Crawford expedition

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.[5]

The border war escalated in 1777 after British officials in Detroit began recruiting and arming Indian war parties to raid the frontier American settlements.[6] An unknown number of American settlers in present Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania were killed during these raids. The intensity of the conflict increased in November 1777, after enraged American militiamen murdered Cornstalk, the leading advocate of Shawnee neutrality. Despite the violence, many Ohio Indians still hoped to stay out of the war, which proved 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. However, adverse weather conditions prevented the expedition from reaching its objective. 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".[7]

Despite the attack on his family, Captain Pipe said that he would not seek vengeance.[8] 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 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 received support from the British in Detroit.[9]

Over the next several years, 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.[10] George Rogers Clark of Virginia responded in August 1780 by leading an expedition that destroyed two Shawnee towns along the Mad River, but did little damage to the Indian war effort.[11] As most of the Delawares had by then become pro-British, American Colonel Daniel Brodhead led an expedition into the Ohio Country in April 1781, and destroyed the Delaware town of Coshocton. Clark then recruited men for an expedition against Detroit in the summer of 1781, but Indians decisively defeated one hundred of his volunteers along the Ohio River, effectively ending his campaign. Survivors fled to the militant towns on the Sandusky River.[12]

Several villages of Christian Delawares lay between the combatants on the Sandusky River and the Americans at Fort Pitt. The villages were administered by the Moravian missionaries David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder. Although pacifists, the missionaries favored the American cause and kept American officials at Fort Pitt informed about hostile British and Indian activity. In September 1781, to prevent further communication between the missionaries and the American military, hostile Wyandots and Delawares from Sandusky forcibly removed the missionaries and their converts to a new village (Captive Town) on the Sandusky River.[13]

In March 1782, 160 Pennsylvania militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson rode into the Ohio Country, hoping to find the warriors who were responsible for raids against Pennsylvania settlers. Enraged by the gruesome murder by Indians of a white woman and her baby,[14] Williamson's men detained about 100 Christian Delawares at the village of Gnadenhütten. The Christian Delawares (mostly women and children) had returned to Gnadenhütten from Captive Town in order to harvest the crops they had been forced to leave behind. Accusing the Christian Indians of having aided hostile raiding parties, the Pennsylvanians murdered them all by hammer blows to the head.[15] The Gnadenhutten massacre, as it came to be called, would have serious repercussions for the next American expedition into the Ohio Country.

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.[16] Although a major British army under Lord Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781, virtually ending the war in the east, the conflict on the western frontier continued. Irvine quickly learned that the Americans living on the frontier wanted the army to launch an expedition against Detroit to end ongoing British support for the American Indian war parties. Irvine investigated, then 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.[17]

Washington agreed with Irvine's assessment that Detroit had to be captured or destroyed to end the war in the west.[18] 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 could capture Detroit.[19] Washington replied that the bankrupt U.S. Congress would be unable to finance the campaign, writing that "offensive operations, except upon a small scale, can not just now be brought into contemplation."[20]

With no resources available from either Congress or the Continental Army, Irvine gave 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.[21] It was to be a low-budget campaign. Each volunteer had to provide at his expense a horse, rifle, ammunition, rations, and other equipment.[22] Their only payment would be an exemption from two months of militia duty, plus whatever plunder might be taken from the Indians.[23] 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.[24]

Because of Washington's reservations, Irvine believed he was not authorized to lead the expedition himself. However, he did what he could to influence the planning of the campaign. Irvine wrote detailed instructions for the yet to be chosen 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.[25]

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.[26] Many were Continental Army veterans.[27] 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.[28] Given the daunting nature of the task ahead of them, many of the volunteers made out their "last wills and testaments" before leaving.[29]

Because this was a volunteer expedition and not a regular army operation, the men elected their officers. The 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.[30] He had also taken part in the failed "squaw campaign".[31]

The nearly sixty-year-old Crawford had been reluctant to volunteer, but he did so at the request of General Irvine.[32] Williamson, although popular with the militia, was in disfavor with regular army officers such as Irvine because he had allowed the Gnadenhütten massacre.[33] Hoping to avoid a repetition, Irvine made it known that he favored Crawford's election as commander.[34] The election, which was acrimonious,[14] ended in a close vote: Crawford received 235 votes to Williamson's 230. Colonel Crawford took command, and Williamson became second-in-command with the rank of major.[35] The other majors included John B. McClelland, Thomas Gaddis,[36] and either James Brenton[1] or Joseph Brinton.[2]

At Crawford's request, Irvine allowed Dr. John Knight, a Continental Army officer, to accompany the expedition as surgeon.[37] Another volunteer from Irvine's staff was a foreigner with an aristocratic bearing who called himself "John Rose". Rose asked to serve as Crawford's aide-de-camp. Unknown even to General Irvine until several years later,[38] "Rose" was actually Baron Gustave Rosenthal, a Baltic German nobleman from the Russian empire who had fled to America after killing a man in a duel. Rosenthal is the only Russian known to have fought on the American side in the Revolutionary War.[39]

Route of the Crawford expedition.

