Crawford expedition
Encyclopedia
The Crawford expedition, also known as the Sandusky expedition and Crawford's Defeat, was a 1782 campaign on the western front
Western theater of the American Revolutionary War
The Western theater of the American Revolutionary War was the area of conflict west of the Appalachian Mountains, the region which became the Northwest Territory of the United States as well as the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri...
of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, and one of the final operations of the conflict. Led by Colonel
Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...
William Crawford
William Crawford (soldier)
William Crawford was an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War...
, the campaign's goal was to destroy enemy American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
towns along the Sandusky River
Sandusky River
The Sandusky River is a tributary to Lake Erie in north-central Ohio in the United States. It is about long and flows into Lake Erie at Sandusky Bay.-Course:...
in the Ohio Country
Ohio Country
The Ohio Country was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie...
, with the hope of ending Indian attacks on American settlers. The expedition was one in a long series of raids against enemy settlements which both sides had conducted throughout the war.
Crawford led about 500 volunteer militiamen
Militia (United States)
The role of militia, also known as military service and duty, in the United States is complex and has transformed over time.Spitzer, Robert J.: The Politics of Gun Control, Page 36. Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1995. " The term militia can be used to describe any number of groups within the...
, mostly from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, deep into American Indian territory, with the intention of surprising the Indians. The Indians and their British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
allies from Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
had already learned of the expedition, however, and gathered a force to oppose the Americans. After a day of indecisive fighting near the Sandusky towns, the Americans found themselves surrounded and attempted to retreat. The retreat turned into a rout, but most of the Americans managed to find their way back to Pennsylvania. About 70 Americans were killed; Indian and British losses were minimal.
During the retreat, Colonel Crawford and an unknown number of his men were captured. The Indians executed many of these captives in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten massacre
Gnadenhütten massacre
The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing on March 8, 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, of 96 Christian Lenape by colonial American militia from Pennsylvania. The militia attacked Lenape at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhütten, Ohio.The...
that occurred earlier in the year, in which about 100 peaceful Indians were murdered by Pennsylvanian militiamen. Crawford's execution was particularly brutal: he was torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d for at least two hours before being burned at the stake
Execution by burning
Death by burning is death brought about by combustion. As a form of capital punishment, burning has a long history as a method in crimes such as treason, heresy, and witchcraft....
. His execution was widely publicized in the United States, worsening the already-strained relationship between Native Americans and European Americans.
Background
When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Ohio RiverOhio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
marked a tenuous border between the American colonies and the American Indians of the Ohio Country. Ohio Indians—Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
s, Mingo
Mingo
The Mingo are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans made up of peoples who migrated west to the Ohio Country in the mid-eighteenth century. Anglo-Americans called these migrants mingos, a corruption of mingwe, an Eastern Algonquian name for Iroquoian-language groups in general. Mingos have also...
s, Delawares
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
, and Wyandots—were divided over how to respond to the war. Some Indian leaders urged neutrality, while others entered the war because they saw it as an opportunity to halt the expansion of the American colonies and to regain lands previously lost to the colonists.
The border war escalated in 1777 after British officials in Detroit began recruiting and arming Indian war parties to raid the frontier American settlements. An unknown number of American settlers in present Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
were killed during these raids. The intensity of the conflict increased in November 1777, after enraged American militiamen murdered Cornstalk
Cornstalk
Cornstalk was a prominent leader of the Shawnee nation just prior to the American Revolution. His name, Hokoleskwa, translates loosely into "stalk of corn" in English, and is spelled Colesqua in some accounts...
, the leading advocate of Shawnee neutrality. Despite the violence, many Ohio Indians still hoped to stay out of the war, which proved difficult because they were located directly between the British in Detroit and the Americans along the Ohio River.
In February 1778, the Americans launched their first expedition into the Ohio Country in an attempt to neutralize British activity in the region. General Edward Hand
Edward Hand
-Early life and career:Hand was born in Clyduff, King's County, Ireland January 10, 1742, and was baptised in Shinrone. His father was John Hand. Among his immediate neighbours were the Kearney family, ancestors of U.S. President Barack Obamba [1]...
led 500 Pennsylvania militiamen on a surprise winter march from Fort Pitt
Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)
Fort Pitt was a fort built at the location of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.-French and Indian War:The fort was built from 1759 to 1761 during the French and Indian War , next to the site of former Fort Duquesne, at the confluence the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River...
towards the Cuyahoga River
Cuyahoga River
The Cuyahoga River is located in Northeast Ohio in the United States. Outside of Ohio, the river is most famous for being "the river that caught fire", helping to spur the environmental movement in the late 1960s...
, where the British stored military supplies which were distributed to Indian raiding parties. However, adverse weather conditions prevented the expedition from reaching its objective. On the return march, some of Hand's men attacked peaceful Delaware Indians, killing one man and a few women and children, including relatives of the Delaware chief Captain Pipe
Captain Pipe
Captain Pipe , called Konieschquanoheel and also known as Hopocan, was an 18th-century chief of the Algonquian-speaking Lenape and a member of the Wolf Clan...
