Frightful Slaughter of Indians at Gnadenhuetten, March 8, 1782

In the fall of 1781, Pennsylvania frontiersmen decided that their safety would no longer permit the residence of the Moravian Indians on the Muskingum, which was about seventy miles from Fort McIntosh, in the present State of Ohio. Fort McIntosh was on the right bank of the Ohio River at the mouth of Beaver River, now Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Colonel David Williamson, one of the battalion commanders of Washington County, gathered a company of 100 men and on November 5 started for the Tuscarawa Indians to compel the Moravians either to migrate into the hostile country or to move in a body to Fort Pitt. They found the village deserted save by a few Indian men and women. Colonel Williamson conducted these Indians safely to Fort Pitt.

A small settlement of Delaware had already been established near Fort Pitt. After Colonel Daniel Brodhead destroyed Coshocton, in the spring of 1781, Killbuck, the chief sachem of the Delaware, with his immediate kindred and the families of Big Cat, Nonowland and other chiefs, who remained friends to the American cause took possession of a small island at the mouth of the Allegheny River, opposite Fort Pitt, where they built bark wigwams, planted corn and vegetables and otherwise supported themselves by hunting and the sale of furs. This place became known as Killbuck Island, afterwards Smoky Island.

Many of this settlement accompanied military scouting parties, and were of much service in the defense of the Western frontier. Chief Killbuck, also known as Gelemend, meaning “leader,” became a soldier and officer in the United States Army. He died in 1811.

In the spring of 1782, which was unusually early, came the marauding Indians. The first blow fell February 8, when John Fink 175was killed near Buchanan’s Fort, on the upper Monongahela. On Sunday, February 10, a large body of Indians visited the dwelling of Robert Wallace, on Raccoon Creek, Beaver County. The head of the family being absent at the time, the savages killed all his cattle and hogs, plundered the house of its contents and carried away Mrs. Wallace and her three children.

About February 15, six Indians captured John Carpenter and two of his horses on the Dutch Fork, of Buffalo Creek. They crossed the Ohio at Mingo Bottom and made off toward the Tuscarawa villages. Four of these Indians were Wyandot. Two spoke Dutch, and told Carpenter they were Moravians. On the morning of the second day, Carpenter was sent to the woods to get the horses. Finding them some distance from the camp fire, he mounted one of the horses and dashed for Fort Pitt, where he told his story to Colonel Gibson.

Gibson mustered 160 young men of Washington County, and placed Colonel Williamson in command of the expedition, which moved immediately. The Ohio was at flood height and they effected a crossing Monday, March 4, and hastened along the beaten trail toward Gnadenhuetten on the Muskingum. As may well be imagined Robert Wallace was an eager volunteer in this expedition.

They had not proceeded far until they found the torn corpse of Mrs. Wallace, impaled on the trunk of a sapling, just off the path. The mutilated body of her infant lay nearby. The infuriated frontiersmen remounted their horses, reached the environs of Gnadenhuetten in the evening of March 6, when their scouts brought back word that the village was now full of Indians.

Colonel Williamson divided his force into three parties, sending one command to strike the river below the town, a second to cross the stream above and cut off retreat in that direction, the third forming the center to advance upon the place directly.

The attack was begun on the morning of March 7, and not a shot was fired by the center or left. The presence of women and children warned the frontiersmen that it was not occupied simply by a war party, and Colonel Williamson quickly learned the Indians were Moravians. No resistance was made and soon the frontiersmen were conversing with the Indians who could speak English. In a council the colonel told them they must go to Fort Pitt, which the Indians appeared willing to do. The Indians sent messengers down the river to Salem to tell their people to come to Gnadenhuetten.

The right wing had a more thrilling experience when they found the Tuscarawas was in flood and too swift for their horses to swim. A young man named Sloughter swam across to get a canoe, which proved to be a maple sugar trough, but he paddled it across the swollen stream. The others stripped, placed their clothing and rifles in the trough, swam across, pushing the trough before them.

176Advancing down the western shore, a solitary Indian was shot and wounded in the arm. This act was witnessed by another Indian named Jacob, who sought escape in a canoe, but was killed.

The company advancing upon the Indians working in the corn field, found them to be Moravians and led them to the village. Soon the Indians from Salem arrived to the number of 96, all of whom were confined in a log church, after being disarmed.

An Indian woman was found to be wearing the dress of Mrs. Wallace. The garment was identified by the bereaved husband. A search of the cabins was then made which resulted in finding stolen household effects.

The volunteers could hardly be restrained longer. Colonel Williamson consulted with his captains, some of whom favored the execution of the whole band. But during this council many Indians were brought before it, one at a time, and examined. Not one acknowledged his own guilt, but some confessed that others had been on the war path. Some were even then in their war paint. These revelations produced such an effect upon the borderers that the Colonel could no longer resist their outcry for vengeance. He put the question to a vote and only eighteen of the entire body of volunteers voted for mercy.

Friday morning, March 8th, the decree of condemnation was executed. The Indian men were led, two by two, to the cooper shop and there beaten to death with mallets and hatchets. Two broke away and ran for the river, but were shot dead. The women were led to another building and slain like the men.

Only forty of the volunteers participated in the execution of forty men, twenty women and thirty-four children. It is probable that even the frontiersmen who stood aside and looked on did not consider their deed a crime.

The volunteers then burned the Indian village at Schoenbrun, and before they departed from Gnadenhuetten they set fire to every building. Salem was also destroyed.

Two weeks later, on Sunday, March 24, some militiamen attacked the Indians on Killbuck Island. Several Indians were killed. Killbuck and most of his band escaped in canoes.

General Irvine returned to Fort Pitt from a visit to Philadelphia and Carlisle the day after the attack and immediately put a stop to the raids.

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