In the unprovoked war of Lord Dunmore, in company with Simon Kenton, Girty served as a hunter and scout. He subsequently acted as an Indian agent, and became intimately acquainted with Colonel William Crawford, at whose cabin on the Youghiogheny he was a frequent and welcome guest, and it is stated by some writers, although without any worthwhile evidence to substantiate it, was a suitor for the hand of one of his daughters, but was rejected. At the outset of the Revolution, Simon Girty was a commissioned officer of militia at Fort Pitt, took the test oath as required by the Committee of Safety, but March 28, 1778, deserted to the enemy, in company with the notorious Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliott. Simon Girty began his wild career by sudden forays against the borderers, and in his fierceness and cruelty outdid the Indians themselves. Hence the sobriquet of “Girty the White Savage.” Many atrocious crimes were attributed to the notorious renegade, but the campaign against the Sandusky Indian towns in 1782, under the command of Colonel William Crawford, proved to be the one in which Girty displayed the most hardened nature and showed him to be a relentless foe of the Colonies. Girty’s brutality reached its climax when he refused any request, even to discuss terms of easier punishment for his former friend and brother officer, but viewed with apparent satisfaction the most horrible and excruciating tortures which that ill-fated but brave and gallant Crawford was doomed to suffer. This episode in his career has placed his name among the most infamous whose long list of crimes causes a shudder as the details are told, even after a lapse of a century and a half. During the next seven years but little is recorded of this renegade and desperado, except that a year after Crawford’s defeat, he married Catharine Malott, a captive among the Shawnee. They had several children and she survived her husband many years, dying at an advanced age. Notwithstanding Girty’s brutality and depravity he never lost the confidence of the Indians; the advice of Simon Girty was always conclusive. Girty acted as interpreter when the United States attempted to negotiate with the Confederated Nations, for an adjustment of the difficulties during which his conduct was insolent, and he was false in his duty as interpreter. In the defeat of General St. Clair, Girty saw and knew General Richard Butler, who was writhing in agony with his wounds. The traitor told a savage warrior he was a high officer, whereupon the Indian buried his tomahawk in General Butler’s head, scalped him, took his heart out and divided it into as many pieces as there were tribes engaged in the battle.