Crawford expedition
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Crawford expedition Part of the American Revolutionary War Burning of Colonel Crawford, Frank Halbedel, 1915 (Wyandot County Historical Society) Date May 25, 1782 – June 12, 1782 Location Ohio Country (present-day state of Ohio) Result American Indian and British victory Belligerents American Indians, Great Britain Pennsylvania militia (United States) Commanders William Caldwell, Captain Pipe, Matthew Elliott, Blacksnake, Alexander McKee William Crawford †, David Williamson, Gustave Rosenthal Strength 340–640 Indians, 100 British rangers ~500 mounted militia Casualties and losses 6 killed, 11 wounded ~70 killed, including prisoners subsequently executed

v • d • e Western theater 1st Fort Henry – Boonesborough – Kaskaskia & Vincennes – Fort Pitt treaty – Fort Laurens – Chillicothe – St. Louis – Bird's expedition – La Balme's Defeat – Piqua – Coshocton – Lochry's Defeat – Long Run – Gnadenhütten – Little Mountain – Crawford expedition – Bryan Station – Blue Licks – 2nd Fort Henry

The Crawford expedition, also known as the Sandusky expedition and Crawford's Defeat, was a 1782 campaign on the western front of the American Revolutionary War, and one of the final operations of the conflict. Led by Colonel William Crawford, the campaign's goal was to destroy enemy American Indian towns along the Sandusky River in the Ohio Country, with the hope of ending Indian attacks on American settlers. The expedition was one in a long series of raids against enemy settlements which both sides had conducted throughout the war.^[1]

Crawford led about 500 volunteer militiamen, mostly from Pennsylvania, deep into American Indian territory, with the intention of surprising the Indians. The Indians and their British allies from Detroit had already learned of the expedition, however, and gathered a force to oppose the Americans. After a day of indecisive fighting near the Sandusky towns, the Americans found themselves surrounded and attempted to retreat. The retreat turned into a rout, but most of the Americans managed to find their way back to Pennsylvania. About 70 Americans were killed; Indian and British losses were minimal.

During the retreat, Colonel Crawford and an unknown number of his men were captured. The Indians executed many of these captives in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten massacre that occurred earlier in the year, in which about 100 Indian civilians were murdered by Pennsylvanian militiamen. Crawford's execution was particularly brutal: he was tortured for at least two hours before being burned at the stake. His execution was widely publicized in the United States, worsening the already-strained relationship between Native and European Americans.

Background

When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Ohio River marked a tenuous border between the American colonies and the American Indians of the Ohio Country. Ohio Indians—Shawnees, Mingos, Delawares, and Wyandots—were divided over how to respond to the war. Some Indian leaders urged neutrality, while others entered the war because they saw it as an opportunity to halt the expansion of the American colonies and to regain lands previously lost to the colonists.^[2]

The border war escalated in 1777 after British officials in Detroit began recruiting and arming Indian war parties to raid American settlements.^[3] Unknown numbers of American settlers in present Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania were killed in these raids. The intensity of the conflict increased after enraged American militiamen murdered Cornstalk, the leading advocate of Shawnee neutrality, in November 1777. Despite the violence, many Ohio Indians still hoped to stay out of the war, which proved to be difficult because they were located directly between the British in Detroit and the Americans along the Ohio River.

In February 1778, the Americans launched their first expedition into the Ohio Country in an attempt to neutralize British activity in the region. General Edward Hand led 500 Pennsylvania militiamen on a surprise winter march from Fort Pitt towards the Cuyahoga River, where the British stored military supplies which were distributed to Indian raiding parties. Adverse weather conditions prevented the expedition from reaching its objective, however. On the return march, some of Hand's men attacked peaceful Delaware Indians, killing one man and a few women and children, including relatives of the Delaware chief Captain Pipe. Because only non-combatants had been killed, the expedition became derisively known as the "squaw campaign".^[4]

Despite the attack on his family, Captain Pipe said that he would not seek vengeance.^[5] Instead, in September 1778, he was one of the signers of the Treaty of Fort Pitt between the Delawares and the United States. Americans hoped that this agreement with the Delawares would enable American soldiers to pass through Delaware territory and attack Detroit, but the alliance deteriorated after the death of White Eyes, the Delaware chief who had negotiated the treaty. Eventually, Captain Pipe turned against the Americans and moved his followers west to the Sandusky River, where he sought and received support from the British in Detroit.^[6]

