Iroquois County, Illinois - Chapter 21: The War for the Empire. Its Loss to the French, 1880

Chapter 21: The War for the Empire. Its Loss to the French

THE English not only disputed the right of the French to the fur trade, but denied their title to the valley of the Mississippi, which lay west of their American colonies on the Atlantic coast. The grants from the British crown conveyed to the chartered proprietors all of the country lying between certain parallels of latitude, according to the location of the several grants, and extending westward to the South Sea, as the Pacific was then called. Seeing the weakness of such a claim to vast tracts of country, upon which no Englishman had ever set his foot, they obtained deeds of cession from the Iroquois Indians, - the dominant tribe east of the Mississippi, - who claimed all of the country between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi by conquest from the several Algonquin tribes, who occupied it. On the 13th of July. 1701, the sachems of the Five Nations conveyed to William III, King of .Great Britain, "their beaverhunting grounds northwest and west from Albany," including a broad strip on the south side of Lake Erie, all of the present states of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, and Illinois as far west as the Illinois River, claiming "that their ancestors did, more than fourscore years before, totally conquer, subdue and drive the former occupants out of that country, and had peaceable and quiet possession of the same, to hunt beavers in, it being the only chief place for hunting in that part of the world," etc.* The Iroquois, for themselves and heirs, granted the English crown "the whole soil, the lakes, the

* The deed is found in London Documents, vol. 4, p. 908. The boundaries of the grant are indefinite in many respects. Its westward limit, says the deed, " abutts upon the Twichtwichs [Miamis], and is bounded on the right hand by a place called Quadoge." On Eman Bowen's map, ^which is certainly the most authentic from the British standpoint, is a " pecked line " extending from the mouth of the Illinois river, up that stream, to the Desplaines, thence across the prairies to Lake Michigan at Quadoge or Quadaghe, which is located on the map some distance southeast of Chicago, which is also shown in its correct place, and at or near the mouth of the stream that forms the harbor at Michigan City, formerly known by the French as Riviere du Chemin, or " Trail River," because the great trail from Chicago to Detroit and Ft. Wayne left the lake shore at this place. The " pecked line," - as Mr. Bowen calls the dotted line which he traces as the boundary of the Iroquois deed of cession, - extends from Michigan City northward through the entire length of Lake Michigan, the Straits of Mackinaw and between the Manitou-lin islands and the main shore in Lake Huron; thence into Canada around the riorth shore of Lake Nipissing; and thence down the Ottawa River to its confluence with the St. Lawrence.

rivers, and all things pertaining to said tract of land, with power to erect forts and castles there," only reserving to the grantors and "their descendants forever the right of hunting upon the same," in which privilege the grantee "was expected to protect them." The grant of the Iroquois was confirmed to the British crown by deeds of renewal in 1726 and 1744. The reader will have observed, from what has been said in the preceding chapters upon the Illinois and Miamis and Pottawatomies relative to the pretended conquests of the Iroquois, how little merit there was in the claim they set up to the territory in question. Their war parties only raided upon the country, - they never occupied it; their war parties, after doing as much mischief as they could, returned to their own country as rapidly as they came. Still their several deeds to the English crown were a "color of title" on which the latter laid great stress, and paraded at every treaty with other powers, where questions involving the right to this territory were a subject of discussion. *

The war for the fur trade expanded into a struggle for empire that convulsed both continents of America and Europe. The limit assigned this work forbids a notice of the principal occurrences in the progress of the French-Colonial War, as most of the military movements in that contest were outside of the territory we are considering. There were, however, two campaigns conducted by troops recruited in the northwest, and these engagements will be noticed. We believe they have not heretofore been compiled as fully as their importance would seem to demand.

