The Life and Times of Col. Daniel Boone, Hunter, Soldier, and Pioneer: With Sketches of Simon Kenton, Lewis Wetzel, and Other Leaders in the Settlement of the WestEllis, Edward Sylvester
History
The Life and Times of Col. Daniel Boone, Hunter, Soldier, and Pioneer: With Sketches of Simon Kenton, Lewis Wetzel, and Other Leaders in the Settlement of the West
Kentucky now approached an eventful period in her history. As we have
stated, the career of Daniel Boone is woven in the very warp and woof
of the narrative of the early days of the West, and in order to reach a
proper understanding of the life and character of the great pioneer, it
is necessary to carry the two along together.
The defeat and massacre at Blue Licks excited a profound shock and
indignation along the frontier, and the feeling was general that
necessity demanded the chastisement of the Indians, who would be likely
otherwise to continue their depredations.
The gallant and clear-headed officer, General George Rogers Clark, the
"Hannibal of the West," issued a call for volunteers to assemble at
Bryant's Station. The General was so popular, and the confidence in
him so universal, that hundreds flocked to the rendezvous, where, in a
brief time, he placed himself at the head of one of the most formidable
forces ever raised in that portion of the country during its early days.
The Indians were too wise to meet this army in anything like open
battle. They carefully kept out of its way, expending their energies in
picking off stragglers, and occasionally sending in a stray shot from
some point, from which they could flee before it could be reached by
the infuriated soldiers.
General Clark pushed forward, burned several Indian towns, and laid
waste many fields. A few prisoners were taken, and a few killed, when
the expedition returned and disbanded.
This was the only enterprise of the kind that was set on foot by
Kentucky during the year 1782, which, however, was marked by one of the
darkest deeds on the part of white men, which blacken the pages of our
history.
On the 8th of March, Colonel Daniel Williamson, with a body of men,
marched to the Moravian town of Gnadenhutten, where he obtained
possession of the arms of the Christian Indians through treachery,
and then massacred one hundred of them in as cruel and atrocious
manner as that shown by Nana Sahib at Cawnpore. The harvest of such an
appalling crime was rapine and death along the frontier, as it has been
demonstrated many a time since.
These outrages became so numerous that Colonel William Crawford
organized an expedition in Western Pennsylvania, numbering 450 men,
with which he started against the Wyandot towns on the Sandusky.
His force in fact was nothing but an undisciplined rabble, and no one
could predict anything but disaster, when it should penetrate the
Indian country. It was this lack of discipline that had given the
death-blow to so many expeditions against the tribes on the frontier,
and which is the strongest ally an enemy can have.
Early in June, Colonel Crawford's force reached the plains of Sandusky,
straggling along like the remnants of a defeated army, and so mutinous
that numbers were continually straying back, deserting openly and
caring nothing for the wishes or commands of their leader.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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