Preble County, Ohio - Chapter 4: Pontiac's Conspiracy---Bouquet's Expedition, 1881

Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawas, was now about fifty years old. He had watched the' conflict between the nations with a jealous eye, and as he saw the gradual growth of the English people, their encroachment on the lands of the Indians, their greed, and their assumption of the soil, his soul was stirred within him to do something for his people. He had been a true friend of the French, and had led the Indians at the defeat of Braddock. Amid all the tumult, he alone saw the true state of affairs. The English would inevitably crush out the Indians. To save his race he saw another alliance with the French was necessary, and a restoration of their power and habits needed. It was the plan of a statesman. It only. failed because of the perfidy of the French. Maturing his plans late in the autumn of 1762, he sent messengers to all the western and southern tribes, with the black wampum and red tomahawk, emblems of war from the great Pontiac. 'On a certain day in the next year," said the messenger, ''all the tribes are to rise, seize the English posts, and then attack the whole frontier."

The great council of all the tribes was held at ihe river Ecorces, on the twenty-seventh of April, 1763. There, before the assembled chiefs, Pontiac delivered a speech full of eloquence and art. He recounted the injuries and encroachments of the English, and disclosed their designs. The French king was now awake and would aid them. Should they resign their homes and the graves of their fathers without an effort? Were their young men no longer brave? Were they squaws? The Great Master of Life had chided them for their inactivity, and had sent his commands to drive the "Red Dogs" from the earth. The chiefs eagerly accepted the wampum and tomahawk, and separated to prepare for the coming strife.

The post at Detroit was informed of the plot the evening before it was to occur, by an Ojibway girl of great beauty, the mistress of the commander, Major Gladwin. Pontiac was foiled here, his treachery dis- covered, and he was sternly ordered from the conference. A regular siege followed, but he could not prevail. He exhibited a degree of sagacity unknown in the annals of 'savage warfare, but all to no purpose; the English were too strong for him.

At all the other posts, save one, however, the plans of Pontiac were carried out, and atrocities, unheard of before in American history, resulted. The Indians at- 'tacked Detroit on the first of May, and, foiled in their plans, a siege immediately followed. On the sixteenth, a party of Indians appeared before the fort at Sandusky. Seven of them were admitted. Suddenly, while smoking, the massacre begins. All but Ensign Paulli, the commander, fall. He is carried as a trophy to Pontiac.

At the mouth of the St. Joseph, the missionaries had maintained a mission station over sixty years. They gave way to an English garrison of fourteen soldiers and a few traders. On the morning of May 25th, a deputation Pottawatomies are allowed to enter. In less than two minutes, all the garrison but the commander are slain. He is sent to Pontiac.

Near the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the junction of the waters, stood Fort Miami, garrisoned by afew men. Holmes, the commander, is asked to visit a sick woman. He is slain on the way, the sergeant fol- -lowing is made prisoner, and the nine soldiers surrender.

On the night of the last day of May, the wampum reaches the Indian village below La Fayette, Indiana, and near Fort Ouitenon. The commander of the fort is lured into a cabin, bound, and his garrison surrender. Through the clemency of French settlers, they are received into their houses and protected.

At Michilimackinac a game of ball is projected. Suddenly the ball is thrown through the gate of the stockade. The Indians press in, and, at a signal, almost all are slain or made prisoners.

The fort at Presque Isle, now Erie, was the point of communication between Pittsburgh and Niagara and Detroit. It was one of the most tenable, and had a garrison of four and twenty men. On the twenty-second of June, the commander, to save his forces from total annihilation, surrenders, and all are carried prisoners to Detroit.

The capitulation at Erie left Le Boeuf without hope. He was attacked on the eighteenth, but kept off the Indians till midnight, when he made a successful retreat. As they passed Venango, on their way to Fort Pitt, they saw only the ruins of that garrison. Not one of its inmates had been spared.

