Area History: Bell's History of Northumberland County, PA - THE COLONIAL PERIOD (Concluded) - Part I File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Tony Rebuck. USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ________________________________________________________________________ HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° CHAPTER II. Pages 42 to 59 THE COLONIAL PERIOD (Concluded). Part I PURCHASE OF THE SUSQUEHANNA - ALIENATION OF THE DELAWARE INDIANS - HOSTILITIES INAUGURATED - RUMORS OF FRENCH INVASION - DEFENSIVE MEASURES ADOPTED - THE AUGUSTA REGIMENT ORGANIZED TO BUILD A PORT AT SHAMOKIN - PROGRESS OF THE EXPEDITION-CONSTRUCTION OF FORT AUGUSTA - PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF COLONEL CLAPHAM'S ADMINISTRATION The peaceful intercourse of the trader, the interpreter, and the missionary, with the Indians of Shamokin and the surrounding region, the narration of which forms so large a part of the preceding chapter, was abruptly terminated by the massacre of Penn's creek. This was but the beginning of a protracted Indian war, the causes of which are to be found principally in the policy of the provincial authorities in the purchase of Indian lands. The first Indian deed to William Penn was executed on the 15th of July, 1682, by certain chiefs of the Delaware Indians, and conveyed the southeastern part of Bucks county. This was negotiated by William Markham, and when the Proprietor himself arrived the further acquisition of territory was energetically continued. Numerous deeds of varying importance were executed by the Delawares during the following years; and finally, on the 17th of September, 1718, a general release was signed by their king, Sassoonan, and six of their chiefs for all the territory between the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers "from Duck creek to the mountains on this side Lechay." In these negotiations the Delawares were treated with as an independent tribe, and the various transactions seem to have been mutually satisfactory. Almost before his Colony was firmly established upon the Delaware, Penn anticipated the extension of settlement to the westward by negotiating with the Iroquois for the Susquehanna valley. In this he secured the services of Thomas Dongan, Governor of New York and subsequently Earl of Limerick, who wrote him as follows regarding the contemplated purchase under date of October 10, 1683:- END OF PAGE 42 I have had an account from Albany of the Indians being there, and find they can not agree among themselves; I hope Mr. Graham will find them there, and that my orders have taken effect, though I would not advise you to settle any people suddenly upon it before the Indians agree among themselves, two or three of the most powerful nations being debarred from any interest in it, as you will see by the inclosed. The Maquas have been here with me, and told me there was one about to purchase the land; I have ordered them to agree in a peaceable way about it and they have promised to send me word as soon as they do, of which I will immediately after acquaint you. They have also given me the land, and pretend that they have better interest than any other. They have all of them agreed to give Susquehanna river to me and this government, which I have under their bands to show for it.* From this it is evident that Graham was the agent by whom the original purchase was made; that the Five Nations were not jointly interested, but that the Maquas (Mohawks), pretended to a "better interest than any other," and that the council of the confederation was divided in sentiment regarding the matter. These differences were at length harmonized, and on the 22d of October, 1683, Dongan wrote. "The Susquehanna river is given me by the Indians by a second gift, about which you and I shall not fall out."† It was not until 1696, however, that the transfer was made to William Penn. On the 12th of January in that year Thomas Dongan granted to him "all that tract of land lying upon on both sides the river commonly called by known by the name of the Susquehanna" for one thousand years at an annual rental of one pepper corn; and on the following day (January 13, 1696), he conveyed the same to William Penn in fee simple at the consideration of one hundred pounds. The lower Susquehanna valley, the southern part of the lands in question, was occupied at that time by the Susquehannock Indians, and these transactions were naturally of vital interest to them. At a conference at Conestoga in 1721, Civility, "a descendant of the ancient Susquehannock Indians, the old settlers of these parts," stated "that he had been informed by their old men that they were troubled when they heard that their lands had been given up to a place so far distant as New York, and that they were overjoyed when they understood William Penn had bought them back again." On his second visit to the Province, the Proprietor, actuated doubtless by motives of policy no less than a sense of justice, further strengthened his title to the Susquehanna by securing from the Susquehannocks a release even more absolute than that which he had obtained from their conquerors. By the terms ________________________________________________________________________ *Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I, pp. 76-77. †Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I, p. 81. At a conference with the Six Nations at Conestoga in July, 1721, "they were told it was now very near, viz., within one moon, of thirty- seven years since a great man of England, Governor of Virginia, called the Lord Effingham, together with Colonel Dongan, Governor of New York, held a great treaty with them at Albany, of which we had the writings to this day. Ghesaont answered they knew It well, and the subject of that treaty, it was, he said, about settling of lands. Being further told that in that treaty the Five Nations had given Up all their right to all the lands on Susquehanna to the Duke of York, then brother to the King of England, he acknowledged this to be so." Colonial Records, Vol. III. p. 133. From this it would seem that Dongan's purchase was not consummated until August, 1684. END OF PAGE 43 of this instrument, which was executed on the 18th of September, 1700, Widaagh alias Orytyagh and Andaggy Junkquah, "kings or sachems of the Susquehannock Indians and of the river under that name and lands