That Dark and Bloody River

by Allan Eckert

Girty had been sent on a spying mission up the Allegheny last fall to try to determine how the Wyandots and Mingoes were being supplied in order to support such attacks as they had made on the upper Ohio at Wheeling, Grave Creek, McMechen’s and other places. Hand was the recipient of a great deal of criticism from upper Ohio settlers for his failure to do more to protect them. The fact that a proposed expedition of his from Fort Randolph into the Ohio country failed to materialize, even though he went to Point Pleasant, had not helped, and so he was looking for something that would show them his thoughts and efforts were in that direction. Then, on December 20, Girty returned and gave the report that greatly excited Gen. Hand and focused his resolve.

  From what could be determined, numerous boats were making the eight-day passage between Detroit and the Cuyahoga, bringing voluminous supplies of gunpowder and weapons as well as food, clothing, trade goods and whatever else was necessary to please the Indians, keep them in the British interest and encourage them to increase their forays against the settlements on the upper Ohio, only 100 miles distant.

  All captured settlers from the upper Ohio who were not killed at the villages were evidently being transported to Detroit and sold to Governor-General Henry Hamilton, where they were extensively questioned about everything occurring on the Ohio River frontier. From the information gleaned, it seemed apparent that more major assaults were planned.

  Hand decided at once that a winter attack against this supply and staging area might well be successful, since it would be so unexpected at that season. Great numbers of the Indians would have put their raids on hold until spring and would be scattered at their various winter hunting camps, leaving the Cuyahoga installation relatively vulnerable. With this in mind, he began making plans. As January dwindled away into February, he was close to launching his expedition. He wrote to Maj. William Crawford at his settlement on the Youghiogheny:

  Headqtrs., Ft. Pitt

  February 5th, 1778

  Dr Sir

  As I am credibly informed that the English have lodged a quantity of arms, ammunition, provision & clothing at a small Indian town about 100 miles from Fort Pitt, to support the savages in their excursions against the inhabitants of this and adjacent counties, I ardently wish to collect as many brave active lads as are willing to turn out, to destroy this magazine. Every man must be provided with a horse, & every article necessary to equip them for the expedition, except ammunition, which, with some arms, I can furnish.

  It may not be unnecessary to assure them, that everything they are able to bring away shall be sold at public venue for the sole benefit of the captors, & the money equally distributed, tho’ I am certain that a sense of the service they will render to their country will operate more strongly than the expectation of gain. I therefore expect you will use your influence on this occasion, & bring all the volunteers you can raise to Fort Pitt by the 15th of this month.

  I am, dear Sir, Yr Obdt humble Servt. Edwd Hand

  Col. Wm. Crawford.

  N.B. The horses shall be appraised, & paid for if lost.

  There were an abundance of men in the upper Ohio region who were now more than eager to retaliate against the Wyandots and Mingoes for the attacks they had been suffering, and the army was quickly raised to full strength. Gen. Hand expected his move to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, attack on the supply depot and return to Fort Pitt would take less than a fortnight. With great expectations, he launched his campaign with 500 mounted men on February 15.

  Gen. Hand had based his timetable calculations on the weather being cold and the ground frozen hard. Nature refused to cooperate. The weather warmed and it began to rain, thawing the ground, melting the existing snow, turning the earth into a mire and previously frozen streams into torrents. Then the temperatures fluctuated for days between freezing and thawing. The men were constantly cold and wet, many were sick and all were thoroughly discouraged. Simon Girty, guiding the expedition, recommended it be aborted, but Gen. Hand pressed on.

  By the time they reached the Forks of the Beaver, where it was formed by the Mahoning from the west and the Shenango from the east, only 40 miles from Fort Pitt, half the proposed time had already been used up. If they continued, all their provisions would be gone before they even reached their target, and they would then be in serious jeopardy. Concluding that Simon Girty’s earlier advice should have been followed, Gen. Hand disgustedly announced he was aborting the expedition and told the men to set up camp; they would start back in the morning.

