 came to Kentucky, though others shortly followed 
 in their steps/ A few roving hunters and daring 
 pioneer settlers also came to his fort in the fall; 
 among them, the famous scout, Simon Kenton, 
 and John Todd,^ a man of high and noble char- 
 acter and well-trained mind, who afterwards fell 
 by Boon's side when in command at the fatal 
 battle of Blue Licks. In this year, also, Clark 3 
 and Shelby ^ first came to Kentucky ; and many 
 other men whose names became famous in frontier 
 story, and whose sufferings and long wanderings, 
 whose strength, hardihood, and fierce daring, 
 whose prowess as Indian fighters and killers of 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 51. Mrs. Boon, Mrs. Denton, Mrs. McGarry, 
 Mrs. Hogan; all were from the North Carolina backwoods; 
 their ancestry is shown by their names. They settled in 
 Boonsborough and Harrodsburg. 
 
 ^ Like Logan, he was born in Pennsylvania, of Presbyterian 
 Irish stock. He had received a good education. 
 
 3 Morehead, p. 52. 
 
 4 Shelby's MS. Autobiography, in Durrett's library at 
 Louisville. 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 63 
 
 big game, were told by the firesides of Kentucky 
 to generations born when the elk and the buffalo 
 had vanished from her borders as completely as 
 the red Indian himself. Each leader gathered 
 round him a little party of men, who helped him 
 build the fort which was to be the stronghold of 
 the district. Among the earliest of these town- 
 builders were Hugh McGarry, James Harrod, and 
 Benjamin Logan. The first named was a coarse, 
 bold, brutal man, always clashing with his asso- 
 ciates (he once nearly shot Harrod in a dispute 
 over work) . He was as revengeful and foolhardy 
 as he was daring, but a natural leader in spite of 
 all. Soon after he came to Kentucky his son was 
 slain by Indians while out boiling sugar from the 
 maples; and he mercilessly persecuted all red- 
 skins forever after, Harrod and Logan were of 
 far higher character, and superior to him in every 
 respect. Like so many other backwoodsmen, 
 they were tall, spare, athletic men, with dark hair 
 and grave faces. They were as fearless as they 
 were tireless, and were beloved by their followers. 
 Harrod finally died alone in the wilderness, nor 
 was it ever certainly known whether he was killed 
 by Indian or white man, or perchance by some 
 hunted beast. The old settlers always held up 
 his memory as that of a man ever ready to do a 
 good deed, whether it was to run to the rescue of 
 some one attacked by Indians, or to hunt up the 
 
64 The Winning of the West 
 
 strayed plough-horse of a brother settler less skil- 
 ful as a woodsman; yet he could hardly read or 
 write. Logan was almost as good a woodsman 
 and individual fighter, and in addition was far 
 better suited to lead men. He was both just and 
 generous. His father had died intestate, so that 
 all of his property by law came to Logan, who was 
 the eldest son; but the latter at once divided it 
 equally with his brothers and sisters. As soon as 
 he came to Kentucky he rose to leadership, and 
 remained for many years among the foremost of 
 the commonwealth foimders. 
 
 All this time there penetrated through the 
 sombre forests faint echoes of the strife the men 
 of the seacoast had just begun against the British 
 king. The rumors woke to passionate loyalty the 
 hearts of the pioneers; and a roaming party of 
 hunters, when camped on a branch ^ of the Elk- 
 horn, by the hut of one of their number, named 
 McConnell, called the spot Lexington, in honor of 
 the memory of the Massachusetts minute-men, 
 about whose death and victory they had just 
 heard. "^ 
 
 By the end of 1775 the Americans had gained 
 ^ firm foothold in Kentucky. Cabins had been 
 
 ^ These frontiersmen called a stream a "run," "branch," 
 "creek," or "fork," but never a "brook," as in the Northeast. 
 
 ^ History of Lexington, G. W. Ranck, Cincinnati, 1872, p. 19. 
 The town was not permanently occupied till four years later. 
 
The Settlement of Kentucky 65 
 
 built and clearings made ; there were women and 
 children in the wooden forts, cattle grazed on the 
 range, and two or three hundred acres of corn had 
 been sown and reaped. There were perhaps some 
 three hundred men in Kentucky, a hardy, reso- 
 lute, strenuous band. They stood shoulder to 
 shoulder in the wilderness, far from all help, sur- 
 rounded by an overwhelming number of foes. 
 Each day's work was fraught with danger as they 
 warred with the wild forces from which they 
 wrung their living. Around them on every side 
 lowered the clouds of the impending death strug- 
 gle with the savage lords of the neighboring lands. 
 These backwoodsmen greatly resembled one 
 another ; their leaders were but types of the rank 
 and file, and did not differ so very widely from 
 them; yet two men stand out clearly from their 
 fellows. Above the throng of woodchoppers, 
 game-hunters, and Indian fighters loom the sinewy 
 figures of Daniel Boon and George Rogers Clark. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 IN THE CURRENT OF THE REVOLUTION — THE 
 
 SOUTHERN BACKWOODSMEN OVERWHELM 
 
 THE CHEROKEES, 1776 
 
 THE great western drift of our people began 
 almost at the moment when they became 
 Americans, and ceased to be merely Brit- 
 ish colonists. They crossed the great divide 
 which sundered the springs of the seaboard rivers 
 from the sources of the western waters about the 
 time that American citizens first publicly acted as 
 American freemen, knit together by common ties 
 and with interests no longer akin to those of the 
 mother-country. The movement which was to 
 make the future nation a continental power was 
 begun immediately after the hitherto separate 
 colonies had taken the first step towards solidi- 
 fication. While the communities of the seacoast 
 were yet in a fever heat from the uprising against 
 the stamp tax, the first explorers were toiling 
 painfully to Kentucky, and the first settlers were 
 building their palisaded hamlets on the banks of 
 the Watauga. The year that saw the first Con- 
 tinental Congress saw also the short, grim tragedy 
 
 66 
 
The Revolution ^^ 
 
 of Lord Dunmore's war. The early battles of the 
 Revolution were fought while Boon's comrades 
 were laying the foundations of their common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Hitherto the two chains of events had been 
 only remotely connected; but in 1776, the year of 
 the Declaration of Independence, the struggle be- 
 tween the king and his rebellious subjects shook 
 the whole land, and the men of the western border 
 were drawn headlong into the full current of Revo- 
 lutionary warfare. From that moment our poli- 
 tics became national, and the fate of each portion 
 of our country was thenceforth in some sort de- 
 pendent upon the welfare of every other. Each 
 section had its own work to do ; the East won in- 
 dependence while the West began to conquer the 
 continent. Yet the deeds of each were of vital 
 consequence to the other. Washington's Con- 
 tinentals gave the West its freedom ; and took in 
 return for themselves and their children a share of 
 the land that had been conquered and held by the 
 scanty bands of tall backwoodsmen. 
 
 The backwoodsmen, the men of the up-country, 
 were, as a whole, ardent adherents of the patriot 
 or American side. Yet there were among them 
 many loyalists or tories ; and these tories included 
 in their ranks much the greatest portion of the 
 vicious and the disorderly elements. This was 
 the direct reverse of what obtained along portions 
 
68 The Winning of the West 
 
 of the seaboard, where large numbers of the peace- 
 able, well-to-do people stood loyally by the king. 
 In the up-country, however, the Presbyterian 
 Irish, with their fellows of Calvinistic stock and 
 faith, formed the backbone of the moral and 
 order-loving element ; and the Presbyterian Irish ^ 
 were almost to a man staunch and furious up- 
 holders of the Continental Congress. Naturally, 
 the large bands of murderers, horse-thieves, and 
 other wild outlaws, whom these grim friends of 
 order hunted down with merciless severity, were 
 glad to throw in their lot with any party that 
 promised revenge upon their foes. But of course 
 there were lawless characters on both sides; in 
 certain localities, where the crop of jealousies, 
 always a rank backwoods growth, had been un- 
 usually large, and had therefore produced long- 
 standing and bitter feuds, ^ the rival families 
 espoused opposite sides from sheer vindictive 
 hatred of one another. As a result, the struggle 
 in the backwoods between tories and whigs, 
 king's-men and congress-men, ^ did not merely 
 
 ^ Mr. Phelan, in his History of Tennessee, deserves especial 
 praise for having so clearly understood the part played by the 
 Scotch-Irish. 
 
 ^ The Campbell MSS. contain allusions to various such 
 feuds and accounts of the jealousies existing not only be- 
 tween families, but between prominent members of the same 
 family. 
 
 3 See Milfort, Smyth, etc., as well as the native writers. 
 
The Revolution 6g 
 
 turn upon the questions everywhere at stake be- 
 tween the American and British parties. It was 
 also in part a fight between the law-abiding and 
 the lawless, and in part a slaking of savage per- 
 sonal animosities, wherein the borderers glutted 
 their vengeance on one another. They exercised 
 without restraint the right of private warfare, 
 long abandoned in more civilized regions. It was 
 natural that such a contest should be waged with 
 appalling ferocity. 
 
 Nevertheless this very ferocity was not only in- 
 evitable, but it was in a certain sense proper ; or, 
 at least, even if many of its manifestations were 
 blamable, the spirit that lay behind them was 
 right. The backwoodsmen were no sentimental- 
 ists; they were grim, hard, matter-of-fact men, 
 engaged all their lives long in an unending strug- 
 gle with hostile forces, both human and natural; 
 men who in this struggle had acquired many un- 
 amiable qualities, but who had learned likewise 
 to appreciate at their full value the inestimable 
 virtues of courage and common sense. The crisis 
 demanded that they should be both strong and 
 good; but, above all things, it demanded that 
 they should be strong. Weakness would have 
 ruined them. It was needful that justice should 
 stand before mercy; and they could no longer 
 have held their homes, had they not put down 
 their foes, of every kind, with an iron hand. They 
 
7o The Winning of the West 
 
 did not have many theories; but they were too 
 genuinely liberty-loving not to keenly feel that 
 their freedom' was jeopardized as much by do- 
 mestic disorder as by foreign aggression. 
 
 The tories were obnoxious under two heads: 
 they were the allies of a tyrant who lived beyond 
 the sea, and they were the friends of anarchy at 
 home. They were felt by the frontiersmen to be 
 criminals rather than ordinary foes. They in- 
 cluded in their ranks the mass of men who had 
 been guilty of the two worst frontier crimes — 
 horse-stealing and murder; and their own feats 
 were in the eyes of their neighbors in no way dis- 
 tinguishable from those of other horse-thieves and 
 murderers. Accordingly, the backwoodsmen soon 
 grew to regard toryism as merely another crime; 
 and the courts sometimes executed equally sum- 
 mary justice on tory, desperado, and stock-thief, 
 holding each as having forfeited his life.^ 
 
 The backwoodsmen were engaged in a threefold 
 contest. In the first place, they were occasionally, 
 but not often, opposed to the hired British and 
 German soldiers of a foreign king. Next, they 
 were engaged in a fierce civil war with the tories 
 of their own number. Finally, they were pitted 
 
 ^ Executions for "treason," murder, and horse-stealing 
 were very common. For an instance where the three crimes 
 were treated ahke as deserving the death penalty the perpe- 
 trators being hung, see Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 
 vol. iii., p. 361. 
 
The Revolution 71 
 
 against the Indians, in the ceaseless border strug- 
 gle of a rude, vigorous civilization to overcome an 
 inevitably hostile savagery. The regular British 
 armies, marching to and fro in the course of their 
 long campaigns on the seaboard, rarely went far 
 enough back to threaten the frontiersmen; the 
 latter had to do chiefly with tories led by British 
 chiefs, and with Indians instigated by British 
 agents. 
 
 Soon after the conflict with the revolted colon- 
 ists became one of arms as well as one of opinions, 
 the British began to rouse the Indian tribes to take 
 their part. In the Northwest they were at first 
 unsuccessful; the memory of Lord Dunmore's 
 war was still fresh in the minds of the tribes be- 
 yond the Ohio, and they remained for the most 
 part neutral. The Shawnees continued even in 
 1776 to send in to the Americans white prisoners 
 collected from among their outlying bands, in 
 accordance with the terms of the treaty entered 
 into on the Pickaway plains.' 
 
 But the southwestern Indians were not held in 
 check by memories of recent defeat, and they were 
 alarmed by the encroachments of the whites. 
 Although the Cherokees had regularly ceded to 
 the Watauga settlers their land, they still con- 
 tinued jealous of them; and both Creeks and 
 
 ^ American Archives, 4th Series, vol. vi., p. 541. But par- 
 ties of young braves went on the war-path from time to time. 
 
72 The Winning of the West 
 
 Cherokees were much irritated at the conduct of 
 some of the lawless Georgian frontiersmen. ^ The 
 colonial authorities tried to put a stop to this law- 
 lessness, and one of the chief offenders was actually- 
 seized and hung in the presence of two Indians.^ 
 This had a momentary effect on the Creeks, and 
 induced them for the time being to observe a kind 
 of nominal neutrality, though they still furnished 
 bodies of warriors to help the British and Chero- 
 kees. ^ 
 
 The latter, however, who were the nearest 
 neighbors of the Americans, promptly took up 
 the tomahawk at the bidding of the British. The 
 royal agents among these southern Indians had so 
 far successfully ^ followed the perfectly cold- 
 blooded though perhaps necessary policy of excit- 
 ing the tribes to war with one another, in order 
 that they might leave the whites at peace; but 
 now, as they officially reported to the British com- 
 mander. General Gage, they deemed this course 
 no longer wise, and, instead of fomenting, they 
 endeavored to allay, the strife between the Chick- 
 asaws and Creeks, so as to allow the latter to turn 
 their full strength against the Georgians. s At 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iii., p. 790. ^ Ibid., vol. vi., p. 1228. 
 
 3 See Milfort, pp. 46, 134, etc. 
 
 4 American Archives, 4th Series, vol. i., p. 1094, for exam- 
 ple of fight between Choctaws and Creeks. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. iv., p. 317. Letter of Agent John Stuart to 
 General Gage, St. Augustine, October 3, 1775. 
 
The Revolution 73 
 
 the same time every effort was made to induce 
 the Cherokees to rise,^ and they were promised 
 gunpowder, blankets, and the like ^ although 
 some of the promised stores were seized by the 
 Americans while being forwarded to the Indians. 3 
 In short, the British were active and successful 
 in rousing the war spirit among Creeks, Cherokees, 
 Choctaws, and Chickasaws, having numerous 
 agents in all these tribes. ^ Their success, and the 
 consequent ravages of the Indians, maddened the 
 American frontiersmen upon whom the blow fell, 
 and changed their resentment against the British 
 king into a deadly and lasting hatred, which their 
 sons and grandsons inherited. Indian warfare 
 was of such peculiar atrocity that the employ- 
 ment of Indians as allies forbade any further hope 
 of reconciliation. It is not necessary to accept 
 the American estimate of the motives inspiring 
 the act in order to sympathize fully with the 
 horror and anger that it aroused among the 
 frontiersmen. They saw their homes destroyed, 
 their wives outraged, their children captured, 
 
 ^ State Department MSS. No. 71, vol. ii., p. 189. Letter 
 of David Taitt, Deputy Superintendent (of British) in Creek 
 nation. 
 
 2 American Archives, vol. iii., p. 218, August 21, 1775. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 790, September 25, 1775. 
 
 •♦ State Department MSS., No. 51, vol. ii., p. 17 (volume of 
 Intercepted Letters). Letters of Andrew Rainsford, John Mit- 
 chell, and Alexander McCullough, to Rt. Hon. Lord George 
 Germain. 
 
74 The Winning of the West 
 
 their friends butchered and tortured wholesale by- 
 Indians armed with British weapons, bribed by 
 British gold, and obeying the orders of British 
 agents and commanders. Their stormy anger 
 was not likely to be allayed by the consideration 
 that Congress also had at first made some effort to 
 enlist Indians in the patriot forces, nor were they 
 apt to bear in mind the fact that the British, in- 
 stead of being abnormally cruel, were in reality 
 less so than our former French and Spanish op- 
 Donents,' 
 
 Looking back, it is easy to see that the Indians 
 were the natural foes of the American people, and 
 therefore the natural allies of the British Govern- 
 ment. They had constantly to fear the advance 
 of the Americans, while from the fur traders, In- 
 dian agents, and army officers who alone repre- 
 sented Britain, they had nothing but coveted 
 treasures of every kind to expect. They seemed 
 tools forged for the hands of the royal command- 
 ers, whose own people lay far beyond the reach 
 of reprisals in kind ; and it was perhaps too much 
 
 ^ No body of British troops in the Revolution bore such a 
 dark stain on its laurels as the massacre at Fort William 
 Henry left on the banners of Montcalm; even the French, not 
 to speak of the Spaniards and Mexicans, were to us far more 
 cruel foes than the British, though generally less formidable. 
 In fact the British, as conquerors and rulers in America, 
 though very disagreeable, have not usually been either need- 
 lessly cruel nor (relatively speaking) unjust, and compare 
 rather favorably with most other European nations. 
 
The Revolution 75 
 
 to expect that in that age such tools should not be 
 used.' We had less temptation to employ them, 
 less means wherewith to pay them, and more 
 cause to be hostile to and dread them ; and more- 
 over our skirts are not quite clear in the matter, 
 after all, for we more than once showed a ten- 
 dency to bid for their support. 
 
 But, after all is said, the fact remains that we 
 have to deal, not with what, under other circum- 
 stances, the Americans might have done, but with 
 what the British actually did; and for this there 
 can be many apologies, but no sufficient excuse. 
 When the commissioners to the southern Indians 
 wrote to Lord George Germain, "we have been 
 indefatigable in our endeavors to keep up a con- 
 stant succession of parties of Indians to annoy the 
 rebels," " the writers must have well known, what 
 the king's ministers should also have made it 
 their business to know, that the war-parties whom 
 they thus boasted of continually sending against 
 the settlements directed their efforts mainly, in- 
 deed almost exclusively, not against bodies of 
 armed men, but against the husbandmen as they 
 unsuspectingly tilled the fields, and against the 
 women and children who cowered helplessly in the 
 
 ^ Though it must be remembered that in our own war with 
 Mexico we decUned the proffered — and valuable — aid of the 
 Comanches. 
 
 " State Department MSS. Intercepted Letters, Pensacola, 
 July 12, 1779. 
 
76 The Winning of the West 
 
 log cabins. All men knew that the prisoners who 
 fell into Indian hands, of whatever age or sex, 
 often suffered a fate hideous and revolting be- 
 yond description. Such a letter as that quoted 
 above makes the advisers of King George the 
 Third directly responsible for the manifold and 
 frightful crimes of their red allies. 
 
 It is small wonder that such a contest should 
 have roused in the breasts of the frontiersmen not 
 only ruthless and undying abhorrence of the In- 
 dians, but also a bitterly vindictive feeling of 
 hostility towards Great Britain ; a feeling that was 
 all-powerful for a generation afterwards, and 
 traces of which linger even to the present day. 
 Moreover, the Indian forays, in some ways, dam- 
 aged the loyalist cause. The savages had received 
 strict instructions not to molest any of the king's 
 friends ' ; but they were far too intent on plunder 
 and rapine to discriminate between whig and 
 tory. Accordingly, their ravages drove the best 
 tories, who had at first hailed the Indian advance 
 with joy, into the patriot ranks, = making the fron- 
 tier almost solidly whig; save for the refugees, 
 who were willing to cast in their lot with the 
 savages. 
 
 While the Creeks were halting and considering, 
 and while the Choctaws and Chickasaws were 
 being visited by British emissaries, the Cherokees 
 
 * Ibid. * American Archives, 5th Series, i,, 610. 
 
The Revolution I"] 
 
 flung themselves on the frontier folk. They had 
 been short of ammunition ; but when the British 
 agents ' sent them fifty horse-loads ^ by a pack- 
 train that was driven through the Creek towns, 
 they no longer hesitated. The agents showed 
 very poor generalship in making them rise so early, 
 when there were no British troops in the Southern 
 States, 3 and when the Americans were conse- 
 quently unhampered and free to deal with the 
 Indians. Had the rising been put off until a Brit- 
 ish army was in Georgia, it might well have proved 
 successful. 
 
 The Cherokee villages stood in that cluster of 
 high mountain chains which mark the ending of 
 the present boundaries of Georgia and both Caro- 
 linas. These provinces lay east and southeast of 
 them. Directly north were the forted villages of 
 the Watauga pioneers, in the valley of the upper 
 Tennessee, and beyond these again, in the same 
 valley, the Virginian outpost settlements. Vir- 
 ginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia 
 were alike threatened by the outbreak, while the 
 Watauga people were certain to be the chief 
 sufferers. The Cherokees were so near the settle- 
 ments that their incursions were doubly dangerous. 
 
 ' Stuart and Cameron; the latter dwelt among them, and 
 excited them to war. 
 
 2 American Archives, 5th Series, iii., 649. 
 
 3 The only British attempt made at that time against the 
 southern colonies was in too small force, and failed. 
 
78 The Winning of the West . 
 
 On the other hand, there was not nearly as 
 much difficuhy in dealing them a counter-blow as 
 in the case of the northern Indians, for their 
 towns lay thickly together and were compara- 
 tively easy of access. Moreover, they were not 
 rated such formidable fighters. By comparing 
 Lord Dunmore's war in 1774 with this struggle 
 against the Cherokees in 1 776, it is easy to see the 
 difference between a contest against the northern 
 and one against the southern tribes. In 1 776, our 
 Indian foes were more numerous than in 1774, for 
 there were over two thousand Cherokee warriors — 
 perhaps two thousand five hundred — assisted by a 
 few Creeks and tories ; they were closer to the fron- 
 tier, and so their ravages were more serious ; but 
 they did not prove such redoubtable foes as Corn- 
 stalk's warriors, their villages were easier reached, 
 and a more telling punishment was inflicted. 
 
 The Cherokees had been showing signs of hos- 
 tility for some time. They had murdered two 
 Virginians the previous year ^ ; and word was 
 brought to the settlements, early in the summer 
 of '76, that they were undoubtedly preparing for 
 war, as they were mending guns, making moccasins, 
 and beating flour for the march. = In June, their 
 ravages began.^ The Otari, or Overhill Cherokees, 
 
 ^ American Archives, 4th Series, vol. iii., p. 11 12. 
 ^ Ibid., 5th Series, vol. i., p. m. 
 3 Ibid., 4th Series, vol. vi., p. 1229. 
 
I 
 
 The Revolution 79 
 
 had sent runners to the valley towns, asking their 
 people to wait until all were ready before march- 
 ing, that the settlements might be struck simul- 
 taneously ; but some of the young braves among 
 the lower towns could not be restrained, and in 
 consequence the outlying settlers of Georgia and 
 the Carolinas were the first to be assailed. 
 
 The main attack was made early in July, the 
 warriors rushing down from their upland fast- 
 nesses in fierce and headlong haste, the different 
 bands marching north, east, and southeast at the 
 same moment. From the Holston to the Tu- 
 gelou, from southwestern Virginia to northwestern 
 Georgia, the back-county settlements were in- 
 stantly wrapped in the sudden horror of savage 
 warfare. 
 
 The Watauga people, the most exposed of all, 
 received timely warning from a friendly squaw, ^ 
 to whom the whites ever after showed respect and 
 gratitude. They at once began to prepare for the 
 stroke ; and in all the western world of woodsmen 
 there were no men better fitted for such a death 
 grapple. They still formed a typical pioneer 
 community; and their number had been swelled 
 from time to time by the arrival of other bold and 
 restless spirits. Their westernmost settlement 
 this year was in Carter's Valley; where four men 
 
 ^ Her name was Nancy Ward. Campbell MSS., Haywood, 
 etc. 
 
8o The Winning of the West 
 
 had cleared a few acres of corn-land, and had 
 hunted buffalo for their winter's meat.' 
 
 As soon as they learned definitely that the 
 Otari warriors, some seven hundred in number, 
 were marching against them, they took refuge in 
 their wooden forts or stations. Among the most 
 important of these were the one at Watauga, in 
 which Sevier and Robertson held command, and 
 another known as Eaton's Station,^ placed just 
 above the forks of the Holston. Some six miles 
 from the latter, near the Long Island or Big Island 
 of the Holston, lay quite a large tract of level land, 
 covered with an open growth of saplings, and 
 known as the Island flats. 
 
 The Indians were divided into several bands; 
 some of their number crossed over into Carter's 
 Valley, and after ravaging it, passed on up the 
 Clinch. The settlers at once gathered in the little 
 stockades; those who delayed were surprised by 
 the savages, and were slain as they fled, or else 
 were captured, perhaps to die by torture, — men, 
 women, and children alike. The cabins were 
 burnt, the grain destroyed, the cattle and horses 
 
 ^ Ramsey, 144. The buffalo were killed (winter of 1775- 
 1776) twelve miles northeast of Carter's Valley. 
 
 2 Haywood and his followers erroneously call it Heaton's; 
 in the Campbell MSS., as well as in the American Archives, sth 
 Series, i., p. 464, it is called Eaton's or Amos Eaton's. This 
 is contemporary authority. Other forts were Evan Shelby's, 
 John Shelby's, Campbell's, the Wommack fort, etc. 
 
The Revolution 8i 
 
 driven off, and the sheep and hogs shot down with 
 arrows; the Indians carried bows and arrows for 
 this express purpose, so as to avoid wasting pow- 
 der and lead. The bolder war-parties, in their 
 search for scalps, penetrated into Virginia a 
 hundred miles beyond the frontier,^ wasting 
 the country with tomahawk and brand up to the 
 Seven-Mile Ford. The roads leading to the 
 wooden forts were crowded with settlers, who, in 
 their mortal need of hurry, had barely time to 
 snatch up a few of the household goods, and, if 
 especially lucky, to mount the women and chil- 
 dren on horses ; as usual in such a flight, there oc- 
 curred many deeds of cowardly selfishness, offset 
 by many feats of courage and self-sacrifice. Once 
 in the fort, the backwoodsmen often banded into 
 parties, and sallied out to fall on the Indians. 
 Sometimes these parties were worsted; at other 
 times they overcame their foes either by ambush 
 or in fair fight. One such party from the Wolf 
 Hills fort killed eleven Indian warriors; and on 
 their return they hung the scalps of their slain 
 foes, as trophies of triumph, from a pole over the 
 fort gate.^ They were Bible-readers in this fort, 
 and they had their Presbyterian minister with 
 them, having organized a special party to bring 
 
 ^ American Archives, 5th Series, i., 973. 
 2 American Pioneers, i., 534. Letter of Benjamin Sharp, 
 who was in the fort at the time as a boy fourteen years old. 
 
 VOL. II.— 6. 
 
82 The Winning of the West 
 
 in the books he had left in his cabin ; they joined 
 in prayer and thanksgiving for their successes; 
 but this did not hinder them from scalping the 
 men they killed. They were too well read in 
 the merciless wars of the Chosen People to feel the 
 need of sparing the fallen; indeed, they would 
 have been most foolish had they done so ; for they 
 were battling with a heathen enemy more ruthless 
 and terrible than ever was Canaanite or Philistine. 
 
 The two largest of the invading Indian bands ^ 
 moved, one by way of the mountains, to fall on 
 the Watauga fort and its neighbors, and the 
 other, led by the great war chief, Dragging Canoe, 
 to lay waste the country guarded by Eaton's 
 Station. 
 
 The white scouts — trained woodsmen, whose 
 lives had been spent in the chase and in forest 
 warfare — kept the commanders or headmen of the 
 forts well informed of the Indian advance. As 
 soon as it was known what part was really threat- 
 ened, runners were sent to the settlements near 
 by, calling on the riflemen to gather at Eaton's 
 Station; whither they accordingly came in small 
 bodies, under their respective militia captains.^ 
 
 ^ Many writers speak as if all the Indians were in these two 
 bands, which was not so. It is impossible to give their num- 
 bers exactly; probably each contained from 150 to 300 war- 
 riors. 
 
 ^ James Thompson, James Shelby, William Buchanan, 
 John Campbell, William Cocke, and Thomas Madison. See 
 
The Revolution 83 
 
 No man was really in command; the senior 
 captain exercised a vague kind of right of advice 
 over the others, and the latter in turn got from 
 their men such obedience as their own personal 
 influence was able to procure. But the levy, if 
 disorderly, was composed of excellent marksmen 
 and woodsmen, sinewy, hardy, full of fight, and 
 accustomed to act together. A council was held, 
 and it was decided not to stay cooped up in the 
 fort, like turkeys in a pen, while the Indians 
 ravaged the fields and burnt the homesteads, but 
 to march out at once and break the shock by a 
 counter-stroke. 
 
 Accordingly, on the morning of the twentieth 
 of July, they filed out of the fort, one hundred and 
 seventy strong, and bent their steps towards the 
 Island Flats. Well versed in woodland warfare, 
 the frontier riflemen marched as well as fought on 
 a system of their own, much more effective for 
 this purpose than the discipline of European regu- 
 lars. The men of this little levy walked strung out 
 in Indian file, in two parallel lines,' with scouts in 
 
 their letter of August 2, 1776, American Archives, 5th Series, 
 i., 464. Haywood, relying on tradition, says five companies 
 gathered; he is invaluable as an authority, but it must be 
 kept in mind that he often relies on traditional statement. 
 
 ^ The report of the six captains says "two divisions"; 
 from Haywood we learn that the two divisions were two 
 lines, evidently marching side by side, there being a right line 
 and a left line. 
 
84 The Winning of the West 
 
 front, and flankers on each side. Marching thus 
 they could not be surprised, and were ready at 
 any moment to do battle with the Indians, in open 
 order and taking shelter behind the trees; while 
 regulars, crowded together, were helpless before 
 the savages whom the forest screened from view, 
 and who esteemed it an easy task to overcome any 
 number of foes if gathered in a huddle.^ 
 
 When near the Flats the whites, walking si- 
 lently with moccasined feet, came suddenly on a 
 party of twenty Indians, who, on being attacked, 
 fled in the utmost haste, leaving behind ten of 
 their bundles — for the southern warriors carried 
 with them, when on the war-path, small bundles 
 containing their few necessaries. 
 
 After this trifling success a council was held, 
 and, as the day was drawing to a close, it was de- 
 cided to return to the fort. Some of the men were 
 dissatisfied with the decision, and there followed 
 an incident as characteristic in its way as was the 
 bravery with which the battle was subsequently 
 fought. The discontented soldiers expressed their 
 feelings freely, commenting especially upon the 
 supposed lack of courage on the part of one of 
 the captains. The latter, after brooding over the 
 matter until the men had begun to march off the 
 ground towards home, suddenly halted the line in 
 which he was walking, and proceeded to harangue 
 
 ' See James Smith, passim. 
 
The Revolution 85 
 
 the troops in defence of his own reputation. Ap- 
 parently no one interfered to prevent this re- 
 markable piece of military self-justification ; the 
 soldiers were evidently accustomed openly to criti- 
 cise the conduct of their commanders, while the 
 latter responded in any manner they saw fit. As 
 soon as the address was over, and the lines once 
 more straightened out, the march was renewed in 
 the original order; and immediately afterwards 
 the scouts brought news that a considerable 
 body of Indians, misled by their retreat, was 
 running rapidly up to assail their rear.' 
 
 The right file was promptly wheeled to the right 
 and the left to the left, forming a line of battle 
 a quarter of a mile long, the men taking advan- 
 tage of the cover when possible. There was at 
 first some confusion and a momentary panic, 
 which was instantly quelled, the officers and many 
 of the men joining to encourage and rally the few 
 whom the suddenness of the attack rendered faint- 
 hearted. The Otari warriors, instead of showing 
 the usual Indian caution, came running on at 
 headlong speed, beHeving that the whites were 
 fleeing in terror; while still some three hundred 
 yards off ^ they raised the war-whoop and charged 
 
 ' Among the later Campbell MSS. are a number of copies of 
 papers containing traditional accounts of this battle. They 
 are mostly very incorrect, both as to the numbers and losses 
 of the Indians and whites, and as to the battle itself very 
 little help can be derived from them. '^ Campbell MSS. 
 
86 The Winning of the West 
 
 without halting, the foremost chiefs hallooing out 
 that the white men were running, and to come on 
 and scalp them. They were led by Dragging 
 Canoe himself, and were formed very curiously, 
 their centre being cone-shaped, while their wings 
 were curved outward; apparently they believed 
 the white line to be wavering, and hoped to break 
 through its middle at the same time that they out- 
 flanked it, trusting to a single furious onset instead 
 of to their usual tactics.' The result showed their 
 folly. The frontiersmen on the right and left 
 scattered out still farther, so that their line could 
 not be outflanked ; and waiting coolly till the Otari 
 were close up, the whites fired into them. The 
 long rifles cracked like four-horse whips; they 
 were held in skilful hands, many of the assailants 
 fell, and the rush was checked at once. A short 
 fight at close quarters ensued here and there along 
 the line. Dragging Canoe was struck down and 
 severely wounded, and then the Indians fled in 
 the utmost confusion, every man for himself. Yet 
 they carried off their wounded and perhaps some 
 of their dead. The w^hites took thirteen scalps, and 
 of their own number but four were seriously hurt ; 
 they also took many guns and much plunder. 
 
 In this battle of the Island Flats ^ the whites 
 
 * Ibid. 
 
 ^ Tennessee historians sometimes call it the battle of Long 
 Island; which confuses it with Washington's defeat of about 
 the same date. 
 
The Revolution 87 
 
 were slightly superior ' in number to their foes ; 
 and they won without difficulty, inflicting a far 
 heavier loss than they received. In this respect 
 it differs markedly from most other Indian fights 
 of the same time; and many of its particulars 
 render it noteworthy. Moreover, it had a very 
 good effect, cheering the frontiersmen greatly, and 
 
 ^ The captains' report says the Indians were "not inferior" 
 in numbers; they probably put them at a maximum. Hay- 
 wood and all later writers greatly exaggerate the Indian num- 
 bers; as also their losses, which are commonly placed at 
 "over 40," "26 being left dead on the ground." In reality 
 only thirteen were so left; but in the various skirmishes on 
 the Watauga about this time, from the middle of July to the 
 middle of August, the backwoodsmen took in all twenty-six 
 scalps and one prisoner (American Archives, 5th Series, i., 
 973). This is probably the origin of the "26 dead" story; 
 the "over 40 " being merely a flourish. Ramsey gives a story 
 about Isaac Shelby rallying the whites to victory, and later 
 writers, of course, follow and embellish this; but Shelby's 
 MS. Autobiography (see copy in Colonel Durrett's library at 
 Louisville) not only makes no mention of the battle, but 
 states that Shelby was at this time in Kentucky; he came 
 back in August or September, and so was hundreds of miles 
 from the place when the battle occurred. Ramsey gives a 
 number of anecdotes of ferocious personal encounters that 
 took place during the battle. Some of them are of very 
 doubtful value — for instance, that of the man who killed six 
 of the most daring Indians himself (the total number killed 
 being only thirteen) , and the account of the Indians all re- 
 treating when they saw another of their champions van- 
 quished. The climax of absurdity is reached by a recent 
 writer, Mr. Kirke, who, after embodying in his account all the 
 errors of his predecessors and adding several others on his 
 own responsibility, winds up by stating that "two hundred 
 
88 The Winning of the West 
 
 enabling them to make head against the dis- 
 couraged Indians. 
 
 On the same day the Watauga fort ' was at- 
 tacked by a large force at stmrise. It was 
 crowded with women and children, ^ but contained 
 only forty or fifty men. The latter, however, 
 were not only resolute and well-armed, but were 
 also on the alert to guard against surprise; the 
 Indians were discovered as they advanced in the 
 gray light, and were at once beaten back with 
 loss from the loopholed stockade. Robertson 
 commanded in the fort, Sevier acting as his lieu- 
 tenant. Of course, the only hope of assistance 
 was from Virginia, North Carolina being sepa- 
 rated from the Watauga people by great mountain 
 chains ; and Sevier had already notified the officers 
 of Fincastle that the Indians were advancing. 
 His letter was of laconic brevity, and contained 
 no demand for help; it was merely a warning 
 
 and ten men under Sevier and [Isaac] Shelby . . . beat 
 back . . . fifteen thousand Indians." These numbers 
 can only be reached by comparing an exaggerated estimate of 
 all the Cherokees, men, women, and children, with the white 
 men encountered by a very small proportion of the red war- 
 riors in the first two skirmishes. Moreover, as already shown, 
 Shelby was nowhere near the scene of conflict, and Sevier was 
 acting as Robertson's subaltern. 
 
 ^ Another fort, called Fort Lee, had been previously held 
 by Sevier, but had been abandoned. See Phelan, p. 42. 
 
 'American Archives, 5th Series, i., 973; 500 women and 
 children. 
 
The Revolution 89 
 
 that the Indians were undoubtedly about to start, 
 and that "they intended to drive the country up 
 to New River before they returned" — so that it 
 behooved the Fincastle men to look to their own 
 hearthsides. Sevier was a very fearless, self- 
 reliant man, and doubtless felt confident that the 
 settlers themselves could beat back their assail- 
 ants. His forecast proved correct; for the In- 
 dians, after maintaining an irregular siege of the 
 fort for some three weeks, retired, almost at the 
 moment that parties of frontiersmen came to 
 the rescue from some of the neighboring forts.'' 
 
 While the foe was still lurking about the fort 
 the people within were forced to subsist solely on 
 parched com; and from time to time some of 
 them became so irritated by the irksome mono- 
 tony of their confinement, that they ventured out 
 heedless of the danger. Three or four of them 
 were killed by the Indians, and one boy was 
 carried off to one of their towns, where he was 
 burnt at the stake ; while a woman, who was also 
 captured at this time, was only saved from a like 
 fate by the exertions of the same Cherokee squaw 
 already mentioned as warning the settlers. Tradi- 
 tion relates that Sevier, now a young widower, 
 
 ^ Campbell MSS. Ha5rwood says that the first help came 
 from Evan Shelby; Colonel Russell, at Eaton's Station, 
 proving dilatory. In the Campbell MSS. are some late letters 
 written by sons of the Captain Campbell who took part in the 
 Island Flats fight, denying this statement. 
 
90 The Winning of the West 
 
 fell in love with the woman he soon afterwards 
 married during the siege. Her name was Kate 
 Sherrill. She was a tall girl, brown-haired, comely, 
 lithe, and supple "as a hickory sapling." One 
 day while without the fort she was almost sur- 
 prised by some Indians. Running like a deer, 
 she reached the stockade, sprang up so as to catch 
 the top with her hands, and drawing herself over 
 was caught in Sevier's arms on the other side; 
 through a loophole he had already shot the head- 
 most of her pursuers. 
 
 Soon after the baffled Otari retreated from 
 Robertson's fort the other war-parties likewise left 
 the settlements. The Watauga men, together 
 with the immediately adjoining Virginian fron- 
 tiersmen, had beaten back their foes unaided, save 
 for some powder and lead they had received from 
 the older settlements; and, moreover, had in- 
 flicted more loss than they suffered.' They had 
 made an exceedingly vigorous and successftil 
 fight. 
 
 The outlying settlements scattered along the 
 western border of the Carolinas and Georgia had 
 been attacked somewhat earlier; the Cherokees 
 
 ' American Archives, 5th Series, i., 973. Of the Watauga 
 settlers eighteen men, two women, and several children had 
 been killed; two or three were taken captive. Of the Indians 
 twenty- six were scalped; doubtless several others were slain. 
 Of course, these figures only apply to the Watauga neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
Escape of Kate Sherrill. 
 
.\'un'j\\'2. 
 
The Revolution 91 
 
 from the lower towns, accompanied by some 
 Creeks and tories, beginning their ravages in the 
 last days of June/ A small party of Georgians 
 had, just previously, made a sudden march into 
 the Cherokee country. They were trying to cap- 
 ture the British agent Cameron, who, being mar- 
 ried to an Indian wife, dwelt in her town, and 
 owned many negroes, horses, and cattle. The 
 Cherokees, who had agreed not to interfere, broke 
 faith and surprised the party, killing some and 
 capturing others, who were tortured to death. ^ 
 
 The frontiers were soon in a state of wild panic ; 
 for the Cherokee inroad was marked by the usual 
 features. Cattle were driven off, houses burned, 
 plantations laid waste, while the women and chil- 
 dren were massacred indiscriminately with the 
 men. 3 The people fled from their homes and 
 crowded into the stockade forts; they were 
 greatly hampered by the scarcity of guns and 
 ammunition, as much had been given to the 
 troops called down to the coast by the war with 
 Britain. All the southern colonies were mad- 
 dened by the outbreak, and prepared for imme- 
 diate revenge, knowing that if they were quick 
 they would have time to give the Cherokees a 
 good drubbing before the British could interfere. 4 
 
 ^ Ihid., p. 611. 
 
 2 History of Georgia, Hugh McCall, Savannah, 1816, p. 76. 
 
 3 American Archives, 5th Series, i., 610. 
 ^ Ibid., 4th Series, vi., 1228. 
 
92 The Winning of the West 
 
 The plan was that they should act together, the Vir- 
 ginians invading the Overhill country at the same 
 time that the forces from North and South Caro- 
 lina and Georgia destroyed the valley and lower 
 towns. Thus the Cherokees would be crushed 
 with little danger. It proved impossible, however, 
 to get the attacks made quite simultaneously. 
 
 The back districts of North Carolina suffered 
 heavily at the outset; however, the inhabitants 
 showed that they were able to take care of them- 
 selves. The Cherokees came down the Catawba, 
 murdering many people; but most of the whites 
 took refuge in the little forts, where they easily 
 withstood the Indian assaults. General Griffith 
 Rutherford raised a frontier levy and soon relieved 
 the besieged stations. He sent word to the pro- 
 vincial authorities that if they could only get pow- 
 der and lead, the men of the Salisbury district 
 were alone quite capable of beating off the Indians, 
 but that if it was intended to invade the Cherokee 
 country he must also have help from the Hills- 
 borough men.' He was promised assistance, and 
 was told to prepare a force to act on the offensive 
 with the Virginians and South CaroHnians. 
 
 Before he could get ready the first counter-blow 
 had been struck by Georgia and South CaroUna. 
 Georgia was the weakest of all the colonies, and 
 the part it played in this war was but trifling. 
 
 ^ Ibid., 5th Series, i., 613. 
 