Over the next several years of the war, Americans and Indians launched raids against each other, usually targeting settlements. In 1780, hundreds of Kentucky settlers were killed or captured in a British-Indian expedition into Kentucky.^[7] The Virginian George Rogers Clark responded by leading an expedition in August 1780 that destroyed two Shawnee towns along the Mad River but did little damage to the Indian war effort.^[8] Following this raid, Clark recruited men for an expedition to Detroit, but Indians decisively defeated one hundred of his men along the Ohio River, ending his campaign. Because most of the Delawares were by then pro-British, in April 1781 American Colonel Daniel Brodhead led an expedition into the Ohio Country and destroyed the Delaware town of Coshocton. Survivors fled to the militant towns on the Sandusky River.^[9]

Between the combatants on the Sandusky River and the Americans at Fort Pitt were several villages of Christian Delawares. The villages were administered by the Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder. Although non-combatants, the missionaries favored the American cause and kept American officials at Fort Pitt informed about hostile British and Indian activity. In order to prevent further communication between the missionaries and the American military, in September 1781 Wyandots and Delawares from Sandusky forcibly removed the missionaries and their converts to a new village (Captive Town) on the Sandusky River.^[10]

In March 1782, 160 Pennsylvania militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson rode into the Ohio Country, hoping to find the Indian warriors who were responsible for ongoing raids against Pennsylvania settlers. Enraged by the gruesome murder by Indians of a white woman and her baby,^[11] Williamson's men detained about 100 Christian Delawares at the village of Gnadenhütten. The Christian Delawares had returned to Gnadenhütten from Captive Town in order to harvest the crops that they had been forced to leave behind. Accusing the Christian Indians of having aided Indian raiding parties, the Pennsylvanians killed the 100 Christian Indians—mostly women and children—with hammer blows to the head.^[12] The Gnadenhutten massacre, as it came to be called, would have serious repercussions for the next American expedition into the Ohio Country.

Planning the expedition

Lacking the resources to conduct a Continental Army campaign, General William Irvine helped volunteers launch the Sandusky expedition.

In September 1781, General William Irvine was appointed commander of the Western Department of the Continental Army, which was headquartered at Fort Pitt.^[13] Although a British army under Lord Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781, the war on the western frontier continued. Irvine quickly learned that the Americans living on the frontier wanted the army to launch an expedition against Detroit in order to end ongoing British support of American Indian war parties. Irvine investigated the matter, and wrote to George Washington, the American commander-in-chief, on December 2, 1781:

It is, I believe, universally agreed that the only way to keep Indians from harassing the country is to visit them. But we find, by experience, that burning their empty towns has not the desired effect. They can soon build others. They must be followed up and beaten, or the British, whom they draw their support from, totally driven out of their country. I believe if Detroit was demolished, it would be a good step toward giving some, at least, temporary ease to this country.^[14]

Washington agreed with Irvine's assessment that Detroit needed to be captured or destroyed in order to end the war in the west.^[15] In February 1782, Irvine sent Washington a detailed plan for an offensive. Irvine estimated that with 2,000 men, five cannons, and a supply caravan, he would be able to capture Detroit.^[16] Washington replied that the bankrupt U.S. Congress would be unable to finance such a campaign, writing that "offensive operations, except upon a small scale, can not just now be brought into contemplation."^[17]

With no resources available from either Congress or the Continental Army, Irvine granted permission for volunteers to organize their own offensive. Detroit was too far and too strong for a small-scale operation, but militiamen such as David Williamson believed that an expedition against the American Indian towns on the Sandusky River was feasible.^[18] It was to be a low-budget affair: each volunteer had to provide, at his expense, a horse, rifle, ammunition, rations, and other equipment.^[19] Their only payment would be an exemption from two months of militia duty, plus whatever plunder was taken from the Indians.^[20] Because of ongoing Indian raids—the wife and children of a Baptist minister were killed and scalped in western Pennsylvania on May 12, 1782—there was no shortage of men willing to volunteer.^[21]

Because of Washington's reservations, Irvine believed he was not authorized to lead the expedition himself, but he did what he could to influence the planning of the campaign. Irvine wrote detailed instructions for the (as yet unselected) commander of the volunteers:

The object of your command is, to destroy with fire and sword (if practicable) the Indian town and settlement at Sandusky, by which we hope to give ease and safety to the inhabitants of this country; but, if impracticable, then you will doubtless perform such other services in your power as will, in their consequences, have a tendency to answer this great end.^[22]

Organizing the expedition

Colonel William Crawford, shown here at age 35, was a longtime friend of George Washington and a veteran Indian fighter. He came out of retirement to lead the Sandusky expedition.

