When Fate Summons : A Biography of General Richard Butler, 1743 - 1791 9781936320844

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WHEN FATE SUMMONS

WHEN FATE SUMMONS A BIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL RICHARD BUTLER, 1743-1791

HARRY M. WARD

ACADEMICA PRESS BETHESDA - DUBLIN - PALO ALTO

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Ward, Harry M. When fate summons : a biography of General Richard Butler, 1743-1791 / Harry M. Ward. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-936320-84-4 (alk. paper) 1. Butler, Richard, 1743-1791. 2. Generals--United States--Biography. 3. Indians of North America--Wars--1790-1794--Biography. 4. Indians of North America--Government relations--History--18th century. 5. St. Clair's Campaign, 1791. 6. United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Biography. 7. United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Campaigns. 8. United States. Continental Army--Officers--Biography. 9. United States. Army--Biography. I. Title. II. Title: Biography of General Richard Butler, 1743-1791. E83.79.W37 2013 355.0092--dc23 [B] 2013037610

Copyright 2014 by Harry M. Ward

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Academica Press, LLC Box 60728 Cambridge Station Palo Alto, CA. 94306 Website: www.academicapress.com to order: 650-329-0685

CONTENTS List of Illustrations

vii

Preface

ix

Chapters 1

New Frontiers

1

2

Indian Agent

9

3

Saratoga

17

4

Monmouth and Light Infantry

25

5

Stony Point

33

6

Mutiny

39

7

Virginia

45

8

Yorktown

51

9

Mutiny II

57

10

Fort Stanwix Treaty

63

11

Fort McIntosh Treaty

69

12

Fort Finney Treaty

77

13

Superintendent of Indian Affairs

85

14

Fort Harmar Treaties

95

15

Road to Hell

105

16

Massacre

113

17

Postscript to Tragedy

119

Appendices A

“The Fighting Butler Brothers”

125

B

Three Seneca Friends

135

C

Ordinance for the Regulation and Management of Indian Affairs

145

When Fate Summons

vi D

Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1784

149

E

Treaty of Fort McIntosh, 1785

151

F

Treaty of Fort Finney, 1786

157

G

Treaties of Fort Harmar, 1789

159

(1) Ohio Indians (2) Six Nations Notes

175

Bibliography

209

Index

229

ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATIONS 1.

Frontispiece - Richard Butler; William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan

2.

Daniel Morgan; by Charles Willson Peale (c. 1794); Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park

3.

General Nathanael Greene; By Charles Willson Peals (1783); Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park

4.

General Anthony Wayne; by James Sharples, Sr., from life (1796); Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park

5.

Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line; William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan

6.

Pittsburgh, 1790; engraved of a drawing by Seth Eastman; Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

7.

Secretary of War Henry Knox; William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan

8.

Arthur St. Clair by Charles Willson Peale (1782-1784); Courtesy of the Independence Historical Park

9.

Ki-On-Twog-ky, or Corn Planter, a Seneca Chief; Library of Congress

10.

Death of General Richard Butler at the Battle of the Wabash, Nov 4, 1791; In Henry Trumbull, History of the Discovery of America. Norwich, CT., 1811.

MAPS 1.

Map of Richard Butler’s Route to the Ohio Indian Towns. Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, vol. 47, p.14

In Western

2. Area of Campaigns of Washington’s Army, 1776-1777; Drawing by Paul Nickerson 3. Area of British Invasions in Virginia; 1781; Drawing by Paul Nickerson

PREFACE

“The events of Richard Butler’s life read like a classic American success story, absent

the happy ending,” writes a recent chronicler.1

Indeed the

ambitious and industrious Irishman, who grew up on the Pennsylvania frontier, had a remarkable career as a military hero and a leader in Indian relations. It was his misfortune to have an ill-fated rendezvous in the wilderness.

Although

occasionally exhibiting a choleric disposition, Butler won a reputation for being level-headed and friendly among both native Americans and whites — soldiers and civilians. Richard Butler first saw military duty as an ensign in the Pennsylvania militia at the end of the French and Indian War, when he served on a British-led Indian expedition into the Ohio country in 1764. Thereafter, for a decade, he became virtually a “white Indian” in the capacity of trader among the Ohio Indians and western Iroquois. He was fluent in the Shawnee language. During Dunmore’s War (with the Shawnees in particular) of 1774 he endured great peril by continuing his relationship with the Indians. He was caught up in the almost armed conflict between Pennsylvania and Virginia over a disputed boundary during 1774-75. At the start of the Revolution Butler served as a commissioner under the Continental Congress for Indian Affairs and arranged the important Indian conference at Fort Pitt in 1775. Entering the Continental army as a captain in January 1776, Butler quickly rose in the ranks to Colonel, commanding a regiment from mid-1777 to the end of the war. He fought in skirmishes in New Jersey, most notably at Bound Brook in April 1777. On special assignment to Colonel Daniel Morgan’s Corps of Light Infantry, he distinguished himself through the thick of the fighting at Saratoga—at

When Fate Summons

x

both the battles of Freeman’s Farm and Bemis’s Heights, culminating in the surrender of the British invading army. Butler re-joined Washington’s army in late October 1777. He fought at Gloucester in November 1777. At Valley Forge Butler was active in foraging and reconnaissance missions. He was with General Anthony Wayne’s troops at the battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778. Afterwards he participated in the revived light infantry corps under General Charles Scott, and under the subsequent corps commander, Wayne, at the storming of Stony Point on July 16, 1779. Butler had a major role in quashing mutiny—first of the Pennsylvania line in January 1781 and of some of his own troops at Lancaster and Philadelphia in June 1783. During the Virginia campaigns of 1781 Butler fought off Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe’s Rangers in June 1781 and was on the lines at the siege of Yorktown. After the war Butler had an energetic career as a leading diplomat and administrator in Indian affairs. He served as superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department for the Confederation government, 1786-1788. He was a principal negotiator for four important Indian treaties of the 1780s. Serving briefly in local and state political offices, Butler re-entered the army in 1791 as a brigadier general and second in command of the western army.

Versus the

Indians in the Ohio country Butler met his awful fate. A biography of Butler not only appraises the life of a leading figure in the founding of the nation and a frontier and war hero but contributes also to an understanding of life and events of the generative period of the American Republic. Most all of Richard Butler’s extant papers have been published, including those documents taken from his person at the time of his death on the battlefield and subsequently deposited at in the Burton collection at the Detroit Public Library. Several ground-breaking studies pertaining to the life of Richard Butler have aided in the writing of this biography, most notably Katlin Remensky, “Richard Butler: American Patriot” (MA Thesis). I greatly appreciate assistance

Chapter One: New Frontiers

xi

given by the staffs of the Library of Virginia and the University of Richmond. At the latter institution, Betty Tobias secured the many interlibrary loans.

CHAPTER ONE NEW FRONTIERS Of humble origins, Richard Butler reflected the gentility and diligence from the best qualities of his forbears in the Anglo-Irish nobility. The eldest of eleven children (three died in infancy) of Thomas and Eleanor Parker (b. 26 Oct. 1722) Butler, Richard Butler was born in Dublin, Ireland in April 1, 1743. He descended from Theobald Walton, who went to Ireland from England in 1172 and was appointed Chief Butler of Ireland. From the office of Butlership, the family acquired their surname. During subsequent generations the Butlers held various ranks of nobility. Richard’s father, Thomas, born in Dublin in 1720, was the grandson of Edmund Butler, eighth Baronet Dunboyne. The family’s estates were attainted during the reign of Charles II.1 Almost nothing is known of Thomas Butler and his family in Ireland and England before their coming to America in 1748. The family apparently moved to London in 1744 or 1745. Thomas, the father, was an engaged member of the Church of England; in Carlisle, Pennsylvania he was a principal mover for the construction of St. John’s Episcopal Church. Richard and his brothers, however, displayed slight interest in religion.2 Thomas was a blacksmith/gunsmith, a craft he passed on to Richard. Richard probably had no formal education before coming to America. The reason for the family emigrating to America was most likely owing to economic opportunity. There is a possibility that Thomas Butler, as a member of the Old Anglo-Irish community may have favored the ill-fated Jacobite cause of 1746 and considered it at his peril to remain in the British Isles. As one writer notes, the uprising to put Charles Edward Stuart on the throne in the mid l740s

When Fate Summons

2

“reverberated through all levels of the Irish community.”3 Religious lines were breeched as lower middle class and artisan groups became disaffected with British rule in Ireland.4 Richard Butler grew into a 5’6” muscular lad, and in later years was described as “being very fleshy.” He discarded any traces of an Irish brogue. Butler made friends easily, even among Native-Americans, with whom he closely associated for about eight years in the fur trade and eventually as an esteemed Indian diplomat. Butler became fluent in the native languages, and it was said that when he lost his temper he resorted to talking like an Indian. Although regarded as congenial by his peers, when provoked, he probably on occasion could exhibit aggressive behavior.

Sergeant Joseph Plumb Martin, who had

served under Richard Butler in 1777, said of him when he learned of Butler’s death in 1791, that “he was a brave officer, but a fiery, austere hothead. Whenever he had a dispute with a brother officer, and that was pretty often, he would never resort to pistols and swords, but always to fists.”5 When Richard Butler and his family came to America, they first settled at Lancaster, Pennsylvania and then soon moved to Mount Pleasant, in Cumberland County. The father farmed but also began renewing his gunsmith craft. For a while Richard was sent away to Rev. Allison’s school in Chester County for part of each year. In the late 1750s, Thomas Butler and his family moved to Carlisle, also in Cumberland County, where he established a gun shop. Richard Butler learned the craft, and himself became an experienced gunsmith. Carlisle was a small village in southern Pennsylvania, almost equidistant between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. At the time the Butlers arrived at Carlisle, the village was at the cutting edge of the western frontier. During the French and Indian War, Carlisle became the major staging depot for men and supplies for the army as it pressed westward. Although Thomas Butler may have had a hand in making some of the famous Pennsylvania (Kentucky) long rifles, it seems that during the French and Indian War his shop was employed simply in the repair of arms. An order book at “camp near Carlisle” for July 3, 1759 noted:

Chapter One: New Frontiers

3

Officers are to examine once a day their soldiers, Arms, and Ammunition, and confine such soldiers whose Arms are out of order through negligence or waste their ammunition. All arms out of order will be repaired at once. Mr. Butler is the Smith appointed for this purpose”6 From January 1777 to April 1778, Thomas Butler served under an appointment of the Congressional Board of War as “continental armourer.” For some reason he was dismissed and replaced by William Henry of Lancaster County, with the position then designated as “superintendent of arms and military accoutrements.”7 In the fall of l764 Richard Butler acted as an officer in Colonel Henry Bouquet’s military force which marched into the Ohio Indian country to compel certain tribes (Shawnees, Mingoes, western Senecas, and Delawares) to abide by peace terms resulting from Bouquet’s victory at the battle of Bushy Run (26 miles southeast of Pittsburgh) the year before. Bouquet’s new troops consisted of two regiments of Pennsylvanians in addition to royal troops and some Virginia militia, making for a total of 1700 men. Richard Butler obtained a commission as an ensign in Captain James Hendricks’s company of Lt. Col. Turbutt Hendricks’s first Pennsylvania regiment.8

The brief military experience proved a double

opportunity for Richard Butler. First, it paved the way for him to enter the Indian trade, and secondly, gave him just enough introduction into army life that prepared him for becoming a high ranking officer during the Revolutionary War. Bouquet assembled his little army at Carlisle, and on August 10 marched out on the Forbes Road, which Bouquet had helped to build six years before. Journeying over the mountains, the troops reached Pittsburgh on September 17. On the way the army spent eighteen days at Fort Loudoun in training for combat readiness. On October 3, the troops marched out of Pittsburgh, and on October 13 arrived at the Indian town of Tuscarowas, where a conference was held with Seneca, Delaware, and Shawnee chiefs, with discussion emphasizing surrender of captives held by the Indians. On October 22, the army, accompanied by the Indian leaders already present, headed for the forks of the Muskingum River, 150

4

When Fate Summons

miles from Fort Pitt, arriving at that place on the 25th. The site was designated as the place for receiving captives brought in by the Indians.9 At the Muskingum camp, October 25-November 14, conferences continued with the Indians, while at the same time captives were daily delivered by the Indians. A total of 206 white prisoners were brought in, 125 of whom were women and children. Scenes of anguish ensued as tears were shed by both Indians and whites as some prisoners, many held since early childhood, were torn away from their adopted native families. As one writer notes, “many of the captives had to be bound when delivered to Bouquet, to keep them from returning to their Indian relatives and friends.” As the army headed to Fort Pitt, many Indians followed their spouses. Bouquet’s army and their white captives reached Fort Pitt on November 28. Governor John Penn of Pennsylvania on December 5, 1764 declared the war with the western Indians (“Pontiac’s War”) at an end.10 Richard Butler returned to gunsmith work in Pittsburgh.11 With the British government’s declaration (Proclamation of 1763) that territory westward of the Alleghenies constituted an Indian reservation, Richard Butler saw an opportunity to prosper in the Indian trade. Indeed the authorities encouraged trade, as long as white participants were licensed and brought their goods to government mandated depots. Richard and his brother William in 1766 or 1767 formed a partnership, with headquarters in Pittsburgh. Not only did the brothers directly involve themselves in the Indian trade, they periodically joined Indian hunting expeditions. Richard and William Butler were observed in 1773 being “engaged with several Mingoes in a hunting trip, which proceeded as far west as Vincennes on the Wabash.” They stayed several days, partaking of “the luxuries of that miserable place, and had several talks with the French inhabitants and Piankashaw Indians.” After “a long and fatiguing, but successful hunting” they returned to Pennsylvania. “In these excursions they obtained a knowledge of the Indian manners and mode of warfare.”12 In the decade before the Revolution Pennsylvania traders poured into the Ohio frontier; sometimes they ventured as far as the Illinois country and beyond

Chapter One: New Frontiers

5

and northward to the Great Lakes. The Butler brothers paid most attention to the Shawnee towns along the Scioto River, besides which ran the Warrior’s Path that connected with Kentucky. Richard Butler could be found most often at the Indian villages of Kispoko and Chillicothe, both located along the Scioto. The European trading goods used by the Butler brothers for barter with the Indians were usually that which came on consignment from the Philadelphia firms of Barnard and Michael Gratz and Baynton, Wharton & Morgan. The Butler brothers had wagons, canoes, and pack horses to transport the huge quantity of goods brought into the Shawnee villages, consisting of cloth hogsheads of rum, cloth, guns, powder, lead, flints knives, tools, kettles, containers, baubles, paint, and beads.13 Richard Butler was always noted for his kind disposition toward the Indians and also towards other white persons in the Indian country. In 1773 he befriended the traveling Baptist minister, David Jones, by giving him “some leggings to use as barter with the Indians.”14 During a decade in the Indian trade, with himself becoming somewhat of a ‘white Indian,’ Richard Butler had the satisfaction, so he thought, of the Shawnees becoming more civilized. Most all of the Indian clothing was no longer made from animal skins but instead from European goods. Beads and ribbons were now used for decoration rather than quills, bones, shells, and wood. European jewelry and tools were now also on display.15 On the other hand, the traders had a detrimental effect on Indian life. Although it could not be said of Richard Butler, traders were known for their excessive greed, debauching women, and generally being untrustworthy—lying, cheating, and stealing.16 Trouble came Richard Butler’s way initially not from hostility from Indians to his fur trading, but from a clash in western Pennsylvania between Pennsylvania fur traders and the settlers from Virginia. Sparking the controversy was the arrival of settlers into the territory ceded by Indians by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768. Land companies lured immigrants into the interior country. Governor Lord Dunmore of Virginia in August 1773 appeared at Fort Pitt, and decided that the many persons already living in the vicinity of Fort Pitt were in

When Fate Summons

6

need of government and therefore issued a proclamation declaring the area under the jurisdiction of Virginia. Meanwhile, Dr. John Connolly, whom Dunmore appointed as his western agent and to command at Fort Pitt, declared the Pittsburgh area under Virginia control and proceeded to establish a court system and militia under Virginia authority.

Richard Butler was among those who

presented depositions protesting Connelly’s high-handed measures, which included impressment of property, killing sheep and hogs belonging to Pennsylvania supporters and confining leading opponents to jail at Fort Pitt.17 Connelly ordered the stoppage of trade with the Shawnee Indians. Subsequently Richard Butler and his three young assistants--George McCully, James Chambers, and James McFarlane—were charged with carrying on “an unlawful Correspondence and Trade with the Enemy,” and jailed for two weeks. During his confinement, Butler was “in hourly danger of his life.”18 Butler was released after a trial which found “nothing criminal” against him.19 Persecution against Richard Butler continued briefly. Arthur St. Clair, clerk of the Bedford County Court, wrote Governor John Penn of Pennsylvania, in August 1774, that “a woman who kept house for Mr. Butler has been drummed all around the town, for the crime of going to see him in his distress.” Furthermore, Butler was “treated with every instance of insult and abuse.”20

Connelly

threatened to send Butler to Virginia in irons “and to take every farthing’s worth of his property from him.”2l To the advantage of Butler, Connelly’s tyranny and the Pennsylvania and Virginia jurisdictional dispute soon played out.

With the coming of the

Revolutionary War, Connelly was arrested as a dangerous Tory, and spent most of the war in confinement. Although the war somewhat delayed a boundary decision between Virginia (West Virginia) and Pennsylvania, a settlement was amicably agreed upon in the early 1780s. Contributing to an end of the dispute was owing in large part that the two contending groups coming to the frontier— Pennsylvanians and Virginians—were of the same ethnic identity—Scotch-Irish.22 Richard Butler’s friendly relations with the Ohio Indians received further

Chapter One: New Frontiers

7

obstruction from Virginia authorities. Indeed, his life was imperiled during the events that led up to Dunmore’s War (fall 1774), and the hostilities brought him a heavy loss in property. In late August 1774, Butler penned an “Account of the Rise of the Indian War, 1774,” in which he defended his friends, the Shawnee Indians, and placed the blame or the military conflict on lawless frontiersmen. According to Butler, these Indians “were as friendly as I have known them this four years past, and in general paid their debts as their ability would admit very well with me.” The Shawnees at the time were merely preparing for “a great Summer Hunt.” Butler cited atrocities committed by lawless frontiersmen. An Indian chief was murdered on the Ohio River on his way home from Pittsburgh. Butler mentioned that one of his canoes had been robbed and its attendant killed by Cherokees, not by Shawnees.

Another of Richard Butler’s canoes was

likewise robbed, and a Delaware Indian in charge was killed presumably by Shawnees, but this act was disowned by the tribe. Butler stressed the horrible murder of five Mingo men and a squaw by a group of depraved whites at Yellow Creek at its mouth on the Ohio River. This deed, Butler noted, “alarmed the Shawnees very much,” but these Indians were instrumental in preventing immediate retaliation by Mingoes who lived along the Scioto River. At the time of the Yellow Creek massacre, Butler was in the field, and therefore at great risk. Actually “three Mingoes men and one Boy, and one of the Shawnese People” set out to rob and murder Butler and his companions. But the Shawnee “Head Men” provided an escort to protect Butler and his party. When the would-be avengers came into Butler’s camp, the Shawnee guardians talked them into leaving peaceably. A Shawnee escort, including the brother of the great chief, Cornstalk, stayed with Butler and his men until they reached Pittsburgh. Cornstalk sent with Butler a speech addressed to the governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia and to the Commandant at Pittsburgh (John Connolly) “intreating them to put a stop to any further hostilities, and they would endeavour to do the same.”

At Pittsburgh, Connolly refused to receive Butler and

Cornstalk’s speech and also denied protection to the three friendly Indians that

When Fate Summons

8

had accompanied Butler and his men on their return. Forty armed whites went out to seize the escort Indians, but traders whisked them away to safety and gave them “handsome Presents.” Even then one of these Indians was fired upon and wounded. Further white atrocities finally impelled the Shawnees to take to the warpath.23 The Virginia government was eager to start an Indian war along the Ohio River, from which a result would be to secure lands the colony claimed. Governor Dunmore dispatched troops in two divisions to the western country: 1,000 men from upcountry Virginia under General Andrew Lewis and 1,000 from Pittsburgh commanded by the governor himself. Cornstalk and his Shawnees decided to take the initiative.

While Lewis’s force, on October 10, 1774,

encamped at Point Pleasant, one-half mile from the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, the Indians began an attack at dawn. Fortunately for Lewis’s troops, they had forewarning.

After fierce combat lasting most of the day,

Cornstalk, fearing a reinforcement about to arrive for his opponents, withdrew across the Ohio. A hasty peace, the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, determined in the field, brought “Dunmore’s War” to an end.24 Despite enduring loss of merchandise during the conflict and to some extent the forfeit of some good will because of the hostilities, Richard Butler was willing to make use of his long experience of close association with the Indians. Service in Indian relations under the auspice of the new Continental Congress beckoned him.

CHAPTER TWO INDIAN AGENT As a prominent trader in the Ohio Valley and facile in Indian languages, Richard Butler attracted the attention of the Continental Congress in summer 1775. Congress faced the challenge of winning Indian allies or at least ensure neutrality as the Revolutionary War began. On July 12, 1775 Congress created three Indian departments. Named as commissioners for the Northern Department were General Philip Schuyler, Joseph Hawley, Turbutt Francis, Volkert P. Douw, and Oliver Wolcott; Hawley was soon replaced by Timothy Edwards. Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, and James Wilson became the commissioners for the Middle Department. No appointments were made for the Southern Department. The Northern Department was to deal with the Iroquois and all other northern tribes. The Southern Department had the superintendency of the Cherokees and other southern tribes.

The Middle

Department was assigned all Indians in between the two other departments. All the commissioners served under the direction of the Committee of Congress for Indian Affairs. John Gibson was appointed agent for the Middle Department, but was soon replaced by Richard Butler, who would serve until April 10, 1776 when George Morgan, a partner of the powerful merchant firm, Bayton, Wharton & Morgan, replaced him.1 Butler was a wise selection.

Already the Native Americans were

appreciative of his friendliness and fair dealing in the Indian trade. Butler initially had a two-pronged mission, both to be accomplished by a tour of the Indian towns of Pennsylvania’s western frontier. He was to deliver an address to the Indian leaders, drawn up by Congress, stating that the war was a family quarrel and the

When Fate Summons

10

Indians should remain neutral. The address also warned the Indians to stay clear of any alliance with the British, pointing out that since the British had taken away property of the Americans, the same could happen to the Indians.2 The second order of business for Richard Butler during his visits to the tribes was personally to issue invitations to attend a conference with American delegates at Fort Pitt. Butler visited specifically Delaware, Wyandot, Mingo, Shawnee, and Mingo towns. He had as travel companions Robert McCully, Thomas Nicholson, and for short distances, various chiefs.

Guyasuta, the highly regarded chief of the

Allegheny (or western) Senecas, was the travel companion on the return journey.3 Butler set out from Pittsburgh on August 22, 1775. He kept a detailed journal,4 which, with Butler himself being an interpreter, mirrored all the nuances and inflections of the Indian languages in the speeches that he recorded. The mission was risky. Already some of the Ohio Indians had indicated hostility to the American Revolutionary cause. On the second day out, Butler and his companions stopped at Logstown, where they visited with an elderly Delaware chief, Newcomer. Then they went further down along the Ohio River along the well-trodden Indian path until they reached Tuscarowas, a Delaware town on a branch of the Muskingum River (today Bolivar, Ohio). On the way they saw nothing disturbing, only a “Drunk Indian Lying on the road.” By August 28 the travellers had a stay over at Cosshochking (today Coshhocton, Ohio), a Wyandot town, where they learned that Colonel Guy Johnson, the new British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, was prompting the Ohio Indians to conclude a treaty at Detroit.

Next the Butler party visited

Windihala, at the mouth of the Scioto River and then Koshosing (or Owl Town). Moving up the Scioto River Butler and his comrades could be found at Big Lick (today Mount Vernon, Ohio) and then on September 2 at Pluggy’s Town (Delaware, Ohio) they conferred with Shawnee chiefs Pluggy and M’Clellan, Mingo chiefs Apple Tree and Black Wolf, and Blacksnake of the Senecas. These Indian leaders were told to “be Strong and Come” to the treaty conference to be

Chapter Two: Indian Agent

11

held at Pittsburgh and “that the Invitation is not from the Big Knife [Virginia] Only “but from the “Whole of their brothers the English.” If the Indians missed this opportunity they “would be long in the Dark;” furthermore, “the white people wanted to become their friends and be as one people.” At Wyandot Town, September 3-5, Butler presided over a “council” with the Indians; in attendance there were a dozen traders, including Richard’s brother, William Butler. A woman named “Spitfire” arrived with “a piece of Very bad news that had like to Ruined All.”

A trader, John Edwards, had been

tomahawked and scalped at a camp along the Scioto River; the murderer, Snip, a Wyandot Indian, stole what goods he wanted. Richard Butler assured the Indian leaders there would be no white retaliation. On the last day at Wyandot Town, some of the Indians became drunk and in a dispute one Indian bit off the nose of another. As to the matter of the murdered trader, Richard Butler convinced the Indians of the gravity of the affair but delicately persuaded them not to let it interfere with the ensuing conference at Pittsburgh.

Passing out strings of

wampum to assembled Indians, Butler declared: We Now with this belt Draw the Tomhock out of your heads And heal the wound & bury the tomhock So Deep that it Shall No more be Seen by Us Or you & we wash Away the blood Never to be thought of more . . . We believe that you Are Sorry for this Sad affair . . . therefore we Desire you to hearken to us; we tell you to be Strong & Advise your people to take care for the future Not to be guilty of the like Any more; that we Come here as brothers and friends to buy your Skins and Sell you Our goods, that we think it Very hard that Ourselves and Our People is in So much Danger of our and their lives in Doing this Business therefor tell you, you Out to Protect us and Not hurt us; we do Expect you will Bury our Dear Friend Out of Our Sight, and that you will bring back our property and Restore it to us . . . . Various Indians put pressure on the “Villain” Indian who had killed Edwards, and all the stolen property was restored; otherwise the murderer seems not to have

When Fate Summons

12 been punished.

Butler and his companions next went to a Shawnee town, Old Chillicothe (also known as

Hockhocking, now Lancaster, Ohio). Somewhere on the way

Butler conferred with the famous Shawnee chief, Cornstalk. Heading back to Pittsburgh, on September 16 the travellers again touched base at Cosshochking, and then the following day were at Upper Moravian Town (Schoenbrun, Ohio), where Guyasuta, who had become ill, fell off his horse. Guyasuta, who had been a prominent leader against the colonists and British during the French and Indian War,5 had been very useful during the trip by endorsing Butler’s bid for Indian participation at the impending conference. Representatives to the Pittsburgh treaty conference that Richard Butler had so assiduously lined up began to arrive on September 26 with the appearance of Cornstalk and his Shawnees. With the final arrival of all the Indian delegations— Shawnees, Ottawas, Wyandots, Iroquois (mainly Senecas), Delawares, and Mingoes—on October 7, the conference began. Lasting until October 19, it was held in a crude, especially constructed council house a few miles from Pittsburgh. Representing the Americans were members of the Continental Congress Lewis Morris and James Wilson, and for Virginia were Dr. Thomas Walker, Colonel Andrew Lewis, John Walker, Adam Stephen, and James Wood; one Virginia commissioner was absent, George Washington, who was now serving as Commander in Chief. Four chiefs who spoke most eloquently were Cornstalk (Shawnee), White Eyes (Delaware), Shaganaba (Ottawa and son of Pontiac, the great Indian war leader), and Guyasuta (Seneca and Butler’s friend). Americans doled out presents.

The

The meeting occurred under some faint war

clouds: already Shawnee “foolish young men” had crossed the Ohio and burned down the evacuated Fort Blair (on the site of the battle of Point Pleasant). But calm pervaded the conference.

Speeches by the Indian leaders began as

commemoration of those warriors who had fallen at Point Pleasant in October 1774.6 A significant development at the conference—one that favored the

Chapter Two: Indian Agent

13

Americans by creating a deep schism between the Iroquois and Ohio tribes—was a speech by White Eyes, who seized the opportunity to proclaim an end to a longstanding subservience of the Delawares to the Iroquois. After employing vivid imagery asserting his tribe’s independence, he raised his right hand and pointing it over the heads of those assembled toward the dense wilderness beyond the Allegheny River, exclaimed, “All the country on the other side of that river is mine!”7 The Indian delegates agreed to surrender any captives and horses belonging to Americans still in their possession.

They declared neutrality

regarding the Revolutionary War. The Ohio River was affirmed as the boundary between the northern Indians and the Americans.

Recognizing the need for

trading goods and acknowledging the loss of Kentucky, the Shawnees and other Ohio Indians maintained neutrality, a situation that would last for two and a half years. Having adroitly performed his role among the Indians as a promoter of the Pittsburgh Treaty Conference of 1775, Richard Butler was now ready to join the Continental army. He had delayed doing so because he considered attending to Indian diplomacy the higher duty. On January 5, 1776 he received a commission as captain in the Second Pennsylvania Regiment.8 Still, he lingered on as Indian agent until a replacement could be found, and even then was hesitant to withdraw abruptly from the Indian service in the field. On April 8-9 he penned his last major intelligence report on Indian affairs to James Wilson, an Indian commissioner and member of the congressional Committee for Indian Affairs. Butler emphasized that proper administration of Indian affairs was “absolutely necessary” to prevent Indian hostilities. Butler said that his friend Guyasuta, the Seneca chief, had visited him at Fort Pitt, asking advice if he should attend a British sponsored conference at Niagara. Butler wisely did not attempt to interfere and even supplied Guyasuta with a speech that Butler had written to be delivered at Niagara. Butler assured Guyasuta that he should spread the word among the Indians that the Americans would continue to supply trade goods, but

When Fate Summons

14

as long as the war continued such items would come from France and other European countries than Great Britain. The Indians, Butler said, would “be both plentifully and reasonably supplied.” Butler noted that there was beginning to be some problem of white persons moving on to Indian lands. He gave assurances that, in meeting with Iroquois leaders, that even then affected Ohio Indians preferred peace.

Guyasuta had indicated that he wanted in person to visit

Congress in Philadelphia. Butler closed his report by suggesting that war in the western country would more likely come from white frontiersmen rather than the Indians. He estimated that many of the frontier settlers seemed to favor the British cause. Butler told Wilson in his report “that party spirit prevails here as much as ever, and, indeed, through the country in general.” He commented that he would say nothing further on the subject, as to do so might tend to acerbate the situation.9 On April 10, 1776 George Morgan was appointed to supersede Butler as Indian agent for the Middle Department. Morgan, a captain in a cavalry unit of the Pennsylvania militia, would continue as a partner in the trading firm of Bayton, Wharton and Morgan; he was actively involved with Pennsylvania land speculators. Morgan arrived at Fort Pitt on April 29, 1776 to assume his new position.10 Bad feelings developed between the new Indian agent, George Morgan, and Richard Butler. Morgan immediately had the double chore of getting Indians friendly to the Americans to attend the British conference in Niagara and, upon orders from Congress, to arrange a new Indian treaty conference at Fort Pitt, to convene on July 20, 1776.11 It seems that Butler lent his hand in this process. Morgan wrote Congressman Lewis Morris on May 16, 1776 that he hoped that “Mr. Butler will have advice from the Commissioners not to interfere further in my Department.”12 Before going off to war, Richard Butler disposed of his trading goods among the Indians.13

Morgan was successful in bringing about an Indian

conference at Pittsburgh, although Wyandots, Mingoes, and the further western

Chapter Two: Indian Agent

15

tribes (from the Illinois country and Great Lakes region) were in non-attendance. The conference was able to extend the fragile peaceful relations first achieved by Butler’s conference in October 1775.14 Butler received an upgrade in rank before entering the field. In July 1776 Congress made him a major in the new Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, recruited from the counties of Westmoreland and Bedford.15 Most of the enlistees were Irish or Scots-Irish. Colonel Aeneas Mackay, commander of the regiment, and Lt. Col. George Wilson were the other two field officers besides Butler. Congress assumed control of forts on Pennsylvania’s western frontier. The Eighth Regiment was to garrison three new forts—Presque Isle on Lake Erie and, along the Allegheny River, Le Beouf and Kittanning. The regiment made its headquarters at Kittanning.

On December 4, 1776 the regiment received

congressional instructions (of November 22) to march eastward to link up with Washington’s army.16 The soldiers protested the order because the frontier would be left unprotected. Lt. Col. Wilson wrote Congress that “We are ill Provided for a March at this Season.” Equipment and food were in short supply, and the men were mostly without uniforms. The regiment, however, went on anyway, starting their 300 mile trek to Quibbletown, New Jersey on January 6, 1777. It has been said that except for Benedict Arnold’s march through the Maine wilderness in 1775 this journey of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment was the most severe during the war.

More than 100 miles of the journey was through rugged

mountains and deep valleys. The troops treaded through thick forests and deep snow. Large fires were made every night to ward off the extreme cold. Although hunting parties came back with some meat, mostly the food consisted of cakes and bread. Within two weeks after arrival at Quibbletown in late February 1777, one-third of the regiment’s troops were ill and fifty men had died. Colonel Mackay and Lt. Col. Wilson, were among the dead. Major Richard Butler now filled in briefly as interim commander of the regiment.17 On March 12, 1777 Congress saw fit to promote Butler to lieutenant colonel (with rank retroactive to September 28, 1776), Daniel Brodhead was made colonel and commander of the

When Fate Summons

16

regiment, and Stephen Bayard succeeded Butler as major. The regiment was lodged in the second Pennsylvania Brigade.18 In Spring 1777 Butter and the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment found themselves posted at Bound Brook, New Jersey, on the Raritan River four miles west of Quibbletown and eight miles above the British garrison at New Brunswick. Bound Brook (town) had one of the posts Washington established to protect passes leading to the main army encampment nearby at Morristown. Newly minted major general Benjamin Lincoln was in charge of a 1,600 man force at Bound Brook, equally divided between Massachusetts militia and Butler’s regiment. With their enlistments expiring in mid-March 1777 most of Lincoln’s Massachusetts troops went home, leaving at Bound Brook therefore chiefly the Pennsylvanians. At 5 a.m. the morning of April 13, 1777 some four thousand British troops, commanded by General Cornwallis, made a surprise attack on Lincoln’s camp. They advanced in three groups: one crossed the Raritan a mile above Bound Brook and the other two came across the river directly to each side of the town. Among the British force was a “corps of reserve,” led by General Edward Mathew. In fear of being caught in a pincher movement by a much larger force, Lincoln and his troops, amidst heavy exchange of musket fire, managed to escape the scene.

General Nathanael Greene’s timely arrival with American

reinforcements compelled the enemy also to withdraw. Greene, who filed a report on the battle, noted that Col. Butler with about three hundred excellent marksmen had a good fire upon one of the Heads of Columns for a considerable time.” The Americans sustained casualties of six killed and about thirty or more captured.19 Butler and expert riflemen from his regiment soon had a larger call to duty. The British invasion from Canada into New York state meant that the American rebels would have to field a strong military force in resistance.

CHAPTER THREE SARATOGA Richard Butler, at the beginning of his Revolutionary War service, fought in a battle that ranks as one of the most significant in military history—the two engagements near Saratoga, New York in fall 1777. The battle not only saved the American cause but also was a turning point in the war. While serving with his regiment on the outer lines around Morristown during winter and spring 1777, Richard Butler became impatient for the opening of a new campaign with the start of summer. Washington and Howe’s armies, however, continued to play a cat-and-mouse game. Washington waited for the enemy to make a move from its garrisons in New Jersey and New York City, when an advantageous opportunity should present itself for combat. Howe’s army kept the American Commander in Chief guessing, by making a feint here and there and giving impressions of moving in force up the Hudson or attacking Philadelphia by way of Chesapeake Bay. Unexpectedly for Butler, just before the renewal of full-scale warfare for Washington’s army, he and some of his companions were snatched up and assigned to a unit that would be sent to reinforce General Horatio Gates’s Northern Continental army as it readied to contest the oncoming British invasion from Canada led by General John Burgoyne. On June 9, 1777 Lt. Col. Richard Butler was appointed to a special task force, the Corps of Rangers, commanded by Colonel Daniel Morgan.1 This unit consisted of expert riflemen selected from the army at large. Those members of the Pennsylvania Eighth Regiment who were not chosen along with Butler stayed with Washington’s army and fought at Brandywine, Germantown, and Paoli later

When Fate Summons

18 in the year.

Butler was second in command of Morgan’s riflemen. The Corps of Rangers was Washington’s first attempt to create a unit of light infantry within the army, namely soldiers collected to carry little equipment so that they could travel lightly, and as marksmen expected to make the initial contact with the enemy. Fair game for the rangers were sentries, stragglers, and officers. Butler was a perfect fit for the Corps of Rangers. Nearly fifty percent of his comrades, like himself expert riflemen, were native or descendant Irishmen; the rest of the corps represented an ethnic mix of Scots-Irish, German, Dutch, and English frontier farmers and woodsmen; of the total of 508 men in the corps, 193 came from Pennsylvania, 163 from Virginia, 65 from Maryland, and 87 from other states. The rifle corpsmen ranged in age from the teens to the early thirties. Half of them were illiterate; in contrast their officers had at least a basic education.2 All of Morgan’s corpsmen had “rifle guns,” later styled as “Pennsylvania” or “Kentucky” rifles. These “long” rifles, with long barrels with spiraled grooves and improved capabilities for loading, had vastly greater range and accuracy than the army’s standard muskets.

Importantly riflemen, firing from cover at a

distance, could easily pick off formation-lined troops who had to fire at close range. Butler and his fellow riflemen were also armed with a tomahawk and hunting knife.3 The riflemen had a rather picturesque appearance, with their distinctive hunting shirts, usually made of deer skin and matching trousers or leggings. Generally they wore low crowned, wide brimmed hats or fur caps.4 The Corps of Rangers quickly won esteem. It was considered “a corps of celebrity” and the “elite of the army.”5 General Gates would soon note that Morgan’s troops were “the corps the army of General Burgoyne was most afraid of.”6 While waiting for more particular orders, the Corps of Rangers had duty harassing scouts, foragers, and other forward troops of the enemy in New Jersey. Lt. Col. Samuel Hay wrote Colonel William Irvine on June 19, 1777 that the rifleman regiment, “composed of drafts and the best in the army, annoyed the enemy continually; “they are commanded by Colonel Morgan of Virginia, Lieut.

Chapter Three: Saratoga

19

Col. Richard Butler, and Major [Jacob] Morris of the Jersies.”7 On August 16 Washington ordered Morgan and his rangers to reinforce Gates’s Northern army near Albany, New York. “The approach of the enemy in that quarter has made a further reinforcement necessary, and I know of no corps so likely to check their progress, in proportion to its numbers, as that under your command. I have great dependence on you, your officers and men . . . .”8 Washington informed both General Gates and Governor George Clinton of New York of the impending arrival of the riflemen at the Northern army.

The

Commander in Chief told the governor that the ranger corps consisted of “wellchosen men, selected from the army at large, well acquainted with the use of rifles” and Indian fighting, and “have distinguished themselves on a variety of occasions since the formation of the Corps, in skirmishes with the enemy.”9 Morgan’s riflemen made their way northward on August 17.10 Meanwhile a British army under General John Burgoyne, on June 17, 1777 started out from St. John’s, Canada; this force boasted 4,700 British troops, 4,200 German mercenaries, and about 600 Canadian militia. Descending Lake Champlain and capturing American forts on the way, the main objective of the invading army was to link up with a large force under General William Howe coming up the Hudson River, an event that would isolate New England and New York from each other. The British advance met delays because of difficulty of obtaining supplies enroute. Not until mid September did the invading army cross the Hudson at Saratoga. American troops thwarted a British relief force coming through central New York at the battle of Oriskany on August 6. The battle of Bennington, August 16, ending with the defeat of Hessian troops, made Burgoyne’s position even more tenuous. Meanwhile General Howe reneged on his pledge to join up with the invading army, a decision not immediately conveyed to Burgoyne. Thus, in mid-September, Gates’s army of 9,000 strong and fully equipped, awaited on Bemis Heights, four miles from Stillwater, to combat the British advance. Entrenchments and heavy artillery covered the narrow opening between the river

20

When Fate Summons

bluffs. The stage was set for the battle of Freeman’s Farm, September 19, the first of the two contests known as the battle of Saratoga. Morgan’s riflemen (374 of the 500 man regiment’s effective troops) arrived at Gates’s army on August 31. They joined with 250 light infantry led by Major Henry Dearborn, to form the American advance guard.11 The American army as a whole lined up on hills three miles north of Bemis Heights, straddling the only road to Albany. By September 11 Burgoyne’s army had crossed the Hudson and were ready for attack.

In General Orders of September 6 the

American general announced the time had come for “the Army to conquer their mercenary and merciless Foe.”12 As the enemy came on and began to scale the hills, Gates sent Morgan’s riflemen out as “the first body of men he ordered into line.11 At 12:30 p.m. the riflemen reached a log cabin on Freeman’s Farm, where some took cover while their comrades aligned themselves along rail fences. Morgan’s men routed an enemy group coming out of the woods but were soon pursued; fleeing up an eighty foot forested hill they were rallied by the whistle of Morgan’s turkey call. Butler, along with his sharpshooter companions, now took aim from behind trees and sitting on branches as the enemy pressed forward. Butler was among those “treed.” The riflemen picked off many officers. By 2 p.m. the two armies were wholly engaged, and as one British officer noted, “the heavy artillery joining in concert like great peals of thunder, assisted by the echoes of the woods, almost deafened us with the noise.”14 A reinforcement at the battlefield of German troops led by General Baron Riedesel brought an equilibrium of intense combat.13 At dusk the Americans withdrew from the battlefield.

