That Dark and Bloody River

by Allan Eckert

  519. The captive trader, John Leith, who was at this time camped at the site of present Tiffin, Seneca Co., O., while en route to his trading post near present Smithville, heard and noted the booming of the cannon, too, and thought the sound came from the New Half King’s Town at McCormick’s, but he was incorrect; in fact, he was only about ten miles from where the sound originated. That the reverberations of those cannon shots carried all the way to the army is rather remarkable, considering the usual muffling effect of fog and the considerable distance they traveled; at this time, though Matthew Elliott’s Rangers were within a few miles of reaching and reinforcing the Delawares and Wyandots in their Sandusky Towns, Butler’s artillery (a pair of three-pounder Grasshopper cannon and a 4.4 caliber Royal mortar or coehorn), traveling slower, were seven miles behind them, which would have placed them about in the vicinity of present McCutchenville or a little farther north on the trail from Detroit. This means the artillery was 20 miles or more distant from Crawford’s army when the cannon shots were heard.

  520. John Hoagland was a settler of the Pigeon Creek area.

  521. These springs were located in the center of what is now the city of Upper Sandusky, county seat of Wyandot Co., O. The actual springs are now covered over, but they were located in front of the present Moose Lodge, at the intersection of Third and Wyandot streets.

  522. Maj. Rose’s movement carried his detachment due north from present downtown Upper Sandusky along the route of present State Routes 53 and 67 for 1-¾ miles, at which point they angled in a more northeastward direction, following present State Route 67 another half-mile to the southeastern point of the grove of trees now known as Battle Island, where the present Battle Island Historical Marker is located, near the intersection of State Route 67 and County Road 47 (Temple Road). The grove at this point spread out to the northwest, north of County Road 47, stretching nearly to State Route 53, somewhat in the shape of a hot water bottle, with its neck pointing toward the southeast, the grove approximately a half-mile long and a quarter-mile wide. This “vantage ground,” as Maj. Rose referred to it, which soon became the site of the Battle of Sandusky, was atop a low hill that can be seen a half-mile northwest of the Battle Island Monument.

  523. The ravine where the Indians were hidden was a half-mile west of the present Parker covered bridge over the Sandusky River and about a mile north and west of the marker at the grave of Wyandot Chief Tarhe—The Crane. It runs into the Sandusky River and is located on the present U.S. Geological Survey topographical 7.5-minute Sycamore (Ohio) Quadrangle in Crane Township, Section 4, R14E T2S.

  524. Most of the accounts refer to Monakaduto by his English name, Half King, but some also use his alternative Wyandot name, Zhausshotoh.

  525. Capt. John Hoagland’s brother, Pvt. Richard Hoagland, was captured by the Shawnees and tortured to death.

  526. James Munn was a settler from the Mingo Creek area.

  527. William Brady survived the retreat and returned home safely. Later he went west to settle in Scioto Co., O., where he worked as a blacksmith.

  528. The ambush, which Crawford feared might occur, appears to have been attempted by the Indians a short while later. Although the accounts of participants do not mention it specifically, the Draper Collection (DD-S-1/2) has an 1843 memorandum to Lyman Draper from Ohio Gov. Jeremiah Morrow stating that near the road by which they had arrived, “a small party of warriors were observed, & were pursued a short distance, when it was suspected of being a decoy — the whites wheeled & then discovered themselves in the mouth of an ambuscade in the shape of a letter ‘V’.” Evidently they were able to escape the trap that had nearly been sprung upon them.

  529. Jonas Sams was the son of an eastern Pennsylvania tailor who, following the death of his wife, had moved westward across the Alleghenies with his two sons. Jonas and his younger brother, Jonathan, had both become hunters, combing the mountains in their quest for deer, bear and turkeys. The two became successful Indian fighters after joining the Westmoreland County militia and participating in several expeditions against the Indians, as well as assisting in the regular border patrols.