On May 20, 1782, the volunteers began gathering at the rendezvous point at Mingo Bottom (present Mingo Junction, Ohio), on the Indian side of the Ohio River. They were mostly young men of Irish and Scots-Irish ancestry, and came primarily from Washington and Westmoreland counties in Pennsylvania.^[23] Many were Continental Army veterans.^[24] The exact number of men who took part in the expedition is unknown. An officer wrote to General Irvine on May 24 that there were 480 volunteers, although additional men may have subsequently joined the group, bringing the total to more than 500.^[25] Given the daunting nature of the task ahead of them, many of the volunteers made out their "last wills and testaments" before leaving.^[26]

Because this was a volunteer expedition and not a regular army operation, the men elected their officers. The two candidates for the top position were David Williamson, the militia colonel who had commanded the Gnadenhütten expedition, and William Crawford, a retired Continental Army colonel. Crawford, a friend and land agent of George Washington, was an experienced soldier and frontiersman. He was a veteran of these kinds of operations, having destroyed two Mingo villages during Dunmore's War in 1774.^[27] He had also taken part in the failed "squaw campaign".^[28]

The fifty year-old Crawford had been reluctant to volunteer, but he did so at the request of General Irvine.^[29] Williamson, although popular with the militia, was in disfavor with regular army officers like Irvine because of the Gnadenhütten massacre.^[30] Hoping to avoid a repeat of Gnadenhütten, Irvine made it known that he favored Crawford's election as commander.^[31] The election, which was acrimonious,^[32] ended in a close vote: Crawford received 235 votes to Williamson's 230. Colonel Crawford took command, and Williamson became his second-in-command with the rank of major.^[33]

At Crawford's request, Irvine allowed Dr. John Knight, a regular army officer, to accompany the expedition as surgeon.^[34] Another volunteer from Irvine's staff was a young man who called himself "John Rose". Rose, a foreigner with an aristocratic bearing, offered to serve as Crawford's aide-de-camp. Unknown to the men of the expedition, and even to General Irvine until several years later,^[35] "John Rose" was actually Baron Gustave Rosenthal, a Baltic German nobleman from the Russian empire who had fled to America after killing another man in a duel. Rosenthal was perhaps the only Russian to fight on the American side of the war.^[36]

Journey to the Sandusky

Route of the Crawford expedition.

The volunteers left Mingo Bottom on May 25, 1782, carrying provisions for 30 days.^[37] In planning the operation, General Irvine estimated that the 175-mile (282 km) journey to Sandusky would take seven days.^[38] The expedition began with high expectations. Some of the men boasted that they intended "to extermenate the whole Wiandott Tribe."^[39]

As was often the case with militia, who were not professional soldiers, there were difficulties maintaining military discipline. The men wasted their rations, and often fired their muskets at wild game, despite orders to the contrary.^[40] They were slow to break camp in the mornings, and often skipped their turn at guard duty.^[41] Crawford turned out to be a less capable leader than expected. Rose wrote that in councils Crawford "speaks incoherent, proposes matters confusedly, and is incapable of persuading people into his opinion...."^[42] The column often halted while the commanders debated what to do next. Some of the volunteers deserted.^[43]

The journey through the Ohio Country was mostly through woods. They initially marched in four columns, but the thick underbrush compelled them to form two columns.^[44] On June 3, the volunteers emerged into the open country of the Sandusky Plains, a prairie region just south of the Sandusky River.^[45] The next day, they reached Upper Sandusky, the Wyandot village where they expected to find the enemy, only to discover that the log huts had been abandoned. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Wyandots had recently relocated the town eight miles (13 km) to the north.^[46] The new Upper Sandusky, also known as "Half King's Town" (near present-day Upper Sandusky, Ohio), was close to Captain Pipe's town (near present-day Carey, Ohio). The Americans had no knowledge of Pipe's town.^[47]