Fort Pitt was the most important station west of the Alleghanies. "Escape!" said Turtle's Heart, a Delaware watrior; you will all be slain. A great army is coming." 'There are three large English armies coming to my aid," said Ecuyer, the commander. "I have enough provisions and ammunition to stand a siege of three years' time." A second and third attempt was made by the savages to capture the post, but all to no avail Baffled on all sides here, they destroy Ligonier, a few miles below, and massacre men, women and children. Fort Pitt was besieged till the last day of July, but withstood all attacks. Of all the outposts, only it and Detroit were left. All had been.captured, and the majority of the garrison slain. Along the frontier, the war was waged with fury.. The Indians were fighting for their homes and their hunting-grounds ; and for these they fought with the fury and zeal of fanatics. Detachments sent to aid Detroit were cut off. The demoniacal spirit into all his savage. allies, pressed the siege with vigor. The French remained neutral, yet Pontiac made requisitions on them and their neighbors in Illinois, issuing bills of credit on birch-bark, all of which were faithfully redeemed. "Though these two posts could not. be captured, the frontier could be annihilated, and vigorously the Indians pursued their policy. Along the borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia a relentless warfare was waged, sparing no one in its way. Old age, feeble infancy, strong man and gentle woman, fair girl and hopeful boy - all fell before the scalping-knife of the merciless savage. The frontiers were devastated. Thousands were obliged to flee, leaving their possessions to the torch of the Indian.

The colonial government, under British direction, was inimical to the borders, and the colonists saw they must depend only upon their own arms for protection. Already the struggle for freedom was upon them. They could defend only themselves. They must do it, too; for that defence is now needed in a different cause than settling disputes between rival powers. "We have millions fur defence, but not a cent for tribute," said they and time verified the remark.

General Amherst bestirred himself to aid the frontiers. He sent Colonel Henry Bouquet, a native of Switzerland, and then an officer in the English army, to relieve the garrison at Fort Pitt. They followed the route made by General Forbes, and on the way relieved Forts Bedford and Ligonier, both beleagured by the Indians. About a day's journey beyond Ligonier, he was attacked by a body of Indians at a place called Bushy Run. For a while, it seemed that he and all his army would be destroyed; but Bouquet was bold and brave and, under a feint of retreat, routed the savages. He passed on, and relieved the garrison at Fort Pitt, and thus secured it against the assaults of the Indians.

The campaign had been disastrous to the English, but fatal to the plans of Pontiac. He could not capture Detroit, and he knew the great scheme must fail. The battle of Bushy Run and the relief of Fort Pitt closed the campaign, and all hope of co-operation was at an. end. Circumstances were combined against the confederacy, and it was fast falling to pieces. A proclamation was is sued to the Indians, explaining to them the existing state of affairs, and showing to them the futility of their plans. Pontiac, however, would not give up. Again he renewed the siege of Detroit, and General Gage, now in command of the army in the colonies, resolved to carry the war into their own country. Colonel Bradstreet was or dered to lead one army by way of the lakes, against the northern Indians, while Colonel Bouquet was sent against the Indians of the Ohio. Colonel Bradstreet went on his way at the head of twelve hundred men, but trusting too much to the natives and their promises, his expedition proved largely a failure. He relieved Detroit in August, 1764, which had been confined in the garrison over fifteen months, and dispersed the Indians that yet lay around the fort. But on his way back, he saw how the Indians had duped him, and that they were still plundering the settlements. His treaties were annulled by Gage, who ordered him to destroy their towns. The season was far advanced, his provisions were getting low, and he was obliged to return to Niagara chagrined and disappointed.

