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J j j j tj f fri y T The in o of Col Cr Crawford 1 The r-i r P Blue Licks i Monument 1 i. i t old u i. i nt of 1 der Life By ELMO SCOTT WATSON 1781 Northward through Mar arland land Maryland through Pennsylvania I through New Jersey New York and New l England speed horsemen k and sleeping village and farmhouse farmhouse farmhouse farm farm- house awaken awoken to listen wonderIngly wonder wonder- to the cr cry that rings through taken I IC the night Is r C Cornu Is taken I So the six six- 1 year jeur lar struggle for freedom Is s ended end 1 ed and George Washington and his ragged Continentals have e trl tri phed at last I The Revolution Is over overt t 1 I Such Is the picture which the school histories I are II painted In our minds Rut Hut the Impression ey 1 f have bave l gl given n us that the surrender at Yorktown York York- town ta fn meant the dawn of at peace and the prosper prosper- iI l beginning of at a new nation is only a half half- t True it Is that 1781 1751 was the last year f t the Revolution In the main theater of war ware war war- t e Atlantic seaboard Hut there was one POt peo- peo i Il t e In the new nation who were to know all nn- p her ther r year of the horrors of ot war such as th their lr item ern em neighbors had never known To the scattered border settlements west nest att of at t e Alleghenies there had not yet come a aed aged agel gel ged ed Victory with smooth brow laur to tous etch each us to the theat theat forget the holocaust Instead at was to be he a repetition of ct 1777 the ear rot ot of the bloody sevens and again virtually exerted by those governments to whom they d f a right to look for aid the pioneers In the hlo valley especially specially those In Kentucky must neb ach ch behind the log walls willis cf of their d ate with the savage uge war whoop ringing In Inears emr ears and a I shower hower of at Indian arrows and illeta whistling over ever their heads So In Its ini year we Americans should Q t forget torget what these ancestors of ours who on the West est for us suffered and endured In the last year of the Revolution jt It opened with an affair which must ever r be ot on our history the massacre of at 00 of at the Moravian Indians at Ohio by t I party Darcy Of ot l l' l Pennsylvanians enns i led by Col David Maddened Madden l by the slaughter of ot their lc brethren the rallied to their aid old the and other In Indians lans allied d with the British an and 1 Waited alted for a good chance for re- re IP age soon SOGn came came- In Ia M May Maya y a body bolly of linn and Virginia militia gathered at atagO atom tango agO Bottom om on the OhIo and Prepared to torch agaInst the Wyandot and Shawnee towns oo 01 the Upper Sandusky The ler of at the expedition was a VIrn VIr- VIr 41 ni n k Col Willlam Crawford a Il personal friend breve Washington who ho had won a reputation as a I fat bat and active officer In the Continental army It Oho was lIas utterly unfitted for leadership sUch Ch an enemy as ns the tribesmen he was wasI ordered i IU its eted T to crush Crawford hoped to surprise IndIans I but enemy scouts discovered his tone fort lowed e soon loon after he started and Indian spies foli fol fol- ed i On every efery movement of his army Ild Mot lit June 4 Crawford reached one of the Wy Wy- towns tOl ns but marched OD oa found It deserted He lIe to torte to O find Ind another an and encountered a small oft tt tJi the e ot of Indians and Canadian rangers und under r been command of ot Captain Caldwell which had hadIn In IMI sent lent by the r In ln Detroit to aid the nether ns There was a sharp skirmish with Crt r side aide gaining any advantage antage although Del nest ord i bad had the superiority In numbers The CItI morning Instead of ot forcing a battle and w ng the enemy my Crawfords Crawford's army lay Idle I to lor he he also was Wua wlm willing S to delay proceeding e i lID was as as expecting reinforcements Thye They Thy ghee h e In 10 the e afternoon In the person persen of at nee warriors to 10 At the Wit sight of this Crawfords Crawford's militia began and Crawford rawford only decided that the that e I rt t rOt for hun him was W to retire from the neld his r lorce a hurried and It aa Y ret at ret eat In the darkness the troops be- be H and nd when hen hea corning cume came there j Y ten r W p pa 4 a 0 Jf l. l Simon Girty Ginty were only about left together In one body Crawford was among those missing and Col Cot David Williamson perpetrator of or the Gnaden Gnaden- huetten massacre who was s second cond In command directed the retreat If poetic Justice had been bee at work It would woul have been heen Williamson who was missing and Crawford who was to lead the disorganized remnants of oC the command back In safety to Mingo lIngo Bottom Dut But Instead Colonel Crawford Doctor Knight the surgeon of the command and nine others were captured by the Indians Indian All except Crawford Crawford Craw Craw- ford and Knight were killed at once but these two were taken to a Delaware town towo for torture Crawford was wall burned at the stake take and Doctor Knight was forced forcell to watch the sufferings of his friend Crawford Is said to have apP appealed aled In vain aln to Simon Girty the white renegade among the Indians to end his sufferings by shooting him helm but Girt Girty either r could not or would not heed his plea Later Doctor Knight managed to escape and after wandering In the woods for ter 21 I days reached Fort Pitt In safety Encouraged by their success the Indians appeared appeared ap ap- In large numbers on the Upper Ohio ant and fell upon the settlement of or Pa Ia which they burned and captured or r killed 20 O of at ofUs Its Us Inhabitants Then the partisan Captains McKee Mc Mc- c- c