In 1758 Gen. Forbes, with about six thousand troops, advanced against Fort Du Quesne.f In mid-September the British troops had only reached Loyal-hannon, ^ where they raised a fort. "Intelligence had been received that Fort Du Quesne was defended by but eight hundred men, of whom three hundred were Indians, "§ and Major Grant, commanding eight hundred Highlanders and a company of Virginians, was sent toward the French fort. On the third

* The Iroquois themselves, - as appears from an English memoir on the Indian trade, and contained among the London Documents, vol. 7, p. 18, - never supposed they had actually conveyed their right of dominion to these lands. Indeed, it appears that the Indians generally could not comprehend the purport of a deed or grant in the sense that the Europeans attach to these formidable instruments. The idea of an absolute, fee-simple right of an individual, or of a body of persons, to exclusively own real estate against the right of others even to enter upon it, to hunt or cut a shrub, was beyond the power of an Indian to comprehend. From long habit and the ownership (not only of land but many articles of domestic use) by the tribe or village of property in common, they could not understand how it could be held otherwise.

JLoyal-hannon, afterward Fort .Ligonier, was situated on the east side of Loyalhannon Creek, Westmoreland county, Pa., and was about forty-five miles from Fort Du Quesne; vide Pennsylvania Archives, XII, 389.

Defeat Of The English

day's march Grant had arrived within two miles of Fort Du Quesne. Leaving his baggage there, he took position on a hill, a quarter of a mile from the fort, and encamped.*

Grant, who was not aware that the garrison had been reinforced by the arrival of Mons. Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, with four hundred men from the Illinois country, determined on an ambuscade. At break of day Major Lewis was sent, with four hundred men, to lie in ambush a mile and a half from the main body, on the path on which they left their baggage, imagining the French would send a force to attack the baggage guard and seize it. Four hundred men were posted along the hill facing the fort to cover the retreat of MacDonald's company, which marched with drums beating toward the fort, in order to draw a party out of it, as Major Grant had reason to believe there were, including Indians, only two hundred men within it.f

M. de Ligneris, commandant at Fort Du Quesne, at once assembled seven or eight hundred men, and gave the command to M. Aubry. ^ The French sallied out of the fort, and the Indians, who had crossed the river to keep out of the way of the British, returned and made a flank movement. Aubry, by a rapid movement, attacked the different divisions of the English, and completely routed and dispersed them. The force under Major Lewis was compelled to give way. Being flanked, a number were driven into the river, most of whom were drowned. The English lost two hundred and seventy killed, forty-two wounded, and several prisoners ; among the latter was Grant.

On the 22d of September M. Aubry left Fort Du Quesne, with a force of six hundred French and Indians, intending to reconnoitre the position of the English at Loyal-hannon.

"He found a little camp in front of some intrenchments which would cover a body of two thousand men. The advance guard of the French detachment having been discovered, the English sent a captain and fifty men to reconnoitre, who fell in with the detachment and were entirely defeated. In following the fugitives the French fell upon this camp, and surprised and dispersed it.

"The fugitives scarcely gained the principal intrenchment, which M. Aubry held in blockade two days. He killed two hundred horses and cattle." The French returned to Fort Du Quesne mounted. § "The English lost in the engagement one hundred and fifty men,

The Louisiana detachment, which took the principal part in both of these battles, was recruited from the French posts in "The Illinois," and consisted of soldiers taken from the garrison in that territory, and the coureurs des bois, traders and settlers in their respective neighborhoods. It was the first battalion ever raised within the limits of the present states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. After the action of Loyal-hannon, "the Louisiana detachment, as well as those from Detroit, returned home."*

Soon after their departure, and on the 24th of November, the French abandoned Fort Du Quesne. Pouchot says: "It came to pass that by blundering at Fort Du Quesne the French were obliged to abandon it. for want of provisions." This may have been the true reason for the abandonment, but doubtless the near approach of a large English army, commanded by Gen. Forbes, had no small influence in accelerating their movements. The fort was a mere stockade, of small dimensions, and not suited to resist the attacks of artillery. "I*