Colonel Bouquet knew well the character of the Indians, and shaped his plans accordingly. He had an army of fifteen hundred men - five hundred regulars and one thousand volunteers. They had had experience in fighting the savages and could be depended on. At Fort Louden he heard of Bradstreet's ill luck, and saw through the deception practiced by the Indians. He arrived at Fort Pitt the seventeenth of September, where he arrested a deputation of chiefs, who met him with the same promises that had deceived Bradstreet. He sent one of their number back, threatening to put to death the chiefs unless they allowed his messengers to safely pass through their country to Detroit. The decisive tone of his words convinced them of the fate that awaited them unless they complied. On the third of October the army left Fort Pitt, marched down the river to and across the Tuscarawas, arriving in the vicinity of Fredrick Post's late mission on the seventeenth. 'There a conference was held with the assembled tribes. Bouquet sternly rebuked them for their faithlessness, and when told by the chiefs they could not restrain their young men, he as sternly told them they were responsible for their acts. He told them he wouid trust them no longer. If they delivered up all their prisoners within twelve days they might hope for peace, otherwise there would be no mercy shown them. They were completely humbled, and, separating hastily, gathered their captives. On the twenty-fifth the army pro- .ceeded down to the Tuscarawas, to the junction with White Woman river, near the town of Coshocton, in Coshocton county, Ohio, and there made preparations for the reception of the captives. "There they remained until the eighteenth of November; from day to day prisoners were brought in - men women and children - and delivered to their friends. Many were the touching scenes enacted during this time. The separated husband and wife met, the latter often carrying a child born in captivity. Brothers and sisters, separated in youth, met; lovers rushed into each other's arms; children found their parents, mothers their sons, fathers their daughters, and neighbors those from whom they had been separated many years. Yet, there were many distressing scenes. Some looked in vain for long-lost relatives and friends, that never would return. Others, that had been captured in their infancy, would not leave their savage friends, and when force was used some fled away. One mother looked in vain for a child she had lost years before. Day by day, she anxiously watched, but no daughter's voice reached her ears. One, clad in savage attire, was brought before her. It could not be her daughter, she was grown. So was the maiden before her. * Can not you remember some mark?" asked Bouquet, whose sympathies were aroused in this case. "There is none," said the anxious and sorrowful mother. "Singa song you sang over her cradle, she may remember," suggested the commander. One is sung by her mother. As the song of childhood floats out among the trees the maiden stops and listens, then approaches. Yes, she remembers. Mother and daughter are held in a close embrace, and the stern Bouquet wipes away a tear at the scene. i E

On the eighteenth the army broke up its encampment and started on its homeward march. Bouquet kept six principal Indians as hostages, and returned to their homes the captives. The Indians kept their promises faithfully, and the next year representatives of all the western tribes met Sir William Johnson, at the German Flats, and made a treaty of peace. A tract of land in the Indian country was ceded to the whites for the benefit of those who suffered in the late war. The Indians desired to make a treaty with Johnson, whereby the Allegheny river should be the western boundary of the English, but he excused himself on the ground of proper power.

Not long after this the Illinois settlements, too remote. to know much of the struggle, or of any of the great events that had convulsed an empire, and changed the destiny of a nation, were brought under the English rule. There were five villages at this date: Kaskaskia, Cahokia, St. Philip, Vincennes, and Prairie du Rocher, near Fort Chartres, the military headquarters of these French possessions. 'They were under the control or command of M. de Abadie, at New Orleans. They bad also extended explorations west of the Mississippi, and made a few settlements in what was Spanish territory. The country had been, however, ceded to France, and in February, 1764, the country was formally taken possession of and the present city of St. Louis laid out.

As soon as the French knew of the change of government, many of them went to the west side of the river, and took up their residence there. They were protected in their religion and civil rights by the terms of the treaty, but preferred the rule of their own king.

The British took possession of this country early in 1765. General Gage sent Captain Stirling, of the English army, who arrived before summer, and to whom St. Ange, the nominal commandant, surrendered the authority. The British, through a succession of commanders, retained control of the country until defeated by George Rogers Clarke, and his *ragged Virginia militia."

After a short time, the French again ceded the country west of the Mississippi to Spain, and relinquished forever their control of all,the west in the New World.

The population of Western Louisiana, when the exchange of governments occurred, was estimated to be thirteen thousand five hundred and thirty-eight, of which eight hundred and ninety-one were in the Illinois country - as it was called - west of the Mississippi. East of the river, and before the French crossed into Spanish thousand. All these had grown into communities of a peculiar character. Indeed that peculiarity, as has been observed, never changed until a gradual amalgamation with the American people effected it, and that took more than a century of time to accomplish.