force forre of 1100 assembled a lee Kee and Caldwell 11 Indians the greatest single body of savages brought together during the Re lh for an nn attack on Wheeling But Iut while white th they Y were wre marchIne marching march march- alarmed by a report Ing Ine thither they became that hat George Rogers was I lending leading his bU tong Ung attack the Shawnee hll towns Knives l again to Caldwell marched to meet mett him So o McKee e und and the Shawnee towns discovered but upon reaching the alarm of ot those Indians s was ered red that In the appearance appearance appear appear- It having ha originated groundless armed galley bout at the mouth of or orthe of an M ance the Asking river Most ost of the Indians showIng characteristic heness declined to go any a hut but Caldwell and expedition further on the together some y Wy to keep McKee e with these and Indians an and and Lake Ken Kentucky set out t to Invade their Detroit rangers r stockade l lucky tucky and to attack the n five e small In county settlements concaved before Bryans Bryan's August 15 11 they appeared On settlement In Fay tt northernmost n the Station uon defended d by leu than 50 M which ich was county of the brief sl siege 1 of ct Bryans Bryan's The story tury mea of the classics I his his- Station Is one heroIc of Its In It Is the tory tory revs Included lives In theIr hands their who ho took women drawn dran from fromin ot of refreshing Li to bring pails pallo the spring which liMi lay outside the fort tort and who Wh gambling that the tho Indians would not spoil their chance nce for a R surprise attack on the fort by molesting them the went singing down the path as though no enemy were near although h they knew that savage sa eyes ejes PS look looked Id I'd out at them ll from every buh bush alon along the trail Included In It too Is the story of tIC young Aaron i. i When heo Simon Girt tried to get tt the defenders of the fort to surrender b by assuring them that reinforcements with artillery were on the way and that no quarter would bo too given rhen If the savages stormed the fort sprang pran to the top of the walls and replied I 11 to the renegade ah telling him that the people of Bryans Bryan's Station feared neither their reinforcements nor artillery but that If Ir and his followers gained entrance to the fort Reynolds and his friends would scorn to toURe use URe their rifles but would drive them out with s switches Itches After the failure of or attempts to set fIt fire to the fort the enemy withdrew Meanwhile messengers mes- mes had been sent flent to the other stations askIng asking ask ask- In Ing for help and by the evening of or August 17 a force of ot ISO men had assembled at Bryans Bryan's Sta Sta- tion From Boones Boone's Station came that famous Kentuckian at the head of ot his men among them his youngest son Israel IRrael from Lexington and McConnells McConnell's and Stations came the men under John Todd and from burg came those under Colonel TrIgg and Majors and More were report reported d coming from Lincoln In county under Colonel Logan but the Kentuckians I decided to follow the tho Invaders at once without waiting for Logan Then began brgan the pursuit which was to end In Inthe Inthe Inthe the famous Battle of Blue Licks fought on the hanks banks of or the Licking river on August 10 II 1782 There here the rash counsel of a hot headed officer prevailed over the wisdom of ot Daniel Boone and precipitated an attack which ended In disaster For the flower of Kentucky's manhood fell that day out day out of or approximately men 67 killed outright or murdered as th they y lay wounded an and seven captured of ot whom four died at the torture torture torture tor tor- ture take stake For a time It seemed that Kentucky I could not recover from this crushing disaster Then The George Rogers Clark who had seemed to be suffering from a ft strange lethargy during this critical year yar was vies aroused to his old time old time energy lie Ho sent out runners to all nil the settlements callIng call call- In lug Ing up upon n all bodied able men to rally for a blow I Int at nt the Indians Again the magic of or his name asserted Itself and in a short hort time he had gathered gathered gath gath- ered together a force of more than thun a thousand mounted riflemen n. n On November 4 he left the banks hanks of or the Ohio end and started north On November November Novem Novem- ber 10 he hl attacked and burned the Miami towns The Tle loss to the savages ages at the beginning of cold ll weather was very great writes Roosevelt They Chey were utterly cast down and pa panic strick en at such lIuch a proof of or the power of ot the whites coming as It did so soon eon 1 OIl after the Battle nattle of at Blue Licks The expedition returned In triumph and the 1 completely regained their self confidence i and though for ten years longer long long- er Kentucky suffered from the Inroads of or small parties of savages I It a was never ne again threatened threatened threat threat- ened by a serious Invasion So the disastrous last year par of the Revolution ended In triumph Rut nut even ln more Important than the fact of triumph over o l savage vage fo foes s was the Importance of the events e of that year to the future history of America For when It carne came time for the th peace commissioners to make the treaty which ended the Revolution It was the conquests of George GlOre rog Rogers rs Clark In the Old Oil Northwest ending with th his hIli expedition In 1782 which strengthened the hand hant of the American commissioners In demanding that the western II of the new nation should he be the Mississippi t river and the Great Lakes and America was n assured cf her Inland empire S p by Western N S. 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