Simon Girty, the Renegade, and Indians Attacked Fort Laurens, February 23,1779

Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh, who had been sent by Congress and General Washington to restore peace on the harried western frontier of Pennsylvania, relieved General Edward Hand of his command at Fort Pitt.

A treaty of peace with the Delaware Indians was concluded September 17, 1778, and General McIntosh immediately prepared an expedition against the British post at Detroit.

On October 1, the army, consisting of 1300 troops, of whom 500 were regulars of the Eighth Pennsylvania and Thirteenth Virginia, marched from Fort Pitt down the Ohio, to the mouth of the Beaver.

Four weeks were occupied in building a fort within the present town of Beaver, which was named Fort McIntosh, in honor of the commanding officer.

A herd of lean cattle arrived at Fort McIntosh November 3, and on the 5th the army began its march, but they did not reach the Tuscarawas River until November 19.

In accord with a provision in the treaty with the Delaware, General McIntosh was pledged to erect a protection for the Indian women and children. During the march to the Tuscarawas a Delaware chief was shot by a Virginia militiaman, and many Indians deserted the American force.

General McIntosh, with great reluctance, determined not to continue the campaign so late in the year, and to employ the troops and make a show of enterprise, he began the construction of a stockade fort at Tuscarawas, where the army then encamped and from which place it would again set out in the spring on another attempt against Detroit.

The fort was named Fort Laurens, in honor of the President of the Continental Congress.

Before this fort was finished General McIntosh realized he could not get forward a sufficient quantity of provisions to maintain his large force in the Indian country long enough even for an expedition against the Sandusky towns.

The Virginians were enlisted only until the end of the year, the weather became intensely cold, starvation and deep snows threatened, which seemed enough to discourage any commander and the general was forced to march his army to the Ohio.

He left 150 men of the Thirteenth Virginia, under command of Colonel John Gibson, one of the stoutest-hearted of the frontiersmen. 141Colonel Daniel Brodhead, of Northampton County, with a detachment of the Eighth Pennsylvania, formed the winter garrison at Fort McIntosh, while General McIntosh took up his quarters at Fort Pitt much chagrined over his disappointments.

The little garrison at Fort Laurens experienced a terrible winter. They were short of food and clothing. The troops hunted until driven out of the woods by the hostile Indians.

The erection of this fort in the very heart of the Indian country greatly provoked the Wyandot, Miami and Mingo tribes, and they plotted its destruction. Early in January, 1779, they began to prowl about the post.

General McIntosh promised to send provisions to the post by the middle of January, and Captain John Clark, of the Eighth Pennsylvania, was sent from McIntosh with fifteen men to convoy the pack horses loaded with flour and meat to the relief of the post on the Tuscarawas.

This detail reached the fort January 21, and two days later set out on their return to the Ohio. Three miles from the fort the party was attacked from ambush by seventeen Mingo Indians, under the leadership of Simon Girty, the renegade and Tory, and two soldiers were killed, four wounded and one captured.

Captain Clark was forced back to Fort Laurens, but a few days afterward he again started and led his little detail through without molestation. Girty led his captive soldier to Detroit, and while there raised a much larger force and returned to the vicinity of Fort Laurens, where he arrived about the middle of February.

Fort Laurens was now surrounded by a band of 200 Miami and Mingo Indians led by Girty and Captain Henry Bird. Colonel Gibson succeeded in sending a messenger through the savage lines, who carried the distressing news to General McIntosh.

On February 23, 1779, a wagon was sent out from the fort under an escort of eighteen soldiers to haul some firewood which had been cut by the troops. About a half a mile from the fort the little party passed an ancient Indian mound behind which a band of Indians lay hidden. The Indians burst upon them, both front and rear, and every man in the detail was killed and scalped except two, who were taken prisoners.

The Indians then planned a regular siege upon the fort and endeavored to starve the garrison into surrender.

Colonel Gibson dispatched another messenger, who eluded the watchful Indians and reached Fort McCord March 3.

In the interim the condition in the garrison became desperate. A sortie in force was contemplated but the strength of the savages caused this plan to be abandoned. The Indians paraded over the crest of the hill within plain sight, and about 850 warriors were counted. It was 142afterward learned that 200 had been marched to make a show, four times the strength.

Captain Bird after this stratagem, sent in a demand for surrender, promising safe passage for the soldiers to Fort McIntosh, but Gibson sternly refused. The Indians then promised to withdraw if Gibson would furnish them with a barrel of flour and a barrel of meat.

Bird believed the garrison was reduced to its last ration and would, of necessity, refuse the request, and therefore he felt certain that in a few days the garrison must surrender.

Gibson had but a few barrels of food, and that in bad condition; but he quickly complied with the demand, sent out two barrels and said he had plenty yet inside. They enjoyed a feast on the flour and meat, and on the following day left that vicinity and returned to their towns in Northwestern Ohio.

On March 23, General McIntosh appeared with his relieving force of 300 regulars and 200 militia escorting a train of pack horses with provisions. For more than a week the men had subsisted on roots and soup made by boiling raw hides.

The famished troops sallied forth, and fired a volley to express their joy. The shooting frightened the pack horses, causing them to stampede through the woods, scattering food in every direction. Many of the horses were never recovered and the food lost.

By the middle of May the garrison was compelled to return to Fort McIntosh to escape actual starvation. The fort was finally dismantled and the men returned to Fort Pitt.