lying on both sides thereof," granted and confirmed to William Penn "all the said river Susquehanna and all the islands therein, and all the lands situate, lying, and being upon both sides of the said river and next adjoining to the same, extending to the utmost confines of the lands which are or formerly were the right of the people or nation called the Susquehannock Indians," with all the right title, and interest therein that they or their ancestors " could, might, or ought to have had, held, or enjoyed." The bargain and sale effected by Dongan were also distinctly ratified; and on the 23d of April, 1701, the Potomac and Shawanese Indians, with other chiefs of the Susquehannocks, entered into a treaty with Penn by which the purchase from Orytyagh and Andaggy Junkquah was approved and confirmed. While the Susquehannocks were apparently well satisfied, the Six Nations were not. They acknowledged Dongan's deed at a conference with Governor Gookin at Conestoga in 1710, but several years later the Cayugas "had the boldness to assert that all the lands upon Susquehanna river belonged to them and that the English had no right to settle there;" and although the sale to Dongan was admitted and confirmed at the Conestoga conference of July, 1721, and at Albany in September, 1722, his transfer to Penn seems to have been both incomprehensible and unsatisfactory. The reason for this were thus stated by Canassatego, an Onondaga chief, at the Lancaster treaty in 1744:- Our brother Onas [Penn] a great while ago came to Albany to buy the Susquehanna lands of us, but our brother, the Governor of New York, who, as we suppose, had not a good understanding with our brother Onas, advised us not to sell him any lands, for he would make an ill use of it; and, pretending to be our good friend, he advised us, in order to prevent Onas or any other persons imposing upon us, and that we might always have our land when we should want it, to put it into his hands, and told us he would keep it for our use and never open his hands but keep them close shut and not part with any of it but at our request. Accordingly, we trusted him and put our land into his hands and charged him to keep it safe for our use. But some time after he went away to England and carried our land with him, and there sold it to our brother Onas for a large sum of money; and when, at the instance of our brother Onas, we were minded to sell him some lands, he told us that we had sold the Susquehanna lands already to the Governor of New York and that he had bought them from him in England.* At length, in pursuance of a decision of the Onondaga council, a deputation was sent to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1736 for the purpose of terminating all disputes relating to the Susquehanna river and lands. A conference was held, resulting in the execution of a deed by which the Six Nations, on the 11th of October, 1736, released and confirmed to the Proprietaries "all the said river Susquehanna, with the lands lying on both sides _____________________________________________________________________ *Colonial Records, Vol. IV, p. 708. END OF PAGE 44 thereof, to extend eastward as far as the heads of the branches or springs which run into the said Susquehanna, and all the lands lying on the west side of the said river to the setting of the sun, and to extend from the mouth of the said river northward up the same to the hills or mountains called in the language of the said nations the Tyannuntasachta or Endless hills and by the Delaware Indians the Kekkachtananin hills." After the close of the conference the Indians set out on the return journey; at Tulpehocken, October 25, 1736, they signed a supplementary document declaring that the "true intent and meaning" of their deed of the 11th instant was, to release all that part of the Province between the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers with the Endless hills as the northern boundary. The Kittatinny range thus became the line of the Province along the entire north and west frontier from the Delaware river to the Maryland border. The next purchase from the Six Nations was made in 1749. On this occasion they took the initiative; the conference began at Philadelphia on the 16th of August, 1749, when, after the usual preliminary exchange of courtesies, Canassatego reminded the Governor and Council of their agreement under previous treaties to remove all persons who should locate upon lands not yet purchased, and of their evident inability to carry this stipulation into effect; but, as it would involve much trouble to remove the intruders, the Six Nations were willing "to give up the land on the east side of Susquehanna from the Blue hills or Chambers' mill to where Thomas McKee, the Indian trader, lives," and leave the amount of the consideration for the Governor and Council to determine. The Governor replied that this proposition could not be acceded to, as the lands offered were principally mountainous, but if they would make Shamokin the northern limit and the Delaware river the eastern boundary the Council and himself were ready to offer a fair price and bring the transaction to a close. After some further negotiations it was finally agreed that the northern line should begin on the Susquehanna river at "the first or nearest mountain to the north side of the mouth of the creek called in the language of the said Five Nation Indians Cantaguy and in the language of the Delaware Indians Mahanoy" and extend in a direct course to the Delaware river at the mouth of Lackawaxen creek. The amount paid was five hundred pounds, and the deed was executed on the 22d of August 1749. The course of the northern boundary of this purchase in Northumberland county coincided very nearly with the Little mountain. As settlers continued to encroach upon the Indian lands beyond the Kittatinny range and west of the Susquehanna, Tachnechdorus was sent to the Six Nations in the spring of 1754 to arrange the preliminaries for another purchase. In the following summer their chiefs were met at Albany by the Pennsylvania commissioners, who at once opened negotiations for a release of all their lands as far west as the extent of the Province and as far north as they were willing to sell. At length they acquiesced in the proposed western END OF PAGE 45 boundary, but Hendrick, the great Mohawk chief made the following significant utterance