CHAPTER XXII.

INDIAN HOSTILITIES.

A SEVERE punishment was inflicted on the Miami and Shawanee tribes, by the troops under the command of General Harmar, in the fall of the year 1790; but the events which immediately followed the campaign did not accord with the expectations of the government of the United States. The expedition did not compel the hostile tribes to sue for peace; nor were the settlements on the borders of the river Ohio relieved from the evils of a revengeful, merciless, and destructive war. On the 8th of January, 1791, General Rufus Putnam, who was one of the "Ohio Company of Associates," and the founder of the settlement at Marietta, wrote to President Washington as follows:

"MARIETTA, January 8, 1791.

"Sir:-The mischief which I feared has overtaken us much sooner than I expected. On the evening of the 2d instant, between sunset and daylight-in, the Indians surprised a new settlement of our people, at a place on the Muskingum called the Big Bottom, nearly forty miles up the river, in which disaster eleven men, one woman, and two children were killed: three men are missing, and four others made their escape. Thus, sir, the war which was partial before the campaign of last year, is, in all probability, become general: for I think that there is no reason to suppose that we are the only people on whom the savages will wreak their vengeance, or that the number of hostile Indians have not increased since the late expedition. Our situation is truly critical. The governor and secretary both being absent, no assistance from Virginia or Pennsylvania can be had. The garrison at Fort Harmar, consisting at this time of little more than twenty men, can afford no protection to our settlements; and the whole number of men, in all our settlements, capable of bearing arms, including all civil and military officers, does not exceed two hundred and

eighty-seven, and these, many of them, badly armed. We are in the utmost danger of being swallowed up, should the enemy push the war with vigor during the winter. This, I believe, will fully appear by taking a short view of our several settlements, and, I hope, justify the extraordinary measures* we have adopted, for want of a legal authority in the territory to apply for aid in the business. The situation of our people is nearly as follows:

"At Marietta are about eighty houses in the distance of one mile, with scattering houses about three miles up the river. A set of mills at Duck creek, four miles distant, and another mill two miles up the Muskingum. Twenty-two miles up this river is a settlement, consisting of about twenty families: about two miles from them, on Wolf creek, are five families and a set of mills. Down the Ohio, and opposite the Little Kanawha, commences the settlement called Belle Prairie, which extends down the river, with little interruption, about twelve miles, and contains between thirty and forty houses. Before the late disaster, we had several other settlements, which are already broken up. I have taken the liberty to inclose the proceedings of the Ohio Company and justices of the sessions on this occasion, and beg leave, with the greatest deference, to observe that, unless government speedily send a body of troops for our protection, we are a ruined people. The removal of the women and children, etc., will reduce many of the poorer sort to the greatest straits; but if we add to this the destruction of their corn, forage, and cattle, by the enemy, which is very probable to ensue, I know of no way they can be supported: but, if this should not happen, where these people are to raise bread another year, is not easy to conjecture; and most of them have nothing left to buy with. But my fears do not stop here. We are a people so far detached from all others, in point of situation, that we can hope for no timely relief, in case of emergency, from any of our neighbors; and among the numbers that compose our present military strength, almost

*Immediately after the disaster at Big Bottom, the directors of the "Ohio Company of Associates" voted to raise and pay troops, to be employed in the defense of their settlements.

one-half are young men, hired into the country, intending to settle by and by. These, under present circumstances, will probably leave us soon, unless prospects should brighten; and, as to new settlers, we can expect none in our present situation: so that, instead of increasing in strength, we are like to diminish daily; and, if we do not fall a prey to the savages, we shall be so reduced and discouraged as to give up the settlement, unless government shall give us timely protection. It has been a mystery with some why the troops have been withdrawn from this quarter, and collected at the Miami [Symmes' purchase]. That settlement is, I believe, within three or four days' march of a very populous part of Kentucky, whence, in a few days, they might be reinforced with several thousand men; whereas, we are not within two hundred miles of any settlement that can probably more than protect themselves. But I forbear suggestions of this sort, and will only observe further, that our present situation is truly distressing; and I do, therefore, most earnestly implore the protection of government for myself and friends inhabiting these wilds of America. To this we conceive ourselves justly entitled; and so far as you, sir, have the means in your power, we rest assured that we shall receive it in due time. "I have the honor to be, with the highest possible respect, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

"RUFUS PUTNAM."

