Source:Fleming-buying
George T. Fleming. "Buying battle field recalls fierce fight: Westmoreland co. teachers to show patriotism in a new manner: Mistake rectified." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Jan. 7, 1917, sec. 5, p. 2. Newspapers.com 85515513.
THE resolution of the Westmoreland county teachers to purchase a portion of the Bushy Run battle ground near Manor, decided upon at their annual institute in Greensburg in December, and to erect there a suitable monument to Col. Henry Bouquet, revives interest in the story of the hard-fought battle and the importance of the victory to Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania and to the English colonies in general.
The purchase and marking of these historical places is generally regarded as the duty of the state, which has a Historical Commission for the purpose and which has done much work along these lines. The intention of the Westmoreland teachers to own, control and mark the Bushy Run Memorial, within the historic county of Westmoreland, is a new step in patriotism, a new method in teaching history and an effective one.
It is necessary to correct a mis-statement in the story of December 24, 1916, in regard to the Pennsylvania Canal on the North Side.
The statement read:
"The right of way in Allegheny from Federal street east was on the bed of the old canal, and until recent years a section of the canal bed was in evidence under the building that stood where a restaurant now stands in Federal street."
This has brought a letter from a former resident of old Allegheny City, in which he says:
"I know how anxious you are to be accurate in your historical contributions and therefore take the liberty of calling your attention to the fact that the paragraph is not strictly correct. The right of way for the Fort Wayne road east of Federal street was located on the north side of the canal. In fact, the canal was in operation for some time after the railroad had been extended to the Pittsburgh side of the river. The canal bed was afterward occupied by the West Penn Railroad and the passenger station of that road (the station now abandoned) was directly over the canal bed on Federal street. I was raised in Allegheny and am certain that the above statement is correct."
They are correct. The mis-statement came in a contribution from another Alleghenian and as he was a friend and a local historian, his data was accepted with no misgivings as to their accuracy. Those who are keeping these stories will appreciate the correction and also the spirit in which it has been made.
Coming back to Col. Bouquet and his fierce battle at Bushy Run, the first point to be noted is that standard histories are full of accounts of this battle. Francis Parkman has given us a complete account in his book, "The Conspiracy of Pontiac."
Our local historian, the late William M. Darlington, has put into a most desirable work, entitled "Fort Pitt and Letters from the Frontier," all that is pertinent and accessible of the history of those eventful years. Daniel W. Kauffman of Pittsburgh and William O. Hickok of Harrisburg published in 1846 a volume entitled "Early History of Western Pennsylvania and of the West and of Western Expeditions and Campaigns from 1754 to 1833. By a gentleman of the Bar, with an Appendix containing besides copious extracts from important Indian treaties, minutes of conferences, journals, etc.; a topographical description of the counties of Allegheny, Westmoreland, Washington, Somerset, Greene, Fayette, Beaver, Butler and Armstrong. Illustrated by several drawings."
The "gentleman of the Bar" turned out to be Mr. Isaac Daniel Rupp of Harrisburg, author of several county histories of Eastern Pennsylvania. The drawings especially are notable. These are a "Sketch of Col. Bouquet's Engagement with 400 Indians Near Bushy Run, 6th August, 1763," lithographed by Sinclair of Philadelphia; a facsimile from the original drawing and Stobo's plan of Fort Duquesne, accompanying Stobo's letter to Gov. Morris, July 28, 1754.
The story of Bouquet and events at Fort Pitt in 1763 is told by Rupp in Chapter VIII. The inset sketch of the battle is in this chapter, which takes 35 pages. Rupp's appendix matter, rare and highly pertinent, takes up half his bok. Following the account of Pontiac's war, sometimes called Guyasutha's war, hereabouts, Mr. Rupp proceeds to the story of Lord Dunmore's war. The book is a history of Indian warfare. Mr. Rupp spells the name of the great Seneca chief, Kiashutha, which in the main is used by Neville B. Craig in his historical writings.
Parkman gives the name of the commander at Fort Pitt during the memorable siege by Pontiac's chief lieutenant, Kiashuta, as Capt. Simeon Ecuyer; most writers call him Simon Ecuyer. He was a Swiss, a countryman of Boquet and like him a soldier in the British Army, a cool, brave, energetic commander. The fame of one carries with it the fame of the other, the besieged and the reliever.
