Washington-Irvine Correspondence. The official letters which passed between Washington and Brig.-Gen. William Irvine and between Irvine and others concerning military affairs in the West from 1781 to 1783. Arranged and annotated with an introduction ... by C. W. Butterfield [With portraits and a...

Front matter

Washington-Irvine Correspondence THE OFFICIAL LETTERS WHICH PASSED BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND BRIG.-GEN. WILLIAM IRVINE AND BETWEEN IRVINE AND OTHERS CON- CERNING MILITARY AFFAIRS IN THE WEST FROM 1781 TO 1783 ARRANGED AND ANNOTATED with an introduction containing an outline of events occurring previously in the teans-alleghant country ILLUSTRATED By C. W. BUTTERFIELD Author of " Crawford's Campaign against Sandusky," " History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet" and other works Madison, Wis. DAVID ATWOOD Copyrighted, 1882, By C. W. BUTTERFIELD. DAVID ATWOOD, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, / MADlSONr WIS,

Preface

. The correspondence between General Washington as commander-in-chief of the American army and Brigadier General William Irvine, while the latter was in command of the Western Department, headquarters at Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh,— a period extending from early in November, 1781, to October 1, 1783, — is given to the public as a contribution to Revolutionary history, having, it is thought, an interest and value as illustrating the most important events which transpired in the west during the last years of the struggle of the colonies for independence. The letters in the text which follow this correspondence are all either to or from Gen. Irvine: they generally relate to military matters in the trans-Alleghany country and are mostly written by officers — civil or military. The selection of Gen. Irvine, at a critical period, to take charge of military affairs in the west, was a wise one.

How his perseverance brought the repairs of Fort Pitt so nearly to completion as twice to cause the abandon ment by the enemy of expeditions against it; how, until the close of the war, his firmness and urbanity preserved order at Pittsburgh; and how his prudence and sagacity gave confidence to the distracted border, and some thing of efficiency to its militia; — will hereafter fully appear. His letters are characterized by clearness in descriptions, faithfulness in statements and carefulness in details. In the introduction as well as in the numerous illustrative notes added to the letters which follow it, facts have been given with but little reliance upon tradition. Contemporaneous publications and manuscripts have been diligently sought for and carefully compared, and the substance of the principal events found in them noted; or such extracts made from them as, it is believed, would tend to elucidate the various points needing illustration.

If, therefore, statements are made running counter to some in current his tories of the west, it is not that the latter have been overlooked, but because, after due consideration and the closest scrutiny, they have been found erroneous. It would seem to be an editor's privilege (if, indeed, it is not his duty) to correct verbal and grammatical mistakes or inaccuracies, in bringing Preface. IV forth the letters of a person after his death, written without any design of publication; but, in doing this, great caution should be observed that the writer's meaning and purpose are not changed or affected. This rule has been applied in the following pages. In a few places, words have been omitted which, if expressed, might give pain to living persons. In each, the fact of an omission is indicated.

Several letters written by Irvine to his wife while he was in charge of Fort Pitt and its dependencies, have been omitted for reason of their referring largely to family affairs; those only being printed which are con sidered of importance in illustrating matters appertaining to the General's command in the Western Department; in explaining his mode of living while there; or, in describing the condition of the country and its society. Some have also been omitted which were written to Irvine by militia officers stationed upon the frontiers, asking for supplies of ammunition and pro visions ; giving information as to the marching of their commands to different posts, etc. These, it is thought, would convey little if any information of interest to the reader. A few others have been excluded because of their being repetitions in the main, or because of their having no relation to events transpiring in the west.

I must express my high appreciation of the kindness of Lord Derby in transmitting through the American Legation in London, copies of letters and documents in Her Majesty's State Paper office. They are, in general, extravagant in their estimate of the number of men killed of the Ameri cans under Col. Wm. Crawford, and erroneous as to the intent of the borderers; but some of them proved to be of value as illustrative of Gen. Irvine's correspondence and as corroborating (and, in some instances, cor recting) American accounts of incidents occurring in the Sandusky country during the year 1782. I am indebted to Dr. Wm. A. Irvine, grandson of Gen. Irvine, for much the larger part of the letters appearing in this volume and for many favors in connection with their preparation for publication. I take pleasure in acknowledging, also, in a special manner, my obligations to Mr. Isaac Craig and Mr. Geo. Plumer Smith, for a like generous assistance and for valuable suggestions while the work was going through the press.