Having burnt the stockade and storehouses, the garrison separated. One hundred retired to Presque Isle, by land. Two hundred, by way of the Alleghany, went to Yenango. The remaining hundred descended the Ohio. About forty miles above its confluence with the Mississippi, and on a beautiful eminence on the north bank of the river, they erected a fort and named it Fort Massac, in honor of the commander, M. Massac, who superintended its construction. This was the last fort erected by the French on the Ohio, and it was occupied by a garrison of French troops until the evacuation of the country under the stipulations of the treaty of Paris. Such was the origin of Fort Massac, divested of the romance which fable has thrown around its name.";}:

\ Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 317. Goy. Reynolds, who visited the remains of Fort Massac in 1855, thus describes its remains: " The outside walls were one hundred and thirty-6ve feet square, and at each angle strong bastions were erected. The walls were palisades, with earth between the wood. A large well was sunk in the fortress, and the whole appeared to have been strong and substantial in its day. Three or four acres of gravel walks were made on the north of the fort, on which the soldiers paraded. The walks were made in exact angles, and beautifully graveled with pebbles from the river. The site is one of the most beautiful on La Belle Rivere, and commands a view of the Ohio that is charming and lovely. French genius for the selection of sites for forts is eminently sustained in their choice of Fort Massacre." The Governor states that the fort was first established in 1711, and "was enlarged and made a respectable fortress in 1756." Vide Reynolds' Life and Times, pp. 28, 29. This is, probably, a mistake. There are no records in the French official documerts of any military post in that vicinity until the so-called French and Indian war.

Change Of War-Plan

On the day following the evacuation, the English took peaceable possession of the smoking ruins of Fort Du Quesne. They erected a temporary fortification, named it Fort Pitt, in honor of the great English statesman of that name, and leaving two hundred men as a garrison, retired over the mountains.

On the 5th of December, 1758, Thomas Pownall, governor of Massachusetts Bay Province, addressed a memorial to the British Ministry, suggesting that there should be an entire change in the method of carrying on the war. Pownall stated that the French were superior in battles fought in the wilderness ; that Canada never could be conquered by land campaigns ; that the proper way to succeed in the reduction of Canada would be to make an attack on Quebec by sea, and thus, by cutting off supplies from the home government, Canada would be starved out.*

Pitt, if he did not act on the recommendations of Gov. Pownall, at least had similar views, and the next year (1759), in accordance with this plan, Gen. Wolfe made a successful assault on Quebec, and from that time, the supplies and reinforcements from the home government being cut off, the cause of the French in Canada became almost hopeless.

During this year the French made every effort to stir up the Indians north of the Ohio to take the tomahawk and scalping-knife in hand, and make one more attempt to preserve the northwest for the joint occupancy of the Gallic and American races. Emissaries were sent to Lake Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw, Ouiatanon, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Fort Chartes, loaded with presents and ammunition, for the purpose of collecting all those stragglers who had not enterprise enough to go voluntarily to the seat of war. Canada was hard pressed for soldiers ; the English navy cut o'ff most of the rein-

* Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, Appendix, p. 57. Thomas Pownall, born in England in 1720, came to America in 1753; was governor of Massachusetts Bay, and subsequently was appointed governor of South Carolina. He was highly educated, and possessed a thorough knowledge of the geography, history and policy of both the French and English colonies in America. His work on the "Administration of the American Colonies" passed through many editions. In 1756 he addressed a memorial to His Highness the Duke of Cumberland, on the conduct of the colonial war, in which he recommended a plan for its further prosecution. The paper is a very able one. Much 'of it compiled from the official letters of Marquis Vaudreuil, Governor- General of. Canada, written between the years 1,743 and 1752, showing the policy of the French, and giving a minute description of their settlements, military establishments in the west, their manner of dealing with the Indians, and a description of the river communications of the French between their possessions in Canada and Louisiana. In 1776 he revised Evans1 celebrated map of the " Middle British Provinces in America." After his return to England he devoted himself to scientific pursuits. He was a warm friend of the American colonists in the contest with the mother country, and denounced the measures of parliament concerning the colonies as harsh and wholly unwarranted, and predicted the result that followed. He died in 1805.

