Whoever was to blame, or whoever committed the bloodthirsty deed, matters not, but the fact remains that the Delaware Indians were treacherous and none of them more so than King Tedyuskung and his sons, especially Captain Bull, the perpetrator of this horrible massacre.
First Terrible Massacre of Settlers at Penn’s
Creek, October 16, 1755
The year 1755 was anything but one of promise for the English[English] colonies in America. The French were aggressively pushing their domain from Canada southward toward the Mississippi Valley, and what was more alarming to the English was the effort of the French to gain a foothold in the region of the Allegheny Mountains, in what is now Western Pennsylvania.
Three great rivers virtually determined the strategic situation of the territory involved between these two great nations. The Hudson River Valley was held by the English, the Susquehanna River Valley by the Six Nations of the great Indian Confederation and the Allegheny River Valley by French, along the banks of which a chain of French forts had been erected. Fort Duquesne, at the forks of the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers, where Pittsburgh now stands, was the principal defense of that valley.
In the spring of 1755 the expedition was fitted out which made the ill-fated march against Fort Duquesne and resulted in the defeat of General Edward Braddock, July 9.
This defeat was a terrible disaster and left the frontiers of Pennsylvania threatened with ruin by victorious French and their savage allies, who pressed through the passes of the Blue Mountains on the heels of the fleeing British regulars.
The main body of the French encamped on the Susquehanna River near where the borough of Liverpool now stands, thirty miles above Harris’ Ferry, where they extended themselves on both sides of the main river.
Braddock’s defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which had been expected would inflict a decisive blow upon the French, but it gave the signal to the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the province the scene of predatory warfare in which many sections of the Susquehanna Valley were severely scourged.