My thanks, for kindly aid, are likewise due to Lyman C. Draper, LL.D., Dr. Wm. H. Egle, C. C. Baldwin, Esq., and Boyd Crumrine, Esq. Madison, Wisconsin, 1882. C. W. B. CONTENTS.

Introduction

. Pages. Chap. I. — The West to the Commencement of the Revolution, - 1-5 II. — War Inaugurated upon the Western Border of Pennsylvania and Virginia. 1776-1777, - - 6-12 III.— Hostilities Increase upon the Ohio. 1777-1778, - - 13-20 IV. — An Expedition Undertaken against Detroit — Its Failure. 1778-1779, 21-34 V.— Progress of the Western Border War. 1779-1781, - 35-64 VI.— Biographical Sketch of William Irvine, - - 65-70 WASHINGTON-IRVINE LETTERS. Washington to Irvine, Nov. 1, 1781, ----- 71 Irvine to Washington, Dec. 2, 1781, .... 72 Washington to Irvine, Dec. 18, 1781, ----- 83 Washington to Irvine, Dec. 21, 1781, .... 84 Irvine to Washington, Feb. 7, 1782, ----- 89 Washington to Irvine, March 8, 1782, ... - 94 Irvine to Washington, March 17, 1782, 96 Washington to Irvine, March 22, 1782, - 98 Irvine to Washington, April 20, 1782, 99 Irvine to Washington, May 2, 1782, ... - 109 Irvine to Washington, May 7, 1782, ----- 112 Irvine to Washington, May 21, 1782, .... 113 Washington to Irvine, May 22, 1782, ----- 120 Irvine to Washington, Juno 16, 1782, ... - 121 Irvine to Washington, July 1, 1782, 122 Washington to Irvine, July 10, 1782, ... - 125 Irvine to Washington, July 11, 1782, 126 Washington to Irvine, Aug. 6, 1782, - - - 1 - 129 Irvine to Washington, Oct. 29, 1782, 133 Washington to Irvine, Dec. 11, 1782, .... 141 Irvine to Washington, March 6, 1783, 142 Irvine to Washington, March 28, 1783, - 144 Irvine to Washington, April 16, 1783, 148 Washington to Irvine, April 16, 1783, .... 149 Irvine to Washington, May 8, 1783, ----- 150 Washington to Irvine, Sept. 16, 1783, ... - Contents.

VI APPENDIXES. Pages. A. — Irvine to the President of Congress, - - - - 153-156 B. — Correspondence with the Continental Board of War; also with the Secretary at War and his Assistant, - - 157-199 C. — Correspondence with the Superintendent of Finance, - 200-213 D. — John Pierce, Paymaster-general, to Irvine, - - 214-216 E. — Correspondence with the Deputy and Assistant Quartermaster-general, - - .... 217-224 F. — Correspondence with John Moylan, Clothier-general, and Jacob S. Howell, his Deputy, - 225-228 G. — Correspondence with the Governors of Pennsylvania, - 229-265 H. — Correspondence with Benj. Harrison, Governor of Virginia, 266-271 1. — William Davies, Virginia Secretary at War, to Irvine, - 272-276 J. — -Correspondence with the Lieutenant of Washington County, Pennsylvania, ------ 277-320 K. — Correspondence with the Lieutenant of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, ------ 321-339 L. — Irvine to his Wife, ------ 340-348 M. — Miscellaneous Correspondence, - 349-423 Index, -------- 425-430 THE WASHINGTON AND IRVINE PORTRAITS.

The portrait of Washington in this work is from a Stuart picture ; that of Irvine, from an oil painting by B. Otis, after one by Robert Edge Pine, an eminent English artist, who came to America in 1784. The original was taken in New York, when Irvine was a member of Congress — aged forty eight.

INTRODUCTION.

.

Chapter I The West To The Commencement Of The Revolution

The vast extent of country lying between the Alleghany mountains on the east, the Mississippi on the west, and bor dered by the great lakes on the north, was first explored by Frenchmen, and to a very limited extent occupied by them. They had here their forts, trading-posts, and missions, — few in number it is true, yet sufficiently numerous to exert a pow erful influence over the Indians, whom they usually endeavored to conciliate and attach to their interest. France, therefore. by right of discovery as well as by occupation, claimed, as against the civilized world, this region as her own. But French men soon had rival claimants to the trans- Alleghany country. England, through her colonies, coveted the goodly land. In the very nature of things, a contest for supremacy could not long be postponed.