The year 1763 was fateful in American history. Then the British settlements did not extend beyond the Allegheny mountains. Bedford in Pennsylvania was the extreme verge of our frontier. To the south of the Virginia settlements extended to a corresponding distance.
Fort Stanwix, named for the British general who built Fort Pitt, was the most important Northern English fort. It stood where the city of Rome, New York, now stands. Two or three smaller posts formed a chain of defense. On the Western extremity of Lake Ontario stood Fort Niagara at the mouth of that river. It was a strong work, a work most necessary to hold as it guarded the whole New York country.
The chain of forts continued to the South, the route following the river by the great cataract to Presque Isle on Lake Erie, now within the city of Erie. There the chain went by a short overland passage to Fort Le Boeuf, on French creek, now Waterford in Erie county. Thence it went to the mouth of French creek, to Venango since Franklin, Pa., thence down the Allegheny to Fort Pitt. We are mindful of Washington's and Gist's journey to LeBoeuf and Vanango [sic] in the winter of 1753, the forts then belonging to the French chain, no longer tenable by them after the fall of Quebec, practically valueless after the destruction of Fort Duquesne.
Parkman says of Fort Pitt that its position was as captivating to the eye of an artist as it was commanding in a military point of view.
He recounts the Braddock expedition, the French fort, the battle with the Indians fought disastrously by Maj. Grant and the coming of Forbes and the building of Fort Pitt, which he described thus:
"It was a strong fortification with ramparts of earth, faced with brick on the side looking down the Ohio. Its walls have long since been levelled to the ground and over their ruins have risen warehouses, and forges with countless chimneys rolling up their black volumes of smoke; where once the bark canoe lay on the strand, a throng of steamers now lie, moored along the crowded levee."
Pontiac, the Indian chief, failed at Detroit where Maj. Gladwyn held out, saved by a friendly squaw by timely warning. Fort Pitt must have succumbed had it not been for Bouquet and Bushy Run.
Previous to the Pontiac outbreak, the borderland was quiet. Early in May, 1763, Capt. Ecuyer received warnings of danger. He wrote Col. Bouquet at Philadelphia.
"Maj. Gladwyn writes to tell me that I am surrounded by rascals. He complains a great deal of the Delawares and Shawanese. It is this cavaille [sic] who stir up the rest to mischief."
May 27, at dusk, a party of Indians came down the banks of the Allegheny with laden pack horses. They made their fires and camped on the river bank until daybreak. They had a great quantity of valuable furs, which they traded at the fort demanding in exchange bullets, hatchets and gunpowder—no finery gew-gaws or strouds, (Indian coats), or blankets.
Their conduct was peculiar—sufficiently so to excite suspicion. One could be naturally suspicious of the redskins then and for a century after. The impression deepened that these Indians were either spies or had hostile designs.
These suspicions were well grounded. Hardly had the Indians gone when the tidings came that Col. Clapham, and other persons, male and female, had been murdered and scalped near the fort. Later tidings came of Indians abandoning their towns. This meant that they were bent on mischief. The alarm spread. There were daily refugees, traders and others coming into the fort. News came of the murder and capture of all English traders in the Western country, and the confiscating of their goods.
A messenger sent to warn the garrison at Venango was driven back, returning sorely wounded. One trader, Calhoun, on the Tuscarawas in Ohio with 13 companions was deprived of arms and sent under escort of three braves for safe guidance to Fort Pitt. These guides led the men into an ambush at the mouth of Beaver River. Eleven were killed. Calhoun and two others succeeded in escaping. This was Indian treachery.
Accounts of these outrages came in to Fort Pitt daily. At Fort Ligonier the alarm was great. A volley of bullets fired suddenly upon the garrison there did little harm but left no doubt that the redskins were nearby and in force. Even in the vicinity of Fort Bedford there were outrages.
Boquet was kept informed of affairs by Ecuyer. May 29 the latter wrote:
"Just as I finished my letter three men came in from Clapham's with the Melancholy News that yesterday at 3 o'clock in the Afternoon, the Indians murdered Clapham, and Every Body in his House. These three men were out at work and escaped through the Woods. I immediately armed them and sent them to assist our people at Bushy Run. The Indians have told Byerly (at Bushy Run) to leave his place in four days or he and his Family would all be murdered: I am Uneasy for the little Posts—As for this, I will answer for it."
Boquet meant he would protect Fort Pitt and he kept his word. Ecuyer wrote in French all his letters to Boquet. The above rendition verbatim et literatim is someone's translation.
