History of the Girtys BEING A CONCISE ACCOUNT OF THE GIRTY BROTHERS- THOMAS, SIMON, JAMES AND GEORGE, AND 01 THEIR HALF-BROTHER, JOHN TURNER— ALSO OF THE PART TAKEN BY THEM IN LORD DUNMORE'S WAR, IN THE WESTERN BORDER WAR OF THE REVOLU- TION, AND IN THE INDIAN WAR OF I790-95 WITH A RECITAL OF THE PRINCIPAL EVLNTS IN THE WEST DURING THESE WARS, DRAWN FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES, ,; LARGELY ORIGINAL BY CONSUL WILLSHIRE BUTTERFIELD Author of "An Historical Account of the Expedition against Sandusky under Col. William Crawford in 178a," etc. CINCINNATI ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 1890 /l'ld\) 0152- Copyrighted ROBERT CLARKE & CO 1890 PREFACE. It adds much to the pleasure of an author, in writing biog- raphies of persons, to be in sympathy with them ; but this oc- casionally results in unmerited praise. On the other hand, where the writer pursues his self-imposod labor with a feeling of antago- nism, unjust detraction may ensue. While it is true that an extended notice of the three Girtys — Simon, James, and George — was undertaken because of the notori- ety they had obtained, yet the principal reason for prosecuting this work to a final completion has been that there is an apparent neces- sity for our Western annals to be freed, so far as may be, from error, every-where permeating them as to the part actually taken by these brothers — particularly Simon — in many of the important events which, to a considerable extent, make up the history of the Trans-Alleghany country. It is because so manv "ccuflictiuo; statements" have heretofore been published concerning the Girtys — sometimes, however, in frag- mentary form, but generally incorporated in Western historical works — that, along with the accounts of them in these pages, are also given brief sketches of the principal occurrences in which they took part to a greater or less extent. These events are drawn from authentic sources, largely original ; and as they are interwoven with the life-record of the three brothers, they are arranged, of course, in chronological order. This book, then, is historical as well as biographical. And it may here be added that the author has kept constantly in mind one object as paramount to all others — the statement of facts, as he understands them. To confine these pages, however, to a bare mention of occur- rences, giving the name of the Girty who took part in any particu- lar one, would be simply to make a dry chronological record ; this might be useful, but it would not be entertaining. If it should appear that Simon's name, during the Revolution, became a house- hold word of terror all along the Western borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia, the reader will naturally want to know the reason why. Details, therefore, become necessary. We shall see that not only Simon, but James and George, were cognizant of, or participants in (iii) iv Preface. many of those events which make the history of our country so full of interest. Their lives, from boyhood to old age, were indeed " tragically romantic." Pennsylvanians by birth, they were prisoners to the Indians in the old French war. Simon was a noted scout in Lord Dunmore's war ; and he, with his two brothers before named, was actively en- gaged in the interest of Britain during the last five years of the Revolution. In the Indian war of 1790-95, Simon and George aided the savages — the former in a way especially effective. But what has given the three brothers particular notoriety was their warring against their countrymen in connection with the Indians, from 1778 to 1783, inclusive. An inteiest in another of the Girty brothers — Thomas — and a half-brother — John Turner — is awakened because of the bearing their lives have upon the career of their three more noted relatives. Therefore it is that they, too, are oticed at some length in the pages following. Other members of the family are mentioned — only, however, in an incidental manner. It only remains for me to acknowledge my indebtedness to Douglas Brymner, Esq., of Ottawa, Canada, for promptly furnish- ing whatever copies have been called for of the transcripts of the Haldimand Papers in his charge as Public Archivist. The extent of the obligation I am under to him for this courtesy can be best understood by observing the number of citations from these Pa- pers which hereafter occur. Consul Willshire Butterpield. Omaha, March, 1890. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE. Simon Girty, Sr., emigrates from Ireland to Pennsylvania 1 Marries Miss Mary Newton 1 Death of Girty 5 John Turner, Sr., marries Mrs. Girty 5 The Turner family made prisoners by Indians 8 CHAPTER 11. Turner's awful death by torture 11 Thomas Girty rescued at Kittanning 13 Simon, James, and George Girty adopted by the savages 15 The Girty family, in 1759, brought into Pittsburgh... 16 CHAPTER III. Employment in Pittsburgh of Simon, James, and George Girty 19 Thomas Girty, before 176S, settles at Pittsburgh 22 CHAPTER IV. Boundary troubles between Pen.nsylvania and Virginia 23 Simon Girty sides with Virginia 24 Lord Dunmore's War 25 Girty translates Logan's "speech'.' 29 Boundary troubles renewed in the West 30 Girty commissioned second lieutenant by Virginia 31 CHAPTER V. Backwoodsmen, in 1775, enthusiastic for liberty 34 Simon Girty goes as guide for James Wood 35 John Neville, for Virginia, takes possession of Ft. Pitt 36 Girty appointed interpreter for the Six Nations 37 Savages begin hostilities on the Western border 40 CHAPTER VI. Simon Girty made second lieutenant by the patriots 41 Lieut.-Gov. Henry Hamilton, at Detroit, excites the Indians... 41 Brig. -Gen. Edward Hand takes command at Fort Pitt 42 Alexander McKee, at Pittsburgh, distrusted by the Whigs 43 Girty arrested as disloyal, but acquitted 45 Thomas Girty's early career at Pittsburgh 46 CHAPTER VII. George Girty enlists with Capt. James Willing 47 (V) vi Contents. Gen. Hand goes upon a " Squaw Campnigii " 48 MoKoe spcretly preiiares to desert to the British 49 James Girty goes to the Shawanese for the Americana 49 McKee, Matthew Elliott, Simon Girty, and others, start for Detroit 50 . The reason why Simon Girty fJeserted his country •'52 Mistakes and erroneous traditions as to Girty 64 lie had no landed property in Pennsylvania 55 CHAPTER VIII. The Delaware Indians excited by tlie wiles of McKee and Simon Girty 58 McKee, Elliott, and Girty go to the Shawanese towns 60 The three, with others, depart for Detroit 61 Received with open arms by Hamilton 62 Simon Girty employed as interpreter in the Indian Depart- ment 63 James Girty, having deserted his trust, also goeb ^^troit 64 Hamilton's barbarous policy against the Americans. 65 McKee, Elliott, Simon and James Girty attainted of high treason 66 Hamilton vainly endeavors to arm the " Moravian " Indians... 67 Simon Girty given no military office 68 Hamilton takes delight in the sufferings of American prison- ers 69 CHAPTER IX. George Rogers Clark sends spies to the Illinois 71 Capture, by Indians, cf Daniel Boone and others 72 Clark's conquest of the Illinois and ^abash towns 72 Simon Girty and his brother James sent to the Ohio wilder- ness 73 Simon goes among the Mingoes; James, among the Shawanese.. 73 With warriors, they raid into the American settlements 74 Hamilton, at Detroit, disregards his orders 75 Capture of Simon Kenton by the Shawanese 76 His life saved by Girty 78 CHAPTER X. Hamilton seeks to recover the Illinois 86 Major A. S. Peyster, at Michilimackinac, aids him 86 Brig-Gen. Lachlan Mcintosh takes command at Fort Pitt 87 Mcintosh builds Forts Mcintosh ard Laurens 88 Simon Girty ambuscades a detachment at Fort Laurens 89 Hamilton captured by Clark at Vincennes 90 Girty becomes bitterly hostile toward Americans 91 ContenU. vii CHAPTER XI. Cnpt. Henry Biivl goes with Indians against Fort Laurens 93 He bosiegos tiie tort 94 Failure of Bird to cai)turi' the post 95 Delaware Indians try to take Simon CSirly's scalp 95 Col. Daniel Brodhead takes command at Fort Pitt 95 Col. John Bowman marciies troin Ky. against Chillicothe 96 Bird plans another expedition against Fort Laurens 96 Its failure 97 Simon Girty goes after a jmekage of loyalists' letters 97 Why his name became a household word of terror on the border 98 He accidentally meets David Zeisberger, the Moravian mis- sionary 98 The Moravian fiction as to his meeting Zeisberger 101 Girty's determined hostility to the borderers 104 CHAPTER XII. George Girty deserts his company a!id goes to Detroit 105 Engaged by the British commandant as interpreter 108 He is paid the same as his brothers Simon and James 108 Simon Girty's intention again to go against Fort Laurens abandoned 109 James Girty is to reconnoiter "toward the Weas" 109 David Rogers, with supplies for the Americans, attacked 110 He and his force defeated by Simon and George Girty and Elliott 110 Major De Peyster takes command at Detroit Ill Clark's success at the Illinois and on the Wabash causes dis- affection among the Indians Ill CHAPTER XIII. Catharine Malotl (afterward Simon Girty's wife) captured by Indians 116 The three Girtys at Detroit in the spring of 1780 117 Lieut.-Gov. Patrick Sinclair organizes a raid against St. Louis.. 117 The expedition virtually a failure 118 De Peyster assembles at Detroit whites and Indians to assail Kentucky 118 Capt. Bird takes command 118 The three Girtys — Simon, James, and George — go on the ex- pedition 118 Ca|:)ture of Ruddle's and Martin's Stations 119 Clark, in retaliatiim, marches from Ky. against Chillicothe and Piqua 121 George and James Girty help defend Piqua 121 viii Contents. CH AFTER XIV. Thomas (liity still resitles at PittHburgh 124 Deliiwiiro Indians become hostile to the Americans 125 •Simon Girty brings in prisoners from Kentucky 126 Col, Brodhnad goes on a successful expedit'.on against Coshoc- ton 126 Simon flirty saves young Henry Baker's life 127 He (flirty) writes De Peyster from Upper Sandusky 128 Clark plans an expedition against Detroit 129 Capt. Andrew Thompson marches to interpose a barrier to his advance 129 Col. Archibal I Lochry defeated by Brant and Geo. flirty 129 Capt. Brant and Simon dirty have a personal encounter 130 Brant and McKee at the Long Uun massacre 131 Fort Henry (Wheeling) visited by savages 132 Moravian missionary establislimentson the Tuscarawas bioken up 133 Andrew and Adam Poe, and others, attack seven Wyandots successfully 133 CHAPTER XV. Simon flirty associates intimately with the Half King 136 Aids that chief in getting the "Moravians" from the Sandusky. 137 Goes on a raid into the border settlements 141 Returns with John Stevenson as prisoner 141 De Peyster writes Girty to take the missionnries to Detroit 143 CHAPTER XVI. Zeisberger and Ileckewelder frightened by Girty 147 The two missionaries go to Detroit 149 Thomas Edgerton condemned to be tortured, but saved ISO Girty speaks kindly to young Christian F'a^t 152 Thomas Girty petitions Brig.-Gen. Irvine 153 CHAPTER XVII. Col. David Williamson conducts an expedition to the Tus- carawas 155 Ninety " Moravian" Indians captured and killed 155 Sensational stories of Simon Girty related 158 Girty writes De Peyster from Upper Sandusky 159 A volunteer force organized against the Wyandots 161 Command given to Col. William Crawford 161 The Wyandots prepare to defend themselves 162 Preparations by De Peyster to meet the danger 163 CHAPTER XVIII. Crawford attacks the enemy on the Sandusky Plains 167 Contents. ix The Ameiionns retroat from the Samiusky 169 Another battle fought 171 Crawford and Dr. Knight cai)lured hy the Deluwn es 172 The Colonel meets Simon Oirty at the Half King's town 172 Oirty makes no etlort to save Crawford from torture 174 CHAPTER XIX. Oirty again meets T'rawford 177 The Colonel lied to i>, Htnke by the Delaware^ 178 Jle is cruelly tortured 180 Oirty delighted at the horrid spectacle 180 Crawford's awful suffering 181 Death finally ends bis misery 183 CHAPTER XX. Oirty informs Capt. Wm. Caldwell of Crawford's death 183 Does not claim to have interceded for him 183 Oeorge Oirty now liviinf with the Delawares 184 •John Slover captured 184 Bndly treated at Wapalomica by James (iirty 185 Cursed by Oeorge Oirty 186 Sentenced to be tortured, but escapes 186 " Dead men tell no tales " 187 CHAPTER XXI. Oreat Indian council held at Waputomica 190 Capt. Caldwell goes there from Lower Sandusky 192 Marches against Fort Henry, but returns before reaching the ! fort ." 192 Capt. Andrew Bradt sent to reinforce him 192 Clark supposed to be on the march for the Siiavvaiie.se towns.. 19.3 A large Indian force near Piqua assembles to meet him 193 The report of ('lark's coming a false one 194 The Indians disperse 194 Caldwell, with Rangers and Indians, crosses into Ky 194 Bryan's Station attacked 194 A fiction as to Simon Oirty demaniiing a surrender 196 The enemy fail to reduce the Station (Bryan's) 197 Battle of the Blue Licks 198 Oirty had no command in the battle 199 The victors return across the Ohio 200 Capt. Bradt assails Fort Henry 201 Clark destroys a Shawanese town on the Oreat Miami 201 CHAPTER XXII. News of peace with Oreat Britain reaches the West 210 Capture by Simon Girty of young Burkhart 210 Contents. A fiction as to Samuel Brady 211 Giity recalled from the Ohio wilderness 211 De Peyster informs the Indians that peace is made 213 Girty visited by his brother Thomas and half-brother, Jolin Turner 213 Sir John Johnson couns^els the Indians not to yield their hinds • 214 Girty marries Miss Catharine Malott 215 They locate in Canada, on the Detroit river 216 CHAPTER XXIII. Col. Josiah Ilarmar commands the First American Regiment.. 220 A treaty with the Western Indians held at Fort Mcintosh 221 Simon Girty directed wholly by Alex. McKee 222 Girty and others inflame the savages against the Americans... 223 Another treaty held — this time at " Fort Finney " 225 The Western savages, owing to British emissaries, getting hostile 226 Col. Harmar ordered to protect the border 227 Girty and McKee go to Niagara to an Indian council 227 Capt. Joseph Brant urges the Indians to unite 228 The savages determined to oppose Western settlements 229 A fiction regarding James Girty being on the Ohio 229 CHAPTER XXIV. Capture of James Moore by the Indians 233 Mary Moore, his sister, afterward taken prisoner 235 She is purchased of the Indians by a loyalist 235 Simon Girty and McKee aid her in getting released 237 Thomas Girty sent as a messenger to the Indians 238 Simon Girty is very active withthe Ohio savages 239 He has great influence among the Indians 240 A Mrs. Thomas Cunningham captured by the savages 240 Girty and McKee get her ransomed 241 Portents of an Indian War in the West 241 A treaty in 1789 held at Fort Ilarmar. 242 CHAPTER XXV. Simon Girty is not very active in 1789 244 He is again visited by his half-brother, John Turner 245 Hostility of the Wabash and Miami Indians 245 An unsuccessful expedition led by Gen. Harmar against the Mianiis 246 Maj. Flamtramck lays waste Wabash towns 247 The Western savages determine upoji war 248 A fiction ns to Simon Girty attacking Baker's Station 249 John Dunlap forms a hettiement on the Great Miami 249 Contents. xi Girty leads an Indian force against Dunlap's Station 251 Shocking torture of Abner Hunt 252 The siege of Dunlap's Station raised 254 The U. S. endeavor to treat with the hostile savages 256 CHAPTER XXVI. "Moravian" Indians paid in rum, by Simon Girty, for labor... 