Crawford campaign
Crawford Campaign Route
| date | May 25, 1782 to June 12, 1782 |
|---|---|
| place | Ohio Area (today's state of Ohio), USA |
| output | Victory of the British and Indian allies |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Pennsylvania Militia ( United States ) |
|
| Commander | |
|
William Caldwell |
William Crawford † |
| Troop strength | |
| 340–640 Indians 100 British rangers |
approx. 500 militiamen |
| losses | |
|
6 dead, 11 wounded |
approx. 70 dead, including prisoners killed later |
The Crawford Campaign , Sandusky Campaign or Crawford's Defeat was a military operation that took place shortly before the end of the American Revolutionary War . In May 1782, Colonel William Crawford led a force of around 500 volunteers from Pennsylvania to the Sandusky River to destroy the Indian villages there.
However, the Indians and their British allies from Detroit had discovered the advancing Americans and were gathering their forces for defense. In the vicinity of the villages there was a battle in the course of which the Americans were surrounded. Crawford's troops broke out under cover of night and retreated, which soon turned into a wild flight. Some Americans were captured. The others returned to Pennsylvania. However, about 70 Americans, including the prisoners, were killed.
In March of that year, nearly 100 Christian Indians were killed by the Pennsylvania militia in the Gnadenhütten village . Crawford personally had nothing to do with this incident. The Indians, including many Lenni Lenape , killed most of the prisoners in retaliation for the massacre of their loved ones. Crawford was tortured on the torture stake for almost two hours before he was burned alive. His death received a lot of coverage in the American press and added further strain to the already poor relations between Indians and whites.
Historical background
The outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775 turned out to be a disaster for the Indian tribes living in the Ohio area , the Shawnee , Mingo , Lenni Lenape and Wyandot , because they lived between the fronts. On one side there was the American outpost of Fort Pitt and on the other side was the British Fort Detroit with its allied Indians. Some members of the Ohio tribes wanted to fight the Americans, moved near Detroit and made camp on the Scioto and Sandusky Rivers . A second group stayed in Cocoshton and sympathized with the Americans. She signed a treaty with the United States in 1778 in the hope of establishing an Indian state in Ohio.
The war on the border escalated in 1777 when the British army began recruiting and arming Indians who then raided American settlements. An unknown number of settlers in what are now the states of Kentucky , West Virginia, and Pennsylvania fell victim to these raids.
In September 1781, General William Irvine was appointed commander in chief of the Western Front Section of the Continental Army, whose headquarters were in Fort Pitt. The Americans living on the border of the settlement asked the government that the army should lead a campaign against the British in Detroit to end the supply of weapons to the Indians. Irvine had the situation examined and wrote on December 2, 1781 to the Commander-in-Chief General George Washington that the Indians in their residential areas must be attacked and destroyed. In addition, the British were to be driven out of the country and Detroit destroyed to improve the situation.
Washington shared Irvine's assessment that Detroit would have to be attacked and destroyed to end the war in the west. In February 1782, Irvine submitted a detailed plan of attack to his superior. Irvine estimated that it would take about 2,000 soldiers, five cannons and a supply column to conquer Detroit. Washington knew that such a campaign would not be approved by Congress for financial reasons, and wrote back: At this time, we cannot consider large-scale offensives, only smaller operations.
In early March 1782, 160 Pennsylvania militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson searched Ohio for Indians who had previously raided Pennsylvania settlers. Williamson's people captured a group of around 100 Christian Lenape - mostly women and children - in the village of Gnadenhütten and had them killed with a cooper's mallet in retaliation. The Gnadenhütten massacre had disastrous effects on the relationship between Indians and whites on the border of the settlement.
Preparation of the campaign
General Irvine supported the formation of a force made up of volunteer militiamen only. The equipment of a volunteer militiaman was not too expensive compared to a regular soldier, because he only needed a horse, a rifle, ammunition, food and some other equipment. The only remuneration they received was a two-month release from military service and permission to plunder the Indian villages - a tempting offer for many, because these villages were more prosperous than the white people's settlements. Detroit was too powerful for a minor operation, but a campaign against the Indian villages on the Sandusky River seemed feasible.
