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The Tories of the
Upper Ohio*
mibujc H.Siebert.
Charleston, 1914,

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Professor WiIpliR H^SlERERT

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From the Rie^uiliiu Report of the

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AN% HISTORY OF THfi
STATE OF WEST ViAeiNIA
l»ll>12. roi3.ie,i4
Charleston, Wti{Eit!;^ir£iiiia
M ¦:i!
1914
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The Tories of the Upper Oh

pper \^hio.

By Professor Wilbur H. Siebert,
of the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

_ Unlike Carleton Island and Oswego at the eastern end of Lake Ontario,
Niagara at the western end, and Detroit at the head of Lake Erie, Fort
Pitt did not become a permanent center of Tory and Indian operations
against the neighboring settlements during the Revolutionary War. This
was due, however, to the prompt action of the frontiersmen of the upper
Ohio rather than to the absence of Tory leadership at Pittsburgh. Lord
Dunmore, of Virginia, like other provincial governors, was a firm adherent
of the Crown, and happened to be actively concerned in the early seventeen
seventies about affairs at Pittsburg, on account of the boundary dispute
between his colony and Pennsylvania. In order to settle his dispute he
determined to take forcible possession of Fort Pitt, and sent Doctor John
Connolly, captain commandant of the militia of that region, to carry his
plan into eflfect. At the end of January, 1774, Connolly with about 80
militiamen seized the fort, and "usurped the entire government of Penn
sylvania " in and about that place. The name of Fort Pitt was changed to
Fort Dunmore, and a new county was organized with this post as its
judicial seat. While many of the old residents of Pittsburg sided with
Connolly, a large number of others resisted the new order of things, and
was severely treated by the commandant. Thus, Dunmore's assertion of
Virginia's claims to the upper Ohio must be regarded as "part of the unjust
assumption of the government of Great Britain that brought on the War of
the Revolution" in the back country. The situation was only aggravated
by the depredations against the Indians committed by Connolly and his
adherents. Such conduct afforded cause for added complaint on the
part of the inhabitants of Pittsburg and for retaliation on the part of the
savages. Dunmore now found it necessary to invade the Ohio country
with the militia of the frontier counties, in order to suppress the Indians
and restore peace.^
At the close of this expedition, known as Dunmore's War, Cormolly
decided to support British authority in America, and was directed by the
Governor to disband the troops returned from the Indian Country, and
' Proceedings of the Am, Antiq. Soc, Oct., 1909, 1-13,

Ohio Valley Historical Association

to try to induce the Indians to espouse the royal cause. As he was placed
in command of the garrison of Fort Dunmore at this time, that post
continued to be the center of loyalist activity a little longer, as it was
also the scene of an Indian council in June, 1775, at which the commandant,
according to his own testimony, sought to win the redmen for the King.
In his narrative Connolly says that he "had the happiness to succeed in
this dangerous and critical undertaking. " He also relates how he brought
together a group of his friends — "most of them either officers in the
militia, or magistrates of the county" [of West Augusta] — who entered
into a secret compact by which they agreed to assist in restoring con
stitutional government, if he could procure the necessary authority to
raise men.^
In the early weeks of July, Connolly disbanded the garrison under his
command, in compliance with the orders of the Governor. Dunmore,
indeed, took this way of depriving the colonists, most of whom were
opposing him and his agent, of the means of defensive and offensive action.
The colonists, however, were not to be outdone in this manner, especially
as Connolly had taken his departure from the post on July 20th, on his
way to visit his patron in Virginia. They promptly seized the post, and
changed its name back to Fort Pitt. Fort Blair, which stood near the
mouth of the Kanawha and had been evacuated at the same time as
Pittsburg, the Americans did not recover, for it was burned by some of
the Ohio Indians during the summer of 1775.'
Connolly found Dunmore a refugee aboard a man-of-war at Norfolk.
There he remained with the Governor for a fortnight discussing and
completing plans for fviture operations. He was then sent to Boston to
lay his plans before General Gage. According to these plans, Connolly
was to proceed to Detroit, where the Canadians and Indians were to be
encouraged to join him, while Captain Hugh Lord and his garrison,
transferred from Fort Gage on the Illinois, was to be placed under his
command. Here also he was to be supplied with the artillery, stores, and
provisions necessary for his expedition against Fort Dunmore. Connolly
believed that with such an equipment and force and with a commission
as lieutenant colonel commandant he could, on reaching the upper Ohio,
increase his army by enlisting a battalion of loyalists and some independent
companies, and obtain the co-operation of the Ohio Indians. The support
of the Indians he hoped to win by liberal presents to their chiefs and
2 Proceedings of the Am. Antiq. Soc, Oct., 1909, 12, 15-17; Thwaites and Kellogg,
Rev. on the Upper Ohio, 17, 18; Pa. Magazine of Hist, and Biog., Oct., 1888, 313-317. "
' Thwaites and Kellogg, Rev. on the Upper Ohio, x, xi, 20; Am. Archives, 4th
Ser., iv. 201; Proceedings, Wis. Hist, Soc, 1909, 126, n. 4; Pa, Magazine of Hist, and
Biog., Oct., 1888, 321, 323.

Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting 3
that of the militia of Augusta County, Virginia, by the assurance that
those taking up arms would be confirmed in the titles of their lands and
be granted 300 acres each in addition. Strengthened thus by reenforce-
ments whose loyalty was to be generously rewarded, Connolly was to
destroy Forts Pitt and Fincastle, should they offer resistance. He was
then to penetrate Virginia with his troops and Indian auxiliaries in order
to form a junction with Lord Dunmore at Alexandria, thereby severing
the Southern colonies from the Northern and turning the scale in favor
of the royal cause in the South.*
Meanwhile, loyalist traders were busy in the Indian villages, arousing
the suspicions of their inhabitants against the "Long Knives," whose
hostility was represented as being directed against their neighbors of the
woods, as well as against the King. But the committee of correspondence
of West Augusta County was equal to the emergency: it took the initiative
in bringing about a conference between commissioners representing
Congress and the Western tribesmen. This conference was held at
Pittsburg in September and October, 1775, and was attended — we are
told — by "the largest Indian delegation ever seen at this frontier fort —
Ottawa and Wyandot from the neighborhood of Detroit, Mingo, Shawnee,
and Delaware from the Ohio valley; Seneca from the Upper Allegheny, "
all of whom united in a treaty of peace and neutrality with the new
American nation.
After a prolonged stay in Boston, Connolly returned to Virginia, and
received his commission as lieutenant colonel commandant from Lord
Dunmore. On the night of November I3th, he started on his overland
journey for Detroit in company with Allen Cameron and Dr. John Ferdi
nand Dalziel Smyth, both staunch loyalists. Cameron had been an agent
in the Southern ' Department for Indian Affairs, under Colonel John
Stuart, and was to be given a lieutenancy in the loyaHst battalion to be
raised by Connolly. Smyth had been a resident of Maryland, and was
familiar with the lower part of that province, through which Connolly
intended to pass. He was to be appointed a surgeon in the proposed
battalion. The travellers journeyed on without molestation until they ¦
got a few miles beyond Hager's Town, where they stopped at an inn on the
evening of November 19th. Here Connolly was recognized as a suspicious
character, and was soon reported to the colonel of the Minute Men in
the village five miles back. Before daylight next moming the slumbers
of the three loyaHsts at the inn were broken by a body of troops, and

' Proceedings of the Am. Antiq. Soc, Oct., 1909, 17-20; Thwaites and Kellogg,
Rev on the Upper Ohio, xiv, 136-143; Papers read befoie the Lancaster Co. Hist,
Soc, vol. vii, no. 6, 120, 121; Pa. Magazine of Hist, and Biog., Jan., 1889, 407-411.