The Revolution 93 
 
 It was threatened by British cruisers along the 
 coast, and by the tories of Florida ; and there was 
 constant danger of an uprising of the black slaves, 
 who outnumbered the whites. The vast herds of 
 cattle and great rice plantations of the South 
 offered a tempting bait to every foe. Tories were 
 numerous in the population, while there were in- 
 cessant bickerings with the Creeks, frequently re- 
 sulting in small local wars, brought on as often 
 by the faithlessness and brutality of the white 
 borderers as by the treachery and cruelty of the 
 red. Indeed, the Indians were only kept quiet by 
 presents, it being an unhappy feature of the fron- 
 tier troubles that while lawless whites could not 
 be prevented from encroaching on the Indian 
 lands, the Indians in turn could only be kept at 
 peace with the law-abiding by being bribed. ^ 
 
 Only a small number of warriors invaded Geor- 
 gia. Nevertheless they greatly harassed the set- 
 tlers, capturing several famiHes and fighting two 
 or three skirmishes with varying results.^ By 
 the middle of J\ily, Colonel Samuel Jack ^ took 
 
 ^ Ibid., sth Series, i., 7, and iii., 649- The Georgia fron- 
 tiersmen seem to have been peculiarly brutal in their con- 
 duct to the Creeks; but the latter were themselves very Httle, 
 if at all, better. 
 
 * McCall. Five families captured; in three skirmishes eight 
 whites were killed and six Indian scalps taken. 
 
 3 Ibid. The Tennessee historians erroneously assign the 
 command to Colonel McBury. 
 
94 The WinniriQ- of the West 
 
 the field with a force of two hundred rangers, all 
 young men, the old and infirm being left to guard 
 the forts. The Indians fled as soon as he had 
 embodied his troops, and towards the end of the 
 month he marched against one or two of their 
 small lower towns, which he burned, destroying 
 the grain and driving off the cattle. No resist- 
 ance was offered, and he did not lose a man. 
 
 The heaviest blow fell on South Carolina, where 
 the Cherokees were led by Cameron himself, ac- 
 companied by most of his tories. Some of his 
 warriors came from the lower towns that lay along 
 the Tugelou and Keowee, but most were from the 
 middle towns, in the neighborhood of the Tellico, 
 and from the valley towns that lay well to the 
 westward of these, among the mountains, along 
 the branches of the Hiawassee and Chattahoochee 
 rivers. Falling furiously on the scattered settlers, 
 they killed them or drove them into the wooden 
 forts, ravaging, burning, and murdering as else- 
 where, and sparing neither age nor sex. Colonel 
 Andrew Williamson was in command of the west- 
 ern districts, and he at once began to gather to- 
 gether a force, taking his station at Pickens's fort, 
 with forty men, on July 3d.' It was with the 
 utmost difficulty that he could get troops, guns, 
 or ammunition; but his strenuous and unceasing 
 
 ^ View of South Carolina, John Drayton, Charleston, 1802, 
 p. 231. A very good book. 
 
The Revolution 95 
 
 efforts were successful, and his force increased 
 day by day. It is worth noting that these low- 
 land troops were for the most part armed with 
 smooth-bores, unlike the rifle-bearing mountain- 
 eers. As soon as he could muster a couple of 
 hundred men,' he left the fort and advanced 
 towards the Indians, making continual halts, ^ so 
 as to allow the numerous volunteers that were 
 flocking to his standard to reach him. At the 
 same time the Americans were much encouraged 
 by the repulse of an assault made just before day- 
 light on one of the forts. ^ The attacking party 
 was some two hundred strong, half of them being 
 white men, naked and painted like the Indians; 
 but after dark, on the evening before the attack, 
 a band of one hundred and fifty American militia, 
 on their way to join Williamson, entered the fort. 
 The assault was made before dawn; it was 
 promptly repulsed, and at daybreak the enemy 
 fled, having suffered some loss; thirteen of the 
 tories were captured, but the more nimble Indians 
 escaped. 
 
 By the end of July, Williamson had gathered 
 over eleven hundred militia ^ (including two small 
 
 * More exactly, 222, on the 8th of July. 
 
 ' E. g., at Hogskin Creek and Barker's Creek. 
 
 3 Lyndley's fort, on Rayborn Creek. 
 
 •♦ Eleven hundred and fifty-one, of whom one hundred and 
 thirty were riflemen. He was camped at Twenty-three Mile 
 Creek. 
 
96 The Winning of the West 
 
 rifle companies) , and advanced against the Indian 
 towns, sending his spies and scouts before him. 
 On the last day of the month he made a rapid 
 night march, with three himdred and fifty horse- 
 men, to surprise Cameron, who lay with a party of 
 tories and Indians, encamped at Oconoree Creek, 
 beyond the Cherokee town of Eseneka, which com- 
 manded the ford of the river Keowee, The cabins 
 and fenced gardens of the town lay on both sides 
 of the river. Williamson had been told by his 
 prisoners that the hither bank was deserted, and 
 advanced heedlessly, without scouts or flankers. 
 In consequence, he fell into an ambush, for when he 
 reached the first houses, hidden Indians suddenly 
 fired on him from front and flank. Many horses, 
 including that of the commander, were shot down, 
 and the startled troops began a disorderly retreat, 
 firing at random. Colonel Hammond rallied 
 about twenty of the coolest, and ordering them to 
 reserve their fire, he charged the fence from be- 
 hind which the heaviest hostile fire came. When 
 up to it they shot into the dark figures crouching 
 behind it, and jumping over charged home. The 
 Indians immediately fled, leaving one dead and 
 three wounded in the hands of the whites. The 
 action was over; but the by-no-means-reassured 
 victors had lost five men mortally and thirteen 
 severely wounded, and were still rather nervous. 
 At daybreak, Williamson destroyed the houses 
 
The Revolution 97 
 
 near by, and started to cross the ford. But his 
 men, in true mihtia style, had become sulky and 
 mutinous, and refused to cross, until Colonel 
 Hammond swore he would go alone, and plunged 
 into the river, followed by three volunteers, where- 
 upon the whole army crowded after. The revul- 
 sion in their feelings was instantaneous; once 
 across they seemed to have left all fear as well as 
 all prudence behind. On the hither side there 
 had been no getting them to advance; on the 
 farther there was no keeping them together, and 
 they scattered everywhere. Luckily the Indians 
 were too few to retaliate ; and, besides, the Chero- 
 kees were not good marksmen, using so little pow- 
 der in their guns that they made very ineffective 
 weapons. After all the houses had been burned, 
 and some six thousand bushels of com, besides 
 peas and beans, destroyed, Williamson returned 
 to his camp. Next day he renewed his advance, 
 and sent out detachments against all the other 
 lower towns, utterly destroying every one by the 
 middle of August, although not without one or 
 two smart skirmishes. ^ His troops were very 
 much elated, and only the lack of provisions pre- 
 vented his marching against the middle towns. 
 
 ^ At Tomassee, where he put to flight a body of two or 
 three hundred warriors, he lost eight killed and fifteen 
 wounded; and at Tugelou, four wounded. Besides these two 
 towns, he also destroyed Soconee, Keowee, Ostatay, Cheho- 
 kee, Eustustie, Sugaw Town, and Brass Town. 
 
 VOL. II.— 7. 
 
98 The Winning of the West 
 
 As it was, he retired to refit, leaving a garrison of 
 six hundred men at Eseneka, which he christened 
 Fort Rutledge. This ended the first stage of the 
 retahatory campaign, undertaken by the whites 
 in revenge for the outbreak. The South CaroHn- 
 ians, assisted sHghtly by a small independent 
 command of Georgians, who acted separately, 
 had destroyed the lower Cherokee towns, at the 
 same time that the Watauga people repulsed the 
 attack of the Overhill warriors. 
 
 The second and most important movement was 
 to be made by South Carolina, North Carolina, 
 and Virginia jointly, each sending a column of 
 two thousand men,' the two former against the 
 middle and valley, the latter against the Overhill 
 towns. If the columns acted together the Chero- 
 kees would be overwhelmed by a force three times 
 the number of all their warriors. The plan suc- 
 ceeded well, although the Virginia division was 
 delayed, so that its action, though no less effective, 
 was much later than that of the others, and though 
 the latter likewise failed to act in perfect unison. 
 
 Rutherford and his North Carolinians were the 
 
 ^ All militia, of course, with only the training they had re- 
 ceived on the rare muster days; but a warlike set, utterly 
 unlike ordinary militia, and for woodland work against sav- 
 ages in many respects much superior to European regulars. 
 This campaign against the Cherokees was infinitely more suc- 
 cessful than that waged in 1760 against the same foe by 
 armies of grenadiers and highlanders. 
 
The Revolution 99 
 
 first to take the field.' He had an army of two 
 thousand gun-men, besides pack-horsemen and 
 men to tend the drove of bullocks, together with 
 a few Catawba Indians, — a total of twenty-four 
 hundred.^ On September ist he left the head of 
 the Catawba, 3 and the route he followed was long 
 known by the name of Rutherford's trace. There 
 was not a tent in his army, and but very few 
 blankets ; the pack-horses carried the flour, while 
 the beef was driven along on the hoof. Officers 
 and men alike wore home spun hunting-shirts 
 trimmed with colored cotton ; the cloth was made 
 from hemp, tow, and wild-nettle bark. 
 
 He passed over the Blue Ridge at Swananoa 
 Gap, crossed the French Broad at the Warrior's 
 Ford, and then went through the mountains ^ to 
 the middle towns, a detachment of a thousand 
 men making a forced march in advance. This 
 detachment was fired at by a small band of In- 
 dians from an ambush, and one man was wounded 
 in the foot ; but no further resistance was made, 
 the towns being abandoned. ^ The main body 
 
 ^ That is, after the return of the South CaroUnians from 
 their destruction of the lower towns. 
 
 2 Historical Sketches of North Carolina, John H. Wheeler, 
 Philadelphia, 1851, p. 383. 
 
 3 American Archives, 5th Series, vol. ii., p. 1235. 
 
 4 Up Hominy Creek, across the Pigeon, up Richland Creek, 
 across Tuckaseigee River, over Cowee Mount. 
 
 5 American Archives, 5th Series, ii., p. 1235. 
 
loo The Winning of the West 
 
 coming up, parties of troops were sent out in e very- 
 direct ion, and all of the middle towns were de- 
 stroyed. Rutherford had expected to meet Wil- 
 liamson at this place, but the latter did not appear, 
 and so the North Carolina commander deter- 
 mined to proceed alone against the valley towns 
 along the Hiawassee. Taking with him only nine 
 hundred picked men, he attempted to cross the 
 rugged mountain chains which separated him 
 from his destination; but he had no guide, and 
 missed the regular pass — a fortunate thing for 
 him, as it afterwards turned out, for he thus es- 
 caped falling into an ambush of five hundred 
 Cherokees who were encamped along it.^ After 
 in vain trying to penetrate the tangle of gloomy 
 defiles and wooded peaks, he returned to the mid- 
 dle towns at Canucca on September i8th. Here 
 he met Williamson, who had just arrived, having 
 been delayed so that he could not leave Fort Rut- 
 ledge until the i3th.^ The South Carolinians, 
 two thousand strong, had crossed the Blue Ridge 
 near the sources of the Little Tennessee. 
 
 While Rutherford rested, ^ Williamson, on the 
 19th, pushed on through Noewee pass, and fell 
 
 ' Ibid. 
 
 ^ Drayton. There was a good deal of jealousy between the 
 two armies, and their reports conflict on some points. 
 
 3 There is some conflict in the accounts of the destruction 
 of the valley towns; after carefully comparing the accounts 
 in the American Archives, Drayton, White, Ramsey, etc., I 
 
The Revolution loi 
 
 into the ambush which had been laid for the 
 former. The pass was a narrow, open valley, 
 walled in by steep and lofty mountains. The In- 
 dians waited until the troops were struggling up 
 to the outlet, and then assailed them with a close 
 and deadly fire. The surprised soldiers recoiled 
 and fell into confusion; and they were for the 
 second time saved from disaster by the gallantry 
 of Colonel Hammond, who with voice and action 
 rallied them, endeavoring to keep them firm 
 while a detachment was sent to clamber up the 
 rocks and outflank the Indians. At the same 
 time Lieutenant Hampton got twenty men to- 
 gether, out of the rout, and ran forward, calling 
 out: "Loaded guns advance, empty guns fall 
 down and load." Being joined by some thirty 
 men more he pushed desperately upwards. The 
 Indians fled from the shock; and the army thus 
 owed its safety solely to two gallant officers. Of 
 the whites seventeen were killed and twenty-nine 
 wounded ' ; they took fourteen scalps.^ 
 
 Although the distance was but twenty odd 
 miles, it took Williamson five days of incredible 
 
 believe that the above is substantially accurate. However, 
 it is impossible to reconcile all of the accounts of the relative 
 order of Rutherford's and Williamson's marches. 
 
 ' Drayton. The American Archives say only twelve killed 
 and twenty wounded. In another skirmish at Cheowee three 
 South Carolinians were killed. 
 
 ' American Archives, 5th Series, ii., p. 1235. 
 
I02 The Winning: of the West 
 
 t) 
 
 toil before he reached the valley towns. The 
 troops showed the utmost patience, clearing a 
 path for the pack-train along the sheer mountain- 
 sides and through the dense, untrodden forests in 
 the valleys. The trail often wound along cliffs 
 where a single misstep of a pack-animal resulted 
 in its being dashed to pieces. But the work, 
 though fatiguing, was healthy; it was noticed 
 that during the whole expedition not a man was 
 laid up for any length of time by sickness. 
 
 Rutherford joined Williamson immediately 
 afterwards, and together they utterly laid waste 
 the valley towns; and then, in the last week of 
 September, started homewards. All the Chero- 
 kee settlements west of the Appalachians had 
 been destroyed from the face of the earth, neither 
 crops nor cattle being left, and most of the in- 
 habitants were obliged to take refuge with the 
 Creeks. 
 
 Rutherford reached home in safety, never hav- 
 ing experienced any real resistance; he had lost 
 but three men in all. He had killed twelve In- 
 dians, and had captured nine more, besides seven 
 whites and four negroes. He had also taken piles 
 of deerskins, a hundredweight of gunpowder, and 
 twenty-five hundred pounds of lead; and, more- 
 over, had wasted and destroyed to his heart's 
 content.^ 
 
 I Ihid. 
 
The Revolution 103 
 
 Williamson, too, reached home without suffer- 
 ing further damage, entering Fort Rutledge on 
 October 7th. In his two expeditions he had had 
 ninety-four men killed and wounded, but he had 
 done much more harm than any one else to the 
 Indians. It was said the South Carolinians had 
 taken seventy-five scalps ' ; at any rate, the 
 South Carolina Legislature had offered a reward 
 of ;^75 for every warrior's scalp, as well as ;^ioo 
 for every Indian and ;^8o for every tory or negro 
 taken prisoner.^ But the troops were forbidden 
 to sell their prisoners as slaves — not a needless 
 injunction, as is shown by the fact that when it 
 was issued there had already been at least one 
 case in Williamson's own army where a captured 
 Indian was sold into bondage. 
 
 The Virginia troops had meanwhile been slowly 
 gathering at the Great Island of the Holston, 
 under Colonel William Christian, preparatory to 
 assaulting the Overhill Cherokees. While they 
 were assembling, the Indians threatened them 
 from time to time ; once a small party of braves 
 crossed the river and killed a soldier near the main 
 post of the army, and also killed a settler; a 
 day or two later another war-party slipped by to- 
 wards the settlements, but on being pursued by a 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 990. Drayton puts the total Cherokee loss at 
 two hundred. 
 
 ' Ibid., vol. iii., p. ^:^. 
 
I04 The Winning of the West 
 
 detachment of militia faced about and returned 
 to their town.' On the first of October the army 
 started, two thousand strong, ' including some 
 troops from North Carolina, and all the gun-men 
 who could be spared from the little stockaded 
 hamlets scattered along the Watauga, the Hol- 
 ston, and the CHnch. Except a small force of 
 horse-riflemen, the men were on foot, each with 
 tomahawk, scalping-knife, and long, grooved 
 flint-lock ; all were healthy, well equipped, and in 
 fine spirits, driving their pack-horses and bullocks 
 with them. Characteristically enough, a Presby- 
 terian clergyman, following his backwoods flock, 
 went along with this expedition as chaplain. The 
 army moved very cautiously, the night encamp- 
 ments being made behind breastworks of felled 
 timbers. There was therefore no chance for a 
 surprise; and their great inferiority in number 
 made it hopeless for the Cherokees to try a fair 
 fight. In their despair they asked help from the 
 Creeks; but the latter repHed that they had 
 plucked the thorn of warfare from their (the 
 Creeks') foot, and were welcome to keep it.^ 
 
 ' These two events took place on September 26th and 29th; 
 American Archives, 5th Series, vol. ii., p. 540. Ramsey is 
 thus wrong in saying no white was killed on this expedition. 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. One of the McAfees went along and pre- 
 served a rottgh diary of dates. 
 
 3 History of Virginia, John Burke (continued by L. H. 
 Girardin), Petersburg, 1816, p. 176. 
 
The Revolution 105 
 
 The Virginians came steadily on ' until they 
 reached the Big Island of the French Broad. =" 
 Here the Cherokees had gathered their warriors, 
 and they sent a tory trader across with a flag of 
 truce. Christian, well knowing that the Virgin- 
 ians greatly outnumbered the Indians, let the 
 man go through his camp at will,^ and sent him 
 back with word that the Cherokee towns were 
 doomed, for that he would surely march to them 
 and destroy them. That night he left half of his 
 men in camp, lying on their arms by the watch- 
 fires, while with the others he forded the river 
 below and came round to surprise the Indian en- 
 campment from behind; but he found that the 
 Indians had fled, for their hearts had become as 
 water, nor did they venture at any time, during 
 this expedition, to molest the white forces. Fol- 
 lowing them up, Christian reached the towns early 
 in November, 4 and remained two weeks, sending 
 out parties to bum the cabins and destroy the 
 stores of corn and potatoes. The Indians ^ sent 
 in a flag to treat for peace, surrendering the horses 
 
 ^ After camping a few days at Doiible Springs, the head- 
 waters of Lick Creek, to let all the Watauga men come up. 
 
 ' They sent spies in advance. The trail led through for- 
 ests and marshy canebrakes; across Nolichucky, up Long 
 Creek and down Dunplin Creek to the French Broad. — Hay- 
 wood and Ramsey. 
 
 3 McAfee MSS. 
 
 4 November 5th. — Ibid. s November 8th. — Ibid. 
 
io6 The Winning of the West 
 
 and prisoners they had taken, and agreeing to fix a 
 boundary and give up to the settlers the land they 
 already had, as well as some additional territory. 
 Christian made peace on these terms and ceased 
 his ravages, but he excepted the town of Tuskega, 
 whose people had burned alive the boy taken cap- 
 tive at Watauga. This town he reduced to ashes. 
 
 Nor would the chief Dragging Canoe accept 
 peace at all ; but gathering round him the fiercest 
 and most unruly of the young men, he left the rest 
 of the tribe and retired to the Chickamauga fast- 
 nesses. 
 
 When the preliminary truce had been made, 
 Christian marched his forces homeward, and dis- 
 banded them a fortnight before Christmas, leaving 
 a garrison at Holston, Great Island. During the 
 ensuing spring and summer peace treaties were 
 definitely concluded between the Upper Cherokees 
 and Virginia and North Carolina at the Great 
 Island of the Holston, ^ and between the Lower 
 Cherokees and South Carolina and Georgia at De 
 Witt's Corners. The Cherokees gave up some of 
 their lands ; of the four seacoast provinces South 
 Carolina gained most, as was proper, for she had 
 done and suffered most.^ 
 
 ^ The boundary then established between the Cherokees 
 and Watauga people was known as Brown's Line. 
 
 ^ As a very rough gtiess, after a careful examination of all 
 the authorities, it may be said that in this war somewhat less 
 
The Revolution 107 
 
 The Watauga people and the westerners gener- 
 ally were the real gainers by the war. Had the 
 Watauga settlements been destroyed, they would 
 no longer have covered the Wilderness Road to 
 Kentucky ; and so Kentucky must perforce have 
 been abandoned. But the followers of Robertson 
 and Sevier stood stoutly for their homes ; not one 
 of them fled over the mountains. The Cherokees 
 had been so roughly handled that for several years 
 they did not again go to war as a body ; and this 
 not only gave the settlers a breathing time, but 
 also enabled them to make themselves so strong 
 that when the struggle was renewed they could 
 easily hold their own. The war was thus another 
 and important link in the chain of events by which 
 the West was won ; and had any link in the chain 
 snapped during these early years, the peace of 
 1783 would probably have seen the trans-Alle- 
 ghany country in the hands of a non-American 
 power. 
 
 than two hundred Indians were slain, all warriors. The loss of 
 the whites in war was probably no greater; but it included 
 about as many more women and children. So that, perhaps, 
 two or three times as many whites as Indians were killed, 
 counting in every one. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 GROWTH AND CIVIL ORGANIZATION OF KENTUCKY, 
 
 1776 
 
 BY the end of 1775 Kentucky had been occu- 
 pied by those who were permanently to 
 hold it. Stout-hearted men, able to keep 
 what they had grasped, moved in, and took with 
 them their wives and children. There was also, of 
 course, a large shifting element, composing, indeed, 
 the bulk of the population : hunters who came out 
 for the season; "cabinners," or men who merely 
 came out to build a cabin and partially clear a 
 spot of ground, so as to gain a right to it under 
 the law ; surveyors, and those adventurers always 
 to be found in a new country, who are too restless, 
 or too timid, or too irresolute to remain. 
 
 The men with families and the young men who 
 intended to make permanent homes formed the 
 heart of the community, the only part worth tak- 
 ing into account. There was a steady though 
 thin stream of such immigrants, and they rapidly 
 built up around them a life not very unlike that 
 which they had left behind with their old homes. 
 Even in 1 7 76 there was marrying and giving in mar- 
 
 108 
 
Growth of Kentucky 109 
 
 riage, and children were bom in Kentucky. The 
 new-comers had to settle in forts, where the young 
 men and maidens had many chances for courtship. 
 They married early, and were as fruitful as they 
 were hardy.' Most of these marriages were civil 
 contracts, but some may have been solemnized 
 by clergymen, for the commonwealth received 
 from the outset occasional visits from ministers. 
 
 These ministers belonged to different denomina- 
 tions, but all were sure of a hearing. The back- 
 woodsmen were forced by their surroundings to 
 exercise a grudging charity towards the various 
 forms of religious belief entertained among them- 
 selves — though they hated and despised French 
 and Spanish Cathohcs. When off in the wilder- 
 ness they were obliged to take a man for what he 
 did, not for what he thought. Of course there 
 were instances to the contrary, and there is an 
 amusing and authentic story of two hunters, living 
 alone and far from any settlement, who quarrelled 
 because one was a Catholic and the other a Prot- 
 estant. The seceder took up his abode in a hollow 
 tree within speaking distance of his companion's 
 cabin. Every day on arising they bade each 
 other good morning ; but not another word passed 
 between them for the many months during which 
 
 ' Imlay, p. 55, estimated that from natural increase the 
 population of Kentucky doubled every fifteen years, — prob- 
 ably an exaggeration. 
 
no The Winning of the West 
 
 they saw no other white face.^ There was a single 
 serious and important, albeit onl}^ partial, excep- 
 tion to this general rule of charity. After the out- 
 break of the Revolution, the Kentuckians, in 
 common with other backwoodsmen, grew to thor- 
 / oughly dislike one religious body which they al- 
 
 ready distrusted ; this was the Church of England, 
 the Episcopal Church. They long regarded it as 
 merely the persecuting ecclesiastical arm of the 
 British Government. Such of them as had been 
 brought up in any faith at all had for the most 
 part originally professed some form of Calvinism; 
 they had very probably learnt their letters from a 
 primer which, in one of its rude cuts, represented 
 John Rogers at the stake, surrounded by his wife 
 and seven children, and in their after lives they 
 were more familiar with the Pilgrim's Progress 
 than with any other book, save the Bible ; so that 
 it was natural for them to distrust the successors 
 of those who had persecuted Rogers and Bunyan.^ 
 Still, the border communities were, as times then 
 went, very tolerant in religious matters; and of 
 course most of the men had no chance to display, 
 or indeed to feel, sectarianism of any kind, for 
 they had no issue to join, and rarely a church 
 about which to rally. 
 
 ' Hale's Trans-AUeghany Pioneers, p. 251. 
 ^ Pioneer Life in Kentucky, Daniel Drake, Cincinnati, 1870, 
 p. 196 (an invaluable work). 
 
Growth of Kentucky 1 1 1 
 
 By the time Kentucky was settled the Baptists 
 had begun to make headway on the frontier, at 
 the expense of the Presbyterians. The rough 
 democracy of the border welcomed a sect which 
 was itself essentially democratic. To many of 
 the backwoodsmen's prejudices, notably their sul- 
 len and narrow hostility towards all ranks, whether 
 or not based on merit and learning, the Baptists' 
 creed appealed strongly. Where their preachers 
 obtained foothold, it was made a matter of re- 
 proach to the Presbyterian clergymen that they ^ 
 had been educated in early life for the ministry as 
 for a profession. The love of liberty, and the de- 
 fiant assertion of equality, so universal in the 
 backwoods, and so excellent in themselves, some- 
 times took very warped and twisted forms, nota- 
 bly when they betrayed the backwoodsmen into 
 the belief that the true democratic spirit forbade 
 any exclusive and special training for the profes- 
 sions that produce soldiers, statesmen, or min- 
 isters. 
 
 The fact that the Baptist preachers were men 
 exactly similar to their fellows in all their habits 
 of life not only gave them a good standing at 
 once, but likewise enabled them very early to 
 visit the farthest settlements, travelling precisely 
 like other backwoodsmen; and once there, each 
 preacher, each earnest professor, doing bold and 
 fearless missionary work, became the nucleus 
 
112 The Winning of the West 
 
 round which a little knot of true believers gath- 
 ered. Two or three of them made short visits to 
 Kentucky during the first few years of its exist- 
 ence. One, who went thither in the early spring 
 of 1776, kept a journal ' of his trip. He travelled 
 over the Wilderness Road with eight other men. 
 Three of them were Baptists like himself, who 
 prayed every night ; and their companions, though 
 they did not take part in the praying, did not in- 
 terrupt it. Their journey through the melancholy 
 and silent wilderness resembled in its incidents 
 the countless other similar journeys that were 
 made at that time and later. They suffered from 
 cold and hunger and lack of shelter ; they became 
 footsore and weary, and worn out with driving 
 the pack-horses. On the top of the lonely Cum- 
 berland Mountains they came upon the wolf-eaten 
 remains of a previous traveller, who had recently 
 been killed by Indians. At another place they 
 met four men returning — cowards, whose hearts 
 had failed them when in sight of the promised 
 land. While on the great Indian war-trail they 
 killed a buffalo, and thenceforth lived on its jerked 
 meat. One night the wolves smelt the flesh, and 
 came up to the camp-fire; the strong hunting- 
 dogs rushed out with clamorous barking to drive 
 
 ^ MS. Autobiography of Rev. William Hickman. He was 
 born in Virginia, February 4, 1747. A copy in Colonel Dur- 
 rett's library at Louisville, Ky. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 113 
 
 them away, and the sudden alarm for a moment 
 made the sleepy wayfarers think that roving In- 
 dians had attacked them. When they reached 
 Crab Orchard their dangers were for the moment 
 past; all travellers grew to regard with affection 
 the station by this little grove of wild apple-trees. 
 It is worthy of note that the early settlers loved 
 to build their homes near these natural orchards, 
 moved by the fragrance and beauty of the bloom 
 in spring. ^ 
 
 The tired Baptist was not overpleased with 
 Harrodstown, though he there listened to the 
 preaching of one of his own sect.^ He remarked 
 "a poor town it was in those days," a couple of 
 rows of smoky cabins, tenanted by dirty women 
 and ragged children, while the tall, unkempt fron- 
 tiersmen lounged about in greasy hunting-shirts, 
 breech-clouts, leggings, and moccasins. There 
 was little or no corn until the crops were gathered, 
 and, like the rest, he had to learn to eat wild meat 
 without salt. The settlers, — as is always the case 
 in frontier towns where the people are wrapped up 
 in their own pursuits and rivalries, and are obliged 
 to talk of one another for lack of outside interests, 
 — were divided by bickering, gossiping jealousies; 
 
 ^ There were at least three such "Crab-Orchard" stations 
 in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The settlers used the 
 word "crab" precisely as Shakespeare does. 
 
 2 A Mr. Finley.— Hickman MS. 
 
 VOL. 11.-8. 
 
 L-" 
 
114 The Winning of the West 
 
 and at this time they were quarrelHng as to 
 whether the Virginian cabin-rights or Henderson's 
 land-grants would prove valid. As usual, the 
 zealous Baptist preacher found that the women 
 were the first to "get religion," as he phrased it. 
 Sometimes their husbands likewise came in with 
 them; at other times they remained indifferent. 
 Often they savagely resented their wives and 
 daughters being converted, visiting on the head of 
 the preacher an anger that did not always find vent 
 in mere words ; for the backwoodsmen had strong, 
 simple natures, powerfully excited for good or evil, 
 and those who were not God-fearing usually became 
 active and furious opponents of all religion. 
 
 It is curious to compare the description of life 
 in a frontier fort as given by this undoubtedly 
 prejudiced observer with the equally prejudiced, 
 but golden-, instead of sombre-hued, reminis- 
 cences of frontier life, over which the pioneers 
 lovingly lingered in their old age. To these old 
 men the long- vanished stockades seemed to have 
 held a band of brothers, who were ever generous, 
 hospitable, courteous, and fearless, always ready 
 to help one another, never envious, never flinching 
 from any foe. ^ Neither account is accurate ; but 
 the last is quite as near the truth as the first. On 
 the border, as elsewhere, but with the different 
 qualities in even bolder contrast, there was much 
 
 I McAfee MSS. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 1 1 5 
 
 both of good and bad, of shiftless viciousness and 
 resolute honesty. Many of 4:he hunters were mere 
 restless wanderers, who soon surrendered their 
 clearings to small farming squatters but a degree 
 less shiftless than themselves ; the latter brought 
 the ground a little more under cultivation, and 
 then likewise left it and wandered onwards, giving 
 place to the third set of frontiersmen, the steady 
 men who had come to stay. But often the first 
 hunters themselves stayed and grew up as farmers 
 and landed proprietors.' Many of the earliest 
 pioneers, including most of their leaders, founded 
 famihes, which took root in the land and flourish 
 to this day, the children, grandchildren, and great- 
 grandchildren of the old-time Indian fighters be- 
 coming Congressmen and judges, and officers in 
 the regular army and in the Federal and Confeder- 
 ate forces during the Civil War." In fact, the very 
 first-comers to a wild and dangerous country are 
 apt to be men with fine qualities of heart and 
 head; it is not until they have partly tamed the 
 land that the scum of the frontier drifts into it.^ 
 
 ' Ibid. 
 
 2 Such was the case with the Clarks, Boons, Seviers, 
 Shelbys, Robertsons, Logans, Cockes, Crocketts, etc., many 
 of whose descendants it has been my good fortune personally 
 to know. 
 
 3 This is as true to-day in the far West as it was formerly in 
 Kentucky and Tennessee; at least, to judge by my own ex- 
 perience in the Little Missouri region, and in portions of the 
 Kootenai, Coeur d'Alene, and Bighorn countries. 
 
1 1 6 The Winning of the West 
 
 In 1776, as in after years, there were three 
 routes that were taken by immigrants to Ken- 
 tucky. One led by backwoods trails to the Green- 
 briar settlements, and thence down the Kanawha 
 to the Ohio ' ; but the travel over this was in- 
 significant compared to that along the others. 
 The two really important routes were the Wilder- 
 ness Road, and that by water, from Fort Pitt 
 down the Ohio River. Those who chose the latter 
 way embarked in roughly built little flat-boats at 
 Fort Pitt, if they came from Pennsylvania, or 
 else at the old Redstone fort on the Monongahela, 
 if from Maryland or Virginia, and drifted down 
 with the current. Though this was the easiest 
 method, yet the danger from Indians was so very 
 great that most immigrants, the Pennsylvanians 
 as well as the Marylanders, Virginians, and North 
 Carolinians,^ usually went overland by the Wilder- 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. See also Trans- Alleghany Pioneers, p. iii. 
 As Mr. Hale points out, this route, which was travelled by 
 Floyd, Bullitt, the McAfees, and many others, has not re- 
 ceived due attention, even in Colonel Speed's invaluable and 
 interesting Wilderness Road. 
 
 ' Up to 1783 the Kentucky immigrants came from the 
 backwoods of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North 
 Carolina, and were of almost precisely the same character as 
 those that went to Tennessee. — See Imlay, p. 168. At the 
 close of the Revolutionary War, Tennessee and Kentucky 
 \/ were almost alike in population. But after that time the 
 
 population of Kentucky rapidly grew varied, and the great 
 immigration of upper-class Virginians gave it a peculiar 
 stamp of its own. By 1796, when Logan was defeated for 
 
 
 i 
 
Growth of Kentucky 1 1 7 
 
 ness Road. This was the trace marked out by 
 Boon, which to the present day remains a monu- 
 ment to his skill as a practical surveyor and engi- 
 neer. Those going along it went on foot, driving 
 their horses and cattle. At the last important 
 frontier town they fitted themselves out with 
 pack-saddles ; for in such places two of the leading 
 industries were always those of the pack-saddle 
 maker and the artisan in deer-leather. When 
 there was need, the pioneer could of course make a 
 rough pack-saddle for himself, working it up from 
 two forked branches of a tree. If several families 
 were together, they moved slowly in true patri- 
 archal style. The elder boys drove the cattle, 
 which usually headed the caravan; while the 
 younger children were packed in crates of hickory 
 withes and slung across the backs of the old quiet 
 horses, or else were seated safely between the great 
 rolls of bedding that were carried in similar fash- 
 ion. The women sometimes rode and sometimes 
 walked, carrying the babies. The men, rifle on 
 shoulder, drove the pack-train, while some of them 
 walked spread out in front, flank, and rear, to 
 guard against the savages.' A tent or brush 
 
 governor, the control of Kentucky had passed out of the 
 hands of the pioneers; whereas in Tennessee the old Indian 
 fighters continued to give the tone to the social life of the 
 State and remained in control until they died. 
 
 ' McAfee MSS. Just as the McAfee family started for 
 Kentucky, the wife of one of their number, George, was 
 
ii8 The Winning of the West 
 
 lean-to gave cover at night. Each morning the 
 men packed the animals while the women cooked 
 breakfast and made ready the children. Special 
 care had to be taken not to let the loaded animals 
 brush against the yellow-jacket nests, which were 
 always plentiful along the trail in the fall of the 
 year; for in such a case the vicious swarms at- 
 tacked man and beast, producing an immediate 
 stampede, to the great detriment of the packs. ^ 
 In winter the fords and mountains often became 
 impassable, and trains were kept in one place for 
 weeks at a time, escaping starvation only by kill- 
 ing the lean cattle; for few deer at that season 
 remained in the mountains. 
 
 Both the water route and the Wilderness Road 
 were infested by the savages at all times, and 
 whenever there was open war the sparsely settled 
 regions from which they started were likewise 
 harried. When the northwestern tribes threaten- 
 ened Fort Pitt and Fort Henry, — or Pittsburg and 
 Wheeling, as they were getting to be called, — 
 they threatened one of the two localities which 
 
 confined. The others had to leave her; but at the first long 
 halt the husband hurried back, only to meet his wife on the 
 way; for she had ridden after them just three days after her 
 confinement, taking her baby along. 
 
 ' Pioneer Biography, James McBride (son of a pioneer who 
 was killed by the Indians in 1789 in Kentucky), p. 183, Cin- 
 cinnati, 1869. One of the excellent series published by 
 Robert Clarke & Co., to whom American historians owe a 
 special and unique debt of gratitude. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 1 19 
 
 served to cover the communications with Ken- 
 tucky ; but it was far more serious when the Hol- 
 ston region was menaced, because the land travel 
 was at first much the more important. 
 
 The early settlers, of course, had to suffer great 
 hardship even when they reached Kentucky. The 
 only two implements the men invariably carried 
 were the axe and rifle, for they were almost 
 equally proud of their skill as warriors, hunters, 
 and woodchoppers. Next in importance came 
 the sickle or scythe. The first three tasks of the 
 pioneer farmer were to build a cabin, to make a 
 clearing, — burning the brush, cutting down the 
 small trees, and girdling the large, — and to plant 
 com. Until the crop ripened he hunted steadily, 
 and his family lived on the abundant game, save 
 for which it would have been wholly impossible 
 to have settled Kentucky so early. If it was 
 winter-time, however, all the wild meat was very 
 lean and poor eating, unless by chance a bear was 
 found in a hollow tree, when there was a royal 
 feast, the breast of the wild turkey serving as 
 a substitute for bread.' If the men were sud- 
 denly called away by an Indian inroad, their 
 families sometimes had to live for days on boiled 
 tops of green nettles.^ Naturally, the children 
 watched the growth of the tasselled corn with 
 hungry eagerness until the milky ears were fit for 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. =^ McBride, ii., 197. 
 
I20 The Winning of the West 
 
 roasting. When they hardened, the grains were 
 pounded into hominy in the hominy -block, or else 
 ground into meal in the rough hand-mill, made of 
 two limestones in a hollow sycamore log. Until 
 flax could be grown the women were obliged to 
 be content with lint made from the bark of dead 
 nettles. This was gathered in the spring-time by 
 all the people of a station acting together, a por- 
 tion of the men standing guard while the rest, 
 with the women and children, plucked the dead 
 stalks. The smart girls of Irish ancestry spun 
 many dozen cuts of linen from this lint, which was 
 as fine as flax but not so strong.^ 
 
 Neither hardship nor danger could render the 
 young people downhearted, especially when sev- 
 eral families, each containing grown-up sons and 
 daughters, were living together in almost every 
 fort. The chief amusements were hunting and 
 dancing. There being no permanent ministers, 
 even the gloomy Calvinism of some of the pioneers 
 was relaxed. Long afterwards one of them wrote, 
 in a spirit of quaint apology, that "dancing was 
 not then considered criminal," ^ and that it kept 
 up the spirits of the young people, and made them 
 more healthy and happy ; and, recalling somewhat 
 uneasily the merriment in the stations, in spite of 
 the terrible and interminable Indian warfare, the 
 old moralist felt obliged to condemn it, remarking 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. ^ Ibid. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 1 2 1 
 
 that, owing to the lack of ministers of the gospel, 
 the impressions made by misfortiine were not 
 improved. 
 
 Though obliged to be very careful and to keep 
 their families in forts, and in spite of a number of 
 them being killed by the savages,^ the settlers in 
 1776 were able to wander about and explore the 
 country thoroughly,^ making little clearings as 
 the basis of "cabin claims," and now and then 
 gathering into stations which were for the most 
 part broken up by the Indians and abandoned. ^ 
 What was much more important, the permanent 
 settlers in the well-established stations proceeded 
 to organize a civil government. 
 
 They by this time felt little but contempt for 
 the Henderson or Transylvania government. Hav- 
 ing sent a petition against it to the provincial 
 authorities, they were confident that what faint 
 
 ^ Morehead, Appendix. Floyd's letter. 
 
 ^ They retained few Indian names; Kentucky in this re- 
 spect differing from most other sections of the Union. The 
 names were either taken from the explorers, as Floyd's Fork; 
 or from some natural peculiarity, as the Licking, so called 
 from the number of game licks along its borders; or else they 
 commemorated some incident. On Dreaming Creek Boon 
 fell asleep and dreamed he was stung by yellow-jackets. The 
 Elkhorn was so named because a hunter, having slain a mon- 
 strous bull elk, stuck up its horns on a pole at the mouth. At 
 Bloody Run several men were slain. Eagle Branch was so 
 called because of the many bald eagles round it. See McAfee 
 MSS. 3 Marshall, 45. 
 
122 The Winning of the West 
 
 shadow of power it still retained would soon 
 vanish ; so they turned their attention to securing 
 a representation in the Virginia Convention. All 
 Kentucky was still considered as a part of Fin- 
 castle County, and the inhabitants were therefore 
 unrepresented at the capital. They determined 
 to remedy this; and, after due proclamation, 
 gathered together at Harrodstown early in June, 
 1776. During five days an election was held, and 
 two delegates were chosen to go to Williamsburg, 
 then the seat of government. 
 
 This was done at the suggestion of Clark, who, 
 having spent the winter in Virginia, had returned 
 to Kentucky in the spring. He came out alone 
 and on foot, and by his sudden appearance sur- 
 prised the settlers not a little. The first to meet 
 him was a young lad, ^ who had gone a few miles 
 out of Harrodstown to turn some horses on the 
 range. The boy had killed a teal duck that was 
 feeding in a spring, and was roasting it nicely at a 
 small fire when he was startled by the approach 
 of a fine soldierly man, who hailed him: "How 
 do you do, my little fellow? What is your name? 
 Ar' n't you afraid of being in the woods by your- 
 self?" The stranger was evidently hungry, for 
 on being invited to eat he speedily finished the 
 entire duck; and when the boy asked his name 
 he answered that it was Clark, and that he had 
 
 ^Afterwards General William Ray. — Butler, p. 37. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 123 
 
 come out to see what the brave fellows in Ken- 
 tucky were doing, and to help them if there was 
 need. He took up his temporary abode at Har- 
 rodstown — visiting all the forts, however, and 
 being much in the woods by himself, — and his 
 commanding mind and daring, adventurous tem- 
 per speedily made him, what for ten critical years 
 he remained, the leader among all the bold "hunt- 
 ers of Kentucky" — as the early settlers loved to 
 call themselves. 
 