Although

Burgoyne’s army held the ground, it had paid a heavy price; the invaders had suffered twice the number of casualties as did Gates’s army. General Burgoyne credited the American riflemen as having a major impact in the battle: The enemy had with their army great numbers of marksmen, armed with rifle-barrel pieces; these during an engagement, hovered upon the flanks in small detachments, and were very expert in securing themselves, and

Chapter Three: Saratoga

21

shifting their ground. In this action many placed themselves in high trees in the rear of their own line, and there was seldom a minute’s interval of smoke, in any part of our line without officers being taken off by single shot.14 By the end of September, Washington, now in the thick of a military campaign himself and having been bested at the battle of Brandywine, felt the need to recall Morgan’s riflemen. A delicate request (avoiding any semblance of a command) to this effect, however, was refused by General Gates by saying, “Your Excellency would not wish me to part with the corps the army of General Burgoyne are most afraid of.” After the battle of Freeman’s Farm, Richard Butler and his fellow riflemen frequently involved themselves by assaulting pickets and raking British lines from positions in trees. Much of the American rifle firing occurred at nighttime. Burgoyne noted that between September 20 and October 7 every night witnessed the rifle attacks.15 Burgoyne, intending reconnaissance, on October 7 sent out 1,500 men toward the American lines. Three-fourths a mile south of Freeman’s Farm, the British soldiers lined up for one hundred yards in a wheat field. Gates saw his opportunity. He had Colonel James Wilkinson deliver orders to Morgan to “begin the game.” Morgan’s riflemen crept up a deep forested hill at the British right flank, and when reaching the summit, they “poured in a well-directed fire at the enemy who were “within good rifle shot,” bringing “almost every officer on horseback to the ground.” Simultaneously with Morgan’s attack, General Enoch Poor and his New England troops hit the enemy’s left while Colonel Henry Dearborn and his light infantry assaulted the British left and front.16 Lt. Col Richard Butler was in the thick of the fighting. He reported: I had the Honour to lead the Corps of Riflemen Against their Right wing Under Morgan, Who Commanded in Center of the Whole . . . we saved the day by our timely & vigorous Attack (I believe the Indian Hoop helped a little) as we broke the Right Wing of the Enemy took two 12 Pounders & one six and turned them on them.17

When Fate Summons

22

Meanwhile the whole line of the British force was pressed hard. As the enemy fell back, British general Simon Fraser and his 24th regiment attempted to provide cover for the withdrawing British troops. Fraser greatly exposed himself, riding among his men shouting orders. This so annoyed Morgan that he asked rifleman Timothy Murphy to climb a tree and pick off Fraser at a distance of three hundred yards. Murphy managed to mortally wound Fraser, who died the next day.18 As the enemy fell back, General Benedict Arnold, despite being prohibited by General Gates to command during the fighting, assumed command of the whole American attack. British troops were still posted at two redoubts on their extreme flanks: the Balcarres and Breymann redoubts. The Americans failed in their assault on the Balcarres redoubt, but had success in taking the less fortified Breymann redoubt. In the latter attack, Butler led riflemen to the front of the redoubt; he was the third American officer to gain entrance.19

With his lines

breeched Burgoyne decided upon retreat back up the Hudson. At nighttime on October 8, Burgoyne’s fatigued army took post on the heights of the Saratoga. Butler and other riflemen were among the American troops harassing the British retreat.

For the next week Burgoyne’s army faced continual artillery

bombardment and fire from the American riflemen and light infantry. By October 13, American troops had completely surrounded Burgoyne’s army, compelling surrender on October 17.20 When Burgoyne was introduced to the American officers during the surrender ceremony, he met Morgan, and said: “My dear sir, you command the finest marksmen in the world.”21 Morgan’s

riflemen

re-joined

Washington’s

Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania on November 12.

army,

encamped

at

In two weeks time they were

attached to General Nathanael Greene’s division, and from there sent out in a detachment, led by General Lafayette to attack a force under General Cornwallis, which set out from Philadelphia to reinforce Delaware River forts. On November 25 Lafayette with 350 men (150 of whom were commanded by Richard Butler), assisted by local militia, approached Cornwallis’s position at Gloucester, on the

Chapter Three: Saratoga

23

east side of the Delaware River. Although the British had protective cover from British ships in the river, it was hoped that they might be lured into combat at the outer fringe of their encampment. When the American special task force came within two miles of Gloucester, they met with an advanced party of 400 Hessians, who had several artillery pieces. Lafayette pushed the Hessians about a mile and a half toward Gloucester. In the encounter the Hessians suffered twenty killed and forty wounded; Lafayette’s detachment, one killed, five wounded.

At

nightfall, Cornwallis, expecting a full attack from Greene’s force, retired to Philadelphia. In re-crossing the Delaware, the British troops being transported on ferry boats came under fire of Morgan’s riflemen.22 In reporting the skirmish of November 25 to Washington, Greene said that “the Marquis is charmed with the spirited behaviour of the Militia & Rifle Corps.”23 Lafayette also informed the Commander in Chief of the splendid performance of the riflemen led by Butler: “I never saw men so merry, so spirited, so desirous to go on to the enemy .... I found the riflemen above even their reputation.”24 Subsequently Morgan’s rifle corps and Captain Henry Lee’s cavalry unit stayed in New Jersey to harass enemy scouting and foraging movements. During the first week in December Butler and the other riflemen were back at Washington’s Whitemarsh encampment. On the night of December 4 a large British force marched out of Philadelphia with the intent of attacking the American force at Whitemarsh.

As British army units reconnoitered the

American left wing, Washington dispatched Morgan’s rifle corps and Maryland militia to assault the enemy’s right

flank. As a German officer, Captain Johann

Ewald reported: “The light infantry fell into an ambuscade which the American Colonel Morgan and his corps of riflemen had laid in a marshy wood, through which over fifty men and three officers were killed.”25 The American army remained at Whitemarsh until December 10, and for the next nine days marched for Valley Forge, the site for the winter cantonment. During this period and until the end of December Richard Butler “actively

When Fate Summons

24

engaged with detachments of riflemen, and some of Lee’s cavalry, in scouring the country;” although captives were taken there was no important fighting.26 In the meantime Butler finally received his new commission, naming him colonel of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment. Congress on June 30 made the commission retroactive to June 30, 1777.

Butler’s detached service with

Morgan’s riflemen with the Northern army accounted for the delay in the commission reaching Butler.27 On December 23 a party of British cavalry (18 men) captured two of Captain Henry Lee’s “light horse.” One of the prisoners made his escape and came across Richard Butler, who was leading a 200 man detachment on patrol near Whitehorse Tavern, on Chester Road about eleven miles from Philadelphia. Butler immediately set out in pursuit. Closer to the tavern he discovered a vidette, indicating that probably other British soldiers were in the area. Butler spread out his troops “to shut up every avenue except towards the Meadows.” Indeed the offending British cavalrymen were nearby; “soon Alarmed, and finding their Retreat Cut off every other Way,” they tried to escape through a ditch in a marsh. Thirteen of the enemy were apprehended; only five escaped.28 Richard Butler’s service with the rifle corps now came to an end. On New Year’s Eve, a group of fellow officers “made a very handsome and friendly entertainment” for Butler, in recognition of his promotion and new assignment as commander of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment. On January 1, Richard Butler took leave of the rifle corps, and officially entered his role as a field commander in the Pennsylvania line.29

CHAPTER FOUR MONMOUTH AND LIGHT INFANTRY At Valley Forge Richard Butler’s Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment saw duty attached to Brig. Gen. Thomas Conway’s brigade. The newly minted colonel found that being a regimental commander entailed much more than operational leadership. Butler was not one to delegate responsibility. He had to care for the well-being of his men—their provisions, clothing, pay, training, and morale. Although food was insubstantial, Butler’s main problem at Valley Forge was to secure adequate clothing for his troops. During the winter months only one in five of them had a blanket. Most of his soldiers had only one shirt, and many had none. For blankets, Butler’s men had to use their tents. Butler pleaded with the Pennsylvania Council, which like other state governing bodies regarded the army’s complaints with “blind supineness.”

Butler told President Thomas

Wharton of the Pennsylvania Council that he was doing all he could to “nurse” his troops, but that the situation had reached a crisis. About all that Butler received from Pennsylvania leaders was sympathy.

Wharton praised Butler for his

“humanity as well as close attention to the wants of so brave a set of men as I believe the Pennsylvania troops to be.”1 Butler’s troops assisted in foraging and impressment excursions, providing escort and himself delving out certificates, bearing his signature, in exchange for seized horses and livestock.2 On occasion he joined special task forces to chase out British foraging parties in New Jersey. Starting in mid-February 1778 he led a detachment in a 500-man select unit commanded by Gen. Anthony Wayne for the purpose of confronting British foraging parties. Wayne directed Butler and his troops to cooperate with General Casimir Pulaski and his cavalry to check a

26

When Fate Summons

foraging expedition led by British Colonel Thomas Stirling along the Jersey shore of the Delaware River. Before Butler could link up with Pulaski, the Polish born officer on March 1 drove back Stirling’s troops at Cooper’s Ferry, on the Delaware between Philadelphia and the present site of Camden, New Jersey. Butler arrived after the action. Under cover of British warships in the river, Stirling was able to extract his force to return to Philadelphia.3 As the British army began its march out of Philadelphia on June 18, 1778 for the Atlantic coast for transport to the New York City area it was Washington’s challenge to strike a blow on the mobile vulnerable enemy. At the least the American army could cripple the rear of the enemy and at best, perhaps through an enveloping movement, gain a total victory. On June 24 Washington ordered out 1,500 men, commanded by General Charles Scott, to annoy the British in their retreat. Butler’s Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment was one of eight such units comprising this strike force. On the 28th the whole of Washington’s army was near Freehold, New Jersey where the enemy had paused but now were beginning to resume their march. General Clinton had put in his rear a strong guard commanded by General Cornwallis which offered to the American Commander in Chief an initial prime target. At 11 a.m., General Charles Lee and a large number of Continentals and militia, culled from the main army, were in a, full march toward Freehold. Among these troops were Richard Butler and a detachment of 200 men from his Ninth Regiment, now placed directly under the operational command of General Anthony Wayne; these Pennsylvanians were given the “post of honor” to lead the way. Facing Butler and his men, now also joined by a 200-man detachment under Colonel Henry Jackson, were 300 of the enemy’s cavalry along with an infantry covering party. Butler’s men “broke” an advance of the enemy’s cavalry by “a well-directed fire. “ Wayne ordered Butler to pursue the enemy’s horsemen, which he did until they disappeared near Monmouth Courthouse.

Meanwhile

about two thousand enemy troops began moving to a hill a mile distant in front. Wayne then ordered Butler to fall back, “as he was in danger of being surrounded

Chapter Four: Monmouth and Light Infantry

27

and taken.” As Butler and his detachment headed for a position in woods near Monmouth Courthouse, they were attacked by a party of the Queen’s Rangers, who were driven back primarily by Butler’s men resorting to bayonets.4 Thus ended the first phase of the battle. About 12:30 p.m. with the temperature surging to 96°, British General Henry Clinton halted his march, and suddenly went on the attack; the British rear guard now became the “avant garde.”5 While waiting for further orders, Butler and his detachment took position with the enemy at his front and left and a morass on his right. Penned in on three sides Butler’s men were in a dangerous situation, with no general officer nearby to give orders. Butler, therefore, met with two field officers of his detachment, Major Francis Nichols from his own regiment and Major Benjamin Ledyard from the First New York Regiment. Ledyard agreed to seek out troops at the rear of Lee’s force to determine the status of the American commitment to battle. Meanwhile Butler, finding he was too close to the main British attacking force, without support, ordered a withdrawal, pausing first at Forman’s Mills and then stopping at the John Craig farm, two miles east of Freehold. On the way to this destination, Butler learned of the general retreat of Lee’s troops. As it turned out, Butler was soon on the extreme left of that part of the army Washington sent back into battle. Fortunately, during all the activity thus far, the members of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment in Butler’s detachment had only four casualties: three wounded and one missing.6 Richard Butler eventually linked up with troops under generals Scott and Stirling northwest of the courthouse. As Washington assumed full command of the battle, a heavy artillery duel ensued for several hours. At dusk the fighting ceased, and the British army resumed their march to the coast, with only slight harassment from American probing units. On July 5, Clinton’s army embarked on transports at Sandy Hook, heading for New York City, Staten Island, and Long Island.7 Butler and his men remained on the battlefield for several days, assisting in locating and burying some four hundred dead British soldiers.8 Butler testified briefly on July 12, 1778 at the court-martial trial of

When Fate Summons

28

General Charles Lee. Lee was tried for neglect and incompetence at the battle of Monmouth and disrespect for the Commander in Chief. Butler did not show any bias against Lee as some of his fellow officers did apparently to win favor from Washington. Butler simply responded to the query whether he received any instructions stemming from Lee regarding attack on the enemy that during the battle he was operating from the overall orders that Lee gave out preceding the combat.9 Although Butler had a small leading role in bringing on the battle of Monmouth, he had demonstrated sound leadership and military judgment and skills. Several weeks later, General Lafayette commented that Richard Butler and four others might be “reputed among the most distinguished officers of any army in the world.10 Richard Butler’s varied experience on the battlefield, reconnaissance missions, special task forces, and as pre-war Indian trader and agent put him in good stead for command in an elite light infantry corps. Such a unit had been initiated for tactical advantage during the battle of Brandywine under General William Maxwell, and re-formed on a permanent basis in August 1778, shortly after the battle of Monmouth. General Charles Scott was appointed commandant of the revived corps, and Richard Butler was one of its four colonels, essentially acting as a regimental commander.11 On August 14, 1778 the Commander in Chief spelled out for General Scott the duties of the light infantry corps: To take post in front of our camp and in such a position . . . to preserve the security of your own corps and cover the army from surprise. Make yourself master of all the roads leading to the enemies lines. Keep up a constant succession of scouting parties. These parties are to penetrate as near the enemy’s lines as possible, and to continue within observing distance at all times . . . .13

Chapter Four: Monmouth and Light Infantry

29

During late summer and fall 1778 while the main army encamped at White Plains and other locations at the edge of the Hudson Highlands, Scott’s light infantry operated from a line of outposts closer to British-held New York City and western Long Island. Patrols from the corps went to Long Island and the Neutral Ground (in Westchester County between the two armies) to collect intelligence on British troops and ship movements.12 When word came that the British army, 5,000 men strong, had marched out of New York City and would likely engage American troops, Scott’s light infantry, now numbering 1,300 men, and 400 cavalry with the addition of Col. Elisha Sheldon’s Connecticut dragoons, took post in front of the center of the main American army to intercept any surprise attack. Scott noted that the whole of his troops “lay on their arms all night” in the rain and without covering. Scott, at his own expense supplied each of his men with one gill of rum. The British offensive, however, proved to be a false alarm.14 George Baylor’s Third Virginia Dragoons linked up with the American light infantry in September.

Late at night of September 27-28, a British

detachment under General Charles (“No Flint”) Grey surprised Baylor’s troops bivouacked at a farm in Old Tappan, New Jersey, butchering 67 startled troopers.15 Some measure of revenge for the Baylor massacre came on September 30. Butler led 250 infantry and 200 cavalrymen of Major Henry Lee’s immediate command, as part of the light infantry corps, at 3 a.m. “Down to the Heights between Dobbs ferry & Sawmill River,” reaching a point just above Kingsbridge, which separated the Bronx from Manhattan. Here they ambushed a Hessian patrol of 65 men, commanded by Captain Karl Moritz von Donop. Butler divided his troops to attack the enemy in three places: Major Benjamin Ledyard and two companies assaulting the enemy’s right; Lt. Col. Josiah Harmar and two companies versus the left; and Richard Butler with a party of Lee’s cavalry and Captain John Graham’s infantry company hitting the center. Butler reported to General Scott that ten Hessians were killed “on the Spot” and 18 wounded. Three of the captives had wounds so bad, that, as Butler noted, “humanity obliged us to

When Fate Summons

30

leave them behind with Notes that they are Considered prisoners . . . .Nothing but the Roughness of the Country Prevented us from taking the whole party.”16 For the success of this brief encounter, Washington, who almost never cited individual battlefield merit, wrote General Scott that “I am happy to hear of the success of Colo. Butlers enterprize to whom and all the officers of his party be pleased to present my thanks for their behavior.”17 With the winter season approaching, when the armies in the field more or less called a truce, the light infantry corps was temporarily suspended. Butler went back to his Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, in Anthony Wayne’s brigade and Stirling’s division. “Dickie.”18

Wayne had a fondness for Butler, always calling him

Butler stayed with the army at its Middlebrook encampment,

November 1778 to June, 3, 1779. At the end of May 1779 he was appointed to a court martial to try General Benedict Arnold for malfeasance while commandant of the city of Philadelphia; because of various factors, the actual trial did not occur until May-June 1780.19 Colonel Butler had compassion for those of his soldiers who were in a “distressed Situation” with their large families, some of whom even suffered deprivation from the Indians. The hardships were a major cause on soldiers not reenlisting.

In asking for relief of this situation from the Pennsylvania

government, Butler cited the “particular case “of Sergeant Henry Cottingham of Butler’s regiment. Cottingham, who had a wife & four small Children at Carlisle . . . being drove down Susquehanah from their home; he is a good Serjeant, writes well, & under my Care is very useful, but a little given to drink; he has often Applied for his discharge, but I cannot think he would be of much Service to his family, owing to that Circumstance, yet would be a loss to the Publick. Butler requested that the Issuing Commissary at Carlisle be ordered to draw provisions, which Butler would forward to Cottingham’s wife. If this were not done, “humanity will Oblige me to Discharge him, which will have a bad

Chapter Four: Monmouth and Light Infantry

31

tendency, there being so many in the same Predicament, that would plead the same reason for theirs, & of Course Affect the Service.20 George Washington’s plans for the summer of 1779 military campaign called for tightening the vise around British held New York City. Preliminary to a probable siege of the city itself was to clear out the enemy from their outposts on the Hudson River.

Such an accomplishment would also free up

communication lines. Especially since much of the action would be limited in nature, with narrow specific goals, it was deemed necessary to revive the light infantry corps. Thus in mid-June the Commander in Chief ordered such an unit be drafted from the men of the army’s three divisions. The new light infantry corps consisted of sixteen companies: four from the Virginia line, to be commanded by Major Thomas Posey; four from the Pennsylvania line, Lt. Col. Udny Hay; two each from the Virginia and Pennsylvania, Lt. Col. Francǫis Louis de Fleury; and four companies of miscellaneous troops, Colonel Richard Butler.21 Back again in the elite light infantry, Butler did not have to wait long for combat. The British Commander in Chief, Henry Clinton, sent a large, number of troops on ships up the Hudson, resulting on June 1, 1779, in the capture of the river forts, Stony Point (on the west bank) and Lafayette (on the east bank). Like a Gibralter, these forts guarded the gateway into the New York Highlands. After this victory, except for small garrisons at each post, the British troops returned to New York City. Thus Stony Point and Fort Lafayette posed inviting targets for Washington’s army. By mid-June Butler and his detachment of light infantry had taken position at the Forest of Dean Furnace, four miles from the west bank of the Hudson. Washington requested Butler to move closer to Fort Montgomery, while keeping out a “pretty strong picket at the Forest of Dean and lesser ones on the roads in case of any further British military activity in the area.22 Butler stationed his men at Sandy Beach, a mile above Fort Montgomery.23 The Commander in Chief gave Butler permission that should he “find a good opportunity to strike some little stroke.” In somewhat an unusual aside, Washington assured Butler

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that his troops would be “well supplied with rum, as our Stock will permit.”24 With his friend General Anthony Wayne, assuming command of the light infantry corps, Richard Butler readied himself to participate in a very secretive operation that became a celebrated coup de main of the war.

CHAPTER FIVE STONY POINT When General Anthony Wayne arrived at Sandy Beach on July 1, 1779 as the new commander of the Light Infantry Corps, his first attention was given to the proper equipment for his elite troops. He requisitioned an espontoon (a short spear) for each officer, and made sure all the soldiers had bayonets. To better ensure that the troops had finely tuned discipline, Wayne ordered copies of General Steuben’s newly printed “Blue Book” on tactics for each officer.1 For a mid-summer that thus far lacked any major combat, Washington designed a shot-in-the arm for the American war effort. Although at other times a conquest of a British post on the Hudson River might seem of minor consequence, during this period of disengagement, such a victory could be seen as protecting West Point and limiting British control of the Hudson River and, in the least, bolstering both military and civilian morale. Stony Point stood at 150 feet high, one-half mile from the west bank of the Hudson. With water on three sides and a marsh drowned at high tide on the other, Stony Point seemed much like an island. Access was by crossing a bridge-causeway or wading through the marsh. The fortress was manned by six hundred British troops, commanded by Lt. Col. Henry Johnson. Eight batteries connected by trenches and a double row of abatis outside the installations afforded extra protection.2 In the anticipation of an attack on Stony Point, Richard Butler participated in several reconnaissance missions, during which Butler made sketches of the bastion from the vantage point of a nearby mountain. A siege was ruled out because there was no firm ground within a half mile. General Wayne also objected to a “storm,” but decided that a “Surprise may be effected—could we fall

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When Fate Summons

on some stratagem to draw them out.” Using only a small part of his force attacking frontally, Wayne thought, would bring the enemy to send out a party in pursuit, thus providing “an Opening” to enter the enemy stronghold.3 On July 10, Washington, from his headquarters at New Windsor, located near Stony Point, sent very specific operational instructions to Wayne, a practice he rarely engaged in with field commanders. The attack “should be attempted by the light Infantry only . . . under the cover of night and with the utmost secrecy.” A vanguard, with fixed bayonets and unloaded muskets, should enter the abatis from their water edges; this group would remove “obstructions,” “secure the sentries and “drive in the guard.” Wayne’s main troops then would follow. Washington told Wayne that the troops should wear a white feather or cockade to distinguish them from the enemy, and he had stern advice on maintaining secrecy of the operation. The best time to carry a surprise would be the “midnight hour.”4 Wayne re-arranged the regiments slightly for the order of battle. Richard Butler would lead the left column, consisting mainly of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware troops; Lt. Col. Christian Febiger would command a regiment of Virginians and Pennsylvanians on the right, followed by Col. Return Jonathan Meigs with all Connecticut troops and Major William Hull with Massachusetts soldiers; in the rear were to be a party of recently arrived North Carolinians under Major Hardy Murfee. With a few artillerymen, in charge of two small field pieces, the assaulting force numbered 1,350.5 The morning of July 15 the light infantry corps was drawn up for inspection at Sandy Beach. This was the first time that General Wayne had the opportunity to review the troops as a whole. All the soldiers were required to be “fresh shaved and well powdered.” At noon, with the inspection completed, the intended striking force marched out on to a road, heading the fourteen miles to Stony Point. The troops passed through the hamlet of Queensboro and around the base of Bear Mountain, from which they took a back road out of sight of the river, thus preventing observation from British ships. The road, in disrepair, at times became no more

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than a pathway, through steep hillsides, swamps, and ravines. Often the men had to go single file. The unit trekked over Dondenberg Mountain. At 8 p.m. the soldiers halted at the farm of David Springsteel, 1½ miles from their destination. Any person met on the way was apprehended. Butler was among several officers who made one last reconnaissance view of the fort.6 At 11:30 p.m. all was ready for the attack.

Advancing with drawn

bayonets and absolute silence, Butler and three hundred men came on to the fort at its left side, and Febiger with seven hundred soldiers moved to the right side. Murfee’s two North Carolina companies went for the center. The abatis did not prove a factor as most of the attacking force circumvented them by staying close to the water’s edge. The British post was eventually alarmed, and its commander, Lt. Col. Henry Johnson charged out of the facility and down the hill, thinking he was meeting the brunt of the attack. Butler and his men were slowed by deep mud in the marsh and swirling water while passing over a sandbar. Hence Butler’s unit did not arrive at the rocky promontory where the fort stood until the other column had already made penetration. Once Fleury’s men (of Febiger’s column) silenced two twenty-four pound cannon that for a while pinned down Butler’s troops, Butler’s column swarmed over the parapet. After hand-to-hand combat inside the fort the defenders threw down their arms and called out for mercy, a plea which was honored. Colonel Febiger accepted the surrender.7 Casualties for the British amounted to 63 killed, 70 wounded, and 543 captured; for the Americans, 15 killed and 80 wounded. Butler’s regiment had a sergeant and two privates killed, and the wounded consisted of a lieutenant colonel, two sergeants, two corporals, and 25 privates.8 General Wayne reported to Washington on July 16 that “our officers & men behaved like men who are determined to be free.”9 The next day Wayne further praised the victors, mentioning that “Colonels Butler, Meigs & Febiger conducted themselves with that coolness, bravery & perseverance that ever will ensure success.”10 General Greene joined in with the plaudits: “Never did men or

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officers behave with more spirit. They deserve immortal honor.”11 The civilian population also delighted in the Stony Point victory. Wayne’s aide-de-camp, Captain Henry Archer, at the head of a party of light infantry rode into Philadelphia on the morning of July 25, 1779, bearing Wayne’s official letter to Congress detailing the successful assault. As this military troop rode through the streets with “Colours flying, Trumpet sounding,” people crowded at doors and windows to cheer them on.12 Winning Stony Point proved to have only morale value. Unusually, the victory was quickly undone. Washington immediately had the cannon removed, the works destroyed, and houses burned at the fort. On July 18 Americans evacuated the fort, and the next day the British re-occupied it. For Washington, Stony Point was untenable. The Americans had failed to take Fort Lafayette on Verplanck’s Point across the river, from where cannon along with artillery from ships in the river could bear on Stony Point. Furthermore, a large British force was expected to be on the way to reclaim the fort, and surrounding terrain did not favor the possibility of a major battle. The British, too, realized the infeasibility of retaining Stony Brook, and they evacuated it in October 1779. During the reoccupation by the British, for good measure Wayne’s light infantry were kept near Stony Point, in the event the enemy made a major move against West Point. Richard Butler mentioned this as a likely possibility in one of his intelligence reports because of the many “empty boats” he spotted in the river about the war vessels.13 With the light infantry corps encamped near the west bank of the Hudson, Richard Butler had to face his only court martial of his army career. Butler’s Irish temperament was ruffled in his relations with Captain Jacob Ashmead.

On

September 21, 1779 a court martial, presided over by Colonel Rufus Putnam, met to try Butler on several charges: Inciting soldiers in Ashmead’s company to mutiny by ordering noncommissioned officers not to obey any orders from Captain Ashmead “in an unprecedented and un officer-like manner;” refusing Ashmead the “Liberty to wait on General Wayne to complain of Ill treatment”;

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and putting Ashmead under guard. The court martial acquitted Butler of the first two charges, but found he was not “Justifiable” in arresting Ashmead; the sentence was a reprimand from the “Commanding Officer of the Light Infantry.”14 The light infantry corps remained intact until December 4, 1779 when it was officially disbanded.

It would be revived July 16, 1780.

The last

encampment for Wayne’s light infantry was along the Second River, which empties into the Passaic River, near Newark.15 For over a year not much was heard from Butler, back in command of the Pennsylvania Ninth Regiment, or for that matter from the Continental army stationed in New Jersey and New York. Butler and his regiment during spring and summer 1780 fought in a skirmish at Paramus on April 16 and at Bergen Heights Blockhouse on July 21.16 One event aroused the wrath of the Commander in Chief: the Benedict Arnold treason plot in fall 1780. On October 1, 1780 Washington ordered General Arthur St. Clair to take all of the Pennsylvania line to West Point along with Massachusetts and New Hampshire militia.

The

Pennsylvania troops soon left West Point to link up with the main army in New Jersey and at year’s end were posted at Mount Kemble, near Morristown.17

CHAPTER SIX MUTINY New Year’s Day 1781 found all six regiments of the Pennsylvania line relaxing after a night of reveling, during which time the troops were issued an extra half pint ration of rum. Some soldiers managed to exceed the alloted amount. The Pennsylvanians were encamped at Mount Kemble (Jockey Hollow) on the outskirts of Morristown, New Jersey, while the rest of Washington’s army had quarters at New Windsor on the Hudson River. General Anthony Wayne, fresh from his command of the light infantry and about to resume command of a Pennsylvania brigade, had just arrived at the New Jersey campsite. The actual commander of the New Jersey troops, General Arthur St. Clair, was spending the holidays in Philadelphia. Colonel Richard Butler was back in command of his old regiment, the Ninth Pennsylvania. Butler and Colonel Walter Stewart, commander of the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, joined Wayne at his quarters for dinner. A card game afterwards was interrupted by commotion on the parade ground about 9 p.m. The three officers rushed outside where they discovered soldiers in small groups being brought together by a quartermaster sergeant. Soon there was a large mob. Other officers also came out trying to dissuade the soldiers from the reckless activity, but to no avail.

Both Wayne and Butler received the full attention of the

mutineers in addressing them at length, but nothing was accomplished. The mutineers refused the command of any officer. Wayne bared his breast and invited any one of the protesters to shoot him. The reply came saying that the soldiers had great respect for Wayne and wished him no harm; nevertheless the mutineers denied the right of Wayne or any other officer to give orders to them in

When Fate Summons

40 this situation.

Wayne, Butler, and Stewart were surrounded by men with

bayonets, meaning that if they stayed with the troops they would be essentially prisoners.

Already Captain Adam Bettin was killed and two other officers

wounded during the melee.1 About 2 a.m., January 2, the mutineers numbering nearly 1500 men of the 2500 troops of the line, marched off, “with drums and fifes playing, under command of the sergeants, in regular platoons, with a front and rear guard.” Wayne again confronted the mutineers, placing himself in front of the road that led to Elizabethtown (and the British lines), saying that he would fire on the troops if they sought to go in this direction. Wayne was assured that there was no intent to join the enemy. The mutineers claimed they were headed to Trenton or Philadelphia. In the march, Wayne, Butler, and Stewart followed at the rear.2 The mutineers, led by Sergeant John Williams, halted at Vealtown securing cattle and provisions, they then marched on to Princeton. On January 4, the rebellious troops reached Princeton and took over Nassau Hall for their quarters. Wayne, Butler, and Stewart lodged at a tavern across the street.3 A committee of twelve sergeants was formed and met with Wayne, Butler, and Stewart. The major issues were 1) need to discharge men who had completed their three year enlistments; 2) award arrears in pay to soldiers; and 3) the troops be provided adequate clothing and provisions. Wayne sent the soldier’s requests to President Joseph Reed of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council.

The message was also carried to

Congress, which appointed a committee to treat with the mutineers; members were Samuel J. Atlee, Dr. Theodorick Bland, John Mathews, John Sullivan, and John Witherspoon. Reed and James Potter also of the Pennsylvania Supreme Council went into the field to meet with the mutineers.4 Refining preliminary proposals presented by Wayne, Reed came up with a settlement that would be agreed upon by the Committee of Sergeants and the Congressional committee during the final negotiations on January 10 at Trenton. Discharges would be offered to all those enlisting for three years or duration of the war; certificates would be given immediately for depreciation of pay and

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arrears to be disbursed as soon as possible; certain articles of clothing were to be issued; and a general amnesty5 to be proclaimed. A condition of the Congressional committee’s acceptance of the agreed terms required that the mutineers hand over two captured civilian emissaries from British lines, John Mason and James Ogden. The two prisoners had carried a message from General Clinton wrapped in tea-leaves calling for American mutinous troops to march to the South River, twenty miles from Princeton, where they would find British military protection. Mason had been a notorious Tory criminal, being wanted for mail and other robberies and for murder in the New York Highlands. Ogden, a young farmer from South River, New Jersey, seems to have acted only as Mason’s guide.6 Mason and Ogden had been apprehended by the mutineers, and as a sign of “their Sincerity” were delivered to a guard unit of the Philadelphia Light Horse at dusk, January 10.

The captives were taken

immediately before the Committee of Congress that had been dispatched to deal with the mutineers. The prisoners were assigned to an army court martial, which convened at the Barclay House at 8 p.m. the same day. Richard Butler joined four others to constitute the court martial: Generals Wayne and William Irvine, Lt. Col. Walter Stewart, and Major Benjamin Fishbourne. In short shrift the military panel convicted Mason and Ogden as spies. The next morning at 9 a.m. they were hanged near Trenton, from a tree on Patrick Colvin’s ferry house property. The bodies remained suspended until Tuesday, January 16.7 Thus far Richard Butler had put in full duty regarding the mutiny: along with Wayne and Butler staying with the rebellious soldiers and sitting in judgment of the two spies. After the executions, the Committee of Congress directed a pay settlement for all the troops of the Pennsylvania line. The task was completed on January 29. All those qualifying received discharges, including those who waited for proof of the dates of their enlistments. Some 1,250 infantrymen and 67 artillerists left the army. About 1,150 men of the Pennsylvania line stayed on duty. Most of those discharged soon re-enlisted. All the Pennsylvania troops were furloughed until March 15.8 Butler commented that for the whole course of the mutiny that

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“our presence”(Butler, Wayne, and Stewart) had “a happy Influence in preventing a revolt to the Enemy.”9 Washington, acting on a Congressional resolution of February 20, six days later ordered General Wayne to take the Pennsylvania Continentals , excepting those stationed on the frontier, southward to link up with General Greene’s Southern army in the Carolinas.10

Since a British invasion of Virginia was

underway Wayne’s expeditionary force should assist General Lafayette’s Continentals and militia in that state before going on to join Greene’s army.11 When the furloughed Pennsylvania soldiers returned to duty, Colonel Richard Butler was assigned the command of the 5th Regiment (according to the new army arrangement of January 17, 1781). Butler’s troops took post at York; the other Pennsylvania regiments staying in service (regiments one through six) held position at Philadelphia, Reading, Carlisle, and Lancaster.”12 Wayne assembled his expeditionary force at York; the troops consisted of three regiments, one each commanded by Butler, Walter Stewart, and Richard Humpton, and the Fourth Continental Artillery Regiment, numbering 1,100 men total. The march was delayed because of logistical difficulties. On March 19, as orders to begin the journey were about to be issued, a quiver of alleged mutiny appeared, stemming from problems arising from rude conduct by enlisted men toward officers.13 Some soldiers from each regiment called out that they would not march unless paid in real money. The disaffected troops refused to go back to their tents when ordered.14 The only account of this turmoil was that later reflecting of a young fifer, Samuel DeWeese, not published until 1844. As DeWeese tells it, General Wayne had not yet appeared to take charge of the Pennsylvania detachment and Richard Butler had the overall command.15 DeWeese’s story contrasts with all other accounts, which places Wayne at York at the time of the disturbance.

Six soldiers, four for their “disrespectful language” constituting

mutiny and two for desertion received sentences of death from a drumhead courtmartial. The four would-be mutineers went before a firing squad on May 22; the

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two deserters were pardoned at the last moment. General Wayne commented concerning the execution that “tears rolled down” the “cheeks in showers” of the victims’s “friends and messmates.”16 The manner of execution was calculated so as to present a most dramatic scene, thereby leaving the maximum impression upon soldier witnesses. As the fatal moments approached, the whole Pennsylvania line turned out, with every soldier appearing with a knapsack on his back. The troops were marched to about a half mile from camp and put under arms. Twenty soldiers went to the jail door, and brought out the six prisoners, to whom were read their death sentences. The soldier detail then marched the condemned prisoners, to the sound of the “dead march,” to a rye field. The prisoners were made to kneel down with their backs at a fence. Their eyes were then bandaged or covered with silk handkerchiefs. The officer in command then divided his force of twenty men into two platoons. The whole was then ordered to load their pieces. This done, ten were ordered to advance, and at the signal given by the officer (which was the wave of his pocket handkerchief) the first platoon of ten fired at one of the six. Then the second platoon advanced, and upon signal shot to death the second condemned man. This time the victim’s head “was literally blown in fragments from off his body.” Then the first platoon came back and dispatched the third, and alternately the second platoon had the final shot. The distance between the firing squad and victim was ten feet. So near did they stand that the handkerchiefs covering the eyes of some of them that were shot were set on fire. The fence and even the heads of rye for some distance within the field were covered over with blood and brains. All the troops were marched and countermarched by the bodies as close as possible. A soldier detail wrapped the four dead bodies in blankets and buried them nearby in one grave.

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“The execution of these men by Colonel Butler, and his officers,” commented DeWeese, “was undoubtedly brought about by a love of liberty, the good of country, and the necessity of keeping proper subordination in the army, in order to insure that good ultimately.”

One immediate result of the awful

punishments was that soldiers were afraid to say or do anything even trivially that might offend officers.17 On May 26, Anthony Wayne led the Pennsylvania detachment from York headed southward toward central Virginia.18 At the time General Charles Cornwallis had marched from North Carolina to Petersburg, Virginia, where he joined with a British army already in an invasion mode. Wayne’s Pennsylvanians linked up with Lafayette troops near Fredericksburg, some fifty miles north of Richmond, on June 7. Wayne formed a brigade of two Pennsylvania regiments, one each commanded by Richard Butler and Walter Stewart, and the Third Continental Virginia Regiment under Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins.18 Richard Butler had entered a different phase of the war—the Southern campaigns.

CHAPTER SEVEN VIRGINIA With the reinforcement of Wayne’s Pennsylvanians, Lafayette’s army in Virginia of Continentals and militia numbered 4,500 troops. Now for the first time during his three months of command in the state, the Frenchman felt he could risk, at least to a limited extent, combat with the invading British army. Hitherto all that Lafayette could do was to tag along at a respectable distance from the enemy. The chase had reached to above Richmond, and then the British army, consisting of some 6,000 troops wound its way westward to near Charlottesville, eventually dropping down the James River to Richmond, which the enemy occupied June 16-21. On its way to Williamsburg, Cornwallis’s army paused briefly in New Kent County. With a trail of 4,000 African-Americans following behind the baggage train, “any place this horde approached was eaten clean, like an acre invaded by a swarm of locusts.”1 On June 23 Cornwallis sent out a large detachment consisting of Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers and several other units on a destruction and cattle collecting mission along the Chickahominy River.

At the time

Lafayette, with the enemy still in New Kent County, was about twenty miles away on the South Anna River, in Hanover County.2 He saw the opportunity to deliver a blow to the enemy. Lafayette entrusted Butler with the command of an “Advance Corps” to pursue Simcoe’s detachment and bring on combat. Butler’s force had his regiment of Pennsylvanians, 120 cavalry under Major William McPherson, and Majors Richard Call and John P. Wyllys’s company of Virginia riflemen, about 700 men in all. Butler and his Advance Corps spent all day Sunday, June 24 “enjoying

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ourselves and cooking.” Butler’s troops stayed posted at Spencer’s Ordinary, on the Chickahominy River, six miles from Williamsburg, where the main British army was now encamped.

Butler’s troops had as their mission to intercept

Simcoe’s detachment, now conducting cattle to the British army at Williamsburg. Early morning, June 26, Butler’s task force marched out to intercept Simcoe’s foraging expedition. What ensued was the battle of Spencer’s Ordinary, or, in the soldiers’s parlance, the “battle of Hot Water.” Simcoe had the opportunity to put into practice a “principle in war that the party which attacks when the issue is doubtful has already won half of the battle.” Major McPherson, with fifty infantrymen and fifty cavalry, ahead of Butler’s main force, met Simcoe’s onslaught. In hand-to-hand combat McPherson was driven back; the Virginia riflemen came up but they, too, were forced to retreat. All these American troops were pushed on to Butler’s Pennsylvanians. Simcoe said afterwards that he faced little danger from being surrounded by Butler’s Advance Corps because the Americans had no bayonets and the riflemen had been instructed to fire one shot, and it took time to reload. The American riflemen at first fired at the enemy from a forty yards distance, but discovered they had to face onrushing Hessian troops under Lt. Col. Johann Ewald, who had come up to assist Simcoe. Ewald’s troops, however, soon became dispersed in woods, where smoke from the arms fire lessened visibility. Butler’s Continentals came up to support the retreating riflemen, leading the Hessian commander and Simcoe to decide to head down a road towards Williamsburg. These enemy troops trekked two miles, whereupon they met troops under Cornwallis coming out of Williamsburg intending to give Simcoe’s detachment assistance.

Cornwallis decided against pursuing the

Americans. With Lafayette having not sent on a reinforcement, Butler did not want to bring on a general battle. The enemy went on to Williamsburg; at least Butler and his men retained possession of the battleground.4 From the battle of Spencer’s Ordinary, Lafayette reported American casualties as nine killed, 14 wounded, and 14 missing; Simcoe listed the British losses as ten killed and twenty wounded.5 Lafayette complimented the troops of

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the Advance Corps: “I am under great Obligation to Colo. Butler and the Officers and Men of the Detachment for their Ardor in the pursuit and their Conduct in the Action.”6 The intense heat and probably also parasitic drinking water and lack of sleep caused Butler to come down with a severe case of diarrhea. He found it necessary to take a brief furlough.7 Butler seems to have missed the battle of Green Spring, July 6; on record the Pennsylvanians in that action were led by General Anthony Wayne and next in command, Colonel Walter Stewart. Lafayette sent Anthony Wayne and a detachment of eight hundred men, consisting of Pennsylvanians and 200 Virginia militia and cavalry, to probe the enemy’s rear as they crossed the James headed to Portsmouth. It turned out that Lafayette misjudged the British movement. Wayne’s force drove in British pickets, only to soon discover the enemy appeared in force. Wayne, outnumbered, ordered a charge, on the assumption that the best defense was offense. The British also made a charge. The short engagement of fifteen minutes was intense at 50-60 yards: “close, warm, and well directed firing.” Wayne ordered a retreat back across a causeway; troops from Lafayette’s main force appeared to cover the retreat.8 From Wayne’s detachment 28 were killed, about eighty wounded, and 12 missing; British casualties amounted to 75 killed and wounded. Butler’s regiment, who had fought without him, suffered six killed, 15 wounded, and nine missing—all enlisted men.9 Richard Butler rejoined General Wayne’s Pennsylvania brigade with Lafayette’s army in Virginia by the end of July 1781. Until September Wayne’s troops encamped at various places between Williamsburg and near Richmond, being in position to strike out against any ranging parties of the enemy, such as that of Simcoe’s Queen Rangers, Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s dreaded Legion, or the occasional foraging band led by Lt. Col. Thomas Dundas.10 On September 1, with Lafayette sick in bed from a fever, colonels Butler and Stewart represented the Frenchman in greeting the arrival of the French fleet at the mouth of the James River. The two American officers made contact with

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their ally comrades at Burwell’s Ferry in Isle of Wight County. Butler reported he was overjoyed to see the French ships. Butler and Stewart were able to welcome Admiral Francǫis comte de Grasse and Major General marquis de Saint Simon-Montblern as they came ashore. For the occasion Butler noted that he and Stewart “were kissed by about 30 officers.”11 Saint-Simon’s division would be placed under the command of Lafayette for the ensuing Yorktown campaign.12 Butler, Stewart, and Wayne conferred with Saint-Simon on Jamestown Island on September 2; the purpose of the conference was to arrange debarkation of French troops. On their return to camp, Wayne went separately to confer with Lafayette, and en route refused to yield to a challenge by a sentry and received a buckshot volley to his thigh. Though not seriously wounded Wayne for about two weeks was incapacitated, and Richard Butler took over interim command of the Pennsylvania troops.13 The allied armies—French and American—settled in for an encampment at Williamsburg and vicinity. Butler had charge of selecting the exact campsites. Eventually the Pennsylvanians bivoacked at Burwell’s Mill, three miles below Williamsburg. Butler made sure that his men had adequate “provisions and liquor.” He had a double responsibility: setting up guard posts (pickets) and gaining information of the countryside in reference to future disposition of troops. On September 4 Butler moved his Pennsylvanians to Williamsburg where they were “posted in the College, which shelters them very well.” Butler found time to join the generals and certain field officers of the two armies for an elegant dinner in Williamsburg hosted by Colonel William Finnie, Deputy Quartermaster General of the Southern department.14 A similar get-together was presented the next day at Mrs. Jane Vobe’s King’s Arms Tavern; this time militia officers also attended. 15 On September 13 Butler learned of the imminent arrival of the Commander in Chief. In his diary Butler noted that Washington had not been at Mount Vernon for many years until now,

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all which time he has been a most faithful patriot and servant of his country ... he has nobly shared in all their misfortunes, shewing the utmost fortitude and regularity of conduct; indeed the able statesman has appeared in all his actions. The next day at 3 p.m. “an express arrived, announcing the approach of our great and good Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Washington, and the Count de Rochambeau, the commander of the allied armies of France.” At 4 p.m. “the guns fired a royal salute as the General approached the camp.” Both armies were assembled in parade formation. The commanders of the American troops and those of the French army exchanged inspections.

