A sergeant and twelve men of the Highlanders sent from the fort, went through the neighborhood, saved the balance of the goods, captured several persons, five rifles and four smooth bore guns.
The traders, after losing their caravan, went back to the fort and complained to the commanding officer. It was then that three hundred riflemen marched to Fort Loudoun and encamped on the hill in sight of the fort.
James Smith, a relative of Justice Smith, and the captain who served with Bouquet, appeared in a few days at the head of a large crowd of his infuriated neighbors, and declared that they would suffer death to the last man, rather than let the prisoners be put to jail at Carlisle.
Two months later another caravan of horses laden with liquors, etc., for the troops at Fort Pitt, under a pass from the commander there, arrived at Fort Loudoun, about May 1, and were relieved of their burden in the fort. The drivers led their horses out to pasture, when about thirty men, with their faces painted black, rushed upon them, flogged the drivers, killed five horses and burned all the saddles. In the battle which ensued one of the attacking party was wounded.
Again Captain James Smith led his neighbors to the fort. He was accompanied by three Justices who demanded right to search the goods in store there, but intended for transportation to Fort Pitt.
Lieutenant Charles Grant, of the Highlanders, commandant of the fort, explained that the general had committed the goods to his care, but had ordered an inventory to be taken before a justice of the peace, but this inventory could not be taken in the presence of a mob.
The vigilance men threw off the restraints of decent appearance by issuing the following:
“Advertisement. These are to give notice to all our Loyal Volunteers to those that has not yet inlisted, you are to come to our Town and come to our Tavern and fill your Belly’s with Liquor and your mouth with swearing, and you will have your pass, but if not, your Back must be whipt and mouth gagged. * * * We will have Grant, the officer of Loudoun, whip’d or hanged. * * * The Governor will pardon our Crimes, and the Clergy will give-us absolution, and the Country will stand by us; so we may do what we please. * * * free toleration for drinking, swearing, sabbath breaking, and any outrage what we have a mind to, to let those Strangers know their place. * * * We call it Hell’s town, in Cumberland County, the 25th May, 1765. Peter’s Township.”
The crowning deed was reserved for May 28. Lieutenant Grant, while riding about a mile from the fort, was fired upon. His horse started suddenly at the crack of the rifle and he was thrown off. Captain James Smith and others seized him, carried him six miles distant and kept him a prisoner all night in the woods. He was there threatened unless he agreed to give up all the arms taken from the rioters.
Governor Penn and General Gage were humiliated by these insults to the King’s uniform and their inability to punish the offenders, but the more serious concern was in the obstruction of the communication for traders with their goods to reach the Illinois country, where the French across the Mississippi, were ready to obtain an influence by commerce.