in his reply to the commissioners: "We will never part with the land at Shamokin and Wyoming; our bones are scattered there, and on this land there has always been a great council fire." It was finally decided that the northern line should begin on the Susquehanna river a mile above Penn's creek (a point nearly opposite Sunbury), and extend "northwest by west" to the confines of the Province. The deed was signed on the 6th of July, 1754. Notwithstanding the comprehensive character of the release of 1718, the lands thus ceded by the Delawares were insufficient for the extension of settlements between the Delaware and Susquehanna. In 1732 the region drained by the Schuylkill and its tributaries was purchased, but while this quieted the Delawares regarding the Tulpehocken lands, they were still greatly dissatisfied with the settlement of the Minisink, their ancient council seat, which they were naturally reluctant to relinquish. At this juncture a deed, said to have been made in 1686, was produced; under its alleged provisions the "walking purchase" of 1737 was consummated, but in a manner highly unsatisfactory to the Delawares, who absolutely refused to acknowledge its validity. The Six Nations had released the lands in question by the supplementary deed of 1736, and in 1742 the matter was brought to their consideration at a conference in Philadelphia. Canassatego, in announcing their decision administered a terrible castigation to the unfortunate Delawares. "You ought to be taken by the hair of the head," said he, "and shaked severely till you recover your senses.......We conquered you, we made women of you, you know you are women, and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands, since you would abuse it. This land that you claim is gone through your guts.....Did you ever tell us that you had sold this land? Did we ever receive any part, even the value of a pipe shank, from you for it?..You act a dishonest part, not only in this but in other matters......And for all these reasons we charge you to remove instantly. We don't give you the liberty to think about it......We therefore assign you two places to go, either to Wyoming or Shamokin. You may go to either of these places, and then we shall have you more under our eye and shall see how you behave.....This string of wampum serves to forbid you, your children and grandchildren to the latest posterity, forever meddling in land affairs."* The immediate object of the government in invoking the authority of the Six Nations was successfully accomplished. The remnant of the Delawares forthwith removed to the localities designated, and some continued their journey to the Ohio; but they retained a deep resentment toward the provincial authorities, and contact with the French on the Ohio early served to alienate them entirely from the English interest. ______________________________________________________________________ *Colonial Records, Vol. IV. pp. 579-580. END OF PAGE 46 The exploration of the Susquehanna valley by Etienne Brulé has been related in the preceding chapter; and while it can not be positively stated that this formed the basis of the French pretensions, the Susquehanna river is given as the western boundary of Pennsylvania in a map of Louisiana published at Paris in 1721. It was not until 1753, however, that the French accentuated their claims to Pennsylvania territory by military occupation, thus precipitating the long struggle known in colonial history as the French and Indian war. An expedition against Fort Duquesne, which, from its location at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, was the most important French post in the Ohio valley, was undertaken in 1755 under the joint auspices of the British and colonial governments. The command was intrusted to General Edward Braddock, an English officer, whose utter ignorance of the methods of Indian warfare resulted in the almost total annihilation of his army on the 9th of July, 1755. The influence of Braddock's defeat was at once apparent in the changed attitude of the Delaware Indians. Years of subjection to the dominant Iroquois, the injustice of the "walking purchase," the coercive measures of 1742, and, finally, the treaty of 1754, by which the Six Nations had Virtually sold their lands and those of the Shawanese "from under their feet," had given cumulative force to the ardor of their revenge. Their former attachment to the English had resulted largely from the expectation that the latter would enable them to recover their former standing as a nation; disappointed in this they embraced with eagerness the promised assistance of the French, and, in conjunction with the Shawanese and other allied tribes, ravaged the Pennsylvania frontier from the Delaware river to the Maryland line with tomahawk and firebrand. Hostilities were inaugurated in the Susquehanna valley on the 16th of October, 1755, when a band of fourteen Indians from the Allegheny attacked the settlements at Penn's creek, several miles south of Shamokin on the west side of the river, killed fifteen persons, and carried off ten prisoners. Two of Conrad Weiser's sons, Frederick and Peter, had been at Shamokin several days previously and stopped at the house of George Gabriel, who lived at the present site of Selinsgrove, on their return. While there a message arrived from Logan, one of Shikellimy's sons, and Lapacpitton, a friendly Delaware chief; to the effect that a large body of French and Indians was approaching by way of the West Branch and that they would dispute their progress if re- enforced and supplied with arms. But the warning was too late. Intelligence of the massacre reached Harris's Ferry on the 19th instant, and on the 23d John Harris, Thomas Forster, Adam Terrence and others to the number of forty left Paxtang to bury the dead. Finding that this was already done they were about to return, when Tachnechdorus persuaded them to go on to Shamokin and confer with the Indians there. They arrived on the 24th and remained over night; on the following morning they crossed the river END OF PAGE 47 and started down on the west side, but were fired upon by Indians in ambush at the mouth of Penn's creek and suffered considerable loss. This outrage, with others of a similar character at different points on the frontier, produced the wildest consternation. In a letter to Governor Morris under date of October 26, 1755, Conrad