Mons. de Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, persuaded four hundred men from the "Illinois country" to follow him eastward. Taking with him two hundred thousand pounds of flour, he embarked his heterogeneous force in bateaux and canoes. The route by way of the Ohio was closed ; the English were in possession of its headwaters. He went down the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash. Having ascended the latter stream to the Miami villages, near the present site of Fort Wayne, his followers made the portage, passed down the Maumee, and entered Lake Erie.

During the whole course of their journey they were being constantly reinforced by bands of different tribes of Indians, arid by Canadian militia as they passed the several posts, until the army was augmented to sixteen hundred men, of whom there were six hundred French and one thousand Indians. An eye-witness, in speaking of the appearance of the force, said : " When they passed the little rapid at the outlet of Lake Erie (at Bufialo) the flotilla appeared like a floating island, as the river was covered with their bateaux and canoes."*

Aubry was compelled to leave his flour and provisions at the Miami portage. He afterward requested M. de Port-neuf, commandant at Presque Isle, to take charge of the portage, and to send it constantly in his bateaux, f

Before Aubry reached Presque Isle he was joined by other bodies of Indians and Canadians from the region of the upper lakes. They were under the command of French traders and commandants of interior posts. At Fort Machault^; he was joined by M. de Lignery ; the latter had assembled the Ohio Indians at Presque Isle.§ It was the original intention of Aubry to recapture Fort Du Quesne from the English. On the 12th of July a grand council was held at Fort Machault, in which the commandant thanked the Indians for their attendance, threw down the war belt, and told them he would set out the next day for Fort Du Quesne. Soon after messengers arrived with a packet of letters for the officers. After reading them Aubry told the Indians: "Children, I have received bad news; the English are gone against Niagara. We must give over thoughts of going down the river to Fort Du Quesne till we have cleared that place of the enemy. If it should be taken, our road to you is stopped, and you must become poor." Orders were immediately given to proceed with the artillery, provisions, etc., up French Creek, and the Indians prepared to follow.*

These letters were from M. Pouchot, commandant at Niagara,! and stated that he was besieged by a much superior force of English and Indians, who were under the command of Gen. Predeaux and Sir William Johnson. Aubry answered these letters on the next day, and said he thought they might fight the enemy successfully, and compel them to raise the siege. The Indians who brought these messages to Pouchot informed him that they, on the part of the Indians with Aubry and Lignery, had offered the Iroquois and other Indian allies of the English five war belts if they would retire. These promised that they would not mingle in the quarrel. "We will here recall the fact that Pouchot, by his letter of the 10th, had notified Lignery and Aubry that the enemy might be four or five thousand strong without the Indians, and if they could put themselves in condition to attack so large a force, he should pass Chenondac to come to Niagara by the other side of the river, where he would be in condition to drive the English, who were only two hundred strong on that side, and could not easily be reinforced. This done, they could easily come to him, because after the defeat of this body they could send bateaux to bring them to the fort."

M. Pouchot now recalled his previous request, and informed Aubry that the enemy were in three positions, in one of which there were three thousand nine hundred Indians. He added, could Aubry succeed in driving the enemy from any of these positions, he had no doubt they would be forced to raise the siege. ^

Aubry 's route was up French Creek to its head-waters, thence making the portage to Presque Isle and sailing along the shores of Lake Erie until he reached Niagara. Arriving at the foot of Lake Erie he left one hundred and fifty men in charge of his canoes, and with the remainder advanced toward Niagara. Sir William Johnson was informed, on the evening of the 23d, of this advance of the French, and ordered his light infantry and pickets to take post on the left, on the road between Niagara Falls and the fort; and these, after reinforcing them with grenadiers and parts of the 46th and 44th regiments, were so arranged as to effectually support the guard left t Fort Niagara was one of the earliest French military posts, and situated on the right, or American shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of Niagara River. It has iigured conspicuously in all of the wars on the lake frontier.