By proclamations and perishing inscriptions, as well as by the erection of military posts, France sought to establish firmly the Alleghanies as the eastern boundary of her posses sions, while English enterprise not only carried a nominal occupation into the Ohio valley but pushed the fur-trader far beyond it. England demanded explanations for French en croachments. France answered with menaces and increased exertions to gain a permanent foot-hold in the Ohio region. Hostilities commenced and continued until, in 1755, war was fully inaugurated. France at first was victorious. Braddock's defeat was a humiliating blow to Great Britain and her Amer ican colonies. However, in the end, "Wolfe and Amherst con quered Canada, and French domination in North America was almost wholly overthrown. . 2 Although possession of a large portion of the country north west of the Ohio was yielded to England by France in 1760, yet no title to this extensive region had been acquired of its Indian occupants, who sullenly acquiesced in the change.

They had been the close and trusted allies of the French, but the triumph of English arms caused them to make peace with the conquerors — a peace prompted more by fear than friendship. Indifference and neglect of the British government, outrages of fur-traders, brutality of English soldiery, intrusion of pro vincial settlers upon lands of border tribes, fabrications and wiles of French trading-companies — all conspired to arouse their war-spirit. Their leader was Pontiac, a war-chief of the Ottawas. Every English post wesf> of Niagara and the Alle ghanies fell a prey to savage fury, Ligonier, Fort Pitt (Pitts burgh), and Detroit, only excepted. The western frontiers were, as in the previous war, overrun with merciless foes. But England and her colonies soon conquered the Indians, dictating preliminary treaties of peace to them in 1764, which were com pleted not long afterward.

For the next ten years, there was as much quiet along the Ohio as could have been expected from the presence of savages upon one side of the river and the rapid approach of white settlers to the other. At the close of Pontiac's war, there were not to be found any settlements in the upper Ohio country. Up and down the Monongahela and its branches every white settler had been expelled. From the headsprings of the Alleghany to its union with its sister stream, there were no habitations other than of savages. At the junction of these rivers, where the city of Pittsburgh now sits enveloped in the smoke of its thousand in dustries, there was very little to indicate the presence of civili zation save Fort Pitt. Outside that post, there was not an inhabited hut of even a trader. Down the Ohio on the left was an uninhabited region; so, also, on the right — up the Beaver, the Muskingum, the Scioto, and down the parent stream to its mouth.

Settlements upon the waters of the Monongahela by adventurous Virginians, begun before the com mencement of the contest between England and France for the Ohio country, had but an ephemeral existence. Houses and Introduction. 3 cornfields of English traders, which then dotted the margin of the Ohio and its tributaries in a few places, were destroyed by the French in this war for supremacy, and though others after ward appeared, nearly all vanished before the devastating hand of the foe in 1763. Pittsburgh, dating its origin from English occupation of the head of the Ohio in 1758, attained, by the spring of 1761, to the dignity of a population numbering three hundred and thirty-two, occupying one hundred and four houses. Doubtless both had considerably increased by May, 1763, when most of its log cabins were leveled to the ground, and the occupants of all driven into the fort for protection against the wild warriors of Pontiac's confederation.

Notwithstanding the king of England's proclamation of 1763, prohibiting colonial governors from granting warrants for lands to the westward of the sources of the rivers running into the Atlantic, and forbidding all persons purchasing such lands or settling on them without special license from the crown, emigration two years thereafter broke through the barriers of the Alleghanies, rolling into the valley of the Ohio from that time forward with a resistless tide; so that the purpose of roy alty in limiting settlements to the east side of the mountains — whether to set bounds to_ the aspirations of the colonies or a temporary expedient to quiet the minds of the Indians — was signally frustrated. In 1765, Pittsburgh again started — this time upon a permanent but not rapid career to prosperity and greatness.

Emigrants to the Ohio valley were, generally, either such as came to secure fertile and cheap lands, or they were traders with the Indians. The former class was looked upon by the various tribes claiming the country, as trespassers; and it was the policy of the home government as well as Pennsylvania so to treat them. Those who came to cultivate the soil were largely from Virginia, but the traders were mostly Pennsylvanians. Two principal highways were followed in coming over the mountains: the northern route was known as Forbes', or the Pennsylvania road ; the southern, as Braddock's, or the Virginia road. Parties from Maryland or Virginia in emigrating to the Ohio country, traveled the last mentioned route. Settlements soon extended. In 1768, the Indian title to a considerable portion of western Pennsylvania, east and south of the Alle ghany and Ohio rivers, was purchased, leaving, however, it and much more in dispute as between the Penns and Virginia, while large tracts were claimed by individuals under grants from some of the Indian tribes.