. Because only non-combatants had been killed, the expedition became derisively known as the "squaw campaign".
Despite the attack on his family, Captain Pipe said that he would not seek vengeance. Instead, in September 1778, he was one of the signers of the Treaty of Fort Pitt
Treaty of Fort Pitt (1778)
The Treaty of Fort Pitt — also known as the Treaty With the Delawares, the Delaware Treaty, or the Fourth Treaty of Pittsburgh, — was signed on September 17, 1778 and was the first written treaty between the new United States of America and any American Indians—the Lenape in this case...
between the Delawares and the United States. Americans hoped this agreement with the Delawares would enable American soldiers to pass through Delaware territory and attack Detroit, but the alliance deteriorated after the death of White Eyes
White Eyes
White Eyes, named Koquethagechton , was a leader of the Lenape people in the Ohio Country during the era of the American Revolution. Sometimes known as George White Eyes, his given name in Lenape was rendered in many spelling variations in colonial records...
, the Delaware chief who had negotiated the treaty. Eventually, Captain Pipe turned against the Americans and moved his followers west to the Sandusky River, where he received support from the British in Detroit.
Over the next several years, Americans and Indians launched raids against each other, usually targeting settlements. In 1780, hundreds of Kentucky settlers were killed or captured in a British-Indian expedition into Kentucky
Bird's invasion of Kentucky
Bird's invasion of Kentucky during the American Revolutionary War was one phase of an extensive planned series of operations planned by the British in 1780, whereby the entire West, from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, was to be swept clear of both Spanish and colonial resistance.While Bird's...
. George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark was a soldier from Virginia and the highest ranking American military officer on the northwestern frontier during the American Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the Kentucky militia throughout much of the war...
of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
responded in August 1780 by leading an expedition that destroyed two Shawnee towns along the Mad River
Mad River (Ohio)
The Mad River is a stream located in the west central part of the U.S. state of Ohio. It flows from Logan County to downtown Dayton, where it meets the Great Miami River. The stream flows southwest from its source near Campbell Hill through West Liberty, along U.S...
, but did little damage to the Indian war effort. Clark then recruited men for an expedition against Detroit, but Indians decisively defeated
Lochry's Defeat
Lochry's Defeat, also known as the Lochry massacre, was a battle fought on August 24, 1781, near present-day Aurora, Indiana, in the United States...
one hundred of his volunteers along the Ohio River, effectively ending his campaign. As most of the Delawares had by then become pro-British, American Colonel Daniel Brodhead
Daniel Brodhead IV
Daniel Brodhead IV was an American military and political leader during the American Revolutionary War and early days of the United States.-Early life:...
led an expedition into the Ohio Country in April 1781, and destroyed the Delaware town of Coshocton. Survivors fled to the militant towns on the Sandusky River.
Several villages of Christian Delawares lay between the combatants on the Sandusky River and the Americans at Fort Pitt. The villages were administered by the Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger
David Zeisberger
David Zeisberger was a Moravian clergyman and missionary among the Native Americans in the Thirteen Colonies...
and John Heckewelder
John Heckewelder
right|thumb|350px|sketch by [[Henry Howe]]John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder was an American missionary.He was born in Bedford, England. He came to Pennsylvania in 1754, and, after finishing his education, was apprenticed to a cooper. After a visit to Ohio with Christian F...
. Although pacifists, the missionaries favored the American cause and kept American officials at Fort Pitt informed about hostile British and Indian activity. In September 1781, to prevent further communication between the missionaries and the American military, hostile Wyandots and Delawares from Sandusky forcibly removed the missionaries and their converts to a new village (Captive Town) on the Sandusky River.
In March 1782, 160 Pennsylvania militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson
David Williamson (Pennsylvania)
David Williamson was a Colonel in the Pennsylvania militia during the American Revolutionary War. He was born near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He led the expedition that murdered 100 Moravian Delaware Indians at the town of Gnadenhutten, Ohio. It became known as the Gnadenhutten massacre...
rode into the Ohio Country, hoping to find the warriors who were responsible for raids against Pennsylvania settlers. Enraged by the gruesome murder by Indians of a white woman and her baby, Williamson's men detained about 100 Christian Delawares at the village of Gnadenhütten. The Christian Delawares (mostly women and children) had returned to Gnadenhütten from Captive Town in order to harvest the crops they had been forced to leave behind. Accusing the Christian Indians of having aided hostile raiding parties, the Pennsylvanians murdered them all by hammer blows to the head. The Gnadenhutten massacre
Gnadenhütten massacre
The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing on March 8, 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, of 96 Christian Lenape by colonial American militia from Pennsylvania. The militia attacked Lenape at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhütten, Ohio.The...
, as it came to be called, would have serious repercussions for the next American expedition into the Ohio Country.