 He had advised against delegates to the con- 
 vention being chosen, thinking that instead the 
 Kentuckians should send accredited agents to 
 treat with the Virginian government. If their 
 terms were not agreed to, he declared that they 
 ought to establish forthwith an independent state ; 
 an interesting example of how early the separatist 
 spirit showed itself in Kentucky. But the rest of 
 the people were unwilling to go quite as far. They 
 elected two delegates, Clark of course being one. 
 With them they sent a petition for admission as a 
 separate county. They were primarily farmers, 
 hunters, Indian fighters — not scholars; and their 
 petition was couched in English that was at times 
 a little crooked ; but the idea at any rate was per- 
 fectly straight, and could not be misunderstood. 
 They announced that if they were admitted they 
 would cheerfully co-operate in every measure to 
 secure the public peace and safety, and at the 
 
124 The Winning of the West 
 
 same time pointed out with marked emphasis 
 "how impoHtical it would be to suffer such a Re- 
 spectable Body of Prime Riflemen to remain in a 
 state of neutrality" during the then existing 
 Revolutionary struggle.^ 
 
 Armed with this document and their credentials, 
 Clark and his companion set off across the desolate 
 and Indian-haunted mountains. They travelled 
 very fast, the season was extremely wet, and they 
 did not dare to kindle fires for fear of the Indians ; 
 in consequence, they suffered torments from cold, 
 hunger, and especially from "scalded" feet. Yet 
 they hurried on, and presented their petition to the 
 Governor ' and Council — the Legislature having 
 adjourned. Clark also asked for five hundred- 
 weight of gunpowder, of which the Kentucky set- 
 tlement stood in sore and pressing need. This the 
 Council at first refused to give ; whereupon Clark 
 informed them that if the country was not worth 
 defending, it was not worth claiming, making it 
 plain that if the request was not granted, and if 
 Kentucky was forced to assume the burdens of in- 
 dependence, she would likewise assume its privi- 
 leges. After this plain statement, the Council 
 yielded. Clark took the powder down the Ohio 
 River, and got it safely through to Kentucky; 
 
 ^ Petition of the committee of West Pincastle, dated June 
 20, 1776. It is printed in Colonel John Mason Brown's Battle 
 of the Blue Licks pamphlet. ' Patrick Henry. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 125 
 
 though a party sent under John Todd to convey it 
 overland from the Limestone Creek was met at 
 the Licking and defeated by the Indians, Clark's 
 fellow-delegate being among the killed. 
 
 Before returning, Clark had attended the fall 
 meeting of the Virginia Legislature, and in spite of 
 the opposition of Henderson, who was likewise 
 present, he procured the admission of Kentucky 
 as a separate county, with boundaries correspond- 
 ing to those of the present State. Early in the 
 ensuing 3^ear, 1777, the county was accordingly 
 organized ; Harrodstown, or Harrodsburg, as it was 
 now beginning to be called, was made the county 
 seat, having by this time supplanted Boons- 
 borough in importance. The court was composed 
 of the six or eight men whom the Governor of Vir- 
 ginia had commissioned as justices of the peace; 
 they were empowered to meet monthly to transact 
 necessary business, and had a sheriff and clerk. ^ 
 These took care of the internal concerns of the 
 settlers. To provide for their defence a county 
 lieutenant was created, with the rank of colonel,^ 
 
 ^ Among their number were John Todd (likewise chosen 
 burgess — in these early days a man of mark often filled sev- 
 eral distinct positions at the same time), Benjamin Logan, 
 Richard Calloway, John Bowman, and John Floyd; the lat- 
 ter was an educated Virginian who was slain by the Indians 
 before his fine natural qualities had time to give him the 
 place he would otherwise assuredly have reached. 
 
 " The first colonel was John Bowman. 
 
126 The Winning of the West 
 
 who forthwith organized a militia regiment, plac- 
 ing all the citizens, whether permanent residents 
 or not, into companies and battalions. Finally, 
 two burgesses were chosen to represent the county 
 in the General Assembly of Virginia/ In later 
 years Daniel Boon himself served as a Kentucky 
 burgess in the Virginia Legislature ^ ; a very differ- 
 ent body from the little Transylvania parliament 
 in which he began his career as a law-maker. The 
 old backwoods hero led a strange life : varying his 
 long wanderings and explorations, his endless 
 campaigns against savage men and savage beasts, 
 by serving as road-maker, town-builder, and com- 
 monwealth-founder, sometimes organizing the 
 frontiersmen for foreign war and again doing his 
 share in devising the laws under which they were 
 to live and prosper. 
 
 But the pioneers were speedily drawn into a 
 life-and-death struggle which engrossed their 
 whole attention to the exclusion of all merely civil 
 matters ; a struggle in which their land became in 
 truth what the Indians called it — a dark and 
 bloody ground, a land with blood-stained rivers. ^ 
 
 It was impossible long to keep peace on the 
 
 ^ John Todd and Richard Calloway. See " Diary of 
 George Rogers Clark," in 1776. Given by Morehead. p. 161. 
 
 2 Butler, 166. 
 
 3 The Iroquois, as well as the Cherokees, used these ex- 
 pressions concerning portions of the Ohio valley. — Hecke- 
 welder, 118. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 127 
 
 border between the- ever-encroaching whites and 
 their fickle and bloodthirsty foes. The hard, 
 reckless, often brutalized frontiersmen, greedy of 
 land and embittered by the memories of untold 
 injuries, regarded all Indians with sullen enmity, 
 and could not be persuaded to distinguish between 
 the good and the bad.' The central government 
 was as powerless to restrain as to protect these 
 far-off and unruly citizens. On the other hand, 
 the Indians were as treacherous as they were fero- 
 cious — Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, and all.^ 
 While deceiving the commandants of the posts by 
 peaceful protestations, they would steadily con- 
 tinue their ravages and murders ; and while it was 
 easy to persuade a number of the chiefs and war- 
 riors of a tribe to enter into a treaty, it was im- 
 possible to make the remainder respect it.^ The 
 chiefs might be for peace, but the young braves 
 were always for war, and could not be kept back.'^ 
 
 ^ State Department MSS., No. 147, vol. vi., March 15, 1781. 
 
 ^ As one instance among many, see Haldimand MSS., let- 
 ter of Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, August 17, 177S, where 
 Girty reported, on behalf of the Delawares, the tribe least 
 treacherous to the Americans, that even these Indians were 
 only going in to Fort Pitt and keeping up friendly relations 
 with its garrison so as to deceive the whites, and that as soon as 
 their corn was ripe they would move off to the hostile tribes. 
 
 3 State Department MSS., No. 150, vol. i., p. 107. Letter 
 of Captain John Doughty. 
 
 4 State Department MSS., No. 150, vol. i., p. 115. Exam- 
 ination of John Leith. 
 
128 The Winning of the West 
 
 In July, 1776, the Dela wares, Shawnees, and 
 Mingo chiefs assembled at Fort Pitt and declared 
 for neutrality ' ; the Iroquois ambassadors, who 
 were likewise present, haughtily announced that 
 their tribes would permit neither the British nor 
 the Americans to march an army through their 
 territory. They disclaimed any responsibility 
 for what might be done by a few wa3rward young 
 men ; and requested the Delawares and Shawnees 
 to do as they had promised, and to distribute the 
 Iroquois "talk" among their people. After the 
 Indian fashion, they emphasized each point which 
 they wished kept in mind by the presentation of a 
 string of wampum.^ 
 
 Yet at this very time a party of Mingos tried to 
 kill the American Indian agents, and were only 
 prevented by Cornstalk, whose noble and faithful 
 conduct was so soon to be rewarded by his own 
 brutal murder. Moreover, while the Shawnee 
 chief was doing this, some of his warriors journeyed 
 down to the Cherokees and gave them the war- 
 belt, assuring them that the Wyandots and Min- 
 gos would support them, and that they themselves 
 had been promised ammunition by the French 
 traders of Detroit and the Illinois. ^ On their 
 return home this party of Shawnees scalped two 
 
 ^ American Archives, 5th Series, vol. i., p. 36. 
 ^ The Olden Time, Neville B. Craig, ii., p. 115. 
 3 American Archives, sth Series, vol. i., p. iii. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 129 
 
 men in Kentucky near the Big Bone Lick, and 
 captured a woman ; but they were pursued by the 
 Kentucky settlers, two were killed, and the woman 
 retaken.' 
 
 Throughout the year the outlook continued to 
 grow more and more threatening. Parties of 
 young men kept making inroads on the settle- 
 ments, especially in Kentucky; not only did the 
 Shawnees, Wyandots, Mingos, and Iroquois ^ act 
 thus, but they were even joined by bands of Ot- 
 tawas, Pottawatomies, and Chippewas from the 
 lakes, who thus attacked the white settlers long 
 ere the latter had either the will or the chance to 
 hurt them. 
 
 Until the spring of 1777 ^ the outbreak was not 
 general, and it was supposed that only some three 
 or four hundred warriors had taken up the toma- 
 hawk.-* Yet the outlying settlers were all the 
 time obliged to keep as sharp a look-out as if en- 
 gaged in open war. Throughout the summer of 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 137. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. ii., pp. 516, 1236. 
 
 3 When Cornstalk was so foully murdered by the whites; 
 although the outbreak was then already started. 
 
 4 Madison MSS. But both the American statesmen and 
 the Continental officers were so deceived by the treacherous 
 misrepresentations of the Indians that they often greatly 
 underestimated the numbers of the Indians on the war-path ; 
 curiously enough, their figures are frequently much more 
 erroneous than those of the frontiersmen. Thus the Madison 
 MSS. and State Department MSS. contain statements that 
 
 VOL. U.— 9. 
 
t 
 
 130 The Winning of the West 
 
 1776 the Kentucky settlers were continually 
 harassed. Small parties of Indians were con- 
 stantly lurking round the forts, to shoot down the 
 men as they hunted or worked in the fields, and to 
 carry off the women. There was a constant and 
 monotonous succession of iinimportant forays 
 and skirmishes. 
 
 One band of painted marauders carried off 
 Boon's daughter. She was in a canoe with two 
 other girls on the river near Boonsborough when 
 they were pounced on by five Indians.^ As soon 
 as he heard the news Boon went in pursuit with a 
 
 only a few hundred northwestern warriors were in the field 
 at the very time that two thousand had been fitted out at 
 Detroit to act along the Ohio and Wabash — as we learn from 
 De Peyster's letter to Haldimand of May 17, 1780 (in the 
 Haldimand MSS.). 
 
 ^ On July 14, 1776. The names of the three girls were 
 Betsy and Fanny Callaway and Jemima Boon. See Boon's 
 " Narrative " ; and Butler, who gives the letter of July 21, 
 1776, written by Colonel John Floyd, one of the pursuing 
 party. 
 
 The names of the lovers, in their order, were Samuel Hen- 
 derson (a brother of Richard), John Holder, and Flanders 
 Callaway. Three weeks after the return to the fort, Squire 
 Boon united in marriage the eldest pair of lovers, Samuel 
 Henderson, and Betsy Callaway. It was the first wedding 
 that ever took place in Kentucky. Both the other couples 
 were likewise married a year or two later. 
 
 The whole story reads like a page out of one of Cooper's 
 novels. The two younger girls gave way to despair when 
 captured; but Betsy Callaway was sure they would be fol- 
 lowed and rescued. To mark the Hne of their flight she 
 
 M,. 
 
Growth of Kentucky 131 
 
 11 party of seven men from the fort, including the 
 three lovers of the captured girls. After follow- 
 ing the trail all of one day and the greater part of 
 two nights, the pursuers came up with the sav- 
 
 i ages, and, rushing in, scattered or slew them be- 
 fore they could either make resistance or kill their 
 captives. The rescuing party then returned in 
 triumph to the fort. 
 
 Thus for two years the pioneers worked in the 
 wilderness, harassed by unending individual war- 
 fare, but not threatened by any formidable at- 
 tempt to oust them from the lands that they had 
 won. During this breathing spell they estab- 
 lished civil government, explored the country, 
 planted crops, and built strongholds. Then came 
 
 broke off twigs from the bushes, and when threatened with 
 the tomahawk for doing this, she tore off strips from her dress. 
 The Indians carefully covered their trail, compelling the girls 
 to walk apart, as their captors did, in the thick cane, and to 
 wade up and down the little brooks. 
 
 Boon started in pursuit the same evening. All next day- 
 he followed the tangled trail like a bloodhound, and early the 
 following morning came on the Indians, camped by a buffalo 
 calf which they had just killed and were about to cook. The 
 rescue was managed very adroitly; for had any warning been 
 given the Indians would have instantly killed their captives, 
 according to their invariable custom. Boon and Floyd each 
 shot one of the savages, and the remaining three escaped 
 almost naked, without gun, tomahawk, or scalping-knife. The 
 girls were unharmed; for the Indians rarely molested their 
 captives on the journey to the home towns, unless their 
 strength gave out, when they were tomahawked without 
 mercy. 
 
132 The Winning of the West 
 
 the inevitable struggle. When in 1777 the snows 
 began to melt before the lengthening spring days, 
 the riflemen who guarded the log forts were called 
 on to make head against a series of resolute efforts 
 to drive them from Kentucky. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE WAR IN THE NORTHWEST, 1777-1778 
 
 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 Hamil- 
 ton, the British lieutenant-governor of the north- 
 western region, whose headquarters were at 
 Detroit. He was an ambitious, energetic, un- 
 scrupulous 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 man- 
 agement of frontier affairs, was entrusted to him 
 by the British Government.^ He had been or- 
 dered to enlist the Indians on the British side, and 
 have them ready to act against the Americans in 
 the spring =* ; and, accordingly, he gathered the 
 tribes together. He himself took part in the 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS. Sir Guy Carleton to Hamilton, Sep- 
 tember 26, 1777. 
 
 * Ibid., Carleton to Hamilton, October 6, 1776. 
 
 133 
 
134 The Winning of the West 
 
 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.^ 
 
 Hamilton was for the next two years the main- 
 spring 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.^ He rapidly ac- 
 
 ' American Archives, ist Series, vol. ii., p. 5 17. There were 
 several councils held at Detroit during this fall, and it is diffi- 
 cult — 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 fol- 
 lowing June; but the testimony seems conclusive that he 
 was active in instigating hostility from the time of his arrival. 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS. Germaine to Carleton, March 26, 1777. 
 
The War in the Northwest 135 
 
 quired the venomous hatred of the backwoodsmen, 
 who held him in pecuhar abhorrence, and nick- 
 named 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 be- 
 haved 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 ' ; 
 and the commandant himself was accustomed to 
 receive them with formal solemnity at the coun- 
 cils held to greet the war-parties when they re- 
 turned from successful raids. ^ The only way to 
 keep the friendship of the Indians was continually 
 to give them presents ; these presents were natu- 
 rally 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 Amer- 
 icans humanely when they were brought into con- 
 tact with tliem ; 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 
 
 ^ See the American Pioneer, i., 292, for a very curious ac- 
 count of an Indian who, by dividing a large scalp into two, got 
 fifty dollars for each half at Detroit. 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS., passim; also Heckewelder, etc. 
 
13^ The Winning of the West 
 
 the measures of their subordinates. These were 
 hardened, embittered men who paid for the zeal 
 of their Indian ahies accordingly as they received 
 tangible proof thereof ; in other words, they hired 
 them to murder non-combatants as well as sol- 
 diers, 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. More- 
 over, the British sinned against knowledge; for 
 some of their highest and most trusted officers on 
 the frontier had written those in supreme com- 
 mand, relating the cruelties practised by the In- 
 dians upon the defenceless, and urging that they 
 should not be made allies, but rather that their 
 neutrality only should be secured,^ 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 allow- 
 
 ^ E. g., in Haldimand MSS. Lieutenant-Governor Abbott 
 to General Carleton, June 8, 1778. 
 
The War in the Northwest 137 
 
 ance 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 ' ; they all three 
 
 ^ 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 Kushayh- 
 king) 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 unfavorable 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 pur- 
 pose. 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." 
 
138 The Winning of the West 
 
 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 com- 
 mander 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. 
 
 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 imme- 
 diate official superior to assail the borders of Penn- 
 sylvania 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.' 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. 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS. Haldimand to Hamilton, August 6, 
 1778. 
 
The War in the Northwest 139 
 
 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 re- 
 gion where only savages should dwell. 
 
 All through the winter of '7 6-' 7 7 the north- 
 western Indians were preparing to take up the 
 tomahawk. Runners were sent through the leaf- 
 less, 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 homed frontlet of the buffalo'. 
 Before the snow was off the ground the war- 
 parties crossed the Ohio and fell on the frontiers 
 
 ^ For instances of an Indian wearing this buffalo cap, with 
 the horns on, see Kercheval and Do Haas. 
 
I40 The Winning of the West 
 
 from the Monongahela and Kanawha to the 
 Kentucky.' 
 
 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 blockhouses — 
 stout log cabins two stories high, with loopholed 
 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-combat- 
 ants as against the armed soldiers in the field. 
 Blockhouses were surprised and burnt ; bodies of 
 militia were ambushed and destroyed. The set- 
 tlers 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, 
 
 ^ 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. 
 
The War in the Northwest 141 
 
 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 jour- 
 ney'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,' 
 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 gener- 
 ally 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 
 
 ' Occasionally we come across records of the women after- 
 wards 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 edu- 
 cated, and finally ran away, joined the Revolutionary army, 
 and was never heard of afterwards. 
 
142 The Winninor of the West 
 
 mother, and had become irreclaimable savages, 
 who eagerly grasped the first chance to flee from 
 the intolerable irksomeness and restraint of civi- 
 lized life/ 
 
 Among others, the stockade at Wheeling ^ was 
 attacked b}'' two or three hundred Indians; with 
 them came a party of Detroit Rangers, marshalled 
 by drum and fife, and carrying the British colors. ^ 
 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 bul- 
 lets, cooled and loaded the guns, and even, when 
 the rush was made, assisted to repel it by firing 
 
 ^ For an instance where a boy finally returned, see Trans- 
 Alleghany Pioneers, p. 119; see also pp. 126, 132, 133, for in- 
 stances of the capture and treatment of whites by Indians. 
 
 2 Fort Henry. For an account of the siege, see De Haas, 
 pp. 223-340. it took place in the early days of September. 
 
 3 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 uncer- 
 tainty 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 
 fovight 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 liis tory companions. 
 
The War in the Northwest 143 
 
 I through the loopholes. After making a deter- 
 mined 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 dis- 
 comfited. The siege was chiefly memorable be- 
 cause of an incident which is to this day a staple 
 theme for story-telling in the cabins of the moun- 
 taineers. One of the leading men of the neigh- 
 
 I borhood 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 per- 
 pendicular slope,' 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 surrender- 
 ing, 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 
 
 ^ The hill overlooks Wheeling; the slope has now much 
 crumbled away, and in consequence has lost its steepness. 
 
144 The Winning of the West 
 
 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 surefootedness 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 awestruck 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.' 
 
 In Virginia and Pennsylvania the Indian out- 
 rages meant only the harassing of the borderers; 
 in Kentucky, they threatened the complete de- 
 struction of the vanguard of the white advance 
 and, therefore, the stoppage of all settlement west 
 of the AUeghanies 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 
 
 ^ In the West this feat is as well known as is Putnam's 
 similar deed in the North. 
 
The War in the Northwest 145 
 
 Pittsburg ; while the feeble forts in the far western 
 wilderness were only troubled by smaller war- 
 parties raised among the tribes on their own ac- 
 count. A strong expedition, led by Hamilton 
 in person, would doubtless at this time have 
 crushed them. 
 
 As it was, there were still so few whites in Ken- 
 tucky 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. There- 
 fore 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 usu- 
 ally 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, be- 
 leaguered it in form. For this they lacked both 
 the discipline and the commissariat. Accordingly, 
 if their first rush miscarried, they usually dis- 
 persed 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 
 anything 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 
 
 VOL. II. — 10. 
 
146 The Winning of the West 
 
 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 accord- 
 ingly 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 fight- 
 ers 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 re- 
 gards the main points. Those that occurred in 
 1777 may be considered as samples of the rest; 
 
 m 
 
The War in the Northwest 147 
 
 and accounts of these have been preserved by the 
 two chief actors, Boon and Clark.' Boonsborough, 
 which was held by twenty-two riflemen, was at- 
 tacked twice, once in April and again in July, on 
 each occasion by a party of fifty or a hundred 
 warriors.^ 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. ^ 
 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 
 
 ^ 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 as- 
 serts 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. 
 
 2 Boon says April 1 5 th and July 4th. Clark's "Diary" makes 
 the first date April 24th. Boon says one htmdred 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 prob- 
 ably correct, as Boon must have written only from memory. 
 
 3 Two of the other wounded men were Captain John Todd 
 and Boon's old hunting companion, Stoner. 
 
148 The Winning of the West 
 
 Indians stayed around two days, keeping up a 
 heavy fire, under cover of which they several 
 times tried to burn the fort.' 
 
 Logan's Station at St. Asaphs was likewise at- 
 tacked^ ; it was held by only fifteen gun-men . 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 stood nearby, killing one man and 
 wounding two others, one mortally. ^ 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 re- 
 fused 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 In- 
 dians continued to lurk around the neighborhood, 
 and the ammunition grew very scarce. There- 
 upon Logan took two companions and left the 
 fort at night to go to the distant settlements on 
 
 ^Clark's "Diary." 
 
 2 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. 
 
 3 The name of the latter was Burr Harrison; he died a 
 fortnight afterward. — Clark. 
 
The War in the Northwest 149 
 
 the Holston, where he might get powder and lead. 
 He knew that the Indians were watching the Wil- 
 derness 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 travel- 
 ling all day long with the tireless speed of a wolf,' 
 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 yel- 
 low and the oaks deep red, during the weeks of 
 still, hazy weather that mark the Indian summer, 
 their favorite hunting season,^ the savages again 
 filled the land, and Logan was obHged to repeat 
 his perilous journey. 3 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, 
 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, 
 
 ^ 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 diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 2 Usually early in November. — McAfee MSS. 
 
 3 Marshall, 50. 
 
150 The Winning of the West 
 
 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 sav- 
 ages 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 primi- 
 tive 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 
 
 ^ 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 one hundred feet wide. I have 
 myself seen small game licks, the largest not a hundred feet 
 across, in the Selkirks, Cceur d'Alenes, and Bighorns, the 
 ground all tramped up by the hoofs of elk, deer, wild sheep, 
 and whitegoats, 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 Hcks become over- 
 grown and lost. 
 
 ■M 
 
The War in the Northwest 151 
 
 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 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 In- 
 dians lurked around Harrodstown throughout the 
 summer; and Clark and his companions were en- 
 gaged in constant skirmishes with them. Once, 
 warned by the uneasy restlessness of the cattle 
 (that 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 him- 
 self 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." ' 
 
 ^ Clark's "Diary," entry for July 9th. 
 
152 The Winning of the West 
 
 The corn was brought in from the cribs under 
 guard ; one day, while shelHng a quantity, a body 
 of thirty-seven whites was 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, pump- 
 kins, and melons; and marrying and mirth-mak- 
 ing 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 ex- 
 presses 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. 
 
 During the summer parties of backwoods 
 militia from the Holston settlements — both Vir- 
 ginians 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 com- 
 panies of immigrants came out across the moun- 
 tains; and at the same time the small parties of 
 
 y.ii 
 
The War in the Northwest 153 
 
 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 con- 
 tained in all some five or six hundred permanent 
 settlers, nearly half of them being able-bodied 
 riflemen.' 
 
 ^The McAfee MSS. give these four stations; Boon says 
 there were but three. He was writing from memory, how- 
 ever, 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 102 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 num- 
 ber for July, and particularly adds that after that date 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 
 imder ten, 7 ; total, 198. In October Clark in his "Diary" re- 
 cords meeting fifty men with their families (therefore per- 
 manent settlers) , on their way to Boon, and thirty-eight men 
 on their way to Logan's. At the end of the year, therefore, 
 Boonsborotigh and Harrodstown must have held about two 
 hundred souls apiece: Logan's and McGarry's were consider- 
 ably smaller. The large proportion of young children tes- 
 tifies 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 per- 
 manent residents. 
 
154 The Winning of the West 
 
 Early in 1778, a severe calamity befell the settle- 
 ments. 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.' The following 
 month, having sent three men back with loads of 
 salt, he and all the others were surprised and cap- 
 tured by a party of eighty or ninety Miamis, led 
 by two Frenchmen, named Baubin and Lorimer.^ 
 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 French- 
 men 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 at- 
 tached to him, and refused the ransom, taking 
 their prisoner back to Chillicothe. Here he was 
 adopted into the tribe, and remained for two 
 
 ' See Clark's "Diary," entry for October 25, 1777. 
 ^ Haldimand MSS., Series B., vol. cxxii., p. 35. Hamilton 
 to Carleton, April 25, 1778. He says fotirscore Miamis. 
 
The War in the Northwest 155 
 
 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 De- 
 troit, bringing scalps and prisoners. A great coun- 
 cil was held at that post early in June.' 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. ^ 
 
 In June, a large war-party gathered at Chilli- 
 cothe to march against Boonsborough, and Boon 
 determined to escape at all hazards, so that he 
 might warn his friends. One morning before sun- 
 rise he eluded the vigilance of his Indian compan- 
 ions 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. ^ 
 
 ^ Ibid., June 14, 1778. 
 2 Ibid., April 25, 1778. 3 Boon's "Narrative." 
 
156 The Winning of the West 
 
 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 dis- 
 concerted 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 nine- 
 teen men, defeating a small party of his foes on the 
 Scioto. 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. 
 
 On the eighth day of the month the savages ap- 
 peared 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 ' ; 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 fol- 
 
 ^Haldimand MSS. August 17, 1778, Girty reports that 
 four hundred Indians have gone to attack "Fort Kentuck." 
 Hamilton's letter of September i6th speaks of there being 
 three hundred Shawnees with de Quindre (whom Boon calls 
 Duquesne) . 
 
 ■ Ji 
 
The War in the Northwest 157 
 
 lowed 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.' 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 at- 
 tack. 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 common- 
 wealth, 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 sus- 
 picious of the good faith of his opponents, insisted 
 
 ^ See Boon's "Narrative." 
 
158 The Winning of the West 
 
 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/ However, the borderers wrested them- 
 selves free, and fled to the fort under a heavy fire, 
 which wounded one of their number. 
 
 The Indians then attacked the fort, surround- 
 ing it on every side and keeping up a constant fire 
 at the loopholes. 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,^ 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. ^ 
 
 This was the last siege of Boonsborough. Had 
 de Quindre succeeded he might very probably 
 
 ^ Apparently there were eighteen Indians on the treaty 
 ground, but these were probably, like the whites, unarmed. 
 
 => McAfee MSS. 
 
 3 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 
 
The War in the Northwest 159 
 
 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. 
 
 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,' 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 con- 
 fined themselves mainly to watching the Ohio and 
 
 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 cer- 
 tain 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. 
 
 ^ 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. 
 
i6o The Winning of the West 
 
 the Wilderness Road, and harassing the immi- 
 grants who passed along them/ 
 
 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. ^ 
 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. ^ 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 con- 
 flicts wherein only one or two men on a side were 
 engaged. The West could never have been con- 
 quered, 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 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. ^ Marshall, 55. 3 McAfee MSS. 
 
The War in the Northwest i6i 
 
 and hardihood, and their long training in forest 
 warfare,' made them able to hold their own and 
 to advance step by step, where a peaceable popu- 
 lation 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 war- 
 fare. 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 ex- 
 amples of innumerable similar deeds that were 
 done, and woes that were suffered, in the course 
 of the ceaseless struggle. 
 
 "^ 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. 
 
 VOL. II. — II. 
 
1 62 The Winning of the West 
 
 Kenton was a tall, fair-haired man of wonderful 
 strength and agility; famous as a runner and 
 wrestler, an unerring shot, and a perfect woods- 
 man. Like so many of these early Indian fighters, 
 he was not at all bloodthirsty. He was a pleas- 
 ant, 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.' 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, accus- 
 tomed to every kind of risk and hairbreadth es- 
 cape, and as little apt to praise the deeds of others 
 as he was to mention his own; but on this occa- 
 
 '^ 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 informa- 
 tion about the customs of life among the borderers, and about 
 Indian warfare; but he is a very inaccurate and untrust- 
 worthy writer; he could not even copy a printed narrative 
 correctly (see his account of Slover's and McKnight's adven- 
 tures), 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 chrono- 
 logically correct in Kenton's individual case. 
 
 
The War in the Northwest 163 
 
 sion 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 In- 
 dians came up ; but, at the same time, Boon and 
 his companions appeared, running as fast as they 
 could while still keeping sheltered. A brisk skir- 
 mish 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 
 
1 64 The Winning of the West 
 
 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 adven- 
 turers 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 gtms 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 epi- 
 thets 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 gaunt- 
 let. A row of men, women, and boys, a quarter 
 
The War in the Northwest 165 
 
 of a mile long, was formed, each with a tomahawk, 
 switch, or club ; at the end of the line was an In- 
 dian 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.' 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, pass- 
 ing the war-club from one to another ; those who 
 passed it in silence thereby voted in favor of spar- 
 ing 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 
 
 ^ For this part of Kenton's adventures compare the Last of 
 the Mohicans. 
 
1 66 The Winning of the West 
 
 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 bum 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 rene- 
 gade Girty, his old companion in arms at the time 
 of Lord Dunmore's war, and again by the power- 
 ful 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 ran- 
 somed 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 
 
The War in the Northwest 167 
 
 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.' 
 
 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 tra- 
 ditional form from father to son and to son's son. 
 They were known to be honest, fearless, adventur- 
 ous, 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 war- 
 fare were incorporated into their lives by the 
 story-tellers. The facts were altered and added to 
 
 ' McClurg gives the exact conversations that took place be- 
 tween 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 in- 
 cident 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. 
 
1 68 The Winning of the West 
 
 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. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Clark's conquest of the Illinois, 1778 
 
 KENTUCKY had been settled, chiefly through 
 Boon's instrumentaHty, in the year that 
 saw the first fighting of the Revolution, 
 and it had been held ever since, Boon still playing 
 the greatest part in the defence. Clark's more 
 far-seeing and ambitious soul now prompted him 
 to try and use it as a base from which to conquer 
 the vast region northwest of the Ohio. 
 
 The country beyond the Ohio was not, like 
 Kentucky, a tenantless and debatable hunting- 
 ground. It was the seat of powerful and warlike 
 Indian confederacies, and of clusters of ancient 
 French hamlets which had been founded genera- 
 tions before the Kentucky pioneers were bom; 
 and it also contained posts that were garrisoned 
 and held by the soldiers of the British king. 
 Virginia, and other colonies as well, made, it is 
 true, vague claims to some of this territory.' But 
 
 ^ Some of the numerous land specvilation companies, which 
 were so prominent about this time, both before and after the 
 Revolution, made claims to vast tracts of territory in this 
 region, having bought them for various trinkets from the In- 
 dian chiefs. Such were the "Illinois Land Company" and 
 
 169 
 
170 The Winning of the West 
 
 their titles were as unreal and shadowy as those 
 acquired by the Spanish and Portuguese kings 
 when the Pope, with empty munificence, divided 
 between them the Eastern and the Western 
 hemispheres. For a century the French had held 
 adverse possession; for a decade and a half the 
 British, not the colonial authorities, had acted as 
 their unchallenged heirs; to the Americans the 
 country was as much a foreign land as was Canada. 
 It could only be acquired by force, and Clark's 
 teeming brain and bold heart had long been busy 
 in planning its conquest. He knew that the 
 French villages, the only settlements in the land, 
 were the seats of the British power, the head- 
 quarters whence their commanders stirred up, 
 armed, and guided the hostile Indians. If these 
 settled French districts were conquered, and 
 the British posts that guarded them captured, the 
 whole territory would thereby be won for the 
 
 "Wabash Land Company," that, in 1773 and 1775, made 
 purchases from the Kaskaskias and Piankeshaws. The com- 
 panies were composed of British, American, and Canadian 
 merchants and traders, of London, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
 Quebec, etc. Lord Dunmore was in the Wabash Company. 
 The agents of the companies, in after years, made repeated 
 but unsuccessful efforts to get Congress to confirm their 
 grants. Although these various companies made much noise 
 at the time, they introduced no new settlers into the land, 
 and, in fact, did nothing of lasting effect; so that it is mere 
 waste of time to allude to most of them. See, however, the 
 History of Indiana, by John B. Dillon (Indianapolis, 1859), 
 pp. 102-109, etc. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 171 
 
 Federal Republic, and added to the heritage of 
 its citizens; while the problem of checking and 
 subduing the northwestern Indians would be 
 greatly simplified, because the source of much of 
 both their power and hostility would be cut off at 
 the springs. The friendship of the French was in- 
 valuable, for they had more influence than any 
 other people with the Indians. 
 
 In 1777, Clark sent two young hunters as spies 
 to the Illinois country and to the neighborhood of 
 Vincennes, though neither to them nor to any one 
 else did he breathe a hint of the plan that was in 
 his mind. They brought back word that, though 
 some of the adventurous yoimg men often joined 
 either the British or the Indian war-parties, yet 
 that the bulk of the French population took but 
 little interest in the struggle, were lukewarm in 
 their allegiance to the British flag, and were some- 
 what awed by what they had heard of the back- 
 woodsmen.' Clark judged from this report that 
 it would not be difficult to keep the French neutral 
 if a bold policy, strong as well as conciliatory, was 
 pursued towards them ; and that but a small force 
 would be needed to enable a resolute and capable 
 leader to conquer at least the southern part of 
 
 ^ The correctness of this account is amply confirmed by the 
 Haldimand MSS., letters of Hamilton, passim; also Roche- 
 blave to Carleton, July 4, 1778; and to Hamilton, April 12, 
 1778. 
 
1 72 The Winning of the West 
 
 the country. It was impossible to raise such a 
 body among the scantily garrisoned forted vil- 
 lages of Kentucky. The pioneers, though warlike 
 and fond of fighting, were primarily settlers ; their 
 soldiering came in as a purely secondary occupa- 
 tion. They were not a band of mere adventurers, 
 living by the sword and bent on nothing but con- 
 quest. They were a group of hard-working, hard- 
 fighting freemen, who had come in with their 
 wives and children to possess the land. They 
 were obliged to use all their wit and courage to 
 defend what they had already won without wast- 
 ing their strength by grasping at that which lay 
 beyond. The very conditions that enabled so 
 small a number to make a permanent settlement 
 forbade their trying unduly to extend its bounds. 
 
 Clark knew he could get from among his fellow- 
 settlers some men peculiarly suited for his pur- 
 pose, but he also realized that he would have to 
 bring the body of his force from Virginia. Ac- 
 cordingly, he decided to lay the case before Patrick 
 Henry, then Governor of the State of which Ken- 
 tucky was only a frontier county. 
 
 On October i, 1777, he started from Harrods- 
 burg,' to go over the Wilderness Road. The brief 
 entries of his diary for this trip are very interesting 
 
 ^ In the earlier MSS. it is called sometimes Harrodstown 
 and sometimes Harrodsburg; but from this time on the latter 
 name is in general use. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 173 
 
 and sometimes very amusing. Before starting, he 
 made a rather shrewd and thoroughly characteris- 
 tic speculation in horseflesh, buying a horse for 
 ;^i2, and then "swapping" it with Isaac Shelby 
 and getting ;^io to boot. He evidently knew 
 how to make a good bargain, and had the true 
 backwoods passion for barter. He was detained 
 a couple of days by that commonest of frontier 
 mischances, his horses straying; a natural inci- 
 dent when the animals were simply turned loose 
 on the range and looked up when required.' He 
 travelled in company with a large party of men, 
 women, and children who, disheartened by the 
 Indian ravages, were going back to the settle- 
 ments. They marched from fifteen to twenty 
 miles a day, driving beeves along for food. In 
 addition, the scouts at different times killed three 
 buffalo ^ and a few deer> so that they were not 
 stinted for fresh meat. 
 
 When they got out of the wilderness he parted 
 from his companions and rode off alone. He now 
 stayed at the settler's house that was nearest 
 when night overtook him. At a large house, such 
 as that of the Campbells, near Abingdon, he was 
 of course welcomed to the best, and treated with 
 
 ^ This, like so many other incidents in the every-day history 
 of the old pioneers, is among the ordinary experiences of the 
 present sojourner in the far West. 
 
 2 One at Rockcastle River, two at Cumberland Ford. 
 
174 The Winning of the West 
 
 a generous hospitality for which it would have 
 been an insult to offer money in return. At the 
 small cabins he paid his way; usually a shilling 
 and threepence or a shilling and sixpence for break- 
 fast, bed, and feed for the horse; but sometimes 
 four or five shilHngs. He fell in with a Captain 
 Campbell, with whom he journeyed a week, find- 
 ing him "an agreeable companion." They had 
 to wait over one stormy day at a little tavern, 
 and probably whiled away the time by as much 
 of a carouse as circumstances allowed; at any 
 rate, Clark's share of the bill when he left was 
 £i 45.' Finally, a month after leaving Harrods- 
 burg, having travelled six hundred and twenty 
 miles, he reached his father's house. ^ 
 
 After staying only a day at his old home, he set 
 out for Williamsburg, where he was detained a 
 fortnight before the State auditors would settle 
 the accounts of the Kentucky militia, which he 
 had brought with him. The two things which he 
 deemed especially worthy of mention during this 
 
 ^ The items of expense jotted down in the diary are curious. 
 For a night's lodging and board they range from 15. 2,d. to 135. 
 In Williamsburg, the capital, they were for a fortnight £g 185. 
 
 ^ Seventy miles beyond Charlottesville; he gives an itin- 
 erary of his journey, making it six hundred and twenty miles 
 in all, by the route he travelled. On the way he had his horse 
 shod and bought a pair of shoes for himself; apparently, he 
 kept the rest of his backwoods apparel. He sold his gun for 
 £i<, and swapped horses again — this time giving £•] 10s. to 
 boot. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 175 
 
 time were his purchase of a ticket in the State 
 lottery, for three pounds, and his going to church 
 on Sunday — the first chance he had had to do so 
 during the year.' He was overjoyed at the 
 news of Burgoyne's surrender; and with a Ught 
 heart he returned to his father's house, to get a 
 gHmpse of his people before again plunging into 
 the wilds. 
 
 After a week's rest he went back to the capital, 
 laid his plans before Patrick Henry, and urged 
 their adoption with fiery enthusiasm.^ Henry's 
 ardent soul quickly caught flame ; but the peril of 
 sending an expedition to such a wild and distant 
 country was so great, and Virginia's resources 
 were so exhausted, that he could do little beyond 
 lending Clark the weight of his name and influ- 
 ence. The matter could not be laid before the 
 Assembly, nor made public in any way; for the 
 hazard would be increased tenfold if the strictest 
 
 ^ When his accounts were settled he immediately bought 
 "apiece of cloth for a jacket; price £4. 155.; buttons, etc., 35." 
 
 2 Clark has left a iuW MS. Memoir oi the events of 1777, 
 1778, and 1779. It was used extensively by Mann Butler, 
 the first historian who gave the campaign its proper promi- 
 nence, and is printed almost complete by Dillon, on pp. 115- 
 167 of his Indiana. It was written at the desire of Presidents 
 Jefferson and Madison, and therefore some thirty or forty 
 years after the events of which it speaks. Valuable though 
 it is, as the narrative of the chief actor, it would be still more 
 vakiable had it been written earlier; it undoubtedly contains 
 some rather serious errors. 
 
1 76 The Winning of the West 
 
 secrecy were not preserved. Finally, Henry au- 
 thorized Clark to raise seven companies, each of 
 fifty men, who were to act as militia and to be paid 
 as such.' He also advanced him the sum of 
 twelve hundred pounds (presumably in depre- 
 ciated paper), and gave him an order on the au- 
 thorities at Pittsburg for boats, supplies, and 
 ammunition; while three of the most prominent 
 Virginia gentlemen ^ agreed in writing to do their 
 best to induce the Virginia Legislature to grant 
 to each of the adventurers three hundred acres of 
 the conquered land, if they were successful. He 
 was likewise given the commission of colonel, with 
 instructions to raise his men solely from the 
 frontier counties west of the Blue Ridge, ^ so as 
 not to weaken the people of the seacoast region in 
 their struggle against the British. 
 
 Thus the whole burden of making ready the 
 expedition was laid on Clark's shoulders. The 
 hampered Virginian authorities were able to give 
 him little beyond their good-will. He is right- 
 fully entitled to the whole glory; the plan and 
 execution were both his. It was an individual 
 rather than a state or national enterprise. 
 
 Governor Henry's open letter of instructions 
 
 ^ Henry's private letter of instructions, January 2, 1778. 
 
 2 Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and George Wythe. 
 
 3 Butler, p. 48; but Henry's public instructions authorized 
 Clark to raise his men in any county. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 177 
 
 merely ordered Clark to go to the relief of Ken- 
 tucky. He carried with him also the secret letter 
 which bade him attack the Illinois region ; for he 
 had decided to assail this first, because, if de- 
 feated, he would then be able to take refuge in the 
 Spanish dominions beyond the Mississippi. He 
 met with the utmost difficulty in raising men. 
 Some were to be sent to him from the Holston 
 overland, to meet him in Kentucky ; but a com- 
 bination of accidents resulted in his getting only a 
 dozen or so from this source.' Around Pittsburg 
 the jealousy between the Virginians and Pennsyl- 
 vanians hampered him greatly. Moreover, many 
 people were strongly opposed to sending any men 
 to Kentucky at all, deeming the drain on their 
 strength more serious than the value of the new 
 land warranted; for they were too shortsighted 
 rightly to estimate what the frontiersmen had 
 really done. When he had finally raised his 
 troops he was bothered by requests from the dif- 
 ferent forts to aid detachments of the local militia 
 in expeditions against bands of marauding In- 
 dians. 
 
 But Clark never for a moment wavered nor lost 
 sight of his main object. He worked steadily on, 
 
 ^ Four companies were to be raised on the Holston; but 
 only one actually went to Kentucky; and most of its mem- 
 bers deserted when they foiind out about the true nature of 
 the expedition. 
 
 VOL. II. — 12, 
 
1 78 The Winning of the West 
 
 heedless of difficulty and disappointment, and late 
 in the spring at last got together four small com- 
 panies of frontiersmen from the clearings and the 
 scattered hunters' camps. In May, 1778, he left 
 the Redstone settlements, taking not only his 
 troops — one hundred and fifty in all ' — but also a 
 considerable number of private adventurers and 
 settlers with their families. He touched at Pitts- 
 burg and Wheeling to get his stores. Then the 
 flotilla of clumsy flat-boats, manned by tall rifle- 
 men, rowed and drifted cautiously down the Ohio 
 between the melancholy and unbroken reaches of 
 Indian-haunted forest. The presence of the fami- 
 lies shows that even this expedition had the usual 
 peculiar western character of being undertaken 
 half for conquest, half for settlement. 
 