These grants needed confirmation by the crown to be valid. Pittsburgh grew slowly. About twenty houses, and these occupied by traders, were all that the place could boast of in 1770. The number increased, however, in the next two years to thirty. Probably not less than fifty constituted the town at the commencement of 1774. From Fort Pitt, far up the Mo nongahela and along many of its branches, were settlements. Upon .eastern tributaries of the Ohio, and down that stream for more than one hundred miles were to be seen cabins of frontier men; but not a single settler had yet ventured across that river. Small cultivated fields broke in upon the monotony of the wil derness for a short distance up the east side of the Alleghany from Pittsburgh, while toward the mountains, Forbes' road was, in general, the northern limit of civilized habitations.

Augusta county, Virginia, at the beginning of 1774, com prehended not only the whole of the northwestern portion of the present state of West Virginia, but also a large part of what is now southwestern Pennsylvania including Pitsburgh; that is, such was then the claim of Virginia. On the other hand, Westmoreland county had been formed the year previous by Pennsylvania, to include all of that state, as at present constituted, west of the Laurel. Hill. This conflict of jurisdiction caused serious trouble. The southern line of Pennsyl vania had not been extended farther to the westward than a short distance beyond the Monongahela, and it was not till ten years subsequent to this date that it was finally completed. The county-seat of Westmoreland county was Hannastown, about thirty-five miles from Pittsburgh on, Forbes' road, where (and at Ligonier still further eastward) Pennsylvania inter ests were paramount.

In many of the other settlements, the citizens were largely in sympathy with Virginia. However across the Alleghany and Ohio, in the Indian country, the in fluence of the fur-traders was the leading one with the various Introduction. 5 tribes. These dealers dreaded above all things an Indian war. Most of them lived in the northern settlements, especially at or near Pittsburgh — ■ the principal depot west of the mountains for Indian supplies. In 1774, the Virginia county of Fincastle included, south and southwest of Augusta county, the lower portions of the valley of the Great Kanawha and extended westward so as to comprehend the whole of the present state of Kentucky, but no where crossed the Ohio. All was, however, uninhabited. It was only that part of the county lying to the eastward of this that was settled.

The presence of Virginia and Pennsyl vania land-claimants and surveyors, along the Ohio in 1773, and in the spring of the next year, precipitated hostilities with the Shawanese and Mingoes, whose observance of the peace of 1764 had been far from cordial, especially toward the citi zens of Virginia. Lord Dunmore's war ensued. Wakatomica, an Indian town located upon the Muskingum, was destroyed by the Virginians, with out-lying villages. The battle of Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha river, on the tenth of October, 1774, when victory over the savages was purchased at a price well-nigh commensurate with defeat, compelled the Indians to sue for peace, negotiations for which, near their villages on the banks of the Scioto, were rendered famous by the eloquent speech of Logan, the Mingo chief.

The day of the revolution now began to dawn. Quickly, after the battle of Lexington, were the fires of patriotism lighted west of the mountains. The hearts of many of the backwoodsmen were soon aglow with enthusiasm for the cause of liberty. On the sixteenth of May, 1775, conventions were held at Pittsburgh and Hannastown for citizens to give ex pression to their views and sentiments regarding the acts of the mother country, and to take initiatory steps toward provid ing for the common defense. The boundary troubles for the time were forgotten. In the fall, a number of frontiermen en listed for Virginia service. The commencement of 1776 found the trans-Alleghany settlements not greatly behind the sea board in their determination to repel, by force of arms, aggressions of parliament and the king.

Chapter II. War Inaugurated Upon The Western Border Of Penn- Sylvania And

VIRGINIA. 1776—1777. | At the commencement of the struggle of the colonies for in dependence, the scattered settlements to the westward of the Alleghanies had little to fear from invading armies of Great Britain. Their dread was of a more merciless foe. Nor were their apprehensions groundless; for the Indians of the northwest, influenced by British gold and the machinations of English traders and emissaries, early gave evidence of hostile intentions. Explanations by the United States, made in 1775 and 1776, to some of the tribes at treaties held with them at Pittsburgh, that the questions in dispute did not necessarily affect their interests, were to little purpose. Gradually they arrayed themselves against the Americans, the more remote nations being the first to attach themselves to the British.

