The conference appears to have been satisfactory to Colonel Brodhead. But if the Maquichee clan of the Shawanese preserved their fidelity, the main body of the nation became none the less unfriendly by their means. And although Colonel Brodhead had admonished them that he would not countermand the orders to Colonel Clarke to strike them, it so happened that the first and severest blow was struck by the Shawanese themselves. It was but a short time after the closing of the council at Fort Pitt, that a detachment of seventy men from the Kentucky district of Virginia, under the command of Major Rodgers, was surprised while ascending the Ohio, and nearly exterminated. The Kentuckians were drawn ashore by a stratagem. At first a few Indians only appeared, standing upon a sand-bar near the mouth of the Licking river, while a canoe, with three other Indians, was paddling toward them as though to receive them on board. Rodgers immediately put in to the Kentucky shore, and having made fast his boats, went in pursuit. Only five or six Indians had been seen, and Rodgers, presuming that the whole party would not probably exceed fifteen or twenty at farthest, felt perfectly sure of an easy victory—having seventy men, well armed and provided. Proceeding cautiously toward the point where he supposed he should surround the enemy, and having adjusted his movements with that design, at the very moment when he was preparing to rush forward and secure them, he found himself with his whole force in the midst of an ambuscade! The Indians rose in a cloud of hundreds on all sides of him, and pouring in a close and deadly fire upon the Americans, rushed upon the survivors tomahawk in hand. Major Rodgers, and forty-five of his men were killed almost instantly. The residue ran for the boats, but the guard of only five men who had been left in charge, had sought security by putting off in one of them, while the Indians had already anticipated the fugitives by taking possession of the others. The possibility of retreat being thus cut off, the brave fellows now turned furiously upon the enemy; and as night was approaching, after a sharp fight for some time, a small number, aided by the darkness, succeeded in effecting their escape to Harrodsburgh.
Among the wounded in this sharp and bloody encounter, who escaped both death and captivity, were Captain Robert Benham, and another man, whose cases, together, form a novel and romantic adventure. Benham was shot through both hips, and the bones being shattered, he instantly fell. Still, aided by the darkness, he succeeded in crawling among the thick branches of a fallen tree, where he lay without molestation through the night and during the following day, while the Indians, who had returned for that purpose, were stripping the slain. He continued to lie close in the place of his retreat until the second day, when, becoming hungry, and observing a raccoon descending a tree, he managed to shoot it—hoping to be able to strike a fire, and cook the animal. The crack of the rifle was followed by a human cry, which at first startled the Captain; but the cry being repeated, several times, the voice of a Kentuckian was at length recognized; the call was returned; and the parties were soon together. The man proved to be one of his comrades, who had lost both of his arms in the battle. Never before did misery find more welcome company. One of the parties could use his feet, and the other his hands. Benham, by tearing up his own and his companion's shirts, dressed the wounds of both. He could load his rifle and fire with readiness, and was thus enabled to kill such game as approached, while his companion could roll the game along upon the ground with his feet, and in the same manner collect wood enough together to cook their meals. When thirsty, Benham could place his hat in the teeth of his companion, who went to the Licking, and wading in until he could stoop down and fill it, returned with a hat-full of water. When the stock of squirrels, and other small game in their immediate neighborhood, was exhausted, the man on his legs would roam away, and drive up a flock of wild turkeys, then abundant in those parts, until they came within the range of Benham's rifle. Thus they lived, helps meet for each other, during the period of six weeks, when they discovered a boat upon the Ohio, which took them off. Both recovered thoroughly from their wounds. [FN]
[FN] Captain Benham afterward served with bravery in the Indian wars of 1789-94, sharing the disaster of St. Clair and the victory of Wayne. At the close of the Revolution, he purchased the land whereon he was wounded at the time of Rodgers's defeat, built a house there, and there lived and died.
No other events of moment occurred in the region professedly embraced in the present history, during the residue of the year 1779; and the progress of the war in other parts of the Union had been marked with but few signal actions. The active operations of this year between the British forces proper and the Americans, had commenced in the south, to the command of which section of the country General Lincoln had been assigned at the close of 1778. The first occurrence was the surprise and defeat, on the 3d of March, of General Ash, commanding a body of fifteen hundred North Carolina militia, stationed at the confluence of Briar Creek, on the Savannah river, by the British General Provost. There were about sixty regular troops under General Ash, who fought well. But the militia, as usual, threw away their arms and fled, with the exception of about three hundred, who were either killed or taken. In May, General Provost invested Charleston, but raised the siege on the approach of Lincoln upon his rear. He at first retired to the island, but soon withdrew to Savannah, where he was in turn besieged by Lincoln in October, on the land side, and by the French fleet under the Count D'Estaing by water. Repulsed in an injudicious assault, after much brave fighting by both Americans and French, the fleet of the latter left the continent, and the siege was raised—the militia flying to their homes, and General Lincoln retiring to Charleston. In this assault, among other proud spirits, fell the brave Polish Count Pulaski—who had signalized himself in his own country by carrying off King Stanislaus from his capital, assisted by only a party of associate Catholic conspirators. The only relief to this disastrous affair, was the capture, by Colonel John White of Georgia, and Captain Elholm, with four other men, of a British detachment of one hundred men, forty sailors, and five armed vessels, at Ogechee, by a very ingenious and efficacious stratagem. Kindling a large number of fires, after the manner of an encampment, they summoned the British commander, Captain French, to surrender, or they would cut his flotilla to pieces. Supposing, by the lines of fires, that there was a greatly superior force against them, the enemy surrendered at discretion.