259 Gen. Arthur St. Clair marches against the Miami towns 260 St. Clair's army defeated 262 Girty tights bravely in the battle 263 He recognizes Gen. Richard Butler on the battle-field 263 He captures a white woman 264 Girty and a party of Indians attack Fort Jefferson 265 A grand council of Indians to be held at "The Glaize" 266 Young Spencer captured 267 CHAPTER XXVII. Simon Girty the only white man in the "Grand Council" 274 An armistice determined upon by the Indians 274 The U. S. attempt to treat with the savages 275 Commissioners reach the Detroit river 276 Negotiations with the savages fail 278 Gen. Wayne immediately moves toward the Maumee 278 Quakers hold a meeting at Simon Girty's home 279 CHAPTER XXVIII. Simon Girty is very active as interpreter 281 He is seen by Jacob Lewis in Detroit 281 Savages under Little Turtle attack Fort Recovery 283 The enemy repulsed 283 Girty fights bravely in the attack 283 Battle of the " Fallen Timber" 285 Wayne's victory complete 286 A vain attempt by the British to induce the savages to con- tinue the war ,.... 287 Proposals for peace made by the Indians to Wayne 288 CHAPTER XXIX. James Girty marries Betsy, a Shawanese women 289 Locates as a trader at St. Mary's 289 Removes to the "Grand Glaize" 290 Young Spencer is frightened by him .* 292 Girty, with his family, in 1794, removes to Canada 292 George Girty gives himself up wholly to an Indian life 293 Meets young John Brickell 293 CHAPTER XXX. Simon Qirty, McKee, and Brant endeavor to prevent peace.... 296 xii Contents. John Jay concludes a treaty with Great Britain 297 The U. S. and the Western Indians treat at Greenville 298 The Indian War ended 298 Possession obtained of the Western posts 299 The treaty of Greenville a "bitter pill" for Simon Girty and McKee 300 Girty swims his horse across the Detroit river 3U0 Girty's banter to an Indian 301 CHAPTER XXXI. Girty, at his home, continues as interpreter for Britain 304 Sketch of Prideaux, Simon's last child 304 Simon gets a grant of land from the Crown 305 He separates from his wife 306 Marriage of his three eldest children 307 Deeds half his land to bis son Thomas 307 Went to Detroit when it capitulated to the British 308 He goes to the Mohawks to be out of danger 309 The property of Matthew Elliott destroyed by the Americans.. 310 CHA PTER XXXII. • Death of Thomas, son of Simon Girty 315 George Girty marries and dies among the Delawares 315 James Girty returns to the Maumee to trade 316 Granted land in Gosfield, Essex county, Canada 316 Death of his wife 316 Gives up his business on the Maumee 317 Dies in Gostield, on his farm, in 1817 318 His character 318 CHAPTER XXXIII. Simon Girty retufns home totally blind 320 His wife lives with him again 321 His death and burial 322 His personal appearance described 323 His ill-will toward the Americans 324 His general character 324 He was never a vagabond 327 CHAPTER XXXIV. Thomas Girty moves from Pittsburgh 331 Dies on "Girty's Run," across the Alleghany 331 He was never an " Indian hunter" 332 Death of John Turner at " Squirrel Hill" 332 Bequests in bis will 333 Turner described in the Pittsburgh Daily Gazette 333 Death of Mrs. Catharine Malott Girty 333 Contents. xiii APPENDIX. A — First published account of the Girtys 335 B — Record of the baptism of John Turner (translation) 337 C — Mention of Georjie Girty as a trader 337 D — Fictitious account of Simon Girty joining the Indians in 1774 339 F — Oaths taken by Simon Girty when commissioned second lieutenant under Major John (Connolly 341 F — " Letting loose the horrible hell-hounds of savage war."... 342 G — Simon Girty and the siege of Fort Henry, Wheeling, in 1777 344 H — Simon Girty's visit to the Seneca towns up the Alleghany, in the fall of 1777 346 I — The reason why General Hand gave up his intended expe- dition to French creek, in the spring of 1778 .-,48 J — Concerning certain orders said to have been given by Gen. Haldimand to Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton while at Detroit 348 K — Kenton and the Mingo Logan 350 L — Lochry's defeat 351 M — Why the Moravian missionary establishments on theTus- carawas were broken up 353 N — Simon Girty and Colonel Crawford on the Sandusky 355 * O — A Rotitious account of Simon Girty attitudinizing as an orator 372 P — Concerning the Blue Licks campaign 373 Q — The Haldimand Manuscripts 377 R — George Girty to Captain Alexander McKee 382 S — Examination of John Leith 382 T — McKee the principal stimulator of the war of 1790-95 385 U — Governor Simcoe, of Canada, prevents peace in 1794 386 V — Simon Girty and the Scotch-Irish of Western Virginia 387 W— Deed of Simon Girty to his son Thomas 389 X — General Harrison in Canada in 1813 390 Y— Letters of William Charles Mickle 392 Z — Published estimates of Simon Girty 394 AA— James Girty's will 397 BB— John Turner's will 399 CC — Simon Girty and boy prisoners 401 DD— "Simon Girty" in a Cyclopoedia 403 EE — Illustrative notes, al.xo extracts from printed accounts, concerning the Girtys .' 405 HISTORY OF THE GIRTYS. CIIAPTEK I. On the Susquehanna river, there Hved, in the second quar- ter of the eighteenth century, upon the soil of what was then Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, an Irishman, whose name was Simon Girty — sometimes written, in early accounts, "Girte;" sometimes, " Girtee ; " and frequently, " Gerty." At least one writer has declared, though erroneously, that the word is a corruption of " Guthrie." * Girty emigrated from the Emei'ald Isle at middle age, en- gaging, soon after his arrival in America, and in the province just named, in the Indian trade, in the employment of pack- horse driver. Subsequently, after he had saved enough of his earnings to go into business for himself in trafficking with the Indians, he married Mary Newton, an English girl.-i- Of pre- vious events in her life, nothing whatever is known. Girty was married about the year 1737. His first child, named Thomas, was born in 1739.| The birth of a second child, called Simon after the father, was in 1741. § A third son — * Chftrles Cist, in Cincinnati Miscellany, Vol, I, p. 126. T Registres des Baptesmes et Sepultares qui se sont faits au Fort Du- quesne. Pendant les annces 1763, 1754, 1765, and 1766. New York, 1859. pp. 43, 44. The writer of this narrative, by putting reliance upon an erroneous tra- ditionary account, states, in a letter published some years since, that the maiden name of Mrs. Girty was Crosby. See History of Clark County, Ohio, pp. 377, 378. t In Niles's Weekly Register, Vol. XIX, p. 262, the year 1731 is incor- rectly given as the date of Thomas Girty's birth. § It is declared by John MacLeod, in the Amherstburg (Canada) Echg, of November 21, 1884 (Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. VII, p. 123; 1 (1) IIutorirli/x. 23 CHAPTER IV. Tlio year 1774 was jjrolilic of troublo in that part of tlie country west of tho Alleghany inouiitaiiis, which includes the rt'i^ioii now constitutinj^ .South-west l'cnn?ylvania and tl»o north-west portion of ^Vcst Yirjfinia. It was a year i.iade consjjicuous because of the intensity of ill-feeling between those residents who ailhcred to Pennsylvania in her claim to considerable territory upon the Ohio river, and those who in- sisted that Virginia included IMttsburj»h, and extended a con- siderable distance to the eastward of it. The contest for juris- diction was a bitter one, and came well nigh, on several oc- casions, reaching a point enkindling actual war. In 177?5, Westmoreland county was formed by Pennsylvania out of tho western portion of IJedford, and its county-seat es- tablished at Ilannastown, about thirty miles e, stward of Pittsburgh. During the summer, Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, visited the western country, and soon after adopted measures looking to a contest with Pennsylvania for jurisdic- tion over it. M'.>anwhile, Simon Girty was getting demon- strative on the side of Virginia. At the October session of 1773, of the court of Westmoreland county, at Ilannastown, a true bill for a misdemeanor was found by the grand jury against him. Process was issued for his arrest, but he es- caped. =•■ Lord Dunmore's chosen agent in the disputed territory was Dr. John Connolly, of Pittsburgh, who began, the first of Jan- uary, 1774, to carry out the instructions of his superior, by calling on tho people to meet on the twenty-fifth of that month, as militia, when he would "■ communicate matters for the promotion of public utility." " His Excellency, John, * Cnnnrine's History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, p. 162. AVhether he was actually arrested is not known. 24 ffistory of the Girfi/x. Earl of Duninorc, Govcrnor-in-Chief and Captain-General of the Colony and Dominion of Yirr;inia, and Viro-Adiniral of the same/' said Connolly, "has been pleased to nominate and appoint me captain commandant of the militia of Pittsburgh and its dependencies, Avith instructions to assure his majesty's subjects, settled on the western waters, that, having the great- est regard for their prosperity and interest, and convinced, from their repeated memori.als, of the grievances of which they complain, that he proposes moving to the House of Bur- gesses the necessity of erecting a new county, to include Pittsburgh, for the redress of your complaint, and to take every other step that may tend to afford you that justice which you solicit," This was the commencement, in earnest, of the boundary troubles west of the mountains. . The champion of Pennsylvania in the dispute was Arthur St. Clair, one of the justices of the peace of Westmoreland county. He soon caused the arrest of Connolly, and had him imprisoned at Hannastown. The latter, however, was, not long after, released upon parole. Disturbances multiplied, es- pecially at Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania Court at Hannas- town was assailed by Connolly with an armed force of " Vir- ginia militia ;" and, afterward, three of its justices were sent to Staunton, Virginia, to jail. Fort Pitt was taken posses- sion of by Connolly, and its name changed to " Fort Dun- more." Pennsylvania justices in Pittsburgh seemed, in an especial manner, the objects of his wrath. In an assault by a party of his militia on iEneas Mackay, the life of Mrs. Mac- kay was put in jeopardy. One of the militia officers struck at her head with the barrel of his gun, with great violence; but an eye witness declares that Simon Girty, who stood by, " parried off the stroke with his hand." * This exhibition of manliness on the part of Girty, is heightened by the circum- stance of his being present at the house of Mackay as a Vir- ginia partisan. It Avas not, at this date, the boundary troubles only that * Pennsylvania .-\rc'hive?, Old Series, Vol. IV, pp. 565, 506. Hutory of the Girtys. 25 brought distress to the region of the upper Ohio. There was a portentious war-cloud arising south-west of Pittsburgh. Virginians on the one side, Shawanesc and Mingoes '^" on the other — these were the combatants. The general antagonism of the red and white races, now being brought continually nearer to each other, as the tide of emigration broke through the Alleghanies, and rolled down in a continuous flow upon the Ohio valley, was the remote cause of the conflict. The im- mediate cue was acts of aggression on both sides. For ten years following the so-called " Conspiracy of Pontiac," in 1703, there was peace upon the border; nevertheless, mur- ders were frequent on both sides — but particularly on that of the savag'es. Neither the Indians nor the Virginians were prepared by a continuous forbearance to avoid a conflict, which, sooner or later, would surely be brought on between them. The redmen charged the '' Long Knives " with com- mencing hostilities ; the " Long Knives " declared the Shaw- anese and Mingoes the aggressors. The killing of the rela- tives of the Mingo chief, Logan, and other Indians, brought matters to a crisis, and " Lord Dunmorc's War " ensued, the first movement of importance, on the part of the Virginians, being that of Major Angus McDonald against the Shawanese towns upon the Muskingum, which was successful. In this war, 8iinon Girty was an active participant. Tak-, ing sides with Virginia in the boundary troubles, naturally he would not be backward in aiding her against the savages. That he was a Pennsylvanian did not deter him. So, when Dunmore reached Pittsburgh, on his way with the northern division of a Virginia army to attack the Shawanese and Mingoes if these savages did not comply with his terms, Girty enlisted under his banner as scout and interpreter. " He [Dunmore] " says a recent writer, already cited, " had * The Aliiiijoes, west and north-west of the 0\\\o, iit this diite and later, were mongrel band?, made up principallj' from the Six Nations (particularly the Senecas) and Dolawnrei". The liitter were mostly of the sul>-tribo known as the Monseys (t;enerally written ^luncoy's). <.)f all their chiefs, the most noted was Logan, a Cayuga, soon to be mentioned. 