On the morning of the 24th the French made their appearance. They were inarching along a path about eight feet wide, and "were in readiness to fight in close order and without ranks or files." On their right were thirty Indians, who formed a front on the enemy's left. The Indians of the English army advanced to speak to those of the French. Seeing the Iroquois in the latter' s company, the French Indians refused to advance, under pretext that they were at peace with the first named. Though thus abandoned by their chief force, Aubry and Lignery still proceeded on their way, thinking that the few savages they saw were isolated men, till they reached a narrow pathway, when they discovered great numbers beyond. The English Indians then gave the war-whoop and the action commenced. The English regulars attacked the French in front, while the Indians poured in on their flank. Thus surprised by an ambuscade, and deserted by their savage allies, the French proved easy victims to the prowess of far superior numbers. They were assailed in front and rear by two thousand men. The rear of the column, unable to resist, gave way, and left the head exposed to the enemy's fire, which crushed it entirely. An Indian massacre followed, and the pursuit of the victors continued until they were compelled to desist by sheer fatigue. Almost all the French officers were killed, wounded or taken prisoners. Among the latter was Aubry. Those who escaped joined M. Rocheblave, and with his detachment retreated to Detroit and other western lake posts.""

This defeat on the shores of Lake Erie was very severe on the struggling western settlements. Most all of the able-bodied men had gone with Aubry, many never to return. In 1760 M. de Mac- Carty, commandant at Fort Chartes, in a letter to Marquis Vaudreuil, stated that "the garrison was weaker than ever before, the check at Niagara having cost him the elite of his men."f

It is apparent, from the desertion of Aubry by his savage allies, that they perceived that the English were certain to conquer in the end. They felt no particular desire to prop a falling cause, and thus deserted Mons. Aubry at the crisis when their assistance was most needed. Thus was defeated the greatest French-Indian force ever collected in the northwest. %

* The account of this action has been compiled from Mante, p. 226; Pouchot, vol. 1, p. 192; and Garneau's History of Canada, vol. 2, pp. 250, 251, Bell's translation.

\ Aubry returned to Louisiana and remained there until after the peace of 1763. In 1765 he was appointed governor of Louisiana, and surrendered the colony, in March,.

The Downfall Of Fkench Rule

After the surrender of Niagara and Fort Du Quesne, the Indian allies of France retired to the deep recesses of the western forests, and the English frontiers suffered no more from their depredations. Settlements were gradually formed on the western side of the Alleghanies, and they remained secure from Indian invasions.

In the meantime many Canadians, becoming satisfied that the conquest of Canada was only a mere question of time, determined, before that event took place, to remove to the French settlements on the lower Mississippi. "Many of them accordingly departed from Canada by way of the lakes, and thence through the Illinois and Wabash Rivers to the Mississippi."*

After the surrender of Quebec, in 1759, Montreal became the headquarters of the French in Canada, and in the spring of 1760 Mons. Levi, the French cornmander-in-chief, besieged Quebec. The arrival of an English fleet compelled him to relinquish his designs. Amherst and Johnson formed a junction, and advanced against Montreal. The French governor of Canada, Marquis Vaudreil, believing that further resistance was impossible, surrendered all Canada to the English. This included the western posts of Detroit, Mackinaw, Fort Miami, Ouiatanon, Yiiicennes, Fort St. Joseph, etc.