When these ceremonies

concluded, all the French officers and the American field officers went to the quarters of General Saint-Simon, where they were introduced to Washington. Afterwards, “the great personages and officers supped together in the utmost harmony and happiness.” Butler, who was included among the noted guests, recorded the names of celebrities present: Washington, Rochambeau, Lafayette, Saint-Simon, American generals Steuben and Edward Hand, colonels Joseph Louis Cesar comte de Damas, comte Mathieu Dumas, Walter Stewart, Jonathan Trumbull (secretary to Washington), David Cobb, and William Stephens Smith, and “a number of other officers.” As part of the after dinner entertainment, “an elegant band” performed “an introductive part of a French Opera, signifying the happiness of the family, when blessed with the presence of their father, and their great dependence upon him.” At 10 p.m., the group broke up, “after mutual congratulations and the greatest expression of joy.” For the next two days, Butler, in his diary, again mentions high-level dining for the officers of both armies, including Washington; Butler was also present.16 From September 17 to 27, with the allied armies still in the Williamsburg vicinity, Richard Butler spent much of his time assisting the supervision of debarkation of French troops and supplies. He also notes that Washington and “principal officers” of both armies had determined upon a plan, drawn up on De

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Grasse’s flag ship, to move out the combined armies early September 28 toward Yorktown for siege operations.17 Richard Butler thrilled to the prospect of glory and peace.

CHAPTER EIGHT YORKTOWN At 5 p.m., September 28, the allied armies picked up from Williamsburg and headed for Yorktown, the French taking a direct route and the Americans a road to the right. At noon the columns arrived at the chosen encampment site, and French cannon cleared British pickets from the area. The next morning the allied armies “formed a complete investment round the town.” French troops held position on the left fronting the British right and the Americans “the right facing the British left.”1 The siege began in earnest on September 30. The British army had pulled back from all their outer works and now held to entrenchments immediately adjacent to the town.

Twelve hundred allied troops kept busy erecting

fortifications. At daybreak enemy artillery opened fire but did little damage. Colonel Richard Butler commanded the first of two Pennsylvania regiments, which along with a Virginia regiment comprised Brigadier General Anthony Wayne’s brigade, in Major General Steuben’s division. Two other American divisions were assigned to the siege, those of major generals Lafayette and Benjamin Lincoln. The French troops, commanded by the comte de Rochambeau, provided about one-half of the allied force. For the simultaneous investment of the British post at Gloucester Point, across the river from Yorktown, were fifteen hundred Virginia militia, six hundred infantry and cavalry of the Duc de Lauzun’s Legion, and eight hundred marines from the French fleet. The total allied force at the siege amounted to 15,700 for the Americans, 5,200 Continentals and 3,000 militia; for the French, 7,500. The besieged British army under Lord Cornwallis amounted to about 7,500 troops.2

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Cannonading persisted. On the allied side, French and American artillery alternated in the firing. On October 2, Butler went out in Wayne’s brigade as it served a covering party, conducting observation and reconnaissance and also acting as a security screen. At nighttime Butler “reconnoitered” the British post at Gloucester Point; he estimated it was defended by one thousand men and that it had some good fortifications.3 On Thursday, October 4, Butler went along the York River to obtain a close view of enemy activity, and found the redcoats “very busy forming new works.”4 For Butler’s Pennsylvanians there seemed to be a special task almost every day. On October 6 some of Butler’s troops were employed in “gabion making.” Gabions (baskets filled with dirt or stones) were carried to near the York River at four hundred paces from the enemy for the purpose of erecting entrenchments.

The first parallel was completed on the 7th.5

As one

Pennsylvania officer reported, the trenches “were enlivened with drums beating and colors flying.” Flags were planted on the parapet with the motto “Manus haec inimica tyrannis.” Up to this point, Butler commented, “the siege appears to be no more than an experimental movement.”6 On Monday, October 8, Butler’s and other troops of Steuben’s division entered the trenches, relieving Lafayette’s division. Steuben’s division completed a redoubt (a large battery) on the extreme right, on the York River. The French did the same on the far left. Another large battery was placed at the center of the allied lines. The allies now began bombardment with heavy guns. Benjamin Lincoln’s troops relieved Steuben’s division on the 9th (thereafter there was a three-way daily rotation in the trenches: Lafayette, Steuben, and Lincoln). “The shot and shells,” wrote Butler, “flew incessantly through the night, dismounted the guns of the enemy, and destroyed many of their embasures.”7 On Wednesday, October 10, the allies bombarded the enemy “with unremitting fury all day.” Thomas Nelson, who lived in Yorktown, came out under a flag. He informed Washington that Lord Cornwallis and “the chief officers were burrowed in the ground, and that our shot and shells did great

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execution.”8 With Steuben’s division again back in the trenches on the 11th Butler had a supervisory role in the beginning of the construction of the second parallel, which would be completed three days later. At nighttime of the 11th, Butler had command of six hundred men and “opened about 700 paces of the second parallel within about 250 yards of their works; in many places this was done so secretly that the enemy Aid not know of it till day.”9 On October 13 the whole army was on fatigue duty, “making saucissons, fascines, stakes, gabions, and palisades, to make good the daily consumption.” On the 14th Steuben’s division was again in the trenches. Butler and his troops witnessed in the distance at sunset the successful assaults on the two remaining British redoubts, at each end of the lines, by detachments under Lafayette and Lt. Col. Guillaume Deux-Ponts.10 The last heated artillery fire and combat occurred on the l4th. As Butler reported, “the batteries were opened and fired with great success, which silenced the chief of the enemy’s batteries; many of their men were killed, and the whole of the garrison thrown into confusion.” At midnight, a detachment of British light infantry and guards “made a sally” and “got possession of a trench” and also spiked several French guns. A French covering party quickly came up, crying “Vive Le Roy” and wielding bayonets drove off the enemy attackers.11 Richard Butler and his Pennsylvanians were doing their rotation in the trenches on the day of decision, October 17. Washington accepted Cornwallis’s proposal for a cessation of hostilities while a surrender document was drawn up. Richard Butler found himself in a fortunate circumstance. According to military practice, troops in the trenches were “entitled to the honor of closing the siege.” Thus Steuben’s division (including the Pennsylvanians) went unrelieved, and stayed put until the surrender would be concluded. On the 18th Butler and two hundred troops were ordered to “take possession of one of the enemy’s works.”12 On the 19th, with the capitulation signed, at 2 p.m. the American and French armies each lined a side of the road leading from Yorktown, and the British army marched out and stacked arms, “to the great satisfaction of the whole American

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army and all spectators.” Nearly 8,000 enemy soldiers surrendered, including those of both Yorktown and Gloucester Point. Butler was designated the one to plant the American flag on the enemy parapet. But being short and somewhat overweight, Butler delegated a Pennsylvania ensign, Ebenezer Denny, to perform this task. Just as Denny was about to install the flag, General Steuben rode up and ordered Denny to hand it over so that Steuben could raise it. Denny complied. Butler and Wayne angrily protested, and Butler sent Steuben a harsh letter of complaint. Supposedly Washington and Rochambeau intervened to prevent a duel between Butler and Steuben. This story has come down after the fact, and may have been unfounded.13 In any event Butler could write to his friend, General William Irvine, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, “thus has the Earl been brought to anchor in the height of his career.”14 With the Yorktown campaign at an end, Anthony Wayne and his Pennsylvania brigade were ordered to reinforce General Greene in the Carolinas, which had been their original destination before being detained in Virginia. General Arthur St. Clair was placed in charge of the Pennsylvanians, with Wayne as second in command. Wayne still nursed his wounded thigh and was troubled by the gout.14 The brigade left Williamsburg on November 5 and reached the North Carolina border on November 23.

The troops passed through Salisbury on

December 14, and linked up with Greene’s army at Round O, on the fringe of South Carolina’s low country.

On January 9 the brigade headed for

Jacksonborough, thirty miles from Charleston.

Greene decided to keep the

Pennsylvania troops with him in South Carolina, and sent Wayne (separate from St. Clair’s command) with a special detachment to clear British forces out of Georgia. Wayne’s little expeditionary force consisted of 100 Maryland dragoons, 300 South Carolina militia, and the Georgia Legion of 170 men. 15 Richard Butler may have accompanied his regiment to the Carolinas, but he did not stay there, for by spring 1782 he was back in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania troops that stayed in South Carolina were commanded by Colonel Thomas Craig (first

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regiment) and Lt. Col. Josiah Harmar (second regiment). These Pennsylvanians returned home in June 1783, and were mustered out of service the following December.16 For a while Butler supervised army recruiting at Carlisle. He managed to raise five hundred enlistees, and had them ready to march for South Carolina by April 1782, waiting only for orders from Washington. The Commander in Chief gave as the reason for the delay that the “Enemys Intentions and their future Mode of War” should be “more clearly ascertained.”17 Meanwhile the enemy evacuated themselves from all their posts except New York City, and most American soldiers were allowed to go home on indefinite furlough. Richard Butler stayed on to near the very end, taking charge of those Pennsylvanian veterans still in service.

CHAPTER NINE MUTINY II An inclination toward mutiny never quite faded from the psyche of the battle-scarred Pennsylvania Continental soldiers. The mutiny of January 1781 had left an embittered outlook of the soldiers toward military and civilian authority. The ugly head of soldier rebellion popped up at the close of the war. The cessation of hostilities, inactivity, pay arrears, and delay in granting furloughs to return home contributed to the restlessness among the regular troops. Richard Butler again would have his mettle tested by the challenge of mutiny. As a backdrop to a recurring flare-up among Pennsylvania troops was an incident involving General Greene’s Southern army in April 1782.

At the

encampment at Dorchester, on April 20 Sergeant George Goznell of the Pennsylvania line was arrested for having spoken “words tending to excite mutiny.” Goznell went before a firing squad on April 22, and his co-conspirators were sent to work at a military laboratory in Salisbury, North Carolina.1 By late spring 1783 much of the Pennsylvania line had been discharged. The troops still in service were quartered in barracks at Philadelphia and Lancaster. In June 1783 at the Philadelphia barracks were three companies, most of whose members had been employed as guards of British prisoners. Two hundred Maryland soldiers on their way home temporarily shared the barracks. A petition representing the soldiers at the Philadelphia barracks protesting the delay in pay came before Congress, who were sitting in the city. The legislators made no reply, and the Superintendwnt of Finances, Robert Morris, declared he had no money to pay the soldiers. Finally, however, it was arranged to provide back pay, but omitting compensation for the month of January for soldiers who had declined

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furloughs. Richard Butler, who now commanded the barracks at Lancaster (the troops mainly of those of his Third Regiment), and other prominent persons let it be known they suspected certain public creditors encouraged the soldiers in their discontent.2 The first signs of trouble appeared on June 13 when sergeants at the Philadelphia barracks held a protest at the doors of Congress at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall). The “mutinous memorial of the Sergeants” was referred to Benjamin Lincoln, the Secretary at War, who prevailed upon General Arthur St. Clair, then the ranking officer of the Pennsylvania Continental troops, to seek a solution. St. Clair merely transferred some of the offending soldiers to the garrison at Lancaster.3 Meanwhile, at the Lancaster barracks, on June 17, the sergeants called on Richard Butler and told him they were ready to lead their troops to Philadelphia to lay their grievances before Congress. The discontented troops wanted a pay settlement, not furloughs, and made it clear they would not leave service until their demands were met. Butler, Colonel Samuel Atlee, and other officers in the town gathered the men on the parade ground. Butler gave a speech, saying that measures were being taken to close the soldiers’ accounts; a result would be more quickly obtained if the soldiers remained at their quarters in Lancaster. Butler’s remarks, however, fell on deaf ears. At 8:30 p.m. June 17, 120 of Butler’s soldiers at Lancaster began their march to Philadelphia; well armed, they were led by Sergeant Christian Nagle.

Butler again consulted his officers, and sent

Captains James Christie, Samuel Montgomery, and Andrew Walker after the dissidents, Christie read an address to the troops that had been prepared by Butler, repeating what Butler had said earlier, closing with the statement: Nor do we imagine that your appearance at Philadelphia can have any good effect in your favor as it will be justly constreud into a menace rather than a proper means of Seeking Justice after what is offered you.

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Again Butler’s words were ignored. Lt. Edward Butler, Richard’s brother, was sent to Philadelphia with letters from Colonels William Henry and Richard Butler, apprizing President John Dickinson of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council that armed soldiers had set out from Lancaster for Philadelphia to “cooperate” with fellow mutineers there to obtain their pay. Dickinson turned over the letters to Congress, which then gave them to the office of Secretary at War and also created a Congressional committee, consisting of delegates Alexander Hamilton, Oliver Ellsworth, and Richard Peters to confer with the state Supreme Executive Council. The Council rejected Congress’s application that Pennsylvania call in militia to curtail the mutineers; the Council’s position was that militia would not suppress the mutiny as long as there was no violence. On June 19, the Congressional committee directed the Assistant Secretary at War, William Jackson, to confer with the Lancaster mutineers and try to turn them back. Jackson was authorized to promise the Lancaster men that they could stay in service until their accounts were settled and that they would share in pay to be given to the army at large. Jackson failed to elicit any favorable response.4 On Friday, June 20, with drums beating and fixed bayonets, the Lancaster mutineers entered Philadelphia. The next day, Saturday, June 21, 300 of the 500 soldiers now quartered in Philadelphia surrounded the State House. It was feared that the rebels might not only lay siege to Congress for ransom but might also raid the National Bank and assault the state’s Supreme Executive Council.

The

mutineers were led by Captain Henry Carberry and Lieutenant John Sullivan. Although not attempting to enter the State House by force, the mutineers placed sentinels at the doors and windows. roughly handled.

In several instances congressmen were

General St. Clair delivered the demands of the troops to

President John Dickinson, president of the Council, who then presented the items for consideration by the Congress. The main proposal called the appointment by the mutineers of officers to act on their behalf in negotiating a settlement. Neither the Council nor the Congress acted on the request. Still something had to be done. Local citizens were resolutely on the side of the mutineers, who were

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viewed as having risked their lives for liberty.5 Congress was permitted to adjourn, but met again that evening at a different location, Carpenter’s Hall. The legislators passed three resolutions. One declared that a mutiny existed, and, therefore, “effectual measures be immediately taken for supporting the Public authority.” Number two said that if it appeared that the state could not provide the requisite security then Congress should relocate at Princeton on Thursday, June 26 and there provide measures for federal coercion. The third resolution specifically requested that the Commander in Chief, who had his headquarters at Newburgh, New York to order such troops to Philadelphia as would be “Expedient for suppressing any disturbances that may Ensue.6 With Congress out of sight in Princeton and upon news that federal troops would be soon on their way to suppress the uprising, the mutineers decided to submit to authority. The two leaders of the mutiny, Carberry and Sullivan, fled and were reported to have sailed for Europe. Butler’s mutinous troops laid down their arms on June 26, and the next day, under the command of Lt. Stewart Herbert marched back to their Lancaster garrison.7 Richard Butler may have lingered for a while longer in Philadelphia. He may have attended an elegant dinner, sponsored by President John Dickinson of the Council, for army officers then in Philadelphia.8 Washington acted upon the recommendation by Congress to send troops to Philadelphia.

About July 8,

General Robert Howe, with 1,500 troops, gleaned from Continentals stationed at West Point and the New York Highlands, a sizeable part of Washington’s army, arrived at Philadelphia. With the situation now defused, all that remained for erasing the mutiny was to bring to trial its leaders. Richard Butler, from his command at Lancaster, took on the responsibility of apprehending the alleged culprits. He wrote President Dickinson on July 9 that he had Sergeant Nagle and two other “abettors” of the mutiny confined in irons at the Lancaster jail.9 A military court-martial, presided over by General John Paterson of Massachusetts, sentenced Sergeants Christian Nagle and John Morrison both of

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Butler’s Third Regiment, to be shot and five others to undergo corporal punishment.

Responding to petitions from prominent citizens, Congress, on

September 13, 1783 issued pardons for all those convicted.10 Congress, however, left to General Howe the decision “as to the time and manner of communicating it to the Prisoners.” Thus Howe waited until the day of the scheduled execution. As an Italian visitor noted on September 22, at the army encampment the two soldiers who were to die had already knelt, their eyes bandaged, near the recently prepared grave, with the coffin beside them, and the firing squad with loaded guns had already advanced, when a full pardon was announced for the condemned as well as for the five [four] soldiers. With the same nonchalance which they had shown in meeting death, they rose and after kissing the coat of General Howe . . . mounted horses and galloped off to the city.11 Although Continental soldiers received partial pay, the full settlement of accounts for the army (and the Pennsylvania line) was not completed until 1787.12 The mutiny incident of June 1783 had the effect of impressing upon the public’s mind that Congress and the Pennsylvania government had ineffectually handled the situation. Especially Congress’s dilatoriness in action and running away to Princeton seemed to point to the need for a firmly based national government. Colonel Richard Butler left the Continental army in fall 1783.

On

September 13, 1783 Congress voted him the brevet rank of Brigadier General in the Army of the United States. The President of Congress, Elias Boudinot, signed this decision on October 10. Butler now looked about for a new career. Politics and civic service did not much attract him. One possibility did not materialize – an appointment to Pennsylvania’s Council of Censors. Dr. Benjamin Rush, the reknown physician and reformer, nominated Butler for this position.14

Of course, Butler’s past

experience relating to the frontier would put him in good stead to again pursue in that direction.

Especially the acquisition by the United States of enormous

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western territory called attention to Indian Affairs.

CHAPTER TEN FORT STANWIX TREATY It is with pleasure we announce to you that we are the commissioners sent by Congress .... to renew the friendship and brighten the chain of alliance with you and our faithful brothers, and give peace and good council to those who have been unfortunately led astray by evil advisers. We therefore wish you to put away all evil thoughts and cleanse your hearts and minds that we may begin the good work.1 Thus, in presenting these written words, Richard Butler and the two other United States commissioners, Oliver Wolcott and Arthur Lee, opened the session that culminated in Treaty of Fort Stanwix in October 1784. Indian affairs would again define the rest of Richard Butler’s life. At war’s end, back at his home in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Butler had been looking for employment other than the military. Army life was out of the question as the federal military establishment had been reduced to several hundred troops stationed at West Point and soon at several posts in the western country. The Treaty of Peace that concluded the war recognized United States sovereignty over all the territory, except for Spanish Florida, extending to the Mississippi River. No mention, however, was made of the Indian peoples. The first order of business for the New Republic was to assert its rule over the new lands by right of conquest, the same claim that had served Great Britain. Councils needed to be convened to form treaties to recognize the United States claims for dominion over the Indians. On October 15, 1783 Congress passed a resolution for conducting a peace treaty with the Iroquois and Ohio Country Indians. The main objectives were to impress the tribes that the British had given up all territory now within the

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jurisdiction of the United States and to draw a boundary line defining lands that could still be settled by the Indians. For commissioners to treat with the Indians. Congress, on March 4, 1784 appointed Richard Butler, George Rogers Clark, Nathanael Greene, Stephen Higginson, and Oliver Wolcott.

Greene and

Higginson declined to serve. Benjamin Lincoln and Arthur Lee were selected in their stead. Lincoln refused the appointment, as well did Philip Schuyler. George Rogers Clark would prove a no-show. Thus, only a quorum of the intended five commissioners, Butler, Lee, and Wolcott would participate in the treaty negotiations.

Instructions to the commissioners called for treating with the

Indians of the northern and middle departments, namely the Iroquois and tribes “west and north of them” and “as far South as the Cherokees,” to receive them “into the favour and protection of the United States” and establish boundaries for the “Indian Villages and hunting grounds.”2 The impending treaty of Fort Stanwix was of primary interest to the tribes of the Six Nations, since it was their lands in the Appalachian region that were most immediately desired by oncoming frontiersmen. The western tribes, who were also invited and had fought against the Americans during the war, decided to leave the matters at hand to the Iroquoian delegates, and hence only very few representatives of the Ohio tribes would attend the conference. As it was, the Iroquois themselves, weakened by sickness and divided as to how strong a course to take, did not show up in large numbers; at the first treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 some 2,000 tribesmen attended the treaty, while in 1784 only a few hundred appeared for the treaty council.3 During late spring and summer, Richard Butler was in New York City, making arrangements for logistical support of the treaty council.

In early

September 1784 Butler and Wolcott visited Albany for further preparations. At the end of the month they were joined by Lee, and all three headed westward for Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N.Y.).4 Located 109 miles (by water) from Albany on the south bank of the Mohawk River, the fort had been burnt and abandoned; hence the treaty delegates assembled at three small blockhouses and several

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cabins a half mile away. A dozen or so Indian chiefs, most notably Brant of the Mohawks and Cornplanter of the Senecas, along with their delegations, were present at the appointed time for the start of the negotiations on Sunday, October 3.

Besides the three American commissioners, attending also were General

Lafayette, who was held in esteem by the Iroquois dating from the Frenchman’s abortive Canada expedition of 1778, Congressmen James Monroe and James Madison. Local settlers supplied ample spirituous liquors to the Indians at the conference, expecting this action would insure the Indians letting their guard down and be more amenable to cession of territory.5 The first two days of the treaty council witnessed greetings and position settings by the leaders on both sides. Butler and his companions had arrived with a band of armed men, so there was not much fear of any disorder.

“The

continental commissioners opened the business,” with short speeches by Butler and Wolcott. The latter introduced Lafayette who delivered an address “with much oratory and elegance.” Lafayette “upbraided those that joined the enemy in the late war with reprehensive conduct and praised those that stood for their country [Oneidas and Tuscaroras] against its unjust invaders.”

Grasshopper,

“King of the Oneidas,” and a Cayuga chief responded “with a great deal of volubility.”6 With Indian delegates belatedly arriving, nothing much was accomplished until October 12, when the commissioners settled down to the main business. Lee stated the core of the American position and made demands, and upon concluding his discourse, “raked up the council fire,” while awaiting the Indians’s response. Lee, who presented his native audience with a copy of the peace treaty with Great Britain, said that the United States having settled all differences with nations, were ready to afford the Indian tribes “just and reasonable terms” and “to receive them into the friendship, favor, and protection of the United States.” The Indians should note that by the treaty between the United States and Great Britain ending the war that “the King of Great Britain renounces and yields to the United States all pretensions, and claims, whatsoever, of all the country South and West of the

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Great Northern Rivers, and Lakes, as far as the Mississippi.” The presentation stipulated that the Indians should release all American prisoners; furthermore, the Indians should propose a boundary line that would be acceptable to the United States. Although one Indian orator, Aaron Hill of the Mohawks, pointed out “we are free, and independent, and at present under no influence,” the Indian delegates felt that they had no choice but to at least afford some accommodation to the demands to be presented by the three federal Indian commissioners. Subsequently the commissioners impressed upon the Indians that “you are a subdued people,” and “moderate terms” to be offered should be accepted, as there would not be a “repetition of such offers.”7 For the next week not much was accomplished, as the Indian delegates pondered the probability of land cession. On October 18 Butler and his comrades enjoyed the viewing of “a game of wicket played by 2 nations of Indians, the Oneidas against the Caghnawaugas [Canadian Mohawks]; 12 of each side select young men .... the players prepared themselves by stripping and taking plentifully of rum.” The American delegates also observed Indian dancing, which was held after nightfall: a fire is erected, a jug of rum if possible brought forth. They drink, then form a circle around the fire and commence by a principle character pronouncing aloud an insignificant phrase as “honey aw haw he you:” the rest of ‘em strike in with a grunt .... They are all now in motion, running around stamping without any particular step .... They go 3 times round then shout aloud, raise their hands, turn their faces to the fire, stoop half bent, and increase the rapidity of their steps. Next they proceed to repeat the same, sometimes running into a spiral line, then into a circle again .... We generally stepped in their circle when present, which appeared to please them very much.8 The Indian leaders failed in directing the negotiations toward merely reasserting the boundary decisions of the first Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768. On Wednesday, October 20 the commissioners, finally put an end to such speculation

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and came down hard on insisting on substantial concessions by the Indians. Arthur Lee gave “a most grand spirited speech” that spelled out new boundary lines affecting four of the Six Nations--Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas, and Cayugas, but not the Tuscaroras and Oneidas, who had supported the American cause during the war. The Iroquois were to surrender chunks of western New York and Pennsylvania and essentially their traditional claim to territory west of the Ohio River. Cornplanter, the Seneca chief, objected to surrender of the Ohio lands without consultation with the western tribes. Richard Butler responded by saying that the Iroquois always made it a priority of their own interests to exclusion of those of other tribes.9 On October 22, delegates from the Six Nations unanimously approved the terms offered by the continental commissioners; thirteen Indian leaders affixed their mark to the treaty. To the indignation of the tribesmen at the treaty, six lesser chiefs were detained by the American commissioners as hostages, mainly to guarantee the pledge of the Indians to free captives.10 Specifically the treaty provided: Article 1. The Indians deliver up all prisoners taken during the Revolutionary War from citizens of the United States. Article 2. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras “shall be secured in the possession of the lands on which they are settled.” Article 3. A boundary line shall be drawn roughly from Buffalo Creek on Lake Erie southwest to the western boundary of Pennsylvania at its junction with the Ohio River. Article 4. The Commissioners of the United States in consideration of the present circumstances of the Six Nations, and in execution of the humane and liberal views of the United States upon the signing of the above articles, will order goods to be delivered to the said Six Nations for their use and comfort. The treaty council ended with a ceremony. “The Indians buried their old Cruel Hatchet very deep in the Ground,” and the American commissioners “broke

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their Bloody Sword and lay’d it on the grave of the Hatchet . . . and the Burying was attended with Great Pompe, Rejoicing and Shouting.” Wampum belts were exchanged between both parties, and the commissioners and chiefs smoked a “Long Pipe of Peace.” An old chief then “ordered the Whole Multitude to Arise,” and to form a “seven fold Circle” of “the white Brethren and Indians all intermixt together.”12 The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was submitted to Congress on November 30, 1784. It was reported out of committee for consideration of the whole Congress on December 2. The Treaty received final approval of Congress on June 3, 1785.13 For the immediate surrender of the Indian lands according to the treaty, $4,000 in goods went to the Iroquois tribes, with $1,000 added a year later.14 The Fort Stanwix Treaty did not insure peace. The western Indians and most Iroquois leaders back home claimed the treaty a fraud. For the Algonkian tribes in the Ohio country the treaty freed them of Iroquois domination. But at the same time, as one author notes, the door was now open to terminate land claims with the western Indians, tribe by tribe, a strategy reminiscent of the old British policy of “divide and rule.”15

CHAPTER ELEVEN FORT MCINTOSH TREATY The federal commissioners took leave of the Fort Stanwix council in late October 1784. They headed for Pittsburgh by traveling southward to Harris Ferry (Harrisburg) and then westward through Carlisle, Shippensburg, Fort Littleton, Bedford, and Ligonier. Richard Butler may have stayed a few days with his family in Carlisle. Time was of the essence, however, as an Indian council dealing with the western tribes was scheduled hopefully in December.

The

commissioners arrived in Pittsburgh by December 2. The little fort was manned by a small body of Maryland state troops.

For over three weeks the

commissioners remained in Pittsburgh, where they was “plenty of company and good sociable circle.”1

One of the original commissioners, Oliver Wolcott,

resigned and was replaced by George Rogers Clark, who had been appointed before the Fort Stanwix treaty. The federal commissioners were to be joined by similarly appointed emissaries representing Pennsylvania:

Colonel Samuel I.

Atlee and Colonel Francis Johnson.2 On December 29, the federal commissioners, having traveled by flatboat thirty miles in the ice-clogged Ohio River, arrived at Fort McIntosh. This post, on a high bluff at the mouth of Beaver Creek, was garrisoned by Lt. Col. Josiah Harmar’s partial regiment of sixteen infantry and forty artillerymen. The log fort, forming “an irregular square,” had four bastions.3 During the next several days Indian delegates showed up:

Wyandots, Delawares, and “a few wondering

Ottawa and Chippewa.”4 These Indians were attired much like the Iroquois, wearing a cap, shirt, breechcoth, leggings, and moccasins; their complexion was “darker and their features and conduct more savage.”5

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At first, Butler seemed to resent the presence of the Pennsylvania commissioners. At supper on New Year’s Day, Butler fell into an argument with Griffith Evans, clerk to the Pennsylvania commissioners. Apparently there was some deficiency in Evans’s transportation of goods down the river for the Indian conference.

Evans claimed Butler “designed to use me extremely illiberal.”

Better feelings soon prevailed. On January 3 Evans commented in his journal that the commissioners, citizens, and army personnel had a “jovial” time together, and Butler now exhibited politeness towards him, though Evans indicated he was apprehensive of Butler’s future behavior.6 Commissioners Butler, Lee, and Clark, on the first day that there was enough Indians present to proceed with the council, January 8, left no doubt that the Indians were expected to be subservient to the will of the United States. Richard Butler, in the opening speech, declared that the Indians were without friends other than the Americans. The Franco-American Treaty of 1778 and the Treaty of Peace of 1783 were read, and the Indians were told that they could only depend on protection from the United States. Furthermore, any notion of an Indian confederacy had been dispelled when the Six Nations had surrendered a wide swathe of territory by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. For over a week there was some

deliberation,

but

the

outcome was

predetermined.

The

federal

commissioners further told the Indians that they had no rights “because we claim the country by conquest; and are to give not to receive.”7 The Treaty of Fort McIntosh was agreed to on January 21, 1785 by the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, and Chippewas. The land deeds drawn up were exactly the same as the provisions in the Fort Stanwix treaty with the Iroquois. The Fort McIntosh treaty, however, gave the participating tribes goods worth $2,000, while the Iroquois had been paid $5,000 in goods for their treaty.8 By the Fort McIntosh treaty the Indians surrendered three-fourths of what is now the state of Ohio. The Indians of this part of what became known as the Northwest Territory were to be relegated to possession of a reservation, bordered by the Cuyahoga and Maumee rivers and Lake Erie in the north and in the south

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and west by a line drawn through the central part of Ohio. Article #5 pledged the United States would not afford “protection” to any persons illegally settling on Indian lands, and the tribesmen could “punish” the offenders as they pleased. The posts at Detroit and Michilimackinac were to remain in possession of the United States. The Indians promised to deliver up any Indian committing a crime against any United States citizen for punishment “according to the ordinances of the United States.” Butler, Lee, and Clark signed the treaty for the United States. Before the treaty council broke up, General Lafayette, who had attended, spoke, praising the Indians who had sided with the patriots during the war.10 It was evident that Richard Butler had discarded his empathy for the plight of the Indians. In his early years he had gone out of his way to help Native Americans. Now he uncompromisingly dispensed the harsh policy of conquerors. Indicative of how Richard Butler’s standing among the Indians had declined was an incident at the conclusion of negotiations. Buckongahelas, a Delaware chief, rose and walked by Butler and Lee without noticing them and took the hand of George Rogers Clark, saying, “I thank the Great Spirit for having this day brought together two such great warriors as Buckongahelasand General Clark.”11 The federal commissioners left Fort McIntosh on January 25, and arrived at Fort Pitt at 9 p.m. that evening. Butler returned to Carlisle in February.12 It would not be long before Indian affairs again beckoned. The two postwar Indian treaties left white-Indian relations still unsettled. Most western tribes, including the prominent Shawnees, had not been a party to the treaties.

Meanwhile settlers coming into the Ohio country precipitated

hostilities. Flatboats going down the Ohio were frequently attacked and the occupants killed. In 1785 Fort Harmar was built at the mouth of the Muskingum River on the Ohio (near present Marietta, Ohio). Federal troops stationed there had the primary mission of evicting squatters; settlers caught trespassing and evicted quickly returned to their illegal claims. In 1785 Butler, as an Indian commissioner, gave permission to the intruders to harvest their crops on condition that afterwards they leave. Butler complained that the squatters “are fond of

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construing every indulgence in the most favorable and extensive manner for themselves and seem to hint that saving their crops means feeding their cattle on the ground the ensuing winter, and of course giving them a footing in the Spring and so on.”13 While Congress had aggressively gone after Indian lands, it dragged its feet in actually opening the new lands for settlement. Congress hoped that the new territory would serve as a land bank for paying war debts, including making good on promises of land boundaries to veterans.

The Ordinance of 1785

provided for sale of lands secured by the Forts Stanwix and McIntosh treaties. But purchase at even a low rate was not an option for destitute frontiersmen. The land invasion continued throughout the Ohio Valley. Richard Butler wrote in 1786 nine-tenths of Kentucky’s population were squatters: “thousands are gone to that country expecting to get land on easy terms,” said Butler. “In this they are disappointed, and obliged to settle on their persons’ land or sufference, and only wait the result of a treaty ... to fix on these lands.”14 Other treaties there would be, to bring the Shawnees and all the western tribes into their assigned places in the federal empire. On January 28, 1785, Butler and his fellow Indian commissioners sent a letter to Congress from Fort Pitt, noting that all Indian claims to land “as far west as the great Miami on the Ohio, and the Miami or Omi [Omie or Maumee], which empties into Lake Erie” had been extinguished. It was recommended negotiations be held in the spring to have the other western tribes committed to this agreement. Congress referred the letter to a committee, which in turn reported on March 7, 1785 that such a treaty should be held in June, a recommendation which Congress then adopted.15 Later it was determined instead that the next Indian treaty could be held in October 1785. A shift in the federal commissioners now occurred: Arthur Lee and Oliver Wolcott resigned, and they were replaced by former generals Samuel Holden Parsons of Connecticut and Robert Howe of North Carolina. Howe, appointed in May, could not wrap up his affairs at home in time to arrange attendance at an impending conference. Parsons managed to join Butler and

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Clark in the field on November 13, 1785.16 In July and August 1785 Butler and Clark from Carlisle jointly sent letters of invitation to attend a treaty council on October 1, 1785 to western tribes, chiefly the Shawnees, Miamis, Potawatomis, Wabash Indians, Ottawas, Chippewas, Delawares, and Wyandots. At the council site, at the mouth of the Great Miami River and the Ohio River, the Indians were told to have their hearts “disposed to wipe away past errors, and like men, determine to do which is right.” It was expected that “a general treaty of Peace” would result that would settle “matters of great importance between the United States and the Indian Nations.”17 The Shawnees were aloof. Butler again headed out into the wilderness for another Indian treaty on September 9, 1785, routing his journey through Pittsburgh and Fort McIntosh. He bid farewell to his pregnant wife, Mary, and his children, young William and infant Mary. Arriving at Pittsburgh on September l8, he spent a week inspecting land he had purchased along the Allegheny River and Plumb Creek and other parcels along the Ohio River.18 Butler set out for his next treaty mission from Pittsburgh at 8 a.m., September 26, and after camping overnight along the shore, arrived at Fort McIntosh 11 p.m. the next day. On his last day at the fort, September 29, Butter drew up a will, leaving everything in equal shares to his wife and each of his children.19 He feared for his life, in view of the recurring Indian hostilities in the Ohio Valley and because many Indians blamed him for the harsh terms of the treaties. In traveling down the Ohio, Butler had assembled a small flotilla. Twelve keelboats carried seventy soldiers, commanded by Captain Walter Finney and two flatboats transported cattle, horses, and supplies. The journey only made 12-15 miles a day because of slow currents resulting from low water level. During the frequent stops, the voyagers hunted bear, deer, ducks, turkey, and rarely buffalo. Butler met with various land surveyors and settlers on the way. Young congressman James Monroe, out sight-seeing, accompanied the journey as far as

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Limestone (Maysville), Kentucky. The expedition arrived at its destination, the mouth of the Great Miami River, on October 22. Two days later it was decided to clear a patch of land along the Ohio a mile northward for a military post. One of the other commissioners, George Rogers Clark, arrived on this day. On the 25th work began on building Fort Finney, a quadangular work with four blockhouses.20 Butler left a detailed journal describing scenery and people he met during the trip down the Ohio. In one entry he noted: The lands here are really beautiful, and very rich; the majestic Ohio rolling gently along within the most delightful banks that ever enclosed a river; and in a few years must be the happy abode of thousands who, with moderate industry may obtain the greatest profusion of the necessaries of life; the soil being abundantly rich and fertile, and the climate inferior to none on the globe.21 It was hoped that with the arrival of the third commissioner, Samuel Holden Parsons, in mid-November, the treaty could get underway. But for the next two months not many Indians showed up, including only a few straggling Shawnees. Some Delawares and Wyandots, who had been invited to wield a moderating influence on other Indians, were continually drunk.

Butler and

Parsons fell out with each other. Butler found Parsons “illy informed” on Indian affairs and “frequently traps with questions in the most abrupt and impolite manner.” One point of bitterness was that Butler, who was in charge of the mission’s finances, refused Parson’s request to draw pay from the funds that had been allotted.22 A priority of the impending treaty was to involve the Shawnees. They and other Indians had been hesitant to attend a treaty council in part because of the influence the British (still posted on the northern fringe of the Ohio country) in warning about the dangers of treating with the Americans.

Repeatedly

messengers sent to the Shawnees failed to elicit a commitment to attend the treaty. At last, messengers dispatched to the Shawnees on December 2923 would meet

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with partial success, enough so that Butler and his associates deemed it would be worthwhile to convene the treaty council.

CHAPTER TWELVE FORT FINNEY TREATY At last Shawnee Indians sent word that they would attend a treaty council at Fort Finney. These were not exactly the tribemen Richard Butler hoped for. But they would do. They were a band of 150 men and eighty women from the nearby Shawnee region of Mackacack, along the Mad River in southwestern Ohio. Luring them on was the promise of supplies of tobacco and flour and strong drink (probably whiskey). Butler prepared a “formal reception of this proud little nation.”1 On Saturday, January 14, 1786, “every thing being ready for the reception of the Shawnese,” Chief Miamimmeeca arrived, and “told us they were coming on, also they would fire to salute us.” Butler replied that the Americans would return the salute, and he was sending messengers out to meet the Shawnee delegation and “bring them in by the hand, and set them down by the council fire.” Soon the Indians appeared, “the chiefs in front, beating a drum with young warriors dancing a peculiar dance.” Butler was so impressed with the Indians’ introductory ritual that he recorded it: The oldest chief leads, and carries a small drum, on which he beats time and sings; two young warriors, who dance well, carry each the stem of a pipe painted and decorated with feathers of the bald eagle, and wampum, these are joined in the dance by several other young men, who dance and keep time to the drum; the whole of the party painted and dressed in the most elegant manner .... These were followed by the chief warrior Aweecanny, and last the warriors armed; then come the head woman, called Ca-we-chile, in front of all the women and children. When they came near the Council-house, Aweecanny got on a stump, and ordered the whole

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to halt. They then sung for some time, when he gave a signal, and the song ceased. He then ordered the armed men ... to fire, which was performed in the Indian style, which is a running fire; this was repeated three times, on which our troops returned the salute, with three vollies from a platoon, well performed, the drum beating an American march. We then entered and took our seats; they then arrived, and after dancing a short time at the door, by way of salute, they entered at the west door, the chiefs on our left, the warriors on our right and round on the east end till they joined the chiefs; the old chief beating the drum, and the young men dancing and waving the feathers over us, whilst the others were seated; this done, the women entered at the east door, and took their seats on the east end.2 Then after the commissioners were pointed out to the visitors, the Indians sang “a short song.” The head chief, Kekewepellethy (Tame Hawk), rose and gave a short “pathetic and sensible” speech. The chief expressed the hope that both sides harbored no prejudicial feelings and that the Americans “would be strong, pity their women and children, and go on with the good work of peace, and suffer no evil report to prevent us carrying it into effect.”

The formal

introduction ended when the chiefs and warriors shook hands with the American army officers present. All of the group retired for dinner, with the majority of the Indians going to the “long house;” extra drink was given to the “young fellows” of the Indian delegation.3 Discussions pertaining to a treaty lasted until January 28. Sessions were held in the long house of the fort.

In the center of the hall, the three

commissioners, Butler, Clark, and Parsons sat at a little table. Although a few representatives each from the Delawares and Wyandots attended, negotiations were conducted solely with the Shawnee delegates. Butler commented on a divisiveness among the Shawnees: “Many of the young fellows which have grown up through the course of the war, and trained like young hounds to blood, have a great attachment to the British,” but “the chiefs of any repute and have been averse to the war” have been able to exert sufficient influence “to prevent them from commiting mischief.” The most disconcerting moment during the

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negotiations came when a Shawnee war-chief, named the Caller, “a tall rawboned fellow with an impudent and villanous look made a boisterous and threatening speech.” Clark, with his head leaning on his left hand and elbow on the table, raised his cane and shoved the sacred wampum off the table. Every Indian jutted out of their seats with “sudden, simultaneous, and peculiarly savage sound.” Clark rose, and stamping a foot on the “prostate and insulted” wampum, ordered the Indians to leave the hall. They did, and stayed out all night, debating “in the bushes near the fort.” The Caller favored war; Kekewepellethy and other chiefs came out for peace. The next morning the Indians returned to the hall, indicating they stood for peace.4 When presented with draft articles for a treaty on the morning of January 28, Kekewepellethy protested the provision that the Americans hold Indian hostages until all white prisoners had been released; such a requirement was an insult to Indian honor.” When we say a thing we stand by it,” said the chief. Kekewepellethy denounced land cession by the Indians: “God gave us this country ... it is all ours.” Saying that he would not comply with the demand for hostages the Shawnee leader handed the commissioners a black string of wampum, signifying noncompliance.

The commissioners conferred among

themselves and decided to hold firm. Richard Butler spoke at great length reprimanding the Shawnee leader for his disrespectful behavior. Butler declared that if the Shawnees did not become a party to the treaty war was inevitable. “We plainly tell you that the country belongs to the United States—their blood hath defended it, and will forever protect it,” said Butler. In concluding, Butler picked up the string of black wampum and dashed it on the table. Clark, standing behind Butler, took his cane and meshed the wampum into the ground. Butler told the Indians to decide as they will, but they will bear the consequences. In the afternoon of the 28th another session was held, and this time the Shawnee leader consented to the treaty.5 On January 30, the commissioners conferred and approved articles for a treaty. The chiefs were called for, but they protested the proposed boundary lines,

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“complaining that we were putting them to live in ponds, and leaving them no land to live or raise corn on.” The commissioners agreed to slightly expand the Indian territory, to which the Shawnees, though still not satisfied, agreed to accept in the treaty. The document was signed by the commissioners and Shawnee chiefs present on February 1, 1786.6 The Treaty of Fort Finney, dealing with the Shawnee only, awarded reservation lands adjacent to those already alloted to the Delawares and Wyandots.

The hostage provision, as above mentioned, was intact.

The

Shawnees were promised protection against intruding whites. Comity on both sides governed the apprehension of criminals. The Shawnees acknowledged the “absolute sovereignty” of the United States.7 A final ceremony was held February 1. Richard Butler presented the Shawnees with a “road belt.” Butler declared that “we desire you to hold it fast by one end, and we will hold the other.” Butler assured the Indians they would prosper in their trade and hunting. With the ceremony over, all parties shook hands.