Ohio Valley Historical Association

Connolly and his companions were carried back to Hager's Town to be
examined by the committee of safety. The committee did not determine
the matter after the first hearing, but decided to hold a further examination
at Frederick Town on the following day. At Frederick Town Connolly
experienced the misfortune of having his visit to Boston disclosed by a
colonel who knew him, and had just returned from Washington's head
quarters at Cambridge. A few days later a copy of Connolly's "proposals,"
which had hitherto been overlooked, was discovered. Having all the
evidence it required, the committee of safety communicated the capture
of Connolly and his companions to Congress, and asked for instructions.
Congress ordered that the prisoners be escorted to Philadelphia under
guard. ^
On the night of December 28th, that is, the night before their departure
for Philadelphia, Dr. Smyth made his escape from Frederick Town,
bearing with him letters from Connolly to his wife and Alexander McKee
at Pittsburg, to Captain Lord at Kaskaskia, and Captain Lemoult at
Detroit. The two latter were urged to "push down the Mississippi and join
Lord Dunmore. " Smyth relates something of his experiences on this
flight in a memorial, which he presented to Parliament, January 1, 1784.
He says that he travelled 300 miles through a hostile country and over
the Allegheny Mountains, encountering the perils and hardships of a
journey in the depths of winter. He admits being recaptured, though
he does not tell us that he was taken on January 12, 1776, by a party
from Pittsburg. Although the letters intrusted to him by Connolly
were found on his person, Smyth asserts that he effected the purpose for
which he had risked his life. He adds that he was "dragged in triumph
700 miles, bound hands and feet, to the Congress, " after which he suffered
captivity for eighteen months. This was in Philadelphia, whither Con
nolly had, in the meantime, been conducted. But once more Smyth
escaped, going this time to New York, where he joined General Howe
in 1777. Here he was given a captain's commission in the Queens'
Rangers, for which he raised — if we may believe his own statement — a
corps of 185 men at his own expense, in addition to others in such number
that his recruits composed the greater part of the regiment. However,
thc only men accredited to Smyth by the muster rolls of the loyahst
corps were 61 in number, with whom he and Lieutenant James Murray
joined the British army at Philadelphia in October, 1777.^
¦" Pa. Magazine of Hist, and Biog., Jan., 1889, 411-417; Proceedings of the Am.
Antiq. Soc, Oct., 1909, 19-21; Papers read before the Lancaster Co. Hist. Soc,
Oct., 1909, vol. vii, no. 6, 121, 122.
8 Pa. Magazine of Hist, and Biog., Jan., 1889, 417; Proceedings of the Am. Antiq.
Soc, Oct., 18C9, 21, 22; Thwaites and Kellogg, Rev. on the Upper Ohio, 138, n. 43,
139, n. 44; Memorial of John Ferdinand Dalziel Smyth; Rev. W. O. Raymond's
abstracts of the Muster Rolls (unpublished); Simeon's Jovirpal> 1843, 18,

 Proceedings or the Eighth Annual Meeting  5
After Cormolly reached Philadelphia about January 5, 1776, he was
committed to jail with Cameron on the charge of treasonable practices
against America. Almost a year after this (that is, in December, 1776),
Smyth and Cameron tried to abscond from their Philadelphia prison
by means of a rope made of blankets and fastened to the roof. Cameron,
who, was first in undertaking the descent, broke both ankles by a fall of
50 feet, the. rope having given way. He was found in an apparently
dying condition, but on his partial recovery obtained his release in the
winter of 1778, and went to England. Early in July, 1780, Connolly
was permitted to go to New York. Arrangements for his exchange were
completed in the following October, under a resolution of Congress. In
New York his "irrepressible loyalism" manifested itself in the submission
of a plan to Clinton for attacking the frontier outposts, seizing Pittsburg,
and fortifying the AUeghenies, and in an attempt to raise a Tory regiment.
As neither of these schemes proved feasible. Connolly was appointed
lieutenant colonel commandant in the Queen's Rangers and sailed with
that regiment to Yorktown in December. Soon after his arrival in the
South he was given the command of the loyalists of Virginia and North
Carolina on the peninsula formed by the James River and Chesapeake
Bay. In September, 1781, he was again taken prisoner, but was permitted
by the Governor of Virginia to go to Philadelphia, where he arrived,
December 12. Here he was kept in jail until the following March, when
he was paroled and allowed to go to New York, on condition of his sailing
to England. This condition he promptly fulfilled.''
The discovery and suppression of Connolly's plot by no means ter
minated Tory machinations in the upper Ohio country. During the
summer of 1777 the British authorities at Detroit sent out raiding parties
against the frontier. These parties made a practice of leaving proclataia-
tions signed both by Sir Guy Carleton, governor of Quebec, and Henry-
Hamilton, lieutenant governor at Detroit, beside, the bodies of the slain
victims. Such documents were found, for example, near Kittanning,
Hannahstown, and Wheeling, and promised humane treatment to all who
would take refuge in the British posts, together with a land bounty of
200 acres to those serving as private soldiers in the King's defence during
the war. The effect of these proclamations, coupled with the threat
suggested by the dead bodies lying near them, is traceable in the Tory
conspiracy that was revealed to Colonel Thomas Gaddis of West Moreland
County, Pennsylvania, late in August, 1777. Doubtless, the flames

