When this party found itself caught in an ambuscade, word was quickly passed for each man to save himself, thus enabling a few to escape.
Every male in the fort had been taken prisoner and started toward Niagara where the few who survived the hardship of the forced march and the privations of the long imprisonment, remained until after the close of the war, when they rejoined the surviving members of their families.
In and about Fort Freeland, as a result of the attack 108 settlers were killed or led away as prisoners of war, not by Indians, but by the organized militia of Great Britain.
Fifty-two women and children, and four old men, were permitted to depart for Fort Augusta. Among the latter was John Vincent, who was permitted to care for his crippled wife. But Bethuel, Cornelius and Daniel Vincent were taken prisoners. Among others taken to Canada, who also lived to return to their families, were Captain John Little, James Daugherty, Moses Kirk, James Durham, Samuel Gould and two of the Freelands.
The enemy ravaged the country in the vicinity of the fort and burned and destroyed everything they could find. They advanced as far as Milton, where they burned Marcus Huling’s blacksmith shop, mill and dwelling house. The country presented a scene of desolation, and it remained in this condition for several years, the settlers being afraid to return.
This heavy toll of human life, to which should also be added the killed and wounded among the British and their Indian allies, numbering possibly as many more, marks a definite battle of the Revolution; with the magazines and stores at Fort Augusta and the cutting off of the rear of General Sullivan’s army, as the object of the attack.
First Newspaper West of the Allegheny
Mountains, the Gazette, of Pittsburgh,
Established July 29, 1786
The first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains was the Pittsburgh Gazette which made its initial bow to the public, July 29, 1786, and today, one hundred and thirty-eight years later, it is the largest paper published in the world’s greatest industrial district.