Irvine's instructions to the company were:
"The aim is to destroy the Indian city and settlement on the Sandusky with fire and sword (as far as possible), which will hopefully give the inhabitants of this country more security."
On May 20, 1782, the first volunteers arrived at the meeting point at Mingo Bottom , now Mingo Junction , on the Indian side of the Ohio . The young men were mostly of Irish or Scottish descent and came mostly from Washington Counties and Westmoreland Counties in Pennsylvania; many of them had previously served in the United States Continental Army. The number of attendees eventually increased to over 500. The risks of the company were known to all and they were advised to make their wills before leaving.
Since the participants in the campaign were volunteers, they were allowed to choose their officers themselves, unlike the regular army. The two candidates for supreme command were David Williamson - the commander in the Gnadenhütten massacre - and William Crawford, a retired colonel in the Continental Army who had been reactivated at short notice. He was a longtime friend of George Washington and an accomplished soldier and border fighter. The 50-year-old Crawford was reluctant to join the militia, but he followed General Irvine's call. Williamson had already gained experience in the militia, but had fallen out of favor with the army officers after the Gnadenhütten massacre. Irvine did not want to see a second massacre under any circumstances and therefore favored the election of Crawford as commander. The election brought a very close result: Crawford received 235 votes against 230 votes for Williamson. Crawford took command and Williamson became his deputy major .
The troops were also accompanied by the doctor and army officer John Knight . Another participant was a young lieutenant who called himself John Rose and served as an adjutant . Even Irvine, who was a good friend of his, was not aware that his real name was Baron Gustave Rosenthal or Gustavus Heinrich de Rosenthal (1753–1829). He came from the Russian Empire and had to flee to America because he had killed an opponent in a duel . He went to Baltimore penniless and learned from the German doctor Wisendorf. In 1780 he fell into British captivity as a ship's doctor, but General Irvine made sure that he was replaced. He survived the campaign and returned to Livonia in 1784 , where he later became the Grand Marshal of his country.
Campaign to the Sandusky River
On May 25, 1782, Crawford's militiamen left the camp at Mingo Bottom with provisions for thirty days. General Irvine had estimated the time required for the 280 km to Sandusky at seven days. Crawford avoided well-known trails through the wilderness so as not to be spotted early by Indian scouts. Military discipline was largely unknown among the volunteers who had not served in the army. The men wasted their rations and, despite the prohibition, shot wild animals with their muskets. Apparently Crawford had insufficient leadership skills. Rose later wrote that Crawford talked incoherently during deliberations , confused facts and was unable to convince people of his opinion ... The march was interrupted several times because the commanders disagreed about how to proceed. Several volunteers deserted on the march.
The way through the Ohio area led mainly through dense forests. At first they rode in rows of four, but the dense undergrowth soon forced the troops to form rows of two. On June 3, the militiamen reached the open area south of the Sandusky River and crossed a prairie region called Sandusky Plains . Up to this point they had not spotted a single Indian. They reached Sandusky early the next day, but the nearby Wyandot village was deserted. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Wyandot had only recently moved their village about 12 km further north.
Crawford discussed the new situation with his officers and scouts. It was soon agreed that the Indian villages were to be found a few kilometers further downstream, and the commanders decided to continue the march for a day. There was a break at noon and Crawford sent John Rose north with a scouting party. After a short time, two of the scouts returned with the news that they had encountered a large number of Indian warriors who were approaching the Americans.
British and Indians
The British and their Indian allies had heard of the campaign before Crawford's troops left Mingo Bottom. This information came from an American soldier captured on April 8, through whom British agent Simon Girty learned of Crawford's mission and reported it to his superiors in Detroit.