' Papers read before the Lancaster Co. Hist. Soc, vol. vii. no. 6, 126, Bur. of
Arch., Ont., Pt. II, 1144^1146.

Ohio Valley Historical Association

of this conspiracy were fed also by, the rumor, then circulating, that an
army of from 10,000 to 16,000 Canadians, Indians and British was march
ing from Detroit to take Pittsburg.*
Gaddis at once warned Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown at Redstone
Old Fort on the Monongahela that the Tories had associated for the
purpose of cutting off the inhabitants; that Brown must therefore keep a
strong guard over his powder magazine, which supplied all the Virginia
counties west of the mountains, and also warn the friends of the American
cause to be "upon their watch. " Colonel Brown acted with promptness,
posting a guard of fifteen men over the magazine, while Colonel Gaddis
with about 100 men went in pursuit of the loyalists. But the officer
who did most in uncovering and destro3dng this conspiracy was Colonel
Zackwell Morgan of Monongahela County, Virginia. With 500 men
he hastened to " Miner's Fort " in his vicinity, whence he wrote (August 2&)
to Brigadier General Edward Hand at Pittsburg that he had been forced
to raise all the men possible, unenlisted as well as enlisted, to put a stop
to what he called "this unnatural unheard of frantic scene of mischief
* * * in the very heart of our country." Morgan said that he
had already taken numbers who confessed to having sworn allegiance
to the King, with the understanding that some of the leading men at
Fort Pitt were to be "their rulers and heads." He declared further
that such of his prisoners as had made confession agreed that the English,
French, and Indians would descend on Pittsburg in a few days, when the
loyalists were to embody themselves and Fort Pitt was to be surrendered
with but little opposition. Morgan added that he had been astonished
at some of the persons taken into custody, but that he was determined
to purge the country before disbanding his troops. The conspiracy
proved to be shortlived under the prompt measures taken by Colonels
Morgan and Gaddis, although some of its leaders remained at Pittsburg
until the following spring. In the neighboring country it required only a
skirmish to disperse the loyalists.^
The rumored expedition from Detroit turned out to be only another
Indian raid, which was directed not against Fort Pitt, but against Fort
Henry at Wheeling. Probably not more than 200 redmen participated
in the attacks — which were made on September 1 and 2 — and instead
of the thousands of white assailants confidently expected by the loyalists,
there were only a few, if any.^"

« Thwaites and Kellogg, Frontier Defense of the Upper Ohio, a, 14, 21-24, 33-42,
46, 51-63, 54-68, 70, passim.
" Ibid':, 51-53, 142, n. 8.
1° Thwaites and Kellogg, Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 54-67.