Over the next several days all Indians, who had attended, including

Delawares and Wyandots as observers, received presents that included tobacco and provisions. In the evening of February 1 several of the chiefs joined Butler and his colleagues for dinner. Liquor was given to the other Indians, and “they got drunk.” The Shawnees hung around for two days more, “drinking all day.” Finally, the Shawnees left on boats provided by the commissioners to their encampment twenty miles distant.8 Butler, who acted as secretary in recording the details of the treaty council, accounted for the attendance at the treaty: Wyandots, 83; Delawares, 47 chiefly men; Shawnese, 108 men, 88 women, 21 lads, 30 girls, 5 infants--66 people near the camp and in occasionally. Total, Wyandots, 83; Delawares, 47, Shawnese, 318; total, 448.9 As the Shawnees returned home, a sense of disgust permeated their ranks.

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Old chief Molunthe would be singled out for vitriol. He had been given a pass from Butler, which credited Molunthe as having influence in persuading his associates to support the treaty and preventing the Shawnees from going to war; the pass also noted that he “is included among the friends of the United States.”10 Before leaving the treaty council, Chief Blue Jacket was asked by Butler who taught him to speak English so fluently; Blue Jacket replied that he had good white teachers, whom he now despised. Seated around a campfire during the journey home, Blue Jacket made it clear to two brothers (future war chiefs), Chisksika (age 30) and Tecumseh (age 18), that the Americans were obdurate enemies and should be destroyed. Now was not the right time for such an eventuality, as the weather was not favorable for an attack and he did not have the number of warriors to do so. But Blue Jacket promised that he would return during the Green Moon with ample force to burn Fort Finney and kill all the soldiers therein.11 The commissioners departed from Fort Finney on February 8—Butler and Parsons headed to Pittsburgh and Clark to his home at the Falls of the Ohio.12 Butler and Parsons stayed a short while at Pittsburgh, where they penned a report to Richard Henry Lee, President of Congress. The commissioners boasted that now the United States were the sole possessors of lands south and east of the Wabash River, in addition to the territory acquired by the Treaty of Fort McIntosh. On his way home, just outside of Pittsburgh, at Irwin, Pennsylvania, stopping for breakfast, Butler met a self-styled colonel, James McFarlane. The gruff frontiersman angrily lashed out at Butler for making peace with the Indians and declared war was the only solution for the Indian problem. To Butler, his adversary was a “severe and ill-bred” man and exhibited behavior “unbecoming decent men.” Butler resumed his journey without breakfast.14 Back home at Carlisle, Butler, on March 30, met with the famous Seneca chief, Cornplanter, and five young Indian chiefs at the Cumberland County courthouse in Carlisle. Cornplanter gave an address, saying he was speaking for all the Iroquois. With the Senecas having submitted to the recent conquest treaty

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of Fort Stanwix, he said he and his people were willing to abide by it, although he wanted to know what was expected of the western Indians. Richard Butler responded expressing “happiness” with Carpenter’s sentiments. Butler reiterated his customary reference that the United States had acquired by the “prowess of our arms” all the Ohio country. The United States afforded the Indians “friendship and protection, and lands for themselves and their families to live and hunt on.” In “return for this clemency,” the United States required a “strict adherence” to the treaty provisions. Butler mentioned that the treaties of Forts McIntosh and Finney—approved by the Delawares, Wyandots, Chippewas, Ottawas, and Shawnees—had similar terms with the Fort Shanwix treaty agreed to by the Senecas. Butler then showed copies of the two treaties. Carpenter spoke again, saying something new that Butler was glad to hear, namely that the Senecas would help to drive the British out of the American western territory. Butler then told the Indian delegation that it had been his duty as an Indian commissioner to make peace, and he would send the proceedings of their meeting to Congress, who had the sole authority to make war.15 It is interesting to note at this stage in Indian relations, that the Senecas still entertained a high regard for Butler, with whom they had come to know well when Butler was engaged in the Indian trade of western Pennsylvania. This affection is borne out by Butler serving as host for the Carlisle visit and by Indian testimony a little later before Congress. Because of the “weather being severe, the roads bad, and the Indians much fatigued,” Butler arranged for the Indians to stay in Carlisle for several days. Butler provided a military escort for the Indians on the way to the nation’s capital, New York City, and himself caught up with the travelers on their journey.

Butler also arranged for the Indians to have an

extended stay in Philadelphia, “judging it proper that they should have just impressions of the strength, opulence, and consequence of so much of the United States.” Butler was happy that in the cities and countryside citizens gave the Indians a warm welcome. On the trip from Philadelphia to New York, Butler and Cornplanter, traveling together, were injured in the overturning of a stagecoach .

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In New York City, on May 2, Congress granted an audience to Cornplanter and his comrades. The Indians were “Clean & Neatly drest in Match Coats & Leggings & clean Shirts all new.” With Butler and also the Geographer of the United States present, Cornplanter addressed the joint session of Congress, making a pitch primarily for the need to establish an Indian department, recommending Richard Butler to be appointed at its head. Carpenter said the Indians knew Butler, and he was their friend. “We thank you for sending this man [Richard Butler] among us,” said Cornplanter. “We know him to be a good man, and wish he might be continued to do business between us. One man cannot do every thing, we therefore wish you would fix upon another man to help him.”17 A week before, in a letter to Congress announcing the imminent arrival of the Seneca delegation, Butler himself had urged Congress to act on the need to bring some order of the “very loose and distacted state” of Indian affairs in the west.18 Among the villages of the western Indian peoples, extreme displeasure mounted against the conquest treaties negotiated with only a few Indian leaders who allowed themselves to be intimidated by the federal Indian commissioners. Meanwhile, white settlers, encouraged by the treaties, poured into Kentucky by way of the Wilderness Road or floating down the Ohio River, and surveyors and squatters moved on the about-to-be opened lands north of the river.19 The Indians woke up to the fact that they had not only forfeited Ohio lands but also hunting rights in Kentucky. By late spring 1786 Indian ‘banditti’ were crossing the Ohio to raid Kentucky settlements, and the Shawnees were readying for war, supported by Mingoes (Ohio Senecas), Cherokees, and Delawares.20 Commissioners Butler and Parsons on June 19, as requested by Congress, submitted recommendations regarding the western situation. No major military endeavor was suggested, only the holding of another treaty council and the use of just enough force to extirpate the small bands of banditti. Butler was convinced that the western Indian nations did not desire war.21 Congress recognized that greater attention should be paid to frontier

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affairs. Preempting any military action, efforts should be made to reorganize the Indian service and possibly have more effective diplomacy. In anticipation of a new approach to Indian affairs, Congress, on July 12, 1786, passed a resolve revoking “the Commissions . . . granted for the purpose of treating with the Indians.”22 Butler had been a mainstay in Indian relations; few other persons of reputable status had his expertise in this area. Many Indians, most notably among the Senecas, clung to their long-standing friendship with him going back to the French and Indian War, and he had at least some good will among the western Indians.

But with the rapid changes and growing Indian hostilities in the Ohio

country, Butler, for the moment, welcomed respite from field duty in Indian relations. On August 2, he informed Congress that “although it has oft been the misfortunes in public office to meet the shafts of envy & calumny, I hope it is my good fortune to retire from my late employments.”23 Butler’s expectancy was premature indeed.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS After two years of relentless duty in the Indian service, away from his family most of the time, Richard Butler looked forward to a more tranquil existence at Carlisle, far from the perils of the frontier. He now had a growing family; he and wife Mary had two children—three-year old William and one-year old Mary, with another child soon to be born.1 For the future he expected to check out his military land grants, perhaps again engage in trade, or, as his brother, Thomas, had already done, take up farming. In mid-August 1786, only with less than a month from giving up his position as Indian commissioner, the mail bore news that Congress had elected him unanimously on August 14 Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department. A week before Congress had passed the Ordinance for the Regulation of Indian Affairs2 which more or less replicated the British pre-Revolutionary War Indian administration. According to the new arrangement, there were to be two superintendents, one each for a northern and a southern department, appointed for a two year term. The superintendents were to implement instructions from Congress and to report regularly on Indian affairs to Congress through the Secretary at War. The Ohio River divided the two departments, with the Hudson River as the eastern boundary of the northern department. All treaties in the northern department had to be conducted at federal army posts. Each superintendent could appoint two deputies. The superintendents should be especially attuned to discern any potential Indian hostility and communicate a threatening situation to governors of nearby states. All presents and supplies given to the Indians were to be controlled by these superintendents, who themselves were prohibited from involvement in

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the Indian trade. Butler put up $6,000 bond for security for the faithful discharge of his duties.3 He thanked Congress for the appointment, saying that his main concerns were “interference” by a state and need for “general instructions.”4 By summer 1786, Indian raids into Kentucky and murders on the Ohio River struck terror among settlers. Butler, as a Superintendent for Indian Affairs, faced obstinacy from two sources regarding the western crisis.

Kentucky

militiamen on their own decided to take punitive action versus the Indians and Indian tribes united to defend their homelands. On August 2, Kentucky militia commanders met and agreed on the necessity of attacking Indian towns north of the Ohio River. They named General George Rogers Clark as the commander of an expeditionary force to rendezvous at Clarksville (across the river from Louisville) September 10, 1786. Clark raised 2,000 volunteers, and led half of them into the Wabash River Valley, expecting to confront a gathering of various tribes edged on by British agents. Three hundred of Clark’s men soon deserted; the rest pushed on but with scant supplies and growing fears of fighting a large number of Indians, they went home “in vile disorder.”5 Meanwhile the rest of Clark’s army, 888 mounted troops commanded by Benjamin Logan, crossed the Ohio on September 29, and went up the Great Miami River to attack Shawnee towns.

Unfortunately the peaceful town of

Mackachack lay directly in the path of the militia. There old chief Moluntha, who had helped to preserve the peace, stepped out in front of his cabin, over which flew an American flag, and was greeted by a frontier ruffian, Hugh McCary, who buried a hatchet in Moluntha’s skull and scalped him. Thereafter Logan’s troops raided and burned seven other Indian towns. One Indian was burned alive at the stake. Logan’s force returned with twenty-six women and children as prisoners. One result of the invasion was that the Shawnees left central Ohio and settled along the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio.6 Indians of the Ohio Valley formed an Indian confederation for the purpose of resisting the United States land aggression, as embodied in the three conquest

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treaties. The confederation leaders prohibited any tribe from ceding unilaterally territory to the Americans.

The Indians held two conferences 1786-87 near

Detroit and rejected the American claim to acquisition of territory by conquest, repudiated all treaties with the United States, and proclaimed the Ohio River as the boundary between the United States and Indian regions.7 Butler kept the Secretary at War posted on evidences of British-Indian collaboration. He found that the Indians on the upper Miami (Maumee) rivers were “hostilly disposed.” “The British do control our trade and stimulate the Indians to mischief,” he said. Butler was “fully convinced that until the United States have a respectable force on the frontiers, trade, surveying, or the settlement of lands can be carried on to advantage.” He recommended the establishment of a half dozen new army posts.8 There was not much in the way of federal intervention that Richard Butler could employ as to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Ohio country.

He

stayed mostly in Pittsburgh, as Congress required that he reside near his Indian jurisdiction, but did not remove his home and family there from Carlisle until late 1787. He met frequently with “the petit chiefs” of the Senecas, who frequently came in from hunting expeditions to trade. Butler obligingly gave these Indians “small quantities of ammunition and provisions, generally flour, a little salt and spirits.”9

An

occasional

visitor

was

the

Moravian

missionary,

John

Heckewelder.10 Unable to make any headway with the recalcitrant Ohio Indians, Butler gave attention to Iroquois leaders, whom he undoubtedly expected might have a peaceful influence on the Ohio Indians.

In February 1787 Butler hosted a

delegation of Seneca chiefs Cornplanter, Guyasuta, All Face, and the Black Chief, along with two Mohawk and two Ononadaga chiefs. Cornplanter, fresh from the “hunting camp,” urged the holding of another general treaty council for resolving issues occurring from the conquest treaties.11

Nothing, however,

materialized from this proposal. In March 1787 Butler sent a detailed assessment of the frontier Indian

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affairs to the Secretary at War. Butler declared that “a severe shock” threatened in the Ohio country from the Indians having formed a confederacy and their receiving European supplies and backing of British officials. 12

recommended building additional forts deep in the Ohio country.

Butler When

Colonel Josiah Harmar, commander of the northern frontier troops, made a tour of the northwestern posts, he conferred with Butler in Pittsburgh. The two men agreed that relations with the disaffected Indian tribes were improving.13 Richard Butler’s superintendency was impeded by the division of federal authority in Indian relations. General Arthur St. Clair received appointment as governor of the new Northwest Territory in 1787, a position that Butler hoped would go to him. St. Clair preferred that he rather than Butler assume the primary responsibility for conducting treaties. Colonel Josiah Harmar, the federal military commander in the West, like Butler, thought that he was in charge of treatymaking.

Butler commented that St. Clair “knows but little about managing

Indians.”14

Complicating matters the governor reported directly to Congress,

while Superintendent Butler reported to Henry Knox, the Secretary at War. On occasion, Butler refused to cooperate with St. Clair in holding a treaty until he had authorization from the Secretary at War. St. Clair very much considered himself the “commander-in-Chief” of the Northwest Territory.15 On his way to the federal capital, New York City, about April 1, 1787 to “receive the orders of Congress,” Superintendent Butler broke his leg in Philadelphia when the wagon in which he was traveling overturned.16

The

fracture was slow in healing, and Butler was practically incapacitated for many months afterward. In November 1787 he wrote Knox that he turned over much of “the Indian business under my direction” to his brother, William Butler.17 When St. Clair met with Richard Butler in Carlisle on December 12, 1787, St. Clair commented that the “weakness” of Butler’s leg and “sickness in his family” was hindering Butler’s activity.18 Butler had been expected to assist, along with Colonel Harmar, in setting up a treaty council at Fort Vincennes on the Wabash River or “other convenient place” with “the Wabash Indians, the Shawanees and

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other hostile tribes.” Nothing came of this plan, mainly because the Indians now casting their new-found confederacy into a war mold precluded any further treatymaking with the Americans.19 Butler was well enough to keep the Secretary at War informed on the “disposition and conduct of some of the Indian tribes on the frontier.”20 In November 1787 Butler with his family moved from Carlisle to Pittsburgh, so that he could be more “in a central and convenient situation to watch the motions and conduct of the Indians and others.” For Butler, however, otherwise his role as Indian superintendent was “now rendered entirely useless.”20 Butler’s discontent was in large measure owing to a Congressional resolution of October 27, 1787 that removed “all authority in the Indian Department” out of his hands and placed it in “another channel,” namely that of Governor St. Clair. Butler did not hesitate to tell Secretary at War Knox that St. Clair would be “most obnoxious to the Indians” and would have difficulty in bringing them to a treaty.21 Yet Butler continued to serve out his term without being too discouraged. Sorrow came in mid-January 1788 when the Butlers’s second son died at the age of two months. Congress extended his term as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for two months until October 14, 1788, at which time Butler left his office.22 He took charge of receiving the white prisoners that had been held by the Ohio Indians, who had pledged to return them according to treaty provisions. Some white children delivered by the Wyandots and Delawares Butler clothed and sent them home.23 Butler gave his assistance to Governor St. Clair in an unsuccessful attempt to bring about a treaty council in May 1788 at a site seventy miles from the Ohio River at the falls of the Muskingum River.24 Butler himself still continued to meet with visiting Indian chiefs, among whom were Captain Pipe of the Delawares, Half-King of the Wyandots, Cornplanter of the Senecas, and probably also Joseph Brant of the Mohawks.25 Butler’s term as Superintendent of Indian Affairs expired just as Congress itself was preparing to go out of business to prepare the way for the new government under the Constitution. Butler knew that, with George Washington’s

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confidence in Butler’s ability and integrity, some preferment would await him, if he so desired, particularly relating to Indian or military affairs. In the meantime he found varied employment. On October 2, 1788 the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council appointed Butler and General John Gibson as commissioners to purchase the Erie Triangle (present Erie County), adjoining Lake Erie. The land would be obtained from the Seneca Indians under authority of the United States but would be part of the state of Pennsylvania. This was accomplished, with Butler being paid £483 6s. 8d for his role in the transaction. Butler saw to it that his friend, Cornplanter, the Seneca chief, was provided with about 1,500 acres.26 Richard Butler entered upon other public service at the time he left the federal Indian superintendency.

On September 30, 1788 the Pennsylvania

Supreme Executive Council named him county lieutenant (militia commander) for the new county of Allegheny.27 He served in this capacity only for two months when he was appointed a Judge of the county Court of Common Pleas. During the first session of the court he participated in the decision to divide the county into seven townships.28 Butler resigned the .judgeship upon being elected in 1790 to the State Senate. In Pittsburgh (county seat of Allegheny County) Richard Butler and his brother William and their families lived in adjoining homes. The homes were located on a corner of the intersection of today’s Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street. The dwellings were rather upscale. Mary Dewees, who called at one of the Butler Pittsburgh residences, remarked that the home had “a very handsome parlour, elegantly papered and well furnished,” and “it appeared more like Philadelphia than any I have seen since I left that place.”29 In November 1788 Richard and William Butler, along with James Robinson and Daniel Elliott, purchased lots on the north side of the Allegheny River, opposite Pittsburgh. The two brothers, however, did not build homes on the property.30 A little despair marred Richard Butler’s return to domesticity. His infant son James, born November 11, 1787, died January 11, 1788. But soon there was

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another addition to the family, and he also received the name of James (born January 10, 1789, died April 30, 1842).31 Richard and William’s mother, Eleanor Butler, was “struck with palsy which deprived her of speech.” For a while she left his parents farm in Pennsborough (now Frankford) Township and stayed in Richard Butler’s home in Pittsburgh, “where she was nursed with great care and tenderness and had the benefit of electric shocks.”

The elder Mrs. Butler

recovered enough to return home. Butler also noted that his father (Thomas Butler, d. 1797) was “in a poor way.” Richard Butler was concerned with brother Thomas, who was having financial troubles and caring for three orphan children besides his own.32 Brother William died in Pittsburgh on May 16, 1789, at age 44.33 George Washington, from his retirement at Mount Vernon, had an assignment for Richard Butler.

General Lafayette had written Washington in

1786, conveying a request from Empress Catherine of Russia for a vocabulary of the languages of the Ohio Indians, which would be included in Catherine’s projected “universal” dictionary of languages. At first Washington contacted Captain Thomas Hutchins, the director of federal surveying of “the western lands.” Then, having learned of Butler’s appointment as Indian Superintendent and knowing “to what intercourse with the Indians it must lead,” the future President asked Butler to assist in the preparation of the Indian word lists. Washington expressed “a sincere regard” for Butler.34 Butler applied himself to the collection of word lists in the Delaware and Shawnee languages. He did the Shawnee vocabulary but let a young Delaware Indian, John Killbuck, who had been educated at “Princeton College,” take full responsibility for the Delaware words. Shawnee pronunciation.35

Butler also provided commentary on

Butler acquired the information on the Shawnee

language from “oral tradition and their old men, with some observations of my own.” Butler also provided a brief history of the Shawnees.36 Butler sent Washington the vocabulary on November 30, 1787.

The

vocabulary consisted of thirty-seven pages (with 40-45 lines each page), the last

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four pages simulating a dialogue in Shawnee and English, showing the differences between common and formal Shawnee speech.

Butler enclosed a two-page

Cherokee and Choctaw vocabulary, provided by Benjamin Hawkins, a seasoned Indian agent and Congressman.37 Washington acknowledged receipt of the vocabulary and related material in a letter of January 10, 1788. The former Commander in Chief told Butler: that I assure you it is a matter of surprise to me to find that you have been able to compleat a work of such difficulty and magnitude ... in so short a time, under the pain which you must have suffered and the delays occasioned by your misfortune in breaking your leg. The pleasing satisfaction which you must enjoy from a reflection that you have exerted yourself to throw light upon the original history of this Country—to gratify the curiosity of the Philosopher—and to forward the researches into the probable connection and communication between the northern parts of America and those of Asia must make you a more ample compensation for the laborious task which you have executed than my warmest acknowledgments, which, however, I must beg you to accept. Washington could not resist the temptation to sound out from Butler more information. Particularly he wanted to learn more about the territory bordering several rivers in Ohio and whether it was feasible to build a canal connecting them, thereby opening “a communication between the waters of lake Erie and the Ohio.”38 On the same date as his letter to Butler, Washington sent Butler’s vocabulary to Lafayette.39 On March 13, 1788 Butler wrote Washington saying that he had no acknowledgment of receipts of the Indian vocabulary.

Butler took this

opportunity to assure the future President that he shared Washington’s wellknown nationalist views in regard to the new U.S. Constitution then passing through the ratification process.40 Washington in reply, apologized for the delay. He noted that Butler’s “observation respecting the instability and inefficacy of our

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Particulars mentioned by Butler, said

Washington, formed “a powerful argument for adopting the proposed Constitution, even if it was less perfect than it is, and while a constitutional door is left open for amendments whenever they may be found necessary.” Washington was confident of adoption of the Constitution in Virginia, but was not sure about other parts of the country. He asked Butler to inform him on the course of ratification “in the Country west of the Susquehanna.” Despite “the rancor and activity of the opponents in Pennsylvania,”

Washington ventured the opinion

that such persons were “of too little importance and of too contemptable character to endanger the general welfare of the Union.”41 As the last days of the U. S. Confederation wore down, Richard Butler found that temporarily he again would be in the Indian service, this time under auspices of the Pennsylvania government. He, therefore, still had a role exerting influence in western Indian relations, and would participate one last time in concluding Indian treaties.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN FORT HARMAR TREATIES Richard Butler’s Pittsburgh in the 1780s was still a “rollicking frontier town” and its majority Scottish and Irish inhabitants lived mostly in log houses. Still the city was becoming prosperous as an inland hub for the export of wheat, flour, and skins to eastern destinations, chiefly Philadelphia and Baltimore.1 Butler, living with his family in Pittsburgh, upon leaving the Indian superintendency, entered a brief transition period, during which he delved in politics. Indian affairs from time to time drew attention. At the end of 1788 Butler looked forward to traveling down again the Ohio River to the mouth to the Muskingum River, where Governor St. Clair of the Northwest Territory, after many months cajoling the Indians to renew treatymaking, planned to hold a treaty council to begin December 13, 1738. The site for the event was Fort Harmar, built in 1785 (present-day Marietta, Ohio); the post consisted of three log blockhouses.2 At the treaty conference Butler saw an opportunity to officially finalize the Pennsylvania-Seneca agreement regarding the purchase of the Erie Triangle from the Indians. Preliminary to the convening of the treaty council, Richard Butler, accompanied by two companies of federal troops and fifty-one Senecas (including women and children), arrived at Fort Harmar on September 9. Prominent Senecas chiefs, Cornplanter and Gayasutha, both long-standing friends of Butler, Big Tree, New Arrow, Half Town, and Twenty Canoes were among the group. These Indians probably stayed in the vicinity until the opening of the treaty-council in December.

The Senecas and other later arriving Indians made a common

campground along a creek bottom two miles above the fort (the location since

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called Indian Camp Run). The other Indian delegations eventually appearing were the Wyandots, Chippewas, Potawatomis, the Iroquois tribes (except the Mohawks), Ottawas, Delawares (the Wolf phratry), and wandering bands each of Sauks (Sacs), and Hurons. The Mohawk leader, Joseph Brant, succeeded in deterring his tribe and most of the Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, and Wabash tribes (e.g., the Kickapoo) from sending delegations. Governor St. Clair, General Harmar, and nine others represented the federal government, and Butler and John Gibson attended on behalf of Pennsylvania.3 The division in attendance among the Indians indicated that the anticipated tribal confederacy had aborted. By the scheduled opening date (December 13), some two hundred Indians had arrived at the Fort Harmar vicinity. On the following day a welcoming session was held in the “council house.” On the 15th, the treaty deliberations began. During the ensuing two weeks, Governor St. Clair had frequent meetings with the Indians in the council-house, but nothing “conclusive” resulted.4 On December, 29 “a grand council” convened. Speaking on behalf of all the present tribesmen, Shandotto, a Wyandot chief, firmly condemned American Indian treaty-making to date while at the same time he attempted to be conciliatory. Shandotto reiterated how the Americans broke colonial treaties in stealing Indian territory. The Wyandot chief said that the United States kept chipping away at Indian lands, and “we don’t know when you will stop.” Shandotto admitted that the tribes had conceded claims south of the Ohio River. But he insisted that the Indians were in unanimous agreement that the Ohio River formed the boundary line. Governor St. Clair, in response, merely said that all the conquest treaties (Stanwix-1784, McIntosh, and Finey) were valid and unalterable. The council then adjourned for several days, with the Indians “powwowing.” “All hands” again assembled on January 6, 1789. St. Clair advised the Indians that the United States’s claims to Indian Territory were no different than when the Wyandots defeated their neighbors, the Shawnees, and then appropriated Shawnee lands. St. Clair further declared to his Indian listeners that

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“you took up the hatchet against the United States, and joined the English;” therefore, they had to abide by the consequences. The governor added that if the Indian delegates reaffirmed the previous conquest treaties, he would include an article in the pending treaty that would confer upon the Indians “the privilege of hunting anywhere in the United States.” The last deliberative session of the council met on January 9. Shandotto again spoke on behalf of all the Indians present, saying that he was sorry that St. Clair talked of war, but, for the sake of peace, he would go along with the previously stated boundary line, hoping that it would be removed a little way.” On January 11, the two new treaties of Fort Harmar, one with “the Wyandots and Other Western Tribes” and the other with the Six Nations, were signed. The Fort Harmar treaties confirmed the previously stated boundary lines. The Wyandots had to give up two hostages until prisoners that they promised to deliver up were returned. The Indians were entitled to hold territory outside the limits given to the United States but could not dispose of it except to the United States or its citizens. The Indians could hunt in any region they had ceded to the United States as long as they offered “no injury or annoyance to any United States citizens.”

Territorial or state courts would have authority to try Indians

committing crimes against United States citizens. Any unauthorized settler on Indian lands would be punished by an Indian tribe. Licensed Indian trade was permitted. American trading posts were to be established at specified intervals. As for the Shawnees, who had boycotted the treaty-making, if they should go to war, their lands would be given over to the Wyandots. St. Clair and twenty-eight chiefs signed the treaty, with nine whites, including Richard Butler, as witnesses.5 Most of the Indians who subscribed to the treaty were not the main chiefs or war leaders.6 The treaty with the Six Nations by St. Clair (with nine American witnesses, including Richard Butler and twenty-four chiefs, minus any Mohawks) confirmed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1784. An article similar to one in the Wyandot treaty provided mutual responsibility for the apprehension and trial of

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The United States recognition in the two treaties of Indian jurisdiction over Indian land was premised upon several factors: the tribes actually did control the law within their territorial limits; whites could be kept off Indian land, thereby reducing conflicts—diplomacy was cheaper than war; it was expected that Indians would be willing to sell land in the future (such a concession would hinder Indians joining forces with the British in Canada); firm recognition of definite Indian nations discouraged forming an Indian confederacy; and acknowledging jurisdiction of Indian nations meant that Indian lands could be transferred to the United States by treaty.7 On January 28, 1789 Richard Butler, Governor St. Clair, and the other whites participating in the treaty-making left for Pittsburgh.8 Not until May 2, 1789 did St. Clair send the treaties to President Washington, who was inaugurated April 30. St. Clair observed that those tribes who had not come to Fort Harmar were inclined toward hostilities, but a welcoming sign was the evident divisiveness among the tribes that worked against an Indian confederacy.9 The shift in United States policy from claiming Indian lands by conquest to acquisition by purchase came too late to mollify the increasing belligerence among the Shawnees, Miamis, and Wabash tribes. These Indians adamantly insisted upon no American settlement north of the Ohio River.

Throughout

summer and autumn 1789 warriors from the disgruntled tribes fanned out attacking settlers along the Ohio River and in Kentucky. Already since l783 in this area at least fifteen hundred persons (including children) had been killed, captured, or injured.10 Richard Butler, correctly gauging the dangerous situation, tried to convince the federal government to establish additional forts for the further security of white western inhabitants, recommending sites at the mouth of the Great Miami River built as Fort Washington in 1789, Roche de Boeuf, the rapids of the Miami of the Lake (Maumee) River, and Cuyahoga Falls.11

In May 1790

Butler advocated “a stroke” at the Indians along the Maumee River.12

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As a full scale Indian war threatened in the western country, Richard Butler foresaw that any future role for him in Indian affairs would be military rather than diplomatic.

As a breveted brigadier general at the end of the

Revolutionary War and a widely known expert on Indian life, he had ample reason to expect he would be selected to command any expeditionary force invading the western Indian heartland. The major competition to lead such troops was Josiah Harmar, breveted a brigadier general in 1787, four years after Butler’s similar appointment.13 Richard Butler’s hopes for the high military command were dashed on July 9, 1790, when Secretary at War Henry Knox ordered Harmar to confer with Governor St. Clair about organizing a punitive expedition versus the mostly Shawnee towns along the Auglaize and Maumee rivers in north central Ohio. Preparation for the invading army consumed two months.14 Congress authorized the calling up of one thousand Virginia and five hundred Pennsylvania militia to act in conjunction with federal troops. 15

militia would receive Continental pay and rations.

The

Richard Butler assisted in

gathering militia from “nearby” counties in Virginia and Pennsylvania. The turnout was gratifying: on September 23, 1790, 1133 militiamen linked up with 320 regulars at Fort Washington (present day Cincinnati). On October 7 this new western army marched out of the fort, heading northward.16 The army reached French Store, about a hundred miles from Fort Washington, on October 13.

With scouts having spotted a large number of

Indians, General Harmar, on October 20, sent out a detachment of three hundred men under Ensign Philip Hartshorn on a reconnaissance mission. These troops met an ambush, with twenty killed, including Hartshorn. The rest fled back to Harmar’s camp. Although the army began a retreat, Harmar allowed Colonel John Hardin and four hundred militia to retrace the steps of the ambushed party. Hardin himself faced an ambush of one thousand Indians. Fearing that he might be cut off if he made a retreat, Hardin decided to make a stand. A messenger sent to the main army for reinforcements met no response from General Harmar.

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Dividing his force, Hardin eventually was able to extricate his troops, but with considerable loss.

From both militia engagements, 183 men were killed,

including 73 regulars.17 A court of inquiry on Harmar’s generalship during his brief Indian campaign was long in coming. On September 15, 1791 the defeated general faced such proceedings which lasted nine days. Richard Butler, by then himself back in the army as a Major General, presided over the court of inquiry. Though he and most other members of the panel had not been with Harmar during the Indian expedition, Butler well understood the difficulties of making war in Indian country. There was no question that Harmar had committed several tactical blunders, but, according to the Secretary of War’s view, the more pressing reasons for the defeat were insufficient number of able troops, poor discipline, and “the lateness of the season.” No militia testified at the court of inquiry. Probably militia officers felt that to do so might lead to accusations of their own culpability.

Thus all

witnesses were regular soldiers. The Harmar court of inquiry reminded Richard Butler of when he participated in the court martial of General Charles Lee in 1778, whereby under the well-known disfavor of Lee by the Commander in Chief, Lee was not given the benefit of the doubt. This time around Butler probably wanted to make sure he did justice to Harmar. By a decision of September 24 Harmar was fully cleared by the court of inquiry, and therefore did not stand a court martial. The court of inquiry, in reporting to Governor St. Clair, now commander of a western army, stated that Harmar’s conduct during the campaign had been irreproachable, his decisions had full support of the troops, and the field dispositions were “perfectably adapted to the country.” If any blame could be assigned to personnel, it was the militia. As one officer testified: “the conduct of the militia in every instance seemed calculated to obstruct every measure adopted by General Harmar.”18 Concurrent with the fateful Harmar expedition in October 1790, Richard Butler was elected on October 12, 1790 to the Pennsylvania Senate, representing

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the counties of Allegheny and Westmoreland. In the legislature Butler voted against Albert Gallatin’s resolution of January 22, 1791 condemning the federal whiskey excise tax. Thus Butler indicated his stand with the rising Federalist Party, as opposed to the more democratic faction predominant in western Pennsylvania.

In the Senate, other issues Butler faced were frontier protection,

transportation improvements, and clearance of land titles.19 Richard Butler did not have time to settle down as a legislator in Philadelphia. Now, at age forty-seven, his long service to his country as soldier and Indian diplomat would be capped by being appointed second in command of a major military expedition into the Indian country. The task indeed would be daunting, as General Harmar had discovered. But it would afford Butler again an opportunity to demonstrate his considerable skill as field commander. His health, however, offered some debility: at 5’6”, he was now somewhat corpulent and had a bad leg. At least he was better off than his gout-laden superior, General St. Clair. The defeats of Harmar called for vengeance. Congress responded by calling for a frontier army of three thousand men, besides the regulars and militia, consisting also of two thousand levies (volunteers for six months). St. Clair was named General-in-Chief of an impending Indian expedition.

Richard Butler

received a letter from the Secretary of War, of March 10, 1791, that President Washington had appointed him “Brigadier General of Levies” and that “during your command you will possess the rank of Major General by Brevet.”20 One may wonder why Richard Butler readily accepted the new command. For one who had served throughout the Revolutionary War attaining the rank of colonel being called back into the army at its highest rank of major general (albeit only by brevet) was enough reason in itself. Probably also a factor was that he needed the pay. But one should not discount as a primary motive Butler’s strong sense of public duty, especially that of being summoned by Butler’s old and present Commander in Chief, George Washington. Butler immediately set out helping to arrange the bringing into the army

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the new levies. In April 1791 he visited Maryland and Virginia to assist in gathering recruits for a regiment from each state.21 Butler was also in charge of logistics for the new levies, particularly in the procurement of clothing and tents.22 By early May 1791 Butler had returned from his southern trip. He opened a new post at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Although the site had been used for several purposes during wartime, this marked the beginning of use of barracks later famous first as an Indian School then for various military instruction. Carlisle was designated as a “general rendezvous” for Butler’s levies. Coming from many different locations, the levies were first assembled together at Carlisle and then sent on to Fort Pitt.23 In May Butler made his headquarters at Fort Pitt, from where he sent only a small number of the levies to their ultimate destination, Fort Washington, and distributed the rest to cover Pennsylvania’s western frontier from Fort Franklin (Franklin, Pennsylvania) on the Allegheny River down to the Great Kanawha River. Butler dismissed militia that had been used for this purpose.24 By early June Butler had processed 1,015 levies, and by fall, 1,674 (short of the projected quota of two thousand). The full quota was expected to be delivered at Fort Washington by August 15.25 President Washington became impatient for the assembling of the military expedition at Fort Washington. Secretary of War Knox, in mid July, informed Butler all the troops collected at Pittsburgh, including those out on near-by frontier duty, should be sent posthaste to General St. Clair’s headquarters at Fort Washington.26 Knox had to remind Butler on August 4 that the President “is extremely anxious that the Troops should be “immediately assembled at Fort Washington.” President Washington was most concerned that the expedition not be delayed into the cold weather season. A delay would mean advancing through a countryside barren of forage, a factor that would also hinder maintaining a supply line. Especially the Secretary of War advised that “no retardment of the essential objects of the Campaign should be permitted under the idea of defensive protection of the Frontiers against a few straggling Indians, the Counties are sufficiently strong for that purpose.”27 Knox was more pointed when he wrote

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Butler on August 25, saying that the President was losing his patience “with the long detention of the troops on the upper part of the Ohio which he considers as unnecessary and improper.”28

A week later Knox wished Butler “a speedy

passage down the Ohio, so that the remaining part of the season may be embraced for effective operations.”29 Meanwhile Kentucky militia, who were considered a sort of reserve for the impending St. Clair’s invasion of the Indian country, went Indian hunting on their own.

General Charles Scott, with 750 mounted militia, entered the

“champagne” country along the upper Wabash River in May 1791, achieving no real success, and General James Wilkinson in August 1791 did likewise in much the same area, killing six warriors and by mistake two squaws and a child and taking thirty-four captives, mostly women and children.30 Butler set out on August 23 for the down river journey of 470 miles from Pittsburgh to the Western army headquarters at Fort Washington (Cincinnati). On August 29, at Wheeling, he came up with a small detachment of troops also making the same trip. Butler and his new companions averaged about twenty-five miles a day on the river, stopping briefly at settlements that included Marietta, Gallipolis (a French village), and Limestone (Maysville, Ky.). Butler finally arrived at Fort Washington on September 9, 1791. From the 15th to the 23d he was occupied with the Harmar court of inquiry. Butler’s levies marched out on September 17, reaching a site twenty miles north of Fort Washington, and began building Fort Hamilton (present-day Hamilton, Ohio). He was not too happy with his two regiments of levies. Most of these temporary soldiers seemed to be mostly misfits. The same could be said of the regulars in St. Clair’s army. One officer said that the troops had been “picked up and recruited from the scourings of large towns and cities;” another observed that the recruits came from “the prisons, wheelbarrows and brothels of the nation.” The quartermaster, Samuel Hodgdon, said that the levies were “a bad set of men” with “rotten legs.” Furthermore, the new troops were inexperienced to military life, less alone combat.32

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On September 27 Richard Butler showed up at Fort Hamilton, just as his men and regular troops were completing erection of the fort.33 The going into the wilderness would be slow.

A large number of hangers-on, including camp

followers, went with the army. Supplies came in slowly. Desertions occurred from the ill-trained troops. Relations between Major General St. Clair and Major General Butler became frayed. The army moved out from Fort Hamilton on October 4. Butler hoped that the inauspicious start of the Indian campaign did not portend impending misfortune.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN THE ROAD TO HELL Richard Butler led some two thousand troops out of Fort Hamilton. Most of the soldiers were levies, whose enlistments were about to expire. In the advance were 120 axmen (although there were only eighty axes); this detail was to cut two narrow and parallel roads, separated by about two hundred yards. An incessant rain had dulled the edge of the axes, and only ten men were assigned to each work group, which was relieved every two hours. A detachment of militia protected the road-cutters. The army marched in a definite order: first came a guard unit then two infantry regiments, with ten pieces of artillery hauled in between them; in the middle were packhorses carrying provisions and tents; then came successively a small herd of cattle (with guards), riflemen, and a mounted rear guard. Cavalry moved one hundred yards from the columns on the flanks. Trailing at the end were the campfollowers, consisting of civilian haulers, women who provided food and laundry services, and family members. Butler, in spite of “the effects of bodily indisposition, combined with the cares of his station,”2 managed to exert vigorous leadership, which unfortunately soon put him in disfavor with the army’s General-in-Chief, Arthur St. Clair. Details of the march had been carefully worked out by St. Clair, who was most interested that the line of march could be quickly switched into battle formation. A front line could be easily extended, and troops could be moved to either flank.

The objective of St. Clair’s army was finding and “violently

attacking” the Indians on the Maumee River, 170 miles from Fort Washington. Not the least of the expedition’s woes were problems of supply. Contractors had failed to provide sufficient food, much of which was of bad quality, and army

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issued boots tore apart at the seams. Since many of the packhorses and mules had died or ventured off, the troops had to bear extra heavy packs.2 Butler soon discovered the extreme difficulty of “opening” roads through “compact” woods.

Bridges had to be frequently “thrown over streams and

ravines,” and the way had to be cut “at every step.” Hence to facilitate the march and present what he considered a more malleable defensive posture, Butler on only the second day of the march decided to tamper, on his own authority, with St. Clair’s precise instructions. Butler’s decision would be the first of several actions on his part that would further alienate him from his superior. Perhaps Butler thought, as acting commander at the time, he had to use his best judgment. Furthermore, he was concerned, as others in the army, with St. Clair’s deteriorating health. The General-in-Chief, at this time, was so debilitated with a bilious colic, rheumatic asthma, and gout in his left arm and hand, that he could not mount a horse and had to be carried in a litter between two horses.3 Butler’s “disposition” for the march of the army required building a road forty feet wide, with the artillery going out in front, each of two columns coming up on the left and right; livestock occupied the middle between the two columns. There was also a rear guard.4 When General St. Clair caught up with the army on October 8, he was furious that Butler had tampered with his orders. St. Clair told Butler that “the order he had instituted, was worse than the original one, because the line of battle could not so soon be formed from it” and “the artillery would have a considerable distance to march to their places.” It would be easier “to open three roads, of ten or twelve feet each, if necessary, than one of forty.” St. Clair thought it best for the time being, since no impending battle was expected, not to order a return to his original directions so that “the two first officers” might not “appear to the army” as “altering the dispositions between us.” St. Clair, as the army advanced further into the Indian country, would direct a return to the initial order of the march. In testifying before a later court of inquiry St. Clair said that Butler’s changing his orders was not the first inkling of Butler’s tendency to insubordination. St. Clair noted that when Butler appeared at Fort

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Washington for the current expedition, he was “soured and disgusted,” which St. Clair attributed to Butler’s embarrassment for not having timely brought his levies to Fort Washington. When St. Clair asked for written information on the subject, Butler did not comply. From that time on St. Clair realized “an unusual distance and reserve” about Butler. As the march into the Indian country progressed. Butler’s “coolness and distance” to St. Clair increased, and Butler “seldom came near” St. Clair.5 Entering more open country and marching along an old Indian path, the army picked up its pace.

Sixty-eight miles from Fort Washington, a halt was

declared for “some days” in order to build a “small fort of deposit.” Two hundred men were employed for erecting what would be called Fort Jefferson. This “square work” had 114-feet sides, built of logs, four small bastions, with barracks and storerooms forming the walls (curtains) connecting the bastions.6 At Fort Jefferson, St. Clair had the army build a gallows. On October 23, three soldiers—two for desertion and the other for attempted murder of a soldier and threatening the life of an officer—were hanged.7 During the stay at Fort Jefferson, Richard Butler, as reported by General St. Clair, came to my tent one day, and observed that the season was wearing very fast, and that he doubted much, whether we should be able to accomplish the objects of the campaign: but, in order to render them more certain, if I would give him the command of a thousand of the picked men of the army, he would go forward to the Miami villages, and take post there, while I might finish the fort with the remainder, and come on at my leisure. St. Clair was astonished at this proposal, and barely concealed laughter. The General-in-Chief, nevertheless, told Butler that he would consider the plan, and give an answer the next morning. This St. Clair did, “with great gravity.” This was the only proposal, according to St. Glair, that Butler made to him “during the campaign.” St. Clair being in extreme ill-health, suspected that Butler may have sought “to ease me of the command of the army entirely,” but never had any exact

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At 9 a.m., October 24, the army resumed the march, and after trekking 5 ½ miles (site of present Greenville, Ohio, 74 miles from Fort Washington) settled in for nearly 2 weeks. On the 30th the army moved on, and covered seven miles. The encampment for the night did not please General St. Clair. He had directed the quartermaster to lay out the site in two lines, but when he came up to it, he found it was laid out in a square. Reproaching the quartermaster for not following his orders, St. Clair found out that Richard Butler had given directions for the change. St. Clair responded, by issuing orders that the army should in the future encamp in two lines (in order of battle) unless express orders should be given to the contrary.

Butler was quite miffed.