  During that night, however, one of Hand’s reconnoitering detachments came in with word that they had discovered a village some three miles up the Shenango that was of a size to contain perhaps 60 Indians.316 Gen. Hand’s spirits rose at the news—here was an opportunity to keep his expedition from being a complete failure. Without even knowing what tribe he might be dealing with, he announced they were enemies, changed plans and told the army they would attack the place in the morning.

  Actually, it turned out to be one of the villages of Pimoacan—better known among the whites as Captain Pipe—a very influential Delaware who had long been friendly with the Americans and had refused to enter the war against them. Pimoacan and virtually everyone else was off on a winter hunt at this time, and the village was occupied only by Pimoacan’s brother, Bull, and a few women and children.

  Bull was doing some work outside when the first wave of attackers arrived—of which Gen. Hand was not a part—and fired a volley at him. Everyone missed, and the Delaware snatched up his musket and fired back, his single ball breaking the arm of one of Hand’s company commanders, Capt. David Scott. As Bull attempted to reload, Capt. Reasin Virgin galloped up and buried a tomahawk in his skull, killing him. From one of the wegiwas emerged Bull’s elderly mother, who came out as her son was being scalped, holding her hands out toward the soldiers in a beseeching manner. She was coldly slain and then scalped by a Dutchman, who stuffed the trophy into his victuals pouch, which contained only a chunk of bread. At that point a cluster of women and children, watching from another wegiwa, ran out and headed for the nearby woods. They were fired upon but to no effect, and they scattered upon reaching their destination.

  The army was more interested in the warriors they thought were hidden in the other wegiwas and cabins of the village, and they poured a hot, prolonged fire into them, which gradually dwindled away as they realized they were shooting at structures in which there were no men. Then Michikapeche, the wife of Pimoacan, emerged from a cabin and tried to flee amidst a hail of bullets. A rifle ball clipped off the tip of one of her fingers, and she was overtaken and on the verge of being tomahawked and scalped when Maj. William Crawford intervened and ordered that she be taken prisoner.317 The village was then ransacked, but only a small amount of plunder was found and taken.

  Another detachment of this brave army struck a second Delaware town up the Mahoning. It, too, was empty except for five squaws. One was taken prisoner. Nearby a young Indian boy hunting birds with his bow was spotted. He was shot and killed. Then the army set off for home.

  Today they arrived at Fort Pitt, and there was little exultation over their accomplishments. Even before the day was over, the abortive expedition was being called by the derisive name it would always retain—the Squaw Campaign.

  [March 27, 1778—Friday]

  Five weeks ago yesterday—on February 19—the Virginia Executive Council, having learned of the murder of Hokolesqua, Elinipsico and Red Hawk at Fort Randolph, issued a brief statement:

  The Governor and Board express their strong abhorrence of the murder of Cornstalk and other Shawanese; & speak in decided disapproval of the frontier people who screen the perpetrators of that act from apprehension.

  Today, having decided that their initial statement was not strong enough, the Virginia Council issued a warrant for the arrest of five of the identified perpetrators: listed as Hugh Gailbreath, Adam Barnes, Malcolm McCoun, William Roan and their leader, James Hall, offering a reward of $200 for Hall, $150 for McCoun and
$100 each for the others, charging them with being “deeply concerned and perpetrating the atrocities & barbarous murder of the Shawanese Indians on the 10th of November [October] last at Fort Randolph, as appears from sundry depositions transmitted to the governor.”318

  [March 28, 1778—Saturday]

  Over the past year or so, Simon Girty had become increasingly disenchanted with the situation at Fort Pitt and on the frontier. Even though he and his brothers had been captured by the Indians as boys in 1756 and had been adopted into their tribes—Simon into the Senecas—he had come to sympathize with their plight. He could understand their anger over broken treaties, over the theft of their lands, over the frauds perpetrated upon them by governments and traders, over the brutality perpetrated upon them by the whites.