Proceedings oe the Eighth Annual Meeting 7
The only life lost as the result of the Tory conspiracy of 1777 was that
of a loyalist by the name of Higginson or Hickson. Toward the end of
October, when Colonel Zackwell Morgan and four associates were retum
ing across the Cheat River with this man as their prisoner, Hickson was
drowned. Morgan was charged with having pushed him out of the boat
in which the passage of the stream was made, and the coroner's inquest
found an indictment of murder against the Colonel. In consequence, the
militia of Monongalia County was thrown into a state approaching mutiny,
and most of the officers resigned. Fortunately, the trial, which was held
at Williamsburg, resulted in Colonel Morgan's acquittal."
Meanwhile, the news of the Tory conspiracy was producing intense
excitement in the Western country. Many prominent men on the Ohio
frontier were suspected, including Captain Alexander McKee and Simon
Girty, Colonels George Morgan and John Campbell, and even Brigadier
General Hand himself. In November Congress took into consideration
the disaffection arising from Carleton's and Hamilton's proclamations,
and appointed a commission to investigate the growth of the movement
and to find ways of checking it, as well as the Indian ravages. The
case of Colonel George Morgan was referred to this commission, and the
officer in question was placed under arrest, while Captain McKee was
confined in his farm house, and Simon Girty was sent to the common
guard house. Late, in December General Hand reported to the com
missioners of Congress that, after sifting the evidence against these men,
he had removed Morgan's arrest and placed McKee on a new parole, and
that Girty had been acquitted by a magistrate. Three and a half months
later the commissioners decided in favor of Morgan's innocence, and
restored to him his offices and honors. Some of those involved in the
conspiracy fled to the mountains. Among these was Henry Maggee from
the Perth Valley in Cumberland County, who resorted with thirty others
to the fastness of the AUeghenies. Some years later Maggee made affi
davit that, in conjunction with his friends, he had induced 431 men to
sign for enlistment in Butler's Rangers, whose headquarters were at
Fort Niagara, but that the company was obliged to disperse when one of
their number turned informer. Maggee first went to Philadelphia, and
in 1778 to Nova Scotia. It is not unlikely that William Pickard and his
two sons of Westmoreland County signed Maggee's agreement, for we
find them joining Butler's Rangers in 1777. Alexander Robertson, an
Indian trader, who was one of those caught planning to destroy the'
powder magazine on the upper Ohio, also fled in the same year.^^

" Thwaites and Kellogg, Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 142-145.
12 Ibid., 128, 143, 198, n. 70, 187, n. 59, 184-187, 250; Jour, of Cong, (new ed.) ix, 831,
942-944, 1018; 2d Rep., Bureau of Arch., Ont., 1904, Pt. I, 537, 638; Pt. II, 963, 964;
Pt. I, 150.

Ohio Valley Historical Association

The closing scene in the conspiracy of 1777 was enacted at Pittsburg,
March 28, 1778, when Captain McKee, Matthew Elliott, Simon Girty,
Robert Surphlitt, John Higgins, and McKee's two negroes made their
escape. Captain McKee was the deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs
at Fort Pitt, Surphlitt was his cousin, and Higgins appears to have been
one of his servants. Simon Girty had long acted as interpreter for the
Six Nations. During a considerable time both McKee and Girty had been
regarded as suspicious characters and, as we have already seen, had been
under arrest. Matthew Elliott was an Indian trader who had left Pitts
burg in October, 1776, and gone to Detroit, where he arrived in the
following March, There he soon excited the distrust of the authorities,
was arrested and sent down to Quebec. At length he again appeared in
Pittsburg, perhaps bringing letters with him from Canada that influenced
the conduct of McKee and others. At any rate, the little party of fugitives
had in Elliott a guide familiar with the road to Detroit and one eager,
no doubt, to reinstate himself in the favor of the British authorities there.
Conditions had become intolerable for this group of loyalists at Fort
Pitt, and the alluring promises of the proclamations had certainly not been
forgotten. ,So the party set out for Detroit, taking a course through what
is now southern Ohio, by way of Coshocton and Old Chillicothe on the
west bank of the Scioto (site of the present village of Westfali) and thence
through the Wyandot towns of the Sandusky River to the destination.
.White Eyes, the Delaware chief at Coshocton said that this "flock of
birds" imposed a song on his people that nearly proved their ruin. At
the Shawnee village of Old Chillicothe McKee and his followers found
James Girty, whom they persuaded to join them later at Detroit. Not
long after this the refugees sent word of their coming to Lieutenant
Governor Hamilton, and a few days later received letters by the hand
of Edward Hazel, a loyalist from the States, from both Hamilton and
his deputy Indian Agent, John Hay, congratulating them on their escape
and welcoming them- to Detroit. Shortly after their arrival McKee
was appointed deputy agent for Indian Affairs, Elliott, captain in the
Indian Department, and Simon Girty, interpreter and agent in the secret
service. Thus, these men were afforded full opportunity to instigate
and take part in operations against the frontier which they had left but
recently.^'

" Thwaites and Kellogg, Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 249-256, 260, n. 14;
987, 988, 1082, 1282; Heckewelder's Narrative, 182; Rev. on the Upper Ohio, 74, 75;
2d. Rep., Bureau of Arch., Ont., 1904, Pt. II, 986, 987, 988, 1082, 1282.

 Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting 9
Apparently, efforts were put forth at Fort Pitt to capture these deserters
and others tvho had lately disappeared from the post. Indeed, the flight
of McKee and his friends was only the most notable incident among
many of the Mnd that had occurred at Pittsburg during recent months.
In a letter of April 24, 1778, Brigadier General Hand wrote from the fort
to General Horatio Gates: "Desertion prevails here to a great degree.
Since the 18th of January last, 40 men have deserted from this small
garrison ; last night 14, the greatest number of them of the guard, went off,
& took with them Eleazer Davis * * * & a party of the country
people. I believe the DevU has possessed both the country & garrison. A
command of 40 men & 4 officers were detached in pursuit. " One of the
deserters to whom General Hand referred in this letter was a Henry
Butler, who arrived at Kaskaskia on the Mississippi near the close of the
preceding February. In August, 1778, the Uttle group of Pittsburg
loyalists at Detroit was increased by the arrival of James Girty, who was
made interpreter for the Shawnee, and nearly a year later by the appearance
of George Girty, who had made his way through the Indian Country from
New Orleans, where he had been a prisoner for twelve months. Like his
two brothers, George Girty was at once taken into the Indian Department
as an interpreter.^*
The loyalist plots we have thus far considered had developed in western
Pennsylvania, but the Virginia frontier had its own active loyalists,
including Messrs. Price, Bane, ShuU and Heavins, under whose leadership
disaffection was rapidly spreading. By December, 1777, Tory tendencies
had progressed so far in this region that Captain Thomas -Burk and most
of his company of militia, besides about 40 others in the Smithfield neigh
borhood, refused taking the oath of aUegiance to the United States, despite
the earnest efforts of Colonel WUliam Preston. This oath was required
by an act passed by the Virginia assembly in the preceding May. According
to this act, all adult free male inhabitants of the State had to renounce
allegiance to the King or be disarmed by the county lieutenant. Those
who refused the oath were to be incapable of electing or being elected
to any office in the State, serving on juries, suing for debts, or buying
lands and houses. Colonel Preston complained that these penalties
did not reach the people he was trying to bring to obedience, and he
therefore urged that the law be amended. Nevertheless, the Colonel
proceeded to enforce the oath of allegiance, under the penalty of dis
arming all recusants; and whatever other loyalists may have done. Captain
Burk resigned his commission, February 18, 1778, rather than comply
i« Thwaites and Kellogg, Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 247, 278, 279, 286;
234, n. 98; 2d Rep., Bureau of Arch., Ont., 1904, Pt. II, 988, 1284.

10 Ohio Valley Historical Association

with the law. He explained, however, that his action sprang from con
scientious scruples, and denied any intention of defying the American
government.'^ But in 1779 preparations were again made among the" loyalists of the
upper Ohio for open defiance of those in control of the frontier. Again
the report became current that part of the British force at Detroit was
getting ready to penetrate to Pittsburg. Doubtless, this report originated
in connection with the seige of Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas by Simon
Girty and his painted warriors in the spring and summer of the year
named. But whatever the occasion of the report, it spread beyond
western Pennsylvania into Virginia and Maryland. Thereupon James
Fleming of Frederick County, Virginia, associated himself with Hugh
Kelly of Maryland in organizing the loyalists on the upper Ohio. Kelly
betook himself to the Red Stone settlement near Pittsburg, where he
raised 175 men, while Fleming enlisted 75 at Kittanning. These details
are gathered from the formal statement of their services and losses sub
mitted by Fleming and Kelly to the authorities in London about 1782.
That these preparations came to naught was due primarily to the fact
that the King's troops did not make the anticipated expedition, and to the
further circumstance that Kelly, together with his officers and men, was
apprehended. Kelly asserts that he was condemned to be hanged but
was saved by a dispute between the civil and mUitary authorities, and that
he managed to escape to New York in 1781 (apparently in June). Up to
this time Kelly had paid out — if we may accept his own statement — no
less than ^^ 1,240 (Pennsylvania currency) in meeting the expenses and
fines of himself and others in forming associations counter to those of
the revolutionists. Among his helpers in this work, besides Fleming,
had been Adam Graves, John George Graves, and Nicholas Andrews,
all of Maryland. The operations of these men had extended from Mary
land into the adjoining States on the north and south, with the result
that up to June 1781, nearly 1,300 loyalists (so Kelly and Fleming claimed)
were bound by oath to serve in the Maryland Royal Retaliators, when
called upon.'^
The provisional enlistment of this corps formed part of a new plan
to invade the frontier along the upper Ohio, and at the same time to
release the large numbers of British prisoners who were confined in Win
chester, Strasburg, Leesburg, Sharpsburg, Fort Frederick, and Frederick
Town. The sea coast was to be molested by the privateers of the Asso-