So forewarned, the British Indian Department in Detroit was able to prepare for the American attack in good time. The Detroit Commanding Officer was Major Arent Schuyler DePeyster, reporting directly to the Governor General of British North America , Sir Frederick Haldimand. DePeyster worked with agents such as Simon Girty, Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliott, all of whom were on good terms with the Indians and coordinated the military operations of the British and Indians in the Ohio area. On May 15, a meeting was held in Detroit, at which DePeyster and McKee informed the Indians about the Sandusky campaign and recommended that they meet the Americans with numerous warriors and fight back. McKee was sent to the Shawnee Villages on the Great Miami River to recruit warriors against the American attack. The British also put a company of mounted Butler Rangers under Captain William Caldwell and a number of Indians from the Detroit region under Matthew Elliot on the march.
Since their departure from Mingo Bottom, the American troops have been watched by Indian scouts and the residents of the Indian villages on the Sandusky River have been alerted. Long before Crawford reached the Sandusky, the women and children from the Wyandot and Lenape villages were hidden in nearby ravines and the British traders packed up their wares and disappeared north. On June 4, the Lenape and Wyandot gathered under their chiefs Captain Pipe and Dunquat, as well as some Mingo, to face the Americans for battle. The number of Indians was estimated at around 500 warriors. British forces were nearby and the arrival of the Shawnee from the south was not expected until the next day.
June 4th: Battle Island
About three miles north of Upper Sandusky, the reconnaissance party under John Rose met Captain Pipes Lenape and withdrew fighting into a wood, where they had stored their equipment. The American scouts were on the verge of defeat when Crawford's main force arrived. Crawford dismounted the men to drive the Indians out of the grove. This succeeded after a short time and the group of trees later became known as Battle Island .
Around 4 p.m. the banter turned into a real battle. The Lenape received reinforcements from the Wyandot under Chief Dunquat and Captain William Caldwell, who coordinated the actions of the Lenape and Wyandot. He made the Lenape bypass the American flank and stab them in the back. Some Indians crawled up unnoticed in the high prairie grass, while the Americans climbed the trees to take them under fire from above. Powder smoke made the view worse, so that the enemy could hardly be recognized. After three and a half hours of intense gunfight, the Indians finally stopped the attack when darkness fell. During the night, Crawford's men slept with their rifles ready and surrounded their positions with great fire to prevent a nocturnal attack.
The Americans lost five dead and twenty-three wounded on the first day. The losses of the Indians and British are unknown, but were probably greater than those on the opposing side. The Americans scalped some of the dead Indians. For their part, the Indians captured the clothes of the dead Americans and scalped at least one dead enemy. Fifteen Crawford men deserted that night and later said in Pennsylvania that their unit had been hacked to pieces .
June 5th: withdrawal
The next morning the battle began again. The Indians kept their distance and shot from about 200 to 300 meters away, so that Crawford's troops were hardly casualties. According to Crawford's plan, the position in the grove was to be held during the day in order to surprise the Indians the following night. At the time, many Americans were still confident of winning the battle, although ammunition and water were slowly becoming scarce.
Scouts reported to Crawford that about 100 British rangers had arrived and were fighting on the Indian side. Crawford was surprised at the short notice of the British from Detroit, not realizing that the expedition had been betrayed from the start. At the same time, about 140 Shawnee under Chief Blacksnake were approaching all visible from the south , who took up position on the right flank of the Americans and reinforced the Wyandot. Crawford's force was outnumbered and enclosed on all sides. The Shawnee repeatedly shot their muskets in the air, a ceremony of strength known as the feu de joie (bonfire) that was apparently intended to shake American morale. Surrounded by so many enemies, Crawford decided to break out under cover of night and retreat. The dead were buried and fires were lit over the graves so that they would not be discovered and desecrated. The seriously wounded were laid out on stretchers for removal, while the lightly wounded were to ride.