Planning the expedition
William Irvine (physician)
William Irvine was an Irish-American physician, soldier, and statesman from Carlisle, Pennsylvania.Irvine was born near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh in Ireland...
was appointed commander of the Western Department of the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
, which was headquartered at Fort Pitt. Although a major British army under Lord Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis KG , styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as The Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator...
had surrendered at Yorktown
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis...
in October 1781, virtually ending the war in the east, the conflict on the western frontier continued. Irvine quickly learned that the Americans living on the frontier wanted the army to launch an expedition against Detroit to end ongoing British support for the American Indian war parties. Irvine investigated, then wrote to George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, the American commander-in-chief, on December 2, 1781:
It is, I believe, universally agreed that the only way to keep Indians from harassing the country is to visit them. But we find, by experience, that burning their empty towns has not the desired effect. They can soon build others. They must be followed up and beaten, or the British, whom they draw their support from, totally driven out of their country. I believe if Detroit was demolished, it would be a good step toward giving some, at least, temporary ease to this country.
Washington agreed with Irvine's assessment that Detroit had to be captured or destroyed in order to end the war in the west. In February 1782, Irvine sent Washington a detailed plan for an offensive. Irvine estimated that with 2,000 men, five cannons, and a supply caravan, he could to capture Detroit. Washington replied that the bankrupt U.S. Congress
Congress of the Confederation
The Congress of the Confederation or the United States in Congress Assembled was the governing body of the United States of America that existed from March 1, 1781, to March 4, 1789. It comprised delegates appointed by the legislatures of the states. It was the immediate successor to the Second...
would be unable to finance the campaign, writing that "offensive operations, except upon a small scale, can not just now be brought into contemplation."
With no resources available from either Congress or the Continental Army, Irvine gave permission for volunteers to organize their own offensive. Detroit was too far and too strong for a small-scale operation, but militiamen such as David Williamson believed that an expedition against the American Indian towns on the Sandusky River was feasible. It was to be a low-budget campaign. Each volunteer had to provide at his expense a horse, rifle, ammunition, rations, and other equipment. Their only payment would be an exemption from two months of militia duty, plus whatever plunder might be taken from the Indians. Because of ongoing Indian raids—the wife and children of a Baptist minister were killed and scalped
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
in western Pennsylvania on May 12, 1782—there was no shortage of men willing to volunteer.
Because of Washington's reservations, Irvine believed he was not authorized to lead the expedition himself. However, he did what he could to influence the planning of the campaign. Irvine wrote detailed instructions for the yet to be chosen commander of the volunteers:
The object of your command is, to destroy with fire and sword (if practicable) the Indian town and settlement at Sandusky, by which we hope to give ease and safety to the inhabitants of this country; but, if impracticable, then you will doubtless perform such other services in your power as will, in their consequences, have a tendency to answer this great end.
Organizing the expedition
Mingo Junction, Ohio
Mingo Junction is a village in Jefferson County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 3,631 at the 2000 census. In 1900, its only manufacturing plant was a steel mill owned by Carnegie Steel Company...
), on the Indian side of the Ohio River. They were mostly young men of Irish and Scots-Irish ancestry, and came primarily from Washington
Washington County, Pennsylvania
-Government and politics:As of November 2008, there are 152,534 registered voters in Washington County .* Democratic: 89,027 * Republican: 49,025 * Other Parties: 14,482...
and Westmoreland
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 369,993 people, 149,813 households, and 104,569 families residing in the county. The population density was 361 people per square mile . There were 161,058 housing units at an average density of 157 per square mile...
counties in Pennsylvania. Many were Continental Army veterans. The exact number of men who took part in the expedition is unknown. An officer wrote to General Irvine on May 24 that there were 480 volunteers, although additional men may have subsequently joined the group, bringing the total to more than 500. Given the daunting nature of the task ahead of them, many of the volunteers made out their "last wills and testaments" before leaving.
Because this was a volunteer expedition and not a regular army operation, the men elected their officers. The candidates for the top position were David Williamson
David Williamson (Pennsylvania)
David Williamson was a Colonel in the Pennsylvania militia during the American Revolutionary War. He was born near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He led the expedition that murdered 100 Moravian Delaware Indians at the town of Gnadenhutten, Ohio. It became known as the Gnadenhutten massacre...
, the militia colonel who had commanded the Gnadenhütten expedition, and William Crawford
William Crawford (soldier)
William Crawford was an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War...
, a retired Continental Army colonel. Crawford, a friend and land agent of George Washington, was an experienced soldier and frontiersman. He was a veteran of these kinds of operations, having destroyed two Mingo
Mingo
The Mingo are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans made up of peoples who migrated west to the Ohio Country in the mid-eighteenth century. Anglo-Americans called these migrants mingos, a corruption of mingwe, an Eastern Algonquian name for Iroquoian-language groups in general. Mingos have also...
villages during Dunmore's War
Dunmore's War
Dunmore's War was a war in 1774 between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo American Indian nations....
in 1774. He had also taken part in the failed "squaw campaign".