“From that time,” noted St. Clair,

“General Butler never came near me but when I sent for him.” St. Clair found Butler’s conduct inexplicable and also a betrayal of the friendship the two men once had. St. Clair declared that he had been “the most steadfast, useful friend he [Butler] ever had,” going as far back as 1774. St. Clair had even been instrumental in obtaining army appointments for two of Butler’s brothers, Thomas and Edward. St. Clair sought to explain part of the problem, namely that he, as the commanding general, had the practice of not consulting his officers on the movements of the army. St. Clair noted that he took his orders directly from the President of the United States through the Secretary of War, and had confidence in his own competence to make decisions, having served since 1756 with the best generals and having studied army engineering in depth. Deficiency of supplies, with the army, including officers, placed temporarily on half rations, fueled uneasiness with St. Clair’s command.9 An event of October 31 triggered a diminishment of the army’s fighting capability. Sixty Kentucky militia deserted, and it was feared that they would raid an oncoming supply convoy. The First United States Regiment (three hundred of the army’s best troops) was dispatched, under the command of Major John Hamtramck, to protect the supply train and to apprehend the deserters if possible. Butler let it be known that he objected to St. Clair’s decision without consulting

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him. To which St. Clair later noted that he did not think it was necessary to consult Butler. If Butler was not informed of the decision, “it was because he absented himself from head-quarters.” St. Clair further noted that he ordered out the first regiment at the very instant he had received word of the militia defection. In any event, now the expedition against the Indians amounted to only 1,400 soldiers. As it would also turn out, Hamtramck and his regiment were separated from the army longer than expected, having to go more than the twenty miles anticipated to link up with the supply convoy and unsuccessfully pursuing the militia.10 November 1 the army halted to give the road-cutters time to get some distance ahead. During a light snow the next day the army resumed its march. The country was marshy with many creeks, and the troops were soaked to the skin. After going eight miles, in late afternoon the weary expeditionary force encamped in two lines. Fear of Indian attack necessitated the posting of extra guards. On November 3 the troops covered nine miles, which brought them to within fifteen miles of hostile Indian towns.11 It being dusk when the troops arrived at the new campsite, no breastworks or entrenchments were thrown up; such a task could await until the next day. The men were all exhausted, shivering, and hungry. It is said that the location was adequate if the army was about to confront white regular troops, but not so against Indian warfare. The army camp straddled a branch of the Wabash River. The 320 Kentucky militia broke through the ice and forded the fifteen yard stream, and setting up camp served as the army’s advance guard. Back across to the eastern bank the regulars and levies bivouacked in an open area above a sharp drop to the river and surrounded by woods. The soldiers pitched tents in two lines, about seventy yards in between and 350 yards long.

Richard Butler

commanded the first line, and Colonel William Darke, the second. Each group had four artillery pieces. A unit of riflemen and some horsemen were put on the right flank, and the left was covered by more cavalry.12 The campsite had the advantages of access to fuel and water. But tactically it was a dead setting for an

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Indian attack, whereby warriors could creep through the forest from all directions and use trees for cover. General St. Clair was unaware of several hundred Indian warriors encamped two or three miles distant. He did not immediately provide any real reconnaissance beyond the outguards. At Miamitown already a large assemblage (nearly 1100 warriors) had gathered, coming from the Ohio country and the Great Lakes area. There were Shawnees under Blue Jacket (accompanied by a young chief, Tecumseh); Miamis led by Little Turtle; Delawares under Buckongahelas; Wyandots under Black Eagle; and a miscellany of Mingoes, Ojibwas, Ottawas, Potawatomis, and even a contingent of Cherokees from the South. Some warriors did not have firearms, and others had expended their ammunition on hunting during their travels. Lacking a unified command system, although Little Turtle and Blue Jacket have been regarded as the leaders, the Indians readied for a bold surprise attack—one that had been used at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 rather than one of defense such as had been in the ambushes of General Harmar’s troops in 1790.13 St. Clair, suffering from his infirmities, went to bed at 10 p.m. expecting to assess the situation in the morning. He planned not to move the army out until the First Regiment returned to the army. Several officers went to Richard Butler’s tent to discuss morning assignments. They found the general not feeling well. Butler served his visitors wine, saying “let us eat, drink, and be merry, as tomorrow we may die.” Shots fired by sentinels across the river disturbed Butler and his visitors, fearing that the Indians were trying to steal horses, which had been let out into the woods because of the scarcity of forage. Meanwhile Captain Edward Butler, Richard’s twenty-nine year old brother, went to the tent of his regimental commander, Colonel George Gibson, to request that a patrol be sent out to investigate the firing. Present also in Gibson’s tent was Captain Jacob Slough, who volunteered to lead a patrol. Gibson and Edward Butler agreed, and thirty-two men were selected. Edward Butler and Slough then went to Richard

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Butler’s tent for instructions. Warning of the dangers, General Butler sent Slough on his mission, telling him to call on militia commander, Lt. Col. William Oldham, on his way. Oldham tried to dissuade Slough from going on his mission because evidently the Indians were close by and preparing to attack. Slough, following Butler’s orders, went on anyway.14 A mile from camp, Slough divided his men into two groups and had them lie down on each side of a path. A half dozen Indians appeared, and Slough’s men fired on them, killing one and the rest escaped.

The American patrol

remained in ambush. An hour later a large party of Indians came up, but Slough’s patrol was undiscovered. When a little later other Indians passed by, Slough thought with so many Indians in the woods it was best to return to camp. Back at camp at midnight, Slough went first to Lt. Col. Oldham’s tent, where he reported his frightening experience and saying that the Indians would surely attack in the morning. Oldham sent Slough on to General Butler, and made no provision for sending out another patrol on the assumption that the Indians had already been discovered, despite the fact that Oldham was under standing orders of St. Clair to send out patrol parties shortly before dawn.15 Slough reported directly to General Butler, whom he found standing at a campfire before his tent. Butler listened keenly, and after a pause told Slough that he must be exhausted and he should lie down. Slough offered to go to General St. Clair to report his intelligence, but Butler said that was not necessary. Slough went back to his tent, believing that Butler would deliver the important message to St. Clair. This Butler did not do.16 The reason is not hard to fathom. Butler, had labored under rebukes from St. Clair, who was very sick and s1eeping and would probably not do anything until morning; in any event besides it was almost common knowledge that the Indians were in force nearby and would probably soon attack. Richard Butler and Oldham must bear in some measure responsibility for the soon to be catastrophe. Oldham had neglected his duty while in charge of camp security on the night of November 3 in refusing to send out his militia

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troops on reconnaissance patrol as he had been ordered to do. Oldham’s excuse was that his men would not obey a command taking them beyond the confines of the camp. One historian comments that such a reasoning “merely confirms the conclusion that as an officer and a soldier he was lacking in the fundamental qualities essential to the exercise of command.”

Butler and Oldham’s not

informing St. Clair shows they lacked loyalty to the commanding general and also a disregard for the safety of fellow officers and soldiers.17 Richard Butler’s failure to inform his commanding general merely capped off a serial subordination during the Indian campaign.

Probably Butler was

suffering mental as well as physical distress at the time; otherwise it is difficult to explain why a long-seasoned and respected military officer could have let personal resentment prevail. While the troops slept, the woods filled with darting shadows. Closer and closer they moved, as in a spread-out half-moon formation, toward the American camp. Although the actual proximity of the enemy was unknown, there was little doubt that there would be an Indian attack. Even General St. Clair was not oblivious to this probability. An hour before dawn of the 4th, he, therefore, ordered the troops to be assembled and mustered. After the customary parade of ten minutes, held ahead of time, the men began preparing their meager breakfast. The weather was clear and cold.18 At the camp’s perimeter gruesomely painted warriors readied to pounce on the American troops, who were unaware the enemy had put them inside a vise. Suddenly the Indian yell, resembling “an infinitude of horse-bells,” came screeching through the woods.19

CHAPTER SIXTEEN MASSACRE Suddenly the shrieking cacophony of nearly eleven hundred war cries resounding through the forest ceased. An eerie stillness ensued. Then musket fire and whistling bullets disrupted the quiet. Indians from three directions poured in upon the militia camp. The militiamen let go a few shots and fled across the river into the main camp, running through the first line and ending up in the second. They would have hightailed it further had not the enemy now entirely encircled the camp. The warriors pursued the militia, and were temporarily halted by General Richard Butler’s levies in the first line. The Indians making use of cover from behind logs and trees fired with accuracy among the troops who huddled together. Powder smoke from the artillery aided the enemy’s concealment. Soon most all the artillerymen were killed. The levies and regular troops, forming two lines, had not yet been fully trained, less alone tested in combat, and many had never before fired a gun. The numbing coldness impeded discharging the weapons. General St. Clair was hoisted from his stretcher onto a horse and joined the disordered troops on the left. Several animals were shot from under him. Fortunately he was more or less dressed in civilian clothes and hence unrecognized by the enemy as the American commander; indeed the Indians relentlessly picked off the officers. Horror elicits magnificent effort, and St. Clair found himself walking and leading a small body of troops, succeeding briefly in repelling an Indian onslaught, pushing them back across the river.

Lt. Col.

William Darke had a brief similar success. But the Indian attackers were just too overwhelming, and the Americans could not mount further counterattacks. The

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Indians tightened the vise. Fallen American soldiers were scalped. One trooper noted after the battle that he witnessed a soldier “sitting on his backside his head smoaking like a chimney.”1 Richard Butler had an arm broken early during the battle. With his arm in a sling he walked up and down among his troops of the first line, edging them on the best he could. He mounted a stray horse, and now becoming an easy target, quickly sustained a shot in his right leg and then a most serious one in his breast. Immediately Butler fell off his horse.2 Four soldiers carried Butler in a blanket to the Pennsylvania section of the camp where the was propped up against a walnut tree at the site of a medical tent. Surgeon Edward Glasson dressed the wounds. Butler was supported in a sitting position by a knapsack at each side. Meanwhile a young soldier who stood nearby was hit in the kneecap and cried out loudly because of the pain; uncharacteristically Butler burst out in laughter. This satisfied Major Ebenezer Denny that the general’s wound was not mortal; Denny thought that the ball striking Butler’s “fleshy” body had not “penetrated a vital part.” Denny always thought if Butler could have been brought off the field he would have survived.3 Soon Richard Butler’s younger brother Edward came up carrying another brother, Thomas, who was in great agony, suffering from one mangled leg and the other one broken. Several other officers, including Butler’s own aide-de-camp, Major John Morgan, stood by, urging General Butler to allow himself to be carried away if possible to safety. There was little time for making a decision; the Indians were about to complete overrunning the camp. It would be very difficult to extricate Butler from the oncoming surge of blood-thirsty attackers. Even if the general’s breast wound would prove non-fatal, to move him, his being “very fat,” the previous state of his health, the extraordinary excitement of the occasion, the loss of blood from the first wound, and the severity, if not the mortal nature of the second” combined would undoubtedly produce “a fatal result.” Butler, therefore, refused “to encumber the flight or hazard the lives of his friends, and had a pistol loaded, and gave his ring and watch to Major Henry Gaither.

He bid his

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companions to flee as quickly as possible. The two brothers insisted that they stay with him, but Richard told Edward to save the terribly injured Thomas: “I am mortally wounded. Leave me to my fate and save our brother.”4 Two Shawnee Indians rushed up.

Butler fired his pistol, and while

reaching for another gun the other Indian cleaved a tomahawk in his skull. While the assailant tried to scalp Butler, Dr. Glasson shot and killed him. The doctor, too, shared Butler’s fate. Symbolically after the battle the victors shoved earth into the mouths of the American dead, and recognizing the heroic death of Butler, cut his heart into fourteen pieces, each of which was allotted to be eaten by chiefs of all participating tribes. Butler’s scalp was dried and sent to Joseph Brant, the Mohawk chief, who along with all the Iroquois had balked at joining in the attack upon the American forces invading the western Indian country. The Indians never buried the battlefield dead of their enemies. Thus Butler’s body was left as carrion for the forest beasts of prey.5 The fighting endured for three hours, ending just after 9 a.m. St. Clair gave the order for a full retreat, which instantly became a rout with soldiers discarding their weapons and accoutrements. The first objective was to reach the road one and a half miles away, on which they retraced their steps back to Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles distant. The Indians gave up their pursuit after three miles. They returned to the American camp to kill off the wounded, take scalps, and to scoop up the ample booty left behind.

The army had all but been

annihilated: only some 500 soldiers of the 1,400 man force escaped harm. Thirtyseven officers and 593 enlisted men fell; thirty-two officers and 252 enlisted men were wounded. In addition fifty-six of the women campfollowers were killed, often in a most hideous fashion. Some of the women prisoners were stripped naked and run through the wooden stakes as thick as a person’s arm; others had their breasts hacked off and then cut them bodies in two. Some of both sexes were burned at the stake. Captive men underwent such tortures as having their intestines pulled out bit by bit, being flayed alive, and having their limbs torn off.6 The corpse-strewn battlefield remained untouched until General James

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Wilkinson led a detachment during winter 1793-94 to the site when the bones were gathered up and given decent burial. Fort Recovery was erected at the battleground. Earlier, in summer 1792 Richard Butler’s brother, Edward, learned that an escaped captive from the Indians had claimed that General Butler was alive and held by the British in Detroit. Edward journeyed to Detroit, and was assured by the British military command there that indeed Richard Butler had died in the gruesome battle. Supposedly Edward, on the Wilkinson burial detail, identified bones under the same tree where he had last seen his brother as those of Richard Butler from a broken thigh bone that had healed.7 A further comfort to Butler’s family several years after the battle was when the Seneca chief, Cornplanter, visited the home of Butler’s widow in Carlisle and presented her with a medal of the Society of the Cincinnati which presumably had been taken from Butler’s corpse.

Cornplanter also gave

assurance that Butler had not been scalped nor his body defaced; probably Mary Butler did not give much credibility to the Seneca chief’s assertion as he had not participated in the defeat of St. Clair’s army.8 Richard Butler died leaving a family of four: wife Mary (Maria Smith Butler), eight-year-old William, six-year-old Mary, and 2½ year-old James Richard.9 Both sons were to die in uniform: William, a lieutenant in the Navy, in 1813,and James Richard as a militia captain stationed at the Allegheny Arsenal in Pittsburgh in 1842. James Richard had left military service in 1814 and reenlisted in 1826. Mary, the daughter, married Isaac Meason in 1805, and the couple had ten children. She died in Pittsburgh in 1878 at age 93.10 By a will, written at Fort McIntosh in 1785 and proved May 31, 1792, in which he recognized the danger of being on a mission in Indian country, Butler provided equal shares of his estate to his wife and children. At the time of his death he was debt free, but with assets almost entirely in real estate. He owned two tracts of land in Westmoreland County; a house, lot, and livestock in Carlisle; a house and two lots in Pittsburgh; two lots in the town of Appleby; and lands bestowed from his military service—1,000 acres from the state of Pennsylvania

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and 600 acres from the U.S. Congress.11 President Washington sent Mary Butler his condolences on January 6, 1792, sharing in the “grief” regarding “the loss of the truly gallant General Butler.” Washington expressed the hope “that you under the present pressure of your affliction experience all the powerful consolation of Religion and Philosophy.12 Mary had written Washington on December 22, 1791 concerning the need of protection from the Indians even in the Pittsburgh area. She noted that there was “not one White Inhabitant between my Hous and the Spot” where Richard Butler’s body “Lies in the Wilderness.”13 Mary Butler responded on January 27, 1792 to Washington’s letter of January 6 from Carlisle. She thanked the President for his sympathy and his “Approbation” of Richard Butler’s military conduct. She expected to “watch my Lambs basking in the Sunshine of your Administration.” Mary hinted at denouncing General St. Clair for criticism that had come to her of St. Clair finding fault with Butler during the Indian expedition.14 In 1794 Mary Smith Butler, by an enactment of Congress, began receiving a half pay pension for five years granted to widows of officers who had died in battle.15 Just before his death on the battlefield, Richard Butler presented his sword to Major Henry Gaither. The trophy was later returned to the Butler family. The sword has on one side the motto “No Me Sacque Sin Razon” and on the other side “No Me Embaines Sin Honor” (Draw me not without just cause, and sheath me not without honor)16

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN POSTSCRIPT TO TRAGEDY Richard Butler did not live to be among the panicking troops as they fled from the scene of massacre. Nor did he have the opportunity through an official inquiry to achieve vindication of his conduct on the ill-fated expedition and especially relating to the events of November 3-4, the eve of the tragedy. Had the ill-starred general survived he would have made it back the twenty-nine miles to Fort Jefferson at dusk on the day of the battle—a distance that the troops had covered previously in four days. The fleeing men came to the fort pell-mell. Most had thrown away their weapons as soon as they left the battlefield. One soldier arrived with a tomahawk sticking in his head. At Fort Jefferson the refugees were joined by Major Hamtramck’s first regiment which had been dispatched from the army on the eve of the battle to search for deserters and to protect a supply train. Fearing an Indian attack at Fort Jefferson, General St. Clair put his remnant army on the march to Fort Washington. With almost no food available it was deemed all the more necessary to keep the troops on the move to prevent mutiny. At 9 a.m. November 5 the retreat resumed. The soldiers trekked through icy swamps and ponds. On November 8 they arrived to the safety of Fort Washington.1 The news of the frontier disaster was brought to the nation’s capital at Philadelphia by General St. Clair’s aide-de-camp, Major Ebenezer Denny. Leaving Fort Washington in early November, Denny, because of the difficulties in traveling the wintry countryside, did not reach Wheeling until twenty days later.

He arrived in Philadelphia on December 19, whereupon he contacted

Secretary of War Henry Knox at his residence. Knox immediately brought the

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dispatches to the President’s mansion. Washington was with guests when his .

private secretary, Tobias Lear, interrupted, handing the President the dispatches. Washington read only a few lines before grasping the severity of the message. The President angrily denounced St. Clair for allowing his army “to be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered, tomahawked, by a surprise, the very thing I guarded him against.” St. Clair was “worse than a murderer. How can he answer to his country?” Then after brief reflection, Washington said that St. Clair would be fairly judged.2 Washington requested that a court-martial be convened to sit in judgment of St. Clair, but there were not enough officers (generals and colonels) to form a high level panel.3 The House of Representatives, therefore, took the matter into their hands. A special committee of seven members was appointed to inquire into the causes for “the Failure of the Expedition against the Indians”—the first use of Congressional investigative powers. The report of the special committee was completed on March 27, 1792. Secretary of War Henry Knox and Quartermaster General Samuel Hodgdon protested that they were unfairly criticized in the report, and asked for further evaluation. In fall 1792 the investigation was renewed. Knox refused to testify before the congressional committee. The final revised report was issued February 15, 1793 with very little change from the original. Thus the question, of culpability regarding Richard Butler and the unreported reconnaissance mission was not resolved.4 Generally the House of Representatives inquiry exonerated both St. Clair and Butler. The report gave credence to Butler’s claim of mismanagement in the quartermaster and military stores departments.

Furthermore, “it appears that

General Butler acted with ability, activity, and zeal, in his command at Fort Pitt,” and that detaining troops there instead of sending them on to St. Clair “can not be imputed to his want of judgment, or his want of exertion.” He was only acting under orders of the Secretary of War, who made the protection of the Pennsylvania frontier a priority. Specific factors contributing to the defeat alleged from the House of

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Representatives findings were: l) Quartermaster General Hodgdon (appointed March 1791) long delayed fully assuming his office, necessitating St. Clair to act as his own quartermaster; 2) military stores were in short supply; 3) rations were inadequate and the wilderness yielded no vegetables because of the time of year; 4) and lack of forage because of destruction by a frost. Other than simply including testimony of Captain Jacob Slough in the record,5 the Congressional inquiry did not delve into the controversy as to whether Butler was negligent in not forwarding to St. Clair Slough’s report on his scouting mission on the night of November 3-4. In the aftermath of the massacre, St. Clair accepted at face value Slough’s version, and said so in his report to the Secretary of War.6 Major Edward Butler, Richard’s younger brother, served as brigade major for the night of November 3-4. Although he was the one who suggested sending out a reconnaissance mission such as that which Captain Slough went on, he could not lead it himself because of his duty assignment. Edward Butler was at the scene of Slough setting out. After the defeat Butler took bitter issue with Slough’s version of what had happened.

Butler claimed from his own

observations and those of others, that General Butler never gave any orders to Captain Slough nor did Slough submit a report about his mission. Edward Butler insisted that Richard Butler never had any “official information” regarding Slough’s discoveries “until a few minutes previous to the action commencing.” If need be, Edward Butler told St. Clair he would present evidence which he had thoroughly collected to St. Clair “should your Excellency refuse the friends of General Butler that justice which his merits deserve.”7 General St. Clair immediately responded to Major Butler’s letter “on the subject of my official communications to the Secretary of War, by which you say unjust harm is fixed on the character of the deceased General Butler, who, when living thought highly of my friendship.” St. Clair said that he was surprised that a brother of General Butler would think “that in the moment almost of his decease, I would attack his character.” St. Clair insisted that Richard Butler had given

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Captain Slough orders for his mission and afterwards received information from Captain Slough. St. Clair pointed out that he had no choice in his report to the Secretary of War but to state the facts.8 St. Clair’s defeat emboldened the Indians to commit depredations among white settlers north of the Ohio River.

It seemed that at last an Indian

confederacy would become a reality. The British government now saw the opportunity to attain a long-sought goal of creating an Indian buffer in the Ohio country. The governors of Upper and Lower Canada brought together the western tribes at the Maumee River rapids in the autumn of 1792. There the Indians again proclaimed the Ohio River as the boundary with the United States. The British governor of Lower Canada encouraged the Indians in this stance, and even hinted of giving support should war ensue. The British violated the Treaty of 1783 by erecting Fort Miami on the Maumee River within American territory. Though the American position now repudiated the policy of land acquisition by conquest and showed a willingness to allow the Indians to keep as their territory all lands beyond the American government and official land company surveys, diplomacy broke down.9 For two years after St. Clair’s defeat there was no United States military presence in the Ohio country other than a minimal number of soldiers at the Ohio River posts. This period seemed to suggest the correctness of the notion that it was “darkest before the day.” Government leaders took their time to readdressing the Indian situation in the western territory. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson wrote to a Kentucky politician two weeks after St. Clair’s defeat stating the need “to appoint an officer to succeed General Butler’s command,” who would be highly regarded by the people of “the Western Country.”10 Congress did act quickly to create a new army as an expeditionary force to be employed in the Ohio country, but it took quite a while for any campaign against the Indians to develop. Congress, on March 5, 1792, established a new army of 5,000 men, to be known as the Legion of the United States. Borrowed from the army organization of the ancient Romans, the new system consisted of a

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legion, in which there would be four independent sublegions, equivalent to army brigades, each capable of being used as a striking force. St. Clair resigned his commission as major general General-in-Chief on April 7, 1792, and only five days later General Anthony Wayne was appointed as St. Clair’s successor to head the army. Congress also passed the Militia Act on May 8, 1792 that required all able-bodied males between the ages of eighteen and forty five to enroll in state militia and also conferred on the President, now in addition to Congress, authority to call up militia for federal service during insurrection or invasion. It took General Wayne a year to be in a position to preside over an actual army, and recruiting and training went slowly.11 Two factors made for caution in deploying the new army. Diplomatic efforts had to be totally exhausted, and, unlike the two previous expeditions, the army must be in superb condition, both as to logistics and operational capability. The new army first ventured out in the winter of 1793-94 to inter the remains of those fallen during the massacre of November 1791 and to build on the spot Fort Recovery. The Indians made only one assault on Wayne’s army, that of attacking Fort Recovery on January 30, 1794, but were driven off by a detachment that Wayne had placed there. The Indians, now disillusioned, still looked to renewal of warfare, expecting British military existence in a further confrontation with the Americans. Wayne’s army finally put a punctuation to the Indian war of 1790s at the battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794.12 Had General Richard Butler survived the massacre of November 1791, he would undoubtedly have shared in the glory of Wayne’s victory—one of the most decisive military triumphs in American history. But, in a sense the tragic hero deserves as much credit as anyone in contributing to the ultimate success in military victory over the Indians of the Northwest Territory, both that of 1794 and the battle of the Thames in October 1813. Richard Butler participated in all aspects of American-Indian relations for a third of a century, as a cherished friend of the native-Americans as well as their enemy. His devotion to his country as soldier and statesman was inestimable.

APPENDIX A “THE FIGHTING BUTLER BROTHERS” The five sons of Thomas and Eleanor Parker Butler all served in the U. S. Army. George Washington referred to them as “a gallant band of patriot brothers.”1 At the end of the Revolutionary War Richard and William were colonels, Thomas a captain, and Percival and Edward were lieutenants. Thomas and Edward, along with Richard, were in the Indian wars of the 1790s, and were in the heat of battle of November 4, 1791 that claimed the life of Richard. Thomas commanded at Fort Fayette during the Whiskey Insurrection.2 William Butler William Butler was born January 6, 1745 in London, England, the second child of Thomas and Eleanor Parker Butler. He came to Pennsylvania with his family in 1748, and grew up mainly in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He and Richard assisted their father as a gunsmith, and upon reaching maturity the two brothers became Indian traders throughout the Ohio Valley but chiefly with the Shawnee Indians, supplying principally the Philadelphia trading firm of Baynton, Wharton and Morgan. The two Butler brothers made their headquarters at Pittsburgh.

With their dealings taking them as far as the

Mississippi Valley, the two Butler brothers became adept at Indian customs and language.

In fall 1767 William Butler traded as far as Kaskaskia and Fort

Chartres (1300 hundred miles from Pittsburgh and one hundred miles up the Mississippi from its junction with the Ohio River). On November 26, 1767 William Butler and his companions were attacked by Indians but escaped: Butler reportedly was in “such Fright that he cannot give a consistent Account of the

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126 Affair.”3

In 1774-75 Butler was caught up in the Virginia-Virginia rivalry for control of western Pennsylvania. For a while he was under arrest by the Virginia commander in the area.4 William Butler entered the Continental army on January 5, 1776 as a captain in the Second Pennsylvania Regiment. Promotions made him a major in the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment on September 7, 1776 and lieutenant colonel on September 30, 1776. Butler remained at this rank throughout the war; on January 22, 1779 he was designated commandant of the Fourth Regiment.5 Butler participated in the unsuccessful invasion of Canada, 1775-76. Later captured at Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, he escaped and returned to his regiment. He fought with General Anthony Wayne’s brigade at the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777. At the British surprise attack on Wayne’s troops at Paoli, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1777, Butler and his regiment provided cover while the rest of the troops retreated.6 He was at the Battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777. He fought at the battle of Monmouth in Wayne’s special detachment7 A major assignment came Butler’s way in fall 1778 when he was put in charge of a punitive expedition against hostile Indians along the upper Susquehanna River. A factor in his selection was his reputation for being “most conversant with the Indians and their mode of fighting.”8 Butler and his Fourth Regiment were stationed at Fort Defiance in the Schoharie Valley, thirty-five miles southwest of Albany. On October 2, 1778 at the head of some two hundred troops of his regiment and twenty rangers from Daniel Morgan’s rifle corps, Butler set out across the mountains, arriving at the Indian village of Unadilla on the Susquehanna on October 7. Pausing only long enough to have a brief rest, Butler moved on southward to attack the town of Oquaga, where the Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant had his headquarters. Finding this site deserted, the invaders burned the some forty houses and fanned out into the area destroying five other Indian villages. Returning northward Butler and his troops burned the whole town of

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Unadilla, including its sawmill and gristmill. In all, four thousand bushels of corn were destroyed. The expedition then headed back to Fort Defiance, arriving there on October 16. The two week destructive jaunt covered three hundred miles, with only one man wounded as the only casualty among Butler’s troops.9 Butler’ s scorched-earth invasion led the Iroquois Indians to seek revenge, not the least of which was the Cherry Valley massacre of November 11, 1778. William Butler and his regiment joined the expedition of generals John Sullivan and James Clinton into the western Iroquois country in late summer and fall 1779. Butler and his troops assembled with Clinton’s brigade at the south end of Ostego Lake (Cooperstown) on July 2. Marching southwesterly, Clinton’s troops, on August 19, linked up with Sullivan’s brigade at Tioga (on the Susquehanna River on the Pennsylvania side of the boundary with New York). The combined force fought at the battle of Newtown against a sparse and disorganized enemy on August 29.10 As the Sullivan-Clinton army moved further into Indian country, William Butler and six hundred men, including his regiment, Major James Parr’s riflemen, and some Oneida warriors, on September 20 were sent up the east side of Cayuga Lake to destroy Indian villages. cornfields.

Butler’s detachment burned houses and

It reached Cayuga Castle, which was also destroyed along with

adjacent villages and crops. Butler and his men re-joined the main army at Kanawlohalla on September 28. The army returned to its staging area, Easton, on October 15, 1779.11 During the mutiny of the Pennsylvania line on January 1, 1781, Butler’s Fourth Regiment was ordered to capture artillery taken by the mutineers, but refusing to advance it linked up with the rebellious troops. Shortly afterwards a mutineer went after Lt. Col. William Butler. To save his life, Butler made a beeline between the huts. As Butler went around a hut the mutineer came after him but instead confronted Captain Adam Bettin, who “was coming down the alley.” Bettin with his spontoon charged at the mutineer, who shot and mortally wounded the captain.

The mutineers marched towards Philadelphia to demand from

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Congress and the Pennsylvania legislature back pay and the army’s adherence to enlistment contracts. Butler went along with General Wayne to attempt halting the mutineers and bring them to negotiation, which was finally accomplished.12 Although his Fourth Regiment accompanied General Wayne to Virginia and fought at the battle of Yorktown and afterwards to South Carolina in 1782, William Butler himself appears not to have served in these theaters.13 Butler retired from the army on January 1, 1783, and thereafter lived in retirement at his residence in Pittsburgh. He was in ill-health until his death on May 6, 1789. He was buried at the Trinity Protestant Episcopal Churchyard. He was survived by his wife, Jane Carmichael Butler, sons Richard (1777-1820) and William (-- 1815) and daughters Rebecca (1782-1844) and Harriet (1787-1830).13 Thomas Butler The third Butler son was born May 29, 1743 in St. Bridget’s parish, Dublin, Ireland. He was only four months old when his family migrated to Pennsylvania. Thomas, Sr. purchased a large farm near Lancaster. But his sons did not especially adapt to agricu1ture. Thomas, Jr. studied law in Carlisle with James Wilson, a future signer of the Declaration of Independence. He abandoned a law practice, when , on January 5, 1776 he joined the Continental army as a first lieutenant in the same company of the Second Pennsylvania as his brother William. He transferred, at the same rank, to the Fourth Regiment on October 4, 1776 and remained in that position until he retired from the army.14 Captain Thomas Butler, Jr. received personal commendation from General Washington for his bravery at the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777. General Anthony Wayne gave him praise for his role at the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, at which time he was wounded in defending a narrow passage way, allowing his brother Richard to withdraw his regiment.15 With the reorganization of the Pennsylvania Line, Thomas Butler retired from the Continental army on January 17, 1781.l6 Butler purchased a large farm in West Pennsboro Township, Cumberland

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County, near Carlisle. He married Sarah Jane Semple in 1784. They had six children: Thomas (1785 - ?); Robert (1786-1860); Lydia (1788-1852); William Edward (1790-1793); Eleanor (1793-1793); and Richard (1795-1795).17 In November 1791 Thomas Butler was appointed a major in the U.S. Army, which was to be deployed against the western Indians. On that fateful day, November 4 when the Indians attacked in force and his brother, Richard, was killed, he had one leg broken by a musket ball early in the battle. Despite the wound Butler led a mounted bayonet charge. Shot through the other leg, he fell from his horse. Another brother, Captain Edward Butler extricated Thomas from combat, only to be forced with the decision of either saving Thomas or the severely injured Richard.

General Richard Butler declared, “I am mortally

wounded. Leave me to my fate and save our brother, Thomas.” Thomas Butler survived the carnage, and was taken home for recuperation. When the army was reorganized, Thomas Butler re-joined the army, in the Fourth Sublegion. For the next two years Butler assisted in training the troops near Pittsburgh for another invasion of Indian Territory. In May 1793 the new army dropped down the Ohio River to Fort Washington (Cincinnati), and later in the year moved out to advanced posts.18 Early 1794 Thomas Butler was detached from the western army and sent to be the commandant of Fort Fayette in Pittsburgh. He was able to prevent the “Whiskey Rebels” from seizing Fort Fayette. He stayed on to command at the fort throughout the period of the insurrection.19

After being promoted to

lieutenant colonel on August 27, 1795, Thomas Butler was named by President Washington to command U.S. troops in Tennessee. He had the responsibility of preventing whites from settling on Indian lands on what became known as the Natchez District. On October 3, 1798 Butler and George Walton signed a treaty at Tellico in eastern Tennessee with the Cherokee Indians that renewed previous treaties, provided for new land cessions by the Cherokees, and gave the Indians $5,000 in goods and raised an existing annuity by $1,000.20 In 1799 Butler became a full colonel. From Knoxville he commanded

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U.S. troops in Tennessee until 1802. With the reduction of the army in 1802 Butler remained in service as a regimental commander.21 An act of insubordination by Butler attracted wide attention.

The

commanding general of the army, James Wilkinson, issued an order that for the better discipline of the troops all officers and enlisted personnel could no longer wear a queue, which had long been in fashion in the army. When the subordinate officers in Butler’s command asked his advice, Butler replied that they must obey orders. When asked, however, what he would do, Butler replied “The Almighty gave me my hair, and no earthly power shall deprive me of it.”

General

Wilkinson ordered Butler to stand a court martial trial in 1803. Butler was acquitted, but Wilkinson put him again before a court martial for “willful, obstinate, and continued disobedience of orders and for mutinous conduct.” He was sentenced to a year’s suspension. But before the sentence went into effect, Butler died of yellow fever on September 7, l805 at the Ormonde Plantation, near New Orleans, and was buried at what was known as the Red Church. According to his instructions, a hole was bored in the bottom of his coffin so that his pigtail could drop through it, thus in defiance even after death. Andrew Jackson became the legal guardian of Butler’s minor children.22 Percival Butler The fourth Butler son, Percival (also called Pierce), was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1760. At age seventeen, on September 1, 1777 he was commissioned a second lieutenant, serving in the Third Pennsylvania Regiment, the same that included his brothers Richard and Thomas. He had entered the army just in time to fight at the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, and he was also with the Third Regiment at the battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777. He fought at the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778.23 Percival accompanied General Anthony Wayne’ s Pennsylvania brigade to Virginia in 1781. He fought at Spencer’s Tavern. At the siege of Yorktown, he was an aide to Lafayette, and after the event the Frenchman presented Percival

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with a handsome sword. Percival served with Wayne’s troops in their South Carolina and Georgia campaign of 1782. He joined the Second Pennsylvania Regiment on January 1, 1783 and then the First Pennsylvania Regiment on September 23, 1783. At war’s end he mustered out of the service at the rank of brevet captain.24 Upon leaving the army, Percival settled as a planter in Jessamine County, Kentucky, at the junction of Hickman Creek and the Kentucky River. On May 30, 1786 Percival married Mildred Hawkins (1763-1833) of Lexington. In 1796, Percival and his family made their residence at Port William (later renamed Carrollton).25 There were eleven children: Eleanor Butler (1787-1844); Thomas Langford Butler (1789-1880), who served as an aide to Andrew Jackson in New Orleans; William Orlando Butler (1791-1881), Democratic candidate for VicePresident in 1848; Richard Parker Butler (1792-1885); Percival (Pierce) Butler (1794-1851); Frances Maria Butler (1796-1843); Caroline Thomas Butler Pryor (1798-1885); Edward Butler (1800-1801); Edward Butler (1802-1821); Jane Hawkins Butler (1804-1877); and Mary Langford Butler (1807-1861).26 Percival fought in the Indian campaigns of Kentucky before it became a state. He served as Adjutant General of Kentucky 1792-1816. He organized the Kentucky contingent of General Anthony Wayne’s western army and fought with it at the battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794. Still a captain, he served in the Kentucky detachment in the field in 1812. Percival held the elected post of clerk for Gallatin County, intermittently 1899-1821.

Percival Butler died at

Carrollton on September 9, 1821.27 Edward Butler Edward Butler, the youngest son, was born in Carlisle on March 20, 1762. At age seventeen, he enlisted in June 1778 as an ensign in the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded by brother Richard. For meritorious conduct in the field he was promoted to lieutenant on January 28, 1779. Edward transferred into the Fifth Pennsylvania Regiment in January 17, 1781. He and his regiment went with General Anthony Wayne to Virginia in summer 1781. He was in the siege of

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Yorktown, and afterwards in 1782, went with Wayne’s troops to join General Nathanael Greene’s army in South Carolina and Georgia. Assigned to the Second Pennsylvania Regiment on January 1, 1783, he left the service on November 3, 1783.28 Butler married Isabella Fowler on July 14, 1787. They had six children: Anthony Wayne (b. —? died 1824); Caroline Butler ( b.--? d. --?); Eliza Eleanor Butler (1791-1850); Edward George Washington Butler (1800-1888); Emeline Butler (b. 1790-d. ---?); and Richard Butler (1794-1799)29 Butler re-entered the army as a captain in General Arthur St. Clair’s expeditionary force of 1791. In the disaster of November 4, 1791 in which the Ohio Indians routed St. Clair’s troops, Edward Butler heroically carried his two brothers, Richard and Thomas, from the battlefield. With the Indians pressing in, Edward had to make a fateful decision. He could try to escape with one, but could not take away both. Richard had the life threatening injuries. At the urging of Richard, Edward managed to put Thomas, wounded in two legs, one being broken, onto a horse, and he and Thomas fled from certain death.30 Edward continued in military service, being made captain in the U.S. Infantry on March 5, 1792. He was appointed Deputy Adjutant and Inspector General of the U.S. Army on September 21, 1792, and served as the head of that department from July 18, 1793 to May 13, 1794. He was with Wayne’s army at the battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794. Butler stayed in the army as captain of infantry.31 Edward Butler’s final military service was with federal troops in Tennessee, who were commanded by his brother, Thomas. Edward Butler was a commissioner at the Treaty of Tellico, October 2, 1798, which established the Indian boundary line. While still in the army, he died at Springfield, Tennessee, May 6, 1803.32 Butler was a good friend of Andrew Jackson, and when Butler died Jackson became the guardian or two of Butler’s sons, Anthony Wayne and Edward George Washington Butler.33

APPENDIX B THREE SENECA FRIENDS GUYASUTA One Indian chief who crossed paths many times with Richard Butler was Guyasuta (c. 1725-1794).1 Both men engaged in “shuttle diplomacy:” Guyasuta, the go-between the Iroquois and the English/American governments on the one hand and the Ohio country tribes on the other; Butler forming a communication link between the Ohio country Indians and the United States government. Guyasutha was born into the Wolf clan of the Senecas, who lived near the upper Allegheny River in western New York near the Pennsylvania border. About mideighteenth century Guyasutha and other Senecas moved into the upper Ohio Valley, where they were referred to as Mingoes, to distinguish their other Iroquois brethren. Caught in the middle between neutral Iroquois and the more hostile, antiBritish Ohio Indians, Guyasutha proved to have great durability in both making war and peace with the white settlers. He was one of two Indian chiefs who guided George Washington in his journey to warn off the French from their posts in western Pennsylvania in 1753. When war came Guysutha was instrumental in forging the French-Indian alliance. He was a member of the French-Indian force that annihilated General Edward Braddock’s army along the Monogahela River near present day Pittsburgh on July 9, 1755. Rather incoherent, in view of Guyasutha’s later warm regards for George Washington and the Americans in general, was his bloodthirsty reputation during the French and Indian War and, in its aftermath, the Pontiac Rebellion. He led the ambush that wiped out a detachment under Major James Grant near Fort

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Duquesne on September 14, 1758; 270 of the white soldiers were killed, and 42 wounded. A month later Guyasutha fought in the combined French-Indian attack on the English camp at Loyalhanna, which was repulsed by troops under Colonel James Bird. Guyasuta attended the conference at Fort Pitt in July 1759, at which the Iroquois and western tribes confirmed the Treaty of Easton, October 26, 1753 and promised to return white captives.2 Guyasuta was as instrumental as anyone in bringing on the Indian War known as Pointiac’s Rebellion. He was at the bloody capture of Forts Venango, LeBeouf, and Presque Isle. He probably also fought at the Indian defeat at the battle of Bushy Run, August 5-6, 1763. A year later Guyasuta and other chiefs of western tribes arranged for the surrender of two hundred prisoners. After Pontiac’s War, Guyasuta developed strong ties with the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department, Sir William Johnson. For the decade before the American Revolution, Guyasutha engaged in almost constant “shuttle diplomacy” as the British and their allies, the Iroquois, attempted to exercise dominion over the western Indians. Resentment against Guyasuta by the Ohio Indians became so strong that he had to journey with a heavy guard of Seneca warriors.3 Guyasuta was one of the principal negotiators for the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, whereby the Iroquois forfeited claims to territory south of the Ohio River.4

In October 1770 Guyasuta began an off-and-on

friendship with George Washington when Washington and several companions came across Guyasutha at his hunting camp near the mouth of the Muskingum River. At the start of the Revolution it seemed that Guyasuta would lead his people to side with the American cause. At a conference with commissioners of the United Colonies at Pittsburgh in October 1775, he represented the Mingoes in the Allegheny and Ohio River valleys. Guyasuta pledged to use his influence for peace among both the Iroquois and Indians of the Ohio country. Congress voted him a colonel’s commission and a silver gorget. But the new British Indian Superintendent, Guy Johnson, wooed him to the British side. His role in the war

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was almost entirely that of diplomat among the Iroquois and western tribes. He participated, however, in the ambush against a militia force at Oriskany on August 6, 1777 seeking to relieve the British-Indian siege of Fort Stanwix. One action turned Guyasuta decidedly against the American cause. Colonel Daniel Brodhead’s expedition of 605 men, which went up the Allegheny River in August-September 1779, devastated Seneca and Delaware towns. This invasion was in conjunction with General John Sullivan’s sweep of the Iroquois country. Guyasuta’ residence was destroyed by Brodhead’s troops. Guyasuta then made his home along Cattaraugus Creek on the shore of Lake Erie, north of the Allegheny River.5 During summer 1780 Guyasuta traveled among the Ohio Indians, bringing summons from the Six Nations to stay in a British alliance.6 Before war’s end he was once more on the warpath, leading a band of one hundred Senecas and sixty Canadian rangers .

On July 13, 1782 Guyasuta and his group set out for

Hannastown, the county seat of Westmoreland County. The village consisted of thirty log cabins and at one end a stockade fort. Guyasuta’s Indians drove all the horses they found into the woods, killed one hundred cattle and plundered the deserted houses. From the houses the Indians poured rifle fire into the fort, which was defended by twenty men with seventeen rifles. The attack continued until nightfall, when the Indian warriors set fire to the houses, and danced in the light of the flames. Guyasuta’s Indians and their white allies moved on to attack nearby settlements:

Miller’s Station, the Freeman settlement on Loyalhanna

Creek, and the village at Brush Creek. After the war Guyasuta made amends with the American government and was influential in preserving a peace between the Iroquois and the United States. Occasionally, along with other chiefs, he met with Richard Butler (in his capacity as Superintendent Indian Affairs). Gayasuta was one of the negotiators at the Treaty of Fort Harmar in January 1789.7 By the 1790s Gayasuta had been mainly displaced as the principal liaison man among the western Iroquois Ohio and Indians by his nephew, Cornplanter.