Weiser wrote. "I suppose in a few days not one family will be seen on the other side of Kittatinny hills." Three days later John Harris wrote from Paxtang: "We expect the enemy upon us every day......I had a certain account of about fifteen hundred Indians beside French being on their march against us and Virginia and now close on our borders.......I am informed that a French officer was expected at Shamokin this week with a party of Delawares and Shawanese, no doubt to take possession of our river." The extent to which this rumor gained currency is apparent from a letter of Governor Morris to General Shirley in which the following statement occurs: "There is reason to apprehend that the French have designs upon Shamokin and are going to seize and fortify it, having, it is said, obtained the consent of the Delaware Indians to do it under the ensnaring pretense of putting them again into possession of their former country and rendering them independent of the Six Nations. These Indians we know are gone against us, and with the Shawanese....are now in several parties killing our inhabitants in the country near Shamokin, with design no doubt to give the French time to build their fort and to hinder any obstruction from us." These reports were confirmed by Andrew Montour, who arrived at Paxtang from Shamokin on the 31st of October, 1755; he had been as far as the Great Island in the West Branch of Susquehanna, where a council was held at which two Delawares stated that fifteen hundred French and Indians had left Fort Duquesne twenty- one days previously to invade the English settlements, and that a French fort would be in course of construction at Shamokin within ten days. The Indians whom he met confidently expected to spend the approaching winter at Lancaster. Of the actual state of affairs at Shamokin there is but meager information. The attitude of the Indians toward Harris and his party was one of distrust, and warlike preparations were also in progress at the time of their visit. When John Schmick and Henry Fry arrived at Wyoming on the 10th of November, 1755, they were informed that Paxinos and Abraham, the two principal Shawanese chiefs at that place, "were sent for to Shamokin, and when they came there they found that the Indians there were convened to a treaty, where a Mohawk French Indian gave a string of wampum and addressed the other Indians in these terms: 'Your grandfather, i.e., the French king, sends you word that I intend to come down with fifteen hundred men with me;'...... to whom the Indians made answer, 'If this is your intention, then come not through our land.'" From this it is apparent that the Shamokin Indians were not at that time committed to the French interest, conclusive evidence of which is found in the report of END OF PAGE 48 Scarroyady, an Oneida chief, who visited the Susquehanna cantons shortly after the inroad on Penn's creek. He absolutely denied that they had been concerned in any attacks upon the settlements, and declared that they hated Onontio (the Governor of Canada) as cordially as the English; but they must know whether the latter intended to fight; if they could not be safe where they were they would go somewhere else and take care of themselves. "They could not even stay at Shamokin, he said, "which might have been prevented if the government had paid a proper regard to their repeated solicitations for a supply of arms and ammunition for their warriors and of necessaries for their wives and children. That the town was abandoned in November, 1755, is further shown by the report of an Iroquois who was sent thither from Harris's Ferry and found no Indians there. On Saturday, June 5, 1756, six scouts arrived at Shamokin, "and not observing any enemy, went to the place where the town had been, the houses being burnt to the ground...... They continued there till ten o'clock the next day, and, seeing no appearance of an enemy except some old tracks of Indians and horses, they returned to Fort Halifax. After abandoning the town the Indians retreated to Nescopec, Wyoming, Tioga, and other towns on the North Branch and to the French posts in the Northwest. The Delawares who had been without a king since the death of Allumapees, elected Teedyuscung to that position. He was keenly sensible, of the wrongs his people had suffered from their conquerors at the instance of the English, and, as the first measure for a restoration of their former tribal standing, inaugurated a series of hostile, incursions against the frontier Settlements. From the Six Nations this policy secured a reluctant admission of the equality of the, Delaware tribe; with the colonial government it was not so successful, however, and on the 14th of April, 1756, Governor Morris issued a Proclamation declaring war against the, Delawares and their allies. While the Province was thus in constant danger of Indian incursions and menaced by French invasion, divided counsels prevented the authorities from adopting efficient measures of defense. The Governor refused his assent to the taxation of Proprietary estates, and the provincial Assembly, with equal obstinacy, declined to grant supplies upon any other basis. These, differences were at length temporarily adjusted, however, and in January, 1756, Governor Morris elaborated a comprehensive system of frontier defense. Four forts were erected west of the Susquehanna, viz.: Pomfret Castle, on Mahantango creek twelve miles from the river; Fort Granville, on the Juniata at the mouth of Kishocoquillas creek; Fort Shirley, at Aughwick, and Fort Lyttleton, on the road to the Ohio. Between the Susquehanna and Delaware a chain of blockhouses was constructed along the Kittatinny range, with Fort Henry at Tolhoe gap, Fort Lebanon on a branch of the Schuylkill, and Fort Allen on the Lehigh. The erection of a fort at Shamokin was repeatedly urged by friendly Ind- END OF PAGE 49 ians. It was probably first suggested by Andrew Montour and Monocatootha at Harris's Ferry on the 1st of November, 1755, and at once received the favorable consideration of the Governor, who wrote to General Johnson under date of November 15th: "I intend to build a fort at Shamokin this winter." On the 17th of January, 1756, it was again brought to the notice of the Governor at a conference at Carlisle. The fort would, the Indians said, "be a place of refuge in times of distress for us with our wives and children to