In the middle and northern sections of the Union, the contest during the Summer had assumed the character rather of a predatory warfare than of regular campaigns. Sir George Collier and General Matthews made a plundering expedition on the coast of Virginia, and after sacking Norfolk and parts adjacent, returned to New-York with their booty. In July a combined expedition by land and water was directed, under Sir George and Governor Tryon, against Connecticut. New-Haven was taken and sacked. Several houses in East Haven were burnt. Fairfield, Green's Farms, and Norwalk, were likewise taken, plundered, and laid in ashes. The Americans, consisting chiefly of militia, under General Lovell, made an attempt upon a British post at Penobscot, which was commenced gallantly. But the arrival of Sir George Collier's fleet, with reinforcements, obliged the General to abandon the enterprise. These untoward events, however, were relieved by Major Lee's surprise and capture of the British fort at Paulus Hook, and by the still more brilliant affair of the capture of Stony Point by General Wayne.
[CHAPTER II.]
Progress of the war in the South—Fall of Charleston—Brilliant achievements—Rigorous winter of 1780—Destruction of the Oneida Castle and villages—Third marriage of Brant—Irruption into Harpersfield—Captivity of Captain Harper, Freegift Patchin, and others—Conduct of Brant—Consultation whether to put the prisoners to death—-Sagacity and firmness of Harper—Marched off for Niagara—Remarkable adventures by the way—Murder of an old man—Cure of the fever and ague—A thrilling scene—Sufferings for food—Justice and impartiality of Brant—Approach to Niagara—The ordeal—Humane device of Brant to save his Prisoners from the trial—Arrival at Niagara—Farther irruptions of the Indians—Shawangunk—Saugerties— Captivity of Captain Snyder and his son—Arrival at Niagara—Examination—Guy Johnson, Butler and Brant—Prisoners sent to Montreal—The Mohawk Valley—Bravery of Solomon Woodruff—Irruption to Little Falls—Burning of Ellis's Mills—Incidents on the Ohio—Bold exploit of McConnel—Attack of Colonel Bird, with his Indians, upon the Licking Settlement—Colonel Clarke takes vengeance upon the Shawanese.
The succeeding year opened inauspiciously to the American arms. No sooner had Sir Henry Clinton heard of the departure of Count D'Estaing from the Southern coast with the French fleet, than he prepared for a formidable descent upon South Carolina. Charleston was the first and most prominent object of attack. The expedition destined upon this service left New-York about the close of January, and in due season the troops effected their landing about thirty miles from Charleston. The object of the enemy could not be mistaken, and General Lincoln made every exertion for the defence of the important post entrusted to his command, by increasing his forces and strengthening his works. Before the middle of April the town was invested by sea and land, and Lincoln was summoned to surrender—which summons with modest firmness he declined to obey. Clinton having succeeded in all his preliminary operations—Tarleton having cut up Colonel White's cavalry on the Santee, and Fort Moultrie having surrendered to the Royal Navy—the garrison, finding itself without reasonable hope of relief, proposed terms of capitulation, which were rejected by the British commander. Hostilities were meantime prosecuted with great energy, and after a tremendous cannonade and bombardment, lasting from the 6th to the 11th of May, General Lincoln was forced into a capitulation. His garrison consisted, all told, of about five thousand men—of whom no more than two thousand were continental troops. The loss was heavy—including upward of four hundred pieces of cannon.
Having accomplished this object, Sir Henry divided his forces into three columns, dispatching them in as many directions, with a view of overrunning the whole Southern states. Clinton, himself, returned to New-York; and then commenced that remarkable course of partizan warfare in the South, which called forth so much of high and chivalrous daring in Marion, Sumpter, and their associates in arms, and which was attended with so many brilliant exploits. There are no more vivid and thrilling pages in American history than the records of those partizan operations, the incidents of which amounted to little in themselves, separately considered; but in the general results they were of infinite importance to the cause of the republic—since the invaders were, in fact, weakened by every victory, while defeat did not discourage the Americans, who were gaining both moral and physical strength by the protraction of the struggle. But these distant glances are incidental—the North being the main field of research.