  This did not preclude the fact that, after his release from captivity as a result of Col. Bouquet’s invasion of Ohio in 1764, he had served as interpreter at Fort Pitt as well as express messenger and spy and eventually had become an ensign. He had served Gov. Dunmore during that brief war four years ago, and with the outbreak of the Revolution, he had separated from the British and was staunchly loyal to the Americans, serving as intermediary between the Iroquois and the new young government and winning much esteem for his skilled handling of a most difficult role. He had also been serving Gen. Hand as guide, scout and interpreter ever since that officer took command of Fort Pitt.

  Simon Girty had run into certain difficulties at Fort Pitt. He strongly believed there had to be a way for Indians and whites to live in harmony, and because of his outspoken views in this respect and his anger at what was being done to the tribes by the border men and the militia, he had been passed over for promotion to the rank of captain, which had been promised to him, and at one point he was even thrown into the Fort Pitt guardhouse while an investigation went on to determine if he was colluding with the red men. His ironic sense of humor led him to escape that confinement, just to show the authorities how easily it could be done. Having escaped, that night he slept in an apple tree in the nearby orchard and then turned himself in the next day.319 Again he was arrested while carrying expresses to the Illinois country and charged with betraying American intelligence, but the charges were untrue and he was exonerated. This did not, however, put an end to the ill treatment he received from the majority of his fellows at Fort Pitt, most of whom concluded he had just been too cunning to get caught. Few of the frontiersmen had anything but contempt for what they termed an “Injen lover.”

  Girty did have certain friends among the Americans who were very dear to him — Simon Kenton, for instance, with whom he had made a blood-brother pledge during Dunmore’s War, and William Crawford, at whose table he had often dined in friendship, who had once intervened to get him released from jail and who had been his comrade during Hand’s recent abortive Squaw Campaign. He was convinced that the Americans could never live in peace with the Indians, as the British at least attempted to do. For that reason, in combination with the abuse he had been receiving and the fact that he felt strongly that he could be of more help to the Indians with the British than with the Americans, he elected to defect.

  This idea of Girty’s to defect was considerably bolstered by the deputy Indian agent at Fort Pitt, Alexander McKee, who was already on the point of doing so himself.320 McKee, with the help of the trader Matthew Elliott, who had long ago married into the Shawnee tribe, had already secretly been in the pay of Gen. Hamilton at Detroit and had a commission awaiting him there in the Indian department. In addition to Elliott, McKee’s party ready to defect included his cousin, Robin Surphlet, a servant named John Higgins and two Negro slaves. Now he surreptitiously approached Girty with this long-brewing plan of defection and offered him the opportunity to become an interpreter in that department at Detroit and perhaps even part of the very important liaison between the British and Indians. It was this nudge that pushed Girty over the edge because it was a real chance to do what he personally felt was still possible: helping eventually to establish permanent harmony between Indians and whites.321

  This afternoon he visited his half-brother, John Turner, at Squirrel Hill near Pittsburgh and signed over to him full ownership of his large Squirrel Hill Farm. A little later he dropped by Duncan’s Tavern, where he had been boarding with his friend, Kate Duncan, and bade her a final farewell. “I can no longer stay and live with you,” he told her gently. Then, with a low, bitter laugh, he added: “There’s not much choice, since I can’t work and I won’t steal. I’ll do all I can to save your family and kin if they should fall into my hands but, as for the rest, I’ll make no promises.”

  It was just after darkness had fallen tonight that Girty and the other six men slipped away from McKee’s Rocks just below Fort Pitt, turned their backs on the American cause and headed for Detroit.

  [March 30, 1778—Monday]

  Gen. Edward Hand and Indian superintendent George Morgan were appalled when they were informed of the defection of the Alexander McKee party. The possible damage these men could do to American interests on the upper Ohio and among the various tribes was not lost on either. Hand quickly sent a report of it to the secretary of war, Gen. Horatio Gates, and then, aware that Col. William Crawford, a longtime friend of Girty, was at this time preparing a company of men for an intended expedition against the Indians well up the Allegheny on French Creek, immediately wrote to him of the potentially disastrous situation:

  Ft. Pitt, March 30th, 1778

  Dr. Crawford—

  … You will no doubt be surprised to hear that Mr. McKee, Matthew Elliott, Simon Girty, one Surplus and Higgins, with McKee’s two negroes, eloped on Saturday night. This will make it improper to proceed with the intended expedition to French Creek, which I beg you may give proper notice of to the gentlemen who are preparing for it; and as your assistance may be necessary towards preventing the evils that may arise from the information of these runaways, I beg you may return here as soon as possible.

