History of the Indians, of North and South America

by Samuel G. Goodrich

A strong detachment was despatched by the English to relieve these posts. On reaching the neighbourhood of Fort Detroit, an attack on the Indian camp, about three miles off, was determined on. But, before the English approached, the Indians themselves began the attack, with the utmost fury, and the troops were compelled to retreat to the fort, with the loss of seventy killed and forty wounded. The Indians, however, soon despairing of success in their scheme of reducing the garrison, gave it up and withdrew.

The war still waged with fury along the whole western frontier. The siege of Fort Pitt was long continued, but after severe fighting, in which the loss of the Indians was great, they were beaten. Fort Niagara was also sharply assailed, but the enemy were finally driven back. At last the savages began to feel the necessity of peace, which was accordingly concluded in September, 1764, though the terms, being dictated by the English, were unfavorable to the Indians.

In the summer of 1774, hostilities again broke out. This war had its immediate origin in the incursions and outrages of the whites. The earlier stage of it is known in history as “Cresap’s War,” from the murder, by one Cresap, of the family of Logan, the Mingo chief,[13] who had settled among the Shawanese in Ohio. This base act of treachery and cruelty, which occurred in the spring of 1774, was followed by another atrocity, committed by a man named Greathouse, who invited a large number of Indians to drink with him and his men, and, when in a state of intoxication, fell upon them and massacred them. These and other outrages had the effect to combine several tribes in a war, which resulted in the desolation of many of the remote settlements. The governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, sent a large body of troops under General Andrew Lewis, who marched towards the junction of the Kenhawa with the Ohio. Here, on the morning of the 10th of October, just at sunrise, he was attacked by a body of Indians, estimated at from eight to fifteen hundred, consisting of Shawanese, Delawares, Mingoes, Wyandots, Cayugas, and other tribes, led on by Logan, aided by Cornstalk, his son, and the Red Eagle.

The Indians are said to have had the advantage of position, and in the early part of the battle they compelled the Virginia regiments to give way. But other troops being brought up, the Indians were, in turn, forced to retreat, and fall back behind a breastwork of logs and brushwood which they had erected. Here they made a valiant stand, and defended themselves till night had nearly set in. Cornstalk cheered on his men, crying out, “Be strong, be strong!” and he is said also to have buried his tomahawk in the head of one who was seeking safety in flight. The Indians, however, were at last outflanked by an unperceived movement of a body of troops, who passed to their rear, and drove them from their lines. Supposing that the Virginians had now received reinforcements, they fled across the Ohio, and retreated to the Scioto.

Pressed with difficulties and dangers, the inquiry arose among the Indians, what was to be done. Cornstalk, who had been opposed to the battle, but who had been overruled in the council, now spoke. “What shall we do? The Long Knives are coming upon us by two routes. Shall we turn out and fight them?” As no one answered, he next inquired, “Shall we kill our squaws and children, and then fight until we are all killed ourselves?” Every one was silent,—and Cornstalk struck his tomahawk into the war-post, exclaiming, with stern emphasis, “Since you are not for fight, I will go and make peace.” He accordingly repaired to the English camp, where negotiations were opened, and a treaty concluded.

Logan was not present at the council, but a special messenger was despatched to gain his assent. Cornstalk, as it appears, was even his superior as an orator. An American officer, who was present at the interview between this chief and Lord Dunmore, says, “I have heard the first orators in Virginia, Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, but never have I heard one whose powers of delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk.”

On the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, the Delawares took part with the colonists, owing greatly, it is said, to the influence of the chief, White Eyes, who was a firm friend to the colonists, in opposition to another chief, named Pipe. At a council held in Pittsburg to deliberate on the question, he boldly declared that he would not join in a war the object of which was to destroy a people born on the same soil with himself. The Americans, he said, were his friends and brothers, and no nation should dictate to him, or his tribe, the course they should pursue. In the course of the war which followed, he also sent a message to the Shawanese, with whom he had been allied, warning them against taking part in it. The language is characteristic of the Indian. “Grandchildren,” says he, “some days ago, a flock of birds, that had come on from the east, lit at Goschochking, imposing a song of theirs upon us, which song had well-nigh proved our ruin. Should these birds, which, on leaving us, took their flight towards Scioto, endeavour to impose a song on you likewise, do not listen to them, for they lie.”

Notwithstanding all the efforts of this chief, however, the Delawares, as well as other Western Indians, eventually became hostile in their feelings towards the Americans. In the spring of 1778, Pipe nearly succeeded in involving them in the contest. Instigated by the loyalists, he assembled a great number of warriors, and proclaimed every one an enemy to his country, who should endeavour to persuade them against fighting the Americans, and declared that all such ought to be put to death. But White Eyes also collected his people, and addressed them with great earnestness and pathos. Seeing that some of them were preparing to take up the hatchet, he told them that such a course was fraught with destruction to themselves. If, however, they disbelieved him, and were resolved to go forth to the war, he would go with them. “But,” he added, “it shall not be as when the hunter sets his dogs on the bear to be torn in pieces by his paws, while he keeps at a safe distance. No; I will lead you on to the thickest of the fight; I will myself be in the front rank, and the first to fall. You have now but to decide on your course. For my part, I am determined not to survive my slaughtered and ruined nation. I will not spend the last lingering of life in mourning over the doom of my people.”

The chief was now seconded by the arrival of a message of peace from the Americans, and the Indians determined to follow his advice. This state of things, however, did not long continue. The Shawanese had been for some time carrying on a warfare with Colonel Daniel Boone and the pioneers of the western settlements, and various skirmishes took place. In February, 1778, Boone was taken prisoner, and adopted into one of the Shawanese families as a son. But shortly after, he found means to escape, and returned home.