Lochry's Defeat - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lochry's Defeat, also known as the Lochry massacre, was a battle fought on August 24, 1781, near present-day Aurora, Indiana

Aurora, Indiana

Aurora is a city in Lawrenceburg and Center townships of Dearborn County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 3,965 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Aurora is located at ....

, in the United States. The battle was part 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...

(1775–1783), which began as a conflict between Great Britain

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...

and the Thirteen Colonies

Thirteen Colonies

The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...

before spreading to the western frontier

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...

and bringing American Indians into the war as British allies. The battle was short and decisive: about one hundred Indians under Joseph Brant

Joseph Brant

Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. He was perhaps the most well-known American Indian of his generation...

, a Mohawk

Mohawk nation

Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...

war leader who was temporarily in the west, ambushed about an equal number of 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...

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...

led by Archibald Lochry

Archibald Lochry

Colonel Archibald Andrew Lochry was a colonial American military officer whose command ended in disaster when he and nearly every member of his force were killed or captured by Mohawk forces led by George Girty and under the command of Chief Joseph Brant...

. Brant and his men killed or captured all of the Pennsylvanians without suffering any casualties.

Lochry's force was part of an army being raised by 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...

for a campaign against 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...

, the British regional headquarters. Clark, the preeminent American military leader on the northwestern frontier, worked with Governor Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

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...

in planning an expedition to capture Detroit, by which they hoped to bring an end to British support of the Indian war effort. In early August 1781, Clark and about 400 men left 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...

in Pennsylvania by boat, floating down the Ohio River

Ohio 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...

a few days ahead of Lochry and his men, who were trying to catch up.

Joseph Brant's force was part of a combined British and Indian army being raised to counter Clark's offensive. Brant had too few men to challenge Clark, but when he intercepted messengers traveling between Clark and Lochry, he learned about Lochry's smaller group bringing up the rear. When Lochry landed to feed his men and horses, Brant launched his overwhelmingly successful ambush. Because Clark had been able to recruit only a fraction of the men he needed for his campaign, the loss of Lochry's men resulted in the cancellation of Clark's expedition.

Background

In the Ohio River valley, the American Revolutionary War was fought primarily between American colonists south and west of the Ohio River (in present-day Western Pennsylvania

Western Pennsylvania

Western Pennsylvania consists of the western third of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States. Pittsburgh is the largest city in the region, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic and cultural center. Erie, Altoona, and Johnstown are its...

, 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 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...

) and American Indians with their British

Kingdom of Great Britain

allies north of the river (now the Midwestern United States

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

). From Detroit, the British recruited and supplied Indian war parties to attack American forts and settlements, hoping to divert American military resources from the primary theater of war in the East as well as keeping the Indians—and the lucrative 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...

—firmly attached to the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

. Indians of 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...

, primarily 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, hoped to drive American settlers out of Kentucky and reclaim their hunting grounds, which they had lost in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was an important treaty between North American Indians and the British Empire. It was signed in 1768 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York...

(1768) and 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....

(1774).

The Americans sought to hold on to Kentucky and to secure territorial claims

Northwest Territory

The Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Northwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio...

to the region by launching sporadic expeditions against hostile Indian settlements north of the Ohio River. George Rogers Clark, a Virginia militia officer in Kentucky, believed that the Americans could ultimately win the border war by capturing Detroit. He laid the groundwork for this objective in 1779 by seizing the British outpost

Battle of Vincennes

The Illinois campaign was a series of events in the American Revolutionary War in which a small force of Virginia militiamen led by George Rogers Clark seized control of several British posts in the Illinois country, in what is now the Midwestern United States...

of Vincennes

Vincennes, Indiana

Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...

and capturing the British commander of Detroit, lieutenant governor Henry Hamilton. "This stroke", said Clark, "will nearly put an end to the Indian War." Clark made preparations for a Detroit campaign in 1779 and again in 1780, but each time the expedition was called off because of insufficient men and supplies. "Detroit lost for want of a few Men", he lamented.