 He landed at the mouth of the Kentucky, but 
 rightly concluded that as a starting-point against 
 the British posts it would be better to choose a 
 place farther west, so he drifted on down the 
 stream, and on the 27th of May ^ reached the 
 Falls of the Ohio, where the river broke into great 
 
 ' Clark's letter to George Mason, November 19, 1779. 
 Given in Clark's Campaign in the Illinois (Cincinnati, 1869), 
 for the first time; one of Robert Clarke's excellent Ohio 
 Valley Historical Series. 
 
 ^ This is the date given in the deposition, in the case of 
 Floyd's heirs, in 181 5; see MSS. in Colonel Durrett's library 
 at Louisville. Clark's dates, given from memory, are often a, 
 day or two out. His Memoir is of course less accurate than 
 the letter to Mason. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 179 
 
 rapids or riffles of swift water. This spot he chose, 
 both because from it he could threaten and hold in 
 check the different Indian tribes, and because he 
 deemed it wise to have some fort to protect in the 
 future the craft that might engage in the river 
 trade, when they stopped to prepare for the pas- 
 sage of the rapids. Most of the families that had 
 come with him had gone off to the interior of Ken- 
 tucky, but several were left, and these settled on an 
 island near the Falls, where they raised a crop of 
 corn ; and in the autumn they moved to the main- 
 land. On the site thus chosen by the clear-eyed 
 frontier leader there afterwards grew up a great 
 city, named in honor of the French king, who was 
 then our ally. Clark may fairly be called its 
 founder.' 
 
 Here Clark received news of the alliance with 
 France, which he hoped would render easier his 
 task of winning over the habitants of the Illinois. 
 He was also joined by a few daring Kentuckians, 
 
 ' It was named Louisville in 1780, but was long known 
 only as the Falls. Many other men had previously recognized 
 the advantages of the place; hunters and surveyors had gone 
 there, but Clark led thither the first permanent settlers. 
 ConoUy had laid out at the Falls a grant of two thousand 
 acres, of which he afterw^ards surrendered half. His grant, 
 covering much of the present site of the city, was on July i , 
 1780, declared to be forfeited by a jury consisting of Daniel 
 Boon and eleven other good men and true, empanelled by 
 the sheriff of the county. See Durrett MSS. in Papers Re- 
 lating to Louisville, Ky, 
 
i8o The Winning of the West 
 
 including Kenton, and by the only Holston com- 
 pany that had yet arrived. He now disclosed to 
 his men the real object of his expedition. The 
 Kentuckians, and those who had come down the 
 river with him, hailed the adventure with eager 
 enthusiasm, pledged him their hearty support, and 
 followed him with staunch and unflinching loyalty. 
 But the Holston recruits, who had not come under 
 the spell of his personal influence, murmured 
 against him. They had not reckoned on an ex- 
 pedition so long and so dangerous, and in the 
 night most of them left the camp and fled into the 
 woods. The Kentuckians, who had horses, pur- 
 sued the deserters, with orders to kill any who 
 resisted; but all save six or eight escaped. Yet 
 they sufferec greatly for their crime, and endured 
 every degree of hardship and fatigue, for the Ken- 
 tuckians spurned them from the gates of the 
 wooden forts, and would not for a long time suffer 
 them to enter, hounding them back to the homes 
 they had dishonored. They came from among 
 a bold and adventurous people, and their action 
 was due rather to wayward and sullen disregard 
 of authority than to cowardice. 
 
 When the pursuing horsemen came back, a day 
 of mirth and rejoicing was spent between the 
 troops who were to stay behind to guard Ken- 
 tucky and those who were to go onward to con- 
 quer Illinois. On the 24th of June, Clark's boats 
 
Conquest of the Illinois i8i 
 
 put out from shore, and shot the falls at the very 
 moment that there was a great eclipse of the sun, 
 at which the frontiersmen wondered greatly, but 
 for the most part held it to be a good omen. 
 A{ Clark had weeded out all those whom he deemed 
 unable to stand fatigue and hardship; his four 
 little companies were of picked men, each with a 
 good captain/ His equipment was as light as 
 that of an Indian war-party, for he knew better 
 than to take a pound of baggage that could pos- 
 sibly be spared. 
 
 He intended to land some three leagues below 
 the entrance of the Tennessee River, ^ thence to 
 march on foot against the Illinois towns; for he 
 feared discovery if he should attempt to ascend 
 the Mississippi, the usual highway by which the 
 fur traders went up to the quaint French hamlets 
 that lay between the Kaskaskia and the Illinois 
 rivers. Accordingly, he double-manned his oars 
 and rowed night and day until he reached a small 
 island off the mouth of the Tennessee, where he 
 halted to make his final preparations, and was 
 there joined by a little party of American hunters, 
 
 ^ The names of the four captains were John Montgomery, 
 Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm, and Wilham Harrod. Each 
 company nominally consisted of fifty men, but none of them 
 was of full strength. 
 
 2 At the old Fort Massac, then deserted. The name is 
 taken from that of an old French commander; it is not a 
 corruption of Fort Massacre, as has been asserted. 
 
i82 The Winning of the West 
 
 who had recently been in the French settlements.^ 
 The meeting was most fortunate. The hunters 
 entered eagerly into Clark's plans, joining him for 
 the campaign, and they gave him some very valu- 
 able information. They told him that the royal 
 commandant was a Frenchman, Rocheblave, 
 whose headquarters were at the town of Kaskas- 
 kia; that the fort was in good repair, the militia 
 were well drilled and in constant readiness to 
 repel attack, while spies were continually watching 
 the Mississippi, and the Indians and the coureurs 
 des hois were warned to be on the lookout for any 
 American force. If the party were discovered in 
 time the hunters believed that the French would 
 undoubtedly gather together instantly to repel 
 them, having been taught to hate and dread the 
 backwoodsmen as more brutal and terrible than 
 any Indians ; and in such an event the strength of 
 the works and the superiority of the French in 
 numbers would render the attack very hazardous. 
 But they thought that a surprise would enable 
 Clark to do as he wished, and they undertook to 
 guide him by the quickest and shortest route to 
 the towns. 
 
 Clark was rather pleased than otherwise to learn 
 
 ^ In his Memoir he says "from the States" ; in his letter to 
 Mason he calls them "Englishmen," probably to show that 
 they were not French, as they had just come from Kaskaskia 
 He almost always spoke of the English proper as British. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 183 
 
 of the horror with which the French regarded 
 the backwoodsmen. He thought it would render 
 them more apt to be panic-struck when surprised, 
 and also more likely to feel a strong revulsion of 
 gratitude when they found that the Americans 
 meant them well and not ill. Taking their new 
 allies for guides, the little body of less than two 
 hundred men started north across the wilderness, 
 scouts being scattered out well ahead of them, 
 both to kill game for their subsistence and to see 
 that their march was not discovered by any 
 straggling Frenchman or Indian. The first fifty 
 miles led through tangled and pathless forest, the 
 toil of travelling being very great. After that the 
 work was less difficult as they got out among the 
 prairies, but on these great level meadows they 
 had to take extra precautions to avoid being seen. 
 Once the chief guide got bewildered and lost him- 
 self ; he could no longer tell the route, nor whither 
 it was best to march. ^ The whole party was at 
 once cast into the utmost confusion; but Clark 
 soon made the guide understand that he was him- 
 self in greater jeopardy than any one else, and 
 would forfeit his life if he did not guide them 
 straight. Not knowing the man, Clark thought 
 he might be treacherous ; and, as he wrote an old 
 
 ^ Even experienced woodsmen or plainsmen sometimes 
 thus become lost or "turned round," if in a country of few 
 landmarks, where they have rarely been before. 
 
i84 The Winning of the West 
 
 friend, he was never in his life in such a rage as 
 when he found his troops wandering at random in 
 a country where, at any moment, they might 
 blunder on several times their number of hostile 
 Indians ; while, if they were discovered by any one 
 at all, the whole expedition was sure to miscarry. 
 However, the guide proved to be faithful ; after a 
 couple of hours he found his bearings once more, 
 and guided the party straight to their destination. 
 On the evening of the fourth of July ' they 
 reached the river Kaskaskia, within three miles of 
 the town, which lay on the farther bank. They 
 kept in the woods until after it grew dusk, and 
 then marched silently to a little farm on the hither 
 side of the river, a mile from the town. The 
 family were taken prisoners, and from them Clark 
 learned that some days before the townspeople had 
 been alarmed at the rumor of a possible attack; 
 but that their suspicions had been lulled, and they 
 were then off their guard. There were a great 
 many men in the town, but almost all French, the 
 Indians having for the most part left. The ac- 
 
 ^ So says Clark; and the Haldimand MSS. contains a letter 
 of Rocheblave of July 4th. For these campaigns of 1778 I 
 follow, where possible, Clark's letter to Mason as being nearly 
 contemporary; his Memoir, as given by Dillon, comes next in 
 authority; while Butler, who was very accurate and pains- 
 taking, also got hold of original information from men who 
 had taken part in the expedition, or from their descendants, 
 besides making full use of the Alemoir, 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 185 
 
 count proved correct. Rocheblave, the Creole 
 commandant, was sincerely attached to the Brit- 
 ish interest. He had been much alarmed early in 
 the year by the reports brought to him by Indians 
 that the Americans were in Kentucky and else- 
 where beyond the Alleghanies. He had written 
 repeatedly to Detroit, asking that regulars could 
 be sent him, and that he might himself be replaced 
 by a commandant of English birth; for, though 
 the French were well disposed towards the crown, 
 they had been frightened by the reports of the 
 ferocity of the backwoodsmen, and the Indians 
 were fickle. In his letters he mentioned that the 
 French were much more loyal than the men of 
 English parentage. Hamilton found it impos- 
 sible to send him reinforcements, however, and he 
 was forced to do the best he could without them; 
 but he succeeded well in his endeavors to organize 
 troops, as he found the Creole militia very willing 
 to serve, and the Indians extremely anxious to 
 attack the Americans.' He had under his orders 
 two or three times as many men as Clark, and he 
 would certainly have made a good fight if he had 
 not been surprised. It was only Clark's audacity 
 and the noiseless speed of his movements that 
 
 '^ Haldimand MSS., Carleton to Hamilton, May i6, 1777; 
 Rocheblave to Carleton, February 8, 1778; Rocheblave to 
 Hamilton, April 12, 1778; Rocheblave to Carleton, Jtily 4, 
 1778. 
 
i86 The Winning of the West 
 
 gave him a chance of success, with the odds so 
 heavily against him. 
 
 Getting boats, the American leader ferried his 
 men across the stream under cover of the dark- 
 ness and in profound silence, the work occupying 
 about two hours. He then approached Kaskaskia 
 under cover of the night, dividing his force into 
 two divisions, one being spread out to surround 
 the town so that none might escape, while he him- 
 self led the other up to the walls of the fort. 
 
 Inside the fort the lights were lit, and through 
 the windows came the sounds of violins. The 
 officers of the post had given a ball, and the mirth- 
 loving Creoles, young men and girls, were dancing 
 and revelling within, while the sentinels had left 
 their posts. One of his captives showed Clark a 
 postern-gate by the river side, and through this he 
 entered the fort, having placed his men round 
 about at the entrance. Advancing to the great 
 hall where the revel was held, he leaned silently 
 with folded arms against the door-post, looking at 
 the dancers. An Indian, lying on the floor of the 
 entry, gazed intently on the stranger's face as the 
 light from the torches within flickered across it, 
 and suddenly sprang to his feet, uttering the un- 
 earthly war-whoop. Instantly the dancing ceased; 
 the women screamed, while the men ran towards 
 the door. But Clark, standing unmoved and with 
 unchanged face, grimly bade them continue their 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 187 
 
 dancing, but to remember that they now danced 
 under Virginia and not Great Britain.' At the 
 same time his men burst into the fort, and seized 
 the French officers, including the commandant, 
 Rocheblave.^ 
 
 Immediately, Clark had every street secured, 
 and sent runners through the town ordering the 
 people to keep close to their houses on pain of 
 death ; and by daylight he had them all disarmed. 
 The backu^oodsmen patrolled the town in little 
 squads, while the French in silent terror cow- 
 ered within their low-roofed houses. Clark was 
 quite willing that they should fear the worst ; and 
 their panic was very great. The unlooked-for and 
 
 ' " Memoir of Major E. Denny," by Wm. H. Denny, p. 217. 
 In Record of the Court of Upland and Military Journal of 
 Major E. Denny, Philadelphia, i860 (Historical Society of 
 Pennsylvania). The story was told to Major Denny by 
 Clark himself, some time in '87 or '88; in process of repeti- 
 tion it evidently became twisted, and, as related by Denny, 
 there are some very manifest inaccuracies, but there seems 
 no reason to reject it entirely. 
 
 2 It is worth noting that these Illinois French, and most of 
 the Indians with whom the French fur traders came in con- 
 tact, called the Americans " Bostonnais." (In fact, the fur 
 traders have taught this name to the northern tribes right 
 across to the Pacific. While hunting in the Selkirk Moun- 
 tains last fall, the Kootenai Indian who was with me always 
 described me as a "Boston man.") Similarly, the Indians 
 round the upper Ohio and thence southward often called the 
 backwoodsmen "Virginians." In each case the French and 
 Indians adopted the name of their leading and most inveterate 
 enemies as the title by which to call all of them. 
 
1 88 The Winning of the West 
 
 mysterious approach and sudden onslaught of the 
 backwoodsmen, their wild and uncouth appear- 
 ance, and the ominous silence of their commander, 
 all combined to fill the French with fearful fore- 
 bodings for their future fate.' 
 
 Next morning a deputation of the chief men 
 waited upon Clark; and, thinking themselves in 
 the hands of mere brutal barbarians, all they dared 
 to do was to beg for their lives, which they did, 
 says Clark, "with the greatest servancy [saying] 
 they were willing to be slaves to save their fami- 
 lies," though the bolder spirits could not refrain 
 from cursing their fortune that they had not been 
 warned in time to defend themselves. Now came 
 Clark's chance for his winning stroke. He knew 
 it was hopeless to expect his little band perma- 
 nently to hold down a much more numerous hos- 
 tile population, that was closely allied to many 
 surrounding tribes of warlike Indians; he wished 
 above all things to convert the inhabitants into 
 ardent adherents of the American Government. 
 
 So he explained at length that, though the 
 Americans came as conquerors, who by the laws 
 
 ^ In his Memoir Clark dwells at lengfth on the artifices by 
 which he heightened the terror of the French; and Butler 
 enlarges still further upon them. I follow the letter to Mason, 
 which is much safer authority, the writer having then no 
 thought of trying to increase the dramatic effect of the situa- 
 tion — which, in Butler, and indeed in the Memoir also, is 
 strained till it comes dangerously near bathos. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 189 
 
 of war could treat the defeated as they wished, 
 yet it was ever their principle to free, not to en- 
 slave, the people with whom they came in contact. 
 If the French chose to become loyal citizens, and 
 to take the oath of fidelity to the Republic, they 
 should be welcomed to all the privileges of Amer- 
 icans ; those who did not so choose should be al- 
 lowed to depart from the land in peace with their 
 families. 
 
 The mercurial Creoles who listened to his speech 
 passed rapidly from the depth of despair to the 
 height of joy. Instead of bewaihng their fate they 
 now could not congratulate themselves enough 
 on their good fortune. The crowning touch to 
 their happiness was given by Clark when he told 
 the priest, Pierre Gibault, in answer to a ques- 
 tion as to whether the Catholic church could 
 be opened, that an American commander had 
 nothing to do with any church save to defend it 
 from insult, and that by the laws of the Republic 
 his religion had as great privileges as any other. 
 With that they all returned in noisy joy to their 
 famihes, while the priest, a man of ability and in- 
 fluence, became thenceforth a devoted and effec- 
 tive champion of the American cause. The only 
 person whom Clark treated harshly was M. Roche- 
 blave, the commandant, who, when asked to 
 dinner, responded in very insulting terms. There- 
 upon Clark promptly sent him as a prisoner to 
 
190 The Winning of the West 
 
 Virginia (where he broke his parole and escaped), 
 and sold his slaves for five hundred pounds, which 
 was distributed among the troops as prize-money. 
 
 A small detachment of the Americans, accom- 
 panied by a volunteer company of French militia, 
 at once marched rapidly on Cahokia. The account 
 of what had happened in Kaskaskia, and the news 
 of the alliance between France and America, and 
 the enthusiastic advocacy of Clark's new friends, 
 soon converted Cahokia ; and all of its inhabitants, 
 like those of Kaskaskia, took the oath of allegiance 
 to America. Almost at the same time the priest 
 Gibault volunteered to go, with a few of his com- 
 patriots, to Vincennes, and there endeavor to get 
 the people to join the Americans, as being their 
 natural friends and allies. He started on his mis- 
 sion at once, and on the first of August returned to 
 Clark with the news that he had been completely 
 successful, that the entire population, after having 
 gathered in the church to hear him, had taken the 
 oath of allegiance, and that the American flag 
 floated over their fort.^ No garrison could be 
 spared to go to Vincennes ; so one of the captains ^ 
 was sent thither alone to take command. 
 
 The priest Gibault had given convincing proof 
 of his loyalty. He remarked to Clark rather dryly 
 
 ^ Judge John Law's Address on the Colonial History of 
 Vincennes, p. 25. 
 ^ Leonard Helm. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 191 
 
 that he had, properly speaking, nothing to do with 
 the temporal affairs of his flock, but that now and 
 then he was able to give them such hints in a 
 spiritual way as would tend to increase their de- 
 votion to their new friends. 
 
 Clark now found himself in a position of the ut- 
 most difficulty. With a handful of unruly back- 
 woodsmen, imperfectly disciplined and kept under 
 control only by his own personal influence, he had 
 to protect and govern a region as large as any 
 European kingdom. Moreover, he had to keep 
 content and loyal a population of alien race, creed, 
 and language, while he held his own against the 
 British and against numerous tribes of Indians, 
 deeply imbittered against all Americans and as 
 bloodthirsty and treacherous as they were war- 
 like. It may be doubted if there was another 
 man in the West who possessed the daring and 
 resolution, the tact, energy, and executive ability 
 necessary for the solution of so knotty a series of 
 problems. 
 
 He was hundreds of miles from the nearest post 
 containing any American troops; he was still 
 farther from the seat of government. He had no 
 hope whatever of getting reinforcements or even 
 advice and instruction for many months, prob- 
 ably not for a year ; and he was thrown entirely on 
 his own resources and obliged to act in every re- 
 spect purely on his own responsibility. 
 
192 The Winning of the West 
 
 Governor Patrick Henry, although leaving 
 everything in the last resort to Clark's discretion, 
 had evidently been very doubtful whether a per- 
 manent occupation of the territory was feasible,' 
 though both he, and especially Jefferson, recog- 
 nized the important bearing that its acquisition 
 would have upon the settlement of the north- 
 western boundary when the time came to treat 
 for peace. Probably Clark himself had not at first 
 appreciated all the possibilities that lay within 
 his conquest, but he was fully alive to them now 
 and saw that, provided he could hold on to it, he 
 had added a vast and fertile territory to the do- 
 main of the Union. To the task of keeping it he 
 now bent all his energies. 
 
 The time of service of his troops had expired, 
 and they were anxious to go home. By presents 
 and promises he managed to enlist one hundred of 
 them for eight months longer. Then, to color his 
 staying with so few men, he made a feint of return- 
 ing to the Falls, alleging as a reason his entire con- 
 
 ^ In his secret letter of instructions he orders Clark to be 
 especially careful to secure the artillery and military stores 
 at Kaskaskia, laying such stress upon this as to show that he 
 regarded the place itself as of comparatively little value. In 
 fact, all Henry's order contemplated was an attack on 
 "the British post at Kaskasky." However, he adds, that if 
 the French are willing to become American citizens, they 
 shall be fully protected against their foes. The letter ear- 
 nestly commands Clark to treat not only the inhabitants, but 
 also all British prisoners, with the utmost humanity. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 193 
 
 fidence in the loyalty of his French friends and his 
 trust in their capacity to defend themselves. He 
 hoped that this would bring out a remonstrance 
 from the inhabitants, who, by becoming Ameri- 
 can citizens, had definitely committed themselves 
 against the British. The result was such as he 
 expected. On the rumor of his departure, the in- 
 habitants in great alarm urged him to stay, say- 
 ing that otherwise the British would surely take 
 the post. He made a show of reluctantly yielding 
 to their request, and consented to stay with two 
 companies; and then, finding that many of the 
 more adventurous young Creoles were anxious to 
 take service, he enlisted enough of them to fill up 
 all four companies to their original strength. His 
 whole leisure was spent in drilling the men, Amer- 
 icans and French alike, and in a short time he 
 turned them into as orderly and well disciplined a 
 body as could be found in any garrison of regulars. 
 He also established very friendly relations with 
 the Spanish captains of the scattered Creole vil- 
 lages across the Mississippi, for the Spaniards were 
 very hostile to the British, and had not yet begun 
 to realize that they had even more to dread from 
 the Americans. Clark has recorded his frank sur- 
 prise at finding the Spanish commandant, who 
 lived at St. Louis, a very pleasant and easy com- 
 panion, instead of haughty and reserved, as he 
 had supposed all Spaniards were. 
 
 VOL. II. — 13. 
 
194 The Winning of the West 
 
 The most difficult, and among the most im- 
 portant, of his tasks, was deaHng with the swarm 
 of fickle and treacherous savage tribes that sur-' 
 roimded him. They had hitherto been hostile to 
 the Americans; but being great friends of the 
 Spaniards and French they were much confused 
 by the change in the sentiments of the latter, and 
 by the sudden turn affairs had taken. 
 
 Some volunteers — Americans, French, and 
 friendly Indians — were sent to the aid of the 
 American captain at Vincennes, and the latter, by 
 threats and promises, and a mixture of diplomatic 
 speech-making with a show of force, contrived, 
 for the time being, to pacify the immediately 
 neighboring tribes. 
 
 Clark took upon himself the greater task of 
 dealing with a huge horde of savages, representing 
 every tribe between the Great Lakes and the Mis- 
 sissippi, who had come to the Illinois, some from 
 a distance of five hundred miles, to learn accu- 
 rately all that had happened, and to hear for them- 
 selves what the Long Knives had to say. They 
 gathered to meet him at Cahokia, chiefs and war- 
 riors of every grade ; among them were Ottawas 
 and Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Sacs, and Foxes, 
 and others belonging to tribes whose very names 
 have perished. The straggling streets of the 
 dismayed little town were thronged with many 
 hundreds of dark-browed, sullen-looking savages, 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 195 
 
 grotesque in look and terrible in possibility. They 
 strutted to and fro in their dirty finery, or lounged 
 round the houses, inquisitive, importunate, and in- 
 solent, hardly concealing a lust for bloodshed and 
 plunder that the slightest mishap was certain to 
 render ungovernable. 
 
 Fortunately, Clark knew exactly how to treat 
 them. He thoroughly understood their natures, 
 and was always on his guard, while seemingly per- 
 fectly confident; and he combined conciliation 
 with firmness and decision, and above all with 
 prompt rapidity of action. 
 
 For the first two or three days no conclusion 
 was reached, though there was plenty of speech- 
 making. But on the night of the third a party of 
 turbulent warriors ' endeavored to force their way 
 into the house where he was lodging, and to carry 
 him off. Clark, who, as he records, had been 
 "under some apprehensions among such a num- 
 ber of Devils," was anticipating treachery. His 
 guards were at hand, and promptly seized the 
 savages; while the townspeople took the alarm 
 and were under arms in a couple of minutes, thus 
 convincing the Indians that their friendship for 
 the Americans was not feigned. 
 
 Clark instantly ordered the French militia to 
 put the captives, both chiefs and warriors, in 
 irons. He had treated the Indians well, and had 
 
 ^ " A party of Puans and others." — Clark's letter to Mason. 
 
196 The Winning of the West 
 
 not angered them by the harshness and brutaUty 
 that so often made them side against the EngHsh 
 or Americans and in favor of the French ; but he 
 knew that any signs of timidity would be fatal. 
 His boldness and decision were crowned with com- 
 plete success. The crestfallen prisoners humbly 
 protested that they were only trying to find out 
 if the French were really friendly to Clark, and 
 begged that they might be released. He answered 
 with haughty indifference, and refused to release 
 them, even when the chiefs of the other tribes 
 came up to intercede. Indians and whites alike 
 were in the utmost confusion, every man distrust- 
 ing what the moment might bring forth. Clark 
 continued seemingly wholly unmoved, and did 
 not even shift his lodgings to the fort, remaining 
 in a house in the town, but he took good care to 
 secretly fill a large room adjoining his own with 
 armed men, while the guards were kept ready for 
 instant action. To make his show of indifference 
 complete, he "assembled a Number of Gentlemen 
 and Ladies and danced nearly the whole night." 
 The perplexed savages, on the other hand, spent 
 the hours of darkness in a series of coimcils among 
 themselves. 
 
 Next morning he summoned all the tribes to a 
 grand council, releasing the captive chiefs, that he 
 might speak to them in the presence of their 
 friends and allies. The preliminary ceremonies 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 197 
 
 were carefully executed in accordance with the 
 rigid Indian etiquette. Then Clark stood up in 
 the midst of the rings of squatted warriors, while 
 his riflemen clustered behind him in their tasselled 
 hunting-shirts, travel-torn and weather-beaten. 
 He produced the bloody war-belt of wampum, and 
 handed it to the chiefs whom he had taken cap- 
 tive, telling the assembled tribes that he scorned 
 alike their treachery and their hostility; that he 
 would be thoroughly justified in putting them to 
 death, but that instead he would have them 
 escorted safely from the town, and after three days 
 would begin war upon them. He warned them 
 that if they did not wish their own women and 
 children massacred, they must stop killing those 
 of the Americans. Pointing to the war-belt, he 
 challenged them, on behalf of his people, to see 
 which would make it the most bloody; and he 
 finished by telling them that while they stayed in 
 his camp they should be given food and strong 
 drink, ^ and that now he had ended his talk to 
 them, and he wished them to speedily depart. 
 
 ^ " Provisions and Rum." — Letter to Mason. This is much 
 the best authority for these proceedings. The Alemoir, 
 written by an old man who had squandered his energies and 
 sunk into deserved obsctirity, is tedious and magniloquent, 
 and sometimes inaccurate. Moreover, Dillon has not always 
 chosen the extracts judiciously. Clark's decidedly prolix 
 speeches to the Indians are given with intolerable repetition. 
 They were well suited to the savages, drawing the causes of 
 
198 The Winning of the West 
 
 Not only the prisoners, but all the other chiefs 
 in turn forthwith rose, and in language of dignified 
 submission protested their regret at having been 
 led astray by the British, and their determination 
 thenceforth to be friendly with the Americans. 
 
 In response, Clark again told them that he came 
 not as a counsellor but as a warrior, not begging 
 for a truce but carrying in his right hand peace 
 and in his left hand war ; save only that to a few 
 of their worst men he intended to grant no terms 
 whatever. To those who were friendly he, too, 
 would be a friend, but if they chose war, he would 
 call from the Thirteen Council Fires ^ warriors so 
 numerous that they would darken the land, and 
 from that time on the red people would hear no 
 sound but that of the birds that lived on blood. 
 He went on to tell them that there had been a 
 mist before their eyes, but that he would clear 
 
 the quarrel between the British and Americans in phrases 
 that could be understood by the Indian mind; but their in- 
 flated hyperbole is not now interesting. They describe the 
 Americans as lighting a great council-fire, sharpening toma- 
 hawks, striking the war-post, declining to give "two bucks 
 for a blanket," as the British wanted them to, etc.; with 
 incessant allusions to the Great Spirit being angry, the roads 
 being made smooth, refusing to listen to the bad birds who 
 flew through the woods, and the like. Occasional passages 
 are fine; but it all belongs to the study of Indians and In- 
 dian oratory, rather than to the history of the Americans. 
 
 ^ In his speeches, as in those of his successors in treaty- 
 making, the United States were sometimes spoken of as the 
 Thirteen Fires, and sometimes as the Great Fire. 
 
Conquest of the Illinois 199 
 
 away the cloud and would show them the right of 
 the quarrel between the Long Knives and the king 
 who dwelt across the great sea ; and then he told 
 them about the revolt in terms which would almost 
 have applied to a rising of Hurons or Wyandots 
 against the Iroquois. At the end of his speech 
 he offered them the two belts of peace and war. 
 
 They eagerly took the peace belt, but he de- 
 clined to smoke the calumet, and told them he 
 would not enter into the solemn ceremonies of the 
 peace treaty with them until the following day. 
 He likewise declined to release all his prisoners, 
 and insisted that two of them should be put to 
 death. They even yielded to this, and surrendered 
 to him two yoimg men, who advanced and sat 
 down before him on the floor, covering their heads 
 with their blankets, to receive the tomahawk.' 
 Then he granted them full peace and forgave the 
 young men their doom, and the next day, after the 
 peace council, there was a feast, and the friendship 
 of the Indians was won. Clark ever after had 
 great influence over them ; they admired his per- 
 sonal prowess, his oratory, his address as a treaty- 
 maker, and the skill with which he led his troops. 
 
 I I have followed the contemporary letter to Mason rather 
 than the more elaborate and sHghtly different account of the 
 Memoir. The account written by Clark in his old age, like 
 Shelby's similar autobiography, is, in many respects, not very 
 trustworthy. It cannot be accepted for a moment where it 
 conflicts with any contemporary accounts. 
 
200 The Winning of the West 
 
 Long afterwards, when the United States au- 
 thorities were endeavoring to make treaties with 
 the red men, it was noticed that the latter would 
 never speak to any other white general or commis- 
 sioner while Clark was present. 
 
 After this treaty there was peace in the Illinois 
 country; the Indians remained for some time 
 friendly, and the French were kept well satisfied. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Clark's campaign against vincennes, 1779 
 
 HAMILTON, at Detroit, had been so en- 
 couraged by the successes of his war-par- 
 ties that, in 1778, he began to plan an 
 attack on Fort Pitt ' ; but his plans were forestalled 
 by Clark's movements, and he, of course, aban- 
 doned them when the astounding news reached 
 him that the rebels had themselves invaded the 
 IlHnois country, captured the British commandant, 
 Rocheblave, and administered to the inhabitants 
 the oath of allegiance to Congress.^ Shortly after- 
 wards, he learned that Vincennes likewise was in 
 the hands of the Americans. 
 
 He was a man of great energy, and he imme- 
 diately began to prepare an expedition for the re- 
 conquest of the country. French emissaries who 
 were loyal to the British crown were sent to 
 the Wabash to stir up the Indians against the 
 Americans; and though the Piankeshaws re- 
 mained friendly to the latter, the Kickapoos 
 and Weas, who were more powerful, announced 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS. Hamilton to Carleton, January, 1778. 
 2 Ibid. Hamilton's letter of August 8th. 
 
 201 
 
202 The Winning of the West 
 
 their readiness to espouse the British cause if 
 they received support, while the neighboring 
 Miamis were already on the war-path. The 
 commandants at the small posts of Mackinaw and 
 St. Josephs were also notified to incite the Lake 
 Indians to harass the Illinois country.' 
 
 He led the main body in person, and throughout 
 September every soul in Detroit was busy from 
 morning till night in mending boats, baking bis- 
 cuit, packing provisions in kegs and bags, prepar- 
 ing artillery stores, and in every way making 
 ready for the expedition. Fifteen large bateaux 
 and pirogues were procured, each capable of 
 carrying from eighteen hundred to three thousand 
 pounds; these were to carry the ammunition, 
 food, clothing, tents, and especially the presents 
 for the Indians, Cattle and wheels were sent 
 ahead to the most important portages on the 
 route that would be traversed; a six-pounder 
 gun was also forwarded. Hamilton had been 
 deeply exasperated by what he regarded as the 
 treachery of most of the Illinois and Wabash 
 Creoles in joining the Americans; but he was in 
 high spirits and very confident of success. He 
 wrote to his superior officer that the British were 
 sure to succeed if they acted promptly, for the In- 
 dians were favorable to them, knowing they alone 
 could give them supplies; and he added "the 
 
 ^ Ibid. Hamilton to Haldimand, September 17, 1778. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 203 
 
 Spaniards are feeble and hated by the French, 
 the French are fickle and have no man of capacity 
 to advise or lead them, and the Rebels are enter- 
 prising and brave, but want resources." The 
 bulk of the Detroit French, including all their 
 leaders, remained staunch supporters of the 
 crown, and the militia eagerly volunteered to go 
 on the expedition. Feasts were held with the 
 Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawatomies, at which 
 oxen were roasted whole, while Hamilton and the 
 chiefs of the French rangers sang the war-song in 
 solemn council, and received pledges of armed 
 assistance and support from the savages.^ 
 
 On October 7th, the expedition left Detroit ; be- 
 fore starting the venerable Jesuit missionary gave 
 the Catholic French who went along his solemn 
 blessing and approval, conditionally upon their 
 strictly keeping the oath they had taken to be 
 loyal and obedient servants of the crown. ^ It is 
 worthy of note that, while the priest at Kaskaskia 
 proved so potent an ally of the Americans, the 
 priest at Detroit was one of the staunchest sup- 
 porters of the British. Hamilton started with 
 thirty-six British regulars, under two lieutenants, 
 
 ^ Ibid. Hamilton to Haldimand, September 23, October 
 
 3. 1778- 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS., Series B, vol. cxxiii., p. 53. Hamilton's 
 letter of July 6, 1781, containing a "brief account" of the 
 whole expedition, taken from what he calls a "diary of trans- 
 actions" that he had preserved. 
 
204 The Winning of the West 
 
 forty-five Detroit volunteers (chiefly French) , who 
 had been carefully drilled for over a year, under 
 Captain Lamothe; seventy-nine Detroit militia, 
 under a major and two captains; and seventeen 
 members of the Indian Department (including 
 three captains and four lieutenants) who acted 
 with the Indians. There were thus in all one hun- 
 dred and seventy-seven whites.' Sixty Indians 
 started with the troops from Detroit, but so many 
 bands joined him on the route that when he 
 reached Vincennes his entire force amounted to 
 five hundred men.^ 
 
 Having embarked, the troops and Indians pad- 
 dled down -stream to Lake Erie, reaching it in a 
 snow-storm, and when a lull came they struck 
 boldly across the lake, making what bateau-men 
 call a "traverse" of thirty-six miles to the mouth 
 of the Maumee. Darkness overtook them while 
 still on the lake, and the head boats hung out 
 lights for the guidance of those astern ; but about 
 
 ^ Ibid., Series B, vol. cxxii., p. 253, return of forces on De- 
 cember 24th. 
 
 2 Ibid. Hamilton's letter of July 6, 1781, the "brief ac- 
 count." Clark's estimate was very close to the truth; he 
 gave Hamilton six hundred men, four hundred of them In- 
 dians. See State Department MSS., No. 71, vol. i., p. 247. 
 Papers Continental Congress. Letter of G. R. Clark to Gov- 
 ernor Henry, April 29, 1779. This letter was written seven 
 months before that to Mason, and many years before the 
 Memoir, so I have, where possible, followed it as being better 
 authority than either. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 205 
 
 midnight a gale came up, and the whole flotilla 
 was nearly swamped, being beached with great 
 difficulty on an oozy flat close to the mouth of the 
 Maumee. The waters of the Maumee were low, and 
 the boats were poled slowly up against the current, 
 reaching the portage point, where there was a 
 large Indian village, on the 24th of the month. 
 Here a nine-miles' carry was made to one of the 
 sources of the Wabash, called by the voyageurs 
 "la petite riviere ^ This stream was so low that 
 the boats could not have gone down it had it not 
 been for a beaver dam four miles below the land- 
 ing-place, which backed up the current. An open- 
 ing was made in the dam to let the boats pass. 
 The traders and Indians thoroughly appreciated 
 the help given them at this difficult part of the 
 course by the engineering skill of the beavers, — for 
 Hamilton was following the regular route of the 
 hunting, trading, and war-parties, — and none of 
 the beavers of this particular dam were ever mo- 
 lested, being left to keep their dam in order, and 
 repair it, which they always speedily did when- 
 ever it was damaged.' 
 
 It proved as difficult to go down the Wabash as 
 to get up the Maumee. The water was shallow, 
 and once or twice in great swamps dykes had to be 
 built that the boats might be floated across. Frost 
 set in heavily, and the ice cut the men as they 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS. Hamilton's "brief account." 
 
2o6 The Winning of the West 
 
 worked in the water to haul the boats over shoals 
 or rocks. The bateaux often needed to be 
 beached and caulked, while both whites and In- 
 dians had to help carry the loads round the shoal 
 places. At every Indian village it was necessary 
 to stop, hold a conference, and give presents. 
 At last the Wea village — or Ouiatanon, as Hamil- 
 ton called it — was reached. Here the Wabash 
 chiefs, who had made peace with the Americans, 
 promptly came in and tendered their allegiance to 
 the British, and a reconnoitring party seized a 
 lieutenant and three men of the Vincennes militia, 
 who were themselves on a scouting expedition, 
 but who nevertheless were surprised and captured 
 without difficulty.' They had been sent out by 
 Captain Leonard Helm, then acting as command- 
 ant at Vincennes. He had but a couple of Ameri- 
 cans with him, and was forced to trust to the 
 Creole militia, who had all embodied themselves 
 with great eagerness, having taken the oath of 
 allegiance to Congress. Having heard rumors of 
 the British advance, he had despatched a little 
 party to keep watch, and in consequence of their 
 capture he was taken by surprise. 
 
 From Ouiatanon Hamilton despatched Indian 
 parties to surround Vincennes and intercept any 
 
 ' Ibid. The French officer had in his pocket one British 
 and one American commission; Hamilton debated in his 
 mind for some time the advisability of hanging him. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 207 
 
 messages sent either to the Falls or to the Illinois ; 
 they were completely successful, capturing a mes- 
 senger who carried a hurried note written by 
 Helm to Clark to announce what had happened. 
 An advance guard, under Major Hay, was sent 
 forward to take possession, but Helm showed so 
 good a front that nothing was attempted until the 
 next day, the 17th of December, just seventy-one 
 days after the expedition had left Detroit, when 
 Hamilton came up at the head of his whole force 
 and entered Vincennes. Poor Helm was promptly 
 deserted by all the Creole militia. The latter had 
 been loud in their boasts until the enemy came 
 in view, but as soon as they caught sight of the 
 red-coats they began to slip away and run up to 
 the British to surrender their arms.' He was 
 finally left with only one or two men, Americans. 
 Nevertheless, he refused the first summons to sur- 
 render; but Hamilton, who knew that Helm's 
 troops had deserted him, marched up to the fort 
 at the head of his soldiers, and the American was 
 obliged to surrender, with no terms granted save 
 that he and his associates should be treated with 
 humanity.^ The instant the fort was surrendered 
 
 ' Ibid. Intercepted letter of Captain Helm, Series B, vol. 
 cxxii., p. 280. 
 
 ^ Ibid. Letter of Hamilton, Dec. 18-30, 1778. The story 
 of Helm's marching out with the honors of war is apparently 
 a mere invention. Even Mann Butler, usually so careful, 
 permits himself to be led off into all sorts of errors when 
 
2o8 The Winning of the West 
 
 the Indians broke in and plundered it; but they 
 committed no act of cruelty, and only plundered a 
 single private house. 
 
 The French inhabitants had shown pretty 
 clearly that they did not take a keen interest in 
 the struggle, on either side. They were now sum- 
 moned to the church and offered the chance — 
 which they for the most part eagerly embraced — 
 of purging themselves of their past misconduct 
 by taking a most humiliating oath of repentance, 
 acknowledging that they had sinned against God 
 and man by siding with the rebels, and promising 
 to be loyal in the future. Two hundred and fifty 
 of the militia, being given back their arms, ap- 
 peared with their officers, and took service again 
 under the British king, swearing a solemn oath 
 of allegiance. They certainly showed throughout 
 the most light-hearted indifference to chronic per- 
 jury and treachery ; nor did they in other respects 
 appear to very good advantage. Clark was not 
 
 describing the incidents of the Illinois and Vincennes expedi- 
 tions, and the writers who have followed him have generally 
 been less accurate. The story of Helm drinking toddy by the 
 fireplace when Clark retook the fort, and of the latter order- 
 ing riflemen to fire at the chimney, so as to knock the mortar 
 into the toddy, may safely be set down as pure— and very 
 weak — fiction. When Clark wrote his memoirs, in his old 
 age, he took delight in writing down among his exploits all 
 sorts of childish stratagems; the marvel is that any sane 
 historian should not have seen that these were on their face 
 as untrue as they were ridiculous. 
 
I 
 
 Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 209 
 
 in the least surprised at the news of their conduct ; 
 for he had all along realized that the attachment 
 of the French would prove but a slender reed on 
 which to lean in the moment of trial. 
 
 Hamilton had no fear of the inhabitants them- 
 selves, for the fort completely commanded the 
 town. To keep them in good order he confiscated 
 all their spirituous liquors, and in a rather amusing 
 burst of Puritan feeling destroyed two billiard 
 tables, which he announced were "sources of im- 
 morality and dissipation in such a settlement." ' 
 He had no idea that he was in danger of attack 
 from without, for his spies brought him word that 
 Clark had only a hundred and ten men in the 
 Illinois country ^ ; and the route between was in 
 winter one of extraordinary difficulty. 
 
 He had five hundred men and Clark but little 
 over one hundred. He was not only far nearer 
 his base of supplies and reinforcements at Detroit 
 than Clark was to his at Fort Pitt, but he was also 
 actually across Clark's line of communications. 
 Had he pushed forward at once to attack the 
 Americans, and had he been able to overcome the 
 difficulties of the march, he would almost cer- 
 tainly have conquered. But he was daunted by 
 the immense risk and danger of the movement. 
 The way was long and the country flooded, and he 
 
 ^ Ibid. 
 
 * Ibid. " Fourscore at Kaskaskia and thirty at Cahokia." 
 
 VOL. II. — 14. 
 