26 Hidory of the, Girli/n. with him as scouts many men famous in frontier story, aiLOng them, George Rogers Chirk. Jresixp, and Simon Kenton — aft- erwards the bane of every neighboring Indian tribe, and re- nowned all along the border for his deeds of desperate prow- €l's, his wonderful adventures, and his hair-breadth escapes. Another, of a very different stamp, was Simon Girty. . . At the moment he was serving Lord Dunmore and the whites ; but he was, bv tastes, habits, and education a red man, who felt ill at ease among those of his own color." * But this is robbing him of too much — far too much — of his white " tastes, habits, and education," as will hereafter be fully shown. With Givtv, went his half-brother, Jo'm Trrner. John was brought back to civilization at a tender age, as already indi- cated, lie grew to man's estate in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, and married there ; but nothing is known of his wife : chil- dren, he had none. Governor Dunmore, with about twelve hundred men, now started down the Ohio. It was his intention, originally, to go as far down that stream as the mouth of the Great Kanawha ; but, before reaching Pittsburgh (and while at Old Town), he changed his plan, resolving to stop at the mouth of the Lit- tle Kanawha. However, at Pittsburgh, he concluded the mouth of the Hockhocking would be the better place to make ,his first stand in the enemy's country : so his forces were put in motion, destined for that point. The southern division of the army was put under command of Colonel Andrew Lewis, whose orders were to move down the Great Kanawha to its mouth, these orders being changed, however, by Dunmore before leaving Old Town, as just inti- mated, so that the two divisions were to unite at the mouth of the liittle Kanawha. But this arrangement was made known to Lewis at so late a date that he could not change his route, and he moved on down the river first mentioned. At the Little Kanawha, Dunmore, in ignorance as to whether Lewis had reached Point Pleasant (mouth of the Great Kan- Konsevelt, in The Winning of llie Wen, Vol I, pp. 219, 2-JO. Hidory of (he Girti/s. 27 awha), sent him a message for information, and containing in- structions, also, for that oificer to move his force up the Ohio, to join him at the Hockiiocking. Girty and at least one other scout were detailed to carry this message."''" When they reached the mouth of the Great Kanawha, they found Lewis had not arrived there ; whereupon, they deposited their letters in a hollow tree, posting a notice in a conspicuous place which gave directions where the documents could be found. Tliey then returned to Dunmore's army. The governor and his force reached the mouth of the Hock- hocking, early in October, when another express was dis- patched to Lewis to move up the Ohio and join him there, which, on the 8th of October, found him at Point Pleasant, where he had arrived two days previous. t It was impossible, however, for him to start at once, on account of the non-ar- rival of supplies and ammunition, and of a portion of his troops. Meanwhile, scouts had been sent to tlie governor by him. These returned on the thirteenth, with an order from his lordship to march directly toward the Sliawanese towns, in what is now Pickaway county, Ohio, and join him at a certain point on the way. J Dunmore now put his division in motion for the same desti- nation. His march was enlivened by an occasional sight of an Indian. One was shot by Girty, but whether killed or not is uncertain. A skirmish also took place with the savages, on the march, but to the discomfiture of the Lulians.S It is here * Hildreth's Pioneer History, p. 88; l)e Huss's History of the Early Set- tlement and Indian Wars of Western Virginia, p. la'i, note. t "On the 9th [of October, 177-1], iSimon Girty arrived in cnnip, bringing a message from Lord Dunmore." — Roosevelt. "Some accounts say," iidds that author, "that he [Girty] was accompanied by Kenton and McC'uUoch." But, as already explained, it was the first messaije sent by Dunmore (of which message Roosevelt is ignorant) that was intrusted to Girty. t This message is by Uoosevelt confounded with the one wliich hn says reached Lewis by the hands of Girty on the (Hh of October. The lirst two messages ordered Lewis up the Ohio to unite with Dunmore; the last one directed him to cross that river at Point Pleasant and meet him on the way to the Shawanese towns. J See Dunmore's Official Iteport, in Magazine of Western History, Vol. 28 Hisfori/ of ilw Girtiis. > ' ' ' ^^^^^ ■worthy of notice, in view of Girty's subsciiuent career, that he manifested tlic stronsicst desire to kill anv savage that might be found lurking in front of the army ; indeed, his an- tipathy, apparently, to the redskins, was very marked. On the march to the Indian villages, Lord Dunmore was overtaken by a courier from Lewis, acquainting him of a hard fought battle on the lOth of October, at Point Pleas- ant, where his army had contended all day long with a large force of Shawanese and other savages, commanded by the Shawanese chief Cornstalk, only to claim the victory at night- fall, after a severe loss in killed and wounded. A wholly erroneous, and, withal, most ridiculous story, has found its way into print, to the effect that Simon Girty was the leader of the Indians at the battle of Point Pleasant; that he was not only an express sent by Dunmore to Lewis, but that he had a wordy encounter with the latter, threat- ening him, and finally carrying his threat into execution, by fleeing to the wilderness and marshaling the savages across the Ohio against him, and leading them to the conflict just mentioned. -•• On the seventeenth, Lewis crossed the Ohio, and took up his line of march to the Scioto, to join Dunmore. His lord- ship was met, before he reached the Indian villages, by a mes- senger (a white man) from the enemy, anxious for an accom- modation ; for a peace had already been conqueied by the Virginians, at a sacrifice, as just related, of many valuable lives, in the battle at Point Pleasant. Dunmore sent back the messenger Avith John Gibson and Girtv. The two soon I, p. 457 (March, I880). It i? a letter froni Diinnicire to Dartmouth, from "Williamsburtih, dated December 24, ITT-l. * William D. Gallagher, the poet, tir?t gave to the world this story, which is by odds the most fictitiously fictitious that lias as yet appeared in print Concerning any of the Girtj's. However, lie is not t>< be censured for tliis, for he was assured of its truth by one who claimed to have been associated with Girty and knew whereof he spoke! Mr. Gallau'her''; article is entitled " Girty, the Renegade,'' and first appeared in The Hesperian, Vol. I, pp. 340, 423, which will be found republished. substHntially, in The IJackwoods- men, pp. 498-525. See also (with some variations " in the tradition," as it is styled) The Trans-Alleghany Pioneers, pp. 223-225. Historij of the Girft/s. 29 brouglit an answer to liis lordship from the Sliawanese. Gib- son, nearly twentv-six years after, in relatinrr the affair, Uf- nores the presence of Girty entirely.* But his memory was certainly at fault, for a number of persons present, afterward declared that he was accompanied by Girty. While ne_!j;otiations were going forward, the Mingo chief, Lo2;an, held himself aloof. " Two or three days before the treaty," says an eye witness, " when 1 was on the out-guard, Simon Girty, who was passing by, stopped with me and con- versed : he said he was going after Logan, but he tt(>r written I'loiii Titts- bm-j,'li, on the .'.(Uli of Marcli, "Mr. McKoe, Matt. KUiott, and Simon Girty, together with one Ilij^gins, ran off. McKce's con- duct on tliirt oceasion is of ho infuinous a nature, that it will for- ever rondcM' him odious. The general's [Hand's] behavior to him, time after time, when he was ordered lielow, and his piti- ful excuses, seem to infer that his escaj>e was premeditated. His intimacy with Elliott has been very great, and it is con- jectured that Elliott brought dispatches for McKee from Que- bec. .\s he was reputed to be a gentleman of the strictest honor and probity, no body had the least idea of his being capable of acting in so base a manner. A man of his capac- ity, and 80 well ac([uainted with the situation of our affairs in this department, will bo no unwelcome guest at Detroit."* Just at this time, (Jeneral Hand was contemplating -an ex- ))edition to French creek ; indeed, he had commenced gather- ing men for the enterprise ; but he now wrote Colonel William Crawford, who was to take part in the movement, that it would be improper to proceed any further with the undertaking, ow- ing to the escape of the renegades to the enemy. McKee, with his associates, started from his home, at what is still known as " McKee's llocks," on the Ohio river, below Pittsburgh. It was reported on Saturday, at Fort Pitt, that they intended to start the next day for the Indian country ; whereupon, General ]Iand ordered out a lieutenant, the next morning, to arrest them, putting under his command a small force for that purpose ; but, before the detachment began to march, information was received at Pittsburgh of their flight. There are numerous traditions current, a number of which have been published, as to the reason or reasons for Simon Girty going over to the enemy. All these are in ignorance of the facts concerning his journey in the fall of 1777 to the Senecas, and his joining, in February, 1778, the expedition under General Hand — the " Squaw Campaign *' — in both of which he demonstrated his loyalty to the cause of liberty. They all give some previous (fancied) grievance as the cause * T. Ewing to Jusper Yeates, in Historical Register, Vol. II (June, 1884), p. 15". . . :;iir.' )■" tli/^;;: ■'■-'>. 52 Hktorij of the Girtys. of his defection. Thus : he tliy the British government. It seems, however, rather technical to call him such — yesterday a Whig, to-day a Tory. He may be properly designated a renegade, but not in the sense of a vagabond. He is spoken of by Canadian and British historians as a refugee loyalist; and, by siimn Aiiu'ricau writers, as simply a refugee. X The Life and Times of David Zeisborger, by Edmund de Schveinitz, p. 402, citing Taylor'.s Ohio, pp. '281, 282. History of the GirtyK. 65 erty in Westmoreland county ; that, at or, - ♦ i; •, he possessed a hirgc tract at or near llannastown ; and that the property afterward belonged to his half-brother, John Turner, being conveyed to the latter by the former. But Girty never pos- sessed any real estate in Western Pennsylvania at any time, as the public records show. Before following the career of Girty as a renegade, it is to be noted that there is a tradition, which has been repeated with many variations, that he was at one time living at Pitts- burgh Avith a woman, who was his reputed Avife ; that she was a half-breed, whoso f.ithcr, a white man, resided in one of the settlements not far away ; that she was a tall, pretty-looking woman ; but that she was frequently treated with cruelty by Girty. Farther than this, nothing is related with any degree of particularity. Whether or not she Avas alive at the time Girty went over to the enemy with McKee and Elliott, is not added to the relation. But the whole story, it is evident, is fictitious. NoTK I. — "All the Indian in Girty impelled hira to side with the frisky companions of his forest life, and when at this dan- gerous crisis., he was again approached with specious arguments and seducti' " promises by Elliott and iSIcKee, avIio had been for months in the secret pay of the British commander at Detroit, the untaught creature [Simon Girty], with the face of a white man and the heart of an Indian, and with no feel- ing of loyalty to any flag, either English or American, threw in his lot with the savages and their allies." — Magazine of American History, Vol. XV, p. 261. In this extract are con- veyed a number of erroneous impressions: (1) "All the In- dian in Girty " had nothing to do with his determination, finally, to go over to the enemy, along with McKee and Elliott. The latter had resolved to join their fortunes with the govern- ment which was oppressing the colonies, and they induced Girty to go with them ; they sided with the Western Indians on their journey to induce them to become the firm allies of Britain. With the Delawares they failed ; their success was better with the Shawanese ; they made no attempt to 56 History of the Girtys. especiiilly influence the Sandusky Wyandots while on their way to Detroit; (2) Elliott and McKee were not then in pay of the British commander at Detroit; (3) Girty was at times, as hereafter shown, ferociously cruel, and exhibited the utmost savagery, but he was not at heart an Indian ; nor did he leave Pittsburgh to tlu-ow in his lot with " the dusky companions of his forest life," but with " their allies,'' the British. And the same account also says : " Corrupted by Connolly, disappointed in his military hopes, sore over his discharge, and too much of an Indian to be moved by the feelings and princi- ples then stirring the patriotic garrison [of Fort Pitt], but little was needed to induce him to cast his lot with the people of his adoption and their powerful employers/' Why,^t is proper to ask, would Girty be disappointed in his military hopes — why sore over his discharge if he had no feeling of loyalty to the American flag? And why had he just marched under the same flag and with the same garrison upon the " Squaw Campaign, " if " too much of an Indian to be moved by the feelings and principles then stirring "' the same soldiers ? Note II.—" On the night of the 28th of March, 1778, three or four years later than some writers claim, this now notori- ous trio [McKee, Elliott, and Simon Girty], together with seven soldiers, fled from the long familiar walls of Fort Pitt, and severed their connection with their country forever. The date of their departure and the attendant circumstances are established beyond question by the official records of Major Isaac Craig, now in the hands of his grandson, the accurate and accomplished Isaac Craig, Esq., of Alleghany, Pennsyl- vania." — Magazine of American History, Vol. XV, p. 261. But McKee, Elliott, and Girty fleeing " from the long familiar walls of Fort Pitt" is not strictly correct; it conveys the impression that they belonged to the garrison there, which, of course, they did not, or that that fortification Avas the point whence they started for the wilderness. How the " official " records of Major Craig could show the date of their flight, is not apparent, as that officer did not reach Pittsburgh for more than two years after. HiHtorij of the Girh/n. 57 CHAPTER YIII. In all the American settlements west of the Alleghany mountains (that is, in the country watered by the Ohio river and its tributaries), there were not to be found previous to their flight three persons so Avell fitted collectively to work upon the minds of the western Indians for evil to the patriot cause as Simon Girty, MatthcAV Elliott, and xVlcxandcr McKee. General Hand, therefore, believing they had gone to make their homes with the hostile savages, feared the worst from the arrival of these three men among them. Especially was he apprehensive that their wiles Avould induce the Delawares to break their neutrality and immediately declare Avar against the border. Not General Hand only, but Colonel Morgan prepared at once pacific and urgent " speeches " to be sent to the Dela- wares ; so certain were they that these savages Avould be visited by the renegades ; and, as a matter of fact, they did go at once to Coshocton, their principal town. But who could be found willing to take the risk of delivering the messages, Avhen it was known that there Avcre war-parties of other tril)es hovering about the frontiers ? The question was soon settled by John lleckcwelder and Joseph Bull, Moravian mission- aries, offering to be " bearers of dispatches " to Coshocton. These men had arrived at Pittsburgh anxious to obtain in- formation concerni'ig the missionaries of their church Avhich Avere located in th.'^ Muskingum valley as at present knoAvn, and in the valley of the river noAv called the TuscaraAvas. This, added to their laudable desire to serve their country, induced them to brave the dangers of the trip, Avhich, it may be premised, Avere thought greater than they really Avere. The tAvo Moravians reached the TuscaraAvas in safety, and IIcckcAvelder proceeded at once to the Coshocton, Avhere he found the DelaAvares nearly ready to take up arms against the 58 Ilutorij of the Girtys. Americans. They had been tohl by the renegades (who, as we have said, had made tlieir town a visit) tliat the patriot armies were all cut to pieces, that General AVashington was killed, that there Avas no more Congress, that the English had hung some of the members and had taken the remainder to England to hang them there, and that the few thousand Amer- icans who had escaped the British soldiers were now embody- ing thcnisolvcs west of the mountains for the purpose of kill- ing all the Indians beyond the Ohio — even the Avomen and children.