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He called on General Anthony Wayne from time to time while Wayne’s army was stationed at Pittsburgh and later at the training camp, Legionville, twenty-two miles downstream from the city. The Legionville camp lasted from November 1792 to April 1793; subsequently the army initiated an invasion of the Ohio country. In September 1792 Guyasuta delivered a “talk,” unofficially from an Indian tribe but “his own Voluntary and private Opinion.” Wayne commented that “the principal Object of his Visit” was to obtain clothing for himself; Wayne saw to it issued by the state of Pennsylvania.8 A month later Guyasuta conveyed “viva voce” a “communication” from Cornplanter.9 In mid-March 1793 Guyasuta in the company of Cornplanter and Big Tree visited Wayne at Legionville. The American commander noted that they arrived just in time to dine with him, but there was no conversation other than “meerly the common placid gratulations of meeting.” Wayne sent them home “in good temper” and had the government pay the expenses of their journey.10 During this visit Guyasuta pointed to the Ohio River and said “My heart and Mind is fixed on that River and may that Water Continue to run and remain the boundary of everlasting Peace between the White & Red People on its opposite Shores.”11 Although in declining health and almost destitute, Guyasuta continued his travels among the Indian tribes. In his last years Guyasuta lived near Pittsburgh. James O’Hara, the army’s quartermaster general, bought a share of land owned by Guyasuta along the Allgeheny River, near Sharpsburg, and gave Guyasuta a home on the property. Tradition has it that he died and was buried here. He had six sons.12 In his almost seventy years Guyasuta had achieved distinction as a warrior and diplomat, and during the balance of his career had been a friend rather than foe to the new American nation. BIG TREE Big Tree, also known as Stiff-Knee, Great Tree, and Ok-an-do-go-wa (? 1794), was a courageous Seneca chief, who at his own peril sought to convince

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his fellow tribesmen to avoid allegiance to the British during the Revolutionary War. Big Tree only momentarily yielded to pressure and briefly allied with the British, although for the most part refrained from going on the warpath. During summer 1778, a time when Seneca warriors participated in the Wyoming massacre of white settlers, Big Tree had an extended stay with Washington’s army. On his return home at the Indian village of Conesus, Big Tree stopped off for a visit with the Oneida tribe, who sided with the Americans. According to Major Robert Cochran, who commanded at Fort Stanwix, Big Tree “gave our friends there the most solemn assurance, that upon arrival in his country, he would exert his utmost influence to dispose his tribe to peace and friendship with the United States; and that should his attempts prove unsuccessful, he would immediately leave his nation and join the Oneidas with his friends and adherents.”1

Unfortunately he arrived back in Seneca country as warriors

prepared for attacks on American settlements, culminating with the Cherry Valley massacre of November 11, 1778. Although relenting in his opposition to the war faction, he did not accompany war parties in their attacks. In the devastating raids of General John Sullivan’s army during late summer and fall 1779 into the western Iroquois country no account was taken of Big Tree’s past American loyalty, and his fine home made of cedar logs at Conesus, on the Genesee River in far western New York, was destroyed.2 After the war, in the 1780s Big Tree was active as a liaison between the Senecas and the northern Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Richard Butler. He also was a leader in the Indian protest against the state of New York in allowing land companies opening up settlement in western New York.3 Big Tree was a signatory of the Treaty of Fort Harmar, January 1789. With two other Seneca chiefs, Cornplanter and Half Town, Big Tree visited Philadelphia from December 1790 to February 1791 in trying to persuade the United States government to protect Indian lands from white intrusion. President Washington responded that no proof existed of the Indians being defrauded of their lands. He promised, however, that the United States would

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guarantee the Iroquois possession of their remaining lands, as provided by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1784.4 When visiting General Anthony Wayne’s army at Legionville, on the upper Ohio River, in March 1793, Big Tree let it be known his extreme sorrow over General Richard Butler having been killed by the Indians. He spoke to Wayne on a matter bearing heavily on his mind: I have lost a very dear friend—the friend of my Heart—General Richard Butler,—I loved him so much that when I heard of his Death I determined to eat a root that wou’d soon have made me follow & join him: But as I was in the Act of doing it—the Great Spirit told me I was wrong—it was not the part of a Warrior to kill himself— but to avenge the blood of his friend, by killing his Enemies!I then made a solemn Vow to the Great Spirit—that I wou’d sacrifice three of the Hostile Indians, to the Manes of my Friend;— I have but in part proformed that Vow, I have killed but One Delaware Indian—Nor can I have any peace or rest until I have killed two more .... I therefore request you to let me join your army that I may have an Oppportunity of fulfiling that vow—shou’d the Hostile Indians refuse to treat.5 Wayne did not accept Big Tree’s offer to serve in the American army. Big Tree was back at Wayne’s camp three weeks later, and told the American commander again that he wished to join the army and that he could bring forty “strong warriors” with him. Wayne took several days to ponder this offer. Meanwhile three Delaware warriors arrived under a flag of truce, asking for arrangements for a peace consultation. The very sight of the three Delaware emissaries gave Big Tree “visible uneasiness.” During one evening Big Tree darted out of his hut and ran upon the messengers with drawn sword, saying that “he wou’d now have revenge, that they were bad men & only came as Spies.” Troops came up and escorted Big Tree back to his hut. The next morning the Seneca chief was in a humble mood, and he addressed the messengers that they

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listen to the “Voice of this Great Chief”(Wayne) and to comply with his demand and deliver up all captives within thirty days “if they wish to live to see their Children grow up to be men & women.” Eventually Big Tree fell into a severe depression. When visiting the army again in January 1794 everything was done to make the ailing Seneca chief comfortable. He was given arms and clothing which included the “Complete Uniform” of an army captain. But “his Melancholly increased.” In the army’s camp, at 3 p.m. on January 23, 1794 Big Tree stabbed himself to death. Wayne commented that “in Capt Big Tree the United States have lost a true & faithful friend . . . he dreaded peace—& therefore embraced death.” Wayne sent presents and some provisions to Big Tree’s wife and daughter and a mourning suit and a rifle to each of his two brothers. Wayne tried to put a propaganda spin on Big Tree’s death by insinuating that the Delaware messengers in camp had given the Seneca chief a poison that had left him deranged. No specific motive has been attributed for Big Tree’s suicide, other than he probably felt dishonored that the western tribes had not heeded his urgings to accept the American terms of peace.6 CORNPLANTER Cornplanter (1738 ?-1836) was the third Seneca chief-diplomat with whom Richard Butler had close relations. Also known as Giantwahia and John O’Beel, Cornplanter was born at Conawaugus (present Avon, New York), son of John Abeel, a white Albany trader, and Gahhononeh, member of the Wolf’ clan of Seneca Indians. Like his uncle, Guyasuta, another diplomat-chief, Cornplanter tried to keep the Iroquois Indians from the warpath and pursue neutrality during the Revolutionary War. Cornplanter and his fellow Senecas underwent great pressure from both the British and the American rebels to abandon neutrality at the start of the Revolution. Cornplanter’s first involvement on the diplomatic front came with his attendance at a meeting of Iroquois Indians and American commissioners at Fort Pitt in fall 1775, followed by another council in 1776. Cornplanter and other

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chiefs protested the American drawing boundaries in Ohio without the consent of Indians of that area. Richard Butler and other commissioners declared that the Iroquois had always spoken for the western tribes.1

Cornplanter signed the

resulting treaty, conceding to the American demands. But peace was short-lived. From 1777-80 Cornplanter joined the Senecas on the war path. He was at the bloody siege of Fort Stanwix, particularly the battle of Oriskany, in August 1777, also among the Indians opposing the Sullivan invasion of the Iroquois country in 1779, and joined Loyalist militia and other Iroquois in raids in the Mohawk and Schoharie river valleys during 1780.2 After the Revolution, Cornplanter used his influence for peace. He had a principal role at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784, whereby the Iroquois ceded their remaining lands in Pennsylvania. At the Fort McIntosh treaty of 1785 he was instrumental in getting the Ohio Indians to endorse the Fort Stanwix provisions.3 Fearing impending war between the Senecas and white Pennsylvania settlers, in March 1786 Cornplanter and three other chiefs set out for New York City to confer with Congress. Richard Butler joined the Indian delegation at Carlisle on March 29, agreeing to act as interpreter.

The group stopped at

Philadelphia on the way. In the city Cornplanter received a thirteen gun salute, and was welcomed by the Sons of Saint Tammany. He addressed a crowd of two thousand.4 Continuing their journey to New York City, the coach overturned and the silver gorget that Cornplanter always wore cut into his forehead; as a result Cornplanter lost an eye and his face became disfigured. Cornplanter addressed Congress on May 2, 1786. He asked that the United States afford protection to the Senecas.

He also requested that Richard Butler be appointed Indian

commissioner and that Butler be authorized to hold a council with the Indians at Fort Pitt. Butler met with a Iroquois delegation in February 1787, at which time Cornplanter pressed for a general Indian-American council to settle unresolved issues from previous treaties pertaining to both Iroquois and western Indians. Subsequently the Treaty of Fort Harmar was concluded in January 1789, with

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Cornplanter having a key role; the treaty did not do much more than confirm previous Indian cessions.5

Cornplanter participated also in the treaties of

Canandaigua in 1794 and Big Tree in 1797.6 From late October 1790 to February 1791 Cornplanter visited Philadelphia where he met with President Washington and with the Pennsylvania council. He complained of deception in the purchase of Seneca lands. Pennsylvania conferred on him some 1500 acres along the Allegheny River on which was located his wife’s village. Here Cornplanter made his residence for the rest of his life.7 During General Anthony Wayne’s Indian campaign of 1793-95, Cornplanter was on the federal payroll for gathering intelligence pertaining to the hostile Indians and serving as an emissary.8 At the start of the War of 1812 Cornplanter offered to bring two hundred warriors to help form a regiment from western Pennsylvania for the defense of Erie, but this service was not accepted.9 Cornplanter visited Richard Butler’s widow in 1813. He returned to Mrs. Butler a Society of the Cincinnati pin that Richard Butler wore at the time of his death.

As a long time friend of Richard Butler, Cornplanter offered

condolences, saying that Butler’s body had not been desecrated and that his heart had not been eaten as had been reported; Cornplanter who had not been on the scene of St. Clair’s defeat in 1791 was most likely incorrect.10 For the next quarter century Cornplanter lived quietly at his home which was now included in the Allegheny Reservation. Operation of a sawmill provided his main source of income. The last part of his life Cornplanter repudiated Christianity, and having had divine visions, embraced Indian nativism. He tried to get Indians to give up liquor, engage in agriculture, and learn the English language. He gave up his position as Chief Warrior about 1820.11 Cornplanter died on February 18, 1836. The state of Pennsylvania placed a plaque at his grave in 1866, bearing the inscription: Chief of the Seneca tribe, and a principal chief of the Six Nations from the period of the Revolutionary War to the time of his death.

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Allegany Reservation in the 1960s Cornplanter’s monument and remains were moved to the Riverview-Corydon Cemetery.13

APPENDIX C ORDINANCE FOR THE REGULATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, 1786

Whereas the safety and tranquility of the frontiers of the United States do, in some measure, depend on maintaining a good correspondence between their citizens and the several nations of Indians, in amity with them: And whereas the United States in Congress assembled, under the ninth of the articles of confederation and perpetual union, have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the trade, and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any states; provided that the legislative right of any state within its own limits be not infringed or violated: Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That from and after the passing of this ordinance, the Indian department be divided into two districts, viz. The southern, which shall comprehend within its limits, all the nations in the territory of the United States, who reside southward of the river Ohio; and the northern, which shall comprehend all the other Indian nations within the said territory, and westward of Hudson river: provided, that all councils, treaties, communications and official transactions, between the superintendent hereafter mentioned for the northern district, and the Indian nations, be held, transacted, and done, at the outpost occupied by the troops of the United States, in the said district. That a superintendent be appointed for each of the said districts, who shall continue in office for two years, unless sooner removed by congress, and shall reside within, or as near the district for which he shall be so appointed, as may be convenient for the management of its concerns. The said superintendents shall attend to the execution of such regulations, as

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congress shall, from time to time, establish respecting Indian affairs. The superintendent for the northern district shall have authority to appoint two deputies, to reside in such places as shall best facilitate the regulations of the Indian trade, and to remove them for misbehaviour. There shall be a communications of all matters relative to the business of the Indian department, kept up between the said superintendents, who shall regularly correspond with the secretary at war, through whom all communications respecting the Indian department, shall be made to congress; and the superintendents are hereby directed to obey all instructions which they shall, from time to time, receive from the said secretary at war. And whenever they shall have reason to suspect any tribe or tribes of Indians of hostile intentions, they shall communicate the same to the executive of the state or states whose territories are subject to the effect of such hostilities. All stores, provisions or other property, which congress may think necessary for presents to the Indians, shall be in the custody and under the care of the said superintendents, who shall render an annual account of the expenditures of the same to the board of treasury. And be it further ordained, That none but citizens of the United States, shall be suffered to reside among the Indian nations, or be allowed to trade with any nation of Indians within the territory of the United States. That no person, citizen or other, under the penalty of five hundred dollars, shall reside among or trade with any Indian, or Indian nation, within the territory of the United States, without a license for that purpose first obtained from the superintendent of the district, or one of the deputies, who are hereby directed to give such license to every person who shall produce, from the supreme executive of any state, a certificate, under the seal of the state, that he is of good character and suitably qualified, and provided for that employment; for which license he shall pay the sum of fifty dollars to the said superintendent, for the use of the United States. That no license to trade with the Indians shall be in force for a longer term than one year, nor shall permits or passports be granted to any other persons than citizens of the United States, to travel through the Indian nations, without their

Appendix C: Ordinance for Regulation and Management of Indian Affairs 145 having previously made their business known to the superintendent of the district, and received his special approbation. That previous to any person or persons obtaining a license to trade as aforesaid, he or they shall give bond, in three thousand dollars, to the superintendent of the district, for the use of the United States, for his or their strict adherence to, and observance of such rules and regulations as congress may, from time to time, establish for the government of the Indian trade. All sums to be received by the said superintendents, either for licenses or fines, shall be annually accounted for by them, with the board of treasury. And be it further ordained, That the said superintendents, and the deputies, shall not be engaged either directly or indirectly, in trade with the Indians, on pain of forfeiting their offices… .

And the said superintendents, and deputy-

superintendents, shall each of them give bond with surety to the board of treasury, in trust for the United States; the superintendents, each, in the sum of six thousand dollars, and the deputy-superintendents, each, in the sum of three thousand dollars, for the faithful discharge of the duties of their office. And it is further ordained, That all fines and forfeitures, which may be incurred by contravening this ordinance, shall be sued for, and recovered before any court of record within the United States, the one moiety [share] thereof to the use of him or them who may prosecute therefor, and the other moiety to the use of the United States. And the said superintendents shall have power, and hereby are authorized, by force to restrain therefrom all persons who shall attempt an intercourse with the said Indians, without a license therefor obtained as aforesaid. And be it further ordained, That in all cases where transactions with any nation or tribe of Indians, shall become necessary to the purposes of this ordinance, which cannot be done without interfering with the legislative rights of a state, the superintendent in whose district the same shall happen, shall act in conjunction with the authority of such state. Done by the United States in congress assembled, this seventh day of August, A.D. one thousand seven hundred and eight-six, &c.

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Worthington C. Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, 1: 490-93.

APPENDIX D TREATY OF FORT STANWIX, 1784 Articles of a Treaty concluded at Fort Stanwix on the 22d day of October 1784 between Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee Commissioners plenepotentiary from the United States in Congress Assembled on the one part and the Sachems and Warriors of the Six Nations on the other part. The United States of America give peace to the Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas, & Cayugas, and receive them into their protection upon the following conditions. Article 1st. Six Hostages shall be immediately delivered to the Commissioners by the said nations, to remain in possession of the United States till all the prisoners, white & black, which were taken by the said Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas and Cayugas, or by any of them, in the late war, from among the people of the United States, shall be delivered up. Art. 2d. The Oneida and Tuscarora Nations shall be secured in the possession of the lands on which they are settled. Art. 3d. A line shall be drawn, beginning at the mouth of a creek about four miles east of Niagara called Oyonwayea or Johnsons landing place upon the Lake named by the Indians Oswego, and by us Ontario. From thence Southerly in a direction always four miles east of the Carrying path between Lake Erie and Ontario to the mouth of Tehoseroron or Buffaloe Creek on Lake Erie. Thence South to the north boundary of the State of Pennsylvania. Thence West to the end of the said north boundary. Thence South along the west boundary of the said State to the river Ohio. The said line from the mouth of Oyonwayea to the Ohio shall be the western boundary of the Lands of the Six Nations, so that the Six

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Nations shall and do yield to the United States all claims to the country west of the said boundary, and then they shall be secured in the peaceful possession of the lands they inhabit East and North of the same, reserving only Six miles square round the fort of Oswego to the United States for the support of the same. Art. 4th. The Commissioners of the United States in consideration of the present circumstances of the Six Nations, and in execution of the humane and liberal views of the United States, upon the signing of the above articles, will order goods to be delivered to the said Six nations for their use and comfort.

Robert A. Rutland and William M. E. Rachal, eds., The Papers of James Madison (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 8: 146-147

APPENDIX E TREATY OF FORT MCINTOSH, 1785 Articles of a treaty concluded at Fort M’Intosh, the twenty-first day of January, one thousand and eighty-five, between the Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, of the one Part, and the Sachems and Warriors of the Wiandot, Delaware, Chippawa and Ottawa Nations of the other. The Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States in Congress assembled, give peace to the Wiandot, Delaware, Chippewa, and Ottawa nations of Indians, on the following conditions: Article I. Three chiefs, one from among the Wiandot, and two from among the Delaware nations, shall be delivered up to the Commissioners of the United States, to be by them retained till all the prisoners, while and black, taken by the said nations, or any of them, shall lie restored. Article II. The said Indian nations do acknowledge themselves and all their tribes to be under the protection of the United States and of no other sovereign whatsoever. Article III. The boundary line between the United States and the Wiandot and

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Delaware nations, shall begin at the mouth of the river Cayahoga, and run thence up the said river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of Meskingum; then down the said branch to the forks at the crossing place above Fort Lawrence; then westerly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French in one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two; then along the said portage to the (Great Miami or Ome river, and down the south-east side of the same to its mouth: thence along the south shore of lake Erie, to the mouth of Cayahoga where it began. Article IV. The United States allot all the lands contained within the said lines to the Wiandot and Delaware nations, to live and to hunt on and to such of the Ottawa nation as now live thereon; saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts, six miles square at the mouth of Miami or Ome river, and the same at the portage on that branch of the Big Miami which runs into the Ohio, and the same on the lake of Sanduske where the fort formerly stood, and also two miles square on each side of the lower rapids of Sanduske river, which posts and the lands annexed to them, shall be to the use and under the government of the United States. Article V. If any citizen of the United States, or other person not being an Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of the lands allotted to the Wiandot and Delaware nations in this treaty, except on the lands reserved to the United States in the preceding article, such person shall forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Indians may punish him as they please. Article VI.

Appendix E: Treaty of Fort McIntosh, 1785

151

The Indians who sign this treaty, as well in behalf of all their tribes as of themselves, do acknowledge the lands east, south and west of the lines described in the third article, so far as the said Indians formerly claimed the same, to belong to the United States; and none of their tribes shall presume to settle upon the same, or any part of it. Article VII. The post of Detroit, with a district beginning at the mouth of the river Rosine, on the west end of lake Erie, and running west six miles up the southern bank of the said river, thence northerly and always six miles west of the strait, till it strikes the lake St. Clair, shall be also reserved to the sole use of the United States. Article VIII. In the same manner the post of Michillimachenac with its dependencies, and twelve miles square about the same, shall be reserved to the use of the United States. Article IX. If any Indian or Indians shall commit a robbery or murder on any citizen of the United States, the tribe to which such offenders may belong, shall be bound to deliver them up at the nearest post, to be punished according to the ordinances of the United States. Article X. The Commissioners of the United States, in pursuance of the humane and

When Fate Summons

152

liberal views of Congress, upon this treaty’s being signed, will direct goods to be distributed among the different tribes for their use and comfort. Separate Article. It is agreed that the Delaware chiefs, Kelelamand or lieutenant-colonel Henry, Hengue Pushees or the Big Cat, Wicocalind or Captain White Eyes, who took up the hatchet for the United States, and their families, shall be received into the Delaware nation, in the, same situation and rank as before the war, and enjoy their due portions of the lands given to the Wiandot and Delaware nations in this treaty, as fully as if they had not taken part with America, or as any other person or persons in the said nations. Go. Clark, [L. S.] Richard Butler, [L. S.] Arthur Lee, [L. S.] Daunghquat, his x mark, [L. S.] Abraham Kuhn, his x murk, [L. S.] Ottawerreri, his x mark, [L. S.] Hobocan, his x murk, [L. S.] Walendightun, his: x mark, [L. S.]

[L. S.]

Talapoxic, his x mark,

[L. S.]

Wingenum,

[L. S.]

Packelant, his x mark,

[L. S.]

Gingewanno, his x mark,

[L. S.]

Waanoos, his mark,

[L. S.]

Konaluwassee, his x mark,

[L. S.]

Shawnaqum, his x mark,

[L. S.]

Quecookkiu, his x mark,

his

x

mark,

Witness: Sam’l J. Atlee, Fras. Johnston, Pennsylvania Commissioners. Alex. Campbell, Jos. Harmar, lieutenant-colonel commandant. Alex. Lowrey,

I. Bradford, George Slaughter, Van Swearingen, John Boggs, G. Evans, D. Luckett,

Appendix E: Treaty of Fort McIntosh, 1785

153

Joseph Nicholas, interpreter. Kappler, Charles J., ed., Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1904) 2: 6-8.

APPENDIX F TREATY OF FORT FINNEY, 1786 Articles of a treaty concluded at the mouth of the great Miami, or the Northwestern bank of the Ohio, the thirty-first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, between the Commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States of America, of the one part, and the Chiefs and Warriors of the Shawanoe Nation of the other part. Article 1. Three hostages shall be immediately delivered to the Commissioners, to remain in the possession of the United States, until all the prisoners, white and black, taken in the late war from among the citizens of the United States, by the Shawanoe nation, or by any other Indian or Indians residing in their towns, shall be restored. Article 2. The Shawanoe nation, do acknowledge the United States to be the sole and absolute sovereigns of all the territory ceded to them by a treaty of peace, made between them and the King of Great Britain, the fourteenth day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four. Article 3. If any Indian or Indians of the Shawanoe nation, or any other Indian or Indians residing in their towns, shall commit murder or robbery on, or do any injury to the Citizens of the United States, or any of them, that nation shall deliver such offender, or offenders, to the Officer commanding the nearest post of the United States, to be punished according to the Ordinances of Congress: And in like manner any citizen of the United States who shall do an Injury to any Indian of the Shawanoe nation, or to any other Indian or Indians residing in their towns,

156

When Fate Summons

and under their protection, shall be punished according to the laws of the United States. Article 4. The Shawanoe nation having knowledge of the intention of any nation or body of Indians to make war on the citizens of the United States, or of their counselling together for that purpose, and neglecting to give information thereof to the commanding officer of the nearest post of the United States, shall be considered as parties in such war, and be punished accordingly and the United States shall in like manner inform the Shawanoes of any injury designed against them. Article 5. The United States do grant peace to the Shawanoe nation, and do receive them into their friendship and protection. Article 6. The United States do allot to the Shawanoe nation, lands within their territory to live and hunt upon, beginning at the South line of the lands allotted to the Wiandots and Delaware nations, at the place where the main branch of the great Miami which falls into the Ohio intersects said line; then down the river Miami, to the fork of that river, next below the old fort, which was taken by the French in 1752; thence due west to the river de la Panse; then down that river, to the river Wabash, beyond which lines, none of the citizens of the United States shall settle, nor disturb the Shawanoes in their settlements and possessions; and the Shawanoes do relinquish to the United States, all title, or pretence of title they ever had to the lands east, west and south, of the east, west and south lines before described. Article 7. If any Citizen or Citizens of the United States, shall presume to settle upon the lands allotted to the Shawanoes by this treaty, he or they shall be put out of the protection of the United States.1 In testimony whereof, the parties hereunto have affixed their hands and seals, the

Appendix G: Treaty of Fort Harmar

157

day and year first above mentioned. (Signed:) G. R. Clarke, Richard Butler, Samuel H. Parsons, Aweecony, Kakawipilathy, Malunthy, Musquauconocah, Meanymsecah, Waupaucowela, Nihipeewa, Niki-nessicoe. Attest: Alexander Campbell, secretary to Commissioners. Witnesses: William Finney, Major B. B. Thomas Doyle, Captain, B. B. Nathan M’Dowell, ensign, John Saffenger, Henry Govy, Kagy Galloway, his X mark, John Baggs, and others. Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 30: 185-187

APPENDIX G TREATY OF FORT HARMAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE WYANDOT AND OTHER WESTERN TRIBES [January 9, 1789) Articles of a Treaty made at Fort Harmar, between Arthur St. Clair, Governor of The Territory of the United States, North West of the River Ohio and Commissioner, Plenipotentiary of the United States of America; for removing all causes of controversy; regulating Trade, and settling boundaries, with the Indian Nations, in the Northern Department; of the One part. And the Sachems & Warriors, of the Wyandot, Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa, Pattawatima and Sac Nations, on the other part. Article, 1st. Whereas, The United States in Congress assembled, did by their Commissioners, George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee Esquires, duly appointed for that purpose; at a Treaty holden with the Wyandot, Delaware, Ottawa & Chippewa Nations at Fort McIntosh on the Twenty first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty five; conclude a peace with the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas & Chippew[as], and take them into their friendship and protection. And whereas, at the said Treaty it was stipulated that all prisoners that had been made by those Nations, or either of them, should be delivered up to the United States. And Whereas, the said Nations have now agreed to and with the aforesaid Arthur St. Clair, to renew and confirm all the engagements they had made with the United States of America, at the beforementioned Treaty, except so far as are altered by these presents. And there are now in the possession of some individuals of these Nations, certain prisoners; who have been taken by others, not in peace with the said United States, or in Violation of the Treaties subsisting between the United States and them. The said Nations agree to deliver up all the prisoners now in their hands (by what means

160

When Fate Summons

soever they may have come into their possession) to the said Governor St. Clair at Fort Harmar, or, in his absence to the Officer commanding there; as soon as conveniently may be, and for the true performance of this agreement they do now agree to deliver into his hands, Two persons of the Wyandot Nation to be retained in the hands of the United States, as hostages, until the said prisoners are restored; after which they shall be sent back to their Nation. Article 2nd. And Whereas, at the beforementioned Treaty, it was agreed between the United States and said Natio[ns] That a boundary line should be fixed, between the Lands of those Nations, and the Territory of the United States, which boundary is as follows—Viz, Beginning at the mouth of Cayahoga River, and running thence up the said river to the portage between that, and the Tuscarawa Branch of Muskingum, then down the said Branch to the forks at the crossing place above Fort Lawrence; thence westerly to the portage on that Branch of the Big Miami river which Runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the Fort Stood, which was taken by the French in the year of our Lord, One thousand seven hundred and Fifty Two; then along the said portage to the Great Miami or Omie River, and down the South East side of the Same to its mouth, thence along the Southern Shore of Lake Erie, to the mouth of Cayahaga, where it began, and the said Wyandot, Delaware, Ottawa & Chippewa Nations for, and in Consideration of the peace then granted to them by the said United States, and the presents, they then Received; as well, as of a quantity of goods to the Value of Six Thousand dollars, now delivered to them by the Said Arthur St. Clair; the receipt whereof they do hereby acknowledge, do by these Presents, renew and Confirm the said boundary Line; to the end that the Same may remain as a division Line, between the Lands of the United States of America, and the Lands of Said Nations for ever, and the Undersigned Indians do hereby in their own Names, and the names of their Respective Nations and tribes, their heirs and descendants; for the consideration abovementioned, Release, Quit-Claim, Relinquish and Cede to the said United States, all the Land, East, South and West, of the Lines above described, so far as the said Indians formerly claimed the

Appendix G: Treaty of Fort Harmar

161

Same; for them the said United States, to have and to hold the same in True and absolute propriety for ever. Article 3rd. The United States of America do by these Presents, relinquish and quit claim to the said Nations, respectively, all the Lands lying between the Limits above described for them the said Indians to live and hunt upon, and otherwise to occupy as they Shall see fit, But the said Nations or either of them Shall not be at Liberty to sell or dispose of the same, or any part thereof to any Sovereign power, except the United States nor to the Subjects or Citizens of any other Sovereign power, nor to the Subjects or Citizens of the United States. Article 4th. It is agreed between the said United States and the said Nations; that the individuals of said Nations Shall be at Liberty to hunt within the Territory ceded to the United States, without hindrance or molestation so long as they demean themselves peaceably, and offer no Injury or annoyance to any of the Subjects or Citizens of the said United States. Article 5th. It is agreed That if any Indian or Indians of the Nations beforementioned shall commit a Murder, or Robbery, on any of the Citizens of the United States: The nation or tribe to which the Offender belong[s], On complaint being made, shall deliver up the person or persons complained of, at the nearest post of the United States; to the end that he or they may be tried: and if found guilty punished according to the Laws established in the Territory of the United States, North west of the River Ohio, for the punishment of Such offences, if the Same Shall have been committed within the said Territory, or according to the Laws of the State where the offence may have been committed, if the Same has happened in any of the United States. In like manner if any Subject or Citizen of the United States Shall commit murder or Robbery on any Indian or Indians of the Said Nations; upon complaint being made thereof, he or they shall be arrested, tried, and punished, agreeable to the Laws of the State, or of the Territory, wherein the offence was committed That nothing may interrupt the peace & harmony, now established between the United States and said Nations. Article 6th. And whereas, The practice of Stealing horses has prevailed

162

When Fate Summons

very much, to the great disquiet of the Citizens of the United States, and if persisted in cannot fail to involve, both the United States of America and the Indians in endless animosity, it is agreed that it Shall be put an entire Stop to on both sides, Nevertheless should some individuals in defiance of this agreement, and of the laws provided against such offences continue to make depredations of that nature; the person convicted thereof shall be punished with the utmost severity the Laws of the Respective States, or Territory of the United States, North West of the Ohio, where the offence may have been committed, will admit of. And all horses so Stolen, either by the Indians from the Citizens or Subjects of the United States; or by the citizens or Subjects of the United States from any of the Indian Nations; may be reclaimed, into whose possession soever they may have passed and upon due proof Shall be Restored; any Sales in Market Ouvert; notwithstanding. And the Civil Magistrates in the United States Respectively, and in the Territory of the United States, Northwest of the Ohio, Shall give all necessary aid & protection to Indians claiming Such Stolen horses. Article 7th. Trade, shall be opened with the Said Nations, and they do hereby Respectively engage to afford protection to the persons & property of such as may be duly licensed to Reside among them for the purposes of Trade, and to their Agents, Factors & Servants. But no person shall be permitted to Reside at their towns or at their hunting camps as a Trader, who is not furnished with a Licence for that purpose, under the hand and Seal of the Governor of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio for the time being or under the hand and Seal of one of his deputies for the management of Indian affairs, to the end that they may not be imposed upon in their traffick, and if any person or persons shall intrude themselves without such Licence they promise to apprehend him or them, and to bring them to the said Governor, or one of his deputies for the purpose before-mentioned to be dealt with according to Law, and that they may be defended against persons who might attempt to Forge such licences; they further engage to give Information to the said Governor, or one of his deputies of the Names of all Traders, residing among them from time to time; and at least

Appendix G: Treaty of Fort Harmar

163

once in every Year. Article 8th. Should any Nation of Indians meditate a war against the United States, or either of them and the same shall come to the Knowledge of the before mentioned Nations or either of them, they do hereby engage to give immediate notice thereof to the Governor, or in his absence to the officer commanding the Troops of the United States at the Nearest Post. And should any Nation with hostile intentions against the United States or either of them, attempt to pass thro’ their Country, they will endeavour to prevent the same, and in like manner give information of such attempt to the said Governor, or commanding Officer as soon as possible, that all causes of mistrust and Suspicion, may be avoided between them and the United States. In like Manner the United States shall give notice to the said Indian Nations of any harm that may be meditated against them, or either of them, that shall come to their Knowledge, and do all in their power to hinder and prevent the same, that the Friendship between them may be uninterrupted. Article 9th. If any person or persons, citizens, or Subjects of the United States, or any other person not being an Indian, shall presume to settle upon the Lands confirmed to the said Nations, he and they shall be out of the protection of the United States, and the said nations may punish him or them, in such manner as they see fit. Article 10th. The United States renew the Reservations heretofore made in the beforementioned Treaty at Fort M’Intosh for the establishment of Trading posts in manner and form following; that is to Say, Six Miles square at the mouth of the Miami or Omie River, Six miles square at the portage upon that Branch of the Miami which runs into the Ohio. Six miles square upon the Lake Sandusky where the Fort, formerly stood and Two miles Square upon each side the Lower Rapids or Sandusky river, which posts and the Lands annexed to them shall be for the use and under the Government of the United States. Article 11th. The post at Detroit, with a district of Land, beginning at the mouth of the River Rosine at the West end of Lake Erie, and running up the

When Fate Summons

164

Southern Bank of said river six miles; thence Northerly and always Six Miles West of the Strait, until it Striks the Lake St. Clair, shall be reserved for the use of the United States Article 12th.

In like manner, the post at Michilimackinac, with its

dependecies and Twelve miles Square about the same shall be Reserved to the sole use of the United States. Article 13th. The United States of America Do hereby Renew and confirm the peace & Friendship entered into with the said Nations, at the Treaty beforementioned held at Fort McIntosh, and the said Nations again acknowledge themselves, and all their Tribes to be under the protection of the Said United States, and no other power whatever. Article 14th. The United States of America, Do also receive into their Friendship and protection the Nations of the Pattiwatimas, and Sacs, and do hereby establish a League of Peace and Amity between them respectively and all the Articles of this treaty so far as they apply to these Nations, are to be considered as made and concluded in all, and every part expressly with them and each of them. Article 15th. And Whereas, in describing the boundary beforementioned, the words if strictly, constructed would carry it from the portage on that Branch of the Miami which runs into the Ohio, over to the River Au Glaize which was neither the Intention of the Indians, nor of the Commissioners. It is hereby declared, that the Line shall Run from the said Portage directly to the first fork of the Miami River which is to the Southward & Eastward of the Miami Village, Thence down the Main Branch of the Miami River to the said Village, and thence down that River to Lake Erie and along the Margin of the Lake to the place of Beginning. Done at Fort Harmar- on the Muskingum this ninth day of January in the Year of our Lord one thousand Seven hundred & Eighty nine. In witness whereof the parties have hereunto interchangeably Set their hands & Seals.

Appendix G: Treaty of Fort Harmar

Ar St Clair [L.S.]

Peoutewatamie

Jos. HARMAR st

Lt. Col. Com 1 US Reg

[L.S.]

Konatikina

In presence of.

&

165

x

[L.S.]

Pekelan x [L.S.] Teataway x [L.S.]

Tepakee x. [L.S.] Kesheywa

Delawares x

Nanamakeak

x

Brig Gen by

[L.S.]

[L.S.]

Brevet

Mesass x [L.S.]

Wetenasa x [L.S.]

Paushquash

Soskene x [L.S.]

x[L.S.]

Pewanakum

Richard Butler 77 Jn Gibson Will

78

McCurdy79

Capt

Pawasicko

x

[L.S.]

E. Denny 80 Ens

1st

Chipeways

U.S.

Wewiskia

x.

[L.S.]

A Hartshorn Ensn Robt Thompson 1st

[L.S.]

Chipeways

Regt

Ens

x

[L.S.]

Ottawas

Cheyawe x [L.S.]

Neagey x [L.S.]

Doueyenteat

U.S.

Regt

Teyandat’on’tic x

x[L.S.] Windigo x [L.S.]

Tarhe x [L.S.]

Frans Luse Ens

Wapaskea x[L.S.]

Terhataw x[L.S.]

I. Williams Jun

Nequea x [L.S.]

Datasay x [L.S.]

Wm. Wilson

Maudoronk

Josep Nicholas

Captain

James Rinkin

[L.S.]

Pipe

Wingenond

x

x[L.S.] Skahomat x [L.S.]

x

[Signatures to Treaty of Fort Harmar signed January 9, 1789, between the United States and the Wyandot and other Western Tribes]

When Fate Summons

166

Be it remembered, That the Wyandots have laid claim to the Lands that ware granted to the shawanese, at the treaty held at the Miami and have declared that as the Shawanese have been so Restless and caused so much trouble, both to them and to the United States, if they will not now be at peace they will dispossess them, and take the country into their own hands, for that the Country is theirs of Right, and the Shawanese are only living upon it by their permission, they further lay claim to all the Country West of the Miami boundary from the Village to the Lake Erie and declare that it is now under their management and direction. SEPARATE ARTICLE. Whereas. The Wyandots have Represented that within the reservation from the River Rosine, along the Strait they have two Villages from which they cannot with any convenience remove; it is agreed that they shall remain in possession of the same and shall not be in any manner disturbed therein. [Endorsed] Treaty with the Wyandots &c. concluded at Fort Harmar January 9th 1789—ratified 29 Sept 1789. The following are the Names of the Hostages left at Fort Harmar agreeably to the first Article— Chewaye Oatasy Wyandots Tehamendaye Tayanoquay Homehoneatoo Chipewa Aquaywesias Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1934), 2: 174-181. Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1934), 2: 174-181.

APPENDIX G (2) TREATY OF FORT HARMAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE SIX NATIONS [January 9, 1789] Articles of a Treaty made at Fort Harmar the ninth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine between Arthur St. Clair Esquire Governor of the Territory of the united States of America north west of the River Ohio, and Commissioner plenipotentiary of the said united States for removing all Causes of Controversy, regulating Trade and settling Boundaries between the Indian Nations in the northern Department and the said united Stales of the One Part, and the Sachems and Warriors of the six Nations of the other Part. viz. Article first

Whereas the united States in Congress assembled did by their

Commissioners Oliver Woolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee Esquires duly appointed for that purpose, at a Treaty held with the said six Nations viz with the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas Tuscororas Cayugas and Senecas, at Fort Stanwix on the twenty second day of October, one thousand seven hundred and eighty four, give Peace to the said Nations, and receive them into their friendship and Protection. And whereas the said Nations have now agreed to and with the said Arthur St. Clair to renew and confirm all the Engagements and Stipulations entered into at the before mentioned Treaty at Fort Stanwix: And whereas it was then and there agreed between the united States of America and the said six Nations that a Boundary Line should be fixed between the Lands of the said six Nations and the Territory of the said United States, which Boundary Line is as follows viz. Beginning at the mouth of a Creek about four Miles east of Niagara

168

When Fate Summons

called Ononwayea or Johnsons landing place upon the Lake named by the Indians Oswego, and by Us Ontario, from thence southerly in a direction always four Miles east of the carrying Place between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario to the mouth of Tehoseroton or Buflaloe Creek upon Lake Erie; thence south to the northern Boundary of the State of Pennsylvania; thence west to the end of the said north Boundary; thence south along the west Boundary of the said States to the River Ohio. The said Line from the Mouth of Ononwayea to the Ohio shall be the western Boundary of the Lands of the six Nations, so that the six Nations shall and do yield to the united States all Claim to the Country west of the said Boundary, and then they shall be secured in the possession of the Lands they inhabit east north and south of the same, reserving only six Miles square round the Fort of Oswego for the support of the same.” The said six Nations except the Mohawks none of whom have attended at this time for and in consideration of the Peace then granted to them, the Presents they then received, as well as in consideration of a Quantity of Goods to the value of three thousand Dollars now delivered to them by the said Arthur St. Clair the receipt whereof they do hereby acknowledge, do hereby renew and confirm the said Boundary Line in the words before mentioned to the end that it may be and remain as a Division Line between the Lands of the said six Nations and the Territory of the united States forever. And the under signed Indians as well in their own Names as in the Name of their respective Tribes and Nations their Heirs and Descendants, for the Considerations before mentioned do release, quit Claim, relinquish and Cede to the united States of America all the Lands west of the said Boundary or division Line and between the said Line and the Strait from the mouth of Ononawayea and Buffaloe Creek, for them the said united States of America to Have and to Hold the same in true and absolute Propriety for ever. Article second: The United States of America confirm to the six Nations all the Lands which they inhabit lying East and North of the before mentioned Boundary Line, and relinquish and quit Claim to the same and every part thereof

Appendix G: Treaty of Fort Harmar

169

excepting only six Miles square round the Fort of Oswego, which six Miles square round said Fort is again reserved to the United States by these presents. Article third The Oneida and Tuscorara Nations are also again secured and confirmed in the possession of their respective Lands. Article fourth The united States of America renew and confirm the Peace and Friendship entered into with the six Nations (except the Mohawks) at the Treaty before mentioned held at Fort Stanwix declaring the same to be perpetual—And if the Mohawks shall within six Months declare their Assent to the same they shall be considered as included. Done at Fort Harmar on the Muskinghum the day and Year first above written In Witness whereof the Parties have hereunto interchangeably set their Hands and Seals. Ar St.Clair [L.S..} In presence of. Jos. Harmar Lt. Col. Com 1st U.S. Regt & Brig General by Brevet Richard Butler Jn Gibson Will McCurdy Capt Ed Denny Ens 1st U.S. Regt A Hartshorn Ensn Robt Thompson En 1 U.S. Regt Fran Luse En Josep Nicholas

When Fate Summons

170 Cageaga Or dogs round the fire. Sawedowa Or The Blast. Kiondushowa or Swiming Fish. Oncahye or Dancing Feather. Sohaeas or Falling Mountain. Otachsaka X or Broken Tomahawk Tekahus X or Long Tree. Onechsetee X or Loaded man KlAHTULAHO or Snake. Aqueia or Bandy Legs Kiandogewa X or Big Tree “Owenewa X or Thrown in the water.

[L.S.]

Gyantwaia. X or Cornplanter. [L.S.] Gyasota X or Big Cross. [L.S.] Kanassee or New Arrow. [L. S.J Achiout or Half Town. [L. Sj Anachout X or The Wasp [L. 8.1 Chishekoa X or Wood Bug. [L.S.] Sessewa or Big bale of a Kettle [L.S.] Sciahowa or Council Keeper. [L.S.] Tewanias or Broken Twig [L.S.] Sonachshowa or Full Moon. [L.S.] Cachunwasse or Twenty canoes. [L. Hickonquash or Tearing asunder.

[L.S.] [L.S.] [L.S.] [L.S.] [L.S.] [L. S.] [L.S.] [L.S.J

[L. S.]

[L: [L.S.] [L. Sj

[Endorsed] Treaty of Fort Harmar 9th Jan 1789 with 6 nations rec’d from War office 9 May 1797

Appendix G: Treaty of Fort Harmar

171

[Signatures to Treaty of Fort Harmar signed January 9, 1789, between the United States and the Six Nations] Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1934), 2: 182-185.