After this war ceased to be waged in America, though the treaty of Paris was not concluded until February, 1763, the most essential parts of which are contained in the following extracts :

"In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America, it is agreed that for the future the confines between the dominions of his Britannic Majesty and those of His Most Christian Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi from its source to the River Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea ; and for this purpose the most Christian King cedes, in full right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of Mobile, and everything which he possesses, or ought to possess, on the left side of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of

1766, to the Spanish governor, Ulloa. _ After the expulsion of Ulloa, he held the government until relieved by O'Reilly, in July, 1769. He soon afterward sailed for France. The vessel was lost, and Aubry perished in the depths of the sea. * Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 305.

New Orleans and of the island on which it is situated ; it being well understood that the navigation of the Mississippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole length and breadth, from its source to the sea."*

Thus Gallic rule came to an end in North America. Its downfall was the result of natural causes, and was owing largely to the difference between the Frenchmen and the Englishmen. The former, as a rule, gave no attention to agriculture, but found occupation in hunting and trading with the Indians, acquiring nomadic habits that unfitted them for the cultivation of the soil ; their families dwelt in villages separated by wide stretches of wilderness. While the able men were hunting and trading, the old men, women and children produced scanty crops sown in " common fields," or inclosures of a piece of ground which were portioned off" among the families of the village. The Englishman, on the other hand, loved to own land, and pushed his improvements from the coast line up through all the valleys extending westward. Reaching the summit of the Alleghanies, the tide of emigration flowed into the valleys beyond. Every cabin was a fort, every advancing farm a new line of intrenchment. The distinguishing characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon is consistency and firmness in his designs, arid, more than all, his love for a home. In the trials and hardships necessarily connected with the opening up of the wilderness these traits come prominently into play. The result was, that the English colonies prospered in a degree hitherto unknown in the annals of the world's progress. And by way of contrast, how little did the French have to show in the way of lasting improvements in the northwest after it had been in their possession for nearly a century !

However, the very traits that disqualified the Gaul as a successful colonist gave him a preeminent advantage over the Anglo-Saxon in the influence he exerted upon the Indian. He did not want their

* "On the 3d day of the previous November, France, by a secret treaty ceded to Spain all her possessions west of the Mississippi. His Most Christian Majesty made known to the inhabitants of Louisiana the fact of the cession by a letter, dated April 21, 1764. Don Ulloa, the New Spanish governor, arrived at New Orleans in 1766. The French inhabitants objected to the transfer of Louisiana to Spain, and, resorting to arms, compelled Ulloa to return to Havana. In 1769, O'Reilly, with a Spanish force, arrived and took possession. He killed six of the ringleaders and sent others to Cuba. Spain remained in possession of Louisiana until March, 1801, when Louisiana was retroceded to the French republic. The French made preparations to occupy Lousiana, and an army of twenty-five thousand men was designed for that territory, but the fleet and army were suddenly blockaded in one of the ports of Holland by an English squadron. This occurrence, together with the gloomy aspect of affairs in Europe, induced Napoleon, who was then at the head of the French republic, to cede Louisiana to the United States. The tneaty was dated April 30, 1803. The actual transfer occurred in December of the same year." Vide Stoddard's Sketches of Louisiana, pp. 71, 102.

French Ways With The Indians

lands ; he fraternized with them, adopted their ways, and flattered and pleased them. The Anglo-Saxon wanted their lands. From the start he was clamorous for deeds and cessions of territory, and at once began crowding the Indian out of the country. "The Iroquois told Sir Wm. Johnson that they believed soon they should not be able to hunt a bear into a hole in a tree but some Englishman would claim a right to the property of it, as being found in his tree."*

The happiness which the Indians enjoyed from their intercourse with the French was their perpetual theme ; it was their golden age. "Those who are old enough to remember it speak of it with rapture, and teach their children to venerate it, as the ancients did the reign of Saturn. ' You call us your children, ' said an aged chief to Gen. Harrison, ' why do you not make us happy, as our fathers the French did? They never took from us our lands, which, indeed, were in common between us. They planted where they pleased, and cut wood where they pleased, and so did we ; but now, if a poor Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own.' "+