Painted and plumed war riors soon carried destruction and death to the dismayed frontiers, — the direct result of a most ferocious policy, adopted by Eng land in opposition to the advice of some of her best and ablest statesmen, — " letting loose," in the language of Chatham, " the horrible hell-hounds of savage war " upon the exposed settle ments. The deadly strife thus begun, was made up on the side of the Indians largely 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. It is difficult fully to appreciate the appalling dangers which beset the frontiers ; for, to the natural ferocity of the savages, there was added the powerful support of Great Britain, lavish in her re sources, whose western agents, especially at the commencement of the war, were noted for their zeal in obeying the behests of their government.

The principal point of British power and influence in the Introduction. 7 northwest was Detroit, where Lieutenant-Governor Henry Ham ilton, who paid aTtounty for scalps, but withheld it for prisoners,1 was in command. Being captured by Virginians early in 1779, he was succeeded before the close of that year by Major A. S. De Peyster, who, although carrying out the policy of his gov ernment, did so in the spirit of an enlightened humanity.2 In dian depredations upon the western frontier of Virginia3 and Pennsylvania, and in the infant settlements of Kentucky,4 drew, to a great extent, their inspiration from that post. It was there the Wyandots, from its immediate vicinity and from the San dusky — a river flowing north into Sandusky bay — were en listed in the interests of Great Britain. It was there these Indians, and the Shawanese from the Miami and Scioto rivers — northern tributaries of the Ohio — received aid to pillage and destroy.

And it was there that these and other tribes were made close allies of the English, and then turned loose upon the exposed settlements of the west. These they assailed with an 1 " Governor Hamilton gave standing rewards for scalps, but offered none for prisoners, which induced the Indians, after making their captives carry their baggage into the neighborhood of the fort [Detroit], there to put them to death." — Va. Council, 16 Jane, 1779. "When we arrived there [on the bank of the Detroit river], we found Governor Hamilton, and several other British officers, who were standing and sitting around. Im mediately the Indians produced a large quantity of scalps; the cannon fired; the Indians raised a shout; and the soldiers waved their hats, with huzzas and tremen dous 6hrieks, which lasted some time.

This ceremony being ended, the Indians brought forward a paicel of Ameiican prisoners, as a trophy of their victories ; among whom were eighteen women and children, poor creatures, dreadfully mangled and emaciated, with their clothes tattered and torn to pieces in such a manner as not to hide their nakedness ; their le»s bare and streaming with blood, the effects of being torn with thorns, briers, and brush if I had had an opportunity, I should certainly have killed the Governor, who seemed to take great delight in the exhibition." — Leeth's Narrative, pp. 10, 11. This Is an exceedingly rare production; so rare, indeed, that the pamphlet entire, which is now before me, has only been obtained by gathering three distinct parts of it, from as many states. 2 "De Peyster got above three hundred prisoners out of the hands of the Indians."

(See " Miscellanies " of that officer, p. 246, note). a By "the western frontier of Virginia" is meant — and the words are used with that signification in the following pages —no farther to the westward than the Ohio, nor to the southwestward than the mouth of the Great Kanawha, although the claims of Vir ginia, at that date, included the whole of Kentucky, and, before the close of the revolu tion, the Illinois country also ; bat, by her deed of cession to the United States of 1784, and by the admission of Kentucky into the Union in 1702, and that of West Virginia in 1863, she was reduced to her present limits. 4 The few settlements in Kentucky experienced, during the revolution, all the horrors of savage warfare ; but a consideration of the events transpiring there during that period, closely connected as some of them were with incidents upon the western borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia, is beyond the scope proposed for this work. indiscriminate thirst for blood that could seldom be restrained, even under the humane authority of De Peyster.

The important post, however, of Fort Pitt was in possession of the Americans; and it continued the center of government au thority and interest west of the Alleghanies during the revolutionary contest. The peculiar nature of the war in the trans- Alleghany country made it incumbent on the officers of the pa triot army in charge of affairs there to direct, so long as the struggle continued, their military operations almost wholly with a view to the security of the exposed settlements. To this end, expeditions several times marched into the enemy's country, generally organizing at Fort Pitt, or receiving material aid from that post. These enterprises were not always successful. Some, indeed, were highly disastrous. Nor were the British and their Indian allies usually more fortunate in their principal endeavors against the frontiers.

