Editorialana. 493
FORT LAURENS--ITS SITE AND SIEGE. The relation of the Ohio country and its pre-state pioneers to the events of the American Revolution has not yet been properly portrayed. Until recently leading historians have either ignored it altogether or slightingly treated it. It will ere long receive due attention. Roosevelt in "The Winning of the West," Winsor in the "Westward Movement," |
|
and Moore in "The Northwest Under Three Flags," have given it more or less consideraton. During the period of the American Revolu- tion one of the scenes of military importance and romantic interest within the present bounds of Ohio was the site of Fort Laurens, the first fort erected after the Declaration of Independence in the territory of the Buckeye state to be. It will be recalled that the Autumn, Winter and Spring of 1777-8 was the low ebb of the Colonial cause. Howe's vic- |
494 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
tory at Brandywine gave him the
possession of Philadelphia. The en-
counter at Germantown a month later
added to the discomfiture and
discouragement of the American army.
Washington led his defeated
and depleted troops to the banks of the
Schuylkill, where they took up
their quarters amid the snow and ice of
Valley Forge, only twenty miles
away from the winter station of Howe.
The fate of the new nation
seemed doomed. Howe was exultantly
awaiting the cheery season of
Spring before pouncing upon Washington
to annihilate the latter's rag-
muffin, remnant army. The Revolution in the East was apparently
lost by the united colonies. Then it was
that the hope and effort of
liberty found a new field in the Ohio
country. The scenes were shifted
to the trans-Allegheny stage. The
extreme western post of the American
forces was Fort Pitt, the gateway of the
Ohio valley. The western
headquarters of the British were at Fort
Detroit, commanded by
General Henry Hamilton,
Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwestern
region. To him was entrusted the conduct
of the war in the West
as well as the entire management of
frontier affairs. The British
authorities realized to the fullest
extent the advantage and necessity
of retaining possession of this vast
territory. They carefully and
adroitly fostered the allegiance of the
Indians. In the autumn of 1777,
Hamilton, called the
"hair-buyer," summoned the tribesmen to a council
at Detroit and began to send into the
Ohio country, bands of savages
augmented by Canadian soldiers and
commanded by British officers, to
plunder and murder the American
settlers. It was to be a warfare
of bloody and merciless annihilation. He
offered standing rewards for
scalps, but none for prisoners, hence
his title as above. His war parties
of painted warriors, infuriated with
British whiskey and armed with
British weapons spared neither men,
women nor children. He wrote
Lord Germain, Colonial Secretary in the
British Cabinet, "next year
(1778) there will be the greatest number
of savages on the frontier that
has ever been known, as the Six Nations
have sent belts around to
encourage those allies who have made a
general alliance," meaning the
western Indians. But Hamilton reckoned
without his host. It was
in the late Spring of this year
1778-while Washington was just
emerging from Valley Forge-that the
Washington of the West, George
Rogers Clark, started down the Ohio with
his little band of Virginia
and Pennsylvania volunteers to enter upon
that daring expedition through
the Illinois country resulting in the
taking of the British posts at
Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and
the retention of the Illinois
country by the Colonies. The second
siege and capture of Vincennes
by Clark was in February, 1779,
Meanwhile the frontier war was being
waged in the valleys and along the
streams of the Ohio country, and
while Clark was performing his deeds of
patriotism and valor on the
banks of the Wabash, stirring events
were being enacted on the banks
of the Tuscarawas. The Revolution had
become a western Indian war.
Editorialana. 495
Almost the very day (July 4, 1778) that
Clark made his peaceful and
picturesque entry into Kaskaskia, there
was perpetrated the horrible
massacre of the Connecticut settlers in
the Pennsylvania Wyoming valley
by a motley force, over a thousand
strong and composed of British
soldiers, Tory volunteers and
Indians-the latter seven hundred in
number from the Seneca and Mohawk
tribes. Surely Hamilton's promise
to Germain was proving no idle boast.
Matters relating to the Indian situation
were intensified when in
March (1778) Alexander McKee, Mathew
Elliott and Simon Girty, the
latter the famous Indian interpreter and
renegade, deserting the Ameri-
can cause, fled from Fort Pitt, became
the active and powerful agents
of the British, and proceeded at once to
arouse the war spirit of the
Ohio Indians. About the same time
General Edward Hand, then com-
mandant at Fort Pitt, having been
informed that the British had lodged
a quantity of army supplies at an Indian
town on the Cuyahoga river,
formed a project for capturing them.