The English now owned the northwest. True, they did not yet occupy but a small part of it, but traders were again crossing the mountains, explorers for lands were on the Ohio, and families for settlement were beginning to look upon the west as their future home. Companies were again forming to purchase large tracts in the Ohio country, and open them for immigration. One thing yet stood in the way - a definite boundary line. That line, however, was between the English and the Indians, and not, as had heretofore been the case, between rival European. powers. It was necessary to arrange some definite boundary before land companies, who were now actively pushing their claims, could safely survey and locate their lands.

Sir William Johnson, who had at previous times been instrumental in securing treaties, wrote repeatedly to the board of trade, who controlled the greater part of the commercial transactions in the colonies - and who were the first to exclaim against extending English settlements beyond a limit whereby they would need manufactures, and thereby become independent of the mother country necessity of a fixed boundary, else another Indian war was probable. The Indians found themselves gradually hemmed in by the growing power of the whites, and began to exhibit hostile feelings. The irritation became so great that in the summer of 1767, Gage wrote to the governor of Pennsylvania concerning it. The governor communicated his letter to the general assembly, who sent representatives to England, to urge the immediate settlement of the question. In compliance with these requests, and the letters of prominent citizens, Franklin among the number, instructions were sent to Johnson, ordering him to complete the purchase from the Six Nations, and settle all differences. He sent word to all the western tribes to meet him at Fort Stanwix, in October, 1768. The conference was held on the twenty-fourth of that month, and was attended. by colo- ` nial representatives, and by Indians from all parts of the northwest. It was determined that the line should begin on the Ohio, at the mouth of the Cherokee (Tennessee), thence up the river to the Allegheny and on to Kittanning, and thence across to the Susquehanna. By this line, the whole country south of the Ohio and Allegheny, to which the Six ations had any claim, was transferred. Part of this land was made to compensate twenty-two traders, whose goods had been stolen in 1763. The deeds made, were upon the express agreement that no claims should ever be based on the treaties of Lancaster, Logstown, etc., and were signed by the chiefs of the Six /Vations for themselves, their allies and dependents, and the Shawnees, Delawares, Mingoes of Ohio, and others; though the Shawnees and Delaware deputies did not sign them. On this treaty, in a great measure, rests the title by purchase to Kentucky, western Virginia and western Pennsylvania. The rights of the Cherokees were purchased by Colonel Donaldson, either for the king, Virginia, or for himself - it is impossible to say which.

The grant of the-northern confederacy was now made. The white man could go in and possess these lands, and know that an army would protect him if necessary. Under such a guarantee, western lands came rapidly into market. In addition to companies already in existence for the purchase of land, others, the most notable of these being the "Walpole" and the "Mississippi" land companies, were formed. This latter had among its organizers such men as Francis Lightfoot Lee, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, and Arthur Lee. Before any of these companies, some of whom absorbed the Ohio company, could do anything, the Revolution came on, and all land transactions were atan end. After its close, Congress would not sanction their claims, and they fell through. This did not deter settlers, however, from crossing the mountains and settling in the Ohio country. In spite of troubles with the Indians - some of whom regarded the treaties with the Six Wations as unlawful, and were disposed to complain at the rapid influx of whites - and the failure of the land companies, settlers came steadily during the decade from 1768 to 1778, so that by the close of that time, there was a large population south of the Ohio river; while scattered along the northern banks, extending many miles into the wilderness, were hardy adventurers, who were carving out homes in the magnificent forests everywhere covering the country.

Among the foremost speculators in western lands, was George Washington. As early as 1763, he employed Colonel Crawford, afterwards the leader in ** Crawford's campaign," to purchase lands for him. In 1770, he crossed the mountains in company with several gentlemen, and examined the country along the Ohio, down which stream he passed to the mouth of the Great Kanawha, where he shot some buffalo, then plenty, camped out a few nights, and returned, fully corivinced, it seems, that one day the west would be the best part of the New World. He owned, altogether, nearly fifty thousand acres in the west, which he valued at three dollars and thirty-three cents per acre. Had not the war of the Revolution just then broken out, he might have been a resident of the west, and would have been, of course, one of its most prominent citizens.