Planning Clark's campaign

[I]f we fall through in our present plans and no expedition should take place, it is to be feared that the consequences will be fatal to the whole frontier....
—George Rogers Clark

George Rogers Clark

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...

,
May 20, 1781

In late 1780, Clark traveled east to consult with Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

, the governor of Virginia, about an expedition in 1781. Jefferson devised a plan which called for Clark to lead 2,000 men against Detroit, with the hope of preventing a rumored British offensive against Kentucky. To avoid potential conflicts over rank with 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...

colonels

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...

while organizing the campaign, Clark requested that Jefferson promote him to brigadier general

Brigadier General

Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

in the Continental Army. Army rules precluded Clark from receiving a Continental commission, however, because Clark held his colonel's commission from Virginia rather than the United States. Jefferson instead promoted Clark to the Virginia rank of "Brigadier General of the forces to be embodied on an expedition westward of the Ohio". In January 1781, Clark left for Fort Pitt

Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)

in western Pennsylvania

Western Pennsylvania

to assemble his men and supplies. His goal was to have the expedition ready for departure from Fort Pitt by June 15.

As with earlier campaigns, recruiting enough men was a problem. Jefferson called for the western counties of Virginia to provide militia manpower for Clark's campaign, but county officials protested that they could not spare the men. Militiamen did not want to set out on a lengthy expedition—they would be gone for six months to a year—while their families and homes were threatened by 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...

's army in the east, by Indian raids from the north, and by Loyalists

Loyalist (American Revolution)

Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...

at home. Because of this resistance, Jefferson called for volunteers rather than ordering the militia to accompany the expedition.

In addition to volunteers, Jefferson also arranged for a regiment of 200 regular soldiers under Colonel John Gibson

John Gibson (Indiana)

John Gibson was a veteran of the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary War, Tecumseh's War, and the War of 1812. A delegate to the first Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1790, and a merchant, he earned a reputation as a frontier leader and had good...

to accompany Clark. Longstanding tensions between Continental Army officers and the militia made such cooperation problematic, however. 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:...

, the Continental Army commander at Fort Pitt, refused to detach men for Clark's campaign because he was staging his own expedition against the Delaware Indians

Lenape

, who had recently entered the war against the Americans. Brodhead marched into the Ohio Country and destroyed the Delaware Indian capital of Coshocton

Coshocton

Coshocton may refer to:* Coshocton, Ohio* Coshocton High School* Coshocton County, Ohio...

in April 1781, but this only made the Delawares more determined enemies, and deprived Clark of badly needed men and supplies for the Detroit campaign.

Clark also had problems recruiting men from Pennsylvania because lingering resentment from the recently settled border dispute

Yohogania County

Yohogania County was created by the new state of Virginia in 1776, in an area long disputed between Virginia and Pennsylvania. The county ceased to exist after the border dispute between the two states was resolved in the 1780s...

between Virginia and Pennsylvania meant that few Pennsylvanians were willing to participate in an expedition headed by a Virginian. Clark's controversial attempt to draft

Conscription in the United States

Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...

Pennsylvanians into service created even more ill will. One Pennsylvanian who supported Clark was Colonel Archibald Lochry

Archibald Lochry

, commander of the Westmoreland County

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...

militia. On July 4, 1781, Lochry wrote to Joseph Reed

Joseph Reed (jurist)

Joseph Reed was a Pennsylvania lawyer, military officer, and statesman of the Revolutionary Era. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and, while in Congress, signed the Articles of Confederation...

, the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania:

We have very distressing times Here this summer. The Enemy are almost constantly in our County Killing and Captivating the Inhabitants. I see no way we can have of defending ourselves other than by offensive operations. General Clarke [sic] has Requested our assistance to Enable him to carry an Expedition into the Indian Country.

With Reed's approval, Lochry began recruiting men for Clark's expedition. Many Westmoreland men did not want to leave their homes undefended, and so Lochry was only able to enlist about 100 volunteers for the campaign.