Fifty-year-old Crawford had been reluctant to volunteer, but he did so at the request of General Irvine. Williamson, although popular with the militia, was in disfavor with regular army officers such as Irvine because he had allowed the Gnadenhütten massacre. Hoping to avoid a repetition, Irvine made it known that he favored Crawford's election as commander. The election, which was acrimonious, ended in a close vote: Crawford received 235 votes to Williamson's 230. Colonel Crawford took command, and Williamson became second-in-command with the rank of major. The other majors included John B. McClelland
John B. McClelland
John B. McClelland was an officer in the American Revolutionary War. He was captured by American Indians during the Crawford Expedition and tortured to death at the Shawnee town of Wakatomika, which is currently located in Logan County, Ohio, about halfway between West Liberty, Ohio and...
, Thomas Gaddis
Thomas Gaddis
Thomas Gaddis was an officer in the American Revolutionary War. He was born December 28, 1742, in Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia and married Hannah Rice in 1764; the same year he built Fort Gaddis, a refuge from the Indians, located on the Catawba Trail. In fact, Pennsylvania and Virginia...
, and either James Brenton or Joseph Brinton.
At Crawford's request, Irvine allowed Dr. John Knight, a Continental Army officer, to accompany the expedition as surgeon. Another volunteer from Irvine's staff was a foreigner with an aristocratic bearing who called himself "John Rose". Rose asked to serve as Crawford's aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
. Unknown even to General Irvine until several years later, "Rose" was actually Baron Gustave Rosenthal
Gustave Rosenthal
Gustavus Heinrich de Rosenthal was a Baltic German soldier and nobleman born in Estonia, with the Title of Baron and last name of von Wetter-Rosenthal, a junior line of the von Wetter-Tegenfelden's . He came into conflict with another man and was forced to flee the country after killing him in a...
, a Baltic German
Baltic German
The Baltic Germans were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in...
nobleman from the Russian empire who had fled to America after killing a man in a duel. Rosenthal is the only Russian known to have fought on the American side of in the Revolutionary War.
Journey to the Sandusky
As was often the case with militia, who were poorly trained amateur soldiers, there was difficulty maintaining military discipline. The men wasted their rations, and often fired their muskets at wild game, despite orders to the contrary. They were slow to break camp in the mornings, and often failed to take their turn at guard duty. Crawford also proved to be a less capable leader than expected. Rose wrote that Crawford in councils "speaks incoherent, proposes matters confusedly, and is incapable of persuading people into his opinion." The expedition often halted as the commanders debated what to do next. Some volunteers lost heart and deserted.
The journey across the Ohio Country was mostly through woods. The volunteers initially marched in four columns, but the thick underbrush compelled them to form just two. On June 3, Crawford's men emerged into the open country of the Sandusky Plains, a prairie region just below of the Sandusky River. The following day, they reached Upper Sandusky
Upper Sandusky
Upper Sandusky was a 19th century Wyandot town, near what is now Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in the United States. It was the primary Wyandot town during the American Revolutionary War , and was sometimes also known as Half-King's Town, after Dunquat, the Wyandot "Half-King"...
, the Wyandot village where they expected to find the enemy. However, they discovered it had been abandoned. Unknown to the Americans, the Wyandots had recently relocated their town eight miles (13 km) to the north. The new Upper Sandusky, also called the "Half King's Town", was near present-day Upper Sandusky, Ohio
Upper Sandusky, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 6,533 people, 2,744 households, and 1,682 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,246.2 people per square mile . There were 2,910 housing units at an average density of 555.1 per square mile...
) and close to Captain Pipe's town (near present-day Carey, Ohio
Carey, Ohio
Carey is a village in Wyandot County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,901 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Carey is located at ....
). The Americans were unaware that Pipe's town was nearby.
Crawford's officers held a council of war. Some argued the abandoned village proved that the Indians knew about the expedition and were concentrating their forces elsewhere. Others expressed the desire to call off the expedition and return home immediately. Williamson asked for permission to take 50 men and burn the abandoned village, but Crawford refused as he did not wish to divide his forces. The council decided to continue the march for the rest of the day, but then to go no further. As the column halted for lunch, John Rose was sent north with a scouting party. Soon, two men returned to report that the scouts were skirmishing with a large force of Indians which was advancing towards the Americans.
British and Indian preparations
While planning the expedition, General Irvine had advised Crawford that, "Your best chance of success will be, if possible, to effect a surprise" against Sandusky. The British and Indians, however, learned about the expedition even before Crawford's army had left Mingo Bottom. Thanks to information from a captured American soldier, on April 8 the notorious British agent Simon GirtySimon Girty
Simon Girty was an American colonial of Scots-Irish ancestry who served as a liaison between the British and their Native American allies during the American Revolution...
relayed to Detroit an accurate report of Crawford's plans.