The officers held a council of war. Some argued that the abandoned village meant that the Indians knew about the expedition and were concentrating their forces elsewhere. Some of the men expressed a desire to call off the expedition and return home. Williamson requested permission to take 50 men and burn the abandoned village, but Crawford declined because he did not want to divide his force.^[48] The officers decided to continue the march for that day, but then to go no further.^[49] When the column halted for its noon meal, John Rose was sent northwards with a scouting party.^[50] Before long, two men returned with the news that the scouts were skirmishing with a large force of Indians, who were advancing towards the Americans.^[51]

British and Indian preparations

While planning the expedition, General Irvine had advised Crawford that, "Your best chance of success will be, if possible, to effect a surprise" against Sandusky.^[52] The British and Indians, however, had learned about the expedition even before Crawford's army had left Mingo Bottom. Thanks to information obtained from a captured American soldier, on April 8, British agent Simon Girty relayed to his superiors at Detroit an accurate report of Crawford's mission.^[53]

Thus forewarned, officials of the British Indian Department in Detroit had prepared for action. The commander at Detroit was Major Arent Schuyler DePeyster, who reported to Sir Frederick Haldimand, the Governor General of British North America. DePeyster used agents such as Girty, Alexander McKee, and Matthew Elliott, all of whom had close relations with American Indians, to coordinate British and Indian military actions in the Ohio County. In a council at Detroit on May 15, DePeyster and McKee informed a gathering of Indians about the Sandusky expedition and advised them to "be ready to meet them in a great body and repulse them." McKee was sent to the Shawnee villages in the Great Miami River valley to recruit warriors to oppose the American invasion.^[54] Captain William Caldwell was dispatched to Sandusky with a company of mounted Butler's Rangers as well as a number of Indians from the Detroit area supervised by Matthew Elliott.^[55]

Indian scouts had been watching for the expedition from the beginning. As soon as Crawford's army was spotted moving into the Ohio Country, the alarm was sent back to Sandusky. As the Americans approached, the women and children from the Wyandot and Delaware towns were hidden in nearby ravines, while British fur traders packed up their goods and hurried out of town.^[56] On June 4, Delawares under Captain Pipe and Wyandots under Dunquat, the "Half King", along with some Mingos, joined forces to oppose the Americans. The size of the combined Delaware, Wyandot, and Mingo force has been estimated from 200 to 500.^[57] British reinforcements were nearby, but Shawnees from the south were not expected to arrive until the next day.^[58] When the American scouts appeared, Pipe's Delawares pursued them while the Wyandots temporarily held back.^[59]

Battle of Sandusky

Depiction of the action at "Battle Island" by Frank Halbedel, c. 1880.

June 4: "Battle Island"

The first skirmishing of the Crawford expedition began at about 2 p.m. on June 4, 1782. The scouting party under John Rose, having encountered Captain Pipe's Delawares on the Sandusky Plains, conducted a fighting retreat back to a grove of trees where they had stored their supplies. The scouts were in danger of being overrun, but they were soon reinforced by the main body of Crawford's army.^[60] Crawford ordered men to dismount and drive the Indians out of the woods.^[61] After some intense fighting, the Americans took possession of the grove, later known as "Battle Island".^[62]

The skirmish became a full-scale battle by about 4:00 p.m.^[63] After the Americans had driven Captain Pipe's Delawares out of the woods and onto to prairie, the Delawares were reinforced by Dunquat's Wyandots.^[64] Elliott also arrived on the scene and coordinated the actions of the Delawares and the Wyandots.^[65] Pipe's Delawares skillfully outflanked the American position and then attacked in the rear. Some Indians crept up to the American lines in the tall grass of the prairie; the Americans responded by climbing trees in order to get a better shot. Powder smoke filled the air, making it difficult to see. After three and a half hours of incessant firing, the Indians gradually broke off the attack with the coming of nightfall.^[66] That night, both sides slept with arms at the ready, and surrounded their positions with large fires in order to prevent surprise night attacks.^[67]

After the first day of fighting, the Americans had 5 killed and 19 wounded, while the British and Indians had 5 killed and 11 wounded.^[68] The Americans scalped some of the Indian dead; Indians stripped the clothing from dead Americans and scalped at least one.^[69] Fifteen Pennsylvanians deserted during the night and returned home to report that the army had been "cut to pieces."^[70]

June 5: Reinforcements

Location of significant places and events in the Sandusky area.

