General Sir Guy Carleton Puts End to Indian War October 23, 1782

After the murder of Colonel William Crawford, which occurred June, 1782, about five miles west of Upper Sandusky, the Scots and other frontiersmen were saddened but far from being discouraged.

The fugitives of the ill-fated expedition to the Sandusky had hardly returned to their homes along the western frontier of Pennsylvania when they began preparations for another expedition.

The borderers possessed a fierce determination to crush out the “red vipers” and one more trip into the Indian country soon as harvest was gathered was but an incident in their exciting life.

General William Irvine, the commandant at Fort Pitt, was urged to command, and principal men of that vicinity agreed to furnish the provisions, not only for the volunteers but for the regular troops.

The General determined to lead the expedition if he should be satisfied with its size and equipment. Men who were too aged for service agreed to furnish the horses and provisions.

It was intended to start early in August, but the summer had been so dry that the mills could not grind until the water was sufficient, so a postponement was announced until September 20.

General Irvine kept the State Government advised of the preparations on the frontier and at the same time intimated that State and Congress would materially assist in the enterprise.

After a conference between members of Congress and the Supreme Executive Council a recommendation was made, September 1, 1782, to General Washington that the General Government should aid in this campaign against the savages. It was an opportune moment as operations in the East were quiet and peace was soon expected with Great Britain.

General Washington agreed that three expeditions should penetrate the Indian country, each to be composed of regulars, militia and volunteers, and Congress voted to bear the expenses of the regular troops.

Brigadier General Irvine was to command in person the expedition which would move from Fort Pitt against the Wyandot and Delaware on the Sandusky River; Major General James Potter, of Northumberland County, was to advance from Sunbury into the Seneca land, in the Genesee Valley of New York State, and a third expedition was to be sent by the State of New York against the Eastern Iroquois in the vicinity of Oswego.

Two companies of militia, one from York and the other from Cumberland 740County, were sent to Westmoreland to guard its settlements while its own men were absent in the Indian country.

Detachments of Colonel Moses Hazen’s “Canadian Regiment” stationed at Lancaster and Carlisle were ordered to march to Fort Pitt and there join General Irvine, who had at that post two companies of the Eighth Pennsylvania regiment, commanded by Captains Samuel Brady and John Clark.

General Lincoln, Secretary of War, proposed that General Irvine’s force should aggregate 1200 men and set October 8 as the date to begin the campaign, and assured General Irvine that the additional troops would be there by that time.

While preparations were being made the Indians struck a blow against the border. Early in September, Captain Andrew Bradt and forty Canadian Rangers and 238 Indians, Wyandot, Delaware and Shawnee, set out from Upper Sandusky to attack Wheeling.

Fort Henry, at that place, was defended by twenty-seven men, only eighteen of whom were fit for duty. One swivel gun, which had been discarded by the French and thrown into the river when Fort Duquesne was evacuated in 1758, had been recovered by the pioneers and again set up.

All the inhabitants of that neighborhood flocked to the stockade on the news of the approach of the enemy. Colonel Ebenezer Zane was in command of the garrison.

Captain Bradt’s force crossed the Ohio and paraded in front of Fort Henry in the evening of Wednesday, September 11. The captain displayed the British flag and demanded a surrender, which was promptly rejected, and soon firing was opened on the fort from long range.

At midnight the savages attempted to carry the fort by storm, but were repulsed. The French swivel gun proved to be more than a relic and rendered a good account of itself, and especially as the Indians were much afraid of any sort of cannon.

Two more attempts to gain by storm were made before daybreak, and both proved futile. The enemy, however, kept up a steady fire during the day. Captain Bradt sent a Negro to the fort with a second demand for surrender, and during Thursday night a fourth desperate attempt to take the fort by storm was made.

Again the brave riflemen repulsed the savage horde and broke their spirit, and they retired and recrossed the Ohio. Only one defender was wounded in the foot.

After the failure to invest Wheeling, seventy of the Indians who cut loose from the main force and went for scalps and plunder, attacked the blockhouse of Abraham Rice, on Buffalo Creek, within the present Donegal Township, Washington County.

Six men in that blockhouse successfully defended it from 2 o’clock in the afternoon of September 13 until 2 o’clock the following morning. 741They killed four Indians and lost one of their own number, George Felebaum, who was shot in the brain while looking through a loophole.

The savages killed many cattle and burned the barn. On their return toward the Ohio they met and killed two settlers who were going to the relief of Rice’s blockhouse. This was the last invasion of Western Pennsylvania by a large body of Indians.

While General Irvine was impatient that Hazen’s regulars did not arrive, on October 23, he received word from Philadelphia that the Indian war was at an end and that his expedition was countermanded.

To the credit of General Sir Guy Carleton is due the cessation of the Indian depredations. Soon after his appointment he was shocked by the cruel burning of Colonel William Crawford and other American prisoners, and he immediately put an end to the six years of terrible savage butchery.

General Washington learned of General Carleton’s action September 23, when he directed the authorities in Philadelphia to stop General Potter at Sunbury from marching to Fort Pitt.

On September 27 General Lincoln ordered Generals Hazen and Irvine to call off the expedition. The former immediately returned with his command to Lancaster. The letter to General Irvine was not promptly delivered and Captain Samuel Brady found the bearer at a wayside inn, and he hurried the intelligence to General Irvine too late.

But in the autumn of 1782, the sorely harried frontiersmen were encouraged to believe their distresses were at an end, and with much joy they were able to participate in the first general Thanksgiving Day celebrated in the United States on the last Thursday of November.