ABBREVIATIONS ANB

Garraty and Carnes, eds., American National Biography

ARE

Blanco, ed., The American Revolution; An Encyclopedia

AWP

Abbott et al. eds., Papers of George Washington

BFA

Butler, Butler Family in America

CWNA

Gallay, ed., Colonial Wars of North America

EAR

Selesky, ed., Encyclopedia of the American Revolution

EARW

Fremont-Barnes and Ryerson, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War

FWW

Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of George Washington

HD-USA

Brown, Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army

JCC

Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress

JP

Boyd, ed., Papers of Thomas Jefferson

LD

Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress

LP

Idzerda, ed., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, Selected letters and

Papers, 1776-1790

LV

Library of Virginia

MP

Hutchinson et al, eds., Papers of James Madison

MPHSC

Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Collections

NG

Showman et al, eds., Papers of Nathanael Greene

NASP-IA

The New American State Papers: Indian Affairs

NYHS

New-York Historical Society

PA

Hazard, ed., Pennsylvania Archives

PCC

Papers of the Continental Congress

PCR

Pennsylvania Colonial Records

174

When Fate Summons

PG

Pennsylvania Gazette

PMHB

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

SCP

Smith, ed., St. Clair Papers

VHS

Virginia Historical Society

VMHB

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

WL

Prince et al, eds., Papers of William Livingston

NOTES CHAPTER 1 1.

BFA, 9, 13-18.

2.

Daniel I Rupp, comp., The History and Topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry Counties (Lancaster City, Pa.: Gilbert Mills, 1846), 422; Ella Chalfant,

A

Goodly Heritage:

Earliest Wills on an American Frontier (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1955). 70; John B. Linn, “The Butler Family of the Pennsylvania Line,” PMHB, 7 (1883): 2 3.

Eamonn O’Ciardha, Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, 1685-1766 (Dublin, Ire.: Four Courts Press, 2002), 271; Lawrence J. McCaffrey, Ireland from Colony to Nation State (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1979), 8; BFA, 112, 115.

4.

Francis G, James, Ireland in the Empire, 1688-1770 (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1973), 184, 302-303.

5.

Q. in Stephen M. Pozar, Richard Butler: Patriot (Butler, Pa.: Butler County Historical Society, 2001), 11.

6.

BFA, 112; Henry J. Kaufmann, The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle (New York: Bonanza Books, 1960), 66, 160-65, 197; Richard P. Rosenberger and Charles Kaufmann, The Longrifles of Western Pennsylvania: Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993), 4-5. Thomas Butler, Sr.’s gunshop is still preserved in Carlisle near the corner of Dickinson Avenue and Pitt Street (Edward G. Williams, ed. Bouquet’s March to the Ohio: The Forbes Road . . . Orderly Book . . . , 1764 [Pittsburgh: Historical Society of Western

When Fate Summons

176

Pennsylvania, 1975], 52n.) 7.

JCC, Jan. 22, 1777, 7: 55; August 22, 1777, 8: 664; April 18, 1778, 10: 366; and April 23, 1778, 10: 381.

8.

Henry Bouquet to John Harris, July 19, 1764, Louis M. Waddell, ed., The Papers of Henry Bouquet, vol. 6 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1994), 594; Paul K. Adams “Colonel Henry Bouquet’s Ohio Expedition in 1764,” Pennsylvania History, 40 (1973): 142-46; Williams, ed. Bouquet’s March to the Ohio, July 23, 1764, 43; Williams, ed., “Journal of Richard Butler, 1775.” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, 46 (1963): 382.

9.

PCR, Oct. 13 and 20, 1764, 9: 212, 216-20; PG, Extract of a letter from Fort Pitt (Oct. 3), Oct. 25, 1764; Thomas Gage to Lord Halifax, Dec. 13, 1764, Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Correspondence of General Thomas Gage with the Secretaries of State,1763-1775 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1931), 1: 45; Williams, ed., March to the Ohio. 37, 56n., 100, 112, 115, 137; C. Hale Sipe, The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: Telegraph Press, 1929), 447.

10.

PCR, Oct. 13-22 and Nov. 15, 9: 220-23; Sipe, Indian Wars of Pa, 480-82.

11.

Henry Bouquet to John Harris, July 19, 1764, Waddell, ed., Bouquet Papers, 594; Kaufmann, Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle, 197; Katlin Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA Thesis, Slippery Rock University, 2008, 4 -5

12.

Pittsburgh Gazette, July 7-15 and Aug. 5, 1825, Newspaper Extracts, Draper Cool., 4JJ 33-34.

13.

Michael Gratz to Barnard Gratz, Sept. 27, 1772, William V. Byars, ed., B. and M. Gratz: Merchants in Philadelphia (Jefferson City, Mo: Hugh Stevens Printers, 1916), 126; FAP, 112, 115; Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Opening New Markets: The British Army and the Old Northwest (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002), 83-94, 91-93; John Sugden, Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008), 12-19; Edgar W.

Notes

177

Hassler, Old Westmoreland: A History of Western Pennsylvania during the Revolution (Cleveland: Arthur Clark Company, 1900), 190; “The Journal of the Reverend David Jones, 1772-1773,” in Emily Foster, ed., The Ohio Frontier: An Anthology of Early Writings (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), Feb. 1773, 72-73. 14.

Quote in Foster, ed., Ohio Frontier, Jan. 1773. 32.

15.

Sugden, Blue Jacket. 13-14

16.

John A. Adams, “The Indian Trade of the Upper Ohio Valley,” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, 17 (1930): 166-67.

17.

Arthur St. Clair to Gov. Penn, Aug. 25, 1774, SCP, 1: 341; Patrick Griffin, American Leviathan: Empire, Nation, and Revolutionary Frontier (New York: Hill and Wang, 2007), 104; Larry Nelson, A Man of Distinction among Them: Alexander McKee and the Ohio Company from 1754-1799 (Kent: Kent State University Press, 1999), 74-75.

18.

St. Clair to Penn, Aug. 25, 1774, SCP, .1: 343; Aeneas Mackay to Arthur St. Clair, Sept. 4, 1774, SCP, 1: 344; Deposition of George Aston, Aug. 24, 1774, Samuel Hazard, comp., Pennsylvania Archives, 1st ser., vol. 4 (Philadelphia: Joseph Severns, 1853), 573; Nicholas B. Wainwright, ed., “Turmoil at Pittsburgh: Diary of Augustine Prevost, 1774,” PMHB. 85 (1961): 133.

19.

Waingwright, ed., “Turmoil,” 137.

20.

St. Clair to Gov. Penn, Aug. 27, 1774, SCP, 1: 343.

21

Devereaux Smith to Gov. Penn, June 12, 1774, Peter Force, ed. American Archives, 4th ser., vol. 1 ( Washington, D.C.: 1837), 467-6 8; Nelson, Man of Distinction. 77.

22

Walter S. Dunn, Jr., Choosing Sides on the Frontier in the American Revolution (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2007), 126-28; John E. Potter, “The Pennsylvania and Virginia Boundary Controversy,” PMHB, 38 (1914): 417-25.

23

“Account of the Rise of the Indian War, 1774,” Hazard, Pennsylvania

When Fate Summons

178

Archives, 1st ser., 4: 568-70; Allan Eckert, The Frontiersman: A Narrative (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967), 80-81; Randolph C. Downes, Council Fires on the Upper Ohio Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1940), 152-54. 24

Alf J. Mapp, The Virginia Experiment (Lanham, N.Y.: Hamilton Press, 1985), 335-86; Ray A. Billington and Martin Ridge, Westward Expansion (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1982), 173-75; Harry M, Ward, Major General Adam Stephen and the Cause of American Liberty (Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 1989), 110.

CHAPTER 2 1.

JCC, July 12-13, 1775. 2: 175-76 and 183; Dunn, Choosing Sides, 141; Don R. Gerlach, Proud Patriot: Philip Schuyler and the War of Independence, 1775-1783 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987), 50.

2.

Max Savelle, George Morgan: Colony Builder (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), 133; Edward G. Williams, Fort Pitt and the Revolution on the Western Frontier (Pittsburgh: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1978), 53.

3.

Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA Thesis, 15-l6.

4.

Edward G. Williams, ed., “The Journal of Richard Butler, 1775,” WPHM, 46 (1963): 381-95 and 47 (1964): 31-46 and 141-56; Williams, Fort Pitt and Revolution, 52-58.

5.

Williams ed., “Journal of Butler,” WPHM, 47 (1964): 143; Thomas S. Abler, Cornplanter: Chief Warrior of the Allegheny Senecas (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2007), 30.

6.

Williams, Fort Pitt and Revolution, 58-59.

7.

Leland D. Baldwin, Pittsburgh: The Story of a City, 1750-1865. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970, orig. pub. 1937), 92.

8.

Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental

Notes

179

Army during the War of the Revolution (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1973, orig. pub. 1914), 137. 9.

Richard Butler to Colonel James Wilson, April 8, 1776, in Neville B. Craig, ed., The Olden Time, vol. 2 (Lewisburg, PA: Wennawoods Publishing, 2003, orig. pub. 1846) 97-104.

10.

Dunn, Choosing Sides, 153; Reginald Horsman, Matthew Elliott: British Indian Agent (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1964), 10-11.

11.

Dunn, Choosing Sides, 155-56.

12.

George Morgan to Lewis Morris, May 16, 1776, PCC, r180, 163, 237-39.

13.

James Wilson to John Montgomery and Joseph Yeats, July 20, 1776, LD, 4: 504.

14.

Sugden, Blue Jacket, 50-5.

15.

JCC, May 16, 1776, 4: 359; Heitman, Register, 137; Dunn, Choosing Sides, 158-59, 162.

16.

John B. B. Trussell, Jr., The Pennsylvania Line: Regimental Organization and Operations, 1776-1733 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1977), 103; Lois Mulkearn and Edwin Pugh V., A Traveler’s Guide to Historic Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1954), 100-101.

17.

Gen. Stirling to Washington, Feb. 26, 1777, AWP, 8:449; Hassler, Old Westmoreland, 25-26, 64.

18.

Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 103; Hassler, Old Westmoreland, 65.

19.

Greene to John Adams, April 13, 1777, NG, 2: 55-56; “Bound Brook,” in EAR, 1: 97-98; “Bound Brook, Action at,” EARW, 1: 121-28.

CHAPTER 3 1.

James K. Martin, ed., Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin (New York: St. James, Brandywine Press, 1993, orig. pub. 1830), 82 and n.; Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 103.

2.

Don Higginbotham, Daniel Morgan: Revolutionary Rifleman (Chapel

When Fate Summons

180

Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961), 25; Richard B. LaCrosse, Jr., Revolutionary Rangers: Daniel Morgan’s Riflemen and Their Role on the Northern Frontier. 1778-1783 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2002), 56, 10. 3.

Michael J. O’Brien, “Morgan’s Riflemen and the Battle of Saratoga,” The Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, 26 (1927): 155; Rupert Furneaux, The Battle of Saratoga (New York: Stein and Day, 1971), 14849; George C. Newman, The History of Weapons in the American Revolution (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), 135, 140-46.

4.

LaCrosse, Revolutionary Rangers, 7.

5.

Quote in Michael J. O’Brien, Timothy Murphy: Hero of the American Revolution (New York: Eire Publishing Co., 1941), 19.

6.

O’Brien, “Morgan’s Riflemen at Saratoga,” 157.

7.

Samuel Hay to William Irvine, June 19, 1977, William Irvine Correspondence, Draper Coll., 1AA, 5.

8.

Washington to Morgan, Aug. 16, 1777, quoted in O’Brien, “Morgan’s Riflemen at Saratoga, 156.

9.

Washington to Gov. Clinton, Aug. 16, 1777, quoted in ibid., 156.

10.

Pittsburgh Gazette, Aug. 5 and 12---, Newspaper Extracts, Draper Coll., 4JJ, 34.

11.

Furneaux, Battle of Saratoga, 148-49.

12.

General Orders, Sept. 6, 1777, Gates Papers, NYHS; Max M. Mintz, The Generals of Saratoga (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 183-84, 190.

13.

Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 28-30; Mintz, Generals of Saratoga, 191-92; Cecere, Posey, 44.

14.

James P. Baxter, ed., The British Invasion from the North: Journal of Lt. William Bixby (New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), 273.

15.

Washington to Gates, Sept. 24, 1777, Gates Papers, NYHS.

16.

Charles W. Snell and Francis F. Wilshin, Saratoga National Historical

Notes

181

Park, New York (Washington, D.C.; National Park Service, 1955), 19-20, 22; Louise Tharp, The Baroness and the General (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962), 203; Higginbotham, Morgan, 72-73; Cecere, Posey, 58. 17.

Richard Butler to James Wilson, quote in Cecere, Posey, 59.

18.

Tharp, Baroness and General, 204-5; LaCrosse, Revolutionary Rangers, 15.

19.

Higginbotham, Morgan, 75.

20.

Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 31-32; Cecere, Posey, 65; Michael Cecere, “They Are Indeed a Very Useful Corps”

(Westminster,

Md.; Heritage Books, 2006), 126-28. 21.

Quote in 0’Brien, Murphy, 26.

22.

Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 33-34; Samuel Hay to William Irvine, Nov. 14, 1777, Irvine Corr., Draper Coll., 1AA, 17; New Jersey Gazette, in Pittsburgh Journal, Jan. --, 1841, Newspaper Extracts, Draper Coll., 4 JJ, 35; Charlemagne Tower, The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution, 2d ed., 2 vols. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1970, orig. pub. 1901), 246-49.

23.

Nathanael Greene to Washington, Nov. 26, 1777, AWP, 12:409.

24.

Lafayette to Washington, Nov. 26, 1777, ibid., 418-19.

25.

Cecere, Posey, 35; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 34.

26.

Newspaper Extracts, Pittsburgh Journal, l84l, Draper Coll., 4JJ, 37.

27.

Copy of commission, June 30, 1777, Richard Butler Papers, ibid., 3U.

28.

Henry Lee to Washington, Dec. 23, 1777, Daniel Morgan to Washington, Dec. 23, 1777, James Potter to Washington, Dec. 24, 1777, and

Gen.

Stirling to Washington, Dec. 24, 1777, AWP, 12: 689 and n., 690- 91, 696, and 696-97 resp. 29.

Pittsburgh Gazette, Jan. --, 1841, Newspaper Extracts, Draper Coll., 4JJ.

CHARTER 4 1.

Richard Butler to Thomas Wharton, Feb. 2, 1778, quote; in John

When Fate Summons

182

Buchanan, The Road to Valley Forge (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2004), 289; Richard Butler to President Wharton, Mar. 26, 1778 and President Wharton to Richard Butler, April 9, 1778, PA, 6: 386 and 404, resp.; Richard Butler to James Wilson, Jan. 22, 1778, Gratz Coll., HSP, in Wayne Bodle, The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers in War (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002), 128; Heitman, Register, 12. 2.

Anthony Wayne to Brig. Gen. John Lacey, Mar. 15, 1778 and to Washington, April 19, 1778, AWP, 14: 181n. and 557 and n.

3.

Washington to Greene, Feb. 16, 1778 and Wayne to Washington, Mar. 5, 1778, ibid., 13: 556-57 and 14: 72-74 and 75n.; William Livingston to Washington, Mar. 9, 1778 and “A

Correspondent,” Mar. 11, 1778, WL,

2:250 and 533; Charles J. Stillé Major-General Anthony Wayne and the Pennsylvania Line (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press,

1968,

orig. pub. 1893), 131-33. 4.

The Lee Papers, 1778-1782, Collections of the NYHS. vol. 3 (1874), 1821, 43-47; “Table of Organization—Lee’s Force,” in Samuel S. Smith, The Battle of Monmouth (Monmouth

Beach, N.J.: Philip Freneau Press,

1964), 7, 11-13; Tower, Lafayette, 1: 370-73; Glenn Tucker, Anthony Wayne and the New Nation (Harrisburg: Stackpole Books, 1973), 122; Robert Leckie, George Washington’s War (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 474-75; William S. Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1970, orig. pub. 1927), 78; Erie Niderost, “Monmouth: Longest Battle of the Revolution,”

Military

Heritage, (Winter, 2012), 38-45. 5.

Lee Papers, 3: 20-21; Tucker, Wayne, 124.

6.

Stryker, Monmouth, 154; Smith, Monmouth, 16, 19, 32.

7.

Joseph G. Bilby and Katherine B. Jenkins, Monmouth Court House: The Battle that Made the American Army (Yardley, Pa.: Westholme, 2010 ), 197-200.

Notes 8.

183

Wayne to Richard Peters, July 12, 1778, in Stillé, Wayne, 153; Remensky “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 41.

9.

Lee Papers, 3: 107; Harry M. Ward, General William Maxwell and the New Jersey Continentals (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997), 107.

10.

Lafayette to Henry Laurens, July 23, 1778, LP, 2: 112.

11.

General Orders, Aug. 8, 1778, AWP, 16: 267; Paul J. Sanborn, “Light Infantry (Continental),” ARE, 1: 935-36; Harry M. Ward, Charles Scott and the “Spirit of ‘76” (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988), 52-53.

12.

Washington to Charles Scott, Aug. 14, 1778, AWP, 16: 313.

13.

For Richard Butler and intelligence, see Charles Scott to Washington, Aug. 29, Sept. 2, Sept 10, and Sept. 28 and John Sullivan to Washington, Sept. 10, 1778, AWP, 16: 4l5n.-l6n., 491, 562-63 and 17: 168 and 16: 592, resp.

14.

Ward, Scott, 53, 56-57.

15.

Leiby, Revolutionary War in Hackensack Valley, 167-72; “Tappan Massacre,” EAR, 2: 1138-39.

16.

Scott to Washington, Sept. 30, Washington to Gates, Oct. 1, Washington to Greene, Oct. 1, Washington to Sullivan, Oct. 1, Washington to Henry Laurens, Oct. 3, and Greene to Washington, Oct. 5, 1778, AWP, 17: 20910 and n., 214, 215, 219, 239, and 265, resp.; Pittsburgh Gazette, Jan. --, 1841, Newspaper Extracts, Draper Coll., 4JJ, 39; Ward, Scott, 59; John Marshall, The Life of George Washington, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Crissy & Markley, 1854), 270.

17.

Washington to Scott, Oct. 1, 1778, AWP, 17: 217.

18.

Tucker, Wayne, 142.

19.

Orderly Book of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, PA, 2d ser., 11: 46l; Paul J. Sanborn, “Benedict Arnold,” ARE, 1: 52; Tucker, Wayne, 139-42, General Orders, May 29, 1779 and Council General Officers, June 1,

When Fate Summons

184

1779, FWW, 15: 181-82 and 204-5; Boatner, Landmarks, 197. 20.

Richard Butler to President Reed, June 14, 1779, PA, ser. 1, 7: 482.

21.

General Orders, June 15, 1779, FWW, 15: 283.

22.

Washington to Richard Butler, June 21, 1779, ibid., 297-98; Map, NG, 4: 121.

23.

Israel Putnam to Washington, June 23, 1779, FWW, 15: 301.

24.

Washington to Richard Butler, June 24, 1779, ibid., 308-9.

CHAPTER 5 1.

Tucker, Wayne, 147; Henry P. Johnston, The Storming of Stony Point on the Hudson (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971 orig. pub. 1900), 70-71.

2.

Greene to Col. John Cox, July, 17, 1779, NG, 4: 236; Christopher Ward, War of the Revolution (New York: Macmillian Company, 1952), 2: 597 ; Tucker, Wayne, 145.

3.

Wayne to Washington, July 3, 1779, in Stillé, Wayne, 186-87; Tucker, Wayne, 149.

4.

Washington to Wayne, July 10, 1779, in Stillé, Wayne, 397-99

5.

Ward, War of the Revolution, 2: 597, 599.

6.

Ibid. , 599; Johnston, Storming of Stony Point, 72-73, 75-76.

7.

“Order of Battle,” July 15, 1779, in Stillé, Wayne. 401-2; Ward, War of the Revolution, 2: 599-602; John T. Posey, General Thomas Posey: Son of the American Revolution (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1992), 53-59; Cecere, Posey, 104-5; Tucker, Wayne, 152-59; Johnston, Storming of Stony Point, 73-83.

8.

NG, 4: 237n.; “Return of American Losses at Stony Point,” in Johnston, Storming of Stony Point, 206.

9.

Wayne to Washington, July 12, 1779, in Johnston, Storming of Stony Point, 85.

10.

Wayne to Washington, July 17, 1779, in Stillé, 208-9.

11.

Greene to Col. John Cox, July 17, 1779, NG, 4: 236.

Notes 12.

185

Henry Archer to Wayne, July 28, 1779, in Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 243; Heitman, Register, 73.

13.

Washington to Alexander McDougall, July 20, 1779, FWW, 15: 443; Greene to Washington, July 27, 1779, NG, 4: 271-72n. and 432n.; Douglas S. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 5 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952), 115-16; Posey, Posey, 60.

14.

“Extracts from the Orderly Book of Lieutenant William Torry” Sept. 21, 1779, PMHB, 28 (1904): 381-82.

15.

Wayne Letters, Dec. 1779-Jan. 1780, in Stillé, Wayne, 2 13-15; Henry Gannett, A Geographic Dictionary of New Jersey (Washington: GPO, 1394), 106; Sanborn, “Light Infantry (Continental),” 936.

16.

Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 17.

17.

Washington to St. Clair, Oct. 1, 1780, SCP, l, 528-29.

CHAPTER 6 1.

Tucker, Wayne, 173-74.

2.

“Diary of Lt. Enos Reeves,” Jan. 2, 1780, in Henry S. Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six,’ vol. 2 (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1958), 770-71; Harry E. Wi1des, Anthony Wayne: Trouble Shooter of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1970, orig. pub. 1941), 229; Carl Van Doren, Mutiny in January (New York: Viking Press, 1943), 40-51; Stillé, Wayne, 242-43.

3.

Van Doren, Mutiny, 54-55, 59-60.

4.

Ibid., 13; Paul D. Nelson, Anthony Wayne: Soldier of the Early Republic (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985), 121; Robert L. Brunhouse, The Counter Revolution in Pennsylvania, 1776-1790 (New York: Octagon Books, 1971, orig. pub. 1942), 92.

5.

JCC, Jan. --, 1781, 19: 79; Washington to St. Clair, Jan. 15, 1781, SCP, 1:

When Fate Summons

186

538-39; In Committee of Congress (Trenton), Jan. 8, 1781 and Matthias Slough to Jasper Yeates, Jan. 8, 1781, PA, 2d ser., 11: 690-91. 6.

John Sullivan to the Chevalier de La Luzerne, Jan. 13, 1781 and Committee on the Pennsylvania Mutiny to Washington, Jan. 15, 1781, LD, 16: 596-96 and 600; Harry M. Ward, Between the Lines: Banditti of the American Revolution (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Books, 2002), 70, 74, 7779.

7.

Committee on the Pennsylvania Mutiny to Washington, Jan. 10, 1781, LD, 16: 587; John A. Nagy, Rebellion in the Ranks: Mutinies of the American Revolution (Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing, 2007), 150-52.

8.

“Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line,” EAR, 2: 775; Nagy, Rebellion in the Ranks, 152.

9.

Richard Butler to Samuel Huntington, Jan. 8, 1781, PCC, r170, i152, vol. 9, 473-74.

10.

Washington to St. Clair, Feb. 26, 1781, SCP, 1: 541; Lafayette to Washington, Mar. 15, 1781, LP, 3: 399n.

11.

Lafayette to Wayne, May 15, 1781, LP, 4: 03.

12.

“Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line,” EAR, 2: 775.

13.

Tucker, Wayne, 192; Nelson, Wayne, 126; Van Doren, Mutiny in January, 254.

14.

Tucker, Wayne. 192-93.

15.

Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 18;

16.

Ibid. , 18, 209; letter of Wayne, May 20, 1781, in Stillé, Wayne, 266; Van Doren, Mutiny in January, 234-35.

17.

Van Doren, Mutiny in January, 254-55.

18.

Ibid., 236; Stillé, Wayne. 266-67; William Davies to Lafayette, Aug. 15, 1781, LP, 4: 328. CHAPTER 7

1.

Joseph P. Tustin, ed. , Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal,

Notes

187

Captain Johann Ewald . . . (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 305-6; Lafayette to Greene, June 21, 1781, LP, 4: 203. 2.

Lafayette to Thomas Sim Lee, June 25, 1781, LP, 4: 210.

3.

Lafayette Wayne, June 22 and 25, 1731, ibid., 207 and 212; Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942), 25; “Spencer’s Tavern, Virginia,” EAR, 2: 1099.

4.

“Spencer’s Tavern, Virginia” 1099; Tustin, ed., Diary . . . Ewald, 308-9; Wayne to Lafayette, June 25, 1781, LP, 4: 211; “Diary of Capt. John Davis of the Pennsylvania Line,” VMHB, 1 (1893):

4-5 and n. ;

Gottschalk”, Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution, 259-60; John G. Simcoe, A History of the Operations of the Partisan Corps Called the Queen’s Rangers . . . (New York: Arno Press, 1968), 230-34; Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department (New York: Arno Press, 1969, orig. pub 1869), 429. 5.

Simcoe, History of Operations, 230-34, 237; Gottschalk, Lafayette and Close of the American Revolution, 259-60; Paul J. Sanborn, “Spencer’s Ordinary,” ARE, 2: 1560-63.

6.

“Return of the Killed, Wounded and Missing of the Light Corps under Colonel Butler,” June 26, 1781, Appendix 5 of Henry P. Johnston, The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwallis (New York: Eastern Acorn Press, 1981, orig. pub. 1881), 190; Lafayette to Greene, June 27, 1781, LP, 4: 216, 217n.

7.

Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 53.

8.

Bernhard Uhlendorf A., ed., Revolution in America: Confidential Letters and Journals, 1776-1784 of . . . Major Baurmeister of the Hessian Forces (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1957), 445; Charles E. Hatch, Jr., “The Affair near James Island,” VMHB, 53 (1945): 183, 187-89.

9.

E. Lee Shepard, ed., Marching to Victory: Capt. Benjamin Bartholomew’s Diary of the Yorktown Campaign (Richmond: Virginia Historical Society,

When Fate Summons

188

2002), 13; Tower, Lafayette, 2: 366n. 10.

See Shepard, ed., Marching to Victory, 15-21.

11.

“General Richard Butler’s Journal of the Siege of Yorktown”, Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries . . ., 8 (1864): 102-3; Wildes, Wayne, 263; Butler to General Irvine, Sept. 14, 1781, “Extracts from the Papers of General Irvine,” PMH3, 5 (1881): 272.

12.

“Saint-Simon Montbléru,” EAR, 2: 1023.

13.

Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 103; Richard Butler to Gen. Irvine, “Extracts of Papers of Irvine,” 274; Gottschalk, Lafayette and Close of the American Revolution, 299; Stillé, Wayne, 280.

14.

Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 103-4.

15.

Ibid.; Donald Jackson, ed., The Diaries of George Washington, (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1978), 3: 141.

16.

Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 106; Samuel F. Scott, From Yorktown to Valmy: The Transformation of the French Army in an Age of Revolution (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1998), 155, 165.

17.

Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 106. CHAPTER 8

1.

“Diary of John Davis,” 11; Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 106; Tower, Lafayette, 448.

2.

Charles E. Hatch, Jr., Yorktown and the Siege of 1781 (Washington, D.C: National Park Service, 1957). 17-19; Johnston, Yorktown Campaign, 115; Tower, Lafayette, 448; Brendan D. Morrissey, “Gloucester Point, Virginia, Action at Oct. 3, 1781,” EARW, 2: 517.

3.

Frank Gaynor, ed., The New Military and Naval Dictionary (New York: Greenwood Press, 1969), 69; Shepard, ed., March to Victory. 23.

4.

Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 107.

5.

“Diary of John Davis,” 4.

6.

Excerpt from “Diary of James Duncan,” in Commager and Morris, eds.,

Notes

189

Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six’, 2: 1229; Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 108. 7.

Tucker, Wayne, 206-7; Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 108.

8.

Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 108.

9.

Ibid., 109; Richard Butler to Gen. Irvine, Oct. 22,1781, in Johnston, Yorktown Campaign, 201; Shepard, ed., March to Victory, 24.

10.

Butler, “Journal of Yorktown,” 109.

11.

Ibid., 110.

12.

Ibid., 111.

13.

Excerpt from “Diary of James Duncan,” 12; Gottschalk, Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution, 430; Wildes, Wayne, 266-67; Burke Davis, The Campaign that Won America: The Story of Yorktown (New York: Dial Press, 1970), 263.

14.

Richard Butler to Gen. Irvine, Oct. 22, 1781, in Johnston, Yorktown Campaign, 202.

15.

St. Clair to Washington, Feb. 4, 1782, SCP, 1: 569; “Diary of John Davis,” 12-14; Stillé, Wayne, 286-87; Tucker, Wayne, 210-12.

16.

Charles Lesser, Sinews of Independence: Monthly Strength Reports of the Continental Army (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 217; Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 18-20.

17.

Washington to Greene, April 23, 1782 and Richard Butler to Greene, July 22, 1782, NG, 11: 110 and 450-51; Richard Butler to Gen. Irvine, Sept. 27, 1782, Draper Coll., 1AA, 32. CHAPTER 9

1.

General Greene’s Orders, April 22, 1782, NG, 11: 87 and n. and also 81n. and 104n.; Nagy, Rebellion in the Ranks, 193.

2.

Varnum L. Collins, The Continental Congress at Princeton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1908 ), 9-12.

3.

“Notes of Debates,” MP, 7: 4; and n.; Andrew A. Zellers-Frederick, “Mutiny in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” ARE, 2: 1147-51.

When Fate Summons

190 4.

JCC, June 19, 1783, 24: 405n; Nagy, Rebellion in the Ranks, 212; Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton, 14-15.

5.

Elias Boudinot to Washington, June 21, 1783, LD, 20: 349; Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton, 15-22; Brunhouse, CounterRevolution in Pennsylvania, 136-37; Zellers-Frederick, “Mutiny in Philadelphia,”148-49.

6.

JCC, June 21, 1783, 24: 410; Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton, 23-27; Nagy, Rebellion in the Ranks, 213-16.

7.

Elias Boudinot to Ministers Plenipotentiary, July 15, 1783, LD, 20: 41718; James Madison, “Notes of Debates,” June 21, 1783, LD, 20: 351-52; Elizabeth M. Nuxoll and Mary A. Gallagher, eds., The Papers of Robert Morris, vol. 8 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), 222n.23n.; Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton, 20, 32-33.

8.

Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution in Pennsylvania, 138.

9.

Congress Motion of June 30, 1783 and Resolution of July 1, 1783 directing Maj. Gen. Howe ..., Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1962), 410-411; James Madison to Edmund Randolph, July 8, 1783, MP, 7: 2l6; Richard Butler to John Dickinson, July 9, 1783, PA, 10: 69.

10.

JCC. Aug. 15, 1783, 24: 509; Richard Butler to William Irvine, Aug. 2, 1783, Draper Coll., 2AA, 119-20.

11.

Nuxoll and Gallagher, eds., Papers of Morris, 8: 237n.; Elizabeth Cometti, ed., Seeing America and the Great Men: The Journal and Letters of Count Francesco dal Verme, 1783-1784 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969), 29, 116n.-117n.

12.

Ibid.. 232n.

13.

Congress Resolutions, Sept. 12 and Oct. 10, 1783, Draper Coll., Frontier Wars, 3U, 593.

l4.

Benjamin Rush to John Montgomery, Nov. 5, 1782, quote in Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution in Pennsylvania, 268. Butler was a charter member of

Notes the “Friendly Sons of St. Patrick,” founded in 1771.

191 See John H.

Campbell, History of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and Hibernian Society (Philadelphia: The Hibernian Society, 1892). CHAPTER 10 1.

Quoted in Wiley Sword, President Washington’s Indian War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1790-1795 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), 23.

2.

New Hampshire Delegates to Mesech Weare, Mar. 3, Thomas Mifflin to the Indian Commissioners, Mar. 6, John Montgomery to John Dickinson, Mar. 7, and Thomas Mifflin to the Indian Commissioners, Mar. 22, 1784, LD, 21: 406, 422 and n., 428, and 450, resp.; Henry S. Manley, The Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1784 (Rome, N.Y.: Rome Sentinel Company, 1932), 48.

3.

David Swaltzer, A Friend among the Senecas: The Quaker Mission to Cornplanter’s People (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2000), 12223.

4.

Louis W. Potts, Arthur Lee: A Virtuous Revolutionary (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), 269.

5.

Ibid.; “Journal of Griffith Evans . . .,” PMHB, 65 (1941): 204, 206; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 61-62.

6.

“Journal of Evans,” 208; LP, 5: 260; Abler, Cornplanter, 62-63.

7.

“Treaty of Fort Stanwix,” in Craig, Olden Time, 2: 413-15, 418-19; Downes, Council Fires on the Upper Ohio, 291; Manley, Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 16-17, 87.

8.

“Journal of Evans,” 213-14.

9.

Max M. Mintz, Seeds of Empire: The American Revolutionary Conquest of the Iroquois (New York: New York University Press, 1999), 182. The treaty extinguished Indian title to one-fourth of Pennsylvania, including counties of Tioga, Potter, McKean, Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Butler, Venango, and Jefferson and most of Bradford, Lycoming, Clearfield, and

When Fate Summons

192

Indiana. (Draper Coll., Newspaper Extracts, 4JJ, 40.) 10.

Francis P. Prucha, American Indian Treaties (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994). 46-48.

11.

Manley, Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 26-29, 92-93; MP, 8: 146-47.

12.

Quoted in Alan Taylor, The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 160.

13.

LP, 22: 26n.

14.

Abler, Cornplanter, 69.

15.

Robert S. Allen, His Majesty’s Indian Allies: Indian Policy, in the Defence

„n

of Canada, 1774-1815 (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1992), 62, 64. CHAPTER 11 1.

“Journals of Evans,” 226-27.

2.

Daniel Agnew, Fort McIntosh: Its Times and Men (Pittsburgh: Myers, Shinkle & Company, 1893), 30.

3.

Ibid., 32; “Journal of Evans,” 231; “Journal of Arthur Lee . . . Nov.-Dec. 1784,” in Craig, Olden Time, 2: 338; Isabel T. Kelsay, Joseph Brant. 1743-1807 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1984), 367.

4.

“Journal of Evans,” 231.

5.

Ibid.

6.

Ibid., 231-32.

7.

Downes, Council Fires on Upper Ohio, 293-294.

8.

Sipe, Indian Wars of Pennsylvania, 687.

9.

Richard Butler to George Rogers Clark, Jan. 21, 1785, and Treaty of Ft. McIntosh, Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs; Laws and Treaties (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1904), 2: 6-8; Downes, Council Fires on Upper Ohio, 294; Kelsay, Joseph Brant, 368.

10.

Sipe, Indian Wars of Pennsylvania, 687.

11.

Milo M. Quaife, ed., The Indian Captivity of O. M. Spencer (New York:

Notes

193

Dover Publications, 1995, orig. pub. 1835), 47 and n. 12.

Richard Butler to President of Congress, Feb. 14, 1785, PCC, r69, i56, 145; Richard Butler and George Rogers Clark to Wyandot and Ottawa Indians, July 31, 1785, in “Copies . . . Colonial Office Records,” MPHSC, 24 (1895): 22-24.

13.

Walter Havighurst, Wilderness for Sale: The Story of the First Western Land Rush (New York: Hastings House, 1956), 69-70, including quote; John D. Barnhart, Valley of Democracy: The Frontier versus the Plantation in the Ohio Valley, 1775-1818 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1953), 130; Eric Hinderaker, Elusive Empires: Constructing Colonization in the Ohio Valley, 1673-1800 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997). 240; Allen, His Majesty’s Allies, 64.

14.

Barnhart, Valley of Democracy, 126, 128, including quote.

15.

LD, 22: 198n.

16.

Consul W. Butterfield, History of the Girtys (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1890), 225; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 68.

17.

Richard Butler and George Rogers Clark’s Message to Chippewa and Ottawa Nations, July 31, 1785 and to Chiefs of the Wiondot Nation, Aug. 3, 1785, in “Copies . . . Colonial Office Records,” 21-22.

18.

“Journal of General Butler, 1785-1786,” in Craig, Olden Time, 2: 433; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 69.

19.

Will, Sept. 29, 1785, BFA, 151-54; “Journal of Richard Butler, 17851786,” 434; Charles S. Hall, Life and Letters of Samuel Holden Parsons (New York: 1968, orig. pub. 1905), 470; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 70.

20.

“Journal of Richard Butler, 1785-1786,” 435-54; R. Douglas Hurt, The Ohio Frontier; Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), 95; James R. Jacobs, The Beginnings of the United States Army, 1783-1812 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947), 24; Butterfield, History of the Girtys, 224-25.

When Fate Summons

194 21.

“Journal of Richard Butler, 1785-1786,” 445; Sword, Washington’s Indian War, 29.

22.

“Journal of Richard Butler, 1785-1786,” 511.

23.

Ibid., 459, 485; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 71. CHAPTER 12

1.

“Journal of Richard Butler, 1785-1786,” 512.

2.

Ibid., 512-13.

3.

Ibid.

4.

Ibid., 513, 515.

5.

Ibid.. 524; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 72.

6.

Journal of Richard Butler, 1785-1786,” 529, 531. Despite February 1 being the day of the actual signing, the day is generally referred to as January 31.

7.

JCC, April 1786, 30; 185-87; Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs, 2: 16-17.

8.

“Journal of Richard Butler, 1785-1786,” 531.

9.

Ibid.

10.

Quote in Allan W. Eckert, The Dark and Bloody River (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 465.

11.

Eckert, Frontiersman, 291.

12.

Maj. Walter Finney to Col. Robert Patterson, Feb. 12, 1786, Draper Coll., 11J.

13.

Eckert, Dark and Bloody River, 466.

14.

Griffin, American Leviathan, 223-23.

15.

Rupp, History and Topography, 408, 593-94.

16.

Richard Butler to President of Congress, April 25, 1786, JCC, 30: 210211.

17.

Thomas Rodney’s Diary, May 2, 1786, LD, 23: 257-58 and n.; JCC, April 28, 1786, 30: 213.

18.

Butler to President of Congress, April 25, 1786, JCC, 30: 211,

Notes

195

19.

Sugden, Blue Jacket, 73.

20.

John Sugden, Tecumseh: A Life (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997), 46.

21.

LD, 23: 322n. and 36n; Richard Butler and Samuel Holden Parsons to President of

Congress, June 19, 1786, JCC, 30: 349-51.

22.

LD, 23: 399n.

23.

Richard Butler to Congress, Aug. 2, 1786, PCC, r69, i56, 189-91. CHAPTER 13

1.

BFA, 163-64.

2.

JCC, Aug. 14, 1786, 31: 517.

3.

Ibid., Aug. 7, 1786, 31: 490-93.

4.

Richard Butler to President of Congress, Aug. 20, 1786, PCC, r69, i56, 210-213.

5.

Bill Gilbert, God Gave Us This Country:

Tekamthi and the First

American Civil War (New York: Atheneum, 1989), 120-21. 6.

Robert Morgan, Boone: A Biography (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2007), 353; Hinderaker, Elusive Empires, 240-41; Hurt, Ohio Frontier, 97.

7.

Colin G. Calloway, The Shawnees and the War for America (New York: Viking, 2007), 84; Billington and Ridge, Westward Expansion, 214; Allen, His Majesty’s Allies, 68-69.

8.

Richard Butler to Secretary at War, Nov. 6, 1786 (copy), PCC, rl64, il50, vol. 2, 123-27.

9.

Extract of a letter from General Butler to Secretary at War, Dec. 13, 1786. Ibid., 115-18.

10.

E.g., Paul A. Wallace, ed., Thirty Thousand Miles with John Heckewelder (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958), 216-17.

11.

Richard Butler to Secretary at War, Jan. 31, 1787 and Extract from the Indian speeches at the Western Council, PCC, rl64, il50, vol. 2, 257 and

When Fate Summons

196

267, resp.; Richard Butler to the Chiefs and Warriors of the Six Nations, Feb. 28, 1787, Draper Coll., Frontier Wars, 3U; Abler, Cornplanter, 75. 12.

Richard Butler to Secretary at War, Mar. 21, 1787, PCC, rl64, i150, vol. 2, 287-98.

13.

Henry Knox to President of Congress, April 16, 1787, JCC, 32: 213.

14.

Richard Butler to Pierce Butler, July 10, 1788, BFA, 15.

15.

LD, 24: 303n.and 366n; Harry M. Ward, Department of War, 1731-1795, 70, 83; William H. Guthman, March to Massacre: A History of the First Seven Years of the United States Army, 1784-1791 (New York: McGrawHill Book Co., 1975), 44.

16.

Henry Knox to Richard Butler, April 7, 1787, Draper Coll., Frontier Wars, 3U; Henry Knox to President of Congress, April 20, 1787, JCC, 32: 223.

17.

Richard Butler to Secretary at War, Nov. 1, 1787, PCC, rl65, il50, vol. 3, 27.

18.

Gov. St. Clair to Secretary at War, Jan. 27, 1788, Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1934), 2: 89.

19.

LD, 24: 366n.; SCP, 1: 154-55.

20.

Joseph Brant to Richard Butler, Oct. 31, Butler to Secretary at War, Nov. 1, and Butler to Secretary at War Dec. 6, 1787, PCC, rl65, i150, vol. 3, 20, 27 and 32, resp.; Henry Knox to President of Congress, Oct. 26, 1787, JCC, 33: 714.

21.

Richard Butler to Secretary at War, Dec. 6, 1787, PCC, rl65, il50, vol. 3, 31.

22.

Charles Thomson to Arthur St. Clair, Aug. 4, 1788, LD, 25: 269; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 78.

23.

Extract of letter of Butler to Secretary St War, Aug. 26, 1787 and letter of Butler, May 9, 1788, PCC, rl64, i150, vol. 2, 457-58 and vol. 3, 337, resp.

24.

Richard Butler to Secretary at War, Dec. 25, 1787, ibid., vol. 3, 35.

25.

Speech of the Half King and Captain Pipe, Oct. 11, 1787, ibid., vol. 2,

Notes

197

549; Richard Butler to Joseph Brant, Aug. 4, 1787, Draper Coll., Brant Papers, 20F, 56; Richard

Butler to St. Clair, July 18, 1788, SCP, 2:

60-61. 26.

Peter Muhlenberg to Butler and John Gibson, Oct. 2, 1788 and Thomas Mifflin to Richard Peters, Mar. 24, 1789, PCR, 15: 554-55 and 16: 36-37, resp.; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 83-85; J. A Murray, “The Butlers of the Cumberland Valley,” Historical Register: Notes and Queries . . ., 1 (1883): 7; Daniel Agnew, A History of the Region of Pennsylvania North of the Ohio and West of the Allegheny River (Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1887), 71-72.

27.

Minutes or the Supreme Executive Council, Sept. 30, 1788, PCR, 15: 551.

28.

Ibid., Nov.21, 1788, 604; Draper Coll., Frontier Wars, 3U, vol. 3, 620; Lewis C. Walkinshaw, Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, vol.2 (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1939), 24-9-50; Murray, “Butlers of the Cumberland Valley,” 1: 7.