Officials of the British Indian Department in Detroit had accordingly prepared for action. In command at Detroit was Major Arent Schuyler DePeyster, responsible to Sir Frederick Haldimand
Frederick Haldimand
Sir Frederick Haldimand, KB was a military officer best known for his service in the British Army in North America during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War...
, the Governor General of British North America
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...
. DePeyster used agents such as Girty, Alexander McKee
Alexander McKee
Colonel Alexander McKee was an agent in the British Indian Department during the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the Northwest Indian War....
, and Matthew Elliott
Matthew Elliott (loyalist)
Matthew Elliott was born in County Donegal, Ireland in 1739 and died on May 7, 1814 in Burlington, Ontario. He was a trader, farmer, Indian Department official, political, fur trader, and militia officer during and after the era of the American Revolution...
, who all had close relations with American Indians, to coordinate British and Indian military actions in the Ohio County. In a council at Detroit on May 15, DePeyster and McKee told a gathering of Indian leaders about the Sandusky expedition and advised them to "be ready to meet them in a great body and repulse them." McKee was sent to the Shawnee villages in the Great Miami River
Great Miami River
The Great Miami River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in southwestern Ohio in the United States...
valley to recruit warriors to repel the American invasion. Captain William Caldwell
William Caldwell (ranger)
William Caldwell , was a Scots-Irish immigrant to North America who became a soldier with the British Indian Department, . He fought against the American rebels in the American Revolutionary War, especially with Butler's Rangers, based near upstate New York...
was dispatched to Sandusky with a company of mounted Butler's Rangers
Butler's Rangers
Butler's Rangers was a British provincial regiment composed of Loyalists in the American Revolutionary War, raised by Loyalist John Butler.Most members of the regiment were Loyalists from upstate New York...
, as well as a number of Indians from the Detroit area led by Matthew Elliott.
Indian scouts had spied on the expedition from the beginning. As soon as Crawford's army moved into the Ohio Country, the warning was sent to Sandusky. As the Americans approached, women and children from the Wyandot and Delaware towns were hidden in nearby ravines, while British fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
rs packed their goods and hurried out of town. On June 4, Delawares under Captain Pipe and Wyandots under Dunquat
Dunquat
Dunquat, known as the Half-King of the Wyandot people, sided with the Kingdom of Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War. He and his people moved to the Ohio country to fight the Americans in the west. During the war, he protected Christian Delaware people from other members of their tribe...
, the "Half King", along with some Mingos, joined forces to oppose the Americans. The size of the combined Delaware, Wyandot, and Mingo force has been estimated at anywhere from 200 to 500. British reinforcements were nearby, but Shawnees from the south were not expected to arrive until the next day. When the American scouts appeared, Pipe's Delawares pursued them, while the Wyandots temporarily held back.
Battle of Sandusky
June 4: "Battle Island"
The first skirmishing of the Crawford expedition began at about 2 p.m. on June 4, 1782. The scout party led by John Rose encountered Captain Pipe's Delawares on the Sandusky Plains and conducted a fighting retreat to a grove of trees where they had stored their supplies. The scouts were in danger of being overrun, but were soon reinforced by the main body of Crawford's army. Crawford ordered the men to dismount and drive the Indians out of the woods. After intense fighting, the Americans gained possession of the grove, later known as "Battle Island".The skirmish became a full-scale battle by 4:00 p.m. After the Americans drove Captain Pipe's Delawares out of the woods and onto to prairie, the Delawares were reinforced by Dunquat's Wyandots. Elliott also arrived on the scene and coordinated the actions of the Delawares and the Wyandots. Pipe's Delawares skillfully outflanked the American position and then attacked their rear. A few Indians crept close to the American lines in the tall prairie grass. The Americans responded by climbing trees to get a better shot at them. Gunsmoke filled the air, making it difficult to see. After three and a half hours of incessant firing, the Indians gradually broke off the attack with the approach of nightfall. Both sides slept with arms at the ready, and surrounded their positions with large fires to prevent surprise night attacks.
In the first day of fighting, the Americans lost 5 killed men and 19 wounded. The British and Indians suffered 5 killed and 11 wounded. The American volunteers scalped several of the Indian dead, while the Indians stripped the clothing from dead Americans and scalped at least one. Fifteen Pennsylvanians deserted during the night and reached home to report Crawford's army had been "cut to pieces."
June 5: Reinforcements
That afternoon, the Americans finally noticed that about 100 British rangers were fighting alongside the Indians. Unaware that the expedition had been watched from the beginning, the Americans were surprised that British troops from Detroit had been able to join in the battle on such short notice. While the Americans were discussing this, Alexander McKee arrived with about 140 Shawnees under the leadership of Blacksnake
Blacksnake (Shawnee)
Black Snake, aka She-me-ne-to or Shemeneto, was the principal war chief of the Shawnee tribe of Native Americans during the American War for Independence. He was a member of the Kispoko sept or clan of the Shawnee and assumed the title of War Chief upon the death of Pucksinwah, the father of Tecumseh...