fly to for our safety." The Governor replied that he would "make immediate provision for the building a strong house at Shamokin" and its construction would probably have begun at once if the season had permitted. This is evident from a letter of Governor Morris to Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, in which he says (February 1, 1758): "I also propose to build a fort at Shamokin at the forks of Susquehanna as soon as the season will admit a passage up that river, for the mountains north of the Kittatinny are quite impassable for carriages." The Indians became impatient at the delay, and at the conference, of February 22 and April 10, 1756, urgently requested the Governor to perform what he had promised. The location was inaccessible, except by water, and opposition from the enemy was not improbable; the appropriations made by the provincial Assembly were dispensed under the supervision of a board of Commissioners, who were not in cordial sympathy with the Governor's plans, and it was not until April, 1756, that their consent to this project was obtained. The consent of the commissioners was coupled with a request that four hundred troops should be raised for the expedition. The Third battalion, known as the, August regiment, was accordingly recruited; the following is a roster of the officers, with the respective dates of their commissions:-* Lieutenant Colonel, William Clapham, March 29, 1756. Major, James Burd, April 24, 1756. Adjutant, Asher Clayton, May 24, 1756. Aide-de-Camp, Thomas Lloyd, April 2, 1756. Commissary of Provisions, Peter Bard. Wagon Master, Robert Irwin, April 12, 1756. Captain William Clapham, March 29, 1756; lieutenant, Levi Trump, April 3, 1756; ensign, John Mears, April 20, 1756. Captain, Thomas Lloyd, April 2,1756; lieutenant, Patrick Davis. [Davies], April 4, 1756; ensign, Samuel J. Atlee, April 23, 1756. Captain, Joseph Shippen, April 3, 1756; lieutenant, Charles Garraway, April 15, 1756; ensign, Charles Brodhead, April 29, 1756. Captain, Patrick Work, April 22, 1756; lieutenant, Daniel Clark, May 1, 1756; ensign, William Patterson, May 14, 1756. Captain, James Burd, April 24, 1756; lieutenant, William Anderson, May 10, 1756; ensign, John Morgan, May 24,1756. _______________________________________________________________________ *Pennsylvania Archives (Second Series), Vol. II. pp. 537-538. END OF PAGE 50 Page 51 contains a portrait of Hugh Bellas Page 52 is blank. Captain, Elisha Salter, May 11, 1756; lieutenant, Asher Clayton, May 24, 1756; ensigns: Samuel Miles, May 24, 1756; Alexander McKee, August 17, 1756. Captain, David Jamison, May 19, 1756; lieutenant, William Clapham, Jr., August 20, 1756; ensign, Joseph Scott, May 24, 1756. Captain, John Hambright, June 12, 1756; lieutenant, William Plunket; ensign, Patrick Allison, June 25, 1756. Captain, Nathaniel Miles; lieutenant, ____ Bryan; ensign, ___ Johnson; sergeant, _____ McCurdy. The battalion rendezvoused at Fort Hunter, a stockade on the east side of the Susquehanna river a short distance above Harris's Ferry. This point was selected by Governor Morris, who, on the 12th of April, 1756, issued instructions to Robert Irwin, "wagon master and conductor of the boats and canoes." On the 25th of April he wrote to Governor Shirley: "Your dispatches found me preparing to set out for the Susquehanna, where the provincial forces are waiting for me." In a communication dated "Camp at Harris's Ferry, May 23, 1756," he refers to "the multiplicity and great variety of business in which I have been constantly employed ever since I came here," from which it is evident that the expedition was organized under his immediate supervision After leaving the camp of rendezvous, the troops marched on the east side, of the Susquehanna river as far as Fort Halifax. A stop appears to have been made at McKee's store (opposite the mouth of Sherman's creek); on the 11th of June, 1756, Colonel Clapham wrote: "On Saturday last [June 5th] I marched from McKee's store with five companies and eighteen batteaux and canoes loaded, and arrived here [Fort Halifax] the next afternoon." He then proceeds to give an account of the progress of the expedition. Detachments had been stationed as garrisons at Harris's Ferry, Fort Hunter, and McKee's store. Considerable difficulty was experienced in ascending the Juniata rapids; many of the batteaux grounded, "though laden with no more than four barrels of pork and a few light things." It was Governor Morris's idea originally to use canoes only in the transportation service; the substitution of batteaux was due to the suggestion of John Harris. At the time Colonel Clapham wrote (June 11th) there were twenty batteaux and two canoes in the service; they had made five trips to McKee's and two to the "Camp at Armstrong's "(Fort Halifax), and were then absent on a third. While the transportation of the stores was in progress the main body of the troops was employed in erecting Fort Halifax; this was not included in the original design of the expedition, but was undertaken by Colonel Clapham in the exercise, of his discretionary powers. On the 10th of June ten "ship carpenters" arrived from Harris's Ferry; they were probably followed by others, and ten days later the Colonel wrote: "The carpenters are still employed in building batteaux and carriages for the can- END OF PAGE 53 non." On the 1st of July he informed the Governor that "the ship carpenters have finished the carriages for the cannon, and, as soon as they have finished the batteaux in hand, which I expect will be done tomorrow, I shall give them a certificate of their services and discharge them all except one, who will be absolutely necessary in the passage and without whose assistance we may probably lose more than his pay can cost the Province. None of my people are to be depended on in case of an accident on the water, and I can assure your Honor that I find fatigue and difficulties enough to conduct so amphibious an expedition with all the assistance I can possibly command. I am at present extremely engaged in embarking the regiment's stores, etc. for Shamokin, expecting to march [in] time enough to encamp tonight on the west side of Susquehanna about five miles above Fort Halifax." From that place the march was continued on the west side of the river to a point opposite Sunbury, where the troops crossed in batteaux. On the 12th of June, 1756, the Governor