When Clark finally left Fort Pitt in August 1781, he was accompanied by only 400 men, although he expected to meet Lochry and his Pennsylvanians at Fort Henry

Fort Henry (Virginia)

Fort Henry was an English frontier fort in 17th century colonial Virginia near the falls of the Appomattox River. Its exact location has been debated, but the most popular one is on a bluff about four blocks north of the corner of W. Washington and N...

(present Wheeling, West Virginia

Wheeling, West Virginia

Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...

). Clark was angry about the lack of support given his campaign, but he still hoped that the Kentucky militia, who were to rendezvous with him at Fort Nelson

Fort Nelson (Kentucky)

Fort Nelson, built in 1781 by Richard Chenoweth, was the second on-shore fort on the Ohio River in the area of what is now downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Fort-on-Shore, the downriver and first on-shore fort, had proved to be insufficient barely three years after it was established...

(Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

), would provide additional men. He intended to at least carry out an expedition against enemy Indians if he did not have enough men to attack Detroit.

Indian and British preparations

Thanks to an effective intelligence network, British officials and their American Indian allies were aware of Clark's planned expedition as early as February 1781. In April, a council was held at Detroit in order to prepare a defense. The commander at Detroit was Major Arent DePeyster

Arent DePeyster

Arent Schuyler DePeyster was a British military officer best known for his term as commandant of the British controlled Fort Michilimackinac and Fort Detroit during the American Revolution...

, Henry Hamilton's replacement, who reported 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 of the British Indian Department such as 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 Simon Girty

Simon 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...

, both of whom had close relations with American Indians of the Ohio Country, to coordinate British and Indian military operations.

Joining the Detroit conference was an Iroquois

Iroquois

The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

delegation headed by Joseph Brant

Joseph Brant

(or Thayendanegea), a war leader of the Mohawks, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Brant was a minor war chief when the war began, but his ability to speak English and his connections with British officials made him prominent in British eyes. When Brant traveled to London in 1775 to discuss Mohawk land grievances, Lord George Germain, the colonial secretary

Secretary of State for the Colonies

The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....

, vaguely promised him that if the Iroquois supported the Crown during the war, native land grievances would be redressed after the rebellion had been suppressed. Brant returned home and encouraged the Iroquois, who lived mostly in upstate New York

Upstate New York

Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...

, to enter the war as British allies. Four tribes of the Six Nations eventually did so.

Brant became a skilled partisan commander during the war, initially leading about 100 men known as "Brant's Volunteers

Brant's Volunteers

Brant's Volunteers was an irregular corps raised in spring of 1777 during the American Revolutionary War by Joseph Brant which fought on the British side in the Province of New York....

". Because the traditional Iroquois leaders regarded Brant as an upstart who was too closely connected to the British, most his Volunteers were white Loyalists

Loyalist (American Revolution)

. Brant gained additional native followers during the war and was perhaps the only Indian to be commissioned as a British captain, but he was not, as has sometimes been claimed, the head war chief of the Iroquois. Brant took part in a joint British-Indian invasion of New York in 1777, which for the British ended in a disastrous surrender at Saratoga

Saratoga campaign

The Saratoga Campaign was an attempt by Great Britain to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War...

. Afterwards, he led numerous frontier raids, both before and after the massive American invasion of 1779

Sullivan Expedition

The Sullivan Expedition, also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, was an American campaign led by Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton against Loyalists and the four nations of the Iroquois who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War.The...

, which left the Iroquois lands devastated.

In April 1781, with the New York frontier in ruins, the British transferred Brant to Detroit. The official reason for the move was that Brant was needed to help rally Indian support to counter Clark's anticipated campaign. An apparent unofficial cause was that Brant, who was usually a moderate drinker, had been transferred after getting into a drunken fistfight with an Indian Department officer at Fort Niagara

Fort Niagara

Fort Niagara is a fortification originally built to protect the interests of New France in North America. It is located near Youngstown, New York, on the eastern bank of the Niagara River at its mouth, on Lake Ontario.-Origin:...