, who took up a position to Crawford's south, effectively surrounding the Americans. The Shawnees repeatedly fired their muskets into the air, a ceremonial show of strength known as a feu de joie
Feu de joie
A feu de joie is a rifle salute, described as a "running fire of guns", on occasions of public rejoicing of nation and/or ruling dynasty. It can also mean a bonfire lit in a public place as a token of joy....
("fire of joy"), which shook American morale. Recalled Rose, the feu de joie "completed the Business with us." With so many enemies gathering around them, the Americans decided to retreat after dark rather than make a stand. The dead were buried, and fires were burned over the graves to prevent their discovery and desecration. The severely wounded were placed on biers in preparation for the withdrawal.
That night the Americans began to withdraw silently from the battlefield. Indian sentries detected the movement and attacked, creating confusion. Many volunteers became lost in the dark, separating into small groups. Crawford became concerned about his family members — his son John, his son-in-law William Harrison, and his nephew, also named William Crawford. With Dr Knight, Crawford remained near the battlefield as his men passed, calling for his missing relatives and not finding them. Crawford became angry when he realized the militia, despite his orders, had left some of the wounded behind. After all the men had passed, Crawford and Knight, with two others, finally set off, but were unable to find the main body of men.
June 6: Battle of the Olentangy
When the sun rose on June 6, about 300 Americans had reached the abandoned Wyandot town. Because Colonel Crawford was missing, Williamson assumed command. Fortunately for the Americans, the pursuit of the retreating army was disorganized because Caldwell, overall commander of the British and Indian forces, had been wounded in both legs. As the retreat continued, a force of Indians finally caught up with the main body of Americans on the eastern edge of the Sandusky Plains, near a branch of the Olentangy RiverOlentangy River
The Olentangy River is a tributary of the Scioto River in Ohio.It was originally called keenhongsheconsepung, a Delaware word literally translated as "stone for your knife stream", based on the shale found along its shores. Early settlers to the region translated this into "Whetstone River"...
. Some Americans fled as the attack began, while others milled around in confusion. However, Williamson made a stand with a small group of volunteers and drove off the Indians after an hour of fighting. Three Americans were killed and eight more wounded in the "Battle of the Olentangy". Indian losses are unknown.
The Americans buried their dead and resumed the retreat, the Indians and British rangers pursuing and firing occasionally from at long range. Williamson and Rose kept most of the men together by warning them that an orderly retreat was their only chance to get home alive. The Americans fell back more than 30 miles (48.3 km), some on foot, before making camp. The next day, two American stragglers were captured and presumably killed before the Indians and rangers finally abandoned the chase. The main body of Americans reached Mingo Bottom on June 13. Many stragglers arrived in small groups for several days more. In all, about 70 Americans never returned from the expedition.
Fates of the captives
While Williamson and Rose were retreating with the main body of men, Crawford, Knight, and four other stragglers were traveling south along the Sandusky River in present-day Crawford County, OhioCrawford County, Ohio
Crawford County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. It was named for Colonel William Crawford, a soldier during the American Revolution....
. On June 7, they came upon a party of Delawares about 28 miles (45.1 km) east of the battlefield. Knight raised his gun, but Crawford told him not to fire. Crawford and Knight knew some of these Delawares, who were a part of band led by a war chief named Wingenund. Crawford and Knight were taken prisoner, but the other four Americans escaped. Two of them were later tracked down, killed, and scalped.
Captives taken by American Indians during the American Revolution might be ransomed by the British in Detroit, adopted into the tribe, enslaved, or simply killed. However, after the Gnadenhütten massacre
Gnadenhütten massacre
The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing on March 8, 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, of 96 Christian Lenape by colonial American militia from Pennsylvania. The militia attacked Lenape at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhütten, Ohio.The...
, the Ohio Indians had resolved to kill all American prisoners who fell into their hands. The number of Americans executed after the Sandusky expedition is unknown, since their fate was usually recorded only if one of the prisoners survived to tell.
While some were executed quickly, others were tortured before being killed. The public torture of prisoners was a traditional ritual in many tribes of the Eastern Woodlands. Captives might have to endure excruciating torture for hours and even days. The British Indian Department used its influence to discourage the killing and torturing of prisoners, with some success, but in 1782 the Indians revived the practice of ritual torture in order to exact revenge for the slaughter at Gnadenhütten.
Crawford's execution
Crawford and Knight were taken to Wingenund's camp on June 7, where they found nine other prisoners. On June 11, Captain Pipe painted the faces of the prisoners black, the traditional sign they were to be executed. The prisoners were marched to the Delaware town on Tymochtee Creek, near the present-day village of Crawford, Ohio. Four prisoners were killed with tomahawks and scalped along the way. When the war party stopped, the seven remaining prisoners were made to sit, with Crawford and Knight a short distance away from the others. Delaware women and boys killed the other five with tomahawks, beheading one of them. The boys scalped the victims and slapped the bloody scalps in the faces of Crawford and Knight.