Firing began again on the morning of June 5. This time, however, the Indians did not close, but instead remained at a distance of two or three hundred yards. The long range firing inflicted little damage to either side. The Americans believed that the Indians held back because they had suffered greatly on the previous day, but the Indians were actually buying time, waiting for reinforcements. Crawford decided to hold his position in the grove of trees throughout the day and make a surprise attack on the Indians after nightfall. At this point, some Americans were still confident of success, although they were low on ammunition and water.^[71] Simon Girty, the British agent and interpreter, rode up with a white flag and called for the Americans to surrender, to no avail.^[72]

That afternoon, the Americans finally noticed that about 100 British rangers were fighting alongside the Indians. Unaware that the expedition had been thoroughly monitored by the British and Indians from the outset, the Americans were surprised that British troops from Detroit had been able to make it to the battle on such short notice.^[73] While the Americans were discussing this development, Alexander McKee arrived with about 140 Shawnees under the leadership of Blacksnake, who took up a position to Crawford's south, effectively surrounding the Americans.^[74] The Shawnees repeatedly fired their muskets into the air, a ceremonial show of strength known as a feu de joie ("fire of joy"), which shook American morale. According to Rose, the feu de joie "completed the Business with us."^[75] With so many enemies gathering around them, the Americans decided that they would retreat after nightfall rather than make a stand. The dead were buried; fires were burned over the graves to prevent their discovery and desecration. The severely wounded were placed on biers in preparation for the withdrawal.^[76]

The Americans began to withdraw silently from the battlefield that night. Indian sentries detected the movement of the American army and attacked, creating much confusion. Many men became lost in the darkness, separating into small groups. In the chaos, Crawford became concerned about the whereabouts of his family members—his son John, his son-in-law William Harrison, and his nephew, also named William Crawford. With Knight, Crawford remained near the battlefield while his men passed, calling out for his missing relatives but not finding them. Crawford became angry when he realized that the militia, contrary to his orders, had left some of the wounded behind. After all the men had passed, Crawford and Knight, with two other stragglers, finally set off, but they were unable to find the main body of men.^[77]

June 6: Battle of the Olentangy

As the sun was coming up on June 6, about 300 Americans had made it back to the abandoned Wyandot town. Because Colonel Crawford was missing and presumed killed or captured, Williamson was now in command.^[78] Fortunately for the Americans, the pursuit of the retreating army had been disorganized because Caldwell, the overall commander of the British and Indian forces, had been shot in both legs during the battle.^[79] As the retreat continued, a force of Indians finally caught up with the main body of Americans on the eastern edge of the Sandusky Plains, near a branch of the Olentangy River. Some Americans fled when the attack began, others milled around in disarray, but Williamson made a stand with a small group and drove off the Indians after about an hour of fighting.^[80] In the "Battle of the Olentangy", three Americans were killed and eight were wounded; Indian losses are unknown.^[81]

The Americans buried their dead and resumed the retreat, with the Indians and British rangers pursuing and firing from a distance. Williamson and Rose managed to keep most of the men together by warning them that an orderly retreat was their only chance of getting home alive. The Americans retreated more than 30 miles (48 km), some of them on foot, before making camp. The next day, two Americans were captured and presumably killed before the Indians and rangers finally abandoned the pursuit. The main body of Americans reached Mingo Bottom on June 13; many others stragglers arrived in small groups at different times.^[82] In all, about 70 Americans never returned from the expedition.^[83]

Fates of the captives

While Williamson and Rose were retreating with the main body of men, Crawford, Knight, and four other stragglers were traveling south along the Sandusky River in present-day Crawford County, Ohio. On June 7, they came upon a party of Delawares about 28 miles (45 km) east of the battlefield. Knight raised his gun, but Crawford told him not to fire. As it turned out, Crawford and Knight knew some of these Delawares, who were a part of band led by a war chief named Wingenund. While Crawford and Knight were taken prisoner, the four other Americans escaped, but two of them were later killed and scalped.^[84]

Captives taken by American Indians during the American Revolutionary War could be ransomed to the British in Detroit, adopted into the tribe, enslaved, or killed.^[85] After the Gnadenhütten massacre, Ohio Indians had resolved to execute all American prisoners who fell into their hands.^[86] The exact number of Americans executed after the Sandusky expedition is unknown, because the details were usually recorded only if one of the prisoners survived to tell the story.

