Conclusions and Analysis

By George C. Williston

The eighteen men who voted against killing

          Most accounts relate that the men were lined up at the Indian village after the people were captured, and those who were against killing the Christian Indians were told to step forward. That was a common procedure with militia troops for voting on an issue. When the voting was done eighteen men stepped forward to vote against killing. It took a lot of courage and conviction to step out of that throng of men who had undoubtedly made known their desire to kill. Strangely enough even the names of most of the men who refused to kill the native Moravians have not been handed down. Colonel David Williamson was allegedly against the killing, but either could not or did not stop it. Obadiah Holmes Jr. according to EF was among those who did not kill, and even brought home a young Indian boy who had escaped being killed. Edward Christy’s role as the chief exhorter against killing has been related. James Taylor and Thomas Orr told their descendents that they did not kill. Robert Marshall’s stone over his grave says that he was one of the 18 non-participators. Jacob Miller’s son wrote that Jacob did not kill and stood aside. Unfortunately, in old age many men may have regretted their involvement and wanted to clear their names and reputations. .

          A memorial ought to be erected at Gnadenhutten, Ohio to those 18 men for their heroic refusal, but all their names will never be known unless a list of primary authority is found. In fact there is no corroborating evidence yet found naming those who stepped aside except that of self report of men in their old age. One of the unfortunate aspects of the imposed secrecy, a secret investigation left unresolved by the Congress and lack of an investigative press or any press at all in the area.

The 196 number

          It ought not come as a surprise that we have found 196 names. Although Joseph Doddridge said that there were 80-90 he may have only known of those who came from his area of the county. General Irvine said at the time after he had looked into the matter that there were 300 men.[1] The Pennsylvania Archives said in 1888 that there were “at least 160”; and Stephen Burkham- who was there said years later there were 400.[2] Burkham’s is the only estimate by a man who was there even though he apparently rode in the day the killing was done. General Irvine- the ranking outside investigator of the time may have the more accurate estimate at around 300. At that rate, there are undoubtedly more men yet to be found.

The names used by Allen Eckert

          Allen Eckert has written two popular versions of this event in parts of larger books in The Frontiersman (1971)[3] and That Dark and Bloody River (1995).[4] However, on this event he has used some real names of men who were there, and some other names of men who were not apparently there. At least there is no evidence that they were there or that they existed in the area at the time. The names of the men used by Allen Eckert who cannot be found there are: George Bellar, Nathan Rollins and Altho Johnston. Research into the sources cited above do not reveal those names. Eckert’s sources for those names would be of utmost historical importance. Of course, the list includes another 15 men who cannot be found so that fact alone does not prove they were not there. Eckert’s sources would be crucial.

          While the local historian, Earle Forrest (EF) claims that Charles Bilderback did the first killing of the young Joseph Schabosh, and that an unnamed man killed the next thirteen imprisoned people with blows of a coopers mallet he does not name the man who did that. Allen Eckert without citing the authority in his footnotes has named Charles Bilderback as the man who did the first killing of thirteen captives with a blow from a cooper’s mallet while Isaac Craig had heard that it might have been Daniel Leet who first used the mallet. It would be important to know the authority for those names and the source for the attribution of this horrendous act to Charles Bilderback

HOME LOCATION AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEN

          Most of these 197 men were by ethnicity Scotch, Irish or Scots-Irish. That is difficult to prove, but is based on writing on the Scots-Irish in Western Pennsylvania by descendents who boasted of their predominance.[5] C.W.Butterfield, a careful historian of the area, also notes the high proportion of Irish and Scots- Irish. Many of the people were immigrants themselves or sons and daughters of immigrants with a strong memory of the struggles of the old country for land and freedom. Men of this background were known for their tenacity and fighting spirit- and what today we would call racist views which they projected onto the Indians. It is claimed that such men were blatantly racist against the Indians.[6] A few were of Swiss and German ethnicity and a few descendents of English colonists whose families had spent several generations in this country.

Quite a good number of these men were not poor. Many owned land in quantities up to 1500 acres- the average being one farm of 300 acres. Most undoubtedly hoped to own land. All chose freely to bring their families to this part of the frontier where guerilla war came on with the Revolution. We see that some even brought their families into this country during the Revolution. There was an expectation on their part of living in safety, and of being protected by the troops of the government out of Fort Pitt. The terrorist incidents of killing, maiming and capturing carried out by the British inspired Indians had unnerved this whole frontier; but upwards of ten thousand people lived there anyway.

          The tax lists make it clear that most of these men had wives and many probably had families. Only a few single men show up on the tax lists as a small percent of the whole. We can safely assume that most had wives and children. There were several generations of some families in the area as is evident from the use of Sr. and Jr. There was a wide spread of wealth, power and position in this volunteer militia organization. Joseph Doddridge was right on the point that some of the best men –meaning land rich and politically powerful- in the area went along on this expedition. There was direct connection of some of these men to the officers at Fort Pitt, but knowledge of the moving army was apparently kept from Colonel Gibson. It is claimed that a couple of these men had been in Captain Bigg’s company at the Fort who had justly treated and released some Moravian Indians the preceding fall [from the 1^st Williamson expedition].