. Although the "Western Indians" of the Ohio Country and Detroit region had strained relations with the Iroquois, they cautiously welcomed Brant's help.

At the Detroit council, DePeyster encouraged the Indians to unite and to send a force to oppose Clark's expedition. In May 1781, Indian leaders and Indian Department officials began to gather warriors at the Wyandot town of 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"...

for this purpose. In mid-August, Brant and George Girty, Simon's brother, headed south to the Ohio River with about 90 Iroquois, Shawnee, and Wyandot warriors, as well as a few white men, while McKee and Simon Girty continued to collect reinforcements.

Lochry follows Clark

In early August, Clark moved his troops by boat down the Ohio River to Wheeling, where he was to rendezvous with Lochry and his men. After waiting five days longer than planned, Clark decided to leave Wheeling without Lochry because men were deserting

Desertion

In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...

the expedition, and Clark believed that if he got them further away from home, they would be less inclined to run off. When Lochry finally reached Wheeling on August 8, he found that Clark had departed only a few hours earlier. Lochry sent the following message to Clark:

My dear General.

I arrived at this Post this moment. I find that there is neither Boats, provisions or ammunition left. I have sent a small canoe after you to know what is to be done. If you send back these articles mentioned and with directions where I will overtake you, I will follow. We are upwards of one hundred strong including Light Horse.

Writing from Middle Island

Middle Island (West Virginia)

Middle Island is a bar island on the Ohio River at St. Marys in Pleasants County, West Virginia, USA.Middle Island lends its name to West Virginia's Middle Island Creek and lies at its confluence with "The Thoroughfare", a channel of the Ohio River that separates the island from the riverbank. A...

on August 9, Clark replied to Lochry:

I am heartily sorry that after waiting so long for you I would set out but a day before your arrival.... I am exceeding unhappy at our not joining at Weelind [Wheeling], but don’t know that either of us are to blame, the militia with us continue to desert, and consequently I cannot remain long in one place otherways should be happy in forming a junction here.... I shall move on slowly for the reasons before recited and you will use the greatest industry as you cannot possibly pass us without our knowledge. I have suffered much lately but you again encourage me.

After building boats, Lochry and his men set off from Wheeling, hoping to catch up with the main body of the expedition. Meanwhile, Clark left Major Charles Cracraft with provisions and a small group of men on Camp Three Island to await Lochry's arrival. Further down the Ohio, Clark stopped at the mouth of the Kanawha River

Kanawha River

The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, it has formed a significant industrial region of the state since the middle of the 19th century.It is formed at the town of Gauley...

, but again he decided to keep moving in order to prevent desertion. Clark left a letter fastened to a pole which instructed Lochry to keep following.

On August 14, Lochry wrote to Clark that his men were "in great spirits and determined to go where ordered", and that he had even apprehended 16 deserters from Clark's force and were bringing them along. The next day, Lochry found Major Cracraft on Camp Three Island. Cracraft turned over a large horse boat to Lochry, and then left by canoe to rejoin Clark's troops. The following day, on August 16, Lochry sent Captain Samuel Shannon and seven men with a letter to Clark. In the letter, Lochry asked Clark to leave more provisions because he was running short of flour and did not want to be delayed by having to send out hunters. Lochry sent two men out to hunt the next day, but they never returned.

Ambush on the Ohio

On the night of August 18, 1781, Clark and his men floated past the mouth of 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...

, near the present-day border between Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

and Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

. Brant's party was hidden on the northern bank of the Ohio, but with too few men to confront Clark's larger force, Brant remained silent and let Clark pass unhindered. This was a missed opportunity for the British and Indian war effort: had McKee and Simon Girty not been delayed while gathering reinforcements, they would have been able to ambush Clark, whom the Indians feared more than any other commander, at a moment when desertion had made him vulnerable. According to historian Randolph Downes, "Students of the life of George Rogers Clark have never sufficiently emphasized how close he and his expedition came to utter destruction as they descended the Ohio River in 1781."