Crawford's volunteers left Mingo Bottom, (present name Mingo Junction), on May 25, 1782, carrying provisions for 30 days.[40] In planning the operation, General Irvine had estimated the 175-mile (282 km) journey to Sandusky would take seven days.[41] The campaign began with high spirits. Some volunteers boasted they intended "to extermenate the whole Wiandott Tribe."[42]

As was often the case with militia, who were poorly trained amateur soldiers, there was difficulty maintaining military discipline. The men wasted their rations, and often fired their muskets at wild game, despite orders to the contrary.[14] They were slow to break camp in the mornings, and often failed to take their turn at guard duty.[43] Crawford also proved to be a less capable leader than expected. Rose wrote that Crawford in councils "speaks incoherent, proposes matters confusedly, and is incapable of persuading people into his opinion."[44] The expedition often halted as the commanders debated what to do next. Some volunteers lost heart and deserted.[14]

The journey across the Ohio Country was mostly through woods. The volunteers initially marched in four columns, but the thick underbrush compelled them to form just two.[45] On June 3, Crawford's men emerged into the open country of the Sandusky Plains, a prairie region just below of the Sandusky River.[46] The following day, they reached Upper Sandusky, the Wyandot village where they expected to find the enemy. However, they discovered it had been abandoned. Unknown to the Americans, the Wyandots had recently relocated their town eight miles (13 km) to the north.[47] The new Upper Sandusky, also called the "Half King's Town", was near present-day Upper Sandusky, Ohio) and close to Captain Pipe's town (near present-day Carey, Ohio). The Americans were unaware that Pipe's town was nearby.[48]

Crawford's officers held a council of war. Some argued the abandoned village proved that the Indians knew about the expedition and were concentrating their forces elsewhere. Others expressed the desire to call off the expedition and return home immediately. Williamson asked for permission to take 50 men and burn the abandoned village, but Crawford refused as he did not wish to divide his forces.[49] The council decided to continue the march for the rest of the day, but then to go no further.[50] As the column halted for lunch, John Rose was sent north with a scouting party.[51] Soon, two men returned to report that the scouts were skirmishing with a large force of Indians which was advancing towards the Americans.[52]

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.[53] The British and Indians, however, learned about the expedition even before Crawford's army had left Mingo Bottom. Thanks to information from a captured American soldier, on April 8 the notorious British agent Simon Girty relayed to Detroit an accurate report of Crawford's plans.[54]

Officials of the British Indian Department in Detroit had accordingly prepared for action. In command at Detroit was Major Arent Schuyler DePeyster, responsible to Sir Frederick Haldimand, the Governor General of British North America. DePeyster used agents such as Girty, Alexander McKee, and Matthew Elliott, who all 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 told a gathering of Indian leaders 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 repel the American invasion.[55] 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 led by Matthew Elliott.[56]

Indian scouts had spied on the expedition from the beginning. As soon as Crawford's army moved into the Ohio Country, the warning was sent to Sandusky. As the Americans approached, women and children from the Wyandot and Delaware towns were hidden in nearby ravines, while British fur traders packed their goods and hurried out of town.[57] 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 at anywhere from 200 to 500.[58] British reinforcements were nearby, but Shawnees from the south were not expected to arrive until the next day.[59] When the American scouts appeared, Pipe's Delawares pursued them, while the Wyandots temporarily held back.[60]

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. Crawford and Knight knew some of these Delawares, who were part of a band led by a war chief named Wingenund. Crawford and Knight were taken prisoner, but the other four Americans escaped. Two of them were later tracked down, killed, and scalped.[85]

Captives taken by American Indians during the American Revolution might be ransomed by the British in Detroit, adopted into the tribe, enslaved, or simply killed.[86] However, after the Gnadenhütten massacre, the Ohio Indians had resolved to kill all American prisoners who fell into their hands.[87] The number of Americans executed after the Sandusky expedition is unknown, since their fate was usually recorded only if one of the prisoners survived to tell.

While some were executed quickly, others were tortured before being killed. The public torture of prisoners was a traditional ritual in many tribes of the Eastern Woodlands.[88] Captives might have to endure excruciating torture for hours and even days.[89] The British Indian Department used its influence 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 slaughter at Gnadenhütten.[90]

Crawford's execution

Crawford and Knight were taken to Wingenund's camp on June 7, where they found nine other prisoners. On June 11, Captain Pipe painted the faces of the prisoners black, the traditional sign 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 prisoners were killed with tomahawks and scalped along the way. When the war party stopped, the seven remaining prisoners were made to sit, with Crawford and Knight a short distance away from the others. Delaware women and boys killed the other five with tomahawks, beheading one of them. The boys scalped the victims and slapped the bloody scalps in the faces of Crawford and Knight.[91]

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

About one hundred men, women, and children had gathered at the Delaware village to witness the execution of the American leader. Dunquat and a few Wyandots were present,[92] as well as Simon Girty and Matthew Elliott.[93] Captain Pipe, who knew Crawford from the 1778 Fort Pitt treaty, spoke to the crowd, pointing out that Crawford had been captured while leading many of the men who had committed the Gnadenhütten murders. Crawford had nothing to do with the massacre, but he had taken part in the "squaw campaign" in which several of Pipe's family members had been killed. Pipe apparently mentioned this as well.[94] Crawford was known for massacring peaceful Mingoes, to force a war with the Ohio Tribes, encouraging invasions of the acknowledged Indian lands of Ohio, and profiting from land sales in connection with the war.

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, 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 afraid 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.[95]

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 successfully made his way back to Pennsylvania on foot. By the time hunters found him on July 4, he was in poor health and barely coherent. They carried him to Fort McIntosh.[96]