While some of these prisoners were executed quickly, others were tortured before being killed. The public torture of prisoners was a traditional ritual in many American Indian tribes of the Eastern Woodlands at the time.^[87] Captives might have to endure excruciating torture for hours and even days.^[88] The British Indian Department used its influence among the Indians to discourage the killing and torturing of prisoners, with some success, but in 1782 the Indians revived the practice of ritual torture in order to exact revenge for the Gnadenhütten massacre.^[89]

Crawford's execution

Crawford and Knight were taken to Wingenund's camp on June 7, where there were nine other prisoners. On June 11, Captain Pipe painted the faces of the prisoners black, the traditional sign that they were to be executed. The prisoners were marched to the Delaware town on Tymochtee Creek, near the present-day village of Crawford, Ohio. Four of the prisoners were killed with tomahawks and scalped along the way. When the party stopped, the seven remaining prisoners were made to sit, with Crawford and Knight a short distance away from the other five. A group of Delaware women and boys killed the other five with tomahawks, beheading one of them. The boys scalped the bodies and slapped the bloody scalps in the faces of Crawford and Knight.^[90]

The Ohio Historical Society's marker at the Colonel Crawford Burn Site Monument in Wyandot County, Ohio.

A crowd of about one hundred men, women, and children had gathered at the Delaware village to witness the execution of the American commander. Dunquat and a few Wyandots were present,^[91] as well as Simon Girty and Matthew Elliott.^[92] Captain Pipe, who knew Crawford from the 1778 Fort Pitt treaty, made a speech to the crowd, pointing out that Crawford had been captured while leading many of the men who had committed the Gnadenhütten murders. Crawford had not taken part in the massacre, but he had taken part in the "squaw campaign" in which Pipe's family members had been killed, and Pipe apparently mentioned this as well.^[93]

After Pipe's speech, Crawford was stripped naked and beaten. His hands were tied behind his back, and a rope was tied from his hands to a post in the ground. A large fire was lit about six or seven yards (6 m) from the pole. Indian men shot charges of gunpowder into Crawford's body, and then cut off his ears. Crawford was poked with burning pieces of wood from the fire, and hot coals were thrown at him, which he was compelled to walk on. Crawford begged Girty to shoot him, but Girty was unwilling or unable to intervene. After about two hours of torture, Crawford fell down unconscious. He was scalped, and a woman poured hot coals over his head, which revived him. He began to walk about insensibly as the torture continued. After he finally died, his body was burned.^[94]

The next day, Knight was marched towards the Shawnee towns, where he was to be executed. Along the way, he struck his guard with a log and managed to escape. He made his way back to Pennsylvania on foot. By the time white hunters found Knight on July 4, he was in poor health and barely coherent. They carried him to Fort McIntosh.^[95]

Wapatomica executions

On the same day that Crawford was executed, at least six American prisoners were taken to the Shawnee town of Wapatomica on the Mad River, in present Logan County, Ohio, in two different groups. These prisoners included Major John B. McClelland, who had been fourth in command of the expedition, as well as William Harrison (Crawford's son-in-law) and Private William Crawford (Colonel Crawford's nephew).^[96] Four of the six, including McClelland, Harrison, and Crawford, were painted black. The villagers, made aware of the coming of prisoners by a messenger, formed two lines. The prisoners were made to run the gauntlet towards the council house, about 300 yards (270 m) distance. As the prisoners ran by, the villagers beat them with clubs, concentrating on those who had been painted black. The blackened prisoners were then hacked to death with tomahawks and cut into pieces. Their heads and limbs were stuck on poles outside the town. One of the prisoners, a scout named John Slover, was taken to Mac-a-chack (near present West Liberty, Ohio), but escaped before he could be burnt. Still naked, he took a horse and rode it until it gave out, and then ran on foot, reaching Fort Pitt on July 10, one of the last survivors to return.^[97]

Aftermath

Final year of the war

The failure of the Crawford expedition caused alarm along the American frontier, as many Americans feared that the Indians would be emboldened by their victory and launch a new series of raids.^[98] Even more defeats for the Americans were yet to come, and so for Americans west of the Appalachian Mountains, 1782 became known as the "Bloody Year".^[99] On 13 July 1782, the Mingo leader Guyasuta led about 100 Indians and several British volunteers into Pennsylvania, destroying Hannastown and killing nine and capturing twelve settlers.^[100] It was the hardest blow dealt by Indians in Western Pennsylvania during the war.^[101]