sent Colonel Clapham detailed instructions regarding the conduct of the expedition; the following is a transcript of those portions relating to the construction of the fort:- Herewith you will also receive two plans of forts, the one a pentagon, the other a square with one ravelin to protect the curtain where the gate is, with a ditch, covered way, and glacis. But as it is impossible to give any explicit directions [for] the particular form of a fort without viewing and considering the ground on which it is to stand, I must leave it to you to build it in such form as will best answer for its own defense, the command of the river and of the country in its neighborhood, and the plans herewith will serve to show the proportion that the different parts of the work shall bear to each other. As to the place upon which this fort is to be erected, that must be in a great measure left to your judgment; but it is necessary to inform you that it must be on the east side of the Susquehanna, the lands on the west at the forks and between the branches not being purchased from the Indians, besides which it would be impossible to relieve and support a garrison on that side in the winter time. From all the information I have been able to collect, the land on the south side of the East Branch opposite the middle of the island is the highest of any of the low land thereabout and the best place for a fort, as the guns you have will form a rampart of a moderate height [and] command the main river; but as these informations come from persons not acquainted with the nature of such things, I am fearful they are not much to be depended on, and your own judgment must therefore direct you. When you have completed the fort you will cause the ground to be cleared about it so to a convenient distance and openings to be made to the river, and you will erect such buildings within the fort and place them in such a manner as you shall judge best. Without the fort at a convenient distance, under the command of the guns, it will be necessary to build some log houses for Indians, that they may have places to lodge in without being in the fort. As soon as you are in possession of the ground at Shamokin you will secure yourself by a breastwork in the best manner you can, so that your men may work in safety.* Contemporary records contain but meager information regarding the ____________________________________________________________________ *Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II. pp. 667-668. END OF PAGE 54 progress of the work. Captain Levi Trump and Ensign Samuel Miles (subsequently a colonel in the Revolutionary war and the founder of Milesburg, Centre county, Pennsylvania) had charge of the workmen. On the 18th of July Colonel Clapham wrote the Governor that he had but one team of draught horses, in consequence of which "the works must proceed very slowly and the expense in the end be proportionable." In his reply to this Governor Morris says: "I have your map of the forts and of the blockhouses and stoccado you have erected, which I much approve, as your people may under that cover work in safety." This doubtless referred to the temporary defenses mentioned in his instructions; for on the 14th of August Colonel Clapham wrote: "We have the walls of the fort now above half-finished and our other works in such situation that we can make a very good defense against any body of French and Indians that shall seat themselves before us without cannon." On the 7th of September he gave a letter of recommendation to Michael McGuire, who had enlisted as a private soldier and was "particularly useful as an overseer and carpenter in the building of the fort...If the government designs to strengthen this post by doubling the fort with another case of logs and filling up the intermediate space with earth in order to render it cannon-proof, which I think ought to be done, such a man will be particularly serviceable." This letter was addressed to Benjamin Franklin, to whom, in a communication on the following day, he says: "This post, which is in my opinion of the utmost consequence to the Province, is already defensible against all the power of musketry, but as it is, from the nature of its situation, exposed to a more formidable descent from the West Branch, it ought, I think, to be rendered still stronger." Peter Bard, the local commissary, wrote to the Governor on the 4th of September: "The fort is now almost finished, and a fine one it is." Colonel Clapham transmitted a plan of the fort to Governor Denny on the 23d of September, with the, information that its construction had required "little better than the space of six weeks." This referred only to the works originally projected, which were probably constructed from the plans furnished by the Governor without any special engineering supervision. On the, 17th of October, 1756, E. Meyer, an engineer in the provincial service, arrived at Harris's Ferry with James Young, the commissary general; thence they proceeded to Fort Augusta in company with Captain Lloyd. On the 23d instant Colonel Clapham acknowledged the receipt of "Mr. Meyer's instructions relative to the additional works to be made at Augusta;" and on the 8th of November he wrote: I.......have, since the departure of Mr. Meyer, been constantly employed on the works laid out agreeably to his instructions, but which must necessarily proceed more slowly for want of stronger teams and wheelbarrows, as we have at present no other method of removing the dirt but by hand-barrows and the tedious way of casting it with shovels from man to man. What still increases the want of horses and carriages is the necessity we lie under of conveying clay from other places for the construc- END OF PAGE 55 tion of the parapet, what comes out of the ditch being improper for that purpose, as we find it a foot or two beneath the surface to grow sandy and not to be consolidated by any force or expedient in our power. The axes we have are, in general, extremely bad, and even the number of them insufficient. Tomahawks with square, flat eyes, nails of several sorts, and especially spades are very much wanted, the wagon master's presence extremely necessary, and rum for the men employed on the works.