  530. On the Pennsylvania rifle of the type Jonas Sams was shooting, the sights at both front and rear were fixed and could not be adjusted for different ranges. However, while the front sight was a blade sight, the rear was a V-notched sight. Thus, by saying “I raised the hind sight,” Jonas Sams actually meant that he changed the elevation of his eye as he lined up rear sight with front sight—a skill that came with experience. It should also be noted that an unresolved situation exists in regard to this remarkable shot made by Jonas Sams. The only British officer recorded as shot during the Battle of Sandusky was correctly identified as Capt. William Caldwell of the British Rangers, and Caldwell himself, in a letter to the Detroit commander shortly after the battle, remarks that he was forced to retire from the field early in the battle when a single ball passed completely through one of his legs and lodged in the other. What makes it peculiar is that Caldwell was mounted at the time on a fine white horse and it would seem that if the ball struck him in both legs, it would also have had to pass through the horse; yet Sams states that his ball fetched the officer to the ground from his horse and makes no mention whatever about the horse being hit as well, which he almost certainly would have done had the one-ounce lead ball he shot also passed through the horse. Whatever the case, while the wounds Caldwell suffered were evidently severe enough to force that officer to leave the field of action, they must not have been too terrible, since Capt. Caldwell, within only a few weeks after this Battle of Sandusky, attended the Grand Council of tribes held at Chalahgawtha in early August, and subsequently joined in the invasion of Kentucky, which was a strenuous ride of some 200 miles.

  531. The term on-briching, to remove a fouled lead ball in the barrel, was in common usage at the time and meant this: The Pennsylvania or Kentucky rifle was equipped with a metal plug at the end of the breech facing the shooter. This plug could be removed and a small depression drilled or filed into the end of the plug that faced the firing chamber. With this done and the plug reseated, if and when a ball jammed, it was possible to dislodge it by forcing a small amount of very fine gunpowder through the touch hole and into the concavity in the plug. Then more powder was placed in the pan, and the gun was fired. The flint, as it was supposed to do, would spark and ignite the powder in the pan, and this ignition would continue through the touch hole to the powder in the concavity in the plug. The resultant burst usually had enough force to cause the jammed ball to exit out the muzzle of the gun. If, however, this maneuver failed, or the plug had not been drilled to allow the process, then the breech plug would have to be removed and the jammed lead ball pushed out with a ramrod.

  532. Among the volunteers was Francis Dunlavy, later a judge, who also reported seeing a number of cowards hiding among the baggage, horses and packsaddles, as well as behind logs, in the middle of the woods near the knoll. One of these was a man he identified as a Pvt. Saltzman.

  533. No official figure seems to exist for the number of enemies opposing the Americans at the Battle of Sandusky, but the most generally accepted estimate is slightly more than 600 warriors, before their number was increased by the arrival of the war party of 200 Shawnees to assist the Wyandots and Delawares.

  534. The soldier whose upper lip was shot away was not identified beyond the fact that he was a miller. He survived his wound.

  535. The British artillery never did arrive in time to be used against the Americans during this battle.

  536. These 15 deserters—not identified by name except for the Pvt. Saltzman, who had earlier hidden in cowardly fashion amid the baggage and horses in the center of the woods—managed to get back to Fort Pitt and quickly spread the story that Crawford’s army “was cut to pieces.”

  537. One account says the Shawnee reinforcement amounted to 1,100 warriors. A few other accounts say the Shawnee party amounted to 500 or 600 warriors, but these figures are clearly e
xaggerations, and 200 or thereabouts seems to be the correct figure. Contrary to popular belief, the Indians’ practice of painting their faces and upper bodies in various designs—often geometrical—before battle or when going out on raids was not done to strike fear in their enemies but rather to look handsome in the event they were killed and were seen by the Great Spirit.