In Kentucky, the Americans went on the defensive while Caldwell and his Indian allies prepared a major offensive. In July 1782, more than 1,000 Indians gathered at Wapatomica, but the expedition came to a halt after scouts reported that George Rogers Clark was preparing to invade the Ohio Country from Kentucky. Most of the Indians dispersed after learning that the reports of imminent invasion were false, but Caldwell led 300 Indians into Kentucky and delivered a devastating blow at the Battle of Blue Licks in August. After his victory at Blue Licks, Caldwell was ordered to cease further operations because the United States and Great Britain were about to make peace.^[102] Although General Irvine had finally gotten permission to lead his own expedition into the Ohio Country, rumors of a peace treaty killed enthusiasm for the undertaking, which fizzled out. In November, George Rogers Clark delivered the final blow in the Ohio Country, destroying several Shawnee towns, but inflicting little damage on the inhabitants.^[103]

Details of the forthcoming peace treaty arrived late in 1782. In the final treaty, the Ohio Country, the land that the British and Indians had successfully defended, had been signed away by Great Britain to the United States. Great Britain had not consulted the Indians in the peace process, and the Indians were nowhere mentioned in the treaty's terms.^[104] For the Indians, the struggle with American settlers would soon resume in the Northwest Indian War, though this time without their British allies.^[105]

Impact of Crawford's death

Crawford's death was widely publicized in the United States. A ballad about the expedition, "Crawford's Defeat", became popular and was long remembered.^[106] In 1783, John Knight's eyewitness account of Crawford's torture was first published. The editor of Knight's narrative, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, deleted all mention of Crawford's trial and the fact that Crawford was executed in retaliation for the Gnadenhütten massacre. By suppressing the Indians' motivation, Brackenridge was able, according to historian Parker Brown, to create "a piece of virulent anti-Indian, anti-British propaganda calculated to arouse public attention and patriotism."^[107] In an introduction, Brackenridge's publisher made clear why the narrative was being published:

But as they [the Indians] still continue their murders on our frontier, these Narratives may be serviceable to induce our government to take some effectual steps to chastise and suppress them; as from hence, they will see that the nature of an Indian is fierce and cruel, and that an extirpation of them would be useful to the world, and honorable to those who can effect it.^[108]

As intended, Knight's narrative increased racial antipathy towards American Indians, and was often republished over the next 80 years, particularly whenever violence between whites and Indians was in the news.^[109] Although American frontiersmen had often killed Indian prisoners, many Americans regarded Indian culture as barbaric because of the use of torture,^[110] and Crawford's death greatly reinforced this perception of Indians as "savages". In the American national memory, the lurid details of Crawford's torture usually overshadowed American atrocities like the Gnadenhütten massacre. As a result, the image of the savage Indian became a stereotype; the peacekeeping efforts of men like Cornstalk and White Eyes were all but forgotten.^[111]

Notes

References

Further reading

Military of the United States portal

Published primary sources

• Brackenridge, H. H., ed. Indian Atrocities: Narratives of the Perils and Sufferings of Dr. Knight and John Slover, among the Indians during the Revolutionary War, with Short Memoirs of Col. Crawford & John Slover. Cincinnati, 1867. Knight and Slover's captivity narratives, often printed under various titles and in other collections, including A Selection of the Most Interesting Narratives of Outrages Committed by the Indians… (ed. Archibald Loudon, 1808).
• Butterfield, C. W., ed. Washington-Irvine Correspondence: The official letters which passed between Washington and Brig-Gen. William Irvine and between Irvine and others concerning military affairs in the West from 1781 to 1783. Madison, Wisconsin: Atwood, 1882.

Articles

• Bailey, De Witt. "British Indian Department". The American Revolution, 1775–1783: An Encyclopedia 1:165–77. Ed. Richard L. Blanco. New York: Garland, 1993. ISBN 0-8240-5623-X.
• Brown, Parker B. "The Search for the William Crawford Burn Site: An Investigative Report". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine 68 (January 1985): 43–66.

Books

• Allen, Robert S. His Majesty's Indian Allies: British Indian Policy in the Defense of Canada. Toronto: Dundurn, 1992. ISBN 1-55002-184-2.
• Wetter, Mardee de. Incognito, An Affair of Honor. Barbed Wire Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-881325-82-2. A biography of Baron Rosenthal ("John Rose").