Immediately after the close of the expedition of Harmar, the fears of Indian depredations which prevailed among the settlements about Marietta, became general among the inhabitants of the western counties of Virginia. The delegates of the counties of Ohio, Monongahela, Harrison, Randolph, Greenbriar, Kanawha, and Montgomery, sent to the governor of Virginia a joint memorial, in which they made the following statement: "The defenseless condition of those counties, forming a line of nearly four hundred miles along the Ohio river, exposed to the hostile invasion of their Indian enemies, destitute of every kind of support, is truly alarming: for, notwithstanding all the regulations of the general government in that country, we have reason to lament that they have been hitherto ineffectual for our protection; nor indeed could it happen other

wise: for the garrisons kept by the continental troops on the Ohio river, if they are of any use, it must be to the Kentucky settlements, as they immediately cover that country. To us they can be of no service, being from two to four hundred miles below our frontier settlements. * * * We further beg leave to observe that we have reason to fear that the consequences of the defeat of our army by the Indians, on the late expedition, will be severely felt on our frontiers; as there is no doubt but that the Indians will, in their turn, (being flushed with victory,) invade our settlements, and exercise all their horrid murder upon the inhabitants thereof, whenever the weather will permit them to travel. Then is it not better to support us where we are, be the expense what it may, than to oblige such a number of your brave citizens, who have so long supported, and still continues to support, a dangerous frontier, (although thousands of their relatives in the flesh have, in the prosecution thereof, fallen a sacrifice to savage inventions,) to quit the country, after all they have done and suffered, when you know that a frontier must be supported somewhere?"

The memorial was signed by Benjamin Biggs and John Henderson, of Ohio county; John Evans, jr., and William McCleery, of Monongahela county; George Jackson and John Prunty, of Harrison county; Cornelius Bogard and Abraham Claypool, of Randolph county; Andrew Donnally and George Clendinen, of Kanawha county; Thomas Edgar and W. H. Cavendish, of Greenbriar county; and H. Montgomery and R. Sawyers, of Montgomery county.

In consequence of the representations contained in this memorial, the legislature of Virginia, by a resolution of the 20th of December, 1790, authorized the governor of that State to direct such temporary defensive operations in the frontier counties "as would secure the citizens thereof from the hostile invasions of the Indian enemy, until the general government could enter into full and effectual measures to accomplish the said object." The governor, Beverly Randolph, immediately dispatched orders to the military commanding officers in the western counties, requiring them to raise, by the 1st of March, 1791, several small companies of rangers for the protection of the inhabitants of the frontier counties. Charles Scott, Esq.,

PROVISION FOR PROTECTING THE FRONTIERS. 259

was appointed brigadier-general of the militia of the district of Kentucky, with authority to procure, by voluntary engagements, two hundred and twenty-six men, to range the most exposed parts of the frontiers of that district.

An account of these proceedings of the legislative and executive authorities of Virginia, was transmitted to the President of the United States, by Governor Randolph, on the 4th of January, 1791; and soon afterward the general government constituted a local board of war for the district of Kentucky. This board was composed of Brigadier-general Charles Scott, Harry Innis, John Brown, Benjamin Logan, and Isaac Shelby.

On the 3d of March, 1791, Congress passed "an act for raising and adding another regiment to the military establishment of the United States, and for making further provision for the protection of the frontiers." Governor St. Clair, by the advice and consent of the Senate, was invested with the chief command of about three thousand troops, to be raised and employed against the hostile Indians northwest of the Ohio; and on the 21st of March, 1791, the secretary of war sent to St. Clair a letter of instructions, from which the following is an extract:

“While you are making use of such desultory operations as in your judgment the occasion may require, you will proceed vigorously, in every preparation in your power, for the purpose of the main expedition; and having assembled your force, and all things being in readiness, if no decisive indications of peace should have been produced, either by the messengers or by the desultory operations, you will commence your march for the Miami village, in order to establish a strong and permanent military post at that place. In your advance you will establish such posts of communication with Fort Washington, on the Ohio, as you may judge proper. The post at the Miami village is intended for awing and curbing the Indians in that quarter, and as the only preventive of future hostilities. It ought, therefore, to be rendered secure against all attempts and insults of the Indians. The garrison which should be stationed there ought not only to be sufficient for the defense of the place, but always to afford a detachment of five or six hundred men, either to chastise any of the Wabash or other hostile Indians, or to secure any convoy of provisions. The