It was the continual inroads of small numbers of savages, though the latter were frequently pursued, and a just retribution was occasionally visited upon them, that brought to the homes of the backwoodsmen innumerable woes. On the eleventh day of September, 1775, Captain John Ne ville1 took possession, under orders of Virginia, of the dilapidated fort at Pittsburgh,2 at the head of one hundred of the militia of that commonwealth, and held it, " covering and protecting " the border until, early in 1777, when his force was relieved by an other company.3 At the time orders were issued to garrison Fort Pitt, a small force was directed to occupy Fort Fincastle, at the mouth of Wheeling creek,4 and one was also ordered sta tioned at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha river.5 Fort Pitt, near which, previous to its commencement by the English in 1758, was Fort Duquesne of the French, ' Neville was born in Virginia, in 1731 ; died near Pittsburgh, 29th July, 1803. 2 Penn.

Arch., IV, 659. Henning's Va. Stat., vol. 9, p. 13. Craig's Hist, ot Pittsburgh. p. 122. 3 It was resolved by the Virginia Council, Peh. 7, 1777, that " Col. Dorsey Pentecost, lieutenant of Yohogania county, Virginia [then the Virginia county which included Pittsburgh, as claimed by that state], raise one hundred militia to garrison Fort Pitt and that Capt. Robert Campbell, 1st I.ieat. Thad. Kelley, 2d Lieut. Wm. Anderson, and Ensign John Ward, with their [that] Yohogania company, are to command there." *Now the site of the city of Wheeling, West Virginia. •Within the present county of Mason, West Virginia. Introduction. 9 was abandoned and partly demolished by the British in 1772, but Avas again occupied in 1774, in a partisan way, by Virginia militia, to enforce in the vicinity the laws of that province, and its name changed to Fort Dunmore.

This occupation, however, was brought to an end in July, 1775, and the name fully restored when Lord Dunmore became odious to Virginia patriots. The Indian policy of Neville, while in command at Fort Pitt, was one of strict neutrality, powerless, however, to a great extent with all the western tribes, except the Delawares. These Indi ans were principally located upon the Muskingum.1 Their most important village was Coshocton.2 In holding this nation in check, he was powerfully aided by George Morgan, congressional agent of Indian affairs of " the middle department " s in the west, also by commissioners of the United States, who made treaties with them, and by Moravian missionaries, who had brought Indian converts from the Susquehanna and Beaver rivers, in Pennsylvania, to the Tuscarawas valley, where they were living in towns some distance above Coshocton, on the Tuscarawas river.

Although Hamilton, at Detroit, had, as early as September, 1776, exerted'himself to organize small parties of savages against the "'scattered settlers on the Ohio' and its branches," yet the war upon the western border was not fully inaugurated for nearly a year after. But the frontiers of Virginia, meanwhile, were sorely afflicted with savage incursions, mostly by a lawless gang of the Mohawk Pluggy, located upon the Olentangy, or Whetstone, the principal eastern trib utary of the Scioto, some distance above its confluence with that stream.4 This band was without tribal organization and 1 This river was known as the Muskingum as far up as the mouth of Sandy creek, its main eastern affluent, for several years after that date. It is now called the Tuscarawas as far down as the mouth of the Walhonding, or White Woman, its chief western tribu tary, and is so distinguished in the following pages. 2 Synonyms: Cooshacking, Coochocking, Goshochking, Goschachguenk, etc.

It was the site of the present town of Coshocton, county-seat of Coshocton county, Ohio. 3 Such was the designation of one of three Indian departments previously created by congress. It included the country west of the Alleghanies. This region, as one of the military divisions of the United States, was known as the "western department" during the revolution. * The site of Pluggy's town was identical with that of the present town of Delaware, Delaware county, Ohio. For determining its location, I have relied mainly upon an marauded upon the border settlements independent of sur rounding nations. So galling did these visitations become that the distressed commonwealth, upon the recommendation of con gress, determined, in the spring of 1777, to send an expedition against Pluggy's town; but the project, after considerable preparation, was laid aside lest it should cause the Delawares and Shawanese to take up the hatchet.

On Sunday, the first day of June, 1777, Brigadier General Edward Hand of the continental army, " famed for his splen did horsemanship," arrived at Fort Pitt unaccompanied by troops,1 except an escort of militia light horse,2 which had met him west of the mountains, and assumed the chief command at Pittsburgh.3 Not long after his arrival, Hand resolved upon an expedition against the savages, — seemingly a timely move ment, for up to the last of July there had been sent out from Detroit to devastate the western settlements, fifteen parties of Indians, consisting of two hundred and eighty-nine braves, with thirty white officers and rangers. The extreme frontier line needing protection on the north reached from the Alleghany mountains to Kittanning 4 on the Alleghany river forty-five miles above Pittsburgh, thence on the west, down that stream and the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kanawha.