* But the missionary, by the aid of the friendly "speeches" brought with him from Pittsburgh, and some newspapers which confirmed the capture of Burgoyne and his army, soon convinced the savages that they had been deceived ; and the visitor was welcomed as a brother. The surging pas- sions of the Delawares, which had been so aroused by the mis- representations of Girty and his companions, soon settled down to a peaceful calm.t But where now were the renegades ? They had left the banks of the Muskingum before the arrival of Ileckcwelder. They had done all the mischief in their power while at the Delaware town. Besides inflaming the savages against the border, McKee had written, on the 4th of April, to Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, at Detroit, informing him of his flight. lie men- tioned that no expedition of any consequence could be under- taken from Fort Pitt by the Virginians against Detroit, but that they meditated some attempt against the Indian villages upon French creek.]; " Edward Ilazle," wrote Hamilton vo Sir Guy Carlcton, " who had undertaken to carry a letter from me to the Moravian minister at Coshocton, returned, having executed his commission. He brought me a letter and newspapers from Mr. McKee, who was Indian agent for the crown, and has been a long time in the hands of the rebels at * .Such is the account given many yeiirs after by Heckewelder, which is, doubtless, an oxaggerution to some extent. t Heckewelders Narrative, jij). 175-181. X Hamilton to General Curleton, April 23, ^778. — MS. letter, Haldimand Pajjerg. Iliatori/ of (he (Jirti/H. 59 Fovt Pitt. At length, he has found means to make his escape, with tliree other men, two of tlic name of Gii'ty (mentioned in Lord Dunmore's list), interpreters, and Matthew Elliott, the young man who last summer was sent down from this place a prisoner. This last person, I am informed, has been in New York since he left Quebec ; and, probably, finding the change in affairs unfavorable to the rebels, has slipped away to make his peace here."" '■• The " list "' of '• well-disposed "" persons sent by Dunmoro to Lord George Germain was inclosed to Sir Guy Carleton in Canada in a letter dated at Whitehall on the 20th of March, 1777. "Inclosed," says Germain, " is a list of names of sev- eral persons, residing on the frontiers of Virginia, recom- mended by Lord Dunmore for their loyalty and attachment to government, and who his lordship [Dunmore] thinks will be able to give great assistance to Lieutenant-Governor Hamil- ton through their extensive influence among the inhabitants." On the 21st of May, after its reception, the "list" was sent by Carleton to Hamilton.!- To those who imagine that Simon Girty, when he tied from Pittsburgh, was little else than an Indian, the statement of Lord Dunmore that he was one of the number Avhom his lordship thought had " extensive influ- ence among the inhabitants " there, is especially commended. Dunmore was personally acquainted with Girty, having seen * ilS. letter, A}iril 20, 1778, Huldinmnd Papers. IIiizlo's niitno is erro- neously i;iven "Ilayle" by Koosevelt. For mention of Hiizle in ii previous publication, see An Historiciil Account, of the Expedition njjftinst Sandusky, p. 182, note. t -.Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. IX, p]). 340-o48. It seems that Hamilton, either from a misconception of ^fcKee's letter, or from erroneous information derived from Hazlo, got the idea that both Simon and James Girty — " two of the name of Girty" — were with McKee in his fliijht from Pittsburgh. Without any e.xplanntion, the account as it stands in The Win- ning of the West (Vol. II, i>p. 4, 5) contradicts itself. Roosevelt first speaks of McKee, Elliott, and Girfi/ fleeing together from Pittsburgh. " They all ihree vn\rr3d against their countrymen," etc. (The italicizing is mine.) By "Girty," that author means Simon Girty. A foot-note is then added Ly Roosevelt, containing the letter of Hamilton to Carleton, which says, as we have just seen, that McKee made his escape with three other men, " two of the name of Girty." 60 Jlitifory of the (lirfi/n. him at Pittsburgh, luul having employed him, as we luive shown, in his division, when inarching against the Shawanese and Mingoes, as one of his trnsted scouts and interpreters. McKec and his party had, as already mentioned, left Co- shocton. They moved further into the wilderness, away from this neutral tribe, to one already in great part in arms against the border — to the Shawanese, upon the Scioto, to a point some distance down that river from the site of the present city of Columbus, Ohio, lint a message soon followed them, sent by the Delaware chief. White Eyes: "Grandchildren, ye Shawanese I Some days ago, a flock of birds that had come on from the East lit at Goschochking [Coshocton], imposing a song of theirs upon us, Avhich song had nigh proved our ruin ! Should these birds, which, on leaving us, took their flight toward the Scioto, endeavor to impose a song on you likewise, do not listen to them, for they lie." * It was in this emphatic but figurative language the Delaware chief made known his views to the Shawanese concerning the visit of the three rene- gades and their followers ; but the words of White Eyes did not avail any thing with the " grai dchildren'' of his tribe upon the Scioto. The stay of the white men at the Scioto towns was some- what prolonged. They met there, James Girty, who was eas- ily persuaded to desert the cause of his country and remain with the Shawanese. He at once committed himself to the British interests, and helped, in no small degree, to turn those of the tribe who Avere yet wavering, .from all thoughts of peace with the United States. lie appropriated tlie presents that had been intrusted to him for the Indians, and was, thence- forward, a traitor to the cause he had beer, so recently aiding. f On the 23d of April, Hamilton, at Detroit, wrote to Carle- ton, that " Ilazle went off again, to conduct them [McKeo and his party] all safe through the [Indian] villages, having a let- ter and wampum [from the lieutenant-governor] for that pur- pose." * Tleekewelder Narrative, p. 182. f Conipure llildreth's Pioneer History, p. 130. _ II is fori/ of the Glr/yn. 61 "Alexiuuler McKee," adds Hamilton, " is a man of good character, and has great intlucnco with the Shawanesc; is well ac([unintcd with the country, and can probably give some useful intelligence. Jle will probably reach this place [De- troit] in a few days." -'■ In May, McKee, Elliott, Simon Girty, and others, departed from the Shawancso towns for Detroit — the point of destina- tion when they lied from the vicinity of Pittsburgh — but James Girty was not of the party. They were conducted on their journey by Ilazlc. Their route was through the Wyan- dot villages upon the Sandusky river ; they were helped on particularly by Snip, a Wyandot war chief, from the Scioto. f One of the Wyandot towns — Upper Sandusky — was, at that time, located less than three miles up the stream (but upon the opposite side) from the present site of the town of the same name — county seat of Wyandot county, Ohio ; the other — Lower Sandusky — was situated at or near what is now Fre- mont — county seat of Sandusky county, that state. It has been published that Girty was made prisoner by the Wyandots ; but being recognized by some Scnccas, the latter demanded him as their prisoner ; stating, at the same time, the nature of their claim to him ; that he had been adopted by them, and had n^'torward returned to his countrymen, and joined them in their war against the tribe who now demanded him. The Wyandots ignored the claim of the Senecas, so the story runs. " By your own showing," said they, " he only returned to his own country and people. After that, he was not yours. When again captured, he belongs to those who took him. This was done by our Avarriors. He is therefore our prisoner." Then Girty said to his captors in the Seneca tongue (as if he had not yet learned to speak the Wyandot language with much fluency), that he had been badly treated at Fort Pitt by his own people, on account of being true to the king and his cause, and that he was, therefore, forced to leave the country, and that he was now on his way to Detroit to take * MS. letter, Haldimand Papers. t Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. IX, pp. 450, 451. ()2 Hinlory 0/ the Girti/8. up arms iigiiinst the Americans. He was thereupon set at lib- erty. But all this has no foundation in fact.* Leaving the Sandusky, McKeo and his associates had all reached Detroit before the middle of June,t whore they were received with open arms by the lieutenant-governor, wlio im- mediately engaged Girty as interpreter for the Six Nations — he t.lnis becoming a regular employe of the British Indian de- partment, his compensation being fixed at two dollars (sixteen York shillings) a day. That this was the pay he was to re- ceive is inferable from a list, in existence, of oilicers, inspec- tors, smiths, and others in the Indian department at Detroit, dated the 24lli of October, 1770, containing the amount al- lowed each for his services. Although this list was made out more than a year after Girty reached Detroit, yet there would seem to be no good reason why he should have received a less amount at the time of his first engaging his services to the British commandant than is therein specified, which is " six- teen shillings, York currency, per day.":j; It may now be stated that Girty's life was thenceforth very largely devoted to the interests of the British government, di- rectly or indirectly. " We heard," wrote White Eyes, from Coshocton, to Morgan, on the 19th of July, "that Simon Girty and Lamothe [a noted French-Canadian], were gone down the river St. Lawrence, with as many men as they could spare at Detroit." But Girty was not sent eastward. Ilis field of operations, as will presently be shown, Avas to be prin- cipally the Ohio wilderness and the western border settlements. At a council began at Detroit on the 14th of June, 1778, ■with the Ottawas, Chippeways, Ilurons (Wyandots), Potta- wattamies, Delawares, Shawanese, Miamis, Mingoes, Mohawks, and others, there were present, besides the Indians, Lieuten- * See An Historical Account of the Expedition against Sandusicy, under Col. William Crawford, in 1782, p. 186, for this story, given to the public by the writer of this narrative, upon l..j assurance of William Walker as to its being a reliable tradition; but it is now known to be wholly fictitious. t Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. IX, p. 442. t Walker's Address before the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (1871), i).41. _- - ^ - — ,-—*--- ^ — "• Hhiorij of Ih'. Girli/n. 68 ant-Governor Ilainiltoii, superintendent ; Lieutenant-Governor Edward Abbott, bite of Vincenncs ; Jehu llay, department agent; " Mr. McKce, bite department agent" at Fort Pitt; Hcveral oflieers of tlie Indian department ; Captain Ijernoult and Lieutenant Cablwell, of the King's regiment; inter- preters William Tueker, Joseph Drouilbird, Simon Girty (not, however, recognized as such until the next day), Lsidore Cliesne, Duperron ]>aby, and Charles J?caubin. On the fif- teoiith, it is recorded that " Simon (Sirty was then brought forward and declared an interpreter as having escaped from the A'irginians and put himself under the protection of his majesty, after giving satisfactory assurances of his fidelity." * That ILimilton should have favorably looked upon Simon Girty is not a matter of Avonder ; he had, as we have seen previously, heard of him through the "list" of Lord Dun- more as not only " well disposed to his majesty's governnient," but as a lieutenant in the Virginia militia at IMttsburgh. Of course, also, he was vouched for by McKee. McKee was, as might be expected, better rewarded than Elliott or Girty. He Mas at once made capr in and interpreter in the Indian department ;t also subsec^uently appointed Indian commissary, or deputy Indian agent. As captain, he was thenceforth known as an " Indian officer," a title bestowed upon all those who had previously, or who afterward, received such an official niilitMry recognition (or one of less rank) in the British Indian L lartment. Elliott had to abide his time ; but Girty was not then, nor was he subsequently, honored with any position other than that of interpreter, Avhich was in no sense a military office. A recent Avriter declares that Hamilton " organized a troop of white rangei'S 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 * Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. IX, pp. 442, 444. f Id., p. 470. Hamilton early commenced appointing persons as captains of Indians.— (p. 433.) . 64 History .of Ike Girfyn. McKec, Klliott, iiiul [Simon] (iirty/'- Hut the licutcniuit- govoriior did not organize " a troop of white rangers " at that place, nn will herciit'tor ho more fully explained. Nor was Simon dirty over a Icailcr in any niilitiiry y lii.s own har- hiirouM mctlio(ls) toward llic Americans. The latitiulo given liiin ill liis instructions was taken mlvantaj^e of to make more wMiitoii anil Iiloodtliirsty tlio war tlicn raging along tlic west- ern liorilors of I'onnsvlvania iiml \ irginia, ami for wliieli, as lias heen shown, he wiis directly responsiliie. Scalps of tliose wlio, tn the iiKHiu'iit of receiving the fatal Imllet or their death- hlow by the tomahawk, were unsuspecting and ludplcss, and prisoners of all ages and hoth sexes who had survived the perils of the march to Detroit, wore received hy i>iiii from the savages with delight, which immediately afterward would find expression in presents bestowed with a liberal hand upon his barbarous allies. Hamilton attempted to justify himself by declaring that the American borderers, by " their arrogance, ilisioyalty, and impudence, had justly drawn upon them this deplorable sort of war." J>ut those exercising cruelty arc never in want of excuses for so doing. ■'' By the middle of June, 177S, the government of Pennsyl- vania had been suiliciently advised of the d.ofection of the two f the particulars of this ad- venture we know noth ng further ban that it resulted in the taking of seven scalp.