2IO The Winning of the West 
 
 feared the journey might occupy so much time 
 that his stock of provisions would be exhausted 
 before he got half-way. In such a case the party 
 might starve to death or perish from exposure. 
 Besides, he did not know what he should do for 
 carriages ; and he dreaded the rigor of the winter 
 weather.^ There were undoubtedly appalling dif- 
 ficulties in the way of a mid-winter march and 
 attack; and the fact that Clark attempted and 
 performed the feat which Hamilton dared not try, 
 marks just the difference between a man of genius 
 and a good, brave, ordinary commander. 
 
 Having decided to suspend active operations 
 during the cold weather, he allowed the Indians 
 to scatter back to their villages for the winter, and 
 sent most of the Detroit militia home, retaining in 
 garrison only thirty-four British regulars, forty 
 French volunteers, and a dozen white leaders of 
 the Indians ^ ; in all, eighty or ninety whites, and 
 a probably larger number of red auxiliaries. The 
 latter were continually kept out on scouting ex- 
 peditions; Miamis and Shawnees were sent down 
 to watch the Ohio, and take scalps in the settle- 
 ments, while bands of Kickapoos, the most war- 
 like of the Wabash Indians, and of Ottawas, often 
 
 ^ Ibid. In his various letters Hamilton sets forth the diffi- 
 culties at length. 
 
 ^ Ibid. Series B, vol. cxxii., p. 287. Return of Vincennes 
 garrison for January 30, 1779. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 211 
 
 accompanied by French partisans, went towards 
 the IlHnois country/ Hamilton intended to un- 
 dertake a formidable campaign in the spring. He 
 had sent messages to Stuart, the British Indian 
 agent in the south, directing him to give war-belts 
 to the Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Creeks, that a 
 combined attack on the frontier might take place 
 as soon as the weather opened. He himself was 
 to be joined by reinforcements from Detroit, while 
 the Indians were to gather round him as soon as 
 the winter broke. He would then have had prob- 
 ably over a thousand men, and light cannon with 
 which to batter down the stockades. He rightly 
 judged that with this force he could not only re- 
 conquer the Illinois, but also sweep Kentucky, 
 where the outnumbered riflemen could not have 
 met him in the field, nor the wooden forts have 
 withstood his artillery. Undoubtedly he would 
 have carried out his plan, and have destroyed all 
 the settlements west of the Alleghanies, had he 
 been allowed to wait until the mild weather 
 brought him his hosts of Indian allies and his rein- 
 forcements of regulars and militia from Detroit. 
 
 But in Clark he had an antagonist whose far- 
 sighted daring and indomitable energy raised him 
 head and shoulders above every other frontier 
 leader. This backwoods colonel was perhaps the 
 
 ^ Ibid. Hamilton's "brief account," and his letter of 
 December i8th. 
 
212 The Winning of the West 
 
 one man able in such a crisis to keep the land his 
 people had gained. When the news of the loss of 
 Vincennes reached the Illinois towns, and especi- 
 ally when there followed a rumor that Hamilton 
 himself was on his march thither to attack them/ 
 the panic became tremendous among the French. 
 They frankly announced that though they much 
 preferred the Americans, yet it would be folly to 
 oppose armed resistance to the British; and one 
 or two of their number were found to be in 
 communication with Hamilton and the Detroit 
 authorities. Clark promptly made ready for re- 
 sistance, tearing down the buildings near the fort 
 at Kaskaskia — his headquarters— and sending out 
 scouts and runners ; but he knew that it was hope- 
 less to try to withstand such a force as Hamilton 
 could gather. He narrowly escaped being taken 
 prisoner by a party of Ottawas and Canadians, 
 who had come from Vincennes early in January, 
 when the weather was severe and the travelling 
 fairly good.^ He was at the time on his way to 
 Cahokia, to arrange for the defence : several of the 
 wealthier Frenchmen were with him in "chairs" 
 — presumably creaking wooden carts — and one 
 of them " swampt," or mired down, only a hundred 
 
 ^ The rumor came when Clark was attending a dance given 
 by the people of the little village of La Prairie du Rocher. 
 The Creoles were passionately fond of dancing, and the Ken- 
 tuckians entered into the amusement with the iitmost zest. 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS. Hamilton's letter, January 24, 1779. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 213 
 
 yards from the ambush. Clark and his guards 
 were so on the alert that no attack was made. 
 
 In the midst of his doubt and uncertainty he 
 received some news that enabled him immediately 
 to decide on the proper course to follow. He had 
 secured great influence over the bolder, and there- 
 fore the leading, spirits among the French. One 
 of these was a certain Francis Vigo, a trader in St. 
 Louis. He was by birth an Italian, who had 
 come to New Orleans in a Spanish regiment, and 
 having procured his discharge, had drifted to the 
 Creole villages of the frontier, being fascinated by 
 the profitable adventures of the Indian trade. 
 Journeying to Vincennes, he was thrown into 
 prison by Hamilton ; on being released, he returned 
 to St. Louis. Thence he instantly crossed over to 
 Kaskaskia, on January 27, 1779,' and told Clark 
 that Hamilton had at the time only eighty men in 
 garrison, with three pieces of cannon and some 
 swivels mounted, but that as soon as the winter 
 broke, he intended to gather a very large force 
 and take the offensive.^ 
 
 Clark instantly decided to forestall his foe, and 
 to make the attack himself, heedless of the almost 
 impassable nature of the groim,d and of the icy 
 
 ^ State Department MSS. Letters to Washington, vol. 
 xxxiii., p. 90. 
 
 ^ Ibid. Papers of Continental Congress, No. 71, vol. i., 
 p. 267. 
 
2 14 The Winning of the West 
 
 severity of the weather. Not only had he received 
 no reinforcements from Virginia but he had not 
 had so much as a " scrip of a pen" from Governor 
 Henry since he had left him, nearly twelve months 
 before.' So he was forced to trust entirely to his 
 own energy and power. He first equipped a row- 
 galley with two four-pounders and four swivels, 
 and sent her off with a crew of forty men, having 
 named her the Willing.^ She was to patrol the 
 Ohio, and then to station herself in the Wabash 
 so as to stop all boats from descending it. She 
 was the first gunboat ever afloat on the western 
 waters. 
 
 Then he hastily drew together his little garri- 
 sons of backwoodsmen from the French towns, and 
 prepared for the march overland against Vincen- 
 nes. His bold front and confident bearing, and the 
 prompt decision of his measures, had once more 
 restored confidence among the French, whose 
 spirits rose as readily as they were cast down ; and 
 he was especially helped by the Creole girls, whose 
 enthusiasm for the expedition roused many of the 
 more daring young men to volunteer under Clark's 
 banner. By these means he gathered together a 
 band of one hundred and seventy men, at whose 
 head he marched out of Kaskaskia on the 7 th of 
 
 I Ibid. 
 
 ^ Under the command of Clark's cousin, Lieutenant John 
 Rogers. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 215 
 
 February.' All the inhabitants escorted them 
 out of the village, and the Jesuit priest, Gibault, 
 gave them absolution at parting. 
 
 The route by which they had to go was two 
 hundred and forty miles in length. It lay through 
 a beautiful and well-watered country of groves 
 and prairies; but at that season the march was 
 necessarily attended with the utmost degree of 
 hardship and fatigue. The weather had grown 
 mild, so that there was no suffering from cold; 
 but in the thaw the ice on the rivers melted, great 
 freshets followed, and all the lowlands and mead- 
 ows were flooded. Clark's great object was to 
 keep his troops in good spirits. Of course, he and 
 the other officers shared every hardship and led in 
 every labor. He encouraged the men to hunt 
 game; and to "feast on it like Indian war- 
 dancers," ^ each company in turn inviting the 
 others to the smoking and plentiful banquets. 
 One day they saw great herds of buffaloes and 
 killed many of them. They had no tents ^ ; but 
 at nightfall they kindled huge camp-fires, and 
 
 ^ Letter to Henry. The letter to Mason says it was the 5th. 
 
 ^ Clark's Memoir. 
 
 3 State Department MSS. Letters to Washington, vol. 
 xxxiii., p. 90. "A Journal of Col. G. R. Clark. Proceedings 
 from the 29th Jan'y 1779 to the 26th March Inst." [by Captain 
 Bowman]. This journal has been known for a long time. 
 The original is supposed to have been lost; but either this is 
 it or else it is a contemporary MS. copy. In the Campaign in 
 
2i6 The Winning of the West 
 
 spent the evenings merrily round the piles of 
 blazing logs, in hunter fashion, feasting on bear's 
 ham and buffalo hump, elk saddle, venison haunch 
 and the breast of the wild turkey, some singing of 
 love and the chase and war, and others dancing, 
 after the manner of the French trappers and 
 wood-runners. 
 
 Thus they kept on, marching hard but glee- 
 fully and in good spirits until, after a week, they 
 came to the drowned lands of the Wabash. They 
 first struck the two branches of the Little Wabash. 
 Their channels were a league apart, but the flood 
 was so high that they now made one great river 
 five miles in width, the overflow of water being 
 three feet deep in the shallowest part of the plains 
 between and alongside them. 
 
 Clark instantly started to build a pirogue ; then 
 
 the Illinois (Cincinnati, Robert Clarke & Co., 1869), p. 99, 
 there is a printed copy of the original. The Washington MS. 
 differs from it in one or two particulars. Thus, the printed 
 diary in the Campaign, on p. 99, line 3, says "fifty voltin- 
 teers"; the MS. copy says "50 French volunteers." Line 5 
 in the printed copy says " and such other Americans" ; in the 
 MS. it says "and several other Americans." Lines 6 and 7 of 
 the printed copy read as follows in the MS. (but only make 
 doubtful sense): "These with a number of horses designed 
 for the settlement of Kantuck &c. Jan. 30th, on which Col. 
 Clark," etc. Lines 10 and 1 1 of the printed copy read in the 
 MS.: "was let alone till spring that he with his Indians 
 would undoubtedly cut us all off." Lines 13 and 14 of the 
 printed copy read in the MS.: "Jan. 31st, sent an express to 
 Cahokia for volunteers. Nothing extraordinary this day." 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 217 
 
 crossing over the first channel he put up a scaffold 
 on the edge of the flooded plain. He ferried his 
 men over, and brought the baggage across and 
 placed it on the scaffold ; then he swam the pack- 
 horses over, loaded them as they stood belly-deep 
 in the water beside the scaffold, and marched his 
 men on through the water until they came to the 
 second channel, which was crossed as the first had 
 been. The building of the pirogue and the ferry- 
 ing took three days in all. 
 
 They had by this time come so near Vincennes 
 that they dared not fire a gun for fear of being 
 discovered; besides, the fioods had driven the 
 game all away; so that they soon began to feel 
 hunger, while their progress was very slow, and 
 they suffered much from the fatigue of travelling 
 all day long through deep mud or breast-high 
 water. On the seventeenth they reached the Em- 
 barras River, but could not cross, nor could they 
 find a dry spot on which to camp; at last they 
 found the water falling off a small, almost sub- 
 merged hillock, and on this they huddled through 
 the night. At daybreak they heard Hamilton's 
 morning gun from the fort, that was but three 
 leagues distant; and as they could not find a 
 ford across the Embarras, they followed it down 
 and camped by the Wabash. There Clark set 
 his drenched, hungry, and dispirited followers 
 to building some pirogues; while two or three 
 
2i8 The Winning of the West 
 
 unsuccessful attempts were made to get men 
 across the river that they might steal boats. He 
 determined to leave his horses at this camp ; for 
 it was almost impossible to get them farther.' 
 
 On the morning of the twentieth the men had 
 been without food for nearly two days. Many of 
 the Creole volunteers began to despair, and talked 
 of returning. Clark knew that his Americans, 
 veterans who had been with him for over a year, 
 had no idea of abandoning the enterprise, nor yet 
 of suffering the last extremities of hunger while 
 they had horses along. He paid no heed to the 
 request of the Creoles, nor did he even forbid their 
 going back; he only laughed at them, and told 
 them to go out and try to kill a deer. He knew 
 that without any violence he could yet easily de- 
 tain the volunteers for a few days longer ; and he 
 kept up the spirits of the whole command by his 
 undaunted and confident mien. The canoes were 
 nearly finished; and about noon a small boat 
 with five Frenchmen from Vincennes was cap- 
 tured. From these Clark gleaned the welcome 
 intelligence that the condition of affairs was un- 
 changed at the fort, and that there was no sus- 
 picion of any impending danger. In the evening 
 
 ^ This is not exactly stated in the Memoir; but it speaks of 
 the horses as being with the troops on the 20th; and after 
 they left camp, on the evening of the 21st, states that he 
 " would have given a good deal . . . for one of the horses." 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 219 
 
 the men were put in still better heart by one of 
 the hunters killing a deer. 
 
 It rained all the next day. By dawn Clark 
 began to ferry the troops over the Wabash in the 
 canoes he had built, and they were soon on the 
 eastern bank of the river, the side on which Vin- 
 cennes stood. They now hoped to get to town by 
 nightfall; but there was no dry land for leagues 
 round about, save where a few hillocks rose island- 
 like above the flood. The Frenchmen whom they 
 had captured said they could not possibly get 
 along ; but Clark led the men in person, and they 
 waded with infinite toil for about three miles, the 
 water often up to their chins; and they then 
 camped on a hillock for the night. Clark kept the 
 troops cheered up by every possible means, and 
 records that he was much assisted by "a little 
 antic drummer," a young boy who did good 
 service by making the men laugh with his pranks 
 and jokes. ^ 
 
 ^ Law, in his Vincennes (p. 32), makes the deeds of the 
 drummer the basis for a traditional story that is somewhat 
 too highly colored. Thus he makes Clark's men at one time 
 mutiny, and refuse to go forward. This they never did; the 
 Creoles once got dejected and wished to return, but the Amer- 
 icans, by Clark's own statement, never faltered at all. Law's 
 Vincennes is an excellent little book, but he puts altogether 
 too much confidence in mere tradition. For another in- 
 stance beside this, see page 68, where he describes Clark as 
 entrapping and killing "upwards of fifty Indians," ijastead of 
 only eight or nine, as was actually the case. 
 
2 20 The Winning of the West 
 
 Next morning they resumed their march, the 
 strongest wading painfully through the water, 
 while the weak and famished were carried in the 
 canoes, which were so hampered by the bushes that 
 they could hardly go even as fast as the toiling 
 footmen. The evening and morning guns of the 
 fort were heard plainly by the men as they plodded 
 onward, numbed and weary. Clark, as usual, led 
 them in person. Once they came to a place so 
 deep that there seemed no crossing, for the canoes 
 could find no ford. It was hopeless to go back or 
 stay still, and the men huddled together, appa- 
 rently about to despair. But Clark suddenly 
 blackened his face with gunpowder, gave the war- 
 whoop, and sprang forward boldly into the ice- 
 cold water, wading out straight towards the point 
 at which they were aiming ; and the men followed 
 him, one after another, without a word. Then 
 he ordered those nearest him to begin one of their 
 favorite songs ; and soon the whole line took it up, 
 and marched cheerfully onward. He intended to 
 have the canoes ferry them over the deepest part, 
 but before they came to it one of the men felt that 
 his feet were in a path, and by carefully following 
 it they got to a sugar camp, a hillock covered with 
 maples, which once had been tapped for sugar. 
 Here they camped for the night, still six miles 
 from the town, without food, and drenched 
 through. The prisoners from Vincennes, sullen 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 221 
 
 and weary, insisted that they could not possibly 
 get to the town through the deep water ; the pros- 
 pect seemed almost hopeless even to the iron- 
 willed, steel-sinewed backwoodsmen ' ; but their 
 leader never lost courage for a moment. 
 
 That night was bitterly cold, for there was a 
 heavy frost, and the ice formed half an inch thick 
 round the edges and in the smooth water. But 
 the sun rose bright and glorious, and Clark, in 
 burning words, told his stiffened, famished, half- 
 frozen followers that the evening would surely see 
 them at the goal of their hopes. Without waiting 
 for an answer, he plunged into the water, and they 
 followed him with a cheer, in Indian file. Before 
 the third man had entered the water he halted and 
 told one of his officers ^ to close the rear with 
 twenty-five men, and to put to death any man 
 who refused to march ; and the whole line cheered 
 him again. 
 
 Then came the most trying time of the whole 
 march. Before them lay a broad sheet of water, 
 covering what was known as the Horse Shoe Plain ; 
 the floods had made it a shallow lake four miles 
 across, unbroken by so much as a hand's breadth 
 of dry land. On its farther side was a dense wood. 
 Clark led breast-high in the water with fifteen or 
 
 ^ Bowman ends his entry for the day with: " No provisions 
 yet. Lord help us!" 
 ^ Bowman. 
 
222 The Winning of the West 
 
 twenty of the strongest men next him. About 
 the middle of the plain the cold and exhaustion 
 told so on the weaker men that the canoes had to 
 take them aboard and carry them on to the land ; 
 and from that time on the little dugouts plied 
 frantically to and fro to save the more helpless 
 from drowning. Those who, though weak, could 
 still move onwards, clung to the stronger, and 
 struggled ahead, Clark animating them in every 
 possible way. When they at last reached the 
 woods the water became so deep that it was to the 
 shoulders of the tallest, but the weak and those of 
 low stature could now cling to the bushes and old 
 logs, until the canoes were able to ferry them to a 
 spot of dry land, some ten acres in extent, that 
 lay nearby. The strong and tall got ashore and 
 built fires. Many on reaching the shore fell flat 
 on their faces, half in the water, and could not 
 move farther. It was found that the fires did not 
 help the very weak, so every such a one was put 
 between two strong men who ran him up and 
 down by the arms, and thus soon made him re- 
 cover,^ 
 
 Fortunately, at this time an Indian canoe, pad- 
 dled by some squaws, was discovered and over- 
 taken by one of the dugouts. In it was half a 
 quarter of a buffalo, with some corn, tallow, and 
 kettles. This was an invaluable prize. Broth 
 
 ^ Clark's Memoir. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 223 
 
 was immediately made, and was served out to the 
 most weakly with great care; almost all of the 
 men got some, but very many gave their shares to 
 the weakly, rallying and joking them to put them 
 in good heart. The little refreshment, together 
 with the fires and the bright weather, gave new 
 life to all. They set out again in the afternoon, 
 crossed a deep, narrow lake in their canoes, and 
 after marching a short distance came to a copse 
 of timber from which they saw the fort and town 
 not two miles away. Here they halted, and 
 looked to their rifles and ammunition, making 
 ready for the fight. Every man now feasted his 
 eyes with the sight of what he had so long labored 
 to reach, and forthwith forgot that he had suf- 
 fered anything; making light of what had been 
 gone through, and passing from dogged despair 
 to the most exultant self-confidence. 
 
 Between the party and the town lay a plain, 
 the hollows being filled with little pools, on which 
 were many water-fowl, and some of the towns- 
 people were in sight, on horseback, shooting 
 ducks. Clark sent out a few active young Creoles, 
 who succeeded in taking prisoner one of these 
 fowling horsemen. From him it was learned that 
 neither Hamilton nor any one else had the least 
 suspicion that any attack could possibly be made 
 at that season, but that a couple of hundred In- 
 dian warriors had just come to town. 
 
2 24 The Winning of the West 
 
 Clark was rather annoyed at the last bit of in- 
 formation. The number of armed men in town, 
 including British, French, and Indians about 
 quadrupled his own force. This made heavy odds 
 to face, even with the advantage of a surprise, and 
 in spite of the fact that his own men were sure to 
 fight to the last, since failure meant death by tor- 
 ture. Moreover, if he made the attack without 
 warning, some of the Indians and Vincennes peo- 
 ple would certainly be slain, and the rest would be 
 thereby made his bitter enemies, even if he suc- 
 ceeded. On the other hand, he found out from 
 the prisoner that the French were very lukewarm 
 to the British, and would certainly not fight if 
 they could avoid it ; and that half of the Indians 
 were ready to side with the Americans. Finally, 
 there was a good chance that before dark some 
 one would discover the approach of the troops 
 and would warn the British, thereby doing away 
 with all chance of a surprise. 
 
 After thinking it over Clark decided, as the less 
 of two evils, to follow the hazardous course of 
 himself announcing his approach. He trusted 
 that the boldness of such a course, together with 
 the shock of his utterly unexpected appearance, 
 would paralyze his opponents and incline the 
 wavering to favor him. So he released the pris- 
 oner and sent him in ahead, with a letter to the 
 people of Vincennes. By this letter he pro- 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 225 
 
 claimed to the French that he was at that moment 
 about to attack the town ; that those townspeople 
 who were friends to the Americans were to remain 
 in their houses, where they wovld not be molested ; 
 that the friends of the king should repair to the 
 fort, join the "hair-buyer general," and fight like 
 men ; and that those who did neither of these two 
 things, but remained armed and in the streets, 
 must expect to be treated as enemies.' 
 
 Having sent the messenger in advance, he 
 waited until his men were rested and their rifles 
 and powder dry, and then at sundown marched 
 straight against the town. He divided his force 
 into two divisions, leading in person the first, 
 which consisted of two companies of Ameri- 
 cans and of the Kaskaskia Creoles; while the 
 second, led by Bowman, contained Bowman's 
 own company and the Cahokians. His final 
 orders to the men were to march with the great- 
 est regularity, to obey the orders of their officers, 
 and, above all, to keep perfect silence.^ The 
 
 ^ Clark's Memoir. 
 
 2 In the Haldimand MSS., Series B, vol. cxxii., p. 289, there 
 is a long extract from what is called "Col. Clark's Journal." 
 This is the official report which he speaks of as being carried 
 by William Moires, his express, who was taken by the Indians 
 (see his letter to Henry of April 29th; there seems, by the 
 way, to be some doubt whether this letter was not written to 
 Jefferson; there is a copy in the Jefferson MSB., Series I., vol. 
 i.). This is not only the official report, but also the earhest 
 letter Clark wrote on the subject, and therefore the most 
 
 VOL. II. — 15. 
 
226 The Winning of the West 
 
 rapidly gathering dusk prevented any discovery 
 of his real numbers. 
 
 In sending in the messenger he had builded 
 even better than he knew; luck which had long 
 been against him now at last favored him. Ham- 
 ilton's runners had seen Clark's camp-fires the 
 night before ; and a small scouting party of Brit- 
 ish regulars, Detroit volunteers, and Indians had 
 in consequence been sent to find out what had 
 
 authoritative. The paragraph relating to the final march 
 against Vincennes is as follows: 
 
 "I order' d the march in the first division Capt. Williams, 
 Capt. Worthingtons Company & the Cascaskia Volunteers, in 
 the 2d commanded by Capt. Bowman his own Company & 
 the Cohos Volunteers. At sun down I put the divisions in 
 motion to march in the greatest order & regularity & observe 
 the orders of their officers. Above all to be silent — the 5 men 
 we took in the canoes were our guides. We entered the town 
 on the upper part leaving detached Lt. Bayley & 15 rifle men 
 to attack the Fort & keep up a fire to harrass them until we 
 took possession of the town & they were to remain on that 
 duty till relieved by another party, the two divisions marched 
 into the town & took possession of the main street, put guards 
 &c without the least molestation." 
 
 This effectually disposes of the account, which was ac- 
 cepted by Clark himself in his old age, that he ostentatiously 
 paraded his men and marched them to and fro with many 
 flags flying, so as to impress the British with his numbers. 
 Instead of indulging in any such childishness (which would 
 merely have warned the British, and put them on their 
 guard), he in reality made as silent an approach as possible, 
 under cover of the darkness. 
 
 Hamilton, in his narrative, speaks of the attack as being 
 made on the 2 2d of February, not the 23d, as Clark says. 
 
 I 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 227 
 
 caused them/ These men were not made of 
 such stern stuff as Clark's followers, nor had they 
 such a commander; and after going some miles 
 they were stopped by the floods, and started to 
 return. Before they got back, Vincennes was as- 
 sailed. Hamilton trusted so completely to the 
 scouting party, and to the seemingly impassable 
 state of the country, that his watch was very lax. 
 The Creoles in the town, when Clark's proclama- 
 tion was read to them, gathered eagerly to discuss 
 it; but so great was the terror of his name, and 
 so impressed and appahed were they by the mys- 
 terious approach of an unknown army, and the 
 confident and menacing language with which its 
 coming was heralded, that none of them dared 
 show themselves partisans of the British by giv- 
 ing warning to the garrison. The Indians like- 
 wise heard vague rumors of what had occurred 
 and left the town; a number of the inhabitants 
 who were favorable to the British followed the 
 same course.^ Hamilton, attracted by the com- 
 motion, sent down his soldiers to find out what 
 
 1 Hamilton's "brief account" in the Haldimand MSS. 
 The party was led by Lieutenant Schieffelin of the regulars 
 and the French captains Lamothe and Maisonville. 
 
 2 Ibid., Series B, vol. cxxii., p. 337- Account brought 
 to the people of Detroit of the loss of Vincennes, by 
 a Captain Chene, who was then living in the village. As the 
 Virginians entered it he fled to the woods with some Huron 
 and Ottawa warriors; next day he was joined by some French 
 famines and some Miamis and Pottawatomies, 
 
228 The Winning of the West 
 
 had happened; but before they succeeded, the 
 Americans were upon them. 
 
 About seven o 'clock ' Clark entered the town, 
 and at once pushed his men on to attack the fort. 
 Had he charged he could probably have taken it 
 at once ; for so unprepared were the garrison that 
 the first rifle-shots were deemed by them to come 
 from drunken Indians. But of course he had not 
 counted on such a state of things. He had so few 
 men that he dared not run the risk of suffering a 
 heavy loss. Moreover, the backwoodsmen had 
 neither swords nor bayonets. 
 
 Most of the Creole townspeople received Clark 
 joyfully, and rendered him much assistance, es- 
 pecially by supplying him with powder and bah, 
 his own stock of ammunition being scanty. One 
 of the Indian chiefs ^ offered to bring his tribe to 
 the support of the Americans, but Clark answered 
 that all he asked of the red men was that they 
 should for the moment remain neutral. A few of 
 the young Creoles were allowed to join in the at- 
 tack, however, it being deemed good policy to 
 commit them definitely to the American side. 
 
 Fifty of the American troops were detached to 
 guard against any relief from without, while the 
 rest attacked the fort; yet Hamilton's scouting 
 party crept up, lay hid all night in an old barn, 
 
 ^ Clark's letter to Henry. 
 
 * A son of the Piankeshaw head chief Tabac. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 229 
 
 and at daybreak rushed into the fort/ Firing 
 was kept up with very little intermission through- 
 out the night. At one o 'clock the moon set, and 
 Clark took advantage of the darkness to throw up 
 an intrenchment within rifle-shot of the strongest 
 battery, which consisted of two guns. All of the 
 cannon and swivels in the fort were placed about 
 eleven feet above the ground, on the upper floors 
 
 ^ Hamilton's " Narrative." Clark in his Memoir asserts that 
 he designedly let them through, and could have shot them 
 down as they tried to clamber over the stockade if he had 
 wished. Bowman corroborates Hamilton, saying: "We sent 
 a party to intercept them, but missed them. However, we 
 took one of their men, . . . the rest making their escape 
 under the cover of the night into the fort." Bowman's 
 journal is for this siege much more trustworthy than Clark's 
 Memoir. In the latter, Clark makes not a few direct mis- 
 statements, and many details are colored so as to give them 
 an altered aspect. As an instance of the different ways in 
 which he told an event at the time, and thirty years later, 
 take the following accounts of the same incident. The first 
 is from the letter to Henry (State Department MSB.), the 
 second from the Memoir, i. "A few days ago I received 
 certain intelligence of Wm. Moires my express to you being 
 killed near the Falls of Ohio, news truly disagreeable to me, 
 as I fear many of my letters will fall into the hands of the 
 enemy at Detroit." 2. "Poor Myres the express, who set 
 out on the 15th, got killed on his passage, and his packet fell 
 into the hands of the enemy ; but I had been so much on my 
 guard that there was not a sentence in it that could be of any 
 disadvantage to us for the enemy to know; and there were 
 private letters from soldiers to their friends designedly wrote 
 to deceive in cases of such accidents." His whole account of 
 the night attack and of his treating with Hamilton is bom- 
 bastic. If his account of the incessant "blaze of fire" of the 
 
230 The Winning of the West 
 
 of the strong blockhouses that formed the angles 
 of the palisaded walls. At sunrise on the t went 3^- 
 fourth the riflemen from the intrenchment opened 
 a hot fire into the port-holes of the battery, and 
 speedily silenced both guns.' The artillery and 
 musketry of the defenders did very little damage 
 to the assailants, who lost but one man wounded, 
 though some of the houses in the town were 
 destroyed by the cannon-balls. In return, the 
 backwoodsmen, by firing into the ports, soon 
 rendered it impossible for the guns to be run out 
 and served, and killed or severely wounded six or 
 eight of the garrison; for the Americans showed 
 themselves much superior, both in markmanship 
 and in the art of sheltering themselves, to the 
 British regulars and French Canadians against 
 whom they were pitted. 
 
 Early in the forenoon Clark summoned the 
 fort to surrender, and while waiting for the return 
 of the flag his men took the opportunity of getting 
 
 Americans is true, they must have wasted any amount of 
 ammunition perfectly uselessly. Unfortunately, most of the 
 small western historians who have written about Clark have 
 really damaged his reputation by the absurd inflation of their 
 language. They were adepts in the forcible-feeble style of 
 writing, a sample of which is their rendering him ludicrous by 
 calling him the "Hannibal of the West" and the "Washing- 
 ton of the West." Moreover, they base his claims to great- 
 ness, not on his really great deeds, but on the half-imaginary 
 feats of childish cunning he related in his old age. 
 ^ Clark's letter to Henry. 
 
Clark's Attack at Vincennes. 
 
.?-3tt«^3«i'>j U) s^^^iiUK I'sHtoi'Ci 
 

Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 231 
 
 breakfast, the first regular meal they had had for 
 six days. Hamilton declined to surrender, but 
 proposed a three-days' truce instead. This prop- 
 osition Clark instantly rejected, and the firing 
 again began, the backwoodsmen beseeching Clark 
 to let them storm the fort; he refused. While 
 the negotiations were going on a singular incident 
 occurred. A party of Hamilton's Indians re- 
 turned from a successful scalping expedition 
 against the frontier, and being ignorant of what 
 had taken place, marched straight into the town. 
 Some of Clark's backwoodsmen instantly fell on 
 them and killed or captured nine, besides two 
 French partisans who had been out with them.^ 
 One of the latter was the son of a Creole lieutenant 
 in Clark's troops, and after much pleading his 
 father and friends procured the release of himself 
 and his comrade.^ Clark determined to make a 
 
 ^ Ibid. In the letter to Mason he says two scalped, six 
 captured and afterwards tomahawked. Bowman says two 
 killed, three wounded, six captured; and calls the two parti- 
 sans "prisoners." Hamilton and Clark say they were French 
 allies of the British, the former saying there were two, the 
 latter mentioning only one. Hamilton says there were fifteen 
 Indians. 
 
 ^ The incident is noteworthy as showing how the French 
 were divided ; throughout the Revolutionary War in the West 
 they furnished troops to help in turn whites and Indians, 
 British and Americans. The Illinois French, however, gen- 
 erally remained faithful to the Republic, and the Detroit 
 French to the crown. 
 
232 The Winning of the West 
 
 signal example of the six captured Indians, both 
 to strike terror into the rest and to show them how 
 powerless the British were to protect them ; so he 
 had them led within sight of the fort and there 
 tomahawked and thrown into the river.' The 
 sight did not encourage the garrison. The Eng- 
 lish troops remained firm and eager for the fight, 
 though they had suffered the chief loss; but the 
 Detroit volunteers showed evident signs of panic. 
 In the afternoon Hamilton sent out another 
 flag, and he and Clark met in the old French 
 church to arrange for the capitulation. Helm, 
 who was still a prisoner on parole, and was told 
 by Clark that he was to remain such until re- 
 captured, was present ; so were the British Major 
 Hay and the American Captain Bowman. There 
 was some bickering and recrimination between 
 the leaders, Clark reproaching Hamilton with hav- 
 ing his hands dyed in the blood of the women 
 and children slain by his savage allies; while the 
 former answered that he was not to blame for 
 obeying the orders of his superiors, and that he 
 himself had done all he could to make the savages 
 
 ^ Hamilton, who bore the most vindictive hatred to Clark, 
 implies that the latter tomahawked the prisoners himself; 
 but Bowman explicitly says that it was done while Clark 
 and Hamilton were meeting at the church. Be it noticed, in 
 passing, that both Clark and Hamilton agreed that though 
 the Vincennes people favored the Americans, only a very few 
 of them took active part on Clark's side. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 233 
 
 act mercifully. It was finally agreed that the 
 garrison, seventy-nine men in all/ should sur- 
 render as prisoners of war. The British com- 
 mander has left on record his bitter mortification 
 at having to yield the fort " to a set of uncivilized 
 Virginia woodsmen armed with rifles." In truth, 
 it was a most notable achievement. Clark had 
 taken, without artillery, a heavy stockade, pro- 
 tected by cannon and swivels, and garrisoned by 
 trained soldiers. His superiority in numbers was 
 very far from being in itself sufficient to bring 
 about the result, as witness the almost invariable 
 success with which the similar but smaller Ken- 
 tucky forts, unprovided with artillery and held 
 by fewer men, were defended against much larger 
 forces than Clark's. Much credit belongs to 
 Clark's men, but most belongs to their leader. 
 The boldness of his plan and the resolute skill with 
 which he followed it out, his perseverance through 
 the intense hardships of the midwinter march, 
 the address with which he kept the French and 
 Indians neutral, and the masterful way in which he 
 controlled his own troops, together with the ability 
 and courage he displayed in the actual attack, 
 combined to make his feat the most memorable 
 
 ^ Letter to Henry. Hamilton's letter says sixty rank and 
 file of the 8th regiment and Detroit volunteers; the other 
 nineteen were officers and under-officers, artillerymen, and 
 French partisan leaders. The return of the garrison already 
 quoted shows he had between eighty and ninety white troops. 
 
234 The Winning of the West 
 
 of all the deeds done west of the Alleghanies in 
 the Revolutionary- War.' It was likewise the 
 most important in its results, for had he been de- 
 feated we would not only have lost the Illinois, 
 but in all probability Kentucky also. 
 
 Immediately after taking the fort, Clark sent 
 Helm and fifty men in boats armed with swivels 
 up the Wabash to intercept a party of forty 
 French volunteers from Detroit, who were bring- 
 ing to Vincennes bateaux heavily laden with goods 
 of all kinds, to the value of ten thousand pounds 
 sterling.^ In a few days Helm returned success- 
 ful, and the spoils, together with the goods taken 
 at Vincennes, were distributed among the sol- 
 diers, who "got almost rich." ^ The officers 
 kept nothing save a few needed articles of cloth- 
 ing. The gunboat Willing appeared shortly 
 after the taking of the fort, the crew bitterly dis- 
 
 ^ Hamilton himself, at the conclusion of his "brief ac- 
 count," speaks as follows in addressing his superiors: "The 
 difficulties and dangers of Colonel Clark's march from the 
 Illinois were such as required great courage to encounter and 
 great perseverance to overcome. In trusting to traitors he 
 was more fortunate than myself; whether, on the whole, he 
 was entitled to success is not for me to determine." Both 
 Clark and Hamilton give minute accounts of various inter- 
 views that took place between them; the accounts do not 
 agree, and it is needless to say that in the narration of each 
 the other appears to disadvantage, being quoted as practically 
 admitting various acts of barbarity, etc. 
 
 ^ Letter to Henry. 3 Memoir. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 235 
 
 appointed that they were not in time for the 
 fighting. The long-looked-for messenger from 
 the governor of Virginia also arrived, bearing to 
 the soldiers the warm thanks of the Legislature of 
 that State for their capture of Kaskaskia and the 
 promise of more substantial reward.^ 
 
 Clark was forced to parole most of his prisoners, 
 but twenty-seven, including Hamilton himself, 
 were sent to Virginia. The backwoodsmen re- 
 garded Hamilton with revengeful hatred, and he 
 was not well treated while among them,'' save 
 only by Boon — for the kind-hearted, fearless old 
 pioneer never felt anything but pity for a fallen 
 enemy. All the borderers, including Clark, ^ be- 
 lieved that the British commander himself gave 
 rewards to the Indians for the American scalps 
 
 ^ One hundred and fifty thousand acres of land opposite 
 Louisville were finally allotted them. Some of the Pianke- 
 shaw Indians ceded Clark a tract of land for his own use, but 
 the Virginia Legislature very properly disallowed the grant. 
 
 2 In Hamilton's "brief account" he says that their lives 
 were of ten threatened by the borderers , but that " our guar d be- 
 haved very well, protected us. and hunted for us." At the Falls 
 he found "a number of settlers who lived in log-houses, in eter- 
 nal apprehension from the Indians," and he adds: "The people 
 at the forts are in a wretched state, obliged to enclose the cattle 
 every night within the fort, and carry their rifles to the field 
 when they go to plough or cut wood." He speaks of Boon's 
 kindness in his short printed narrative in the Royal Gazette. 
 
 3 Clark, in his letter to Mason, alludes to Hamilton's 
 known "barbarity"; but in his Memoir he speaks very well 
 of Hamilton, and attributes the murderous forays to his sub- 
 ordinates, one of whom. Major Hay, he particularly specifies. 
 
236 The Winning of the West 
 
 they brought in ; and because of his alleged be- 
 havior in this regard he was kept in close confine- 
 ment by the Virginia government until, through 
 the intercession of Washington, he was at last 
 released and exchanged. Exactly how much he 
 was to blame it is difficult to say. Certainly the 
 blame rests even more with the crown and the 
 ruling class in Britain, than with Hamilton who 
 merely carried out the orders of his superiors; 
 and though he undoubtedly heartily approved of 
 these orders, and executed them with eager zest, 
 yet it seems that he did what he could — which 
 was very little — to prevent unnecessary atrocities. 
 The crime consisted in employing the savages 
 at all in a war waged against men, women, and 
 children alike. Undoubtedly the British at De- 
 troit followed the example of the French ' in pay- 
 ing money to the Indians for the scalps of their 
 foes. It is equally beyond question that the 
 British acted with much more humanity than 
 their French predecessors had shown. Appa- 
 rently the best officers utterly disapproved of the 
 whole business of scalp buying ; but it was eagerly 
 
 ^ See Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, ii., 421, for examples 
 of French payments, some of a peculiarly flagrant sort. A 
 certain kind of American pseudo-historian is especially fond 
 of painting the British as behaving to us with unexampled 
 barbarity; yet nothing is more sure than that the French 
 were far more cruel and less humane in their contests with us 
 than were the British. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 237 
 
 followed by many of the reckless agents and par- 
 tisan leaders, British, tories, and Canadians, who 
 themselves often accompanied the Indians against 
 the frontier and witnessed or shared in their un- 
 mentionable atrocities. It is impossible to acquit 
 either the British home government or its fore- 
 most representatives at Detroit of a large share in 
 the responsibility for the appalHng brutality of 
 these men and their red allies; but the heaviest 
 blame rests on the home government. 
 
 Clark soon received some small reinforcements, 
 and was able to establish permanent garrisons at 
 Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia. With the 
 Indian tribes who lived round about he made 
 firm peace ; against some hunting bands of Dela- 
 wares who came in and began to commit ravages 
 he raged ruthless and untiring war, sparing the 
 women and children, but killing all the males 
 capable of bearing arms, and he harried most of 
 them out of the territory, while the rest humbly 
 sued for peace. His own men worshipped him; 
 the French loved and stood in awe of him, while the 
 Indians respected and feared him greatly. During 
 the remainder of the Revolutionary War the British 
 were not able to make any serious effort to shake 
 the hold he had given the Americans on the region 
 lying around and between Vincennes and the 
 Illinois. Moreover, he so effectually pacified the 
 tribes between the Wabash and the Mississippi 
 
238 The Winning of the West 
 
 that they did not become open and formidable 
 foes of the whites until, with the close of the war 
 against Britain, Kentucky passed out of the stage 
 when Indian hostilities threatened her very life. 
 
 The fame of Clark's deeds and the terror of his 
 prowess spread to the southern Indians, and the 
 British at Natchez trembled lest they should share 
 the fate that had come on Kaskaskia and Vincen- 
 nes.^ Flat-boats from the Illinois went down to 
 New Orleans, and keel-boats returned from that 
 city with arms and munitions, or were sent up to 
 Pittsburg ^ ; and the following spring Clark built 
 a fort on the east bank of the Mississippi below 
 the Ohio. 3 It was in the Chickasaw territory, 
 and these warlike Indians soon assaulted it, mak- 
 ing a determined effort to take it by storm, and 
 though they were repulsed with very heavy 
 
 ^ State Department MSS. {Intercepted Letters), No. 51, 
 vol. ii., pp. 17 and 45. Letter of James Colbert, a half-breed 
 in the British interest, resident at that time among the Chicka- 
 saws. May 25, 1779, etc. 
 
 2 The history of the early navigation of the Ohio and 
 Mississippi begins many years before the birth of any of our 
 western pioneers, when the French went up and down them. 
 Long before the Revolutionary War occasional hunters, in 
 dugouts, or settlers going to Natchez in flat-boats, descended 
 these rivers, and from Pittsburg craft were sent to New 
 Orleans to open negotiations with the Spaniards as soon as 
 hostilities broke out; and ammunition was procured from 
 New Orleans as soon as Independence was declared. 
 
 3 In lat. 36° 30'; it was named Fort Jefferson. Jefferson 
 MSS., ist Series, vol. xix. Clark's letter. 
 
Clark's Campaign against Vincennes 239 
 
 slaughter, yet, to purchase their neutrality, the 
 Americans were glad to abandon the fort. 
 
 Clark himself, towards the end of 1779, took up 
 his abode at the Falls of the Ohio, where he served 
 in some sort as a shield both for the Illinois and 
 for Kentucky, and from whence he hoped some 
 day to march against Detroit. This was his dar- 
 ling scheme, which he never ceased to cherish. 
 Through no fault of his own, the day never came 
 when he could put it in execution. 
 