 The most powerful people in the Chartiers and Cross Creek area had to know this army was being organized. There was direct connection to Colonel James Marshel- the County Lieutenant and militia commander whether or not he gave them orders. . Daniel Leet was a friend of General George Washington and other high placed men. These men were a cross section of the able bodied manhood of the area- and most especially from Washington County. In actual fact some of these men were very well off in land, money and position- but apparently were also fighters. This is proven by the fact that some of these men also went along as volunteers on the big summer 1782 expedition to try to kill off the various Indian tribes at Upper Sandusky [the Crawford Expedition].

Home Locality of the men;

          The men of the Fourth Battalion of Washington County Militia on these lists were scattered all over Washington County as well as East of the rivers in Westmoreland County and west into the panhandle of (West) Virginia – and a few were even living illegally beyond the Ohio River in Indian country. Some clearly lived out of Washington County both East and West. One third were found on the 1781 tax lists and over half in 1783 on Washington County tax lists. Another half dozen lived East of the rivers, and a few more illegally west of the rivers. Only fifteen remain completely unmentioned on the lists searched here. Those fifteen are unlisted who may have been transients, newcomers or underage volunteers too young to tax or own land.

          Among those located in Washington County twenty-five percent came from Cecil Township on both tax lists. Cecil was the political power center of the county. Cecil Township included the most men with military and social titles on the tax list. Colonel Dorsey Pentecost the wealthy elected representative to the Pennsylvania government; and Colonel John Neville another rich and powerful man both lived in Cecil Township as did numerous others of wealth and power. This was the ‘Shurtee’ area, ( the population center of the area drained by Chartiers Creek) or the ‘ssscotch’ settlement.

In the 1781 list the second largest number were from Hopewell (13) and Strabane (13); and second in 1783 were from Hopewell (19). Those three townships are clustered together in the middle of Washington County. Hopewell is the township where both Colonel David Williamson and Colonel James Marshel, the County Lieutenant lived. The largest number of these may have come from the Cross Creek area- or that area surrounding where the Colonels Williamson and Marshel lived- which might be considered the center of military power. In this way the expedition was largely from the centers of political and military power of the area west of the mountains.

          While no township went unrepresented among the men we could find there were zeros in both years in a couple of townships. In 1781 the townships with zero were Bethlehem and Fallowfield; and in 1783 townships having none listed are Cumberland, Greene and Morgan, all in the southern portion now Greene County.

          The fact that these men were scattered all over the area raises a question as to whether the Fourth Battalion was a group of volunteers who assembled hastily as Doddridge has said, or a pre-organized organization. The fact that some had been officers in both the militia and the Continental Line and traveled as Privates on this expedition makes that question even more poignant. It is also clear that some men joined this expedition without being on militia duty and without military rank. It seems that some were just passing through or showed up just for the expedition after some years of fighting in the East. Some joined for the goal whatever it was. Others went along specifically because of their families or friends having been killed. Robert Wallace is the most obvious example of that. This was not just a minimal response of reluctant men but a major volunteer response of everyone who heard of it and wanted to go. It was all out major war.

          The fact that two of the county sub- lieutenants, Daniel Leet and Matthew Ritchie, went along as privates; and Jacob Miller usually a major in Virginia militia went along without apparent rank is of special interest. This is difficult to explain in the understandings of 200 years ago. Among volunteers was it just a matter of being part of the objective? Is this just a very leveling or democratic act on their part? Were they men who carried rank lightly and didn’t care about it? They were obviously willing volunteers, but it is difficult to know in their terms how this happened.

 Furthermore, more than twenty of these men had seen war service in the Continental Lines of several states, particularly Virginia and Pennsylvania. There may be many more who served in Continental units. Many of them had serious militia service. For the war in the East .men had been supplied or gone from the area west of the mountains to serve there. Some were veterans of battles against the British, Indians and loyalists. This was not an army of beginners, but of men of considerable frontier and regular army fighting experience.

 We have shown that in some few instances where these men lived long enough to make applications for pensions under the laws of 1818 and 1832 only one could be found who mentioned specifically his involvement in this expedition which he called a ‘skirmish’ (William Baxter). After searching fifty pension applications of likely participants William Baxter is unique in this respect. His pension application was mentioned by Lyman Draper who noted Baxter’s candor.[7] That suggests that the participants were either ashamed of it, wanted to forget it, or didn’t want that service known or used as qualification for a pension.