16 Thwaites and Kellogg, Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 169, 170, 203. 204;
Hening, Statutes, ix, 281-283.
!« Report on Am. Mss. in the Roy. Inst, of G. Brit., Ill, 46, 47; I, 20; IV, 241.

_^_  Proceedings . oe the Eighth Annual Meeting  U
ciated Loyalists of America, whose board of directors was' commissioned
by vSir Henry Clinton in February, 1781; the Tories of Somerset- arid
Worcester counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland were to be aided,
should their petition meet with favor, by. an' expedition to be sent by
General Leslie from Portsmouth to the Chesapeake; General -Johnston
was to operate with, a large force in the neighborhood of Pittsburg,
and Colonel John Connolly was to return fEpm the region north of the
James River in order to cooperate- with Johnson. This extended -plan, as
it happened, broke , down at two points : the appeal of the Eastern Shore
Tories to General Leslie was intercepted, and the .papers revealing the
project , and names of the ¦ loyalist leaders of Frederick County were
delivered by mistake to an American, officer in Frederick Town,- instead
of the British officer in,, disguise for whom they were intended, /Thus,
Leslie, and probably Connolly also, .remained in ignorance of the pro
posed plan, and no time was, lo.st in .placing the conspirators of Frederick
County under arrest. According to Kelly and Fleming's account, 170 of
their associates, including officers and men, were apprehended at this time.
Of these Adam and John George Graves, Nicholas Andrews, Peter Sueman,
Yost Plecker, Henry Shell, and Casper Fritchie were tried before a special
court, oil .July 25, 1781, and found guilty of high treason for enlisting
. men and administering an oath, to them to obey the King's officers when
-called on. Judgp Hanson, who presided at. the trial, sentenced these
men tg be, hanged on the gallows at Frederick Town, and then to be
dra-wn and. quartered. ¦ We learn that, three of the seven were executed,
but whether they underwent the horrors of the full sentence .does not
appear. At least three of -the, remaining . four, namely, Andrews and
the two Graves brothers, were fortunate, enough to get out of their predica-
. ment in some unknown . manner, and went south to, join Cornwallis,
whither Fleming, had also escaped. The turn that events took at York-
town, sent Fleming in haste to New York.. Andrews and the Graves,
however, did not succeed in effecting so prompt a departure from the
scene of Comwallis's misfortune,^ they were seized and imprisoned, part
of the time — according to their own testimony — with the coffins intended
for them in the place of their confinement. But again the ,unexpected
happened. They were soon reprieved on the condition of being .trans
ported to. France, Accordingly the}^ were sent on board the Romulus
in York River, Awaiting a favorable opportunity, they found a way of
escaping and reaching New York City in their turn. Meanwhile,- the
general 'court at. Annapolis rendered the judgment of .outlawry against
about 100 leading loyalists, some of whom, were from Baltimore County,
and at later' periods against about 80 others from various .localities jn|the