After Pipe's speech, Crawford was stripped naked and beaten. His hands were tied behind his back, and a rope was tied from his hands to a post in the ground. A large fire was lit about six or seven yards (6 m) from the pole. Indian men shot charges of gunpowder into Crawford's body, then cut off his ears. Crawford was poked with burning pieces of wood from the fire, and hot coals were thrown at him, which he was compelled to walk on. Crawford begged Girty to shoot him, but Girty was unwilling or afraid to intervene. After about two hours of torture, Crawford fell down unconscious. He was scalped, and a woman poured hot coals over his head, which revived him. He began to walk about insensibly as the torture continued. After he finally died, his body was burned.
The next day, Knight was marched towards the Shawnee towns, where he was to be executed. Along the way, he struck his guard with a log and managed to escape. He successfully made his way back to Pennsylvania on foot. By the time hunters found him on July 4, he was in poor health and barely coherent. They carried him to Fort McIntosh
Fort McIntosh (Pennsylvania)
Fort McIntosh was an early American log frontier fort situated near the confluence of the Ohio River and the Beaver River in what is now Beaver, Pennsylvania....
.
Wapatomica executions
On the same day that Crawford was executed, at least six American prisoners were taken in two different groups to the Shawnee town of WapatomicaWakatomika
Wakatomika was the name of two 18th century Shawnee villages in what is now the U.S. state of Ohio. The name was also spelled Wapatomica, Waketomika, and Waketameki, among other variations, but the similar name Wapakoneta was a different Shawnee village....
on the Mad River, in present Logan County, Ohio
Logan County, Ohio
Logan County is a county in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 45,858. The county seat is Bellefontaine. The county is named for Benjamin Logan, who fought Native Americans in the area....
. These prisoners included Major John B. McClelland
John B. McClelland
John B. McClelland was an officer in the American Revolutionary War. He was captured by American Indians during the Crawford Expedition and tortured to death at the Shawnee town of Wakatomika, which is currently located in Logan County, Ohio, about halfway between West Liberty, Ohio and...
, who had been fourth in command of the expedition, as well as William Harrison (Crawford's son-in-law) and Private William Crawford (Colonel Crawford's nephew). Four of the six, including McClelland, Harrison, and Crawford, were painted black. The villagers, made aware of the coming of prisoners by a messenger, formed two lines. The prisoners were made to run the gauntlet
Running the gauntlet
Running the gauntlet is a form of physical punishment wherein a captive is compelled to run between two rows—a gauntlet—of soldiers who strike him as he passes.-Etymology:...
towards the council house, about 300 yards (274.3 m) distance. As the prisoners ran by, the villagers beat them with clubs, concentrating on those who had been painted black. The blackened prisoners were then hacked to death with tomahawks and cut into pieces. Their heads and limbs were stuck on poles outside the town. One of the prisoners, a scout named John Slover, was taken to Mac-a-chack (near present West Liberty, Ohio
West Liberty, Ohio
West Liberty is a village in Logan County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,813 at the 2000 census.-Geography:West Liberty is located at ....
), but escaped before he could be burnt. Still naked, he stole a horse and rode it until it gave out, then ran on foot, reaching Fort Pitt on July 10, one of the last survivors to return.
Final year of the war
The failure of the Crawford expedition caused alarm along the American frontier, as many Americans feared that the Indians would be emboldened enough and launch a new series of raids. More defeats for the Americans were yet to come, and so for Americans west of the Appalachian MountainsAppalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
, 1782 became known as the "Bloody Year". On 13 July 1782, the Mingo leader Guyasuta
Guyasuta
Guyasuta was an important leader of the Seneca people in the second half of the eighteenth century, playing a central role in the diplomacy and warfare of that era...
led about 100 Indians and several British volunteers into Pennsylvania, destroying Hannastown
Hannastown, Pennsylvania
Hannastown is an unincorporated community and important historical and archaeological site located in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Although the village is not tracked by the Census Bureau, it has been assigned the ZIP code 15635....
, killing nine and capturing twelve settlers. It was the hardest blow dealt by Indians in Western Pennsylvania during the war.
In Kentucky, the Americans went on the defensive while Caldwell and his Indian allies prepared a major offensive. In July 1782, more than 1,000 Indians gathered at Wapatomica, but the expedition came to a halt after scouts reported that George Rogers Clark was preparing to invade the Ohio Country from Kentucky. Most of the Indians dispersed after learning that the reports of imminent invasion were false, but Caldwell led 300 Indians into Kentucky and delivered a devastating blow at the Battle of Blue Licks
Battle of Blue Licks
The Battle of Blue Licks, fought on August 19, 1782, was one of the last battles of the American Revolutionary War. The battle occurred ten months after Lord Cornwallis's famous surrender at Yorktown, which had effectively ended the war in the east...
in August. After his victory at Blue Licks, Caldwell was ordered to cease operations because the United States and Great Britain were about to make peace. Although General Irvine had finally gotten permission to lead his own expedition into the Ohio Country, rumors of the peace treaty killed enthusiasm for the undertaking, which never took place. In November, George Rogers Clark delivered the final blow in the Ohio Country, destroying several Shawnee towns, but inflicting little damage on the inhabitants.