In the dark of the night, the secret withdrawal began in four sections, but Indian guards discovered the movement of the troops, attacked and wreaked havoc among the militiamen. Many men got lost in the dark and divided into small groups. In the mess, Crawford worried about his family members, his son John, son-in-law William Harrison, and his nephew, also named William Crawford. Crawford and Knight stayed close to the battlefield while his men walked past him. But he looked in vain for his relatives. Crawford grew angry when he realized that, contrary to his express orders, some seriously wounded were left behind. Eventually he and Knight mounted their horses with two stragglers, but could not find the main group in the dark.
June 6: Battle of the Olentangy River
On the morning of June 6th, about 300 militiamen gathered at the abandoned Wyandot village. Crawford went missing and was believed to be trapped or dead. Command of the force was transferred to Williamson. It was to the advantage of the Americans that the pursuit of the fleeing troops was poorly organized because the British commander and Wyandot, Captain William Caldwell, had been seriously injured in the battle. The militiamen tried to reach the protective forest on the eastern edge of the Sandusky Plain. Here at the upper reaches of the Olentangy River , a tributary of the Scioto River, the main group of Americans was formed by the British and Wyandot. Williamson managed to withstand the pursuers with a small group of experienced fighters and fend them off after an hour. Three Americans were killed and eight wounded in the Battle of the Olentangy; the presumably much higher losses of the Indians and British are unknown.
Williamson had the dead buried and the retreat continued under fire from the pursuing Wyandot and British rangers. Williamson and Rose managed to keep their men together after impressing on them that an orderly retreat was their only chance to get home alive. The Americans set up camp about 10 km to the east on the upper Sandusky. The following day two more Americans were captured and probably killed before, to Williamson's surprise, the pursuers suddenly broke off their action. The main group of militiamen reached Mingo Bottom on June 13th, some stragglers individually or in small groups only in the following days and weeks.
The prisoners
Crawford, Knight and four other companions rode up the Sandusky River and encountered a group of Lenape warriors on June 7 about 45 kilometers east of the battlefield on the Sandusky. Crawford ordered his men not to shoot as he recognized some of the Lenape. They were part of a group led by Chief Wingenund and had previously visited Fort Pitt. Crawford and Knight were captured while their four companions managed to escape; however, two of them were later found dead and scalped.
It was common in the American Revolutionary War that Americans captured by Indians were either ransomed by the British in Detroit or adopted or killed by the respective tribe. The most prominent example of adoption was Daniel Boone , who was captured by Shawnee in 1778 and subsequently adopted. After the Gnadenhütten massacre, however, the Indians in the Ohio area decided to kill all captured Americans in retaliation. About 17 men from the Crawford campaign met this fate, but details from the Indian captivity come from only one survivor.
Some of the prisoners were killed immediately, others were previously tortured. The public torture of captive enemies on the stake was a traditional ritual of the American Indian tribes. Prisoners were exposed to excruciating pain for hours, sometimes days. The greater the respect the Indians showed their enemy, the more ruthless the ordeal. The victim, on the other hand, mocked his tormentors and was as unimpressed as possible by the torment. The British Indian Ministry in Detroit used its influence on the Indians to stop the killing and torture of captured opponents, initially successfully, but after the Gnadenhütten massacre, the traditional practice was reintroduced as a reprisal.
Crawford's death
Crawford, Knight, and nine other prisoners spent the next few days in Wingenund's camp. On June 11, the prisoners' faces were dyed black, the traditional feature of their imminent execution. They were then moved to Lenape Village on Tymochtee Creek near what is now Crawford. Four of the prisoners were killed with a tomahawk en route and then scalped . Once in the village, the rest of the prisoners had to sit down, and a bevy of Lenape women and boys with tomahawks killed all but Crawford and Knight. One victim's head was cut off. Then the Lenape boys scalped the bodies and tossed the bloody scalps in Crawford and Knight's faces.
About 100 men, women and children had gathered in Lenape Village to watch the spectacle of the execution of the last two prisoners. Witnesses to the execution were the chiefs Captain Pipe and Wingenund and the British Simon Girty and Matthew Elliot. Captain Pipe, who knew Crawford from the contract negotiations at Fort Pitt in 1778, addressed the crowd. He stressed that many of Crawford's men were involved in the Gnadenhütten massacre and that he would be held accountable as a leader. He mentioned that while Crawford did not participate in the massacre, he did participate in the Sqaw campaign when Pipes family members were killed.