 He was ultimately made a brigadier-general of 
 the Virginia militia, and to the harassed settlers 
 in Kentucky his mere name was a tower of 
 strength. He was the sole originator of the plan 
 for the conquest of the northwestern lands, and, 
 almost unaided, he had executed his own scheme. 
 For a year he had been wholly cut off from all 
 communication with the home authorities, and 
 had received no help of any kind. Alone, and 
 with the very slenderest means, he had conquered 
 and held a vast and beautiful region, which but 
 for him would have formed part of a foreign and 
 hostile empire ' ; he had clothed and paid his 
 
 ^ It is of course impossible to prove that but for Clark's 
 conquest the Ohio would have been made our boundary in 
 1783, exactly as it is impossible to prove that but for Wolfe 
 the English would not have taken Quebec. But when we 
 take into account the determined efforts of Spain and France 
 to confine us to the land east of the AUeghanies, and then to 
 the land southeast of the Ohio, the slavishness of Congress in 
 
240 The Winning of the West 
 
 soldiers with the spoils of his enemies; he had 
 spent his own fortune as carelessly as he had 
 risked his life, and the only reward that he was 
 destined for many years to receive was the sword 
 voted him by the Legislature of Virginia.' 
 
 instructing our commissioners to do whatever France wished, 
 and the readiness shown by one of the commissioners, Frank- 
 lin, to follow these instructions, it certainly looks as if there 
 would not even have been an effort made by us to get the 
 northwestern territory had we not already possessed it, 
 thanks to Clark. As it was, it was only owing to Jay's broad 
 patriotism and stern determination that our western bound- 
 aries were finally made so far-reaching. None of our early 
 diplomats did as much for the West as Jay, whom at one time 
 the whole West hated and reviled; Mann Butler, whose 
 politics are generally very sound, deserves especial credit for 
 the justice he does the New Yorker. 
 
 It is idle to talk of the conquest as being purely a Virginian 
 affair. It was conquered by Clark, a Virginian, with some 
 scant help from Virginia, but it was retained only owing to 
 the power of the United States and the patriotism of such 
 northern statesmen as Jay, Adams, and Franklin, the negotia- 
 tors of the final treaty. Had Virginia alone been in interest, 
 Great Britain would not have even paid her claims the com- 
 pliment of listening to them. Virginia's share in the history 
 of the nation has ever been gallant and leading; but the 
 Revolutionary War was emphatically fought by Americans 
 for America; no part could have won without the help of the 
 whole, and every victory was thus a victory for all, in which 
 all alike can take pride. 
 
 ' A probably truthful tradition reports that when the Vir- 
 ginian commissioners offered Clark the sword, the grim old 
 fighter, smarting under the sense of his wrongs, threw it in- 
 dignantly from him, telling the envoys that he demanded 
 from Virginia his just rights and the promised reward of his 
 services, not an empty compliment. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CONTINUANCE OF THE STRUGGLE IN KENTUCKY 
 AND THE NORTHWEST, 1779-1781 
 
 CLARK'S successful campaigns against the 
 Illinois towns and Vincennes, besides 
 giving the Americans a foothold north of 
 the Ohio, were of the utmost importance to Ken- 
 tucky. Until this time, the Kentucky settlers 
 had been literally fighting for life and home, and 
 again and again their strait had been so bad that 
 it seemed — and was — almost an even chance 
 whether they would be driven from the land. 
 The successful outcome of Clark's expedition tem- 
 porarily overawed the Indians, and, moreover, 
 made the French towns outposts for the protec- 
 tion of the settlers; so that for several years 
 thereafter the tribes west of the Wabash did but 
 little against the Americans. The confidence of 
 the backwoodsmen in their own ultimate triumph 
 was likewise very much increased ; while the fame 
 of the western region was greatly spread abroad. 
 From all these causes it resulted that there was 
 an immediate and great increase of immigration 
 thither, the bulk of the immigrants of course 
 
 VOL. II. — 16. 
 
242 The Winning of the West 
 
 stopping in Kentucky, though a very few, even 
 thus early, went to IlHnois. Every settlement in 
 Kentucky was still in jeopardy, and there came 
 moments of dejection, when some of her bravest 
 leaders spoke gloomily of the possibility of the 
 Americans being driven from the land. But 
 these were merely words such as even strong men 
 utter when sore from fresh disaster. After the 
 spring of 1779, there was never any real danger 
 that the whites would be forced to abandon 
 Kentucky. 
 
 The land laws which the Virginia Legislature 
 enacted about this time ' were partly a cause, 
 partly a consequence, of the increased emigration 
 to Kentucky, and of the consequent rise in the 
 value of its wild lands. Long before the Revolu- 
 tion, shrewd and far-seeing speculators had or- 
 ganized land companies to acquire grants of vast 
 stretches of western territory; but the land only 
 acquired an actual value for private individuals 
 after the incoming of settlers. In addition to the 
 companies, many private individuals had ac- 
 quired rights to tracts of land; some, under the 
 royal proclamation, giving bounties to the officers 
 and soldiers in the French war ; others by actual 
 
 ' May, 1779; they did not take effect nor was a land court 
 established until the following fall, when the land office was 
 opened at St. Asaphs, October 13th. Isaac Shelby's claim 
 was the first one considered and granted. He had raised a 
 crop of corn in the country in 1776. 
 
Continuance of the Stru^ole 243 
 
 &&' 
 
 payment into the public treasury.' The Virginia 
 Legislature now ratified all titles to regularly sur- 
 veyed ground claimed under charter, military 
 bounty, and old treasury rights, to the extent of 
 four hundred acres each. Tracts of land were 
 reserved as bounties for the Virginia troops, both 
 Continentals and miHtia. Each family of actual 
 settlers was allowed a settlement right to four 
 hundred acres for the small sum of nine dollars, 
 and, if very poor, the land was given them on 
 credit. Every such settler also acquired a pre- 
 emptive right to purchase a thousand acres ad- 
 joining, at the regulation State price, which was 
 forty pounds, paper money, or forty dollars in 
 specie, for every hundred acres. One peculiar 
 provision was made necessary by the system of 
 settling in forted villages. Every such vihage 
 was allowed six hundred and forty acres, which 
 no outsider could have surveyed or claim, for it 
 was considered the property of the townsmen, to 
 be held in common until an equitable division 
 could be made ; while each family likewise had a 
 settlement right to four hundred acres adjoining 
 the village. The vacant lands were sold, war- 
 rants for a hundred acres costing forty dollars in 
 
 ^ The Ohio Company was the greatest of the companies. 
 There were "also, among private rights, the ancient importa- 
 tion rights, the Henderson Company rights," etc. See Mar- 
 shall, i., 82. 
 
244 The Winning of the West 
 
 specie ; but later on, towards the close of the war, 
 Virginia tried to buoy up her mass of depreciated 
 paper currency by accepting it nearly at par for 
 land warrants, thereby reducing the cost of these 
 to less than fifty cents for a hundred acres. No 
 warrant applied to a particular spot; it was sur- 
 veyed on any vacant or presumably vacant 
 ground. Each individual had the surveying done 
 wherever he pleased, the county surveyor usually 
 appointing some skilled woodsman to act as his 
 deputy. 
 
 In the end the natural result of all this was to 
 involve half the people of Kentucky in lawsuits 
 over their land, as there were often two or three 
 titles to each patch,' and the surveys crossed each 
 other in hopeless tangles. Immediately, the sys- 
 tem gave a great stimulus to immigration, for it 
 made it easy for any incoming settler to get title 
 to his farm, and it also strongly attracted all 
 land speculators. Many well-to-do merchants or 
 planters of the seaboard sent agents out to buy 
 lands in Kentucky ; and these agents either hired 
 the old pioneers, such as Boon and Kenton, to 
 locate and survey the lands, or else purchased 
 their claims from them outright. The advan- 
 tages of following the latter plan were of course 
 obvious ; for the pioneers were sure to have chosen 
 fertile, well-watered spots; and though they 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 245 
 
 asked more than the State, yet, ready money was 
 so scarce, and the depreciation of the currency so 
 great, that even thus the land only cost a few cents 
 an acre.' 
 
 Thus it came about that with the fall of 1779 
 a strong stream of emigration set towards 
 Kentucky, from the backwoods districts of Penn- 
 sylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. In com- 
 pany with the real settlers came many land 
 speculators, and also many families of weak, 
 
 ^ From the Clay MSS.: "Virginia, Frederick Co. to wit: 
 This day came William Smith of [illegible] before me John A. 
 Woodcock, a Justice of the peace of the same county, who 
 being of full age deposeth and saith that about the first of 
 June 1780, being in Kentucky and empowered to purchase 
 Land, for Mr. James Ware, he the deponent agreed with a 
 certain Simon Kenton of Kentucky for looo Acres of Land 
 about 2 or 3 miles from the big salt spring on Licking, that 
 the sd. Kenton on condition that the sd. Smith would pay 
 him ;^ioo in hand and £ioo more when sd. Land was sur- 
 veyed, . . . sd. Kenton on his part wou'd have the 
 land surveyed and a fee Simple made there to. . . . sd 
 Land was first rate Land and had a good Spring thereon. 
 . . . he agreed to warrant and defend the same . . . 
 against all persons whatsoever . . . sworn too before 
 me this 17th day of Nov., 1789." Later on, the purchaser, 
 who did not take possession of the land for eight or nine 
 years, feared it would not prove as fertile as Kenton had 
 said, and threatened to sue Kenton; but Kenton, evidently, 
 had the whip-hand in the controversy, for the land, being out 
 in the wilderness, the purchaser did not know its exact loca- 
 tion, and when he threatened suit, and asked to be shown 
 it, Kenton "swore that he would not shoe it at all." Letter 
 of James Ware, November 29, 1789. 
 
246 The Winning of the West 
 
 irresolute, or shiftless people, who soon tired of the 
 ceaseless and grinding frontier strife for life, and 
 drifted back to the place whence they had come/ 
 Thus there were ever two tides — the larger set- 
 ting towards Kentucky, the lesser towards the 
 old States ; so that the two streams passed each 
 other on the Wilderness Road — for the people 
 who came down the Ohio could not return 
 against the current. Very many who did not 
 return nevertheless found they were not fitted 
 to grapple with the stern trials of existence on 
 the border. Some of these succumbed outright; 
 others unfortunately survived, and clung with 
 feeble and vicious helplessness to the skirts of 
 their manlier fellows; and from them have 
 descended the shiftless squatters, the "mean 
 
 * Thus the increase of population is to be measured by the 
 net gain of immigration over emigration, not by immigration 
 alone. It is probably partly neglect of this fact, and partly 
 simple exaggeration, that make the early statements of the 
 additions to the Kentucky population so very untrustworthy. 
 In 1783, at the end of the Revolution, the population of Ken- 
 tucky was probably nearer 12,000 than 20,000, and it had 
 grown steadily each year. Yet Butler quotes Floyd as saying 
 that in the spring of 1780 three hundred large family boats 
 arrived at the Falls, which would mean an increase of per- 
 haps four or five thousand people; and in the McAfee MSS. 
 occurs the statement that in 1779 and 1780 nearly 20,000 
 people came to Kentucky. Both of these statements are 
 probably mere estimates, greatly exaggerated ; any Westerner 
 of to-day can instance similar reports of movements to west- 
 em localities, which under a strict census dwindled wofully. 
 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 247 
 
 whites," the listless, uncouth men who half -till 
 their patches of poor soil, and still cumber the 
 earth in out-of-the-way nooks, from the crannies 
 of the Alleghanies to the canyons of the southern 
 Rocky Mountains. 
 
 In April, before this great rush of immigration 
 began, but when it was clearly foreseen that it 
 would immediately take place, the county court 
 of Kentucky issued a proclamation to the new 
 settlers, recommending them to keep as united 
 and compact as possible, settling in "stations" 
 or forted towns; and likewise advising each set- 
 tlement to choose three or more trustees to take 
 charge of their public affairs.' Their recom- 
 mendations and advice were generally followed. 
 
 During 1779, the Indian war dragged on much 
 as usual. The only expedition of importance was 
 that undertaken in May by one hundred and 
 sixty Kentuckians, commanded by the county 
 lieutenant, John Bowman,^ against the Indian 
 
 ^ Durrett MSS., in the bound volume of " Papers relating to 
 Louisville and Kentucky." On May i, 1780, the people living 
 at the Falls, having established a town, forty- six of them 
 signed a petition to have their title made good against 
 Conolly. On February 7, 1781, John Todd and five other 
 trustees of Louisville met; they passed resolutions to erect 
 a grist-mill and make surveys. 
 
 2 MS. "Notes on Kentucky," by George Bradford, who 
 went there in 1779; in the Durrett collection. Haldimand 
 MSS. Letter of Henry Bird, June 9, 1779. As this letter is 
 very important, and gives for the first time the Indian side, 
 
1 
 
 248 The Winning of the West 
 
 town of Chillicothe. Logan, Harrod, and other 
 famous frontier fighters went along. The town 
 was surprised, several cabins burned, and a num- 
 ber of horses captured. But the Indians rallied, 
 and took refuge in a central blockhouse and a 
 number of strongly built cabins surrounding it, 
 from which they fairly beat off the whites. They 
 then followed to harass the rear of their retreating 
 foes, but were beaten off in turn. Of the whites, 
 nine were killed and two or three wounded; the 
 Indians' loss was two killed and five or six 
 wounded. 
 
 The defeat caused intense mortification to the 
 whites ; but in reality the expedition was of great 
 service to Kentucky, though the Kentuckians 
 never knew it. The Detroit people had been 
 busily organizing expeditions against Kentucky. 
 Captain Henry Bird had been given charge of one, 
 
 I print it in Appendix D almost in full. The accounts of 
 course conflict somewhat ; chiefly as to the number of cabins 
 burnt — from five to forty, and of horses captured — from 
 thirty to three hundred. They agree in all essential points. 
 But as among the whites themselves there is one serious 
 question. Logan's admirers, and most Kentucky historians, 
 hold Bowman responsible for the defeat; but in reality (see 
 Butler, p. no) there seems strong reason to believe that it 
 was simply due to the unexpectedly strong resistance of the 
 Indians. Bird's letter shows, what the Kentuckians never 
 suspected, that the attack was a great benefit to them in 
 frightening the Indians and stopping a serious inroad. It 
 undoubtedly accomplished more than Clark's attack on 
 Piqua next year, for instance. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 249 
 
 and he had just collected two hundred Indians at 
 the Mingo town when news of the attack on Chilli- 
 cothe arrived. Instantly the Indians dissolved 
 in a panic, some returning to defend their 
 towns; others were inclined to beg peace of 
 the Americans. So great was their terror that 
 it was found impossible to persuade them to 
 make any inroad as long as they deemed them- 
 selves menaced by a counter attack of the Ken- 
 tuckians.' 
 
 It is true that bands of Mingos, Hurons, Dela- 
 wares, and Shawnees made occasional successful 
 raids against the frontier, and brought their 
 scalps and prisoners in triumph to Detroit,^ where 
 they drank such astonishing quantities of rum as 
 to incite the indignation of the British command- 
 er-in-chief. 3 But instead of being able to under- 
 take any formidable expedition against the 
 settlers, the Detroit authorities were during this 
 year much concerned for their own safety, taking 
 every possible means to provide for the defence, 
 and keeping a sharp lookout for any hostile 
 movement of the Americans."^ 
 
 The incoming settlers were therefore left in 
 comparative peace. They built many small 
 
 1 Haldimand MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, November 
 20, 1779. 
 
 2 Ihid. De Peyster to Haldimand, October 20, 1779. 
 
 3 Ihid. Haldimand's letter, July 23, 1779. 
 ^ Ibid. April 8, 1779. 
 
250 The Winning: of the West 
 
 t) 
 
 palisaded towns, some of which proved perma- 
 nent, while others vanished utterly when the fear^ 
 of the Indians was removed and the families were 
 able to scatter out on their farms. At the Falls of 
 the Ohio a regular fort was built, armed with can- 
 non and garrisoned by Virginia troops,' who were 
 sent down the river expressly to reinforce Clark. 
 The Indians never dared assail this fort ; but they 
 ravaged up to its walls, destroying the small sta- 
 tions on Bear Grass Creek and scalping settlers 
 and soldiers when they wandered far from the 
 protection of the stockade. 
 
 The new-comers of 1779 were destined to begin 
 with a grim experience, for the ensuing winter ^ 
 was the most severe ever known in the West, and 
 was long recalled by the pioneers as the "hard 
 winter." Cold weather set in towards the end of 
 November, the storms following one another in 
 unbroken succession, while the snow lay deep 
 until the spring. Most of the cattle, and very 
 many of the horses, perished; and deer and elk 
 were likewise found dead in the woods, or so 
 weak and starved that they would hardly move 
 out of the way, while the buffalo often came up 
 at nightfall to the yards, seeking to associate with 
 
 ^ One hundred and fifty strong, under Colonel George 
 Slaughter. 
 
 ^ Boon, in his " Narrative," makes a mistake in putting 
 this hard winter a year later; all the other authorities are 
 unanimous against him. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 251 
 
 the starving herds of the settlers.' The scanty 
 supply of com gave out, until there was not enough 
 left to bake into johnny-cakes on the long boards 
 in front of the fire.^ Even at the Falls, where 
 there were stores for the troops, the price of com 
 went up nearly fourfold, 3 while elsewhere among 
 the stations of the interior it could not be had at 
 any price, and there was an absolute dearth both 
 of salt and of vegetable food, the settlers living for 
 weeks on the flesh of the lean wild game,"* es- 
 pecially of the buffalo.^ The hunters searched 
 with especial eagerness for the bears in the hollow 
 trees, for they alone among the animals kept fat ; 
 and the breast of the wild turkey served for 
 bread. ^ Nevertheless, even in the midst of this 
 
 ' McAfee MSS. Of the McAfees' horses ten died, and only- 
 two survived, a brown mare and "a yellow horse called 
 Chickasaw." Exactly a hundred years later, in the hard 
 winter of 1879-80, and the still worse winter of 1880-81, the 
 settlers on the Yellowstone and the few hunters who wintered 
 on the Little Missouri had a similar experience. The buffalo 
 crowded with the few tame cattle round the hayricks and 
 log-stables; the starving deer and antelope gathered in im- 
 mense bands in sheltered places. Riding from my ranch to 
 a neighbor's I have, in deep snows, passed through herds of 
 antelope that would barely move fifty or a hundred feet out 
 of my way. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 From fifty dollars (Continental money) a bushel in the 
 fall to one hundred and seventy-five in the spring. 
 
 4 McAfee MSS. 
 
 5 Boon's " Narrative." 
 
 6 McAfee MSS. 
 
252 The Winning of the West 
 
 season of cold and famine, the settlers began to 
 take the first steps for the education of their 
 children. In this year Joseph Doniphan, -whejse 
 son long afterwards won fame in the Mexican 
 war, opened the first regular school at Boons- 
 borough,' and one of the McAfees likewise served 
 as a teacher through the winter.^ But from the 
 beginning some of the settlers' wives had now 
 and then given the children in the forts a few 
 weeks' schooling. 
 
 Through the long, irksome winter the frontiers- 
 men remained crowded within the stockades. 
 The men hunted, while the women made the 
 clothes, of tanned deer-hides, buffalo-wool cloth, 
 and nettle-bark linen. In stormy weather, when 
 none could stir abroad, they turned or coopered 
 the wooden vessels; for tin cups were as rare as 
 iron forks, and the "noggin" was either hollowed 
 out of the knot of a tree, or else made with small 
 staves and hoops. ^ Everything was of home 
 manufacture, — for there was not a store in Ken- 
 tucky, — and the most expensive domestic prod- 
 ucts seem to have been the hats, made of native 
 fur, mink, coon, fox, wolf, and beaver. If ex- 
 ceptionally fine, and of valuable fur, they cost 
 five hundred dollars in paper money, which had 
 
 * Historical Magazine, Second Series, vol. viii. 
 
 2 McAfee MSS. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
Continuance of the Struo:de 253 
 
 &&' 
 
 )0 
 
 not at that time depreciated a quarter as much in 
 outlying Kentucky as at the seat of government.^ 
 
 As soon as the great snow-drifts began to melt, 
 and thereby to produce freshets of unexampled 
 height, the gaunt settlers struggled out to their 
 clearings, glad to leave the forts. They planted 
 com, and eagerly watched the growth of the 
 crop; and those who hungered after oatmeal or 
 wheaten bread planted other grains as well, and 
 apple-seeds and peach-stones.^ 
 
 As soon as the spring of 1780 opened, the im- 
 migrants began to arrive more numerously than 
 ever. Some came over the Wilderness Road; 
 among these there were not a few haggard, half- 
 famished beings, who, having started too late the 
 previous fall, had been overtaken by the deep 
 snows, and forced to pass the winter in the iron- 
 bound and desolate valleys of the Alleghanies, 
 subsisting on the carcasses of their stricken cattle, 
 and seeing their weaker friends starve or freeze 
 before their eyes. Very many came down the 
 Ohio, in flat-boats. A good-sized specimen of 
 these huge, unwieldy scows was fifty-five feet 
 long, twelve broad, and six deep, drawing three 
 feet of water 3 ; but the demand was greater than 
 the supply, and a couple of dozen people, with half 
 
 ^ Marshall, p. 124. . ' McAfee MSS. 
 
 3 Lettres d'un CuUivateur Americain, St. John de Creve 
 Cceur, Paris, 1787, p. 407. He visited Kentucky in 1784. 
 
2 54 The Winning of the West 
 
 as many horses, and all their effects, might be 
 forced to embark on a flat-boat not twenty-four 
 feet in length.' Usually several families^, came 
 together, being bound by some tie of neighbor- 
 hood or purpose. Not infrequently this tie was 
 religious, for in the back settlements the few 
 churches were almost as much social as religious 
 centres. Thus, this spring, a third of the congrega- 
 tion of a Low Dutch Reformed Church came to 
 Kentucky bodily, to the number of fifty heads of 
 families, with their wives and children, their 
 beasts of burden and pasture, and their house- 
 hold goods; like most bands of new immigrants, 
 they suffered greatly from the Indians, much 
 more than did the old settlers.' The follow- 
 ing year a Baptist congregation came out from 
 Virginia, keeping up its organization even while 
 on the road, the preacher holding services at 
 every long halt. 
 
 Soon after the inish of spring immigration was 
 at its height, the old settlers and the new-comers 
 alike were thrown intq, the utmost alarm by a 
 formidable inroad of Indians, accompanied by 
 French partisans, and led by a British officer. 
 De Peyster, a New York tory of old Knicker- 
 
 ^ MS. " Journals of Rev. James Smith." Tours in western 
 country in 1785-1795 (in Colonel Durrett's library). 
 
 ^ State Department MSS. No. 41, vol. v., Memorials K, L, 
 177 7~ 1787, pp. 95-97, " Petition of Low Dutch Reformed 
 Church," etc. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 255 
 
 bocker family, had taken command at Detroit. 
 He gathered the Indians around him from far 
 and near, until the expense of subsidizing these 
 savages became so enormous as to call forth 
 serious complaints from headquarters.' He con- 
 stantly endeavored to equip and send out different 
 bands, not only to retake the Illinois and Vin- 
 cennes, but to dislodge Clark from the Falls =" ; he 
 was continually receiving scalps and prisoners, 
 and by May he had fitted out two thousand war- 
 |i riors to act along the Ohio and the Wabash. 3 The 
 rapid growth of Kentucky especially excited his 
 apprehension,-* and his main stroke was directed 
 against the clusters of wooden forts that were 
 springing up south of the Ohio.^ 
 
 Late in May, some six hundred Indians and a 
 few Canadians, with a couple of pieces of light 
 field artillery, were gathered and put under the 
 command of Captain Henry Bird. Following the 
 rivers where practicable, that he might the easier 
 carry his guns, he went down the Miami, and, on 
 the 2 2d of June, surprised and captured without 
 resistance Ruddle's and Martin's stations, two 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS. Haldimand to Guy Johnson, June 
 30, 1780. 
 
 2 Ibid. Haldimand to De Peyster, February 12 and July 
 6, 1780. 
 
 3 Ibid. De Peyster to Haldimand, June i, 1780. 
 
 4 Ibid. March 8, 1780. 
 
 5 Ibid. May 17 to July 19, 1780. 
 
256 The Winning of the West 
 
 small stockades on the south Fork of the Licking.^ 
 But Bird was not one of the few^ntenlitted to 
 command such a force as that which followed 
 him ; and, contenting himself with the slight suc- 
 cess he had won, he rapidly retreated to Detroit 
 over the same path by which he had advanced. 
 The Indians carried off many horses and loaded 
 their prisoners with the plunder, tomahawking 
 those, chiefly women and children, who could not 
 keep up with the rest ; and Bird could not control 
 them nor force them to show mercy to their cap- 
 tives.^ He did not even get his cannon back to 
 Detroit, leaving them at the British store in one 
 of the upper Miami towns, in charge of a bom- 
 bardier. The bombardier did not prove a very 
 valorous personage, and, on the alarm of Clark's 
 advance soon afterwards, he permitted the In- 
 dians to steal his horses, and was forced to bury 
 his ordnance in the woods. ^ 
 
 ^ He marched overland from the forks of the Licking. 
 Marshall says the season was dry and the waters low; but 
 the Bradford MSS. particularly declare that Bird only went 
 up the Licking at all because the watercourses were so full, 
 and that he had originally intended to attack the settle- 
 ments at the Falls. 
 
 ^ Collins, Butler, etc. Marshall thinks that if the force 
 could have been held together it would have depopulated 
 Kentucky; but this is nonsense, for within a week Clark had 
 gathered a very much larger and more efficient body of 
 troops. 
 
 3 Haldimand MSS. Letter of Bombardier William Homan, 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 257 
 
 Before this inroad took place, Clark had been 
 planning a foray into the Indian country, and the 
 news only made him hasten his preparations. In 
 May this adventurous leader had performed one 
 of the feats which made him the darling of the 
 backwoodsmen. Painted and dressed like an In- 
 dian, so as to deceive the lurking bands of savages, 
 he and two companions left the fort he had built 
 on the bank of the Mississippi, and came through 
 the wilderness to Harrodsburg. They lived on 
 the buffaloes they shot, and when they came 
 to the Tennessee River, which was then in flood, 
 they crossed the swift torrent on a raft of logs 
 bound together with grape-vines. At Harrods- 
 burg they found the land court open, and thronged 
 with an eager, jostling crowd of settlers and 
 speculators, who were waiting to enter lands in 
 the surveyor's office. Even the dread of the In- 
 dians could not overcome in these men's hearts 
 the keen and selfish greed for gain. Clark in- 
 stantly grasped the situation. Seeing that while 
 the court remained open he could get no volun- 
 teers, he on his own responsibility closed it ofi:- 
 hand, and proclaimed that it would not be opened 
 until after he came back from his expedition. The 
 
 August 18, 1780. He speaks of "the gun" and "the smaller 
 ordnance," presumably swivels. It is impossible to give 
 Bird's numbers correctly, for various bands of Indians kept 
 joining and leaving him. 
 
 VOL. II. -17. 
 
258 The Winning of the West 
 
 speculators grumbled anH'^-elainored, but this 
 troubled Clark not at all, for he was able to get as 
 many volunteers as he wished. The discontent, 
 and still more the panic over Bird's inroad, made 
 many of the settlers determine to flee from the 
 country, but Clark sent a small force to Crab 
 Orchard, at the mouth of the Wilderness Road, 
 the only outlet from Kentucky, with instrtictions 
 to stop all men from leaving the country, and to 
 take away their arms if they persisted; while 
 four fifths of all the grown men were drafted, and 
 were bidden to gather instantly for a campaign.' 
 
 He appointed the mouth of the Licking as the 
 place of meeting. Thither he brought the troops 
 from the Falls in light skiffs he had built for the 
 purpose, leaving behind scarce a handful of men 
 to garrison the stockade. Logan went with him 
 as second in command. He carried with him a 
 light three-pounder gun; and those of the men 
 who had horses marched along the bank beside 
 the flotilla. The only mishap that befell the 
 troops happened to McGarry, who had a subor- 
 dinate command. He showed his usual fool- 
 hardy obstinacy by persisting in landing with a 
 small squad of men on the north bank of the 
 river, where he was in consequence surprised and 
 roughly handled by a few Indians. Nothing was 
 done to him because of his disobedience, for the 
 
 ^ Bradford MSS. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 259 
 
 chief of such a backwoods levy was the leader, 
 rather than the commander, of his men. 
 
 At the mouth of the Licking, Clark met the 
 riflemen from the interior stations, among them 
 being Kenton, Harrod, and F'loyd, and others of 
 equal note. They had turned out almost to a 
 man, leaving the women and boys to guard the 
 wooden forts until they came back, and had come 
 to the appointed place, some on foot or on horse- 
 back, others floating and paddling down the Lick- 
 ing in canoes. They left scanty provisions with 
 their families, who had to subsist during their ab- 
 sence on what game the boys shot, on nettle tops, 
 and a few early vegetables; and they took with 
 them still less. Dividing up their stock, each 
 man had a couple of pounds of meal, and some 
 jerked venison or buffalo meat.^ 
 
 All his troops having gathered, to the number 
 of nine hundred and seventy, Clark started up the 
 Ohio on the 2d of August.' The skiffs, laden with 
 men, were poled against the current, while bodies 
 of footmen and horsemen marched along the 
 bank. After going a short distance up-stream the 
 
 * McAfee MSS. ; the Bradford MS. says six quarts of parched 
 corn. 
 
 => This date and number are those given in the Bradford 
 MS. The McAfee MSS. say July ist; but it is impossible that 
 the expedition should have started so soon after Bird's in- 
 road. On July I St, Bird himself was probably at the mouth 
 of the Licking. 
 
26o The Winning of the West 
 
 horses and men were ferried to the farther bank, 
 the boats were drawn up on the shore and left 
 with a guard of forty men, and the rest of the 
 troops started overland against the town of old 
 Chillicothe, fifty or sixty miles distant. The 
 three-pounder was carried along on a pack-horse. 
 The march was hard, for it rained so incessantly 
 that it was difficult to keep the rifles dry. Every 
 night they encamped in a hollow square, with the 
 baggage and horses in the middle. 
 
 Chillicothe, when reached, was found to be de- 
 serted. It was burned, and the army pushed on 
 to Piqua, a town a few miles distant, on the banks 
 of the Little Miami,' reaching it about ten in the 
 morning of the 8th of August.^ Piqua was sub- 
 stantially built, and was laid out in the manner of 
 the French villages. The stoutly built log-houses 
 stood far apart, surrounded by strips of corn-land, 
 and fronting the stream; while a strong block- 
 house with loopholed walls stood in the middle. 
 Thick woods, broken by small prairies, covered 
 the rolling country that lay around the town. 
 
 Clark divided his army into four divisions, tak- 
 
 ^ The Indians so frequently shifted their abode that it is 
 hardly possible to identify the exact location of the successive 
 towns called Piqua or Pickaway. 
 
 2 "Papers relating to G. R. Clark." In the Durrett MSS. 
 at Louisville. The account of the death of Joseph Rogers. 
 This settles, by the way, that the march was made in August, 
 and not in July. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 261 
 
 ing the command of two in person. Giving the 
 others to Logan, he ordered him to cross the river 
 above the town ' and take it in the rear, while he 
 himself crossed directly below it and assailed it in 
 front. Logan did his best to obey the orders, but 
 he could not find a ford, and he marched by de- 
 grees nearly three miles up-stream, making re- 
 peated and vain attempts to cross ; when he finally 
 succeeded, the day was almost done, and the 
 fighting was over. 
 
 Meanwhile, Clark plunged into the river, and 
 crossed at the head of one of his own two divisions ; 
 the other was delayed for a short time. Both 
 Simon Girty and his brother were in the town, to- 
 gether with several hundred Indian warriors; 
 exactly how many cannot be said, but they were 
 certainly fewer in number than the troops com- 
 posing either wing of Clark's army.^ They were 
 
 ^ There is some conflict as to whether Logan went up- or 
 down-stream. 
 
 2 Haldimand MSS. McKee to De Peyster, August 22, 
 1780. He was told of the battle by the Indians a couple of 
 days after it took place. He gives the force of the whites 
 correctly as nine hundred and seventy, forty of whom had 
 been left to guard the boats. He says the Indians were sur- 
 prised, and that most of the warriors fled, so that all the 
 fighting was done by about seventy, with the two Girty s. 
 This was doubtless not the case; the beaten party in all these 
 encounters was fond of relating the valorous deeds of some of 
 its members, who invariably state that they would have 
 conquered, had they not been deserted by their associates. 
 McKee reported that the Indians could find no trace of the 
 
262 The Winning of the West 
 
 surprised by Clark's swift advance just as a scout- 
 ing party of warriors, who had been sent out to 
 watch the whites, were returning to the village. 
 The warning was so short that the squaws and 
 children had barely time to retreat out of the 
 way. As Clark crossed the stream, the warriors 
 left their cabins and formed in some thick timber 
 behind them. At the same moment a cousin of 
 Clark's, who had been captured by the Indians, 
 and was held prisoner in the town, made his es- 
 cape and ran towards the Americans, throwing up 
 his hands, and calling out that he was a white 
 man. He was shot, whether by the Americans or 
 the Indians none could say. Clark came up and 
 spoke a few words with him before he died.^ A 
 long-range skirmish ensued with the warriors in 
 
 gun-wheels, — the gun was carried on a pack-horse, — and so 
 he thought that the Kentuckians were forced to leave it be- 
 hind on their retreat. He put the killed of the Kentuckians 
 at the modest number of forty-eight; and reported the belief 
 of Girty and the Indians that "three hundred [of them] 
 would have given [Clark's men] a total rout." A very com- 
 mon feat of the small frontier historian was to put high praise 
 of his own side in the mouth of a foe. Withers, in his 
 Chronicles of Border Warfare, in speaking of this very action, 
 makes Girty withdraw his three hundred warriors on account 
 of the valor of Clark's men, remarking that it was "useless 
 to fight with fools or madmen." This offers a comical con- 
 trast to Girty's real opinion, as shown in McKee's letter. 
 
 ^ Durrett MSS. Volume: "Papers referring to G. R. 
 Clark." The cousin's name was Joseph Rogers, a brother of 
 the commander of the galley. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 263 
 
 the timber ; but on the approach of Clark's second 
 division the Indians fell back. The two divisions 
 followed in pursuit, becoming mingled in disorder. 
 After a slight running fight of two hours, the 
 whites lost sight of their foes, and wondering what 
 had become of Logan's wing, they gathered to- 
 gether and marched back towards the river. One 
 of the McAfees, captain over a company of rifle- 
 men from Salt River, was leading, when he dis- 
 covered an Indian in a tree-top. He and one of 
 his men sought shelter behind the same tree; 
 whereupon he tried to glide behind another, but 
 was shot and mortally wounded by the Indian, 
 who was himself instantly killed. The scattered 
 detachments now sat down to listen for the miss- 
 ing wing. After half an hour's silent waiting, 
 they suddenly became aware of the presence of a 
 body of Indians, who had slipped in between 
 them and the town. The backwoodsmen rushed 
 up to the attack, while the Indians whooped and 
 yelled defiance. There was a moment's heavy 
 firing ; but as on both sides the combatants care- 
 fully sheltered themselves behind trees, there was 
 very little loss ; and the Indians steadily gave way 
 until they reached the town, about two miles dis- 
 tant from the spot where the whites had halted. 
 They then made a stand, and, for the first time, 
 there occurred some real fighting. The Indians 
 gtood stoutly behind the loopholed walls of the 
 
264 The Winning of the West 
 
 cabins, and in the blockhouse; the Americans, 
 advancing cautiously and gaining ground inch by 
 inch, suffered much more loss than they inflicted. 
 Late in the afternoon Clark managed to bring the 
 three-pounder into action, from a point below the 
 town ; while the riflemen fired at the red warriors 
 as they were occasionally seen running from the 
 cabins to take refuge behind the steep bank of the 
 river. A few shots from the three-pounder dis- 
 lodged the defenders of the blockhouse; and 
 about sunset the Americans closed in, but only to 
 find that their foes had escaped under cover of a 
 noisy fire from a few of the hindmost warriors. 
 They had run up-stream, behind the banks, until 
 they came to a small "branch " or brook, by means 
 of which they gained the shelter of the forest, 
 where they at once scattered and disappeared. A 
 few of their stragglers exchanged shots with the 
 advance guard of Logan's wing as it at last came 
 down the bank ; this was the only part Logan was 
 able to take in the battle. Of the Indians six or 
 eight were slain, whereas the whites lost seventeen 
 killed, and a large number wounded.' Clark de- 
 
 ^ Bradford MS.; the McAfee MSS. make the loss " 15 or 20 
 Indians" in the last assault, and "nearly as many" whites. 
 Boon's narrative says seventeen on each side. But McKee 
 says onljr six Indians were killed and three wounded; and 
 Bombardier Homan, in the letter already quoted, says six 
 were killed and two captured, who were afterwards slain. 
 The latter adds from hearsay that the Americans cruelly 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 265 
 
 stroyed all the houses and a very large quantity of 
 corn; and he sent out detachments which de- 
 stroyed another village, and the stores of some 
 British and French Canadian traders. Then the 
 army marched back to the mouth of the Licking 
 and disbanded, most of the volunteers having 
 been out just twenty-five days.' 
 
 The Indians were temporarily cowed by their 
 loss and the damage they had suffered,^ and es- 
 pecially by the moral effect of so formidable a 
 retaliatory foray following immediately on the 
 heels of Bird's inroad. Therefore, thanks to 
 Clark, the settlements south of the Ohio were but 
 little molested for the remainder of the year.^ 
 The bulk of the savages remained north of the 
 river, hovering about their burned towns, plan- 
 ning to take vengeance in the spring."* 
 
 Nevertheless small straggling bands of yoimg 
 
 slew an Indian woman ; but there is not a syllable in any of 
 the other accounts to confirm this, and it may be set down 
 as a fiction of the by-no-means-valorous bombardier. The 
 bombardier mentions that the Indians in their alarm and 
 anger immediately burnt all the male prisoners in their 
 villages. 
 
 The Kentucky historians give very scanty accounts of this 
 expedition; but as it was of a typical character it is worth 
 while giving in full. The McAfee MSS. contain most in- 
 formation about it. 
 
 1 Bradford MS. 
 
 2 See HaldiiTiand MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, August 
 30, 1780. 3 McAfee MSS. ^ Virginia State Papers, i., 451- 
 
266 The Winning of the West 
 
 braves occasionally came down through the woods ; 
 and although they did not attack any fort or any 
 large body of men, they were ever on the watch to 
 steal horses, burn lonely cabins, and waylay trav- 
 ellers between the stations. They shot the soli- 
 tary settlers who had gone out to till their clearings 
 by stealth, or ambushed the boys who were driv- 
 ing in the milk cows or visiting their lines of 
 traps. It was well for the victim if he was killed 
 at once; otherwise he was bound with hickory 
 withes and driven to the distant Indian towns, 
 there to be tortured with hideous cruelty and 
 burned to death at the stake. ^ Boon himself 
 suffered at the hands of one of these parties. He 
 had gone with his brother to the Blue Licks, to 
 him a spot always fruitful of evil ; and being am- 
 bushed by the Indians, his brother was killed, and 
 he himself was only saved by his woodcraft and 
 speed of foot. The Indians had with them a 
 tracking dog, by the aid of which they followed 
 his trail for three miles, until he halted, shot the 
 dog, and thus escaped.^ 
 
 During this comparatively peaceful fall the set- 
 tlers fared well, though the men were ever on the 
 watch for Indian war-parties, while the mothers, 
 if their children were naughty, frightened them 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. The last was an incident that happened to 
 a young man named McCoun, on March 8, 1781. 
 2 Boon's " Narrative." 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 267 
 
 into quiet with the threat that the Shawnees 
 would catch them. The widows and the father- 
 less were cared for by the other families of the dif- 
 ferent stations. The season of want and scarcity- 
 had passed forever; from thenceforth on there 
 was abundance in Kentucky. The crops did not 
 fail; not only was there plenty of com, the one 
 essential, but there was also wheat, as well as 
 potatoes, melons, pumpkins, turnips, and the like. 
 Sugar was made by tapping the maple- trees ; but 
 salt was bought at a very exorbitant price at the 
 Falls, being carried down in boats from the old 
 Redstone fort. Flax had been generally sown 
 (though in the poorer settlements nettle bark still 
 served as a substitute), and the young men and 
 girls formed parties to pick it, often ending their 
 labor by an hour or two's search for wild plums. 
 The men killed all the game they wished, and so 
 there was no lack of meat. They also surveyed 
 the land and tended the stock, — cattle, horses, and 
 hogs, — which throve and multiplied out on the 
 range, fattening on the cane and large white 
 buffalo-clover. At odd times the men and boys 
 visited their lines of traps. Furs formed almost 
 the only currency, except a little paper money; 
 but as there were no stores west of the mountains, 
 this was all that was needed, and each settlement 
 raised most things for itself, and procured the rest 
 by barter. 
 
268 The Winning of the West 
 
 The law courts were as yet very little troubled, 
 each small community usually enforcing a rough- 
 and-ready justice of its own. On a few of the 
 streams log-dams were built, and tub-mills started. 
 In Harrodsburg a toll-mill was built in 1779. The 
 owner used to start it grinding, and then go about 
 his other business; once on returning he found a 
 large wild turkey-gobbler so busily breakfasting 
 out of the hopper that he was able to creep quietly 
 up and catch him with his hands. The people all 
 worked together in cultivating their respective 
 lands, coming back to the fort before dusk for 
 supper. They would then call on any man who 
 owned a fiddle and spend the evening, with inter- 
 ludes of singing and story-telling, in dancing — an 
 amusement they considered as only below hunt- 
 ing. On Sundays the stricter parents taught their 
 children the catechism; but in spite of the pres- 
 ence of not a few devout Baptists and Presbyteri- 
 ans there was little chance for general observance 
 of religious forms. Ordinary conversation was 
 limited to such subjects as bore on the day's do- 
 ings ; the game that had been killed, the condition 
 of the crops, the plans of the settlers for the im- 
 mediate future, the accounts of the last massacre 
 by the savages, or the rumor that Indian sign had 
 been seen in the neighborhood; all interspersed 
 with much banter, practical joking, and rough, 
 good-humored fun. The scope of conversation 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 269 
 
 was of necessity narrowly limited even for the 
 backwoods ; for there was little chance to discuss 
 religion and politics, the two subjects that the 
 average backwoodsman regards as the staples of 
 deep conversation. The deeds of the Indians, of 
 course, formed the one absorbing topic' 
 
 An abortive separatist movement was the chief 
 political sensation of this summer. Many hun- 
 dreds and even thousands of settlers from the 
 backwoods districts of various States had come to 
 Kentucky, and some even to Illinois, and a num- 
 ber of them were greatly discontented with the 
 Virginian rule. They deemed it too difficult to 
 get justice when they were so far from the seat of 
 government; they objected to the land being 
 granted to any but actual settlers ; and they pro- 
 tested against being taxed, asserting that they did 
 not know whether the country really belonged to 
 Virginia or the United States. Accordingly, they 
 petitioned the Continental Congress that Ken- 
 tucky and Illinois combined might be made into a 
 separate State ^ ; but no heed was paid to their 
 request, nor did their leading men join in making 
 it. 
 