With a company of some five
hundred soldiers from Fort Pitt, Hand
sallied forth on his expedition.
It was a dismal failure. Two respective
attacks on the supposed camps
of Indians led to the discovery that the
savages had evaded him and
the expedition ended with no results
other than the killing of two
or three Indain warriors and several
Indian women, which fact gave
the expedition the opprobrious title of
"the squaw campaign." But
events of more pretentious extent were
about to transpire. General
Hand was, in May, superseded by General
Lachlin McIntosh, as Com-
mander at Fort Pitt. The same month the
Continental Congress, still
assembled at York (Pa.), whither it had
fled from Philadelphia on the
occupation of the latter by Howe,
resolved to raise two regiments to
comprise three thousand men, to serve
for one year for the protection
of the western frontier. These troops
were really to form a force to
march through the Ohio country and if
practicable attack and reduce
Fort Detroit. Congress voted over nine
hundred thousand dollars to
defray the expenses of carrying this war
into the enemy's country. The
plan was to march fifteen hundred men by
way of Kanawha to Fort
Randolph, at site of Pt. Pleasant, a
like number was to assemble at Fort
Pitt and drop down the Ohio to the same
point, thence all united
move across the country to Detroit.
Washington assisted in the perfec-
tion of these plans while still at
Valley Forge. But it was one thing
for the crippled and perplexed Congress
to vote men and money-quite
another thing to have the intentions
executed. The Continental scrip
was well nigh worthless, as Washington
put it about that time, a wagon
load of Continental paper would not buy
a wagon load of provisions.
Moreover all men that could be pressed
into service were needed in
the operations east and south. The
proposed plan for the destruction
of Detroit had to be deferred. The
commission sent by Congress to
Fort Pitt to supervise measures at that
point, now proposed a treaty
496 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
be held at the Fort with the Delawares,
Shawanese and other Indians.
To this council no Indians came
"from the wilderness across the Ohio"
but the Delawares, who were represented
by White Eyes, Captain Pipe,
and John Killbuck, Jr. The Shawanese had
become openly hostile to the
Colonists. The Delawares were generally
friendly. General McIntosh
now built a road from Fort Pitt to the
Beaver river, where just below
its mouth, on the right bank of the
Ohio, he erected a post with bar-
racks and stores, to which loads could
be carried by land or water.
This post was furnished with stockade
and bastions and defended by
six pieces of artillery. It was the
first military post erected upon the
Indian side-of the Ohio. This was early
in October (1778). Soon after
this alarming intelligence was brought
to General McIntosh from the
interior west. The hostile Indians in
the Ohio and Illinois country were
preparing for the war-path and planning
to unite in the Tuscarawas
valley. McIntosh fearless and ambitious
decided to take the aggressive
and attempt again his proposed march to
Fort Detroit. Early in No-
vember he set out, from his post on the
Beaver, with a force of about
thirteen hundred men--his determined
destination being Detroit. He
followed the route traveled by Colonel
Bouquet (in 1764) and after a
toilsome march of fourteen days, reached
the banks of the Tuscarawas,
some seventy miles west of Fort
McIntosh. It was at this point that
the army expected to encounter the
Indian forces and give them battle;
"but only a few Delawares from
Coshocton and some Moravian Indians.
met them and they were friendly."
It was here that McIntosh learned
that the winter supplies he had expected
from the East had not reached
Fort McIntosh and hence his base of
supplies was unavailing. He was
reluctantly compelled to abandon his
cherished plan, of reaching and
reducing Fort Detroit. That his expedition might not however be
entirely without accomplishment, he
decided to build upon the Tusca-
rawas a strong stockade fort and leave
as many men as provisions would
justify to protect it until the next
Spring. Such a military post would
at least place a barrier to the further
eastern encroachments of the In-
dians and would be another secure
mile-stone in the westward march of
the Colonists. The site selected for
this post was close to that upon
which Colonel Bouquet had erected one in
his expedition fourteen years
earlier. It was on the west bank of the
Tuscarawas, below the mouth
of Sandy creek, something more than a
mile south of the present village
of Bolivar. The usual approach to it
from Fort McIntosh was from the
mouth of Yellow creek and down the
Sandy, which latter stream heads
with the former and puts off into the
Tuscarawas just above the fort site.