After Pipe's speech, Crawford was stripped, beaten, and his hands tied behind his back, with a short rope leading to a stake. Then a large fire was kindled that burned about five to six meters around the stake. Indians shot Crawford's body with powder without bullets and cut off his ears. Burning sticks were stuck in his body, hot coals were thrown at him and he was forced to run around the stake. Crawford begged Simon Girty to shoot him; however, he turned around and declined the request. After two hours, Crawford fell unconscious to the ground. He was scalped, and a woman piled hot coals over his head, causing him to wake up. The ordeal continued until death finally released him and burned his body. The next day, Knight was taken to the Shawnee village of Wapatomica, some 60 kilometers away, to be killed. On the way he knocked his guard down with a dry branch and managed to escape. On July 5th he reached Fort Pitt exhausted and made his report of the fate of Crawford and the other prisoners.
Wapatomica
At least six Shawnee Americans captured suffered a fate similar to that of the Lenape captives. They were taken in two separate groups to the Shawnee village of Wapatomica on the Mad River in what is now Logan County. With those prisoners were Crawford's son-in-law, William Harrison, and his nephew, the younger William Crawford. The faces of these two and two other prisoners were also dyed black. The villagers formed two rows about 250 meters long through which the prisoners had to run the gauntlet . Americans were beaten with clubs, especially those with the blackened faces, who were then beaten to pieces with tomahawks. The Indians impaled their heads and limbs on stakes outside the village. One of the prisoners, a scout named John Slover , managed to escape from the Shawnee village of Mac-a-chak near what is now West Liberty . Naked, he took a horse, rode as far as he could and continued on foot until July 10th when he was the last of the survivors to reach Fort Pitt.
Consequences of Crawford's death
General Irvine's goal of destroying the Indian villages on the Sandusky River was not achieved. From a military point of view, the campaign ended in defeat. In the summer of 1782, General George Washington recommended that members of his army should not think of falling into the hands of the Indians alive during these times. The news of Colonel William Crawford's terrible fate formed the basis of this urgent recommendation. Crawford's death received wide coverage in the United States press. A ballad named Crawford's Defeat became very popular. In 1783, John Knight's eyewitness account of Crawford on the torture stake was first published. The editor, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, omitted all reasons for Crawford's execution and the fact that he was killed in retaliation for the Gnadenhütten massacre. Historian Parker Brown noted that he had succeeded in distributing a piece of malicious anti-Indian and anti-British propaganda in a targeted manner in order to generate attention and patriotism. In an introduction, Brackenridge's publisher made it clear why this experience report had been published:
“But because they (the Indians) continue to kill on our border, this report may move our government to take effective steps to punish and subjugate them. It should recognize from this that the nature of the Indians is wild and cruel and that their extermination is useful for the world and honorable for those who put it into practice. "
As planned, Knight's report fueled the growing racist sentiment towards the Indians, and the book was reprinted several times over the next eighty years, whenever the newspapers reported on violence between whites and Indians. Although American border fighters often killed Native American prisoners, many Americans viewed Native American culture as barbaric due to the use of torture, and Crawford's death renewed the perception of Native Americans as "savages." In Americans' national memory, the grisly details of Crawford's death on the stake usually overshadowed their own atrocities, such as the Gnadenhütten massacre. Soon there was only talk of the wild Indians and the achievements of peace-loving Indian leaders like Cornstalk and White Eyes fell into oblivion.
In the work of Consul Wilshire Butterfield, published in 1873, which in turn was based on notes by campaigner John Rose, there are not only numerous details, but also the misrepresentation of history and language in which the events of Crawford's death were reported for more than 150 years: The War begun in this way was started on the side of the savages by raids by scalping troops, the tomahawk and scalping knife spared neither age nor gender, while the torch devastated the homes of the unfortunate frontier men. As a natural consequence, revenge expeditions followed.
literature
- James H. Anderson: Col. William Crawford. Archæological and Historical Publications, Columbus (Ohio) 1898. First published in Ohio Archæological and Historical Quarterly 6 (1896) 1-34 .
