WYANDOT COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: THE BURNING OF COLONEL CRAWFORD BY INDIANS IN 1782
                                    (published 1925)
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History of Ohio, The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925
Volume 1, page 146,147,148

THE BURNING OF COLONEL CRAWFORD BY INDIANS IN 1782 IN WYANDOT COUNTY
        As we should naturally expect, writers have appeared at different
times to mitigate the offenses of Williamson and his party and magnify the
horrors of the burning of Crawford. Opposed to these are those who detail
the atrocities of Gnadenhutten and pass over lightly the fiendish torture
and burning of Crawford. With the former must be included Consul Wilshire
Butterfield, an unusually careful and reliable author who seems in this
case to have resorted to a little "special pleading." After describing some
border outrages by "British" Indians, including a number from Gnadenhutten,
and the setting out of Williamson and his militiamen on their trail,
Butterfield says:
        "The force was commanded by Colonel David Williamson. Upon reaching
the Tuscarawas, ninety of the "Moravian" Indians-men, women and
children-together with six of the other Indians who had come with them from
the Sandusky, were captured at Gnadenhutten and subsequently all killed,
except two boys who succeeded in eluding the militia. The residue of those
from the Sandusky were in one of the other villages; these, taking the
alarm, made good their escape. The militia supposed, until they learned the
contrary from their prisoners, that they had captured only British Indians.
When they became assured that most of the captured were "Moravians," they
concluded to take them to Fort Pitt and deliver them to General Irvine, who
commanded there, and they so informed the prisoners. But subsequently they
discovered garments and other things in possession of the captives, which
convinced them that they-the "Moravian" Indians-had just been raiding into
the settlement and that it was their trail which had been followed by the
militia; which belief, as to about thirty of those Indians, there can be no
doubt was well founded.
        "Williamson's men, suddenly made desperate by what they had
discovered (some of the bloody garments being recognized as having belonged
to the victims of one of the raids before mentioned), resolved to put to
death, without discrimination, all who were in their hands; and this
resolution, as we have already mentioned, they proceeded to carry into
effect. it was a ghastly retaliation, only made possible by the previous
aggressions of the thirty "Moravian" Indians and the British Indians who
were with them.
        These statements are followed by others tending to excuse the
excesses of Williamson and his followers and to leave the impression that
the Moravian Indians were guilty of the offenses that the frontiersmen had
set out to punish. Among other evidences to bolster up this charge, is the
statement that Gnadenhutten victims before their "execution" sang "war
songs" and not "hymns" as reported by others who heard them.
        The description of the burning of Crawford by Butterfield is in
marked contrast. With Crawford was captured Dr. John Knight who witnessed
and reported the torturing of the former. After describing the tying of
Crawford with a rope "long enough for him to sit down or walk around the
post once or twice and return the same way" and stating that Captain Pipe
made a speech to the Indians to which "they all yelled a hideous and hearty
assent" Butterfield thus describes what followed:
        So soon as Captain Pipe had finished his speech to the assembled
savages-men, squaws and children-the Indian men took up their guns and shot
powder into Crawford's naked body from his feet as far up as his neck. it
was the opinion of Knight that not less than seventy loads were discharged
upon him! They then crowded about him, and, to the best of Knight's
observation, cut off both his ears; for, when the throng dispersed, he saw
the blood running from both sides of his head!
        The fire was about six or seven yards from the post to which
Crawford was tied. It was made of small hickory poles burnt quite through
the middle, each end of the poles remaining about six feet in length. Three
or four Indians by turns would take up, individually, one of these burning
pieces of wood and apply it to his naked body, already burnt black with powder.
        These tormentors presented themselves on every side of him, so
that, whichever way he ran round the post, they met him with the burning
faggots. Some of the squaws took broad boards, upon which they would carry
a quantity of burning coals and hot embers, and throw on him; so that, in a
short time, he had nothing but coals of fire and hot ashes to walk on!
        In the midst of these extreme tortures, Crawford called to Girty
and begged of him to shoot him; but the cruel renegade making no answer, he
called again. Girty then, by way of derision, told Crawford he had no gun;
at the same time, turning about to an Indian who was behind him, he laughed
heartily and , by all his gestures, seemed delighted at the horrid scene!
        Crawford, at this period of his suffering, besought the Almighty to
have mercy on his soul, spoke very low, and bore his torments with the most
manly fortitude. He continued, in all the extremities of pain, for an hour
and three-quarters or two hours longer, when, at last, being unable to
stand, he lay down upon his stomach. The savages then scalped him, and
repeatedly threw the scalp into the face of Knight, telling him that was
his "great captain."
        That this description of the tragedy is essentially true there is
little room to doubt. It is an all-sufficient exhibition of the vengeance
of the "noble red man" and the depravity of Simon Girty.
        It is equally true that the murder of the Moravian converts, which
Butterfield passes over rather lightly, presents a picture equally black
and revolting.


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