The entire force was employed in the
erection of the stockade, which
was a regular rectangular fortification,
enclosing less than an acre of
land.
This, the first fort erected by Americans within the present
state boundaries, was named Fort Laurens
in honor of the President of
Congress. The fort partially completed,
McIntosh leaving a garrison
Editorialana. 497
of one hundred and fifty men, a part of
the 13th Virginia regiment, with
scanty supplies, under Colonel John
Gibson, returned to Fort McIntosh,
where the militia under his command were
discharged. The McIntosh
expedition to Detroit had ended with the
erection of Fort Laurens.
This it must be remembered, was in the
beginning of the winter of
1778-9, one of the severest seasons
recorded for many years before or
after. The larder of the little plucky
band soon ran low. Sorties of
detachments of the garrison were made
for provisions, amid great perils
and privations. In one of these
attempted forages under Captain Clark,
the four soldiers were killed by the
stealthy enemy and in another in-
stance seventeen. Efforts to get
provisions to the post from Fort Mc-
Intosh were likewise fraught with loss
of life and in some instances
failed altogether. But the stockade post
stood like a little Gibraltar,
far from any source of aid and beset by
treacherous and almost invisible
foes. Simon Girty was employed by the
authorities at Detroit to rally
and direct the hostile savages in the
vicinity of Fort Laurens. The
garrison was reduced to a state of
uninterrupted siege; the enemy never
ceased its vigilance; the provisions
were almost entirely exhausted; a
quarter of a pound of sour flour and an
equal weight of spoiled meat
was the daily allowance; the cold was
intense and exit from the stock-
ade could not be made for fuel or food,
the plucky soldiers suffered
from cold and hunger to the verge of
life, it was a veritable Valley
Forge on the banks of the
Tuscarawas. But those were American
patriots in that fort and Colonel
Gibson, through a soldier who succeeded
in stealing past the enemy's lines, sent
word to McIntosh, then at
Fort Pitt, a statement of the condition
of affairs, concluding with these
brave words: "You may depend on my
defending the fort to the last
extremity." It was the end of March
(1779). General McIntosh with
a force of five hundred men including
Pennsylvania militia and Conti-
nental troops set out from Fort Pitt for
the relief of Gibson. Arriving
at the fort, he found the siege
abandoned and the savages gone. They
had been outstarved and outwitted by the
soldiers of the invincible gar-
rison. But they were in a most
deplorable condition. For nearly a
week their only sustenance had been raw
hides and such roots as they
could find in the vicinity after the
Indians had departed. Leaving about
a hundred men of the 8th Pennsylvania
Regiment under command
of Major Frederick Vernon and a supply
of food for less than two
months, General McIntosh returned to his
quarters, and a few weeks
later relinquished his command of the
western department; Colonel
Daniel Brodhead was named by Washington
as his successor. The con-
dition of Fort Laurens early engaged the
attention of Brodhead. Major
Vernon, now in charge of that post, had
to undergo an experience simi-
lar to that of Colonel Gibson, save that
of the intense cold. Scarcely
had he taken command when hostile
Indians appeared and inaugurated
another siege. Foraging soldiers from
the fort were ambuscaded. The
Vol. XVII - 32.
498 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
supplies were all but exhausted. In
order as far as possible, to save
the lives of the garrison soldiers many
of them were ordered back to
Fort Pitt, until in the latter part of
June Major Vernon's force was
reduced to twenty-five men, who for ten
days lived on herbs, salt and
cow-hides. Death was staring them in the
face when a detachment of
relief under Capt. Robert Beall reached
the distressed garrison. The
condition of the inmates of the fort was
pitiful in the extreme, many
of the men from sheer starvation were
unable to stand upon their feet.
The post was relieved by seventy-five
men under command of Lieutenant
Colonel Campbell. The odds were finally
too great for the struggling
garrison and in August following an
attack and seige by nearly two
hundred Indians, mostly Shawanese,
Wyandots and Mingoes, supported
by a small detachment of British
soldiers sent from Detroit, all under
command of Lieutenant Henry Bird of the
British army, the fort was
evacuated by orders of Colonel Brodhead.