 In November, the Virginia Legislature divided 
 
 1 For all this, see McAfee MSS. 
 
 2 State Department MSS. No. 48. See Appendix E. As 
 containing an account of the first, and hitherto entirely un- 
 noticed, separatist movement in Kentucky, I give the petition 
 entire. 
 
270 The Winning of the West 
 
 Kentucky into the three counties of Jefferson, 
 Lincoln, and Fayette, appointing for each a col- 
 onel, a lieutenant-colonel, and a surveyor. The 
 three colonels, who were also justices of the coun- 
 ties,' were, in their order, John Floyd — whom 
 Clark described as "a soldier, a gentleman and a 
 scholar," ^ — Benjamin Logan, and John Todd. 
 Clark, whose station was at the Falls of the Ohio, 
 was brigadier-general and commander over all. 
 Boon was lieutenant -colonel under Todd; and 
 their county of Fayette had for its surveyor 
 Thomas Marshall, ^ the father of the great chief - 
 justice, whose services to the United States stand 
 on a plane with those of Alexander Hamilton.'* 
 
 The winter passed quietly away, but as soon as 
 the snow was off the ground in 1781, the Indians 
 renewed their ravages. Early in the winter Clark 
 went to Virginia to try to get an army for an ex- 
 pedition against Detroit. He likewise applied to 
 Washington for assistance. Washington fully 
 entered into his plans, and saw their importance. 
 He would gladly have rendered him every aid. 
 But he could do nothing, because of the impotence 
 to which the central authority, the Continental 
 
 ' Calendar of Virginia State Papers, vol. ii., p. 47. 
 
 2 Ibid., vol. i., p. 452. 3 Collins, i., 20. 
 
 4 Roughly, Fayette embraced the territory north and 
 northeast of the Kentucky River, Jefferson that between 
 Green River and the lower Kentucky, and Lincoln the rest 
 of the present State. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 271 
 
 Congress, had been reduced by the selfishness and 
 supine indifference of the various States — Vir- 
 ginia among the number. He wrote Clark: "It 
 is out of my power to send any reinforcements to 
 the westward. If the States would fill their con- 
 tinental battalions we should be able to oppose a 
 regular and permanent force to the enemy in every 
 quarter. If they will not, they must certainly 
 take measures to defend themselves by their 
 militia, however expensive and ruinous the sys- 
 tem." ^ It was impossible to state with more 
 straightforward clearness the fact that Kentucky 
 owed the unprotected condition in which she was 
 left, to the divided or States-rights system of gov- 
 ernment that then existed; and that she would 
 have had ample protection — and, incidentally, 
 greater liberty — had the central authority been 
 stronger. 
 
 ^ State Department MSS., No. 147, vol. v. Reports of 
 Board of War. Letter of Washington, June 8, 1781. It is 
 impossible to study any part of the Revolutionary struggle 
 without coming to the conclusion that Washington would 
 have ended it in half the time it actually lasted had the 
 jangling States and their governments, as well as the Con- 
 tinental Congress, backed him up half as effectively as the 
 Confederate people and government backed up Lee, or as 
 the Northerners and the Washington administration backed 
 up McClellan — still more, as they backed up Grant. The 
 whole of our Revolutionary history is a running commentary 
 on the anarchic weakness of disunion, and the utter lack of 
 liberty that follows in its train. 
 
272 The Winning of the West 
 
 At last, Clark was empowered to raise the men 
 he wished, and he passed and repassed from Fort 
 Pitt to the Falls of the Ohio and thence to the Il- 
 linois in the vain effort to get troops. The inert- 
 ness and shortsightedness of the frontiersmen, 
 above all the exhaustion of the States, and their 
 timid selfishness and inability to enforce their 
 commands, baffled all of Clark's efforts. In his 
 letters to Washington he bitterly laments his en- 
 forced dependence upon " persuasive arguments to 
 draw the inhabitants of the country into the 
 field." ' The Kentuckians were anxious to do all 
 in their power, but of course only a comparatively 
 small number could be spared for so long a cam- 
 paign from their scattered stockades. Around 
 Pittsburg, where he hoped to raise the bulk of his 
 forces, the frontiersmen were split into little fac- 
 tions by their petty local rivalries, the envy their 
 leaders felt of Clark himself, and the never-ending 
 jealousies and bickerings between the Virginians 
 and Pennsylvanians.^ 
 
 ^ State Department MSS. Letters to Washington, vol. 
 xlix., p. 235, May 21, 1781. The entire history of the 
 western operations shows the harm done by the weak and 
 divided system of government that obtained at the time of 
 the Revolution, and emphasizes our good fortune in replacing 
 it by a strong and permanent Union. 
 
 ^ Calendar of Virginia State Papers, i., pp. 502, 597, etc.; 
 ii., pp. 108, 116, 264, 345. The Kentuckians were far more 
 eager for action than the Pennsylvanians. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 273 
 
 The fort at the Falls, where Clark already had 
 some troops, was appointed as a gathering-place 
 for the different detachments that were to join him, 
 but, from one cause or another, all save one or two 
 failed to appear. Most of them did not even 
 start, and one body of Pennsylvanians that did 
 go met with an untoward fate. This was a party 
 of a hundred Westmoreland men under their 
 county-lieutenant, Colonel Archibald Loughry. 
 They started down the Ohio in flat-boats, but 
 having landed on a sand-bar to butcher and cook 
 a buffalo that they had killed, they were sur- 
 prised by an equal number of Indians under Jo- 
 seph Brant, and being huddled together, were all 
 slain or captured with small loss to their assail- 
 ants.^ Many of the prisoners, including Loughry 
 himself, were afterwards murdered in cold blood 
 by the Indians. 
 
 During this year the Indians continually har- 
 assed the whole frontier, from Pennsylvania to 
 Kentucky, ravaging the settlements and assailing 
 the forts in great bands of five or six hundred 
 
 ^ At Loughry' s Creek, some ten miles below the mouth of 
 the Miami, on August 24, 1781. " Diary of Captain Isaac 
 Anderson," quoted in Indiana Historical Society Pamphlets, 
 No. 4, by Charles Martindale, Indianapolis, 1888. Collins, 
 whose accuracy by no means equals his thirst for pure detail, 
 puts this occurrence just a year too late. Brant's force was 
 part of a body of several hundred Indians, gathered to resist 
 Clark. 
 
 VOL. 11. — 18. 
 
2 74 The Winning of the West 
 
 warriors/ The Continental troops stationed at 
 Fort Pitt were reduced to try every expedient to 
 procure supplies. Though it was evident that the 
 numbers of the hostile Indians had largely in- 
 creased, and that even such tribes as the Dela- 
 wares, who had been divided, were now united 
 against the Americans, nevertheless, because of 
 the scarcity of food, a party of soldiers had to be 
 sent into the Indian country to kill buffalo, that 
 the garrison might have meat.^ The Indians 
 threatened to attack the fort itself, as well as the 
 villages it protected ; passing around and on each 
 side, their war-parties ravaged the country in its 
 rear, distressing greatly the people; and from 
 this time until peace was declared with Great 
 Britain, and indeed until long after that event, 
 the westernmost Pennsylvanians knew neither 
 rest nor safety.^ Among many others the forted 
 
 ' It is most difficult to get at the number of the Indian 
 parties; they were sometimes grossly exaggerated and some- 
 times hopelessly underestimated. The commanders at the 
 unmolested forts and the statesmen who stayed at home 
 only saw those members of the tribes who claimed to be 
 peaceful, and invariably put the number of warriors on the 
 war-path at far too low a figure. Madison's estimates, for 
 instance, were very much out of the way, yet many modem 
 critics follow him. 
 
 ^ State Department MSS., No. 147, vol. vi. Reports of 
 Board of War. March 15, 1781. 
 
 3 Ibid., No. 148, vol. i., January 4, 1781; No. 149, vol. i., 
 August 6, 1782; No. 149, vol. ii., p. 461; No. 149, vol. iii., 
 p. 183. Federal garrisons were occasionally established at. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 275 
 
 village at Wheeling was again attacked. But its 
 most noteworthy siege occurred during the suc- 
 ceeding summer, when Simon Girty, with fife and 
 drum, led a large band of Indians and Detroit 
 rangers against it, only to be beaten off. The 
 siege was rendered memorable by the heroism of 
 a girl, who carried powder from the stockade to 
 an outlying log-house, defended by four men ; she 
 escaped unscathed because of her very boldness, 
 in spite of the fire from so many rifles, and to this 
 day the mountaineers speak of her deed.' 
 
 or withdrawn from, other posts on the upper Ohio besides 
 Fort Pitt; but their movements had no permanent value, 
 and only require chronicling by the local, State, or county 
 historians. In 1778, Fort Mcintosh was built at Beaver 
 Creek, on the north bank of the Ohio, and Fort Laurens 
 seventy miles towards the interior. The latter was soon 
 abandoned; the former was in Pennsylvania, and a garrison 
 was kept there. 
 
 ^ See De Haas, 263-281, for the fullest and probably most 
 accurate account of the siege; as already explained, he is the 
 most trustworthy of the border historians. But it is abso- 
 lutely impossible to find out the real facts concerning the 
 sieges of Wheeling; it is not quite certain even whether there 
 were two or three. The testimony as to whether the heroine 
 of the powder feat was Betty Zane or Molly Scott is hopelessly 
 conflicting; we do not know which of the two brothers 
 Girty was in command, nor whether either was present at 
 the first attack. Much even of De Haas's account is, to put 
 it mildly, greatly embelhshed; as, for instance, his statement 
 about the cannon (a small French gun, thrown into the 
 Monongahela when Fort Du Quesne was abandoned, and 
 fished up by a man named Naly, who was in swimming)^ 
 which he asserts cut "a wide passage" through the "deep 
 
276 The Winnino- of the West 
 
 It would be tiresome and profitless to so much 
 as name the many different stations that were at- 
 tacked. In their main incidents all the various 
 assaults were alike, and that made this summer 
 on McAfee's station may be taken as an illustra- 
 tion. 
 
 The McAfees brought their wives and children 
 to Kentucky in the fall of '79, and built a little 
 stockaded hamlet on the banks of Salt River, six 
 or seven miles from Harrodsburg. Some relatives 
 and friends joined them, but their station was 
 small and weak. The stockade, on the south 
 side, was very feeble, and there were but thirteen 
 men, besides the women and children, in garrison; 
 but they were strong and active, good woodsmen, 
 and excellent marksmen. The attack was made 
 on May 4, 1781.^ 
 
 The Indians lay all night at a corn-crib three 
 quarters of a mile distant from the stockade. The 
 settlers, though one of their number had been 
 carried off two months before, still continued 
 their usual occupations. But they were very 
 
 columns" of the savages. There is no reason to suppose 
 that the Indians suffered a serious loss. Wheeling was a 
 place of little strategic importance, and its fall wotild not 
 have produced any far-reaching effects. 
 
 ^ McAfee MSS. This is the date given in the MS. "Auto- 
 biography of Robert McAfee"; the MS. "History of First 
 Settlement on Salt River " says May 6th. I draw my account 
 from these two sources; the discrepancies are trivial. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 277 
 
 watchful and always kept a sharp lookout, driv- 
 ing the stock inside the yard at night. On the 
 day in question, at dawn, it was noticed that the 
 dogs and cattle betrayed symptoms of imeasiness ; 
 for all tame animals dreaded the sight or smell of 
 an Indian as they did that of a wild beast, and by 
 their alarm often warned the settlers and thus 
 saved their lives. 
 
 In this case the warning was unheeded. At 
 daybreak the stock were turned loose and four of 
 the men went outside the fort. Two began to 
 clear a patch of turnip-land about a hundred and 
 fifty yards off, leaving their guns against a tree 
 close at hand. The other two started towards 
 the corn-crib, with a horse and bag. After going 
 a quarter of a mile, the path dipped into a hollow, 
 and here they suddenly came on the Indians, ad- 
 vancing stealthily toward the fort. At the first 
 fire one of the men was killed, and the horse, 
 breaking loose, galloped back to the fort. The 
 other man likewise turned and ran towards home, 
 but was confronted by an Indian who leaped into 
 the path directly ahead of him. The two were 
 so close together that the muzzles of their guns 
 crossed, and both pulled trigger at once ; the In- 
 dian's gun missed fire and he fell dead in his tracks. 
 Continuing his flight, the survivor reached the 
 fort in safety. 
 
 When the two men in the turnip-patch heard 
 
278 The Winning of the West 
 
 the firing they seized their guns and ran towards 
 the point of attack, but seeing the number of the 
 assailants they turned back to the fort, trying to 
 drive the frightened stock before them. The In- 
 dians coming up close, they had to abandon the 
 attempt, although most of the horses and some 
 of the cattle got safely home. One of the men 
 reached the gate ahead of the Indians ; the other 
 was cut off, and took a roundabout route through 
 the woods. He speedily distanced all of his pur- 
 suers but one; several times he turned to shoot 
 the latter, but the Indian always took prompt 
 refuge behind a tree, and the white man then re- 
 newed his flight. At last he reached a fenced 
 orchard, on the border of the cleared ground 
 round the fort. Throwing himself over the fence 
 he lay still among the weeds on the other side. In 
 a minute or two the pursuer, running up, cau- 
 tiously peered over the fence, and was instantly 
 killed ; he proved to be a Shawnee chief, painted, 
 and decked with many silver armlets, rings, and 
 brooches. The fugitive then succeeded in mak- 
 ing his way into the fort. 
 
 The settlers inside the stockade had sprung to 
 arms the moment the first guns were heard. The 
 men fired on the advancing Indians, while the 
 women and children ran bullets and made ready 
 the rifle-patches. Every one displayed the coolest 
 determination, except one man who hid under a 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 279 
 
 bed, until found by his wife, whereupon he was ig- 
 nominiously dragged out and made to run bullets 
 with the women. 
 
 As the Indians advanced they shot down most 
 of the cattle and hogs and some of the horses that 
 were running frantically round the stockade ; and 
 they likewise shot several dogs that had sallied out 
 to help their masters. They then made a rush on 
 the fort, but were driven off at once, one of their 
 number being killed and several badly hurt, while 
 but one of the defenders was wounded, and he but 
 slightly. After this they withdrew to cover and 
 began a desultory firing, which lasted for some 
 time. 
 
 Suddenly a noise like distant thunder came to 
 the ears of the men in the fort. It was the beat 
 of horsehoofs. In a minute or two forty-five 
 horsemen, headed by McGarry, appeared on the 
 road leading from Harrodsburg, shouting and 
 brandishing their rifles as they galloped up. The 
 morning was so still that the firing had been 
 heard a very long way; and a band of mounted 
 riflemen had gathered in hot haste to go to the 
 relief of the beleaguered stockade. 
 
 The Indians, whooping defiance, retired ; while 
 McGarry halted a moment to allow the rescued 
 settlers to bridle their horses — saddles were not 
 thought of. The pursuit was then begun at full 
 speed. At the ford of a small creek nearby, the 
 
28o The Winning of the West 
 
 rearmost Indians turned and fired at the horse- 
 men, killing one and wounding another, while a 
 third had his horse mired down, and was left be- 
 hind. The main body was overtaken at the corn- 
 crib, and a running fight followed; the whites 
 leaving their horses and both sides taking shelter 
 behind the tree-trunks. Soon two Indians were 
 killed, and the others scattered in every direction, 
 while the victors returned in triumph to the sta- 
 tion. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that though the Indians 
 were defeated, and though they were pitted 
 against first-class rifle-shots, they yet had but five 
 men killed and a very few wounded. They rarely 
 stiffered a heavy loss in battle with the whites, 
 even when beaten in the open or repulsed from a 
 fort. They would not stand heavy punishment, 
 and in attacking a fort generally relied upon a 
 single headlong rush, made under cover of darkness 
 or as a surprise; they tried to unnerve their an- 
 tagonists by the sudden fury of their onslaught 
 and the deafening accompaniment of whoops and 
 yells. If they began to suffer much loss they gave 
 up at once, and if pursued scattered in every direc- 
 tion, each man for himself, and, owing to their 
 endurance, woodcraft, and skill in hiding, usually 
 got ofl with marvellously little damage. At the 
 outside a dozen of their men might be killed in 
 the pursuit by such of the vengeful backwoods- 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 281 
 
 men as were exceptionally fleet of foot. The 
 northwestern tribes at this time appreciated 
 thoroughly that their marvellous fighting qualities 
 were shown to best advantage in the woods, and 
 neither in the defence nor in the assault of fortified 
 places. They never cooped themselves in stock- 
 ades to receive an attack from the whites, as was 
 done by the Massachusetts Algonquins in the 
 seventeenth century, and by the Creeks at the 
 beginning of the nineteenth; and it was only 
 when behind defensive works from which they 
 could not retreat that the forest Indians ever suf- 
 fered heavily when defeated by the whites. On 
 the other hand, the defeat of the average white 
 force was usually followed by a merciless slaughter. 
 Skilled backwoodsmen scattered out, Indian fash- 
 ion, but their less skilful or more panic-struck 
 brethren, and all regulars or ordinary militia, kept 
 together from a kind of blind feeling of safety in 
 companionship, and in consequence their nimble 
 and ruthless antagonists destroyed them at their 
 ease. 
 
 Still, the Indian war-parties were often checked 
 or scattered; and occasionally one of them re- 
 ceived some signal discomfiture. Such was the 
 case with a band that went up the Kanawha val- 
 ley just as Clark was descending the Ohio on his 
 way to the Illinois. Finding the fort at the mouth 
 of the Kanawha too strong to be carried, they 
 
282 The Winning of the West 
 
 moved on up the river towards the Greenbriar 
 settlements, their chiefs shouting threateningly to 
 the people in the fort, and taunting them with 
 the impending destruction of their friends and kin- 
 dred. But two young men in the stockade forth- 
 with dressed and painted themselves like Indians, 
 that they might escape notice even if seen, and 
 speeding through the woods reached the settle- 
 ments first and gave warning. The settlers took 
 refuge on a farm where there was a blockhouse 
 with a stockaded yard. The Indians attacked in 
 a body at daybreak when the door was opened, 
 thinking to rush into the house; but they were 
 beaten off, and paid dear for their boldness, for 
 seventeen of them were left dead in the yard, be- 
 sides the killed and wounded whom they carried 
 away.' In the same year a blockhouse was at- 
 
 ^ McKee was the commander at the fort; the blockhouse 
 was owned by Colonel Andrew Donelly; Hanlon and Prior 
 were the names of the two young men. This happened in 
 May, 1778. For the anecdotes of personal prowess in this 
 chapter, see De Haas, or else Kercheval, McClung, Doddridge, 
 and the fifty other annalists of those western wars, who 
 repeat many of the same stories. All relate facts of un- 
 doubted authenticity and wildly improbable tales, resting 
 solely on tradition, with exactly the same faith. The 
 chronological order of these anecdotes being unimportant, I 
 have grouped them here. It must always be remembered 
 that both the men and the incidents described are interesting 
 chiefly as examples; the old annalists give many hundreds of 
 such anecdotes, and there must have been thousands more 
 that they did not relate. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 283 
 
 tacked while the children were playing outside. 
 The Indians in their sudden rush killed one settler, 
 wounded four, and actually got inside the house ; 
 yet three were killed or disabled, and they were 
 driven out by the despairing fury of the remaining 
 whites, the women fighting together with the men. 
 Then the savages instantly fled, but they had 
 killed and scalped, or carried off, ten of the children. 
 Be it remembered that these instances are taken 
 i at random from among hundreds of others, ex- 
 tending over a series of years longer than the 
 average life of a generation. 
 
 The Indians warred with the odds immeasurably 
 in their favor. The Ohio was the boundary be- 
 tween their remaining hunting-grounds and the 
 lands where the whites had settled. In Kentucky 
 alone this frontier was already seventy miles in 
 length.' Beyond the river stretched the frown- 
 ing forest, to the Indians a sure shield in battle, a 
 secure haven in disaster, an impenetrable mask 
 from behind which to plan attack. Clark, from 
 his post at the Falls, sent out spies and scouts 
 along the banks of the river, and patrolled its 
 waters with his gunboat; but it was absolutely 
 impossible to stop all the forays or to tell the point 
 likely to be next struck. A war-party starting 
 
 ^Virginia State Papers, i., 437. Letter of Colonel John 
 Floyd. The Kentuckians, he notices, trust militia more 
 than thev do resfulars 
 
284 The Winning of the West 
 
 from the wigwam-towns would move silently down 
 through the woods, cross the Ohio at any point, 
 and stealthily and rapidly traverse the settlements, 
 its presence undiscovered until the deeds of mur- 
 der and rapine were done, and its track marked by 
 charred cabins and the ghastly, mutilated bodies 
 of men, women, and children. 
 
 If themselves assailed, the warriors fought des- 
 perately and effectively. They sometimes at- 
 tacked bodies of troops, but always by ambush or 
 surprise; and they much preferred to pounce on 
 unprepared and unsuspecting surveyors, farmers, 
 or wayfarers, or to creep up to solitary, outlying 
 cabins. They valued the scalps of women and 
 children as highly as those of men. Striking a 
 sudden blow, where there was hardly any possi- 
 bility of loss to themselves, they instantly moved 
 on to the next settlement, repeating the process 
 again and again. Tireless, watchful, cautious, 
 and rapid, they covered great distances, and their 
 stealth and the mystery of their coming and going 
 added to the terror produced by the horrible 
 nature of their ravages. When pursued, they 
 dextrously covered their trail, and started home- 
 wards across a hundred leagues of trackless wilder- 
 ness. The pursuers almost of necessity went 
 slower, for they had to puzzle out the tracks ; and 
 after a certain number of days either their food 
 gave out or they found themselves too far from 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 285 
 
 home, and were obliged to return. In most in- 
 stances the pursuit was vain. Thus a party of 
 twenty savages might make a war trail some hun- 
 dreds of miles in length, taking forty or fifty 
 scalps, carrying off a dozen women and children, 
 and throwing a number of settlements, with per- 
 haps a total population of a thousand souls, into a 
 rage of terror and fury, with a loss to themselves 
 of but one or two men killed and wounded. 
 
 Throughout the summer of 1781 the settlers 
 were scourged by an unbroken series of raids of 
 this kind. In August, McKee, Brant, and other 
 tory and Indian leaders assembled on the Miami 
 an army of perhaps a thousand warriors. They 
 were collected to oppose Clark's intended march to 
 Detroit; for the British leaders were well aware 
 of Clark's intention, and trusted to the savages to 
 frustrate it if he attempted to put it into execu- 
 tion. Brant went off for a scout with a hundred 
 warriors, and destroyed Loughry's party of West- 
 moreland men, as already related, returning to the 
 main body after having done so. The fickle sav- 
 ages were much elated by this stroke, but instead 
 of being inspired to greater efforts, took the view 
 that the danger of invasion was now over. After 
 much persuasion. Brant, McKee, and the captain 
 of the Detroit Rangers, Thompson, persuaded them 
 to march towards the Falls. On September 9th, 
 they were within thirty miles of their destination, 
 
286 The Winning of the West 
 
 and halted to send out scouts. Two prisoners 
 were captured, from whom it was learned 
 that Clark had abandoned his proposed expedi- 
 tion.' Instantly the Indians began to disband, 
 some returning to their homes, and others scatter- 
 ing out to steal horses and burn isolated cabins. 
 Nor could the utmost efforts of their leaders keep 
 them together. They had no wish to fight Clark 
 unless it was absolutely necessary in order to save 
 their villages and crops from destruction; and 
 they much preferred plundering on their own 
 account. However, a couple of hundred Hurons 
 and Miamis, under Brant and McKee, were kept 
 together, and moved southwards between the 
 Kentucky and Salt rivers, intending "to attack 
 some of the small forts and infest the roads." ^ 
 About the middle of the month they fell in with a 
 party of settlers led by Squire Boon. 
 
 Squire Boon had built a fort, some distance 
 from any other, and when rumors of a great In- 
 dian invasion reached him, he determined to leave 
 it and join the stations on Bear Grass Creek. 
 When he reached Long Run, with his men, women, 
 and children, cattle, and household goods, he 
 stumbled against the two hundred warriors of Mc- 
 
 * Haldimand MSS. Captain A. Thompson to De Peyster, 
 September 26, 1781. 
 
 2 Ibid. Captain A. McKee to De Peyster, September 26, 
 1781. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 287 
 
 Kee and Brant. His people were scattered to the 
 four winds, with the loss of many scalps and all 
 their goods and cattle. The victors camped on 
 the ground with the intention of ambushing any 
 party that arrived to bury the dead ; for they were 
 confident some of the settlers would come for this 
 purpose. Nor were they disappointed; for next 
 morning Floyd, the county lieutenant, with 
 twenty-five men, made his appearance. Floyd 
 marched so quickly that he came on the Indians 
 before they were prepared to receive him. A 
 smart skirmish ensued ; but the whites were hope- 
 lessly outnumbered, and were soon beaten and 
 scattered, with a loss of twelve or thirteen men. 
 Floyd himself, exhausted, and with his horse 
 shot, would have been captured had not another 
 man, one Samuel Wells, who was excellently moun- 
 ted, seen his plight. Wells reined in, leaped off his 
 horse, and, making Floyd ride, he ran beside him 
 and both escaped. The deed was doubly noble, 
 because the men had previously been enemies.^ 
 The frontiersmen had made a good defence in 
 spite of the tremendous odds against them, and 
 had slain four of their opponents, three Hurons and 
 
 ^ Marshall, i., 1 16. Floyd had previously written Jefferson 
 {Virginia State Papers, i., 47) that in his country there were 
 but three hundred and fifty-four militia between sixteen and 
 fifty-four years old; that all people were living in forts, and that 
 forty-seven of the settlers of all ages had been killed, and many 
 wounded, since January; so his defeat was a serious blow. 
 
288 The Winning of the West 
 
 a Miami.' Among the former was the head chief, 
 a famous warrior; his death so discouraged the 
 Indians that they straightway returned home with, 
 their scalps and plunder, resisting McKee's en- 
 treaty that they would first attack Boonsborough. 
 
 One war-party carried off Logan's family ; but 
 Logan, following swiftly after, came on the savages 
 so suddenly that he killed several of their number, 
 and rescued all his own people unhurt.^ 
 
 Often French Canadians, and more rarely tories, 
 accompanied these little bands of murderous 
 plunderers ^ — besides the companies of Detroit 
 Rangers who went with the large war-parties, — 
 and they were all armed and urged on by the 
 British at Detroit. One of the official British re- 
 
 ^ Haldimand MSS. Thompson's letter; McKee only 
 mentions the three Hurons. As already explained, the 
 partisan leaders were apt, in enumerating the Indian losses, 
 only to give such as had occurred in their own particular 
 bands. Marshall makes the fight take place in April; the 
 Haldimand MSS. show that it was in September. Marshall 
 is as valuable for early Kentucky history as Hay^vood for 
 the corresponding periods in Tennessee; but both one and 
 the other write largely from tradition, and can never be 
 followed when they contradict contemporary reports. 
 
 ' Bradford MSS. 
 
 3 At this very time a small band that had captured a family 
 in the Kanawha valley were pursued fifty miles, overtaken, 
 several killed and wounded, and the prisoners recaptured, by 
 Colonel Andrew Donelly, mentioned in a previous note; it 
 consisted of two French and eight Indians. Virginia State 
 Papers, i., 60 1, 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 289 
 
 ports to Lord George Germain, made on October 
 23d of this year, deals with the Indian war-parties 
 employed against the northwestern frontier. 
 "Many smaller Indian parties have been very 
 successful. ... It would be endless and 
 difficult to enumerate to your Lordship the parties 
 that are continually employed upon the back 
 settlements. From the Illinois country to the 
 frontiers of New York there is a continual succes- 
 sion . . . the perpetual terror and losses of 
 the inhabitants will I hope operate powerfully in 
 our favor " ' — so runs the letter. At the same 
 same time the British commander in Canada was 
 pointing out to his subordinate at Detroit that 
 the real danger to British rule arose from the ex- 
 tension of the settlements westwards, and that 
 this the Indians could prevent ; in other words, 
 the savages were expressly directed to make war 
 on non-combatants, for it was impossible to attack 
 a settlement without attacking the women and 
 children therein.^ In return, the frontiersmen 
 speedily grew to regard both British and Indians 
 with the same venomous and indiscriminate anger. 
 
 ^ See full copy of the letter in Mr. Martindale's excellent 
 pamphlet, above quoted. 
 
 2 Haldimand MSS. Haldimand to De Peyster, June 24, 
 1 78 1. Throughout the letters of the British officers at and 
 near Detroit there are constant allusions to scalps being 
 brought in; but not one word, as far as I have seen, to show 
 that the Indians were ever reproved because many of the 
 
 VOL. II. — 19. 
 
290 The Winning of the West 
 
 In the writings of the early annalists of these 
 Indian wars are to be found the records of count- 
 less deeds of individual valor and cowardice, prow- 
 ess and suffering, of terrible woe in time of disaster 
 and defeat, and of the glutting of ferocious ven- 
 geance in the days of triumphant reprisal. They 
 contain tales of the most heroic courage and of the 
 vilest poltroonery ; for the iron times brought out 
 all that was best and all that was basest in the 
 human breast. We read of husbands leaving 
 their wives, and women their children, to the 
 most dreadful of fates, on the chance that they 
 themselves might thereby escape; and, on the 
 other hand, we read again and again of the noblest 
 acts of self-sacrifice, where the man freely gave his 
 life for that of his wife or child, his brother or his 
 friend. Many deeds of unflinching loyalty are 
 recorded, but very, very few where magnanimity 
 was shown to a fallen foe. The women shared the 
 stern qualities of the men ; often it happened that 
 when the house-owner had been shot down, his 
 wife made good the defence of the cabin with rifle 
 or with axe, hewing valiantly at the savages who 
 
 scalps were those of women and children. It is only fair to 
 say, however, that there are several instances of the com- 
 manders exhorting the Indians to be merciful — which was a 
 waste of breath, — and several other instances where suc- 
 cessful efforts were made to stop the use of torture. The 
 British officers were generally personally humane to their 
 prisoners. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 291 
 
 tried to break through the door, or dig under the 
 puncheon floor, or, perhaps, burst down through 
 the roof or wide chimney. Many hundreds of 
 these tales could be gathered together ; one or two 
 are worth giving, not as being unique, but rather 
 as samples of innumerable others of the same kind. 
 
 In those days ' there lived beside the Ohio, in 
 extreme northwestern Virginia, two tall brothers, 
 famed for their strength, agility, and courage. 
 They were named Adam and Andrew Poe. In 
 the summer of '81 a party of seven Wyandots or 
 Hurons came into their settlement, burned some 
 cabins, and killed one of the settlers. Imme- 
 diately eight backwoodsmen started in chase of 
 the marauders; among them were the two Poes. 
 
 The Wyandots were the bravest of all the In- 
 dian tribes, the most dangerous in battle, and the 
 most merciful in victory, rarely torturing their 
 prisoners; the backwoodsmen respected them 
 for their prowess more than they did any other 
 tribe, and, if captured, esteemed themselves for- 
 tunate to fall into Wyandot hands. These seven 
 warriors were the most famous and dreaded of the 
 whole tribe. They included four brothers, one 
 being the chief Bigfoot, who was of gigantic 
 strength and stature, the champion of all, their 
 
 ^ 1781, De Haas; Doddridge, whom the other compilers 
 follow, gives a wrong date (1782), and reverses the parts the 
 two brothers played. 
 
292 The Winning of the West 
 
 most fearless and redoubtable fighter, yet their 
 very confidence ruined them, for they retreated in 
 a leisurely manner, caring little whether they 
 were overtaken or not, as they had many times 
 worsted the whites, and did not deem them their 
 equals in battle. 
 
 The backwoodsmen followed the trail swiftly 
 all day long, and, by the help of the moon, late 
 into the night. Early next morning they again 
 started and found themselves so near the Wyan- 
 dots that Andrew Poe turned aside and went 
 down to the bed of a neighboring stream, thinking 
 to come up behind the Indians while they were 
 menaced by his comrades in front. Hearing a 
 low murmur, he crept up through the bushes to 
 a jutting rock on the brink of the watercourse, 
 and, peering cautiously over, he saw two Indians 
 beneath him. They were sitting under a willow, 
 talking in deep whispers; one was an ordinary 
 warrior, the other, by his gigantic size, was evi- 
 dently the famous chief himself. Andrew took 
 steady aim at the big chief's breast and pulled 
 trigger. The rifle flashed in the pan ; and the two 
 Indians sprang to their feet with a deep grunt of 
 surprise. For a second all three stared at one 
 another. Then Andrew sprang over the rock, 
 striking the big Indian's breast with a shock that 
 bore him to the earth; while at the moment of 
 alighting, he threw his arm round the small In- 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 293 
 
 dian's neck, and all three rolled on the ground 
 together. 
 
 At this instant they heard sharp firing in the 
 woods above them. The rest of the whites and 
 Indians had discovered one another at the same 
 time. A furious but momentary fight ensued; 
 three backwoodsmen and four Indians were killed 
 outright, no other white being hurt, while the single 
 remaining red warrior made his escape, though 
 badly wounded. But the three men who were 
 struggling for life and death in the ravine had no 
 time to pay heed to outside matters. For a mo- 
 ment Andrew kept down both his antagonists, 
 who were stunned by the shock; but before he 
 could use his knife the big Indian wrapped him in 
 his arms and held him as if in a vise. This enabled 
 the small Indian to wrest himself loose, when the 
 big chief ordered him to run for his tomahawk, 
 which lay on the sand ten feet away, and to kill 
 the white man as he lay powerless in the chief's 
 arms. Andrew could not break loose, but, watch- 
 ing his chance, as the small Indian came up, he 
 kicked him so violently in the chest that he 
 knocked the tomahawk out of his hand and sent 
 him staggering into the water. Thereat the big 
 chief grunted out his contempt, and thundered 
 at the small Indian a few words that Andrew 
 could not understand. The small Indian again 
 approached and after making several feints, 
 
294 The Winning of the West 
 
 struck with the tomahawk, but Andrew dodged 
 and received the blow on his wrist instead of his 
 head; and the wound, though deep, was not dis- 
 abHng. By a sudden and mighty effort he now 
 shook himself free from the giant, and, snatching 
 up a loaded rifle from the sand, shot the small In- 
 dian as he rushed on him. But at that moment the 
 the larger Indian, rising up, seized him and hurled 
 him to the ground. He was on his feet in a sec- 
 ond, and the two grappled furiously, their knives 
 being lost ; Andrew's activity and skill as a wrest- 
 ler and boxer making amends for his lack of 
 strength. Locked in each other's arms they 
 rolled into the water. Here each tried to drown 
 the other, and Andrew catching the chief by the 
 scalp-lock held his head under the water until his 
 faint struggles ceased. Thinking his foe dead, he 
 loosed his grip to get at his knife, but, as Andrew 
 aftenv^ards said, the Indian had only been "play- 
 ing 'possum," and in a second the struggle was 
 renewed. Both combatants rolled into deep 
 water, when they separated and struck out for the 
 shore. The Indian proved the best swimmer, and 
 ran up to the rifle that lay on the sand, whereupon 
 Andrew turned to swim out into the stream, hop- 
 ing to save his life by diving. At this moment 
 his brother Adam appeared on the bank, and see- 
 ing Andrew covered with blood and swimming 
 rapidly away, mistook him for an Indian, and shot 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 295 
 
 him in the shoulder. Immediately afterwards he 
 saw his real antagonist. Both had empty guns 
 and the contest became one as to who could beat 
 the other in loading, the Indian exclaiming : " Who 
 load first, shoot first!" The chief got his powder 
 down first, but, in hurriedly drawing out his ram- 
 rod, it slipped through his fingers and fell in the 
 river. Seeing that it was all over, he instantly 
 faced his foe, pulled open the bosom of his shirt, 
 and the next moment received the ball fair in his 
 breast. Adam, alarmed for his brother, who by 
 this time could barely keep himself afloat, rushed 
 into the river to save him, not heeding Andrew's 
 repeated cries to take the big Indian's scalp. 
 Meanwhile the dying chief, resolute to save the 
 long locks his enemies coveted — always a point of 
 honor among the red men — painfully rolled him- 
 self into the stream. Before he died he reached 
 the deep water, and the swift current bore his 
 body away. 
 
 About this time a hunter named McConnell was 
 captured near Lexington by five Indians. At 
 night he wriggled out of his bonds and slew four 
 of his sleeping captors, while the fifth, who es- 
 caped, was so bewildered that, on reaching the 
 Indian town, he reported that his party had been 
 attacked at night by a number of whites, who had 
 not only killed his companions but the prisoner 
 likewise. 
 
296 The Winning of the West 
 
 A still more remarkable event had occurred a 
 couple of summers previously. Some keel-boats, 
 manned by a hundred men under Lieutenant 
 Rogers, and carrying arms and provisions pro- 
 cured from the Spaniards at New Orleans, were 
 set upon by an Indian war-party under Girty and 
 Elliott.' while drawn up on a sand beach of the 
 Ohio. The boats were captured and plundered, 
 and most of the men were killed ; several escaped, 
 two under very extraordinary circumstances. One 
 had both his arms, the other both his legs, broken. 
 They lay hid till the Indians disappeared, and 
 then accidentally discovered each other. For 
 weeks the two crippled beings lived in the lonely 
 spot where the battle had been fought, unable to 
 leave it, each supplementing what the other could 
 do. The man who could walk kicked wood to 
 him who could not, that he might make a fire, and, 
 making long circuits, chased the game towards 
 him for him to shoot it. At last they were taken 
 off by a passing fiat-boat. 
 
 The backwoodsmen, wonted to vigorous ath- 
 letic pastimes, and to fierce brawls among them- 
 selves, were generally overmatches for the Indians 
 in hand-to-hand struggles. One such fight, that 
 took place some years before this time, deserves 
 mention. A man of herculean strength and of 
 
 ' Haldimand MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, November 
 I. 1779- 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 297 
 
 fierce, bold nature, named Bingaman, lived on the 
 frontier in a lonely log-house. The cabin had 
 but a single room below, in which Bingaman slept, 
 as well as his mother, wife, and child ; a hired man 
 slept in the loft. One night eight Indians as- 
 sailed the house. As they burst in the door 
 Bingaman thrust the women and the child under 
 the bed, his wife being wounded by a shot in the 
 breast. Then, having discharged his piece, he 
 began to beat about at random with the long 
 heavy rifle. The door swung partially to, and in 
 the darkness nothing could be seen. The num- 
 bers of the Indians helped them but little, for 
 Bingaman 's tremendous strength enabled him to 
 shake himself free whenever grappled. One after 
 another his foes sank under his crushing blows, 
 killed or crippled; it is said that at last but one 
 was left, to flee from the house in terror. The 
 hired man had not dared to come down from the 
 loft, and when Bingaman found his wife wounded 
 he became so enraged that it was with difficulty 
 he could be kept from killing him.' 
 
 Incidents such as these followed one another in 
 
 ^ It is curious how faithfully, as well as vividly, Cooper has 
 reproduced these incidents. His pictures of the white 
 frontiersmen are generally true to life; in his most noted 
 Indian characters he is much less fortunate. But his 
 "Indian John" in the Pioneers is one of his best portraits; 
 almost equal praise can be given to "Susquesus" in the 
 Chainhearers. 
 
298 The Winning of the West 
 
 quick succession. They deserve notice less for 
 their own sakes than as examples of the way the 
 West was won ; for the land was really conquered 
 not so much by the actual shock of battle between 
 bodies of soldiers, as by the continuous westward 
 movement of the armed settlers and the unceasing 
 individual warfare waged between them and their 
 red foes. 
 
 For the same reason one or two of the more 
 noted hunters and Indian scouts deserve mention, 
 as types of hundreds of their fellows who spent 
 their lives and met their deaths in the forest. It 
 was their warfare that really did most to diminish 
 the fighting force of the tribes. They battled ex- 
 actly as their foes did, making forays, alone or in 
 small parties, for scalps and horses, and in their 
 skirmishes inflicted as much loss as they received ; 
 in striking contrast to what occurred in conflicts 
 between the savages and regular troops. 
 
 One of the most formidable of these hunters 
 was Lewis Wetzel.' Boon, Kenton, and Harrod 
 illustrate by their lives the nobler, kindlier traits 
 of the dauntless border-folk; Wetzel, hke Mc- 
 Garry, shows the dark side of the picture. He 
 was a good friend to his white neighbors, or at 
 least to such of them as he liked, and as a hunter 
 and fighter there was not in all the land his su- 
 
 ^ The name is variously spelt; in the original German 
 records of the family it appears as Watzel, or Watzel. 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 299 
 
 perior. But he was of brutal and violent temper, 
 and for the Indians he knew no pity and felt no 
 generosity. They had killed many of his friends 
 and relations, among others his father; and he 
 hunted them in peace or war like wolves. His ad- 
 mirers denied that he ever showed "unwonted 
 cruelty" ' to Indian women and children; that he 
 sometimes killed them cannot be gainsaid. Some 
 of his feats were cold-blooded murders, as when he 
 killed an Indian who came in to treat with General 
 Harmar, under pledge of safe conduct ; one of his 
 brothers slew in like fashion a chief who came 
 to see Colonel Brodhead. But the frontiersmen 
 loved him, for his mere presence was a protection, 
 so great was the terror he inspired among the red 
 men. His hardihood and address were only 
 equalled by his daring and courage. He was lit- 
 erally a man without fear ; in his few days of peace 
 his chief amusements were wrestling, foot-racing, 
 and shooting at a mark. He was a dandy, too, 
 after the fashion of the backwoods, especially 
 proud of his mane of long hair, which, when he let 
 it down, hung to his knees. He often hunted 
 alone in the Indian country, a hundred miles be- 
 yond the Ohio. As he dared not light a bright 
 fire on these trips, he would, on cold nights, make 
 a small coal-pit, and cower over it, drawing his 
 blanket over his head, when, to use his own words, 
 
 ^ De Haas, 345. 
 