Ecuyer got busy. All houses and cabins outside the ramparts of Fort Pitt were leveled to the ground. Before dawn each morning drums were beaten and the troops ordered to the alarm posts. The fort was defended by 330 soldiers, traders and backwoodsmen. The numbers may seem large, but there were within the fort 100 women and a still larger number of children, families of settlers in the neighborhood about to build cabins in and about the new town of Pittsburgh.
Ecuyer was confronted by dangers within and without. He wrote Boquet:
"We are so crowded in the fort that I fear disease, for in spite of every care I cannot keep the place as clean as I would like. Besides the smallpox is among us, and I have therefore caused a hospital to be built under the drawbridge out of range of musket shot. I am determined to hold my post, spare my men and never expose them without necessity."
This letter was written June 16, 1763. Ecuyer had also previously written:
"We have alarms from and skirmishes with the Indians every day but they have done us little harm as yet. Yesterday, I was out with a party of men when we were fired upon and one of the sergeants was killed, but we beat off the Indians and brought the man in with his scalp on. Last night the Bullock Guard was fired upon and one cow killed. We are obliged to be on duty day and night. The Indians have cut off above 100 of our traders in the woods besides all our little Posts. We have plenty of provisions, and the fort is in such good posture for defense, that with God's assistance we can defend it against 1,000 Indians.
Ecuyer lives only in history. Boquet has been commemorated in a street name here. Ecuyer was passed by for Wargo [sic] and other designations, meaningless and uninspiring.
Summer came on. The desultory outrages reported were mainly the mischief of unruly young warriors, with no chief of sufficient ability or renown to control them. It became dangerous to venture outside the walls of Fort Pitt. A few attempted it but were shot and scalped by lurking savages.
The sentinels were nightly fired on; even during the day it was dangerous to expose a head above the ramparts. Prowling savages were everywhere, whose numbers seemed daily increasing, yet no attempt was made at a general attack.
This came June 22 when a war party appeared at the farthest extremity of the cleared lands east of the fort. This party drove off all the horses that were grazing there and killed the cattle. Having accomplished this there was opened a general fire of musketry from all sides upon the fort and though the range was long two men of the garrison were killed.
The garrison answered by a discharge of howitzers from the fort, whose bursting shells brought dismay and astonishment to the Indians in the woods. They drew off but at intervals throughout the night the flashes of rifles were seen and Indian whoopings heard.
June 23 at 9 o'clock a. m. the Indians approached the fort, with perfect confidence, and stood at the outer end of the ditch. A Delaware chief, Turtle's Heart, addressed the garrison with a characteristic Indian speech. The Indians were their friends, he said. All the English forts had been overcome except Pitt; a great army of Indians was marching hither to destroy the garrison; they must leave, take all the women and children and go down to the English settlements; they must go at once. There were many bad Indians about, he said, but Turtle's Heart and his warriors would give them safe guarantee. If they hesitated until the six great nations arrived all the garrison and people in the fort would be killed, he threatened.
The Indians, hoping to gain a safe and easy possession, were quite discomfited, when Ecuyer resolutely refused these demands and replied in kind telling of three armies on the way to his relief. Six thousand English, a host of Virginia frontiersmen, and a large war party of the Delawares', hereditary foes of the Cherokees and Catawbas. Ecuyer besought them to withdraw and save themselves, their wives and children, and said Ecuyer naively: "We hope that you will not tell the other Indians lest they should escape from our vengeance."
June 26 another parley ensued. A party of Indians numbering among them Shingass and Turtle's Heart, were admitted. These were all chiefs of distinction. They told of the Ottawas about Detroit, spurring them on to overpower and destroy the garrison and people at Fort Pitt. In characteristic Indian language what they had to say came from their hearts and not from their lips. They wished to hold fast the chain of friendship, the ancient chain that their forefathers held with the English. The English had let the chain fall to the ground. The Delawares still had their end fast in their hands. The English, despite remonstrances, had marched armies into their country and built forts that the Indians wished removed. Pitt was one of these. The land was the Indians' land. They recited the demands of the Ottawas and finally demanded that the English leave the fort immediately and no harm would come of it but if they stayed, they must blame themselves for what would happen.
Ecuyer absolutely refused. He could hold out three years, he said; he would fire bombs into them and their bursting shells would destroy them by the hundreds. He again advised the Indians to go home.
From this time, when a general siege was begun, until after August 6 when Boquet came was a critical point in our history.
