General Clark Began Draft for Troops in
Drive Against Detroit, March 3, 1781
The Western frontiers of Pennsylvania were sorely distressed during the spring and summer of 1781 by the efforts of General George Rogers Clark, an officer of the Dominion of Virginia, to raise troops for an expedition in the interest of Virginia against the British post at Detroit.
Clark received a commission as brigadier general and was given ample funds with which to purchase provisions in the country west of the Allegheny Mountains. Also a small force of 140 Virginia regulars was placed at his service and he was empowered to equip additional volunteers in the border counties.
Agents were sent in advance of General Clark into the country between the Laurel Hill range and the Ohio River, who began to buy flour and live cattle. This caused much uneasiness among the Pennsylvania militiamen stationed in that country, and Colonel Daniel Brodhead made complaint to the State Government.
Colonel Brodhead received a letter from General Washington directing him to give aid to General Clark’s undertaking and to detach from his own force the field artillery under command of Captain Isaac Craig, and at least a captain’s command of infantry, to assist the Virginia expedition.
General Clark arrived on the Pennsylvania frontier March 3 and established his headquarters at the house of Colonel William Crawford, on the Youghiogheny, spending part of his time with Colonel Dorsey Pentecost on Chartiers Creek.
It was generally known by this time that all of Virginia county of Yohogania and much of the counties of Monongahela and Ohio, claimed as part of Virginia, really belonged to Pennsylvania, but the actual boundary line had not been surveyed west of the Monongahela River.
Among the settlers there were many factions, some who would only obey the laws of Pennsylvania, and who declared that Clark was a Virginia officer and had no business in Pennsylvania; others adhered to Virginia authority until the line should be permanently settled. A few took advantage of the situation and refused to obey either government saying they did not know which had authority over them, and they had enough to do to plant and keep their rifles in readiness for the savages.
Clark intended to raise a force of 2,000 men. When he arrived at Colonel Crawford’s he learned that the frontiers were being raided by bands of Shawnee from the Scioto, Delaware from the Muskingum and Wyandot from the Sandusky.
An expedition against those tribes would be more popular among the Western Pennsylvanians than a campaign against distant Detroit, and Clark very adroitly made an ostensible change in his plans. He gave it out that he was going against the Ohio savages, for the immediate benefit of the Westmoreland frontier, but his real design to conquer Detroit was not altered.
Colonel Brodhead was not for one moment deceived by General Clark, but many Pennsylvania officials were. On March 23 Clark wrote to President Reed, of Pennsylvania, asking his indorsement of the enterprise, for the effect it might have on the frontiersmen who called themselves Pennsylvanians.
Colonel Christopher Hays, the Westmoreland County member of the Supreme Executive Council, was directed to aid Clark’s expedition, but he was at heart opposed to it.
Colonel Hays called a meeting of all the commissioned officers of the Westmoreland militia to arrange a plan for the frontier defense. The officers met June 18, at the home of Captain John McClelland, on Big Sewickley Creek, and, much to the chagrin of Colonel Hays, decided by a majority vote to give aid to General Clark. It was resolved to furnish 300 men out of the county militia to join Clark’s army and Colonel Lochry was directed to see that this quota was raised by “volunteer or draft.”
This was the initial effort on the Pennsylvania frontier to raise soldiers by draft and it caused an outcry.
Such prominent citizens as Colonel Pentecost, John Canon, Gabriel Cox and Daniel Leet worked zealously to recruit men for General Clark, while county lieutenant Marshel and his adherents were just as active to defeat the Virginian project. This rivalry, which grew exceedingly bitter, was fatal to Clark’s enterprise.
Few assembled at the general rendezvous, and Clark began to draft men for his army. This afforded the rougher element among the Virginians an opportunity to exploit their hatred toward Pennsylvanians. The draft proceeded amid pillage, cruelty and personal violence. Virginian raiding parties scoured the country, seizing and beating men, frightening and abusing women, breaking into houses and barns and causing a general reign of terror.
Captain John Hardin was most vigorous in denouncing the Virginia proceedings and advising against the draft. He owned a grist mill near Redstone. His eldest son, John, was a lieutenant in the Eighth Pennsylvania, afterward famous as General John Hardin, of Kentucky.
At the head of forty horsemen General Clark visited Hardin’s settlement and announced his purpose of hanging the stubborn old pioneer. Hardin could not be found, but one of his sons was caught and kept bound for several days. They broke open the mill, fed the grain to their horses, occupied his dwelling, killed his sheep and hogs for food and feasted there several days.
General Clark declared Hardin’s estate forfeited for treason. The general threatened to hang those opposed to the draft, but none were hanged.
On August 8, Clark began the descent of the Ohio with a force of 400, but with his spirit broken. The evening of the day he left Colonel Archibald Lochry arrived with 100 volunteers from Westmoreland County. These expert riflemen could have been used to advantage by Clark and at the same time they would have avoided the disaster which befell Lochry during his effort to join Clark.
Most of Clark’s force deserted him before he reached Louisville, so that he could not venture upon his march into the enemy’s country. He soon returned with small detachments, who dispersed to their homes in Virginia and Pennsylvania.