  538. Benjamin Newland was born in 1763 to Quakers William and Hannah (Benson) Newland of York Co., Pa. A large, well-built youth who looked older than his years, he had joined the militia in 1779 at age 15 and, following the Battle of Yorktown, had helped guard British prisoners at Hagerstown, Md. He was ejected from the Society of Friends for taking up arms, and as soon as his term of enlistment was concluded, he settled in the west on his own. Within a year he was captured by the Shawnees, survived two severe gauntlet runs and was adopted into the tribe, living with them at Wapatomica. He had been taken to the Sandusky to “prove himself as a new Shawnee warrior.” He eventually settled in Bedford, Ind., where the Newland (Newlon) family still lives.

  539. The Oak Creek Trail to which Leet referred was the one that had been used the previous autumn by the Moravian Indians when they were forcibly removed from their Tuscarawas settlements to Sandusky by their nonproselytized brother Delawares and Wyandots.

  540. Pvt. John Orr survived the retreat and finally reached his home on Maj. John McClelland’s horse. His leg wound did not heal properly and left him with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life. He finally died in Preston County, Va., in 1840 at the age of 77.

  541. The belief that Crawford, Slover and Knight had abandoned the army to their fate persisted for many years among some of the survivors, even though it later became widely known what had actually transpired.

  542. It is believed that at least five of the sentries were killed at this time.

  543. In his journal comments regarding the formation of the retreat and ensuing panic, Maj. John Rose wrote: “under these circumstances to save the larger body could have been obtained only by sacrificing a part. But what part of our troops would have obeyed a commanding officer to plunge themselves in, between the Shawnoes and Delawares, whilst the main Body would make their escape by a circuitous march. Here let us ascribe to Providence and her marvelous imposition the execution of a plan, by which only, so large a Body could have been saved. She made use of a superlative Scoundrel for this end. A certain captain Hardin …, impelled by fear and rascality united, spoke largely against the measure adopted, concerning the roads chosen to retreat on. His fear fixed the enemy’s number from 700 to 1000 … and he easily found a party among the younger Sort, to whom his age & experience were arguments of conviction. He actually moved from the ground W. towards the town [a small Delaware village in that direction] with a large gang, when Col. Crawford detained the main Body, just going to march off, and went to turn the Miller and the miller’s followers. Hardin was fired on by the ennemy on leaving our camp; and this firing was supposed by every man an attack upon our encampment. Every man consequently run off, at the discharge of the very first gun, as if it had been a signal agreed upon, to disperse & shift as well as one could for himself. By a secret impulse the whole took pall-mall to the south, collecting as they kick’d along, to some one officer or other; except some few [that is, head of McClelland’s division] paraded in the front of the Line. These thinking the Rear was pushing after them and not willing to loose the chance of getting first through—cut & whipp’d at a horrid rate along the path, agreed to retire on. They mostly all, fell a sacrifice to the ennemy’s fury, who narrowly watched the road. The small part also drew the ennemy’s [sic] attention, whilst the larger body got round [the cranberry bog] unmolested.”

  544. No other mention is made of Jonathan Zane in the known accounts of the remainder of the expedition. He did, however, survive the Crawford Campaign and resumed his life at Wheeling, where he lived the rest of his life in his house located just a short distance above the present First Ward Public School. He had acquired much land, the majority of which was left to his nine children, Catherine, Eliza, Cynthia, Sally, Hannah, Nancy, Isaac, Asa and Benjamin.

  545. Francis Dunlavy survived the campaign and later attended Dickinson College, where he studied for the ministry but soon gave up that aspiration when he decided he could not speak loudly enough to address large congregations. Still later he moved to Ohio and taught classical school near Cincinnati. During 1795 and 1796 he took an extensive tour of the Ohio River and Mississippi River by canoe, during which he recorded his impressions meticulously in Latin. He planned eventually to put these notes into a volume for publication, but one of his tenant farmers in 1825 came across the notes, which had faded with age, and, believing them to be trash, threw them away, to the everlasting regret of their owner. Dunlavy served as a congressman in the first Ohio legislature and then received an appointment as a circuit judge. He died in advanced years at his home in Lebanon, O.