The stockade was not de-
stroyed but was never again garrisoned.
The strength of the Continental
army was now engaged in the stormy
scenes east of the Allegheny
mountains, but the war of the Revolution
was strenuously continued in
the Ohio country by the backwoodsmen of
the Kentucky forests, the
Virginia mountains and the valleys of
the Miamis and the Scioto. While
the dashing Wayne was engaged in his
brilliant assault on Story Point
in this summer of 1779, Captain John
Bowman, the former companion
of George Rogers Clark, was making bold
inroads into the heart of
the Indian settlements in Ohio. Captain
Bowman, with Captain Logan
as second in command, enrolled one
hundred and sixty Kentucky volun-
teers, marched from Harrodsburg, crossed
the Ohio at the mouth of
the Licking and proceeded up the Little
Miami Valley to Old Chillicothe,
the Indian stronghold of the Shawanese.
The Indian town was burned and much
devastation wrought in the
land of the redmen, but the expedition
was compelled to return leaving
the fierce forest warriors in "no
degree daunted or crippled." The ex-
pedition was not without its effect,
however, for it checked in another
quarter, the movements of the British
and Indians. Captain Henry Bird,
following the abandonment of Fort
Laurens, had collected two hundred
Indians at the Mingo town and was about
to start for Kentucky when
the news of Bowman's attack on
Chillicothe reached Bird's camp.
Quickly Bird's Indians dissolved into a
panic, many hastening to de-
fend their towns; some even desired to
make peace with the Americans.
This meagre recital gives ample proof of
the prominent part taken
by Fort Laurens in the frontier warfare
of the Revolution. The details
would fill many an interesting page. Sad
to chronicle, nothing remains
but its fame to mark the location of
Fort Laurens. It was a bright
summer day (August 12) that the writer
in company with Hon. Daniel
J. Ryan and Rev. W. H. Rice,
respectively vice president and trustee
of the Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society, made a little
Editorialana. 499
journey to the locality of the Fort. Piloted by Prof. G. C. Maurer, Superintendent of Schools at New Philadelphia, we were whisked from that town in an automobile, over a road that wound around the bases of hills and along the banks of streams some ten miles to within a short distance of the village of Bolivar. We were cheerily greeted by Messrs. Valentine Gibler and David Gibler, elderly bachelor brothers who own the fine farm on which the fort once stood. The deserted bed of the Ohio canal and the highway south of Bolivar, at this point, run nearly parallel and only some four hundred feet apart. Back that distance from the road, through the cultivated field, we were shown the exact spot where the stockade walls once stood. The ground upon which the stockade stood is now an undistinguishable portion of a level cultivated field; the exact outline of the walls cannot be designated save by the tenacious memory of the Giblets, who remember in their boyhood days, the earthen elevation surmounted by parapet walls made of heavy cut timber-walls once crowned with pickets. Evidences of the bastions at the corners were still to be seen a few years ago. The canal cut through the fort site. It was little less than a sacrilege to sacrifice the fading remnants of the historic ramparts to the ruthless plow. The members of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society will not be content till they have made every possible effort to secure the immediate land upon which stood the memorable little forest-made fortress that played its part in the "brave days of old," when the pioneer patriots to the verge of death withstood the onslaught of the red skinned savage and the red coated Britisher. |
|
Editorialana. 493
FORT LAURENS--ITS SITE AND SIEGE. The relation of the Ohio country and its pre-state pioneers to the events of the American Revolution has not yet been properly portrayed. Until recently leading historians have either ignored it altogether or slightingly treated it. It will ere long receive due attention. Roosevelt in "The Winning of the West," Winsor in the "Westward Movement," |
|
and Moore in "The Northwest Under Three Flags," have given it more or less consideraton. During the period of the American Revolu- tion one of the scenes of military importance and romantic interest within the present bounds of Ohio was the site of Fort Laurens, the first fort erected after the Declaration of Independence in the territory of the Buckeye state to be. It will be recalled that the Autumn, Winter and Spring of 1777-8 was the low ebb of the Colonial cause. Howe's vic- |