^ and the bringing of a INFrs. Mary Kennedy and seven child) en as captives into the Avilderness.f The three white men and the Indians returned to the Shaw- anese villages, and were received with yells of delight by the savages. The two Girtys and Ward, pnssing ouAvard, finally, with one Indian, reaching Wapatomica, an Indian town,J where a council was being held by the Shawanese over a prisoner, particulars of whose capture it is now our ]iurpose to relate, not, however, until the circumstances under which Simon and James Girty commenced their death-dealing career in the set- tlements southward across the Ohio are briefly considered. The language of the British minister, in his instructions to Hamilton, to place " proper persons " at the head of the sav- ages, " to conduct their parties and restrain them from com- mitting violence on the well-affected and inoffensive inhabit- * Ilooscvelt, in Tho Winnins^ of tho West, Vol. 11, p. 143, classes the SliuwHiiese iilong with other trilu!.? us " SHndiisky Imlinns." ]5iit no Slmw- ane.si! ever dwell U|ion the Siindiisky or iiny of its trilmtiiries. t Sketches of Western Adventure, h\ John A. McClung (Philsidelphiiii 1882), p. 115. This work is not nlwiiys to 1 ■ de)wnded upon. However, the iicoount very brieflj- given ol' th'j Jirty) were copied by him from a manuscript account dictated to another by the pioneer himself. It is certain, however, that much of what is said concerning the action of Girty is purely imaginary, and could not have been taken from Kenton's lips. Words are put into the mouths of Indian chiefs which they could not have spoken. And Girty himself is credited with saying what, had he so said, would have been known to his hearers as being absolutely untrue ', as, for instance : " He [Girty] en- treated them [the chiefs] to have compassion upon his feel- i'ic;8; to spare him the agony of witnessing the torture of an oid friend by the hands of his adopted brothers ; and not to refuse so trifling a favor, as the life of a white man, to the earnest intercession of one who had proved, by three years'' faithful service, that he Avas sincerely and zealously devoted History of (he Girfi/s. 88 to the cause of the Indians." (The italicizing is mine.) To have spoken to Shawanese chiefs, asserting they were " adopted brothers," would have been absurd ; and to have claimed " three years' faithful service " to the Indians, when he had been among the Mingoes only a few weeks, would, of course, have been ridiculous. It is not alone in the speeches said to have been made, that McClung (or tho one he copies from) draws upon his imagination. lie gravely asserts, among other fallacies, that Kenton was introduced by Girty to his own family; as if, indeed, the latter had a wife and children with him I Note III. — After Kenton had a second time been sentenced to death, and had started for Upper Sandusky, where the tor- turing was to take place, ho met Logan, the Mingo chief, who made an attempt to save him by sending messengers in ad- vance to the pliice last mentioned to intercede for him ; but they failed. However, Roosevelt declares to the contrary, in The Winning of the West, Vol. I, p. 241 : " He [Logan] saved Simon Kenton from torture and death, when Girty, moved by a rare spark of compassion for his former comrade, had al- ready tried to do so and failed." " But each time [after being twice sentenced to be burned alive], he was saved at the last moment," that writer also declares, in Vol. II, p. 29 : " once through a sudden spasm of mercy on the part of the renegade Girty, his old companion in arms at the time of Lord Dun- more's war, and again by the powerful intercession of the great Mingo chief, Logan." The truth is, that his second re- prieve was brought about by Girty artfully persuading the chiefs to send him to Upper Sandusky to be tortured, and by the shrewdness of a white trader after his arrival there. Note IV. — The account of the intercession of Girty in Kenton's behalf, as given by James Hall (The Romance of Western History, pp. 303, 304), is particularly erroneous : "After running the gauntlet in thirteen towns, he [Kenton] was taken to Lower Sandusky to be burned. Here resided 84 History of the Qirtys. the miscreant [Simon] Girty, Avho, having just returned from an unsuccessful expedition against the frontiers of Pennsyl- vania, was in a particularly ill humor, and hearing that there was a white prisoner in town, he rushed upon him, struck him, beat him to the ground, and was proceeding to further atroci- ties, when Kenton had the presence of mind to call him by name and claim his protection. They had known each other in their youth ; Kenton had once saved the life of Girty ; and deaf as the latter was, habitually, to every dictate of benevo- lence, he admitted the claim of his former acquaintance ; and actuated by one of those unaccountable caprices so common among savages, interceded for him, rescued him from the stake, and took him to his houi?'i.'' The same author pre- viously declares that it was " pity," instead of an "unaccount- able caprice," that prompted Girty to intercede for the prisoner. Now, Girty did not reside at Lower Sandusky, nor did he ever meet Simon Kenton there. As yet, he had not been on an expedition against the frontiers of Pennsylvania. Kenton had never saved Girty's life, nor had they known each other in their youth. Besides, as will hereafter be shown, Girty was not "'deaf," "habitually, to every dictate of benevo- lence." Hutory of the Girfi/s. 86 CHAPTER X. It was in the month of October, 1778, that Simon Girty parted with Kenton at Wapatomica, Avheil the hitter was started on his way to the Wyandot town of Upper Sandusky, guarded by five Shawanese — for there is no evidence that he accompanied his old time companion thither. That the en- suing months of tlie year were spent by Girty at the variouG Mingo vilhiges in the vicinity is certain. It has been said (and the report has a number of times been repeated by Western Avriters) tliat Girty was dispatched not long after his saving Kenton's life, as a British emissary, along with Elliott and McKee, to the homes of the " Mora- vian " Indians, to induce them, if possible, to join in the war against the Americans. No such journey, however, was made by them. The fall of this year (1778), in Kentucky, was marked by some events of importance beside those already mentioned. Immediately after Kenton and his companions set off for the country north of the Ohio, upon the expedition which, as previ- ously explained, resulted in his capture, Boonesborough was besieged by a few white men — Canadians — and a large num- ber of India as ; but the enemy in the end were untsuccessful. In October, several men joined their labors in making im- provements where Louisville now stands, laying the per- manent foundation of that city. George Rogers Clark or- dered Captain William Linn and tlie discharged troops from Kaskaskia to return to the falls of the Ohio. A station, which had been established on an island in the river, was abandoned, and a fort on the main shore, in Kentucky, commenced. The news of the disaster to British interests in the Illinois and upon the Wabash, aroused Lieutenant-Govei'nor Hamil- ton, at Detroit, to the most vigorous efforts to retrieve it. It was obvious that Clark's success had panic-stricken the In- 86 Hintory of the Oirtys, dians, and threatened the whole British power in the North- west. At the very time when Hamilton received the news, there was a large gathering of Indians at his post with whom ho was holding negotiations. " J le gave them the hatchet anew, and urged them to more general and violent assaults upon the frontier, and to hold themselves in readiness to join him in proposed movements against the Americans.'' He sent a menacing letter to the Council of the Delawares, upon the ^luskingum, calling upon them " for the last time" to take up the hatchet, and was greatly infuriated at their firm re- fusal. He, immediately planned an expedition for the recovery of tlio Illinois, to be conimaiided by himself. 1 '"> composed of tliirty-five regular soldiers, including officers ., 1 men ; of " irregulars," forty-four rank and file ; of militia, about seventy ; and about sixty Indians, his force of savages being augmented on the way. The volunteers were subsequently paid for tlieir services from the seventeenth of September, but the expedition did not leave Detroit until the seventh of Oc- tober. He proposed to march first to Vincennes, in what is now the State of Indiana; thence, he intended to proceed to Kaskaskia, where Ciark's force was mostly stationed. He urged Major Arent Schuyler De Peyster, in command at Michrlimackinac, to send him assistance. De Peyster had also received special orders from General Frederick Ilaldi- mand, commanding at Quebec, to do all in his power to aid Hamilton in his enterprise ; and, on the twenty-fifth of Oc- tober, he dispatched officers to arouse the Indians around Lake Michigan and assemble them at Fort St. Joseph, a stockade near a Pottawattamie village, in the vicinity of what is now South Bend, Indiana. They were to march thence and join Hamilton with all the force they could raise, or descend the Illinois, if that would be better calculated to promote the success of Hamilton's operations. These officers were told to use economy, " as the nations in general " had " many presents from his Majesty." They were to exhort the war- riors to use humanity toward their prisoners, who would be His(ori) of the Oirtyx. 87 nuisomcd. It was thus that De Peyster early in the war showed himself a humane soldier. Hamilton was greatly delayed by storms and bad weather, and did not reach A'^incennes until the seventeenth of Decem- ber. This place, as we have seen, had yielded to the Ameri- cans, and it was now held by Captain Leonard Helm, who at once capitulated. The British commander " dismissed his In- dian allies to prowl upon the frontiers or return to their homes, with the purpose in the early spring of re-assembling them, with a largely increased force both from the north and the south, and then, after re-establishing the British power in Illinois, of marching to Fort Pitt, sweeping Kentucky" and what is now West Virginia on the way, and thus completing the conquest of the American settlements in the West. Eastward, along the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and westwardly across the Ohio for a considerable distance in the Indian country, throughout the year 177H, after the flight of Girty, Elliott, and McKee to the British, there were stirring events continually transpiring. General Hand at Fort Pitt was succeeded by Brigadier-General Lachlan Mcintosh. To that post marched the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, com- manded by Colonel Daniel Brodhead. Previous to this, that portion of the Thirteenth Virginia remaining at Valley Forge had been placed in marching orders for the same destination. The residue of the regiment were already in tlie West. The command of this body of men was given temporarily to Colonel John Gibson, the same person who wrote down from the verbal translation by Simon Girty, the famous " speech " of the Mingo, Loijan. Active measures against Detroit were now concerted. A treaty with the Delaware Indians was held in September. These savages stipulated to join the troops of the general government with such a number of their best and most expert warriors as they could spare consistent with their own safety. Just below the mouth of the Beaver, upon the right bank of the Ohio, Fort Mcintosh was erected. There, as early as the 8th of October, the head-quarters of the army was moved, where a large force of Continental troops nd 88 Ifhfon/ of the QiriijH. militia, mostly from the western counties of Virginia, was as- sembled. ''■ A march was made into the wilderness, and Fort Laurens erected on the west bank of the Tuscarawas river be- low the mouth of Sandy creek. A garrison under Colonel Gibson of one hundred and fifty men, with scant supplies, was left to guard the post, and General Mcintosh returned with the residue of his army to tlie fort at the mouth of Beaver.t Some time near the close of the year, Simon Girty received from Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton orders to watch the movements of the enemy near Fort Pitt. On the Hth of January, 1770, with seventeen Indians, mostly Mingoes, he proceeded from the upper Scioto on his mission. lie had in- formation of the building of Fort Laurens, and he started to reconnoiter the post to gain what news he could from the cap- turing of any prisoners. He would also, if possible, take some scalps, particularly Colonel Gibson's. He Avas, in this instance, it must be said, engaged in legitimate warfare. But the secret of Girty's movements became known to Kill- buck, a Delaware chief. The Delaware at once informed Zeis- berger, and the last named wrote immediately to Colonel Gib- son in Fort Laurens : " Captain John Killbuck sent messen- gers here [one of the Moravian missionary establishments] re- questing me to inform you of the following intelligence they had to-day [January 19th] by two warriors who came to Coshocton and were going to war but were stopped [by the Delawares] : They told that thirteen days ago two companies of warriors, one of seven, the other of eighteen men (among the latter is Simon Girty), were gone to Fort Laurens in or- der to get Colonel Gibson's scalp. Their scheme is to de- ceive you by carrying deer's tails on their heads and by that means to get into the fort." | This carrying of deer's tails on * It was much the largest army of whito soldiers got together in the West, either by the Americans or British, during tlie Revolution, t VViishington-Irvine CorreP]K)ndence, ])j). 20-28. % Zeisbergor to Gibson, January 19, 17"!). — MS. letter, Haldimand Papers. History of the Oirtys. 89 their heads was the token used by the friendly Dchiwarcs to find a speedy entrance to (Jibaon's (quarters, which token the enemy had in some way found out. Tlie colonel does not scetn to have been at all alarmed about losing his scalp. " Mr. Girty," he wrute Colonel Mor- gan, on the twenty-second, " has not yet made his appearance ; I hope, if he does, to prevent his taking my scalp." ■'■ And thus he wrote General Mcintosh at the same time: "I hope, if Mr. Girty comes to pay a visit, I shall bo able to trepan him." t Girty was, meanwhile, approaching Fort T, aureus ; and on arriving in its immediate vicinity he took care not to dis- cover himself and his savages to the garrison, but lay in am- bush on the road leading to Fort Mcintosh, watching an op- portunity to strike an effective blow. He and his dusky fol- lowers had not long to wait, for Captain John Clark, of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, who had commanded an escort of provisions from Fort Pitt to Colonel Gibson, reaching the latter on the twor.cy-first, was seen returning with a sergeant and fourteen men. About three miles from the post, they were suddenly attacked by Girty and his Indians, suffering a loss of two killed, four wounded, and one taken prisoner. The remainder, including the captain, fought their way back into the fort. Letters written by Gibson (two of which have al- ready been cited), containing information of importance, were captured by Girty. J The success of the latter in this at- tack was at once made known to the Fort Pitt commander, who learned through advices from the Tuscarawas who it wr3 that commanded the savages in the ambuscade. § This be- • Gibson to Mort;iin, January 22, 1779. — MS. letter, Haklimand Papers. f Gibson to Alelntosh, January 22, 1779. — MS. letter, llakliniand Papers. I Copies of tbeso letters I have bet'oro me. Com])aro, as to the ambus- cade, Washington-Irvine Correspondence, p. 31. The braver}' displayed by Clark, who was outnumbered by the e?iemy, shows he was on the alert. § "1 am just informed that Capt. Clark, of the 8th Pennsylvania llefjm't, who was sent to command an Escort to Fort Laurens, as ho was returning with a Sergeant and 14 men, three miles this side of that fort, was attacked 90 History of the Girtpn. coming known in the border settlements, tended to increase the terror of Gii-ty's name. He afterward boasted greatly of this exploit of killing his own countrymen. On the 20th of January, "! 