29.

Samuel F. Cochran, “Mrs. Mary Dewees’s Journal, 1787-1788,” PMHB, 28 (1904): 190.

30.

BFA, 156.

31.

Ibid., 167-68.

32.

Ibid., 155.

33.

Pozar, Richard Butler, 14.

34.

Washington to Richard Butler, Nov. 27, 1786 and Washington to Lafayette, Mar. 25,

1787, AWP, Confed. Series, 4: 398-99 and 5: 105,

106n., resp. 35.

Enclosure--Richard Butler’s Indian Vocabulary, in Butler to Washington, Nov. 30, 1787, ibid., 5: 457-58.

36.

Enclosure 2--extract of letter from Butler to Washington, c. Nov. 30, 1787, ibid.. 461-63.

37.

Butler to Washington, Nov. 30, 1787, ibid.. 456-60 and n.

38.

Washington to Butler, Jan. 10, 1788, ibid., 6: 26-27.

When Fate Summons

198 39.

Washington to Lafayette, Jan. 10, 1788, ibid., 6: 29-31.

40.

Washington to Butler, April 3, 1788, ibid., 189.

41.

Ibid.

CHAPTER 14 1.

Walkinshaw, Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, 2: 257, including quote of Arthur Lee (1784).

2.

Wildes, Wayne, 383; Ward, Charles Scott, 132. The Superintendency of Northern Indian Affairs was given to St. Clair.

3.

Gov. St. Clair to Secretary at War, Sept. 14, 1788, Carter, ed., Territorial Papers, 2: 156-57; Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 ( New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 445; Eckert, Dark and Bloody River, 492.

4.

The ensuing discussion of the treaty-making is taken from “Account of the Indian Treaties from the Diary of Major Ebenezer Denny,” in SCP, 2: 10911.

5.

Carter, ed., Territorial Papers, 2: 174-85; Calloway, Shawnees, 89. The two Indian treaties are also published in Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 2: 18-23 and 23-25 and SCP, 2: 622-30.

6.

White, Middle Ground, 446.

7.

George Schaaf, Wampum Belts & Peace Trees: George Morgan, Native Americans, and Revolutionary Diplomacy (Golden, Col.:

Fulcrum

Publishing, 1990), 204. 8.

“Account . .. Diary of Denny,” 111,

9.

Prucha, American Indian Treaties. 57-58.

10.

G. Peter Jemison and Anna M. Schein, eds., Treaty of Canandaigua, 1798 (Sante Fe: Clearlight Publishers, 2000), 51; Allen, His Majesty’s Allies, 71.

11.

Richard Butler to William Irvine, Sept. 29, 1789, Draper Coll., Irvine

Notes

199

Correspondence, 1AA, 446-49. 12.

Richard Butler to Irvine, May 10, 1790, ibid., 464-65.

13.

Heitman, Register, 137, 274.

14.

Eckert, Frontiersman. 339.

15.

Richard Butler to Irvine, Aug. 16, 1790, Draper Coll., Irvine Correspondence, 1AA; St. Clair to Butler, Aug. 16, 1790. SCP, 2: 151; Butler to Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, Aug. 18, 1790, PCR, 16: 423.

16.

Harry M. Ward, Department of War, 1781-1795 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1962), 129.

17.

Ibid.; Eckert, Frontiersman, 341-45; Ward, Charles Scott, 105.

18.

Court of Inquiry, Fort Washington, Sept. 15, 1791, Draper Coll., U4, 39; Jacobs, Beginnings of the U.S. Army, 63.

19.

Minutes of Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, Dec. 13, 1790, PCR, 16: 537; Russell J. Ferguson, Early Western Pennsylvania Politics (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1938), 117-19.

20.

Henry Knox to Washington, Mar. 14 and Washington to William Darke, April 4, 1791, AWP, Presidential Series, 7: 560 and 8: 55, resp. and AWP, 8: 69n.; Henry Knox to Butler, Mar. 10, 1791, “Copies . . . Colonial Office Papers,” MPHSC, 24: 180.

21.

Washington to Darke, Arril 4. Washington to Darke, April 7, Washington to Butler, April 7, and Knox to Washington, April 10, 1791, AWP, Presidential Series, 7: 560, 8: 69, 71, 81, resp.

22.

Secretary of War to Butler, May 5, 1791, “Copies . . . Colonial Office Papers,” MPHSC, 24: 225.

23.

Henry Knox to St. Clair, April 21 and 28, 1791, NASP-IA, 4: 68; William M. Garbarino, Jr., Indian Wars along the Upper Ohio (Midway, Pa.: Midway Publishing, 2001), 97; Thomas G. Tousey, Military History of Carlisle and Carlisle Barracks (Richmond, Va: Dietz Press, 1939). 163; Lee W. Eysturlid, “Carlisle Barracks,” HD-USA, 80-81.

When Fate Summons

200 24.

Knox to Washington, June 16 and to Richard Butler, June 16, 1791, AWP, 8: 268; Knox to St. Clair, May 2, 1791, NASP-IA. 4: 69-70.

25.

“Copies . . . Colonial Office Records,” MPHSC, 24: 242; Hurt, Ohio Frontier, 111.

26.

Knox to Richard Butler, July 21, 1791. “Copies . . . Colonial Office Records,”MPHSC,

24: 295.

27.

Knox to Butler, Aug. 11, 1791, ibid, 307-8.

28.

Knox to Butler, Aug. 25, l791, ibid., 323.

29.

Knox to Butler, Sept. 1, 1791, ibid., 326.

30.

SCP, 1: 171; see Ward, Charles Scott, 109-116.

31.

Frazer E. Wilson, ed., Journal of Capt. Daniel Bradley (Greenville, Ohio: Frank H. Jobes & Sons, 1935), 9-15.

32.

Martha E. Rohr, Historical Sketch of Fort Recovery (Fort Recovery, Ohio: Journal Publishing Company, 1932), 14, 17; quote in Pozar, Richard Butler, 20.

33.

Rohr, Fort Recovery, 19.

CHAPTER 15 1.

Wilson, ed., Journal of Bradley, 22; Sword, President Washington’s Indian War, 161; Landon Jones, William Clark and the Shaping of the West (New York: Hill & Wang, 2004), 6-7; Garbarino, Indian Wars. . . Ohio, 98.

2.

Washington to William Darke, Aug. 9, 1791, FWW, 31: 335; Arthur St. Clair, A Narrative of the Campaign Against the Indians under the Command of Major General St. Clair (Salem, N.H.: Ayer Company, 1991, orig. pub. 1812), 16; Gilbert, God Gave Us ... Tekamthi, 146, 148.

3.

St. Clair to Knox, Nov. 1, 1791, SCP, 2: 249; Sugden, Blue Jacket, 115.

4.

“Winthrop Sargent’s Diary while with General Arthur St. Clair’s Expedition against the Indians,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, 33 (1924): 237-73.

Notes

201

5.

St. Clair, Narrative, 31-33.

6.

“Winthrop Sargent’s Diary,” 245.

7.

Ibid., 247-48.

8.

St. Clair, Narrative, 32-33.

9.

Ibid., 35-39; St. Clair to Secretary of War, Nov. 1, 1791, Draper Coll., 4JJ, Newspaper Extracts, 272.

10.

St. Clair, Narrative, 28, 39-40: “Winthrop Sargent’s Diary,” 251.

11.

Jacobs, Beginnings of U.S. Army, 99; St. Clair to Knox, Nov. 1 and 9, 1791, SCP, 2: 249 and 262-63; Guthman, March to Massacre, 232-33.

12.

Jacobs, Beginnings of U.S. Army, 99, 101; Sugden, Blue Jacket, 121.

13.

Walkinshaw, Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, 294-95; Sugden, Blue Jacket, 118,

14.

120.

SCP, 1: 174; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 99-100; Jones, William Clark, 9.

15.

Guthman, March to Massacre, 236; Sword, President Washington’s Indian War, 174-75.

16.

Jacobs, Beginnings of U.S. Army, 103; Sword, President Washington’s Indian War, 175.

17.

Jacobs, Beginnings of U.S. Army, 103-4.

18.

Rohr, Fort Recovery, 21-22; Ward, Department of War, 136.

19.

“Winthrop Sargent’s Diary,” 257-58.

CHAPTER 16 1.

Jacobs, Beginnings of U.S. Army, 105-8.

2.

Rohr, Fort Recovery, 23-24.

3.

Ibid., 24-25; “Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny,” Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 7 (1860): 221-22; Pittsburgh Gazette, Jan. 1841, Draper Coll., 4JJ, Newspaper Extracts, 43; Sword, President Washington’s Indian War, 185.

4.

Extract of a letter from Carlisle, Dec. 20, 1791, in Philadelphia General

When Fate Summons

202

Advertiser, Jan. 3, 1792, Draper Coll., 4JJ, Newspaper Extracts; Sword, President Washington’s Indian War, 185. 5.

“St. Clair’s Defeat,” Draper Coll., Frontier Wars, 3V, vol. 4, 154; Eckert, Frontiersmen, 373-74; Eckert, Dark and Bloody River, 191; Kelsay, Joseph Brant, 457: Sword, President Washington’s Indian War, 187.

6.

Capt. Robert Bunti to St. Clair, Feb. 13. 1792, extract in Wallace A. Brice, History of Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne, Ind.: D. W. Jones & Son, 1868), 139n.; “Winthrop Sargent’s Diary,” 261; Draper Col., Newspaper Extracts, 4JJ, Dec. 26, 1791; Harvey L. Carter, The Life and Times of Little Turtle, First Sagamore of the Wabash (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 108; Richard H. Kohn, The Eagle and the Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America. 1783-1802 (New York: The Free Press, 1975), 116; Guthman, March to Massacre, 243-44; Hurt, Ohio Frontier. 118; Jones, William Clark, 11; Jacobs, Beginnings of U.S. Army, 109-11.

7.

Sword, President Washington’s Indian War, 255; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA

8.

thesis, 113-14.

Simon Gratz, “Biography of General Richard Butler.” PMHB, 7 (1883): 10; Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 114-15.

9.

Mary Butler to Washington, Jan. 6, 1792, AWP, Pres. Series, 9: 387n.

10.

BFA, 163, 168; Pozar, Richard Butler, 42-43n.

11.

Richard Butler’s Will, in BFA, l5l-54 and Remensky, “Richard Butler, MA thesis, 130-35.

12.

Washington to Mary Butler, Jan. 6, 1792, AWP, Pres. Series, 9: 386,

13.

Mary Butler to Washington, Dec. 22, 1791,ibid., 386 and n.

14.

Mary Butler to Washington, Jan. 27, ibid., 387n.

15.

Pozar, Richard Butler, 38.

CHAPTER 17 1.

Letter from a gentleman in Richmond, Dec. 1, 1791, in Maryland Journal, Dec. 13, 1791, Draper Coll., 4JJ, Newspaper Extracts, 206; “Winthrop

Notes Sargent’s Diary,” 254, 262-63;

203 Frazer E. Wilson, Arthur St. Clair:

Rugged Ruler of the Old Northwest (Richmond: Garrett and Massie, 1944), 82. 2.

Jacobs, Beginnings of U.S. Army, 116-18.

3.

John Marshall, The Life of George Washington, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Crissy & Markley, 1854), 222-23.

4.

Ward, Department of War, 140-41. The initial House of Representatives report is published in SCP, 2: 286-89.

5.

Testimony of Capt. Slough, SCP, 2: 623-35.

6.

St. Clair to the Secretary of War, Jan. 22, 1792, ibid., 2: 278.

7.

Major E. M. Butler to St. Clair, n.d., ibid., 280.

8.

St. Clair to Major Edward Butler, Mar. 3, 1792, ibid., 2: 281-82.

9.

Horsman, Matthew Elliott, 69; Billington and Ridge, Westward Expansion, 220-21, 227.

10.

Thomas Jefferson to George Muter, Nov. 17, 1791, JP: 22: 303.

11.

St. Clair to Washington, April 7, 1792, SCP, 2: 286; Knox to Wayne, April 12 and

Wayne to Knox, April 13, 1792, Richard C, Knopf, ed.,

Anthony Wayne: A Name in Arms—The

Wayne-Knox-Pickering

Correspondence (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1960), 15-17; Ward, Department of War, l42-44; Rufus King, Ohio: First Fruits of the Ordinance of 1787 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1888), 247. 12.

Jemison and Schein, Treaty of Canandaigua, 54-56; Ward, Department of War, 172-73.

APPENDIX A “THE FIGHTING BUTLER BROTHERS” 1.

Quoted in W. R. Conrad, From Terror to Freedom in the Cumberland Valley (Greencastle, Pa.: Lilian S. Besore Memorial Library, 1976), 94.

2.

“Military Journal of Denny,” 489; Pittsburgh Gazette, July 29 and Aug 5, 1825, Draper Coll. 4JJ, Newspaper Extracts.

When Fate Summons

204 3.

George Morgan to Bayton and Wharton, Dec. 11, 1767 and Oct. 30, 1768, Clarence W.

Alvord and Clarence E. Carter, eds., Trade and Politics,

1767-1769, British Series, vol. 3 (Springfield Ill.: Ill. State Hist. Society, 1921), 3: 132 and 438; Nicholas B. Wainwright, George Crogan: Wilderness Diplomat (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), 235 4.

Pozar, Richard Butler, 175-76,

5.

Heitman, Register, 138.

6.

“William Butler,” in BFA, 176-77; Samuel S. Smith, The Battle of Brandywine

(Monmouth Beach, N.J.: Philip Freneau Press, 1976), 30.

7.

Ibid., 178.

8.

Rev. David Craft, “Historical Address,” in Frederick Cook, ed., Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971, orig. pub. 1887), 373n.

9.

“William Butler’s Journal,” in Hugh Hastings, ed., Public Papers of George Clinton, vol. 4 (Albany: James B. Lyon, 1900), 222-28; Mintz, Seeds of Empire, 66-68; Joseph R. Fischer, A Well-Executed Failure; The Sullivan Campaign against the Iroquois, July-September 1779 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997), 29-30.

10.

Thomas E. Byrne, Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, 1779-1979: A Bicentennial Commemoration (Elmira: 1979), 19-22.

11.

Ibid., 26-29; Charles P. Whittemore, A General of the Revolution: John Sullivan of New Hampshire (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), 142; Mintz, Seeds of Empire, 110-11.

12.

Van Doren, Mutiny in January, 46-47; Nagy, Rebellion in the Ranks, 81; Trussell, Pennsylvania Line, 72.

13.

NG, 11; 31n.; Col. Francis Mentges to Greene, April 11, (extract) and Major Evan

Edwards to Greene, Aug. 30, 1782 (extract), NG, 11: 603n.

and 602, resp.; Greene’s Orders, July 7, 1782, NG, 11: 410; Johnston, Yorktown Campaign, 112-16; Nagy, Rebellion in the Ranks, 138; Pozar,

Notes

205

Richard Butler, 61-62; BFA, 187-95; Mulkearn,

Traveler’s Guide . ..

Western Pennsylvania, 45; Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage, 69-70. 14.

BFA. 199-201; Heitman, Register. 138.

15.

SCP, 1: 377n.; Smith, Battle of Monmouth, 32.

16.

BFA, 202; Heitman, Register, 138.

17.

BFA, 203-21.

18.

Ibid., 203-4.

19.

Ibid., 204-5; Murray, “Butlers of Cumberland Valley,” 12.

20.

BFA, 207; Prucha, American Indian Treaties, 89; Pittsburgh Gazette Jan. 7, 1825 (extract), Draper Coll., 4JJ, Newspaper Extracts.

21.

BFA, 207.

22.

Ibid., 199, 207-21; Murray, “Butlers of Cumberland Valley,” 13-15; Pozar, Richard Butler, 38-39, Donald R. Hickey, “The United States Army versus Long Hair: The Trials of Colonel Thomas Butler, 18011805,” PMHB, 101 (1977): 462-74.

23.

BFA, 231-32; Smith,

Battle of Brandywine, 31; Smith, Battle of

Monmouth, 27; Thomas M. Green,

Historic Families of Kentucky

(Baltimore: Regional Publishing Co., 1966, orig.pub. 1889), 264. 24.

BFA, 231-32.

25.

Ibid., 232-35.

26.

Ibid., Green, Historic Families of Kentucky, 265-66; Linn, Butler Family of Pennsylvania Line, 4.

27.

BFA, 232; Green, Historic Families of Kentucky, 232.

28.

BFA, 281.

29.

Ibid., 285, 290.

30.

Ibid., 282.

31.

Ibid., Wayne to Knox, Sept. 28, 1792, in Knopf, ed., A Name in Arms, 108-9; Heitman, Register, 137.

32.

BFA, 285-8.

33.

Ibid., 286; Kentucky Gazette, June 28, 1803, Draper Coll., U4, Newspaper

When Fate Summons

206 Extracts. APPENDIX B THREE SENECA FRIENDS Guyasuta l.

Guyasuta’s biography here is based primarily on C. Hale Sipes, The Indian Chiefs of Pennsylvania (Lewisburg, Pa.: 1999, orig. pub. 1927), 371-408 and Thomas S. Abler, “Guyasuta,”

ANB,

9:

750-51.

Variations

of

Guyasuta’s name include: Geyesutha, Gi-yo- so-do, Kayashuta, Kayashota, and Kayahsotha. 2.

James Titus, The Old Dominion in War: Society, Politics, and Welfare (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991), 123; Louis M. Waddell, “Easton Conference,” CWNA, 189.

3.

Abler, “Guyasuta,” 751; Downes, Council Fires of Upper Ohio, 171-73. 4. Anthony F. Wallace, The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca (New York: Vintage Books, orig. pub. 1970), 122.

5.

“Cornplanter,” 52.

6

Rev. David Zeisberger to Col. David Brodhead, May 1, 1786, Louise P. Kellogg, ed., Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 1779-1781 (Madison: State Historical of Society of Wisconsin, 1917), 189-91 and n.; Downes, Council Fires on Upper Ohio, 274; Colin G. Calloway,

The

American

Resolution in Indian Country (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 63. 7.

Treaty of Fort Harmar, Jan. 9, 1789, Carter, ed., Territorial Papers, 2: 184.

8.

Wayne to Knox, Sept. 14, 1792, Knopf, ed., A Name in Arms, 97-98.

9.

Wayne to Knox, Oct. 26, 1792, ibid., 122.

10.

Wayne to Knox, Mar. 15, 1793, ibid., 203.

11.

Quote in Eckert, Dark and Bloody River, 587.

12.

Wallace, Death and Rebirth of the Seneca, 188.

Notes

207

Big Tree 1.

William Ketchum, An Authentic and Comprehensive History of Buffalo (St. Clair Shores, Mich.: Scholarly Press, 1970, orig. pub 1864), 306-7.

2.

Ibid., 308-9; Thomas S. Abler, Chainbreaker: The Revolutionary War Memoirs of

Governor Blacksnake (Lincoln:

University of Nebraska

Press, 1989), 110-11; Barbara Graymount, The Iroquois in the American Revolution (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1972), 180; Mintz, Seeds of Empire, 139-40. 3.

Ketchum, History of Buffalo, 40-47.

4.

Abler, Chainbreaker, 238-59 and Appendix; Christopher Densmore, Red Jacket (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1999), 34.

5.

Wayne to Knox, Mar. 15, 1793 and Jan. 25, 1794, Knopf, ed., A Name in Arms, 203, 303-304.

6.

Wayne to Knox, Jan. 25, 1794, ibid., 304-5; Abler, Cornplanter, 95.

Cornplanter 1.

Abler, Cornplanter. 36-37, 67.

2.

Abler,

“Cornplanter,”

ANB,

5:

529;

Sipe,

Indian

Chiefs

of

Pennsylvania,458-59. 3.

Sipe, Indian Chiefs of Pennsylvania, 459-61.

4.

Abler, Cornplanter, 72-73.

5.

Ibid,. 73-75, 77-78.

6.

Abler, “Cornplanter,” 529.

7.

Abler, 79-83; Sipe, Indian Wars of Pennsylvania, 693; Sipe, Indian Chiefs of Pennsylvania, 470; Jemison and Schein, Treaty of Canandaigua, 24659.

8.

Abler, Cornplanter, 89, 92.

9.

Sipe, Indian Chiefs of Pennsylvania, 465-66.

10.

Remensky, “Richard Butler,” MA thesis, 114.

When Fate Summons

208 11.

Abler, Cornplanter, 151-55, l84-85; Wallace, Death and Rebirth of the Seneca, 167.

12.

Sipe, Indian Wars of Pennsylvania, 7l7, including quote.

13.

Abler, Cornplanter, 190.

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INDEX Albany, N.Y., 64 Allegheny Arsenal, 116 Allegheny County, Pa., 103 American Revolution, 135 Apple Tree (chief), 10 Appleby, Pa., 116 Archer, Capt. Henry, 36 Arnold, Benedict, 15, 22, 30, 37, Ashmead, Capt. Jacob, 36, 37 Atlee, Samuel J., 40, 58, 69, 153 Aweecanny, 77 Baltimore, 95 Baylor, Col. George, 29 Baynton, Wharton and Morgan firm, 5, 9, 125 Bemis Heights, battle of, see Saratoga, battle Bergen Heights Blockhouse, skirmish at, 37 Bettin, Capt. Adam, 40, 127 Big Cat, 153 Big Tree (chief), 95, 136-39, 140 Bird, Col. James, 134 Black Eagle, 110 Black Wolf (chief), 10 Bland, Dr. Theodorick, 40 Blue Jacket, 81, 110 Bolivar, Ohio, 10 Boudinot, Elias, 61, 190 Bound Brook, N.J., 16 Bouquet, Col. Henry, 3, 4 Braddock, Gen. Edward, 133 Brandywine, battle of, 17, 21, 28, 126, 128, 130 Brant, Joseph (chief), 65, 89, 96, 115, 126

Brodhead, Col. Daniel, 15, 135-136 Brush Cree, P., 135 Burgoyne, Gen. John, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Burwell's Ferry, Va., 48 Bushy Run, battle of, 134 Butler, Anthony Wayne, 132 Butler, Caroline, 132 Butler, Edward (2) (grandnephews), 131 Butler, Maj. Edward, 59, 108, 110 114-16, 121, 125, 129, 131-32 Butler, Edward George Washington, 132 Butler, Eleanor (grandniece), 131 Butler, Eleanor II, 129 Butler, Eliza Eleanor, 132 Butler, Emeline, 132 Butler, Frances Maria, 131 Butler, Harriet, 128 Butler, Isabella Fowler, 132 Butler, James (son) (1) 90, (2), 91 Butler, James Richard, 116 Butler, Jane Carmichael, 128 Butler, Jane Hawkins, 131 Butler, Lydia, 129 Butler, Mary (Maria Smith), wife, 73, 85, 116-117 Butler, Mary Langford, 131 Butler, Mildred Hawkins, 131 Butler, Percival, 130-131 Butler, Rebecca, 128 Butler, Richard (nephew), 129, 132 Butler, Gen. Richard brigadier general, 61 brigadier general of levies, 101 Corps of Rangers, 18

230

When Fate Summons

culpability in St. Clair's defeat, 111-12, 121-22 Indian agent, 9-16 Indian commisssioner, 64-67, 6975, 77-84 Indian languages, 13, 91-92 Indian trade, 85-86, 125, see also Indian trade mortally wounded and death, 114, 129, 132, 141 mutiny, 39-42, 57-60 Pennsylvania political offices, 90, 100-101 rifle corps, 17-24, see also rifleman: in St. Clair's Indian campaign, 103-23 Stony Point, 33-36 Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 85-90 Valley Forge and battle of Monmouth, 25-28 Virginia Campaign, 45-54 will, 116-17 Butler’s Third Regiment, 61 Butler's Fourth Regiment, 126, 128 Carlisle, Pa., 30, 42, 54-55, 63, 69, 73, 81, 85-87, 89, 116-17, 125, 129-31, 140 Caghnawaugas, 66 Call, Maj. Richard, 45 Carberry, Capt. Henry, 59, 60 Carlisle Barracks, 102 Carpenter (chief), 82-83 Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, 60 Carrollton, Ky., 131 Catherine, Empress of Russia, 91 Cayugas, 65, 67, 127, 148, 168 Chambers, James, 6 Charles, II, 1 Charleston, S.C., 54 Cherokees, 7, 9, 64, 83, 110, 129 Cherry Valley Massacre, 127, 137 Chester County, Pa., 2

Chillicothe, Ohio, 5 Chippewas, 69, 70, 73, 82, 96, 150, 160, 161 Chisksika, 81 Christie, Capt. James, 58 Clark, George Rogers, 64, 69, 70, 71, 73, 78, 79, 81, 86, 153, 160; invades Indian country, 86, 152, 157 Clarksville, Ind., 86 Clinton, Gen. Henry, 26-27 Clinton, Gen. James 127 Clinton, Gov. George, 19-31, 41 Cobb, Col David, 49 Cochran, Maj. Robert, 137 Committee for Indian Affairs, 13 Conanaugus (Avon, N.Y.) 139 Conesus, N.Y., 137 Congressional Board of War, 3 Connolly, Dr. John, 6, 7 Continental Congress, ix, 8, 9, 12, 147, 158 Cooper’s Ferry, 26 Cooperstown, N.Y., 127 Cornplanter, 65, 67, 81, 82, 83, 87, 89, 90, 95, 116, 136-138, 140-143, 171 Cornstalk, chief, 7, 8, 12 Cornwallis, Gen. Charles, 16, 22, 23, 26, 44-46, 51, 52, 53 Corps of Rangers, 17, 18 Coshhocton, Ohio, 10 Cosshochking, 10, 12 Cottingham, Sgt. Henry, 30 Craig, Col. Thomas, 54 Cumberland Country, Pa., 81 Darke, Col. William, 109, 113 Dearborn, Col. Henry, 20, 21 Declaration of Independence, 128 Delaware River forts, 22 Delawares, 3, 7, 10, 12, 13, 22, 23, 26, 34, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 78, 80, 82, 83, 89, 91, 96, 110, 136-140, 150, 151, 153, 157, 160, 161, 166

Index Denny, Maj. Ebenezer, 54, 114, 119, 166, 170 Detroit, 116 Deux-Ponts, Col. Guillaume, 53 DeWeese, Samuel, 42, 44 Dickinson, John, 59, 60 Dorchester, S.C., 57 Donop, Capt. Karl von, 29 Douw, Volkert P., 9 Dublin, Ire., 128 Dumas, Col. Mathieu, comte de, 49 Dunboyne, Baronet, 1 Dundas, Lt. Col. Thomas, 47 Dunmore, Gov. Lord, ix, 5, 6, 8 Dunmore’s War, 7, 8 Edwards, John, 11 Edwards, Timothy, 9, 11 Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, 16 Elizabethtown, N.J., 40 Elliott, Daniel, 90 Ellsworth, Oliver, 59 Erie Triangle, Pa., 90 Evans, Griffith, 70 Ewald, Capt. Johann, 23, 46 executions (military), 41-44, 57, 61, 107 Fallen Timbers, battle of, 123, 131 Febiger, Lt.Col. Christian, 34, 35 Finney, Capt. Walter, v, vi, 73, 74, 77, 81, 156, 158 Finnie, Col. William, 48 First New York Regiment, 27 Fleury, Lt. Col. François Louis de, 31 Fort Bedford, 69 Fort Blair, 12 Fort Chartres, 125 Fort Defiance, 126-27 Fort Duquesne, 133-34 Fort Fayette, 125, 129 Fort Finney, 80, 81 Fort Finney Treaty, 82

231 Fort Franklin (Franklin, Pa.), 102 Fort Hamilton, 103-105 Fort Harmar, 71, 95, 96, 98, 161, 165, 168, 170; see also Treaty of Fort Harmar Fort Jefferson, 107, 119 Fort Lafayette, 31, 36 Fort LeBeouf, 15, 134 Fort Littleton, 69 Fort Loudoun, 3 Fort McIntosh, 116, see Treaty of Fort McIntosh Fort Miami, 122 Fort Michilimackinac, 71, 165 Fort Montgomery, 31 Fort Pitt, ix, 4-6, 10, 13, 14, 71, 72, 102, 120, 134, 135, 139, 140, 141, 176, 178, See also Pittsburgh Fort Presque Isle, 15, 134 Fort Recoverty, 116, 123 Fort Stanwix, 137 siege of, 135, 140 see Treaty of Fort Stanwix Fort Venango, 134, 191 Fort Vincennes, 88 Fort Washington, N.Y., 99, 102, 103, 105, 107, 108, 119, 126, 129 Fourth Continental Artillery Regiment, 42 Francis, Turbutt, 9, 27, 69 Franco-American Treaty (1778), 70 Franklin, Benjamin, 9 Fredericksburg, Va., 44 Freeman's Farm, battle of, see Saratoga, battle of French and Indian War, ix, 2, 12, 84, 133, 134 French Navy, 47-49, 51 Gaither, Maj. Henry, 114, 117 Gallatin, Albert, 101 Gallatin County, Ky., 131 Gallipolis, 103 Gaskins, Lt. Col. Thomas, 44

232

When Fate Summons

Gates, Gen. Horatio, 17, 10-22 Germantown, battle of, 17, 126, 130 Giantwahia, 140 Gibson, Col. George, 110 Gibson, John, 9, 90, 96, 110, 170 Glasson, Surgeon Edward, 114-15 Gloucester, N.J., skirmish, 22-23 Gloucester Point, Va., 51; see also Yorktown, battle of Goznell, Sgt. George, 57 Graham, Capt. John, 29 Grant, Maj. James, 133-34 Grasse, Adm. François, comte de, 48-49 Grasshopper (chief), 65 Graves, Lt. Col. John, x, 45 Green Spring, battle of, 47 Greene, Gen. Nathanael, vii, 16, 22, 23, 35, 42, 54, 57, 64, 132, 173, 179 Greensville, Ohio, 108 Grey, Gen. Charles, 29 Guyasuta, 10-13, 87, 134-137, 140 Half-King, 89 Half Town, 95, 138, 171 Hamilton, Ohio, 103 Hamilton, Alexander, 59, 104 Hamtramck, Maj. John, 108, 119 Hannastown, Pa., 135 Hanover County, Va., 45 Hardin, Col. John, 99-100 Harmar, Gen. Josiah, defeat, v, vi, 29, 55, 69, 71, 88, 96, 97, 99-101, 103, 110, 136, 138, 141, 154, 160, 167, 170 Hartshorn, Ensign Philip, 99 Hawkins, Benjamin, 92, 131 Hawley, Joseph, 9 Hay, Lt. Col. Samuel, 18 Hay, Lt. Col. Udny, 31 Hendricks, Capt. James, 3 Hendricks, Lt. Col. Turbutt, 3 Hengue Pushees (chief), 153

Henry, Col. Patrick, 9 Henry, William, 3, 59 Herbert, Lt. Stewart, 60 Hessian troops, 19, 23, 29 Higginson, Stephen, 64 Hill, Aaron (chief), 66 Hodgdon, QMG Samuel, 65, 103, 120, 121 Howe, Gen. Robert, 60, 72 Howe, Gen. William, 17, 19, 60, 61, 72 Hull, Maj. William, 34 Humpton, Col. Richard, 42 Hutchins, Capt. Thomas, 91 Illinois Country, 4 Indian Camp Run, 96 Indian conferences, 1786-87, 87 Indian trade, 4-7, 97, 125 Iroquois, ix, 9, 12, 13, 14, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 81, 87, 96, 115, 127, 134-136, 138, 139, 140, 141 Irvine, Col./Gen. William, 18, 41, 54 Irwin, Pa., 81 Isle of Wight Country, Va., 48 Jackson, Andrew, 130-32 Jackson, Col. Henry, 26, 59, 130, 131, 132 Jackson, William, 59 Jacksonborough, S.C., 54 Jacobite, 1, 175 Jefferson, Thomas, 107, 119, 122 Jessamine County, Ky., 131 John O’Beel, 140 Johnson, Col. Francis, 69 Johnson, Col. Guy, 10, 134 Johnson, Lt.Col. Henry, 10, 33, 35, 69, 135 Johnson, Sir William, 134 Jones, David, 5 Kekewepellethy, 78, 79 Kelelamand, 153 Kentucky militia, 86, 103, 108, 109

Index Kickapoos, 96 Killbuck, John, 91 Kinzua Dam, 143 Kispoko, 5 Knox, Henry, vii, 88-89, 99, 100, 102, 103, 119, 120; see also Secretary at/of War Knoxville, 129-30 Lafayette, Gen. Marquis de, 22, 23, 28, 31, 42, 44-49, 51, 52, 53, 65, 71, 91, 92, 130 Lancaster, Ohio, 12 Lancaster, Pa., 2-3, 42, 57-60, 128 Lauzan, Col. Armand-Louis, duc de, 51 Lear, Tobias, 120 Ledyard, Maj. Benjamin, 27, 29 Lee, Arthur, 63, 64, 67, 70, 72, 148, 160, 168 Lee, Capt. Henry, 23, 24, 27-29, 64, 65, 71, 153 Lee, Gen. Charles, 26, 100; court martial, 27, 28 Lee, Richard Henry, 81 Legion of the United States, 122 Legionville, 136 Lewis, Gen. Andrew, 8, 12, 14 Lexington, Ky., 131 light infantry, 31-37 Light Infantry Corps, 33 Lincoln, Gen. Benjamin, 16, 51, 52, 58, 64 Little Turtle, 110 Logan, Gen. Benjamin, invades Indian coutnry, 86 London, Eng., 125 Louisville, Ky., 86 Loyalhanna, 134 Mackay, Col. Aeneas, 15 Madison, James, 65, 149 Marietta, Ohio, 71, 94, 103 Martin, Sgt. Joseph Plumb, 2 Mason, John, 41

233 Mathew, Gen. Edward, 16 Mathews, John, 40 Maxwell, Gen. William, 28 Maysville (Limestone), Ky., 74, 103 McCary, Hugh, 86 M'Clellan (chief), 10 McCully, George, 6, 10 McCully, Robert, 10 McFarlane, James, 6, 81 McPherson, Maj. William, 45, 46 Meason, Isaac, 116 Meigs, Col. Return Jonathan, 34, 35 Miamimmeeca, 77 Miamis, 73, 96, 98, 110 Miamitown, 110 Militia Act of 1792, 123 Mingoes, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 14, 83, 110, 134, 135 Mohawks, 64-66, 67, 87, 89, 96, 97, 115, 126, 141, 148, 168, 170 Molunthe, 80, 86 Monmouth, battle of, 26, 126, 128, 130 Monroe, James, 65, 73 Montgomery, Capt. Samuel, 58 Morgan, Col. Daniel, 17-20, 22, 23, 24, 125 Morgan, George, vii, ix, 9, 14, 2123, 125, 126 Morgan, Maj. John, 114 Morris, Maj. Jacob, 19 Morris, Lewis, 12 Morris, Robert, 57 Morrison, John, 60 Morristown, N.J., 39-40 Mount Pleasant, Pa., 2 Mount Vernon, Ohio, 10 Murfee, Maj. Hardy, 34, 35 Murphy,Timothy, 22 Muskingum camp, 4 mutiny, Pa. Line (1781), 39-44, 57, 127-28; Pa. troops (1783), 57-61; southern army, 57

234

When Fate Summons

Nagle, Sgt. Christian, 58, 60 Natchez district, 129 Nelson, Thomas, 51 New Arrow, 95, 171 New Bruswick, N.J., 16 Newburgh, N.Y., 60 Newcomer (chief), 10 New Orleans, 130-31 Newtown, battle of, 127 New Windsor, N.Y., 34 New York City, 82 Niagara Conference, 13 Nicholson, Thomas, 10 Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, 2427, 30, 37, 131 Northwest Territory, 70, 88, 95, 123 Ogden, James, 41 O'Hara, QMG James, 136 Ohio Indians, vi, ix, 6, 10, 13, 14, 63, 87, 89, 91, 132, 134-136, 141 Ojibwas, 110 Old Chillicothe, 12 Old Tappan, N.J., massacre, 29 Oldham, Lt. Col. William, 111, 112 Oneidas, 65-67, 127, 137, 138, 148, 168, 170 Onondagas, 67, 87, 148, 168 Oriskany, battle of, 135, 141 Ottawas, 12, 69, 70, 73, 82, 96, 110, 150, 151, 160, 161, 166 Paramus, N.J., 37 Paoli, battle of, 17, 126 Parker, Eleanor, 1 Parker, Thomas, 1 Parsons, Gen. Samuel Holden, 7273, 74, 78, 81, 83, 157, 158 Paterson, Gen. John, 60 Pattiwatimas, 165 Penn, Gov. John, 4, 6, 90 Pennsylvania Continental, 57, 58 Pennsylvania’s Council of Censors, 61

Peters, Richard, 59 Petersburg, Va., 44 Philadelphia, 2, 22, 42, 58, 60, 82, 95, 119 Piankashaws, 4 Pipe, Captain (chief), 89 Pittsburgh, 2-3, 7, 11-12, 69, 73, 81, 87-91, 98, 103, 125, 128-29, 133; treaty conference at, 13-14, 134 Pluggy (chief), 10 Pluggy's Town (Delaware, Ohio), 10 Point Pleasant, battle of 12 Pontiac, 4, 12, 134, 135 Poor, Gen. Enoch, 21 Posey, Maj. Thomas, 31 Potawatomis, 73, 96, 110, 165 Potter, James, 40 Princeton, N.J., 40, 60-61 Proclamation of 1763, 4 Pryor, Caroline Butler, 131 Pulaski, Gen. Casimir, 25, 26 Putnam, Col. Rufus, 36 Queen's Rangers, 27, 45-47 Queensboro, N.Y., 34 Quibbletown, N.J., 16 Rangers, Corps of, 18-24 Reading, Pa., 42 Reed, Joseph, 40 Revolutionary War, 3, 6, 9, 13, 17, 67, 85, 99, 101, 125, 138, 140, 142 Richmond, Va., 47 Riflemen, 2, 17-24, 45-46, 109 Riedesel, Gen. Baron, 20 Robinson, James, 90 Rochambeau, Gen. comte de, 49, 51, 54 Roche de Boeuf, 98 Rome, N.Y., 64 Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 61 Sacs, 96, 165 Saint-Simon, Gen. Marquis de, 48, 49

Index Salisbury, N.C., 57 Saratoga, battle of, 19 Schuyler, Gen. Philip, 9, 64 Scott, Gen. Charles, x, 26-30, 103 Secretary at War, 58, 59, 85, 87, 88, 89, 99 Secretary of War, vii, 100, 101, 102, 108, 119, 120, 121 Senecas, v, 3, 10, 12-13, 65, 67, 8184, 89-90, 116, 134-142, 148, 168 Shaganaba, 12 Shandotto, 96, 97 Sharpsburg, Pa., 136 Shawnees, ix, 3, 5-8, 10, 12, 13, 7176, 77-80, 82, 83, 86, 91, 92, 9699, 110, 115, 125, 156, 157, 167 Sheldon, Col. Elisha, 29 Shippensburg, Pa., 69 Simcoe, Col. John G., 45-47 Six Nations, vi, 64, 67, 70, 97, 136, 142, 148, 149 Slough, Capt. Jacob, 110, 111, 121, 122 Smith, Col. William Stephens, 49 Society of the Cincinnati, 116, 142 Spencer’s Ordinary (Tavern), skirmish, 46, 130 Springfield, Tenn., 132 Springsteel, David, 35 St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, iv, 6, 37, 39, 54, 58- 59, 88-89, 95-113, 115117, 119-123, 129, 132, 141, 142, 152, 160-161, 168-169; Indian campaign, 102, 123, 129, 132, 141 St. John's (Canada), 19 Stephen, Gen. Adam, 12, 16, 64 Steuben, Gen. Wilhelm, baron von, 33, 49, 51-53 Stewart, Col. Walter, 29-42, 44, 47, 48, 49, 60 Stillwater, N.Y., 19 Stirling, Col. Thomas, 26 Stony Point, assault on, 31-36 Stuart, Charles Edward, 1

235 Sullivan, Gen. John, 40, 59, 60, 127, 136, 138, 141 Superintendent of Indian Affairs, v, 10, 85, 89, 135, 138 Tarleton, Lt. Col. Banastre, 47 Tecumseh, 81, 110 Tellico, Tenn., 129; treaty of, 132 Thames, battle of the, 123 Third Continental Virginia Regiment, 44 Third Virginia Dragoons, 29 Tioga, Pa., 127 Treaty of Big Tree, 141 Treaty of Camp Charlotte, 8 Treaty of Canadaigua, 141 Treaty of Easton, 134 Treaty of Fort Finney, 77-84, 14748, 155-57 Treaty of Fort Harmar, (1) 95-98, 135, 137, 159-165; (2) 167-171 Treaty at Fort McIntosh (1785), 6975, 82, 96, 140, 149-53 Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768), 66, 134; (1784), 63-72, 81, 96-97, 138, 147-48 Treaty of Paris (1783), 63, 70 Trenton, N.J., 40 Trumbull, Col. Jonathan, 49 Tuscaroras, 3. 10, 65, 67, 148 Twenty Canoes (chief), 95 Unadilla, 126-27 Valley Forge, x, 23, 25 Vealtown, N.J., 40 Virginia, invasion of, 44-54 Vobe, Mrs. Jane, 48 Wabash tribes, vii, 4, 73, 81, 86, 88, 96, 98, 103, 109, 157 Walker, Capt. Andrew, 58 Walker, Dr. Thomas, 12, 58 Walton, George, 129 Walton, Theobald, 1, 129

236

When Fate Summons

War of 1812, 143 Washington, George, 12, 15-23, 2628, 30-37, 39, 42, 48-49, 52-55, 60, 81, 90-93, 98-103, 105, 108, 117, 119-121, 125-126, 128-129, 132, 134-135, 138, 141-42, 154, 167 Wayne, Gen. Anthony, 25-26, 30, 32-37, 39-45, 47-48, 51-52, 54, 126, 128, 130-132, 136-142 West Point, N.Y., 33, 37, 63 Westchester County, N.Y., 29 Western tribes, 97, 166 Westmoreland, County, Pa., 101-03, 116, 135 Wharton,Thomas, 5, 9, 14, 25, 125 White Eyes, 12, 13, 153 Whiskey Insurrection, 125, 129 White Plains, N.Y., 29 Whitemarsh, 22, 23 Wicocalind, 153 Wilkinson, Gen. James, invades

Indian country, 103, 116, 130 Williams, Sgt. John, 40 Williamsburg, Va., 45-46, 48-49, 51, 54 Wilson, James, 9, 12, 13, 14, 128, 166 Wilson, Lt Col. George, 15 Windihala, 10 Witherspoon, John, 40 Wolcott, Oliver, 9, 63, 64, 65, 69, 72, 148 Wood, James, 12 Wolcott, Oliver, 167 Wyandots, 10, 11, 12, 14, 69, 70, 73, 74, 78, 80, 82, 89, 96, 97, 110, 160, 161, 166, 167 Wyllys, Maj. John P., 45 Yellow Creek massacre, 7 York, Pa., threatened mutiny 42-44 Yorktown, siege of, 48-54, 128, 130, 132