300 The Winning of the West 
 
 he soon became as hot as in a "stove room." 
 Once he surprised four Indians sleeping in their 
 camp; falHng on them he killed three. Another 
 time, when pursued by the same number of foes, 
 he loaded his rifle as he ran, and killed in succession 
 the three foremost, whereat the other fled. In all, 
 he took over thirty scalps of warriors, thus killing 
 more Indians than were slain by either one of the 
 two large armies of Braddock and St. Clair during 
 their disastrous campaigns. Wetzel's frame, like 
 his heart, was of steel. But his temper was too 
 sullen and unruly for him ever to submit to com- 
 mand or to bear rule over others. His feats were 
 performed when he was either alone or with two 
 or three associates. An army of such men would 
 have been wholly valueless. 
 
 Another man, of a far higher type, was Captain 
 Samuel Brady, already a noted Indian fighter on 
 the Alleghany. For many years after the close 
 of the Revolutionary War he was the chief reliance 
 of the frontiersmen of his own neighborhood. He 
 had lost a father and a brother by the Indians; 
 and in return he followed the red men with relent- 
 less hatred. But he never killed peaceful Indians 
 nor those who came in under flags of truce. The 
 tale of his wanderings, his captivities, his hair- 
 breadth escapes, and deeds of individual prowess 
 would fill a book. He frequently went on scouts 
 alone, either to procure information or to get 
 
Continuance of the Struggle 301 
 
 scalps. On these trips he was not only often re- 
 duced to the last extremity by hunger, fatigue, 
 and exposure, but was in hourly peril of his life 
 from the Indians he was hunting. Once he was 
 captured; but when about to be bound to the 
 stake for burning he suddenly flung an Indian boy 
 into the fire, and in the confusion burst through 
 the warriors, and actually made his escape, though 
 the whole pack of yelling savages followed at his 
 heels with rifle and tomahawk. He raised a small 
 company of scouts or rangers, and was one of the 
 very few captains able to reduce the unruly fron- 
 tiersmen to order. In consequence, his company 
 on several occasions fairly whipped superior 
 numbers of Indians in the woods ; a feat that no 
 regulars could perform, and to which the back- 
 woodsmen themselves were generally unequal 
 (even though an overmatch for their foes singly), 
 because of their disregard of discipline.^ 
 
 So, with foray and reprisal, and fierce private 
 war, with all the border in a flame, the year 1781 
 came to an end. At its close there were in Ken- 
 tucky seven hundred and sixty able-bodied mi- 
 litia, fit for an offensive campaign.^ As this did 
 
 ^ In the open plain the comparative prowess of these forest 
 Indians, of the backwoodsmen, and of trained regulars was 
 exactly the reverse of what it was in the woods. 
 
 2 Letter of John Todd, October 21, 1781. Virginia State 
 Papers, ii., 562. The troops at the Falls were in a very desti- 
 tute condition, with neither supplies nor money, and their 
 
302 The Winning of the West 
 
 not include the troops at the Falls, nor the large 
 shifting population, nor the "fort soldiers," the 
 weaker men, graybeards, and boys, who could 
 handle a rifle behind a stockade, it is probable 
 that there were then somewhere between four and 
 five thousand souls in Kentucky. 
 
 credit worn threadbare, able to get nothing from the sur- 
 rounding country (ibid., p. 313). In Clark's absence the 
 colonel let his garrison be insulted by the townspeople, and 
 so brought the soldiers into contempt, while some of the 
 demoralized officers tampered with the pubUc stores. It was 
 said that much dissipation prevailed in the garrison, to which 
 accusation Clark answered sarcastically : ' ' However agreeable 
 such conduct might have been to their sentiments, I beheve 
 they seldom had the means in their power, for they were 
 generally in a starving condition" (ibid., vol. iii., pp. 347 and 
 
 359)- 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 TO CHAPTER I 
 
 (Campbell MSS; this letter and the one following are from 
 copies, and the spelling etc., may not be quite as in the 
 
 originals.) 
 
 Camp Opposite the Mouth of the 
 Great Kenaway, 
 
 October i6 — 1774. 
 
 Dear Uncle, 
 
 I gladly embrace this opportunity to acquaint 
 you that we are all here yet alive through God's 
 mercies, & I sincerely wish that this may find you 
 and your family in the station of health that we 
 left you. I never had anything worth notice to 
 acquaint you with since I left you till now — the 
 express seems to be hurrying, that I cannot write 
 you with the same coolness and deliberation as I 
 would. We arrived at the mouth of the Cana- 
 way, thursday 6th. Octo. and encamped on a fine 
 piece of ground, with an intent to wait for the 
 Governor and his party but hearing that he was 
 going another way we contented ourselves to stay 
 there a few days to rest the troops, &c. where we 
 looked upon ourselves to be in safety till Monday 
 
 303 
 
304 The Winning of the West 
 
 morning the loth. instant when two of our com- 
 pany went out before day to hunt — to wit Val. 
 Sevier and James Robinson and discovered a 
 party of Indians. As I expect you will hear some- 
 thing of our battle before you get this, I have here 
 stated the affair nearly to you: 
 
 For the satisfaction of the people in your parts 
 in this they have a true state of the memorable 
 battle fought at the mouth of the Great Canaway 
 on the loth. instant. Monday morning about 
 half an hour before sunrise, two of Capt. Russells 
 company discovered a large party of Indians 
 about a mile from camp, one of which men was 
 killed, the other made his escape & brought in his 
 intelligence. In two or three minutes after, two 
 of Capt. Shelby's Company came in & confirmed 
 the account. Col. Andrew Lewis being informed 
 thereof immediately ordered Col. Charles Lewis 
 to take the command of 150 men from Augusta 
 and with him went Capt. Dickison, Capt. Harri- 
 son, Capt. Wilson, Capt. John Lewis, from Au- 
 gusta and Capt. Sockridge which made the first 
 division. Col. Fleming was also ordered to take 
 the command of one hundred and fifty more, con- 
 sisting of Battertout, Fincastle & Bedford troops, 
 — viz., Capt. Buford of Bedford, Capt. Lewis of 
 Battertout, Capt. Shelby & Capt. Russell of Fin- 
 castle which made the second division. Col. 
 Lewis marched with his division to the right some 
 
Appendix A 305 
 
 distance from the Ohio. Col. Fleming with his 
 division up the bank of the Ohio to the left. Col. 
 Lewis' division had not marched little more than 
 a quarter of a mile from camp when about sunrise, 
 an attack was made on the front of his division in 
 a most vigorous manner by the united tribes In- 
 dians, — Shawnees, Delawares, Mingoes, Taways, 
 and of several other nations, in number not less 
 than eight hundred, and by many thought to be 
 a thousand. In this heavy attack Col. Charles 
 Lewis received a wound which soon after caused 
 his death, and several of his men fell on the spot, — 
 in fact the Augusta division was forced to give 
 way to the heavy fire of the enemy. In about 
 the second of a minute after the attack on Col. 
 Lewis' division, the enemy engaged of Col. Flem- 
 ing's division on the ohio and in a short time Col. 
 Fleming received two balls thro' his left arm and 
 one thro' his breast; and after animating the 
 Captains & soldiers in a calm manner to the pur- 
 suit of victory returned to the camp. The loss of 
 the brave Col's was severely felt by the officers in 
 particular. But the Augusta troops being shortly 
 reinforced from camp by Col. Field with his com- 
 pany, together with Capt. M'Dowers, Capt. Mat- 
 thew's and Capt. Stewart's from Augusta; Capt. 
 John Lewis, Capt. Paulins, Capt. Arbuckle's, 
 and Capt. M'Clannahan's from Battertout. The 
 enemy no longer able to maintain their ground 
 
 VOL. II.— 20. 
 
3o6 The Winning of the West 
 
 was forced to give way till they were in a line with 
 the troops left in action on branches of ohio by 
 Col. Fleming. In this precipitate retreat Col. 
 Field was killed; after which Capt. Shelby was 
 ordered to take the command. During this time 
 which was till after twelve of the clock, the action 
 continued extremely hot, the close underwood, 
 many steep banks and logs greatly favored their 
 retreat, and the bravest of their men made the 
 best use of themselves, while others were throwing 
 their dead into the ohio, and carrying off the 
 wounded. After twelve the action in a small de- 
 gree abated, but continued sharp enough till after 
 one o'clock. Their long retreat gave them a most 
 advantageous spot of ground; from which it ap- 
 peared to the officers so difficult to dislodge them, 
 that it was thought most advisable, to stand as 
 the line was then formed, which was about a mile 
 and a quarter in length, and had till then sustained 
 a constant and equal weight of fire from wing to 
 wing. It was till half an hour of sunset they con- 
 tinued firing on us, which we returned to their 
 disadvantage, at length night coming on they 
 found a safe retreat. They had not the satisfac- 
 tion of scalping any of our men save one or two 
 stragglers, whom they killed before the engage- 
 ment. Many of their dead they scalped rather 
 than we should have them, but our troops scalped 
 upwards of twenty of those who were first killed. 
 
Appendix A 307 
 
 Its beyond a doubt, their loss in numbers far ex- 
 ceeds ours which is considerable. 
 
 Field officers killed — Col. Charles Lewis, & Col. 
 John Fields. Field officers wounded — Col. Wil- 
 liam Fleming; — Capts. killed, John Murray, Capt. 
 Samuel Wilson, Capt. Robert M'Clannahan, Capt. 
 James Ward. Capts. wounded — Thomas Buford, 
 John Dickison & John Scidmore. Subalterns 
 killed, Lieutenant Hugh Allen, Ensign Matthew 
 Brackin & Ensign Cundiff ; Subalterns wounded, 
 Lieut. Lane, Lieut. Vance, Lieut. Goldman, Lieut. 
 James Robertson; and about 46 killed and 60 
 wounded. From this sir you may judge that we 
 had a very hard day ; its really impossible for me 
 to express or you to conceive the acclamations 
 that we were under, — sometimes the hideous cries 
 of the enemy, and the groans of our wounded men 
 lying around, was enough to shudder the stoutest 
 heart. Its the general opinion of the officers that 
 we shall soon have another engagement, as we have 
 now got over into the enemy's country. We ex- 
 pect to meet the Governor about forty or fifty 
 miles from here. Nothing will save us from an- 
 other battle, unless they attack the Governors 
 party. Five men that came in dadys [daddy's] 
 company were killed. I don't know that you were 
 acquainted with any of them, except Mark Wil- 
 liams who lived with Roger Top. Acquaint Mr. 
 Carmack that his son was shghtly wounded 
 
3o8 i he Winning of the West 
 
 through the shoulder and arm and that he is in a 
 Hkely way of recovery. We leave him at the 
 mouth of the Canaway and one very careful hand 
 to take care of him. There is a garrison and three 
 hundred men left at that place, with a surgeon to 
 heal the wounded. We expect to return to the 
 garrison in about i6 days from the Shawny towns. 
 I have nothing more particular to acquaint you 
 with concerning the battle. As to the country I 
 cannot say much in praise of any that I have yet 
 seen. Dady intended writing you, but did not 
 know of the express until the time was too short. 
 I have wrote to mammy tho' not so fully to you, 
 as I then expected the express was just going. We 
 seem to be all in a moving posture, just going from 
 this place, so that I must conclude, wishing you 
 health and prosperity until I see you and your fam- 
 ily. In the meantime I am your truly affectionate 
 friend and humble servant, Isaac Shelby. 
 
 To Mr. John Shelby, 
 
 Holston River, Fincastle County. 
 Favd. by Mr. Benj. Gray. 
 
 II 
 
 (Campbell MSS.) 
 
 October ye 31st. 1774. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Being on my way home to Fincastle court, was 
 overtaken this evening by letters from Colo. Chris- 
 
Appendix A 309 
 
 tian and other gentlemen on the expedition, giving 
 an account of a battle which was fought between 
 our troops & the enemy Indians, on the loth in- 
 stant, in the Fork of the Ohio & the Great Kanhawa. 
 
 The particulars of the action, drawn up by Colo. 
 Andr, Lewis I have sent you enclosed, also a re- 
 turn of the killed and wounded, by which you will 
 see that we have lost many brave and valiant 
 officers & soldiers, whose loss to their families, as 
 well as to the community, is very great. 
 
 Colo. Christian with the Fincastle troops (except 
 the companies commanded by Capts. Russell & 
 Shelby, who were in the action) were on their 
 march ; and on the evening of that day, about 1 5 
 miles from the field of battle, heard that the action 
 began in the morning. They marched hard, and 
 got to the camp about midnight. The cries of the 
 wounded, without any persons of skill or anything 
 to nourish people in their unhappy situation, was 
 striking. The Indians had crossed the river on 
 rafts, 6 or 8 miles above the Forks, in the night, 
 and it is believed, intended to attack the camp, 
 had they not been prevented by our men marching 
 to meet them at the distance of half a mile. It is 
 said the enemy behaved with bravery and great 
 caution, that they frequently damned our men 
 for white sons of bitches. Why did they not 
 whistle now? [alluding to the fifes] & that they 
 would learn them to shoot. 
 
3IO The Winning of the West 
 
 The Governor was then at Hockhocking, about 
 12 or 15 miles below the mouth of the Little Kan- 
 hawa, from whence he intended to march his party 
 to a place called Chillicoffee, about 20 miles farther 
 than the towns where it was said the Shawneese had 
 assembled with their families and allies, to make 
 a stand, as they had good houses and plenty of 
 ammunition & provisions & had cleared the woods 
 to a great distance from the place. His party who 
 were to march from the camp was about 1200, and 
 to join Colo. Lewis' party about 28 miles from 
 Chillicoffee. But whether the action above men- 
 tioned would disconcert this plan or not, I think 
 appears a little uncertain, as there is a probability 
 that his excellency on hearing the news might, with 
 his party, fall down the river and join Colo. Lewis' 
 party and march together against the enemy. 
 
 They were about building a breastwork at the 
 Forks, & after leaving a proper party to take care 
 of the wounded & the provisions there, that Colo. 
 Lewis could march upwards of a thousand men to 
 join his Lordship, so that the whole when they 
 meet will be about 2200 choice men. What may 
 be their success God only knows, but it is highly 
 probable the matter is decided before this time. 
 
 Colo. Christian says, from the accounts he had 
 the enemy behaved with inconceivable bravery. 
 The head men walked about in the time of action, 
 exhorting their men "to be close, shoot well, be 
 
Appendix A 311 
 
 strong of fight." They had parties planted on 
 the opposite side of both rivers to shoot our men 
 as they swam over, not doubting, as is supposed, 
 but they would gain a complete victory. In the 
 evening late they called to our men "that they 
 had 2000 men for them to-morrow, and that they 
 had 1 100 men now as well as they." They also 
 made very merry about a treaty. 
 
 Poor Colo. Charles Lewis was shot on a clear 
 piece of ground, as he had not taken a tree, encour- 
 aging his men to advance. On being wounded he 
 handed his gun to a person nigh him and retired to 
 the camp, telling his men as he passed "I am 
 wounded but go on and be brave." If the loss of 
 a good man a sincere friend, and a brave officer, 
 claims a tear, he certainly is entitled to it. 
 
 Colo. Fields was shot at a great tree by two In- 
 dians on his right, while one on his left was amus- 
 ing him with talk and the Colo. Endeavoring to 
 get a shot at him. 
 
 Besides the loss the troops met with in action by 
 Colo. Fleming who was obliged to retire from the 
 field, which was very great, the wounded met with 
 the most irreparable loss in an able and skillful 
 surgeon. Colo. Christian says that his [Flemings] 
 lungs or part of them came out of the wound in 
 his breast but were pushed back ; and by the last 
 part of his letter, which was dated the i6th. in- 
 stant, he has some hopes of his recovery. 
 
312 The Winning of the West 
 
 Thus, sir, I have given you an account of the 
 action from the several letters I reed., and have 
 only to add, that Colo. Christian desires me to in- 
 form Mrs. Christian of his welfare, which with 
 great pleasure I do through this channel, and 
 should any further news come, which I much ex- 
 pect soon, I shall take the earliest oppy. of com- 
 municating the same to you. It is believed the 
 troops will surely return in Nov. 
 
 I write in a hurry and amidst a crowd of in- 
 quisitive people, therefore hope you will excuse 
 the inaccuracy of, D'r. Sir, 
 
 Your sincere well wisher & most obedt. Servt., 
 
 Wm. Preston. 
 
 P. S. If you please you may give Mr. Purdie 
 a copy of the enclosed papers, & anything else you 
 may think worthy the notice of the Public. 
 
 Ill 
 
 LOGAN S SPEECH 
 
 There has been much controversy over the 
 genuineness of Logan's speech; but those who 
 have questioned it have done so with singularly 
 little reason. In fact, its authenticity would never 
 have been impugned at all had it not (wrongly) 
 blamed Cresap with killing Logan's family. Cre- 
 
Appendix A 313 
 
 sap's defenders, with curious folly, have in conse- 
 quence thought it necessary to show, not that 
 Logan was mistaken, but that he never delivered 
 the speech at all. 
 
 The truth seems to be that Cresap, without 
 provocation, but after being incited to war by 
 Conolly's letter, murdered some peaceful Indians, 
 among whom there were certainly some friends 
 and possibly some relations of Logan (see testi- 
 mony of Colonel Ebenezer Zane, in " Jefferson's 
 Notes," and American Pioneer, i., 12 ; also Clark's 
 letter in the Jefferson Papers) ; but that he had 
 no share in the massacre of Logan's family at 
 Yellow Creek by Greathouse and his crew two or 
 three days afterwards. The two massacres oc- 
 curring so near together, however, produced the 
 impression not only among the Indians but among 
 many whites (as shown in the body of this work), 
 that Cresap had been guilty of both; and this 
 Logan undoubtedly believed, as can be seen by 
 the letter he wrote and left tied to a war-club in a 
 murdered settler's house. This was an injustice 
 to Cresap ; but it was a very natural mistake on 
 Logan's part. 
 
 After the speech was recited it attracted much 
 attention ; was published in newspapers, periodi- 
 cals, etc., and was extensively quoted. Jefferson, 
 as we learn from his Papers at Washington, 
 took it down in 1775, getting it from Lord 
 
314 The Winning of the West 
 
 Dunmore's officers, and published it in his Notes, in 
 1784; unfortunately, he took for granted that its 
 allegations as regards Cresap were true, and ac- 
 cordingly prefaced it by a very unjust attack on 
 the reputed murderer. Until thirteen years after 
 this publication, and until twenty-three years 
 after the speech had been published for the first 
 time, no one thought of questioning it. Then 
 Luther Martin, of Maryland, attacked its authen- 
 ticity, partly because he was Cresap's son-in-law, 
 and partly because he was a Federalist, and a 
 bitter opponent of Jefferson. Like all of his suc- 
 cessors in the same line, he confused two entirely 
 distinct things, viz. , the justice of the charge against 
 Cresap, and the authenticity of Logan's speech. 
 His controversy with Jefferson grew very bitter. 
 He succeeded in showing clearly that Cresap was 
 wrongly accused by Logan; he utterly failed to 
 impugn the authenticity of the latter 's speech. 
 Jefferson, thanks to a letter he received from 
 Clark, must have known that Cresap had been 
 accused wrongly ; but he was irritated by the con- 
 troversy, and characteristically refrained in any 
 of his publications from doing justice to the slan- 
 dered man's memory. 
 
 A Mr. Jacobs soon afterwards wrote a life of 
 Cresap, in which he attempted both of the feats 
 aimed at by Martin; it is quite an interesting 
 production, but exceedingly weak in its argu- 
 
Appendix A 315 
 
 ments. Neville B. Craig, in the February, 1847, 
 number of The Olden Time, a historical magazine, 
 followed on the same lines. Finally, Brantz 
 Mayer, in his very interesting little book, Logan 
 and Cresap, went over the whole matter in a much 
 fairer manner than his predecessors, but still dis- 
 tinctly as an advocate; for though he collected 
 with great industry and gave impartially all the 
 original facts (so that from what he gives alone it 
 is quite possible to prove that the speech is cer- 
 tainly genuine), yet his own conclusions show 
 great bias. Thus, he severely rules out any testi- 
 mony against Cresap that is not absolutely un- 
 questioned; but admits without hesitation any 
 and every sort of evidence leaning against poor 
 Logan's character or the authenticity of his 
 speech. He even goes so far (pp. 122, 123) as to 
 say it is not a " speech " at all, — although it would 
 puzzle a man to know what else to call it, as he also 
 declares it is not a message, — and shows the ani- 
 mus of his work by making the gratuitous sugges- 
 tion that if Logan made it at all he was probably 
 at the time excited "as well by the cruelties he 
 had committed as by liquor." 
 
 It is necessary, therefore, to give a brief sum- 
 mary of a portion of the evidence in its favor, as 
 well as of all the evidence against it. Jefferson's 
 Notes and Mr. Mayer's book go fully into the 
 matter. 
 
3i6 The Winning of the West 
 
 The evidence in its favor is as follows : 
 (i) Gibson's statement. This is the keystone 
 of the arch. John Gibson was a man of note and 
 of unblemished character ; he was made a general 
 by Washington, and held high appointive posi- 
 tions under Madison and Jefferson; he was also 
 an Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas 
 in Pennsylvania. Throughout his life he bore a 
 reputation for absolute truthfulness. He was 
 the messenger who went to Logan, heard the 
 speech, took it down, and gave it to Lord Dun- 
 more. We have his deposition, delivered under 
 oath, that " Logan delivered to him the speech 
 nearly as related by Mr. Jefferson in his Notes,'' 
 when the two were alone together, and that he 
 "on his return to camp delivered the speech to 
 Lord Dunmore," and that he also at the time told 
 Logan he was mistaken about Cresap. Brantz 
 Mayer, who accepts his statement as substantially 
 true, thinks that he probably only reported the 
 substance of Logan's speech, or so much of it as he 
 could recollect; but in the State Department at 
 Washington, among the Jefferson Papers (5-1-4), 
 is a statement by John Anderson, a merchant in 
 Fredericksburg, who was an Indian trader at 
 Pittsburg in 1774; he says that he questioned 
 Gibson as to whether he had not himself added 
 something to the speech, to which Gibson replied 
 that he had not changed it in any way, but had 
 
Appendix A 317 
 
 translated it literally, as well as he could, though 
 he was unable to come up to the force of the ex- 
 pressions in the original. 
 
 This evidence itself is absolutely conclusive, ex- 
 cept on the supposition that Gibson was a mali- 
 cious and infamous liar. The men who argue 
 that the speech was fictitious are also obliged to 
 explain what motive there could possibly have 
 been for the deception ; they accordingly advance 
 the theory that it was part of Dunmore's (imagi- 
 nary) treacherous conduct, as he wished to dis- 
 credit Cresap, because he knew — apparently by 
 divination — that the latter was going to be a 
 whig. Even granting the Earl corrupt motives 
 and a prophetic soul, it remains to be explained 
 why he should wish to injure an obsciu-e borderer, 
 whom nobody has ever heard of except in con- 
 nection with Logan; it would have served the 
 purpose quite as well to have used the equally im- 
 known name of the real offender, Greathouse. 
 The fabrication of the speech would have been an 
 absolutely motiveless and foolish transaction, to 
 which Gibson, a pronounced whig, must needs have 
 been a party. This last fact shows that there 
 could have been no intention of using the speech 
 in the British interest. 
 
 (2) The statement of General George Rogers 
 Clark. (Like the preceding, this can be seen in 
 the Jefferson Papers.) Clark was present in 
 
3i8 The Winning of the West 
 
 Dunmore's camp at the time. He says : ' ' Logan's 
 speech to Dunmore now came forward as related 
 by Mr. Jefferson and was generally believed and 
 indeed not doubted to have been genuine and 
 dictated by Logan — The Army knew it was wrong 
 so far as it respected Cresap, and afforded an op- 
 portunity of rallying that Gentleman on the sub- 
 ject — I discovered that Cresap was displeased and 
 told him that he must be a very great Man, that 
 the Indians shouldered him with every thing that 
 had happened. . . . Logan is the author of 
 the speech as related by Mr. Jefferson." Clark's 
 remembrance of his rallying Cresap shows that 
 the speech contained Cresap's name and that it 
 was read before the army ; several other witnesses, 
 whose names are not necessary to mention, simply 
 corroborate Clark's statements, and a large amount 
 of indirect evidence to the same effect could be 
 produced were there the least necessity. (See 
 Jefferson's Notes, The American Pioneer, etc.) 
 
 The evidence against the authenticity of the 
 speech, outside of mere conjectures and inuendoes, 
 is as follows : 
 
 (i) Logan called Cresap a colonel when he was 
 really a captain. This inability of an Indian to 
 discriminate accurately between these two titles 
 of frontier militia officers is actually solemnly 
 brought forward as telling against the speech. 
 
 (2) Logan accused Cresap of committing a 
 
Appendix A 3^9 
 
 murder which he had not committed. But, as we 
 have already seen, Logan had made the same ac- 
 cusation in his unquestionably authentic letter, 
 written previously; and many whites, as well as 
 Indians, thought as Logan did. 
 
 (3) A Colonel Benjamin Wilson, who was with 
 Dunmore's army, says that "he did not hear the 
 charge preferred in Logan's speech against Cap- 
 tain Cresap." This is mere negative evidence, 
 valueless in any event, and doubly so in view of 
 Clark's statement. 
 
 (4) Mr. Neville B. Craig, in Olden Time, says in 
 1847 that " many years before a Mr. James McKee, 
 the brother of Mr. William Johnson's deputy, had 
 told him that he had seen the speech in the hand- 
 writing of one of the Johnsons . . . before it 
 was seen by Logan." This is a hearsay state- 
 ment delivered just seventy-three years after 
 the event, and it is on its face so wildly im- 
 probable as not to need further comment, at least 
 until there is some explanation as to why the 
 Johnsons should have written the speech, how 
 they could possibly have gotten it to Logan, and 
 why Gibson should have entered into the con- 
 spiracy. 
 
 (5) A Benjamin Tomlinson testifies that he be- 
 lieves that the speech was fabricated by Gibson; 
 he hints, but does not frankly assert, that Gibson 
 was not sent after Logan, but that Girty was ; and 
 
320 The Winning of the West 
 
 swears that he heard the speech read three times 
 and that the name of Cresap was not mentioned 
 in it. 
 
 He was said in later hfe to bear a good reputa- 
 tion; but in his deposition he admits under oath 
 that he was present at the Yellow Creek murder 
 {Olden Time, ii., 6i ; the editor, by the way, seems 
 to call him alternately Joseph and Benjamin) ; 
 and he was therefore an unconvicted criminal, 
 who connived at or participated in one of the most 
 brutal and cowardly deeds ever done on the fron- 
 tier. His statement as against Gibson's would be 
 worthless anyhow; fortunately, his testimony as 
 to the omission of Cresap's name from the speech 
 is also flatly contradicted by Clark. With the 
 words of two such men against his, and bearing in 
 mind that all that he says against the authenticity 
 of the speech itself is confessedly mere supposition 
 on his part, his statement must be promptly set 
 aside as worthless. If true, by the way, it would 
 conflict with (4) Craig's statement. 
 
 This is literally all the " evidence" against the 
 speech. It scarcely needs serious discussion; it 
 may be divided into two parts — one containing 
 allegations that are silly, and the other those that 
 are discredited. 
 
 There is probably very little additional evidence 
 to be obtained, on one side or the other ; it is all 
 in, and Logan's speech can be unhesitatingly pro- 
 
Appendix A 321 
 
 nounced authentic. Doubtless there have been 
 verbal alterations in it ; there is not extant a report 
 of any famous speech which does not probably 
 differ in some way from the words as they were 
 actually spoken. There is also a good deal of con- 
 fusion as to whether the council took place in the 
 Indian town, or in Dunmore's camp; whether 
 Logan was sought out alone in his hut by Gibson, 
 or came up and drew the latter aside while he was 
 at the council, etc. In the same way, we have ex- 
 cellent authority for stating that, prior to the 
 battle of the Great Kanawha, Lewis reached the 
 mouth of that river on October ist, and that he 
 reached it on October 6th ; that on the day of the 
 attack the troops marched from camp a quarter 
 of a mile, and that they marched three quarters ; 
 that the Indians lost more men than the whites, 
 and that they lost fewer; that Lewis behaved 
 well, and that he behaved badly ; that the whites 
 lost 140 men, and that they lost 215, etc. 
 The conflict of evidence as to the dates and ac- 
 cessory details of Logan's speech is no greater 
 than it is as to the dates and accessory details of 
 the murder by Greathouse, or as to all the pre- 
 liminaries of the main battle of the campaign. 
 Coming from backwoods sources, it is inevitable 
 that we should have confusion on points of detail ; 
 but as to the main question there seems almost as 
 Httle reason for doubting the authenticity of 
 
 VOL. 11.— 21. 
 
32 2 The Winning of the West 
 
 Logan's speech, as for doubting the reality of the 
 battle of the Great Kanawha. 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 TO CHAPTER V 
 
 During the early part of this century our more 
 pretentious historians who really did pay some 
 heed to facts and wrote books that — in addition 
 to their mortal dulness — were quite accurate, felt 
 it undignified and beneath them to notice the 
 deeds of mere ignorant Indian fighters. They had 
 lost all power of doing the best work; for they 
 passed their lives in a circle of small literary men, 
 who shrank from any departure from conven- 
 tional European standards. 
 
 On the other hand, the men who wrote history 
 for the mass of our people, not for the scholars, 
 although they preserved much important matter, 
 had not been educated up to the point of appre- 
 ciating the value of evidence, and accepted un- 
 doubted facts and absurd traditions with equal 
 good faith. Some of them (notably Flint and 
 one or two of Boon's other biographers) evidently 
 scarcely regarded truthfulness and accuracy of 
 statement as being even desirable qualities in a 
 history. Others wished to tell the facts, but 
 lacked all power of discrimination. Certain of 
 their books had a very wide circulation. In 
 
Appendix B 323 
 
 some out-of-the-way places they formed, with the 
 almanac, the staple of secular literature. But 
 they did not come under the consideration of 
 trained scholars, so their errors remained uncor- 
 rected ; and at this day it is a difficult, and often 
 an impossible task, to tell which of the statements 
 to accept and which to reject. 
 
 Many of the earliest writers lived when young 
 among the old companions of the leading pioneers, 
 and long afterwards wrote down from memory 
 the stories the old men had told them. They 
 were themselves often clergymen, and were usu- 
 ally utterly inexperienced in wild backwoods life, 
 in spite of their early surroundings — exactly as to- 
 day any town in the Rocky Mountains is sure to 
 contain some half-educated men as ignorant of 
 mountain and plains life, of Indians and wild 
 beasts, as the veriest lout on an eastern farm. 
 Accordingly, they accepted the wildest stories of 
 frontier warfare with a faith that forcibly reminds 
 one of the equally simple credulity displayed by 
 the average classical scholar concerning early 
 Greek and Roman prowess. Many of these prim- 
 itive historians give accounts of overwhelming 
 Indian numbers and enormous Indian losses that 
 read as if taken from the books that tell of the 
 Gaulish hosts the Romans conquered, and the 
 Persian hordes the Greeks repelled ; and they are 
 almost as untrustworthy. 
 
324 The Winning of the West 
 
 Some of the anecdotes they relate are not far 
 removed from the Chinese-like tale — given, if my 
 memory is correct, in Herodotus — of the Athenian 
 soldier who went into action with a small grapnel 
 or anchor attached by a chain to his waist, that he 
 might tether himself out to resist the shock of the 
 charging foe. A flagrant example is the story 
 which describes how the white man sees an Indian 
 very far off making insulting gestures; how he 
 forthwith loads his rifle with two bullets — which 
 the narrator evidently thinks will go twice as far 
 and twice as straight as one, — and, taking careful 
 aim, slays his enemy. Like other similar anec- 
 dotes, this is told of a good many different frontier 
 heroes, the historian usually showing a delightful 
 lack of knowledge of what is and what is not pos- 
 sible in hunting, tracking, and fighting. How- 
 ever, the utter ignorance of even the elementary 
 principles of rifle-shooting may not have been ab- 
 solutely confined to the historians. Any one ac- 
 customed to old hunters knows that their theories 
 concerning their own weapons are often rather 
 startling. A year ago last fall I was hunting 
 some miles below my ranch (on the Little Mis- 
 souri) to lay in the winter stock of meat, and was 
 encamped for a week with an old hunter. We 
 both had 45-75 Winchester rifles ; and I was much 
 amused at his insisting that his gun "shot level" 
 up to two hundred yards — a distance at which the 
 
Appendix C 325 
 
 ball really drops considerably over a foot. Yet 
 he killed a good deal of game ; so he must either 
 in practice have disregarded his theories, or else 
 he must have always overestimated the distances 
 at which he fired. 
 
 The old writers of the simpler sort not only de- 
 lighted in impossible feats with the rifle, but in 
 equally impossible deeds of strength, tracking, and 
 the like; and they were very fond of attributing 
 all the wonderful feats of which they had heard to 
 a single favorite hero, not to speak of composing 
 speeches for him. 
 
 It seems — though it ought not to be — necessary 
 to point out to some recent collectors of back- 
 woods anecdotes, the very obvious truths: that 
 with the best intentions in the world the average 
 backwoodsman often has difficulty in describing a 
 confused chain of events exactly as they took place ; 
 that when the events are described after a long 
 lapse of years many errors are apt to creep in ; and 
 that when they are reported from tradition it is the 
 rarest thing imaginable for the report to be correct. 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 TO CHAPTER VI 
 
 (The following account of the first negotiations of the 
 Americans with the Indians near Vincennes is curious as 
 being the report of one of the Indians; but it was evidently 
 colored to suit his hearer, for as a matter of fact the Indians 
 
326 The Winning of the West 
 
 of the Wabash were for the time being awed into quiet, the 
 Piankeshaws sided with the Americans, and none of them 
 dared rise until the British approached.) 
 
 (Haldimand MSS., Series B, vol. cxxii., p. 219.) 
 
 Proceedings of the Rebels at St. Vincennes as 
 related to Lieut. Govr. Hamilton by Neegik an 
 Ottawa War Chief sent forward to gain intelligence. 
 Camp at Rocher de Bout 14th Octr. 1778 — 
 
 On the Rebels first arrival at St. Vincennes they 
 took down the English Flag left there by Lieut. 
 Gen. Abbott, wrapped a large stone in it, and 
 threw it into the Ouabash, saying to the Indians, 
 thus we mean to treat your Father — 
 
 Having called the Indians together they laid a 
 War Belt colored red, & a belt colored green be- 
 fore them, telling them that if they delighted in 
 mischief and had no compassion on their wives 
 & children they might take up the red one, if on 
 the contrary they were wise & preferred peace, the 
 green one — 
 
 The old Tobacco a chief of the [Piankeshaws] 
 spoke as follows — My brothers — you speak in a 
 manner not to be understood, I never yet saw, nor 
 have I heard from my ancestors that it was cus- 
 tomary to place good & bad things in the same 
 dish — You talk to us as if you meant us well, yet 
 you speak of War & peace in the same minute, thus 
 I treat the speeches of such men — on which with a 
 violent kick he spurned their belts from him. 
 
Appendix C 327 
 
 The son of Lagesse, a young Chief of the Pont- 
 conattamis of St. Joseph spoke next to them. 
 
 My brothers — 'Tis because I have Hstened to 
 the voice of our old men, & because I have regard 
 to our women & children that I have not before 
 now struck my Tomahawk into some of your heads 
 — attend to what I say, I will only go to see in 
 what condition our wives & children are [meaning, 
 I will first place them in security] and then you 
 may depend on seeing me again — 
 
 The Rebel speaker then said — 
 
 You are young men & your youth excuses your 
 ignorances, you would not else talk as you do — Our 
 design is to march thro' your country, & if we find 
 any fires in our way, we shall just tread them out 
 as we walk along & if we meet with any obstacle 
 or barrier we shall remove it with all ease, but the 
 bystanders must take care lest the splinters should 
 scar their faces. 
 
 We shall then proceed to Detroit where your 
 father is whom we consider as a Hog put to fatten 
 in a penn, we shall enclose him in his penn, till he 
 be fat, & then we will throw him into the river — 
 We shall draw a reinforcement from the Falls on 
 the Ohio & from thence & the Ilinois send six 
 hundred men to Chicagou — 
 
 To this the Indians replied — You that are so 
 brave, what need have you to be reinforced, go to 
 Detroit, you that can put out our fires & so easyly 
 
328 The Winning of the West 
 
 remove our barriers. — This we say to you, take 
 care that in attempting to extinguish our fires you 
 do not burn yourselves, &that in breaking down our 
 barriers you do not run sphnters into your hands. 
 You may also expect that we shall not suffer a 
 single Frenchman to accompany you to Detroit. 
 End of the Conference. 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 
 TO CHAPTER VIII 
 
 (From Canadian Archives.) 
 (Haldimand MSS., Series B, vol. cxxii., p. 351.) 
 
 {Copy.) 
 
 Upper St. Duski, June 9, 1779. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 After much running about, some presents to 
 Chiefs, we had collected at the Mingo Town near 
 200 Savages chiefly Shawanese — When lo! a run- 
 ner arrived with accounts of the Shawanese towns 
 being attacked by a body from Kentuck, they 
 burnt five houses, killed one Indian & wounded 
 the Chief badly — lost their own Commander Heron 
 or Herington — they carried off 30 Horses, were 
 pursued by fifty Shawanese, the Shawanese were 
 beat back with loss of five & six wounded — News 
 flew that all the Towns were to be attack'd & our 
 little body seperated in an instant past reassem- 
 
Appendix D 329 
 
 bling — confusion still prevails — much counselling — 
 no resolves — many are removing — more for peace. 
 
 The Delawares make it dangerous travelling. 
 By this opportunity Davison & Cook return sick — 
 Girty is flying about — McCarty stays with me 
 with some Ottawas — these unsteady Rogues put 
 me out of all patience. — I will go with him in a 
 few days if nothing material occurs — See the 
 Enemy that I may not be laugh'd at then return. 
 — The Rebels mean I believe to destroy the Vil- 
 lages & corn now up — the method they bring their 
 little armies into the field as follows : Every Fam- 
 ily on the Borders receive orders to send according 
 to their strength (one or two men) to the place of 
 Rendezvous at a time appointed (on pain of fine 
 or imprisonment) with fifteen or twenty days 
 Provisions, they immediately receive their ammu- 
 nition & proceed quickly to action — I am credibly 
 inform'd by various means, that they can raise in 
 that manner three or four thousand in a few days 
 for such excursions — I was obliged to Kill four 
 more Cattle for the Indians at the Mingo Town — 
 they are always Cooking or Counselling. 
 
 I have nothing more to inform you off if any- 
 thing material occurs, which I really expect in a 
 day or two, I will inform you by Express. 
 
 I am &c 
 
 Henry Bird. 
 
 To Capt. Lernoult. 
 
">». 
 
 330 The Winning of the West 
 
 {Copy.) 
 
 Jtine i2th, Upper St. Duski. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Couriers after Couriers arrive with accounts of 
 the Rebels advancing to destroy the Savage Vil- 
 lages now all their corn is planted — 
 
 APPENDIX E 
 
 TO CHAPTER VIII 
 
 (State Department MSS., No. 48, vol. "Memorials &c In- 
 habitants of Illinois, Kaskaskias and Kentucky.") 
 
 The Petition and Prayr. of the people of that 
 Part of Contry [sic] now Claim' d. by the State of 
 f\j" Virginia in the Countys of Kaintuckey and Ilinois 
 H"" Humbly Sheweth — That we the leige Subjects of 
 
 ^ the United States Labour under many Greivences 
 
 \^ ^ on acount of not being formd. into a Seperate 
 
 State or the Mind and Will of Congress more fully 
 known respecting us — And we Humbly beg leave 
 to Present to the Honorable Continental Congress 
 our Humble Petition seting forth the Grievences 
 and oppressions we labour under and Pray Con- 
 gress may Consider Such our greivences and grant 
 us redress. 
 
 We your Petitioners being situate in a wide 
 Extencive Uncultivated Contry and Exposd. on 
 
Appendix E 331 
 
 every side to incursions of the Savage Indians 
 humbly Conceive Ourselves approssed by several 
 acts of the general assembly of Virginia for grant- 
 ing large Grants for waist and unapropriated 
 lands on the Western Waters without Reservation 
 for Cultivating and Settling the same whereby 
 Setling the Contry is Discouraged and the inhabi- 
 tants are greatly Exposd. to the Saviges by whome 
 our wives and Childring are daly Cruily murdered 
 Notwithstanding our most Humble Petitions Canot 
 Obtain Redress — By an other act we are Taxd. 
 which in our Present Situation we Conceive to be 
 oppresive and unjust being Taxd. with money and 
 grain whilst Enrold and in actual Pay residing in 
 Garrisons. We are Situate from Six Hundred to 
 one Thousand Miles from our Present Seite of 
 Government, Whereby Criminals are Suffered to 
 Escape with impunity, Great numbers who ware 
 Ocationaly absent are Deprived of an Opertunity 
 of their Just Rights and Emprovements and here 
 we are Obliged to Prosecute all Apeals, and 
 whillst we remain uncertain whether the un- 
 bounded Claim of This Extencive Contry Ought of 
 right to belong to the United States or the State of 
 Virginia. They have by another late act required 
 of us to Sware alegince to the State of Virginia in 
 Particular Notwithstanding we have aredy taken 
 the Oath of alegance to the united States. These 
 are Greivences too Heavy to be bom, and we do 
 
33^ The Winning of the West 
 
 Humbly Pray that the Continental Congress will 
 Take Proper Methods to form us into a Seperate 
 State or grant us Such Rules and regulations as 
 they in their Wisdoms shall think most Proper, 
 During the Continuance of the Present War and 
 your Petitioners shall ever Pray 
 
 May 15th, 1780. 
 
 [Signed] 
 
 Robert Tyler Richard Connor 
 
 Thomas Hughes Archibald McDonald 
 Abraham Van Meter 
 
 (and others to the number of 640). 
 
 END OF VOLUME II 
 
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