- Consul Wilshire Butterfield: An Historical Account of the Expedition against Sandusky under Col. William Crawford in 1782. Clarke, Cincinnati 1873. The only secondary source on the campaign. Butterfield got most of his information from John Rose's diary, but died in 1899 before he could publish a new version.
- Gregory Evans Dowd: A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815. Johns Hopkins University Press , Baltimore 1992, ISBN 0-8018-4609-9 .
- Randolph C. Downes: Council Fires on the Upper Ohio: A Narrative of Indian Affairs in the Upper Ohio Valley until 1795. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh 1940, ISBN 0-8229-5201-7 (reprinted 1989).
- Douglas R. Hurt: The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1996, ISBN 0-253-33210-9 .
- Paul O'Neil (Ed.): The Way West. Time-Life Books, 1980 ( The Wild West series. )
- Larry L. Nelson: A Man of Distinction among Them: Alexander McKee and the Ohio Country Frontier, 1754-1799. Kent State University Press, Kent (Ohio) 1999, ISBN 0-87338-620-5 .
- John Rose Rosenthal: Journal of a Volunteer Expedition to Sandusky. New York Times and Arno Press Reprint, New York 1969.
Web links
- Crawford's Expedition against Sandusky on heritagepursuit.com
- Sandusky Expedition on genealogytrails.com
References and comments
- ↑ According to the journals of John Rose it was exactly 488 ( Journal of a Volunteer Expedition to Sandusky from May 24 to June 13, 1782. In: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 18 (1894) 129-328, p. 139).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Crawford’s expedition against Sandusky
- ↑ Alvin M. Josephy Jr.: The world of the Indians. Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-89405-331-3 .
- ↑ A large hard wood hammer that was used to work on barrels.
- ↑ Most of the horses and rifles were privately owned by the militiaman.
- ↑ Quoted from Consul Wilshire Butterfield, p. 69f: “ The object of your command is, to destroy with fire and sword (if practicable), the Indian town and settlement at Sandusky, by which we hope to give ease and safety to the inhabitants of this country ... "
- ↑ Frontiersman (Frontiersman in English) were men who lived on the then settlement border in North America.
- ↑ According to JG Rosengarten: Rosenthal, John Rose, Baron de. Journal of a Volunteer Expedition to Sandusky. Philadelphia 1890, p. 102 he did not die until 1830.
- ↑ Journal of a Volunteer Expedition to Sandusky from May 24 to June 13, 1782. In: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 18. (1894) 129-328, p. 129
- ↑ Consul Wilshire Butterfield, pp. 129f.
- ^ A b Sandusky Expedition
- ↑ So called by the early French immigrants and adopted by the British.
- ↑ Other accounts of this campaign mention that it was Crawford who held the position with his men at the Battle of Olenganty and was not captured until after this battle. However, Butterfield and Brown's detailed records confirm that Crawford was missing the night before and was not with the main force in Olentangy.
- ^ A b Paul O'Neil: The way to the west. Time-Life Books, 1980, p. 72. ( The Wild West series. )
- ↑ The last person to come back from the campaign could have been Joseph Pipes, who was held by the Shawnee until 1786.
- ^ "The warfare thus begun was made up, on the side of the savages, of predatory incursions of scalping parties; the tomahawk and scalping-knife sparing neither age nor sex, while the torch laid waste the homes of the unfortunate bordermen. As a natural consequence, retaliatory expeditions followed. ”, Quoted from Wilshire Butterfield, p. 2.
- ↑ The magazine has changed its name several times. It was first called Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly (1887-1934), then The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly (1935-1954), then The Ohio Historical Quarterly (1955-1961) and, since 1962, Ohio History .
