OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio Shawnee Indians [6] *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 April 1, 2002 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Ohio Shawnee Indians Daniel Boone -- Court Martial *********************************************** Ohio Shawnees --part 6 Daniel Boone's Court Martial The trial was held at Logan's Station. Official records have disappeared, probably been destroyed by some well meaning friend of Boone who found the whole episode embarrassing. Even the one letter that Boone wrote to Rebecca about the charges was destroyed. On the other hand, a participant of the trial --the presiding judge, Daniel Trabue, wrote an account of the court martial nearly fifty years after it was over. What we know of the details of the court martial comes from that account. Trabue says that four charges were brought against Boone: 1- In order to save himself, after capture in February, 1778, he handed over his men against their consent, although the Indians were not going towards these men. 2 - As a prisoner, he consorted with the enemy, and at Detroit, did bargain with the British Commander that he would give up all the people at Boonesborough. 3 - On his return to the fort he had weakened the garrison by persuading a large number of men to leave the fort on foolish and perhaps treacherously conceived raid. 4 - He had exposed Boonesborough's leaders to a Shawnee ambush by agreeing to take all our officers to the Indian camp to make peace out of sight of the fort. If Boone was found guilty, he would hang. Daniel Boone was prosecuted by Col. John Bowman. His chief accusers were Capt. Richard Callaway from Boonsborough and Col. Benjamin Logan, the founder of Logan's Fort. Boone refused to be represented by a lawyer because, as he said at the time, he wanted to speak for himself. He did agree to accept advice and council from Samuel Henderson ( son of Boone's former employer, Judge Richard Henderson ) and James Harrod. Surprisingly, Boone did not dispute the facts. The main thrust of his defense was the interpretation of those facts. Capt Callaway's evidence pointed to Boone's conduct. He tried to prove Boone was guilty of treachery against his men and his fort. " Boone was in favor of the British governmemt. All his conduct proved it and he ought to be broak of his commission." was his retort. Boone's defense was relatively simple. " The fort was in bad order and the Indians would take it easy " and went on to say that he had told the Shawee and the British " tales to fool them ." The court took testimony from Captain Richard Callaway, the escaped captive Andrew Johnson and another escapee, William Hancock. Boone also testified. He told the court that he knew the salt makers and the fort could not withstand an attack by Blackfish and his men. He convinced Blackfish the fort was too strong to take at the time and , if the Chief waited, the fort's defenses would be weaker. He told Blackfish he would get the men to surrender if Blackfish agreed to treat them well. Boone told the same story regarding the British-- the Shawnee's allies. His objectives was to hold up any attacks on the fort and his men in order to buy time for his community. Some of the strongest evidence in Boone's favor appeared to be his genuine belief that his actions were the only way to save both the salt making party and the fort. He used this neutrality to help his immediate community. ( At the time, many people were more loyal to their immediate community the they were to either the American or the Loyalist cause.) The officers deciding Boone's fate, reached a quick decision. Not guilty. But the trial result was not an acquittal for Boone -- it was also a vindication. He was promoted to Major. Daniel Boone was crushed by this court martial. He did not even want to discuss it. He knew that people countinued to whisper about it and that was deeply troubling to him. One year after the trial, Daniel Boone left Boonesborough for good. Capt. Callaway was very upset with the verdict, although he did not have to fret about it very long. He died less than two years later, massacred by Indians as he worked his fields with his slaves. He was scalped and mutilated. A comtemporary witness. John Gass, reported that Callaway was the worst barbequed man he had ever saw. After he left Boonesborough, Daniel and his wife Rebecca evetually moved to Missouri. The Spanish governor gave him 850 acres of land where he and his son Nathan built a home. Boone was appointed a judge for the Femme Osage district. When he was 50 years old, a book was published by John Filson. Although the book was written in 1784, six years after the trial, it did not mention the court martial. The theory was that how could anyone think he was on the side of the Shawnee when the Indians had killed two of his sons and one of his brothers. According to Filsons account, he quoted Boone; " My footsteps have been marked with blood, and therefore I can truly subscribe to its original name. Two darling sons, and a brother, have I lost by savage hands, which have taken from me forty valuable horses, and abundance of cattle. Many a dark and sleepless nights have I been a companion for owls, separated from the cheerful society of men, scorched by the summer's sun. and pinched by the winter's cold, an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness. But now the scene is changed: peace crowns the sylvan shade." Peace, indeed , did crown the last years of Daniel Boone's life. He lived to be 86 years old. He and Rebecca were buried in Missouri. About twenty five years after his death, officials of Kentucky disinterred both bodies and buried then again in a cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky. Although Blackfish denied this burial as true, it turns out the old Indians claim proved true for Daniel in death as it did in life. " We have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it. Use it well " Sheltowee." ******************************************* The Ohio Shawnees were not well treated in their plight in using their Ohio lands. The Americans and the British were consistantly using the Shawnee tribes for their own purposes. The purpose of trade and greediness of land, became a downfall. Hunting and fishing, trapping, once theirs alone, became encroached. There was little fighting in Ohio during King George's war ( 1744-48 ), but there was increasing competition for it trade. The French, British, and the vast migrations of Americans needing lands were hurtful. There were plans of extinction, when Amherst wrote the commander at Fort Pitt, suggesting he deliberately attempt to infect the Shawnee by besieging his fort with gifts of small pox infected blankets and handkerciefs. This commander, Capt Simon Ecuyer took this as an order and did exactly that. It proved particularly effective because the Ohio tribes had little immunity having missed the 1757-58 epidemic among the French allies. Before it had run its course, the epidemic had killed thousands, including British colonists. Forced to leave, this time by American settlement. the Ohio Shawnees first moved to Missouri and then to Kansas, the main body finally settled in Oaklahoma after the Civil war. The Ohio Shawnees, who were at one time large and important, who were located in a large arc stretching from Sandusky River to northeastern Ohio and down the Ohio River, with a combined population approaching 10,000 with 2,000 warriors were now near extinction in numbers. They had nearly nowhere left to go. ***********************************************