  546. Though no other account makes mention of it, years later during an interview, the Shawnee war chief, Shemeneto—Black Snake—said that during the retreat the Shawnees thought the British Rangers with them, in the darkness and confusion, were firing at them, and thereupon they retaliated by firing on their white allies.

  547. One account says that these three, after great difficulty, finally made it back to the Virginia frontier and were rescued by a border patrol of Capt. Sam Brady’s scouts. Actually, that is an error, as will be seen.

  548. Pvt. William Nemins’s surname is, in some accounts, spelled Nemons.

  549. Pvt. William Collins and his unidentified companions made their way overland, traveling only at night and subsisting on anything they could find, from wild strawberries to grubs beneath the bark of rotting logs. In badly weakened condition, they finally reached Montour Bottom two weeks later, and there they remained a week until finally discovered by a man out claiming land. They were too weak to travel, so the unidentified man returned to the settlements, where horses were impressed to carry the four men home, where they recovered from their ordeal.

  550. Myers rode the horse so hard that the animal gave out by morning, and Myers abandoned it and continued afoot. Eventually reaching the Schoenbrun ruins, he waded through chest-deep water to cross the Tuscarawas and, on the other side, connected with 50 of the volunteers, who were traveling as a group and cooking the meat of one of their horses that they had killed. The entire group got in safely four days later. Both Swigart and Myers managed to get home safely, too, though Myers lost his gun. Swigart, on foot all night, the following day encountered the horse Myers had abandoned. The horse was reasonably rested by this time, and Swigart caught it, mounted and rode the rest of the way home at an easy pace. It is not known what became of him afterward.

  551. The five men who turned off on the lesser trail and headed eastward were never heard of again and apparently blundered back into the hands of the Indians. Jonas Sams and his four companions never did overtake the unit from which they had become separated, but about a fortnight later, famished and exhausted to the point that they could barely walk, they reached the Ohio River near the mouth of Yellow Creek. After resting there for a day, they followed the larger stream up to Fort McIntosh, where they found haven and were transported by boat to Fort Pitt.

  552. In these early returns of the Indians, it is believed they had with them about a dozen scalps and half again that many prisoners.

  553. The place where the horses of Col. Crawford and Dr. Knight gave out was approximately two miles northeast of the present town of Osceola in Crawford Co., O. They made camp in the same present county, on what is now Andrews Road, about at the boundary line of Holmes and Liberty townships.

  554. The Olentangy River is a major tributary of the Scioto River and empties into that latter stream some 35 miles downstream, within the limits of the present capital city of Columbus, Franklin Co., O.

  555. The group of 17 deserters was overtaken and killed on the west bank of the Olentangy River near the present (199
3) Snyder Road bridge on the farms of John and Mary Ehmann and Alice and Gail Crall. The second group, 12 men, was pursued a mile farther to the southeast, where they, too, were slaughtered.

  556. The fight here was, many years later, dubbed the Battle of the Olentangy by historian Consul Wilshire Butterfield, and the designation stuck, though it was truly far more a skirmish than an actual battle. Later a monument commemorating the Battle of the Olentangy of June 6, 1782, was erected. It is located in Crawford Co., O., halfway between present Bucyrus and Galion on State Route 19 near the bridge crossing the Olentangy River. The actual fight, though, occurred not there but on a more elevated piece of ground just within sight to the northeast, five miles southeast of the present city of Bucyrus, in the northwest quadrant of Section 22, Jefferson Township, Crawford Co., O.

  557. Brigade Maj. Daniel Leet, as well as his brother, Capt. William Leet, survived the retreat. Maj. Leet subsequently resumed his work as a surveyor. He married within a year and settled with his wife on Chartier’s Creek, three miles upstream from his father’s place. He was employed in helping to lay out Western Pennsylvania’s Depreciation Lands and later became a member of the justice court of the legislature. He also was prominent in assisting the poor with donations of clothing and food. He died in 1830 in Sewickley Valley, Allegheny Co., Pa.

  558. Capt. John Biggs was not burned at the stake, as some accounts have stated.