  I am, Dr. Crawford, Sincerely yours,

  Edw. Hand, BG

  For his own part, Morgan was most concerned about the effect these defectors, as influential as they were among the Indians, would have on the tribes. Even as Gen. Hand was writing his letters, Morgan at once wrote to President of Congress Henry Laurens and, after a few introductory remarks, warned:

  The elopement of Mr. McKee, late Crown Agent at Pittsburgh, who most dishonourably broke his Parole on the 28th. inst., has somewhat checked the pleasing expectation I entertain’d respecting the Delawares and Shawnese, tho’ I think the former will not be altogether influenced by him. Four persons accompanied him, viz: Matthew Elliott, Simon Girty, Robin Surplis & _____ Higgins.

  Elliott had but a few weeks ago return’d from Detroit via New York on his Parole & I am told had possess’d Mr. McKee’s mind with the persuasion of his being assassinated on his Road to York. Indeed, several persons had express’d the like apprehensions and perhaps had also mention’d their fears to him, which I am of opinion has occasion’d his inexcusable Flight. It is also very probable that Elliott might have been employ’d to bring letters from Canada which may have influenced Mr. McKee’s conduct.

  Girty has served as Interpreter of the Six Nation Tongue at all the public Treaties here & I apprehend will influence his Brother, who is now on a Message from the Commissioners to the Shawnese, to join him.

  [April 1, 1778—Wednesday]

  There was a pleasant surprise awaiting Simon Girty when he reached the Delaware capital of Goschachgunk at the Forks of the Muskingum. His younger brother, James, and his Shawnee wife had arrived there only a short time before with packhorses carrying presents destined for the Shawnees. Only three days before Simon’s defection with McKee’s party, James had been sent by Indian superintendent George Morgan with gifts from the Indian commissioners to help appease the escalating ill feelings that that tribe harbored for the Americans and perhaps aid in preventing a full declaration of war.

  James was stunned—and pleased
—to learn of the defection and immediately announced he would defect as well and promptly joined them. He also confiscated the American gifts, deciding to disburse them among whatever Indians he cared to and however he saw fit: gifts that included a pair of broad armbands, a stroud, a calico shirt and pair of leggins, 18 silver rings, a large silver cross, half a dozen hair plates, six dozen brooches and a conch shell.

  A council was held at Goschachgunk in order for Alexander McKee and his associates to address the tribes. These men were among the few Americans for whom the tribes had any real respect and in whom they trusted, and with good reason: Simon Girty was very influential as an intermediary between the tribes and the Americans, especially where it concerned the Iroquois and Mingoes, whose tongue he spoke fluently; his brother, James, now one of them, also had a Shawnee wife and had long lived with that tribe as a Shawnee; Matthew Elliott, too, had married into the Shawnee tribe, had traded with them for many years and had often acted as an intermediary on their behalf; and McKee, who was said to be half-Indian by birth, had also married a Shawnee woman and, as deputy Indian agent under George Croghan, had been of great assistance to the tribes and was considered a highly important man who wielded great influence.

  It was McKee, in his speech now, who skillfully undermined the Americans and swayed the assembled listeners even more strongly toward the British.

  “Make no mistake, brothers,” he told them, “it is the avowed intention of the Americans to kill and destroy the whole Indian race, regardless of whether they are friends or foes. Why would they wish to do this? Because the very most important goal for them is this: They mean to possess themselves of this entire country. If they must do so by war, then that is what they will do, but if they can deceive you and trick you out of your lands without war, then they would prefer to do that. I tell you,” he said, swinging out his arms dramatically, “that even now they are preparing fine-sounding speeches to send among you to deceive you, that they may, when the time comes and with greater ease and safety for themselves, fall upon you and murder you and your wives and children. And then they will take your country.”