Although he missed a chance to ambush Clark, Brant soon found another target. On August 21, Brant captured Major Cracraft and six men who were trying to catch up with Clark. Brant also captured a few men from Captain Shannon's detachment. From the letters his prisoners carried, Brant learned that Lochry's party was not far behind. Brant sent a letter to McKee, urging him to hurry because "whilst the enemy are scadred [scattered] we can easy manage them". Brant prepared to attack Lochry regardless of whether McKee's reinforcements arrived in time.

At about 8:00 a.m. on August 24, the day of the battle, Lochry's party landed on the northern bank of the Ohio River, near the mouth of a creek about 11 miles (17.7 km) below the mouth of the Great Miami. According to some brief accounts, Lochry was lured ashore in a ruse by Brant, who left captured Americans in sight and attacked after Lochry landed. According to more detailed accounts, however, Brant had planned this deception, but the Pennsylvanians happened to land a short distance upriver without having seen the captives. Nevertheless, Lochry's men came ashore close enough that Brant, who had not yet been reinforced by McKee, was still able to make his attack.

Although Lochry knew that he was in hostile territory, he landed his little flotilla after two days of nonstop travel because he needed to feed his men and horses. After landing, the Americans cooked fresh buffalo meat for breakfast and cut grass for their horses, apparently not taking proper security precautions. Concealed in the nearby woods, Brant repositioned his men and then opened fire, taking the Americans completely by surprise. Some Americans fought until their ammunition ran out, although others apparently did not have their weapons ready when the attack began. Some of the Americans attempted to escape by boat, but Brant had anticipated this and had positioned men in canoes to cut off any retreat. Seeing that he was hopelessly trapped, Lochry called for his men to surrender.

Although the two sides were about even in number, Brant had won a lopsided victory. All of the Americans were killed or captured; none of Brant's men were injured. According to a detailed list prepared by Brant and sent to Detroit, 37 Americans were killed and 64 were captured. Some of the American dead—some sources say most—had been executed after surrendering. This included Lochry, who was sitting on a log after the battle when a Shawnee warrior killed him with a tomahawk blow to the head. According to some accounts, Brant prevented the Indians from killing even more of the prisoners. The dead were scalped and left unburied.

Aftermath

After the battle, the native warriors and rangers hesistated to close on Clark's main force. Brant marched the prisoners up the Miami River. On August 27, he rendezvoused with about 300 Indians led by McKee and about 100 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...

led by Captain Andrew Thompson. Leaving a detachment to guard the prisoners, the combined Indian and British force of about 500 set off towards Fort Nelson in pursuit of Clark's main army. On September 9, two captured Americans revealed that Clark's expedition had been called off because of a shortage of men. Satisfied that the campaign had been successfully concluded, most of the British-Indian army dispersed, although McKee convinced 200 men to accompany him on a raid into Kentucky, which culminated in what Kentuckians called the "Long Run Massacre

Long Run Massacre

The Long Run Massacre occurred on September 13, 1781 at the intersection of Floyd's Fork creek with Long Run Creek, along the Falls Trace, a trail, in what is now eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky...

".

The 64 American prisoners were divided between the tribes. A few of these prisoners were subsequently killed. As was their custom, the Indians took some of the prisoners home and ritually adopted them in order to replace fallen warriors. Most, however, were sold to the British in Detroit and then transferred to a prison in Montreal. A few managed to escape from captivity; the remainder were released after the war ended in 1783. Of the 100 or more men who had taken part in Lochry's expedition, the number who eventually made it back home has been estimated from "less than half" to "more than half."

Lochry's Defeat, as the battle generally came to be called in American history, was a devastating blow to the people of Westmoreland County. Nearly every home was affected. Residents of the county were alarmed at having lost so many of their most experienced soldiers at a time when they were needed to defend the frontier. On December 3, 1781, General William Irvine

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...