Details of the forthcoming peace treaty arrived late in 1782. The Ohio Country, the land that the British and Indians had successfully defended, had been signed away by Great Britain to the United States. The British had not consulted the Indians in the peace process, and the Indians were nowhere mentioned in the treaty's terms. For the Indians, the struggle with American settlers would resume in the Northwest Indian War
Northwest Indian War
The Northwest Indian War , also known as Little Turtle's War and by various other names, was a war fought between the United States and a confederation of numerous American Indian tribes for control of the Northwest Territory...
, though this time without the assistance of their British allies.
Impact of Crawford's death
Crawford's death was widely publicized in the United States. A ballad about the expedition, titled "Crawford's Defeat by the IndiansCrawford's Defeat by the Indians
"Crawford’s Defeat by the Indians" is an early American folk ballad principally written by Doctor John Knight, survivor of the 1782 Crawford Expedition. The expedition was intended to destroy American Indian towns along the Sandusky River and was one of the final operations of the American...
", became popular and was long remembered. In 1783, John Knight's eyewitness account of Crawford's torture was published. The editor of Knight's narrative, Hugh Henry Brackenridge
Hugh Henry Brackenridge
Hugh Henry Brackenridge was an American writer, lawyer, judge, and justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.A frontier citizen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, he founded both the Pittsburgh Academy, now the University of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Gazette, still operating today as the...
, deleted all mention of Crawford's trial and the fact that Crawford was executed in retaliation for the Gnadenhütten massacre. By suppressing the Indians' motivation, Brackenridge was able, according to historian Parker Brown, to create "a piece of virulent anti-Indian, anti-British propaganda calculated to arouse public attention and patriotism." In an introduction, Brackenridge's publisher made clear why the narrative was being published:
But as they [the Indians] still continue their murders on our frontier, these Narratives may be serviceable to induce our government to take some effectual steps to chastise and suppress them; as from hence, they will see that the nature of an Indian is fierce and cruel, and that an extirpation of them would be useful to the world, and honorable to those who can effect it.
As intended, Knight's narrative increased racial antipathy towards Native Americans, and was often republished over the next 80 years, especially whenever violent enounters between white Americans and Indians was in the news. Although American frontiersmen had often killed Indian prisoners, most Americans regarded Indian culture as barbaric because of the use of torture, and Crawford's death greatly reinforced this perception of Indians as "savages". In the American national memory, the details of Crawford's torture overshadowed American atrocities such as the Gnadenhütten massacre. The image of the savage Indian became a stereotype; the peacekeeping efforts of men like Cornstalk and White Eyes were all but forgotten.
Further reading
Published primary sources- Brackenridge, H. H., ed. Indian Atrocities: Narratives of the Perils and Sufferings of Dr. Knight and John Slover, among the Indians during the Revolutionary War, with Short Memoirs of Col. Crawford & John Slover. Cincinnati, 1867. Knight and Slover's captivity narrativeCaptivity narrativeCaptivity narratives are stories of people captured by "uncivilized" enemies. The narratives often include a theme of redemption by faith in the face of the threats and temptations of an alien way of life. Barbary captivity narratives, stories of Englishmen captured by Barbary pirates, were popular...
s, often printed under various titles and in other collections, including A Selection of the Most Interesting Narratives of Outrages Committed by the Indians… (ed. Archibald Loudon, 1808). See .pp.723-744 Pennsylvania in the War of the revolution - Butterfield, C. W., ed. Washington-Irvine Correspondence: The official letters which passed between Washington and Brig-Gen. William Irvine and between Irvine and others concerning military affairs in the West from 1781 to 1783. Madison, Wisconsin: Atwood, 1882.
Articles
- Bailey, De Witt. "British Indian Department". The American Revolution, 1775–1783: An Encyclopedia 1:165–77. Ed. Richard L. Blanco. New York: Garland, 1993. ISBN 0-8240-5623-X.
- Brown, Parker B. "The Search for the William Crawford Burn Site: An Investigative Report". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine 68 (January 1985): 43–66.
Books
- Allen, Robert S. His Majesty's Indian Allies: British Indian Policy in the Defense of Canada. Toronto: Dundurn, 1992. ISBN 1-55002-184-2.
- Wetter, Mardee de. Incognito, An Affair of Honor. Barbed Wire Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-881325-82-2. A biography of Baron Rosenthal ("John Rose").