* In a letter evidently written several weeks later he says: "Two bushels of blue grass seed are necessary wherewith to sow the slopes of the parapet and glacis and the banks of the river. In eight or ten days more the ditch will be carried quite round the parapet, the barrier gates finished and erected, and the pickets of the glacis completed." Constant danger was apprehended from French and Indians. On the 30th of July, 1756, Fort Granville was taken and burned, and an attack upon Fort Augusta was deemed highly probable. The fleet of batteaux ascended and descended the river under a strong guard, the necessity for which is apparent from the following statements in Commissary Bard's letter of September 4th: "On the 23d past one of the soldiers was coming here from Harris's express, and fifteen miles from this fort was murdered and scalped. The party that went to escort Captain Lloyd found and buried him. And last Sunday morning one of our people who attended the cattle went to the spring, about half a mile from the fort, and while he was drinking was shot and afterwards scalped and tomahawked." This melancholy occurrence gave to the Bloody spring its sanguinary name. The boldness of the aggressors caused much alarm, which was greatly increased in the following month when Ogagradarisha, a friendly Iroquois chief, brought intelligence of the approach of a large force of French and Indians. Dispatches were at once transmitted to Colonel Clapham, who was then at Harris's Ferry, whence he immediately returned to Fort Augusta with the determination to defend it to the last extremity. The garrison was re-enforced and additional works were constructed, which so increased the strength of the post as to warrant offensive measures. Information having been received that the bands of Indians which harassed the frontier rendezvoused at a town on the West Branch, fifty miles from the fort, Colonel Clapham dispatched a party composed of thirty-eight privates, two sergeants, and two corporals under command of Captain John Hambright with Montour as guide to attack and destroy it should he find it inhabited but leave no indications of his visit should he find it abandoned. His instructions, which were of the most specific character, were issued under date of November 4, 1756. The town, called Chingleclamouse, was situated on the West Branch at the present site of Clearfield. "Captain Hambright entered the town, found the cabins all standing, but deserted by the Indians. Agreeably to his orders he did not touch anything nor destroy the town, in hopes the Indians would come to settle there again. _______________________________________________________________________ *Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. III. p. 41. END OF PAGE 56 This was the only Indian town could be attacked."* No important results attended the expedition. Much difficulty was experienced in obtaining adequate supplies of provisions and ammunition. On the 14th of August, 1756, at a time when there was believed to be imminent danger of an attack, there were but four half-barrels of powder in store; and so fearful was Colonel Clapham that the letter containing this information would fall into the hands of the enemy that he put it in the pad of the courier's pack-saddle. On this occasion, having found it utterly impossible to continue the batteau service owing to the low stage of water, he urgently requested that a number of pack-horses should be engaged, which would render it possible to transport sufficient provisions from Tulpehocken to keep the garrison through the winter. On the 1st of September the stock of provisions was reduced to forty-six barrels of beef and pork, nine of flour, five of peas, and one bullock - scarcely sufficient for three days' rations; at this critical juncture Captain Lloyd arrived with thirty-three cattle and a quantity of supplies, probably the first received by pack-horses. In a letter to Governor Denny on the 23d of September Colonel Clapham stated that the supply of flour had twice been reduced to two barrels, and suggested the appointment of a purchasing agent. In the following month he made a visit to Lancaster and Cumberland counties, returning on the afternoon of Sunday, October 17th, with "seventy horse-loads of flour and a quantity of salt, and thirty head of cattle." Upon the approach of winter it became necessary to revert to the batteau service again, and in November the Colonel wrote: "The repairs of the batteaux are now near finished; they will require one hundred thirteen men to work them, for which expense and the payment of arrears due on that service I have not in my hands one single shilling. The season advancing will not admit of the supplying this garrison by horses but for a short time, when the depth of the creeks, the badness of the roads, the coldness of the weather, and the length of the way will render that method impracticable." Inadequate provision for the financial requirements of the expedition occasioned much dissatisfaction among its members. "Everybody seems disposed cheerfully to contribute their services toward the public good," says Colonel Clapham in a letter to Governor Morris on the 20th of June, 1756, "if there was ever any prospect or assurance of being paid for it." At that time there were twenty-six batteau-men in confinement for mutiny on account of the failure of the officers to pay them, and it was feared that others would desert if allowed to leave the camp. Nor was this discontent confined to the rank and file; the extremely parsimonious policy of the commissioners by whom the provincial appropriations were disbursed caused general dissatisfaction among the officers. The subalterns alleged that seven shillings six pence had been promised each lieutenant and five shillings six pence ______________________________________________________________________ *Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. III. pp. 41-43, 116. END OF PAGE 57 to each ensign, while the former had received but five shillings six pence and the latter four shillings. A council was accordingly held at the camp at Shamokin on the 18th of July, 1756, at which all the officers of the regiment were present except Captain Miles, who was in command of the garrison at Fort Halifax; the reasons of the subalterns for expecting a larger rate of pay than they had received were recited in a memorial to the Governor, at the conclusion of which the officers joined in the following resignation:- The gentlemen officers beg leave to appeal to his Honor, the Governor, as an evidence that that opinion universally prevailed throughout the regiment, and, thinking themselves unjustly dealt with by the gentlemen commissioners, are unanimously determined not to serve longer on these terms; they therefore beg leave to return your Honor their most hearty and sincere thanks for the favors received, the grateful impressions of which they shall never forget, and at the same time request a permission from your Honor to resign on the 20th day of August next, desiring to be relieved accordingly.