, the new commander at Fort Pitt, wrote to Joseph Reed:

I am sorry to inform your Excellency that this Country has got a severe stroke by the loss of Colonel Lochry and about one hundred (tis said) of the best men of Westmoreland County, including Captain Stockely & his Company of Rangers. They were going down the Ohio on General Clarke's Expedition, many accounts agree that they were all killed or taken at the mouth of the Miame [sic] River. I believe [they were] chiefly killed. This misfortune, added to the failure of General Clarke's Expedition, has filled the people with great dismay. Many talk of retiring to the East side of the Mountain early in the Spring. Indeed there is great reason to apprehend that the Savages, & perhaps the British from Detroit will push us hard in the Spring, and I believe there never were Posts—nor a Country—in a worse state of defence.

The loss of Lochry's detachment proved to be the fatal setback to Clark's 1781 campaign. In early September, Clark held a series of councils with Kentucky militia officers at Fort Nelson. Clark still advocated carrying out an expedition into the Ohio Country, saying that "I am ready to lead you on to any Action that has the most distant prospect of Advantage, however daring it may appear to be." Given the lateness of the season and the shortage of available men, the council overruled Clark and decided instead to remain on the defensive, although they proposed that another campaign against Detroit should be carried out the next year. On October 1, 1781, a disappointed Clark wrote, "My chain appears to have run out. I find myself enclosed with a few troops, in a trifling fort, and shortly expect to bear the insults of those who have for several years been in continual dread of me." Clark led an expedition against the Shawnee towns on the Great Miami River in 1782, one of the last actions of the war, but he was never able to mount an expedition against Detroit.

Sometime after Lochry's Defeat, Brant and Simon Girty got into an altercation along the Ohio River. According to contemporary gossip, Girty took exception to Brant's boasting about the success of the expedition, perhaps because Girty believed his brother George deserved more credit. The two men, who were reportedly drunk, came to blows, which ended when Brant slashed Girty in the head with his sword. The wound, which took several months to heal, left a scar on Girty's forehead. When Brant returned to Detroit in October, he had a sword cut on his leg, which had become infected and initially looked as if it would result in amputation. The wound was officially reported as accidentally self-inflicted, although gossipers said that it was the result of the fight with Girty. Brant's Iroquois companions returned home, but Brant was compelled to stay in Detroit over the winter in order to recover.

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.
Belue, Ted Franklin. "Lochry's Defeat". The American Revolution, 1775–1783: An Encyclopedia 1:954–55. Ed. Richard L. Blanco. New York: Garland, 1993. ISBN 0-8240-5623-X.
Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. "Lochry's Defeat". Encyclopedia of the American Revolution: Library of Military History, 2nd ed., 1:645. Edited by Harold E. Selesky. Detroit: Scribner's, 2006. ISBN 0-684-31513-0.
Duff, William A. "Chapter 12, Christian Fast". History of North Central Ohio, Vol. 1: 97-102. Historical Publishing Co., Topeka KS and Indianapolis IN, 1931.
Hunter, W. H. "The Pathfinders of Jefferson County." Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 6, no. 2 (1898): 140–42; 384–92. Accessed online through the Ohio Historical Society
Ohio Historical Society
The Ohio Historical Society is a non-profit organization incorporated in 1885 as The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society "to promote a knowledge of archaeology and history, especially in Ohio"...

's online archive. Hunter's initial account of the expedition was expanded and corrected in an addenda.
Maurer, C. J. "The British Version of Lochry's Defeat." Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio 10 (July 1952): 215–230.
Pershing, Edgar J. "The Lost Battalion of the Revolutionary War." National Genealogical Society Quarterly 16, no. 3 (1928): 44–51. Includes captured correspondence and the British list of men killed and taken prisoner. Available online through Fisher Family Genealogy, which also provides a PDF copy of the original article.
Sugden, John. "Joseph Brant". Encyclopedia of North American Indians, 83–85. Ed. Frederick E. Hoxie. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. ISBN 0-395-66921-9.
Warnes, Kathleen. "Lochry's Defeat". The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History. 2:726. Gregory Fremont-Barnes and Richard Alan Ryerson, eds. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2006. ISBN 1-85109-408-3.