770, Clark heard the news of Hamilton's occupation of Vincennes, and the condition of his forces. He saw that he must capture the lieutenant-governor, or be taken by him ; so, on the 7th of February, with a force of one I'li.ulred and seventy-six men, he started for Vincennes, and on Vne twenty-fifth the post was taken, and Hamilton m.ade prisoner. From the vicinity of Fort Laurens, Girty hastened on his way with his prisoner and captured correspondence, to De- troit, to turn them over to Captain Lernoult, then in command there — Governor Hamilton being at that time, as we have just shown, in the hands of the Americans. Girty also took with him " strings " from the Mingoes, from the Shawanese and Sandusky Wyandots, and from a few Delawares who had become allies of the Britisl^. He arrived on the 4th of Feb- ruai'y, giving the Detroit commiindant full particulars, as he had learned them, of the marching of Mclntosli to the Tusca- rawas in the previous fall ; of the building, upon that river, of Fort Laurens ; and of the intentions of the American com- mander to move toward Detroit " the latter end of March." * That Girtj gave to Lernoult the particulars of his ambus- cading the soldiers at the post just mentioned may be pre- sumed. ,' Heckewelder wrote to Colonel Brodhead from Coshoctor that Girty had " gone to Detroit, . . . but seemed to be very low-spirited." This information the Moravian had ob- tained from some Indians. It would seem, therefore, that Girty's heart was not yet fully steeled against his countrymen, by Simon Girty and a party of Min^xoes, who killed two of our men, wounded four, and took one prisoner." — Mclntogh to Colonel Lochry, Jan- uary 29, 1779, in Pennsylvania Archives, Old Series, Vol. VII, p. 173. * Colonel Mason Bolton to General Hadlimand, March 24, 1779. — MS. let- ter, Haldimand Pajiers. This letter has been published. See Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. IX, p. 427. History of the (-irtys. 91 notwithstanding his boasting concerning his success at Fort Laurens. He had not yet become, as some have supposed, to all intents and purposes a white savage — "Whose vengeance shamed the Indians' thirst for blood; " Still, it is clear that his prestige among the Ohio Indians, was increasing. The letters of Colonel Gibson revealed to Girty that he was particularly pointed out as one who, if captured, could expect little mercy from that officer, causing at first a feeling of de- spondency, which was succeeded by vindictiveness against his countrymen such as before had not possessed him. In his maraud into Kentucky along with his brother James and another white man, with a few Indians, he was acting under the advice of Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, he having been persuaded, doubtless, that such expoilitions were a necessity. It is evident, from what he afterward told Kenton, that Avhat he had thus far done was under mental protest, to a certain extent. Now, however, the letters of Gibson awakened his animosity — the " rebels " were his personal enemies. It is clear his feelings were undergoing a change ; soon the " tiger was unchained." His hatred of Gibson thenceforth was in- tense. :®f 92 History of the Oirtys. ■ CHAPTER XL The two warriors from Sandusky, who were stopped at Co- shocton by the Delawares, and who communicated the intelli- gence as to Simon Girty marching with a party of Indians to take Colonel Gibson's scalp at Fort Laurens, also gave infor- mation, which was promptly sent to the colonel, that the sav- ages, about the '2d of March, 1779, intended, with a great num- ber of warriors, to attack the fort ; and they would get white soldiers from Detroit to aid them if possible. At this very day, declared the two warriors, they ai'e assembling and mustering at Sandusky and Detroit, to be ready at the appointed time. This news was discouraging to Gibson, who had no doubt that an expedition Avas on foot by the enemy against his post ; but, though short of supplier, he resolved to fight to the last. No braver man than he commanded American soldiers during the Revolution. Upon the return of Girty to Detroit, after his success at Fort Laurens, he declared that seven or eight hundred war- riors intended to attack Fort Laurens, and that when he left the Sandusky river, that number of Six Nation Indians (Min- goes), Shawanese, Wyandots, and Delawares, was assembled at Upper Sandusky. While they had little expectation of making any particular headway against the fortification itself, they would drive off and destroy the cattle ; and, if any of the main army from Fort Mcintosh attempted to go to the as- sistance of the garrison, they were resolved to attack them in the night and to distress them as much as possible. Girty not only asked of Captain Lernoult ammunition to be given the Indians in their proposed expedition, but /earnestly solicited, on behalf of the savages, that an English captain might be sent with them, '* to see how they would behave." History of the Girtys. 93 Captain Henry Bird,* of the Eighth (or King's) regiment, and ten soldiers, all volunteers and •' anxious to go,"' were at once dispatched to Upper Sandusky, along with Girty, to aid the undertaking ; several Ottawas and Chippewas also went with them from Detroit. Captain Bird took with him a large supply of ammunition and clothing to encourage the savages, besides presents to the chief warriors. f Upon arriving among the Wyandots, Captain Bird found them not at all anxious to. march at once against the Americans ; for, just then they were enjoying the immediate prospect of tortur- ing a prisoner at the stako, to the exclusion, in their minds, of all else. " The captain," fov so the story runs, " on hearing this, did all that was in his power to save the poor man, begging and praying their head men tc save his life, and frequently oiTering four hundred dollars for him on the spot, and, indeed, was about to oifer one thousand dollars, but he found it all to no purpose. He then went to the prisoner, told him he could do nothing ; that if he (the captain) was in his place he would pick up a gun and defend himself as long as he could. Bt'*^ the prisoner seemed pretty easy, and only told the Indians that the time would come that they would pay dear for all their murders. He was then taken away and murdered at a most horrid rate." Captain Bird " took the body [and] buried it, but they (the Wyandots) dio;ging it out again and sticking the head upon a pole [the captain] had to bury it a second time. After all was [over] the captain went up to them (they were all assembled) and spoke to them in the following manner : ' You damned rascals, if it was in ray power, as it is in the power of the Americans, not one of you should live. Nothing would please me more thau to see such devils as you all are killed. You cowards, is that all you can do, to kill a poor, innocent pris- * In many histories relating to the West, this officer's name is erroneously •pelled " Byrd." ■f Bolton to Haldimand, March 24, 1779, already cited. Captain Lernoult declared that he did every thing in his power to encourage the Indians, showing that Girty's solicitations ^^erc c:r,:"ently successful. 94 History of the Oirtys. oner ? You dare not show your faces where an army is ; but there [here] you are busy [brave ?] when you have nothing to fear, (ret away from me ; never will I have nothing [any thing more] to do with you.' " * After this defiant and de- nunciatory speech, the irate but humane captain, it may bo presumed, did not treat his Wyandot allies with much respect, for a time at least. About the 22d of February, one hundred and twenty sav- ages, mostly Wyandots and Mingoes, but all under Captain Bird (who, it seems, had conquered his disgust for the former), reached the Tuscarawas from the Sandusky and lay in ambush near Fort Laurens. LukeAvarmness on part of the Wyandots toward the British operated to keep back much the larger number of warriors of that tribe living upon the Sandusky from going upon this expedition. The Mingoes (all Senecas) who marched with Bird were under the immediate lead of Girty, and were far more vindictive at this time against the Americans than were the Wyandots. Captain Bird, it should be borne in mind, Avas an officer in the British army, and was on the campaign as a volunteer from his regiment, the Eighth (or King's). On the twenty-third, Colonel Gibson, in command of Fort Laurens, unwisely (for he had knowledge, as we have seen, that the enemy contemplated a movement against him) sent out a wagoner for the horses belonging to the post, to draw w^ood. With him went a guard of eighteen men. The party were fired upon and all killed and scalped in sight of the fort, except two, who were made prisoners. The whole besieging force then shoAved themselves, and Fort Laurens was com- * Heckewelder to Colonel Brodhcnd, from Coshocton, June 30, 1779, in Pennsylviinia Archives, Old Series, Vol. VII, pp. 624, 625. It has often been said, and the tradition has found its way into print (see An Historical Account of the Expedition against Sandusky under Col. William Craw- ford, in 1782, p. 164), that the Wyandots did not torture their ))ri8oner8 at the stake, as was frequently done by other tribes (compare, also, Magazine of American History, Vol. XV, p. 266) ; but 1 have since seen an abun- dance of both published and unpublished evidence to the contrary, of the moBj authentic character. Hi»tovij oj the Girfys. 95 pletely invested. The siege was continued until the garrison was reduced to the verge of starvation ; a quarter of a pound of sour flour and an equal weight of spoiled meat constituting a daily ration for each ; but the assailants themselves, about the 20th of March, ran short of supplies, and, because of tliis, and treachery on part of the AVyandots, returned home.* The siege (although a failure), considering that the fort was a regularly built fortification, planned by an engineer of the regular army of the United States, and garrisoned by regular troops, and considering, also, the persistency of the besiegers, nearly all of whom were savages, and who closely invested the post for twenty-five days, was the most notable of any in the West during the Revolution. Soon after the return of Bird to Upper Sandusky, what he believed was a well-authenticated report reached him that a party of Delawares, stimulated by a reward of eight hundred dollars offered by the Americans for Girty's scalp, did actually go in .pursuit of the renegade, expecting to find him marching homeward from the siege of Fort Laurens Avith his Miijgoes along with that officer; but, discovering he was not in the company of the latter, went off without any hos- tile demonstration against the captain's command. Thereupon, Girty went with " his Senecas [Mingoes] in quest" of the Dela- Avare warriors, but it is probable he did not find them. "Girty, I assure you, sir," says Bird, in writing to Captain Lernoult of the circumstance just narrated, " is one of the most use- ful, disinterested friends in his department that the govern- ment has." t General Mcintosh, in April, was relieved, at his own re- quest, of the command of the Western Department, being suc- ceeded by Colonel Brodhead, all thoughts of moving against the Indians upon the Sandusky, and going thence to Detroit, having been abandoned by him. * See, as to most of these facts, Washington-Irvine Correspondence, ])p. 31, 32; also, pp. 32-38 of the same work, for further particulars as to Fort Laurens and its final abandonment. t Bird to Lernoult, , 1779. — MS. letter, Ualdimand Papers. 96 History of the Girtys. After the siege of Fort Laurens, Simon Girty busied him- self in the Mingo country, attentive to the behests of Captain Lernoult. On the 28th of May, Ileckewelder, at Coshocton, wrote Brodhead : " Simon Girty acts wickedly, and does all ho can against you." * His remorse for joining the enemies of his country was rapidly wearing off. Colonel John Bowman, in the month .last mentioned, col- lected a small army in Kentucky, to attack Chillicothe, the Shawanese town (before spoken of as " Old Chillicothe," in connection with the capture of Simon Kenton), about three miles north of the present Xenia, Ohio. With two hundred and sixty-two men, early in the morning of the thirtieth, he encompassed the village and set fire to it. His success was only partial, the council-house of the enemy defying the assaults of the Kentuckians. After killing several savages, and securing considerable plunder, the expedition returned with slight loss, proving by no means a failure, although not as much had been accomplished as had been expected. f A report, which, how- ever, was erroneous, reached the ears of Bowman during the attack, that Simon Girty and a hundred Mingoes were at Piqua (the Shawanese town already mentioned as on Mad river, not a great distance away), and that they had been sent for. This, it has been alleged, without any authority, caused the Americans to retreat. Af^er the return of Captain Bird to the Sandusky from the siege of Fort Laurens, another incursion was planned by him against the same post, J "After much running about," said he, in writing from Up- per Sandusky, on the 9th of June, " and making some presents to chiefs, we had collected at Mingo town [on the upper waters of the Scioto] near two hundred savages, chiefly Shawanese, * Pennsylvania Archives, Old Series, Vol. VII, p. 616. f The Washington-Crawford Letters, p. 71, note 2. See also, for further particulars, CoUins's History of Kentucky, Vol. II, p. 425. Accounts of this expedition, more or less accurate, are likewise to be found in many Western histories. But the actual date of the attack on Chillicothe was first published in the Washington-Crawford Letters, just cited. X McKee to Lernoult, May 26, 1779. — MS. letter, Haldimand Papers. History of the Girtys. 97 when lo ! a runnei* arrived with accounts of the Shawanese towns being attacked by a body from Kentucky." This was the expedition of Bowman. " News flew," continues Bird, " that all the towns were to be attacked ; and our little body separated in an instant, past reassembling^." " Girty," he adds, " is flying about." * So, as we have said, the report that Simon Girty, with a hundred Mingoes, was at Piqua Avhen Bowman attacked Chillicothe, and had been sent for, was a false one, although the gathering of the two hundred savages by Bird at the Mingo village may have been the inspiring cause of it. Toward the end of June, Simon Gii ty, with seven Mingoes, reached Coshocton, on his way to one of the settlements near Fort Pitt, where he had been advised there was a bundle of letters hid in a hollow tree, which it was important to ob- tain.f No sooner, however, had he got to the Delaware town than a messenger was dispatched to Colonel Brodhead by the friendly Delawares informing him of Girty 's arrival, and that it was his intention, after securing the letters he was to go in search of, to make a raid into the settlements near Holiday's Cove, in what is now West Virginia. Thereupon, the American commander dispatched Captain Samuel Brady * Bird to Lernoult — MS. letter: Iliildimiind Papers. This letter has re- cently been published (see The Winning ofthe West.Vol. II., pp. 397, 898). In it will be found a brief account brought to Bird by the Indians of Bowman's attack on Chillicothe. Koo.sevelt declares, without, so fur us I can discover, a shadow of authority, that Bird, in gathering "two hundred Indians at the Mingo town," intended to march, not toward the Tuscarawas, but against Kentucky. He then reasons that, because, on hearing of Bowman's expedi- tion, " the Indians dissolved in a })anic," therefore, although a defeat, " the expedition was of great service to Kentucky, though the Kentuckians never knew it," as it kept Bird away. t "I should think it a very proper thing for you to keep two Delaware men as spies at the mouth of Gajahoga [Cuyahoga] river, who might hunt there without being discovered. I further inform you that Simon Girty, with eight Mingoes, is gone to the inhabitants [American settlements east- ward] to fetch a packet of letters out of a hollow tree, I understand, some- where about Fort Pitt." — Heckewelder to Brodhead, June 29, 1779, from Coshocton. 