The army that left by tacit approval 

          From the subsequent action of Colonel Gibson in temporary command of the Fort; and known to be sympathetic to the Indians it is evident that this army was able to get away quietly and unknown to him. This could only be done with the cooperation and approval of the many people of the area who did not go along. Some of this can be deduced by looking at the number of men who came from the river townships. In 1782 the townships which bordered on the Ohio River NW of the Fort Pitt were Robinson and Peters, and those around the corner on the Monongahelia were the small Nottingham and the big Fallowfield Townships. Cecil Township was just behind and between Nottingham and Peters. This research shows that 30 or more men were from Cecil Township. Cecil Township residents in this army included two of the County Lieutenants: Daniel Leet and Matthew Ritchie. Two or three men were from each of Robinson, Peters and Nottingham Townships. It would be difficult if not impossible to gather up 40 men and move them Southwest on horseback without attracting the notice of numerous other people. Cecil Township was fairly populated with important people. There were only a couple of trails through the area along which most of the men had to travel. It is interesting to note that a third County Lieutenant of the time from Cecil Township, William Cochran, did not go along. There was apparently some choice in the matter of whether to be a volunteer. So, it seems evident that there had to be collusion and approval by other people living there who did not report this immediately to the Fort. This suggests further that many or most of the people in Cecil Township who knew of the army approved of their mission.

An All Volunteer Army

          It is only on the alleged statement of Joseph Vance who was on this expedition, the operator of Vance’s Fort, made years later that this raid was planned in advance at his place. There is no corroborating evidence on that from someone who was there. Maybe, it was planned to take place as early as the river ice went out. That may account for the composition of the companies. It is clear that these men were volunteers who gathered in a hurry after the first Indian raids of the early spring. The men likely started around Chartiers. The volunteer nature of this militia army is even reported by John Struthers, a man who was in the area and declined to go along.[8] William Baxter, a participant, also says it was a volunteer operation.

 The instigators of this expedition knew that if they moved fast while General Irvine was out of communication they could get away before the Fort knew about it. The leaders knew that General Irvine had turned the fort over to Colonel Gibson on January 15, and left for his home in Carlisle, Pa. Numerous men from Cross Creek and other settlements in Hopewell Township where Colonels Marshel and Williamson lived joined the group as it made its way down to Wheeling and on to Mingo Bottom. As they crossed through the Virginia Panhandle a few more men joined them. When they got to the Ohio River word got out about the large expedition going up the Muskingum. John Carpenter and other men who were settled illegally west of the Ohio joined them.

          This army did get away unbeknownst to Colonel John Gibson in temporary command of Fort Pitt while General Irvine was away. It is said that when Col. Gibson learned of their aims he sent a messenger to warn the Moravian Indians in their villages, but that the messenger got there too late. That suggests that this group moved fast without knowledge of the command at the fort, and got across the Ohio River into Indian Territory before news got to the Fort. That answers the question as to why Colonel Gibson did not stop them whether or not he could have.

           It is clear that this tragic event was hidden from public scrutiny by its perpetrators almost completely except for word of mouth. It is likely that the most volatile and brutal among them threatened the others to remain silent. It is also possible that shame and guilt served to keep men silent, and that having men of high military and social status participating in the killing intimidated many. There is a pattern even into old age that some forgot to mention their involvement even in pension applications where a service record was required.

 This research clearly shows that this volunteer army included men of all stations in life including men of property and position who were willing to go along as privates to get the job done (whatever it was intended to be). The task was enough of a priority as far as they were concerned that rank and position did not matter for this hastily organized expedition. That is the Fourth Battalion, Washington County militia of the First week of March, 1782.

          It is also clear that this expedition afterwards did not give peace of mind or a sense of security to some of the men and their families in the area. Thomas Montgomery (TLM) has printed several petitions or informational bulletins of prominent men who lived around Well’s Fort and mill issued just after this tragic event. Forty six men signed these petitions eight of whom had been on this expedition namely; Henry Nelson, Walter Hill, Morris West, Thomas Shannon, John Carpenter, Aaron Sackett, Henry Graham and Joseph Vance. They wanted a few soldiers to guard the mill claiming it not only supplied them with flour for bread, but also supplied flour for the militia. They felt that the soldiers guarding the river were not enough to protect the mill. They obviously didn’t have a sense of security even after the killing of the Moravians.

Final Judgments

          There ought to be some final word on the infamy of these murders however gratuitous that might be 200 years later. It was suggested by other men who were in the area at the time that these men were cowards trying to avoid further service in the army being raised by General George Rogers Clark. A well known old fighter of the French and Indian War and the Revolution published in 1812 that “this was an act of barbarity equal to anything I ever knew to be committed by the savages themselves, excepting the burning of prisoners.[9] Captain Henry Jolly late in life estimated that they were cowards for what they did.[10] Those are interesting viewpoints for men who were themselves frontiersman of that time and place. General William Irvine was circumspect to openly express his judgment of these acts of murder, but the General does call it a “barbarity” in his letter of May 9, 1782 to the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.[11] There is no way now for the men who did this killing to explain or defend themselves.

 There is evidence that it was an act of desperation. Native American opinion of the time is difficult to find, but contemporary Native American opinion would call this genocide. This has been represented to me by Dr. Barbara Alice Mann of the University of Toledo. This is not the place to try to explain this killing. There is no way for us 200 years later to justify the killing of innocent men, women and children who along with their European missionary teachers were friends of the cause of the very Americans who killed them.