* This was transmitted to the Governor by Colonel Clapham, who improved the opportunity to air his own grievances and those of the other field officers. The following is an extract from his letter:- I entered into this service at the solicitation of some of the gentlemen commissioners, in dependence on promises which they have never performed, and have acted ever since not only in two capacities but in twenty, having, besides the duties of my commissions as colonel and captain, been obliged to discharge those of an engineer and overseer at the same time, and undergone in the service incredible fatigues without materials and without thanks. But as I am to be paid only as a colonel I intend while I remain in this service only to fulfill the duties of that commission, which never was yet supposed to include building forts and ten thousand other services which I have performed; so that the gentlemen commissioners have only to send engineers, pioneers, and other laborers, with the necessary teams and utensils, while I, as colonel, preside over the works, see that your Honor's orders are punctually executed, and only defend the persons engaged in the execution of them. In pursuance of a resolution of your Honor and the gentlemen commissioners to allow me an aid-de-camp, who was to be paid as a supernumerary captain in the regiment, I accordingly appointed Captain Lloyd as my aid-de-amp on April 2, 1756, who has ever since acted as such in the most fatiguing and disagreeable service on earth, and received only captain's pay. Your Honor was pleased to appoint Lieutenant Clayton adjutant to the regiment under my command by a commission bearing date the 24th day of May, 1756, but the gentlemen commissioners have, in defiance of all known rules, resolved that an officer can discharge but one duty in a day, and have paid him only as a lieutenant. Impowered by your Honor's orders, and in compliance with the exigencies of the service, I hired a number of batteau-men at two shillings six pence per day, as will appear by the return made herewith to your Honor, and, upon demanding from the paymaster general money for the payment of the respective balances due to them, was surprised to find that the commissioners had by their instructions restrained him from paying any incidental charges whatever, as thinking them properly cognizable only by themselves. 'Tis extremely cruel, Sir, and unjust to the last degree, that men who cheerfully ventured their lives in the most dangerous and fatiguing services of their country, who ________________________________________________________________________ _ *Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II p. 701. END OF PAGE 58 have numerous families dependent on their labor, and who have many of them while they were engaged in that service suffered more from the neglect of their farms and crops at home than the value of their whole pay - short, whose affairs are ruined by the services done their country - should some of them receive no pay at all.* The provincial commissary general, James Young, whose visit to Shamokin developed such general dissatisfaction among the officers and men, arrived at that place on the 12th of July and remained four days. He left on Friday, the 16th instant, in a batteau with four oars, arrived at Harris's Ferry before night, and on the following day proceeded to Carlisle, whence he transmitted an account of his transactions to the Governor. He had followed the instructions of the commissioners in paying the subalterns, who receipted for the amounts received but not for their full pay. He had been instructed to pay four hundred men, but found more than that number in the camp, beside the detachments at Fort Hunter and elsewhere. He was to pay the men to the 1st of July, deducting one half for clothing: against this they protested; the captains drew up a statement setting forth the manifest injustice of such an arrangement, and he was obliged to yield to their demands. He had no funds to meet Colonel Clapham's bill for one hundred sixteen batteau-men at two shillings six pence per day, but was credibly informed that the greater part of them were soldiers in the regiment and received pay as such. From this it would appear that the Colonel applied the same principle to them as to himself and his brother officers, viz., that a man should receive full pay in every capacity in which he served. He observed that the arbitrary disposition of the commanding officer had occasioned great dissatisfaction among the subordinate officers, all of whom except three or four had been placed in confinement by him and released at his pleasure without trial.† The straitened condition of provincial finances continued. On the 23d of September, 1756, Colonel Clapham informed Governor Denny that there was four months' pay due the regiment, and, as many of the soldiers had families to support, he was obliged to loan the greater part of his own salary among them, otherwise he feared they would have deserted or returned to their homes at the expiration of their terms of enlistment.‡ At length, "tired with the discouragements perpetually given to the service by the commissioners and with their particular treatment of him," he resigned his commission and was succeeded in command of the Augusta regiment by Major James Burd, the officer next in rank. _______________________________________________________________________ * Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II. pp. 706-707. †This statement does not harmonize with the Colonel's action on a subsequent occasion. On the 14th of August he wrote: "I have put Lieutenant Plunket under an arrest for mutiny, and only wait for the return of Captain Lloyd, the Judge advocate, to have him tried by a general court martial." - Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II. P. 745. ‡ Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. II. pp. 779-780.