7 98 History of the Girtys. and John Montour with a party of men from Fort Pitt to en- deavor, if possible, to capture the renegade and his Mingoes ; * but they were unsuccessful. Girty reached Coshocton on his return, with -ne prisoner, early in July, he having also secured the letters he was so anxious to get. This was his first raid across the Ohio to the eastward — the first time he ha ] ventured with a war-party east of the Tuscarawas river. It was this foray and the ambus- cading of Captain Clark at Fort Laurens, every-where quickly heard of upon the frontiers of South-western Pennsylvania and North-western Virgi_iia, that made his name a household word of t( ror thenceforth all along the border from Kittan- ning to Louisville. There was no longer any question in the minds of the borderers as to his actual presence, frequently, with tomahawk and scalping-knife, killing the inoffensive in- habitants regardless of age or sex. This belief was, of course, as to the frequency of Girty's visits, greatly an exaggeration of the facts ; that he himself ever killed women and children as did the Indians with whom he associated on his raids and whom he frequently led, has not been positively proven, al- though there can, seemingly, be no doubt that such was the fact. lie could not ask the savages to do what he himself would hesitate about doing. In the minds of the Indians, it would be arrant cowardice. Accidentally, while Girty was returning to Coshocton, he and his party met David Zeisberger, the Moravian mission- ary, who was on his way from a small " Moravian " Indian village called Lichtenau to another missionary station some distance above. " Mr. Zeisberger," wrote Ileckewelder to Brodhead, a few days after, from Coshocton, " who had been here to see us, and who, on his way home, met with those fel- • " Captain Hrady and John Montour, with a party of men, are gone to bring in Simon Girty and seven Mingoes, who are come toward Holliday's Cove, and an express is dispatched by the Delaware chiefs [who were then at Pittsburgh] to order the Delawares of Coochoching [Coshocton] to seize Girty and his party should he return there; and they are to be brought to mo." — Brodhead to Bayard, from Pittsburgh, July 1, 1779, in Pennsylvania Archives, Old Series, Vol. XII, p. 134. Hisfory of the Girtys. 99 lows, had certainly bean killeil by them if not accidentally Caleb and some more of the Delawares had met together. He [Girty] expressed himself here with great dissatisfaction concerning the disappointment, and wished us all in his power."* Now, this expression of disappointment at not being able to kill Zcisberger, and his wishing the missionaries all in his power, was, on the part of Girty, if actually indulged in, all bluster ; he was the last person who Avould have harmed the Moravian. He knew too well what effect such a proceeding would have at Detroit, The fear and easy credulity of Hecke- welder made it, however, seem certain to the latter that the renegade only needed an opportunity, and that then his threats would certainly bo carried into execution. A hostile demonstration on part of Girty and his Mingoes at their meeting, Zcisberger and " Caleb and some more of the Delawares," was only what would naturally occur at the moment of discovery and until there was a recognition as to who constituted the party. It was enough, however, to con- vince Heckewelder, when he learned what had taken place, that Zcisberger " had certainly been killed " but for the presence accidently of his protectors. And the expressions and Avishes of Girty made, in his mind, " assurance doubly sure," that his Moravian companion had had a very narrow escape. Girty, it will be remembered, could neither read nor write ; and he was desirous, on reaching Coshocton, on his way back from his maraud into the settlements across the Ohio, to have Alexander McCormick, who was in the Delaware village at the time of his I'eaching there when moving eastward, to ex- plain the contents of the letters he had secured ; but McCor- mick, whose head-quarters were at Upper Sandusky, had started for that place before Girty's return. There was, how- ever, in Coshocton, besides Heckewelder, an American named Richard Connor ; but, of course, he was not asked, nor was the Moravian, to read what the renegade was so anxious to • Heckewelder to Brodhead, July 8, 1779, from Coshocton, in Pennsyl- vania Archives, Old Series, Vol. VII, pp. 541, 642. 100 Hkiory of the Qirhjn. lieur. Girty •' told Mr. Connor," wrote Ileckewclder to Brod- iioad, *' to tell his brethren, the Americans, that he did not ilesire they should show him any favor, neither (said he) would he show thera any." Had it not been for Big Cat, one of the Delaware chiefs, Girty would have been detained by force in Coshocton, and sent to Fort IMtt, so Ileckewelder declares.* And this is doubtless true ; as the majority of the Delawares were still friendly to the Americans, and Brod- head had sent, as we have seen, some of their chiefs (who were at Fort Pitt) on purpose to have him seized should he return to Coshocton, and brought to Pittsburgh. Colonel Brodhead was kept by Heckewolder, at this period, fully advised of Girty's movements, so far as the Moravian had any knowledge of them, either personally or by what he learned from others. Notwithstanding this fact, he wrote, many years after, as follows : " News being brought to Goschochking [Coshocton] that the governor of Detroit [Henry Hamilton], who, a short time before, had gone with troops to Port [Post] Vincennes, and was there, together with his officers, taken prisoners by an American army under General Clarke [Colonel George Rogers Clark], and by him taken to Virginia, the peaceable Indians, and the missionaries, entertained a hope that the threats, so repeatedly circulated through the country, and attributed to this governor, would forthwith be at end. They, however, found themselves mistaken, as it now became more evident that much had been laid to the charge of this gentleman, of which he probably had no knowledge, but which had been the work of McKee, Elliott, and [Simon] Girty. These three men, whose hostility to the United States appeared to be un- bounded, were continually plotting the destruction of the Christian [' Moravian '] Indians' settlements, as the only means of drawing the Delaware nation, and with these, the Christian Indians, into the war. The missionaries, in particular, were as a thorn in their eyes, being considered not only as the cause that the Delaware nation would not join in the war, but they • Heckewelder to Brodhead, July 8, 1779, already cited. History of the Girfyt. 101 also mistrusted them of informing the American government of the part Ihey [>rcKce, Elliott, and Simon Girty] were act- ing in the Indian country."'^ The expedition of Girty from the upper Scioto, to secure the letters whioli had l)een left by some unfriendly American for Britisii perusal, was declared by Ileckewelder, over forty years after, to have been for the purpose of taking " off the missionary, Zeisberger, or to bring in his scalp." This Mo- ravian author, after the lapse of so many years, had forgotten that, no sooner had the renegade gone from Coshocton, on his way eastward, than ho wrote to tiie Fort Pitt commandant, giving the reason for his (Girty's) going into one of the set- tlements near that post, leaving it to be inferred by Brodhead that what was thus mentioned was the object of the renegade coming to Coshocton, and of his going further on.f "At the very time," says Ileckewelder, in contradiction of this letter to Brodhead, "that the governor [Henry Hamilton] was a prisoner of General Clarke [Colonel George Rogers Clark], a plot was laid at Sandusky to take off the missionary, Zeisberger, or to bring in his scalp ; and Simon Girty had en- gaged to lead the party on for the purpose. Fortunately, there lived, at the time, at Upper Sandusky, a trader, by the name of Alexander McCormick, well known to the mission- aries for many years past as a friend and admirer of missions among the Indians, who, on learning the intention of this party, found means to inform the writer of this, who lived at Lichtenau, of the plot, and at which place, as it had hap- pened, this very missionary, at the time, had come on a visit from Shonbrun, which, the spies of the hostile party discover- ing, they, to insure his capture, waylaid the path on which * Heckewelder's Narrative, pp. 203, 204. It was exactly what Hecke- welder himself did do — inform the American government of the part "they [McKee, Elliott, and Girty] were acting in the Indian country." That this trio were "continually plotting the destruction of the Christian In- dians' settlements, as the only means of drawing the Delaware nation, and with these the Christian Indians, into the war," or that they were so doing for any other purpose, is wholly untrue. t Heckewelder to Brodhead, June 29, 1779, from Coshocton, before cited. 102 Uhhry of fhe Oirtyn. ZciHbcr<>;or must return. Two spirited ludiiiii brethren, of whonj Isiiiic (ilickliican was one, were selet'tcd to conduiit the missionary home by way of Gnadenhuttcn, with directions, liowever, to strengtiien the guard at that place, shouhl it bo thought necessary. They left liichteiuiu, when, having scarcely proceeded nine miles on the journey, all of a sudden the hos- tile party, consisting of eight Mingoes (of the Six Nations), and Simon (Jirty, the person who was to point out to them the object thoy were come for, appeared before them on the path. At this critical moment, and while Girty was uttering to the captain of the gang the words, "This is the very man we are come for ; now act agreeable to the promise you have made ! " two young Delawares, on their return from a hunt, accidently, and very fortunately, struck from out of the woods exactly on the path where tiiese were standing, and concluding, from the words spoken by Girty, as also by the appearance of the party, that something bad was intended against the mission- ary, they boldly stepped forward, with their arms in readiness, to defend him, at the risk of their own lives ; Avhich, the cap- tain observing, and justly conciuding that the two other Del- awares, who accompanied the missionary, would join these against them, were they to make the attempt, he, by a signal prudently given, declined laying hands on him." * That Mr. McCormick sent Heckewelder word that some kind of a plot had been laid at Upper Sandusky to take off or kill Zeisberger, is doubtless true ; but that he did not men- tion Girty as in any way connected with it, or as having been deputed to carry it out, is evident. In his letter to Brodhead, written at the very time that Girty first reached • Heckewi'lder'g Narrative, pp. 204, 205. Compare, in this connection, and in nearly the same strain, Heckewelder's Indian Nations (Itichel's edi- tion), p. 279. The discrepancy between this account and that given in his letter, written over forty years before, will be noticed. It would have been, forsooth, an act of great bravery for Girty and his seven Mingoes, who had come all the way from the head of the Scioto for the express purpose of l) * MS. letter, Hnlditnand Papers. t"I wish your excellency could allow Mr. [Duperron] Baby, the now Actina; Indian Commissary, something more than the common and low-lived interpreters — who all have, like he, two dollars per day." — Brehm to Gen- History of the Oirtys. 109 Deer skins then were worth about a dollar each. These skins all through the Indian country, previous to and during the Revolution, passed as money (under the names of "bucks" and " does ") instead of sterling and York currency.* After delivering to Captain Lernoult, at Detroit, the " packet of letters " he had secured in one of the border set- tlements to the eastward, Simon Girty returned to the Ohio wilderness. A plan had been laid by the Detroit commander for him again to march to the Tuscarawas to learn tlie true state of aifairs at Fort Laurens. At Sandusky, Girty wrote Lernoult that there were " no certain accounts of the rebels leaving Tuscarawas [Fort Laurens]." " I intend," he adds, " to go there directly, and shall send you the token you gave me at Detroit, if they are not there. If the Delawares are in possession of fort, I intend to turn them out and burn it (if my party is able), as you gave me the liberty to act as 1 thought best ; and they and I are not on the best of terms." f But the post had then been abandoned by the Americans for about a month; and, as the fortification was not afterward burned, it would seem that Girty did not march thither as he had contemplated. Indeed, he soon went in quite another direction, as will presently be seen. .; ' In September, James Girty, who had spent a large portion of the previous twelve months with the Shawanese, was at Detroit, where Captain Lernoult needed his services ; as that officer was just then greatly excited over the prospective visit from the Americans led by George Rogers Clark. "As I can not," wrote the Captain, " spare a soldier now (our numbers are reduced), I intend to send one James Girty to the Shaw- anese towns to endeavor to raise a party to reconnoitre toward the Weas, and to communicate this news [the visit of Clark] to all the Indians in our interest to harass the enemy should eral Haldimand, from Detroit, July 5, 1779, in Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. IX, p. 418. * Address of Charles I. Walker before the State Historical Society of "Wisconsin, January 81, 1871, pp. 28, 30, 41. t Girty to Lernoult, September 6, 1779. — MS. lett«ir, Haldimand Papers. 110 History of the Girtys. they advance further." * But Clark's endeavors proved [; abortive and James Girty's efforts were for naught. The lat- ter remained at Wapatomica. / In June, 1778, David Rogers, who, on the 14th of January preceding, had been selected by Virginia to proceed to New Orleans to purchase supplies for the use of the troops of t that state, raised a party of about thirty men in the region of what is now Brownsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and, in keel-boats, floated down the Ohio and Mississippi. He did not reach ^iew Orleans until after considerable trouble and delay. When he arrived, he found he would have to re- turn to St. Louis, to obtain the goods, for which he was given an order. From the latter place, in the autumn of 1779, he ->^ made his way up the Ohio to the Falls, where he was rein- '**A''^ /V. 