Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

When the boats nearly reached the opposite shore they were, without warning, fired upon by Captain Lazarus Stewart and his men, who were concealed in the thick brush on the river’s bank.

Two or three men in the first boat were wounded, one of whom, Jesse Lukens, subsequently died. All the occupants of the boat would have been killed, probably, had not Harvey made his presence known to the Yankees. The boats were hurriedly backed astern, whereby they safely shot through the rifles and into the pool at Harvey’s Landing. Thus ended the occurrences of Sunday.

Early in the morning of Monday, which was Christmas, the Pennamites were astir. Colonel Plunket formed his men and marched them into two divisions toward the breastworks held by the Yankees. While one division stormed the works, the other ascended the mountain on their left in an attempt to turn the right flank of Colonel Butler’s defenders.

The conflict lasted, with frequent cessations, during the greater part of the day, and on the part of the Yankees three or four men were killed and three times as many more wounded. Toward the close of the day Colonel Plunket realized that the position of the Yankees was too strong to be carried by assault and he ordered a retreat down the west side of the river.

In this movement he was closely pursued by Captain Stewart and his party on the east side of the river, who determined, if possible, to capture at least one of the boats of the Pennamites. But Harvey, who was still a prisoner, called to them not to fire. So the expedition was permitted to float peaceably downstream toward Fort Augusta.

Colonel Zebulon Butler reported the battle to the Connecticut authorities under date of December 27, 1775, and stated the losses among the Plunket forces to have been fifty or sixty dead and wounded and that two were killed and three wounded of his own party and that one had since died.

The Pennamites reported the affair quite differently. William Scull, the Sheriff; Samuel Harris, Coroner; William Plunket, Samuel Hunter, Michael Troy and John Weitzel, Justices, wrote to Governor Penn under date Sunbury, December 30, 1775, in which they related the expedition as one to serve legal processes. They blamed the Yankees for firing upon the Sheriff’s posse without warning, and even with firing on the wounded as they retreated down the river.

The Governor transmitted this letter to the Provincial Assembly and asked them to pay the bills.

Four days after the battle the inhabitants of Westmoreland assembled in town meeting, elected officers and appointed a committee to repair to Philadelphia to “lay before the Honorable Continental Congress an account of the late invasion made by the Tory Party of the Pennsylvania people.” It was also voted to collect funds for three women whose husbands were killed in the battle.

Jesse Lukens, who lost his life in this ill-fated expedition, was a young man of much promise, the son of John Lukens, who was the Surveyor General of Pennsylvania from 1769 till his death in 1789. Jesse was born August 8, 1748, and had only recently arrived at Sunbury on a vacation and joined the Plunket expedition as a lark.