12  Ohio Valley Historical AssociATtoN  ^
State, including Frederick, Charles, Kent, Montgomery, Somerset, and
Worcester counties.''
When now we come to examine this series of Tory conspiracies extend
ing from the beginning of January, 1774, to the close of July, 1782, we
can scarcely doubt that the most formidable of them was Connolly's
plot. Historians seem to be agreed that this was a well planned and not
impractical enterprise, fraught with "grave consequences for the back
country and for the American cause in general." Fort Blair had been
evacuated and destroyed during the summer of 1775, thus leaving Fort
Pitt as the only American fortification on the long frontier stretching
from Greenbrier in southwestern Virginia to Kittanning on the upper
Allegheny, and for a brief period even this post was without a garrison.
The mUitia of the neighboring counties supplied the only protection to
the inhabitants, large numbers of whom were reported to be wholly
defenseless. If the colonial authorities had been less alert than they were,
Connolly's plot might have succeeded, and the whole territory of the
Ohio and Mississippi valleys been evacuated, only to revert to Indian
occupation. As it turned out, the frontiers remained "free from any
general participation in the War" for two years after the capture of
Connolly and his companions. This was partly due, no doubt, to the
success of the Americans in making peace with the neighboring Indian
tribes in October, 1775. While this peace did not prove to be lasting, it
nevertheless served a double purpose during the time of its continuance;
it both averted attacks on the part of the savages, and interposed the
barrier of a neutral zone between the British post at Niagara and Fort
Pitt, thus pre-venting the threatened descent of Butler and his Tory
Rangers upon the latter.**
Late in August, 1777, the danger of a loyalist uprising on the upper
Ohio was again menacing. In the preceding March HamUton at Detroit
had been empowered to raise as many royalists and Indians as possible
to send out against the frontier; but his enlistment of a corps of loyalists
progressed slowly, and it was not until Simon Girty, Mathew Elliott, and
Alexander McKee arrived about May 1, 1778, that the Detroit Volunteers,
Indians, and other contingents of this northwestern post gained leader
ship." Pittsburg had been freed from its dangerous element by the
flight of McKee's party and those of like sympathies, to be sure, but
numbers of the Tories stUl remained in the neighboring region and looked
" Report on Am. Mss. in the Roy. Inst, of G. Brit., Ill, 6, 47; IV, 241; 2d Report,
Bureau of Arch., Ont., Pt. I, 55, 56; Scharf, Hist, of Maryland, II, 366-368;
" Thwaites and Kellogg, Rev. on the Upper Ohio, xiv.
" See my article "The Dispersion of the American Tories" in the Mississippi
Valley Hist, Rev., Sept., 19U, 189.

 Proceedings oe the Eighth Annual Meeting  13
for a formidable expedition from Detroit to help them restore the King's
authority on the frontier. However, the only force that appeared was
the band of Indian raiders, which attacked Fort Henry at Wheeling on
September 1st and 2nd; and by that time many of the local royalists
were themselves in the toUs of Colonels Zackwell Morgan and Thomas
Gaddis and their force of 600 patriots.
Again in 1779, it was the alertness of the revolutionary party in western
Pennsylvania, and the failure of the authorities at Detroit to send an
expedition sufficient and instructed to take Fort Pitt that once more
belied the hopes of the Tories on the upper Ohio. Instead of assisting
in the conquest of Pittsburg, for which the adherents of the Crown had
organized at Kittanning and Red Stone, these men had to content them
selves with the news that Simon Girty and his savages had compelled
the Americans to abandon the unimportant post of Fort Laurens on the
Tuscarawas, in August, 1779."
However, the Tories of the frontier continued to organize themselves
for the conquest of Pittsburg and the neighboring country and to look
abroad for the assistance that would make this possible. Kelly, Fleming,
Andrews, and the* rest scoured the western parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia,
and Maryland, in order to secure recruits for the Maryland Royal
Retaliators, and by June, 1781, had 1,300 men sworn to support an
invasion. Large numbers of British prisoners were to be rescued from
various towns in these parts, thus strengthening the Retaliators, while
Colonel John Connolly, formerly in control at Fort Pitt and now in com
mand of the Virginia and North Carolina loyalists on the peninsula north
of Richmond was to return and cooperate -with General Johnston and his
troops in reducing the Pittsburg region. It was the most elaborate
scheme devised by royalists since the time of Connolly's plot for the
re-establishment of the King's authority on the upper Ohio. It collapsed
through being accidentally revealed at Frederick Town, before the outside
assistance necessary to its success had been secured. One hundred and
seventy of its promoters were promptly arrested, and a few of the ring
leaders were executed about August 1, 1781. But even if this scheme had
not coUapsed at that time, it was nevertheless doomed to do so speedily,
for the whole royal cause fell in final ruin with the surrender of ComwaUis
three months later.

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