'JliO, and the hii- thoriti'js there cited. But none of these lU'counts hiive the ijiven nntiio of Cnptain 'rhonipsoii. This I have obtained elsowlieri'. "Gcnrue (liity, tlie only one of the Girty brothers who, contrary to the pojiuiar impression, ever actually deserted from the American army, waK iluly heard from in the summer of 1781. General Irvine, then in command of Kort I'itt, records the fact that a band of Indians under this loyal savage and the noted Brandt attacked on the 24th of August and below the mouth of tlie Great Miami a force of volunteers on their way to join Clarke, and killed or cap- tured every i n in the expedition." — .Magazine of American History, Vol. XV, p. 2C3. It General Irvine did not make this record about George Girty, as here stated, but such a record was made by the writer of this nar- rative in the Washington-Irvine Correspondence, pp. 56, 230, drawn from other sources than those of the Irvine letters. f See McBride's Pioneer Biography, Vol. I, p. 280. UiHiorif of fhc dirh/K. 181 subsequently tlmt lio had received the saher-cut in battle and had killed his assailant;* it beinj; hix turn now to boast! It was a number of weeks before ho could sit up ; nevertheless, his recovery, considering the dangerous nature of the wound, was surprisingly rapid. It had no sooner healed so as to ad- mit of his n\oving about than he started north, first reaching the MingocH, and tiien going to Upper Samlusky, where he re- mained during the winter. By the middle of January, 1782, ho had fully recovered ; that is to say, ho was well and hearty though the wound ever after gave him trouble, it having at times, some effect upon his mental condition. t The rejoicing of the savages over Lochry's defeat was great. They believed that all danger of invasion by Clark was now over, and it re(iuired much persuasion on part of Thompson, McKee, and Urant to induce them to march further toward the Falls (Louisville). On the !Hh of September, when within thirty miles of that jjlace, they learned that Clark had aban- doned his expedition, and they immediately began to disband. However, two hundred Wvandots and Miamis under McKee ' %■' and Brant, moved southward into Kentucky " to attack some of the small forts and infest the roads," while the Rangers and the residue of the Indians returned to the northward. McKcc and Brant's party (with which was George Girty) succeeded in killing a number of men, women, and children at Long Run ; after which, these warriors, too, returned to their homes. Thompson reached Detroit early in October. ;[: " Iiidiati Cuplivity: A Trvui Niirrative ot' tins CiiptuiH ot Rev. O. M. S|>i'iii'cr, l)^ tins linliiins, in tlif Neighborhood of (Jiiifiimiili. WrittPii by IliniM:'it'. |i. 811. ■' I WHS," says Sjienour, '-at'lt'i-waid told [tli« wound] was inflicti'd i>y the tomahawk 'if thu culebrated Indian ohiL-f, Urandt [Mrant], in a drunken fndie." History and tradition abundantly corroborate this, ex- cept as to ihu instrument eniployed. For niention of tlie (juarrel (but {jiving t,n erroneous statement as to its result), see Albach's Western Annals, p. SS4. Compare, also, Howe's Ohio, p. 248. t Concerning the affair between 8imon Girty and Brant, many traditions have been preserved, all of a character more or less exaggerated, while some are wholly fictitious. 'J'liat Hrant regretted the act after he became sober, is probable. t P'or particulars of this inroad, see the current histories of the West. 132 History of the Girfys. A party of Indians (not any, however, of those who had previously started south under McKee) numbering about two hundred and fifty, consisting of Wyandots, Delawares, Mun- ceys, and a small number of ShaAvanese, also a few tories and French Canadian partisans, the whole headed by Captain Matthew Elliott (for that loyalist was now an "Indian officer " of that rank), marched from the Sandusky eastward until the Tuscarawas was reached at the " Moravian " Indian towns. This was the latter part of August. A portion, after- ward, moved on toward the border, appearing, finally, in the vicinity of Fort Henry (Wheeling). There were three boys outside the fort ; one was killed, one made prisoner, and the other escaped inside the fortification. In a moment the garrison (information having been sent from Pittsburgh to the post of the danger threatened) was ready to receive the sav- ages. The latter seeing the borderers fully prepared for them, soon disappeared, doing but little mischief, except killing all the cattle they could find. Their depredations up Wheeling and Bufialo creeks, however, were, before they re-crossed the Ohio, much more serious. They killed and captured several persons. Much fiction has found its way into print concerning this attempt of the enemy against the fort at Wheeling. " Both the date and the facts of the second demonstration against Fort Henry," says a published account, already a number of times cited, " which occurred earlj' in September, 1781, have been badly mixed by different writers , but it is quite evident that the Girtys participated in the siege." * It is now known, however, that neither of the three Girty brothers — Simon, James, or George — took part in this expedition ; nor was the stockade sufficiently invested by the savages to justify the movement being designated a siege. Fort Henry was twice Additional facts recently publisliud may bt) t'uund in the The Winning of the West, Vol. II, pp. 128-130; and the authori'uiiss there cited may be con- sulted with advantage. See, too, McBride's Pion. Biog., Vol. I, p. 280. * Magazine of American History, Vol. XV, p. 2G3. History of the Girtys. 133 besieged and only twice ; cnce in 1777 as already mentioned, and again in 1782 as will hereafter be shown.* The enemy, before leaving the Tuscarawas on their return home, broke up the missionary establishments upon that river, taking the missionaries and their families, and all the " Mo- ravian " Indians, with them to the Sandusky, where, at a point a little over two miles above the present Upper Sandusky, county seat of Wyandot county, Ohio, but, on the opposite (east) side of the river, they (the Moravians and their Indians) prepared to spend the winter. The Girtys, it must be un- derstood, did not help plan the expedition, nor did they take any part in it.f Zcisberger giving information to the Ameri- cans was the cause of the enemy's action. While the savages were on their way back to Sandusky, seven of the Wyandots, of whom three were sons of the Half King, left the main party and again marched for the border, raiding into a small settlement on Harman's creek, in Wash- ington county, taking one prisoner — a man about sixty years of age. The savages immediately started on their return, but were soon pursued by a number of settlers, to the Ohio river, where they were overtaken and all killed except one ; and he, their leader, Scotosh by name, one of the three broth- ers before alluded to, escaped wounded. The white prisoner was released. Andrew Poe, one of the pursuers, his gun missing fire, boldly sprang upon and grappled two of the In- dians — sons of the Half King. During a most violent strug- gle, which was continued first on shore and then in the river, * " It is absolutelj' impossible to find out the r; il tHcfs conoerning the sieges of Wheeling; it is not quite certain even whether there were two or three." — Uoosevelt. There is, however, it is suggested, no difficulty in find- ing out all the iinportant facts concerning them, or in discovering that there were but two. t In a previous work (An Historical Account of the Expedition against 8andusl{y, p. 190), the writer of this narrative says: "[Simon] Girty was one of the plotters of the scheme which resulted in the breaking up of the missionary establishments upop the Muskingum [i. e., upon the Tuscarawas, as afterwards known]." But^flirthcr investigation makes it certain tliat he had nothing to do with it, directly or indirectly; neither had his brother James or George. 184 History of the Oirtys. Andrew killed one of the Indians, but was himself badly wounded. Adam Poe, a brother, coming to his relief, shot the other savage. Meanwhile, Andrew then in the water, by mistake, received a second wound from one of his own men. The settlers lost one of their number. Neither of the Indians killed by the Poes was named Big Foot, nor was either of them of unusual size, as has been so long and persistently claimed by Western writers.* Note I. — It will not be forgotten that, in the first place, Simon Girty was sent Ity Hamilton to dwell among the Min- goes ; and that too, for specific purposes. It has, however, been published that he first " allied himself with the Wyan- dots, ' the bravest of the tribes,' with whom he was more or less identified until the day of his death. They had known him ever since his childhood, and they received him now as an adopted Indian." — Magazine of American History, Vol. XV, p. -61. (Compare, also, An Historical Account of the Expedition against Sandusky, under Col. William Crawford, in 1782," p. 187.) But Girty's residence upon the San- dusky did not take place, as before narrated, for nearly three years from the time of his joining the British, and then, at the instigation of DePeyster. He had seen little of the San- dusky Wyandots previous to the beginning of the Avar, except at Pittsburgh; the Detroit Wyandots he had never visited; nor Avas he received by the former as an adopted Indian. Note II. — " Simon Girty (spelled Girtee in the old rec- ords) was born and raised in the Cumberland valley, Pennsyl- vania," declares a modern Pennsylvania author. " His par- ents were Swiss-Germans, and were much addicted to the use of strong drink and gambling, both of which became charac- teristics of Simon. It was, doubtless, oAving to the fact that Simon Girty's parents taught him by example these bad hab- its, and left him no legacy but one of dishonor, that he for- * Washington-Irvine Correspondonee, p. 61, where the niiinu of the leader of the Indians is incorrectly spelled "Seotash." History of the Girti/s. 135 sook the settlements to serve with young Simon Kenton on the frontiers. lie joined the Virginia militia, and seemed anxious to distinguish himself as a soldier. He was disap- pointed at being promoted, and instead, through the influence of his colonel, publicly disgraced. He fled from the ^-ettle- ments and took up his abode along with a number of others on Sherman's creek, but here he was again followed by the whites, who burnt his cabin in 1750, and turned him loose to roam the wilds as an outcast under the ban of the law. He took up his abode with the Wyandotte Indians, with whom he lived a foe to the whites, more cruel and relentless than his * adopted people." — Wright's History of Perry County, Penn- sylvania, pp. 33, 34. In all that has come under my notice concerning Simon Girty, I have found no such confusion of dates and statements as this. Note III. — Most writers on Western history give the name of the unfortunate colonel killed while going down the Ohio on his way to join Clark, as " Loughry " or " Loughrie," but the proper spelling is "Lochry." Before Brant's return to Detroit, he (Brant) was wounded in the leg (Powell to Haldi- mand, October 20th ; and same to same, December 6, 1781. — MS. letters, Haldimand Papers). This fact and the previous quarrel between him and Simon Girty have led to the erro- neous tradition, which is current, that Girty wounded Brant. Note IV. — The story of the Poe fight was first written for, and printed in, a magazine, with a number of fanciful embel- lishments, about " Big Foot," etc. The whole article was copied by Doddridge as veritable history in his notes. It has since been re-copied numberless times and with many vari- ations. I have given simply the facts, with the imaginary portions omitted. 136 History of the Girtys. CHAPTER XV. The year 1782 was one of great activity in the West. In no year during the war were there enacted so many stirring events. Simon Girty acted his part in the drama, but it was not one so prominent upon the wilderness stage as history has been disposed to assign him. He appeared in many " char- acters ;" and just at this point, where we get a close view of him, we find how perverse and cruel he had become. E'i- dently, to a great extent, had his sorrow for hasty action in leaving his country, which would occasionally possess his mind, worn oif. More and more was he growing attached to the cause he had espoused. Being naturally of an impulsive turn, the dictates of humanity would occasionally get the bet- ter of his pernicious feeling against his countrymen, prompt- ing him to save the life of a fellow-being from the awful tor- tures of the savages ; but increasing in frequency was his giving loose rein to the ferocity of his nature. He was, in the latter part of the winter, a constant companion of Dunquat, the Half King of the Wyandots. Heckewelder saw much of him at this time. In speaking of the suflFering of the missionaries and the " Moravian " Indians, who, it will be remembered, were left upon the Sandusky, at the coming in of winter, he says : " Towards the end of January [1782], the cold during the nights became almost insupportable ; the more so, on account of the smallness of our huts, not permitting the convenience of our having large fires made within them, and even wood being scarce where we were. Our houses having no flooring, whenever a thaw came on, the water, forc- ing passages through the earth, entered in such quantities that wc scarcely could keep our feet dry. The cattle finding no pasture in these dreary regions, and we not being able to procure any for them, now began to perish by hunger, and, as provision for so many people could not be had even for History of the Girtys. 137 money, famine took place, and the calamity became general; many had now no othei' alternative but to live on the carcases of the starved cattle, and in a few instances suckling babes perished for want of nourishment from the mothers' impover- ished breasts. "The missionaries had, at this time, reduced theii- daily allowance of provision for bread to a pint of Indiar jorn, per man, a day. Now and then Mr. McCormick sent them a leg of venison purchased of the hunters. Yet, in this wretched situation, the hungry Wyandots would often come in our huts to see if there was any victuals cooking, or ready cooked. At one time, just as my wife had set down to what Avas in- tended for our dinner, the Half King, Simon Girty, and another, a Wyandot, entered my cabin, and seeing the victuals ready, without ceremony, began eating." * The Half King at Sandusky, as may be supposed, lost none of his animosity against the Americans because of the killing of two of his sons (by the Poes, it will be remem- bered) in the previous fall, while on a marauding expedition across the Ohio. And that his enmity should be kindled against the Moravian missionaries, Avho were upon the San- dusky, was very natural, for he very well knew what their sympathy had been for the Americans. That Simon Girty should have been his willing instrument to aid him in getting these men out of the country, is not at all a matter of wonder. " Girty (or ' Captain Girty,' as he called himself)," says Heckewelder, " an outcast among mankind — dwelling among the Wyandots, and frequently going with them to wai- against the people of the United States, would instigate the former [that is, the Wyandots] to do us all the mischief they could ; and was a principal in raising their suspicion against us. This man (as we were informed from good authority) came one day about that time [February, 1782] to Mr. McCormick, and requested him to write a letter for the Half King, the purport • Heckewelder Narrative, pp. 299, 800. ~'~ ":""*' ^ 138 History of the Girtys. of which was : ' that the missionaries at Sandusky kept up a continual correspondence with the Americans ; and received regularly, every ten days, letters from Pittsburg ; and that they were endeavoring to persuade the Virginians to destroy the Wyandot nation, etc' That