Books

Bakeless, John. Background to Glory: The Life of George Rogers Clark. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1957. Bison Book printing, 1992. ISBN 0-8032-6105-5.
Butterfield, Consul Willshire. History of the Girtys. Cincinnati: Clarke, 1890.
Downes, Randolph C. Council Fires on the Upper Ohio: A Narrative of Indian Affairs in the Upper Ohio Valley until 1795. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1940. ISBN 0-8229-5201-7 (1989 reprint).
English, William Hayden. Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778–1783, and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark. Vol 2. Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1896.
Hassler, Edgar W. Old Westmoreland: A History of Western Pennsylvania during the Revolution. Pittsburgh: Weldon, 1900.
James, James Alton. The Life of George Rogers Clark. University of Chicago Press, 1928.
Kelsay, Isabel Thompson. Joseph Brant, 1743–1807, Man of Two Worlds. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8156-0182-4 (hardback); ISBN 0-8156-0208-1 (1986 paperback).
Mann, Barbara Alice. George Washington's War on Native America. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2005. ISBN 0-275-98177-0.
Martindale, Charles. Loughery's Defeat and Pigeon Roost Massacre. Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1888. Indiana Historical Society Publications 2, no. 4: 97–127. Pamphlet which includes Anderson's journal and other documents.
Nelson, Larry L. A Man of Distinction among Them: Alexander McKee and the Ohio Country Frontier, 1754–1799. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-87338-620-5 (hardcover).
Nester, William. The Frontier War for American Independence. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole, 2004. ISBN 0-8117-0077-1.
Sugden, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8032-4288-3.
Taylor, Alan. The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution. New York: Knopf, 2006. ISBN 0-679-45471-3.
Van Every, Dale. A Company of Heroes: The American Frontier, 1775–1783. New York: Morrow, 1962.

Published primary sources

Several letters of Lochry, Joseph Reed, and General Irvine are published in the Pennsylvania Archives, 1st series, vol. 9 (Philadelphia 1854). Anderson's journal is in the Pennsylvania Archives, 6th series, 2:403–410, (Harrisburg 1906), and is available online through Fisher Family Genealogy, which also has a PDF copy of the pages from the Pennsylvania Archives. Many other letters about the campaign are printed in James A. James, ed., George Rogers Clark Papers , 2 vols. (1912; reprint New York, AMS Press, 1972).

British letters relating to Lochry's Defeat were published in Pioneer Collections: Collections and Researches Made by the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan 2nd ed., vols. 10 and 19 (Lansing, 1908–13), and are online at the American Memory

American Memory

American Memory is an Internet-based archive for public domain image resources, as well as audio, video, and archived Web content. It is published by the Library of Congress...

website, published by the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

. Highlights include:

Brant to McKee August 21, 1781. Brant writes that Clark has just passed and that Lochry is approaching.
Thompson and McKee to DePeyster August 29, 1781 Thompson and McKee report Brant's victory and forward captured American correspondence.
De Peyster to Captains Thompson and McKee, September 13, 1781. De Peyster expresses satisfaction at Brant's victory, mixed with disappointment that the Indians did not move against Clark.
John Macomb to Colonel Claus, September 14, 1781. A merchant at Detroit reports news of Brant's victory.
Thompson to DePeyster September 26, 1781. Thompson reports on the dispersal of the Indians after news that Clark's expedition is cancelled.
McKee to DePeyster September 26, 1781. McKee relays his activities after the battle, and the difficulty in getting the Indians to pursue Clark.
DePeyster to McKee October 4, 1781. DePeyster instructs McKee to tell the Indians that no rum will be distributed at Detroit until he is sure Clark is finished for the season.
Haldimand to DePeyster October 6, 1781. Haldimand expresses hope that Brant's example will inspire the Indians to make further efforts against Clark.
Haldimand to Germain, October 23, 1781. Haldimand sends word to London about Brant's victory.
Haldimand to unknown November 1, 1781. Haldimand complains that the money spent on the Indians this year had been "thrown away", with the exception of Brant and his 100 men.